 So here we are. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. I'll begin by reading verse 1 and giving some thoughts on that as Solomon is about to conclude. And then we'll move into verse 2 and continue on until we conclude this chapter. So beginning here in verse 1 and reading only verse 1, Solomon says, Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure in them. Now as we've been going through Ecclesiastes in chapter 11, Solomon had just reminded his readers that childhood and youth, he said, are vanity. They're transient. Our lives pass quickly. So he's saying, don't waste your opportunities. Prepare for the future. Because ultimately God will bring our lives into judgment. So he says, enjoy life with an eye on the kingdom. And so as he has just said that in chapter 11, he moves into his final chapter. And it's interesting how that when he enters into a chapter 12, into what we call chapter 12, this final chapter, he actually deals with the reality of growing older and how to prepare for old age. It's interesting how the Bible often speaks of length of days and refers to those as a blessing from God. And the length of days that we have is initially tied in with a life of obeying the Lord. Like he said in Proverbs 3, 1 and 2, my son, do not forget my law. Let your heart keep my commands for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. So length of days are initially tied in with a life of obedience. Paul picked up on that theme when he was writing to the Ephesians in chapter 6, and he said that obedience is actually something that is a command with a promise. Ephesians 6, he said in verses 1 through 3, children obey your parents and the Lord, this is right, honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. So obedience was tied in with longevity. And so as we are getting older, some of us, all of us actually, every one of us in this room is a little older than you were a second ago. So some people have a bit of a difficult time embracing the reality of aging. They consider themselves to be cool and young, no matter how old they are. You know, I know that to be true with Marie and me, not necessarily Marie, she's always cool. But for me, we were walking together a number of years ago now. We were in Disneyland and we were holding hands. You know, people think it's romantic. We're actually holding each other up. But as we're, as we're walking in Disneyland, I'll never forget this. We're walking just holding hands. And a young couple was walking towards us. And the young lady as she passed by said to her young man, how cute. And when she said how cute, I thought she must have seen some old people holding hands or something. And I looked behind me and she was saying that to us. And so it was eye opening for us. Not everybody wants to get old. Not everybody gets old comfortably. We always want to be cool, I guess. I was reading recently how that some of the groups from the 60s, you know, the 60s music and all, some of the groups from the 60s became aware of the fact that growing older was difficult for some. And they had so many, they had their hits and they wanted to do something with them. They re-released their songs, but they actually had changed the titles and all. And so I was looking at a list of the remakes from the 60s. Some of you are old enough to remember these, like Hermann's Hermits. Well, Hermann's Hermits brought out Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely walker. And Credence Clearwater Revival, Bad Prune Rising. Marvin Gaye, I heard it through the grape nuts. The Who brought out Talking About My Medication. And the Troggs brought out Bald Thing. Carly Simon, Yerso Verico's Vane. That's stupid. The Beegees. The Beegees, how can you mend a broken hip? Roberta Flack brought out, the first time ever I forgot your face. Johnny Nash, I can't see clearly now. The Temptations, Papa Goddard, Kidney Stone. Abba brought out Densher Queen. Leo Sare, you make me feel like napping. The Commodores, once, twice, three trips to the bathroom. Procal Herum, a wider shade of hair. And the Beatles, I get by with a little help from Depends. And so some of us have a difficult time. Those are dumb. Some of us have a difficult time getting older. And we want to remain young and all. And we don't realize that every day that we live is a blessing from the Lord. We ought to be grateful to God for that day. But we also should be benefiting and growing in wisdom and understanding. So Solomon in this chapter is exhorting his readers to view the future, but to do so with thoughtfulness. And his instructions are basically encouraging people to wisely prepare now. Somebody once said, if I knew I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself, you know? And so there's some truth to that. Take care of yourself while you can. And so that's what he's saying. So in verse one, remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come and the years drawn near when you say I have no pleasure in them. So begin now. Pay attention to your walk with the Lord and pursue him with all of your strength. And if possible, pursue him from your earliest days. Consider who made you and what you've been made for. It's rightly said that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And the way he shows us how to do that is found in scripture and is made possible by the Holy Spirit. You see, God has given to us energy and God has given to us gifts and it's up to us to make sure that we use the energy and the gifts to bring glory to God. So dedicating all that you are to God starts in knowing that he's the one who created you. And that's why he says, remember now your Creator. We need to remember who it is who has created us. Dedicating all that we are to God starts with that. Psalm 100 verse three says, know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. So this understanding prompts us to worship the one who is worthy of our worship. So learn to regard yourself in a humble fashion because in doing so that develops wisdom in the way that you live is simply the result of recognizing that we are only creatures. He's the Creator. Like it says in Isaiah 64 verse eight. Now, oh Lord, you are our father. We are the clay. You are our Potter. And we are all the work of your hand. And so when we understand our Creator that we are created. We are not the Creator, but we have been created that understanding prompts us to worship the one who is worthy of worship. It produces humility as well as dependence because he says, remember now your Creator in the days of your youth before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure in them. Difficult days. The word difficult is a word in Hebrew that can be translated wicked or bad, adverse, unpleasant, sad, miserable, unhappy or harmful. He's saying difficult days. These kinds of days are inevitable. So be prepared for them. As we already saw the longer we live, the more opportunity we're going to have to have bad days. And the longer we live brings us to the time when we have to deal with old age. So if we build our lives on a solid foundation, he's saying we're going to have a better old age. Living unrestrained lives as a youth leads to difficulties as we age. Sometimes we suffer prematurely for the way we lived when we were kids. I have a friend more than one really who when he was young shared needles and now is dealing with hepatitis C. I've had friends who had unrestrained drinking as youth. You think you can just drink all you want and nothing's going to happen. But I have friends who have suffered with or dealing with cirrhosis of the liver. One of my cousins died of cirrhosis. And there are numbers of people who unrestrained drinking and they ended up with cirrhosis. There are those who when they were young liked to fight a lot. They were violent. And as they've grown older, they've got aches and pains all over their body. They're still dealing with that. You see, if you live long enough, you eventually reap the results of unrestrained living. We know that dark days and evil days can come upon us. And because we do, we need to prepare ourselves by laying a solid spiritual foundation. And that's what Solomon is advising. He's saying, build your lives on a solid rock. Because when the storms arise, it won't be destroyed. It's like what Jesus taught us in Matthew 7. Two different people bailed the house. One on sinking sand, the other one on a solid rock. The storm hit both, but only the one on the rock remains. And life is filled with storms. And so if we're building our life on sand, it's going to crumble when the pressure comes. And so we need to learn to build our lives on something solid. Like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 311, no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is Jesus Christ. He said, build your life on Him. So remember now your Creator in the days of your youth before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure in them. He says in verse 2, while the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are not darkened and the clouds do not return after the rain. So he describes now old age. This is a poetic description of growing older and you'll recognize that in just a moment. He's doing it poetically and he's doing it with insight. But what you have as we're about to go through this is really a poetic way of showing the human body as a house that is slowly deteriorating. That's the picture. And so he'll begin to do that as we go through these verses together. You see in Scripture the human body is often referred to as a dwelling place. In Job 4 verses 18 and 19, it says, if he puts no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust who are crushed before a moth. In 1 Corinthians 316 Paul had said, do you not know that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you? In 2 Corinthians 5, 1, we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. And so our bodies in Scripture often are used as a picture of a house or how house is used to speak of our bodies. So what we have here, and he's going to be showing us, is a picture of a house that's falling apart and eventually returning to dust. So notice again, as he says in verse 2, he says, well, the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are not darkened and the clouds do not return after the rain. And so sun and the light of the moon and stars are not darkened and clouds. These are the difficult days that Solomon's referring to. These figures represent the advent of infirmities associated with growing older. Old age is represented as a rainy season with clouds obscuring the sun and storms. The time of older age can have affliction, it can have sadness, it can have times of need. And the clouds not returning could speak of dry seasons, times that we needed refreshing. And so we speak in of our house, this body that is deteriorating. And now he begins to describe it in a little more detail, verse 3, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men bow down. When the grinders cease because there are few and those that look through the windows grow dim. When the doors are shut in the streets and the sound of grinding is low. When one rises up at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of music are brought low. Also, they're afraid of height and of terrors in the way. When the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is a burden. Desire fails. Man goes to his eternal home and the mourners go about the streets. And so he begins to share some things about aging. He's letting us know what it looks like. It says in the day when the keepers of the house tremble. The keepers of the house would originally speak of the servants who were to protect the home. But here it refers to our arms and legs because our arms and legs are used to protect ourselves. But notice he says in the day when the keepers of the house tremble and he says the strong men bow down. And so our arms and our legs and we're beginning to stoop. It's the picture here. In Psalm 144 verse one, it says, blessed be the Lord my rock who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. So when you're younger, you have this confidence of strength. You know, women and men both have your strength. And a man, as he's a young man, especially if he keeps in shape of some sort, can have a strong confidence in his abilities and his physicality. You know, he has a sense that he's able to protect. He's got a sense that if somebody comes into the house that he's going to be able to defend his home. Why? Because he's a young man. And the keepers of the house, his arms and his legs are still strong. And he's still able to take care of the family. And he knows that. And men know that, you know, as much as today it seems that that sometimes the younger generation has forgotten that men have a protective place in homes and in society. And sometimes we seem to forget that a lot of men haven't. A lot of men have realized that that when they got married, they one of the things that they were given responsibility to do was to protect their home, to protect their family, to be the protector for the wife. That's what we're called to do. That's what men do. That's what our responsibility is, is to protect and to care for. And so when you're young, you have strength, you're able to do that and you have confidence. And yet when you grow older, you begin to be aware of the fact that you're not the same man that you used to be. You're not able to do the things that you one time were able to. And you suddenly realize that you're not the man that you once thought you were. You know, we used to think we were something, oh, we're Superman. And as a matter of fact, that's pretty much a job description for most of us. You know, we as men, you know, when we're kids and should you have gone out for Halloween and stuff like that, you know, and you dress up, many kids would dress up, men would little boys would dress up as superheroes and and and people thought how cute. But for men, that wasn't necessarily a costume. That was kind of like who they really thought they were. Whether they thought they were a Batman or they were, you know, a Superman or whatever. I heard somebody say that all men think that they're Superman. He says, if you don't think so, he says, watch them when they're when they're moving and they put their their mattress on top of their car. And he said they're driving 50 miles an hour, but they're holding it with one hand because they know they're strong enough to hold that mattress down. You know, should the wind begin to lift it. And that's kind of what we are. Those are options. You know, Superman and Batman, Batman were options in life. You know, I could be either one because we think of ourselves as being Superman. You do. You know, when I was a kid, my, you know, my brother and I went into the garage. My dad was an upholster as well as a truck driver. And sometimes he'd be working on on couches. And we would go and we would take the cushions that he was working on and we'd take him into the backyard. And my brother and I would climb up into the patio and we would jump holding a sheet. We would jump off the patio like we were parachuting and we would land on top of the the, you know, the cushions and all. And I was six years old, seven years old. And I'm climbing on top of a house and I'm diving, jumping out and doing that kind of thing because we thought we'd never get hurt. We were invincible. I remember standing on a playhouse and I thought to myself, I bet I could do, you know, one of these cartwheels right off of this. And I'll never forget landing on my back and oh how much that hurt. I can still remember that. I can still remember as a kid wanting to be a spaceman because space, things were on TV all the time. And I went into the house and, you know, we used to get plastic bags that would have the oranges in it. So I took the plastic bag and I made it into my helmet. And I put it over my head and I was playing in the backyard and I was just about four years old. I didn't know that when you breathe it's just going to stick to your face. And it did. And I started choking. I started actually about to pass out because I was killing myself. And my mom was in the kitchen watching say, good, good. No, she was looking. It's an accident. I'll tell them it was an accident. No, she's looking out. And she said, I still remember her as I was about to pass out. I still remember my mom running out of the kitchen jumping over this little wall that we had and peeling that off of my face so that I could breathe. She said your face was blue. I can remember my brother and me, my dad used to bring these small barrels home. They were cardboard barrels. And we wanted them to be our spaceships. And we went into the garage and we took a hammer and a nail and we put a hole in the center of one of the lids. Climbed in and dropped the lid on ourselves because we thought that that little nail hole would provide enough for oxygen to come in. And we were breathing in there and we were going wherever. And I can still remember my brother and me when we, all the oxygen, we used all the oxygen and what happened is the lid actually sealed so we couldn't get out. And we had gone into the garage and closed the garage door. I was about five. My brother was about seven. My mom would have come into the garage to find two babies dead in those containers. But my brother, I remember, I started to pass out. I mean I really did. I was just passing out in there because I couldn't push the lid off. I was just a little boy. And my brother, I still remember hearing the container fall to the side and him kicking and he kicked it open. Then he came and peeled off the lid for me and then the air. I still remember the air just rushing in and all of that. See when you're kids, you really think you're invincible. You really think you can do all kinds of things that you're never going to get hurt. That you'll always be healthy. You'll always be strong. You'll always be able to run. You'll always be able to jump. You'll always be able to take care of yourself. As you're young, that's what you think. But when you grow older, you begin to realize that it's not quite true anymore. As you grow older, he speaks of the keepers of the house trembling and the strong men bowing down. Your back hurts and you begin to bow over. You're no longer as strong as you used to be. You're unable to stand straight is the point of bowing down. You're not able to do battle anymore. He goes on in verse 3 and he says, when the grinders cease because they're few, what do you think the grinders are? Your teeth. The grinders cease because they're few. They're few. You lose your teeth. You're unable to chew your food anymore. In verse 3, he says, those that look through windows grow dim. Your vision begins to deteriorate. One of the interesting things about growing older is your eyesight dims. But your wife gets more beautiful every day. Isn't that interesting? I'll let that set for a minute. In verse 4, when the doors are shut in the streets and the sound of grinding is low, when one rises up at the sound of a bird, when the doors are shut in the streets and the sound of grinding is low, it's difficult. Now there's a couple of ways that commentators picture this. When it says when the doors are shut, doors could be a picture of a person's mouth being closed, just no longer able to speak the way that he used to. The sound of grinding being low could picture the loss of teeth or no sound of chewing. But it can also be interpreted to mean that a person is losing their hearing. I heard about an older man who had serious hearing problems for many years so he went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed him to hear perfectly. So he went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said your hearing's perfect, your family must be really pleased that you can hear again to which the old man said oh I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will three times. Again, three older men each with a hearing loss were taken a walk. One said to the other, Wendy, ain't it? No, the second man replied, it's Thursday. And the third man said, so am I, let's get a coke. So here's, your hearing goes. And verse four, when one rises at the sound of a bird. That's interesting because you don't sleep as well as you used to. There are sounds that will awaken you and it becomes more difficult for some to sleep. The lightest sound will awaken you. When it speaks of the daughters of music being brought low, you no longer will hear this song but when you do hear it and you begin to sing along with it you don't sing in tune. I still remember my mama when she was growing older and she really wasn't that old at that time when she said this but she would sing along with music all the time and I can still remember one day her saying to me you know I used to be able to carry a tune. And there's some truth to that. You just don't hear as well as you used to but you don't sing as well as you used to either. When he says in verse five also they are afraid of height. That's an interesting thing too because he says of terrors in the way you're afraid of height. They can't walk up hills anymore. They fear falling down or tripping as they're walking. My dad when he was growing older, my dad was a truck driver and my dad one day said to me you know son he said I'm realizing I'm growing old and I said why is that dad and he says well you know he says I'll be in the truck unloading it. He said I've always just jumped off the tailgate and hit the ground and walked to the cab and driven away. He says and I did that today he said and the pain from my heel went all the way up to my head. He said and he said just the pain of and that there's some truth to that. You know I was in my backyard a while back now I've got a three-foot retaining wall in the backyard and you gotta understand you know when I was a kid I was I was I was a paratrooper. I mean I was in the second I used to jump out of planes and I was standing there looking saying I wonder if I should sit down and just I think I used to jump out of planes 1,500 feet in the air and I'm looking at three feet saying should I take the chance and so that I understand that I understand that very well. When they're walking and notice this is interesting how he puts it terrors in the way they're afraid they're going to trip over something as they're walking and again I might as well use myself as an example. I you know you don't recover as quickly when you hit something you know I've already fallen down our stairs more than once in my you know I'm not paying attention which is what happens I guess hit the edge and there you go hit the ground but I was walking in the in the in the main sanctuary coming from my office and we had some things set up on the on the platform there and it was pitch black and I nightline I can't see a thing in the dark at all and so I was walking and I didn't see that there was a prop that was in front I couldn't see it it blends in with everything else it's just pitch black but as I was walking my right foot hit directly on this this heavy object and it popped my hamstring popped my hamstring you know and oh if you how many of you have had a popped hamstring so you know what I'm talking you know what I'm talking about you know your do you know you can hear things inside your head you can hear the sound like that and it sounds like like it's a pop like that and I went and I went oh my oh my you know so I am very aware of things in front of me and so you know as I'm reading this I'm going check that one off check that one check that one off yeah you have to be careful where you're walking because they get nervous that they're going to trip over something he goes on in verse five and he speaks of the almond tree blossoming almond trees have white blossoms and so this speaks of the hair that is turning white the grasshopper becomes a burden desire fails so your hair is going white the grasshopper is a burden you're becoming weaker desire fails your zest for life begins to grow dim and so he's just speaking about life and what happens as you're going older and older and then he says in verse five man goes to his eternal home and the mourners go about the streets and so he's speaking about the deterioration of the body he's picturing it like a house he's picturing it as things that are just going down and all and it's the bottom line here when he says a man goes to his eternal home he finally dies that's the picture and he's mourned as he goes to his grave and so he's speaking of a life that has grown older and a life that began to fail and then finally he goes to his eternal home so he's just speaking about worship the lord while you're young and able to and be prepared for the inevitable aging that will take place and so he says again verse six remember your creator before the silver cord is loose or the golden bowl is broken or the picture shattered at the fountain or the wheel broken at the well then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to god who gave it remember your creator before the silver cord is loose the golden bowl is broken now when he speaks of this wealthy people would have golden bowls hanging from the ceiling with a silver chain so the chain breaks the bowl is shattered and what is he saying he's saying death strikes the wealthy as well as the poor he says in verse six the picture is shattered at the fountain see what it is is the pictures would be drawn up by a line that were attached to a wheel so once again it's a picture of death it's a well with a picture that's dropped down to take water but it breaks when the machinery stops working the water of life stops flowing as a picture so when the heart stops pumping the blood stops circulating death has come and what happens at death verse seven well the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit returned to the god who gave it the dust will return to the earth as it was so that reminds us of genesis in chapter three because out of the ground god formed man out of the dust and when adam sinned god gave a curse to him it's found in genesis 319 he said in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you shall return ecclesiastes earlier said in chapter three verse 20 I'll go to one place all are from the dust and I'll return to dust so the body is pictured as being planted it deteriorates but the spirit comes before God that's why Hebrews 9 27 is important to remember it is appointed and to meant to die once and after this judgment and so we need to remember that according to Romans 14 12 each of us shall give account of himself to God and so he's pointing that out he's saying your body will die ultimately it deteriorates it goes back to the dust dust to dust and the spirit will return to God who gave it and so we need to be aware of the fact that we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ we all will be given an account of ourselves in one form or another when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ as believers we stand to receive rewards but those who stand before God without Christ stand to receive judgment so each of us need to understand that our life when we're young seems to be like it's going to go on forever as you grow older you begin to see the symptoms of age and become aware of the fact that one of these days you're going to close your eyes for the very last time and because that's true we need to be prepared for that inevitable time when we will die we have to be aware of that now that's not something that we like to talk about as a matter of fact is something that people do their very best to avoid talking about but the fact is that the everybody who lives ultimately is going to die it's a one by one ratio everybody's going to die unless the rapture takes place and we're going to be with the Lord which I anticipate and look forward to very much but in the event that I should go home before the Lord I should die before the Lord returns then they're going to plant my body in the ground that's what's going to happen and the dust returns to dust the Spirit goes to the God who gave it and because I will see him face to face I need to be prepared for that because I one day will see him I need to be ready for that and that's what Solomon is warning us about he's saying listen just look at yourself look at your body look at the things that you once could do and what you cannot do any longer think about how hard it could be even just to get up in the morning climb out of bed and get yourself ready to go to work think about how tired you're getting think about how you used to get up early and stay out late and you could you know you could cut yourself you could slice yourself and just watch yourself heal when you are young and now it seems like you never you ask yourself where did I get that bruise from how that happened how can my how come I can't tie my shoes anymore and you start asking yourself these questions because it's true it all happens that happens and he says you got to be ready should the Lord give you the length of days that you want these are the things that you're it's not like we're getting younger every day and as as depressing as that can be to some people it's a fact and Solomon knows that he knows what it's like to be young he knows what it's like to be middle-aged and he knows what it's like to be an elderly man and he's saying these are the things I've learned from chapter one all the way to chapter 12 he says I've seen it all I've done it all I've heard the music I've had the feasts I've had the land I've had the business I've had the riches I've had the women I've had everything I've had song I've had wine I've had it all I lived anything I wanted I never denied myself of I could afford anything I wanted I was the richest man I could do anything I wanted but you know what time hits us all it's what he's saying and when you used to get up and just say I'm going to go and do something now you have to plan just getting out of bed okay if you put your left foot out and the swing your right foot you may be able to make it you know that's kind of what you do so remember your creator in the days of your youth plan your life accordingly I've I've talked to younger people recently about certain things and and one of the things I've been saying to younger people and I'll say to this group here there's some younger ones in here too I said should the Lord tarry should the Lord tarry and you get to the age of retirement are you prepared are you prepared because even as a young person I've said you need to get into the habit of living on less than you make you need to get into the habit of putting something aside money that you're not going to touch for any reason at all money that will go into your retirement account because if you don't do that now and you start too late you may not be able to make it on the social security that you're going to gain when you should start taking it I have a friend of mine who didn't begin to prepare for retirement until he was 60 years old 60 years old you need to prepare you need to put some put something away your youth is not guaranteed and your health isn't either you need to be responsible with your finances you need to be careful not to be living on a paycheck that you haven't even drawn yet you need to be careful that you don't take your credit cards and just charge them up and because you're going to be able to pay them off because ultimately you've discovered that at the lowest rate that you're paying you will pay for something over and over and over again through the course of a lifetime you can stay paying on the same object for eight five eight five ten eight eighteen years you can do that because the interest that you have if you're only making minimum payments you will pay for a long time for something you forget you bought in a few years be careful take some money out of your check put it away don't use it used to call it saving for a rainy day now it's just saving to live later on but see a lot of people don't do that what a lot of people do is they really assume that they're always going to be healthy they assume that they're always going to have strength they assume they're always going to have a job they're always going to be able to and that's just not true it's not it's not guaranteed to anyone I remember the first house that I bought I remember the first house my dad and now we're talking and and my house payment for my first house was five hundred dollars a month and and I and I thought because I was making five dollars an hour and I thought man this is you know that term house poor I thought man you know I'm all I'm going to have is a house that's all I'm going to have and my dad said to me son there's going to be a day when you think that five hundred dollars a month was cheap well I'm in that day now but I said I hope I never see that day dad because my wife and I had just gotten out of an apartment that we were spending a hundred and seventy five dollars a month for see so everything just continued through inflation to be where it is right now and I if you'd have told me that you couldn't buy a house in chino for less than four hundred plus thousand dollars if you'd have told me that 30 years ago I just said you're nuts are you kidding me in a house in chino for almost half a million dollars or more you've got to be kidding me you know but that's true now isn't it you can find a home now in and I love the city of chino by the way it's a great city but I never would have thought that you would get a two or three bedroom house because a hundred thousand dollar house when I was a kid was like a mansion so the idea of preparing a lot of people haven't really gotten into that put something away prepare for the future be aware of the fact but not only materially but invest spiritually remember now in your days of youth your creator because God could be working in your life and making you mature and strong and wise in his ways and you can become an elder to somebody who needs instruction because you've been faithful in the word of God and if you start young you're adding on to that every day through your reading and your prayer and your fellowship and your service to God and all the other things that pertain to discipled life and what happens is you live a life that is blessed and though your body does deteriorate and though you do have that time when you may be stupid and when you're not as strong as you used to be and all of those things you're prepared to see the Lord because ultimately we will see him everyone's going to stand before him every knee will bow every tongue will confess the Christ is Lord so we need to be prepared now start now in your preparation because the future is now and that's something to be aware of to be aware of he says in verse 8 vanity of vanity he says to preacher all is vanity so after 12 chapters of writing he returns to how he opened the book he had said that in chapter 1 verse 2 after many years of life Solomon had learned deep lessons after experiencing every form of pleasure and possessing great wisdom he says it all sums up in these words it's vanity everything under the sun holds promises that are never fulfilled and so he concludes in verse 9 moreover because the preacher was wise he still taught the people knowledge yes he pondered and sought out and said in order many proverbs the preacher sought to find acceptable words and what was written was upright words of truth the words of the wise are like goats the words of scholars are like well-driven nails given by one shepherd and further my son be admonished by these of making many books there's no end and much study is wearisome to the flesh as a wise teacher desiring to impart knowledge he says I remained a student and as a student he thought through what he encountered and he would continue seeking further instruction because he desired to find acceptable grace-filled words and wanted to communicate the truth one of the things that I'm discovering as I am growing older also is that I have a deeper hunger for more of the things of the Lord than even when I was younger I want to know more I want to have more insight in all and that's basically what he's saying he says he pondered and sought out said in order many proverbs he sought to find acceptable words and what was written was upright words of truth he wanted to communicate the things that he was learning and to be proper as he did it and he speaks of the words of the wise being like goads they're goads they're like well-driven nails he said because they've been inspired they're inspired by that great shepherd and then he says in verse 12 and further my son be admonished by these of making many books there's no end much study is wearisome to the flesh and that's true I can't even imagine how many books are on the face of the earth but going to any library and you'll see thousands and thousands of volumes and many pastors have hundreds of volumes sometimes even thousands of volumes you know I had a friend of mine Steve Mays and Steve Mays was well known for his personal library which he had thousands of volumes of books thousands of them an entire room with shelves that were eight feet to nine feet tall with books and in the writing of books and the making of books there's no end there's there's so many books and so many things that have been written so you can pursue intellectual knowledge but you're going to discover it doesn't produce wisdom there are more books than you can ever read and studying them only makes you tired why is that? well it's because if you're only written if you're only reading books written with man's knowledge and man's wisdom well man's education only produces arrogance and it also produces the dryness of spirit and the more you learned the more ignorant you realize you are and that's a fact the more you know the more you know that you don't know if I will because when I was a freshman in college I knew more than my professors but after two or three years I realized how little I knew because the more you study the more you realize there are things you've never even thought of and I remember my pastor Chuck who has forgotten he had forgotten more than I had ever learned and there there are times that I had a young man who a while back now had said some things somewhat insulting to me and I was sharing with a pastor friend of mine and I said yeah this fella had said such and so and he laughed and he said you have bibles older than he is and I said you know that's true I never thought of it that way the longer that you live the more you realize you don't know it's the younger people it was me as a younger person it's a trait of a younger person to think they already know everything so what do you do you start to read and you start to study because you want to have information but after a while you realize this doesn't fulfill me there's only one thing that does and this sounds very very basic and it really is not to say that we shouldn't read because we should not to say we shouldn't go to school because they think if the Lord puts it on your heart to learn then you should of course but one thing I've discovered that the only true knowledge is Jesus Christ that's that really is and all that he's given to us in his word and that that is what's given me life it's the words that come from Christ and so you can have worldly wisdom and you can be respected by everybody but the true knowledge is of God it's through Jesus Christ and so he says in verse 13 let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is man's all God will bring every work into judgment including every secret thing whether good or evil fear God because that's what we've been created to do ultimately we stand before him so be prepared for that day Psalm 44 21 reads would not God search this out he knows the secrets of the heart in Romans 2 16 God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel but we think we're hiding from God he sees very clearly he sees it all he sees it all so live openly before him live openly before men and if there's any word that he has after 12 chapters it's fear God keep his commandments this is God's all because in knowing him you know everything you need to know fear God keep his commandments