Wisdom Better than Folly | Ecclesiastes 9:11-18 | 10/11/26

[snorts]

[clears throat]

>> I I see

lots of marketing campaigns that utilize

Christian lingo, even Bible verses

that suggest, "If you sign up for our

program,

things will go well for you."

It It It would be okay, and and and I

would

join in the snickering if it were just

the classic people or the classic groups

that would fall for such things. People

that we would attribute as caring a lot

about the language of health and wealth.

And yet, I see too often even people of

our own kind, churches of our own ilk

and and its members talking in this kind

of way and buying into it because, after

all,

you have a Bible verse and you're using

Christian lingo and other kinds of

attractive-sounding buzzwords like

financial freedom or godly independence.

Though, I'm not really sure what people

mean by any of these terms.

But, we start to set in

a mindset that says, "Well, if I follow

God's way, I can map things out

accordingly

and develop the right kind of political

society or economic plan to live a good

kind of life."

And of course, you still utilize these

good ideas of drawing close to God and

giving to God. But, we have built into

it

this notion of success that looks more

like an American approach or a Western

approach rather than what we see in

scripture and especially in the New

Testament.

And it's

easy to point fingers at people, and I

just want to point the finger at myself.

It's easy for me

to succumb to these things.

We sometimes think, "How could Israel be

so foolish in abandoning their God for

these idols? What we forget is for many

of them

the scam was not that they had abandoned

their God, but conjoined their

understanding of God with other gods and

thought that they were the same. These

O Israel are the ones who delivered you

from Egypt.

It is this unholy marriage of God and

our idols that creeps in.

And so we still use the good language,

but it is the infection that crept in

that will do the great damage.

And I think our text today can help us

and warn us of that. That we don't just

point fingers and go, "Ha, look at those

foolish people." But we watch our own

hearts

and we watch ourselves and I watch it in

myself because I feel that temptation in

my own heart and I

sometimes justify my ways because I use

a Bible verse or Christian lingo. But it

has been married to my own conception of

a good life that does not come from

scripture, does not come from sin

sincere Christian theological reflection

over 2,000 years, but is of my own

making. And I hope that we can watch out

for that and be wary of the kind of

wisdom

that Ecclesiastes can give us.

So just to give you some

context of where we've where we've been,

we're now at this place in Ecclesiastes

where we have the preacher. And remember

the preacher is

royal lineage from the line of David.

And

he's discombobulated. He realizes he

doesn't understand

God's ways and God's plan.

He doesn't understand

how all of the

pieces fit together.

But he starts to rehearse for himself

what he knows. And whether he was a good

king or bad king, and depending on who

you identify the preacher with,

probably a bad one,

he at least is rooted and grounded in

the law. Whether he obeyed it or not, it

shaped his understanding of the world

and his orientation to God. This is why

I never When we're getting into

Ecclesiastes, people would say, "Oh, do

you like it so much cuz it's a

philosophy text?"

Well, the preacher is not a 19th century

early modern philosopher.

He's a Jewish person rooted in the law

understanding that wisdom is related to

the to the fear of God. In fact, in

chapter 8,

we get

one of the biggest places where he

adjures the the listeners, the readers,

fear God, live wisely.

And if you abide in this context, what

he means is root and ground yourself in

the law, in God's way of life. But he's

still confused a bit, and he's trying to

figure out for himself why this way is

worthwhile.

After all, when we look out, it looks

like wisdom can backfire. So, if you

have your Bibles, please turn to

Ecclesiastes chapter 9.

Ecclesiastes 9 · chapter mention

Ecclesiastes chapter 9, and we're going

Ecclesiastes 9 · chapter mention

to read

from verses 11 to 18.

Ecclesiastes chapter 9.

Ecclesiastes 9 · chapter mention

Verses 11 to 18. I'm reading from the

book of Ecclesiastes.

Again, I saw that under the sun, the

race is not to the swift,

nor the battle to the strong,

nor bread to the wise,

nor riches to the intelligent,

nor favor to those with knowledge,

but time and chance happen to them all.

For man does not know his time. Like

fish that are taken in an evil net,

and like birds that are caught in a

snare,

so the children of man

are snared at an evil time,

when it suddenly falls upon them.

I have also seen this example of wisdom

under the sun,

and it seemed great to me.

There was a little city with a few men

in it,

and a great king came against it and

besieged it,

building great siege works against it.

But there was found in it a poor wise

man,

and he, by his wisdom, delivered the

city.

Yet no one remembered the poor man.

But I say that wisdom is better than

might,

though the poor man's wisdom is

despised,

and his words are not heard.

The words of the wise heard in a quiet

are better

than the shouting of a ruler among

fools.

Wisdom is better

than weapons of war.

But one sinner

destroys much good.

The word of the Lord.

Meditating on this for the last month,

what I believe God has been teaching me,

and I hope he teaches you,

is that wisdom from God is valuable.

Wisdom from God is valuable.

But beware its limitations

and the destructive power of

foolishness.

I we have to understand wisdom has

certain limits

and that foolishness

can be extremely explosive.

So, what I'd like to do is talk about

what I see are two limits that the

preacher

emphasizes with regards to wisdom and

then I want us to spend some time

thinking about the value of wisdom.

So,

look at verse 11 as we talk about the

first limitation.

And the limitation here is on what I

would call fortune

or misfortune.

So, he says, "I saw that under the sun,

the race is not to the swift,

nor the battle to the strong, nor bread

to the wise, nor riches to the

intelligent, nor favor to those with

knowledge, but time and chance

happen to them all."

We have a certain set of expectations.

Who's going to win the race?

The fastest. Who's going to win the war?

The strongest. Wise people should be

able to provide for themselves. The

intelligent will be the successful ones

in society. Surely the people who've

gained lots of knowledge will have the

advantage. What do we see in our world?

We see a world where Michelle Kwan never

wins gold medal in the Olympics. Anyone

old enough to remember that?

Okay, is it just me? Have I dated

myself? Sorry, young kids. There was

Michelle Kwan, everyone the national

hero, who was a shoo-in for the gold

medal. Alas,

the fates have only allowed her silver.

Twice, I believe, both chances.

She was clearly the best. And sometimes

the very best do not win an Olympic

gold.

We we see this in regular life. Who who

should be the leaders and the program

program managers? Surely it should be

the smartest and the wisest and the most

knowledgeable. If I were to ask you,

those of you working right now and you

have managers employers over you, are

they truly the smartest, the wisest, the

most Some of you over coffee have

complained to me how terrible your your

employers and managers are.

It's not the way that we would expect in

this world. Well, what happens? Time and

chance.

You wait long enough

and you'll get something else. And I

love the language of chance.

Mishap, fortune.

I would even dare say use the language

of bad luck.

And I know for some people it's like,

"Oh, luck is a four-letter word for some

Christians." Cuz they think, "Well, does

that mean like God is not providential?"

No, no, no, no. There's an ordinary

notion of luck that just means

unpredictable for us and outside of our

control.

Under that notion of luck, that's

compatible with God being meticulously

providential over every detail of the

world. The idea is that we can't predict

the outcome

and we can't control how things play

out.

And that's perfectly compatible with God

having control over everything. What the

preacher notices is that you could be

wise,

you could be the wisest,

and you still can't predict how life is

going to play out

and you can't control the outcome. We

are in the end, like Romeo, fortune's

fool. On the wheel of fortune, sometimes

up and sometimes down.

And you might think, "Well, what good is

wisdom because I can't bend the world in

the way and I can't predict the

outcome."

But wisdom was never meant for that. And

if you're trying to use wisdom to ensure

that you're going to get exactly what

you want out of life,

you're going to be sorely disappointed.

And I think sometimes we still think of

that today. If you just follow the

biblical plan for economic investing,

then you're sure you're going to have a

great turnout.

My dad is one of the wisest people that

I know.

And about 25 years ago, because of a

scam,

he lost financially almost everything

through no fault of his own.

I don't think of him as unwise.

There are just evil and wicked people

out there in the world. And wisdom was

not able to help him predict

predict the outcome.

And so he lost much.

And if we want wisdom

to give us sure knowledge to make sure

that I will have a good retirement

that's comfortable and I'll live cozy

life being able to go on travels and

vacation,

wisdom won't help you there.

And if that's what you want,

I could see why you wouldn't want

wisdom. In fact, here's more

of that limitation from wisdom with

regards to time and chance. Read in

verse 12,

"For man does not know his time, like

fish that are taken in an evil net, and

like birds that are

And like birds that are caught in a

snare,

so the children of man are snared at an

evil time

when it suddenly falls upon them."

We're like

the hunted.

We are but prey.

Like fish in a net

or birds in a snare.

When you're caught in the trap,

you didn't see it coming.

>> [snorts]

>> Maybe he's talking about death. After

all, earlier in chapter 9, he's talking

about death.

I wasn't planning on sharing this. It's

not in my notes.

So, I'm pulling a Josh here and going

off my notes and just saying whatever I

feel like. But

>> [snorts]

[laughter]

>> I'm sorry, dude.

You can't laugh at the lead pastor. Who

can you laugh at? Um

I I I learned this weekend that

my

first seminary professor, who was

extremely influential in my life, died

unexpectedly

in a tragic accident. He was only in his

60s.

He recently retired.

I wouldn't have the career path I have

now if he didn't get give me guidance

back in my early 20s.

And over this weekend,

a bunch of us who had him as students

all started tagging each other and

talking to each other. Did you hear? Did

you hear?

Tragic accident.

He just retired. I'm sure in his mind

he thought he can ride off to the sunset

with his wife, his adult children,

probably hoping to hold

grandchildren.

And

like a fish

in a net and a bird in a snare,

death came upon him.

And

I I'm

hopeful

to see him one day face to face since

I thank God for his godly life and his

Christ-like his Christ-likeness to to

help many of us, but

>> [snorts]

>> didn't see that coming.

You don't know.

And I don't think that the preacher's

only talking about death here.

After all, look at the sequence of

events that he just talked about.

But the fast not winning the race, the

strong not winning the battle.

Sequences of events

where the unexpected happens

and misfortune and bad things happen to

you.

And wisdom is not there

to tell you.

Because that is not what wisdom is for.

And I think if we misuse and abuse

wisdom

then we will seek to bend

our life in accordance with what we

really want.

But nothing I read in scripture ensures

I'm going to be

given or granted

a happy retirement.

People I admire who were unjustly let go

right before retirement.

People I know who for

never smoking ever and then get lung

cancer

and then guy who smokes four packs a day

living to a hundred.

And this is not just Ecclesiastes. The

reason why I'm convinced

the preacher is rooted in the law is

that when you read wisdom literature

this is the common motif.

You look around and what do you see?

The righteous suffer

and the wicked prosper.

That is not news.

It'll only be news if you keep thinking

I can use wisdom to calculate my

expected utility and outcomes and

control things.

That is not where the value of wisdom

lies.

And I think one thing we can take away

from

Ecclesiastes this morning

is beware the limitations of wisdom with

respect to fortune.

You can't predict the future outcome.

You can't control all of life's events.

And that's not what wisdom was given to

us by God to do.

Let's move on. Let's look at another

limitation of wisdom.

In verses 13 to 15,

>> [clears throat]

>> the preacher gives

a parable, a very short narrative story,

about a small town with very few people

in it

and one wise man who was poor. Just a

regular old commoner.

Here is this great king who comes upon

the little town

with great siege works. The idea is

supposed to be this great king with

money and power and might comes upon the

small town.

You you could imagine tanks, right? No

tanks back then, right? Chariots and

horses versus men with sticks and

stones.

But we could imagine somebody with far

greater power against the small town and

what should you expect? The great king

will win.

But what happens

when we heed wisdom?

He doesn't tell us how cuz I don't think

that's the point of the story. He just

says the wise man is able to rescue the

a town because of his wisdom.

Now, some people think

that for the preacher, he actually

thinks wisdom is not valuable. There are

really good biblical interpreters who

think that the preacher thinks wisdom is

meaningless.

And I want you to go study for yourself.

Read all of Ecclesiastes, do your best

you can, study it for yourself. If

you've been paying attention to at least

the ways in which Pastor Josh and I have

been interpreting it, we think that the

preacher regards wisdom as quite

valuable.

Although there are caveats and there are

limitations.

And this

So, I

reading it in that way, I won't defend

it here, but reading it that way, this

is a good thing. Notice that wisdom

actually is effective.

If there are wise people, we can get out

of some calamities. We are able to

thwart great powers.

But alas, what does it say in the

subsequent line in verse 15?

Yet no one remembered

that poor man.

Does that mean wisdom is not of any

value?

Well, look at what he says in verses 16

and 18.

Wisdom is better than might, better than

power. Notice what he says in verse 18.

Wisdom is better than the weapons of

war.

I think he really means that. I don't

think he's being sarcastic or cynical.

That's a way to interpret it. You go

read it for yourself. I think he really

means wisdom has more value than power

and has more value than the weapons of

war. After all, it can help rescue from

a king who has all of the weapons of

war. And yet this person is able to

rescue them from that. Indeed, look at

what he says in verse 17, "The words of

the wise heard in quiet are better than

the shouting of a ruler among fools."

Even if wisdom is heard by a few, it's

still a precious, valuable thing.

But, what is the limitation of it? Is

that it can be crowded out by

foolishness.

Wisdom does not guarantee that we're

going to avoid foolishness and its

destructive power.

After all, go back to the to verse 11.

What do you expect?

The fast will win the race, the strong

will win the battle, the wise and and

the the intelligent will be successful,

will be able to provide for themselves.

Expectations dashed. Who do you think

should be the leaders of the city? Well,

the wise, of course.

What does it say?

Nobody remembers them and and even

worse,

they despised his wisdom

and ignored his words.

The guy who just rescued you from an

onslaught of a great and powerful enemy,

and not only do you hate what he has to

say to you, you ignore what he has to

say.

And what will people prefer? The

shouting of the ruler to fools. The

connotation is the ruler there

is the king of fools,

himself a fool.

What What's true in scripture, we can

see as true throughout history.

Who heeds the words of the wise?

If Socrates was the great wise one of

ancient Greece and in Athens, what they

do to him?

Execution through poison.

If Confucius was the great wise one

in the Autumn and Spring

Dynasty in ancient China, what they do

to him?

They exiled him.

We have a good history of

seeing wise people that over history we

go, "Yeah, that person was wise." And

what happens to them? Fates are usually

pretty bad.

We kick them out or we kill them.

What we see in scripture, we see

throughout history

that we do not heed the words of the

wise. In fact, we might hate them

even after it has done great good on our

behalf.

Even worse,

look at the very end of the line in

verse 18.

But one sinner

destroys

much good.

Foolishness and wickedness

are extremely destructive.

And wisdom

is limited.

If it bumps up against foolishness,

foolishness cancerous explosive power

will destroy.

You'll see more of this next week when

when when Pastor Josh starts preaching

from chapter 10. He'll talk more about

the ways in which foolishness can

exploit and spoil what is good and what

is wise.

But we all know this from our hearts

what wisdom can do. Wisdom can create

wonderful beautiful architectural

majesties. And then it just takes one

onslaught of vandals to come and

destroy.

Or to bring it home, wisdom can help

craft this wonderful beautiful LEGO set

that took you hours upon hours to build

and it takes just one mean kid to lift

it up and to throw it on the ground as

my poor Wesley had to endure. [laughter]

Sorry, Wesley's my biographical

writings. Mean to mean mean to share,

right?

>> [snorts]

>> It takes

a long time as a wise person

to cultivate a good habit.

Years.

Especially as you get older to develop a

good habit.

Takes 1 week of a vacation to ruin that

all by your unhealthy eating.

A church can faithfully serve God and

its communities

for scores of years.

And then just one

foolish, stupid, reprehensible act

seems like it can destroy the entire

legacy

of that church.

And I've seen that happen too many times

and my guess is that you know

of such churches as well.

That is the destructive power of

foolishness.

And wisdom

is not there

to ensure that never happens.

Wisdom then has these two limitations.

It's susceptible to fortune

and it's susceptible to folly.

Fortune, you just wait long enough, life

will be hard.

Things will go wrong.

Susceptible to foolishness, you can be

wise

but the foolish can be so loud

that you will not be heeded.

Or you can't heed what you need to hear

because wisdom is crowded out and brings

wreckage to an individual, to a family,

to a church, to a country.

I I I don't want to leave in a bad

[laughter] news.

We're done now, right? Go and the Lord

go with you. I I actually think

Ecclesiastes is much more hopeful than

that because the preacher is rooted and

grounded in the law. And I think he

understands that there's value in

following [snorts] the law. We who now

follow Christ after the resurrection

have more because of divine revelation.

And I want to now spend some time

talking about the value of wisdom. And

the value of wisdom that we have the

advantage of saying is that we now get

to behold Jesus the Christ who is the

wise one.

In in my mind there's a kind of

prophetic element in the preacher's

words. Who is the poor wise man who

rescues the city from great powers? That

is no other than Jesus

who

takes on the onslaught of the Roman

emperors, who takes on the onslaught of

Satan and his demons, who takes on the

onslaught of our own sin and rebellion

and mutiny. And yet it is Jesus who is

the one poor wise man who rescues the

whole city. And then what do we do? We

despise his wisdom and ignore his words.

It's about as prophetic as we can get

here now in Ecclesiastes. Whether he

intended or not, surely God did. That we

see in Christ the one who could rescue

us all and we fail to pay attention.

And I think if we look to Jesus then we

can see somebody whose wisdom

is not only immense, but we see its

fruit. After all, Jesus said when

everybody thought he was a fool that

wisdom is vindicated by her children.

Wisdom is justified

by her deeds.

Yes, wisdom eventually

at the outset

looks stupid.

Especially if your goals are to control

the outcomes and to be successful.

And yet we see Jesus as the one who can

draw us in and let us know exactly what

the fruit what the children of wisdom

provides.

Right? Because if you just think about

it, it looks crazy. Spend more time

working harder, spending an hour praying

a day is a waste of time when people in

the Silicon Valley are crunched for

time.

Fasting from food rather than feasting

on good wine. That is the charge of our

Lord. It looks crazy and stupid. Or

Jesus knows what he's talking about.

And that he's wise.

And his ways really are the best. That

it is really good for us to fast. It is

really good for us to devote an hour to

prayer rather than working on our next

project.

I was convicted several years ago. I

don't know if even Josh remembers this.

Sort of at the trajectory of my career.

And I thought, yes, yes, this is good.

And he asked me, is this good for your

family and is this good for you?

I thought, what do you know? Right?

You're not in my You're not in my

career.

How would you know? But those questions

haunted me.

Because as my elder and pastor, the one

thing he does care about is my closeness

to Christ. And I had to pause and go,

huh?

I think you're right.

I think I'm going to too many

conferences. You remember that

conversation? I'm thinking I'm going to

too many conferences. I I'm I'm not

seeing my family enough.

And I don't know if I'm growing. So, I

vastly cut up how much I did.

And there's a sense in which I think it

hurt my career.

And I'm so glad I did it four or five

years ago because I actually think I'm

closer to God now.

But if I just look at my career, it

looks like it was a poor, foolish

decision.

But if my trajectory was to follow

Christ, then that's its aim. What does

wisdom do? It can Wisdom is

soul-shaping. It's not

outcome-producing.

It's goal isn't to make you have really

good things right now.

It's

aim is to draw you closer to God.

It It It'd be like this. There was a

time where I took It was It's my second

time as a youth pastor and I took my

students hiking.

Bad bad call. Now, if you've ever

noticed here at Westells, whenever I go

hiking, I have Josh lead the way, right?

And the reason why is we got really

lost.

And I thought, "Oh, no."

Headline, "Local pastor loses 10 20

youth students."

Uh thankfully, we had a We had a person

who was uh in the Marines

back home visiting and he came with us.

And he was gone for most of the time. He

just went out doing whatever it is that

Marines do. Uh it's starting to get

really dark. He probably went to the

parking lot. He realized we weren't

there, so he came back and he found us.

And he said I said, "We're lost, Sam.

What are we going to do?" I just

like a Marine, "Follow me." I'm like,

"Okay." [laughter]

I don't know. And so I'm just following

him. It's getting dark. He's just

walking very confidently. I'm looking

around. I'm like, "We didn't pass by

this place. I don't recognize any of

this stuff." And sure eventually, he

brought us back without skipping a beat

beat back into the parking lot because

he was He knew what he was doing. He was

a a a faithful guide. Now, that's what

wisdom is. It will take you to your

goal. What did I want wisdom to do? I

wanted wisdom to give me fruit and

nachos.

Yeah, I It's just again, I'm I'm just

sharing more biographical stories. So,

when Pastor Josh and I, we like to

adventure out into nature, he likes

taking 3 miles to go to some secluded

beach. I like going to beaches where

there's a nacho stand nearby.

And [laughter]

what I want wisdom to do for me is while

I'm traveling, I want nachos to be

provided. And when it's not, I complain

that wisdom must be stupid because it's

not giving me what I want right now.

Wisdom's goal is not to make the journey

comfortable, but to help me navigate to

make it back home.

Wisdom will not ensure that your life

here will be more comfortable.

But if you are wise and you follow the

one who is wise, Jesus, he will bring

you to the Father.

And then you will get your heart's

desire and then wisdom will be

vindicated by all her children.

Wisdom is not here

to ensure that your retirement funds

will be satisfactory.

Wisdom isn't here to ensure you gain you

get no terminal illness. Wisdom will not

prevent you from freak tragic accidents.

But wisdom is a gift from God

that can help us move and draw closer to

him and to transform us to become more

and more like Jesus. And we see the

ultimate vindication of Jesus' wisdom

because the cross is to the Jews what?

Yeah, and to the Gentiles.

Jesus' life looks like foolishness and a

stumbling block.

And what does his foolish way his

foolish way of life? It shames the wise

things of this world.

It defeats our shame and guilt. It

destroys sin. It conquers that last

great enemy death and it reconciles us

to the Father.

And if you want wisdom to do more than

that,

if I want wisdom not just to take me

back to the parking lot, but to give me

nachos, I'm foolish. If you want wisdom

to make your life more comfortable and

for you to have a greater investment

rather than what God wanted it for you

so that you would be drawn to his very

self and transformed into the likeness

of Christ, you want petty things rather

than what God offers you. And this is

the goodness of what wisdom

provides for us. And in Jesus, we see

the true value of wisdom.

And so I want to conclude

with just a a few things.

In light of the limitations of wisdom,

wisdom will not help you

control the world or get your outcomes.

It will be hampered by foolishness and

the foolish things of the world.

How do we live our life?

We live our life in trust.

Uh a few weeks ago, Tom Tanquary talked

about Ecclesiastes and the cultivation

of joy. That was awesome. And one thing

I want to encourage you is the

cultivation

of trust

or faith.

We can cultivate trust and faith, and

wisdom can help us do that.

I

In in one sense, it looks like I'm

blindly following Sam the Marine because

I I don't know where I'm going. I'm just

following. But what I know is that he's

a Marine, he can survive, and he knows

exactly what he's doing. So it's not

blind trust, it's trusting in a person.

Jesus has shown himself to be

trustworthy time and time again. He has

shown what he can do. He has shown that

even suffering and wickedness can be

transformed. He can reconcile enemies

into friends. In light of all that, you

can trust Jesus and not fret about the

outcomes. Just follow him.

And if you just follow him, then you

know what you need to do today.

He's given you a wise way to live. You

can pray.

You can pray.

You can pray for others.

You can pray

for

all sorts of things. You can express

your gratitude to God.

You can confess your sin.

You know that you can go and serve

people. I know some of you are waiting

for some plan to unfold. Students,

sometimes they feel like they're just

waiting and for when I eventually get

there, when after I graduate. Some of

you thinking, well, after I get married,

or after I have children, or after I

find a job, or after I'm promoted. Right

now, today, there are things you can do

to trust God

and things for you to live wisely today.

You can go out and serve people like the

Samaritan.

To be a neighbor to other people.

Because that's what wisdom can do. It's

not just about the outcomes.

If you do that,

God will shape you and transform you.

And above all, in cultivating trust,

don't don't just try to conjure it

yourself. Don't just go,

"I'm going to do it."

You have to have a interactive,

personal, dynamic relationship with

Jesus, or why would you trust the guy?

I knew Sam the Marine Sam the Marine. I

knew Sam the Marine for years.

And I knew what he could do, and he told

me about his adventures as a Marine. So,

I thought, yeah, I'll I'll trust you.

You have to have a relationship to

Jesus, otherwise it's going to look

crazy to follow that guy. Because if you

look from the outside, he was an

itinerant preacher who failed.

He just died at the hands of the

political powers. What a failure. Or

those of us who have

borne witness or been the recipients of

those who borne witness to his

resurrection and his power, our trust is

reasonable.

And by interacting with him, we know

more and more that he is trustworthy.

And so, ask the Holy Spirit to increase

your faith.

Lastly,

if you at least see from Ecclesiastes

that it's worthwhile to cultivate

wisdom,

then let's really heed

the poor, old, wise human,

and not the shouting of fools.

Let me just give you some suggestions.

Uh

>> [laughter]

>> I may be cautious with this first one.

I think some people I'm not going to

look at anybody just in case. I actually

[laughter]

>> [gasps]

>> I'm saying like look up at God. Uh

I think some people should stop

watching social media videos.

Right?

Just whoever that might be.

It it's easy to be loud, right?

Why not Why not go find wisdom that's

quiet and actually helpful. So So

there's a lot of great things out there

in social media, by the way.

There's also a lot of terrible things

that are out there. I think for some

people might benefit. What What should

you do instead? Here's some suggestions.

One, I think you should read large

chunks of scripture on a regular basis.

If you're not reading scripture,

you are

debilitating

and neglecting one of the greatest

resources for cultivating a wise life.

You

God has given you a gift and if you're

not using it, what a what what a

squandered waste. So, read scripture and

read large chunks of scripture.

Let it just let yourself be immersed in

its world. That's why I say read large

chunks of it. Immerse yourself in the

life of scripture.

Don't just go, "Well, I know exactly

what this part is saying and I know

what's going on here." Just live in it.

Live in it and say, "God,

do something to me."

I I I I just think there's there's so

many different ways of reading

scripture. I think one wonderful way is

just reading large chunks of it and

living in it in its mindset. Letting the

the mindset of scripture transform your

own thinking and your own emotional

life. That That's number one. Number

two, look at to the wisdom of the ages.

I love that our church is finally

diverse enough that we have age people

from different age groups.

There's so much that you can learn from

people who've gone ahead of you and

that's including the dead.

It's It's not that their their their

words and their insights are infallible.

Just just pick any Christian thinker of

the past and I'm going to find reasons

to disagree with them. It's just in my

job description. I can't help it. But

there's also so much wisdom I can glean

from them. So here's a suggestion.

Christianity's been around for what?

2,000 years? Pick one great thinker from

the first millennium and pick another

great thinker from the second millennium

and go learn from them.

That will also disabuse us of this

American-minded Westernism that has been

syncretized and associated and maybe had

for some of us, not everyone, but for

some of us, myself included, an unholy

marriage

of Christ and something else.

Rather than the undiluted Christ, which

is what we should have. And then if you

just want a suggestion out here

uh

that I think is relatively not that

difficult. Uh John Chrysostom in the

first millennium. Go read his homilies.

You can find it for free online. John

Chrysostom homilies. He he wrote and and

preached all sorts of sermons and

they're really really great. And of

course you're going to disagree with

some of it, but some of the insights and

wisdom is just wonderful. And in the

second millennium, again, so many so

many wonderful options. I've said this

before, but I see a lot of new faces

now. I love Brother Lawrence. Brother

Lawrence, Practicing the Presence of

God.

Uh the the guy was not the smartest guy

in the world, but I think he was wise.

Uh he found wisdom in doing the dishes

and grabbing the groceries for his

group, his Christian group, because he

just wasn't smart enough to write

sermons and to engage in theological

writings. But and yet uh people from all

over the world would come to see him

because he was close to God.

And and I don't care who you pick, find

somebody who is close to God and learn

from their wisdom. And that's that's

kind of the last thing I want to

suggest.

Go find somebody who's who you think is

wise.

And then go meet with them. Go grab

coffee or lunch and learn.

You don't have to agree with everything

that they say, but what sort of wisdom

can they can you glean? How have they

experienced life?

What calamities and hardships did they

endure and now they you have seen how

wisdom has helped them navigate through

those struggles and trials and how they

are drawn closer and closer to God.

So I would encourage you go learn from

the past and learn from the present.

There are so many resources. There are

people I've met here who I've benefited

from your wisdom.

And that is a resource. Community is

another gift that God has given to us.

Let's not squander that gift. And last,

but certainly not least, and truly the

greatest is imitating Jesus. Jesus is

the one true wise exemplar that we have.

Look to him. His ways are the best and

the wisest ways to live and his was a

life of suffering, of being mocked and

humiliated, of being physically beaten

and rejected, of being neglected and

ignored, and yet we see that his ways

produces salvation and joy and

reconciliation and ultimately redemption

with the Father. So follow Jesus

and you then shall see wisdom vindicated

by all her children. Let's pray.