 Place there in Ecclesiastes chapter 4. It's kind of depressing, huh? I love Ecclesiastes. I mean, you got to love, you got to love, you know, lessons learned from, you know, somebody that's been there and been done it the wrong way and is telling you, that's why I love, you know, how Ecclesiastes starts. It's like, you know, the words of the preacher, right? And it's like, if you can't learn from preaching, you know, you can't learn, right? So look, tonight, the title of the sermon tonight is, In Handful with Quietness. In Handful with Quietness. What I'm going to talk about tonight is I'm going to look at a little bit of Ecclesiastes chapter 4, and I'm going to look at walking that line of hard work and being satisfied with what, you know, the Lord provides you in your life. All right? Look, I mean, there's a spectrum out there on this thing, right? So on one hand, you have these people who just, you know, don't want to work, right? They don't want to work at all in their life, and look, there's plenty of these people. We all know it, right? They don't want to work, and then they vilify those that do work, right? They'll vilify people that work by like, oh, you know, you just love money and all this kind of stuff. And then, you know, so that's one end of the spectrum. Ecclesiastes chapter 4 talks about this whole spectrum. Okay? And that's what we're going to look at tonight. The other end of this spectrum is those that work to just pile up riches for themselves. All right? And, you know, of course, those people, you know, they vilify, you know, the people that don't work, right? Well, they're both wrong, all right? And that's what I'm going to show you tonight, and we're going to show you that that's what Ecclesiastes chapter 4 is going to tell us. So let's explore the Bible and the words of the preacher tonight. Look, so much can be learned by listening to preaching, preaching, especially in this case. You know, learning from the experience of others. That's why I like, you know, Ecclesiastes so much because it's the direct experience of somebody that has learned something not necessarily the easy way, the hard way, right? So let's look down at Ecclesiastes chapter 4. Let's just start in verse number 1 and just look at the beginning of Ecclesiastes chapter 4 where the Bible says, So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter. And on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter. Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. Everything is so bad that, you know, I just, I praise the people that are already dead. Yea better is he than both they which had not yet been, who had not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. Again, I considered all travail and every right work that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This also, this is also vanity and vexation of spirit. You know, those are two words that you'll see, you know, two phrases that you'll see in Ecclesiastes over and over again. Vanity, vanity meaning it's just worthless, it's just something that's just carnal for you in this life and then vexation of spirit meaning it's depressing, it gets you down to even think about these things, right? So look, he's talking about in the beginning here, he's talking about, you know, oppression. You know, oppression that is going on in the world, right? I mean, look, turn to 1 Kings chapter 12. Look, there will always be, the only lesson here is that, you know, there will always be oppression in the world. Okay, and the irony of this beginning part of Ecclesiastes chapter 4 is that even Solomon himself oppressed people. Okay, that's a little bit irony in Ecclesiastes chapter 4. Turn to 1 Kings chapter 12. If you remember his son who was about to take over the kingdom, the people came to his son and they brought this to him. And in 1 Kings chapter 12 and verse number 3, the Bible says, that they that sent and called him in Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and spake unto Jeroboam saying, thy father made our yoke grievous. They're talking about Solomon. Now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father in his heavy yoke which he put upon us lighter and we will serve thee. So look, no one knows the whole truth here on how oppressive, you know, Solomon was, but this is like the first union grievance in the Bible. It's kind of the way I look at it, right? All the people got together and they tried to negotiate a better deal. They said, you know, Solomon, he's either working us too hard or taxing us too much or both and punishing us too hard or whatever it is. But look, there was some oppression there. There was some level of oppression by Solomon, right? So that's not the point of the sermon. It's just interesting as we begin. Ecclesiastes chapter 4. But now let's get back to the point of the sermon and back to this spectrum, this spectrum of either doing nothing in your life and not working and being lazy or just working to just build up riches on this other side. Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and verses number 5 through 8 give us this spectrum. Look at verse number 5. The Bible says in verse number 5, The fool foldeth his hands together and eateth his own flesh. And then in verse 6 it says, Better is in handful with quietness than both the hands full of travail and vexation of spirit. Then I returned and I saw vanity under the sun. There is one alone and there is not a second. Yea, he that hath neither child nor brother, yet there is no end of all his labor. Neither is his eye satisfied with riches. Neither saith he for whom do I labor and bereave my soul of good. This is also vanity. Yea, it is a sore travail. Now there's a lot there. There's a lot there. But up in verse number 5, and we're not going to spend a lot of time on verse number 5, but basically in verse number 5 he says, The fool foldeth his hands together and eateth his own flesh. You know, the fool just lays around, doesn't do anything. And basically what he's saying is that this man who does nothing, who is slothful, who is lazy, will destroy himself. That's what he's saying in verse number 5. Now that is totally true today. I mean you can see it. You can see even men today that don't work and start to just take this free life that by the way is being offered a little bit more and more every single day, every single week, every single year. It's being enticed in front of people every single day more and more. And the more they take that free money that they did not work for, welfare you can call it, the more it destroys them. It destroys their character. It destroys their odds of ever becoming the men that we're going to talk about in the rest of the sermon. Because I mean look, if you're just sitting there and you're just getting all this free stuff, it takes a person of character to stop taking that. But look, if you have character, you wouldn't take it in the first place. Look, this isn't the point of the sermon. But if you don't think that there is an agenda out there today to get people on government assistance and get people taking free things from the government more and more and more, whether that be straight up money or food or medical care. If you don't think there's not an agenda today, you're living in a dream world. And here's what it is. It's about control. Because when they provide everything for you, they can tell you exactly what to do. And there's nothing you can say about it. Look, you send your kids to public school. You have nothing to say about what they teach there. Shut your mouth. That's what they'll tell you. You send your kids to public school. It's a centralized machine that cannot be controlled at the local level. It's designed that way. You can't get on the school board and change it. You can't. It's designed to not be changed. So you send your kids to public school, and that's what they're going to teach them. That's what it is. You can't change it. You go to get government health care and all this. They'll tell you what shots to get. We're paying for it. They'll tell you what insurance you can get, what they will cover, what they won't. They'll tell you what's healthy, what's not. You wait. It'll get worse and worse and worse. And there's a lot more of that coming from what we're seeing today. You just wait. It's all about control. That's not even the point of the sermon. But the point is, is that the man that does nothing that sits there and folds his hands together will destroy himself. Period. And then it says, better. Then he gets into, you know, who you should be. Better isn't... So he's moving through the spectrum. He's like, here's the lazy bum who wants to just have everybody do stuff for him. And then he's moving to where you should be. And he says, better is a handful with quietness than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. This is a man here who's just satisfied with what the Lord has given him. All right? So verse six is where you want to be. And then from there, a line is crossed the other way. You know, this guy that he's talking about in verse number seven, in verse number eight, he's talking about this guy who doesn't have any children. He doesn't even have a brother, you know, implying he doesn't even have any friends or any of that. Yet he's just working, working, working, working to pile up riches. His eye is never satisfied. You know this guy? I know this guy. Heeping up riches. And look, it implies in verse number eight that it gets worse as he gets older. Now I've seen this, I can't tell you how many times. People that get older and they just become obsessed with their possessions. Because look, if you get to be 70, 80 years old and you've worked pretty hard in your life, look, I hate to break it to you, but if you work hard, you can still make it in this country. Well, maybe two weeks ago. But if you work hard, you can still make it in this country. And if you work hard your whole life and you're not an idiot, by the time you're 60, 70, 80 years old you might have a few bucks. You might have some possessions. But I've seen people that are verse number eight and they just, it just, it overtakes their life. And you're like, you know what, you're not going to be alive much longer on this earth. And all you care about is stuff. I mean you would think, you would think that it would get, you would just care. I mean that's where I want to be, right? That's where you want to be. Like the older you get, I mean it doesn't even, what does it even matter? It doesn't even matter. I mean you don't even need it, right? I mean there's certain things that as we're raising families, you know, we might need a car. We might need a place to live. All these different things. As you get older and older and older, you don't even really need a lot of those things. Yet you become more and more and more obsessed. This is the person in verse number eight. Look, I mean by studies, actual secular studies show that as long as you, happiness from being poor to being rich, happiness is only really affected until you have enough. Like if you're just dirt poor and you have nothing, you know, then having a little bit more resources does make you happier. But until you have enough, and I don't know what that salary is or what that number is, basically they've found that when people have enough where they can provide a decent living for their family, then that happiness curve as they get more, it just flattens. It doesn't make them any happier. Secular people will tell you this. So this is, I mean, once again, the Bible gets no credit, right? I mean the Bible gets no credit. The Bible tells you this, you know, don't just sit there and labor and labor and labor to heap up riches. And then the funny thing is, is that he doesn't even know who's going to get it. He doesn't even know who's going to, there's nobody in this case. Turn to Psalm 39. Look, I've seen poor people obsessed with money and I've seen rich people obsessed with money. It goes both ways. Turn to Psalm 39. Look at verse number six. So there's this idea that this guy doesn't even know, you know, he doesn't even know who's going to, he says, for whom do I labor? He doesn't even know who he's going to leave it to. He doesn't even, he doesn't know who they are. Look at Psalm 39 verse number six. He says, surely every man walketh in a vein, in a vein show, surely they are disquieted in vein. He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them. So let me ask you this. For whom do you labor? For whom do you labor? Look, the Bible talks about, you know, this word called a heritage. You know, it calls this word a heritage. You know, the Bible actually mentions, you know, you should leave a goodly heritage. Right? So what is it? What is a heritage? The actual definition of a heritage is your allotted portion. Turn to Psalm 16. So the Bible says that you should want, you know, if you've been left a goodly heritage, that's good, right? Look at Psalm 16 in verse number five. So what type of heritage should you leave, first of all? Let's just look at this idea of leaving and heritage. Psalm 16, the Bible says in verse number five, the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup, thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage. Turn to Psalm 61. So, I mean, I hope my kids can say that I left them a goodly heritage. So let's look at, you know, what that is, what that means. Look at Psalm 61 in verse number five. For thou, O God, hast heard my vows, thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. So here he's talking about the heritage of people that have taught him to fear the Lord. So he's talking about, you know, this idea that he had these people that passed this heritage down to him to fear the Lord. That's a goodly heritage. Turn to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. What other type of heritage should we, you know, look at leaving to the next generation? Psalm 119, look at verse 111. Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, verse number 111. The Bible says, thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever. For they are the rejoicing of my heart. He's talking about, I mean, Psalm 119 is just how he just loves the law, and he just loves the word of God. And he's talking about, you know, the word of God, thy testimonies. That's God's testimonies is the word of God. He's saying, you know, I've taken them as an heritage. So that's his heritage. So God's law is a heritage that you can leave to those that come after you. We talked about this, you know, this morning through your testimony, through your actions of your life. You can pass along the what? The fear of the Lord and the love for his law. You can leave that heritage, period. That's a good heritage. So let's get back to, you know, the earthly possessions and these types of things. So where is this line? Where is this line? What's the application of Ecclesiastes 4 onto your life? Where is this line? So I want to apply it in two areas. I want to apply it to number one, your life on this earth and then your heritage that you leave. I want to apply it to those two things. Turn to Luke chapter 12. Let's look at your life tonight. So we're going to look at your life and we're going to look at your heritage. We're going to apply Ecclesiastes chapter 4 to those two things. Turn to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 12, I'm sorry. We're going to look at your life first. Luke chapter 12 in verse number 15. Very famous story in the Bible here. The Bible says in Luke 12, 15, it says, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisted not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, thou hast much good laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. So here's a man who did well and God killed him. God took his life. So what was the problem here? What was the problem here? Let's break this whole story down. Look, the ground, the ground brought forth plentifully in verse number 16. So first of all, who did that? Who did that? Who makes the works of your hand just turn into things that just work out for you? That's the Lord blessing you, right? So then he built these storehouses, right? He built these storehouses to put all his fruits and what the ground provided to put all these things in it. No, let me ask you something. Was that the issue? Was that the issue? Was that he built bigger barns and he built bigger storehouses? Look, is God upset at you if you grow your business? Because let me tell you something. I've heard this story used to preach against financial success. I have heard this used that way. I'm going to explain it to you. There's two lessons in this story. There's two lessons here. Number one, God does not want you storing up treasure with the end game of laying around eating and drinking. I mean, this does away with most people's idea of retirement. I'm sorry. In America, anyway. I'm going to store up millions. I mean, this has always sounded stupid to me. I'm going to store up millions so I can lay around and do nothing for the last 30 years of my life. 30 years of my life. Are you kidding me? I mean, first of all, it's never even made secular sense to me. But no thanks. You know, look, that doesn't mean I'm not saving, though. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't save. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be responsible with the blessings that God has given you. But look, to Americans, that's the dream. To get to this point and just do nothing but eat and drink. I mean, it is pitiful that Americans have nothing to do except sit around and get drunk. I mean, that is crazy. Look, we're out soul-winning on Thursday. I mean, this isn't even part of the story. We're out soul-winning on Thursday. And that's all people are doing. I mean, people are sitting home and they're just getting drunk. They say alcohol sales since the whole lockdown thing have gone up like 60 to 80%, depending on what kind of booze or whatever there is. And it's true. We're walking up and down the streets. I mean, we walk up to this lady. I'm like, I tell Garrett, this is perfect. She's sitting in a lawn chair. There's a chain link fence right there. The fence is like that tall and she's like 10 feet on the other side of the fence. She's sitting in a lawn chair staring at the street bored out of her mind. I'm like, this is like shooting fish in a barrel. I told Garrett. And I walked up to her and I'm on the other side and I got these nice big font, things that we made and I'm like, hey, you know, would you like one of these? I get to open it because she's just like, oh, that sounds really interesting but I can't even talk now. I've been drinking all day and she couldn't even speak. She's so drunk. There's your chance. What if that was her only chance? What if that was her last chance? What if God shows her at the great white throne and says, you know what? Sent somebody to you. You're sitting there doing nothing and you're drunk out of your mind. Nice. I could tell she's a nice lady. Just drunk. And she, and it wasn't that she didn't want to hear. She was embarrassed that she was drunk. She was embarrassed that some church guy showed up and is standing there and she's drunk. She's like, I'm sorry. Just kicks the bottle over. I'm not in... I can't listen to the Bible right now and I'm drunk. That's what Americans are doing right now. They're eating and drinking and I don't know, is that Mary? It's pitiful. So, he does not want you storing up treasure with the end game of that. It's pitiful. Even to a secular person that should be pitiful. And number two, he wants you using this success which he provided by the way to be rich towards him. To be rich towards him. I mean, go back to the go back to the story. Verse 21, he laid up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. That was the problem. He just laid up all this riches and he wasn't rich towards God, period. I mean, look, maybe hold on to your seats here. Hold on to your seats. Maybe, just maybe if you develop a methodology in your life early of being rich towards the Lord. Maybe this will work for your kids too. Just an idea. Maybe if you develop a methodology in your life early about being rich towards the Lord when he gives you that handful maybe you will use it to enrich his kingdom and not yours. Turn to Psalm 51. Look, if I could redesign this guy in Luke 12, this is what I would do. I'm not going to change the word of God here but I'm just going to give you a hypothetical. If I could redesign this guy's heart this is what it needs to look like. Turn to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. Look at verse number 13. If I could just replace look, what did that guy say in verse 19 he said and I will say to my soul soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat, drink and be merry. He's just like take it easy. I'm going to take it easy now. That's what he's saying. If I could replace that heart with Psalm 51.13 I think we might have something here. We might have a guy that didn't get killed by the Lord where the Bible says I will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. If that guy was like you know what I just built up all these barns and I'm going to put all this stuff in these barns he's like I don't really have to work on the farm anymore you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go I'm going to teach transgressors their ways and I'm going to convert sinners unto you Lord. I bet you he wouldn't have died because he would have used those riches that God gave him to enrich the kingdom of God on earth period. Everything would have been good. That's what God wants to see with your success. God doesn't want you to not be successful but God wants you to use it for his kingdom. Well God is not against economics. He invented it. You know I wish more people understood economics. Economics is not the stock market. Economics is like gravity. It just exists like the invisible hand. You know when you get a bunch of godly people that love the Lord freely interacting with each other and that turns into a society of godly people interacting with each other and you have this invisible hand that creates all these wonderful things that's the invisible hand that all these secular economic guys write about. It's God's hand. But then you know what you see with every single society as soon as they start getting whether it's avarice which is unchecked greed or it's just immoral behavior in societies I mean look at us for crying out loud. Then guess what you start to see? You start to see those societies like it doesn't work anymore. The invisible hand of economics is God's hand. Wonderful things can happen. Life sustaining societies are created but God fearing. Look God fearing is the key there. God fearing. I mean look we elected these morons these evil people we I mean maybe you didn't and I didn't but this country elected these evil people. We deserve it. So look God wants you to use the success that he gives you to further his goals. That's what happened with the guy that God took his life. He wasn't rich towards God. It wasn't the success that was the problem. Look to preach that story in the Bible is that the success was the problem. God made the success. God made the abundance for him. God did that. So either in this life or the next look he'll you know turn to 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5 in verse number 18 I mean the Bible the Bible God is not against you. You know being successful. 1 Timothy chapter 5 in verse number 18 the Bible says for the scripture saith that thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn and the laborer is worthy of his reward. Look God understands that. God understands that labor is worthy of reward. So the more you know resources the Lord gives you the more of a force multiplier you can be for the kingdom of God on earth with your life. You know it's that's what God wants. You'd be rich towards him in that way. So be a good steward and use it to enrich his kingdom. That's the first point there. That's your life. That's what God wants for your life. Is to I mean he wants you to use it to bless your children and create those generations that go out and bless future generations and bless the world even if you don't see it. He wants you to do what you can with what you have in this life for his kingdom. That's your life and what God wants you. That's what you're to do with your handful of Ecclesiastes chapter 4. Alright now let's talk about your heritage. Your heritage. Now here's another topic another subject that can be taken too far in both directions. Right? I mean you have these people out there they're just like you know they're so irresponsible and they could never save a penny if you try to force them to and they're like I'm not going to leave my kids anything and all this kind of stuff and then you have these people that just want to just make their kids rich and just give their kids everything. Both are wrong. Once again go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 4. I mean is it bad to leave your kids? I mean look you should leave your kids with the fear of the Lord leave your kids with the love of God's word. Those are all the things that are going to exponentially bless future generations. That's what we talked about this morning. But is it wrong to leave your kids some possessions? No. It's not. Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 4. I'm going to read for you Psalm 39 verse number 6. The Bible says I'm reading this again for you. Surely every man walketh in vain show surely they are disquieted in vain he heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them turn to Proverbs 13 keep your finger in Ecclesiastes 4 Proverbs 13 look at verse number 22 Proverbs 13 in verse number 22 The Bible says a good man inheritance to his children's children and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Now go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 4. So it's not a bad thing to lay up some possessions for your children and your children's children. That's not a bad thing. But there's a catch here. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 4 in verse number 13 Ecclesiastes 4 in verse number 13 The Bible says better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king who will no longer be admonished. For out of prison he cometh to reign whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becomeeth poor. I considered all the living which walk unto the son with the second child that shall stand up in his stead. That's your child right there that will stand up after you're gone. There is no end of all the people that have been before them. They also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this is also vanity and vexation of spirit. Look, this is spoken by a man who is not liking what he's seeing in the next generation. This is spoken by a man who is not liking what he's seeing. Look at verse 14. He's basically saying better is verse 13, sorry. Don't spoil your children. Leaving an inheritance is a good thing but you should front load that inheritance. Because look, they must understand, it'd be better that they were poor than if you just took these children that knew nothing where that came from or knew nothing of what the generation before had to do. You know we saw this with Joshua, right? As soon as that generation that couldn't see what Joshua and those elders had done as soon as they couldn't see it anymore it was disaster. It's the same here. They must understand how to work for things. You know, they must look, they must understand how to use the riches that the Lord may bless them with to further his kingdom. So in order to understand that they need to see through your testimony through your life they need to see the fear of the Lord. They need to get that heritage from you. They need to get the love of God's law from you. And then on top of that they need to know who labored for them. You see how that's a common theme here where it just says the next generation they don't even know where it came from. Who knows who this next generation is? They should know. They should know where everything came from. They should know where that fear of the Lord came from. They should know where that love for the law came from through your testimony. And then they should know if they do by God's grace inherit a few bucks from their dad or their grandfather they should know what it took to make those few bucks. Period. Turn to Luke chapter 15. Let's look at a rich and unwise child. So it says better is a poor and wise child. Let's look at a rich and unwise child and see if it's true. Look at Luke 15. Turn to verse number 11. Better is a poor and wise child. Look I mean it's not bad to grow up poor. It's not bad. Look at Luke 15 verse number 11 and he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that fall with to me and he divided unto them his living and not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living and when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in the land and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine and he would have feigned to have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat and no man gave it to him. Look there's this saying called a fool in his money are soon parted. You ever heard that? Well it's actually proverbs 21 20. It says there is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise but a foolish man spendeth it up. There's a saying when I grew up there was a saying because you would have a lot of situations where some farmer would have just worked really hard for 40 years and built this big farm or this big ranch or whatever. There was a saying when I grew up and if you would have asked anybody I grew up with whether it would have been people my age schoolmates whatever everyone knew a story like this. They said it takes one generation to make it and one to lose it. We've all seen somebody work 40 years and build up this huge operation or business or farm or ranch and have their just they die or something happens and their son takes it over and they were a rich and unwise child and they lost it in five years. They lost 50 years worth of work but they knoweth not. They kneweth not. Their dad was a man of character. He was a man who worked hard but he just didn't pass any of that heritage down to his son. So it didn't matter. He worked all his life. He kneweth not who he leaves it to and it was all gone in five years and who cares because it's just money anyway but I mean the point is that it's better to be a poor and wise child. A poor and wise child that's what you want. They need to understand your kids need to understand how hard it is to earn. Because look you're commanded you're commanded men to go out and earn right? How are they going to know? How are they going to know how to earn if you never show them? If everything's handed to them. It's like it's like child welfare right? It's destroying them a little bit at a time. They have to start of it. They have to start learning. You have to teach them to fish. Then when someone gives them a few fish they'll understand what it took to catch a fish. And this because look they not only knew but they were there helping catch the fish and they witnessed those fish being caught. That's how it has to work and that's what people mess up. So no it's not wrong to leave your children in inheritance like an actual physical inheritance. That's not wrong. But if you don't want to destroy them they need to know who caught the fish and they need to know how to catch those fish and what it takes. Remember Psalm 39 where it says he heaped up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them. So this guy who heaped up the riches he was just he was just heaping up the riches the whole time just like that farmer. He was just working plowing forward all the time just more land, more cattle, more whatever and he just he forgot to teach the next generation and then it was for nothing and it's all vanity and vexation of spirit. And look if you don't teach them that first heritage that heritage of you know from your testimony of loving God's law and fearing the Lord even if they do inherit something they're not going to use it to enrich the kingdom of God anyway. So it's a whole package. You're like man there's all these things I have to get exactly right. Yep. That's why so many people don't get it right. Are you starting to understand? I mean haven't you wondered haven't you looked at all these people out there and be like man that's a really good man man that's a really that's a strong Christian. Why did his kids turn out that way? Because if it was easy everybody would do it. There's a lot of things here. You have to pass on that actual heritage of the Lord or the other heritage will be wasted. They'll be begging for swine food to eat. Even if you give them a million bucks or whatever the guy gave them here it doesn't matter. And then even if you raise them to be some business man and they don't want to serve the Lord it's all wasted anyway. You still lose. Those blessings still aren't passed on like we talked about this morning. They got to have that fear of the Lord and they got to know how to work and they got to know all the things that it took to get those blessings in this world and how to manage those blessings from God. It's a lot. Are you nervous dad? You should be because it's a lot. You need to start teaching them now. You need to start teaching them now. It also says in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 for whom do I labor and bereave with my soul of good. You should know who you labor for. So we see this idea of the person getting the inheritance not even knowing how it was earned the person giving not being connected to those receiving you know look it doesn't work. There's a lot that you have to connect together here and it should make you nervous. There's a line between not working and heaping up riches. That's what we've seen. Take your handful work hard for it when the Lord gives it to you take it with quietness and use it for the Lord. And then teach your children to take that handful and if they inherit a partial handful they should already know how to use it for the Lord. They should already know how to manage it and then they will rejoice in you and they'll rejoice in their heritage from you and they will say yay the lines have fallen to me in good places. I have a goodly heritage they'll say and they'll use those riches for the Lord as well. So note God is not against financial success but it's to be used for his kingdom period. It's really simple and to pass that down. That's really kind of the conclusion of both sermons today is to pass that down successfully to the next generation. First of all, there's great reward in it. There's great reward in it for the world for the generations that come after it's an exponential force multiplier we saw but it's not the easiest thing in the world to do. Because that means that we have to walk by faith. It has to be real it can't be fake. We have to I mean we gotta do it right. This is why you have to come to church. This is why you have to come to church and not only just come to church but you have to read your Bible and you have to know what it says and as you're getting attacked by all these things that want to derail you and choke you out and all this kind of stuff in this world you just have to stay focused because let me tell you something when it comes to the next generation you're going to blink your eyes and your kids are going to be 20 so you need to start when they're 4 and they're 5 and you start teaching them these things this heritage that you're going to pass to them. Let's bow our heads and have a word prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this church. We thank you for this evening. I pray that you just be with us as parents and be with us in this life Lord that we may just live out our faith that would just project a testimony onto the next generation and that we just get this thing right Lord. Help us always be in our Bible and learning and applying what we both read in the Bible and hear from the pulpit. Lord we love you and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.