WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.560 Okay, so we're looking, last week we looked at, and this week we'll take a break next week because 00:00:06.560 --> 00:00:11.359 it's a family service and the next two Sundays, God willing, we'll be looking at Proverbs chapter 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:19.120 20, a little break from our series in Romans, so we're looking at this various verses from this 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:28.839 chapter in Proverbs, and the theme this Sunday is on the, the series is called A Wedge of Wisdom, 00:00:28.839 --> 00:00:35.719 and the sermon title for this week is Understanding. So what I want to, well I'll say a little bit 00:00:35.719 --> 00:00:41.600 more in a minute, but what I want to stress at the beginning is that this series on wisdom is not a, 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:47.600 it's not a how-to series, it's not a moralistic series, it's in if you do this, this, and this, 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:54.960 you'll be wise. The Bible's not like that, and salvation is not like that in the sense that if 00:00:54.960 --> 00:01:00.960 we jump through certain hoops of wisdom or obedience, then we'll be right with God. We know 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:08.519 that's not the case, don't we? Like that. It's not moralism that somehow if we're good people and 00:01:08.519 --> 00:01:12.359 if we pat ourselves in the back by doing the right things, we'll be right with God. That's not the 00:01:12.359 --> 00:01:19.439 gospel, and it's not what Proverbs is intended to be, but rather it's a series, and Proverbs is a 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:28.239 book which helps us to identify the characteristics that should mark people who already trust in 00:01:28.239 --> 00:01:32.759 the Lord Jesus Christ, who trust in God, who believe and follow God, and who have come to 00:01:32.759 --> 00:01:40.159 faith in Jesus, because grace should transform us, should change us from the inside out. So when we 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:46.400 look at Proverbs, what we're looking at, we're looking at the marks of what it looks like to be 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:53.280 being changed to be like God. You see what I mean? You see the difference between the two things. So 00:01:53.280 --> 00:02:01.480 if the Spirit of God is in us, our lives should be being transformed as we follow Jesus to be more 00:02:01.480 --> 00:02:08.439 like what God wants us to be like. So in other words, you could put over the book of Proverbs a 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:17.199 sign that says, in the very common sense, Holy Spirit at work. So our lives as we follow and trust 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:25.199 in Jesus Christ should be becoming more like the kind of people that are described in Proverbs. 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:33.319 There's a series on the telly, I never watched it, but it's called Who Do You Think You Are? And it's 00:02:33.319 --> 00:02:39.079 really a series about people's genealogies, they're forebears, and there's a celebrity one, 00:02:39.079 --> 00:02:42.639 well, maybe they're all celebrity, I'm not sure, but they're saying like celebrity, 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:48.879 who do you think you are? Where you look into your past and you find out about your identity and 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:54.359 your family history and it kind of helps you to understand where you've come from and what you're 00:02:54.359 --> 00:03:01.799 like. Well, it's sort of like that is what I'm trying to get across in terms of Proverbs. When 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:07.760 we look at Proverbs, it should point us to our foundations, it should point us to our, what we 00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:14.080 should look like as believers as we're changing. It should reflect what it means to be adopted 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:20.920 into the family of God and should reflect God's grace in our lives. It's changing who we are and 00:03:20.920 --> 00:03:27.600 changing what we think. So last week, we looked at three negative things, three things that wise 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:33.199 people would avoid, that is the wisdom of God should avoid in their lives, that is, we read it 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:38.719 again in the passage, alcohol leading as a stray, the destructiveness of quarreling and the blight 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:46.159 of laziness. Laziness where we feel entitled to the things that God gives us or where we have a 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:51.919 disordered love, we're loving the wrong things to give us an easy life. This week, we're looking 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:56.159 at positive things. So three negative things last week, three positive things this week, 00:03:56.159 --> 00:04:01.199 four negative things the next time, and then four positive things to finish off with. And that 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:07.000 should cover most of the verses in this chapter, okay? So it's three positive things today, very 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:13.639 simple ones. Understanding others, understanding ourselves and understanding life stages. So 00:04:13.639 --> 00:04:20.800 it's about understanding today. And the more soaked we are in God's grace, the more dependent we are 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:27.040 daily on Jesus as believers, the more evidence there will be of us understanding other people, 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:34.759 understanding ourselves, and understanding life stages. So understanding others is the first thing 00:04:34.759 --> 00:04:41.240 that I'm going to speak about. Verse 5 of Proverbs 20, the fifth proverb there says, 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:48.519 the purpose of a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw out. So someone 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:54.639 who understands other people will draw wisdom from them and will also draw out what's in their 00:04:54.639 --> 00:05:00.719 hearts, okay? So that's really the the import of that verse. It's about understanding other people. 00:05:00.719 --> 00:05:08.439 Wisdom helps us to understand other people. So often in our lives, we're not really interested in 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:14.159 other people. We're not interested in their motives. We're not interested sometimes in 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:20.240 understanding what makes them tick, what drives people on. So what we often do is we make snap 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:26.560 judgments. We come to easy conclusions and we are quick to condemn others because we haven't 00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:32.160 bothered and aren't interested in finding out about them. We categorize people so quickly, 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:37.000 put them into boxes, then we reject them. And that's the easy thing for us to do. Oh, 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:42.080 they're right wing. Oh, they're left wing. Oh, they're theologically liberal or they're conservative, 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:48.359 or they're gay, or they're straight. They think like me. They don't think like me. And so we've 00:05:48.359 --> 00:05:54.919 immediately, without seeking to understand people, seeking to understand the depth of their hearts 00:05:54.919 --> 00:06:02.879 and their motives, we make judgments. Grace changes that in us because we know that Christ 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:13.680 knows our deepest motives and our distorted loves and our sinful hearts, yet He still is 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:21.199 interested and still rescues, still redeems, and still is committed to transforming us. That is the 00:06:21.199 --> 00:06:30.159 greatest love, isn't it? That is the greatest revelation of love. And so as Christians who 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:38.960 have received grace from God, therefore we think twice before we come to judgments about other 00:06:38.960 --> 00:06:44.920 people. If we claim to understand grace and the gospel and what Jesus has done for us, 00:06:44.920 --> 00:06:51.640 but we care less about other people in terms of who they are and why they think differently from 00:06:51.640 --> 00:06:58.680 us, then we need to look again at the work of grace in our hearts. Last Tuesday, the Bible verse 00:06:58.680 --> 00:07:07.480 that was in the Bible reading was, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. And we 00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:14.160 can only do that when we begin to have a concern and an understanding for our enemies and for those 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:22.680 who persecute us. So there's a great sense in which wisdom helps us to at least begin to understand 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:28.800 other people. And that for us takes time, understanding other people takes time. The purpose 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:34.960 of a man's heart is like deep water. And that's simply saying that it's not easy to get into the 00:07:34.960 --> 00:07:42.560 heart and mind and thinking and psyche and motive of other people. The deep waters, that sense of 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:50.720 the unknown, isn't it? That it takes time and trust for other people to reveal their own hearts. 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:59.600 And for us to reveal our hearts to other people, because our hearts are deep waters. And so very 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:08.440 often we have presumed on other people's motives and categorized them, but time sometimes exposes 00:08:08.440 --> 00:08:19.440 our mistakes and the wrong judgments we've made and the miscalculation we have made on the hearts 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:26.719 and minds and motives of other people. So it takes time to understand and relate to other people 00:08:26.719 --> 00:08:34.679 with the wisdom of God. And we really, I'm relating that to other people, but it relates to 00:08:34.679 --> 00:08:41.120 ourselves as well, because if we fail to give people a glimpse into our own hearts, then it's 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:48.799 very difficult for them to make our right judgment about us and about our motives. If we keep our 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:56.240 distance, if we don't give people time to know what we are like and what we think and what the 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:03.359 motives are in our hearts, then it's very difficult to share wisdom and there therefore is no 00:09:03.359 --> 00:09:14.959 understanding on both sides. Now, that's why here we advocate the centrality of community and 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:29.320 discipleship and the commitment of grace within the church. It's because we don't preach a sociological 00:09:29.320 --> 00:09:40.480 model, nor do we preach a novel approach of modern 21st century Western humanity. This is the ancient 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:46.879 wisdom of God that is taken from the heart of His, have His own heart of His own mind in the 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:55.120 proverbs of God. This is the wisdom of grace as it's unfolded in our lives. The understanding and 00:09:55.120 --> 00:10:03.279 understanding of others, drawing knowledge out of others is graceful and is God's wisdom for us, 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:10.240 because that understanding leads therefore to openness. A man of understanding, a man of wisdom, 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:17.319 will draw out the depths in the hearts of other people and that understanding leads to openness, 00:10:17.319 --> 00:10:26.120 okay? Draws purpose out. That's hugely significant. That's hugely important in our lives that there's 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:33.639 this understanding, both that is willing to give wise advice and to receive it, to know what's in 00:10:33.639 --> 00:10:41.080 the hearts and motives of others and also to therefore take counsel from others. That's what 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:48.560 discipleship is. It's about the willingness to listen to, to expose our needs and our motives and 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:57.079 our longing for wisdom and understanding and being willing to receive and learn from the 00:10:57.079 --> 00:11:05.479 wisdom of others. But it's very difficult to do that one, if we remain closed, or two, if we are 00:11:05.479 --> 00:11:13.799 not in a trustworthy relationship enough to be able to receive advice. You know, I'm not going to 00:11:13.799 --> 00:11:19.799 give anybody advice, not that I've got much advice to give, but I would, none of us are really wanting 00:11:19.799 --> 00:11:25.199 to give advice if we think it's unwanted. Or if more than that, if we think that if we do give 00:11:25.199 --> 00:11:34.559 wisdom and seek to share our experience with someone, if that person takes the huff or loses 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:41.559 their temper or defriends you, not that I'm on Facebook, but you know what I mean, if you're 00:11:41.559 --> 00:11:47.919 kind of in your life, defriended, because there's not that openness, because there's not that trust 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:54.279 and because there's not that willingness to learn and to share learning. It works both ways. It works 00:11:54.279 --> 00:12:05.159 both in the ways of receiving and giving wisdom. And so the Christ likeness, the God likeness in 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:14.879 our lives is reflected in this proverb, which is that we are people of understanding who recognize 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:25.439 that everyone is deep, some are deeper than others, and that knowledge is gently and wisely drawn out 00:12:25.439 --> 00:12:33.159 of people as we take time with them, as we don't make snap judgments, and as we recognize how much 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:39.039 time Jesus takes with us to mature us in our Christian lives. So understanding others, that's 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:43.799 the first thing. The second thing in terms of understanding, which maybe should be the first 00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:49.240 one, I'm not quite sure why I put in that order, but the second one is understanding ourselves. And 00:12:49.240 --> 00:12:56.839 there's two verses here that are important in Proverbs chapter 20. Verse nine says, 00:12:56.840 --> 00:13:05.320 who can say, I have made my heart pure, I am clean from my sin. So here the person who is wise 00:13:05.320 --> 00:13:12.440 knows that they are not right and perfect and good. There's that knowledge within them. And then 00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:20.920 the second verse is from verse 24, which is slightly harder, which I'll speak about in a minute. 00:13:20.919 --> 00:13:27.799 A man's steps are from the Lord. How then can a man understand his way? So both these verses, 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:33.240 if the first verse that we looked at refers to understanding others, these verses refer to 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:42.039 understanding ourselves. And of course, that's crucial if we are to be wise. If we are to be 00:13:42.039 --> 00:13:48.919 wise with the wisdom of God, and if we are to know what it is to be like God, we know what we 00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:54.839 are like. The wise person is someone who is able to say, I can't say I've made my heart pure, 00:13:54.839 --> 00:14:03.079 I am clean from my sin. Because we know that we need a Savior. We know we need a Redeemer. We've 00:14:03.079 --> 00:14:12.120 know that and we've experienced that. We understand our own hearts. We understand our need of redemption 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:19.240 and life and rescue and hope on a daily basis. Not just a one-off fact that happened 25 years ago, 00:14:19.240 --> 00:14:26.360 a Billy Graham meeting or a church meeting or some other meeting that happened a long time ago, 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:32.600 but it was a real event that continues to be a reality in our lives. We know what we're like. 00:14:33.560 --> 00:14:39.799 Therefore, we're slow to judge others because we're a way of our own motives, therefore. And 00:14:39.799 --> 00:14:46.759 the silent duplicity and the darkness that is often within our own hearts. So in the sense, 00:14:46.759 --> 00:14:53.319 our understanding of others is tempered by our understanding of ourselves. It changes the outlook 00:14:53.319 --> 00:15:02.599 we have on others. Because when we understand ourselves before God, then we recognize the heart 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:11.800 of other people are similar. And until that time, we are the standard. We make the judgments, 00:15:11.800 --> 00:15:19.639 we justify ourselves, we compare ourselves with others, and very often at their expense, until we 00:15:19.639 --> 00:15:27.080 see ourselves as God sees us. God's wisdom helps us to see ourselves as God sees us, to see our 00:15:27.080 --> 00:15:33.720 hearts, that none of our hearts are clean without Christ, none of our hearts are pure. hugely significant 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:43.160 on a day-to-day basis as we seek to live lives of understanding. We are unworthy, but not worthless. 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:53.480 We are precious, but we are unclean. We are guilty, but we're forgiven in Christ, cleansed by Christ. 00:15:53.480 --> 00:16:01.960 And I think in respect to judging others or understanding others, I think those who shout 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:08.519 the loudest, those who criticize the most, usually I've found to be people who either 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:15.560 have the most to hide or who don't understand the cross and its implications in their own lives 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:23.559 and their own hearts, because it tempers our understanding and what we are like. Not only what 00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:28.439 we're like, but the second verse speaks about an understanding ourselves, why we're here. Now, 00:16:28.439 --> 00:16:34.599 it's a really difficult verse. It relates to God's sovereignty in many ways. Verse 24, 00:16:35.559 --> 00:16:40.759 a man steps from the Lord, how then can a man understand his way? It's a huge area 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:47.960 that sovereign God knows every step, past, present and future. He knows what we're going to do. He 00:16:47.960 --> 00:16:53.399 knows our hearts. He knows the future. Can't be surprised. Couldn't be worshiped if God doesn't 00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:58.360 know. If there's things he doesn't know that maybe we can know. But there's great mystery and truth 00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:06.920 in God being sovereign and knowing the path of our lives and what implication that has for our own 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:13.080 freedom of choice and the decisions we make. But I think fundamentally, basically I think what this 00:17:13.080 --> 00:17:21.400 verse is saying is that your value, your purpose, your meaning, truly knowing yourself and why you're 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:28.600 here is found in relationship with God, with the sovereign God through Jesus Christ. You know, 00:17:28.600 --> 00:17:34.600 in terms of understanding ourselves and our purpose in this universe and where we are and who we are 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:41.799 and why we're here, we can only truly understand it as we understand that a sovereign and a great 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:46.519 God and finding wisdom in him and living in his love with all the mystery that's involved in that. 00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:51.879 And I recognize there is, there's things beyond our comprehension and our understanding. But trusting 00:17:51.879 --> 00:18:00.439 in him through that journey and recognizing the journey is a shadow of what is to come. I'll say 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:08.279 a bit more about that this evening in our series on Songs for the Journey. But that does change 00:18:08.279 --> 00:18:15.080 everything, doesn't it? When we think of why we're here, it's in relation to this great God of love 00:18:15.080 --> 00:18:19.960 who has redeemed us and who takes every step and who knows every way we're going. And our 00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:27.160 fullness, our wholeness, our purpose, our meaning, our identity, our decisions, our work, our leisure, 00:18:27.160 --> 00:18:32.440 our relationships, our choices, they're all related to that as Christians. It's not just the kind of 00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:37.400 one hour fix on a Sunday that clicks into place, but it's that everything is related to that 00:18:38.600 --> 00:18:43.640 knowledge of God and also knowledge of what we are like in relation to him and our need for a 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:49.480 redeemer. So as we understand ourselves, I think it helps us to understand others. 00:18:51.320 --> 00:18:56.600 And the last thing, therefore, in this chapter that we're looking at in terms of understanding 00:18:56.599 --> 00:19:03.879 is understanding life stages. So wisdom, this knowledge of God in our lives, gives us a better 00:19:03.879 --> 00:19:12.679 understanding of others by grace, a growing and improving knowledge of our own hearts. So these 00:19:12.679 --> 00:19:16.759 are good things, aren't they, that we understand other people better in their motives, understand 00:19:16.759 --> 00:19:23.799 ourselves, but also I think understanding life stages. Verse 11 says, even a child makes himself 00:19:23.799 --> 00:19:32.680 known by his acts by whether his conduct is pure and upright. And then in verse 29 says, 00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:38.119 the glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair. 00:19:38.119 --> 00:19:43.799 Remember, this is written probably to a young prince, a young male in the royal household, 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:50.680 so it's in kind of masculine language, but it really applies to all of us. And the proverbs, 00:19:50.680 --> 00:19:55.480 again and again, not just here, but in other places, speak about the importance of understanding, 00:19:55.480 --> 00:20:04.920 the different stages and ages and times in life. And that is wisdom to do so, recognizing that 00:20:04.920 --> 00:20:12.680 within these stages of life, we have different needs, different learning capacity, and different 00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:19.080 demands that are made on us. And within the community of believers, there will be all kinds 00:20:19.079 --> 00:20:26.359 of different ages and stages, and it's wisdom to not stereotype and not to demand the same responses 00:20:26.359 --> 00:20:32.039 from children, from young people, from old people, and from the different needs that there are 00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:40.199 among us. That is God's wisdom. So there's a recognition that children are children here 00:20:40.199 --> 00:20:47.480 and throughout the Proverbs, indeed throughout the Bible, that children need direction and training 00:20:47.480 --> 00:20:55.559 and help and guidance. Proverbs 22 verse 6 speaks about that. They need time, they need that loving 00:20:55.559 --> 00:21:02.279 discipline, and they are at that early stage in their lives, and wisdom sees that. And wisdom 00:21:02.279 --> 00:21:07.799 doesn't treat children like little adults, it just treats them like children. And in church, 00:21:07.799 --> 00:21:12.920 we should treat our children like children, not like little adults. Wisdom sees the need 00:21:12.920 --> 00:21:20.120 to take time with our children, to take an interest in our children. As a Christian community, we 00:21:20.120 --> 00:21:25.800 should be supportive of our children. You have vowed to pray for and care for and be 00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:33.640 locust parenis, as it were, for the children when they are baptized. We have a loving concern, 00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:39.320 and we should be supportive of people going through that stage in their lives, both the children 00:21:39.319 --> 00:21:44.039 and their parents as they come through the church. It's not always great to see the raft of kids that 00:21:44.039 --> 00:21:52.279 go out with their helpers and teachers and parents, and it just is a visual illustration of the burden 00:21:52.279 --> 00:22:00.439 and responsibility we have for them as they grow up in this world. Wisdom is willing to be inconvenienced 00:22:00.439 --> 00:22:06.599 by the behavior and by the immaturity and the youngness of children, and we repeat teaching 00:22:06.599 --> 00:22:13.559 to them. We learn, we show by example, we give them grace because that is wisdom. We serve and we pray, 00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:19.559 and we love and we understand them. Children, and understanding that stage of wisdom is not 00:22:19.559 --> 00:22:25.079 decrying that, not rubbishing it, not saying, well, it's amped past that nonsense now, and I can't be 00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:30.279 bothered with. It's not like that, because God is not like that in Christ, and as believers, 00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:36.759 grace is transforming us to give us concern for the children, even if we don't have children 00:22:36.759 --> 00:22:43.399 ourselves, or even if we've passed that stage of having children, whatever stage of life we might 00:22:43.399 --> 00:22:48.599 be used for. Children are spoken of here, but also in this passage, so are youth and old people. 00:22:50.519 --> 00:22:56.119 So it speaks about youth in verse 29, that the glory of young men or young people is their strength, 00:22:56.119 --> 00:23:02.919 particularly, I think, young men and their physical strength, but there's a vitality, 00:23:02.919 --> 00:23:10.519 there's a strength in young people that is, it's pinnacle, it's zenith when they're young, 00:23:11.159 --> 00:23:19.159 and wisdom recognizes that, and wisdom channels that, and wisdom seeks to look to use that 00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:26.040 for God's glory, and recognizing it needs managed, it needs protected, it needs 00:23:27.080 --> 00:23:34.279 discipled, it needs taught, and wisdom helps us to understand young people at that stage, 00:23:34.279 --> 00:23:37.960 whether they're just left school or whether they're teenagers, whether they're older than that, 00:23:37.960 --> 00:23:41.160 and you know, young people are getting younger, I mean, they're getting older all the time, 00:23:41.160 --> 00:23:46.680 I'm 54, I'm still young, no, I'm not, I'm not really, but they do say that the teenage years 00:23:46.680 --> 00:23:51.320 start earlier and finish later now, and I think that's probably true, but I think youth goes 00:23:51.320 --> 00:23:56.120 straight on, there's a kind of, there's a fusing between youth here and old age, I'm not quite sure, 00:23:56.120 --> 00:24:04.680 there's other passages that speak about stages, but youth is, wisdom engrace both in our lives 00:24:04.680 --> 00:24:12.440 and in our churches, we need to understand the impatience of youth, and we need to honor their 00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:20.519 energy and use their gifts, that the great wisdom, you know, and living is, you know, 00:24:20.519 --> 00:24:24.840 there's so many, there's so few rules in the Bible which is great, but there's lots of wisdom required, 00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:30.920 and wisdom with young people is about letting them loose, but not letting them go, isn't it? 00:24:31.960 --> 00:24:37.000 How do we let the young people loose? How do we let them flourish and grow, but without letting them go 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:43.640 and letting them make the mistakes maybe we made? Was that requires wisdom? That's what Jesus was good 00:24:43.640 --> 00:24:48.119 at doing, that's what Jesus could understand, and that's what the Holy Spirit enables us to do. 00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:53.559 You pray for your, pray for the parents in this church whose kids are in primary school 00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:59.319 and going into high school as they come into that time when there's all kinds of tensions and difficulties, 00:24:59.880 --> 00:25:04.440 pray for them as they leave school and are in the church as they're looking for careers, 00:25:04.440 --> 00:25:09.640 pray for them as they have careers in their youth and are seeking wisdom to balance out their lives. 00:25:10.840 --> 00:25:18.360 Wisdom helps us to give such people responsibility, but not burden them heavily 00:25:18.360 --> 00:25:25.160 so that they are stressed and broken. Wisdom will pick people up, will love them through failure 00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:32.440 and seeing how they can then learn from that and grow and take confidence, take weight, persevere, 00:25:32.440 --> 00:25:40.519 and live as they are for God's glory. Wisdom does that. It's foolishness to cast these things aside. 00:25:40.519 --> 00:25:46.519 It's the foolishness of self-centeredness and pride that says, I'm not interested in people at that stage 00:25:46.519 --> 00:25:54.360 in life. I'm past that stage. I'm not interested or concerned about children or young people 00:25:54.359 --> 00:26:02.199 or their failures and weaknesses. And it also speaks of old age in that verse, the same thing. 00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:06.039 The glory of young men is their strength, the splendor of old men is their gray hair. 00:26:07.159 --> 00:26:14.519 I think that should say no hair in my case. But wisdom, doesn't wisdom, what it's saying there 00:26:14.519 --> 00:26:21.399 is there's a splendor in old age just as much as their strength and power in youth. These are 00:26:21.400 --> 00:26:27.960 important truths in a society which either end of the spectrum rejects life, doesn't it, is looking 00:26:27.960 --> 00:26:36.120 to rubbish life at the end of life because it's so cheap and expensive to value but so expensive 00:26:36.120 --> 00:26:43.560 to care for and the very most vulnerable stages it is not worth having because it's an inconvenience 00:26:43.560 --> 00:26:51.080 and we just abort life at that level. But the wisdom of God is recognizing and knowing an 00:26:51.079 --> 00:26:57.319 understanding not just ourselves, not just others, but as it all fuses together the different stages 00:26:57.319 --> 00:27:06.039 of life as well. Wisdom respects old age, recognizes experience and character and the life story of 00:27:06.039 --> 00:27:10.279 those who are in the evening of their days. Have you ever spoken to someone who you just thought 00:27:10.279 --> 00:27:15.559 was just an old person? There's just an old person and you've spoken to them and they've 00:27:15.559 --> 00:27:22.839 started telling you about their war experience or the loss that they've had or the color that has 00:27:22.839 --> 00:27:31.879 been in their lives, real, meaningful, wise, lives to share with us. Wisdom is about listening to them. 00:27:32.919 --> 00:27:38.839 It's about loving them, it's having time for them, it's recognizing both about them 00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:45.240 and for themselves that there is a splendor in them growing old and there's a splendor for us in 00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:50.120 growing old as believers because in the covenant of grace we are being renewed day by day on the 00:27:50.120 --> 00:27:57.720 inside. We'll actually be becoming younger as it were and it's great to see that in people's lives 00:27:57.720 --> 00:28:04.519 and hearts and in all that they do. It's time to finish. So, but as we understand the difference 00:28:04.519 --> 00:28:11.160 to you, there are only examples but wisdom, the core of that is that wisdom doesn't decry the young 00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:18.920 or the old or the single or the married but is aware of tailoring grace to the specific strengths 00:28:18.920 --> 00:28:24.360 and weaknesses of each stage in life, understanding that there's motives that cause people to act 00:28:24.360 --> 00:28:29.080 and differently, being supportive and gracious so that whether your children, a child today, 00:28:29.080 --> 00:28:36.360 a parent, they're married, recording, single, a teenager, student, an empty nester, an elderly, 00:28:36.359 --> 00:28:46.759 a widow, going back to wisdom and seeking to understand ourselves, others and the stages of life 00:28:47.479 --> 00:28:54.119 so that we act with more grace and take God into all of these stages of our lives. 00:28:55.000 --> 00:29:02.359 I think there's increasing evidence of living the Christian life and being transformed by grace 00:29:02.359 --> 00:29:10.439 when we can see that in our lives. We can see a loving concern for others because we understand 00:29:10.439 --> 00:29:18.759 ourselves better by grace and through salvation and the stages of life that are important to God 00:29:18.759 --> 00:29:25.079 in His book of common sense in the Proverbs that He says, these matter to me, they're important to 00:29:25.079 --> 00:29:32.519 me, understand them. There's various needs and stages that life goes through and it's important 00:29:32.519 --> 00:29:40.759 to understand them and to recognize our need of the Lord Jesus in all of these stages every day 00:29:41.639 --> 00:29:51.559 in our lives that it's folly, it's foolish, extreme foolishness to not put your trust in Jesus Christ 00:29:51.559 --> 00:29:58.679 because otherwise we will never understand, you'll never understand yourself, you will not understand 00:29:58.679 --> 00:30:05.159 or be concerned necessarily to understand others and you will not see the stages of life in the way 00:30:05.159 --> 00:30:10.599 that God wants us to recognize and see them either in the church or in our relationships. 00:30:10.599 --> 00:30:16.919 Let's bow our heads briefly and pray, Lord God help us to understand you, understand your way, 00:30:16.920 --> 00:30:24.440 above all understand your grace, your free salvation that is offered to us because of what Jesus has 00:30:24.440 --> 00:30:32.120 done and help us to know that we can be filled with the Spirit and changed and be being transformed 00:30:32.680 --> 00:30:41.800 by the Spirit in our lives on a daily basis and may we not be stagnant or stale in our Christian 00:30:41.799 --> 00:30:50.919 lives but may we seek by your grace to become more like you, to show that wisdom and to avoid 00:30:50.919 --> 00:30:57.559 the folly and the foolishness that you expose and speak about in Proverbs and throughout the Bible. 00:30:58.759 --> 00:31:03.319 We know the beginning of wisdom being the worship and adoration and fear of the Lord 00:31:03.319 --> 00:31:13.319 through Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.