Amen.
Good morning.
Let me make my annual summer announcement.
It's warm today.
It will get warmer before the end of the...
If you need to get up, move to the back, find a fan, get a drink of water to keep you awake
and to allow you to continue to listen, please feel free to do so.
If you are suffering, I know it is cooler downstairs, so if you need to move downstairs, there are
speakers as well down there.
So, this is but a foretaste of our summer, friends, but the Lord is with us.
So, let me pray for us before we look into God's Word this morning.
Please pray with me.
Lord, we come to you this morning and we acknowledge how much we need you.
Lord, even as we have sung of your goodness, sung of the remarkable mercy you have shown
us in Christ, Lord, we are reminded of how often we lose sight of that in our daily lives.
And Lord, as we come to your Word this morning, we pray that by your Word you would remind us
of the kind of God you are, Lord, and that you would help us, Lord, that in our hearts and
in our minds, in our words and in our actions, Lord, that we would respond to all that you
have done.
Lord, with faith.
God, I ask this morning for your help as I speak.
And Lord, I pray that even though it is warm, Lord, you will help us by your Spirit to listen
to your Word.
Lord, to allow your Word to do the work that you want to do in us this morning.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So, I'm not much of a handyman.
I have tools.
I don't always know how to use them well.
But the other week, my son got into his eight-year-old creative mind, a thought that he wanted to
make a spaceship out of wood.
And we have scrap wood in our garage, as maybe some of you do.
And so, we pulled out the scrap wood, and I said, okay, here's what you do.
You design it.
I'll cut it.
You build it.
We have glue.
We have nails.
That's about as far as we go.
But he loves it.
And so, he drew some designs on a couple of pieces of scrap plywood and said, dad, can
you cut this?
And so, I make the first cut, and that was pretty easy.
And then the second one, gosh, I just couldn't get it right.
The blade just kept binding.
And I thought, what is going on here?
And then I looked more carefully, and I realized, well, this plywood has a grain.
And I am cutting against the grain of the plywood, and it makes it a whole lot harder to do what
I want to do.
Friends, as we continue our series in Proverbs this morning, and as we talk about biblical
wisdom, what we're going to look at this morning is a bit of an understanding of how
wisdom could be defined as living according to the grain of God, his character, and how he has
made the world.
We don't always do this very well.
If you stop and think about it, our lives are full of frustrations, difficulties, challenges.
All of this, like my saw trying to cut on the angle against the grain of the wood.
Our lives feel like that sometimes.
C.S. Lewis writes, searchingly, I think, about how we think about this.
He's writing, he uses the word morality, but I think that wisdom could be imported to have
the same meaning in this passage.
I want to read this so that you can think about how you respond to the idea that wisdom
is living according to the grain of how God has made the world.
Lewis writes this, there's a story about a schoolboy who was asked what he thought God
was like.
He replied that as far as he could make out, God was the sort of person who's always snooping
around to see if anyone was enjoying himself and then trying to stop it.
Now, I'm afraid that this sort of idea in the world, I'm afraid that this is the sort
of idea that the world morality raises in a good many people's minds.
Something that interferes, something that stops you from having a good time.
Lewis then says this, in reality, moral rules are directions for running the human machine.
Every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown or strain or friction in the running of that
machine.
That is why the rules at first seem to be constantly interfering with our natural inclination.
When you are being taught to use any machine, the instructor keeps on saying, no, no, don't
do it like that.
Because, of course, there are all sorts of things that may look right, look all right, and seem
to you the natural way of treating the machine, but do not really work.
And friends, as we come to this question of wisdom and how we relate to it, I think this
is the problem that we have.
And that is that though maybe we would say we want God's wisdom, when push comes to shove,
we think we know better, often, how the machine ought to work.
We often believe that we have an idea of how we ought to live, and we don't understand and
don't respond to God properly in the midst of it.
Think about the storyline of the Bible for a minute.
Is this not the very root of the very beginning of the fall in Genesis 3?
God, having created a great world, gave Adam and Eve instructions, this is how you are to
live, walk in it.
I give you a few instructions on how this world is meant to live for your good.
But when the tempter came, he said, did God really say?
And underneath it, he was saying, is God's rules really good?
Maybe there's another way.
Rather than submitting to God and receiving from him wisdom, maybe you can go out on your
own.
Maybe you can be like God, knowing good and evil on your own, apart from him.
Sometimes our resistance to wisdom is willful.
I don't want to do it that way.
I want to do it my way.
That's what my child thinks when he picks up a knife and says, Daddy, let me cut the vegetables.
No, you don't know how to do it yet.
You will hurt yourself.
No, Daddy, I want to do it my way.
Daddy, can I use the circular saw?
No, you don't know how to use it yet.
Sometimes it's lack of understanding.
We don't know how to live.
Maybe those of you who are parents feel like this.
What does wisdom look like?
Maybe you're in a dating relationship.
What does wisdom look like?
But in the midst of it, it's easy for our hearts to not turn from God, but away to ourselves,
to the world, to many other sources of wisdom.
Our passage this morning, as we continue in Proverbs, we have yet another call, yet another
summons to embrace wisdom to embrace wisdom and to see it as good and right.
But here in this passage, we see a bit more of an explanation as well as to why.
Why is wisdom worth pursuing?
So we're going to look at that this morning.
If you want to turn with me in your pew Bibles to Proverbs chapter 8.
It's page 532 in your pew Bibles.
Proverbs chapter 8.
Most of this chapter is an apology.
We'll see verse 6 all the way through verse 31 is the reasons why with the beginning and
the end, setting our scene, and then giving a final call to respond.
So that's…
We're going to look at it along this way.
So read with me, if you will, Proverbs chapter 8.
We're going to read it in sections and look at them in sections.
So Proverbs chapter 8, verses 1 through 5.
Does not wisdom call?
Does not understanding raise her voice on the heights beside the way?
At the crossroads, she takes her stand.
Beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals, she cries aloud,
To you, O man, I call, and my cry is to the children of man.
O simple ones, learn prudence.
O fools, learn sense.
In the introduction, the writer here sets up wisdom as a personified…
A town crier, if you will.
And one of the things that's striking here is that she is going to particular places
where she is going to be most heard.
She is in the public square where she is going to have the greatest opportunity to interact
with those in the city.
If you see it, look again.
On the heights beside the way, think of a pathway through Israel where she's standing
up on a higher place so that when she speaks, the whole area around will be able to hear
her.
Or she goes to the crossroads where multiple people will meet her along the way.
Or she goes to the gates of the town, which is where, if you know, the elders, the wise
of the town would tend to sit.
And also it would be the funnel whereby everyone coming in and out of the town would have to
walk.
So wisdom is calling out to say, I have a platform in the public square and I'm crying
to you.
My appeal is to all of you.
And the appeal is also, interestingly, aimed at a particular kind of people.
If you look at verses 4 and 5.
First of all, I want to say this is not a gender-specific call.
Wisdom is not for men and not for women in the Bible.
Wisdom is for all people.
The writer here is using gender as a relational literary form to explain this interaction.
But we need to make sure that we don't misunderstand it and think, oh wait, is God saying wisdom
is more for men than wisdom?
No, of course not.
Wisdom is for all of his people.
Secondly, look at verse 5.
He says, I speak particularly to those who are simple and to the fools.
And interestingly, these words don't tend to…
There's a whole range of these kinds of words in Proverbs.
And some of them on one end are those who are heart-resistant to God.
Those tend to be described as the scoffers or the mockers.
And at times, fool is also used in that category.
But here, the connotation, and particularly when you combine it with simple, the simple-minded,
is that it's not those who don't want God's wisdom, but it's those who don't have God's
wisdom but who need it.
So there are people who are inexperienced in life.
Often it's viewed perhaps as a young man, the children.
So those who are inexperienced, those who are naive.
And when we stop and think about it, isn't that actually all of us?
Aren't we all inexperienced in the ways of God?
Aren't we all naive about the riches and the depth of the wisdom of God?
But the call is to those who know that they need it.
The call is to those who are aware of their lack.
And so in humility and weakness, have an opportunity to hear the words of wisdom.
This is the call that wisdom puts out for us.
And it says, embrace it.
Embrace what I have to say to you.
This is the setup then for the main part of the passage where we see two things.
Two things that wisdom gives us that commends wisdom to us.
Why wisdom is good.
First, in verses 6 through 21, we see that wisdom shapes the form of a good life before God.
Let's read this together and think about what it says about that.
Starting in verse 6.
Here, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right.
For my mouth will utter truth.
Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
All the words of my mouth are righteous.
There's nothing twisted or crooked in them.
They're all straight to him who understands and right to those who find knowledge.
Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold.
For wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil, pride and arrogance, and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
I have counsel and sound wisdom.
I have insight.
I have strength.
By me, kings reign and rulers decree what is just.
By me, princes rule and nobles all who govern justly.
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
Riches and honor are with me.
Enduring wealth and righteousness.
My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver.
I walk in the way of righteousness and in the path of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me and filling their treasuries.
Wisdom personifies herself here and talks about the goodness of wisdom and how it reflects the character of God.
So, in verses 6 through 9, look with me.
You see that there's a commitment to and a reflection of wisdom being rooted in truth and the truthfulness of God.
Wisdom is straight, not crooked.
It's made up of words that are not perverted or lead to evil, but words that are righteous.
There is a sense in which wisdom follows a plumb line of God's truth.
You know what a plumb line is?
A plumb line is something that builders put up in order to tell what vertical is.
Because gravity is the best definer of what is truly up and down in a place.
And so, I'm sure some of you scientists are like, well, that's not really true.
But bear with me, right?
This is what the biblical idea of what a plumb line is at least, right?
A plumb line gives you a straight and a standard measure.
And what wisdom is saying here is, what I speak to you is according to this plumb line of God's character of truth.
And then it goes on in verses 12 through 14.
I'm going to skip over a couple and I'll bring those back at the end.
Verses 12 through 14.
It's fascinating.
One of the commentators, Tremper Longman, described this section as a bit of a personal introduction.
Wisdom is saying, this is who I am.
And one of the ways you know who someone is is by who they associate with.
So, look with me in verses 12 through 14.
I, wisdom, dwell with prudence.
And I find knowledge and discretion.
The fear of the Lord is a hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance in the way of evil and perverted speech.
I hate.
I have counsel and sound wisdom.
I have insight and I have strength.
And wisdom then is characterized by some of these facets of things that she dwells with.
What wisdom brings is an ability to navigate life.
An ability to be sober-minded.
That's the idea of prudence.
Discretion is to think carefully and to understand the root of the issue
and to be able to respond properly to it.
Counsel and sound wisdom and insight are, again, creating a framework of understanding.
And interestingly, in verse 14, it has strength too.
Wisdom is not simply a nice idea, but there is a robustness to wisdom that gives this framework,
that gives this worldview, that gives this set of principles on how to live,
a strength for your life that is beautiful.
And as we'll see later, it's rooted in something even deeper.
And you see in verse 13, fundamentally, wisdom hates evil.
There is no realpolitik in wisdom.
There is no compromise to the fallenness of the world.
Wisdom navigates a way through and in the fallenness of the world that is right before God.
And it fights in every place against evil, against injustice.
And again, we see in these things the character of God for us.
Then, interestingly, he goes from a personal to, in verses 15 through 17, he says,
and by wisdom, this is actually how society, when society works rightly,
this is how society works.
And so kings are able to rule, princes are able to rule by me,
for me, those who govern justly, and this is the qualifier,
those who govern justly do so because they're walking in the paths of wisdom.
Those who do what is right in leadership,
those who shape our society in ways that are helpful and productive,
are those who walk in the way of wisdom that reflect God's wisdom.
So I think what the psalmist is saying here in verses 15 through 17.
And then what you see in verses 18 through 21,
he picks up a theme that he had actually mentioned earlier in 6 through 9,
that this wisdom is of surpassing value.
Fascinating, verse 11, do you see what it says there?
Wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
Here you see the psalmist laying out that challenge that we talked about at the beginning.
You may desire this, but wisdom says this.
Will you value wisdom because it comes from God
greater than your own desires, than your own thoughts,
than your own patterns of understanding?
So what do we do with this passage?
Oh, no, there's one other thing I wanted to say about that that's important.
Look with me at 18 through 21, right?
Riches and honor are with me.
Enduring wealth and righteousness,
my fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,
and my yield than choice silver.
I walk in the ways of righteousness,
in the paths of justice,
granting an inheritance to those who love me,
filling their treasuries.
Now here's the tricky thing about this,
is that it seems like what the proverbial writer here is saying is,
when you walk in wisdom,
you have something that's better than all the riches of the world,
and oh, by the way,
it sounds like your coffers are going to be filled as well.
It sounds like you're going to prosper in the way of wisdom.
And there are some in our world today who would easily take this and say,
so this is a promise for you.
If you walk in wisdom,
if you do these things,
then you will
be successful in your career,
have a peaceful and happy family,
have a lifelong, easy, and joyful marriage,
and have a fat bank account and an easy retirement.
Sounds great, doesn't it?
Gosh, we'd all like that.
But that's not actually what this is saying.
First, and what it's saying is,
that the riches that we gain from wisdom
are greater than the riches and the wealth of this world.
Verse 20 is striking in it.
When we take hold of a life
that is shaped by the righteousness
and the paths of justice before God,
there is a goodness there
where we live in harmony with our Creator
that is better
than the riches of this world.
We have peace with God
because of these things.
And it is a wonderful and a beautiful thing.
But I will also say this.
I don't think the psalmist
denies that
as we walk in the paths of wisdom,
things will work better.
Going back to my circular saw,
if Eli had been able to draw the pictures
along the grain,
if we had talked about that ahead of time,
it would have been easier to cut the wood.
There are times when,
as we walk in wisdom,
it is according to the way
that we were made to work before God.
And we have, in ways, a good life.
It doesn't mean that we are
free from suffering or hardship.
Certainly not from persecution or trial.
Certainly from our own failure
and our own sinfulness.
And even the,
we are not promised to be delivered
from the effects of the sin of others
on our lives.
So none of those things are taken away.
And yet, in the midst of all of those things,
when we walk in wisdom,
there is a goodness to our life
that is not just pie in the sky or future,
but there is a reality now
because it is in harmony
with the character and the nature
of the God who has given us this wisdom.
The God who is the one
who wrote the owner's manual
is the one who made us
in our relationships
in all of these different ways.
And so we need to see that this is true.
We need to see that this is,
that as we walk in these paths,
there is a goodness about life
and to take hold of it
and to not despise it.
So God gives us wisdom.
He doesn't give us a user's manual
that says first do this,
then do this,
then do this.
It's not,
what's the right word?
I kept thinking algorithm,
but it's not,
it's not stuff.
It's not like a recipe.
Step by step,
if you follow the recipe,
you get a beautiful cake, right?
God gives us principles
and understanding of him
and of his wisdom.
And as we,
as we ingest that
and as we live in it,
we begin to understand his ways
just a little bit more.
And as we live in them,
then we experience the goodness
of living in harmony
with the way that God has made us
to relate to him
and to relate to the world.
As C.S. Lewis warned us,
we need to recognize
that wisdom
will be counterintuitive at times.
Here's a little example
from my own foolish past.
When I was in college,
I was a young believer.
I was eager.
I was zealous.
I had gotten that God wanted us
to love one another
and to be helpful to one another.
And so I decided
that it was going to be good for me
to encourage a number
of my sisters in Christ
by meeting with them
for coffee or lunch
and listening to them
and speaking good words
of encouragement.
And you may see
where this is going.
I was one of those
really confusing boys
who wasn't very helpful
in the whole picture, right?
Rather than actually being a blessing
to some of these sisters,
I was a confusion to them.
And I thought
I was doing right.
And it wasn't until
I had a friend
sit me down and say,
no, this is not the way to walk.
This is not actually encouraging
to your sisters.
This is not godly care for them.
There's something else in this
that is actually foolish
in the way that you are treating them.
And so I had to,
to examine my heart.
I had to examine my behaviors.
I asked for help
to think through
what were healthy ways
to relate to my sisters
that would be useful
rather than being
that really understanding guy
who in the end
was a little more confusing
than helpful.
And so that's one of those places
where I learned some wisdom.
Hopefully.
Learned some wisdom
that was counterintuitive to me.
I thought I knew how to do this
and I didn't at all.
And we need to recognize
that that's going to be true.
And the challenge for us is
are we willing to doubt ourselves
and to trust God's wisdom
even when it's counterintuitive,
even when it doesn't make sense to us?
Are we willing to walk
in the ways of wisdom?
Now I keep saying that.
I know it's all vague right now.
But remember,
the last two weeks
we got practical.
Greg and Nick
preached on real life issues
and gave lots of great examples
in areas of wealth
and sex
and other things
about how to live practically.
And for those of you
who are dying for that,
hold on.
We got one more week
of the big picture
and then we're going to get into
the nitty gritty
and we're going to talk about
all sorts of details.
But what I want
is for our hearts
to be prepared
to hear those words.
And part of it
is by embracing wisdom
and not trusting ourselves
but being willing to say,
okay God,
teach me.
Teach me your ways of wisdom.
So this first section
exposes some of the ways
that wisdom reflects
the character of God
and the nature of God
that helps us see
how walking in the ways
of wisdom
are a part of a good life
lived before Him.
But then the writer
goes even deeper
to say,
why is this true?
In verses 22 through 31,
the call of wisdom
is worth our attention
because wisdom shapes
the form of a good creation
before God.
Let's look at this
and read this passage together
starting in verse 22.
The Lord possessed me
at the beginning of His work,
the first of His acts of old.
Ages ago I was set up
at the first
before the beginning
of the earth.
When there were no depths,
I was brought forth.
When there were no springs
abounding with water,
before the mountains
had been shaped,
before the hills,
I was brought forth.
Before He had made
the earth with its fields,
or the first of the dust
of the world,
when He established the heavens,
I was there.
When He drew a circle
on the face of the deep,
when He made firm
the skies above,
when He established
the fountains of the deep,
when He assigned
to the sea its limit,
so that the waters
might not transgress
His command,
when He marked out
the foundations
of the earth,
then I was beside Him
like a master workman.
I was daily His delight,
rejoicing before Him always,
rejoicing in His inhabited world,
and delighting
in the children of man.
This is a remarkable turn
in the argument.
He said,
wisdom is good
because it reflects
the character of God.
And then he says,
wisdom is good
because it reflects,
because it is integral
to the very fabric
and fiber
of the creation
that we live in.
He says two things.
He says that wisdom says,
I was there
before creation happened.
And then he says,
I was there
as creation happened.
So in verses 22 through 26,
He's basically saying,
I was there beforehand.
I was there before God
had created order out of chaos.
I was there before
the life-giving water
had sprung up in springs.
I was there before
any of these things
had happened.
Now,
if you will indulge me
for two minutes,
I want to take a bit of,
a quick tour into,
interestingly,
this verse was used
back in the early church
in the controversy
of Arius
and his theology
because the church
has often seen wisdom
and the personification
of wisdom
as pointing to
or embodying
the person of Christ.
Go back with me
to verse,
where are we?
Verse 8,
verse 22.
All right?
Look,
if you have a Bible,
look with me
because this is important.
Verse 22,
the Lord possessed me
at the beginning
of his work.
Now,
do you see the footnote?
In my Bible,
it's a number three.
Look down at the bottom.
Possible reading.
Oh,
here we go.
Number three.
It could mean also fathered.
So,
the Lord fathered me
at the beginning
of his work.
And then it says,
oh,
and in the Septuagint,
which is the Greek translation
of the Hebrew Bible,
the Septuagint
says created.
From the Septuagint then,
as Arius was reading this,
he said,
we'll see.
Wisdom was created
by God
before creation
to then participate
in creation.
This sounds a lot
like the role
that Christ played
in creation
as you see
in John 1
or Hebrews 1
or Colossians 1,
15 through 17.
And so,
therefore,
they drew this
theological line
and said,
clearly,
Christ was a created being.
And this was one
of the fundamental
controversies
of the early church
was,
was Christ truly divine
in this way
and in what way
could he be so?
And this verse
was one of the verses
that they used
to defend
the position
that Christ himself
was created.
created.
So,
we've got
a fairly
significant question
on our hand.
However,
I think
that we can say,
first of all,
based on many,
many other places
in Scripture
in the New Testament
where Christ is
seen to be equated
with God,
where he
claims
God,
Godhood
to himself,
we would say
that there's
a clear witness
in the New Testament
about his divinity.
But secondly,
exegetically,
in this passage,
it's asking
for this verse
to bear way
too much weight
to say that
Christ was created
for multiple reasons.
One is,
the word here
clearly has
a range of meaning.
And its core meaning
is actually
to acquire,
that God
acquired wisdom,
which is a very
odd thing
because in English
when we think
of acquiring
something,
it's something
external and
objectively outside
of us that we
have to take
into ourselves.
But that doesn't
seem to make sense
in this context.
Instead,
some have,
and you see here,
this translation
uses possessed
or one of the other
is to say
he fathered him.
wisdom.
The old-fashioned
word for that
is to beget someone,
which is not to
create out of nothing
but to out of yourself
issue something
that is like you.
And it seems
much easier
to read this passage
as saying
wisdom here
is a personification,
an expression
of a characteristic
of God himself.
Right?
Wisdom is not
external to God.
The wisdom
is God's wisdom.
And here
it has been
personified
in a literary form
so that we can
think through
the value
of God's wisdom
and the role
of God's wisdom.
What are we saying
for all this?
Wisdom
is not Christ.
In Christ
all the riches
of the fullness
of the wisdom
and knowledge
of God
is fulfilled
and expressed.
But wisdom
is not Christ
per se.
Wisdom
is pointing
us to Christ
is how we need
to read this.
And then here
we need to say
that wisdom
is an expression
in a literary form
of God's work
in creation
that when he
created the world
he did it well.
He did it
according to
all of his character.
And as we see here
as we see
then he goes on
to the second section
he not only does that
but his wisdom
as it shapes
the world
right?
The Proverbs here
is reminding us
that what God did
when he created
the world
was to bring order
out of chaos.
Right?
Look with me
at verses
27 through 31.
Right?
He separated out
sky and earth.
He created
he separated out
earth
and water
dry land.
And much of this
is in the context
of an ancient
Near East
understanding
that water
and chaos
were formed
water was a symbol
for chaos
and discord
and evil.
And what God
is doing
is God is saying
no these things
do not rule
my creation
I am going
to impose
my order
on it
in a good way.
And wisdom
is the very fabric
and the very weave
of how I do that.
Wisdom was there
wisdom was there
when he separated
out the heavens
and the earth.
Wisdom was there
when he separated
water
from earth.
Wisdom was there
look at
in verse 30
like a master
workman
or a craftsman.
Wisdom was
the shape
in which God
created a world.
And think back
in Genesis 1
what did God say
about the way
he made creation?
He said it was good
and it was good
and it was very
good.
There was nothing
bad
about God's creation
in the beginning.
There was nothing
against the grain
in God's
original creation.
And so
if this is
the very fabric
of the world
that we've been
brought into
the very fabric
of the world
that we've been made
should we not
then value wisdom
to help us
understand
how to live
in it?
This is the question
that wisdom
brings to us.
And then finally
in verses 30
and 31
I want you to see
that wisdom
in creation
was not just
a dutiful job
when it was done
he said
alright
well that's a good job
on to the next.
Verse 30
the second half
I was daily
his delight
that God
delighted in wisdom
in the middle
of creation
and then
the rest of it
rejoicing before him
always
rejoicing in his
inhabited world
and delighting
in the children
of man.
You see
wisdom
was full of joy
about the creation
that God has made.
It's goodness
pulled out
of wisdom
this exaltation
this celebration
of the beauty
of the form
and the weave
and the shape
of what God
had made
and so God
was
so wisdom
was delighting
in God
delighting
in creation
and delighting
in humanity
and saying
this is all
very good.
Wisdom
knows
intimately
how the world
was made.
Wisdom
knows
intimately
how the world
was made
to work
before God.
So what are we
to think of this?
First of all
let's just stop
and celebrate
the beauty
of the form
of creation.
Some of you
who work in labs
for many many hours
every week
know
particular pictures
and particular forms
of what this
looked like
that I can't even
imagine
but you see it
and you know it.
For the rest of us
we just get to walk
down the beach
at Ham and Asset
or climb to the top
of Sleeping Giant
or you know
go to Colorado
and actually see mountains
and
or go to Nepal
and really see mountains.
but when we
but all of us
in our various ways
have an opportunity
to see the beauty
of God's creation
and to rejoice
in it
and to see
how
how the weave
of it
the intricate
design
the
even
the
microscopic
workings
of it
that again
I can't even
begin to fathom
that some of you
know far more
intimately
than I do
that all of this
reflects the form
and the goodness
of God's creation
for us
but secondly
we need to recognize
that this is why
the doctrine of creation
is so important
because if God
had made this world
and God has framed it
and shaped it
with a particular
in a particular way
for good
as a display
of his glory
and for the goodness
of all who live in it
and if wisdom
then is woven
into that fabric
such that
this is the way
creation works
then the call
of wisdom
in scriptures
in Proverbs
is to walk
in accordance
with that
to walk
according to the
along the grain
to know the weave
and to embrace
that weave
and friends
you know
we don't like that
we live in a world
today that loves
self-determination
we want to be able
to choose
our career
we want to be able
to choose
where we live
we want to be able
to choose
what we eat
there are more
deeper things
that our culture
is vying for
do we get to choose
our sexuality
our gender
our race
our family
we love
self-determination
we love
to want to do
it ourselves
but wisdom
says
I was there
in creation
and you are
a part of
this created order
and will you
abandon
your self-creating
project
will you
abandon
your own wisdom
and will you
instead
seek to understand
how I have
been a part
of what God
has done
how wisdom
has shaped
your creation
and your world
and your life
will you
love it
will you
seek it
will you
treasure it
and friends
we know
that this is
all true
partly because
as we've
mentioned earlier
this points us
to a greater
truth
and a greater
wisdom
for if our
life lived
before God
is a good life
our life lived
before God
within this creation
is what we're
longing for
then the way
that we
can best
get to it
is not by
trying to be
the most wise
person in the world
although pursuing
wisdom is great
but it's not about
trying to be
the most wise
person in the world
it is about
finding and knowing
the wisest person
in the world
when Jesus
walked the earth
he said
I am the way
and the truth
and the life
no one comes
to the father
apart from me
he comes to us
and he says
I am the one
who knows
because I was
there with creation
even in creation
even more so
than wisdom
I wasn't just
a personification
I was a member
of the trinity
intimately invested
in how things
were made
I was with God
doing the creating
but not only
did he create
the world
and know all of that
but then he
entered into it
in his incarnation
he came
and showed us
what God
could look like
what it would look like
to walk in the way
of wisdom
in this world
how to live
perfectly
according to the
weave and the grain
of that created order
and so he came
and he lived
a sinless life
but he didn't
just do that
then
in his purpose
plan
having lived
that life
he offers himself
for fools
like us
for those
who don't know
that we don't
live according
to the grain
for those
who have chosen
to go away
and to do
other things
for those of us
who are lost
and don't know
or have refused
God's ways
which is all of us
we've all
gone our own way
Jesus comes
and he offers himself
up
for us
the wisest man
in the world
dying for fools
like us
so that the sin
might be
the penalty of sin
might be removed
from us
but even more
than that
so that by his
resurrection
from the dead
by his rising
to new life
by his beginning
then this work
of recreating
the world
which he starts
in our hearts
by giving us
a new heart
that is now
able to respond
to the call
of wisdom
and to walk
in it
this is what
Christ offers us
do you seek
wisdom
Christ
is the one
who can give it
to you
but maybe
more
more accurately
take hold
of Christ
for he is
your wisdom
he's not just
going to give you
more instructions
from the manual
but you will find
in relationship
with him
the wisdom
that you need
to live life
this is what
we read in
Colossians
in Christ
all the treasures
of wisdom
and knowledge
dwell
but this is
the hope
it's Christ
in you
the hope
of glory
with Christ
in you
you are now
able
for the first
time
to be free
from your
patterns of sin
that reject
God's wisdom
you are free
for the first
time
to actually
embrace life
according to
God's plan
for you
and this is
the call
for us
and this
going back
to Proverbs
is where we
end
verses 32
through 36
and now
sons
listen to me
blessed are
those who
keep my ways
hear instruction
and be wise
and do not
neglect it
blessed is the
one who listens
to me
watching daily
at my gates
waiting beside
my doors
for whoever
finds me
finds life
and obtains
favor for the
Lord
but he who
fails to find
me injures
himself
and all
who hate
me
love death
there are
two ways
to live
to embrace
or to reject
Greg's going
to preach
on this
next week
so I'm not
going to
develop the
theme much
but recognize
that there is
a choice
that Proverbs
is always
putting before
us
will you
today
turn to
God
humble
yourself
know that
you need
his wisdom
and seek
him for
it
or will
you do
it on
your own
will you
trust in
God
to provide
for you
and care
for you
and instruct
you
or will
you
think
that
it
is
up
to
you
but the
invitation
is
if you
follow
God
what you
will
find
there
is
life
and so
we're
going to
explore
what that
life
looks like
as it
relates
to
the
words
we
speak
to
one
another
the
emotions
that we
feel
our
anger
and our
jealousy
and our
pity
what does
life look
like in
our
relationships
with our
families
with our
friends
how do
we deal
with wealth
and power
how do
we deal
with authority
how do
we seek
guidance
and direction
for our
lives
these are
all some
of the
topics
that we're
going to be
exploring
this summer
but its
value will
be as we
embrace the
path of
wisdom
as we
hear this
call and
respond
because wisdom
is woven
in the very
fabric of
creation
and reflects
the very
character
of God
himself
so let
us walk
in it
let's pray
father we
thank you
this morning
for this
word
and lord
we thank
you for
the beauty
of your
creation
and your
world
lord I
ask that
you would
help us
this morning
to humble
our hearts
before you
lord that
we would
know how
great your
wisdom is
that we
would lord
forsake our
own foolish
self-determinism
lord that
we would
recognize that
we were
created and
to work
lord to
live a
life lord
that is to
your glory
to live a
life that
is good
before you
lord we
must seek
you
find in
you lord
the life
that we
long for
and that
you made
us for
thank you
for jesus
who is the
one who
gives us
life out
of death
we pray
these things
in his
name
amen