The Value of Wisdom, the Cost of Foolishness

We're going to be in Proverbs chapter 3 again.

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

We've been kind of bouncing around in Proverbs

3 for the last couple of months. Proverbs 3,

that's kind of toward the middle part of your

Bible. Proverbs 3. We're going to start in verse

13. We read this verse a couple of weeks ago.

We're just going to kind of revisit it and read

on through the next few verses. While y 'all

are turning to that, one thing I forgot to mention

yesterday about the church picnic was we need

to make sure to give a special thanks to Peyton

Rhodes. She's the one that's headed all that

up for us yesterday. So y 'all make sure to thank

her on your way out if you had a good time. And

even if you didn't have a good time, still thank

her because she still did all the work. So thank

you for doing all that for us and getting that

set up. All right, Proverbs chapter 3. Proverbs

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, we looked at verses 13, 14, and 15

a couple of weeks ago, and we talked about what

it means to be happy, and part of happiness comes

from wisdom, as we see in those verses. But then

we trailed off and we looked at some other scriptures

that talk about happy, things that make us happy,

and what the world says makes us happy looks

a little different than what scripture says will.

bring happiness to our life. And so we're just

going to continue on, not so much on the happiness

side of it today, but talking a little more about

wisdom. Not too much, but just a little bit.

I was visiting one of our church members a few

weeks ago, and conveniently they handed me a

newspaper article and said, I thought you might

like to read this article. And the article happened

to be about how good it is when preachers preach

short sermons. How convenient that they gave

me that article to read. So maybe we'll have

a short one today, but I won't make any promises.

But let's pray, and then we'll dig into the Word.

Dear Lord, we come to you. We thank you for being

good to us. I thank you for all the smiling faces

that are here. I thank you for loving us. I thank

you that we just have the freedom and the privilege

to come and to worship. And I thank you for all

these beautiful people today. I pray that you

bless them, dear Lord. Whatever we come in here

with, God, maybe we come in here and things are

going good and we're happy today. Or maybe for

some we come in and we're tired or we're stressed

or we're sick or whatever it may be, dear Lord.

Whatever's going on, we're here today and we

want to encounter you and grow in you. And I

pray that something in these words that we read,

God, these are your words. And that's where the

strength's going to come from today. So I pray

that you would take away any pride or fear that's

within me that you just... Would allow your Holy

Spirit to speak to us today and help us to seek

wisdom and to live in wisdom and the peace that

comes with that, God. And if there's foolishness

in our life today, I pray that you help us to

see that and repent of that and seek to live

according to your word and your will. And I ask

these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Proverbs chapter

Proverbs 3:13

3, verse 13. Happy is a man who finds wisdom

and who acquires understanding. For she is more

profitable than silver, and her revenue is better

than gold. She is more precious than jewels.

Nothing you desire compares with her. Now according

to the proverb here, wisdom is something that

is to be treasured among us. We should treasure

wisdom above all things. It's more valuable than

even some of the most valuable things that we

have in this world, in gold or silver or jewelry

or whatever it may be, or cars or homes or boats

or you name it, whatever it may be. Proverbs

tells us something very important here, and that

is that we need to treasure wisdom in our life.

The question you have to answer today is, It's

how much do you value wisdom? Maybe you value

wisdom a lot. If we value wisdom a lot, then

it's going to be evident in the choices that

we make. That's going to guide us to make wiser

choices. If you don't value wisdom, then you're

just going to continue making a lot of foolish

choices. Now, it won't take us but a moment to

sit and pause and look at our life. And you don't

even have to go back very far. You don't have

to go back to when you were a kid. Just look

back at the last week of your life and ask yourself,

how many wise decisions did I make and how many

foolish decisions did I make? How many times

did I know that what I was about to do or what

I was about to say or what I was thinking is

foolishness and yet I continued down that path?

Well, when we do that, then... It's pretty obvious

that maybe we don't value wisdom in the way we

should, but the proverb here says that we need

to really value wisdom and recognize its importance

and its significance in our life. Continuing

on, verse 16. Long life is in her right hand,

in her left, riches and honor. Now, we often

see proverbs make statements, and they're kind

of a broad generalization. They're not absolute

statements, that if you live a wise life, that

you'll live a long time and you'll be rich, that

everybody who always makes wise decisions or

more wise decisions or not will always live long

and will always prosper. Generally speaking,

that's true. That may not always be the case,

but more times than not, When we make the wise

decisions in our life, we will see the benefits

of that. If you go out doing a bunch of foolish

stuff and climbing up mountains without any safety

gear and all kinds of other dangerous things

that some would consider foolish, then it's no

real shock when someone dies young. But when

we make wise decisions in the way that we eat,

in the way that we exercise, If we don't take

care of our body and we live foolishly and we

put foolish things into our body and don't exercise,

then it's no real shock that our health begins

to decline or perhaps that we die young. But

if we're wise with what we eat and how we live

and how we exercise, then there's benefit to

that wisdom. And I think that's what the proverb

tells us is that there's benefit to wisdom. That

if we're wise with our finances, if we're wise

with how hard we work and how much we put into

the things we do, that there's going to be some

benefit to that. There's going to be far more

benefit to working hard and taking what you have

and maybe saving some of it or investing it wisely

in some way, shape, or form. I'm not necessarily

talking about the stock market, just in the things

that you buy and the things that you do with

your money. If you do wise things with your money,

then you're probably going to see some benefit

from that. If you work hard and you take what

you have and you plant a garden and you grow

those crops and you tend those crops and you

stick some away so that you have food to eat

in hard times, that's a wise thing to do. If

you take all the money that you make and all

the wealth that you have and you fly out to Vegas

for the weekend and put it all on black, that's

a foolish thing to do. And so the choices that

we make with what we have are going to impact

our life. Our wise choices are going to, more

times than not, work out for our good. Our foolish

times, more times than not, are going to work

out for our bad. Now you're going to tell me,

well, I know somebody that went and put it all

on black and they won $10 million. Well, that's

great. But do you know how many billions of people

that have done that and lost their house and

everything that they own? Because that's foolishness.

So sometimes bad things happen to the wise, and

sometimes good things happen to the foolish.

But more times than not, as the proverb would

tell us, that there's blessing that comes from

the wise choices. There's blessing that comes

in our life and how we live, both physically

and materialistically, and how we're taken care

of when we make wiser choices. Continuing on,

verse 17. Her ways are pleasant. and all her

path is peaceful. She is a tree of life to those

who embrace her, and those who hold on to her

are happy. Now listen to those words. These are

the things that accompany wisdom. Now you may

have a few different words in your translations,

but we get the idea. Listen to what it says here.

Pleasant, peaceful, brings life, brings happiness.

Well, that sounds pretty good. Does anybody in

there want their life to be less pleasant, less

peaceful, a life that's shortened, and a life

that's unhappy? Does anybody want that? If you

do, don't raise your hand. Please don't raise

your hand. Just talk to me after church. I don't

think anybody wants that. We all want a life

that is peaceful. We all want a life that's pleasant.

We all want a life that brings happiness. We

want to be full of life. You ever seen somebody

before and they're just so full of life and it

just makes you mad because you're like, man,

they're always just so happy. They must not have

to go through what I have to go through. I got

all this stress, this, that, and the other. We

just feel angry and tense sometimes and we see

people that are happy and sometimes we just get

aggravated. Maybe they're full of life because

maybe they're living in wisdom. Maybe we don't

have the peace in our life and our life's not

as pleasant. And we're not as full of life and

we're not as happy in our life because we're

making foolish choices. Now, I can tell you this

from my experience, and some of you know from

your experience, but, man, you feel bad when

you make foolish choices. There's no peace in

that. There's no joy in that. There's nothing

good about that. Even when on the surface things

may look good, you may make a foolish decision,

and it may seem good, but it leaves you feeling

bad. On the inside. And the same is true even

though it may be opposite for wisdom. Sometimes

you make the wise choice and it may even come

with some bad consequences or may even not look

good. It may even make life harder for you when

you make the wise choice. But there's something

about that wisdom that brings about a peace in

you. And that's a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful

thing when we seek wisdom and live by it. Are

we doing that in our life? If you want your life

to be pleasant and peaceful, if you want to be

full of life and you want to find happiness,

well, the proverb says that comes through wisdom.

Let's continue on a little further. Verse 19.

The Lord founded the earth by wisdom and established

the heavens by understanding. By his knowledge,

the watery depths broke open, and the crowds

dripped with dew. Isn't that a beautiful thing

just to kind of throw in here? If I were to say

what did God create the earth by or what was

it established by, you might say by strength

and by power and by might. But what does the

Proverbs say here? It says the earth was founded

by wisdom, the heavens by understanding. God

created our earth and the heavens. By wisdom

and understanding. By his knowledge he brought

these things about. That shows us the power of

wisdom and understanding. Is that there's enough

power that this is what God used to establish

the very earth that we live on. The very heaven

that he resides in. God established those things

by wisdom and understanding. There's great wisdom

and understanding. Great power and wisdom and

understanding for you and I. Are we tapping into

that power? There's great peace and wisdom and

understanding. Are we those who are making wise

decisions? Are we those who are making foolish

decisions? I can tell you there's not much power

in foolishness. There's a lot of pain in it.

And a lot of us have felt that pain. There's

a lot of power in wisdom. Verse 21. Maintain

your competence and discretion. My son, don't

lose sight of them. They will be life for you

and adornment for your neck. Competence, discretion,

common sense, some of your translations may say.

Sound judgment. Are we doing that with the decisions

that we make? Are we making sound decisions?

Are we using common sense? Do we have discretion

in our decisions that we make? It's a good question

for us to ask. Sometimes we don't use sound judgment.

Sometimes we don't use common sense. Sometimes

we just are a fool doing foolish things and that's

not good. Sometimes in life we spend days, weeks,

months, years of our life just being a fool doing

foolish things. And where does that get us? If

you keep doing foolish things and you keep getting

the same results and you say I want different

results then you have to quit doing foolish things.

Now the foolish things sometimes seem really

fun. They look really good. They really draw

us in. But we want better results in our life,

and we have to realize that better results are

not going to come through foolishness. They're

going to come through wisdom. They're going to

come through the wisdom of Jesus Christ. They're

going to come through the wisdom of God's Word.

And you might be amazed that if all of a sudden

you stop and think about the decision you're

about to make, And if there's something in you

that says, maybe this isn't a good idea, maybe

just taking 30 seconds to pause and ask yourself,

is this a good idea? You might save yourself

a lot of pain. Because in the moment you give

in to the idea and it may feel good, but man,

you've got to live with that. You've got to live

with that. There's no peace in that. But wisdom

may be saying no to something you want to say

yes to, but I'll tell you what, you'll leave

feeling a whole lot better making the wise choice

than the foolish choice. And too many times for

all of us, Lord knows I've done it way more times

than I care to admit, I've made the foolish decision.

But I can tell you there's no peace that comes

with that. There's a lot of peace and happiness

that comes from making the wise choice. Verse

23. Then you will go safely on your way. Your

foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you

will not be afraid. You will lie down and your

sleep will be pleasant. Isn't that a beautiful,

beautiful thing? That when we seek wisdom, when

we really seek wisdom and understanding. then

that's going to lead us on paths that are going

to be smooth. We won't fear wherever our path

takes us, smooth or rough. We're not going to

fear what comes before us. And when we lie down

and sleep, our sleep will be pleasant. Now I'm

going to tell you what, there is nothing worse

than a bad night's sleep. When you toss and you

turn and your sleep is unpleasant, that is not

good. But there is nothing better than a... that

a good night's sleep where you sleep is pleasant.

You wake up, you feel rested. That's a good feeling.

Proverbs says that that comes from wisdom. Maybe

the reason why we're not sleeping good at night

is because we're living too much in our foolishness.

We're trusting too much in ourselves and what

we desire. We might find that our choices that

we make that are based on wisdom may have some

tangible physical effect on how we sleep at night.

How we sleep at night may have an effect on how

we live the next day. Some of you are saying,

man, I haven't had a good night's sleep in years.

I love a good night's sleep. Well, maybe some

of the reason why we don't sleep good is because

of our foolishness. Maybe when we stop our foolishness,

we start making wise decisions. It brings about

a peace within us, a peace that follows us right

to our head laying on that pillow. It's a lot

easier to lay in bed at night with your head

on a pillow, knowing that you did everything

you could to make the right decisions and to

treat people right and to make wise decisions,

and you can feel good about that. And that leads

to a good night's sleep, Proverbs says. You'll

sleep peacefully. You'll sleep, and it will be

pleasant. Verse 25. Don't fear sudden danger

or the ruin of the wicked when it comes. For

the Lord will be your confidence and will keep

your foot from a snare. All right, so we have

stuff that we're up against that's scary sometimes.

But what does the Proverbs say? It says, look,

you don't have to fear that. You won't fear that

if the Lord's your confidence. And if you're

living in wisdom and understanding and you're

seeking God, then the things that come before

you... You won't fear those things. You won't

cave. You won't crumble under the weight of those

things because the Lord is your confidence. So

what about us today? Is the Lord our confidence?

Sometimes we trust in our own strength and our

own ability. And when we do that, guess what?

When the dangers come, when the hard time comes,

we do crumble. Because we can't bear the weight

of all of our struggle and all of our pain and

all of our sickness and all of our sin and all

of the junk that goes on in our family and that

goes on in our school and that goes on at our

job. We can't even begin to bear the burden of

that. We just, we crumble. And when we're not

living in wisdom and we're not seeking God and

we're not relying on His understanding, then

man, it's hard to make it through a day. But

when we begin to seek wisdom and we begin to

seek the understanding of God, it brings about

a confidence in us. God becomes our confidence.

We begin to think, you know what? I serve a God

who is powerful, who is mighty, who is with me,

and he doesn't promise me that everything is

always going to be easy, but he promises that

he'll always be with me through everything that

I do. And once we begin to seek God and we begin

to seek his wisdom and we begin to live in that

and begin to experience that peace that it brings

and we begin to experience the power of wisdom

and the freedom that comes through making the

right decisions that we can finish our day and

lay our head on the pillow and say, God, I can

sleep peacefully tonight because I know I did

everything I could today to try to live according

to your will. and to try to follow what you say

and to try to make wise decisions and to try

to do right by you and to try to do right by

others. And the more we live in that wisdom,

the more we experience that peace, the more we

see the power of God, the more that our confidence

is not in the things of the world, it's not in

our own power. If your confidence is in the things

of the world, then you will never sleep peacefully

at night. If your confidence is in how much money

you got in the stock market, bless your heart,

you're in big trouble. Man, you'll drive yourself

crazy watching that little graph go up and down

every day. If your confidence is based on something

of the world, if your confidence is based in

your job, if your confidence is based in your

popularity, then your confidence will fall and

you will be shattered. Because when hard times

hit, man, where's your strength? But if our confidence

is in God, That no matter what comes before us,

we'll have the ability through God's power and

through God's wisdom to overcome what's before

us. So what about you today? What kind of decisions

are you making? Are you making wise decisions

or foolish decisions? We have decisions before

us every day. Some of them real serious, maybe

some of them less significant, but we have decisions

every day as to whether or not we're going to

do the wise thing or the foolish thing. I remember

when I was a teenager, it was me and one of my

buddies. We were going to race to my house one

day, and so we raced all the way seven miles

up the road we lived up as fast as we could go,

which thankfully our trucks weren't that fast,

but we had them pegged out. I tried my best to

pass him all the way up there and never could

pass him, but I decided that I didn't want to

get to the house last, and so the right thing

to do would be Something he wouldn't expect.

That when he slowed down to turn into my driveway,

I would just cut the corner of the driveway and

pull in in front of him. That seemed like a good

thing to do at the time. But the result was that

instead of passing him, I slid right into the

side of his truck and T -boned him. Now that

was foolishness. That was foolishness. I should

have knew better than that. And it ended up costing

me, thankfully, just $600. But there's a cost

to our foolishness. There's foolish opportunities

before us every day. Are we going to do the foolish

thing or are we going to do the wise thing? In

that split second, we have to make that decision

of what we're going to do. We have to say, God,

what do you desire for me to do? Is this good

for me? It's not. Is this just what I want to

do, God, or is this what you want me to do? God,

if I do what I want to do, I'm going to get what

I want to get, and it's going to make me happy

for a moment. And God, I know that's foolishness.

And I know that if I do the wise thing, it may

mean that I keep my mouth shut. It may mean that

I don't get this thing that I want. It may mean

a million different things. But God, I want to

do what's wise. I don't want to do what's foolish.

Foolishness feels good in the moment, but the

wisdom will feel good for eternity. Now the scripture

says that wisdom is Jesus Christ. Now to the

world that looks like foolishness. But we can't

even begin to seek wisdom today if we don't seek

Jesus Christ. You can't seek wisdom today if

you don't seek the cross of Jesus Christ crucified

and resurrected. That's a message that's not

popular in our world today. It's a message that

a lot of people will say, that's foolishness.

It's foolishness, they'll say. Now this is the

same world that will tell you a whole bunch of

other junk. They'll tell you that men can be

women and women can be men. But then they'll

turn around and tell you that the cross of Jesus

Christ is foolishness. You tell me what's wisdom

and what's foolishness. We know what's wise and

what's foolish. Even the youngest of us have

had those decisions to make and have made those

foolish decisions and have made wise decisions.

We know the pain of the foolishness. We know

the peace of the wisdom. Wisdom comes through

Jesus Christ that we would seek Him. That we

would say, okay, I'm going to stop my sinfulness,

God. I'm going to repent. I no longer desire

to sin. Yeah, those days will come that maybe

we will fail. But our heart doesn't need to be

a heart that's focused on foolishness and sinfulness.

And we need to seek Jesus Christ that our sins

would be forgiven. That if we would just repent

today, He would forgive us. That's wisdom. And

once we're established in that wisdom, then that

will be what guides us as we continue to read

the Word of God, as we continue to seek God,

as the Holy Spirit begins to work in our life.

That comes through the wisdom of the cross of

Jesus Christ. Have you experienced that wisdom

today? I hope you have. If you've experienced

that wisdom today, then we need to make wise

decisions. If you hadn't experienced that wisdom

today, I pray that you'd seek the wisdom of Jesus

Christ this morning. Let's pray. God, we come

to you. We thank you for your good word. Dear

Lord, I pray that you would help us to seek you,

that you would help us to not live in our foolishness.

God, there's probably more foolishness in our

life than we care to admit. We've probably done

and said things that we regret and we're not

proud of. But God, I pray that you would just

forgive us of those things that we've come to

you today, that whatever foolishness we have,

we would repent. I pray, dear Lord, that you

would just help us to seek wisdom instead, that

we wouldn't live according to those things, but

we'd live according to your will, that we would

live according to the wisdom of Jesus Christ,

crucified and resurrected. So, God, I pray that

you just would help anybody today that's struggling

with their foolishness, that they would repent,

that they would find what is pleasant, dear Lord,

and that comes from wisdom, that they would find

peace and be full of life and be full of happiness,

dear Lord. They would know that wisdom brings

that and that they would seek that this morning.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.