Video Transcript: Stupidity Stinks

Our next message on Ecclesiastes says a very subtle title, stupidity stinks. And we're  going to be considering what that book says in Ecclesiastes nine, the end of the chapter  through the end of chapter 10. Want to begin just by thinking about Winston Churchill,  Winston Churchill was a person of very strong ideas and very strong determination. And he spent a good deal of the 1930s being considered a real wacko crackpot, because he  kept warning of the rising power of Nazi Germany. And many in Britain just thought he  was a war monger and kind of paranoid and they preferred someone named Neville  Chamberlain, to be their Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain was the one who  negotiated nice treaties with the Nazis, and then came home smiling and said, peace in  our time have a good night's sleep. Well, it was a little hard to sleep well, with Hitler  invading every country in sight. And finally, Britain, realizing that it couldn't avoid that  threat. You elected Winston Churchill as prime minister and he led Britain through the  war, the second world war against great odds against ferocious Nazi bombing and  tremendous military power. And ultimately, Britain and the United States. And the Allied Powers prevailed in that and Winston Churchill was the man who was the leader of  Britain through that whole ordeal. And in the first election after the war, Churchill lost  Thank you very much. All right, also saw under the sun, this example of wisdom that  greatly impressed me there was once a small city with only a few people in it, and a  powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. Now  there lived in that city, a man poor but wise, and he saved that city by his wisdom. But  nobody remembered that poor man. So I said, wisdom is better than strength. But the  poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded. The quiet words of  the wise are more to be heated than the shouts of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than  weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. If wisdom is measured by how  much publicity it gets, and how long people remember it, and how thankful they are for  it, well, then wisdom isn't worth a whole lot. Because very often wisdom makes an  enormous contribution, even to saving a city. And people almost immediately forget the  guy who did it. Just even think of times we actually remember people who did  something great. And we have holidays in their honor. And what did we do on those  holidays? Anything but think about them, or the principles that made them great, or that  helped our nation through them, we go out and we party, we do this and that and then we go right back to whatever we were doing before. So the wise person and the people of  great honor and skill who make a major contribution are very often ignored, and  neglected and forgotten. But even so, it's better to be wise than to be a dunce. The words  of the wise are to be more heated than the shouts of a ruler of fools. We need to  remember that when we're dealing with the political realm, those who have the most  money to buy the most publicity and the biggest team of political professionals, does  that make them wise? Not very often, the biggest noise and the loudest voice is seldom,  the wisest person, the quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a  ruler of fools. But in order to recognize wisdom, you need to have at least a little  smidgen of it yourself. Otherwise, whoever is in the news at the time will seem wise,  why just this last week or so. A 65 year old man was transformed into a 20 Something 

woman and the president tweeted in congratulations. These are the words of fools. Okay, we need to understand that what gets a lots of publicity, you know, he was praised or as  a person of great courage around the anniversary of D Day. When we were fighting the  Nazi powers. So we need to realize that the kind of thing that gets publicity in our media 

can be absolutely nuts, and harmful, but wisdom is still better. Wisdom is better than  weapons of war, one sinner can destroy a lot of good. And then the very next verse,  stupidity stinks, as dead flies gift perfume, a bad smell. So a little folly outweighs  wisdom and honor. It only takes a little bit of stupidity to wreck a lot. I remember my  mentor at back to God Ministries, telling me it takes a long, long time to build a strong  organization, and only a few minutes to wreck it. And I think a lot of you can just reflect on the past year or so some people who were known and looked up to as leaders,  something from their past came out or something they did. And all of a sudden their  entire work and ministry is discredited. And things that they've been involved in,  suddenly have kind of a stain, put on them. Just a little bit of folly sometimes can  outweigh wisdom and honor. When you make a choice. Somewhere back when you're  13 years old, somebody offered you one cigarette and told you it would be really cool.  And then 20 years later, you're still puffing on those things are poisoning your lungs,  your insurance rates are going through the roof. And it's all because of that one stupid  cigarette once upon a time, somebody decides to get drunk once, and they're in prison  for 20 years for something they did while they were drunk. Whether killing somebody  while driving, or committing a rape, or the kinds of things that can be done during one  brief moment of stupidity can mess you up for for many, many years. Or think of  another politician, a very shrewd politician. He opened relations with China, he won the  biggest election victory in the history of the United States. But if you know much about  him, a lot of you wouldn't even know who it was that won the biggest election victory in US history, you would only know him as the guy who was associated with Watergate,  the one who was known as being crooked and bad. Richard Nixon is known for the bad  smell of Watergate rather than for the many skills that he had and the many  accomplishments that he had. So we need to be, we need to just realize that stupidity  stinks. And maybe, maybe even that image is helpful. If you just look at who's getting  the most publicity, or listen to who's making the most noise. You won't always recognize stupidity, but sometimes you just need a good sniffer. You know, and sometimes the  Lord does give you when he grants us and he'll give you an inner Sniffer, and just  something smelled off here. And so you need to be aware of that. Next verse, the heart  of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left, this is not a slam at  left handed people. So you lefties, do not assume that you're a fool and you righties is  don't break your right arm patting yourself on the back for your wisdom. It is not a  statement about politics that those who prefer right wing politicians are the wise, and  those who prefer left wing politicians prefer the left it's it's a statement simply to say the  hearts of wise people go one way the hearts of foolish people go a different way. And it's really more a statement about the heart than it is about right or left as such. Wisdom or  stupidity is something that comes from the inside the core of who you are. And so we 

need to understand that if stupidity stinks, it needs to be addressed at the heart. And if  we want to have wisdom, it needs to come into the heart and then flow out from the  heart. These things that we learned from the Scriptures about wisdom and stupidity are  really heart matters. But the heart doesn't just remain hidden completely. It comes out  and again the kind of has kind of a funny or ironic way of saying even as he walks along the road, the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how stupid he is. You can tell how  stupid he is by how he walks Well, again, that's exaggeration. You can just watch most  people's and others a dummy can see by the way he's walking. But again, his point is  that it starts in the heart, but it comes out in the way you behave even in the New  Testament. You hear the word walk by the Spirit or or walk in this way or walk that way  that the term for walking is is another way the bible speak something Living have the  way you make your way through the path of life. And if you're a dummy, it'll show up in your behavior. What is on the inside soon comes out on the outside. One area where  stupidity comes out in life is in the chain of command. Yes, a ruler is anger rises against  you don't leave your post calmness can lay great errors to rest. Sometimes big shots have hot tempers. And they think they can do whatever they want. And sometimes they can.  Now that is not a great compliment to them. But just because they lose their temper does not mean you need to lose yours. There's a good many times where a boss or somebody  in power gets angry at you. And you might say I have the right to get angry right back.  And he blew his stack and I'm gonna blow mine too. And I'm gonna say I quit. Well, it  might feel good for at least five seconds. But then you don't have a job. You leave your  post, you've, you've blown everything. Because because he got angry and you had a spat with your boss, you got mad too. And now what do you do. And so very often, even  when someone else is unwise in their anger, if you stay calm, if you keep your head  calmness can lead great errors to rest, maybe lay some of his errors to rest, maybe lay  some of yours to rest, because maybe he had a right to get angry out if you really think  about it. So whatever the case, don't just on the spot, say, well, he's mad, I'm mad this is  over. There's an evil I've seen under the sun, the sort of error that arises from a ruler.  Fools are put in many high positions, while the rich have to occupy the low ones. I have  seen slaves on horseback while princes go on foot like slaves. An error that comes from  a ruler is that he promotes the wrong people. He often promotes his buddies who aren't  very good at what they do just because they're his buddies. And you see that in  government, you sometimes see that in companies, even people who write management  books, sometimes call it The Peter Principle that people always rise one level above  where they really belong. You know, they always get bumped, just promoted just a little  too high, where they were good at something. But then they got got too many notches  higher than what they were good at handling while some other people are left there at  the bottom of the ladder. That's just one of those things. Ecclesiastes just has this eye for  everything that goes wrong in life. And here's another one, the chain of command,  people get promoted. And they're not always the right person. And have fun with that. If  you've got to work under one of those people, I have heard, you know, from several  different people about work situations where somebody gets promoted, they're brand 

new to the situation, there may be younger than all the people who are reporting to them  and have no experience in it. And before long, the whole department is vacated because  this person is bungling their way around. If the wrong person gets promoted, it does a lot of damage. Now again, as we consider these things in Ecclesiastes, you look around you  and you say yeah, I've seen that happen there. I've seen something sort of like that here.  

Occasionally an excellent place to check for where such things are happening is the  mirror. So make sure that you're not just one of those who got promoted though you  weren't qualified for the position. Be careful what you want. Sometimes some of us want to be in a in a level different than what we are when in fact we're pretty well suited right  to that level where we're at. But at any rate stupidity in the chain of command is very  frustrating, and it does a lot of damage. Stupidity at work. Ecclesiastes brings out at least four ways in which this can happen um, nastiness, carelessness, brainlessness hastiness,  nastiness, whoever digs a pit may fall into it. Whoever breaks through a wall may be  bitten by a snake. Now at one level, maybe that's just a statement that sometimes bad  things happen while you're working. You know, you happen to be digging a foundation  for a house or something and you fell over the edge and plot out. Or, you know, you  were working your way through something and there happened to be a snake there that  that could be one meaning of those words, but it could also refer to somebody who's  digging a pit as a trap for somebody else and right while he's digging it kerplunk he  winds up in it himself, or he's smashing his way into somewhere and going where he's  not supposed to. He makes it to the wall I'm gonna get whatever I want and snake got  him. So yeah, you have the, the possibility in in work, that when you're plotting to bring  somebody else down, you may ruin yourself. If you've read the Bible a few times, some  of you would recognize the name of Haman. Haman was a guy who got promoted a little higher than he deserved to, because he happened to get himself in, in good with the king. So he kept rising through the ranks. But when he was getting up there just about next to  the king himself, he notes there's one guy who won't bow down to him. Oh, shame,  shame, double shame. Not everybody bows down to me. So he's furious and he starts  plotting how to get this guy Mordecai killed. And he at the suggestion of his wife builds  gallows 75 feet high to execute this guy Mordecai but unknown to him. Mordecai had  saved the king's life. And works cousin happened to be the queen unknown to him. So  havens got all this plot going. And God has his own little plot going. And Haman winds  up dangling from the gallows that he built for Mordecai, he dug a pit for Mordecai. And  then he took a nosedive into that pit himself. So nastiness is a form of stupidity, where  very often it comes back to bite you, literally you break through the wall, and you get  bitten by the snake. There's also carelessness. And when you think about your own  work, and just the practical nature of, of wisdom, whoever quarries stones may be  injured by them. Whoever splits logs may be endangered by them a lot of work is  downright dangerous. And just a few seconds of carelessness can really do some  damage. If you're splitting logs and something goes wrong with the axe or with one of  those pieces of a log you can get injured pretty badly. If you're working in a stone  quarry. That can be a very dangerous occupation. If you're a logger working with a 

chainsaw, and get careless for a few moments, or you're a carpenter working with a  mechanical saw takes about 20 years of carefulness and five seconds of carelessness to  lose a thumb and several fingers. That's just the nature of a lot of work. If you're a truck  driver, you may be a very skilled truck driver. And there's just that one time when you  went on the road and you didn't get enough sleep. And you got dopey. And the next thing you know, you've had a terrible accident even those of us who are in fairly safe work  may have to commute to it every day. And it just it takes one slip while you're driving  for something to go terribly wrong and for carelessness to do a lot of damage. So again,  as it says a little bit of folly can undo a lot of wisdom. Next proverb that stated here, if  the axe is dull and its edge unsharpened more strength is needed. But skill will blink  bring success. And maybe you've heard the story of the people were going to get into a  wood chopping contest. And so they both had an ax and the one was just going to work  and work and work and work and he was going to win that contest, and the other one  would have and they were going to chop all day. So the other one he ever once in while  would go off and take a little math and then he'd be fiddling around a little bit with his  axe and then you go back to chopping. And by the end of the day is a guy who's just  chopping with all his might doesn't have nearly as much woodshop as the guy who takes breaks because the guy would take breaks to regain his strength and sharpen his axe and  a dull axe and a tired guy. Don't get a lot done. The point of that proverb is simply this  work smarter, not just work harder. And there is a great value in hard work. But there's  also a point at which you can be working so hard without thinking about it, that you  could accomplish a lot more if you just took a deep breath and looked at what you do. I  know that's true in my work. I know that's true in a lot of your work that if you just take  time sometimes to relax enough to get your strength back. And other times to think  about what am I really accomplishing what what are the important goals here? Instead of just giving yourself busy work, keep on doing it. You think about okay, what's the most  important what am I going to focus on? What's my strategy here? Work smarter, not just  harder. And then this one, if a snake bites before it is Charmed, there is no profit for the  charmer. I like that one. You've got this snake charmer and he's going to charge  somebody for watching him charm a snake and before the snake is in its zombie state  where it's not paying attention anymore. He says I want the money. Well now he's not  going to collect because he's too busy dying from cobra venom or at the Cobra happens  to destroy After the guy who was going to pay him, that's not so profitable either. I'm not in a paying mood when a Cobra has just hit me. Now again, you say, Well, what's that  got to do with anything? I'm not planning on being a cobra charmer anytime soon? Well, maybe not. But the principle there is, there's a sense of timing that you need to have.  And if you're in a big rush, it doesn't always work out so well. One example, for  example, is if you're in sales, and you want to close that deal right now. And they're not  quite ready. And so you're in a big hurry. And that snake isn't quite charmed. And you  lose the sale because you didn't have a sense of what they were ready for. I know  sometimes, one of my own kids will come to me and want something and they want it  right now they gotta have it. They want me to make up my mind right now. I can I can I 

can I as well. Let me think about it. No, I can I got to know right now, if you want to  know right now the answer is no. You give me a little time to think about it. Maybe  maybe, you know, maybe you got a chance here. But if you want an answer, right, now, I can tell you what that answer is because you're in a rush. Another area in just our work  life where you can get bit is, by credit, you want something now, you can't pay for it. So  I'm just gonna buy it now on credit, and then pay for it sometime later. Credit and cobras have a little bit in common. They can both bite you and do a lot of damage. So there's a  variety of ways in which in our work life and in the way we live, we can make choices  because we're in a hurry. We're trying to get there before the time is actually right. And a sense of timing is absolutely vital. And bad timing just stinks. Another area in which  stupidity stinks is in the way we talk. Words from a wise man's mouth are gracious, but a fool is consumed by his own lips. At the beginning, his words are folly at the end, they  are wicked madness. And the fool multiplies words. No one knows what is coming. And  who can tell him what will happen after him. A fools work Wearies him he does not  know the way to town. Speech. A wise man's speech is gracious. That's a very important  statement. And if you read in the book of Proverbs, it talks again and again how words  have this healing power and this soothing power and how wise and gracious words are  nourishing or even when you read back and Moses and Moses speaking some words,  and he says, May my words count, you know, they're going to be like, dew like fresh  dew. So there is such a thing as gracious words that really bring blessing and  encouragement and help. And then there are the words of the moron. His words are bad  for himself. Some folks, the more they talk, the more your opinion of them drops. Big  mouth and a small brain often go together. And so you have to be very, very cautious  about that. In Proverbs, it says even a fool is thought wise if they keep silent and  understanding you won't get stung. If you zip your lip, people will think you're pretty  smart, even if you aren't. So yet, oftentimes, just learning to control your tongue and not  say too much is the is the first step towards wisdom. The thing about the fool here is that he's basically all blow and no go. He talks big. He talks about what he's going to do in  the future and all of this in that he talks about all the places he's going to go. He doesn't  know what's coming. He doesn't know how to get from here to there. He can't even  follow a GPS. He just the boy to listen to him. You think he was one of the great  geniuses of world history. So again, the way that Ecclesiastes often communicates is  through exaggeration, and you know, through cartoons, almost, you know, some guy  who says, I am Einstein. And by the way, can you tell me, you know how to get half  mile down the street. So, you have a lot of talk, and not much accomplishment. That's a  very, very bad combination. Well to your land, whose King was a servant and who's  princes feast in the morning, blessed are you Oh landhuis kin is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time for strength and not for drunkenness. It stupidity stinks,  when it's a king. And when he thinks the reason he became king, was that he cut out  parties. And so he got out of Ohio time, and that he can have peace anytime he wants.  Again, if you've read the Bible a number of times you might remember the story of King Belshazzar, Belshazzar takes over from the previous king Nebuchadnezzar, who really 

was, although he was a very nasty character was very shrewd and smart and capable.  And he learned a few lessons about humility. But Belshazzar didn't learn anything. And  so Belshazzar is having this big feast with all his nobles, and they're all getting drunk.  And meanwhile, the forces of the Medes and the Persians are massing against them. And he thinks it's party time. And then a hand writes on the wall, mene mene tekel upharsin.  Oh, man, what's happening. And so he calls in a guy who he'd been ignoring a lot.  Remember, the wise man who comes through and then gets ignored? Well, Daniel, is  around. But nobody has been paying attention to him for a few years. Now he has been a great advisor to a previous king. But this guy had no room for Daniel until this weird  hand writes on the wall. He says, all I've heard Daniel knows a thing or two. So then  Daniel comes in and tells him what it means. And basically what it means is your dead  tonight. So this was a king, who thought he became king for a party, and he wound up  getting killed. And, again, these these kinds of statements are, again, a warning to us to  be praying for our rulers, and to realize what is going on and how important leadership  is, whether that's at the national government level or state and local government levels.  We live in a state. Well, we got two governors in prison, the leader of the House of  Representatives second in line to the presidency, just got indicted from Illinois again this week. So you know, this, this is what our state is pretty good at. And we are and as a  result, where are we were just about the worst financial condition of any state in the  entire country, because that's the kind of people that we keep voting into office. And so  woe to you when that's who you get. If a man is lazy, the rafters sag if his hands are idle, the house leaks. That's one form of stupidity. You say, Well, I see there's a problem with  my house. And I'm going to take care of it later. None of you have ever done that. But it  has been known to happen that something you saw was a problem. And oh, yeah, I was  gonna get to that later. And then all of a sudden, out, I was just talking to who I don't I  won't even name names, because it might have been somebody here. But I was talking to somebody just the other day, and they knew they were supposed to do something related  to their septic system, but they forgot. And the next thing they had something oozing out of every, every hole in the house. Now, those are the kinds of things that happen when  you knew something. And he said, Yeah, I'll get around to that when I get around to it.  And all of a sudden getting around what means you got a major, major project on your  hands. So when the rafters are starting to sag, and the waters, you know, I was gonna get around to it. Now, if we had a leaky roof this morning, you'd know it because it rained,  and it rained hard when you get structural damage and when stuff is pouring, and that's  kind of a little late in the process to address the problem. But you know, kind of a  laziness is a form of stupidity. And that's not just true of rafters. Some of us have what  we know to be a problem going on in our relationship to our spouse, or we see  something going kind of off with one of our kids and we think that we really ought to  address that. We've got to talk about that some more. We may have to take some steps,  but now boy, it just doesn't seem it'd be kind of awkward to bring that up. And before  you know it, the roof is leaking. The rafters are sagging and your house is falling in  around you. There are many times when if you recognize a problem, don't say maybe 

later or it's not that serious maybe it's not that serious, but things get serious when you  just let them go and then there's another problem not so much about the lazy but about  the greedy a feast is made for laughter and wine makes life merry but money is the  answer for everything. Now at one level that could be almost a straightforward statement about life under the sun. Hey, you know parties, you laugh at parties. Wine people get  jolly when they drink a little wine even though later they find out it's a depressant but  you know they they feel jolly for a little bit. And money. Well, money talks. Money is  the answer. Stupidity stinks. But if that's your motto for life, then your stupidity stinks to high heaven. If you're living only for the laughs and for the wine, and for the dollars,  you have got a serious problem. You get dollar signs in your eyes, and you're not exactly a genius. So you have these things. And each of us needs to look at our own. Like, I can't preach this sermon to everybody else without reflecting on my own life. And you need  to just reflect on yours too, because I've mentioned a whole bunch of things from  Ecclesiastes here. So you said, Yeah, I'm not gonna be a snake charmer. I don't think I'll  be chopping wood in the near future. Next sermon, please. You got to think about these  things a little more, and reflect on what in my life is going on where I kind of smell quite right here. I need to address that. And what are the forms of stupidity that are getting  me? And then just one last form of complaining is usually not the best idea complaining  behind somebody's back, because they're never going to find out about it anyway. Uh  huh. Do not revile the king even in your thoughts or curse the rich in your bedroom.  Because a bird of the air may carry your words and a bird on the wing may report what  you say. There's even a little problem a little birdie told me, you know, that's where it  comes from. A little birdie told me when you hear something that went that's bad about  somebody. They said, Well, where do you hear that? A little birdie told me. And those  little birdies are pretty effective. So again, your attitudes and your gossip, can wind up  coming back to haunt you because those little birdies are fluttering all around? Well,  those are just a list of some of the stupidities, that can mess up our lives. And that can  turn quite a bit of wisdom into a stinking mess. And we need to take that to heart. But  what does it really mean? To take it to heart? Well, it's not enough to say, Ooh, I guess  it's not so bright to be done. You know, Ecclesiastes says that wisdom isn't the answer  for everything. There's, there's a lot of forms of wisdom that aren't going to help rescue  you from the grave, you're gonna die, whether you're wise or stupid, they're not gonna  put your IQ or your grade point average on your tombstone. Ecclesiastes makes all of  that clear. Some things, wisdom in and of itself can't do. But that doesn't mean that that  it doesn't have any value to be wise or that there aren't higher forms of wisdom that  actually can defeat even death. And if you ever reflect on your own life, and some of  you even on some of the stupidities, that it's a little late in the game to undo, we need to  understand what the Word of God says about being saved from stupidity. I love the  words of Psalm 107. It says, Some became fools, through their rebellious ways, and  suffered affliction. Because of their iniquities, their lives were messed up because they  had rebelled against the Lord. They loaded all food and drew near the gates of death.  Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress. He 

sent forth His word and healed them, he rescued them from the grave. Let them give  thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for man. When you  reflect on how bad stupidity stinks, don't just give up if you find that you've blown it  

here or there, you cry out to the Lord in your distress. And the Lord does not say, Well,  you were a bonehead, now live with the consequences. He instead, save and help. And  so we need to realize that the first step is simply to repent and turn from the things that  are destroying us or that are poisoning other people's lives. Because God is a gracious  

and forgiving and merciful God. And he's not always going to wave and yell and say,  over here, over here, stop your stupidity. He's doing that this morning, I'm waiting and  I'm yelling. But think back to the beginning of where we were at There once was a city  and the poor, wise man. And there was a very poor man who had no place to lay his  head. A wise man who many thought, insane or stupid. And it was that poor wise man  who saved not only a city, but a world. And the Bible says of Him, A bruised reed who  will not break a smoldering flax, he will not quit. She's not going to ruin people just  because they've been weak or broken. But he's also not going to raise his voice in the  streets and be all that loud. Even have to listen for a still voice, a quiet voice. And this  poor man from Nazareth, he's not going to take any of the world's thrones, at least not  yet. So you're going to have to be paying attention and you're going to need to be  listening to him. If you want to be saved. In your stupidity, and he did all that was  necessary for the world salvation he even defeated the devil himself. And yet that poor  wise man is all too often ignored. And people live their lives as though they can get  along without him. But they can't, and you can't. So instead of trying to get along  without the poor, wise man from Nazareth, just trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. When you  find you become a fool, and are suffering affliction, cry out to the Lord and your trouble, and be saved from your distress. He sends forth His Word, and heal he rescues from the  grave. And the way for us to receive that is to receive the same spirit that was upon him.  Our Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again, to save not only a village, but the world. And  he sends out His Spirit, the Bible says of Jesus, the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,  the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding the spirit of counsel and the power, the spirit  of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and He will delight in the fear of the Lord.  This was the truth about our Lord Jesus Christ is stupidity stinks, and his stupidity starts  from the heart, then the cure for stupidity is to get a new heart, and to get a new spirit.  And for that you need the Spirit of wisdom, and understanding and of counsel. That is  the antidote when stupidity stinks, and that isn't something that you and I can just kind  of study up on on our own. I know that some people, we're just at a homeschooling  convention for home educators. And that can be an excellent and encouraging thing, and  also where you can get some practical tips and how am I going to educate, but just  realize that for you, for your family, for your children, the key to wisdom itself, is not  going to be just one more fact about this. Although learning more facts, that can be a  valuable thing, but the spirit of wisdom, the Holy Spirit of wisdom that comes from  Jesus is the one that we need. That's why that prayer is in the Bible. I keep asking that  the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father will give you the spirit of wisdom 

and revelation, so that you may know him better. If you read that whole passage that we  read today, and you looked for something that was missing, one thing you'd find is  missing is any mention of God. You can read, we just read 26 verses without a mention  of God. But don't forget the title of my sermon. Stupidity stinks. When you're talking  about stupidity, God really isn't very much in the discussion. If you want to get rid of  that stink, and of that stupidity, then the one who was God's wisdom made flesh, the  Word made flesh. And that spirit of wisdom and understanding is the key. And if God  has given you at least a taste of that spirit of wisdom, give Him thanks for it, and pray  that more and more, you'll come to know him better and as you come to know him better than you more and more escaped that death trap of stupidity, that death trap of life  without God under the sun.