Wisdom for the Heart

Uncommon Common Sense

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What if the real steering wheel of your life isn’t your plans but your heart’s hidden lean? We explore Ecclesiastes 10 with vivid images—dead flies in perfume, a fatal leap from the Eiffel Tower—to show how “small” follies corrode trust, reshape direction, and eventually announce themselves through our actions. This isn’t about fear-mongering; it’s about the kind of uncommon common sense that protects what matters most: integrity, clarity, and a life anchored in truth.

We walk through three unforgettable illustrations of folly and turn them into practical guardrails: how tiny compromises stain a good name, why a heart trained by God’s Word leans toward blessing and stability, and how behavior reveals belief long before we speak. Along the way, we contrast the modern chase for meaning—hedonism, nihilism, self-made purpose, and even cosmic searches for life—with the grounded wisdom of Scripture. Exploration and sincerity are good; a faulty premise is not. When we ignore the Creator, we jump with a broken parachute, then call it courage.

The conversation culminates with a clear invitation from Jesus: “I am the light of the world.” Wisdom is not just advice; it’s a Person who brings forgiveness, authority, and hope. If your reputation feels fragile, if your inner compass drifts, or if your actions keep telling a story you don’t want to live, this message offers a reset. Guard your heart. Reclaim your aroma of integrity. Let the Light realign your steps for this life and the life to come.

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Stephen's latest book, The Disciples Prayer, is available now. https://www.wisdomonline.org/store/view/the-disciples-prayer-hardback

SPEAKER_01:

So I'm going to say here that the master control room that dominates our direction is the heart. That perspective you have about God, that perspective you have about life, that perspective you have about his word, that hidden perspective resides in your heart, and he writes, it inclines you, it dominates you in your decisions toward the right or the left. Everything in life ultimately follows the heart.

SPEAKER_00:

Not just for this life, but as you journey through life toward the eternal life to come. Many people conclude that they need a God. The problem is they don't want the God of the Bible. To them and to us, God says, stop wandering around in your own speculations. I'm the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. God offers us his wisdom, and Stephen Davy will explore that with you. And this message he's calling uncommon common sense.

SPEAKER_01:

On the morning of February 22nd, 1911, an inventor by the name of Hervaux climbed the Eiffel Tower to test a new parachute he had developed for pilots. He checked the wind speed, took a nervous breath, and began to test. His parachute worked perfectly, sailed safely to the ground. Hervault didn't make the jump himself. He'd attached a 160-pound test dummy to the parachute. To another inventor in the race to perfect the parachute. This was an act of cowardice. A man by the name of Rechelt was an Austrian tailor who denounced the use of a dummy. And one year later, he arrived at the Eiffel Tower to prove his point and to prove his parachute was superior. As he posed in a mob of people that had come to watch, reporters and photographers, he announced, and I quote, I am so convinced my device will work properly, I will jump with it myself. Herveau was there. He pulled Rochelle to side and tried to talk him out of it. And a heated argument took place. He explained there were technical reasons this wouldn't work, and he was using half the amount of fabric he should be using in tested parachutes. Besides, a team of experts had already weighed in that the parachute was too small and it wouldn't work. Come to find out, he was not only going to ignore all of them, he was also ignoring his own experience. He had already tested this parachute using dummies and they had crashed. He'd strapped it on himself, testing it from 30 feet into a hayloft and it crashed. He tried it without a hayloft at 20 feet and broke his leg when he hit the ground. But he wasn't about to listen to reason and he pressed on. Reporters covering the event recorded that when he jumped from the Eiffel Tower, he fell for nearly five seconds, accelerating constantly until he hit the ground at 60 miles an hour, dying instantly in the fall. When I read that, I couldn't help but believe he became a dramatic example of so many tragedies. Stubbornness, willful ignorance, refusing to have the sense to listen instead of talk. But he also became an example of someone lacking what we would call today just plain old common sense. He didn't lack an education. He had a good one. He didn't lack a good job he owned the company. He didn't lack courage. He didn't lack determination. He didn't lack persistence. He lacked common sense to apply what he'd learned in the past to something he was going to do in the future. He lacked that intangible, God-given, protective common sense, which we are prone to say in these days it isn't so common anymore. Uncommon. Common sense. Solomon has essentially described on several occasions in his writings this kind of individual, stubborn, naive, woefully ignorant. In fact, he will use the words fool, folly, foolishness more than a hundred times in his writings we call wisdom literature. In chapter 10 of Ecclesiastes, where we find ourselves today, he's going to use these words nine different times. He's going to open, and we'll open chapter 10 together, with giving us, or by giving us three illustrations of folly. And here's the first one. Notice verse 1. Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench. So a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. You could translate the word honor and honorable reputation. It might be helpful to know that perfume was as well known then as it is now and highly valued. In the ancient world, perfume making was a highly skilled science. In Daniel's generation in Babylon, the magi, the wise men, were in charge of guarding their most precious formulas. In the days of Esther, merchants scoured the earth attempting to find the latest fragrance of lotion, cologne, perfume. But of course, the most expensive bottle of perfume could instantly become worthless, and it happened enough times that Solomon had seen it himself and uses it now as an illustration. Flies or insects get into the formula, and once the bottle is sealed, they flow to the top, and it just kind of ruins everything. Think about our own world. If you went through that drive-through, across the street, you get that incredibly overpriced cup of coffee, and you open the lid, and you're gonna stir that caramel drizzle into your white chocolate mocha. Okay, I've spent that money too. And you open it, and there floating on top is a dead fly. You wouldn't back up and ask the employee, hey, would you get a little spoon and scoop that fly off so I can enjoy this cup of coffee? No. It's all corrupted, it's all contaminated. The entire coffee is ruined. Solomon is making a connection that we might not necessarily want to make, but common sense tells us it's it's true. Just as dead flies can ruin expensive perfume, so just a little folly, just a little foolishness, can cast a shadow over an otherwise good reputation. In principle form, we might summarize it to say this small sins will eventually dirty a good reputation. Just a little lie, just a little look, just a little padding on the expense account, just a little exaggerating on the resume. We have seen what a little folly can do in the lives and reputations of church leaders in our generation, certainly world leaders. Suddenly that little folly is brought to light and it robs the reputation of its aroma of integrity and honesty and purity. Sort of contaminates the whole thing. I have visited people in prison over the years. We receive nearly every week letters from inmates who tell their story of how it all began, and it always began with that one little step. In 1859, Charles Spurgeon, whom I enjoy reading, famous pastor in London, he preached a sermon entitled Little Sins. And he said this the wisest among us have always been afraid of little sins. And it reminded me of Paul, who was saying he feared after having preached being disqualified. The wisest believer, he says, has always been afraid of little sins. We recognize, he goes on to say, that hell is slumbering in the smallest sins. There is a world of iniquity hidden in a single act, thought, or imagination of sin, and we should avoid it with horror. Because little sins lead to great sins, so stand far away. What a great reminder. Solomon says it this way: little sins can dirty or even destroy a good reputation. He gives us a second illustration of folly. He writes, notice in verse 2, a wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left in principle form. You might summarize this by saying heartfelt perspectives will eventually dominate a person's direction. A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left. Now, when Solomon writes that wise people move to the right and fools move to the left, he isn't so much making a political statement, although you can't help but smile. There is the categorical truth. In fact, it's interesting to me that 3,000 years later we're still borrowing God's vocabulary for a worldview, a categorical bent. Solomon, however, isn't making so much that kind of statement, although it can be applied. He isn't trying to offend all of us left-handers in the audience as well. He's referring to generations of custom, and this is in fact the vocabulary of God. This is his word going all the way back to the patriarchs in Genesis 48. They are always blessing, conveying the covenant blessing with their right hand. So it represents blessing. It was associated in the scriptures with divine protection. You're always told that God is holding you by your right hand. You are in his right hand. Psalm 17. It refers to God's authority, God's person, God's power, which is why we're told that Jesus is sitting where? At the right hand of the Father. He represents the authority and the power of the Father. Colossians 3, verse 1. To this day, we're borrowing from this vocabulary. When we raise our right hand to make an oath in court that will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We are borrowing from this vocabulary. When we shake the right hand of someone with whom we're making a word of mouth contract, I'm gonna keep my word, let's shake on it. This is why we to this day shake someone else's hand in greeting, and it's always the right hand. At least we used to do that. I can't wait to get back to that, by the way. Solomon is saying here that the master control room that dominates our direction is the heart. That hidden perspective nobody in here knows but you and God. That perspective you have about God, that perspective you have about life, that perspective you have about his word, that hidden perspective resides in your heart, and he writes, it inclines you, it leans you, it dominates you and your decisions toward the right or the left. Everything in life ultimately follows the heart. It's the control room. It's why Solomon will write in Proverbs, guard your heart, for out of it are the issues of life and death, we get at. What Solomon writes here is the truth that if your hidden heart, so to speak, has a particular view, viewpoint, it'll lean you to the right. We know in the Word of God that it inclines you toward his authority, his power, his word. It leans you then toward God. If it leans you to the left, then it is leaning you away from God's authority, God's power, God's word. You might not like Solomon's description here in verse 2, but he's clearly announcing that if you're leaning toward the right, you're wise, he writes. And if you're leaning toward the left, you're a fool. I'm just repeating what the Bible says. You can take up your argument with God. But but listen, God really doesn't want you to argue. And you don't want to argue with God. God wants us to evaluate our heart. Why am I leaning one way or another? What does that say about my view of God's word? What does that say about my view of God? The question we need to ask ourselves then is which way are we leaning? Common sense would say, you really ought to lean toward God. You really ought to lean toward God's word and his glory. Folly would say, don't ruin the party, don't box yourself in. God probably, we think, we're pretty sure, doesn't exist. Common sense tells us, you know, that small sin could dirty an entire reputation. That hidden perspective is going to show up and dominate the direction of my life. Now there's a third illustration. Verse three, notice there. Even when a fool walks on the road, he lacks sense. Common sense. And he says to everyone that he is a fool. Solomon is essentially telling us here that a foolish person lacks common sense. And he's walking down a road. The illustration is he's just walking. By the way, he's not saying anything. He's just walking. He's walking down a road. Hadn't said a word, but all you have to do without ever hearing him say a word is watch him. And by observing his conduct, he's gonna reveal whether he thinks he's not foolish or not. It's going to show his foolishness is more aware than he would ever think. We could put this text into principle form and say it this way: fools will eventually be distinguished by their actions. You can't hide it. It's gonna leak out. One author comments that this person is unaware how transparent his foolishness is. He more than likely thinks he's wise. Even though he is a fool. Now remember, if you're new to this study, that a fool in the Bible is not a derogatory term necessarily. It's a descriptive term. It describes someone who is denied the authority of God, denied the creator God, denied the word of God in rebellion against the truth of God. This is described, of course, more fully in Romans chapter 1, where Paul talks about those who deny that God created the heavens and the earth. They can't get over that first sentence in the Bible. They stumble there and stumble the rest of their way through. Instead of thanking God that he is creator, he says in Romans 1, they refuse to acknowledge him. They suppress the truth about him. And they wander around, Paul writes, in their speculations about origins, they wander around in the digression of their moral standards, Romans 1 delivers to us, and God makes this announcement in Romans chapter 1 and verse 20. For all though, Paul writes, they knew about God. They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts went dark. They turned out the light, you could say. And they were analyzed in this rather exhaustive study to determine what these people would have believed to be the meaning of life. You could call it a worldview or whatever you want to call it. And none of them really came up with much of an answer or a worldview. 17% of them believed that life was simply to be enjoyed because once it was lived, it was over. And that isn't a new thought. They were analyzing the writings of men and women who lived 250 years ago, 150 years ago plus. 11% of them said life doesn't have any meaning. Why are we so worried about that? Just live it. Don't worry about meaning. Because there's no hope anyway. One of them, Clarence Darrow, wrote it this way, was in this 11%. Life is like a ship tossed by every wave and by every wind, a ship headed to no port and no harbor with no rudder, no compass, no pilot, simply floating for time and then lost in the waves. 5% who are analyzed believe that we create our own meaning. There is meaning, but you come up with it. One who represented this percentage, Carl Sagan, wrote it this way: we live in a vast universe where humanity clings to an obscure clod of rock. The significance of our lives derives from our own wisdom. Did you get that? The meaning of life comes from our own wisdom. Well, how is that working for you? That's like jumping off the Eiffel Tower with a parachute that has already failed over and over and over again, saying, I'm gonna do it one more time because this time I think it'll work. The wisdom of this world has consistently failed to answer the most basic and yet most important questions of human existence. Where did we come from? Why are we here? Is there anybody out there? And where are we going? Because my common sense tells me this isn't all there is. There's something out there, and there has to be meaning for life. So maybe what we need to do is just try a little harder and maybe look out into the universe a little farther. Because perhaps we haven't gone far enough in searching the universe for answers. Like a few years ago, in fact, just five years ago, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley announced that they were going to join a$100 million project for space exploration to see if they could find life in the universe. Maybe that life form would have some answers as to how we got here and what does life mean. So the plan is to send little tiny nanocrafts, they call it, traveling at one-fifth the speed of light to Alpha Centauri. And one of the mentors of the project, Stephen Hawking, who was still alive at the time, expressed the purpose of this project very clearly by stating, quote, it is important to know if we are alone in the dark. End quote. Never mind the word of God. Never mind the evidence of history. Never mind that opening line. In the beginning, God created the heavens and specifically the earth. You ever notice whenever the author of scripture talks about God creating the universe which includes earth, he always then focuses on earth. God created the universe and the earth. Isaiah clears it up. In chapter 45 in verse 10, where it says that God created the universe as waste, that is, as uninhabitable space. But, Isaiah says, He created the earth to be inhabited. That universe out there declares how big God is, and I can promise you, as far as you can see, you'll still not reach the end of it. It declares to us the chasm between us and heaven is too great to span. It tells us how big God is. The Bible provides the answer, but never mind it. Never mind fulfilled prophecy, never mind an empty tomb, never mind someone who came back to life. While we're talking about that, we ought to do something religious, though. Why? Because common sense tells me that I'm a religious creature. So religion steps in and adds to the confusion. It adds to the speculation. It can't cleanse the guilt I feel over sin. It can't give me confidence beyond the grave. That candle, that ritual, that can't provide a savior beyond myself. If anything tells me, I like the religions that do, that I'm for the most part okay, but I ought to try harder. And so mankind, intuitively, with that common sense creation given to them, knows that they're troubled. We're all troubled by the dead flies in our character. Where we're troubled by a sinful heart that wants to dominate the direction in the wrong direction. We're troubled by the foolishness that we sense in a world around us. We're troubled, and so we'll cling to some kind of religious system, but it will remove the sufficient atonement of Christ as Savior. It's not going to deal with our sin. It's not going to provide redemption, but at least I lit a candle. At least I tried to be better. See, it makes sense, common sense to the honest person that we need a God. So a mankind is intuitively worshiping something. Someone. So let's use the Bible just enough to sound religious. There's a church in Northern California I read about recently. It has portraits of famous people hanging in a very ornate, beautiful lobby. There's a portrait of Socrates. There's even one of Eleanor Roosevelt. There's a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi. Even one of Jesus, as the painter imagined. And above the assembled portraits is a statement from the Bible written in beautiful gold letters. And it reads, You are all children of God. And when I read that, I read it with sadness because I couldn't imagine all of the people passing in and out of that lobby. Being told that they were all children of God. It's one thing to have a heart that leads you into making a wrong decision. It's one thing to have a reputation solely by some exposed sin. It's one thing to think you're really intelligent when people around you can see that you're not nearly as intelligent as you think they think you are. That'll just kind of mess up your life. But it's another thing on an entirely different level to believe the wrong message about life after this one. You see, that Churchalobi only put up the first part of a verse from Galatians chapter 3. The entire verse says, For you are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Listen to him. Listen to Jesus, who says, Stop wandering around in the darkness of your own speculation. He says in John chapter 8 and verse 12, I am the light of the world. I can turn the light on. I can bring light to your darkness. I am the light of the darkness. Light of the world. Whoever, he says, follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have light. The light of life. So which way are you leaning, my friend? Who are you following? What direction are you taking? Does it really make common sense? Not just for this life, but for the life to come.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davy. We're currently in a series exploring God's wisdom in the Book of Ecclesiastes. The series is called Pursuing Wisdom Under the Sun. And Stephen's message for today is entitled Uncommon Common Sense. Perhaps you joined us late and missed the first part of the message. Or maybe you'd like to listen again or share this message with a friend or loved one. We've posted it to our website and you'll find it at wisdomonline.org. Stephen has been pastoring the Shepherd's Church in Carey, North Carolina for almost four decades. His entire archive of Bible teaching is posted online, and you can listen to all of it. You can also read Stephen's sermon manuscripts absolutely free. Go to wisdomonline.org and explore the Bible teaching archive. If you have a comment or question, our email is info at wisdomonline.org. Thanks for being with us today. Join us next time for more Wisdom for the Heart.