It is a great joy to be here
with so many of my friends. I appreciate that you treat me
even better than a friend. You treat me as a brother. And
you may think that for someone who occasionally
fills Henry Mahan's shoes that, well, it must not be such a big
thing to come to a smaller group or whatever, but I would tell
you that I heard your pastor preach recently from Psalm 23,
and I know you're grateful that God has sent you a man of God
to pastor you and to preach to you. But I would tell you, through
the years, God's done something wonderful here. He's raised you
up a mighty man. Your pastor takes second chair
to no one when it comes to preaching the gospel of Jesus And I rejoice
with you. I'm glad that I get to hear him
once in a while. You let him come our way, and
I get to hear him, too. So I feel like I'm nervous. I'm filling big shoes this morning
and pray that the Lord will bless our time together. Turn back
to Ecclesiastes chapter 3, and let me tell you how this
message came about. Someone came up to me and asked
me how I was recently, and we know the standard answer for
that, the required answer is, I'm fine, how are you? We don't
dare tell the truth normally, do we? Nobody wants to hear how
we really are, usually. But this particular situation,
I think they really meant it. The question was, how are you,
Bob? And it drew me back and caused
me to actually think for a minute how I was. And what it caused me to answer
was, you know, for whatever reason, I'm really experiencing a time
of contentment and happiness. And I just sort of kept talking.
I said, I, maybe it's because the Lord is giving Rebecca and
I time to get the foundation of our home established. to get
it right before those big storms come again, which they will. But I said, you know, for whatever
purpose, I said, boy, I am really content. What a time of contentment
I'm experiencing. And there was an elder gentleman,
not that old, but elder in Christ, listening, and he said, Bob,
that's scriptural. He said in Ecclesiastes, and
I don't remember which, I wish I could remember which pair of
things he used, but he said, you know, Ecclesiastes says there's
a time to get and a time to lose. Whatever one he used, it was
appropriate. And that took me to Ecclesiastes 3, and I've been
in that until your pastor called and asked me to speak. And somehow
I knew, felt led, this was the message. So I pray he'll bless
this, to you folks, as much as it's been a blessing to me to
study it. The key to Ecclesiastes 3 is
in one word in verse 1. It says, To everything there
is a season, and a term to every purpose. Purpose, under heaven. God's
purpose. Modern religion especially in
this country, has no comprehension of God's purpose. His purpose
is so simple, so plainly declared in his word. God's purpose is
simply for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the good
of his people. He is going to have a people
just like Christ, and all his purpose is unfolding to make
that happen. American preachers are not preaching
that message because their message is one of love, but not hate. They preach peace without war.
They predict healing without death. They prescribe only laughter,
but no weeping. Dancing? Boy, do they preach
dancing, don't they? Dancing without mourning? Prophet
without labor, birth without travail, and on the authority
of God's Word, I promise you that that message is not the
truth. That message is not in accordance
with the purpose of God Almighty for the sons of men. Most modern preachers try to
convince their people that life is this sea of tranquility. And
every once in a while, a wave comes along. And it's because
they're not living right. Or they're not doing what they're
supposed to be doing. Or there's something wrong with them that
they've made the sea angry. And as soon as they get right
again, it'll settle down. And folks, it's totally the opposite.
We live in a raging hurricane. And it's one we made. Oh, there
was—you see, the last in the list of things here, in verse
eight, says there's a time of peace. That's the last thing
listed. Because there is a place of peace. Only one. It's where
our Lord Jesus Christ is. It's called heaven. And until
we get there, there's not going to be any peace. We may get a
whip of it once in a while down here, but not much. There was
a place of peace. God put Adam, made Adam, and
put him in a place of peace. And Adam went to war. Adam declared
war on God, and ever since then, I'll tell you, the sea, which
was tranquil, became a hurricane. And the goodness of God is occasionally,
you know what he'll do? He'll calm the angry sea, as
only his word can do, and we'll have a little time of contentment.
And then here it comes again. But it's never, I mean, I said
I'm experiencing a time of contentment and happiness and whatever. And
yet, during that same time, my son fell and broke his collarbone
in three places. I've been to three orthopedic
surgeons with it. You know, my one brother is on
the verge of going bankrupt. I mean, there's always something. Always something. There's never
any less in ways that this other's a lie. And don't believe it.
They're preaching a religion that serves their purposes. and
not the truth according to the gospel. So to better understand Ecclesiastes
3, we've got to back up three verses to chapter 2. And you
look with me now, we're going to go verse by verse through
this, to Ecclesiastes 2, verse 24. It says, There is nothing
better for a man. Does anybody want to know what
the rest of that is? It says in the Word here, there's nothing
better for a man. If God's Word is fixing to tell
me what that is, I think I want to know what the rest of this
verse is. And keep in mind that your pastor, I know your pastor
has taken you through the Book of Hebrews and taught you that
the Book of Hebrews, if it had a subtitle, it would be, Christ
is better. There's nothing better than the
Lord Jesus Christ, spiritually and eternally. He's better than
angels, he's better than the law, he's better than the sacrifices.
He's better than anything, Christ is. But what this is saying is,
as you go through this life, God's supposed to tell you that
there's nothing better than what comes next. You all want to know?
Let's read on. There's nothing better for a
man, now modern religionists would have us stop at this point,
than that he should eat and drink. Let's have a party. Let's all
be happy. Let's just act like everything's
going to be OK. But that's not where the verse
ends. There's a huge word, and, after this. There is nothing
better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that
he should make his soul, s-o-u-l, soul and joy, good in his labor. contentment has to do with the
soul, not the flesh. And that's the message of modern
religion, is the flesh. They're trying to say that in
this does not read there's nothing better for a man than he should
eat and drink and that he should make his flesh enjoy good in
his labor. There's no end. You try to satisfy
the flesh, there's no end to it. Are you all old enough yet
to figure that out? I got a sister since I was that
high. I remember her favorite phrase.
You know what it is? All my life I wanted dot, dot,
dot. And you fill in the blank. You
know? I remember when it was, all I
ever wanted was a new car. Well, she got one. And she had
two. And then it was, all I ever wanted
was a Cadillac. She got one. All I ever wanted
was a Bow Front Town Cabin. She's got two now. All I ever
wanted was a cherry corner cabinet. She got two now. All I ever wanted
was a big house with at least three bathrooms. She got one
with four now. She said, All I ever wanted was
a house with enough garages to put my cars in them. She got
three of them. Three car garages built on. And you know what? She's the most miserable, bless
her heart, woman I know. Because there's no satisfying
the flesh. There's no end to it. There's
not enough stuff. I mean, You know, you read, I
read USA Today and some of these CEOs, five hundred twenty million
dollars a year. How many does it take to get
all you need or want? I mean, what can you buy after
eighty million? One million. You see, there's
no end to satisfying the flesh. So there's nothing better for
a man that he should eat and drink and that he should make
his soul enjoy the good in his labor. There's nothing wrong
with possessions. I mean, there's nothing wrong
with having a fine home or a new car or anything like that. But
I tell you what, if it is our life, then it's a millstone around
our neck. But to the believer, you see,
these things, to the one who has the light of Christ in the
heart, in the soul, the believer realizes, realizes Look what it says here. This
also I saw that it was from the hand of God. Folks, whatever
you have, whether it's a whole lot or not so much, whether it's
a big salary or a little one, whether it's a big house or small,
whatever you have, you know where soul enjoyment is? It's understanding
that whatever I have came straight from the hand of God. How much
or how little it is. All we have as a result of our
labor is from the hand of God. And it is an exceedingly evil
and destructive thing for us to look around, either out here
in the world. Don't envy Bill Gates. That poor
man will bless his heart unless God does something for him. He's
got the biggest millstone hanging around his neck of anybody I
know. Try to swim with a billion dollars tied to your neck. Don't look around in this world
and don't even look around amongst believers and covet what the
other person has. Don't envy the one who has more
goods or a better income. It's destructive. It doesn't
want to do anything but cause you heartache, make trouble.
It's all it'll do. And as believers, we should realize
that our God gives us everyone. exactly how much he knows is
good for us, and no more or no less. Now, if we won't work,
that's another matter altogether. I mentioned in the Sunday School
lesson that two weeks ago at 13th Street, we were going through
1 and 2 Thessalonians, and 2 Thessalonians 3 clearly declares, If a man
won't work, don't let him eat. That's it. There is no soul enjoyment
to the believer or unbeliever who will not work. As it says,
soul enjoyment, the good in his labor. Adam cost us that. We're going to have to work.
And if we do, then, you know, we'll be all right. But to the
believer, now listen, there's nothing better than the wise
and prudent use of whatever fruit comes from God's hand as a result
of our labor. That will give us soul enjoyment
and contentment, genuine peace of heart and mind. For who can eat, or who else,
can hasten hereunto more than I?" Let me paraphrase this so
you understand. This is Solomon who wrote this,
and Solomon was the wealthiest man. He was Bill Gates in his
day, more than that, really. Solomon had more wealth than
any man in the world, but God also gave him more wisdom than
any man in the world. And he says, I'm not only the
wealthiest man alive, but I'm the wisest, and here's the end
of the whole thing. Who else can tell you better
about this? about having things and getting things and what to
do with them. So let's see what he says in verse 26. For God
giveth to a man that is good in his sight. The key to this is that phrase,
in his sight. God gives every one of us what's
good, not in how we see it, but how he sees it. Listen, my sight,
your sight, all I know about our sight, well, I'm 2100 in
this eye and 2080 in the other, which that's not too bad, but
we're not talking about physical sight here, we're talking about
spiritual sight. And I know every one of your spiritual sights.
By nature, we're all born blind. And you know what the unwise
blind man does? He jumps up, heads out the door, runs out
here across the road and gets run over by a truck. The unwise
blind man heads out saying, I'll go over the river and walks off
the side of the bridge and drowns. You know what the wise blind
man does? He sits and waits for somebody with sight to come along
and take him where he needs to go. And you say, well, we're
not spiritually blind anymore. No, we're not. But doesn't the
Scripture say, we see dimly? Listen, my daughter is not legally
blind. I take that back. She's not actually
blind, but legally she is. You take her glasses off, she's
twenty-four hundred. She's as blind as a bat. If you
told her to come up the parking lot and up the steps and run
across the road, if she didn't break her leg on the steps, and
she didn't hear the car coming, it'd run over. And spiritually,
that's our condition. We have light, but we don't see
right. And I don't want God to give
me what's right in my sight. I want him to give me what's
good in his sight, because it will be better than what I pick. And God will lead us, and the
reason he can do it better than us is his sight is not only clear
in this sense, but his sight, if this is your life from here
to here, do you know what he does? He sees the end and the
beginning. He made it out that he sees Omega
before he ever wrote Alpha. And we don't have that vision.
We don't see it that way. So God gives his people what's
good in his sight, and you know what three things he gives them
all, every one of us. You know what he gives us? Three
things. It's next in the verse, For God giveth to a man that
is good in his sight, wisdom, knowledge, and joy. That's three
pretty good things. You know what knowledge he gives
us? He starts every one of us out by giving us the knowledge
of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. He shows us, this is my son,
and he's God. He's God in human flesh. And
I sent him down. I sent him down there to earth.
I made him a man. And he lived a perfect life.
He gives us the knowledge of what Christ did. That Christ
was born in a manger. a lowly place, lived absolutely
perfectly, righteously, came to the end and was accused of
unrighteousness and was crucified, was buried, then rose from the
grave and sits at the right hand of God Almighty. And he gives
us the knowledge that the reason he did it was because the people
God intended to make like Christ were all unrighteous and wicked. So in order to come be with him,
they had to have a righteously took Christ's righteousness and
gave it to them. He gives us knowledge of that. We understand
that, don't we? And then he gives us knowledge
that those people, some had to be done with that wicked way
they lived. So what he did was he took that and gave that to
Christ. And when he died, that's what he was doing, was taking
care of it, getting it out of his sight, putting it under his blood. He
gives us what glorious knowledge, what a gift to understand that
everywhere in this country people are meeting today and don't know
that. And nobody's up there trying to tell him that. Explain it.
Give him understanding. Begging God to enlighten the
heart and the soul. God's given us that knowledge. But not only that, he gave us
wisdom. Knowledge without wisdom, that's
a dangerous thing. Because there's lots of folks
standing up in our day and time saying, you believe Jesus died
for you? Maybe he shed his blood for you? Come down here and shake
my hand. You're saved. You repent. You receive him. That's knowledge
without wisdom. God's given us the wisdom to
understand that we must believe and have faith in the gift of
God. He's given us that wisdom. And then he's given us joy. Joy. And here's the joy. Here's the joy. The joy is that as we read these times over here,
that have come in our life as these times come, I pretty much make a mess of
all of them. When I'm in what we, you know, about half of these
sound real good, about half of these sound real bad, don't they?
And you see, it's not just when these difficult times come, I
make a mess of that. I whine, complain, carry on,
find fault with God, just I handle that terribly when trials come. But worse than that, even when
the good times are there, I strut around like I did. Boy, I had
a big sale today. I'm really good. I installed
thirty-two satellite dishes today, saying, I'm really good. It wasn't
the fact that the Lord had you do them all on flat ground, or
had the wires already run out there. You see, I mess up the
good times. Act like I did something. Oh,
the joy is coming to understand with knowledge and wisdom that
God's done everything. He's given us what is good in
His sight. and therefore we don't deserve
any credit, and therefore we don't have to live in fear of
our salvation. It's a done thing, as we'll see
in a minute. Believers get these great gifts
of knowledge, wisdom, and joy, but now the unbeliever, what
do they get? The unbeliever, look what it says, the rest of
verse 24, but to the sinner, to the unbeliever, God giveth
travail to gather and to heap up that he may give it to him
that is good before God." What this means is that the unbeliever,
God gives them over to travail. That's hard work. I don't begrudge
Bill Gates what he's got, because he's worked to get it. He's earned
every penny of it, I suppose. I don't begrudge fellows who
work hard to get their money. But I tell you what God gives
them, you know what comes with that? Greed, avarice. cunning, shrewdness, a willingness
to cheat and backstab all for the purpose, what's it say? Gathering
and heaping. Just pile, how much enough? I
don't know. Bigger, more, and do whatever
it takes to get it. Is that us in our day? Isn't
it? And God gives them over to that,
finally. And do you know what purpose? For what purpose? It
says here that He may give to those that are good before God.
You say, wait a minute, what does that mean? Well, first of
all, it means this. Bill Gates can't take it with him. When
he dies, it's not going to be his anymore. It's going to be
given to some other man. The Rockefellers, the first Rockefeller,
I know one thing, he ain't got it anymore. And the next one
doesn't, and the next one, and I don't know where Jay fits in
the category from West Virginia. He got some of it now, but when
he goes, he won't have it anymore. So God gives it to other men.
But what does this really mean? It says here, God gives it to
men that are good before him. And we know that doesn't mean
that we have any goodness in us or that we do good things
and earn it. That's not what it means. It means that he gives
it to his people who Christ died to make good, who's made them
good. He's saying, I'll give it to
my people. And let me illustrate it for you. Y'all all know the
Toyota Motor Company, don't you? I mean, everybody heard of Toyota,
right? Big Japanese company. Got plants in America and everything.
I was amazed when Toyota announced they were going to build a factory
in the United States. Japanese don't do that. They
don't do that. You know, they keep it all there.
They built one in America, in Georgetown, Kentucky, right up
next to Lexington. You say, well, what's Toyota
in business for? Well, if you ask the chairman of the board, he'd
say, well, we make automobiles, we make profit for our investors,
and we hire thousands of employees. And they'd be all well and good.
But I know why Toyota really exists. One of the purposes,
anyway. You know what it is? Years ago,
God Almighty determined to raise up a church. Some fresh-out-of-college
kid named Todd Nyberg is going to raise up a church in Lexington,
Kentucky. And he's going to gather some people around him to support
him. Well, jobs were kind of tough to come by back then. But
you know what happened? That Japanese built an automobile
factory. right next to Lexington, and
start hiring. And all these young fellows going
to Todd's Road Church down there, they got great jobs. I mean,
they got good incomes now, and they support their pastor. That's
why, folks, that's why Toyota exists. Because God says to the
sinner, I'll give them over to their wealth for the purpose
that he may give it to him that's good before God. I'll let them
have all the money they want, and I'll give my people some
of it. And if you're working for one of those men, don't worry
about it. When they mistreat you and underpay you, whatever
it is, don't worry about that. God's giving you just what he
determines to, and bless their hearts pity him, he's going to
give them over to what they want. And it's horrible. But God gives
us just what we need, and that's the means he uses to do it. Is
it no wonder that this also is vanity and vexation of spirit,
the last word there? Can you imagine giving your whole
life to this and then one day look up and find out what you've
got for it? Bless our hearts, they'll be vexed. They'll be
vexed at the day of judgment. It's all wood, hay and stubble.
Understanding these two great principles, now we're going to
go into chapter three. Let me repeat the principles for you
in case you missed them. The first principle is that everything
Everything, everything a believer receives comes from the hand
of God. That's verse 24. Verse 26 is everything, everything,
everything God gives his people is what is good for them in his
sight. Understanding that, look at verse
1. Everything, everything, everything, everything, to everything there
is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. to everything. That word there, to everything,
there is a season. You know what that word season
means, if you look it up? If this is your life, this is when
you're born, this is when you die. We know there's seasons,
don't we? We know what seasons are. And
they are appointed, are they not? They come around, sometimes
a little later, sometimes a little sooner. They come around, they're
going to follow, because they're ordained of God. Well, in your
One of these days, you'll be able to look back, and you'll
say, oh, that was that season and this season. God appoints
occasions. There are appointed occasions
in your life. And he says, here they are. Here's
the appointed occasions. And the other word that's key
here is the word purpose. God appoints these occasions
to accomplish his purpose. to bring us into line with his
purpose. I tell you, as bitter as some
of these may be, I don't want to get out of one. Because if
I do, I'm outside of his will and his purpose. And as a believer,
I don't want to be there. I don't want to be there. These
times are given in sets of twos, as are presented here. Do you
all see that? And I was going to spend a lot of time trying explain
these, but I don't think they need explanation. You know what
these things mean down through here, and you can see that there
are the two extremities of each time. The spectrum is spanned
by the opposites here, birth and death. Breaking down and
building up, killing and healing, weeping and laughter, getting
and losing, mourning and dancing and so forth. There's the whole
spectrum. with each pair of these times,
each of these appointed occasions. And every believer in here, from
the youngest to the eldest, knows something about some of these
occasions. Now, you younger ones, you know
less about them, because especially those that are the trying ones,
for the reason that God spares you. I mean, you don't, I mean,
I know that Jenny and Rick don't take Isaac. They don't take him
and force-feed him. Certainly, when he was a baby,
you didn't force-feed him steak. He couldn't handle it. He couldn't
eat it, couldn't chew it. He gave him milk. Now, babes
in Christ, he does not give us these more difficult times or
occasions when we're young. So, when you're young, you know
less about these things generally. But if you live long enough,
you're going to know them all. But God gives them for a purpose. God in his good providence appoints
an occasion and time to serve in his divine purpose, and he
will use whatever instruments are necessary, and the instruments
he uses, their birth and their death, their planting and plucking
up, their weeping and laughter, mourning and dancing, embracing
or not getting embraced, keeping, getting rid of, rending or sowing,
silence or speaking, love or hatred, war or peace, he will
give whatever is necessary. A surgeon, Jenny's a nurse, Jenny,
most of the instruments that a surgeon uses, that I could
think of, scalpel, forceps, tongs, a needle, they all sound pretty
hurtful to me. I don't think they sound like
they feel too good. But do we want any surgeon who
is about to try to heal us, set about to heal us, to not use
those instruments? Can't you just use your hands?
Can't you just rub it a little bit and make it better? That's
not what we want. We want that surgeon to use whatever
instruments he needs to make us well, don't we? To bring us
to the place where we need to be. And that's exactly what God
Almighty does. In order to accomplish his purpose,
to get us to the end from the beginning, he sets occasions. And we're going to go through
those, getting to the end to accomplish his purpose. And those
instruments are listed here. Now, if we got to pick what we
thought was best for us, there's no doubt in my mind which side
of the list we'd be on. It's just like if, I bet if I
let Lauren and Joseph over here, I'll see if I can get you guys
to help me out. I'm going to give you a choice in a minute.
You raise up one finger or two fingers. After church today,
we're going to go eat, and you can have your choice of meal
number one, which is going to be pizza, potato chips, popcorn,
and ice cream, and Coke. Choice number two is going to
be liver, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and spinach,
and water. Which one do you pick, Laura?
Oh, we've got two number ones over there. Now, let me ask this. Tonight, when you have dinner
tonight, you can have choice number one or choice number two
again. What will you pick? One or two? One. Two number ones. That's right. Tomorrow for lunch,
you get the same two choices. Which will you pick? One or two?
Number one, number one again. I see. You see how we choose? Children, let alone, choose what's
not. Would a steady diet of that be
what's best for those children? It wouldn't be long before they
had scurvy and malnutrition. They'd be a mess, wouldn't they?
Eventually they'd die. God's children, he does not let
us choose, because we don't choose wisely. If it was up to us, we'd
pick all the things on this side of the chart. None of the things
on the other side of the chart. And yet, you see, that's not
what we always need. God gives us not what we want. Thank goodness he doesn't give
us what we deserve. But he gives us what we need because he knows
how to be good to his children. And he knows how to be wise.
And that's what he does. He does for us. And he does it
all, look at verse 11 down here, after the list of things here.
It says that God hath made everything, here it is again, everything
means all these towns up here. God hath made everything beautiful. Oh my, you mean he can take,
I can see how he can, if I got a new job and make twice as much
money, I can see how that would be a beautiful thing. I tell you what, if I saw something
that made me just have a belly laugh, That would make me feel
good, that would be a beautiful thing. Boy, if I saw something
that made me cry, I don't like crying, that doesn't feel good.
Or if I lost my job, that wouldn't feel good. How's that going to
be beautiful? Well, the key to this verse is not in the word
beautiful, it's in the phrase that follows it. He's made all
things beautiful in his time. It's not our timetable, you see,
because here we are. going down through our life,
and we get to one of these occasions and it hits us, it doesn't look
very beautiful to us. In our time, we don't see it.
But in God's time, he's already down here, folks, and it may
take eternity That's the thing we need to understand is, it's
our eternal good, not just our temporal good. It may be bad
to lose your job. It may not be beautiful right
now to lose your job. But I tell you what, if it's
interfering with me here in the gospel, or if it's doing something
I ought not be doing, or if it's making me miserable like I'm
home and not decent to my wife and children, mistreating them,
or whatever's going on, maybe I need to get a new job. It'll
be beautiful in turn when he gives me that better job. And
when we look back eternally, all these occasions will be beautiful
in his time. Now, look at the last part here
of verse 11. He's made everything beautiful
in his time. Also, he has set the world in our heart so that
no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning
to the end. Now, we already know that unbelievers
They do the purpose of God whether they understand it or not. They
didn't even enter their mind to wonder who God is and what
he's doing, the fool that said in his heart, No God for me.
It didn't even occur to them. This is also talking about believers.
And let me caution you that probably the most self-destructive thing that we can do to ourselves
when we don't understand how an event in time is for our good,
and that it's going to be beautiful. Probably the most self-destructive
thing we can do is to question God's purpose in it. And I'm
guilty, guilty, guilty. I'm not up here saying, you know,
you guys always, you're the ones who always going, why me, God,
or whatever. No, listen, I know about this.
I'm guilty. I can't tell you how many times
I've gone, why is this happening to me? Why is God doing this? And it's all because I don't
understand. But it's always self-destructive.
It takes me down. And let me tell you why it is
so. Turn over to Joel, chapter 2.
Now, that's a little bitty book. In my Bible, it's page 1137.
If that helps you. But it's between Amos and Hosea. Between Amos and Hosea, I'll
give you a minute to find that. I promise you I'm not being critical
in saying that we ought not question, because I know how hard it is
not to. It's no easy thing to bow to
God's will and his providence, acknowledging that his purpose
is beautiful and that it's good when we can't see it that way
right now. Why is this such a self-destructive
thing? Two reasons. Number one is that
if we question God's purpose over the least thing, how far
is it away to question his purpose in the great things? Why did
God's son have to die? You see what I'm saying? That is unbelief creeping in,
and it will do us no good. It will do us no good. It's dangerous
to question, and it's self-destructive. And it's also, now listen, it's
also not helpful and destructive to let others, listen to me now,
you know, we're a family. We are a family. And as such,
we love each other, we confide in one another, we comfort one
another, we desire the best for one another. And we talk to each
other, and we do that knowing that our brethren love us. They
understand. They can forgive us our doubts
and our difficulties and our not understanding. I'll tell
you one thing. When you're in the middle of
a hurricane, it's easy for the person outside here to go, why
don't you get out of that? Why don't you fly out of that?
Well, I'll tell you, when you're paddling just as hard as you
can paddle, it's easy to say, come on out of there. I've been
caught one time in a canoe in a river, slammed up against a
rock, and everybody else is going by, why don't you paddle harder?
And just digging as hard as you can dig. Well, you're stuck in
that current, there's no going anywhere, no matter how hard
you dig. Eventually, the river will rock you loose, and then
you go on. Or you dump over and go. But
I mean, there's, you know, no urging from them is going to
help. So we're understanding about brother when we when they
get in these situations. But let me tell you what we are
never do. Don't let them outside the family
know that we got any doubt at all. Our God's too good to worthy
of praise and too almighty to share our deaths with him. Because
they just all it'll do. is making employment your pastor
and go well see that's where he's the message he preaches
and nothing could be further from the truth. Your pastor teaching
you that whatever God does is right and good and righteous. And we need to not don't don't
and here's the other reason is don't seek comfort out there
from them because they won't give it to you they can't they
don't know how. And wouldn't if they could because
they relish they hate your gospel they hate your Lord and they
relish every opportunity to find fault with him. So definitely
don't dare, even, and listen, I'm not saying this is easy.
You get in a situation where you're, you get laid off and
times get hard and you say, man, how am I going to feed those
children? I don't blame you for wondering that. I don't, if you're
going through one of those times where it says it's time to get
and time to lose, you're losing it faster than you can get it
in. And you're wondering, how am I going to do this? How am
I, I don't even have food in the pantry. I tell you what,
don't do it. Don't tell your boss, don't tell those unbelievers,
you tell your brethren. I tell you what, anybody that's
got hungry children in here, I, on the authority of God's
word and by his grace, there won't be a hungry child in this
group, because you'll take care of them. You tell your pastor,
you tell your brethren in Christ. And if it can be, if they have
the means, and even if they don't have the means, they'll pray
for you. They'll be for you. not against you. So let's not
let that world know what's going on, either by what we say or
how we act. Don't let it. I tell you what,
we don't want to go around with a gloomy spirit and a downtrodden
attitude, because it won't do any good. All it'll do is find
reason to rejoice in our defeat. And I'm not saying it's easy.
I'm not saying it's easy. Look here at Joel 2. Here's what
we're to do. Here's the first thing to do. When God takes you
into one of these occasions, and it's tough, it's hard, it's
difficult, it's hard to see how beautiful it's going to be. Here's what it says to do in
Joel 2, verse 12. Therefore, also now, saith the
Lord, here's the first thing we do. Turn ye even to me with
all your heart. You get into one of these tough
times now, and it's coming. I'm telling you, you young ones
think it's not coming. It's coming. If you want to hizz,
you're going to get there soon enough. And listen, the further
down the line you go, the harder it's going to get. He's going
to try his people now. And when that happens, the first
thing you do is turn ye even to me with all your heart, and
with fasting, and make turning to him more important than eating.
And with weeping, it's not, it's OK to weep. It doesn't say here,
don't get upset, don't cry, don't mourn. No, it's all right to
weep. Broken heart's a broken heart. It brings on tears. It's
OK to weep. But weep before Him. Turn to
Him. He's the one. The world doesn't
care about your tears. Our tears, they don't. They don't
care. Your brethren, you can cry on
a brother's shoulder. They'll comfort you. They'll
love you for it. But don't do it to the world.
Turn ye even to me with all your heart, with fasting and with
weeping and with mourning. Make your mourning before the
Lord. And look, rent your heart and not your garments. Listen,
every instance you read about renting garments, it was before
the Lord. It was not to be seen of people. It's before the Lord, and it's
I've already said he's not doing this to the flesh, he's doing
it to the soul. It's for the benefit of our soul
these things are happening. So, rend your heart and not your
garments and turn unto the Lord your God. You know why? Because
he's gracious and he's merciful. That's the answer right there.
You know, even your brothers and sisters. Now, the world,
they're not gracious, they're not merciful, they don't care.
But, brethren, even though we do care, bless our hearts, we
are still flesh, and there is not enough mercy, enough grace,
and enough goodness and love in any of us to make it any better.
Really, all comfort has got to come from Christ. Turn to him. Turn to him. Now, turn back to
Ecclesiastes and look at verse 12 here, and we'll hurry. He says, I know that there is
no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in
his life. The person who knows the most
about peace. You know who that is? At 13th
Street, I know who it is. 13th Street Baptist Church, there's
a man named Cecil Roach. He knows more about peace than anybody
I know. You know why? He knows more about war. He flew
twenty-eight missions as a bomber pilot in World War II over the
heart of Germany. I think one time he went out
with a squadron of twenty-eight planes. You know how many came
back? One. One time he flew a mission to
Stuttgart, I think it was, Germany to bomb a ball bearing factory. 480 planes went, 19 came back. That man knows about war. I served
in the Army, makes me a big deal, right? Vietnam era, I didn't
serve there, I was in Korea. I know something about war, right?
I don't know nothing compared to him. When I'm around Cecil,
I don't talk about war.