Who is wise in understanding among you?
There was this moment that took place right in the middle of the
Cold War, so the tensions between the United States and
the Soviets were at an all time high.
It took place on September 26th, 1983, just after midnight, in a
Soviet early warning command center outside of Moscow.
A Lieutenant Colonel named Stanislav Petrov.
He was on duty, and his job was pretty simple, but it was
terrifying. His job was to monitor a
satellite system designed to detect whether the United States
had launched nuclear missiles. Imagine having that job for just
a second. That would not be fun.
He right after midnight, all of a sudden the alarms start
screaming. The computer system reported
that an American intercontinental ballistic
missile had been launched towards the Soviet Union.
Imagine that moment. Moments later, the screen show
another missile, then another, and then another, until the
system is reporting 5 nuclear missiles inbound for their
location. Petrov now has only minutes to
act. In this moment, according to a
Soviet protocol, he's supposed to immediately report the attack
to the chain of command. If those missiles are real,
Soviet leadership would likely launch a massive nuclear
retaliation before the American missiles could hit.
In other words, in that moment, the fate of the entire world is
sitting on the desk of one man. Ever known pressure in your life
like that? The computers insist the attack
is real. The alarms are blaring, the
clock is ticking. But something just isn't quite
sitting right with Petrov. He figures if the United States
were starting a nuclear war, why only send five?
He reasons. And they probably wouldn't just
launch so few they'd go all out. And the system hadn't It was
new. It never been tested in a real
world crisis yet. And so Petrov faces a choice.
He can either follow protocol with what he's supposed to do
with an incoming attack, or he can report it as a false
warning. He chooses to trust his wisdom.
He pauses, he thinks, and reports it as being a false
alarm. For several agonizing minutes,
he waits to see if the missiles appear on the ground radar.
And of course, none eventually do and it becomes clear the
system's malfunctioned and what happened was the satellites
actually detected like sunlight beaming off high altitude clouds
above North Dakota confused it with like missile vapor or
something like that. And it was a false alarm.
If this had taken place though, imagine if he had said we're
under attack and he'd thrown it up the chain of command like he
was supposed to. Imagine all out nuclear warfare
taking place. This is one of the most tense
moments in history, and many of us have never even heard about
it. Petrov later became known as the
man who saved the world. Isn't that interesting?
What we see with this story is a powerful reminder that sometimes
the difference between catastrophe and life isn't about
information or alarms or better systems.
Sometimes the difference between life or death is just good old
fashioned wisdom, you know, judgement calls, discernment,
wisdom, taking in the information.
And Petrov, he, he credits his decision making not to his
military training, but to his civilian training, right.
Because military guys, you know, they have no choice.
They just they just kind of follow protocol.
But he instead chose wisdom question today, what is it that
enables us to know the right decision in difficult times?
How can we know what to do when the going gets tough And more
than just a decision making, like how can we really know the
right way to live? Social media promises a good
life for every one of us. It seems like everyone has an
opinion on, you know, the perfect way to diet and the
perfect way to live, the perfect way to handle your money.
Influencers kind of present this like overly curated, overly
edited picture of the perfect life.
It's all edited and polished. Everyone's trying to get our
attention, everyone's trying to show us quote how to live.
But Proverbs 14 reminds us there is a way that appears to be
right, but in the end it leads to death.
In other words, there there is a there's a way we can in which we
can live with that appears to have life, but in the end, it
leads to destructions. How many of us, how many of us
in the room by a show of hands would agree we live in confusing
times out there? Yes, OK, hands down.
Everyone, let the record show everyone in the room pretty much
raised their hand, right? I mean, take the last two weeks
for example, man, you know, are we at war?
Are we not? Was it our fault with the
destruction? Is it not like, and man, can we
even trust the information that's being presented to us?
Is this the right decision? Like there's so many voices out
there. These are truly confusing times,
and what we need is a trustworthy guide for how we can
live and how we can discern in the midst of confusion and
chaos. Today we're continuing our
sermon series called Wisdom in the Desert.
And the topic today, the title of the sermon is The Foolishness
of Wisdom. During the season of Lent, we're
we're choosing to kind of escape from the culture a little bit
intentional prayer and intentional fasting, choosing to
go off into the wilderness with Jesus to hear from God, to allow
him to test us and reveal what's really inside.
And today we're going to be talking about the idea of
wisdom. And James says it this way in
chapter 3. If you want to turn there in
your Bibles, James is a short book towards the very end of
your Bible and he says these words about the idea of wisdom.
We always encourage you to bring your physical Bibles if you have
them. Otherwise they'll be on the
screens as well. The Scriptures.
And he says this beginning in verse 13.
James writes, who is wise and understanding among you?
Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in humility
that comes from wisdom. So he asked the question he
poses it, who is wise and understanding among you, Those
who are living a good life, he answers.
So the ones who are living a good life, the ones who are wise
among you aren't the ones who have the most Instagram
followers or or the most rockin bod or the most life hacks, but
rather the ones who are proving they have wisdom through their
good deeds and through their life.
So James goes on to contrast two different types of wisdom here.
He he contrasts an earthly type of wisdom and a heavenly type of
wisdom. This is what it says in verse
14. But if you harbor bitter envy
and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or
deny the truth. Such quotation marks wisdom does
not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual and
demonic. For where you have envy and
selfish ambition, there you find disorder in every kind of evil
practice. So again, James starts off by
talking about this sort of quote, earthly wisdom, wisdom
that sort of seems right to man but isn't actually of God.
Let me let me ask you this way. Have you ever heard a piece of
advice that seems like it's good advice logically, but it sort of
lacks a sort of substance? It lacks a sort of goodness to
it. Like maybe this advice would
actually get you what you're actually wanting and what you're
chasing. But there's there's something
not quite right about it. It maybe is inherently selfish.
Maybe it's when people try to be helpful and they say things like
it doesn't matter what people think about you.
Is that true? Maybe kind of right.
I mean, I found in my experience, people's perception
of you actually does kind of matter if you want to have
influence with them over their life.
But yet there's times where you have to think less about what
other people are thinking, especially if you deal with
people pleasing. The point is, sometimes advice
requires something deeper to understand if it's actually good
and it's actually wise. It requires A substance and it
requires goodness to it. If you ever received the piece
of advice, put yourself first. I've heard that.
Got to put yourself first. Well, that may get you what you
want in the short term, but will it actually benefit you in the
long term? Is it actually moral and good
and true? And so James talks about this
kind of wisdom. It seems right.
It sounds right at first. It may even be functionally
functional in order to get you what you want.
But it lacks something. What he says here.
I have this list. He says that earthly wisdom is
characterized by bitter envy. This next slide here, it's
characterized by disorder, evil practices and selfish ambition.
Our world is full of these things.
Our culture thrives off them. What we see is that earthly
wisdom, it starts from a place of envy.
It starts from looking at your neighbors and saying, how are
they living? Oh, I want that thing.
Oh, they seem to have it figured out.
But it leads to disorder and evil practices.
Let's talk about disorder for just a moment.
We we know that disorder comes from the chaos of sin and death
and evil in the world. In the very beginning we see
that God hovered over the waters, which are typically this
idea of like chaos and and death.
And God brought order and he brought life from non order from
death. In Proverbs 822 we see the
personification of wisdom. This is sort of wisdom speaking
to us. Wisdom says the Lord brought me
forth as the first of his works before his deeds of old.
I was formed long, long ages ago, at the very beginning when
the world came to be. What we see in the very
beginning that God used wisdom and the logic as sort of the
tool He used in creation. So wisdom is sort of the
paintbrush that he used in order to create everything around us.
And we still see its strokes seen today.
And so to live with wisdom then is to is to sort of go along
with the grain of the universe as God intended it, instead of
going against the grain. And that's why we see that
earthly wisdom involves disorders because God has
created mankind to bring order and beauty into a chaotic world.
What we see with this sort of earthly wisdom is that the focus
isn't on others, but the focus instead is on self and chaos.
Next slide here. We also see that earthly wisdom
often times aims to get ahead. That's why James says it's all
about selfish ambition. How can I advance myself above
others? Earthly wisdom aims to get
ahead, but then he contrasts that with a different type of
wisdom, what he calls heavenly wisdom verse 17 if you turn
there. But the wisdom that comes from
heaven is first of all, pure, then peace, loving, considerate,
submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and
sincere peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of
righteousness. It's very different from the
type of earthly wisdom we just discussed.
So next slide, let's take a look at these two and contrast them a
little bit. OK, so we see that where earthly
wisdom is focused on envy, what everyone else has, how everyone
else is doing compared to me, heavenly wisdom is first and
foremost pure. It's focused on having a pure
heart before God. Earthly wisdom often times lead
to death and disorder and destruction, whereas heavenly
wisdom it leads leads to peacemaking.
This is a peace loving spirit of wisdom.
Earthly wisdom often the result is evil practices, but with
heavenly wisdom it's good fruit. Earthly wisdom is full of
selfish ambition, but contrast that to heavenly.
It's considerate, it's submissive, and it's loving.
So James presents these two options for us.
Both present as wisdom, but only one is from God.
So what we see then next slide is that heavenly wisdom is
focused on others. It's focused on order.
Whereas earthly wisdom aims to get ahead, heavenly wisdom aims
to get holy. See the difference?
So many people are just trying to get ahead in this world.
How do I just inch myself above my Co workers?
How do I get noticed in the market, whatever it may be?
And that's not inherently bad sometimes, but the goals are
different. Heavenly wisdom aims first and
foremost to be pure and holy before God.
This is the focus of James. I love this definition by
Michael J Wilkins. This is so rich.
Wisdom is the application of knowledge to life in such a way
that a person's activities are a concrete example of a life well
lived in God's presence. Let me break that down for a
second. So he says first and foremost
that wisdom is the application of knowledge.
Knowledge is like the information.
OK, I I saw this quote, I wasn't going to share it because it's
so cheesy, but it said knowledge is found on Google online, but
wisdom is found in the Bible on high.
And I thought, wow, that is so cheesy and corny.
I shouldn't share that. But then I just did so there.
You're welcome. But there's a difference between
knowledge and wisdom. It's the application of
knowledge to life in such a way that the way that a person is
actually living, it's a concrete example that they're living a
good life in God's presence. So it's taking the information
and applying it. It's lived out another
definition. I love this and it's simplicity.
They said that wisdom is moral skill.
I love that 2 words, moral skill.
So there's inherent goodness within wisdom.
It's knowing how to skillfully use knowledge and apply it in a
way that's good and fruitful for others.
But here's the thing, in a world like ours that's fallen and it's
chaotic and there's disorder and there's warfare, true wisdom
often has the appearance of foolishness.
Would you agree? True wisdom often seems counter
intuitive. I mean, just take a look for a
moment at the example found from Jesus.
OK, Jesus, when he came to earth, he didn't come by like
opening up the heavens and descending on high with like
lightning and Thunder, right, Did he?
How did he come to earth? Anyone know kids?
He came as a baby. He came as a baby in a Manger in
an animal's feeding through counterintuitive when Jesus was
picking his disciples, he chose ordinary fishermen, not well
off, well off people who had a bunch of influence.
He chose a tax collector who was seemed seemed to be as a traitor
to his own people. When Jesus was offered power in
the kingdoms of the world by saying he rejected it, Jesus
didn't use force in order to bring about his movement.
And finally, in the most counterintuitive move we've seen
in history, Jesus decided to willingly lay down his life and
die for us. He chose to allow people
intentionally to crucify him on a cross so that you and I could
put our faith in that work so that it could take the sins that
we have all done and put it upon himself so that we might live.
The punishment that we deserve was was placed on him on the
cross so that anyone who puts their faith in that might live.
But I got to say that's pretty counterintuitive if you're
trying to start a movement. Would you agree?
The way of wisdom is often quote foolish to the world even now.
Why doesn't God just like again, open up the clouds and make
himself known? Why doesn't he just appear and
get on CNN or Fox News or whatever and just say, hey, here
I am, follow me. It seems counterintuitive and
yet God knows exactly what he's doing.
Jesus said wisdom is proved right by her deeds.
Another translation says Wisdom is proved right by her children.
You may not see it quite at first, but the result in the
fruit that comes from wisdom will prove itself to be true.
Let me put it this way. Wisdom proves itself to be true
by the good fruit it produces. In time, it proves itself to be
true, but it often times takes time.
There's this moment in American history.
It's towards the end of the Civil War Abraham Lincoln is
president, and he's giving his second inaugural address, which,
by the way, is the third shortest inaugural address ever
given in history by a present. I thought that was kind of
interesting. And many of many of the people
surrounding Abraham Lincoln, you know, as the war was coming to
an end, they said that Abe should should punish the South
and punish the Confederates for their actions.
They were encouraging Abraham Lincoln to be to be almost
vengeful and strict, to come down with a heavy force to make
sure that the South was squashed.
But Abraham Lincoln took a different approach.
We have a slide next here. He took a very different
approach and instead he said this famous line.
He said with malice toward none and with charity for all rather
than vengeance, rather than malice, Abraham Lincoln chose
mercy. He chose a different route.
And what he knew, he knew that if they came down with a heavy,
heavy fist on on the South that more and more rebellions would
rise up. Likely guerrilla warfare would
start happening. Instead, he gave them a chance
to repent and come into the fold to be part of the nation once
again. By the way, side note, this was
crazy as I was reading this inaugural dress.
I encourage all of you to do it. But he says this line about the
Civil War. He says fondly do we hope
fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may be may
speedily pass away. Abraham Lincoln had a deep faith
in God and I believe that's where his wisdom came from.
And there's even this moment where where Abraham Lincoln
saying, you know, we pray for a swift end to this war.
But if it's God's will that this war should continue as judgement
against our own sins of slavery, so be it.
What there's this line where he's saying like, if it's God's
will that that that every dollar that was that was earned by by
slavery is spent for this war. If every drop of blood that was
earned on the lash of a slave gets paid back through the
sword, then so be it. Then God's has the right to
judge us. Can you imagine a leader saying
something like that today about our their own country, right?
Can you imagine a leader saying, you know, we have sinned, we
have done something wrong, and if God wants to pay us back, so
be it. That would be radical today.
And yet what we see here is we see a man who fears God first
above all things, and the wisdom to have mercy and compassion on
his enemies shines through here. And his wisdom was proved right
over time. So for us here today, how can we
gain this type of wisdom when the advice of our culture is
just to look after yourself? The advice of our culture is
just to protect your own peace, to do what you got to do.
How can we live a life of goodness and wisdom?
I want to give you really three really quick things.
First and foremost is this wisdom begins with fearing God.
Wisdom begins with fearing God. Next slide here, Proverbs 910
puts it this way. The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is
understanding. If you want to be wise, start
with fearing God. This is a reverence to God.
It's a God centered life. Fearing God means that we have
an A Kingdom perspective that God is at work around us and we
live beyond just our circumstances.
I was hanging out with my discipleship band, which are
environments that are groups of two to four people that meet
weekly. And I was in my band this week
and we were just talking about where ambition comes from and
the, and the will to like work harder and the will to, to
succeed in we kind of like came to a consensus that every man
and woman, but we're men. So we said every man needs a
vision that's bigger than himself in their life.
If a man really wants to succeed in life, he needs a vision that
goes beyond just himself. So often we turn inward instead
of going outward. And so every man and woman, we
need a God centered life. We need Kingdom perspective.
And that starts with the fear of the Lord.
We need the wisdom to look beyond just ourself and our
circumstances in our life. We were created to bring order
in partnership with God to this world.
Another reason that we need to start with the fear of the Lord
is that God is a relational God, and wisdom is always
personified. It's lived out.
Scripture in Proverbs 8 personifies wisdom.
She says to you, oh people, I call out.
I raise my voice to all mankind. This is the idea that wisdom is
crying out to each and every one of us, and that we can choose to
listen to her call. In other words, wisdom is
personified. We don't gain wisdom just from
the Internet. We gain wisdom from wise
teachers, wise mentors, and wise leaders.
It's from people because wisdom is lived out.
It's not just advice of what could work.
It's it's proof of a life well lived in God's presence.
So that's number one is fear. God #2 if you want to have
wisdom in your life #2 we have to ask for it.
We have to ask for it. James 15 says if any of you
lacks wisdom, you should what? Ask God?
Everyone say ask God and when you should ask God, God gives
generously to all without finding fault and it will be
given to you. I've heard it say said elsewhere
that asking is the rule of the Kingdom, It's the rule of
prayer. All of us should ask.
And the the other reason I think asking is so important is
because asking humbles us. Asking humbles us.
Have you ever been stuck in a pickle and you really needed
help, but if you're honest, you didn't really want to ask for
help? Men in the room are like nodding
their heads, right? I had a moment like that with my
car this last week. I was like, oh, I'm stuck in a
pickle. I don't want to knock on my
neighbour's door, but I really need some help right now, OK?
And I had to. I did.
I went and asked for help and it was humbling.
I like to present like I have it all together.
I like to pretend like I can handle my things on my own
right. When we ask God, it's a, it's a,
it's a posture of humility that says, God, I cannot do it on my
own. I need your help.
And in doing so, that's a relational moment where God is
glad to come to our aid and give us a rescue.
Asking is simply saying, God, you're wise and I'm not.
You have all the answers and I don't.
You know the best way to live. And so I'm glad to come
underneath your two lids, your mentorship, your wisdom, and
your parenting #3 if you want to live a wise life, you have to
build your life on Jesus. Somebody say Amen, Amen.
You got to build your life on Jesus.
Matthew Chapter 7. Jesus concludes the Sermon on
the Mount by giving some of the most important words, I believe,
that have ever been spoken and ever been written.
Matthew 7, verse 24. Jesus says, Therefore everyone
who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice,
that's the key part, puts them into practice is like a wise man
who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams
rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it
did not fall because it had its foundation on the what rock?
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put
them into practice is like a foolish man who builds his house
on sand. The rain came down, the streams
rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it
fell with a great crash. This is a stark warning given by
Jesus at the end of the sermon. He's saying, Wisdom is building
your life on me. The illustration is
self-explanatory, but the people listening to it in the 1st
century would have understood what it meant immediately.
You see, in the Sea of Galilee archaeologists in the late 20th
century, they found that there were structures that had been
built and dug down into the deep hard basalt.
And in other words, they dug sometimes 10 feet down in order
to reach bedrock, to build their structures.
And part of the reason for this is because what would happen
around that is the alluvial sands.
They would harden under the summer sun.
And so they would pretend as if they were a firm foundation.
It almost be like concrete, the sand.
But what happened in the winter is that the Jordan River would
swell, the water would come, and underneath this hard surface,
the the sand underneath would begin to be chiseled away, swept
away through the undercurrents. And So what would happen is the
wise and foolish person who built their house on what
appeared to be safe, that person's house would come
crashing down. What Jesus is saying here, what
Jesus is saying here, he's saying my way, my commands.
They're universal. They're for all people, for all
times. Jesus is saying my way, the way
I'm living, the my commandments will stand the test of time, my
way. If you put them into practice,
they're trustworthy. You can build your life and
it'll be a life that is well lived. 1st 1st Corinthians 130
Paul says that Jesus has become for us wisdom from God.
In other words, Jesus himself is the personification of all
wisdom. Jesus is wisdom himself.
So if you want to be wise, first and foremost look to Jesus and
then build your life on him. Put into practice everything
that he has said, everything that he has said.
Why? It's because everything that
Jesus has ever taught has held up for the last 2000 years.
His words have outlasted every Kingdom.
His commands have triumphed every philosophy.
His way has transformed billions and billions of people, and his
teachings supersede any political party or policy or
whatever it may be. Jesus's commands his way are
trustworthy, and they're right. You can build your life upon
them, and you will live a life that is beautiful and is wise.
Jesus says everyone who doesn't do this, this is.
These are harsh words. Everyone who fails to build
their lives on me is foolish. Their house will be swept away.
Everyone, he says. What kind of man comes to earth
and says things like everyone who doesn't build their life on
what I've taught is foolish. He's either out of his mind as
some sort of a lunatic, some sort of narcissistic psycho,
sociopath, whatever, or he is the son of God and he is the
author of all life. But you can't have both ways.
What Jesus is saying here are it's just too radical.
In other words, we don't get to just pick and choose an A la
carte. What we take from Jesus and what
we leave behind, He's all or nothing.
Does that make sense? We can't mix the foundation with
some sand and some concrete and some stone.
No, no, no, it's all or nothing. Jesus is saying these teachings
are designed as a warning for us to choose not the foolish way of
building our life on Sam, but to choose the wise way of Jesus.
So many people in this life are trying to build a life on their
own passions and their own focus.
Look, I did the same thing. I was so close when I was
deciding what to do with my life.
I was going after what I like to do.
I was going after what I thought I would enjoy.
I was going after my own passions, my own pursuits, and
whatever. And I'm so glad that God
interrupted that process, picked me up and set me on a different
trajectory, a life built on Him. And I've never looked back.
And please hear me, I'm still trying to figure out how to do
that. Still trying to figure out how
to build my life on Jesus. But I assure you that His way is
better. His commands are trustworthy.
Build your life on Him. I see two different errors in
our culture today #1 is that people are trying to build with
no real foundation in their life.
People are trying to build a life on secularism or on
humanism. They're trying to build their
life on moral relativity. They're looking around and
they're just saying, I'm just going to kind of pick and
choose. And it's becoming more and more
clear. I think that man is the problem
to the issues that we face, but we can never be the solution on
our own. So many people are just
searching out there. They're looking for, for answers
all over. We, we recently went out to
California on Oceanside and we were just shocked by how many
different, like palm readers there were these shops that were
just dedicated to, to spirituality and being able to
know your own future and, and decide your own fate.
And I was like, how are people paying rent out here in this
real estate, right with palm reading?
Like how is that lucrative enough?
But I think it's because people are searching for answers.
They're searching for a foundation, They're searching
for what's real error #1 is that I think people are building
their life without any real foundation.
But #2 I think the other errors that people are building their
life on any foundation, what they're doing is they're
building this sort of sort of sand castle of a life, right?
The a sand castle that looks really impressive on the
outside. It may even win some Guinness
Book of World Records, right? But in a few moments, in a few
years, it'll come crashing down. So many of us are like looking
around and influencers and social media, trying to lifehack
our way into the good life, trying to pick and choose from
the different philosophies and the different religions and the
different mindsets out there. And it's an exhausting way to
live. Meanwhile, Jesus looks at us and
he says there is a better way. There is a way that leads to
life. Isaiah 30 says whether you turn
to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind
you saying this is the way, walk in it.
Jesus is speaking to every single one of us saying there is
a better way. Walk in it.
It's the way of love. It's the way of life.
It's the way of self sacrifice for the sake of your others.
It's a way of having a Kingdom minded perspective that goes so
far beyond your own life. Your life can matter for
eternity. There is a way.
Walk in it. So if I had to summarize
everything I'm saying here today, it's this.
The way of Jesus is the foolish way of wisdom.
The way of Jesus is the quote UN quote foolish way of wisdom.
It may seem counterintuitive. It may not make sense at first.
Sacrificing normally doesn't always make sense at first.
But the payoff is a life well lived.
So the next time you're in your workplace and you hear someone
say you have to advocate for yourself, look after #1 get
noticed by your boss. Pause for a second and ask
yourself, is this earthly wisdom or is this heavenly wisdom?
Am I called to just promote myself or am I called to lift
others up? As you're parenting and raising
kids and you kind of hear the advice floating around, you
don't want your kid falling behind.
You got to give them every opportunity.
Ask yourself, is this leading towards peace or is it leading
to a chaotic schedule and overhurriedness and exhaustion?
When that friend group or that person at school ask you to
share the gossip or spill the tea or whatever, right?
Ask yourself, is this wise? Is this the loving, considerate
way of Jesus and the wisdom that he offers?
All of us can live into the way of Jesus.
And so maybe for for some, practically speaking, some
practices you can put in place this week.
Maybe you want to choose to just kind of put stricter limit on
your screen time this week, maybe to reduce the echo chamber
and the amount of noise and the amount of voices speaking into
your life. And I get it when, when there's
things going on politically and globally, we want to be glued to
our phone. But maybe you just take a break
for a moment to hear the voice of God.
Maybe you choose instead to listen to a Christian audio book
or a podcast or even the Bible on your commute instead, filling
your mind with wise words, the way of Jesus instead of anything
else. Another option is to maybe
choose to do some scripture memorization.
This is a tried and true practice, basically hiding God's
word in your heart to be able to use it whenever you need.
Whatever you choose to do, choose the way of wisdom.
And if you're here today and you're like, I don't know that
I'm all that wise. I don't know that I'm the
brightest crayon in the box or the sharpest tool in the shed,
right? I don't have strong opinions on
geopolitical warfare and I don't concern myself with things that
are above my pay grade. And to you, I just want to
encourage you wherever you're at.
Proverbs 8 says you who are simple gain prudence.
You who are foolish set your hearts on wisdom.
So even if you're here today and your mind isn't all that
impressive and you don't consider yourself to be all that
wise, the invitation for you is just to to set your heart on
wisdom, to gain wisdom. Because even those who are the
simplest among us can still live a life in God's presence that is
wise and beautiful, James says. Who is wise and understanding
among you? It's the person who proves it by
their good deeds. By choosing heavenly wisdom, may
we not build our house as sand castles that look impressive
from the outside, but may we instead choose to build our
house on the firm rock and foundation of Jesus.