Faith Seeking Wisdom

Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench.

So, that comparison,

a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

That perfume and stench, I don't get that, because I don't wear perfume. But we have had an apple that when a stink bug landed on it and then stuck the mouth in there, it ruins the apple. It makes it taste gross. It's kind of the same idea. That little bit of poison, that little bit of stench will ruin the whole sweetness of an apple. A little folly messes up an entire life. It doesn't take much to ruin a reputation. One affair, one commitment to watching pornography. It's incredible what it does to your mind, your heart, your relationships, your loved ones. What an incredible warning it begins with and that a little folly. It outweighs, there's a way in which it ruins so much about everything else that might be good. When I was a youth, I was what one might call unruly. And I kept making just bad decision after bad decision. And I think my parents just got frustrated with trying to figure out how to discipline me. And so I can't remember what the event was, but the discipline was that I had to go make a sand sculpture. And we're not an artsy family. It was weird. I was like, what is my dad up to? So I had to go to a store and buy different color sand and then just, you know, layer them up and that was it. But the lesson has always stuck with me in that every little sand that was out of place stood out. A little folly will always stand out. Every significant mistake, every significant rebellion, every bit of foolishness, There can be a whole other life of righteousness, but that sand out of place, you can never move it back. What a warning. Verse two,

a wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left.

This is not a political statement of right and left. Right most likely refers to a strength God saves with a mighty right arm, and left is oftentimes associated with gross or foul as a cultural perception. I think what you see here is that there's two ways to go. Wisdom will go right, foolishness goes left. We can't try to mix and mingle these two like we oftentimes do. There's two different paths that do not go alongside one another. Very much like when we think about friends. A friend who's pursuing wisdom and a friend who's, someone else who's pursuing foolishness, they can't be friends because they're not on the same path. They don't have the same goals going in the same direction. Verse three, wisdom should make itself known, not with the folly, and wisdom should make itself known by being on the right path, not going along with foolishness. And now, verse three,

when the fool walks in the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he's a fool.

Now maybe he is walking around just saying he's a fool, like with a sign, I'm a fool. I don't think that's necessarily what he's doing. I don't think he's actually saying I'm a fool. I think just with everything he's saying and everything he's doing, he's demonstrating to everybody very clearly he's a fool. It's obvious. It's demonstrated in his conduct. Verse four. And it is interesting, and we gotta wrestle with this. As we live in this frustrating, difficult, unpredictable world, over and over again, our preacher has brought us back to living under rulers, and how that provides a different layer of difficulty. And here, verse four,

if the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place. For calmness will lay great offense to rest.

This is kind of his stay calm and carry on. Don't escalate a problem by going out and trying to approach the king. He's giving you a wisdom that don't make yourself seen or known. Let hopefully calmness resolve the problem. He changes from the poetry to kind of the wisdom prose here, a bit of a story. Verse five through seven, we have another evil and unhappiness under the sun.

There's an evil that I've seen under the sun as it were an error proceeding from the ruler. Folly is set in many high places and the rich sit in low places. I've seen slaves on horses and princes walking on the ground like slaves.

Now this is interesting, especially if you've been with us for a while, cause we were just in the gospel of Luke. And the Gospel of Luke presents very clearly the upside down kingdom of Jesus, where he is exalting the lowly and the humble, and he's bringing down the proud and humbling them. That's not what he's talking about here. What he's presenting is a ruler who doesn't know how to put the right people in the right places. He's presenting a ruler who's not making the best choices for the most important positions in society so that there's a blessing on society. Folly is put in high places. Folly is exalted. Folly is declared something good that destroys society. As we think about just these first seven verses and what is expressed If you trust in yourself, if you trust in your own reason, if you trust in your father, you're going to express it. A couple questions to think about. Does your life stink? Is there unrepentant sin or patterns of sin or patterns of foolishness that keep you regularly off the right way? Is there something that others would experience if they stayed close to you and listened to you for a while? Let's just ask this very specific question. What kind of wisdom or folly would be found in your internet history search? It's important we think about what we're taking in because you do express what's inside. The wise heart demonstrates wisdom. The foolish heart demonstrates foolishness. And it's just a simple principle. You can't do something you don't have. You can't speak with something that you don't already possess. Have we placed our faith in God and his truth and his wisdom? And is that we're making known? Or do we regularly make foolishness known? Christian, we, No, there's a faith that must be shown. True faith is a show-me faith. James makes this very clear. James goes so far as to say,

faith without works is dead

, and that doesn't mean we must have faith and works in order to be saved, but the true faith in Jesus Christ, it shows. It shows through works. Or we could say here, a true faith in Jesus Christ, who is the wisdom and power of God, it shows. through our wisdom. True faith expresses itself with wisdom. Our next section, faith when life is unpredictable, verses eight through 11. Notice most of these verses have something to do with work. But I think that what unites them all together has more to do with how unpredictable everything is. What we might want to do or try to do, it doesn't work out, and it may even be dangerous.

He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. He who quarries stone is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by him. If the iron is blunt, the one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed. If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer.

Verse 8 seems to be, at least that first one, digging a pit. That seems like you're doing something to get back at someone else. You're digging a pit to try to capture someone, but you've fallen through yourself. You've committed to a work, but you have no control over the outcome. The breaking through a wall and a servant bystander seems to be something that's unpredictable. Verse nine, I've had some young men help me move some heavy stones lately, and we've all, you know, hurt some digits. We felt this one recently. There's a danger to work. Jumping down to verse 11, notice that there's a timeliness. If the serpent bites before its charm, the one who has the ability to charm, it's no advantage. Verse 10.

The iron is blunt, the one who does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed.

There's not a folly presented here, as much as just the pure, unpredictable, difficult world we live in. There's an invitation that wisdom helps succeed, and it's very important, that's not a promise. There's a way in which we can commit ourselves to living in wisdom. There's a way in which he's presenting, I believe, a principle, verse 10, that wisdom helps one in this difficult world. But there's not a promise. Work is difficult. Work is oftentimes disappointing. We have so little control over what we can do and what the outcome is and how it's received. If we go back to chapter nine, verse 10, there was a grand declaration, work with all your might, because there's no work in death, or there's no work in shale. I believe here that there's a raw look at work and that it feels so futile sometimes, and frustrating. And the invitation is to learn how to work in wisdom, even if unpredictable. even if dangerous. Our next section. This one is all about words. Faith guards our words.

The words of a wise man's mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him.

We see that contrast. Again, what's inside is gonna come out. Is it foolishness on our lips or is it wisdom on our lips? And that shows what's inside. Verse 13,

the beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness. A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him? The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.

There's a clear contrast of wise and fool, but notice everything else is about the fool. He's making it clear what foolishness looks like. Well, there's many words among the fools. There's a madness at the beginning and the end of what a fool does. A fool likes to talk so much, and I believe here the idea that he's committing himself in promises he can't keep. There's a way in which a fool is demonstrating his own folly, and is consuming himself by making promises he can't keep and, well, speaking in a way that is ungodly, unhelpful. He's wearing his tool. Verse 50, I believe he's still connected here to the fool who is working himself so hard with foolishness and words. He can't find the way to the city. He can't find a final destination. He just keeps talking without an actual goal. If you think about this, we know of many places that warns us of how we use our words. James warns us the tongue is impossible to tame. Here it consumes the fool. It's out of control, it boasts in things it cannot perform. Our words express what we think. As we ponder this, again, the wisdom or whatever our foolishness is, it's expressed. Jesus says it's not what you consume that defiles you, but it's what comes out of your heart through your mouth. What defiles us is what we produce. And by nature, we're all fools. By nature, we're all sinners. By nature, we all fall into the trap of the folly so quickly, but Christ has come to renew our hearts. This is the most amazing thing about being image bearers. We can talk. We can listen. What power we have to be able to communicate like this. If we think about what it means to image God, speech is such a powerful way we can image God because think about how God even spoke the world into existence. Words are so powerful. Do we take for granted the kinds of things that come off our lips? Do we become tone deaf to the kinds of ways we can sound so angry, unforgiving, demanding? if speaking and listening and communicating are such a powerful way God has created us in his image. Think about how often we use them so powerfully to corrupt, to destroy, to tear down. As we think about wisdom and foolishness and where's our faith, is it presenting, is it receiving God's wisdom and therefore presenting God's wisdom? We should be slow to speak. We should be careful with what we say. We should be longing that our words would reflect that of our Savior. Faith leads us to use our words well. When our children were babies, we would regularly say at the dinner table, you know, they're grunting or making a noise. Use your words, use your words. Trying to teach them to speak. Well, now it's so much more difficult. Use your words well. Use your words well. Think about what you said and how that would be received. Be careful with the power of words. This next section, faith stewards. Faith stewards. It begins with a clear contrast. 16 and 17 clearly go together in a stewardship. And notice there's a declaration of woe or happy. There's an understanding behind this of cursed or blessed.

Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning.

Now, at first glance, that doesn't make any sense. Why not eat breakfast?

Happy are you, O Lamb, when your king is a son of nobility.

Now, our preacher is a king, so son of nobility is a good thing in his mind, so.

And your princes feast at the proper time.

Okay, morning not proper, we don't know when the proper time is, but that next verse tells us everything we really need to know about what the feasting is. When your king feasts for strength, it's happy and blessed. When your king feasts for drunkenness, it's a curse, it's a woe. Now think about that as faith in stewardship. The king has authority, the king has power. What is the king using that power for? Is it for his own self-consumption and his own self-interest and his own selfish desires, drunkenness being the representative, or is it to be strong, assuming there that the strength is then used for the kingdom. The strong king who works and feasts for his strength to bless the people, that's what is a happy year for the land. And notice here again, we're under a rule. We're under a king. And the contrast is so clear. If a king is taking advantage of growing in strength to bless the people, happy is the land. But if the king is pursuing everything that he has in power for his own self-consumption, whoa to the land. It's easy to see this with kings in view, but what about husbands and dads? Blessed is the home. where the husband strengthens himself to care for his children. Woe is to home, where the father's unpredictable and selfish. What about pastors and deacons? Blessed is the church where the pastors want to use all the rule and authority God has given them to give God's people the word. Woe is a church where there's division and grumbling and power grabbing. Blessed is the workplace where the managers and bosses seek to help the people grow and be established. Blessed is the school where the teachers want to see the students flourish. Stewardship has been a constant theme through Ecclesiastes. We got three main thrusts there, right? We got vanity of vanity as old as vanity, the gloominess. We have the fear of the Lord, the end of the matter, and then we have this significant teaching throughout scripture, which is stewardship. Faith takes what God gives us, recognizes it's a good gift from God, and it's meant to be used for his goodness towards others. What a high calling to see that every good and perfect gift comes down from God. And every perfect gift that comes up from God is meant to be used in a way that would provide for others in goodness and bring Him glory and not self-gratification. Young folks, understand, you must train your desires now so that when God gives you and puts you in a place of having some authority or responsibility, you're already trained to not be selfish. You're already training yourself to steward all the good gifts you have? Believers, we must consider, what does it mean that God has given us all such significant gifts to steward for others? What roles of authority do you have? What roles of responsibility do you have? You should be thinking about what it means to love one another, welcome one another. As we think about the happy versus the woe, it reminded me of the last words of David in 2 Samuel 23.

When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like a rain that makes the grass sprout from the earth.

God is a good ruler. All of his children, all of his Christ's disciples who have a position or opportunity to rule should be seeking to make that a blessing for others. He continues the same thought of stewardship. After this contra, I believe we still have a faith that seeks a steward and we see something a bit more domestic. Verse 18. There's a warning against laziness. If you don't constantly patch the roof, and here the roof, they would have to put a lime on it year after year. They would have to regularly have a maintenance. If you're not doing the regular maintenance, the roof sinks and the house leaks. If you're regularly procrastinating and not doing what's supposed to be done, there's a danger, a destruction. Verse 19. Finally, the easiest verse. The first two have been repeated throughout, I believe.

Bread is made for laughter and wine gladdens life.

How many times have we seen there's nothing better than to eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of what God's given you? I believe here it's a positive verse. As important as we think about that third line, that money answers everything. So verse 19, I believe we have to see this in the biggest, in the whole broad picture of Ecclesiastes. Bread and wine are good because of what they provide. And over again, he said this is the best thing we can do. This is the better life to enjoy all that God has given you in the way God has told you. So what does it mean that money answers everything? It's startling. Because if, well, you read like me, I usually think of money in the negative sense of scripture talks about it, right? You can't love God and manna. Money is a root of all kinds of evil. There's numerous warnings of money because it is an incredibly powerful thing that we usually corrupt with our own motives and actions. But here I believe it's positive. Money's a good. It's a good thing that God gives us and it's useful if we use it well. I think to consider the reason you might say money answers everything and if you don't have money and you have great need, it's devastating, it's terrifying. If you're in a place where you don't know how you're going to put food on the table, that is a terrifying place to be and there's a way in which money does provide a good. It's good to have the resources. It's good to be able to know God has given you the resource that you can actually provide. If you were to get a hospital bill that you had to go to the emergency room all of a sudden, you weren't prepared for it, and you have this devastating bill that you can't pay for, you would then know money is an answer. Money provides. We can't just have this negative view. There's so significant financial restraints that limit us. For example, we've been thinking about a building and our financial restraints limit us. Money does answer everything. We would just have all the easy answers if we had an endless amount of money. Ben could get that fog machine he's always wanted. He's not here, so. There's warnings. Money's not to be stored up. Money's not to be used for selfish desires. It's a God-given blessing to provide for yourself and others. Money's one of the ways we worship, with what God gives us and how we use it. Verse 20 brings us back to kings again.

Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom, curse the rich.

Why?

for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.

I'm not sure if this is where the a little birdie told me came from. Don't let your thoughts betray you in private. Don't pretend you can say anything. We've seen numerous warnings about speaking against the king, disrespecting authority. There's a right way to live. Wisdom respects authority. But here there's a significant warning. Don't pretend in your private home where you think you're safe and no one else could hear that you can curse with your thoughts. It might be heard. Could be a child outside. How would they hear you speaking of whoever that is frustrating? Couple questions just to consider this warning of stewardship and how we relate to authority. There is a wonderful stewardship in the way we are supposed to relate to our king, our governing rulers. Do we spend more time complaining about our government and its leaders as he's been praying to God for them? God invites you to talk about the leaders he explicitly invites you to pray to him for them. Do you grumble against authority for comfort or do you take your concerns to the true king of kings who rules over all? Do we too quickly grumble rather than actually bring our concerns to Jesus? Our last section, faith invests.

Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.

I believe verses one and two need to be understood together, because it's the only way I've made sense of verse one. What happens when you put bread on water? Either you're feeding ducks, and they come and get it, which I don't think is in view here, or it disappears, right? It dissolves. It becomes meaningless.

Cast your bread upon waters, for you will find it after many days.

Okay, that in every way is counterintuitive, so we gotta wrestle with that. But notice verse two is parallel. Cast your bread, give a portion. All right, well, we have something that's parallel and we have something that's similar. That's helpful. Give a portion to seven or even to eight, seven being a perfect number maybe there, even over above. For you know not what disaster may happen on earth. That seems like benevolence. That seems like a giving towards others in a way that you don't know when devastation might happen. So I go back to verse one, in casting your bread upon waters, where you're throwing something out there that you don't expect an immediate return. I believe casting your bread, giving a portion, I believe both of those are referring to an investment that we would call benevolence. not seeking a return financially, it's seeking to help others in the middle of a disaster, in the midst of a disaster. There will be a return, but it's not that immediate financial return that he's giving. And then verse three.

If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. And if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.

That is very descriptive. Notice verse one, water is a blessing. Cast your bread upon the waters. It seems to be a source of blessing. You're throwing out towards those in need. But here, water is a great danger. The clouds are full of rain and they empty themselves. The tree falls. You have no control over where the tree falls. I believe verse three is supposed to show you the disaster that could happen. You have no way of predicting it. Wherever the tree is going to fall based upon the disaster that you don't know when and where it's gonna come, there it lies. You have zero control. We cannot predict what's going to happen. The tree lies where it falls. Verse four,

he who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

That's describing the action of a fool. It's very important we see that is the action of a fool, and we know this because it's a fruitless life. The one who's trying to predict what's unpredictable, when the wind blows, how the calamity's gonna, the one who is so caught up in trying to have a security, an assurance, you paralyze yourself. You keep trying to find the right time to do it. So you never do it. You keep trying to make sure everything is just perfect in order to go out and sow or to go out and reap. If you're waiting for that perfection, you're not being faithful. You're trying to live according to your own understanding. And I'm just gonna tell you, that's most likely folly. It's a great warning. One and two is about investing with generosity because you have no idea what's going to happen. You have no idea where it's going, but there's a call to generosity and benevolence. Verse three is a warning that you have no prediction. And then four, it's a description of just folly. Someone who's paralyzed in their own thoughts, who cannot make the right step forward, bears no fruit. As we've seen with previous poems, the lines that come after are connected, and these are connected, and they bring some helpful clarity in verse five and six. Notice, do not know. You do not know. That's in verse five at the beginning and verse six in the middle. He's broken with a poem, now he's giving helpful instructions still.

As you do not know the way, the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child. So you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

That first declaration, you don't know how God brings about the soul or the spirit, the immaterial part of who we are as image bearers. We have no idea how. While that baby's being formed in the womb, a spirit, a soul is connected to it. How that child becomes a full image bearer, body and soul. We don't know when it happens, we don't know how it happens. It's pretty incredible example. You don't know the most basic thing about how you became a human. And yet you're pretending you can predict the wind and the rain. He goes further, so you don't know the work of God. You don't even know what it means to be you as a human or how God made the body and the soul. You don't know the work of God. Who is God? He's the one who makes everything. the one supreme authority who does know where that tree's going to fall and how it's going to lie and what disaster's going to come. Do not pretend you can know what only God knows. In our folly, we seek to live by understanding, our own understanding, not in the fear of God with wisdom. And the more difficult we see this world, the more frustrating we see this world, the more unpredictable we see this world, the more we tend to want to hold on tight And then the more we mess up. That's why I believe the invitation is to trust God. Or what Ecclesiastes tells us over and over again, fear God, which is an act of faith. Verse six, notice how this instruction is so contrary to verse four.

In the morning, sow your seed. And in the evening, withhold not your hand.

That's... Ecclesiastes taught for, get to work.

For you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

You don't know the work of God. He's a good God who's made everything, but you don't know what he's doing all the time. That's why we sing songs like,

God moves in a mysterious way. He's his own interpreter.

Here, it's instruction for the person who doesn't ever actually get to work because he's waiting for everything to just right, and he says no. Get to work, you don't know what's gonna prosper. Don't pretend you have power beyond your strength. A few applications from our passage. One, we do know some work of God. There's so much we do not know. Calamities, disasters, there's so much in this world to be afraid of that I believe Ecclesiastes keeps bringing us back to. Life is fleeting. Life is so difficult. Life seems so meaningless. We don't know what the work of God is in so many ways. What is he doing? Why is he doing it? But we have faith in God because of what he has told us he's doing. God reveals to us that he's created everything good and right because he's a good and orderly God. God has told us that he is in heaven and we are on earth. He is the creator, we are the creatures. He has told us that he is great and powerful in goodness and righteousness. He has also told us he will judge with absolute perfect justice. He has also promised to give mercy and grace. God is right, good, and merciful. If we think about the works of God, we don't always know why things happen to us in our own moments. But when we look to Scripture, we know He's always trustworthy. We know that in the middle of our sin, He comes to us. Who approached who first when Adam and Eve first took the apple? By grace, God came to them and said, where are you? Danny made a promise, I'll fix this problem. We know that he fixed it by sending his own son who died for our sins so that we can be forgiven. He rose again to give us new life. There's so many things that are uncertain in this life. So many frustrations, dangers, pains, struggles. We can't give absolute words on why or what God is up to in those, We can't know this. God said he would save you from your sin. He will surely do it. God said,

I am with you always.

He will bring us to the end. He will surely do it. God will always do what he promises. He promises to comfort us. He promises to care for us. He doesn't always promise to tell us exactly what's happening. promises that he's able to do what he's promised. God is merciful. God is patient. As we go through doubts and frustrations like our preacher has walked us through here, we must look to the cross and see that he is good and trustworthy. A second application is trust God in the world of uncertainty and frustration. We looked last week to chapter nine, and over and over again, it was just a hard look at death. Death is not the way it's supposed to be. We know this as we go to funerals, and we think about our own end, and we lose loved ones, and we're afraid of losing loved ones. God created us for life. Death is not the way it's supposed to be. We feel the chaos. We know in our own hearts the sin that's there that doesn't belong, but yet we can't get rid of it. We're under rulers that we feel are abusive and oppressive. They're not using their power the right way. This world is full of constant frustration. The psalm we read earlier, Psalm 95, is a unique psalm in that it begins with an invitation to praise and then it ends with a warning not to enter the rest, but so many psalms help us in this frustration that they begin with just complaining about the real problems of this world. And then they lead us to remembering the kindness of God and his care, and then they end with praise. Because remember, he's a good God. We must learn to turn to the Psalms of lament that allow us and invite us to complain. How long, oh Lord? And it end with a thanksgiving and praise to him. A third application. We must see there's only two ways to live. There's folly, there's wisdom. There's death, there's life. There's blessing, there's curse, there's narrow, there's broad. Over and over again, scripture gives us two choices. You can put on the old, the new self, or you can keep living in the old self. You can desire to live in the wisdom that's below, that's full of sin, or you can desire to live with the wisdom that comes from above, that gives life. You can produce the works of the flesh or the fruit of the spirit that produces the fruit of righteousness. You can deny yourself or you can, well, embrace your sin. There's so many ways to sin. It's broad and it's easy. There's one way of wisdom in Christ. We live in a pluralistic age and we gotta appreciate the goodness and the badness of what that means. Being in a pluralistic society means everyone can worship however they want to. We like that because we're not forced to worship in a way that's against our conscience. Praise God, we can be here right now worshiping the way we desire to, we believe God's called us to worship. But the way the pluralistic society oftentimes flips and gets confused is that what we think, well, every individual must be able to just worship however they want to worship. No, that's a broad way of thinking. The church too easily embraced this idea that everyone should just be able to worship however they want to worship. No, the whole point of becoming a Christian is that you're invited in as you are, but to be conformed to Christ, to be changed by Christ. There's one way. We have to understand, we praise God that the church should have a diversity to it, but it's not a diversity way of being a disciple or worship. There's only one way to be a disciple. Deny yourself, carry your cross, follow Christ. If you think you have a unique... different way of worshiping or being a disciple, you're not in the way. There's one way. This is the beauty of it. We all come in with such different backgrounds and different sins, and we all get changed into the one Christ. There's one way to walk in the wisdom of Christ, to want to be transformed and changed to be more like him. The goal isn't to be more like our sinfulness. The goal is to be more like Christ together. There's only two ways to live. Too often, too many Christians believe they have a unique way of following. Finally, a call to be faithful. This passage invites you to wisdom. A faith in God that sees His ways as good and right. And notice there that end is you must sow and reap. You go through what God has commanded you. You seek to be faithful without understanding what's going on right now and what's gonna happen next. The call is to be faithful. A few years ago, I had a significant change in my ministry, my philosophy of ministry. I used to think I needed to keep pushing and bringing about change, and that led to, well, nothing helpful. And then I heard a pastor give his understanding of his ministry, and he said he just tries to be faithful and sees what God does. Oh man, how liberating that's been. There's no control over what fruit comes. There's no control over what life brings. You can control one thing. Will you be faithful? Will you be faithful? Faithful to the wisdom of God. Yeah, there's gonna be all kinds of difficulty while you're being faithful. But God is going to do something better than you can ever imagine. That's what Paul tells us in Ephesians. To the God who does even more than we can imagine. Be faithful and trust that God is going to do something better than you can imagine with your life. Don't pretend that you're gonna put off something because you don't know what's happening yet. No, trust God. Be faithful. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that in this world of chaos, pain, difficulty, We so desire to understand what's going on. Forgive us for overlooking your word that tells us who you are. We thank you for that rock you've given us to stand on, who you are and what you have committed to do for us. You've given us yourself. Father, forgive us for trying to find some other security, some other understanding. Father, I pray we would see wisdom. We would see you as the wise God who invites us out of our folly, and we would long to see what kind of fruit you provide as we faithfully sow and reap as you've instructed. as we faithfully seek to work with wisdom, as we faithfully seek to use our words well. Thank you for your wisdom. I pray that we would know how to walk wisely in this world full of folly. Jesus, let me pray. Amen.