Living Life Backwards Pt.4

Welcome to our, Sunday quipping school today, December 6, 2020. I'm Alvin Davis, and I have the pleasure of, leading us to our lesson this morning, called Living a Life Less Upwardly Mobile, and, I hope it'll be a lesson that we all can get some blessing from, some nuggets of truth or truth bombs as my buddy Bob Gall likes to say. So, as we get into our lesson, for those of us here and then also gathered on live stream, let me get us started. just with an announcement, we do have our 2nd through 5th grade Sunday school class going on right now, in the patio area just behind the security, gate over there to your right.

we do, require that one parent or guardian be there with the kids for that class, and you can see Carlos Price, he is here. if you have questions about that. So let's go ahead and pray. Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to spend some time in your word and to look at a, chapter in the, in the word, chapter 4 of Ecclesiastes, as well as in our, our book that we're studying through, Living Life Backwards.

both chapters are so packed with truth, Lord, and I just pray by your spirit that you would fill us all, just help us to Be able to understand it, to handle it rightly in my case, and for all of us to be able to apply it, whether it be big in big ways or, or small or subtle ways. And so, we do dedicate this time to you, Lord. all of this is to your glory, and we ask these things in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen.

So let's start off by doing a little bit of review. If you need a handout, they are over here at the table to your right, not only for today's lesson, but all the lessons that we've covered so far. And so there are some fill in the blanks there. I'm notorious in missing those, so we're going to hit those near the beginning of the lesson so you have them all for those of you that are like me that like those blanks filled in, but we'll start out by doing a little review as you can see there on your handout.

The first chapter we studied is let's pretend, it's there as well. it's, the book of Ecclesiastes is one of God's gifts to help us live in the real world, David Gibson says in that book. And so, instead of living in a pretend world or the world as we would like it to be, He starts off with the book of Ecclesiastes by reminding us, the preacher does, that the world is not as we would pretend it to be. It is as it is, and it's really good for us to be able to see the world as it really is, because that's one of the first steps in us living life backwards to go with the title of the book is just realizing that we live in a broken world and there's brokenness all around us and we can't pretend that away.

And it, and it helps us prepare for eternity by drawing our attention to death. And so moving into chapter two, which is titled Bursting the Bubble, that's exactly what Gibson does through Ecclesiastes chapter 2 is burst the bubble and as I quoted there, death can radically enable us to enjoy life. And that's what he uses to burst the bubble there in Chapter 2. The day of our death is approaching.

It's just one certainty that the preacher sees. Now, of course, on this side of the cross, we have imminence, so we know the Lord could return at any time, and that's a very, very hopeful thing. But those are the real two certainties about our life is the Lord could either return right now or we will go to see Him. And either of those helps us live life well, live life backwards, and then we move, we move into chapter 3 in both the Ecclesiastes and also in Gibson's book, and that chapter is titled Doing Time, and Carlos Price did an excellent job of unpacking that last week, taking us through Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

And so I would recommend that to you not only through the handout, but if you haven't had a chance to see that, that's available on our live stream through the Cornerstone YouTube channel and I really encourage you to look at all three of these that we've had so far. But Gibson writes it is a part of living well to accept two things. First, we are enclosed in time within time's bounds, and second, God is not. So that's a part of living well is just to accept those two realities.

So as we move into both of our chapters for today, I wanted to begin by just saying that many of that I have the opportunity I have had for the last 8 years to work in professional baseball. I work for the Seattle Mariners and just built into our system or yeah, just embedded in our way of life within that context is this concept of upward mobility. and, just for maybe our kids out there, our, our upward mobility is just that desire to have a little bit more than what you have.

It could be economic, it could be social, it could be relationships, you, you, you, you're single, you want to be married, and it's so there's that desire that all of us have to, to move upward and, within our system, that's Really important.

I don't know that's an understatement. guys' careers depend upon that, especially from the player standpoint. And so, I guess the question I would ask is, is. All upward mobility wrong.

you think about the title Living a life less upward upward mobile. Would I go into that context with our players who are trying to realize their dream. And trying to promote to the next level and say to them, less is more. And I think the preacher, the writer of Ecclesiastes, would, would say, honestly, possibly.

I think Gibson would say possibly. It depends upon how you go about it. Do you It depends on your motivation. And so as we get into our chapter this week, today, I hope that we'll be able to unpack the proper motivation that will lead us to that desire, to that focus, focus, to that understanding of how to live a life less.

Upwardly mobile, not, not upwardly mobile, but less upwardly mobile. And so we'll break down chapter 4, by looking at it in three sections. You can see there on your handout that Gibson has broken the, the chapter down to just straight from his, his, section headings within the chapter if you've had a chance to read the book. And then also I, I, I included what I call a a bonus section if you wanted to fill in that gap, that that blank.

It's a deleted scene, that's the 5th point there or I'm sorry, the 4th point. so here's, here's the, here are the blanks for your handout. I'm gonna deliver as promised. Number 1 is where am I going with my life?

Where am I going with my life? Number 2 is hating my neighbor. Destroying myself. Number 3 is loving my neighbor, loving myself.

And number 4 is, as I've titled it, the deleted scene, and I'll talk about that a little bit more if I manage my time properly and we can actually get there. before we get into living life backwards, if you wanted to pull up Ecclesiastes 4 on your, in your Bible or on your, in your devices or, or open up there in your Bible, I just want to make a few observations about the text that I found interesting before we get into Gibson's book, and I'll just warn you ahead of time, I'm going to be quoting Gibson extensively, in this lesson, so I, I, I hope that you don't get tired of, of hearing his quotes, but as I said before, this chapter is just so packed.

with so many truths, it's very, very dense and so it's hard for me anyway to, to put what he's saying into my own words. I think he says it much better than I ever could.

So if, as you're looking at Ecclesiastes chapter 4, You're going to notice that the chapter breaks down into some different in different ways. One is we have the preacher making observations and so you'll see the repeated words I looked again, I have seen, I saw, which is inserted by the NAS into one of the verses and that's in verses 147, and 8 and 15. And then you will also notice that he makes some comparison conclusions. I join those two together, comparison conclusions, where he says better than.

Something is better than, and Gibson had referred to that in chapter one when he was talking about vanity. How, how do we define, how do we understand vanity? And one of the points that Gibson made was that we shouldn't interpret it as meaningless because the preacher later on, as in this chapter and chapter 3, is going to say that some things are better than others. And so we have a couple of those included in our chapter here in verses 2 and 3.

6 and 13. And then also we have some proverbs like wisdom inserted in these observations and comparison conclusions in verses 5 and 6 and 9 through 12. So let's get right into it, point number 1. where am I going with my life?

This is a question that Gibson poses to get us to think about how much we think about ourselves, whether consciously or subconsciously, whether in big ways or small. so how are you feeling right now? Are you comfortable? Is your chair comfortable?

Are you warm enough? Are you cool enough? Is your mouth dry like mine? are you thirsty, hungry?

Did you eat enough? he, he wants us to come to the understanding. And be aware of how much we actually think about ourselves. And so, I know, I don't know about you, but this pandemic COVID-19 season has really amped this up for me.

Every tickle, every weird sensation, back pain, things like that has caused me to think like what's going on because today is an extremely busy day. it's an all hands on deck type of day with with membership class and new members and all of that, and we actually have two staff members that are out sick today. And so when I asked the question without her having had the chance to listen to the lesson, she had like, how are we doing? I'm not used to being asked that question.

But that's a question that we have before before us today, and it's a question that's designed to help us to think about others and not just ourselves, as Philippians 2 tells us. And this is a chapter in a nutshell, Gibson goes on to say, we, not me. The focus of the question is other people, no longer just me. And by the way, for our LA Rams fans, I actually Googled this saying, and this saying was a part of the Rams' spring workouts.

Players had t-shirts with this phrase on it back in 2017. So I don't know if anybody read Ecclesiastes and came up with that, or Sean McVeigh said it was just a byproduct of their thinktank think tank as a coaching staff, but if you Google that and you looked at it, you can see that the concepts are the same, that they wanted to create a mindset and a culture within their team that was all about others. Not just about themselves, and I can tell you in professional baseball or any professional sports that's very, very important, trying to communicate to our players that the best way for them to get what they ultimately want because we always acknowledge their dreams, that's very important.

But the best way to realize your dreams is to think about the we and not just about me, and that gets challenged at times.

I remember when I was a very, very young player, I think it was my first spring training, one of our Major League players, he shall go unnamed. I have the highest respect for him, so I'm not throwing him in front of the bus, but I remember him meeting with a glove, a representative from a from a glove company. And I knew that he had a contract with another glove company. And I asked him, So why are you, and he took a couple of gloves.

Why you, why'd you take those gloves? And he said, Hey man, you don't know how long you're going to be here. You've got to get all you can get. And now I, I said, no, no, I, I'll, I'll choose a different path than that.

But, but isn't that so typical? Life is short. Get all you can get. And, the preacher is one of probably one of the wealthiest people that ever lived on the planet.

So he's not against wealth. He's not against having wealth. What he is trying to teach us is how do we accumulate it? How do we live lives that are more we than me.

Well, another big, the big ideas that Gibson introduces that, is that having a we not me mindset will lead us to happiness, gladness, and contentment. He highlights the word translated quietness or rest in the NAS found in verse 6. And sums up by saying the word simply means rest, peace of mind, calmness of soul. It's a word to capture the deep well-being of those who know their place in the world, content within the boundary lines of their life, and able to enjoy the fruits of their labors with a cheerful heart.

The way to arrive at that place of rest is to live for we, not me. Now I know I'm not the only one that would have liked to arrive at this place. I know that you would as well, a place of rest, of quiet and contentment, and it's really hard, isn't it? It's even hard within ministry, and Gibson's going to hit that point in the chapter later.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get there and unpack it, but it's there for you to read because there's so much to do, is there not? There's so much to do. So how do we get there? Well, Gibson's gonna give us some ideas and, and, and the preacher is as well as we get into chapter 4's more so he begins to transition, transition into the text of Ecclesiastes 4 by unpacking the picture that the preacher's been painting for us in the 1st 3 chapters.

To live life before God with reverence and obedience. Be sure to enjoy, there's that word again. Enjoy whatever good things come your way. Chapter 4 adds a new layer to this picture.

As you enjoy, share. Share what you have with others. It's as simple as that. Now we don't have any real young ones here today, but how often do we have to say that as parents to our young ones, especially if you have multiple siblings in the same house.

Share. Learn to share. And that adds a new layer to this picture. So I have an admission to share with you all.

Take a sip real quick here. Typically, I eat my meals way too fast. Take Thanksgiving dinner for example. After spending hours smoking brisket, turkey, sausage, pork cutlet, and then after loading a nice plate with all the great sides that Kim had made and my cousins as well, my brother, I chowed down my first plate of food in a matter of minutes.

Hours of preparation gone in minutes. It's a habit that I've had since childhood, and I learned to eat quickly because I'm the youngest of 4 boys in our house by 5 years, and seconds were a big deal. Seconds were a commodity, and so if you didn't eat fast, you didn't get seconds. And that's still with me till today, but one of the things that studying this chapter and even studying this, the book and Ecclesiastes 4 has done is it's, it's caused me to take a step back and say, that needs to change.

I need to enjoy my food a little bit more. It's a gift of God. I shouldn't always be eating in a hurry. Now as well as I do in the real world, sometimes you've got to eat fast.

But there are other times when we're enjoying a meal together, Kim, my mom and I, or someone's over at our home and we're enjoying a meal, that I should just slow down and take my time, and I'm making eye contact with Milton because Milton and my brother are two of my examples. Milton has learned to savor every bite. my brother Mel, when he, when he eats with us, I've noticed, he's usually sitting across the table or next to me, I've noticed how he uses his fork to set up the perfect bite, and, and I'm usually done eating way before he's done eating.

But that's something that I think I need to learn, and our study this morning can help all of us.

If you're like me, it can help all of us, but there might be other ways that could help you to slow down and enjoy. So we have a new question to ask, and that is how are we doing? We have a new way of thinking about life and that's we, not me, and a new focus in life and that is enjoy and share. So let's close in prayer.

No, I'm just kidding. actually, that's just the introduction, OK? So let me, I, I've got to get moving here. So Gibson brings us into chapter 4 of Ecclesiastes by stating the preacher tells us that we have to share what we enjoy because there are two ways to live in the world.

You can either hate your neighbor and so destroy yourself, that's verses 1 to 6, or you can love your neighbor and so love yourself. That's verses 7 to 16. that leads us to Roman numeral number 2 on your, on your, on your handout. It's titled Haating My Neighbor, Destroying Myself.

If you didn't get that, fill inhating My Neighbor, destroying Myself. Now I took a little teacher liberty. I apologize to David Gibson. I included verse 8 with this section because just the way my brain works, it seemed like it fits a little better, but he would probably have a number of reasons why I'm wrong on that, but that's the way we're going to attack it.

Gibson writes, in every age, in every part, the world is full to the brim with love of self and hatred of others. That's on page 67. Ecclesiastes 4:123. Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun.

And behold, I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them. And on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them. So I congratulated the dead who were already dead more than the living who are still living. But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.

Wow. What a way to start. what a gut punch, huh? One of the things that I want us to observe is that oppression is not new.

That's been a part of the narrative for 2020, isn't it? with George Floyd's killing back in May. His death, it's been consciousness. We've lived through riots.

We've lived through protests. There's been good, peaceful movements, good movements to see things change. But this is nothing new. Oppression is nothing new.

Now I do want to be careful to say this. If the preacher were alive today or if he were alive in this country 150 years ago, He would see what was happening in this country as oppression. No doubt about that. But one of the things that I love about what Gibson does with this is he, he challenges us to not look at the world that we live in too simplistically or too trite, especially when sharing the gospel.

And the pain is real. The pain is real for those that have been oppressed. Their pain is real. The oppression can take on many different forms, as.

Sometimes it's just the brokenness of this world that impacts us through old age. I just turned 60, so I'm experiencing that more now. Sometimes through COVID. The, the, the, the families that have lost family members due to COVID, their pain is real.

And that's living life in the real world. And this is very, very challenging to me because I like to fix things. I like to make things better. I like to leave people better than I found them, the way that I define that, and I know you all do as well.

But I think one of the things that this chapter, this passage, this passage, these verses is teaching us is just what we learned in, in chapter 3. There is a time to mourn. There's a time to be quiet. There's a time to be still.

There's a time to weep with those who are weeping. We have that in our New Testament as well. And so part of living life well, part of, part of loving my neighbor, I know that's we're not there yet, but, but is to to take that into consideration, especially when we go to minister the gospel and not be too quick to go to the solutions. We want to get there, right?

We want to get there, but sometimes it may take more time than we're comfortable, and so let's love our neighbors. So Gibson writes, does this sound bleak to you? Can someone who believes in God utter words like these? Some writers do want to suggest, of course, that this is not the preacher's own perspective and that he is simply describing life without God.

But Gibson says that is far too simplistic. As believers, we have to come to terms honestly with the world as it really is. And the preacher is looking at the world as it really is. As believers, we must never be trite or simplistic when relating the good news of Christ to a world of pain.

And also for us here at Cornerstone, because I know you all, you're my family. we have to pause and think about some of the more subtle ways we might put ourselves ahead of other people. Ways that we might fall into that category of oppression. Going back to where I work, for example, it could be using the players' success to gain my own success.

Wanting to attach my input into their lives or my training or my advice or my coaching to their success and get more notoriety for myself, more ambition, more promotion for myself. And guess what? Within that context, the players can sniff it out a mile away. They can tell why you're there.

They can tell whether you're there to climb on their shoulders or you're there to help them climb on yours. So we at Cornerstone have to be aware of this as well and just give some thought to that question. Not throwing out there as a criticism or an accusation, I don't know, but I think it's a question that we should all ask. As Gibson writes, it can be a part of ministry.

there's, there's just an outstatement in there that he makes, in this section where he says, sometimes the people that aren't here are more loved by the pastors than those who are. Ouch. I have to ask myself that question. As we desire to grow and invite more people into this journey.

Am I loving the ones that are here? The way the Lord would want me to love them and the ones that He is drawing our way. Or is it about having a bigger ministry or having bigger accounting teams or anything like that? That's my world.

Well, let's, let's make sure that we're, we take some time and answer that question as well as we reflect on today's lesson. this reminded me of, of the lyrics of one of my favorite songs that used to be sung by my grandmother. I still have it echoing in my ears during Christmas time, and Christmas is coming up in a couple of weeks. It's, they're the words of the lyrics from O Holy Night, the Christmas hymn.

It says truly he taught us to love one another. His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother. And in His name all oppression shall cease.

Beautiful words Beautiful words. So let's be careful to not be involved in oppression of any form, overt or more subtle. Well, the writer of Ecclesiastes, the preacher goes on to talk about envy and rivalry in verse 4. He writes that I've seen every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry or envy between a man and his neighbor.

This too is vanity and striving after wind. Gibson writes, deep in our hearts we want to be noticed and to be the focus of attention. And that that desire is capable of driving all we do and the reason we do it. Jesus says, I am to love you.

But what I often feel is, what will it take to get what you have. If I envy you through loving you because I love you only to get something from you. Then not only am I engaged in oppressing you, I have a cancer that eats my heart and can destroy me even as I destroy you. This is because I have dressed up my selfishness in generosity and deceived both of us in the process.

That's really, really deep. I would encourage you to read it on your own and think about it a little bit more, but that's one of those subtle ways that that we can oppress one another that we might not even be aware of. And just being honest, envy, I have to work through that all the time. A few weeks ago, one of our players won the Rookie of the Year award, and he was being interviewed.

Major League Baseball, the Seattle Mariners who did a great job of telling his story. And as I was listening to him telling his story, That little oppressor inside of me was going, that little envious person, is he gonna mention my name? Am I going to get some credit from all of this? It's just a battle that goes on inside of us, but the preacher wants to free us from that.

He goes on to say that there's another way that we can hate our neighbor and destroy ourselves, and that is through laziness. I never would have thought of this. The way he unpacks it and the way Gibson unpacks it. Verse 5 of Ecclesiastes 4 says the fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.

And Gibson says simply, Laziness is a way of hating your neighbor. You have nothing to give them. Very, very powerful. There he goes on to say in verse 6B he talks about this manic or frantic busyness as Gibson describes it.

Verse 6 of Ecclesiastes 4 says one handful of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind. The preacher's point is that to live this way is like shooting yourself in 1 ft so that you can hop more quickly on the other. I'm like, I had to like stop several times and like Oh, OK, I think I understand what he's saying. When we realize that there is a middle way between being lazy in the here and now and busting a gut for the future, we find tranquility.

We realize that rest and peace are more important than wealth and success. We look down and find that only one hand is full, but we know that that is more than enough. Again, I would commend that to you for further reading and study. He does a great job of talking about contentment, which ties in with First Timothy 6:10 in the New Testament.

So please, please read that. And then Gibson goes on and talks about in verses 7 and 8, which I mentioned, I'm taking a little teacher license here, including it under hating my neighbor and destroying myself, but he talks about what I call workaholism. And he places it in the next section, but verse 7 and 8 say, then I looked again, another one of those observations that the preacher makes, and at vanity under the sun, there was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor.

Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches, and he never asked.

And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure? This too is vanity. And a grievous task. Gibson writes, it's easy to make a target out of the rich.

But the Bible is not against wealth. It is not money that is the root of all kinds of evil, but the love of it. That's First Timothy 6:10. Ecclesiastes says exactly the same thing in picture form.

It is the two-handed toiling for wealth as an end in itself that is a root of evil. It grows like a strangling vine around the heart, and the harm spreads its tentacles in several different directions at once, at once. Gibson goes on to say, this is really key. Here's how to sever the root, stop the rot, and kill the evil.

Spend your money on others. Give it away. Do it regularly, gladly, generously, and you will be happy. Well, moving on to point number 3 on your outline there, loving my neighbor, loving myself, and that's Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.

I was talking with Pastor Mike about this, this chapter in Gibson's book, and we both found it interesting that it, the, the, the Gibson's books, gets shorter. And even omits verses 13 to 16, and I don't want to be critical of him because I don't know the circumstances. I know through Pastor Milton that sometimes when you write a book you have a word count and so you've got a budget that you've got to stay within, but to me chapter verses 9 to 12 is really the heart of Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and is really the heart of the point that Gibson is trying to make.

it says, living for living for we, not me, means a happier, healthier me.

That's Gibson. The preacher says two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

Furthermore, if two lie down together, they keep warm. But how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

For the preacher, the value of life is not what you earn, but whom you relate to. It's not what you buy, but what you give. It's there in black and white in verses 9 to 12. We are given a simple presentation of why 2 are better than one and why 3 are even better than 2.

If you want to make money, do it with someone else, and you might make even more. But at least there's someone to share it with. This is proverbial wisdom in poetic form, a general principle that life lived in community and mutual interdependence is better all around for everyone. Perhaps 4 are better than 3, and so on.

We, not me, is always going to be better for me than only me. This is how God designed us to flourish. Well, I'm going to hit the deleted scene and then if I have enough time, there's a story I want to share with you as we round the corner and come to a close. You're looking at verses 13 to 16 really quickly that fill in the blank is a deleted scene and again I'm not sure why he didn't make it.

Maybe it didn't fit, or maybe he had to take it out, but I think it's really interesting because I think it also fits with the theme for today of wisdom. let's see, the preacher concludes, a poor yet wise lad is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive instruction. So I went to Philip Reichen's commentary. We did, we read through Ecclesiastes a couple of summers ago in our summer reading, and Reichen writes this in his commentary on Ecclesiastes.

The point of this closing comparison is that it is better to lead with a teachable spirit than to be too proud to let anyone teach us anything at all. Isn't that a part of living life well, to be teachable? And there's a message in there for all of us. As I said, I just hit 60, and in that baseball world, been there, done that, but to have the mindset that there's a lot that I can learn, there's so much that I, that I don't know, that I can spend the entire rest of my life, however long that might be, learning and still not learn everything that I need to know or everything that I could learn.

In order to love you better, my brothers and sisters, to love my family better, to love everyone that God brings into my life better. And there's also wisdom in here for the young ones too. I know we have a young, a couple of young ones here now, and that is that you can be young and wise. Get wisdom like Solomon said in Proverbs.

Get understanding. Be a teachable young person. Be a teachable child. Ask questions and then wait for the answer.

And think about the answers that you're given. So that's verses 13 to 16 in a nutshell. Well, I'm gonna use some of our closing time. I, I have a parable that I want to read.

it's a story that I heard decades ago at a pro athletes outreach conference. I won't take too long introducing it, but I think it captures this idea of loving my neighbor, loving myself, I'm living for we, not me, enjoying what you have, especially. It's called the Parable of the Mexican Fisherman. I do not mean to be offensive, but that's the name of it, so I'll do the best that I can.

But anyway, bear with me. An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman inside docked. Inside the boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and how long and asked how long it took to catch them.

The fisherman replied, only a little while. The Americans then asked, Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish. The fisherman replied he had enough to support his family and his immediate needs. The American then asked, But what do you do with the rest of your time?

The fisherman said, I sleep late. Fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife Maria, and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life. The Americans scoffed I have an MBA from Harvard and can help you.

He said you should spend more time fishing. And with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats and eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. And instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you could sell directly to the processor and eventually open up your own cannery.

You could control the product processing and distribution, he said. Of course you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City. Then Los Angeles and eventually, eventually to New York City where you will run your expanded enterprise. But the fishermen ask, how long will this take?

The American replied, 0, 15 or 20 years or so. But what then, said the fisherman. The American laughed and said, that's the best part. When the time is right, you should announce an IPO and sell your company's stock to the public and become, become very rich.

You would make millions. Millions? Then what? The Americans said then you could retire, move to a small coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play guitar with your amigos.

So typical, isn't it? We, not me. Enjoy what we have. Put others ahead of ourselves.

Here's a closing thought. Before we close in prayer. So how are you doing? Asking the question, how are we doing?

As you think about where you're going with your life, Ecclesiastes gives you a middle road to walk. Don't hate your neighbor. Be neither too lazy to help them nor too powerful to avoid oppressing them. Don't be so caught up in your own today that you cannot see tomorrow.

Don't hate yourself. Laziness, frenzy, envy, and love of money will each in its own way corrode you from the inside out. Take the middle path of loving your neighbor and so properly loving yourself. Don't drop out like the fool.

Don't be sucked in like the frantic. Which side of the road are you currently on? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word.

Your word is timeless. it is, It teaches us and informs us and can transform us as much today. as it did when the preacher wrote these words. Father, I just pray that we would be doers of your word and not hearers only.

That you would help us to live life backwards. That we would be a people who are about we, not me. That we would be a people who enjoy the good gifts that you give to us. And that we would be a people who, as we enjoy, share with others.

It's in Jesus' matchless name we pray. Amen.