February 10, 2025 • 31 mins
Associate Pastor Kenny Dyches continues our brief Winter Wisdom series, preaching on the contrast between worldly wisdom and godly wisdom, using a compelling story about a man who built a successful business but struggled with spiritual emptiness. The man’s journey, shaped by a vivid dream and an encounter with a preacher resembling Jesus, highlighted the challenge of surrendering earthly pursuits for true fulfillment in God. Drawing from Proverbs, Pastor Kenny emphasizes that wisdom is not just intellectual knowledge but a lived experience of God, requiring a heart posture of surrender and obedience.
He outlines practical steps for obtaining wisdom: receiving, treasuring, inclining one's ear, calling out, and seeking diligently. He stresses that wisdom is cultivated not in isolation but through relationships, community, and submission to God. Using relatable examples and personal anecdotes, Pastor Kenny encouraged the congregation to pursue godly wisdom, trust in God's guidance, and live out their faith in all aspects of life.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello everyone.
This is Pastor Damian.
You're listening to SermonAudio from New City, orlando.
At New City, we believe all ofus need all of Jesus for all of
life.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at newcityorlandocom.
Thanks for listening.
Please join me as we ask theHoly Spirit to illuminate our
(00:25):
hearts.
Living God, help us to hearyour word with open hearts so
that we may truly understand andbelieve, and believing that we
may follow in faithfulness andobedience.
Through Christ, our Lord, amen.
Today's scripture reading comesfrom Proverbs 2, verses 1
(00:50):
through 8.
My son, if you receive my wordsand treasure up my commandments
with you, making your earattentive to wisdom and
inclining your heart tounderstanding, yes, if you call
out for insight and raise yourvoice for understanding, if you
seek it like silver and searchfor it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand thefear of the Lord and find the
(01:12):
knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom.
From his mouth come knowledgeand understanding.
He stores up sound wisdom forthe upright.
He's a shield to those who walkin integrity, guarding the
paths of justice and watchingover the way of his saints.
This is God's word.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Good morning.
Let me tell you a story.
So there was a man from Orlandowho grew up in a loving,
faith-driven household.
He had a relatively modestupbringing and while in college
faith-driven household he had arelatively modest upbringing and
while in college he did wellacademically.
He even participated in campusministry, did sports.
(01:51):
However, in college he lost hisway after his mother died of
cancer.
The loss led him to dateaimlessly, party excessively and
neglect his studies, nearlyjeopardizing his academic career
and standing.
And so he was lost, withoutdirection and he struggled to
envision a fulfilling life.
(02:12):
One night he dreamt of buildinga successful business.
It was a vivid dream,envisioning a family and a
community that would alsobenefit from that success.
So upon waking he was excited.
But he took a moment to glanceat his Bible and he felt a
different voice urging him tofollow me.
But he dismissed it, socaptivated was he by his dream.
(02:33):
The next day he immersedhimself in self-help books,
wealth building strategies hesaw on social media, and he kept
up that trend throughout therest of his college career,
which meant sacrificing, attimes, deeper connections,
spiritual growth and ultimatelylooking at a worldly vision of
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wisdom and ambition.
After graduating he actuallylaunched that booming business,
and it did.
It greatly benefited thecommunity.
He was generous with his moneyand widely acknowledged as a
wise and business savvy man.
However, he began questioninghis faith and his relationship
with God.
Memories of his mother's earlydeath haunted him, bringing a
fear of mortality.
He realized that for all hisnet worth and business savvy, he
(03:18):
didn't have the spiritualwisdom he needed to find the
hope and security he was lookingfor.
When he heard then about aninfluential preacher who was
going to be discussing the pathto heaven, he drove an hour to
attend After the sermon.
He was still desperate forassurance, and so he went up to
the preacher explaining his hardwork and how, his faith
(03:38):
background and what he'd beenquestioning.
And he said what more do I needto do to know that I'm in the
kingdom of God?
And the preacher looked at himwith understanding and said you
lack one thing.
Go, sell all that you have andgive to the poor, and you will
have treasure in heaven and comefollow me.
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Conflicted, he was silent.
The preacher started talking toother people.
He left, kind of hardening hisheart against the preacher's
invitation, and that same day ashe was driving home, there was
a lightning storm and hereceived news, alarming news,
that his business had actuallyburnt down when it was struck by
lightning.
And as he was processing thisand the wind was blowing, the
(04:19):
rain was coming down in his car.
Then he received a text fromhis bank alerting him to major
fraud.
And he was just overwhelmedwith despair as he drove home
and shaken, and then, all of asudden, he heard that preacher's
voice echoing in his mind, butwith new words that said fool,
this night, your soul isrequired of you and the things
you have prepared whose willthey be?
(04:42):
Suddenly he awoke, realizing ithad all been a dream, and then,
determined, he rushed to thatchurch early, desperate to see
the preacher.
There was already a crowd, butbefore he knew it, the preacher
had stood up and locked eyeswith him.
He approached, he laid his handon the man's shoulder and then
he actually invited himself todinner at the man's home.
The preacher's eyes were filledwith warmth and understanding
(05:03):
and tears welled in the man'shome.
The preacher's eyes were filledwith warmth and understanding
and tears welled in the man'seyes as he surrendered, saying
my home is yours, my business isyours, my family is yours, and
wept into the preacher'sshoulder the man in our story.
He seeks out worldly wisdom forworldly success, but he finds
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that he must choose betweenworldly wisdom and godly wisdom,
the latter ultimately offeredby the preacher, who, in our
story, is Jesus Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi, a devout Hinduactivist, said Jesus was one of
the greatest teachers humanityhas ever known.
Many others, across thereligious and philosophical and
thought spectrum, of course,would agree with Gandhi.
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However, jesus's invitation andthe invitation in Proverbs
today, is to seek wisdom witheverything in all of life.
On the other hand, you mightnot be feeling the urgency to
become wise.
If the cost is so great, whynot just go to Google, chat, gpt
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, tiktok teachers and just kindof fake it until you make it
right?
There's a lot of people wholive that way.
I've done that at times, butfor one you might do some crazy
things like ingest Tide Pods orbake chicken in NyQuil.
Those were both trends onsocial media for a while.
Don't look them up, though.
But in all seriousness, what doyou do when life happens when
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you're not happy with your jobbut then you get a job offer and
you're not really sure whatawaits you and you know it means
a move for your family?
What do you do when your spouse, a good friend or a family
member is struggling withsomething and there's no clear
way to comfort them, there's noclear way to solve their problem
?
What do you do when your kidsare no longer listening to you
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and discipline isn't working?
I think about that one everyday.
What do you do when you need topick a major in college or take
a year off, or when you can'tfind a job?
What do you do when you receivean uncertain medical diagnosis
and you're just trying to figureout?
How do you move forward?
Well, if you've become wise,you can begin to answer some of
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those questions.
The book of Proverbs tells usthat wisdom is a voice that
calls out to us, but there isanother voice, the voice of
foolishness and worldly wisdom,which leads us to ruin.
And so do you know which oneyou're listening to?
They both call out to us, butif we don't fully give ourselves
to God's wisdom, then theinertia of our flesh pulls us
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towards foolishness.
However, god in his goodnessfreely offers us wisdom.
So the more we know God, themore we become wise.
I'll say that again God in hisgoodness freely offers us wisdom
.
So the more we know God, themore we become wise.
The question then is how?
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How do we know God and receivewisdom from him?
And the good news is, ourpassage tells us exactly that.
If you go ahead and open yourBible or your Bible app within
the verses we'll look at verses1 through 8, there's actually a
very clear-cut structure.
It starts in verse 1.
It says my son, if you receivemy words, and so that, if
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there's several verbs thatcascade after that, so it's if
you receive words, treasure themup, make your ear attentive,
incline your heart, call out forinsight, raise your voice, seek
it like silver, search for itlike hidden treasures.
Right, so you have that.
If you do these things, thenyou will understand the fear of
the Lord, find the knowledge ofGod.
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And then in verse 6, for theLord gives wisdom you have.
If you do these things, thenyou will receive understanding,
the fear of the Lord and wisdom,for this is who God is.
Right.
I mean, it doesn't really getbetter than this.
Oftentimes we go to the Biblefor answers and you know it's
hard to know where God isleading us.
But we have if, then for, for,right here.
(09:06):
And the great thing about theseverbs is that you really see
this emphasis in all of life.
Do all of these things and youwill find what you're looking
for.
So we'll go ahead and walkthrough several of those verbs
in verses one through four.
But some context.
Old Testament scholar LewisGoldberg says, reflected in Old
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Testament, wisdom is theteaching of a personal God who
is holy and just and who expectsthose who know him to exhibit
his character in the manypractical affairs of life.
So wisdom is not only God'steaching, it's living it out in
all of life and exhibiting hischaracter.
It's God's teaching lived outin all of life.
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However, in the ancient NearEast, as opposed to Israel,
wisdom was often in schools ofthought.
It was for academics, it wasfor professionals.
They would pass this wisdomdown over generations and a
millennia, holding a wholeculture's wisdom in their hands.
However, in Israel it was inthe home.
In Deuteronomy 4 and 6, we seethat Moses commands people in
(10:13):
their homes to teach the law totheir children, to live it out
in all of life.
And so there's a familial and acollective nature to the wisdom
of God, which is caught and notjust taught through life in the
community.
There's relational formation indiscipleship and this is versus
head knowledge.
A lot of us here are really goodat, you know, reading books.
(10:34):
I'm not as good at this one,but you know a lot of people
will try to read a hundred booksin a year, which is just insane
to me.
But I know people who do it.
And others of us, you know, wescroll through TikTok and we
find people who seem to knowwhat they're talking about,
right, and we take some of whatthey say hopefully not the
things like the Tide PodChallenge, but really those
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people who write those books,those TikTok teachers, right, we
don't really know who they arewhen they turn off their screen.
We don't really know who theauthor is behind the books.
We can't disciple ourselves tothem.
See their families, know theirchildren, know their communities
, right, we can't be in thatfamilial, relational context
with them.
However, god, we see, calls usinto wisdom that is lived in
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communion, community andcommission, right, it's when
wisdom is taught in the family,it's lived in community, as
we're in communion with God andliving it out together, that
that wisdom seeps in and fillsall of our life.
So what does this look like?
Well, firstly, we hit receivein verse 1, which says my son,
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if you receive my words andnotice it says my son right.
So that is very intimatelanguage.
A father inviting his son toreceive his words and receive is
really a posture, and so thisword receive really sets up the
following verbs in verses onethrough four.
Now, if you receive somethingright, if someone's talking to
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you, if someone's giving you agift, if you're standing, you
know, like this, it reallydoesn't seem like you're paying
attention at all, right or ifyou're ready to receive anything
, in fact, it looks like you'redistracted.
However, if you're givingsomeone your full attention, if
you're posturing yourselftowards them, they know there's
an intimacy, there's aconnection, there's a full
engagement in what's going on.
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So this father is inviting hisson to receive these words as a
children with his father.
Likewise, god is inviting us toreceive these words.
A practical application of thisis the All of Life Guide.
It's a resource that we have.
You can find it in the app andit takes a while to do.
But the All of Life Guidebasically, what it does is
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you're looking at the pattern ofyour life, you're assessing.
What does it look like?
What am I doing day in and dayout, in my families, in my
relationship, in my work.
And then you're inviting God tospeak into that and then
inviting him to help you make arule of life, to pattern your
life, to receive what God hasfor you in all of life.
And that's what we want to do.
We want to be people whoreceive God's words and,
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secondly, we want to treasurethem up.
Now, what does that look like totreasure something?
Well, you might ask yourself,what you really enjoy and what
you really want, right?
And so something I really enjoyis coffee.
So what do I do?
I go to the lineage and I sitthere with my coffee and I sip
and I enjoy it, right.
And then I enjoy every sip.
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I enjoy all the tasting notes.
I ask the baristas what they'redoing and how they do it.
I go home and I do it myselfand I watch YouTube videos and I
dream of coffee and I do mylatte art Lots of things.
A little fanatical, but I'mtreasuring it, right, I really
enjoy it.
It's in my mind, it's in myheart, I'm experiencing it.
I'm doing it with others, right?
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This is what it is to treasuresomething.
When you love someone, youtreasure them, you listen to
them, you spend time with them,you do things that please them
and you really posture yourselfto get the fullness of who they
are right.
So my question is are we doingthat with the Lord?
Does our time in the scriptures, our time in prayer, our time
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in community, does that looklike a full posturing, a full
engagement, a full treasuring ofwho God is?
Are we spending time thinkingabout and pursuing him and
valuing what God has to offer uslike it truly is worth more
than lineage coffee, which it is, although they complement each
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other, you know.
However, we tend to treasureourself and our autonomy.
Disney tells us to listen to ourheart.
Someone might say you do you?
And our Declaration ofIndependence says that we're
entitled to the pursuit ofhappiness.
The problem is that can leaveus kind of like a colander.
Right, we can receive wisdomfrom multiple sources, but only
take what we want.
It's our prerogative.
We think to not have to commit,but to treasure something means
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you're truly committing to it.
Right, you're valuing thisabove all else, and that's what
God is inviting us into.
Thirdly, he says to incline yourear.
He says in verse two, jesuswould often say Well, when you
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hear someone talking, there's adifference between hearing and
listening.
You can see this in yourchildren.
Maybe, if you have children,kids they might hear what you're
saying, but they really wantsomething else.
They want the candy on thecounter.
So you might be telling themabout what they need to do to
earn the candy, and it just goesthrough one in here and out the
other.
And so, likewise, when we arein the scriptures, when we're
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listening to the Lord, are wetruly posturing ourselves to
want what he wants, to want God?
Are we willing to put aside thethings that we value, even if
they're good things work,responsibility, food and family
for the sake of pursuing whatJesus has for us?
In the Gospels, at one point,jesus visits the home of Mary
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and Martha and he comes in, andin that culture, hospitality was
really important, and so Marthais being a good host, she's
living up to the expectations,she's preparing the meal, she's
preparing the table, she's doingall the things that are
required, and her sister, mary,is just sitting on the floor
listening to Jesus.
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And so you might have been inthis position before.
Right, you're working hard,other people in the family are
doing who knows what, and you'rejust getting everything ready
and you're just like where theheck is.
Everybody else.
I've done all the dishes, I'vedone all the food prep and I'm
starting to get frustrated.
And so that's what happens withMartha.
She goes up to Jesus and shesays, hey, tell her to do her
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job, like this is herresponsibility, like my way of
loving you is to fulfill this.
And Jesus looks at her and hesays Martha, you're anxious
about many things, but only onething is necessary, and Mary has
chosen the better portion.
Do we choose the better portion?
Are we willing to put asidethings that are good to make
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room for Jesus to speak into ourlife, so we can submit all of
those things to Jesus?
One way to do this is justthree times prayer.
You can set an alarm on yourphone and it just invites you
for a moment, for a few minutes,to be with Jesus, to remember
that Jesus is with you inwhatever you're doing and he has
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a desire for you in it.
If we would just but stop andlisten.
Fourthly, he says in verse 3, ifyou call out for insight and
raise your voice forunderstanding.
I love this because there'sthis audacity to this right,
there's this calling out for,there's a raising your voice
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Again, like children are suchgood illustrations, because
children do this all the time.
Right, they're good at askingfor what they want, of raising
their voice and asking like, hey, dad, can I have another cookie
?
I'm like, you've had threetoday, you don't need another
one.
And then, five minutes later,hey, but what if I had a
chocolate, which is not a cookie?
And you're like, uh, no, youcan't have another one.
And so he keeps raising hisvoice and again going back to
verse one my son, if you receivemy words where God invites us
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to raise our voice to himbecause he's a good father that
desires us to ask right, desiresus to ask for understanding so
that he can respond.
So one way to practice this ispetitionary and intercessory
prayer to pray God's promises.
What does God promise us inScripture?
To pray God's character, who isGod?
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And to ask him for specificthings.
Right, we're children and wehave a good father who loves to
give us good gifts.
He says in Matthew 7 and Luke11, to those who ask him
Practice being a child to himand asking for what you need.
Next, he says if you will seekit like silver and search for it
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as hidden treasures.
This reminds me of Jesus'sparable of the treasure hidden
in a field in Matthew 13.
The one who finds it sells allthat he has to purchase the
field.
So I know a guy who, you know,while he was driving around
Orlando, saw a dumpster behind aschool.
They were getting rid of a lotof things and he wondered to
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himself what is in that dumpster.
So, of course, what did he do?
He went and checked thedumpster.
Now, if you know anything aboutthis person, you'll know that
he loves to do jujitsu and heloves to teach people jujitsu.
I hear some chuckles in theback, and this person loves to
go to the park and invite peopleto do jujitsu with him, and
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it's a blessing to those who getto participate.
He builds community, he teachesthem about what he's doing.
So he goes up to this dumpsterand lo and behold what does he
find?
He finds wrestling mats,professional wrestling mats,
probably at one point used bythe wrestling team, and they're
huge, right.
And so he thinks to himselfwell, I really want these
wrestling mats.
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And so what does he have to do?
He has to jump into thedumpster, he has to invite
someone to help him pick upthese mats because they are huge
, and he has to use all of hisstrength to get them out, find a
way to put it on top of his carand bring it home.
So much did he treasure thesemats, he was willing to get his
hands dirty and jump into adumpster, regardless of what
people would think, and thenbring it home, using all of his
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strength and ability to do thatand even inviting others into it
.
So the question is, do we wantgod's wisdom?
We want relationship with thelord, enough to seek it like
silver, to search for it likehidden treasures.
And so one application of thisis communities and circles.
It, communities and circleshave real costs.
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To attend community, if you'rea parent, you have to find a
babysitter.
Then you have to pay thebabysitter.
Then, in a time when you'realready exhausted and you just
want to be at home just watchingNetflix or checking out, you're
going to a community meetingnew people that you may or may
not see a week from then, and itcan at first not feel
life-giving.
It comes at a cost.
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Circles also they're weekly.
It's a place where you can beknown, where you can know in
relationship and follow Jesus,but it also comes at a cost.
And yet these are places wherewe can seek the wisdom of the
Lord like silver and like ahidden treasure.
Amen.
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So my second point, then, isthat if you do all of these
things, if we pursue God and hiswisdom in all of these ways,
then we will understand.
He says Then in verse 5, youwill understand the fear of the
Lord and find the knowledge ofGod and wisdom it talks about in
verse 6.
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That wisdom, that fear of theLord and knowledge of God, it's
a receiving and responding toGod and experienced relationship
.
So receiving and responding toGod in the way that he's laid
out, experienced in relationshipwith him, that is what leads us
to wisdom.
And so I want to share a storyabout how I've experienced this
recently.
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A few weeks ago, it was cold inOrlando.
Remember when it was cold here,it was exciting.
We don't get that very often,and that week it had started to
even snow right up north in thepanhandle and it was supposed to
dip into the 30s at one point.
And so right about that night,when it was dipping into the 30s
here, my heater decided to dieon us and we have three children
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.
If you don't have children andyour heater dies, you're like oh
you know, we can get comfy andcozy together in the sheets,
it'll be fun.
If you have three kids, it'snot so fun, and one of them is a
one-year-old and we can't putblankets on him.
And so we were in trouble andwe didn't know what to do, and
it was late in the day when Ifound this out, and so I was
like, well, if I call an AC guyto come look at it, he's either
not going to be able to come orhe's going to charge us an arm
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and a leg.
And so I didn't know what to do.
But earlier that week I had beenin one of the circles that I'm
in.
I'm in multiple circles and Ican ask my wife about how she
experiences that, but in thiscircle we were talking about the
Sermon on the Mount and what itlooks like to give and receive
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mercy, and we talked about how,in our culture today, oftentimes
receiving mercy can even beharder than giving mercy.
And so as I was sitting thereand thinking about that
conversation and praying, Irealized I just need.
The first thing I need to dojust needs to be to ask my
community for help, which isvulnerable for me.
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I don't often love to do that,but I did.
I said, hey, this is oursituation, does anybody have any
help they can offer?
And within minutes, really,somebody offered us to stay in
their apartment with them ourbig, messy family in their
apartment with them, which was ahuge blessing and which we took
them up on later that night.
And then someone else offeredto send somebody that they knew
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over to the house to check onour AC to see if he could fix it
, which ultimately led toneeding a new AC, but getting
one at a fraction of what wewould have paid otherwise.
And so it was immenselygracious of the Lord to not only
give me the opportunity to liveout that wisdom that I received
from the scriptures and that Ireceived from my brothers in
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Christ, but to then invite mycommunity into that space as
well, to invite them to be God'sblessing to me as I lived out
of that wisdom and then toexperience God's goodness as
they did that with me.
And so all of that shows howwisdom is the experience of God
as we receive from him, as werespond in community, in
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communion and in commissionright.
This is lived experience of thegoodness of God.
And finally, my last point forthe Lord is good.
Verse six for the Lord giveswisdom.
So if we posture ourselves as achild to his father, seeking to
live and seek his wisdom in allof life, then we will
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understand and receive thewisdom and knowledge of the Lord
, for the Lord gives wisdom.
The Westminster ShorterCatechism.
It takes the Bible and givesyou a Q&A, to kind of summarize
much of what we believe aboutthe Bible.
And so it asks what is God?
And answers God is a spiritinfinite, eternal, unchangeable,
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and his being wisdom, power,holiness, justice, goodness and
truth.
And this is good news.
And so we see this in versessix through eight.
In verses six through seven wesee God's being his wisdom and
his knowledge.
What does God do with thatknowledge?
Does he hoard it for himself?
Is he just sitting up in heaven, you know, like a professor
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asking you a question andwaiting for your response?
No, god gives us that knowledgeand understanding.
He speaks it to us.
God has been revealing the truthabout who he is to us since the
world began.
The knowledge of truth to himis available to all peoples in
creation, in his people and inhistory.
And then what does God do withhis wisdom?
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He gives it to his people fortheir benefit and the benefit of
the world.
God's wisdom is hisself-revelation.
It includes his commandscombined with our obedience in
all of life and in our passagewe see that it leads to
protection and the guidance ofhis people.
And to that point God evenshares his own being with us.
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Verse 1 and the following threeverses share intimate language
which ultimately points us toGod's intimate relationship with
us.
He invites us to walk with himas he walked with Adam and Eve
in the garden, as he dwelt withhis people in the tabernacle and
the temple, as he came to earthin Jesus Christ to teach, live,
die and be raised for our sakes, so that we might be adopted
and receive the Holy Spirit,that he might live with us and
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dwell with us forever.
And then, finally, in verses 7through 8, we see God's power,
justice, holiness and goodness.
God's goodness is who he is inways that are beneficial to us.
He desires to be a shield forhis people, protecting them and
providing for them, as well asguiding them into truth and rest
, and his power means he's ableto do it.
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He is a faithful creator.
To that end, holland, mydaughter, is really into
princesses right now, which isgreat but also sometimes feels
like a little bit much.
She's always singing the Elsasong.
She calls it.
She's even into Encanto and shesings all of the songs in there
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as well.
However, she's also here inCity Kids.
She reads the Bible with meevery night, she prays with me
every night and throughout theday we try to talk about what
she's learning, about who God is.
She even watches Bible programson TV, which is a cheat code.
Parents, you know, if you don'twant to watch your kids, have
your kids watch too much TV, buton some Bible TV and it
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justifies it a little bit, butand they enjoy it too.
However, it's been reallyencouraging to see Holland begin
to internalize some of it, evenin small ways.
The other day she was talkingabout Elsa and then she says God
can make lots of things, butElsa can only make a few things.
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And I know it sounds simple,but in her own simple way she's
being attentive, right, she'streasuring what she's learning
and she's excited to share itwith her parents.
She has her own childlikewisdom and she postures herself
towards her parents and what weare teaching her, and so it's
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important to remember the moreyou know God, the more you
become wise and can see that inall of life.
Jesus says of himself that he isthe way, the truth and the life
, but he warns those who wish tofollow him that they must deny
themselves, take up their crossand follow him.
In his first letter to theCorinthians, paul says this is
(29:20):
foolishness to the Greeks, whowere renowned for their culture
and wisdom, yet it is a worldlywisdom that, like many, could
not accept the cross of Christ.
Paul says the foolishness ofChrist is wiser than men and the
weakness of God is strongerthan men.
We must be willing to befoolish in the world in order to
be wise with God.
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To truly know God, we mustembrace his life, death,
resurrection and ascension,because the fulfillment of the
Son seeking wisdom from theFather in our passage is
experiencing him in fullness ofrelationship.
That's the end of what hereceives.
The fulfillment of our seekingthe Lord is experience of
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fullness of God in relationship.
However, sin still reigns in ourhearts and in the hearts of men
, and it twists our hearts awayfrom God and against his will.
Oftentimes, the inertia of ourflesh pushes us towards the
voice of foolishness.
However, god in Jesus Christpoured out his wrath on Jesus
(30:23):
for our sin, meaning that we areforgiven, meaning that now we
have access to God in JesusChrist and in power and goodness
.
Jesus rose from the dead so wealso might rise with him.
He ascended into heaven to beour advocate so we could have
full access to the knowledge ofGod, and he sent the Holy Spirit
into our hearts so we canunderstand the things that he
(30:44):
gives us.
God destroyed the one who wasperfectly wise.
That wisdom might be poured outinto us unto life with him.
And so, to end, I'll leave youwith the words of Jesus from
Matthew 11, when he says I thankyou, father, lord of heaven and
earth, that you have hiddenthese things from the wise and
(31:04):
understanding and revealed themto little children.
Let us, as little children,posture our whole lives to Jesus
Christ.
Let me pray for us.
Heavenly Father, I thank youthat you hear us, that you are
with us, that you are a goodFather, that you invite us to
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posture our lives to you, thatyou invite us to cry out, that
you invite us to treasure yourwords, that Lord, that you are
speaking to us and you're justwaiting for us to listen, to
receive, to respond, that youcan pour your wisdom into our
hearts.
Would you help us to do that?
Oh Lord, as we go throughoutour week, as we seek you in all
things, we pray this in Jesus'name amen.
Hello everyone.
This is Pastor Damian.
You're listening to SermonAudio from New City, orlando.
At New City, we believe all ofus need all of Jesus for all of
life.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at newcityorlandocom.
Thanks for listening.
Please join me as we ask theHoly Spirit to illuminate our
(00:25):
hearts.
Living God, help us to hearyour word with open hearts so
that we may truly understand andbelieve, and believing that we
may follow in faithfulness andobedience.
Through Christ, our Lord, amen.
Today's scripture reading comesfrom Proverbs 2, verses 1
(00:50):
through 8.
My son, if you receive my wordsand treasure up my commandments
with you, making your earattentive to wisdom and
inclining your heart tounderstanding, yes, if you call
out for insight and raise yourvoice for understanding, if you
seek it like silver and searchfor it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand thefear of the Lord and find the
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knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom.
From his mouth come knowledgeand understanding.
He stores up sound wisdom forthe upright.
He's a shield to those who walkin integrity, guarding the
paths of justice and watchingover the way of his saints.
This is God's word.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Good morning.
Let me tell you a story.
So there was a man from Orlandowho grew up in a loving,
faith-driven household.
He had a relatively modestupbringing and while in college
faith-driven household he had arelatively modest upbringing and
while in college he did wellacademically.
He even participated in campusministry, did sports.
(01:51):
However, in college he lost hisway after his mother died of
cancer.
The loss led him to dateaimlessly, party excessively and
neglect his studies, nearlyjeopardizing his academic career
and standing.
And so he was lost, withoutdirection and he struggled to
envision a fulfilling life.
(02:12):
One night he dreamt of buildinga successful business.
It was a vivid dream,envisioning a family and a
community that would alsobenefit from that success.
So upon waking he was excited.
But he took a moment to glanceat his Bible and he felt a
different voice urging him tofollow me.
But he dismissed it, socaptivated was he by his dream.
(02:33):
The next day he immersedhimself in self-help books,
wealth building strategies hesaw on social media, and he kept
up that trend throughout therest of his college career,
which meant sacrificing, attimes, deeper connections,
spiritual growth and ultimatelylooking at a worldly vision of
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wisdom and ambition.
After graduating he actuallylaunched that booming business,
and it did.
It greatly benefited thecommunity.
He was generous with his moneyand widely acknowledged as a
wise and business savvy man.
However, he began questioninghis faith and his relationship
with God.
Memories of his mother's earlydeath haunted him, bringing a
fear of mortality.
He realized that for all hisnet worth and business savvy, he
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didn't have the spiritualwisdom he needed to find the
hope and security he was lookingfor.
When he heard then about aninfluential preacher who was
going to be discussing the pathto heaven, he drove an hour to
attend After the sermon.
He was still desperate forassurance, and so he went up to
the preacher explaining his hardwork and how, his faith
(03:38):
background and what he'd beenquestioning.
And he said what more do I needto do to know that I'm in the
kingdom of God?
And the preacher looked at himwith understanding and said you
lack one thing.
Go, sell all that you have andgive to the poor, and you will
have treasure in heaven and comefollow me.
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Conflicted, he was silent.
The preacher started talking toother people.
He left, kind of hardening hisheart against the preacher's
invitation, and that same day ashe was driving home, there was
a lightning storm and hereceived news, alarming news,
that his business had actuallyburnt down when it was struck by
lightning.
And as he was processing thisand the wind was blowing, the
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rain was coming down in his car.
Then he received a text fromhis bank alerting him to major
fraud.
And he was just overwhelmedwith despair as he drove home
and shaken, and then, all of asudden, he heard that preacher's
voice echoing in his mind, butwith new words that said fool,
this night, your soul isrequired of you and the things
you have prepared whose willthey be?
(04:42):
Suddenly he awoke, realizing ithad all been a dream, and then,
determined, he rushed to thatchurch early, desperate to see
the preacher.
There was already a crowd, butbefore he knew it, the preacher
had stood up and locked eyeswith him.
He approached, he laid his handon the man's shoulder and then
he actually invited himself todinner at the man's home.
The preacher's eyes were filledwith warmth and understanding
(05:03):
and tears welled in the man'shome.
The preacher's eyes were filledwith warmth and understanding
and tears welled in the man'seyes as he surrendered, saying
my home is yours, my business isyours, my family is yours, and
wept into the preacher'sshoulder the man in our story.
He seeks out worldly wisdom forworldly success, but he finds
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that he must choose betweenworldly wisdom and godly wisdom,
the latter ultimately offeredby the preacher, who, in our
story, is Jesus Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi, a devout Hinduactivist, said Jesus was one of
the greatest teachers humanityhas ever known.
Many others, across thereligious and philosophical and
thought spectrum, of course,would agree with Gandhi.
(05:45):
However, jesus's invitation andthe invitation in Proverbs
today, is to seek wisdom witheverything in all of life.
On the other hand, you mightnot be feeling the urgency to
become wise.
If the cost is so great, whynot just go to Google, chat, gpt
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, tiktok teachers and just kindof fake it until you make it
right?
There's a lot of people wholive that way.
I've done that at times, butfor one you might do some crazy
things like ingest Tide Pods orbake chicken in NyQuil.
Those were both trends onsocial media for a while.
Don't look them up, though.
But in all seriousness, what doyou do when life happens when
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you're not happy with your jobbut then you get a job offer and
you're not really sure whatawaits you and you know it means
a move for your family?
What do you do when your spouse, a good friend or a family
member is struggling withsomething and there's no clear
way to comfort them, there's noclear way to solve their problem
?
What do you do when your kidsare no longer listening to you
(06:49):
and discipline isn't working?
I think about that one everyday.
What do you do when you need topick a major in college or take
a year off, or when you can'tfind a job?
What do you do when you receivean uncertain medical diagnosis
and you're just trying to figureout?
How do you move forward?
Well, if you've become wise,you can begin to answer some of
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those questions.
The book of Proverbs tells usthat wisdom is a voice that
calls out to us, but there isanother voice, the voice of
foolishness and worldly wisdom,which leads us to ruin.
And so do you know which oneyou're listening to?
They both call out to us, butif we don't fully give ourselves
to God's wisdom, then theinertia of our flesh pulls us
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towards foolishness.
However, god in his goodnessfreely offers us wisdom.
So the more we know God, themore we become wise.
I'll say that again God in hisgoodness freely offers us wisdom
.
So the more we know God, themore we become wise.
The question then is how?
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How do we know God and receivewisdom from him?
And the good news is, ourpassage tells us exactly that.
If you go ahead and open yourBible or your Bible app within
the verses we'll look at verses1 through 8, there's actually a
very clear-cut structure.
It starts in verse 1.
It says my son, if you receivemy words, and so that, if
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there's several verbs thatcascade after that, so it's if
you receive words, treasure themup, make your ear attentive,
incline your heart, call out forinsight, raise your voice, seek
it like silver, search for itlike hidden treasures.
Right, so you have that.
If you do these things, thenyou will understand the fear of
the Lord, find the knowledge ofGod.
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And then in verse 6, for theLord gives wisdom you have.
If you do these things, thenyou will receive understanding,
the fear of the Lord and wisdom,for this is who God is.
Right.
I mean, it doesn't really getbetter than this.
Oftentimes we go to the Biblefor answers and you know it's
hard to know where God isleading us.
But we have if, then for, for,right here.
(09:06):
And the great thing about theseverbs is that you really see
this emphasis in all of life.
Do all of these things and youwill find what you're looking
for.
So we'll go ahead and walkthrough several of those verbs
in verses one through four.
But some context.
Old Testament scholar LewisGoldberg says, reflected in Old
(09:28):
Testament, wisdom is theteaching of a personal God who
is holy and just and who expectsthose who know him to exhibit
his character in the manypractical affairs of life.
So wisdom is not only God'steaching, it's living it out in
all of life and exhibiting hischaracter.
It's God's teaching lived outin all of life.
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However, in the ancient NearEast, as opposed to Israel,
wisdom was often in schools ofthought.
It was for academics, it wasfor professionals.
They would pass this wisdomdown over generations and a
millennia, holding a wholeculture's wisdom in their hands.
However, in Israel it was inthe home.
In Deuteronomy 4 and 6, we seethat Moses commands people in
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their homes to teach the law totheir children, to live it out
in all of life.
And so there's a familial and acollective nature to the wisdom
of God, which is caught and notjust taught through life in the
community.
There's relational formation indiscipleship and this is versus
head knowledge.
A lot of us here are really goodat, you know, reading books.
(10:34):
I'm not as good at this one,but you know a lot of people
will try to read a hundred booksin a year, which is just insane
to me.
But I know people who do it.
And others of us, you know, wescroll through TikTok and we
find people who seem to knowwhat they're talking about,
right, and we take some of whatthey say hopefully not the
things like the Tide PodChallenge, but really those
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people who write those books,those TikTok teachers, right, we
don't really know who they arewhen they turn off their screen.
We don't really know who theauthor is behind the books.
We can't disciple ourselves tothem.
See their families, know theirchildren, know their communities
, right, we can't be in thatfamilial, relational context
with them.
However, god, we see, calls usinto wisdom that is lived in
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communion, community andcommission, right, it's when
wisdom is taught in the family,it's lived in community, as
we're in communion with God andliving it out together, that
that wisdom seeps in and fillsall of our life.
So what does this look like?
Well, firstly, we hit receivein verse 1, which says my son,
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if you receive my words andnotice it says my son right.
So that is very intimatelanguage.
A father inviting his son toreceive his words and receive is
really a posture, and so thisword receive really sets up the
following verbs in verses onethrough four.
Now, if you receive somethingright, if someone's talking to
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you, if someone's giving you agift, if you're standing, you
know, like this, it reallydoesn't seem like you're paying
attention at all, right or ifyou're ready to receive anything
, in fact, it looks like you'redistracted.
However, if you're givingsomeone your full attention, if
you're posturing yourselftowards them, they know there's
an intimacy, there's aconnection, there's a full
engagement in what's going on.
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So this father is inviting hisson to receive these words as a
children with his father.
Likewise, god is inviting us toreceive these words.
A practical application of thisis the All of Life Guide.
It's a resource that we have.
You can find it in the app andit takes a while to do.
But the All of Life Guidebasically, what it does is
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you're looking at the pattern ofyour life, you're assessing.
What does it look like?
What am I doing day in and dayout, in my families, in my
relationship, in my work.
And then you're inviting God tospeak into that and then
inviting him to help you make arule of life, to pattern your
life, to receive what God hasfor you in all of life.
And that's what we want to do.
We want to be people whoreceive God's words and,
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secondly, we want to treasurethem up.
Now, what does that look like totreasure something?
Well, you might ask yourself,what you really enjoy and what
you really want, right?
And so something I really enjoyis coffee.
So what do I do?
I go to the lineage and I sitthere with my coffee and I sip
and I enjoy it, right.
And then I enjoy every sip.
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I enjoy all the tasting notes.
I ask the baristas what they'redoing and how they do it.
I go home and I do it myselfand I watch YouTube videos and I
dream of coffee and I do mylatte art Lots of things.
A little fanatical, but I'mtreasuring it, right, I really
enjoy it.
It's in my mind, it's in myheart, I'm experiencing it.
I'm doing it with others, right?
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This is what it is to treasuresomething.
When you love someone, youtreasure them, you listen to
them, you spend time with them,you do things that please them
and you really posture yourselfto get the fullness of who they
are right.
So my question is are we doingthat with the Lord?
Does our time in the scriptures, our time in prayer, our time
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in community, does that looklike a full posturing, a full
engagement, a full treasuring ofwho God is?
Are we spending time thinkingabout and pursuing him and
valuing what God has to offer uslike it truly is worth more
than lineage coffee, which it is, although they complement each
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other, you know.
However, we tend to treasureourself and our autonomy.
Disney tells us to listen to ourheart.
Someone might say you do you?
And our Declaration ofIndependence says that we're
entitled to the pursuit ofhappiness.
The problem is that can leaveus kind of like a colander.
Right, we can receive wisdomfrom multiple sources, but only
take what we want.
It's our prerogative.
We think to not have to commit,but to treasure something means
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you're truly committing to it.
Right, you're valuing thisabove all else, and that's what
God is inviting us into.
Thirdly, he says to incline yourear.
He says in verse two, jesuswould often say Well, when you
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hear someone talking, there's adifference between hearing and
listening.
You can see this in yourchildren.
Maybe, if you have children,kids they might hear what you're
saying, but they really wantsomething else.
They want the candy on thecounter.
So you might be telling themabout what they need to do to
earn the candy, and it just goesthrough one in here and out the
other.
And so, likewise, when we arein the scriptures, when we're
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listening to the Lord, are wetruly posturing ourselves to
want what he wants, to want God?
Are we willing to put aside thethings that we value, even if
they're good things work,responsibility, food and family
for the sake of pursuing whatJesus has for us?
In the Gospels, at one point,jesus visits the home of Mary
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and Martha and he comes in, andin that culture, hospitality was
really important, and so Marthais being a good host, she's
living up to the expectations,she's preparing the meal, she's
preparing the table, she's doingall the things that are
required, and her sister, mary,is just sitting on the floor
listening to Jesus.
(16:29):
And so you might have been inthis position before.
Right, you're working hard,other people in the family are
doing who knows what, and you'rejust getting everything ready
and you're just like where theheck is.
Everybody else.
I've done all the dishes, I'vedone all the food prep and I'm
starting to get frustrated.
And so that's what happens withMartha.
She goes up to Jesus and shesays, hey, tell her to do her
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job, like this is herresponsibility, like my way of
loving you is to fulfill this.
And Jesus looks at her and hesays Martha, you're anxious
about many things, but only onething is necessary, and Mary has
chosen the better portion.
Do we choose the better portion?
Are we willing to put asidethings that are good to make
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room for Jesus to speak into ourlife, so we can submit all of
those things to Jesus?
One way to do this is justthree times prayer.
You can set an alarm on yourphone and it just invites you
for a moment, for a few minutes,to be with Jesus, to remember
that Jesus is with you inwhatever you're doing and he has
(17:33):
a desire for you in it.
If we would just but stop andlisten.
Fourthly, he says in verse 3, ifyou call out for insight and
raise your voice forunderstanding.
I love this because there'sthis audacity to this right,
there's this calling out for,there's a raising your voice
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Again, like children are suchgood illustrations, because
children do this all the time.
Right, they're good at askingfor what they want, of raising
their voice and asking like, hey, dad, can I have another cookie
?
I'm like, you've had threetoday, you don't need another
one.
And then, five minutes later,hey, but what if I had a
chocolate, which is not a cookie?
And you're like, uh, no, youcan't have another one.
And so he keeps raising hisvoice and again going back to
verse one my son, if you receivemy words where God invites us
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to raise our voice to himbecause he's a good father that
desires us to ask right, desiresus to ask for understanding so
that he can respond.
So one way to practice this ispetitionary and intercessory
prayer to pray God's promises.
What does God promise us inScripture?
To pray God's character, who isGod?
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And to ask him for specificthings.
Right, we're children and wehave a good father who loves to
give us good gifts.
He says in Matthew 7 and Luke11, to those who ask him
Practice being a child to himand asking for what you need.
Next, he says if you will seekit like silver and search for it
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as hidden treasures.
This reminds me of Jesus'sparable of the treasure hidden
in a field in Matthew 13.
The one who finds it sells allthat he has to purchase the
field.
So I know a guy who, you know,while he was driving around
Orlando, saw a dumpster behind aschool.
They were getting rid of a lotof things and he wondered to
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himself what is in that dumpster.
So, of course, what did he do?
He went and checked thedumpster.
Now, if you know anything aboutthis person, you'll know that
he loves to do jujitsu and heloves to teach people jujitsu.
I hear some chuckles in theback, and this person loves to
go to the park and invite peopleto do jujitsu with him, and
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it's a blessing to those who getto participate.
He builds community, he teachesthem about what he's doing.
So he goes up to this dumpsterand lo and behold what does he
find?
He finds wrestling mats,professional wrestling mats,
probably at one point used bythe wrestling team, and they're
huge, right.
And so he thinks to himselfwell, I really want these
wrestling mats.
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And so what does he have to do?
He has to jump into thedumpster, he has to invite
someone to help him pick upthese mats because they are huge
, and he has to use all of hisstrength to get them out, find a
way to put it on top of his carand bring it home.
So much did he treasure thesemats, he was willing to get his
hands dirty and jump into adumpster, regardless of what
people would think, and thenbring it home, using all of his
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strength and ability to do thatand even inviting others into it
.
So the question is, do we wantgod's wisdom?
We want relationship with thelord, enough to seek it like
silver, to search for it likehidden treasures.
And so one application of thisis communities and circles.
It, communities and circleshave real costs.
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To attend community, if you'rea parent, you have to find a
babysitter.
Then you have to pay thebabysitter.
Then, in a time when you'realready exhausted and you just
want to be at home just watchingNetflix or checking out, you're
going to a community meetingnew people that you may or may
not see a week from then, and itcan at first not feel
life-giving.
It comes at a cost.
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Circles also they're weekly.
It's a place where you can beknown, where you can know in
relationship and follow Jesus,but it also comes at a cost.
And yet these are places wherewe can seek the wisdom of the
Lord like silver and like ahidden treasure.
Amen.
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So my second point, then, isthat if you do all of these
things, if we pursue God and hiswisdom in all of these ways,
then we will understand.
He says Then in verse 5, youwill understand the fear of the
Lord and find the knowledge ofGod and wisdom it talks about in
verse 6.
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That wisdom, that fear of theLord and knowledge of God, it's
a receiving and responding toGod and experienced relationship
.
So receiving and responding toGod in the way that he's laid
out, experienced in relationshipwith him, that is what leads us
to wisdom.
And so I want to share a storyabout how I've experienced this
recently.
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A few weeks ago, it was cold inOrlando.
Remember when it was cold here,it was exciting.
We don't get that very often,and that week it had started to
even snow right up north in thepanhandle and it was supposed to
dip into the 30s at one point.
And so right about that night,when it was dipping into the 30s
here, my heater decided to dieon us and we have three children
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.
If you don't have children andyour heater dies, you're like oh
you know, we can get comfy andcozy together in the sheets,
it'll be fun.
If you have three kids, it'snot so fun, and one of them is a
one-year-old and we can't putblankets on him.
And so we were in trouble andwe didn't know what to do, and
it was late in the day when Ifound this out, and so I was
like, well, if I call an AC guyto come look at it, he's either
not going to be able to come orhe's going to charge us an arm
(23:06):
and a leg.
And so I didn't know what to do.
But earlier that week I had beenin one of the circles that I'm
in.
I'm in multiple circles and Ican ask my wife about how she
experiences that, but in thiscircle we were talking about the
Sermon on the Mount and what itlooks like to give and receive
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mercy, and we talked about how,in our culture today, oftentimes
receiving mercy can even beharder than giving mercy.
And so as I was sitting thereand thinking about that
conversation and praying, Irealized I just need.
The first thing I need to dojust needs to be to ask my
community for help, which isvulnerable for me.
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I don't often love to do that,but I did.
I said, hey, this is oursituation, does anybody have any
help they can offer?
And within minutes, really,somebody offered us to stay in
their apartment with them ourbig, messy family in their
apartment with them, which was ahuge blessing and which we took
them up on later that night.
And then someone else offeredto send somebody that they knew
(24:09):
over to the house to check onour AC to see if he could fix it
, which ultimately led toneeding a new AC, but getting
one at a fraction of what wewould have paid otherwise.
And so it was immenselygracious of the Lord to not only
give me the opportunity to liveout that wisdom that I received
from the scriptures and that Ireceived from my brothers in
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Christ, but to then invite mycommunity into that space as
well, to invite them to be God'sblessing to me as I lived out
of that wisdom and then toexperience God's goodness as
they did that with me.
And so all of that shows howwisdom is the experience of God
as we receive from him, as werespond in community, in
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communion and in commissionright.
This is lived experience of thegoodness of God.
And finally, my last point forthe Lord is good.
Verse six for the Lord giveswisdom.
So if we posture ourselves as achild to his father, seeking to
live and seek his wisdom in allof life, then we will
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understand and receive thewisdom and knowledge of the Lord
, for the Lord gives wisdom.
The Westminster ShorterCatechism.
It takes the Bible and givesyou a Q&A, to kind of summarize
much of what we believe aboutthe Bible.
And so it asks what is God?
And answers God is a spiritinfinite, eternal, unchangeable,
(25:41):
and his being wisdom, power,holiness, justice, goodness and
truth.
And this is good news.
And so we see this in versessix through eight.
In verses six through seven wesee God's being his wisdom and
his knowledge.
What does God do with thatknowledge?
Does he hoard it for himself?
Is he just sitting up in heaven, you know, like a professor
(26:04):
asking you a question andwaiting for your response?
No, god gives us that knowledgeand understanding.
He speaks it to us.
God has been revealing the truthabout who he is to us since the
world began.
The knowledge of truth to himis available to all peoples in
creation, in his people and inhistory.
And then what does God do withhis wisdom?
(26:24):
He gives it to his people fortheir benefit and the benefit of
the world.
God's wisdom is hisself-revelation.
It includes his commandscombined with our obedience in
all of life and in our passagewe see that it leads to
protection and the guidance ofhis people.
And to that point God evenshares his own being with us.
(26:50):
Verse 1 and the following threeverses share intimate language
which ultimately points us toGod's intimate relationship with
us.
He invites us to walk with himas he walked with Adam and Eve
in the garden, as he dwelt withhis people in the tabernacle and
the temple, as he came to earthin Jesus Christ to teach, live,
die and be raised for our sakes, so that we might be adopted
and receive the Holy Spirit,that he might live with us and
(27:13):
dwell with us forever.
And then, finally, in verses 7through 8, we see God's power,
justice, holiness and goodness.
God's goodness is who he is inways that are beneficial to us.
He desires to be a shield forhis people, protecting them and
providing for them, as well asguiding them into truth and rest
, and his power means he's ableto do it.
(27:34):
He is a faithful creator.
To that end, holland, mydaughter, is really into
princesses right now, which isgreat but also sometimes feels
like a little bit much.
She's always singing the Elsasong.
She calls it.
She's even into Encanto and shesings all of the songs in there
(27:54):
as well.
However, she's also here inCity Kids.
She reads the Bible with meevery night, she prays with me
every night and throughout theday we try to talk about what
she's learning, about who God is.
She even watches Bible programson TV, which is a cheat code.
Parents, you know, if you don'twant to watch your kids, have
your kids watch too much TV, buton some Bible TV and it
(28:15):
justifies it a little bit, butand they enjoy it too.
However, it's been reallyencouraging to see Holland begin
to internalize some of it, evenin small ways.
The other day she was talkingabout Elsa and then she says God
can make lots of things, butElsa can only make a few things.
(28:37):
And I know it sounds simple,but in her own simple way she's
being attentive, right, she'streasuring what she's learning
and she's excited to share itwith her parents.
She has her own childlikewisdom and she postures herself
towards her parents and what weare teaching her, and so it's
(28:58):
important to remember the moreyou know God, the more you
become wise and can see that inall of life.
Jesus says of himself that he isthe way, the truth and the life
, but he warns those who wish tofollow him that they must deny
themselves, take up their crossand follow him.
In his first letter to theCorinthians, paul says this is
(29:20):
foolishness to the Greeks, whowere renowned for their culture
and wisdom, yet it is a worldlywisdom that, like many, could
not accept the cross of Christ.
Paul says the foolishness ofChrist is wiser than men and the
weakness of God is strongerthan men.
We must be willing to befoolish in the world in order to
be wise with God.
(29:40):
To truly know God, we mustembrace his life, death,
resurrection and ascension,because the fulfillment of the
Son seeking wisdom from theFather in our passage is
experiencing him in fullness ofrelationship.
That's the end of what hereceives.
The fulfillment of our seekingthe Lord is experience of
(30:02):
fullness of God in relationship.
However, sin still reigns in ourhearts and in the hearts of men
, and it twists our hearts awayfrom God and against his will.
Oftentimes, the inertia of ourflesh pushes us towards the
voice of foolishness.
However, god in Jesus Christpoured out his wrath on Jesus
(30:23):
for our sin, meaning that we areforgiven, meaning that now we
have access to God in JesusChrist and in power and goodness
.
Jesus rose from the dead so wealso might rise with him.
He ascended into heaven to beour advocate so we could have
full access to the knowledge ofGod, and he sent the Holy Spirit
into our hearts so we canunderstand the things that he
(30:44):
gives us.
God destroyed the one who wasperfectly wise.
That wisdom might be poured outinto us unto life with him.
And so, to end, I'll leave youwith the words of Jesus from
Matthew 11, when he says I thankyou, father, lord of heaven and
earth, that you have hiddenthese things from the wise and
(31:04):
understanding and revealed themto little children.
Let us, as little children,posture our whole lives to Jesus
Christ.
Let me pray for us.
Heavenly Father, I thank youthat you hear us, that you are
with us, that you are a goodFather, that you invite us to
(31:24):
posture our lives to you, thatyou invite us to cry out, that
you invite us to treasure yourwords, that Lord, that you are
speaking to us and you're justwaiting for us to listen, to
receive, to respond, that youcan pour your wisdom into our
hearts.
Would you help us to do that?
Oh Lord, as we go throughoutour week, as we seek you in all
things, we pray this in Jesus'name amen.
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