MAY 22 2016 | 1 Kings 3:5-15

Sea Change Church · "1 Kings 3:5-15" · Dr. James Smith III · May 22, 2016
1 Kings 3:5-15
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Be thou my wisdom, be thou my vision. This morning, Pastor Jim is going to be talking about King Solomon. And we've heard some of the sayings of King Solomon, the wise sayings such as a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. We know that, don't we? There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he was old, he will not depart from it. And a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

How did King Solomon get on this kick about wisdom? Well, we read in 1 Kings 3, 5 to 15, just how that exactly happened. This is the word of the Lord. At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, Ask me for whatever you want me to give you. And Solomon answered, You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in his heart.

You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on the throne this very day. Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child, and I do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.

So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours? The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies, but for discernment and administering justice, I will do what you have asked.

I will give you a wise and discerning heart so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be anyone like you. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for, both wealth and honor, so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.

Then Solomon awoke, and he realized it had been a dream. Thank you, Pastor Jim. Thank you. Thank you, Carol. Thank you so much. Thank you, Pastor Jim. Thank you, Pastor Jim. Thank you, Pastor Jim. This is a beautiful, captivating vision, dream that Solomon had when he was facing as the brand new king, one of the great challenges, perhaps the greatest challenge of his life.

What am I going to do with this? All of a sudden, I've got authority, I've got power, I've got say-so in all these different lives. What am I going to do with it? Now, some of us might say that's about stewardship. It's about managing what's been placed in your care or in your hands. That's a good word. But we have, as I periodically am preaching here at La Jolla Christian Fellowship, and Pastor Adam and I months ago, now years ago, talked about, gee, what am I going to preach on?

I said, you know, we'd love to have wisdom, be a consistent part of what our people, what we together are seeking. And a working definition of wisdom is knowing what best to do with what you got. What best to do with what you got? Now, again, I hear my English teacher. Knowing what best to do with what you have. All right? I understand that. You know, Mrs. Finch from the first grade would say it that way at Jackson Elementary in East San Diego.

Okay. Long live Mrs. Finch. In any case, knowing what best to do with what you got. Ha-ha. So, with that, Solomon is facing it. And for him, it is, what am I going to do in the face of all these people? What am I going to do with this that's been placed in my hands? I'm accountable for lives. I'm accountable for the economy and for futures and for the defense and everything else.

And so, in a visionary dream, a gift of the Lord, the Lord comes to him and says, what do you really want? If you miss everything else this morning in the message, what do you really want? If you had been given the opportunity later, as Jesus offered to his disciples, what would you like? Remember that in the Gospels? And they said, well, we'd like just a little something.

We'd like to sit on one of us on your right hand, one of us on your left hand when you come into your kingdom. We want to be power brokers, right? And Jesus said, do you know what you're asking? And he says, can you drink the cup that I'll be drinking of? So, do you really want to walk in my footsteps? Do you really want to walk with me? Disciples, Jesus could say, what do you want?

Solomon, God says, in this visionary dream, what do you really want? And we say this morning, brothers and sisters here at La Jolla Christian Fellowship, what do you really want? Because those kinds of opportunities of bringing those desires, those heart's desires to the Lord are right in front of us. They're right in our hands. We can bring that to the Lord right now.

And if you totally tuned me out this morning, God bless you if you got a better offer. And you just want to pray to the Lord and do an examination of the heart. Psalm 139. Search me. Know my heart. Try me. Know my anxious thoughts. See if there's some painful way in me. Either I'm pain receiving or pain dealing. And lead me in a way that is everlasting.

That's what I want. So, may the Lord guide us. We're meeting Solomon here. 1 Kings 3 says, this is the background to every piece that he wrote in wisdom literature. I want to know what best to do with what I got. That's different than intelligence. You can be really smart, but felony stupid. Right? Anybody know what I'm talking about? Right? You can really be on top of your game.

Lots of data. Lots of internet. You know, I'm booking it. I got it down. But you can be, can I say it again? What is it? Felony stupid. Right? You can do that. I've seen that. Our high school reunions illustrate that. You know? Some of you know the English subtitles to that from experience or just projections. In any case, that's what Solomon wants. And the good news is, God was there.

God was gracious in responding to that desire for wisdom. And that's what we're about today. We have been reading and been going through for, you know, quite a long time. Now and then, here and there, the book of Proverbs. And this morning, you saw it right at the top of the sheet. When it was being generated here, I sent in the notes. It is Proverbs chapters 10 through 22.

So, any of you who have a weak heart here this morning, you know, fear not. I'm not going to go verse by verse through 12 chapters of Proverbs. Yes, it's all God's word. But at a certain point, eyes do glaze over when things like that would happen. We're not going to do this. But insofar as often, may I say, Pastor Adam is an exhorter. He is a motivator.

Isn't that right? He is to me. He calls ex ortare, Latin word. He calls forth the very best from me. He calls forth that sense of my identity as a child of God. He calls forth that sense of being a missional person. He calls forth other things according to God's will. And I'm grateful for that in our pastor here. This morning, what I want to do is just basically open the book and help Proverbs 10 through 22 be an open book to us.

As we look at that wisdom that we need in terms of God's way. I'm going to have some help this morning, as you'll see in a moment. Chapters 10 through 22. Let's build a foundation, all right, as we look at this. We've already done that biographically for King Solomon, 10th century B.C., a king of Israel. And he wanted wisdom. And God granted that.

He never realized it perfectly. But there is so much of an extent of that in the literature that we look at that here. What we find as we build then foundation for where we've just been in our preaching is that two weeks ago, Pastor Adam, you see this in your sermon notes. Please feel free to be attentive there if you'd like. Pastor Adam summarized the La Jolla Christian Fellowship spring messages.

I wrote it down. We are on a life journey that starts with the hearts, ends with the Father, and Jesus is the way maker. It starts in our hearts. There is, even for those who don't necessarily instantly believe in God, there is a longing for something beyond just the material world. There is what many psychologists have called a God consciousness.

Often when I share the faith, that's where I begin in asking what the deep ultimate concern is beyond the bank account, beyond the details of life, beyond my titles or whatever else it is. There is this sense that begins in the hearts and then it moves, ends with the Father in the family of God. And Pastor Adam's done an amazing job again and again, may I say it, massaging into our awareness.

The fact that our God is not just a cosmic force, he is Abba, Papa. He is Abba, Papa. And his embrace, as in Rembrandt's beautiful painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son, which we featured before here, that embrace of our Heavenly Father is a wonder of life to us. Two weeks ago, Pastor Adam presented that. And then last week, Ryan was here and lifted up this sense of the Lord who is bigger than our barriers.

Amen? He is bigger than our barriers. He is someone who gives us also a vision of neighbors coming to faith and our blessed role in this. That sense of vision of being bearers and sharers of life in the Lord. Lord. So there is that passage in Proverbs later on. God willing, we'll get there unless Jesus comes in the meantime. Could Jesus come today?

I'm sorry. There was nine of you that said yes. Could Jesus come today? All right. Amen. All right. I just want to flag that. I just want to flag that. That's not like a throwaway little clever line. Could he come today? Uh-huh. That's right. Yeah. So I say often, come Lord Jesus, both because I love you and I'm a little tired. Right? A little tired. But the Lord's good.

So unless he comes in the meantime, we'll get to Proverbs 29 at some point. All right? But that proverb says this, without a vision, the people perish. Or the Hebrew word there is a word for unravel. Right? Unless there is a vision. Without a vision, the people unravel. They come apart. They fragment. They splatter. They go random. They wing it. Right?

Beautiful Hebrew phrasing. They unravel without a vision, without a center point. But blessed are those who keep the teaching. And so that, this morning, is what we want to do. We want to look in at the teaching of these passages and focus this morning on, first of all, as Solomon wrote these Proverbs, and it says at the beginning of chapter 10, could he have written the earlier Proverbs, some of them?

Likely so. But the text itself, all the way back into the Hebrew, says, beginning with chapter 10, the Proverbs of Solomon. These are the slam dunk. These are the ones that we know issued directly from him. So first we want to look at the reality of the style of these Proverbs. We all have a style, including a writing style. What was his, characteristically?

Because that's helpful in our understanding, what he's getting at, and the reality of choice as part of a life of wisdom. Secondly, the necessity of substance. Style isn't worth much without substance. We all know people in life that can dance in front of us, but when it comes down to, actually, something substantial happening, nobody's home. Right?

Right? So, with that, what's the substance that he urges us toward in these Proverbs? And finally, what is our strategy? How do we look toward building in a life of wisdom? Now, I'm going to have help, as I mentioned, from several people that I've invited to come up and share a brief word. One of them is going to come right now, because they're each, one at the very beginning, a couple right toward the close, are going to say, we're not going to read through 12 chapters of Proverbs this morning.

But I asked them to read through the chapters. And I said, what's your favorite? What does God use in your life? Read the Proverb, and how is God using that in your life? So, first of all, because she's got to go to Los Angeles to go to church up there with her family, I invited one of our high schoolers, Mia Pearson, to come. And Mia, would you share a word with us?

Let's give it up for Mia. All right? Thank you. Thank you. Hi. So, I like Proverbs 11, verse 7. When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes. All he expected from his power comes to nothing. And this reminds me of something that my dad tells me when I, like, talk about how I don't like spending money. He says something like, you can't take that money with you when you die.

And the thing about that is, it's true. Many people nowadays are very materialistic, and all they care about is having, like, a lot of money and brand new things. But what's really important is people's relationships with their friends and family and God. And whether they're happy or not. And sometimes these people who have everything aren't satisfied because they don't have God in their lives.

And I'm very happy that I have God in my life. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And the reference is? Proverbs? Proverbs 11, verse 7. Proverbs 11, verse 7. If you're taking notes, you can ignore everything I say. Write down what Mia said. All right? All right? Proverbs 11, verse 7. Bless you. She's not ditching church, okay? She's going to yet another service.

What a clever segue, right? Over to the fact you, too, could come back for our second service tonight. All right? But I digress. In any case, I think that's beautiful, isn't it? What a terrific lesson to learn at any age, and especially when you're in high school. The action's not in the wealth. Is wealth irrelevant? No. God gives blessings. But it's not decisive.

It's not the big target. There is that sense of beauty with God, with friends, and in the love of our Lord. So that's a sample of what's in Hebrew, excuse me, in Proverbs chapters 10 through 22. So this morning, then, as we look at this, without a vision, the people perish. We need the wisdom of God, the life gifts and the skills of, as we say here, insight and rightness, discipline and devotion, knowing what to do with what we've got.

And then that beautiful passage in Proverbs 9, the reverent awe of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And there is a Hebrew phrase for that. Can we do some Hebrew this morning? It's on your sheet. The reverent awe, yare, is the word. Yare. Will you say it with me? Okay. Okay. And in Hebrew, when he was asked by Moses, okay, what am I going to call you?

There is what the Jewish people call in Hebrew the tetragrammaton. We call it YHWH. Jehovah, fill in the vowels, is a version of that. But for the historic people of Israel, it's Yahweh. Yahweh. Yahweh. So the phrase, and I checked this with one of my Old Testament friends, who is older than me. They said to me, yes, Yahweh, Yahweh, or Yahweh, Yahweh.

All right? So would you simply repeat that? What are we saying? We're saying God's awesome. That's what this is. The reverent awe of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And as it says on your sheet, Yahweh, will you join me? Yahweh. Yahweh. Once again. Yahweh. Yahweh. All right? Now, that's Hebrew. Our God is an awesome God. Somebody hears a melody, don't they?

All right. Go ahead. He reigns in heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Our God is an awesome God. Once again. Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Our God is an awesome God. Amen? Amen. What's the Hebrew for that? Yare Yahweh. All right? Now, don't do that in a synagogue. Not because they don't believe it, but because you're not supposed to pronounce the name of God in a synagogue.

Right? Some of us are aware of that. So one of my buddies who went in, it was full of the Holy Spirit, loved the people Israel, loved the word, loved the liturgy. In the middle of the service, there it is. Yare Yahweh. And he goes, Yare Yahweh. Right? But nobody else said the word for the Lord. So he stuck out like a broken thumb. You know? So take it easy.

Don't pronounce the divine name if you ever go to a synagogue service. One of my favorite, by the way, footnote, we have just, some of us know, passed what for me is the most touching synagogue service of the year among the Jewish people. And that is called Yom Hoshua. Anyone know what that's about? Yet the Yom Hoshua is the day of the Holocaust.

The Shoa. The Yom Hoshua. Yom is day. And the Yom Hoshua, which is always celebrated, remembered, marked in spring, it's one of the most moving services. You ever get a chance? They annually have an observance up at the Jewish Community Center here in San Diego. I just put that as a footnote as we're praising God in the Hebrew language. Yare Yahweh.

Our God is awesome. That is something that is significant in honoring many in the Jewish community. And when our guest is coming in just a few weeks to share as a Holocaust survivor. There is a deep, deep tradition that is reflected there. And so we want to honor that. I hope we're praying toward that as we look toward the Lord. Our God is an awesome God.

So, as we look at an overview, if you will, this morning, of Proverbs chapter 10 through 22, those chapters, the reality of style. For better or worse, all of us have a style. And Solomon's in these chapters is what we might call couplets or doublets. In other words, he'll string two phrases together that help us be provoked in our thoughts. It helps stir us to looking more deeply at life.

Pairs of thought-provoking kinds of phrases that are going to be helpful to us. They can be antithetic, which in other words says A contrasts with B. Or they can be synthetic, which says not only A, but also B. That makes sense this morning? That's his style. He loves stringing together, as inspired by God. He loves stringing together these phrases.

So, the example that Mia gave just a moment ago is synthetic, that drew together in that passage a couple of phrases. We give some examples here. Antithetic, on our notes here. Antithetic would be, in 10-12, hatred stirs up trife, but love covers over all transgressions. Antithetic would be, the blessing of the Lord enriches, and without giving us grief.

Isn't that beautiful? The blessing of the Lord enriches without giving us grief. Now, I made up a couple here, just for fun. And you can have fun making up your own, right? For example, the antithetic would be, beach people totally catch the wave, but lake people see it way flat. All right? Now, I heard that in high school for the first time. Don't repeat that.

You know, I'm not going to ask you to get into that. But that is an example of an antithetic. Beach people totally catch the wave, but lake people see it way flat. We live on the edge of Lake Murray, by the way. We lived in PB, a block and a half from the ocean, for a number of years. But we live near the lake now, so we appreciate water. But that's an example of an antithetic.

A synthetic comes right below that. You see it. For example, the wise buy Rubio fish taco on Tuesday. Why? Taco Tuesday. That's right. Half price. The wise buy fish taco on Tuesday. And remember the white sauce. Now, that's the Rubio's, that's a culinary piece of wisdom literature. And my wife, Linda, and I, Linda's over in children's ministry right now, serving.

And I thank the Lord for her and for those children. And you know what? Before we go further, we're going to stop for a moment. Chris, I'm going to ask if you'd pray a blessing on our children. Would you do that? I know you've got a heart for them. And it struck me, just in the Lord, the Spirit struck me. We're not just going to say, oh, she's in children's ministry and keep going.

Right? We're going to pray for them. We deliver. Here comes the mic. All right. Excuse me. Who would like to help me? Pastor, Lord, we just lift this up to you. We lift our children up. We thank you for those that you've brought. We thank you for the workers. And we do pray a blessing on them, Lord. And that you will fill their little hearts, Lord, with the truth and the joy and the peace that only you can give.

In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. She and I had fun. Linda and I had fun making up different things. And some of you know where I went to graduate school. So one of the ones that I made up, I didn't have the nerve to put it in print, was Harvard people enjoy watching the greenery by the Charles River. Yale people lay sod brown side up.

Okay? Can I get forgiveness for that? Thank you. Thank you, Bev. You're looking at me with that look I don't know. Anyway, the reality of style. And this is his style. Solomon banters back and forth these different phrases. Banters back and forth things that are antithetical, opposites. Things that belong. Not only this, but this will follow. But also this.

Get the taco, but get the extra white sauce as well. Right? That kind of thing. So that's his everyday way of looking at things. You can imagine how he did decision making. Ping and pong. Right? Back and forth. And ultimately sought the Lord's wisdom in the middle of this. And so that's what we're going to encounter here for 12 chapters. Let me ask very simply as I invite you not just to lay the notes down or just to conclude a look at Proverbs here.

But this week ahead, will you take a look at the Proverbs? In chapters 10 through 22. However the Lord leads. It's all his word. And invite yourself into saying, Lord, how does this reflect my life? Solomon's style calls out to us as dialogical, if I can put it that way. There's a dialogue that's invited there with the possibilities of life. What's your style?

And how do you take to heart God's wisdom? And let's put it differently. What are your favorite sayings? Now it may be from the book of Proverbs. I hope we're continuing at whatever point we're at in life to memorize parts of scripture. Psalm 119. Your word have I hid in my heart. That I might not sin against you. Or anybody else, for that matter.

Your word I hide in my heart. So there's a rule for memorizing scripture. What are your favorite sayings? I mean, there's all kinds of slang sayings in the culture. Are there not? It is what it is. Okay. Is the companion, it's not what it isn't? It might be what it has as possibilities. I mean, I don't know. But there's lots of sayings out there. Right?

Buy low, sell high. I know some people that live by that particular kind of saying. There are others. I've got some dear friends who their favorite saying is, mañana. Mañana estará bien. Mañana los posibilidades estarán realidad. You know, whatever else it might be. Mañana. So, you don't have to know Spanish to know mañana as a way of a favorite saying that describes life.

I'll catch it tomorrow. Thanks so much for the input. But I'm going to catch it tomorrow. All right? So, there are others as well. Anybody else got favorites here? Favorite sayings? Just call out. Did you say, viva tacos? That's good. I like tacos too. Si? Eres de Rubio's, verdad? Oh, okay. Bastante. Yeah? Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

That's a proverb. Okay? Woo! Okay. Have a good day, Jack. Yeah. Yeah. Yes? If it's not one thing, it's your mother. That's the flip side. If it's not one thing, it's your mother. Okay. Anybody got something from this side? This is so far looking like the wisdom side. What do we got over here? Come on. Take a chance. Mothers always sacrifice. That's beautiful.

That is beautiful. You got the idea. Way in the back. Is that you, Mr. M? Or is that you holding up a pillar? Okay. You're holding up the pillar. Okay. Good. I'm glad somebody's doing it. Yes. Yes. Ooh. That's after it. Solomon would totally love that. If the grass looks greener, you water your own lawn. All right. That's a good word. Last one through. Kai. A woman works from son to son, but a man's work is never done.

Gee. Gee. That's a great one, Kai. Nice job. His is the woman's works from son to son, but a man's work is never done. That's not in the Bible. But I want to challenge you this morning. May I? As you look through Proverbs, think of the style. Think of this banter. You know, that can be beautiful. And share different aspects of what wisdom is and test your own.

What do you live by? How do you savor God's wisdom in your life? What's your style? How is it you gain that? A dear, dear guy that I've known since I was a kid, passed away not long ago. He was pushing 100. And just a dear, dear guy. And he collected Proverbs. And it was an absolute joy to leaf through these things he had lived by. He was a principal of a school down in the South Bay area.

Won a bunch of awards for his leadership. And he said it grew out of Proverbs. I prayed for God's wisdom. Isn't that awesome? So we have an opportunity to do that from God's word and considering what it is we live by. That invites us to substance. And substance simply suggests in lived values and choices our true selves are revealed. By our choices and by our values our true selves are revealed.

And so with that there is a saying that's been around. A folk wisdom saying for 150 and more years. That's as far back as I could document it. It's on your sheet. Let me read it to you. See if this rings a bell or is thought provoking. As in an agricultural analogy. Sow a thought. Reap a word. Sow a word. You reap an action. Sow an action. You reap a habit.

Sow a habit. You reap a character. Sow a character. You reap a destiny. What do you think? That's powerful. How thought provoking in all the movements of our life to say Lord what mode am I in? Where is it that in my life this may be healthy or less healthy? I'm not entirely sure why. And we may ask the question what's behind it? What's stirring this?

Where is this coming from? Again, this is just folk wisdom. But in some ways I think this can be helpful as we look at it. This can be documented back to the middle of the 19th century. Some will put it even before that. You can look it up like anything else on internet if you want to have various opinions. But I love that because there's another version, by the way.

This one is agricultural. Sow this and reap that. There's another one that is a warning version of it. It says, watch out for your thoughts. Watch out for what you're thinking, what's on your mind, because it brings your words. Watch out for your words because they turn into actions. Right? So it can either be what you sow comes back. Don't be surprised.

There's a principle there. Or it can be, take care. Watch out for this or that because ultimately there'll be some fruit that grows out of what you've been up to. Who we are, our identity, our lived values, and our lived choices will suggest. And so with that, let me simply go sideways for a moment on us, if I may. We have recently in this church talked about strength finders.

And strength finders was identified, began some years ago, as basically a secular, not specifically Christian, instrument whereby you look at certain kinds of possibilities. You select one. And there's 177 questions in the current version. You go through it. And like the samples that we'll find on the opposite side, in a piece that was written by our own Laura Fellows.

She's more recently here, but she used to work with strength finders. I said, Laura, will you look at strength finders? See, I've been causing trouble for several people this week. I said, Laura, will you look at strength finders and see if there's a parallel you can find to the wisdom literature? She said, I'd love that. I've never thought of that before.

So she brought her expertise in. And you can see it on the flip side of your notes this morning. So take home. Take a look at that. But what she talked about was the idea of this inventory, 177 questions that are based on choosing some self-descriptive statements. For example, for me, everything has to be planned. Or I prefer to go with the flow.

I'm just reading from the sheet. Another one would be, I like to talk. Another one would be, I like to think. Another one would be, I trust my heart for important decisions. Or I trust my head for important decisions. Where are we? What is our inclination? What is our typical behavior, our orientation in these areas? Okay? And what they find is as you take that inventory of all these questions, that there is a kind of a theme that emerges.

And you tend to find your strongest emphases in life there. Some of your gifting. There are 34 identified. 34 strengths and strength finders. Now, let me say very simply, God has all 34. And more. All right? Our Lord, our God is an awesome God. But it may be thought-provoking to look at this. You may even be interested in information at the bottom.

Even if you weren't at the sessions we recently had in doing something with strength finders. But the point becomes, whatever one's strengths may be identified as kind of a working hypothesis, those strengths have a plus side, an advantage side. But every strength also has what? A shadow side. And that means anything, whether we find it through strength finders or the Hout's spiritual gifts inventory or whatever else, anything we have as an asset can be misused.

Right? There can be a shadow side. We can be pretty smart, but we can use it to try and manipulate other people. I've often thought, boy, if those dear ISIS people for whom we pray ever got tired of just killing other people and torturing them and use all that creativity for something else, wouldn't that be wonderful? So that's part of my prayers these days.

That one by one, this one and that one wouldn't be snuffed out but would be transformed. That there would be a way of redeeming that human life to do good. All that creativity doing good. I long for that. Maybe you'll join me in prayer. That that's one way. It doesn't negate very real security concerns, but it says that deeper still, spiritually, is a desire to redeem human life and to see these gifts used.

Every strength has a shadow side. Be careful. So what Laura has done, bottom of this sheet, and it's helpful to me, is say, here are some strengths and here are some areas in which the book of Proverbs addresses that strength and helps us see how it doesn't need to be something occasioning our shadow side. It makes us good stewards of the strength.

It helps us to deal well with those things. So simply commend this to you. As a possible tool, the Lord will show you whether or not it should be used significantly. But there is, anyway, this option. And the question is, what is the substance underlying our lives? What is the wisdom there? And what remains is for us to choose, by God's grace, to become our best selves.

To choose to become our best selves. Everybody in this room knows what some of your worst self is. I do. Not yours, but mine, okay? You know, there's no background checks going on right now. But I know that left to my own devices, undisciplined and not led by my great shepherd, the Lord, there's all kinds of weird that I can do. Quick vote. How many of you want me to go weird?

Weird. No hands go up. No, one hand went up. Thanks so much. We'll talk afterward. We'll pray for you. But in any case, you know, I don't want to do that. I don't want to live that way. So, simply the issue is, Proverbs honors the righteous person again and again in this passage, in these chapters. Is that you? How is that you? What are the hand-tooled characteristics of your life by the great artist, our Lord?

What are the grace given, what are the beautiful things into your life by the Lord that indicate you as a righteous person? And in that, what are your next steps to become even more someone after God's own heart, walking in God's own steps? A question. There are these possibilities that we have. And finally, a strategy. This one's really simple. I'll leave the rest of it to you.

The Proverbs says, We are so grateful this morning that God has given us and continues by his word and spirit to give us wisdom. So, the word house in Hebrew, the word here, Bayith or Beth, like Beth-el is house of God. Bayith or Beth. Building a house can refer to a traditional structural house or a cultural home or a relational household. Simple question.

What are you building these days? What are you trying earnestly to build? And how in the wisdom of God can that, whether it's relational, whether it's structural, whether it's cultural, you're creating, we're creating a world around us. We're doing, Pastor Adam has said, how grateful he is for what God's creating in this church. Me too. Not perfect, but how God has touched us and continues to.

What are you building? Because otherwise, I'll speak personally, if I'm not building according to the book, the guides, the code, the blueprints in my hand, which is God's word. If I'm not building according to the spirit of God, the spirit who inhabits my hearts, which is where it all begins, as he has said, it all begins in the heart, a heart's affections, then I'm starting to tear things down.

I'm a tear down life. What a great opportunity for us to discover in the Proverbs words of life. I'm going to invite the chair of our elders, Glenda Wheeler, to come. Glenda, would you share for a couple minutes a proverb is used and God's used in your life? And then, Sean Butlin, would you come? Sean, we know, is a primo usher, but he's also a dear brother in the Lord.

And with those two, we'll just say a prayer that God will lead us in paths of wisdom. Thank you. Thank you, Jim. Well, the proverb that speaks a lot to me is Proverbs 11, 25. And in typical Glenda Goggle fashion, I like to drill down and look at all different versions. And I was very fortunate to dust off my parallel Bible that I had. And it's got King James, modern language, living Bible, revised standard.

And I thought, you know, each one of them says it just a little bit differently, but that's okay. Maybe each one will speak a little differently to those of you here. In King James, it says, the liberal soul shall be made fat and that he, that water shall be watered also himself. So I don't know if anybody wants to be fat, but New American Standard says the generous man or woman will be prosperous and he or she who waters will themselves be watered.

And in the NIV, a generous man will prosper. He or she will, who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. So, those are good words. You know, I think when I, when I reflect back on generosity, I think it kind of ties into giving. And in 2 Corinthians 9, 7, it speaks to those who give cheerfully and then they're loved by God. In Mark 4, 7, it says a seed that is yielding fruit.

So we start out, you know, with just a little bit, you know, guided by the Holy Spirit. You know, maybe we don't think we have much and I'm not talking about money. It doesn't have to be about money. It can be about time, your talent, even a smile. Pastor Adam talks a lot about, you know, a smile doesn't cost anything. And when you offer that to somebody, wow, they can just light up from that.

Well, in not so typical fashion, I ended up ripping up my notes here. So, I'll just make a few points here. I don't think we ever need to worry about outgiving God. There's no more, no one more generous than God. But he's our example. I think we need to be mindful that being generous also costs us something. You know, anything worth giving is worth doing and doing and honoring God in the process.

I think it's the good news it's possible to give away and become richer. And I think that includes blessing. You know, we're not just rich in monetary funds. You know, the speaking that way. We're blessing. It's blessings from above. And I think another thing that Pastor Adam had said to me that really stuck to me is be available and have a spirit of yes. You know, start off with that before no is always on your mouth and your lips.

And lastly, I think as I have done, I've asked the Lord to show me in ways that I can be really generous. And I think ever since my rebirth in 1982, that that spirit of generosity came upon my life. And I have just been so blessed. And I pray that you will be too. Thank you. Thank you so much. Glenda, thank you for sharing. And I just speak personally. I'm so grateful that someone who is in leadership with our elders has that spiritual grace and gift as a giver.

Sean, where are you? Will you come forward? And Sean's going to share with us. And after that, just we'll do a commitment in prayer. The worship team will come. We'll sing and go into further fellowship. Share a word, brother. Thank you very much. So I wanted to start off today with a question. When was the last time we were all in a bookstore? Might have been a little while.

When you're in the last time you were at the bookstore walking around, you're surrounded by thousands of books and various different topics. But if you're looking around, you're probably going to see that the largest section of the bookstore is dedicated towards self-improvement and some sort of finance or business. So, in 2014, the self-help section of publishing accounted for $10 billion.

That's a lot of folks looking for self-help, right? In Proverbs 22, 4, it says that the reward of humility and fear of the Lord is riches, honor, and life. And I think it ties in perfectly what we're talking about today. We're talking about Solomon where God came to Solomon and said, ask, what is it that you would like for me? What would you like? And because Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge so that he could lead the people of Israel well, not only did God give him wisdom and knowledge, but he also gave him riches, honor, and a long life.

So if we look at it, when we are humble and not self-seeking and striving in our own strength, and we operate in that respect, that reverent fear of the Lord, he always provides us exactly what we need. So I thank you. Lord, we thank you for your word this morning. We thank you for friends in Christ that also alongside of us are discovering sweet things. As the worship team comes, we thank you for the gift of music by which you stir us, Lord, to honor, to worship you.

And in this time, help us to be a community known for the wisdom from above that is pure and peaceable and gentle easy to appeal to, doesn't play favorites, and is not hypocritical. Book of James, Lord, give us that wisdom, we pray, and that will be not only life to us, but to all whose lives we touch. We now rise and sing to you. Thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Shall we stand together?