Go Get It

Joel Gorveatte · Tidal Church Moncton · January 9, 2022 · Finding Wisdom series

Joel Gorveatte begins the Finding Wisdom series in Proverbs 1 and 4:7, showing that wisdom is doing what is right, not just knowing it. Our default is foolishness, so we must choose to go get wisdom, even though it costs us.

More from Joel Gorveatte · The Finding Wisdom series

Topics: Faith, Purpose, Discipleship

Transcript

[0:00] I just wonder as we get ready to go into to our Bible teaching today if we could continue in an attitude of prayer with all of the challenges that continue in our community and around the world and I just feel a heavy burden for what Scripture tells us to do which is to pray for kings and leaders and those in authority and feel the responsibility for us to do that yet again this morning. Could we just take a minute before we get into our teaching? Heavenly Father, Lord, we live in such challenging days and just in a conversation with somebody this morning who is expressing their appreciation for this church and how we've tried to navigate these difficult times and yet the reality is Lord we know that we live in a world of division and anger and Lord it's so easy for us to sit back and criticize on all sides and yet we know one thing we know one thing that you're a good God that you are faithful and that scripturally you have called us to pray for those in authority and so we pray that here in our province we pray that for leaders around the world Lord we pray that for community health leaders right now we pray that for medical staff and those who are working so hard here and around this country and around the world in this Omicron surge and Lord we look forward with expectation believing that greater things are yet to come though the season may last for a night

[2:00] joy comes in the morning and so Lord we thank you that as we were reminded this morning you are our living hope in Jesus name we pray and thank you and everybody say together hey let me ask you a question folks as we start this brand-new series today how many of you ask a visit pray how many of you are you ready to study God's word today come on I know everybody's just everybody snowed in and masked up and tired out right and so I don't know about you but I am ready to get to the foundation for our lives the Word of God and and to ask the Holy Spirit to give us revelation in our lives for whatever you're going through and I think this series is the right thing for this season we're starting a brand new series today called finding wisdom now we've kind of joked in the office that that we think there should be a subtitle to this that we should you know that it's more than that why do we need to find wisdom and so honestly I seriously considered calling the series this finding wisdom because people out there be crazy amen but I'm not sure that that would be very wise that sounds kind of harsh and and judgmental so we don't want to say that so instead we're just going to call the series finding wisdom and we're begin today in the book of Proverbs because today if you ever feel like wisdom is hard to find when you look around the world there's a reason for that the Bible tells us in the book of Proverbs and as we get started in this today I think the key is first of all we need to define the word wisdom because there is a difference between knowledge and

[4:02] wisdom and this can confuse us sometimes because they sound very similar but there is a difference knowledge is just like it sounds knowledge is about what you know but wisdom is what you do right do you see the difference knowledge is knowing the right stuff or knowing lots of stuff maybe we know lots of stuff but not necessarily the right stuff and wisdom though is actually knowing what to do Tracy and I got married when we were students in college and when we were in University we got married at a really young age and and like we encourage everybody to do even to this day we made it a priority to get premarital counseling and so we talked about who should we pick and we decided to pick somebody who I'm not gonna say his name we'll just call him my hero because this guy who had been my hero was he was an amazing leader an amazing teacher and and preacher and I mean he was the kind of guy he would get up on the platform and people would hang on his every word you know he would tell stories and you'd have you crying one minute and and laughing the next minute and unpacking biblical truth in an amazing way and he was so captivating and so much so that a university actually hired him to train up young leaders and so so we we asked him to to do our premarital counseling and graciously he agreed to so and so we met in his office with him every week at the University and we sat down with him and he taught us about life he taught us about marriage he taught us about relationships and and about priorities and about finances and

[6:03] every time he opened his mouth it was just like knowledge and smart stuff came spilling out and so we got married and we started to try to apply all of this knowledge to our lives into our marriage when shockingly three years later it came out that he was having an inappropriate relationship with a student and he was messing around with a student and he lost his marriage he lost his job he lost everything that he had been working for and and and what you realize is that he had a lot of knowledge he knew the right stuff he knew what to do but what he lacked was wisdom he knew it but he didn't do it and and and one of the problems in our world today I think is not just a lack of knowledge which again we as I said a minute ago that sometimes it's not just knowing a lot of stuff it's knowing the right stuff but we have access to more information than ever before in the history of the world with the internet and the little devices that we carry in our pockets and in our purses that now you know we have every answer to any question that you could ever find although we have a hard time knowing whether the answers are accurate or not because you know more and more we're like we don't know what to trust and and and what we find is this that that knowledge without wisdom can actually be a dangerous thing we see that in our world today that knowledge without wisdom actually causes more problems than it solves and so as we get started today we're gonna launch into

[8:03] the book of Proverbs now a lot of this series comes from Proverbs not every bit of it not the entire series but we are gonna spend some time in this book and it's really handy because it's 31 chapters which comes out to exactly a period of one month and so all of our small groups we're encouraging as a small group together to do the Proverbs challenge to spend one day one chapter every day for 31 days to get through the book of Proverbs and I hope that you will consider doing that maybe today you would start with chapter one tomorrow with chapter two Tuesday with chapter three and here's what I hope God will do for you if you will ask him then maybe each day God will give you one verse maybe one proverb in each chapter that really speaks to you and maybe you can take that that one verse that one proverb and maybe you can write it down maybe you can put it on your phone maybe you could print it out or write it on a stick-it note and and put it on the mirror in in your bathroom or put it on the refrigerator door and that that that proverb could be something that verse could be something that maybe God wants to to speak wisdom into your life about and so what you do that is you read through one chapter every day in the book of Proverbs over the next 31 days don't just read it and close the book and walk away but to to read it and ask God is there one particular verse that stands out that you want to teach me something about today and so let's get started in chapter one for the introduction here in in chapter one verse one it says this is the pro these are the Proverbs of Solomon son of David king of Israel for gaining wisdom so it tells us what these Proverbs are for they are for gaining wisdom and instruction

[10:06] for understanding words of insight for receiving instruction in prudent behavior doing what is right and just and fair forgiving prudence to those who are simple knowledge and discretion to the young let the wise listen and add to their learning and let the discerning get guidance for understanding proverbs and parables the sayings and riddles of the wise the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction again the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise what fools despise wisdom and so let's talk for a minute about why the book of Proverbs is so valuable for us first of all because Proverbs helps foolish become smart how many of you would say that there are times that you did something said something thought something bought something when all of a sudden you said oh cheese and crackers i can't believe i did that have you ever been there like what was i thinking i i think a few of these pictures represent people who could use the book of proverbs uh for example don't tell anybody it's a secret nuclear bunker nobody's gonna find it right or uh i don't think this transportation mode is going to work out too well thanks for laughing mark i appreciate that very much uh and how about this one uh i i bob just wait i can get more into the wood chipper i promise i'll get get it taken care of or maybe when you're this is proof positive of why women have a

[12:07] longer life expectancy than men or maybe when you're having trouble finding a place to park you can make a space anywhere they say if you're confident enough uh i don't know about you but i find this car very appealing appealing groans are appreciated it's okay uh if you ever wonder what makes the hamburgers taste so good our secret ingredient is our people our secret ingredient is our people i i'm not sure exactly i think i know what they were trying to communicate with this one kids with gas eat free uh and uh and then here's my favorite i think the dynasty buffet needs to get their sign fixed don't you think that that would be helpful these these are people who need the book of proverbs right and so so proverbs helps foolish become smart and my prayer for each one of us is each day as we spend some time in a particular chapter in each chapter every day over the next 31 days that maybe god will speak to you with some specific proverbs that you need to hear some specific verses that speak to a situation in your life and the spirit of god is going to speak wisdom into your situation and maybe even wisdom into your there we say foolishness all of us are foolishness and here's why this is so beautiful number two because proverbs is from a father's heart proverbs did you know this is actually a collection of writings from a father to a son this is Solomon writing to his son and you find that when you move from verse seven where we stopped and

[14:09] move into the very next verse verse eight he says listen my son to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching there a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck my son if sinful men entice you do not give in to them and so what you're going to find over the next 31 days as you go through the proverbs chapter after chapter you're going to discover that this comes from the heart of a father who is pleading groaning almost crying out to his son saying listen son i have been through the world and i've learned some lessons the hard way i've learned what evil people do i've i've learned how the world tries to entrap us and ensnare us and trip us up i've learned how many mistakes that i've made that i wish i could have avoided and so son i want to give to you from some of the wisdom that i have learned the hard way and one of the main things you're going to see as you go through this chapter after chapter is what we call the law of trajectory now what is the law of trajectory in our lives well it goes something like this solomon says every day son you're going to have to make decisions there are decisions that you have to make every day about work and school and dating and marriage and sex and purity and finances and debt and time management and priorities and and son some of those decisions that you make are going to be life-altering huge decisions that you're going to wrestle over because you know that this decision has has massive consequences but there are also little decisions that you're

[16:09] going to have to make every day that do not seem consequential you think they're not a big deal because they're just little tiny decisions that you make every day and yet solomon says listen as you begin to add all of those up here's what happens these decisions determine your direction that all of these even the little decisions are like little course correctors every day that help you to either get closer to god and his best for your life or further away from god and away from his best for your life and so what happens is this as you add all of these up that your decisions every day determine your direction which ultimately determines your destiny and solomon says there's there are going to be times when you get to a certain point in your life and you're going to stop and wonder how in the world did i get at did i get here like why did my life turn out the way that it has and that at that point in your future you're going to stop and you're going to look back and you're going to realize that it was those choices that you were making when you were a teenager it was those choices that you were making when when you were in university when you started your career and and or when you chose who to marry or or when you you chose what to do with your time and and with your finances and when you how you chose to treat people every day those decisions added up to determine your direction tomorrow which ultimately determines your destination in life which is why proverbs is such a powerful book for us because it's solomon teaching his son what he wishes everybody could know and i think the theme

[18:10] for the entire book is found in chapter four verse seven so somewhere around what is that thursday maybe i think wednesday or thursday you're going to end up at chapter four and when you get to seven you're going to say oh this is the one that that maybe unlocks what the whole book of proverbs is actually about proverbs chapter four verse seven let's read it out loud together in unison here we go are you ready proverbs four verse seven says wisdom is supreme go ahead and help me out out loud wisdom is supreme therefore get wisdom though it cost all you have get understanding now at first this might not seem like that big of a deal at first it just kind of looks like oh well it just says that wisdom is important and so therefore you need to like make a choice to get it and and that is what it's saying but i think it's deeper than that when you read between the lines and when you when you go back to the ancient hebrew of the original text there are some translations that have have decided to word this a little bit differently like for example the rsv the revised standard version says this verse is saying the beginning of wisdom is this get it the beginning in other words where do you start when you when you make the decision to find wisdom in your life how do you begin that process well remember the law of trajectory remember it's the decisions you make today that determine your direction tomorrow which ultimately determines your destination and the first decision that we have to make to start heading in the right direction is this you have to make the decision to

[20:11] get it now let me let me interpret that for you here's what that means if wisdom is something you have to get it means that wisdom is something you don't already have right because if you already already had it then you wouldn't have to go get it right and so what does that mean it means something that actually kind of hurts our feelings a little bit it means that our natural born state is not wisdom that if there is a natural default position on the dial turn from either wise to foolish as human beings our natural default position is to foolishness and not to wisdom and so if our natural born state is foolishness in order to find wisdom in our life the first thing we have to do the law of trajectory says the first thing we have to do is to recognize that our default position is foolishness and make a decision to go in a different direction and and we believe that direction is Jesus right that's what we found and when you begin to understand this that our default position in the world is actually foolishness then all of a sudden things start to make sense you look around at the state of the world you look around at how most people end up in debt and divorce and and addiction and depression and all the things that are so natural in our world today where the world says we finally have it figured out thousands of years of human history and everybody else was a fool until today now we're the first generation in history to finally have it figured out right that's what we we hear all the time and yet the reality is we see that we live

[22:13] in a world today that thinks that it finally has everything filled figured out and yet foolishness is just as prominent today as it was three thousand years ago when Solomon wrote these words and so what we're going to do in this series is make the choice to go after wisdom together and and and as we do this as we for really more than a month i think we're probably going to spend about two months maybe in this series somewhere in that range because there is so much that the bible says in in these course corrections that we need to make in our in our lives and so in this series we're going to see stories of of amazing situations in scripture where wisdom was gained and we're gonna we're gonna see specific people in the bible hear stories of these amazing people we're going to learn specific principles from god's word to help us go after wisdom together but before we do i want to point to proverbs 4 verse 7 just one more time because there's something here that we don't want to miss wisdom is supreme it says therefore get wisdom though it cost what though it cost all you get understanding in other words wisdom is going to cost you something it does not come easily in our lives see the reality is that that many times the gain of wisdom comes at the expense of pain have you ever noticed that sometimes the wisest people you know are actually the

[24:14] people who have been through the hardest trials isn't that true why is that it's because safe comfortable lives very seldom yield wisdom people wonder why does god allow us to go through so many difficult situations it's because they become the crucible that determine which direction we are going to run towards towards the wisdom of god or the foolishness of the world wisdom comes at great cost though it cost all you have what else might it cost you it might cost you some relationships because if if the the the default position of our world is foolishness scripture says that what we find is that the world often mocks and rejects the wisdom of god and so you can expect when you begin to pursue god's wisdom in your life people might start to mock and reject you that's what we find all throughout the bible that it's true what else wisdom might cost you wisdom might cost you having to change your mind about some things wisdom might cost you having to change your your priorities about some things see wisdom often comes at great cost but what we find throughout the history of the world and the narrative of scripture is this while wisdom is costly it is worth it and so as we go through this chapter after chapter after chapter over the next month can we pray that here together as we start the year 2022 that god would grant us the wisdom that

[26:16] we need would you stand with me lord we thank you that you have met with us here today those who came here to be with us in person and those who made it a priority to join us on the live stream lord thank you for your faithfulness to meet us here today and lord i just i just want to stop and pray for anybody right now who has not yet found the ultimate source of what we need jesus the forgiveness of our sins that we sang about earlier in this service that jesus paid it all all that we owed the punishment we deserve jesus took it for us on the cross when he died in our place we can receive his forgiveness we can receive his new life and so lord right now for anybody who needs to make that decision right now in your heart would you just confess your sin confess our foolishness and receive his forgiveness lord convict us and show us the areas that we need to surrender to you in our lives and for everyone no matter where we are in this spiritual journey for those who have not yet made a decision for christ lord that that maybe this journey through the book of proverbs over the next month would

[28:17] begin to to open up a seed of hunger to get more into the word of god or maybe for those who are brand new christians that this would be a formational experience to begin to learn the wisdom of god and lord for those who have journeyed with jesus maybe for many many decades lord that this would be a reminder maybe even a course corrector about some areas where we've gotten off track some ways that we have begun to naturally think more like the world than like the word of god and so lord we look forward to this journey that we're going to take together in this series and we invite you to speak to us encourage us and transform us in the name of our lord and savior jesus christ we pray amen