Thank you guys another great new and came in the office Friday morning Thursday's probably the worst of this cold I had a came in the office Friday morning Cindy the only own my Wonder Woman assistant looked at me and said I Hope you feel better and you look I know all right. No respect for the clergy And my most pastoral tones. I said I hope I feel better and you look too deal with that Well come on fairs fair No, I know I sound a little croaking. I sound better than I did believe me, but I feel fine this morning We were reading through the Bible again Two chapters a day and you haven't started just encourage you to join us. We're hitting X's 29 chapter 2930 today And if you can do it with us great We've been on about 20 months. You will read through the whole Bible if you start and so down or or get Deer out a long way. It's fine. Just pick it up. It doesn't matter if you finish with us or not But that you read through it as you read through the Bible one of the things that if you're paying attention one of these It will strike you as how counter Intuitive how countercultural the Bible is think or just Simple that he who exalts himself Will be humbled he humbly himself will be exalted Jesus saying the last shall be first First shall be last there wants to be great among you must be your servant counterintuitive counter what we expect This morning's passage is one of the most counterintuitive things you're ever going to read the scripture in fact They may seem counter scriptural the read along with me if you will and ecclesiasties chapter 7 verses 1 through 14 with the preacher rights Good name is better than a good ointment And the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth is Better to go to a house of mourning and to go to a house of feasting because that is the end of every man Believing takes it to heart Saro is better than laughter for when a face is sad a heart may be happy The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning While the mind of fools is in a house of pleasure is better to listen to the review of a wise man Then for one to listen to the song of fools Whereas a cracking a thorn bushes under a pot so as the laughter of the fool and this to his utility Prophession makes a wise man man and a bribe corrupts the heart The end of a matter is better than it's beginning Patients of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit You know the eager in your heart to be angry Anger resides in the bosom of fools You know, I'd say why is that the former days were better than these But it's not from wisdom That you asked about this wisdom along with an inheritance is good and in advantage to those who see the sun wisdom is protection just as money protection But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of his possessors Considered the work of God for who is able to straighten what he has meant the day of prosperity be happy But in the day of adversity consider God has made the one as well as the other So the man will not discover anything that will be after him. Let's pray together Father this morning as we look into your word and this is part of your word as deep and Hard to Fathom is hard to understand but as the preacher who gave us these words was looking around for wisdom So father, we look to you for wisdom this morning wisdom that we might understand what you have to say to us and Curious to obey what you tell us and The grace to get us through when we fall short as we do so often We'll buy that same grace. I asked you an enabling now to speak to your people Those who might be hearing this who are not yet one of your or part of your people rather they would join Your family have adopted sons and daughters of the Lord most high You speak through me to all of us now is my prayer in Jesus name Amen Well, this is another difficult Passage in a most difficult book the book of Ecclesiastes Excuse me I hope I don't have to do it all morning. Forgive me The writer of this book tells himself the preacher as you write this passenger in particular reminds me of something that Canadian writer, but they have a Stephen Leecock once wrote describing a man He said he flung upon himself flung himself upon his horse and wrote off in all directions But I feel like this is a preacher now. He's writing all over the place all over the compass looking around for wisdom He's trying to make sense of what he sees and what he has seen But this passage is in here for a reason the preacher wrote it for reason and God has seen fit to preserve it for us For a reason I think it's to provoke us to have to think after Ressled and ponder these things That gives me a chance to tell those very principal for you give your principal if you're a Bible reader If you're one who believes the Bible to be God's word if you don't know this is a guiding principle for you You understand the less clear parts of scripture In light of the clear heir parts of scripture if there's a part of scripture, the deals with an issue and it's kinda hard to get hold of and there's another part of scripture the deals with the same thing and it's clear Listen to the clear hurt part help you understand the less clear part Understand the less clear parts and light of the clear parts understand the earlier parts of the Bible I'm doing this backwards to you all, understand the earlier parts of the Bible, in light of the later parts of the Bible. Understand the older testament in light of the newer. Because, not because one's more inspired than the other, but because the writers of the New Testament had the older testament to look to and to bring forth. And where the New Testament gives you an understanding of an Old Testament passage, that's what you go with. To understand the less clear parts of the Bible, in light of the clear parts of the Bible. You understand the earlier parts of the Bible, in light of the later parts of the Bible. You understand the older testament in light of the newer testament. So as you read through the scriptures, and you're in some of the parts that are a little hard to understand, it ain't tough, it'll get clearer as you go along. The preacher here is searching for wisdom, for meaning, for truth. This passage takes conventional wisdom, turns it on its head over and over and over again. Reminding me of something that I had read one time in a sermon from another preacher, maybe you've heard these words too. Blessed are the poor in spirit, but theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn. They shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek. For they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they shall be satisfied. Blessed are those who have been persecuted. For the sake of righteousness. But theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you. Persecute you. False to say all kinds of evil against you, because of me, rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great, in the same way that persecuted prophets who are before you. I have to tell you, when I'm tired and hungry and thirsty and when I'm being persecuted and people are saying bad things about me, false, I don't feel like saying, well, how blessed I am. I want to shake my fist at God and say, why are you picking on me? You'll pick on someone your own size, will you? He says, no. No. Counter-intuitive is counter-culture. I'm taking the wisdom of the world and turning it on his head, and that's what the Scripture does. Beware of conventional wisdom. Beware of conventionalism. God is not conventional. Jesus is not conventional. The gospel is not conventional, and praise God grace is not conventional. Beware of conventional wisdom. God's wisdom is not conventional. So, what? Unconventional wisdom. Can we glean from this passage this morning? I got to tell you, I mean, I really had a wrestle with this today. I mean, you think it's hard for you to hear on Sunday mornings? I haven't worked on this one all week, okay? So, and I've been sick. I expect some sympathy here, a little compassion for the preacher. So, I'm not going to touch on every verse. If I did, we'd do here a whole lot longer than you want to be. And I'm going to summarize what I think are some guiding principles from this passage. You also have to understand what I'm doing here is a little bit of an out-of-body experience in this, that the preacher is an ancient near Eastern writer and thinker. Okay? He's coming out from an Eastern mindset. And I'm looking at, if you might, more or less modern Western mindset. I'm trying to glean principles, propositions from a text, then I'm not sure that's why he wrote it at all. For us to gain from it, this is what we do. And so, let me give you what I think are a few guiding principles from the preacher's writings here in Ecclesiastes 7. You may not remember, but when I finished last week, the last verse of chapter 6, where left off last week, preacher said, for who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few years of his shoe life, he will spend them like a shadow, for who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun? That was his last question. And he launches into chapter 7. And here are some of his observations. First of all, he says, inner integrity is better than external beauty. The inner integrity lasts longer than external beauty. A good name is better than a good ointment. What he's saying is that a good reputation trumps good cosmetics. A good reputation trumps good cosmetics. And then the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth. What in the world will he say that? What he means in this context is, the day of one's death, that is what validates or verifies the good man's character, the good man's lifetime and legacy. The day of one's death is what reveals or confirms what the not so good man or woman's life was like. And that's why he says the day of one's death is better because it is the confirmation of what the good man or the good woman has done. We have so lost perspective on that in our culture. Have we not? We have so completely lost this perspective in this day in time. We exalt and we idolize people who have the moral fortitude of a dead squid, just because they can dunk a basketball or hit a baseball or throw a football, because they can sing well or play an instrument exceptionally well because they can act well because they look really good. We idolize people like that who are morally completely bankrupt. I would give to you cultural exhibit A in the first of one Carlos Irwin Estevez, probably better known to most of us as Charlie Sheen. I have nothing against Charlie Sheen. I don't know him. He may be a very nice guy, but here's what I do know about him. Everybody knows the substance abuse history of Charlie Sheen. Winning, as he must have been on crystal meth for four or five days straight, his drug-fueled rants. He went through when he lost his job on tune-up. When he was on tune-up man, he was making I think $3 million in episode. $3 million in episode for this man who was obviously a substance abuser. He lost five children from three different women and custody of none. He lost one engagement. He used to engage the actress Kelly Preston. She broke off the engagement for the flimsy excuse that he shot her in the arm accidentally. Can you believe that? I mean, where was her commitment, huh? Charlie Sheen. And again, I have nothing against him personally. If I made him, he might be a very nice guy. He seemed daffable enough. But we idolize a man who is totally morally bankrupt. Charlie Sheenification of American culture. You know I can go on and tell you. I mean, we know more than we want to know about Justin Bieber and his arrests and the new allegations of the pot and so forth. We know way more than we ever know about Miley Cyrus. Lindsay Lohan, and we look at the tragic deaths of some of these people that we've called for icons. Michael Jackson. Whitney Houston. The first one week ago today, we found out that Bill Seymour Hoffman, a phenomenally talented man, died with an eagle in his arm. Dude, heroin addiction. Sad. Good name. Good reputation. That's the best inheritance we can leave for our children. Although a bit of that pile of money isn't bad. The best legacy we can leave for our children, for our grandchildren is a good name, a good reputation. Robert's 21 says that. A good name is to desire more than great wealth and favors better than silver and gold. The story you may not know about Robert E. Lee, you know that he was the commander of the Army and the Confederacy Civil War. When it was over, he'd surrender to Appomattox and come back to his life. He lost his home because it had become a cemetery, a barogram for Union soldiers. Lost his home, he lost so much. After the war, an insurance company came to generally and offered him $10,000 for his services. He said to them, I don't have any skills for your field that would be worth $10,000. They wrote him back, so when we don't really need your services, we just want your name. He wrote him back and said, ah, I'm sorry. That's not for sale. $10,000 is a lot of money back in those days and especially for a man who lost it all. It wasn't willing to sell his name. Interintegrity lasts longer than external beauty and anger is a fuel that can burn others or can drive us. If you don't have the eager in your heart to be angry for anger resides in the bosom of fools. You know, sometimes people, especially Christians think that anger is a sin period. It's a sin to be angry, not necessarily, not necessarily. It depends on what we're angry about. We're not getting our own way. Something is displeasing me because it's not going the way that I think it should. Well, that's self-centered anger. That's self-willed and selfish ungodly anger. It is destructive. It does not serve God purposes and it burns others in our path. I know where I speak. I used to be surprised how much of that was in the church. I've been in the church way too long to be surprised with that anymore. We don't do any better than the rest of the world when it comes to this anger problem. Now we couch in terms of, I really think this is what the Lord would have us do. I believe this is God's will for us. I wish I could tell you how many discussions, disagreements, debates, flat arguments, knock down broth. I have been part of that have come to a screeching hall when I simply ask the question, where does the Bible say that that's what we should do? What is your biblical basis for saying that's what we should do next? I can't think of a single time unless the one who's pitched battles or the opponents had an answer. Simply what I want. It's my preference. Where does the Bible say that? Great. Wait a minute. Selfish anger. Selfish anger burns other people. Self will and self centered anger. It burns other people. It doesn't accomplish God's purposes. Although you came to Billy Sunday one time, the great preacher. I tried to rationalize her anger outbursts. As I said to him, the nothing wrong with losing my temper. I blow up a minutes all over. Billy Sunday said, so there's a shotgun. Look at the damage at least behind. Her access is well by the way. Our anger. Uncontrolled, ungodly anger. Her access as well. There's a park ranger at a National Park in British Columbia. In his office he has a display case where he has the two sets of antlers. Two enormous sets of antlers that are each as big as a man's reaches across. Two sets of antlers, what it happens is two bull moose. I'm not sure what the plural of moose would be. Two bull moose got locked into a battle. And they died. Because they couldn't extricate their horns from one another. They died from anger. They died from anger. Let me also say something positive about anger. Anger, selfish anger can be very destructive. You can hurt other people. But godly anger. Godly anger. That's righteous anger when we see something that violates God's law. We see something that goes against the law of God. We see things that make God angry. We see injustice and oppression, exploitation of the poor and the weak in children and women and in defenses. We see those kinds of things. If we can see those and not get angry, there's something wrong with us. That kind of godly anger, righteous indignation. That's what drove William Wilberforce to lead the fight in the United Kingdom to get rid of slavery throughout the British Empire. But it's what impelled the abolitionist in this country, who said it's not right for human being, but another human being in chains, who led to the abolition of slavery in this country. It's what impelled those who fought for civil rights in this country. Martin Luther King is the best well known, most well known, of course. But all the others who fought for civil rights, they looked at it and said it's not right for white Americans to treat black Americans in this way. They fought until they got civil rights equal rights for all. That's what impells those of us who continue to fight for the sanctity of life, the right to life of the unborn child. They say it is not right for a human being to destroy another human being just because that other human being is in the womb of his or her mother. So we continue to fight for the right to life of the unborn. If you can see those kinds of things going on and it doesn't bother you, there's nothing wrong. Something wrong. I mentioned last week, and I mentioned before, the scourge of human trafficking, the coercion of women in the prostitution and men and children in the various forms of slavery, right now around the world there are 27 million slaves right now, more than at any time in history of the planet Earth. We have more people in slavery right now. That ought to make everybody angry, especially God's people. Anger is a fuel that can either burn others or it can drive us. Interintegrity lasts longer than external beauty. Anger is a fuel. nostalgia ain't what it used to be. nostalgia ain't what it used to be. Look at verse 10 he says, why isn't it that the former days were better than these? It's not from wisdom that you ask about this. Oh yeah, the good old days, the good old days. I can be guilty of this in my ripe old age. I can't. I am guilty sometimes of looking around at what I see going on in this country. I think when do we lose our moral sanity? Do we commit moral suicide and we just forgot to leave a note? When did this happen in our culture? There are reasons to think that way. You know, it's really not as if there was some gold in age before. And we're looking back on it. Life is just perfect. I go back to civil rights. Black Americans were given the right to vote in 1870 by the 15th Amendment. They were given the right to vote. They really couldn't exercise that right because of various what we call Jim Crow laws. Poll taxes and literacy tests. Literacy tests that I guarantee are very, very few of any of us in this room could pass right now. But even though it was legal for blacks to vote, there were various put in their way. Women couldn't vote until 1920. Black women and white women, they could not vote until 1920. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is what really cleared out all the barriers. There were various people's way to vote up until 1965. 100 years ago, 100 years ago, average life expectancy for an American was 46 years of age. If that's for me, tell them I'm busy. Average life expectancy was 46 years for men, 48 years for women. Some of us are even older than that now. If you know this, we wouldn't have been here. We wouldn't have been here. Animatics were not discovered until 1928. Mr. Alexander Fleming, look through that microscope and notice something a little odd going on with that mold. As we're finished, sit on game from. People died from things we take a pill for. Real for cabinet income has doubled since 1960. Our standard of living is risen to levels. Our great grandparents could not begin to imagine. Right after World War II, the average new home in America was 1,100 square feet. The day the average new home was 2,300 square feet. Back then, there were an average of two people per room in a house in America. Now our average is 2 room for every person. Our quality of life, our prosperity through technology and so forth, is just beyond anybody's wildest dreams a few decades ago. I need only to mention you the blessings of indoor plumbing. And we know how blessed we are. And if we don't, our Olympic folks in the folks that are covering it, and Sochi Russia right now know how beautiful American indoor plumbing is. And for those of us in South Florida, can I get a name in for the blessing of air conditioning? You want to know why the population of Florida has skyrocketed over the last 40, 50 years? Because of AC. Reminiscing is okay in limited amounts. It really is. But if you spend all your time thinking about what you did and talking about what you did way back in the day, you know, the older I get, the better I was. It's going to all our time with a focus in our review mirror. It's time to reframe. We need to reframe our focus in our integrity last long in the external beauty. Angers of fuel that can burn others and drive us nostalgic what it used to be. Wisdom is good and money is good and both together are even better. Wisdom is good and money is good both together are even better. Verse 11, he says, Wisdom all within inheritance is good. Wisdom is protection. The money is protection, but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its possessors. Listen, money is wonderful. I'd rather have more than less of it. I hope you have lots of it. You have generously to your local church, especially this one. Money comes and money goes. Wisdom tends to go where it's welcome. Wisdom goes where it's welcome. Those who call for nonsense will find that it comes. Wisdom goes where it's welcome and it stays, it sets up camp. Those who call for nonsense will find that it comes. Wisdom is often, I want to say usually, but it's often a function or a byproduct of age and experience. Older we get, hopefully, the wiser we become. But for some of us, all the accumulation of birthdays does. It just provides us to keep rehearsing our same mistakes. Keep rehearsing our same mistakes. The preacher would say to us, you know, I'll go around once in my life. So grab for all the wisdom, righteousness that you possibly can. If we pursue satisfaction through money, through entertainment, through diversions and amusement and so forth. It's fine for a little while, but it never lasts. The law of diminishing returns always sets in. Whatever made us happy at one point, it has to be more the next point. You have to keep getting more and more the same. It's a proverbial like nailing jello to the wall. It will not stay. I was never a big watcher of the night show, Jay Leno. Very nice guy from what I can tell. I just never thought he was all that funny. But I tuned in Thursday night to watch his last show. I was curious to see how that might go. And so I watched, I didn't catch until the latter part of the show. But it was interesting to me to see. Here's Jay Leno. 22 years as host of the night show. Thousands upon thousands of guests. Tens of thousands of jokes and sketches and sketches and bits and so forth. Millions of dollars. That man has made lots and lots of money. But it was obvious to me watching the show that after all that was over, they signed off what meant the most to him. Obviously, it was the people. It was the people. I'm not saying here to give all the money back. I have no idea. But you could tell at the end of the show, the end of his run, he wasn't thinking, thank you folks, you made me a very wealthy man. I'll seal it. Now it was the people that meant the most to him. And I thought, what a great lesson for us. Well, he's great. Last entertainment. Fine. I'm all for it. Keep your eye on what's truly important, what means the most to you. See, if we pursue God, he may bless us with money and with museums and diversities he might. But he only guarantees our satisfaction to him. Not through these things. Young Mark Schultz says he's a Christian artist, phenomenally talented young man. Piano player, guitar player, great singer and songwriter. I like myself, he's from Kansas City. He was adopted when he was a young child, two weeks old. And tons of play at piano at age eight. He was just a phenomenally gifted young man. He was great stories. One of my favorite songs of his is called I Gave Up. I was going to sing it for you this morning, but my coal won't allow. But the chorus run like this. I don't need a house on top of the world. I like the car I'm driving. Everything I've got ain't what I'm worth. That's not the reason I'm living. I don't need to see my name in lights or leave any grand impression. I got everything I need in life. Loves all we're taking to heaven. All I gave up, you can get it on the internet.
Wisdom's good, money's good. Both of them together are better. And finally, the preacher says to us, in spite of all we see going around. In spite of all the counterintuitive myths and countercultural stuff, we have to put up. God is still in control. In spite of it all, God is still in control. Consider the work of God. He says for who is able to straighten what He has meant. God himself is sovereign. So that man, in spite of what it looks like, God is sovereign. No matter what it looks like from our limited vantage point, he's still in control. And that's important globally. What's going on around the world? We really, really wonder. We really wonder, will we see a nuclear war? Again, maybe in the Middle East. Yes, we dropped two atomic bombs under Penn in 1945. The only time nuclear weaponry's ever been used. Since that time, we've had more nuclear weaponry than destroy the world of many times, but we've never used it. No will, and we never will again. It's their for deterrence. There are other states, what we call rogue actors. There are other groups, terrorists of war, that if they could get their hands on a nuke, use it against Israel or us, they will. Are we living in a time where we really might see that happen? Look around a national. That's the global world. Look around a national. And we are witnessing cultural rot, cultural decay, and an absolute breathtaking pace. Where anything and everything is okay, and the more dark and reverse, the more celebrated, unless you have to be a traditionalist who believes you today have Christian values, and that's not okay. And that's being vilified now, and even outlawed in places. So look around it. What's going on globally? Look around what's going on nationally. Look around what's going on personally individually. What's going on in your life? It may be very difficult. Your health is touching go at best. Your financial situation is extreme. Your marriage is hurting. Your family is coming apart. We look around at all the things we see going on around us personally in our lives. And we really, really wonder. But ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you, either God is sovereign and in control. And He will make sense out of all this. And He will redeem the bad stuff in our lives. Either that is true, or the Bible teaches. Or this is all a farce. We're kidding ourselves. We're totally wasting our time being here this morning. Because if God is not truly in control, He's not truly sovereign over creation over what's going on globally and nationally and locally and individually. If He's not truly in control of this thing, then you realize this is just a big, big joke. And the inmates are running the asylum. We're kidding ourselves. And you get three score in 10, or maybe four score a little more if you're lucky. And then you become dust. That's it. It's one or the other. We got to make our choice. This last sentence here in verse 14, so that man will not discover what will be after him. Do you realize? I mean, a lot of people will know what's going to happen. What's coming? I wish I'd know. You realize what a mercy it is. The guy doesn't tell us what's about to happen. Think of the worst day in your life. Think of the worst event in your life. If you got off that morning and knew what was about to hit you, what would you've done? If you got up one day and knew what was coming that day next week, next month, what would you, you would have crawled under the covers, crawled up in a field position, pulled the blanket over yourself, turned off the lights, and hoped nobody would find you. You'd have tried to duck it. That's what a guy doesn't tell us what's coming. I'm glad he doesn't tell us. I'm glad he doesn't say, hey, you're about to get hit with, you name it. Cancer, amphysemon, leukemia, or spinal cord injuries, or I'm glad he doesn't tell us what's coming. It's a great mercy that God does not allow us to know what's coming next. But either God's in control, or this is all a big joke. We've got to make our choice. In fact, you're here in the case you do know it's true. Let me tell you a family story that I think will illustrate this quite well. Bruce Goodrich was young men being initiated into the cadet corps of Texas and the University. One night he was forced to run until he dropped. He never got up again. Bruce Goodrich died before he could enter Texas and him. Short time after the tragedy, Bruce's father wrote a letter back to the administration of Texas and him to the cadet corps, to the student body, and all those connected with the college community. This is part of what he wrote. I would like to take this opportunity to express the appreciation of my family to the great out point of concern and sympathy from Texas A&M University and the college community all over the loss of our son, Bruce. We were deeply touched by the tribute paid to him in the battalion. We're particularly pleased to note that his Christian witness did not go unnoticed during his brief time on campus. I hope it will be some comfort, know that we harbor no ill will in the matter. We know our God makes no mistakes. Bruce had an appointment with his Lord and is now secure in his celestial home. When the question is asked, why did this happen? Perhaps one answer will be so that many will consider where they will spend the eternity. Amen? Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your mercy and for your grace to us in his manifold forms. How you provided for us the material wealth that we enjoy and take for granted so much in this country. We think it's tough here right now, or we don't have any idea. Most of us world deals with every day every night. You've been so good to us and so kind to us. You've seen your mercy to us in material ways and in spiritual ways beyond number. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you for the grace that you don't tell us what's about to happen, but that you assure us that whatever happens and whenever happens, you'll be here with us. Lord, give us that confidence and that assurance this day for I made my prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.