The Test: Is Foolishness the Better Choice?
(Ecclesiastes 2)
Note: The illustrations in this sermon were mostly borrowed from Sermon Central
Intro
1. This is the 100th anniversary of powered flight! It was 100 years ago that the Wright Brothers successfully flew the first airplane at Kitty Hawk.
After Wilbur and Orville Wright’s successful flight on December 17, 1903, they joyfully sent a telegram to their sister in Dayton, Ohio. The message read: "First sustained flight, 59 seconds. Home for Christmas."
The sister, also elated, ran all the way to the newspaper office with the telegram. Laying the message on the editor’s desk, she announced, "I thought you would want to see this for tomorrow’s paper."
Sure enough, the next day it was in the paper, but you had to look for it. It was buried on page 16, underneath the obituaries. The notice said, "Local bicycle merchants to spend Christmas at home."
Can you believe it? One of the major events of the 20th century and the editor completely missed it.
That editor is not the only one. Many of us have a difficult time sorting through the events of life trying to understand what is important and what is unimportant.
2. When it comes to the meaning of life, many miss the boat and assume the philosophy of hedonism. Hedonism is a way of thinking advocated by the ancient Greek epicureans. It says, "pleasure is the main purpose of life." Or, to put it in the words of an old Schlitz beer commercial, "You only go around once in life, so you may as well get all the gusto you can."
3. This way of thinking runs opposite of the Biblical perspective. The Bible distinguishes legitimate pleasure for the illegitimate. The difference is often a matter of degree and priority. The Bible is not anti-pleasure, but it is God first. It is not wrong to love pleasure. It is wrong to be a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God.
4. Others try to live life by the exercise of wisdom; whereas this is a major step upward from the foolishness of hedonism, apart from an eternal perspective, even wisdom cannot satisfy.
MAIN IDEA: Both foolishness and wisdom fail to satisfy. Both lead us to find the answer somewhere else.
TS--------„³ Note with me some observations about this theme.
I. Foolishness is Often A Choice (1-11)
1. Possessing wisdom is not the same as acting wisely
2. Most people who do stupid things experienced some sort of red light first!
Of course, this is not always true:
(1) the difference between gullibility and foolishness
---easily tricked (anyone can be tricked, but gullible people are easily tricked)
----Matt10:16, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."
(2) often foolishness is a choice
(3) we go through great efforts to make it look like sin overtakes us; we orchestrate situations so that we feel overwhelmed but at least made a fight--sabotage for the sake of our conscience! We really want to give in to our feelings, but we want to set up some sort of self-defense; we tried but failed
(4) Solomon was honest and direct about his choice; he did not pretend otherwise, nor did he rationalize; he purposely and intentionally gave himself over to foolishness
3. Note all the extremes Solomon went too as he choose to embrace foolishness (stats from Sermon Central):
a. Palaces, houses, vineyards, orchards, water pools - 1 Kings 7:1- 12
b. 700 wives, 300 concubines - 1 Kings 11:1-3
c. 550 officals - 1 Kings 9:23
d. Money 120 talents of gold from Hiram - 1 Kings 9:14
420 " " from Ophar - 1 Kings 9:28
120 " " from the Queen of Sheba - 1Kings 10:10
e. Treasures such as spices and fine stones - 1 Kings 10:10
f. Food - for one day - Crops - 30 cors of flour & 60 cors of meal - 1 Kings 4:22
. 10 fat oxen, 20 Grade A cattle, 100 sheep, harts, gazelles, roebucks, chickens, ducks, and some birds - 1 Kings 4:22-23
----he fed thousands daily (servants, wives, children)
4. As David Zimmerman said, "He used his wealth and influence to get anything that caught his eye. "whatsoever my eyes desired". If he saw a beautiful woman, he added her to his harem. If he saw a thoroughbred that promised to be faster than any others, it went into his stables. If he saw a new model chariot on the showroom floor - sleeker, racier --he bought it."
5. Solomon was in a unique position to take it all the the ultimate degree: richest man, smartest man, most powerful man in the world, he did as he pleased.
II. Acting According to Wisdom is Better than Acting According to Folly (12-14)
1. Despite the restraints and moderation wisdom brings, it is the better route.
2. The Lot of the big lottery winners--dream gone
3. Despite the limitations of wisdom, it is still much better than foolishness (13-14)
4. Wise people have their eyes opened, fools bounce around like a ball in a pinball machine--no plan, no direction, no insight
5. Solomon knew this intellectually, but he was NOT CONVINCED and had to learn it the hard way!
6. Millions of Christians today are bent on rediscovering the wheel
(1) parenting: rather than asking advice from those further down the road who have reared children successfully, some have to grope and learn through failure
(2) rather than asking one things are traditionally done a certain way and then choosing to accept or reject that way, they assume things are done for no reason at all, other than they’ve always been done that way
(3) rather than trusting the wise counselors who encourage us married people to avoid building close friendships with the opposite gender, we think we are immune from becoming attached
(4) like Solomon, many Christians waste their lives proving that the Bible’s way is the best way after all
III. Wisdom Is Not Enough to Give Life Meaning (15-23)
1. No matter how wise you are, you are going to die
(1) wise people are more prone toward longer life; they don’t say things like, "let me light a match to see if the gas is leaking."
(2) one characteristic of foolishness is carelessness: Proverbs 14: 16. "A wise man fears the LORD and shuns evil, but a fool is hotheaded and reckless."
2. Everything you’ve built up, your heirs may destroy.
(1) Marylu’s Uncle Joe and his stamp collection
(2) Solomon’s empire split because of his foolish son, Rehoboam
(3) the irony is that Solomon set this up: not good family situation, Solomon’s foolish and excessive lifestyle...if Solomon had followed the advice he wrote in Proverbs, Rehoboam would have probably been wise. Instead, Rehoboam was peer dependent and did not follow the advice of Solomon¡¦s seasoned counselors.
3. Even great wisdom, by itself, is meaningless in the long term.
IV. We Should Make the Most of Life By Embracing A Simple Philosophy (24-26)
1 You need to remember, Ecclesiastes was meant to be read in one sitting; we are going through it gradually
2. Focusing on what matters:
I read about a man recently who was being interviewed about his beautiful home. He gave them the Better Homes and Garden type of tour, and pointed out the great treasures of his home. The person conducting the interview asked, "What’s the most important thing in the house--is it the Rembrandt hanging in the hallway?"
"Yes," said the owner of the house, "Or at least it was until last summer when the river flooded and house was being flooded. For a while the Rembrandt was not nearly as important as the inflatable raft out in the garage."
3. Enjoying work, food, and marriage
see 3:12, "know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him."
9:7-10 . Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do.
8. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil.
9. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun-- all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun.
10. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
4. Live in light of eternity (12:11-14) PLEASE TURN THERE
5. Do not let life¡¦s inconsistencies rob you of the blessings God provides for you
-Looking at the trees of life will confuse you; you must believe that God has a forest with every tree in its place for a purpose; yet,from our vantage point, under the sun, we can’t make sense of it.
CONCLUSION
1. This is one of many reason why you NEED God. He is not an option.
2. Some people think that Christianity is simply a religion, one of many, whose purpose is to instill moral and social values in people.
3. We believe Christianity is meant to be a kingdom of individuals, each with a true and personal relationship with Jesus Christ who focus in upon knowing and serving God. Moral values and social decency are by-products of our faith, not the goal.
4. We have real purpose is life because the REAL God sent His real Son as the real Jesus of the Bible to really pay the penalty for our real sins, who really and physicall rose again and really offers us a relationship to God and the forgiveness of sin by faith alone in Him.
5. So Jesus is not just the answer for us. He is the only REAL answer for anybody.
6. We have meaning and purpose and life through Him; as we grow in Him, so does the meaningfulness of our lives. We are to live, as Rick Warren has put it, purpose-driven lives.
