The Wise and the Fool

Good morning, Watermark. How are you? Thank you, Chris and Jen, for reading God's Word for us.

How are you guys? Good. You're probably wondering to yourself, what on earth has he got in that

little box of his? Is he carrying around his auntie? Or did his pet die or something,

and he has to have it close to him? Is it his little comfort box? Well,

I'm not going to tell you. What I will do is tell you a story about a little box like that.

So I knew two guys at school. They were brothers, and they grew up in a Christian family. And one

summer holiday, they were sent away to spend the summer with their grandmother. And she lived in

the countryside. She had a beautiful house and a big garden, but not much else happening there.

So these two boys, being two very curious little boys, kind of wandered around the house. And what

they found was a little box that looked very similar to this. And on the box was written,

God's Promise Box. So being two curious little boys, they opened up the box,

and they found little cards with scripture written on them, right? God's promises, all the good stuff,

right? But being little boys, and they would notice that granny would come along and she'd open up the

box every morning, read one of the promises, smile, and put them back in the pile, and this and on.

And then the boys had a great idea. They thought, let's add to that box. So then they started with some of

some of the stuff that would just get granny going, you know, like those who want to live a godly life

in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And they slipped that one in the box. And they noticed grandma

didn't smile so much that morning when she read it. And then they thought, let's try it a little bit

more. So they said, blessed are those who are kind to their grandkids. Put that one in there. And

granny was so nice to the boys, right? Thought this is fantastic. Let's try it even more. So they took

another one and they said, gifts given to grandchildren are a great blessing. Granny goes

to the shop, she comes back and she's got gifts for the boys. And this carries on. The boys just keep

piling in these promises and it gets more and more crazy. And grandmother probably ages and by the end of

the holiday, she's so happy to get rid of these boys. But the problem with granny is that she didn't,

she took God's word in little pieces and she cut it up, the nice little bits, and she couldn't

recognize when something else slipped in there. Or she didn't really like it when maybe some of the more

challenging stuff slipped in there. So at Watermark, we are, if you're new to us, and we welcome you,

but we are committed to God's word. We study it. We look at whole books of it. We treasure it.

And if you're joining us today, we are in our second week of looking at the book of Proverbs.

So what I'm going to do now, I'm going to tell you the most important thing I'm going to say today,

right? This is it. So if you're taking notes, this is the one thing that you need to write down.

I'm giving you the punchline now about the book of Proverbs. This is what you need, and here it is.

A proverb is a proverb is a proverb. It is not a promise, okay? It is a general truth. It is usually

true, but it is not a promise. We have a proverb in English, right? So it goes,

too many cooks spoil the broth. There we go. Someone knows. Okay. And that literally just means

if there are too many people involved, things get messed up. Now that's usually true, but it's not

always true. So Proverbs is kind of looking at life and describing it as it really is. It's not just

church on a Sunday, but it's looking at life how it really is. It's kind of life in the street,

life at work, life at school, life at home. It's almost like someone took a GoPro, shoved it on their

head and is walking around the streets of Hong Kong just observing people, just observing life.

And they come to it and said, this is what it's like, right? And they write these proverbs about

life. And the most amazing thing about the book of Proverbs for me is that it transcends all time,

all cultures. It is the same. It was written almost 3,000 years ago, and it was true then.

It was read and studied in 1980, and it was true then. We're reading it today in 2017,

and its truths and observations are correct. And 20 years time, it's going to be read in 2037,

and it'll still be true because people are the same. Our human nature is the same. No matter what

culture or time you are in, you will see these things worked out. So in the book of Proverbs,

there are about 900 proverbs which talk about life's most important subjects. And we live in a

time and a culture where we like to talk about how things work or what makes things work, but we don't

really discuss the question of why. Why do things work the way they do? And Proverbs tackles that

question. It looks at life and asks these really important questions. And how it does it is it kind

of holds them up in contrast to each other. So you'll have subjects like pride, and Proverbs will

contrast that with humility. Love and lust. Wealth and poverty. Work. Leisure. Husbands. Wives. Friends.

Family. Life. Death. And what we're going to talk about today. Wisdom and foolishness. But this book,

this book of Proverbs is essentially telling us how we can make the most of life. How we can live the good,

right life. But it is also a warning to us of how we can waste our lives. This wisdom, right? Chris gave

us last week the Hebrew word for wisdom. Does anyone remember it? Okay, it sounds like you're sick,

right? I always find it better if you have flu and you want to speak Hebrew. Chochma. So this chochma,

this skill, this wisdom will enable us to come to the end of our days and look back, and we will be

pleased with how life has turned out for us if we apply this chochma, this wisdom to our lives.

So I really liked it. Leo mentioned Solomon, right? So Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs,

but he also wrote three other books in the Bible, right? The Great Trilogy. And so the first one he

wrote was called The Song of Songs or The Songs of Solomon. And he's a young man, right? And you can

tell he's a young man because he's only writing about girls, right? Girls, girls, girls. He doesn't

even mention God in the book, right? But it's love, it's girls. And then right at the end of his life,

number three in the trilogy is this book called Ecclesiastes. And it's written as an old man,

and you can tell he's an old man because he says, when the teeth are few and the bones are brittle.

He's an old man, and he's looking back on his life, and he's trying to find meaning in the life he lived.

And right in the middle of these two books, he writes the book of Proverbs, which is a middle-aged

man. And it's kind of like a father talking to his son, trying to tell him how to avoid some of the

mistakes he made, right? I once had a mother walk up to me, and she told me this story.

She was having an argument with her 15-year-old daughter. And her 15-year-old daughter turned to

her and said, what did you do at my age that makes you mistrust me like you do? Now, that is the most

scariest thing for a parent to have ever said to them. What did you do at my age that makes you

mistrust me like you do? And that's what the book of Proverbs is like, right? It's like a father

who's taking a son on a camping trip, and he's going to impart wisdom to him. He's going to teach

him what he's learned in life. And if you ever want to get a young man's attention, and you want a

metaphor for teaching him something, you talk about girls, right? They listen. So that's exactly what he

does here. Solomon takes wisdom, and he's telling his son, wisdom is like a wonderful woman. She is

a sweetheart. She is beautiful beyond comprehension. She is delicate. She's worth chasing after. Go

after her. Court her. Spend time with her. She is lovely. And then he contrasts that with foolishness.

And he said, foolishness? Foolishness is like a seductive, flirty woman who just tempts you. She's

got this lovely, smooth talk, this flirtatious way of just enticing you. It's almost like a predator

playing with its prey. But you know, all her charms of foolishness will lead to death. She will destroy

you. It's kind of like looking at a prostitute. And she might look good to you and feel good.

But it's so short term. Because she will leave you empty. She will leave you barren.

She will leave you to death. And he said, that's wisdom and foolishness put before you. This beautiful

sweetheart. Chase her. Go after her. And this foolishness which will just lead you astray.

Chris said it last week. And I have to say it again. Wisdom is not intelligence. Right? You don't go to

university to get wisdom. Right? It's not intelligence. Because there are some incredibly

great minds out there who can be incredibly foolish. Right? So I picked this guy, Gary Hart. Anyone know

Gary Hart? Remember Gary Hart? Good. That's why I picked him. Right? So it's a little bit before our time.

So we wouldn't remember who he is. But I could have picked any number of people. So Gary Hart was an

American politician. He was also a lawyer, an author, and a college professor. This guy was described

as a genius. He had sharp wit, a mind that worked at a different level. But he was a fool.

In 1988, he was running for the nomination for the Democratic Party for president. And while he was

running for office, there was a rumor circulating that he was having an affair with a model named Donna Rice.

And when he was questioned about it, in his arrogance, he denied all allegations. Instead,

he turned on the media and he challenged them. He said, you know what? Follow me. Follow me. And this

was his actual quote. He said, you'll be bored. Surprise, surprise, the media followed him. The very next day,

the very next day, they take photographs of Donna Rice leaving his apartment. That afternoon,

they take photos of very compromised Gary Hart and Donna Rice locked in an embrace on Gary Hart yacht.

The next day, the next day, the pictures were published in the newspaper under the headline,

you'll be bored. He was a fool, right? An absolute fool in his arrogance and his pride,

but he was a genius. You see, God has designed it that wisdom will come to us,

passed through our parents, passed through our grandparents, and passed through people more

experienced than us. And the sad truth is, we live at a time where we are living with a wisdom

deprivation, right? We are deprived of wisdom. There's this great emphasis on getting knowledge,

getting intellect, but not so much on wisdom. And at Watermark, we are committed to loving and serving

the next generation. It's why we make a big deal of our young adults, of our youth ministry, of our kids

ministry, and why we encourage people, get involved. Get involved. Pass on the wisdom you have learned

into those generations. There was another professor. This was a wise professor,

a guy by the name of Mark Bauerlein, right? He's an English professor at Emerald University in America.

And he, one day, picks up an article that's put on his desk, and he reads it, and it says that

this generation, anyone under the age of 35, anyone under the age of 35 here? Okay. I'm talking to you guys.

He says, anyone under the age of 35, you are the most red generation that's ever walked the planet.

You read more than any generation before you. And Mark, reading this, shakes his head, because

as a professor at his university, what he's seeing is an absolute decline in academic writing,

in academic thought. He sees a decline in maturity amongst his students. And then he's reading this

article about how well-read and wonderful this generation is. So he sets out to do some research.

And anyway, the culmination of his research is he writes this book called The Dumbest Generation.

Okay. Probably not the best title to give a book to Win Friends, but he calls it The Dumbest Generation,

how the digital age stupefies young people and jeopardizes our future. And basically,

his finding goes like this. He said, yes, they live at a time when they have access to all this

information out there easy, but do they use it for that? Are they Googling the French Revolution?

And he came to think that they're not. They are spending their time on social media, Facebook,

Twitter bird. I don't know what it is called, right? Those things, right? Snapchat, whatever.

That's where they're spending their time. And they're not really reading. What they are reading is,

where are we meeting on Friday? LOL. Guys, that's not reading, right? That's not reading. But that's

what they're doing. So he kind of goes in and how this is affecting our young adults of the time. But then

there's this part of the book where he tackles wisdom. I know he's not a Christian, but this is

what he says. He said, 30 years ago, a 15-year-old would go to school and they would be in a 15-year-old

world. They would have the peer pressure, the talk of 15-year-olds would be with them while they're

at school. But then they would go home and they would switch off from that 15-year-old world.

They would sit down with mom and dad and maybe grandma and grandpa at the dinner table,

and they would be exposed to a different world. They would hear about work, relationships,

struggles, hardships, politics, war. And even if they didn't participate in that conversation,

they were hearing about wisdom. He says, the biggest problem is now the same 15-year-old

today goes to school. They are exposed to a 15-year-old world, 15-year-old peer pressure,

15-year-old talk. And they come home and they're still connected. They're still connected to a 15-year-old

world through their smartphone, through social media. And unfortunately, their parents are also

connected to their worlds and not passing on this wisdom. And he nails it, right? He says,

he sees it, how it's affecting young people, brilliant people, intellectual minds, but no

wisdom. They lack wisdom. Guys, and as I read it, I just thought, at Watermark, we really need to be

intentional about this. We need to be so counter-cultural with this. Where the world is

deprived of wisdom, we want to be overflowing in imparting wisdom to our friends, our family,

our next generation. So I'm going to give you five characteristics of the wise and five

characteristics of the foolish. Here they go. Number one, a wise person is humble. They realize,

I am not the center of the universe. I need other people and I like to learn and grow. I need to

learn and grow. They are humble. They recognize that. Number two, they're teachable. They're teachable,

right? You go to them and you say, hey, I've been reading this book and it's a really good book. I

think it would suit your situation, what you're going through. And they go, great. I'm looking for

good books to read. Thank you very much. Or I was reading this in the Bible this morning and I really

think it'll be good for you. And great. I'd love to learn. Tell me what it is. Let me write it down.

I'll go and check it up. Or, you know, hey, I've just been noticing the way you are with your finances

at the moment. Maybe not the best way. And they're like, hey, teach me. I need to learn.

A teachable person is someone who reaches out to someone who is wiser than them in a certain area.

So there's actually a young couple in Watermark who approached Irina and myself. So I won't tell

you their real names. I'll just, let's just call them Dan and Soda, right? Not their real names.

Not their real names. But let's just call them Dan and Soda. So a while ago, they approach

Irina and myself and we've been married nine years. Honey, nine years, right? Okay, that's

important. We've got to get that right. Okay, we've been married nine years. They approach us and they

say, look, you know, we've kind of fallen in love and we're thinking about getting married,

but we don't really know what we're doing. Okay, can we kind of hang out with you guys and

kind of discuss some of these things? And okay, like you guys are scraping the bottom of the barrel

here. Don't know why you picked us. But we say yes and we start hanging out together, right? We'd

listen to a sermon and then we'd talk about it over the dinner table. We'd invite them in to our home

and they'd see the craziness of two kids running around and we would talk about marriage, the things

that we've learned, some things that we wish we had avoided. And Dan and Soda are just asking great

questions and I find one of the most amazing blessings was not for them but for us. For Irina

and myself, we began talking about our marriage, right? And we began reflecting on some of the things

that we've done well and some of the things that we haven't done so well. So it was a blessing to us

to be able to teach them. And I honestly think Dan and Soda, one day they will be able to bless

others, right? They would be filled with wisdom, able to do that for another couple. Just don't ask

them any tips on hairstyles, right? Not the wise in some areas, foolish in others. Okay, so number three,

a wise person has empathy for others. They realize what they do has an effect on other people.

What I did there, what I said there, did that make you feel bad? I'm really sorry about that.

It's not just me, I have empathy for how others feel. If they see suffering,

it affects them. It bothers them. It's not just don't blink your eyes. They have empathy for what's

going on around them. Number four, a wise person acts upon wisdom, right? You say to them, do you see

this in your life? Yes, I do see it. I do see it. A wise person, when wisdom is given to them, they take

responsibility for it. They go like, this is my relationship with God. I need to take responsibility

for it. I need to pray. I need to be reading my Bible. I take responsibility for it. This is my

family. These are my kids. I take responsibility for it. And here's the most amazing thing is, as a

wise person, as you act upon wisdom, Proverbs teaches us, you get wiser still. It's like a snowball,

right? You get wisdom, it gets bigger. Your learning grows. You add to your learning, and wisdom

grows. And this leads us to point number five. A wise person's life bears fruit. A wise person's life

bears fruit. Because as they get wisdom, they are not just hearers of it, but they are doers of it.

They don't just listen to wisdom, but they do wisdom in life.

And they are people that change. You see them, and a year later, they're different. They're not so

foolish in certain areas anymore. They are changing. They are growing in wisdom. And it says, wisdom

rewards you. How you respond to wisdom, wisdom in your life will reward you. Your life will be

different. You will make changes. There's a wonderful term that I read. It says this. It says,

correction builds connection. So you go to a wise person, and you kind of course correct them.

And what it does is they begin to love you. They say, thank you for that. Thank you for sharing your

wisdom. Thank you for taking the time to walk with me in this. And it builds a connection. It builds a

relationship between the two of you. So a wise person's life bears fruit. Their life changes. They change.

Now, five marks of the foolish. A foolish person is proud. You're wrong. I disagree with you.

My way is right. They're proud. Number two, a foolish person is unteachable. Hey, I've been reading this

book, and I think it would really help you. I didn't ask you to give me a book. Why do you read the book?

Unteachable. Number three, a foolish person is self-centered. I'm the center of the universe. It's all about me.

It's always about me. You, the rest of you, just orbit around me. I'm the center of it. My way is right.

You have no empathy for how other people feel. When you approach them, hey, do you realize what you did

there, how it made other people feel? What about me? Do you know it made me feel? It's always about them.

They are self-centered.

Number four, a foolish person scoffs at wisdom. They say, I will decide for myself what is good and evil.

And what they really do is they want reality to change for them. Like, guys, you're heading for a

train wreck. No, no, no. That train better move out of the way for me. They're unwilling to make life

changes. What's worse is Proverbs tells us that if you rebuke a fool, you incur abuse, right?

They begin to shoot you as the messenger. So you bring them wisdom, and you say, you know,

I wasn't really great the way you were speaking to your wife the other day, and they turn to you.

Well, what about you? What about the way you talk to your wife? And they shoot the messenger.

It's a fool. And above all, number five, a foolish person's life is barren. It doesn't bear fruit.

It doesn't mean that they're not successful or they can be incredibly wealthy, like as the world

describes success. But if you look at it, their life is kind of like a hamster on a wheel. They go

around, they make the same stupid decisions, the same foolish things that they do again and again.

And a year later, they are still doing the same pattern, the same thing. And if you kind of scratch

away at the surface, you kind of find that their life is barren. It's empty, right? No real deep

relationships. So that's wisdom. But there's a problem. There's a problem. If we, for a second,

we go back to Solomon, right? So like we said, Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs, and Solomon has just

become king. And God says to him, Solomon, ask me for anything. Ask me for anything. And Solomon says,

God, give me wisdom. And God is really pleased with his answer, right? And he gives him all the other

stuff he didn't ask for. He gives him power, and he gives him wealth, and he gives him fame, all the

other stuff he didn't ask for. But here's what he said to Solomon, right? You can find it in 1 Kings.

This is what it says. He says, I will give you a wise and discerning heart. And then he stops,

and there's this two-letter word right there, a really important word. This is the word.

If. If. And we miss this word. If. If is a conditional, right? It's based on something.

So here's the condition. If you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands.

At some point, Solomon's life, he started to neglect these.

Started to wander off. And Solomon, if you follow his life, he had lots of wisdom for others,

but very little wisdom for himself. Do you know people like that? Always great. They can give you

lots of advice, but not so much wisdom for themselves. I mean, here's a guy there. He's

telling his son about the dangers of chasing after foolish women, and yet he had 700 wives.

Guys, 700 mothers-in-law. Is that wise? I mean, he's crazy, right?

So here we go. Solomon, the most wisest person in the Old Testament, right? And he couldn't do it.

He couldn't even follow what he knew in his head on what he was telling others. He himself

couldn't do it because Solomon had a heart condition. It wasn't cholesterol.

It was a heart condition of sin, which is default position is foolishness. Its default position is pride.

Its default position is self-centeredness. Its default position is I will decide for myself what is good

and evil. We have the same heart condition. And Solomon was missing two vital steps. He had wisdom

for others, not for himself, but he was missing two vital steps. And actually, he knew the first step.

He knew the first step. And the first step, it tells us, if you want to be wise, fear God.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You will not become wise until you've passed go.

Until you have passed step number one. Until we understand that God created everything. He is creator God.

He made the heavens and the earth and that he is good. He is righteous. He is blameless. He is pure.

But he hates evil. He is an all-seeing judge. There is nothing that I do or think. There's nothing that you do

or think that he does not see and know about. When we have that realization that God sees every area of

our heart, of our lives, of our thought life, my goodness, that should put the fear of God into us.

And when we realize that, we realize, God, I need your wisdom. I need your wisdom. I need your help

to live a godly life that pleases you. That is the fear of the Lord.

And so often when I sit down with people who are struggling or who have wandered away,

I ask them, do you fear the Lord? And you often find out it's the very first thing that goes.

No one asks them that question, right? But do you fear the Lord?

When we lose the fear of the Lord, we begin to lose wisdom and it's a slippery slope into foolishness.

Step number two.

We need to become a fool in order to become wise.

We need to become a fool in order to become wise. And here it is. I'll tell you why.

Paul writes it in 1 Corinthians. He says this. He says,

The message of the cross.

The message of the cross says you have a sick, sinful heart.

You are not going to solve it by getting more knowledge, by going to university and getting PhDs.

There is only one cure for the sickness that is in your heart.

And that is the cross.

To look at Jesus Christ who was put on the cross, who takes your sin as a sacrifice before a holy and pure God

and gives you His righteousness.

Until that happens, we miss everything.

And that message, that message that we throw ourselves, we don't pull ourselves up by our bootlaces,

but we throw ourselves on the cross, that message is foolishness.

It's absolute foolishness to a world who looks at us and says,

That's crazy. That's absolutely crazy.

But I'm happy to become a fool.

I'm happy to become a fool because this is it, right?

The people who look at that, Paul says they are perishing.

They are perishing.

Now, perishing is a very interesting word.

I can only describe it to you like this.

Last year, July, August, we went back to South Africa, and it was the middle of winter.

It was freezing.

All those notions that Africa is always hot.

It's not true.

It's nonsense.

It was freezing.

And so anyway, it's really cold.

We've just come from a hot summer in Hong Kong, and I'm absolutely freezing, and I find in the cupboard a hot water bottle.

So I think, fantastic.

My toes are going to be warm tonight.

I take that hot water bottle.

I boil the kettle, and I pour it in.

And the water begins just dripping out of this hot water bottle.

And then I take a look at it, and I notice that it's perished.

It is perishing.

It has become useless for what it was designed to do.

That's what it means to perish, right?

It has become useless or becoming useless for what it was created to do.

We are created for a relationship with our Creator.

We are created to be salt and light.

We are created to be the wisdom of this world.

But first, we need the message of the cross.

We can't lose that.

When we have the message of the cross, and people don't see it, they will begin to perish.

They might be incredibly successful in the world's eyes, but they will perish for what they were created to be.

But this is what it says.

Now, that is in the present continuous tense.

It's not, you are saved, job done, the end.

We are being saved.

We are being transformed into the image of Christ.

That cross, that is the power of God to us.

That is the light switch that gets everything going, which illuminates the room.

That is the power of God, is that cross.

And we look back to that cross time and time again.

And this is what Proverbs says.

Proverbs says, it says, leave your simple ways, and you will live.

Walk in the way of insight.

It's telling us that simplicity of your life, that foolishness of nice.

Leave it.

Go to the cross.

And then you will walk in the way of insight.

Paul writes to Timothy, and he says this.

He says, Timothy, the holy scriptures.

And when he says scriptures, then he's writing, there wasn't the New Testament yet, right?

So when he says scriptures, he's talking about the Old Testament.

He's talking about the book of Proverbs.

He says, the holy scriptures will make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

And there's actually a lot of scholars that don't really like the book of Proverbs.

They say it's kind of a waste of time because there's no message of salvation in it.

But actually, it's packed with the message of salvation.

In Hebrew and Greek, both Hebrew and Greek, the word salvation is very, very close in meaning to the word recycle.

Right?

Recycle.

God is in the recycling business.

Did you know that?

He's in the recycling business.

He's busy recycling you and me.

That's his job.

So it's kind of like there's a plastic bottle.

You've kind of seen it on the side of the road, squashed down.

God takes that, the rubbish of the world.

He takes that and he begins to recycle it, make it useful again for what it was created for.

That's what God is doing in your heart.

And that's what Proverbs is telling us the whole time.

He's saying, listen, God takes you.

He transforms you from being a sinner to a saint.

In Bible terms, justification.

But then it doesn't stop there, right?

That's the beginning point of our walk with him.

Because then he says he moves us from foolishness to wisdom.

In Bible terms, sanctification.

You know, a wise person never says, I'm wise.

If they do, they're not wise, okay?

They might say, I'm wise in some areas and I'm foolish in others.

And I need to learn and grow.

See, Proverbs tells us the sort of life we are saved for.

It reminds us of the life we're saved from.

Pride, self-centeredness, defining good and evil for ourselves.

But it also tells us what kind of life we are saved for.

And I think sometimes we spend too much time telling everyone what we're saved from.

And not enough time telling people what we are saved for.

We are saved for eternal life.

We are saved for good works in Christ Jesus, which he prepared beforehand for us.

So we're going to do something a little bit different where we take communion at the end of the service.

And I think it's fantastic.

I think it's communion should always be a special time when we look back at the cross,

that light switch, that power moment, and we are filled with gratitude and awe.

We always look back to that moment and we give thanks and praise for that moment.

And that's what we're going to do.

But I would also like us, as we take communion and while we sit down,

to ask God, to ask the Holy Spirit,

show me the areas of my life where I'm foolish.

Maybe you know the areas of your life where you're foolish.

And you can say, God, I'm foolish in this area.

Just help me.

Help me.

Maybe it requires the first step of reaching out to someone who you believe is wise in that area,

which you struggle with, and going to them and saying, can I meet with you?

I'd love to learn from you.

I'd love to grow in you.

So can we do that?

As we take communion, we're going to reflect on the beauty and the wonder of the cross

and never lose our gratitude and awe of it.

But also we're going to ask God, as we walk in the way of insight,

would you show us which areas of our lives we are foolish in and help us to grow?

So, you know, if I could have spoken to that little granny who took God's Word

and cut it up into little pieces, ripped it out of context, and took it in bite sizes,

I would say to her, you know what?

You can throw away that box.

And what I'd love to give her is just something very simple.

Just giving her a Bible.

This is what you need.

You don't need to cut it up.

You don't need to take it one bite at a time.

This is what you need.

Guys, if you are new to Watermark or you haven't been here that long,

I'd like to tell you something about us as a church.

We are committed to loving each other.

We are committed in walking with each other on this path of changing from fools to being wise.

We're not the most religious people in the world, right?

But we take Jesus very seriously here.

And we treasure the Word of God.

As we kind of move into, I would call it the down season in Hong Kong, summer.

Guys, this is an opportunity to really read this book.

Because when we read this book and we ask the Holy Spirit to be our teacher,

we get to know the author of the book.

We get to know the God behind the book who reveals Himself to us,

who shows us what true wisdom is and how He wants to bless us with it.

But unfortunately, a lot of us, and I include myself in this, we're a bit like Granny.

And we take it little bite sizes.

And really what we need to do is feast on this Word

and treasure the Christ, the Redeemer, behind the whole book.

And I'll give you

David Casacchi.

And mange the pages and is on and out.

Nowadays, we're trying to keep you away from a constant source of the intent.