The Beginning of Wisdom

It was so inspiring and just so beautiful to listen to those words and imagine what they mean and be accompanied with such beautiful images of God's creation. Thank you both, Anthony and Courtney, for that. Let's start today by turning to Proverbs 16. We'll see a verse that we tend to just sort of read over. It's a nice verse. We can kind of understand it quickly, kind of nod our heads. Go, yep, got it.

Go on to the next verse. But you know, there's a kernel here and God's truth is like that. It's just so densely packed, so much depth, so much to understand, so much context and background that we heard in the sermonette. There's so much more to these stories. Proverbs 16 verse 16, it says, how much better it is to get wisdom than gold and to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

Okay, you're probably like, yeah, I got it. Wisdom, better than gold, silver, doesn't count, comprehension, understanding. Next. But there's more to it. Now, I checked gold prices this week. It's about $1,230, $1,240 an ounce or so. You know, ounce of gold isn't, you know, it's not a lot an ounce, right? Now, if I think about this Bible and all that's contained in here, right? I think about the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, all the wisdom that Jesus Christ discussed, you know, an understanding of Old Testament prophecies and what they mean and so forth.

And if I asked you, well, would you rather have this Bible or would you rather have gold? You'd say, well, you don't have the Bible. Probably. Maybe not. Maybe you're visiting, you're like, take the gold. Well, you know, I weighed my Bible and it weighs three pounds, six ounces. Okay. Three pounds, six ounces.

That's 48 ounces. Sorry, 53.8 ounces. So 53.8 ounces times about $1,235 or so means that my Bible, if it was gold, would, you know, would be worth about $66,000. Okay. So you want $66,000 or you want the Bible? Okay. Here you go. $66,000, right? You know, I think what you could do is $66,000, right? Most of you are thinking, hmm, yeah, I could pay off some debt, save a little for retirement, maybe put a down payment on a house, down payment on a house or this book.

Hmm. Hard choice. Well, it shouldn't be, but it probably is. I can get another Bible anytime, but, you know, $66,000. What does that mean? Now, I've shared, you know, what this kind of means, right? $66,000 now and what you're thinking about. But interestingly, this principle of, you know, do you take the money or do you take the wisdom? It's not just something the Bible talks about, because the Bible said, don't go for the gold, go for the wisdom, right? That's what the Bible said. It's more valuable, you know, if you had $66,000 or the Bible, go for the Bible.

This is not just a biblical sort of understanding. This is actually a worldly, wise understanding. The automotive executive, William Knudsen, once said that when a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience gets the money and the man with the money gets experience.

Right? Probably heard that. And experience is just a component of, really, of wisdom. Wisdom is more important than gold, because with wisdom, you can go get the gold, right? And if you just take the gold and you don't have wisdom, chances are you're going to lose the gold over time. That's why you need wisdom. And given how important wisdom is and how much the Bible talks about wisdom, I thought we should spend some time discussing wisdom today.

And as I said, the Bible actually has three whole books which are called Wisdom Literature in it. Now, I want to talk about how the Bible defines wisdom and how we think about wisdom today, kind of some modern definitions of wisdom. And then I want to talk about how we can obtain wisdom, because once we start talking about how we define it, we'll realize that wisdom is actually very, very hard to obtain.

And yet, the Bible outlines some very clear processes for how we obtain wisdom. And then we're going to look at one specific example of wisdom, a key characteristic, I should say, and how to apply it. So we're going to try and bring it down to something very practical for how we might be able to use this. And so this is really just sort of the beginning of several sermons on wisdom that I'd like to talk about. And so I'm entitled to the sermon, The Beginning of Wisdom, if you're looking for a title, The Beginning of Wisdom. So if you're in Proverbs, I close my Bible, but if you have yourself open, you go to Proverbs 9 verse 10.

And let's see what the Bible says about wisdom. First of all, like I said, we're going to define it. So Proverbs 9 verse 10 says here, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. So wisdom comes from God. It comes from fearing God and following what God would tell us. And the word for wisdom here in verse 10 is the Hebrew word sheokmah, C-H-O-K-M-A-H, sheokmah, C-H-O-K-M-A-H. Sometimes it's translated skilled. So that's kind of a synonym of wise, skilled. It can be translated as shrewd as well. Shrewd we often think about sort of somebody who's shrewd has wisdom, but maybe not in a good sense, right? They're shrewd in some of their dealings. And we can see this actually in Matthew 10 verse 16. Let's see what Jesus says here. Matthew 10 verse 16. We've seen the Hebrew word. Now we'll look at the Greek word and how it's used, but it's very similar. Matthew 10 verse 16. He says, Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Matthew 10 verse 16. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. And some translations you might have one say, you know, be shrewd as serpents and harmless as dove. And the word wise here is phronomos, which means practical wisdom or sensible. That's another way. Sensible, practical, can be translated as well as intelligent, be as intelligent or prudent. So what we start beginning to see is that wisdom is a little squirrely, right? Is it prudent? Is it sensible? Is it shrewd? Is it intelligent? What is it? It's like all these things. Now, today, wisdom can be defined much more elaborately. And I want to read you a quote from Psychology Today. This would be how they define wisdom today in Psychology Today. This is entitled, Wisdom, all about wisdom. It says, Wisdom is one of those qualities difficult to define because it encompasses so much, but which people generally recognize when they encounter it. It is encountered most obviously in the realm of decision-making. Psychologists tend to agree that wisdom involves an integration of knowledge, experience, and deep understanding that incorporates tolerances for the uncertainties of life, as well as its ups and downs. There's an awareness of how things play out over time. This is why often people who are around for a while, as you get older, you tend to accumulate a little bit of wisdom. You're like, I've seen this rodeo. I know how this movie ends. You've accumulated a little bit of understanding of how things play out. You can look at a situation and go, that's a train wreck coming. You're like, I've seen this before. Because you've taken this experience and this time, a little bit of understanding, and you've put these things together. It can be acquired through experience, but by itself, experience does not automatically confer wisdom. Only now are researchers beginning to look into the social, emotional, and cognitive processes that transmute experience into wisdom. People get their PhDs in trying to figure out what generates wisdom out of all these components. Why do people generally share an optimism that life's problems can be solved and experience a certain amount of calm in facing difficult decisions? Is that interesting? When you're wise, you have a certain sense of calm because you're not going to panic about this. You've got a sense of what's going on. Intelligence, if only one could figure out exactly what it is, may be necessary for wisdom, but it definitely isn't sufficient. An ability to see the big picture, a sense of proportion, and a considerable introspection also contribute to wisdom's development. So that's a quote from Psychology Today. Pretty complicated stuff! How do you mix in all these things to come to something where we would consider ourselves to be wise? So let's go back over to Proverbs. This time Proverbs 4 verse 7. I've kind of delved into that. Let's see what the book of Proverbs says about some of this. Proverbs 4 verse 7 says, It says, Wow! Principal thing.

Wow, you have to embrace this stuff.

Now when we think about peace, calm, or optimism, or synthesizing, or as they say transmuting experience into wisdom, you can begin to see this is pretty powerful stuff, right? This is why people go to the mountain, right? And see the sage on the mountain, and they say, what should I do? They want to know what they're supposed to do, because if they could figure out what to do, then a lot of the problems in life would be addressed. Let's go over to Proverbs 15 verse 12. See what it says there, Proverbs 15 verse 12.

Proverbs 15, 12 says, So you see, we need to go to the wise, because if we're not going to the wise, then we're a scoffer. I don't need to talk to anybody. I got this. So a scoffer doesn't actually take correction. He doesn't go to the wise. He doesn't look for somebody to reprove him. And so we see that wisdom encompasses all these types of things. And frankly, you can almost get into what they call analysis paralysis. Well, I could do this over here. Proverbs 16 says this, and Ecclesiastes is an example of that. And then Jesus says about this over here, you know, you kind of grab your head and you go, what am I supposed to do? So hard. But don't lose heart, because James actually has some very clear direction to us in terms of how we can obtain wisdom, which is my second point. How do we obtain wisdom? So now that we kind of know what it is, or at least we know that it's kind of a complicated thing, let's go over to James 1, verse 5. And let's talk about how we obtain wisdom. How we obtain wisdom. James 1, verse 5.

James 1, verse 5 says, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. We get to ask God for wisdom. Who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. So we can receive wisdom. We can literally go before God, on our knees, quiet time, door closed, and say, God, I've got a problem. I've got a problem with fill in the blank, right? My sister, my brother, my son, my daughter, my mom, right? My job, my boss, my car, right? Whatever your problem is, I need help making a decision about how I should handle these situations. And God, who is liberal in his giving, will give to us wisdom. Okay, great news, right? Done. Issue solved. Reject the $66,000, take the Bible, ask for wisdom, done. Well, unfortunately, it's not that easy, right? As we know, because many of us have done that. We have actually gone before God, and we've asked for those things. We'll look over in Luke 16, verse 8, and we'll see a little bit why sometimes this gets hard. As simple as that might be to ask God for wisdom, and frankly, God give us that wisdom. See, now we've got to do something with it, because frankly, a lot of times we know what we need to do, but we don't do it. Or we are told what we need to do, but we don't want to listen, right? Because we actually have to take it to the next level. Look at Luke 16, verse 8. It says here, So the Master commended the unjust steward, because he had dealt shrewdly, wisely, right? Another word for wise. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

Now, here's one for you. So sometimes people who do not have God's Holy Spirit, people who actually might be unjust in their dealings, are going to be wiser in certain things than we are.

How do we think about that? How do we sort of digest what that means? Because those people aren't asking God for help, and we're asking God for help, and yet somehow they're smarter about dealing with these things than we are. Now, we need to understand this verse a little bit here to dissect it. The NIV, if you have a new international version, says that the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than the sons of light. So that's one interpretation of this scripture. In other words, if you're in business, right, and you've grown up in business, and you know how business works, you are probably going to be more shrewd in dealing with fellow businessmen than somebody here in the Church of God who walks into that environment, right, and says, well, I prayed about this, and then starts making decisions, because maybe you're just not used to dealing with that kind of crowd. So that's one interpretation. The New Living Translation translates this dealing with the world around them. So the unjust or the sons of this world are better at dealing with the world around them. That's another interesting comparison. The Phillips says dealing with their contemporaries. So this verse is actually...there's a lot in this verse than what we might get at first reading. We've got to ask God for wisdom, and He'll give it, but the question is, will we receive it, and will we know how to apply it? Because we might get the answers, but we might not know what the questions are. We might be asking the wrong questions, or we might be getting the answer, but we can't really understand that answer. And we might become discouraged because we're dealing in an environment, maybe with people, you know, why do the wicked prosper? And like, why are those people? They're just...things are going well for them in this. And I'm asking God for help, and it's not working. Well, because there's some complexity to this subject. And that's what Christ is sharing here. Let's go back to the book of James, and let's read now James chapter 3. And again, I hope I'm not discouraging people, because if I got up here and said, you know, do step one, do step two, and do step three, and you're done, chances are you come back to me and say, I did one through three, and it didn't work for me, so what do I do now? So what I'm attempting to do here is acknowledge the complexity of this topic, and start really just giving us some things that we can think deeply about, in terms of how getting wisdom really works. James 3 verse 17.

It says, the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. All right, so what we have here is we have these seven characteristics of godly wisdom. Now, this is a pretty potent list, because if our sort of interpretation of what we've received from God in terms of wisdom does not correspond to the fruits of wisdom that are from above, then that could be an indication that we're off on the wrong track.

The wisdom that we apply has to be pure, it has to be peaceable and gentle, it has to be willing to yield, it has to be full of mercy and good fruits, it has to be without partiality, and without hypocrisy. Now, by contrast, the wisdom of this world we can see in verse 14. It says, but if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. So, this is an example of worldly wisdom. So, worldly wisdom is about self-seeking.

It's about boasting or pride. It's about falsehoods. So, if our solution involves any of these things, then that's not of God. And we can't blame God because He didn't answer our prayers. He probably did. We're just not implementing what He's telling us, or we're not asking the right questions. It says, verse 15, this wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing will be there.

So, if what you're doing is leading to this, or it has any of this involved in it, then that's not godly wisdom. And that's not the wisdom of the book. And so, sometimes we might have sort of an inability to swallow our pride. We might know what the answer is, but we are not willing to just let go of who we are and let God lead us. We might have things that we're holding on to that say, well, you know, I've always done it this way. And then, of course, the answer is, how's that working out for you? I've always done it this way.

Well, it's not working. Well, maybe you need to let go of that. Well, but that's who I am. This is tied into my identity. If I don't do it this way, I don't know who I am. I'm lost. Well, maybe that's what God wants you to do. He wants you to lose yourself and rely upon Him. So you need to give up your pride.

We need to give up our pride. We need, if that solution is about trying to covet something, right? You know, I'd really like this. God, how do I get this?

Well, maybe that very question is not the right question because that's leading to something that's coveting something that doesn't make sense. If we're applying wisdom, then like that, then we're going to end up with confusion and evil things in our results. Now, let me give you an example of worldly wisdom. Okay, and I think I might have shared this before. This was something that was told to me. You know, I'm still a CPA, licensed CPA, and I work a lot with lawyers. Lawyers are really good at worldly wisdom because they see a lot of things. I had a colleague once say to me, never fall on your sword unless you are about to be stabbed in the back.

I think I've shared that here before, right? That's worldly wisdom. And that actually makes sense on one level. That's kind of like Luke 16. So if you don't fall on your sword, that is, if you don't admit, never admit you're wrong unless you're about to be found out by somebody for your error, right? So if somebody's about to expose you and expose the truth of what's actually going on, that's the time when you've got to change gears and figure out how to admit what you did and then spin it in the right way.

That's how the world works. And that's kind of a sad thing. But that's worldly wisdom. Worldly wisdom, if you think about that for a second, it's about self-protection. It's about admitting your mistake. And it's totally about self-seeking. This is all about protecting yourself. If we think about the wisdom that we might have accumulated from our parents, from our colleagues, from our friends, that wisdom might be the kind of wisdom that we're carrying around with us.

Protect yourself at all costs. Make sure you never admit mistakes. Godly wisdom says, a soft answer turns away wrath. So that's godly wisdom. A soft answer turns away wrath. It's peaceable and it promotes peace. And a soft answer might actually mean that we have to let go a little bit of our pride because we're falsely accused. Right? Because we're put down by some way because we've been offended by what somebody says. But instead of being offended, we have a soft answer. Let's turn over to Proverbs 12, verse 15.

So as we think about receiving godly wisdom and interpreting what we've heard, we think about applying it, it's got to have these characteristics from the book of James. And not the characteristics of worldly wisdom. Proverbs 12, verse 15.

So here's another element of godly wisdom. So we've asked for wisdom. We ask and we know what we're going to do and we just go out and do it. Well, we could fall into this category of a fool who thinks he's right in his own eyes instead of getting counsel and heeding counsel. So we might decide to go out and buy an expensive car on credit.

But instead, we go get counsel. We go and we ask somebody. We ask somebody we trust. Hopefully somebody who has a little bit of wisdom. Maybe they've been around the block a few times. Maybe they're a little bit older. Maybe they've bought several cars on credit before. And we go get advice and we say, I'd like to buy this new Camaro. It's only $33,000. It was going to be $37,000, but the guy's cutting me a deal.

And I have $1,000 that I've saved up over the years. What do you think? And they say, well, how much do you make? Well, I make $15 an hour because they just raised the minimum wage and cent available to $15 an hour. And they say, well, how much is your rent? Well, my rent's $1,300 a month. That's a great deal. How'd you get $1,300 a month? Well, you know, I've been in there for a while. Well, how much are you going to have for the payment? Well, I don't know what the payment is. Well, maybe you should go figure out what the payment is. You get my point, right? And instead, you decide, no, I'm not going to buy the new Camaro for $33,000. I'm going to go on Craigslist. I'm going to go to Consumer Reports. I'm going to figure out what the best cars are under $10,000. And I'm going to go buy one of those cars, right, instead, because my payment's going to be lower and I'm going to pay it off over time and over a shorter period of time and so forth. That's yielding to counsel. That's yielding to wisdom. So we can ask for wisdom, and God may indeed give us the insights, thoughts, and ideas, but we actually have to apply that wisdom. And when we're applying that wisdom, there are characteristics. When we're applying that wisdom, if we're not getting counsel, we may not actually be applying it correctly, right? If it's leading to self-seeking or covetousness or confusion, then we're probably not applying it correctly. So we need to evaluate what we're receiving and whether we're receiving and applying that correctly. So let's go back to James 3 and verse 17, and let's look at the third point that I want to go through, which is a key characteristic of wisdom. James 3, 17.

So if we're thinking about an important decision in our life, or we're struggling with how to handle something in our lives, we can go back to James 3 and verse 17. And we can think about these characteristics, and we can think about the solutions that we're coming to, hopefully with being led by God's Spirit. And we're asking ourselves whether it falls into one of these seven categories. The first one that's mentioned is that wisdom that is from above is pure. It's pure. Now, when the Bible talks about purity, it often is talking about cleanness. That's often, if you think about something that's pure, something that's pure, it's 100% something. Typically, when we talk about purity in the Bible, we're reading about cleanliness, cleanness, or being washed. Something's washed. It's clean. It's pure. Now, we can see this here, this concept of purity, and this disgust in 1 Peter 1, which is just one page over in my Bible, so if you don't have to turn very far. 1 Peter 1, verse 22. It says, It says, It says, So you're purifying your souls, and now you're loving someone with a pure heart. The idea is that you've removed all uncleanness, all impurities. There's a wholeness that comes from God's Holy Spirit. So wisdom has this sort of wholeness. It has this sort of cleanliness, this purity, this completeness, and how it's being dealt with. So let's examine what it means to be pure and have wisdom that is pure. Let's go back to Proverbs 3, verse 4. You can tell we're in the Proverbs a lot because, of course, that's the book of wisdom, so we're going to lean heavily on God's Word here in Proverbs. Proverbs 3, verse 4.

Proverbs 3, verse 4. It says, Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. And then in verse 7 it says, So when we rely on our own wisdom, that's when we get into trouble. The wisdom we're talking about has been washed thoroughly by God and his Spirit in us.

William Shakespeare once wrote, Now that's an interesting way to begin, right? If we're going to be wise, we start with the concept that we're just a fool. And then we go from there. Because if we're just a fool, then we're going to have to go get some help. We're going to have to not lean on our own understanding. I think Shakespeare got this one right. Our strength comes from understanding that our nature is inherently foolish. Jeremiah talks about the heart being deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. So we have to purify our hearts. So when applying wisdom, there is an effort that must be made to remove all our personal biases. All our individual dispositions. All of our individual dispositions. Let's see how the Apostle Paul interpreted removing his biases and removing his individual dispositions. Let's look over in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1.

1 Corinthians 2, verse 1. What we're talking about here is purity, purity of heart. Removing all of the impurities that can affect the wisdom that we receive from God. What we're going to end up doing is pushing our individual dispositions, our cultural contexts, our backgrounds, our ways of seeing the world. We're going to push it into that godly wisdom that we receive, and we're going to sully it. We're going to muddy it. We're going to dirty it.

What we need to do is get that out of there so we've got the pure wisdom that God is giving us. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. The Apostle Paul studied at Gamaliel's feet, as it's described. He was a rabbi, he was a Jew, he was a Jew of the Jew. He really understood the laws as written in the Old Testament.

He could have easily leaned on his own understanding and his own excellence of speech and wisdom, but he chose not to. He says, verse 2, for I determined. Now that's interesting. See, he determined. It wasn't something that just happened. He said, I'm not going to go there. I'm going to go here to the book. I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I am just going to focus on what I heard from Jesus Christ, what I know he wants me to preach, and I'm not going to go lean on my own understanding and tell you about these things.

Verse 3. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And so we can draw upon our own life experience. Let me tell you how it is. I've been there. We can start going back to all of that. But if we go back to all of that, then we're going to muddy the purity of godly wisdom.

And Paul did not want to muddy the purity of this gospel message, this wisdom about what Jesus was saying, what his message was, what his life meant. He was not going to muddy it with his own personal understanding and wisdom. And he did this for a reason in verse 5. That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

You're not interested in hearing Tim Pebworth's life experiences, right? I mean, that may be interesting. What you want to know is here what's in the book. So I've got to follow this. I've got to share with you what's in the book, because this is where we're all going. However, verse 6, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.

But we speak, verse 7, the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew. For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. See, if they had known these things, they wouldn't have done this. That's what Paul came preaching. That's what we're here to learn. That's what we want to understand. Verse 9, But as it is written, I has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of men the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. God's Spirit is going to open up wisdom to us. It's going to allow us to see real issues, the real questions, and the right decisions. But it's only going to happen when we remove our own life experiences, our own dispositions, our own way of looking at things. Edward Murrow, the famous American journalist, once wrote that we are each prisoners of our own experiences.

And that's what the Bible is saying over and over and over again throughout here when it says, don't lead on your own understanding. I decided to not preach this way. It says this over and over again.

It says, get rid of your own personal dispositions and biases and approach the Word of God with a pure heart, with God's Spirit flowing in you, removing all of that stuff that you bring to the table and just looking at what God has to say to you. And that goes back to those characteristics because as soon as we bring our dispositions in, that's when pride enters. And pride is going to get in the way of so many things. You know, Pastor in the United Church of God, who's passed away now, Bob Fay, used to say, no pride, no problem.

And frankly, that's a pretty powerful comment because if we get rid of our pride, well, I have to do it this way. I've always done it this way. I'm scared to do it any other way. We get rid of that. We just, you know, it's Greenfield. It's all in front of us. We get to do anything. God just, oh, I need to go there. I'm going there. A lot of times it takes us just being shook, shaken to our knees, crushed nearly to kind of get that pride out of us.

You know, it doesn't have to happen that way. We can just let go of our own viewpoints. Socrates, well, let's quote Socrates. Now, there's a guy who had a little bit of wisdom, right? Socrates is quoted as saying, the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

I mean, that's what the Bible says, right? I mean, just reaffirming, right, what we're reading in Scripture over and over again. The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. We need to get advice from multiple counselors. We need to imitate the decision-making of Jesus Christ, and we need to imitate the wisdom contained in this book and the examples that we read.

And this combined with being led by God's Spirit, as we read here, is going to allow us to apply godly wisdom. It's going to hurt. I'm going to tell you it's going to hurt, because you're going to just have to realize that people are going to think badly of you. Right? But I need to set the record straight. Really? Do you? For who? Who are you setting the record straight for?

Is it for your own pride, or is it for the other person? Maybe you don't need to set the record straight. Maybe that's not the wise thing to do. I can't go and talk to that person about that. Well, why not? Well, I'm afraid. Well, is fear one of the characteristics of godly wisdom? No. Well, then go talk to that person. Find out what's going on. Right? Let's turn back to Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13 verse 20.

So often, we just have to get out of our own way. Proverbs 13 verse 20. Proverbs 13 verse 20 says, He who walks with wise men will be wise. Well, that's cool. Right? We know what I've always tried to do. Make sure I'm not the smartest person in the room. Right? A lot of people want to be the smartest person in the room because that feels really good. But if you can avoid that and hang out with other, you know, people who are smarter than you or wiser than you, that's a really great formula, as it says here in the Bible, for wisdom. But the companion of fools will be destroyed. The companion of fools will be destroyed. Look over in Proverbs 15 verse 22. Proverbs 15 verse 22.

There's another translation here that says, Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed. Counsel, meditation, and then the courage to step forward and make a decision. This is what wisdom is about. This is how we, as the weak of the world, shame the mighty. Because a lot of times, you know, it's easy to see the mistakes in others. Oh, if they would just... all they have to do is say they're sorry. Well, you know, when the time comes for us to say we're sorry, then it's pretty hard. That's how the weak of the world shamed the wise. And that's how living by faith actually is manifested. Because when we live by faith, we trust in God. We take action based upon that counsel that we've received. We trust that God is guiding us and leading us. And it's worth way more than $66,000. Way more than $66,000. Today, we defined what the Bible says about wisdom, and we read some modern definitions. We also talked about how we obtain wisdom. And we explored a key characteristic of wisdom, which is purity. That is, pure wisdom that descends from God versus how we sully it with our own understanding, our own biases, our own life experiences. So let's turn it over to 2 Timothy 1 and verse 7 in conclusion. Because after we think about all these things and we walk away going, Okay, I know what I need to do, then we actually have to go do it. And that's when it gets to be really hard. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 7.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. We have power as God's people. One writer has said that we're dangerous. We have power to make good decisions. And God wants us to make good decisions. He wants us to give us wisdom. He wants us to ask, ask, seek, knock. We know those verses. And through the revelation of His Spirit, He is going to guide us through our lives to make good decisions. He wants us to trust Him, to get counsel, and to be guided by Him. This is how we grow. We don't grow by being afraid to make decisions. We grow by following biblical principles and learning the lessons that will allow us to be kings and priests in the world tomorrow. We need to look to God and His Spirit at how we obtain this wisdom. And I hope these principles that exist today will be useful to you.