[Ecclesiastes] A Look At Wisdom & Folly | Benny Ho

thank you would you give a good hand to our worship team for and appreciate them for leading us into the presence of god well i am excited to share with you uh the word of god this morning i'm i'm also looking forward to welcome you to the webinars on wednesdays because i really wanted to talk about reintroduce the person and the power of the holy spirit uh to us and i'm looking forward to that so i hope to see you there eight o'clock this wednesday are you ready for god's word this morning we're gonna pick it up where we left off and i'm gonna take you to ecclesiastes chapter seven read for you the first ten verses and then talk to you about wisdom wisdom the whole theme of wisdom and folly so let's go to ecclesiastes chapter seven i read for you from verse one and you will see a series of contrast a series of proverbs if you like and they are they sound very contradictory so you just um follow along with me and make sense of this a good name is better than fine perfume and the day of death better than the day of birth it is better to go to a house or moaning than to go to a house of feasting for death is the destiny of everyone the living shall take this to heart frustration is better than laughter not that alone will cause all your uh your your feet your your mind to start running how can that be right frustration he said is better than laughter because the sad face is good for the heart the heart of the wise is in the house of moaning but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure it is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools like the crackling of torns under the pot so is the laughter of fools and this do is meaningless extortion turns a wise person into a fool and a bribe corrupts the heart the end of a matter is better than its beginning and patience is better than pride do not be quickly provoked in your spirit for anger resides in the lab of fools do not say why were the old days better than this for it is not wise to ask such questions lord we pray that you will come and speak to us this morning those words written by the wise men so many years ago they seem to wrap us up the wrong way but yet we know that lord you have a message for your people this morning and so will you come and speak to us and allow us to see wisdom wisdom that comes from above in jesus name we pray amen amen there's a little boy that came to the mother one day and said mom i got a tummy ache and so the mom very wisely said to him you know said the reason why you have a tummy ache is because your tummy is empty you just need to go and eat something fill it up and then you'll be you you'll be okay so the boy did that and true enough he recovered and he was all good that evening the pastor came to visit the family so the moment the pastor came in first thing he said to the family was this i have a bad headache and the little boy immediately turned to the pastor and said the reason why you got a headache is because it is empty you just have to fill it up and then you'll get better and what's my point here's my point one of the problems we have in modern christianity is that we do not cultivate the ability to think the ability to reflect the ability as it were to fill up our heads with wisdom and as a result we don't always live with wisdom how many of you agree right we don't always live with wisdom and here in chapter seven the wise man begins to turn to the subject of wisdom as he was observing life he came to in ever inevitably to this concept of wisdom what is wisdom does wisdom make sense and here as you begin to look at wisdom you notice that things became slightly more positive because up to this point he said a lot of rather negative things but he's but now has he come to explore wisdom he became a little bit more positive in this area of wisdom you notice that you begin to see this word it is better it is better this phrase right it is better it is better keeps coming up because he is now beginning to see some positive things and his conclusion about wisdom is basically this that wisdom is better than foley it's better to live with wisdom than to live with foolishness now as we begin to look into wisdom and we're going to take two weeks to actually look at this theme of wisdom this week we're going to look at the first 10 verses and then next week pastor arthur will take us into the rest now solomon you notice as he begin to explore wisdom he began by quoting a series of proverbs right it's a whole series of proverbs now what are proverbs proverbs are basically pictorial statements to pass on wisdom to the generation right how do we pass on wisdom it's by coming up with idioms we come up with proverbs okay and they are pictorial statements statements that paint a picture so that it helps us to pass on wisdom and i think it's a very effective way of doing it the reason is because all of us think in pictures right we don't think in sentences we actually think in pictures for example if i ask you to think of london think of the city of london what comes to your mind big ben that's right immediately there are images that come you think a big band you think of red double decker bus or buckingham palace maybe you think about london bridge if i ask you to think about paris what comes to your mind eiffel towers right you will start thinking about artichome you think about all these images that reminds you of something that is true in your experience we conjure up images you know of things so in the same way proverbs are meant to capture images they are meant to capture pictures that we can then use to pass on nuggets of wisdom from one generation to another and that's why in the english world when most of us are educated in the english world we all have our proverbs from the english world for example a stitch in time saves nine right a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush right time and tight wait for no man better late than never than never these are the statements that we can recall straight away okay and it passes on wisdom now english proverbs are great but i tell you some other uh cultures have even more interesting proverbs that you we've never heard of i'll give you some here's some from the african world okay in african world i love african proverbs here's one when elephants fight the ants gets trampled i like that how many like that when elephants fight all the ants die it's true you know right the same way right with leadership fights and other people suffer right because it's true uh here's another one an egg should never pick a fight with a stone make sense you know why would you pick a fight with a stone if you're an egg here's another one here i love this one every cow has a tail have that one before you wonder what is this actually it makes a lot of sense to the african world you know in the african world things move a bit slower right so you look at a every house has a window and then you see a cow walking past very slow but don't worry soon enough the tail will appear every cow has a tail so what's the point the point is whatever you may be going through right now in your life no matter how hard it is don't worry it will end there will always be a conclusion okay in the end it's going to be okay so that's how the africans pass on that wisdom uh here's one from the indian world if you cut off somebody's nose it's no point giving him a rose to smell yup makes sense right after you cut off someone's nose no point giving him a rose so you after you offend somebody it's no point telling him you know how good jesus is if you already offended him that's the end you cut off somebody's nose they can no longer smell so all what are all these these are proverbs pictorial things that we pass on wisdom now solomon gave us a whole string of proverbs from verse 1 to verse 10. now at the cursory glance it looks like just a whole lot of different gems of wisdom that's what it appears to be my question is what is the thread you know that links all these pearls these gems together what is the common thread that runs through all of it okay and when when you observe carefully you notice that all of these sayings are put in the form of contrast death life you know money and character you know it's all based on contrast but here's the thing i want to find out what is the string that ties all that together and i'll tell you that at the end but for now i think it's good to look at each of this contrast and then we see what we can pick up from there i'll outline six of them for you the first is this the first contrast is between appearance versus authenticity look at ecclesiastes 7 verse 1 a good name is better than fine perfume you all agree every one of us want to make a good impression on the people around us right one quick way to do it would be to use perfume right make yourself smell good now i can relate to you make a good impression right or you can dole yourself up externally now put on the right clothes look good you know cosmetics branded clothes power dressing behavior modification techniques all of these things they can make you look good on the outside but the wise man is saying to us there is a slower but better way instead of building on impressions on the outside through external means why not build a reputation inside true authenticity don't let appearance lead the way but let authenticity lead the way and people will know after a while your reputation will build you can do all you want on the outside but ultimately when people know you that's your real reputation see authenticity rather than appearance being comes before doing integrity rather than image that is wisdom the world tells us that what we drive what we wear what we eat what we drink what we do on the outside is the key to success but the wise man says who we are inside matters more than what we do or how we look on the outside you see authenticity above appearance charles morrison a christian thinker once made this statement and i love it it goes like this he said the crisis of christianity is that the center of gravity has shifted the crisis in christianity is that the center of gravity have shifted see and the center of gravity of the disciples of jesus christ must always be our inner life it is our inner world that is the center of gravity it's not what is on the outside is what's on the inside that's the real center of gravity for for the followers of christ see the depth of our inward relationship with god that is the true measure of our discipleship but unfortunately that center of gravity have shifted and we can end up substituting achievements for authenticity status for substance charisma for character we can end up substituting personality for personhood image instead of integrity we aim for success rather than to reach a place of significance and what is what has happened the center of gravity have shifted from that which is inside the debt which is outside so this first contrast is a very important one the wise man wants us to note that between external appearance and internal authenticity which is more important and here's the challenge let us restore our spiritual center of gravity that is our inner life come back to our inner world that's the first contrast authenticity appearance here's the second one he talks about death versus life it's a very important one ecclesiastes 7 goes on to say this the day of death is better than the day of birth we find that really hard normally we celebrate the day of birth right we don't celebrate the day of death but in the context of wisdom the wise man says the day of death is better than the day of birth why because death often forces us to ask the right questions about life is that true in the face of death all of our values are redefined in the face of death we are forced to ask ourselves important questions about life if not right when everything is just easy everything is just flowing along we don't think very much about life we just live it and enjoy it and but when you face death you begin to ask real questions deep questions i told you once before that in in year 1977 i was part of a scout group in singapore and at that time i was in high school and my principal was a very very good principal for many years in in the school and he was about to retire so as a group of boy scouts we decided that we're gonna do something to make him remember us for life we're gonna give him a parting gift so we were thinking and wrecking our brains you know what is the parting gift that will make him remember us for life we came to this conclusion we're gonna do something others don't which is we're going to go and climb the highest mountain in west malaysia called gong tahan at that time it was the the malaysian army that holds the climbing record which is about three days and and two nights that was the they went all the way up came all the way down it took to about three days two nights that was like the climbing record we were going to go as a bunch of 16 17 year old kids we're gonna break that record and then we'll give him this broken record as his parting gift wow we took six months to prepare ourselves to go on this trip it was a it was a huge climb and it took us six months to prepare i remember taking um harvest sex you know filled with rocks in all of us little 16 17 year old kids and we'll take this harvest and we will go to the apartment block that is 18 stories high so you run up one side of the staircase and run up 18 stories run across the the veranda and then you run down the other side and then you run across again you go up and down up and down up and down five six times that was our training for months we did that i tell you at the end of six months i was lean man i was mean i was fit you know this body this wasn't like that before it was really good you know and we were ready for the climb and we went for it in fact we created such a big huha that the national press actually came take pictures of us and say oh these boys are going to climb the record and this and that and we went and 35 of us went up the mountain but only 34 came down alive my really good friend died on the way down from the peak and i tell you that incident literally changed my perspective on life forever you know when you watch a friend a close friend die before your eyes you know and i happen to be climbing right we all had to climb single file he was very close to me so when he died i had i had to hold his his body you know and i i saw blood coming out from all the seven holes you know where the seven openings your eyes your nose i think he died from altitude sickness and all this blood flowing out and it you cannot as a 16 17 year old look at that and don't have your life impacted you know and we ended up having to because he died we couldn't carry him and all we could do was put a little tent put his body inside and we waited for rescue to come and the only way at that time we don't have a mobile phone so the only way they can let people know we're in trouble is for the guy to actually climb downhill go all the way down inform the police and then they send a helicopter to actually come and get us we had to wait for two days at the site and i guarantee you that two days in the mountain if my friend's body but we waited there for two days waiting for rescue nobody crack a joke nobody said anything corny you know it was a very very sobering time we sat around deep in our own thoughts occasionally we get together we talk about life we talk about death we talk about meaning we talk about purpose we talk about significance we talk about relationships we talk about faith and that's what we did and in the end when i came down from that mountain finally they arrived they sent a helicopter and then we had to climb down the body went with the helicopter and at the end of that whole incident i made a resolve and in my own heart and my resolve then was this that in my life i'm gonna use things and love people i will not love things and use people that was the thing i walk away from and from that moment on i wanted to live my life for the right purpose and for the right things and i think god used that incident painful as it was to actually begin the process of pointing me towards my calling and that's how i end up doing what i'm doing today god used that incident to actually start pointing me towards my sense of call i think the wise man observed the same thing he says celebration makes can make a man unthinking but funerals bring deep thoughts and to the christian to all of us as followers of jesus christ death is not a candle you know where we we just burned out but for us death is a candle that is put out not because it's finished you know but it's because the dawn has come so for us you know coming to death is because it's it's not the end it's the start of a new life in god you see and to the christian that's what it is so you listen to some of the words you know of godly men just before they take their last breath and i was looking at the last words of godly people and i read for you one or two john knox the martha this was his last words before he died he said live in christ and the flesh need not fear death live in christ and the death and the flesh need not fear that martin luther said our god is the god from whom comes salvation god is the lord by whom we engage death and i love the one by john wesley when john wesley died his last verse for this best of all god is with us best of all god is with us and i think death makes our heart wiser and yet you know we try to avoid the subject of death because it's a taboo to so many of us and particularly those of us who are chinese you know we hate talking about death is that true oh you're so australian already okay no problem but i grew up in a culture where we cannot talk about death and particularly so during chinese new year you know my parents will warn me days before chinese new year make sure you wash your mouth you know make sure no death words come out of you in fact in the chinese world you mentioned death on chinese new year your mom will kill you literally and it's true and why because we don't like to talk about that but yet the wise man says you know it's better to go to a house of moaning than the house of feasting why because in the context of wisdom it is in when we go through trials and when we go difficult times and we go to death that's where we grow in wisdom look at verse two now it is better to go to a house of moaning than to go to a house of feasting for death is the destiny of every man now when we are celebrating enjoying life it is easy to become frivolous and in times like this carelessness foolishness can take over that's why you look at verse 3 and 4 sorrow is better than laughter why because the sad face is good for the heart the heart of the voice is in the house of moaning but the hearts of fools in the house of pleasure now please understand this does not mean that we cannot enjoy life it doesn't mean we cannot celebrate life in fact we should we should celebrate life but when we face death it actually helps us appreciate life however the wise man is telling us that whilst we are enjoying life never forget that death waits at the end of every road that a man may choose to go down and therefore live wisely live with the enemy mind live for the fact that death in the end will greet us that's why the apostle paul wrote in ephesians chapter 5 verse 15 to 17 he says this be very careful then how you live not as unwise but as wise making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil therefore do not be foolish but understand what the lord's will is appearance authenticity death versus life here's the third one flattery versus feedback i like this one flat three versus feedback look at verse five and six now it is better to hit a wise man's rebuild than to listen to the song of fools like the crackling of torns under the pot so it's a laughter of fools this too is meaningless in a solomon goes on to actually tell us it is better to listen to the warnings of the wise than the flattering of fools now it may be more fun to listen to to people who tell you nice things but it may not last see none of us here like it like when we are told we are wrong none of us like feedback or correction and rebuild but often it is what it takes to move us from foolishness to wisdom how many of you amen that it is the ability to take feedback the ability to take rebuild and correction that make us wiser you know it's it's just if we just always say nice flattering things to one another all the time it may be warm and fuzzy which is great but in the end it is like a brunch with torns you put in the fire you know if you ever had branches with torns and then you put in the fire you know what will happen it go pop pop pop pop why because in every town there are some air pockets so you put it in the heat it ex it expands and it pop it goes crackling sound and that's why every time you put a campfire you hear crackling sound it's because of all these air pockets see and if we say nice thing we just flatter one another which we do that quite a lot like because we want to encourage people nowadays you almost like you encourage people for sometimes quite meaninglessly you know we it can actually backfire on us we always say all the nice things without actually meaning it you know well done awesome and oh awesome everything is so awesome in the end it's just it's just like the the the torns that go into the fire go pop pop pop is gone say it and pop it's gone that's it that's the end but sometimes the wise man says you know if we're it's it's it's like going to a party you know lots of noise and laughter and fun but when it's over nothing really remains nothing deep really happens your inside is still empty it is still hollow but wise is the man who is willing to listen to honest feedback from people who really care for us and sometimes even from people who are critical of us there's always a nugget of wisdom if we can learn from it in a world that is preoccupied you know with praises and and frivolity i think we must learn from rebuke i have a few people like that in my life and i'm thankful for them my wife is number one you know she will not say the nice things all the time to me and she always honestly tell me i preach a sermon and sometimes people will say well done you know very nice i enjoy it my wife will come back and say actually uh that part and then she'll tell me the truth and it's okay you know because that's how we learn you see but if we're willing to take feedback we didn't take rebuild and then i do get some from people who write to me and tell me where i they think that you know i did not treat the passage well or not i think we can all learn our whole preaching team critique one another before this sermon comes up we sit down table we talk about it and sometimes they send me email tell me this you know we can make it better and that's how we can all improve so the contrast between flattery and feedback okay here's another one very important one too cash versus character you look at verse seven now he says extortion turns a wise man into a fool and the bribe corrupts the heart the wise man is literally saying to us that to the wise character is placed above wealth you know in in bribery every time we transact with bribes both the one who pays and the one who receives have compromised their integrity see and the wise man is challenging us don't let cash overtake your character and wisdom tells us character must be above cash someone put it this way when wealth is lost nothing is lost because you can always earn it back but when health is lost something is lost when character is lost then all is lost you lose your character and you lose everything send a wise man make that contrast telling us that if we live our life with wealth and prosperity but with no character then it becomes meaningless jesus put it this way what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but he loses his own soul cash versus character here's contrast number five starting versus ending here's a good one starting versus ending look at verse eight now the end of a matter is better than its beginning patience is better than pride do not be quickly provoked in your spirit for anger resides in the lab of fools here you see a contrast between starting and ending and the point the wise man is making is this if you want to be wise remember this it's not how you start it's how you end that really matters it's not how you start it's how you end that really matters how often it is you know that we all start projects that we never end right we start things that we never end why because somewhere along the way we lose interest or we get distracted with other stuff oh we simply lack the perseverance the tenacity to follow things through so we started but it never ends and wise men say is not how you start we can all start with a big big bang you know but it's how you end that really matters and this is particularly important as we come into a world of instant gratification and today we do live in a world of instant gratification we got instant everything instagram you know instantly you can see everything that goes on and in a world of of of instant gratification one of the things that go out of the window is the ability to wait the ability to be patient the ability to just see things true it don't always happen how many of you agree with that you know and it is like that and we tend in a world of instant gratification we tend to underrate consistency and then we overrate impact you know we like things that has great impacts quickly and then we we overrate that and then we underrate consistency take for example you know i can try to build a relationship with my wife by every year i make sure i take her on a world-class holiday you know high impact you know i really give her the fine dining or the very best of things you know for that one week i'm gonna spoil her rotten and then that is gonna keep my marriage strong no no no that high impact event which is great to have by the way is not not saying don't have it you can have it but but it cannot replace the consistency of waking up every morning and say i love you there it cannot replace the weekly dates you know that we have with our spouse to build up that relationship are you with me here it's not that that high impact thing that we do it is that consistent little things that we do it's not that one camp that we can go to once a year we have a high impact encounter with god come back transform one week later backslide again but it is that daily spending time with god consistently that really builds our relationship over the long haul am i right to say that it's not how you start this how you end it's how you consistently see through and what is it that see it true it's not pride you know it's patience it will help you see it through and in a millennial world that we lived in all the more we need to be reminded it take patience it's not don't overrate impact and underrate consistency sometimes you talk to people you know how's your how's your work are you enjoying it no i'm about to quit already huh how you want to quit uh i'm not making an impact how long have you been one month already oh one month you expect to make impact me one year and see if something will change and john says i'm saying how's your ministry i'm about to quit how come not making an impact how long have you been there three months three months expect to change the world try three years we tend to under as we tend to overestimate what can happen in in three months and then we underestimate what can happen in three years it's not how you start it's how you end that really matters the and it is it is the ability you know to see things true and that's what it takes through success is not just about starting well it's about finishing well and in this regard i take my hat off to the late evangelist billy graham i think he was he not only started well i think he finished well do you know i was reading his biography and i came across this incident that was his one of his highlight point billy graham actually you know he preached his final crusade in new orleans arena and in the city of new orleans is where he first started as a young evangelist that was his first crusade he wanted to end there as well in the in new orleans on the final evening of the crusade he stood up and there was a packed crowd about 16 000 people in the stadium he stood up and then he made this statement it was the final night he says wow we have seen god do tremendous things here in the past few evenings we have seen healing and salvations occur within this auditorium but there lies there lies a great mountain in this city that needs to be conquered and he was actually referring to bourbon street which is the red light and crime district of new new orleans and then he stood up and he read from joshua chapter 14 where jake where caleb stood before the people of israel and he read this passage to the people he said i am this day and he's he kind of making reference to himself you know with uh using caleb i am this day 85 years old and i'm as strong this day as on the day moses sent me just as my strength was then so now is my strength for war both for going out and for coming in now therefore give me this mountain of which the lord spoke in that day then he turned to the crowd and he said i last preached in the city of new orleans in 1954 and i felt that there was some unfinished business and tonight in my last evangelistic service i aim to finish that business and lead as many of you that would follow me to the multitude of lost souls that filled bourbon street that is my mountain and this is where we shall see the harvest and then the stadium erupted you know into cheers that lasted for the next several minutes and then billy graham started walking in the almost the entire stadium the crowd of 16 000 stood to their feet and they followed billy graham for 20 minutes marching towards bourbon street and they were singing this song as they go when the saints go marching in and they entered bourbon street the group started to share the gospel with the crowd coming in and out of the pubs billy graham himself ministered to a depressed man that just survived so just survived hurricane katrina and that's why some of you saw a picture of him kneeling and talking to someone that was a picture taken within 30 minutes the glory of god came down into bourbon street that night and many people were seen pouring their drinks in a way on the side of the road asking for prayer with tears and repentance one policeman that was there said this i've never seen anything like this in my life this is unbelievable we thought a riot was going to break out but this looks more like a revival than a riot and two hours later billy graham smiled and said this now i know how the apostle paul must have felt at the end of his ministry do the work of an evangelist make full proof of the ministry for i am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand i fought the good fight i have finished my course i have kept my faith billy graham brothers and sisters was a man who not only started well but he also finished well that is my prayer we heard pastor bob spoke to us at our staff meeting last week and he said the same thing about finishing well my prayer my hope my dream is that one day maybe years from now people can look back and say the same thing yeah benny started and he finished well that would be awesome and that brothers and sisters is what we aim for it's not how you start it's how you end that really matters and he tell us the secret to it in that final contrast which is patience versus pride and i'd like you to notice that in this final contrast it was a contrast between patience and pride rather than patients versus inpatients right it's patience versus pride why because it's in the context of starting and ending in the immediate context the wise man is also telling us one of the major hindrance to ending well is our ego one of the major hindrance for any one of us finishing well is our pride now i remember still being involved in the insurance industry when i was still in singapore i do a lot i do training for them i saw a lot of high flyers and who burst onto the industry you know in a blast and then they were screeched really shoot their way to the top really fast you know like overnight they come in they really did well boom they're at the top of the sales chart and then they get featured you know in all the magazines their photos get plastered all over the company newsletter their names are mentioned with reverence you know almost in the corridors of the of the office you know oh do you know this guy well he did this he did that it was just amazing but then within a year they run out of steam and they're gone it's like they shoot to the top the next thing you know they run out of contacts and that was the end of it and that was the end and i've seen so many budding leaders rushing onto the scene making changes seeking to make a high impact but wisdom demands that we be patient enough work the ground win the hearts before we move the hands it takes patience to do that kind of thing takes patience to build relationship and only then when we start well last the journey and then we finish well and the wise man is telling us don't be proud when you started well but let patience help you to end well we can take pride in starting well but it is patience tenacity perseverance the ability to just do the consistent thing that will cause us to see things true and in the final analysis really and well i give you six things the all of this are true and each of it seems like a gem of wisdom in itself the question now is this what is it that links all this together what is the wise man seeking to tell us in all of this and i think here's the main lesson basically what the wise man is telling us is this a wise person will live with the long-term view in mind a wise a person of wisdom will always consider the long-term consequence think about the long-term benefits and not just the short-term gains now you consider them again right appearance versus authenticity life death flattery feedback cash character starting ending pride patience how many of you agree all this side is sought it will get you a lot of short-term benefits but when you think about the long-term you will choose this because that's the long-term view is it true that one set will get you the short-term gains but it's the other set they give you long-term impact and solomon observed that the wise person is the one who lives with a long-term view in mind now go ahead live in the present embrace enjoy the moment but at the same time keep the long-term view in mind in all of your decision making i think this is the tension that we need to hold you know that wisdom will demand of us which is this this is a good definition of wisdom wisdom is the ability to balance the demands of any given situation in the fear of the lord what is wisdom i think wisdom is it's not a formula a person of wisdom doesn't operate on formulas what do we what do they operate on we operate on this the ability to balance the demands in in any situation there's always a lot of demands right the wise man is the one who is able to balance the demands in any given situation but guided by what the fear of the lord is the fear of the lord that will guide us see that's the difference between a person of wisdom in the world versus a person of wisdom in god it's the fear of god it's not just about doing what we think is right it's about doing that which is right in the sight of god according to who god is according to what god says it's the fear of god that will guide us and teach us how to hold the tension in all the demands in any given situation and it's true everywhere whether it's in the organization or in a church it's the same there's so many situations and it needs the wisdom of god see and whatever mistakes we made in the past we don't let it stop us from moving into the future with godly wisdom so ecclesiastes 7 10 ends by saying this don't say why were the old days better than this for it's not wise to ask such questions you know this is true in this life and it's true beyond into eternity what about you and i this this afternoon do we live with the long-term or the short-term view you know do we do we live like people of destiny do we have this sense of uh do we sometimes you know for the sake of temporal gains for sake you know things of eternal value do we trade the favor of god for short-term gains and solomon is challenging us all of us this morning be wise and if we before you do something we ask ourselves what is the long-term consequence of making this choice that's wisdom that's wisdom now let me end with this the only problem with solomon's advice is that his long-term view was not quite long enough because remember for him it ends at the grave right his perspective was under the sun as long as i lived but for us who live in the new testament i want you to know that we can go above the sun and we can go beyond the grave where then is wisdom to be found today for us as new testament believers i think wisdom is ultimately found whereas the sauce is ultimately found in a hill called calvary that's where our source of wisdom is you know men break up mountains to know to look for god but wisdom is found on a little hill outside jerusalem called calvary the apostle paul wrote this in first corinthians 1 verses 2 verse 21 22-24 jews demand miraculous signs greeks look for wisdom but we preach christ crucified stumbling block to jews foolishness to gentiles and to those whom god has called both jews and greeks christ the power of god and the wisdom of god therein is the ultimate source of wisdom solomon groped around in desperation to search for wisdom and he knows that life would make sense if he can find wisdom but he didn't look far be far enough today i think you and i if we can go to a hill called calvary where we find an old rugged cross and the son of god was crucified and in him we find the ultimate wisdom there was foolishness to men but it was the wisdom of god we come to the cross this morning we put our trust in this all wise god then we stand at the cross and from the cross we can look into eternity and true wisdom is when we live life with eternity in mind beyond even the grave true wisdom is when we can live with eternity in mind that's wisdom ultimate wisdom amen many of us make this have to make decisions every day some of you could be standing at a crossroad where you need to make a critical decision may the lord just download wisdom for us today and we will make it in the light of eternity we make it in the light of the fear of god and i believe the lord can guide us in our decision making and make us wise we don't live for the short term we live for the long term amen why don't we stand together shall we thank you lord i invite you to stand with me [Music] why don't we take a few moments this this this afternoon just tune off for a while the people around you and close your eyes and allow your focus to come unto the lord looking unto jesus because he is the ultimate source of wisdom and we look to him and ask him to guide us in our decision-making i starts preparing for this i know some of you here may be standing at a crossroad needing to make critical decisions perhaps a lot will give you through this time that we share together in the word the lord may give you another wisdom that we will not live and as we make this decision we make it in the light of the long-term view we make it in the light of eternity we make it in light of who god is and what god says and then let the lord guide you in your in your decision so let's worship the lord as we close in this song then you lift that decision before the lord and say god help me make a wise decision let's worship him they now pray with us

Channel: Faith Community Church Perth

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Id: yr9jW-Xo5Po

Length: 47min 0sec (2820 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 01 2020