Sermon from May 10, 2026. Morning sermon

Today we will be discussing interesting proberbs from Ecclesiastes 7:1-13

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

You have your Bibles. If you turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 1 through 13. Awful tempting to just say, Jackson, come on back up. I appreciate the song to worship. I like it. It blesses my soul when people use their gifts and talents for the Lord. I like that. I'm grateful for that. Grateful this morning for those who use their gifts of cooking or their talent of cooking. The problem is, um, like some of you that had breakfast with me, we probably ate a little too much bacon and everything else. So kind of struggling this morning. So bear with us. But we want to look at Ecclesiastes chapter 7 today, and we want to walk through just briefly through verses one uh one of chapter 7 through about 13, maybe hit 14. And I titled this Interesting Proverbs. And the reason is we're going to look over a couple Proverbs in these verses. Okay, so what I want to do first is cut on the controller so it'll flip. Next thing I want to do is take a look. What is a proverb? When you think of the word proverb in a Christian setting, we think of the book of Proverbs, right? Uh written by Solomon wise sayings. But get on the line, a little dictionary definition. The Cambridge Dictionary says the Proverbs is like a short sentence, et cetera, uh, usually known by many people, stating something commonly experienced or giving advice. Now, obviously, biblical proverbs, a little bit more detailed coming from the Lord, etc. But just basic Proverbs. Just for a second, I want to do a little pop quiz. Don't do this very often, but just want a pop quiz. See, because this here, this this secular definition says uh usually known by a lot of people. So I'm just curious to see if you know about these proverbs. Okay, let's take a look at some of these. Help me out. There's a blank there, and as I read it, I want you to help me fill in the blank. Okay. So the first one says, actions speak louder than. Okay, that sounded like 97% in the room because we got some little ones that one probably can't speak yet unless she's out of the room. If she's out of the room and she we got uh two others that maybe don't know these proverbs. What about the next one? Don't judge a book by its yeah, the early bird catches thee better late than, and then where there's a will, there's a now. When you think about these proverbs, are they easy to understand? Okay, well, if they're easy to under explain, I mean to understand, tell me why, if it says the early bird catches a worm, why'd I see a bird yesterday at four o'clock eating a worm? Catching them all, is that what it is? Proverbs are they can be cute. Yeah, they started early. Proverbs can be cute little sayings, but they can also be used to teach lessons. They can be a way of getting a message in indirectly instead of just coming out flat out calling a spade a spade. Different ways that Proverbs can be used. Well, let's start off with the first one here, the first two. Listen to what it says. A good name is better than precious ointment. The day of the death than the day of birth. Now let's think about that. What exactly does that mean? A good name is better than precious ointment. If I think of precious ointment today, I'm thinking of some kind of fancy what I call foo-foo cologne or perfume or something like that. So having a good name, Hearst, just making it up for a moment, is better than being able to afford whatever the I don't wear cologne, obviously, but whatever the latest cologne or perfume is. Is it that simple or could it be a little bit deeper? Yeah, but look what it says. The day of the death better than the day of birth. So let's look at these two types of proverbs together and think about this for a second. What if having that good name at your death is better than having that precious ointment like they would use in biblical times and spices to prepare a body to be buried? The catch there, if you put it towards death, that good name is something you truly don't know about until the end, right? Because up until the end, it's possible that something could happen and mess up that good name. So we have to be careful with that. A good name is better than precious ointment, the day of death than the day of birth. Now, the day of death better than birth. But I do know that when someone dies, Christian or not, that it's tragic, it's sad, there's a time of mourning, there's lots of crying going on. I know that. But could it be in the eyes of Solomon, one of the wisest or the wisest men to walk to earth outside of Christ, could it be that he was on to something? Could it be that maybe we've got things a little bit mixed up? Yeah, when we have a birth of a baby, we get excited, you bring gifts and you sell these blessings over the child, but you know what? What if we were to mourn when that baby's born? Knowing that all it's going to have to go through before the Lord calls the baby home. Now, it's one thing just to have a baby born and go through all the things before it dies when it's older. It's another thing if that baby grows up and becomes a Christian and realize that you have to suffer for the name of Jesus. At the end of life, they're no longer around the loved one, the person, and you're sad about that, obviously. We mourn, we cry. But for believers, shouldn't we, with all due respect in saying this, shouldn't we be happy for them if they're a true believer? Because they're no longer in pain. And even if they weren't in like physical pain, like of cancer or something, they're no longer having to put up with all the junk that's going on in the world today. Instead, Paul would say, to be absent, the bodies are present with Christ. So when someone takes their last breath, we should almost be rejoicing. Now it doesn't make sense in terms of what we're used to thinking. We're used to thinking you got a baby shower, we're going to be happy, we're going to be in grifts. When someone dies, you still send flowers, you send money to an organization, and you're sad. And that's human response. But just for a moment, think about that. A proverb. Having a good name up until your time of death is better than the burial. Because you know, when people pass, they're going to be taken care of in terms of that they're going to somebody's going to give them a funeral. So, what good is it to have that fancy funeral, or back in those days, have all the right spices, but yet not have a good name? What I mean by that. What is it to have all the fancy stuff done at your funeral? And the pastor, the minister not being able to say that that person truly walked with Jesus, that they didn't have a good name of reputation with the Lord. So just some things to think about when it comes to life and death. It goes on with the same concept. It says in verse 2, it's better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. For this is the end of all mankind, and the living will take it to heart. Better to go to a place where there's mourning than feasting. I don't know about you, but I like to feast. We kind of did that in excess this morning. Two biscuits and more than five pieces of bacon was not a good choice with coffee and orange juice. We had fun, we enjoyed that. But mourning is better than feasting? Oh, you see, when everything is going well, our stomachs are full, our plates are full, there's money in the bank account. Do we often give thanks to ourselves for that? Look what I did. But when we're mourning and when we're sad and things are going difficult, there's one way we can turn to find true peace and comfort. That's in Jesus Christ, the one who said, Take my yoke upon me, my way is easy. Blessed are those who mourn. There's something to be said about mourning over uh feasting and laughter. Look at the next verse. Sorrow, it says, is better than laughter. It goes on to say, For by sadness of face the heart is made glad. Again, we can laugh, we can have fun, we can cut up, things can be going well. But when do we give our attention to the Lord? Is it when things are going well or is it when things are going difficult? Obviously, for the Father, he wants us to be in a relationship with him, to where in the good times and the bad we give him praise and honor and love and we worship him and call on him. But oftentimes it's more when things are going difficult. It's easier to get through those times if we praise him in the good times, but can we praise him in the good times and the difficult times? It goes for the heart of the wise is in the house of the morning, but the heart of the fools is in the house of mirth. Same thing, mirth being the ointment and spices, things like that. Let's move on. Something to think about as we look at those first four verses of death. A lot can be gained by sober reflection on death. This idea, this reflection, should turn people to Christ and not away from Christ. Is it true when we get older, we contemplate death a little bit? I did it yesterday and got fussed at. Because I was thinking about when my time's up, where am I gonna be buried? I guess I don't have much choice in it because I'm not gonna be around. I can leave some instructions. But on a serious note, the older we get, we look at how we've lived and look how much time we may have left. Does that not want to draw us closer to the Lord to make sure that we're truly walking with Him? Now, for others who don't know the Lord, it might get taken further. Why me in this old age? Am I in pain and am I in suffering? I confess the other day I was playing racquetball. I know, no, what is that game called? It's not racketball, it's pickleball. I can't remember. And I was playing a little bit on the competitive side, and I wanted to make sure that I won because the team that was winning needed a little humble pill. So I took that racket and I ran up to the net and I got a shot. It was a really good shot. Nobody thought I could hit it. But when I swung that racket spinning over, something did something on the back left hip of mine. I don't know exactly what it was, and I don't really want to know. All I know is that when I walk a little bit, it hurts. It hurts worse when I sit. Now I could complain all day long. Lord, why does this have to happen? I'm getting old. And I hear it's gonna get a lot worse. I told a guy two days ago as we were doing some work for another church, cutting some grass and trimming bushes, and he said, Oh, I deal with that stuff all day. You're gonna be fine. You know, he said it's gonna get a lot worse. I'm like, well, thanks for the encouragement. But what I'm saying here, just using that little silly illustration, is as we reflect on getting older, oh, can we thank the Lord for getting us through the good times and the bad times? And can we continue to trust him that even though I can't move as fast as I used to could move, I can still move. And even if it gets to the point where I can't move and I'm wheelchair bound or bed bound, I've still got a God who is in control, who still loves me and still has a purpose for my life as long as there's breath in it. And when that breath stops, that purpose just is to be in his presence on a full-time basis. Not to be morbid on a Sunday when we're supposed to celebrate mothers, but contemplating death. Are you ready for it? Do you know where you're going when it happens? I pray that we'll contemplate that. Let's not get mad and angry that it's coming because I mean it's coming for us quicker than we know. But may it be something as we meditate on it, turns us closer to Him because of the promises in His Word. The next little section we'll look at quickly talks about choosing wisdom over folly. When you think about wisdom, I'm gonna define the words before we look at them. Wisdom in a secular sense is the ability to apply knowledge, experience, and understanding and insight, make sound judgments and decisions. When it comes to the biblical idea of wisdom, it involves the fear of God, moral uprightness, and applying divine truth to life. That's just a brief summary of what wisdom means. Look at a brief uh summary of the word folly, same thing. Secular definition, the lack of good judgment, understanding or foresight, uh resulting in foolish actions, behaviors, or ideas. The idea would be the rejection of moral and spiritual values. So looking at that, let's look at what it says in verse 5. Better or it's better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the songs of fools. The concept would be a wise man is giving you something that maybe you don't understand. He's giving you some wisdom, maybe through a proverb, to kind of encourage you to help you out. It's better to have that than listen to the songs of people who are foolish. Jesting, laughing. There's nothing wrong with cutting up and having fun and singing silly songs. There's nothing wrong with that necessarily. But the idea is that not reject, we should not reject wisdom because that comes from the Lord. And a lot of times that wisdom might rebuke us not because the person is trying to be smarter than us or holier than us, but because the Lord has a word for us to keep us on track with what he's wanting to do in and through your life. Does that make sense? We shouldn't reject wisdom. Whether it be it comes in an encouraging way, or in this case, in a way of rebuke, because it's something that we're doing. It goes on to say, for the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools, this also is vanity. You take a pot, you put uh stuff up, brush under to cook, it's gonna sometimes it'll make a popping noise, but also that's gonna disappear pretty quickly. The laughter of fools is gonna pass. The idea we're gonna choose wisdom over folly. It says in verse 7, surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and bribe uh corrupts the heart. Here we switch a little bit into the politics, like we did a few weeks ago in Ecclesiastes. The idea that those who are wise who seek to, your Bible might say extort, if I think in the King James it says extort. Uh so if you're trying to, as a wise person is just trying to extort somebody or oppress them, it's gonna turn you crazy, it's gonna mess you up. A bribe will corrupt the heart. In the political world, it's very difficult to stay out of bribes because that takes place, you see it in the news all the time, we don't need to discuss it. But think about that. Look at verse 8. Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. I'm not going to take time to walk through all these, but just real simple, that second part, being patient in our spirit is better than being proud. I think that speaks the both of those, I think, speak for themselves. Verse 9, be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the hearts of fools. Yes, we know that Christ got angry, but it was a righteous anger. But outside of the righteous anger, there's sinful anger. How do we do with that? What scripture say? Well, anger lodges in the hearts of fools. What good does it do us to harbor in that anger? Much less let it get to the point where it becomes anger. Need to let it out. Need to talk to the Lord about it. Let him deal with us so it doesn't lodge in our heart. Verse 10, say not, why are the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Verse 11, wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the Son. Verse 12, for the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. Walking through some of these verses kind of quick because of our time, but go back and process this concept of wisdom, folly, and wealth. And the idea where we're headed is this consider the work of God, who can make straight what he has made crooked. And to conclude with it, I want to add in verse 14 and the day of prosperity be joyful, and the day of adversary, consider God has made the one as well as the other, so man may not find out anything that will be after him. Yes. Maybe it feels like we righteous a little bit. But here's what I want you to think about this Mother's Day. New hope. We come here, today's a day that we worship the Lord like every day. The world tells us that it's Mother's Day. There's nothing wrong with celebrating mothers. We love our mothers. But like I was talking to Jackson earlier, within the scope of someone called mother, there's lots of emotions going on today. Some mothers may have lost a child or an adult child, others may have lost their own mother. So we want to make sure first and foremost we put our emphasis on our worship of God. Grateful for mothers, don't get me wrong, that's why we had a little celebration for them over there this morning. But our worship needs to be for the Almighty God. That being said, for all the mothers in the room and everybody else in this room, can we understand that true peace can be found in accepting all things as part of God's will? Now I have to be careful with that statement because you will say to me, Well, why is it that this had to happen to my mother? Why did she have to get cancer? Or is a mother, why did my child have to die? Those are some answers that I can't, or some questions that would be difficult to give you a good answer to. I'm not going to say to this to you at the funeral home, but I can say it here, okay? Scripture tells us in Romans 8.28, and I know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called to his purpose. Does that make sense? It's a good verse, it's a cute verse, it's a very popular verse. People say it a lot. But for us now, looking back in Ecclesiastes, would Solomon tell us the same thing? All we've heard the last couple months as we walk into Ecclesiastes is wisdom and folly and everything is in vain because he's tried everything. But if we can live life being content, knowing that God's in control and he's at work, let us take the good, the bad, and the ugly. Walk with him and let him be God. That doesn't mean we're not going to have bad days. That doesn't mean we're not going to complain once in a while. But that means we've got somebody that we can go to, who we can cling to when we're having trouble, when we get bad news. And that one person is the one who can give us true peace, that we're surpassed, according to scripture, we're surpass all understanding. As we leave today, simple questions, two of them. One, do we reflect upon do we reflect on biblical proverbs? We've just seen a couple in Ecclesiastes. We've seen a bunch actually throughout the whole book. The book of Proverbs is full of them. I would encourage you to read them once in a while. To think about these wise sayings from the Lord. And secondly, do we understand why there should be rejoicing at a Christian's death? Again, I'm not saying that we're going to go out tomorrow, we're going to have a funeral, and I want everybody to come singing and be all happy. No, we're going to mourn. But when the outside world sees us mourn, but yet give thanks to God because where that person is, our mourning is going to look a little bit different. Yeah, we're going to cry. Yeah, we're going to be upset. Yeah, we might shake and have a little panic attack or something like that. I get that. But the world will know that we mourn differently because our loved ones are in a better place. So make sure we have a good understanding that sometimes the end of life is a good thing because the suffering's over, the pain is over, the struggle is over, and they're in the presence of the Lord. For a believer. For non believers, total opposite. And then, lastly, like I said a minute ago, true peace can be found in accepting all as part of God's will. I think we see that throughout Ecclesiastes. So I pray today, as we spend time with family and friends, let's reflect on the good memories. Share good stories and maybe shed a tear over some sad memories. But all the way, either way, let's give thanks to the Almighty, because He's in charge and He's working out a plan that we may not fully understand until we stand face to face with Him. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for the opportunity you give us to have a relationship with you where we can talk with you, we can come to you with our problems, we can give thanks to you, we can rely on you, lean on you, et cetera, et cetera. I pray today that you'll comfort the hearts of all of our mothers in this room, that you encourage them, strengthen them, and guide them as they continue to serve in their role as mother and do what you've called them to do to raise godly children and godly adult children. Would you speak to our hearts today, Father? Remind us that you're in control of all things, that you're still God. There's no surprises for you. And Father, help us just to be committed to lean on you each and every day. We love you. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.