How to Start the New Year Wiser- Wisdom from Ecclesiastes: Ecclesiastes 8:2-17

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways.

Good horning morning.

We talk the whole not through good morning. Good morning.

Do you there? It is?

Wow?

Hey, good morning everybody. My name's Chris, this is Jeff

and we are the bubble.

You just made people's day. No, no, you know what,

I actually know people hated breath. I actually know people

who don't like that. Well, they can find another podcast.

That's true that I'm singing.

We're not the only podcast in the world and I'm

singing that's wow. So I'm gonna guess more people love

it than hate it.

Oh, I don't think so.

Oh I think so. You think so? If you think

more people hate it than love it, why do you

keep doing it?

You're so funny?

Well, because I know personally some people who ask me

to do it.

Yeah.

Hey, by the way, you you're so kind.

You always say that when I do things that people

love it, they do.

Yeah, I love you. I'm impressed. I'm impressed with people.

I am man, I'm so impressed with the love.

People are like, oh, jeffah whatever, but they're like.

Oh, Chris, Chris, is that what is? Yeah?

Absolutely no, I'm amazed by it. You have this, Jeff,

you have this magnetism.

Okay, now now we need to put this to bid.

We're going to read a segment that Desiray wrote and

it's called New Year's Resolutions that says.

Happy New Year, Happy New Year. Today many are going

to start their New Year's Is this going to be

aired on Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, awesome since most resolutions fail. Wow, that's a that's

a downer.

Everybody's like, just quit talking so loudly right now.

Right, Let's ask this question, what is something you would

like to do see? Oh wait, see or do or

experience this year. That's a pretty good one. So something

you want to do or see or experience this year?

So I'm going to toss this out.

Okay.

I think it'd be fun.

If we got our wives and uh maybe even a

few other staffers and we did something out of the

ordinary and took a trip together.

Ooh, that'd be fun.

Just like two or three days or three or four

days or something like that, like a quick trip. Where

to I want to go? International?

International? Yeah, like your wife hates going internet? Yeah, but

not something like that. I mean like Dominican Republic. Like

she she sees like I FaceTime her and I show

her some of the conditions of the places I'm staying

and she's like, oh okay, and she sees like.

The polity some place, someplace like take her to Greece, yeah,

like Italy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, she'd love it. She would love it.

That'd be fun. That'd be neat.

You know, I hit the lottery first.

But yeah, you got to do that. But still, yeah, okay,

that'd be fun things that we'd like to see or

do or experience this year. I just was telling you

one of my big goals is I want to build

start building. It won't all happen and be done this year,

but I want to start building an outdoor kitchen, which

is amazing.

So I love for you. Yeah, you love cooking.

I love cooking, and I love all the outdoor stuff.

I love smoking meat, I love grilling. I love cooking

on a griddle. The whole nine yards, isn't it. Isn't

it funny how it's so predictable. You can predict like

seasons of people's lives. This is the season, right, So

when you're in.

Your thirties, you know you want to do it, you

just can't afford it. Right in your forties, it's like

I'm almost there. And in your sixties and seventies you're like.

I waited too late.

Right now is the time you are in the season

where you're like, I think I could make it work

financially and and maybe and well if.

You do it by pieces, right, that's what That's what

I do, is do it in pieces. But I started

doing that this year.

That's what you need. But you need to do it

now while you're still walking.

And then I'll tell the other thing I want to Yeah,

exactly the other thing. So the other thing I want

to do is my wife is gonna you know, I

want having to travel a lot with the Timoth Initiative,

and my wife is going to travel with me more

this year, and so that's fine. Yeah, that's gonna be

a lot of fun.

Yeah, that's really fun. Wow, that's actually really exciting.

I can't even tell you that the joy that I

actually have when you just said that's it.

Hopefully. I know that in January she's going to go

with me to Nairobi. Yeah, and she's never been on

a safari or anything. So that'll be fine. I've been

on a jillion of them, so I'm super excited to

finally be able to go do that with her. That

is some other things.

That is such a win win, win win. That's like

four wins. Right.

So you're gone and you're away from her and you

love her so much, so that's a win for you.

It's a win for her because you know she's with you,

and then it's a win for honestly if she goes

to meetings with you. She having our wives with us

always helps us.

Yes, well percent and.

Then me deliver the line, and then it's a win

for her. Not purchasing something when you're gone.

Yes, exactly, because this is what it's always what is

bonded by. Yeah, you're right, right, it's always. She always

gets it, not in a bad way. So I've kind

of given her a bad reputation because she never does

anything that we're not already talking about doing. It's just

sometimes I can talk about buying a thing, but I

think I mentioned here with something. I'm kind of researcher, yes,

so I look and look and on occasion, normally when

it comes to making decisions, I don't struggle except spending money. Yes,

sometimes it can be paralysis by analysis, and so I

can be like, yeah, we should get a house sometime

in the next nine years, right, right kind of thing.

Or it's time to turn in the car and get

a new car or whatever, and I can kind of

get bogged down looking for what do I want? And

can I find exactly all the features I want and

all that, And she's looking for the right deal. So

on occasion we've been talking about getting a new vehicle

and then I come home and she has a new

vehicle or the house. You know, when it came home

and she had a house, right, But you know that

kind of stuff.

That's so funny.

Yeah, that'll be fun. The other one that she'll do

is I think she's going to go to Egypt with

me this year. That's wonderful, And so there's a great

benefit because the pastor's wives want to meet my wife.

They want to know, you know, just that I'm a

human and not just a pastoral robot, you know what

I mean. And so being able to bring it wong,

it's gonna be a blast, I think. All So that's

that's one of my big goals this year for you, Yeah,

what other things do you want to see and do? More?

Well? More, I went, I went from well, last time

I mentioned this, you said it was a flex but

I'm gonna say it anyway. I had to build up

to this. But for two years I was only going

to the gym doing that training once a week, and

then for twenty twenty four I did twice a week,

and for twenty twenty five, I'm increasing it to three

times a week.

It's gonna get ripped, no, yeah, it's gonna be my bodyguard.

My goal is to be able to squat and bend

without going.

That's it.

That's my goal. Yeah, because that's what happens when you

get old. Two things. You go whenever you go stand

up and go like this. And then when once you

stand up, you go, where's my okay, all right, where's

my stuff? You start patting all your pockets trying to

see if you got all the stuff you need right

or when you've been down, tie your shoes. You just

stay down for a while, yeah, trying to think there's

anything else I need to do. I'm down here, money,

come back down again. That's what it happens. Okay, So,

speaking of getting older, Solomon. Solomon's getting old, and he's

kind of in a bad place right now.

Yeah, he's a crotchy he's speaking crotchy.

Is this whole thing is just complaining?

Now get off my lawn.

My life's miserable, right yeah.

Not bad, not bad?

Yeah, yeah. If you don't know, we're trying to figure

out the worst transitions possible between our conversation parts the Bible.

I forget it every time. Yeah, and you don't, you

remember it? So good for you.

So in Ecclesiastes chapter eight, he's been complaining about all

the things. But then even then, in this moment, he pauses,

reminds me, but I'm still king, all right, So he says,

obey the king, since you've vowed to God that you would.

Don't try to avoid doing your duty, and don't stand

with those who plot evil. For the king can do

whatever he wants. His command is backed by great power.

No one can resist or question it. Those who obey

him will not be punished. Those who are wise will

fill it, will find a time and a way to

do what is right, for there is a time in

a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble. Indeed,

how can people avoid what they don't know is going

to happen. None of us can hold back our spirit

from departing. None of us has the power to prevent

the day of our death. There's no escaping that obligation,

that dark battle, and in the face of death, wickedness

will certainly not rescue the wicked. No one mourns the wicked,

that's correct. I have thought deeply about all that goes

on here under the sun, where people have the power

to hurt each other. I've seen wicked people buried with honor,

yet they were the very ones who frequented the temple

and are now praised in the same city where they

committed their crimes. This, too, is meaningless. When a crime

is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to

do wrong. But even though a person sends a hundred

times and still lives a long time, I know that

those who fear God will be better off. The wicked

will not prosper, for they do not fear God. Their

days will never grow long like the evening shadows. And

this is not all that is meaningless in our world.

In this life, good people are often treated as though

they are wicked, and wicked people are often treated as

though they were good. This is so meaningless. So I

recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people

in this world than to eat and drink and enjoy life.

That way, they will experience some happiness along with all

the hard work God gives them under the sun. In

my search for wisdom and in my observation of people's

burdens here on earth, I discover that there is ceaseless

activity day and night. I realize that no one can

discover everything God is doing under the sun, Not even

the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim.

Well, there you go, there you go.

You know, as you were reading this, I was thinking,

what are we going to talk about? Because there's not

a lot here in terms of like, for instance, like okay,

one of the things that we can probably talk about

is obedience to the king. And you've said this before,

and it's such a great saying. You said, all of

that is great as long as you're a good king.

Right, Yeah, he's good kings and bad kings.

Yes, right, So so yes, he's talking about Hey, obey

the king. His command is backed by great power. No

one can resist or question it. Those who obey him

when not to be punished, and all these these kind

of things, Well, all of that's fine if he's a

good king, right, right, So I'd like to think honestly

that Solomon was a good king, even though that he

you know, had his own personal struggles.

You know, it is.

Recorded everything that everything that's recorded about Solomon, about him

actually doing his kingly duty, refers to him as a

great king, right, So I believe that he served his people.

Well.

I believe that, you know, you know, when it talks

about us obeying the laws of the land and you know,

respecting the government and the authorities that are placed over

us as long as they don't conflict with God's word. Right.

And that's a little ironic.

Because later on Solomon actually gives in toward the end

of his life to false idle practices, right. And so

therefore that is a time where I would say, don't

obey the king, right, or at least that which he's

invited you to, because it directly conflicts with God's words.

So I think there's a sermon in there somewhere.

Yeah. I also think that what you have here is

he says, you know, there's a time there's a way

to do the right thing all the time. This really

jumped out. Those who obey him will not be punished.

As verse five, those who are wise will find a

time and a way to do what is right. There

is a time and a way for everything, even when

a person is in trouble, and I go, okay, that

resonates not everything he says, resonates with wisdom and right

living right. So you've got to measure his statements according

to the rest of scripture. But that phrase, that phrase

really does resonate with everything he teaches us in proverbs.

But then all throughout the rest of the Bible, it's

possible to do the right thing, even when you feel

like there's no other way. How often do you hear

people say, well, I know you're not supposed to do that,

but there wasn't any other way for me. I had

to do the wrong thing right. People are quick to

justify wrong behavior just by saying I couldn't find another way.

And he said, there's always a way to do the

right thing. It's always possible to do right. And so

you know, I think that there's all those little nuggets

you're always trying to sift through the book you Ecclesiastes

and find what is true versus what's not true. And

that only is possible when you know the rest of

the word, because the Bible is its own best commentary. Yeah.

Yeah. And then he talks about.

Death happens everybody.

Yeah, death happens everybody, of course. And by the way,

when he says, I recommend having fun because there's nothing

better for people in this world to eat, drink and

enjoy life. That way, they experience some happiness along with

the hard work that God gives them unto the sun,

I think in the proper context, that's really good advice. Yeah, right, Like, like,

you know, there is something to be said about enjoying life.

I think I told you this, but I think I

made reference to it. But when I was over in

the Dominican Republic, which I went over to, you know,

this nonprofit that I'm working with, I ran into this

woman at the hotel who said she goes back and

forth from the United States to the Dominican And I said, hey,

do you like the States? And I was referring to

the luxuries over there versus the area that we were

in at the time. It was a pretty rough area

that we were in and she said, she said, yeah,

I like it, but she said, I just can't keep

up with the pace. She said, it's just it's a

horrible thing. She said, I go over there and I

make Yeah, I make some money from business. She's to

come back here to enjoy life. She said, people over here,

like they know how to have siestas, they know how

to enjoy one another relationally, and they spend time like

actually enjoying life. And she claimed that we over here

don't enjoy life, right, And I thought to myself, well, gee,

that's maybe overstated, but perhaps.

Not entirely untrue. Right, A lot of us don't enjoy life.

Yeah, I was in Rome and we were talking with

a guy and I was surprised. So he's Roman. I

was surprised. You know, we'd be going through the day

and then we only had just a couple days. Were

trying to put together a trip for other people to

join us on this trip, which we'll eventually do here.

But so we were trying to get restaurants scheduled and

all those kinds of things because we need to test

those out too. And so in the books that would

say or the websites would say, the restaurant open at seven,

So we'd be standing at the door at seven because

they closed down, right, so they served line to shut

down all afternoon and they opened back up a seven.

We'd be standing at the door at seven, and they're

clearly have no intention of opening the doors at seven.

It's just they're just arriving. They're doing some mopping, getting

the stoves going, the oven's going, you know, all that

kind of stuff. They mean they mean to feed you

at nine. They don't mean to feed you at seven, right,

So as Americans were like, what do you mean. It's

it's it's two hours after dinner time, right, and you

published it.

Yeah, and so you better have that door open. It's

seven o one.

So I was talking to the general manager of this

hotel we were staying in. He's really really friendly guy,

and he said yeah, he said, so Americans are always

surprised at that. He said, you know, Romans, we kind

of have. We just kind of take it easy. He said,

we're getting things done. It's gonna be okay, right, everything's

gonna be Yeah. He just he keeps saying just chill,

and he said, if you're starving, he said, there's gonna

be something on the street available. Go get a go

get a piece of bread, go get some ice cream

or something. We get some gelato. Uh, and then then

just come back And I said, well, it's just surprising

to me. He says, you know, everybody else around Italy

is a little bit more. He said, you have to

go to Milan or something, and they're going to be

more precise. He said, but do you know where they

go for vacation. They come to Rome, he said, there's

a reason, he said, we're always on vacation. Yeah, he said,

everything gets done. It all gets done eventually. But we

enjoy each other. We enjoy conversation, we enjoy good bread,

we enjoy good pasta, we enjoy good a good glass,

we enjoy beautiful places. But really it's about just enjoying life.

So the things get done, but they they're not high

pressured like that. And he said, I think you would

live longer if you didn't have so much pressure and deadlines.

Yeah, there's no doubt about that.

Yeah.

Right, And there's also something to be said.

About, you know, like a lot of the futility that

Solomon talks about, where he says, you know you're gonna

end up dying, and all the wealth that you have

doesn't really mean anything. And although you know, we understand

the context for that wealth is necessary and.

You want to leave a legacy for your kids and

all that stuff. But you know, but but in the end, uh,

you know, what is it always about? It's about relationships,

right right?

So everybody that I know is you know, at the

at the end of their life, they just worry about family,

They worry about friends, and they and they worry about relationships,

and everything else is great, but without those essentials of

you know. And and by the way, that's another nod

to there must be a God, because because it doesn't

matter who you are, you could be an atheist, you

can be an agnostic, you can you can deny the

existence of God. And yet still at the end of

your life you're going to finally realize that it's about relationship.

You are created by your heavenly Father.

To be dependent upon him and dependent on others, and

you're created to be relational with others around you.

That's what it is.

So I think it's very appropriate that we've been going

through Ecclesiastes here in the holiday season. Right on one side,

he's kind of a downer, right, but the other side,

in those glimpses of those sane moments, he reminds us,

you know, it's the people that matter. It's enjoying life

that matters. Don't be so miserable. And so this may

be on this New Year's Day, this may be that

reminder again, Hey, how do you have more fun?

Now?

I have to remind you. He writes a ton about

the value of work. Yes, he writes a ton about

the value of investing well, planning for the future. He

writes a ton about having great character and doing what

needs to be done. And it's almost like in this

book he's saying, so, I did all of those things,

but I forgot to have fun while I was doing it.

I forgot to enjoy life. I just did the hard stuff,

I just did the work stuff. I achieved, and I

did all these things and I became successful, but I

forgot to enjoy it. And so do all the things

you need to do, but decide that you're also going

to balance it out. And this is why I'm constantly

telling people. And you just had us do a message

here recently on applying a sabbath. Yep, right, God says

work six days, but on the seventh day, keep it holy,

and holy means set apart. And then we find out

from Jesus. Jesus says, Sabbath is for man, not man

for the Sabbath, right, right, this is a gift from

God to you. And what happens is a lot of

times we think we're so important, we're so busy, we

can't possibly take twenty four hours off and just reconnect

with God and reconnect with our family and reconnect with

the most important things. But God built it in to

his structure and his plan, and it's a command. It's

a command like don't kill, don't steal, don't commit adultery,

don't lie, same level command. It's a big deal. Hoping

nobody goes around killing anybody this year. It's the same.

So you can take pride in the fact you didn't

kill anybody this year. But if you're blowing off the Sabbath,

no wonder you're miserable. Yeah, right, So God says I

gave you this as a gift. Maybe twenty twenty five

is the year you go, all right, I am going

to make sure that I recharge batteries one day a week,

twenty four hours spiritually, emotionally, with my family, relationally, right

that that that I do those things physically, and that

you choose to have a little bit more enjoyment in life. Yeah,

it's important. Don't stop working.

Yeah, I almost I almost remember a three three point

outline from one of the messages I've heard in the past.

But somebody who's listening will know the answer to the

third one. But it's I remember the formula was divert daily,

withdraw weekly, and then it's something like like uh like

pull pull apart annually or something like get away annually,

but I don't know, but it's one of those acronyms, right,

So so divert daily talks about how even on a

micro level, to have moments in your day where you

where you have like mini Sabbaths every day, right, moments

of Sabbaths on.

A daily basis.

And then withdraw weekly, which is which is the you know,

six days and one, and then something annually. It's something

where it's where it's like, hey, make sure that once

a year you're able to refresh and have a big

chunk once a year.

It's just a great formula.

I read an article in Wall Street Journal about this

is probably two or three years ago about workplace rhythms. Oh,

and they said that they were advising get up every

three hours and leave your desk for fifteen minutes, and

you will increase your productivity by thirty percent twenty to

thirty percent. So if you just plow through, Say you're

a nine hour worker, right, so you work nine hours

in a day or whatever, they're saying, every two and

a half to three hours, get up, walk away from

your desk and do something not work oriented. Get a coffee,

chit chat with somebody, develop you know, keep developing relationships

around the office, whatever, every two and a half to

three hours, and you will increase your productivity. It's counterproductive.

What happens is you kind of get in a rut,

and not only do you get rut, you're getting a loop,

a brain loop, and a lot of times you start

doing the same things and you start convincing yourself that

you're right about a thing you're doing because you haven't paused.

So your brain needs to recategorize what all the things

you were doing.

It's like a Google work environment.

Yeah yeah, yeah, and so it's your brain has to

recategorize otherwise you start convincing your brain will start convincing

you that this is the best way and it's the

only way. And so when you get up and you

walk away and you come back and you see it,

your eyes see it almost like it's a new thing, right,

and go, oh, wait a minute, here's a new option.

And you wind up increasing productivity and creativity by taking

every two and a half to three hours taking a

ten or fifteen minute break. It's really it's a proven thing, yeah, right.

Which is like Google, like I mentioned, does what they

do for work environments.

So anyways, you have that, and then here's the other one.

By the way, the words abandon, abandon, abandon annually.

Yeah, that's right.

So then he does kind of come to the end

of this saying, listen, if you had access to all

of the world's wisdom, you still don't know very much, right,

And there is this he's starting to lean towards how

the book's going to end, and that is total dependence

on God. Right, yeah, Because as wise as we can

be with what God's word has to say, we don't

know very much and we can't see very far. And

so the wiser you get, the more you realize how

little you know and how absolutely dependent on God you

are to be able to truly be and do and

accomplish everything that God has for you in life, to

navigate safely through this life. And so just reminding ourselves,

we can't see very far, and we can't see very much,

but God can, and God is active in our lives

if we would lean in and trust him. Right, So,

twenty twenty five, this is that year again. You don't

have to have everything under control, you don't have everything

planned out because you can't see very much, you can't

see very far, but God can. And so decide that

you know you're going to commit your ways to him

and he'll direct your past.

Awesome.

Well, hey, it looks looks like that's our time. So

happy new Year and hopefully we will see you tomorrow

on the Bible guys,