How wise are you?

Continuing on from the book of Ecclesiastes, the title of today's sermon was How to be wise in an unwise world (Eccl 7:7-29). The following verses are taken from NIV.

Extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.(v7)

Corruption is so rife in the world today that even if you think you are wise, you are not immune to it. One can look no further than former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje. Here was the man so many people admired and respected but when it was discovered he was involved in the largest match fixing scandal in the history of the sport, not only was his reputation tarnished but his life also went downhill. And this guy was a devout Christian too.

Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.(v9)

Just before I left for church this morning, I was very angry with someone and as always, muttered expletives under my breath. What do you know, God heard me and taught me a lesson. Must still need self-control...

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.(v14)

I guess no one will argue about the first part of this verse. We crave for good times and can't get enough it. But when things turn awry, we can't seem to come to terms with it. Well only God knows so just accept it and get on with life.

There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.(v20)

Pretty self explanatory. If you say otherwise, I wanna meet this person :-) The fact is, we are all sinners. It doesn't matter whether you are a Christian or non-Christian. What we see or think as 'right' is probably sin in God's eyes. There's no magnitude in sin either. Just because you have committed less sin than the person next to you, you are not really wiser than him/her.

This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.(v29)

We have made a mockery of our lives. We stuffed up.