 Amen. Philippians chapter 2, so keep your place there. We're going to be going through a few verses in this part of the Bible and then other places as well. But I'm excited for the sermon this morning. Not that I'm not excited for every sermon, but sometimes I just, you just see things in the Bible that help you explain things a little bit better, certain truths. This morning I'm going to give you some, a trick. It's not a trick, but basically the key maybe is a better word to living the successful Christian life. So if you're like, well, you know, I struggle sometimes in my Christian life, I struggle with this, I struggle with that, maybe struggle in certain areas of your life. I'm going to give you that answer this morning on how to solve that. Look down at your Bible in verse number 3 of Philippians chapter 2. We've looked at these verses before, but let's look again this morning and then I'll give you some things to think about this morning about your Christian life. Look at verse number 3 in Philippians chapter 2. The Bible says, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. So this of course is a great verse in the Bible talking about how, you know, you should not think, I mean, first of all, you know, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, meaning you should have a lower lowliness of mind, you should have humility of mind. You know, basically you shouldn't think that you're better than anybody else. You shouldn't be this person that thinks, oh, I'm, you know, more spiritual than somebody else, or I'm more knowledgeable than somebody else, or I'm more successful than somebody else. You shouldn't have this attitude that you're better than other people. You know, and look, it doesn't even matter if, you know, that the reality is most people that have this type of attitude are not better than other people. They're just prideful, but I have actually met people, especially professional people that are maybe very good at their jobs, maybe technical people that are just like, they're just super experts at their jobs, and they tend to be like, well, they just kind of know that, you know, they know that a lot of times those are difficult people to deal with, because, you know, they maybe, they're like this super great engineer, they're smarter than everybody, but they literally are smarter than most people that they know, and, but they know it, so they're very difficult to deal with many times. So, you know, there's that, but look, we should not think whether we are or aren't. We shouldn't think that we are better than other people in any way. It's saying, hey, have lowliness of mind and esteem others better than yourselves. And then, of course, it's just talking about how, you know, let nothing be done, meaning the things that you do, you should not be doing things for yourself. All right, look at verse number four. It says, again, it says, look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. It says, let mind, so look, it's just saying, like, just quit focusing so much on yourself, but focus on the things of other people. And it says, you say, well, why, why should I do that? And then it explains in the coming verses, why the Christian, look, he's talking to Christians here, first of all. All right, he's not talking about to everybody else in the world. He's talking to saved believers here, is what you need to understand. All right, and then he explains why, why you should not think you're better than other people, why you should not be focused on yourself, why you should not be doing things for yourself. He says, this is why in verse number five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. But, you know, who being in the form of God, Jesus, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. So he's basically saying, the reason that you should be like this is because Jesus was like this. It's like, this was the mind that Jesus had. And you say, well, I'm super awesome, I'm super great, I'm super smart, I'm super everything. Well, look at the ultimate comparison that we see here. It literally says, Jesus was God. Jesus, I mean, it basically say, it was not robbery for Jesus to compare himself to be equal with God, God the Father, because Jesus is God. So if God himself is going to make himself of nothing, of low opinion and not think of himself, why can't you is what Paul is saying here. All right. And in verse number seven or verse number eight, it says, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So here we see the ultimate comparison with Jesus here. Somebody who was literally without sin, literally was great, literally was good, as the Bible says, literally was God and made himself of no reputation. He made himself lower than everyone else. He's saying, why, so it doesn't matter how great you are or think you are, you should be putting yourself low, that lowliness of mind, humility, not be doing things for yourself, not be self focused. All right. So basically this is the essence right here of being a Christian. All right. This idea of not being focused on yourself, but being focused on others. So basically as a Christian, you should get saved. And then after you're saved, this should be the shift that happens in your life. This should be the shift that happens in your life. Because Christ, I mean think about this, Christ literally came here to do nothing for himself. There was nothing Christ did that was for him. This is why all the conspiracies that came out about Jesus being married and married to Mary Magdalene, some foolish Christians were like, oh, what does it matter if he got married? Because Jesus came here to do nothing for himself. He came here only to serve and only to accomplish his mission. And look, this is the mind that we should have that Philippians chapter two is telling us. It's really, it's a measuring stick. If you want to think of a spectrum, I like spectrums, right? It's a spectrum of the Christian life. It's a good measurement for us as Christians. The more selfless that you are, you know, the bet, well maybe not better is a good word, but the more selfless you are, the more successful you will be in your Christian life. That's the, that's the measuring stick or that's the spectrum right there. Look, the more profits that you will see in your Christian life, the more fruit that you will see in your Christian life, the more rewards that you'll have in your Christian life. I typically don't think a lot about rewards, but it's true. You're stacking up rewards in heaven as you live the selfless Christian life. So that's a good measuring stick. We should be selfless as Christ was selfless. All right, now at this point you're going to say, well pastor, you know, tell me something I don't know. Tell me something that I don't know. Well the title of the sermon is this. The title of the sermon is You Must Choose. You say, what do you mean? The selfless Christian life. Look, you're saved. Nothing's going to ever stop you from being saved, but the selfless Christian life that Philippians chapter two is talking about, it is not going to be automatic in your life. You must choose it. You must choose it and you must purposely execute it. Why? You say, why must it be a choice that an individual person makes? Because it is not automatic. It is man's nature to be self-focused. That's why. All right, turn to Mark chapter 12. It is man's nature to think of himself, to love himself, so much so that Jesus Christ, God himself, used this as a baseline to compare how we should treat other people. How much man actually cares about himself. Look at Mark chapter 12 in verse number 31. It is man's nature to just be self-focused, to be concerned about himself. Look at Mark chapter 12 in verse number 31. Jesus knows this so well that he literally uses this as a baseline on how you should treat other people. Look at verse 31. It says, and Jesus says, and the second is like, and talking about the greatest commandment and the second greatest commandment, the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other greater commandment than these. He literally says like, how should I treat my neighbor? You should treat him like yourself. Because Jesus, God knows that you would treat yourself well because people love themselves. Look at Ephesians chapter 5. I will just read for you. It is the basis of a marriage. It is the basis of how a husband should actually treat his wife. It is the basis of how he treats himself. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. Literally uses like this idea of the love of your physical body as a comparison on how you should treat your wife. Just this idea that we have this natural, we have this natural propensity to be concerned even physically about ourselves. Isn't that true? Think about this. I used to have a roommate that was one of the most irritating people to this day that I've ever met in my life. But what he would do is if there was a bunch of people sitting around in the apartment on the couch, he would take a fork and he would just sit there with a fork on the couch and he would just go like this with the fork towards someone. He would never throw the fork but he would just sit there with a fork and just be like... And it was the most irritating thing in the world. Many times we did just get up and beat him up. But he would just sit there and he would just... You can't sit there and relax on a couch with someone doing that to you 10 feet away because you're just constantly... Pretty interesting. You just get up and you just start fighting with them because you're worried that you flinch because you're worried that a fork is going to hit you in the face. But the point is that's why you flinch is because you just have a natural propensity to protect yourself. A natural propensity. This is like why belly flop contests are so funny. We have belly flop contests and the guys get up and look it's a brave person that can really just take a wide open jump and just like hold that thing until you hit the water. But what does every person do? Why is it so rare for somebody to actually do a great belly flop? Because every person they have that propensity to just protect themselves at that very last second. And it's like... You know weakling or whatever. You think about bigger examples of this like people in war that get like the Medal of Honor. The Medal of Honor is such a rare award. Why? It's a rare award because most people care about their own life. And in cases of... Many people that got the Medal of Honor, they get it after they're dead. Because they literally did something that cost them their life. Whereas people that got the Medal of Honor, they did it because they saved a bunch of people or did something just like not caring about their own life. So look, I mean this is Paul, right? This is Paul as reading about in Acts chapter 21 and Acts chapter 22. He just didn't care. You know he said neither count on my life dear unto myself in Acts chapter 21. You know the Holy Spirit's constantly warning him. Don't go there, don't go there. You're going to get arrested. You're going to get worse is going to happen. He's like I don't count my life dear unto myself. He said twice. This is a rare thing. It's a rare thing to be that bold because man's nature is to just be, you know, to have that selfishness, that self-preservation in them. Right? Turn to Second Timothy chapter 3. But look, if that selfishness goes to extremes, it can get even worse. You know, it can make, it can lead to even worse things. Look at Second Timothy chapter 3. Second Timothy chapter 3. So the point I'm trying to make is the type of Christian, the demand for the Christian to be selfless in Philippians chapter 2 is something that you will have to consciously choose to do because it is your nature as a human being, man or woman, to be concerned about yourself. To be concerned and focused on yourself. Look at Second Timothy chapter 3. Selfishness. We're talking about selfishness to an extreme here in Second Timothy chapter 3. Look at verse 2. Talking about the end times when men just get unspiritual and they just go exactly against God. For men shall be lovers of them, their own selves. Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parrots, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, truce breakers. Talking about just, you know, people reprobate people, you know, false accusers, incontinent fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Lovers of things that make them feel good, you know, focused on self again. So this is, look, the point I'm trying to make is it's man's nature to be selfish. It's man's nature to be the opposite of what Philippians chapter 2 is talking about. Think about even a thought that you have. You know, even a thought, you know, just think about how many times you've had the thought like, ah, this, you know, this stinks. Or, you know, this is boring. Hopefully you're not thinking that right now. But for who? Who's it boring for? Who's, you're thinking, that's, that's a selfish thought, right? You're thinking, this isn't fun for me. This isn't what I want to be doing right now. You know, this is, it's a selfish thought for me is, is what those thoughts are focused on. So look, Philippians 2 tries to combat this in the Christian life. But the point is, you must consciously do it. You must choose. Philippians chapter 2. So you say, okay, you know, let's pray and, you know, that's it. No, I'm going to show you how to choose. How to choose this. Okay, because look, there's a, there's a hard way and there's an easy way. Okay, so the hard way is this. The hard way to choose Philippians chapter 2 in the Christian life. Again, now talking to the saved, now talking to you, now talking to saved people that are listening to this sermon. Look, the hard way to choose to be selfless in the Christian life, not think about yourself, not do things for yourself. The hard way is to, you know, every day make this decision. That's the hard way. Every day make this decision. Every, we're a fundamentalist Baptist church. That means that we stick to the fundamentals of the Bible, meaning every fundamental doctrine, standard, whatever it is in the Bible, we hold to it. And if every single fundamental that you come across, every single standard that you come across, every single doctrine that you come across that affects your Christian life, you, that's the decision for you. Look, that's the hard way to do this Christian life. That's the hard way. All right? Look, if you measure every single thing against what would be best for you in that moment, that's the hard way. That's the hard way because this is what people do. This is what people do in their Christian life. And this is why people will, you know, eventually fall in their Christian life. They'll backslide in their Christian life because those daily decisions, they just beat them down. If it's a daily decisions, imagine if Jesus did that. Aren't we comparing this to Jesus in Philippians chapter 2? Imagine if every town that Jesus went to, he was like, I don't know. This doesn't seem like my best life now. These people aren't really receiving me here. I don't know. These Pharisees, they keep, you know, they're following me around. These people, you know, in my hometown, they don't really, they're not really receiving what I'm saying. Look, every single miracle that he did, think about it. He goes and he does a bunch of miracles, heals people, people don't think, they're what? They're unthankful? Some of the people? Imagine if everything was a decision for him. Look, that's not what he did, though. That's not what he did. Look, anyone would fail if everything was a decision for them, every single standard, every single fundamental of the faith, every single thing that they did. The easy way, the easy way to do this, the easy way to do Philippians chapter 2 is all at once. It's just understanding why Philippians chapter 2 says what it says, and I'm going to give you some extreme detail on Philippians chapter 2 in just a few minutes, but understand why Philippians chapter 2 says what it says. The situation that we're in as Christians, you know, look, we're saved. We're saved. Nothing's ever going to stop us from being saved. So, we might as well figure out how to do this the right way. So, just make that decision all at once. Understanding that you know what this Christian life isn't about me. This Christian life is, I don't know, maybe it's about those around me. Maybe it's about the next generation of Christians. Maybe it's about, you know, I mean, maybe it's about being profitable to all these people around me. Just make that decision all at one time, and it's done, and then whatever comes, if it's a fundamental of the faith, it's just the decision is already made. This is a difference between successful Christians for years and years and years, and Christians that fail after a couple of years, or fail after a year, or fail after whatever amount of time, or just fall out of the Christian life. Look with women, in my opinion, with women, I mean, you know, let me speak for the women. But in my opinion, it's easy for the women, you know, just follow your husbands, just listen. You know, just submit, just listen to the leadership. You know, assuming you have a spiritual husband that has already made this decision himself, you know, a woman that's married to a husband that has made this decision, she doesn't even have to have her own plan. She just follow, you know, the plan in front of her, which is a great thing. And men, this should be the basis of your leadership. This should be the basis of everything that you do. This should be the basis for your standards. This should be the basis, you know, for church. This should be the basis for your separation. This should be the basis of the fundamentals of your faith. Philippians chapter two, and just having this decision that you've made that you've chosen. So look, once people decide this for the long term, you know, this, you know, it's not like, it's not like there's, there's just like no happiness. You know, that's the great lie, right? I mean, you know, you think, you realize that, you know, once I make this decision, I'm going to see generational results. I mean, that's, that's a pretty good thing right there. I mean, that's, you know what, that's, that's real joy right there. You know, I'm going to have light-minded kids. I'm going to have light-minded grandkids. I mean, that, that sounds like, you know, that, that are all serving the Lord. I mean, that sounds like real joy to me. There's real joy there. But the trade-off, the trade-off is this. The trade-off is for that quick pleasure at the moment. That's the trade-off. It's, it's kind of like, it's kind of like, you know, investing, if you think about it. It's kind of like investing. I mean, why, you think about somebody that, but guess what? To invest successfully, you need to decide now. You need to choose now. You need to choose, you know, you need to choose now, saying, you know, I mean, look, if you're that person that just wants quick satisfaction all the time, you're like, I just like the best stuff right now. Just think about it, just on a worldly investing perspective. You're going to have nothing later. Whereas if you could, you know, I mean, I was sitting at, I went out to pizza with my wife last night, and this guy pulls up in this, in this brand new like Dodge mega cab, you know, huge truck, big diesel pickup. And I told my wife, I said, that's my truck right there. That guy's driving my pickup. And, and she's just like, you know, whatever. But you know what? I could, I could be driving that truck tomorrow. I'll never have that truck. Because the thing is, like, it's all about denying yourself. I mean, this is a worldly, stupid example, but it really fits the Christian life. You know, it's all about that person that decides, I'm going to invest in others. You know, I'm going to go and I'm going to deny myself. See, most people just spend it all. That's the common thing to do. The common thing to do is to spend it all. But you have to choose now, you know, I tell the kids all the time, you need to live on, I tell the kids since they're 10, you need to live on 70%. Live on 70%. You give 10% to the Lord, you save 20% and you live on the other 70. If you can do that, there's your financial lesson. If you can do that, you're doing well. You're going to do well in life. But you have to choose to do that now. It's just like the Christian life. You must choose it and then you must do it. Think about soul winning. Now let's take it to the spiritual. Think about soul winning. I mean, think about it. I mean, soul winning. When I go out soul winning, I am willingly donating my time to other people. Are we not? When we go out soul winning, are we not willingly just donating time to people that we don't even know? That's what we're doing. I'm choosing to take several hours of every single week of my life and give it to people I don't even know. Now guess what? If you haven't made this choice in your life, you will struggle with this. You say, why? You will struggle with this. Why? You will struggle because 90% maybe even more of those people, they don't want the donation. So you could make this choice every door if you wanted. You could knock on a door and somebody doesn't want to hear and you could say, I could be doing something better right now. This is a waste of my time. It's a waste of that guy's time. You could make that decision every single door that you knock or you could just choose once and never think about it again. Because, look, most people don't want the donation. Think about that. Should I take my time? Should I take my time? I mean, every five minutes out soul winning will torture you. It will. It will. Here's a word that I want you to remember from the sermon. It will vex you. Every door that you knock where somebody isn't listening or doesn't want to hear will vex you if you haven't made this choice. Look, people have asked me before because there is a trend. I will admit I've noticed this trend. I mean, I want you to think about the ministry. I'm going to tell you about the ministry in general. But you think about this in context of yourself because you should have a personal ministry. So, when I talk about this ministry, you should have a personal ministry through soul winning, through your family. You should have a personal, every Christian should have a personal ministry. Many people have asked me, and there's definitely a trend to this, many of the people that I have personally in the ministry helped the most, done the most for, have done the worst things to me. And many people have asked me that have seen some of these things that I've done to help people. I'm just trying to prove a point here. People have said, do you regret doing that? And the answer is absolutely not. Because it's not about, first of all, the ministry, this ministry, your ministry is not about any one person. Not at all. And the reason that I don't regret any of those things is, first of all, I know the nature of, you know, entitlement and things that, you know, reasons people need help. I know the nature of that. But really, the reason that I don't regret those things for one minute is because I have chosen once years ago. It is not a choice that I throw out there every single day. Instead, I have chosen years ago, and the ministry, your ministry, your ministry is about service to God. It's about what God tells us to do. And it's about Philippians chapter two. It's about your time and your efforts and your works for other people. It doesn't say anything in Philippians chapter two as long as those other people do this. As long as those other people, you know, don't falter or don't backslide or don't whatever. It says nothing about that. And look, compare it to Christ. What did Christ come here to do? He came here to do nothing for himself, for who? For a bunch of sinners. For a bunch of people that were just guilty of everything, deserved everything that didn't even deserve him to come here. So when we compare it to Christ, we can see, look, your ministry, it shouldn't depend on other people because that's what you're supposed to do. So it doesn't matter if you go to nine doors, and they don't want the time that you've donated to them. Because your ministry, the ministry, the life of the Christian has nothing to do with whether or not they want that. Whether or not people are thankful. All right? Let's talk about this. The consequences of not choosing. And this is really one where I want to do a deep dive this morning. But the consequences of not choosing, and this is where you need to ask yourself this morning, is do I have some of these consequences of not choosing? If you don't choose once, the Christian life will be a daily battle for you. And who would want that, first of all? And look, it's something, if the Christian life is a daily battle for you, it's probably going to end up in failure. It's probably going to be something where you fall out of the Christian life because everything is related to this. We are fundamental Baptist. Every single fundamental will be, you know, just a daily choice for you. That's not the way you want to go. Look, the Christian life is not geared towards your personal pleasure in that moment. That's what you have to understand. As a matter of fact, many times the Bible teaches us it will be the opposite. All right? Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 2, and let's really look in detail about this. And here's the funny thing. Here's the funny thing, and the one thing I want to show you this morning, if you're just like, you know what, I want pleasure right now. I want happiness right now in this moment right now. For the Christian, it doesn't work anyway. That is not a successful path in your life. You will never find that happiness. You will never find, you know, that pleasure. We have a man in Ecclesiastes chapter 2 who did an extensive study on this. He did an extensive study on, hey, I'm a Christian, and I want to have that pleasure, that enjoyment right now. And he tried everything, everything. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 2. It doesn't work anyway. So let me prove to you that the selfish choice, now you know that you must choose to be selfless in the Christian life, now I'm going to prove to you how it's really the only choice. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Make sure you turn there and have a pen ready to write in your Bible, if you would. Look at verse number 3. Solomon says this, he says, I saw it in my heart. Oh, I'm sorry, look at verse number 1. Got ahead of myself there. Verse number 1, he says, I said in my heart, go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure. Mirth means amusement, pleasure. He's saying, I'm going to seek pleasure and amusement in my life. And immediately in verse number 1 it doesn't work. Immediately it says this also is vanity. In verse number 2, I said of laughter, it is mad, and of mirth, what do with it? He's like, that didn't work. Right away in the first two verses, he's like, I'm just going to seek pleasure, I'm going to seek amusement at every turn, and right away he's like, that didn't work at all. This is madness. I once knew, I once knew a fisherman from Galveston, Texas. And this fisherman from Galveston, Texas, we used to fish with this guy. And the second or third year we went fishing with him, he was selling his business. And we were like, what, he was trying to sell it to us, as we were fishing with him. He was a great fisherman. We caught crazy fish with this guy. And he was really good at what he did. And we asked, I asked him, like, I personally asked him, why are you selling this business? Because I was like, this is the greatest thing ever to be doing what you do for a living. And he said, because I took something that I love to do. And I ruined it. So here was a man who loved to fish. He loved to go out fishing so much that he's like, I want to do this every day. And then that will equal ultimate happiness in my life. And then when he did it every day, pretty soon he just he just hated what he did. He ruined it. Because I mean, he did Ecclesiastes two one and two two, he was just trying to like, just maximize all that immediate pleasure in his life. One thing I've realized about fishing is that the less I do it, the more I enjoy it. I mean, I haven't been fishing in several months, and I can't wait to go. I can't wait to go. We're going to go in April. I just can't wait. You know, part of the enjoyment for me is the anticipation of it. You know, we had to delay the lake day for one week for the church. And I'm just like, I could either just be all depressed about that, but I'm just like, it just makes it that much more enjoyable to me, because I'm just looking forward to it in a few days. Right. But the point is, Solomon tried to just find pleasure and amusement at every turn, and it didn't work. Look at verse number three. I saw it in my heart to give myself under wine. Now he's trying something different now. Now he's like, Hey, let's booze it up. That that'll work. Yet equating my heart with wisdom and to lay hold on folly, tell I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under heaven all the days of their life. He's like, man, I see all these people out here drinking and partying and having all this fun. He's like, maybe that's the answer. Maybe that, you know, he's quoting, he's quoting the same thing in Proverbs chapter 31 and verse number six is talking about where it says, Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish. You know, he basically the people of the world, the sons of men. So look what Solomon is saying here. People go out and they drink and they party and they have fun and all this. He's like, I am going to try this, but it's not going to work for you. Just like it didn't work for Solomon. Look at verse number four. I made now he's gonna try something different. He's like, the drinking didn't work. The seeking pleasure at every turn didn't work. Now let's try something different. Look at verse number four through seven. I may be great works and building me houses. I planted me vineyards. I made me gardens and orchards and planted trees and them of all kinds of fruits. I made me pool water to water there with the wood that bring forth trees. I got me servants and maidens and servants born in my house. My house also had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that Jerusalem before me. Verse number eight. I gathered me also silver and gold and peculiar treasures of kings and of provinces. I got me men singers and women singers and the delights of the sons of men as a musical instruments and that of all sorts. You know what he's saying in verse number four through nine here. He's like, I went shopping. I just went and I just bought. Let's try this. Let's try buying every possible amazing great thing that I can find or even think of. Houses, cars, whatever. Let me just try all to buy all of these things. So if you're thinking maybe I need to shop more. That's not the answer for the Christian. Look at verse number nine. So I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. I oftentimes when I write sermons I sit I sit in the our computer in the living room and I will just last night I was finishing up the sermon and I was sitting in the living room and oftentimes when I'm writing sermons I'll just shout out random things and I don't even know if anyone is whoever's within ear shot can get it but I'll just shout out random thoughts that I'm having while I'm writing the sermon and last night last night I shouted out this random thought and my wife was sitting on the couch and I said I said you need to have this verse underlined these words underlined in your Bible and I got up and I was so excited about it I walked over to my wife and I was like turn to Ecclesiastes chapter two and she turns there and she had them underlined already. I mean what are the odds of that? These are words if you write in your Bible you need to underline these words. Also my wisdom remained with me. You need to underline those words and I'll explain to you why. But she had them underlined already. This is why I'm so blessed that God gave me such a great wife. But the point is I'd like to say it was an original thought that I had here she must probably underlined it two years ago who knows. Also through all of this experimenting through all of this experimenting his wisdom remained with him meaning he still knew everything that he knew. He's going out and he's doing all this folly and he's trying to make himself happy with all these worldly things experience pleasure, drunkenness all these things but his wisdom remained with him the whole time look at verse 10. And whatsoever my eyes desired I kept not from them I withheld not my heart from any joy from my heart rejoiced in all my labor and this was the portion of all my labor. Verse 11 then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labor that I had labor to do I looked at everything that I had tried he said. And behold all was vanity and underline these three words vexation of spirit and then draw a line between that vexation of spirit underline to verse number nine where you underlined and also my wisdom remained with me. You see he was vexed the whole time why because he couldn't unknow the truth and that's the problem that you're going to have in your Christian life look at verse number 12. And I turned myself to be hold wisdom so he still had the wisdom this is what you need to understand. And madness there's that vexation and folly for what can the man do that cometh after the king even that which has already been done. Then I said that wisdom then I saw that wisdom exceeded excelleth folly as far as light excelleth darkness. Look you know what this is saying in verse number 13 you cannot escape what you know if you do not choose the Christian life and you go the other way into that selfishness it will vex you in your Christian life and the wisdom will prevail meaning it will never leave you. You will never be able to shut it up. You will never be able to quiet it to silence it because it's a greater light than the folly. You see the wise man's eyes are in his head but the fool walketh in darkness and I myself perceived also that one event happened to them all. Then I said in my heart as it happened to the fool so it happened even to me and why was I then more wise then I said in my heart this also is vanity for there's no remembrance of the wise more than the fool forever seeing that that which is now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten and how diet the wise man as the fool. You know what he's saying? He's like I'm torn up I'm vexed because this wisdom won't leave he's like what was the point of all this wisdom when I added all this folly. What was the point? Can't get rid of it. It's like it won't go away it shines brighter than the folly than the darkness. I can't get rid of it it's just it's causing me just what do you see over and over and over again you see vexation of spirit. Vexation of spirit. Madness you see him saying look back at verse number nine where it says also my wisdom remained with me and do not forget that. This is for the Christian today. This is for the Christian today. You know what this is? This my wisdom also remained with me. This is the curse of knowing. It's the curse of knowing. This is why you must choose once because you can't unknow this. You can't unknow this. It will always stay with you. So the person that hasn't chosen the person that hasn't chosen the person that can't stay in the Christian life the person that fights every single fundamental as it comes into their life the person that can't stay right the person that can't stay in church they still know and they're going to live a the person living a selfish Christian life is the person that's going to live a vexed Christian life. A cursed Christian life. Look you must choose. You must choose. Look at verse number 17. But at least it made him happy. At least he got that happiness. He didn't even get that. Therefore I hated life he says because the work that was wrought under the sun is grievous unto me for all his vanity and here it is again vexation of spirit. This is the same thing that's going to happen to you in Ephesians chapter 4 where it talks about grieving the Holy Spirit. Yay. At least he had the houses though. At least he had the houses and the beautiful things that he built. No. Yeah I hated all my labor. He's like I hate my life right now and I hate every single thing that I've done. Talk about a life where a place you don't want to be. I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun because I should leave it under the man that should be after me. He's like what good is it just going to somebody else can inherit it? What good is it? It means nothing. The point I'm trying to make here is this is such a great example of the Christian right here. This is a great example of looking we may not go to those extremes that Solomon went to but thinking of yourself is not even going to bring you happiness. It's just going to bring you vexation in this Christian life. You must choose this morning. You must choose or you will struggle with this vexation your whole life. And look if you are vexed. Hopefully no one's here is vexed but if you are vexed in your Christian life maybe in one area or the other area this is why. Because you have not chosen. You can't know. You can't know. You're halted between two opinions. Maybe even on small things. I didn't even make this you say oh you know you're the pastor obviously you've chosen but here's the thing when I got saved I was vexed for years. When I got saved I didn't choose right away. I didn't get saved in the next day choose. I got saved and I chose a couple things and then you know it was just kind of like you know this daily thing this weekly thing. But you know what I was living a vexed Christian life. I didn't choose until 2016. Until we chose you know what we're just going to get in this thing and we're going to stay in this thing and this is where we're going. And that's when I chose. So choose. Every day that you don't make that choice is just wasted time. It's just a wasted you know vain existence is what you know Solomon is teaching us here. So look don't be this person that chooses everything every day. I mean you know you choose like hey I'm gonna I'm gonna you know be humble now you know and then you know I'm gonna get prideful. And then I go back to the Christian life and then you know I get you know I think I'm better than people and then I start you know I get better and I get back. I just go back and forth and back and forth. Just choose one time. Just choose one time because like going back and forth is not success in the Christian life. It's not going to lead to it. And look true joy, true joy is knowing. True joy is knowing your purpose, knowing what you're supposed to do, choosing that purpose, choosing that and look realizing your prophet. Realizing you know you're you know seeing your fruit. Seeing that those generational results that you're God promises that you will see. God promises if you do this certain things you will see. I mean it's not like you have to you know you're not rolling the dice on this. I mean God promises hey choose, choose and you will see this. Choose to do this and you and this will be what happens. Just look and you know what you do you just stack in those investments is what you're doing. And give me a break there's joy in this. There's joy in this Christian life. I love the fact that it's Sunday. Sunday morning gives me great joy in this Christian life. I love this. I love coming to church even in some of the worst times that we've gone through in this ministry. I still love coming to church. Why? Because it's it's a choice. It's a choice. The ministry, your ministry, your Christian life is a ministry by the way. Your personal Christian life, every single person in here, your personal Christian life is a ministry. It has nothing to do with what your brother does, with what your sister does. It's about what you do focusing on them. Focusing on people you don't even know that may do the right things or may do the wrong things. It doesn't even make any difference because it's not about what you receive and that just understand this is all it is is a choice. And look at it at times. At times it can be a lot of work. It can be a lot of work but it's a lot of work that produces a lot of peace, joy and comfort. I mean God doesn't just you know say you're going to be miserable your entire life. I mean especially for us. We're living in trouble-free times. You know this Christian life is just you know just focus on others. Make this choice especially like if you're vexed in areas it's because you haven't chosen. Just choose one time. That's it. And God promises what will happen if you do that. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.