Proverbs: The Pursuit of Wisdom

Scripture References: Proverbs 3:13-18, Proverbs 4:7, Proverbs 1:22, Colossians 1:16, Colossians 2:3, Ephesians 4:17-18, Matthew 28

Intro:

Hey everyone, we're kicking off a new summer series in the Book of Proverbs! We'll explore wisdom's themes each week. You can also grab our summer reading plan at the connect table to devotionally read through the whole book. By summer's end, you'll have journeyed through Proverbs, seeing its practical wisdom for your daily life with God.

Key Points:

• Proverbs is a Wisdom Book:
  • It emphasizes the urgency of seeking wisdom. Proverbs 4:7 says, "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom, and in all your getting get understanding."
  • In a culture of acquiring, let's prioritize getting what truly matters – wisdom.
  • Proverbs 3:13-18 highlights wisdom's value: "Blessed are those who find wisdom… for wisdom is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold… Nothing you desire compares to her." It's imperishable, worth holding onto.
• Proverbs Offers Practical Wisdom:
  • This isn't just about spiritual knowledge; it's about wisdom for every corner of our lives: relationships, work, goals, resources.
  • If our wisdom isn't relevant to most of our life, it's not biblical wisdom.
  • The root word of Proverbs means "to be like," inviting us to compare our lives to its principles. It's a "plumb line" for daily living.
  • Ancient Hebrew culture saw life as a seamless garment – no separation between sacred and secular, public and private. Proverbs is a "timeless portable teacher."
• Proverbs Defines the Wise Person:
  • The book divides people into two simple categories: the wise and righteous or the fool and wicked. There's no middle ground.
  • Proverbs 1:22 asks, "How long, inexperienced ones, will you love ignorance?" or "How long, you simpletons, will you love naivety?" God's Word compels us to choose a side.
  • A wise person is humble, seeks knowledge, listens to instruction, accepts correction, controls emotions, and brings joy to others.
• Obstacles to Teachability:
  • Narrow Belief of Knowledge: We can mistakenly believe learning is only spiritual. Colossians 1:16 reminds us that everything was created by Him – the sacred and the mundane. God cares about every detail of our lives, even parking spaces!
  • Assuming Full Understanding: We often face "crises of understanding" rather than "crises of faith." Loving God isn't the end of learning; it's loving God with our minds. Truth is eternal, but knowledge is changeable (Madeline L'Engle). Don't confuse them.
  • Inability to Unlearn: God may want to rearrange our thinking. Jeremiah 1:4-10 shows Jeremiah needing to unlearn his self-perception to embrace God's calling. What do we need to unlearn about our identity in Christ?
  • Pride and Sin: Sin distorts our thinking. Ephesians 4:17-18 describes futility in thinking and darkened understanding outside of Christ. But as children of God, we've been brought into the light (Ephesians 5:8) and in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3).

Conclusion:

This summer, as we become more teachable and pursue wisdom, remember we're not seeking wisdom for its own sake. We're pursuing it to know the one who holds all wisdom: Jesus. When you know Him more, you'll simply want to know Him even more.

Call to Action:

Let's approach the table with humility, acknowledging we don't have it all figured out, but we're coming to the one who does. As we worship and co

Transcript

Hey, today we're kicking off a new series for the summer. We're looking at the Book of Proverbs and the wisdom that it provides us. And we're gonna be each week exploring a different theme that's presented in the Book of Proverbs. And we also have a summer reading plan available. If you want to follow along and by the end of summer you will have devotionally read through the entire Book of Proverbs. And it is literally kind of chunked in small devotional pieces to help with your life with God each day. So these are available at the connect table, so make sure you grab one on the way out this morning.(...) As we launch this series, I want to begin by just offering three details about the book that's gonna kind of help it unfold and help begin the series. And the first detail I want to provide is this, that Proverbs is a wisdom book. It's one of the wisdom books in the Old Testament because it primarily speaks to wisdom.(...) And it even provides a bit of urgency on why we need to seek wisdom in our lives. In fact, the book begins, the first nine chapters, you're gonna be reading through this in your Bible reading plan,(...) kind of sprinkled in the first nine chapters, is this idea of an exhortation of why seek wisdom.(...) Why do we need wisdom? And this is a timeless encouragement and the book begins with this. In Proverbs 4, 7 it says this, "That wisdom is the principal thing."(...) Some translations instead of principal it uses the word supreme or of utmost importance.(...) "Therefore get wisdom,(...) and in all your getting get understanding." I wanted to begin with this verse in particular because oftentimes we love getting things. We're in a culture of getting. It's great to get a new pair of shoes, right?(...) Or some new clothes or a brand new car, just the smell of a new car.(...) Or how about a new kitchen remodel?(...) I mean come on, right?(...) Or a vacation. We are in the consumer mode of getting things and Proverbs 4, 7 just reminds us that in our getting, in the busyness of getting and acquiring, why don't we get the thing that matters the most?(...) Wisdom.(...) In Proverbs 3, 13 through 18 it continues to encourage us and exhort us to get wisdom. It said, "Blessed are those who find wisdom,(...) those who gain understanding, for wisdom is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.(...) Wisdom is more precious than rubies. Nothing you desires, nothing you desire compares to her.(...) Long life is in her right hand and in her left hand are riches and honor.(...) Wisdom is the tree of life to those who take hold of her, and those who hold fast will be blessed."

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Notice the the language that's used in this Proverbs. There's two phrases I want to point out. The first one is those who find this idea of seeking and finding something of great value is highlighted in this passage, and those who take hold of her.(...) I just want to encourage us in this summer, would we in our getting take hold of something that really is worth taking hold of? That's imperishable.(...) Wisdom.(...) The second detail is that Proverbs is not just speaking about this spiritual wisdom. It's not just talking about our need to pray or our need to build and develop faith in Jesus or even our ability to share the good news of Jesus with others.(...) What it's really about is a practical wisdom where it seeps into the nitty-gritty of our life, where there's not one corner of our life that's not impacted with wisdom.(...) We desperately need a wisdom that gets down in the cracks of every part of our life.(...) Our relationships,(...) our work,(...) the goals that we set,(...) how we use resource.(...) There's not one place in our lives that we don't need practical wisdom.(...) And in the words of famous Glenn Power, he says this, "If all we have is a wisdom that's irrelevant to most of our life, it's not wisdom of the Bible,(...) and it's definitely not wisdom of the Proverbs."(...) So what we want to seek after this summer is a practical wisdom that can be applied to every area of our life.(...) I want to do a little thought experiment here because it's interesting. Wisdom provided in Proverbs is this leveling playing, it just levels the playing field to all of us. It's a neutralizer. There's not one of us that doesn't have a need for practical wisdom.(...) And I just want us to close our eyes for a minute, and it's not gonna take long because I know it's on your mind.(...) Just close your eyes and think for just a moment. What's that one area of your life that you've been thinking about, you've been wrestling through?(...) Maybe there's a narrative that's already playing in your mind about this thing, this relationship, this situation in your life.(...) You know what I'm talking about.(...) You wake up to it,(...) you go to sleep to it. Sometimes you even wake up into the middle of the night thinking about it.(...) Okay, don't fall asleep now. I know it's cool in here.(...) But the idea is this, that this is a leveler. We all have a need.(...) And Proverbs speaks directly to this practical nature of wisdom.

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Ray Orland said this, that even if we do seek the holiness of God, and we do,(...) even if we're inspired by the vision of the prophets,(...) and we are,(...) we can still make a mess of our lives.(...) Our families, our church, our workplaces, our community, if we're not wise.(...) The very root word of Proverbs means to be like.(...) Thus the purpose of a proverb is to compel the readers and hearers to compare their lives to the principle wisdom that's offered in the Proverbs.(...) In other words, Proverbs is asking the reader to see the connection between their life and the truth presented there. It's almost like a plumb line that we measure our life by.(...) In the ancient Hebrew culture, life was a seamless garment. I love this image. And the wisdom tradition emphasizes the interconnectedness of every area of our life. There was no separation of the sacred or the secular. There was no separation of the public or the private. Those who memorized and followed the precepts of the Proverbs did not retreat from life. For they adhered to the natural more framework that guided them in their everyday living.(...) So the the anchor of the Proverbs is this real practical application that we want to follow as we learn.(...) That quote goes on to say, "Hints, Proverbs has become a timeless portable teacher to provide guidance to those in the way to live."

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Portable teacher. I love that. As we meditate on His Word and we memorize Scripture, they become portable teachers that we take around everywhere we go, reminding us of truth and reminding us of who we are.(...) So number one, the idea that Proverbs is a wisdom book. Number two, it is intended for practical wisdom. And number three, Proverbs helps us rightly see who a wise person is.(...) I remember being a young adult and trying to figure out what adulthood looks like. And I was in a desperate place of finding an example to learn from.(...) It's so practical to have someone or something to look to and say, "Ah, there's the goal."(...) And that's why the Gospels, right, are so such an important part of the Bible because it gives Jesus as that preeminent example of who we are and who we're supposed to become.(...) But in the same sense, Proverbs actually provides us with an example of what wisdom looks like.(...) What does a wise person look like?(...) We'll find in Proverbs that there's a division of people into two categories, literally two simple categories. One category is the wise and the righteous, and the other category is the fool and the wicked.(...) There's no middle ground.(...) A person uncommitted to wisdom is not in the category in between the wise and the fool.(...) Proverbs actually places this person in the same category as the fool, even though he may not despise wisdom like the fool.(...) Proverbs 1, 22 says, "How long inexperienced ones will you love ignorance?"(...) How long?(...) The New English translation says, "How long you simpletons will you love nietivity?" I really like that one because in our simplicity or in our nietivity, oftentimes we can wander into the fool category and just disregard wisdom for our lives.(...) So Proverbs is a gift that God gives us to become wise with. Proverbs intends to make us choose a side.(...) So what side do you find yourself on? There's no middle ground.(...) Are you pursuing wisdom or living in nietivity?(...) That's a loaded question, right?(...) Here's a summary of a wise person according to Proverbs, and this is a list of just attributes that I've pulled and just some scriptures that go along with it, and I'm not going to read the whole list, but you'll see that there's just some attributes. This is what wisdom looks like.(...) A wise person is not wise in their own opinions. They're humble.(...) They seek and store up knowledge. They listen to instruction and counsel. They accept commands and reproofs. They walk with the wise.(...) They ever increase. There's not an arrival that we have in life where we're like, "Oh, we don't need wisdom. I got all that I need. I've arrived." They control their emotions. They bring joy to their parents.(...) Club 456, they bring joy to their parents.(...) That's wise.(...) There it went. Oh, there it goes.

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Brings healing to others, and this is just an amazing list of--that's wisdom. That's a wise person and what they look like.(...) However, here's the rub. Just because we know where to get practical wisdom and we can spot wisdom doesn't necessarily mean that we are wise.(...) In fact, I know many of you have seen one of these. This is a sheet with directions on how to build something.(...) This particular one was for a kitchen faucet that we recently got and I thought, "No problem. I can put this together without that."(...) It didn't go well.(...) See, I knew where to get wisdom,

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but that didn't mean I was wise, right? You guys get the picture.(...) This morning, I want to look at this idea of being a person that's teachable.(...) That we would be a people that would have a teachable spirit that would not just know where to go to get wisdom, but that would be hungry in getting and seeking out wisdom and living it out.(...) I just want to pray this over us as we begin this series because this series is going to just continue to confront things in our life and expose areas where we need to wisdom in God's direction in our life, which you join me. Lord, we just say we need you.(...) Lord, we need your wisdom. We need your presence.(...) Lord, we need your guidance.(...) We don't just need head knowledge on where to go to get it, but Lord, we actually want to embody the wisdom that you've provided us. So just as a church family, I pray would you empower us by your spirit to have a teachable spirit,(...) to submit to your authority, to submit to your truth, and be hungry, Lord, to walk it out. And Lord, we would be amiss to say that it's in the person of Jesus that we seek.(...) So I just pray, Lord, from the get-go of this summer, would you begin to build an anticipation in our hearts to be a people that are wise in your name. Amen.

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So what does it mean to be a teachable person?(...) There's actually two prerequisites to that. You have to be a person that wants to be taught, and you have to have a teacher, right?(...) Somebody that you're following,(...) that you're submitting your life to.(...) And the very language of disciple means to be a learner, a pupil, an apprentice, a person who is capable of being taught, and also receiving instruction.(...) To go further, to be a disciple also requires a regular practice of repentance.(...) And repentance literally means to change our mind or have our mind renewed with truth.(...) The ancient language used described the Christian life is inextricably connected to the life of learning. That was the center of being a disciple, was being a learner.(...) Scripture repeatedly invites us to cultivate a posture and just a mindset of teachability where we hunger for wisdom.(...) If we go back to that list that I showed you a moment ago,(...) notice in bold there these phrases and terms. All of them relate to this idea of being teachable.(...) The starting point of being teachable, if we go back to the first slide, is this idea that we are not wise in our own opinions. Actually we need God's wisdom.(...) That's the starting point to being teachable.(...) Being teachable means that we seek and we store up. Store up meaning that we have a use for it later on.(...) We store it up for a purpose in applying it to our life, and we're listeners and we accept.(...) We walk with people that can then give us wisdom.(...) This is a list that just shows us what teachability means.

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Teachability actually would have stood out as a distinctive of the early church community.(...) We even see this in the Great Commission in Matthew 28. He said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,(...) baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey."(...) It was like baked into the DNA of a discipleship.(...) To be taught to be a disciple means that we have the privilege of teaching others after we're taught. The ability to teach rightly means that we've been rightly taught, right?(...) Our capacity to go into the world and teach the way of Jesus assumes that we have spent time,(...) we've submitted our life to being taught the way of Jesus.(...) And this vision was shared by the early church and actually it's been a deposit that's been given to us to walk out today.(...) And if this is true, then following Jesus should be the most amazing, challenging, and enlivening thing that we do with our whole life, continuing to learn under him.(...) There's always more to learn.

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Alistair McGrath said this, "We cannot love God without wanting to understand him more."(...) We cannot love God without wanting to understand him more. And I think that that kind of embodies what Jesus said when they asked him what's the greatest commandment. He said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.(...) We cannot love God without wanting to know more about him.

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There's this picture, this story that I recently heard that I just love, and Melissa Berry is a professor at Bushnell University, and she went to a Charismatic Church as a child with her cousin years past, and she was just talking about that experience. And she had never been to a Charismatic Church. In fact, she'd been to a Catholic Church, and she went with relatives to a Baptist Church,(...) and in donning the doors of this church, she saw something that she had never experienced or seen before. It was a church full of people that were raising their hands,(...) worshiping Jesus.(...) And as a child, she was a little confused, you know, so she looked at her cousin and she asked, "Do they all have questions?"

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Isn't that awesome? I mean, you could totally see a child going, "Oh, they all have questions."(...) I love that picture. She saw something that she had never seen before, and that kind of set the stage for a change in her own faith walk and journey, that she realized that our inquiry, our curiosity of wanting to know more of God was actually a form of worship.(...) See, when we raise our hands, we're not just adoring and worshiping God, we're saying, "Actually, we want more of you."(...) God, we're curious with how would you show up today? What would you say to us?(...) We cannot love God without wanting to understand Him more.

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Developing a teachable spirit doesn't always come naturally, and I want to finish this morning by just describing a few obstacles that kind of get in our way as we want to walk out being teachable.(...) And I hope that there's going to be at least one of these obstacles that you can go, "Uh-huh,(...) I'm experiencing that now, or I've experienced it in my past,"(...) and that we can move beyond that obstacle and leave it behind. The first one is our narrow belief of knowledge. Our knowledge can be an obstacle.(...) We can fall into the crippling belief that the highest form of learning is in the realm of the spiritual and religious knowledge.

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Such a narrow belief fails to recognize that everything in our lives make up the curriculum of discipleship. Everything.(...) Following Christ and submitting to His yoke of teaching is not only in the sacred but equally in the mundane.(...) The things that aren't fun, that just have to get done. That's where knowledge is born.

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Colossians 1, 16 says, "For everything was created by Him in heaven and on earth. The visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things the sacred and the mundane have been created through Him and for Him."(...) I've shared this story before, but I want to just share it again because I think that there's moments in our life where we need to wake up to the reality that God's in everything. Not just here on a Sunday morning in a sanctuary with other believers.(...) And it happened early in our marriage. We were going to a conference and we were late and Colleen hates to be late.(...) So she was like, you know, "Let's pray for a parking space." And I'm like, "No, God doesn't care about parking spaces.(...) I don't want to pray. I'm actually frustrated." She's like, "No, let's just pray."(...) I'm like, "No, we're not praying."(...) So guess what she did? She prayed. I didn't.(...) And a parking space eventually opened up. We parked. We went in and it was a, I don't know, maybe three or four hundred people there.(...) And there were three prophetic pastors there that were just ministering with prayers and prophetic words. And it started by one of them going, "Hey, you two, would you come up here? We've got a word for you." So we go up and we sit and it felt like quiet forever, you know. We're just waiting.(...) And he says, "I don't know you, but I think God wants to tell you that there's nothing that's not important to him,(...) even parking space."(...) Oh man.(...) I didn't even look at her. I just kept my eyes shut.

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Thinking maybe she didn't hear.(...) There's nothing. There's nothing that's outside of God's scope of wisdom and knowledge.(...) When we leave today, there's going to be things that you need wisdom for.(...) The second obstacle is that none of us have arrived to a full understanding of truth.(...) You know, my grandpa died at 99. He was too much shy of a hundred. And I remember him telling me that every 10 years there were these significant changes and marks in his understanding of things. And he marked them by decades, you know. If you're not that old, I guess you can mark them by years. I don't know.(...) But he told me that. Not always stuck with me. That every decade things shift and change in my understanding and my wisdom.(...) AJ Swaboda said this,(...) "What we so often assume is a crisis of faith is really a crisis of understanding.(...) Loving God is not the end of learning. True learning is loving God with one's mind."(...) And why I bring that up is it's really interesting. We have these moments in our life where, you know, we think we've arrived and then God reveals something to us or a circumstance drives us to become desperate. And it feels like a crisis in faith. And what he's arguing is it's not. It's actually a crisis in understanding. He's bringing clarity to things.(...) Loving God is not the same as fully understanding him. We don't have to fully understand him to love him.(...) So I just want to speak that out. There's some here that probably are really struggling to have faith in Jesus because not everything makes sense.(...) And I just want to say that unfortunately the recipe for discipleship is taking a step of faith before we fully understand what we're stepping into. Is Jesus who he said he really is?

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Truth is eternal but knowledge is changeable.(...) Madeline Leingold said this, that truth is eternal but knowledge is changeable. Now get this, it's disastrous to confuse them.(...) When we exchange them and say knowledge is eternal and truth is changeable. It just doesn't work.(...) But we apply our faith to truth and we understand that our knowledge is going to change over time as wisdom comes. That's how this thing works. It takes faith to believe in absolute truth but it also takes humility to admit that we don't actually know it all.(...) The third obstacle is this inability to sometimes unlearn things that we've learned.(...) God wants to come in and maybe begin over the summer to rearrange some of our thinking and what we've learned so that we can unlearn it so that we can learn it again in a proper order and rightful way.(...) I just picked this passage of Scripture because it's actually really fascinating right now to me and I think it speaks to this idea of unlearning what we've learned. In Jeremiah 1 4 through 10 it says the Word of the Lord came to me and he said I chose you, I formed you in the womb. I set you apart before you were born and I appointed you a prophet to the nations.(...) And then Jeremiah said but I I protest don't know Lord God look I don't know how to speak since I'm only a youth.(...) And then the Lord said to me do not say I'm only a youth for you will go to anyone I send you to and speak whatever I tell you.(...) Do not be afraid of anyone for I will be with you to rescue you. This is the Lord's declaration and then the Lord reached out his hand touched my mouth and told me I have now filled your mouth with my words.(...) See I have appointed you today.(...) Sometimes we need God to reach out and touch us and impact our thinking.(...) And it's interesting here that God never tells Jeremiah that he's wrong.(...) God doesn't even correct his self-knowledge that he's young.(...) But what he corrects is the fact that Jeremiah is basing his identity in those things.(...) Jeremiah has to unlearn his deep belief that God can't use a young man or a young woman like him.(...) So sometimes our problem isn't just that we're ignorant or unlearned it's actually the belief in knowledge in a(...) way that God wants to correct and change.(...) What do we need to unlearn about our identity in him? Who we are in Christ?(...) What does God want to come and help us unlearn as an obstacle so that we can walk into wisdom that he has for us?

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Worship team I want to invite you up if you'd come up and join me.(...) The the final obstacle to a teachable spirit is the pride that comes from just living in a fallen world.(...) Sin always cripples right thinking.(...) And I, man, I was just so convicted recently.(...) I think my guilty pleasure is like war movies, you know, like just violent movies kind of based in history. And sometimes I get home at night and I'm like I can't think of another thing. I don't want to wrestle with a problem or or think about anything. I just want to numb out and I know I'm the only one here. And I was watching Netflix and you know the spirit just convicted me like what are you doing?(...) What are you doing? What are you putting in your mind right now and in your heart? And I'm not saying Netflix is evil.(...) For some reason that moment God needed to address something in my own heart. I needed to relearn or reconsider some things in my own life. But here's the message. What are we depositing in our hearts?(...) And he asked me a question like, you know, is this gonna is this gonna help you?(...) Is this gonna be healthy for I mean is this healthy for your mind, for your heart? Is it doing anything for you that's productive, you know?(...) And I just felt convicted of guarding my heart against things that just aren't truth.(...) The things that aren't gonna bring life to my to my mind and my heart.(...) And I don't believe that that was a sin but what I what I do believe is that's that was a corrective voice that came right?

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But the reality is is what we put before us can cripple our thinking and sin is the same way. It comes in and it distorts and cripples our thinking.(...) Life without God Paul writes is experienced with a mark of fertility.(...) In Ephesians 4 17 and 18 it says that they had fertility in their thinking and their understanding was darkened.(...) Fertility means pointlessness, uselessness.(...) So it may not be like a deep sin but nonetheless it's almost like in the middle of foolishness and wise, right? There's really no middle category.(...) Are we living lives that are just useless and pointless?(...) In fertility?(...) Is our thinking darkness in darkness?(...) Well here's the good news that as children of God we have a choice and that's not the word that God speaks over us.(...) See sin is a veil that keeps us from seeing who we are created to be and this veil can only be taken away by Christ.(...) When Paul continued in Ephesians chapter 4 he said this for you all of us were once in darkness but now you have been brought into the light of the Lord.(...) Walk as children of light.(...) And in Colossians 2 3 it says that in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. They're hidden there.(...) This final obstacle of sin Jesus has overcome for us. We've just got to step out and walk in it.(...) Our minds are fractured by sin but turning to God and repentance making that decision begins the restoration process and that's where we are today.

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And as we seek to be teachable and to learn from the Proverbs I just want to say that man we need to be really cautious about seeking wisdom for wisdom's sake.

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See wisdom can be a substitute for love it can be a substitute for the real grace that we need and rather than using them as a means to help us to grace we turn to them in and of themselves.(...) But they should never become a substitute for a personal relationship with God.(...) And as we grow in our teachableness and pursue wisdom it's for the ultimate sake of knowing him more.(...) And there's a funny thing that happens when you know him more.

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You know what it is?(...) You want to keep knowing him even more. It pulls you in.

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So this summer we're not pursuing wisdom for the wisdom's sake we're pursuing wisdom so we can get to the one that holds all wisdom Jesus.(...) I want to invite you to stand this morning and we're gonna come to the table and the table is an embodiment in the fullness of wisdom Jesus laid his life down gave

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himself for us as a gift so that we can walk freely in him we've been translated from darkness into light and he ultimately holds the keys to being teachable. As we come to the table let's come in a humble posture not knowing that we have everything figured out but we're coming to the one that knows everything that holds all things together that's Jesus.(...) Let's worship and let's come to the table there's also a team of people that are prepared to pray for you today and maybe one or two of these obstacles is something that you want to see removed over your life.(...) Let's leave it back here today as we leave so come to the table when you're ready this morning.