Ecclesiastes 10: Wisdom, Foolishness, and Consequences

And yet, Jesus restores Peter. Here's the gospel hope that Solomon living a thousand years before Jesus, nine hundred years before Jesus could couldn't necessarily see. There's redemption for those of us who've made foolish choices. There's forgiveness for making foolish even if the roof has caved in. There is a God who loves you, who cares for you, and he'll help you fix the roof. Some of us have made self destructive choices. And if you will only turn in repentance, change your mind, change the direction that you are on, and turn to Christ, he can redeem even our foolishness. [01:04:32] (64 seconds)  #RedeemedAndRestored

At 35,000 feet, you do not want a lack of attention in assembly. And so Solomon is saying to us, be attentive to your work, but he's also saying be prepared. Look down at verse 10. If the axe is dull and was one does not sharpen its edge, then one must exert more strength. However, the advantage of wisdom is that it brings success. If the axe is dull, sharpen it. Sharpen the saw. Get better. Be prepared for your work. [00:53:40] (41 seconds)  #SharpenTheSaw

Have you ever been in a situation where maybe the best thing to do is stop talking? You know, if you're digging a hole, principle number one, stop digging. Men in an in an argument with your wife, if you're losing, stop digging. If you're winning, stop digging. Okay? Don't multiply words. Solomon says that the wise person's words are gracious, but a fool's words begin to consume him. Words have consequences. [00:56:20] (43 seconds)  #StopDigging

Leadership is always a matter of character, being the right person, being the right kind of person, competence, knowing what you're doing, chemistry, being able to get along with other people, and culture, fitting in with that organization that you aspire to lead. But if you push yourself too early and you promote yourself, then what happens is that sometimes you miss God's best. In the book of James, James writes, humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you. [00:47:18] (39 seconds)  #HumbleLeadership

Your words travel faster than you could possibly ever imagine, and that was is was true in the Old Testament, and it is true actually because of social media today. Your words travel at lightning speed. Your words will beat you to wherever you're going to lunch, and that is what happens to so many of us. But Jesus said in Luke chapter six verse 45, a good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. [00:57:51] (29 seconds)  #WordsTravelFast

Sometimes a person will speak, and then they'll come back and say, I I didn't really mean that. That's an unapology apology. That's a sorry, not sorry because, yeah, you did. Now it'd still be appropriate for you to apologize for offensive and inappropriate words. But to say I didn't mean it, yeah, you did. Because out of the abundance of the heart it was in your heart to start with. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. [00:58:32] (37 seconds)  #OwnYourWords

At the first drip of the roof, which is the metaphor that Solomon uses, the house doesn't cave in. If you have a leak and you put the bucket under it, the next morning when the sun shines, you go out and you try to fix that on your house. Or if you're like me, you call somebody to fix that on your house. I'm not capable of doing that. It's not one of my skills. But if you say, you know what? It's quit raining. It won't matter. [01:01:19] (33 seconds)  #AddressTheLeak

Then the next time, you have to get two buckets because you have two leaks. And what you're not seeing is the rot that's taking place in the roof. You don't see that. But eventually, after a period of time, because of laziness, the roof caves in. I've had people call me before. Pastor, you gotta help me. My marriage fell apart last night. No. Your marriage has been falling apart for years because you've been neglecting it. [01:01:52] (40 seconds)  #NeglectCompounds

And he listened to that group of advisers. And then he got together with a group of his peers, Rehoboam's young friends, and they said, oh, no, Rehoboam. You know, you don't do that. You'll appear weak if you do that. He said, so what you do is you tell them that that my little finger is thicker than my father's waist. In other words, you think it's been tough? You just wait till I show up and be king. And the kingdom of Israel split and was never reunited. [00:46:20] (36 seconds)  #BadCounselCosts

You know, as I was reading those passages this week, what I saw there was the missing ingredient in our culture today, humility. There's very little of it. There's very little humility, and humility isn't degrading yourself. Humility is merely admitting that you don't have all the answers. It's being willing to learn. It's having a teachable spirit. Humility is knowing that sometimes I'm not big enough for the task. Now that may not mean that God doesn't give you the task. Sometimes he gets me in way over my head so that I'll rely on him. [00:48:20] (41 seconds)  #CultivateHumility

What if your boss gets angry at you, and he comes in and she comes in and just tells you that you're not doing a very good job and puts it in no uncertain terms, Solomon says don't leave your post. In other words, don't quit your job just because your boss got onto you. I know some people who probably need to hear that. Maybe we need correction. You see, the spirit of wisdom is a spirit that receives correction. The spirit of foolishness is a spirit of stubbornness. [00:41:30] (32 seconds)  #StayYourPost

Now we know that's not true. Words are hurtful, but sometimes words cause self inflicted harm. Sometimes my words are actually what wound me. Foolish speech leads to destruction, and sometimes our words travel faster, than we could ever imagine. Listen to verse 20. Do not curse the king even in your thoughts, and 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. [00:57:14] (37 seconds)  #WatchYourWords

We actually get a modern proverb from verse one of this passage. You've heard the expression there's a fly in the ointment. Well, that comes directly from Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse one. And he's telling us that a little fly that gets into the perfumer's oil can actually die and ferment and cause the entire batch of perfume to stink. Now in the ancient world, perfume was different than it is today. [00:37:08] (32 seconds)  #FlyInTheOintment

There is very little in life. There is very little that I could say to young people that is better for you than just this. Work hard. Go to work. Put away the video games and do something productive. Just work at it. There's only one place in the world that success comes before work, and that's in the dictionary. Nowhere else does success come before work. [00:50:01] (37 seconds)  #WorkBeforeSuccess

And they say, Rehoboam, your father put extreme burdens on us. What we read about in scripture is that there were, there were a lot of taxes that had to be paid to fund the government of Israel under Solomon because it was very large. Not only that, but, there was a draft, so to speak. There were there was forced labor. And what would happen is that you would work for one month for and then you would be at home working your land for two months. [00:45:07] (33 seconds)  #HeavyBurdens

He says there is a time for a person to rise in leadership, And if you rise and you push yourself to lead too early, it can end in disaster. Solomon's own son did not heed this word. A little bit later, Solomon is going to grow old and die. His son, Rehoboam, is in line to be king. And so after Solomon dies and is buried, the leaders of Israel gathered together and they meet with Rehoboam. [00:44:34] (32 seconds)  #DontRushLeadership

And Solomon would advocate for working hard, but he would also advocate for working smart. Listen to what he says to us in verse eight. The one who digs a pit may fall into it. The one who breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. The one who quarry stones may be hurt by them. The one who splits logs may be endangered by them. [00:50:39] (24 seconds)  #WorkSmartWorkSafe

But there was a problem. When the Mars Climate Orbiter began to orbit Mars, it crashed into the planet. And they did all this research to figure out why did this mission fail. Why did why did this happen? There were two teams of mathematicians who were working on the Mars Climate Orbiter. This is kind of an an infamous story in in space research. And what happened was this. [00:38:57] (26 seconds)  #MetricVsImperial

And so what he tells us is that a little folly, just just a little foolishness can outweigh great wisdom and honor. It's funny, and sometimes the smallest mistakes can cause a big reaction. In 1999, NASA launched a probe, the Mars Climate Orbiter, and it was a spacecraft that NASA had sent to to Mars to orbit the planet. [00:38:26] (30 seconds)  #TinyErrorHugeImpact

But humility is realizing you don't have all the answers. Unfortunately, in our world today, there is this this drive, this tendency to have all the answers, and humility is of great, great value. Number three, don't just work hard. Work smart. Solomon is an advocate for hard work. Here's another value that needs to make a return in our culture, and that is just work hard. [00:49:00] (33 seconds)  #WorkSmartNotJustHard

And yet, Jesus restores Peter. Here's the gospel hope that Solomon living a thousand years before Jesus, nine hundred years before Jesus could couldn't necessarily see. There's redemption for those of us who've made foolish choices. There's forgiveness for making foolish even if the roof has caved in. There is a God who loves you, who cares for you, and he'll help you fix the roof. Some of us have made self destructive choices. And if you will only turn in repentance, change your mind, change the direction that you are on, and turn to Christ, he can redeem even our foolishness. [01:04:31] (64 seconds)

And yet, Jesus restores Peter. Here's the gospel hope that Solomon living a thousand years before Jesus, nine hundred years before Jesus could couldn't necessarily see. There's redemption for those of us who've made foolish choices. There's forgiveness for making foolish even if the roof has caved in. There is a God who loves you, who cares for you, and he'll help you fix the roof. Some of us have made self destructive choices. And if you will only turn in repentance, change your mind, change the direction that you are on, and turn to Christ, he can redeem even our foolishness. [01:04:31] (64 seconds)

And yet, Jesus restores Peter. Here's the gospel hope that Solomon living a thousand years before Jesus, nine hundred years before Jesus could couldn't necessarily see. There's redemption for those of us who've made foolish choices. There's forgiveness for making foolish even if the roof has caved in. There is a God who loves you, who cares for you, and he'll help you fix the roof. Some of us have made self destructive choices. And if you will only turn in repentance, change your mind, change the direction that you are on, and turn to Christ, he can redeem even our foolishness. [01:04:31] (64 seconds)

And yet, Jesus restores Peter. Here's the gospel hope that Solomon living a thousand years before Jesus, nine hundred years before Jesus could couldn't necessarily see. There's redemption for those of us who've made foolish choices. There's forgiveness for making foolish even if the roof has caved in. There is a God who loves you, who cares for you, and he'll help you fix the roof. Some of us have made self destructive choices. And if you will only turn in repentance, change your mind, change the direction that you are on, and turn to Christ, he can redeem even our foolishness. [01:04:31] (64 seconds)