Wisdom Part 1

We all need wisdom

Wisdom is defined as ‘the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment’.

What’s unfortunate is - having experiences is not the same as having experience.

Seeing a lot is not the same as knowing a lot.

And being not sure, not knowing the right choice to make, the right way to go, the wisest thing to do - can be crippling.

Over the next two weeks i want to do a bit of a dive into proverbs and what it has to say about wisdom. Which is a lot - so i encourage you to read it.

So how do we get wisdom?

The Lord gives out wisdom and knowledge and understanding

Proverbs 2:6 NIV

For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

We believe that God is ultimately the source of all knowledge and understanding.

You can sometimes find answers other places - but that’s sort of like how a broken clock is sometimes right. While that’s true - it a coincidence. You wouldn’t look to a broken clock.

A basic understanding about...understanding is that it’s the Lords, and it’s his to give out.

Fortunately we have this:

James 1:5–8 NIV

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

Remember, this isn’t about doubt in general - it’s about doubting God’s goodness to give wisdom.

What does doubting God’s wisdom look like?

It looks like saying,

I don’t know if God knows best

So in this image, you have a pesron who is asking God for wisdom - but doesn’t believe that God knows best.

The image of that is a boat being blown and tossed by the wind.

So james says - in that situation, you shouldn’t expect to receuive anything from the Lord.

But not because HE isn’t generous - it’s because WE aren’t stable.

Double minded literally means ‘two completely different thoughts’.

So how do we start down this path of receiving wisdom from the Lord?

start here:

Knowing the Lord is wisdom

Proverbs 9:10 NIV

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

So proverbs says - if you want to know wisdom, you need to know God.

And there’s truth to this in more than one way. The first is - God is the smartest, the wisest, the most powerful.

But the second is different -

Reality itself is found in the Lord

STORY - The game of power is ‘dehumanizing’, not that people use power to humiliate others - but because the game of taking power itself strips us of what makes us actually human.

So the Lord made us, and He knows what real life is. Not only that - he IS what real life is.

We can’t do or understand reality properly without the Lord.

We were MADE imperfect - not faulty, but incomplete.

Proverbs reinforces this. It says - to know God is wisdom. To have wisdom is to have life, to have stability, to have meaning and purpose.

Here’s something I’ve learned about wisdom over the years: God - and wisdom - isn’t the only player in this game of life.

In proverbs you have this interplay between wisdom and folly.

Wisdom calls out:

Proverbs 9:3–6 NIV

She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, “Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says, “Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.”

Folly calls out:

Proverbs 9:14–17 NIV

She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way, “Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says, “Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!”

Both call out in the same fashion.

They both want to meet that need in us. That spot where we don’t know what, or how, or where.

But they have radically different approaches.

Wisdom offers us something - and asks something of us

Wisdom says - come and eat what I have to offer. But it also says - leave your simple ways behind.

But here’s the thing -

Folly has nothing lasting to offer

To be clear, there’s a difference between inexperience and foolishness

Inexperience is a step on the path to wisdom

Foolishness is a step off the path to wisdom

Following our folly only leads to disaster:

Proverbs 12:3 NIV

No one can be established through wickedness, but the righteous cannot be uprooted.

Everything foolishness is offering is stolen.

Foolishness is a drain in life. It takes from everyone around you.

Proverbs 13:20 says the companion of fools suffers harm

Foolishness also takes from the fool as well. It steals your future.

A good way to paraphrase this verse - the wicked won’t be rooted, and the righteous won’t be uprooted

This sounds so obvious of a choice. BUT - Here’s why folly is so tempting:

Folly doesn’t ask anything of us either

(STORY - Tomorrowland. They chose the path that asked nothing from them now)

Notice how wisdom said, leave that simpleton life. But folly just says, hey, come on and eat!

While we pig out, indulging our own desires and every whim - we don’t notice the destruction upon us until it’s too late.

Destruction is when we seek out any source of life or meaning or purpose other than God

That’s not a punishment, that’s just the way it is.

STORY - my kids try and do something that isn’t a good idea. I let them. It blows up in their face. I didn’t punish them - they learned that the other way was bad.

When we abandon the author of life and look anywhere else, of course we’re only going to find death.

This is where that phrase ‘the fear of the Lord’ starts to make sense. Because the Lord says - the way apart from me is death. And we...take that seriously.

We all have a choice to make

We can’t simply not choose. To not choose is to choose death.

What will you choose today? Will you choose the path of wisdom, of life? Or the path that seems easy and rewarding right here and right now?

We can know God and His wisdom in the person of Jesus Christ

STORY - Jesus said, i’m going back to the father to prepare a place for you.

John 14:6 NIV

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is the way to God. Jesus is the way to wisdom.