Wisdom for the Heart

How to Ruin Your World, Your Life & Everything Else

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Ever notice how a life can look successful on the outside while quietly unraveling from within? We dig into Ecclesiastes 10 to expose five habits that sabotage character, corrode communities, and leave even gifted people vulnerable: indulgent comfort, chronic neglect, shallow love of money, a loose tongue, and aiming at the wrong target with flawless precision. Through a vivid story of the Great Wall of China and Solomon’s piercing proverbs, we connect breached empires to bribed gatekeepers and then to our own hearts, where integrity—not image—guards the door.

We shift the spotlight from “those leaders out there” to the influence each of us carries at home, at work, and in our circles of faith. Solomon’s contrast is sharp: pampered rulers who feast at dawn versus disciplined leaders who feast for strength. We talk about what dignified leadership looks like in ordinary life—self-control, service over self, and a steady refusal to let appetites set the agenda. We challenge the cultural chorus that “money answers everything,” unpack why wealth can amplify a voice but cannot grant wisdom, and show how indifference turns small leaks into structural collapse.

The turning point is repentance—literally a change of direction. We explore how re-aiming your life begins with admitting the wrong target, then building practices that keep you aligned: daily intake of truth, timely restraint, relational maintenance, and words that heal more than they harm. From social posts to private thoughts, we learn to guard the tongue and steward influence with humility and courage. Walk away with a clear grid for decisions, a renewed aim for your ambitions, and hope that change is possible today.

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SPEAKER_01:

Here he sounds the warning whoa to you. This goes for any person, any home, any community, any church, you're in trouble when life begins to revolve around. You need to take care of me. You need to permit me to do what I want to do. Spiritual growth demands a rejection of this me first attitude. You gotta pamper me, you gotta serve me, give me my way.

SPEAKER_00:

Sometimes moving in the right direction means understanding the wrong direction. In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon helped us with this. He gave us a description of how to aim your life in the wrong direction. I know that seems odd, but a wise way to move in the right direction is to repent of moving in the wrong direction. The word repent literally means to turn around. So when we find ourselves moving toward foolishness, we turn around and pursue what is wise. Today, Stephen explores all of this. In a message called How to Ruin Your World, Your Life, and Everything Else.

SPEAKER_01:

When the Great Wall, as I've read, the Great Wall of China was being built along its northern borders, as you're more than likely aware, was built to protect the empire from the invading tribes that would come down from the north, nomadic tribes. It was actually built over the course of generations, hundreds of years. One archaeological survey that surveyed the entire wall said that it eventually covered some 13,000 miles. Some of it still today stands, and tourists are welcome to walk portions of it. It towers 30 feet in the air, it's 18 feet thick at different places I have read. But it's interesting that China would be invaded even after it was finished at several different occasions by enemy armies, not because the enemy armies figured out how to scale it, but because invading armies bribed the gatekeepers. You know, gates are or walls are only as good as the character of the gatekeepers, right? The idea of national safety, the ideas of leadership, the ideas of rulers with character, have been the focus of Solomon at different points in his journal. And now as we go back to chapter 10, he's going to sharpen the lens and look at leadership all over again. And he's going to define good and bad leaders, not in terms of military power or defense systems and strategies or military might or wealth, but on the basis of character and integrity and purity. If you turn with me to Ecclesiastes, chapter 10, we'll pick up where we left off. And if you're like me, and I think probably you are, and you begin reading verse 11, your first thought is well, this is gonna be a great time to just sort of rail on government, to just sort of pick on political leaders. This is gonna be a great text to talk about good or bad leadership, high taxes, what's happening in our culture. And I'd sort of geared my mind to deal with the cultural phenomena that's facing our world today. I mean, just notice how verse 16 starts out. Woe to you, O land. Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child and your princes feast in the morning. In other words, all they do is lay around and eat and drink, and you might look at that verse and immediately think, I wish I had that job. Sleep in, lounge around, eat what I want, and that while you're saving up for retirement. Sounds like the kind of retirement you'd want to experience. Well, never mind that. This is this is sort of the perfect text to get, you know, to sort of give the rulers an earful. But the more I read this passage and the more I studied it and meditated on it, you know, it occurred to me that there's a direct application here, not just for rulers, but for their subjects, from among whom rulers come. It's not just a good time to talk about leaders, but believers. Not just a time to, you know, let's let's talk about the White House, let's talk about your house and mine. In fact, a verse that came to my mind was 1 Peter 2 9, where the apostle Peter refers to the believer as a special priesthood. Now that's quite a role of leadership, isn't it? Representing God to people. A people, he says, who are uniquely related to God. That makes you royalty as sons and daughters of God by faith in Christ. So that we might do what? As influencers, show forth, demonstrate praise as it relates to the excellencies of God, the glory of God who called us out of darkness into a marvelous light. That really is the message. And that never changes. And that's what our world in any generation, in any culture, desperately needs. People representing the true and living God who give their lives to demonstrating the excellencies of his glory so that they might then, as Jesus said, see you in the way you live and give him glory too. Now, this potential role of leader, which you are, influencer, which you are, is filled with pitfalls and danger and temptation, distraction to keep us from leading and influencing in a way that honors God. So the deeper I got into this text, as we wrap up chapter 10, the more it occurred to me that Solomon is basically giving us Satan's strategy that effectively opens the gates, tempts us to open the gates so that the enemy essentially marches in unopposed to our own hearts, our own lives, our own homes, our own churches, our own communities, and certainly our own nations. So, what are we gonna do about it? Well, let me let me unpack these five, these verses with five statements. This is, and I'll I'll sort of work it in a way to say it in a negative way, but this is the way to ruin your own life. This is the way to ruin your country, this is a way to ruin your home and everything else. First, become pampered and permissive. That's the first way. The national motto for this kind of individual or attitude or perspective is me first. Me first. Now go back to verse 16 again. Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child and your princes feast in the morning. He's describing individuals who are gonna use their authority to take full advantage. They're essentially gonna lie around all morning and do nothing. And if they have to do anything, they're gonna do the least amount possible because they just want to lounge around. And they're after the job, they're after that position, they're after that platform so that they can ultimately serve themselves because it's really all about them. This is an attitude that we all can have. This is sort of the me first. I just want to I just want to lounge around. I don't want to do anything. You know, as I thought about it, the only thing I can think of when it comes to this kind of posh living that I experienced was uh sleepovers at my grandmother's house on Friday nights once a month. My three brothers and I had to rotate. We got a Friday night uh once a week or once a month. And so I had to share this wonderful privilege with my three undeserving brothers, but I got my one shot at it, and and uh it was a great time. One of the best parts about it is that we got to sleep in on Saturday morning. We got to sleep in. She let us sleep in until we wanted to get up. No chores, no homework, no lawn to cut, uh, no laundry to do. My mother had this practice of trading the laundry on Saturday among my brothers. It was a horrible practice. Uh no piano practice, which I hate it. You could lie around. And and and really the neat thing is she had a television, my grandmother did. We didn't have a TV in our home until I was 12. And then it was one of those kinds that you had to turn the channel with a pair of pliers. Any of you ever had that special television set? Yeah, special. He got it on special, I think. That's what he did. She had a really good one, and so we could watch cartoons. And to add to that, in the morning, she gave us coffee. I'm seven years old, I'm drinking coffee watching cartoons. This is the life. And it's not over yet. I mean, she would she would let us choose our own cereal, and then she'd get it that week ahead of time. And mine was always the same. Every Saturday morning, Captain Crunch. Because that was good for me. I could eat the whole box, which I did, while I sipped on my coffee and watched cartoons. I mean, when I saw this verse of lying around and feasting in the morning, that's what I that's what I thought of. Back at my house, all they had was brand flakes, and now I'm old enough to know why. You know, it's okay to experience that once a month, and I know my parents kind of put up with it because they knew it was once a month. It would have been altogether different and devastating if that's how I lived every day. Solomon is describing that kind of lifestyle, that kind of pampered idleness, indulgence. In fact, the context here is feasting that leads to the excess to gluttony and to darkness and to drunkenness. We'll get there in a minute, but you'll notice here he sounds the warning, woe, to you. That's like saying, watch out, look out. You're in trouble if it's coming. This goes for any person, any home, any community, any church, any position of authority, any nation, you're in trouble when life begins to revolve around. You just need to pamper me. You need to take care of me, you need to, you need to permit me to do what I want to do. Woe to you. Solomon uses the word here for child. Notice that? Woe to you, O Lim, when your ruler is a child. He's not referring to a little baby or even a little child. The Hebrew word nair doesn't always refer to a little child. In fact, Joseph was called this, Naer, in the book of Genesis when he was 16. Solomon will use this word for himself when he says they got him a child when he assumes the throne, and when he assumes the throne, he is 30. So Solomon isn't referring here to chronology, he's referring here to maturity, character. We're in trouble. When we're led by individuals at the job, in the home, in our community, in our country, with people who have grown old, but they have not grown up. That's the idea. Again, it's easy to point fingers. It's easy to look at somebody else. But we can open the gates into our own hearts and lives by coming to the thought or the point that, well, I'm gonna grow up spiritually if I just go to church, or if I don't miss Sunday school, or if I, you know, if I if I look at the Bible every so often and I pray before meals. According to God's word, growing up spiritually isn't something you even do, it's what God does in you as you walk in obedience to Christ, and when we walk in obedience to Christ, Paul writes to the Colossians, we grow with a growth that is from God. Colossians 2.19. When we as newborn babies desire the milk of the word that is the truth of the word of God, so that then by it we may grow. 1 Peter 2.2. Spiritual growth demands a rejection of this me first attitude. You gotta pamper me, you gotta serve me, give me my way. Now, at this point, Solomon provides the only positive description of leadership. Notice, we'll just say it this way: we become effective leaders and influencers when we become dignified and disciplined. When the national motto for this individual is do right, do the right thing. Look at verse 17. Happy are you, O land. Remember, it was, oh, whoa, watch out, O land. Now it's happy are you, O land. When your king is the son of nobility, he's not referring so much as to a class of individual as he is to the character of an individual, the stability of an individual. Notice further, and your princes feast at the proper times. Nothing wrong with eating, nothing wrong with coffee, I hope. But you're doing it at the right time. Why? For strength. So that you can do your job, so that you can be prepared, and not for drunkenness. You're self-disciplined, you're you're self-restrained. Solomon is describing you the kind of leader that brings happiness, wholeness. In fact, this is an Old Testament beatitude. Blessed are you when, well, he's giving one here. Blessed are you, O land, when you have a restrained, disciplined leader who is more interested in caring about you than himself. In his commentary on war on Ecclesiastes by Warren Wearsby, by the way, a great little book to add to your library. His B series, B E series, Ecclesiastes, be satisfied. Great little paperback. He comments on this verse by writing. A true statesman asks, what is best for the people, my people? A politician asks, what is best for my agenda or party? A hireling in office asks, what is best for me. By the way, the believer has a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate that rare distinctive, especially for those of you who are in positions of authority, that it isn't all about the love of power, it's about the power of love. It isn't the love of power that moves you, it's love that moves you. This is the Apostle Paul writing to a church that didn't appreciate him. They gave him trouble, the Corinthians. And he lets them know the reason that I'm writing you and the reason that I'm serving you, is the same reason we ought to have in serving others. He says, it is the love of Christ, the love I have for Christ, that constrains me, the old King James translation. That moves me, that you could translate it, that presses me, that obligates me into loving and serving others. Now, with that, Solomon reverts back to a description of the wrong kind of individual. Here's the third description: becoming inattentive and indifferent. Here's how to lead the wrong way, here's how to ruin everything. Become inattentive and indifferent. Look at verse 18. Through sloth, the roof sinks in. And through indolence, the house leaks. The motto for this individual would be maybe tomorrow. I'll get around to it. The roof is leaking? Yeah, that's a problem. I'll get to it tomorrow. Now, in Solomon's world, this was as significant as ours, that's why he uses this as an illustration. Roofs of homes in his day were flat, held up by wooden beams and covered with lime that would eventually crack and peel. Flat roofs have their own sets of problems. We have flat roofs on our buildings here, and on those flat roofs are all of our HVAC air conditioning units. They're the size of freight cars, which is why you don't have to drive around them to get in here. They're on the roof. And they leak and cause problems. I remember preaching on one particular Sunday, and it began to leak on the guy in the front row, just drip, drip, drip. Interesting. Well, this is a problem here. Nothing quite as alarming. Maybe you've experienced the same alarming sign. You see a little brown spot in the sheetrock on your ceiling, and then it gets a little larger. I remember when our boys, as young boys in our first home, shared an upstairs loft bedroom, one day seeing this little brown spot. We hadn't been in the house more than a year or two. And it was my first experience with it, and I thought that's interesting. And the next day it got more interesting. And so I called the roofers and they came in and found out that the homeowner had somehow gotten away with having them shingle, because it had been shingle, shingle over rotting wood. By then it was too late to hold them responsible. So there are a number of ways you could look at this. The roof is leaking. You're either gonna, you know, just sort of ignore it because you don't want to bother with it, or maybe you'll cover it over with the least amount of work so that you can get away with it. Maybe you can get out of town before it happens. Either way, this is the wrong way to lead. Problem in a relationship, well, you know, we'll just kind of let it go. Problem in our own spiritual life, well, you know, it's not causing that much trouble. The inattentive and indifferent spirit is a great way to ruin everything. And your job, your family, your world, and everywhere else. Fourth, Solomon effectively says if you want to ruin your world and everything else, become selfish and shallow. National motto for this person is simply, let's get rich. Notice verse 19 bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. He's not giving this as advice. In fact, Old Testament scholars believe that this was actually a drinking song. This is a silly song you'd sing in the pub if you raised your mug with the others around you. Bread is for laughter, wine, glads are hard, let's get more money. Hey, let's sing it again. It's the idea. What Salomon is doing here is repeating the shallow, selfish attitude of the world around us. And this is the song of our world. Maybe you might recognize it if I said it a little differently. Let's eat bread, drink wine, and be merry. That means money. I'll be happy if I can get more money. 3,000 years after Solomon writes this, money is still viewed as the answer for everything. If I just had more money, it'd solve everything. It'd cover every problem, it would cover over every issue. It might even solve the heartache or the loneliness. I just need more. Which is why the average person who buys a lottery ticket in our community, and from what the statistics are that I have read, are the people that cannot afford to buy the ticket. They're hoping and believing that if they win, it'll solve everything. The Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint adds a verb here that's interesting that makes the phrase read, everything humbly obeys money. And that would certainly be correct. Everything bows before money. Everything bows before people with money. If people have money, well then listen to them. Idolize them, follow them. If they're talking about marriage or relationships or education or world problems, they probably know it's true and right. Why? Well, they have money. Even though they may give the worst advice, the most God-dishonoring advice on the planet. Money was as much a God in his world as it is in our world to this day, and people bow before it. They humbly acquiesce. Now, Solomon has gone down this path, as we've already learned. This is, in a way, his personal testimony. Every dinner plate he ate off was solid gold. You just couldn't get him more money. He made silver as common as gravel, the Bible says. And what happened? He ruined everything. Now, Solomon isn't finished here. One more way to pursue the wrong things in life. Become obstinate and opinionated. The motto for this attitude is best summarized, I think, by the word so what. Or maybe you could write it, who cares? I'm just going to tell you what I think. And Solomon is warning the person that reaches that point where they're going to speak to their mind no matter what. Look at verse 20. Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom, demean, curse the rich. For a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter. Solomon says here with some hyperbole: don't even let yourself think the thought. Certainly Solomon is writing in a day when that would be dangerous as well. But I think the advice still stands, even in the privacy of your bedroom, he writes here. Don't demean or run down your boss or that leader or that rich relative who has more than you may think they deserve. Don't talk about things like that. Don't even say them out loud. When you feel yourself thinking it, turn it off. He writes, here's the problem: a bird of the air might carry it away. This is probably the textual basis for the common expression of this day. A little birdie told me. Will Rogers, the humorist philosopher, put it this way: he said, we ought to live so that we would not be ashamed to sell our parrot to the town gossip. Think of the lives that have been changed by that little bird repeating the message. And maybe you're thinking, a little bird can't do that much harm. A little bird told me is probably more appropriate in our generation than Solomon could have ever imagined. Now we have a platform. You can share your thoughts just like that. You can give that word just like that. You don't have to think about it, you just say it. Just say it. Give your opinion. Foolish twittering, tweeting. Interesting. You can now give your reaction. It might be unkind. It might be rude, vulgar, inappropriate, hurtful. Think of the reputations that have been ruined by a tweet. Little bird. Think of the relationships. Hurt. The jobs lost. Solomon's advice is simple. Don't say anything you really don't want out there. Inspected. Repeated. He puts it all in perspective here that we can apply to our own house. Let's review the strategy that opens the gates to the enemy of our soul. Become pampered and permissive. Just have the words me first on the tip of your tongue. Just have that attitude. Become inattentive and indifferent. I got problems and I'm going to deal with them tomorrow. I don't want to, I don't want the stress, I don't want the mess. I'm going to do as little as possible. Become selfish and shallow. Really, all I want is money. How shallow is that? Eat, drink, and be merry and get rich. Money's the answer to everything, which means people no longer matter. Selfish and shallow. Become obstinate and opinionated. Live with a loose tongue. Have an attitude that says, I don't care. I'm going to say what I want to say. And it doesn't matter who's hurt. To run after these things in life is to aim your life in the wrong direction. I read recently about Matt Emmons, who had the gold medal in sight in 2004, the Olympics. He was one shot away from victory in the 50-meter rifle event. He was a skillful marksman. This was what they call a three-position challenge. He would fire this target from three different positions. After his second shot, he was so far ahead, he didn't need a bullseye to win with the third shot, he just needed something close. So he took that final shot. It was a clean shot. The target showed nearly a perfect aim. But what was described later as an extremely rare mistake in this kind of elite competition, Emmons, for some reason, had actually fired with his third shot at the wrong target. He was standing in lane two and he fired at the target in lane three. It was a great shot. But he was aiming at the wrong target. What a description, beloved, of our world today. And in their perspective, they would tell you, wow, great shot. You got the position, you have power, you have money, you have everything you want. You can say what you want to say. You can live the way you want to say it. You have people serving you. Wow. Man, you're hitting the target. We do not realize it is the wrong target. Yeah, they hit it. But ruined everything. The wisest thing you could ever do is to begin walking with Christ. And at that point of your salvation, where you come to faith in Christ, you believe the gospel, you apply the cross of Christ to your life, and you repent of your sin at that cross. Do you know the word repent literally means to change direction? To turn around. You're walking this way, and now because of Christ, you're walking this way. You changed directions. It is that distinctive element of the Christian life that is remarkable to our world because the target changes. I can remember in my own life coming to faith in Christ as a 17-year-old. I was a missionary kid. I wasn't on drugs and in a rock band. I didn't have that testimony. Wanted to have it, but didn't have it. Went to a Christian school. But that target changed so that within about a month of coming back to school for my senior year, people began asking me, what happened to you? Imperceptible at first, remarkably distinctive later. That's you as a leader, as an influencer, as a priest representing God. You don't have to wear it on your bumper and all over your face. You don't have to make this the first conversation, but your life is distinctively different. As a leader, an ambassador, given a post, an embassy assignment for the kingdom of heaven. By following him, we lead and influence and guide and serve the world around us in the best way possible. How's that? By showing our world the glory of God and what it means to leave the kingdom of darkness and walk in this marvelous light.org.

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You'll be able to access the complete archive of Stephen's Bible teaching ministry as well as each day's broadcast. Wisdom for the Heart also publishes a monthly magazine called Heart to Heart. Each issue features articles written to help you grow in your faith and a daily devotional guide to keep you rooted in God's Word. Next month, Stephen discusses the Christians' responsibility toward the nation of Israel. Must we support Israel no matter what? What does the Bible actually say? To receive that issue, visit wisdomonline.org. That's wisdomonline.org. You can also call us at eight six six six six six six six forty-eight Bible. Thanks for joining us today. Be with us next time for our next message here on Wisdom for the Heart.