Marry Wisdom - Brendan Hurley - 5th July 2026

Gracious Heavenly Father, we ask that you would

help us to listen carefully to your Word. We

pray that you would change us as we listen to

it and help us to commit to your Word and to

wisdom that this may not just be a one -time

thing today, but something we do for the rest

of our life. And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, when we lived in Broken Hill, one

of the realities about Broken Hill, which we

learnt pretty quickly, is that there are two

seasons in Broken Hill. There's summer and winter.

You get about two weeks where it's actually nice.

It's either extremely hot or extremely cold.

And so one of the things you have to do is make

sure you've got a pulpit like Cairns. And so

in summer, when it was really hot, we would take

our kids for a swim. Here was our pool. We actually

had a bunch of bees and wasps. So we set up some

netting to try and keep them away. That's what

all that is. But here's our pool back in Broken

Hill. And normally it was pretty good. But if

we took the pool cover off, do you know what

would happen on those hot days? It would be extremely

cold in the pool. Actually, any time we took

the pool cover off, it would be extremely cold.

And for our kids, it meant they got stuck in

paralysis. Because here's what they'd do. They'd

go up to the pool and they'd dip their toe in

the water. And they'd go, too cold! And they

wouldn't jump in. And they'd stay outside and

they'd miss out on the fun. And so you know the

trick. Do you know the trick with the pool? You

have to dive in, don't you? Feet first. And then

you're not cold once you're in. or you need a

parent to throw you in. I don't know, one of

the two. But some way, you've got to get in that

pool, don't you? Well, in life, there are big

long -term decisions that we all make that are

a bit like that, aren't there? Let me give you

one example. One example is marriage. It's tricky

to work out who to marry. And dating is kind

of dipping your toe in the water to see if it's

good. Is this a good fit? Okay, well... I'm just

dipping my toe in. But marriage is where you

jump in feet first, isn't it? You say, I'm going

to share my life with someone, commit to them

through the ups and downs for life. And many

people today, they won't commit because they

don't want to be stuck. They don't want to be

tied down. They want to keep things casual. So

they say, maybe forever. But at some point, to

get the best out of it, you have to commit, don't

you? Well, I want to suggest that's what's been

going on as we've been reading proverbs. Reading

proverbs is a bit like dating wisdom. I don't

know if you realise that you've been dating wisdom

this last term, but you have. And we've been

seeing if wisdom is a good fit for us. But there

comes a point where we have to commit. Where

we go, will I stick with wisdom or will we move

on? I can't just keep flirting with wisdom forever.

And this last chapter of Proverbs is trying to

show us that this is the most important decision

ever. Our passage is saying committing to wisdom,

having it in your life, is the best decision

you can make. Here's our big idea for today.

Commit to wisdom, you will not regret it. That's

what I'm hoping you'll take away from today.

Commit to wisdom, you will not regret it. And

it's a fitting end to the book, as we've been

dating wisdom. It's saying to us now, marry wisdom,

commit, jump in feet first. And it closes the

book by giving us three ways in which wisdom

is awesome, to really try and get us across the

line that we will commit. So here are the three

ways. wisdom prevents awful ruin, wisdom brings

rich blessings, and wisdom beats everything else.

So let's have a look at each of these. Firstly,

wisdom prevents awful ruin. It protects you from

the ruin of folly and all the awful things that

go along with folly. Have a look at verses one

to nine with me if you've got your Bible there.

The sayings of King Lemuel. and inspired utterance

his mother taught him. Listen, my son, listen,

son of my womb, listen, my son, the answer to

my prayers, do not spend your strength on women,

your vigor on those who ruin kings. It is not

for kings the mule, it is not for kings to drink

wine, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they

drink and forget what has been decreed and deprive

all the oppressed of their rights. Let beer be

for those who are perishing. Wine for those who

are in anguish. Let them drink and forget their

poverty and remember their misery no more. Speak

up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

For the rights of all who are destitute, speak

up and judge fairly. Defend the rights of the

poor and needy. Now, King LeMule's mum is doing

some fantastic parenting here, isn't she? She's

preparing her son to fulfil his calling, to lead

wisely and fairly, to care for the poor, the

needy and the vulnerable. And she's warning him

that what will undermine him is anethetising

himself. Whether it's through lots of relationships

with women, whether it's through alcohol, anethetising

himself will actually stop him being the sort

of ruler and person that he needs to be. She's

warning him about using women and alcohol like

opioids and painkillers, that they just help

him forget everything, which will cloud his judgment

and steal his focus. And such folly wouldn't

just hurt him, but it would hurt the people under

his care. Did you see that bit there where it

says down in verse 6, let beer be for those who

are perishing, wine for those who are in anguish?

You know, it's not saying that yes, we should

go and just hand out wine and beer to all those

who are struggling. It's a biting sarcasm here.

It's saying let them get drunk, not you, you

ruler. The least you could do is let them have

some painkillers and opioids to just forget about

their pain for a while. Don't you go off drinking?

Actually, you know, it would be better than that.

Go and rule well so they don't have things to

worry about and be upset about. But this is what

happens though, isn't it? When one isn't committed

to wisdom, they become committed to escape. And

they hurt themselves and those under their care.

And that's what Lemuel's mum is warning him not

to do here. Be someone who is alert and awake

and ready to care for others. I remember years

ago when we lived in Perth, Ethan started his

first day of school and he got to know this other

kid and they became really good friends and as

we got to know this other kid's mum, we found

out she had a very sad story. She was a recovered

drug addict and at one point she'd actually had

her kids taken away because her addiction got

so bad. Her desire to escape the pain of her

life stopped her being a functional parent. That's

so sad, isn't it? And thankfully that was the

wake -up call she needed to stop taking drugs.

But she had to see that her addiction hurt so

many, her kids, her wider family, her neighbourhood.

Anecetising yourself is not harmless. It removes

our judgement and stops us caring for people

as we should. And what about us? Are we anaesthetising

ourselves at great cost to ourselves and others?

See, our culture today has normalised numbing

anything painful, uncomfortable or unsettling.

We do it today with unbridled sexual gratification

or excessive alcohol But there's other ways we

do it today isn't there with online retail therapy

sugar screens sport I Think these days we become

so tired and stressed that we chase anything

that feels good even if it clouds our judgement,

even if it drags us from responsibilities or

stops us sitting with important problems. Now,

don't get me wrong, I'm not saying let's just

be all grumpy people all the time. There is a

time and a place to enjoy yourself and enjoy

good things, but if we're always looking to anethetise

ourselves from life, we've got to ask why are

we doing that? Who are we hurting by doing that?

How are we going to change? See, committing to

wisdom means balance. It's enjoying the good,

not consistently self -indulging to escape. It

means processing pain healthily and handling

our responsibilities. Such wisdom prevents ruin.

and it's a good way to live. So that's what committing

wisdom looks like. It prevents ruin, but it's

not the only thing that happens when you commit

to wisdom. Here's the other thing that happens.

Wisdom brings rich blessings. Wisdom brings rich

blessings. Have a look with me at verses 10 to

12. She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband

has full confidence in her and lacks nothing

of value. She brings him good, not harm, all

the days of her life. Now this is an incredible

passage. The wife of noble character going all

the way from verses 10 to 31. And it's actually

an acrostic poem. So in the Hebrew alphabet,

each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is used here

at the start of each line. So this is literally

the A to Z on how wise this wife is. And it's

all about the themes of the book that we've been

reading. It's all about, I mean, she's industrious,

she's entrepreneurial, she's charitable, she's

got wise speech, she's fearless, all things that

we've come across through the Book of Proverbs.

And the effect that it's meant to have on us

is that, you know, you've got to remember Proverbs

was written for young nobles in the royal court.

They're meant to read this and go, wow, she's

really attractive. It'd be so good to be married

to a woman like this. So where do you find her?

Does she go to our church? Is she at the church

down the road? Maybe if you were married, you

should say to your wife later, oh, it's you,

sweetheart. That would be a wise thing to do.

But where is this woman? It's hard to find. Because

this is lady wisdom. Remember earlier in Proverbs

we met lady wisdom and lady folly? This is, I

think, lady wisdom personified as a woman in

the real world. Because again, it's summing up

the earlier themes of the Book of Proverbs. It's

tying those threads together of everything that

we've looked at. And so the author is painting

a picture here of what you'll get, your future,

if you marry, if you commit to wisdom. I think

this is bigger than just he is an ideal wife.

I think there's some element of that, but I think

it's bigger than that. This is what you'll get

if you commit. or married to lady wisdom. It's

a bit like this. One day, my boys will bring

home a girl to meet us. That's going to be a

new stage for us. I mean, we only had Ethan just

become a teenager the other day. It's going to

be a big stage when that happens. But when that

happens, there'll be so many love chemicals going

off in their brains that they're not going to

be thinking objectively, especially if the girl

they bring home is really good looking. So one

lesson I'm hoping to instil in them before this

and remind them of then is I'll say, make sure

you meet her parents. Because her parents will

give you a partial glimpse into your future if

you choose to commit to her. I mean, it's not

perfect, people can do the work, sort themselves

out, be different, but there's some wisdom in

that. because her parents gave her the blueprint

for relationship. And so their dynamic will be

a pretty good indicator of what your relationship

will look like in the future. Well, in the same

way that I'm gonna try and do that, well, that's

kind of what's going on here. The description

of wisdom is saying, hey, here's your future.

If you marry Lady Wisdom, this is what it's gonna

be like. And it's going to be even more certain,

more sure. This is like looking into a crystal

ball. If you commit to wisdom, you can bank on

it being so good for you. Now, we've got to remember

there's some nuance here. It's not saying, well,

you commit to wisdom, life is going to be easy

and rosy. Jesus committed to wisdom more than

anyone in the history of humanity. and it got

him crucified. Ultimately, committing to wisdom

is beneficial. I mean, Jesus dying on the cross

meant that we were saved and that he was glorified.

But it doesn't mean committing to wisdom will

be easy, just like in any marriage. Committing

to wisdom may be tough, but it will always be

worth it in the end. And actually that's... where

we need to understand how some of the wisdom

literature interrelates with each other. So we've

just done proverbs, which is all about the benefits

of wisdom and how great wisdom is. But maybe

one day we ought to go through Ecclesiastes,

which is all about how life is meaningless and

unfair and things don't always work the way we'd

like them to. There's a fully -orbed way of seeing

wisdom that we do need to understand here. But

if we've established that if you commit to wisdom,

it can be tough, even though it will ultimately

be good, what are the real -world implications

of that? Well, firstly, I want to say with this

passage, it's not wise or fair for men to go

around using this as a criteria for dating or

for their spouse. You know, please don't go and

evaluate your wife at the end of the week and

say, well, sweetheart, you didn't live up to

verse 17, okay? like that would not be wise.

Especially if you're not aspiring to that yourself.

Yes, we should have standards about who we marry

and we should marry, if you're a Christian, marry

a Christian and those sort of things. But we

all need to seek to reach those same standards

too, don't we? Men need to just as much be aspiring

to be like this wife of noble character, just

as much as any woman does. And we also got to

remember this as an ideal. So if you find someone

who's half as wise as this and you marry them

that is a great gift from God. The main point

here I don't think is who should you marry. I

mean I think there is some of that but I don't

think it's the main thing. I think this is saying

wisdom is so wonderful you should put a ring

on her finger. Commit to her. But secondly, it

highlights the value of ordinary consistency.

It's saying just normal everyday consistency

is wise. I mean think about how, if you were

writing proverbs, think about how you could have

finished the book. You could have finished the

book with wisdom as this spectacular general

conquering lands and nations. You could have

finished with wisdom as some philosophical genius

wrestling with the deep and toughest things of

life and the universe. But the book doesn't finish

like that. It finishes with a wonderful woman

doing everyday tasks. That's wisdom. Wisdom is

found in consistently doing the ordinary things

of life well. When you've changed your 16th nappy

for the day, fed your kids and put them to bed,

it's easy to long for something different and

feel like this is not very meaningful. But your

wisdom is keeping them alive. It's keeping your

household running. There is great dignity and

value in that. So much of wisdom is doing small,

God -honouring things well, again and again and

again, even if it's mundane. Do you remember

these sheets that we got at the start of our

series? One of the things on them, they had an

action plan for change. Well, I want to suggest

to you, you can make a huge impact if you just

do one ordinary thing consistently. What would

it be for you? Maybe it's just nailing down that

daily devotion or a family devotion. Maybe it's

reading a few pages each day of a Christian book.

There's a little thing there you might want to

check out if you want to read some good Christian

books. I don't know, might have just come out

today. Or you might want to build your capacity

bit by bit, whether it's physical, whether it's

being calmer, whether it's being more joyful,

whatever it might be, building your capacity

bit by bit, that's a good thing. Ordinary everyday

consistency is wise and powerful. So let me ask,

will you be consistently committed to wisdom?

But there's one more reason Proverbs 31 gives

us to why we should commit to wisdom. Here's

our last reason. Wisdom beats everything else.

Come with me to verses 28 to 31. So you've got

wisdom in verse 27. She watches over the affairs

of her household and does not eat the bread of

idleness. And then here's the response. Her children

arise and call her blessed, her husband also,

and he praises her. Many women do noble things

but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive

and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears

the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all

that her hands have done and let her works bring

her praise at the city gate. So this ideal wife

modeled after Lady Wisdom finishes the book with

a chorus of praise. Her children, her husband,

even the author of the book are all saying she's

the best. She's better than all the others. This

one characteristic's better than all the other

characteristics. It's crying out to us, see her

value. She's better than all other women. Wisdom's

better than charm and beauty. Those things, they

lie, they're shallow, but valuing wisdom and

a very specific type of wisdom. Fearing the Lord.

It matches the start of the book. Remember we

started with fearing the Lord is the beginning

of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Well, here we close the book with that same fear

of the Lord. And it's saying desire and celebrate

that above anything else. If you see fearing

the Lord, wisdom as the best. You've grasped

it. You've understood how good wisdom is and

you'll stick with it. I couldn't go this week

without a World Cup illustration of some kind,

even though it was very tragic what happened

to the Socceroos yesterday, but we won't go there.

There's a lot of hurting people today and one

really happy person. But years ago I used to

play FIFA, the soccer video game with my kids

and friends and each time I'd play you had to

pick your team and I'd always try and pick my

team thoughtfully because each team had different

attributes and players had different attributes

and abilities. Some were really good at kicking

and tackling and passing and heading and dribbling.

But there was always one I'd pick. Here's my

tip for FIFA, if you want to know. Pick the ones

who had speed. It was the most overpowered thing

in the whole game. If you had a team with speed,

you got the absolute best results because your

guys would be going like that and the other ones

would be there, you know, lingering behind, rolling

along. It was awesome and it meant I'd probably

won more games against my kids than I deserved

to win. Now, Proverbs is saying here that valuing

God's wisdom, God's wisdom, that's overpowered.

That's like speed in FIFA. You should want that

in your life more than anything. And we live

in a culture that conditions us not to want that,

don't we? We're taught to admire, be drawn to,

aspire to, to devalue temporary, shallow, and

external things. Looks, wit, intelligence, confidence,

charisma, the fun person, we often see them as

more valuable. But integrity, maturity, fear

of the Lord, that sort of wisdom, It's so much

better, isn't it? One who trusts God and takes

Him seriously is far better off than anyone who's

got anything else, because they've got eternity

sorted out. They know the God of the universe.

And that should change how we see everything.

If you're single and you want to marry, value

someone who has got that sort of wisdom, who

trusts God and fears Him. And if you don't want

to marry, pursue that sort of wisdom. Be devoted

to that. Make that your goal in life. And if

you are married, seek that yourself. Praise your

spouse when they do that. That should be the

thing we value above all else. Hey, if you're

married, it's wise. Still praise your spouse

for other things too. Like, yes, sweetheart,

you are beautiful, but especially praise them

for their wisdom and their trust in God. That's

the wisest thing you can do and the best thing

you can value. So let's wrap up. We asked, why

should I commit to wisdom? And we saw three things.

Wisdom prevents awful ruin. Wisdom brings rich

blessings. And wisdom beats everything else.

And so the take home from this is one big thing.

Commit to wisdom. You will not regret it. But

Brendan, how do we actually do that? Well, it's

by committing ourselves to the wisest person

in all of human history. Not Adam and Eve. They

thought they were wise by doing their own thing.

by taking the fruit and going, I'm going to be

the lawmaker now. I'm going to be the decider,

not God. I'm going to run life my own way. And

that caused ruin and death, didn't it? It's actually

not by committing ourselves to Solomon. I mean,

Solomon's great. He's got wonderful wisdom that

we've learned on here that God has inspired,

but... If this is all we had, it's quite limited,

isn't it? Because Solomon, I mean, he was committed

to wisdom, but he gave up on it himself, didn't

he? He married all those wives and started worshipping

other gods. Actually, all humans are like this

on our own. We reject God and we can't stick

with him or his wisdom. The pull of folly is

too strong and we don't want wisdom to tie us

down. But there's one person who's not like this.

The Lord Jesus. He's the king who did what King

Lemuel's mum said. He didn't live a life avoiding

pain, but wisely embraced it and processed it

when it was necessary. He was a king who helped

others in need. He was one who was committed

and married to wisdom. He saw value in wisdom

and stuck with it his whole life, even though

it meant dying young in the most foolish -looking

and humiliating way by a death on a cross. But

he knew his death would save us from folly and

its consequences. He knew that his death would

give us all of wisdom's benefits so that we could

have life forever with God. He rose again so

that we could get his spirit so that we could

live as new people Who are committed to wisdom

who have new hearts that are committed to wisdom?

See the way we commit to wisdom is by committing

to Jesus And we do so no matter what life throws

at us No matter how easy or good other ways of

looking other ways of living look. We know that

folly is a siren calling out to us, trying to

draw us in so that we'll be shipwrecked. Flirting

with folly is a dangerous game and if you do,

one day you will lose. But committing to wisdom

by committing to Jesus, well the risen Jesus

shows that that will always pay off. So what's

all of this mean for us? Well, for some of us,

this is all new. And that's great, I'm glad you're

here. Keep coming, keep getting to know Jesus.

See if he's worth committing to. And we're here

to help. We want you to learn about Jesus and

find out more about him. But for some of us,

we've been dipping our toe in for a long time.

We've been coming to church for a while and that's

great and keep coming. But eventually, you need

to make a decision. You need to work out, will

I commit to Jesus? Will I commit to wisdom in

Jesus? If that's something you want to do, please

come talk to me. We'd love to pray with you.

We'd love to help you get baptised. We'd love

to help you take that next step. of committing

to Jesus. And for many of us, we are already

committed to Jesus. We dove in feet first years

ago. But there's always temptations to jump out

of the water and step out, aren't there? There's

always times where we take wisdom for granted.

And so today is a reminder of the rich benefits

of wisdom and of knowing the Lord Jesus. Thank

God for those things. See folly for what it is.

If you do those things, it will protect you from

flirting with folly. So let me close by asking,

where are you at with wisdom? Have you committed

to her by committing to Jesus? Or are you holding

back? Will you let something stop you from committing

to wisdom? I hope you won't. Let's pray. Heavenly

Father, please help us to commit ourselves to

the Lord Jesus and thus commit ourselves to wisdom.

Help us to keep going in Him, abounding in thanksgiving,

growing more and more to know Him, to love Him,

to cherish Him as we follow Him. Please, Father,

help us to see how valuable it is to commit to

Him all the days of our life. And we ask this

in Jesus' precious name. Amen.