Get The Right Wisdom

Tonight we'll get into the Word and then we'll have an opportunity for you.

It says that he confirms his Word with signs following.

In other words, he likes to back up his Word, he likes to demonstrate it Wherever it's spoken.

He likes to come in and be a part of it.

That is, the Holy Ghost likes to come in and grab hold of it and work with his Word and work with us when we speak his Word.

And so I believe we're going to have some of that tonight.

But the title of tonight's message is Get the Right Wisdom.

And I want you to know that this is coming from the perspective of an engineer me.

I went to school for engineering and I've had a real hard time in life making a decision to do just about anything without a spreadsheet and a drawing.

I'll sit there and look at a situation and evaluate it all kinds of ways and determine where the problem areas are, what the risk reward is, what the benefit of this method is, the benefit of that one, and I can't tell you how many opportunities I've lost because I took too long to make a decision, because I evaluated something to death.

And that's what engineers do we look at things a long time and we look at it with the ability of our brain.

But tonight we're talking about getting the right wisdom.

And there's nothing wrong with engineering, there's nothing wrong with learning about nature's nothing wrong with, you know, learning about nature and the physical laws that govern this universe.

We live here and that's all good.

But in Proverbs 2, lots of places in Proverbs, but I'm just going to pick this one right here.

Verse 1, my son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to it, to understanding, yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search her as for hidden treasures, the Lord will understand.

You will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom.

From his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

He stores up wisdom for the upright.

And so lots of places in Proverbs it talks about wisdom.

In chapter four, I believe, it says get wisdom and get understanding, get wisdom, it's the principal thing.

And so I just you know we're going to talk about some wisdom tonight and a couple of different kinds and places to get it and ways to get it, and so follow along with me.

We're going to start in James, chapter 3, beginning in verse, I think, 13.

James 3 · chapter mention

James, chapter 3, verse 13,.

James 3:13

It says who is wise and understanding among you, let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.

This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic, for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace, and so there's a lot to draw out of these verses here.

When I read through there, I want to pull some things out.

In verse 13, it says let him show by good conducts that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

And I've taught a separate message on this, maybe a time or two about meekness or what it means to be meek.

Jesus talked in the Beatitudes blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

And you think, oh the meek, finally they're getting something.

They've had the raw end of the steel, the short end of the stick, the whole life.

They're meek and finally they get something good they get to inherit the earth.

When Jesus spoke those words, he used a word that was familiar to people of the day, and Jesus did this all the time when he was speaking, and so sometimes these words are not really familiar to us.

They morph in their meanings, they take on new emphasis, different applications as we go through time.

And so here it's translated meek, and people tend to think that somebody who is meek is weak, and that is the opposite of this word, literally the opposite.

The whole message is not on this, but Raphael Cruz, when he was leaving here, after ministering here one time I don't remember what we were talking about somehow the word meek came up and he said you know, meek is a military term.

And then he left, which means a military term.

I thought about that one for a couple of days before I started looking it up and trying to figure it out.

So the military term that they were familiar with there blessed are the meek.

Jesus used a word that was a military term in Roman culture.

When they trained up horses, they were meek.

In other words, you've got this wild beast, this wild animal, lots of power, and they were tamed.

That's another way to put it.

They were tamed for a purpose, in fact, and you could have a horse that's tamed to pull a wagon or maybe some other piece of equipment or something.

But in the military they were trained for a rider, and so they were meeked for battle or to pull a chariot behind them.

They were meeked for battle.

That means they were tamed for the purpose of battle, such that a horse could ride into the most incredible danger, the enemy.

They could ride into the enemy and its every natural instinct is to turn and go the other way.

But it overrides that instinct because of the will of its rider.

The rider says go this way and it goes that way, and the rider doesn't have to beat that animal.

The rider doesn't have to yell at that animal.

The rider doesn't have to coax it or talk it into it.

The animal just responds to the gentle nudge of the rider.

If he's got reins, you know they've got horses that will neck reins.

So you've got reins that it just feels the rein, you know, got the bit in the mouth, and then the rain.

You got one on either side and one rain will drape across the neck of the horse and it knows immediately I need to turn.

And so it turns away from whichever rain is draped across its neck, it turns away from that.

So it's a gentle nudge, it's very subtle, and yet you can control this beast that has a lot of power for your purpose, for its intended purpose.

So it is entirely submitted to the will of the rider or the will of its master.

It is not a weak creature.

In fact it'll run straight into danger, it'll violate every natural instinct.

It has just to be obedient and fully submitted, not to everyone in the world, but to its rider or its master.

And that's how we ought to be with our master Fully submitted, not weak, but fully submitted to the most gentle nudge of the Holy Spirit, immediately responsive.

And so here we're talking about wisdom tonight.

And so it says let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom, fully submitted to and this is talking about godly wisdom right here fully submitted to God's wisdom.

But then, if you've got bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast.

In the truth.

This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual and demonic.

Sensual, belonging to nature, or physical.

It's unspiritual, it's living in the domain of the five senses, it's concerned with this life only and has nothing at all to do with the supernatural realm.

Yet we live in a world that has natural and supernatural areas, and we're part of both of those areas.

We live in this natural body, but we are a spirit in the spiritual realm, and so, if we only apply our brain and logic to give us solutions to problems and circumstances, it's entirely sensual and subject to being infiltrated by the devil.

And so, you know, our body wars against the flesh.

In Galatians 5, 16 and 17, paul writes and says walk in the spirit, and then you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh, it says, for the lust of the flesh are against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and they're contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Your body's constantly wanting to go one way and your spirit is trying to guide it the other way, and your brain is in the middle and makes the final decision.

And so you've got this constant war, your flesh and your spirit constantly at odds with each other.

But here we're talking about two different kinds of wisdom earthly and sensual type wisdom versus heavenly wisdom or supernatural wisdom.

So we all have natural wisdom and that grows as we learn.

So you know, you've got the child who reaches up and touches the hot skillet on the stove.

That child quickly learns that's hot.

Don't do that.

That child is wise to that issue, right there.

I'm not touching that skillet again.

That hurts.

You think about kids that were maybe born, and this happens with orphan children when they come from a hard circumstance.

But maybe a child, you've got lots of siblings in the house and you've got poverty conditions.

Those kids will quickly learn to be first to the dinner table so that they get some food, and then sometimes they'll end up growing up to be hoarders and holding on to things because they have a fear of missing out and a fear of losing things.

And so they become very street savvy, very wise to getting food and holding on to it.

Getting things and holding on to it.

They become wise.

That way, a person whose trust has been violated learns not to trust.

And so you know there's essential wisdom and this is not godly wisdom, but it is a form of essential wisdom.

You learn from things and it changes your behavior.

But if you learn things that are opposed to God's Word, you learn from things and it changes your behavior.

But if you learn things that are opposed to God's word, you're simply introducing a demonic part to this and you're opening yourself up to demonic wisdom to come in and invade that natural side.

And so back to James, chapter 3, verse 17,.

James 3:17

It says but the wisdom that is from above is for pure, peaceable gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, good, good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

And so let's run down real quick through some of those words.

Pure, that simply means innocent and has a good motive.

And so godly wisdom is pure.

It's not, it's not to be used against somebody, but it has a pure motive.

Peaceable means that it doesn't unnecessarily stir up strife.

It doesn't mean that we, you know, sometimes we'll say something and it's according to God's word, and it causes somebody to become inflamed about something.

But we don't do something just to inflame somebody.

And so that's what that connotation is there peaceable Gentle.

God's wisdom is gentle, it's not harsh, it's patient, willing to yield.

That's kind of a challenging one, because, if you know, this is the right thing.

This is godly wisdom.

Why would I yield this thing that is absolutely right?

According to God's word, you can end up being a right fighter and fight for everything that is right, right, right, and step on people all along the way.

So I want you to think about things in terms of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost does not enforce His will on yours.

He does not violate your freedom to make a choice.

Instead, he's giving us a gentle nudge one way or the other, but he does not force us to do something.

We have freedom to do things, and so the Holy Ghost is willing to yield to us in that way, and we ought to be fully yielded to him, but with others around.

You know, we can fight for what's right all the time and in doing so, uh, step and cause harm.

Uh, you can't force people to do the right thing, uh, and so that that's the example of willing to yield, full of mercy, and really that's a symbol of compassion.

Right there.

Good fruits, and so if you have godly wisdom, the result is you'll see the good fruits that go along with that.

If you want to judge yourself along the way and find out, did I make a good choice?

Am I headed down the right path?

Is there envy and self-seeking?

Is there confusion?

Is there strife?

Is there turmoil in the midst of this decision that I've made and the direction I'm going?

If the result of that is the confusion, that's the result of earthly wisdom.

And you've got to go back and say, okay, well, I made an earthly decision there and I needed to make a spiritual one.

I needed to be subject to the Holy Ghost and His help.

It's without hypocrisy and so it's genuine and sincere.

It's not pretending.

There's no fakeness with heavenly wisdom, and so judge yourself with those.

When you have to make decisions about things, evaluate that and see am I on the right trail?

Am I making a good decision?

Is that heaven's wisdom or did that come from somewhere else?

And so we're talking about wisdom.

Let's just go back briefly and we'll talk about someone who was really wise.

Can anyone think of someone who was wise in the Bible?

Okay, one name came up, solomon, yes, and so well, now we got other names throw it in there, but the one I was thinking of was Solomon.

And so back in 2 Chronicles.

I'm not going to read all through this, but you can go back 2 Chronicles 1, in verse 10, he said Now give me wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can judge this great people of yours?

So Solomon was somebody who took the throne of David and he asked God for wisdom.

God said Ask, what do you want?

And Solomon could have asked for riches, could have asked for all the wealth, could have asked for all kinds of things, but he asked for wisdom.

And God responded to him and said because this was in your heart and you didn't ask me for riches or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies, and you didn't even ask for long life, but you asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself so that you could rightly judge and rule over this people.

Knowledge for yourself so that you could rightly judge and rule over this people.

He said wisdom and knowledge are granted to you and I'll give you riches and wealth and honor such as no kings on the earth before you, nor shall any after be like you.

And so he was the top-tier wisdom-getter for the whole Bible.

In 1 chapter 4, it called him.

It said he was the wiser.

He was wiser than all men.

And so Solomon is an example of wisdom.

So he wrote some books, and anybody know any books that he wrote.

Song of Solomon, that's an easy one.

Any others Proverbs, ecclesiastes, any more?

No, it's just the three.

And so Solomon wrote Song of Solomon.

No, it's just the three.

And so Solomon wrote Song of Solomon, proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

We're going to look at some other verses in Proverbs talking about wisdom, because that's the book of wisdom.

And so Proverbs 1, verse 7, it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Proverbs 1:7

But fools despise the wisdom and instruction.

So if you want wisdom, you can't even begin to Get wisdom until you first fear God.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

In fact it's mentioned 14 times in the book of Proverbs.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

That's the ground floor level.

That's where you start.

What does it mean to fear God?

It means to care more about what he thinks on any issue, on any decision that you are faced with.

Anytime you think you need wisdom for something, you've got to care more about what he thinks than what anybody else thinks, including yourself.

You have to be very careful not to have a predetermined outcome and then ask God for wisdom, because that's not compatible.

I know exactly what this thing needs to look like, says the engineer, and I need God's wisdom to get there.

But God's wisdom won't take me there, it's going to take me over here.

So my predetermined outcome disqualifies me for even asking for wisdom, because I didn't even care what God thought the end outcome ought to be.

I cared about my outcome and I wanted God's wisdom to help me get my way.

That doesn't work.

So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

I know on some easy decisions it's easy to just kind of have the nobody would say this.

But it's easy to have the attitude or the natural desire to say God, I got this one, you know, you sit this one out, watch this, I got, I learned some stuff.

Now I got this one.

And that's just setting yourself up for embarrassment.

Proverbs, chapter 3, verse 5 and 6, says trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Proverbs 3:5

Lean not into your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge Him and he will direct your paths.

And one more in Proverbs 37.

I'm sorry, proverbs only has 31 verses chapters.

Psalm 37, written by David in verse 5, says Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and he will bring it to pass.

And that word commit right there in Psalm 37, verse 5.

Psalms 37:5

Commit means to take your way and roll it over onto God, your entire plan, for it means you're going to take whatever plans and desires and thoughts on the matter that you have and put it on the table.

It's subject to change, and so you know we're talking about fear of God.

Also, you know, sometimes we care more about what people think about us and we're concerned about you.

Know, what are people going to say?

What are they going to think?

What if they get offended at this message?

Well, there are seven lighted exits.

You can use any one of them at any time.

So when you get to the point where you don't care what people think of you and you have one to please, and that's your sovereign, that will give you the freedom and the ability to begin to get the wisdom that's available to you, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

And you know, talking about Solomon in the Old Testament, we had the priest, the prophet and the king, and the anointing or the presence of God, or the Spirit of God rested upon the priest, the prophet and the king.

So he was special, he was a king and so he was in line to have the presence of God, the anointing of God.

The Spirit of God rest upon him, and that was a very special thing.

But now we have the ability to have the Spirit of God on the inside of us all the time.

Wherever we go and whatever we're doing, he is with us.

I will never leave you nor forsake you, he said.

And since we are born again, children of God, for as many are the sons of God as many are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

So having somebody whose spirit led is evidence of somebody who's born again and has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit on the inside of them.

And so you know, the first step to getting wisdom is fear God number one.

And the second step is be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And then you know, I would call this one to be be Spirit-led, because you can be filled with the Holy Spirit.

You can have that rider on the horse and the horse can be determined to go its own way, even though that rider is gently nudging the, the horse with his heels and that's not responding, and so there's a little bit stern nudge or a stronger pull on the reins, and the horse doesn't respond.

And then now you're fighting with the holy ghost, now the horse is fighting with the rider, and and so you know we need to be spirit-filled and also spirit-led.

1 Corinthians, chapter 2.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

Let's turn there, and I'll probably read some more of this one 1 Corinthians, chapter 2.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

And so Paul writes, and he said I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God.

So he was a very learned man, he had all kinds of understanding about the law.

He was a Jew, above all other Jews as far as his knowledge goes.

And he said I didn't come to you with excellency of speech Verse two for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

So he just humbled himself.

All of the other things that I thought I knew don't really matter anymore.

There's one thing that matters, and all of my expertise is a waste, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus and him crucified.

I was with you in weakness, in fear, in much trembling.

In my speech, in my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature yet, not the wisdom of this age nor the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing, but we speak the wisdom of God in mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But, as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

But God has revealed them to us through his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

And so Paul's talking about the Holy Spirit here, who reveals things to us.

The wise men of the earth don't get to know the things that we get to know.

We're privy to things that only God knows.

Other people aren't capable of knowing it because they don't have the Spirit on the inside of them to reveal this kind of thing to them.

Verse 16 says For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him.

But we have the mind of Christ.

We get to know the things that Christ knows, and so that comes with the territory of being spirit-filled.

So you got the fear of God and you got being spirit-filled, and those are prerequisites.

But still it's not enough to get heaven's wisdom.

There are some other things you need.

This isn't hard stuff, but there's other steps here.

So in James 1, verse 2, and think about who he's talking to here, my brethren, he's talking to believers, my brethren, james 1, 2, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, know that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have it perfect.

James 1:2

Work that you may be perfect and complete.

Lacking nothing, and if you lack wisdom, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives liberally and without reproach, and it will be given him, but let him ask in faith, nothing doubting.

For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind, for let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He is double-minded and unstable in all his ways, and so a lot of times when people ask for wisdom, it's a haphazard thing.

The Lord, give me wisdom for this.

And then they go on doing something, working towards their intended outcome of something, because they didn't fear God, they didn't care enough about knowing what God's idea about the matter was.

They just had their predetermined outcome and out of habit almost, they say God, give me wisdom to do this.

But then they didn't really expect God to give them anything, because they were still going to do this thing that they already had a planned route for, they had already engineered the solution, they already had their spreadsheet, their plan, and they were working towards an intended outcome that they had already predetermined.

And so all of these other things are really for naught.

They didn't really fear God.

Maybe they were Spirit-filled, but they certainly didn't act like it and weren't submitted to God's wisdom.

They weren't submitted to the Holy Spirit and weren't being Spirit-led.

And then when they asked, they didn't ask in faith.

They didn't really believe that God was going to do anything for them, because they just knew that this was the right answer and they went down that path anyway, and then it results in failure.

So, in case you don't realize it, I'm kind of talking about me over the course of my life, because that's in my nature to just I've got this figured, god.

I got this, I've learned some stuff, I got some experience.

I've done some things before and I know how this needs to be and I'm going to go that way.

And yeah, I fear you, I care about what you think and I've got the spirit on the inside of me and I'm not going to really listen to him and I'm going to ask for wisdom, because it says to do that.

But I don't expect you to give me anything and I don't really need it because I've already got this figured out.

And so I look back on the course of my life and I see what a crazy, convoluted, twisted route I went through all the pitfalls, all the troubles, all the turmoil that I went through to get to where I am right now.

That was not God's plan for my life.

That was a perfect picture of God bailing me out and rescuing me at any given point in time along the way and picking me up and putting me back on the right path and watching me wander to get back off of it again.

And over and over and over.

You know, lather, rinse, repeat.

That's what I did.

And so you know we introduce all kinds of trouble in our lives.

It's unnecessary.

This life has trouble without us having to introduce more.

But this is my example is a good way to not walk in the wisdom of God and go in places where there's more trouble.

That God didn't intend for me and it was unnecessary.

But thankfully, all things work together for the good of those who love and are called according to His purpose, and so these things can work together for your good, and they have worked together for my good, and I've learned some things along the way.

In fact, I've learned some things along the way.

I've learned so much that I realize how little I really know about any given thing, and so I don't consider myself to be an expert on any of these things.

I've learned enough to say, god, I don't have a clue.

I need your help, and I see this a lot in the political world that we're in.

You know I serve in the Republican Party.

I'm going to the state Republican convention next week and been to parts of lots of meetings.

I've gone to the state capitol and testified on various bills and pieces of legislation and to watch these, just using the legislation as an example, just to watch these legislators that I know are born-again believers, christians standing up there in a position of authority representing their constituents, sitting on this committee, listening to testimony from people from all over Texas, come in and testify on something.

And they're listening to this and they're trying to decide what a good plan is, what a good route is, where do we need to go?

How can I solve this problem?

And really, what they're thinking is how can we look like we're solving a problem without upsetting this crowd that thinks the solution is A and this one over here thinks it's B and that one thinks it's C?

So anything I do is going to be displeasing to at least two groups of people and they're going to come after me and I might not get reelected.

So I got to do something that appears like I'm solving it for all of them, that I'm bringing people together, that we're unified, that we have an agreeable solution, and then we end up with a piece of legislation that doesn't really do much of anything, but it's got a pretty good name, that sounds like it did something, and that's what we end up with.

And these are people who are Christians, well-intended.

I believe that many of them get into office with the best of intentions, but they get into office and immediately are subjected to the fear of man.

And what do my constituents think?

I'm here to serve them and that's honorable.

They ought to serve their constituents.

They ought to care what their constituents think.

But if they ran on something saying to their constituents up front, this is how I'm going to decide what a good piece of legislation is.

I serve my sovereign.

It's got to line up with God's word.

If it doesn't line up here, I'm not going to do it.

If I can't find the answer here, I'm going to pray to God to give me wisdom and the Holy Ghost on the inside of me is going to give me revelation and I'm going to be able to have a creative solution to things that I didn't have the answer before, because God's going to help me along this and this is how I'm going to do things.

And if they do that, they'll have God's help going into it.

And some of them run on that and they say that, but then they end up drifting away because of the fear of man.

I can't tell you how many meetings I've been to where they start out, and some of them even right here in this church where the Republican Party is in.

Here we're having an executive committee meeting and we'll pray for wisdom and people are nodding and agreeing and saying amen, and they don't mean it, because there's some level of envy, self-seeking and confusion that results, and that's the earthly, sensual and demonic wisdom.

It's the default wisdom that they get when they don't have God's wisdom.

The default is the earthly, sensual and demonic wisdom.

You are going to have one of two kinds of wisdom and we end up with earthly, sensual, demonic wisdom.

And so you know we got the three points that fear of the Lord's, the beginning of wisdom, and then we got to be spirit-filled and spirit-led.

And the third one here is you have to ask, and not only just ask, but you know this is number three, you got to ask.

And then 3B is in faith.

That is when you ask.

You better know this is number three, you've got to ask.

And then 3B is in faith.

That is when you ask.

You better believe that God is actually hearing your prayer and has already said if you ask, I'll give it, but ask in faith.

And so that means you got to make room for it.

You got to believe God.

I'm asking you in faith for wisdom.

I need wisdom for this situation and I'm going to.

I believe, according to your word, that I receive wisdom from heaven, and then I'm going to respond by acting on that heavenly wisdom.

And so don't ask for wisdom if you're just going to let it be words, but believe you're going to receive this.

And in James 1, now we'll keep moving on.

Number four is endeavor to understand what the will of God is on any given matter.

You've got to take what you think you know about the situation, that end result that I'm fond of determining in advance through my spreadsheets and my planning and my exceptionally large brain.

I've got this thing figured out.

Ephesians, chapter 5, you can turn there if you like.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 15, says see that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise.

Ephesians 5:15

And so again, I want you to consider the audience.

He's talking to Christians, paul's talking to Christians and he's saying don't be fools.

Well, if he's having to warn them not to be fools, then you can have Christians that are fools walking in earthly, demonic and sensual wisdom.

See, then, that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil, and it doesn't take anybody with half a brain cell to recognize that the days are very evil out there.

And so verse 17 says therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Oh, all I got to do is just understand what his will is, and I got this thing nailed.

You know, that seems.

How do I do that?

Understand what the will of the Lord is?

Well, first of all, don't be drunk with wine.

That'll help you not understand what the will of the Lord is, because that's excess.

It says but be spirit-filled, but be filled with the Spirit.

In fact, that word is be being filled.

It's a continually filling of the Spirit.

So it's not just one, but stay full of the Holy Spirit.

And how do you do that?

Well, you got to pray in your heavenly language.

You got to read God's Word, you got to take time to spend time with Him, to stay full.

So don't be drunk.

Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God, the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another, preferring one another, not pushing your own way on each other, and doing so in the fear of God.

In other words, I'm submitting my personal will, my preference.

I'm giving you preference.

I want you to be fulfilled, I want you to have your way on these things, but insofar as it doesn't violate God's Word.

And so we submit to one another in the fear of God.

And then in Matthew, chapter 7, verse 7, ask and it'll be given to you.

Matthew 7:7

Seek and you'll find.

Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you'll find.

Knock and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receive, and he who seeks finds.

And to him who knocks it will be opened.

Or what man is there among you?

If his son asks for bread, we'll give him a stone.

Or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a servant.

If you, being natural or sensual or earthly or, my version says, evil know how to give good gifts to your children, you know an earthly father, even without God, knows how to give good things to his own child.

How much more will your heavenly father give good things to those who ask him?

So expect.

Expect that that's your heavenly father, and he's gonna give you what you've asked for.

You know, getting back to that predetermined outcome, god will never help you.

God, help me, help me get, help me do this, help me, help me, help me, help me.

Whatever it is, god will never, ever help you do anything that violates his word or his will.

And so if you want God's help on anything, you have to first find out what is his will and what does his word say about that, and then you can ask for help.

But he will never help you.

Get over here when he's trying to get you to go over there and there is a will, and where his will is, there is a way for you to get there.

There's a way for you to escape from the trouble that you just got yourself into and get back on track.

Where he picks me back up Okay, I'm off course again he picks me back up and set me on his way back towards his will, and he can guide me that way.

And so those four things fear God, not man.

I've got one to please, and that's my sovereign.

Nothing else matters except my wife.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit and be spirit-led.

In other words, you've got to be meeked for his purpose, just like that horse You've got to be tamed In James.

It talks about the tongue being an unruly thing.

Well, tame your tongue.

Meek your tongue for his purpose.

Meek your body for his purpose.

It's not weak, it's just wholly submitted to the Holy Spirit and to no one else.

And so be filled and be Spirit-led.

Ask for wisdom, expect to receive it.

Don't get in the habit of just asking and then go on and finally understand what the will of God is in that matter.

God has a side.

On every issue, on everything that pertains to you, he has a side, and so we can understand that.

Then we can have his wisdom and you'll recognize the fruits of his wisdom versus the fruits of the sensual.

You see, the fruits of sensual wisdom.

You know that you're on the wrong course and we need to make a little correction, and it's an easy one to make.

But that's the message I have for you tonight.

Does that help you?

Hopefully it's some practical things to help you.

Part of that comes from my experience, from being an engineer and a know-it-all.

I still kind of secretly want to see that plan that he's got for my life, so I can straighten some stuff out and fill in some holes and set some things right because, you know, make things a little more efficient.

I'm still looking to see that plan, but you know what?

I don't get to see that plan.

If you got to see that plan, you would never do it.

You would never, ever do it.

You know what you get to see?

He's a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

He orders your steps, and so he'll let you see one more step.

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