Brewing Up Wisdom | Trinity Sermons

Today's reading is from 2 Chronicles 9, verses 1 to 9 and verse 12.

2 Chronicles 9:1–9

When the Queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame, she came to Jerusalem to

test him with hard questions.

Arriving with a very great caravan, with camels carrying spices, large quantities

of gold, and precious stones, she came to Solomon and talked with him about all she

had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions.

Nothing was too hard for him to explain to her.

When the Queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon, as well as the palace he had

built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants

in their robes, the cup bearers in their robes, and the burnt offerings that he

made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.

She said to the King,

The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom

is true. But I did not believe what they said until I came and saw with my own

eyes. Indeed, not even half the greatness of your wisdom was told me.

You have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your people must be.

How happy your officials who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom.

Praise be to the Lord your God, who is delighted in you and placed you on his

throne as King to rule for the Lord your God. Because of the love of your God for

Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you King over them

to maintain justice and righteousness.

Then she gave the King 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and

precious stones. There had never been such spices as those the Queen of Sheba

gave to King Solomon. King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba all she desired and

asked for. He gave her more than she had brought to him. Then she left and

returned with her retinue to her own country. The word of the Lord.

Hey, I'm going to start by asking you a question and here's the question. Who is

the smartest person that you know? Would you take just 20 seconds, turn to the

person beside you, answer this question. Who is the smartest person you know? Go.

Okay, okay. Now I have another question for you. I want you to answer this one.

Not who is the smartest person you know, but who is the wisest person that you

know? Okay. Now again, take 20 seconds and tell that to the person beside you.

I'm not hearing a great deal of chit chat about this, but I'm going to assume

you've come up to answer these questions. Let me ask you this question. How many

of you was the smartest person the same as the wisest person? Just a show of

hands. Yeah, see, hardly any. It's hardly any, which actually proves something

really important and that is that we understand that there is a difference

between being really smart and being really wise. And that's the difference

between being really wise. If you were to ask me the question of who's the

smartest person I know, I'd probably say someone like my brother John, my

younger brother John, which is a hard pill for me to swallow because when I

was growing up, I was always a couple years older than him, always a couple

steps ahead of him, always a couple grades ahead of him. I could win every

argument. I was just smarter. I knew more, but then he started reading books and I

never read books, right? And so he slowly started to get smarter and smarter and

I did and pretty soon I realized, oh my goodness, I cannot argue this guy

anymore. He's smarter than me and it's true, he is smarter than me. He went off

to become an engineer and to this day, he's one of the smartest people that I

know. Now, one of the wisest people I know, that'd be something probably a

little different. My brother's name is John, but there's another guy named John

who was a professor at the seminary that I went to. And when I met him, I

found that he seemed like a wise fellow, but over the years we continued to meet,

we continued to chat and have these check-ins. In some ways, he became like an

unofficial mentor to me throughout the years. And the thing about him that I

found was that not only had he been through more of life than me and

kind of experienced more things and just had been like a step ahead of me in

life, but he had this deep appreciation for the scriptures and for his faith

that kind of impacted pretty much all that he did in his life. And so, I really

got a sense from him whenever I sat down and talked to him that there was wisdom

there, that there was wisdom behind his words. Not only that, but he had this

wonderful Welsh accent that makes everything that he says sounds like

wisdom. So, my point is this though, there is a big difference between being smart

and being wise. They're not the same thing. Now, if I asked you this question,

if you could choose between being wise or being smart, which one would you pick?

How many of you would choose to be smart? How many of you would choose to be wise?

Ah, you see, that's the thing. We all know that wisdom is so important because

wisdom is the thing that helps us make right decisions when we need to make

them to help us choose the right course of action. And there's so many times in

life where we need help making the right decisions. Let's say, for example, you're

a parent and you're here today. You need wisdom. You need wisdom to figure out,

you know, how to raise kids, you know, when do you put them to bed, what do you

feed them, how much screen time should they have, how do you discipline them?

You need wisdom. Or let's say you're married, you're in a relationship, you

need wisdom in a relationship. How do you treat each other? How do you forgive

each other? How do you solve problems together in a marriage or in a

relationship? You need wisdom. We need wisdom when it comes to our careers in

your workplace. You need wisdom to know, you know, do we sign the contract or not?

Do we hire this person or not? Do we fire this person or not? There's a lot of

wisdom needed there. Financially, we need wisdom. How much money should we be

saving? How much should we be spending and giving and investing and so on and so

forth? People need wisdom. People go looking for wisdom. Sometimes, though,

when they go looking for wisdom, they actually come across other things that

aren't exactly wisdom, although they look like wisdom. So, for example, one thing

that we sometimes confuse wisdom for is information, right? We think that maybe if

we just get enough smarts, we get enough degrees that we'll become wise. We go to

university and there is a connection, I think, between the information in our

heads and the wisdom in our lives, but they're not the same thing. Secondly,

sometimes we mistake wisdom for imitation. So we find someone or we get to

know somebody who's wise and we say, I'm going to do what they do and I'm going

to act like they act and therefore I will also be wiser. And I think there's

some truth to that. Really important to have mentors in your life, but it's not

the same thing as wisdom. And then thirdly, there's an old saying that says

with experience comes wisdom or with age comes wisdom. And that is certainly true

to a point, but it does not guarantee that you're going to be wiser just

because you're getting older or having more experience. So what is wisdom and

how do we get it? Today I want to suggest to you that the secret to wisdom is

found no further than your household coffee maker. I have a love affair with

coffee. I measure my life in scoops of coffee. There's every cup of coffee I

have is just a big hug in a mug, I think. And you know, I know they say you can't

buy happiness, but you can buy a coffee, right? And coffee is both the next best

thing to happiness. So this is a good old-fashioned drip coffee maker. Now I

know some of you make coffee and you've got fancy schmancy tessimo or an espresso

machines and those are good, nothing against those. Or some of you have like

the hand crafting, you know, the delonghi, you know, all the steam and the

pressure and you like to make your own cappuccino at home, that's cool too.

Or some of you are like the purists of coffee and so you have one of those

Chem-X kind of brewing systems where you carefully pour just the right amount of

water over just the right amount of grains and that's all good too. But

today I want to talk to you about the workhorse of the coffee industry, the

good old-fashioned percolator, the drip coffee maker. I think it probably goes

without saying we all know how one of these works, but let's just say, you know,

that you've been hiding under a rock for the last 200 years and you don't know.

What you do is inside your drip coffee maker you've got a basket and inside the

basket there is a filter, that's right, there's a filter and what you're going to

do is you're going to take some coffee grounds, I stole these from Liz Leek's

personal supply in the office, and you pour some of those coffee grounds into

the filter, perfect, and then after that you're going to take water, good

old-fashioned tap water, and you pour it into the coffee reservoir, then you're

going to simply just close the lid, hit the start button, and if this were plugged

in you would start to hear this gurgling noise, this beautiful, beautiful

noise, and here's why, here's what's happening. Oh, better get the pot under

there, because the coffee machine is heating up the water in the reservoir,

pushing it up through a little pipe that then sprinkles it out, drip, drip, drip,

drip, over top of the basket, over top of the filter containing the coffee, and

that water is about to be magically transformed into something just like

liquid gold, what happens is that water as it drips and sifts and percolates and

soaks through the coffee, it picks up the color of the coffee, it picks up the

aroma of the coffee, and most importantly it picks up the flavor of the coffee,

and eventually you start to see this tap, tap, drip, drip, tap, tap, the coffee now

is coming back into the caraf, into the pot, you can smell it, you can see it, it

is a sight to behold, ladies and gentlemen. Now that is not a bad picture

of wisdom, by the way, because how do we get wisdom? Well, wisdom is brewed in us

in kind of a similar way, whenever we take our decisions, whenever we take our

ideas, whenever we take our lives, our lives, and we filter them through God's

truth, when we filter them through a life lived with God, whenever we take our

whole lives and we filter them through God, we pick up the flavor, we pick up

the aroma, we pick up God's wisdom as part of that percolating process, if we

are the water, then God's truth is the coffee, and wisdom occurs the more we

pour ourselves through God's truth, the more we pour our life through God's life,

then slowly drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, guess what happens? Wisdom starts to be

brewing and forming in us. Now this isn't something, I'm not making this up, you

might say, oh, that's a great analogy, but the Bible has been telling us this for

thousands of years, for the Lord God gives wisdom from his mouth, God's word

is where we find wisdom, and that's where knowledge comes from and

understanding comes from, and the more that you can soak your life in God's

word, the wiser you're going to be. Or how about this one from Psalm 19, that

the law of the Lord, you can read scriptures there, the scriptures of the

Lord are perfect, they revive the soul, the testimony of the Lord sure makes

wise the simple. So even if you would call yourself an uneducated person, or

you're not an intellectual type of person, or you might even call

yourself a simple person, you too can be made wise by soaking yourself, by

filtering your life through God's truth. Now, when we talk about the Bible, when

we talk about wisdom, we have got to talk about this guy, this is Solomon.

Solomon was the third king of Israel, he was the son of David and Bathsheba, and

he lived about 1000 BC, and he was an amazing king for the most part. He

actually presided over Israel during a time of great prosperity, a time of great

expansion, a time where there's a lot of great building projects going on, but

Solomon, when Solomon first became king, he was aware, he did not know what he

was doing. And so he says, he prays this prayer to God, he says, God, I am like

just a little child here, I do not know how to carry out these duties. So give

me a wise and discerning heart to govern your people and distinguish between

what is right and what is wrong. And God was so pleased with Solomon's request

here, that God says, I will do what you have asked. Yeah, I will give you a wise

and discerning heart so there will never have been anyone like you, nor will

there ever be. And ever since, Solomon became known as the wisest person, maybe

the wisest person in the Bible, the wisest person ever. But how did it work?

How did Solomon get so wise? Did God just like download a whole bunch of

information into Solomon's head in that moment, and then he just knew everything?

No, no, that's not how it works. I think this is how it worked. Instead of filling

Solomon's mind, what God did is he changed Solomon's heart. He gave Solomon

a love for God and a deep love for God's word, which meant that from then on, as

Solomon went through life, whenever he was faced with a problem, whenever he had

a decision to make, he would take that decision, take that problem, and he would

soak it through God's law, he would soak it through God's word, he would let it

percolate and steep in God's truth and in who God was. So much so that when

Solomon made his decisions, they had picked up the aroma, they had picked up

the flavor, and they had picked up the color of God's wisdom. So that when

Solomon made these decisions, the whole world looked and said, wow, how

incredibly wise is that? But it wasn't magic. He was just soaking his life in

the life of God and picking up that wisdom, which God has for all of us.

That's my point here today, is this is, there's nothing magical about this.

Solomon just loved to study the Scriptures. He loved to dwell in God's

presence, and that's what made him wise. For example, in one of the most

important speeches that Solomon ever made, he said this, he said, let's turn

our hearts to God and walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees,

and laws that he gave our ancestors. Let's be fully committed. Let's fully

steep, fully brew ourselves in God's presence and live by his decrees and

commands. You see, this was the high point of Solomon's wisdom. It was all

because he was constantly bringing his life into contact with God's truth and

God's life. And it's interesting to say that toward the end of his life and

toward the end of his reign, Solomon stopped doing this. He stopped turning to

God. He walked away from God. He turned his back on the word of God, and as a

result, he faced all sorts of consequences and made bad decisions that

affected him spiritually, that affected the whole nation. But the point has been

made. Point has been made. Solomon shows us the secret of brewing wisdom. You

take your life. You take your life and you just let that soak in God's truth

until your heart gets changed, until your mind gets changed, until you get

changed. And you too pick up the aroma and the color and the flavor of God's

wisdom, and people will look to you and say, yeah, that person's got a lot of

wisdom. You know, what they just said was pretty wise. It's something that each and

every one of us can learn to do just by learning how to brew our lives and

filter our lives through God's word. The trouble is many of us do not do this.

Many of us instead, when it comes to making decisions in our lives, we don't

filter our life through God's word and God's truth. We filter it through

other things. Can you imagine, for example, if instead of putting coffee

into this filter, I put something like salt in there or cheese curds, or what

if I put raw ground beef in there and I close it up and I hit brew? I'll tell

you, something would come out. Something would come out of there. I wouldn't want

to drink it. It would probably kill you if you drank it. The same is true of

wisdom. Many of us, when we go about our lives, we make decisions. And the thing

that we're filtering our decisions through is not God's truth. It's something

else, you know, the many cultural influences that are out there. We say,

those are the things I'm going to allow me to make the decisions in my life,

right? Or we turn to a celebrity or to an influencer and we say, that person is

going to help me make the best decisions in my life. Or we turn to some political

party or political ideology, conservative, liberal, Republican, Democrat,

and we say, I'm with them. Whatever they say is how I'm going to make my decisions

in my life. Or maybe we just go with our heart. We go with our gut. However I'm

feeling in the moment, that is going to be the thing that helps me make the

decisions in my life. But that is not what wise people do. That is not what

Solomon did. That once only when we consistently filter our decisions and

our experiences and thoughts through the truth of God's word, that we start to

brew up something truly special, rich and full-bodied wisdom of our own. I want to

show you a little story. We just read it about how that aroma of God's wisdom

followed Solomon wherever he went. The story starts telling us that the queen

of Sheba had heard about Solomon's fame. And I think you could read there, heard

about Solomon's wisdom. Now Sheba was located kind of at the southern part of

the Nile region in Egypt. And it's interesting to note that during Solomon's

reign, because he was such a successful king for the period of time, Israel had

actually developed a fleet of ships. And those ships would go around the

surrounding world there and trade. And these ships would go for years at a

time and come back. Which is interesting because Israel never really had a strong

presence on the seas and on the waterways, but under Solomon they did. And

apparently what had happened is these boats had made their ways up to Sheba.

And then rumor of Solomon's wisdom began to spread among the people of Sheba. And

the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon's wisdom and she said, I got to get down

there. I got to see what that's all about. I got to go check it out. Now a lot of

people think actually what she wanted to do was come down and check him out. Right?

There is some evidence that maybe the queen of Sheba and Solomon had a little

thing going on, a little romantic intrigue to the story. There's even rumors

out there that they may have even had a child together. You're gonna have to go

home and Google that for yourself. I'm not gonna spoil all that intrigue for

you. But what's important is this, is that the queen of Sheba came with all these

questions to test Solomon and what she found was that nothing was too hard for

him to explain. In fact, when she saw Solomon's wisdom, we are told that she

was overwhelmed. Now the Hebrew word for overwhelmed there can actually also mean

fainted. Right? So what some people think that actually this is where the romance

come from, that she actually swooned, swooned over Solomon's wisdom. Oh

Solomon, you're so wise. I can barely stay awake. Oh catch me, catch me as I'm

falling. Right? Was that what was going on? Maybe. Who knows? Who knows? But this is

what we know for sure, that the wisest person that she ever knew was totally

eye-opening for her. Now the thing is she understood that Solomon's wisdom was

different than other wisdom she had seen before. Yes, Solomon had been places and

experienced things and he had picked up things in his travels and learned lots

of information. But she says, no, no. The report I heard about your wisdom is true.

She says, praise be to the Lord your God. She was not a follower of Solomon's God.

She did not know Yahweh and yet she knew in that moment there's something

different about this guy's wisdom. His wisdom is coming from the Lord his God. I

know his secret now. Right? He is filtering his life and his decisions

through this God of his and that is what is making him wise. It wasn't magic. Even

Solomon would would go on to tell the secret of his wisdom. He would say the

fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And that again means we too can

access this wisdom in our own lives. We face decisions. We too need to filter

that through who God's revealed himself to be. I want to share with you one story

of how Solomon did this and I'll try to go quick because I know I don't want to

go too long here but but there was this one instance when these two ladies came

to Solomon and they had a great big problem. You see one there was one baby

between them and they were fighting over whose baby this was. Apparently what had

happened these two women were living in the same house and they both had babies

and one of the babies died. I think maybe it died in the night and this

suspicion was that actually one of the mothers got up and switched the babies

when she realized that her baby had died but who knows whether that was true.

Anyways both women came in and were like this is my baby and the other woman was

like no this is my baby and they brought it to Solomon. They said Solomon you're

so wise you're gonna have to figure this one out. Whose baby is it? Now Solomon he

takes one look at the situation and he says okay I know how to figure out who

the mother is. Cut the child in half and that way each of you can have part of

them. Now you might say what the heck that does not sound like wisdom at all

that sounds like barbarism but of course Solomon was never gonna cut the child in

half instead what he was doing was something incredibly wise. You see he knew

he knew that one of these women would represent the heart and love of God. You

see because Solomon had spent so much time in God's presence in God's word he

knew that God as a parent as God as a father would do anything for his

children. He would sacrifice anything for his kids and he knew that one of these

women would do the same. The true mother would do the same because that's what

sacrificial love looks like. He learned that in his study of the scriptures and

in the study of God's life. Now he knew that one of these women was going to be

willing to sacrifice in the same way that God gave himself and sacrificed for

his own people and that's exactly what happens. He makes this proposition and

and the lady who represents the truth the lady who represents the way God

works she is willing to give that child up in order to save that child's life.

Please don't kill my son. The baby's mother screamed your majesty I love him

very much but give him to her just don't kill him. Love. He learned about God's

love he learned about the love of a parent and that enabled him to say this

is the child's mother the one who loved with such a sacrificial love give the

baby to her. We stand in awe of that but there's nothing magical about it. It just

came through his deep percolation in the life and word of God. If you don't do

that you don't gain wisdom instead you become what the Bible calls a fool.

Alright the wise heart yes receives God's commandments but a babbling fool

will come to ruin or Solomon said elsewhere he said respect and obey the

Lord this is the beginning of wisdom but a fool rejects such knowledge. So as we

head out of this place today and we go about seeking wisdom for all the things

in our own lives I want to just give you a few warnings. Watch out for types of

wisdom that actually aren't the real thing or what I want to call you call

some poor substitutes for wisdom or some bad Java bad cuppa that looks like

wisdom but it isn't wisdom. Let me let me give you an example let's say you wake

up in the morning you're excited for your morning coffee and you go and it

looks really good and you pour yourself a cup of it and then you you put it to

your mouth and you take one sip and you're like oh my gosh that is horrible

it is bitter it is bad. I'm gonna tell you so much of the wisdom that the world

is offering it looks really good it appears from the outside to be wisdom

but it is bad and it is bitter it's compromised so many of the sources of

wisdom in our world are just cultural influences and misinformation it'll

leave a bad taste in your mouth if you follow those sources of wisdom and it

won't guide you in the right direction so watch out for bitter coffee also be

on your guard against really expensive coffee right if you there are some

restaurants here in streetsville that you can spend eight dollars on getting a

very top-notch cup of coffee with a real hefty price tag and you'll probably then

taste it afterwards and say yeah it's good coffee but but I think that you

know I don't know what all the fuss was about I want to say don't be fooled by

wisdom that is all dressed up with eloquence and snobbery and is like

arrogant and say oh you can't possibly know anything you're uneducated or you

don't have nearly as many degrees as I do so you can't possibly have the

wisdom that I have don't believe it don't believe it wisdom is not expensive

like that it is available for everyone is simply found by dwelling in God's

truth beware of expensive coffee also beware of weak coffee some people do

read the Bible to find God's wisdom but what happens is then once they get out

into the world they actually feel the pressure of the people around them and

they kind of water down that wisdom or they're they're nervous or what other

people would say if they made that decision and so they water it down and

pretty soon that potent cup of coffee has become so watered down and weak and

diluted you're trying to please so many people that it's actually not strong

enough anymore to make a real difference in your life so watch out for weak coffee

watch out for old coffee we've all had this situation where that coffee is

sitting there in the coffee machine all day long and we think I might still be

good and you go and you pour yourself a cup but nah it's cold and it's nasty and

it's like stale just like old coffee sometimes we rely on old methods oh

I've always done it this way before a mom and dad used to do it that way and

sometimes we think that the old ways are the wise ways sometimes that's true but

that's not always true instead wisdom like good coffee needs to be fresh we

can't just reheat old ideas over and over again expect them to be effective

we we need to continually seek new understanding and new wisdom from God

and from God's Word and from God's Spirit as we go through our lives as we

apply it to our lives so be aware of the old coffee it's got to be fresh wisdom

and finally instant coffee let's be honest yes it's quick and it's convenient

and it'll do in a pinch but it is never as satisfying as a freshly brewed cup I

want to say that there's a lot of wisdom out there that is quick fix wisdom you

know read this and it'll answer your question and a lot of this quick fix

wisdom and advice is just it's made without deep reflection on God's Word at

all we reach for easy answers no depth no richness to the wisdom that we can get

if we would just brew wisdom over time by abiding in God's Word true wisdom

requires patience requires a willingness to let God's Word percolate in your life

over time that's why some of the wisest people out there are the oldest they

just had more time to grow in wisdom but but just because you're old doesn't mean

you're wise and just because you're young doesn't mean you're a fool what

matters most of all is are you bringing your life into contact with God's life

and God's Word we actually if we do this right could possibly become even wiser

than Solomon sounds like a shocking statement but the truth is we actually

have access to a source of wisdom that Solomon never had and that is Jesus

Christ you see Solomon he filtered his life through the commands of God and

through the Word of God that he had the laws of God but we can filter our life

through that plus the life and teachings of Jesus Christ Jesus who was the

ultimate and final revelation of who God is Jesus shows us how to live Jesus

shows us how to love and if I follow me Jesus we can make wise decisions beyond

compare in fact Jesus once said everyone who hears my words and puts them into

practice that is a wise person that is a wise man who builds his house on rock

see we've got the full story we've got the full story of God's love revealed to

us in Jesus Christ and that gives us the opportunity to be even wiser than

Solomon so you want to brew up some wisdom tell you what read your Bible day

by day by day you know what will happen drip drip drip slowly you will pick up

the flavor and the color and the aroma of who God is you want to grow in wisdom

then develop a prayer life with God day by day drip drip drip and slowly over

time you will draw close to God and you will start to to think and and love like

a god love you'll be changed by God you want to develop wisdom in your life then

then come and worship at church Sunday by Sunday or day by day and drip drip

drip you will grow in love with God and you will grasp more and more of who God

is drip by drip you'll become a wise person someone who can make wise

decisions so let's leave here today and let's start the brewing process today

about running our lives through God's life it's a beautiful thing a beautiful

cup of wisdom awaits thank be to God amen