The Spiritual Pandemic Most People Don't See

Well, let's look to the verses that we're going to be reading right now. We'll just read them together and jump right into it, and then I'll get into the introduction. I I was going to have you sit down and then, uh, then I was just going to have to have you sit back up, and I don't want you to exercise, break a sweat. So, um, go ahead and skip that, guys. We'll come back to it. It's Proverbs chapter 2, 10 to 22, and, um, we'll read it. So, I'll take verse 10, if you guys pick it up in verse 11.

"When 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 the 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. Verse 16, to deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house leads down to death, and her paths, uh, her paths to the dead. None who go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life. So you may walk in the way of goodness and keep the paths of righteousness. For the upright will dwell in the land and the blameless will remain in it. Verse 22, we'll end here. But the wicked will be cut off from the earth and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it."

And all God's people said, "Amen" to that. You may be seated as we go into the introduction portion of this scripture. You guys, it's been a while with the holidays, and I had travel and all of that, but we're back at it. The book of Proverbs, and, uh, we're looking at this message series, and this is the third installment of the way of wisdom. That's the theme of the entire book. It will save your life. We're going to be talking about this a lot. In fact, we'll be talking about it next week as well. I think it's no stretch with what you just read how we need to be very, very careful of, uh, letting the words and the actions of the perverse man creep into our lives or something that we might entertain. And also, we'll get into it, uh, in a week or so, and that is the, uh, influences of the immoral woman. Now, look, the Bible here is speaking about, uh, the man being perverse with his words and the woman who is immoral. But you do know that that's interchangeable. There can be the immoral man and the perverse woman. I think it doesn't take an Einstein to figure that out that God is warning us against the encroachment of evil upon the Christian life. And I say the Christian life, even though Solomon spoke this to his son. We, of course, do exactly what the book of Romans chapter 15, verse 4 says, and that is that we study the word of God, that all the previous things that have been written before us were written for our learning, that we with patience might inherit those promises. And so that is a call, uh, to study the Old Testament for sure. And, uh, and so we do that.

Uh, it is remarkable to realize that when we think about the wisdom of God, by now, you know, in this book, that there's the wisdom of the world. We've learned that already, and we're not going to recap that. There's the wisdom of the world, but the Bible says it's devilish. It's seductive, and it's, uh, fatal. And then there's the wisdom of God, which is life. It's meaningful. It's purposeful, and it's enduring. That is that it's eternal. And, uh, we are to choose, by the way. We are to choose. But the choices that we make are something that reveals where our real faith is at. In other words, there are those who say they are Christians, but they walk in the wisdom of the world. Works do not make you a Christian, but works prove they exhibit your Christian faith. Does that make sense? You're not saved by what you do. That's not how you get to heaven. But because you are saved, we can tell by how you live out your life. And so those who name the name of Christ and yet walk in worldly wisdom do not, in fact, know God. They betray their confession by their action. Then there are those, and I pray it's all of us, who know the Lord, and we walk in not the wisdom of the world, but His wisdom. And that is a transcendent wisdom. It's awesome because it's again, not of this world. It's deposited, given to us, gifted to us, frankly, by God himself.

Uh, I want to always remind you, and it's probably going to happen a thousand times in this book, and that is Proverbs 1:7 is the overriding theme of the entire book. Don't forget it. And of course, it dovetails perfectly into our study today. The fear, that is the reverential awe of the Lord, is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. That's not a mistake. When it says knowledge, knowledge from the scripture is coupled inseparably so from wisdom and instruction. The wisdom of God is incorporated with knowledge and instruction. It's, it's what is natural to it. Um, a fish, a fish swims, birds fly, and if you have God's wisdom, you will have knowledge and instruction. Does that make sense? It's very, very simple and yet profound.

But, um, bringing your mind back to the Greek or to, I should say, the Hebrew words, the meaning of fear, because some of you are going to say, "I, I, you know, I don't want to be afraid of God." It's not to be afraid of God. Although Paul the apostle does say, "It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." It means that it is a very sobering reality. But the word in Hebrew here is to be an, uh, to be awe-inspiring, uh, or more exact, the awesome nature of God, or to appreciate or to embrace, to look into the word of God to discover the awesome nature of God that he is, in fact, awesome, and that, uh, generates reverence.

Um, so today, I, I, I passed by one of the kiosks outside, and I said, with the clouds outside, which, by the way, is kind of weird. We did, we have a forecast for clouds? I didn't notice this. Anyway, I, I said, "Hey, I hope it lightnings and thunders today." I like that stuff. You may not like it, but I like it. You know, we're Southern Californians. We're terrible. But pastor, I just had my car washed. We'll take the rain over your clean car, right? But, um, there's weather out there. It is, it is describing and displaying that something's going on. And if you've ever experienced real weather, it causes you to feel very small. It's like, as I've said before, it's like going up to the edge of the Grand Canyon. It is grand, and it is a canyon. You can't even take it all in. And as you sit there, you realize how small you are compared to the grandeur of God. And if this is His creative activity, imagine His nature himself. That God is awe-inspiring. Really remarkable.

So church, last time we simply looked at this, and you can review your notes. We saw that in verses 1-6, that the way of wisdom will save your life. And number one was this: But we've got to wise up. That's what Solomon was announcing. You got to get wise. And we looked at three things regarding that. I'm not going to go over them. The second thing was last time was in verses 6-9, and that is that you and I, we've got to show up. We've got to show up to what God is calling us to do. And now we get into the third installment of this very powerful portion of scripture. And I just, I don't know about you, but I love, uh, the book of Proverbs. Where what blows my mind is that it's nearly 3,000 years old, and it's exactly what we need today in the 21st century. It's exactly what we need this month, this day, in our lives. And so we see the third thing, and it's this: And that is that we've got to wake up. We have got to wake up. And that's in verses 10 to 13. And that's what we'll be at today.

And, uh, I want to read it to you one more time. Verse, uh, 10-13. "When..." I'm going to ask you to circle that for those of you who are taking notes on your devices or your, uh, tablet. "When" is going to be a really big word for us today. "When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you. I'm kind of trying to, uh, dramatically describe this with tone. You've got when 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 the man who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness." This is a tremendous, uh, commentary on the reality of walking right with God and and giving up walking with God. And so it's timely for us. So please mark this down. Uh, we need to let wisdom in. It is a willful act for you and I to let wisdom in. And we need to remember that wisdom is a gift given to us by God. You can't get it. You can't take a class on it. This is very encouraging for all of us. You and I do not have time for another class. We don't have time. Um, where do I get? Is there an app? Nope. You mean God doesn't have an app for this? Nope. Well, how do I get this? Ask Him for it. Amen.

[clears throat] >> So, all of the believers, the Christians in here right now, all of a sudden, we're excited and we're encouraged because life, uh, throws these curveballs at us all the time. And we need His wisdom. And His wisdom is transcendent, is beyond this world. Even though you and I are not, we are weak and feeble, and we're stuck here, uh, until He takes us away. Uh, but yet, we have a ladder. We have a ladder, as it were, like a Jacob's ladder, the Bible tells us, and that ladder, uh, we can have wisdom trafficking down upon us as believers for whatever we need. Listen, please, not one Christian should be in the in the area right now of frustration or anxiety regarding what they're to do next. "Well, is it yes or is it no?" If you don't know, wait. There's wisdom in waiting. "Oh, pastor, I was told I have to know now." Who said that? What's behind that demand that's being placed upon you? Think about that.

Have we, have we woken up to the realization that the world is trying to manipulate you and I like constantly? >> It's crazy. I'm still having a hard time. I saw a clip, uh, yesterday of a guy. I don't even know if it's true. There's a guy, he's got almost 10 million followers. He's got a very thick, I think Russian or I don't know, a Slavic, uh, accent. Uh, Anti, have you seen this? Raise your hand if you've heard of this guy. I don't even know if this IS TRUE. CAN THIS POSSIBLY BE TRUE? SUPPOSEDLY, IT'S TRUE. HE GOES TO GOLD'S GYM in in Santa Monica, and there's guys, uh, you know, these super weightlifter dudes, and they're, and THEY'RE WORKING, and they're, and they're LIFTING DEADLIFTING 400 LB, and he's the janitor, and he's pushing. Now, do you know I SEE HEADS BOBBING. HE'S PUSHING THE BROOM, and with his accent, and he goes, "Can I try? Please, go, please. I'd like to try. May I try?" And these guys are going, "What are you nuts? This is 400 lb. You're, you're the janitor here." And he's pushing the BROOM, and he picks up the broom, and he hands the guy the BROOM, and the GUY DROPS THE BROOM. THE THE BROOM WEIGHS 250 lbs. So that shocks the guys. And then he walks over and he goes, "You mean like this? Do you just go like this with it? What else do you do with it? Do you JUST KEEP GOING WITH IT LIKE THIS? Uh, what else do I DO WITH IT?" And THESE GUYS are, I'm sorry. I'm a skeptic. Maybe it's true. I have to wait and see. I want to believe it. It looks really cool. Plus, it's pretty awesome when a janitor, he, he's in disguise, he shows up, and he humbles all these super weightlifting dudes. You got to like that. It's like, okay, that's cool. That's a great thing. I want it to be real, but I'm not going to celebrate until I find out that is in fact real. We live in a world of deception right now, like no other time. We need the wisdom of God.

And so you might think I'm going to belabor this, but look at the word "when." That's why I told you to circle it. The word "when," or the Hebrew word Asher, means this: as is, since, or now, or at the moment of. The word means at the commencement of. One little word, "when." Watch how it qualifies. It means you. Wisdom is near you right now. Wisdom is is in front of you. It's it's wanting to shake your hand, so to speak. Think of it as a believer. Wisdom is coming up to you, and wisdom wants to shake your hand, BUT YOU'VE GOT TO EXTEND YOUR HAND and not only shake the hand of wisdom, but pull it in. Have you ever seen that happen? You shake the hand, and there's an endearment where you pull that hand in, and maybe your arm goes around the the shoulder of that individual. You're communicating that you, uh, want them, or that you care about them, or that you're open to them. The word God is communicating this to us. When you let wisdom in, stick out your hand. So here's the deal. Are you in your life, Christian, desiring greater wisdom from God? Amen. >> The word of God is saying, "Then stick out your hand. >> Take it." THAT'S WHAT GOD is saying to us. I want you to have that. We need to let wisdom in. And so, it's just like anything else in life. We've got to let that in. The good, the bad, or the ugly. You want to be careful because you and I can let anything in. That wouldn't be wise. So, we want to be very careful. Very careful indeed.

Um, you, uh, I found it interesting when studying this word "when," it led me, uh, to two things that you and I, uh, can relate to. And one of them is this, uh, the announcement "when" can also mean the statement "now." Right now, hear this. Immediately I thought of the US Navy. For those of you who are in the Navy, there's the announcement, uh, in fact, there's the, uh, over the PA of the ship. "Now hear this," and there's an announcement given. But the same word also, in fact, it's on the Menorah in the foyer in Hebrew. The same word is here, or watch that word is here. "Now, O Israel, the Lord our God is one." It's the same word, same meaning, very powerful. That, by the way, that's Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 and 5. When God says, "When wisdom enters, well, listen here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength." This is what's beautiful about wisdom and about loving God. It doesn't mean, um, okay, the Lord is one, AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? God's not saying that because the Lord, because Yahweh is your God, love Him. >> The one who is devoted to your salvation, the one who made you for a purpose, the one who cares about you, the one that you can run to. That's why we love the Psalms. We read the Psalms. It really describes running to God in time of need. Running to God in time of peril, or when we are stressed out of our minds, we run to God. This is an act of wisdom. And what a beautiful statement. Why would, why does God communicate that to us? Because in doing that, we learn how to love Him. >> Love is something that we experience. God is not saying, "Love Me." Now, maybe you're here today and you don't know the Lord, but you're open. You cannot love Him. You got to get to know Him. Amen. >> So, if today you accept the Lord Jesus Christ and all that that means, that you understand that you're a sinner, that He died on the cross for you, and that He rose again from the dead, and that there's salvation in His name alone, that if you make that decision, that's the first step of the rest of your life growing with Jesus. >> Amen. >> The first step is salvation. Once that's secure, the rest of it is finding out how wonderful and worthy He is to love. >> It's very, very exciting.

And so verse 10 tells us, "When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul," and that word "enter" here means to advance toward. It's just like that handshake. Wisdom is coming up to you. It's advancing. So let it end. You invite Him in to do that. That very thing. You're going to invite wisdom to come on in. One commentator wrote, "It's as though that wisdom is walking right up to you and says, 'Here I am,' and I want to reach out and say, 'Wisdom, I welcome you into my life.'" As a Christian, I want to be wise. How are we going to navigate tomorrow? How are we going to navigate this year? Think about it. What's, You and I do not know what's going to happen. By the way, did you see Lindsey Graham suddenly died this morning? Israel has lost a tremendous ally, and we've lost a tremendous senator. It's a big hole, big loss. We pray for his family that Christ would be proclaimed in his family. That said, you don't know what's what's going to happen in November. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. And you can, you can dial down on those things of life, and it can cause you TO BE ALL ANGST and be in a fret, or you can do righteousness. That is, follow God and leave the rest to Him. I suggest the latter. Follow God and leave the rest to Him. And all the while asking Him, "Lord, I need wisdom for today." You going to go to work tomorrow? I need wisdom for work. He say, "I've been doing my job for 30 years." YOU NEED WISDOM BECAUSE TOMORROW YOU'RE GOING TO encounter somebody that you've never encountered before, or a situation, or whatever it might be. We need that wisdom of God.

And it's remarkable because He goes on to tell us that it's pleasant to your soul. I like that. It's pleasant. When, when wisdom has entered into the heart and into the soul, into the life of who we are, we have this pleasant. Look at the word "pleasant" and the meaning of the word "pleasant." It means to be delightful. When's, when's the last time you were delightful? I don't mean delightful towards somebody. I mean you're experiencing a delightfulness. I don't know how to communicate this, but in my silly little brain, it would be like there's those moments when I just feel like a little hug from God. It's almost like, "Yes, just keep going, Jack." Lovely, surpassing natural beauty, a soul, all things of the mind being calm and peaceful, delightful. Wow. God says wisdom comes into your life, and your life will become delightful. Your spirit, your soul, your mind, speaking predominantly of the mind, your mind will be calm and peaceful. Church. Is America's collective mind calm and peaceful today? No, it's not. Because America lacks the wisdom of God. And I'm talking about even the church, THE GENERAL CHURCH IN America is not calm and at peace. The word of God is missing in many of our churches today. And then we wonder why things are going so strange. But God wants us to have this.

And then He goes on in verse 11, He mentions to us that, uh, discretion will preserve your understanding and will keep you. The word, uh, discretion, again, another, I know I'm giving you a lot of words, but this is very important because it causes what is our English Bible, the original language, to be in technicolor for us. Discretion, we don't hear that word much anymore. It has a New Testament equivalent. We would say discernment, discretion, and discernment. Slightly different, but very much alike. To know the purpose. I'm all for that. I need that in my life. To discern the intent. Now, remember, this is supernatural. This is given by God. So whoever you are right now, you're not lost in the wilderness of having to make up your mind about something. God says to you that He knows the purpose. He's going to share that with you. The discernment of it all. He can give you the intent to be aware of the plot or plan. I like this. Watch where this goes. To know what is happening. In the case of spiritual warfare, it is to be made aware of the enemy's plans. Information warfare, discretion. I need you need discretion. When the world says what it says or does WHAT IT DOES, WE NEED TO PULL back and look at the grand scheme of this. When the world says one thing, or this thing regarding its interest, we don't need to respond. We are the people of God. Slow down, calm down, be, uh, at peace, and we don't have to be in a hurry. The world is in a constant buzz where we are not to be that way. You see, Jacob, but it's hard. It's very hard. It's very hard. I was talking to someone last night, and we were talking about the Bible and their life, and I said something, and, uh, a statement was made back countering it. I, I simply paraphrased the Bible, but my, my comeback was this: "Have you read the Bible? Are, have you read that part of the Bible?" The answer was an honest, "No, I have not." So wisdom says, "Go read it," right? Think about it. Wisdom says, "Grab the word of God and put it into practice, and watch what happens." And it comes alive. It is alive, I should say. It comes alive in us because the Bible, of course, is always alive. But is it living in my life? And this is where we want to come desperately asking Him, "Lord, do this. Bring this wisdom into my life." And we need discretion. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11. We're very familiar with this. It's the great warfare outfit of the believer, the armor of the Christian. We, we say it says, "Put on the whole armor of God." Well, why would we do that? Well, because that you may be able, notice, you will be able to what? To stand against the wiles of the devil. I need discretion and discernment to stand against the wiles of the devil. Satan is out to trick. Are you guys awake? >> Satan is out to trick. And I think I shared this with you recently, but I'll say this again because it's so true in my life. When Satan attacked me as a young believer, it was really, it was really something bombastic and and ginormous. I just didn't know that at the time. As I've now coming up on 50 years of being a Christian, the bombastic attacks of the enemy are not so big. They're not big. So now I know they're not easily recognizable anymore. It's like what Solomon says. Solomon said, "Watch out for the little foxes that spoil the grapes." You know, listen, when you have a vineyard, they would fence off the vineyard because the foxes would come in and eat the vineyard. They would eat the, I mean, they would eat the grapes. So, they built a fence around it. The problem was, Solomon was watching. WE WE JUST BUILT A FENCE around our entire vineyard, and WE'RE STILL LOSING GRAPES. WHAT'S GOING ON? So, he's watching, and here comes a little pup, a little puppy fox, probably with his brothers and sisters. And they didn't go over the fence. They went through the fence because they were little. In my life now, maybe it's your life now. Satan comes attacking not with flashbang, but with very, very almost undetectable subtleties that without God's revelation of wisdom and discernment, you wouldn't be able to figure out what is coming against your life. Why is your relationship that has hitherto been fine now all of a sudden unexplainably weird between what? Brother, sister, husband and wife, boss and employee. It's un, there's no sense to it. Have you ever? Of course you have. What am I asking you for? Of course we've had these things going on in our life, and we're going to have them happen again. It makes no sense. You, you can detect it when things like this enter your mind. "I don't know why this is going on right now. I didn't do anything to them, or they didn't do anything to me, but I don't, I don't even like them right now." "What did they do to you?" "Nothing." "Why do you not like them?" "I don't know." "I DON'T WANT YOU JUST DON'T WANT TO BE NEAR THEM." If you cannot explain it, there's a good chance that the enemy is sowing something right in the midst of your life. STEP BACK AND SAY, "WAIT A MINUTE. LET ME ANALYZE THIS. I DON'T NEED TO BE IN A HURRY ON THIS ONE. WHAT DO I KNOW? WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY? HOW DO I BRING THESE TWO TOGETHER? WHAT'S THE ANSWER?" ANSWER IS, I CANNOT TRUST MY SITUATION OR MY FEELINGS. I NEED TO RELY UPON GOD AND SEEK HIM AND ASK HIM FOR WISDOM BECAUSE HE KNOWS THE ANSWER. That same individual I spoke to last night said, "This happened in my life. What do you think that means?" And I said, "I'm not going to tell you for two reasons. Number one, I don't know. Number two, God showed that to you and nobody else. It's for you to seek Him to discover." How do you do that? Discerning discretion. And then with what you know, you exercise discretion by doing it. Look, the Christian should be the most consistent, predictable individual in your life. And I don't mean by boring. They're so boring. The Christian shouldn't be boring, but the Christian should be predictable. In other words, "Well, let's see what he does." Maybe, maybe somebody at work sets you up there. He's a Christian. Let's set him up. Let's see what happens. And somebody in that group of stinky, rotten friends you have at work, they might say, "You know what? I don't think he's going to fall for it. He's probably going to do the right thing." So they all got their cameras going as you walk by. That Christians should be predictable in the areas of what's right, what's good. That's another, by the way, it's another term for being faithful. It's beautiful. It's excellent. By the way, that Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11, being, uh, wise, or being able to, uh, discern what, what the wiles of the devil are. That word "wiles." This is what the devil, this is, this is his nature, uh, to, to employ craft. That's a kind of a very eerie word. If you've ever, I don't, I say, if you've ever studied, uh, uh, Satanism, witchcraft, I don't, I don't encourage you to study that, but in theology, you have to study that. But craft, in fact, that's one of the attributes of the Antichrist. The Bible tells us that he will be a master at craft. What is craft? Able to produce things that without God, no one will be able to see its purpose or its reason. They'll be deceived. Those without the Holy Spirit will be deceived by the coming Antichrist. But look, it's happening today to employ craft, deceit, schemes, plots, plans. And look at the Hebrew word, or the Greek word, I'm sorry. Look at the Greek word. You can recognize those English words, can't you? Methodology, or methods. These are the methods of Satan. This is what he does. I'll give you one that's that's obvious, uh, and that is the one that Satan, uh, is somewhat predictable in this area, is that he hates kids. Satan hates human babies. Satan hates children. Satan doesn't want them born. Satan, look at the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Look how many times there are references to Satan going out and commandeering the minds of those who are either leading or those particular kingdoms, the Amalekites or Amorites, or when Israel embraced the pagan worship system of the foreign gods. Isn't it interesting when Israel embraced the foreign worship entities of these pagan gods? Go read what happens. That I'll tell you what doesn't happen. And so Israel embraced the god of the Amalekites, and they went out and they robbed banks. That didn't happen. Israel went out having worshiped those pagan gods, and they, they stole everybody's camels. That didn't happen. Do you know what they did? You know what they did? They sacrificed their babies. They killed their kids on the altar of Moloch and Chemosh. Child sacrifice. Child sacrifice.

If you own or operate a business, or you're involved in a business. Now, a church is not officially a business. Of course not. But in, in the eyes of the state of California and the federal government, it has to operate exactly like a business. You have to have audits, and you have to have accounting. You have to have all of these rules and regulations. IT'S JUST LIKE A BUSINESS. But I got to tell you, I've lived in both worlds. And, uh, it's much harder regarding the church than it is a business. You want to know why? I don't think Satan cares what DuPont does. I don't think Satan cares about what Ford Motor Company does next. But let me tell you something. Satan does care about what you and/or your church does. >> And because of that, you're under constant attack. Constant attack. We always tell new hires. So, "Are you, hey, welcome to first day. You prayed up?" >> "What do you mean, prayed up?" "I mean, I prayed today." >> "Yeah. Well, don't be surprised if your life begins to fall apart. Your dog won't..." Your dog won't start. I was going to say your car won't start and your kid bites THE DOG, but your dog won't start and your kid bites the CAR. Even that happens. But, um, why you're going up against the things of THE ENEMY. And one of the things, by the way, and requirements of, of a church, as it is in a company in California, is you got to, you GOT TO GO THROUGH ALL OF THESE HOURS and hours of, uh, training that's state required. And one of those things is sexual abuse reporting. Who's a reporter? How does this happen? WHAT CONSTANT GOES ON AND ON AND AS LISTEN AS AS YOU READ IT, and as you look at it, I started to lose my mind. You want to know why? It's just things like this. Sexual abuse can be manifested in many ways. One of them is causing a child to be confused or to be insecure or frightened regarding their current situation. What >> the very rules they have, they're breaking it's state approved. When YOU HAVE TRANSVESTITES READING LIBRARY BOOKS TO PUBLIC SCHOOL KIDS, THAT'S AGAINST THE LAW. BUT THE PE VERY PEOPLE who have it happen with their approval are the ones who wrote the LAW SAYING CAN'T DO THAT. BUT THE VERY PEOPLE who have it happen with their approval are the ones who wrote the LAW SAYING CAN'T DO THAT. Translation: You can't do that unless we're the ones doing it. Amazing. Can't do this, can't do this, have to do this, have to do the other, don't even apply to themselves. That's the wisdom of the world, folks. You got that? >> The wisdom of God is peaceable life and freedom, not bondage. >> Amazing.

Also, this, mark this down if you would, look at verse 12. There's got to be understanding. Let understanding in. We got to grab, shake that hand of wisdom, and receive that wisdom into our lives. And He says in verse 12, beautifully, "To deliver you from the way of evil." Please, everyone, listen to this. According to the will of God. If you decide, you, my friend, today, you decide, "I want to shake the hand of wisdom. I want the wisdom of God in my life." Then let that wisdom in, because look, it will deliver you from the way of evil. We need to hear this today. Evil is everywhere. But evil doesn't have to be over our lives. God's word tells us, "I'll deliver you from the evil, the way of evil." We'll come back to the way in a moment. From the man who speaks perverse things. So there's a path. There's a roadway, right? There is a, a lane that evil traffics in. God says, "I'll keep you from that lane." Please listen. Why do we get involved or caught up into evil? It's because we go off of the lane of righteousness following God, and we get onto the lane of evil. It's called a path. And the Bible says God will keep us from the path. YOU SAY, "WELL, WAIT A MINUTE. I GOT INTO EVIL. GOD FAILED ME." No, no, He didn't fail you. God was saying to you before you decided to swerve. You were thinking about it. You had the temptation in your mind, and God said, "Don't you dare. Don't do that. It'll hurt you. It'll hurt people in your life. It'll hurt others. Don't do that. I died on the cross to set you free from the power of that." Do you feel that power? Do you feel that? It's coming at you. Listen, it's a lie. It's evil. It's powerful. But it's lying to you right now. It is SAYING TO YOU, "YOU'VE GOT TO HAVE THIS. YOU'VE GOT TO GO THERE. YOU'VE GOT TO DO THIS. YOU'VE GOT TO OWN THIS. YOU GOT TO TAKE IT. TAKE IT. TAKE IT. Take, put your hand OUT AND EMBRACE THAT AND PULL IT INTO YOU." And you do it. And then the car crashes, or the thing blows up, or the thing falls apart, and then you, you're crying and you say, "What did God do to me?" You hear what I'm saying, everybody? God was >> "Don't do that." >> God, God said, "Stay on the stay on the path." And you go, "Nope. I want to drive over here." >> And God is like, "I told you not to do that." Now, He knows you're not going to get necessarily killed by it. And He's going to, uh, use that as a teachable moment. When you're over there crying and and yelling and screaming about it, then God will pluck you up out of it and instruct you and then put you on the right path. But just know this, when you and I get into trouble, when we do the wrong thing, it's because it's what we wanted. >> Is that blunt enough? Is that >> No one made you do it. For those of us who are in our 60s or 70s, there, there was a guy by the name of Flip Wilson. I do not, I do not encourage you to look to look him up on YouTube, but remember he lied, and everybody laughed and loved. Everybody laughed because they could relate to it, but he was lying. He was lying, and he would say, "The devil made me do it." Everything he got into, that he got into trouble, he'd put his hand on his hip AND SAY, "THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT." That's not true. That's bad theology. We got into it because we entertained it. >> We got into it. God was saying, "Don't do it." And we did it anyway. >> And the tough thing about disobeying God, it comes with instant or delayed consequences. One thing is certain. Galatians 6:7, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap." It's a, it's just as powerful as the law of gravity. It's as real. CAN'T CHANGE IT. BUT GOD, I'M SORRY. YOU'RE still going to have to reap the, I'm glad you repented of it. Here's the deal. You got to go to jail. But God, do you hear what I'm saying? But, but I thought GOD WOULD KEEP ME OUT OF JAIL. He, He, He would keep you out of jail if He told you, "Stay on the path." But you didn't want to go on the path. And then you wake up to the realization, now you're in jail, and you say, "God, where are you?" God says, "I'm here. I'm not here because I want to be here. I'm here because you're here. I'll never leave you or forsake you." But >> when you do that, there's a price to be paid.

We need to understand these key words. Look at this. "Deliver." The word in the by, and I'll show you both in the positive, which is here, it means to escape from, to be plucked up and away from, to be preserved or rescued from. So look at this, "to deliver you from the way of evil." God says, "You turn to Me, and I will pluck you up out of that way. I'll rescue you from the evil." And then I want to show you, just for argument's sake, the negative meaning of the exact same word. This is the negative, and it means to be plundered. Watch the, uh, same word, but watch how they're so different. To be plundered or pillaged, to be taken advantage of, stripped of your goods, to have your armor removed or taken away. So here it is. Walk in the path God says I have for you. Walk in the way of wisdom, and you will be plucked out and away from the evil path and from this course of destruction. If you don't, then you're going to experience being pillaged. Doesn't sin ravage us and pillage us? It does, doesn't it? It sure does.

And what is the point? Understand what, what do I need to understand regarding this? That God will rescue me, uh, out of the evil way. Notice this. It's from the man who speaks perverse things. Um, I pray the clock somehow gets broken right now so I can really, uh, next week, I think I'll show you things to drive this word home. But, uh, that said, look at the meaning of this word, and you ask yourself, "Am I living in the 21st century?" You better believe it. It means this: when, when, when you speak, uh, perverse things, you're speaking fraud. Uh, you're speaking forward, or forwardness. Uh, perverse things. You are, watch the person. Oh, this is creepy. I hope there's no young people in here right now, which is why we have children's ministry. You should have taken your kids there. Um, an evil man will speak things to you knowing exactly what he's doing. Or an evil woman will speak things to you knowing exactly what she's doing. The act of deception, you'll pay the price for. Their intent is to defraud you, to pull you in for whatever purposes, or for whatever thing you have that they want. They, it, it is the ultimate. Look, if you're an evolutionist, this is your word. You love this word. You mean, you may not even know it, but if there's no God, what's the old, what's the saying? "If there's no God, uh, he who dies with the most toys wins." Wins what? Nobody knows. Um, "If it feels good, >> do it." >> Do it. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow..." >> All that is hedonistic, humanistic. And it's really the description of the atheist life, or the evolution theory life. It's all of you have been created for my pleasure. It's the epitome of narcissistic. Which, by the way, we have more narcissists in the world today than ever before. It makes total sense to me because we have raised generations around the world to believe there is no God. So do whatever you want. So then they do whatever they want, and then they kill your child, or they murder your husband, and people wonder why. Do you understand the hypocrisy of this? >> You got, listen, I know this is a little bit, uh, unpleasant this morning, but the truth is this. The wisdom of the world says, "I want to do whatever I want to do." And people go, "Yeah, yeah, that's so cool." Woohoo. Yeah. [clears throat] But, but look, but what if that person who says, "I want to do whatever I want to do," and you're cheering them on? It's kind of like right now, to be honest with you, I'm going to get hate mail for this. You know, one of the biggest supporters of Islam growing in America is the homosexual, transgender, LGBTQ community. >> It's this information is available to them. They just don't want to hear it. Islam, when it takes control, >> it has to kill all LGBTQ people. They have to die. Did you know that? >> They must die. By the way, in the Middle East, the, the, the way Islam does it, I don't know why they prefer this. They tie a homosexual to a chair and they throw them, I don't know why. Why with a chair? I don't get it. But off the roof of buildings, that's what they do. But why in America are they the group promoting Islam? >> Deception? Satanic. >> If Satan can wrap up a, a culture to actually want and and vote for and argue for the very thing that will destroy them. >> That to me is an end times manifestation of the last days. >> It's remarkable to think. Wow. Listen, seriously, all of us know, uh, a person who's caught up into into that world. We need to tell them. You need to tell them. You need to tell them. Look, we'll tell them the truth, but we love them. We tell them the truth, but we're not going to kill them. We're not going to behead them. We'll tell them the truth. Why? BECAUSE WE WANT THEM IN HEAVEN WITH US. >> WOW.

Perverse things for somebody to say to you to defraud you to get what they want. >> Oh, honey, please, if you really love me, I know we're not married yet, but you'll do this for me. That individual, if you're paying close attention, is saying to you, "You're in my life to satisfy all my needs. You were created to bring me pleasure." Translation, explanation, I should say. So, if you marry me, that's how it's going to be for the rest of your life. That's a, listen, men or women, if, if that, if that guy or that girl is telling you that, run for your life. >> Because you'll become a slave. "Oh, I can't live without you." Really? That's too much pressure. Um, [laughter] you cannot live without me. >> What if I mess up? >> No, listen. You want to marry somebody who says, "I can't live without Jesus. I'm not going to live without Jesus. And I'm, I'm going that way with Him. If you want to come with me, let's go together. If not, it was nice." [applause]

Wow. I'm going to give you a flurry of verses as we end this here real quick. Proverbs chapter 18, verse 21. "Death and life is in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit." I find that fascinating. Look at that verse. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit." Uh, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love death or life will eat its fruit. Life's fruit is beautiful. Death's fruit, you can figure that out. Don't you love how true the Bible is? Jesus put it this way in Matthew chapter 12. You guys okay? >> Yes. >> Matthew chapter 12. He's so subtle. I like, I don't read the Old Testament. God is mean. I read the New Testament where He's nice. Okay. Same God. Hate to break it to you, but this is Jesus. Meek and mild. You know, Newport Beach surf Jesus has a robe, karate sandals. He's got a board. He's got, he's got his board over here. You know, that's how California sees Jesus. Okay. [laughter] Look at what He says to these, to the scribes and Pharisees, the, the religious hypocrites. "Brood of vipers. Wow. How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good things. And an evil man, out of the evil treasure, brings forth evil things. But I say to you that every idle word men speak, they will give an account for in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." Jesus said that. >> Boom. >> Wow. If you, if somebody's a Christian and they love filthy jokes, and they're tearing people apart, and they're saying all these things, and look, we live in an age here. We live in an age where THIS DOESN'T EVEN AFFECT YOU BECAUSE IT'S ONLINE CONSTANTLY. WHEN SOMEBODY SAYS, "THAT GUY'S A JERK," OR "SHE IS AN ABSOLUTE WASTE," God, God one day is going to say, uh, "Let's address this issue here on your account where you said..."

She is a waste. I died for her on the cross. Or you said this about somebody. God says, "I hate those who sow discord among the brothers and sisters." Be careful.

Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20 says, "For I know this," Paul is speaking, "that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock." False, false leaders. Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking, there's the word, perverse things. Why? To draw away the disciples after themselves, create their own little churches, factions, splits, divisions that are unbiblical. There are some that are biblical. If I start teaching false doctrine and leading you astray, you should run.

But when somebody says, "Uh, I think he should wear last week he had the robe. I like the robe better than this. He should wear the robe." You weren't even here last week. There was nobody here last week. Last week was the Fourth of July and nobody came to church. They. So anyway, I wore a robe. You should have been here. I wore to make a point that I'm not going to tell you about because you should have been here. But I don't like I don't like you in THIS IN THE JACKET. YOU SHOULD WEAR THE ROBE. I'M NOT I CAN'T CAMERA. I CAN'T COME HERE ANYMORE. HE'S NOT WEARING THE ROBE. You do that. You do know that's nuts. That's crazy. Okay, that's bizarre. That's dividing up people with without a a foundation. That's crazy.

But verse 31 says, "Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears." My goodness, Paul cried about it. It moved him so much.

Philippians chapter 3 tells us this in verse 2, 18 and 19. Beware of dogs. I love that. Has nothing to do with dogs. Beware of unbelievers. Watch out for them. Beware of watch. Beware of dogs. Beware of evildoers. Beware of the mutilation. Legalists. That's what the word mutilation means. Those those who um cut themselves to think that they'll get God's approval. Uh I should in this day and age of mutilation, I should make this more clear. This mutilation is um only what us guys can relate to. Watch out for those who say circumcision equals salvation. We don't say that. But we would say something that's just as false. That baptism equals salvation. That's f that's just as false as that. Baptism doesn't save you. You just got wet. If that's what you're thinking. Jesus Christ at the cross saves you and and when you give your heart and life to him then you go get baptized.

Um beware. So verse 18, "For many walk of whom I've told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST WHOSE end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame who set their mind on earthly things." They're in hot pursuit of stuff that blesses their life at your expense. Paul says, "Watch out for them."

In 1 Peter chapter 5, 1 Peter 5:8, "STAY ALERT. WATCH OUT FOR your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering that you are. Watch out. Be wise. The enemy wants to destroy your life."

And finally, we end with this. We're going to make it. It's verse 13. And let life in. Let life in. You say, "That's kind of a weird thing." No, it's not a weird thing. Let life in. Right now, right now, 250 of our high schoolers are up at camp right now. We're all praying, God, God, have for each of them a moment of encountering you. Listen, would you want to be a teenager in this world? We need to pray and be be uh very very loving and very very much uh involved in our teens lives, teens in our life because they live in a time and an age that you and I escaped. I am so glad I'm old. The things that kids go through and what they are exposed to and you you look at your kid and you SAY, "HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?" OH, calm down. King David did that. Exactly.

What we need to do is love them out of it. Look, when you pour your life into your kid and then they say, "I don't feel like I'm loved." They're not insulting you. They're confused. They're messed UP. THEY DON'T GET IT. THAT'S WHY THEY HAVE YOU AS A PARENT. DON'T SAY, "HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT? I BUY YOU SO MUCH STUFF. THEY don't want any stuff. They want your time. You know, teenagers when you go, you've always hugged your kid, always hugged your teenagers, always hugged your grandkids, and then they get the teens, and then you go, it's like, it's like a it's like Satan possessed them all of a sudden, or not really. A switch in one day. Hey, don't touch. What are you doing? Okay. Well, wait. What's going on? translation. You know what it is. All of a sudden, I discovered how awesome I am. And that would not be cool, to to hug, love them, and ask God wisdom. Ask him for his wisdom. Because listen, our kids today, just like you and I, we need to have a purpose for life, a meaning for life. God is that answer. If you don't know much about what he's communicated to you, then it's it's not going to go well. But if you just cracked open his love letter to you, you'd find out how incredibly valuable you are. So, I am excited about life.

I I love the things of life that God approves of. I'm not being like some sort of righteous super spiritual individual right now. I am telling you that the things that I've entertained that God does not approve of, I know the sting and the burn of that. It's not worth it. So I now I love the things of God for life because it's beautiful and it's good and it's wonderful. And I hope especially after spending four years in the book of Romans, that's so much of what Paul talks about in Romans is um even in the even in the seemingly setbacks we experience, it's like, "All right, God, that hurt. Uh getting that, you know, take that foot out of my mouth. That really hurt. But Lord, you knew that this was going to happen. So I want to see what good is going to come out of this. I'm I'm g I'm I'm waiting to see. That's a fun way to live everybody.

So um Wednesday night, no, not Wednesday night, Thursday night, I was asked some pretty blunt questions on Fox News. And so I answered I answered honestly. I thought, I don't I have a job. I don't need this. And they don't pay a penny anyway. So, they asked, I said it, and it went viral, I'm happy to say. But, well, maybe not. Let's see if I get home today alive. But somebody text me from uh I'll just somebody text me and said, "Hey, thanks for being bold." And I text back and I said, "I wasn't bold in and of myself. I made sure I was hiding behind the truth." That came right out of my mouth. And when I said it or when I text it, I was impressed. No, no, no. Don't get me wrong. It's not like, "Hey, no, it wasn't that. I just answered back so so fast that it was when I sent it. I went, "Oh my gosh, that is true. God, thank you." Wow. Lord, are you hearing me?

It's like that guy. He's pushing a broom in a weight room. He looks like a normal guy. All these musclemen are working out. They make fun of him. He walks over and picks it all up. And they said to him, you can watch it. How did you do that? Well, the Christians, listen, we cannot pick up anything. It's him giving that supernatural strength to us. And when he says in verse 13, from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, friends, simply this. If you've walked off the path of life onto the path of destruction, it's time for you to wake up and to live again.

You know, you're not living. You're sleeping with bubbles. You're hanging out with Rocky. You're you're think, well, you know what? I'm I I'm the you know what? Oh, I'm just stretching my wings out, man. You know what? just stop you. Everybody can tell you're fooling yourself except you. But I think if you just stop, look down deep inside, you're not living. I'm doing my own thing, man. It rocks. No, it doesn't. That's why you have to tell people how great it is. Oh, man. Had a great weekend. Partied, man. Yeah, you don't look like it. You look like you're about 10 years older since Friday. That was amazing. Yeah, I don't think so. It's beautiful getting wise in the things of God because you know what? You can look back at the things of the world and you can say, "Yeah, you know, it ends in death." You don't need that.

So the greatest thing you can do is to when God and he's doing it now he's extending wisdom to you the believer and he's saying ask of me and I will not hold back. Ask of me and I will not give it in small measure. Ask of me and I will give it to you abundantly. But ask. You want to ask? Let's stand and ask.

Heavenly Father, we come before you. And I thank you, Lord, that you're not a really gigantic, big, powerful human. I thank you that you are spirit. You're eternal. And even though you're transcendent outside of this creation by your Holy Spirit, you're present. And we've seen you in Jesus Christ. And you're the God who says, "Ask of me and I will give you wisdom." And so, Lord, right now, each of us in our own way, we're asking you right now for more wisdom right now. Lord, I need wisdom. We need wisdom, Lord. We need wisdom as a church. We need wisdom, Lord, as leaders. We need wisdom as moms and dads and grandpas and grandmas. We need wisdom as teenagers and high schoolers and junior highers. We need wisdom as elementary kids. Lord, we need wisdom from above. Lord, remove from us any residual wisdom of the world. Lord, I know in my own life, maybe it's true for all of us, remove from me the things that I quickly default to. I quickly default because that's how I've always done it. And um it's an it's wrong. It's sin, but it's a habit that we respond when this is said, we respond that way. or when it looks this way, we think of the other. Lord, deliver us from that silly dead wisdom. And Lord, infuse into each and every one of us who are asking now supernatural wisdom from above. We thank you, God, that you're so good to plead with us as you do to walk in the way of life in Jesus name. And all God's people said, "Amen." God bless you.