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Please enjoy this message delivered by Pastor Mark Hudson.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Well, several years ago, Richard Petty was racing,
00:04and he had lost 45 races in a row.
00:07Now, those of you who are NASCAR fans know who Richard Petty is.
00:12Well, this year, he was driving again in the Daytona 500.
00:19And something really weird happened.
00:21Now, if you're a NASCAR fan, you probably even remember this event.
00:25I didn't see it, but you may remember it.
00:27So, Richard Petty, he's in third place, last lap.
00:35The number one and two guys are right on each other's tails,
00:38or one's right on this tail of the car in front of him,
00:41and he's in third place back here.
00:43The number two guy clips the number one guy.
00:46He spins out.
00:47He doesn't go completely out of control,
00:49but he goes off into the infield for just a brief second.
00:52Then he bounces back onto the track.
00:53He catches up to the number one guy now, who was number two,
00:58and when he catches up to the number one guy,
01:00he forces them into the outside wall.
01:02They crash.
01:02They go into the inner.
01:03They hop out of their cars, and they're just beating each other up.
01:06Richard Petty drives.
01:08Checkered flag.
01:10Now, you say, wait a second.
01:11No one expected that.
01:13I mean, it's the last lap.
01:15Everyone expects the number one guy in the last lap,
01:18unless he's passed by the number two guy,
01:20that he's going to win the race.
01:21Nobody expected him to win that race.
01:28It's not what we would have expected.
01:31Well, the race, it seemed already won, didn't it?
01:33Last lap.
01:35But then the unexpected happened.
01:39It's kind of like this.
01:42You are the very best candidate for the new job in your organization.
01:48By far, you have the best qualifications.
01:50You have the experience.
01:52You have the ability to pull off the job.
01:55But instead, the boss hires his best friend,
01:58who is nowhere able to do the job,
02:01but simply because he was a friend, he got hired.
02:06That's not fair.
02:06You're the best athlete in an event.
02:13You made it to the Olympics.
02:14You're the very best in your class.
02:17There's no one better than everyone knows you're the best.
02:20You're at the Olympics.
02:21The day before your event happens,
02:24you come down with a horrible case of intestinal flu,
02:27which means you cannot do your event.
02:29You don't even participate.
02:30That's not fair.
02:31The Arab nations, after Israel became a nation,
02:37powerful, multiple, lots of people,
02:40lots of resources to attack this small little nation of Israel.
02:44And when the wars began, there were 67, 73 with the Yom Khor,
02:48when those began, everyone thought the Arab nations
02:50were just going to wipe Israel into the sea,
02:52just wipe them off the face of the map.
02:54But instead, God intervenes,
02:58and those that are in power don't even win the battle.
03:01They get routed.
03:02As a matter of fact, the Egyptians made a claim
03:05that they swore they heard 500 tanks going across the desert,
03:10and they turned tail and run.
03:12It was five tanks.
03:15Five tanks.
03:16That's not what one expects.
03:18One expects whoever has the biggest army,
03:20the most resources are going to win the battles.
03:24It's not what we would expect to happen.
03:29You would say, oh, these are flukes.
03:31These are anomalies.
03:33These are one-offs.
03:35No.
03:36This happens all the time.
03:38You've seen it.
03:40You know.
03:41You've seen things like this happen before.
03:43When you say, this is just not fair.
03:48No.
03:50I have to say,
03:52life is not fair.
03:54That is, life under the sun is not fair.
04:00It never has been.
04:02It never will be.
04:05Yet, in the midst of that truth, here is another one.
04:10God is good, God is just, and God is sovereign.
04:14Life is not fair under the sun.
04:19Things that we expect to happen don't happen,
04:21and that which we don't expect to happen actually happens.
04:24We often do not understand what God is doing.
04:32We don't see everything in this world that he's doing.
04:35But a bigger, overriding question is not, why did this happen to me?
04:43The bigger, overriding question is, do I still trust God in spite of what happened to me?
04:50That's really the question we have to answer.
04:53Because life is not fair under the sun, and unexpected things are going to happen to us.
04:58Even when we play by all the rules, we work hard, we cross all of our T's and dot all of our I's,
05:04because life still happens.
05:07It's not fair.
05:11Life may not seem fair or just, but God is both fair and just.
05:19So what do we do?
05:20What do we do when life happens to us?
05:24How do we respond?
05:25What is the correct measure that we should take?
05:27Which direction should we go?
05:29This is what Solomon wants to address today.
05:30What is your normal reaction when life slaps you in the face?
05:38Think.
05:43He now turns to address calamities that everyone encounters in life.
05:50Everyone experiences calamities.
05:52So he wants to address that.
05:54Look at verses 11 and 12 of chapter 9 of Ecclesiastes.
05:58He says,
05:59So the children of man are snared at an evil time.
06:29When it suddenly falls upon them, life happens.
06:34What do we do?
06:36How do we respond to crises in life?
06:39Because it's going to encounter, every one of us are going to encounter,
06:42in fact, you probably had crises this week that you encountered.
06:46We all encounter them.
06:48How do we handle them?
06:50So he starts a new unit of thought by using the phrase again.
06:53In other words, he wants us to remember some of the things he said before,
06:56but this is a new unit of thought.
06:58That's why we broke it off last week at verse number 10.
07:01Again, I want to tell you these things.
07:03Again, I want to share with you.
07:04This is what I've learned as I've lived my life under the sun.
07:08Remember, under the sun simply means human existence on this earth.
07:11In contrast to that which is above the sun, that is in the heavenly realm,
07:15where truth resides eternally, where the throne of God is.
07:18Solomon is looking at the randomness of life from a human perspective.
07:26It's not that he has forgotten God's sovereignty.
07:28It's not that he has forgotten that God is good, that God is just, that God is sovereign.
07:31He's not forgotten any of that stuff.
07:33He's simply saying, this is what I've seen on the earth.
07:36This is what I've experienced in my lifetime under the sun.
07:40It's from a human perspective.
07:42You know, we say, well, I watched the sunrise this morning,
07:45or I watched the sunset this evening.
07:48Well, technically, that's not true.
07:50The sun doesn't rise and the sun doesn't set.
07:53The earth is spinning.
07:54But from our human perspective, it appears the sun rises and it appears the sun sets.
07:59That's a human perspective.
08:01That's what Solomon is telling us from a human perspective, what he's experienced.
08:05The fastest should win the race.
08:09The army with the most resources and man should win the battle.
08:13But that doesn't always happen.
08:15Because calamity is part and parcel of human existence, outcomes are not as expected.
08:23You can't say, if I do this, this will definitely happen.
08:26That may not be the case.
08:27It may not happen.
08:29Something unexpected may happen instead.
08:33We shouldn't be surprised when hardships happen in life.
08:36We know them.
08:37That's under the sun.
08:37There are hardships in our life.
08:39We can't guarantee what's going to happen because life is so unpredictable.
08:42We don't know what's coming next.
08:44Only God knows.
08:47Wisdom, skill, and hard work can promote but not guarantee success.
08:52In other words, you want to be a fool or do you want to be wise?
08:55Well, you want to be wise.
08:56And you want to work hard.
08:58You want to have good skills.
08:59But it doesn't guarantee success because calamity happens to us all.
09:03What do we do?
09:06How do we respond?
09:07What's the correct measure?
09:10Now, you may get caught in this word chance.
09:12We think like a chance.
09:13You know, I roll dice and it's a chance.
09:15Or I go gambling and it's a chance.
09:16That's not what the word means.
09:17It's not an idea of chance.
09:19The idea is an occurrence or an event.
09:21So a chance, an occurrence or an event happens to us all.
09:25And often they are evil.
09:27They are not good.
09:31Timing and chance affect the outcome more than skill or ability is what Solomon says.
09:38You may have all the skill.
09:39You may have all the ability.
09:40You may be the right person at the right time.
09:42But timing and chance, outcomes and events happen where the unexpected occurs.
09:50People call this time and chance, ah, ah, the luck of the draw.
09:54The right place at the right time.
09:55The way the cookie crumbles if it's something bad.
09:59But for us believers, that's not how we look at it, is it?
10:02For us believers, we understand it differently.
10:04We see it as the incomprehensible activities of a God who loves us dearly and wants the best in our life.
10:11That's how we see it.
10:14He works things out for his eternal purposes and for his glory.
10:19We don't often see the bigger picture.
10:24In Isaiah, he said this,
10:25Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other.
10:29I am God and there is none like me,
10:31declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done,
10:35saying, My counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purposes.
10:39So when we see these random events coming into our lives, we don't see them as random events.
10:45No.
10:46We see them as the incomprehensible activity of God who is working all things according to his eternal purpose,
10:52for his glory and our good.
10:55So we don't say, ah, that's the luck of the draw.
10:57Oh, that's how the cookie crumbles.
10:58Ah, no.
10:59No.
10:59God is sovereign.
11:01Our confidence is in the loving care of our heavenly Father,
11:07regardless of the circumstances around us,
11:09regardless of the crisis, the event, the evil event that comes into our lives.
11:13God is sovereign.
11:16A man put a board up on part of his land,
11:19and on the board it was written, placard, sign,
11:22I will give this field to the one who is really contented, content in life.
11:27When an applicant came, he asked, are you contented?
11:32And the general answer was, I am contented.
11:34And his reply then of the man was, then, why do you want my field?
11:39Good question.
11:41Not really contented if you want more, is it?
11:43If we are truly content, then why do we always want more than we have?
11:53It is wise to be content, to trust in our loving heavenly Father,
11:59in spite of the evil circumstances in our life.
12:03The providence of God.
12:05He cares.
12:06As the song says, he loves us.
12:09It's for his glory and our good.
12:11No one knows his time.
12:14Now, he could be talking about the time of death, that's possible,
12:17or he could be talking about the time of an evil event that comes into a person's life.
12:21It could be both, or it could be both, or either or.
12:24But the idea is, no one knows when it's going to happen.
12:26That's why it's called unexpected.
12:28It's unexpected.
12:32We have no control over the evil times that befall us.
12:35We could do all the right things, and the evil time could still befall us.
12:39We have no control over that.
12:41You can have it all together, but time and chance will attack you.
12:46And the only thing you can do is respond correctly.
12:50There are so many events beyond human control that we encounter in life.
12:54What are we going to do with them?
12:56What am I going to do with those events?
12:59The only thing that we can control is our response to the events.
13:03You can't control the events, Solomon says,
13:05but you can control your response to the events.
13:08How do you handle evil times?
13:10How do you handle trials in your life?
13:13You remember George, Georg Mueller, George Mueller, who had the orphanage,
13:17and he, by faith, took care of children in his orphanage?
13:20This was an address at his funeral, and it went like this.
13:23Yet he had trials, both many and heavy.
13:27But if I were asked, when have you seen him most triumphant and joyous in his trust in God?
13:34I should reply, when, with a beaming face, he has expressed his unbound confidence in God
13:40that the trial must be one of the all things that work together for good.
13:45Every weakness or trial being cast upon God became to him a source of strength.
13:51In response to that infinite love which called him from a life of sin as a young man,
13:55he loved him, everybody and everything,
13:58so that the highest pleasure was found in seeking to please him
14:01who he esteemed his highest privilege to serve.
14:04That's how he responded to trials.
14:07These are one of those things that work together for good.
14:10It's wise that we hope and trust.
14:16Remember, hope isn't like a wish for something.
14:18Hope is a confident expectation in God's promises.
14:20God spoke, I believe.
14:21That's hope.
14:23Not just, oh, I hope it's 75 tomorrow.
14:27No one's disagreeing with me.
14:29You're tired of the heat too, huh?
14:30Yeah, so that's not what we're talking about.
14:32We're talking about a confident expectation that God is going to do what God is going to do.
14:35That's hope.
14:36It is wise for us to be hopeful people
14:38because we trust God's promises.
14:41In Psalm 42, we read this.
14:42In a person who was, David was writing, he's down.
14:45Why are you cast down, O my soul?
14:47And why are you in turmoil within me?
14:51Hope in God.
14:52So when everything around you crashes,
14:55and even inside, you're just in turmoil,
14:59David says, hope in God.
15:00For I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
15:05And then he closes with two similes, two examples.
15:08And there are a fish in a net and a bird in a snare.
15:12And basically what he's saying is,
15:14listen, if the bird and the fish would have known where the net and the snare was,
15:17they would have gone the other direction.
15:18At least they're smart enough to do that.
15:20The problem is they didn't know where it was at,
15:22and it happened to them.
15:23That's what he's saying to us.
15:25Evil times, evil events happen to us.
15:27We don't know where they're going to come from.
15:29They just unexpectedly happen to us.
15:30How do we respond?
15:31What are we to do?
15:37So now he's going to use an example story to teach another thing about wisdom.
15:42Wisdom in crisis, how do we respond to crisis?
15:44But then he's going to talk about another story where wisdom was exercised,
15:48but what we would expect to happen didn't happen.
15:53Look at verses 13 through 16.
15:54But I say that wisdom is better than might,
16:24though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.
16:31So here we have a person exercising wisdom that actually saves a city,
16:36and you would think the response would be as,
16:38wow, let's throw a party to honor this guy.
16:41And instead, they rejected him.
16:43They didn't reward him.
16:44In fact, they despised him.
16:45That's not what one would expect.
16:47The contrast is displayed by the vast resources of the great king
16:54and the small city and the few men.
16:56Do you see the contrast going on?
16:57Great and small.
16:59That's why he's painting this picture for us here.
17:01Whether it's a real-life event, we're not sure,
17:03or whether it's just something he made up as a story,
17:06we're not sure.
17:07Could be a real-life event.
17:11Wisdom has great value, but wisdom is often attacked.
17:15If you can stomach it, and I'm not real good at it,
17:21and I haven't really gotten over it yet,
17:23but if you can stomach it, post something wise on Facebook
17:27and see what people say.
17:30Send out a tweet of something that's wise.
17:33And again, wisdom is, of course,
17:34truths pertaining to the revelation of God,
17:38what God has spoken about, what is true.
17:41Post something, tweet something about wisdom
17:43and see how it's responding.
17:44Now, wisdom has great value,
17:47but often people say,
17:48I don't want to hear that.
17:51It's attacked.
17:54They didn't even remember him.
17:55Now, the word remember doesn't mean they forgot about him.
17:58The word remember has a connotation of reward.
18:01They did not reward him.
18:02They did not honor him with a party.
18:04They did not put a plaque in the city square
18:06saying this person saved us by his wisdom.
18:10No, they didn't remember him at all.
18:12They completely forgot him.
18:14So the word remember conveys the idea of reward.
18:17And it's used in 1 Samuel 25 with that connotation.
18:22My Lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience
18:25for having shed blood without cause,
18:27or for my Lord working salvation himself.
18:30And when the Lord has dealt well with my Lord,
18:33then remember your servant.
18:35In other words, reward your servant for my faithfulness.
18:38That's the idea.
18:39It's being rewarded.
18:41So he exercises wisdom,
18:43and they throw him off.
18:45They take his wisdom to save the city,
18:46but afterwards they didn't want to hear about it.
18:49They didn't want anything from him.
18:51The poor man acted on behalf of the city
18:54and saved it, but did not get rewarded for it.
18:56So what do we do?
19:00We exercise wisdom, we get attacked.
19:02We exercise wisdom, no one rewards us for us.
19:05So what are we going to do?
19:07Are we going to continue to be wise people?
19:09Or are we going to say, it's not worth it?
19:10I don't want to be attacked.
19:12I like the rewards.
19:13I'm going to do it differently.
19:14What are we going to do?
19:17That's the question that Martin Niemöller was faced with.
19:21What are you going to do?
19:22It was a time of Hitler's Germany,
19:26and Martin Niemöller was a Lutheran pastor,
19:28and this picture right here is actually
19:30when he was released in a concentration camp, Dachau.
19:33He went to Dachau in a concentration camp.
19:35This is when he was being released,
19:37and he was going to give an interview with reporters there.
19:42So he had this dilemma.
19:45What am I going to do?
19:46I see this tyrant, Hitler.
19:48I see what he's doing to the Jewish people.
19:50I see what he's doing to our nation.
19:51I see what he's doing to the churches.
19:53We've seen pictures of churches, churches,
19:57that on a table, someone like that,
19:59is a Nazi flag flying.
20:02You'd say, that never happened in our church.
20:04You're absolutely right.
20:05That's never going to happen in our church.
20:06But it happened in churches in Germany.
20:08And the churches were falling apart.
20:10They didn't know what to do.
20:11There's all of these things going on politically,
20:14ethically in their nation.
20:15And he says, enough, enough.
20:18He started a movement that grew into what we know
20:22as the Confessing Church,
20:24the church that opposed Hitler and his policies.
20:27Hitler hated Niemöller and actually threw him in 1908,
20:33arrested him, and threw him in prison in 1938.
20:34As he was being led down a long hallway for his trial,
20:42he heard a voice quietly quoting in Latin,
20:45a verse from the book of Proverbs.
20:46That is Proverbs 18.10.
20:48Now, this is Latin.
20:49And if you know Latin, I'm sorry.
20:50I'm sure I'm not saying it correctly.
20:52Nomen domini turis fortismus,
20:54which simply means the name of the Lord is a strong tower.
21:00And this guard was quoting this in Latin.
21:03As Niemöller walked by, he heard it,
21:05and it became confidence to him that God was working in his life,
21:08that God was his strong tower.
21:10No matter what the Nazis tried to do,
21:11God was still in control.
21:13It gave him great strength.
21:15It was a call for Niemöller to have courage,
21:17even as he entered the lion's den.
21:19It gave him strength to face what lay ahead.
21:21So he was in prison in Dachau, a terrible place.
21:26A lot of people died there.
21:28He survived seven years in the concentration camp,
21:31and he came out to help rebuild the church in Germany.
21:39Wisdom acts on behalf of others
21:42without the expectation of reward.
21:48He said, this is the right thing.
21:50I cannot allow Hitler or his policies or this government
21:54to dictate to the church what the gospel message is
21:57or to tell us what we can do or what we can't do
21:59or to throw Jews or the people practicing homosexualities or gypsies,
22:04all the people that were thrown in the concentration camps.
22:06I oppose this.
22:07And he was vocal about it.
22:10He was wise about it.
22:14Even if we don't get rewarded,
22:16wisdom is the right thing to do.
22:17Oh, reward is nice,
22:21but it's not necessary to do the right thing.
22:24And I'm sure that's happened to you in your life.
22:26I'm sure you've done the right thing one time.
22:28I shouldn't say that one time.
22:30That sounds terrible.
22:30It's if you've only done it one time.
22:32You've probably done the right thing multiple times
22:35and never got rewarded for doing it.
22:36You know what I'm talking about.
22:38So the question you ask yourself is,
22:39why do I want to be wise anymore?
22:41I'm not getting rewarded.
22:43In fact, people are looking down and attacking me.
22:44I wish our politicians would exercise this kind of wisdom.
22:51It seems like they only are there for their own self-interest,
22:53and that's their vote.
22:54They're not there for the good of the nation, it seems like.
22:57It seems like they'll just get voted in again the next time.
23:02We need leaders who will do the right thing
23:05when it's the right thing to do,
23:06even if you're attacked,
23:07or even if people don't reward you,
23:10it's the right thing to do.
23:14When things get really bad in a society,
23:17wisdom is sought for to provide answers.
23:19The city was about to be destroyed by a great king
23:21with all of his resources.
23:23The city was in turmoil.
23:25It turned to the person that had wisdom for help.
23:29So I say to us,
23:32knowing the state of our society right now,
23:34I can only speak about America,
23:35knowing the state of our society right now
23:37and what's transpiring in it,
23:39and if you don't know,
23:40please pay attention to what's happening in our society.
23:43I say to us Christians,
23:45let's prepare our hearts today
23:47to receive the wisdom of God
23:49so we can aid our society when things go bad.
23:53I mean really bad.
23:55It's going to look for wisdom.
23:57It's going to look for help.
23:58Let's be those kind of people
24:00who have God's wisdom
24:02to know how to apply it to a current situation
24:04we find ourselves in society.
24:08God's way, his wisdom,
24:09is always the best way.
24:11It's always the best way.
24:13So happy is the city or the nation
24:15that has wise people
24:17that can spare the city or the nation its hardships.
24:21And blessed is a city or nation
24:23that heeds the advice of wise people.
24:25Wisdom provided great value for the city,
24:31but it had no lasting value for the man.
24:34There was no reward for him.
24:36As a matter of fact, he was despised.
24:40You may use wisdom and save the day,
24:42but never be rewarded.
24:44Are you okay with that?
24:46Are you okay with that?
24:47Will you still be wise
24:50even if you know you're not going to be rewarded
24:52for being wise?
24:55Wisdom understands
24:56that the world still needs wisdom.
25:00So this wise person,
25:01it was his station in society.
25:03That's why Solomon mentioned he was a poor man.
25:06His station in society really
25:09was the reason he was disregarded.
25:11They listened to his wisdom,
25:12but because he was a poor person,
25:14they didn't want to listen to anything else
25:15he had to say.
25:17Proverbs 14 says,
25:18the poor is disliked even by his neighbor,
25:21but the rich has many friends.
25:23So he didn't just arbitrarily
25:24put the word poor in there without reason.
25:26God said,
25:27this is the description of his station in society,
25:30and they didn't want to hear anything more from him
25:31because he was a poor man.
25:33He was on lower rungs of society.
25:35He really,
25:36he must have just had a one-off,
25:38a fluke that he came up with this great idea
25:39to save the city.
25:40We didn't listen to him anymore after that.
25:42See, people are so vain and foolish.
25:46They put more stock in outward show than wisdom,
25:49which is really an inward quality.
25:53Often the counsel given by the lower in society
25:56has great value if we'll listen to them.
26:00I was at a city council meeting
26:02in Arnstadt, Germany when we were there.
26:03I thought, yeah,
26:04I'd like to know how the city functions,
26:06and it'd be interesting to practice my language skills,
26:09to pay attention to what's happening in the city.
26:10So I went to the city council meeting.
26:13And I was just,
26:13I didn't,
26:14I think they had an open mic
26:15where you can get up and talk.
26:16There was a problem in the city
26:17they wanted a solution for.
26:18So they were asking people in the city
26:20to give ideas.
26:21I thought, that's kind of cool.
26:22I like that.
26:23So I sat there and listened,
26:25and one lady came up there,
26:26and she had a superb suggestion.
26:29I thought, this is great.
26:30This is exactly what they're going to need to do
26:32because this will work.
26:33This is great.
26:34Do you know what the city council said to her?
26:36The city council person in charge
26:37asking the question.
26:38You know what they said to her?
26:39After she had a great suggestion.
26:43What did you get your degree in,
26:45and which school did you attend?
26:47She goes, I didn't get a degree,
26:48and I didn't attend the school.
26:49Okay, thank you.
26:50Sit down.
26:51I couldn't believe it.
26:52I thought that was the best suggestion
26:54I heard from anyone,
26:55but because she didn't have the right pedigree,
26:57she didn't have the right educational structure,
26:59they discarded her
27:01because of this man stationed in society
27:04he wasn't listened to.
27:05Then he's going to close with two proverbs.
27:11And he's basically going to say this,
27:13the one who shouts the loudest
27:15often believes they are absolutely right
27:18and all others are wrong.
27:20Now, I know you just had about three bosses
27:22flash before your face right now.
27:24I got it.
27:24I understand.
27:25Okay, those in the military,
27:27you know what I'm talking about, okay?
27:28Those who yell the loudest
27:31think that they're often right
27:33and everyone else is wrong.
27:35So look at verses then,
27:36here the last two verses of 17 and 18.
27:40The words of the wise heard in quiet
27:42are better than the shouting
27:44of a ruler among fools.
27:47Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
27:50but one sinner destroys much good.
27:54So now he talked about wisdom in crisis.
27:56He's talking about wisdom not being rewarded.
27:59Now he's going to talk about wisdom and leadership.
28:03The wise person is seldom loud,
28:05but conveys truth in a humble way.
28:09You see, when you have the truth,
28:11and again, not my truth, your church,
28:13the truth.
28:14When you have the truth,
28:16you don't have to be loud about it.
28:18You don't have to scream and yell
28:20to get your point across.
28:21It is the truth.
28:22And you just lay it out there.
28:23Whether they're going to believe it or not
28:24is up to them.
28:25It is the truth.
28:29Proverbs 15, one says,
28:30a soft answer turns away wrath,
28:31but a harsh word stirs up anger.
28:33We don't have to be loud
28:34when we're conveying the truth.
28:36You don't have to text in all caps, okay?
28:40You don't.
28:41It's not necessary, Solomon says.
28:44The wise person offers her counsel
28:46quietly, calmly, and humbly,
28:50even when it's rejected.
28:51We are passionate about the truth,
28:55but we are not arrogant.
28:59The violent use of force
29:01is shown as the ruler's shouting.
29:03He's trying to get his point across
29:04by being louder and louder and louder.
29:07Whether he's the fool
29:08or he's just among fools
29:09or both of them are fools
29:10or all of them are fools,
29:12he thinks his shouting
29:12will get his point across.
29:14That truth is in loud words.
29:17No, because the loudest voice
29:19is most often not the wisest.
29:25Now, please don't think ill of your boss
29:28if he yells at you tomorrow, okay,
29:30or yells in a meeting tomorrow.
29:32Don't say what an unwise person,
29:33foolish person that guy is.
29:36It's just the truth.
29:38The loudest voice
29:39is most often not the wisest.
29:41Why?
29:42Because we think by force
29:43we have to get our point across.
29:45Truth is truth.
29:46Put it out there.
29:48Let people see what the truth is.
29:50Let them be,
29:51they're responsible
29:52how they're going to respond to it.
29:54An anonymous person says,
29:56as a man grows wiser,
29:58he talks less and says more.
30:01Now, that's good.
30:03I like that.
30:04When you become wiser,
30:06you talk less
30:07and you say more.
30:10Even when there is much wisdom present,
30:14a little folly,
30:15a little sin,
30:16can mess things up dramatically.
30:20See, the opponent of wisdom
30:22is the sinner.
30:24He didn't say the foolish,
30:25you notice that.
30:26There is an equation in Proverbs
30:27and in Ecclesiastes
30:28of the foolish and the sinner
30:29being together.
30:30But the idea is,
30:31it takes on a moral quality to it.
30:34Those who reject wisdom
30:36are immoral people,
30:38is what he's saying.
30:38You're a sinner.
30:39You're an immoral person.
30:41That's what he's trying to say to us.
30:42For one unwise person
30:45or sinner
30:46can derail the wisdom
30:48of a hundred wise people.
30:52Proverbs 13 says,
30:54good sense wins favor,
30:55but the way of the treacherous
30:56is their ruin.
30:59And a foolish advisor
31:00is dangerous to a nation.
31:02An immoral sinner
31:03who is not exercising biblical wisdom
31:05is dangerous to a nation.
31:07And then he says,
31:11one sinner destroys much good.
31:13And you think,
31:13well, that must be moral good,
31:15goodness, you know,
31:15goodness, badness.
31:16That's not what the word actually means.
31:18It actually has the idea
31:19of possessions and prosperity,
31:22or we would say goods.
31:23Those are his goods.
31:25That's the idea there
31:26is possessions and prosperity.
31:27So you destroy an awful lot
31:30in society
31:30when you're immoral,
31:32unwise, foolish person.
31:34You destroy society.
31:37People may refuse to listen
31:40or heed biblical wisdom,
31:42but wisdom is still better.
31:44It's better than weapons of warfare.
31:46It's better than might.
31:47Wisdom is always better,
31:49even though those reject it.
31:53J.I. Packer,
31:54who was an author and writer,
31:55author and speaker,
31:56said this.
31:58Imagine that you're in
31:59New York City subway station.
32:01You will see trains come in
32:02and go out,
32:03but you only get a general view
32:05of what's going on.
32:07However,
32:07if you step inside
32:08the control room,
32:09you'll see a large display
32:11with tiny lights
32:12representing each train
32:13in the entire system.
32:15In a glance,
32:16you will be able
32:17to survey the entire situation
32:19through the eyes
32:19of those in control.
32:21You will see why
32:22one engine is signaled to stop
32:23and another has been diverted
32:25and why another sits
32:26on a sidetrack.
32:27So Packer makes this comment.
32:30The mistake that is commonly made
32:31is to suppose
32:32that this is an illustration
32:34of what God does
32:35when he bestows wisdom.
32:37God gives a person insight
32:38into the meaning
32:39and purpose of events
32:40going on around us.
32:42We then have the ability
32:44to see why God
32:45has done what he has done
32:47in a particular case
32:48and what he's going to do next.
32:51People who think
32:52this is what wisdom is,
32:53imagine that if they walk
32:54close enough to God,
32:56they will be in God's command center
32:57and will understand
32:58everything that happens.
33:00But God's wisdom
33:01doesn't work this way.
33:04God's wisdom
33:04is more like learning
33:05to drive a car.
33:07When you drive a car,
33:08it's important
33:08to make the right responses
33:10to the constantly changing
33:11scene around you.
33:13You have to judge
33:14how fast to go.
33:15You have to keep
33:15how much distance
33:16to keep between you
33:17and the next car
33:18and when to put on the brakes.
33:20Drivers simply try to see
33:22and to do the right thing
33:23in the actual situation
33:24that presents itself.
33:27Having wisdom from God,
33:28he says,
33:28does not mean we understand
33:30everything that is going on
33:31because of our superior knowledge.
33:34It means we do
33:35the right thing
33:36as life comes along.
33:39Every moment,
33:40every day,
33:42day in and day out,
33:44that's biblical wisdom.
33:47Crises happen.
33:49Be wise anyway.
33:52Often there's no reward
33:53with wisdom
33:54and I say again,
33:55be wise anyway.
33:56The foolish will scream
33:59the loudest
34:00against all
34:01that is wise counsel
34:02and I say,
34:03be wise anyway.
34:05That's what Solomon
34:06wanted us to hear.
34:07Let's pray,
34:08Father.
34:10We hear what Solomon
34:12is saying
34:12because we have seen it
34:14also in our lives.
34:16We have seen
34:17the unexpected
34:17happen.
34:18that which was the opposite
34:20of what we expected.
34:22It took place.
34:24We expected one thing
34:26and another thing happened
34:27and we don't understand.
34:29But we do know
34:30that you are good
34:31and that you are just
34:32and that you are sovereign.
34:34You are our heavenly Father
34:36who loves us.
34:38Oh,
34:38you love us
34:39so deeply.
34:40You want the best
34:41for us.
34:43You have given us
34:44your word
34:44that we can be wise people
34:46in this world,
34:47that we can take
34:47your principles,
34:48apply them day in
34:49and day out
34:50in every situation
34:51we find ourselves in
34:52as we grow in wisdom.
34:55We want to be wise people.
34:57We know someday
34:58this nation
34:58is going to need wisdom.
35:01It needs it right now.
35:03So, Father,
35:03I pray that you would
35:04through your word
35:06and your spirit
35:07grace us
35:09with the gift
35:09of wisdom
35:10that we may be wise
35:13as we live our life
35:14under the sun.
35:16We pray in Jesus' name.
35:17Amen.
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