Good morning, church.
My name is Matthew Capone,
and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,
and it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.
Special welcome if you're new with us.
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and there will be a pop-up immediately for our digital visitor card.
We encourage you to fill that out.
That gives us a chance to connect with you
and to help you connect with our community here.
Whether you are new or not,
I remind you, as I do every week,
that while we can see numbers, we can't always see names,
and while you can see me, I can't see you.
And so I encourage you to make a comment in the comment box
at the bottom right of the Facebook video.
You can say something as simple as,
hello, everyone, or good morning.
You can share who you're watching with
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and that will give us a sense of who's here with us
and also a sense of gathering together
even as we're separated during this time.
Today, we're going to start a series for this summer
in the book of Proverbs.
And the book of Proverbs is a book in the Old Testament,
which is the part of the Bible that was written before Jesus came.
And it's a book that contains Proverbs.
You probably know that Proverb is a short saying
that teaches a truth.
We have these in our culture today.
You'll hear people say things like this,
time is money.
Or you might hear someone say,
measure twice, cut once.
And those are short, pithy sayings
that capture a lot of truth,
something that people generally agree about.
Time is money.
When you spend time on something,
sometimes you can save that by spending money.
Measure twice, cut once.
Planning really matters.
And if you plan well,
you won't have to do something over again.
Now, the book of Proverbs includes these types of sayings,
and it's not less than that,
but it's actually much more than that.
It's a book about wisdom.
And wisdom is the study of how to live well in this world.
That's what we're gonna be looking at this morning,
at the very beginning,
the introduction to the book of Proverbs.
Before we jump in, though,
I wanna point out one thing
as we're going through this book together as a community.
The book of Proverbs is a community book.
It's a group project.
It's wisdom is something that we work on together.
And it just so happens that the book of Proverbs
has 31 chapters in it,
which is the maximum number of days
in any month on the calendar.
So one thing that my family and I did growing up,
and actually is a practice
that's been in the church for quite some time,
is the practice of reading the chapter of Proverbs
that goes along with the calendar day.
So for example, if it's the 1st of June,
you'd read the first chapter of the book of Proverbs.
If it's the 5th of July,
you'd read the fifth chapter of the book of Proverbs.
I encourage you all to consider that,
doing that as individuals or families during this time.
It's a wonderful Bible reading program,
and it's a great way to let the Proverbs sink in.
Proverbs are something that we have to chew on
and think about over a long period of time.
And so I just wanna commend that to you as we begin.
During this time of quarantine,
one of the things I've done
is I signed up for Disney Plus,
and I've been slowly working through the Star Wars series,
starting at episode one.
And if you're familiar with Star Wars,
of course, you know that the beginning of every movie,
there's the scrolling text that goes by
to give you the background information you need to know
before you enter into the story.
That's what we're gonna see this morning
in the book of Proverbs.
We're going to be looking in chapter one,
verses one through seven,
and it's the introduction to the book.
It's going to give us the paradigm and the framework
that we need to tackle everything else
that's going to follow in all 31 of these chapters.
And so as we come to this,
we're gonna simply ask a couple of questions.
First of all, what is wisdom?
And second, how do we get it?
What is wisdom and how do we get it?
It's with those that we're gonna turn to Proverbs chapter one.
I invite you to turn with me either on a web browser,
on your computer, you can turn on your phone,
turn in your Bible, however you do it.
Remember that this is God's word.
And Proverbs chapter 30, verse five,
tells us that every word of God proves true.
He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Since for that reason that we read now,
starting at verse one,
the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel,
to know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity,
to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth.
Verse five,
let the wise hear and increase in learning
and the one who understands obtain guidance.
To understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
I invite you to pray with me
as we come to this portion of God's word.
Our Father in heaven, we praise you
and we thank you that you promise us
in James chapter one, verse five,
that you give wisdom to those who ask.
We thank you that one of the ways you've given us wisdom
is through the book of Proverbs.
And we come now asking for that wisdom and that help,
that you would send your spirit now to be with us,
that you would speak to us through your word,
that you would use it to change us,
and that you'd grow us up in wisdom.
We ask most importantly that we would know and see
and understand Jesus as the ultimate embodiment
and teacher and guide for us,
that we can have wisdom,
but we can only have it in him.
We ask these things,
not because we have earned them or deserve them,
but because we can ask them in Jesus' name.
Amen.
The story is often told of a king,
and some of you may have heard this story before,
who is presented with a very challenging situation.
There's two women,
two prostitutes who live in the same house together,
and they both give birth to children
within several days of one another.
And so they both have these newborns,
and there's a tragedy that strikes.
One of them accidentally lays on top of her newborn
while she's sleeping,
and the newborn dies.
Well, no one else is in the house when this happens,
and the claim is that one of the women,
the woman whose child dies,
switches her child with the one who is living.
And so there's a dispute between them.
One mother says,
hey, that child, the live child's actually mine.
But the other mother claims the same.
And so both of them are claiming
that the child who's alive belongs to them,
and they have to go to this king
to have the dispute settled.
Well, there's an incredible challenge, right?
There's no witnesses.
Both of the children are around the same age,
and both women are claiming that it's theirs.
And so what do you do in that kind of situation?
Well, this king is a king of great wisdom,
and so he comes up with a solution.
He says, well, since we can't agree
about who this child belongs to,
I just say we cut the child in half,
and one half be given to each woman.
At that point, one of the women says,
yes, that sounds like a great plan.
Let's do that.
And the other one says, no,
there's no way we can do that.
Just give the other woman the child
so that that doesn't have to happen.
And at that point, the king realizes
the truth of the situation, right?
The mother who says, just cut the child in half,
that's the mother who's not the real mother.
And the one who says, whatever needs to be done
for this child to stay alive, that's the true mother.
And so he resolves the dispute,
and everyone in the kingdom marvels
at the wisdom of this king.
Now, the reason that story probably sounds familiar
to many of you is it's a story from the Bible.
It's a story that shows up in 1 Kings 3
about a man named Solomon.
He was the third king in the kingdom of Israel.
And he's the king who had an opportunity
to receive whatever he asked for.
And earlier in the chapter,
God comes to him and says, what do you want?
And of all the things that Solomon could ask for,
he tells God, what I want is I want wisdom.
And so God, impressed by this,
says you could have asked for many things.
You could have asked for riches, for wealth, for honor.
But since you've asked for wisdom,
I'll give you that,
and I'll give you everything else as well.
And in fact, not only will I give you wisdom,
but I will make you the wisest man who's ever lived.
The wisest man of anyone who's come before you,
and the wisest man of anyone who's come after you.
It's this king, King Solomon,
that we meet at the very beginning here in chapter one.
We're told these are the Proverbs of Solomon,
the son of David, king of Israel.
And so we know right away
that we have an authoritative voice.
This is someone that we should listen to.
It would be as if you had a book
that you picked up about investments,
and you realize this is a book written by Warren Buffett.
Well, I should probably listen to what he has to say.
He's a good investor.
He's one of the greatest investors.
Here's Solomon, a man who's wise,
man of the greatest wisdom.
So there's tremendous credibility there.
Now, the story from 1 Kings 3
doesn't just tell us that Solomon has wisdom
and he has credibility,
but it gives us an example of what wisdom is.
Wisdom goes beyond simply just knowing right from wrong,
and it gets into the skill of working between those two.
Solomon knew what was right.
He wanted justice.
He wanted the mother, the true mother,
to have the live child.
And yet wanting those things and knowing those things,
knowing the right goal,
knowing right from wrong wasn't enough.
There was a skill that was necessary
to navigate that situation.
And so that highlights one aspect of wisdom for us
as we're asking this question about what is wisdom.
Wisdom is commonly defined as skill in the art of living.
Skill in the art of living.
Some people have added skill in the art of righteous living
or godly living.
It's operating well in God's world.
It's operating well in the gray areas.
It's saying, I know what's right and what's wrong,
and there's this space in between that I need to navigate.
In fact, that's a situation for many of us.
Justice Solomon, it wasn't enough for him to know what was right.
He needed to act within it.
It's the same for us.
So often we know what's right and wrong,
and yet we're presented with very challenging situations.
For example, you might be someone who's single
and you want to be married.
Well, you know right from wrong, right?
You know there are certain boundaries.
You know if you're a Christian,
God has commanded you to only marry other Christians.
And yet within those boundaries,
how do you make sure you're actually
pursuing a relationship that's good?
How do you choose the right partner?
Well, you need wisdom, right?
On the one hand, you could have standards
and requirements that are unrealistic.
And so you could end up being single,
wishing you were married.
On the other hand, your standards could be too low, right?
You might marry another Christian,
but it's a foolish choice,
and you end up married, wishing you were single.
And so how do you navigate that kind of decision?
Well, you need wisdom.
We could say the same about conflict.
Do you know that sometimes you have to have
hard conversations with other people?
Sometimes you have to engage in conflict.
Well, how do you decide when it's time to overlook
something that someone's done against you?
And how do you decide when it's time to confront it?
And when you do confront it, how do you confront it?
Do you do it in a way that's strong and strident?
Do you do it in a way that's gentle and indirect?
Do you do it in a way that's direct and clear?
How do you navigate that kind of situation?
Well, you need wisdom.
Maybe you're someone who knows that God has called his people
to care for the poor.
And yet you also know there are wise and helpful ways
of doing that and unwise and unhelpful ways of doing that.
In fact, that's an issue for us here in Colorado Springs.
As you drive around and you're parked at a traffic light,
you may look on the median and see some of those signs
that are around our town that say,
please don't give money to panhandlers.
Give the money, but give it to one of the agencies
that helps them.
That's a statement of wisdom.
That's a way of saying, hey, we all know our goal here.
We know that we want and are called by God
to care for the poor.
And yet in that, we have to navigate it well.
We need incredible wisdom.
And so our goal is good in many situations,
but we need to have strategies and tactics.
We need to have a plan.
Wisdom is the study of how to have those strategies
and those tactics.
That's what we see here in verses two and three.
The purpose of this book is to know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
and to receive instruction in wise dealing.
All those situations that I just described
would be situations that require wise dealing.
They'd be situations that require wisdom.
And so wisdom helps us navigate the path of life.
It's our first answer here to what is wisdom.
It helps us navigate the path of life.
It doesn't just do that, however.
It also helps us to stay on the path.
That's what we see here, the second half of verse three.
Wisdom is not just this skill in navigating certain situations,
but there is a component to it about right versus wrong.
We're receiving instruction here in wise dealing,
but also, this is verse three,
in righteousness, justice, and equity.
So wisdom is involved in knowing what's right and what's wrong.
It's about navigating the path.
It's also about staying on the path.
It's not just good life advice.
And so we will find a variety of types of advice
about a variety of situations in the book of Proverbs.
Some of them will just be how to be wise with your money,
how to be wise in relationships.
Some of it will be about avoiding what's wrong.
We're going to receive many warnings in this book
from staying out of situations that might lead to temptation.
And so wisdom helps us to know
when we put ourselves in a situation
that isn't necessarily sinful in and of itself,
but could easily and quickly lead to sin.
And on the other hand, it's going to help us to know
how to put ourselves in situations
that are going to lead to more and more righteousness.
Wisdom is something that helps us understand
how to fill the space between what's right and wrong.
And it's also something that helps us to stay away,
far away from what's wrong.
We then see that wisdom here is for everyone.
Verse four, it's for the simple and for the youth.
But it's also verse five for the wise.
And so everyone needs to learn what's here in this book.
We'll also see, and this is in verses two and six,
that there's a skill even to reading the book of Proverbs.
We'll talk about this more as we continue,
but verse two, understand words of insight.
Verse six, understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
In other words, there's a good and helpful
and wise way to read Proverbs,
and there's a foolish way to read them.
And so our goal as we go along
is going to be to read them in a way that's wise,
that interprets them as they're meant to be read.
And so that gives us our first answer here.
What is wisdom?
Wisdom is the skill, skill in the art of living.
It's navigating the path of right,
and it's staying far away from what's wrong.
It's critical in all areas of our life.
And so that raises our next question.
If wisdom is so important, so critical
to navigating what God has given us,
how do we get it?
How do we get wisdom?
Well, thankfully, the author of Proverbs
doesn't leave us to wonder.
We're told, verse seven,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Now, if you're familiar with the Bible,
you know that this phrase,
the fear of the Lord appears over and over,
and that raises the question of what it actually means.
First of all, we know what it doesn't mean.
The fear of the Lord is not this great fear
of God's wrath and destruction and punishment.
We know that because we're told in 1 John 4, verse 18,
that perfect love casts out fear.
And the fear that's being talked about in that passage
is the fear of judgment.
The reason that it's not the fear of judgment
is because the fear of the Lord
is for people who belong to God.
And people who belong to God
know that Jesus has paid the penalty for their sin.
And so they don't have to fear that punishment.
However, there is a real type of fear.
And so if we know that's what it doesn't mean,
we have to look into what the fear of the Lord
actually does mean.
This phrase appears almost 20 times
in the book of Proverbs.
And when it appears,
there seems to be several things that are emphasized.
First of all, the fear of the Lord
includes this hatred of and turning away from evil.
We see that in Proverbs 3, verse 7,
as well as chapter 8, verse 13.
People who fear the Lord love what God loves
and they hate what God hates.
There's another element to the fear of the Lord
though that's emphasized even more.
In fact, we see it in this verse, verse 7.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction,
which means that people who fear the Lord, what?
Well, they love wisdom and instruction.
So people who fear the Lord
are people who are humble.
They're teachable.
They desire to learn and be taught by God.
In fact, one of the characteristics of the fool,
as it states here in verse 7,
is they're not open to being taught.
And so the book of Proverbs,
learning wisdom, growing in wisdom,
requires an acknowledgement, an admission,
a confession that we're not as wise as we need to be.
And that the wisdom we need is wisdom that comes from God.
One definition of fear of the Lord that I find helpful is this.
It's simply a way of talking about one's attitude toward God,
an attitude of submission, respect, dependence, and worship.
So that submission and that respect,
that submitting to what God says,
it's that loving of what's good and hating what's evil.
It's a dependence,
knowing that God's the one who provides what we need,
and it's worship as well.
Fear of the Lord is recognizing God's worthiness and his holiness.
That's what leads us to worship him,
and that's what leads us to follow him.
And so we can describe a God-fearing person in this way,
someone who fears God,
believes that God really does know what's best.
A person who fears God makes it their goal to stay far away from sin.
They're not trying to get away with as much as possible.
They're not trying to get as close to the line as they can
without doing what's wrong.
Instead, they're pursuing wholeheartedly what's good and what's right.
And they do it because of their love for God,
and also because their knowledge
that even though we don't have fear of God's punishment,
God disciplines his children.
People who fear the Lord are more concerned with what God thinks
than what other people think.
And so when there's peer pressure to do something
that God doesn't approve of,
the man or the woman,
the boy or the girl who fears the Lord,
will stand strong
because their fear of the Lord is greater
than the fear of man.
Now, if that's the fear of the Lord,
second, we have to know,
how does the fear of the Lord relate to wisdom?
And this is a point that can be challenging for many of us
because as we think about wisdom,
we have to acknowledge,
as we talk about skill in these various areas,
there are people who don't know God,
who don't fear the Lord,
who seem to have that type of skill.
There are people who don't fear the Lord,
who seem to know the right words to say at the right time.
There are people who don't fear the Lord,
who seem to know how to manage money well.
And so how can we say that without the fear of the Lord,
there's no wisdom?
Well, I want you to think about it this way.
Many years ago,
I led a small group of high school guys
at the church I was at at the time,
and I had a running joke with them.
I would tell them,
you know, when you're out and about,
when you're a young man,
when you're dating,
you have to make sure
if you're dating a woman that she fears the Lord.
And I would tell them,
there's one way that you figure this out.
It's very important.
The first date, you just ask them.
You just straight up say,
do you fear the Lord?
Now, that was a joke
because that's a terrible idea.
It's one of the last things
you want to do on a first date.
It's way too intense.
It's not a helpful way of determining
if someone actually loves God, right?
You look at what they do and not what they say.
And so it was a joke in between us,
and they love to bring it up to me
and ask me about it
and mention it from time to time.
But there was a sense in which it wasn't a joke.
I was making a serious point to them,
which was this.
It doesn't matter how beautiful
or attractive someone is.
It doesn't matter how skillful they are,
what they do.
It doesn't matter how pleasant they are to be around.
If they don't fear God,
you're not dating them.
They're not dating material.
None of those other things are relevant in any way.
Those things matter
only if you know that this is someone
who shares your love and commitment to God.
The same is true for wisdom.
It doesn't matter how wise someone might appear to be.
It doesn't matter what skill they might have
in relationships with other people.
It doesn't matter how good they are at managing money.
It doesn't matter if they have their anger under control
and their emotional life is well-ordered.
If they don't fear the Lord,
they are not wise
in the way that the Bible speaks about wisdom.
If you don't fear the Lord,
everything else is irrelevant, right?
You're not dating that person.
If someone doesn't fear the Lord,
everything else is irrelevant.
They are not wise.
And this is for several reasons.
Many of you know,
some of you live in this area,
that on the Broadmoor Bluffs part of town,
on Broadmoor Bluffs Drive,
there are houses that have had to be torn down.
And the reason these houses had to be torn down
is that they were standing on an area
that was susceptible to landslides.
And so while these houses
might be beautiful from the outside,
while they might have many wonderful elements to them,
the foundation makes it a house
not that's beautiful,
but that's incredibly dangerous.
Having a landslide as the foundation of your house
is a recipe for disaster.
And so there might be many elements
of a great house there.
We might have granite countertops.
There might be gorgeous crown molding in the house.
The paint might've been done
in a way that's wonderful and impressive.
There might be an amazing layout.
It might be well furnished.
We might enter that house
and feel welcome and hospitality.
And yet if the foundation is falling apart,
nothing else matters.
That house is actually destructive.
It's dangerous.
There might be some external elements of wisdom
in someone's life.
But if their foundation is not built
on the fear of the Lord,
on the love of God and obedience,
that worship and respect
and submission and dependence,
there might be some appearance of wisdom,
but there is no true wisdom there.
They are actually headed to a place of destruction.
And the same is true of wisdom.
No matter how competent you are in life,
outside of the fear of the Lord,
you are not wise.
Wise.
There were warnings as early as 1974
that this was not a smart area of town
to be building houses in.
And yet builders continued, right?
They continued in spite of the warnings,
not paying them any heed.
The warning here from the book of Proverbs is for us.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom.
And if that's not our foundation,
then nothing else matters.
Now, as you're listening, you may be thinking,
okay, it sounds like I can live a great life now.
It's just that something in the future won't end well.
There will be a time in this life
where I can still use these principles
that maybe are taught in the book of Proverbs.
I can still figure out how to have good relationships.
I can figure out how to be successful in business.
And I can just disagree
about whether the foundation is good or not.
I don't fear the Lord,
but I can still live a wise life.
Well, it's actually worse than that.
It's not just that these houses
had dangerous foundations
that one day could lead to disaster and destruction.
It's also that that disastrous foundation
threatened the houses even while they were standing.
One family described their experience this way.
Cracks began to appear in the house.
Then as the foundation was sort of shifting,
they got to a point
where they couldn't open doors or windows.
In other words,
the wrong foundation affected everything.
It's not that there was this beautiful house
with a bad foundation,
but there was a house with a bad foundation,
and so it was compromised in every way.
It was dangerous in every way.
There was a hole that began to develop
in the basement of this house.
The same is true for us as well.
If we don't fear God,
but we fear man,
the structure of our lives
will be compromised in every way.
And this can happen in a variety of situations.
If we don't fear God,
but fear man, for example,
there will come a time
where we won't be able to stand for what's right.
We won't be able,
we won't be capable of choosing wisdom
because we care more about what others think
than what we know we need to do.
We'll also be vulnerable to the foolishness around us.
I've highlighted that there are people
who are not Christians
who have some aspects of wisdom,
and yet they live in a culture
that's filled with foolishness.
And so we might see certain areas
that reflect wisdom,
but there's always going to be areas
of incredible foolishness.
For example,
in our culture,
you might be able to receive
the advice you need
to be wise in certain ways about money.
And yet if you don't fear the Lord,
you will receive only foolishness
or mostly foolishness
when it comes to sexuality.
Even worse than that,
maybe you have some appearance of wisdom
in dealing with money,
but you really won't be wise in your money.
You'll have it for the wrong end.
You won't be able to shake the anxiety
that surrounds it.
And you won't understand the balance
that you can only learn from Jesus
when he says,
do not store up treasure on earth
where moth and rust destroy,
but store it up in heaven
where they cannot destroy.
So the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom.
It's the true foundation
and it's the only foundation.
Without a true and right fear of God,
the structures of our life
will be compromised in every way.
And so we must have wisdom.
We can only get it from this fear.
Now, in the Old Testament,
as I mentioned,
that was written before the time
that Jesus came.
And it's a book that tells us
it comes in verse one from Solomon
who we discussed earlier.
But we as people who live
after the writing of the New Testament,
people who live after Jesus came,
have the privilege of knowing even more
than the original readers of this book did.
We know Jesus' words
in Matthew chapter 12, verse 42,
where he tells us
that the queen of the south
will rise up at the judgment
with this generation and condemn it.
For she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon
and behold,
something greater than Solomon is here.
Jesus is referencing another story
from the Old Testament
about a time that a queen
came to King Solomon
to ask him all her questions.
That's the queen of the south
that's referenced here.
And he's saying,
look, this woman traveled
from the ends of the earth
to hear from Solomon,
who was the wisest man.
I, Jesus,
am even wiser
and greater than Solomon.
And so how much more
should you come to me
for wisdom?
We learn in John chapter one,
for example,
that the world is created
through Jesus.
And so it shouldn't surprise us
in any way
that he has all wisdom.
If wisdom is the skill
of operating in this world,
the one who made it
should be the one
who's able to tell us
how to function well within it.
He's also the one
who enables
and empowers
our fear of the Lord.
If fear of the Lord
is not fear of punishment,
then we need someone
to take our punishment for us.
Jesus allows us
to have that true fear
of the Lord
because he's the one
who takes our punishment.
And so we're able
to have the fear of the Lord
that looks like
the relationship
of a child to their parent,
looking to them for wisdom,
fearing their displeasure,
knowing their punishment,
but never having to worry
about their relationship
being broken.
We have that relationship
with God,
that potential,
that opportunity
to fear him
through Jesus
who allows us
to be his brothers
and to be adopted
as God's sons
and his daughters.
And so he makes it
so that our fear
cannot be of punishment,
but of God
as our true
and great Father.
Colossians chapter 2,
verse 3,
tells us,
in Jesus are hidden
all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge.
And then finally,
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1,
we're told
that the foolishness
of God
is wiser than men
and the weakness of God
is stronger than men.
That's a reference
ultimately
to Jesus' death.
That,
as one man
has put it,
there's a wisdom
that the world
doesn't understand
in the fact
that God uses
an instrument
of torture,
the cross,
as an instrument
of salvation.
And so Jesus
is our wisdom.
He's the one
who knows
how this world operates.
He's the one
who gives us
that wisdom.
He's the one
who allows us
to have true fear
of the Lord.
And he shows
that wisdom
for us
and enables it
and empowers it
in his death
for us
on the cross.
And so as we come
to the book
of Proverbs,
as we come
to this section,
we need the fear
of the Lord
and we need
to not be fools.
We don't despise
wisdom and instruction.
Instead,
we confess
our need
for wisdom,
for true wisdom.
We confess
that we're foolish,
that we don't know
everything that we need
to know.
We confess
our sin
that without
Jesus and his help
and his forgiveness,
we're unable
not only to access
wisdom but to want it.
And so we come
to Jesus letting
him be the wise
man who guides us,
the one who gives
us the fear
of the Lord.
And God's promise
to us is that
he gives it to those
who ask.
In James 1,
verse 5,
that we're told
that those who ask
for wisdom
receive it.
It says,
if any of you
lacks wisdom,
let him ask God
who gives generously
to all without reproach
and it will be given
him.
And so we trust
Jesus' wisdom
and we ask
him for wisdom.
What is wisdom
and how do we get it?
Wisdom is skill
in the art of living.
It's operating well
within the boundaries
that God's given us.
It's also staying
within the boundaries
that God's given us.
And we get it
through the fear
of the Lord,
knowing that that is
the and the only
foundation for wisdom
in our lives.
A fear that is
we're given
through and by
Jesus Christ.
Jesus tells us
a story about
being wise
and foolish
in Matthew chapter 7,
verses 24 through 27.
Jesus says,
everyone then
who hears these words
of mine
and does them
will be like
a wise man
who built his house
on the rock.
And the rain fell
and the floods came
and the winds blew
and beat on that house,
but it did not fall
because it had been
founded on the rock.
And everyone
who hears these words
of mine
and does not do them
will be like
a foolish man
who built his house
on the sand.
And the rain fell
and the floods came
and the winds blew
and beat against that house
and it fell
and great
was the fall of it.
Proverbs chapter 30,
verse 5,
tells us that
every word of God
proves true.
He is a shield
to those
who take refuge
in him.
And so we come
running to Jesus
knowing that
he is our wisdom,
knowing that
he's the one
that we fear
and he's the one
who brings us to God.
So we ask him
for that knowing
and trusting
that he will provide
it for us,
growing us up
in the wisdom
that we so desperately need.
I invite you now
to pray with me.
Our Father in heaven,
we thank you
that you do give wisdom
to those who ask.
And so we come again
asking you for it,
that you'd give us
the wisdom to know
that we can't find life
outside of you
and you'd give us
the fear
that causes us
to pursue
that life from you.
We thank you
that we don't have
to pull ourselves up
by our bootstraps,
but instead we trust
and look to Jesus
in whom all the treasures
of wisdom
and knowledge
are found.
And so we ask these things
in his name.
Amen.
As we end our time together,
I'm going to leave you
with a benediction.
Remember that a benediction
is a good word
from God.
It's a word
that's true
in a world
filled with words
that are not true.
It's tradition
for the minister
to hold up his hand
to send out God's blessing
on God's people
and for God's people
to hold out their hands
to receive God's blessing.
So I invite you,
even as we're separated physically,
to hold out your hands now
and hear God's good word
over you
from Numbers chapter 6.
The Lord bless you
and keep you.
The Lord make his face
to shine upon you
and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up
his countenance upon you
and give you peace
now and forever.
So go now
in the grace and peace
of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Thank you all so much
for joining us
and we look forward
to seeing you very soon.
Amen.