Amen and amen. Sure, thank you so much, Andrea and Angelique, for leading us in beautiful worship. May the Lord just continue to use you, empower you, add more strength, resource you, and may many souls come to Christ through your ministry. Amen. Amen. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. Amen. And Angelique mentioned earlier about always crying in the presence of the Lord, try being a man. Amen. When I was 16 years old, I received a prophecy from a preacher and he said, "You'll be the weeping prophet." But there's no revival without Mr. Wet's eyes, isn't it? Amen. It's good to have the man in the house this morning, just always blessed to have my old choir master from the Woodlands Congregational Church, brings back so many memories. And warm welcome to all our visitors. We are in the book of Proverbs, we start our series in Proverbs today. And also Candice had a graduation when it was a Saturday, a big or some serious lawyers in the house this morning and then across my teas and other eyes, amen, this congratulations to Larone and Candice. You guys did well. You need to teach us the secret. This morning, I'm going to try and be brief. We Proverbs chapter 1, when you're there, please give me an amen. And I'm going to be reading from the English standard version, the Bible reads as follows, the words of Solomon, sorry, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, the no wisdom and instruction to understand words of insights, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness and justice and equity, to give prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth, let the wise hear and increase in learning. And the one who understands obtained guidance, to understand the proverb and the saying, the words of the wise and the aridels, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom of knowledge, falls the spies, wisdom and instruction. Amen. God bless to us the reading of his word as you are familiar. Solomon is the author of the book of Proverbs. It's appropriate that he authored Proverbs since he was known to be the wisest man in his day, according to 1 Kings chapter 4. Presumably Solomon wrote some of songs in his adult years, you know, Proverbs in his middle years and ecclesiastes towards the latter part of his life where he reflected on his life experiences. The book is dated around 971-931 BC, Proverbs said to have been compiled and completed between the 11th, 10th and 11th century. Here's an outline I want to show for you, if Laela can just get that prepared for us. And I want you to take a screenshot of that or make a note of that. This is how the book of Proverbs is outlined according to Sid Basel. There are many ways to outline Proverbs, but this is going to help you navigate your way through the book of Proverbs and help you read the book of Proverbs. Firstly, we have the heading, that's the first section, we have about seven sections. So the heading, the introduction is from chapter 1, verse 1. In 1 and 2 is from chapters 1-9, which deals more with Hebrew poetry as opposed to Proverbs. So it's really considered an extended poetic lesson that Solomon is giving. And in section 3 is from chapter 10 to chapter 22, verse 16, which deals almost exclusively with his Proverbs. In 4 we have verse from chapter 22, verse 17 to chapter 24 verses 34, which are known as the sayings of the wise. Then the first section is between chapter 25 and chapter 29, which were written by Solomon but compiled by King Isaaciah's men. That was 200 years later in the book of Solomon, in the book of Proverbs. Section 6 and 7 deal with chapters 30 to 31, which were written by Agor and King Lemule. There is a debate around who King Lemule is. A lot of speculation, some say that he could have been an Arabian king. There is some tradition that says King Lemule is Solomon, another name for Solomon. He's no name in the rest of the world. And this would be interesting because Solomon would have wrote chapter 31, the virtuous woman. And those were the words of his mother passed down to him, which would be quite interesting since Queen Beshiba was his mother, who gave us Proverbs 31, so that's something to probe into. And so we have Proverbs outlined for us in seven parts, thank you so much, Layla. So our text deals with the prologue of the book of Proverbs, which is from verse 1 to verse 7 of chapter 1. The prologue is divided into three parts. The first part is verse 1, that's the title. Second part is from verses 2 to verses 6, which states the purpose of the book of Proverbs. Verse 7 provides us with the theme of Proverbs, this presents to us and interprets a framework that guides us through the entire book of Proverbs, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Every principle, every truth, every application you make that applies or that when it stems from the book of Proverbs must be guided by the theme, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. I'm sure my rather dean will, with dean this morning, I'm sure dean will appreciate this proverb. It's a Chinese parable. In Chinese, Chinese looking brother with a Mexican surname, but a coloured accent, you go with it. The Chinese parable goes as such. There was this man seeking to learn from a wise sage and philosophy in the village. This wise teacher was renowned for his wisdom and his knowledge. And so when the man approached him, the first thing that the sage done was ignore him and turn him away. But the man kept on persisting, kept on asking, "Master please teach me wisdom, teach me knowledge." The sage kept on turning him away until the sage finally gives in and says, "Okay, you want to learn wisdom, you want to learn knowledge, come and follow me." Takes him out to the river, jumps in the boat, tells the man, jump into the river. Man obeys, jumps in and in this wise sage begins to put his head over the, his head over the man's head and push him under the water and hold him there. And so this man struggled to the surface, the village the sage, let him come up for air, and the sage asked the man, "What is it that you seek?" He says, "I seek wisdom and knowledge from your master." Sage dunks him again, like how some of you hold your rust down in your coffee, kept him down, but this time longer under the water. And he was struggling to breathe, kept him down long, eventually released him back up from the water and says, "What is it that you seek?" He says, "Master, I seek wisdom and knowledge." The wise teacher dunks him one more time and this time holds him much longer under water until the man is grappling and struggling to breathe, he's struggling to get to the surface and it looks like this, this wise teacher's about to drown, his potential student holds him down and eventually he comes up grasping for air and he asks him, "What is it that you seek?" He says, " Air, I seek air." The wise man asks the sage, "What was the point of that exercise?" The wise teacher says, "When you desire to have knowledge and wisdom like you desire air, then you will have more of the story, said, "You've got to be willing to drown your pride and you've got to be borderline desperate in your pursuit of the truth." Can we pray? Lord, we desire to know your ways, Israel knew your mighty miracles. In our prayer Lord, we will see your hand in our lives. Lord, we desire more than to see your wonders and signs and miracles, these only signposts that point to your moral perfections. We desire to know your ways. The world teaches us your ways. The entrance of your world gives light and so this morning, Lord, we ask that we will hear what the spirit Lord is saying to us personally. Let us forget how roughed was getting here this morning, any distractions and trials we had during the week and let us focus on what you are saying to us personally. Help us not to hear for our neighbor, help us not to hear for our enemies. Help us to hear from our hearts in Jesus' name and everybody says, "Amen and amen." And so we have our theme, key, verse, in verse 7 of chapter 1, keep your Bible open. Problems 1, which states the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and falls despite wisdom and instruction, wisdom is not static, wisdom is acquired by intentional pursuit and by deliberate efforts. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, then the proof of wisdom is the pursuit of knowledge and the love for the truth. Knowledge and wisdom, Herman Baving stated, are rooted in two distinct human capabilities. We acquire knowledge by study and knowledge is theoretical but wisdom we gain by insight and reflection and wisdom is practical and wisdom is goal oriented. The Baving goes on further to define wisdom as the art of living well in God's world. So wisdom will distinguish you, wisdom will make a difference in your life, wisdom will cause you to stand out amongst the average. Many of us face a number of challenges that are not circumstantial, they come from a lack of wisdom. Truth be told, many of the challenges we face are wisdom problems, solutions you are looking for is really a wisdom issue, our health problems are not always circumstantial. You just got to lay off the sugar, so with the mission. You got to have your proper balance, macro diet between your carbs, your protein and your fat, your eating health, you got to get some nutrition in, you got to do some exercising. It's a wisdom issue and most times we come to God seeking divine intervention when what could have been solved years ago by wisdom would have solved the issue of financial problems, our wisdom issue, men, some of us are just pit on having the latest sneakers. In my life, Oscar, it's got to have the latest sneakers, we are impulsive when we buy it. It's a wisdom issue, the way we spend, the way we think, all of the stems from a lack of wisdom and a lack of discipline. Some of the spiritual attacks, the temptations we face, our wisdom issue. Your parents warned you about that, God, didn't they? Your parents warned you about that, boy, didn't they? I wish I could throw enough in God's life. How do you say, "I have only what, less than me?" Sorry, guys, I'm from Kazurin, porn and pruning. I saw a TikTok video in the week of a Devanite speaking of regards that was poetry, it was a horror show. Every problem we face is an opportunity for wisdom to work, not simply an obstacle, don't see every challenge you have in your life as simply an obstacle for God to perform some sign in one and part the way it sees, no, no, no, no, pause and think. Is this a wisdom problem? Can I resolve this by God's wisdom? Wisdom belongs to God. Wisdom is a communicable attribute of God. A founder established the earth by his wisdom and wisdom is crying out aloud in the courts and squares saying, "Take heed, you simple ones, listen to my voice, heed my cry." God wants to share his wisdom with us. God's wisdom is active in all these feelings, in his providence, working through all these affairs and events of our lives, reaching a specific purposeful conclusion. God wants us to share in his wisdom. So we have in verse one, the problems of Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel. Solomon here, in this particular verse, introduces himself and states that he is the son of David, King of Israel. Solomon is renowned for his exceptional wisdom. Solomon is renowned and famous for his wise judgment and counsel. He possessed a special gift of wisdom. He received this gift, if you read 1 Kings 3, in his sleep. So having a dream, a night vision, God appeared to him, and said, "Solomon, I'm giving you a blank check. Whatever you ask for, I'll give it to you." And Solomon said, "I don't want all the riches and all the ladies," we'll talk about that later. And I don't want anything else in this world, I just want wisdom and discernance to rule your people. God said, "Because you've asked of such a thing, Solomon, I'm going to give you the wealth." Because wisdom is the key that unlocks successful effects of living. Remarkable what God can do to dreams in sleep, he's here, rapid-eye, movement-face, stage of sleep, dreaming, snoring, and everything counts over God. He can't put a limit on God. And so he asked for wisdom, of anything else he could have asked for, he asked for wisdom. He couldn't lead to Proverbs 4 and I'll show you something. The truth we often must complete. The Lord gave Solomon the kind of wisdom that no one before him possessed and no one after him possessed, even up to this day, except Christ. Verse 4, are we all there? We're reading verse 1-9, these words, records, are records of what David said to Solomon. I don't want you to keep that in your mind. Solomon writes, "When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, 'Let your heart hold fast my words. Keep my commandments and love. Get wisdom.'" This is David talking to Solomon saying, "Get wisdom, boy, get inside my boy. Do not forget. Do not turn away from the words of my mouth." It was David's parenting and fatherly advice that set the stage for Solomon's encounter with wisdom. It was David's instruction and child rearing. They prepared this little boy years later when he had encountered with God to ask God for the right thing. When parenting is deliberately focused on teaching and instructing our children in the ways of God, it prepares them for life. When we intentionally shape your character at a young age, we teach them, and we set them up for the blessings and the gifts of God, it was John Flable who said, "If we neglect to instruct our children in the ways of holiness, do you think the devil will neglect to instruct them?" No, we've got to be deliberate in teaching our children. We've got to be intentional about teaching them the word of God. Don't let them sit around and watch TikTok videos all day, dancing to TikTok songs all day, teach them to value the word of God. Teach them how to anticipate consequences for decisions they make at an early age. Teach them the rewards of making the right decisions. Teach them the wisdom that problems as calling for. Teach them, teach them, instruct them, deliberately. Solomon was not only renowned for his wisdom, unfortunately. He was also infamous for his polygamous relationships. The Lord warned him against marrying too many women. He did this for political affiliations. He did not heed the word of the Lord, and in this sense, theologians say he became the wise fool. First Kings 11 tells us that he had 700 wives and 300 concubites, which eventually led to his spiritual demise. I'm striving to survive with one wife. And along to 700 wives, my Lord, my God, despite many of his flaws, Solomon will be remembered for two things besides his wisdom. Firstly, he was the first king to bow the temple to the Lord. Secondly, he was the only king to bring great wealth and peace under his reign to Israel. No worse, just peace and wealth, the nation enjoyed great wealth and flourish as a kingdom. When we look closely at verse 1, we can also tell that verse 1 serves the title, and it also indicates the type of literary form that the book adopts. He says it's the problems of Solomon, and so we're dealing with proverbs. When we compare proverbs with the rest of the Bible, it falls into what's known as a wisdom literature. So we have proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes that falls into this category of wisdom literature. Job and Ecclesiastes deals more with a philosophical kind of wisdom. It involves critical thinking in an attempt to make sense of the dealings of God. Job was a very philosophical book because he's trying to solve a complex problem of how the righteous suffered the earth. So it's philosophical in that sense, and then you have Ecclesiastes in the same sense where the coheard, the sage, is trying to make sense of the meaning of life. Welcome to Proverbs, Proverbs deals with practical wisdom. Wisdom it applies to daily lives, the nitty gritty daily activities and scenarios of your life. It's a different kind of wisdom. When we look at Proverbs in a more minute sense, as a literary instrument, these are short, concise, poetic maxims, you know, nuggets of truth. Often they present a contrast or comparison, but they are wise, short, sayings that really highlight for us the doctrine of two parts. Remember we've been teaching a lot about the doctrine of two parts? There's the broad road, Jesus told the Sioux, that leads to destruction and there's the narrow road that leads to life. And in Hebrew poetry and wisdom literature, you either have the fall or the wise. God classifies the entire human race in two categories either, you wise either, you foolish. And so Proverbs presents these kinds of metaphors and summaries and evocative language, and it says that Solomon, according to 1 Kings 4, he ordered 3,000 Proverbs and he wrote 1,005 songs. And the Holy Spirit chose to go as providence to present us with a few hundred of them in the book of Proverbs. Verses 2 to 6, let's look at the purpose of Proverbs. We look at verses 2 to 6 effectively, Solomon is challenging the reader to commit, him or herself to the pursuit of wisdom and to the mastery of the words contained in the book of Proverbs. So the Holy Spirit wants to teach us timeless ancient truths that we can practically apply to almost any sphere of our lives. We can apply to our marriage, we can apply to our relationships and friendships, our workplace, our business, our marriage, our parenting, we can find all this truth in the book of Proverbs. Wisdom is the art of living well in God's world. What we gather between verses 2 and 7 is that there are five distinct expressions of wisdom. Firstly, wisdom is intellectual, philosophical, ethical, practical and spiritual. Wisdom is intellectual, philosophical, ethical, practical and spiritual. Let's first deal with the first expression of wisdom which is intellectual. Wisdom is intellectual. The Proverbs speaks of receiving instruction and of knowledge being imparted to the youth. It speaks of the wise hearing, it speaks of increasing in learning and it speaks of the beginning of knowledge, wisdom involves acquiring knowledge and truth and being able to reason with information. Growing in knowledge requires four things from our text. Verse three, you must be able to receive an instruction. Verse five, you must be able to listen. You must be able to increase in learning and you must be willing to ask for guidance. That's how you grow in knowledge. All these attributes require humility. You raise some humble pie to ask for guidance and help. You've got to be willing to lay aside your biases and your pride to receive an instruction. So receiving an instruction requires a posture of the heart that means you have to be teachable and humble. You cannot be humble and not teachable. Listening is an important key for learning. The wise hear, the wise hear and you heard your grandmother and your mom over the years tell you you have two ears and one mouth. So you do more listening than talking. Listening is a powerful tool. Listening is our biggest communication problem because we don't listen to understand. We listen to respond. Listening is a powerful tool when you want to resolve conflicts, conflict in your marriage, conflict at the workplace, conflict in your friendship, just listen and try to understand. The text also speaks about increasing in learning, the wise increase in their learning. Knowledge requires studying and it requires developing skills. Training requires discipline but in every well-lived life is a self-disciplined believer. There is no shortcut along discipline. If we're going to learn and grow and develop skills and unlock all the fruit that wisdom has to offer, we have got to be disciplined. Discipline is a fruit of the spirit. We don't talk about it much. Relations five. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, faithfulness, goodness, truthfulness, gentleness and self-control, aka discipline. Discipline is the ability to do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not, sometimes whether you like it or not. You want that summer body? You want to get up. Even when you don't want to get up. You want those muscles from process, it's routine, it's discipline. You want to be successful in your business, you've got to be disciplined. Whatever you want, you want to succeed at or be effective in in life, it requires doing what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not. I'm going to get in trouble on this point, let me move on. We also acquire knowledge by asking for guidance that strikes and I'll try it because we live in a culture that is so radically individualistic. We prize personal autonomy about everything else and we don't like to ask for help because we don't want to be perceived as ignorant. Asking for guidance will give you leverage. What leverage is, is the ability to achieve significant results and significant impact with relatively less input. You'll save yourself a great deal of time, great deal of effort if you simply ask. Learn to leverage yourself of the experience and knowledge of others. Put your pride aside, pride is the greatest enemy of learning and wisdom. John Calvin stated that the man who refuses to be taught, presumes himself to be his own teacher and in doing so he remains blind to his efforts. Ostrum is intellectual, you've got to be willing to acquire new information. Your mind must always be engaged with information. Your mind must always be engaged with truth, whether that's formally or whether it's informally, always be found reading a book, reading a newspaper, engage your mind with texts and truth and information. What is the most intellectual? When we become believers, we don't put our minds into neutral. Then you became a Christian, you don't commit intellectual suicide. You are called to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all of your mind. You are called to be transformed by the renewing of your mind because your mind is the control center of your life. Commit yourself to studies, commit yourself to growing intellectually, put your mind on the truth of God's word, chew the cut, attend Bible studies mince. Take notes, listen, don't let your mind extra fee. Keep your mind short, stay mentally short. I used to get the complaint for many years from some of the senior folk back in my hood, they used to say, given this, why you throw around some of these big terms now and again. Throw around these theological jawbreaker terms, preach to the people, preach to the people's people, I'm like my Lord, I'm like we're not called just to preach day. We want the congregation to come higher, so we preach day at the level and then sometimes we just chew through the bother level, just so you can stretch, get a stretch, get your neck out because we call to stimulate each other intellectually. How do you grow in the world of God, apart from memorizing the world of God and thinking critically around the world of God, got to apply your mind to the scriptures. Not just call to feed us, but as we call to raise your intellect, think differently about life, think about your decisions. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, develop a love for the truth. Essentially, wisdom is also philosophical, wisdom encourages us to think thoughtfully on our lives and about life and to reflect on our decisions and choices and the consequences of it. Wisdom at times will turn you into a philosopher, you have to navigate through life's complexities and the reason for why we exist. There will be times in your life when wisdom will whisper in your ear when you face the most devastating moments of life, loss of a loved one, loss of a job, you name it. Those moments that you embrace wisdom and wisdom's voice, what is wisdom teaching us about the privacy of life. Think about those things, reflect on those things, reflect on your decisions and choices during the day. Allow wisdom and wisdom's voice to steer you through the most difficult decisions and difficult terrain ahead of you. Wisdom teaches us to examine also why we believe what we believe. Don't just randomly quote scripture and say, "Ah, because the Bible says so." People are looking for answers, you've got to give a reason for the faith and hope that lies inside of you, you've got to be able to talk constructively and I've seen this sometimes when we evangelize and we're listening to people, you're like, "No, Jesus died as finished." You believe, we don't believe, turn open, no, no, no, reason come, let us reason together. Think critically around why you believe what you believe. From all the documents, the evidence that he's outside of the Bible to the existence of Jesus, this witness to be intelligently, without reasoning. Thirdly, wisdom is not just trapped up in being philosophical and intellectual, wisdom is ethical, speaks about verse 3, speaks about receiving instruction in righteousness, in right living. Wisdom is meant to guide us morally, teaching us to be some right from wrong, good from best, and the consequences and outcomes of our actions. Wisdom must steer us morally to righteous living and perhaps there's no greater example to think of in current news as with the Talbot Bester and Dr. Nandiba's story. My Lord, here you have such an intelligent young woman, what she like, then two years old, has a decorated educational background, some medical practitioner, she holds a bachelor of health science, a biomedical science, a bachelor of surgery, a bachelor of medication from Vets University, she was a sought after physician specializing in an aesthetic set, advancing dermatology and plastic surgery. She made a top 20 list of influential young South Africans in 2018. How did you get entangled with Talbot Bester? See, as Lewis said, when we have education without values, as useful as these, it seems rather to make a man more clever-diver. Let your wisdom be seen in your choices and decisions. Don't just talk, the talk, walk, the talk, amen. Wisdom is also practical, involves action, the wise do, it is deeply rooted in practical application, wisdom is not the pie in the sky as the stake on the plate. Applied knowledge is power, knowledge in itself does not necessarily equate power, but a applied knowledge is power, wisdom is the right use of knowledge, it's the proof in the pudding. Charles Burgess says, to know is not to be wise, many men know a great deal and are greater full for it, there is no full so great as a knowing for, but to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom, wisdom is the right use of knowledge. Lastly, wisdom is spiritual, at wisdom's foundation it is rooted in God's wisdom, this pure undefiled comes from above, it is a communicable attribute of God, it's a quality of God, he is infinitely wise and he desires his children to walk in his wisdom and receive his word. Wisdom also begins in the fear of the Lord, when we have a deep, reverent, relational awe of God, a respect and honor of God, we invite wisdom into our lives, it unlocks the wisdom that he is from above and we fear God and we love his word, it unlocks wisdom's doors to us, what does it mean really to fear God, in a nutshell it means to recognize him for his majesty, his holiness and his authority, fearing God is really connected to an understanding of who he is, what he is about, when we understand who he is exactly, not just simply the God of our own imagination, when we understand the God of the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit now can bring us into the courts of wisdom and teachers, when we desire to know this great God, the God of the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit says, "You are now ready for me to impart wisdom to you." And in conclusion, we are doing good for time, so we are doing good for time, in conclusion, when we look at any particular passage of Scripture, we must apply gospel hermeneutic, we must put on our gospel lens. What does Proverbs teach us about the gospel of Jesus Christ? Firstly, Proverbs points us to the wisdom of God because we are inherently inclined to foolishness and a wickedness. When you've been around, as long as I've been around speaking like an old man now, God's green planet doesn't take you long to realize that human beings have a high capacity for foolishness. Some time ago, you all do this, you all guilty of this, about to sleep, you're all into those Facebook reels, you know, so an alligator handler, put his head inside of an alligator with these razor sharp conical teeth, probably like 89 of them, these teeth that are designed an engineer to tear away a bone and single, he puts his head inside the mouth of an alligator. You know how that turns out, high capacity for foolishness. Proverbs comes to us and says, "Inherently, you are sinners. You are foolish outside of his wisdom. How many times we've taken fire to our bosom and what butts?" And the Lord is saying, "I am offering you wisdom. Allow me to teach you an ancient, ancient truth that has existed before time has begun. Those exposes our pride, our self-reliance, and informs us that the help we need is outside of ourselves." Don't follow your heart. Follow his word. Exists outside of you and in God and in God's truth. We don't possess the answers to life's complexities God does. We don't possess the answers to resolving all the issues in marriage and life and righteousness and the workplace and in child yelling and God says, "Yes, my word. Yes, the answer. What you're praying and forcing about is, "Yes, read, read, stimulate some intellect, read." We need his words. We need his guidance. We need his truth. We need his word. We need his intervention. We need him. Proverbs says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your parts." That's the message of the gospel in Proverbs. The answers are not in you, it's in him, it's in his wisdom. The wisdom of this world is foolishness. Secondly, Proverbs also reflects of how the gospel shapes us towards the life of righteousness. The wisdom contained in the book of Proverbs points us to making Godly decisions and to be applying God's word in our lives so that we live as God sanctified holy people. We've got to do more than just offer God lip service. We've got to offer him life service. You're going to love your life higher than your junk. You're going to put some clout behind your shout. You're going to love right. You're going to have some zip management, man of God. You're going to learn to break habits of addiction through his power and his sin. You're going to learn to walk uprightly before him so you can tell your body's at the bar. That burden no longer exists. I once was blind, but now I can see. I once was lost, but now I am found. There's got to be a change. A change in the way you think, a change in the way you talk, a change in the way you behave. You've got to walk different, you've got to have a different glide in your slide. No change, no Jesus, I'm sorry. If there's no change and distinction in your life, there is no Jesus. I don't care if you speak in tongues, prophesy, sing like a canary. I don't care if you mark the attendance, they just say every week. If there is no change and transformation, he's not loving them, man. He's never been a case in the history of the cosmos where Jesus walked into a room and he didn't affect change. He's going to change that stinking, thinking. He's going to cleanse that tongue of yours, put some churries in them. You can't feel be vulgarizing now as you are tired of God. Where's the change? The gospel tears us towards righteous loving. Man, this is not for everyone, this is for me. I don't know problem if you have a dress of wine, but I come from a lineage of alcoholics. Man, if you knew my father Peter Iliad, man, he drank like he lived in our ocean of art. He drank and I've seen the abuses of alcohol growing up, I've seen guys fight with teaspoons and corks, wounds, and I saw one of my aunties sit here on fire, which woman does there. I've seen so much, I've seen my aunties on the table dancing, dancing. I saw strange people, I also wake up on the top bunk and look at him, who's this sleeping on an idiot? And the day Christ came into my life, I said no more. I started drinking 14, thanks to Roscoe in the back, I was drinking 14 years old, Roscoe introduced me to a smile on a black label, but the day I came to Christ was the day I said no, no, no, no, no, no, alcohol has no say, yeah, no say, yeah, and so the devil tested me the very next day, Grimville's house, we're having a party. All right, Grimville's house, we made a circle bigger, the music is blaring, any of the shots are coming around, and Grimville posted me the shot and I'm thinking something's different. So I was going, I was like, yes, putting out the three, here's us coming, I was the designator for D.S.V. in that day, and then I went to a 21st, even that same week, 21st was Robin's house, 21st, and we get there, and now there's this champagne bottle there on the table, and I say, young man, fuck the bottle, I go in, I look at the first thing to see is this alcohol content, I know I don't know what's telling me to buy alcohol content, but yeah, the alcohol content, I'm like, no, there's alcohol in this bottle, what am I gonna do, the people are really giving the champagne, I don't wanna be, then I give me the glass, I don't seem like I'm too religious, something, you know, like I'm a religious space cadets, so I'm trying to open that corner, it's jammed in the box, the other guy says, no, boy, come here, let me show you how it's done, they struggle to open the box, everybody's trying on the table, the guy's almost done on his toes, they call him, someone says, no, let me go look at the back, it's more, there's nothing, it's nothing at the back, and from that day, I said no, no alcohol in my life, no alcohol in my home, I don't care, it must be a change family, and lastly, the New Testament makes it clear that Jesus is the only one who perfectly embodies the wisdom of God, first Corinthians 1 verse 30, Christ has become towards the wisdom of God. In Matthew 15, Jesus is teaching about what the wisdom of God, and he says, you've heard that the Queen of the South traveled far from the ends of the earth to come and see Solomon in all his wisdom, but yet I am to tag, that are greater than Solomon is here, his name is Jesus, to pursue him is to pursue wisdom, to know him is to know wisdom, to desire to walk and please him is to be wise, let the wise hear his voice, and let the wise follow him closely and love him dearly, can we stand this morning for him. Our eyes closed, I'm not going to make an altar call this morning, but I want you to search your heart this morning. Search your heart, I want you to think about the problem you are currently facing, I know you're crying out for a miracle, but I want you to ask yourself, honestly this morning, is there a key of wisdom, that's wisdom of plier, how does wisdom of plier, and I want you to go home, and I want you to reflect on the message this morning, but more than that, everything that's said and done at church is secondary. You need to acquaint yourself with truth for yourself. The truth you discover for yourself is a truth that impacts you and lasts forever. The Jesus you know for yourself is the Jesus that changes, he was not the part of Jesus, but the priest, Jesus, when he becomes your Jesus, that's when he begins to affect the change in your life. Think about your problems, think about your life's trajectory, think about where you are stationed right now in your life. I want to ask you a question, are you living circumspectly before God? Are you walking in wisdom? Do you fear the Lord? Do you pursue him? Do you desire to know him? Do you desire to know him in his word? I don't care what problem there is in your life and what you're facing. We don't always need a handout or even a handout. We really need his wisdom. His wisdom to steer us and guide us. Give time to reflection and thoughts, what decisions you made. You may not be able to change any consequences or outcomes for the decisions you've made over your life in these recent days, but you can still apply wisdom. You can still forgive. You can still remove bitterness from your heart. You can still make a decision to fix that relationship. You can still pick up yourself and start again. Start that business again. You can still apply God's truth to your life. Father, thank you for your presence. Lord, we had such a beautiful time singing your praises. We love to be in your praises. This is where we find joy. We find joy when we in your praises even collectively. We thank you for your word this morning, our last Lord, that the Holy Spirit will apply his truth, his word to our hearts. As we receive his word with his being grafted word, with meekness, humility, which is able to save ourselves. Bless us this day and the week ahead for those traveling, protect us, oh God, on the road. And our Lord, that the spirit of Odin Ramsey come upon our wives this morning. As they would bounce those pots, bake those potatoes, fry those sticky wigs, pork chops, brew that mutton curry, meat falling off the bone. The curry leaves, danya, all the spices from India in the pot. It's the smell of a come upon that household this morning. The name of Jesus. The Church of God says, Amen, Amen, Amen. God bless you, family. Have a beautiful Sunday.
