 I'll begin reading here at verse 7, I'll read to verse 10, we'll get into our study. Cleasiastes chapter 11, verse 7, truly the light is sweet and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun. But if a man lives many years and rejoices in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that is coming is vanity. Of course, oh young man in your youth, let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, walk in the ways of your heart and in the side of your eyes, but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment, and therefore remove sorrow from your heart and put away evil from your flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity. So at this point, Solomon is emphasizing that life is a gift, and because life is a gift, he is emphasizing the fact that we should learn to simply enjoy being alive. Many of us realize that it can be a beautiful experience to wake up to a bright morning sunshine and just to be happy. It's a simple pleasure, it's simple pleasures that mean so much. There are times when my wife and I will be driving somewhere earlier in the morning and we'll just look around and just comment about how beautiful the area is, how beautiful it is just to have the sunshine and birds singing as long as they're not singing too closely to my window. It's nice. We'll speak about how beautiful the morning is, how blessed we are, and we've come to realize as many of you have that it's the little things that make up the better part of the fabric of our lives. They're the things that we don't want to take for granted because those are the things that we call blessings. Solomon had already said something similar in chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes in verse 24 where he had said there's nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw was from the hand of God. And so the simple pleasures are the things that he's pointing to. Again, it's a blessing to simply wake up and anticipate the start of a new day. And that begins by being able to place your head on your pillow in peace the night before. See the way that I've learned to be able to wake up and enjoy the day is because I concluded then the day before by serving the Lord, by having a clean conscience, by having a sense of my sins being forgiven, by being a new creation in Christ Jesus. Before you come to Christ, not very many people, some perhaps do, but not many people will go to bed at night anticipating a great day the next day because a lot of people go through stress. A lot of people are going through hardship. A lot of people are going through tough times and all of that. But when you come to faith in Christ, it changes your perspective. You begin to have what has been referred to as an eternal perspective. You begin to realize that the Lord is in control of your life, that his blessings are upon you, and that you may cry for a night, but joy comes in the morning. You know the Lord's in charge. And because of that, there's a certain thing that you have called peace. So enjoying the start of a new day begins by having peace with the Lord and having the peace of the Lord. In Psalm 4 verses 7 and 8, the Psalmist said, You have filled my heart with greater joy than when there grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. I'll put my head on my pillow at night and I'll sleep in peace because you're with me. In Philippians 4 verses 6 and 7, Paul said it like this. He said, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, trusting the Lord, allowing him to work within you. See, for the one who has made peace with God, the light is sweet and is pleasant to enjoy, to awaken to the sound of birds singing, to feel the sun's warmth is great. The beauty of creation reminds us of the Creator of all things. And because the beauty of creation reminds us of the Creator, we worship Him. It's like what it says in Revelation 4 verse 11. You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. So you see the beauty of the morning. You see the sunshine and all. You awaken to this and you rejoice. Deuteronomy 10, 14 says, Indeed, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord, your God, also the earth with all that is in it. And so we have reason to enjoy the world that has been created by God. But it goes on in verse 8 to say this, But if a man lives many years and rejoices in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for there will be many. All that is coming is vanity. Now that's interesting. If a man lives many years and rejoices in them all, let him remember. Let him remember. And I want to look at that for a moment because I entitled this particular study, Remember, Rejoice, and Remove. And you'll see that in just a moment. But remember, remember. So what happens here as Solomon gives a somber and a sober reminder. If a person lives a long life and has enjoyed being alive, many dark days will come. In other words, life is not filled with perpetual sunshine. Over the course of a lifetime, sunny days are interrupted by storms and by darkness. Notice in verse 8 how he says, The days of darkness will be many. The longer you live, the more days of darkness you have. And you get married, there's nothing but darkness. No, I mean, if you. The days of darkness will be many. The question is, what are we to do when we encounter the days of darkness? What do we do when we have stormy days? He says in verse 8, Let him remember. Remember the days of darkness. Now when he says the days of darkness, the days of darkness could be the time of old age, but it also could speak of any time you have sorrow or any time that you might have pain. Sometimes the only thing we want to do is to forget those days of darkness. Trials and disappointments, sorrows and afflictions strike us over a lifetime. And though we enjoy the beauty of God's creation, we still endure heartaches. And the heartaches often provide the backdrop of what gives us appreciation for the blessings. These times of sorrow and affliction are not to be forgotten. The times of sorrow and affliction are to be remembered. They purify our character, they refine our faith, and they give us a deeper appreciation for blessings. Like it says in Psalm 90 verse 12, Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. You see the longer you live, the more trials you endure. And so because you're living longer and having more trials, we need an eternal framework. It says in Psalm 103 verses 15 and 16, As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. The wind passes over it, it's gone, and its place remembers it no more. In Psalm 112, 1-4, it says this, Praise the Lord, Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in his commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches will be in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Unto the upright, there arises light in the darkness. He is gracious, full of compassion and righteous. And so I want to look at that and develop that a little bit with you as the Psalmist is speaking concerning that because if you'd like, you can turn there and follow with me because I'm going to spend a moment in Psalm 112. So if you'd like, please turn your Bibles there because I'm going to spend a few moments there and I want to refer to the scriptures as I approach them. Psalm 112, when you look at that Psalm, even as I just read it to you in the verses, we're looking at verses 1-4 for a moment, in verses 1-3, notice how he praises the Lord because of his blessings to those who fear and obey him. He says that in verse 1, blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in his commandments. This is one who fears the Lord, and this is one who obeys the Lord. So the one who loves the Lord and is blessed by him is going to be the one who loves God's Word. It's like what it says in Proverbs 12-28, in the way of righteousness is life and in its pathway there's no death. You have the way of righteousness outlined in Scripture, and so you have a life that is blessed by God. But as he's speaking here in Psalm 112, the promise is that the righteous one will be blessed, and he'll be blessed, he says, in many ways. In verse 2, he says his descendants will be mighty on earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed. In verse 3, wealth and riches will be in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. So he says his children will be mighty. Wealth and riches will be given to him and his household. The righteous lives will place him in positions of honor and leadership. Wealth and riches will cover things like clothing and furniture as well as money, so he has all that he needs. He says in verse 3, his righteousness endures forever. Because he's righteous, the generation that follows will be blessed also. The effects will be transmitted from generation to generation. So he's pointing out that godliness has its rewards in this life and in future generations. Now it sounds like a wonderful promise and a guarantee of a painless life. You know, when you got saved, I don't know what you expected for your future, but if you got saved as I did when I got saved, I just was amazed at the sense of almost a physical sense of the burden of sin rolling off of me. I mean, I had such an incredible salvation experience that it was miraculous in so many ways and so very special to think of that I thought I would be walking on clouds forever. I thought that I, because so much weight was removed, I just had a lightness to my life and I thought that this would last forever. But the fact is my life hasn't been painless and it hasn't been moving from one continual blessing to another continual blessing without disappointments or without heartaches, without things of that nature. That hasn't been the case in my life at all. You have tough times. I've had my share we all have. You go through hard times sometimes and disappointments and the things that go along with that. So when he says his descendants will be mighty on earth, generation of the upright will be blessed, wealth and riches will be in his house, his righteousness endures forever. All of that sounds like a great promises and they are. But he gives to us a little more insight when he says in verse four, unto the upright there arises light in the darkness. So that tells me something that even if you're upright and you're living according to the word of the Lord and all of that, there's still going to be darkness in your life. Light in the darkness. When it says there'll be light in the darkness, that's an interesting picture. It's a picture of the sun rising after a long night. And there are times in our lives that we have seasons of darkness, but God is going to bless and it's going to be like the sunrise. You see, fearing the Lord and serving him doesn't produce painless living. We all know that sometimes we encounter incredible pain and suffer deep afflictions. But his promise is that when we go through adversity, light still will shine on us. We go through hard times, but the Lord is with us through them all. In Psalm 42 verse eight, the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime in the night, his song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life. In the night time, his song will be with me. He teaches us, I like this phrase, it's found in the book of Job, he teaches us songs in the night. He teaches us like when Paul was in that Philippian jail, that even at midnight after being beaten and put in the stocks, it simply says that he and Silas were singing praises unto the Lord at midnight. I mean, in the midst of affliction and unjust treatment and the pain that he had suffered and being in those stocks, he still was singing praises to the Lord because God gives us the ability to do that. The deepest lessons and blessings often come through the deepest and darkest portions of our life. How many of you guys have heard the recent concern over Rudolph the red-nosed ranger? Anybody hear anything here? Did you ever hear? Yeah, it's odd, the rest of you don't, you don't read your newspapers, do you? The interesting thing is, and let me tell you the controversy for a minute if I may, you know, there are those who say that the children should not be singing Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer anymore because it has bullies in the song. And okay, some of you are saying, okay, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, you're trying to get to the point where it talks about bullies, right? All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games. You remember that now? I'm sure you do. Those are bullies. You want to hear the story of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer? You say, yeah, okay. I read the back story on that yesterday. Interesting story and I highlighted it and let me share it with you. There's a point I'm going to make in a moment. The story of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was written by a man by the name of Bob May in 1938. He was an ad writer for Montgomery Ward and his wife was dying of cancer. And his four-year-old daughter asked him, why isn't mommy like everybody else's mommy? Well, to try and help her in medical costs and everything that had amounted to him dealing with her cancer, he exhausted all of his finances. But his wife died and he had nothing to give to his daughter for Christmas. And because he had nothing to give to his little girl, she was four years old at the time, he made up a story for her. And the story was about a reindeer named Rudolph. And he began to share this story in bits and pieces and eventually compiled it, elongated it. And what he did is, because he couldn't afford a gift for her for Christmas, he had to move out before he was living and move into what used to be referred to as a tenement, a very impoverished living. Because he couldn't afford a gift for her for Christmas, he made a homemade picture book of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Now he was invited to go to a Christmas party. His wife had died in December. He didn't want to go. But he went to it because he felt he should. And while he was there, he had a group of his friends around him and he told them the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. And when he did, everybody wanted copies of that themselves. Well, Montgomery Ward bought the rights to the book. And over the next six years, six million copies of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer were given away. The head of the department store gave him back the rights to the book. And four years later, Rudolph made him a millionaire. His brother-in-law was successful at songwriting. And so he set the story to music. He originally asked Bing Crosby to sing the song. But he had, he refused. He had sung, I think, White Christmas and all. And he didn't want to. And so they eventually got a singing cowboy by the name of Jean Autry. And he recorded it. And in a few years, it became the second best-selling Christmas song ever behind White Christmas. And why am I telling you that? Because I think we all should sing Rudolph ready? No, because as I read that story, it moved me on various levels, to be honest with you. But in the midst of his hardness, in the midst of the darkness, in the midst of the sorrow, in the midst of loss, good happened. Things can happen even in the midst of that. And the second reason is the moral story to it. I think that today, because people are saying you ought not to be singing Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer because it has bullies in it. If I were to ask us all right now, anybody in here ever get bullied? All of us have, I'd assume. And if you didn't get bullied, you were a bully. I hate you. I think it's part of life. Am I saying it's good? Of course not. Am I saying that everybody ought to go through bullying? Of course not. Am I saying that bullying doesn't hurt? It does. Was I bullied? Yes, more than once. Yes, we all have been. And it does hurt. And it makes you feel bad. But how did you respond to it? What came out of it? Did you learn anything? Were there any character traits in you? Did you develop anything? I'm not saying it's good. Don't misunderstand me. But I know that even in the affliction of being bullied, that there are things that have value that I've learned. I've learned how to speak to people who are oppressive. I've learned how to deal with issues that were not comfortable. I've learned a lot of lessons through it. Did I want to learn those lessons through that? No. Do I want a world where people treat each other with love, kindness, and respect? Absolutely. Shouldn't the church be that way? Yes, of course. But when we try and ban life experiences from people, life experiences that actually transform them and can actually help to create in them something other than just a wounded spirit, because I've learned some things. And I want to be careful how I'm saying this, because I never liked my children being bullied. I was the protective father. I would get upset at somebody who hurt my baby. I'm not saying that being bullied is a good thing. What I'm saying is you can learn lessons through it. Another one I'm especially saying is to try and ban a story like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer without understanding its backstory is probably not the wisest thing, because the guy who wrote it, Bob May, he wrote it from his own experience. He wasn't a reindeer, by the way, and he didn't have a red nose other than when he drank. No, he was bullied as a child. And Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is really a story about his life because he was small and nobody chose him to play on the team. He was the one who was not allowed to play in any reindeer games. It was really his story. It was a story of how you can overcome. It was a story of how even in the midst of the afflictions and the problems and the bullying and those things, you can be an overcomer if you keep pressing towards a proper mark. That was the point and that is the point of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Now I'm not going to go on radio and fight for Rudolph. I'm simply pointing out that we can go through dark seasons in our life, but if we have hope and understanding God will bring us through, we can learn lessons. And there are dark nights in every life. And if we think that we're going to grow up as Christians and never have any affliction, any persecution, any sorrow, it doesn't happen that way. We say, I want to be like you, Jesus. Maybe you have. I have. I want to be like you. Make me like you, Lord. Make me like you. I want to be like him, but I have to remember Isaiah 53. He is a wounded healer. He was wounded for me. He was rejected for me. He was rejected for us. And so there are things that I learned through being rejected. There are things that I learned through afflictions that I won't learn any other way. And one of the things I know is there is one who gives songs in the night. I know that weeping endures for a night, but joy will come in the morning. I know that God is in control. And even if it doesn't seem that he's in control at this moment, he ultimately is. And what was intended for evil very often will turn out for good. I've discovered that. So you hold on in faith to Christ and you cry out to him, you do what you need to do to survive and all of that, but you make it through. And so you're going to live a long life. If you want to live a long life, Solomon is saying, live a long life. You'll have many dark days. That's a fact. We can't hide from it. We can't pretend it's not true. The longer you live, the more opportunities you'll have to have dark days. That's the point he's making. When you encounter sorrow and disappointment and loss, and you turn those things to the Lord and you say, God, be merciful to me, help me. My faith becomes stronger. In Psalm 66 verses 10 through 12, you, oh God, have tested us. You've refined us and silver is refined. You brought us into the net. You laid affliction on our backs. You caused men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you brought us out to rich fulfillment. We went through all of these things, but you never forsook us. You never left us. You never abandoned us, and you brought us out into blessing. In Job 2310, he knows the way that I take. When he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. The fact is our days of darkness are not to be forgotten. They're to be remembered. It provides us with deep life lessons. A place as we met the Lord in special ways. In times when he thought, I almost gave up, but then you rescued me. Those are the things you remember, how I thought that I was forsaken, how I felt I was abandoned, how I felt I was alone, how I felt that, you know, the heavens were brassed when I cried out to the Lord and I said, God, can't you see? Can't you see the pain I'm in? Can't you hear when I cry to you? God is listening, and God does see, and God does deliver. Those are lessons you learn that actually sharpen your faith. Psalm 119 verse 71 says, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. And Psalm 119 verse 75, I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. I have learned the depth of your word by putting it into practice, by calling out and asking for help and then experiencing your deliverance. I've seen you rescue me over and over again, and I've determined over this long life that you are faithful. And these things that we go through are the things that deepen us in our trust for the Lord. And we come to realize that he works through all our trials to bring us to that place that we've been asking, Lord, may I know you deeply. In 2 Corinthians, Paul said it like this in chapter 1 verses 9 and 10, he said, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us in whom we trust that he still will deliver us. And so he delivered us, he does deliver us, he will still deliver us. God is faithful. And these are the things you learn by remembering those days of darkness. These are the things that you will learn as you turn to the Lord going through those tough times. And so back in chapter 11, that's what he's speaking about. He's saying to us that we need to remember, let him remember the days of darkness. They will be many, all that come in his vanity. The longer you live, the more you experience, and there may be incredible joys, but again, the longer you live, the more sorrows you endure. You're newlywed, you marry, you're in love, and you live 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years with the love of your life. And then one day that when you love so much goes to be with the Lord. And it's for you a day of darkness, it's a day of sorrow. It's a day that really stretches into a period of time where all you can do is remember, now you can do is look back, not only at the joy, but you feel that sorrow. Those are things we'll go through. Those are things every human being goes through. We're not exempt from them, guys. There's no guarantee. I wish I, as a pastor and believer, I wish I could guarantee everyone of us a great day. The minute you get saved, all your loved ones will get saved. I wish I could guarantee that. You'll never have any financial difficulty again. You'll have nothing but perfect health forever. You're going to be the person when you walk into the room that everybody stands up and cheers because you finally showed up. But I can't promise they stand up and cheer when I leave, but not when I show up. It doesn't happen that way. It doesn't happen. There are silent moments of agony. Times that you will cry. This isn't a cheery study, it's true. Times that you'll cry yourself to sleep. Times when your heart will break in ways that you never thought possible. You'll lose somebody you love. You'll be disappointed in somebody you respected. Something will happen. And when you heal, something else does. Remember the days of darkness. Why? Because it was in the days of darkness that you began to appreciate the days of sunshine. And it's in the days of darkness that God teaches you deeper things about Him. He will teach you things of how He will never leave you nor forsake you, that He's always with you, that He has a vase that He keeps your tears in and He hasn't forgotten you. Those are things you learn as you walk with the Lord. The enemy will whisper in this ear and he'll say things like, God is forsaken you. God has rejected you. God doesn't love you. He will whisper. And then you hear the still small voice of the Lord speaking to you and the other one saying, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I am with you, though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil. I will be with you. And that's what you learn as you walk with the Lord over time. So Solomon's wisdom is pure. Not God for the days of sunshine, but don't forget the days of darkness because it's in the days of darkness that your faith was strengthened. It's where God became the God you wanted to worship in the midst of those. He showed you who He is. You had this idea that He was this way and God says, no, no, I'm not able to be put in the box of the God you'd like me to be. This is who I really am. And then you start loving Him in spirit and in truth because you know who He is in truth. Not the God you created, the God of no disappointment, but the God who is there, the God who hears, the God who delivers, and that's the God we worship. And it strengthens us in our faith and refines us in our character. And over time, people begin to ask you, what's the secret of the joy that you have? You've got through so much and you say, I haven't forgotten the days of darkness. I rejoice in the day of sunshine, but my character was formed in a day of darkness. And I've learned to walk with God by faith and not by sight. When I didn't see Him, I knew He was there. When I couldn't hear Him, I knew He was still speaking. When I didn't feel Him, I know He never left me. And these are the things you learn, guys, over time. And Solomon's word is so correct there, obviously it would be inspired by God. His word is so true. A man lives many years, rejoices in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness. There will be many. All that is coming is vanity. With that cherry word, let's move to verse nine. Grace, oh young man in your youth, let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, put away evil from your flesh. Rejoice in youth are vanity, interesting. Rejoice, rejoice, he had first said remember, now in verse nine he says rejoice, rejoice. With this in mind, Solomon is encouraging young people to enjoy their days of youth. Rejoice because our days of youth should be carefree. You guys remember carefree days? Some of you are young. You still have them, enjoy them. I remember them, I remember them very well. You know summer vacation, we really had a summer vacation. I mean, man school ended for us, it always ended in June and it began again in September. So we had two and a half solid months of doing absolutely nothing and those carefree days were amazing and they were. When you wake up as a teenager, I mean as a little kid, I didn't really think there were that much, but when I got to be in my teens, especially freshman into senior, it's summer man. My mom would do whatever she was going to do. My dad was at work, my mom was working also and they'd leave and there I was in the house by myself and I'd sleep as long as I wanted and I got up and I'd make myself something to eat. I'd hitchhike to the beach, spend the day there. I have friends of mine will say to me today, because we went to Hawaii, they say you didn't get any sun. You didn't get any sun. Well I can't. That's a funny thing. We go to Hawaii but I'm susceptible to cancers and stuff and the skin so I can't. So I can't lay out, but you may be surprised and who cares, but I'll tell you anyway. During the summer, I never wore a shirt. I only wore shorts and during the summer I would get almost as brown as a Hershey chocolate bar. That's a fact. People say you're so white, yeah I am, but during the summer we would actually have a contest, a friend of mine named Gippy, his name was Gippy Lentini, an Italian friend of mine and he had more melatonin but he could get a Hershey chocolate bar, put it on his stomach and it would blend. That's how dark he got. I got almost that dark. I was dark, dark, dark. And when I was a senior, I was dark, dark, dark and I decided I don't like brown hair so I dyed my hair blonde. Yeah, I did. Long before people were doing that for fashion statements. And my hair turned green. Actually it was, if you saw the senior picture, my senior picture, it was just growing out and you can see the streaks in it and I tried to dye it back to the natural color. I know nothing about dyeing hair so my hair turned green. I was a boy with the green hair in high school because I tried to dye it. But those days were crazy. They were, you know, get up, go to the park, I could tell you story after story, we all have our collection but I understand what he's speaking about here. Enjoy the days of your youth. Enjoy them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having a good time as you're young and he's saying these days are good to enjoy. Because there's a reason he's saying this, rejoice because our days of youth are carefree but these are the days we enjoy because as we grow older, we have more problems. Now he's not saying live in a way that's improper. He says walk in the ways of your heart and in the side of your eyes. When he says heart and your eyes, that speaks of our desires. He's not saying live crazy, live debauched if you will. What he is saying is that as long as our desires are proper, we should enjoy life. As long as your desires are aligned with the things that are pleasing to the Lord, why wouldn't you enjoy life? And so he's saying as you're young, enjoy those days. Don't be so stressed out. Don't be so worried about everything. I see what's interesting in the way he's putting this and I'll look at it again. When he says rejoice so young man in your youth, let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, walk in the ways of your heart, in the side of your eyes. Know this, that for all these God will bring you into judgment. Enjoy your life guys, but remember that ultimately stand before the Lord. Enjoy your life, but remember life is more than the simple things that you're finding pleasure in. There's a deeper meaning. He's going to look into that in chapter 12. We'll look at that next time we're together as we conclude Ecclesiastes. But he's saying the thing that will help you from living a crazy wrong kind of life is to remember that there is a judgment. See, one of the things that the Bible says concerning unbelievers is this. There's no fear of God in their eyes. There's no fear of God. They don't believe in a final judgment. They don't believe that there'll be a day of reckoning where they answer for their life. They don't believe that. And that's why they eat, drink and are married because tomorrow they're going to die. And so you might as well enjoy yourself with the time that you have. And so that's how a lot of people live and they call them hedonists. They're always in search of pleasure for the next thing. He's saying just be aware of it. Enjoy your life. But remember, there is a day of accounting. And this knowledge that one day we stand before the judge of the whole earth ought to cause us to live lives that are proper. So you can enjoy your life without having to be really sinful. We're going to see in chapter 12, verse 14, God will bring every work into judgment including every secret thing, whether good or evil. Every secret thing, things that you think nobody else knows, God does. The things that we thought we got away with because there were no witnesses. We looked to the left. We looked to the right, looked in front, looked behind, but we didn't look up. And there were eyes upon us who saw those things. And every work, even the secret things, he says, will be brought into judgment whether good or evil. And Psalm 96, verse 13, he's coming. He's coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth. Jesus in John 5, 28 and 29 said it like this, do not marvel at this. The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life. Those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. No rejoice in your youth. Let your heart share you in the days of your youth. Enjoy life. Walk in the ways of your heart, in the side of your eyes. But remember, let this balance you. Know that for all these, God will bring you into judgment. We all will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We all will stand before the Lord to give account of ourselves. And you know, we really, I think the church really needs to wake up to that. We have taken the grace of God and have stretched it into giving us permission to live lives that are not honoring to the Lord. And a lot of Christians live in ways that, well, other people will see them in the way they're living and want to witness to them and tell them about Jesus because they don't reflect that they know Him at all in their life. I've met many people who over the years, and I've been that person over the years that actually has, you know, I have an inclination to want to share with them about the Lord. And it turns out that they are professing Christians, oh, yeah, I know Jesus. And I've been the same way in my early walk with the Lord. I had so many ups and downs in the first couple of years, I don't speak with judgment about that. I've been there. The bottom line is, is I had to get to the point where I said, it's all or nothing. I have to live for Him or walk away because I can't be in between anymore, either be hot or be cold. But Jesus said, the lukewarm, I'll spew out of my mouth. When He says the lukewarm, I spew out of my mouth. When He says spew, He's speaking concerning a gag reflex. He's literally saying, you make me want to puke with your lukewarmness. That's a pretty strong statement coming from our loving Savior. But it's because people are professing to know Christ, but acting as if He's not their Lord. It's called practical atheism. You're calling yourself Christian, but you live as if God doesn't exist. So He's saying, remember, remember, there is one you give an account to. There is. Listen, don't wait until you're old to come to know that. There are people, I was this way. I thought, well, you know, when I'm getting an older, then I'll get more serious. When at first, no, no, no, there are people think, yeah, just before I die, I'll become a real saint. Now it doesn't work that way. What happens is you get this, this behavior, this pattern of life becomes who you are. And it's harder and harder and harder to step away from those things because it's imprinted now on you. You have to start out young. You have to wake up saying, as young as your salvation is, you have to wake up saying, I'm going to follow the Lord today, and I'm going to add on to what I did yesterday. And I'll do that tomorrow. And I'll do that tomorrow. And that's how you start growing in layers of maturity. But if you take two steps forward and then you backslide and then try two steps forward again, you find yourself in a rut. You just dig a hole for yourself, and it's difficult to climb out of it. So the thing that keeps me going and kept me going from fairly early in my walk was the knowledge that, that I have to go forward. I can't be continually rededicating myself and continually trying again. I have to die to myself and why? Because I will give an account of myself to the Lord. Everyone will. I will give an account of myself to God. What did you do with what I gave you? And I have to be able to say the best that I could with the faith that I had. And so that's an encouragement to all of us to be aware of that. And then he finally gets to the word remove, verse 10, therefore, remove sorrow from your heart. Put away evil from your flesh for childhood and youth are vanity. With this in mind, pursue the Lord, put away evil. You see, privileges and blessings are always balanced by responsible living. So don't allow yourself to become overcome with concern and worry. That will lead you into a life of hopelessness. You know, I say this often, often enough for you to have heard it before, but there are quite a number of people I've encountered over the years that I call E. Or Christians, you know, from Winnie the Pooh, you know, E. Or Christians, you know, that, oh, my, things are always bad kind of thing, you know. I don't encourage anybody to allow yourself to get into the mindset of I don't encourage anybody to get into the mindset of everything's misery. And then I finally die. It's just not, that's not the way it is at all. What I've tried to learn over the years and my personality is different than others, there are some guys that I just really, I just admire so much because they have such an optimism in them, you know, they see the cup half full. And me, as I was growing up, they'd say, is the cup half full or half empty? And I'd say, I don't even see a cup. You know, I was, I was Mr. Malanchale, you know, so everything's bad. Nothing's good, you know. Then I got saved. And when I got saved, I started seeing the good of the Lord. I started seeing God bless my life. I started seeing God save people I loved. I started seeing the Lord. He saved my dad. He saved my mom, my family. I teach a Bible study. He brings a young lady to the Bible study who gets saved through that Bible study and becomes my wife. I've seen the Lord do amazing things. And so I never want to take His blessings for granted. And I want to, I want to stay under the spout where the blessings come out like Pastor Chuck used to say. I want the Lord to pour into my life. So rather than putting a hand, we'll say over that cup to keep from being the flow of the Spirit. I want to be careful with confessing my sin and forsaking them. I want the Lord to continue to pour into me because I want Him not only to pour into me, but to pour out to you. And that's Christianity. When the Lord saves you, it's not for you alone. The most selfish person is the one who goes to heaven by themselves. The reason the Lord worked in you is one of those ways that He can reach other people. So He reaches you so He can reach perhaps your dad, perhaps your mom, your grandmother, a brother, a sister, an aunt, an uncle, the relatives, friends, neighbors. That's how it works. My first Bible study I ever did was in Norwalk. The Bible study was to my mom, my dad, my two sisters, and anybody else I could bribe to come and listen to me speak. It was only like four or five, six people, six people. And I taught that Bible study. It grew to nine people eventually. But I taught that Bible study for the joy of teaching that Bible study for years. I started that Bible study in 1973. I believe I gave up that Bible study in probably 77. And I was already an assisting pastor in another church. I couldn't continue going to Norwalk to do that kind of thing anymore. And so I had to give up that Bible study because I had my other duties now as I was pastoring. That's kind of how it worked in my life. And so when God got hold of me, God reminded me of what He had done. And He said, I've got blessings upon your life. So from my perspective, and I was a young man, from my perspective, I want to stay in a place where God can move and therefore remove sorrow from your heart, put away evil from your flesh and don't remain a child. When He says childhood and youth are vanity, one of the temptations people have today is to prolong their youth. To want to stay young forever. And a lot of people, and I understand the temptation for that. I mean, that's been for as long as man has been alive. You know, we know how old Eve, Adam was, but we don't know how old Eve was. Why? Because Eve didn't tell us, she dyed her hair. No, we want to stay young, you know, because we're in love with it. But we're to flee youthful lust, Paul said. What's that mean? Well, there are things in youth that are pretty much typical of youth. You know, there's arrogance and there can be pride and there can be pugnaciousness and being opinionated and hard to deal with and rebellious. Those are things in youth that you have to mature out of by dying to. So Paul speak into Timothy and he says, flee youthful lusts. Don't remain young and act young because people don't need an immature pastor, Timothy. They need a man of God. They don't come to hang around with the coolest man in the church. They want to be led by a man who knows God. That's what Paul was telling Timothy because the temptation in the society back in Ephesus during that day is the same that we have today. Is that temptation to always be young, to come on like you're young. But guess what? When I went for advice, when I needed direction, I didn't go to a 25 year old man. I went to my pastor who was like a father because I knew that my pastor Chuck had lived and served the Lord for so many years. There was wisdom in him. And wisdom comes to age and experience the word of God and by the spirit. And so if I want some practical wisdom, I go to the one who's been walking in a practical way. If you want to be used by the Lord to be an influence in somebody's life, don't try and be the coolest person in the Bible study. Be someone who knows Jesus and the people will look to you ultimately and will ask you questions about the Lord because God surely is with you. And I want to know, what has the Lord done in your life? I began to learn some of that when I was 23 years old. When I started teaching my father who was 47 at the time, Bible studies. A 23 year old snotty nose kid speaking to his own father, telling him how to live to please God. How do you do that? How does a 23 year old earn the respect of a 47 year old? How? By living for Christ, by having a sober mind, by being serious about the things of God, by giving up youthful lusts and walking in the word and the spirit and power and faith and love, by having a sound mind, by knowing that there's something greater than just goofing around as a kid. When I was a child, I thought I was a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. And there's a point, when you've gotta make up your mind that you're gonna be an adult in Christ. And so when he says here, childhood and youth are vanity, they're fleeting. You grow out of them, they're not long lasting. So pursue the things that last. Pursue that, which makes you a better believer. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 22, flee youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Righteousness, faith, love, peace in fellowship. Those are the things we need. Listen, if you wanna be used by the Lord, do you, I hope you do. If you wanna be used by the Lord, those are the things to do. Enjoy life, it's blessing from God. It's great to see the blessings pour into your life. I love it. But don't be so upset when dark days come. There will be many, but there'll be lessons you learn in those dark days. And the lesson you learn, one of the best ones I've learned is the one I've already shared with you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. And I began to learn, I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me. I am never alone. The first Bible study, and I'll close with this, that I gave in a church service as a 27 year old was my testimony. It was a Sunday morning at Calvary Chapel of Claremont back in 1977, I believe it is, or right in that area, 78. And the pastor, no, it was 79. The pastor asked me to do a Bible study. A Sunday morning, I'd been teaching already for around six years, but they were all home studies. And my home studies never were bigger than 10 people. And now I'm gonna teach in this huge church of 100 people, and I was just, I was crying. I remember crying in prayer the night before, just God, help me. And I gave a Bible study. My first Bible study was John 1633. Now I'm alone, yet I'm not alone for you're with me. And I get my testimony, how I grew up alone, how I grew up with a mother who worked from the time I was in elementary school, that I took care of my sisters when they were little. I was their babysitter at the age of 10, and my mom was gone. A child left in themselves will bring shame to their mother. That's what I did. I got into drugs and the alcohol at the age of 15, and I lived a life that was debauched, and I shared that. And my whole thing about coming to faith in Christ is I was alone. I didn't believe I was loved by anybody. I didn't believe my mom loved me. I didn't believe my father loved me. I didn't believe anybody loved me. So I tried to find my sense of purpose in relationships, but I couldn't keep them because I was too immature to know how to love somebody else. So I demanded that they give me attention because I thought I needed it. And so I didn't have a lot of girlfriends, of course, but when I finally got older, I began to realize how messed up I was. And so at that point, that's when I said, God, something's gonna happen in my life because I'm not gonna make it, because I almost died. I had taken five reds. Some of you know what reds are. Second, I'll lily have 40s for those of you who understand that language. And I drank almost a half gallon of wine, and I almost overdosed. I almost died. I was laying in the back of a car, and I almost died. And I woke up and I said, something's gotta change or I'm gonna die. And that's when my friend Bill started going to Calvary Chapel Co. Samesa. And that's when Bill started asking me to go to church. And I went with him to church, and I walked into a church filled with Jesus freaks. And I thought, whatever this is, I don't have it. And then it was only a couple of two, three months later that I went to a Maranatha concert. And that's when I gave my heart to Christ because I realized at that time, that my life was wasted. There was nothing going on in my life, and I was gonna die. Because I was doing crazy things. I was doing crazy things. I lost over 30 pounds in a month because I stopped eating and I was only drinking, smoking pot, and things like that. And I went from 170 some pounds to 145 pounds. I was just slowly spiraling. My health was going and I was only 20 years old. And finally, finally the Holy Spirit broke through. And that's how I got saved. It was his love. It was his love that I needed, not the love of a woman, but the love of my God. And that's what changed my life. And that's why I'm so serious when I share with you guys every time I teach. Follow Jesus. Follow him. There's no one better and no one greater. And no one loves you more and no one forgives you more than Jesus Christ. That's why I do this.