Video Transcript: The School of Hard Knocks

We're returning today to our study of the book of Ecclesiastes. And looking at chapter seven, I want to begin by asking you, when have been the times that had the biggest impact on you?  And that changed you for the better? If we think about that, for some of us, maybe those  times were some really exciting and joyful experiences, but for many others, the hardest  times of our lives, the ones we enjoyed the least, were also the ones that had the deepest  and most positive impact on us. I remember crawling out of a wreck, when I was 19 years old, thinking about what am I still on Earth for? And what is God's purpose for my life? Some of  you have crawled out of a wreck too. And perhaps it gave you some thoughts besides how  much is my insurance going to go up? I remember holding a baby and watching her die. That  was not fun. It does concentrate the mind more on eternity, than almost any other  experience, or time of your life. And if I were to ask many of you, you could tell us many other circumstances in your life were very, very hard times very, very unpleasant things, things you never would have chosen or wished for that came upon you anyway. Got your attention in  ways that nothing else did, and shaped your life in ways that nothing else could. When we  think about wisdom, and getting wisdom and growing in wisdom, it is the school of hard  knocks, that teaches very much of that wisdom. Ecclesiastes seven says a good name is  better than fine perfume and the day of death better than the day of birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning when to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man.  The Living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than last year because a sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the  house of pleasure. Those are some very odd words, to read. My grandfather used to say it's  better to be in the house of mourning than in the house of pleasure. That's kind of a grumpy  thing to be say. And in our society, we avoid funerals, unless we absolutely have to go. We  tend to avoid hospitals and nursing homes. We much prefer watching a cooing cute little baby to looking at our grandpa or somebody else we know get stiffer and slower. And in some  cases, slower in the mind than they used to be. We like seeing those exciting, smiling,  gurgling times of life and not so much. The time in life, when age really catch up, catches up  with somebody and their abilities, and their health begins to deteriorate. But according to  Ecclesiastes, even though the addition of a new baby to your family is a great blessing. It  might be an equally great or even greater blessing to have an old person in decaying health,  in your family. And even in your household. Perhaps you'll have opportunities from God to  learn things from them and being around them that you never would have had otherwise, if  you jump ahead to Ecclesiastes 12. It says remember your Creator in the days of your youth,  and then it goes on to describe in pretty painful but poetic terms the process of aging and  what it does to people and then finally they die. Ecclesiastes says Guess what? We don't know hardly anything about what our future holds except one thing for sure. Your life is going to end it will either go down gradually your body will lose some of its capacities and your mind too or you'll die suddenly, but it's going to happen. And so because death is the destiny of every  man, you should seize every opportunity to start taking it seriously even now. You're not really ready to live? Unless you're ready to die. Some of you know the old country and western song live like you were dying. That's basically what Ecclesiastes is saying live like you were dying.  And don't turn your eyes aside from those who are dying. And from the places of deateh,  instead of avoiding nursing homes, visit somebody from time to time not only to show  compassion, or because it's someone you love, but also to learn a thing or two. A good name  is better than a good then some perfume or cologne. How you have lived is more important  than smelling really nice for a few minutes. And what your life amounts to is seeing not when  you're a newborn. But at the end of days, what is your reputation? What is the name that  you've acquired over a lifetime? What is the name that you carry with you into eternity? This  is not just Ecclesiastes, who says it is better to be in the house of mourning than in the house  of feasting or in the house of pleasure. Jesus says blessed are those who mourn, for they will  be comforted. James says it counted all joy, my brothers when you fall into many testings and hardships. The apostle Paul says that we rejoice in our sufferings because sufferings produce  patience and patience character and character hope and hope does not disappoint us,  because the love of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given  us. Ecclesiastes seems to be pretty negative, and it is pretty negative. But negative work 

needs to be done to make room for what is positive. When you are always preoccupied with  parties, and your latest favorite programs and having as much fun as you can every day just I  am going to chase as much fun as I can get. You don't have room for the deepest and most  glorious things in life. You don't have room for eternal life, because you're not really  interested. You think that what you've got here is all there is and it's pretty good. So I'm going to make the most of it. Those who mourn know better. Those who have looked death in the  face a few times, or have seen loved ones die, know that if they don't have an answer to this  matter of death, they don't have an answer. And to try to avoid that problem your whole life  and then to die anyway, is not a good way to go. Well, we go through things we'd rather not  experience and we hear words we'd rather not hear and that's part of the school of hard  knocks too. It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke than to listen to the song of fools, like the  crackling of thorns under a pot. So is the laughter of fools. This too, is meaningless. Flattery  makes you feel better, and become worse. And honest, rebuke makes you feel worse, and  become better. And Ecclesiastes says it is better to become better than to just feel better  about myself, which is oh, so popular today. You know, you know those math studies? I've  mentioned them before. We're Americans felt the best of everybody in the world about their  skills at math. And the poor South Korean spelt the worst. Guess who was the best at math?  The South Koreans? Well, maybe it's better to be good at math and to think you're good at  math. Our schools are excellent at teaching you to feel good about math, actually to do it.  Well, that's another question. Rebuke. We don't like it. We don't like having negative things  said about us. Maybe you know the story of the preacher who was shaking hands after church and a young man comes up to him and says all and that was pretty lame sermon. It wasn't  true to the Bible. You didn't have any interesting illustrations. It was boring, boring, boring.  You were way off base. And an older lady heard this young man talking to the preacher that  way. So she came up to the preacher to try to make him feel better. And just all don't let that  young man's words bother you. He's not too bright. He just says what he hears other people  say. Well, now, we hear things, words we'd rather not hear. And yeah, sometimes there are  people are just nasty and are critics for the sake of being critical. But there are also those who wished to help us. And they say things that we don't like to hear, but we need to hear them  anyway. And then we've got a choice. Are we going to listen to flatterers? Are we going to  listen to them? If we're honest enough to help us, and sometimes it, it does not result in a  very happy moment, I remember when I was about to leave my church in Canada, the first  one that I served, one of the people that I talked to, before I left was a man on whose breath I  had smelled alcohol and where I've seen some things in his kids that typically appear in  families of people with a drinking problem. So I, when I was visiting with him, you know, near  the time I was leaving, I just asked him point blank, do you have a drinking problem? Was he  angry, he was just furious at me for even bringing up that subject. And when I left, he was still angry at me. And I left that church on very bad terms with him. And a month later, I heard  that he had checked into an alcohol rehab clinic. And when I was preaching in Canada, a few  years later, I ran into his son, who was manifesting all that bad behavior. And he was in a  Christian college studying to go to seminary and go into the ministry. The man got angry at  first. But that hard word got through to him. And it was a blessing to him. And I appreciated  and admired them that even though he was initially very mad, the Lord gave him the grace to take that to heart. How often is it that we could have spared ourself a lot of grief, by just  listening to words we didn't want to hear. If you're in a work situation, and a fellow employee  says something to you that you don't like, before you brush it off, or think they're just being  unpleasant. Listen really hard, because they might be telling you something that could just  save your job. Because if they're saying it, it might be that your boss or somebody else is  noticing it too. If somebody comes up to you and says, Do you have a drinking problem, don't  be too quick to say, well, you know, I have, you know, I have one or two now. And then if  they're asking about it, probably, it's already so obvious that that everybody knows, but you,  there are so many situations where we are the last to know, when you have bad breath, you  don't smell it yourself. And the other people are too polite to tell you. But a word of rebuke.  I'm not worried about the bad breath here. There are many things in our lives where If only  someone loved us enough to say something that needed changing, and we had the wisdom 

from God to hear it, we can be so blessed. So you can get you can be there with your drinking buddies, they're never going to confront you about drinking too much. You can hang out with  the slackers at work, and they're never going to tell you to buck up and work harder and get  here on time. You can always find somebody who makes you feel a little more comfortable.  Just remember, a flatter makes you feel better and become worse. And honest, rebuke makes  you feel worse and become better. So your wise critics is going to help you a lot more than  the party animals in your life. Now in the school of hard knocks, there are these things we go  through that we'd rather not experience. There are these words that come to us that we'd  rather not hear. And we can learn from them. But it is not automatic. There are other  strategies for going through life when it's painful and difficult. There are some sick strategies  for dealing with tough times. One is dishonesty. We live in a tough world. Sometimes it just  seems like a dog eat dog world. And I might as well be the big dog in that case, and have the  biggest teeth. Or if I'm not that way, well. If I'm threatened by the big dog, I'd rather not get  bitten. And so extortion threats, is something we just cave into. Extortion turns a wise man  into a fool. In a tough world. Sometimes you're threatened with a certain thing. And if you  don't do it, you're gonna get it. And so you give in, and it turns you into a fool. Or you get the  opposite thing, not the threat so much as the opportunity. A bribe corrupts the heart. In a  crooked world. The great temptation is to be crooked, either to keep yourself from getting  beat up, or to line your pockets. Hey, if it's going to be a dishonest world anyway, and people  are gonna make money off of it. Why not? Me? Why should not somebody's gonna do it? Why  not me? So the bribe corrupts the heart. Dishonesty is a way of making some people get  pretty good at it. And the ones who are best at it you've heard it said there's nothing so  effective as somebody who can fake sincerity. You know that that's when you're really on top  of the world is when you are extremely dishonest. And you can fake sincerity. Well, that's one  way of trying to make your way through this world. The Scripture obviously doesn't  recommend it. Another approach is just short sightedness. And here's the warning, the end of  the matter is better than its beginning. And patience is better than pride. To be impatient is to want what I want. And I want it now. And I'm not willing to wait and see how things unfold. If  things aren't going my way, this instant, don't talk to me about eternity. Come on now is what matters. I want results, and I want them now. And a strategy for making your way through life  is just try to avoid all short term pain. Avoid all sacrifice and get what you want when you  want it. But the end of the matter is better than it's the beginning. Take them out of marriage. Some people want to just hop in bed with whoever, whenever they feel the urge. And why  would I wait for a wedding? When I'm missing out on so much fun? Well, there may be payoffs to waiting. And to marriage that has always been the command of God and the wisdom of the ages. And so it is still or you say I don't want to wait for pie in the sky in the sweet by and by  when I die. I want to have as much fun and I want it now and phooey on later. Delayed  gratification. What's that? So that's a strategy for dealing with a tough life. Grab as much fun  as you can out of it. Avoid as much pain as you can possibly avoid. And that's it. You don't  worry about patience. And by the way, pride is the opposite of patience. Your Why would you  say that? How often would you pair patience as the opposite of pride? Well, pride says I  deserve stuff. Now. I should not have to wait. Even if God wants me to wait or if other people  are making me wait. Pride says I deserve it. I'm going to get it I'm going to do it on my terms.  And patience is better than pride. Another one is just to blow your stack. Life is rough. And it  makes me mad. That's my motto. Life is rough and I'm mad. Do not be quickly provoked in  your spirit for anger resides in the lap of fools. When things don't go your way, when other  people are saying stuff you don't like or doing things you don't like or things that hurt you. A  very natural reaction for many of us is just a blow up and get furious about it. Or get furious  at God because what kind of God runs a world like this? And some of you know what I'm  talking about. I'm not exaggerating, you feel furious at God, because of terrible things that  happened. And that one level, it's very understandable. At another level, it is a very sick  strategy for dealing with the hard things in life. And a fourth strategy for dealing with the hard things in life is wishful thinking. Ecclesiastes says Do not say why were the old days better  than these for, it is not wise to ask such questions. But why isn't it wise? Well, one reason it  might not be wise is that the old days might not have been so much better than these. 

Someone has said that the good old days are a combination of a good imagination and a bad  memory. You have a very selective memory about those good old days you imagine them to  be up in this rosy time of bliss, when you're actually living through them. You were kind of a  grumpy. But there's another reason some cases maybe the old days really were better. Maybe you were healthier. Maybe you were happier, maybe life was better. Maybe the nation was  even better in those good old days. In that case, it's still not wise to say, Well, why were the  old days better means because Memo you're not living then those days are gone. They're  past, you're living now. There may be a time to learn from history. And remember that things  could be different. Because once they were different, you know, they're not saying just draw a total blank spot about the past. But on the other hand, don't try to live in the past. Don't try to say Oh, if only I were a teenager again when I was young and thin and beautiful. Well, maybe  you're beautiful. Now maybe it's a different kind of beauty. But you're not going to be a  teenager again no matter what. Okay? If you're if you're past your teen years, you can't turn  back that clock. And so don't say why were the old days better than these if, if you're in tough days. The point is to learn from the tough days not try to wish them away. grow closer to God  through what you're going through. Not say I wish I had a time A machine that would  transport me back, because if you were transported back, guess what time would move and  you'd be right back where you are now, time moves one direction. And time does move  toward eternity. That's the good news. If you keep looking ahead to the future that God has  prepared for those who love Him, then you don't always have to be turning back the clock.  You're longing for the future and your patient for that future that God has prepared? Well,  again, I've just observed that there are some six strategies for coping with tough times. So  when I talked about the school of hard knocks, the school of hard knocks does not  automatically benefit you. There are people who go through the school of hard knocks, and all it does is make them angrier. They hear a rebuke from somebody else. And all it does is make  them more stubborn. And they just dig in. And the school of hard knocks does not necessarily  have to automatically make you a better person. Oftentimes, it just brings out the kind of  person that you already are. And even that can be valuable. If you find out that you were a lot worse or a lot stupider than you really realize that can be a helpful discovery in and of itself  too, because then you finally see yourself as you are. But at any rate, I just say it is not  automatic. That because life is tough, we're all going to get smarter. Some people get older  and wiser. Other people just get older. Wisdom is the key difference here wisdom helps us to  learn in the school of hard knocks wisdom, like an inheritance is a good thing and benefits  those who see the sun, wisdom as a shelter as money as a shelter. But the advantage of  knowledge is this wisdom preserves the life of its possessor. Money has a variety of benefits.  wisdoms benefits are even greater, and longer lasting. And so, we do need very much to seek wisdom so that in the school of hard knocks, it won't just bring out what kind of knuckleheads  we are, but instead truly developed wisdom and shape our character. And what is wisdom?  Well, if you read the book of Proverbs, it says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you read the book of Job, you read, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord, taking God seriously is the beginning of wisdom. That's why right after talking  about the advantage of wisdom, here in Ecclesiastes, the next thing you hear is God, that  God's in charge. God governs. Consider what God has done, who constraints and what he has  made crooked, when times are good, be happy. But when times are bad, consider God has  made the one as well as the other. Therefore a man cannot discover anything about his  future. That's a fairly controversial statement, even among Christians these days, that when  times are bad, consider that God made the one as well as the other. Nowadays, we say, well,  the bad times, they all come from the devil, and the good times come from God because God  is good. And so he sends us good times, and good times only, not according to this, and not  according to other passages of the Bible, what does Job say, The Lord has given. And the Lord  has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord, in times of good, be happy. But when times  are bad, say, Well, God sent this to why? What's he doing in my life? The big why you're  probably never gonna figure out the why of it all. But you might at least ask why is it  happening to me? And what can God shape in me through this? Who can straighten what he  has made crooked? When we think of God's ways, we like to think God is logical. And by 

logical, we mean that he fits our logic, that if we figure something out, well, then life ought to  just go like that. And God has a way of meandering you, your life goes this way. And that and  in and out and all around and you want to just straight, smooth, logical, sensible life from him, and he gave you one that went all over the place. Well, bad news. You can't straighten it out.  

Good news. It's from God. And he has his purposes. His purposes will ripen fast unfolding  every hour, the bud may have a bitter taste but sweet will be the flower that's verse from God moves in mysterious way his wonders to perform. So when times are bad, don't think well,  this is just completely out of God's realm of action. God sounds good. In a different sense that he sends bad the good comes directly from him or from the bad comes indirectly and within  his purposes, but the, the upshot is we need to receive the bad as well as the good and learn  from that school of hard knocks. And if you want to figure it all out, and if you want to make  your own highway, Dream on, you are just going to get more and more frustrated, you cannot discover anything about your future. You don't know if you're going to be alive tomorrow  morning. That's just the fact of the matter. You do not know your future. God does. And there  are so many twists and turns that you can't even see tomorrow from here. So the fear of the  Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If Wisdom means figuring it all out, just pack it in, you won't.  If wisdom begins with saying, Well, life has a lot of twists and turns and God understands and  I don't, then you're, you're getting started. God governs in the fear of the LORD, and his  governance is the beginning of wisdom. In this meaningless life of mine, I've seen both of  these, a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and the wicked man living long in his  wickedness. If you thought you could figure all things out if he wanted to be a no at all, here's  a nice challenge right here. You've got a righteous man. Let's take an example. Job, a  righteous man. In fact, the most righteous man in the world of that time, who gets hit harder  than anybody else, in the loss of his family, and the loss of his health and all these terrible  things that happened to him. Or take somebody else John the Baptist, Jesus said, that prior to  Jesus coming, not a greater man had lived on Earth than John the Baptist. John the Baptist,  gets thrown into prison, and gets his head chopped off. And the man who ordered it King  Herod lived a long, luxurious, well paid life, and then died of natural causes after being rich  and powerful, and doing whatever he felt like doing his whole life. So righteousness pays, with your head getting chopped off, and wickedness pays with living long and fat and healthy, and  then dying of natural causes. In old age. Ecclesiastes says, Man, you want to try to figure that  one out? If you think that by learning about God and the ways of righteousness, that by clean  living, and doing what is smartest, and by doing what is good, you're going to ensure a happy, healthy life. You got another thing coming? There are people who have lived a clean life, and  have had a devastating and painful life. There are others who are wicked, who seemed to  have it made in the shade. So if you wanted to figure it out, you're not going to. So what  should you think if righteousness doesn't always pay? And if wickedness doesn't always, at  least in the short term, result in ruin? What should you think about all that? Well, there's,  there's various temptations and you need to avoid extremes. Verse 16, 17, and 18. Do not be  over righteous, neither be over wise, Why destroy yourself, do not be over wicked, and do not be a fool. Why die before your time. It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other.  The man who fears God will avoid all extremes. we're creatures of extremes. And when we  want to be moral, we want to really be moral. And we want to be strict. And when we learn to  love, wisdom and truth, we want to pursue truth, and we want to be right. And we want to be  right all the time. And before we know it, in our desire for righteousness and wisdom, we have become self righteous, know it all. Were the people who know us are kind of repelled because  we're always so strict and so snooty. And because we're never wrong. And so you can be over  righteous and over wise, and always trying to establish your own mighty brain and your own  marvelous morality. And others of you look around you say, yeah, man, I cannot stand those  strict. snooty over righteous over wise people, man, I like to let it all go to go with the flow to  do what feels good. I'm not one of those who looks down on others. I I live free. I do what I  feel like well, don't be over wicked, and don't be a fool. Why die before your time. There are a  lot of ways to wreck your life in the ways of wickedness just because Herod made it to the  end. And we won't talk about where he is now. But just because he appeared to have made it  through his life, a lot of people who live with drunken stupors, and seizing their brother's wife,

things don't pan out so well for them. So, in this in this life, there's the temptation on the one  hand to be the snooty the over Righteous One. And then in our age, there's also that  temptation, just just be a party animal to just live for today to live as wicked as you please.  And who cares what anybody says, both of those are disastrously wrong. Look at our Lord  Jesus Himself. Jesus was good, really good. And never too good to associate with somebody  else. Jesus was perfectly righteous. And yet he didn't give off that vibe of self righteousness,  He was absolutely holy. And he wasn't holier than thou, he would hang out with the sinners,  and show them kindness and love. He was wise. In fact, he knew everything. How do you  know everything without being a know at all? He actually didn't know at all. And he didn't  come off with a No at all, because he would tell simple stories, and welcome little children and associate with anybody. And the scholars didn't like him much. But he knew more than all of  the scholars put together. And yet he didn't come off that way. So when we look at the life of  our Lord Jesus Christ, we see somebody who was absolutely righteous, and yet not over  righteous, who knew everything, and wasn't over wise, and certainly didn't go to that other  extreme of being over wicked, or of being a fool. And we see in him the ability to grasp the  one without letting go of the other. Now, at that last sentence, the man who fears God will  avoid all extremes. When you fear God, it is really hard to be over righteous. Because when  you're in the presence of God, all of a sudden, you lose the sense that I'm superior to  everybody. And all you know is in the presence of God. I'm a mess. He sees it all. I can't  pretend that I'm this holy, wonderful person. And when you're in the presence of God, how  can you be a know at all? You don't know diddly. And he knows all. So when you learn to fear  God, then you're not so fool yourself. either have your own righteousness or have your own  smarts. It humbles you. And of course, when you're in the presence of God, you're not going  to want to be over wicked or to be a fool. Because in the presence of such wisdom, you know  what a deadly and terrible thing it is, to live in sin, and to live in stupidity. So fear God is the  key to avoiding and when you live in his presence, then you cannot fall so easily into the trap  of being a snooty, overly strict person who repels everybody around you. At the same time,  you won't fall into the trap of just being a do whatever I feel like doing whenever I feel like  doing it, kind of person. As you move along, in the fear of God, you come to know God more  in the school of hard knocks, you also come to know yourself better in the school of hard  knocks, wisdom makes One wise man more powerful than 10 rulers in a city. You can be a big  shot politician, you can have 10, Big Shot politicians, but if they aren't wise, they, in truth are  weaker than one person with a good head on his shoulders. Trouble is, how many of us have a good head on our shoulders. And that's how this chapter you know, it says wisdom is great.  Trouble is we're pretty short on wisdom because the very next verse, There is not a righteous  man on earth, who does what is right? And never sinned. There isn't one, not one righteous  man on earth who does what is right. And never sinned you've heard the story of the judge  who visited a prison. And while in the prison, he talked to various people. And every prisoner  he ran into said, I didn't do it. Or I did it. But it wasn't my fault. You know, something  happened that forced me into it. So everybody either denied they had done it, or else denied  it was their fault. And finally, the judge ran into one guy who says, Yeah, I did it and it was all  my fault. I'm completely to blame. I was a rotter. And the judge says the warden Warden, you  got to get this guy out of this prison. He's going to corrupt all these pure, innocent people who live here. Well, that might not be a true story, but that's how we tend to operate. We are not  to blame for the bad things we do and they weren't all that bad. Anyway, we're masters of  making excuses. Next verse. Do not pay attention to every word people say or you may hear  your servant person you for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have per  others Truer words were never spoken. Isn't it awful? How much it hurts when people talk  about you? Oh, they are low low down to talk about you that way. Yeah. And if we could play  it, play back tape recordings of how you talk about others when they're not around? How does that work out? That's what this verse is saying, Before you get too riled about what somebody else said about you. Just think about your own lips. In your own words, how have you been  doing. And if it hurt you to hear others talk about, you just realize you did the same thing, and learn a lesson from the school of hard knocks. Some of us just need to know how much gossip hurts by being gossiped about. And when you're gossiped about, then maybe you'll learn a 

thing or two about your own gossip, at the very least learn this, I'm not a whole lot better  than they are. That'd be nice, over time, if we actually could cut out the gossip, and cut out  the way that we talked about others behind their back, but at the very least, it helps to know  that I'm doing it at least as much as they are, and to face my own faults. Well, in spacing,  your faults and your lack of wisdom, you got a lot of things to learn. All this I tested by  wisdom, I said, I'm determined to be wise, but this was beyond me. Whatever wisdom may  be, it is far off and most profound, who can discover it. So I turned my mind to understand to  investigate, to search out wisdom in the scheme of things, and to understand the stupidity of  wickedness, and the madness of folly. He wants to know, he wants to know why stupidity and  wickedness are so lousy, he wants to know what wisdom is. And this is progress, even if you  don't have it, the realization that you don't, and the desire to gain it is a big step forward in  the school of hard knocks, if you're frustrated, because there are things you don't know. And  because you've learned some things about your own sickness and sinfulness and gossip and  all that other stuff. It can be painful and frustrating, but it is progress. It is progress far beyond thinking that you're already okay. And they already know pretty much what you need to know. And if you say man, wisdom is valuable, it would make me stronger than 10. Politicians, if I  could only get it. And if I only was not one of those wicked people, just this search, this  yearning, this desire, seek and you will find. And while you're searching for wisdom, there's a  snare, a snare of romance. And if you want to find a particular field of human existence,  where stupidity and pain flourishes, perhaps more than any other, it is in the realm of  opposite sex relationships. I find more bitter than death, the woman who has a snare whose  heart is a trap, and whose hands are chains, the man who pleases God will escape her, but  the sinner she will ensnare This is a man who speaks from experience. This is a man who  married many women, and built temples for the gods of those women, and whose heart was  turned after strange gods, by his relations with the opposite sex. Solomon was the wisest  moron who ever lived. You know, he had just colossal genius, and yet his weak spot was, he  would fall for his wives. Now, that doesn't mean women are bad. And men are if you put the  shoe on the other foot, when it comes to people who are women, then men are likely to be  that snare. If you're not walking in wisdom, the man who pleases God will escape that trap.  But the sinner she will ensnare. I don't want to overstate this. But very often, you wind up  with the person you deserve. I know there are some people who you know, I'm not blaming  the victim in all cases of abuse or anything like that. But very often we are vulnerable to a  particular kind of person of the opposite sex because we haven't yet gained wisdom and our  heart has not been devoted to pleasing God. And the traps are out there. The predators are  out there. The ones who are just trying to get you by whatever means are out there, and you  will fall into that trap. If you're not walking with the Lord. It's that simple. One of the biggest  traps in life is somebody of the opposite sex, who you didn't have the good sense to see as  the trouble they were Solomon happened I mythic happened to Solomon and Samson, it could happen to pretty much anybody who is smarter than Solomon or stronger than Samson. But  they lost track of the fear of the Lord Solomon got all puffed up about his wisdom, Samson got all puffed up about his strength, I can beat up anybody I can shake off the Philistines and  before Yeah, right, Delilah just got all your hair off. You know, that doesn't work so well  anymore. So when you're searching for wisdom, you need to be especially aware that it is in  your relations with the opposite sex that your stupidity is going to show itself most obviously,  and your lack of walking with God is going to come out into the open. You can now you may  not like drinking, but because somebody you are interested in of the opposite sex is a party  animal. Okay, I think I'll be a party animal. Now. Maybe I'll use a few other drugs too, because  hey, they are maybe yeah, they, you know, I know it's wrong. But they they like to sleep  around. And I'm interested in that person. So hey, I better please do this. I want to hang on to  him. And so you fall into all kinds of stupidity. Because the trap was set for you. Looks as the  teacher this is what I've discovered, adding one thing to another Discover the scheme of  things while I was still searching but not find and I found one upright man among 1000, but  not one upright woman among them all. Oh, man. Is he a sexist to say? Well, actually, that is  a Hebrew way of doing things. You know, there's other passages in the Bible say there are  three things even four, you know, that are wise or six things even seven that the Lord hates, 

well, there is one person even zero, that is righteous. That's basically what it's saying. But just in case you don't want to buy that. That's that's Hebrew poetry of saying, yeah, there's one.  Now let's make it zero. Who is actually righteous? I'll just put it to you this way. When I read  this verse, and it says, I found one upright man among 1000, and not one upright woman, a  good many men thought, yeah, and I'm that one upright man among 1000. You got 1/10 of  1% chance of being right, even if you took that verse literally, which is shouldn't? Because  what did you read just a few verses earlier. There is not one righteous man on all the earth.  That's only eight verses before. Soloman didn't just forget what he just said. But if you if you  were to go in poetic terms, if you're a man, then you're going to find yourself in trouble even  more likely to be in trouble with women than you are with other men. And vice versa. If you're a woman, you're probably going to find that the men that relate to you are going to be some  trouble for you. However you want to take that if you think you're that one man in 1000,  who's wise, go on thinking that ignore this sermon. I got good news for you. The school of  hard knocks will teach you otherwise, this sermon wouldn't do it. The school of hard knocks  will you'll find out you're not that woman 1000. This only I have found. It's not God's fault.  God man made man up right, he made Adam and Eve just fine. But man have gone in search  of many schemes. Well, that was an inspiring chapter. It started with death. And it ended with  you have gone in search of many schemes, you sinners. Well, now, that is the connection the  Bible always makes. When you look at death, you wind up having to think about sin, because  death is the sting that comes attached to sin. And when you study this chapter, and you're  searching for wisdom, and you're learning from the school of hard knocks, what is the school  of hard knocks teach you, you are a dying sinner. You cannot get anywhere without taking  that sentence to heart. And you can listen to it in church once in a while or read it in your  Bible once in a while. But very often it doesn't sink in until you get whacked upside the head  by life. And then you say, I am a sinner, and I am dying. And then we are ready for something  better. And until you face these facts, we're just not ready to move on. You do not have a  meaningful or realistic philosophy of life until you say I am a dying sinner. And once you have  said I am a dying sinner, then you can ask Two good questions. Who can save me from this  body of death? And who can save me from sin? And when you ask that question, then finally  you're beginning to appreciate the Bible. One of the biggest obstacles to people receiving  Jesus Christ or being even interested in Jesus Christ is they have not learned that lesson from  the school of hard knocks. If Jesus is the answer, what's the question? How can I be saved  from sin? How can I be saved from death and This whole chapter of the Bible and indeed I  think the whole book of Ecclesiastes is really just a pair of glasses so that you see life clearly.  You shouldn't even need Ecclesiastes, I've said that before you shouldn't even need  Ecclesiastes, sin is a Christian doctrine that does not need to be revealed. Open your peepers, look at the world, then look in the mirror, is anything more obvious? Death? Did you really  need the memo? One out of one people died, we already knew that. And we spent our whole  life saying, I'm right, even when we're sinners. And we spent our whole life trying to pretend  we're going to stay healthy. And we are not. The school of hard knocks, drives us to give up  on ourselves. And to look for somebody in something else. We look for that one who was holy  and not holier than thou, the one who knew everything, and was not a know it all. The one  who came to save sinners, who lay down his life, that we might have fullness of life. And the  more we take that to heart, the more we grow in wisdom, the more we grow in Christ who has become for us wisdom from God, that is our righteousness, our holiness, our redemption,  therefore is it written, let him who boast boast in the Lord. We have gone in search of many  schemes. We have condemned ourselves to death. And God has a few schemes of his own,  and a few crooked ways of his own. And he will send us down those paths and pursuing us  down those paths will be the Hound of Heaven. And he will search us out again, and he will  bring us home. Dear Lord, we thank you that when we have wandered far, even there, we  cannot escape your purposes. And so Lord in the School of Hard knocks, help us to see our  own sin, our own death, and to discover in that, that you are our life, that you are our  righteousness. May we always Lord yearn for you yearn for Jesus with our whole heart. Lord,  use these painful parts of the book of Ecclesiastes and the painful things in our lives. To help  us just give up on trying to grab the moment, and instead, to seek eternity, to not settle for a 

little bit of fun here and there, but to settle for nothing less than everlasting, unlimited joy in  you. And then Lord, help us to receive all good things in this life as gifts from you, and to  consider that the bad times to come from your hand and to realize that nothing can separate  us from the love of God but then in all things, you work for the good of those who love you  and are called according to your purpose. So teach us, Lord to sear you in reverence you and  take you more seriously than anything else and anybody else. And then Lord, help us to find  in you are all in all our joy and our salvation for Jesus sake. Amen.