Proverbs 1:1-7

Good morning, church.

My name is Matthew Capone,

and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,

and it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.

Special welcome if you're new with us.

We'd love for you to go to our website at cmpca.net,

and there will be a pop-up immediately for our digital visitor card.

We encourage you to fill that out.

That gives us a chance to connect with you

and to help you connect with our community here.

Whether you are new or not,

I remind you, as I do every week,

that while we can see numbers, we can't always see names,

and while you can see me, I can't see you.

And so I encourage you to make a comment in the comment box

at the bottom right of the Facebook video.

You can say something as simple as,

hello, everyone, or good morning.

You can share who you're watching with

or where you're watching from,

and that will give us a sense of who's here with us

and also a sense of gathering together

even as we're separated during this time.

Today, we're going to start a series for this summer

in the book of Proverbs.

And the book of Proverbs is a book in the Old Testament,

which is the part of the Bible that was written before Jesus came.

And it's a book that contains Proverbs.

You probably know that Proverb is a short saying

that teaches a truth.

We have these in our culture today.

You'll hear people say things like this,

time is money.

Or you might hear someone say,

measure twice, cut once.

And those are short, pithy sayings

that capture a lot of truth,

something that people generally agree about.

Time is money.

When you spend time on something,

sometimes you can save that by spending money.

Measure twice, cut once.

Planning really matters.

And if you plan well,

you won't have to do something over again.

Now, the book of Proverbs includes these types of sayings,

and it's not less than that,

but it's actually much more than that.

It's a book about wisdom.

And wisdom is the study of how to live well in this world.

That's what we're gonna be looking at this morning,

at the very beginning,

the introduction to the book of Proverbs.

Before we jump in, though,

I wanna point out one thing

as we're going through this book together as a community.

The book of Proverbs is a community book.

It's a group project.

It's wisdom is something that we work on together.

And it just so happens that the book of Proverbs

has 31 chapters in it,

which is the maximum number of days

in any month on the calendar.

So one thing that my family and I did growing up,

and actually is a practice

that's been in the church for quite some time,

is the practice of reading the chapter of Proverbs

that goes along with the calendar day.

So for example, if it's the 1st of June,

you'd read the first chapter of the book of Proverbs.

If it's the 5th of July,

you'd read the fifth chapter of the book of Proverbs.

I encourage you all to consider that,

doing that as individuals or families during this time.

It's a wonderful Bible reading program,

and it's a great way to let the Proverbs sink in.

Proverbs are something that we have to chew on

and think about over a long period of time.

And so I just wanna commend that to you as we begin.

During this time of quarantine,

one of the things I've done

is I signed up for Disney Plus,

and I've been slowly working through the Star Wars series,

starting at episode one.

And if you're familiar with Star Wars,

of course, you know that the beginning of every movie,

there's the scrolling text that goes by

to give you the background information you need to know

before you enter into the story.

That's what we're gonna see this morning

in the book of Proverbs.

We're going to be looking in chapter one,

verses one through seven,

and it's the introduction to the book.

It's going to give us the paradigm and the framework

that we need to tackle everything else

that's going to follow in all 31 of these chapters.

And so as we come to this,

we're gonna simply ask a couple of questions.

First of all, what is wisdom?

And second, how do we get it?

What is wisdom and how do we get it?

It's with those that we're gonna turn to Proverbs chapter one.

I invite you to turn with me either on a web browser,

on your computer, you can turn on your phone,

turn in your Bible, however you do it.

Remember that this is God's word.

And Proverbs chapter 30, verse five,

Proverbs 30 · chapter mention

tells us that every word of God proves true.

He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

Since for that reason that we read now,

starting at verse one,

the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel,

to know wisdom and instruction,

to understand words of insight,

to receive instruction in wise dealing,

in righteousness, justice, and equity,

to give prudence to the simple,

knowledge and discretion to the youth.

Verse five,

let the wise hear and increase in learning

and the one who understands obtain guidance.

To understand a proverb and a saying,

the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

I invite you to pray with me

as we come to this portion of God's word.

Our Father in heaven, we praise you

and we thank you that you promise us

in James chapter one, verse five,

that you give wisdom to those who ask.

We thank you that one of the ways you've given us wisdom

is through the book of Proverbs.

And we come now asking for that wisdom and that help,

that you would send your spirit now to be with us,

that you would speak to us through your word,

that you would use it to change us,

and that you'd grow us up in wisdom.

We ask most importantly that we would know and see

and understand Jesus as the ultimate embodiment

and teacher and guide for us,

that we can have wisdom,

but we can only have it in him.

We ask these things,

not because we have earned them or deserve them,

but because we can ask them in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The story is often told of a king,

and some of you may have heard this story before,

who is presented with a very challenging situation.

There's two women,

two prostitutes who live in the same house together,

and they both give birth to children

within several days of one another.

And so they both have these newborns,

and there's a tragedy that strikes.

One of them accidentally lays on top of her newborn

while she's sleeping,

and the newborn dies.

Well, no one else is in the house when this happens,

and the claim is that one of the women,

the woman whose child dies,

switches her child with the one who is living.

And so there's a dispute between them.

One mother says,

hey, that child, the live child's actually mine.

But the other mother claims the same.

And so both of them are claiming

that the child who's alive belongs to them,

and they have to go to this king

to have the dispute settled.

Well, there's an incredible challenge, right?

There's no witnesses.

Both of the children are around the same age,

and both women are claiming that it's theirs.

And so what do you do in that kind of situation?

Well, this king is a king of great wisdom,

and so he comes up with a solution.

He says, well, since we can't agree

about who this child belongs to,

I just say we cut the child in half,

and one half be given to each woman.

At that point, one of the women says,

yes, that sounds like a great plan.

Let's do that.

And the other one says, no,

there's no way we can do that.

Just give the other woman the child

so that that doesn't have to happen.

And at that point, the king realizes

the truth of the situation, right?

The mother who says, just cut the child in half,

that's the mother who's not the real mother.

And the one who says, whatever needs to be done

for this child to stay alive, that's the true mother.

And so he resolves the dispute,

and everyone in the kingdom marvels

at the wisdom of this king.

Now, the reason that story probably sounds familiar

to many of you is it's a story from the Bible.

It's a story that shows up in 1 Kings 3

about a man named Solomon.

He was the third king in the kingdom of Israel.

And he's the king who had an opportunity

to receive whatever he asked for.

And earlier in the chapter,

God comes to him and says, what do you want?

And of all the things that Solomon could ask for,

he tells God, what I want is I want wisdom.

And so God, impressed by this,

says you could have asked for many things.

You could have asked for riches, for wealth, for honor.

But since you've asked for wisdom,

I'll give you that,

and I'll give you everything else as well.

And in fact, not only will I give you wisdom,

but I will make you the wisest man who's ever lived.

The wisest man of anyone who's come before you,

and the wisest man of anyone who's come after you.

It's this king, King Solomon,

that we meet at the very beginning here in chapter one.

We're told these are the Proverbs of Solomon,

the son of David, king of Israel.

And so we know right away

that we have an authoritative voice.

This is someone that we should listen to.

It would be as if you had a book

that you picked up about investments,

and you realize this is a book written by Warren Buffett.

Well, I should probably listen to what he has to say.

He's a good investor.

He's one of the greatest investors.

Here's Solomon, a man who's wise,

man of the greatest wisdom.

So there's tremendous credibility there.

Now, the story from 1 Kings 3

doesn't just tell us that Solomon has wisdom

and he has credibility,

but it gives us an example of what wisdom is.

Wisdom goes beyond simply just knowing right from wrong,

and it gets into the skill of working between those two.

Solomon knew what was right.

He wanted justice.

He wanted the mother, the true mother,

to have the live child.

And yet wanting those things and knowing those things,

knowing the right goal,

knowing right from wrong wasn't enough.

There was a skill that was necessary

to navigate that situation.

And so that highlights one aspect of wisdom for us

as we're asking this question about what is wisdom.

Wisdom is commonly defined as skill in the art of living.

Skill in the art of living.

Some people have added skill in the art of righteous living

or godly living.

It's operating well in God's world.

It's operating well in the gray areas.

It's saying, I know what's right and what's wrong,

and there's this space in between that I need to navigate.

In fact, that's a situation for many of us.

Justice Solomon, it wasn't enough for him to know what was right.

He needed to act within it.

It's the same for us.

So often we know what's right and wrong,

and yet we're presented with very challenging situations.

For example, you might be someone who's single

and you want to be married.

Well, you know right from wrong, right?

You know there are certain boundaries.

You know if you're a Christian,

God has commanded you to only marry other Christians.

And yet within those boundaries,

how do you make sure you're actually

pursuing a relationship that's good?

How do you choose the right partner?

Well, you need wisdom, right?

On the one hand, you could have standards

and requirements that are unrealistic.

And so you could end up being single,

wishing you were married.

On the other hand, your standards could be too low, right?

You might marry another Christian,

but it's a foolish choice,

and you end up married, wishing you were single.

And so how do you navigate that kind of decision?

Well, you need wisdom.

We could say the same about conflict.

Do you know that sometimes you have to have

hard conversations with other people?

Sometimes you have to engage in conflict.

Well, how do you decide when it's time to overlook

something that someone's done against you?

And how do you decide when it's time to confront it?

And when you do confront it, how do you confront it?

Do you do it in a way that's strong and strident?

Do you do it in a way that's gentle and indirect?

Do you do it in a way that's direct and clear?

How do you navigate that kind of situation?

Well, you need wisdom.

Maybe you're someone who knows that God has called his people

to care for the poor.

And yet you also know there are wise and helpful ways

of doing that and unwise and unhelpful ways of doing that.

In fact, that's an issue for us here in Colorado Springs.

As you drive around and you're parked at a traffic light,

you may look on the median and see some of those signs

that are around our town that say,

please don't give money to panhandlers.

Give the money, but give it to one of the agencies

that helps them.

That's a statement of wisdom.

That's a way of saying, hey, we all know our goal here.

We know that we want and are called by God

to care for the poor.

And yet in that, we have to navigate it well.

We need incredible wisdom.

And so our goal is good in many situations,

but we need to have strategies and tactics.

We need to have a plan.

Wisdom is the study of how to have those strategies

and those tactics.

That's what we see here in verses two and three.

The purpose of this book is to know wisdom and instruction,

to understand words of insight,

and to receive instruction in wise dealing.

All those situations that I just described

would be situations that require wise dealing.

They'd be situations that require wisdom.

And so wisdom helps us navigate the path of life.

It's our first answer here to what is wisdom.

It helps us navigate the path of life.

It doesn't just do that, however.

It also helps us to stay on the path.

That's what we see here, the second half of verse three.

Wisdom is not just this skill in navigating certain situations,

but there is a component to it about right versus wrong.

We're receiving instruction here in wise dealing,

but also, this is verse three,

in righteousness, justice, and equity.

So wisdom is involved in knowing what's right and what's wrong.

It's about navigating the path.

It's also about staying on the path.

It's not just good life advice.

And so we will find a variety of types of advice

about a variety of situations in the book of Proverbs.

Some of them will just be how to be wise with your money,

how to be wise in relationships.

Some of it will be about avoiding what's wrong.

We're going to receive many warnings in this book

from staying out of situations that might lead to temptation.

And so wisdom helps us to know

when we put ourselves in a situation

that isn't necessarily sinful in and of itself,

but could easily and quickly lead to sin.

And on the other hand, it's going to help us to know

how to put ourselves in situations

that are going to lead to more and more righteousness.

Wisdom is something that helps us understand

how to fill the space between what's right and wrong.

And it's also something that helps us to stay away,

far away from what's wrong.

We then see that wisdom here is for everyone.

Verse four, it's for the simple and for the youth.

But it's also verse five for the wise.

And so everyone needs to learn what's here in this book.

We'll also see, and this is in verses two and six,

that there's a skill even to reading the book of Proverbs.

We'll talk about this more as we continue,

but verse two, understand words of insight.

Verse six, understand a proverb and a saying,

the words of the wise and their riddles.

In other words, there's a good and helpful

and wise way to read Proverbs,

and there's a foolish way to read them.

And so our goal as we go along

is going to be to read them in a way that's wise,

that interprets them as they're meant to be read.

And so that gives us our first answer here.

What is wisdom?

Wisdom is the skill, skill in the art of living.

It's navigating the path of right,

and it's staying far away from what's wrong.

It's critical in all areas of our life.

And so that raises our next question.

If wisdom is so important, so critical

to navigating what God has given us,

how do we get it?

How do we get wisdom?

Well, thankfully, the author of Proverbs

doesn't leave us to wonder.

We're told, verse seven,

the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Now, if you're familiar with the Bible,

you know that this phrase,

the fear of the Lord appears over and over,

and that raises the question of what it actually means.

First of all, we know what it doesn't mean.

The fear of the Lord is not this great fear

of God's wrath and destruction and punishment.

We know that because we're told in 1 John 4, verse 18,

1 John 4:18

that perfect love casts out fear.

And the fear that's being talked about in that passage

is the fear of judgment.

The reason that it's not the fear of judgment

is because the fear of the Lord

is for people who belong to God.

And people who belong to God

know that Jesus has paid the penalty for their sin.

And so they don't have to fear that punishment.

However, there is a real type of fear.

And so if we know that's what it doesn't mean,

we have to look into what the fear of the Lord

actually does mean.

This phrase appears almost 20 times

in the book of Proverbs.

And when it appears,

there seems to be several things that are emphasized.

First of all, the fear of the Lord

includes this hatred of and turning away from evil.

We see that in Proverbs 3, verse 7,

Proverbs 3:7

as well as chapter 8, verse 13.

People who fear the Lord love what God loves

and they hate what God hates.

There's another element to the fear of the Lord

though that's emphasized even more.

In fact, we see it in this verse, verse 7.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction,

which means that people who fear the Lord, what?

Well, they love wisdom and instruction.

So people who fear the Lord

are people who are humble.

They're teachable.

They desire to learn and be taught by God.

In fact, one of the characteristics of the fool,

as it states here in verse 7,

is they're not open to being taught.

And so the book of Proverbs,

learning wisdom, growing in wisdom,

requires an acknowledgement, an admission,

a confession that we're not as wise as we need to be.

And that the wisdom we need is wisdom that comes from God.

One definition of fear of the Lord that I find helpful is this.

It's simply a way of talking about one's attitude toward God,

an attitude of submission, respect, dependence, and worship.

So that submission and that respect,

that submitting to what God says,

it's that loving of what's good and hating what's evil.

It's a dependence,

knowing that God's the one who provides what we need,

and it's worship as well.

Fear of the Lord is recognizing God's worthiness and his holiness.

That's what leads us to worship him,

and that's what leads us to follow him.

And so we can describe a God-fearing person in this way,

someone who fears God,

believes that God really does know what's best.

A person who fears God makes it their goal to stay far away from sin.

They're not trying to get away with as much as possible.

They're not trying to get as close to the line as they can

without doing what's wrong.

Instead, they're pursuing wholeheartedly what's good and what's right.

And they do it because of their love for God,

and also because their knowledge

that even though we don't have fear of God's punishment,

God disciplines his children.

People who fear the Lord are more concerned with what God thinks

than what other people think.

And so when there's peer pressure to do something

that God doesn't approve of,

the man or the woman,

the boy or the girl who fears the Lord,

will stand strong

because their fear of the Lord is greater

than the fear of man.

Now, if that's the fear of the Lord,

second, we have to know,

how does the fear of the Lord relate to wisdom?

And this is a point that can be challenging for many of us

because as we think about wisdom,

we have to acknowledge,

as we talk about skill in these various areas,

there are people who don't know God,

who don't fear the Lord,

who seem to have that type of skill.

There are people who don't fear the Lord,

who seem to know the right words to say at the right time.

There are people who don't fear the Lord,

who seem to know how to manage money well.

And so how can we say that without the fear of the Lord,

there's no wisdom?

Well, I want you to think about it this way.

Many years ago,

I led a small group of high school guys

at the church I was at at the time,

and I had a running joke with them.

I would tell them,

you know, when you're out and about,

when you're a young man,

when you're dating,

you have to make sure

if you're dating a woman that she fears the Lord.

And I would tell them,

there's one way that you figure this out.

It's very important.

The first date, you just ask them.

You just straight up say,

do you fear the Lord?

Now, that was a joke

because that's a terrible idea.

It's one of the last things

you want to do on a first date.

It's way too intense.

It's not a helpful way of determining

if someone actually loves God, right?

You look at what they do and not what they say.

And so it was a joke in between us,

and they love to bring it up to me

and ask me about it

and mention it from time to time.

But there was a sense in which it wasn't a joke.

I was making a serious point to them,

which was this.

It doesn't matter how beautiful

or attractive someone is.

It doesn't matter how skillful they are,

what they do.

It doesn't matter how pleasant they are to be around.

If they don't fear God,

you're not dating them.

They're not dating material.

None of those other things are relevant in any way.

Those things matter

only if you know that this is someone

who shares your love and commitment to God.

The same is true for wisdom.

It doesn't matter how wise someone might appear to be.

It doesn't matter what skill they might have

in relationships with other people.

It doesn't matter how good they are at managing money.

It doesn't matter if they have their anger under control

and their emotional life is well-ordered.

If they don't fear the Lord,

they are not wise

in the way that the Bible speaks about wisdom.

If you don't fear the Lord,

everything else is irrelevant, right?

You're not dating that person.

If someone doesn't fear the Lord,

everything else is irrelevant.

They are not wise.

And this is for several reasons.

Many of you know,

some of you live in this area,

that on the Broadmoor Bluffs part of town,

on Broadmoor Bluffs Drive,

there are houses that have had to be torn down.

And the reason these houses had to be torn down

is that they were standing on an area

that was susceptible to landslides.

And so while these houses

might be beautiful from the outside,

while they might have many wonderful elements to them,

the foundation makes it a house

not that's beautiful,

but that's incredibly dangerous.

Having a landslide as the foundation of your house

is a recipe for disaster.

And so there might be many elements

of a great house there.

We might have granite countertops.

There might be gorgeous crown molding in the house.

The paint might've been done

in a way that's wonderful and impressive.

There might be an amazing layout.

It might be well furnished.

We might enter that house

and feel welcome and hospitality.

And yet if the foundation is falling apart,

nothing else matters.

That house is actually destructive.

It's dangerous.

There might be some external elements of wisdom

in someone's life.

But if their foundation is not built

on the fear of the Lord,

on the love of God and obedience,

that worship and respect

and submission and dependence,

there might be some appearance of wisdom,

but there is no true wisdom there.

They are actually headed to a place of destruction.

And the same is true of wisdom.

No matter how competent you are in life,

outside of the fear of the Lord,

you are not wise.

Wise.

There were warnings as early as 1974

that this was not a smart area of town

to be building houses in.

And yet builders continued, right?

They continued in spite of the warnings,

not paying them any heed.

The warning here from the book of Proverbs is for us.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom.

And if that's not our foundation,

then nothing else matters.

Now, as you're listening, you may be thinking,

okay, it sounds like I can live a great life now.

It's just that something in the future won't end well.

There will be a time in this life

where I can still use these principles

that maybe are taught in the book of Proverbs.

I can still figure out how to have good relationships.

I can figure out how to be successful in business.

And I can just disagree

about whether the foundation is good or not.

I don't fear the Lord,

but I can still live a wise life.

Well, it's actually worse than that.

It's not just that these houses

had dangerous foundations

that one day could lead to disaster and destruction.

It's also that that disastrous foundation

threatened the houses even while they were standing.

One family described their experience this way.

Cracks began to appear in the house.

Then as the foundation was sort of shifting,

they got to a point

where they couldn't open doors or windows.

In other words,

the wrong foundation affected everything.

It's not that there was this beautiful house

with a bad foundation,

but there was a house with a bad foundation,

and so it was compromised in every way.

It was dangerous in every way.

There was a hole that began to develop

in the basement of this house.

The same is true for us as well.

If we don't fear God,

but we fear man,

the structure of our lives

will be compromised in every way.

And this can happen in a variety of situations.

If we don't fear God,

but fear man, for example,

there will come a time

where we won't be able to stand for what's right.

We won't be able,

we won't be capable of choosing wisdom

because we care more about what others think

than what we know we need to do.

We'll also be vulnerable to the foolishness around us.

I've highlighted that there are people

who are not Christians

who have some aspects of wisdom,

and yet they live in a culture

that's filled with foolishness.

And so we might see certain areas

that reflect wisdom,

but there's always going to be areas

of incredible foolishness.

For example,

in our culture,

you might be able to receive

the advice you need

to be wise in certain ways about money.

And yet if you don't fear the Lord,

you will receive only foolishness

or mostly foolishness

when it comes to sexuality.

Even worse than that,

maybe you have some appearance of wisdom

in dealing with money,

but you really won't be wise in your money.

You'll have it for the wrong end.

You won't be able to shake the anxiety

that surrounds it.

And you won't understand the balance

that you can only learn from Jesus

when he says,

do not store up treasure on earth

where moth and rust destroy,

but store it up in heaven

where they cannot destroy.

So the fear of the Lord

is the beginning of wisdom.

It's the true foundation

and it's the only foundation.

Without a true and right fear of God,

the structures of our life

will be compromised in every way.

And so we must have wisdom.

We can only get it from this fear.

Now, in the Old Testament,

as I mentioned,

that was written before the time

that Jesus came.

And it's a book that tells us

it comes in verse one from Solomon

who we discussed earlier.

But we as people who live

after the writing of the New Testament,

people who live after Jesus came,

have the privilege of knowing even more

than the original readers of this book did.

We know Jesus' words

in Matthew chapter 12, verse 42,

Matthew 12:42

where he tells us

that the queen of the south

will rise up at the judgment

with this generation and condemn it.

For she came from the ends of the earth

to hear the wisdom of Solomon

and behold,

something greater than Solomon is here.

Jesus is referencing another story

from the Old Testament

about a time that a queen

came to King Solomon

to ask him all her questions.

That's the queen of the south

that's referenced here.

And he's saying,

look, this woman traveled

from the ends of the earth

to hear from Solomon,

who was the wisest man.

I, Jesus,

am even wiser

and greater than Solomon.

And so how much more

should you come to me

for wisdom?

We learn in John chapter one,

for example,

that the world is created

through Jesus.

And so it shouldn't surprise us

in any way

that he has all wisdom.

If wisdom is the skill

of operating in this world,

the one who made it

should be the one

who's able to tell us

how to function well within it.

He's also the one

who enables

and empowers

our fear of the Lord.

If fear of the Lord

is not fear of punishment,

then we need someone

to take our punishment for us.

Jesus allows us

to have that true fear

of the Lord

because he's the one

who takes our punishment.

And so we're able

to have the fear of the Lord

that looks like

the relationship

of a child to their parent,

looking to them for wisdom,

fearing their displeasure,

knowing their punishment,

but never having to worry

about their relationship

being broken.

We have that relationship

with God,

that potential,

that opportunity

to fear him

through Jesus

who allows us

to be his brothers

and to be adopted

as God's sons

and his daughters.

And so he makes it

so that our fear

cannot be of punishment,

but of God

as our true

and great Father.

Colossians chapter 2,

Colossians 2:3

verse 3,

tells us,

in Jesus are hidden

all the treasures

of wisdom and knowledge.

And then finally,

in 1 Corinthians chapter 1,

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

we're told

that the foolishness

of God

is wiser than men

and the weakness of God

is stronger than men.

That's a reference

ultimately

to Jesus' death.

That,

as one man

has put it,

there's a wisdom

that the world

doesn't understand

in the fact

that God uses

an instrument

of torture,

the cross,

as an instrument

of salvation.

And so Jesus

is our wisdom.

He's the one

who knows

how this world operates.

He's the one

who gives us

that wisdom.

He's the one

who allows us

to have true fear

of the Lord.

And he shows

that wisdom

for us

and enables it

and empowers it

in his death

for us

on the cross.

And so as we come

to the book

of Proverbs,

as we come

to this section,

we need the fear

of the Lord

and we need

to not be fools.

We don't despise

wisdom and instruction.

Instead,

we confess

our need

for wisdom,

for true wisdom.

We confess

that we're foolish,

that we don't know

everything that we need

to know.

We confess

our sin

that without

Jesus and his help

and his forgiveness,

we're unable

not only to access

wisdom but to want it.

And so we come

to Jesus letting

him be the wise

man who guides us,

the one who gives

us the fear

of the Lord.

And God's promise

to us is that

he gives it to those

who ask.

In James 1,

James 1:5

verse 5,

that we're told

that those who ask

for wisdom

receive it.

It says,

if any of you

lacks wisdom,

let him ask God

who gives generously

to all without reproach

and it will be given

him.

And so we trust

Jesus' wisdom

and we ask

him for wisdom.

What is wisdom

and how do we get it?

Wisdom is skill

in the art of living.

It's operating well

within the boundaries

that God's given us.

It's also staying

within the boundaries

that God's given us.

And we get it

through the fear

of the Lord,

knowing that that is

the and the only

foundation for wisdom

in our lives.

A fear that is

we're given

through and by

Jesus Christ.

Jesus tells us

a story about

being wise

and foolish

in Matthew chapter 7,

Matthew 7:24–27

verses 24 through 27.

Jesus says,

everyone then

who hears these words

of mine

and does them

will be like

a wise man

who built his house

on the rock.

And the rain fell

and the floods came

and the winds blew

and beat on that house,

but it did not fall

because it had been

founded on the rock.

And everyone

who hears these words

of mine

and does not do them

will be like

a foolish man

who built his house

on the sand.

And the rain fell

and the floods came

and the winds blew

and beat against that house

and it fell

and great

was the fall of it.

Proverbs chapter 30,

Proverbs 30:5

verse 5,

tells us that

every word of God

proves true.

He is a shield

to those

who take refuge

in him.

And so we come

running to Jesus

knowing that

he is our wisdom,

knowing that

he's the one

that we fear

and he's the one

who brings us to God.

So we ask him

for that knowing

and trusting

that he will provide

it for us,

growing us up

in the wisdom

that we so desperately need.

I invite you now

to pray with me.

Our Father in heaven,

we thank you

that you do give wisdom

to those who ask.

And so we come again

asking you for it,

that you'd give us

the wisdom to know

that we can't find life

outside of you

and you'd give us

the fear

that causes us

to pursue

that life from you.

We thank you

that we don't have

to pull ourselves up

by our bootstraps,

but instead we trust

and look to Jesus

in whom all the treasures

of wisdom

and knowledge

are found.

And so we ask these things

in his name.

Amen.

As we end our time together,

I'm going to leave you

with a benediction.

Remember that a benediction

is a good word

from God.

It's a word

that's true

in a world

filled with words

that are not true.

It's tradition

for the minister

to hold up his hand

to send out God's blessing

on God's people

and for God's people

to hold out their hands

to receive God's blessing.

So I invite you,

even as we're separated physically,

to hold out your hands now

and hear God's good word

over you

from Numbers chapter 6.

Numbers 6 · chapter mention

The Lord bless you

and keep you.

The Lord make his face

to shine upon you

and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up

his countenance upon you

and give you peace

now and forever.

So go now

in the grace and peace

of our Lord and Savior,

Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Thank you all so much

for joining us

and we look forward

to seeing you very soon.

Amen.