Sermon: "Seeking Wisdom"
Have you ever done anything dumb in life? I have done a lot of dumb things in my life. One of the dumb things I did last summer resulted in some very healthy weeds in our flower gardens.
Usually I pull all the weeds and grass out of our flower gardens, but normally by late July or early August some of the grass and viney type weeds get harder and harder to control. That’s when I like to hit them with a shot of weed control.
I have a clear plastic bottle with “weed” written on it which I use to mix up my weed control spray. I try never to let the bottle be empty. If I empty the bottle I always refill it before I put it away. One evening, late last July, I grabbed my spray bottle and began squirting the spray on the weeds. When the bottle was empty I noticed it did not have “weed” written on it. I thought, “I must have rubbed that off while I was spraying.” So I mixed up a new batch of weed spray and marked “weed” on the bottle once again before I put it away.
Several days later the weeds were not turning brown and dying, but were actually looking healthy. It was then that I discovered that I had actually watered my weeds instead of spraying them with a weed killer. Connie has a clear plastic bottle exactly the same as the weed killer bottle which she uses to spray water on to her ferns. Some how I grabbed the wrong bottle … I’m sure it must have been Connie’s fault … and ended up watering our weeds. That was dumb.
Thankfully it was one of those dumb things we do in life that didn’t have any major consequences.
Sometimes, however, our unwise actions and decisions have devastating consequences.
That’s no doubt one of the reasons the Apostle Paul wrote the words contained in our scripture lesson this morning.
EPHESIANS 5:15-16 – 15Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Are you living wisely?
Living wisely is something like driving. To drive well, you have to stay alert to what is happening around you. To live wisely, you have to be clear sighted and realistic in looking at life.
This morning we are going to turn to a book in the Bible that has some interesting thoughts on living wisely … Ecclesiastes.
You can live wisely and make the most of your time here on earth by learning the message of Ecclesiastes.
Many biblical scholars believe the book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon, while others believe it was written by an unknown author and used King Solomon as a literary device to convey his message.
The author of Ecclesiastes writes as a mature teacher giving advice to a young disciple. Depending on the translation you use that advice is … Vanity of vanities! All is vanity OR Meaningless, meaningless! Everything is meaningless.
As you dig deeper into the book you discover the message the mature teacher wants to get across to his young friend is … don’t waste your time trying to understand what happens in this world, instead fear (show reverence to) God and obey his commands.
So let’s take a few moments and look at … “What Ecclesiastes can teach us about living wisely.”
First let’s …
I. TAKE A REALISTIC LOOK AT THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE
The wise teacher says …
A. YOU SEE RECURRING CYCLES IN NATURE
ECCLESIASTES 1:4-7 – 4Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 5The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. 6The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. 7All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
The writer is trying to show his young friend that true wisdom includes an open acknowledgement that what happens in this world is beyond our understanding. Life’s background is made up of aimlessly recurring cycles in nature. Often what you see occurring in these cycles bears no outward sign of a rational, moral, God controlling them. For example in our own country the hurricane or tornado seasons. When you look at the death, destruction and pain they leave behind you cannot understand how a loving God is in control.
Next the wise teacher says …
B. DEATH COMES TO EVERYONE IN A HAPHAZARD MANNER
He writes …
ECCLESIASTES 7:15 – In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.
ECCLESIASTES 8:8b – So no one has power over the day of his death.
You can’t make any sense out of life by looking at how death occurs. A godly man or woman works years preparing for the mission field and then dies shortly after they arrive. A child dies of cancer at a very young age and someone else lives to be one hundred. A godly person is killed in an accident by a drunk driver who survives.
The coming of death bears no relation to whether or not a person loves and serves God. A godly person may die in a very slow, painful manner. An ungodly person may depart to his eternal destiny in his sleep. It is difficult to see a compassionate God by studying how and when people die. You can see why the writer says meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.
Next the wise teacher touches on the fact that …
C. EVIL RUNS WILD
Here is a little of what he wrote …
ECCLESIASTES 3:16 – And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment – wickedness was there, in the place of justice – wickedness was there.
ECCLESIASTES 4:1 – Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed – and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors – and they have no comforter.
ECCLESIASTES 5:8 – If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still.
If you look around you see those things happening today … often wickedness does prevail over justice. Things occur every day that are not fair. Worse than that, many people are living under great oppression throughout the world. We see a lot of corruption in all governments. In our own country men and women spend millions of dollars to get elected to a job that only pays a fraction of that. Why? Often it is because the power that comes with the position enables them to get rich. Corruption in government often hurts those who are poor. We need more godly people willing to get involved in government.
Of course, injustice and oppression are just two types of evil that run wild. Sexual impurity, drunkenness, gossip, selfishness and greed have always and continue to run wild.
You surely cannot make any sense out of life when you see evil everywhere you turn, but it keeps getting worse. Evil not only runs wild …
D. EVIL OFTEN PROSPERS
The writer of Ecclesiastes says …
ECCLESIASTES 8:14 – There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.
Isn’t that the way life is so often? A godly person gets the short end of the stick and the ungodly person comes out a winner. Someone cheats and wins the game or race. Someone lies and gets a raise or promotion. A guy who uses and abuses girls always has a beautiful girl on his arm. These things just don’t make sense, but we see them happening every day.
Do you understand what the wise teacher is trying to teach you? He is trying to get you to be realistic as you look at everything around you. Why? So you can learn to live wisely.
The harder you try to understand God’s purpose in the ordinary events in life, the more obsessed and depressed you become over the apparent fact that life is unfair and no matter what you do you can’t change the outcome.
Listen to what the writer of Ecclesiastes writes …
ECCLESIASTES 2:14-19 – 14The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. 15Then I thought in my heart, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” I said in my heart, “This too is meaningless.” 16For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die!
17So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.
It is to this pessimistic conclusion, says the wise teacher, that your optimistic expectations of finding the divine purpose in the world in which you live will ultimately lead you … and he is right. The world in which we live is, in fact, just like the place he described. So if you are going to …
EPHESIANS 5:15-16 – 15Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
… you must look realistically at the world in which you live and acknowledge that there will be much you do not understand and which will seem unfair.
Next you must accept the fact that …
II. GOD HIDES MANY THINGS FROM US
The wise teacher says …
ECCLESIASTES 11:5 – As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
God, in his wisdom, in order to keep us humble and to teach us to walk in faith, has hidden from us almost everything that he is working out in this world, his kingdom and our individual lives. He reveals only some things to us and keeps the rest a secret. Moses knew this and wrote …
DEUTERONOMY 29:29 – The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
Be realistic says the wise teacher. Rarely does this world look as if a loving rational God is behind it all. Often what is worthless or evil survives and what is valuable or godly perishes. The wise teacher says face these facts; see life as it is. You will have no true wisdom until you do.
Okay, the wise teacher has forced us to look at life realistically, but once we do that, how will it help us to live wisely. It teaches us to live wisely by not wasting our time trying to understand everything that happens in life, and instead put our efforts into being careful how we live so that we make the most of the opportunities God gives us.
Does the wise teacher give us any suggestions on how to do this? Yes, he does. We will call it …
III. LIVING WISELY ON A DAILY BASIS
First, the wise teacher says …
A. BE HAPPY AND DO GOOD DEEDS
ECCLESIASTES 3:12 – I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.
We should live in the present and enjoy it thoroughly. Present pleasures are God’s good gifts to us and we should enjoy them. However, we must always keep in mind that as we are enjoying life we need to be doing good because one day everything we do will be judged by God.
ECCLESIASTES 12:14 – For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
Listen to just a little of what the Bible says about doing goo