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00:00 Not saying that refers to anyone here but how many of you can appreciate this
00:06 that means you can understand that this happens raise your hand anybody
00:11 quite a lot you can relate to it life's not so simple and today I better start
00:16 with the definition because this topic was given to me by Peter I didn't ask for it and is extremely philosophical
00:22 question and the issue is what is about paradox and the paradox is defined as a
00:28 statement that appears on the surface to be contradictory but or impossible but is actually a
00:36 truth and this is the text on it. So at the end of today you just say I don't know what Anna talk about too profound
00:43 or is completely meaningful. Okay, we're going to do a song quiz here. Brother Wiming, I lost 15 bucks to him the last
00:51 time, you know. And yesterday I told him, hey, I'm going to have a song quiz again tomorrow. Wer Xy. He told me, you
00:56 better bring a lot of buddy. Wow, that's confidence for you. So, here's $5. This song quiz number four. I've done it
01:02 three times. I've lost all three times. Twice to him and once to Brandon. So, here's another one. So, I search
01:09 very hard for a song that he wouldn't know. So, I give a quiz. I give a little uh foresight on the guy who wrote this
01:15 song. The fellow who wrote this song reads Philip Yansy
01:20 and he has been interviewed by Eugene Peterson. And this particular song that
01:26 he wrote has been done by a very famous black afroamerican church in America and
01:34 he's got two million hits on YouTube. So I'm going to give you the lyrics. So see whether Wyman gets it. All right. Here's
01:40 the lyrics. I believe in the kingdom come. Then all the colors will bleed
01:47 into one. But yes, I'm still running. You broke the bonds. You loosened the
01:55 chains. You carried the cross and my shame. You know I believed it. He
02:02 obviously knows his Bible. Ah, this is very susa. Anyone here knows the song?
02:07 How much? Wow. This really I think very scary
02:12 already must be a bad man of my word. $5. Anyone? Come on. Anybody?
02:18 Oh, this guy very picy. Anyone? Don't do Don't we let him because he don't no headphonesh
02:23 anybody. Come on. Why do yo
02:30 you really know? Oh, he knows. Okay, I tell you what. I give you the second line, you would know it. This song I
02:38 have to give you $5. Ready? Actually, no. Let's see whether he really knows it. All right. What's the name of the song?
02:45 Wow. He's very good, man. Name the song.
02:51 Yeah, he's very good. You see, this is YouTube's
02:57 one of their most famous song. And you all didn't realize it. Bono reads. He
03:03 reads Philip Yans. I owe you $5. But you're a man of my word. Okay. Later. Haha.
03:09 I try I try I thought to sidet track him with all the theology. Maybe he think it's a it's a Christian song. You know
03:15 this song is considered the bonus ecclesiastic song and is probably the
03:22 most powerful song ever written. A secular song that reflects ecclesiastes
03:28 and the album has tremendous gospel references. You know let's not talk about about his Christianity but he's
03:35 very well read on his theology. Let me tell you how the first verse goes. I have climbed the highest mountains. I
03:42 have run through the fields only to be with you. I run I have crawled I have
03:48 scaled these city hills, these city walls only to be with you. He's in love
03:53 and he's gone the full extent. He thought he found the answer but I still
03:59 haven't found what I'm looking for. And then he goes the next line. He says, I
04:05 have kissed honey lips. Now he goes to pleasure. Felt the healing in the fingertips. It burnt like fire. This
04:12 burning desire. And now just like the teacher in ecclesis, he goes to both
04:18 extremes. I spoke with the tongue of angels. I've held the hand of a devil.
04:25 He's gone both sides in search of meaning. It was warm in the night. It
04:31 was cold as a stone. But I still haven't found what I'm looking for. But it's the
04:37 last verse which I thought was most interesting. And in the interview the age says this
04:42 is a gospel song. Just listen to the lyrics. You see in the cliche answer we
04:47 tell everybody in ecclesiastes is this. Money is not meaningful. Pleasure is not meaningful. This is not meaningful.
04:55 Nothing satisfies but God will satisfies you. And here's what makes the song interesting. Because
05:02 the last verse is about a man who's come to church,
05:08 knows his theology, embrace it, but he hasn't found what he's looking
05:14 for. This is the ultimate paradox. The
05:19 ultimate paradox are churches filled with people
05:25 who say they've come to the saving knowledge of God. They say they know God,
05:33 but if they're honest with themselves, they still haven't found what they're
05:39 looking for. And today, we're going to look at this paradox. Life is a series
05:45 of contradictions. And the Ecclesiastes writer starts off with this very
05:50 profound looking at life. In this meaningful life of mine, I've seen both
05:57 of these. A righteous man perishing his righteousness,
06:02 a wicked man living long in his wickedness. So this morning we look at
06:08 paradox. It's going to be quite a deep topic. I really hope that you know uh we
06:13 take something home today. Especially for us who have been coming to church for years and you're honest with
06:19 yourself, something's missing. You're not going to tell everybody, but deep
06:25 down you're not satisfied. And why do you think people hop from church to church to church? Why do you think the
06:30 Protestant church is so split and everybody's got an answer on church? So, let's come before God this morning.
06:36 Lord, we ask for your power to just move out this morning and uh this very
06:42 complex u most considered most difficult chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes that
06:48 you give us wisdom. and give us your understanding. Let us
06:53 unpack these verses with discipline. Uh pay attention for your word will not
06:59 come back not and your word will transform our lives. For me as your servant make me completely humble. No
07:05 pride, no self-interest. Make me a broken vessel to deliver your
07:11 words. And we say this in Jesus name. Amen. And do you have wisdom? Let me
07:18 just unpack how difficult this chapter is. Okay, just a brief perview. What do you mean in verse 16? Do not be
07:25 overrighteous. Uh verse 17, do not be over wicked. The ESV, do not be too righteous. Do not be
07:32 too wicked. Like what you mean? I can don't have to be too wicked. Can be a
07:37 little bit wicked. How How do you reconcile that? Do not be over too righteous. Aren't we supposed
07:43 to be righteousness that surpasses the Pharisees? Be perfect and I'm perfect. I mean, how do you wrap your head around
07:50 that? Okay, let's go on and see how difficult this is. Suddenly, in verse
07:55 26, he says, now hang on, let me go back to that. And not only that, he says this, it is verse 18, it is good to
08:03 grasp one and not let go of the other. Meaning, you know, he's telling you, you
08:08 got to be both righteous and you got to w be wicked. That's what he's telling you. I mean, how do you understand that?
08:15 And here's another one. Suddenly in verses 28 he says I find more verse 26 I
08:21 find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare wow suddenly talking
08:26 about woman why woman and here is this what I really like this this is the
08:32 verse that has conflicted many people verse 28 while I was still searching
08:38 but not finding wow that's really that really makes a lot of sense he found
08:44 what he could not find and What did he found? I found one upright man among a
08:50 thousand, but not one upright woman among them all. I mean, what does this
08:56 all mean? So, we're going to we have a lot of unpacking to do, but it's a great text. And so, I want to unpack a little
09:02 bit, but the first thing we got to ask ourself is how do you define wisdom? And
09:08 out there, we will say, look, you know, this guy's got PhD, he's very smart. Oh, maybe look at brother Arno, people like
09:13 Peter, they know the scriptures. Oh, they're very intelligent, you know. So, we have this kind of worldly view of
09:21 wisdom. So, some people go into this insecurity. Oh, I don't know my Bible. I don't have
09:26 a PhD. I'm not an MD of a company. I'm just a cler. I'm not so smart. But
09:32 here's the good news of the Bible. You see, wisdom in scripture in the book of
09:38 Proverbs, and if you have time, read chapter 7 is tied to another word. Here,
09:44 let's do another quiz. Quiz number two. What's the word that is often tied to
09:50 wisdom? Anybody? Sorry. But yes, it's true that the fear of the
09:57 Lord beginning wisdom. But if you read chapter 7, what's this word that comes
10:02 out again and again? It's this word called righteousness.
10:08 And this is important point to start off. Meaning as we try to be righteous
10:14 in your lives, God is telling you don't be stupid. You know,
10:19 and very often Christians don't tie the two together. I'll give you the simplest example. When Jesus was sending out his
10:26 disciples, he told the disciples, be innocent as a dove. That's
10:32 righteousness. What's the second part? Sorry. Be wise as a serpent. That's
10:39 wisdom. So you need to have the two together. If the two don't go in together, they have
10:47 absolutely no meaning. And the world today has a lot of righteous people who make a lot of
10:55 stupid mistakes. And we're going to explore this kind of righteousness. Today we're going to really look at church. A lot of people
11:01 have convictions of their righteousness. We think the church should be fill in
11:08 the blank. And if you don't follow my definition of church, you're not righteous.
11:17 Get that? And it can be personally. So, let's pack it up a little bit. And we look at the first verse here. And here
11:23 again, you see that tying righteous, wise, wicked, fool. I really picked it
11:29 up for you, but here he's trying to talk about going overboard. So, I'm going to
11:34 unpack the two verses and put it side by side. And the moment you put it side by side, you see the parallelism in the way
11:41 it's written. Do not be overrighteous, do not be over wicked. You see the similarity is ying to yang. Neither be
11:49 overwise, do not be a fool. And look at the outcome. Both outcomes are essentially the same. Why destroy
11:55 yourself? You die. Why die before your time? They're similar.
12:00 So the author, the teacher is telling you, don't be overrighteous. Don't be
12:06 over wicked. And we start to crack our heads. What in the world does it mean? And context is important because this is
12:14 a response to this this paradox.
12:20 And what the teacher is telling you is that he's observed the world and he said the world is unfair.
12:28 The world doesn't make sense. Now, that's something every one of us
12:34 relates to whether you're in it or not. At one point, you look out there and you
12:41 know there's something completely wrong in the world. Why is it so and so such a godly man had
12:47 cancer? Why is it so and so stole so much money from don't know?
12:54 I didn't say anything. Shame on you guys. Shame on you. I only say one word
12:59 all laugh. I would not say anymore. But you see
13:05 where we're going, right? Some people are like cockroaches. You just can't kill them.
13:10 Now, we are not going to go into the profound question of why life is unfair. The teacher is taking it on another more
13:16 interesting slant. He's taking it on how we respond to it. And that that's
13:23 important. That means because you you realize that's true, it drives you to
13:28 two extreme responses. And what Cole is telling you that everyone in this room
13:33 is in one of these two or the danger of being in one of these two. You are
13:40 sitting here either being overrighteous or you're sitting here being over wicked. That is the context of that
13:47 meaning. Let's break down overrighteous first. You see what does it mean in
13:53 this? It means this you know life is terrible man look at out there not very
14:00 fair then you come to church or I better serve man because life is bad life is
14:07 unfair I better I better do a lot of things in church I better come to church on Wednesday night for gama better go
14:13 for BSF on Thursday Friday night go to live group Saturday I join pastor Rama in street feeding because life's unfair
14:21 see God did a lot for you God, I recently joined Peter as deputy
14:27 chairman. You know, very stressful. Huh? I do a lot of work for church. You know,
14:34 life unfair. No, God. You see where we're beginning with that? You're trying to make a deal with God. And our
14:42 unconscious level, your theology ends up this way. The temptation of being
14:48 righteous in an unrighteous world is to believe your righteousness earns you a
14:56 longer and more prosperous life. And I will tell you 99% of Christians have
15:01 this. You know who had it? The Pharisees. And Jesus told in Matthew 23, "You strain
15:08 out a man, but you keep the camel."
15:14 And why is it every time when things go bad, we will always say, "God, I you
15:19 know why me?" You know what you're saying? Why me? You're saying, "I don't deserve it because I came to church. I
15:26 did this. I did A B CDE E and because of my righteousness, God, I don't deserve
15:32 it." Let's not go to the million-dollar question why it happens. We'll deal with that at the end. But the teacher is
15:38 saying something very profound. Your actions tell you that.
15:44 And once your action tells you that, your righteousness is being defined by looking at the world and hoping to do
15:52 good deeds and hoping that God will prolong your life. And this kind of righteousness centers on self. And there
15:60 are two extremes. One, it comes from a deep insecurity.
16:06 Another from a self-centered self-confidence. And I would tell you there are two sides of the same coin and
16:14 very often we will oscalate between the two. When I was young uh I was in university
16:21 in Australia. Wow. You see some of these guys in OCF. No offense to OCF was here.
16:27 Overseas is OCF is overseas Christian fellowship. And these guys I used to tell myself no need to study one. I'm
16:34 doing it for God. And they will be serving and serving. And when you talk
16:39 to them, they were genuinely in love with God. Just like the song, they had
16:47 climbed the highest mountain. They walked. They have done only to be with God. The way they serve.
16:54 But here's the truth. OCF has a very high fallout rate. So
16:60 what happened? What happened to all these people who came back and gave up? And I'd like to
17:05 propose to you is that that kind of righteousness comes from being in a foreign country, being alone, being
17:13 rejected by a lot of Australians who are not very friendly to you. I'm not saying anything but any Aussies here. I know we have some Aussies without in our midst.
17:20 And you go into religion and religion gives you meaning. Religion gives you
17:25 self-actualization. And you think you're righteous, but it comes from an insecure place. Here's
17:32 another one. self-confidence. I'm right, ma. Recently, there was this healing
17:38 rally that came. Wow, this one really controversial. So, people ask me, Anna, what's your stand?
17:44 Wisdom tells me I'm not going to tell you. That's a very smart answer. I'm learning
17:50 to be a politician nowadays. But let me tell you what's right about this.
17:55 You see, you can have a supernatural rally and your conviction is you were there
18:01 and you saw it with your eyes. Wow. Suddenly your righteousness is this. The
18:06 church has to do healing. If you don't do healing, you are actually negating
18:12 the word of God is a command of God. I don't get what's wrong with you people. Why you don't do healing? You know how
18:17 many sick people are there? You're a secondass Christian. See where the righteousness led to? It just went to
18:23 self-righteousness. Here's the other one. You people very stupid one now. If you want to heal, no
18:28 need to go to stadium or go to hospital and heal everybody. This is all placebo effect. This is all just self-generated.
18:35 You people don't read your Bible enough. Why do you need to have a healing rally? You have a gospel rally and pray. You
18:40 people go and check got doctor there not no doctor. How do you know God really heal?
18:45 Then suddenly went to what? Self-righteousness. So this is where righteousness
18:53 if you don't find its right core goes really to super righteousness
18:60 or self-righteousness. And he gives a clue how to anchor it. He uses the word fear of God. We're going to come back to
19:07 that. Like I said today, we're going to unpack this slowly. Let's go to the opposite extreme of this. And he says do
19:12 not be over wicked. Oh, this very good. Oh, I'm not very over wicked. I never kill anybody. Ma, never rape a girl. Ma
19:18 I just cheat my tax lie a little bit watch certain things on internet nobody know yeah everyone do it ma or if that's
19:25 what the verse is saying we will pack the church pack the church
19:30 is that what it means but now it can't simply because if you look at the verse the verse uses the word again fear so if
19:39 you says the man who fears god anyone who fears god doesn't sin a little bit
19:46 so that's That's not what he means. Again, the context comes out from one. The context comes out because he's seen
19:54 a righteous man perishing in perishing in righteousness, a wicked man living
19:59 long in his wickedness. That's his paradox. Meaning, life is not fair. And he's saying, you know what?
20:07 Why bother? I don't understand. I come to church also life is unfair.
20:15 I do all these things. serve church people also don't appreciate me. I've been a Christian for so long. All these
20:21 leaders are honor all hypocrite one you know talk only come out there and preach
20:27 that his life doesn't show it. So I just come to church law sit in the
20:33 back law give some money law got time maybe I go for some event law enough God
20:39 can that's over wicked
20:44 or in simple English you're sinning without bothering with
20:51 the fear of God or sinning deliberately
20:57 and why does he tie that with foolishness because it's completely idiotic to come
21:04 to church and say you can get away with that. That makes you and I stupid. It's a very strong word to use. And I think
21:11 pastor Christian gave the best example of this in the church camp. Those of you who went there heard this one of the
21:16 best illustrations. He say he used to do Bible study with his wife Mona and then the cat will come. The cat will sit next
21:22 to him. So as you read the Bible, the cat will be there listening to him. So every time they Bible study the cat will
21:29 come. So the cat attends Bible study. Now the question is just because the cat
21:35 was there and every time they did Bible study, the cat attended Bible study,
21:41 does it make the cat a Christian? It doesn't. Just because you're here
21:46 physically in church once a Sunday, every Sunday, put money in the bag,
21:52 listen a little bit, try not to fall asleep, doesn't make you a Christian. I would tell you it's wiser for you to go
21:58 out there and play golf on a good Sunday morning. And I mean that not to offend any golf people out there, but it's true
22:06 because you're wasting your time. You're either in or out.
22:11 But don't come every Sunday for two hours and think that kind of religious
22:16 religious city is going to save you is completely foolishness.
22:22 And in the context of Ecclesiastes, it comes out because you can't make sense
22:28 of this world. You're scared. You're trying to buy some insurance. And that's foolishness.
22:35 So finding balance. And he says this, the man who fears God will avoid all
22:42 extremes. It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. Now what does he mean in that? And we put it two
22:50 side by side. And what we're trying to recognize is this. You know, he's trying to tell you,
22:56 no matter how much righteousness you do, you're going to sin. That's what he's
23:02 trying to tell you. And if you're going to be righteous, forget about being righteous and prolonging your life. I
23:09 got something planned better for you. This righteousness will get you an
23:14 eternal life. And this righteousness will be, you know what? Even though you fall in sin, this righteousness saves
23:21 you. And the simple way of finding balance is the cross
23:27 because it's the righteousness that comes from God. Is the righteousness of
23:32 grace. It's the righteousness that tells us that you know what I serve. I have no
23:38 right to say God take pity on me. Tomorrow better improve my business.
23:44 God is under no obligation. And I'll tell you, I myself right now in
23:49 my particular place where I am, I struggle with self-righteousness. You
23:55 see, serving in church has that danger. The more you do, you go and tell everybody, you know, I'm very busy. See,
24:02 Wednesday night in church or Thursday also in church, Friday, you want to better book me. I'm very busy. Oh, you
24:08 do a lot for church. Yeah, I'm very happy. See, m that's self-righteousness.
24:13 So, I struggle with that. but is a righteousness from the cross. Anything I do, the moment I think my works does
24:20 something good for me, it becomes a righteousness from men. Let's pack up
24:26 the second verse. Second text is even more interesting. He says this, "Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful than 10
24:34 rulers in the city." And the word 10 is symbolic in meaning perfection, meaning it's a big city. And they're trying to
24:41 tell you, hey, you know what? You have the potential even though you're not influential. This is your God-given
24:48 potential. You have a bit of wisdom. Wisdom is very potent. And chapter 7 talks a lot about this. Then he anchors
24:54 it. He says, "There's not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and ever since." That's a strange way of
25:01 anchoring a verse, isn't it? It's almost a counterbalance. Then he says this, "Do not pay attention to every word people
25:08 say." Why? Because we like to hear people praising us. If I just save a city, I just turn around a company, save
25:13 you from going into the red, brought up your stock options, turn around a company, and just did a lot for you. I
25:20 want people say, "Wow, you're very good." Oh, I don't want you people say, "Hey, you know why you did something so
25:26 stupid? I never think of it, but you must understand this ecclesiastice." And what he says, "Don't pay attention.
25:34 You may hear your servant cursing you, your staff telling you, I didn't get the pink slip. This fellow don't know what
25:39 he's doing. He doing this to you know to whatever. Then he says the most interest
25:45 interesting thing and this thing is repeated again and again and again in chapter 7. You know in your heart
25:56 that many times you yourself have cursed others. And you read chapter 7. Another
26:02 thing that wisdom is tied with in chapter 7 is surprisingly not the mind
26:10 but the heart. Go and do a cursory read of the entire chapter 7. He talks about
26:17 the heart and then with wisdom. Let me give you example. Verse seven, extortion
26:22 turns a wise man to fool. A bribe corrupts the heart. Verse three, sorrow
26:29 is better than laughter. A sad face is good for the heart. And on and on. He's
26:36 tying the mind and the heart in wisdom
26:42 because this is in the area we tend to often overlook because we will say the
26:48 mind has to control the heart. Yeah, you say it. But what you don't realize is
26:55 how subtle the heart is going to ensnare you. And he picks it up in verse 26 when
27:02 he says the sinner she will ens snare. We're going to pick that up a little bit. Let me just give you an example.
27:07 Here's the second paradox. The second paradox is this. The paradox of trying to know everything but not knowing
27:15 yourself. And I posit to you most of us don't know ourselves.
27:22 And the way to know yourself is to know something very simple which chapter 7 picks up again and again and again. What
27:30 motivates your actions? Why is it you want to listen to why what people say? Why is it you want to react
27:38 to somebody who said bad things to you when you have done the same in the past?
27:43 This is how he's unpacking the verse and he's unpacking it in the context of chapter 7. Simple example. This is taken
27:50 from a to me a really good book Peter Scazario emotionally healthy
27:55 Christianity emot emotionally healthy spirituality and he says all of us like this we're in
28:01 an iceberg I look at you you look at me you get an impression look at this guy he's very successful he's very calm look
28:09 at this fellow he's very kind he's very he's very so and so what you and I don't
28:15 realize is what goes underneath the surface
28:20 And this is a very well-known analogy meaning the iceberg on top is very much
28:27 determined by what lies beneath the surface. So what I say, what I do, my mind will
28:36 tell you this is what I'm doing it. But if you check the heart, which is what chapter 7 is doing, you find your
28:44 motives are not so straight. Here's a simple example just from that verse
28:50 itself. Why is it you want to hear what people say? Verse 21, do not pay attention to
28:57 every word people say. Why? You would tell yourself, "Oh, I need to know. Ma, it's my job to find out." Actually,
29:03 that's not true. You probably want to hear because you want to hear praises. And why do you want to hear praises?
29:11 Because you're insecure. What people say matters. And Peter Scazaro puts it this
29:17 way. The gospel requires you to know yourself to know
29:23 God. And you find this in the New Testament. You see this in the biatitudes. What's the beginning of the
29:28 biatitudes? Blessed are the those who are poor in spirit. Meaning you
29:35 recognize your sins. You name them. And then blessed are those who mourn. You got to be specific. And again, Paul does
29:42 this in Ephesians when he says, "Put on the old self." Put on a new self. Live because the days are wicked. Be wise.
29:50 You to put off your old self means you got to know your particular sins. So
29:56 here's a question to all of us. If I asked you to take a piece of paper and write down your sins and how they affect
30:05 your behavior, would you be able to do it? I tried it. It wasn't so easy. It's
30:12 simple. Go home, try this, take a paper and say, for example,
30:18 like for example, I I told myself, I'm negative. I I tend to be. I wrote down
30:23 the word I'm negative. I say, how does it affect my behavior? I couldn't. But after a while, then I I
30:30 realize it. I put the pen to it. It makes me critical because I'm negative.
30:36 I'm critical. Here's another one. Uh,
30:42 I like to argue. Everyone knows that. But I people ask me, I say, "You're wrong. Ma, I argue you." So, I put a
30:49 word, I argue. My mind tells me I'm arguing because it's my job.
30:55 Then I put another word to it. You know why I'm arguing? Because I'm too proud to admit I'm wrong. You see where we go
31:02 with this? And chapter 7, 8,9 unpacks a lot of this. And Peter Scazaru says
31:08 beneath this he says it comes with your belief system your Christianity and how
31:15 your Christianity your faith deals with your emotions. And a lot of this theme
31:21 from very far back and why the Selist says inund Psalm 139 search me oh God
31:29 and know my heart test me oh lord and know my anxious thoughts. There it is
31:36 again, the mind and the heart. Because we all hide behind walls to allow God to
31:44 change us, we must be deeply aware what motivates our actions. I'll give you a
31:50 simple example and I I I stole this from H2O. Any H2O guys here? This says Desine, Melody, Alicia, no. Okay, I I
31:59 ripped this off them. You see, they did a study on conflict resolution, which I thought was interesting. And in conflict
32:06 resolution, all of us have only two responses. Flight or fight. People like
32:11 me fighting. You see, we fight, you know. But why am
32:18 I fighting? The mind tells me I'm fighting because my then my super righteousness comes over. I'm
32:24 overrighteous because it is my job. I'm a Bible teacher. I give you 10 verses why you're wrong. So I fight with you.
32:31 My wife very very smart. My wife just say don't sermonize me.
32:37 But you know where that comes from? The mind tells me I'm doing what is righteous. But if I search my heart, it
32:44 just comes from this position where I need to be right all the time.
32:50 So how do I cater that? The moment I know myself, this gospel teaches me it's
32:58 not so much important to be right. It's more important to understand your wife.
33:04 This is a public apology to my wife. Oh, thank you.
33:10 Oh, I owe you guys. But here's the second one. Flight.
33:15 Some of us say,
33:21 "No, don't bother. You don't understand Cantonese. You get this language." So this guy go yada yada yada yada. You
33:27 shut up. You close up. The mind tells you
33:32 better this way peace he's not going to listen to me.
33:37 But do you know what's the real motivation behind that? If you search your heart it's actually a
33:42 self-preservation mechanism. And this self-preservation will basically make you more alone and
33:49 detach. And sometimes is not so much flight or fight. It is understanding why you do
33:57 what you do. And then the gospel will change you to say, you know what, instead of just having this so-called
34:03 peace where there's a wall, I recognize scripture says that the gospel breaks
34:09 down the wall of hostility, whether it's Jew or Gentile, whether it's husband or wife, whether it's between two brothers
34:16 and brother and sister in church. And for God's glory, I will not just shut
34:21 up. You see where we're going with this? And this is three chapters in it. And
34:27 it's really really deep. So here is the second point. Know yourself. Let me end
34:33 with the last point. And when we read the third part, which is the longest part, he now goes back to that question.
34:40 He goes back to his million-doll question. Why is life unfair? And this
34:46 text is basically hinges off from what we read, the paradox of an unfair world.
34:51 And he says, "I turn my mind to understand, to investigate, and to search out wisdom and the scheme of
34:58 things." The ESV and the King James version, one of them has the word the sum of things. He's trying to figure out
35:05 life. He's trying to figure out what's the meaning of life. Now, isn't that why you're in church? Why people are
35:12 religious? You see, he's and he does it in two ways. to understand the stupidity
35:17 of wickedness and to understand the madness of falling. Before that, he tried to understand uh wisdom. But here
35:24 is what he's saying. You and I are in church today because at one point you
35:31 decided there's something more to life. You and I here today because you asked
35:39 there must be a God. I don't really understand but that's why I come to church.
35:45 Because if you didn't believe in God, you won't be sitting here. So in all your million-dollar questions,
35:52 you came to this conclusion there is a God. And then you came to FBC and you sat here. And then as you sat here, you
35:59 began to doubt. If there's a God, why are there so many
36:04 bad things that happen? If there's a God, why is it I can't stop doing the things I want to do? Why is it
36:12 behind closed doors I do things no one knows? If there's a God, why am I so
36:17 confused? Why is there so much pain and so much trouble? And so the teacher now
36:22 goes and tries to understand this and he breaks it into two parts. Number one, he tries to understand wisdom. Number two,
36:29 he understands folly. A bit like the YouTube song. He goes to both ends. And let's look at the first part first. And
36:36 the first part he says, it's really interesting. All this I tested by wisdom. And I said, "I'm determined to
36:42 be wise, but this was beyond me. Whatever exists is far off and most profound. Who can discover it?" And then
36:50 again in verse 28, "While I was still searching, but not finding." Like I said, we are going to the difficult
36:55 parts of the chapter. The ESV has a better version. It is too far and too
37:01 deep. He tries to understand life, why life is like that and he couldn't. So
37:08 here's first point. There are limits of trying to understand everything that
37:14 happens to you. I want to give you three words to me which has saved my life.
37:20 As such a person like me who thinks a lot, I'm going to impart it to you and I think it comes from God and it's
37:27 very important. It's very simple. Hear these very three very important words. I
37:32 don't know. I don't know.
37:38 And that's very important because if I know everything, I'll be God.
37:45 You see that the best truths are the simplest truths. I don't know.
37:51 Take that home. Because the more you keep thinking and overthinking,
37:57 you won't be able to keep calm and sleep tight. You won't be able to sleep
38:03 because you know what you'll do to yourself? you beat yourself up and says, "You know what? This is happening
38:09 probably because I did wrong things in my life. You know, I'm I'm probably going to go
38:15 to hell because no one knows all the things I do behind closed doors. You know,
38:21 I don't get this. I've been a Christian for 20 years, but really, I'm not so sure I believe in all of this
38:27 peep." And here's a simple three things. I don't know. But what he's trying to tell
38:34 you is this. You don't need to know everything, but you need to know enough.
38:41 And that's what the gospel is. And what is it? You need to know enough. Here's the second point. And he picks it up
38:47 again. And the very difficult things to understand the stupidity of wickedness. That's a strong word. Uh the madness of
38:54 folly I find more bitter than death. The woman who is a snare. Now here's this woman thing. Whose heart is a trap.
39:01 Hands are chains. What's she looking at? The woman is described as a temptress.
39:06 The man who pleases God will escape her. The sinner she will and snap. Who's this woman? Here's a simple clue. You read
39:13 the end of the book of Proverbs, they give you the qualities of a noble wife. You all know that chapter. Have you ever
39:20 read it? Does your wife measure up to that? Let me tell you, no woman measures up to
39:26 that. She's superwoman. You know, King Lemur has a description of a wife. Now here's
39:32 the other strange question. Why at the end of the book of proverbs will you talk about a wife?
39:38 The simple thing is because the wife at the end of the book of proverbs is not a literal woman.
39:45 It is about wisdom personified as a woman.
39:50 How do we know that? Because when you read the book of Proverbs folly is
39:56 described as the woman caught folly. And here the woman here is symbolic.
40:05 And what the author is trying to tell you, you know why you're stupid?
40:10 Because you don't see it coming. Because what folly does to you, what sin
40:18 does to you is that it ens snares you, puts you into bondage, but you don't
40:25 realize it. You think you're in control. You're not because you just went into
40:31 it. And here is the very important second point. Sin subly and snares
40:37 without us realizing it. So when I'm confused about my faith, I come to
40:43 church. I just sit at the back. I'm not so sure what I believe in. I I feel
40:48 confused. I feel guilt. I feel shame. That's when sin is going to walk right
40:54 through the door and you won't know it. You know why? Because sin will look like this. She looks gorgeous. Ex Miss
41:02 Israel, hotblooded babe, really eye candy. And you look at her, you go,
41:09 "Wow." But you don't realize she's got a knife, baby, a real big blade, and she's
41:15 going to stick up you. This has gone viral, by the way. Everyone's putting up swords at the back if you follow the
41:21 internet. Meaning sin doesn't come to you with a big sign that says I'm with
41:26 stupid. Hello, I'm stupid. I'm sin. Here I am. It doesn't do that. You know,
41:34 it comes very subtly. It makes you think you're righteous
41:40 when you're a sinner. It makes you think that you can sin.
41:45 But but there's no problem. So I come to church. It makes you and I stupid.
41:52 Now, this is such an important point because here's the question God's asking
41:58 all of us today. Are you wise or are you stupid?
42:05 And here he goes to the last most important point. We're going to unpack this very difficult chapter. All right?
42:11 And he says this, "While I was searching, not founding, I found one upright man among a thousand, but not
42:17 one upright woman among them all." Are you all still quite confused? quite confused there. But this is quite
42:23 interesting. This is a Hebrew iodim simply meaning one upright man among a
42:28 thousand is not saying a lot. He's basically saying when he was searching
42:35 he found no one upright.
42:40 Now hang on a minute. Hang on a minute. What did he just say at the beginning of
42:46 verse uh 15? a righteous man perishing
42:52 in his righteousness. Hang on there. He just come to something. Because he started off by
42:59 saying, you know, God is not fair. A righteous man perishes in his righteousness. It's not right.
43:07 But now he realizes there's no one upright.
43:13 Or in simple English, there's no one righteous. You get where he's coming? For all have
43:21 sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
43:26 Why? And he says this, but only this
43:32 have I found. After seven chapters in Ecclesiastes, he comes to his first
43:38 conclusion. This only have I found. God created mankind upright but have gone in
43:46 search of many schemes. Meaning our plans in life often do not
43:53 include God. Let me give you the third and most profound paradox and I find this very
43:59 applicable to my life and you can test it out tomorrow when you go to work and
44:05 is this for churchgoers. The paradox of searching for God but
44:11 wanting to be your own God. That is the ultimate paradox.
44:21 You want to test this out tomorrow? Just go through the day at night at
44:27 10:00. Stop and ask yourself, were you conscious of God in what you did
44:32 throughout the day? And if you God only came out when you were in trouble and you did a short
44:38 prayer, but the rest of the time God was absent,
44:44 you are your own God. And that's why some of us are super righteous, super wicked, and why we
44:52 don't know ourselves. And that's why this song makes sense.
44:57 Because in the end, there is a very damning conclusion to all of us who sit in church. A very damning conclusion.
45:04 And I use the word seriously and really in love.
45:10 I'm going to quote from Peter Scazario again and I found this really meaningful. He says this,
45:16 you're going to God to avoid God.
45:21 You think about that. The most number of unsaved people sit in
45:28 church. Why? Because they think they're safe.
45:33 The non-Christian will tell you, "I'm not a Christian. Don't sell me your religious garbage." The worst guy to
45:40 sell to is the guy who sits in church because he thinks he's saved. And that
45:45 is a paradox. So,
45:51 let me just end with a verse. Paul says this, "I want to know Christ
45:57 and the fellowship of his power." Why am I saying this? Because you could be sitting there and feeling very depressed. Say, "Brother Anna just made
46:04 me really depressed." So, let me give you some good news. This song
46:10 I can relate to. How can you, you preacher, you must say,
46:15 "I've known God. I found what I'm loving for. I desire God. I've arrived. If you
46:21 can say that, how about the rest of us?" But I'd rather be honest with you. I'd
46:26 rather be honest with you. There are many days as a man who stands up there
46:31 here and because I speak to you, people think that we are very religious, very
46:36 holy. You know, I get people out there say, "Hey, you I heard you very active in church. I heard you stay every day in church." People say also bizarre things
46:42 to me. You know, people from, oh, I heard you're a, you know, senior pastor
46:47 of the church. You're very frightening. I heard you're very religious. No, you're very holy. You know,
46:53 did I just tell you that this song relates to me? Did I just say that, you know, I understand when I say I still
47:02 haven't found what I'm looking for? Isn't that politically incorrect? But this is what Paul says. Paul says, I
47:09 want to know Christ, the fellowship of his power. He describes the verse, but he ends this not that I have already
47:18 obtained all this. And that's why this song makes sense. But I press on to take
47:28 hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
47:33 So don't fret. This is something we all go through. What is an important thing for you and I? Press on. Recognize are
47:42 you your righteousness where it comes from? Recognize are you a bench bomber?
47:48 Learn to know who you are. And don't come to God to run from God.
47:55 Why? Press on. Because Christ Jesus took hold of me. Have you got wisdom or are
48:02 you and I stupid? Because the real wisdom from God comes from the cross. So
48:09 let me end with the ultimate paradox from the ultimate paradox is this God
48:16 dying for man. But why? Who should he do us? Why should
48:21 he do it for us who don't even want him to be God in our lives?
48:28 Why will he do it for us when tomorrow we go off to work and we'll just do whatever we want? Why will he do for us
48:36 who come to church, sit in the back, don't want to join a small group, don't want to know anybody.
48:42 Why should he do it for us who are very active in church and think God owes us a favor? Why should he do it for us who
48:50 don't know ourselves? Because he loves us. And this morning,
48:56 he challenges you to respond. We're going to end with this song and it's been a very profound morning. I think I
49:03 I hope it makes sense. If you don't understand anything, talk to me. And again, the Philishment text says,
49:09 "Press on. Take hold as he took hold of you." Or
49:16 the song we're going to sing says this, "I'll walk with you wherever you go."
49:21 Can we pick up the song? Through tears and joy,
49:27 I'll trust in you. With all I am,
49:32 I'll walk with you. I'm going to challenge you with that this morning. You may not feel very uh happy as a
49:39 Christian. You don't feel very encouraged. But this morning, God is challenging you
49:45 to walk on
