July 14, 2025 • 25 mins
A study in the book of Proverbs, chapter 1.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to K Wave's Pastors Spotlight featuring the preaching and
teaching ministries of our local Southern California pastors. This week
we're pleased to bring you the Bible teaching ministry of
Bayless Conley, founding pastor of Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos.
Bayless and his wife Janet started Cottonwood Church over 41
years ago. Today the church is led by their son
(00:21):
Harrison and is located at 4505 Cottella Avenue in Los Alamitos.
The Book of Proverbs is a vital source for living
wisely toward God and toward the people around us. It's
amazing how one passage can mean so much. Today Pastor
Bayless Conley invites us to consider Proverbs chapter 1 verse
5 for his lesson titled Hear and Be Wise.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Once you open the book of Proverbs, I'm gonna share
that short and
You realize that is a relative term. I'm gonna share
a short message with you from the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 1 and verse 5, let's pray first. Heavenly Father, um,
Give us understanding
(01:07):
We give you our undivided attention. We lean out and
we listen.
These hearts of ours are yours.
To inscribe upon
Bring comfort, bring correction, bring encouragement, bring what we need, Lord.
May your name be glorified.
(01:29):
Amen. Proverbs 1 and 5, it says, a wise man
will hear and increased learning.
And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.
Uh, that is one of the main attributes of a
wise person found throughout the book of Proverbs. They have
(01:51):
an open mind and an open heart. They will listen,
they will consider, they will investigate, they will learn.
We on the other side of the coin, the fool
will not hear. A fool is, according to Proverbs, a
fool is only interested in their own perspective. A fool
(02:11):
is only interested in his or her own opinion, and
they will not hear. A fool's mind is a lot
like cement, thoroughly mixed and well set.
A wise person will hear a fool.
Will not. And I want to read to you some
verses beginning verse 1 from the 2nd proverb, just to
give an idea of what God is talking about when
(02:34):
he says to, you know, to hear.
And to go after his wisdom. Verse 1 of Proverbs 2,
my son, if you receive my words and treasure my
commands within you, so that you incline your ear to
wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. Yes, if you
cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding,
(02:57):
if you seek her as silver and search for her
as for hidden treasures, then you will 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 uprightly. I noticed he said God
(03:20):
has stored up sound wisdom for the upright. He's not
hiding it from us, he stored it up for us.
And if we won't search for wisdom, if we will listen,
if we will go after it, the Lord gives wisdom,
He will give us the wisdom that he has stored
up for us. And when he does, it's always a
(03:41):
word in due season and the fruit of hearing his
wisdom and acting upon it.
is varied. You can find all these things in Proverbs, part,
part of the fruit of that is joy. Another fruit
that comes from it is having a blessed family, safety, health, prosperity, promotion,
all of those things come from listening to and following
(04:04):
God's wisdom.
Now, whatever you're facing right now,
It hasn't taken God by surprise.
He has wisdom laid up for you.
If you just found out that your spouse has been
unfaithful and you're shattered.
He's laid up wisdom for you.
(04:24):
If
You're in between jobs.
He has wisdom laid up for you. If you grapple
with fear or depression, God has wisdom for you. He
has a pathway for you to walk. Maybe you just
have an idea or a dream and you don't even
know how to get started. Listen.
(04:46):
God knows
He sees you
And he has wisdom laid up for you. And if
you will listen to it and act upon it, it
will bring you through and as it's bringing you through,
it will also bring great temporal and eternal blessings into
your life. But again, the, the main key is we
(05:08):
must listen to his wisdom. We must hear it, and I,
I've made this message really simple.
It's just 4 things. If you listen to them, you
will find wisdom in them.
And I've made it an acrostic, pretty simple. W W
I S E. Four things, if we will listen to them,
(05:29):
we'll find God's wisdom in them. Number one is W.
We need to listen to his word.
We need to listen to God's word. I want to
read again Proverbs 21 and 2.
My son, if you receive my words and treasure my
commands within you, so that you incline your ear to
wisdom and apply your heart to understanding.
(05:53):
God gives wisdom to us through His word. When Moses
stood before the children of Israel, God had given Moses
commandments and statutes. He'd given Moses his word, Moses gave
it to the people, and this is what Moses said
to them. In Deuteronomy 4:5, Surely I have taught you
statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me,
(06:13):
that you should act according to them in the land
which you go to possess.
Therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your
wisdom and your understanding in the side of the peoples
who will hear all these statutes and say, surely, this
great nation is a wise and understanding people. Moses said, listen,
(06:35):
pay attention to this word, this word that I've given
you from God, it is your wisdom.
In Luke 11:49, Jesus declared that the written word of
God was the wisdom.
Of
God. I had a man come to me years ago.
He'd been attending the church for a while. I'd met
(06:57):
him a few times, had, you know, just short interaction
with him, but he said, look, can I talk to you?
So I said, yeah.
He came into the office and sat down and he
is distraught.
He's got pretty major issue going on, and he's talking
about it and he says, you know, I've, I'm pastor,
I begged God to talk to me. I've pleaded with
God over and over to talk to me, and he's
(07:17):
not saying anything to me and I don't know what
to do. Now, I was quite surprised because the question
he had, the issue was something that was addressed at
least 4 or 5 times in different places in the
New Testament, and it was really, really clear.
But he said, look, God, God's not talking to me.
I've pleaded and pleaded with God. And so I, I
(07:39):
asked him, I said, look, I don't wanna be offensive,
but do you have a Bible?
He said, Of course I have a Bible. I said,
do you read it?
He said, well, actually, no, I don't. I said, OK.
I went and got a New Testament off the shelf
and I opened it up and we went to probably
3 different references that talked exactly about the questions he had,
(08:01):
and God said very clearly, you know, how to respond
to it and what to do.
I said, what do you think of that?
He said, it looks like God's already said something about
my issue, hadn't he? I said, actually, yes.
He has. Imagine you started a company and it's just going,
it's firing on all cylinders. It is so productive. It's
(08:23):
helping people, you know, the, the employees are being blessed,
you're being blessed, and you're gonna take an extended trip.
But before you go, you write a very thorough handbook
on about anything that can come up, anything at all.
You come back at the end of the trip and
you're kind of shocked when you drive up to your
place of business and the lights are out. There's no
(08:45):
lights on in the building.
You walk in, it's in complete disarray. You got employees
in there fighting.
Um, the, the machines are all offline. There's no production
going on. The, the, the place is, it's a disaster.
It's just total chaos. And you, you call these leaders
together and said, look, what's going on? How did you
(09:07):
let this happen? And they said, you, you never called us.
We're waiting for you to call to tell us what
to do.
He said, I gave you a book.
You know, I think we, we can be that way.
pleading with God, God, show me what to do, and
he said,
I've given you a book.
(09:29):
And by the way, I did call a few times.
And you didn't pick up.
Because when God calls, he calls your spirit. That's where
he speaks to us. The spirit of man. Proverbs says,
the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord.
When God illuminates you, when he guides you, it's through
your spirit. Book of Romans says, the Holy Spirit bears
witness with our spirit. Peter referred to the spirit of
(09:51):
man as the hidden man of the heart, but most Christians, unfortunately,
are strangers to their own hearts.
Most Christians live in the mental realm, all sorts of
noise and things going on intellectually and mentally. They live
in the physical world, but they have very little touch
with the spirit world and friend, when God speaks to
his children, he speaks to our spirit. So I, I
(10:13):
think it's not a matter that that God doesn't ever call.
He does, but most people don't pick up cause the
phone's in here. It's not up here and it's not
out here, it's in our spirit.
But, but that aside,
He's given us a book.
In the first place, we need to listen for God's wisdom.
(10:35):
is in his word. Our second letter is I. We
need to listen to integrity.
Listen to integrity. I want to read to you from
Proverbs 11.
In verse 3, the integrity of the upright will guide them.
But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.
(10:58):
Right, the integrity of the upright will guide them, guided
by integrity.
Now Job said some profound things about integrity.
And virtually any translation you pick would be great, but I,
I really liked it out of the message. So I'm
gonna read it to you from that. This is Job
27 verses 3 to 5. Job said this, but as
(11:19):
long as I draw my breath, and for as long
as God breathes life into me,
I refuse to say one word that isn't true. I
refuse to confess to any charge that's false. There is
no way I'll ever agree to your accusations. I'll not
deny my integrity, even if it cost me my life.
(11:40):
I'm holding fast to my integrity and not loosening my grip,
and believe me, I'll never regret it.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
You're listening to Kwave's Pastor Spotlight featuring Pastor Bayless Conley
of Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos. For more information, visit
their website at cottonwood.org. Once again, here's Pastor Bayless Conley
with more of his message titled Hear and Be Wise.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
King David said this in Psalm 26:11, but as for me,
I will walk in my integrity. Now walk speaks of
a lifestyle. It speaks of, of the way that you
conduct yourself in relationships, in business, and everything else. As
for me, I will walk in my integrity and listen,
once we make that decision, then I'm gonna walk in integrity,
(12:28):
be guided by integrity. 3/4 of the other decisions we'll
have to make in life, they're automatically already made.
These are automatically made. You won't have to pray about them,
nothing else, if you just choose to walk in integrity.
In other words, if it causes me to violate my integrity,
the answer is no.
I don't need to think about it. I don't need
(12:49):
to pray about it.
The answer's already made, the decision is made. If it
gets me in trouble, or if it makes me unpopular,
or if it makes me or you uncomfortable, as long
as I draw breath, I will hold fast to my integrity.
Let's say you're having a yard sale.
(13:10):
You and your wife have just bought a new kitchen table,
and so you're gonna sell the old one and it's
sort of the crown jewel of all the stuff you're
gonna sell. Pretty nice table. So you've got it out
there and you've put a little ad in the paper,
you know, a yard sale, 8 a.m. and of course,
you know, there's always the people that show up at
6:30 or 7.
Yeah, they want to be the first ones there. They're
actually pretty clever. But um, so you're getting everything set
(13:32):
out and sure enough, 7705, a car drives up, a
guy gets out, and immediately he goes to the table and, man,
that's pretty nice table. What do you want for it?
I said, well,
We're thinking 200 bucks. He said uh it's kind of steep.
I'll give you $100 for it. No, I can't sell
that for $100.
Uh, I give you 125.
(13:55):
No, I'll tell you what, I'll take 175 for it.
And the guy said, well, yeah, yeah, it's a beautiful table.
Tell you what, I'll give you 150. When you do that,
when you think about it, I said, OK, deal. So
you shake hands, he says, look, I didn't bring that
much cash with me. I, I wasn't expecting to spend
that much. I'm gonna go home and get the money.
I'll be back within the hour. We got a deal
(14:17):
table mine, you shake hands with him and say yes.
So as he's driving off, another car pulls up. Guy
gets out, makes a beeline for the table, says, nice table,
how much? He says, oh sorry, it's already sold. Are
you kidding? Well, why is it still here?
Well, the guy just went to get the money. He
didn't have the cash on it. He says, what do
you pay for it? 150, 150. I'll give you 175
(14:38):
for it right now.
No, I, I've already agreed and given my word, I
sold it to the guy for 150. I give you
200 for it.
No, you don't understand. You could offer me $2000 for
the table. It's not for sale. My, my integrity is
not for sale at any price.
(15:04):
You don't need to think about it, you don't need
to pray about it. You know, I was preaching in
another state.
And um a guy that I had met, he's actually
was the uh president of a large corporation, knew I
was gonna be there, asked me if I go golf
with him. I said, sure.
So we, we go to play and he's pretty competitive
and then it's like on the 3rd hole, he starts cheating.
(15:28):
And he didn't, he didn't think I saw him, but
you know, he hits his ball about 3 ft into
the rough. Terrible like I can barely see the top
of his ball. He moves it out real quick, quick
into the fairway. Now he's got a perfect line. It's
a really good shot. 2 holes later, he does it again.
Next hole, he does it again, and that went on
all day.
We get done, he adds up the score says oh Bayless,
(15:48):
looks like I beat you by a couple of strokes today.
The Holy Spirit was really with me.
And I'm thinking, yeah, there was a spirit with you,
but it wasn't holy.
Now,
Somebody says, what's the big deal? It's just a game
of golf. I agree, not a big deal.
(16:08):
But the thing is, is, you can't compartmentalize your life.
We do that, you know, all the time, you know,
we've got this little compartment here, but friend, God doesn't
look at your at your life as compartmentalized. This is
your life. As much as you might like to seal
that little compartment off, can't do it, bleeds in other areas.
And it was a few months later, this guy violated
(16:29):
his integrity in a much more serious manner. He ruined
his reputation and almost lost his marriage. Let integrity.
Guide you. Listen to.
Integrity. All right, our next letter is S.
It stands for this, we need to listen to Shalom.
(16:51):
To peace
Proverbs 3:13. Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and
the man who gains understanding. And we come to verse 17,
talking about wisdom, her ways, wisdom's ways.
Our ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.
It's the Hebrew word shalom.
(17:13):
All of wisdom's paths are peace. Not a few, not most,
all of wisdom's paths are shallow.
In other words, if you're walking on a pathway, you're
thinking about doing something, praying about doing it, and it's
a pathway of God's wisdom for you, there's gonna be
peace in your heart. Now, that doesn't mean that fear
(17:34):
won't assail your mind. That doesn't mean that doubts will
never come against your mind, but when you pray and
you're putting your time and you lean out on the inside,
shalom will be there if it's a pathway of God's wisdom.
And it says of wisdom, all of her ways are
the ways of pleasantness. The Hebrew word translated pleasantness literally
means to be polished smooth, as opposed to something having
(17:58):
a jagged edge.
Or having a rough edge. You know, I went to
pull a sock on the other day. I didn't realize
it was just my little toenail on 1 ft. It
was just split on the, the edge, and I go
to pull a sock on and my toenail caught. Shoot,
when you do it again? Sock is going on smooth
and it caught again. That's the idea.
(18:19):
As I pray about this, as I'm thinking about going
down this pathway, there's
I can't get around it. There's just this little snag inside.
I've got a hitch inside.
It's just, just, it's not a big thing, but just
something is, is bothering me.
You better pray more about it, friend, cause wisdom's ways, they're,
they're ways of pleasantness, they're polished smooth, talking about when
(18:42):
God speaks to our heart. All of wisdom's paths are peace.
And I've shared this story before, but it's many years ago.
I had some friends asked me if I would meet
with some businessmen, and these guys had this thing set
up for churches. It was an investment thing to, you know,
help bless the churches and the minimum buy-in was a
(19:02):
quarter of a million dollars, but the, the returns on
it were just almost unbelievable.
And so these business guys come and they explain the
whole thing to me and said, like, do you wanna
do it? And while they're talking to me, I'm like,
I want to put that sock on but something's catching.
Just, just a small.
(19:25):
Something's scratching me inside. They came back the next morning
and said, guys, look, I, I hope I haven't wasted
your time, but I'm not gonna do it. And then
they really drilled down on me. I said, you know,
I'm sorry, guys, and I, I hope it goes well
for everybody else, but I just can't do it. I
don't have peace.
And they left kind of angry.
(19:45):
A few months later, it came out, they were crooks.
They ended up going to prison.
And they stole somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million
from these churches.
And I don't think any of the pastors, any of
those churches got their money back.
Some of you right now, you've got things you're praying about.
(20:06):
You need to listen. All of wisdom's paths repeat that
Colossians 3 and verse 15.
It says, and let the peace of God rule in
your hearts, to which you were called in one body
and be thankful. Let the peace of God rule in
your heart. The Greek word translated rule there literally means
to act as an umpire.
(20:26):
Let the peace of God act as an umpire in
your heart. What does an umpire do? An umpire says, hey,
that's out of bounds. You can't keep going. Or an
umpire says, no, that's fair, that, that, that's in fair play,
keep going. And so as I'm praying, as I'm putting
my time in and I'm leaning into it and getting quiet.
The umpire may be making a call. That, that's fair territory.
I'm gonna keep going. Or then I might have that
(20:47):
hitch inside. The umpire's also making a call. But I
want to quote to you that, that same verse, Colossians
3:15 from the amplified Bible. Listen to it. It won't
be on the screen, so listen carefully.
It says, and let the peace from Christ.
Act as umpire continually.
Deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in
(21:09):
your minds.
Let the peace of God, the peace from Christ, act
as an umpire continually.
Deciding and settling with finality.
All questions that arise in your mind, all questions. Your,
your career, your, your, you know, future spouse, what all questions.
(21:30):
And I pretty much make life's biggest decisions based on
the empire's call. If I've honestly put my time in,
if the umpire's made a call and I got peace,
I go for it.
And on the other hand, if I've got a hitch inside,
I'm not doing it.
All right, one last letter E.
(21:53):
E stands for experts. Listen to the experts. In other words,
those that have traveled down the road ahead of you.
Those that have had more experience than you, those that
have gone through some of the same things that you're
facing now.
Some that have that have accomplished things that you're endeavoring
to accomplish. Proverbs 11:14 says, it says, where there is
(22:15):
no counsel, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors,
there is safety. Proverbs 15:22, without counsel, plans go awry.
But in the multitude of counselors, they are established.
If the counsel that others give you is different from
what you believe God has said to your heart, just
(22:37):
pray more about it.
Spend more time waiting on God because others can help
us see things that we haven't thought of. Everything from
timing to motives, and on and on, but you don't
want to make some decisions in a vacuum.
You get in trouble doing that. Proverbs 18:1 says this,
a man who isolate, isolates himself, seeks his own desire,
(23:00):
he rages against all wise judgment.
Isolation leads to crazy thinking.
Listen, if you got 4 or 5 girlfriends that are telling,
they're all saying, like, what are you doing with that guy?
He's bad news for you. Maybe you should listen to them.
They might be seeing something that you're not seeing, or
maybe you're just so glad somebody's finally paying attention to you.
(23:22):
You're just kind of going around every single roadblock that
you know that God has put there. Thank God for counselors.
So, if we're going to be wise, we need to
listen to God's word.
Need to listen to I integrity.
As we need to listen to Shalom, and he, we
(23:43):
need to listen to the experts.
You know, the wisest thing that any human being can
ever do is just
Make sure that you
Get sorted out with God.
There's nothing more important in this life than your spiritual life.
This is just a dressing room for eternity.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
You've been listening to Pastor Bayless Conley, founding pastor of
Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos here on K Wave's Pastor Spotlight.
Bayless will be returning tomorrow with a look at the
Savior statement from John chapter 14 verses 1 through 6
and a message called Jesus the way, the Truth, the Life.
Again, Bayless Conley and his wife Janet founded Cottonwood Church
(24:27):
over 41 years ago with a commitment to faithfully and
consistently teaching the word of God. Today, Cottonwood Church's mission
statement remains bringing a living Jesus to a dying world.
They're also known in the community for the regular community
outreach events. Cottonwood Church is located at 4505 Cottella Avenue
in Los Alamitos. Sunday worship service.
(24:47):
are 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. with the holidays approaching,
you'll wanna check out Christmas at Cottonwood, be here for
the Christmas Eve and candlelight services, and to ring in
the new year, you're invited to the New Year's Eve
service and worship night. You and your family are welcome
at Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos. They're located at 4505
Cottella Avenue. For directions and information, visit Cottonwood.
(25:11):
Dot org. That's Cottonwood.org. And be sure to look for
Cottonwood Church on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. We invite you
to join us right here at the same time tomorrow
for another message from Bayless Conley, founding pastor of Cottonwood
Church in Los Alamitos. We hope you'll join us. Pastor
Spotlight is a production of Kwave Radio, sharing life, delivering truth,
(25:33):
giving hope.
Welcome to K Wave's Pastors Spotlight featuring the preaching and
teaching ministries of our local Southern California pastors. This week
we're pleased to bring you the Bible teaching ministry of
Bayless Conley, founding pastor of Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos.
Bayless and his wife Janet started Cottonwood Church over 41
years ago. Today the church is led by their son
(00:21):
Harrison and is located at 4505 Cottella Avenue in Los Alamitos.
The Book of Proverbs is a vital source for living
wisely toward God and toward the people around us. It's
amazing how one passage can mean so much. Today Pastor
Bayless Conley invites us to consider Proverbs chapter 1 verse
5 for his lesson titled Hear and Be Wise.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Once you open the book of Proverbs, I'm gonna share
that short and
You realize that is a relative term. I'm gonna share
a short message with you from the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 1 and verse 5, let's pray first. Heavenly Father, um,
Give us understanding
(01:07):
We give you our undivided attention. We lean out and
we listen.
These hearts of ours are yours.
To inscribe upon
Bring comfort, bring correction, bring encouragement, bring what we need, Lord.
May your name be glorified.
(01:29):
Amen. Proverbs 1 and 5, it says, a wise man
will hear and increased learning.
And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.
Uh, that is one of the main attributes of a
wise person found throughout the book of Proverbs. They have
(01:51):
an open mind and an open heart. They will listen,
they will consider, they will investigate, they will learn.
We on the other side of the coin, the fool
will not hear. A fool is, according to Proverbs, a
fool is only interested in their own perspective. A fool
(02:11):
is only interested in his or her own opinion, and
they will not hear. A fool's mind is a lot
like cement, thoroughly mixed and well set.
A wise person will hear a fool.
Will not. And I want to read to you some
verses beginning verse 1 from the 2nd proverb, just to
give an idea of what God is talking about when
(02:34):
he says to, you know, to hear.
And to go after his wisdom. Verse 1 of Proverbs 2,
my son, if you receive my words and treasure my
commands within you, so that you incline your ear to
wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. Yes, if you
cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding,
(02:57):
if you seek her as silver and search for her
as for hidden treasures, then you will 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 uprightly. I noticed he said God
(03:20):
has stored up sound wisdom for the upright. He's not
hiding it from us, he stored it up for us.
And if we won't search for wisdom, if we will listen,
if we will go after it, the Lord gives wisdom,
He will give us the wisdom that he has stored
up for us. And when he does, it's always a
(03:41):
word in due season and the fruit of hearing his
wisdom and acting upon it.
is varied. You can find all these things in Proverbs, part,
part of the fruit of that is joy. Another fruit
that comes from it is having a blessed family, safety, health, prosperity, promotion,
all of those things come from listening to and following
(04:04):
God's wisdom.
Now, whatever you're facing right now,
It hasn't taken God by surprise.
He has wisdom laid up for you.
If you just found out that your spouse has been
unfaithful and you're shattered.
He's laid up wisdom for you.
(04:24):
If
You're in between jobs.
He has wisdom laid up for you. If you grapple
with fear or depression, God has wisdom for you. He
has a pathway for you to walk. Maybe you just
have an idea or a dream and you don't even
know how to get started. Listen.
(04:46):
God knows
He sees you
And he has wisdom laid up for you. And if
you will listen to it and act upon it, it
will bring you through and as it's bringing you through,
it will also bring great temporal and eternal blessings into
your life. But again, the, the main key is we
(05:08):
must listen to his wisdom. We must hear it, and I,
I've made this message really simple.
It's just 4 things. If you listen to them, you
will find wisdom in them.
And I've made it an acrostic, pretty simple. W W
I S E. Four things, if we will listen to them,
(05:29):
we'll find God's wisdom in them. Number one is W.
We need to listen to his word.
We need to listen to God's word. I want to
read again Proverbs 21 and 2.
My son, if you receive my words and treasure my
commands within you, so that you incline your ear to
wisdom and apply your heart to understanding.
(05:53):
God gives wisdom to us through His word. When Moses
stood before the children of Israel, God had given Moses
commandments and statutes. He'd given Moses his word, Moses gave
it to the people, and this is what Moses said
to them. In Deuteronomy 4:5, Surely I have taught you
statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me,
(06:13):
that you should act according to them in the land
which you go to possess.
Therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your
wisdom and your understanding in the side of the peoples
who will hear all these statutes and say, surely, this
great nation is a wise and understanding people. Moses said, listen,
(06:35):
pay attention to this word, this word that I've given
you from God, it is your wisdom.
In Luke 11:49, Jesus declared that the written word of
God was the wisdom.
Of
God. I had a man come to me years ago.
He'd been attending the church for a while. I'd met
(06:57):
him a few times, had, you know, just short interaction
with him, but he said, look, can I talk to you?
So I said, yeah.
He came into the office and sat down and he
is distraught.
He's got pretty major issue going on, and he's talking
about it and he says, you know, I've, I'm pastor,
I begged God to talk to me. I've pleaded with
God over and over to talk to me, and he's
(07:17):
not saying anything to me and I don't know what
to do. Now, I was quite surprised because the question
he had, the issue was something that was addressed at
least 4 or 5 times in different places in the
New Testament, and it was really, really clear.
But he said, look, God, God's not talking to me.
I've pleaded and pleaded with God. And so I, I
(07:39):
asked him, I said, look, I don't wanna be offensive,
but do you have a Bible?
He said, Of course I have a Bible. I said,
do you read it?
He said, well, actually, no, I don't. I said, OK.
I went and got a New Testament off the shelf
and I opened it up and we went to probably
3 different references that talked exactly about the questions he had,
(08:01):
and God said very clearly, you know, how to respond
to it and what to do.
I said, what do you think of that?
He said, it looks like God's already said something about
my issue, hadn't he? I said, actually, yes.
He has. Imagine you started a company and it's just going,
it's firing on all cylinders. It is so productive. It's
(08:23):
helping people, you know, the, the employees are being blessed,
you're being blessed, and you're gonna take an extended trip.
But before you go, you write a very thorough handbook
on about anything that can come up, anything at all.
You come back at the end of the trip and
you're kind of shocked when you drive up to your
place of business and the lights are out. There's no
(08:45):
lights on in the building.
You walk in, it's in complete disarray. You got employees
in there fighting.
Um, the, the machines are all offline. There's no production
going on. The, the, the place is, it's a disaster.
It's just total chaos. And you, you call these leaders
together and said, look, what's going on? How did you
(09:07):
let this happen? And they said, you, you never called us.
We're waiting for you to call to tell us what
to do.
He said, I gave you a book.
You know, I think we, we can be that way.
pleading with God, God, show me what to do, and
he said,
I've given you a book.
(09:29):
And by the way, I did call a few times.
And you didn't pick up.
Because when God calls, he calls your spirit. That's where
he speaks to us. The spirit of man. Proverbs says,
the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord.
When God illuminates you, when he guides you, it's through
your spirit. Book of Romans says, the Holy Spirit bears
witness with our spirit. Peter referred to the spirit of
(09:51):
man as the hidden man of the heart, but most Christians, unfortunately,
are strangers to their own hearts.
Most Christians live in the mental realm, all sorts of
noise and things going on intellectually and mentally. They live
in the physical world, but they have very little touch
with the spirit world and friend, when God speaks to
his children, he speaks to our spirit. So I, I
(10:13):
think it's not a matter that that God doesn't ever call.
He does, but most people don't pick up cause the
phone's in here. It's not up here and it's not
out here, it's in our spirit.
But, but that aside,
He's given us a book.
In the first place, we need to listen for God's wisdom.
(10:35):
is in his word. Our second letter is I. We
need to listen to integrity.
Listen to integrity. I want to read to you from
Proverbs 11.
In verse 3, the integrity of the upright will guide them.
But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.
(10:58):
Right, the integrity of the upright will guide them, guided
by integrity.
Now Job said some profound things about integrity.
And virtually any translation you pick would be great, but I,
I really liked it out of the message. So I'm
gonna read it to you from that. This is Job
27 verses 3 to 5. Job said this, but as
(11:19):
long as I draw my breath, and for as long
as God breathes life into me,
I refuse to say one word that isn't true. I
refuse to confess to any charge that's false. There is
no way I'll ever agree to your accusations. I'll not
deny my integrity, even if it cost me my life.
(11:40):
I'm holding fast to my integrity and not loosening my grip,
and believe me, I'll never regret it.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
You're listening to Kwave's Pastor Spotlight featuring Pastor Bayless Conley
of Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos. For more information, visit
their website at cottonwood.org. Once again, here's Pastor Bayless Conley
with more of his message titled Hear and Be Wise.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
King David said this in Psalm 26:11, but as for me,
I will walk in my integrity. Now walk speaks of
a lifestyle. It speaks of, of the way that you
conduct yourself in relationships, in business, and everything else. As
for me, I will walk in my integrity and listen,
once we make that decision, then I'm gonna walk in integrity,
(12:28):
be guided by integrity. 3/4 of the other decisions we'll
have to make in life, they're automatically already made.
These are automatically made. You won't have to pray about them,
nothing else, if you just choose to walk in integrity.
In other words, if it causes me to violate my integrity,
the answer is no.
I don't need to think about it. I don't need
(12:49):
to pray about it.
The answer's already made, the decision is made. If it
gets me in trouble, or if it makes me unpopular,
or if it makes me or you uncomfortable, as long
as I draw breath, I will hold fast to my integrity.
Let's say you're having a yard sale.
(13:10):
You and your wife have just bought a new kitchen table,
and so you're gonna sell the old one and it's
sort of the crown jewel of all the stuff you're
gonna sell. Pretty nice table. So you've got it out
there and you've put a little ad in the paper,
you know, a yard sale, 8 a.m. and of course,
you know, there's always the people that show up at
6:30 or 7.
Yeah, they want to be the first ones there. They're
actually pretty clever. But um, so you're getting everything set
(13:32):
out and sure enough, 7705, a car drives up, a
guy gets out, and immediately he goes to the table and, man,
that's pretty nice table. What do you want for it?
I said, well,
We're thinking 200 bucks. He said uh it's kind of steep.
I'll give you $100 for it. No, I can't sell
that for $100.
Uh, I give you 125.
(13:55):
No, I'll tell you what, I'll take 175 for it.
And the guy said, well, yeah, yeah, it's a beautiful table.
Tell you what, I'll give you 150. When you do that,
when you think about it, I said, OK, deal. So
you shake hands, he says, look, I didn't bring that
much cash with me. I, I wasn't expecting to spend
that much. I'm gonna go home and get the money.
I'll be back within the hour. We got a deal
(14:17):
table mine, you shake hands with him and say yes.
So as he's driving off, another car pulls up. Guy
gets out, makes a beeline for the table, says, nice table,
how much? He says, oh sorry, it's already sold. Are
you kidding? Well, why is it still here?
Well, the guy just went to get the money. He
didn't have the cash on it. He says, what do
you pay for it? 150, 150. I'll give you 175
(14:38):
for it right now.
No, I, I've already agreed and given my word, I
sold it to the guy for 150. I give you
200 for it.
No, you don't understand. You could offer me $2000 for
the table. It's not for sale. My, my integrity is
not for sale at any price.
(15:04):
You don't need to think about it, you don't need
to pray about it. You know, I was preaching in
another state.
And um a guy that I had met, he's actually
was the uh president of a large corporation, knew I
was gonna be there, asked me if I go golf
with him. I said, sure.
So we, we go to play and he's pretty competitive
and then it's like on the 3rd hole, he starts cheating.
(15:28):
And he didn't, he didn't think I saw him, but
you know, he hits his ball about 3 ft into
the rough. Terrible like I can barely see the top
of his ball. He moves it out real quick, quick
into the fairway. Now he's got a perfect line. It's
a really good shot. 2 holes later, he does it again.
Next hole, he does it again, and that went on
all day.
We get done, he adds up the score says oh Bayless,
(15:48):
looks like I beat you by a couple of strokes today.
The Holy Spirit was really with me.
And I'm thinking, yeah, there was a spirit with you,
but it wasn't holy.
Now,
Somebody says, what's the big deal? It's just a game
of golf. I agree, not a big deal.
(16:08):
But the thing is, is, you can't compartmentalize your life.
We do that, you know, all the time, you know,
we've got this little compartment here, but friend, God doesn't
look at your at your life as compartmentalized. This is
your life. As much as you might like to seal
that little compartment off, can't do it, bleeds in other areas.
And it was a few months later, this guy violated
(16:29):
his integrity in a much more serious manner. He ruined
his reputation and almost lost his marriage. Let integrity.
Guide you. Listen to.
Integrity. All right, our next letter is S.
It stands for this, we need to listen to Shalom.
(16:51):
To peace
Proverbs 3:13. Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and
the man who gains understanding. And we come to verse 17,
talking about wisdom, her ways, wisdom's ways.
Our ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.
It's the Hebrew word shalom.
(17:13):
All of wisdom's paths are peace. Not a few, not most,
all of wisdom's paths are shallow.
In other words, if you're walking on a pathway, you're
thinking about doing something, praying about doing it, and it's
a pathway of God's wisdom for you, there's gonna be
peace in your heart. Now, that doesn't mean that fear
(17:34):
won't assail your mind. That doesn't mean that doubts will
never come against your mind, but when you pray and
you're putting your time and you lean out on the inside,
shalom will be there if it's a pathway of God's wisdom.
And it says of wisdom, all of her ways are
the ways of pleasantness. The Hebrew word translated pleasantness literally
means to be polished smooth, as opposed to something having
(17:58):
a jagged edge.
Or having a rough edge. You know, I went to
pull a sock on the other day. I didn't realize
it was just my little toenail on 1 ft. It
was just split on the, the edge, and I go
to pull a sock on and my toenail caught. Shoot,
when you do it again? Sock is going on smooth
and it caught again. That's the idea.
(18:19):
As I pray about this, as I'm thinking about going
down this pathway, there's
I can't get around it. There's just this little snag inside.
I've got a hitch inside.
It's just, just, it's not a big thing, but just
something is, is bothering me.
You better pray more about it, friend, cause wisdom's ways, they're,
they're ways of pleasantness, they're polished smooth, talking about when
(18:42):
God speaks to our heart. All of wisdom's paths are peace.
And I've shared this story before, but it's many years ago.
I had some friends asked me if I would meet
with some businessmen, and these guys had this thing set
up for churches. It was an investment thing to, you know,
help bless the churches and the minimum buy-in was a
(19:02):
quarter of a million dollars, but the, the returns on
it were just almost unbelievable.
And so these business guys come and they explain the
whole thing to me and said, like, do you wanna
do it? And while they're talking to me, I'm like,
I want to put that sock on but something's catching.
Just, just a small.
(19:25):
Something's scratching me inside. They came back the next morning
and said, guys, look, I, I hope I haven't wasted
your time, but I'm not gonna do it. And then
they really drilled down on me. I said, you know,
I'm sorry, guys, and I, I hope it goes well
for everybody else, but I just can't do it. I
don't have peace.
And they left kind of angry.
(19:45):
A few months later, it came out, they were crooks.
They ended up going to prison.
And they stole somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million
from these churches.
And I don't think any of the pastors, any of
those churches got their money back.
Some of you right now, you've got things you're praying about.
(20:06):
You need to listen. All of wisdom's paths repeat that
Colossians 3 and verse 15.
It says, and let the peace of God rule in
your hearts, to which you were called in one body
and be thankful. Let the peace of God rule in
your heart. The Greek word translated rule there literally means
to act as an umpire.
(20:26):
Let the peace of God act as an umpire in
your heart. What does an umpire do? An umpire says, hey,
that's out of bounds. You can't keep going. Or an
umpire says, no, that's fair, that, that, that's in fair play,
keep going. And so as I'm praying, as I'm putting
my time in and I'm leaning into it and getting quiet.
The umpire may be making a call. That, that's fair territory.
I'm gonna keep going. Or then I might have that
(20:47):
hitch inside. The umpire's also making a call. But I
want to quote to you that, that same verse, Colossians
3:15 from the amplified Bible. Listen to it. It won't
be on the screen, so listen carefully.
It says, and let the peace from Christ.
Act as umpire continually.
Deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in
(21:09):
your minds.
Let the peace of God, the peace from Christ, act
as an umpire continually.
Deciding and settling with finality.
All questions that arise in your mind, all questions. Your,
your career, your, your, you know, future spouse, what all questions.
(21:30):
And I pretty much make life's biggest decisions based on
the empire's call. If I've honestly put my time in,
if the umpire's made a call and I got peace,
I go for it.
And on the other hand, if I've got a hitch inside,
I'm not doing it.
All right, one last letter E.
(21:53):
E stands for experts. Listen to the experts. In other words,
those that have traveled down the road ahead of you.
Those that have had more experience than you, those that
have gone through some of the same things that you're
facing now.
Some that have that have accomplished things that you're endeavoring
to accomplish. Proverbs 11:14 says, it says, where there is
(22:15):
no counsel, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors,
there is safety. Proverbs 15:22, without counsel, plans go awry.
But in the multitude of counselors, they are established.
If the counsel that others give you is different from
what you believe God has said to your heart, just
(22:37):
pray more about it.
Spend more time waiting on God because others can help
us see things that we haven't thought of. Everything from
timing to motives, and on and on, but you don't
want to make some decisions in a vacuum.
You get in trouble doing that. Proverbs 18:1 says this,
a man who isolate, isolates himself, seeks his own desire,
(23:00):
he rages against all wise judgment.
Isolation leads to crazy thinking.
Listen, if you got 4 or 5 girlfriends that are telling,
they're all saying, like, what are you doing with that guy?
He's bad news for you. Maybe you should listen to them.
They might be seeing something that you're not seeing, or
maybe you're just so glad somebody's finally paying attention to you.
(23:22):
You're just kind of going around every single roadblock that
you know that God has put there. Thank God for counselors.
So, if we're going to be wise, we need to
listen to God's word.
Need to listen to I integrity.
As we need to listen to Shalom, and he, we
(23:43):
need to listen to the experts.
You know, the wisest thing that any human being can
ever do is just
Make sure that you
Get sorted out with God.
There's nothing more important in this life than your spiritual life.
This is just a dressing room for eternity.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
You've been listening to Pastor Bayless Conley, founding pastor of
Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos here on K Wave's Pastor Spotlight.
Bayless will be returning tomorrow with a look at the
Savior statement from John chapter 14 verses 1 through 6
and a message called Jesus the way, the Truth, the Life.
Again, Bayless Conley and his wife Janet founded Cottonwood Church
(24:27):
over 41 years ago with a commitment to faithfully and
consistently teaching the word of God. Today, Cottonwood Church's mission
statement remains bringing a living Jesus to a dying world.
They're also known in the community for the regular community
outreach events. Cottonwood Church is located at 4505 Cottella Avenue
in Los Alamitos. Sunday worship service.
(24:47):
are 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. with the holidays approaching,
you'll wanna check out Christmas at Cottonwood, be here for
the Christmas Eve and candlelight services, and to ring in
the new year, you're invited to the New Year's Eve
service and worship night. You and your family are welcome
at Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos. They're located at 4505
Cottella Avenue. For directions and information, visit Cottonwood.
(25:11):
Dot org. That's Cottonwood.org. And be sure to look for
Cottonwood Church on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. We invite you
to join us right here at the same time tomorrow
for another message from Bayless Conley, founding pastor of Cottonwood
Church in Los Alamitos. We hope you'll join us. Pastor
Spotlight is a production of Kwave Radio, sharing life, delivering truth,
(25:33):
giving hope.
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