I am a fan of the long pass. Who of us isn’t really, right? Most of us as kids grow up wanting to be quarterbacks. We day dream of catching or throwing that game winning Hail Mary pass. Throwing and catching is a lot of fun to watch too...
This morning, I want to talk about what you pass on from one to another. Like in football, what you pass on either leads to success or contributes to failure. Here’s what you were intended to pass: Wisdom...
Listen to Proverbs 10:31: The mouth of the godly person gives wise advice, but the tongue that deceives will be cut off.
You and I are supposed to be passing wisdom to each other... Here’s the good news - every one of you can do that! Every one of you has the potential to pass on wisdom: To help someone grow, to help inspire someone, to champion someone ...to add value to their life. Every one of you has that potential!
I know what some of you are thinking... You are thinking, “But I’m not that wise!” Well, let me tell you about Jose.
Once a month we take a group from Crestview down to the Soup Kitchen. Its a great ministry. Austin Baptist Chapel (aka the soup kitchen) serves lunch 365 days a year to on average about 300 people a day. Most of the helpers are volunteers, but a few on the guests have become regulars and get offered to work there over time. One such guy is Jose. Jose is hard to understand. His accent is really strong and his humor is rough so the combination usually gets him ignored... Jose has one of the toughest jobs at the Soup Kitchen. He passes out tickets to the guests. Each person coming through the door and then later leaving passes right by Jose. Sometime last year I started noticing that Jose would have a saying, or a word of encouragement each day... He would usually try to tell us this word of encouragement - and again, because of his thick accent its lost - but then I noticed something amazing... Every person that passes by him, usually as they leave the soup kitchen, gets his piece of advice. He passes his word of encouragement along to anyone that will listen. His job is to hand out tickets, but what he really hands out is much, much more valuable - he hands out hope, and encouragement, and wisdom.
If Jose can do it - so can you... The key is to find someone to mentor. Someone to encourage. Someone to share with... You say, “But Pastor, I don’t have anyone” I say - “You just aren’t looking!” I promise you, that if you are a believer, and God is at work in you, then there is someone that you can pass on your wisdom to... Maybe its a group of women that sew together like Atrelle Wheeler and the sewing bees.
Or maybe you choose to go be part of a group that you don’t even have any affinity with - but you just want to share your wisdom...
When I first started serving here as Pastor there was an NA group that met here. NA stands for Narcotics Anonymous, its for people that have drug addictions. When I asked about the group people told me to go talk to Homer DeGlandon. I though, wow, I would have never guessed that Homer had a drug problem... Homer of course doesn’t. In fact, when everyone would give their little speech, “Hi my name is ________ and I’m addicted to...” Homer would say, his addiction was to blue bell ice cream! - so why was Homer there...faithfully, regularly. Why? To pass on wisdom...to encourage...to love.
You see we have this idea that wisdom - that wise advice - is beyond us. Most of us do not see ourselves as wise! We would never think for a minute that anything we could say would be considered “wisdom.”
But what is wisdom? You think about it. What is wisdom? is wisdom education? no... I have met plenty of people that are educated and yet not wise. Is wisdom just good advice or common sense? No, I think real wisdom goes deeper than that.
I believe that wisdom is “God’s perspective, or his understanding, on a matter.” Its the ability to look at a situation and see what God’s solution might be - or to see where God might be at work - or what God might want done. That’s why scripture teaches us that wisdom comes from God! Often that perspective, God’s perspective is much different than ours.
If you want wisdom - get close to God. Let me say that again, if you want to be a person of wisdom, get close to God and stay there... You want to know the best way to do that? Read and meditate on his Word.
This proverb says, “The mouth of the godly person gives wise advice!”
The reality is that most of us speak from our own mind, our own heart, our own desires - we do not speak from God’s heart. This proverb speaks also of the tongue that deceives... Most of us if we aren’t speaking for God, we speak out of our own selfish ambition. “I am going to give advice that really benefits me” or “I am going to say something that sounds good so that I will look good”
We’ve been in James in our Wed. night bible study. In the book of james there is a whole section almost a whole chapter devoted to our tongue - to our speech. We forget that our mouth reveals our heart.
If you aren’t dispensing wisdom... If you are not an encourager. If you are not very wise - get closer to God. Then when the time comes, and you speak - it will be from God.
