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Today's passage of scripture is uh a difficult one. There's a lot of parables and uh proverbs that don't lend themselves uh easily to our understanding, but it's a great uh section of scripture. I didn't think so at first when I read through it the first time. I thought this doesn't make sense. A lot of it didn't until I invested some time studying it. Let me just give you a little bit of a background and context to the uh the message today in the particular passage of scripture. The uh Bible references uh a certain class of literature called wisdom literature and it includes Ecclesiastes uh our portion today Ecclesiastes, Jo, Job, Psalms and Proverbs. It's characterized by a tension between the ordered universe guided by God and the sometimes sobering reality of earthly life doesn't always happen like we think it should. You know, sometimes uh good people get hurt. Sometimes innocent people are injured. Uh sometimes the unrighteous uh succeed and it just doesn't make sense to our Christian mindset. Wisdom in wisdom literature in reality is a uh approach to life. A way of looking at the world and a way of living out in a very deliberate rational way our commitment to God. This book is the book of a man under the sun. Uh Ecclesiastes I think best to be understood is a man who's looking at life and observing life in the natural state. meaning largely apart from the effect of God and the activity of God in our lives. He certainly recognizes that there is a God, but he's looking at it completely horizontal. And so you find him coming to conclusions that are a bit troubling uh and sometimes even shocking to our uh more spiritually minded uh disposition. uh Ecclesiastes 1 says that uh he's reasoning from the standpoint of a man under the sun. And this kind of gives context to the rest of the book. And Ecclesiastes 2 uh 1:2 uh vanity means foolish pride. But not just foolish pride, it's the emptiness that's found in the final result of a life apart from God.
Now I thought the way my mind works there's a lot of words that we use and some of them are similar some of them not so similar but they have a different meaning since he uses the word wisdom repeatedly throughout this section of scripture and he uses the word fool or foolish or foolishness or folly uh repeatedly throughout this section of scripture. I thought it'd be a good idea just to define some terms and I have an example. I hope some of them are humorous uh of some of these terms. The word stupid means having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense. These two American guys uh went to rob a bank and they took a permanent marker and wrote on their faces to make a mask so they would not be detected. Needless to say, they were very easily identified and promptly arrested. Not so smart. We would call that stupid. I think uh another incident, I don't know, uh I'm an American, so I have American examples. I hope you'll indulge me. Uh there's a guy known as the million-dollar man. His name is Michael Anthony Fuller. Uh currently in the US, the largest bill, the largest dollar bill is a $100 bill. That's all that's in circulation. this guy had the bright idea to make take into Walmart a $1 million bill and and those are actually printed for comedic purposes for jokes uh in the US. So I don't know if he had one of those fake $1 million bills, but he uh he bought a microwave, a vacuum cleaner, and other goods totaling about $476. And then he asked for his change, which you know, $999,524
in change. I doubt quite seriously if Walmart has that much cash on hand. I I I think probably same door or same store sales on a daily basis don't even equal that amount. But he wasn't thinking about that. Uh he just wanted his money. And uh after the police were called uh he was charged with uh falsifying uh and forging an instrument of value. So uh I think those pretty much give us a clue of what stupid means. Silliness on the other hand is not quite the same thing. Sometimes we can be silly and sometimes we can be stupid and sometimes they're very close. This is an example of silliness and it really means just ridiculously trivial or frivolous. And here we have an example of a construction worker that went to sleep in a wheelbarrow and his mates are all around and they see him sleeping in the wheelbarrow and they decide to give him a little ride. Now that's kind of silly. It's a little frivolous, a little trivial, a little fun. I hope the guy didn't get hurt, but uh it's a good example, I think, of silliness. Now when we get to the word fool or foolishness and uh uh folly, there's a slightly different but very important meaning uh worth noting. Uh first of all, a fool is not so much stupid as he is immoral and pernitious or evil. These are the intentions behind his action. And uh it comes from the Hebrew word sahal uh occurs seven times in six verses and every time it's in this passage in Ecclesiastes. So very interesting. The fool is not uh uh somebody to be taken lightly because the consequences of his behavior and his decisions can uh bring about a great impact and great harm and and we'll see that repeated throughout. Uh have you guys seen the Home Alone movie here? I I don't always know how to make American references. Uh you know, sometimes they're understood and sometimes not so much. But uh uh in this movie, there were two uh clumsy, kind of silly, maybe even stupid bandits called the Wet Bandits. And there were three uh series of this movies. But these guys, these bandits had an intent to do harm to that boy and to steal, you know, and when he started inflicting justice on them, they got all the more angry and all the more committed to uh hurting him. Uh so that really gives us the sense of what it is to be uh foolish. You have an evil, a harmful uh and purposeful malicious intent. A fool on the other hand may be like this fellow here. Now I don't want to call anyone a fool because the scripture tells us that we should not. But uh there are people who certainly do foolish things or have foolish thoughts or say foolish things. I remember when I was doing my uh research uh Guy Richie who was the uh uh English uh producer I think married to Madonna at one time said uh you should not uh no uh beliefs are fine you just shouldn't believe in them. Kind of a stupid statement but a bright guy right? Otherwise bright guy. So, everybody can make a stupid statement or or be silly or frivolous. But when we're talking about a fool, this has a different meaning. In scripture, it's an unrepentant and unredeemed sinner. A fool has said in his heart there is no God. Psalm 14:1. That's a very well-known verse. Richard Dawkins, who's still living, I think he's still living. I I checked that out, though. recently had a stroke, is one of the most uh world-renowned atheists and very antagonistic towards the uh religious world and Christians in particular. And uh I submit to you that uh people that are these uh naturalists or uh evolutionists or you know whatever their philosophy is once you take God out of the picture uh I submit they cannot live uh in reality without it being invaded by their uh consciousness of God. Here's an example. And I don't know if I can read all of this, but uh it says uh yeah, I better go back here and read it.
It's quite small there. The uh the most important thing is that uh at the bottom here, he's talking about uh you know his belief system and at the end he says he wants to know why I was born. why I was born. You know, life is very complex. There's a lot of very deep uh subjects, but here's a man that says that reality is defined by matter plus time plus chance. All that exists is physical matter in some choice configuration or chance configuration and it's evolved over millions and millions and millions of years. If that's true and there is no moral authority in the universe, if there is no God, then there is no place for questions of value, meaning what is good, what is evil, you know, what's the standard? What's the judge? If man is simply an electrochemical machine and all of his behavior is dictated by the presence of serotonin or dopamine or or some other chemical in his uh brain, uh what responsibility does he have for any of his own decisions? All emotions like love and and selfrespect and all that, they're just chemical and biological responses. That's what this man believes. And yet he struggles with the question why was he born? Well, if you take his position, there is no purpose in the universe. You know, there is no uh final reality or or judgment by which we should uh measure these things. So in his own heart and soul, he's struggling with the question of why he was born. He wants that answer, but his own philosophy does not give him uh any lasting answers. The next one is uh knowledge. Uh and and we talk about people being smart. Generally, we're referring to people that have a great deal of knowledge maybe in a specific field or or subject. Uh some are more generalists and and have a lot of facts and information. I'm a bit of a a factoid freak. I have a lot of little things that I know that don't really mean anything to anybody else, but uh historical facts, political facts, you know, uh just a lot of strange things. Uh and one might get the uh impression if they talk to me about a subject for which I'm competent and trained, they might get the uh impression that I have some knowledge. Uh facts and information and skills acquired by a person through experience or education. the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. And here we have a picture of uh Albert Einstein who's generally thought in latter years to be one of the smarter uh people to have ever lived. But there are two kinds of knowledge. Uh excuse me, I'm going to go to wisdom. But before uh there are two types of wisdom. There's a worldly wisdom and there's a godly wisdom. And we need to understand the difference. uh wisdom is the soundness of an action or a decision with regard to the application of experience or knowledge or training in good judgment. Sometimes we say that wisdom is really knowledge applied uh properly and in perspective. The Hebrew word here is hookma hookma. And uh it it just uh is used here several times in the uh in the passage that we're reading. One of the things I liked when I was studying this was a quote by uh CH Spurgeon, Charles Haden Spurgeon of London's Metropolitan Tabernacle. And he said, "Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is to or is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal and are all the greater fools for it." I've heard this phrase educated idiots. You know, kind of comes to mind when I think about that. There is no fool so great a fool as the knowing fool. Remember what we said about a fool. Fool is a man who has a a pernitious evil intent. He defies and denies God. So there is no fool so great as a fool or as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. Uh recently on May 24th, my wife and I were invited to attend a prestigious uh gayla event among the Malaysian uh retail chamber or retail chain association. These are the uh the Malaysian business owners that own KFC and Tesco and you know all of that about 800 uh people alto together and we had a a wonderful night. The keynote speaker was one of Malaysia's wealthiest businessmen. Uh that's a picture of my wife and I with him. Here's the uh Oops. Here is the uh the photo of us just in front of the the uh backdrop. And then later before he spoke, we had the opportunity to have our photo taken with him. didn't know anything about the man except that he was rich and he ran one of the largest companies in Malaysia dealing in structural steel and he has product in the Petronos Towers and in the uh the big hotel the skyscraper I think it's called the Burge the largest building in the world in Dubai. This man does not have an engineering degree and yet he's considered one of the most capable engineers for structural steel in the world and his his projects are all around the world and he was our keynote speaker. And so we were knowing what little bit we knew about him, we were quite happy to have our picture taken with him. But little did we know what he was going to say that night. And uh it was interesting. We sat quietly as we listened for an hour and I'll just show you this picture. I I do not call this man I don't know him. I only know what he showed us in that one hour period that we spent with him and he was addressing us. So I don't want to cast any dispersions on him at all. But he's the 27th richest man in Malaysia worth over $300 million US. So a billionaire, a Malaysian billionaire. And he said during the course of that night after he went through almost every business axiom you know uh known to modern man and how he had practiced that consistently in his life. You would think that he was perfect in his execution, perfect in his wisdom, perfect in his judgment and discernment. And as we sat there and listened more and more, we look kind of looked at each other and said, "Did he really say that?" You know, it just kind of boggles the mind how self- conglat self- congratulating he was. But he said business first. Everything else has to be sacrificed for success. And he included in that his family. He spent so much time away from home, you know, and he talked a great deal about how many hours a week he worked and for how long he worked. And the man has by all measures been successful. But at one point in a question and answer right after a lady asked him who is your role model and he said I am my own role model very proud isn't it you know and he may be a fine man but that's a very arrogant statement and uh later he said that uh he was a self-made man and he trusts only his own judgment. He doesn't take counsel from uh his executives just below him because sometimes he's the chief executive. He has to make the final decision and sometimes he makes decisions that go against the council uh that he has. He did however after u all of this and speaking of his skills and abilities in such a superlative manner uh did take a brief one-s sentence uh message to thank his employees for their tireless dedication. And why are they tirelessly dedicated? Because he insists on it. You don't work for him unless you're a 100% committed. So, uh, I found that very interesting. Now, by contrast, this is March 24th. March 25th, we're invited to the graduation ceremony of Tongwing Seminary. Uh, what a study in contrast between the previous night and this night. These young seminarians, these graduates are uh being trained to preach the gospel around primarily Southeast Asia. But uh uh these people were so filled with joy and gratefulness. Uh it was just a pleasure to to watch them enjoying uh the success of their hard work and their accomplishments and and just uh so edifying and encouraging. uh you certainly had the sense that these people were motivated by something bigger than themselves and something other than themselves. So again, a study in contrast from the night before. But uh surprisingly, every uh moment in that seminary graduation service was to me more personally satisfying than any moment of the previous night hanging out with the rich and famous. Okay. It reminds me of a verse in Hebrews that talks about uh one of the Old Testament uh characters that said he chose rather to suffer the affliction with God's people than to live among the riches of Egypt. You know, as Christians, we have to make a decision where our loyalties lie. And one of the things uh that uh I think we have to decide is what our commitment is to Christ. How are we going to live our life? what frames the context by which we make decisions. I do want to point out this little picture of this fellow right here. He's a Cambodian and he was the seminary graduate uh that night and his pastor came to uh from Ponampen came to uh celebrate with him and uh I just noticed the way he smiled throughout the service. This guy was radiant, you know, and doesn't speak much English. But after the service, my dear wife was nice enough to uh take a a picture of us. But the uh the fellow in the red coat, and notice the red shoes, is his pastor. I was going to ask you, could you guess which one was the pastor, but I assume you you probably knew that already. Uh but but both of them just real characters, but uh love Jesus. When I see the uh the uh the red shoes on that guy, I'm reminded of the verse that says, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel."
Now, another American reference, if you'll indulge me just a second, Mr. Rogers, I don't know if this guy's been on uh TV here, but he's a children's TV personality uh in the US, and he has a great quote. He said, "Life is deep and simple and what society gives us is shallow and complicated." Now, if I could put a single message over today's content over these scriptures, I would say that it's very close to this statement right here. Now, this Mr. Rogers would come in on the TV program and he would take off his uh certain outerw wear and he would always put on this sweater and he would change his street shoes for a a pair of sneakers. Just very casual, very relaxing, calm. He spoke slowly for the children, you know. But Mr. Rogers in his previous life was actually a United States Marine sniper in Vietnam who had been credited with 55 kills. And yet this man, this Christian man uh had such a soft and peaceable heart, you know, and he wanted to help children. So another study in contrast, but uh Mr. Rogers was a wise guy. And the reason he was wise was because he uh believed in God and and trusted God, I'm sure, for his insight and his direction. Now, in the scriptures that we're going to look at, there are three large sections of the scripture which Moren read previously. Uh these are Solomon's observations. And uh through the end of chapter nine, we basically see that we ought to appreciate the wisdom that we find in others. And then for the first part of chapter 10, we should avoid foolishness at any expense. And then the chapter wraps up by uh giving us ways in which to apply uh wisdom uh to life. And it's all done through this series of uh proverbs and and parables. So we'll begin by saying uh by reading this uh portion of scripture. I have seen this example of wisdom under the sun and it seemed great to me. There was a little city with 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 him. So what is the story? Small city, almost defenseless, certainly not capable of defending itself against a great army as this king brought, uh was vulnerable and they would have been destroyed. But there was in this city a wise man and we don't know much about him. Scripture doesn't tell us a lot about him. Whatever he did, whether it was military strategy, he might have been a Mr. Rogers kind of guy, you know, unassuming, but there was a warrior, you know, back there somewhere, you know. So, he might have given advice of military tactic or or something of that that saved the city. We really don't know what he said or what he offered to save the city. We do know the outcome. the city was saved and the man was promptly forgotten. And that's one of the uh things that we have sometimes a hard time uh being satisfied with. And Solomon says in point of fact, you know what? There are role reversals that we're going to encounter in life. We may do some really terrific work only to have our boss take the credit for it. Has that ever happened to you? It's happened to me. Not often but it has happened to me. You know uh these things happen and we just have to come to terms with it. Wisdom is sought out only in desperate times. Otherwise those who have celebrity, wealth, power like number 27 here uh is the one who gets all the attention. You know what I meant by number 27? Yeah. These are the people that get all of our attention. I remember that night we were being told over and over again how difficult it was to get this man to speak. And afterwards I left saying why, you know, uh was this a you know time for uh us to just revel in his accomplishments and and uh the poor ignorant masses needed to be educated on on the great accomplishments. And I take nothing away from his accomplishments. He's done all of this without an engineering degree and he has one of the largest and most specialized firms in the world for structural steel and he negotiates with all of his customers personto person. So I'm sure he's got a great personality. He's very smart and uh knowledgeable about his area of activity. But sometimes, you know, uh I just am perplexed at how people like uh JC Jay-Z, sorry, and Beyonce, who are now worth more than $1 billion, and Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Do you know these American references? I guess you might see them on TV. How they stay in the limelight in the media and they take that money to the bank. You know, it just boggles my mind when I see people who are very capable uh who are doing good work, but their compensation has no relation to the value of the work being done and they're just taken for granted. It's kind of like this wise, quiet man in the city who saves the city and gets nothing for it. He doesn't benefit in any way that we can tell other than his life is spared. And maybe that was sufficient motivation for him. He and his family, but he doesn't benefit and then he's promptly forgotten. I will tell you number 27, someday we'll be forgotten. You know, it may not be a hundred years from now, but someday all of that work will just be a footnote in history, and his name will not uh I I probably ought to get off of his uh thing for a while, but uh nevertheless, I I do want to share with you also this next uh scripture uh uh chapter 9 168. It says, "But I say that wisdom is better than might." Uh do you guys have class reunions here where your graduating class is it from university or is it from high school or both? Ah in the states uh it's very very common for high school to have class reunions at 10 years 20 years 30 years so on. And uh I moved away when I went to university. I moved away from my hometown of about 6,000 people and really never went back except to visit my parents on uh a rare occasion. But for some reason, I decided I was going to go back to the 20th class reunion. And uh when I left school, I had been boxing and I was in great physical shape, but uh and I was tall and thin. You would not believe how thin. And then I spent 20 years uh as a sales guy on the road traveling a hundred to 200 nights a year away from home uh eating sometimes 200 plus meals a year in restaurants. And that was my life. And because I was now in sales and professional sales, very technical sales, I had a certain persona that my classmates did not recognize in me as a quiet, unassuming fellow who was a big jokester in school. If I got attention in school, it wasn't because of my brains. It was because of the foolishness and the silliness that I would engage in uh to get people's attention. And you know, that's a good example of foolishness. I didn't I I thought I was wise. I thought a lot of times comedians are very very smart, you know, and I kind of thought of myself that way until my girlfriend's father told her to break up with me because that boy is an idiot. And it broke my heart. It was my first love, puppy love, but puppy love is love to puppies, you know. Uh but it broke my heart and I never forgot that. As a matter of fact, I carried that with me for probably 20 years, even after I was married. I thought, "What an injustice." Uh what an injustice to me. Uh when I went to that high school reunion, they voted me most changed. I'm not sure why. My gift was a mirror. And I thought, now I'm much larger. I know that, you know, and I'm much more outgoing and personable and they never saw that side of me. I'm not sure what they were saying by voting me most changed, but I did notice that the the guys that were athletes and the toughs uh in our day it was called certain segment of our school were dopers. You know, they were smoking pot and you know, into drugs and all that. And these toughs and these dopers, when I looked at them 20 years later, these these jocks, these athletes, the majority of them look like they had been ridden hard and put up wet. Now, that's an American phrase used about a horse. You know, a beast of burden who's uh exerted and exerted and exerted and then he's not cared for when he put up. these people look like they were washed up or worn out. And I thought, "Wow, that's interesting." You know, they may have thought the same thing of me for all I know. But then I noticed the uh what we'll call the nerds, the the uh the people that were in the band and uh you know in chess club and and debate and uh things of that sort. These people look different, you know, and I thought that's that's an interesting observation. You know, the people that we would have set in high school, the people that we looked up to as our class leaders and our uh examples weren't examples anymore. You know, the examples were the quiet, bright people in school who went unnoticed during their early days. And there is a lesson in that for you young people. You might have to figure it out, but there is a lesson there.
Oh, I got one other point here. Yeah, there's a little story that's told about uh wisdom versus strength. Uh in a in a construction site, there was a young man who prided himself on his strength. And he paraded about and told everybody how strong he was. But for some reason, he zeroed in on this older man at the job site and just started harassing him and uh trying to intimidate him and cajol him into doing a a contest with him with uh about strength. And he said uh after a while the the man the older man got tired of it and he said uh I'm tired of your comments. Uh let's put it to the test. And he said, 'Fine.' And the older man said,"I bet I can put something in this wheelbarrow and haul it over there to that spot that you can't haul back." And the guy said, "You're on." The young man, you know, he said, "You're on." So the old man goes over to the wheelbarrow and picks up the two handles and he says, "Get in."
That sometimes takes a while, right? but he can't haul himself back. And so the young man lost the bet in his pride and his arrogance. He lost the bet to an older man who was wiser and more experienced. And there is a lesson in that too, young people.
I think I skipped one. Yeah. So this verse says, "But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despied and his words are not heard. The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools." I think that's pretty pretty uh self-explanatory.
Uh there is godly wisdom and there is conventional wisdom. We've all heard it said that we should give credit where credit is due. Unfortunately, because we live in a fallen world, we know that doesn't always happen. And so, we have to be uh conscious that uh this world is not our final reality. It's not our final home. It's not the place in which we receive the payment for all the good deeds which we have done. As a matter of fact, there is a payday someday, but that payday may be in eternity. May not be this Friday or the end of the month. And sometimes God will honor your faithfulness uh if you'll just stay by uh the stuff, as we like to say, and do what you know to be right. When a father refuses to take a promotion because it will cause his family to suffer, you know, with a natural wisdom, you'd say that doesn't make a lot of sense. He could be such a blessing to his kids. I bought into that. I missed after 20 plus years, almost 30 years of traveling. There's so much I missed in the lives of my kid kids. And fortunately, they had a great mother that built godly principles into their life. I wish they were living um more uh uh dedicated lives than they are at this moment, but I suppose they're just going through a certain phase. I certainly hope that God will bring them back and give them a a burden and a zeal to serve him. But I used to tell myself they're not going to miss me. Their mother has so much more godly character than I do that that's the real benefit. So, I'm going to go out here and I'm going to make a living, you know, and and try to give them all the good things uh that life has to offer and all the things my parents couldn't afford to give me. Does that not sound like the wisdom of man? And yet years later I observed that uh even though I've been in 40 countries and 46 states in my in my career uh a lot of travel I told you I have a curiosity about the world and about different cultures and people. It's why I'm completely relaxed living here in Malaysia. My wife and I chose not to live in the expat community. You know I mean nothing against Americans and you dear people. Thank you for coming today. But we wanted to experience Malaysian culture, you know, and so we have good friends that are Malaysian uh uh Muslims, melees, and we have great friends that are Chinese and uh Indian, and we're just reveling in uh getting to know all this culture. Well, because I was absent, my boys got none of that natural curiosity about the larger world. As a matter of fact, when both of them graduated from high school, I said, "My my graduation present to you is one week trip anywhere in the world, just you and me." Both of them said, "Not interested." I thought, "Wow, you know, there's so many places in the world you can go and do and see, you know, and learn something." Not interested. So sometimes we have to watch uh godly wisdom and pay attention to godly wisdom even when it uh competes with or lines up against uh man's wisdom. And when we listen to that man's wisdom apart from the principles of God then we get into uh a bad situation. How am I doing on time? I need to hurry up. Uh 9:18, "Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner uh destroys much good." So we say one egg, one bad egg destroys an omelet or spoils an omelette. You've probably got some similar expression here. So that's pretty pretty obvious. Uh if we just look at one example of that, I don't know, my wife and I have not watched TV since we've been in Malaysia and we've just celebrated one year. Now, we have the big screen TV uh in the room, but uh it's not hooked up properly, and we don't know how to hook it up, and you know, uh it doesn't work. So, I'm not saying I haven't been tipped to turn it on, but I can also say I haven't missed it. And when I look at my life back in the States when I was home, uh I watched a lot of TV. Actually, the average American spends about 28 hours a week watching TV. That's quite a statement, isn't it? And where are they getting their values? They getting them from the word of God, godly wisdom. Nope. It's Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. You know, it's uh it's a lot of different voices, but it's not, for the most part, godly voices. And so we have to be careful that we don't let the toxic values of the modern culture destroy our Christian faith. The next item is that we should avoid foolishness. Yep. Sorry, I'm not staying up with that. Avoid foolishness at all costs. In Ecclesiastes 10, he uses the word fool nine times. He illustrates this through the use of five proverbs in verses uh chapter 10 verse 1-7. In Solomon's three books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, he uses the word fool, fools, foolishness, and folly a staggering 128 times. He certainly seemed to have a theme, didn't he, going and a commentary on the condition of man. Uh, verse one starts out with a very curious parable, and it's about dead flies spoiling the ointment. little something about myself. There are so few things I am afraid of. And maybe fear is not even the right word. I've been on the streets of Warz Mexico when it was the murder capital of the world and the army was in the streets with their jeeps and guns on every major intersection doing my business. One customer I went to see said when I called him to confirm I'm coming tomorrow, he said, "You cannot come." And I said, "Why? I'm here already. I've made the trip." And he said, "Because two guys were coming back from lunch yesterday." And the drug cartel shot them before they entered the gate. Machine gun both of them, a 27y old engineer and a 40-year-old guy. And he said, "We think the young guy was dealing drugs and he didn't pay his bill to the cartel." And so I I've been in some strange situations. Not a lot gets to me. Not a lot disturbs me. Injustice does and arrogance does. And maybe you got that clue. But in the animal kingdom, in the natural world, that gets to me. I I want to read to you just a few facts about flies. There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than human beings on the entire planet. There are 120,000 species of flies ranging from 12th of an inch to 3 in. Can you imagine a 3-in fly landing on you? You know, and if you look at that that closeup, he's got some hairy legs and uh you know, they're just nasty to me. The average housefly lives about 21 days. Uh flies are unique among insects and that they only have two wings. All others have four. A housey's feet are 10 million times more sensitive to the taste of sugar than the human tongue. 10 million times. the pads on his feet. Okay. After studying 300,000 flies, researchers Dr. Yao, and if I do these names an injustice, forgive me, and Dr. Juan of China concluded that the average fly carries two million bacteria on its body. Two million bacteria. And flies carry typhoid, chalera, can cause diarrhea, amiic dysentery, tuberculosis, anthrax, gang green, bubonic plague, leprosy, scarlet fever, and yellow fever. So don't feel too guilty the next time you decide you want to kill one. But take note, the unique way a fly flies, when he takes off, he actually backs up. Most of us when we try to kill a fly, we try to go at it from the head or we swat it and his first move is to fake you out. He's going backwards. It's why we miss him so often. Once the fly uh reite uh unites on the ceiling, once he lands on the ceiling, he keeps uh things dizzy exciting by gracefully tiptoeing across the ceiling, securing itself to the uh by using the sticky pads on his feet. And it is these sticky pads and the hairs on his legs that cause him to be such a carrier of disease. I can see no good thing in a fly, you know? I just I don't like them. When I'm eating outside and a fly lands on my food, I won't eat that food. And the reason is I know a little bit about the nastiness of flies. And so I get almost well I don't want to say ladylike but I I get very particular about eating outside amongst the flies and I want to cover my food maybe with a napkin you know and and just move on and enjoy. Uh the life lesson about a fly is a little foolishness can destroy the fragrance of a person's dignity, honor and wise reputation. And I think due to the uh interest of time, I probably ought to just read some of these life lessons. Uh verse 10, chapter 2 tells us that we're the right hand is a place of blessing. Uh the life lesson here is a wise man, excuse me, a wise man is predisposed to do the right thing. Similarly, a fool is predisposed to do the wrong thing. And if you just wait long enough, they're going to show you uh the reality of which one they are uh by the choices and decisions they make in their life. The next one tells us that a fool reveals himself. The fool doesn't have to do a lot to demonstrate his foolishness. It's all about him and again his choices and his decisions. Verse four, keep calm and carry on. I call this uh this basically says that when somebody is angry with you, a superior, somebody who has rule over you, is angry with you, do not leave your place. Do not leave your position. Don't squirm when you're under the microscope. You know, go about and do the right things just as you normally would. And and uh never let another person's actions determine your action or your reaction. You be in control of that. Keep calm and you'll pacify most of the aggressive tendencies and maybe even learn a or earn a uh an audience or a hearing from your supervisor or your ruler.
Next section is that life is simply full of inequities in this uh proverb. And uh again the lesson here is life isn't fair but there is a payday someday and we will get the just uh recompense of our works.
This section says basically that we ought to apply wisdom throughout our life at work. And uh the life lesson here is that we should be diligent. Use your brain and not just your back. Think safely. Uh think before you act and you will experience safety and productivity. Now if I read all these parables to you, all these proverbs to you individually, you like me probably would think what does that mean? So I'm trying to tell you what it means and uh you feel free to disagree if you come to a different conclusion.
Uh this proverb here, this section of proverbs says that we ought to control our mouth that it can do great damage. And this is not the only place that the scripture tells us that. It tells us in James that the tongue is an unruly thing and can do much damage. Uh some of us have uh an innate inability to control our mouth. It's like before we know it, we're speaking and we're lashing out or we respond uh without thinking and often times we regret that. So uh knowing the right way of doing something is not the same as doing the right thing. A lot of people have knowledge but the execution of godly wisdom makes all the difference in the world.
The other part of this, the last part of this particular uh passage tells us that we ought to use an economy of words. You can talk too much. Sometimes when we preach, I wonder if we don't talk too much. But uh hopefully the the uh the lessons in the truth of God's word will make an application in your own heart. But uh when we don't talk too much, we can preserve our reputation. You've heard it said, I think that better to keep quiet and let people think you're a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Uh that actually was phrased by uh Mark Twain, the American writer of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This uh proverb says uh that in regard to leading others uh bad rulers satisfy their own desires whereas good rulers use moderation in their lives and concentrate on governing their people well. Uh I don't know Malaysian political environment too much. I know a little bit. You know I would submit most of you don't know the American political environment too much either. uh you know a little bit and sometimes a little bit is enough to be dangerous your case or mine and so I think it's best that I don't comment about your local environment because I don't I live here but the worst they're going to do to me is send me home. Okay, don't want to go home. I'm here uh to build an international school some of you may know. And just in the mention of that, my wife and I are are here to uh get this school called Oasis just south of Kota Communing uh to get it up and running and and staff. So I'm more or less one of the project managers helping to build the school and oversee it. I'm the CFO. My wife is the director of admissions. This is our reason for being here. But first and foremost, we are believers. That is the uh the characteristic, the most defining characteristic of our lives. And when I see leaders who are self-serving and uh you know go into office and they have very little money and then after 20 years they're worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I have to wonder uh who are they serving? I I think themselves really and that's true of politicians the world over and not just politicians. Sometimes it's people that have the rule over us in the workplace. They serve themselves and you are at their beck and call and you serve at their discretion and their pleasure. So it creates some tension in our lives. Uh when we are talking about leading others still this talks about a lazy man and basically the life lesson is effort alone will not guarantee success. However, a lack of effort due to laziness will almost certainly guarantee failure. These are all very practical uh advices or proverbs of wisdom uh versus foolishness. And he contrasts them. Uh verse 19 and we're closing in on the end here. He says that uh a fool thinks that happiness consists of having an abundance of the necessities and the creature comforts of life. While wise people know, godly people know that wisdom is as valuable as the possession of gold. I've seen very few truly wise people, truly God, godly people that are dirt poor. Does that mean that God wants all Christians to be healthy, wealthy, and happy? I would say to you, consider our Christian brothers and sisters who are being killed in uh many parts of the world because of their faith. Got it? These brothers and sisters, you know, are paying the ultimate price. and we're going to tell them that God wants you healthy, wealthy, and happy. They're no less Christian and no less dedicated than we are. And perhaps more so because they've given their life for their faith.
Verse 20, the the life lesson here is a wise person doesn't say something in private that he wouldn't want heard in public. He turns away from gossip, slander, and comparison with others. And here's one of my favorite quotes. I'm often told among my social group that I'm a quiet person. Uh, not really. I mean, once I get to know you, I can kind of get a little animated, but I have thought to myself how many times I have held my tongue from saying something. Sometimes I haven't, and I've regretted it. But this guy says, "Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken." Isn't that clever? Very rarely will you regret what you do not say. Very likely that the more you say, the more regrets you'll have. So I would suggest to you that it's probably wise to use an economy of words and don't speak about that which you do not know. Probably pretty good advice. I want to share with you uh one example of where wise living produces fruit. This guy's a dear friend of mine. I've known him almost 20 years since the early 1990s. Uh at that time I was uh an advanced place in my career and I was assigned to go with this guy for three-day road trip a drive along and do some training. When I got in the car with this guy his language was laced with vulgarity. I mean, and he he's a salesman calling on customers. And I just kind of listened day one, you know, day two and day three he said GD something. And I looked at him and I said, "God's last name is not damn." And I want to tell you something. I'm here to train you. You are so presumptuous and arrogant. You think that your language and the way you've conducted yourself these last three days is something to be proud of. It's humiliated me at turns and angered me at others. And uh you know what? I I think that you're just not smart enough to be a salesman. And he looked at me like, "What do you mean I'm not smart enough to be a salesman?" And I said to him, "Because you don't know your audience. You don't care about your audience. this week I am your audience and you have offended me time and time and time again and you were completely oblivious to having done so. And I said, "So the report back to the the big boss is probably not going to have some things in it you'd like for me to tell him." Seven years later, we spent probably three or four years in the same company and then we both moved. Seven years later, I saw this guy and he said, "Have you got a moment of your time?" I said, "Sure." He said, "I want to tell you a story." Okay. He said, "Uh, I had just come out of the army and, uh, you know, we're pretty rough lot in the army." And he said, "Uh, this was my first professional selling job when I met you seven years ago." and he said, uh, when you challenged me riding along the coast of Lake Michigan and you made me accountable for what I said, he said, 'I never forgot that. It was a defining moment in my life. And he said, I spent the next several years watching you because if people spend any time with me at all during that time in this, hopefully, they know that I'm a a dedicated Christian. I have a different lifestyle. He said, "I watched you and you continually got promotion after promotion, raise after raise, and you never went to the topless bars to entertain customers. You never used vulgarity. You never drank." And at that time, I didn't because I've got a very ugly personal family history for suicides, alcohol-induced suicides and and close relatives that are alcoholics and and drug addicts. So I just decided wisdom right as a young kid I can watch their mistakes. I'm not going to do what my uncles have done. You know what my family has done. I'm going to steer as far away from that as possible. But he said I watched you over that seven-year period. And he said God got through to me. It started right then along the coast of Lake Michigan on that ride. But he said I've given my life to Christ. And he said you in large measure are the reason I did that. I learned that I could be successful in life without having to compromise my principles. And I thought the only way to get ahead was to do the things that the world expected me to do. Today, this fellow is a Sunday school teacher. He heads mission trips uh in his church. He's been doing this faithfully for probably nearly 20 years now. And he has two children out of four that are on the mission field.
that I even had a small part of influencing that man's life. And seeing what God is doing to him through his family today humbles me to no end. But that's what wise living will do for you. Sometimes you won't see the results in the here and now, but they're there. And uh it may only be on the other side in heaven when we actually see the uh results of our labor. I'm going to go through 10 wise things to do very quickly. And I'm done. 10 wise and godly things to do. First of all, obey the gospel. Jesus died for your sins. He died so you could be reconciled to God. He paid a sin debt for you and for me. If you were the only person ever born that needed forgiveness, he still would have died for you. Next,
keep yourself morally pure. Boy, this is a time in which we're discouraged at every turn. Young people, one of the greatest strengths you'll carry into your future is to maintain your moral purity and not compromise yourself. It brings great satisfaction personally and it also brings the blessings of God on your life. Next is to build a Christian testimony. And I just gave you an example of where that Christian testimony bears fruit. You know, it's been said that we all influence 250 people. You know, we're close enough to that many people that they watch us and they're influenced by our decisions and our actions. Make sure yours count for God. Lead others to Christ. One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 11:30. The fruit of righteous is a tree of w life and he who wins souls or capture souls as wise. We all ought to have this as one of our primary motivations is to bring people to Christ. I've got two or three of other stories of my working career where people have come back to me years later and said I became a Christian because do you know what my great shame is after 30 years only three people have come back to me. Now I assume that maybe in heaven eternity will reveal a different uh result but nevertheless I'm quite quite proud of that uh humble uh opportunity to be a part of their lives. Get a great and a biblically ca uh based education is the next one. Uh Liberty University in uh Lynchburg, Virginia is one of the largest private Christian colleges universities in the world. They have virtually every subject that uh you'd want a degree in. And you can go there and not have your faith destroyed by people who are antagonistic to your Christian faith. They're not the only one, but they're certainly an example of where you ought to get a good education. Whether you want to be a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer or or an accountant, I think all of those things are available there. Get a decent profession. By decent, I mean morally right. Some of you, I don't know, you know, is your aspiration to be a criminal, you know, a mafia person, make a lot of money and run for your life and always be looking over your shoulder. Most people don't start out like that, right? Most people have a little more humble expectation, uh maybe a little more normal desire for uh living a a decent and and uh modestly successful life. That's fairly typical. But you need to get an honest profession to do that. And you need to apply yourself diligently to your field of knowledge. In my industry, I was probably the 30-year industry I just came out of, I was probably one of the top 10 or 20 people in the world in my specified field of knowledge. And now I'm doing something completely different. And most of the time I feel like an idiot and they don't know what I'm doing. So if there are any accountants in the uh uh room that would like to have a ministry to me and the school be very happy to talk to you. The next thing is to build a Christian home. I can't say enough about that and what it means in the lives of your children and for generations to come. When my friend Dean decided to make his home a Christian home, do you see what it did to his kids? It changed the trajectory of their lives. And by changing the trajectory of their lives, it's changed many other lives in the process. Always help and encourage others. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ is a good verse for that. And prepare for leadership at your church. The church needs competent leaders and teachers. I guess that's I don't know if I'm competent or not, but I think that's why the uh the leadership at the church here are letting new people have an opportunity to preach. And uh I certainly appreciate that. It's a gift that I thought I had many years ago and didn't use as you know, many of you know uh for 30 years. Uh I preached my first sermon here one or two months ago. First time in 30 years. It evidently wasn't so bad that you at least asked me to come back and have another another crack at it. So, I appreciate it. I appreciate your patience. But you know what? The church needs leaders that are committed to using godly wisdom and not always offering their opinion. You know, when it comes to spiritual matters, it takes spiritual judgment and discernment to make these decisions and offer these advices rather than using the wisdom of the world. And sometimes churches are run just like businesses, very large churches, 30, 40,000 people in the US at some churches. And they're so business-minded. Even the worship service, you have to be a degreed musician to sing or to play an instrument. You know, uh that that's beyond me. Last, be faithful throughout your life. Don't quit. Be not weary and welloing, for in due season you will reap if you faint not. And Paul said, "I have run the race. I have finished the course that God has set before me." I pray that all of you will be encouraged uh to stay faithful to God and uh enjoy his blessings. That you'll seek the wisdom of God. James tells us that if we ask God for wisdom, he'll give it to us. And if we do that, our lives will be blessed because of it. Let's close in prayer. The worship team can come. Lord Jesus, I know the uh the just the mass and the volume of the uh the content of these scriptures uh is significant. I hope I've not done an injustice by just uh pointing to the life lessons of the proverbs that are uh in the section of scripture we looked at today. Lord, help us to appreciate godly wisdom. Help us to demonstrate it. Help us to seek it and covet it uh as though it were gold or or the most precious thing in all of life. And Lord, we know that if we follow you, uh we may not always be uh on the top, but you're always with us wherever we are. And that's enough. It should be enough for a believer. So Lord, I thank you for your faithfulness to walk with us, to guide us, and to give us wisdom. We thank you for that. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
