Wisdom for Life in a Broken World | Steve Sauers | May 31, 2026

If you take your Bibles and turn to

Ecclesiastes, chapter 7,

Ecclesiastes 7 · chapter mention

we're going to continue our series

looking through the book

of Ecclesiastes.

Is there more?

With this underlying truth and this

reality to the answer to that question

is there is more.

And we're discovering that through our

series together. And this morning we're

going to focus on wisdom for life in a

broken world.

Now, what comes to your mind this

morning when I ask you to think of a

desert?

Just picture that in your mind this

morning? Maybe you think of windswept

sand, dry bones, cactus.

Maybe for you, you think of a a barren

place where there's no water and there's

no food.

Maybe you think of the the sun and the

heat.

It's just a difficult difficult place.

I don't know if you're aware of this,

but the desert is talked a lot about in

the scripture. We see it from the

beginning of the story of God all the

way to the end.

And what we notice through the story of

God about a desert is that it's a

dangerous place. It's a difficult place,

but it's also a very important place.

When you think about the Old Testament

and the children of Israel, they spent

many, many years in a place called the

wilderness. It was a desert and for them

it was a place of testing and formation.

It was a way for God to form them in a

place where they had to be dependent on

food and water. Would they trust God to

provide?

And what you notice as you follow Israel

through their journey is ultimately they

they failed.

When we're introduced to Jesus in the

New Testament,

we see that Jesus before he begins his

ministry goes into the wilderness for 40

days. And what's interesting as you

follow the biblical story is you see

where Israel failed, Jesus was faithful.

The same temptations that Israel faced

in the wilderness, Jesus faced.

And Jesus in reality is reliving

Israel's story, but in obedience and

trust.

He's doing what Israel failed to do.

And then as you continue to read God's

story, we we look at ourselves in the

story and you see the church, God's

people, followers of Jesus who are a

wilderness people

as we are longing in this broken world

for restoration.

Now think about your story up to this

point in your life. There are desert

parts of your experience.

There are desert places in your journey.

There's times of waiting, hardships, and

suffering.

And the question I want us to consider

this morning is this. How can a

dangerous, difficult place be such an

important, valuable place?

And we're going to see that it does

three things this morning. The first

thing it a desert does is a desert

strips away illusions of control.

We have to come to this reality really

where wisdom begins is this

understanding that we are not in control

but we love to live with this illusion

that we are. The second thing the desert

does is it exposes weaknesses that we

have.

And the third thing it reveals what we

truly truly trust.

And that's what our text is going to

point us to this morning in Ecclesiastes

7. The writer is going to show us that

wisdom is not formed in comfort. It's

formed in reality.

You see, most of us long for wisdom, but

we want wisdom without pain.

We long for wisdom, but we want growth

without surrender. We want maturity

without suffering. But Ecclesiastes this

morning is going to remind us that

wisdom often is born in the hard places

of life. The places we can't control.

The places where our weaknesses are

exposed.

Those invitations where God is saying

come and trust me.

So the question is not whether we will

enter deserts in life because we will.

The question is, will we learn wisdom

when we're in the desert?

The first thing I want us to see this

morning is that wisdom redefes what is

good. Look down at Ecclesiastes 7. We're

going to read the first four verses this

morning. Wisdom redefes what is good. 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 of

mourning, to go to a house of feasting,

for death is the destiny of everyone.

The living should take this to heart.

Frustration is better than laughter,

because a sad face is good for the

heart.

The heart of the wise is in the house of

mourning, but the heart of fools is in

the house of pleasure.

Right off the bat in verse one, did you

notice what the writer calls good?

He says, "A good name is more important

than perfume." A good name here is

referring to your character.

That who you are in your inner person.

See, back then, perfume, the word

mentioned here, they didn't bathe as

often as we do. They didn't have that

luxury. So what ancient people would do

is they would take oils or perfumes and

they would just put them all over their

body to cover up their smell.

So perfume in the ancient world was a

cosmetic cover up.

So notice what the writer is saying

here. A good name or your character goes

farther than a cosmetic coverup. This

appearance of who you want to appear to

be.

And that's exactly speaking to the heart

because there's a difference between

building an image and building

character.

Our culture loves to emphasize building

an image.

Everybody and everyone is a brand,

right? And so what you see in the

undercurrent of culture is this

importance of being trending.

Are you successful? Are you important?

Do you have status?

And that's what we see emphasized, this

appearance. And what you see through a

lot of social media outlets and in our

culture is that everything is put out

there for you to think a certain thing

about someone.

That's an image, what you appear to be.

But what the writer is emphasizing here

is what's more important to God is your

character. That's actually who you are.

Who am I when no one is around? This has

nothing to do with accomplishment.

It's who you are. And so the writer is

confronting our hearts here because

naturally we chase appearances. But God

values character.

And that's where wisdom begins.

We're confronted with something else

here in verses 1 and two. Notice the end

of verse one into verse two. The day of

death is better than the day of birth.

It's better to go to the house of

mourning than to go to the house of

feasting.

At first glance, these words sound

upside down. How could the day of death

be better than the day of birth? That

makes no sense.

How could mourning or sorrow be better

than feasting

or joy?

You see, what the writer is doing

through wisdom, writing, and literature

is he's correcting the way we naturally

think.

If I were to ask you this morning, would

you rather go to a funeral or a party?

Which one would you rather go to? How

many go to a party? All right, put your

hands down. How many would rather go to

a funeral? All right, there's those

weird people who raised their hands.

Yeah. Yeah. Most people would choose a

party.

Now, why would we choose that,

right? It's more lighthearted. It's fun.

It's casual.

But when you think about a funeral, it's

a lot more serious. It confronts you

with some difficult realities.

And one of those things is that sorrow

reveals what pleasure hides.

Sorrow reveals what pleasure hides. A

funeral confronts you with eternity.

Is there one? What happens when one

dies?

Is this all there is? You begin to think

about those types of things. They expose

funeral exposes what matters.

When you think about going to a funeral,

what questions are you contemplating and

thinking about when you leave there?

It's your priorities,

how temporary life is. And that's the

value

of a funeral.

That's the value of a sad heart here is

that it makes you think about reality

and what really matters. You see, we

live in a culture that constantly numbs

itself to reality.

We we try so hard to avoid emotions such

as anger, sadness, and fear. And what we

do is we ignore them and we suppress

them instead of trying to address them

or lean in.

And we do that by endless entertainment,

constant scrolling. You ever just sit on

the couch at night with your phone and

you're just you're not even connecting?

You're not even there. You're just going

like this, right? What are you doing?

You're numbing yourself to a reality

to get away from it.

And why do we do things like that?

We want to avoid difficult emotions.

We want to avoid serious things that

maybe we need to think about and we

constantly want to avoid our reality to

escape. And what Ecclesiastes is saying

here is wisdom grows when we stop

running from reality.

Some of the biggest moments in my life

that have helped me in my growth and

following Jesus are not the good things

that I experience.

Often times they have been the hardest

times. the times of pain, the times of

grief.

In 2018, uh I had an older brother who

passed away of cancer.

He battled off and on with cancer for

over 21 years. He was 45 years old when

he passed away. Just a hard life.

I'm 45 years old right now.

And I'm in a place in my own life where

I'm constantly thinking about him and

and about man each day that I get is

another day that he didn't have.

Maybe some of you have experienced that

you're you're sitting with a loved one

who are at the end of their life or a

friend or a family member or you have

been there where you're with them at the

end.

What types of things are you thinking

about in those difficult moments? None

of us would volunteer to sit there or to

be in that. But when you're in it, what

types of things is it doing to your

heart and your mind?

It's making you live in reality, asking

real questions, focusing on what really

matters. And that's what Ecclesiastes is

saying. There is a value in suffering.

There is a formation and a shaping that

takes place through it if you receive it

with open hands and trust in God.

You see, not all suffering leads to

wisdom. We all suffer, but it doesn't

lead to wisdom.

If you want wisdom out of suffering,

it's how you receive it that matters.

As followers of Jesus, we receive it

with open hands and trust in God.

So, a question for us this morning is

where are you numbing yourself instead

of facing reality?

What are the things you're running to to

escape instead of facing something that

God's intentionally has there for you to

shape you into his image?

So, wisdom redefes what is good. Wisdom

also listens to hard truth.

Notice what it says here in verse 5. It

is better to head it is better to heed

the rebuke of a wise person than to

listen to the song of fools.

Like the crackling of thorns under the

pot, so is the laughter of fools.

This too is meaningless. What's he

saying here?

You know, most of us would prefer praise

over correction. We long for

encouragement and approval and comfort.

But what Ecclesiastes is saying is

loving correction is actually better

than empty praise.

Notice the analogy he uses here. It's

like burning thorns in a campfire. If

you've ever made a fire, the kind of

wood that you use in the fire matters.

You want a wood that's going to burn for

a long period of time.

You know, if you've ever taken a a

branch of thorns and put it in the fire,

what it's going to do is it's going to

make a lot of crackling and a lot of

sound, but it's not going to burn very

long.

And so, the point that he's trying to

make here is if we allow it, a wise

person's correction will accomplish far

more in our lives than empty praise.

Is it challenging and hard? Yes. But is

it worth it? You better believe it. It's

better than empty praise.

You know, today just happens to be me

and my wife's 23rd wedding anniversary.

23 years, right?

You can applaud for that. Some of you in

here have been married longer than I've

been alive, but that's an

accomplishment, right?

But I can remember 10 years into my

marriage having a conversation with my

wife and my wife looked at me and she

said, "I think you're loving me the way

you want to be loved, not the way I need

to be loved."

All you young married people out there,

man, that cuts deep.

I think you are loving me the way you

want to be loved, not the way I need to

be loved.

And you know, that opened my eyes. That

was hard to hear. Think about all those

years of me genuinely trying to love my

wife and care for her. But man, those

words cut so deep.

But I'm so thankful for them because the

last 13 years have been radically

different.

I'm able to love her the way that she

wants to be loved or needs to be loved.

And one of the greatest gifts God can

give you is someone who loves you enough

to tell you the truth.

A friend, a faithful spouse, some

mentor, someone who instead of just

giving you empty praise, actually looks

at you and tells you the hard thing.

Why? Because ultimately it's better for

you.

The voices that wound you wisely are

better than those that soothe you

falsely.

So something we need to think about this

morning is who has permission to correct

you.

Do you have a posture and a presence

where someone could even come to you and

say something hard where they know it

would be received?

What's the posture of your heart when

someone corrects you?

something for us to think through

if we want to live with wisdom. Number

three,

not only does wisdom redefine what is

good and wisdom listen to hard truth,

wisdom resists pride and control. Look

at verses 7-10.

Extortion turns a wise person into a

fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

The end of the 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 lap of

fools.

Do not say, "Where are the old days

better than these?" For it is not wise

to ask such questions.

There are three dangers and three

warnings we see in verses 7-10.

Thinking through that wisdom resists

pride and control, he's going to outline

three areas that we need to be warned

about regarding our own heart. And the

first one is a warning about corruption

and compromise.

You see, in our life, in our heart,

we're naturally tempted to grasp for

outcomes.

And when we're grasping for those

outcomes, it could be common for us to

do it through sinful shortcuts.

You know, we live in a world in a

society where where we love things done

quickly.

I mean, I can remember uh when fast food

restaurants only had one drive-thru

thing now. It's like you're competing

with the person next to you and you want

to get ahead of their car before they

pull in. It's like we want it faster.

Everything we want quicker, but let me

remind you, faster isn't always better.

You see, when we live in a fast-paced

culture and we want things done now, we

don't emphasize things like

faithfulness, discipline, or doing

something the right way.

I think of a parent who is working all

the time, who is not present with their

family or their children, and I think of

the child who just longs for for

presence. They just long to be with

their parent.

And you know, this parent is just

working hard. There's no ill intent

there. They're working hard to provide.

They're just in their own world. And

when they sense that their child needs

something, this parent all of a sudden,

instead of time and presence, just

throws stuff at the kid. Oh, I'll get

you that toy. I'll get you that thing to

kind of pacify the situation.

It's a shortcut.

Why? Because to parent well is to parent

with time and involvement and presence.

It may pull you away from something. You

may sacrifice something. It's a longer

route, but it's worth it in the end.

So we see a warning about corruption and

compromise.

We also see a warning here about

impatience. Look at verse eight.

Patience is better than pride.

You see, we become frustrated because

sometimes life is not unfolding

according to our timetable. And what do

we do? We try to control it.

We want immediate answers, immediate

healing, immediate success, immediate

resolution. But the writer of

Ecclesiastes is welcoming us to think

differently in the regards of wisdom

because wisdom learns to wait.

One of the hardest things to do in a

western civilization or culture is to

wait.

We don't wait for anything.

5 seconds is too long. We're impatient.

But wisdom learns to wait,

especially in difficulty.

Notice what the writer James says in

James chapter 1:es 2-4

because he's kind of echoing the same

reality that we see in Ecclesiastes 7.

Notice what James says. Consider it pure

joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever

you face trials of many kinds.

Because you know that the testing of

your faith produces perseverance.

and let perseverance finish its work so

that you may be mature and complete

lacking not lacking anything.

You see what the invitation is there?

It's for your heart to allow the

waiting,

allow the longsuffering, allow the

patience or perseverance

to mature you

to do its work in you.

So often we we're surrounded by

suffering and what do we do? We pray it

away. We pray it away. We constantly

pray for protection and safety and all

these things. And when we find ourselves

in difficult places, we just Lord, just

remove it. Remove it. Remove it. Maybe

we need to change our prayer.

Maybe we need to pray more open-handed

and say, 'Lord, I don't know what you're

doing or why this is my experience or

circumstance,

but may I experience you in the midst of

this suffering or trial

and may it do its work in me.

Maybe we need to change our perspective

because wisdom learns to wait.

You see, in times of difficulty and

hardship, God's people learned to know

him, love him, and trust him. That's

what the desert was for.

The third warning we see is a warning

against nostalgia in verse 10.

Now, I know we can relate to this one.

It says, "Why were the former days

better than these?"

Everybody does this. I don't care what

age you are.

your generation thinks that their

generation had it the best.

Oh, if I could go back or these were the

days and

right you we're we're always talking

like that and and that may be true to

some extent in your perspective

but if we're not careful nostalgia can

become a form of unbelief

because it keeps us from trusting God in

the present moment.

Why are we always pointing to the past?

Because we romanticize the past because

the present feels disappointing.

Maybe it's an invitation for us to

trust.

And if we look at all three warnings

here in verses 7-10, we notice something

at the root of all three. All three

dangers, the root of it is pride.

Pride says I should control. Pride says

I should understand everything. Pride

says, "My timeline should prevail." But

Ecclesiastes reminds us that you can't

control outcomes.

All you can control is your posture

before God.

So something we need to think about this

morning is where are you forcing what

God is asking you to trust?

What are you trying to control where God

is asking you to trust? Where are you

being impatient? Where God is asking you

to trust.

The fourth thing we see is that wisdom

submits to God's sovereignty. Notice

verse 13 and 14. Consider what God has

done. Who can straighten what he has

made crooked?

When times are good, be happy. When

times are bad, consider this. God has

made the one as well as the other.

Therefore, no one can discover.

You're like, "What in the world?"

Some of the hardest truths in

Ecclesiastes

is that life includes both joy and

grief.

That life includes both clarity and

confusion.

And according to these verses, it also

involves prosperity and adversity.

Notice according to our text that all of

these things exist under God's sovereign

hand.

But how could that be?

This does not mean that evil is good.

It's not what the writer is saying here.

What it means is that God remains

sovereign even when life is painful and

difficult to understand.

That word sovereign means God is in

control.

Even when life is painful and difficult

to understand, we live in a broken world

full of broken things. We suffer things

we cannot explain. There are losses that

we cannot reverse. There are prayers

that seem to go unanswered. There are

circumstances we can't fix.

But wisdom begins when we acknowledge

our limits.

If you want to be wise,

this is the place where it begins

acknowledging our limits. We are not

God. We do not see the whole story.

But what we see in these verses is that

in prosperity, we can learn gratitude

and there are seasons of that. In

adversity, we can learn trust and there

are seasons of that. But both of them

are gifts that drive us toward God.

And so ultimately, where does that leave

us? Number five, wisdom leads us to

Jesus.

Wisdom leads us to Jesus. 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1:24

1:24, Paul reminds us who is Jesus. He

describes him this way. Christ is the

power of God and the wisdom of God.

You see, Ecclesiastes is an

uncomfortable book because it always

leaves us with tension.

It never seems to resolve itself as it's

asking all these questions and it's

doing all these pursuits.

It kind of leaves you uneasy, which is

why some of you keep vocalizing how

annoying this sermon series has been,

right? It just leaves you with this

uncomfortable tension.

But what is it doing? is bringing you to

your knees so ultimately you can see the

emptiness and look up to God

to life above the sun.

And what we see is Ecclesiastes leaves

us with the tension that life is hard,

God is sovereign, and we are not in

control. But the gospel answers that

tension.

You see, Jesus entered our desert.

Jesus became a man of sorrows who was

acquainted with our grief. He faced

death, the ultimate house of mourning.

And at the cross, Jesus being the wisdom

of God looked like foolishness.

As he hung on that tree, Satan probably

believed he won.

It looked like foolishness, but God's

power

prevailed.

God's wisdom looked like foolishness.

God's power looked like weakness in that

moment. But through that, what

ultimately happened through the cross

and resurrection? Sin was defeated.

Death was overcome. Suffering was given

meaning.

And so, as we go through this text this

morning, I don't want you to leave here

thinking that the invitation is to go

out and try harder to be wise.

That's not the invitation.

The invitation is to trust Jesus who is

the wisdom of God.

Follow him through both joy and sorrow.

So the question I want to leave you with

this morning is this. Where is God

inviting you not to escape difficulty

but to learn wisdom through it?

Where is he inviting you? Not to numb

your pain, but to sit in it,

not to escape your reality,

but to be in it

and watch him in incredible ways reveal

himself to you in ways you could never

have imagined.

and to empower you through the Holy

Spirit to keep taking one step at a

time, one moment at a time because the

desert becomes a place of value and an

important place if we recognize that God

is doing something through it.

And so, where is God inviting you this

morning?

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for your word. Your

word is truth and it can cut sharp and

deep to our hearts.

Thank you for these questions for us to

consider.

And I want to give everyone just a

moment this morning to have a moment

with God

in this fast-paced

rushing around world. I want to give you

a moment

to just be with the Lord and to ask him,

Lord, where are you inviting me

not to escape difficulty,

but to learn trust.

And Lord, open my heart to what you want

for me

as I walk with you through it instead of

always trying to escape it.

Father, thank you for these truths. May

they work in our hearts. May they

minister to us throughout the week as

you continue to shape us through the

spirit to be more and more like your son

Jesus Christ in Jesus name. Amen.