The Way of Wisdom - Is the Fear of the Lord | Week 1

Ever found yourself fuming in a traffic jam, minutes after a serene prayer session? I just had one of those days, and it got me thinking about the way we seek wisdom in the most trying of times. Our latest series embarks on this very quest, uncovering the profound teachings of Proverbs and the rich narratives of biblical figures like Solomon. We're talking about the struggle for patience in the face of daily irritations, the deep personal reflections during a 21-day prayer and fasting journey, and the tantalizing temptation of a steak burrito that almost broke my resolve.

Join me as I share how these experiences can be just some roadblocks or stepping stones to a greater understanding of God's design for our lives. From the way we react to everyday annoyances to the serious commitment of fasting, each moment is an opportunity to grow. We'll explore the parallels between seeking business knowledge and eternal spiritual wisdom, the importance of the Bible's guidance, and the powerful connection between wisdom and our relationship with God. It's a journey through the wisdom literature of the Bible, where the fear of the Lord isn't about dread but about awe and reverence, leading us to live lives blessed by spirit and truth.

To wrap up, we extend an invitation for personal transformation through the stories of Solomon's legacy and the wisdom that shaped his reign. Whether you're encountering Jesus for the first time or renewing your commitment, this episode offers a heartfelt prayer for those ready to take that step. We conclude with blessings of love over our community, trusting in the guidance of Jesus Christ to lead us into the week ahead. Let this conversation be the compass you need to navigate life's challenges with a heart full of wisdom and eyes fixed on the eternal.

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Transcript

Pastor Jason Brown: 0:00

Where does your wisdom come from? I was thinking about this and applying wisdom in our lives, and we're starting off a new series called the way of wisdom today, and I was thinking about what's probably my hardest situation I deal with on a regular basis and that's in traffic. Oh, you guys are just liars over here. Cool, ok, cool, cool story. No, you know, man, whenever I'm dealing with traffic, that is the time I mean I could be having such a good quiet time with the Lord, such an amazing time, and, you know, reading the scripture, and head out onto the road and suddenly, of course, there's someone who's driving like an idiot around me and I know we're not calling it an idiot, we're going to call them Not wise Driving like a crazy person in front of me. And I think I'm dealing with this because it's like something that's challenging me and my attitude, anybody else, and so I'm dealing with. It's always. It's always the person in front of me, the person behind me, and I'm always like, ah, and it's always the red lights. I don't know if you guys deal with red lights, but I seemingly between my house I don't live that far away, but between my house and here there are 500 red lights that exist between this small span of place. No, I seemingly hit all the lights. You guys know what I'm talking about. And if you don't hit all the lights, then it's like you're turning and you're like, oh, there's, it's, it's a whole bunch of greens, you could see it. And then someone pulls in front of you and decides to stop before the yellow light. You know what I'm talking about. I'm the only one that suffers with this, obviously, apparently, or all of you guys are just like uh-huh, uh-huh. And the thing is, I'm like under my breath. I'm like, ok, go, just go, go, get out of the way. It starts there, right, it starts low, starts low, and then suddenly it's at your go. Can they hear you? Who are you yelling at? And I'm like just, and it's like man, it's a stop and this go. And it's like if you could only get through this one red light either, it's like five green lights in head. You can see it, but because you get stopped at this red light, then you get have to hit all the other red lights. You guys know what I'm talking about.

Pastor Jason Brown: 2:09

If you ever do get on a freeway, if it ever exists, then you get on the freeway and there are people that are treating it as if they are driving an F1. If they are the fastest thing on two feet, they're just like pedal down going forward. I told my son he's learning to drive. I said listen, if people are in Honda Civic, move out of the way these people. They have reckless abandon. They are going as fast as possible. They have the biggest exhaust tip on their car that has ever made is making a loud noise. Just move out of the way. Let those people go on. The Lord has to bless them because they're headed to him directly. So just move.

Pastor Jason Brown: 2:46

And this is what I deal with and I'm dealing with it. I'm thinking about how I just had this quiet time with the Lord. I'm headed to church that's where I'm headed to my office of the church to be the man of God when I get here and I'm yelling at people on the way to the church None of you guys have done this. I'm so glad. I'm alone, praise the Lord.

Pastor Jason Brown: 3:06

What's amazing about this is that I either get so worked up and then I get here and I'm like, oh wait, why did I have a quiet time? Why did I have all this? It's to be at peace with God not to get all worked up over this ridiculous situation. But the other end is that you just hit enough red lights in a row that you just give up. Anybody just start giving up. As you hit a red light, you just pull out your phone, start doing emails, you're shopping, you're doing whatever, and then then the light is already green and you're already missing the opportunity to go and you're causing yourself to hit the next red light. And I feel like there's a parallel between my attitude problem and my driving and some of the things that God wants to do in my life and that he's talking to me about patience and about trusting him in the process of where I'm going. And at the same time, I realized that if I get stopped and I get stuck so many times, he's already given me a green light and it's me that's not going. And so it's interesting on how I do with what I do when I get stopped up. Do I have an attitude about it or is this is just part of the process? Or am I someone who actually takes this thing all into consideration of how we live this life, with God realizing that this stuff is going to happen, good or bad, but he is good all the time, no matter what I'm experiencing. I was thinking about all that to share it with you today. On the way to the church, no one drove in front of me and it hit all green lights. I was like the Lord be praised. If only it would count during the work day. No, I'm just joking. No, I'm just joking. I'm so thankful for his hand in my life.

Pastor Jason Brown: 4:43

Today we're talking about the way of wisdom, and so we want to take a look at that in scripture today as we jump off on this series together. Wisdom is a key part of our lives. It's what we want to have is insight, knowledge. We want to gain these things to help us live a better path together. Give your Bible, your tablet, your phone. We're looking to get together here at Proverbs 1, verse seven is where we're starting. It says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Lord, we thank you for your word, holy spirit. We pray that you would breathe upon it, that, lord, it would become alive and transformative to us. Lord, that you would speak by your word to us, instruct us today. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Hey, we're so glad you're here with us, cornerstone, if we haven't met. My name is Jay and Celeste and I have such an amazing opportunity of being a part and leading this team.

Pastor Jason Brown: 5:34

Here at Cornerstone, we very much see ourselves as people that are on a journey with Christ. None of us have arrived. All of us are in process. That's why we use this image of walking with Jesus, because we see ourselves as just like the disciples walking with Him, taking those steps after Jesus. None of us has arrived. All of us are still on their journey with Him, because none of us is perfect. So we want to be those that get back up and keep going with Jesus where he's leading us to go Very much to be more like Jesus, and that's why we challenge our attitudes in the car. That's why we challenge the things we say and the way we think about things, because we want to be more like Him. I encourage you that in this season, you get involved, because we are beyond just a weekend gathering here at the church building. We are also active throughout the week, throughout the city, in our life groups, and a new series of life groups is just about to start here in a few weeks. So let me encourage you to get a part of a life group to pre-decide, to be intentional with your life in God, that you too connect, grow and serve with us Amen. Now, the way of wisdom is an interesting concept because we start to think about how God guides and directs through His word, and that's very much what we want to see today. That's why we're doing what we're doing with prayer and fasting.

Pastor Jason Brown: 6:47

We, collectively as a church, started 21 days of prayer and fasting this last Sunday. So we're one week into our fasting process and, as Pastor Celeste was sharing last week about fasting, it's so true Whatever thing that is the thing that you're fasting will be offered to you while you're fasting. The rest of the time it will never be offered to you. It will be offered to you while you're fasting, especially if you're fasting food or whatever it is the thing that you're doing. It's like that's gonna be the thing that's highlighted for you Now. It's a choice we do without something good for something better, which is more time with God. So, in cases of many people, they're doing without food and taking that time that would feed our body physically and they're feeding their spirit man by prayer and reading and spending that time with God. If you're just skipping it and not spending the time with God, you kind of missed the point, because the point is about drawing near to God. It's true, though, no matter what you do in fasting, it'll always be offered to you, whatever it is you're fasting.

Pastor Jason Brown: 7:45

I was at a board meeting for OCJ Kids, which helps foster kids in Arizona and actually in other places too, and it's an amazing organization that gives things to kids and skills for them so that they can come out of the process of the foster care community and actually can become successful adults. And I walk in we have a board meeting early on the Saturday, as we do, and they're like Jay, hey, good morning, hey, steak burrito for you. I was like really, on the damn fasting steak burrito, and I wanted that burrito so bad. You guys know what I'm talking about. But I was like no, it's okay, man, I'm making a choice to do this. I didn't tell them what I was doing. I was like I appreciate you guys, thank you, and of course, you think I'm gonna have a steak burrito next week. Nope, that's all right, that's all right, but the idea is that it's always this thing, that it's a challenge to us is like are you doing it for the right reason or not?

Pastor Jason Brown: 8:38

So let it be for the right reason. Let it be about you drawing close to God, not looking holy or pious for somebody else, not doing some kind of thing because you wanna have some other alternative motive, but be about the focus of God, which is prayer. Let it be an encouragement to you in this 21 days of fasting to draw near to him. The word that we said last week, that we feel has spoken over us this year, is that the battle is the Lord's. The battle is the Lord's. So, no matter what you're going through, whatever circumstances you're in, we know this that in him we are already victorious. We are already victorious. It says that if he is for us, who can stand against us in the battle is the Lord's.

Pastor Jason Brown: 9:18

Now, as we look at about this idea of the way of wisdom, we understand that a lot of the wisdom writings come from Solomon, from David and others that are assembled together into this book, mainly Proverbs. We see Proverbs Ecclesiastes, and we see Job and Song of Solomon, other writings that are along these ways as it goes into wisdom writing and poetry and so forth. And so, as we're looking, taking a look at that over the next few weeks we start to look at seeing what is the difference, what made Solomon be set apart? And there really was this piece of wisdom that he had, and it started with a fear of the Lord. Now, this is different than I'm afraid of God because he can squash me and he's gonna punish me for everything I do wrong. That's not what I'm talking about. The fear of the Lord is to have a healthy perspective of who God is. He's our creator, god, the God that created all things and breathed life into us, who guide and directs us and knows all people outside of time and space and holds it in his hand.

Pastor Jason Brown: 10:14

He is the Almighty, he is the Holy One and it's because he is the Holy One that we should have a healthy fear and a reverence on all of God At the same time. He says he calls us his children, he calls us his friend, and that's an amazing thing. But we don't wanna get that situation messed up. We don't wanna get our perspective out of whack. We wanna keep these things corrected. Have a fear of the Lord. As it says in Proverbs 1.7,. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, fools the spies, wisdom and instruction. Now we know this is true because God corrects those he loves. If he didn't love you, he wouldn't correct you. You ever thought about like that. Whenever you feel convicted by the Holy Spirit for doing something wrong, then it's because he cares about you, because he wants to correct you and not for you to have devastation. It's because he wants you to live a better life and actually reap the benefits and the blessings of God and not reap the destruction which is our decision sometimes. Anybody ever made a bad decision and felt bad about it later, knowing they should have made a better decision before. Thankfully, it's only me. Praise the Lord.

Pastor Jason Brown: 11:31

Proverbs 120 says it like this wisdom cries aloud in the street and in the market. She raises her voice At the head of the noisy street. She cries out At the entrance of the city gates. She speaks how long, oh simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, some say correction. Behold, I will pour out my spirit to you. I will make my words known to you. Think about this. He's saying that people. He's out there crying out the wisdom of God personified here. It's crying out to people to understand, but we're so busy with our lives that we don't hear it. This is written from thousands of years ago still true very much to this day that we get so wrapped up in the business of all we're doing that we're not focusing on what he's trying to guide us by. We're looking for answers in all the wrong places and because of it we get the results that we were looking for. And so he's trying to guide us and say if you'll only listen, if you'll only take my correction, you will gain all these things. But if you don't do it, what does it say here? Hater's gonna hate. Is that what it says? Oh, scoffer's gonna scoff. It says they love scoffing, they love criticizing, they love tearing down because it makes them somehow feel built up. It's talking about these things. They're gonna hate on you for your faith, they're gonna disagree with you because they don't like what you're saying.

Pastor Jason Brown: 13:07

But the reason we correct people in love is because we too are being corrected and we want them to live the blessings that are from God. That's why we talk about things in society, things like rights for the unborn, things like marriage between a man and a woman, things about that care and matter, because we love people and want them to live the way of God. But we do so in love. To do correction without love is what A clanging symbol it's noise. But to do so in love is because we care about people and we want them to live the love of God. We want them to know God's love for them.

Pastor Jason Brown: 13:44

What does it say here? It says if you do this, if you will embrace his correction, he'll pour his spirit out on you, the very thing that you're looking for in your hollowness, in your emptiness. The reason people use addiction again and again and again, and whatever it is that is their vice, is because they feel hollow and they want to fill it with something. If only we'll come to him, he'll fill us with his spirit, which is eternal, which is the thing you've been looking for. It continues forward in verse 29,. It says it like this because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel and despised my reproof. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their way and have their fill on their own devices.

Pastor Jason Brown: 14:34

And how many times have you been in a place where you felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit for being in that situation has ever happened to you when you've made a wrong decision to be somewhere and you're like I shouldn't be here doing this, anybody, even before you've done it. And you're like, ah, and he's trying to challenge you to say, no, don't do this, you don't have to do this. He's trying to correct you before you make the mistake. And we'll push that off and be like now I'm gonna do whatever I wanna do because it feels good. And he's like, all right, that's on you. And then we get mad because we come God, how could you let this happen? He's like, really, how could I let it happen? Then I convict you not to make that decision. Then I try to correct you during. I just give you my word to guide and direct you, and you didn't listen to me ahead of time.

Pastor Jason Brown: 15:23

They only sound like a mom talking to little kids right now. Isn't it weird how God has to talk to us like that? In the same way, how he's talking to us like we're you know five and we're like I don't wanna do it. He's like you should do it, Be healthy, be whole. I wanna touch the fire. Don't do it, I can kill you. The Lord, help us. The Lord, help us. Seek His wisdom, his guidance, his correction, because he loves us. And because he loves us, he's going to correct us because he wants us to live a better way.

Pastor Jason Brown: 15:59

Now, as we look at this, we start talking about the idea of wisdom and we, as people, man, we're seeking wisdom, we're trying to figure out, understanding it. Every turn In business, we look at analytics and we try to break down every action and every series of actions and series of choices of our customer base and we're trying to get all these kind of things that will make this decision make the most sense and we're trying to gain wisdom and knowledge at any turn. We pay tons of money for it, all sorts of insight, people coming in that have proven track records. We pay them to give us consulting, and we do all this stuff because we're seeking to know something. It would only make sense that in our spiritual life, that we too would be the ones that seek something first Real wisdom. That's eternal, not just wing it whenever all the rest of our professional life is spent doing all these other things. It's crazy. So as we look to the scripture, we start to understand real wisdom.

Pastor Jason Brown: 16:50

Now I think about the personification of wisdom. So often they use something like an owl. I don't know if you guys have ever seen an owl in real life, but they're kind of scary. And, man, if you had an owl show up at your house, you'd be like whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on right now? Right, kind of freaky out a little bit, and I think it's because they have these massive eyes and that's why it always was seen as knowledge, because they're taking in everything. The idea is that they see everything. They turn that head all the way around. Real creepy, right. They're like it keeps going. Have you ever seen these things without feathers? It's a nightmare. Anyway, it's this idea of wisdom, understanding and seeing wide, and that's what we want to do is be those who have knowledge beyond our own experience.

Pastor Jason Brown: 17:28

I love that about people that are readers. We have some readers in the room, some people that love to read. Other people are like, no, make it a movie, then I might watch 20 minutes of it. So that's about where they're at. But, man, for some of the readers, I love how they will pour over a book and they get into it. You can talk to a reader. There's like all sorts of noise going on in the room. They're not phased man, they're like in the book. They're right, their nose is in it because it's captured them, they've been riveted by whatever the information is and it's telling them something.

Pastor Jason Brown: 17:55

I love this idea of stacking out books because I think about how much knowledge, how much thought process went into trying to share the knowledge they have, or the perspective they have, or the story and the journey they have. And, man, I have a lot of respect for it. And some in the room are like you can keep your books, man. I don't want any of that. But I'll tell you this there is something about the intentionality of books that I really like, because it starts to understand that if we'll take time to learn ahead of time, we don't have to make the same mistakes. Or if we hear from another story and understand it, then we start to learn the lesson that they learned too. That's why Jesus taught in parables he's telling in stories so people can remember it, so that they could understand the truth behind the matter that whenever I go into, like a library man, I love this idea of a library. It's all these books stacked up, all this knowledge is different understanding from different places. It's one of the things that I wish that I could have seen is the ancient library of Alexandria. The new one that's built there is quite impressive, it's quite amazing, but nothing in the scope of the ancient knowledge that was put there in scrolls.

Pastor Jason Brown: 18:59

And you think about all that we do to try to be wise, but even as we pour over these books, even ancient texts, those are not the same weight that we, in faith, hold as Scripture. Scripture is divinely inspired words of God, and even the best self-help or knowledge book or leadership book, though the great concepts, it's not the same weight as the Scripture that guides our life. And so as we look to Scripture, we look to real inspired words of God that will help us and correct us, and we understand that all of this starts with the fear of the Lord. Now, the fear of the Lord it talks about is the beginning of knowledge, and when we get that out of sorts then everything gets broken.

Pastor Jason Brown: 19:40

If we go back to the very beginning of our Bible, in Genesis, we hear this story about Adam and Eve. It's this man and woman who are the beginning of creation, and God gives them all purview of everything that exists. He puts them in command, he gives them authority over all living things and gives them access to everything except this one tree, and he tells them don't touch it, don't eat the fruit of it, because this thing will cause your demise. And so they live this amazing life, blessed, and there's no end, there's no death, there's no shame, there's no pain, there's nothing, because they're living as unto God in this place that he created for them, this amazingly green place. It's like they had unlimited irrigation in their yard. You guys, amazing, no water bill. But you'd understand if you're not in this context. You guys are like what? It's naturally green? We're like no, it's not, you have to water it. That's how it works.

Pastor Jason Brown: 20:33

It picks up in this story here and he's talking about Eve. She ends up having this conversation with the serpent, and the serpent is a representation of the enemy of our soul, the devil. And so we see how the devil's coming in to try to trick her into take part of this thing that God told them not to touch. It says in the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Pastor Jason Brown: 21:14

And she saw the fruit of the tree and she saw that it looked good. It enticed her to take part of it because she heard the words of the serpent, and it enticed her to be like God, to have this wisdom that she couldn't grasp. See, the thing that God was keeping her from was death. What he was keeping her from was understanding sin, understanding mistakes. Before that it didn't exist with them. They didn't have it because there was nothing between them and God, that a pure relationship, and because they did. There was no death, there was no sin, there was nothing to make a break between them. But she reaches out, wanting to do it her own way, and she takes a piece of the fruit. It's just so.

Pastor Jason Brown: 21:58

When the woman saw the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes and the tree was to be desired, to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. You know, often we might read it where it's like oh, Adam's like, I didn't know it was the woman she gave me the thing and that's not how that was. He knew exactly what this was. It wasn't like she was like I found a magical fruit on the far side of the plate. Now he's like he knew exactly what this was. He was like okay, he bought into it as well. And it says that he partook in eight of the thing that God told them not to touch, and we talked about that a minute ago.

Pastor Jason Brown: 22:39

But how often is it that the Holy Spirit's guiding you not just to not be somewhere, not to touch something, but also don't participate in it, because it's going to be destruction for you. And sometimes we don't heed that advice and we touch it anyway and we might get away with the touch. So therefore we start to partake in it and then the thing has death on it, it says. Then both their eyes were open, in verse seven, and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. See, before that they didn't have any shame, there was no fear of their nakedness, there was nothing that made them where they had to feel that they need to be covered, because they didn't have any of that. But now that there was sin, now that there was brokenness, now that there was devastation, now that they had done something against God, it severed the intimacy with God, it broke the relationship and it made it so that we could no longer approach a holy God, because we as a people were now broken, and that's why Jesus came for us is to restore this relationship. We fast forward generations and generations, and wisdom is still one of the things that we're seeking to know.

Pastor Jason Brown: 23:55

It talks about how we've tried it in all different ways, and Babel tried it one way, and another kingdom tried it another, and each one of those coming to its devastation. And it comes down where the people of God. They clamor for a king. They were led by judges and they were led by God, and they clamored for a king to rule over them. And so he gave them what they wanted in soul. He looked apart, he was good, he was tall, he was good looking and he had all the qualities on the outside, but his character was lacking. And so God took, he took a shepherd boy, one on the outcast, on the bottom end of his family, and he brings David in and anoints him as king, because they said, david had a heart after God. And so that's why God anoints David and he sets him on the throne and he gives his family the ability to rule instead.

Pastor Jason Brown: 24:40

But David, even though he had a heart after God, he too starts to get messed up and he makes decisions that are terrible decisions. It says that he goes and he sleeps with another man's wife and then he tries to get the guy killed off and try to fake it that it's his baby, and it doesn't work. So he kills the guy off and all of this shame starts to happen on his family and, as a result, all these problems within his family start to happen and his sons try to raise up and steal his kingdom from him and there's a whole implosion of his power in his kingdom and because of it he didn't even get to fulfill all that God had for him to do. And so all these things come about and the one that he actually gets the kingdom is not his sons. It wasn't the oldest one, it wasn't the most influential, the most handsome, it was none of these other sons that were ahead, but it was actually Solomon, one of the youngest, actually Bathsheba's second son. Think about that scandal. That's who God chooses. Because Solomon had a heart after God, and so that's why God chooses Solomon to become the king after David, the great king David, to have someone follow after him.

Pastor Jason Brown: 25:47

It says then, first Kings three Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David, his father. Only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places, and the king went to Gideon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar, and this is amazing. It says that Gideon, the Lord, appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said ask what I shall give you. I think about this.

Pastor Jason Brown: 26:19

You think about all the things he could ask for. I don't know about you, but I think almost everyone's answered that question. If you had a genie and it gave you a wish, what would you get? Everyone's like a thousand wishes or whatever it is. Or even if you only had one, what would you ask for? What would be the thing that you want most? And most people would say like I want this, I want the unlimited riches, I want limited power, I want unlimited resources, or some people like I wanna fly, I don't know, whatever your thing is, you're into. Some would be like I want the death of my enemies because you're vindictive and you're evil and you're a hater. But that's not what he said.

Pastor Jason Brown: 26:56

What Solomon said was actually quite profound, and you gotta think about the way that Solomon saw God. Solomon had the fear of the Lord. He had a high reverence of him. He was sacrificing a thousand sacrifices to God. He was doing these things out of his own heart, out of his own life. He was already the king, he already had control of the nation, he already had control of the army and of the wealth and he could have started to do what his father had done, but instead he turns to God and worships God with everything. And it's like this piece that you see in Michelangelo painted, of the judgment seat of Christ, that every knee shall bow before the judgment seat of Christ, from every place Says every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess that he is the Lord. And so that's the kind of reverence that Solomon had for God.

Pastor Jason Brown: 27:43

And so he starts to speak to the Lord and say Lord, your people are great and I am small, I am young, I do not have what it takes. And so he says this in 1 Kings 3, verse nine 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 your great people? Some translations say give your servant wisdom to govern, and it continues to says it, please the Lord, that Solomon had asked for this. And God said to him because you has asked for 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 will give you a wise and discerning mind so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall rise after you.

Pastor Jason Brown: 28:41

Think about that concept that the wisdom he imparted to Solomon was so great it spanned beyond him to all people that would come after him. That includes the great minds like Einstein or even in current day, like Ian Musk, or the ladies that helped get NASA off the ground were doing stuff in rocket launches by paper In their mind. He gave that kind of wisdom to Solomon beyond all these others. And I like this. It's what Jesus would later say whenever he was here. He said seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you, and that's the good God that we serve. It says that God gives good gifts to his children. It says, if you ask for something good, he won't give you a stone or a snake. He'll give you something good, and not just something good, but a blessing beyond what you ask for. And it says this I will also. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you all your days, and if you will work and walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments as your father, david, walked, then I will lengthen your days.

Pastor Jason Brown: 30:00

What we know about Solomon's life is that he grew in importance, he grew in wealth, he grew in stature. He wrote these proverbs and many wisdom writings that we'll take a look at over these coming weeks and how we can glean from them to apply to our lives. But his wealth was so astronomical, and such, so great was the wealth of his kingdom, that it started to devalue precious metals in his day. That's how great of riches he had. And so we see that same idea for us today about when we seek wisdom and where we seek wisdom. Are we looking this place and that place? Are we looking for eternal wisdom that comes from God? Friends, where does your wisdom come from?

Pastor Jason Brown: 30:44

Let me encourage you that you would start with the right and correct perspective of God, to have the fear of the Lord as we look over this way of wisdom. It's going to be something that we challenge to us in the weeks to come, about how we live for God and the wisdom that we live by, about putting things in order in a godly way. So we live for him, living to see the things that come off our life be good fruit that comes off of us instead of the stuff that comes from us making our own decisions. As he said, you'll get what you, what you put into it, you'll reap what you sow. So, instead that, we would reap blessings, and we would reap good things for our family and for our generations to come, until the Lord comes back for us.

Pastor Jason Brown: 31:27

See, that's the thing I want for you. I want you to be blessed and I want you to have wisdom and knowledge beyond your experience, beyond your years, an impartation from God that you know that you have the mind of Christ and that he is working through your life to give you wisdom on these things that we make decisions on. That's my heart for you, that you would thrive and it would be a blessing for you that, no matter what situation you come into, because you have the mind of Christ, because you have the correct perspective of him, a fear of the Lord, an honor of who he is, you're on God's side. And if we're on his side, who can be against us? Because the battle is the Lord's. Today is our opportunity to come and to respond to God. So, as we do, we want to make this opportunity for any of them come here today that haven't made a decision to follow Christ. Today, as an opportunity for you, have you embraced Jesus?

Pastor Jason Brown: 32:21

See, as Christ followers, we believe that Jesus is who he says he is, that he lived a life that was set apart. He came as a holy sacrifice for all people, for all time, and he did so, taking on the sin of the world, to reconnect us back into relationship with the Father. He came to make right what Adam and Eve broke. He came to restore us back to the Father. That's why, whenever we see the symbol of a cross, it's a symbol for us not of punishment, but one of freedom, one of forgiveness, one of grace, because the living God came down and took on my mistakes and my sin and he paid for my life upon the cross. And he didn't do it just for me, he did it for you and he did it for everyone. Paul says it like this, writing to the church at Rome because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified. With the mouth, one confesses and is saved. For instance, today is your day. Today is your day to make a decision to follow after Jesus.

Pastor Jason Brown: 33:37

I'm going to ask, if you're in the room, if you just stand right where you're at, just bow your head. If you're online, join in with us. If you just prepare your heart to respond to God today, wherever you are. It's a simple prayer, the one we pray, but it is one from the heart, and so I'm going to ask today is, as people are here, their heads are bowed. If that's you and you're in the room, if you just indicate to us and you say, jay, you would include me today in that prayer.

Pastor Jason Brown: 34:11

I want to make a decision to follow Jesus. If that's you, you just want to raise your hand right now and say include me in that prayer. I want to invite Christ into my heart and life. We see the hands that are here. Thank you God, thank you Lord. Maybe you're making a decision to recommit your life back to God. See the hands that are there saying, yes, lord, include me. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, friends, a prayer that is from the heart. Ask it, lord, to forgive us, to come into our heart and life. I'm going to ask everyone to say it together here in the room. Repeat after me Lord, thank you for loving me, thank you for sending Jesus. I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe he rose again. Forgive me of my sins. I surrender my life to you. In Christ's name, I pray Amen. Amen. Friends, we rejoice to you, those who made a decision today. What a powerful decision. We're so very thankful. If that was you. You made a decision to follow God today. I encourage you to go back and connect with our team back at the prayer banner. We have some things we want to put in your hands to be a resource for you to live this life successfully after God. If you're online, if you messaged us, you made a decision today. We want to pray with you and send you some resources as well For all of us here in the room, those of us that are already embraced Christ, or for all of us now that we would come and make an altar with God, asking the Lord to impart by his spirit to us wisdom for the season ahead, for the things that we deal with, that wisdom that comes from him.

Pastor Jason Brown: 35:53

And if we have anything that separates us from God, from relationship, we would ask him to forgive us, say Lord, I'm sorry for these things. Forgive me of these things. I don't want anything between me and you. I want to know you intimately. I want more of your wisdom in my life.

Pastor Jason Brown: 36:06

Lord, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you, lord, how you speak to us, lord. I thank you how you give us this example of Solomon to have a heart after you, lord, to understand that wisdom and knowledge begin with the fear of the Lord. Lord, to honor you and to respect you and to have a true understanding of who you are as a holy God, that we worship, lord, that we have a relationship with Lord, that you would call us your sons and daughters, lord, that you call us friends. Lord, we are so very humbled. We ask for an impartation to your spirit. That you'd pour out your spirit upon us, lord, that we would know a newness of who you are. Lord, give us wisdom as we come to this altar, lord, and we seek this place with you. That you would impart to us, lord, that we would be fresh and new. For us, lord, knowledge and wisdom be on what we've experienced. We pray all this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Pastor Celeste Brown: 36:54

What a great day. I want to encourage you as we head out two more weeks of fasting. Just go out believing God for a word for you, your family and us as a church as a whole. If you are a guest with us or you've been coming in the last couple of months and we have not met you yet, we are having a party with the pastor right after this in the hall on the east side of the building. So if you head out of here, turn right and then another right. We would love to meet you. It's very informal. Just come for a few moments, say hi, let us shake your hand, get to meet you, answer any questions you may have and then tonight, if you are interested in leading a life group, we have a life group orientation on Zoom. So I encourage you I'm excited about this new season to get together again and just to dive into what God has in store for us.

Pastor Jason Brown: 37:38

Amen. Before we go, I'm going to pray this blessing over us today. The Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Lord, lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lord, I pray a blessing upon your church, your people. I even empower us by your spirit to live your love out to those around us. We pray all this in the powerful name that is Jesus Christ. Amen, amen, know this. We love you very much here at Cornerstone. God bless you and have a great week.