I was blessed by something that when I
said as we were singing, he said, nobody
here, the only person who's important here is
Jesus Christ.
And it's good to remember as we share
that the words, hopefully that each of us
share, we're sharing as the words that God
has given us.
Hopefully we can say with Jesus, each brother
who stands up and sister who stands up
to speak or pray or anything.
I'm only saying what God's given me.
And so I pray that the Lord would
get all the glory.
I really appreciated that reminder when I thank
you.
If you want to turn to Ephesians chapter
five, I wanted to ask you a question.
If you, especially children, you can think about
this question for a second.
Is it okay?
I want to see kids eyes.
Can you look at me?
If you're a child, if you're under 12,
you got to look at me.
I want to see is it, here's your
simple question.
Is it okay?
And if you're, if you're over 12, you
don't have to look at me.
Okay.
Is it okay to not be loving?
Is that okay, David?
What do you think?
No.
Why not?
Why must we be loving?
Yeah.
God tells us to, and why does God
tell us to, why does God tell us
to be loving?
Yeah.
David, he is loving.
Okay.
So God commands us to love and it's
not okay to not be loving because God
is loving.
And that's, there's so much truth right there.
It's never okay to not be loving because
it's who God is.
And even before there was anything, before he
ever created anything, he was love.
He was loving and he existed in perfect
love in fellowship with himself.
He was perfectly loving before he made any
of us.
So we know it's never okay to not
be loving.
Now let me ask you children, can I
see your eyes again?
Let me ask you a different question.
Is it okay to not be wise?
All of us hang on, hands down, please.
I can say that to my own child.
Okay.
I, which I appreciate.
We'll talk later.
But the point is if you're like me,
you go, well, that one's not so straightforward.
Loving.
No, there's no exception.
I must be loving, but wise.
I mean, I'm still growing.
I'm still learning.
Wisdom is a matter of experience, right?
And we can think it's not, there's things
like love that I must be.
And they're automatically, they're wrong if I'm not.
But then there are things like wisdom.
I go, that's for later.
That's for older people.
That's for elders.
That's for teachers.
But me, I'm not wise.
It's, I can give myself a pass, right?
But look with me at Ephesians chapter five
and verse 15.
See what the Lord says here.
He's not speaking to older people.
He says, therefore be careful, verse 15, Ephesians
5, 15.
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as
unwise men, but as wise, making the most
of your time because the days are evil.
So then do not be foolish, but understand
what the will of the Lord is.
Is it okay at any time to not
be wise?
I read that and all of a sudden
I go, it's a little bit more straightforward
than I thought it was.
For a second, I thought it's okay perhaps
to not be wise.
But now I read the Holy Spirit's command,
do not be unwise.
Old people, do not be unwise.
Experienced people, no.
To every Christian, the Lord's command is be
wise.
And for me, the message that I wanted
to share, the message I feel the Lord's
been putting on my heart for me, is
I can't treat wisdom as an optional thing.
Wisdom is essential.
And I believe that the Lord wants us
to seek wisdom as absolutely vital and necessary
to our lives.
Not as a nice to have, not as
a someday I might, but today I must
have the wisdom of Jesus Christ.
Today, I must.
I believe it's true for every single born
again believer.
And I will confess, I'll be the first
one I confess, I don't always feel I
must be wise.
Sometimes I think I hope to be wise,
but there's a world of difference between those
two statements.
And I want to encourage you, what the
Lord's been encouraging me, stop saying someday.
Start saying now, I have to be wise
today.
Why?
Because God has commanded me to be wise.
He says, don't be unwise.
Do I take wisdom that seriously?
If someone were, if you were to hire
KPMG or Ernst & Young to come and
audit my life, that'd be a scary thought.
They see everything.
Do they walk away going, you know what?
That guy really wants wisdom.
It's a challenging thought to me.
If you look with me at Proverbs chapter
eight, I was reading this passage earlier this
week and this first really, or actually a
little passage really struck me.
It says at the end of it, 8
.32, it says, now therefore, O sons, wisdom
is speaking here.
Listen to me.
How blessed are they who keep my ways?
Listen to me.
But it says, therefore, what's it therefore?
Why should we listen to wisdom?
And if you look with me, starting in
verse 22, look at this.
Did you know this about wisdom?
I knew it about love.
Did you know it about wisdom?
The Lord possessed me at the beginning of
his way.
Just like love was before God created anything,
so was wisdom.
Before his works of old, from everlasting, I
was established.
From the beginning, from the earliest times of
earth, verse 24, when there were no depths,
I was brought forth.
When there were no springs abounding with water,
before the mountains were settled, before the hills,
I was brought forth.
While he had not yet made the earth
and the fields nor the first dust of
the world, when he established the heavens, I
was there.
When he inscribed a circle on the face
of the deep, when he made firm the
skies above, when the springs became fixed, when
he set the sea its boundary, look at
verse 30.
I was beside him, a master workman.
I, wisdom, was daily God's delight, rejoicing always
before him, rejoicing in the world, his earth,
having my delight in the sons of men.
Now, for this reason, why?
Because I have always been, long before the
world was created, for this reason, listen to
me.
You value love because God is love?
Do you value wisdom because God is wise?
That question came to me and I go,
I do value love, but I don't hold
wisdom in the same regard as absolute necessity,
as a must have, as a can't live
without it, as a not someday, but today
kind of proposition.
And the Lord has been correcting me.
I don't cherish wisdom sufficiently.
So what is wisdom?
When I think about wisdom, when I ask
for wisdom, you know what I'm asking?
When I say, Lord, give me wisdom.
You know what I want to know?
I don't know about you, but examine your
own heart.
The last time you asked for wisdom, what
did you want?
For me, it could be defined as which
one, where, or what?
That's what I'm asking the Lord for.
When I say I want wisdom, I am
saying, which one should I choose Lord?
Or where am I supposed to go?
Or what should I do?
Right?
That's what I mean when I say wisdom.
And you know who I was reminded of,
if you want to turn to John chapter
14, I feel the Lord really showed me
in his correction of Thomas, how I've been
thinking about wisdom wrongly.
Wisdom is not a where or a what
or a which one.
Wisdom is a how.
Look with me at John chapter 14.
Jesus says in verse three, if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will
come again and receive you to myself that
where I am there, you may also be.
And you know the way where I'm going.
And Thomas says, Lord, and how many times
have you said this?
We don't know where you are going.
How can we know the way?
If I don't know where, how can I
know the way?
Right?
That's what Thomas is saying.
If we don't know where we're going, how
can we know what to do?
Haven't you felt that way?
You know the reason I don't know what
to do right now?
Because I don't know where I'm going.
You know, I feel stuck because I don't
know what the answer is.
I'm looking for the answer.
I'm looking for the path.
I'm looking for the tell me which one
and then I'll know what to do.
And you know what Jesus says to Thomas?
I'm the way.
Thomas says, I can't know the way unless
I know where.
And Jesus says, you don't need to know
where, you know me.
I'm the way and the truth and the
life.
And I want to say something here.
This is illuminating because when you say, what
is the way to do something?
What do you mean?
This is the way you wash the dishes.
What are you saying to your children?
This is, this is the path that you
should walk in.
No, this is how Jesus said, I am
the way he's how, how he lives is
wisdom.
And I don't need to know the job
I'm going to take in the future or
the house I'm going to have, or the
decision about my kid's college or the retirement
plan or whatever, which I'm wondering about what
Jesus says, you don't need to know where
to know how the question is, how am
I behaving?
Jesus is saying to me, you're concerned about
which one you should choose.
I want you to be concerned about my
life.
Are you living as I'm living?
Thomas's and my question is always, if I
don't know where, then what will I do?
And Jesus says, you don't need to know
where to know what to do.
You need to look to me and you
need to emulate my life.
The life of Jesus Christ is wisdom.
And if I seek to know the conduct
and will and character of Jesus Christ in
any situation, I have wisdom, even if I
don't know the way.
And I was convicted as I thought about
Jesus' response to Thomas, which I thank Arnaldo
for pointing us to this passage on Tuesday
night, because I hadn't thought about this passage
like that till Arnaldo shared it.
Jesus' way is wisdom.
And the question for me and the challenge
to me is when I ask the Lord
for wisdom, rarely do I want to know
more of Jesus Christ.
Mostly I want to know which, is it
A or B?
And what the Lord is saying is, when
you come to me for wisdom, I want
you to come to me for me and
say, Jesus, what, who are you?
What do you do?
How do you think about this?
What do you care about?
What do you value?
Not which one, which is a function of
knowing him.
And I realized, I think about wisdom wrong
and I ask for wisdom wrongly.
And I don't need a where, I need
a how.
And Jesus says to Thomas here, I'm not
going to give you a where, I'm going
to give you myself.
And that's enough.
So what keeps us from being wise?
You know what I learned this week?
I just, this is something that's helped me.
The opposite of wisdom is not foolishness.
I think what keeps me from being wise
is foolishness.
But we've learned, you know, there are two
masters, children, question here.
Z, question.
There are two masters, God and what's the
other one in the back, Sammy?
Money, right?
Not the devil.
Sammy, how old are you?
10, 11, 10.
We've emphasized that enough that a 10 year
old knows it, right?
That's the right answer.
The devil is not one of two masters.
Money is the other master.
So you can say the opposite of God
is money.
A love of money is opposite the love
of God.
In the same way, the scriptures, if you
want to turn with me to Proverbs chapter
nine, the scriptures tell us about a surprising
opposite to wisdom.
And this has really opened my eyes to
see the thing that keeps me from wisdom,
just like the thing that will keep me
from the love of God is not Satan,
but loving money and money being my master.
Similarly, what keeps me from being wise?
It's interesting here, and it's a short proverb.
You can, it just doesn't even fill a
full page for me, but I want you
to look with me.
There's two calls, wisdom calls and someone else
calls, and the call is identical, literally verbatim,
word for word.
It's the same thing.
Look at it with me.
Proverbs chapter nine, verse four, whoever's naive, let
him turn in here.
Who to him who lacks understanding wisdom says,
come eat my food, drink of the wine
that I've mixed.
So that's one call.
The other call is not the call of
foolishness.
That's the thing that surprised me.
I think wisdom calls with this call and
the other call, the other voice that's calling
out in the street is foolishness, but you
know what it is.
Look with me at verse 16.
Someone else says, whoever's naive, let him turn
in here.
Same thing as verse four, right?
To him who lacks understanding, someone says stolen
water is sweet.
Bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
You know what the opposite of wisdom is?
Lust.
This is the harlot speaking, and it rocked
me to realize the thing that keeps me
from being wise is not foolishness, it's lust,
and if I want to be wise, you
know what I need to do?
I don't need to fight foolishness.
I need to fight lust because lust and
wisdom make the same call.
Whoever's naive, let him turn in here, and
the reason that I don't get to wisdom's
door is because I turn in at the
doorway of lust, and before we think, because
it's really easy, myself, I'm not pointing fingers.
I can't imagine for what sisters think.
I think it's easy for a guy to
go, man, this is a man's problem now.
All right, men, let's think about lust because
that's why the men aren't wise, but let
me ask you a question.
Look at how it describes verse 13, the
harlot.
The woman of folly is boisterous.
She's naive, and she knows nothing.
Look with me, if you will, at Proverbs
chapter seven for a second.
You can hold your finger there.
Just go over a page.
Proverbs 7, verse seven.
This is the opposite call of wisdom.
I saw among the naive and discerned among
the youths a young man lacking sense.
Passing through the street near her corner, he
takes the way to her house.
The way, by the way, Jesus said, I'm
the way.
We see here, this man takes the way,
but it's not the way of wisdom, it's
the way of lust.
He takes the way to her house, and
in the twilight, in the evening, in the
middle of the night, and in the darkness,
behold, a woman comes out to meet him,
dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart.
She's boisterous, same word from Proverbs nine, and
rebellious.
Her feet do not remain at home.
She's now in the streets, now in the
squares, and lurks by every corner.
I believe with all my heart that lust
is keeping both men and women from the
wisdom of the knowledge of Christ's ways.
It's so easy for us to think lust
is a guy's problem, right?
But sisters, look at your social media, for
example.
Who do you follow?
Do you follow boisterous women?
This is, I'm not pointing the finger, I'm
just saying how it's relevant to all of
us, right?
Look at entertainment.
Are we taking the way to her house,
or the way of Jesus Christ?
If so, men and women alike, we are
lacking sense, just like the young man in
Proverbs chapter seven.
For sure, lust keeps both men and women
from the wisdom of the knowledge of Christ.
So look at the exhortation here, both men
and women, Proverbs seven, verse 24.
Proverbs seven, verse 24.
Now, therefore, my sons, and we could also
say daughters.
There's a movement right now, by the way,
sorry, just brief aside.
There's a movement right now.
If you get the new NASB, I've got
the 1990 version.
If you get the new NASB, every time,
I haven't looked, by the way, so you
can check me on this, but I think
every time it says brothers, it now says
brothers and sisters, which I think generally is
a great thing, right?
I want my daughters to think that all
the things that say brothers flee from immorality,
right?
I want them to go, I don't want
them to think that's not for me, it
says brothers.
No, I want them to say, no, it's
brothers and sisters, that's good.
I wonder, I don't know if the new
NASB here says my son and my daughter.
I don't know whether the new NASB thinks
lust is relevant to women too, but I
think that we all should see that it
does, but look at verse 24.
Therefore, my sons and my daughters, listen to
me.
Pay attention to the words of my mouth.
Do not let your heart turn aside to
her ways.
Do not stray into her paths.
There's a way here too, right?
Don't let her, don't let your heart turn
aside to her ways.
Jesus said, I am the way.
Solomon said, how do I know where?
I'm asking for wisdom, and Jesus said, I'm
the way, and the opposite here is don't
turn into the ways of lust.
Don't stray into her paths.
For me, what it spoke to me clearly
was if I want to know why I
am lacking in wisdom, here may be the
reason.
I'm not watchful over the paths I'm straying
into, and I think wisdom, I'll get it
someday, and the Lord says, no, no, no,
the reason you're not wise is because you're
not watching the paths you're walking down.
You're turning in at the gate, at the
wrong gates.
You want to be wise?
Stop turning in at these gates.
Stop following these things.
It's interesting to me that it says it's
late, it's twilight.
I know even social media, right?
It's like, when do we find ourselves doom
scrolling?
It's not in the middle of the day
when there's plenty of work to do.
It's when we should probably be going to
bed.
All of a sudden, oh, I'm just going
to check a little bit more.
Are we turning to her ways there?
It's keeping us from wisdom.
So where do we begin?
To me, as I thought about my own
longing for wisdom, how I haven't valued it
highly enough, how I haven't properly defined it,
how I haven't seen what its opposite even
is, what I've felt is a tendency to
be discouraged, and what the Lord has spoken
clearly to me, and what I want to
encourage all of you with is, forget the
past.
What the apostle Paul says is, forget the
things that lie behind.
Press forward to what lies ahead, to the
upward call of God.
Forget how you've wasted time doom scrolling last
night.
Forget how you aren't as wise as you
could be.
It's easy to go, man, if I had
known, I could be so much wiser.
That is a worthless speculation.
Don't do it.
Just say, today's the day of salvation.
I never knew I could be wise today.
I thought it was something like when I
was 40, when I got old.
I just turned 40.
Yeah, it's not about being old.
I can have wisdom today.
Today is a day of salvation.
I can know the ways of Jesus Christ
today.
I can refuse the ways of lust today.
And I can be victorious now by choosing
to glorify God, and praise Him, and thank
Him.
You know, it brings glory to the devil
if I wallow in discouragement.
And if you think about all the wasted
time in the past, you're only going to
glorify the devil.
You know how to glorify the Lord?
When you feel you've wasted your past, here's
how to do it.
Praise the Lord and say, thank you, you've
brought me to the point that I realize
I've wasted my past.
Thank you.
I praise your name, Lord.
And I reject the temptation to be discouraged.
I'm going to hold on to your promise.
I'm ashamed of the devil.
And the devil might have been glorified before
by my wallowing in discouragement.
He's not going to be glorified today.
But you go, but I don't know the
way.
I don't know where.
No, you know how.
Praise the Lord.
As we heard, praise is the red carpet
for the Lord.
You want to roll out the red carpet
for the Lord today?
Say, I praise you, Lord.
You've let me know I've been unwise.
I praise you, Lord, that you've shown me
I've defined wisdom wrongly.
I praise you, Lord, that I've been deceived
about what the opposite of wisdom is.
Whatever it is, today you can praise the
Lord and thus glorify him.
That's what the Lord said to me.
That's really encouraging because then I don't have
to lose heart.
I don't have to despair.
I've been encouraged to know God's glory is
not contingent upon my knowing what to do,
but choosing to honor him, even when I
don't know what to do.
And right now, as I think about wisdom,
I go, Lord, I don't know the first
thing about how to grow.
Then the question is, what next?
Am I discouraged?
Am I disappointed?
Or I say, praise the Lord.
He'll show me.
I believe the Lord is glorified by my
emptiness, by my helpless.
He has no problem with that.
Just praise the Lord.
Okay, what next, Lord?
He'll show me the pathways of life.
The last thing I want to say, how
do I know if I have come to
value wisdom?
We saw earlier, we might have, I don't
know if I read it, but there's a
proverb that says wisdom cries out in the
street.
If you want to turn to Proverbs 2.
Wisdom cries out in the streets.
Oh yeah, we saw that.
And so does the harlot.
So does lust.
Here's what encouraged me.
I can prove that I value wisdom if
I don't let wisdom be the only one
crying out in the streets.
Wisdom's not supposed to be the only one
crying out.
You look at Proverbs 2, verse 2, make
your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart
to understanding.
How do you do it?
If you cry for discernment, lift your voice
for understanding.
If you seek her as silver and search
for her as for hidden treasures, then you
will discern the fear of the Lord and
you'll discover the knowledge of God.
What an incredible promise.
Wisdom is crying out in the streets and
the Lord's saying, will you cry too?
Will you cry out too?
If you will, then you'll discern the fear
of the Lord.
It's an amazing promise.
I can know that I value wisdom if
I'm crying out too.
That's the easy way.
Do you value wisdom?
Just look, are you crying out for wisdom?
I was blessed to remember the story of
the widow.
If you want to turn to Luke 18,
Jesus is telling us how to pray here.
And you can think about this as a
parable for how to cry out for wisdom,
among other things.
In verse 1, it says, he was telling
them a parable to show that at all
times they ought to pray.
So Jesus is teaching us how to pray
here.
And look at verse 5.
This unrighteous judge says, yet because this widow
bothers me, I will give her legal protection.
Otherwise, but continually coming to me, she'll wear
me out.
And it blessed me to see Jesus is
teaching us to pray.
You know, he's teaching us to pray.
What is he saying?
Bother me.
Bother me for wisdom.
One incredibly encouraging thing to realize.
Again, I mean, James also says he gives
generously without reproach.
We know that, right?
This, I feel what Jesus says even one
step farther.
Not only do we know that God will
give without reproach, meaning he's not going to
say, you should already have that.
But he's actually saying, bother me.
I cannot say, I have to be honest.
I cannot say I'll be first in line
to confess my need.
I cannot say that the way I would
characterize my pursuit of wisdom is, you know
what?
I've been bothering God about this.
That's not how I describe my pursuit of
wisdom.
I don't value it highly enough, or I
still think someday.
And the Lord's saying, start bothering me today.
See it as a matter of life and
death.
And then, you know, the picture I got
of a baby that wants milk.
If you ever, we don't know the mind
of a child, but you can't think a
baby's going, I was going to cry, but
I don't want to bother my mom right
now, right?
No baby thinks that I don't want to
bother mom.
And by the way, and no mother is
bothered by the baby's crying.
You know why?
A baby needs food and a mother loves
to give it.
And why does a mother love to give
it?
It's a matter of life or death.
Why does God say, bother me for wisdom?
It's a matter of life or death.
I want to start taking wisdom that seriously.
It's not a nice to have.
It's a matter of life or death.
And just like a baby cries out without
going, oh, should I?
I don't know if I need milk right
now.
I need to have that same attitude towards
wisdom.
And I can trust that God has the
attitude of a loving mother towards me.
I long to give it.
I was just hoping you'd ask.
I want to give you more wisdom.
I'll end again with that same verse that
we started with.
I'll just read it again.
Ephesians chapter five, verse 15 through 17.
May the Lord help us to do this.
Therefore, NCCF, therefore Jeremy, be careful how you
walk.
No longer as an unwise man, but as
a wise man, not in a year, not
in five years, not in 10 years.
Today, make the most of your time because
the days are evil.
No longer be foolish, but understand this is
God's will.
Pray that the Lord would help me and
he'd help us all to long for wisdom
as the Lord loves and longs to give
it.
Amen.