Sermon Tone Analysis

My search for wisdom

I wonder when you last felt home sick?

That was me, 2 weeks into University.

Burton-on-Trent is nothing to write home about, but I missed it.

I particularly missed being with family and some of my friends.

I’d quickly found a church to settle into, but I was also feeling the sense of opportunity.

In my first 19 years of life, God had done so much, but now I was out here in the world on my own, able to delve into new things, to discover who God was making me to be and I started a quest.

This was a quest many have been on.

It’s the great quest we see King Solomon on when he asked God for this gift.

I was in search of wisdom.

I had been blessed by growing up around a number of wise people.

People who didn’t just have a lot of knowledge, but really knew how to apply the knowledge they’d learned.

People who you could turn to in a crisis and they seemed to know just the best way to go ahead.

I was a follower of Jesus, and yet I still thought this was an ability someone could gain.

That people would turn to someone and say “O you are so wise”.

I wanted to be one of those people.

My Mum’s a treasure, and she’d sent me off with a devotional book to turn to.

One of those gifts that was given with love, but which I didn’t intend on picking up.

I was happy reading the Bible my way thanks Mum, and I wasn’t expecting this book to help me in the quest for wisdom.

I didn’t have a road map, or a plan, but every day I was asking God to help me get wisdom.

I knew the proverbs were supposed to be packed with wisdom, and I read them.

They sounded sensible, some were directly applicable to my life in the Uni digs, but many washed over my head.

I eventually looked at the contents of this book my Mum had given me and was amazed by what I found.

Selecting the first devotional about wisdom it led to Solomon’s request for wisdom.

Let’s take a look shall we.

So I could see that faithfulness to God, living life as He asks me to, was the foundation for gaining wisdom.

Solomon’s request also comes out of humility, aware he can’t rule Israel without God at his side.

My quest continued, and I started to read the proverbs in a new light.

At this point I still believed wisdom was one thing which could be gained.

In the proverbs 8, Solomon personifies Wisdom.

If you’ve read ‘the shack’ which is a few years old now, you might remember meeting this person in Paul Young’s story.

I was memorised, trying to work out how I could attain this wisdom.

And just after meeting this word picture, this personification of wisdom, we have this famous passage which many of you will know well.

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

So there’s a differentiation then between knowledge and wisdom.

There’s that helpful example that “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is wisely not putting it in a fruit salad”

Knowledge is about specific facts, wisdom is knowing how to apply those facts.

Let’s keep verse 10 on the screen.

My search for wisdom in my first year of University led me to a Truth of scripture.

I can know all the knowledge I like about God, but wisdom comes through knowing and respecting him.

And in this sense, it’s knowledge in the relational sense.

The entire gospel speaks of God making himself relationaly known, and True godly wisdom isn’t attained as an attribute, it’s given through a relationship, a connection with the God who loves us.

Delving in

So let’s delve into our passage with Paul this morning.

What a passage.

Paul distinguishes between “human wisdom” with “wisdom of this age” which he also calls human wisdom.

Human wisdom is the place we look when we’re not looking at God.

Can I see a show of hands for any Disney lovers in the room?

2 of the new cannon of Disney films are the frozen stories.

The first film is a great story of understanding how to use power, a story of trust, betrayal and love.

The second film, Frozen 2, is a deeper film about journey, discovery, grief, suffering, friendship and destiny.

Claire and I watched a thrilling 6 part series detailing the production of the film, and I had no idea that Disney films evolve based on the best ideas, and there was still about 60% of the animation of the film to be done in the last few months before it was released.

One of the best musical songs of the show is called “Show yourself”.

Elsa, the snow queen, has heard a voice calling her and she believes the voice will lead her to discover the Truth of who she is.

To help her understand her destiny.

Here’s 1 minute of the song give you a little insight

Watch video 1:45-2:48 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrZxwPwmgrw

There was a delay in the production of the film because they couldn’t work out who Elsa was searching for.

They had this great song, but they couldn’t work out who Elsa should be searching for.

Sadly, in my opinion, they sort in the wisdom of our world and Elsa finds out that the spirit guiding her all this time, the one she wants to reveal who she is, is of course herself.

The one with the answers was herself and to find her true self, all she had to do was look within.

This song has been the source of much deep conversation with out boys about the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God.

In the garden of Eden, we see first Eve then Adam fall to the temptation to be like God.

Rather than trusting in the wisdom of God, they sort the knowledge for themselves.

They listened to the voice of the enemy who whispered “is that what God really said?”

Paul is not asking us to look within to our own divine nature (because that’s not a christian nor biblical understanding of our natures.

Our natures are deeply flawed because of our sin.)

It’s not about self-actualisation and discovering “Your truth”.

No Paul is contrasting the wisdom of the world with the wisdom from God.

He even wrote in the passage in the chapter before:

This wisdom of God sees God himself coming down from heaven to earth in Jesus Christ, walking among his broken children, showing us the best way to live.

The way of God’s wisdom, which shows deep radical love which ends with him dying a criminals death to rid all who turn to Him from sin.

This is the wisdom of God.

We understand more from our passage today, that this wisdom was hidden and is now revealed by the Spirit, to the world, through His believers.

So Dan, I get you’re talking about wisdom, but didn’t aren’t you meant to be speaking about a word of wisdom, the supernatural spiritual gift that Paul speaks about?

You’re right, but let me share one more thing about my quest for wisdom.

When I reached my final year of university I realised that wisdom, in it’s truest sense, wasn’t about something for me to gain and keep.

Of course, the more we walk with Jesus, the more we follow in His footsteps, the more our actions and words become like His word.

But I realised that wisdom of course is God Himself.

If you want wisdom, whatever you do, don’t look inwardly at your broken self.

Ask Him, walk with Him.

The wisest people I know are wise with godly wisdom because they spend time with God everyday.

They are in constant relationship with Him and it is God working through them that makes them wise.

This is the step I wanted to reach to explore the supernatural gift of words of wisdom.

In my experience as a follower of Jesus, this is a gift God gives use for the moments it’s needed.

It’s all about listening to God and faithfully sharing what we feel He has said.

Offering it through invitation.

Remember Paul wrote

Example: Man on the steps of the bombed church

Let me give you an example of a word of wisdom.

On Thursday I had a working lunch in Liverpool.

We’d agreed to meet at a particular restaurant, but I was early.

I spent an hour in a coffee shop opposite and was studying for this sermon when I felt God say “be ready to receive a word of wisdom.”

I looked around the coffee shop and I didn’t feel God draw me to anyone in particular and got a sense to just wait on the Lord.

I spent a couple of minutes in quiet prayer before getting on with the sermon.

20 minutes before my lunch I left the coffee shop and found the restaurant wouldn’t open their doors until 12.

I had 20 minutes to kill so I wandered up toward the bombed church.

I walked to the top of the steps next to the shell of a church and felt the Holy Spirit pause me.

I turned round and sat down on the steps just taking in the scene.

Lot’s of people walking and driving past.