WEBVTT 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:03.320 Mistakes ourselves and trial and error. 00:00:04.540 --> 00:00:11.960 And as Solomon writes, the book of Ecclesiastes is a way to encourage us to seek after wisdom without the mistakes, and 00:00:12.020 --> 00:00:19.140 to take it from those who have found wisdom in life through making the mistakes themselves and encouraging us likewise. 00:00:20.520 --> 00:00:23.600 And we call the alternative to wisdom foolishness. 00:00:24.840 --> 00:00:26.920 Sometimes we don't typically use those words. 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:34.740 Today we might say something like ignorance or in some translations, if you if you read this morning out of chapter ten, it will even say stupidity. 00:00:36.980 --> 00:00:41.480 And Solomon's desire for us in chapter ten is just one thought. 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:48.810 If you come to this chapter and you read it and you walk away thinking this, I don't want to be foolish, then you've got all that chapter ten contains. 00:00:50.440 --> 00:00:55.240 Solomon goes on and describes, even in verse one, dead flies make a perfume's oil stink. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:57.100 No one wants to buy that, right? 00:00:57.140 --> 00:01:01.930 And so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor. 00:01:03.720 --> 00:01:04.739 Recognizing for our lives. 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:06.090 Just a little foolishness. 00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:12.840 Can mess up a lot of our character and the projection of our life. 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:15.280 A lot of them mistakes that we can make can be very costly. 00:01:16.760 --> 00:01:19.020 And so Solomon encourages us in this chapter. 00:01:19.020 --> 00:01:21.640 He just says, listen, what we are after in this whole book. 00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:24.020 If you've read all the way to the end, we're down to the last few chapters. 00:01:24.620 --> 00:01:26.460 What we're seeking is not foolishness. 00:01:27.100 --> 00:01:27.460 We want wisdom. 00:01:29.720 --> 00:01:31.990 And he goes on to describe throughout the rest of the chapter. 00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:37.020 And I'm just going to look at this quickly for us, because Solomon's theme, like I said, is just it's just wisdom. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:38.920 We don't want foolishness. 00:01:39.180 --> 00:01:43.920 And so he starts off in this chapter in verse four, he breaks the chapter into four sections. 00:01:45.020 --> 00:01:52.280 And he just points out for us particular individuals in life who have lived life foolishly, and he just describes what that looks like, so 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:55.440 that in the end you walk away thinking, man, I don't want that for my life. 00:01:56.880 --> 00:01:58.140 And so he talks about rulers. 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:05.320 If the rulers temper rises against you, do not abandon your position, because composure, all should say, always creates 00:02:05.320 --> 00:02:05.680 great offenses. 00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:10.699 There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like an arrow which goes forth from the ruler. 00:02:11.100 --> 00:02:14.360 Folly is set in many exalted places, while rich men sit in humble places. 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:19.900 I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land. 00:02:20.060 --> 00:02:22.860 And so he's saying, even rulers, they act foolishly. 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:24.680 But we want to avoid the foolishness. 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:28.320 And he talks about workers, those who conduct a job in this world. 00:02:28.540 --> 00:02:32.960 He who digs a pit may fall into it, and a serpent may bite him who breaks through a wall. 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:38.300 He who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and he who splits logs may be endangered by them. 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:43.700 It's foolish if the axe is dull and he does not sharpen his edge, then he must exert more strength. 00:02:43.900 --> 00:02:45.740 Wisdom has the advantage of giving success. 00:02:47.020 --> 00:02:49.960 If the serpent goes on bites, that's not good. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:50.800 We'll just end there. 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:54.500 If the serpent bites before it's charmed, is what it says, then it's no good to the charmer. 00:02:55.440 --> 00:03:02.440 In verse 12, he talks about the talker, those who can't control the tongue, and he says, words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious, while the lips 00:03:02.500 --> 00:03:03.660 of a fool consume him. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:07.590 The beginning of his talking is folly, and the end of it is wicked. 00:03:07.780 --> 00:03:09.980 Madness at the fool multiplies words. 00:03:11.300 --> 00:03:12.480 No man knows what will happen. 00:03:13.380 --> 00:03:15.370 And who can tell him what will come after him. 00:03:15.980 --> 00:03:22.120 The toil of a fool so wearies him that he does not even know how to go to a city. 00:03:23.100 --> 00:03:25.310 That means what you want to be around if you want to find wisdom. 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:27.360 Is those quiet old guys, right? 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:27.720 Those who? 00:03:28.020 --> 00:03:30.580 Those who talk a lot tend to stumble over their words. 00:03:30.600 --> 00:03:33.180 And he talks last about just citizens of a country. 00:03:34.680 --> 00:03:36.410 He's saying this is what foolishness looks like. 00:03:36.520 --> 00:03:37.330 Woe to you all land. 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:38.400 Whose king is Aladdin? 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:40.060 Whose princes feast in the morning? 00:03:40.940 --> 00:03:46.260 Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility, and whose princes eat at the appropriate time for strength and not for drunkenness. 00:03:47.500 --> 00:03:48.460 Through indolence. 00:03:49.060 --> 00:03:52.140 And the rafters sag and through slackness, the house leaks. 00:03:52.900 --> 00:03:57.900 Men prepare a meal for enjoyment, and wine makes life marrying money as the answer to everything. 00:03:58.860 --> 00:04:04.680 So he's saying in this passage of Scripture, Kings aren't taking their leadership seriously, and people in the home aren't taking care of their home. 00:04:04.700 --> 00:04:11.880 And so homes are falling apart in verse 20, furthermore, in your bed chamber, I don't I don't know why he says that for bedroom, but that's what I started calling my 00:04:11.880 --> 00:04:12.680 room bedroom this week. 00:04:12.860 --> 00:04:14.280 It sounds cool right in my bed. 00:04:14.380 --> 00:04:15.540 I'm headed to the bed chamber, dear. 00:04:15.600 --> 00:04:15.920 See you later. 00:04:16.459 --> 00:04:23.540 Do not curse a king and in your sleeping rooms do not curse a rich man, for a bird of the heavens will carry the sound, and the winged 00:04:23.540 --> 00:04:25.360 creature will make the matter known. 00:04:27.320 --> 00:04:34.460 And so he's giving all sorts of wisdom for us as individuals, whether you're a citizen, whether you work, whether you're a ruler, whether you're a talker, there's all 00:04:34.460 --> 00:04:36.780 sorts of wisdom in life for us to receive. 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:40.740 But God's desire for all of us is that we do not live foolishly. 00:04:42.880 --> 00:04:47.220 No one desires to be a fool. 00:04:47.400 --> 00:04:54.500 And when you look at this on the passage of Scripture and the context of which it's written, it's very easy for us to say, I definitely do not 00:04:54.500 --> 00:04:55.280 want to live this way. 00:04:56.100 --> 00:04:57.600 No one wakes up in the morning and says, you know what? 00:04:58.180 --> 00:05:00.180 This is the day that I desire to be foolish. 00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:03.030 I want to live ignorantly today. 00:05:04.280 --> 00:05:07.040 But, foolishness isn't something that happens overnight. 00:05:09.280 --> 00:05:12.280 It's something that gradually takes place in our lives. 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:22.380 Gradually happens as our heart is reflected in a world that desires to live apart from God. 00:05:22.900 --> 00:05:30.160 No one wakes up one day, is a good person, and the next day desires to be a murderer, a thief, or struggle with 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:31.510 addiction. 00:05:32.640 --> 00:05:34.060 But yet foolish things happen. 00:05:35.840 --> 00:05:43.200 The question we ask ourselves is we look at this text what we should seek within our own lives to discover, as Solomon talks about foolishness, 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:46.380 as how does a person get their. 00:05:47.820 --> 00:05:50.080 I mean, I look at it on paper and I see foolish things people have done. 00:05:50.080 --> 00:05:52.530 And I can certainly say that I don't want to live that way. 00:05:52.580 --> 00:05:57.500 But if I'm being honest with my own life, even when I look at other people's ignorance, there are times where I just live foolishly. 00:05:59.200 --> 00:06:00.510 What's up with that? 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:02.160 How? 00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:05.520 How does one even begin to live a foolish life? 00:06:05.660 --> 00:06:07.560 And why do we choose foolishness? 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:12.900 And Solomon says very opening of this chapter. 00:06:13.100 --> 00:06:17.850 We skipped over it as we read the direction through which foolishness comes. 00:06:18.660 --> 00:06:19.900 It's really a matter of the heart. 00:06:21.620 --> 00:06:21.980 A wise man. 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:25.500 A wise man's heart directs him towards the right. 00:06:26.340 --> 00:06:30.780 But the foolish man's heart directs him towards the left. 00:06:31.760 --> 00:06:38.860 And what Solomon is saying to us in this passage of Scripture is he's describing foolishness as that foolishness is an indicator of a bad 00:06:38.860 --> 00:06:38.960 heart. 00:06:41.480 --> 00:06:47.160 Foolishness as reflection of what's taking place on the inside, now lived on the outside. 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:55.300 And what Solomon is saying to us, and recognizing that a heart can be foolish is that he's agreeing with what the rest of 00:06:55.460 --> 00:06:57.910 Scripture communicates and teaches us as people. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:06.460 When you read about the condition of the heart within Scripture, what you discover is that we aren't good people who occasionally choose 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:12.300 bad things, but that we're sinful and fallen people who occasionally choose good things. 00:07:13.340 --> 00:07:20.480 When you read within the context of Scripture, it says this in Jeremiah 17 nine, the heart is more deceitful than all 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:23.680 else and is desperately sick. 00:07:25.320 --> 00:07:29.320 In Genesis chapter three and verse five, you have the description that God's given to Adam and Eve. 00:07:29.420 --> 00:07:36.440 Adam and Eve are told to go into the garden, be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth man, be great people, and just display God's glory is what 00:07:36.440 --> 00:07:36.780 he says. 00:07:37.380 --> 00:07:40.250 He breathes into him, his breath of life so that his spirits within them. 00:07:40.620 --> 00:07:44.640 They reflect his goodness in this world, and he gives them one command, one rule to obey. 00:07:44.660 --> 00:07:46.900 Do not eat of the tree we call sometimes an apple tree. 00:07:47.500 --> 00:07:49.780 I don't believe that I like pears, so I think it's a pear tree. 00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:51.640 You can make it up. 00:07:51.660 --> 00:07:52.100 Whatever you want. 00:07:52.100 --> 00:07:52.460 Whatever you like. 00:07:52.460 --> 00:07:52.680 Pineapples. 00:07:52.900 --> 00:07:54.720 How's that pineapple tree? 00:07:54.780 --> 00:07:56.500 And he tells them, don't eat of the tree. 00:07:56.640 --> 00:08:00.340 Because in the moment that you do, you'll know the difference between good and evil. 00:08:00.400 --> 00:08:07.440 And in the context of when it states the difference between good and evil in verse five, what the Bible is declaring for us is not only will Adam and 00:08:07.440 --> 00:08:13.240 Eve know the difference between right and wrong, but they're going to declare it to God what is right and wrong meaning God. 00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:19.540 You no longer make the rules, but we've become our own king of our own domain, and we're going to tell you what is right and wrong. 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:28.060 And so he says in verse five, God knows that your eyes will be open as soon as you eat of it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and 00:08:28.060 --> 00:08:29.060 evil. 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:36.360 If you were to back up and read in this text just two verses previous to this, in chapter three and verse three, God gives a warning to Adam and Eve. 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:40.039 He says, in the moment that you eat of the fruit, you shall surely what? 00:08:40.980 --> 00:08:41.240 Die. 00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:47.900 And we read in the context of Scripture, when we talk about the word death, we're not saying is that you cease to exist. 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:53.940 The warning that Adam and Eve is giving, or God is giving to Adam and Eve, is that they will be separated from him. 00:08:53.940 --> 00:08:59.200 When the Bible talks about death, what it means is separation and what it's saying to Adam and Eve. 00:08:59.500 --> 00:09:04.160 The moment you disobey me is the moment that you're separated from me in relationship. 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:08.630 The very reason for which you were created, you have denied. 00:09:10.280 --> 00:09:11.100 And so you die. 00:09:12.940 --> 00:09:20.120 And the struggle with us as people, as we look at this passage of Scripture and we recognize this, that God in the beginning of the Bible created us in 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:20.580 his image. 00:09:20.860 --> 00:09:22.600 We reflect God's goodness and glory. 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:31.460 But in this passage of Scripture, what's happened in the lives of Adam and Eve is that they shook their fists at God and they said to God, while you created 00:09:31.460 --> 00:09:34.220 us for this reason, God, we desire to be our own king. 00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:38.100 And in the goodness for which God made them, they become self made rulers. 00:09:40.180 --> 00:09:41.940 God never created us for that. 00:09:42.780 --> 00:09:49.900 As always, created us for community to be one with him and each other, to glorify him with our 00:09:49.900 --> 00:09:51.600 lives and to lift one another up. 00:09:53.380 --> 00:09:59.140 And rather than live as community, what's happened in the life of Adam and Eve is that they've become independent. 00:10:00.860 --> 00:10:03.470 And they've set themselves up on their self-made thrones. 00:10:05.180 --> 00:10:08.060 And still having the reflection of God's glory in their lives. 00:10:08.060 --> 00:10:10.300 They've now also been separated from him. 00:10:11.100 --> 00:10:16.400 And their heart that was originally designed to honor and glorify the Lord has been made to honor and glorify himself. 00:10:18.020 --> 00:10:20.480 Whatever self made pleasure they desire, that's what they seek after. 00:10:20.640 --> 00:10:27.760 And the entire book of Ecclesiastes describes self made pleasure after self made pleasure, which men desire to pursue apart from God. 00:10:28.060 --> 00:10:32.680 And Solomon gets to this passage of Scripture and he says to us, it's foolishness. 00:10:34.380 --> 00:10:39.970 Your heart may at times still reflect the goodness of God because you were created in his glory, but it has fallen. 00:10:41.180 --> 00:10:41.620 It's dead. 00:10:42.760 --> 00:10:45.700 It's been separated from the very one you were created to know. 00:10:47.520 --> 00:10:47.970 And in that. 00:10:49.400 --> 00:10:50.040 We lose life. 00:10:51.220 --> 00:10:53.940 We lose relationship, we lose God. 00:10:55.640 --> 00:11:00.680 And so Solomon is saying to us in this passage of Scripture in Ecclesiastes chapter ten and verse two. 00:11:01.920 --> 00:11:02.300 The wise man. 00:11:03.780 --> 00:11:05.140 His heart. 00:11:05.820 --> 00:11:07.780 His heart is a reflection of God's glory. 00:11:08.040 --> 00:11:09.760 His heart is a reflection of God's goodness. 00:11:09.880 --> 00:11:15.880 The reason he's choosing wisdom over foolishness is because he's found the solution to a godly heart. 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:16.580 And the fool. 00:11:16.780 --> 00:11:23.540 The reason the fool wonders from God is because he's still living that self-made, independent, shake your fist at God lifestyle. 00:11:23.960 --> 00:11:25.520 He hasn't become humble. 00:11:25.520 --> 00:11:26.940 He hasn't submitted to him. 00:11:26.940 --> 00:11:30.560 He hasn't allowed the Lord to be king and in due time exalt him. 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:32.800 And it's foolishness. 00:11:35.620 --> 00:11:38.840 Bible goes on and even describes the scenario in the lives of two individuals. 00:11:41.100 --> 00:11:46.740 Taking Jeremiah, talking about the deceitful heart, looking at Genesis, where the heart has fallen and died in separation from God. 00:11:46.740 --> 00:11:48.880 Both David and Paul comment on it. 00:11:50.120 --> 00:11:53.930 David says in Psalm 51, in sin my mother conceived me. 00:11:54.720 --> 00:12:01.900 And so what David is saying in this passage of Scripture is not that his mother had him in some sort of sinful way, but that the sin nature 00:12:01.900 --> 00:12:06.500 through which was passed on from Adam and Eve has been passed on to him at the moment he was conceived. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:13.420 That heart, that death that Adam and Eve went through, went through all mankind. 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:20.680 And so that separation and alienation from God, that desire to live a self made, ruled life apart from the Lord and to glorify 00:12:20.680 --> 00:12:22.320 and self rather than in God. 00:12:23.040 --> 00:12:25.330 It's in him from the moment of birth. 00:12:26.420 --> 00:12:32.500 And you think about the goodness of what King David even was in this world, and how much is written about him just in the Old Testament. 00:12:32.700 --> 00:12:35.030 And you think if there was a godly individual, it's got to be David. 00:12:35.280 --> 00:12:36.280 And David says, no. 00:12:36.300 --> 00:12:40.640 From the very get go of life my heart wandered and it lived in foolishness. 00:12:43.560 --> 00:12:46.300 Oh, you don't have to be wise to even know that. 00:12:46.420 --> 00:12:47.800 You just have to have kids, right? 00:12:49.220 --> 00:12:49.650 I don't remember. 00:12:49.740 --> 00:12:51.560 We had Grayson at one year old man. 00:12:51.660 --> 00:12:53.420 He was the best kid ever. 00:12:53.460 --> 00:12:54.110 And then he hit two. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:58.140 And then it all went to pot after that. 00:12:58.620 --> 00:12:59.520 Oh, man. 00:12:59.520 --> 00:13:00.100 What happened? 00:13:00.380 --> 00:13:00.800 Genesis happened. 00:13:02.840 --> 00:13:07.340 And Paul the apostle Paul, who's probably done more for Christianity in all of history than any other person. 00:13:07.800 --> 00:13:10.700 And he says in Romans chapter seven, but I see a different law. 00:13:10.780 --> 00:13:16.800 And the members of my body, he's talking about this war being created in God's image and submitting himself to Christ. 00:13:16.920 --> 00:13:22.960 But there's still a war existing within him for which he desires to make himself king and tell God what's up. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:32.040 And it says in verse 23, I see a different law, and the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:34.610 of the law of sin, which is in my members. 00:13:35.680 --> 00:13:36.760 Wretched man that I am. 00:13:37.940 --> 00:13:41.000 Who will set me free from the body of this death? 00:13:43.040 --> 00:13:50.240 And so Paul recognized that his heart with Adam and Eve died, that his heart separated from the Lord and 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:53.320 his desire, his desires to know him. 00:13:53.340 --> 00:14:00.440 But he wages this war between wisdom and foolishness, submitting to the Lord, knowing God's will for him is far greater than anything he 00:14:00.440 --> 00:14:01.280 wants from his self. 00:14:01.280 --> 00:14:02.380 Yet he still struggles. 00:14:02.380 --> 00:14:05.740 He still desires to escape that battle. 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:10.380 We all come to this solution in life or this problem, excuse me? 00:14:10.460 --> 00:14:14.100 In life where we look at this moment as Solomon's described, we look at our heart. 00:14:14.140 --> 00:14:17.840 We recognize, I know what foolishness looks like at times. 00:14:17.880 --> 00:14:19.180 I still choose foolishness. 00:14:19.580 --> 00:14:21.440 How in the world do I escape this foolishness? 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:24.220 How in the world do I start living for wisdom in life? 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:28.840 And you know, the solution that many people have come up with is a religious lifestyle. 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:36.060 People have attempted to mask their foolishness with religion. 00:14:37.980 --> 00:14:45.200 I got to tell you, when Jesus showed up on the scene, he says to us in these passages of Scripture that religion, religion isn't 00:14:45.280 --> 00:14:46.440 a solution at all. 00:14:47.520 --> 00:14:51.980 All it is a Band-Aid to a cure that you need far more Band-Aids than you can handle. 00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:56.720 Meaning if you've if you've got cancer of the heart. 00:14:57.500 --> 00:15:01.160 And that's what the Bible is talking about here, a Band-Aid doesn't fix the problem. 00:15:01.160 --> 00:15:02.880 Religion doesn't fix the problem. 00:15:02.900 --> 00:15:04.740 It only masks it. 00:15:04.920 --> 00:15:07.820 It only covers up the very root of where the problem exists. 00:15:08.020 --> 00:15:15.140 Religion has outward conformity and what Jesus needs to work on, it tells us in this passage is the heart, because out of the heart flows 00:15:15.140 --> 00:15:16.460 the wellsprings of life. 00:15:16.760 --> 00:15:21.340 The reason we act foolish in this world is because it's dealing with the sickness of the heart. 00:15:21.640 --> 00:15:29.000 And so no matter how much you mask it with religious conduct, if the heart doesn't change, then the foolishness isn't cured and religion 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:31.110 just masks it. 00:15:32.520 --> 00:15:33.220 And Jesus said that. 00:15:35.680 --> 00:15:41.100 Matthew chapter five and verse 20, he comes before the Pharisees and the Jewish people of his time. 00:15:41.140 --> 00:15:44.380 And I got to tell you, when you read this passage of Scripture, here's the way you look at the Pharisees. 00:15:45.260 --> 00:15:52.540 If you've read the Bible today and you read about the Pharisees and what Jesus says in the Gospels, your thought of the Pharisees are going to be, oh, those guys are wicked. 00:15:52.540 --> 00:15:54.340 They're bad, you know. 00:15:54.740 --> 00:16:00.830 But if you understand the context that Jesus is writing and saying in this passage of Scripture about the Pharisees, there's a totally different mindset. 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:08.260 The Pharisees are looked upon as the most religious, God honoring, God loving people in the community. 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:14.340 I mean, these people are so godly that they sacrifice everything to honor this God that they claim to be worshiping. 00:16:15.460 --> 00:16:21.440 And so when they walk down the aisles, it's sort of like being awestruck by these Pharisee leaders of the community. 00:16:21.660 --> 00:16:23.540 They are the prominent people in Jewish land. 00:16:24.980 --> 00:16:28.130 And Jesus comes before these religious powerhouses. 00:16:30.140 --> 00:16:37.230 And he says in Matthew chapter five and verse 24, I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, 00:16:37.560 --> 00:16:39.720 you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:45.880 And what Jesus did for everybody in this passage just gave them a blanket of hopelessness. 00:16:47.940 --> 00:16:48.290 Wait a minute. 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:49.680 We've idolized these people. 00:16:49.680 --> 00:16:50.440 We've looked up to them. 00:16:50.440 --> 00:16:57.320 They've lived every law to the T, and if they don't have a chance and entering heaven based on their religion, we don't have a chance. 00:17:00.160 --> 00:17:02.600 Jesus even goes on and says to the Pharisees in Matthew 23. 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:06.859 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees! 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:09.960 You hypocrites! 00:17:10.260 --> 00:17:10.500 For you. 00:17:10.579 --> 00:17:15.440 Clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self indulgence. 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:24.220 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full 00:17:24.220 --> 00:17:25.750 of dead man's bones and uncleanness. 00:17:27.020 --> 00:17:32.780 So you two outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 00:17:35.500 --> 00:17:36.470 And then that context. 00:17:38.180 --> 00:17:39.260 Jesus describes religion. 00:17:41.480 --> 00:17:42.760 He's saying they've wore the mask perfectly. 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:51.980 You come to the graveside and you see this beautiful, polished grave of beauty recognizing some individual who has passed 00:17:51.980 --> 00:17:52.080 away. 00:17:52.740 --> 00:17:54.860 But there's one thing true of the grave that still rests. 00:17:55.040 --> 00:17:55.160 True. 00:17:55.180 --> 00:18:02.340 These Pharisees that while on the outside it is a beautiful and ornate decoration honoring them in their death, it's still dead. 00:18:04.860 --> 00:18:12.190 And how, no matter how well you can make that outward mask look on the inside of your heart, it's still dead. 00:18:14.060 --> 00:18:18.940 People choose religion to mask and deal with the heart. 00:18:19.180 --> 00:18:23.940 But what Jesus says is we consider such a thing that it is impossible to live up to his standards. 00:18:26.100 --> 00:18:27.380 He is a holy God. 00:18:29.080 --> 00:18:30.020 In this world today. 00:18:30.020 --> 00:18:37.180 We don't necessarily operate in the context of Pharisees, but what you hear people often say is when you talk about heaven, relationship with God, living for 00:18:37.180 --> 00:18:39.650 him with for eternity, and you say, how do you get to heaven? 00:18:39.740 --> 00:18:40.660 Most people will tell you this. 00:18:40.740 --> 00:18:41.920 Well, they obey the Ten Commandments. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:44.610 And I'll tell you this. 00:18:44.840 --> 00:18:45.240 No you don't. 00:18:46.460 --> 00:18:47.050 No you don't. 00:18:47.620 --> 00:18:48.450 You don't even know what they are. 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:49.020 If you say that. 00:18:50.360 --> 00:18:51.070 Do not lie. 00:18:51.560 --> 00:18:52.220 Do not cheat. 00:18:52.520 --> 00:18:53.260 Do not steal. 00:18:53.400 --> 00:18:53.960 Do not covet. 00:18:54.600 --> 00:18:55.060 We're all guilty. 00:18:56.720 --> 00:18:57.240 No one lives those. 00:18:58.940 --> 00:19:01.360 The purpose of the law becomes different for us. 00:19:01.380 --> 00:19:03.480 I'll explain to that what that is in just a moment. 00:19:03.520 --> 00:19:09.840 But the interesting thing about the Ten Commandments, there was a group of individuals in Jewish history, not the Pharisees led for the Jewish people. 00:19:09.840 --> 00:19:14.660 There was a smaller group called the Sadducees, and the Sadducees always joke and say, they're sad, you see. 00:19:15.040 --> 00:19:16.540 But they were the small group. 00:19:16.540 --> 00:19:16.800 Everybody. 00:19:16.800 --> 00:19:17.800 Nobody wanted to be them. 00:19:18.220 --> 00:19:19.890 And, well, a few people did, I guess. 00:19:20.100 --> 00:19:25.640 But they only followed the Torah, which is the first five books of the Old Testament, which includes the law. 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:27.320 Interesting. 00:19:27.320 --> 00:19:43.360 When you study this the Sadducees in the in the first five books of the Old Testament, the 00:19:43.360 --> 00:19:43.660 book of Exodus, you have the Ten Commandments. 00:19:43.660 --> 00:19:43.660 But the unique thing about the theology of the Sadducees that set them apart from any other religious group at the time is the Sadducees didn't believe in an afterlife. 00:19:43.660 --> 00:19:50.780 And the reason is because everywhere you see that the Ten Commandments are written within the first five books of the Bible, there is no promise of eternity found 00:19:50.780 --> 00:19:51.700 within those books. 00:19:51.760 --> 00:19:55.180 If you obey those laws, never does the Bible say you're going to live for eternity. 00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:57.960 You can look it up throughout all of the Bible every time the Ten Commandments are talked about. 00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:00.460 There is no promise of eternity after that. 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:04.920 And so the purpose of the law and living it isn't to get you into heaven. 00:20:04.920 --> 00:20:06.000 It isn't to fix your heart. 00:20:06.140 --> 00:20:09.120 It isn't to show you that right relationship with God. 00:20:10.760 --> 00:20:12.490 In fact, the Bible tells us very differently. 00:20:14.380 --> 00:20:16.320 Religion and rules don't fix the heart. 00:20:16.340 --> 00:20:17.930 It only masks the problem. 00:20:19.300 --> 00:20:22.800 Religion and rules is like obsessing over not doing wrong. 00:20:24.220 --> 00:20:26.100 Do you know the surefire way of doing something wrong? 00:20:27.040 --> 00:20:28.100 Obsessing about not doing it wrong. 00:20:29.060 --> 00:20:31.460 You got one sin in your life that just keeps robbing you. 00:20:31.840 --> 00:20:34.900 When you obsess about not doing that sin, you will do that sin. 00:20:37.320 --> 00:20:41.740 Religion may mask the problem, but it doesn't provide the solution. 00:20:44.820 --> 00:20:45.550 Bible tells us. 00:20:47.080 --> 00:20:48.090 And how do we fix our heart? 00:20:50.060 --> 00:20:51.160 We would ask that question this morning. 00:20:52.020 --> 00:20:59.100 We like to say for us today, we didn't come here this morning just to hear about how bad we are or all the problems that 00:20:59.100 --> 00:21:01.050 we have, and I don't want to conclude that way at all. 00:21:03.060 --> 00:21:05.360 What I'm more interested in is the solution. 00:21:07.260 --> 00:21:08.880 God created me with this heart. 00:21:09.140 --> 00:21:12.740 When this heart lives foolishly, it's an indicator that it's wandering from him. 00:21:12.740 --> 00:21:14.720 God created me to know him. 00:21:14.940 --> 00:21:21.430 My desire is for that foolish heart to be adjusted, that I may experience that relationship with him for which I was created. 00:21:22.180 --> 00:21:23.580 How do we do that? 00:21:26.060 --> 00:21:31.000 Let me tell you in chapter ten of this section, Solomon doesn't present the answer to that question. 00:21:31.980 --> 00:21:33.580 He merely talks about the problem. 00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:39.420 But he goes on throughout this book and he finally concludes in chapter 12 what the solution is. 00:21:40.560 --> 00:21:40.960 Oh, excuse me. 00:21:41.660 --> 00:21:42.780 Let me skip that for just a moment. 00:21:43.300 --> 00:21:44.920 He concludes what the solution is for us. 00:21:44.940 --> 00:21:45.460 Let me tell you this. 00:21:45.560 --> 00:21:49.760 Before I get to that, you can ask this question and go back for just a minute. 00:21:49.760 --> 00:21:51.630 We can ask this question in our minds. 00:21:51.940 --> 00:21:53.840 What is what is the purpose of the law? 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:56.320 We talk about religion for just a moment. 00:21:56.680 --> 00:21:58.060 And we know that religion is made up of laws. 00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:01.760 And the purpose of the laws is to show us the goodness of God's holiness. 00:22:01.860 --> 00:22:05.460 And some people live those laws in order to bring a right standing before God. 00:22:05.520 --> 00:22:07.460 But this is what the Bible says is the purpose of the law. 00:22:08.860 --> 00:22:15.960 If you're a believer in Christ or you're investigating about the Lord, I can tell you that there's two chapters in the Bible that's going to help you get it right about what 00:22:15.960 --> 00:22:17.220 a relationship is with God. 00:22:17.540 --> 00:22:20.460 It's Romans chapter three and Galatians chapter three. 00:22:20.800 --> 00:22:24.120 If you don't learn them by heart, it's a place that you should reflect within your mind to know, to go to. 00:22:24.940 --> 00:22:30.430 When you're dealing with religious friends who think that they're just going to merit God's favor by the way that they live lives, if they could just do it good enough. 00:22:31.160 --> 00:22:35.060 This is the place in the Bible that you want to show them to say, hey, what you're doing is impossible. 00:22:37.280 --> 00:22:42.660 It says in Romans chapter three and verse 19, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. 00:22:43.560 --> 00:22:44.050 And this is why. 00:22:44.360 --> 00:22:51.460 So that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God, because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:52.540 in his sight. 00:22:52.820 --> 00:22:55.350 For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 00:22:56.500 --> 00:22:59.540 And so what it's saying is, God made this law for us to obey. 00:22:59.560 --> 00:23:02.980 God gave the Ten Commandments, and we certainly want to follow the Ten Commandments. 00:23:03.100 --> 00:23:06.140 But what the purpose of the law is isn't to justify your life before God. 00:23:06.220 --> 00:23:07.680 All it does is say you're guilty. 00:23:09.260 --> 00:23:09.940 God is holy. 00:23:10.620 --> 00:23:11.600 His standard is perfect. 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:12.900 You can't live up to that. 00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:15.460 If you try that, your heart will never, never succeed. 00:23:16.200 --> 00:23:16.680 It's dead. 00:23:17.500 --> 00:23:18.460 It's fallen from him. 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:21.460 And the law demonstrates that you're guilty. 00:23:22.500 --> 00:23:23.990 And in Galatians it says the same thing. 00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:27.060 No one is justified by the law before God. 00:23:27.140 --> 00:23:27.400 And so? 00:23:27.580 --> 00:23:28.760 So the solution is how? 00:23:29.020 --> 00:23:31.350 How do we fix the heart? 00:23:32.500 --> 00:23:35.800 How was it cured? 00:23:36.820 --> 00:23:40.380 God if you created this heart to connect with you. 00:23:41.160 --> 00:23:42.660 Lord, where's the answer to this? 00:23:44.380 --> 00:23:45.500 How can I live wisely? 00:23:47.600 --> 00:23:50.280 Solomon says, let me read in Ecclesiastes for just a minute in verse 13. 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:55.520 That's the whole story, says he sums up all of Ecclesiastes right here. 00:23:55.660 --> 00:23:57.460 Here's the whole story of this book. 00:23:57.520 --> 00:23:58.240 Why I wrote it here. 00:23:58.700 --> 00:24:04.400 Now is my final conclusion fear God and obey his commandments, for this is everyone's duty. 00:24:05.740 --> 00:24:09.640 Proverbs one seven says this the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:12.540 Fools despise wisdom and instruction. 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:18.200 And the thought that Solomon carries in both of this is not that you be afraid of God. 00:24:19.580 --> 00:24:23.420 We all need to recognize that one day we will stand before that great judge of our lives. 00:24:24.700 --> 00:24:32.020 But the idea of fear within scriptural context isn't just to be afraid of him, but to carry this reverential all of his authority and power 00:24:32.020 --> 00:24:33.040 over your life. 00:24:34.940 --> 00:24:42.080 And I tell you this morning that when we look at passages of Scripture like this, we read in the Old Testament, we carry the understanding that God is still 00:24:42.080 --> 00:24:43.940 revealing his truth to us. 00:24:45.080 --> 00:24:52.120 For instance, the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed meaning the New Testament completes the story of what the 00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:53.460 Old Testament is about. 00:24:53.540 --> 00:24:55.080 Would you guys agree with that this morning? 00:24:55.900 --> 00:24:59.740 The New Testament is the continuation of what the Old Testament contains. 00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:06.830 And so Paul, when he gets to First Corinthians, he begins to talk about the same concept that Solomon says here. 00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:11.440 And he points out to us why the fear of the Lord becomes so significant for us in our lives. 00:25:13.240 --> 00:25:18.810 He says in Second Corinthians chapter five and verse 11, therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. 00:25:19.960 --> 00:25:24.040 Paul is about to explain to us why the fear of the Lord is so important in this context of Scripture. 00:25:24.900 --> 00:25:31.900 But he's saying as he begins this passage, the fear of the Lord is so significant in understanding what Paul or what Solomon had said in 00:25:31.900 --> 00:25:33.720 the passages of Scripture previous to this. 00:25:34.300 --> 00:25:37.840 It's so important to understand that not only not only am I applying it to my life. 00:25:39.140 --> 00:25:40.840 But I want other people to know about it. 00:25:42.420 --> 00:25:44.430 And this is why. 00:25:44.820 --> 00:25:47.120 In verse 16. 00:25:47.120 --> 00:25:54.570 Therefore, from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh. 00:25:55.320 --> 00:25:57.570 Yet now we know him in this way no longer. 00:25:58.560 --> 00:26:00.420 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. 00:26:00.820 --> 00:26:01.980 The old things passed away. 00:26:02.330 --> 00:26:04.130 Behold, new things have come. 00:26:04.600 --> 00:26:10.200 All this from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 00:26:12.040 --> 00:26:12.560 Verse 19. 00:26:12.600 --> 00:26:17.180 It goes on to say that God is forgiving sins in us through Christ. 00:26:18.780 --> 00:26:23.100 And what Paul is saying in verse 16 is we used to live life according to the flesh religiously. 00:26:23.800 --> 00:26:24.580 We used to carry this conduct. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:26.220 We saw Jesus come on the scene. 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:28.260 We used to even think about him in that same context. 00:26:28.620 --> 00:26:34.840 But what we learned is that Jesus was so much more than just this religion that we thought that we knew earned us favor with God. 00:26:35.240 --> 00:26:42.320 And what we found in verse 17 is that in Christ, because of his death and resurrection, because of his payment for us in Christ, we have 00:26:42.320 --> 00:26:44.100 become totally new creatures. 00:26:44.100 --> 00:26:45.660 It's not dependent upon self. 00:26:45.840 --> 00:26:53.100 But if you're in Jesus, if you've trusted in Christ with your life, God gives you this promise that heart of wickedness 00:26:53.100 --> 00:26:54.160 that strayed from God. 00:26:54.620 --> 00:26:56.880 God makes that heart new in him. 00:26:59.930 --> 00:27:03.120 And so the solution that Solomon points us to in the fear of the Lord. 00:27:04.340 --> 00:27:11.520 The reason that Paul talks about that in this passage of Scripture is that we recognize our need for salvation 00:27:11.560 --> 00:27:18.750 and the hopeless state that we're in, because one day we will come before a holy God and stand in account for the things that we've done. 00:27:18.900 --> 00:27:26.120 And as Adam and Eve has revealed to us, when they sinned against that holy God, the problem that they created was death. 00:27:26.120 --> 00:27:27.920 And what death talks about is separation. 00:27:28.260 --> 00:27:29.660 And what separation means is eternal. 00:27:32.800 --> 00:27:34.800 God created you to live forever. 00:27:36.760 --> 00:27:41.080 The moment God designed you would live for eternity somewhere. 00:27:41.360 --> 00:27:46.640 And when Adam and Eve sinned against God and he talks about death, he's talking about separation from his presence forever. 00:27:49.380 --> 00:27:50.140 But God's desire. 00:27:51.520 --> 00:27:55.200 As for his goodness to be experienced in your life, in that relationship, to be forever. 00:27:58.320 --> 00:28:05.340 And so Solomon and Paul say in this passage of Scripture, the fear of the Lord is so important because we need to recognize in our lives we're going 00:28:05.340 --> 00:28:08.440 to stand accounted accountable to this great God. 00:28:10.020 --> 00:28:13.960 And this God and this message that we proclaim is that he gives us a new heart. 00:28:15.140 --> 00:28:18.820 He gives us the opportunity of experiencing that relationship before him. 00:28:21.140 --> 00:28:24.620 A lack of wisdom in our lives isn't about being intelligent. 00:28:25.980 --> 00:28:27.220 We say it this way in church. 00:28:27.380 --> 00:28:28.090 We've said it about Ecclesiastes. 00:28:28.660 --> 00:28:31.040 A lack of wisdom isn't a smart problem. 00:28:32.100 --> 00:28:32.860 It's about a start problem. 00:28:34.860 --> 00:28:41.960 And the mask that we've often carried is a mask of religion and saying to God, God, I'm proving myself before you, and I'm fixing my own heart 00:28:42.180 --> 00:28:49.280 apart from you, and I'm going to show you how great I can be in the solution which Christ gives in this passage of Scripture is that you can't 00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:50.340 fix your own heart. 00:28:50.380 --> 00:28:54.160 But my desire is to give you a new heart and you become a new creation. 00:28:54.160 --> 00:28:56.140 It's not about being smart to be wise. 00:28:56.160 --> 00:29:03.480 It's about where you start, and it's about coming to the Lord and fear and reverence of him, knowing we're going to be accountable and saying, God, I'm trusting 00:29:03.900 --> 00:29:05.540 in what you've done for me. 00:29:05.700 --> 00:29:08.610 Lord, give me a new heart in you. 00:29:10.500 --> 00:29:11.340 Wisdom isn't about. 00:29:12.500 --> 00:29:13.840 Being smart. 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:16.020 It's about where you start. 00:29:17.940 --> 00:29:19.540 Bible goes on and tells us as well. 00:29:20.360 --> 00:29:24.080 This passage of Scripture that Jesus, he's the rescuing Savior. 00:29:25.640 --> 00:29:28.380 Jesus gives you a new future apart from your past. 00:29:29.460 --> 00:29:34.360 Jesus is giving you a new heart that the purpose of the law is to prove to you can't earn God's favor. 00:29:34.420 --> 00:29:35.900 You can't fix your broken heart. 00:29:36.120 --> 00:29:42.020 And so rather than run in self made efforts, you run from those efforts and you run to the Lord to be rescued. 00:29:44.080 --> 00:29:45.020 You don't fix yourself. 00:29:46.240 --> 00:29:48.140 Jesus does. 00:29:48.820 --> 00:29:54.640 The idea of a heart that's transformed in the Bible is about a heart that surrenders before the Lord. 00:29:55.860 --> 00:29:57.230 He makes all things new. 00:29:58.580 --> 00:30:05.890 The context of this passage when it says that you are a new creature in Christ in verse 17, literally is the Greek word metamorphosis. 00:30:07.780 --> 00:30:10.920 And so it's saying, What Jesus does in you is literally a miracle. 00:30:10.920 --> 00:30:12.800 You've seen the butterfly go through the cocoon. 00:30:12.900 --> 00:30:13.750 It's the same thing. 00:30:13.980 --> 00:30:19.500 This ugly thing goes into this tight coffin looking thing and it comes out just beautiful. 00:30:19.500 --> 00:30:20.760 I don't I don't even know how it happens. 00:30:20.800 --> 00:30:28.040 I don't know, science knows how it happens, but the result of that is just beautiful and saying in context to us and our relationship with the Lord, you 00:30:28.040 --> 00:30:30.150 don't have to worry about making your heart beautiful. 00:30:30.300 --> 00:30:30.710 It's a metamorphosis. 00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:36.740 You turn it over to the Lord, and in that, God transforms you in such a way that you're beautiful. 00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:40.080 It's just like the movie said, I want to be a beautiful butterfly, right? 00:30:40.440 --> 00:30:42.750 And you get to be that in Christ. 00:30:44.520 --> 00:30:46.660 It's not about being smart to be wise. 00:30:46.660 --> 00:30:47.630 It's about where you start. 00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:52.240 Second is this in order to fix the heart? 00:30:53.700 --> 00:30:57.680 A lack of intelligence or a lack of wisdom isn't an intelligence problem. 00:30:58.840 --> 00:30:59.400 It's a will problem. 00:31:01.480 --> 00:31:05.140 So the problem with Adam and Eve when their life became foolish wasn't that they weren't smart. 00:31:05.720 --> 00:31:09.540 It's just they shook their fist at God and turned their backs upon him and said, God, I'm going to do it my way. 00:31:09.680 --> 00:31:10.720 Which is a better way now? 00:31:11.780 --> 00:31:14.400 It's not an intelligence problem, it's a will problem. 00:31:14.540 --> 00:31:18.040 It's saying to us as people listening, you don't need all the wisdom in the world to handle everything in life. 00:31:18.120 --> 00:31:19.120 All you need is the Lord. 00:31:19.120 --> 00:31:23.460 If you come to the Lord, God directs you in each phase of your life that you go through. 00:31:25.280 --> 00:31:26.040 I have to have the answers. 00:31:27.600 --> 00:31:28.420 What you need is the Lord. 00:31:29.860 --> 00:31:32.000 It's not an intelligence problem. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:32.960 It's a will problem. 00:31:35.100 --> 00:31:39.160 Foolishness works like this, where we get really good in our foolishness at blaming everyone else. 00:31:39.800 --> 00:31:42.630 I'm acting like an idiot because they did this to me. 00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:45.380 My kids were this way, so this justifies my stupidity. 00:31:45.600 --> 00:31:48.630 My spouse did this so I'm allowed to be ignorant right now. 00:31:48.700 --> 00:31:50.480 They did this to me and so I'm going to hate them. 00:31:51.380 --> 00:31:51.920 That way's better. 00:31:53.380 --> 00:31:57.540 And so we justify or we live foolishly and we always we live in the in the future context. 00:31:57.860 --> 00:31:59.540 We think in two years it's going to be better. 00:31:59.540 --> 00:32:04.040 But you know, when you when you live wisely, you get to bloom right where you are in service to the Lord. 00:32:05.780 --> 00:32:08.600 And understand why he created you in the circumstance through which you are. 00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:10.370 It's not an intelligence problem. 00:32:10.880 --> 00:32:11.360 It's a will problem. 00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:15.090 The Bible says that. 00:32:16.680 --> 00:32:18.080 Galatians six seven. 00:32:20.080 --> 00:32:21.010 Do not be deceived. 00:32:22.760 --> 00:32:23.580 God is not mocked. 00:32:23.940 --> 00:32:24.960 Let's just set a different way. 00:32:25.540 --> 00:32:27.240 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:31.860 When you choose not to fear the Lord and reverence of him, listen. 00:32:31.860 --> 00:32:34.640 Don't be deceived in that God's not going to be mocked by your choice. 00:32:36.620 --> 00:32:39.920 For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 00:32:41.260 --> 00:32:44.980 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. 00:32:46.380 --> 00:32:51.020 But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. 00:32:53.600 --> 00:32:58.470 The idea is this our heart lives in foolishness. 00:32:58.880 --> 00:33:02.160 You saw in Romans seven where Paul says, O wretched man that I am, who? 00:33:02.520 --> 00:33:04.360 Who will help me from this body of death? 00:33:06.640 --> 00:33:08.560 Solomon talks about wisdom and life. 00:33:08.860 --> 00:33:15.480 The way that we live wisely deals with the condition of the heart and the way that the heart is fixed, as we've seen within Scripture isn't by our own efforts. 00:33:15.780 --> 00:33:17.590 It's not by religion, it's by the Lord. 00:33:19.240 --> 00:33:25.880 We recognize that we're accountable to him, but we can't do anything to save our own selves because we already stand dead in judgment before the Lord. 00:33:25.880 --> 00:33:33.260 And so what God's desire is knowing that he created us for eternity, knowing that he created us for a relationship, is to redeem our souls, to 00:33:33.580 --> 00:33:36.220 give us hope, to give us joy with him forever. 00:33:36.220 --> 00:33:38.070 And that happens in Christ. 00:33:39.200 --> 00:33:40.180 Christ has come. 00:33:40.780 --> 00:33:42.940 Christ has given himself for you. 00:33:43.040 --> 00:33:45.300 Christ has offered life to you. 00:33:45.300 --> 00:33:51.660 And the promise that if you trust in him, he metamorphoses that heart, he turns it new. 00:33:51.740 --> 00:33:52.820 It thrives in Christ. 00:33:53.360 --> 00:33:56.340 And then it tells us in Galatians, keep surrendering. 00:33:58.460 --> 00:34:01.520 Trust in Jesus and keep surrendering. 00:34:03.040 --> 00:34:06.330 Listen, if you want to be wise in life, get off your throne. 00:34:07.340 --> 00:34:08.230 And keep surrendering. 00:34:09.460 --> 00:34:13.520 Listen, we say it's far better to do that than to do anything that you think is good for your life anyway. 00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:17.320 Because what God desires for you is far greater than anything you could desire for yourself. 00:34:19.920 --> 00:34:23.460 Humble yourself in due time and he will lift you up. 00:34:24.420 --> 00:34:28.880 The future that God calls you to is far greater than any future that you can imagine for yourself. 00:34:31.120 --> 00:34:32.020 Keep surrendering. 00:34:33.420 --> 00:34:38.260 The foolish heart shakes his fist at God and says, God, I will tell you right from wrong. 00:34:38.260 --> 00:34:41.630 But the wise heart sees the beauty of the Lord, and they keep surrendering. 00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:47.270 Paul says in this passage of Scripture. 00:34:49.100 --> 00:34:49.940 To those who know him. 00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:56.179 To those whose hearts belong to the Lord, and they trusted in Him as Savior. 00:34:56.620 --> 00:35:03.340 That spirit that he's given in you, that breath of life that he's called you to, that eternal hope through which you have in him. 00:35:03.600 --> 00:35:05.260 Just keep sowing to that spirit. 00:35:05.400 --> 00:35:09.220 Allow the Lord to work on your heart and direct your path. 00:35:11.880 --> 00:35:13.060 So here's a conclusion. 00:35:14.840 --> 00:35:18.000 To live wisely, you need a godly heart. 00:35:19.660 --> 00:35:24.340 Foolish living is a reflection of an unyielding and sinful heart, a heart that is fallen. 00:35:26.280 --> 00:35:27.980 And religion doesn't fix it. 00:35:29.040 --> 00:35:31.600 It only masks the problem. 00:35:31.860 --> 00:35:32.540 With the wrong solution. 00:35:35.040 --> 00:35:35.780 And the idea is this. 00:35:37.740 --> 00:35:38.220 Do you know Jesus? 00:35:41.040 --> 00:35:48.200 Have you given the time to him to take your heart, and the proof that you've tried to validate your own self-worth 00:35:48.440 --> 00:35:52.020 before him and saying, God, I can't do this. 00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:55.280 And God, I know that I don't even have to do this. 00:35:55.300 --> 00:35:56.760 That you've died for me. 00:35:56.820 --> 00:35:59.440 To set me free from this body of death. 00:36:01.060 --> 00:36:03.240 God help me transform my heart. 00:36:03.240 --> 00:36:05.800 Jesus, thank you for dying for my sin. 00:36:05.800 --> 00:36:07.300 God make me new. 00:36:07.380 --> 00:36:11.270 I'm just believing in that promise because I don't want to fight this fight anymore. 00:36:13.140 --> 00:36:13.520 And God. 00:36:13.540 --> 00:36:18.840 Not only am I trusting in you to save me, but God, I'm also surrendering to you, knowing that I'm. 00:36:18.960 --> 00:36:21.140 I'm sick of the foolish living that I'm having. 00:36:21.300 --> 00:36:23.300 I'm sick of the self-made life that I've given. 00:36:23.480 --> 00:36:26.200 And I know that wisdom is found in you. 00:36:26.240 --> 00:36:27.580 Because God, you are life. 00:36:30.220 --> 00:36:31.550 God work in my heart. 00:36:33.900 --> 00:36:36.680 This is why Solomon says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 00:36:38.140 --> 00:36:40.100 Because a foolish heart will not live wisely. 00:36:41.100 --> 00:36:41.840 Apart from God. 00:36:44.100 --> 00:36:45.640 The question we should start with. 00:36:45.640 --> 00:36:52.860 Every day we wake up to begin a new day, knowing that the road in front of us lies two choices foolishness or 00:36:52.860 --> 00:36:53.120 wisdom. 00:36:54.960 --> 00:36:58.320 We should ask ourselves, have we given our heart to God? 00:37:00.190 --> 00:37:01.770 Think about where we are this morning. 00:37:03.280 --> 00:37:06.440 Some of us have come to church and we feel dead inside. 00:37:06.760 --> 00:37:08.800 Some of us, some of us are coming to church. 00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:11.880 And we love the Lord, and we're always wanting to grow with him. 00:37:13.080 --> 00:37:14.780 But we all are in the same boat. 00:37:16.620 --> 00:37:23.620 Whether we succeed, whether we live wisely or not depends on one question are we surrendering our heart before the Lord because 00:37:23.620 --> 00:37:26.320 the promise is he makes it new?