A Nation of Fools

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

You can’t take out your copy of God’s word though and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 10, hopefully for the last time chapter 10. And if you think back as to what we’ve covered so far in this chapter, you remember that fools predominate chapter 10. Foolishness is poisonous. In fact, just a little drop destroys entire reputations. Fools are obvious. You can spot a fool from a mile away. Fools don’t take necessary precaution. They don’t make appropriate preparation. They pay a stiff price because of that. And last time we were together, we studied what comes out of the mouth of fools, namely self-destructive words, crazy talk, arrogant verbosity, and lame excuses.

The fool hurts. Perhaps we would say one fool is like a splinter underneath the fingernail. Two fools maybe is like grabbing an entire dozen stems of roses with your bare hand. But a nation of fools is like running for miles in neck deep thorns. That hurts. A nation of fools in fact isn’t just painful, it’s a disaster, and that’s what we encounter in Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verses 16 through 20. Now the word fool does not occur, it’s not found in these five verses. Nevertheless, I am convinced, and I will try to demonstrate why I am so convinced, I am convinced that this section completes the picture of the problem with fools.

else leading up to this point in the chapter has addressed the fool. There is no clear cut off saying that he’s now switching to another subject. I think he’s going to continue to tell us about the fool. And verses 16 through 20 are also so connected and tied to one another. There are so many threads in verses 16 through 20 that tie together with each other, I think it makes a net. The most common thread, in fact, is the king. We see the king in verse 16, verse 17, and verse 20. So the king, in fact, functions like a bracket, the beginning and the end of the section. The king is found at least three times. There’s also the link of feasting that’s found in verse 16, verse 17. I think feasting is connected then with drunkenness and wine and bread.

in verse 19, so there’s another connection. Then you’ve got strength at the end of verse 16, at least contrasted with sloth in verse 18. You’ve got woe or curse on the land in verse 16 connected with cursing or people pronouncing woe privately in verse 20. And then you’ve got money associated with the rich. Money verse 19, the rich in verse 20. So there’s way too many connections to conclude that all we have is a random assortment of loose ends. And too many people that I read who are making comments on these verses not only suggested these verses have nothing to do with fools, they also suggested these verses are not really connected to each other at all and I think that’s wrong. I think not only do these verses tied together like a net caught in the center of this net is the fool. These Proverbs continue Solomon’s expose his expose the fool and explain the consequences of a nation of fools. And in particular the preacher is going to point out four things that identify a nation of fools or four ingredients to national disaster.

So there’s natural disasters. This is national disaster. So four things that identify a nation of fools or four ingredients to national disaster. Look at verse 16. Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning. Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time for strength and not for drunkenness. Through sloth the roof sinks in and through indolence the house leaks. Bread is made for laughter and wine gladdens life and money answers everything.

In your thought do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice or some winged creature tell the matter. I intend to demonstrate again that not only are these verses connected to one another, that they are linked and associated with one another, but that specifically they tell us about the Fool and a nation of fools. So four things that identify a nation of fools for ingredients to national disaster. Number one, immaturity in national leaders. Verses 16 and 17, kings and princes and government officials play no small part in the rise or fall of a nation’s happiness. Verse 16, woe to you, O land, when your king is a child and your prince is feast in the morning. Verse 17, the contrast, happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time for strength and not for drunkenness.

The primary reason I think this entire section, again verses 16 through 20, deals with things on a national level is because of this repeated phrase, verse 16 and verse 17, O land. This This is a section that concerns countries, that concerns nations. The first two verses here set the stage for the remainder of the chapter. And not only does he call out, oh land, but by talking about kings and princes, I think that again confirms for us, we’re talking about something on a broad level. You could be king of a country, you could be king of an empire, more than likely you are not king of a city. Can you imagine going to a conference and having your little land your name tag say King of Marysville?

Ooh. That’s so impressive. Now generally speaking you weren’t King of a city or King of a county. You’d be King or Prince of an entire land, of a nation, of a country. Obviously monarchy, monarchy is a form of government where you have a monarch, where you have a sovereign, you have one person, a king or queen, a monarch, a sovereign who has responsibility and authority for the rest of the country. Monarchy was the standard system of government in Solomon’s day, even though he himself was only the third king in Israel. God permitted, if you remember back Israel’s history, Old Testament history, God permitted Israel to anoint a king because they persistently asked for one. And why did they keep asking for a king? Because they saw that all the nations around them, that were surrounding them had kings and so they wanted to be cool like the other countries. And so they kept asking, persistently begging God to give them a king and so God eventually allowed that.

And even though Solomon, like I said, was only the third king, having known about Saul, the first king and David who was his father, he had a little bit of internal monarchy history to study, but certainly Solomon spoke with insight as he would have taken world history classes as well growing up and understood the system of government around him. Verse 16 declares the curse, woe to you, O land, when your king is a child and your prince’s feast in the morning. This is dramatic, emphatic style to call out the national pain of immature leaders, those who are unfit to rule. Woe is not a pleasant word. Anytime you find that in the Old Testament, watch out. It introduces context of sorrow and suffering and in general other situations of misery that really if you can you should avoid. So don’t read woe passages and be like, oh I got a lot of stuff that I can learn from this passage, I can start doing these things. You want to avoid the things that you find in the woe passages.

The cause of the curse is a child king. Woe to your land when your king is a child. The The Hebrew word na’ar obviously can refer to a child, most translations translated as child, but the issue with na’ar is not necessarily the age of a person, but rather their maturity. It’s not necessarily how many years they’ve been on the planet, it’s how they act like how many years they’ve been on the planet. So the idea is less about a child or a preteen king and more about the immature, inexperienced king. This is a king who is acting like a kid even when he shouldn’t be when he’s older than a kid. Another reason that I think this is not just talking about someone who is by age a child is because there are princes.

Now, I wasn’t very good in math, but I was better in logic. Where do princes come from? They come from kings. So to be old enough for there to be princes means that you are probably older than just a young child. So we’ve got kings who are acting like kids and they’re princes who are no more responsible. And so we have princes who feast in the morning. This is not just having your mom wake up and having breakfast with Aunt Jemima and her quadruple stack of flapjacks or whatever it is. It’s not just cutting your three-inch thick Canadian bacon and slathering up your toast with butter and cream cheese or whatever it is and drinking a couple gallons of coffee.

This is not a way to describe they had big breakfasts every day. To feast in the morning was a way to describe those who got the party started early. Though the verb itself is just the simple word for eat in Hebrew. All of the major English translations that I looked at translated as feast because what’s in mind is excessive, uncontrolled eating. This is eating for eating’s sake.

In other words, they use their power, their resources as leaders to party, to get the party started early, as soon as they wake up. In light of the contrast in verse 17, which we’ll see in just a moment, the feast they gave was probably so that they could start their drinking. They were feasting in drunkenness. And all throughout the Old Testament you read about people who got up and started drinking early. That was always a sign of immaturity and a lack of self-control. You can look at Isaiah chapter 5 verse 11. Even in Acts chapter 5, it doesn’t have anything to do with Solomon, but in Acts chapter 5 when the apostles were preaching and then speaking in tongues, what did people accuse them of, of drinking and they thought that that was crazy because it was so early in the morning. So drinking early in the morning, feasting, throwing a party when you wake up, always a sign of immaturity. In his inimitable way, Doug Wilson says a wasted nobility comes from a wasted nobility. You can figure out what that means later. So verse 16 declares

the curse and explains the cause of the curse. Verse 17 is the contrast to the curse, happy or blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobility and your prince’s feast at the proper time for strength and not for drunkenness. Here is a happy people. This is a happy country, a joyful nation who have rulers fit for office. It isn’t just that one is old and one is young, it’s the style of leadership. And here the king is a son of nobility. And just like saying the problem was a child king in verse 16, I don’t think that Solomon is saying the answer is just to have the right last name, son of nobility, to have the right daddy. That’s not the point of talking about nobility. The point of nobility is not talking about a high social class, it’s talking about high moral character. And so whether the king is young but serious and responsible, therefore noble, or older, and therefore having learned and been trained and mature, this son of nobility is somebody who acts like they should with their responsibility and in their office. These princes feast at

These princes feast at the proper time. That is, they know the proper time and place. They have wisdom and maturity to know when to do what. Solomon isn’t criticizing having a party. He’s criticizing having a party at the wrong time. And all of the things associated, the lack of maturity that comes along with getting up probably late in their case and just starting to drink and to feast and not doing their work. National disappointment or delight depends on its rulers. And I emphasize that just for the moral of the story, I guess, to say character matters. It’s unbelievable, especially over the last couple years.

Probably even more so. I remember the discussion being on the front page of a lot of papers with the President previous to President Bush. And I remember the approval rating for a President whose character was atrocious. And the discussion about, well, what he does in his personal life doesn’t really matter. That’s not as important as how he leads the country. And you know what, that is so not right, not biblical, and not even logical. Character matters. And obviously in our country we get a choice. We have the opportunity to vote once you reach a certain age where we can choose, so to speak, or cast our vote for who we want to be in office.

I would just encourage you, as you think about your opportunities to vote that’s coming up in the next few years to realize that when a man parties is just as important as what his policies are on various law issues. When a person parties, what they do in private, the character of their life will ultimately come back on you. When our Our leaders have a pattern of self-indulgence and laziness in their personal lives. They will inevitably govern with those same lack of principles, and that’s an ingredient for national disaster. At least to number two.

Not only immaturity in national leaders, but indolence, that’s a word for laziness, it’s right there in the ESV translation, indolence in personal responsibilities, verse 18. One of the favorite rented mules to ride in wisdom literature is the sluggard. That’s who we see here in verse 18. Through sloth the roof sinks in and through indolence the house leaks. Now before we talk about the verse and the point of the verse, that is the interpretation of the verse, is probably pretty clear. Laziness leads to disaster. But before we talk about that, I just want you guys to think through this question. Why in the world is this verse here? Why is this verse on laziness? Why does it come right after verses 16 and 17?

How does it connect, if at all, to verse 19 to verse 20? We really have two options. Either this verse has nothing to do with its context. It’s just totally a random shout out or shout out against the fool who is lazy. So he’s talked about woe to UO land and blessed are you O land and now completely switching subjects to something else, either this verse is totally unrelated or it does have a connection to what Solomon is talking about. Those are your only two options. Either it’s connected or it isn’t. On one hand Solomon doesn’t explicitly say that he’s got a slothful king or lazy princes in mind. That’s true. He could have made it a lot easier if he just would have said, the king who doesn’t pay attention to his roof, princes who let their roofs leak, he could have made that really obvious.

So on one hand, he doesn’t explicitly say that the king or princes are in mind. In addition, the illustration of the house, though a typical illustration related to those who are lazy, a house doesn’t necessarily relate to government. But as I said at the beginning, I I think that there are too many links to think this is a totally new topic. And so I think as Solomon considers what destroys a nation, he sees the immaturity of leaders and he sees that reflected in the people. And so immaturity often results in laziness. And while anybody can be immature, I guess I would describe it like this. This is a sermon. Verse 18 is a sermon directed at an entire nation, but the rulers of the nation are sitting on the front row. So it has application for everybody, but the people that should listen to it first are those sitting on the front row, are those kings who are not acting their age, are those princes who are immature in their own responsibilities.

sloth, the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks. The key synonyms obviously are sloth and indolence. Both are ways to describe those people who are lazy. Those people who are selfish, that’s always where laziness grows, is in selfishness and self-centeredness. Those people who are lazy and selfish display in their lack of effort and their failure to take care of one’s responsibilities. Now in Israel most of the roofs were flat. They were connected with joints up at the top. And so over time if you didn’t pay attention to the joints to the rafters, they could start to break apart. And so the roof sinks in.

Most of the roofs were also waterproofed with some kind of conglomeration, whether that was lime or tar or something to that effect and over time if you didn’t continue to reapply the lime or the tar or whatever it was that they would use, the sun would dry it out, cause it to crack, cause it to become brittle, therefore causing the roof to fall in another way and if not falling in then actually starting to leak and letting the water come down through because there wasn’t a sophisticated water runoff system with gutters on the side, it was a flat roof, and so if you didn’t pay close attention to your roof, then literally your house could eventually fall in on top of you. I think what’s significant to note is that this disaster, because let’s just make sure that we’re clear. If your roof falls in on you, that’s bad. That’s disaster. But this disaster happens slowly. It’s not necessarily a catastrophe or one event that causes this disaster happen, it’s just slow neglect. And over time the consequences of failing to fulfill responsibilities lead to

these very significant consequences of the roof leaking and then even the roof falling in. Maybe as a country, maybe just as individuals, we would learn better if the consequences for our laziness were more immediate, but probably not. We’d probably blame it on something else. And really you’d think that someone would take care of the very roof over their head. You would think like out of all the things you’re paying attention to, if you started to get a drip in the ceiling, you then take care of that as opposed to let that dripping get more and more and watching the rafters or the trusses that are holding your house together, seeing them coming apart at the corners, and being like, oh, you know, we’ll get to that later. You’d think that people would take care of the very roof over their own head, just like you would assume that those who lead over countries would pay attention to the people that they’re leading.

Nevertheless, indolence in personal responsibilities and therefore by application to those who lead is an ingredient for national disaster. And by the way, we are a nation of really lazy people. And that is reflected in our leadership. That’s reflected in our homes. It is no wonder that our national roof is leaking. And it is not going to be a surprise when the roof falls in. Indolence, laziness, and personal responsibilities is an ingredient in national disaster. That leads to number three. Indulgence in physical comforts. Verse 19. Indulgence in physical comforts. When you indulge in laziness, it is a short step to indulging in temporal, physical, earthly comforts or luxuries.

• Bread is made for laughter and wine gladdens life and money answers everything. And again we are confronted with the question of what is this verse doing here? Well maybe we conclude verse 18 is connected, at least by way of application with the national stage and the leaders of the country. Maybe we conclude verse 18 is connected but then we come to verse 19. What does it have to do with the rest of the paragraph. Is it connected? On one hand, we could read this verse, bread is made for laughter, wine gladdens life and money answers everything. We could potentially read that verse all by itself. In fact, I think if it was all by itself up on a little bulletin board, we might take this as another one of Solomon’s explanations to enjoy the process. In fact, he already said in chapter 7 verse 12 that money is sort of a protection. And especially as money then enables us to buy bread and drink, bread and wine, which he told us we can enjoy as gifts from God, part of the process, eat and

drink and enjoy your toil under the sun, he has perhaps already told us that this is a good thing. Maybe this is sincere counsel. Eat your bread, make that for laughter, happiness, wine, glad life, money, answers everything. I think perhaps as we consider Ecclesiastes, especially this context, but even going to some other verses in scripture to get some help we see both the possibility that this is sincere or that it’s not sincere. So in fact look over at Psalm 104. This is one of those cases where although I think the context in Ecclesiastes in my mind gives enough answer, I want you to see the context of the Old Testament and that both possibilities, either this is a good thing or a bad thing and then perhaps choosing which one. I want you to see both of those examples. So Psalm 104 verse 14.

This is a praise song starting back in verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God, you are very great. Then down in verse 14, you cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man’s heart. So there’s an example where eating and drinking is something that God provides for us to enjoy and is a reason for us to praise Him. So that’s the positive possibility. Not only is it positive or it’s a possibility to read Ecclesiastes 10-19 positively, but throughout the rest of scripture, Here’s at least one example.

But take a look at the negative side in Isaiah chapter 22. Isaiah 22, look down at verse 12. This is not a context of praise. This is a context of judgment. In that day, Isaiah 22, 12, in that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and morning for baldness and wearing sackcloth and behold joy and gladness. Instead of their mourning and repentance for sin, instead what was found was joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we may die. The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears.

Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for until you die, says the Lord God of hosts. In this case, they should have been paying attention to what God told them. They should have been repenting and mourning, and what they did was eat and drink and disregard what God said. And God says, that is such an iniquity that the consequence for that is death. Look back at Isaiah chapter 5. Even more so in In Isaiah chapter 5, I think we have some duty for getting sluggards. Those who had responsibility to be doing more, but who instead they chose to party in order to forget their duties. Look at Isaiah 5, verse 11. Woe, we’ve seen woe already in Ecclesiastes, there’s a connection. Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them. They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord or see the work of his hands.” What we have then is the possibility before us that either

Solomon is being sincere, that we should eat and drink and party and get money so that we can have a good party. He’s either sincere about that or he recognizes that those good things can be used as a way to forget about responsibilities and ignore our duties. And I tend to lean towards that second possibility here and that in Ecclesiastes 10-19, Solomon is giving a sarcastic overstatement. Again, I think that in the front row of people listening to this message would be the national leaders. It has application for anybody, but the first group of people to whom it applies are those who are being derelict in their duties, those who are getting up early and feasting and getting drunk, who should be taking care of other responsibilities that instead they’re just lazy about, and those who then are indolent and lazy are also then those who indulge themselves in other physical and temporal comforts.

The context is one of the nation of kings and princes, and I think that they are the first group to whom this verse applies. It’s not as obvious in the ESV, which says, bread is made for laughter. The NAS though helps to raise the right question because it translates it, men prepare a meal for enjoyment. And so the NAS makes you at least ask the question quicker, who are the men who are preparing the bread? ESV kind of takes out, it’s not a bad translation, but it’s not as helpful maybe. The question is who are the men making this bread? Who are the ones who are trying to gather these things for themselves? And I think it applies first to those immature leaders, those who are feasting at inappropriate times even though It’s got application for everybody else who looks for life in stuff and the next party.

So again, you got the possibility that Solomon’s being sincere. I don’t think that that fits the context of the paragraph. I don’t think that fits best the context of Ecclesiastes. I don’t think that that’s the best of the options even when we look at its connections with other things in the Old Testament. I think he’s thinking about a nation ruled by self-indulgent people who act like physical comforts are the meaning of life. In particular, for them to act like money answers everything that’s a gross overstatement. Money does not answer sloth, which he just talked about. Money does not answer immature leaders, which he just talked about.

In light of what he said earlier in Ecclesiastes, money oftentimes makes things worse. But you know what money can do? Money can throw a good party. Money can get you all the bread and cake and ice cream and pop and if we were that group of people, beer and wine and whatever. Money does buy all of that. Money answers everything at least in letting us throw a good party so we can forget about all the other things that we’re not doing and the fact that our house is crumbling around us.

Is that not our culture as well? Indulging? There’s no sacrifice, there’s no self-restraint, there’s no service. It’s lazy self-centeredness and indulging self-centeredness. That’s the kind of country we live in that sadly describes a lot of the leaders we look up to. Indulging in physical comforts is another ingredient in national disaster. That leads us to number four. Impudence in private reflections. Impudence is a fancy word for disrespect. Impudence in private reflections. You realize disrespect is a major problem even if it’s just in your head. Solomon says this much in verse 20.

in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich. For a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.” This is yet another reason why I think these verses 16 through 20 all go together because again we have the king. The king bookends these five verses. Returning to the subject of King mentioned in verse 16 and 17, not only that, there is a conjunction at the beginning of verse 20 that the ESV translates even, even in your thoughts. I don’t think that’s a good translation. But the NAS doesn’t even, actually the NAS does throw in furthermore. But the NIV and the New King James don’t even give any conjunction to connect what has gone proceeding with this.

The NAS begins with, Furthermore, you could also translate it moreover or in addition, emphasizing that verse 20 is like the climax. It’s the conclusion to what we’ve already seen. So you’ve seen immaturity in national leaders. You’ve seen indolence or laziness in responsibilities and people who are indulging themselves. And so therefore, furthermore, Or this is how you should respond. When you see this happening on the national level, the right response is not to complain and whine. Now, of course, a lot of people in our society wouldn’t have jobs. Their entire life is made up of thinking about reasons to whine about and complain against what’s happening on a national level with national leaders.

not only thinking about it and talking about it in the privacy of their homes, they have whole radio shows that talk about it. That’s an ingredient of national disaster just as much as bad leaders. Followers who whine and complain and disrespect their leaders just continues the house crumbling. Kings and princes and presidents may act like fools, Don’t be a fool yourself in how you respond to it. Impudence, disrespect, failure to show regard to someone who deserves it. Solomon says that kind of attitude is not safe even when you’re all by yourself. In your thoughts. That’s in the inner quiet consciousness. No actual words coming out.

In your thoughts. In your bedroom. That would likely be the most private room in your house. in the innermost part of your person, in the innermost part of your home. Don’t even mutter under your breath. Don’t even think about it. When no one else could possibly know, you think, don’t do it. Don’t curse the rich. Don’t curse the king. The reason is found in the last clauses of verse 24. Bird of the air will carry your voice or some winged creature. Tell the matter. Don’t bad mouth, don’t trash talk, because a little birdie… we have the same kind of proverb in English. A little birdie told me. Or maybe another one that kind of fits with this, the walls have ears.

That doesn’t mean that someone is bugging your house. Or they’ve invented a machine to read your mind. As much as I think what it’s trying to ultimately say is that what you keep thinking about And then what you talk about at your house, that ultimately is going to come out elsewhere. You will tell somebody who you think you can trust that you told it to in confidence and privacy and yet ultimately they won’t keep their mouth shut or you will open your mouth. The more foolish you are in private, the more likely it is that your foolishness is going to come out in public at some point in time. The right response to national disaster, to immature leaders and people who don’t take care of their responsibilities and people who indulge themselves in physical comforts, the right response is not to be a fool and to whine and complain about it.

So I think not only are there connections in these five verses themselves, I think that these connections tie a net that catch the fool and show us what happens when an entire nation is made up or led by fools. That we would not be fools, obviously that we would learn from the rest of chapter 10 and not be fools, and that we would not respond to the house crumbling around us like fools either and just complain about it, but that we would be wise and do something. You know, fools rule in the sense that folly is often set in high places. Ecclesiastes chapter 10, 4 through 7. Fools often get in positions of leadership. That shouldn’t be a surprise. Fools are lazy. If you think to Proverbs 6, when he talks about consider the ant, even though he doesn’t call the sluggard a fool, He’s also not using that illustration to call the sluggard wise.

Consider the ant, oh sluggard, because you’re wise? No, it’s because it’s a fool that he is trying to confront. Fools indulge themselves. We see that not only in the rest of wisdom literature, but examples all throughout the Old Testament. Fools are disrespectful. Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verses 1 through 5 talks about those who are submitting to authority. They ought to do that with wisdom and not as fools. One more passage I want you to look at in Proverbs chapter 31. The beginning part of the chapter and not the beauty is vain and charm is deceitful and how to be a godly woman part. The part about how to be a godly king.

The words of King Lemuel, Proverbs 31, verse 1, an oracle that his mother taught him, What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine or rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.

strong drink to the one who is perishing and wine to those in bitter distress. Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and the needy.” And I think there’s a connection here as you see how a ruler is supposed to live their life and that is sober minded, taking responsibility for those who need it and working hard not just getting intoxicated and indulging themselves and being lazy and doing no good. Leaders are to be servants, not servants of themselves but servants of other people. And when we have a nation led by fools, that is a curse And that is a frustration and that inevitably that misery will lead to the crumbling of the national house, so to speak.

I think as we have opportunity then to not only submit to our leaders, we ought not be fools. But I think we also then ought to work ourselves at being examples. And perhaps even some of you need to consider your opportunities that you’ll have in a a political or governmental sphere some day in your life to lead as a servant and as a sacrificer, not as a fool who just serves yourself.

As we think about the recipes for national disaster, we see too many of these four ingredients in our own culture that we need an anecdote against, which is wisdom, immaturity in national leaders, indolence in personal responsibilities, indulgence in physical comforts, and then we saw lastly impudent, disrespectful in attitude. Those things ought not to describe us, we ought to work to have the right attitude towards those it does describe. Father help us to be wise. We sadly live in a nation too similar to these things. And while we laugh and party, laugh and party. I think that it’s funny. We see leaders in positions, government positions, all over the place who fail morally, who serve themselves rather than the people they represent.

That’s sinful on their part. That’s dangerous for us and for our country. Help us to pray for our leaders. Help us to vote wisely as we get that opportunity. Help us to show the right attitude of respect. Ultimately help us to trust you more than we trust government anyway. Help us then to enjoy the process even when the house is falling down around us. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.