Blessing is Vapor | Ecclesiastes 4:9-16 | 06/28/26

All right. Well, welcome everybody. Um,

if you don't know me, my name is Josh.

I'm one of the elders and teaching

pastors here. And we have been looking

together over the last few months for

those of you who have been here through

the book of Ecclesiastes.

And the book of Ecclesiastes

has been a remarkable study so far. He

opens the book, he opens his work with a

startling claim. Everything everything

everything is vapor is he

even the best things the highest things

are not things you can truly really

grasp. Everything is vapor. Everything

is like chasing after the wind.

All these things which seem to matter so

much none of them ultimately matter

really matter in the final diagnosis.

All of us die. Nothing we do really

changes anything. and every single one

of us will eventually be forgotten.

And it's pretty wild to just say that

out loud to a room full of people. Um,

it's meant to be like a bucket of cold

water to the face. It's meant to be a

shock to the system. Deeper than that,

it's it's meant to

rattle your thinking about the world

down to its very bones.

Everything is vapor. Everything is

vanity. Everything is like chasing after

wind. But as we've been going through,

given even that statement, there's been

some surprising interjections.

There's still some things, maybe

everything is is he nothing ultimately

matters and lasts.

But even in that system, there are still

some things that are better than other

things. Wisdom is better than folly.

It's better to enjoy your food and your

the wife of your youth than to succumb

to bitterness.

Even if we can't nail down what really

matters, there are clearly some things

that matter that are better than others.

And today, Cohelith, the author, is

going to continue unpacking some of

that. And he's going to explore with us

how we ought to think about

relationships and influence,

friends, and power.

How should we think about these things?

How should we value them?

How should you value your friends in

relationship to maybe your work or your

civil obligations?

Do these things matter at all? Are they

just one of the other fading issues in a

world where everything is vapor?

It's interesting. Our culture does go

out of its way to offer answers to these

questions, by the way. And and you're

absorbing them constantly, whether you

realize it or not.

It's constantly holding out two ideals

related to relationship and influence.

And that's independence as a value and

influence as a value.

When I was a kid,

I never heard anyone I never even met

someone who thought of financial

independence as a goal. Did you? Now it

feels like everyone I know is that's

that's a target. Financial independence,

social independence, not needing anyone

for anything. Being able to go wherever

you want, do whatever you want to do,

eat whatever you want to eat without

having any sort of need to rely on

others for anything.

That's the better life. That's how they

conceive of what's better.

If I can get to a certain level of

wealth, I can retire early. I can do

what I want, eat what I want, go where I

want, and I don't really need anything

from anyone. Attaining independence is

the first thing. Second, attaining

influence.

If you just become someone of influence,

if you have a good name and a big

following,

you've achieved that better thing. You

have clout.

The easy um cheap way to mock that view

is to just make it about influencers on

social media,

but it's important to think about it in

terms of like your occupational field.

the the little groups or the little

communities that you belong to in town.

We get this idea that if we uh build a

strong enough resume and accomplish

something public facing enough and

visible enough, then we'll have reached

that better place, that place of status.

Independence and influence are the

better way we are told constantly.

And today coels is going to come along

and disagree with that. And his goal is

not to reign on our parade, but to point

us in a better direction.

What if independence, that desire for

independence is actually robbing you of

the richness of human interdependence?

What if the influence and power and

prestige that you build a lifetime

trying to amass can all be taken away

from you in a moment

with one bad decision, one stupid

mistake?

What if the better way isn't

independence, but fellowship,

not influence, but humility?

What if everything we've been absorbing

as a culture about what the better way

is is actually in fact completely upside

down from what God says?

What if love of self is how we build

sand castles on the beach and humble

love of God on others is how you build

cathedrals in the wilderness.

Neither one of those things are

permanent.

Neither will endure forever. But one is

clearly and objectively better than the

other. Which brings me to my main point

today. In a world full of he, in a world

where everything is hell, as far as we

can tell from this book, imitating God's

love and humility is the better way of

life. In a world of heaven, imitating

God's love and humility is the better

way of life. Please open your Bibles to

Ecclesiastes chapter 4.

Ecclesiastes 4 · chapter mention

Let me just briefly remind us of the

context we're in in today's passage.

For those of you who know, Cohelith has

been running a series of experiments.

He's been interested to test claims

about what really matters. And

everything he tests comes up empty.

Wealth doesn't seem to matter. Work

doesn't ultimately seem to matter.

Wisdom doesn't ultimately seem to

matter. Nor attempting to establish some

sort of permanent legacy. Everything is

heavily everything's chasing wind. And

what's more, there are many things in

this world that seem just beyond human

comprehension. Like you can sort of

understand them, but not really.

There's a time for everything. For

instance,

there there are times when there are

consequences and factors that have

nothing to do with us, impose themselves

on our lives, and completely change our

life. But we don't understand why God's

at work in the midst of us doing things

even in the midst of injustice and

terrible things and we don't really

understand it.

There are people whose lives are

consumed with trying to cleverly avoid

doing any work and those who are

consumed with utterly overworking them

with work consuming them. Last week we

were introduced to the person whose

entire life is work and who never stops

to ask himself what who am I doing this

all for?

For whom am I toiling? Verse eight, and

depriving myself of pleasure. He never

stops and asks why.

This also, we were told last week, is an

unhappy business. But now, let's turn to

what Cohelith is going to argue next as

an improvement upon that lowly way of

life. Let's now humble our minds. And by

that, I mean, let's before we listen to

God's word, let's start with the

assumption that we don't already know

everything. Let's humble our minds and

let's open our hearts to what it is that

God would say. Ecclesiastes chapter 4,

Ecclesiastes 4 · chapter mention

beginning in verse 9.

Two are better than one because they

have a good reward for their toil. For

if they fall, one will lift up his

fellow. But woe to him who is alone when

he falls and has not another to lift him

up. Again, if two lie together, they

keep warm. But how can one keep warm

alone? And though a man might prevail

against one who is alone, two will

withstand him, a three-fold cord is not

quickly broken.

Better was a poor and wise youth than an

old and foolish king who no longer knew

how to take advice. For he went from

prison to the throne, though in his own

kingdom he had been born poor. I saw all

the living who made move about under the

sun along with that youth who was to

stand in the king's place. There was no

end to all the people all of whom he

led. Yet those who come later will not

rejoice in him. Surely this also is

vanity and a striving after wind.

God, please open the eyes of our hearts

so that we might see. I ask in Christ's

name. Amen.

All right. So, this text breaks down

into two pretty self-explanatory

sections, but we're going to look at

three things. We're going to ask the

question, what is better than

independence?

I said a minute ago that we're

constantly being given this idea that

independence is best. What's better than

independence? Second, what's better than

influence? And third, what is better

than ignoring these words? So, let's

start with what is better than

independence? Looking back at our

passage,

we're immediately reminded of verse 8.

Verse 8 is what prompts this discussion.

There's a way of engaging your work that

utterly consumes you and never satisfies

you. And yet, you keep telling yourself,

"If I just do a little bit more, then

I'll finally get there, even though

there never arrives."

All work and no play leaves a man

without any friends or meaningful

companions.

It's out of that context that the author

when he's lamenting the man who works

and works without ever asking who he's

doing this for that he's prompted to

introduce the subject of friendship or

fellowship.

He begins verse 9 with a profound value

judgment. Two are better than one. He

says because the two have a good reward

for their toil.

So contrary to the conventional wisdom,

the working as hard as you can in order

to generate maximal profit is not the

way to happiness.

That of course we are told doesn't

actually lead to a great reward. On the

other hand, working hard with a friend

does generate a good reward. The guy who

looks for his meaning and his work and

his wealth will ultimately be

frustrated. And thus, it's better to

labor alongside someone you like and

enjoy because you will find that

contains a reward in and of itself.

It's better, more rewarding, more

satisfying to work with your friend than

to work by yourself.

And you might be wondering, what is

exactly is the nature of this claim? Is

he saying you'll make more money if we

do stuff together? I don't think that's

what he means by a good reward.

I think he explains what he means by

good reward in verses 10-2.

Verse 10 starts with the word for

as if it's explaining what came before.

For if they fall, one will lift up his

fellow, but woe to the one who falls

when he is alone and has not another to

lift him up.

It's really important to try to read

this and try to feel it down in your

bones for how countercultural this claim

actually is.

This is literally literally saying it is

better to be interdependent than

independent.

It is better to live in fellowship with

people you can rely on for help than to

live in a fellowship where it's every

man or woman for themselves.

Let me just offer a couple thoughts

about this. First, I want to just

quickly dispel the myth of independence.

None of you, no matter how wealthy you

are, no matter how good you are at

things, is actually independent.

The only people who tell themselves that

they're truly independent are wealthy

people in large cities.

But they they only think that they only

think that because they pay for

everything.

Because you pay for everything you have.

You tell yourself I'm independent. But

that's not making yourself independent.

That's just making you dependent in a

different way. Everyone depends on the

farmer to grow and sell his grain. One

person depends on him by choosing to pay

him. Another person depends on him by

offering to do to help him with his

chores in exchange for the promise of

grain later.

Everyone is dependent on the farmer to

grow his grain. They're just dependent

in different ways. The further away you

go from large cities,

I don't mean to speak in sweeping

generalities, but just the way that the

nature of the world is. The further you

go outside of cities, the less likely

people are to think this way. And the

reason that that is is because when

you're further out in the country, you

just need help with everything. No one's

physically strong enough to raise their

own barn. No one can work long enough

hours and hard enough to to sew and

harvest a giant field. It's just not

physically possible. And so you're being

constantly made aware. You're being

constantly reminded by nature itself of

your own limitations and thus your need

for interdependence with other people.

It's just a reality of your life you

can't escape. It's not that they're

wiser or smarter or better or something

like that. It's just that they're being

const they're constantly having to bump

up against that reality in a way that

you can't really pay to change.

My only point in saying that is there's

no such thing as actual independence.

There's only the appearance of

independence.

Very few people have really ever gone

actually gone completely off-grid. And

if you ever meet people who do that,

they'll be the first to tell you that is

definitely not for everybody.

It's a lot of work.

Oela says two are better than one.

It's better to be interdependent.

It's better to be in a fellowship with

friends as you try to do your work

because there's going to be days where

you fall down. There's going to be days

when things go wrong. There's going to

be days where you do something stupid.

There's going to be days when you

horribly sin. There's going to be days

where you trip and fall. There's going

to be days when you stub your toe. And

on those days, you either will suffer

through those experiences by yourself or

you'll have someone alongside you who

wants to help you.

Coheld says it's better to have someone.

It's better to have a friend.

Life is richer. Life is more meaningful

when you are in relationships with

people who not only want to help you but

want to be helped by you.

That sentence I think is self-evidently

true. I don't really think you need to

make an argument.

It's just so obviously true. And yet,

every new generation that comes along,

it comes another class of people who

tell themselves, "I can do it. I can

figure it out by myself. I'm going to be

the one that that does it all.

Leave me alone to let me do it on my

own. Just you wait and see." And every

generation that comes gets to a point

where they eventually have to say, "Life

is actually a lot easier. Life is a lot

more bearable. It's actually better to

be interdependent on a network of

friends and people you can trust.

Life is self-evidently easier and more

bearable when you have a friend to go

camping with. When you have a friend to

go to the park with or go on a walk with

or to share a hobby with

to talk about it when life is hard right

now.

Every new generation that comes has to

relearn this lesson that life is richer

if we're not always in competition with

each other. that life is richer when

we're not trying to be a little better

or a little more successful or a little

more effective than my neighbor, a

little bit better at our job than one

another.

Instead of seeing each other as

competitions, seeing each other as

friends, as souls made in God's image

that you are put on earth to help move

towards Christ.

Two are better than one.

Everybody falls sometimes. Everyone

finds themselves to be victims to ill

circumstances beyond their control.

There are no exceptions to that rule.

Everyone in this room this year has

struggled with something. I promise.

I promise

all of us in this room have done things

probably this year that we look back on

and think to yourself, man, I wish I

wouldn't have done that or I wish I

would have done that differently. and we

have some degree of guilt or anger or

frustration with ourselves about it.

Can you imagine having a friend that you

could talk to about that? That you could

look in the eye and say, "This is what

I've done." And they'll look back at you

in the eye and say, "I've done that,

too." and then pray for you and

encourage you and point you to what the

word says about it and holds you

accountable so that you can actually

grow and get stronger instead of getting

stuck in the same cycle on repeat.

Could you imagine if all of us on earth

just looked at each other through that

lens?

If everyone everywhere looked at each

other like, "My job is to help you, to

help you, to help you

get back up when you fall, to pray for

you and be a friend to you through your

difficult things.

What would the world be like?

How rich would all of our lives be?"

Cohelis says, "Two are better than one

because they will have a rich reward for

their effort." But woe to him who has no

one to lift him up when he falls. It's

objectively worse to fall alone.

So friendship is good and it's

lifegiving because it creates a context

of mutual interdependence. That's that's

healthy. But even more than that, what

if both of you were going through hard

times? Verse 11. Again, he says, "If two

lie together, they keep warm. But how

can one keep warm alone?"

Um, some scholars read that as a

euphemism about sex and about the

marriage relationship.

That's it's true that lie together

sometimes means sex. And it's true that

keep warm sometimes has sexual

connotations,

but the illustration before this verse

and the illustration after this verse

seem to have friendship in view. So, it

feels more natural to read it a little

more vague than just marriage.

Um, additionally,

like

we, you know, it's hard not to like joke

about that when when you talk about

friends, like, "Hey, I'll keep you warm

when you're cold." But in a world, in a

world where people are traveling

constantly and most places that you have

to go are more than a day's walk, you're

sleeping in the woods a lot. I've slept

in the woods a lot. You know what it's

like out in the woods? It's cold at

night.

And it's a lot warmer when you have

someone else's body heat next to you.

And are you uncomfortable by that? I

don't know. I can't tell. Are you?

I think he's talking about something

like real that was a like a a part of

their normal life.

Everything I think the point is

everything even difficult things like

being cold at night is easier to endure

with a friend. Especially when you have

a friend who wants to help, wants to

help you get through that hard time and

who you want to help. That's better than

enduring any of the sorrows of this

world by yourself.

And it's not just that your friend can

help you when you fall. And it's not

just that your friend can help you

through the difficulties of making life

more bearable. Sometimes a friend is

necessary to help defend you. Verse 12,

though a man might prevail against one

who is alone, two will withstand him.

Now obviously this passage has physical

defense in view. Uh in a world where

there was not really police officers,

this concern about getting robbed out on

the road was a constant threat. So as a

consequence, people just often traveled

in large groups.

It was wise.

And while the threat of robbery isn't

completely gone, it's probably not the

kind of threat that you're thinking

about every day when you leave the

house. Is that fair to say?

I know LA might be different. I can't.

But that being said, not all ways of

defending of needing defense are

physical,

nor are they all about protecting your

reputation.

Sometimes the way we protect each other,

defend each other is against bad ideas

or even unwise

and sinful decisions.

I mean, there's been a handful of times

where people have come to me and been

like, "Oh, I have this exciting business

idea." And I look at it for three

minutes and it's like, "This is clearly

a scam meant to take advantage of you."

And

I was able to defend my friend from

getting taken advantage of.

We all need that kind of help sometimes.

Part of how we can help defend each

other from being robbed is by persuading

each other not to get involved with

pyramid schemes and things like that.

Sometimes people talk themselves into

doing really, really foolish,

destructive things. And sometimes the

way that you will protect your friend is

by protecting him or her from him or

herself.

Sometimes I need people to help me in

these kinds of ways. If I have more than

just myself paying attention to me and

what I'm doing and thinking, it's more

likely that we'll catch it as a group.

It's why two is better than one.

If I'm being transparent about how I

live and what I'm struggling with, it's

more likely that someone will help

prevent me from sliding into some

morally destructive direction. Two are

better than one. Your life is going to

be qualitatively better with friends in

it who care about you and want good for

you. It'll be easier to pick yourself up

when you fall. It'll be easier to endure

the normal difficulties of life and

you'll have someone there to protect you

when you're attacked.

If you have a friend,

love them and keep them close. If you

have an opportunity to make new friends,

seize it because two are better than

one. All right, that's what's better

than independence,

interdependence, love, friendship. Let's

now transition to what's better than

influence.

The author now poses the question, what

is better? To be poor, weak and wise, or

to be rich, proud, influential,

and foolish.

And of course, the answer in verse 13 is

that it's better to be a poor, wise

youth than a foolish old- richch king.

And the reason he gives is surprising.

It's better to be the poor, wise youth

than the rich, powerful king because the

king no longer knew how to take advice.

That's like an Old Testamenty way of

saying he's a fool.

In all wisdom literature, being able to

listen is very, very, very close to

closely related to being wise. The fool

does not heed reproof, but correction

goes deep into a man of understanding

and wisdom.

In first Kings 3:9,

1 Kings 3:9

when God comes to King Solomon and is

like, "You're going to be king. What do

you want? Wealth, power, what what do

you want?" And you probably, most of you

know, he famously asks for wisdom. But

do you remember the the phrase he uses

to describe it? He says, "I want a

listening heart,

a heart that hears that I might be able

to rule and govern and discern between

good and evil.'

The point here is that you have this

poor, weak person who's wise compared

with an influential, powerful person

who's a fool, who's unwilling to listen.

And the author says it's better to be

wise than to have great influence and

power. It's better to be someone who

knows how to take advice but has nothing

than to be someone who has a lot but

doesn't listen to anybody.

That person with a lot, that foolish

person with authority and influence is

going to hurt people.

A king who won't listen will go to war

over pride. A king who won't listen will

make decisions out of purely selfish

reasons and a self-centered worldview

and fail to consider the big picture.

The young wise person, on the other

hand, its turns out, is just brimming

with wonderful potential. Yes, they're

young and poor, but a wise heart, with a

wise heart, anything becomes possible

for them.

Even though he was born very poor, even

though it says he was imprisoned, that

could not prevent him from ascending to

the throne through wisdom. And even the

young wise person eventually became

king. And it says all the people of the

land gathered about him. There was no

end in verse 16 to the people who came

and stood beside the youth who was to

stand in the king's place. That's a way

of saying he was very very popular and

had lots of support. The poor youth

became a popular influential king. But

the popular and influential thing wasn't

what really mattered. In verse 16, even

though there was no end of all the

people whom he led, those who came along

after him will not rejoice in him.

The popularity, the influence was also

vanity and striving after wind. What was

better about the young man was not the

influence and the status. It was wisdom

and humility, a willingness to listen.

By his wisdom, he gained this mass

following. By his wisdom, he in probably

made the world a better place for the

time he ruled. And yet, even for him,

even for the guy who really does a good

job, that popularity and influence just

doesn't last. It passes away like vapor

in the morning breath.

The contrast between the old king and

the wise youth is not wealth. It's not

age. It's not background. It's 100%

teachability.

A willingness to be taught.

The king ceased being wise when the king

ceased listening.

Humility keeps learning.

Pride tells yourself you fully arrived

at wisdom and you need nothing else.

Pride treats status and influence as the

ultimate good.

The wise person sees wisdom and blessing

as the good.

The person thinks the the foolish person

thinks I will use wisdom to get to the

top and once I'm there I will have

arrived at the better life. That's the

kind of person who's achieved their goal

and stops listening.

Today's popularity, it turns out,

unfortunately, is going to become

tomorrow's trivia questions on Jeopardy.

Wisdom

is not permanent either, but wisdom

actually can make the world better and

easier for the people around you.

Wisdom can create a cathedral in the

wilderness.

It can transform lives from poverty and

chaos into times of prosperity and

flourishing, even if it only lasts for a

little while, even if it's not

permanent.

It's better to use this life wisely to

make the world around you better than to

use this life as a means to an end of

your own gain, which will lead to the

shipwreck of your life.

Wisdom is better than pride for the same

reason that friendship is better than

isolation. It makes everything about

life better rather than worse.

The issue in Ecclesiastes is ultimately

about remaining teachable, being willing

to listen, remaining teachable,

especially as you get older.

Staying teachable is critical to

flourishing

because humility is better than

influence and wisdom is more fruitful

than power. So let's now close with a

few points of application here.

What is better than ignoring everything

I just said?

At the end of every message, each and

every one of you, all of you sitting in

these seats, you have a choice of what

you're going to do next,

you can ask yourself the question, do I

believe in my heart that what was just

said is true? Yes or no? And if the

answer is no, then you dismiss

everything and you go about your life.

If the answer is yes, then the question

is, what am I going to do about that?

If this is truth,

what needs to change? How do I need to

grow?

If it's really true that it's better to

live a life of interdependence and

humility than a life of independence and

influence, then how ought we to respond

in our lives? And I want to close by

making an argument from the gospel from

the life and death and resurrection of

Jesus. And I want to say that what the

gospel is trying to do in your life is

this. Humble you and draw you into

fellowship with people who love you and

going to care for your soul.

The gospel itself is aimed at creating a

humble interdependent community of

people devoted to helping each other as

friends.

It's the gospel that teaches you and me

that we are all broken, that we are all

morally insufficient, that we are not

wise enough, smart enough, strong enough

to reconcile us to the father. We are we

have nothing that we can bring to the

table with God except our broken selves

in need of healing.

And so it it invites you to re receiving

the gospel. The first thing you're

invited to do is humble yourself. And

through humbling yourself and confessing

your sins, you then entrust yourself to

Christ as a savior. You you become

interdependent upon him for your

salvation.

Only the death of Christ for our sins

and his resurrection into new life. Only

there do we have hope of ever being

healed from the life that we destroy.

And this means to humble us and show us

our need to be taught and our need to be

helped and to create a deep and

overwhelming sense of dependence on God

and his grace and all the ways that

that's manifesting in the world,

including in local communities, in local

churches.

Not only does this show us our

brokenness and our need for healing and

help, it offers to us the reality of the

only perfectly humble, only perfectly

loving person, King Jesus. So the gospel

demands that we humble ourselves and

engage in community. Jesus himself

humbled himself and engaged in

community.

God Jesus himself did not regard

equality with God a thing to be grasped

but emptied himself taking on the form

of a servant. He made himself lowest to

lift us up to the highest. Jesus needed

no friend and yet he came to us in our

brokenness and in our lostness and

offered himself to us as a friend. So

both in the gospel of what Christ has

done and in the humbling of himself to

die for our sins, Christ as a person has

given us a fairly comprehensive picture

of both the motive and the depiction of

what humble love is meant to look like.

It's an other oriented love. It's a

self-mping love. It's a giving love.

So rather than ignoring these words, it

would be far better to let the

application of these words flow

organically from the gospel that we

proclaim and believe.

The first thing the gospel of Jesus

teaches us is that the ultimate friend

does not walk around this world waiting

for others to be friends to him first.

He initiates.

He takes an interest in us. He expresses

love to us. He doesn't wait and see if

we're going to do it with him.

None of us would be saved if that's how

he was. Christ comes to us in our

brokenness and makes himself a friend to

us. He comes seeking to bless us and

lift us up when we fall. He comes

seeking to fellowship with us in our

suffering and to defend us against the

accusations of our enemy. So, if that's

what the ultimate friend does and we're

all called to be friends, what do you

think we should do?

Application point number one, don't ask

yourself why don't I have any friends.

Ask yourself to whom can I go to be a

friend?

Instead of looking at this issue of

friendship through a lens of like what

can I get out of it, look at through the

lens of what can I give? How can I

serve? It's better to be served than to

serve. That's what Christ taught us.

It's more blessed to give than to

receive. And by the way, I've just

observed out of years of trying to do

this that even people that are like

really bad at this that if you love them

and you just keep loving them eventually

it just you know your example will a

eventually awaken some sense of

reciprocity. It just happens. Even with

people who are really broken,

even if it doesn't happen immediately,

if you devote yourself to being a

friend, you will find that life becomes

better and richer. Maybe not in the

ultimate sense, maybe not in a way that

lasts forever, but better nonetheless.

Second application point,

we have to stay teachable, guys.

Um,

there's something really

I just want to talk to you from my

heart, okay?

It's always seemed to me

that there's something deeply

uncchristian

about having super duper strong opinions

about things outside of the gospel and

outside of Christ.

And I'm not saying it's wrong to like

think a lot about something and come to

really like well-formed conclusions. I'm

talking about when you use it like a

hammer. when you're like this is the

right thing and everyone else is wrong

and like that's what I'm talking about.

That kind of thing. It just I don't know

what it is. I can't even like necess

it just feels so far away from this way

of life

of being teachable of being someone

who'd rather learn and understand why

someone said what they said than have an

argument with them about it. You know

what I mean?

Here is an imperfect test to determine

if you are teachable.

Ready?

Think about your life. Think about all

the people that are close to you and

that you have meaningful conversations

with.

How many of them would you guess feel

comfortable correcting you about

something?

If the answer is lots of people, then

you're probably teachable.

If your answer is

very few of them or none of them, then

it might be that you're not teachable.

That's not a perfect test, but I think

it's helpful.

People become unwilling to listen for

different reasons. And I'm not,

you know, some people the obvious one

that that sticks out in your head is

like the person who's clearly very

proud. That's a thing. It happens. It's

not I don't I wouldn't call it typical

in our congregation, but there's other

pe reasons people won't listen.

Sometimes just fear of being wrong.

People really don't want to be wrong.

And so it's like hard for them to

consider hearing a different way of

thinking about something.

Sometimes if you've been successful in

some area, you assume that because

things have worked out for you in the

past, they're going to continue working

out for you indefinitely into the

future.

And so you just think, I don't need any

more help. Like I know I know everything

I need to know.

Sometimes people don't want to hear

input or advice or they don't want to

listen

because they're dealing with really

really deep insecurities

and there's something about that act of

being corrected that just awakens some

horrible feeling from their childhood or

something like that. There's all kinds

of reasons why people might not be open

to correction. But whatever it is,

whatever it is that's driving you to

resist input, whatever you're trying to

protect and defend, by doing that, by

doing that, you're making your life

worse, not better.

It's so important that you hear what I'm

saying.

If you resist input from people who care

about you, that are trying to help you,

you're making your life worse, not

better. You tell yourself, "It's better

if I just avoid this." But actually, the

better is learning and growing as a

person.

I know it's weird to hear it said that

raw of a way, but it's true.

If you're struggling to know if you're

teachable or not, you should try asking

someone. And if by suggesting

that by you begin by formulating a list

of people who will likely tell you, you

know, or sorry,

if you don't know if you're teachable,

you should ask someone. And when I say

you should ask someone, if in your mind

you start thinking of people who will

likely agree with you,

that that's an indication that maybe

you're not teachable. If you if if you

start thinking of a list of people who

are going to be super honest

and who might tell you something you

don't want to hear,

that's being teachable.

Doing that will make your life

qualitatively better

to humble yourself to accept God's

verdict over your life that you and I

and all of us are morally fractured. All

of us have insufficient minds. We need

each other. You know, last week uh for

those of you who were here, Eric

Eric was like, "Why would God pick us to

be the leaders of this church? It's like

John and he like disfigured his face

when he said my name." terrible. You

know,

I know he was joking around, but it was

it was just it was funny to be sitting

there listening to someone talk about me

like that and like this is literally the

kind of thing that if I was listening to

my text, I'd be like, "Well, tell me how

I can grow, Eric." You know, give me

your feedback.

If we humble ourselves under God's

mighty hand and trust that he cares for

us, we don't need to reinvent the wheel.

We've already been given this beautiful

vision of what a humble and loving life

looks like in the words and works of

Jesus, our Lord. He exemplifies all of

this perfectly for us. And by imitating

him, we will find healing.

For every person living in this world of

heaven, you don't have the freedom to

decide what is better or worse as a way

of living. God has already done that.

God has formed the world and the ways in

it and he's established them in their

place. The question we have to ask is

whether we're going to get on board with

what he's doing or not.

That is what is up to you to decide

whether or not you will receive the good

he has for you in this world or whether

you will spend your short and temporary

life ignoring his better ways until

you're gone.

God and his gospel are the answers to

these mysteries if you will let your

heart receive it. In a world of hell,

imitating God's love and humility is the

better way of life. So seek him with all

your heart. Let's pray.