Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Good morning, Christ Church. Go ahead and take a seat. It's good to see you. Happy Sunday.
[00:00:06] Hope you're doing well.
[00:00:09] If you are a guest with us today, my name's Chet. If we haven't had the chance to meet, I would love to meet you and shake your hand.
[00:00:18] I hope your morning's going good. I went to bed last night I went to bed at halftime and I woke up sad. Yeah. So if you need prayer, come talk to me. We'll pray and weep together this morning.
[00:00:32] Yeah, but it's good to see you. And as Tina said, next Sunday is our Better Together Sunday. And we're gonna have some fun after service, so it's a great opportunity to bring someone with you, but we'll also have all the different ways to get connected to the life of our church.
[00:00:53] I'm so glad to see you here, but I love to see people in groups and serving because you grow so much more that way and you build relationships and the church becomes family. And I think the way that God intends. So I want you to come next week and to take the next step that God has for you. It'll be good. So today we're gonna wrap up our sermon series on Proverbs, Chapter three. This is our third week on it, and we're talking about wisdom and what it is and what it means and how much we all need it in our life.
[00:01:31] So before we do, let's pray and ask for God's wisdom for us.
[00:01:39] Lord, we acknowledge that you are the source of all wisdom.
[00:01:44] That, Father, we don't have all the answers, but you do.
[00:01:48] We don't have all the strength that we need, but your strength is more than sufficient for us.
[00:01:55] And, Father, as we look at our lives, we want them to honor you.
[00:01:59] We want them to be a force for good in this world.
[00:02:05] And, Lord, we recognize we can't do any of that without you and without a constant connection to you and help from you.
[00:02:14] So, Lord, as we think about wisdom, make it make sense in our lives.
[00:02:18] Give us a deeper desire for you and your ways.
[00:02:22] And, Lord, give us a path forward today that each of us can walk down as we need to in our lives.
[00:02:28] We ask this all in the great name of Jesus. Amen.
[00:02:34] Well, right around 1990, Mark Hertling was a young father. He was in his early 30s and he had two young boys. They're right around 5 or 7ish somewhere there. And he was stationed in Germany with the army. And he was watching the news and he saw that the US Was about to Go to war.
[00:02:59] And of course, you know, kind of heard some of these rumblings, but that was the first time he knew definitively like this is happening. And so being stationed in Germany in the unit that he was in, he's like, oh, wow, that means that I'm going to go to war. And I'm just sort of putting all these things together now. And as the situation unfolded and the military intelligence and all that, at the time, they estimated that his unit was going to experience a 50% cap casualty rate, and that they're gonna be just in extreme, difficult, dangerous, and there was a good chance he wasn't coming back. And so as he's processing this and wrestling with this and thinking about this, the overwhelming thought that's going through his mind is, my young boys, I'm not gonna be able to teach them about life.
[00:03:59] And if I don't make it back from this, I want them to have the wisdom that I want to give them now in the Army. And maybe it's all branches, but there's a lot of these type of notebooks around. Some of you. You ever seen one of these? And he took one of these, and he began to just fill it out with all the wisdom he wanted to share with his sons if he didn't make it back.
[00:04:29] And so in time, he began to fill the book out and fill it with all this wisdom that he would share in case that he wasn't gonna make it out of the war. Well, by God's grace, the casualty rate wasn't near that. And he made it out, and he had a full journal of dad's wisdom to his kids.
[00:04:52] And, you know, parents, have you ever noticed sometimes kids don't always. Your kids don't always realize how awesome you are.
[00:05:00] Any parents struggle with that?
[00:05:02] You're like, you know, did the memo get lost in the mail? What would happen? Is your email down? They don't always realize it. And so as kids, they knew that this existed, but, you know, it was just kind of just there. No big deal. But as they got older and as decades went on, they began to realize what a treasure that is. I mean, I don't know about you, but I would love to have a journal of, like, my grandparents or great grandparents or. I would love to see their thoughts and interactions in life and their wisdom and what they went through. I think that would be really a pretty amazing treasure to have in your family. And so his son kind of began, as he got older, began to realize what a cool thing this was. And one Chris, he Took it, typed it all out and gave it to his dad on Christmas morning.
[00:05:56] And the family, you know, was very moved by this. And he was very moved by this. And he then took it, and it was decades removed from him being a younger man in his 30s, to now retired and older. And so he began to add to it and to shape it and to add more, and eventually published it as a book.
[00:06:17] And I thought, how cool is that?
[00:06:22] What a gift. What a treasure, not only to his family, but a treasure to so many others.
[00:06:30] Now, I bring that up because when we look at the Book of Proverbs, I want you to see today that that is God doing that for each of us, that the book of Proverbs is your heavenly Father. And my heavenly Father, the one who created you, the one who's not just making their best guesses about life, but actually knows the ins and outs and twists and turns and knows you more than you know yourself, is writing to us the wisdom and the lessons that we need in this life.
[00:07:10] And so when we look at Proverbs, I want us to see this treasure that it is and to have an open heart to it. You with me on this. And so today we're gonna wrap up chapter three, and I'm gonna pick up at verse 21.
[00:07:26] And if you remember my last couple sermons before this, I know you never forget them. Amen.
[00:07:34] You hang on everywhere. But if you remember and if you don't, that's okay. But Proverbs chapter three is broken up into three clear sections, and each section begins with this address, my son.
[00:07:47] And the context of Proverbs is that is this ancient King Solomon, who is filled with God's wisdom, sharing with his son this wisdom and probably some of his son's buddies around with him. And so today we'll look at this third one, and verse 21, it says this, my son, do not lose sight of these.
[00:08:11] And it's fun to read Proverbs as a dad, because I just get it at a whole nother level.
[00:08:17] Like, son, how many times do I have to tell you? I feel that vibe in this book.
[00:08:24] I feel that sense, like, okay, I'm gonna remind you, but don't make me keep reminding you.
[00:08:30] Amen.
[00:08:31] Never works, though. My son, do not lose sight of these. Keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Then you will walk on your way securely. Your foot will not stumble.
[00:08:46] If you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
[00:08:53] Do not be afraid of sudden terror or the ruin of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence will keep your foot from being caught.
[00:09:02] Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due. When it's in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, go and come again tomorrow. I'll give it when you have it with you. Do not plan evil against your neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you.
[00:09:17] Do not contend with a man for no reason when he's done you no harm. Son, don't go stirring up trouble. You hear it.
[00:09:25] Do not envy a man of violence. Do not choose any of his ways. For the devious person is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence. The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous. Towards the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor. The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace. Now, there's a lot in these verses, but if you were just to sit with them for a minute, you would see this theme of protection.
[00:09:55] And you would see that ultimately what Solomon is saying to his son, is he saying, son, if you guard wisdom, wisdom will guard you.
[00:10:07] If you guard wisdom, it will guard you and sustain you and deliver to you a meaningful life.
[00:10:19] He's saying, son, if you really hear me, if you hear me in the kind of way that it's gonna influence your thinking and your actions and how you read people in situations, if you really take this, this will guard you. Any effort that you put in it will give you a far greater return.
[00:10:43] And ultimately, saying to his son, hey, son, here is the safest way to go through life.
[00:10:51] Be wise.
[00:10:53] Here's the safest path through life. Be wise. Take these lessons to heart. Now Solomon begins, and he makes this big deal about how protective wisdom is, that it guards your steps. He says, you can sleep at night with peace.
[00:11:11] All these benefits that show this protective nature of wisdom. And when you think about your life and when I think about my life, we all really need that, because this protection that Solomon says is ultimately a protection from yourself.
[00:11:34] You know, who may be the person that is most likely to rob you of the life that God has for you. Do you know who that person is?
[00:11:46] It's you. Yeah.
[00:11:47] Like, no, it isn't, Chet. It's the people I work with.
[00:11:51] Hey, they might be bad. I get it.
[00:11:53] But it's you.
[00:11:55] And what wisdom does is it protects you from you.
[00:12:01] And every one of us need A layer of protection from ourselves. You with me on this?
[00:12:06] And Solomon says, son, it will help your steps. It will guide you. There are pitfalls that you'll be like, this looks like a great place to go. And you're in the pit. And wisdom will help say, no, no, go this way.
[00:12:18] And it will give you secure ground to walk on. Think about it this way. Have you ever looked at like an old picture and you look at what you're wearing and you're like, did I not have any real friend in my life?
[00:12:35] Did no one love me?
[00:12:37] You ever feel that way? And you're like, what was I thinking? And you take some blame, but you're also like, what were the people around me thinking? They're at fault too here. This is a gross violation.
[00:12:49] And you're just kind of a little bit baffled.
[00:12:52] Some time ago, I was looking through old pictures and there was a phase in my life and it was in a couple of my friends life where we thought it was really cool to wear like a button down shirt, collared button down shirt, long sleeve, and to wear a T shirt over it.
[00:13:13] Y' all didn't do that.
[00:13:17] That was just a pain thing. I swear it was a thing. I don't know.
[00:13:24] Yeah, and I have some pictures of it. I'm not showing them to you. Don't get your hopes up.
[00:13:32] But it's one of those. I was like, what happened there? Amen.
[00:13:36] What were we thinking?
[00:13:39] I don't know. I don't have any answers. I'm as confused as you are this morning. But at some point it made sense.
[00:13:47] But in hindsight, it makes no sense. You with me now? It's easy to look at stuff that is funny and you can laugh off.
[00:13:55] But here's the hard reality of life.
[00:13:58] We all can look at decisions and events and say, what was I thinking?
[00:14:05] And some of those are harder to laugh off or we can't laugh off. You with me on this? And here's what Solomon is saying.
[00:14:13] Wisdom protects you from more and more of that. Here's the truth. We're all going to have some of that.
[00:14:21] None of us are going to bat a thousand in this life. Church, in our decision, if you're thinking like the people around you bat a thousand, they don't.
[00:14:30] None of us do. But what wisdom does is it brings our batting percentage up, it helps us, and it protects us from building a future that is riddled by more regret than gratitude. You with me on this, church? Cause here's what it does on the flip side is wisdom Sometimes it helps us to make decisions that are better or smarter than we are in the moment.
[00:15:03] Do you ever sometimes look back at your life and, yes, we have the cringe moments, but do you also see moments where you're like, wow, God was in that decision.
[00:15:16] I didn't realize how good of one that was. But I see it more clearly every single day. That's the power of wisdom I think about in my life.
[00:15:27] I've made some really bad and dumb decisions. I've made a couple really good ones.
[00:15:33] One of the best ones I made was asking this girl out named Allie Freeze.
[00:15:39] It was a good one. Yeah.
[00:15:43] And here's the truth. God's grace was in that. Because the first date I asked her out on was a wedding of a high school friend that I was officiating.
[00:15:55] That was my first date idea.
[00:15:59] Could you think of a worse, more awkward one than that? Church.
[00:16:03] It's bad. I don't know. It made sense to me at the time. Again, lack of wisdom there. And by God's grace, she said she couldn't go.
[00:16:15] And I just kind of, you know, I got back up and I said, all right, let's try round two. And round two was, we went to Mongolian barbecue. A little bit better. Yeah.
[00:16:25] And the rest is history. But truly hurt in my life is one of God's greatest blessings to me.
[00:16:36] And wisdom.
[00:16:38] It protects us and it guides us, and we all need both of those.
[00:16:45] And Solomon says to his son, he said, son, if you take wisdom seriously, if you try to pursue it and you want it, and you see the value that it is, it will bring both protection and guidance that will, in time, bless and strengthen your life.
[00:17:08] And see, sometimes the problem is, and what I hear Solomon saying again and again to his son, Solomon, is, I want you to value this.
[00:17:17] I want you to see how important it actually is. Because you can have a treasure and not know that you have it.
[00:17:26] I read a story about this guy in New Jersey. He was messing around in his basement, and he found this oil painting that looked pretty good, but it was just important enough that it was sitting in his basement with a bunch of junk. And he looked at it, he said, maybe I could get a few hundred bucks for this. Brought it out, took it to some art collection.
[00:17:48] Art auction. I'm sorry. And there was some savvy art dealer there, and he recognized. He said, I think that might be more than what meets the eye.
[00:18:00] And the auction went, and it turned out he thought he was gonna get a few hundred bucks. It sold for a million Dollars, because there's a couple art collectors that realized it was an original Rembrandt.
[00:18:12] But it was so early that he signed his name differently.
[00:18:16] So only people that had expertise in this area had any idea. And this original Rembrandt was sitting in his basin and an absolute treasure that he thought was basically junk.
[00:18:29] So here's what I think. Let's all go scour our basements today. That's the lesson. Maybe there, you think, let's go and let's see what happens. No, what my point is is that there can be something of immense value in our life, but we don't recognize it as such.
[00:18:49] Solomon says to his son, son, you have to see the value of wisdom.
[00:18:56] It is a Rembrandt.
[00:18:58] Don't keep it in your basement. Don't let it collect dust.
[00:19:02] Don't think that it's not worth anything. But you bring it out and make it part of your life, because its value is priceless.
[00:19:14] And so what Solomon is showing us is that if we can prize wisdom and we can prize it in the kind of way we say, I wanna keep integrating it into my life, it will guard us and sustain us and protect us.
[00:19:31] Now, when I look at the Book of Proverbs, there are some huge themes of wisdom that I wanna share with you.
[00:19:37] These aren't all of them, but there's many of these statements in Proverbs that kinda say, like, here's the fundamentals of wisdom. And so what that means is if we take these seriously and we keep coming back to them, then they will help us to stand the path of wisdom. The first and most important one is this. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
[00:20:02] How do I become wise, Number one? I have to reverence the almighty God.
[00:20:11] The proverb says that the fool says in his heart there is no God.
[00:20:16] The wise person fears the Lord.
[00:20:20] This is not just a sense of fear of something jumping out in a movie, but it's a sense of deep reverence.
[00:20:28] It's a sense of realizing that my life doesn't belong to me.
[00:20:33] I have been created by a creator who for a purpose. And it all goes back to him.
[00:20:42] And there is a reverence. There is a weight to that. There is a responsibility to that. Fearing the Lord means I realize that the most important person in my world is not me, it's God.
[00:20:57] He comes first, and everything else comes behind. And without that, there is no foundation for wisdom. Another one, it says, wisdom seeks and loves instruction. Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge. When we get to that point, in our life, where we think we've arrived and we've got it all figured out, we're in a dangerous spot.
[00:21:22] The wise person doesn't see themselves as wise.
[00:21:26] The wise person says, no, there's more to learn, there's more to grow.
[00:21:31] If you're a follower of Jesus, the day you can stop growing, here's the day you can stop growing. The day you die, you're off the hook.
[00:21:42] But until then, God wants you and wants me to have a posture of heart that says, no, I'm still learning. I'm still a rookie.
[00:21:50] I still got a lot to figure out, and I need God's help and I need good people to get there.
[00:21:58] The wise person is humble.
[00:22:00] When pride comes, then comes disgrace.
[00:22:04] But with the humble is wisdom.
[00:22:06] When we look at our lives and when we're honest, how many of our problems are rooted in pride?
[00:22:15] How many times when we just peel back the layers and we're like, man, that's just really. That's really my.
[00:22:22] My ego.
[00:22:24] Guess it's just me in here talking to a group of angels.
[00:22:29] I need a sinner or two that I can converse with.
[00:22:34] Humility. The wise person is humble, listens to counsel. Whoever listens to advice is wise. Now, that's part of why next week we're having our better together Sunday. And the whole idea is from the book of Proverbs and other parts of scripture that says, ultimately this. You are not meant to do life alone.
[00:22:57] God wants to bring voices into your life, people into your life, to support, encourage, challenge you. We all need it. We need to receive it and give it, and relationship is the foundation of that. And so every year we try to emphasize that. We try to make groups to help foster that. It's because this cause we need God to give us his wisdom sometimes and his help and his support and his strength. Through each other, the wise person controls his or her speech.
[00:23:33] How we doing on that one?
[00:23:35] That one's always a.
[00:23:37] I feel that I read Proverbs, and it just sort of melts me.
[00:23:42] I'm like, lord, I knew I had work to do, but it's even bigger than I was thinking.
[00:23:48] Anyone.
[00:23:50] Whoever restrains his words, go back one more.
[00:23:55] Whoever restrains his words has knowledge.
[00:23:59] It is wise. Church, some of you need to hear this today.
[00:24:03] It is wise sometimes to keep your mouth shut.
[00:24:08] Did y' all hear that?
[00:24:10] Solomon says, hey, son, not everyone needs your opinion about everything.
[00:24:16] Amen.
[00:24:17] He says, son, it's not always good for you to give it all the time, son. Sometimes the Best thing you can say is nothing at all.
[00:24:30] We preaching yet? No.
[00:24:33] Let's go on. The next one controls his or her temperature. Whoever is quick to anger has great understanding. Oh, wait. No, no, no. Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding.
[00:24:50] Well, Solomon, you obviously didn't have kids.
[00:24:54] Oh, no, you had, like, 500 of them. Never mind.
[00:24:59] There is wisdom in controlling our temper. He goes on, and he chooses friends carefully. Whoever walks with the wise become wise. Now, that's not an exhaustive list, but it's a good start.
[00:25:13] And sometimes when our life feels exposed and not protected and not guided in the way that Solomon is talking, the way back is to go pursue wisdom.
[00:25:30] And maybe some of us today, maybe, you know, things are really rocky, and the Lord's like, yeah, they are, because you're just spouting off and you need to speak some life into the people around you.
[00:25:47] Maybe life's kind of feeling off the rails. And the Lord's like, yeah, because I need to be the priority in your life.
[00:25:55] Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. My point is, is that when we lose the blessings of wisdom, we have to come back to the path of wisdom. And maybe for some of us, God's calling us back to the path in one of these ways, or maybe some other way that's not mentioned, but Solomon says it's worth it in the long run. And then Solomon gives this picture in these next group of verses of two different ways of relating with people.
[00:26:23] And just to summarize. Cause I'm running out of time here. But to summarize, one example is the person who is ready to do good. He says, when it's in your power to do good, do it.
[00:26:36] Don't delay. Just do it.
[00:26:38] And then the other group of verses is saying, don't wake up and cause trouble.
[00:26:47] Don't look for a fight.
[00:26:49] Don't stir stuff up.
[00:26:51] Don't be unnecessarily combative. Don't have evil intentions towards others. And he's saying that there's two general postures you can take in life towards others. Ready to do good or ready to stir up trouble.
[00:27:06] Solomon says, take the ready to do good one. Now, I was thinking about this, and I had a morning, and the kids woke up and they were just going at each other.
[00:27:18] They're sitting at the breakfast table, and one of them's just putting their elbow in the other's face for no reason. It's no reason at all. And they're, like, pushing. The other one's, like, putting their foot on it like, move your foot. No, it's fine. It's there, you know, And I'm just like, I'm losing. They're causing me to sin, you know, My anger is not slow, my words are not controlled, and they're just stirring up trouble for no reason.
[00:27:49] And I have this hope church, and my oldest is seven. Some of you have kids older than that. So I need your wisdom.
[00:27:58] But I believe there is an age where that just all stops. Am I right?
[00:28:06] It's like 14, is that it?
[00:28:09] 1424, 2044.
[00:28:16] There's hope church. Hallelujah.
[00:28:20] But you know, when I was just looking at them, I was thinking, I was like, this is what Proverbs is talking about.
[00:28:25] Cause isn't that spirit in all of us that, you know what married people?
[00:28:35] Have you ever picked a fight with your spouse?
[00:28:39] Of course not, Pastor. No way. I'd wake up every day and serve, you know?
[00:28:46] Yeah, we'll talk about lying too.
[00:28:50] Church Solomon says, you can do it. It's not wise, right? And if he says, but in other words, get this. But he said, you can have a different posture.
[00:29:02] You can be ready to do good. I love this verse. It's so practical. It says, if it's in your power to do good, do it and do it quickly. If you can do good to your neighbor, don't say like, eh, you know, just, I'll come around. Do it eventually. Says, no, no, if you have it in your power, go and do good. You can have a posture of heart that says, you know what? Wherever I am, I want to offer my heart and life and say, God, if there's a way I can do good, use me.
[00:29:34] And I think that's such a powerful thing now. I love how Solomon even gives us some guide rails to it. He says, if it's in your power, we can't always do good.
[00:29:45] We can't take care of every need.
[00:29:48] We can't serve every person around us that need serve, even though we might want to. There's a certain lane that God has for all of us and some seasons of life, you know, we just maybe can't help people in the way that we might want. He says, look, if it's in your power, if you're able. He says, do it and do it quickly. I love that. Have you ever had, like a good thought? You're like, you know what?
[00:30:17] I'm going to send this person, like an encouraging text.
[00:30:21] And you're like, yeah, but, you know, I don't know, should I do it? Is this gonna Be weird. And then you, like, kick it around, kick it around, kick it around.
[00:30:30] Never happens.
[00:30:32] Or you're like, you know what? I'm gonna. There's this person, I wanna do something good for him. And you think it, and you think about it. You think about it, and then you overthink about it, and all of a sudden you've talked yourself out of it. Anybody?
[00:30:47] Salmon's like, hey, here's what wisdom is.
[00:30:51] God's given me an opportunity to do good. I can do it in a responsible way.
[00:30:58] Solomon says, go do it. Well, I'm just praying. Is it the Lord's will? Is it, like, it's not rocket science.
[00:31:07] Do it. You know, sometimes Christians, we get into analysis, paralysis.
[00:31:15] We've been praying the whole life, our whole life, what God's will is. And it's been like, dude, I've been praying that 25 years. Your life's.
[00:31:21] A lot's already passed, brother.
[00:31:24] Just get to work. Serve him.
[00:31:28] Take the next step.
[00:31:31] Are you doing good? Are you honoring Christ? Good. Go for it.
[00:31:35] Doesn't have to be too much, too complicated.
[00:31:38] Is it, like, a terrible idea? Like, does God want me to steal my neighbor's car? Like, no. Yeah, obviously he does.
[00:31:46] You with me.
[00:31:48] And Solomon is saying, don't overcomplicate it. Be a vessel for God. Be ready to do good as you are able.
[00:31:57] Go and do. And I think church, I think it's so powerful when we do this, because sometimes, sometimes that is the way God moves in people's hearts.
[00:32:09] It's not always through what we say, but through how we serve them.
[00:32:15] And if you are a follower of Jesus, you cannot lose sight of that. I remember years ago, I met this guy. And sometimes when people find out I'm a pastor, sometimes there's, like, a switch that gets flipped in them, and they're, like, coming at me full charge with every grievance against church and Christianity that they've had in their life. I'm like, I've met you for five seconds, but let's go. You know? And so it's kind of one of those conversations he found out, and immediately, like, he's just on me, but he's very hostile. And I'm always glad to have a conversation, talk about, talk through things. But this was, like, not a pleasant conversation. And like I said, I just met him, and I felt like he was kind of talking down to me and being demeaning, and it wasn't much of a conversation. So I was getting very frustrated and amped up.
[00:33:03] And so we were Going back and forth and it just didn't go to a good place. Wasn't my best showing church.
[00:33:11] And it was just like. Just felt like this wasn't good. And so then I would see this guy just occasionally.
[00:33:17] And every time I'd see him be like, I don't really like this guy.
[00:33:21] I was woes in my heart. It just was like, just, you know, just frustrated, a little bit, little bit bitter. Well, in time.
[00:33:31] He had a family member that died very tragically. And his family asked me to do the funeral for him.
[00:33:38] And so I said, yeah, of course, and did the funeral and just tried to serve the family a little bit during the time.
[00:33:46] And after that, our conversations were totally different.
[00:33:51] The hostility was gone.
[00:33:53] We could have a conversation.
[00:33:56] It felt like there was mutual respect.
[00:34:00] It was just totally different. And at first I was kind of taken aback. Cause I was like, whoa, what's going on here? I got whiplash.
[00:34:07] But then I realized it was different because God gave me an opportunity to serve him.
[00:34:16] And through serving in that way, in that time, again, it was my lane. It was a lane I could do. It was in my power to. To do good. I could do that. A lot of things I can't do, but I could do that.
[00:34:30] And I think God used that. It just made me think, maybe there are some opportunities that's in your power to do good to people around you that the Lord wants to use to bring them closer to him.
[00:34:47] Don't underestimate the power of that.
[00:34:50] Be ready to do good. And then Solomon says this. He says, wisdom always delivers.
[00:34:57] At the end of the day, we can be unwise and we can get away with it for a little bit, but it will catch up to us.
[00:35:05] Wisdom, on the other hand, it always accumulates, it always blesses.
[00:35:11] It always brings a greater return.
[00:35:15] And now, as we think about this, here's what my challenge is for you today. Sometimes the journey of wisdom, it can feel overwhelming.
[00:35:25] Maybe sometimes we can look at our life and we can be like, wow, I've missed a lot.
[00:35:30] And we can feel a sense of shame and disappointment and frustration.
[00:35:36] But today, what I want to ask you to think about is just this question.
[00:35:41] What's the next right step God has for me?
[00:35:45] See, oftentimes wisdom isn't about always these huge big changes, but sometimes just one next right step that God has.
[00:35:58] See, for some of us today, maybe the next right step of wisdom for us is to give our lives to Jesus Christ Church. That is the wisest thing you can ever do.
[00:36:13] And there is no Wisdom. There is no life of wisdom apart from that. That is the beginning. Point looking to Jesus and say, I am trusting you as Lord of my life.
[00:36:27] I'm looking to the cross.
[00:36:29] As your death is my forgiveness, your resurrection is. Is my victory.
[00:36:36] Only through you can my soul be redeemed. And can I have hope now and for eternal life.
[00:36:45] And I trust you. And for some of us, that's the first step of wisdom, because that is the step upon which every other step is built. There is no wise life without Christ as the foundation.
[00:37:01] For some of us, maybe you know Christ and you've given your life to Christ, but life's been hard or confusing. I want to give you this Psalm, Psalm 145. It says this. The Lord is near to all who call on him.
[00:37:13] To all who call on him. In truth, he fulfills the desires of those who fear him. He also hears their cry and saves them.
[00:37:22] Some of us, maybe today, man, life's tough.
[00:37:26] We're going through it. We're coming to church with heavy hearts, with difficult things. And here's what your next step of wisdom is. Is to pray and ask for God's help.
[00:37:39] And I want to encourage you. Don't do that alone today. If your heart's heavy, come catch me after service. I'll be right out there.
[00:37:48] And you're like, man, Chad, my heart's heavy. I need God's help. Like, I need it in a real way, and I want it.
[00:37:54] Come, let's pray together.
[00:37:56] Or if you're here and you got friends or family here, and you know, you guys are going through it before you leave here, take a second, go to a corner of the school, whatever, and just pray and say, man, I'm calling. We're calling on the name of the Lord. We're asking for his help because he is good for it, church. And we need that again and again. And for some of us, maybe that's the next right step. For some of us, maybe it's getting our heart ready for next week for our Fall fest, our Better Together Sunday. Maybe God's been pushing you to get connected to the church, to serve or to build our relationships.
[00:38:37] Maybe that's your next step. Say, all right, I'm gonna give it a try. I'm gonna take that step, and I'm gonna be on the path of. Of wisdom. Let's pray.
[00:38:49] Father, we thank you so much that you are a God who meets us, Lord, in this life and in our struggles, and you even meet us in our foolishness, and you lead us out of it.
[00:39:06] Father, I pray today that we could have a sense of what next right step you have for each one of us.
[00:39:15] I pray for those today who in their heart, they know their next step is to give their lives to you.
[00:39:23] I pray, Father, that your spirit would be at work in them, that they would just now as we're talking, Lord, commit their lives to Jesus. Say, you are Lord, you are Savior.
[00:39:37] I believe God raised you from the dead and they could experience the newness of your salvation.
[00:39:45] And I pray life could feel like a brand new start for those of us, Lord, who just know you. But man, we're taxed, we're overwhelmed.
[00:39:55] Struggle is real.
[00:39:57] I pray we could call out to you and we could feel reinforcements from heaven coming our way and there could be new wind in our sails.
[00:40:09] Father, I pray that for some of us, if you just have that next right step for us, help us to take it, help us to not delay.
[00:40:17] Or maybe there's opportunities right in front of us to serve and to love people. Lord, help us to just go and do it. And we pray you would be glorified and honored in all these things we ask through the great name of Jesus. Amen.
