How To Find The Hidden Wisdom Of God

Well, church family, we're in Proverbs chapter 2, and uh, we're going to be reading, uh, the bulk of the, or the whole of the chapter. We'll read it for context's sake. I got to, I got to be honest with you. I was completely prematurely celebrating that last night when I went to bed. I thought, "Okay, this is it. We're the people are GOING TO BE SHOCKED. WE'RE GOING TO GET ALL THE WAY THROUGH ONE chapter in one Sunday. We're going to set a world's record here for this church." And then, uh, when I go to bed on, on Saturday nights, I've got anywhere from 35 to 45 pages of notes. And between 2 and 6 a.m., it all goes down every week to 10 pages. And so, uh, we're not going to make it very far, is what the answer is.

But we'd rather become wise people than a hurried people. And so the whole theme of the entire book is the way of wisdom. Uh, this is God's word to us on wisdom. God holds the market on wisdom. It's, it's not something that is, uh, gotten any other way but God. And, uh, we're looking today at what will be a, a couple of messages anyway. Uh, the way of wisdom will save your life. Can you write that down? And make sure you, that you scan the QR code for all of the notes. But wisdom will save your life. And that's not a stretch to say that. You already know that.

Uh, wisdom, for example, uh, would say, uh, if you're going to get on an airplane, uh, make sure you understand what you're talking about when you're going to get on an airplane. You don't sit on top the airplane. You get in the airplane. Okay. Somebody might say, "Well, GIVE ME SOME KNOWLEDGE. I'M GOING TO GET ON an airplane. Well, give me some wisdom. I'm going to get in it before it takes off." Does that make some sense? It's very basic and remedial what I'm saying to you right now. But the point is this: when we talk about knowledge, we better be very, very careful that we are exercising knowledge in the way of wisdom. And, um, that applies to everything in life. We don't often think about it though, because in my opinion, wisdom and faith are things that are so often exercised and or needed that if we don't pay attention, uh, we might miss it, though it might be right in front of us. Wisdom is the appropriation of knowledge rightly. It's rightly using what we know.

My goodness, have you seen some of the breaking news of what's going on with AI and the advent of these new, uh, what AI has given birth in a sense to itself? Another AI's got now children, and those, the children of AI, I think it's Musk that's been, uh, talking about what they've produced called Gro 4, and the things that it can do, the things that it's doing is quite, uh, uh, terrifying. And, um, a lot of things that it's analyzing now, uh, maybe you saw some of the discussions, but, uh, that AI, the new version of AI is now, uh, being able to create, or it's going to soon be able to produce, um, alloys and metals and, um, and physical structure that we have never known in our world of physics because it's ABLE TO SAMPLE ALL THESE things of nature. And we didn't know, for example, that if you put ammonia in with this particular metal, like say aluminum, and then you give it an electrical charge at this, uh, intensity, uh, with this particular, uh, cooling off period, it creates a metal or something tangible that we've never known before. Never known to man. And they said it's going to revolutionize warfare and how we live and things like, I mean, IT'S JUST OVER THE TOP. HERE'S THE THING. THAT'S ALL KNOWLEDGE. None of it's wisdom.

Wisdom becomes, and he said it. Musk said that he, he said it is terrifying. You say, "Well, that's kind of ridiculous. He's one of the guys that's doing it." But he says that he's doing it to try to keep it out of the hands of the bad guys that are going to do it. And it's a race to who wins control. So you can now turn and say to, to this new level of AI, how do we attack or destroy America? And then it spits out what you do. So what his argument is, we need to know all OF THAT BEFORE THE BAD GUYS DO. Well, that's nice. You might say, well, why doesn't he just not get involved at all? Because somebody will. It's kind of like voting. If you good people don't vote, only the loonies will vote. And that's called the definition of that is called California.

And so, uh, we want to learn wisdom. So, let's stand, if you would, as we read the Bible together. And, uh, I'll start it off in verse one. If you'll pick it up in verse two. Proverbs 2:1 to 22. The way of wisdom will save your life. Solomon says, "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 understanding."

"Yes. If you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as her hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find knowledge, or the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk uprightly. He guards the paths of justice and preserves the way of the saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity, and every good path. Wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul. Discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you to deliver you from the way of evil, from a man who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perversity of the wicked, whose ways are crooked and who are devious in their paths, to deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words."

Now, you know, he's telling this to his son, but you can also turn that around and apply the, exactly, apply the female, uh, wisdom because of the, the predatory male that's out there, the immoral male. Uh, where was I? "Who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house leads down to death, and her paths to the dead. None who go down to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life. Soon you may walk in the way of goodness and keep to the paths of righteousness. For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it. The wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it."

And all God's people said, "Amen." You may be seated. Strong words. Great words. Words so strong people would rather like, "Uh, honey, maybe we should go now." Words so strong that really, words so strong, and yet you down deep inside know that's exactly what you and I need to know and hear and speak about, and what our kids need to know and to hear and to speak about. Because now, in this day and age, there is a flood of information that has been unleashed to the world around us. And you and I, in the Bible, are commanded by God to defend and to protect the innocence of our children. And that can never be more true than it is now. It's always true because it's God's truth. But my goodness, no longer are we living in the days of, so to speak, the Little House on the Prairie. These are times when our children, we need to be careful because there is that generational gap where we think, well, I don't want to talk to my kid about that because that's pretty embarrassing. When chances are, your kid already knows about that. And we never had the birds and the bees conversation at our house. But, um, there were those in my junior high that made sure that they taught the birds and the bees. And I'm not talking about teachers. I'm talking about those who were promiscuous. It's best for your child to learn, as Solomon is speaking to his son, from the parent rather than from the street. Amen.

And that is an exhortation in wisdom. We're going to be talking, as we normally do in this church, we're going to be talking directly, uh, from the word of God. So, the way of wisdom will absolutely save your life. Number one, this way, if you mark it down, it's found in verses 1-5. It's as far as we'll get today, but it's enough. And that is that we need to wise up. We need to wise up. And there's a little bit of a play on a word, don't you think, on that? When the wisdom of Solomon is coming out of his lips, and the book of Proverbs is the book of wisdom, and the Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, or wisdom. And so we see right here in verses 1-5 that it starts out in the first two verses that we need to wise up by being receptive. That we need TO ALL DECIDE RIGHT NOW AS BELIEVERS. This is a Sunday service, and I, I take this seriously. Hey, I, you guys, if you've been coming here for any length of time, uh, our Sunday services are geared to believers. You say, "Well, why don't you, why don't you dumb it down for the unbeliever?" I don't believe in that. I don't believe in that. Listen, I honestly trust Jesus. The Bible says Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice and they follow me." Number one. Number two, he never dumbed down anything. In fact, he said things so bluntly, you wonder like, Jesus, could you, could you have actually kind of toned that down a little bit? But he didn't.

AND HE LISTENS to the Holy Spirit to work in the lives of those who God is calling. And that said, Sundays, Wednesdays, Bible open, we trust God to speak to people. And you might say, "Well, I'm here today and I'm not a believer." Well, first of all, that's great that you came. Just know this. We're, we're not going to try to burp you or, or change you. I mean, that's children's ministry. We'll do that. This is the adult ministry, which means we're going to give you the truth. And the truth will save your life. [applause] And we live in a world where you don't do that. No, no, no. We must do that more than ever because we are dying for the lack of truth. And so, we need to be receptive. Where do we begin to receive the truth? And that is our hearts have got to be open. And this is where you and I come in. You and I have got to be willing to, so to speak, woman up or man up and say, "Lord, I don't think my heart is open to what you want to say. I may not even believe in your existence. I'm going to ask you that if you're there, to speak to me, that if this is true, show me what all these people around me claim to believe in. Show me that it's true."

To be receptive. Listen, what about the believer? What about us? We claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then listen, that would presuppose a very important thing, and that is we are determining. I say determining in the present tense because I, I can only speak for me. But every day I've got to check my own heart and my own life about am I being receptive to what God wants to say to me? Do we always get it right? No. DO WE GET OUT OF BED sometimes late and we're running like a fireman out to the car to to drive away? Maybe so. But the thing is, that's not the pattern. Pattern of our lives. The pattern of our lives as believers is, Lord, change me. And then changing me, that happens every day. Lord, change me. And, you know, listen, this is beautiful. When, when God is done changing you, do you know what happens? You die. You die. You know, lately, we don't know. I mean, lately there's been a lot of believers here. Now, granted, this is a big church. There's babies. There's babies born every day here, and there's people dying every day here. I mean, not they don't die here, but, you know, in the body, in the body. That said, um, it's a beautiful thing to hear some of these saints who are like, they're tired. Listen, they're tired of the pain, they're tired of the suffering, they're trusting Jesus, and they have been receptive to his promises and they understand, Lord, I'm ready. I'm ready. We watched one, uh, elderly man, uh, be told, you know, you're going to die, which is funny. The doctor eventually comes in. Sometimes the doctors will say, "You're the pastor, right?" Well, can you tell him he's going to die? That's fine. Uh, it goes over fine for the believer. It's kind of scary when the believing family has an unbelieving friend and they want us to go and tell the unbelieving friend, "You're going to die." How do you do that? The, the doctors come in and they go, you know, "We're going to make you as comfortable as possible." That's what they, when they tell you that, you BETTER MAKE SURE YOU KNOW JESUS. But then they call for the pastor. The pastor comes in and says, "What? Hi. What your family told me to come see you. What's your name?" Mike. Mike. Yeah. So your family wants me, want the doctor also wants me to tell you you're dying. You're going to be dead. You're going to be dead. You're dying. You're going to be dead soon."

So, you got to remember something. I, I have no relationship to this person. We're not going to have a barbecue together. We're not going to go on a picnic. We have no vacation plans. You've got to tell them the truth. And listen, it's in that moment when they, when they get the news. What? Come on. You've known it. You've been sensing it, haven't you? Yeah, kind of. Where are you with Jesus? You see, all of a sudden, it's wake-up time. And what happens? Some people are receptive. Some are not. Reality does that to you. It wakes us up.

And he says here, "My son, if you notice this, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear, listen to all these verbs, to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding." Verses 1 and 2. Well, let's look at this together. The word "receive" is an awesome word. This is what we need to be as people. Now, the word means to take root. So, my son, if you allow my word to take root, or to, uh, be accepted by you, to, to be captured by you, or to take it and to keep it, to procure it, seize upon it for yourself. Solomon is saying, "Son, the words that I'm telling you, I've lived a long life." And look, Solomon's experience with women, you should probably listen to him because boy, did he blow it. That's right. You know, when you love your kids, you turn and you tell your kids, "I'm going to tell you what I did so that you never do it." That's the great redeeming thing about being a believer. WE CAN TAKE ALL OF THE STUFF THAT WE went through and we turn now to the next generation and say, "At all cost, avoid this." And he's saying, "Take it in. Procure that for yourself. Seize it. Oh, son, if you're wise, here's what I want you to do. I want you to make sure that you wise up by becoming very receptive to the words that I've got to say to you, and these words that I'm going to give you. I want you to receive them, and I want you to hang on to them, and don't let them go."

In John 8:42, the Bible tells us Jesus said, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. Nor have I come of myself, but He sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Listen. Because you are not able to listen to my word." That is simply this: they refuse to be what? Receptive of the words Jesus was speaking. I wish we could spend the entire day on this topic because you and I live in an age, I can't do this, but I can only, uh, hint about it. You and I live in an age, a day, and an age where we're being conditioned. We're being conditioned to go this way. Watch me. To go this way, or to go that way with the information that is before us. Meaning this: something is said, something is posted, something is on the news, something you see or you hear, and you will either receive it when you should be rejecting it, or you'll reject it when you should be receiving it. Listen, what are we going to do in an age like this? I've been saying this over and over again, and in my opinion, it's, it's more necessary now than last weekend. Without the word of God being your anchor, and we'll touch on the word eventually in this study on the word discernment, I don't care who you are. I don't care how smart you are. I don't care how much knowledge you have. Unless the Holy Spirit is giving YOU DISCERNMENT BETWEEN WHAT is true and what is false, what should you receive and what should you reject, you are going to be deceived and lost by the advent and the flood of information because it looks good.

This, you don't need to know this, but I'll tell tell it to you anyway. I have no problem throwing myself under the bus. So, there was a post recently on one of, I don't know if it was a podcast or whatever, but, you know, these high-definition cameras, high-definition cameras are beautiful if you're looking at a duck or a moose or a nature scene. So beautiful, you can see just the slightest dewdrop on the, on the leaf, and it's sparkling. Do you know what I'm talking about? Wow. Well, they posted this thing about, you know, whatever I'm saying on the podcast, and it's my face. [laughter] And I put, I, it was shocked me, and then I put glasses on to look closer. [laughter] And I said, I said, "Can't you do something about this?" It was too, there's too much. The, the nose hairs, the ear hairs. Don't tell me you don't have any. I can see them from HERE. I'M KIDDING. ALL OF THAT. ALL OF THAT. And it's like, CAN'T YOU PUT A FILTER ON THERE? They do it for Marie Osman. [laughter] And he goes, "Let me see what I can do." And he sends back, he sends back the clip of me like this, speaking, and, and they, and he put George Clooney's face on my body. And I said, "That's exactly right. Just keep that's a good one. Post that one." You know what's real? What's not real? Some things are obvious. Some things are not. The word of God is GOING TO BE THE ONLY THING THAT'S GOING TO KEEP YOU safe in this day and age in which we live in. And it's going to intensify. But Jesus made IT VERY CLEAR. YOU'RE NOT able to hear my word. You don't want to. You don't want to listen. What a strong word that is.

And then he uses the word, uh, here, "treasure." He talks about treasuring these things. He says that you would treasure my commands within you. That makes a lot of beautiful sense. Within, inside of you, a treasure. We all know that the word treasure in our culture automatically means that you've got to dig down. You know, you got to find it somewhere. It's a treasure that's buried. You need to find the map and pace it off and dig underneath the palm tree, and there is the great treasure. God says yes to that. Just make sure you hide it in your heart. And I like that because you can't put money in your heart. You can't put clothing in your heart. You can't put your car in your heart. Some people will try. Doesn't work. God says, "Put my wisdom. Put my truth. Treasure it up in your heart." And that word, uh, "treasure," look at this. The word means this: to put in a safe place. Remember how Jesus said in another spot, maybe I'll read it in a moment, "store up for yourselves treasures in where?" In heaven. You know what's interesting about heaven? Heaven and your heart as a believer house the same thing. Whatever that thing is, is it, is it worship? Is it service? Is it praise? Isn't that the closest thing in this world right now that you and I can have to heaven is the throne room of our heart? What's it like? What is in that safe place within our heart, within our very being? That which IS OF THE UTMOST VALUE, A TREASURE WELL HIDDEN TO STORE AWAY FOR SAFE SAFEKEEPING. Those things that are very valuable to you, you put away safely. Safe deposit box, so to speak. Your heart is like a safe deposit box. Very, very remarkable, very powerful.

And this just snowballs upon another. Look at verse two. So that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. What a great bit of wisdom that is. And the word "incline," the Hebrew meaning of the word incline is to bend. We've heard this earlier in the introduction of this book. To bend or to cup the ears, to give all attention to, to fix your eyes and your ears upon the subject or the issue so as to learn. So we, we would go like this so we wouldn't want to miss a thing. We lean in, and God says, "Do that. Do that with my word. Young men, old men, young women, older women, pick up my word and lean into it." Amen. And I like where, as that word means to cup the ears, it implies in my mind, it implies that God is going to speak. If I have the word open, he's going to be talking. So I don't want to miss anything. I like that. I need that.

He says that, um, in Psalm 119, the great psalm of the word of God, Psalm 119. "How can a young man cleanse his way?" So, young man, listen up. "By taking heed according to your word. With my whole heart I have sought you; oh, let me not wander from your commandments. Your word I have hidden. The word is treasured up in my heart, that I might not sin against you." I love this. Men, listen up. I'm just talking TO THE GUYS. ARE YOU STRUGGLING WITH SOMETHING? I got, listen, I got the, I got the fix. I got the fix. WHATEVER IT MIGHT BE. IS IT GAMBLING? Is it stress? Is it panic? Is it porn? Is it fear? Is it, what is it? I don't care what it is. I've got the fix. Take his word. Treasure it up. Watch. Put it in. And it's here. Watch. It starts to grow. It starts to grow. The word of God. Romans 10:17, "Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God." YOUR FAITH'S GOING TO INCREASE. WATCH THIS. FROM THE INSIDE OUT, THE WORD IS GOING TO GROW AND IT'S GOING TO PUSH OUT ALL THAT STUFF THAT EASILY BESETS YOU. This is the fix.

In fact, you guys, I've told you before, and I remembered finally this time, um, I want to show you when I'm counseling with someone, um, I'm listening to what they're talking about, and I'll write down Bible verses as they come to mind about what is the prescription for their issue. And so I'll write that out and I'll date it and I'll give, uh, you know, give a little word on there. But here's that, here's that pad. So, somebody said, "That looks so real. You should, I think that's illegal." But we're not talking about that right now. I had this before there was ever a law. I've had this for probably 20, 25 years. But, um, in fact, I think the phone numbers are even wrong. I'm not even sure about that. But, what's fun about this is, um, I write the verses down on here and then refills. Usually, I put "as much as needed." No, really. And then notice the bottom: "To ensure effectiveness, use only the word of God. All script, all scriptures guaranteed. It's your responsibility to take your medicine." Isaiah 55:11. And so if you think I'm making that up, I have one right here. And, um, but it's very effective. What's my point? It's actually a very cute thing to do this way. They walk away with it, and they are accustomed to, I can go to the pharmacy and I can get ibuprofen or whatever they, whatever you get. Well, if I can do that at Walmart, then why can't I take this now and go home and open up my Bible and get it all out for me for whatever I want? Because it is God's will that you be set free from those things that bind you. God wants you free. Treasure his word in your heart.

And he tells us to apply the word, to make application, to spread it out. The Bible tells us to apply the word of God in extending by, uh, turning towards, is what that means. In Psalm 107:20, one of my favorite verses. Psalm 107:20 says, "He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions." There's a promise for you. Write that down on the RX pad of God's word that God says, "I have sent to you my word to heal you from your destructions." Yes, Lord. So, you want to pause right now and you want to be receptive to what the spirit OF GOD IS SAYING to you about where do you need healing? Where do you need the touch of God? I cannot do that for you. You cannot do it for me. You've got to be honest and open enough between you and your God to say, 'Lord, show me what application applies to this problem in my life.' And if you don't know, then all the more dive into God's word. Do us, do a word search. What is it in your? Is it fear? Is it fear? Then listen, you can search. You can even, I think Google would even do this for you if you Googled, learn or verses regarding the fear of God or the love of God. You know, the fear of God and the love of God are happily bound together. They're beautiful. One's not good and the other one's bad. They're both perfect. They're wonderful. And start getting the answers in the back of your Bible. You have a concordance of some type, I would think in a study Bible for sure. Find out about that.

And then he says the word "understanding," that we might have this understanding. Genesis 18, listen to this, it's pretty heavy verse, actually. Genesis 18:19, speaking about Abraham: "For I, that is the Lord, have known him, so the Lord is speaking about Abraham, in order that I may command his children and his household after him, generationally, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him, what God has spoken to him." That is a powerful verse. God is saying to YOU RIGHT NOW, DO NOT EXCLUDE YOURSELF. In fact, watch this. Don't answer. Just listen. Do you want God in your life? DO YOU WANT YOUR SINS FORGIVEN? DO YOU WANT TO have a, a, a LIFE THAT IS HONORING TO GOD? DO YOU WANT TO HAVE THE PEACE of knowing that your salvation IS SECURE IN CHRIST AND WHEN YOU BREATHE YOUR LAST, that you enter into HIS PRESENCE, ACCEPTABLE? You don't need to worry about any of that. It's all done. Do you want that? Well, this is what God is saying to you. GOD IS SAYING, "I WANT THAT FOR YOU. And I want that to be for you. So much so that it will affect your generations after you, your children and your children's children and beyond." It's remarkable. You and I love our families, and so we WANT THE VERY BEST FOR THEM. We often fail to think God wants that for us more than we do.

We're grandparents. Many of you are grandparents. You're, this is first service. A lot of grandparents at first service. We've been up for hours. [laughter] Our greatest burden, it's not the stock market, it's not the price of gas, it's not any of those things. Our greatest burden is the welfare of our children. And more even more so, I mean, not, I mean, I have to watch out, my daughters are watching this, but we love our, we love our kids, but there's something about, you said it, the grandkids, that they make it, that they make it to heaven. And we, we pray like, YOU PRAY, DEAR GOD, DON'T LET OUR GRANDKIDS GO THROUGH THE bumps and bruises that we did unnecessarily. God says, "Abraham, I've blessed you. You're a man of faith, and I want your children and your children's children to be people of faith."

John 15:7, here's a whopper. This is awesome. This is incredible. Jesus said, "If you abide in me, if you listen, if you take up residence in me, if you live in me and my words live in you," that's what the word abide means, "you will ask what you desire." Did you hear? That's not a trick question, by the way. If you abide in Jesus and his word abides in you, you can ask God for anything you want. You want to know why? Because what you want is from the heart of the Lord, and it's pleasing to him. You mean, if I abide in God and he abides in me, I can win the lottery? No. That's the exact opposite of what I'm saying. If God's word is in you and you're in him, you're going to want the things that God wants. And he SAYS, "AND IT SHALL BE DONE FOR YOU. BY THIS MY FATHER IS GLORIFIED THAT YOU BEAR MUCH FRUIT." NOTICE your desires and what you pray for and ask God for turns out to be very fruity, very fruitful. So you will be my disciples. That is a great verse that sums up the dynamic of the Christian life.

Delight. Write this down. It's not in your notes. It just popped into my head. Psalm 37:4. "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." NOTICE THE PREREQUISITE. DELIGHT YOURSELF IN GOD. YOUR HEART will be changed, and He will give you those desires. Why? Because they're God-honoring desires placed there by Him. And all the while you think you're being spoiled because God's answering all these wonderful things that you want to see happen in your life. And all the while God is saying, "This is how you and I walk together. You seek me. I share things with you. You start asking for these things, I give them to you. And aren't we happy?" Absolutely awesome. What a precious God.

The second thing we see here about the way of wisdom, and it will save our lives, is by wising up is that by being active. I think we know this already, but we need to repeat it. Solomon repeats it to his son. He says, "Yes, in verse three, if you." So that is a challenge. If you do this, my son, you're gonna have to do this, you got to be active about it. "If you watch, cry out for discernment." There's that awesome word. "And lift up your voice for understanding." Verse four. "If you seek her as silver," that's wisdom, "seek her and search for her as for hidden treasures." We'll stop there and look at this. Isn't it interesting? Wisdom is referred to as a she. We won't make it today, but later on in this chapter, you read it a moment ago about the immoral woman. A friend of mine sent me an email the other day, and he reminded me. He said, "You know, the book of Proverbs is made up of two women. It's the story of two women, the book of Proverbs." What do you think about that? It's true. It's about wisdom being wise. She is a blessing. Wisdom personifies wisdom. And numerous times throughout the book, you're going to be warned about the immoral woman. The world is immoral. It's an immoral world without Christ. We would all agree, no matter what our worldview is, or if we have faith or not, we all agree that the world's messed up. Why is it that way? Because there's a direct correlation between the world detaching itself from the knowledge of God and how it conducts itself. The Bible says, by the way, has always said, by the way, that when God is rejected, man will do whatever is in his own heart. Man, man will come to ruin because he will do his own thing. And we know that's true. We know that's TRUE IN FAMILY LIFE. WE KNOW THAT'S true in business. We know it's true. By the way, you know what? We will come up eventually. We will come up to the immoral woman and about how her path leads to death. Oh my goodness, we're going to have a blast with that one. I mean, I don't mean to sound irreverent about it, but we're going to have some fun because here's the deal. It's speaking about the chemical and biological fallout of a promiscuous life. The scientific ramifications of promiscuity, what it does to you purely on scientific terms. We won't even have to talk about the Bible. All we have to do is talk about what happens in the realm of promiscuity and how it is unavoidably translated by outcome in the scientific realm in this area. Health. Wow. Everything's connected. Remarkably.

That said, we are to be active in these things, and we are to be crying out. He says for discernment. That word "cry out." Another strong Hebrew word, of course, to make known, to make famous, broad, well-known, not hidden or aloof. CRY OUT. DON'T BE A, DON'T BE SHY. DON'T DON'T BE ASHAMED. I WANT WISDOM. We cry out. I want it. Notice the picture it's painting that the young Solomon wants his son to be almost violent about it. Um, almost a nuisance about it. Where have you seen? Excuse me. Have you seen wisdom? Uh, no. Okay. Wait. HOW ABOUT OVER HERE? HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN WISDOM? [applause] For those of you watching right now, you should have been here in person. Did you hear that precious little voice? Out of the, God says, "Out of the mouth of babes, I have perfected praise." [applause] Wow. Cry out, right? We do that when we want something, we cry out.

Psalm 18:6 says, "In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried out to my God. He heard my voice from his temple, and my cry came before him, even to his ears." I think you ought to memorize that verse. Psalm 18:6. What a precious promise that is. Are you in the thick of it right now? Cry out to God. I tell you what's painful. We've all gone through this. Sometimes it's because of our sin that we've broken fellowship with God as a believer, and we didn't, you know, we didn't either, we didn't intend to do it, or we did it and we didn't take care of business. You know what I mean with that? When I say as a believer, we sinned and we didn't pay attention to that. Like this. We can be walking with God and having a great day with God and get caught up into things, and we can be rude to our husband, or rude to our wives, or we can be, uh, rude to our parents or our kids, and the Holy Spirit will say in that moment, "Hey, hey, hey, whoa, whoa, uh-uh." But we're busy. We're loud. Things are happening. It's a noisy day. And you don't hear them, and you move on. You just move on because that's what urgency does to us. It's terrible. Urgency always pushes out the important. And you lay your head down at night, and you're wondering why you, you've kind of had a whole, the whole day has kind of, you, you realize, ah, [sighs and gasps] kind of been so busy I forgot God today. Hey God, how's it going? How are we? Lord, I'm talking to you. Anybody home? What's, what's there? Silence.

He, listen up everyone, especially new believers. You're wondering, "I heard God speak last Sunday, but this week I don't know." Here's your answer. He speaks, and but it's called in the Bible a still small voice. I don't like it. I have a, I, I have a struggle with that because I'm Portuguese and I'm loud. And, uh, Lisa said last night, we were watching this guy, and she goes, "He sure moves his hands a lot when he talks." And I said, "I bet he's Portuguese." Notice where I, notice where I hid my hands. I'm trying to do this now. Because when you move your hands, I read a thing where if you move your hands while you talk, you're not in, you're not educated. You're not intelligent. So it's like, all right, look, see, I am, I am so smart. I am talking. [laughter] But, um, please. [applause] God will speak when it's been quiet, and you're wondering, "Now he's got your attention. I haven't heard him say anything. God, are, are we all right? Are we all right?" And then he doesn't say anything about, "Wasn't it the weather nice today?" or "What about this?" No, no, no, no. He'll, his small voice will say, and you've got to wait. He will make you wait. It's part, it's part of the punishment. He'll say, "You were rude to your coworker today, and you just kept going like it was nothing." So, here's the thing. I told you in my Bible, if you've offended someone, you have to go make it right with them and then come and talk to me. Oh, yeah. Okay. I know it's in the Bible. God, I read that. But, you know, it's me. [laughter] And he doesn't say anything. That's it. He's, he told you what you're supposed to do. Talk to the hand. He's not going to speak to you again, Christian, until you go make it right with that person. See? Yeah, but that per, he wants me to go talk, tell that heathen I'm sorry. Yep. But they're pagan. God. Yep. We often have conditioned ourselves in not hearing the voice of God because we don't obey God when he tells us, "I'm not talking to you anymore. You're still my kid. You're going to heaven. All that's fine." But just like a, just like your child, that child is your child. But when they do, when they do what they do and they go against you, and you tell them, "Go to your room." If they go to the room and then come back in five minutes and ask you, "Hey, can I have this for Christmas?" What are you going to say to them? You just point back to the room. YOU'RE NOT TALKING TO THEM. Are they related to you? Yep. Are they your blood? Yep. They're in the family, but you're not talking. Fellowship's been broken.

1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Amen. If you're not a Christian today, you need to repent of your sins and come to Christ so that you'll have salvation. If you are a Christian today, when we sin, God says, "We're not talking. You don't lose your salvation." He just says, "You need to repent of this." Very important. He says to us in this activity, in fact, I have this quote here: "God's promises are eternal, but our possessions, or our possession of those promises, is contingent upon us. They are waiting for us to lay hold of them." Imagine God's promises are right here, but they're within arm's reach, but you've got to reach for them. You don't make them up. They're His. They're eternal. They don't change. But God does say to us is, "Grab them. Take them."

Cry out for discernment. And this word discernment is extremely powerful. Let's look at it. It's so, so needed today. Clear knowledge of, or to have clear understanding of, that which is otherwise not easily knowable. The word means most often in relation to divine insight of a matter or a situation. Discernment. Everybody listen. Uh, discernment is, is like, um, you and I getting from, uh, from high command. Let me reverse it this way. If you are a spy and you're deployed somewhere in some country and you've got an earpiece, right? And, and the earpiece is connected to a satellite high up into space, and the CIA is speaking to you in your earpiece, and you might be a spy inside, uh, the Kremlin or some place, and people would say, "How did he know that?" They don't know that you've got an earpiece connected to a satellite that's connected to Langley. Are you hearing me, everybody? Yes. If we can do that in the physical world, God does that through what's called discernment. You and I are living in this world. By the way, we are living, we are God's soldiers deployed in enemy-occupied territory. You know, God made this earth, but Satan has seized it. And the Bible says that he's the god, little G, little G O D. He's the god of this world. You and I now, when we come to Christ, we are now soldiers of the Lord Jesus. And we are working about to bring about the kingdom of God by proclaiming the gospel of God to the lost, and whereby, or thereby, we are involved in seizing enemy-occupied territory. I, I didn't make that up myself. I got that from C.S. Lewis. I love that.

That said, think about wherever you're at in life, from this moment forward, from this time on. Lord, give me discernment about, about that, about this, about the other thing. Do, Lord, give me discernment about this relationship, about the job. Lord, give me discernment about these two things I have to make a decision. Are those 10 things? Which one do I choose? God, give me discernment. And Lord, this person's speaking to me right now about whatever. I don't know if I, something's wrong. I just, doesn't seem to connect. Lord, would you give me discernment? Here's the tough part. When God gives discernment, you need to act on it. God's not going to give you discernment about a situation for you to bury that information. Yikes. That's scary. If God is speaking to you right now, and you know what the better thing is to do, the right thing is to do, but it doesn't meet your emotions, it doesn't meet your feelings, and you go against God, that's a rough road, folks. The Bible calls that being backslidden in your heart. The Bible says if you know to do good and you don't do it, it is sin. Don't do that. You don't need to inflict yourself like that. The Bible says in Philippians 1:9, Philippians 1:9 says, "And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment." That's a Greek word that will match up against the Hebrew word, very, very similar. But look at the Greek definition out of the Greek New Testament: to have clear perception, to see vividly. I like that. That which is needed to know. Discernment. God will say, "This is what you need to know," and it's available, always available.

Verse four tells us, "If you seek her," that is wisdom, "as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures." Go after her. I'm going to pick up the pace, but the word "seek" simply means to beg. Begging. Strong word, right? You say that that word's offensive. I get it. But what brings a person to having to beg is strong desire. What a, what a powerful word that if you seek her. I am in my life. God wants you and I to be desperately begging for wisdom. It's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. Matthew 7:7 Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil," that means this, just simply means lost human beings, "know how to give good gifts to YOUR CHILDREN, HOW MUCH MORE will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?" Can you see? Are you guys awake? Can you see Jesus going like this? Ask me. Come.

on. >> Just ask. I wonder how many times I go through the day and he wanted me to ask, but I never stopped to ask. And he says to search to search for hidden treasure. Whenever I read in the Bible about God's hidden treasure, things like this, I always see God burying the treasure with the handle sticking out. That's how he is. We dig it deeper and hide it and camouflage it. God takes the treasure and leaves part of it sticking out so we can get the hint.

In Jeremiah 29:12, God says, "Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity." I love that. Now, yes, the that original promise and it still stands true today is regarding the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. But God's truth is immutable. That means it never changes. That means it's good for us, too. Grab it. God says, "Call to me. Pray. Seek me. I'll be found by you. I'll leave the handle out."

And then finally, it's this in verse five, completion. The way of wisdom will save your life and my life when we wise up by being complete. You know, God wants you to be complete. You know, this is one of the big problems in our world today is is mankind wants to be made complete. They don't even know how to articulate that, though. And no one's ever told them you can be complete. They'll go from therapist to therapist, from treatment to treatment, from drug to drug, from thing to thing, and they wind up on their journey incomplete. It is God's will that you and I be complete. Here's the thing. Who's defining what complete is?

>> The the one that matters is the Lord's definition of it all. Well, I think complete is this. So, this is graduation season and um I hope this is uh not true, but I'm afraid it might be. We're a lot lot of kids today. We just saw it was an article where out of out of all the businesses that were asked this question, it was it's quite disheartening, but maybe it's maybe it's something we all need to hear. Businesses at this time in this age. They said 28% they care 28% about their future employees having college degrees. It's down down to 28%. 10 15 years ago they wanted 75%. Now it's down to 28%. They said it doesn't make any difference anymore. THAT'S A SAD COMMENTARY, FOLKS. But you know what is even more shocking than that? I would rather see a kid graduate today from school who's wise.

>> Give me a wise young man, a wise young woman. Because you can have now a degree from this that or the other thing and it doesn't mean you know anything. Our institutions now have really exhausted themselves and your money on teaching social issues, >> wokeism >> instead of mathematics, instead of electrical engineering, instead of civics >> or or whatever >> to go to school in this day and age and to pay this incredible amount of money what THAT YOU PAY AND GO FIND HOW MUCH OF THE percentage is going to the retirement of professors, not your kid. And then your kid comes down. WHAT WHAT CLASSES DID YOU TAKE? I'M NOT I am not kidding. This is a real conversation. >> Queer theory. >> That's a course. >> ARE YOU KIDDING ME? NO WONDER WHY WE CAN'T READ. No wonder why we have to hire engineers from India >> or China >> because our kids can't make the grade. WE'VE DEPARTED FROM WISDOM.

>> David Barton, we were at a conference and David Barton, you know who David Barton is? David Barton put on the screen from 1776. What was equivalent to. They didn't have grades like we do now. It was equivalent to a nine-year-old. What is that? Fifth grade, fourth grade, nine-year-old. Whatever a nine-year-old is that grade. He put the math problem on the screen and he asked, and this is pretty embarrassing. There's hundreds of pastors in this conference, okay? They're not mathematicians, >> but a 9-year-old, >> 1776, nobody in the room could do the math. No, nobody could figure it out. He had to give us the answer. >> Scary. What's up? Don't depart from wisdom. We need to be complete. God's the only one who can make us complete.

Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. The fear of the Lord is the total the extreme. It's translated extreme awe. It's if you can be in awe of a great wave crashing on the shore or a lightning bolt. This is greater absolute reverence. A beautiful fear of or awe of an extreme. The ultimate complete appreciation of to be overwhelmed. I like this. To be overwhelmed by God. >> Wow. To be made complete. Here's a quote. Can an artificial complete make you whole, make you truly complete? Or does it satisfy you just enough to deceive you into thinking you are complete? I want you to I want that to soak in. A quick, easy, fast label causes you to have some form of completeness. But when storms come, when waves beat against the house, and the floods rage, when life hits you in the face, you find out that it's not real.

This is why modern day preaching today in America is so dangerous. Because if I just tell you sermons about how to feel good, there's going to be a day that you don't feel good. And then you're going to wonder, "What happened to all the stuff I learned? >> It doesn't work." That I can only conclude the God behind all that stuff doesn't work either. I've been I've been disillusioned by this God who didn't come through for me. >> That's what hap that's what's happening. >> Instead, God prepares us for the storms. >> He doesn't say you're not going to have any storms. >> The Christian makes it through the storm. >> That's how our faith is developed.

Proverbs chapter 8 verse 13. This is a heavy I know. Oh, it's I'm done. It's I should have stopped 27 seconds ago. >> Proverbs 8:13. This is a shocker real um before I read it. If you think hate is a bad thing, uh you've been influenced by this world. Hate is a wonderful thing. >> Listen. Listen what I'm doing. I'm testing you right now. >> Hate. Oh, you can't hate anything. Are you sure? Watch out. Where there's no wisdom, >> there's godless knowledge. Godless knowledge will seek to sway you and say things like, "That's hate. That's hate." If you're pro-life, you are a hater. Did you know that? >> If you're pro- nuclear marriage, nuclear family, you're a hater. Yeah. >> Did you know that if you don't have a rainbow flag out in front of your house, you're a hater? >> And people say, "Hater, hater, hater." Wait a minute. I'm not denying your passion to call me a hater. But it goes both ways. >> Context matters. >> So, let's let God talk. >> What does God say?

FOR THE FEAR of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride. God wants us to hate pride. Hey, tomorrow's June 1st. Pride month. Ding. Pride month. What does God say about pride? God says, "I hate it." >> Wow. God hates arrogance. God hates the evil way. God hates the perverse mouth. He says, "I hate it." Wow. Telling dirty jokes. God says, "I hate it." Saying mean things, tearing people apart with your mouth, God says, "I hate it." >> Undermining people, slandering people, >> God says, "I hate it." Saying things that are not true about someone's character, God says, "I hate it."

>> Let's all stand. We'll we'll read this um we'll read this in in closing. It's precious. In fact, I'm going to How about this? I'm going to read it, but I'm going to ask the Lord to put this upon you like a mantle. Okay, you guys know what a mantle is, right? Not not not by your fireplace. Not that kind of mantle. That hurt. I'm talking about a mantle like um like a like a shaw. What's it called, ladies? Shaw or shawl? >> Shaw >> with an L. >> Shaw. >> Shaw. Come back now. >> Shaw. >> Okay. Let it fall on you. like like do >> For this reason we also since the day we heard of it do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all with uh for all patience and longsuffering with joy Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us. Thank you. to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love.

>> In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ just as he chose us in him that's fornowledge before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven which are on earth in him in him we also have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. And all God's people said, "Amen." Amen.