More Than a Good Idea (Wisdom, Week 1)

Scriptures: Proverbs 1:1–7; 9:10 | Colossians 2:1-5 | Luke 11:29–32

What is wisdom, really? We live in a world drowning in advice — and still hungry for something more. Wisdom is not a system to master, it’s a person to receive. When Jesus says “something greater than Solomon is here,” he’s not just making a comparison — he’s making an invitation. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the Lord himself has come to find us.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In Matthew 28, Jesus said, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. He calls you to be that disciple. To hear his word, to receive his promises, to repent, to believe. That Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And that by believing you have life in his name. Now here are the good news of Jesus for you. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We're going to read through these seven verses. This is going to be kind of the text for our sermon today and our series through this summer, looking at the wisdom of Proverbs and the wisdom that we see in Scripture. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction and wise dealing in righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance. To understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the rot of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. You can keep that up there. There's a podcast. There's a podcast for everything. Want to sleep better? Yep, there's a podcast for that. Want to have better conversations and raise more confident kids and build a stronger morning routine and manage your anxiety, optimize your diet, find your purpose, retire at 45. Maybe not 45, but you know, there's an expert. There's a system, a framework. There is very likely a New York Times bestseller just waiting for you to read, digest it, understand it, and apply it. We are the most information-rich generation in the history of the world. And then on top of that, now you have AI. You can type a question into a chatbot, and in just a matter of seconds, you get a confident, well-organized, well-researched answer. It can write your emails, it can plan your schedule, it can put together a meal plan, it can diagnose your symptoms. Don't do that. It can give you an ideal plan for just about anything you can imagine and anything you can come up with. It is a teacher's nightmare. AI is like a librarian, a librarian that never sleeps, never gets frustrated, no matter what question you ask, no matter what. We have more access to information at a quicker pace now than ever. And yet, if you talk with people, you find this quiet, persistent sense that even in spite of that, there's still something missing. That even with all the data and all the advice in the world, it still doesn't quite add up to a full life. That we are busy and informed more than ever, and still somehow we're lost. Which means we don't need information, we need wisdom. We're gonna spend, as I said, several weeks this summer in the book of Proverbs, one of the oldest collections of wisdom in the world. And from the very first week, I want something to be very clear. Proverbs is not a self-help manual. That's not what you're gonna get each Sunday. It's not a collection of life hacks, it's a signpost. It's a signpost. And every signpost in this book and every signpost in the Bible, if you follow it long enough and far enough, points to a person. And that person is Jesus Christ. Our gospel reading this morning alludes to the same, makes the same point in Luke chapter 11. The crowds are pressing in on Jesus and they're looking for a sign, a sign that he is who he says he is. And Jesus says this. He says that the queen of the south, the queen of Sheba, traveled to the ends of the earth. She traveled across the globe to hear from Solomon, the wisest man to ever live. She traveled to hear about Solomon's wisdom. And then Jesus says this but something greater than that, something greater than Solomon is here. It's right in front of them. Something greater than Solomon. And that raises a question that we're gonna kind of sit with all summer long, and that if Jesus is greater than Solomon, which he says, he declares, and then he's greater than all of the Proverbs that we're going to work through and look through, then what does that mean? What does that mean when we read this book? And then what does that mean for how we live our lives? That's the question we're gonna sit with. Let me tell you what we really want. What we really want when we say that we're looking for wisdom. Here's what we really want. We really want uh the right, we want to make the right call. We want to make the right call on a big decision, the big decisions. We want to make the right call when it comes to the job offer that comes in. Is it right to take the job offer or not? We want to make the right call when it comes to the relationship. Should we go with this relationship or not? We want to make the right call when it comes to the house. By this house, by that house. We want to make the right call when it comes to school, which is appropriate when we're recognizing graduates. What about this school or that school, this profession, that profession? What's next? We want to make the right call. We want to raise our kids so that they turn out well. We want to handle our money in a financially appropriate and a financially responsible way so that we don't regret it later in life. We want to know what to say. We want to know what to say when a friend is hurting. We want to know what to say when there are hard questions that need to be answered and hard conversations that need to be had. We want to know when there's uh the right thing to do, and then there's the easy thing to do, and somehow they're in opposite directions. We want to know which one to make. In other words, we want wisdom that works for us. It's a tool, it's a competitive advantage. It's something that puts us ahead or puts us in the right place down the road, or maybe even tomorrow. And Proverbs, at first glance, seems to do precisely that. The book opens from this perspective that a father is speaking to his son and he's giving him these life lessons. He's giving him this wisdom, almost like it's a one-on-one coaching session between father and son. And that's when verse 7 pops up there. It says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Uh eight chapters later, by the way, it doesn't say wisdom here. Eight chapters later, though, it does, it has the almost the exact same phrase, but it puts wisdom. It says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge, wisdom. Proverbs uses them interchangeably. They're the same thing. That's the that's the drumbeat of this book. Knowledge, wisdom, discernment, understanding. They all mean the same thing. And so whatever you're looking for, it begins right here, it begins in the same place. You want wisdom? Here it is. Fear the Lord. It doesn't exactly go on a bumper sticker well, but it's true. Fear the Lord. That's the beginning of wisdom and instruction, knowledge, discernment, all of it. What do we mean when we say fear? That word fear in the Hebrew, Yurah, it has uh a ton of different understandings to it. It can mean awe, it can mean reverence, it can mean wonder, it can mean uh yes, even trembling. It's what Moses felt when he was at the burning bush. And uh the bush was burning but it wasn't consumed, and he saw Yahweh. He was standing in the presence of Yahweh. Uh it's what Isaiah felt in the temple when the seraphim cried, holy, holy, holy. Uh, three centuries before Jesus uh took on human flesh, before he was born, um three centuries before that, Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew scriptures. So they were originally written in Hebrew, and they were translated then into Greek. It's called the Septuagint. And in the Septuagint, the translation for this word for fear is phobas. It's where we get this idea of a phobia. And so, phobas or a phobia, being afraid, fearing the Lord, is not an unreasonable terror. That's not what we're talking about here. It's not being unreasonably terrified of the Lord. No, it's not that. In fact, fear is the only sane response, it's the only thing that makes sense when you are standing before and in the presence of infinite holiness. Infinite, the infinite Lord. So the fear of the Lord is not about being terrified because the Lord is a tyrant. No, it's this posture. It's a posture of a creature that is standing before and in the presence of the Creator. It's recognition. Recognition that you are not the center of all things. You're not the measure of all things, you don't hold all things together. As hard as this is to say, you don't even hold your family together. That probably sits a little weird sometimes. You don't even hold your family together. And there's one who made you, who knows you better than you know yourself, and one to whom you will give an account on the last day. Now that starts to fear, right? That starts to build that idea of fear. The fear of the Lord, it says, is the beginning of knowledge. Later it says the beginning of wisdom. Fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom. That is, when you see your place, when you see your place in the universe, and you understand that you're a creature and he's the creator, that's when you can start to clearly think about everything else. Because before that, pride, it distorts everything. Self-sufficiency, the idea that you in and of yourself have everything you need to accomplish everything in life without anybody else. Self-sufficiency has a way of turning ourselves back on number one. And this idea of fearing, hurrah, it breaks that lens, it reorients you. Remember, we are not a people who lack information. We are people who seek information and therefore wisdom, but we do it on our own terms. We want that wise advice, but we want it, uh we want to remain in charge of whether or not we're gonna take that advice. We get a good advice, we'll determine if we're gonna do anything with it. We want God's guidance about everything going on in our life, but if we don't like it, we want to be able to have that veto power. We can say, no, I don't have to do it. That's my choice. We want the benefits of fearing the Lord without the inconvenience of actually fearing the Lord. So the crowds, the crowds in Luke 11, imagine this. They have wisdom standing before them in the flesh. They don't lack information, they lack a willingness to receive wisdom. They want a sign. They want a sign on their own terms, something they could approve of themselves before they commit, that is. And Jesus called this exactly what it is: wicked, adulterous. And that stings a little bit. Because the crowds that are pressing in on Jesus and seeking his sign, because they want Jesus on their own terms, we see ourselves in that a little bit too. See, we're not fools because we don't have enough information. We're fools in the proverb sense because we keep turning wisdom into something that serves us rather than something that reorients us and changes our mind and changes our perspective. We have made wisdom into another self-help book. And self-help by definition keeps one person and only one person at the center and on the throne, and that's you. Think about it, self-help. The apostle Paul tells the Colossians that he's laboring for them, he's straining and struggling for them, and he's doing this for this reason. So that all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, and he's looking in whom are hidden, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Hear that again. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all of it, it's hidden in Christ. It's only found, that's what it means. It's only found in Christ. And when you find him, you find wisdom, you find knowledge, you find discernment, you find understanding. Jesus is not just the the right philosopher or the right teacher. He is where wisdom is found. And Paul writes this with some urgency. He says, I say this so that no one may delude you with plausible sounding arguments. There are plausible sounding arguments, reasonable arguments, compelling arguments, things that pull us away, they sound good, they sound close to the truth, and yet they aren't. He says, there are these sound, reasonable arguments that are out there all the time. They aren't the truth. That is precisely, by the way, what makes them dangerous. Because the moment you decide that you have got enough information, you've pulled enough people, you've got enough wisdom, now you can do things on your own. You can operate without God, then that's when wisdom becomes that tool, a tool that you wield instead of a Lord that you follow. And by the way, if Jesus is the definition and the personification of wisdom in the flesh, then wisdom is not a tool. It's not something that you yield. Wisdom is a person you follow. Wisdom is Jesus. Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, puts it like this: He says, the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. Foolishness to God. And then he goes on to say, the cross, on the other hand, the cross, the thing, that thing, that thing that looks like weakness and defeat, and he even calls it a scandal. That thing is the power of God. That is the wisdom of God. And then he says this he says, Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus. That's what we celebrated and represented today in God's gift of baptism. Because of God's gifts, you are in Christ Jesus, who became the wisdom of God. Jesus did not merely teach wise things. He became wisdom. He is wisdom in the flesh. And that means that everything we need, everything, you name it, everything we need, the right standing before God, a transformed life, a good life, the redemption of every foolish thing that we have thought or said or done, it's in Jesus. And it's given to us in Him and in Him alone. It's not earned, it's not achieved, it's not, it doesn't come to us because we've made better decisions. It's given. It's given in Christ. The queen of the south, the queen of Sheba, she traveled all over the globe to hear from great and wise King Solomon. And when she heard from him, she was overwhelmed. She had traveled the world just to find a little bit of this wisdom. And she found it in a king in Jerusalem. But even Solomon, with all of his brilliance, and by the way, that's the only thing he asked for from the Lord was to be the wisest man ever. The only thing he asked for was wisdom. Even though, with all that brilliance, with all that wisdom, though, he could not give her what she desperately needed, what she actually needed. He could not give her forgiveness. He could not give her and transform her a new heart. He could not give her a life of the world that is to come. Jesus can. Every prideful decision, every selfish word, every moment where you and I, we've put ourselves in that throne, in that place that belongs only to God. Jesus can. And then he raises from the dead. And in so doing, he becomes wisdom. And by the way, all of this is free. It doesn't cost you or me a thing. It's not a reward because you and I were really wise. It's a gift. By the way, that's what makes the gospel so offensive. Because you can't read another self-help book to discover it. You can't achieve something or accomplish something to earn it. It's given to you. Free and clear on account of Christ. That's the gospel. So, what does this mean then for how we actually live? What do we actually do? It means that fearing the Lord is not something that we manufacture, it's a posture, creature, creator. It's one that we return to again and again. It's one that we're we're looking to this signpost, the one who has accomplished and fulfilled all of this for us. It means that wisdom, in the Christian sense, begins every morning with an honest account. And it sounds like this it says, I'm not God, I do not know everything, I am held by the one who does. Let's say this together. I do not know everything. I am held by one who does. That's the fear of the Lord. And it takes 15 seconds to reorient yourself every day. I'm not God, I do not know everything. By the way, you could add, I will not ever know everything. But I am held. I am held by the one who holds me. Paul says in Christ, all knowledge, all wisdom, it's hidden. You find Jesus, you find wisdom and knowledge and discernment and understanding. Which means you can bring those problems. You can bring your decisions, your conflicted marriage, your wayward child, your fears of your finances, your confusion about your career, your confusion about your future. You can bring that to God in prayer. And when you do that, you're not hoping that maybe, maybe God has something relevant that He can pull a book off his shelf and hand to me. No, you're going to the one who has all the wisdom in himself. Every answer to every problem that you have in life is found and hidden in Christ. The question is not whether or not he has an answer to our problems or concerns. The question is whether or not you're willing to receive it. Over the next eight weeks, we're going to sit with a couple different ideas. We're going to sit with wisdom when it comes to using our tongue, wisdom when it comes to work and family and relationships and hard seasons. But everything is going to show us of how we fail a little bit. And then it's going to show us where Christ comes and meets us. Where he comes and meets us in our need. But we start here. We start here with the fear of the Lord that I'm not God. I do not and I will not know everything, no matter how many books I read, no matter how many podcasts I listen to, no matter what, I won't know everything. And I am held. I am held by the one who holds me, who does know everything, who is God. Fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is not a brilliant life. It's not a life that's really well managed. A fear of the Lord is receiving Jesus. Receiving Jesus, the one in whom all the treasures, all the treasures are hidden. When you find him, you find it all. In Jesus' name.

unknown 23:23

Amen.