We take a look at Proverbs 2 and the picture of two temptations that face the student son.
In a world of conflicting voices, heed wisdom. Wisdom will protect you from death.
Blessings
Rebirth Church Sermons
Proverbs Series_ Part 3: Wisdom Protects_ Bevin Elliott
I say God is good and all the time, Hallelujah, you may take your seats family, it's good to be in the presence of the Lord. You are in your father's house. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go unto the house of the Lord. We have celebrated a number of birthdays this week before we get into our message, wouldn't you? Just wish a happy birthday to Kaitan in 2016, where you Kaitan, where's the camera guy, Hallelujah, 19, just kidding, Raziar's birthday as well in the week on Thursday and Nihana believe Sweet Sixteen this morning, right? Whoa, is that the age where you'll give Kiz out, is that the age or is that 21? Don't give Kiz out too soon, eh? Okay, and then at the Jaden's birthday as well, when was Jaden's birthday? Last week, undercover, okay, was too many birthdays to count, I don't know who else celebrated the birthday anniversary, friend diversity, God bless you, anniversary, okay, family, we are still in the Book of Proverbs, this is our third sermon in the series, would you turn it me to Proverbs chapter two, pass the Clinton a good job last week, and this week we continue laboring on, so when you are there, please give me an amen, I'll just wait for a few more amends we are reading from chapter two from verse one, there's nothing more beautiful than yearning pages turned in church, I know we're in the digital era, but there's just something anointed by bringing a physical Bible to church, Proverbs chapter two and I'm reading from the ESV Bible, my son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will come to understand the fear of the Lord and find 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 in integrity, guarding the parts of justice and watching over the way of this of his saints, then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good part, for wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul, discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the parts of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose parts are crooked and who are devious in their ways, so you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulterous with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of a youth and forgets the covenant of a God, for her house sinks down to death and the parts to be departed, none who go there come back, nor do they regain the parts of life, so you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the parts of the righteous, where the upright will inhabit the land and those with integrity will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it, amen. God bless to us the reading of His Word, can we pray? Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time in your presence when we can gather around your Word. I ask Lord that you will only anoint our ears and our hearts to receive everything that the Spirit of Lord will say to our hearts here this morning, anoint my lips Lord that it will speak under the guiding and leading of the Spirit and I ask Lord that we will receive your Word with meekness, your Word that is able to save our souls, your Word that brings life and light, and I ask Lord that you will just help us to be doers of your Word and not listeners only, and I ask that you will just bless this time we have together as we learn from your Word in Jesus' name and everybody says amen, amen is good to be part of the greatest story ever told, it's good to be part of the good news, the story of Jesus Christ. The gospel is a message that is not isolated to the New Testament, you've been reading your Bible for a while, you will discover that the gospel is interwoven in the storyline of the Old Testament narrative, it's not a single book in the Bible that does not reflect some aspect of the gospel, the gospel is not new news, it's good news, it's an ancient story of God's plan to redeem and save riches souls like you and I, Proverbs reflects the gospel in many ways, despite being a book that falls into the category genre called wisdom literature reflects the gospel in that it shapes us towards righteous living, because once the Lord saves us, He wants to sanctify us, once He delivers us, He wants to make us holy and pure, and so when we examine the book of Proverbs, we learn that the fruit of wisdom is righteousness, the fruit of wisdom is walking in integrity and holiness before the Lord, Proverbs fundamentally points us to the wisdom of God, God is infinitely wise and we are not, God is inherently wise and we are not wise to our core, wisdom does not intrinsically exist within us, it is without us, outside of us, we are inherently inclined to foolishness, we have a high capacity for folly and towards wickedness, and so when we read through the book of Proverbs, we learn that we are dependent on His wisdom, we need His wisdom, we need His instruction, because we are inclined to foolishness, I think the last time I preached I told you about a crocodile handler who put his head inside the mouth of a jaw-snapping crocodile, foolishness, we have a high capacity for foolishness, when Paul concludes his didactic letter to the Romans, in chapter 16 verse 27, he makes a profound statement in his doxology, he says only the Lord is wise, to the only wise God, God alone is wise, we are derivative wise, we learn wisdom through learning and experience, through the hard knocks of life, the school of life, through reflection and meditation on the word of God, by trial and error, but God is inherently wise, essentially wise to His substance. God alone is wise and it was Shaniq who said when we speak of God being wise, think of wisdom not being appended to God or auxiliary to God as though it was some kind of supplementary habit added onto Him or some attribute that He acquires over time, God does not grow in wisdom, He is infinitely wise to His substance, wisdom is consistent with all His other attributes, with His power in as much as He's all powerful, His old wise, in as much as His old wise He's all loving and so it was Francisco Suarez who said that is only right that we say that God is above all wisdom, when we consider that His infinite wisdom works consistently with all His other attributes and characteristics and that's why it is proper to say that He alone is properly wise. God being infinitely and inherently wise and we being the rivetively wise. God being wise means not that He just comprehends all things and knows all things. God being wise means that He always has the best outcomes and makes the best decisions and uses the best means to accomplish those outcomes and everything He does is working towards a purposeful end and that He just, it's not that He just knows everything, it's that He knows how to appoint and order everything in your life and it's all working towards His intended purposeful conclusion which is His glory. Amen. Now you saw what I mean, Seanic further states that when we contemplate on the wisdom of God the mind rises to a greater sense of astonishment when we contemplate the cross because never in all of creation and in the dealings of God that His wisdom is more showcased and on display than in the life and person of Jesus Christ. That's why the Bible says that Christ is the wisdom of God, He has become to us the wisdom of God and that's why Colossians 2 says in Christ are He then all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and when the Greeks look at the cross they sow foolishness and when the Jews look at the cross they sow weakness because the Jews wanted a sign and they wanted a demonstration of power but how could the Son of God God of the universe save the world through this weak instrument of the cross and the Greeks look at it because with all their learning and education and their philosophical minds they look at this and they say this is foolishness but God looked at the cross and said this what you call foolishness is an ultimate demonstration of my manifold infinite wisdom. I will use weakness to accomplish great power in the earth that will use a symbol of death to defeat death and bring life and so what the world looks at now as weakness and foolishness is actually a great display of the manifold wisdom of God and so when we look at a creation you can see God's wisdom everywhere we are not blind not to notice his wisdom in the ordering of seasons and planets and nature and when we look at creation we see the footprints of God's wisdom but when we look at the cross we see the face of God's wisdom we see Jesus as the personal demonstration of God's wisdom amen Jesus is the wisdom of God and Jesus and his cross and the work is the greatest demonstration and showcasing of the wisdom of God amen. Now I want to give us a definition before we get into our verses of wisdom. Wisdom is broadly defined when we last spoke I mentioned to you from Proverbs 1 that wisdom is philosophical intellectual wisdom is as practical it's not the pie in the sky it doesn't remain in the clouds of philosophy it's actually very practical it's the stake on the plate we also mentioned that wisdom is spiritual the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom but I want to give you a working definition for this morning I want you to remember it go back on the recording on part bin or make a note of this and I want to define wisdom this morning as a practical God-enabled way of life that aligns with Christ's example and purpose for our lives. Wisdom is a practical God-enabled way of life that aligns to Christ's example and purpose for our lives you've got that amen. You saw me family you were sounding sleepy today I'm not putting you up to sleep this morning. Amen amen. Now when we look over the span of Proverbs they are ten fatherly appeals of chapter one to chapter seven. We see in near-middle eastern times in antiquity we have wise teachers wisdom teachers also known as sages who would adopt a fatherly role an example to the students and so we have this in case where Solomon possibly addressing his son or possibly possibly taking up the position of a sage and giving ten fatherly appeals to his son. In chapter one we saw that he appealed for his son not to be greedy for unjust gain. In chapter two we will see the appeal for his son to gain wisdom get wisdom. Chapter three we see the fatherly appeal for his son to fear the Lord. Chapter three the second half of chapter three from verse 21 to 35 he makes an appeal for his son to God wisdom protect his wisdom. Chapter four from verses one to nine the fifth appeal is is for his son to make wisdom part of the family here a teach you got to pass wisdom and truth down from one generation to the next your children must be smarter than you make better decisions in you. The sixth appeal is in the second half of chapter four from verse 10 to 19 where the sage encourages his son to choose the right part there are two parts choose the part of wisdom and not the part of fools and in the seventh appeal a game to his son in the latter part of chapter four is to God wisdom in his heart. Treasure wisdom again and in chapter five he makes the seventh appeal he says my son abstained from adultery and fornication appeals to him because because wisdom is closely connected to our sanctification and our sexuality. The ninth appeal in chapter six is further a further intensified appeal to avoid sexually morality is something this this father knows we don't and in the last appeal again he says to his and keep away from temptations that lead to adultery and so we see by the last three appeals that that this wise age is being emphatic about how we protect ourselves against sexually morality and there's two truths that are communicated in these last three points. Firstly that God is concerned about your sexual life and then you can you're dropping that God is concerned about your sexual purity his purpose for your life includes your sexual purity. Give me an amen dear someone come on come on it's getting lonely up here man God is getting very lonely up here the second thing we also learn is that Satan is also concerned about your sexual purity and he will take aim to relentlessly attack your purity out of ten appeals three relate to your sexual well being give me another amen come on I feel the love I feel a lot now when we examine chapter two closely we see that there is a picture being presented for us the picture of a young man that is faced with two major temptations the first temptation we see in the latter part of of chapter two from verses twelve the temptation to associate with violent violent men who have feelings and affinity towards power and making money easy and the corrupt way men who think nothing of taking a life men who are violent men who engrossed in criminal activities that's the first temptation that this this wise age encourages his son to avoid the second a picture that's being portrayed here is that he's encouraging his son to avoid sexual pleasures that that this world will throw at him and so that's the kind of picture that's been portrayed in chapter two is that the there is a choice that this and his attempt ation that this young man will encounter throughout his life and his father appeals to him avoid this kind of men avoid this this kind of woman okay and and both these ways and both these temptations have perhaps complications for this young man that he may not be able to calculate and see ahead of it and so he says avoid corrupt crooked men avoid their words avoid the words of of seducing woman as well they say seducing men or so and so and so he's living in this world of conflicting competing voices he has the voice of his father the voice of wisdom and then he has the voice of these corrupt men with enticing words and these slippery smooth words of the adulterous woman and and there's this there's these voices lowering him in many directions and his father says there's only two parts the way of wisdom and there's the way of foolishness and both these voices contradict the wisdom of the father and so when we look at chapter two structurally it can be divided into two halves verses one to eleven first off and then verses twelve to twenty two the second half each half consists of two stanzas which include four verses and a climactic third of the three verses so the first half from verses one to eleven relates to the development and formation of his son's character relates to his his maturity and this young student will develop and grow in wisdom on three grounds firstly verses one to four by internalizing and receiving the word of god by receiving the word of god hiding in his heart making it his meditation something that reminds us of what David said thy word of heed in my heart that I may not sin against you secondly he will learn wisdom by coming to fear and know the Lord from verses eight five to eight we see that and in from verses nine to eleven we see that he learns wisdom by intuitively walking upright and righteous before the Lord by being obedient to the voice of wisdom by being obedient to the voice of god that's how you learn wisdom you learn wisdom by receiving meditating on the word of god you learn wisdom by fearing the Lord and having a desire to know him you learn wisdom by intuitively and habitually walking in obedience to the Lord. Second half of Proverbs chapter two relates more to the son's deliverance and protection against wicked men and wicked women we see that in in the cases I mentioned earlier from verses 12 to 15 of the wicked men and 16 to 19 of the seducing woman and so his decision to walk and grow in wisdom will result in him experiencing life and also avoiding temptations that lead to death and so and so he will grow in wisdom by receiving the word of god walking in obedience and uprightness and by fearing the Lord but he will also grow in wisdom by avoiding the negative by avoiding the ways of darkness the words of corruption and it was goals worthy who stated that the strength of the Father's appeal in this chapter lies in the power of wisdom to deliver us from dear wisdom will save us and deliver us from dear from destruction from foolish people from wicked people from foolish decisions wisdom will save us a lot of heartache and pain and will result in us experiencing the life that god intended us to experience now when we closely examine verses 1 to 11 we see that from verse 1 to 4 if you just keep your Bible open and check with me from verses 1 to 4 we see that there is a series of conditional clauses these conditional clauses from verse 1 to 4 is then followed by consequential clauses in verses 5 and 9 we see the conditional clauses way the Father says if you will receive my words if if four times he says if you will receive my word if you will you will call out for insight if you will search for wisdom like you search for solver and then we see the consequential clauses from verses 5 onwards where the wise teachers is then you will have understanding verse 9 then you will understand righteousness and justice and so we have four consequential clauses and then we have two oh sorry you have four conditional clauses and you have two consequential clauses if you receive the words of god if you call out for wisdom if you seek for it like solver then you will understand the fear of the Lord then you will understand what it is to know him and understand what it is to be righteous and have justice and equity and follow in the good part this structure from verses 1 to 11 reflects the nature of wisdom that is a connection between your actions and your destiny this relationship between the choices you make and the outcomes of your life and as the truth be told the life we now have now is the life we've built the life you have is the life you've built and the life you've built is the life you have is a direct correlation between the decisions we make every day and the outcomes we experience in life your life is a series of decisions that you have consistently taken over the years every day every week and what's implied and unvoiced in the father's appeal from verses 1 to 4 is this that you have control over the decisions you make but no control over the consequences that follow those decisions very little decision control you have over the outcome of those decisions because once you release an arrow you cannot recall that email cannot call arrow back once you say something you your wife will make you crawl on broken bottle and she may even remind you 10 years down the line you can say sorry all you want Baba all you want you can have tears and forgiveness but but every now and again you've got a battle with what was said and keep on pulling down a stronghold some of you look back on on your history book your black book of dating with regrets you can't take back some things every frog you kiss that's why that's why wisdom is appealing to us cut right the first time it's like photography and videography when we did photography classes it was like your our our instructor he repeated this like it was the 10 kilometers every day get it right in camera first get it right in camera first shoot it right in camera first if you don't shoot it right in camera first there's very little you can do post editing I know I know with AI and everything now it still won't make a means for what was initially done wrong and so we have to manage our intentions we have to manage our decisions and we have to be very wise around the decisions we make every day because there are repercussions that arise from them that we may not have any control over and we'll need God to intervene we have a habit of holding God hostage to the poor decisions we've made God said don't don't open their account by two words let me tell you God said avoid that lady avoid that young man your parents told you your mom on your papa told you but you will need one they will be late for me and now we are dealing with repercussions and we're saying God if you don't come through but God is saying I'm not obligated to intervene and and come through for your foolish decisions if if you make correct decisions and wise decisions you could say okay you've got something on me you know I promise to defend the upright but we want God to come through for us for the poor foolish decisions we've made and yet God is still merciful sometimes he still comes through for you he's when he said don't do this and you did it he still came through to show you his grace and mercy but he's under no obligation to do so you have to shoot right the first time looking at verse one into the first conditional clause my son if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments within you making your attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding note verse one be if you treasure up my commandments within you and walk he stated that this appeal eludes to the sun becoming like the temple of Solomon you know who's within a sanctuary how's the word of God the ark of the covenant and in that ark of the covenant was stored the tin commands and so this wise teacher saying to his son you you've got to treasure up the word of God in you in the most sanctuary of your heart like you the the temple of the Holy Ghost you the temple of God you are to hide the word of God in your heart because the spirit of God dwells within you the word of God must dwell inside of you must keep and treasure and prize the word of God with all your hearts Job said I've treasured thy word above my necessary food that's how much he loved the word of God we've got to get to a place where we enjoy the word of God so much that we we make it our daily routine to read and study the word of God to listen to the word of God daily routine I used to have a habit when I was in in high school I had it for about a year and there's just something something I held close to me to help me get to the word of God every day I would never have a meal until I read the word of God never that therefore complete you I say I have the Gideon's Bible in my left pocket in school and before I thought about opening my lunch per box of it let me get you quickly I'm hungry and open up that little Gideon thing Bible and I open to saw my little pricksaw and then I'll get to my lunch box same thing with supper I used to have this this this habit of whenever I opened the tap I just pray so you make these rituals just to kind of help you get into the word of God what what efforts are you taking to learn and grow in the world of God how hungry are you for the word of God you know no when we talk about buying Bibles people say you're so expensive I must be four hundred and four a piver but didn't win through healers in town you're doing all these tons a thousand random ticket you don't even flinch through you who else was in the country just brown you see there we go yeah I don't hesitate one night out with the ladies rest always come back and you still got our all sponsored Bible from your grandfather invest in your knowledge of the word of God just edit that dancing part out there is a divine appeal from wisdom from the father for us as children of God to imbibe the word of God to absorb the word of God note note these eight eight verbs just in these first few few verses from one to four just receive the word of God treasure up incline apply call cry search this father's being emphatic you've got to be intentional and almost borderline desperate in your attempt to understand the word of God these objects and the objects of of these activities are the teachers words and commands to his son this is how you get onto the path of wisdom you've got to you've got to be open to learn you've got to have an inclined ear you can't be passing out snoring every time boss the post appears preach pinch yourself have a strong dose of coffee speak to key keen and he's packing monster drinks every Sunday I'm just kidding but but you're inclined your ear you have no pad out bring your highlights as crayons out to check be open to learn be diligent in seeking go back on the pot being old you're listening over and over and over again the constant dripping of water wears away the stone you'll find yourself retaining a knowledge of the scriptures and a knowledge base of the scriptures you never really consciously exerted yourself to do simply because you incline your ear and listen what efforts do you expend in becoming wise because this appeal is for us to pursue wisdom like we pursue treasure what actions are you taking this very moment to develop wisdom in your life do you have a daily routine in seeking God's word are you taking even in your workplace are you taking the necessary steps in your work field to become the best you can be are you following through with your managers instructions are you learning the tools of the trade are you acquiring the knowledge you need to become efficient at what you do I don't care whether you are mechanic whether you are IT guru software developer scrum manager whatever it is what efforts are you taking to become the best you can be in your field of expertise are you willing to unlearn some of the bad thinking bad habits are you willing to unlearn some of the wrong attitudes you developed have you found friends whose wisdom is beyond yours or are you like this eagle who wants to remain friends with chickens thinking you are chicken quacking and you got your bald eagle powerful majestic bird of prey yeah you want to be amongst the chickens do you read do you have a book by your pedestal you have a book on toilets pedestal you have a book at your desk at work are you reading a chapter day as your mind constantly engaging with what truth or are you making tick-tock videos every day dancing videos every day what efforts are you taking to grow in with them intentionally so are you willing to put your heart behind your pursuit of wisdom are you willing to put your treasure behind wisdom are you willing to rise up early every morning sensing we complaining about time can you take off 30 minutes from your sleep to read to pray to study to work out to develop those apps are you working more diligently than others or when your colleagues look at your work they say ah that question ah can't wait till the alarm bell rings and is out the office was to be me get out of there before I get burned to be wise teacher says to his son you're gonna incline your heart to understanding this phrase incline your heart to understanding is in the causative which simply means that he's not simply saying pay attention to some he's saying you have to desire and choose to understand so inclining your heart to understanding means to desire and choose wisdom involves a decision involves a desire and a passion you have to wake up every morning and choose to be wise you have to wake up every day and decide today I'm gonna be wise whenever you confront over the challenge you ask yourself where's the wisdom in this I'm not gonna be a fool over this issue what's the best course of action what's the best course of thinking choose and decide to be wise every day don't make the decision or fools make choices that support what you value what you're all close to your heart and support your family you build your family and your life and your career and you walk as a Christian you tell yourself like this like this father appeal to his son tell yourself I'm gonna stay away from foolishness even if it involves some close friends I'm gonna stay away from wickedness even if it involves a friend from yesterday we grew up within school I'm not gonna compromise my integrity over relationship you never compromise integrity over relationship seek wisdom seek for understanding now let's look at the second conditional clause verses three to four yes if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding you seek for wisdom like silver and you search for it like hidden treasure this verse marks a shift from a somewhat passive reception and receiving of wisdom son was asked to receive wisdom to change up wisdom and now he's told to have an aggressive approach towards wisdom it's a shift between a somewhat passive reception of wisdom to now an aggressive initiation of a quest for wisdom and if you read previous chapter chapter 1 verse 20 we told that wisdom cries out in the street remember that possible impression at last week wisdom cries out in the street and raises a voice in the marketplace and now of the back of wisdom crying out with them raising a voice in the marketplace the son is now told to do the same now you call yeah out to wisdom now you raise your voice for understanding wisdom cries out allowed in the streets and now our responses to call back these are two aspects of of receiving wisdom firstly wisdom is a gift that we receive wisdom comes looking for us first God initiates everything that's a cost per we don't love him unless he loves us first there's no one wise here without without him first calling you into wisdom and so wisdom is a gift we see that in chapter 2 verse 6 the Lord gives wisdom James one said says that because it's a gift if anyone lacks wisdom anymore us because he was wise infinitely wise and inherently wise who alone is wise gives wisdom impartially without preference to anyone who will ask this is us so God initiates wisdom and wisdom is separately tied to him so it abides with him and he decides who to give it to and imposter to and the second aspect of receiving wisdom is that God gives us wisdom and empowers us to pursue us and in this we see that wisdom is not only a gift to responsibility to duty that falls in each and every single one of us and as much as wisdom comes looking for us you now go looking for wisdom to the Lord impresses upon us the desire for wisdom and the responsibility of wisdom falls upon us and within seek for his wisdom and knowledge wisdom comes as a gift and responsibility and now we see in verses 5 to 8 I'm almost done we see the first consequential clause Father says to his son the wise man then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God you receive wisdom if you receive the word of God you treasure up and you seek food like for silver and you pursue and raise your voice out and call back out to wisdom this is then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God the receiving and quest for wisdom will lead us to experience this consequence and outcome that we now fear the Lord and have a better deep understanding of God this is an interesting verse because if we reflect back on Proverbs 1 verse 7, Proverbs 1 verse 7 states that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and now we told that the fear of the Lord is the outcome and result of knowledge now we see that the fear of the Lord is the starting point for gaining wisdom and knowledge and is the outcome and consequence of gaining knowledge and so what we have here is the fear of the Lord being both the starting point for gaining wisdom and the goal and target for gaining wisdom this is a reciprocal relationship between the fear of the Lord and the knowledge and wisdom of God the fear of the Lord initially leads us to want to know him more and once we get to know him more this knowledge of him now fuels a deeper fear for God and you grow deeper and deep in a fear and love for the Lord as you know him more it's a reciprocal relationship between fear and God and knowing God verses 7 to 8 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright he's a shield to those who walk in integrity guarding the parts of justice and watching over the way of his things now we inform that wisdom is ethical notice the pile up of moral terms here you'll see in verse 7 he stores up wisdom for the upright the upright second part of a seven walking in integrity verse 8 the parts of justice and the reference to the saints those who are faithful those are moral nouns wise teachers telling us that wisdom is ethical it affects your moral decisions from day to day and the Lord protects those who walk uprightly those who walk in righteousness rely not on their own strength but on his grace the Lord is a shield to those who decide they want to walk uprightly before him because he's out protect those who decide to love righteous those who want to make godly decisions are all come to the rescue out be the shield making ungodly the choices and decisions leaves us exposed to a lot of harm and danger in the sense that god holds himself to his word and he says I'll defend those who walk uprightly but those who obviously don't walk in righteousness is not obligated to be a shield and a defender and is something something very dangerous and loaning about sin and it's this that sin will take you further than you need to go and sin will keep you longer than you want to stay and sin will cost you more than you intended on pain heed wisdom score sin gives license for Satan to blatantly make havoc in our lives the wise teachers warning us stay on the part of us the lost consequential clause verses 9 to 11 wise teachers says then my son you will understand righteousness is more moral nouns and justice and equity and every good part but wisdom will come now into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul discretion will watch over you understanding what God you and verse 9 a echoes the entire book of Proverbs aim that we read remember when we when we spoke about Proverbs 1 the purpose of the book it's 1 verse 3 to receive instruction in wise dealing righteousness justice and equity is repeated here wisdom shapes us ethically shape that makes us more responsible and wisdom is practical it can be felt and seen the results and fruits that wisdom brings is stated for us the latter part of us 10 that when wisdom comes into your heart and knowledge and knowledge into your heart you will experience a joy in your soul pleasantness to your soul your soul will be pleasant joy will come into your life when you decide to walk in the wisdom not just joy protection as we see in verse 11 your discretion and discernment will now protect you from the consequences of foolish decisions from the parts of wicked people and your understanding of God and protect you throughout your life and in conclusion I want to pose a question this morning for you to deeply contemplate if you want to love our God's purpose for your life and enjoy all his benefits when experience is life and you will experience the fruit that wisdom can bring on the ask you this question what are you currently and actively doing to pursue wisdom right now at this time I want you to think very deeply about what am I doing personally practically to pursue wisdom hey man can we stand this morning and let's pray there will be a prayer team that will linger on after the service for just a couple of minutes to pray with you if you feel you need prayer someone to lay hands and push you down on the floor and say take the wisdom I'm just kidding you need someone just to eat the wisdom into you just kidding you feel you you've made some decisions in your life obviously you cannot change the outcomes of those but you need God to impart his wisdom to you James says we can ask this is Solomon asked but once we ask we listen to wisdom's cry we receive the word of God we grow in a fear of the Lord and we learn to walk uprightly before Father thank you for your family every couple year every child giving the vigil year this morning I pray that you will stir in our hearts a love and a passion for your world love for your ways desire and pursuit for wisdom help us not to grow darling hearing wisdom's cry help us to raise our voices for understanding and insight help us to be open to learning growing help us to be teachable help us to fall in love with your word help us to be diligent and disciplined in our pursuit of you help us to grow in a fear of the Lord help us to respect you more each day and be overwhelmed with with your grace and mercy and power you alone are wise we learn from you we learn wisdom from you we learn wisdom from problems we learn wisdom from listening to your voice and obeying your voice I pray Lord that this message might be planted in each and every single one of our hearts a desire to walk in the ways of wisdom Lord help me to be once and not be foolish help me to make wise decisions every day help every family at home to make the best decisions to live the God-enabled way of life that follows Christ's example and purpose for their lives thank you that in Christ we saw the perfect example of wisdom I pray that our pursuit of wisdom will not merely be intellectual philosophical but Lord will be tangible and practical we will see it daily in the decisions we make so I pray Lord now you will bless every wise woman and wife here in this building give them the skill of rams you a golden Ramsey bounce those pots today stir up that hot chicken curry mutton curry salad potato salad lord I haven't had potato salad in a while lord those sticky pork ribs lord those deep fried southern fried chicken northern we're ever making putties today Lord you will just touch your hearts to send a few our way bless this family this is church we ask let us be our wise church church that moves in wisdom now bathe your voice Jesus name everybody says amen amen God bless your family. God is good.