BUTTER KNIFE LOGGERS

Part 15 of Ecclesiastes
Pastor Mark Driscoll | Ecclesiastes 10:8-11:6 | July 20, 2003

Father, God, we thank you as always for an opportunity to gather together in this place as your people. God, we do thank you for the way in which you
have been so gracious and kind to us. Thank you, Lord, God, that you have revealed yourself to us through the scriptures and through the sending of
your son, Jesus Christ. God, it’s our prayer today that you would take the same spirit that inspired the writing of this sacred text and that you would
send your Spirit, God, to open our hearts and minds to illuminate our understanding to work against our resistance, to change our will, to motivate and
to empower our lives.

Holy Spirit, we ask you as our great God to reveal to us Jesus, who is the sum total and source of all life and the purpose of all scriptures, and, God, we
pray that the end of it, our lives would be a reflection of your work and that we would honor you, our heavenly Father. And so, God, we open the text
this morning with humility, with receptivity and with eager anticipation for your instruction that we seek in Christ’s good name. Amen.

As we get into the book of Ecclesiastes, the theme here is wisdom and falling. That really is the theme of Ecclesiastes as well as Proverbs. It’s the theme
of the wisdom literature in the Old Testament. There’s a seemingly infinite number of ways we can categorize people: Rich and poor, black and white,
young and old, tall and short, Republican, Democrat, employed, unemployed. Ecclesiastes has another way of dividing people: wise and foolish, and
some of you say, “Well, I don’t like that.” Well, you know which side you’re on then. There are wise people and there are foolish people, and
Ecclesiastes breaks us down into two categories and investigates our lives to show us where we’re at. Now, the good news is if we are fools, we don’t
have to stay fools. God, in his infinite grace, enables us to become wise people.

And wisdom is essentially this. It’s thinking God’s thoughts after him and living in light of who God is. It’s about knowing who God is and living in
accordance with what he instructs us through the scriptures. As we get into it today, what you’re going to find as we study wisdom and folly – is last
week he told us why we should prefer wisdom to folly, and this week he will tell us how to pursue wisdom instead of folly, and as we get into this,
what you’ll notice about your Bible is that it has principles and very few methods. Okay? Principles and very few methods. In Christianity there has
tended to be two teams: a conservative team that puts principles and methods in an inflexible hand. There tends to be a liberal team of Christianity that
puts principles and methods in an open and flexible hand.

For you to be a good Christian, you’re gonna need to work with both hands. With the principles of the Bible, you’re gonna need to be very, very clearly
committed to the principles of the scripture. With methods, you’re going to need to be very flexible. Okay? Because not every person is the same, not
every life is the same, not every circumstance the same, but the principles are always the same. As we come to the scriptures today, you’re not gonna get
a lot of method. It’s not gonna teach you how to set a diet; how to set a budget; how to discipline a child; how to love a spouse. It will, however, give
you lots of principles, and if you take those principles, what God does then is he sends the Holy Spirit to instruct us and inform us and empower us
what the New Testament calls the spirit of wisdom.

The principles are taken by God and then given to us so that we can live with wisdom. Basically what I’m saying is this. My job is this morning to lay
out principles for you. Your job is to take those, pray through those, think through those and God will tell you how to implement those in your life. So
we’re — we’ll start with the first principle begins actually back in Chapter 9, Verse 9 and then we’d lead to Chapter 10, Verse 8. We’re talking about
your life. We’re talking about how you spend your money, how you eat your food, how you tell your jokes, how you kiss your loved ones. Chapter 9,
Verse 9, at the very end of this verse he says, “For this is your lot in life and your toils from labor under the sun.” First thing I wanna tell you is this.
Before you can put together plans to live a wise life, you have to know your lot. You have to know who you are.

Many people in this room have either over- or underestimated their capacity. Because of that they live lives of frustration. Some people say, “Well, just
give me principles of wisdom so I can do what I wanna do.” Well, first we need to assess whether or not you’re capable of that. Jesus says the same
thing in the New Testament where he tells us that some are given different abilities in different measure. For some it’s a portion of one or two or three
or four or five. Plus, in Romans 12, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you are, but think of yourself with humility and sober judgment in
accordance with the measure of faith that God has given you.” Don’t think too much of yourself. Don’t think too little of yourself. Don’t overshoot.
Don’t undershoot.

Soberly assess who am I and what am I capable of. If you don’t have natural rhythm, you’re not gonna be a musician. All right? If you’re my height,
you’re not gonna play in the NBA. If you’re not good at math, you’re not gonna be an accountant. If you’re not naturally attractive, you’re not gonna be
a super model, and you could scream all day, “That’s discrimination.” It is. It’s good discrimination. We also don’t like people who can’t drive, drive.
Well, we shouldn’t. There is a certain lot in life that God has given us. Some of you are skilled at one thing, not at another. You have to decide how God
has made you and what he has built you for, and then, principally, you’ll need to work through being effective in that area. That’s why assessment is
always hugely important. That’s why before a sports team is selected, there’s tryouts.

That’s before they, why they — before they let you into a school or a college, they give you an examination. That’s why for ministry and pastors that
wanna plan churches — we contracted out a guy from Harvard Business School and he helps us do an assessment. 2,000 pastors a year say I want to
plant a church. 200 apply. 20 are actually qualified and capable, because sometimes our assessment of ourselves is not accurate. Like, I think I’m
attractive and funny, but sometimes we don’t assess ourselves all that well. Get to know who you are. What is my lot in life? What has God made me to
be and do? Then you could start to put together the plans for your life. Figure out, okay, how am I gonna get toward my objectives, my goals, what God
has called me to do?

He picks that up in Chapter 10, Verse 8, Once you know who you are, what you’re capable of, once you’ve rightly assessed who you are, once you
know what you can do, first thing you realize is that life is filled with peril. Chapter 10, Verse 8. “Whoever digs a pit may fall into it. Whoever breaks
through a wall may be bitten by a snake. Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them. Whoever splits logs may be endangered by them.” What he’s
saying is this: once you know who you are and what your life’s gonna look like, you gotta be careful, because anything you do has the potential of
turning really ugly quickly. He starts out giving an example. “Whoever digs a pit may fall into it.”

Or you could be the guy, who blows a water main in your front yard, and you go out there to dig the hole and to extricate the water line, and all of a
sudden, next thing you know, you fall in on your head and die. So you gotta be careful. It’s so quiet in here. “Whoever breaks through a wall may be
bitten by a snake.” You could be a guy who decides, “Well, I’m gonna put an addition on my house, so I gotta bust out this wall.” I bust out that wall, a
snake happens to be nesting in a wall, bites me in the arm, I die. Bummer. Bummer. “Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them.” You say, “I’m
gonna landscape my yard. It’s gonna look nice, little feng shui. It’s gonna be wonderful.” Pick up a rock, drop it on my foot, fall head first into the rock
and die. Could happen.

“Whoever splits logs may be endangered by them.” A guy says, “I have a wife. I have a fireplace. If I put a fire in the fireplace and sat next to my wife, I
do the math, things might go well for me. What I need is wood. I need to burn wood. God made trees to chop down to turn into wood to put in the
fireplace so that my wife will sit next to me and get in the mood. That’s the plan.” Guy chops down the tree, gets the wood, gets an ax, goes to fell the
wood into cords that he can burn in his fireplace to get his wife in the mood. Next thing you know, one piece of log kicks off, hits him in the face. He
goes down like a prize fighter with a glass jaw. It could happen. So knowing that, you gotta be careful. You gotta be careful. You gotta be careful when
you’re carrying rocks, splitting wood, digging up your water main. Gotta be careful.

When you’re remodeling your home, wise people know that danger is out there. Things could happen, and so what they do is they make plans. That’s
what he says in Verse 10. “If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success.” He gives the analogy, it’s
like a logger going out every day — some big, dumb, knucklehead with an enormous ax that’s absolutely dull and just spending his day laboring as hard
as he can trying to take down a tree with a butter knife, and some people live their life that way. It — everything is about just butter-knife logging is
really what it’s all about. You say, “I’m working hard.” Yeah, but you’re not working smart. Some people throw themselves into it. “I’ll just go get that
job. Figure it out as I go.” “I’ll go get that woman. Figure it out as I go.” “I’ll go get that man. Figure it out as I go.”

“We’ll just have these kids. Figure it out as we go.” “We’ll just go get that job. Figure it out as we go.” No you won’t. That’s why — I was behind a car
the other day. It said, “Driver’s Education.” You know why they did that? Because practice is important. Getting up to speed is important. We don’t take
15 year olds with their permit and put them on I-5 during rush hour with a stick shift and a set of rosary beads and goodwill. We set them up so that
what — so that you gotta learn. You gotta practice. You gotta plan. You gotta prepare yourself. Why? You’re gonna die. He just told us that. You gotta
have a plan. So what you’re gonna need for your life if you’re going to be successful and wise is a plan. Most of you, I’m guessing, probably don’t
even work off of a life mission statement.

My wife and I did this a few years ago. We sat down — before we started Mars Hill and we tried to decide. Okay. What’s our lot in life? What God has
called us to do? What are we gonna do? There’s all these possibilities, these different lines of employment, these different places we could live. The
world is open. Prayed and felt like, you know, our lot in life is to start a church here in Seattle. Okay. Well, what are we gonna need? A lot of stuff. We
need a plan. We’re gonna need people, money, facilities. I gotta grow up. I gotta learn how to preach. I gotta get a Bible. We had all this stuff we gotta
do, but it takes, you know, a plan. We’re gonna have to file as a nonprofit organization. We need to get an attorney. We’re gonna — I mean all this stuff
to start a church. Okay. Well, that’s what we’ve got to do.

If that’s what God’s called us to, then you go through an assessment. People assess me; went through a professional assessment. Yeah, you could do
this. It’s possible you can do this. Okay. So we get to it. It’s a plan. Okay? Some of you don’t like planning. You also don’t like failing, and you gotta
choose. Am I gonna put together a plan. Here’s what God’s called me to. Here’s my life. I’m working my plan. Here’s where I’m going. Here’s what
I’m doing. Or are you gonna be the — this person who just runs headlong into life, no plan. Everything goes crazy on you and you didn’t anticipate any
of the potential problems. If you wanna make money, if you wanna buy a house, if you wanna get married, if you wanna do ministry, if you wanna
know scripture, you gotta have a plan. You gotta put together a plan.

The reason my wife and I — we put together this life mission statement is so that we evaluate all of our decisions: Where are we gonna live? How much
money are we gonna spend? How are we going to spend it? How are we going to spend our time? Based upon our lot in life, what are we here to do?
There’s a lot of things that we turned down. There’s a lot of opportunities that we let go by because this church, quite frankly, is the most important
thing to us. Say, “Well, you could do this. You could do this.” I could, but this is the most important thing. I’m gonna love this woman, raise these kids,
and pastor this church. That’s what I wanna do, because that’s what God has called me to, and within that, then, you put together your plan. If you’re a
single guy, you need a plan. You say, “I need a woman.” You need a plan. You need a plan.

Otherwise, you’ll get the wrong woman. You know what I’m saying. Some of you women say, “I need a man.” No, you don’t. You need a plan. So
that when the opportunities come, you say, “This is, no. This isn’t gonna happen here.” What’s your plan? What’s your budget? Wise people know: if I
have a plan to do maintenance on my house, I’ll build more equity. Wise people know: if I change the oil on my car regularly, which is more than every
Presidential election, I will get more miles out of my car. People that are wise say, “Well, if I want to be in good shape and health, I need to exercise and
watch my diet.” People who are wise with their money say, “Well, I need a budget, and I need to carefully plan out for potential problems. My budget
needs to include perils, if they come upon me.”

Wise people know life is dangerous. Wise people know that they need a plan. Wise people also work their plan. That’s what he says in Verse 11. “If a
snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.” You see the guy is laying dying. He just got bit by a snake. You say, “What
happened?” He said, “The snake bit me.” You go, “But you’re a snake charmer.” “I know.” “Well, why didn’t you charm the snake?” “Well, because
I’m an idiot. I went to snake charming school. I have a PhD in snake charming. I wrote a book on snake charming. Oh, I forgot to charm the snake.” It’s
not enough just to have information and a great plan and foresight and wisdom. You gotta do it. How many of you have a diet that you don’t do? How
many of you have a budget that you don’t do? How many of you have goals and ambitions that you don’t pursue?

How many of you have an instrument that you don’t practice? How many of you have a desire to know the scriptures and you don’t have a plan to
pursue that, or you have a plan but you keep hitting the snooze button and miss it every morning? See, oftentimes, the difference between wise people
and fools is not what they want or not how they plan to get there. Sometimes the difference between wise people and fools is who actually executes. It’s
not enough to have a budget. You gotta follow it. It’s not enough to have a Bible reading plan. You gotta read. It’s not enough to have a deeply
committed theology of prayer. You gotta be on your knees. It’s not enough to believe that husbands should love their wives. You gotta love her.

It’s not enough to think that working hard and honestly and showing up on time and being a good employee is good if you don’t do it. That’s where the
Bible says elsewhere, “To him who knows the good and does not do it, to him it is what?” It’s a sin. Most of the people in this room have gotten
enough instruction that they know what they would be doing, and, oftentimes, the failure comes in the execution, and so just like the snake charmer, life
bites them. They get wounded, sometimes fatally. Terrible things happen and they can tell you why. Well, I could tell you why I’m in debt, because I
didn’t follow my budget — I could tell you why I’m in bad health. I don’t watch what I eat and I don’t exercise. Or I could tell you why I don’t have a
lot of wisdom. I have a copy of the Bible and I can read, but I haven’t connected those dots just yet.

And part of this is going back to this fact that you need to know your lot in life. First things first – what’s the most important thing? Otherwise, the
trivia and the minutia and the details of life will overwhelm you, and you won’t have time to do what you need to do, because there’s lots to be done.
Wise people clearly focus on first things first. They deal with first things first. They spend first money first. They devote first time first, and they
passionately pursue their lot in life and what God has given them and have enough foresight to plan that problems are going to come. They put together
possible responses to those plans and they work their plan diligently. We live in a society, however, that discourages this.

Rather than lifestyle preventative maintenance, we are a people who will indulge ourselves in folly to the point where we’re in absolute crisis, and then
we want some immediate fix. I haven’t watched my diet or exercise in years. Now, I need a magic surgery or magic pill. I haven’t watched my budget.
Now I’m in way over my head. I need to file bankruptcy. We haven’t loved each other and pursued Christ together. Now we need some sort of
immediate catastrophic marital intervention. We didn’t discipline our kids, raise them. We didn’t have a plan. We didn’t work the plan. Now we’re going
to need to incarcerate them or institutionalize them, and everybody wants this huge solution at the moment of greatest crisis. And what he says is,
“That’s foolish.”

Wisdom starts way back here, foresees all the potential problems and puts together a life of prudence and practice that works towards a different
alternative toward the peril. The peril is not where we’re going. Fools, though, don’t know it. They don’t correspond their spending and their debt. They
don’t correspond their diet and their health. They don’t correspond their work ethic and their income. They don’t correspond their home maintenance
and their home equity. They don’t correspond their oil change and the longevity of their vehicle. They don’t. Goes on: know your lot, foresee the
problems, make a plan, get to work. To do that, Verse 12 says you’re gonna need counsel.

“Words from a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but a fool is consumed by his own lips. At the beginning, his words are folly. At the end, they are
wicked madness and the fool multiplies words.” Be careful. What he’s saying is this: if you wanna be wise, pursue people that are wise. All right? It
says in Proverbs that, “He who walks with the wise grows wise, and a companion of fools suffers much harm.” If you wanna be wise in a particular
area, find someone who’s wise and listen to them. Don’t listen, in general. There needs to be among God’s people a selective hearing, selective listening.
The world is filled with fools who chatter on and on and on and what he says at the beginning, “Their counsel is foolish and in the end it’s insane.” It
gets completely astray. If you want to sin, you will find someone with a degree who will permit you to do so.

I was reading a review on a new book. It’s called The Starter Marriage. For example, what it says is this: that your first marriage shouldn’t be the
person you intend on being married to, it should be practice. Practice. That way, you get married, and this is — you both understand this is a practice
marriage. This is like preseason. This isn’t the real game. These don’t count. We don’t keep score. We figure out what we like and don’t like and then
we get divorced and go marry the person that’s gonna fit what we like and don’t like. See, it really doesn’t matter what — you see, that sounds dumb,
and by the end, it’s insane. It’s insane. I remember reading an article recently about a musician who said that the one thing that saved his marriage was
adultery. You go, “Okay. So you were the guy logging who took one to the head. I got you.”

He said that his wife and he weren’t having a good relationship intimately, and so he got a girlfriend, and because his girlfriend meets his needs, then he
doesn’t have to divorce his wife. What a great idea and you know what? Our world is just filled with some of the dumbest counsel, just chattering on
and on, and you go, at first you go, “That sounds dumb,” and then after awhile you go, “If I follow that out to its logical conclusion, that’s crazy.”
Because of that, some of you are sort of stubborn and you’re scared and you don’t seek counsel.

Say, “Well, everybody’s got an opinion. Everybody’s got conjecture. Everybody’s got an angle. I’m not gonna take any counsel. Nobody’s gonna tell
me how to spend my money. Nobody’s gonna tell me how to buy my home, how to finish my degree, how to work my job, how to court this woman,
how to love this man, how to raise these kids, how to pay these bills, how to oversee this body and its health, to conduct this ministry. I’m not gonna
seek counsel because I don’t trust anybody.” What he says is that we need to trust people. We gotta be very careful with who we entrust ourselves to
and who we listen to, and here’s the key. If you wanna pursue people that are wise, you look at a couple things. One is the fear of the Lord. It says in
Proverbs 1:7 that, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Do they love and respect God?

Secondly, do they know what they’re doing? When you ask them, “Why do you do this? Why do you do this?” They should be able to biblically
theologically articulate, this is why I spend my money this way. This is why I spend my time this way, and then the third thing is, you gotta see
execution and results. Gotta see execution and results. If that person can articulate a theology of marriage but their wife looks like she just ate something
past the pull date from the fridge, don’t listen, because wisdom isn’t just what you know, it’s what you do. You see a guy who can articulate
theologically what the scripture’s saying and then you look at his wife and she looks happy and loved. That’s wisdom. The person who wants to give
you information on parenting: look at their kids first.

How many of you — as soon as you got pregnant — those of you that are parents or parents to be, the first thing everybody started to do was give you
books and information on how to be a good parent, and then you look at their kids and you’re like, “You’re kidding me. You’re kidding me. Your kid
is 17 and they still have to wear a helmet because they’re just walking around because they’re so dumb.” You know. You know, “Your kid is in jail or
you know, they have 7 kids of their own and they’re 14. Well, this — you shouldn’t be.” “Well, trust me. I’ve learned the hard way.” No. You haven’t
learned anything. That’s the point. I have a guy recently come into the church. He said, “Yeah, you say some good stuff about marriage.” He said, “But
I’ll tell you, I’ve been through four wives and I have really learned some stuff.” Really?

Yeah, like, I’m an idiot. I mean, that’s about all he’s really learned. Like, you know, the guy who his life is chaos, he may say, “Well, I’ve learned a lot.”
Possibly not. See, some of you were raised in churches and youth groups and ministries where they always brought the person with the crazy
testimony. Okay? “Hi, I was a crack dealer and I killed my mom and I ate my dad and I play the banjo. I love that kid on the porch in Deliverance.” You
know, I mean, they tell you their testimony, “And now I met Jesus.”

I’m telling you sometimes the people you should seek counsel from are the people with the dullest testimonies. “Yeah, I love the Lord, and then I love
the Lord some more and I still love the Lord.” Really? Well, that’s not a bad idea, really. So you know all your children and they’re all from the same
woman and really? Well, maybe you do know something. You’re gonna need to get counsel from somewhere. There’s an infinite number of places you
can get it. You should get it from those people that are wise, those people who are doing it. I would tell you this. In this church, are there people with
wisdom? Absolutely. You wanna buy a home. You wanna study your Bible. You wanna fall in love. You wanna raise your kids. You wanna change
your oil. There’s somebody here that could teach you how to do that.

And it’s an issue then of committing yourself to pursuing out people of wisdom. Wise people do this. They find people that know more than they do.
They find people that are farther along than they are and they inquire from them of what they need to do and know. That’s what they do. God has been
so gracious to me. When I was a brand-new Christian, I found a guy, great parent, great family. I wanted to be a dad. I look at this guy. He’s got 12
kids. He has one son. One son, yeah. Kid’s never been to the bathroom in his whole life. Got one son and I looked at this guy and I looked at his kids
and you know what? His kids are wonderful kids. They love God. They love their mom and dad. They’re wonderful kids. So I asked this guy, I said, I
just start pumping for information. “Well, what do you do? How — what do I need to know?”

Look at his wife, wonderful wife. Start pumping her. “Okay. What do I need to know about being a husband, that your husband loves you? How does
this work? What do we do here?” Had a philosophy professor, who was a genius, he was a Christian, PhD. Okay. I wanna study philosophy and
culture. What do I need to know? It’s gonna be important for you to continually seek out Solomon saying, “Wise people,” because if you just pick up
the hot book, if you just listen to the talk radio show host, if you just jump on the bandwagon for the latest television fad or icon, you’re probably not
gonna get wisdom; just word after word after word, but not wisdom after wisdom after wisdom after wisdom. Wisdom you’re gonna need to look at
people. You’re gonna need to get to know them.

You’re gonna need to get in their life and see if they know what they are doing, and there’s some wise people here who can be of help to you. Here’s
the problem though, in the end of Verse 14. “No one knows what is coming. Who can tell them what will happen after?” The bottom line is this: We
need to foresee the problems. We need to put together a plan. We need to execute that plan. That plan needs to be put together by people that consult us
and give us information. Is this a good idea, bad idea? Other eyes need to be involved in our life, but, ultimately, we can’t predict the future. We don’t
know exactly what’s going to happen, and so we have to remain flexible. We may have to change midcourse. We may have intentions to raise children to
be something or do something and those children may not be what we were anticipating.

We may have lots of expectation about our marriage and then one of us gets sick. We may have lots of expectations about this career choice and then
that dries up and next thing we know, we’re yet another unemployed tech worker. You don’t know exactly where things are going. So what we do then
is we work as hard as we can at the opportunities that God gives us. That’s where he goes next. Work hard. Pursue things as they come up. Do the best
you can. He talks about a fool and the work ethic of a fool in Verse 13. “A fool’s work wearies him.” Fools are exhausted by nothing. You ever
worked with somebody who they didn’t do anything but they were just worn out? Like, “You don’t do anything.” “Yeah, but it’s exhausting.” That’s
the indication of folly. “A fool’s work wearies him. He does not know the way to town.”

He gives an indication here. Some people are worn out, burned out, stressed out, tired, because they’re stupid. Say, “Well, that’s not nice,” but it’s true,
and the evidence is so overwhelming. Here he’s talking about a guy who’s walking into town, but he doesn’t know where town is, because of that, he’s
tired. Well, that would make sense. “Where are you going?” “To town.” “Where’s town?” “I have no idea.” “How long you been going?” “I don’t know.
I don’t have a watch or a map and I’m tired.” “Are you sure you’re going to town?” “If I keep walking, eventually I will hit town.” No, you won’t. You
might hit water or mountains. You may miss town altogether. Some people live their life that way. “Where are you going?” “I don’t know.” “How are
you gonna get there?” “I don’t know.” “How’s it going?” “I’m worn out.”

You gotta connect those dots. Foolish people have no plan and they just wander through life wasting time and energy. How many of you this last week
really, if you looked at your schedule, you have huge gaps, you have no idea what was accomplished. Some of you — that was the month. You go,
“What was I doing?” Just walking around, aimlessly, no plan at all, no goal at all. I’m not saying we need to be working all the time. Sometimes our
objective is to sleep or take a nap. Fools get worn out because they’re wasting their time. How many of you right now, there are things in your life that
frustrate you, that exhaust you, that annoy you? Just because they’re completely disorganized and you haven’t put together any sort of system or plan.

Your house is disorganized, so you spend your time looking for the remote control and the car keys all the time. Rather than saying, “God in his
sovereign wisdom made baskets so we could put things in them.” Right? Rather than saying, “Oh my, gosh, I keep forgetting too pay the bills.” Friends
saying, “You know, you can write things down. There’s a calendar, all these crazy things that God has given to help put life together.” Goes on to talk
about work: “Woe to your land whose king was a servant whose Princes feasts in the morning.” All right? Wow to you who have leaders that are just
like you. See, we live in the society we think, “You know, we’re all the same.”

Right now, somewhere in this country, there’s three guys in a boat fishing with light beer between their legs complaining that they would be a better
President than the one we have. You know? “We can’t – we’d spend billions of dollars.” I mean, Billy Joe and Bobby Joe and Freddie Joe, we could’ve
went there and taken care of that guy ourselves. Just cast out and drink the light beer. “Woe to you,” he says, whose leaders were regular old, beer-
drinking nut jobs. “Woe to you.” “Well, I’ll do a better job than that guy from Harvard. What’s he know?” How to read, I mean, he’s got advantages.
He does have advantages. Most of us think we could do the job. “If I was president of this company, it’d go better.” Really? Really? The guy who can’t
find his car keys; the guy who can’t balance his checkbook, he’s going to run the company. “Yep, I could do it.” No.

“I could be President.” Really? Really? No. What he’s saying is: woe to you who are under leaders that are just like you. I wish the President was more
like me. Really? You wish he was drinking beer and fishing? I mean, that’s not a plan. All right? That’s not. Part of foolishness is this, thinking you
know what, the only difference between me and that guy who’s in charge is luck. That’s what we all think. “Oh, they got a break I didn’t. They’re no
smarter than me.” Really? You really think that? Do you really think that the people that are in management at the place that you work have done nothing
to get there? If you really think that the people who make decisions that impinge upon your life have done nothing to get there.

What he’s saying is this: we need to pursue wisdom. We need to work hard and we need not sit around and complain because those people that are in
charge they got the breaks and we didn’t and it’s just all luck in the beginning and in the end and in the middle, it’s not our responsibility. Some people
lead and are in charge because they have wisdom. Now, not everyone who leads and is in charge of something is necessarily wise. We dealt with that
last week. Some of you, though, are succeeding and you’re moving forward in your life or in your career or in your education because you work hard
and you’re wise. “Blessed are you,” Verse 17, “Oh, land whose king is of noble birth, whose Princes needed a proper time for strength and not for
drunkenness.”

Fools haven’t learned basic things, like, don’t stay up all night. Don’t get drunk all the time, any of the time. Don’t sleep in until noon, have a huge
lunch and take a nap. Don’t do that, and then wake up so you could drink beer all night. I had a guy in my dorm room – dorm floor like that in college.
This guy would set his alarm for lunch, I swear to God. He would get up and he would go eat lunch. He would come back and take a nap and then he
would drink beer all night. This guy was so lazy that in the middle of the night he wouldn’t even get up to go to the bathroom. He would go out the
window. He was like on the 8th floor. Can you imagine living under this guy in the wrong kind of breeze? That is not right. So what we did is we one
night came in and shut his window, just because, but that’s a quintessential fool.

This is the guy who, 27 years later, he’s a sophomore, thinking to himself, “You know, I just don’t get the right classes. I haven’t gotten the right
promotion. The system’s against me. I could be President. Pass me another light beer.” No. It’s not just luck and chance and happenstance and
circumstance, sometimes if you stay up all night and you sleep in, in the morning, and you gorge yourself on food and you take a nap because you’re
plumb tired, well, you’re not going anywhere. That’s why I say particularly for you young men, you need responsibilities and you need many of them.
Single guys, oftentimes, no wife, no kids, no mortgage, no nothing, they just work their job whatever hours they work, that’s what they get paid.
There’s a proclivity to become intensely lazy, intensely lazy.

How many of you single guys, you don’t have to show your hands, you’re lucky to get up at single digits? You’re a double-digit dude. That’s what you
are. “Oh, it’s 9:00. Not time yet. That’s still single digits. I’m a double-digit dude. Praise the Lord.” Get up, get going, do something. It says in Verse
18, another thing about your work, “If a man is lazy the rafters sag. If his hands are idle, the house leaks.” How many guys have got home
improvement projects that keeps stacking up? Say, “I don’t have time.” Why? “Well, I was napping, drinking beer. I was complaining about the
President. I was fishing. Now my gutters are full, they’re flooding my basement. My yard’s growing up. My roof is leaking. My car’s breaking down.
My fence is starting to lean. The paint’s chipping off of my house.” You can tell a fool by where they live. Drive by.

Hmm, fool lives there. How do you know? Well, look. Just look. We have verses. All right? Never been to Home Depot; Godless man he is. Look at
that. If a guy won’t even take care of the place where he lives, that is an indication to you that his whole life is just foolish. That’s where he spends his
time. That’s where he builds his equity. That’s where he’s going to live with his lovely wife. That’s where he’s going to raise his kids, who’d die when
the roof caves in on them. That’s the problem. That’s a big problem. You gotta know who you are. You gotta know the problems that could await the
life that you’re pursuing. You need to make a plan to overcome them in advance and you need to work really hard. Get up early. Work diligently. Don’t
get drunk.

Don’t spend your time complaining about people that are succeeding and passing your failures onto their successes and take care of those things that are
under your dominion and jurisdiction. Maintain your car. Pay your taxes. Mow your lawn, right? Trim your eyebrows. Do the stuff that you can do.
Your wife will thank me for that advice. He goes on then, Verse 19. This is my favorite verse in Ecclesiastes possibly. “A feast is made for laughter
and wine makes life merry but money is the answer for everything.” Some of you still are under this myth that you don’t need more money. How —
everyone needs more money. Money — it’s a bit of hyperbole, it doesn’t lie. Most of your problems, if you had more money, actually would be helpful
in eradicating them. Right?

How many of you right now, if I gave you a million bucks, you could have it blown in a matter of days? Oh, I could. I was thinking about it. You
could give me as much money as there is, and I have somewhere to spend it. Money is the answer for all kinds of problems. Say, “Man, my car’s
broken down. I can’t make ends meet. I’m falling behind on my time. I — I’m getting skinning, not because I’m dieting, but because I can’t afford any
food.” Money would fix that. Right? “My teeth are falling apart. My life is falling apart.” Money would help. Now, what he’s not talking about is just
money for the sake of money, but wise people know the value of a buck and wise people are very careful in the allocation of the resources. It says in
Proverbs, you know, “Of what profit is it for a man to gain wealth if he does not have wisdom?”

That’s why some people win the lotto and they’re flat broke in their bass boat that they’re dragging behind their motor home. No wisdom, no wisdom at
all. Wise people, though, when they get money they realize its value and they allocate it very carefully, and here’s what they use it for. “A feast is made
for laughter and wine makes life merry.” How many of you like to laugh and drink? I vote yes. I vote yes. Not to drunkenness and not like the fools
who just sit around and turn every day into a frat party or Mardi gras. Wise people know, however, I wanna buy a home with a fat dining room table so
I could have my friends over and we can kill an animal and bar-b-q it as God intends, and then we can laugh and enjoy one another’s company because
a feast is made for what? Laughter.

See gluttony isn’t accompanied by joy. Gluttony isn’t accompanied by laughter. Gluttony isn’t accompanied by celebration. Feasting is, and you look at
it and feasting and gluttony sometimes look like the same thing: people with lots of food. But they’re completely different, because the feasting is
purposeful. In the words of Ecclesiastes, it’s meaningful. We’re celebrating your birthday. We’re celebrating God’s provision. We’re celebrating this
child’s coming into the world. We’re celebrating your marriage. We’re celebrating your promotion at work. We’re celebrating. We’re feasting. We’re
enjoying one another and we’re laughing very deeply and that’s what wise people can do.

Wise people are prudent with their money so that they can throw lavish events and gatherings to enjoy the company of those that they love; that they can
eat good and drink good and laugh good. Fools don’t. Fools just piddle their dollars away. They piddle their days away. There’s nothing left over for
celebration. There’s nothing left over for hospitality. There’s nothing left over for friends. There’s nothing left. If you’re wise, you should seek to make
as much money as you possibly can. Some of you have been told the poverty theology. Rich people are poor. Sometimes lazy, simple people are, too. I
would submit this to you again. There are four kinds of people in the Bible when it comes to money. There are two kinds of rich; two kinds of poor.

There are righteous rich who worked hard and were thrifty and became rich. There are unrighteous rich who stole their money and God will judge them.
There are two kinds of poor: people that are righteous and poor. They’re poor because they love God. There are people who are unrighteous and poor.
They’re poor because they’re wicked and they sin, and because of that, their life doesn’t get any traction. They’re like a two-wheel drive in a snow
bank. They don’t go anywhere. What he’s talking about here is pursuing righteous wealth. Love God. Fear God. Have a plan. Work hard. Be diligent.
Be devoted. Be smart and when you get your money, do what with it? Share it. Feed your friends. Throw parties. Fund ministries. Help those in need.
Wise people know the value of money. Some of you greatly underestimate the value of money.

We live in a city that is anti-capitalism, anti-excess, anti-money, anti-growth. If you’re a single guy, how much is it gonna take to raise a family? Money
is the answer for a lot of stuff. Say, “Well, I would like to have a wife.” Well, that wedding’s gonna cost something. Definitely that honeymoon is
gonna cost something. Right? If you have a pop-tent bride who will go camping with you, very sad. “She loves me for who I am.” Well, she should
love you for who you are and who you are should be something more than a pop tent at a state park. Now, you get married. Where are you going to
have this lovely woman live, gentlemen? You’re gonna put your nice, lovely bride in some condemned crack house? No. You put her in a place that is
fitting for her. You put her in a nice place. See, this is my sexist chauvinism.

Find a beautiful woman, love her and spoil her. That’s my sexism. If you’re against that, that’s fine. Find a guy who will take you Dutch. Buy her a
nice place. Well, she’s going to have to drive something. You want her in some little compact car that she’ll die in or you want her in something that if
she hits someone, she will emerge victorious and unscathed. Put her in something big and heavy. Say, “Well, now we’re going to have children.” Well,
these children are going to need to eat and wear clothes and go to school. Where are they going to go to school? All this costs money. Say, “Well, I’m
against money,” but are you against an enjoyable life? If so – that’s why Paul says in the New Testament, “If a man does not provide for the needs of
his family, he’s denied the faith. He’s worse than a nonbeliever.”

Terrible sin for men to be lazy and dull; just letting their houses sag, their car blow up, their stuff get unfinished, Home Depot never to be visited.
Home Depot should be like Christian men Mecca. We should go there in homage. You know? Or Lowe’s or we are here. We’re here in devotion to
give our ohms so we can go home and fix up our little piece of the promise land. That’s what we’re here for. Why? Because I don’t want to be the fool
where all the other guys drive — want my wife to have a nice place. I want my kids to grow up in a place they don’t die. That’s what I want, but you
need a plan. Some guys thing, “I’ll get married and the money will show up.” You married men, tell them that’s not the way that it works. Money is the
answer for all kinds of problems.

Last couple things that wisdom does: wisdom is friendly. Wisdom is careful in its selection of friends. It’s interesting, isn’t it? If you wanna look at
wisdom, look at somebody’s goals, their self-assessment, their work ethic, their budget, their diet, that’s what he’s telling us. You look at a person’s
life and you could say “Well, that’s wisdom or that’s folly.” Here he talks about the friends. It’s another way to evaluate your wisdom. “Do not revolve
a king,” Verse 20, “In your thoughts or curse the rich in your bedroom because a bird of the air may carry your words and a bird on the wing may
report what you say.” How many of you have ever under your breath cussed out your boss and next thing you know, your boss knew? Oh. How
many of you wives have under your breath cussed out your husband? Next thing you know, he knew.

How many of you kids have dishonored your father and mother, and next thing you know, they heard about what you had to say. Oh. What he says is
this: wise people that watch their tongue, they pick their fights very carefully and they know that people that are rich, people that are powerful, people
that are influential, those are people that could make your life very hard and very difficult. Why pick a fight with your boss? Are you gonna win? Why
pick a fight with a cop who pulled you over for speeding? Why? Why pick a fight with the IRS? Why? Just write the check and praise the Lord and go
to bed and get it over with. There are times — he says early in Ecclesiastes 3, “There’s time for peace and a time for war. There’s a time to fight and
there’s time to back off.”

Wise people know: I’m not going to pick fights that are worthless because some day I may need that person’s friendship. You should have friends that
are wise. You should have friends that are powerful. You should have friends that are rich. You should all – how — also have friends that are poor and
you should have friends that don’t have any power at all. That’s what he tells us in Chapter 11, Verse 1. “Cast your bread on the waters.” He’s not
talking about feeding the ducks here, though that is Godly and good and prudent. “For after many days you will find it again. Give portions to a seven,
yes, to eight for you do not know what his master may come upon the land.” What he’s talking about here is the poor.

Wise people work hard, make money, spend it prudently. They’re careful not to pick fights with those people that could ruin their life and they are
careful to also befriend those people who are in need. Give your portions to seven or eight. What he’s talking about is this: seven or eight people you
know probably need help. They can’t meet their light bill. They’re having a hard time making ends meet. The husband’s laid off. The single mother’s
having a hard time paying the bills. Some tragedy or calamity hit the family. It’s a tough season. It’s a tough time. Some college kid just scraped enough
by to pay for their tuition but they can’t pay for their books. What should those people who are wise and work hard and make money do? Help. That’s
what they should do. They should be generous and kind. They should help.

Part of the reason he says, “We don’t know what disaster may come.” How many of you at one point in your life received help from a friend or a
family member and then later on in life, that person had a tough time and you were able to reciprocate the kindness? That’s what he’s talking about.
“People who sow generously,” the Scriptures say, “Reap generously.” Those people that are gracious and kind, if they should get into trouble, there’s
lots of people who come to help them because they say, “Well, you loved me and you helped me when I was down. Now you’re down, I’m gonna come
pick you up.”

People that are greedy and hoard their money, people that are not kind and not gracious, when they need help, there’s no one there for them. They can’t
reap because they haven’t sown. There’s nothing there for them because they haven’t participated in the life of another. Some of you are very, very
poor. Some of you are just starting your careers and you’re finally making some money. You love that. Set your budget. Stick to it. Be careful. Have a
plan. Some of you are doing well and you actually for he first time in your life have a little bit of extra and you should be diligent and prudent with it,
but it’s people who you love and know have needs, you should just take the opportunity to be helpful and gracious and kind, and see, I’m not
denigrating systems and organizations, but there has become, in our society, this opinion that institutions help people. People don’t help people. Right?
It’s not just the responsibility of institutions to help people. It’s the responsibility of God’s people to help people. That’s one of the ways we show the
love of Christ.

We’re all for Bible reading. We’re all for prayer. We’re all for helping each other. We’re all for taking care of those in need. Wisdom does it. Wisdom is
execution. I would ask you to think and pray through your own life. People that you know that need help, help them, and if they don’t know Christ and
they ask why, tell them why. Everything I have comes from God. I care about you and I felt like God wanted me to give this to you because he cares
about you, as well. It’s the love of Christ in action. The last thing that wisdom does: wisdom plans. Wisdom prepares. Wisdom modifies. Wisdom
works. Wisdom executes. Wisdom goes to Home Depot.

Verse 3, “If the clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or the north and the place where it falls, there it
will lie. Whoever watches the wind,” will not what? “Will not plant. Whoever looks at the clouds will not reap, as you do not know the path of the wind
or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb.” All you pregnant ladies, lot of things going on there. Only God knows. So you cannot understand the
work of God, the maker of all things. Sow your seed in the morning and in the evening do not let your hands to be idle for you do not know which will
succeed, whether this or that or whether both will do equally well.

At the end of it, wise people project into the future. They try and figure out where things are going. They know that it’s not a perfect science, that no
one, ultimately, but God knows the future. They put together their life’s objective, their plans, their goals. They get to it. They set their budget. They set
their schedule. They’re ambitious. They work hard every day. They get up in the morning, get to life. They stay up late at night, get to life. They’re not
idle. They’re not just getting drunk and eating meat and sleeping in and surfing channels and it’s ultimately an act of faith. And they pursue multiple
things simultaneously, because you have no idea what might work, and basically what he’s saying is this: if you are a coward, if you are a person who
is timid, if you’re a control freak or a perfectionist, you will always have a legitimate excuse to do nothing.

Oh, it’s too hot. It’s too cold. I’m too young. I’m too old. That costs too much. That — that’s gonna be too hard. Well — there’s always an excuse. You
need to know that excuse making is a sin. There are lots of excuses in the world. Now, in an imperfect and fallen world, that is, as he’s already told us,
“Fraught with peril,” there are going to be legitimate reasons why you could justify doing nothing, doing nothing. Some of you have turned your
excuses into airtight defenses. You have practiced them so diligently that when you should get convicted about something, automatically, possibly even
now, all of the legal brief that you have constructed in your own imagination rises to the front of your mind and you can defend yourself. Nope. I don’t
do that because I got this and I got this. You can’t get me. I’ve got an excuse for everything.

I’ve got a reason for everything. I’ve got — I don’t have to. I don’t have to love my spouse. I don’t need to read my — I don’t. I got a reason. I got a
reason for — I know I’m bitter, but I got a reason. I know I’m a jerk. I know I’m in bad shape. I know my house is a wreck and I don’t — I got a
reason. I got a reason. Fools excuse. Wise people repent. What is keeping you in all likelihood from being happier with your life, getting your two-
wheel drive out of the snowdrift and making some progress, is owning the fact that you have spent a great deal of time not planning, not working, yet
excusing yourself from making progress. It’s the truth. It’s totally true. It’s true of me. True of you. What he says about wise people: they look at their
options and they pursue as many of them as they can.

We have a guy in this church. He was wanting to get married. I remember talking to him. I said, “What are you doing?” He says, “Well, I pray for a
woman. I’m saving money for a ring. I haven’t met the right woman yet, but I’m serving the Lord, walking with the Lord, talking to my friends, just
waiting to see what woman God would have for me.” Pursued all of his options, because you never know, you never know which one’s going to
work. He got on an airplane to fly across country. This sweet gal had the seat next to him. By the time they get off the flight, he said, “I knew that was
my wife.” You pursue everything, but God could show up in a way that you weren’t expecting. God’s so big that he oversees seating arrangements on
an airline flight.

My wife and I, we’re thinking about buying a home. First thing I told my wife was, “Make a list. What do you want? What do you want?” She says,
“Okay. Here’s what,” — in a dream. I said, “Dream world.” My wife’s very humble, unlike me, she says, “Well, honey, I don’t know if I should do
that.” I said, “Honey, just dream your list. Give me your list.” I’ve never had her do that with your perfect man because I can’t bear that. The perfect
house: that I can do. She says, “Okay. The perfect house, this is what I have.” “Okay, great. Now, let’s narrow it down. Where do we wanna live?
Where do we wanna live? Okay. Great. “We spent over a year looking for that house. Real estate agent looking; drive around the neighborhood, every
week for a year. Why? Real estate agent looking online; driving around, why? Because you never know. You have no idea.

You pursue this option, this option, this option, this option. It’s like finding a job. Apply at 50 companies under four different careers paths, chase them
all and wait to see which one goes and if that one opens up, take that lane and drive in it. Who knows? You never know how God is going to show up.
The way we got our house was a funny story. None of those things work. A woman in the church was at the park swinging her kids, talking to a lady
who was next to her swinging her kids who was getting ready to sell her house in two days, and it’s our house, because you never know.

What he’s talking about is being a person who knows what they want, focuses in on it, knows what God has made them for and called them to, puts
together a plan, pursues that plan, chases all of the options and knows that God may surprise you and come through in a way you never expected. How
many of you right now, the relationship you’re in, the job you have, you didn’t see it coming? It’s just, you were chasing things and then God showed
up in an unexpected way but he provided. That’s how God is. It’s not karma. It’s not just cause-and-effect, that I did all the right things, so the right
things happened. What it is, is it’s grace that if we love God and our hearts are inclined to Him, we’re doing what we can, we’re working our plan,
we’re being diligent and faithful. God opposes the proud. Peter says he gives grace to the humble.

God shows up and says, “Well, I got a way to make this come together for you. There’s hope here. There’s grace here. There’s love here. There —
there’s life here for you, because I love you.” Now the good news is this, some of you read all this and you hear all this and you feel very convicted.
You say, “Okay, it’s always the same sermon. I stink. I got that.” And pretty much it is always the same sermon. Now, on the flip side, you get
convicted and you say, “Oh my, gosh, a plan, a budget, a diet, a goal, getting up, working my plan. Oh, man, that would have been a good idea, really.”
Repentance is turning, saying, “Well, okay. I understand that I wasn’t going about things in a great way. I’m gonna repent.” Repentance first is turning,
committing ourselves to God saying, “Okay, God, I’ve got sin now because of my folly.”

Jesus came, died for your sins, rose to forgive your sins: beautiful. God has taken care of your biggest problem. Because he’s taken care of your
biggest problem, now you have a chance to work on your other problems. God and Christ took away your sin if you turn to him in repentance and
faith. I turn from my sin and I trust in you. Thank you, Jesus, for dying, rising for my sin. You took care of my biggest problem. Now, I got these
other problems and they’re all related to my foolishness and my silliness and my laziness. Give me grace to instruct me. Give me grace to empower me.
Give me your spirit to guide me and he does. So that now life is about Christ. Paul says that life is hidden in Christ.

And Jesus overtakes all of our life and integrates wisdom and grace with our diet and our budget and our friendships and our work ethic and our alarm
clock and our Home Depot gift certificates. He overtakes the whole thing, and what I’m calling you guys today is to a brief moment of conviction; a
quick transition to Christ, to grace, to hope, to life. Your assignment today, as you leave, is to think through those places of folly in your life and make a
plan to repent and transition. For some of you, this is a life mission statement. What has God called you to be and do? For some of you, this is a budget.
How am I spending my money and how do I get this under control? For some of you, it’s a plan of health and diet and exercise. For some of you it’s a
viable reading plan. How much am I gonna read and when am I gonna read?

For some of you, it’s friendship. Who am I gonna go talk to and ask what it is that I don’t even know to do so that they can impart their wisdom to me?
For some of you it’s just execution. If I’m gonna do this, I know what I need to do. I’m just gonna do it, and God in his grace will empower me and
enable me to get after it. And for some of you, you see progress and you say, “You know what? I see change.” For some of you, it may just be
maintenance and continuance and perseverance. I’ll call you to repentance. I’ll call you to Christ. We’ll transition in just a moment with the offering. If
you’re a visitor or not a Christian, don’t give. If you’re not a Christian, don’t worry about communion. You’re our guest. In this act, we remember
Jesus’ body and blood shed for us and we come to Him, receive an innocent life and then live in it.

And so, Father, God, we thank you for this very practical word. God, I wanna thank you personally that you are so intensely practical. You don’t just
speak about theory and philosophy. You speak about life and reality. That God, you penetrate our sagging rafters and our home improvement projects.
You penetrate our feasts and our dieting; that you penetrate the spending of our money which encompasses all of our lives and activities. That God,
you penetrate our work ethic in the time that we get up and the time that we go to bed and our day planners and our schedules and how we devote our
time. God, we thank you that worship is not just a mental assent to a couple of facts, but it’s a commitment of a lifestyle in devotion to you.

Jesus, we thank you for your words that you’ve come to give us life, life that is full. We know that that is a lot of what Ecclesiastes is talking about. I
pray, God, that we would be people who foresee problems before they come. That we planned in advance to prepare for them; that we have money set
aside for the rainy day; that we have friends that we have loved and helped should we ever be in need; that we have wise people that we can pursue for
counsel and insight. That God, we would have grace upon grace when we need it, and I pray, God, that everything from our yards to our cars to our
friends to our spouses to our kids to our budgets, to our ministry would be a reflection of wisdom. That God, we would be a people filled with joy that
our lives would be making progress by grace and that you would be the one leading and guiding us each step of the way.

We thank you and we come to you in this spirit, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Copyright © 2008 Pastor Mark Driscoll http://marshill.com/media/ecclesiastes/butter-knife-loggers