The Collector

Thank you for the message. All right, the title of today's sermon is The Collector. The Collector. Are you a collector? There was a famous movie out quite a few years ago with Denzel Washington, one of my favorite actors, named called The Bone Collector. And he found a guy that collected bones of people and so forth. And it was not what I want to talk about today. But growing up, I don't know about you, but growing up in Tennessee, I had certain collections that I started, and I don't think they ever finished. At a very young age when I was six or seven years old, I started collecting stamps. And I collected stamps because my parents would get letters, and I'd look through old letters and take these stamps and so forth. And that was very important to me.

I don't even know where those stamps are today. Because I moved on, and I moved on to collecting coins. Have you ever collected coins? I had this little blue folder that folded out, Stephen's shaking his head, that we collected pennies of different dates, and you would put them in. Anybody seen one of those? Yeah. Okay. Well, I finally got all but one in that, and I really enjoyed doing that. But then later on, it was baseball cards. And yes, any of you who collected baseball cards, do you ever remember you would open that plastic package, and there would be that? And this hard-as-rock gum. Anybody remember that gum? And you know, I was so hungry for the gum, I even tried chewing that. But of course, you know, it was so bad it broke into 50 pieces. It was terrible, but I collected baseball cards from maize to maras to mantle. I just had all the baseball players, and thought at one time, wow, I looked and saw what I had collected for about eight or nine years. And I thought, well, I'll help all my brothers or sisters. I'll get to a point, my younger brother and sister, get to a point, if they want to go to college, I'll sell that. And I'll sell the collection and help them go to school. Well, little did I know, my youngest sister decided to throw out a bunch of stuff because she was cleaning up this area back there where my stuff was, and she burnt about half of the baseball cards. So, doom on her. But I wasn't anything I could do about it. Suck it up.

Hope she's a repented. She's a minister's wife now. But then I went into hats. I collected hats, baseball hats. Don't know why. I have no idea why I did, but I just had certain teams. And so one of those playing over here was the San Francisco 49ers, as I was a big Joe Montana fan. I was a Dallas Cowboys fan, and I would have all these hats. Well, when I got married, I kind of had to throw those hats away, or most of them, because they were taking up space. And I didn't really have a purpose. I only had one head. I could only wear one at a time. The reason I bring this up is about two weeks ago, three weeks ago, Mary is always looking for something we can go do together. And so there was a free show. That's always first on our list. This says, free. And this was a free shell show. Anybody know what a shell show is? I didn't. Ocean shells. People collect shells from all over. Sea shells. Sea shells, sea shells, whatever that was saying was. But we went in there, and there were people that had been collecting for decades. And there were literally hundreds, thousands of shells over this big display, over this thing. And I didn't know they had their own world. They had their own language. They had shells you couldn't even begin to pronounce. They had big ones, they had shined them up, and they were selling them, and they were trading them. And that's a different world. But they were obsessed with their shells. How about you? Anybody here ever collect anything? Yes? Green soldiers plastic. Hmm, okay. That's a new one on me.

All right. So anybody else collect anything? Yes?

Well, but I know you love to eat. Oh, okay. Spoons from all over. And you said GI Joe? Okay, with the kung fu grip. Okay. Anybody else? Beanie babies. Do you still have those today? Well, you got one sitting beside you. Right? She's your baby. You may not be a beanie, but he's your baby, right?

So people collect all kinds of things, don't they? I know some people collect butterflies, not live ones, dead ones. And my mother used to collect antiques, had antiques and all these kind of things. And also people collect art, right? Some people I can't afford. Art like that are expensive art, but some people can. My wife at one time collected plates. She don't want me to say that. Now she collects coffee mugs. Okay. Drink one cup at a time, but she's got a hundred cups. Some collect comic books and they're worth a lot of money. Okay. Now there is a man who collects cars. He's the top car collector in the entire world and no one's even close to him. Anybody know who it is besides the one I talked to? Who? Jay Leno. Jay Leno's not in his league. I've seen Jay Leno. He's got all these expensive cars. This man has 5,000 cars and none of them are even anywhere near what any one of us could afford. Okay.

He is the Sultan of Brunei. It's a small Malaysian country. Okay. The Sultan loves cars. He has 5,000 of these cars. The latest value on those cars, I had to look this up twice because I couldn't believe it, 2.3 trillion dollars. 2.3 trillion dollars. Any car that is just above and beyond. One Rolls-Royce, that was a special Rolls-Royce. He took and he had it, he rides in it to his parades. You can see it on the internet. Look this up. It's covered with gold. Everything. He put 14 million dollars of gold just on the car.

Anything you can think of. The most expensive cars out there. He buys. Now that's a little over the top, wouldn't you say? I mean, he could pay off half of our debt in the United States. He could buy a whole country. I guess he already has one, but I'd sure like to see him take half of that and go to Haiti and help there. But he likes his cars.

Today, as I thought, because most collectors, they collect something. And I thought about it because I've collected something all through these years. And I wondered, what? What do I collect? And then it hit me because I do read. I'm a voracious reader. I'm always studying something. I collect wisdom. Now, I've had cars. I've had other things. Nothing like the Sultan or anything near it or whatever. But I found that by collecting wisdom, it helps me every day. It helps me to understand. So today, I want to look at it because wisdom is spoken of quite often in the Bible. It's very important. As a matter of fact, just like there's a scripture that says, God is love. Well, as I was going through this, it made me understand that God is also wisdom. God is wisdom. He has it. And He's willing to give it. And I think most of us, Jeff will agree, we need it. I need a little more because the biggest mistakes I've ever made in my life was where I did not use wisdom. And some of the pitfalls that I've been able to avoid was because I used wisdom. So let's go. A couple of verses here. If you'll go with me to 2 Timothy 3 and verse 15. 2 Timothy 3 verse 15. Because the Bible is or should be ground zero for us when it comes to wisdom. Because God knows everything. And we don't. In case you haven't figured it out yet. 2 Timothy 3 and verse 15. As he's talking to Timothy here. But he says, And that from childhood you have known the scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation. So Paul is saying, hey, you need to study the scriptures. They'll give you wisdom. They'll make you wise. Go back to Deuteronomy if you will. Deuteronomy 4. Deuteronomy 4 and verse 6. Deuteronomy 4 and verse 6 says, Therefore be careful to observe them. What? God's commands. God's instructions. For this is your wisdom and your understanding. All right. Let's have another witness here. Let's go over to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Psalm 119 and verse 98. You, through your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies. For they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers. For your testimonies are my meditation. Man, that's important. Now, maybe you feel like you don't have as many enemies as David had, but we've all got some. All got some people that irritate us, drive us crazy, do things just to get over on you. And a lot of times we need that wisdom to know how to handle those situations. I do. Let's go over to Psalm 19. Psalm 19. Many of you will know this one. Psalm 19. This is the fourth witness. Psalm 19. Psalm 19 verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. So if you want more wisdom, this is one of the reasons to study the Word, is to get more wisdom. Finally, let's go to James 5. I mean, James 1, excuse me. Very famous one. That I have looked at and I studied many times. James 1 verse 5. It says, if any of you lacks what? Wisdom.

I'll put my hand up first. I lack wisdom. Anybody else out there? Well, that's only about half of people. So the other half are very smart. Okay, I'll come to you about any card questions. Because it says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all. Wait a minute. That's just those who follow Christ. It says, all, if any of you lack wisdom. So he's willing to give wisdom to everyone. But most people don't even care about this, do they? To know where the source of it is. And how to get it. He's saying, this is how you get it. If any of you lack wisdom, ask of God who gives it all liberally. Liberally. And without reproach, it will be given to him. Wow. That is a major statement. We just need to ask him for more wisdom. Every single day. Because there's days you may think you don't need it, that you find out, boy, I wish I had it. I wish I had it. I need more wisdom. How about the great minds? In the past. Aristotle said, it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Let me describe you. Or how about Socrates? I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is, I know nothing.

Which sometimes I feel that way when I have studied the Bible for 40 years. I'm studying it and studying it. I think I know something and then all of a sudden, man, I've looked at that verse 20 times and now it just now comes. I'm fruition what it's all about in my mind. Ben Franklin said, some people die at 25, but they aren't buried until they're 75.

Albert Einstein said, a person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. And, no, it's a Super Bowl weekend here. You don't know who Lou Holtz is. He used to be the coach of Notre Dame, Arkansas, various ones. A very interesting statement. His words of wisdom is, life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it. Profound words. Pretty true for most of us. So what is the wisest thing you have ever said? Anybody? I know Dwight's. Right, Stacy? It was, I do.

But Dwight doesn't go on. What is the wisest thing? Anything come to mind? Fear God and to live. It's the wisest thing. Giving advice. Because guess what? As we get older, people will come to you more about making decisions, judgment, wisdom. Because as you grow older, you realize that some people have already gone through it. That's the beauty of having the Bible. It's God-inspired words, so nothing like having someone a trillion years old giving you advice. Who's seen everything. Who knows everything. Because we sometimes don't. With me, some of the wisest things I've ever said, I've said to myself, one of those is, I better not. I better not. Because I have to make sure.

But you know, it's interesting. Today, they have drop-the-mic moments. You know what I'm talking about? Where people will say something, it's so profound, it's just so great that you drop the mic and nobody could say anything after it. Okay? That's very popular today. I can't say I have many drop-the-mic moments because words make an impact. Have you ever thought about Nathan? Nathan having that drop-the-mic moment when he's standing before his king, and he says, you are that man. That's a drop-the-mic moment. How about others? Have you thought? Because there's been quite a few through the Scripture. How about Esther? And she stood there and said, that enemy, asking her husband, he said, who would do such a thing? Who would want to kill the queen? It says, that enemy sitting beside you. Amen. Strong words. And even when her uncle Mordecai came to her and said, it was such a time as this that God brought you to this place. She had to go before the king. And she said, if I die, I die. Even Joseph, revealing himself to his brothers, said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. That was a drop-the-mic moment. Even Christ had, he who is without sin cast you the first. And what happened to everybody? They didn't grab a mic. Got out of it. Christ had so many. So many of those things rendered a seizure with his seizures, but not that seizure.

In case he wants to take up an offering today. The world's wisdom.

We see that quite often. I was reading an article on the internet. You know, you can always believe everything the internet says. And so here it was, the wisest, smartest people who ever lived. And he gave a list. Confucius was at the top, okay, and gave the top two or three, went on down here, Aristotle, Socrates, Tesla, and he got down to number eight, Adolf Hitler. And then I went down to ten, Jesus Christ. Something messed up there, wouldn't you say?

But I do hope you have a piece of paper or pen, or write this down, because I would like now to give you a test. And it is from the University of California in San Diego, and they were working with the Journal of Psychiatric Research. The test is only going to take three minutes, okay? It's just six questions. They had a full 24. They have one for six. And it is to determine your level of wisdom. I took the test. Mary took the test. So I'm not giving you anything that you don't. Okay, you're going to grade yourself. Nobody's going to know. Okay. The tests consist of six questions. So I'd like you on your piece of paper, write one, two, three, four, five, six. Okay? One, two, three, four, five, six. Okay? And I will ask you six questions. And after I ask a question, on a scale of one to five, you need to write down how much you agree with that statement. One being you barely or don't even agree with that statement. Five is you agree to that statement very much. Okay? Very simple. As I ask these, you'll just write down one to five. And then at the bottom, we're going to total those. Okay? Here's a first question. I enjoy being exposed to diverse viewpoints. One to five. You agree with that statement. I enjoy being exposed to diverse viewpoints. Number two, I have a difficult timekeeping friendships. One to five. Number three, it is important that I understand my actions. It is important that I understand my actions. Number four, I cannot filter my negative emotions. One to four. One to five. Number five, I tend to postpone making major decisions as long as I can. Finally, number six. Others look to me to help them make decisions. Okay? Now, I'd like you at the bottom of that, total your points. Okay?

All right? Now, at the side of that, I would like you to make another little note. I'd like you to look at the answer you gave to number two, four, and five. Two, four, and five. Add those up, two, four, and five, and deduct them from the first number.

That is the official scale for wisdom.

Ten, is moderate. Anything above ten, you have, according to this research, psychiatric experts. Anything above ten, you are pretty wise. If you're nine, you need a little work. And if you're eight or less, you need to see them. That is, so I do not know what your score is, but now you know. That is what this wisdom is from there, is talking about.

Plato said, be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Buta is to have said, if a person says, I want happiness, first you remove the eye. This is ego. Then the want, that is desire. Finally, all you're left with is happiness. Bruce Lee said, don't pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. And Gandhi said, you must be the change you wish to see in the world. So we have looked at the wisdom of the world. We've looked at our wisdom. So I want to finish today in one of the books of wisdom in the Bible. There are three books considered, books of wisdom. Anybody? Ecclesiastes is one. Proverbs is the other. Nope, it's not Psalms. What did somebody say? Nope. It may make you wise with your wife, but or your husband. Job is considered because who speaks a lot in Job? God. As he told Job, you listen to me now. Answer me! He actually said. See if you can tell me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the world? And he goes on to explain many other things. But no, we're going to go to one of the wisdom books that you really said first off. Proverbs. Proverbs. We're going to take a very quick journey through things. We won't get through it all. But I'd like to go there because I'm going to tell you the last week or two weeks that I've been studying on this, it has helped me make a lot of wise decisions. It's helped to keep my life straight. I used to read it when I was a young person because I wanted to stay out of trouble mostly. It was supposed to keep me out of trouble. I should have read it more, as David was talking about. But I read it now, and I'm amazed at how much wisdom I get from it even today. So let's go, if you will. Back with me. I'll be reading from the New King James Version. Proverbs. The book of Proverbs.

Over here.

Go with me to the second chapter. I'm going to jump through these things as we talk about wisdom. Proverbs 2, chapter 2, verse 10. When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep you to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the path of unrighteous uprightness.

To walk in the ways of darkness. We need to do that. We need to make sure who we're listening to or that we are wise enough not to invest in certain things. Sometimes it's investing in people, isn't it? We find out later, oh, this person's really great, and you start working with them, you open up, and then you find out that they'll sell you down the river.

Proverbs 3, verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your path. Most of us know that verse. How often do we go back and read it? How important it is, or reading it to your children, or reading it to your mate.

Lean not on your own understanding. That's me. That's what I really have to work at. Because even though I pray to God about these things, sometimes I will, oh, well, yeah, I've got that figured out. And I don't really meditate as I should on these issues. And yet, I pray to God, give me wisdom at these things.

But sometimes I just want to, I got this. I got this. I got this. That's all. And then what do I do? Man, why didn't I? Why didn't I rethink that one? Proverbs 7, chapter 7.

This word's coming through here. You have time to look at so many of these as you go through. I just want to hit on some of these. Excuse me. Chapter 7, verse 4. Say to wisdom, you are my sister. It means you're close. You know wisdom. Say to wisdom, you are my sister. And call understanding your nearest kin. I guess somebody was a southerner when they wrote that kin, get my kin.

But your family, okay? Make wisdom so that you know. And where do we get that? Right here. Right here. That's what God's saying. Chapter 8. Let's go over to chapter 8. Chapter 8. This is excellent. Anthropomorphic, if I can use that word. Because God is inspiring us to understand that, or to picture that wisdom as a person. And it puts us guys in our place because it references wisdom as she. Okay? She. Through here. But look at this incredible chapter 8. Okay? Let's go verse 1. Does not wisdom cry out and understanding lift up her voice?

She takes her stand on the top of a high hill beside the way where the paths meet. She cries out by the gates at the entry of the city, at the entrance of the doors. To you, O man, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.

O, you simple ones, understand prudence, and you fools be of an understanding heart. Listen, for I speak of excellent things, and from the opening of my lips will come right things. For my mouth will speak truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. Verse 11. For wisdom is better than rubies. And all the things one can desire cannot be compared with her.

Really puts an importance on wisdom and how important she is or at this time. 12. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. I say wise words, so I'm not just telling you to get wisdom. I'm trying to show you how and what it is and how we need to have it and get it and get more of it in our lives.

Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth, I hate. And wisdom says, I hate that. Council is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding and I have strength. By me, kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me, princes rule and nobles and all the judges of the earth. I love those who love me and those who seek me diligently find me.

Find me. See, this next week, I'm going to be a little more diligent in my finding wisdom. I want more. Can a man ever be too wise? Can a woman ever be too wise? No. Can children ever be too wise? No. This is how important it is.

Riches and honor are with me, enduring riches and righteousness. Verse 22, The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way. And I talked about God is wisdom. He possessed wisdom from the very beginning, but he had no beginning. He's always existed. So it's always existed. He's always used it. Always had it. It's something we need to do. Before his works of old, I have been established from everlasting. From the beginning, before there was ever an earth, wisdom existed. When there was no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth. While as yet, I had not made the earth or the fields or the primeval dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he drew a circle on the face of the deep, I was there. Brother, he goes through and wants us to make sure that we need to tap into this eternal wisdom. It's always been there. It always will be there. But it's for us to go get it. Go get it! Don't you say, well, you know, I'll get that as I'm older. Guess what? Jeff and I got more gray hair than anybody in here. All right? But we don't have all the wisdom, do we? Now, I deserved every one of these gray hairs because of the mistakes I made and the wisdom I didn't put stress on. You know, but then again, my grandfather was great at an early age. But this is what we, this is what we as God's people need. We need more wisdom. We want to solve a lot of our problems. No matter what they are, no matter who they're with, be the wisest person you know.

Be the wisest people your friends know. And guess what? You're going to find you've eliminated most of your problems. This is what God is trying to inspire through not only chapter 8, but through the rest of that chapter, I won't go into it for the sake of time. I won't read the rest of it because I want to hit on a couple more. Let's go over to chapter 9. Chapter 9, verses 8 through 10. Do not reprove a scoffer lest he hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he will, what to say, love you, love you. A wise man is going to learn from his mistakes. Isn't that what most of us have done? If we have any level of success, it's not because we just always had a smooth path, a smooth road. It's because we went through some things and we learned from those lessons. We learned not to go and do that again. We learned not to walk on a car lot and buy a car the first time we see it with a guy that just says, you're going to love this car. And you look after you sign in your blood on the contract and go, six years? But didn't we learn from that? So we don't do that again. And that's kind of the wisdom. Let's go on down. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning. Why? Verse 10, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear of the Lord. Not only fear, but reverence. Reverence of him. Know him. Wouldn't it be nice to, any problem you have, you would go to an older person and say there's one in town and you could go and you'd sit there and he would give you the answer to all your problems. Oh, man. Yes. Yes. I used to go to an older couple in Murfreesboro when I was 19, 20, when I was so much smarter than I am today. And I would have issues or problems with my parents. I thought, I'm a grown man. I don't need them giving me advice. They always seem to be giving me advice. I didn't do this. I didn't do that. And it caused a little strife, a little, you know, didn't really get into it with them. But you see, so I'd go over to this older couple. They were in their 80s at the time. And I really liked them and they always treated you, you know, with respect. Always had some, oh, here, I baked something and had this and said, talk to them for just a little bit. And I would kind of bring out this thing and, you know, they would just kind of give me some great nuggets of wisdom without ever talking down to me or saying, oh, you know, everybody's learning, you know, one thing you'll never have, you'll never have another parent. No matter what, it's always for your good, even though they don't understand where you're coming from. Just those amazing words of wisdom that I needed at the time. Because what was I doing? I was just running off on emotion. I'm a man! Nobody's gonna tell me what to do. I know. And then I didn't have a penny in the bank. Car was always broken down. But I wasn't gonna let anybody else tell me what to do. I was smart. I thought. And I needed wisdom. Can you be that person for other people and give them God's wisdom? Wisdom that didn't come just from you learning, but it came from you because you asked God, just like James told you to. And he poured it out on you liberally. He covered you with it.

Let's go to chapter 10. Chapter 10, verse 8. The wise in heart will receive commands, but a praying fool will fall. 11, verse 1. A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight. Where's the wisdom out there? That's incredible wisdom. Don't cheat anyone! Don't even think about it. God gave such wisdom that He wants His people, those who call themselves by His name, to, even if you were using scales, to even dust, even push the dust off of those scales. This is what He wants. And what's going to happen? If you're a business person that people know or somebody that always looking to help people, say, take advantage of, what do you think your business is going to be? There's so few out there. People are going to go, oh, hey, that's person I want to deal with. And you know people that way. You know people that you deal with business-wise, maybe on your house, maybe on these various things, that you know they're an honest person. They may have other issues in their life, but they're not going to lie to you.

That's what God wants us to be, that type of person. So when pride comes, then comes shame. But with the humble is wisdom. Why? You're willing to admit you're wrong? Willing to admit you don't know everything? You're willing to say, I need to look at this a little bit longer. I need a little time to make that decision. Let me get back with you on that. And then finally, I just don't know.

Isn't that nice to hear occasionally? I don't know. I just don't know. Let's go to chapter 14. Chapter 14, verse 1. Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands.

Wise words. The backbone of a family, the wife. It keeps the house. It keeps order. It keeps us men straight. It keeps children in line.

It was a classic movie. I forget what the movie was, but I remembered the line. When he said, what's the greatest...this young man came to this older guy and said, what's the greatest line you could ever tell a woman as he was trying to fall in love with her? He said, there's only one. He said, you look at her in the eyes and you say, you make me want to be a better man. This, she almost bought it.

You make me want to be a better man, and that's what women can do. But these are the things. The house is so important. The ruination of the country will be the ruination of it because of the family, isn't it? Let's go to chapter 15. Chapter 15, verse 33. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility. There's a common theme going through here. Chapter 16. Chapter 16, verse 16. How much better it is to get wisdom than gold. To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. That's the words of wisdom to us. There's things worth more than the almighty dollar than riches.

I've got two more. Let's go to chapter 19. I'm just touching on these because I want you to, if you have time this week in your study, go through the book of Proverbs. You may find it becomes a habit. You may find it's like, and you may find just that day you're reading as you go off and meet somebody.

Wow! I'm glad I read that. I'm glad I read that this morning. It helps me make a very wise decision. I have a sermon coming on later on. It's going to be about how to deal with difficult people. It'll be a unique sermon. You're going to be involved in it, but I look forward to that because I look forward to putting that together. Let's go. Chapter 19 and verse 8. He who gets wisdom loves his own soul. He who keeps understanding will find good. Down to verse 20. Verse 20. Listen to counsel and receive instruction that you may be wise in your latter days.

I think there's an old saying there's no fool like an old fool. And we've all met somebody that is old and they're just foolish. They haven't gained anything. They can't give you. They just they've kind of wasted their life being all about themselves. We've all met them. Let's make sure nobody meets us in that state and later in our life. Let's make sure we're not one of those, but we're one of these. We're one of these. Finally, let's go to chapter 24. Chapter 24.

Chapter 24 and verse 6. For by wise counsel you will wage your own war. And in a multitude of counselors there is safety. In a multitude of counselors there's knowledge. There's wisdom because it's not just one person making decisions. Make sure you get a the people that you counsel with are looking in this book that have a belief in God. It makes, I can make all the difference in the world. Finally, I want to touch on one because I just have a few minutes. Let's go to the last chapter.

From King Lemuel's mother.

Proverbs 31, virtuous woman, virtuous wife. Verse 26, he said, She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness. Brethren, we have incredible opportunity this week to walk in the walk that Jesus walked. To live his life in us. For people to see that life. But we need wisdom to be able to make the right decisions. We need wisdom to know when to talk, and we need to know wisdom when to shut up and not say a thing. And we need to pray that God gives us the wisdom of when to make each of those decisions. So remember what James 1.5 says, you need more. Ask. Ask. Because one of God's greatest gifts he can give to us is found in the pages of this book. You've seen it, and you've seen a lack of it all over the world. And she is wisdom.