Proverbs 8 | Lady Wisdom Calls

Sunday Morning | May 11, 2025 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

The sermon "Lady Wisdom Calls," based on Proverbs 8, explores the voice of divine wisdom personified as a woman calling out to humanity. It unfolds in four key parts: The Call of Wisdom; The Character of Wisdom; The Creation of Wisdom; and The Challenge of Wisdom. 

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Well, good morning everyone. Welcome for Mother's Day here at Valley View. It's great to have you here. And we decided to celebrate Mother's Day today by having one of our AC units go out. So if you're a little warm, especially up in this region, we apologize. Just think about how warm you were as a mother holding a small child. It'll bring back fond memories, all part of the plan. We're continuing our study of the Book of Proverbs. And how timely is it that we're in Proverbs chapter eight, which is all about Lady Wisdom? We planned that perfectly, I promise. No coincidences. The Lord knew. Lady wisdom, Mother's Day, chapter eight of Proverbs and Proverbs is all about the search for wisdom. How do we get wisdom? How do we find wisdom? It's what everybody wants. It's what everybody's looking for. Years ago, I got to know a guy in ministry. His name was Chuck Farneth. This guy was a world class fly fisherman. I know you're thinking that's a thing? It is apparently, this guy really knows fly fishing ins and outs, catch a fish anywhere. And I was really impressed by him. We started to learn fly fishing from him. We would go out fishing. One of the things early on he told me was, John, if you want to catch a fish in these big raging rivers, if you want to know where to find one, you got to think like a fish. Well, I didn't know fish thought all that much, but I thought, okay, teach me. Let's learn. No, you got to think about where's the fish likely to be out here. Where's it going to go? Where's the protection? Where's it most likely to be exposed? Where's the food likely to be flowing by? What part of the river has a slightly lower current next to a fast current? You got to think how a fish might act so that you can find where the fish are. So this guy was crazy. We would go fishing and he would stand in one spot. The river like for 12 hours straight, not move. He just would go and go and go. And those of us who were with him are just dying. We're on the bank wanting to eat food and drink water and just try to survive and the day would end. And one time in particular, I was with a friend. It was dark. We're starving. He goes, you know what, guys? Let's go. Let's go find a Pizza Hut. I said, find a Pizza Hut! What are you talking about? You don't know where one is. We're in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas. He's like, no, we'll just get in the car. We'll go find one. I'm like, okay. So he starts driving down the road and we're, you know, we're driving. It’s nowhere, Arkansas, the middle of nowhere and probably 30 minutes down the road here, suddenly arises out of the darkness like Gandalf showing up for battle a Pizza Hut appears. And so we go into Pizza Hut and I'm like, Chuck, how did you know there would be a Pizza Hut here? You said you didn't know there. He said, if you want to find a Pizza Hut, you got to think like a Pizza Hut. And I don't even know what that means. But I like how it sounds. If you want to find a fish, you got to think like a fish. If you want to find a Pizza Hut, you gotta think like a Pizza Hut. If you want to find wisdom, you got to think like wisdom. Meaning, you got to think about where is wisdom likely to be? Where am I likely to find wisdom? We're going to see in Proverbs chapter eight today four ways to think like wisdom, four ways to think like wisdom so you can find wisdom. In fact, we're going to see the call of wisdom. Wisdom is calling for us. The character of wisdom. There are attributes to wisdom you want to look for, the creation or beginning of wisdom. And then lastly, we'll see the covenant or the promise of wisdom. So we're going to be in Proverbs chapter eight. If you'll turn there, you should have the page number on the screen. Those page numbers match up to the church Bibles we have to make it easy for you to find. If you don't have a Bible, we'd love to give you a Bible that's for you to keep. They're out in the lobby. You can slip out any time and grab one, but you want to turn to page 499 in the church Bibles, turn to Proverbs chapter eight. We're just going to read the first five verses as we talk about the call of wisdom. What is the call of wisdom? How is wisdom crying out to us? Look at Proverbs eight verse one through five. Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice on the heights beside the way, at the crossroads. She takes her stand beside the gates in front of the town. At the entrance of the portals she cries aloud. To you, oh, men, I call. And my cry is to the children of man, O simple ones, learn prudence, O fools, learn sense. Here we have in these first five verses we're introduced to the call of wisdom. Wisdom is crying out, and wisdom is some use the word personified portrayed here as female. It says, she raises her voice. She takes her stand. She cries aloud. We saw in chapter one the first hint of this, the same thing. Wisdom cries out. This is important to understand because it's interesting. Proverbs isn't really known as a controversial book in the Bible, but Proverbs chapter eight, it's the most controversial chapter of Proverbs, and we're going to get into a little bit later, the most controversial verse in the most controversial chapter of Proverbs, and likely has led to some of the greatest controversy in the history of the church. I know you didn't come this morning on Mother's Day looking for controversy. I don't hope to stir up any new things, but it's important to know what has been said about a passage, what is there and why it is there. Now, Wisdom. Lady Wisdom in chapter eight does something that I think is so powerful in our search for wisdom. In looking for wisdom, it's important to know wisdom is there. Wisdom is there crying out. In fact, look at the places that are mentioned. She raises her voice at the heights, at the crossroads, at the gates, at the entrance. She's not hiding somewhere off in the corner. She's not playing hard to get. She's front and center looking. In fact, the imagery here, the gates of the city would have been the border between the country and the city. And she's looking for the naive, looking for the country bumpkin who's coming to town and needs wisdom before they enter the city. Don't move to the big city without wisdom. You're going to get chewed up and spit up. And she's standing there saying, I've got wisdom for you. Come to me, I'm not trying to hide. It's free for the taking. Come find it. Okay, I heard a story this week. This guy's wife's grandfather. He shared with me that when he immigrated to the US, he was on a ship. And all their worldly possessions with him and their luggage. All the money they had to their name with him. Meets a guy on the boat and said, have you ever been to America? No. Never been and never been coming there for the first time. Well, you know, America is just full of thieves. Everyone's trying to steal all your money. You know that, right? No, I had no idea. Yeah. In fact, do you have one of these? Do you have a money belt? You need a money belt so you can keep your money safe, protect from other people. Do you have one? No I don't, I'll tell you what I'm willing to do for you. I will store all your money in my money belt for you. Really? You would do that for me? Yes. Okay. So he gives him all his money. Of course. They're on a boat. He's not going to go anywhere with it. He can keep an eye on him. But then they get off the boat. They gather all their luggage up together. Since I have all your money, since we're together, let's go find a place to stay together. Great idea. They go to a hotel. Hey, you go get us a room. I'll watch our luggage. And of course, he comes back out and the guy's gone and all their luggage is gone. All their worldly possessions gone. Welcome to America. Yeah. That guy needed some wisdom. He needed to know. Here's how things operate. Here's what you watch out for. He needed someone going. Don't listen to that guy. Not everyone is as they seem. He needed someone who could help navigate him. And Lady Wisdom is saying, I'm here. You want to find me? I'm here. Come to me. I'm not hiding from you. Here's the problem, though, with wisdom. It's hard. It takes effort. Even though she's there, crying out. There's all the other a lot of other paths that seem easier to take. I mean, if you want to pursue wisdom, you've got to put forth effort. You've got to find people who have wisdom, seek it out from them, ask. You've got to listen. You've got to read good books, study the scripture. The easy path just fills us up with fluff. That's the easy way to go. It's the way that most people turn. How do we search out wisdom? She gives two commands here towards that end. So look at verse six, two things in particular to look out for. Verse six. She says here verse ten, she says, take, let me read these and unpack what that means. Hear, for I will speak noble things. From my lips will come what is right, from my mouth will utter truth. Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are righteous. There is nothing twisted or crooked in them. They are all straight to him who understands, right to those who find knowledge. Take my instruction instead of silver. Knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot even compare with her. So the first thing wisdom says here to the naive, the simple at the gates, those who are coming, who need wisdom, who need insight. She says hear, listen. That's the first step in gaining wisdom is to listen. A friend of mine says all the time he says it of people at his church. He wouldn't say it here. He says if they ain't listening, they ain't listening. Meaning why keep talking? If someone isn’t open to hearing what you have to say and you've all been in those conversations, you see their eyes glazing over. Parents, you know what I'm talking about. You're giving a great lecture. You think it's of imminent importance. You should be at Harvard delivering this lecture. It's so good. And they're just like, I zoned out. Gone. They ain’t listening. Sometimes we're not open to wisdom. We're not listening. We don't want to hear it. I want to do what I want to do. And I don't want things like facts or the truth of the Bible getting in the way. You've been there. You know what I'm talking about. I want this thing so much. I don't care what anyone else says. But we got to get a place, got to get to a place first and foremost where we want to hear what wisdom says. Hear the truth. That's what she says of her words. My mouth. And I love all the language here relating to the mouth, the lips, the tongue, the words. I speak truth in verse seven. My words are righteous. They're not twisted or crooked, they're straight. This is in contrast. Now you remember the context of where we are in the book of Proverbs. The last few sermons we looked at chapter five, chapter six, chapter seven. Each of those had large chunks of sections of that passage warning the young son about the wicked woman, the adulterous, the harlot, the woman trying to pull the young man off the path. And by the way, the same is true for young women. There are young men trying to pull you off the path. This isn't only written to sons, you can relate it to who you are. There are people out there who wish you ill. That's been the sections we've been looking at chapter five, chapter six, chapter seven, and the contrast here is mainly and I think this is the reason why wisdom is called She. It’s primarily the contrast, the way of wisdom with the way of folly, the way of the wicked woman, the woman who wanted to pull them off path, the woman who wanted to give them the easy way of love, the easy way out, rather than the hard way of wisdom. And she says, listen to my words. My lips bring truth. The lips of the wicked woman that takes you down a different path. The contrast between the two is drawn out in chapter eight. Okay, so the first step is to hear wisdom. My ears have to be open to it. I have to want to hear it to begin with. But once you hear it, what do you do with it? Look at what she said again in verse ten. Take, another way to translate that word, choose my instruction. Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than gold, wisdom is better than jewels. Once you hear wisdom now you got a choice. What am I going to do with it? Am I going to accept it? Am I going to listen? Am I going to choose to follow the path of wisdom? Or am I going to choose to keep going down the road? I'm going down. The call here. And the very first part, if you want to know wisdom, if you want to think like wisdom, if you want to discover wisdom, listen to her call and choose to follow to begin with, those are the first steps toward wisdom. That's the call of wisdom. Now, the next thing to look for in our search for wisdom is the character of wisdom. I want to be on the lookout for the attributes of wisdom, things that when you see you go, that is a sign of wisdom. I need to keep my eye on that. I need to listen to this person. Look at verse 12 while we read through the character or attributes of wisdom, verse 12 through 21 I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence. And you might even. By the way, as I'm reading through this, if you like to write in your Bible, not everybody does. That's okay. I'm not going to make you. But if you like to, you might just circle some of the attributes of wisdom you see in here as we read through the some of the things that stand out to you, that you consider to be characteristics of a wise person, I wisdom dwell with prudence. I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil, Pride, arrogance, the way of evil, perverted speech I hate, I wisdom, have counsel and sound wisdom, I have insight, I have strength. By me Kings reign and rulers decree what is just, by me princes rule nobles all who govern justly, all those who love me and those who seek me diligently, diligently will find me. Riches and honor are with me enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me and filling their treasures. Verse 12 through 21. List out some of the characteristics of wisdom, character qualities, the attributes of wisdom. And there's a lot listed here that you want to be on the lookout for. Verse 13, in particular points out the very core or beginning of wisdom. It said in chapter one is the fear of the Lord. That's the beginning of wisdom. Until I fear him, my life won't be rightly centered for me to be able to even hear wisdom, one way that plays out is if I fear the Lord, I also hate evil it says. There should be something in us. There is a godly sorrow when we see evil at play in the world. And not that I hate people in particular, but there's something when I see evil play out, when I see people damaged through evil, when I see people hurt and broken through evil, there should be some. There should be a sorrow deep within me that is aware of that and sensitive to that and hurts alongside with that. That should be the natural result of fearing the Lord. But some of the other attributes of wisdom here, verse 14 I have counsel, advice. I should seek out good advice also should come with that is insight and strength. Wisdom puts you in a place of strength instead of weakness, in a place of dependence on God and His strength. But also what happens is you get wisdom for leading. A prince, a king who leads well has godly wisdom guiding them, and we all want that. If you're in any realm where you can give leadership to anyone, you need wisdom to do that well, we want that. We want to help people be better than they would ever be by leading them well, that is found, that's an attribute of wisdom. But then also notice this in verse 18 -- riches and honor are with me enduring wealth and righteousness. John. That's the message I came for right there. Keep preaching that. Tell me more about that. Now look, here's the point. The point of this isn't, hey, find wisdom so that you can get rich. We're not that kind of church. We're not here preaching that. Now, I hope God blesses you and gives you abundance. I hope you are wise enough to be able to handle it first and foremost. That's what we pray for first and foremost, because riches may not be a blessing. I’ve seen that time and again. Someone comes into money and it ruins their life because they're not ready for it. They don't have wisdom. So we're not up here praying that and proclaiming that. But here's what happens when you focus first on gaining wisdom. Focus first on God's character. What may come our riches. And if they do, you'll be ready to honor him with what he has given you. You know, verse ten and 11 said, wisdom is better than jewels. Way better than jewels. Is wisdom. Likely, more than likely, often, if you're living according to wisdom, God also brings blessing to your life. He may not, but often does. If you're walking in character. If you're walking in wisdom, you know that happened with Solomon. If you think back to First Kings chapter three, God said to Solomon, almost like a genie in a bottle. Which is a weird way. I'm not calling God a genie, but it was almost like that. What do you want, Solomon? Ask me whatever you want. I'll give it to you. I mean, how many times have you played around with that question? If you. If you had one, one thing you could ask. You could ask whatever you want. I bet almost none of us said, you know what I would ask for? I would ask for wisdom. That's the thing that I would want more than anything. Most of you said I'd ask for more asks. Right? I said, give me more request. Let me ask again and again and again. Endless amount of,... whatever. Solomon said. I need wisdom to lead your people. You've been gracious to put me in protection over your people. And God said, because you answered that way. And instead of asking for riches, I'm going to I'm going to give you riches too. And of course, that brought challenges to Solomon's life, ultimately, that led to his heart straying away from the Lord. Even the wisest man to live struggled with this. Who are we to think we can handle abundance? But the point being here, oftentimes the two are related and we need to make sure our hearts are ready for that. That's the first place to start. I mentioned in the midweek update this week my buddy Greg. I was a mountain biking with him and Greg was sharing about how God had been working in his life. And by the way, I don't think I put this in the letter. Greg is 73 years old out there, mountain biking, getting after it, doing great. A little more careful maybe, than the rest of us riding a little more wisely. But Greg said, John, I have grown more as a Christian and as a husband in the last year than the previous ten years combined, and I shared in the midweek update that he did this because of a simple ten minute prayer strategy a day he starts his day on his knees in prayer. I didn't share in there what he prays for though, and during that prayer time, what he focuses on is God's character. He said, John, most of my prayer life had been gimme, gimme God, give me more. This is what I need. If coming to him, asking him for stuff, it's okay to ask him for stuff. By the way, he said. But what I needed to do was focus first and foremost on who he was, on his character, on who he is, to rightly center my life. And when I started to do that, I saw everything change. All the little things that used to bother me about my wife. She do the smallest little thing and it would upset me now that it went away. No big deal. We didn't ask her to verify that. No big deal. Ten minutes of prayer. First, focus on who he is on his character. First, focus on the character of wisdom and let the rest follow. So we have the call of wisdom. She's crying out, I'm here! Come find me. The character of wisdom. Now look what's next at the creation of wisdom, the beginning of wisdom. Look at verse 22. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old ages ago. I was set up at the first for the beginning of the earth, and there were no depths. I was brought forth when there were no springs abounding with water, for the mountains had been shaped before the hills I was brought forth. before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens. I was there when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command. When he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was beside him like a master workman. And I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world, and delighting in the children of man. All right, a lot there to cover. This is the most controversial section of Proverbs eight that I was referring to, and in particular because of verse 22, because it says the Lord possessed me at the beginning. And if you have an ESV Bible, you'll see a footnote, and down at the bottom it says or fathered. It could be translated as fathered. You might say beget, or it even says some translations created. Now, the problem with that is Proverbs eight is often seen as a pointing forward to Christ because it says things like I was there with him in the beginning creating. And so some have taken this verse. The Lord created me, possessed me. At the beginning of this work, bear with me for just a second. I want to highlight this because this is important in the history of the early church in particular. Some took this verse to say, well, because this is similar to how some of the ways we describe Christ, therefore Christ must be created. Therefore he's not co-eternal, therefore he's not a member of the Trinity, not fully God. And therefore we can't believe in the Trinity anymore. You see the jump they made there? This was called the Arian heresy. It was hugely raging in the early church three hundreds, four hundreds. This is important to highlight for one reason we have to understand church history. You've got to look back at what people have already argued about. And so when it shows up again today, you're not shocked and surprised. This is the same thing that shows up in things like Jehovah's Witness and Mormon. Jesus isn't fully God. They would say. It goes back. It happened long ago. How do we rightly understand this section to know that's not what this is saying? Well, I want to point out a couple of things, because these this chapter does relate to other parts of Scripture in some very interesting ways. In fact, I'm going to look at four ways. And here in particular, because in verses 22 through 23 where it talks about wisdom at the beginning of the world, wisdom as an act of old, wisdom set up at the beginning of the earth. The important thing to understand here is that wisdom existed long ago. This should create humility for us. If you ever happen to stumble on a piece of wisdom, if you ever find yourself going, I think I just displayed wisdom in that moment. That's not the time to get prideful. That's the time to go. And thank you, Lord, for providing what you created long ago. I didn't discover I discovered it, I didn't create it much like a natural resource. No one who digs up gold goes, I created gold. I am the creator of gold. No, I discovered it, it already existed. I had to find it. That's the main emphasis here. Long ago, before you ever existed, before anyone was around. Wisdom was at work. Now, the other thing to point out here too, though, is look at look at how it's described, the setting of creation. Verse 26, 4 , 5 and 6-- Earth was no depths. I was brought forth no springs before the mountains, before the hills, before he made the earth. The imagery here is the chaos of creation. And if you think back, this relates it's very similar in language to Genesis chapter one. The earth was without form and void. Darkness was over the face of the deep. The spirit of God was hovering over the waters. It was chaos. And here's the phrase I want you to remember in the midst of this. How does this relate to chapter eight? Wisdom brings order to chaos. You know what I'm talking about. Think about your life before knowing Christ, before having wisdom. It was chaos. It was out of order. You felt like you were always a step behind. You couldn't get your handle on things. You. Who here knows what I'm talking about? That chaotic season. But when Jesus shows up, he brings order. He brings order in the midst of chaos. It says in Colossians chapter one, this is how is points forward to Christ. This is what chapter eight is doing more than anything, pointing forward to Christ. Because in Colossians chapter one it talks about how he's before all things, he is preeminent and in him. And this is verse 17, all things hold together. If you're able to hold your life together, it's because he's at work in you. His wisdom is in you. Also note his sovereignty. I'll just highlight this in verse 27 through 29. Six times. It says when he. When he established the deeps, he drew a circle. When he made the firm, he established the foundations. He assigned the sea. He marked out the foundations there. He did it, not me. He is sovereign. I can trust him. He's in control. He's the one creating. You know, even Jewish scholars, not Christian. One guy in particular. Long ago, this this would have been writing. He would have been writing around the same time as Christ. Philo was his name. They're always wrestling with, how do we describe who God is? This guy in particular was trying to describe the creative force that was a work alongside God. Clearly something else was there with him. He speaks of us and we the very word this author used, this Jewish author used to describe the creative force of the world alongside God the Father was the logos. And if you remember our study of the book of John, that's the same word used of Jesus in John chapter one. In the beginning was the logos. The word and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same creative force, his sovereignty was there at the beginning. That's where some of the links are happening here in Proverbs chapter eight. Now, that's a little bit of a deep dive into the beginning. And the point being, we can trust him. He was there. He we should have humility. He brings order and he brings joy and delight. All of this leads us to the promise he makes in the midst of this, the covenant of wisdom. And this is where the chapter ends. Look at verse 32. Now, O sons, listen to me. Blessed are those who keep my ways, hear instruction, and be wise. Do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me. Watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. Whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. But he who fails to find me injures himself. And all who hate me love death. Here's the promise, the covenant of wisdom. Here's what wisdom is pointing towards. If you want to know true blessing in your life, if you want to know true fullness, if you want to find life at its fullest and favor from the Lord, seek wisdom. Pursue wisdom. There's no other way. And by the way, the fullest, fullest expression we have of wisdom is in Christ. But we see wisdom in plenty of other places in life as well. In fact, I think it's appropriate on Mother's Day to to speak to the wisdom of mothers. I ran across the story this week. You may remember the dropping of the first atomic bomb in World War Two. Do you remember the name of the plane that dropped the bomb? Okay, there we go, said with confidence. Enola Gay. Yeah, I heard mumblings. Many others also remember that as well. In fact, there's a picture on the screen of that plane and their crew, but many don't know who the plane is named after. Oftentimes planes were named after, you know, the latest hot movie star or a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend or somebody that they wanted to honor that was often more of a love interest. Now, Paul Tibbets was the pilot of the Enola Gay, and he wondered, who can I name my plane after? The plane, they're they're actually getting ready to fly out in a day or two. Plane did not have a name. It's like we can't just drop it from random plane number 82. It's got to have a name. And he thought what his first thought was, what would my mother call it? He had so much respect for his mother. She had guided him every step of the way. He had first wanted to be a doctor, and his dad was so proud of him for wanting to be a doctor. And he said, you know what? I'm going to fly planes, which wasn't as big of a deal as we would consider it now, as maybe as admirable as we would consider it now, is more like a bunch of crazy guys going out trying crazy things. It was still in its infancy in a lot of ways. His dad thought he was crazy. His mom there was there supporting him every step of the way. I love you, you're going to do great. It's going to be okay. When he was flying over now North Africa, when they were dropping bombs and doing missions and other planes every step of the way he could, when he felt like everything was falling apart, he could hear his mother's voice calming him all along the way. And he thought, what would my mother say? What? And he said, there's no greater name to put on this plane than to put her name on the plane. Who would I want beside me in the most intense moment of my life, other than her? I think many of us. Of course, not everyone has had a perfect mother. I'm not saying my mom's perfect. She's great. Not everyone has had a mother full of wisdom, even. But when we see real wisdom in your mother or in anyone, it points towards eternal wisdom rooted in Christ and in who he is. And that's where we need to turn. And that would be my final plea for you today. If you don't know wisdom, come to know Christ. If your life is chaotic and out of order, come to follow Christ. Seek him out. We're going to be doing baptisms here in a couple of weeks. We'd love. I'd love to talk with you about getting baptized, about following Christ. Maybe you have talked with me about that circle back around and say no. Yeah, now it's time. I'd love to be a part of that. We're honored you're here today. I'll be down front after the services. If you'd love to talk about coming to know Christ, follow him and gaining true wisdom through following him, it'd be a great time today to talk about that. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for this morning. We thank you that we can gather on Mother's Day, and we can look at your words to us about finding wisdom in Proverbs chapter eight. This world thinks it's full of wisdom. It's worldly wisdom, and much of it leads us astray. Much of it is meant to pull us off course, like the woman of folly in chapter seven and six and five. Thank you for providing us with wisdom. Thank you for helping us to see true wisdom in you. Jesus, help us to lean on you, to trust in you, to depend on you for all things. We love you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.