JAN 5 2025 | Proverbs: Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World S3E2 | Wisdom Calls

Sea Change Church · JAN 5 2025 | Proverbs: Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World - S3E2: Wisdom Calls
Proverbs 1:20-23
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

is the God's truth in the form of his counsel, and then it's actually acted upon. You see three things happening in this scripture here. The first we see is wisdom is appealing to us. Wisdom is crying out into the streets. It's on its own volition, going out into a busy street corner and beginning to be a street preacher, so to speak. Wisdom is here, it's seen probably in the city of Jerusalem that they're talking about coming in the busy city.

If you've been to Jerusalem or Hong Kong or a busy city like that, and Jerusalem has these really narrow streets, and then it has these courtyards where people walk and people would preach and different prophets would speak. Wisdom is seen in that marketplace calling out above the noise of the crowd. So the first thing is wisdom is appealing. Wisdom is always appealing.

God's wisdom is present in the universe. It's always appealing to you. The question you see here is, will you slow down in the marketplace and recognize when it calls? So the first is wisdom is appealing. The second thing we see is wisdom asks you a question. The question is how long? Get to that in a moment. It's appealing. And when it's appealing to you, it's asking you a question.

Wisdom will often ask questions. And then finally, wisdom has an offer to you. It says that it'll pour out its spirit upon you. So we see wisdom appealing, questioning, and then giving you an offer. It's making you a deal, and it's hoping that you won't refuse. Well, I wrote in the next part in the notes, who is wisdom? Because you will see that wisdom is personified here in the scripture.

But I want to just get back to the understanding that what wisdom is, is wisdom is a characteristic of God. If you receive sound wisdom, you will be more like God. Wisdom is something that exists that will not pass away. If you had to ask me, would you rather have miracles in your life? Powerful miracles. Walk on water miracles. Raise the dead miracles.

And I had to choose. And I don't think that they're mutually exclusive. Or I had to have wisdom. I'm gonna choose wisdom. 100%. I've seen the people with the miracles. I've seen the people with miracles. I've seen Samson in the scripture. All this power. But couldn't live a wise life. If I was going to have a church, if I was going to have a life, a spiritual life, I want one that primarily seeks after wisdom.

And doesn't seek after, it says, you know, wicked is a generation that seeks after miracles. But I would also say that we want to step into the power of God as well where God would be. But wisdom, and wisdom is priority. Wisdom we see personified in the scripture. If you were to go to Proverbs 8, this is one of the best places you're gonna find wisdom spoken about as a person in the Bible.

It says in Proverbs 8, 1. It's in your notes. Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice? Circle her. We'll get to that in a second. That's in Proverbs 8, 1. In the scripture, especially in Proverbs, wisdom is personified. God took his characteristic and he turns it into a metaphor that we can understand based on his creative design. We believe that God has created women with certain strengths.

We believe that God has created men with certain strength. God has a design. Everything has a design within it. And for some reason, when you look at Proverbs, the wisdom being referred to as a woman is used 39 times in Proverbs. 39 times. Proverbs 31 says, basically it says, these are the words of King Lemuel. This is Proverbs 31. It is an oracle that is taught to him by his mother.

Proverbs 31 starts and she says, my son, and she begins to speak to Solomon as king. But we also see the nature of God being seen as a woman. One of the reasons for this is that the ancient understanding of one of the roles of women in society was to raise children. To raise children up in the way that they should go. And they understood back in the ancient society, especially when it came to young boys, that women will raise boys until they are handed off to their husband to be raised as men by their husbands.

This is an ancient understanding that is still followed in many cultures today. And it shows the importance of having a wise wife. Proverbs 31 says that the wisdom of a woman, her wisdom will bring her praise at the city gates. We want women who are seeking after wisdom and women who are distributing wisdom to their children, to their husbands as well, and being a compass.

Some of the words that when I was studying this in the scripture and that feminine word there, and I'm gonna butcher this, it's a Hebrew word and I'm really bad at the Hebrew, not that I'm incredible at the Greek, is chokmah. Chokmah is a feminine noun. In this proverb, when it says wisdom is crying out in the street, the word is chokmah. It's a feminine noun.

And it gives, reflects the traits such as when I looked at the word as being relational, and women are often highly relational. Teaching. Women are great often, so are men as well, but teaching is key. Nurturing. The word means nurturing. It means beautiful. It means grace-filled. And I love when wisdom comes with a word of grace. You don't wanna be around the person who is brutally wise.

They're just gonna give you wisdom and they're just gonna crush it on you over and over again and just hammer you with that wisdom. There is a beauty to it. And I would say if the home of the family has a heart, it is the heart, the beautiful heart of a woman's wisdom that is being with grace distributed throughout the family, distributed to her husband, distributed to her children.

And this is one of the things that Satan wants to remove from women, I think, is the ability to gracefully give truth, to gracefully give wisdom in a way in which their children and their spouses can receive it. Even if they're wise, sometimes you can be wise and know the right thing to do and still play the fool. And so we see this word as a feminine word and it's there for a reason.

That wasn't a mistake. 39 times. And so I really want to implore women, if you are not seeking wisdom, I want to encourage you to seek wisdom. She cries out in the streets. We see that in verse. So let's go to verse 20. Wisdom cries aloud in the streets. In the markets, she raises her voice. Now that's interesting because if you look at Proverbs 31, you see that the Proverbs 31 woman is a marketplace woman.

She's in the marketplace. She's selling her goods. She has these fine linens, these purple garments that it speaks about. That means you have, that was a really hard dye to get back in the first century. And so she's a woman that's making money. She's trading property. You see all this happening. And she's crying out in the streets. And she raises her voice, which is so interesting.

The next thing we see is after wisdom is being personified about wisdom is that wisdom is also deified. Like I said, wisdom is a characteristic of God. It's not a man. It's not a woman. God personifies it to get a point across to us. Wisdom is a characteristic of God that when you say wisdom is a woman or wisdom is a man, you're actually limiting what wisdom truly is, which is an eternal truth of God.

But because we cannot understand the extent of an eternal truth, God puts them into bite-sized packages. But it's also deified. If you were to go to Proverbs 8 again, you're gonna see that deification. And I wanna encourage you this week to look into Proverbs 8 about wisdom. The eternal nature of wisdom says this. When he established, excuse me, in Proverbs 8, 27, when he established the heavens, I was there.

Wisdom is, if you're gonna look at a person of the Trinity, wisdom is often associated with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one, as I said at the beginning, who communicates wisdom. Remember, I said the definition of wisdom earlier at the beginning of the sermon is God's truth in the form of counsel. Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit doing the job of a wise counselor.

In John 16, 13, Jesus says this. When the Spirit of truth comes, wisdom is always truth, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority. That's the Father's authority he speaks with. But whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. Now here you see wisdom being shown as the Holy Spirit, but also in the male voice.

And so you see God balancing that. Wisdom is not for genders. Wisdom is the wisdom of God for the ages. Billy Graham says this. Knowledge is horizontal. Wisdom is vertical. It comes down from above. James 1, 5, one of my favorite scriptures, says when you don't have wisdom, ask, and the Holy Spirit will give you wisdom. I was driving to Target with my daughter, and we were getting off on Genesee.

Going up, yeah, oh boy, he's right. And I was heading up, I think the construction's done there now, thank God. And I was going up and she was bringing something up and she goes, what do you think about this? And I said, you know, I have no idea, but James 1, 5 says, let's ask God for wisdom. She goes, that's a good idea. So we prayed for wisdom. We were sitting in the sermon over here when Elliot was preaching and he brought up the exact thing that we were speaking about.

And I nudged her and I said, hey, there's the answer to our prayer. That's exactly, she goes, that is the answer to our prayer. If you ask for wisdom, God will give you wisdom. The problem is, oftentimes you don't want it. We see three things here happening. The first is wisdom appeals. Go to verse 20. Wisdom cries aloud in the street. In the marketplace, she raises her voice.

At the head of the noisy streets, she cries out. At the entrance to the city gates, she speaks. She's in these strategic places. She's in the marketplace. She's at the head of the street where everyone has to file into somewhere. She's standing at the city gates. But people are going through and they're oftentimes not noticing that she's there. She makes her appeal above the noise of the crowd.

One of the things that we need to do in order to be wise people is to slow down and to remove ourselves from the noise. I'm working really hard right now to unaddict myself from things that are profitable. I need to understand what's happening in society in order to lead a congregation. On and on and on. And what I find is over and over again, there is just noise.

But wisdom is crying above the noise. She goes into the city streets and she's saying, will you hear? So my first question to you is, what is creating the noise in your life? The other thing we see is that wisdom is not crying. It says there that she cries out in the streets. The actual word is ranan, which means to sing or rejoice. It doesn't mean to cry out.

Oh, wisdom, be wise. Oh, please, please follow. No. When wisdom sings, she's wisdom. She doesn't cry out in agony. She sings a song of joy because few things will be joy producing in your life as much as wisdom. If you want joy and contentment, and it doesn't come fast, it's not dopamine. If you want joy and commitment, excuse me, joy and contentment, we will listen to wisdom, we will slow down, and we will listen to her song of rejoicing.

It is used, this word ranan, which means cries out, when wisdom cries out, it's used to sing, it means to sing 20 times in the scriptures. 11 times that, a form of that word is used to mean rejoicing, and then three times it's used to shout for joy. Now picture that street in Jerusalem. It's busy. It's right before the high holidays. It's Friday afternoon, before Sabbath.

And wisdom is there not screaming to you to take note, but singing a song of joy, saying, don't you want to join the song of praise, the song of joy? If you join me in this chorus, if you sing this song with me, it is a song of a revolution, the song that will change your life, a song of joy, if you'll only stop for a moment in the midst of the marketplace and join the chorus of her song.

It is ranan. Ranan. It is a song of joy, will you not listen? It is appealing to you with come and take part of the joy, feast with me in the joy. The second thing is wisdom is a question. Verse 22. How long, circle how long, oh simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? I love the phrase how long because it implies that there's a choice that's within our power.

I do think we live in a society that tends to find excuses for our decisions. I was online before I'm doing this and I'm looking at your feed, I'm looking at my feed on Instagram and I want to be proud of my feed, right? Like I just, you know, because it has an algorithm and I want to have like puppies and kittens and things like that but it tends not to be that.

And I was listening to this person and they were complaining about, I have this issue so it causes me to do this. It's removing responsibility from the equation. Wisdom won't do that. Wisdom has a high call of duty. Wisdom has a high call of responsibility. And it doesn't give a lot of wiggle room to like, well, I'm just that way. It says, how long? It's asking you, how long, oh fool, will you be a simple one is what it says.

How long will you continue to be simple? That's a really tough question. We all have our areas, right? As I was going through my men's skills book, if you haven't taken men's or women's skills, I want to encourage you, a lot of wisdom in that. And as I was reading it, it was saying, what things do you need to extricate? What areas of your life? Because we all have some really good areas.

We also have some areas that need some work. But because we have maybe nine or ten good areas and only two that are bad that we find pejorative in our life, we tend to say, well, I got nine good ones going until we hit a rock bottom in those areas. And wisdom is asking you, how long? I mean, for me, is another year? I have found that one year turns into ten years real quick.

If you're 21, you're not feeling that yet. But as you get older, one year, one month turns into a year, one year turns into ten years, and we have these patterns. How long, it says, wisdom is saying how long, and it applies. It challenges us to understand the difference between simplicity, which is a virtue, and being a simpleton, which is a vice. Simplicity is a virtue.

Living life simply, that's wise. Less chaos. The more you can declutter the chaos from your life, the better. The difference between the virtue of simplicity and the vice of being a simpleton. If you're just, you know what, I need another, I mean, you can ask yourself for that question. Let's say you have that thing. How long? Answer the question. It demands an answer.

Whether you answer the question, it will be answered. At the end of your life, it will be answered. Never. Never was never long enough. That's the last thing that we see. The next thing we see is wisdom makes an offer. Verse 23, if, I love that word, if, there it is once again. There's duty. There is some self, there's some autonomy in that decision. If you turn, a turning at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you and I will make my words known to you.

Now Jesus spoke about who that spirit was a moment ago in John, I believe it was John 6. It is a spirit, the Holy Spirit. You know, one of the best ways to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be wise. Unfortunately, being filled with the Holy Spirit means one thing in our society. It means miracles, it means tongues, it means all this stuff. And a lot of churches who aren't going after those things tend to be looked upon in a negative way because they're not filled with the Spirit.

I tend to think that this verse would disagree with that, saying that there is a way to be filled with the Spirit that might not look as flashy. Now I like the things of miracles. I'm a, you know, a closet charismatic. I like when I go to Africa, right? And get my charismatic on, you know? But once again, it says that if you live, if you want to be filled with the Spirit, be wise.

We can't continue to make unwise decisions and expect to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Wisdom reveals God's words to those who turn to hear her. As we come in for a landing, I did some research on dopamine and it led me to serotonin. If you haven't studied dopamine versus serotonin, dopamine's awesome. I kind of want the serotonin life, okay? Let me explain this to you real quick.

Both serotonin and dopamine are neurotransmitters, right? They are neurotransmitters that transmit chemicals to the body, also a lot to the brain. Serotonin is associated with long-term contentment, impulse control, and emotional stability. Dopamine drives immediate gratification, risk-taking, and seeking out rewards. There's nothing wrong. God gave us both of those.

There's nothing wrong with them. But when you have a society that becomes an anxious generation, based on the Jonathan Haidt book that we're going to be putting in our library soon, an anxious generation that is constantly going after the peak of Everest while never creating a safe base camp, you have a society that begins to fall apart. And as I looked at serotonin, it was interesting, as I continued to look at these two, I found that out, as I did the research, that dopamine is on demand.

You can have dopamine whenever you want it. It's on demand. Serotonin, you have to work for. Serotonin has to be earned. There's no way you can just go immediately get the same type of buzz you're going to get from that quick instant gratification of those things that so often are associated with the flesh and against wisdom. You can't get that same thing if you're going after serotonin because serotonin has to be earned.

It says it comes from sunlight, from exercise. It's never fun, sometimes. Good diet. Here's a word for y'all. Mindfulness. Keep being demure. Relationships. Healthy hobbies. It is built like a brick house, right? It is built with, serotonin is built through wisdom. It is built like a brick house bit by bit, but we don't want that, do we? We want to be able to control.

You can't control serotonin and then God did this on it for a reason in the same way you can create your dopamine and we live in a dopamine filled society and dopamine will oftentimes also produce anxiety. It'll produce a hurriedness. It'll produce lack of margin. I'm not saying there's nothing wrong with that. Now here's the thing that really, just to kind of end here with this idea of wisdom.

You've heard that saying, go with your gut. And I was thinking about that this week before I got to learn this. I was thinking when it comes to my feelings, oftentimes I'll have a gut feeling that is different than what's going on in my mind. And what I've tried to do is go with my gut. You know what I learned when I studied dopamine and serotonin?

Dopamine is created majority in the brain. The majority of it's created in the brain. 90% of serotonin in your gut. It is so interesting. You hear people now as we're swinging back to gut health and this whole thing because obviously our minds are broken. It is interesting, right? It is interesting to see that this idea of this going with your gut is where this chemical that God gave us is actually produced that lines up so much with wisdom.

I want to just close with this. I have found that wisdom is not really that fun in the moment. I mean, the exciting thing, the going to the top of Everest, that dopamine thing, that's a brush fire. And it, right? It just burns hot and quick. But that wisdom, it kind of burns in a different way, like an oak log by your fireplace. And there's just a way different feeling between going 122 miles an hour on your Honda Hurricane, your 1998 Honda Hurricane that I had, which I almost died on, and sitting by that fire.

It is a different kind of wisdom. I want to end with this. It's the third time I've ended, I know. I'm aware of my multiple circling the tower like Maverick. I was driving, I was 19 years old, and I had a Honda Hurricane, red. It was awesome, 600cc. It was fast for the time. And I went, I was driving through La Jolla, I thought I'd do a little La Jolla run, because you know, I could run through La Jolla.

I didn't live in La Jolla at the time. But I run through, and I go down La Jolla Boulevard, and I end up at the Chevron station. And there was a girl I passed, and she was in a Fiat. And I went flying by. Okay, and I get to the end, and there's a red light, and I stop. And this guy pulls up in a red Ferrari convertible. And he says, hey, kid. And I look over at him.

I thought he wanted to race. He said, you'll live a lot longer if you don't try to prove something everyone already knows, that I can beat the girl in the Fiat. But I was living my life at that time like a fool, who didn't want the long, sustained burn of wisdom. I wanted the fast hit. I wanted that thing that gave me what I wanted in the moment. We want to be a wise people.

We want to be a wise church. And so the offer to you today, as wisdom cries to you, it sings to you. It invites you, like at the end of Les Mis, says, you know, join the chorus, join the song. A new revolution has begun. It sings to you, and it invites you in. It says, live a wise life. If what you're doing is not working, if you feel that your mind is being broke, I want to say switch over to your gut.

It is created in the wisdom of God. Amen? Let's stand if we would. We have communion today. We're going to invite our communion team forward. Thank you very much to the communion team. You guys serve amazing. We're going to take a moment as we move into this new year to just take a moment, and we're going to hold the communion. We're going to have you come forward and take the communion, and then go back to your seat and hold it and begin to ask yourself, begin to ask yourself, am I stopping enough to listen to the cry of wisdom, the song of wisdom as she cries out?

What are the things in my life I need to slow down? What are the things I need to change? And then we'll take that communion, the blood of Jesus, the body of Jesus, which is broken for us. Some of you that know, tomorrow is Epiphany. It's the day, I believe, when the Magi came and met Jesus, but we're going to continue to celebrate his birth as we head towards his death and resurrection.

It is now open. We invite you to come forward and take the communion and hold it in your seat. Oh, Saul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. There's life for a look at the same And life more abundant and free Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full In his wonderful face And the things above Will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory Through death Into life everlasting He passed And we follow him there For us Sin no more Have dominion For more than conquerors We are Oh, turn Your eyes upon Jesus Look full Look full In his wonderful face And the things of earth Will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory His word Shall not fail you He promised Believe him and all Will be well Then go Then go To a world That is dying His perfect salvation To turn Oh, turn Oh, turn Your eyes upon Jesus Look full In his wonderful face And the things of earth Will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory And grace Oh, turn Your eyes upon Jesus Look full Look full Look full In his wonderful face And the things of earth Will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory And grace And grace Will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory And grace If you would Just take a moment As you hold the communion the Lord Jesus on the night of his arrest took bread and after giving thanks to God he broke it I want to encourage you to break it it's a tradition I grew up in they would break the bread it's biblical and he gave it to his disciples saying take and eat this is my body given for you do this in remembrance of me and let's take the bread together symbolizing the broken body of Jesus in the same way he took the cup saying this cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood it was shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins whenever you drink it do this in remembrance of me he says now every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you will proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord until he comes now gracious God may we who have received this sacrament live in the unity of your Holy Spirit and may show forth your gifts to all the world we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ amen we're going to close with the Lord's prayer and then I'm going to bless you as I always do it's my joy to do so our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not in temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever amen I'm going to invite the prayer team up if you need prayer today please come forward we want to pray for you we want to pray for miracles in your life we want to pray for God's power in your life if you extend your hands I want to bless you if I can Lord we want to bless your people I want to ask that your face would shine upon them that your wisdom you would give them wisdom for those that seek wisdom you say that you will give it James 1 5 is a promise of God we ask that we be a seeking generation that seeks your face pray that we love wisdom and that next year at this time we will have begun to build a life of wisdom that looks different than the year that went before us we bless you we thank you for your people we thank you for your church and we send you out now in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit amen we love you guys God bless I like the work you in the day I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do I like the work I do �� the work I do I do I do I do I do Turn your eyes upon Jesus.