REALITY CHECK
The Book of Ecclesiastes #7
Pastor Dennis Clanton
Woodland Church
Sunday, March 2, 2025
(Ecclesiastes 7:15–24, NLT) “I have seen everything in this meaningless life, including the death of good young people and the long life of wicked people. So don’t be too good or too wise! Why destroy yourself? On the other hand, don’t be too wicked either. Don’t be a fool! Why die before your time? Pay attention to these instructions, for anyone who fears God will avoid both extremes. One wise person is stronger than ten leading citizens of a town! Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins. Don’t eavesdrop on others—you may hear your servant curse you. For you know how often you yourself have cursed others. I have always tried my best to let wisdom guide my thoughts and actions. I said to myself, “I am determined to be wise.” But it didn’t work. Wisdom is always distant and difficult to find.”
“My research is only a platform for me to do God’s work. His creation, the way he made this world, is very interesting. It’s amazing, really.” – Jing Kong, MIT Professor
“My coming to faith in Christ did not rest on one single issue … It was holistic a redefining of perspectives that came together through every aspect of my life.” – Andrew Goslar, professor of applied ethnobiology, Oxford University
“Understanding more of science didn’t make God’s role smaller. It allows us to see his creative activity in more detail.” – Russell Cowburn, professor of experimental physics, Cambridge University
1. LIFE CAN BE CONFUSING.
(Ecclesiastes 7:15, NLT) “I have seen everything in this meaningless life, including the death of good young people and the long life of wicked people.”
2. FAITH IN GOD IS THE ANSWER TO LIFE’S CONFUSION.
(1 John 5:4, NLT) “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.”
(Ecclesiastes 7:16–18, NLT) “So don’t be too good or too wise! Why destroy yourself? On the other hand, don’t be too wicked either. Don’t be a fool! Why die before your time? Pay attention to these instructions, for anyone who fears God will avoid both extremes.”
a. Avoid Lopsidedness.
b. Love God Passionately but don’t Check Out of Reality.
(Ecclesiastes 7:16, AMP) “Be not [morbidly exacting and externally] righteous overmuch, neither strive to make yourself [pretentiously appear] overwise—why should you [get puffed up and] destroy yourself [with presumptuous self-sufficiency]?”
c. Be Wise.
(Ecclesiastes 7:19, CEV) “Wisdom will make you stronger than the ten most powerful leaders in your city.”
3. ACKNOWLEDGE THE UNIVERSAL PROBLEM OF SIN.
(Ecclesiastes 7:20, 29, NLT) “Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins. … God created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path.”
No bad person can make a good one. If no bad person can make a good one, how can a bad man make himself good? The only one who can make a good person out of a bad one is the one who is always good.- Augustine
GROWTHWORK
Remember This
a. When You Listen.
(Ecclesiastes 7:21, MSG) “Don’t eavesdrop on the conversation of others. What if the gossip’s about you and you’d rather not hear it?”
“If all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world.” – Blaise Pascal, Pensees
“You cannot stop people’s tongues,” he said, “and therefore the best thing to do is to stop your own ears and never mind what is spoken.- Charles Spurgeon
b. When You Speak.
(Ecclesiastes 7:22, NLT) “For you know how often you yourself have cursed others.”
c. When You Study.
(Ecclesiastes 7:23–24, CEV) “I told myself that I would be smart and try to understand all of this, but it was too much for me. The truth is beyond us. It’s far too deep.”
(1 Corinthians 8:2, NLT) “Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much.”
We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything. – Thomas Edison
d. With Relationships.
(Ecclesiastes 7:26–29, AMP) “And I found that [of all sinful follies none has been so ruinous in seducing one away from God as idolatrous women] more bitter than death is the woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are bands. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her. Behold, this I have found, says the Preacher, while weighing one thing after another to find out the right estimate [and the reason]— Which I am still seeking but have not found—one upright man among a thousand have I found, but an upright woman among all those [one thousand in my harem] have I not found. Behold, this is the only [reason for it that] I have found: God made man upright, but they [men and women] have sought out many devices [for evil].”