What Does Wisdom Say? - [Ecclesiastes 8:14-17]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. When I was younger, we had to pick a language in school to learn how to study, a non-English language, and I picked Spanish, and so I did quite a few years of Spanish.

And then in seminary, we had to learn common Greek called Koine Greek, the New Testament is written in that, and we had to learn Hebrew, biblical Hebrew. Today, we got a couple Aramaic words, did we not, in Daniel 5.

And the only way you can really memorize languages is by repetition. As you know, some of us are going to Israel in the spring, and I thought, you know, I�ve never learned modern Hebrew, so I�ve been trying to learn some modern Hebrew, and this week I was learning some slang of modern Hebrew that they got from the Arabic, and if you want to say, �Let�s go you say, �Yalla, Yalla, let�s go.

If you�re really excited about wanting to go someplace, you say, �Sababa, Sababa, let�s go. And I think, �Oh, these are kind of fun to say, right I�ll say to Kim, �Yalla and I want her to say, �Sababa.

And if something�s kind of sweet, not by taste, but you�re like, �Yeah, that�s really sweet you know, you�re affirming, you say, �Achla, achla. And if you want to say, �Bummer it�s the opposite of sweet, you say, �Basa.

And of course, in America, we say, �Excuse me or maybe you say, �Compermiso, could I please get through But you�re in the Middle East, you say, �Move out of the way and so when you say, �Move out of the way you�re in front of me, you just say, �Zuz

And if they�re a lady, then you put a Y on there to make it a little nicer, �Zuzi. I have watched the video of these five slang words so many times this week, it�s not funny. I keep forgetting them.

Is it, �Baba Is it, �Sabama Is it, �Yalla Is it, �Yellow I mean, I can�t remember. The only way I can remember is by repetition, over and over and over, �Yalla �Achla you know, all this kind of stuff.

You say, �What does this have to do with anything in the Book of Ecclesiastes It has everything to do with it, because you know what the Solomon does? He repeats things over and over and over. He said these things so many times, and he�s going to say them in the future as well.

He�s going to say things like, �Fear God. Yeah, well, haven�t we heard about that like three times before? Won�t he talk about that in Chapter 12 as well? He talks about everything�s vanity, over and over and over.

Everything�s striving after wind. Everything�s chasing the wind. Death is certain. Enjoy God when you can. Enjoy nice gifts when you can. It seemed like he�s repeating things over and over and over. And the question we asked this morning is, why do you think he�s repeating those things over, over, and over?

What�s the answer? So that we get them, right? So that we understand. And my response to you, dear congregation, is, �Achla. Sweet. Turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes Chapter 8. We are in this book, and if you�re new to our church, welcome.

Wisdom Literature and the Call to Live Wisely

We are called Bethlehem Bible Church for a reason. New Testament readings, long Old Testament readings, and a sermon from God�s Word. Verse by verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through books of the Bible, and we�re in the book of Ecclesiastes.

This is called wisdom literature. You can think of Job. You can think of Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon. It�s designed with one purpose, to give us wisdom. And of course, because of the fall, because of sin, we tend to be ignorant about things, foolish about things.

And all of us, because we�re Christians, we�d like to live a life that is commensurate with our calling. The Lord has saved us and redeemed us, and we�d like to live a life of gratitude and to live a wise life.

Actually, it will go better for us if we do live a wise life, and it will give Him glory and honor. It certainly won�t change our position. If you�re justified, you�re justified. You can�t be more justified.

Did you know that? If God has justified you, you�ve trusted in Christ Jesus, you can�t be more justified. If He has made you born again, He�s regenerated you, there are no degrees of that. You are as regenerated as the most holy person on earth, as much regenerated as Paul was, or Peter.

But since we are justified, since we are regenerated, since God is working in us, the Spirit is in us, we have that internal drive. It�s not an internal drive, really, it�s the person, the Holy Spirit, and He�s helping us and guiding us and motivating us to be wise.

And so today, we�re looking at Ecclesiastes� big picture. We want to be wise. What does wisdom look like? What does it sound like? How can Christians be wise? And we got to chapter 8, and 8 basically lays out what wisdom teaches us to say.

What does wisdom say? That was our outline from last week. Four speeches, if you will, that wisdom says. What does wisdom say? And we got through the first two, we�ll review those, and there are two more.

So we�re going to look at Ecclesiastes 8, what does wisdom say? And by the way, that�s really an ongoing refrain in the Bible. What shall we say? Can you think of different verses in the Bible? What shall we say then?

What shall we say? There�s a truth presented, and then there�s a question, what shall we say? In Romans, what shall we say then, chapter 6, verse 1? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? What do we say?

The answer is, no. I just kind of like to say that. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

What do we say to that? We say, that�s true. Thank you Lord, you give us the greatest gift, you give us the smaller gifts. Romans 9, what shall we say then? Is there injustice on God�s part? By no means.

God�s sovereign, He can do whatever He wants. What do we say to God�s sovereignty? How could you? That�s not fair. No, we say, there�s no injustice with God. So there�s lots of times we see this saying, what would God say?

What do we respond? By saying, and so today we come to Ecclesiastes 8, and in the middle of a world filled with crookedness, wickedness, perversion, inequities, unrighteousness, sin, what do we say? What do you say?

Solomon says, wisdom teaches us to say, number 1, verses 1 to 9, wisdom says to the king, rule righteously. Rule righteously. Now as you know, Solomon writes this book, he says in chapter 7, sin affects the fools, sin affects the wise.

Does sin affect Solomon? Does Solomon need wisdom? If Solomon has people next to him in his court, the courtier should be saying, Solomon, that�s probably not too smart, I know whatever you say goes, it�s the laws of the king, and whatever you say, but here�s what I would suggest that you consider.

And so Solomon says, right here in verse 1 and following, make sure you say to kings, be careful. Verse 1 in review, who is like the wise and who knows the interpretation of a thing? You can begin to think already about Joseph, and of course later in history, Daniel, that we talked about today in Daniel 5.

A man�s wisdom makes his face shine, hardness of his face is changed, I say, and literally in the Hebrew, it�s say. Say this, here�s what Solomon wants his courtyard people to tell him, his wise counselors, keep the king�s command.

Keep the mouth of the king, literally, because of God�s oath to him. Kings need counselors, and you need to guard what I say, and to protect what I say. Not keep it like, hide it under a bushel kind of keeping, no, no, keep like protect.

These are keepsakes to be protected, and what I say needs to be influenced by wisdom, so make sure, if you�re in the presence of a king, you�re telling him, guard the doors of your mouth, like Micah 7 says.

So we talked about that last week, through this entire section, verses 1 through 9, and for us, remember I had you raise your hand, how many of you are kind of the White House chief of staff? Maybe you really are, but you just haven�t told me.

If you�re in the White House, and you are the chief of staff, you know what you should be saying to the president? Rule wisely, be careful, cause and effect, this is a good thing you did, be careful here, kings need wisdom, because sin affects all.

And we looked at, last week, the only way we really can flesh that out, a good practical application is, found in 1 Timothy chapter 2, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people.

For kings and all who are in high positions, that we may live a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.

There�s one God, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. The king here, Solomon says, I need, because of sin, to rule wisely, so tell me wise things, that's the first thing in the passage that wisdom says, rule wisely king.

Fear God as a Child, Not as an Unbeliever

Secondly, we saw, at least initially saw, verses 10 through 13, what does wisdom say? It says, king rule righteously, we can pray for that in our country, but it also says in verses 10, 11, 12, and 13, it says something like this, this is what wisdom says, our father who art in heaven.

And where we got that was, several times, in this section, it's the fear of the Lord, do you see it in verse 12? Those who fear God, because they fear before him, twice in that one verse, verse 13, it's not well with the wicked, neither he will prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

And of course we get that with the Lord Jesus, when he said, pray this way, big guy in the sky, pray this way, hey pal, hey buddy, our father, he is our father, right, because of the Lord, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

There's this reverence, there's this awe, and we ought to make sure we're people who fear God. Do you know the world is characterized basically by this, there's no fear of God in their eyes, would that be true?

That's Romans chapter three, that describes us before we were saved, and it describes the world, they don't seem to be afraid at all. But Christians should fear God, we should fear God, we should have that caution, we should have that desire to say, as Pradeep was praying even, God you're so great, I want to honor you, I want to walk cautiously, and I want to do the right things, not to get saved, not to stay saved, I'm your child because of the work of Christ, he's earned righteousness for me, he's paid for my unrighteousness, I'm a child of God, I'm born again, I'm being sanctified, I will be glorified, there's no condemnation for me, perfect love, cast out fear, but I still, there's some kind of fear I should have, and that's what we were talking about last time.

Now in preaching class, lots of times we'll tell students, go to a passage like Ecclesiastes, take your fist and kind of make the little crease in your Bible, and then just stay there. Because sometimes pastors start doing what I call audible preaching.

How many people here know what a quarterback is in football? He comes up to the line, they raise their hands, the young people, you're listening, I'm glad for that. No watching football on the Sabbath.

And they say in slang Hebrew, Basa. It's kind of like, you know, 424, 683, 1423, 143. And they're just going, going, going. I want to have you see things in context. But I would like to flesh this out a little bit, so we're going to look at a few other passages.

Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1, because I really want you to understand what fearing God is for the Christian. If you're an unbeliever, it's a terrifying fear. It's a fear, I've offended the God of the universe and sinned against Him, and I'm going to have to pay for that.

I'm going to have to go to hell for that. I'm going to be punished for that. I have guilt because of that. And it's a real fear. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. But I'm telling you, based on Scripture, that fear doesn't, the fear of God doesn't go away when we become Christians, but we have a certain kind of fear now.

And it's a different fear because we have a different relationship to the King. 1 Peter shows this, and I want you to see it. Verse 14 of chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. He's been talking about how great God is earlier in the chapter, and how He's made us born again.

And now we come to the holy living section, and holy living is important. As obedient children, 1 Peter 1 .14, do not be conformed or pressed into the mold of, to the passions of your former ignorance.

But as He who has called you is holy, He's separate, He's transcendent, He's other, you also ought to be holy in all your conduct. Instead of unholy like unbelievers, we're to be holy. And then he says something that's fascinating, and this is part of that fear issue.

And if you call on Him, that word and theirs probably best translated even, the Greek word could be translated either. Even if you call on Him as Father, you can call on God as Father, can you not? Our Father who art in heaven.

But when you do, what does He say here in the context of holy living? Who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, not for condemnation, but for reward. Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you are ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

You get to call God Father, but you conduct yourself with fear because you want to obey Him and honor Him. You want to do the right thing. It guards us from just living an unholy life. Luke 1, His mercy extends to those who fear Him.

2 Corinthians 7, make holiness perfect in the fear of God. Philippians 2, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Love the brotherhood, 1 Peter, fear God, honor the King. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there's forgiveness, therefore you are to be feared. I know what you're thinking, you might be thinking, listen, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and I think we should fear God, and you're trying to tell me fear's definition is based on my relationship to God.

If I'm an unbeliever, it's a servile fear, a crouching fear. And you're telling me that if I'm a believer, it's the fear of a son or a daughter who has a great father. You're telling me, Pastor Mike, that it's all about your relationship to God, how do you fear Him?

I'm glad you asked those questions because that's exactly what I'm saying. Now here's how I can prove my point, if I haven't proved it. And if I have proved it, repetition is good. Did I say that earlier?

Did Jesus fear God? On earth, eternal Son assumes human nature. Did Jesus fear God? I hope you don't think Jesus is walking around going, oh, Damocles sword, here it comes. Better be careful, this is a reason for me to be motivated because I'm going to do something wrong, and the Father's going to kind of whack me.

And some of us might be thinking, you know what, we've got bad fathers on earth, and every time I say father, you think of your bad father. There's a different kind of father here, and I'm sorry you think that.

I sometimes think it too. When we were going to be in the car, I had a brother and a sister and a mom, and we'd have these cars, and you know, Dad had rules about the car. You'd have some 57 Bel Air Chevy, and there's no eating in the car.

And I didn't care about the no eating part, I just wanted the seat behind Dad. I called the seat behind Dad. Well, there's no room, he's 64240, why do I want the seat behind Dad? Because it's hard to hit the person back there.

These two, my brother and sister, because I love them so much, I thought they ought to be hit. I know our fathers weren't perfect, but there is a Heavenly Father who is perfect. And I'd like you to turn to Isaiah 11, and I want you to see Jesus, how he not only fears God, but he delights in it.

He delights in fearing God. It's so counterintuitive. How could Jesus delight in fearing God? Hmm, interesting. If fearing God is associated with Christians who want to live holy lives and want to avoid sin, and to walk cautiously as fruit and evidence of their life, it makes all the sense in the world.

If an unbeliever is typified by there's no fear of God in their eyes, well, what would Jesus incarnate be doing? There is fear of God in his eyes. But is it the right kind of fear? What kind of fear is it?

Isaiah 11 is talking about this righteous branch, and it is what we call a messianic section. It's about the Messiah. It's predicting who Jesus is. It's a prediction of Jesus. It's a prophecy. Isaiah 11, one, there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his root shall bear fruit, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.

Him meaning the second person in Trinity, Jesus. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, and what? The fear of the Lord? And then verse three, and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eye sees or decide disputes by what he hears, by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

You want to know what the armor of God is? This is where Ephesians finds it, here and elsewhere, righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. Did you know Jesus delighted in fearing God?

And it's perfectly fine for us to do, we should delight in fearing God. Wouldn't it typify Jesus to be filled in his heart with honor for God, and adoration for God, and respect for God, and awe and reverence and delight in?

The answer is yes, yes, yes, and yes. Hebrews 5, in the days of his flesh Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries in tears to him who was able to save him from his death. And Jesus was heard because of his fear or reverence.

That is amazing. Because of his fear, because of his walking circumspectly. This isn't phobos fear like a phobia fear. This is, I'm going to be super careful with what I do. I'm going to act cautiously.

I'm going to handle with care. I'm walking in a godly fashion. And so if we can take our Bibles and turn back to Ecclesiastes, I want you to know, dear Christian, that you're to fear God. Not like an unbeliever, not like a pagan, not like somebody who's under the wrath of God, but you as a Christian, you as a child of God adopted in the kingdom.

Yes, you can cry out Abba Father in Romans chapter 8, can you not? But still, he's a father that's not like your father on earth. He's holy, he's transcendent. And you can delight in that. He's so great, I want to obey.

I mean, we talk a lot about friendship evangelism. I wish they would add this fear aspect to this friendship evangelism. Because I can't evangelize if I don't open my mouth. But the reason why I should want to live a holy life is not so people primarily look at me and say, what's different about Mike?

Maybe I should ask him, are you a Christian? What makes you different? That's fine if you want to live that way, but that's not the priority. The priority is I want to live a holy life because I'm careful to walk in God's presence because he's so great.

I'm not going to lose my salvation if I sin, but I'm going to not make him look good and I don't want to do that after everything he's done for me and who he is for me. I still should actually be under the old kind of fear of God, fear and trembling that I'm going to die and go to hell.

You ever thought that when you were first processing this? Maybe when you're younger. If I die today, I'm going to go to hell. And left to myself, I am. What do you have to do to go to hell now after Adam's sin?

Nothing. And now God rescued me and he saved me. It was prophesied even in the Old Testament. This great king who is going to come, this great prophet who's going to come, this great priest, and he's rescued me and he's still great.

He's still worthy to be praised. He's not my chum, he's my brother, Jesus is. That's certainly true, but I just ought to walk in a manner worthy of my calling. That's the idea. What else does wisdom say?

Thanksgiving, Joy, and Receiving God’s Gifts with Gratitude

Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verses 14 through 15. Wisdom says king rule righteously. Wisdom says our father who art in heaven, our fear of God. Wisdom says third, thank you. Wisdom says thank you. Verses 14 and 15.

My dad, a Korean war vet, I was not allowed to call him sir growing up, but we had to have very good manners. In our house we had excellent manners. And how do you define manners in our house? Not by an etiquette book, but by whatever dad said.

So if dad said no elbows on the table, there are no elbows on the table. We're to thank mom. My dad would always say saying thanks doesn't cost you anything. Say thank you. You're probably like me. I haven't had this happen very often in my life, but a policeman pulls me over, I get caught for speeding, I say I'm guilty, he gives me a ticket and I say thank you.

Actually that's right, thank you because you're a minister of God, etc. The fools don't have anybody to thank. In three weeks we're going to watch them all do all that, right? Just like we were before we got saved.

Well who do you thank during Thanksgiving? But the wise person in the middle of an earth that's crooked and corrupt and hard and difficult and things break, we're to be thankful people. It's actually God's will for you to be thankful, Paul said to the church at Thessalonica.

Let's see if we can find that in the text. If I can't solve problems, what can I do? If I can't fix the world, what can I do? If everything's vexation and frustration, what should be my response? I'm just mad?

There's a vanity, verse 14, that takes place on earth. And that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. There are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous.

So that's also vanity. I mean on earth, before judgment day, before the counsels of God, I mean what's the difference? Wicked, righteous, righteous, wicked. Seems like it's kind of futile to me. Verse 15, in the middle of this, this is so interesting.

And the writer Solomon, under the spirit of God's inspiration, he says what? I commend joy. By the way, I look at you all and I raise my hand, I feel like I'm raising some glass of apple cider. I commend joy.

Yeah, yeah, didn't pray about all the people we have suffering in our church and everything else that's going on and difficulties that we all have and so many things that are unspoken that we all have and deal with and so now what?

Yeah, there are other things, but Solomon is working through. He's working through things about fearing God and now he says, I commend joy. Bethlehem Bible Church, I commend joy for joy to you. Seems odd, but that's not foolishness, that's wisdom.

Let's read the rest of the verse. Man has nothing better under the sun but to eat, what's for lunch? We're going to obey this verse, and drink and be joyful for this will go with him in his toil throughout the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

I mean this just drives, I mean, I think, okay, could I be a person that's a half cup empty kind of glass person and the cynicism and the sarcasm and all the other isms and all of a sudden it's joy? Robert Frost defined a jury in a courtroom as twelve people who have to choose who has the better lawyer.

I mean in the middle of all that, how do I respond? With joy? I commend joy for joy. What Solomon is saying is simply, instead of trying to figure out all this world and what goes on and why and this chart and if then and everything else, you ought to just say, God gave me these things, to God be the glory.

You know what it sounds like? Whether you eat or whether you drink or whatever you do, give all to what? The glory of God. Thank you God. Thank you. I taught my kids to say thank you and they, you know, whatever happens, you know, thank you, thank you, thank you mom for this, thank you.

Just knee jerk, thank you. Sometimes I would take, I'm thinking of the one time where I took Luke and his friend to the skate park and we went there and so then I dropped his friend off first, fourteen years old or whatever and Luke is in the car and the other kid gets out of the car and he starts running up to his house and I stick my head out the window and what did I yell?

You're welcome. See, you're like me. It doesn't take anything to say thank you. I mean, when my children would order food at places, my pet peeve was, can I have? Yeah, you can. May I? So every time they ordered some food, they'd look over at dad and here's dad's face.

May I please? Romans chapter one, the unbelievers were thankless people. That's how they're described. Thankless people. He said this in chapter two. He says it here. He'll say it in chapter nine for our sermon next time.

You can eat and drink and enjoy life. Yes, things are hard, but you can enjoy time when you can enjoy time. Now, sometimes in our society and sometimes in the Bible, eat, drink and be merry is negative.

It's not negative here. It's negative in Isaiah 56. The leaders say, come, let me get wine. Let us fill ourselves with strong, strong drink and tomorrow will be like this day. Great beyond measure. It's sometimes negative when our Lord Jesus in Luke 12 says of the man, the foolish man soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.

Relax, eat, drink and be merry. And God says to him, fool today, your soul is required of you. Paul says, you know, when you hang out with people who aren't believers, who don't believe in the resurrection, that's kind of all they do.

They live life for now. It's negative. First Corinthians 15. Let it eat. Let us eat and drink. And for tomorrow we die. But here this is not wrong. This is good. It's from the hand of God. This is good eating, good drinking.

Good, thankful hearts respond this way. I said we're going to look at a few passages. Would you turn to James chapter one, please? James chapter one. What does wisdom say? Wisdom says practically speaking, I should pray for the leaders of our country and state.

Wisdom says I had to walk circumspectly as a Christian person. Wisdom also says you can enjoy simple pleasures in life. Make sure you just thank God for there are times of sadness and times of sackcloth and ashes.

But the other times when things are good, enjoy those and say thank you. I commend joy to see that it's from the hand of God. James chapter one, verse 17. These people are on the run. They're dispersed.

They're going through trials. They're going through all kinds of things. And what does he remind them in the context of does God deceive us? Does God really tempt us? That's maybe why we sin. God does something and we can't help ourselves.

Verse 17. But it also applies generally. Think about your life and everything that you have and that you own and that your spouse and your children and everyone else. Every good gift. And now he repeats it.

Do you see it? And every perfect gift is from the sweat of your own hands. Well, secondarily, maybe it's from above. I wonder what kind of gifts come from above. Coming down from the father of lights.

What kind of gift would you get from someone who made the moon? What kind of gift would you get from someone who made the stars? What would you get from somebody who made the sun? I mean, sometimes there's a track record, right?

I kind of do it at pot providences. And I did it last night too. We had all these chilies lined up and we were going to do a chili tasting contest. I didn't have really any of it because I want to know who made them.

Because some of you are pretty good cooks and some of you. It's like when Maxine Tebow was here and she made pies, I always said, Maxine, tell me the pie you made because it's always going to be good.

I heard Mrs. Bartlett made some special pumpkin cheesecake cookies, cookies made with cheesecake on the inside. I got a little birdie told me that she made them. And I know she's a good cook. I think she's beating the prize for she's a better cook than her mother in law.

But that's another story. And I knew how good it was. I'm like, you know, whatever she makes, she makes these cookies good. I'm coming over to lunch today. If somebody makes the moon and the stars and the sun, I wonder what kind of gifts he gives.

That's the idea. Verse 17, from whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. It's not like he made all the lights of the sky and then say, well, now it's different. Some people think this was such an important verse.

It was like a hymn. They sang it over and over and over. Every good gift, everything I have is from the hand of God, from the hand of God, from the hand of God. And you say to me, I heard that sermon in Ecclesiastes 2.

I know, but he's trying to remind us by repetition from the hand of God, your body, your taste buds, your friends, your family, your church. At the risk of sounding self-serving, do you know how hard it is to find a Bible teaching church in Massachusetts?

Christ centered church, people driving for an hour to get here are more. And what should you say? Thank you, Lord, for a body of people that all want the same thing. Clothing, friends, laughter, beauty, music.

It's all from God. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Wave after wave coming down from God. And you want to know the best gift. Verse 18 of his own will. Whose will saved you? God's will saved you.

Oh, yes, you responded. But who's on first of his own will? He brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be kind of a first fruits of his creatures. What does wisdom say? Wisdom says, thank you.

Wisdom says joy. Do you know I could look at every one of you as Christians and say you must rejoice? Yeah, you don't know what I'm going through. That's true. God does. Paul is writing Philippians chapter one, two, three and four from where?

Nero's palace, of course, where you just go up to the little goblet and it's full of 1000 flamingo tongues and you can just eat it like a little garnish, like on a charcuterie board. Kim did a butter board the other day with Abigail, all kinds of different butters and seasonings and everything like, oh, doesn't that sound good?

Just take a big hunk of bread that's cooked. You just get some butter on that. Go to God. Be the glory. A butter board. It's not like some wrestler or boxer Butterbean, but that's another story. Finally, my brothers, Philippians three one, dear Christian, you need to rejoice in the Lord.

I commend joy. You're like, well, yeah, I don't. You don't know my circumstances. I know because it doesn't say rejoice. It says rejoice in the Lord and what the Lord has done for you. And then you can rejoice.

No wonder the writers can say I commend joy. Philippians four, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I will say, I mean, I can hear that children's song. Can't you rejoice in the Lord always? And again, I say rejoice.