The Progression of Wisdom | Jake Vayda

Sunday, August 9th, 2026

This week in our How Life Actually Works series, we continued through Proverbs by asking: How do you keep from falling apart when life does?

Looking at Proverbs 31, we saw that wisdom is not just something we admire—it’s something that gets formed in us over time. It begins with surrender to God, grows through faithfulness in ordinary moments, and strengthens us for the storms we never saw coming.

The invitation is simple: receive the wisdom Jesus gives and practice it one faithful step at a time. Because when life falls apart around you, God can form the kind of wisdom that keeps it from falling apart within you.

📍 Join us in person:
6745 Amherst St, San Diego, CA

📅 For upcoming events and updates, click the link below.

https://www.createchurch.co

👉 Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay connected and never miss a message.

ABOUT US:
Create Church is a church community in San Diego built on real connection.
We exist to help people find and follow Jesus through healthy community and lives lived on mission. Wherever you are in your faith journey, you’re welcome here.

💙 Thank you for your generosity!
To support the mission and growth of Create Church, give here: https://www.createchurch.co/give

📸 Connect with us on Instagram:
@createchurch.co

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

When was the last time it all fell apart? On January 15th, 2009, an airplane took off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. And as it took off, within minutes, it hit a flock of geese. And both of the engines failed. 2,800 feet in the air, and they have nothing. All silence, gravity, and impending doom. The air traffic control let them know their options, but the pilot very clearly knew that there's only one option. And the famous words were we're heading into the Hudson. Somehow, this man piloted a plane, dodging skyscrapers, dodging homes, and landed with perfect precision on the icy waters of the Hudson River. Enough power and enough wisdom to know that ultimately there was no one who passed away. In fact, this is a picture of what actually it looked like on the Hudson River that day. In fact, there was a famous movie starring Tom Haiges called Sully, which was named after the pilot who famously piloted this plane. When was the last time it fell apart in your life? Now, it might not have been a flock of geese that caused your life to fall apart and both of your engines failing, although sometimes it can feel like our engines are failing. Was it for you you went to work and then you were being laid off and now you have to go home and tell your family and you don't know how to do it? Or for you, the last time it fell apart, was it the relationship that you thought was going to work out and now it's ending in shambles and now you're lost a best friend? Or for you, was it the loss of a loved one? And every time you bring out your phone to text them, you know there's no one on the other end. When was the last time it all fell apart for you? Now, I don't know about your life. I wish I would respond every single time like Captain Sully, becoming my best self when all things fall apart. But oftentimes, my best self does not come out when all things fall apart. In fact, oftentimes my worst self comes out. I'm I'm I'm more frustrated, I'm more angry, or for you, or do you have more anxiety, more grief, more frustration? Do you oftentimes see like when when things fall apart, you end up falling apart too? So that's the question that I want to answer today, and it's this How do you keep from falling apart when life does? How do you keep from falling apart when life does? Here's what I know about your life. Either you just came out of a storm, you're going into a storm, or you're in a storm right now. So it's kind of sad news, but all of us are gonna be hit with a flock of geese at some point, and maybe some point soon. So this is a question that I believe all of us have to answer. What does it look like to maybe keep it a little bit together when life all falls apart? The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about this idea. In fact, the book of Proverbs is often called wisdom literature. So this idea, one word, would probably describe all of Proverbs, which is wisdom. And this is the word that I believe that can help you hold it together when life falls apart, is this word wisdom. Today, I want to give you the uh progression of wisdom so that hopefully you'll be able to know what to do the next time both of your engines fail. If it's your first time, I'm very glad you're here. I met several of you before. We are a Bible-believing, Bible preaching church, and today we'll be looking at the last chapter of the book of Proverbs. This has been our summer series, the whole entire summer. We've been going through the book of Proverbs. We've said, a proverb a day keeps the stupid away. Uh and it's been not true for my life, but I've tried to read. In fact, if you read five minutes, it could take to read a proverb, and it will help you throughout the day. I promise you that. And today we'll be looking at chapter 31 of the book of Proverbs. Now, as we jump in, what is wisdom? What is wisdom? I'll give you a very simple definition. Living God's way. Three words. Living God's way. Living God's way would be wisdom for our everyday life. Now, you might know this, you might be an atheist in the room and not agree with it. That's okay as well. But the question that might be a little bit more pertinent is how do I get wisdom? Come on, somebody. Like, that's what I want. I want that wisdom. So wisdom is a gift you receive, but it's also a path that you practice. Wisdom, it's a gift you receive, and it's a path that you practice. Today, three progressions on wisdom. We're looking at Proverbs 31. Now, if you've been in the church for maybe decades, maybe a year, maybe a couple of months, you might have heard, maybe even online, this idea of a Proverbs 31 woman. This is where this idea comes from. Proverbs 31 starts off with this mother telling her son, who is king, what he should be looking for when it comes to a wife, but also what wisdom looks like. So this mother is describing this idea of wisdom personified into a woman. Now, you're a man in the world. And you're like, great, I can finally go to sleep. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. This is all about women. And here's what I know about Proverbs 31. Every woman should aspire to be like her. Every man should aspire to marry someone like her. And third, well, everyone should aspire to be like her. So, in fact, this is just wisdom. What wisdom looks like in everyday life. Here's the first way that wisdom shows up, the progression. If you want to write this down, wisdom starts with surrender to God. That's where wisdom begins. It starts with surrender to God. Proverbs 31 at the end. It says this Charm is deceitful, beauty is vain, but a woman or man who fears the Lord is to be praised. What does fear of the Lord mean? Maybe you've heard this phrase, fear of the Lord. Imagine with me, a four-year-old walking with their mother. It's a four-lane highway, 60 miles an hour, people are going for it, and then the four-year-old sees a red balloon. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm going for that red balloon. The four-year-old starts dashing towards it, and then the parent yanks him back and says, No! Fear of the Lord. This child would have had some pretty terrible consequences if they didn't adhere to the fear of the parent. Because the fear is what could happen if I don't listen. That's what fear is. God sees the whole entire highway. He sees the entire road. We only see the red balloon oftentimes, right? We see just a little bit of what God sees. And then he puts these parameters, these ways of living, right? God's way of living, so that ultimately we won't be crushed by a car going off trying to find our own red balloon. This is what the fear of the Lord, and it should be a little scary, realizing what happens if I let go of God's hand and do life my way. Some of you have lived that life. In fact, I believe all of us, I have, left God's hand and ran for the thing that I wanted. So the fear of the Lord is just a real reality of if you live God's way, there's oftentimes not these other consequences that can be experienced. Now, what I'm not saying is that you won't ever experience a bad thing, but what I am saying is that we can experience a lot less hurt in our lives if we keep holding on to the hand of God. But if I'm that four-year-old, I'm mad, right? It hurts being yanked back from God, right? And there's a lot of a lot of shiny red balloons out there as an adult, too, by the way. This is not just uh sequester to a four-year-old, right? There's a lot of shiny red blue balloons of that amazing new opportunity might distract me from my family and from those I love. I'm gonna be mad that there God might be yanking me back, right? Or maybe for you, it's I got all this money and God's blessed me with a paycheck, and now God's asked me to give some of it away. I'm mad, right? Uh I I don't want to forgive. God tells me I'm mad, right? Oftentimes surrendering to God's wisdom is not fun. It's usually not fun. But then on the other side, what does life look like? Surrendering to God's will. This is the first step of wisdom. Here's the second step if you're uh writing it down, and it's this wisdom shows up in the small stuff. Wisdom shows up in the small stuff. What's your first thought of receiving wisdom? Picture in your brain. For me, I I imagine myself somewhere on the Rocky Mountains, going up to the top of a mountain and and and looking out, and and I'm asking, God, should I take this job? And then a cloud comes and it's Dumbledore and uh fortune cookie. All McGandalf mixed together and and and and and that's God, right? Uh an old man in the sky with a beard and and what should I do with my job? And then and then the Lord responds, the river never asks the mountain where it should flow. Okay, thank you. The cloud floats away, and it's like I I mean I gotta make a decision by 5 p.m. What does that mean? The river flows. Wisdom can often feel pie in the sky, right? Like, how do I receive wisdom? This is why I love Proverbs 31. Because if you're anything like me, Proverbs 31 says, wisdom is not this poem, it's actually a person. And it gets it all the way down to everyday tasks of a wise person, how they operate in their life. And as I was reading this, uh, as I was preparing for this message, I was getting a little bit excited about, okay, wisdom, it actually might be something that I can do if this woman is doing it in her everyday life. So I'm just gonna read right now uh several different versions, uh verses of what this woman of wisdom is doing in her life. This is what she does with her family. It says this. Verse 12, she does good and not harm all the days of her life. Verse 15 says, She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household. Verse 27 says, She looks well to the ways of her household. What about work? It says this she considers a field and buys it with the fruit of her hands and plants a vineyard. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. She makes linen garments and sells them. What about her community? It says she opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hand to the needy. This is what wisdom looks like, living God's way. So if you're ever wondering what it looks like, read Proverbs 31 for an idea of what this looks like. And you might be saying, Jake, this is great, but I'm I'm not a wife of four kids. I'm not a wife of a husband, I'm not a community leader. You might have completely different circumstances. The question that I found helpful in my life over the past decade after reading Proverbs is one, and it's this. And I've been saying it multiple times throughout these weeks. What is the wise thing to do? When you're frustrated and angry before you text, what is the wise thing to do? When you're budgeting, what is the wise thing to do? When you had that awesome conversation and you're you're wondering what the next step is, and it's an amazing opportunity. What's the wise? Because if you're anything like me, when I think of a wise thing to do, I think of a wise person that I know. And then I think of them in this situation. And usually the answer is a lot better than the answer if I didn't ask that question before. What is the wise thing to do? It starts with the small stuff every single day. This is how wisdom shows up. The third way, progression of wisdom, and the last way that wisdom shows up as it uh as it embodies itself in our lives. You can write this down, wisdom, it builds strength for the storms. Wisdom builds strength for the storms. It says this she's clothed with strength and dignity, and she can laugh at the days to come. She can laugh at the storms that could come. Sully, the pilot, he went through so many exit interviews because when something like this happens, there is a lot of opinions, and he was ridiculed and you know, went through the fire of it all. And as he was being interviewed, there was a quote that came out of uh his experience. It actually says this. We can put it on the board. For 42 years, I've been making small regular deposits in this bank of experience, education, and training. And on January 15th, the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal. It's interesting. This word strength, when it says she is clothed with strength, which means like it's it's on her, right? It's it's like this is what strength looks like. The word here, the Hebrew word, uh actually means like structural strength. Usually, when they took when they use this word strength in the Bible, it spent like military strength. Like that much strength. I mean, imagine. Imagine putting regular deposits in your everyday life, living God's way in his will, and then all of a sudden you have all of these things coming up. Then you don't know what the future holds, but you know you'll you'll be probably in pretty good shape. I mean, imagine having that much strength. Like, what could that look like? Small deposits over time. So you can look at the future and say, whatever it is, God's gonna get me through because he's helping me make these small deposits over time. Strength for the storms. And then it says this part of she laughs at the days to come. My first thought when I looked at this is Austin Powers and Dr. Evil is like, that evil laugh all throughout the. This is not an evil laugh looking at the future. But this is a laugh of assurance of, hey, God's got me through before, he's gonna get me through again. I don't know what storm's coming, what geese are headed my way. But since I'm rooted in God, rooted in wisdom, I can even laugh at the days to come. Now, this woman, I mean, she had these jobs, she was a community leader, she was a wife, she was uh leading her family, and she had a lot of stresses. There were probably a lot of storms that came her way, and yet she had this ability to laugh. Don't you want that? Right? That type of wisdom for the days to come. When life falls apart, how do I not? was the question that we started with. Or we've learned wisdom. It begins with a surrender to God's way, and we make regular deposits, like silly, for 42 years, these years of living God's way and his will. And then we have strength for the storms, the storms that are coming, the storms that are brewing, the storms that are happening right now. Now, this is the type of talk that we kind of get excited about, right? I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna practice wisdom. I'm gonna I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go for it. But then there's probably some of you in the room that are like, I don't know if I can do that. Like, be all graceful, managing all the things that this woman did. Like I can, I can barely do half of the things that she's done. I can barely cook a meal. Like, I I don't like I'm supposed to live up to that. You know, I I always talk about wisdom. It's a it's a path to practice. But if you remember, how do you receive wisdom? First, it's it's a gift that we receive. I think God was convinced that we couldn't live in perfect wisdom in our life. I'm pretty sure he knew that there's a lot of red balloons that we left God's hand, we ran after, and we'd probably call that foolishness now. But the issue, here's the issue: God can't live with imperfection. It wouldn't be just. He's perfect in every way. So what happens now? You make one mistake, you can't live up to this Proverbs 31 woman. I can't be like Captain Sully, perfectly being the best in the worst times of my life, and now I can't ever be with God. God knew this. There's a problem here. So God sent his one and only son. Do you know what that son was often called? Wisdom. Isn't that interesting? The Bible says that Jesus was wisdom personified. Even better than the Proverbs 31 woman. Yes, Jesus surrendered his way, not my way, but yours be done, God, he said. Surrendered. And then every day, making small deposits, living the right way. And then when the storm came, crucified on the cross, talk about a storm. He says, Father, forgive them. They don't know what to do. He was still himself, perfect in every way. He is wisdom personified. But the point wasn't exactly, or just that he was wisdom. The point was that we needed a sacrificial lamb because we are foolish and we can't make our way to heaven. So Jesus died, being perfect, took on our foolishness, and rose again, defeating it so that we have a bridge to God. This is why wisdom, it's a gift that we receive. You couldn't earn it, you don't deserve it. Wisdom is a gift. So if you can't live up to Proverbs 31, if you can't live up to the ways of Jesus, if you can't be solely depositing for if you can't do this, here's the good news: you're in good company. Everyone around you, that's me. That's you. In fact, Jesus often called the church a hospital. It's for a lot of foolish people like you and like me. And also, you might be wise in one area and foolish in the other. You might done a great thing this morning and then you know was frustrated at your kid, right? It's kind of like this up and down, come to me all who are confused and foolish, and I and I'll give you rest. Walk with me, talk with me, and see how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. So, yes, it's a gift we receive. And then it's a path that we practice. We look at Proverbs 31. We look at the ways of Jesus. Would you stand with me? I'm gonna invite the band to come up. And I'm wondering in this room right now, how many of us are going through it right now? How many of us in this moment would say, Yeah, I want wisdom, like I I want all those things, but like I need wisdom today. Like I need this gift right now. I am at a crossroads in my relationship. I'm at a crossroads with my money. I'm at a crossroads with my mental health. Where do I? It's like uh geese came and my all my engines are failed. I don't know where, how am I gonna land this plane? Life is falling apart. And hear me when I say this your life doesn't stay together because of all of the good actions that you do. Your life stays together because of a person that you follow that's Jesus, and a community that you're surrounded with. So as the band comes up and we're gonna sing this song, I'm gonna ask you to do something bold right now, and that in a second is to raise your hand for all those who are going through a storm right now. The Bible often talks about the church being a hospital and healing comes through Jesus, but often Jesus is the people that's surrounding you right now. So, in just a moment of boldness, uh, I'm gonna ask for those who just today need a gift of wisdom because of the storm that you're going through. And by the way, you might have not told anybody about this, right? This might have been something that you kept hidden for so long, and now the problem is way too big and you don't know where to go. Congratulations, you're in the right place. And that is in the presence of Jesus and his people today. If you're someone right now who's like, I I need a little wisdom, my engines are out, I don't know where to go. Would you just raise your hands as a sign of boldness and bravery and courage? Keep your hand up. I don't want everyone else to look around. Look how many people raise their hands. Look at what we came to church with. We're not talking about this over coffee. We're talking about this. We don't talk about it. We talk about it here in church. So uh I'm gonna ask, would you keep your hands raised? And um, this is also a sign of boldness and courage. If you're someone in the room who wants to encourage them, would you just kind of lift up a hand maybe towards a person who's lifting up their hands like this? This is a way of just saying, hey, I'm here for you. You might not know my name, we might have never met, but I want you to know like I want to support you. I don't know what storms you're going through. I mean, I'm pretty convinced right now we have huge money issues, we have marriages on the brink of divorce. We got stuff, y'all. Welcome to church, and your hand out is saying, I want to support you, and you're not alone. So let me pray a blessing over the people who are in the storm. Lord, we God, we thank you for your son. God, we thank you for this gift of wisdom and our foolishness. But God, you've also promised us that if we ask you, that you would give us wisdom. You literally say, if we ask, would you? So, Lord, I pray for the people who are literally right now not knowing how this plan's gonna land and the engines are out. God, I pray that you would give them the gift of wisdom, discernment on their next right step. God, you say that you're close to the brokenhearted. You say you want to heal those who are in this hospital that is a church. Lord, I pray for your healing now. Lord, I pray for your direction now. God, would you speak? Would you give us a download right now? God, a download in our lives. Amen. Can we give it up for those who are courageous enough to so we got 10 minutes left, and here's what I want to do for the next 10 minutes. Uh, we've been in the presence of God, we never leave the presence of God. What a beautiful promise that is. That God's there piloting this plane with you. He wants to guide you through this. And my hope over the next 10 minutes is first, if you're someone who's going through a storm right now, that God would literally gift you with wisdom. He actually says that he's given us a friend. This is the Holy Spirit. Uh so right now we're gonna actually welcome the Holy Spirit in through this song. Uh, some people lift their hands like this, they go like this. This is just a posture saying, Hey, I'm in. I want to download for you, God, through the storm I'm going through. Or maybe for you, you're not going through a storm, and you're like, God, how do I prepare for a storm? Would God give you a wisdom right now of kind of where you're foolish? God, would you give me wisdom right now in this time, 10 minutes of moments where you get to receive the voice of God in your life? It could be a thought, could be a feeling. I don't know how God could speak to you, but God does say that He wants to speak to you now. And you came to church. Come, receive what you need today. You got up, you're here for a reason. Would you receive it from the Lord over the next 10 minutes? Holy Spirit, would you come?