Sermon Transcript
Well, let’s take out our Bible. We’re gonna look again at this book we’ve been studying. It’s the book of Ecclesiastes. Interesting book that takes a lot of trips to different places and Solomon’s experiences. He’s trying to, you know, firsthand figure out what life is all about.
It’s fascinating, the conclusions that he comes to. So we are getting near the end. This is the— see, we got 2 messages after this one. We’re getting close to the end of the book, and today we’re in chapter 9 and verse 13 on into chapter 10. So if you’ve got your Bible, you might want to open there or take the message note sheet out or whatever.
There’s a Bible, I think, in the pew in front of you. We’re focused today on the subject of wisdom, and wisdom is like food and water. It’s something you can never get enough of. It’s something that’s going to be an insatiable need in our lives, the matter of wisdom. So we want to grow in wisdom like Jesus grew in wisdom.
That’s a fascinating thought. Did you know as you look at the scriptures that Jesus grew in wisdom? I just find that amazing that God, the Son of God, grew in wisdom. We know that Jesus grew in stature physically. We know that he grew in favor with God spiritually.
We know that Jesus grew in favor with man relationally, but we also now know that Jesus grew in wisdom. He grew in the skillful use of knowledge. That’s what wisdom is, the skillful use of knowledge or the practical application of knowledge. And in that sense, that’s something that we want too. We can have all this knowledge and information, but we wanna be able to translate that knowledge into action, and it shouldn’t just be kind of a hope in our life, that that would happen, but really intentionality should be behind the translation of knowledge into application or transformation.
My guess is that that’s something most of us that are sitting here this morning want. In fact, part of the reason I suppose you’re here today is because you’re wanting to grow in your faith or you’re checking this faith thing out, and it’s one of the reasons that we get an education because we wanna grow. I mean, we wanna please our mom and other people too, but The bottom line, hopefully, is, is that we want to grow in knowledge. We want to grow in wisdom. It’s why many of us read books.
It’s why we attend seminars. It’s why some of us love museums, because we’re just really interested in knowing more and being able to learn from that. It’s why some of us listen to podcasts. And, of course, it’s why you love messages, right? You want to grow in wisdom.
You know you haven’t arrived. You know that there’s still room for improvement. There’s still room for translating what you know into what you do. Like the husband who was sent by his wife to the grocery store to pick up a few things for a cake. He came back with 1 carton of eggs, 2 sacks of flour, 3 boxes of cake mix, 4 bags of sugar, and 5 cans of cake frosting.
His wife looked at him dumbfounded and said, I should have never numbered the list.
Knowledge, yes; wisdom, not so much. And hopefully today what we’re going to do is make progress in that matter of wisdom and taking what we know and translating it into what we do. And so what Solomon does here is he brings up 5 situations that we can learn from, where we can grow in wisdom, and it can translate into our lives and make a difference. Now, especially in a world that is out of our control— for the most part, the world is out of our control. We noted this a couple of weeks ago.
But it’s good to know that wisdom can make a difference in the outcome of even situations that are out of our control. And so Solomon speaks to these situations. He begins this way, Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verse 13. I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me. There was once a small city with only a few people in it, and a powerful king came up against it, surrounded it, and built huge siege works against it.
Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. You might wanna underline those words or circle them or something, highlight ’em. He saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. So I said, wisdom is better than strength.
But the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are no longer heeded. Verse 17, the quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. And then verse 1 of the next chapter, chapter 10, as dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. Now what you have here is a picture of a life-threatening situation.
If you’ve ever been in a life-threatening situation, you could probably comprehend some of what this is saying. But what we basically have here is a small city that’s inhabited, he says, by a few people. There’s a powerful king who’s come up against this city who’s determined to conquer the town, so he’s surrounded it, he’s built trenches and attack posts to prepare for an attack. And when it looks like the city is doomed, that’s going to come to its death, a poor but wise man steps up and he saves the city by his wisdom. And what Solomon notes here is that wisdom can have that kind of power.
Wisdom can conquer military strength. He says, the quiet words of a wise poor man are better than the shouts of a foolish ruler. So what’s the lesson? The lesson is simply this: wisdom can give an underdog victory. Wisdom can give an underdog victory.
In other words, don’t underestimate the value of wisdom, and as it says in the text, don’t despise it. They in the aftermath came to despise the wisdom of this man, which is unfortunate because wisdom can save a city. And not only can wisdom save a city, wisdom can save a marriage. Wisdom can save a company. Wisdom can save a church.
Wisdom can save a relationship. Wisdom can save a family. Wisdom can save from the stench of foolishness. And here he pictures fly-infested perfume, perfume that’s no longer good. You’re not going to use it any longer.
It no longer has the aroma that it once had. Wisdom can save in so many different ways. I was watching a show recently and there were a whole bunch of bats that got into a home they were flipping. And so they had to try to figure out what they’re going to do to, you know, rid the home of the bats. So they called out and got some help.
Batman— no, not Batman came, but, you know, this company came and they got rid of the bats. They had the wisdom. To eliminate, to rid the house of the bats. If you’re in a marriage and your marriage is on the brink of disaster, wisdom can save the marriage. I have a little booklet in my office that Ed Wheat wrote.
Actually, it’s a chapter from one of his books, his book titled Love Life. He took one of the chapters out, and the little booklet is, which was the chapter title, is How to Save Your Marriage Alone. You mean there’s something that you can do? Yes, wisdom can apply even in a situation like that, so he writes about that. I’m reading right now the book The Power of Other, written by Dr. Henry Cloud, just an amazing man who loves the Lord, and he’s telling a story, he tells a story early on in the book about a renowned heart surgeon who came in for some counseling, and he said that this guy’s marriage was an absolute mess, and the reason it was a mess was because he had made a mess of it.
This renowned heart surgeon had been doing stuff that, you know, hurt the marriage. And so he sought out Dr. Cloud’s wisdom, and what he learned, he implemented, and it ultimately ended up saving the marriage. Now, does that always happen? No, but there is always the possibility that wisdom can save.
Even from death. He goes on and he says in verse 2, the heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. Now let me just stop. This is not meant to be a statement on your political party, okay? It’s not telling you, you gotta get on the right, and if you’re a fool, you’re on the left, all right?
It’s not talking about politics. He says, even as he walks along the road, and he’s talking here about the fool, the one on the left, the fool lacks sense and shows every how stupid he is. If a ruler’s anger rises against you, do not leave your post. Calmness can lay great heirs to rest. There is an evil I’ve seen under the sun, the sort of heir that arises from a ruler.
Fools are put in many high positions while the rich occupy the low ones. I’ve seen slaves on horseback while princes go on foot like slaves. Now what is he talking about? Well, he introduces it, verse 2, with 2 heart conditions. You have the heart condition of the wise, and then you have the heart condition of a fool.
And the heart condition of the wise causes this one to choose the right. The right at that time, this is an idea of strength or protection. So he chooses the right, the path of protection or strength. He doesn’t take the left. Because the left is that which a fool will choose, the path of weakness.
He goes on verses 3 and 4 to say a fool lacks sense. A fool makes stupid choices. It’s evident even as they’re walking down the street. A fool is somebody that people can see. A fool is somebody who gives in to his anger, whereas a wise person, the one with A wise heart, verse 4, the last part, calmly reacts to problems, calmly reacts to errors, and it changes the outcome, verses 5 to 7, so that when foolish people err and show their ugly head, and even those that are unqualified and they’re in these ranking positions and roles, a wise person, their response can potentially right that which is wrong.
So what’s he saying? The second matter, he says wisdom can right what’s wrong. It can lay to rest great errors. That’s one of the reasons why somebody with wisdom, as he says here, should not abandon post. You know, when things get bad and you’re working with foolish people, you’re around foolish people, the easiest thing to do is just kind of walk out of the situation.
I’m done with this. I’m over and done with this. But what he is saying here is that a wise person, through exercising calmness and not storming out of the room, so to speak, but responding with tact and diplomacy, can put the errors of the foolish behind. A subordinate, somebody without power, can make a world of difference in What happens because of the power of wisdom, the power of wisdom. Now, some of you have situations in your mind right now.
You know, this might have to do in a marriage, it might have to do within a friendship. Kids, you may not be in the lead role in the home, you’re a subordinate, we’ll say, but nonetheless, you can have tremendous power in the home Through wisdom. I’m speaking lately with an individual that is in a situation, his work situation, that it’s really just a mess. It’s an absolute mess. People have left and, you know, he’s staying.
And the reason that he’s staying is because he believes that he can make a difference. People have asked him, hey, why don’t you just leave? He said, well, I really feel like maybe I can still make a difference. That’s what Solomon is speaking about here. He’s speaking about the potential of wisdom in a situation where things are wrong to actually make things right through the wisdom of somebody who sticks with it, brings the wisdom that’s so much needed in this situation.
He talks about a third situation, verse 8, whoever digs a pit, may fall into it. Whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them. Whoever splits logs may be endangered by them. If the axe is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success.
If a snake bites before it’s charmed, there’s no profit for the charmer. Now what’s he talking about? Well, he’s in essence talking about these unexpected dangerous things or hard things that come into our lives. Do you have any unexpected hard dangerous things that have come into your life? He’s saying here having the wisdom to know when a situation is dangerous can be a good thing.
It could be a good thing for a number of reasons, but basically let me just focus on a couple that have to do with risk. We’ll call it risk management, okay? A dangerous situation, Wisdom can give a person a sense of risk management so that the next time you’re in this dangerous situation, maybe you choose a certain option because you’re aware of the danger. So you might choose, if somebody asks you to dig a pit, a grave, a ditch, whatever it is, you might appeal based upon your wisdom, you might appeal to the possible danger of falling into the pit that you’re being asked to dig. And so you make a suggestion instead.
You say, well, why don’t we just get a tractor to dig it, or a backhoe, or something like that? I really don’t think I’m the right person to dig this pit. Or maybe you’re asked to demo a wall. Well, then you could use the snakebite excuse. Well, if I demo that wall, it’s possible that I’m gonna get bit, because you never know what’s on the other side of the wall.
There might be a snake over there. And so you, with wisdom, say, why don’t we, why don’t we do this differently? Why don’t we just let the wall stand as a historical monument? Okay, in fact, we’ll put a sign on it that says historical monument. We’ll just let it stay there.
And you make that suggestion based upon wisdom. Or maybe you’re asked to quarry stones, but you appeal to the possibility, wow, if you know, break all these stones and stuff, someone, some of the stones might fall on me, or I might slip, or I might hurt myself, or I might wrench my back, or whatever, and so you say with wisdom, why don’t we just use redwood chips instead of stones? Or maybe you’re asked to cut trees, or logs, or other things like that, and your ax isn’t sharp, so you know with wisdom that the ax needs to be sharpened first, and so you appeal that the axe gets sharpened. Please, let’s sharpen the axe first. Or maybe better yet, you just suggest that you take a trip to Home Depot and buy a chainsaw and then bring the chainsaw back instead of using an axe.
Or maybe you’ve been asked to charm a snake. And so what are you going to do then? Well, wisdom says you talk about your fears that the poss— there’s a possibility here if I charm this snake, then the snake is going to bite Before I charm, which I’m sure everybody here can charm a snake, right? You understand what we’re talking about. What are you doing then?
You’re gonna basically appeal to, oh, we really can’t do this. There might be a lawsuit on the other side if the snake bites or a loss of sale or bad ratings on Yelp. I mean, you never know what can happen. What’s Solomon’s point? His point is simply this.
Wisdom may keep you from danger. Wisdom may keep you from danger. Now, I use the word may here because he uses the word may, did you see in the text, 4 times, 4 times. It may keep you from danger, but then again, it may not. Even when you know something is dangerous and you try to opt out, bad things can still happen.
Or even when you know and you stay in this situation and you take the precautions necessary and you know that there could be a snake on the other side of the wall, even the awareness of danger could still put you in danger, right? You could, you could still end up being injured. But the concept here is that hopefully in understanding this is a dangerous situation, you’ll be in a safer place if you, if you continue to move forward. I read about a situation where a 66-year-old man needed to use some risk management wisdom. He was working on his car in his garage.
He was taking the tires off of the car, the rims and the tires, and as Murphy would have it, when he came to the last tire, the last rim, removed the lug nuts, he couldn’t get one of the lug nuts off. So not knowing what else to do, he went and he got his shotgun. And he took the shotgun, he stood an arm’s length away, and this 12-gauge shotgun, he shot the lug nut. It did not work. What happened was he ended up getting injured.
He got buckshot in both of his legs and other injuries in his body all the way up to his chin. Now hopefully if we exercise wisdom, we won’t do stupid stuff like that. It could happen though. If, you know, you don’t engage wisdom in a risky situation. Go on, verse 12.
Words from a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but a fool is consumed by his own lips. At the beginning his words are folly, at the end they are wicked madness. And the fool multiplies words. No one knows what is coming. Who can tell him what will happen after him?
And then let’s add verse 20 here. Do not revile the king even in your thoughts or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words and a bird of the wing may report what you say. Now what does he do? Well, he’s contrasting again the wise person and the foolish person. He says in verse 12, you know, the wise person says nice things, gracious things.
Kind things, considerate things. Whereas the foolish person, last part of verse 12, runs off at the mouth, says stupid stuff, which is bad enough, but verse 13, the longer the fool talks, the worse it gets. His many, you see the word multiplied, verse 14, his multiplied words then turn wicked and mad And they’re unpredictable. And when others, verse 14, try to come alongside and speak to this fool about his words and what he’s saying, their help is rejected. Who can tell him?
Do you see it there? So verse 20 then focuses on a wise remedy. The wise person knows the importance of restraining his or her lips, his words. In fact, a wise person knows that it’s important not just only to restrain your words, but actually to restrain your thoughts, even in your bedroom, even in a place of privacy, because what you think could result in ultimately what you say and leave that room of privacy so that other people find out what it is that you’re saying. In these malicious, not gracious words.
What’s he saying? Wisdom can filter what you say. Wisdom can filter what you say. Some of us need a stupid speech filter. We really do.
Because we say at times things that are malicious. They’re not beneficial, they’re not gracious. I appreciate what actress Sarah Drewes said with regard to mothering. This is her perspective. She said this, the stay-at-home mom has the terrifying holy charge of raising up little eternal beings into people who will encounter the world either with kindness and grace or with malice and indifference.
I cannot think of a more important job, and yet our culture rolls our eyes at these women. Our culture says they’ve given up on doing anything with their lives. Here’s a wise perspective on the importance of the mothering role, whether she’s a mother that stays at home or a mother who has also a career outside the home. What she’s talking about is the potential impact of a mother on the family, of a mother on the children. What she does and what she says has tremendous impact potential.
Her words can help the situation or hurt. Her words can build others up or tear others down. And wisdom, and this is what Solomon’s going after here, wisdom filters our words so that we’re not using malicious words But we’re using gracious words. We’re filtering out the malicious and inserting instead gracious words. Now, did I tell you that growing in wisdom is going to be a lifetime project?
I mean, that sounds great, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t we all love to only speak with gracious words? It’s going to be a lifetime challenge, which makes Growth and wisdom, something that we should all long for. And then he says finally, verse 15, a fool’s work wearies him. He does not know the way to town.
Woe to you, O land, whose king was a servant, whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time. For strength and not for drunkenness. If a man is lazy, the rafters sag. If his hands are idle, the house leaks.
Verse 19, a feast is made for laughter and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything. What’s he talking about here? He’s talking about the need for foresight. How do you, how do you feel about foresight? You see, foresight is the ability to know what is the right thing to do now in light of what is yet to come.
And so he speaks about this matter of foresight with regard to our work, that too many hours, working too many hours could be to our undoing, that if we work too many hours, it can wear us out even to the point, this simple little thought here, even to the point where you can’t think straight anymore. You could be so worn out that you can’t think straight anymore. I mean straight with regard to simple matters like how to drive from here to downtown Los Altos. You just can’t think that anymore. And so he’s suggesting that wisdom has the ability to help us put a plan together with foresight that would be in balance when it comes to our work.
And secondly, verse 16, wisdom should guide what it is that we eat and when we eat. And here he goes back to a foolish prince. Solomon had some foolish princes in mind, and these foolish princes, these rulers, they ate and drank in the morning, which the picture is in the context here, they were overeating and they were overdrinking at an early hour of the morning, which meant it put their minds and their bodies into a drunken, sleepy state and therefore impacted how well they led their countries. We need foresight, he’s saying, to eat and to drink at proper times so our mental and our physical capacities are at their peak performance. And then he talks about taking care of our homes, those homes that we live in.
Verse 18, if we fail to keep up the upkeep or, or whatever repairs need to be done, they could fall into— our homes can fall into disrepair. The roof will start leaking, the rafters will start sagging, the weeds will take over, the faucets and toilets will leak. We’re going to have a big problem. Foresight can prevent that from happening. And verse 18, and foresight, we need foresight to enjoy food and to drink at a party without losing self-control, he’s saying, to earn money so that you can enjoy life with it.
So the point here is a person needs to exercise foresight. Without foresight, we’re living a naive existence And in this case, slothful, gluttonous experience could be characteristic of our lives. So his 5th point is wisdom can give foresight. Wisdom can give you foresight, the kind of foresight that we need on the job, the kind of foresight that we need in our homes, the kind of foresight that helps us know what to do and when to do what it is that we do, what not to do, That’s all necessary in a life of wisdom. So let me say it this way.
Wisdom has the foresight ability to sort out what could we do with what should we do. What could we do with what should we do? You say, what are you talking about? Well, simple matters like you could stay up later at night, but should you stay up later at night? When you think about what’s coming up the next day or what’s coming up this week, is this really a good idea to stay up later tonight?
I was working out over at the YMCA this week, and I had come into the stretch room. There were a bunch of people in the stretch room stretching on their, you know, yoga mats. And so you grab a yoga mat and go somewhere in the room and you start doing your stretch thing. Well, there’s a guy that walked in and I just noticed him come in, and the reason I noticed him is because he sat up right next to the only door in and out of the stretch room. Seriously, he sat up right next to the door.
I remember thinking, that guy has no foresight.
It could be with regard to simple things. Foresight is needed with regard to complex things like, you know, this is a tough decision. I need wisdom to know what college I’m gonna go to. I need wisdom to know whether or not this relationship is at the place where we should be thinking about marriage. I need wisdom to know whether or not I should take this job.
I need wisdom to know what I should do on my job. Just because you could doesn’t mean you should. So there’s this, this figuring things out in such a way that we use the wisdom, the wisdom of foresight. And the could and the should matters that come up with it. In fact, several years ago when Jurassic Park came out, there was a scene in the movie where a group of paleontologists are sitting around this conference table and they’re talking about this matter of birthing dinosaurs into the world.
And at one point, one of the scientists who thought it wasn’t such a good idea to birth dinosaurs into the world, He reflected on that and he said this, your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
No foresight. The wisdom of foresight, that’s right. Just because we could have the second dessert today doesn’t mean we should. When we’re enjoying that lunch with Mom.
I still have a lot of room for growth in wisdom. Anybody else have some room for growth in wisdom? I think so. I mean, listen, if Jesus grew in wisdom and the application of knowledge to life, my goodness, we need to grow in wisdom. It’s one thing to know the right thing, It’s another thing to actually do the right thing.
Wisdom is the acting on that which is right. It’s not enough to just know it. It’s not wisdom. Wisdom is the application of knowledge, and wisdom will give an underdog victory. You find yourself in a life-or-death threatening situation, you don’t see any other way out, wisdom could make a difference in that situation.
If it can save a city, it can save a situation that you’re in. And wisdom can right what’s wrong. When we respond to a bad situation with wisdom, it can impact the errors that are in the situation so that maybe the errors can be put behind us. Wisdom can keep us from danger. Risk management is involved in wisdom.
Wisdom can filter what we say so that we say the right words and the gracious words and the appropriate words in that situation that we find ourselves right now. And wisdom can give foresight to do the best thing now in light of what is yet to come. Now does this mean that wisdom is always gonna win out the situation so that, you know, things turn out like we want? No. But it may, and it can, and in that it can, we’re hopeful then to continue to grow in wisdom because you can never get enough of it.
I mean, we think about what can you never get enough of in life? Well, some of us are thinking sleep, but let’s make sure wisdom is on we can never get enough list. Of wisdom. That’s, that’s something we should all be aspiring toward. So we’re told in the scriptures that our God is the God of wisdom, and the Bible says that we gain wisdom through his word, the word of God.
I mean, you know, it just starts there. I think that’s part of why we’re interested in what we’re here for this morning, to grow in our understanding of God and grow in our relationship with him. And so the book of Proverbs often talks about the importance of scripture and the reading and study and memorization and reflection and meditation of scripture. So wisdom is gained through the word of God. And secondly, wisdom is gained through prayer.
James chapter 1, verse 5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. God’s very interested in whatever circumstance it is that you’re facing this morning. Somebody came up after the first service and is in the middle of a circumstance where she’s just not sure what she’s going to do. And she said, could we pray? And of course, that’s more than anything else something that you wanna do in that situation, because what you don’t know, God does know.
And God has a way of revealing to us that which is the best thing to do. And so wisdom is found in prayer, and wisdom is found in godly counsel. And godly counsel, Proverbs 20:18 talks about how plans succeed through godly counsel, and let’s don’t go to war without wise advice. The whole picture is, again, others can be sources through which the wisdom of God can come, so let’s take advantage of that opportunity. So what we’ve looked at today is the need to grow in wisdom, the need to grow in wisdom so that we can be the best moms and the best dads and the best kids and the best spouses and the best employees and the best employers and the best friends, you name it.
Like Jesus grew in wisdom, we need to grow in wisdom, and when we do, everybody is going to be better for it.
Let’s pray.
Lord, like we need food and, and water and air, we need wisdom. And thank you for this wonderful text this morning that brings this matter to the forefront. Your wisdom is that which gives life, and so give us a hunger and thirst for life-giving wisdom. May we, like Christ, grow in wisdom, and in so doing, may we become more like you in what we say and what we do in the circumstances that we’re faced with right now.
So that we know, and not just know, but we do what’s best to your honor and glory and others’ good. For we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
