The Hurdle-thon

A missed school zone and flashing blue lights turn into more than a traffic story. They become a wake-up call: consequences don’t wait for our awareness. From there we tackle the deeper question that drives so much of our stress, comparison, and striving—am I loved? 

Then we open Proverbs 1–3 and get practical. 

So, if you’re tired of performing, unsure about your direction, or feeling the pull of compromise, this conversation gives you a next step you can actually take today.

And make sure you tune in next week for another episode as we keep walking through Proverbs together.

Transcript

Warm-Up And Game Show Icebreaker

SPEAKER_05 0:13

What's up everyone? Welcome back to Kids in a Calling Podcast, when none of us are kids, but we all have a calling. And that's the point people to tease us. I'm your host, Audrey Aljo. With me is Hudson Walton.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Hey guys.

SPEAKER_05 0:23

Lincoln Society.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hey guys.

SPEAKER_05 0:25

And Andrea and Ramsay cannot be with us today. So we have a very special guest, Luke Gibson, subbing in.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Hey guys.

SPEAKER_05 0:32

So, um, you guys, opening question as always. What game show or reality TV series do you think you could win?

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Wheel of Fortune. I'm definitely winning Wheel of Fortune. I used to watch as a kid and I'd get mad because these people, the word is obvious, and they're just standing there like they don't know the word. I remember yelling at the TV. Probably shouldn't have done that, but like I'm willing, I'm winning Wheel of Fortune.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Mine would be American Ninja Warrior. I don't think I can win it, but I want to be in it. That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_05 1:02

No, but it's actually which one do you think you could win?

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Okay, then I think I can win.

SPEAKER_05 1:05

My answer changes. I'm winning it. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Okay, mine is definitely Beast Games. I mean, five million, possibly $10 million on the line.

SPEAKER_05 1:14

That's true. And his seemed decently easy. His challenges.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Absolutely. I saw one. It was like uh there was like three people left in the team, and they put the first guy up, and there was like $600,000 in it. And they were like, Yeah, you get to take however much money you want, and your teammates get the leftovers. He left him like $5,000, bro. He took everything else.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

That's an L man.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

That's crazy. That would be me. That's how you play the game and win. That's how you play. That is how you win. That's how you win. That's how you win.

SPEAKER_05 1:40

Valid. Okay. Um, I think minus fear factor, because it's just not that scary. Like, I mean, yeah, it's your biggest fear. First of all, why did you tell them your biggest fear? I don't get that. Second of all, it's not that scary because they can't kill you. Like, they can't legally kill you and get away with it. So all you gotta do is endure the fear for like what, five minutes, ten minutes for this challenge, and then you're good. Like, if it's snakes, just literally sit there. No. Except for all insects though.

SPEAKER_04 2:05

Nope.

SPEAKER_05 2:06

Snakes I'm fine with. It's insects that would get me, but I'd still persevere for the money.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Don't say insects. I'd tell them something like, uh, I fear the dark. And they just put me in a darker room for like five minutes.

SPEAKER_05 2:16

The dark kind of scares me, though.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

I'd just be sitting there like, like I'm afraid of candy, bro.

SPEAKER_05 2:20

Yes. I'm afraid of Texas Roadhouse bread rolls.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

I saw one person scared of pickles.

SPEAKER_05 2:25

What? Is that the one who starts laughing? Do you have you seen the one who's afraid of laughter?

unknown 2:30

No.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

It's so scared of pumpkins.

SPEAKER_05 2:34

Um anyway.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

I am really afraid of a million dollars. I'm so afraid of that.

SPEAKER_05 2:40

Took me a second. I was like, what? Also, for the listeners, our we have been having some technical

Tech Updates And Series Setup

SPEAKER_05 2:45

issues, and so that's why we've not we didn't air last week, and then a few weeks ago the same thing happened. But don't worry, guys, we're like back to normal now. Um, so anyway, so a few weeks ago, Pastor Jared had continued a series, a simple question, and he spoke on the question, Am I loved? So, what did you guys think of that one?

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Um, I thought it was a really good continuation of his series about the primal questions. And I mean, I'll just start right where he started. He always starts with an illustration to kind of like uh make his point to kind of like ground you to help you understand. And his uh illustration was um him driving to this place that he's driven this route for years, and this one time he happened to be driving at um I think during a weekday, and so he drove through a school zone that he wasn't used to being a school zone, and he was speeding, and you know, he got pulled over, and our incredible pastor and ever so wise pastor told the cop I didn't know I was speeding, and so obviously the cop was like, I don't care, like that doesn't matter. But moral of the story is he used

The Speeding Ticket Lesson On Consequences

SPEAKER_00 3:50

that that funny illustration, like obviously he got a ticket for that, like you're not getting out of that. Um he used that illustration to show us that to show the point that you may not always see the signs in your life, um just any signs in your life, good or bad, you may not see them, but that doesn't mean that you are free from the consequences just because you're not aware of the signs in your life. And I thought that was a really good way to open up the message.

SPEAKER_05 4:13

No, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_05 4:15

Yeah, he was pretty much just saying how just because we don't see something or we don't see the signs to something doesn't mean that we are excluded from the consequences and the punishments of our actions. If you do the wrong thing, it's not only wrong because you knew it was wrong or because you saw the signs that it was wrong, it's because it was wrong, whether you think so or not.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yeah, like if you sin, um I'll just use that as an illustration. If you sin, like the Bible is there. What's written in the Bible is fact, and you may not have you may not have read that part of the Bible, you may not know that, you may not be aware of that, but it's still sin. Um, you're still doing wrong at the end of the day. Yeah, and I really like how he also illustrated that he said that it doesn't make you evil to not like he wasn't evil for not knowing he was speeding, yeah. He simply didn't know. But two things can be true at the same time. He was he definitely wasn't right, but he wasn't evil. So I really like that. That just because you may not see some of the signs in your life, um, maybe you weren't taught them. That's not your fault. Um, maybe you're just a new believer. That's not your fault if you don't know the signs to look for. Exactly. You just gotta learn them. But at the same time, you have to understand that those consequences are still gonna happen. Yeah, it's still gonna affect your life and your walk with God. Yeah. So I just think that's a really good truth that he showed us.

SPEAKER_05 5:28

Yeah, I think that's why it's important to one, think about what you're gonna do. Like, don't just kind of go into things blindly and just make decisions like crazily without thinking about things first. Just think about it. And then two, that's why it's important to ask for forgiveness daily and repent for the things that you don't even know you did. You always gotta add that in there because you do things that you don't even realize because they're so like I guess minuscule in a way, rather than like murder and big crimes. It's just something like, oh, you had a mean tone to your mom, or you like disobeyed your mom, or you said something rude. You didn't like mentally think about it, but at the end of the day, you need to ask for forgiveness because you still did it. It was still something that you did wrong.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

Yeah. One of the things you said was law doesn't just adjust to my awareness, which is kind of the whole thing we're talking about here, is our awareness in the situation. Him, it was a Monday, it wasn't a Sunday, so it was a school zone, and he was also in the morning. So those are two different things he wasn't, you know, accustomed to, but he had to be ready. He had to not only just stick with the habit, he had to make sure he was consistent and doing the right thing, not just what he always does.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Yeah, yeah. He was familiar with the road at an unfamiliar time. That's what I liked about it. Is he like he told like from his perspective was I've been down that road over 200 or something times, but because that one time he went during a time that wasn't normal to him, it caused him to mess up. Yeah. Right. And the point he made was because I messed up, like cousin said, it doesn't make me an evil evil person, it just makes me it makes me a sinner. And join the club, brother. We're all sinners, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Makes you normal. Yeah. I also like to take that principle that he showed us and apply it to the question of love itself, because you know, this message was about the primal question of am I loved? Um applying it to that. You may have a warped perception of love from your upbringing, and you may be trying to answer that primal question of love with that warped understanding. Um, you may have been taught through your childhood that uh love is conditional, or you may equate things like silence from other people to outright rejection, and you may not even see those things in your life and realize that you're viewing love the wrong way, but you still are internally, and that can harm your relationships with people around you, and it can harm your relationship with God because God's love is not conditional, you don't have to do anything for God to love you. In the Bible, he says that over and over God just loves you because he created you, you're his child, but you can bring those those things that you've internalized, just it's not even your fault most of the time. You may have just been taught that through your upbringing, so it just rehashes again. You may not know that, and it doesn't make you evil that you don't know that, but it's still not correct, exactly, and you're still harming yourself.

SPEAKER_05 8:19

Yeah, he keeps saying stuff like how the primal questions exist, whether or not we think they're real or we believe it or we deny it. Because we all subconsciously ask ourselves these questions, whether we're like constantly thinking about it or realizing that we do, but it happens in our actions and in the words we speak and in the the way we view ourselves and the world, honestly. So it's important that you kind of not,

Am I Loved And Conditional Approval

SPEAKER_05 8:40

I guess, take captive your thoughts so you know you know what I mean? Like you know what's happening.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Yeah, he used a story that goes in perfectly to what Hudson was just talking about about how your upbringing or things that have happened to you could dictate the way that you view love. Um, he told a story about Jacob, and uh Jacob worked seven years under Laban, who was Rachel's dad. Rachel in the Bible describes this, she was very beautiful. Well, when it came to the wedding day after Jacob had served his seven years, Laban tricked Jacob with Leah, who is Rachel's not so good looking sister. That's messed up. And yeah, so Jacob, he wasn't he he didn't he wasn't love, he didn't love Leah like he loved Rachel. Yeah. And this caused Leah to have like doubts. She uh she didn't feel loved. The Bible says that she was unloved. But because of this, God caused her womb to be open and she was able to bear children. And so she had um she had multiple sons, but the first three I want to really focus on in Pastor Jared, or no, four, he focused on. Yeah. And um, so back then the names they were more than just names, but they were they were like it described who the person was or why your name had a meaning behind it. And um, so for the first son that she had, she named him Reuben, and that was because she felt like she wasn't seen by Jacob. And for her second son, she named him Simeon because she felt like she wasn't heard by Jacob. And the third son, she named Levi because she hoped that this son would cause her to be attached, or cause Jacob to be attached to her. Yeah. But when she got to her fourth son, she stopped looking for the answer from Jacob that she only could get from God, and she named him Judah, which means to praise. And so Pastor Jared talked about how when she got to her fourth son, she finally she was like, you know what? I'm instead of looking for the answer somewhere else, I'm just gonna praise God. Yeah, yep. And that's when she found her validation was when she did that.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

That was the last verse of that chapter. That was it. When she found love, and that she found that God was where her true love came from, it ended. That story was over.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

And that's that's the whole genealogy genealogy of Jesus is from Judah.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Right. Yeah, and I think that's incredible. That just this one woman's decision to put praise first, yeah, and literally answer the question of love for herself, yeah, that literally led to the to Jesus. Like that's incredible. Yeah, yeah. And I thought that was really cool because I had I never really like I've heard it, but I've never heard you rarely hear a message preached from the point of uh Leah. Yeah, you always hear from the about the uh about Jacob's perseverance. Audrey, what's that saying? If he could, he would.

SPEAKER_05 11:27

If you wanted to, he would. Yeah, if you wanted to, he would.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Like you always hear a message preached on that, like Jacob didn't give up. But I think it was really cool to hear about from Leah how she put praise. I had never known that Judah's name to praise. And that's just really inspiring.

SPEAKER_05 11:42

I agree. Yeah, and he was talking about how we seek approval of people, but when we stop doing that, or this is kind of just tying into the story you just told, she was seeking his approval. When she stopped doing that and she just gave Jesus the praise, she started living in the I am loved. She didn't have to search for it anymore. I think that's so beautiful because it's it's easy to praise him because at that time he's never left you. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 12:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:05

And it's like she finally realized that Jesus has been the one there wanting her all along when her own husband never did. And so she just put her praise in Jesus, and you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

She was like an actual example of like some of the examples that Pastor Jared gave you when you are basing the question, Am I loved on worldly things, on people in this world? Because that's always gonna be unstable. Um, like she was trying to get approval from her husband, thinking that bearing him children was gonna make uh her husband love her. And Pastor Jared hit that directly that that's a skewed version of love. Like, like I mentioned earlier, I'll just rehash again love is not conditional. Um, people's approval that's not love. You don't have to earn love, and so you can see that in the Bible how Leah suffered, and sh part of that suffering was because she was trying to base earn her husband's love. Yeah, and that's not what love is, you don't have to earn it.

SPEAKER_05 13:00

Exactly. And God doesn't grow silent when we struggle, and he doesn't, you know, run away whenever we're having a hard time, he's he's there the whole time and he's ready to embrace us when we, you know, run into his arms. It's just up to us to do that. And her story is like the best example of like when what would happen if we let praise become our first option instead of the last resort, instead of well, I mean, in her case it was the last resort, but now we know to let it be our first we can learn from her mistake. Yeah,

Leah’s Sons And Choosing Praise

SPEAKER_05 13:30

just do that in the first place.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Uh Hudson, I like how you said people's love is conditional. Um I've started thinking about like the difference between the love we feel from people who are around us and the love from God. And what really caught my attention is the love that we feel from people can change from day to day. Like it's based on the day that we're having. Yeah. Like if if somebody's expecting me to treat them a certain way and I'm having a bad day, I might not treat them the same way I would if I was having a great day. And that's why like we need to not focus so much on, oh, does this person love me, or does or I'm I I need to feel this love in order to feel like I'm a person? No, you you get your love from God, not because like if I'm relying on somebody in order for me to feel validated, and like I said, they've had a bad day, well, they might not treat me how I feel like I need to be treated, but God will.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

You can always expect the same thing time and time again.

SPEAKER_05 14:23

Yeah.

unknown 14:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 14:25

Another thing he had talked about is he had kind of asked the question how many of God's children are squandering their witness because they are so worried about finding their purpose? And this question kind of confused me at first, but I wrote it down because I was like, I want to do my research on it later. Because once I, you know, focused on it and I actually understood it, I thought it was a really good question to ask yourself because it's like focusing solely on your future, especially we're all kind of in a time right now where we're focused on what we're gonna do, what major we're gonna choose, what school we're gonna go to. And we really focus on the future and our purpose in the future rather than the present, rather than you know, right now I'm called. Right now I'm living in the purpose that God has called me to be in. And we're a lot of us get really, I guess, what's it called? What's the word I'm looking for? Obsessed with trying to figure out your calling, and we always assume that the calling is in the future and that we are on the walk on the way there.

SPEAKER_04 15:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:19

But one of our biggest callings in life is just to spread the gospel, just to be a witness, be an example. And I feel like a lot of times I can get lost in the chaos of trying to figure out what you're gonna do and when you're gonna get to almost your final destination of your calling when you don't know it and it's not your job to know it. It's not your job to get there immediately. It's your job to walk the way he's told you to walk and talk the way he's told you to talk.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

Where you're at, not in the future. I think we always looked toward oh, what will I be? What what where am I going? You know, it's not what can I do now? What am I supposed to do now? You know, as part of our calling.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Because to God, you are something right now, and you were something yesterday. You were something two years ago. Just because you're not um Victor Jackson, um, Jared Pavlou, our pastor, just because you're not any of these incredible uh pe men and women of God doesn't mean that you aren't something. Doesn't mean you can't go witness to someone.

SPEAKER_05 16:12

Yeah. Like doesn't mean you're not a woman or man of God. It just means that you're not that woman or man of God. You still have a purpose, and your job is just as big where you're at as theirs is where they're at. Because you don't know who you're gonna reach at your school or in your job.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

You have access to people that they never will.

SPEAKER_05 16:29

Yeah, just because you're not on the stage in front of like 10,000 people doesn't mean you're not doing the Lord's work.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Yeah, I mean, even with Jesus, like 18 years of his life was just completely gone. Like we see him, we see him get born, we see him at 12 in the synagogues, and you don't hear about him until he's like what 30, 33, something like that. Yep. Like he's completely gone. And I guarantee you that in those 18 years that he's growing, he's not just standing still saying, Oh, well, when I get to this age, I'm gonna, I'm gonna finally do my first miracle.

SPEAKER_03 16:59

And we just got a glimpse of that when he was 12. Yeah. And it was crazy teaching people in the teaching, yeah. Yeah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 17:05

It's a perfect example. Like he wasn't at his, I guess you could say peak yet, quote unquote. Wasn't doing it. But he was still doing amazing things.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

Yep, not water into wine, but he was there teaching, learning. Yeah, he was doing the best he could with what he had at the time. Yeah. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 17:20

That's why it's important to focus on his word and he will bring you clarity. That's another thing he was talking about. Because the path to your future isn't gonna be found by you. It's gonna become clear whenever you trust in Jesus and you walk with him daily. And you have to keep your eyes on the prize, if you will.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yeah, I really like that. It's not something that you have to search for, it's something that you have to grow into. I really like that. That's a really good way to look at it.

SPEAKER_05 17:43

I like the way you put it. It's a good catchphrase.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Pastor Jarrett, he also brought up like the difference. Like we've talked about it a little, but talking about it more in depth here. He talked about the difference between your love, that that answer for you, like being secure and not being secure. Because if you don't have that question answered, if you're trying to base it uh on the things around you, on people around you, we just talked about how people's love is not unconditional. Yeah, um, that can change, that can lead to you going into what Pastor Jared calls the scramble from uh the book, The Seven Primal Questions He's been reading. That's what they call it the scramble. It's when you you try to grab on, you freak out, and you'll try to grab onto the closest thing, alike love near you, just so you can feel like you are loved. And that can that can look a lot like insecurity, that can look like clinging to people that you don't need to be clinging to. That can most definitely lead to overthinking. Um, it can lead to what we've talked about before with security. You can test your relationships because you doubt the love there. Yeah, because your your version of love is wishy-washy. Um and it can just it can test you by make you feeling like you have to perform for love. Like if if you aren't secure in knowing that you were loved, you'll feel like you have to put on a performance for love, just like Leia. And Pastor Jared emphasized, like, obviously, that's not how love works. Um, we've said it over and over, love, um, true love, God's love, that's unconditional. No matter what, we are loved by God. And once you understand that truth, like it's it's kind of like the repeating answer we keep getting in the series. Like, the love that are the question, if you try to ask it from this world, you're gonna get the wrong answer. But if you look in God's word and pull it from there and internalize that, yeah, you'll be secure in that answer and who you are as a child of God. Like as a child of God, you're loved. And once you internalize that and realize that no matter what, I am loved, yeah, yeah, that brings peace, that brings stability, that brings spiritual effectiveness, it brings all of these things that you're not gonna get if your answer of love is based on how this person treated me this day.

SPEAKER_05 19:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

That's a yeah, that's that's a really good way to put it. Um, Paul talks about the love of God in Romans 8, 38 through 39. He says, For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things

Performing For Love Vs Receiving Grace

SPEAKER_02 20:10

present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So that's already a powerful scripture depicting how much and that there's nothing that can separate us from God's love. But when you look into who wrote it, it's Paul. He wrote the book of Romans along with a bunch of other books in the New Testament. But before he became Paul, he was Saul. And Saul was a persecutor of Christians. He killed multiple, multiple Christians. And what I like about it so much is that Saul had a past, but when he was on his way to Damascus to kill even more Christians, Jesus was like, you know what, instead of rejecting you, I'm gonna redeem you. And he says, Your past, I'm gonna change that. You're not gonna be Saul anymore, you're gonna be Paul. And Paul's saying, now, based on what I've done in my past, I know that there's nothing that can separate me from what and how much God. Yeah, that's exactly what persuaded means. It's him saying, based on what's happened to me, I'm convinced.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Yeah, because if that dude's past didn't separate him from God's love, my past does not separate me from God's love. I haven't killed any Christians yet. Yeah, and I don't plan on it.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

There is absolutely nothing that can draw us away from God's love. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

And I think that that leads really well into once you understand that you are love and that God loves you, you can have a better understanding of praise. Um, if you have a warped perception of love, Pastor Jared kind of hit on this. If you have a warped perception of love and you feel like you have to perform, you may come to God and praise him to try to earn his love. Or praise him because you feel like you have to do that to be loved by him. And that's not true. You have to understand that you don't praise God, you don't obey God to get love. Or to earn it, you obey God, you praise God because you're already loved. Nothing you can do about it, bro. You were born and God loved you. He loved you before you were born. And so you obey him simply because you're loved. You praise him because you're loved. And once you understand that, you become like Leia. And you make one decision and then boom, all of a sudden Jesus is coming from your bloodline. Like, how crazy is that? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:26

Quite crazy.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Yeah, Leia's um her surroundings didn't change, like her circumstance didn't change, but her focus shifted from looking for approval from around her Jacob to saying, you know what, even if I'm not getting it from Jacob, I'm gonna praise the man who I will get it from.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Yeah. Look up.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

And then uh and Pastor Jared, he closed after talking about praise. He gave us like three like applicable points to work towards in our own life. And I think I should mention them. I mean, we should talk about them just because um they're really helpful. So, first, I mean we've talked about it. Base your worth on his word. Like you have to do that. If you're basing your worth, if you're basing um your answer of love on the things of this world, it's not gonna work out. Um, you're not gonna feel as loved um as you will. You're not gonna get that answer um that you will only get from basing your worth on his word. Because once you do that, like we just talked about, you know that you were loved no matter what. And the second point he brought up is something that, like you hit earlier, Audrey, make praise your first response, no matter what. Because you're loved no matter what, so you should praise no matter what.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

And then the third point he hit on was to stop performing. You don't have to put on an act. Stop performing and start living how God says you are. You're loved, you are a child of God. God has numerous promises for me, for you, for everyone, for everyone that's a child of God. There are promises. So you need to live how God says you are and not how you feel, not how you feel in the moment, not how your circumstances look. So I still thought that that was a really good way to end the message.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

I agree.

SPEAKER_05 24:29

So we're actually starting a new thing today that we're gonna continue throughout the rest of the semester. So, what we're gonna be doing is we're going through the book of Proverbs and we're gonna break it down to some of our favorite parts and like what it means

Purpose Now, Not Later

SPEAKER_05 24:40

to us. So today we're gonna go through Proverbs one through three. And I'm really excited for this because I think it's gonna be I think it's a great idea because not only does it force us to like really study and dig deep, it it allows us to spread what we take away from it and share it with each other and see different perspectives on it and with the listeners. So I think it's a good idea. So without further ado, somebody kick us off.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

Uh yeah, I'm I'm really excited for this. Um, Proverbs is a really good book of the Bible, it gives a lot of instruction, which um for some people can be kind of just like a drain to read through because it's just instruction after instruction. You're like, I want to read cool things in the Bible. Yeah, I want to go read what Jesus said and did when Proverbs is just a bunch of instruction. But yeah, I think it's really important. I'll start off near the beginning of the first chapter, Proverbs 1.7. This really um this is what sticks out to me the first time. Uh the first time like I ever really read Proverbs, this is what stuck out to me. Um, purely because it kind of confused me as like someone that was reading the Bible for the first time. It said, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Oh yeah. When I first read that, I was like, I'm supposed to be scared.

SPEAKER_04 25:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

I don't remember God saying I should be scared of him. But so yeah, it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. And so obviously, spoiler alert, it's not saying to be scared of God. Like you shouldn't be shaking your boots and shivering and chattering your teeth when you think of God. That's not the image that you should have of him. But yeah, that statement, the fear of the Lord, it's talking about humbleness when it's it's literally telling you that for you to be wise, for you to have wisdom, you have to humble yourself before God. Because think about it, you can't be prideful and learn wisdom. You're gonna think you already know it all. So I just think it's a it's a really good way to open up the the book that wisdom starts with humility and that reverence, your reverence for God will come before understanding. Because you have to be humble before God before you can learn from him, and that's what really sticks out to me.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Yeah, that's a that's a really good point. Pride does not stand a chance in the book of Proverbs. That's right. I mean, Solomon, he was every every time he said something about pride, it was just like, Oh yeah, if you exalt yourself, bam, you're gonna get kicked back to So yeah, he just he definitely did not like pride.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

I really had uh part of Proverbs 111 to 14. It was really interesting to me because it pulled on the idea of wisdom, but it showed how doing things that are unwise can seem appealing, but at the end lead to death and destruction and just such bad things. So, for example, on this, it says in verse 11, come with us, let us lay wait for blood. And the right after it says, Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause. That's just like so deep, so dark from what seems normal. And then another one in 14, no, no, no, thirteen, it says, We shall find all precious substance, and then follows with we shall fill our houses with spoil. It's like you're it seems good, but but we need to latch on to wisdom and hold it because we're gonna end up in evil if we don't, and things that we didn't expect. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

I just really like the language that the Bible uses in that verse because let's be real, your friends are not coming up to you and they're like, hey, let's go murder people. Like that's typically not what happens when you get enticed to sin by your friends. They're not like, hey, let's go kill a bunch of old people, or hey, let's go hit people with our cars. Like, that's not what they say. They'll you're gonna be enticed by things that sound good to you. Like, hey, um Let's talk about this person.

SPEAKER_05 28:26

Yeah, let's do that.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Or yeah, yeah. Or like we're having a party at so-and-so's house. Um, there's gonna be alcohol. I know that you're against that, but it's gonna be fun. You should come.

SPEAKER_04 28:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Stuff like that. So it'll sound enticing, it'll sound like a good time, but as Proverbs 110 says, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Right. Do not give in.

SPEAKER_05 28:46

Um And it's not always that they're against you and they're trying to make you do bad. A lot of times your friends are just as lost as you are in the case, and y'all both need some help. It's not that they're completely evil people, unless they really do just want the worst for you.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Yeah, I mean, if they come up to you and they say, Hey, let's go kill a bunch of old people, they're probably a little bit evil. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

But yeah, moral of the story, you have to stay aware of that. Um, the people in your life, especially if you don't always surround yourself with um brothers and sisters in the faith, you're gonna be enticed no matter what. Um even if it's not your friends, even if it's just like if you're in school, uh middle school, high school, there's gonna be, you know, the popular kids, there's gonna be uh just clicks of people that try to entice you

Launching The Proverbs Series

SPEAKER_00 29:30

to do things that you deep down know you shouldn't, but it sounds really fun. And what could it really hurt? Things like that. Um, if you work, your co-workers could invite you to the bar for a night. Like that happens, and that may just sound fun in the moment. It may not sound like it's harming anything, but those things can all lead to sin, and that's kind of what Proverbs is telling you. Like, you're gonna be enticed, it's gonna happen. Um, you live in this world, you're gonna be enticed by people in this world, and you just have to look away immediately. Consent that one's a bad decision. Yeah, it's like don't even expose yourself at all, don't give yourself the chance to do those things. Don't be around that. Don't even consider it. Yeah, you hit them in the face. I'm just kidding, don't do that. That is not biblical. Don't do that. Turn the other cheek, brother.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

Yeah, that's a really good point, Hudson. Um, I like uh chapter one, verse five and six. It says, A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a why and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. Well, I guess it's just verse verse five that I like. I thought it was five and six, but um, I like how it's saying like somebody who's wise, they're not just gonna want to hear, but they're gonna want to take what they hear and apply it and say, Right, what can I do with what I'm hearing to apply into how do I live better? And um, a man of understanding, it says he's gonna attain wise wise counsel, which means he's gonna hang around people who can lead him and guide him, not in the way that you might think it should go, but in the way that wisdom says it should go. Right. That's a it's a really good place to be, is when you have friends who might tell you

Fear Of The Lord And Humility

SPEAKER_02 31:00

something you don't want to hear, but was what is what you need to hear.

SPEAKER_04 31:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Yeah, no, I agree. Wise counsel is is crucial. We've talked about it in previous episodes of the podcast. Like your circle matters. Yeah, if you're surrounded by wise counsel, you're most likely gonna turn out wise yourself.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

Right?

SPEAKER_00 31:17

As long as you follow the Bible, just saying, just saying, as long as you know are humble before the Lord and all that and you fear the Lord, you'll probably turn out wise, bro.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

Gotta be aware of those around us. I really liked Proverbs 1, 22 and 23. We see that wisdom is not a thing that is impossible to attain for people. It's something that anybody can attain if they put the time and they put the effort. It says, How long, ye simple ones? Will you love simplicity? And then it drops down, skipping a little bit, but in 23 it says, Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto you. It's unto all people. It's not just a select amount, it's not just to those with a higher IQ or maybe esteem to be smarter than others, or in schools. It doesn't matter. If you seek it diligently, you're going to find it. He's going to reveal it to you time and time again.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Yeah, that's true. Dude, I'm glad you chose that uh those verses because I'm gonna pick up right where you dropped off. Uh verse 24 says, Because I have called and you refused, I've stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke, I will laugh at your calamity and I will mock you when terror comes. That is terrifying. Yeah. That's like he's what it's saying is when wisdom comes and when God comes and he knocks on our door, and we hear him knocking, and we know it's like, okay, well, God's trying to pull me to do this, and we just simpl we say, No, I don't want to. God's saying, because I've stretched my hand and you've told me no, and you've rejected everything that I'm standing for and everything I'm wanting you to do, yeah, I'm gonna laugh at you when you fall apart because you could have had successfulness, you could have been where I needed you to be, where I wanted you to be, and where you should have been. But because you've told me no, I'm gonna laugh when your plan doesn't work. That's terrifying.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

Also, just like how much of a symbolism that is for wisdom itself. It's like wisdom in that verse is kind of like a person laughing at you, and that's kind of funny to think about. Like the whole book, so our the whole chapter so far has been like, you know, fear the Lord. That's the speaking of wisdom, and then it tells you to run from unfoolish things, run from sin. And it it talks about wisdom and how everybody can get wisdom. And then here we have it, and it's kind of like you know, if you ignore wisdom, it's not just gonna stay there. Like if you ignore wisdom and then get in a bad situation and you've ran from wisdom, say you you get fired from your job because you were acting the fool, or you get arrested because you did something really, really dumb. Um, or something even worse than that. You find yourself in a horrible situation, and you're just like, wisdom, where are you? Wisdom's gonna laugh in your face. Wisdom, wisdom was there the whole time. And you ignored it.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

Yeah, it's just knocking and saying, like, be better, do better, do the wise thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Yeah, like it's not wisdom's fault that you did all these dumb things. Like you did that, and the whole time wisdom was like, psst, hey, you need help? I'm right here, I'm right here, just you know, follow proverbs, and then it's like nope, I'm super smart.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

Yeah, that's so crazy, bro. You look at um I will I'm just looking at it now, and two verses down it says, then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently and they will not find me. That's right. It's like once you reject them, like I don't I'm not gonna say you're not gonna ever find God once you reject him, because that's not true. Like he's always there for you. But I would definitely be careful with what you're pushing away and who you're pushing away, because that's not that's not the best idea.

SPEAKER_04 34:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

And from that verse that you just said, twenty twenty-eight, or what was it? Uh 28. Yeah. Uh I found that I I thought that God grants us what we desire. Yeah. What are we going after? Well, he's gonna give you whatever you're working after. You're gonna at some point attain what you have been working toward, even if it's not a very godly goal. You're going to get what you sow. You're going to reap what you sow, whether it's in good things or in bad things. So we gotta be careful what we invest in in our lives as Christians, you know. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 35:29

It's like the consequences we were talking about. Like with the simple question, like you don't you don't necessarily mean to do evil sometimes, but you didn't make a wise decision, and you're gonna pay the price for it, whether you feel sorry about it or not, you made a bad decision whenever the good decision was an option. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

And then I kind of like near the the end of the chapter, it kind of ties it all together looking at verse 31, where it says, Therefore they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes. Like it's like we just talked about, you can't just ignore wisdom, and then when things finally get bad, when things finally get rough for you and you're in a bad situation, you can't just like look for the easy way out. Yeah, there's no like ticket out of that. The Bible literally tells you you have to accept the consequences, you must eat the better fruit that the bitter fruit that you grew yourself.

Enticement, Bad Company, And Wise Counsel

SPEAKER_00 36:20

You are the reason the fruit's bitter, and now you have to eat it. So I think that's a really cool way to end out the chapter, like letting you know there's a finality to it. Yeah, like if you ignore wisdom all your life, you can't just turn around and get out of that. Like this is serious. Right. Wisdom is not a choice, it's a lifestyle, you know. Exactly. Yeah, and it ties right into kind of what past it ties right into kind of what Pastor Jared was saying. Like you gotta accept the consequences. Right.

SPEAKER_05 36:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

It's gonna happen. You can't just get out of that.

SPEAKER_05 36:50

Exactly. And that kind of that ties into chapter two perfectly because it starts talking about how wisdom isn't something that you just you get and it stays with you no matter what you do. You have to work on it. You have to daily grow it and you have to feed it and you have to actively seek it and grow in it. And it's not like a one-time decision, it's a daily choice. It's something you have to search for every day, yeah, and you need to learn more every day. You need to you should never have the mindset of I know it all or I know enough. Because you don't. You can learn something new every day from the Bible. Just open it to a random page and you'll see something you didn't find before. I promise you.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

Yeah, yeah. Like you said with instruction, chapter two starts off in verses one to four. It gives us like several things we should be actively doing. Receive my words, hide my commandments, incline your ear, apply thine heart, cryest after knowledge, lift up thy voice for understanding, seek her as silver, search for her as hidden treasures. And then back to the beginning of how chapter one started, chat uh Proverbs chapter two, verses five says, Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Yeah. It all ties back to fearing God, obeying his commands, being step by step.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

Yeah, I like how it's worded because it says, If you receive.

SPEAKER_03 38:02

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

And treasure. So that you incline, and then you apply, and if you cry and lift up, if you seek and search, then you will understand. So there's always there, we have to do our part. It's not gonna be just God, he's not just gonna give us something, we're not working for it. It's us we have to seek after wisdom and say, Okay, I want wisdom and discernment and knowledge and understanding. And then it's like when Solomon, uh, this isn't in Proverbs, but he gave his request to God, and he was God was like, Well, what's one thing you want? Solomon said, I want wisdom. And the Bible says that please God, so he gave him wisdom. So it's like if you want wisdom, just ask God for it, he's gonna give it to you as long as you're truly seeking wisdom.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

Right. Yeah, because wisdom is not accidental, like it just talks about it. It's valuable. Like it literally just said, like Luke just talked about it, it's like a treasure. You it should be a treasure, you have to seek for it like it's a treasure.

SPEAKER_05 38:56

Yeah, and it's not hiding from us, like God doesn't hide it or withdraw wisdom and good things from us, it's in our face, and whether or not we choose to obey it and find it and seek it is part of free will that we have. And I think that a lot of people automatically think that the term free will is like a negative thing. It's kind of like a side note, but I think free will is usually like thought of as like a negative thing. Like, whenever I think of it, I'm like, oh, we have the free will to make a bad decision. Like, why don't we just think of it in a good way? You know what I mean? Like, we have the free will to do the right thing or to be nice to people or to praise God. Like, we don't have to do the bad just because it's free will. You have the free will to do the right thing too.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Yeah, very good point. Free will to read the Bible.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

Very true. Now that you say that, every time I think about free will, it's like, well, what in the world am I gonna do now? Right. Right? Right. But instead, we can look at free will and say, okay, well, this person hurt me. Now I can be nice to them, even though they don't, they might not deserve it. Or I can go to this person who doesn't know Jesus and spread the gospel because I have free will.

SPEAKER_05 39:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:55

That's a I'm glad you brought that up.

SPEAKER_05 39:57

I know. It's kind of like a random thought when I was doing like going through Proverbs. I was like, wait, yeah, why did I think of it in a bad way?

SPEAKER_00 40:03

I have the free will to follow God and seek wisdom.

SPEAKER_05 40:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Then moving on to Proverbs three. This is one of my favorite uh Bible verses since I was a kid. Um Proverbs V three, five through six, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. So it talks kind of like what we've been talking about. You have to seek wisdom, you have to seek the Lord. Um, and this verse, verse five through six, is telling you to trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, and that's hard to do because we're human. You you want to understand things. Um God will do something and you will not understand it because sometimes you just can't because he's God, and you'll just sit there like, God, why are you doing this? What's happening? Tell me what's going on. What are you doing? Fill me in. It's literally telling you.

SPEAKER_05 41:22

It's like, what's happening next? Like, what why are you doing this? But it's just part of like human nature to want the control over our own life.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

Right. And and it's about trust. You have to trust in God over your own understanding of what God's doing. And if you do that, and in all thy ways, acknowledge him. That is on fire for God. You're living for God. This isn't just accidental. This is you're making the the choice. In every choice you make, you're considering God. Yeah. Like in all your ways.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

It's not just a Sunday decision. Like this is seven days a week.

SPEAKER_00 41:55

Yeah. And it's just if you do that, if you trust in the Lord with all thine heart, He will direct your paths. You'll be taken care of. Um, I just feel like some of us get so caught up in directing our paths and what's our future gonna be? Um, what job am I gonna take? What what degree am I gonna go for in college? Right. Um, who am I gonna marry? All these things that, yeah, they're important decisions, but you can get so caught off worrying about your future and you can miss the God of your future.

SPEAKER_04 42:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:21

If you just set your heart after God and trust in Him, He will line up your every step.

SPEAKER_04 42:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

And I've just I've

Wisdom Calls And Consequences Of Refusal

SPEAKER_00 42:30

always loved that verse as a kid because it shows you that no matter what, if you just trust in the Lord with all thine heart, he will direct your path and you'll be okay. He's good to his people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

In the in the same route of uh paths, it's not just our spiritual paths. Like in uh verse three and four, it uh part of it says, Bind wisdom around your neck, write them upon the table of thine heart heart, so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. So it doesn't just affect your spiritual life, it changes how others perceive you, which is also the spirit living inside of us, but also how we conduct ourselves. You know, the spirit isn't always just active, it's it's part of us. We have to make that decision to be different.

SPEAKER_05 43:14

Yeah, I really like that. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 43:16

Yeah, because I mean, no matter what you've been told or what you feel about the current climate of the world, if you're a good, respectful person and people around you know you as wise, people uh in school, people at your job, if they know you as a trustworthy person, if they know that you like you treat people good, you treat people with kindness, people are gonna be drawn to you. Right. Like that's just gonna happen. If you just follow God's word and live how God tells you to live, people are just gonna be drawn to you because they'll be like, that's different. Right. I want to be around like this person. I feel something different with them. Like they treat me differently, they treat me like they actually care. And people will just be drawn to that. That's just gonna happen.

SPEAKER_05 43:52

And people will go to you when they need advice when they need prayer.

SPEAKER_00 43:55

That's right. Yeah, that's a real good point, Lou.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Um jumping down to verse 9, it says, Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase. So this is uh some people's favorite thing to do. I love to tithe.

SPEAKER_03 44:15

I don't love to tithe, but I do it anyway.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

Man, I'm not gonna lie, there's been some times where I got paid working in the summer and I was like, oh man, I made good money, and then I realized 10% just vanished. Yeah, but this is saying like all of your increase, everything that you're increasing on, make sure that you're given not the second fruit, but the first portion. Before you before you spend it, before you do anything else, make sure you're giving back the blessing, part of the blessing that God has given to you.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

Right.

SPEAKER_05 44:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

Yeah, because it's all God's anyway, at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 44:49

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_05 44:50

And it's not for no reason. Like right after in verse 10, it says, So your barns will be filled with plenty and your basketball will flow with new wine. Like you, it's not don't do it because you want something out of it. But it's if it you have the right heart, and you have a giving heart, and you like Pastor Jared says, you put a smile on your giving, yeah, he will return it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 45:10

Continue to increase. Like it's literally God seeing if you'll be a good steward of his blessing. Yeah. Like he's not gonna bless you if you take it and then just steal from him, basically. Yeah. Like, imagine doing that to someone else. You start giving them money and they just start wasting it. And all you ask is for like 10% of it back. Yeah. They just start blowing you off. Like you're not giving them any more money.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

Yeah, and no matter how much money we pay or how much time we put in, we can never repay the debt that we already have.

SPEAKER_03 45:35

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

Like this man really came down and died a death. That we deserve to die. The least that I can do is give him 10% or give him an hour of my time. That's true.

SPEAKER_05 45:47

Yeah. I'm looking at um Proverbs 13. I love I love that one because it says, Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. And it goes on and on about, you know, like how your life will be different and how you will be much better if you have wisdom. But it's just so go read it if you really want to like, you know, dive into it and see how much better your life could be when you're wise and you make good decisions.

SPEAKER_00 46:10

Dude, who would have thought that if you follow the Bible, your life will be better, man?

SPEAKER_05 46:15

Right?

SPEAKER_00 46:15

Never would have saw that coming. But but yeah, that's good. And I feel like I feel like going back a bit, I feel like you can't he can't kind of skip over this. Like we need to talk about it. Proverbs 3, 11 through 12. My son despise not the chastity of the Lord, neither be wary of his correction, for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth. Um, that can be a tough pill to swallow because some of us don't like being corrected. Um and that's kind of why all the way at the beginning, we talked about the the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord. Um, you have to humble yourself before God, you have to accept that that correction. That he knows more than you. You have to accept the discipline, and that's what it's telling you. Um, you may be doing something crazy, and God's just like, yo, what are you doing, bro? And he may have to like reel you back in. He may have to send a bad experience your way, uh a little bit of a rough, stormy sea your way to get you back on track. And that's not because God doesn't love you. It's because he loves you.

SPEAKER_05 47:16

He does it out of law because he wants you to be okay and he wants the best for you. And so when he sees you going the wrong direction, he's like, No, come back.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

He reproves us because he loves us, you know. Exactly. That's the beautiful thing about it.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

Have you ever seen like those kids like that you can tell that they haven't been disciplined at all? Every day. You see them out when you go to theme parks, like they are just like screaming and crying, or when you go to grocery stores and the mom's like, no, you can't get this toy, and the kid like hits his mom. Like, you can't do that. Yeah, and like that's kind of like what we can be like sometimes, and that's what we would be like as believers if God didn't, you know, correct us. We'd be doing some crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_03 47:53

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 47:54

And other people would be like, What are these fools doing?

SPEAKER_03 47:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:57

But no, God corrects us because he loves us and because he wants us to be better.

SPEAKER_04 48:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

It's good to be hit upside the head with God's shepherd staff every time, and drawing sheep back into the pasture.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

That's the truth.

Seeking Wisdom Daily And Free Will

SPEAKER_00 48:10

Sometimes we deserve a smack in the head. Sweet like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:15

Light concussion.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

Yeah, I think it uh I think talking about that it it does tie into, you know, we just talk about love. We just talked about the met the message that Pastor Jared talked about on love and how sometimes we can get the uh the warped understanding that correction isn't love, that this discipline isn't love, that that chastising is like rejection or something like that, just something along those lines. But no, you the a pain, if you feel pain and you're living for God, that pain isn't proof that God's abandoning you. Um, you know, sometimes that pain just happens because you know we live on earth, like we're gonna go through pain no matter what. But sometimes the pain is there because he loves you, because that pain is there to get you to the next level, to get you past the hurdle you've been stuck at for a long time. So pain isn't proof of abandonment, that's just sometimes God's correction. And you have to understand that and accept that.

SPEAKER_05 49:12

I got a visual for you from what you just said.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

I am so ready.

SPEAKER_05 49:15

Everyone close your eyes.

SPEAKER_00 49:17

My eyes are shut.

SPEAKER_05 49:18

So, like, imagine you're like running a race, okay? Or you're running like a hurdle. What are those called? Hurdle thawns? What? I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 49:24

I think it's just called a hurdle. Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_05 49:26

A hurdle 100-meter thing.

SPEAKER_00 49:28

The hurdle thawn. 100 meter hurdle. Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_05 49:30

So you're about to run it, right? And you're like, you're kind of getting to the hurdle, and then you keep falling at it, and you keep messing it up. So then you like you go backwards a little bit, and then you get a running start, and you go extra fast and extra high, and you get over that hurdle and you move on. That's what God's doing. It's like you got stuck, but he said, You know what? You messed up a little bit, but now you're gonna get a running start, and you're gonna go back.

SPEAKER_03 49:56

Back it up.

SPEAKER_05 49:57

I know y'all like that. Y'all see it? Y'all see the vision? I see the vision.

SPEAKER_00 50:02

I'll remember that next time I run a hurdle thon.

SPEAKER_04 50:04

Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:08

I got a little different point, just something I wanted to throw in there real quick. Uh Proverbs 3.14, talking about wisdom. It says, for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof is better than fine gold. Who better to say this than Solomon? He chose wisdom over riches and received both. Yeah. His whole life. True. How amazing.

SPEAKER_05 50:32

That is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 50:33

Yeah, and jumping down to uh verse 18, it says, or well, the end of 17, beginning eighteen, it says, Her way is her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happier all who retain her. And this is talking about wisdom. So it's saying like the path of wisdom is peace, and we can hide under the tree and have life through wisdom. Like we have we have shade under the tree, we can grab onto life and have a peaceful life with wisdom.

SPEAKER_05 51:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

Yeah, because you can avoid a lot of bad, uncomfortable things if you just you know have wisdom. If you're seeking after wisdom, you will avoid a lot of bad situations in your life.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

Yeah. And it says happier all, which means there's there's not people who have wisdom that are mad at their wise. Like you can't be mad. Oh man, I have wisdom. Like I've never smart, man. I'm so mad that I'm making a wise decision.

SPEAKER_03 51:31

Guys, I suffer that problem every day. So it's too wise. Where you're at in 18, where you say she's a tree of life to them that hold lay hold upon her, and happy is everyone that retaineth her. The writer of the book, Solomon, who was granted wisdom by God, even knew that you had to work to retain it. Oh, absolutely. It wasn't just something that he was gonna be given and just have for the rest of his life. He had to keep seeking it, keep holding on to it, not just say, Oh, God gave it to me, you know.

SPEAKER_05 52:04

Yeah, I think there's a lot of ways to practice it. Like verse 28 says, Do not say to your neighbor, go and come back and tomorrow I'll give it. When you have it with you, do not devise evil against your neighbor, for he dwells by you for safety's sake. Like we were saying, people see there's a difference in you, and imagine if people are like, wow, she looks like like I should go ask her to pray for me, or she could help me, or I could talk to her about something I need help with. But imagine they come up to you and you're having a quote unquote bad day, and you're rude to them, and

Trust In The Lord And Directed Paths

SPEAKER_05 52:30

then you you just squander a witness because you were in a bad mood for a little while. But don't do that because imagine if God did that when we would get we were suffering or we get in a problem and he just like runs away and he's like, No, I can't help you today, come back tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 52:43

I mean, can you imagine if Jesus just had a really bad day right before the Garden of Gethsemane and he was like, You know what? I'm not take me back to heaven, God. I'm not doing this. You know what?

SPEAKER_03 52:52

Angels come down and save me now.

SPEAKER_02 52:54

We'd be we'd be legions and legions of angels. Come help me.

SPEAKER_03 52:59

Bring me home. Man in Proverbs three, twenty-five, and twenty-six, it says, Be not afraid of a sudden fear, neither of the dis desolation of the wicked when it cometh. For the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken. There is a war for every step we take as believers. Just as in verse twenty-three, we see that our foot will not stumble. To answer this, it is stated that God will keep our foot. It is closer to God, and it we must stay closer to Him.

SPEAKER_02 53:31

That's a good point. Yeah, it's definitely I think I've used this description before, but I heard uh I think it was Brother Jeff Arnold. He talked about like people view Christian Christianity as a cruise ship. He was like, it's a battleship, Bubba. That's right. You gotta every day it's a fight. It's good. It's it's not gonna be sunshine or rain. Now, some days it might be great, but other days like you're gonna be you're gonna be warring.

SPEAKER_03 53:53

Same with wisdom. Yeah, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 53:55

Yeah, but yeah, that's really good. It's a constant battle, but as long as you stay, you know, aligned with God, He's gonna keep your foot, bro. Like every step be alright. Every step.

SPEAKER_02 54:03

He's all rock.

SPEAKER_05 54:05

Okay, I have another vision for you guys.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

Oh boy, oh boy.

SPEAKER_05 54:07

Okay, so like imagine you're in like a parts of the Caribbean movie. Am I hurdle thawning? No, listen. This time you're on a part of the Caribbean ship. And like two of the ships are like fighting each other and like one of those things, cannonballing each other. But like you're on the ship that's really big, and like, yeah, you're taking some damage, but at the end of the day, they sunk and you floated. So it's a win-win for you. Yeah. Not the other boat though.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

That's right. They're they're just what are we getting out of that?

SPEAKER_05 54:33

I think what we're talking about, because oh, we're on God's boat, by the way. This is God's big boat battle.

SPEAKER_02 54:40

So God's boat sunk though. We're all on God's boat. Yeah, exactly. I was trying to I didn't know what I was supposed to take away from this vision.

SPEAKER_05 54:45

There were still enemies and you were in enemy territory, and so like they kind of nicked your boat a little bit, but at the end of the day, God was like, ultimate cannonball.

SPEAKER_00 54:53

Yeah, wisdom was in our boat, right?

SPEAKER_05 54:55

Cannonball?

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Lincoln. You are a pirate. Remember that?

SPEAKER_05 54:59

Yes, sir. You're a pirate. Be a pirate for God.

SPEAKER_02 55:02

If we have any people who want to be pirates, volunteer at Kids Church too. You can dress about the pirate every single time.

SPEAKER_05 55:07

Our entire theme right now is pirates, and it's a good time.

SPEAKER_00 55:10

Disclaimer, there is no tomfoolery of that nature with our kids. They're not introduced to actual pirates. We wouldn't do that. We're good people.

SPEAKER_05 55:18

Oh. I just called Johnny Depp. He's on his way.

SPEAKER_00 55:21

You did not do that.

SPEAKER_03 55:22

You did not.

SPEAKER_05 55:24

Continue with Proverbs. Honestly, I like Proverbs 30 because it says do not strive with a man without cause if he has done you no harm. I think as a girl, I do this a lot. Like you just kind of like, we need to pick our battles. Because I really just be like getting mad at okay. Y'all don't have to all nod your heads at me like this. We're being men right now.

SPEAKER_00 55:50

Listen, when I'm on the road and there's bad drivers, finally I I would fight every single one of those people, bro. Absolutely. Yeah. Dude, this weird thing has been going on in my life recently. Dude, I don't know if it's a test from God for patients, but at the roundabout, um, near our house, uh, near me and my dad's house, um, dude, people just forgot how a roundabout works. And it blows my mind.

SPEAKER_05 56:19

Do they stop in the middle?

SPEAKER_00 56:20

They go around it like twice. They drive up to it, and then there's a car on the opposite end of the roundabout, and they wait for that car to go all the way around before they go.

SPEAKER_05 56:28

I jump the curb and just go first.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

I sit there and I lay on the horn. And I need to God, I need patience. But it's not just me and my defense, it's all the cars behind us, too.

SPEAKER_02 56:39

Patience. That's horrible. Did you pray for patience?

SPEAKER_00 56:42

I did after that because I needed some. But after six seconds of stopping there when he could have drove and he just didn't, I kind of lost that patience. And I'm just being real.

SPEAKER_05 56:52

Hey, vulnerable moments on here. That's what this podcast is all about.

SPEAKER_00 56:55

And then this morning the same thing happened, and I almost just turned around and went home. It was a bad omen. Not going.

SPEAKER_02 57:01

Yeah. Very low moment for Hudson.

SPEAKER_03 57:03

So kind of back to uh Proverbs 30, the verse before it 29, it says, Devise not evil against thy neighbor, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee. And then I'll just read 30 again. Strive not with a man without cause if he have done thee no harm. So why are we going against our neighbor whenever we see they live in peace and wisdom? Why are we despising that? Why are we not happy for our neighbor? That's a good question. Is it because we're not in that? Is it because we're not in wisdom, we don't have wisdom, that we attack others that seem successful or seem better than us?

SPEAKER_00 57:37

Yeah. Because we can get jealous, bro.

SPEAKER_02 57:39

Yeah, that's right.

Tithing, Stewardship, And Favor

SPEAKER_02 57:40

I was about to say, I think jealousy plays a big part in that. Because like leveling up with God is something every one of us can obtain. Like we can all go to a higher level. But because of our like complacency, sometimes we might not go where we because of our complacency, sometimes we might not reach the levels God's calling us to. But somebody who's striving to be great for God might. That's right. Because I'm looking like if if you if Luke went to a level that I know I could have gone to and I didn't go to because of my complacency, I can get jealous and say, Oh, how come he did it? Or now I'm mad at him because he did it because I know deep down it's my fault that I'm not there.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a really good point. Um, don't be jealous, man. That's a that's a whole nother can of worms that we can get into.

SPEAKER_02 58:32

Big can of worms.

SPEAKER_03 58:34

Strive out strive not without calls.

SPEAKER_04 58:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:37

But but yeah, guys, we've talked a lot. We've um yeah, again, I'm just I'm really excited about this new proverb series that we're doing. Yeah, too.

SPEAKER_05 58:47

This is going really well.

SPEAKER_00 58:49

Yeah, I'm excited to go through the rest of Proverbs, but we've we've talked about a lot today. We've talked about Pastor Jared's message on love and how moral of the story, end of the day. Base your worth on God's word. You are loved simply because God created you, and that's that. Don't base your love on the things around you. You have to understand and internalize that God loves you no matter what. And once you realize that, you'll finally answer the question. I am loved. So we talked about that. And, you know, we just talked about proverbs and be wise guys, seek after wisdom, be humble before God. Um, I think you'll hit kind of all the other things we talked about if you just seek after wisdom. Don't do dumb things. Um, look at the counsel around you, seek wise counsel. If your friends entice you to go murder a bunch of old people, you know, say no. Yeah, don't go do that. Be wise guys. Yeah, but seek after wisdom and try to apply the things that we're talking about in Proverbs. Like, yeah, we're not just saying here making this stuff up, like this stuff is in your Bible. You gotta seek wisdom, you gotta seek the Lord with all of your heart and everything you do. So that's my challenge. Just apply the things that we're talking about in Proverbs. Um, it'll change your life, really. That's why it's there.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:06

Yeah, like you were saying, like things we could do in daily life, just to uphold, you know, having wisdom and stuff. Treat others justly. You need to do that, treat others fairly, how we want to be treated, avoid pride and violence and envy, like you were just saying the violence and everything. And remember that God honors the humble, but he resists the arrogance. So always be humble.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:25

Amen.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:25

And I really love this proverbs thing, like you guys were just saying, because I loved hearing what you guys said, because you guys had some stuff that I never would have thought of. I loved it. So, anyway, guys, um, I think we did really good today. And make sure to the listeners that you guys tune in next week for another podcast. See you then.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:42

Bye guys, bye guys. Bye.