MidTree Church
The sermon audio of MidTree Church in Harris County, Ga. BEHOLD // BELIEVE // BECOME
MidTree Church
Seeking Wisdom: What Adam Lost, Solomon Sought, and Christ Restored
What does it mean to truly possess wisdom in a world that often confuses it with mere knowledge? Through an engaging exploration of three biblical figures—Adam, Solomon, and Jesus—we discover a profound progression in the pursuit of wisdom that transforms not just our thinking, but our very relationships.
Adam stands as a sobering warning. In the perfection of Eden, he had everything yet reached for the one thing God withheld, believing it would make him wise. His story reveals the devastating consequences of seeking wisdom apart from God: broken relationships, fear, and spiritual death. As Thomas aptly puts it, "Adam is a man trying to build a structure with no help, no wisdom, no guidance," and the results were catastrophic.
Solomon offers a refreshing contrast. When given the opportunity to ask for anything, he requested wisdom not for personal gain but to govern God's people well. His prayer for "an understanding mind to discern between good and evil" pleased God so much that he received not just wisdom but riches and honor as well. Solomon's approach demonstrates that wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord—not a cowering terror but a reverent awe that drives us toward obedience rather than away from God's presence.
The culmination comes in Jesus Christ, who doesn't merely seek or teach wisdom but embodies it perfectly. What Adam lost and Solomon sought, Christ restores completely. Through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus offers us not just knowledge but transformative wisdom that changes us from the inside out.
The practical application comes through a powerful cycle of growth: filling our minds with knowledge, walking accordingly in obedience, bearing fruit that benefits others, which in turn deepens our knowledge of God. This cycle, empowered by prayer and God's grace, gradually transforms our thinking and consequently our relationships.
Whether you're building relationships, making critical decisions, or simply trying to navigate daily challenges, this message offers a compelling vision for how biblical wisdom—rooted in the fear of the Lord and fulfilled in Christ—can transform every aspect of your life. Join us as we discover that right thinking truly does lead to right relationships.
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
Okay, good morning. If y'all will join with me in reading from 1 Kings, chapter 3, verses 5 through 14. And if you're using the Pew Bibles, that's going to be page 282. At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said Ask what I shall give you.
Speaker 1:And Solomon said you have shown great and steadfast love to your servant, david my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness and righteousness and an uprightness of heart toward you, and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day and now, o Lord, my God, 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, and your servant is in the midst of your people, whom you have chosen a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 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.
Speaker 1:And it pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him because you've 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 been before you and none like you shall arise after you. 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 walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days. This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2:Amen. Thank you, lily, for that. What a good morning it is. Many of you guys didn't know that I was preaching, so, ushers, close the doors, I'm just kidding. So my name is Thomas.
Speaker 2:If you don't know, I kind of run youth ministry most of the time around here and I'm super excited to be with us. So if you haven't come to ministry or if you haven't, what we do normally is work through books of the Bible, and so normally when we get up to preach, usually the next thing that we preach is just the next page or the next chapter, and we just work through books like that. Usually it's the healthiest way to do things, to exposit God's word and to kind of give the whole counsel of God. That said, we've been in the book of Song of Solomon and Will said on week one that he read in a commentary that this was not for young preachers to preach and that they should stay away, and so he told me that if I wanted to preach Song of Solomon, I could, and I told him I don't want to. If you look, song of Solomon 7 is next, and if at any point you get bored during this sermon, you can look and you can read that because I didn't want to touch it. And so we are talking about wisdom this morning.
Speaker 2:I figured if I was going to preach kind of a one-off sermon, what we could do together as a congregation is maybe just take a step back and zoom out a little bit, because Solomon presumably wrote Song of Solomon. There's a question of if it was to him or by him. I'm going to say it was by him because he was the wisest man on earth that we just read that. God gifted him, god blessed him with wisdom. And so I figured, instead of maybe going again into this romantic, almost physically intimate type of setting, what we could do for everyone in the room young, old, single, married, everyone is we could zoom out and just look at wisdom as a topic. And so what am I saying? Alright, turn with me to Song of Solomon. This is what happens when you get Emmett to do your notes for you. Sorry, will, we'll get that fixed, all right, so you guys can turn in your Bibles to Genesis, chapter 3.
Speaker 2:Reading is my strong suit, spelling is not. And do not ever ask me a math question. I will look at you blankly until you figure out the answer to it. That is my strategy always, and I read too fast for what I write. So what we're going to do is we're going to look at three different case studies, in kind of the Bible. So what we're going to do is a systematic theology of wisdom and we're going to look at really three different characters, three different people, three different case studies about what wisdom looks like. We're going to see one warning, one example and one fulfillment, and so just to kind of tee us up this morning, I love being on my phone, I love watching videos.
Speaker 2:My wife has got me kind of monitoring my screen time and we have made kind of a game of who can do less. Yesterday I was under an hour on my screen time total, which I thought was great. It was fantastic, thank you. I was on my computer all day, but not on my phone whatsoever, and so normally at night her and I will sit down, and the show that we've been watching lately has been Survivor, and it's a great show. It's one of my favorites, but it's one of those shows that you can scroll while you watch. You don't really have to necessarily pay attention to all of it, and so I will scroll. I will watch Facebook Reels, because I'm not on TikTok because I'm not cool and one of the things. There's kind of three main categories that make up my Facebook Reels One traffic dash cam recordings. Facebook Reels One traffic dash cam recordings.
Speaker 2:I love, love, love watching accidents. I think it prepares me for when I get an accident because I've never been in one. I love watching road rage. I love watching just people interact with other people on the road. It's so fun and I will do it for hours. Second category and I think this one's more fun people yelling at cops. I love watching people yell at cops. I love our law enforcement officers. I think they do a great job. Usually they're in the wrong. I love to see how it escalates from hey, buddy, you missed the stop sign to all right, you're going to jail Because they will get so angry and they'll get into it. I love watching those.
Speaker 2:And the third one and this is the illustration that we're going to use is I love watching construction videos. I'm not a constructor, I don't build things. I try to sometimes but I love watching just the construction process. I love watching. Emily sometimes is like you've been on your phone for a long time. What are you watching? And I'll turn my phone and it's just people pouring concrete and she's like what is wrong with you? And I'm like, I'm just fascinated by watching construction videos.
Speaker 2:And three years ago I had one power tool it was just a little impact driver, kind of a poor man's drill and it was either God himself or the devil himself that put within me an unquenchable thirst to build a shed. I have not built anything in my life and I started with a shed. It's still standing. It's about 12 feet tall. You can see it over my neighbor's house. But I started by building this shed and so I did what anyone would do. I cleared out bushes where I wanted the shed to go. I bought a bunch of lumber, actually from Wes Stinson. He was the one that sold me a bunch of lumber for cheap and I got some like-minded friends to come and help build keyword like-minded to come and help build. I did a little bit of YouTubing and my favorite guy is a guy called Hood Handyman, and the reason I liked him is because he built a shed by himself in the woods and I was like I can do that. I'm going to follow this guy's instruction. He is going to be my guide.
Speaker 2:The Apostle Paul likens the church, the body of believers, to a structure that is being built piece by piece by individuals. It's being built up into, kind of the word he uses is a temple for the Lord. He uses the word structure. And so what I want to do today is put before us this idea of wisdom, which does have bearing in each and every one of our lives, in every single category of our lives. But what I want to do is I want to look at just the theme of relationships through kind of the magnifying glass of wisdom, and so I'm going to pray for us this morning and then we will look at three different people in Scripture and see kind of how they built the structure that God called them to in their lives. So if you guys would pray with me, lord, as we examine kind of the whole Bible today, I pray that you would just give us all understanding minds. I pray that you would just, by your spirit, do what you say you will do, that your word will not return to you void, that you would make people come to life, that you would encourage your saints, that you would convict your saints and that people who don't know you may find true wisdom today. And so that is my prayer for us this morning, and it's in Christ's perfect and holy name, amen. And so we're looking at three different case studies.
Speaker 2:I don't think this iPad's working anymore. I'm trying to hold on. Crockett, you may have a job today, let's see Unable to connect. Yeah, here, crockett, there you go. It's been so long since this has happened. Good job, you're a lot closer now, all right. So what we're going to do is we're going to start with looking at Adam and seeing how he kind of built the structure of his life.
Speaker 2:Now, adam is unique because he is kind of birthed in this garden of perfection. He's put in this place of bliss. He doesn't lack anything. Everything is in harmony, everything is at peace from his relationship with his wife, which he says is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. It's hard to get more intimate, more connected, well-rounded than that. He has dominion over all of the animals. If he told them to stand in a line, they would. He had to name them all, and so if he got them in a line and said, you next, you next, you next, they all obeyed. He had dominion over it all and, best of all, he had perfect relationship with his God. There was no secrets, no shortcomings, nothing between them that would cause kind of this distrust. But it's in this peace and tranquility the serpent points out one thing that he thinks he lacks. Look with me in Genesis, chapter 3. Thank you, william. Genesis, chapter 3, verse 5.
Speaker 2:This is the serpent speaking to Adam and Eve. He says, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and she ate. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. And so in these three case studies we've got Adam as kind of the warning.
Speaker 2:Adam saw things that he thought would make him wise. The promise of temptation was your eyes will be opened, you will be like God and you will know good and evil. Those are the three things that Satan, the tempter, holds out to him and says hey, if you disobey God, these things are going to happen to you. These things, you're going to be great, you're going to be well off, you're going to be like God. He's holding out on you. He's got secrets from you. Don't you want to be in the know? This is what the serpent holds out for him.
Speaker 2:And Adam and Eve kind of add these up and what the Bible says is they equate it with wisdom. They think by doing this they will become wise, but they don't. All they had known at this point was the good, the good of creation, the good of harmony between each other, the good of walking with God in the cool of the day, the good of a hard day's work without thorns and sweat. And yet they thought we need more. So they took, and in that moment when Adam and Eve sink their teeth into the fruit, adam and Eve have knowledge, but they don't have wisdom. They don't have the thing that they sought. They have knowledge now of evil, they know what wrongdoing is, but they don't have wisdom. Paul will later say in his letter to the Romans not specifically about them, this is about everyone. But he says, claiming to be wise, they became fools. They reached for something that they thought would bring this promise and it came back void, it came back empty.
Speaker 2:There's kind of four things that we see with Adam, and we'll do this with all three case studies and they kind of mirror each other. So one we see Adam took what he thought would make him wise. He reached out his hand. God said I don't want you to have this. It's for your own good that this is being kept from you. I don't want you to do this. And Adam, you can picture him kind of looking around to see if God is there, perhaps, and he reaches out and he takes what he thinks will make him wise.
Speaker 2:Two we see Adam wanted wisdom for his own selfish gain. He wanted to be like God. He wasn't thinking about Eve If he was, he would have been protecting her. He wasn't thinking about all of the ramifications of what might happen if we disobey God. All he thought was that fruit actually does look good, it does look good to eat and God's not here. So maybe I can do this and be like God. He was doing it for his selfish gain.
Speaker 2:Three Adam sought wisdom apart from God. He was, I think, in effect glad that God wasn't there, because that means the doorway is open to wisdom, the gatekeeper is gone, so I can go in. Now I can seek wisdom apart from God and kind of one of the things that I want to tell us this morning. Just as a side note, there are many ideologies today that can entice you with knowledge that lure you far from God. Again, we're making a distinction right now between knowledge and wisdom, and there are things that our culture today will tell you is knowledge. There's self-help books on the shelves. There's New Age spirituality, horoscopes, rocks, things like this. Modern thought says that biblical thinking is outdated. The culture today will say if you want true knowledge, leave that book behind, leave your church behind, because we have knowledge. There's many things in our culture that will lead us to being smarter by the culture's standard, but lead far from God.
Speaker 2:And then point four, and I think this is the saddest of them all Adam's eyes were opened, and it says he was afraid of God. Look with me. In verse 8 of Genesis, chapter 3, still, it says or the Lord God called to the man and said to him where are you? And he said I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, and so I hid myself. And so, in this new world, where they have knowledge of good and evil, they now know that there are things that they should be ashamed about things that they have disobeyed God in, and they hide themselves. We can juxtapose this later on with Song of Solomon, where it seems like they are completely naked and completely unashamed to be with each other. But now, not only is Adam hiding his physical body from God, he's also hiding his physical body from Eve. This knowledge is not what they wanted. It's not what they thought was going to come when they took.
Speaker 2:Here's a quote from Graham Goldsworthy. He has a book on biblical theology which I think is really helpful, and he says crooked thinking leads to crooked relationships. Crooked thinking leads to crooked relationships. One of the things that we're going to unpack today is that right thinking about things are going to set things in motion for right living, and so when we start with a skewed vision of who God is, we start to act with a skewed vision because of who we are. They hid themselves from a God who came strolling up. They thought he was angry. They thought he would have been angry. They thought he should have been angry. He doesn't come with thunder and lightning and fire and brimstone. He comes walking and they hide themselves because they start to have a picture of God that is just a little off and it causes them to do things that are a little off.
Speaker 2:And so let us hear the warning from Genesis 3. Seeking anything apart from God leads to broken relationships, to fear and to death. Those are kind of the three big things that we see in this story. Adam is a warning. He is a man trying to build a structure, trying to build a shed, with no help, with no wisdom, no guidance, and he arrogantly thought I can build a shed with no help, with no wisdom, no guidance, and he arrogantly thought I can build this thing by myself. And what we see is that great was the destruction. Because of it, it was mangled, sure, it stood, but it will not stand the test of time. And because of him, and because we participate in that sin, the way we start is crooked. The way we start is bent away from each other and away from God. It's not the way that structures should be. And so that gets us to case study number two, solomon, the example.
Speaker 2:Now picture a different scenario this time. You want to build a shed and rather than doing it by yourself, rather than watching Hood Handyman and building fails which is just another thing that I watch you start to ask wise people for pointers. You start to ask people who have built things before. Hey, what would you be on lookout for? What are some things I should avoid? Foundation should I do? Concrete, should I put it on bricks and cement? Things Like what should I do? You're looking for wisdom. You might even pay for blueprints to help you build, or you could ask ChatGPT to come up with some schematics for you. I hate paying for things. We'll see that later. You start watching this old house videos where he helps explain in a very professional way Lois knows what I'm talking about how to build a structure.
Speaker 2:So Solomon comes on the scene hundreds, maybe thousands of years after Adam, and he comes. He's the son of David, david, this wise king who had some shortcomings, who kind of knew God's heart, knew God's law, delighted in his law. Solomon is his son and David dies and Solomon says okay, I'm next. And he looks out over the people and he says how am I going to do this? How am I going to govern? How am I going to lead my people, not just on an economic front, not just on a military front, but on a spiritual front. The king of Israel was also supposed to be their spiritual leader. And so God comes to him and says what is it, solomon, that you want, lily, read that story. We'll zoom in on verse 9. This is Solomon's desire. This is his ask. He says give your servant, therefore, an understanding. Mind this is in 1 Kings to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern your people? Because they are so great, thanks to Adam.
Speaker 2:Solomon has a knowledge of good and evil. What he doesn't have yet is the ability to discern between the two, because in this world we have a crafty enemy and we have sinful flesh, and so sometimes the lines can be blurred. Sometimes, even when we are trying our best, wrong things can seem good and good things can seem suspect. It's not always super clear if this is God's way or a bad way, or even just a good way. It's not God's way, how do we know when to move to Louisville? How do we know when to go to Kenya for a week? How do we know these things? We have to be able to discern between the two. What's interesting I think I have no application on this Solomon doesn't ask for wisdom.
Speaker 2:The word doesn't come up in his ask. He says give me a discerning mind so that I can know good from evil. And it's the Lord who says you've asked for a good thing. I'm going to give you wisdom. Solomon asked for a mind that would be able to clearly see God's way versus anything else. He didn't want just knowledge. I think he was pretty smart beforehand, but he wanted knowledge applied in a way that he dealt with people.
Speaker 2:There can be a danger in having knowledge without wisdom. There can be a danger in having knowledge the ability to do something without wisdom, knowing the right and proper way to do it. While I was thinking about this, I literally was thinking I would rather give my three-year-old son a chainsaw than give Thad Hawk a chainsaw in this room. Why? Because Thad might be able to start it up. He might have the knowledge of priming the bulb and pulling the chain and be able to get it started, but I don't think Thad yet has the wisdom to know when to use it started. But I don't think Thad yet has the wisdom to know when to use it, how to avoid kickback, how to know what trees to cut down and which ones just look fun. There's a difference between wisdom and knowledge, and sometimes knowledge can be more dangerous.
Speaker 2:The other story and I'm going to tell this I haven't cleared this with my wife, she's not here. I can say it. I can say whatever I want. This is a true story and I'm going to say it in kind of a tongue-in-cheek way. It's going to be funny. It's all bad on me, but I also know that some people maybe not in this room, lord, hopefully not in this room but some people use what I'm about to tell you as a weapon in a real way, and so I just know that. I know that this can be serious.
Speaker 2:When we got married we got married in COVID we moved into a very tiny, small house. I thought that was her. It's not Very small house. She was already living there when we got married. I was able to move every single thing I owned into my two-door Honda Civic Front seat, back seat, trunk. Everything I owned mostly it was books, a little bit of clothes and that was it. And so we lived in that little house for about a year. It was a mother-in-law suite behind someone's house that we didn't know, and it got time for us to move into the house that we're in today. I think she was pregnant. But we said we need a bigger house and so buy a house. Trisha Jeans was great, sign the papers. Great, sign the papers.
Speaker 2:And Emily starts packing. And then I catch her on the computer on uhaulcom and this is going to sound funny. I'm very frugal. Some of you guys know that If you have a kid in youth ministry, you know that I was like what the heck are you doing on uhaulcom? We don't need a uhaul, we just need two trips back and forth and we'll be able to transport all of our stuff from there to there. Like we don't need a u-haul, we don't need to pay money for that. And she was like yes, we do. And I was like no, we don't. We ended up getting a u-haul and we packed it to the brim. Like when we got it I was also standing back thinking we're not gonna fill this thing halfway. We packed it to the brim like we had guys playing tetris because they had to.
Speaker 2:And during this whole spat this is basically the only argument we've ever had, big wise, because of this she said like what are you thinking about? Like I was pouting, I was upset, I was not happy, and she said what are you thinking about? And I told her what I was thinking about, because the only thing that was running through my mind was a Bible verse, in Ephesians, chapter 5, where it says wives submit to your husbands. Again, this is funny, we can laugh at me, please don't do this. And so I told her this is like no application. I'm not putting on the pastor hat, I'm just telling you what I'm thinking. Wives submit to your husbands. Do you think you do that? Well, and the answer was we'll leave that for a different time. I had knowledge. I had true, genuine knowledge of a real Bible verse that is in the Bible. You can find that chapter and page like that is in there. But I did not have wisdom and I used that knowledge like a sword to cut and it damaged our relationship. It really did and it should have. She was able to reconcile with me. We've made up since, and that is a story that we laugh about, but I'm putting before you the idea that knowledge is dangerous if not used properly or correctly.
Speaker 2:Solomon we're going to juxtapose this with Adam Solomon asked for what would make him wise, where we see Adam take Solomon asks Two. Solomon wanted wisdom for the sake of others. He wanted to be wise, not just so he could be the wisest guy in the room, but so that he could discern and he can govern and he could mend relationships. Immediately. After this, he uses it to settle a dispute between two wives or two women. Number three we see that Solomon went to God as the source of wisdom and then, fourthly, solomon's eyes were opened and he feared the Lord. We'll unpack that in a second, but I just want you to see these two different paths to putting in quotes wisdom Adam taking for selfish gain apart from God, and it leads to fear of God himself. He's afraid of God, he hides himself. And Solomon on the other side of the coin. He asks for the sake of others, he sees God as the source, he goes to the source and because of that he is able to fear the Lord.
Speaker 2:You can put up that Proverbs verse. This is verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. If you want to be wise, if you want to be knowledgeable, if you want to do things the right way, the first kind of foundational point is the fear of the Lord, and this is different than being afraid of God. This isn't a fear that hides and covers themselves. This is a fear that reverently obeys and stands with him.
Speaker 2:If you put up that Deuteronomy verse, this is the one that we read together. I don't know, I tried to sneak it in. We tucked it in Deuteronomy 6, and the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord, our God. Did that strike anyone as maybe a little weird while we were reading it without context, thinking we shouldn't be afraid of God, we should love God, we should draw near, like why should we be afraid? Because let's see, I've got this being afraid of God drives you away from him, and fearing him rightly drives you to love and obey him. There were hundreds of verses in the Old Testament from a whole bunch of different books, so not just cherry picking all of them positively saying you should fear the Lord, it's good for you to fear the Lord. When you fear the Lord, you obey, you act right, things like that. And lest we think this is just an Old Testament idea and that Jesus comes on the scene and we shouldn't fear God anymore. He's all love. I've got kind of these two passages that I really wanted us to see that it is a good thing for when we fear the Lord.
Speaker 2:This is Mark, I think, 5, when Jesus is asleep on the boat, mark 4, it says he awoke and rebuked the wind. They're terrified, they're saying we're going to die. We're going to die. He rebuked the wind and said to the sea Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm and he said to his disciples why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? This is a chastisement. This is kind of a loving shame on you, like you should not be afraid type thing. And then verse 41, and then they were filled with great fear and they said to one another who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? That one is not chastised, they don't get the proverbial finger wag. Jesus, I think I can imagine, goes back to laying on his cushion, he goes back to sleep and he hears them kind of mumbling amongst themselves who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? And you can see him just with a half grin on his face, like they're starting to get it. They're starting to understand who I am. They're starting to see who I am.
Speaker 2:The other one is in Acts, chapter 5.
Speaker 2:Ananias and Sapphira. They lie to the church. We won't go into all of it. But they lie. They say we made this money, here's all of it, but they held some back. And this is Acts. It says you have not lied to man, but to God. This is Peter speaking. And when Ananias heard these words he fell down and breathed his last and great fear came upon all who heard it.
Speaker 2:Now again, I don't think this is a fear that drives people away, because we have in Acts, chapter 6, where people come back to church and they come back to being with God's people and they come back to worshiping the Lord. Like this isn't a fear that says, hey, can we skip church next week, like I've got some sin in my heart and I really don't want to be struck dead. And this is verse 10, same chapter. When the young men came in they found her dead and they carried her out and they buried her beside her husband and great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard these things. It is a good and a right thing when we fear the Lord properly. We see in scripture that a fear of God gives people a confidence and an obedience. I think these stories in Acts drove people to church. I think they heard about all of this commotion and that they're worshiping a God that takes sin seriously, a God that protects his people, that protects his church and preserves kind of the purity of it. And people weren't driven away. But they said this God is real, this God is serious. Like they fell in awe, they fell in fear of him.
Speaker 2:Just one kind of quick little side track, wise or foolish. I had a list of like 10 different like Old Testament stories, old Testament heroes of the faith doing kind of these crazy, amazing things. I boil it down to this one I think it's the best one David going out to battle against the giant Goliath. We have the privilege of being on this side of the story. We know how it ends, we know that David wins and defeats Goliath.
Speaker 2:But do you think, as 16, 17-year-old, scrawny David was walking out onto the battlefield against the giant Goliath probably 10 feet tall, some say, do you think the people in the camp were saying man, that guy's so wise, that guy, he knows what he's doing, he's got not just knowledge, he's got knowledge applied, he's doing it right. Or do you think the people in the camp were saying, told the kid not to go. A little foolish to me. I wouldn't have gone. I haven't gone. They asked me to go. I didn't because I'm smart and I didn't want to die.
Speaker 2:And so like which do you think? Was it wise or was it foolish for David to go out? We on the other side of the story know that it was wise, but why did he do it? Because David feared the Lord more than he was afraid of Goliath. David weighed kind of not the consequences, but he weighed the outcomes and he said me, not acting in this situation is going to cause more harm than what I'm actually afraid of out there being this actual, legitimate giant. So, for today's purposes, is it wise or foolish?
Speaker 2:And I was thinking through Song of Solomon and some of the things that we've hit on forgiving people who don't deserve or ask for forgiveness, us being on the front side of the equation, seeing David go out. When we see people in our lives doing this, forgiving people who don't deserve, who don't even ask for it, do we say I told her not to? I just think it's foolish? Or do you see it maybe possibly, as wisdom Submitting your schedule, your finances, your futures to the Lord, trusting God in times of suffering. What I'm trying to put before us is the world sees what we do every week and they call it foolishness. They look at people who have faith, the world, the culture. They look at people like us and they say they're wasting their time, they're wasting their money, it's all for naught. They don't know what they're doing. We are seeking a fear of the Lord that is stronger than our fear of the world. Paul will say in 1 Corinthians it won't appear behind me that the wisdom of God is foolishness to the world. Do we want a fear of God that the culture kind of scratches its head at? It says why are they doing that? How are they able to do that? That's not really smart. We're going to look strange if we do this correctly.
Speaker 2:And then the third case study that we've got. We've got Adam as a warning, we've got Solomon as an example of a guy going out and looking for the right thing. He's looking for wisdom, he's seeking it. But seeking wisdom can only take us so far, because what we need is the fulfillment of our wisdom. If you have Bibles, you can turn to Isaiah, chapter 11.
Speaker 2:So the third and final installment of kind of like the shed type, thinking what if a master craftsman we'll use that verse in Proverbs 8, that wisdom was beside me, like a master craftsman. It's like he saw my notes. What if someone came to your house and they saw all of the materials, all of the tools, and they saw that you were about to embark on this build and you ask him for a few pointers on what to do? He could give you some advice. He could tell you to buy this tool or that. He could tell you some of the mistakes he's seen others make. He could even give you some of his best blueprints that are pretty simple, that you could do. Or he could clear his schedule and he could come and help you. He could come and he could do the work with and for you. He could teach you how to make proper cuts, how to swing a hammer, how to drive in nails, and not in a way that makes you feel inferior.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of times we are scared to ask for help because it makes us feel inferior. But the way that this master craftsman does is he does it in a way that empowers you, that gives you this confidence and this love that abides. He says. He says there's someone coming. There's this person coming and the Spirit of the Lord is going to rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. There's coming someone not just to point us to wisdom, but to be wisdom in flesh, to be wisdom incarnate. He's not just pointing, he's pointing to himself. Isaiah is saying that he's always going to know the right thing to do, he's always going to know the right thing to say, he's always going to know the right thing to think, and his biggest delight is the fear of the Lord.
Speaker 2:This guy is going to be the greatest king, the greatest friend and the biggest enemy to the wicked and unrighteous. And the issue for us is that we are the wicked and the unrighteous, we are the foolish. When this righteous king comes, he will be rejected because of his wisdom, he will be scorned because of his knowledge. In Isaiah, chapter 53, greg preached on this a couple of months ago. This is just one verse in 11. Out of the anguish of his soul. So this wise person that's going to come from the line of David, this wise person. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied, and by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make the many to be accounted righteous, my servant, make the many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. You guys see this, the ultimate wise person is going to come and he's going to be scorned, and by his wounds we will be healed. He's going to cover our foolishness, he's going to cleanse us from our foolishness. He's going to change us from the inside out when we see him as he most is glorified, his death is going to bring us into right relationship with the Father.
Speaker 2:Do you know that the gospel Paul oftentimes calls it a mystery because it's hidden from the knowledgeable and the wise of this world? And God gives it. He gives his wisdom to the simple. His death is going to pay for and cover our foolishness once and for all, and he's going to make us wise. Jesus had a fear of the Lord. That said something that we should say nevertheless not my will but yours be done. Jesus saw the path of wisdom, of righteousness, the path that it would take to bring us along with Him. And Jesus said in a moment of weakness it's not what I want. But, lord Father, I fear you, I love you, I desire to be obedient to you and I am going to do it.
Speaker 2:Kind of the last of these lists Jesus, adam takes, solomon asks. Jesus gives himself. Adam takes, solomon asks, jesus gives himself. Which makes us wise. Jesus wanted to give wisdom for the sake of others and Jesus is the source of all wisdom. I was trying to think through like an eyes thing. We saw Adam's eyes were opened. He was afraid. Solomon's eyes were open. He feared the Lord. And I was like I got it, tim Keller, jesus' eyes. They closed in death, like they physically closed. Jesus is on the cross as he breathes his last, hangs his head and he dies. His eyes are closed and they open again in the resurrection. Jesus dies the death that we deserved, but he rises and he lives and it's because of that we are able to have wisdom.
Speaker 2:We can kind of see this in our role, kind of categories, and God's role. We are called to seek wisdom, we are called to look for it, to hunt it out, to ask God for it. We are called to kind of pursue it. That's our role as laid out in all of scripture. Anyone that tells you just wait, god will give it to you, you don't have to do anything, like I would say, probably hasn't read Scripture the way that it is. But it's also God's role to give it, and the Bible says that God delights to give wisdom. He loves to make His children wise, he loves to make His church wise. James says if any of you lacks wisdom, ask God, who gives generously, without reproach. God loves a wise people.
Speaker 2:I'm going to close with a very, I think, hopefully hyper-practical cycle of growth. If you guys have Bibles, grab those. Turn to Colossians, chapter 1. It will appear but then it's going to disappear and I want you guys to see kind of these steps. Turn to Colossians, chapter 1. This is how we grow in wisdom, how we grow in maturity is kind of what I would maybe title this. I'm going to read it. It's two verses and then I want us to see kind of these steps through the verses. And I want us to see kind of these steps through the verses.
Speaker 2:This is Paul writing at the beginning of one of his letters and he basically says we heard that you guys are Christians. We're celebrating with you guys, we're excited for you. And he says in verse 9,. And so, from the day that we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding there's a kind of key word again so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Speaker 2:If you guys want a very practical cycle of growth, here's kind of three steps. One, he says I want you to be filled with knowledge, I want you to be filled with wisdom, and there's so many different ways that we can do this. One, obviously scripture, like are you in the word? Are you reading God's word? Because it's him speaking to you. Also, there are great podcasts, great books to help us understand these things.
Speaker 2:What Paul is saying is I want your mind filled with the knowledge of God, because that is what leads to wisdom and that's what leads to the next thing. You cannot love something you do not know. So he says I want you to be filled with knowledge and wisdom so that you can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. There's three different steps. I think this may be the hardest one for most of us. I think a lot of times we can be content to fill our minds and think, oh, I know this about God. I one. For most of us, I think a lot of times we can be content to fill our minds and think, oh, I know this about God, I know what pleases Him, I know what displeases Him. But the next step is, I think, the harder one walking in a manner taking that knowledge and kind of being able to funnel it down through the Spirit to your heart and to your feet, so that you start to obey, you start to do things in a way that changes the way that you did do things. And the third one notice I didn't say the last one, the third one.
Speaker 2:He says bearing fruit in every good work. When you walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, you start to bear fruit. And what's the purpose of fruit? It's to share with others. Like fruit, trees are there so people and animals can pluck fruit from the leaves and eat. We bear fruit so that other people can experience those things. We talk about the fruit of the Spirit. Patience you have to have other people to have patience, joy, love, kindness, it's for the benefit of other people. Paul says I want you to bear fruit in every good work. And the last kind of iteration of that. Paul says when you bear fruit in every good work, you will increase in the knowledge of God. It goes back up to that top one which is going to cause you to walk more steadfastly, more accurately, in a way that is worthy of the Lord, and you're going to bear more fruit. And the more fruit you bear, the more knowledge you're going to have. It's this big cycle on wisdom. And he closes that or I'm sorry, he starts that by saying this is a prayer of mine. If you're trying to do this cycle through your own will, through your own strength, I would say pray about it. It's what Paul does. He says it is God who gives this cycle. We need to be diligent, but we need to recognize that he is the one who gives the growth.
Speaker 2:Crooked thinking leads to crooked relationships. I'll add a line. This isn't from Graham, but right thinking leads to crooked relationships. I'll add a line. This isn't from Graham, but right thinking leads to right relationships. When we can start to, by God's grace and through God's spirit, trust one another, bear with one another, forgive one another. It starts to have positive bearing on all of our relationships, from our spouses to our parents, to our siblings, to our bosses. Every relationship is affected when we think correctly about it. What Adam lost, what Solomon sought, christ restores for us, and we get to participate in that. It is for us, but it doesn't end with us. It is for others. And so I've got one last quote from CS Lewis, and then I'll pray and I'll close.
Speaker 2:This is, I think, one of his best. He says Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps you can understand what he's doing. He's getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on, and you know that those jobs needed doing, and so you're not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts very badly and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is he up to? This goes for us as individuals and us as a church. He says the explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one that you thought of. Throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards you thought you were being made into a decent little cottage, but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.
Speaker 2:Folks, this is the truth for the Christian that when we have wisdom, we're able to see correctly everything that God is doing. I'll close this, I'll pray, and then the worship team can come up. Wisdom, I think defined. This was from, I think, tim Keller, but I'll pray for us.
Speaker 2:Lord. We are a foolish people that often think we're wise. Give us grace to recognize our shortcomings, to recognize our foolishness. And, lord, I pray that we would cry out to you that you would teach our hearts to fear you in a way that draws us close, in a way that holds you in high regard, because that is who you are. You're a God who loves to save sinners, and so I pray that we would recognize that, that we would be able to think rightly about you, so that we can live correctly for you. So we love you and we praise you. And for anyone in this room who doesn't know you, I pray that you would give them this discomfort, you'd give them this unease, until they're able to make right what they have made wrong through Christ Jesus. And so we trust you in all things, and it's in Christ's perfect and holy name that I pray. Amen.