Rick Warren - Learning To Live Wisely

Pastor Rick Warren often says, you were made by God

and for God, and until you understand that, life will

never make sense. Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope Today.

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daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.

That's the word Daily to eight hundred six hundred five

thousand and four. Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with

part one of a message called Learning to Live Wisely.

If God were to say to you, I'll give you

anything you want in life. Just name one thing I'll

give that to you, what would your answer be. I'd

like fewer problems. I'd like to get married, I'd like

to get out of debt. I'd like to have a

no more conflict than my relationship. I doubt you would

ask for what Solomon asked for. This question was actually

asked by God to a guy in the Bible. God

comes to Solomon one day. Solomon was the son of David,

the king of Israel, and later Solomon became king, and

God asked Solomon one day, what would you like in life? Solomon,

I'll give you anything you ask for in life. Name

one thing and I'll give it to you. Solomon did

not ask for a wealth, he didn't ask for fame,

he didn't ask for comfort, he didn't ask for pleasure.

He said, God, I want you to give me wisdom.

I want you to make me the wisest man in

the world. Now, wisdom really? I mean, if God had

asked me, what's the one thing you want in life?

I don't think I would have asked for wisdom. I

doubt you would either. That might be on my list,

but it certainly wouldn't be number one. But Solomon, out

of all the things he could ask God for, says God,

more than anything else, I want you to make me wise.

God was so impressed with this request, so touched by

Solomon's request, he said Solomon. I'm going to grant it,

and I'm not only going to give you wisdom. You're

not only going to be the wisest man in the world.

I'm going to also make you the wealthiest man in

the world, the most famous man in the world, the

most powerful man in the world. Of your day. I'm

going to give you everything that everybody else wants to

because you asked wisely. We don't understand how important wisdom is.

We don't realize that it is the key to literally

everything else that you want in life. Notice on your outline,

the Bible says this Proverbs chapter eight, verse eleven, Wisdom

is more precious than rubies. Nothing else you could ever

want is as valuable? Are you kidding me? Nothing else

I could ever want is as valuable as wisdom. It says,

it's more precious than rubies. I don't really know the

value of rubies, so I had to look it up

this week. Highest quality rubies are worth ten times what

diamonds are worth ten times. Let me put this in perspective.

A gram of gold is worth about fifty bucks. Specifically,

a gram of gold is worth fifty three dollars today.

A gram of ruby's would be worth about fifty thousand dollars.

That is exponentially more valuable than gold or diamonds. And

God is saying wisdom is far more valuable to your

life than you could possibly imagine. And if you will

get wisdom in your life, it will bless you in

every other area of your life. This is what you

need to want more than anything else. The Bible says

this Proverbs four, verse seven, Getting wisdom is the most

important thing you can do. Really, really, I mean I

wouldn't have thought that. I wouldn't think that getting wisdom

was the most important thing I could do in life.

But you might circle that the most important thing you

can do is to get wisdom. Now, what is wisdom?

Wisdom is seeing things from God's point of view. It's

not knowledge. You can get no a lot of places.

You can go to college, you can go to school,

you can get all kinds of degrees, and you can

get a lot of knowledge. But person can be knowledgeable

and not wise. A person can be educated and not wise.

Wisdom and knowledge are two different things. A lot of

educated people are actually fools, and a lot of foolish

people are Uneducated people are actually quite wise because wisdom

is seeing life from God's point of view, and it says,

of all the things in life, getting wisdom is the

most important thing you can do. What I want us

to do this week hed is two things. Look at

why is wisdom so important to me? Why is it

the most important thing that I should want? Why should

it be the number one goal of my life to

get wisdom? Why is that the most important thing? And

then second, we're going to look at how to get

it now. Fortunately, Solomon the wisest Man wrote a book

about it. It's called the Book of Proverbs. It's in

the middle of your Bible. If you take the Bible

and you open it right in the middle, you come

to the Book of Proverbs. And the Book of Proverbs

is a book on how to live wisely. There are

thirty one chapters in the Book of Proverbs. That means

if you read a chapter a day, you would go

through the Book of Proverbs once a month. I know many,

many businessmen who make a practice to read a chapter

a day of Proverbs. It is so jam packed full

of practical wisdom on life, relationships, business, money, time, and

like that, they read a chapter a day and they

go through the book once a month. Let me read

to you the introduction to the Book of Proverbs to

explain how important wisdom is. It's here on the screen.

Watch this chapter one, verse one. These are the proverbs

of Solomon, David's son, King of Israel. The purpose of

these proverbs is to teach people wisdom and discipline and

help them understand wise sayings. Through these problems, people will

receive instruction and discipline, good conduct, and doing what is right,

just and fair. These proverbs will make the simple minded clever,

and it means if you're dumb, it'll make you smart.

These will give knowledge and purpose to young people. If

you're a young adult, you're a teenager, you should be

devouring the Book of Proverbs. It will give you purpose

and knowledge. Let those who are wise listen to these

proverbs and become even wiser, and let those who understand

receive guidance by exploring the depth of meaning in these proverbs,

these parables, these wise sayings, and these riddles.

You're listening to. Pastor Rick's Daily Health oh Rip will

be back in just a moment with the rest of

today's lesson. If you've missed any part of today's teaching.

You can listen online anytime at pastororik dot com. That's

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You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope once again. Here's

Pastor Rick Warren.

Over and over and over again. In the Bible, God

stresses the importance of wisdom. He says, it's the number

one thing you need to one in line. It should

be your number one goal, because if you get wisdom,

it's going to affect every other thing in your life

for the better, for the good. Proverbs Chapter nine, verse

twelve says this, if you become wise, you'll be the

one to benefit. Circle that word benefit. You'll be the

one brings personal benefit to you. Wisdom does. But if

you score in wisdom, you'll be the one to suffer.

Why because all of the problems in your life come

from a lack of wisdom. All of the problems in

your life come from making foolish decisions. The reason you

have financial problems is because you make foolish financial decisions.

The reason you have relational problems is because you make

foolish relational decisions. You don't make wise decisions. There's a

verse in the Bible that says the way that there's

a way that seems right to men, to women, to

human beings, there's a way that seems right to us,

but it ends in death, it ends in destruction, it

ends in a dead end. In other words, I make

decisions with my money that I think seem the right

thing to do, but they're foolish decisions, and I get

in trouble. There are things that I do in relationships

that I think are the right thing to do in

my relationships, and they seem right to me, but they're wrong.

They're not wise, and so I have dead ends in

my relationships. There are career moves that I make that

seem to be right to me, but they're wrong. They're

foolish decisions. Because I lack wisdom, I keep running up

against dead ends. So if I fill my life with wisdom,

then I'm going to benefit from it. I'm going to

be wiser, and I'm going to have fewer problems, and

I'm going to have more success in my life. Now,

the Book of Proverbs lists all kinds of reasons or

benefits why wisdom ought to be the number one goal

of your life. I'm going to just give you eighteen

of those reasons, eighteen benefits. I've listed the verses there

on your outline, and I'm not even going to comment

on these. They're pretty self explanatory. I'm just going to

read them through very quickly, and i want you to

circle each of the eighteen benefits to your life if

you become a wiser person. So let me read them quickly.

You circle the benefits. Proverbs twenty four to fourteen. Wisdom

is good for the soul. Circle that good for the soul.

Get wisdom and you'll have a bright future. Circle that,

so you're going to have it. Be good for the soul.

You'll have a bright future. Now you want to succeed

in life, look at what the Bible says. Proverbs eight nineteen,

verse eight. Those who get wisdom do themselves a favor,

and those who love learning will succeed. Circle will succeed.

You want to be a success in life. It's real simple.

Get wise, wise up, learn wisdom. The more wisdom you have,

the more successful you'll be in life. Proverbs eight, verse four.

Treasure wisdom, and it will make you great. Circle that.

Hold on to it, and it will bring you honor.

Circle that. So in the first few verses we see

wisdom is good for your soul. It'll give you a

bright future. It will cause you to succeed, it'll make

you great, and it'll give you honor. Now, everybody, look

up here. How many of you would say I don't

have enough time to get everything I need to do

done in my life. How many say that that's a

wisdom problem. The next verse says, this wisdom will multiply

your days and add years to your life. Let's say

in there, it'll multiply your days when you are wise.

The wiser you are, the wiser you manage your time,

and the better you manage your time, the more you're

gonna have of it. The reason why you don't have

enough time to get it done is you make foolish decisions.

You make unwise decisions with your time. The wiser you become,

the more time you're gonna have. Wisdom is a time

management issue, and time management is a wisdom issue. Not

only that, it says it will add years to your life.

That's a flat out promise of God. God says, if

you live wisely, you're going to live longer. Now you

got my attention. Okay, now you got my attention. It's

going to cause success, it's gonna make me great, it's

gonna bring honor, it's going to multiply my time. It's

gonna give me more extend my life. I'm interested in wisdom.

Next verse Proverbs twenty four to five. Wise people have

great power. Circle that the more wisdom you have, the

more power you have in your life. Proverbs three thirty five.

Wise people will gain an honorable reputation. Circle that the

wiser you are, the more people are gonna like you,

the more people are going to love you, the more

popular you're going to be, the more your reputation is

going to be honored. And you have a good reputation

because you're not foolish. You're not a fool You're wise. Now,

how many of you would like this year to be

better than last year? Can I see your hands? Yeah?

I think that's unanimous. That's a wisdom issue, making the

life better. Look at the next verse, Wise people's lives

get better and better. Why because we're not making the

same mistakes we made last year. If I'm wiser this year,

my life is going to be easier this year. If

I'm wiser this year, my life is going to be

better this year because I'm not making the same foolish mistakes.

I'm not repeating the errors of the past. The wiser

I get, the better my life gets year after year

after year. So obviously I don't want to be a fool.

I want to be a wise man. I want to

be a wise woman. The next verse, Proverbs three sixteen

to eighteen, mentions seven major benefits of getting wisdom in

your life. Notice this right, circle them all. Wisdom offers

you long life. That's the first one, as well as

wealth that's the sactly. Wealth is a mark of wisdom.

You wise up to use your money wisely, as well

as wealth and honor. Circle honor. Wisdom can make your

life pleasant. In other words, it's not as hard. If

I make foolish decisions, life is hard. If I make

wise decisions, life is pleasant. It's easier. Says Wisdom can

lead you safely through life. In other words, wisdom is

a protection keeps you from making mistakes. You circle that

those who become wise are happy. You want happiness. Get

wise up. The wiser you get, the happier you'll be.

Wisdom will give them life in other words, true life. Now, friends,

those seven benefits are so ridiculously over the top. If

I didn't believe that was in the Bible, it sounds

like an infomercial. I mean if I held up a

product and said, this product will give you a long life.

It will make you wealthy, it will bring you honor,

It will make your life pleasant and easier than before.

It will lead you safely through the problem of your life.

It will make you happy, and it will cause you

to experience life it was meant to be lived. You've begune.

I don't believe it. That's unrealistic. But I didn't say this.

God said it. God said it, and God is telling

you the value of learning wisdom. This is why we're

going to do the next six weeks. If you become

more wise, these things will be true in your life.

One more verse Proverbs four to twelve. Nothing will stand

in your way. If you walk wisely circle, nothing will

stand In other words, you got your dream, you got

your goal. Wisdom will show you how to get around

all the barriers. Nothing will stand in your way, and

you will not stumble. You're not going to make this

so many mistakes when you run. If you are wise,

do you see how important wisdom is to your life?

Do you understand why wisdom should be the number one

goal of your life? Do you realize how it's worth

the next six weeks of your life to hear it,

read it, study it, memorize, meditate on it to learn

how to live wisely. Now, Like everything else, wisdom is

a choice. Happiness is a choice. Being close to God

is a choice. Success is a series of making wise choices.

Wisdom is a choice. You got to learn to be wise.

And what I want to do is talk to you

about what the Bible says are the five ways to

build wisdom into your life. Bible is very specific that

if you do certain things, then you make certain choices,

you will become a wiser and wiser woman, you will

become a wiser and wiser man. Well, if wisdom has

so many benefits to my life, why don't we live

more wisely? The answer is it's harder. It's harder. It's

quite easy to make foolish decisions. It's quite difficult to

make wise decisions. We are not by nature wise people.

By nature, we do the dumb thing, we do, the

foolish thing, we do the easy thing. You don't come

out of the womb automatically being wise. Wisdom has to

be learned. And until you do the five things that

cause you to learn wisdom. You're not going to learn wisdom.

You can go to school for the rest of your

life and not learn wisdom. You could read all kinds

of books and not learn wisdom, because wisdom is seeing

life from God's viewpoint. So you've got to make a

choice to learn. The Bible says in Proverbs four, verse five,

learn to be wise. Circle the word learn. You got

to learn to be wise and develop good judgment. That's

a choice. It's your choice. You don't have to learn,

you don't have to develop. It's your choice. Recently, I

got a letter, said Pastor Rick, I regret that I

didn't open my life to Jesus until very late in

my adult life. I regret that so much that I

wasted so many years going in the wrong direction. I

feel like I will never catch up. Well, you're wrong.

You are never too old to learn to be wise.

If you're alive, if your heart's beating, if blood is

pumping through your veins, that you can learn to be wise.

You're also never too young to learn to be wise.

Wisdom has absolutely nothing to do with your age. You

can be old and a fool, you can be young

and wise. Would you agree with me it's possible to

grow older without growing up. Everybody agree with that. Don't

look out. You can grow older without growing up. A

lot of people grow old wisdom. You can be old

and still be a spiritual baby. You're still walking around

in spiritual diapers at ninety five years of age. Or

you can be a young person and you can be

full of a lot of wisdom because you're doing the

things that make you wise.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy that

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