Two are better than one

We're doing a series 3 Ecclesiastes.

If you're visiting, if you're not visiting, you're probably

worried about my mental health after last week.

I'm fine. Some of you like really got it

and sent me these beautiful emails and I've got a whole lot

saying are you OK? Like, are you all right?

One of my son's friends came to me said why did your dad groan

when it actually says Jesus side?

Why didn't your dad just go? Why did you?

It's the same word. They find it in Romans 8.

And you should be fortunate that you've got somebody who loves

you enough to groan, and we love you enough to groan deeply.

I got a call from a young lady in Durban who lost her sister,

and she said, I didn't know if somebody could get underneath

the pain. God can get underneath your

pain, get to the bottom of it. It's nice to have you.

I'm going to just give you a little exercise to do when you

go home is just to download your last three months bank

statements. And next to them either write me

or we, me or we or me and my or we.

And see how much of your expenditure has gone to you and

to your family and to your education of your children and

to the clothing of your wife and to the Botox injections and all

those things that happen. Just see how much is me and my

and how much is we, how much has gone to other people because

we're not actually here to be entertained.

We're here to be taught the ways of God.

And this book is a very challenging book.

I walked through this auditorium this week and I thought, God, if

we attract people that are going to stop us from doing what you

called us to do, it's better we give this away and go back to

your school hall. Because we cannot be so consumed

within ourselves that this becomes the destination of our

Christianity. And I thought, I wonder instead

of another church down the road who can't afford a building, I

wonder if we should open up our 12:00 Sunday slot for somebody

else who doesn't have to go through the project that we've

been through. Or whether we're going to just

keep this because it's ours. And so we're going to just keep

enjoying it amongst ourselves because we paid the price for

this thing and now it's mine. Or we're going to maybe open it

up and give it to another congregation who don't have to

pay the expense and can see their church grow without paying

rent. I wonder if that's should be in

order, something we should be thinking about or whether we're

going to settle down into some kind of simple suburban

Christianity. And actually, I realized at the

bottom at the end of it, I'm just a very selfish man.

It's most of my thoughts every day are about myself and my

family and getting ahead and making plans and all those kind

of things. And I think all of us are like

that. If we genuinely honest, a lot of

our time during the day is about ourselves, it's about our

children, it's about how they get ahead, how they get

educated. It's about how we plan our

holidays. I mean, if, if we're brutally

honest and, and, and Ecclesiastes coming and saying,

actually, if you live your life like that, you're going to

actually end up quite lonely and sad.

But if you invest in your life and other people, you will

actually start to find there's an actual reason and a joy to

live beyond yourself. And, and the reality is that we

spend a lot of time looking at our own belly buttons and we've

got to lift our eyes and look around a little bit.

I put up some figures here last week.

I'm not going to look at now. And it's not for guilt, but I

was in a after last Sunday. I went to a conference in

Joburg. 900 babies are abandoned every single month in South

Africa. 903 hundred of them get picked up by foster homes. 600

of them die. The girl who got up and told the

story tells her she's just got a safe built into the wall of her

care center. It's like a drop safe and when a

wait comes onto that drop safe, an alarm goes off and it's just

it's a very anonymous way of giving your child away.

Just put them in a drop safe. You close the safe and you walk

away and you say, Roy, don't put that guilt on us.

Well, friends, we so we so cushion ourselves against any

form of pain that we're actually not living with the reality of

the nation that we live inside of.

And actually, the only solution to South Africa is the church.

We can see what's happening with the government.

Trump comes into power. The markets do this and the

markets and we don't actually have control.

We don't. That's what Ecclesiastes is.

We don't have control of our lives.

Two weeks ago, our family was doing unbelievably well,

unbelievably well. My wife was well, ours well.

My kids were well. Everything was going right.

And I found myself 48 hours late in the dentist's chair having a

wisdom tooth pulled out. The dentist's here.

My tooth is recovering, but my chest is so sore where the

dentist's knee went. It's unbelievable.

I'm bruised as they, as they pulled this thing, I said your

bones are very strong. I said, well, exactly.

And then my wife had a cancerous growth cut out of her arm.

And my one child got COVID and the other one has had a biopsy

on a growth inside their body, which we're waiting results for.

That happened in 48 hours. We don't, we can, we can have

money, we can have, but we don't actually have control.

And Ecclesiastes saying you can do whatever, like you can buffer

the thing, but you don't have control.

I was at a wedding last night and my friend, I've got a dear

friend who's the South Coast. He leads the church.

He's a fit, healthy guy. He got on his bicycle a couple

months ago and he fell over and he died and his brother-in-law

found him in the garage. So, so the brother-in-law is now

looking after his sister and I keep finding the assistant

seeing all right, because he was my mate and and last night's got

an SMS to say the brother-in-law passed away last night.

You see things happen quickly and we think that we are

perfectly in charge. You've got no charge of your

next day's breath. And it's just saying you need to

make sure that you've just giving yourself to the right

things. Amen.

So, so that's where we are. There's no heavy, but I do think

we need to do the let's do the maths, ask ourselves the

question. So we're going to read

Ecclesiastes 4. We're going to read the whole

chapter and and then we're going to make a few points again.

I looked and I saw all the oppression that was taking place

under the sun. I saw the tears of the

oppressed. And they have no comforter. 47

children raped every single day in our country. 51 children

kidnapped every single day in our country. 26% of children in

our nation are sexually molested.

By the time they're 18, they have no comforter.

Power was on the side of their oppressors, and they have no

comforter. And I declared that the dead who

had already died, or happier than the living were still

alive. That's a major statement, eh?

But better than both, say better, better, better than both

is he who has not yet been born, who has not seen the evil that

is under the sun, Solomon, the great king, saying it's better

not to be born than to live in some of the conditions that the

people in South Africa are living.

I don't live there. I don't even hear the cry most

times. And I saw that all labor and all

achievements spring from man's envy of his neighbor.

They say the capital countries are driven by jealousy.

This too is meaningless. And if you're asking what are we

on about, Rory, why are you giving us so much negative news?

We just got to ask the question. We just got to ask the question

what is really important? He said.

We've been going on this for a long time, friends.

You have to ask three questions. Where do I come from?

Why am I here? Where am I going?

Where do I come from? Why am I here?

Where am I going? And that word hebble is that

the fool folds his hands and ruins himself.

Better say better, better. Better one handful with

tranquility than two handfuls with toil.

And chasing after the wind again, I saw something

meaningless under the sun. O, that's how it goes. 2

handfuls with toil working working, working working emails

late night come to home working working working MBA degree to

get ahead of the person so you can get a promotion while your

kids are crying for your attention.

He said, but this is the only way that I can get ahead working

working, working, working, working.

It's the only way I can get ahead.

I'm working, working, working, working, working.

And he says but actually there's another thing as a lazy guy.

And actually, The thing is, you might as well eat his hands

because actually laziness is self destruction anyway, he

says, but there's a better way. What happens if you just work

with one hand and the other hand's free to bless people?

He says that's a better way. But you say, no, but I'm busy.

And then you've got this other generation, you know, just lazy

eating their hands, he says, But there's a better way with

tranquility. There's a there's a better way

with peace. How many of you have lost your

peace friends? Seriously, ICP, I just like

their piece is gone because they're too busy.

They, they, they're rushing, they're busy.

There's meetings, there's emails, there's demands, there's

time restraints. It's just go for what?

To get ahead of what? So that you can do what?

Educate your kids to do what? To get a bigger degree to get

ahead of what? What about if you just let go

one hand and God says that's better?

Again I saw something meaningless under the sun.

There was a man all alone. He had neither son nor brother.

There was no end to his toil. Yet his eyes were not content

with his wealth. For whom am I toiling?

He asked. And why am I depriving myself of

enjoyment? This too is meaningless.

You see, this is anti we. It's all about me.

It's envy, it's oppression, it's greed.

It's me, Me. I want my 13th check, my 14th

check, my 15th check, my 16th check, my 70 check.

I've got a friend who spends 2 million Rand a month on cars, I

think. When?

When are you going to have enough?

This too is meaningless. A miserable business. 2 are

better than one say that 2 are better than 1/2 are better than

one doesn't say 2 are easier than one.

It says 2 are better than one. It's twin PLA.

Life has many luxuries. Twin PLA is one of them.

I grew up in my house like this. My wife grew up like this.

Oh, I see. We've been married for 32 years.

And I come and I turn it around and she comes and she turns it

around. I grew up the right way with

toothpaste. You squeeze it in the middle.

You just squeeze in the middle. If you squeeze in the middle, it

comes out the top. She grew up from the bottom.

You squeeze it from the bottom. Now we have 2 separate

toothpastes. I said buy your own toothpaste.

I mean TVTV is simple. TV is easy, isn't it?

I like to watch sixteen programs in one hour.

It's just away from the snake catcher to the this thing.

It's so that's the way TV was designed.

My wife likes to watch the program from the beginning to

the end. It's so wrong, but you are

better than 1/2 are better than one.

So. So we've got to work out what

the toothpaste tube and the toilet holder looks like and the

TV looks like. Because now we've got about two

and a half thousand in here and we've got to say to be here is

better than not to be here. But we've all got stuff, All got

stuff because they have a good return for their work.

If one falls down, his friend can help him up, but pity the

man who falls and has no one to help him up.

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm, but how can

one keep warm alone? Call me a Lafrikaners visually

help for an Edie's story. What's the person that comes to

your mind when you read the scripture Rachel Ki de Beer?

Scott it Cup? I was reading the scripture.

I haven't thought of Rachel Ki de Beer for 20 years.

I read the script and I thought there's a school in this city

called Rachel de Beer. This was a little girl who gave

up her life. In your Afrikaans culture, in

the very roots of your existence, was a little 12 year

old girl who took off her clothes and put her brother in

an antique to keep him warm. And I'm thinking in this

auditorium today, there's a whole lot of rock cookies

sitting here today. We need to keep each other warm.

People are under pressure. They're cold.

Though one may be overpowered, 2 can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Better say better, better poor but wise youth than an old but

foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning.

It's better to have a young guy who's teachable than an old guy.

I was sitting in a business meeting about 3 weeks ago or two

weeks ago on a Monday and we we were expecting an answer on one

of our businesses in December. On the 2nd of December we were

told we'll get an answer. It didn't come then we would be

told after the holidays on the 12th of January, we'll get an

answer and it didn't come. Now when somebody promises me an

answer, I start to get agitated. And the older I get, the more

agitated I've become. And now we're sitting on the 3rd

of March, 4th of March in a meeting and the answers still

not come. And I said, but now we need to

take action. And my partner said to me, you

need to be patient, Rory. And, and I was reading the

scripture and I said, but I feel that we need to act decisively.

And he said, no, you need to please listen to me.

And I did. And two days later, we got the

answer. If I'd stepped in, I believe I

would have spoilt it. But this scripture which says,

listen here, Rory, you're 57 years old.

You know a lot. You think you know a lot, but

you actually have to take off your teacher's hat, and

sometimes you've got to put on your student hat.

You're not an expert on everything.

And better to listen to a young guy who's seeking God than an

old guy who's trusting his experience.

Amen. I can lead meetings.

I've LED church meetings for 35 years, but I know this.

When Chad woke up this morning, he would have waited on God.

He would have prayed. He would have trusted God.

He would have asked God for directions.

Better to listen to that than a man who relies on experience,

who set in his ways. Are you with me?

How are we doing? The youth may have come from

prison to the kingship. We may have been born in poverty

within his Kingdom. I saw that all who lived and

walked under the sun followed the youth, the King's successor.

We'd like young leaders. There was no end to all the

people who were before them, but those who came later.

We're not pleased with the successor.

This too, is meaningless or chasing after the wind.

You know what's happened in the church.

We elevate leadership to this unbelievable position.

And all of you go to leadership conferences all the time.

And the Bible says, actually at the end of the day, leadership's

not really that important following Goddess, because

actually if I asked you, most of you who led this church before

me, you wouldn't know his name. And who led the church before

him, you wouldn't know his name. If you people said to you who's

Rory? They say actually he's 3 CR.

But in 10 years time, nobody will know me.

And so I must not put extra importance on this position

because actually this position is temporary.

And so I mustn't take glory and I mustn't over exercise

authority because this too is meaningless.

It's going to pass away and we spend our whole lives to get

positions and CEO and CFO and the only we know.

We know because the moment you get the position that goes onto

your business card and God says, you know what, whether you're

old or you're young and you're flexible and you try actually,

all of it is just going to pass away and they won't remember

you. Who was the president before

Trump, last sex, George Bush and before that.

Well, history will tell us, but your memory won't.

He was a rugby captain, that guy of springback's.

Andre. Andre, what is his name again?

Andre the flank #6 I'd remember. And so we spent our whole lives

going for this thing. And he said, listen, it's better

to be teachable than to be grumpy.

But actually, at the end of the day, this is meaningless.

So don't build your identity here because it's going to just

pass away. Amen.

OK, a few things are we done. This scripture can be broken

into two I hate for your neighbor and a love for

yourself. A love for your neighbor, which

means you'll end up loving yourself.

Neighborship is good, but most work comes from the envy of my

neighbor. Most of it comes from the envy

of my neighbor. You know what we can actually so

easily witness with people who are weak?

Because when people are weak, we can console them easily because

it makes us feel strong. But when people are successful,

it's hard to share their joy because it makes us feel weak.

And I'll tell you the only reason I'm I've gossiped.

I don't gossip much anymore. I really don't.

I really don't. I don't think I gossip.

I've never heard my wife gossip. But you know what gossip is.

Gossip is making another person look worse so that you look

better. That's what gossip is.

Simple as that. And you've got to ask yourself

just this very question. Are there any decisions in your

life now that are driven by envy?

Envy of another success, Envy of another's looks, envy of

another. They'll always be a prettier

girl. They will always be a more

successful man. There will always be a more

qualified woman. There will always be because God

wants to know what drives you. There will always be somebody

who outperforms. And seriously, it's wonderful to

come top 10 in your school, but in five years time no one will

remember. Of course you must achieve your

goals and you must achieve your potential because God gave it to

you. But the motivation is what the

book of Ecclesiastes says. What motivates you?

What, what what? What motivates you?

Can you imagine, for instance, if it talks about giving,

closing this hand? Can you imagine?

Because in Pretoria E, satisfaction is derived from

acquiring more and more. That's how Pretoria East works.

Can you imagine if satisfaction was acquired by lowering our

desires? Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine that we found peace not by the addition of

stuff, but by the subtraction of stuff?

Why don't you give some of your stuff away?

There's not enough room in your garage for the stuff.

Why don't you give some of the stuff away and see what I mean?

This is a very wealthy man. He's getting 140 million Rand

every hour coming to his bank account, Solomon, And he's

saying, actually, you know what? It's worthless.

So why don't you just live slightly simply simpler, Amen.

And how much of it is done by greed?

Just this man who just works all night works.

And we're why friend to please your boss or to make yourself

look successful amongst your peers.

And we go back to our school reunions and say, hey, check the

car I drive. Why don't you just drive a

lesser car and spend more quality time with your children?

David was a bad father. Solomon was a worse father.

I want to be a good dad. So I want to just share with you

5 very simple things about the blessing of loving my neighbor.

The 1st is simply this 2 is better than one.

That's just the way God says it. 2 is better than one community

is better than being alone. If you sin in this nation and

you go to court, what do they do with you?

If you've sinned, the punishment that you get is to be taken out

of society. So you're not worthy to be a

member of society. So we will take you out of

society. That's the punishment.

And inside of that new institution, what's the greatest

punishment, isolation or solitary confinement?

Solitary confinement is the greatest punishment.

And yet depression pushes us outside to the edge.

We sit by ourselves. I want to say to your community

is better than sitting depressed in your home.

It's better Solomon. Solomon went through the whole

lot and he said, I'm telling you to be together is better than to

be alone. 2 are better than one. So when your mind says but I

don't, I don't don't leave because you squeeze a toothpaste

tube differently or you watch TV differently or as Christian said

to us when he preached one day, he says, you white guys name the

fish as black oaks. Eat the fish.

He says, why do you spend so much time naming the thing?

Just eat it. That's why you caught it.

Quite practical, isn't it? See Christian, how are we going

to work this thing out together? Bro?

We have to work it because because two, it's better than

one. Do you believe that?

If you believe that, then you have to invest.

Just look at your look at your bank statement and see whether

it's true for you or if everything is going into your

own family. I want to love my neighbor.

Our neighbor you saw last week bought me bread like a

sourdough. Afrikaans bread tastes better

when Afrikaans make it. I don't know why.

English oaks weren't meant to make like, stuff in the kitchen.

So when a Buddha brings a sourdough, it's lacquer.

English oak brings. It's not so lacquer.

So I've got a little Rachel Kita beer there and then I'm a

commissioner of Oath so I can actually stamp.

I can stamp and say that it's legitimate.

So my next door neighbors needed a stamp because they've got some

documents that need to go in. So so they came across and I

stamped it Signature pay back for the sourdough.

No money joking. It's just we, we together 2 is

better than one. And then our lawnmower broke

last week. And you know, when you pull that

thing into just, you pull the whole thing.

Now you're left with this thing and Mel doesn't phone me because

if I can't fix it with pre stick or with super glue, I'll call it

expert. So Mel, they're like, what

should I do? Like 2 are better than one.

Those Afrikaans soaks across our don't know what to do the

sourdough guys. So Mel says, listen, our

lawnmower is broken. I don't worry.

We'll send our gardener with our lawnmower to your house because

2 is better than one. Amen.

Now you imagine if we could take that and harness that into this

community and get out of our self hatred, oppression, control

oppression. We love to control, stop

controlling and actually just started serving one another like

Clint did today with his sidekick. 800 cappuccinos came

out of that machine. I don't know how many came out

of that machine. And you know, last week there

was a man standing here. He went to the cappuccino

machines and he just spent how much He bought 650 cappuccinos

because he's busy and he's working and he's got a big job.

So he just said the next 650 cappuccinos are by them.

They went today, Boo. Because 2 are better than 1/2

are better than one. Amen.

You're with me to get that in your mind 2 are better than one.

I love to be my myself because my opinion always wins.

Snake catcher rebuilding a model house Golf, New CNN Bible

programs Creflo Dollar TD Jakes, Joyce Meyer.

Andrew Womack with that fireplace in the back, that's

not a proper fireplace. Great teaching, horrible

fireplace. I think if I could combine your

teaching with my fireplace, we could make a good combination,

Andrew. Because they show a good, they

show a good return for their work.

They show a good return. The 1st is community is good.

The second it increases productivity.

Let me talk to you about my wife and I.

Now we've all got different and, and, and many of you, we have to

work now because the economy is so tough.

Most of you have to work. So they're both people working.

But when when we got married, we decided she had her own

business. She was delivering to

restaurants. She had a successful business.

She used to wake up at 4, bake 4 restaurants.

She was cut. And then we got married and we

both worked and then we had children and we used to counsel

together. We got pictures of our kids

lying under dining room tables, counselling people married.

And then when our kids got slightly older, we thought,

actually, you know what we need to do.

We need to separate our roles. I'll play an executive role.

You play a domestic role, the away game and the home game.

But you have to put the same value on them, otherwise the one

that makes money gets power and the one that doesn't make money

gets subjected. And so we said we will play

different roles, but they'll have the same value.

It has to, but we are so indoctrinated by the world that

we start becoming contractual and say but I did this and I

earned this and you did that and I bought you this and you and

before you know it, 2 are no longer better than one.

We're starting to fight now because the enemy's got in and

I've got 18 months left until my last son leaves school and my

first son will turn 30. That means for 30 years she's

played a domestic role, a home game, and I've played the away

game. And we've been sitting down over

the last few weeks and say, what does it mean for our

productivity now, sweetie? So I said, what can I do?

She said, well, I think what you can do, you can come closer to

me in the home. Why don't I teach you how to

cook? I'm, I'm being dead serious.

And I said, what, what did you? She said, why don't you teach me

how you study the Bible? And so so we've bought some

books now on on a book that I won't tell you because because

she needs to come into my world now because our kids have left.

Now we no longer have this dual role.

They so she has to come into my world, but I have to come into

her world too, because we because 2 are better than one.

Does it make sense? And friends, we've got these

things in our partnerships that are completely differently

valued and it's causing tension instead of building bridges.

Amen. Built together.

You know, they say if you're my kids can do 150 KG bench press,

I can too if I've got a pneumatic drill underneath it.

But if you can push 1:50 and another person could push one

5300, if you put them under the same bar they push 400.

So don't fight with the leadership of the church.

Work together because 2 are better than one.

They have greater productivity for their work.

We get more stuff done. If one falls down, his friend

can help him up. But pretty the man who falls and

has no one to help him up. It brings us stability, brings

us stability. Also.

If two lie down together, they will keep warm.

But how can one keep warm alone? I want to call every Rokuki de

beer inside of this auditorium to use the warmth of your body

and the warmth of your money and the warmth of your qualification

to come close to people who are cold and to help them to

survive. When times are tough and the

snowstorms are hitting and they inexperienced and young and

stupid and isolating themselves, use your warmth to keep them

warm. Though one may be overpowered, 2

can defend themselves. A court of three strands has not

quickly broken a security. My dad was once attacked by 8

people in Durban surrounded him. I said dad, what did you do?

He said China. I put my back against the wall,

so now I was facing all eight. I found out who the leader was

and I told him that if anybody does anything, I'm going to go

for him and I'm going to kill him.

I said, what do they do? You said they all ran away.

I said, why did you do that? They said because you just got

to pick the leader. But you see friends, it's the

Bible says it's better to have another man standing behind your

back, not a wall because you can see that side.

And then it says a three stranded chord is not it's not

just for marriage. 3 is better than two, and four is better

than three. And five is better than 4.

And 6 is better than 5. And 7 is better than 6.

And 8 is better than 7, and 9 is better than 8 and 10 is better

than 9. But we are rugged individualists

and Solomon says you're going to die horrible lonely lives if you

do not invest in people and most of them will never be able to

pay you back. Do the maths on your bank

account and ask yourself this question.

Who are you living for? God bless you.