Life on the Fly. The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. 3 Even as he

Transcription

1 May 1, 2016 Ecclesiastes10: 1-16 Life on the Fly Ecclesiastes 10 1 As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. 2 The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. 3 Even as he walks along the road, the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how stupid he is. 4 If a ruler's anger rises against you, do not leave your post; calmness can lay great errors to rest. 5 There is an evil I have seen under the sun, the sort of error that arises from a ruler: 6 Fools are put in many high positions, while the rich occupy the low ones. 7 I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves. 8 Whoever digs a pit may fall into it; whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. 9 Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them; whoever splits logs may be endangered by them. 10 If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed but skill will bring success. 11 If a snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer. 12 Words from a wise man's mouth are gracious, but a fool is consumed by his own lips. 13 At the beginning his words are folly; at the end they are wicked madness- 14 and the fool multiplies words. No one knows what is coming who can tell him what will happen after him? 15 A fool's work wearies him; he does not know the way to town. 16 Woe to you, O land whose king was a servant and whose princes feast in the morning. 1

2 Last week we explored the concept of the Power of One. Many people this past week have called, ed, or stopped in to talk about how invigorating it is to imagine that we each are capable of accomplishing significant acts for the kingdom of God if we allow God to be our example and guide. It might just make some very disquieted this next week to understand that Solomon is also telling us in chapter 10 that what many people consider insignificant can also cause our lives to stink. Solomon says that one pesky little bug can ruin an otherwise nice-smelling perfume. It's the same way that a foolish act can ruin an otherwise godly life. And it's a little bit like some of the adages that you're familiar with like "one rotten apple spoils the barrel, "one skunk abruptly ends the picnic." Solomon is speaking about a physical change that occurs with the infestation of one small fly. Solomon is wanting us to draw a spiritual parallel here as well. One small fly, spiritually speaking a small sin can cause an otherwise wonderful smelling life to become foul. One small mistake, one horrible little decision can ruin many, many years of faithful living. Some of those little flies in our lives are unavoidable. There is a whole field of science that devotes itself to the study and prediction of little flies. That field of study is called chaos theory. Unexpected events are inevitably woven into the fabric of life. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that energy tends to flow from being concentrated in one place to being less concentrated in another place. Just as energy inevitably tends to spread, so, too, do little mistakes tend to happen and to spread. Left unattended, little mistakes can have big consequences. For example, a relatively small piece of insulation probably caused the loss of the space shuttle Columbia (the insulation fell off, hitting the shuttle's wing, causing a small rupture, allowing heat to build up during reentry, allowing heat to enter the 2

3 shuttle, causing wing spars to melt, eventually causing total system failure). On a smaller scale, such chaotic events occur countless times in your own world every day. Chaotic events cannot be eliminated, but they can be managed. Here are a few common sense principles to consider: 1. Chaos creeps into every life. It's simply the price of life-here-on-earth. 2. In your own world, chaos can't be stopped, but it can be managed. And if you're interested in achieving your goals, chaos is a fact-of-life that should be anticipated and addressed. 3. Managing chaos requires vigilance, flexibility, and work. 4. Vigilance means keeping your eyes open in order to find little mistakes before they become big mistakes. 5. Flexibility is required to accept the unwanted changes that are the inevitable price we must pay for living in an ever-changing world. 6. Work is require to keep things organized, to keep things moving, and to repair things that break. 7. Not all chaos is bad: life's little surprises can come in the form- of lucky breaks (but it's important to remember that luck most often visits those who have prepared for it). Luck to me is defined to me most of the time as being: Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. There are times when pure luck does happens but I think that pure luck is actually pretty rare. One such instance occurred on a flight in Sixty-seven year old Dorothy Fletcher from England who was on a U.S. 3

4 domestic flight to attend her daughter s wedding when she suffered a severe heart attack. A flight attendant announced that a woman had had a heart attack and asked if there was a doctor on board. Fifteen heart specialists, all bound for a medical conference in Florida, stood up to offer help. After spending two days in she still was able to make it to her daughter Caroline s wedding. The real luck was that all fifteen doctor s forgot to get her name, address and medical insurance information. I guess there is such a thing as bad luck. But also note: Bad luck often follows stupidity. I don t know if you heard this news story or not but two New Jersey men were out hunting. After a while, one of the hunters clutched his throat and fell to the ground, his eyes rolled back, and then lay there motionless. The other hunter picked up a cell phone, dialed 911, and said, "I think my friend is dead! I don't know what to do!" And the operator said, "Just relax. Calm down. The first thing to do is to make certain your friend is dead." There was a pause -- then a gunshot. And the hunter goes back on the phone and said, "Okay, now what? (SING) If it weren t for bad luck I d have no luck at all. Luck does happen but don t ever expect it. And finally when chaos occurs in your life: 8. Remember that some environments are simply more chaotic than others. If your environment is chronically chaotic (and highly resistant to change), perhaps it's time to consider moving on. 4

5 According to Richard Wiseman,head of Psychology research at the Univerversity of Hertfordshire in Enland in his book entitled, The Luck Factor says the following these four principles can create good fortune in your life and career. 1. Maximize Chance Opportunities. Lucky people are skilled at creating, noticing, and acting upon chance opportunities. They do this in various ways, which include building and maintaining a strong network, adopting a relaxed attitude to life, and being open to new experiences. 2. Listen to Your Lucky Hunches. Lucky people make effective decisions by listening to their intuition and gut feelings. They also take steps to actively boost their intuitive abilities -- for example, by meditating and clearing their mind of other thoughts. 3. Expect Good Fortune. Lucky people are certain that the future will be bright. Over time, that expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because it helps lucky people persist in the face of failure and positively shapes their interactions with other people. 4. Turn Bad Luck Into Good. Lucky people employ various psychological techniques to cope with, and even thrive upon, the ill fortune that comes their way. For example, they spontaneously imagine how things could have been worse, they don't dwell on the ill fortune, and they take control of the situation. That is all well and good for the flies you can t avoid. But what about the flies that we should be able to avoid. Those are the flies that Solomon is really referring to. These flies are the choices and decisions we make, sometimes with frequency that cause us can sometimes cause big consequences in this 5

6 world and when not dealt with appropriately, always cause severe consequences in God s kingdom. sometimes these flies in our ointment are things that, well, to the rest of the world they seem pretty common. These type of flies are what the Bible and God calls sin. We don t like to talk about sin in our culture any more. We are bothered by the word sin, actually we are convicted by the word sin. We know we sin, after all we were there when it was done, when it was contemplated or when we tried to hide it. We have become very adept at keeping away from the concept of sin. A publisher's review of a recent book, describes the book as I'm quoting now "a thoughtful detailed discussion of every aspect of considering, preparing for, beginning and conducting a successful and emotionally fulfilling extramarital affair." Pretty shocking, isn't it? The book is called Affair How to Manage Every Aspect of Your Extramarital Relationship With Passion, Discretion and Dignity. Our aim," the piece says, "is total peace of mind for you and your family." That follows a well worn statement that has arisen in the past quarter century, It s not illegal if I don t get caught. As if not getting caught brings peace of mind. I have never found much peace of mind not getting caught. I have actually ended up with a lot more peace of mind getting caught. I doubt the spouse or the children will be able to find total peace of mind. There is even an organization that is based in Blackpool, England called "The Alibi Agency." Its purpose is to provide an insulating layer between philanderers and their spouses. Now listen to this: The Alibi Agency establishes you with a plausible paper trail. It will furnish you with ticket stubs to the theater performance that you were supposed to be at when you weren't. It will print up 6

7 "dummy invitations" to social and business events, the events that you said kept you away from home. Now, I hope this book never becomes a best-seller. But the gall of the author to give you tips on how to manage and how to structure your extramarital affair, so that you don't get caught. This "flies in the face," pardon the pun there, flies in the face of what the Bible calls the sin of adultery. In case you might have been asleep in Sunday s past when I have spoken about the remedy of sin let me remind you of how you can remove the flies, the sins in your ointment or life before you start to stink. The Bible is very clear that All have sinned and come short of the glory of God all means all, everyone of us. We haven t fallen prey to temptation, we haven t been caught in an indiscretion, we have sinned. The bible is pretty clear that if you sin, you die. It is also pretty clear that if you die without receiving forgiveness for that sin then you will spend eternity in another place our society doesn t like us talking about. Without forgiveness of sin, you spend eternity in a place called Hell. I am not sure any description in the Bible or any imagination of man can adequately describe what Hell will be like any more than we can adequately describe what Heaven will be like but suffice it to say that I would describe Hell like this, BAD. Worse than we can imagine. Heaven Good. Better than we can imagine. Sin unforgiven is bad. Sin forgiven is good. How does one receive forgiveness for sin? Jesus said it this way and you can choose to believe him or not. Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Just a little over a week ago, I was speaking to a man who claimed to 7

8 be an atheist. He said that he did not believe there was a Heaven or Hell. When he said that I was just wishing for something that didn t exist. I asked him, What if you are wrong? What if there is a God and what if there is a Heaven and a Hell? He replied well, I guess I would spend eternity in Hell but I am not wrong. I then asked him, What is the consequence to me if there is no God, no Heaven and No Hell? His reply, Well, I suppose there is no consequence. I then asked him, Who is taking the bigger gamble? He had no reply. If there is no God, no heaven and hell at least what I have is a lot of peace in trouble, a lot of calm in life s storm s, a course in an aimless world and a lot of love from a lot of folks throughout my life. Even if there is no God, no Heaven, no Hell well I say that I still come out the winner in this world and when I die well I guess it s a draw. My atheist friend loses on all counts. The flies in our ointment, what do we do? Admit you have flies in your ointment. The flies normally stay there because we refuse to acknowledge that they are there. Why, there s no elephant in the living room. Secondly, have some regret that there is a fly in your ointment. Be sorry enough that there is a fly there to reach in and pluck it out. Better yet, let God remove it from you. The Bible says that God removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. We can t toss a fly very far, our sins stay pretty close to us when we deal with them. God told Cain all the way back in the 4 th chapter of Genesis, Sin is crouching at your door. Sin sits just past the entrance to our lives waiting for the smallest little crack in the door to squeeze itself in and you all know that sin is very successful at squeezing itself into our lives. 1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, he is 8

9 faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and purify (cleanse in the old King James) us from all unrighteousness. God is waiting for us to believe in him, believe that he is faithful and just and waiting to not only forgive those sins but remove any stain from the sin and make us more able to keep the flies from the ointment of our lives. If my definition of luck is true, Luck is where preparation meets opportunity, then I hope you are prepared to meet the opportunity that God affords you right now to have the flies removed from your ointment. It s this easy, recognize you have flies, be sorry that you do, believe that God wants to remove those flies and ask him to. My how lucky could you be? 9