Sam, it. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Good to see everybody. Hope you all are doing well this fine morning. And let's see, for those of you who don't know, we do have air conditioning. It's in the seat rack in front of you. And you can just take that fan yourself a little bit if you're on the warm side this morning. But glad to have each one of you here on a beautiful Sunday morning in Taos, New Mexico. Albeit a little bit warm. But that's okay. We can handle it, can't we? And why don't we just start out singing, Isaiah? Oh, I forgot to put up the microphone, didn't I? We'll. We'll be ready to go here in just a moment. The music director. That's right. Hey, Isaiah, from now on, that's your job, okay? Tell us what we're going to sing. Call the choir up and let's do it. We're going to sing Holy, holy, holy, number 68 in your hymnal. And you may stand. Luca, Susanna. Who else is here? Let's see. That's all? Yeah, I think we're short on singers, aren't we? Today we'll have to sing. We'll have to sing loud. Brenda's out today. Yeah. Here we go. We got Charles. Oh, my God. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty early in the morning our stone shall rise Holy, holy, holy Merciful and mighty God in three persons Blessed Trinity Holy, holy, holy all the saints adore thee Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea Cherubim and cherubim falling down before thee who burden on evermore shall be holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea Holy, holy, holy Merciful and mighty God in three birth. And let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for your holiness. That even in spite of the holiness, because of the blood of Jesus Christ, we're invited to come boldly before the throne of grace. Find mercy and grace to help in time of need. And we pray that here in this very service, you would give us your presence through the Word, your encouragement through the Word, the blessing that we can have not only in the Word, but in fellowship with you and other believers who are gathered here today. We pray that all that we say and do might be acceptable unto thee. Oh, God, our rock and our redeemer. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome, welcome, welcome, everybody. We got a few announcements for you. Hey. On Wednesday nights, we've Been doing the Homestyle dinner festival this. This week. Grandma's cook in hot roast beef sandwiches. That's on the menu for 5 o' clock Wednesday night. We'd love to have you. Love to see you. We always have a nice time of fellowship there. And then we come in here to Bible study at 6 o'. Clock. Ish. And do first Thessalonians is what we're in right now. So come join us for that. A couple of announcements. Let's see, you see our missionary of the month there. They mentioned him later, but them later. We've also got Lord's supper on the 24th. Is that. Is that right? Which date do I have wrong? I have. I have something wrong here. Here, don't I? The. The Branson Conference, if you're interested in that. That's the 29th. It says the 20th, but it's the 29th through September 1st. And we got a. A really nice crowd going to that. And we're going to talk systematic theology. If you want to. If you want to go, I can give you all the info there and, uh, a lot of our online audience, uh, will be there and we'll have a good time. So 24th Lord's Supper and Potluck. 29th through the first is the Branson Conference. And appreciate that we pray today for the Bracic family. Imma Jean Brasik has not been here, but she's here every Sunday with us. How's that online? And her dad passed away overnight. Uh, he was, uh, well up into his 90s, nigh unto a hundred, and was a man of faith. And they all rejoiced that he was set free from some suffering he'd had recently. But anyway, we pray for Imogene, and that's family there. And. And yes, ma'. Am. She doesn't want me to say anything, but we're gonna be missing somebody. She's moving at the end of this week, and she said if you tell everybody that I'm moving. Is she sitting next to you? She's. She is. So I won't endure any further. But if everybody can say goodbye to Jeannie. Jeannie, we will miss you not being here. Witness protection plan, wherever it is she's going. We. We will miss you, Jeannie, but with a hat like that, you will. They'll never find you. And God bless you. You are always such a joy here with a big smile and joy. Are you going to come back and visit, or does the Witness protection plan keep you from ever being back in Taos again when you're here. We will be thrilled to have you. Thank you, Jeannie. We will miss you. Sad news there. Tomorrow's Nathan's birthday. Happy birthday, Nathan. I say that because he keeps all of our technology running. And so I, I very much appreciate that. And I'm also his dad, so. Happy birthday, Nathan. I wish you were here. They'll be here in a few, a few weeks, actually, coming in September. Okay, let's see. We are delighted always to have guests who worship with us. And these guests come to see us from all over the place for all different reasons. And we're glad. And we have a little gift to give to you. It's this little coaster right here that has a picture of our church and says America's greatest tiny church, because that's what we are. And we are thrilled for that. And so we want to give you a gift to say thanks for coming to join us and worship today. It's a blessing. Now, we do ask for one thing, and that is that you introduce yourself. You know, when you're in a tiny church. It's we, we know our guests and we want to get to know them as family as quick as can be. And so we love to embarrass them and say, hey, introduce yourself. I, I have a few guests here today, but I'm going to let them introduce themselves. One of them, I was his pastor when I had hair and his was not gray some 25 years ago or so. Greg, Stan, tell us who you are. Anything else you'd like to say? But you have two minutes. Yeah, yeah. I'm Greg Brown. I'm from Pampa, Texas, and came up here to see Randy Shelley. Randy is helping me write a book. I think he's got some experience with that. So, anyway, it's good to be here. We're glad that Greg Brown is here. Watch for his book on finances for young couples. Right. How to Build a Family Financial legacy. How to Build a Family Financial Legacy. So we'll keep an eye out for that. And Greg's been a friend for many, many years now. God bless you, Greg. Thank you. Appreciate you. We went to Honduras, we went to Romania, and we're still friends. And, and we lived in Pampa and we're still friends. The Morrisons. Good to have you all here. Stand, introduce yourself. So Wes and Gina Morrison, and we're from Northeast Ohio and originally from Texas. So you guys truly are our family. I mean, you don't know us. We're here on Sunday mornings with you online and we're thankful for Dr. Randy and Shelley and this church. Thank you. So we're retired and doing a little RVing. Amen. The Morrisons from Ohio, and they're. They're one of many of our extended audience that we get the joy of meeting when they come through town. And thanks for joining us online, being part of our online family. We appreciate that. I'm glad you're gonna get to be able to spend some time in beautiful, cool Taos, New Mexico. Thank you. And let's go to the back. Marlon from Montana. Hello. My name is Marlon. I'm originally from the Philippines, but I immigrated to Los Angeles just to kind of experience. There's some restructuring that's going on, so my job is so just kind of an entire. And we're glad. Thank you, Marlon, for during. During a downtime at work, coming down to New Mexico and seeing us and coming to America's greatest tiny church. You probably didn't have that on the list when you were coming, did you? No, actually. Well, we're not stopping the. We were raising. Excellent. Yeah. So glad you're here. You. You found the right place. Thank you. God bless you. And Christine, I'm Christina Gaudy, and I just moved here three weeks ago from the Dallas, Texas, area. Exciting. Amen. Christina. Yeah. From. From Dallas. We are thrilled that you got away from heat and humidity and pavement and. Yeah. Traffic. And moved right here. Where never is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day. Thank you for being here. We would love to be your. Your church family. You want my advice for newcomers? Okay. I moved here 10 years ago, and I've watched people come and go. Here's my advice for newcomers. Anyone who wants it. It One is, don't try to fix it, because it can't be fixed. I was broken when you got here. It's going to be broken when you leave. Just enjoy it. Number two is take advantage of the outdoor world that we have. The people I find that get frustrated with Taos stay in their living room and try to fix it. So get out of your living room and don't try to fix it. And you will enjoy every minute of it. God bless you, Christina. Thanks for coming here. Okay, did I get everybody? I think I almost feel like I need to introduce Frank and Jeanne, but good to see you back. You've had a busy summer. Good to see all of you. Why don't you all stand and say hi. I'm going to pass out a few coasters here, and we even have some pins we'll put in our Map. God bless you. It's. It's. It's. It's. It. Okay, that's enough playing. Now. We come to him, number 153. Go ahead and remain standing. We'll just start singing. I have found a friend in Jesus he's everything to me He's a parent of 10,000 to my soul the hallelujah in him alone I see and I believe you make me fully whole. The lily of the valley. Here we go. He's the lily of the valley the bright and morning star he's the fairest of 10,000 to my soul 153 on the second. He. All my grief forsaken and all my sorrows born in temptation he's my strong and mighty I have over him forsaken and all my idols torn from his power Though all the world forsake me and Satan tempt me soar through Jesus I shall safely reach that goal. He's the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star he's the fairest of 10,000 to my soul Soul he will never, never leave me nor yet forsake me Here I live his blessed will A wall of fire about me I've nothing now to fear with his mana he my hungry soul shall fill Then sweeping up to glory to see his blessed face where of the white shall ever roll? He's the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star he's the fairest of 10,000 to my soul. Now turn to number 61. Great is our Great is the Lord he is holy and just by his power we trust in his love Great is the Lord he is faithful and true by his mercy he proves his love. Great is the Lord and worthy of glory Great is the Lord and worthy of praise Great is the Lord now lift up your voice now lift up your voice Praise. Great is the Lord Great is the Lord Great is the Lord he is holy and just by his power we trust in his love Great is the Lord he is faithful and true by his mercy he proves he is love Great is the Lord and worthy of glory Great is the Lord and worthy of praise Great are you, Lord I lift up my voice now lift up your voice Great Lord Great are you, Lord now turn to number 17. I sing praises Praises to your name, O Lord for your name is great and greatly to be praised I sing praises to your name, O Lord Praises to your name, O Lord for your name is great and greatly to be praised to your name, O Lord Glory to your name, O Lord for your name is great and Greatly to be praised I give Glory to your name, O Lord Glory to your name, oh Lord. For your name is greatly and greatly to be praise Praises to your name, O Lord Praises to your name, O Lord. For your name is great and greatly to be praised. Glory to your name, O Lord Glory to your name, O Lord. For your name is great and greatly to be praised. Amen. And you may be seated. And our missionary of the month, as you see in the bulletin, Juan and Lucretia are from Costa Rica and if you give Mark to missions this month, it goes to their support and to encourage them in their prayers. God email from him last week and he was encouraged to know of our prayers for them last Sunday. Bring the offering plates on up. Come on up, Usher guys. And let's, let's take this guy here is wild by nature. Says it right there and truly. How was the first week of school guys? Good. That's, that's kind of the way I expected you to answer that. Let's, let's have a word of prayer. We'll have these guys take up the offering and then we'll come into the sermon time. Heavenly Father, thank you for these young men and their leadership here. And we just pray that you would bless their future. Thank you for Juan and Lucretia and their children and the work that they are about to be doing in Paraguay and pray that you would encourage them through not only our gifts but through our prayers and encouragement and blessing for them today and the joy that that brings. And ask that in every way we might be encouraged through this sermon today. And we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. By the way, as they start to take the offering. Go ahead guys. Let me say Francesca's friend Chris share. Sharon, Cheryl. Missionary friends in Uganda and in their 50s he passed away suddenly. So she's on her way back from Uganda. We pray for Cheryl and we'll have more to pray and help her here in the Sa. Sam, Hate to cut the pianos off right in the middle there, but we come now to the 12th chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes. We've been in Ecclesiastes now for I think this is sermon number 16 in our journey walking through the book of Ecclesiastes. And it has been, as I probably mentioned before, the first time in my 30 some odd years of preaching that I have ever preached Ecclesiastes cover to cover. I like like most preachers and probably you like most Christians have dabbled in Ecclesiastes. Every now and then, you know, we open Up Ecclesiastes, chapter three. When it's a funeral time, right, There's a time to be born and a time to die and a time to. And time to mourn. And there's a few other verses here and there we have run across. We say, oh, yeah, that's familiar to me. I've. I've used that one. I remember that. Oh, yeah, that's one of my favorites. Right. But going all the way through, we haven't done it so much because I think, in a sense, Ecclesiastes, maybe there's probably a lot of competition for this, but maybe it is the book most in need of a PR manager because people have a misunderstanding about what this book is, it looks like. And I think if you were to just do a quick Internet search. What's the book of Ecclesiastes about? It looks like there's an old man who says, I messed up in just about everything. And I'm telling you, don't mess up in that. But in the end, I found only one thing that's good, and that's fear God and. And keep his commandments. And that's the view we have of Ecclesiastes. Now that I've gone through Ecclesiastes in a different way, I think we discover that here's a man who's saying, hey, there is a lot of blessing in life. I don't want you to miss out on the blessing of life life. But I also want you to understand that the things we are doing and going through right now have a temporary basis to it. And there is an eternity out there. But I want to talk to you about life under the sun. So he's an old man who comes. And he's an old man who happens to be the king, by the way. And he comes in chapter one, and he introduces himself as the preacher. And the word Koheleth is the word there. In fact, if you are Jewish, they don't have the book of Ecclesiastes. That's a word that comes from Latin and came later in the Christian era. We put that word on there. But they call it the book of Koheleth, the preacher's book. But Koheleth is the word that means assemble. Let me assemble the people together. And I envision it as Solomon comes together for a last bit of sharing wisdom. I kind of see it as you all know, that I've been your king now for some 40 years. And you also know that I'm not going to be your king for another 40 years. The time Is now come. I am. I have. What did Robert Frost say? I have entered into the time of the yellow leaf, or what? Does anybody remember that line? All you literature aficionados here in Taos, that would be me. Okay, I forgot it. So there we go. But we've come to. I've come to the end. I'm in the autumn of my life, and it is time for me to talk to you less as king to his subjects and more as granddad to his family. And he speaks to the nation here in a. In a very really warm and, I think, comforting way. And we've. We've followed through and we come to verse. Verse 8 in chapter 12. And we're going to finish this out with a. You know, it's just a few verses here that are concluding verses, in a sense. And so we want to bring a conclusion to our series as well. He begins verse 8. Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher. All is vanity. Now, that is, of course, the refrain that has come up a number of times. This happens to be the seventh time that we have seen it. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity in some form or fashion. We've had that. That. That refrain come in. And unfortunately, again, this is where Ecclesiastes needs the PR campaign. We have interpreted that as worthless, hopeless. Ain't nothing to it. Now, that would make for a bummer of a life, wouldn't it? You know, what good is it? Why. Why do I even get up in the morning? And that is not at all the spirit that he comes in in the. The word vanity, as we have talked about again so many times. It's the Hebrew word Havel. And Havel is best understood as a vapor. We get that, of course, even in the Book of James, that, you know, life is a vapor. It's here a moment, and then it's gone. And so as he comes to the end, he. He says, hey, just a. Just a. Just a vapor. It's passing. And this is the spirit of what he has wanted to say all the way through is that each one of the phases of life, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to laugh and time to mourn, a time to dance and a time to shun dancing. All of this. Each of those come in life, but each of them are also just a vapor. You know, you go out on a crisp, cool morning, like will have next month, and. Well, actually, at my house, it was 55 degrees this morning. Okay, that's nice and cool. If it was warmer than that at your house. You ought to move up a little bit. Moving on up. But you go out in a cool winter morning and you breathe, and what do you see? You see your breath. It's very real. Right there. It is. I can see it. You can see it. We can all see it. There's. It's not a figment of our imagination. But give it just a moment, and it's gone. It's all there is to it. And so he. He comes here right at the end again, to this reminder. Just passing through. It's just a breath. There's another one here. You know, I think that sometimes, well, you know, people just graduated from high school, right? Do you all remember when you graduated from high school? Remember how this wasn't necessarily true for everybody, But a lot of people in high school, especially their senior year, they have this idea like, oh, I'm so going to miss these years. This was the best time of my life. This was so fun. I hung out with my friends and I, you know, I got to learn to drive. Oh, I'm gonna miss it. I'm gonna miss it. I'm gonna miss it. How many of you missed it? I'm thinking most of us, like, okay, I might go back for my 50th reunion and see how ugly them turn people turned out to be. I didn't say that, did I? But I don't really want to go back to high school. You know, it's a. It's a wonderful time in life. And then those early adult time, you know, it's a wonderful time in life. And then you get kids and diapers and screaming around and all that. And it's like, oh, I don't want my kids. I hear mothers say this, my kid is potty training. I'm so sad. That's because you haven't lived life after pt. It's better. This is a vapor. It goes. Even the best times of our lives, life, we really don't want to stop right there. We want to keep on moving, right? Even in the best times of life, the worst times of our life, sometimes we forget that this too shall pass. As a matter of fact, that little statement, this too shall pass, is typically used when things are not going well, when it's a time to mourn rather than a time to dance. And we think, you know, there's never going to be a sunrise again. There's never a happy day. There's no way I can put anything of this together. And Solomon comes, having lived through it all, and he says, I want you to know It's a breath, it's just a breath. It'll be here. It'll be gone before you know it. We'll go on to another stage in another place. And Ecclesiastes, again, as we've said, only covers the breaths of this life. It doesn't get into eternity, although it, it is certainly aware that there is one even in this passage. Talks about a future judgment out there. It knows that there is a beyond, but it's instruction for this life as it remains. It's the instruction within the tabernacle, within the tent, within the booth, not in the ultimate building. So he comes again with this, this breath, this vapor idea. And, and, and gives by that refrain, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Gives us the reminder, hey, don't treat temporary things as if they were permanent things. And almost, I kind of want to take that, that line and put a little footnote every time it comes in. Don't treat temporary things like permanent things. It's a vapor, Chavel. It's a breath, it's a vanity. Take it, enjoy it, learn from it, whatever it may be. Now, the, the, the, the, the rabbis, when I say the rabbis, I typically mean the old sages from medieval days, you know, up from about 2, 300 to a thousand, let's say. And there's a great deal of rabbinical literature that was written during that time. And much of Judaism is built upon, they will call them the sages or the rabbits rabbis. There's, there's some interesting insight that you get when you look at Jewish books and say, okay, what did the sages have to say? What do the rabbis have to say? One of the things that they note is that this vanity of vanities comes seven times in the book. Well, you don't have to be a Bible scholar in the advanced class to know seven is a kind of a significant number in the Scripture, isn't it? And so here is, is what seems to be a completeness. They put a theory on here. And I, I, I think even they would say, okay, you know, the text doesn't actually say this, but could it be that Solomon really is kind of going through all the seven stages of life? And he's reminding us, hey, that infancy stage, it's a breath. And the toddler stage, the childhood stage, it's a breath. And that young man stage, it's a breath. You know, the middle age st. It's a breath, breath. You finally come to the, the, the retirement stage, it's a breath. And then you get into the death and Dying stage. And he says, that's a breath also that all of this goes through and it passes. And so the book of Ecclesiastes is, and could be a little bit of a road map for how do I deal with all these stages in life, each of these breasts that we. That we take. But wouldn't you agree with me, well, any of you my age or in the neighborhood, which seems to be a few of us, would agree that every one of those stages in life goes really quickly, doesn't it? Much more quickly than we ever expected it to be. Even though when we were young, like you boys here, I bet, I bet all the time your grandparents say, oh, this goes so fast. Or, you know, when you're raising those kids, oh, you know, enjoy it while you got it, because in just a moment, you know, they're going to be graduating. And when we're looking at it that way, it never seems that way. When we look back on it, we say, hey, I think Solomon knew what he was talking about. It really is just a breath that passes through, and not nearly as solid as it seems, but we should enjoy. Now. Now, having concluded that verses 9 through 14 are. I don't know, as an author, I might call it an epilogue. Let's. Let's add this one more word here for the people who really liked the book, okay? And here it is, the epilogue. He says, moreover, because the preacher was wise. Can we stop there? Early on, I emphasize this just a little bit. Now that we're at the end, I want to bring it up again. Sadly, again, the book of Ecclesiastes is often written as the experiences of a foolish man. It's understood as the experiences of a foolish man. You know, he tried wine, women, song, all the things that were out there. What a fool he was. He learned it. But from the beginning, he has told us, you can find this in chapter one and chapter two and chapter three. From the beginning, he said, I was wise. I was following Torah. I had been given wisdom. I was, I. I was walking in my wisdom. So he comes at it again and he says, moreover, because the preacher was wise, I think that we have to take that and say, I think he knew what he was talking about. I. I have no, no credibility of my own to say, no, you weren't wise. You were foolish. So he was wise. I want to read this then as someone who was wise. So he comes together. He says, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. That is, wise people teach knowledge. Knowledge is the foundation of wisdom, right and he wants to be a teacher as a wise man. So he still taught the people knowledge. Yea, he gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs. Well, we know, of course, that right before the book of Ecclesiastes is the book of Proverbs, and it's got the same author, Solomon. So, so here he comes together, says, okay, he's the, he's the writer of Proverbs, but notice what he says about, about them here. He, he gave those proverbs to, to give knowledge. But as he was working them up, he gave good heed and sought out and set in order. Good heed, sought out, set in order. I think what he's saying is he really worked to crack craft those things. Well, we just finished a Thursday night online study on the Book of Proverbs. And the more I studied the book of Proverbs, the more I came to realize it might be the most genius piece of literature that has ever been written. To be able to take what would take me two hours in a chapter to say, he says in three lines to bring it all together where he's not guilty of reductionism or some oversimplification. He really did get the essence of it. He peeled away the onion and managed to get right there. How do you do that? Give good heed, seek out set in order. Put it all together there. And in verse 10, he says, the preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written was upright, even the words of truth now stop to say, I don't know, by the way, if this is an advertisement to buy his book, the Proverbs. Hey, you know, at the end of a book sometimes you say, also available from this author, and he points out, hey, I got another book too. You should check that book out. It's the Book of Proverbs. I wonder if Solomon. I kind of feel this way as a book writer. Greg. You'll, you'll, you'll know the feeling one of these days to say, you know, someday when I die, somebody's going to read those books and say, he was brilliant. But you, Here he comes. And Solomon again says, okay, I want acceptable words, upright words, true words. I want to, I want to put them together in a, in a way that is weighted, searched out, brought together in, in a, in a spectacular way. And I think he does that. And, and both the, well, all three of his books, we got Proverbs, we've got Ecclesiastes and, and the third one, Song of Solomon. That's the easy One there or song of songs. Sometimes it's called all of them. You would have to say, this guy knows how to write, this guy knows how to be eloquent. This guy knows rhetoric, we might call it, in order to persuade, in order to have beauty and yet not just be things of beauty. You know, sometimes you can hear and say, well, that was a beautiful sentence. What does it mean? I don't know. It's beautiful, but I don't know what it means. And so here he comes, he's got words of beauty, words of meaning, and he brings those forth as a deliberate presentation. Now we continue. Well, before we do continue, let me encourage you with words, of course. You know, I'm a man of many words and I am in a sense a student of words. I like to study etymology. Where did that word come from? How did we get that word? Why do we use that word the way we use that word? What difference does it make to use that word with this word and this word with that word and all of the various things that can take place in, in word smithing, I think is a fabulous science and art. I think that we who are believers ought to say, hey, I not only want to be able to say something that is upright and true, but I want to say it in such a way that is memorable and catches the soul and the imagination and helps somebody walk away with it. You know, I think the proverbs were written, by the way, from a father to a son son, from King Solomon to his son Rehoboam. And honestly, I don't think Solomon would have put this way, but I think he was saying, that boy ain't so smart. I'm not sure that boy's gonna make it. He's never going to do all the studying he needs to do. He's not reading the classics. But if I can give him a one liner he might remember it. So he comes up with things like better to live in the attic with. Nevermind, you know, these little one liners that sort of wake you up and say, hey, and yet you catch a truth there that you can, you can take. I think the Christian world ought to work more on those things, you know. I forgot I had pictures for you today. How did I move away? There's my vanity picture for you there. This is the second week in a row I've forgotten my pictures, isn't it? That's something shameful about this. But when I was talking about beauty, I think, I think Christians ought to use beauty more. We ought to use it in Music. I'll give you an example. You go to the. Go, go to a public high school. Let's assume it's the most secular, God hating public high school that is out there. There. I challenge you. Go to their choir concert sometime, maybe at Christmas. What, you know what you're going to find. They sing lots of Christian music. You know why they do it? Because nobody writes, ever wrote the music that classical Christian writers, the, all of the, the, the, the Christmas carols, the Hallelujah chorus, all that kind of stuff that, that you don't really know music if you don't know that stuff. There was somebody back then that said, hey, if I make something beautiful, it will communicate for the ages. It's the same in art. I don't know about this one here. That's not very pretty, is it? But it's the same in art that the Christian world really, up until the modern times, the Christian world owned art. That was the communication of art. And that, that all of those, those, those great paintings, works of art down through the, through the centuries will, they are protected today by people who hate God. They are bought and sold by people who don't like God. You know, all that kind of stuff because there's something beautiful and communicative about it. And it used to be that way in church architecture, in, in church hymns and you know, on and on we said, hey, if we make it beautiful, it will communicate. And I think that's what, what he's saying here in verses 9 and 10. This is the picture by the way, of vanity, of vanities. It's all of the, the things. This one was from 1650. And so I guess in 1650 things were still just a breath also. And the, the vanity picture, here's, here's the teacher. There it is, a scholar by his study in 1688. And then let's go to verse 11. There's our picture for verse 11. You, you maybe have seen that one. That was a more modern one. Norman Rockwell, 1943. For verse 11, it's the picture of freedom of speech. You know, it's got that, that working guy standing up in front of his neighbors and saying, hey, what, wait a minute, let me, let me say something that has become one of the iconic pictures in American history and American art. Does anybody remember how many pictures are in that series? The Freedom Series? 4. Does anybody remember where Norman Rockwell got the idea of the four freedoms? This is a little history lesson for you. He got the idea from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's State of the Union speech. In, I don't know, somewhere before 1943. And Roosevelt talked about four freedoms. I really, I like all four pictures and I like Norman Rockwell, but two of the pictures I don't really like that much because. Because of what they stand for. He had a. One of them's. Okay, let's, let's take. I'll keep three and a half. No, I'll keep two and a half. There we go. Never was good at math. Freedom of speech. I like that one. Freedom of worship. I like that one. The one I sort of like, but not necessarily in the context, but even maybe. Okay, I'll give it. I'll go with, with it is the freedom from fear. Freedom from fear. Now I think there's a sense in which you can't ever have a total freedom from fear. We've had a lot of bears in our home this year neighborhood. And last night, I don't know, 10, 10 o' clock or I was sitting out and you know, brushing up my sermon, crafting the actual. The most beautiful words I could deliver to you. And I kept hearing things over here and there and it's like, I can't see you, but I am not scared. Oh, he left me a present. I, I knew he was there. I stayed out the whole time. I finished. I like. He ain't gonna bother me. Okay. You can't, you can't fully overcome that kind of freedom of fear. But, but FDR brought it in. The sense of government protecting us from fear. There is one sense in which I would say, hey, there is a gov. The government yields the, the sword. Right? Yields. That's not the word. Wheels. Wheels. I'll get it. Use the right word. That's what the sermon is about. Government wields the sword. Okay. Sometimes, especially when I go to Albuquerque, I think if the government would do a better job, I wouldn't have to be so scared when I walk away from my car thinking, what in the world is going to happen here? So freedom from fear. Okay, I'll go with it. The final one, it's a, it's that beautiful picture. You've seen it before, has grandma setting the turkey down at the table. You remember that one? But, but, and this makes sense with FDR far. He. It was called freedom from want. Freedom from want. Okay. Every, everybody's got a full table there. That might be a little more socialist than I am, but I might have made a, like a freedom to work or something like this. But anyway, I didn't mean to get off into FDR and Norman Rockwell. But there's the freedom of speech picture. I like it. Verse 11. The words of the wise. I'm going to assume that's what he's standing up there to give. The words of the wise are as goads. Boys, do you know what a goad is? It's that stick your grandmother gets out when she can't get you out of bed in the morning or can't get you to, you know, get out to the school or whatever. A goad, typically, I think you would use it in an agricultural sense. It's got a poke at the end and, you know, you put a little goat in the rear end, right? And off they go. So the words of the wise are as goads. Have you ever been goaded by wise words? Words probably have. And you say, hey, yeah, I agree. The words of the wise are as goads. He goes on to say, and as nails. I'll stop right there for a moment. As nails. We. We hang some things on words, don't we? And this morning in our Bible study class, I talked about the word me mini, and tried to nail something down there and say, okay, hang the word mini right here. This. This will hold that down so that you know what to do with it when you come across it. So. So they're. They're goads. Sometimes they push us on. But their nails, sometimes they hold something down, you know. Here I stand. So there is nails, he says, fastened by the masters of assemblies. Assemblies. The masters of assemblies. Now, I suspect the word picture here is someone who's pretty skilled at putting a nail in wood. And they go through one. One time I watched some roofers on YouTube. And so now everybody who has ever put roofing on YouTube, YouTube comes to me. And so I watch them because, you know, they always speed it up. And you're like, whoa, in two minutes, they tore that roof off and put a whole nother roof off. Did you see them? Masters of assembly. It's just. It's a wonderful work of art. I think that's what he's talking about, is the guy that can just put the nails on there, there, and. And make it happen. Now, words are like that. Nails fastened by masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. The words given from one shepherd now in. In. In just a pastoral kind of scene, okay? The shepherd is the one that calls out. The shepherd is the one. One that's that, you know, has the goad. Perhaps the shepherd is the one that nails the gate shut, whatever it might be. And these words come from one shepherd. But as you, as you look through and see that you, you kind of want to say, you know, I think there may be even more to what he is saying here because he, he has all these words from one she, shepherd. If you're, if you take all of the one shepherd ideas, all the shepherd ideas, there's a few which say bad shepherd. Pull those out. But you give all the other shepherd illustrations. Does anybody want to guess who the shepherd in the Bible typically is alluding to? Yeah, to maybe because this is Ecclesiastes, we might say God. But you know, the good shepherd as Jesus comes and uses that. Put this together here, the words of the wiser goads, nails fashioned by masters of assemblies. That is at. At least it is a poetic way of saying a guy who can really put down nails very well. Masters of assemblies. But that is a phrase that, that sort of echoes the way the scripture is that it is a goad. Sometimes for us it is a nail. Sometimes for us it was put together by masters of assemblies. You take Moses, for example. Moses assembled some things together, going all the way back to Adam and Seth and you know, works his way through Abraham, Noah, and he assembles all that together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, of course, in a masterful way put together by masters of assemblies, but given by one shepherd. All this, all this book here, if he's talking about the Bible, and I think he might. We'll see this in verse 12. If he's talking about the Bible here you've got goads, you've got nails put together by masters of assembly. But all of it came from one shepherd. And it's, it's. Whether he meant it or not, it is a great description of what the Bible is for us. And he. In, in his old age, he celebrates that. Now let's go on to verse 12. And in verse 12, I've got. Here's a picture I used before the school of Athens by Raphael. And it is, It's a picture if you study it. There's a lot more to the picture than I was able to squeeze on here. But it's a picture of all the old Phil. Philosophers, the Greek philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, they're all in there, all those people. And that. That aligns with verse 12, he says. And further. Now that means it's kind of connected with verse 11. Further. By these, my son. By these. By what? By these words that are goads. That are nails put together by master assembly given by one shepherd. By these my son be admonished. And then he says of Making of many books, there is no end. And much study is a weariness of the flesh. I don't think that verse is about me, but I do have a new book coming out. You know, you did, you write it down, you put it in a book, you put it out there, and then you do another one. Making a books, there is no end. I kind of think that what he's saying is verse 11. There's a book that's come together by 40 different authors, but it's really got one off. And of the making of books and of study, there's no end. You can go from one philosopher to another philosopher, another scientist, another linguist, you know, all you can, you can learn, you know, now till the cows come home. There's no end of it. But he seems to be pointing us back to say, excuse me, me. Obviously Solomon was before the time you had 66 books of the Bible. But he seems to be pointing to some kind of book that has lasting meaning even in his day. The making of books has no end. You can study all day long. But for his day, he'd say, hey, we've got Torah. We've got this book that is ours, that this is the scripture for us. By. By his time, not many of the prophets had come along, but, you know, maybe a little, little bit of that. Maybe some record of the Judges and that time period. So we have our holy book here. That's the one that we've got to go by. Not that the others are bad. There's just no end to them. And in much study, there is a weariness of the flesh. You ever, you ever decide you want to read something and. Or study something, and you, you read this theory and then you're interested in it, and you open it up and someone then tells you why that theory is all completely wrong. And so then you're like, oh, well, this is wrong. I need to find between these two what's right. And then you open the next one and it says, those two theories are all completely wrong. Let me tell you. And your head just starts spinning, right? Can't. I think what he says is, hey, go to the Word of God. Obviously different in our day. Go to the Word of God. Let that be your goad. Let that tie you down and use that. And then the others, they're a vanity, they're a puff, they're interesting. There might be something good into them, but they're not. They are not the end. So a much study, study, there is a. A weariness. He says, now let's Conclude out in verses 13 and 14. Here we have the Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt. That gives a little bit of a. A connection here. He says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Here it is, fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. And he's done. Now, I think that you and I have to take an instruction that's given for us in second Timothy, chapter two, verse 15, which says, study to show thyself approved a workman who hath no need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. In that division of the word of truth, there is something that we see that Solomon could not have seen because it wasn't revealed. It was a mystery. It hadn't been shown yet. It was untraceable. And that is that you and I live in a time in which 2nd Corinthians 5:19 says that God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses unto the them. That same revelation says, we're saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. That same revelation of the mystery says that we are not under the law, we are free from the law. Now, all of that is our experience, our dispensation, our place in the ages of God. Solomon wasn't in that place. And so we have to divide this out a little bit. I think if you take verses 13 and 14 as the whole matter for me and you, I think you're going to be led astray. Let's look at it. Knowing that we're not under the law, knowing that he's not counting our trespasses against us, knowing that he's offering a gift to anyone, one. He's paid for it. It is. It's, you know, all wrapped up, ready to go. By grace through faith, it can be yours. Knowing that we see here, he says, the conclusion of the matter, fear God and keep his commandments. Now, normally, what we'll do is spin that just a little bit, and we can. Man fear God. This is where the preacher usually comes in, says, now that doesn't mean, you know, to be afraid of him like you're afraid of bear in the dark. That's. That's a word that says, have a deep awe and reverence and respect for him. And some of that definitely is there. I think maybe we've made a little too much of that. Because their job in the Old Testament was to say, well, I don't know if I should put it comedically or if I should use the name Bill Cosby, but nonetheless, I grew up in those days. You remember Bill Cosby, don't you? I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of this world. Right? Okay. There's that fear of God. Fear God and keep his commandments. Now, we're told we're not under the law. Law. So I know what commandments he was talking about, but what commandments am I supposed to keep Now? Some of them we can say, okay, honor your father and your mother. As long as we don't add the. And it will be. You'll have a long life. You know, that. That part of it. We sort of leave that part out. But what about remember the Sabbath and keep it holy? It's the same unit. And did you all do that yesterday? Yesterday was the Sabbath, right? Probably. You broke some Sabbath laws on and on. We could go to say, wait a minute, we are not under the law. So when he says, fear God and keep his commandments, it kind of sounds good. We sort of want that. And certainly a Baptist preacher would love to, you know, get on his soapbox on that one a little bit. I. I could see myself 20 years ago coming in for the revival, you know, and say today, turn to Ecclesiastes, the 12th chapter and the 13th verse. It says, young man, fear God and keep his commandments minutes. I know what you did last summer. I mean, you can preach that, right? You can. You can. You can make them more scared than a bear in the dark. Right? But it's not the message of grace that you and I are under. So why is he saying something that is so much different than later? You know, come to the. Come to the throne of God to find grace, to help and mercy in time of need. Some of these grace things that we see out here versus these things that we see. You know, some people will conclude Luke and I were talking about this week. Some people will conclude there's a different God in the Old Testament than there is in the New Testament. No, it's not a different God. It's a different dispensation. There's something. Jesus came between those two. There's some grace that has been given. There's a. There's a story that's in there. So fear God and keep his commandments. Again, we could. We could spin that to have a deep reverence for God and make sure that you do what God would want you to do and you and I wouldn't have a problem with that. Oh yeah, okay, that's good. But words do have meaning. And this says, fear God and keep his commandments. And then it goes on to say that's the whole duty of man. Well, what about faith? Where's that? It's not in Fear God and keep his commandments. Solomon really was living in a different day and time. And we've got, look, the rest of the book that we come in and this is where we find grace. So in rightly dividing the word of truth as we're told, we're given a great blessing that passages like this don't trip us up saying, oh wait a minute, you know, do I need to, do I need to scowl more and obey more and tithe more and on and on. For God shall bring every word unto judgment versus he's not counting our trespasses against us. It's two different things, isn't it? And so we, we, we see the blessing that Solomon brings for us in all of this and we say, hey, living under the sun, we, we do have the blessing of living after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ after the close of the scripture, where we've got the full council. God, what Solomon said was absolutely right. For where he was and where his people were, he couldn't have given a better word. And fear God and keep his commandments, that was the whole duty of man. You know how I know it was the whole duty of man? Because I just read it right there in the Bible. That's how the Bible tells us. Fear God, keep his commandments. That's the whole duty of man. You can take from old, Old Testament passages. You could take quite a few of these. You, you could follow the cross references through and you would find in Moses, you would find in the prophets, you would find in the Psalms or the, the other wisdom literature. Fear God, keep his commandments. That's the whole duty of man. You would, you would see that to be written over and over. But if I can, if I can borrow a phrase just a little bit from Solomon, it's a breath time that was real, but it's not the time that's now. It's time that it's changed. This time that we're in today, this beautiful age of grace that we're in, it's going to close out someday. You know, there's going to be a rapture will be taken out and there's a tribulation out there in the future. There's Then after that there's a second coming, a judgment, a kingdom. You know, there's more out there, there's more back that way, there's more this way. We're right here in this breath, in this moment of time. And so as we read the scripture, we can take and say, okay, what. What do I apply directly to my life? And what do I not apply directly? You know, I think vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Or everything quickly comes and quickly goes. That's something that doesn't really matter what dispensation you live in, does it? That's true. But some of the other things we have to look and say, okay, I want to be careful not to apply this to my life because that one will get me in trouble and I will get in trouble if I don't quit because it's five after. Or is it somebody keeps moving the clock and I think it's Luca. He's sitting there like he's innocent. I will lead us in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this book of Ecclesiastes. The. The joy and the smiles that has given us the. The insight and the wisdom that it has given us. The. The. The. The freedom that in so many ways it has given us for enjoying the stage of life that. That we are in and making the most of it. The. The hope that is given there to know that there. There's this life under the sun and then there is that which is eternal, that which is fixed in the heavens. And we look forward, dear Heavenly Father, to one day that. That. That time when day shall never end will be ours. In the meantime, we have a day here where. Which will come and go much more quickly than we want it to. But our prayer is that it would be lived in faith. It would be lived in a way that honors you. It would be lived in. In love. And that as we grow in the Lord that all that we say and do would be pleasing unto you. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Well, next week we will have a non sermon, non series sermon. There we go. I won't start a series till I tell September. We'll get back into another series then. But we'll do some preaching between now and then and look forward to seeing you for that. Would love to see you Wednesday night for a little supper and Bible study in first Thessalonians. And those of you online, thanks for again for joining us. Those of you who are guests, appreciate you joining us and come Wednesday if you are around. And God bless you. I'm going to let you be dismissed. It ra it, Sam. Ra it. Hey, snuggle on in there. The last time I said canoes is we were. I mean, we were out at. Well, it was a. Two. Two done. How many? It's.