1. "A funeral is a classroom. What's the lesson? You're next."

2. "Wisdom is like Arabica coffee beans. It grows in the shade. Wisdom grows in the shade of death."

3. "The company of some friends is like eating a fistful of candy. Pleasant, enjoyable, but no nutritional substance, and you might go home with a stomachache. But sometimes godly counsel is more like kale. Not always tasty, takes some chewing. But no regrets afterward, and it will fuel your growth."

4. "The more wise you are, the more you will welcome bad news from good people. And the more you rightly receive and respond to the true bad news about yourself, the more wise you'll become."

5. "Wisdom starts with knowing that your biggest problem isn't other people, it's yourself. Your biggest problem isn't your circumstances, but your heart. Your biggest problem is not out there, it's in here."

6. "Money can protect you from the consequences of hard circumstances. Wisdom protects you from the consequences of sin, especially your own sin. Money protects from circumstance. Wisdom protects from sin. Which would you rather be insured against?"

7. "Political office gives you power over others. Wisdom gives you power over yourself. Which would you rather have? Power over people or power over your own unruly heart?"

8. "When you accept a bribe, you are selling yourself. How many people have traded away wisdom for a fortune? How many people have traded away wisdom for political influence?"

9. "Perfectionism is a form of control worship. You say to yourself, if I can tick every box, if I can do it all, if I can meet every moral target, then God Himself will bend to my will and give me what I want."

10. "Why doesn't God just give you what you want? It's to leave your heart empty so that He will fill it with more of Himself. God doesn't give what you ask in order to give you something better than what you asked, which is more of Him. God takes away the cup and gives you the fountain."

Observation Questions

1. According to Ecclesiastes 7:2, why is it better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting?

2. In Ecclesiastes 7:5-6, what contrast does the preacher draw between the rebuke of the wise and the song of fools?

3. What does Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 say about both prosperity and adversity, and what does it say God's purpose is in sending both?

4. According to Ecclesiastes 7:16-17, what two opposite behaviors does the preacher warn against, and what consequences does he associate with each?

5. What declaration does the preacher make in Ecclesiastes 7:20 about righteous people on earth?

6. In Ecclesiastes 7:19, how does the preacher compare the strength that wisdom provides to political power?

Interpretation Questions

1. How does the preacher's statement that "the day of death is better than the day of birth" (7:1) connect to his teaching about the house of mourning in verses 2-4? What kind of "better" is he describing?

2. Why does the preacher say in verse 13, "Who can make straight what He has made crooked?" What does this teach us about the relationship between human effort and God's sovereignty over our circumstances?

3. How does the universal reality of sin described in verse 20 help explain the preacher's warnings against being "overly righteous" in verse 16? What error is he guarding against?

4. The sermon identifies that wisdom protects from sin while money protects from circumstances (based on verses 11-12). Why might protection from sin be more valuable than protection from difficult circumstances?

5. How does the teaching of Ecclesiastes 7:14—that God has made both good days and bad days—relate to the Christian's ability to find contentment and avoid both perfectionism and hedonism?

Application Questions

1. The sermon suggests that we should "move toward other people who are suffering" rather than avoiding the house of mourning. What specific opportunity do you have this week to enter into someone else's grief or hardship, and what might hold you back from doing so?

2. Verses 5-6 teach that wise rebuke is more valuable than foolish entertainment. When you consider how you spend your time and attention—including media, podcasts, and social feeds—what is one adjustment you could make to prioritize voices that will tell you the truth about your character over voices that simply entertain you?

3. The preacher warns against perfectionism—the belief that if you can just be righteous enough, you can control your circumstances and outcomes. In what area of your life are you most tempted to believe that more effort or moral performance will guarantee the results you want? How might acknowledging your limits change your approach?

4. Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 counsels against being too eager to hear everything people say about you, since you yourself have spoken ill of others. How might this passage shape how you respond the next time you learn that someone has criticized or spoken negatively about you?

5. The sermon closed by asking how you should live now in light of the certainty of your death. What is one priority, relationship, or habit in your life that would change if you took seriously the brevity and fragility of your life this week?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Romans 6:20-23 — This passage explains the wages of sin and the gift of eternal life in Christ, connecting to the sermon's teaching on death as the end of all mankind and Christ's victory over death.

2. Hebrews 9:24-28 — Here we see Christ's once-for-all sacrifice and the appointment of death and judgment for humanity, reinforcing the sermon's call to face mortality through faith in Christ.

3. James 4:13-17 — This passage warns against presuming on tomorrow and emphasizes the brevity of life, echoing the sermon's theme that we must live with humble awareness of our limits.

4. 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 — Paul describes God as the Father of mercies who comforts us in affliction so we can comfort others, illustrating the sermon's point about bearing one another's burdens and learning through suffering.

5. Isaiah 45:5-7 — God declares His sovereignty over light and darkness, well-being and calamity, directly supporting the sermon's emphasis that both prosperity and adversity come from God's hand with wise design.

Sermon Main Topics

I. A Personal Story of Seeking Pleasure and Finding Pain

II. Wisdom's Roots: Where Wisdom Grows

III. Wisdom's Fruits: What Wisdom Produces

IV. The Limits of Wisdom: What Wisdom Cannot Do

V. Living in Light of Our Mortality and God's Sovereignty

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Detailed Sermon Outline

For me, the most 2020-ish event of 2020 happened in the first week of October. Our family, by God's grace, have been spared from many of the more severe effects of the pandemic, but we've still endured our share of frustrations and cancellations. So over the summer, we had to cancel a trip to visit old friends in Louisville. We had to cancel a trip to visit my parents in Southern California. So like many of you, I'm sure, our summer was just hanging out here in lockdown DC.

But, in the first week of October, we spotted a narrow window of hope and opportunity. I wasn't preaching, so it made it relatively easier to get away. And our family loves going to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the off season, especially in the fall. It's still warm, but not sweltering. The water is still warm.

There's far less people there, which is great for a pandemic. There can even be some good waves for surfing. So we've spotted this little window of opportunity. We booked a beachfront cottage in our favorite beach town and we headed out of town for a week. The kids were thrilled.

It started off great, apart from a rainstorm the first day, but no big deal. They just played in the water anyways. So we had a great first few days, being on the beach all day, having the thing practically to ourselves. And on the Tuesday, I surfed for five hours. It was amazing.

The water was warm, the weather was warm, the waves were good. My back and shoulders may have been a little sore at the end of that day, but the next morning I woke up at dawn and paddled out alone into waves that were even better. But on my second wave of the morning, when I pushed up to get to my feet, my whole back froze up and I had to sort of lean over to try to fall off my board with as little damage as possible. I had to swim my board in, pushing it ahead of me. And when I got to land, I could barely stand up.

I could barely walk up the beach. I could really barely walk up the stairs to our second-story beachfront condo. And I had to get into bed. And once I got into bed, I couldn't move. And over the next couple of days, I couldn't even roll over in bed.

That obviously put a damper on our vacation. Kristen and the kids tried to make the best of it, going to the beach, checking in on me back and forth, but it was pretty rough. We decided to cancel the trip, you know, end a day early, come home a day early. Kristen had to clean the place by herself, pack by herself, load the van by herself, get the kids into the car by herself, and then drive all the way home six hours straight with me sitting in the passenger seat in absolutely excruciating pain the whole time.

I shouldn't have even been sitting up, but we had to get home somehow.

When we got home, for the next couple weeks, I was largely confined to bed, and it took a month of physical therapy before I was back to normal.

So much for our attempt to grab a bright spot in a dark year.

Ecclesiastes 7:2 says this, It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.

I had tried to go to the house of feasting, But the Lord sent me instead to the house of mourning.

How do you respond when you reach for pleasure and pick up pain instead?

What does it reveal about your character when what actually happens is the exact opposite of what you planned?

This morning we return to the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes with chapter 7, verses 1 to 22. And like he has in so much of the book, in this passage, the book's author, the preacher, relentlessly forces us to stare at our limits.

The limits of our knowledge and righteousness, the limits of our power and our ability to control circumstances. He even considers the limits of wisdom itself.

This chapter introduces twin themes that the author will explore throughout the remainder of the book, namely, the benefits and limits of wisdom.

So here's one main question this chapter answers, or these 22 verses, most of the chapter. One main question, two parts. How much wisdom can you get? And how much can wisdom get for you? How much wisdom can you get?

And how much can wisdom get you? Instead of walking through the passage in order, I'm going to gather up its teaching on the benefits and limits of wisdom into three points. Point one, wisdom's roots. Wisdom's roots. We see where wisdom comes from.

It grows in verses 1 to 4, 5 and 6, and 20 to 22. Wisdom's Roots. Look first at verses 1 to 4.

A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

Look back at the second half of verse 1. How on earth can the day of death be better than the day of birth? The point is not that it's better to be dead than alive. Instead, verses 2 and 3 resolve this riddle that verse 1 introduces. Death is not better in itself, but death is a better teacher.

A funeral is a classroom. What's the lesson? You're next.

If you're looking for wisdom, you're more likely to find it at a funeral than at a wedding. A funeral lays everything bare. Who comes? Who doesn't come? What do people say about the deceased?

What do they carefully avoid saying so that it's conspicuous by its absence?

As verse 3 says, Sorrow will teach you more than laughter. That phrase at the end of verse three, by sadness of face, the heart is made glad, could be translated like the King James does, the heart is made better. Suffering and adversity can teach you lessons that an endless parade of success never will. As we sang a week or two ago in our prayer service, then with my waking thoughts, Bright with thy praise, out of my stony griefs Bethel I'll raise: so by my woes to be nearer my God to thee. Wisdom is like Arabica coffee beans.

It grows in the shade. Wisdom grows in the shade of death. If you want to get wise, meditate on your mortality. Let death show you the limits of life. Let death impress on you the fleeting fragility of life.

Let death teach you the meaning of life. What can death teach you? Here's a small sampling.

Diligence, because the time is short. Sober-mindedness, because you will give an account. Love, because it's what matters. Generosity, because it's far better to give out the little you have than to hoard it only for all of it to be taken from you.

Reverence for God, because he's the undying one, the only one who has life in himself, and humility, because you are so weak, so limited, so powerless over what matters most. This idea of the house of mourning refers to a house where someone has died. Before the 20th century, the overwhelming majority of people died at home, and in ancient Israel, as in many parts of the world today, People would come to the house where the person has died, they would mourn with the family, the remains of the deceased would still be there. So here's a broader way to apply this passage. Move toward other people who are suffering.

Go to them, be with them, listen to them and learn from them, care for them and bear their burdens. As we've covenanted to do as a church, we will rejoice at each other's happiness and endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other's burdens and sorrows. Bearing others' burdens is good for them and good for you. Of course, the main reason we should care for each other is to care for each other. But walking through suffering and sorrow with someone else will grow you in unexpected ways.

Another church member's brush with death can teach you the brevity of life.

Another church member's long endurance of illness can teach you perseverance. Bearing others' burdens will give you all kinds of fresh perspective on your own.

How can you have the strength and wisdom to bear others' burdens? How can you stare at death and loss and suffering without becoming unnerved or overwhelmed? Ultimately, you can only do that by knowing the One who came to bear your burdens, the One who suffered for you, the One who gave everything for you, the One who died your death and triumphed over death. Look again at verse 2: For this, namely death, is the end of all mankind. God has condemned us all to death as the judgment that is rightly due to us for our sins.

As Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death. Death will be your end. And as Hebrews 9:27 says, it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. Death is the end. But for all who persist in rebelling against God and sinning against Him, there is an even worse end after that, a judgment to come that will never end.

But Christ came to die on the cross for all those who would ever turn from their sin and trust in Him. Christ came to die the death that we deserved and He came to deliver us from death and to destroy death forever. Christ came to pay the penalty for our sin and ultimately to defeat death. That's what His resurrection on the third day began and guarantees for all who trust in Him. If you've never turned from sin, and trusted in Christ to save you, trust in him today.

Give yourself to him to be your savior. Death will have the last word on your earthly life, but Christ has the last word on death. So trust in him to save you. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, we're glad you're here. You're welcome at all of our public gatherings.

Thank you for going through that hassle and effort of being here. My question for you this morning is this. What's your answer to death? And how does your answer to death look when you put it next to Christ's?

Verses five and six show us another source of wisdom, namely, godly rebuke. Look at verses five and six.

It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools. This also is vanity.

What will do you more good? Listening to the latest number one hit single so many times that you memorize its words? Or hearing a godly friend tell you what the flaws they see in your character. You become who you hang out with. And that hanging out includes not just in-person interaction, but what you watch, what you listen to, what you look at.

It includes blogs and podcasts and Instagram accounts and Twitter feeds. Who do you let influence you by giving them your attention? How much do you prioritize gaining wisdom in how you allocate your most precious resources, your time and your attention?

It's not just Christians who catechize. The world catechizes too. There's no neutral territory. Everyone, everywhere is always promoting their vision of the good life. It's just a question of how explicit.

It's a question of volume and degree. And people often promote their view of the good life not by arguing about what's right, but by training your desires and trying to subtly reshape your instincts and intuitions without ever passing through the gatekeeper of explicit, rational argument.

The company of some friends is like eating a fistful of candy. Pleasant, enjoyable, but no nutritional substance, and you might go home with a stomachache. But sometimes godly counsel is more like kale. Not always tasty, takes some chewing. But no regrets afterward, and it will fuel your growth.

The more wise you are, the more you will welcome bad news from good people. And the more you rightly receive and respond to the true bad news about yourself, the more wise you'll become. That brings us to verses 20 and 22. Where else does wisdom come from? It comes from recognizing the reality that everyone on earth has a sinful nature.

Look at verses 20 to 22.

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sinned. Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. Again, consider verse 20: Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. That one sentence explains more about the world and more about your life than every volume of merely human philosophy that has ever been written.

Wisdom starts with knowing that your biggest problem isn't other people, it's yourself. That's just what we saw in Ephesians 2:1-3 last week. Your biggest problem isn't your circumstances, but your heart. Your biggest problem is not out there, it's in here.

When you recognize that, you can respond rightly to other people's sin. As verses 21 and 22 teach us, don't be too eager to hear everything that everyone is saying about you. You might not like some of it. Some of it's probably not true. But then what good does it do you to hear it?

Wisdom grows in the shade of death. Its roots are watered by godly counsel and rebuke. And it is nurtured by the realism of recognizing that sin is everyone's biggest problem.

Point two, wisdom's fruits. Wisdom's fruits. Our passage holds up four to commend to us We see these four fruits in verses 10, 11 and 12, 13 to 14 and 19. If you didn't catch that, that's fine, you'll get them as we go. First, verse 10, perspective.

Perspective. Say not, why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Asking why was everything better back then is foolish for at least two reasons. First, nostalgia looks at the past through rose-colored glasses and at the present through dark shades.

It screens out what's good in the present and what's bad in the past. The good old days were never good for everyone.

Second, nostalgia is a form of the grass is always greener. You don't live then, you live now. What good does it do you if things really were better back then and you don't get to live back then? Complaining about the present and longing for the past wastes energy and it insults God's sovereignty. Acts 17:26 tells us that God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth.

Having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. Where you live and when you live has been determined by our good and wise and sovereign God.

A second fruit of wisdom in verses 11 and 12, protection. Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the son. 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. What can money protect you from?

A whole lot. Drought, crop failure, a broad economic downturn. Money can protect you from illness by hiring the best doctors. It can protect you from litigation by hiring the best lawyers. Even though chapters 5 and 6 of Ecclesiastes triple underline the limits of wealth and how fleeting it is, the author recognizes here that wealth is still an asset.

Though money is only a temporary shelter, it provides genuine protection from lots of hardship. And so does wisdom.

But what does wisdom protect you from? While the protection may not be as immediately obvious as the protection of money, it reaches deeper.

Money can protect you from the consequences of hard circumstances. Wisdom protects you from the consequences of sin, especially your own sin. But it also protects you from some of the consequences of others sin in terms of the temptation to sin in response to being sinned against.

Money protects from circumstance. Wisdom protects from sin. Which would you rather be insured against? A third fruit of wisdom in verses 13 and 14, Poise. Poise.

As in balance, equilibrium. Being ready for anything that God in his sovereignty decides to send you. Look at verses 13 and 14. Consider the work of God. Who can make straight what he has made crooked?

In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider. God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

What in your life looks crooked to you?

Not being married? Not getting the job you just applied for?

Maybe not having children.

Or maybe it's a growing list of health struggles that all seem to be getting worse.

Who can make straight what He has made crooked? There is a hard limit to what you can do about all of the worst parts of your life.

And that limit is set by God Himself. As the 18th century pastor Thomas Boston said, As to the crook in thy lot, God hath made it, and it must continue while He will have it so. Shouldst thou ply thine utmost force to even it, or make it straight, thine attempt will be vain. It will not alter for all thou canst do, only he who made it can mend it or make it straight.

How can you find contentment amidst adversity? It's by remembering that both happiness and hardship are from the hand of God. Verse 13, Consider the work of God.

Verse 14, God has made the one as well as the other. In your life, the mixture of pleasure and pain, success and failure, blessing and burden, is not down to random chance. And in many cases, it has very little to do with your own personal influence. It's not even down to other people and what they're doing to you. God is the sovereign physician and pharmacist.

He prescribes prosperity and adversity as he deems best for our ultimate good. As the Lord himself tells us in Isaiah 45:7, I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things.

These verses imply that adversity is universal. Everyone has a share of it. That's why he warns, In the day of prosperity, rejoice; in the day of adversity, which by the way is coming, consider. As Thomas Boston says, Everybody's lot in this world hath some crook in it. There is no perfection here, no lot out of heaven without a crook.

These verses also teach us that adversity is unfixable, unfixable by us at least. Who can make straight what he has made crooked? These verses also teach us that adversity is useful. We saw this in verses 3 and 4: Suffering teaches you what prosperity never will. In his hand I ask the Lord John Newton gives us a window into why God sends suffering: these inward trials I employ from self and pride to set thee free, and break thy schemes of earthly joy, that thou mayst find thine all in me.

Why doesn't God just give you what you want? It's to leave your heart empty so that He will fill it with more of Himself. God doesn't give what you ask in order to give you something better than what you asked, which is more of Him. God takes away the cup and gives you the fountain. How can you endure prosperity without succumbing to pride and adversity without succumbing to despair?

By recognizing that both are from God. So look along the earthly second causes that are at work in your life to see the divine first cause standing behind all of them.

As usual, Charles Spurgeon has put this point better than I ever could. And it's been an unusually long time since I've quoted Spurgeon in a sermon. I thought we were overdue. So here's one of my absolute favorite Spurgeon quotes. It could have come right out of verses 13 and 14.

Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon thee just now, it will be very painful to thee. But there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation. He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes over the once verdant meadows of our joy. He casteth forth his ice like morsels, freezing the streams of our delight.

He does it all. He is the great winter king and rules in the realms of frost. And therefore thou canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills are of the Lord's sending, and come to us with wise design.

A fourth fruit of wisdom is in verse 19. That's power. We see power in verse 19. Wisdom Give strength to the wise, more than ten rulers who are in a city.

Political office gives you power over others. Wisdom gives you power over yourself. Which would you rather have? Power over people or power over your own unruly heart?

How well can you govern others? If you can't govern yourself.

Perspective, protection, poise, and power. These are just a few of wisdom's fruits. They sound good, don't they? In this last week, what have you done to seek wisdom? Where does Get Wisdom rank in the list of your life goals?

Is it part of your five-year plan?

Kids in the congregation, people probably ask you all the time, what do you want to be when you grow up? What if you told them, I want to be wise.

What do you think is more important, whatever job you have when you're grown up, or whether you're wise in God's eyes?

Sight for all of us. What can wisdom get for you? That success and prosperity can't.

But questions remain. How wise can you get? And how much can wisdom get for you? Both have a limit. That's point three, the limits of wisdom.

The limits of wisdom. We see some of these limits in verse 7 and in verses 15 to 18. Look first at verse 7.

Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart. The thing here is who's doing the oppression? Who's going mad?

Who's being corrupted? It's the wise. If you get wisdom, you might get power. If you get power, you have the opportunity to oppress. And oppression hurts the oppressor.

The more you dehumanize others, the more dehumanized you become. A bribe corrupts the heart. Why is that? Because when you take it, it takes you. When you accept a bribe, you are selling yourself.

So one of wisdom's limits is that it can be bought out. Like investors gaining a controlling share in a company, selfish gain can gain a controlling share in your life. How many people have traded away wisdom for a fortune? How many people have traded away wisdom for political influence?

What prizes in your workplace most tempt you to compromise your loyalty to Christ? If someone tried to find your price, what currency would be most likely to succeed? It might not be money. It might be getting the right people to recognize you and back you. C.S.

Lewis warns about that allure in his essay, the Inner Ring. He writes, Of all passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things. We see more limits to wisdom in verses 15 to 18. Look with me at those verses.

In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evil doing. Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool.

Why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hands; for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.

If you've lived long enough, then you've seen verse 15 come true. Sometimes the wicked prosper and the righteous perish. Here in this life under the sun, people don't always get what they deserve. Not everybody gets what's coming to them. Or if you've read the Bible, you've seen verse 15 come true.

What about Abel? What about Saul's son Jonathan? Or Naboth? What about Job's sufferings? So here's a limit to wisdom, specifically a limit to what wisdom can get for you.

It doesn't guarantee prosperity. It doesn't give you control.

Wisdom does not guarantee success. It will not guarantee you get everything you want out of life. It won't guarantee you a long life. It can't guarantee good health. Wisdom does not promise prosperity.

More wisdom does not mean more control. Verses 16 and 17 go on to warn against two opposite wrong ways you might respond to that lack of control. Verse 16, Be not overly righteous and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? If you hear, 'More wisdom does not mean more control,' you might be tempted to think, He's only talking about regular people levels of wisdom and righteousness.

What if instead you pursue super duper extraordinary way beyond levels of wisdom and righteousness, then can you gain the system?

In other words, there's a way you can overdo anything, even the pursuit of righteousness. In a word, verse 16 warns against perfectionism. Perfectionism is a form of control worship. You say to yourself, if I can tick every box, if I can do it all, if I can meet every moral target, then God Himself will bend to my will and give me what I want.

My problems can be solved if only I can be righteous enough. That's the lie perfectionism tells you. But of course, you can't live up to that. Verse 20, There is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. And this is why verse 16 warns against destroying yourself.

There is such a thing as an inhuman pursuit of holiness. Faith and confession and forgiveness and patience and ultimately, realism all have a role to play in the Christian life. Otherwise, you run the risk of driving yourself crazy and driving all the people around you crazy.

But then verse 17 warns against an opposite ditch you might fall into.

Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? In other words, you might be tempted to ask, if more wisdom doesn't mean more control, then who cares? Why bother? Why not just get the most pleasure out of life?

Now, in saying, Be not overly wicked, the author is not giving moral permission for a little wickedness. To condemn much is not to approve a little. The point is simply don't run into that opposite ditch. Don't become a perfectionist or a hedonist. You can kill yourself with perfectionism or with unbridled lust and license.

The point is don't fall to either.

Understanding verse 18 turns on what this and that refer to. I don't think they refer to righteousness and wickedness as if somehow we're meant to lay hold of wickedness. Instead, if you look just in verse 16, you see wisdom and righteousness there in the same verse. And I think the this and the that here refer to righteousness and wisdom in verse 16. In other words, you need both.

And one thing wisdom will teach you is the limits of your own righteousness. So, big picture, what should the limits of wisdom teach you? The applications here are endless, but let's just pick two. The limits of wisdom should teach you humility and submission. Humility because the more you know your own limits, the less you have to boast about.

The better you know your limits, the quicker you'll be to confess your sin to God and others. The more aware you are of your weakness, the quicker you'll ask for help from God and from others. The clearer your sense of your own limits, the more you will help others in their weaknesses instead of despising them.

And knowing your limits will teach you submission, meaning submission to God. You don't have all wisdom? God does. You aren't in control. God is.

And that's a good thing.

So what did I learn from that injury back in October? I'll tell you, it's not something I was especially eager to learn. It is not what I was hoping to get out of my vacation. But the lesson is this: I'm mortal.

This body is well on its way to wearing out. Days and weeks of searing pain and limited movement have a way of driving that home. I'm gonna die. Much as I would prefer to ignore that fact, a back injury has a stubborn way of drawing one's attention to it.

You're gonna die too. So how should you live now in light of that end? And what will be your final end? If you trust in Christ, death is an end, but not the end. The end will actually be a new beginning when Christ comes on the clouds to reign forever.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we praise you for your wisdom in ordaining everything in our lives that looks crooked to us, everything in our lives that pinches us and pains us, everything in our lives that shows us our limits. Father, we pray that we would submit to those hard and wise providences. We pray that you would teach us our own limits. We pray that we would rely on you all the more humbly. We pray that you would grant us to delight in your sovereign goodness that has ordained for us everything that takes place.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.