Growing in Wisdom

Transcript

Rob McFarlane: 0:58

The title of my sermon today is Growing in Wisdom. Let's look at Proverbs 24, verse 3 and 4. And I'm reading from the New International Version of the Bible. By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established. Through knowledge, its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. I love the fact that God wants our lives to be filled with rare and beautiful treasures. You see, the house in this verse could represent every area of our lives, our individual lives. It could represent us as families. It could represent our marriages and our friendships. And God wants everything in our lives to be filled with rare and beautiful treasures. I know that because Jesus said, I have come that you may have life and life to the full, abundant life. For us to build our lives and be established and filled, we need wisdom in our lives. We see in this verse a progression. We see three words. We see the words knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. And as we grow in our knowledge of God's promises and other things in our lives, we also begin to get understanding. And the understanding enables us then to deal with situations with wisdom. Now God wants our lives to be filled with rare and beautiful treasures. Jill and I come from Zimbabwe and we have filled our home with different ornaments and treasures that we brought from Zimbabwe. Now they might not be of great financial value, but they are valuable to us because they remind us of our life in Zimbabwe and how we experienced God's goodness and love while we were there. We also, whenever we go on a holiday somewhere, we pick up different ornaments or little gifts that we can bring back, and those remind us of our time away. They are rare and beautiful treasures. Rare in the sense of unique and beautiful in the sense of they have value to us. Recently we've celebrated Christmas, and every year Jill buys a different Christmas decoration, and that reminds her every year as she puts it up to pray for that person or thank God for that experience or to remind her of something wonderful around Christmas. These are rare and beautiful treasures that we enjoy and we treasure. They remind us of wonderful things. God wants our lives to be filled with wonderful experiences. So today I'd like to share with you how we can build our lives, have our lives established and filled with rare and beautiful treasures as we grow in wisdom. So today let's look at three keys to growing in wisdom. Number one, ask for wisdom. If we ask God for wisdom, he will give it to us. Let's look at James chapter 1 and verse 5. Reading from the English Standard Version, it says, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. I want to encourage you to ask him for wisdom for your marriage, for your family, for your parenting, for your place of work, for your future, wisdom for your finances. As you ask him for wisdom, the Bible says God will give it to us generously and without reproach. Solomon, when he became king, asked God for wisdom. And the Bible says God gave him wisdom. Let's look at 1 Kings chapter 3, verse 5, verse 7, and verse 9 to verse 14. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give you. Verse 7. And now, O Lord my God, Solomon answered, You have made your servant king in place of David my father. Although I am but a little child, I do not know how to go out or come in. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this? Your great people. It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this, and God said to him, Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right. Behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has ever been before, and none like you shall arise after you. What a wonderful testimony. He asked for wisdom. He didn't ask for riches and honor or long life. And so often people are seeking riches and honor and long life. But if we seek wisdom, we will get wisdom and a discerning heart and mind, as well as riches and honor and long life. I love the way Solomon humbled himself and asked God for wisdom. Do you need to ask God for wisdom for your life? God wants to give you a download of wisdom. So number one, we've seen if we're going to grow in wisdom, we need to ask for it. Number two, build your life on Jesus' teaching. Let's look at Matthew chapter 7, verse 24 to 27. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. We see in this parable that Jesus taught, wisdom is listening to what he says and doing it. He contrasts the man who is wise with the man who is foolish, who listens but doesn't do it. Now we see from this parable that we'll all go through storms in life. You're either in a storm, you've just come out of a storm, or you're going into a storm. And we see that the storm revealed the quality of the foundation. And when we encounter storms in life, it'll show us what our foundation is like. Are we built on the rock? Are we wise in the way we're building our lives? Or are we building on the sand and being foolish in the way we build our lives? Don't cut corners. Let's build with a strong, secure foundation. Let's follow the code in God's word. Let me share a story with you, and it's entitled Following the Code. In the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, a reporter discovered that one house was standing firm on its foundation amid the devastation and debris. Sir, the reporter asked the owner, why is your house the only one still standing? Well, the man replied, I built this house myself. I built it according to the Florida State Building Code. I was told that if I built according to the code, it would withstand a hurricane. So I did and it did. I suppose no one else around here followed the code. Tragically, many people today are not following the code as laid out in God's Word, the Bible. Are you building your life on the teachings of Jesus? It's one thing to read them or to listen to them or even to memorize them. It's an entirely different thing to put them into practice. Let's be wise people. Let's build our lives, our marriages, our families, our future, our businesses, our finances on the principles that Jesus taught. Then, when the storms of life come, we'll be able to stand strong and secure. Number three, the third key to growing in wisdom is to develop relationships with wise people. Let's look at Proverbs chapter 13, verse 20. From the English Standard Version it says, Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. Our relationships affect us in positive and in negative ways. The people we spend time with affect us and they affect the way we respond and react in different situations. We need to build relationships with wise people, and I think it's important for us to do that. Don't think that you're too strong or too wise and that you can get away with it because Samson, who was the strongest man in the Old Testament, was affected negatively by his relationships. And Solomon, who's the wisest man in the Old Testament, was affected negatively by his relationships. Let's choose our friends carefully. Let's make sure that we're spending time with people who up our game and cause us to be more positive, more cheerful, more outward-looking, more generous, more kind, and more encouraging. We need to understand that for us to grow in our relationship with God, we need to surround ourselves with other believers who are stronger in faith than we are. I want to encourage you to take stock. How are your relationships affecting you? Do you need to make some changes? Do you need to spend time with wise people? Is there a relationship that you're involved with that you need to take the foot off the accelerator a bit with? Because that relationship is causing you to go astray, causing you to turn from God, causing you to make poor life choices. I want to encourage you today to build your life on God's word. I want to encourage you today to ask God for wisdom, and I want to encourage you today to develop relationships with wise people. God wants us to build our lives, our houses, as it were, with knowledge, understanding, and wisdom so that they would be built and established and filled with rare and beautiful treasures. Let's pray. And as we do, ask the Holy Spirit to show you what he wants you to do as a result of what you've heard in today's sermon. Let's pray. Father God, thank you that you are kind and generous to us. Thank you that you want us to ask you for wisdom. And today we ask you for wisdom. Wisdom for our lives, our relationships, our careers, our finances, and our future. We ask you to give us a download of wisdom. Help us to build our lives on the solid rock foundation of your teaching. To be those who hear and do, to listen and obey, so that when we face the inevitable storms of life, we'll stand strong. And we ask for that in Jesus' name. We also ask that you'd help us to make wise choices on who we spend time with. Help us to build relationships with positive, wise, encouraging people, and perhaps to step back from relationships that are affecting us negatively. We ask this in Jesus' precious name. Holy Spirit, speak to us and show us what you want us to do as a result of what we've heard today. In Jesus' precious name. Amen.