[0:00] Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to Proverbs chapter 4. Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 1. Wisdom. This is the wise king.
[0:12] This is the king that when he takes over the throne, the Lord says to him, ask me anything. And he could have asked for money, but instead he asked for wisdom because he knew he didn't know how to rule his kingdom.
[0:26] And then he tells God, why need wisdom? God said, okay, I'll give you wisdom and I'll give you riches. And he writes the book of Proverbs and it's a sharing of wisdom.
[0:37] It's actually, we're going to find out in this first part, his dad shared wisdom with him. Read with me if you would, verse 1. This is pay attention.
[0:48] Bible says, hear ye children the instruction of a father and attend to know understanding. Father, I pray today that you would help us to hear and to understand and to receive instruction from your word and from the Holy Spirit and what you have to say here.
[1:09] And we'll give you praise for all you do. In Jesus' name, amen. If you want to notice, he says children. That's not always what he says here. A lot of times he says, my son.
[1:21] This time it's like he's talking to a whole bunch of children and he says all of them ought to pay attention. They ought to hear the instruction of their father. And then in chapter 4 and verse 3, you're going to notice that parents should teach their children and lead them to wisdom.
[1:39] And he uses his own personal life story to explain that. Look at you at verse 3. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
[1:53] He's going to tell us, you know what? My dad, David, taught me and my mother, Bathsheba, taught me. They took the time to help me understand. Look at chapter 4 and verse 4.
[2:06] He taught me also and said unto me, let thine heart retain my words. Keep my commandments and live. So I don't know while he was small or whenever it was, but David and Bathsheba have got this relationship.
[2:22] And they've got this son, Solomon, and he hasn't asked for wisdom yet. But his dad's already got in mind he's going to be the king. So he's starting to share wisdom with him. And he said, now listen to me, buddy.
[2:33] He said, you need to take this to heart and you need to hold on to it and you need to obey it. You need to keep my commandments and God will bless you. You will live.
[2:45] Look, if you would. In verse 2, for I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. Solomon's mother had loved him also.
[2:56] He was tender and beloved in her sight. And they taught him good doctrine. Now we need to underline that good doctrine. That's good instruction. I need to make sure that I'm teaching what ought to be taught.
[3:07] And it ought to be able to reach the heart. And it ought to be obeyed. So pay attention. Children, listen to your parents. They are teaching you good teaching, good instruction, good doctrine.
[3:22] Pay attention to your parents. But then he said, teach the children to persist in this good doctrine. Look at verse 4 again. He taught me also and said unto me, let thine heart retain.
[3:37] Would you circle that word retain? You know, it's one thing to get a lesson. It's another thing to retain a lesson. Now, I went to high school. I got C's and D's in algebra and geometry.
[3:52] And I remember thinking to myself, I don't know if any human being would ever need this again. I received a whole lot of lessons. But I didn't retain very many of them.
[4:02] How many of you still retain all that geometry and algebra? Hold your hand up. Brother Burkhardt does. He just loves it. Why don't the rest of you raise your hand? We took a lot of those classes.
[4:13] I took classes in French. My wife found my high school grade cards the other day. And I was as bad as I said I was. I was embarrassed to see my grade cards.
[4:24] I was embarrassed to see D, D, D, D minus. I think I even had an F on a test, which I didn't even think I'd ever had one on my grade card. But there it was saying you weren't that good.
[4:35] I had plenty of lessons, but I didn't retain. I did not hold on to it. Underline the word keep. You know, you're not studying to learn. You're studying to obey.
[4:46] Can I get an amen right there? We're not studying to learn. We're studying to obey. We're to take the Bible teaching to our heart. We are to keep it in our heart.
[4:58] And we're to live out what we taught. We're taught. Why? Because wisdom is the principal thing. Look, if you would, at chapter 4 and verse 5.
[5:09] Get wisdom. Underline that. Get wisdom. Son, listen to me. Get wisdom. Get wisdom.
[5:20] Get understanding. Forget it not. Neither decline from the words of my mouth. Boy, don't you just let these words fall on the ground. Don't you just walk away.
[5:31] I'm telling you, boy, the most important thing you can get is wisdom and understanding. Verse 6. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee.
[5:43] Love her, and she shall keep thee. I would just like to just get you to circle a couple of words again. Get. Boy, I ought to go looking for it.
[5:54] When I was a boy, my mother taught me that the Word of God wasn't just like nuggets of wisdom laying on the top of the ground.
[6:04] You have to do some digging. She used to teach me how to study and how to study the Bible. You don't just get wisdom. You've got to go get wisdom. It doesn't just fall on you.
[6:15] You've got to go get wisdom. You've got to work at getting understanding. But when you do, underline or circle, forget not. Forget not.
[6:27] It's pretty easy to learn, pretty easy to forget. It's pretty easy to learn and pretty easy to forget. It's pretty easy to learn, but pretty easy to forget.
[6:38] Then notice in verse 6. Forsake her not. Don't walk away. Once you learn this wisdom. Oh, my goodness. Don't walk away.
[6:49] You know that Solomon's going to walk away, right? You know that by the end of his life, instead of honoring and fearing and respecting God, oh, Solomon is going to be over there building temples to false gods because the women he married, which showed a complete lack of understanding.
[7:05] But he tells his son here, forsake her not. Preserve thee. It's what will happen if you will stick with wisdom. Wisdom will preserve you.
[7:15] It'll take care of you. It'll meet your needs. So love wisdom. Love wisdom. And wisdom will take care of you. So he starts off the chapter saying, pay attention.
[7:30] Pay attention. Listen to your parents. Listen to your parents. Persist in this. Stick at it. Keep going for it. Don't give up. It's the principal thing and you want to get it.
[7:41] Now go with me if you would down to chapter 4 and verse 5. We are to pursue wisdom. Look at verse 5. Get wisdom. Get understanding.
[7:53] Forget it not. Neither decline from the words of my mouth. So I'm to go after it. I'm to go after it. Well I enjoyed David's story of falling in love with his wife and all that.
[8:09] He went through there, didn't you? That's a pretty good story. Well you know what? You're the chase wisdom. And I don't know how a guy worked seven years and it seemed like nothing to him. That seems like, boy, that's pretty hefty.
[8:21] I asked Betty to marry me in May. We got married in August and I thought that was an eternity. So I don't know what you'd do with seven years. But he said, go after it. Go after it.
[8:33] Now what is wisdom? Let's look at some Bible verses about what is wisdom. Go with me to Proverbs chapter 9 and verse 10. Wisdom begins when we learn to have an awesome reverence and respect for God.
[8:49] Wisdom begins when we learn to have an awesome respect, an awesome reverence for God. That word fear is kind of a negative word to you and I.
[9:03] We listen to you and me. We look at it. We listen and we think to ourselves, boy, I'm supposed to be afraid of God. No. But you know what? If you fear God, if you awesomely reverence him and respect him, you're thinking about him all the time.
[9:17] I wonder what he thinks about this. I wonder what he'd have me to do with this. I just read this week in a book. He doesn't ever tell you to believe him here.
[9:28] He just says reverence him, respect him, fear him. Because it's expected that you believe in God. Even those that say they don't believe in God, they probably do. They just don't respect him. They know he's up there.
[9:40] They just don't respect him and they want to say, I don't like him. I don't want to honor him. But if we want wisdom, it starts with saying there's a God who made this world.
[9:51] There's a God who wrote this book. There's a God who saved me. And I ought to live my life in constant thinking about him as the beginning of wisdom. I fear him.
[10:02] I respect him. I look to him. I believe him. That's what I want to do. James told us what wisdom looked like. Look at James chapter 3 and verse 17.
[10:14] But wisdom, the wisdom that is from above is first pure and peaceable and gentle and easy to be entreated.
[10:26] In other words, it's easy to talk to, easy to ask from, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
[10:37] He said, look, this is what wisdom looks like. The wisdom that's from above. It's pretty hard to get a real good definition of wisdom in the Bible, except that it begins with fear.
[10:48] And we understand that it is the sum of hearing and obeying the word of God. But there's a picture of what wisdom looks like. It's pure. It's peaceable.
[10:59] It's gentle. It's easy to be entreated. It's full of mercy and good fruits. It shows no partiality. And it's without hypocrisy. Look at Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 11.
[11:12] I think wisdom's a pretty practical thing for us. Because of the words it uses here in verse 11. I have taught thee the way of wisdom.
[11:23] I've led thee in right paths. This chapter's going to kind of make it clear that wisdom is finding out what God wants and doing what God wants you to do. And you wouldn't do that if you didn't believe he was there and didn't have an awesome respect for God.
[11:38] It's a very practical matter. It is, hey, I have a way. I have a road. I have a plan of wisdom. I have right paths, which before the chapter's over, we're going to find out that there are wrong paths.
[11:54] There are bad paths. We're going to find out that there are other kinds of ways that aren't the way of wisdom. I think wisdom can be summed up in hearing and obeying the Word of God.
[12:07] I think that's what his wisdom is. His wisdom is, boy, I really, you know, I mean, I'm not trying to be funny or redundant or get an amen. It is honestly the attitude you take towards this book.
[12:22] If you really believe God wrote this book and God gave us this book and God gave us truth, and you say, boy, I'm going to do what I can to honor God and serve God, and you want to go in the way that he talks about, you want to take the right path, you want to obey the Holy Spirit, that's probably a pretty good picture.
[12:43] I think wisdom can be summed up with being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit speaks through the Word. He speaks to our hearts, and he talks to us, and we want to consider what Jesus would have done.
[12:59] Now, we were to pay attention, and we were to pursue wisdom, and I've tried to show you a tad of what wisdom might be. So how do you get wisdom? How do you get wisdom?
[13:10] Let me just give you a few things I think might be right here in the Bible for us. James 1.5. We can ask God for wisdom. We can ask God for wisdom. I do this on a regular basis, and I have to ask him, and I have to ask him, believe in him.
[13:26] The Bible says if you lack wisdom, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that gives to all men liberally and doesn't fuss at anybody, upbraideth not, and it shall be given to him.
[13:40] So I want to go to God, and I want to say, God, I don't understand the Bible. I need wisdom. God, I don't know how to deal with this problem. I need wisdom. God, I don't know what to do with my family. I need wisdom.
[13:51] And we go to God, we just ask for wisdom. And because we respect him and we reverence him and we spend time in his word, he gives us wisdom. If you believe that, say amen.
[14:02] There's a second verse I think might help us get an idea how to get it, and that's Proverbs 11.2. Proverbs 11.2. It would appear that humility is a key to getting wisdom.
[14:17] Humility is a key to getting wisdom. When pride comes, then comes shame. Pride will get you embarrassed. But with the lowly, with the humble, with those who have humility is wisdom.
[14:34] You know what pride would be, don't you? I would say, I don't need any help on this, God. I don't need any instruction on this, God. I know what to do, God. I've got this under control, God.
[14:45] And God's like, okay. Okay. Well, you do what you know how to do, and you figure it out, and then you're going to get embarrassed. And the other guy walks in and says, boy, God, I don't know what to do.
[14:59] I just feel like I can't. I feel like I'm a failure. I feel like I can't make it. I just need you. And God says, I can give you wisdom. There were two people who went up to the temple to pray, and one lifted his hands and his eyes and said, boy, God, I thank you.
[15:13] I'm not like this guy. I'm a pretty good fellow. You're lucky to have me. And he went down embarrassed. And the other guy smote his chest and looked down and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
[15:24] One was proud, and one was humble. What is humility? Humility. I think it is depending on God and giving him the glory for all. Depending on God and giving him the glory for all.
[15:38] That's a mark of humility. Humility. I think it refers to us being open to change and teachable, open to growth. It's like saying, God, I'm willing to change. I need you to teach me.
[15:48] I need you to show me. I need you to guide me. I think humility would be admitting your errors, your mistake. I think humility would be seeking counsel.
[15:59] I think it would be accepting correction. I think in Proverbs 29, 15, that disciplining our children might bring them wisdom.
[16:11] The Bible says in Proverbs 29, 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom. But a child left to himself brings his mother to shame.
[16:24] So it would seem that I need to be, I think, I need to ask, I need to be humble, I need to help my children learn that there's a God in heaven.
[16:35] I need to get in the scriptures. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, 15, thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation.
[16:48] How do I know I need to be saved? The word of God points out and says, you're a sinner, buddy. You have failed Almighty God and you are wrong and you need to be saved. And then the Bible says to me, this is how you get saved.
[17:00] And so I get the wisdom that gets me saved. And I'll be honest, I think if it got me saved, it can get me the rest of it. If he started the work in me, he can finish the work in me.
[17:13] And it's going to take a long time, but we can. Biblically, we are to love and chase after wisdom all of our lives. We never get there. We never get there.
[17:25] Paul said, I forget those things that are behind and I reach forth. Paul said, I'm continuing to grow. We are to hunger for wisdom. Look, if you would, in Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 7.
[17:39] I know you read it, but look at it. Wisdom is the principal thing. Underline that. Boy, wisdom must be important in the book of Proverbs.
[17:52] In Proverbs chapter 4, it must be really important. I ought to be hungry for her. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom.
[18:02] And with all thy getting, get understanding. I'm hungry after. I'm to chase her. Look at verse 8. If you lift up wisdom, if you lift up truth, if you exalt truth, if your life is lived in pursuit of truth, he will promote you.
[18:21] She will promote you and she will bring honor if you'll just hug her. Look at the verse. If you'll just embrace her. Embrace wisdom.
[18:32] That doesn't mean you got it. It means you're chasing it. It means you got a ways to go, but you're chasing after it. Don't turn away from wisdom. Look at Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 6.
[18:44] Don't you leave her. Forsake her not. Forsake her not. She'll preserve you. Love her. And she'll keep you. So don't turn away. Don't turn away.
[18:56] There are times when the Word of God speaks to me, I don't really like what it says. It kind of can see down to the depths of my heart. It can split my soul and spirit in two.
[19:08] It can cut coming and going. The Word of God is working in my life and I might want to turn and walk away, but I've got to decide I'm going to continue after her.
[19:19] I will not forsake her. I am to pay attention and remember what I'm taught if I hunger. Look, if you would, at chapter 4 and verse 20. My son, attend to my words.
[19:31] Pay attention. Listen up. You know, so often when we read the Bible for our daily devotions, we just read it to get through it.
[19:43] And we come to church and we just listen to get through it. And he said, no, you pay attention. Then he said, lean your ears in. Incline thine ears unto my sayings.
[19:57] Excuse me when I say this to you, because Trent kind of regularly laughs at me being a country boy. But you ever ridden a horse? Boy, they'll lean them ears.
[20:08] They'll incline them ears. They hear something, they'll stick them ears that way. They're mad at you to put them the other way. Huh? Sometimes I think I put my ears that way towards God.
[20:22] And I need to put my ears that way towards, I turn them away from God because I'm not doing right. I need to attend. I need to incline my ears. Verse 21. Let them not depart from thine eyes.
[20:37] How many times you need to read your Bible before you can quit? How many times you get through it and say, well, I've done that now. You know, I'll be honest with you. I read most books once and I'm done.
[20:49] I mean, I might make a note. And then there's some books I'll read every few years. And there's some books I'll read quite often. And so somebody might say, well, you know, I read the Bible through once. But you know what you're supposed to do?
[21:01] You don't let her get out of your eyesight. Boy, I need this book. I need to get along with God. I need God to work in my heart. I need God to do something. I need to keep this word in the midst of my heart.
[21:15] I need to be careful to keep my heart in the way of wisdom. Verse 23. Keep your heart. Keep your heart with all diligence.
[21:27] Keep your heart with all diligence. For out of it are the issues of life. I need to think about what I'm learning. I need to ponder it. Look in verse 26.
[21:38] Ponder the path of your feet and let all thy ways be established. Think about it. A bunch of hicks I grew up with.
[21:49] Sometimes they'd say to you, I'm just a ponderer in that. I don't even think I hear that word anymore. They'd just be pondering. What are you doing? I'm pondering right now. But you know what you're doing?
[21:59] You're saying, boy, I'm trying to figure out exactly what God means when he says that. I'm trying to figure out exactly how I'm supposed to apply that to my life. I am going to keep pondering it. And then I've got to keep my eyes on the mark and not get off track.
[22:13] Look at chapter 4, verse 25. Let thine eyes look right on. Let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Look at that. If I'm going to follow wisdom, I need to look straight ahead.
[22:27] I need to look straight ahead. I need to be real careful to keep my eyes where they ought to be because there's a lot of stuff over here trying to get my attention. There's a lot of stuff over here trying to get my attention.
[22:38] And I need to keep my eyes straight ahead. I never plowed with a mule, but my dad did in front of me. And you put these blinders on them so they can only see straight ahead because if you let them look around.
[22:49] Now, I used to drive a tractor. And I often got distracted and got off track. And so I'd be driving along and my daddy would say, you run straight over to that tree. When you get over here, you pick one over here, you go straight line.
[23:01] And I'd be riding along and all of a sudden the deer would be over and I'd be looking at the deer. And I'd be like, whoa, get her right back in there. I would be, I was up in the top field and I was sowing grass seed.
[23:13] And I was standing up and singing as I sowed. And I was singing, going to the chapel and we're, that's mine and Betty's song back then. Going to get married.
[23:24] I'd stand up there just a singing away. And I got tired of singing and riding and that tractor noise. So I sat down and it wasn't long. I went to sleep. And the tractor just went where it wanted to.
[23:35] And then I ran into a tree. And that seed's still a pouring out. And I jumped it back and I turned around. I said, thank God, daddy will never know. Until it came up. And he said, boy, what happened up here?
[23:49] Well, I wasn't looking right on. I wasn't looking straight before me. Temptations calling you off the track. Money can call you off the track.
[24:00] A girlfriend or a boyfriend can call you off the track. Something on YouTube could call you off the track. Some kind of pornography could call you off the track. When you have a hunger and a desire to see what the world offers, you need to keep looking straight ahead.
[24:18] You're a weird bunch of people. You know, you married a woman and you plan on being married till you die. Nobody does that anymore. They want you to look over there. But you need to keep looking towards Jesus.
[24:31] And you're a weird bunch of people. Sitting there thinking about what David said about the giving. And look how much money you've given. David said, you could have bought some stuff. He said, keep your eyes.
[24:43] Ponder it. Look straight ahead. Are you hungering and seeking after wisdom? Desiring to know God's will for your life? Wishing to mature in the Lord and His grace.
[24:53] Number three. To truly seek wisdom, there are things to prevent. Things to avoid. So he starts off his chapter.
[25:04] He said, you seek wisdom. And then he ends up the chapter going, and you better stay off certain paths. Look if you would at verse 15. Avoid it. Pass not by it.
[25:14] Turn from it. Pass away. If you do that, she shall. Verse 9. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace. Verse 11.
[25:24] Look at it quickly. There is a way of wisdom. Would you underline that if you didn't a while ago? And there are right paths. Now go down to 14. There's a way of evil men.
[25:36] There's a way of lost men. Do you know there's like two different roads people are walking on today? And he says in verse 14. Don't enter there. Don't go there.
[25:47] Stay away from where the evil men walk. Verse 27. We're to avoid the wrong path. Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left.
[25:58] Get your feet away from what's evil. Remove thy foot from evil. We're not to even talk of rebellion and sin. In verse 24.
[26:10] Put away from thee a froward, a disobedient, and a crooked mouth, and a perverse, a devious, and a corrupt lips put far from you. Number four.
[26:22] We must protect our hearts. We have to protect our hearts. Verse 23. He said, keep thy heart with all diligence. For out of it are the issues of life.
[26:34] So let me just give you three or four things real quickly. We have to be careful about avoiding the hard heart. The perverse heart. The crooked heart. The devious heart. Verse 20 says, chapter Proverbs 11, 20.
[26:47] They that are of a froward heart are an abomination to the Lord, but such as are upright in their way are his delight. A froward heart, a hard heart, is a distorted, false, perverse, or crooked heart.
[27:01] It's the idea of a person that is not willing to yield or comply with what's required. It's unyielding, ungovernable, or disobedient. I'm not obeying God. That's the beginning of wisdom.
[27:13] It's an attitude at work about your employer or your customer or the government. It's an attitude about God and his word and not wanting to do what God wants you to do.
[27:23] It's an attitude of thinking you deserve it. Let's be careful of the hard heart. I don't want my heart to get hard. I don't want my heart to get heavy. Proverbs 12, 25.
[27:34] Heaviness in the heart of a man makes it stoop, but a good word makes it glad. Anxiety, fear, worry, sorrow. He commanded us to be anxious for nothing but to trust in him.
[27:49] Anxiety and worry will cause you to be depressed. It'll cause you to focus on problems and not solutions. It'll cause you to become bitter. And it's going to affect your family and your person, your business.
[28:02] Don't get a heavy heart. Keep a healthy heart. Proverbs 14, 30. A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bones.
[28:16] A sound heart means a healthy, wholesome, or yielding heart. It means keep your sins confessed. You're not going to make it without messing up. You're not going to make it without doing some things y'all not do.
[28:28] You're not going to make it without some failures in your life. And to act like you are is just a real arrogant attitude. But we have a sound heart. We go and say, boy, I really messed up for it. I need you to forgive me.
[28:39] I want to keep a right relationship with God. I'd like to give you the last thing. I want you to ponder. Think about what you're doing. Proverbs 4, 26.
[28:50] Underline, ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established. Ponder the path of thy feet.
[29:01] Turn not to the right hand nor the left hand. Remove your feet from evil. You know, if we think about it, he's promised us big stuff.
[29:13] If we'll just do right. Right here in this chapter. Look if you would at verse 10. He promised a longer life. Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many.
[29:28] Do right. Obey God. He'll give you more years. A long life, it says right here. In verse 12.
[29:39] If you follow wisdom and do right, you can walk without falling. If you stay in the way of wisdom, look at verse 12. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened.
[29:52] You won't be put in a rock in a hard place. And when you run, you won't fall. You won't stumble. When you follow wisdom, God will bless you and God will work in your life.
[30:04] When you follow wisdom, he'll give you more light. Look in verse 18. The path of the just is as the shining light that shines more and more under the perfect day.
[30:18] If you do right, stay in the path of wisdom and understanding, he'll give you health. Look at verse 22. For they are life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh.
[30:35] And he says, let me contrast that. I think you ought to read this chapter over and over. I think you'll enjoy it. But he contrasts the way of wisdom and the way of the world. He contrasts obedience and disobedience.
[30:48] He contrasts wisdom and foolishness. And I want to walk in the way of wisdom. In verse 16, he says, those wicked guys, they don't sleep good. Look at verse 16.
[31:00] They sleep not except they've done mischief. And their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall. These guys are eat up with doing wrong.
[31:12] Stay away from them. They may talk good to you. They may say things that you like. But as a believer, we need to stay away from people that aren't loving Jesus.
[31:24] If a guy's not in the way of wisdom, we want to stay away from him. If he's over here walking in the way of the world, I don't care how nice he talks. I don't care how friendly he is. I want to stay away from him.
[31:37] Verse 17. They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. Now look at verse 19. The way of the wicked is a dark way.
[31:51] Underline darkness. They know not what they stumble over. You ever done that? After I got out of the hospital with COVID just a few months ago, I finally got where I could walk and do everything again.
[32:04] And I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. And somehow I got turned. I know you got to go here, but I got turned just a little bit like that.
[32:15] And I walked straight to the bathroom and ran slap into the wall. And I couldn't figure out how Betty moved the wall. I'm trying to figure out where I am and trying to get out of there.
[32:27] You know, if you walk in darkness, you can stumble. Amen. But you and I got a flashlight and a half. You and I got light you can turn on.
[32:38] You and I got wisdom that we can get from God. Stay away from the wicked. Stay away from the world. Seek wisdom. Get wisdom.
[32:49] It's the principle thing. Father in heaven, I love you. And I thank you for the opportunity to share Proverbs 4 with your people. I know they're hungry for wisdom. That's why they're here.
[33:00] And I know they're doing right and doing the best they know how to do. And I just pray, God, you'd deal with all of our lives and all of our hearts. I pray, God, you'd show us what to do. I pray, God, that you would help those of us that have gotten off target and on the wrong path to get back on the right path.
[33:16] And this morning we might turn from the wicked path and get on the wisdom path. God, I'll give you honor and glory and praise for all you do. Would you please work now? I ask you.
[33:28] With heads bowed and eyes closed. If you're a believer and you've kind of stumbled over on the wrong path and you know that and Holy Spirit spoke to you about it. I'd like you to do like I've had to do as I prepared and studied.
[33:40] I realize ways I've messed up. As I prepare to preach, I often spend more time preaching to me. Maybe you ought to find a place to pray. If you're here or you're listening, the way of wisdom is the way of salvation.
[33:55] And that's where it starts. You realize that you have sinned against the Holy God and you realize that God is right and true. And you'll look to him and trust him and be saved. But I'd ask you right there in your home or right here in this room to realize that as long as you do wrong, as long as you do what you want to do, you won't have the right relationship with Jesus Christ.
[34:16] Today is the day to turn to Jesus, trust Jesus, follow Jesus, and obey Jesus. If you haven't trusted him, I ask you to do that now. Christian, I ask you to pray and think about where you're walking, how you're pondering, what you've been thinking about.
[34:34] Let's get it right with God today. Father, work now in this little time of singing and we'll give you praise. With every head bowed and every eye closed, you can pray there in your seat. Whenever you finish praying, you can stand and sing with Stephen as he leads us in a song.