Ecclesiastes: Conclusion | Pastor Michael Patz

Ecclesiastes 12. I'm gonna give you sort of the journey here. I've never liked the book of Ecclesiastes. I've never appreciated the book of Ecclesiastes. I've never been a fan of this.

This has been one of the books that I'm like, lord, why did you include this in the Bible? Like, why is it there? And I'll get into that a little bit, but I was talking to one of our college students months ago and. And I said that. She's like, are you kidding me?

Ecclesiastes, one of my favorite books in the whole Bible. And I'm like, how? She's like, you know, you read it and you're in chapter one and you're like, well, that's not true. And then you go to chapter two and you're like, that's not true. Chapter three.

Like, no, that this contradict. You get it four or five, six. Seems to contradict so many parts of the Bible. And then she said, then you get to chapter 12 and you go, oh, you snuck up on me, Jesus. And so today we're in chapter 12.

So is anyone ready to hear the conclusion of this book and the conclusion of the matter? And if you're ready, say amen. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, starting in verse 8. Meaningless. Meaningless, says the teacher.

Everything is meaningless. Not only was the teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. And he pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. The teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true. Verse 13.

Now all has been heard, and here is the conclusion of the matter. Fear God, keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. Going to read this again? All has been heard.

Here's the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. I'm going to pray when I say amen. I'm going to invite you to have a seat and I want you to take about one to two minutes. Turn to someone around you, and I want you to tell them what you notice in this.

And I'm going to take a couple thoughts from you guys and then I'm going to break this down to bring this to conclusion. God help in Jesus name. Amen. Have a seat, turn to someone around. You got about two minutes.

What do you see? Fear God, keep his commandments. This is the duty of all Mankind on your mark, get set, go. Go ahead, Church. Do your.

Observations, questions, comments. Go ahead. Ecclesiastes 12.

Could you put that scripture up on the screen so everyone sees it that Ecclesiastes 12, verse 13.

If we could have that up there? Yep.

What stands out.

It.

All right, let's. Let me hear a few comments. Who's got something? Who's got either a question or some sort of a comment or observation that might help? We got one right here.

Yeah, let's hear it. Let's hear it. What you're doing. Wait, you were in Jordan. Oh, welcome, welcome.

Let's hear Elizabeth, By the way, Ben is my son, so she went to Jordan with my son and daughter in law. So I hope they represented. I hope they represent. That's the son of my joy right there. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, yeah, Yeah.

Beautiful.

She's talking about John Bevere tells the story. He went and visited, I think the Jim Baker in prison. And Jim Baker went to prison for doing some stuff that he shouldn't have done while he was a pastor. And he said, hey, prison actually saved my life because I had always loved God, but I did not fear God. Yeah, no, that's big.

We're actually going to go there today, so. Yeah. All right, who else? Question, comment, thought, observation, Something that might help us kind of jump into this today. I just want to see if maybe some of you guys have a little something, something you could just put your hand in the air if that's you.

Yeah, yeah. Let's hear it.

The word goad.

Yeah.

Oh, it was sharp. Yeah, Yeah. Carson's bringing up a great point, which is, you know, I think a lot of times we'll say, lord, give me wisdom. He's like, do you want me, Lord, direct me. Sometimes he directs you with a goad, which can be sharp and doesn't feel like, like.

What I would like to say is, lord, can you please guide me and guide me with Krispy Kreme doughnuts, you know, but he often does it in a sharper way. Yeah, yeah, I think that's great. Keep going.

Wisdom is delightful in the end. It's not always delightful on the front end. Yeah. All right, anybody else just kind of have something like an observation or thought that you're kind of like, maybe this is for everybody here before I jump into this today. Going once, going twice.

Amen. Okay, so we're reading this book of Ecclesiastes. Go all the way to chapter one if you would, just to refresh our memories. If you're new around Here it says this. These are the words of the teacher.

Some versions say the preacher. It's a Hebrew word, koheleth or kohelef. It's this idea of the one, one that speaks to the ecclesia, the gathering. So in Hebrew, this is even just called the book of really koheleth. It's the Ecclesiastes.

So that's where we get this word ecclesiastes. He is the teacher. This is the guy that's going to bring this. And the key word of the book is right there in chapter one when he says meaningless. Meaningless.

Everyone say meaningless, say vanity. What's another way of saying meaningless or vanity?

What's that? That's where we kind of said, what's the point? Like me. So Solomon. Well, the writer, the teacher.

And when we read this, it says here, these are the words of the teacher, the son of David, the king in Jerusalem. But he's also a teacher. And he gathers together, brings all these proverbs and sayings. And we know that the son of David that was the king in Jerusalem was Solomon. Now, in the last hundred and fifty years, there's been debate over whether it really was Solomon or someone just ascribing Solomon's name to their writing.

I personally believe that it is Solomon that's writing this, but it doesn't matter because it's a Solomon figure that's taking his life and giving us the idea of what's going on here. But the key word is the word hevel. Everyone say Havel. It's a Hebrew word which means vanity. Meaningless.

Vapor smoke. The idea is something you can't quite put your hands on. And he keeps asking the question, this writer, this Solomon writer, keeps asking the question. If everything under the sun ends in vanity or everything under the sun ends meaningless, if everything under the sun ends in death, decay and destruction, then what is the point? And so we find at the very end now in chapter 12, when he says meaningless, meaningless.

And he's taken us through 12 straight chapters, he says money, making money is meaningless. Getting a career is meaningless. Getting married is meaningless. Having lots of pleasure is meaningless. You, you could get achievement.

It's going to be meaningless. All these things are everything under the sun. One of the key phrases is under the sun. Everything under the sun is meaningless. And this is a guy.

This is just to give you the story of Solomon, just so we're all on the same page here. Solomon was the king of Israel after David, the son of David. Anyone know how old Solomon was when he became king?

Someone said 30. What'd you say it was about 15? They tell us he was somewhere between 13 and 18 years old. So let's just say 15 years old. What were you doing when you were 15 years old?

Who was a mess at 15 years old? All right, imagine you become the king of a nation at the age of 15. And he has this encounter with God. God appears to him in a dream. And God says to Solomon, solomon, ask me for whatever you want, I'm going to give it to you.

And what does Solomon ask for? Everyone say, wisdom. He asks for wisdom. God is so pleased with Solomon's request. He says, because you didn't ask for the lives of your enemies, you didn't ask for riches, you didn't ask for all this other stuff.

I'm gonna give you wisdom, and I'm gonna give you all this other stuff on top of that. And as he does, I want you catching this. Because Solomon becomes greater than anyone you could ever imagine. Like Solomon. When I was reading about this in antiquity, this would be more than Elon Musk.

This would be more than Bill Gates. This is more, more than. You fill in the blank on something like, man, if only I could do something like the Madea franchise. If only I could do something like SpaceX. If only I could.

You fill in the blank. And whatever your thing is, he blew these people away. He was unlike anything you've ever seen. I mean, everything he was touching, he was turning to gold. And he was doing so well.

But he had this dilemma. He had this problem of his. And it says in this one verse, it says, but Solomon loved the many foreign women. Anyone know how many wives Solomon ended up with? 700 wives.

And he had 300 concubines on the side. What's a concubine? That's a side. Chick. That's a side.

That's a. That's a girlfriend on the side. 700 wives and 300 concubines on the side. And the Bible says in his latter years, his wives took turned his heart because they were pagans. And the nation of Israel got so dark, they even were sacrificing their own children.

They had gotten this nation that had started so well. So what I want you to see is imagine a person you've ever been like, oh, man, they were like, my hero. Solomon was the hero of the nation. Solomon was the man of wisdom. Solomon was the one that prayed a prayer where he said, God, he dedicated the temple.

And the glory of God came down. This man was anointed. This man was powerful. This this man had so much going on, and yet Solomon, he started to amass all this stuff and everything. I mean, he had.

I mean, you and me get to. You might get some money. Solomon's like, listen, I got more money than Elon Musk can imagine. And it did not satisfy. Some of you are like, man, if only I'm not married.

And if I was married, then I could sexually express myself. And Solomon's like, I sexually expressed myself with 700 plus 300 different females. I mean, some, you know, people today, they look at porn. He didn't need to look at porn. He had porn in his palace now.

That's what he had. And he's like, it doesn't satisfy. And then he made achievements. They did not satisfy. All these different things, they did not satisfy.

At the end, he said, havel. Havel. Everything is Havel. Everyone say, meaningless vapor, poof, smoke. In other words, he said, most of you will never have the chance to do every experiment and take it all the way.

I did every experiment. I took it all the way. And I'm telling you, it. It doesn't satisfy. Even if you get the achievement, it's not going to satisfy.

Even if you get the wife, it's not going to satisfy. Even if you get the success, it's not going to. It will never. It's never enough. Under the sun, nothing is ever enough.

That's what he said. Everything under the sun is hevel. And the key phrase of the book of Ecclesiastes is, under the sun, because under the sun, nothing's ever going to satisfy. But if you could ever get above the sun, you're gonna find what he's gonna find. In chapter 12, when he says, now all the stuff's been heard, and he says, here's the conclusion of the matter.

Here's how you sum it all up. What I've discovered was this fear. God keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man. So number one, just kind of pull out this series.

Number one. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Would you say that with me? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's not the totality of wisdom.

It's not the end of wisdom, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning. It is the beginning of wisdom. I was reading in Exodus 1, it says that the midwives that were told by Pharaoh to kill the Israelite boys, they did not. It says, because the midwives feared the Lord, he gave them families of his own. Psalm chapter 19 says, the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.

Psalm 25 says, maybe this is the biggest one to me, it says that the intimate friendship with God is reserved for those who fear him. So this morning, I just picked up my phone, I did like a Google search. What are the benefits? Let me the benefits of seeking the Lord. Here are the benefits of.

I'm sorry, of the fear of the Lord. Those who fear the Lord. The Bible says, number one, they get wisdom. Number two, they get intimacy with God. Number three, they get guidance and direction.

There are. The Scripture tells us that when you fear the Lord, you will get guidance other people do not get. I love Proverbs 14. It says, in the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence and his children will have a refuge. When I get tempted with things, sometimes I'm like, I have eight kids.

And when I get tempted, sometimes I'm like, man, Lord, the scripture says, in the fear of the Lord, I will have confidence in my children. Have a refuge. Moms and dads. When you fear the Lord, your kids have a shield that they do not have. When you don't fear the Lord, there's protection.

The Bible says those who fear the Lord, they get long life. It says that they get provision, freedom from sin, purity and holiness, answered prayers. The Lord answers the prayers of those who fear the Lord. So, number one, the fear of the Lord according to Solomon, the fear of the Lord according to scripture is the beginning of wisdom. Now, I've heard many people over the years tell me something like this, hey, Mike, I hear this talk about the fear of the Lord, but that's very much Old covenant, because in the new covenant, you go to the book of First John, chapter four, and it says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

And so what some people have said is, I don't need to fear the Lord anymore because I now have perfect love. Now, the problem is, number one, the context of that First John passage is the fear of judgment. So if you read it, it's talk. There is no fear of judgment. But perfect love casts out fear of judgment.

There absolutely, though, is the fear of the Lord. Which is why in New Testament, you've got 2 Corinthians, chapter 7 that says, Let us cleanse ourselves from all the things that defile the flesh and in the Spirit, perfecting holiness and the fear of God. This, this is the same area of Scripture where it says things like, come out from them and be separate, says the Lord, and I will be a father to you. There is a way in which when you fear The Lord you come to watch. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

It's not the end, it's the, it's the open door that's going to take you to where you will know God as possible. Papa, as Baba, as Abba, as Father God. That's very, very close. Now the problem is, I was watching. The problem I'm going to get to here is this idea of familiarity.

Okay? I am concerned that in the American church especially there can be an over familiarity with the Lord. Now I want you to hear what I'm saying because I'm about to tell you God wants to be intimate with you. What I want to tell you is a lot of us who want the benefits of intimacy without the requirements of the covenant given us. Okay?

So I was watching this, this Special on, on YouTube About Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone National Park. Every single year there are people that go to Yellowstone and they do not listen to the warning, but they give them a warning when they go to Yellowstone. You're not supposed to get too close to this one animal in particular. Anyone know what it is?

By the way, who's ever been to Yellowstone? Wave at me. If you've been to Yellowstone, do you know what the animal was that? What'd you say? Well, there's bears, but they also say don't get too close to the bison.

Now usually people are scared of bears and so they stay away naturally. The problem with bison is that they look so much like cows that people are like, oh look at that cute little cow. But bison are cute little cows. They are 2,000 pounds of pure muscle that will ram you and kill you. And so every single year there are people that go to Yellowstone, they get injured because they would get, they tell them don't get closer than 25ft.

And they get closer than 25ft and you got like 18 year old girls taking selfies with the bison, not realizing they're about to get their butts beat. You know, I should say, you know, pounded by this thing because they're not fear. What happens is they like, but it looked so cute. And I'm afraid sometimes we know that Jesus loves me. This I know.

For the Bible tells me so. We know that God is good all the time and all the time God is good, but the same God that's good. See what we can forget is it's in, in the Bible we read where Moses, when he got in the presence of God, he said, God, I want to see your glory. He's like, you can't look at My glory. He's like, no, I want to say, no, I'm have to put you in a crack.

And all you can see of a cleft of a rock, and I'm going to let the backside of me pass by. You could see one part of my back, whatever. But you, you got men. And Moses, by the way. Take off your shoes.

The ground you're in is holy. You're like, okay, yeah. You go to Isaiah, When Isaiah comes and he says, he, he, I. In the year that Uzziah died, he goes into the temple and he saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the train of his glory filled the temple. And the angels all cried.

What'd they cry? Anyone know? Holy, holy, holy. And the Bible says, he's like. He falls down like he's gonna be dead.

He's like, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. He realized now, this is the prophet of the Lord. And he's like, I'm a man of unclean lips and a nation of people. In other words, we get so tempted to compare ourselves.

Like, yeah, I struggle with stuff. But everyone struggles. And he realized, I'm dead meat. And then the angels picked up a coal, and they. They take this coal from the fire and they says, they touched his tongue.

And once they touched his tongue, that's when God said. That's when God said, who's going to go for us? And he said, here am I. Send me. And here's what I want you to see.

We've got a lot of people that are getting up and saying, God, use me. You've got my. Yes. But they've never been touched by the coal of God's holiness.

Beware of thinking you can go do something. When you have. You're like, mike, that's still the Old Testament. Okay, good. Let's go to the New Testament.

In the New Testament, John the Apostle was Jesus closest dude on the night he was being betrayed. When he's doing the Last Supper, he's laying his head on Jesus's side. He's like, jesus, man, I'm your best friend. He's best. John is best friends.

And yet when you get to the book of Revelation and Jesus is revealed with his eyes flaming like fire, and his hair is white like wool, and his voice is like many waters, the Bible says John fell down as though he was dead. That's the New Testament. That's Jesus right now. So, like, yes, Jesus loves us. This we know.

But I'm telling you, the fear of the Lord is the Beginning see what the fear of the Lord is? The fear of the Lord is that moment when you realize God is not who you imagined him to be. He's infinitely greater than you've imagined. Can I get an amen? I'm reading a book right now.

It's called Covenant. It's about covenant with my eyes, Bob Sorge. And so there's this. I was reading this this week, actually. I was, you know, praying into this, and I was reading the page.

He's got this one page that literally says there's two keys that you've got to have if you're going to make it. One of them is the fear of the Lord. And then the second one is. And this is the second part of the sermon. The love of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The next move is. But the love of God is the fullness of wisdom. Let me say it again. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The love of God is the fullness. The fear of the God is where it starts. Now, what's curious here is he says, this is what you do. Number one, fear God. What's the second thing he says in Ecclesiastes, though?

Fear God. And then what was it? Did you remember what it was? Keep his. Keep his commandments.

Now, this is where we get into trouble. Because God, how many commandments are there, by the way? Like in the Old Testament, that. What would Solomon have been thinking about? How many?

Anyone know how many commandments there were? Some people say three something. Some people say 613, hundreds of commandments. Which brings up the question, well, well, which commandments do I need to keep. To which some people would say, you got to keep all of them.

Some rabbis would say, well, sum it all up for us. Get on one foot. How you know, can you name the. You know, what's the whole law, the whole Torah on one foot? And so some rabbis would say, do unto others or don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you.

And of course, they came to Jesus. And when they got to Jesus and said, you know, what's the greatest commandment? What did Jesus say? He said, love the Lord your God with all your heart. And then he said, but the second part is just like it, which is love your neighbor.

And of course, that's when someone said, yeah, but who's my neighbor? You know? So here's what. So I've been reading a lot of Augustine, and Augustine was a guy that was. That lived a wild Crazy kind of life.

He was also a womanizer. He was very, very lustful. And so he was a guy that was not very pure at all. He's the guy that at one time prayed, lord, make me pure, or, lord, make me chaste, or, but not just yet. In other words, give me purity, but not yet, because I still want to do some stuff.

But what ended up happening was he had this encounter with God. He got converted. God changed him, and he became one of the greatest minds that the church has ever had. But more than a mind, he was a lover of God. He began to love the Lord.

And what he prayed. And he prayed this one prayer. And of course, if you've ever heard some Augustine quotes, it's things like. He'll say things like, lord, our hearts are restless. You made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their hearts in thee.

It's a very Ecclesiastes kind of statement. I love that quote. But my favorite quote of his is actually where he prays this prayer. He says, God, give what you command, and then command whatever you will. Now, I know that doesn't sound like it rocks your boat or anything like that, but I'm telling you, this is a great prayer to pray.

Lord, give what you command, and then command whatever you will follow. Where he's going with this, Lord, I found you have commanded purity, but I can't be pure. I'm trying. Like he said, go love your neighbor. I mean, just.

Let's just take that. Let's just take the two commands. Love God, love your neighbor. And what's going to happen is you're going to say, yeah, that's what we should do. Everyone agrees.

Let's go love. Our whole culture says love is love. Yeah, but what's the definition of love? And who gets to define love? Is it this community?

That community, Heaven? If it's below the sun, your love is going to be wrong. Below the sun, your love will be warped. Below the sun. All of your concoctions of love will not be accurate.

The Bible says God himself is love. So God is the definer of what love is. And so what happens is God's going to come and say, we just need to go love God and love our neighbor. The problem is we're going to be like, yeah, but do I have to love them? Do I have to love.

Do I have to love Palestinians? Do I have to love Jewish people? Do I have to love Israelis? Do I have to love people that oppose my political thoughts? Or do I have to Love the person that's done me wrong.

How do I do this? What Augustine said was, Lord, it was very much like, if you've ever read Romans 6 and 7, I want to obey you, but I can't, like, right now. Let me just say to all of you men and women here, never look at porn again for the rest of your life. I hope everyone would be like, amen. But yet some of you would be like, I can't do that to.

Which is what Solomon would say. And what Augustine said. He said this, God, give what you command, and then command whatever you will. Let me say it differently, Lord, do you want me to be pure? Then I need you to put purity on the inside of my heart.

The prophets said it like this. There's coming a day when God is gonna write his law on our hearts. This is why Augustine prayed. Lord, you want me to be honest, Give me honesty on the right. Honesty on the inside of my heart.

Lord, you want me to be loving. Write love on the inside of my heart. God, you want me to be chaste. God, you want me to have integrity. God, you want me to be diligent.

I need you to put diligence on the inside of my heart. This doesn't mean there's not a place for exercising godliness. We. What it means is, Lord, give what you command and then command whatever you will. Because if you're doing this from the outside in, it's never gonna stick.

It's never gonna be sustainable. You'll try to not sleep with your boyfriend, and the next thing you know, you're sleeping with your boyfriend again. Because it wasn't written on your heart. All it was was like a Pharisee on the outside of the cup. But, Lord, what he found, what Augustine found, was if you'll give what you command, then you command whatever you will.

This is why it says in First John, we love because he first. He first loved us. I love God because he first loved me. Let me say it differently. I cannot love God until I have first received the love of God.

Not until your soul hears the Father say, my child, my son, my daughter. Can you say in response, Abba. Father. Daughters of the Lord, in here. Sons of the Lord, in here.

There are some of you that I mean, as I was praying for this service today, I was just praying for this gathering right now. I just felt so clearly. There's some of you that have. That there's been a part of you that has just been so downcast, so ashamed, so stuck in some of you, even these are the specific words in my heart for this body right now. There's some of you that have actually wondered, I wonder if I'm just cursed.

I wonder if, like, I want to do what's right. I wonder if I'm just cursed, though, because of. And I don't know if it's because of your parents, maybe your grandparents, maybe things that happen to you and you've wondered if you're just cursed. And I want you to hear these words with so much power right now. The name of Jesus, lift your head, lift your eyes, because if you follow Jesus, and as you've turned to Jesus, I'm giving you a pronouncement that's already true.

It's 2,000 years true. You are not cursed. You are blessed. You are blessed. You are blessed.

You are blessed. Let me say it to you like a prophecy. How could anybody curse what God has blessed? And God has blessed you. And there's some of you like, but that person cursed me when they did that to me.

My dad cursed me, my uncle cursed. Let me listen. Listen to this powerfully, guys. How could someone curse what God has blessed? They have opposed you.

They will not overcome you because you are of the Lord, because you are God's. So lift up your eyes, lift up your head. In fact, this is the beauty in my mind of even how this goes down. Because in the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but the love of God's the fullness. Watch how this goes.

Fear of the Lord brings me to my knees where I say, holy, Holy, holy. But the love of God makes me lift my eyes where I say, father, Father. Abba. Father. And he says to me, no longer do I call you servants.

I call you children. No longer do I call you servants. I call you my sons. Now, watch, this only works if you get the. I mean, trust me.

He is a father that is to be feared. But. But when you have feared him, he comes and he lifts you up. And make no mistake about this church, what I'm describing is the command here is love. Solomon's problem wasn't greed.

His problem was he loved many foreign women. And the problem for you and me, it's not just the fact that we like things, it's that we've got disordered loves. You can't help it. You're a lover. You can't help it.

You're a lover. You can't help it. You're a lover. You either will love God or. Or you're going to find some other thing to love and you're going to bend it in on yourself.

And which is why freedom is when you're willing to get unbent from the love turned inward, and you get a love that's turned upward and outward, and that's when you come alive. This is why the conclusion of the matter is fear of the Lord, keep His commandments. And what we find is the only way you'll ever keep the. I mean, you're supposed to read this and say, fear God, keep His commandments. I can't.

And the answer is, you're right, until he writes his law in your heart. Well, how does that happen? Number one, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Number two, the love of God is the fullness of wisdom. But number three, Jesus is the fulfillment of wisdom.

Jesus. I'm telling you, man, the hero of this story is Jesus. Because any Jewish person reading Ecclesiastes, they know what it's like. If you've ever. If any of you ever had a pastor that fell, like, oh, man.

Man, if you ever had a teacher that fell, or a father that committed adultery, something like, oh, my hopes. Our hopes were that Solomon was going to bring in the. I mean, man, imagine what Solomon blew. I mean, David had taken the kingdom up to a certain point. Solomon had so much potential.

And what. Solomon is writing this message out of regret, because when he comes, he brings this message where man, Israel could have been incredible, and instead, right after Solomon, it goes down and there's so much regret. But what we find is that there is a Solomon that's greater than Solomon. There's a wisdom that's greater than this wisdom. And that's what we find in First Corinthians 1.

When the Bible says, because this is wisdom literature. Would you put that First Corinthians one up there? I'm not sure if you have that passage. First Corinthians 1:29, I think there it is. It says, I want you to watch this.

I want no one to boast before him. It's because of him. That's Jesus that you're in. Christ who has become for Jesus has become for us. Jesus has become for us.

Jesus has become for us. What everyone say, wisdom. You're like man. I need wisdom. You need Jesus.

Mike, I need help. You need Jesus. I need healing. You need Jesus. He has become for us.

Wisdom from God, that is. Here's a New Testament synopsis of wisdom. That is righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord Church. The Only thing I could boast in right now is Jesus.

The only boast we have is Jesus. That's the only boast. See, the fear of the Lord is the beginning. The love of God is the fullness. But Jesus, you'll never get the fullness without Jesus as your fulfillment.

See that Jesus is the greater Solomon. He knew we'd never get it. I mean, even when I'm preaching around, you could get fear. God keep his commandments and you'll walk out and nothing happens until Jesus melts your heart by getting in the back door. And you realize you need a wisdom better than Solomon.

You need a Jesus. When he says, because God is going to bring. He will bring every deed into judgment. I mean, that's going to scare everything out of you until you look to Jesus on that cross and you realize Jesus already took my judgment. Like, wait, why would.

Why would. Why would he do this? I think about, I'm going to end it with this two stories. The first one is Luke 12, because I'm just reading Jesus, who. He came and he knew we needed a way to hear this.

In Luke 12:35, Jesus gives a parable. And it's a parable that to me, sums up this. The fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord. The fear of the Lord. Luke 12:35 says this.

Be dressed, ready for service. Keep your lamps burning. Like servants waiting for their master to return to a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door. So it says, keep your lamps burning, fear of the Lord. The master's left.

He's coming back. And when he comes back, you better be ready. When. How many of you know, by the way, Jesus is coming back. Do we all agree?

Jesus is coming back, it says, and when he comes, he's going to be knocking. So here it is, verse 37. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at table, come, wait on them. It'll be good for those servants whose master finds them ready.

Everyone say, ready. Everyone say, get ready. People get ready. Jesus is coming back. In the old days, they preached it like this.

You don't want to be at some picture show watching a bad movie where the Lord comes back. You don't want to be smoking the Buddha when Jesus comes back, better be ready. Better. Everyone say, people, get ready. This is the fear of the Lord.

People get ready. It'll be good for those masters if they're ready. If Even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. But understand this. If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

You also must be ready about the Son of Man. He will return at an hour that you do not expect him. Now, everyone say, fear of the Lord. This is the ultimate fear of the Lord passage. You better be ready when Jesus comes back.

In fact, let me make sure I'm super clear about this. If you're in this room right now and you are living in sin, you need to repent today. You need to run to Jesus today. If you're holding on to secret sins, you got to let them go today. You got.

You're like, well, he's just so good. No, his goodness is revealed in this passage. But you need to fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You're like, well, Mike, you said this is a parable about the fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord.

Where's the love? Well, what you find it's interesting because when Jesus tells a parable, this is a Middle Eastern parable. And the way they would tell stories in the Middle east was that like when I'm watching a TV show or a movie, the movie climaxes at the end. You watch it for two hours, and then at the end it climbs. Oh, that's how.

But you didn't climax a story that Jesus would tell at the end of his parable. The climax was in the middle of the parable. It was like a sandwich. There's these parables. It wasn't unique only to Jesus, but it was often used Middle east by Jewish thinkers.

Jesus plays this brilliantly. The beginning of this parable is this piece of bread. You better be ready. Fear of the Lord. You better be ready.

Fear of the Lord. The end of it's another piece of bread. Be ready. Come on. Like a thief in the night coming.

Like a thief in the night. But what Jesus does is he sneaks up on you because the climax is actually the middle. Did you catch the middle? Because anybody hearing this in the first century would have been like, what the heck did he just say? It'll be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes now, it says he was knocking.

The first surprise them to be, why is the master knocking on the door to his own house? Why is he knocking?

Truly, I tell you, he will. And here's the part that would have just blown the minds. Truly, I tell You. When the doors open, he will dress himself to serve. He will have the servants recline at table, and he will come and wait on them.

Now, I was just. I was reading commentators on this, and they're like, there would have been no one in the first century who could have even ever imagined a master that would come knock on the door to his own house and then come in and tell the servants, you better be ready. You better be ready. I better be ready for what? Because when the Master shows up, he's going to sit them down, dress himself to serve, and then feed them.

What kind of a master serves the servants?

The kind of master that on the night he was being betrayed, Jesus was at the Last Supper, and no one had washed all the feet. And the Master got up and he took off his robes of divinity, his robes of being a rabbi, and he put on a towel, wrapped it around his waist, and he goes to his disciples, whose feet are filthy with all the places that they've walked. And with the robe with which he was robed, he gets on his knees and he wipes their dirt on his robe. And he looks at Peter, who would deny him, and he washes him clean. And he goes to Bartholomew and Andrew, ultimately Judas, who will betray him.

And with the towel that he was girded, he wipes them clean, and he gets back up, and he goes and he sits back down. He says, do you understand what I've done to you? Because what we find in this parable, it's one of the unique parables that is describing this reality of there is one king who's unlike any other king, because he is a king that you need to fear. But just know this, that when he comes. When Jesus comes back, he's coming back.

This. This wedding supper of the Lamb is going to be a place where he's gonna. He's gonna serve the servants. And all of us should. We should be like Peter when he's like, lord, what are you doing?

Washing my feet? Or these servants, like, whoa, you're the master. We should be serving you. I mean, this is his way. At the very beginning, when he says to John the Baptist, come and baptize me.

And John's like, no, you should be baptizing me. But he began his ministry the way he ended his ministry, identifying with sinners like us that don't deserve his mercy and don't deserve his grace and don't deserve his love. But when he's loved you like that, it smites you on the inside. And you're like, why would you do this for me? And he writes his love on your heart in the same way you knelt down and said, God, I could never be pure.

All of a sudden, he writes purity on your heart, and you get up and he makes you who you never would have been. You're born all over again. If you're here today and you're not right with God, I want you to fear the Lord. If you're not right with Him, I want you to turn to him today. If you have turned to him and there's anything secret in your life that should not be there, I want you to come before him.

And even in this closing time, say, lord, is there anything that is not pleasing to you when I'm telling you it's not going to serve you? No sei serve. It doesn't work. It's not. I mean, listen to Sabi's like, no, it's.

It's going to be meaningless. It's going to. It's going to ruin your marriage, it's going to ruin your kids. If you're single, it's going to ruin your future marriage. You want to deal with the lust now.

You want to deal with the lies now. You want to deal with the addictions now. I don't know who it is that's been struggling with addiction. Felt a very strong sense in this over the service, addiction to pain pills, addiction to gambling, addiction to sex. Jesus will set you free today.

I'm telling you, Jesus will set you free today. Like, you will be able to look back and say, wait a minute, Lord, I came. Touch the hem of his garment. Let him make you clean. Some of you know you've not been living clean.

You come to him. You need to respond. There is a response. Jesus always had a response. Sometimes it was as simple as, do you want to be free?

And I'm asking you right now, do you want to be free? Some of you that have had an addiction in your life, I'm bringing you the question, do you want to be free? If your answer is yes, I want you to. You don't need to say it out loud with everyone right now, but when we close with prayer, I want you to get ready to receive prayer. Because with nothing a centurion said to Jesus, just say the word and my servant's gonna get healed.

I'm gonna literally say the word and you're gonna get free. I mean, that's how Jesus does it. The spirit of the Lord comes on us to announce good news to the poor and recovery of sight and Freedom for the afflicted. Some of you need to get free. But I'm gonna start with this.

If you're here right now and you are not right with Jesus, he's not your Lord. He's not your Savior. He's not your leader, he's not your forgiver, he's not your wisdom, he's not your redemption. I just want you to look to him right now. Because he went to a cross.

He took the judgment. He went to a cross. He paid for our sins. He went to that cross. He paid for our folly and our foolishness.

And he died. And he rose. And it's strange, because he took our place on the cross, so there could be a substitution. So he took our place. So he took what we deserve so we could get what he deserves.

And some of you can walk out free today. But if you're here right now and you've not been right with him, and you've been, you're ready to get right with Him, I want you to bow. Everyone, bow your heads right now. But count to three. And when I say three, if you're in this place and you say, hey, Pastor Mike, Pastor Mike.

Pats, Pastor Mike. I don't think I'm right with God. And I want to be. I want to turn to Him. I want to call out to Jesus.

What would you say? I'd say, call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. I'd say, confess with your mouth. Jesus as Lord as leader. Believe with all of your heart that God raised him from the dead.

You will be saved. I would say, keep. Turn to him with all of your heart. Repent. Turn.

Trust him. Believe what he's done is enough. Believe that he's the master that serves the servants, and he did it starting on a cross. When I say three, if you know that you are unforgiven to this point, you're not 100% sure that you're his, but you want Jesus to be your Lord. When I say three, just shoot your hand in the air if that's you.

1, 2, 3. Put your hand above that. You. Yes. Yes.

Who else? Yes. Beautiful. Yes.

Thank you, Lord. Just keep your head bowed and even. Right now, say, jesus, you are the Lord. Four or five of you just raise your hands. Don't even get distracted.

Don't worry about any other distraction around us. Right now, you're about to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. That's what you're gonna do.

I'm going to say a prayer right now with everyone this is a prayer of covenant. You could say, does a prayer save me? No, the blood of Jesus saves you. No, the cross of Jesus saved you 2,000 years ago. Prayer is like going to an altar and getting into covenants with your mouth.

That you get into covenant with your mouth, you're going to be confessing Christ and be justified with your heart. You believe with your mouth, you confess. So everyone can pray this prayer. This is a prayer of covenant. But especially those of you that raised your hand, say this with your lips.

Because the Bible says every knee is going to bow, every tongue. Confess. Jesus is Lord. Pray this, say God. I call Jesus.

My Lord. I pledge my allegiance to Jesus. I renounce my sin. I renounce the world. I renounce my flesh.

And I turned to follow Jesus. I repent with all of my heart for all of my sin. And I trust Jesus. You went to the cross for me and you rose from the dead. I am in covenant with you now.

You can have my life, all of my heart, my body, my mind. I am all yours. I receive your grace.

Now let that sink in. Just let it sink in. Holy Spirit, I ask you to do a miraculous work of confirmation right now. The Bible says that his spirit and our spirits bear witness together that we are God's children. Holy Spirit, if this is happening, I pray that you will make this clear into people's hearts right now.

There's more to do from here. You're going to need to start following him and trusting him. If you've never been baptized, be baptized. But this is the first step right now to say yes, to say, jesus, you're the Lord. If you're one of those that just raised your hand a moment ago and you prayed that and you meant that,