Seek after God’s Wisdom
Proverbs 2:1-6
Most parents will do everything they can to meet the physical, emotional, intellectual, and educational needs of their children. But many times the most important asset we can impart to our children is to give them a thirst and hunger for wisdom.
Wisdom is not like, intelligence, personality, and talent, wisdom is not in our genetic makeup. The only way to obtain wisdom is from God. The bible devotes one entire book on the subject of wisdom, Proverbs.
My favorite scripture in the entire bible is and has been since I first started to read the scriptures comes out of Proverbs. 3:5-6. Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in ALL you do, he will direct your paths.
I like the way he says All. Meaning everything, the whole kit and caboodle.
You know the Bible uses that word All depending on what translation you’re using about 5621 times.
Now lets look at our text for today which just happens to come from Proverbs.
Proverbs 2:1-6
My child, listen to me and treasure my instruction.
Tune your ear to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.
Cry out for insight and understanding.
Search for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure.
Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.
For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. This is the word of God for the people of God.
Wisdom is OFTEN confused with intelligence.
To be able to create a computer program that will do some of the stuff that we do everyday takes a great deal of intelligence. Think about it, I type on my computer and people all over the world are able to read what I type in a matter of seconds..
Someone can push a button in NASA and a huge satellite in outer space will begin to turn to a different position.
It is mindboggling to think about how far we have come in the development of technology.
But intelligence does not guarantee us a productive and fulfilling life.
When it comes to raising children, building strong relationships, and growing in spiritual maturity we don’t rely on our intellect we rely on wisdom.
Real success in life, what God will recognize as success comes from --comes through acquiring wisdom that only God offers.
Another popular misunderstanding is that knowledge is wisdom. That is not the case. Knowledge is good but it is not wisdom. Knowledge without wisdom can sometimes be a real problem.
Wisdom enables us to act on the knowledge we have obtained.
Wisdom comes from God and the only way for us to get it is by having a healthy and vibrant relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Most people want a better understanding of the spiritual side of life but because of the temptations on the physical realm most don’t have the time or are aren’t simply unwilling to spend the time necessary to obtain that understanding.
A prime reason that many people don’t have a better understanding of God’s Word is due to their unwillingness to invest time and energy in persistent, and serious bible study.
If we really want to understand the scriptures we need to have a focused and systematic plan of study.
More importantly, after studying the word we need to make a commitment to apply the truths we learn from scripture to our daily lives.
When God sees that we are serious about pursuing truth and wisdom, he will open our minds to understand more and more of the magnificent mysteries of the spiritual life.
But we have to be serious and committed to God Which means we have to .
1. Love the Lord God with our whole heart, not just part of it.
2. We have to believe in the Lord Jesus as our savior and commit to following him with everything in us.
3. We have to be obedient to the commands of God.
These sound pretty simple and in a perfect world there would be no problem. But the fact is, we are not living in a perfect world. And there are many obstacles and barriers to living the kind of life that is pleasing to God.
The Bible is the bestselling book of all time. And you would think that with so many volumes sold that our world would be in better shape.
But buying a Bible and living by it are two different things.
Many of us own bibles but how much time do we really spend in it? Do we even spend as much time reading the scriptures as we do reading the newspaper of Facebook? It is truly amazing that the Bible remains at the top of the bestseller list but so few of them are worn out.
The Bible is not like other books that we read one time and then discard. I like to view it as a living parent that is always available to give me instruction and guidance when I need it. I see it as a source for obtaining peace and understanding when everything around me is in chaos.
At one point in history, the Bible or the scriptures were the source and basis for all authority. People lived according to what the scriptures taught.
But those days are long gone. The teachings in the Bible have been discarded in favor of a new and more popular teaching. Teachings created by our pursuit after the physical things of life rather than the spiritual.
The sad part of this is that the physical life that we feed by pursuing those thing that bring physical enjoyment and pleasure is the life that is going to die.
And the spiritual life which is being neglected and undernourished is the life that will live forever and the one that will suffer for all eternity if we fail to gain and use the wisdom God wants so desperately to give us.
Now I have to admit that I have been pretty caught up in the physical realm. I have spent a lot of time in pursuit of things that are temporary and things that provide pleasure and enjoyment for the flesh. To me success use to be having a lot of money, being able to do whatever I wanted when I wanted. Owning a lot of stuff. Nice homes, recreational vehicles, jewelry, clothes and lots and lots of electronics.
Today those things mean absolutely nothing to me. Today I seek only to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ and I have dedicate my life and made a commitment to God to clean up those areas in my life that keep me from being totally dedicated and loyal to him with my entire being.
For too long I have been determining success by the world’s standards instead of God standards.
For too long I have tried to live in two worlds. I wanted to please God but I wanted to please the flesh as well.
The bible clearly states, “"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
We cannot serve God with our whole heart if we are pursing after anything more than we are him.
Last Wednesday I needed to make a trip down to Tennessee to take care of some important business.
It was one of the best trips I’ve taken in a long time.
Not because it rained for over 400 miles going and coming.
Not because of the business I took care of.
It was a good trip because God used those 17 hours on the road to get my attention. He opened my eyes and helped me to see life and my call to ministry more clearly than ever before.
I’m retiring next year but now I see that my life in ministry is not ending it is just beginning.
God reminded me of several scriptures in the Bible that I needed to revisit.
One of them was Matthew 7 Where Jesus says: “Stop judging others and you will not be judged!.
For whatever measure use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judged. You better believe that got my attention! Because I know as well as you how easy it is to get caught up in taking someone’s else’s inventory.
And why worry about a speck in your brothers eye when you have log in your own?
That’s another thing I love about Jesus. He didn’t water down his words. He didn’t try to tip toe around the issue. He said exactly what needed to be said.
Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
The whole trip was like that. God was constantly bringing my attention to the areas in my life that need attention as well as giving me a sense of peace and calmness as I acknowledged how right he was.
I spent many hours asking God to pour out his wisdom on me. I have always considered myself a pretty intelligent person and I thought I knew exactly what God wanted when he called me into ministry.
But after last week I came home with a whole new perspective.
Life is not about being the best or the worst, winning or losing. It’s not about how much money we can make or where we’re going to spend our retirement. Life is not about any of the things the world is in a mad dash to obtain today.
Life is about building and nourishing our relationship with God. It is about devoting our entire life to being obedient to God.
Life is about understanding that God wants our full attention. Not just a hour on Sunday. Not just for a Bible Study during the week. God want to be the object of our whole existence.
If we want to master the challenges that life WILL throw at us as we go about our daily living, we must first understand the truths that are found only in the Word of God.
Wisdom comes to us through diligent searching of the scriptures and by being obedient to God. No other way.
Our culture says that the one who dies with the most toys win.
God says: “But he is still dead.”
