How to become Wise
God’s way to Health, Wealth and Wisdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 47:06
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A lot of people read a prover each day to coincide with the day of the month that it is. Today would be Proverbs 1… I would recomend you do that because there is so much wisdom in the book of Proverbs.
Solomon states the purpose of the Proverbs right from the beginning. Look at Pro 1:1-7
1 These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel. 2 Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. 3 Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. 4 These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young. 5 Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance 6 by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles. 7 Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
We want to gain insight and wisdom from the proverbs tonight so that we can live disciplined and successful lives. Let’s call a series on Proverbs, God’s Way to Health, Wealth and Wisdom.
There is an old proverb that says, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.” But the problem with that is it’s not always true. There are plenty of people who go to bed early and get up early and they are not healthy, not wealthy and not wise. What God teaches in His word will make you healthy, wealthy and wise - if you understand what true health, true wealth and true wisdom really are.
So What is a proverb? Someone said,
A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.
A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.
IOW, we learn from other people’s experiences. My dad used to tell me that he wanted me to avoid mistakes that he had made. IOW, to learn from his experiences.
These proverbs are not like earthly proverbs. Earthly proverbs are learned from experience.
These proverbs are God’s Words of wisdom given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
These proverbs are God’s Words of wisdom given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Our sayings are not always right are they? Think about this.
One says, Look before you leap and another says, he who hesitates is lost.
You only get what you pay for. vs. The best things in life are free.
Leave well enough alone. vs. Progress never stands still.
Now there are all good sayings, and there is some truth in them, but God’s Proverbs are true. The Proverbs are revealed truths from God and if we will listen to them and apply them in our lives, we can experience true health, true wealth and true wisdom.
We will discuss wisdom today because Proverbs talks over and over about wisdom. Having wisdom is the key. So I am going to speak to several proverbs, not all of them. It would take forever to preach through all of them.
So tonight we want to look at the worth of wisdom and the way to wisdom.
Let’s look at
1. The Incomparable Worth of Wisdom.
1. The Incomparable Worth of Wisdom.
Look at Pro 1:1-2
1 These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel. 2 Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise.
Then at Pro 2:1-9
1 My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. 2 Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. 3 Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. 4 Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. 5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7 He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity. 8 He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him. 9 Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go.
Let me ask you. If god were to come to you and ask you, “What do you want me to do for you?” What would you say? What would you ask him for?
If you were hungry, you might say food.
If you were sick, you might say healing.
If you were like most, you would ask for money and power.
God actually did this one time. He appeared to Solomon when he became king of Israel.
This is several thousand years before Islam and they were living in the area that our uneducated students say is not their’s. God came to Solomon one night and asked,
7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”
Every time in the OT when God appeared, we call that a Theophany. This is a pre0incarnate appearance of Jesus. So Jesus is speaking to Solomon and asked him, what do you want? Think about what most people would ask for. Solomon didn’t ask for any of that. He didn’t ask for money or power. Look at his answer in 2 Chron 1:10-12
10 Give me the wisdom and knowledge to lead them properly, for who could possibly govern this great people of yours?” 11 God said to Solomon, “Because your greatest desire is to help your people, and you did not ask for wealth, riches, fame, or even the death of your enemies or a long life, but rather you asked for wisdom and knowledge to properly govern my people—12 I will certainly give you the wisdom and knowledge you requested. But I will also give you wealth, riches, and fame such as no other king has had before you or will ever have in the future!”
So Jesus told Solomon because you asked for wisdom, I will give you wisdom like no one else has ever had, but I will also give you power and wealth like no one else has ever had.
I don’t know about you, but I want my kids, my family and friends to desire and have wisdom more than anything else because wisdom is better than anything else. Pro 8:11
11 For wisdom is far more valuable than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare with it.
That’s a big statement. Anything we could possibly want in the world is not even close to the wisdom God wants to give us.
Wisdom is worth so much because God promises it.
Wisdom is worth so much because God promises it.
God the Father gives us wisdom.
Look at what Solomon said in Pr 1:1
1 These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel.
1 My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands.
What you see is a father speaking to his son. He loves his son and wants him to be wise just like we want our kids to do well. He is the richest man to ever live, at that time the most powerful king to ever rule and he wants his son to go after wisdom. He says wisdom is what I have for you.
That was a father who was king speaking to his son. We have a Father who is King still speaking to us. We are children of the king… kings kids.
Listen, God desires that you and I be wise. So we have the promise from God of wisdom but,
Wisdom is a product of the Holy Spirit.
Wisdom is a product of the Holy Spirit.
Look again at Pro 2:1-2
1 My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. 2 Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.
Tuen your ears into wisdom. Who is the teacher? The teacher is the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Holy Spirit will guide us into all wisdom. The Bible often calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of wisdom. Eph 1:17
17 asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.
We need to ask God for wisdom and when we do, he will give it to us.
Let me say this. There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. You can get knowledge without the Holy Spirit, hut you can’t get true wisdom without the Holy Spirit. What’s the difference? Knowledge is learned. Wisdom is given. Write this down.
Knowledge come by looking around; wisdom come by looking up.
Knowledge come by looking around; wisdom come by looking up.
Knowledge come from studying; wisdom comes from meditation. Wisdom is knowing how to apply your knowledge. So knowledge is good. we need to acquire knowledge. Paul told Timothy in 2 Tim 2:15
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Study or work hard to know what you need to do. However, knowledge without wisdom from God is pure ignorance.
In the OT the word wisdom and skill are related. When the people built the tabernacle, God gave them the spirit if wisdom to build it. Some translations will say god gave them the skill to build it. What does that mean to us?
Wise living is living skillfully to the optimum.
Wise living is living skillfully to the optimum.
It is making the most our of life. You live life to it’s fullest with skill. We become practitioners and live life with skill. Maybe we are a craftsman, or tech person or an artist… but we live life skillfully.
My dad could build or fix anything. I can’t. One time I worked on a sink issue for days. I finally called a friend who was a plumber and it took him 15 minutes to do what I had tried to do for days.
We are to live our lives skillfully like that plumber had working on my plumbing. We need to learn to live skillfully.
Not everyone has wisdom. There are plenty of people who have knowledge but do not have wisdom. You can have knowledge without wisdom. We need understanding and it comes from God. . Col 2:3
3 In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Jesus is the secret of the universe. He is the glue that holds everything together. So wisdom is given by his spirit. And the only way you can know His wisdom is not from books and knowledge, but by knowing Jesus. You have to experience that relationship with him to have his wisdom.
A man owned some gold mines back in the West during the early days. He had several successful mines and he wanted his son to eventually take over his business. So he sent his son to college where he studied engineering, mining and metallurgy. After he graduated he came back out west to the goldmines and told his father that he was ready to work.
His dad told him to go and learn each aspect of working in the mines. He told him to work with his hands, but the son refused and asked his dad to give him the best gold mine he had and that then he would get more gold from it than ever before.
So the dad gave him a gold mine and the boy did well for a while. After a while, he sent a wire to his father saying he had a problem with the mine. The mine is backed up to a lake and the water is seeping in. What do suggest we do? The Father did not answer. Once again the boy sent a wire saying the problem was getting worse and we have shored it up but the shoring is slipping and the water is leaking in. I need some advice. Again, the father did not answer. So the boy wired a third time saying we are about to lose the gold mine. What do you suggest we do. The father replied, “shove your diploma in that hole.”
There are some things you can learn by studying and some things you have to experience for yourself. That boy had knowledge, but he didn’t have common sense. But wisdom is even more than common sense. It’s a supernatural gift from God.
So wisdom is a promise from the father and it’s a product of the Holy Spirit,
Wisdom is the presence of Jesus
Wisdom is the presence of Jesus
Wisdom is the presence of Jesus in our lives. You will have real wisdom when you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior and Lord. You will not have wisdom until you do know Him. In Pr 2:10 we see that wisdom enters your heart.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.
Jesus enters your heart. He is the wisdom that enters your heart. Look at 1 CO 1:20-21
20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. 21 Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.
There are a lot of smart people who are not wise… who look stupid. Smart people don’t have a head start on the rest of us. Look what Jesus said in Matt 11:25
25 At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike.
We come to God with a child like faith and he will give us his wisdom. I am not against knowledge, but you do not come to God head first, you come to God heart first.
Have you ever been talking with someone about Jesus and they just seem to not understand. It will drive you crazy, but God has hidden the simplicity of Gospel.
Check out what Paul said in 1 CO 1:22-23
22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.
The Jews were looking for a mighty Messiah who would free them from Rome. The Greeks were looking for a Socrates double. They intellectualized God and had begun to worship the shrine of their intelligence. But Paul said,
24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Jesus is wisdom personified. Wisdom begins at our conversion. Look at Pro 9:10
10 Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.
What is the fear of the Lord? It’s reverence for the Lord. Solomon said that wisdom begins with a reverence for the Lord. When a person reverences the Lord and has a personal encounter with the Lord, he receives God’s wisdom. So when you have the Lord Jesus in your heart, you are ready to receive that wisdom.
2. The Only Way to Wisdom
2. The Only Way to Wisdom
God desires that you have wisdom so much that he sent his only son into the world to die on a cross that we might know His wisdom. No wonder the Bible says it’s worth more than anything else.
Let’s look at the way to this wisdom.
To gain wisdom, you must pursue the Scriptures.
To gain wisdom, you must pursue the Scriptures.
Look at Pro 2:1
1 My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands.
It’s all predicated on listening to what God says. How do we do that? By pursuing His Word. God’s Word is a handbook to living with wisdom.
Let’s talk about pursuing the Scripture.
We appreciate God’s Word.
We appreciate God’s Word.
Solomon siad we are to treasure God’s Word. It means to welcome the WOG into your life like you would welcome someone into your home.
Did you know that there are some people who come to church every week with a “Do not Disturb sin hanging around their neck. We ned to listen to God’s word, are you listening? Or are you thinking about what you are going eat when you get home? We appreciate the WOG so then we
We appropriate God’s Word in our lives.
We appropriate God’s Word in our lives.
We are to treasure his commands. If you treasure them, you will obey them. Look at Psalm 119:11
11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
We print these outlines for you so that you can take notes. If we want to posses wisdom, wisdom must posses us.
We must Assimilate God’s Word.
We must Assimilate God’s Word.
Look again at verse 2 where he says, listen to what I say. He means literally to focus in … to tune in. It’s like that old EF Hutton commercial that went, When EF Hutton speaks, everyone listens and the noisy crowd gets quit.
We must activate God’s Word in us.
We must activate God’s Word in us.
For God’s word to work in our lives, we have to apply it or activate it.
2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—
Apply your heart to understanding. When you apply it, it comes off the notes and into your head and then gets into your heart and then goes out into your life. You begin to live it and activate it. At that moment, GW becomes wisdom to you.
When we hear God’s word and don’t do what it says, James the half brother of Jesus, said we are fools. James 1:22-24
22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
We are to apply the WOG in our lives. Studying the WOG gives us knowledge about God, but applying the WOG in our lives gives us knowledge of God.
Jesus even said in John 14:21
21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
Jesus reveals himself to us as we obey Him.
2. To gain wisdom, we must become people of prayer.
2. To gain wisdom, we must become people of prayer.
If you want to be a person of wisdom, you must pursue the scriptures, but you also must be a person of prayer.
3 Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. 4 Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. 5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.
He is talking about prayer.
We must pray with intensity.
We must pray with intensity.
In verse 2, he says to cry out. That’s pretty intense. He is not talking about a causal prayer, he is talking about intense prayer. Someone once said,
God does business with those who mean business.
God does business with those who mean business.
16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
Earnest prayer… If you really want to know what God wants for you, cry out for wisdom. Pray with intensity.
We must pray with persistency.
We must pray with persistency.
In verse 4, Solomon said to seek understanding like you would go after silver and other treasures.
Say you knew that in your backyard, the previous owner had buried a million dollars. Now it’s yours, all you have to do is to find it. Would you look for it? Of course you would. Your back yard would look like a field that had been plowed.
What if we pursued excellence and wisdom like you would search that yard?
Look at Drew Breese. Do you know how many hours he practice throwing to be as accurate as he was? And that for a game.
What if we pursued wisdom like that?
We must pray with expectancy.
We must pray with expectancy.
We need to pray and expect god to answer us. God wants you and I to have wisdom.
Look at Pro 2:5-6
5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
When we reverence the Lord, we gain knowledge of God. He grants wisdom.
Look at James 1:5-6
5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.
8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.
7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
We come to the Lord with intensity, persistently and with expectancy… when we do that, you can expect that God will answer your prayers. It doesn’t matter how many times you come to him… God wants you to have wisdom.
3. To gain wisdom, we have to have the presence of the Savior in our lives.
3. To gain wisdom, we have to have the presence of the Savior in our lives.
7 He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity. 8 He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him. 9 Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go.
Who grants treasure, wisdom and understanding? Jesus does. He guards the lives of those who are His.
Look at verse 7. He gives common sense to those who are his. Then it says he is a shield.
In Christ there is satisfaction… there is soundness…. there is strength… there is security…
Conclusion
Do you want wisdom in your life? It begins with a relationship with Jesus. Then you must pursue the scriptures, be a person of prayer, but those don’’t work without the presence of the Savior Jesus Christ in your life.
30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.
We need to know Jesus, the wisdom and power of God.