1. "Our hearts work like magnets. What we think of as a series of free, independent, reasonable decisions actually reveal far deeper sources of desire, far deeper forces of attraction and repulsion. You're inwardly drawn to something and away from its opposite."

2. "It only takes one hair in a casserole to ruin your appetite. It only takes one harsh word to ruin a friendship. It only takes one betrayal to shatter trust."

3. "Folly comes from within and shows itself without and so does wisdom. And folly will inevitably show itself. As we live and breathe, we broadcast what we are. If folly is in your heart, you won't be able to keep it from getting out and being seen by the people around you."

4. "The only effective way to change what people see from without is to change what's within. Your folly is often far more visible to others than it is to you."

5. "Social media platforms are a standing invitation to say more than you know, more than is good for anybody else, and more than is good for you. If you always have to say something, how often do you really have something to say?"

6. "Only a fool would want power in order to profit himself. All authority is given in order to enable others to flourish. That's its purpose and that is the chief test of its use."

7. "One of the most common causes of anxiety is thinking you can control what you really can't. Thinking you're responsible for more than you are."

8. "You are not ready to handle fire until you know how hot it is and how easily it burns. You are not ready to handle money until you know how powerful it is and how easily it enslaves."

9. "Wisdom is weak because it's easier to break a coffee mug than to repair it, and it is easier to divide a church than to unite it. Wisdom is weak because our own fallen hearts attack it from within."

10. "You will never be a Christian until the burden of your sin is worse to you than whatever hardship you may encounter for following Jesus. And you will make little progress in the faith as long as the world's two ways to live pull harder on your heart than God's two ways to live."

Observation Questions

1. According to Ecclesiastes 10:1, what effect do dead flies have on perfumer's ointment, and what parallel does this draw about folly and wisdom?

2. In Ecclesiastes 10:2-3, how does the text describe the difference between where a wise man's heart inclines him versus a fool's heart, and what does the fool reveal about himself even when simply walking on the road?

3. What instruction does Ecclesiastes 10:4 give about how to respond when "the anger of the ruler rises against you," and what result does the text say calmness will produce?

4. According to Ecclesiastes 10:12-14, what contrast does the passage draw between the words of a wise man's mouth and the lips of a fool, and how does the text describe the progression of a fool's speech from beginning to end?

5. In Ecclesiastes 10:16-17, what contrasting descriptions does the text give of lands whose kings and princes bring "woe" versus those that are "happy"?

6. What warning does Ecclesiastes 10:20 give about cursing the king or the rich, and what unusual imagery does the text use to describe how such words might be discovered?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does the sermon emphasize that folly is "more fundamentally moral than mental"? How does this understanding of folly as a heart condition (Ecclesiastes 10:2) change the way we should address foolishness in ourselves and others?

2. The sermon states that "the only effective way to change what people see from without is to change what's within." How do verses 1-3 support this claim, and what does this teach us about the relationship between the heart and outward behavior?

3. How do verses 8-10 teach us to "rightly read the world" and work with the grain of God's universe? What principles about cause and effect, risk, and preparation do these verses communicate?

4. The sermon identifies a tension: wisdom is commended throughout the chapter, yet verses 5-7 show that "folly is set in many high places" and the world is often upside-down. How does this tension prepare us to understand why even perfect wisdom (as seen in Jesus) can lead to apparent failure in this world?

5. How does the sermon's connection between Ecclesiastes 10 and 1 Corinthians 1:25 ("the foolishness of God is wiser than men") help us understand what true wisdom looks like and where it ultimately comes from?

Application Questions

1. The sermon asks, "What are your besetting sins? What ruts of folly do you regularly fall into?" Who in your life could you invite to hold up the mirror of Scripture to your character, and what specific area of your life would you ask them to help you examine?

2. Considering verses 12-14 about multiplying words beyond what we know, how might you need to change your habits on social media or in conversations where you're tempted to speak with more confidence than knowledge? What specific step could you take this week?

3. The sermon distinguishes between what you can and cannot control, noting that "a common cause of anxiety is thinking you can control what you really can't." What situation in your life right now are you treating as if you can control the outcome when you actually cannot? How might recognizing this distinction change your prayers and your peace?

4. Verse 4 calls us to respond to unjust anger with calmness rather than adding fuel to the fire. Think of a relationship or situation where someone's anger or criticism tempts you to react defensively. What would it look like practically to "stay calm and stay at your post" the next time this happens?

5. The sermon concludes by asking, "Is anything other than Christ crucified your 'only thing'?" Which of the pairs mentioned (security vs. loss, power vs. weakness, success vs. failure, etc.) has the strongest gravitational pull on your heart right now, and what would it look like to subordinate that desire to the pursuit of wisdom and Christ?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Proverbs 4:20-27 — This passage describes how wisdom guards the heart and directs our paths, reinforcing Ecclesiastes 10's emphasis that wisdom and folly flow from the heart.

2. James 3:1-12 — James's teaching on the power and danger of the tongue expands on Ecclesiastes 10:12-14's warnings about foolish speech consuming the speaker.

3. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 — This passage explains how the gospel appears as foolishness to the world but is actually God's true wisdom, directly supporting the sermon's point about wisdom's apparent weakness.

4. Matthew 5:1-12 — The Beatitudes, referenced in the sermon, demonstrate the upside-down nature of kingdom wisdom where the poor in spirit, mourning, and persecuted are called blessed.

5. Romans 12:1-8 — This passage calls for the renewal of the mind and transformed living, connecting to Ecclesiastes 10:20's call to guard even our thoughts and the sermon's emphasis on heart transformation.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Heart's Magnetic Pull: What Drives Our Desires and Decisions

II. Folly's Fallout: The Character and Consequences of Foolishness

III. Wisdom's Fruits: The Character and Rewards of Living Wisely

IV. Wisdom's Weakness: Why Wisdom Alone Cannot Save Us

V. The Gospel's Upside-Down Wisdom: Christ as Our True Wisdom

Detailed Sermon Outline

What are you striving for?

What are you running from?

What are you irresistibly drawn toward?

And what do you instinctively shun?

We are all driven by both attraction and repulsion. I'm not talking about romance or the lack thereof, I'm talking about everything. It may be that for as long as you can remember, your parents have indicated to you a narrow range of demanding professions from which you may choose.

Nothing else and nothing less will please them. Failure is not an option. If that's you, I imagine it would be difficult to distinguish desire for success from fear of failure. How would you fill in the blank? If all else fails, I must be...

or how about this one? Whatever happens, I will never let myself be...

Our hearts work like magnets. What we think of as a series of free, independent, reasonable decisions actually reveal far deeper sources of desire, far deeper forces of attraction and repulsion. You're inwardly drawn to something and away from its opposite. So try on these pairs. See how they fit.

Security versus loss.

Power versus weakness, being loved versus lonely, being entertained versus bored, being rich versus poor, pleasure versus pain, success versus failure.

Which of these appeals to you most? Each of these pairs can become a kind of two ways to live framework that structures your whole life. Each of these can drive your most important decisions without you even realizing which direction your heart is pulling you in or why.

I can't remember when I heard this, but on some rare occasion when I was paying attention to sports, I heard of a coach who said to his players, Winning isn't everything. To which they liturgically responded, It's the only thing.

What's your only thing?

This morning we return to our study of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. We'll consider all of chapter 10, which you can find starting on page 558 of the Bibles in the pew. Ecclesiastes was written by someone calling himself the teacher or the preacher. In one sense, the whole book of Ecclesiastes asks the question, what is the only thing? What is it that makes life worth living?

So the book of Ecclesiastes is a quest to find this only thing. And as we'll see, Ecclesiastes shows us that there really are two ways to live. Before we get into the passage, since it's been a while since we've been in this series, let's quickly recap what we've seen in the book so far. In chapters one and two, the preacher lives many lives in one. He dives all the way into work, money, art, pleasure, and power.

Each time he climbs up the highest high dive, jumps in, and hits bottom. None of these things is deep enough to be the only thing. And in chapters three through nine, he weighs up all sorts of different realities we see and experience in this life.

Time and limits, justice and injustice, the futility of wealth and the finality of death.

In those first two chapters and in the rest of the book, the teacher typically alternates between two main perspectives: observation and confession. In his mode of observation, he simply reflects on and reports what anybody can see of this life under the sun. That's why he continually uses that phrase under the sun. He's observing whatever anybody can see. And what he sees is that there are no guarantees except death, nothing lasts, and you can take nothing with you on the way out.

But the teacher's other mode is confession, meaning declaring what he knows to be true in light of the fact that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. As our brother Akin led us in praising God a moment ago.

So despite the fact that nothing will last, this life is still packed with good gifts. Wherever you look, there is evidence of God's goodness and wisdom and generosity. The question is whether you see it.

So both of these perspectives, observation and confession, are true at the same time, but neither tells the whole story. So throughout this book, the author is climbing uphill gradually toward the perspective that will make sense of the big picture.

But even though there have been some flashes and previews of it, we're not there yet. On the heels of all this, chapter 10 is like an interlude before the finale. Here the teacher is not exactly speaking from either of these two modes, though there's elements of both. Instead, he's teaching us wisdom like the book of Proverbs does. In order to teach us wisdom, in this chapter the teacher fires off a spray of proverbs all in a row.

He says many things about many subjects from many different angles very quickly. In this chapter, the teacher is acting a little bit like a boxer. He throws a jab, then an uppercut, then he comes at you from the side, then he dodges back. He's trying to throw you off balance. He's trying to make you look at your life from a wide variety of different angles that you don't normally and that you'd rather not.

I'll read the whole passage and then we'll jump in. Ecclesiastes 10, page 558.

Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench. So a little folly outweighs wisdom.

And honor. A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left. Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool. If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest. There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler.

Folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. I have seen slaves on horses and princes walking on the ground like slaves. He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them. If the iron is blunt and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength; but wisdom helps one to succeed.

If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer. The words of a wise man's mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness. A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be. And who can tell him what will be after him?

The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city. Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child and your princes feast in the morning. Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength and not for drunkenness. Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks. Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything.

Even in your thoughts do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, For a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.

The main point of this chapter is that there really are two ways to live. So flee folly and seek wisdom. To get a handle on the whole chapter, we'll walk through it in three points. And because so much of the chapter is a running contrast between folly and wisdom, instead of moving through the passage in order, in the first two points I'll gather up just about everything the passage has to say, first about folly, than about wisdom. So then point one, follies fall out.

Follies fall out. Throughout this chapter, the preacher warns us against folly by displaying its character and consequences. Folly is an old-fashioned word. We don't use it much in regular conversation, but it doesn't mean someone who's not intelligent. It means someone who willfully refuses to recognize reality and live accordingly.

Folly is more fundamentally moral than it is mental, although of course it has mental consequences. So here the preacher is training our hearts to be repulsed by folly. It's like he's putting up a warning sign around the fallout zone from a nuclear meltdown saying, don't go in here, run the opposite way. He's saying that folly will make your life implode and it will contaminate you and others.

Look again at verse 1: Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. It only takes one hair in a casserole to ruin your appetite.

It only takes one harsh word to ruin a friendship. It only takes one betrayal to shatter trust. This is why 1 Timothy 3:2 requires elders to be above reproach. Not perfect or no one could live up to that and we would have no elders. But the point is that there are no glaring contradictions between profession and practice, no obvious defects of character.

This is also why Scripture exhorts all of us to pursue comprehensive Christlikeness, to bear all the fruit of the Spirit. Remember James 1:2-4. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and completely not fall away. And complete, not lacking anything.

Verse 2 tells us that folly flows from the heart. Look at verse 2, A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left. Wisdom and folly are not a matter merely of behavior but of character. They're about not just your words and actions but your thoughts. Your affections, your disposition and inclinations.

Folly comes from within and shows itself without and so does wisdom. And folly will inevitably show itself. That's the point of verse three. Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense and he says to everyone that he is a fool.

Just a couple short decades ago, If you wanted the world around you to hear your favorite music, you had to have the chutzpah to carry around a massive boombox on your shoulder. But these days, all you have to do is use an iPhone without earbuds. Then everybody around you can hear your music or podcast as you jog past or sit on the metro. Everyone can broadcast their noise. And beyond boomboxes or iPhones, we all broadcast.

Every one of us, all the time. As one preacher put it, as we live and breathe, we broadcast what we are. If folly is in your heart, you won't be able to keep it from getting out and being seen by the people around you. So instead of worrying about what other people see or think, instead of doing image control, focus on the heart. The only effective way to change what people see from without is to change what's within.

Your folly is often far more visible to others than it is to you. So enlist as many helpful sets of eyes as you can. Be quick to find fault in yourself and slow to find fault in others. Get other church members around you. Hold up the mirror of Scripture to your character and ask those faithful brothers and sisters to point out what's really there in both Scripture and your life.

What are your besetting sins? What ruts of folly do you regularly fall into? If someone were to say about you, yeah, she's great in so many ways but... how do you think they'd fill in the blank?

One of the main works by which folly shows itself is words. That's the theme of verses 12 to 15. Look down at those verses.

The words of a wise man's mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness. A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him? The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.

Of course, foolish speech hurts others, but look again at verse 12. The lips of a fool consume him. If your heart is self-serving, your speech will be self-devouring. Verse 13 says, A fool's speech starts in nonsense and ends in lunacy. Verse 14 tells us that the number of a fool's words exceeds the amount of their knowledge.

And verse 15 tells us that the fool is the kind of person who could get lost in an elevator. But the main point of this paragraph is words.

That phrase in verse 14, A fool who multiplies words. When are you tempted to multiply words? To say more than you know, more than is good for anybody else, and more than is good for you?

I can think of a time. Every time you click on Facebook or Twitter, social media platforms are developed. And optimized to multiply words. Social media platforms are a standing invitation to say more than you know, more than is good for anybody else, and more than is good for you.

Speak carefully, especially when you don't have the natural inhibition of another flesh and blood human being looking at you as the words come out of your mouth.

Whether on social media or in any other venue, are you tempted to speak with more confidence than knowledge? If you always have to say something, how often do you really have something to say?

In verses 16 and 17, the preacher paints contrasting portraits of bad and good governments. Here we'll consider just the bad in verse 16.

Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child and your princes feast in the morning. The leader being condemned here is unqualified and his inner circle are self-indulgent and they're abandoned to sinful appetites. Instead of using public resources to promote the common good, they waste them on themselves. This is a picture of the perversion of authority. So that it hurts those who are under it.

This verse is telling us that only a fool would want power in order to profit himself. All authority is given in order to enable others to flourish. That's its purpose and that is the chief test of its use. So whatever kind of power you'd like to have, strive more to be qualified for it than to gain it. Whether your aspiration is professional, political, pastoral, or anything else, concern yourself more with being fit for authority than being given authority.

Verse 18 warns us of yet another consequence of folly: Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks. In ancient Israel, roofs tended to be flat and they were covered with coats of lime. That was their waterproofing. Over time, the lime would decay and crack and water could seep in, so you had to regularly maintain your roof by putting a fresh coat of lime.

I've been recently reminded of the need for maintenance because our family now has three kids on bikes. That's a great thing. I'm thrilled. I love getting around by bike, so it's fun to be able to take the kids out places. We might even do it this afternoon because the weather's so nice.

But having three kids on bikes has required me to up my maintenance game. Sometimes it's pretty straightforward. In theory, I can patch a flat tube. In practice, I'm more likely to buy a new one and replace it.

Sometimes the maintenance needs just exceed my abilities altogether. So one time, Rose's handlebars got all twisted and the brake cables all popped out. When I'm looking at it, I'm thinking, Do these need to be cut, replaced, restrung, something? It was just a complete mess. So I called up Mittens Pop-Up Bike Shop.

That's this kind local lady who drives around doing mobile bike repairs. She has all her kit in her car, highly recommended. Turns out all she had to do was string the braid cables back into their little holders on the frame. At least I learned something for next time. What's verse 18 telling us?

Folly feeds sloth, and sloth neglects maintenance. So the question is, what maintenance are you tempted to neglect?

Spiritual disciplines?

Confession of sin? A hard relationship with someone in your small group? Where are you tempted to let decay win?

Verse 20 returns us to the theme of how foolish words spoken against others turn out to hurt the speaker. Even in your thoughts do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter. How can you ensure that nasty comment you made about your boss won't reach their ears? Don't say it. How can you ensure that you won't say it?

Ah, no, that's a little bit tougher. Self-control goes a long way. But look again at the verse: Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king. The only surefire way not to say it is not to think it. And the only way to do that is to do what Paul commands us in Romans 12:2.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king. When is the last time you verbally or mentally cursed someone who holds public office?

City, state, federal, legislative, judicial, executive. It is so easy to deceive yourself here. You think, I'm just exercising the prerogative of critical accountability as any good citizen should. But instead, you're simply bad-mouthing somebody in power and not giving them the honor that they're due. The alternative is to bless them and pray for them, just like we pray for some holder of authority every week in the pastoral prayer.

What is Folly's Fallout?

Your words harm yourself even more than they harm others. You undo more good in a minute than you can accomplish in a year. And everyone sees it. Everyone that is except you.

Point two: Wisdom's fruits. Wisdom's fruits.

In this chapter, the preacher trains our hearts not only to be repulsed by folly but to be attracted to wisdom. This chapter is trying to re-magnetize your heart so that you're drawn to wisdom and so that you taste its sweet consequences. As we saw in verse 2, wisdom like folly is a matter of the heart. As Proverbs 14:33 says, Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding, but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools. So what Ecclesiastes commends throughout this chapter is not mere rule-keeping, but heart-forming.

It's only this kind of heart-deep wisdom that will enable you to pull off what verse 4 tells you to. If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest. If a superior of yours launches into an unprovoked and unjust tirade, stay calm and stay at your post. When someone is mad at you for no good reason, you want to act just like a slab of of cement. What happens if someone tries to ignite a slab of cement by holding up a lighter to it?

Nothing. All that's going to happen is eventually the lighter is going to run out of fluid or the person's thumb is going to cramp up, but the cement will remain unmoved and unignited. So the way to overcome someone else's anger is to not add fuel to it. It's bad enough if one person loses their head, don't go making it two. That's this verse's simple instruction.

Calmness triumphs over anger because if nothing else, the angry person will eventually get sick of getting no response. You can wait them out.

So wisdom teaches you to rule yourself. It also teaches you how to rightly read the world. That's a crucial ingredient in biblical wisdom. You see it in Proverbs, you see it here, especially in verses 8 to 11, how to rightly read the world. Look again at verses 8 to 11.

He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them. If the iron is blunt and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength; but wisdom helps one to succeed. If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer. These verses are all about different types of cause and effect relationships.

Verse 8 warns that evil is like a boomerang. If you fling it out into the world, it will come flying back at you. Verse 9 reminds us that risks are everywhere. Quarrying stones and chopping wood are legitimate jobs. Wisdom can reduce risks, but it can't eliminate them.

There are no risk-free options in this life. Verse 10 teaches that cutting corners will, in the end, both take longer and cost more effort. You might think it is needlessly slowing you down to sharpen the edge of the axe, but of course, if you spend that time, the rest will go quicker. Verse 10 is saying that the fastest way to do any job is the right way. If you don't do it the right way, someone else or you yourself are going to have to come along and do it again.

Verse 11, I'm not really sure. This verse is difficult to translate and to interpret. I don't really have a position on it. It might be that the lesson is as simple as this, right? Because it's talking about the charm is no use if the snake bites first.

It might be as simple as a seatbelt only does you any good if you put it on before you get rear-ended. That may be the lesson of verse 11. I don't really know. That's the best I got. Moving on.

Cause and effect, risk and reward, preparation and follow-through. This sounds like basic stuff but it's just part of living with the grain of God's universe. Wisdom teaches you to watch the way the world works and to work in a way that works with the way the world works. It teaches you to find the grain of the world and cut along it. Every parent knows that one of the major struggles of parenting is getting children to discern and act on these types of cause and effect relationships.

So hypothetical scenario, a parent may say to a child, if you do all your homework right now, you can do whatever you want for the whole rest of the day. Make popcorn, watch a movie, I don't care. But not every child will take their parent up on that offer. Wisdom involves discerning consequences of the good and working for those. The point of these verses is that wisdom teaches you to watch and learn, and especially watch and learn what you can and can't Control.

You can control how well prepared you are for a job. You can't control what your teammates contribute or how your boss responds or whether a client is finally going to sign that contract. All those things are far beyond your ability. One of the most common causes of anxiety is thinking you can control what you really can't.

Thinking you're responsible for more than you are. If you're in a conflict with somebody else, you can control your contribution to that conflict. Are you patient and charitable, fair and even-handed, refusing to assume motives and charitably thinking the best of that person? That's all within your control. But you can't control how the other person responds.

So do what you can and pray for what you can't.

In the previous point, we considered the words of the fool, looking at verse 12 for their opposite.

The words of a wise man's mouth win him favor. This could either mean that the words of the wise are gracious or that they're gratefully received. Both are true, but I think the emphasis here is on consequences. The words of the wise help others and in turn they tend to prompt thanks. Think about how one apt encouragement can keep you afloat on a rough day.

Think about how one note from someone saying they're praying for you can help sustain and strengthen your faith. Think about how sometimes a group of people can be struggling to come to a decision and temperatures are starting to flare and tension is rising. And then one person distills the issue, states a simple solution, and offers a way forward. Almost out of thin air, agreement seems to materialize and coalesce all around you.

We saw in verse 4 how wisdom helps you rule yourself. In verse 17 we see how it helps you rule others. Looking at verse 17, Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility and your princes feast at the proper time for strength and not for drunkenness. The point about being the son of the nobility is not about some kind of inherent class superiority but about the training someone in that situation would likely have had from a young age about the skills of governance. And the point about his nobles is that the other leaders here know the right time and place and reason for enjoying good gifts.

Ecclesiastes is saying here that wisdom is the handmaid of good government. And in order to rule others well, you must rule yourself well.

Skip down to verse 19. At first read, verse 19 can feel a little random. Look at that verse with me: Bread is made for laughter and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. The point of this verse is not that if you have money, you have all you need. Instead, I think Old Testament scholar Derek Kidner nails it: He says in verse 19, It need not be cynical.

The point is not that every man has his price, but that every gift has its use. And silver in the form of money is the most versatile of all. Bread and wine each have their legitimate uses, but money has every use. The author is employing just a little bit of overstatement here to make his point. Since money is a medium of exchange, if you have it, you can get just about anything you want with it.

The next question to ask in wisdom is, what do you want? And why? The point of verse 19 is simply to show us what money is and thereby remind us of its power. That power is a double-edged sword. If you turn on your gas grill, and the fire comes out, that fire can cook your breakfast.

It can also burn your hand. You are not ready to handle fire until you know how hot it is and how easily it burns. You are not ready to handle money until you know how powerful it is and how easily it enslaves. That's the point of verse 19.

Now that, brothers and sisters, was a speedy sketch of this chapter's character studies on folly and wisdom. There really are two ways to live, and those two may not be the two at the forefront of your mind. So think back to the two ways to live I mentioned at the beginning: security versus loss, power versus weakness, being loved versus lonely, entertained versus bored, rich versus poor, pleasure versus pain, Success versus failure.

If you're here today and you're not a believer in Jesus, we're glad you're here, you're welcome at any of our services. I'd be delighted to talk to you at this door afterward about anything in the service. My question for you, based on this passage, is this: which of those two ways I just mentioned has the most gravitational pull on your heart? What do you most want to obtain? And what do you most want to avoid?

Here's the message of this chapter of Ecclesiastes for you and for all of us. Wisdom is better than security and folly is worse than loss. Wisdom is better than power and folly is worse than weakness. Wisdom is better than being loved and folly is worse than being lonely. Wisdom is better than being entertained and folly is worse than being bored.

Wisdom is better than being rich and folly is worse than being poor. Wisdom is better than pleasure and folly is far worse than pain. Wisdom is better than success and folly is worse than failure.

But the question for us then is, How can you get this wisdom? Where can you find it? How can you actually live this out?

Point three, wisdom's weakness. Wisdom's weakness. Now wait just a minute here. Weakness? Isn't this a pro wisdom chapter in a pro wisdom book?

Aren't we a pro-wisdom church? Look down at verse 1.

Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. Wisdom is weak in that it is vulnerable to our own internal treachery.

Wisdom is weak in that we all have enough folly in our hearts to sink a thousand battleships worth of wisdom. We all have enough dead flies of folly in us to ruin a thousand jars of wisdom's ointment.

How can you read verse 1 and not be convicted?

Wisdom is weak because it's easier to break a coffee mug than to repair it, and it is easier to divide a church than to unite it.

Wisdom is weak because our own fallen hearts attack it from within.

In our own strength and by our own resources, none of us can live up to this chapter's portrait of wisdom.

But there's another sense in which wisdom is weak. Look at verses 5 to 7.

There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: Folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. I have seen slaves on horses and princes walking on the ground like slaves. One of the main themes of the whole book of Ecclesiastes is that the only guarantee in life is death. Wisdom will not guarantee you success or power. The wisest candidate does not always receive the most votes.

In this life, distribution of recognition and rewards is often upside down. The best person doesn't always get the job. Folly is set in many high places. And when verse 5 says that's proceeding from the ruler, it means there's someone foolish in power so they appoint fools to be their delegates and counselors. Sometimes wisdom will not keep you from losing.

You can do everything right and still come up with the short end of the stick. That's because this whole world is fallen, cursed, and dominated by sin. It is possible to do everything right and still have things go wrong. This world is upside down. And the supreme example of that upside down-ness is that the only perfectly wise person who ever lived, Jesus of Nazareth, was elevated not to power and glory in this world's eyes, but elevated to the shameful, excruciating death on a cross.

The only perfectly righteous, perfectly wise human being to ever live suffered the greatest conceivable loss. Jesus endured weakness, loneliness, poverty, and pain, and the end of his life looked for all the world like a spectacular failure. But the world did not get to speak the last word on Jesus. God the Father did that by raising him from the dead. The dead.

Jesus didn't merely come to teach wisdom and exemplify wisdom though he did both of those things. He came to die for our utter lack of wisdom. He came to bear the curse due to us for our sins and to triumph over death and Satan by his resurrection. And now he is reigning at God's right hand. He is exalted in power and glory though not everybody can see it.

And so he calls everyone everywhere to repent of sin and trust in him to be saved. If you've never turned from sin and from your own dominating folly and entrusted yourself to Jesus. Trust in him today. Give yourself to him and he will welcome you with open arms. The apostle Paul tells us that this good news, this gospel message, is true wisdom, but it is a wisdom that looks foolish to the world.

Consider 1 Corinthians 2:6-8. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Brothers and sisters, members of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, remember that because this world is upside down, a rightly ordered life will look upside down to the world. Consider all that this world strives for, all the biggest magnets that pull at millions and billions of hearts. Think about the big ones.

And then consider Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5 and Luke 6.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.' the shape of the Christian life traces the shape of Jesus' life: cross, then glory; mourning, then rejoicing; humiliation, then exaltation. Wisdom is weak because our sin wounds it.

And because the world is upside down and wisdom won't always win. And the wisdom of the gospel is weak by worldly standards. But as the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:25, the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Early on in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, which I've recently resumed reading before our Wednesday night Bible studies, Christian meets a man called Mr. Worldly Wise Man. Here's how a worldly wise man counsels Christian about whether it's worth it to be a Christian and about whether he should pay attention to the words of a man called Evangelist.

Worldly Wise Man, Avoid him for his counsel. There is not a more dangerous and troublesome way in the world Then is that unto which he hath directed thee. And that thou shalt find if thou wilt be ruled by his counsel. Thou hast met with something as I perceive already, for I see the dirt of the slew of despond upon thee. But that slew is only the beginning of the sorrows that do attend those that go in that way.

Hear me, I am older than thou. Thou art likely to meet with in the way which thou goest.

Weariness, painfulness, hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and in a word, death and whatnot. These things are certainly true, having been confirmed by many testimonies. And why should a man so carelessly cast away himself by giving heed to a stranger?

Here's how Christian replied, why, sir, this burden upon my back is more terrible to me than are all these things which you have mentioned.

Nay, methinks I care not what I meet with in the way. If so be I can also meet with deliverance from my burden. You will never be a Christian until the burden of your sin is worse to you than whatever hardship you may encounter for following Jesus.

And you will make little progress in the faith as long as the world's two ways to live pull harder on your heart than God's two ways to live? Do you care more about success or sanctification? Are you more eager for power or for purity? Would you rather be rich or righteous? What is your only thing?

Is it anything other than Jesus Christ and him crucified?

The forked path that God's Word holds out to you shows you that sinful folly is worse than any pain this life can inflict on you. And God's wisdom is better than any pleasure this world has to offer. So let's pray and ask God to make these things real in our lives.

Heavenly Father, we pray that we would flee from folly and its eternal consequences. We pray that Christ would be our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification. We pray that we would be alert to all the ways the world tries to lure us into loving what it loves. We pray that we would love Jesus more than anything that could tempt our hearts here. Pray that we'd give you glory by holding fast to Christ and living as those made wise in him.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.