Introduction:
How Can I Live a Balanced Life:
(Ecclesiastes 7:15-8:1)
- By choosing to be Godly Instead of Unrighteous and Self-Righteous . (Eccl 7:15-20)
In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that - and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison - you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.
- C.S. Lewis
- By choosing to be Wise Instead of Arrogant and Foolish . (Eccl 7:21-29)
- By choosing to Stand Out Instead of Blend In . (Eccl 8:1)
Isaiah 5:20 - "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:49-00:53
All right, so you can open your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 7.
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Now for those of you who know me, I've preached many times at this church.
00:56-01:01
This is my first sermon as the associate pastor, so I'm not going to play it safe.
01:01-01:03
I'm going to be a little bit dangerous.
01:04-01:06
I'm going to pull someone out of the audience to help me with my opening illustration.
01:07-01:10
I can hear stomachs churning. I can hear knees knocking.
01:10-01:18
I can hear people thinking, "I knew I didn't like this guy. I knew something was off about him." You know what? I'm not going to pull someone out of the audience, but I will ask for a volunteer.
01:18-01:20
Who would love to help me with my opening illustration?
01:22-01:22
Anybody?
01:24-01:24
Brian?
01:25-01:25
Brian, you wanna help me?
01:26-01:26
All right, man.
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Everyone give Brian a round of applause.
01:31-01:33
Brian just asked if he's gonna regret it.
01:33-01:33
You might.
01:34-01:35
So we're gonna see what's gonna happen.
01:35-01:37
So Brian, I want you to go open that door.
01:37-01:38
I want you to bring out what you find over there, okay?
01:40-01:41
Well, just the first thing.
01:44-01:45
Oh yeah, bring that over here.
01:46-01:48
So Brian, this is my office chair.
01:48-01:49
I want you to sit down in it, okay?
01:51-01:51
Yes, right there's good.
01:53-01:54
All right, do you get dizzy?
01:56-01:58
Okay, well, we're definitely gonna find out.
01:58-02:03
All right, so I would have done this myself, but I get bad vertigo sometimes.
02:03-02:05
I kinda need my mind working for the rest of this sermon.
02:06-02:11
What we're gonna do, Brian, is that we're gonna spin you around in my nice office chair and we're gonna see if you can walk in a straight line after that.
02:12-02:12
How's that sound?
02:13-02:13
Will you catch me?
02:15-02:15
You know what?
02:16-02:18
We have a volunteer to catch Brian if he falls over here.
02:18-02:19
Anybody's willing to do that?
02:20-02:21
Anybody, you wanna do that?
02:21-02:22
All right, you stand over there.
02:23-02:24
All right, I'll do that just for you.
02:24-02:26
How many spins should I do, what do you think?
02:27-02:29
20, it sounds like way too much.
02:29-02:30
Okay, I don't know about that.
02:30-02:31
How about 10, how about 10?
02:32-02:33
So you count each spin, okay?
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Make sure you keep me honest.
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All right, we ready?
02:36-02:37
Assume the position.
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I guess that's the position.
02:40-02:41
All right, are you ready?
02:44-02:45
You're heavier than I thought.
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(laughing)
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Oh, an extra one.
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All right, go.
02:57-02:58
We good, are we good?
02:59-03:01
All right, everybody give Ryan a round of applause for that.
03:01-03:02
Thank you so much.
03:06-03:10
Now some of you are thinking, Taylor, that was really funny and all, but what was the point of that?
03:11-03:12
We've all had that experience, right?
03:13-03:15
where you feel totally dizzy and off balance.
03:15-03:18
I hate that feeling.
03:19-03:21
How often does life feel like that?
03:23-03:41
We're spun around, round, and around by world events, difficult trials, the frustrations of daily life, and we feel totally unable, totally unequipped to walk on the path that God has laid out for us in his word.
03:42-03:48
Life is a difficult journey, and we can lose our footing at any time.
03:49-03:52
That's how Solomon feels at this point in the book of Ecclesiastes.
03:52-04:05
This book is all about Solomon searching for wisdom and meaning, and he has reached the ceiling of what this world has to offer, and he realizes it's all meaningless apart from God.
04:06-04:12
He's come face to face with the reality that he's been wrong about a lot of things for a very long time.
04:12-04:23
His search has spun him around and around and around, and he desperately desires the balance and stability that only God can provide.
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In Ecclesiastes 7, verse 15, through chapter eight, verse one, Solomon presents living life God's way as a high wire act, with sinful and deadly extremes on either side.
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And walking this tightrope successfully involves making three choices every single day.
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And we're gonna spend the rest of this message unpacking those three choices.
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So let's jump into the first section of our passage this morning.
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It's Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verses 15 through 22.
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Solomon writes this.
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In my vain life, I have seen everything.
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So Solomon seems like he's in a really good mood right off the bat.
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There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness "When there is a wicked man who prolongs his life "and his evil doing, be not overly righteous "and do not make yourself too wise.
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"Why should you destroy yourself?
05:19-05:21
"Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool.
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"Why should you die before your time?
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"It is good that you should take hold of this "and from that withhold not your hand.
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"For the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
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"Wisdom gives strength to the wise man, "more than 10 rulers who are in a city.
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"Surely there is not a righteous man on earth does good and never sins.
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Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servants cursing you.
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Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.
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So I want each of you to ask yourself this one question this morning.
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How can I live a balanced life?
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How can I live a balanced life?
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Number one, by choosing to be godly instead of unrighteous and self-righteous.
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by choosing to be godly instead of unrighteous and self-righteous.
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So Solomon points out a really harsh reality that we all come face to face with every single day. Those who do the right thing often seem to suffer for it, while those who are content to do the wrong thing seem to be doing just fine.
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Anybody else besides Solomon ever notice, "Friend, you're struggling at work to make any progress or have any success, but that guy who always cuts corners and tells lies, he's always getting the promotion.
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You turn on TV and you see shady and corrupt people living in the laps of luxury while you're sitting at your kitchen table cutting giant eagle coupons and struggling to save for the future.
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At first glance, it seems like Solomon is telling us, you know what, righteousness is a waste of time.
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Let's read that again.
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There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness wicked man who prolongs his life and his evil doing.
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Be not overly righteous and do not make yourself too wise.
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Why should you destroy yourself?
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Is he saying, yeah, you know what?
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There's no point.
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Nice guys finish last.
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Don't bend over backwards to be godly.
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Is that really what he's saying?
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It can't be because it goes totally against the teaching of the rest of scripture.
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And he also tells us, don't be wicked either.
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That path leads to death and destruction.
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In the original Hebrew, when Solomon says, "Do not be overly righteous," this could also be translated as, "Do not pretend to be righteous," or "Do not be self-righteous." Do not be self-righteous.
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In other words, don't be a religious figure going through the motions.
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Don't be a judgmental person who looks down your nose at other people.
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Find the biblical balance between these two things, between unrighteousness and self-righteousness.
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What is that middle ground?
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It's genuine, true godliness.
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It's being a person of humble integrity who does the right thing, not because you have to, but because you want to, because you love God and you want to please Him.
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Now, I know what many of you are thinking right now.
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Taylor, you know what?
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I get it.
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Self-righteous is bad.
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It's horrible.
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I just don't really struggle with it very much.
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I heard somebody laughing, so that's a good sign.
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You know, what's wrong with this?
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Are you really sure about that?
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Let me give you some examples.
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Have you ever had someone in your life do something really stupid, really wrong, and you look at them and think, man, what an idiot, I would never do that in a million years.
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Is that self-righteous?
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Oh yeah, and we do that all the time.
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We play the comparison game where to make ourselves feel better about what we're doing, we look at somebody else who appears to be doing something much worse.
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"You know what, I'm not the best, I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not cheating on my spouse and getting drunk every night." Bravo, what a high bar to clear, right?
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You've had a hard time accepting a word of rebuke from a fellow Christian who in love comes to you and says, "You know what, I'm just really concerned about how you're talking to your wife.
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Really concerned how you're treating your kids and really worried that you're allowing work to just take over your life.
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Instead of humbly receiving that, You turn the tables on them, and you make them out to be the bad guy.
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You make them to be the self-righteous one, not you.
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How about this?
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Has your opinion of a fellow believer ever dropped because they didn't hold to certain standards that you have that aren't even biblically commanded?
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They drink and you don't, and you think, why do they do that?
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It makes you think a lot less of them.
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Or maybe someone in this church dresses too casually for your liking on Sunday mornings it makes you think a little bit less of them.
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Without even realizing it, we can be like the Pharisees and come up with these man-made rules and put them on other people.
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Let's look at another example of self-righteousness in chapter seven, verses 21 through 22.
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Solomon writes, "Do not take to heart "all the things that people say, "lest you hear your servants cursing you.
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"Your heart knows that many times "you yourself have cursed others." You may be shocked to hear this, but Christians struggle with gossip and slander like the rest of the world does. Let me give you a second to pick your jaws up off the floor. Christians struggle with gossip, name-calling, rumors. These aren't just small, "Oops, whoops, I shouldn't have done that." These are massive sins that can ruin people's lives and ruin your life, too. These are sparks that can cause a huge fire. How often do we get bent out of shape when someone says something rude about us, but we're so slow to own up to how we talk out of turn about other people. I can't believe what they said. They said this about me.
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What about the time you bad-mouthed them last week? How about that?
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Solomon's not approving of either of these things. He's saying it's all bad, but so often we play the victim and we refuse to own up to how we sin in this area of our lives. I could go on and on but I think you get the point. No matter who you are, how old you are, you struggle with self-righteousness in some way, shape, or form. You know, I'm a big movie fan and my family actually labels me as a movie snob. Apparently I look down on them for watching Hallmark movies around the Christmas time. I don't know. Who likes Hallmark movies? Who's brave enough enough to admit that. Or so some of you are like, "Yeah, I'm not a fan." Now, I reject this notion that I'm a movie snob. I just like to think that I like good movies.
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That was pretty snobbish to say, wasn't it? I really have to work on that. Now, we all don't struggle with being movie snobs like I do, but we can all admit that we struggle with being Christian snobs at times. You'll have to wrestle with this sinful, natural desire to want to be at the top of the heap and step to other people, to get there, to make yourself feel like you're better than everyone else. By God's grace, we have to resist this urge to be self-righteous and instead embrace true righteousness instead. How does this happen? How can you be a person of genuine righteousness? Well, your understanding of who you are has to be shaped by your understanding of who God is. When you compare yourself yourself to other people around you, you can look pretty good.
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When you compare yourself to the holy and perfect God of the universe, you begin to see how sinful and needy you really are.
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Taking your eyes off of yourself and other people and gluing them onto God changes how you view your own acts of goodness and righteousness.
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Listen to what the famous Christian writer C.S. Lewis had to say about this.
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I can't say it any better than he did.
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"In God, you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself.
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Unless you know God as that, and therefore know yourself as nothing in comparison, you do not know God at all.
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As long as you are proud, you cannot know God.
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A proud man is always looking down on things and down on people, and of course, as long as you're looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.
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None of us, Pastor Jeff and myself included, are perfect.
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We sin every single day and in many ways.
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And Solomon backs this up in verse 20.
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"Surely there is not a righteous man on earth "who does good and never sins." This verse is totally true, but I do wanna add on a biblical note that becomes very clear in the New Testament.
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"Surely there is not a righteous man on earth "who does good and never sins, except for Jesus." except for Jesus.
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He is the only truly perfect, righteous man who's ever walked the face of this earth.
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He lived the perfect life you couldn't live and then died the death that you deserve to die.
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Because of his sacrifice on the cross, he now looks at you as blameless and righteous.
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How awesome is that?
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When the Father looks upon you, he isn't focused on your sin, on your imperfections and your flaws.
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Instead, he sees the perfect obedience of his one and only Son.
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We must never forget that we are sinners saved by the amazing grace of our God.
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We didn't choose him, he chose us. As we were running away from him, he ran us down and grabbed us in his loving embrace. A true understanding of the gospel of grace obliterates any hint of self-righteousness and pride in our lives.
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Because we are nobodies saved by the biggest somebody in the universe. Pride and self-righteous have no place in the life of a Christian. They are dangerous and obnoxious weeds that have to be pulled out by the root before they choke out your growth and spiritual maturity. So how do we do that? Well as I just said, by preaching this gospel of grace to yourself every single day, by reminding yourself what God has done for you, by being in his word, not just reading it, but actually putting it into practice, actually doing it, by being an honest community with other believers.
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A great way to do that is to join a small group this upcoming week.
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On Wednesday, you'll get an email to give you online signups to sign up for a small group, whether you wanna sign back up for your small group from last year, or maybe you're new around here and you need a new small group, you can sign up online.
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We'll also have in-person sign-ups on next Sunday after service, as well as September 4th after service.
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Joining a small group is a way to be an honest, transparent community with other believers.
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Because you know what?
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Christianity is not a solo sport.
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Avoiding self-righteousness and becoming righteous cannot be done by yourself.
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It has to be done in community.
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And pulling out these spiritual weeds of self-righteousness, it's hard work.
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It requires brutal honesty with God, with others, and yourself.
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All right, secondly, how can I live a balanced life?
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By choosing to be wise instead of foolish and arrogant.
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By choosing to be wise instead of foolish and arrogant.
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Let's continue on to see what Solomon has to say about wisdom and finding balance in that area of our lives in verses 23 through 29.
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All this I have tested by wisdom.
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I said I will be wise, but it was far from me.
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That which has been is far off, deep, very deep.
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Who can find it out?
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I turn my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom in the schemes of things and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.
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And I find something more bitter than death.
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The woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are fetters.
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He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.
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Behold, this is what I found, says the preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things, which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found.
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One man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found.
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See this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
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There's a lot going on in these verses I can't fully unpack this morning, but I will post on the website, on the blog, just to unpack some of these things I can't cover this morning.
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So if you're interested in learning how to avoid women with snares and nets for hearts, go check that out.
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That's really interesting.
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But again, you should definitely read it.
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You all sound interested.
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But again, in these verses, the ones that we just studied, it seems like Solomon is bagging on wisdom like he seemed to be bagging on righteousness.
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Is he telling us again, you know, wisdom is pointless?
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Of course not, because he tells us don't be foolish.
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And he says in verse 19, "Wisdom gives strength to the wise, man more than 10 rulers who are in a city. He's saying wisdom is powerful, it's effective. This is the guy who wrote the book of Proverbs, which is all about the importance of wisdom and pursuing after it. So it's obvious that Solomon values wisdom, which is knowledge and action. It's the God-given ability to understand his word and put it into practice. But at the same time, Solomon wants us to understand that this world is complex, it's confusing, it's broken. No matter how knowledgeable you are, no matter how mature you are, there are gonna be times when you don't know what to do. Anybody else besides me feel that way sometimes?
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You don't know what to do. You don't know what to think about this situation. You don't know why this hard thing is happening to you or a loved one. We all feel like Psalm and in verse 23, "All this I've tested, I'll be wise, but it was far from me." That which has been is far off and deep, very deep. Who can find it out? You're praying for and seeking after wisdom, but it feels like it's a million miles away.
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You're seeking after wisdom about issue with your kids, with your job, but you come up with nothing. In those moments we come face to face with our limitations and our weaknesses as human beings. You know as I mentioned earlier I'm a big movie fan or movie snob depending on who you ask and my favorite genre of movies is 80s and 90s action movies. Anybody else? And the best part of those movies isn't the action, isn't the explosions, those are all cool, it's the cheesy action movie one-liners, right?
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Who's most famous for that?
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Schwarzenegger, obviously.
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Who else?
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Stallone, Bruce Willis.
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Can we throw out some of these?
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What's one from Arnold Schwarzenegger we can think of?
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Hasta la vista, baby.
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Or I'll be back.
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Or when he throws the knife to the guy in Commando and says stick around.
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I always like that one a lot.
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But another actor who does this really well is Clint Eastwood, who's very well known for being Dirty Harry, who's a cop who shoots first and asks questions way, way later.
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He's famous for saying things like, go ahead, make my day.
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Or, do you feel lucky?
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Well, do ya, punk?
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My favorite is at the end of the second movie, where he blows up the bad guy in this massive fireball explosion, and he looks all cool at the car and says, a man's got to know his limitations.
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Beyond the coolness of that line, there is a hint of biblical truth in it.
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The essence of true wisdom is understanding your own limitations as a human being.
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This even involves understanding the limitations of wisdom.
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As I said earlier, you'll never, ever, ever be able to understand everything that you want to in this life.
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You'll never even come close.
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Don't be arrogant and think that you can.
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You are not God.
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You don't have an eternal perspective on this world and this universe as he does.
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We have a teeny tiny perspective.
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It's like trying to look at a massive painting through a small keyhole.
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We can see bits and pieces, but we can't see the whole picture.
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With the trust that our all powerful God not only sees the whole picture, but he's in complete control of it.
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And this is so easy for me to stand up here and say this to you all.
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It is so hard to live this out.
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It's easy for me to say, you know what, yeah, trust God in the midst of the death of a loved one.
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Trust God when you have an adult child who's running away from the Lord, even though you pray for them every single day.
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Trust God while your marriage seems to be falling apart and you have no idea what to do.
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In these moments we're spun around by life, it's so hard to trust God.
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It's so hard to give our fears and anxieties over to Him.
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But brothers and sisters, what other option do we have?
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The alternative is despair and hopelessness, and that's no way to live.
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That is not the path of wisdom.
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That is the path of foolishness.
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Instead, let's entrust ourselves and our families to our all-wise Heavenly Father who knows exactly what He is doing, even when it seems like He does not.
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All right, finally, how can I live a balanced life?
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By choosing to stand out instead of blend in.
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By choosing to stand out instead of blend in.
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So Solomon closes out his teaching on balanced living with the results of leading a godly life.
23:25-23:28
He says this in chapter eight, verse one, "Who is like the wise?
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"And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
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"A man's wisdom makes his face shine "and the hardness of his face is changed." In other words, all the rough edges begin to be smoothed out by God.
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So according to Solomon, true wisdom leads to a changed life that cannot be ignored.
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You know, we live in a culture that only acts foolish, but celebrates foolishness on a daily basis.
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Isaiah 520 tells us this, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, "who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
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Can you think of a better verse to describe America in 2022?
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Right now, I know I can't.
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You turn on the TV, you see politicians, news anchors, social media influencers, celebrating the things that break the heart of God and labeling his ways as hateful and unloving.
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In the darkness of this foolishness, God is calling us as his followers to shine the light of his word, to shine the light of his wisdom and righteousness.
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Back in the book of Exodus, as Moses comes down from Mount Sinai, as he spent all this time with God, his face literally shone like a light bulb from being in the presence of God.
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Moses was changed by his time with God, and it caused him to stand out from the crowd.
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Is that true of you?
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Has your relationship with God changed you?
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Has your relationship with God caused you to stand out?
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Are you blending in with everybody else?
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Do you look just like everybody else?
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You know, as a teenager, I desperately wanted to fit in, and I would act like a chameleon at times so that people would like and accept me.
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I would put other people down 'cause it made my friends laugh.
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I would talk in a certain way, and I even pretended to like Pittsburgh sports, which I did not care about.
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You can all boo me right now if you want.
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Just go ahead, get it over with.
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All right, thank you, thank you.
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What a great welcome to my first sermon.
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Just getting a bunch of booze.
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If you try to talk to me about sports, you'll see my eyes quickly glaze over as I daydream about something more interesting to me.
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No, but in all seriousness, no matter how old you are, deep down, we all want people to like and accept us.
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Doesn't matter if you're five years old, 13 years old, or 85 years old.
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We don't wanna go against the flow naturally.
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We don't wanna stand out as different.
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We want to go with the flow.
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But that totally goes against our call as Christians.
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We're not called to blend in, but to stand out.
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We're to care more what God thinks about us than what other people think about us.
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We obey the word even when it costs us something.
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This requires a willingness to stand out as different at work by not gossiping, putting other people down, cutting corners, like I said, or putting down the boss.
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How hard is that last one, by the way?
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Or standing out in your neighborhood by loving your neighbors, by showing them the love of Jesus Christ, it requires a willingness to be different.
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I used to say this to my youth group kids all the time at my last church.
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If you want to be cool and popular, then Christianity probably isn't for you.
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We are commanded to go against the grain of this culture and hold to things that are not popular, like the sanctity of unborn life, the truthfulness of God's word, and the reality that Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life and a relationship with God.
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Yeah, these things aren't very popular right now, are they?
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And it's so sad to me to see so many churches across this country sacrificing faithfulness to God's word to blend in and fit in with everybody else.
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How thankful should we be that we're in a church that that's not gonna happen?
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Because the Word is our supreme guide and not this culture. We cling to this instead of what other people think about us. Let me ask you a few questions. Can you be content knowing that you're pleasing other people more than you're pleasing God? Can you be content to cover up the light of Jesus Christ because it's much more convenient to do so? I hope the answer to these questions is no because we live in a time that needs Christians with spines of steel who are willing to lovingly and graciously stand in the gap for the truth and hold their God-given convictions no matter what. We live in a time that needs balanced, wise, and righteous Christians who are shining the light of Jesus Christ.
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So after hearing this word from Solomon, you may feel convicted that your life is is unstable and off balance right now.
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Instead of being discouraged by that, I want you to be encouraged that God has given you a fresh chance to find stability in him.
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The good news is God does not expect perfection from you in this life, 'cause that is impossible.
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But he does expect progress.
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You will fail and you will fall off this high wire, this tight rope, but the great news is that God is always there to catch you and put you back on track.
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But like any successful tightrope walker or balance beam, gymnast-- I don't know what the term even is-- this requires dedication.
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This requires practice.
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God is there to offer you his help, to offer you his power.
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But right now, today, are you willing to grab a hold of it and put in the dedication and effort that is necessary?
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The band can come up.
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I want you all to bow your heads and close your eyes.
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And I want us to spend a few minutes with the Lord.
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All of us, myself included, should admit that we're off balance and unstable in many ways right now.
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I don't know what that is, but you do, and so does God.
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Go to the Lord and ask Him for His help to change, to make that progress, to embrace godliness, to embrace wisdom, and to embrace this responsibility to be a Christian witness.
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a minute or two with the Lord, and I'll close us in a final prayer, and then we'll go to the Lord and worship.
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God, as we just sung a few minutes ago, we thank you that you're the God of second chances.
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We thank you that you didn't leave us where you found us, but you pulled us out of the mess of our sin and gave us new life.
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If there's anybody in this room, Lord, who doesn't know you, doesn't have a relationship with you, Lord, I pray you'd open up their heart to the gospel of grace.
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they would accept Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior.
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And find that stability that only you can provide in this crazy world that's trying to shake us down.
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Lord, for the rest of us, help us to find, again, that stability yet again.
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To walk in the ways of your word, even when it's hard.
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To trust you, even when we have no idea what you're doing, but we know that you do.
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Lord, we thank you for your word.
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We thank you, you've given us this light in a dark place.
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Lord, help us to lead lives of balance, wisdom, and righteousness this week and for the rest of our lives.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Ecclesiastes 7:15-8:1
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How can you see yourself being a bit self-righteous at times? How should you deal with this temptation/attitude when it arises?
What is wisdom and why is it so important? What did Taylor mean when he said that we need to admit our own limitations as well as the limitations of wisdom?
How is the Lord calling you to stand out from the crowd and shine the light of wisdom right now? (Ecc. 8:1)
Breakout
Pray for one another.