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Ecclesiastes 10 What Really Matters Stay Away From Folly
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Ecclesiastes 10 What Really Matters Stay Away From Folly
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The main ideas from this information are: - Living with the right perspective means living morally in God's eyes. - Trying to find happiness without God is meaningless. - We have two different realms: the earthly realm and the heavenly realm. - Folly causes problems and ruins reputations. - To avoid playing the fool, guard your heart and listen to the right instructions. - Foolish rulers are full of pride, have anger out of control, and make poor choices. - Wise rulers are slow to anger, humble, and under control. - Wise attendants are patient, calm, and respectful. - Foolish rulers lack character and courage. Thus far we've been talking in terms of, well, what really matters? You know, last week we talked about living with the right perspective. And we talked about living with an eternal perspective, you see. And when we live with that kind of perspective in life, then we realize that what Solomon is doing, really honestly, is he's talking about, well, how do we live morally, doing right, in God's eyes? And either you try to live with doing right in man's eyes, but the thing is, is that the moralist is a do-gooder. You have to look good, do good, feel good, or you're no good. All right, so now we realize that we're under pressure. And the pressure is what we put on ourselves. You know, a life of envy and strife. So that's why life is full of strife as we go through life. And, you know, we're working out our own salvation. And, of course, that's what Solomon is trying to do. He's trying to work out his own salvation. And so what he's coming to the conclusion of is everything is meaningless and empty. You know, like he says in Ecclesiastes 3.11, God has made everything beautiful in his time, and he's placed eternity in the hearts of all men. And the point is, is that if God put eternity in the hearts of all men, only God can fill that vacuum. It's a spiritual vacuum, you see. We're trying to figure out life from the physical standpoint, from what we call technology. And technology, we find, is limited. You know, we all have cars that can go 40 miles per gallon. But now we have a future that says, well, what's going to happen in the future with the automobile industry is it's all going to be electric. You know, how long is it going to take the nation to have all electric cars? And now we see we're up against a dilemma, because now the philosophy under the sun is we're going to figure out life, what's best for us. See, and so now he's tried. Now, see, Solomon has tried everything, right? He's tried to try to find happiness without God. So he's tried to live by philosophy. He's tried to live by pleasure. He's tried to live by being rich. He's tried to live by being wise, being knowledgeable. He's the smartest of the smart, the wisest of the wise, the richest of the rich. And yet he says, all is empty, all is meaningless. See, so now we realize that you can't find happiness without God. And the reason for that is that we have two realms that we have to look at. We have to look at this realm. For example, you know, here on Earth, we have the water realm, you know, water. And there's only fish underwater. And they have fins. And then we have air up in the air. And we have birds, which have wings. Now, birds don't really fly well in water. And birds, fish don't really swim well in air. So now we see that we have two different realms that God is talking about. And for us, the realm here on Earth is really the fact that what God thinks that we need to do in this world, we have to do like the three A's, availability, affability, ability. We have to perform. And the thing is, is that how well do we have to perform? And you have to be perfect in your performance, or you're no good. See, that's the problem, right? So we have a lot of strife. We have a lot of envy. We have a lot of disappointment, disillusionment, depression, and even despair. So now we're up against the wall. So Solomon is saying, OK, I'm up against the wall. Now where do I go from here? And see, the thing is, is that we were meant, as humans, we were meant for heavenly purposes. We were meant to fly. We weren't meant to swim, so to speak. And so if we don't like it here because we don't fly well on Earth, that's because we don't belong here. See, we belong in the heavenlies. So now God is saying, well, living with the right perspective then isn't just trying to live here well on Earth. And that's what we're trying to figure out, right? Now most of us have found a living here on Earth. And we move straight by. We can survive. You see, God has made us here to thrive. And you can't thrive in this world and in the heavenlies. You can't thrive without Him. See, and that's the point that God is making us to make. Because you see, when it's all over with, and that's what Solomon is saying, when it's all over with, we die. And what happens when we die? See, all is vanity and all is vexation of the spirit. Because when we die, we leave everything behind. See, so what's that debt? Now the only person that has answered the point of death in all of creation is God Himself through Jesus Christ. For by grace have we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, as any man should boast. Because we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. We are created for heaven. And the language of heaven is praise, thanksgiving. You see, and praise is prayer. And when we are praying prayers of thanksgiving to God, that is the songs and music for heaven. So now we're seeing that God is preparing us well for that. And so the heart of man is restless until we find our rest in Jesus. See, God has made everything beautiful in His time. He's placed eternity in the hearts of all men. So it turns out to be this. Those of us who know music, Les Mis is probably one of our favorites, right? And Vicki or Hugo, last line of this whole wonderful musical aura. Hey, Martin. The whole point of Les Mis is that he says, when you love another person, you see the face of God. See, and that's Jesus' final command, right? Jesus says, I want to give you this new command that you love one another as I have just loved you. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have this kind of love one for another. So this study today in chapter 10 of Ecclesiastes is God says, ought we to live our life foolishly? So the lesson that Solomon is saying, I want you to live a life of not foolishness and stay away from man's folly. So that's what David's going to teach us all, openness and prayer. Dear Lord, thank you so much for this time that you've given us to study your word. Thank you for this book of Ecclesiastes. And thank you that Solomon is brutally honest with himself and with us, that he's learned a lot during this lawful life here on earth. He's finding out that life without you is meaningless and empty. So thank you that he's reminding us that life with you is full. And without Christ Jesus, life is nothing without God. So dear Lord, I pray that you'd help us to live with your word in our hearts, mind, because your word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. Divides to the soul and the spirit joints and the marrow. It's a discerner of the motives and intents of the heart. So dear Lord, help us to think with our heart so that we will fear you with all our heart, that we will trust you with all our heart, and that you will love us. Help us to love you with all our hearts. And we pray these things to Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Bye, David. What really matters, stay away from folly. What's folly? Foolishness. I was in my president's office today. He was talking about some college students we have that had not acted in what you'd call a mature way. And Ron knows who I'm talking about when I say the name Tilly Bergen, all right? She is the founder and executive director of Mission Arlington. And so every once in a while, some of our students will go work at Mission Arlington on a volunteer basis, you know, to do community service and get credit for it, you know, in terms of, you know, their, what we call Christian service credit. Okay? So this particular group of baseball players had gone to work at Mission Arlington. And Tilly Bergen calls our president. And he began to tell me, you know, I don't know how she put it because he didn't give me the exact verbiage. It's hard for me to imagine Tilly Bergen being upset. But she was, evidently. But she was. And the words that he said that she said was, those boys were playing the fool. Now, I can only imagine what she meant by that. I don't know any of the detail. But when you play the fool, what we're going to discover what Solomon says here about playing the fool, it's obvious. It's obvious. So I thought it was interesting that I actually had an example of what I'm going to teach come out of a meeting with my president this afternoon where we just impromptu met for about 30 minutes and talked about some things. Must be a coincidence. Must be a coincidence. Playing the fool. So it's best we stay away from folly. First of all, folly causes problems. So let's see what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 10, 1 through 3. Dead flies make a perfumer's oil ferment and stink. So a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. A wise man's heart goes to the right, but a fool's heart to the left. Even when the fool walks along the road, his heart lacks sense, and he shows everyone he's a fool. That kind of reminded me of what I heard this afternoon. So first of all, JJ handed me a little interesting article, and I put it on the back of your handout for your scripture passage, if you'll look at that right quick. And I thought it was excellent to see how accurate Solomon is. All right? So it says, a single fly falling into your glass of wine may be enough to ruin it. We're able to sense tiny quantities of a pheromone released by female fruit flies in just one nanogram. And JJ wrote on here, one billionth of a gram. That's how small a nanogram is. One nanogram is enough to give a drink an unpleasant smell and taste. You know, and he goes on to explain it a little more. I just thought, you know, that's what we're talking about here. I was in a situation, you know, decades ago now, and a situation where someone had ruined their reputation. And I thought, you know, what do we do? You know, my heart tells me to forgive, and I wanted to forgive. And I made comment to several guys that, you know, we ought to forgive, right? And one of the guys said back to me, you know what? He said, the issue is not forgiveness. The issue is trust. He says, once you break trust, it takes a long time to rebuild it. If it's even possible, yeah. And counseling some of the guys that I've counseled, where they have, if you don't mind me using the term, played the fool, okay? I've told them, I said, what you've done is you've broken trust, and your spouse doesn't trust you right now. And the only way you can rebuild trust is to prove yourself trustworthy. And it's not instant. You're going to have to consistently prove yourself trustworthy over time. So I just thought this is what Solomon is talking about here. It's just a little bit of foolishness, just a little bit, one-tenth of a gram of foolishness, and it ruins reputations. It only takes a little. That's your first two answers. It ruins reputations. It only takes a little. Playing the fool. Second point, a wise man's heart goes to the right, a fool's heart to the left. Back in those days, the right was considered the proper path or the acceptable way of doing things. And if they said to someone, you're on the right side of things, and it's even true today, right? You're on the right side of the law, right? That word right meant more than just a direction, all right? And the opposite of that was to the left. And back in those days, the left was opposite of being right, okay? It's still true today, but it's not directional. It's talking about being on the wrong side of the law, okay? So that's what Solomon means by this. A wise man's heart goes to the right, but a fool's heart to the left. It originates in the heart. This foolish behavior originates in the heart. There is an inclination either to what is right or what is wrong. So what must we do to stay away from playing the fool, from folly? Proverbs 4.23, and I said to Ron when we were reviewing this on Monday, I said, Ron, here's one of your favorite verses. And I figured, Ron, I want to go ahead and quote it tonight and chime in. So go ahead, Ron. So to avoid playing the fool, you got to guard your heart. Guard your heart. And that word guard is more than just put a hedge around it. That means with all diligence, guard your heart. Always be on the lookout. Always be, have sentries posted with their eyes peeled, looking, making sure that you're not going to go down the path that's foolish. Guard your heart. So third point, even when the fool walks along the road, his heart lacks sense and he shows everyone he's a fool. This is an indication here of a guy who's walking down a road, has asked directions for how to go to a certain city. He's been told how to get there and he ignores them and goes his own way. Whether he didn't trust them or whether he thought, I could care less, it doesn't matter. He played the fool. He got lost and can't even get toward his destination. He got told how to go and he chose not to go that way. So the fool ignores instructions and corrections. And when he does it, it's obvious to everyone. I'm not saying anything in here to the guys about their spouses, talking about, you know, you sure you turned the right, weren't you supposed to turn over there? You know, I don't talk about that. But, you know, we, sometimes us guys, you know, we're hardheaded and we think we know where we're going, right? And so, just me, okay, just me, right? But, you know, it's not about directions to locations, it's about how you're living your life. That's what it's talking about, how you're living your life. So to not play the fool, to stay away from follies, you need to make sure that you're listening to the right instructions and that you're willing to be corrected when you're wrong in terms of how you live. That's what this is talking about. So where do we get those instructions? From the Word of God. From the Word of God. And when do we get corrections? From the Holy Spirit. Well, when the Lord loves you, what? Each day. And Noel's got plenty of examples of that he's talked about before. I can't say I've had more than one or two or three or five or ten, I don't know. I've lost track. But the Lord has a way, if he loves you, which he does, and you're his, and you are if you're in here, I can't imagine that anybody being here that's not his, okay? He has a way, whether it be through a preacher preaching a sermon, or a conversation with another believer, or a brother who's looking out for you, getting in your face, or sometimes it's just reading his Word. And all of a sudden, boom, there it jumps off the page. It says, you need to change the way you're going. Now, I'm going to give one brief example that I've probably shared with a bunch of you guys before out of my life. I was self-employed for 30 years. And when you're self-employed, your income can go up and down. There was a period of time where it wasn't going so swift. And so this old boy made a decision. He looked at his checkbook and said, there ain't no way I can pay that tithe this week. Uh-oh. I don't know, I've heard this story, but uh-oh. So I don't pay my tithe. Now, watch what God did. I get sick of the dog. You're self-employed, you go to work. I mean, you don't stay home because you're sick. But I was miserable. I had a really bad case of strep throat. I was contagious. I had to stay home. I went to the doctor. The doctor says two days of rest minimum. He gave me a shot. He gave me a prescription. By that time, I've eaten up my tithe and doctor's bills and medicine, right? You didn't save anything. Didn't save a penny. I'm at home on the second day, and I'm getting to where I can't sleep anymore. You know, you slept long enough. And now all of a sudden, you go, OK, I got to get up. So I get up and I sit down on the couch, turn on the TV, flipping through the channels. I'm never home during the day. I don't know what's there. All of a sudden, I see Tony Evans. I like to listen to Tony Evans, you know? You know who Tony Evans is, right? Yeah. So here's Tony Evans. You didn't like this, darling. Yeah, you already heard the story. So here's what Tony Evans does. No, this is what God does. OK, watch what he does. He's preaching out of Malachi chapter 3. Ron's thinking in his head, he knows exactly what's in Malachi chapter 3. Shall a man rob God? That's what Malachi said. And the priest replied back to him, what are you talking about? Well, you're robbing me in your tithes and offerings. Oh, chastise. This old boy got a thumping, all right? He got a thumping. I hit my knees. I cried out to God, forgive me. I went and I grabbed my checkbook. I said, I don't know how you're going to cover this, but here it is. And I write the check and he covered it. My lack of faith. You know, that's how God corrects you. Now, if I had said, no, no, no, no, I'm not writing the check. Guess what? He just stayed after me. You know, why? Because he loves me. But if I played the fool enough, then there could be some serious consequences. So back to what this is about. This is about how you live your life. That's what he's talking about. That's what Solomon is talking about. Okay. Stay away from folly. And it causes problems. Stay away from folly of foolish rulers. Have you all seen any foolish rulers around recently? Every day, right? All right. I dream about them. Oh, don't. What a nightmare. Okay. Oh, is that what you're thinking about? Okay. So the point being, right? I mean, they happen, all right? So if the ruler's anger rises against you, don't leave your place. For calmness puts great offenses to risk. There is an evil I have seen under the sun. An error proceeding from the presence of the ruler. The fool is appointed to great heights, but the rich men remain in lowly positions. I have seen slaves on horses, but princes walking on the ground like slaves. So he's talking about, first of all, rulers who are full of pride and whose anger is out of control. That's out of verse four. Full of pride and anger out of control. I don't know if y'all have ever seen a ruler like that. I've had a boss like that before, you know? So, I mean, they're there, all right? So what would a wise ruler do if he's not playing the fool? How would he be wise? This is like a Proverbs 16, 32. Kat, go ahead and start tonight. A ruler who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And she who rules his spirit, then she who captures the city. So a wise ruler is what? The opposite of that, right? He's slow to anger and humble and under control. Man, I wish rulers could be that way, you know? I really do. He would help everybody. So what would a wise attendant do? That's the guy who is told to not leave his place, right? So Proverbs 25, 15 talks about that. Chris? So a wise attendant is going to be patient. He's going to be calm. He's going to be respectful even when he's disrespected. When you react to the ruler the way the ruler has treated you, guess who's got the upper hand? The ruler, but you'll get worse. You'll get worse for it. Yeah, you'll be in trouble, you know? You're going to really suffer if you're going to react to the ruler the way the ruler has treated you. But if, on the other hand, you react with calmness and respect, then his attitude towards you can change. And it might not be immediate, but stay to it, okay? So that's why he's staying there. Foolish rulers sometimes are also void of character and courage in verses 5 through 7. This ruler didn't have much character, and he didn't have the courage to do what he needed to do. Instead, he appoints some dudes that really shouldn't have been in places of authority. So they make poor choices about who they listen to, and they govern them wisely. And a great example of that is the guy that succeeded Solomon. His name was Rehoboam. And he went to his running buddies. He went to his running buddies, and his running buddies gave him unwise counsel. I like the way he said it. You shall speak to them, my little fingers thicker than my father's loins, right? Whereas my father disciplined you with a heavy yoke, I'll add to that yoke. He disciplined you with whips, but I'll discipline you with scorpions. In other words, wow. So do y'all know what happened when he went back to people with that message? You don't? Let me tell you what happened. I know, but I didn't want to tell you. Yeah. Yeah, what happened was 10 of the tribes said, we'll see you later. And they set up the northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel. That's when the nation of Israel, Judah, split into two. You had the 10 tribes of the northern kingdom and the two of the southern. Never was whole again. Never was whole again. Not very wise, was he? But even, even if he would have gotten wise counsel, which he did, he made the choice to go the wrong way. That's right. And not even, so it's kind of like, even if you get someone who's wise, who speaks the right words into you, if you go to the left. That's correct. It's not going to matter. That's correct, go ahead. Tell me your first name. Uh, Leo. Leo, okay. I keep wanting, I don't know your name. Well, I apologize. Okay, Leo, go ahead, Leo. No, you're fine. Like, I'm not used to calling guests names. I feel like a lot of times, we need to know what the right counsel is. But oftentimes we look for other people to validate our ego or to enable us in our, in our foolishness. Instead of allowing, you know, righteousness to correct us and challenge us to be better people. But like you said, you know, their ego and their pride, we want people to enable us to validate that, that foolishness that we know will ultimately destroy us from the end and destroy others. Right. On iron sharpens iron, you're friction. That's right, friction, friction. That's correct. Yeah, they are. Both of you. Go start. Go start. Go start. All right. So that's what Ray O'Boom did. So, you know, rulers can be foolish. You want to stay away from the folly of foolish rulers. Stay away from the folly of foolish workers. Wow, now we're starting to get closer to home here. The one who digs a pit may fall into it. And the one who breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. The one who quarries stones may be hurt by them. The one who splits trees may be endangered by them. If he acts as dull and one does not sharpen his edge, then one must exert more strength. However, the advantage of wisdom is that it brings success. If the snake bites before it is charmed, then there is no advantage for the charmer. That's got no pity. That's kind of funny. So here we go. Verse 8a, the one who digs a pit may fall into it. You are, you know, you are playing the fool if you don't take precautions. Don't take precautions. What may happen? Well, in this particular case, fall into a pit. So how could it be prevented? Pay attention. But what can you do with that pit? Mark it. Mark it. And don't dig if you don't need it. The indication here, a lot, most of the time in the Bible, just a side note, most of the time when you're talking about digging a pit, it's for an evil reason. You know, the person that digs the pit has evil intent in mind. In this case, Solomon's not talking about that. He's talking about someone who might dig a pit, say, to store grain in or to put produce in or, you know, or to whatever, right? So something for a good purpose. But if you don't mark the pit, if you don't fence it off, is what I'm thinking, right? If you don't fence it off, today, can you imagine here today, anybody out here, I mean, if you own land and you've got a hole and you've got grandchildren, what are you going to do? You don't want your grandchildren going anywhere near the hole. You're going to fence up and build that hole. I mean, I'm just saying, you know, I'm just saying. That's right. You know, I mean, gosh, there's, anyway, it doesn't matter. Point being, there's all sorts of things you could do to take precautions. Don't play the fool and don't take, by not taking precautions, don't take, don't play the fool, verse 8b, for when it breaks through a wall, may be bitten by a snake, by not being careful. What, this is anything, back in those days, if you're going to remodel your house or whatever, you're going to knock down a wall. Remember, they're out, they're out in the, in the wild, right? And so snakes would crawl up inside of walls and nest. And so if you're going to go knock down that wall, you better make sure the snake's not in there nesting. That's when they're the most dangerous. Yeah, it'd be like going out to Sweetwater at the wrong time of the year, you know. You know I'm talking about Sweetwater, right? Yeah, rattlesnake capital of the world out there. You don't want to go out to Sweetwater when they're active. You just don't. Yeah, so anyway, point being, they, they would break through a wall to knock it down and there would be a nest of snakes. Next thing you know, they're bitten. So, be careful. So, you know, who, you play the fool, you're not careful. What might happen, you're bit by a snake. How could it be, double check, triple check, make sure. Beat on the wall, see if anything comes out. I mean, here's all sorts of things you can do to make sure you're not going to get bit by a snake. Right? If you're out in Sweetwater, I got, I got advice. Stay away from where the rocks have a bunch of caves and crevices. Okay? Because that's where they like to nest. I don't see a metaphor here. I think they're just making a point. That you could, you can make us a metaphor if you want to, but I don't see it. I think it literally is illiterate, you know. Right. That's what I was referring to. That's correct. Yes, that's what I was referring to. Yeah, yeah. They did, my, my father-in-law taught my wife early in her life, the only good snake's a dead snake. So the first time I go, I don't want to tell this story. First time, I'm over at her house almost. She, all of a sudden, there's this, and I know it's a grass snake. And she sees a snake, and she says, watch him. And she runs to the garage, she grabs a hoe, and she's coming back with a hoe. And I'm going, she goes, where's the snake? I said, I don't know. He was right there. You were supposed to watch him. I got in trouble because I didn't watch the snake, because she had one thing in mind. Kill that snake. Years ago, I went through a hurricane, and my mother-in-law's house got swamped. And I had the responsibility to try and clean it up. So to keep myself safe, I had a .22 pistol within my reach. And if anything moved, it got shot. And I told them, I said, I hope nobody was in there trying to get out, because I didn't help them. But these were rattlesnakes. That makes Hawaii a great place to live. They're literally, you know, it's exciting. Well, all right, sign me up. Okay, verse 9. The one who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and one who splits trees may be endangered by them. You know, you play the fool when you're careless. You're careless. If you go into a rock quarry, and you're going to quarry rocks, you're going to make sure you do it with all safety in mind, right? Why? Because one slip, and you're a dead man, right? I mean, the rocks will crush you, and they'll do it quickly. And same with a tree. If you, you know, my goodness, if a tree falls on you, you're a dead man. You know, so point being is don't be careless. You might get hurt. How do you prevent it? Well, you prevent it in lots of ways. I think one way is to work in teams. Make sure you got a buddy, right? Second thing is be observant. Always be looking. Don't get careless, right? Third, use the right equipment. Make sure you've got the right safety equipment. Making sure you got the right tools. And fourth, and what you hear throughout the world, you know, from OSHA, right? It's what? Yeah. Hard hit. Safety first. Yeah, it's the first OSHA. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, that's correct. That's correct. Yeah. I think you're right, Chris. That's a gold star answer as far as I'm concerned. Awesomely correct. When we were growing up, I had two older brothers and one younger. And we felled trees and sawed them up and split them because we had a fireplace. And that's one of the things that we did with our dad. And he taught us about keeping an ax sharp and why it's so important. Literally, you could take an ax that's dull and hit on a pine log and it would literally bounce off the pine log as though it could whack you between the eyes. But if you took a few minutes, the way he taught us with oil and a foot stone, to sharpen that ax, one hit in the right place. And you sometimes could split a big log in two. So it's not just, I like that scripture uses stuff that you can look back and see, that is exactly true because I have seen personally being taught by my father about how to use an ax and how to take care of tools and how to use equipment. The key, not only to look for the, you look for the crack in the log, there's all kinds of things that he taught us. But having a sharp ax is at least half the trouble to split a log than one that's just, I mean, it's sharp enough to cut your foot off even when it's not sharp. But a sharp ax makes quick work of a big pine log. So Noel, that is a gold star answer for the next point. Oh, sorry. That's fine. You know, there's no problem. You want to take, you want to jump ahead. Here we go. See what it says. If the ax is dull, Noel, and one does not sharpen his edge, then one must exert more strength, right? I'm telling you. So don't be the fool like those who work harder and not smarter. Right? I learned the hard way, though. I tried it. I didn't buy it. It takes a lot of trouble to sharpen an ax. And I thought, you know, I was young. I was 16 years old. I think I could make that ax work. And I tried and it didn't work too well. And Deb was patient enough to let me try. And then he took, and he stopped, and he took about 15 minutes to sharpen that ax. He made one hit and split about a pine log about this big. He made one hit on the edge with a sharp ax, and I had two halves. And there were marks all over where I just literally, I was going to show him. But I just, when I was reading it, I thought, oh, my God. You can't get away from wisdom. Even though I learned, I look back, and I was such a fool as a 16-year-old boy thinking, no, that can't be right. This thing has an edge. If it'll cut my foot off, I can cut a pine log. Not necessarily so. That's great, Noel. I love that. All right. So what may happen when you exert more strength, as Noel talked about? How can it be prevented? Well, do what Noel said. Make sure the tools are sharp and in good working condition. The next point. Talking about the snake bites before it's charmed. That's that snake charmer. You know, the snake charmers, they got their little flute thing they're playing, right? Well, it isn't the music. It's the movement. It's the movement, see? Because that snake is focused on the charmer. He's looking for his opportunity. And you just keep on moving, and the snake's not sure when he can strike and where. And when you cut corners on that, and the indication here is that the charmer wanted to get paid and move to his next gig, right? He's done his performance. He's ready to get paid. He wants to pack up that snake and go to the next stop. Well, he cut the corner, and he didn't sway like he should have. And that snake got his opportunity, all right? So this is when you play the fool when you're too big a hurry. Anybody ever been too big a hurry? Okay. I think we can all testify to this, right? You get too big a hurry. Ron, what happens when surgeons are in too big a hurry? Yeah. Don't ever do that if you're cutting on me, okay? All right. I'm just saying, you get too big a hurry. You're not going to do the job the right way. The question you might ask a surgeon is, do you have supplies to cut corners? Good point. That's probably true about any career field. Someone that's in a hurry, no matter what they're doing, you're going to make mistakes if you're in too big of a hurry. Yep. You just are. Yep. Yep. Yep. There's a famous pharmacist one time in some movie my wife loves to watch every Christmas, you know? He dispensed the wrong medicine because he was in a real big hurry. Yeah. What's ever happened to you as a Christmas? Oh, nothing. Yeah. That's scary, isn't it? Very scary. Don't be in a hurry. And don't do it and do the job the right way. How can it be prevented? Well, slow down. Do the job right. So what attitude do all these possess that was the root of all their problems? Now, there could be several answers to this. I've got one in mind. But what do you think? All these guys, what are they exhibiting in terms of their attitude? Leo? Lack of patience. Lack of patience. That's a great answer. I like that one. What else? Pride. Pride. Yeah, I agree with that. That's why I thought I could do the act. Yeah, yeah. There you go. There you go. What else? How about common sense? Lack of common sense. Making mistakes is not a good idea. All right, common sense. All right. All right. What else? Anybody else have an idea? I thought overconfidence. Overconfidence. You know, it's when the person's overconfidence when they're, you know, heard a guy one time. And when I was first learning the insurance business and went to, they're talking about liability and talking about product liability. Skill saw, you know, makes that little hand saw, you know, right? And it's got the safety guard on it, right? Grandpa takes the safety guard and wires it where it stays open. Okay. And he goes, and he's cutting, he's cutting steps for the, you know, and he's cutting this board to, he's nailed the board down to the steps for the backboard step. He's going to trim, he's going to trim the board and he goes, lets it go. And on the backswing, he didn't realize his two-year-old grandson had stepped up behind him. Now, skill saw got sued. And skill saw was going on a timeout. We had a safety guard on that. We can't be responsible for someone playing the fool and wiring the guard open. You know what I'm saying? Even if he wins the suit. You've lost. You've lost. Overconfident. That granddad knew what he was doing. You know he did. But he wasn't wise. Yeah. He wasn't wise. JJ. One of the things, you know, of course my history in the pilot, you know, I think about what we do when we plan a flight. And it's so important for, it's not just getting the airplane there. It's the thing that we do is when we flight plan, we try to find everything we can about where we're going that would create a problem for us. We want to know what the problems are in advance so we can plan for them. You know, we look for the weather. You know, we check the weather. We check the forecast. We check our airplane. We make sure everything's right on it. We want to make sure all the paperwork is right. You know, that we have the proper documents on board. All these things we do before we ever get in and even start the motors. Because if you don't do that, it's a little late when you're, you know, you're five miles up in the air going 600 miles an hour. And then you've got to come up with an idea when you run into trouble that you're not expecting. So, the whole idea is really to plan ahead and look for the... Try to find out... And you'll never be guaranteed that everything will be... You'll have all the questions answered. But you want to be as well prepared as you can. Because there always will be unintended consequences or unintended situations. Weather forecasts, you know, are not always right. You know, always have an alternate... We always had a backup plan, you know. So, whenever we went into something like that, we thought about... If we wouldn't do that, we couldn't survive. And we couldn't protect the people we were taking, you know, to that location. Same thing walking through life. You know, if you will walk through life without trying to anticipate problems and solve them and prevent them from happening, that's the whole idea of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what we do in medicine as well. Yeah, yeah. That's why they call it the practice of medicine. Because all sorts of things can happen in that operating room. And lots of horrendous things that you never expected. Because there are situations anatomically that are variations of normal. And so, something that shouldn't be there is there. Like an artery or a nerve or something like this. So, what do you do in that case? And of course, you pray a lot. But God usually, because of the previous doctors who have gone through the same thing, have given us information on how to take care of those issues. So, you know, that's such an important issue. And there you go. And sometimes you have wise counsel. Yeah. There might be somebody in there that's seen that problem that you've never solved. Exactly. And sometimes you can save a young man by beating on his chest. Yeah. Right? That's a know-nothing resident. That's what I've seen. Yeah. Have you ever asked your doctor before you start an operation, what groin did you nail on what part of your body? Actually, no way. Oh, man. All right. So, playing the fool causes problems. There's foolish readers. There's foolish workers. Flip the page. There's foolish talkers. Oh, my goodness. Now we're getting the meddling. All right. The words from the mouth of wise men are gracious, but the lips of a fool consume him. The beginning of the words of his mouth is folly, but the end of his speaking is evil madness. Yet the fool multiplies words. No one knows what will happen, and who can tell anyone what will happen after him? The struggles of fools weary them, for they don't know how to go to the city. So, first of all, the wise speak words of grace. So, what do words of grace accomplish? Proverbs 10, 32, Martin. So, they bring forth what is acceptable, right? Now, that word acceptable is referring to what is acceptable for the occasion in which the wise man speaks, right? The wise man knows what to say, and when to say it, and when to say it. That's what's acceptable. That makes sense. That's what the wise man knows. What to say, when to say it, and why to say it, and how to say it. I say it how's in there. So, that's words of grace. Fools speak words of what? Destruction. Destruction. Oh, what did those words accomplish? Well, look at James 3, 5, 2, 8. Leo, have you read yet? No, sir. I'm sorry. I'm a pretty informed person. So, also, the tongue is a small part of the body. To gain a focus of great things, we have great on fire. And the tongue is the fire, the very word. We need the tongue to set amongst our members, as they are placed upon their firebones. And it sets on fire the course of our life. And it's set on fire by him. For every species, the thieves, the pirates, the reptiles, the creatures of the sea, have been tamed by the King of Grace. But no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless feeling. So, what do we see about fools who speak words of destruction? What do they accomplish? What do you see? Harm. What else do you see? I see the word iniquity, right? I see the word evil. I see the word poison. I even see the word death. You know, your words destroy things. You can't take it back. Oh, man. Once it comes back and it's heard, you can't take it back. You can get forgiveness and work it out, maybe, but you can't take it back. So, we need to be careful how we talk, don't we? That's what it's saying here. The words of fools start off sounding foolish, but they end up being madness. They make no sense. Sometimes fools speak words that are nonsensical. You're going, what in the world is he ranting and raving about? Why is he talking about that way? Nonsensical. Fools speak many words, but really say nothing. And what happens as a result? Look at Proverbs 10, 19. When I first read this verse a long time ago, I thought, oh, wow, there's so much truth in this. Proverbs 10, 19. Who hasn't read yet? Noah. When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable. But he who restrains his lips is blind. It reminds me of a saying that's like, people think you're smart until you open your mouth or something to that effect. Yeah. So, it's like, better to keep your mouth shut than to let people assume you're a smart person. So, people think you're ignorant and so you open your mouth and prove it to them. That's right, Bill. Come on in, Susan. That's true. You have control of your thoughts and words until it comes off your tongue. I mean, you can think stuff and want to say stuff and be angry. And all that, as long as you keep it to yourself, you haven't harmed anyone else. But as soon as it comes out of your mouth, it can't be retrieved. That's fact. That's fact. So, fools speak many words, but they really say nothing. What happens as a result? That's sin. The number one thing that happens when you start rattling your mouth and wagging your tongue is sin. And finally, the struggles of fools weary them. Fools talk about the future as if they know what's going to happen. They don't know how to get to the city. In other words, they don't even know what's going to happen. That's what they're saying. Or you have to multiply words to see what's going on. You can tell anyone what will happen after. Fools talk about the future as if they know what's going to happen. Verses 14, D through 15. So, what's the truth? Proverbs 27, 1. Susan, since you just now arrived, let's honor you and let you read Proverbs 27, 1. Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know how the day may bring forth a new hope. I'm telling you. So, I'm sure no one in here has ever done it. Right? James said it a different way. He says, come now, you who say you're going to go to such and such a city, right, and engage in such and such a business, and make a profit. And he actually uses that word. You fool. You don't know what a day holds. You don't know what comes next. But, you know, I mean, come now. It's not that you don't plan. It's not that you don't work. It's not that. But to sit there and presume that you are going to be successful. Yeah, back to Deo Valente, Lord willing. That's what James says, Deo Valente, Lord willing. That has to be your approach. So, don't be a foolish talker. Don't be a foolish talker. Finally, a foolish officer. Again, this is the setting is the king's court. And kings appoint, as someone said a while ago, yes men, right? Sometimes they appoint various people to be in positions of responsibility. And oftentimes they appoint their cronies. And the cronies may or may not be qualified for the position that they're appointed to. And, but when the crony takes over, that's what this is referring to. Okay, just as a matter of context here. So, woe to you, land, when your king is a youth, and your princes feast in the morning. Blessed are you, land, when your king is a son of nobles, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength and not for drunkenness. Because of laziness, the root caves in, and because of negligent hands, the house leaks. A feast is prepared for laughter, and wine makes life happy, and money is the answer for everything. So you think. Do not curse the king, even in your thoughts. Do not curse a rich person, even in your bedroom. For a bird of the sky may carry the message, and a winged creature may report the matter. So, when an immature or foolish king appoints immature or foolish officers, there is feasting at the wrong time, and for the wrong reasons. And what's the wrong reason? To serve who? Themselves. Ghosts are built to serve themselves. And what happens to land when that is the case? The land suffers. The land suffers. In contrast to that, when a noble king appoints noble officers, there's feasting at the proper time, and for the right reasons. It's for the good of the what? People. People. The good of the people. Goose on a roll back there. Good of the people. The land is? Prosperous. Prosperous or blessed. Back to the fools. When foolish officers are in charge, things start to... Okay, let's see. How did it go here? Fall apart. That's correct. Fall apart. Ghosts are? Capped. Fall apart. Why? Let's look at Proverbs 18, 9. Carol? He who is slack in his work, his brother should him be destroyed. Did y'all get that? Did you catch the link between the person who's slack and the result of being slack, right? That's what Solomon's saying here in Ecclesiastes. Exactly that thing. It says, because of laziness, slack, the roof caves in, and because of negligent hands, slack, the house leaks. When these foolish officers who are in charge are focused on their own agendas, they neglect everything else. And everything else goes downhill, heads towards destruction. Okay? That's what Solomon's saying. Things start to fall apart. So when foolish officers are in charge, they're indifferent to their responsibilities. And the needs of the people. While focused on enjoying the benefits and taking advantage of the authority they have been given. Those foolish officers are all about themselves. I already said that. And all they're focused on is what can I get out of this? That's all they're focused on. Finally, when foolish officers are in charge, they don't respect the king and they curse him. What should they do even if they don't respect the king? Bill, you haven't read yet. 1 Peter 2, 13-17, please, sir. 1 Peter 2, 13-17, Yes, sir. Submit yourself to the Lord's sake through every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God, that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men, act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. So if you were to sum that up, since you've already been doing a good job, you would sum that up in a couple of words. How should they, even if they don't respect the king, how should they relate to him? What should they do? How should they live? They should act as free men, but they should still follow his rules. Follow his rules. That's the word submit. That's what I wrote. Submit, right? And additionally, submit yourself to the Lord's sake, right? And look right here. And or to governors sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. So my next phrase was do right. Submit, do right. For such is the will of God, that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men, act as free men. Do not use freedom to come here, but use it as bond slaves of God, bond slaves of God. So you want to, you're representing God. Remember that. Then honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, and honor the king, honor the king. Even when the king is not honorable, you still honor the king. You honor him. You might not like the person, but you honor the king because of the office that God has placed in him. Remember, there's another proverb that talks in chapter 21, I think it is, that the king's heart, 21-1, it's 21-1. I think it's 21-1. It's like the water course. Yeah. The Lord directs it wherever he wishes. Right, right. Exactly. Susan's got it. Chris is looking it up. I think it's 21-1. Well, they're looking at the second blank. Second blank on the last one. Cursing. Go ahead, Chris, read it out loud. Remember, God's still sovereign. He's still sovereign, and he is going to accomplish his purpose. No. David, he expects us that in all of our jobs, wherever we work, as his children, to obey the authority set above us, even if they don't deserve it. And if you do that, God often will give you benefits because you obey him in spite of having ungodly people that are your bosses. That's right. That's right. Put your trust in God. Yeah, yeah. Not in the men that have authority over you. Yeah. So that's the end of our lesson for today. Going back over it, don't play the fool. It causes problems. Foolish rulers, we know how to relate to that. Don't be a foolish worker. Don't be a foolish talker. I imagine most of us struggle with that as much as anything, don't we? The words we say. Yeah. How we talk. And don't be a fool in the way you relate to the king and those appointed by him. So any questions, any thoughts? Is a quarter up? JJ, do you want to say anything? No, the binary of a fool is like somebody that's wise. And you know, what does it take to become a fool? How much work does it take to become a fool? Deep or natural fool, I'm not sure. Not very much. Some people work at it. But some people are just inaccurate. And they work on it somewhere. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. What does it take to become wise? The whole thing is, to me, is, you know, these are books that we've been studying here are books on wisdom, right? And, you know, the thing about it is, we have all the wisdom in the world. But if we, you know, wisdom won't make you a wise man. It's only when we start applying that wisdom to become wise people. And so nothing's worse than if you buy that. And, you know, you look back in Matthew 7, what Jesus was saying, you know, about the wise man. He's the one that does, you know, what Jesus says. He says, you know, what I've told you, obey me. That's a wise man. But how do you become a fool? Because you don't apply, right? And so that's how we become a fool, is by just by doing nothing. And we become wise by obeying the Lord, obeying what we know, studying the wisdom. And we also have to learn how to separate God's wisdom, or wisdom from above, from man's wisdom. And the problem is that so many times we become fools, because we start acting upon man's wisdom instead of God's wisdom. You know, and that can become a problem. You know, I was looking at here, you know, to me, this is why Ecclesiastes, it takes a little bit of work when you read some of this stuff, because what he's doing, he's talking about, you know, all these things are happening under the sun. So what we're seeing there is we're seeing a lot of man's wisdom, right? And I was thinking about right, you know, just the first part of 10 here, you know, it talks about, you know, a little bit of a little bit of a folly can destroy everything. But right before that, and we were looking at in 7, you know, it says, you know, here's what he said, things that he has seen in my days of vanity, he said, do not be overly righteous, nor be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Don't be overly wicked, nor be foolish. Why should you die for your time? It is good that you should grasp this, and also not remove your hand from the other, for he who purges God will escape at all. You know, this is typical of what man's wisdom is. Hey, man, you know, don't be too good. Don't be too bad. Let's just cruise right in the middle. And where's that going to get you? You know, it's going to get you to the wide gate, right? But what does wisdom of above say? Now we see wisdom from above. He said, hey, man, just a little bit of folly can destroy everything. God's got a much higher standard than the world has, believe me. And I think that's the whole point of this, and David's been pointing this out really well. And what we're reading here is wisdom. It's wisdom from above. These are proverbs that are here in the Ecclesiastes. You know, like I said, you know, we look in 1st Kings, it says Solomon wrote over 3,000 proverbs, and we only have about 1,000 of them here in the Bible. But we find them all over here. But you've got to pick them out. You know, it's kind of like, to me, going through Ecclesiastes, it's kind of like one of these word games that you see with all this stuff going in to pick out the right word in there. You've got to look. But it takes work, you know. And we've got to do it. And we need to meditate on this. And I'll tell you, some of this stuff, the way he explains it, you know, I've got to think about that, man. That doesn't sound right, you know. We need to meditate on these words. And we've got the teacher right within us as Christians, right? But who's the ones that reveal truth and understand it? It's the Holy Spirit, you know. But, you know, if we just read these words and don't ponder them, and really try to understand them, and then once we understand them and apply them, that's the whole thing of what we are as disciples, that we ought to be. So, you know, we need to be all we can be. Now, you're talking about, you know, we need to strive, strive for perfection. We may not always reach it, but we need to strive for it. And that means work at it. And how many times do we see in God's Word where it says, be diligent, be very diligent? You know, that takes work, you know. It doesn't take anything to be a fool. Just do nothing, you know. And most of life, correct me if I'm wrong. I was going to add to what you were saying when it comes to wisdom. The most beautiful thing about wisdom comes from a place of grace and love. And wisdom is very patient. And, you know, even with the little wisdom that I have, there's still no wisdom because I have so far to go. Jesus said eternal life is to know the Father when they descend. You know, even the little knowledge that we know now is just a glimpse, just a grain of salt. But as we continue to grow, as we continue to abide in the vine, we start to realize we're not as loving as we think in our own righteousness. Like, oh man, I got it all figured out. One thing I've learned is that, man, I have so far to go. And that allows me to get into a place of humility. You know, those who humble themselves will be exalted. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled. You know, and it allows us to love more. You know, Jesus said those who realize they've been forgiven much, love much. Those who think those who've been forgiven of a little, based off how we think, right, they love a little. So that's what I love about wisdom. It comes from a place of grace and just walking with the Lord and just experience and realize I used to be foolish. I used to be spoiled all the time. I mean, when I was a child, I felt like a child. But now that I'm a man, I feel one of those childish things. You know, we've got to work out our salvation. That's all part of this process. Nobody wants to be stagnant, you know. We've got a long ways to go, you know. It's very challenging, you know. And we need to be challenged. And we need to take this stuff seriously, you know, because what happened to Moses? You know, how many foolish things did it cost? And what did it cost him? You know, he's a pretty stand-up guy, right? But we're all, you know, I criticize Solomon a lot. But I tell you what, I'm just, that's me, you know. I mean, what makes me any different than he is when I act foolish, you know. If you want to live, you know, what kind of legacy did he leave? You know, that's the dichotomy of Solomon to me. It's the fact here you've got the guy, the wisest, that the guy had more wisdom than anybody ever has or will have. And yet, how did he live his life? You know, by turning. What does it say? Don't turn to the left, don't turn to the right, stick it out here. And what did he do? Broke every rule, tried everything, you know. And couldn't find any meaning in it, duh, you know. We'll see what happens at the end. We'll hear about it. So James says, we'll wrap this up. Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds, and the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above. It's earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there's disorder in every evil thing. But Leo, back to your point. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, grace, and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. That's the wisdom from above. Now, if we can line up with that. I just want to say that you guys have been a blessing to me. Like, I thirst to come here, you know, to, you know, to be encouraged in my faith, you know, because I can be so caught up in my head, you know, just the cares of this world, the cares of life. But when I come here, I feel alive because I'm getting the word. Because I'm like, you know, the short amount of time that we can only share. I'm like, you know, you know, I had like a little campfire. You know, I was just talking about God. I was talking about the Spirit. You know, I got to go back home. Oh man, I got to go back home. Hey, you're at home, you're at home here. I was looking up some of this stuff on the, you know, how many of the, how much the Old Testament was spoken of in the New Testament. It's under five books that were not spoken of in the New Testament. That's Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ecclesiastic, and the Song of Solomon. You know, and when you look up Solomon in the New Testament, it's basically, you know, it speaks of his genealogy and something about the Temple, just the Solomon's Porch. That's about it. You know, so I thought that was kind of interesting, you know, but anyways. But I tell you, you know, these books are in here for a reason. And that doesn't mean that because they're not, they're not important. They absolutely are. Because just like it says, these are exercises in finding the truth. And I think every single time we read the Bible, that is the main thing we want to do. Find the truth. What's the truth? How can we apply it? And how can we use that to glorify the Lord Jesus and everything that he did in our daily lives? You know, how can we glorify him? You know, how can we fill our purpose for each and every day? You know, to glorify him and to stand by. And another thing is about not making plans. The reason we don't make plans for, we can make a general area where we'd like to go, but always be ready to have the Lord change that so we can do his will instead of our will. So that's the important part. Because if we get too focused in on our plans, what happens to God's plan? Doesn't work, does it? We need to be flexible. And I'll make this quick. I got through all of this today. I had to talk to an employee who, a coworker received something that he said in the wrong way. And he was, it was a joke. And so I had rehearsed in my mind, and this employee doesn't receive this, doesn't receive correction. And it wasn't really correction, but it was something he needed to be aware of. So I had this all rehearsed in my mind, and I said, you know what, Lord, help me come up with the right way to present this to me. And I went upstairs, did a few things, and lo and behold, I had a whole new perspective over what I was going to present. And the conversation went perfectly. But I got to use, don't speak, don't come out just yet, ask for wisdom. And it worked out. You mean this is true? I love when God does that. That is so true. That is so true.
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