What is Wisdom and How do you get it?

Wisdom can sound like something dusty old men rant about on their porches, but in fact wisdom is a key to a life well lived. Paco is going to show us what the Bible says about wisdom and how God desires us to live wisely.

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    - Hey, happy Father's Day and welcome to Crossroads.
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    I'm Andy, online pastor,
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    and this is a church that you can be a part of
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    no matter what you believe or where you are watching from.
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    Today on Crossroads we're talking about wisdom,
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    not the kind of wisdom that TikTok offers,
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    but real, lasting dad-ly wisdom.
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    No, no, no. Godly wisdom.
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    What is it? How do we get it?
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    And what makes godly wisdom different from worldly wisdom?
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    Crossroads isn't just content.
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    We're actually a community.
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    We'd love for you to chat with us any time
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    during today's episode online,
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    and we'd love to talk with you, get to know you a little bit.
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    Maybe you want to know how you can be a part of Crossroads
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    or how you can get
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    more information about a specific topic,
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    or maybe there's something going on in your life
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    and in your world that you just want to process with someone.
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    And those conversations are my favorite part of the week.
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    Now, today we're going to start with worship
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    because we believe that our wisdom comes from God,
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    not from social media or any place else.
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    And when we put our time and our attention towards Him,
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    He gives us everything that we need.
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    So think about these words and what they mean for your life.
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    Anticipation matters, like our approach to things matter.
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    And I'm just going to tell you, I've walked in
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    like you just walked in about ten minutes ago
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    countless times bringing my kids in.
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    I fought the parking lot traffic.
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    Can I get an amen?
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    You come in, you drop your kids off,
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    or maybe you come in not knowing many people
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    so your anticipation, your approach is a little bit,
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    like, I don't know what I'm walking into.
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    And if it's your first time, then you're in the right place.
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    But our anticipation matters and sometimes in this experience,
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    I don't know that we're able to give it much thought
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    what we came in to do.
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    Anybody willing to say that?
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    Like, I just kind of showed up because I show up a lot. Right?
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    It's okay.
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    Did you come in anticipating that the God of Creation
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    wants to meet with you today?
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    Did you come anticipating the God of Hebrews 11:6
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    that says I reward those who seek Me?
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    Did you come in anticipating the God who says,
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    I see your footsteps out of your car, into the way,
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    online, into this room, in this space as a seeking Me.
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    This God who says I bring living water, fresh water,
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    fresh life, fresh peace, fresh words.
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    You didn't just show up to a space today.
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    You didn't just show up to Crossroads.
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    You showed up for an interaction to happen with the living God.
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    He's so good and generous.
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    And so I know we're like 13 minutes into this thing.
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    I just want to give you space to point your heart towards Him
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    and say I came here because I want more of You.
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    So, lyrics --
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    we've got a volunteer that runs lyrics every weekend.
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    Can we give it up for that volunteer?
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    They serve us every weekend.
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    Up on lyrics I need you to go to the chorus
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    of the last song we just sang.
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    Because I don't want to miss it from the top.
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    So lyrics, pull up the lyrics that say come like a flood.
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    We got it on the screen? Look at that.
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    Give it up for em up top. [applause]
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    And now let's pray this together:
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    We anticipate You, God, we want more of You. So we say:
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    Let's pray together.
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    Father, we can only sing those words about You.
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    You're truly faithful.
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    That you're not like You can't put kind of
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    or you're a lot of faithful before that.
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    It's just the word faithful.
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    You are faithful and you're the only one that's true.
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    Time after time, generation after generation,
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    across this world in every language, You are faithful.
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    So I give you my heart today.
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    I give you my attention this morning.
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    I pray all this because of you, Jesus. Amen.
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    It's great to be here together.
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    It's great that you showed up.
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    I see some friends in the place today. It's awesome.
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    Maybe you showed up for the first time.
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    I'll say it again, you're in the right place.
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    My name is Justin, and I get to do some music around here.
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    You can clap for new folks who are in here.
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    That's right. [applause]
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    Don't let one person clap.
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    You're in the right place.
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    And we try in every way possible to make this big place
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    feel small because relationships matter.
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    So before you grab a seat,
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    why don't you turn to somebody, introduce yourself.
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    Say, I'm glad to be here with you.
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    Well, just like on Father's Day for me, I'm a dad.
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    I'm a dad of four.
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    I've got two daughters who are ten and nine
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    and two sons who are eight and six.
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    Ten, nine, eight, six.
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    My wife is just tired all the time, and me too.
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    But just like this, if my kids said,
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    "Dad, I love you. Happy Father's Day."
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    And they made me a beautiful card
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    that they picked out at the dollar store.
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    If they were mean to me the rest of the day,
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    if they gave me no attention or no heart
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    or no affection any other time
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    but just this, it falls short. Right? Right.
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    So when we say, man, we give our songs to God,
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    I respond to who He is and say, "I'm trying.
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    I want to give You all of me, not just a piece of me."
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    So we have people across the board that
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    do that through time and resources,
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    like the volunteer we celebrated this morning
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    running lyrics for us. We have people who do that.
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    We also have, and my family and I follow suit,
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    finances are a part of my life,
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    and so I want to give my whole life to God.
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    And so I do that also with my money.
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    Every month we give a portion of our income to say,
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    "God, you're the giver of every good thing:
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    skills, resources, time, money.
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    And I want it to all go back to You." So we try to do that.
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    If you want to join us in giving financially like that,
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    you can go to Crossroads.net/give.
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    Like I said, that's not the only way we give.
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    We give time, skills, resources.
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    And when this place is made up and it runs
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    on people who do that every week.
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    And so I want you to hear some of their stories this morning.
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    We're glad you're here.
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    - You know, Brian Tome always talks about
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    the benefits of being outside.
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    And I get to be outside at least an hour every day
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    when I start my week, I get to dance.
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    I get my steps in.
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    I recommend it to anybody. It's so much fun.
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    - When I first started serving for Kids' Club,
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    I thought I was just signing up for community service hours,
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    but I ended up finding connection with the staff,
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    the other volunteers and especially the kids.
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    And now it's something I look forward to every Sunday.
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    - Sometimes when you just come to service,
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    you take things for granted.
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    And what I found out was
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    how many people are behind the scenes
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    helping out and how I've been able to contribute to that.
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    - When I started serving at Crossroads,
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    I thought it was going to be an experience for me
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    to learn how to do electrical work, how to do plumbing.
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    But it actually turned into finding a friend
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    here at Crossroads and it became about relationships.
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    It was labor that was in the trenches
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    but enabled me to connect with God.
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    - I found that serving here at Crossroads just gives me
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    a huge sense of purpose
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    and being able to help this community
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    spread the Word of God to people that
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    are perhaps watching this around the world.
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    It's just awesome to be able to take the skills
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    that God has blessed me with
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    and be able to give back to our community.
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    - I signed up for volunteering.
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    I felt that it was going to be maybe burdensome,
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    it was going to be long days and exhausting.
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    What I found is that it's a great opportunity for me
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    to share my gifts with my community
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    and I find myself being closer to God.
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    - Hey, thanks for singing with us.
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    Now, Crossroads is a church with people all over the country
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    and all over the world.
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    Crossroads is one church with multiple locations.
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    Now we have ten physical buildings,
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    but we are so much bigger than that.
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    We meet everywhere from dorm rooms to bars to homes
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    and even inside prisons.
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    If you don't live near one of those physical locations,
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    we know that being a part of Crossroads Anywhere
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    can feel maybe a little distant sometimes.
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    Like who else is out there? Or is it just me and a screen?
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    That's why we started the Anywhere Home.
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    It's a home base for us to connect with people
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    all over the world who call Crossroads home
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    but don't live near one of those locations.
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    There you can meet other people.
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    You can find out who's near you.
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    You can ask questions, get special family content
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    for you and your family to do at home.
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    You can talk about the service and grow together.
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    We're adding new elements to it every month,
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    and we'd love for you to join us.
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    Just head to Crossroads.net/Anywhere to join.
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    If you've been around for the last couple of weeks,
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    we've been talking about how God has made us for movement,
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    how we weren't meant to sit still
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    or to stand on the sidelines.
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    One of the things that's, like, legit changed my life
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    has been volunteering.
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    It's been understanding more of how God has uniquely made me,
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    how He wired me
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    and how the world actually needs those gifts.
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    So wherever you live, we've got opportunities for you
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    to put your gifts to use to change the world
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    one person at a time.
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    Head to crossroads.net/volunteer for more info.
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    Coming up, Kyle is going to explain to us
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    what biblical wisdom really is and how to get it.
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    - We all want a life that works.
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    We buy books, we listen to podcasts,
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    and we follow gurus who promise the secret to what we crave:
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    a life full of meaning, connection, fun and adventure.
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    We look to those who have done well before us
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    and we ask ourselves: How can I get some of that?
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    We seek knowledge and understanding,
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    but we need something deeper.
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    We need wisdom.
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    The Bible gives us a path to wisdom
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    laid out in three Old Testament books,
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    often called the Wisdom Literature.
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    Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job are the roadmap
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    to understanding where godly wisdom comes from
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    and what God has to say about how to live our lives well.
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    - Well, hello and welcome to Crossroads.
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    My name is Paco and I'm on the content team around here
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    and my day job is to partner with our teachers,
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    the folks you see up here each and every week
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    and sort of help them sharpen their talks,
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    help them format it, helps make sure that
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    what they're saying comes across the way they want to say,
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    it comes across in a clear way.
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    I basically partner with our teachers.
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    That's what a content director does around here.
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    Also, I schedule our teachers
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    and we usually do that about 2 to 4 months out.
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    And today, as we're kicking off wisdom,
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    we had Kyle scheduled to speak today.
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    Kyle texted me yesterday around noon and said,
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    "Hey, man, I got a sick wife and three sick kids.
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    My wife's on crutches,
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    so I don't know what's being passed around,
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    but it's like a stomach bug of sorts
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    and just give you a heads up.
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    I might need someone to pinch hit tomorrow."
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    I said, "Cool, man.
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    There's no way he's not going to be here. There's no way."
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    I said, "Okay, cool."
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    Threw the phone in the back seat. It's fine.
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    I got a text about 8:30 last night saying,
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    "Hey, and I quote, 'I'm puking my guts out.
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    I'm going to need someone to pinch hit.'"
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    So here we are. [laughter]
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    I love -- [laughter]
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    I don't -- I don't think it's it's by accident
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    that substitute teachers in school play movies.
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    So we're going to watch Shrek for the rest of our time.
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    Enjoy this -- [laughter]
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    No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
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    I'm going to do my best to pinch hit for Kyle
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    and what I hope to do today with all of us
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    is I hope to set up a framework so you and I can experience
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    the summer and get the most out of our time together
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    at Crossroads this summer.
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    This summer is all about wisdom.
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    Like wisdom on today, right? It's not an accident.
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    It's not an accident that that Kyle
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    was going to start wisdom today
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    and that he chose the wise choice
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    to take care of his family first.
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    It's not by accident that you're here today to experience this.
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    It's not by accident that we would start
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    a collection of talks about wisdom on Father's Day.
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    Happy Father's Day, by the way, dads. [applause]
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    None of that's an accident.
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    You know, God in His -- God, in His eternal wisdom,
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    like, God is like outside of the first person point of view.
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    If you understand that, God is eternal.
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    So His perspective is eternal.
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    So He sees outside of sort of the timeline of our life, right?
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    And God, in his wisdom, chose today because I think
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    He has some special encouragement,
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    especially for fathers today.
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    And I want to start our time just encouraging you dads.
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    In his eternal wisdom,
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    God chose you to be the father of your kids.
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    Like, God gave that to you. God chose you to do that.
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    You know what that means? That means He has equipped you.
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    He has qualified you.
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    And it might not always feel like that. Right?
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    Because fatherhood starts really fun for dads.
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    Like, cool. That's great.
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    And then mom makes a whole baby without using her hands,
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    and then she delivers the baby
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    and what feels like 15 minutes later,
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    you've got a whole human you got to bring home.
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    I have two kids.
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    I have a four year old and a nine month old, both girls.
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    Girl dads in the house, what's up? Cool.
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    Our first kid I was super nervous. Right?
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    Super nervous. Like, walk in.
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    The nurse was like, "I'll walk you down to the car."
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    I was like, "Good.
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    Hopefully you come with us home and be with us." [laughter]
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    And so she she walks us down and she was so beautiful
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    and so, so kind to us.
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    We got mom loaded up, the car seat, the baby situated.
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    She -- beautiful smile. She said, "Here you go."
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    And I went, "No thanks."
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    I said, "No thanks to my kid."
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    I was so nervous because I didn't feel qualified.
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    You got a whole human, you got a whole human to take care of.
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    And it comes with no instruction manual.
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    And you're a dad,
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    you wouldn't read the instruction manual anyway.
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    Who are we kidding? [laughter]
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    If you walk into any room
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    and you see a dad with an instruction manual open,
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    just know whatever he's working on has already broken.
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    He broke it and he's trying to fix it before you get in there
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    and notice that he's got to buy another one.
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    No, dads, this is a great day.
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    Fathers, Father's Day is a is a great day
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    because fatherhood is a thing that's like a great joy.
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    And so my encouragement to you dads today as we get started
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    is if you're in the trenches and you're doing it, well done.
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    You're going to stumble through some parts,
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    you're going to have some high, some lows, but well done.
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    Fatherhood is a gift and you are a gift to your children.
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    You are the dad that your kids need.
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    Don't forget that. All right.
  • 00:32:31
    So with wisdom, I want to start this seven weeks off
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    in an important way to kind of give us the outline that
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    we're going to use every single week with all of our teachers.
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    We've got a great lineup this summer.
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    We chose wisdom for this summer as teachers because
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    we have seen that the world is full of foolishness, right?
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    I mean, there's a lot of wild stuff happening
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    and you might hear that and immediately go,
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    Yeah, political so-and-so is a fool.
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    And this person is that and the proverbial theys.
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    And we're not talking about any of that.
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    We're talking about is we're talking about like godly wisdom,
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    because the reality is every era of humanity
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    has had a level of foolishness, has had a level of,
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    like, what were they thinking?
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    Do you ever look back and go, "What was I thinking?"
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    I'll give an example.
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    Before 1970 something, people were like,
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    "You know, what's a great idea? Let's put lead in paint."
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    Remember when that was like, "Oh, that's a great idea."
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    Anybody in the 80s, born in the 80s or grew up in the 80s
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    and can hear my voice. Okay.
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    You guys and gals thought it would be a great idea
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    to put as much hairspray as you possibly can in your hair
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    and no one can see in front of you.
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    No one can see behind like that, Oh, yeah.
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    Any 90s kids in the house? 90s kids. Yeah.
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    You're not off the hook.
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    You guys are walking around looking like this.
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    Remember this guy?
  • 00:33:57
    This was the guy who was like, is that guy homeless
  • 00:33:59
    or is he in Pearl Jam? Which one is he?
  • 00:34:03
    Now, if you're young in here and you're like,
  • 00:34:05
    "Man, old people are weird." Yeah, you're right, they are.
  • 00:34:07
    But you're not off the hook either.
  • 00:34:09
    Those TikTok dances you're doing,
  • 00:34:10
    they live on the Internet forever. [laughter]
  • 00:34:13
    Good luck.
  • 00:34:15
    Every era, every era has something
  • 00:34:18
    that seemed wise in the moment,
  • 00:34:19
    but it actually was kind of foolish.
  • 00:34:21
    And the world is full of what looks like wisdom
  • 00:34:25
    or what's false wisdom, and God has more for us.
  • 00:34:28
    And it's important to recognize that
  • 00:34:29
    as we get started in these seven weeks,
  • 00:34:31
    because there's no neutral ground when it comes to wisdom.
  • 00:34:35
    You see, Jesus talks about our spiritual enemy.
  • 00:34:37
    He calls him the father of lies.
  • 00:34:39
    And you ever believed a lie and felt like a fool after?
  • 00:34:44
    See the father of lies, he wants you to believe those lies
  • 00:34:48
    to ultimately become a fool.
  • 00:34:49
    You see, the stakes are high when it comes to wisdom.
  • 00:34:52
    That's why all of our teachers in the next few weeks
  • 00:34:54
    are going to be unpacking what does wisdom look like
  • 00:34:56
    in different aspects of life?
  • 00:34:58
    What does wisdom look like with our finances,
  • 00:35:00
    with our time, with our relationships,
  • 00:35:03
    with our conflict, with suffering?
  • 00:35:07
    What does wisdom look like
  • 00:35:08
    from God's point of view with those things?
  • 00:35:10
    Because there's an enemy out there that wants you
  • 00:35:12
    to believe lies about wisdom and wants you to become a fool.
  • 00:35:14
    But God has wisdom for you and He has wisdom for me.
  • 00:35:16
    And we're going to unpack that this summer.
  • 00:35:18
    So I'm really excited for this summer.
  • 00:35:20
    Let's pray before I continue on. Cool?
  • 00:35:23
    God, thank You for today. Thank you for Your Word.
  • 00:35:27
    I thank You for the opportunity to just unpack it
  • 00:35:31
    and learn more about who You are and what You've called us to.
  • 00:35:33
    God, would you give us the ability to understand,
  • 00:35:38
    the ability to know and the ability
  • 00:35:39
    to walk this thing out every day?
  • 00:35:41
    We love You and we trust You. Amen.
  • 00:35:45
    So wisdom to a lot of us might feel like an optional pursuit.
  • 00:35:48
    It might feel like something like, yeah,
  • 00:35:50
    I can either choose to be wise or or I can not
  • 00:35:53
    or I can, like, lean in to like that spiritual elite-ness
  • 00:35:57
    and, like, be a pastor and be wise
  • 00:35:59
    or be a group leader and be wise
  • 00:36:00
    or be a Bible study person and be wise.
  • 00:36:02
    Or I can just be kind of, like, normal.
  • 00:36:04
    That's not the case. Wisdom is for all of us.
  • 00:36:07
    God has created wisdom for all of us to pursue it,
  • 00:36:09
    and the benefits of wisdom are huge.
  • 00:36:13
    In the Book of Proverbs,
  • 00:36:15
    which is one of the books in the Bible,
  • 00:36:17
    noted as Wisdom Literature. Okay?
  • 00:36:20
    It's Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and it's Job. Okay?
  • 00:36:24
    Proverbs written mostly by King Solomon, Ecclesiastes also;
  • 00:36:27
    Job is written by someone else.
  • 00:36:28
    And we're going to be unpacking all three of those books as
  • 00:36:31
    we think about, like, what does wisdom look like in our lives?
  • 00:36:34
    Proverbs 3 is where we're going to start today
  • 00:36:36
    as we start on this journey.
  • 00:36:39
    It says this, verse 13:
  • 00:37:10
    That's the benefit of wisdom, like precious rubies,
  • 00:37:13
    precious jewels, this treasure that's, like, so valuable,
  • 00:37:18
    it's worth everything too.
  • 00:37:20
    Like, that's what wisdom gives us in our lives.
  • 00:37:23
    When we come to follow Jesus, we receive His power
  • 00:37:26
    and we receive the Holy Spirit,
  • 00:37:27
    and then we get to walk out these days in wisdom.
  • 00:37:31
    And Solomon, who wrote these words, it's important
  • 00:37:35
    you recognize that Solomon was a king in ancient Israel.
  • 00:37:38
    And he has this interaction with God where God basically says,
  • 00:37:43
    "Hey, Solomon, ask for anything, anything you want,"
  • 00:37:46
    like Aladdin, the three wishes, right?
  • 00:37:49
    Like, he doesn't do that.
  • 00:37:50
    But he says one thing, I want you to ask me for what you want.
  • 00:37:54
    You know what Solomon says?
  • 00:37:55
    Let's read what Solomon says. He says:
  • 00:38:05
    You know what Solomon asks him for?
  • 00:38:07
    Solomon asks him for wisdom.
  • 00:38:09
    And guess what God does? He grants it.
  • 00:38:11
    Listen to how God responds.
  • 00:38:52
    Solomon was the wisest person to ever live.
  • 00:38:55
    Now, you might be like, "Wait, isn't Jesus the wisest person?"
  • 00:38:58
    Yes, but he was God. Okay?
  • 00:38:59
    Solomon was the second wisest person.
  • 00:39:00
    He was the wisest man to ever live.
  • 00:39:03
    And he wrote down these words in Proverbs for you and I
  • 00:39:07
    to realize just how important godly wisdom is,
  • 00:39:10
    how important this idea of pursuing God is
  • 00:39:14
    and what it looks like to actually live it out.
  • 00:39:18
    And one of the frameworks as you read Proverbs,
  • 00:39:21
    which I recommend, by the way.
  • 00:39:22
    I recommend you read Proverbs, you know,
  • 00:39:24
    if you have a summer reading list or something like that,
  • 00:39:26
    I recommend putting Proverbs at the very top of it.
  • 00:39:28
    It's 31 chapters.
  • 00:39:29
    You can read like a chapter a day
  • 00:39:30
    and you can be through it in a month.
  • 00:39:32
    It's really powerful, especially, especially
  • 00:39:35
    if you're just starting your faith journey
  • 00:39:37
    or you're just starting to dig into scripture.
  • 00:39:39
    It is a really helpful framework for life written by Solomon,
  • 00:39:42
    who lays this thing out.
  • 00:39:44
    In all of Proverbs, you're going to see
  • 00:39:46
    kind of two things contrasted.
  • 00:39:47
    You're going to see wisdom and you're going to see foolishness.
  • 00:39:52
    And the reason why he does that is because there are
  • 00:39:55
    really only two outcomes when it comes to living wisely.
  • 00:39:59
    You're either wise, or you ain't.
  • 00:40:02
    You're either a person who walks wisely
  • 00:40:04
    or a person who walks like a fool.
  • 00:40:06
    There's not like a neutral in-between of that.
  • 00:40:09
    Proverbs 3:35 says this:
  • 00:40:17
    All throughout Proverbs, there's different sort of synonyms
  • 00:40:20
    that go hand in hand with wise and foolish.
  • 00:40:22
    Let me read some of them that are described as wise.
  • 00:40:25
    So the wise person is described as
  • 00:40:27
    prudent, diligent, discerning, upright.
  • 00:40:32
    The fool, on the other hand, described as
  • 00:40:35
    scoffer, drunkard, simple -- Dang -- mocker, right?
  • 00:40:41
    Like, stuff that we don't want to be described as. Right?
  • 00:40:43
    There's only two options here.
  • 00:40:45
    There's not a middle ground.
  • 00:40:47
    The wise follow wisdom, and fools follow folly.
  • 00:40:52
    And you and I, we get to pick which one we are.
  • 00:40:55
    We get to pick which one we follow.
  • 00:40:59
    And as I was talking through, we were talking through this
  • 00:41:01
    as a team, as a teachers team,
  • 00:41:03
    to kind of, like, so what do we want to lay out?
  • 00:41:05
    We want to lay out like where wisdom comes from,
  • 00:41:07
    the wisest person with the Proverbs and all of the wisdom
  • 00:41:10
    that come from and that sort of thing.
  • 00:41:11
    And we also wanted to lay out, like,
  • 00:41:13
    are there multiple kinds of wisdom?
  • 00:41:15
    Are there, like, different kinds of wisdom?
  • 00:41:17
    And it really came down to this, okay,
  • 00:41:18
    there are, there are two kinds of wisdom.
  • 00:41:21
    It's God's wisdom as found in the Scriptures,
  • 00:41:25
    and then there's everything else.
  • 00:41:27
    And so a way to find out if it's wisdom or not:
  • 00:41:29
    Does it line up with the Bible?
  • 00:41:32
    Does it line up with what is in the Scripture?
  • 00:41:35
    And the idea of this isn't confined to just, like,
  • 00:41:38
    the Wisdom Literature in Proverbs.
  • 00:41:39
    You see this sort of throughout the Bible.
  • 00:41:41
    And the apostle Paul, who we talked about a few weeks ago,
  • 00:41:43
    he writes this in Colossians 2. He says:
  • 00:41:57
    You see, there's like this thing that looks wise,
  • 00:42:00
    it looks like wisdom and it sounds cool,
  • 00:42:02
    but it's not actually godly wisdom.
  • 00:42:04
    We have a lot of phrases like that in our world, don't we?
  • 00:42:07
    We have phrases like make a name for yourself.
  • 00:42:09
    I work with a lot of young people,
  • 00:42:11
    a lot of like young professionals, a
  • 00:42:13
    nd the big lie that they all walk in,
  • 00:42:15
    "I got to be the smartest person in the room.
  • 00:42:17
    I got to know all the answers. I got to get it all done."
  • 00:42:19
    Like, hey, relax there, wild one. It's cool.
  • 00:42:24
    Here's another one,
  • 00:42:25
    here's another one that is pretty popular:
  • 00:42:27
    Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
  • 00:42:29
    You guys know that one?
  • 00:42:31
    You never actually seen anyone do that physically in life.
  • 00:42:33
    But the idea of, like, you've got to do it on your own.
  • 00:42:35
    That sounds like wisdom on the surface,
  • 00:42:38
    but really it's just the principle of men.
  • 00:42:40
    Here's another one: Your faith is private.
  • 00:42:45
    That's a big one, right? Especially today, right?
  • 00:42:48
    Like you believe what you believe.
  • 00:42:50
    I believe what I believe. We won't talk about it.
  • 00:42:52
    And I'll try to keep my grass cut
  • 00:42:54
    so that we don't have neighborhood arguments.
  • 00:42:57
    That's not in the Scriptures.
  • 00:42:59
    Be true to yourself, that's a big one, especially today
  • 00:43:02
    in an individual society, right?
  • 00:43:06
    Everyone's an individual, and everybody, be true to you.
  • 00:43:08
    I heard somebody say recently, choose you.
  • 00:43:10
    Like, that's not in the Scriptures.
  • 00:43:12
    That's not godly wisdom, but it sounds cool.
  • 00:43:15
    You see the need for wanting to -- to need to unpack
  • 00:43:18
    who God says we are and what God says about wisdom,
  • 00:43:21
    as opposed to just kind of following along
  • 00:43:23
    with the folly of the world, folly of culture?
  • 00:43:26
    So what is godly wisdom have to offer?
  • 00:43:28
    What are the benefits?
  • 00:43:29
    Well, we've read them earlier, but there's one in there
  • 00:43:31
    that I think gets looked over a lot.
  • 00:43:34
    So I want to read the Proverbs 3 verse that we read earlier.
  • 00:43:38
    Let's read it again. The first part of it.
  • 00:43:46
    Happy, that sounds nice, doesn't it?
  • 00:43:50
    I'd like -- anybody like to be happy?
  • 00:43:52
    Yeah. Sometimes in church, you're like,
  • 00:43:54
    "Am I allowed to be happy?"
  • 00:43:55
    Yes. It clearly says it here:
  • 00:43:57
    Happy is you if you find wisdom, if you gain,
  • 00:44:00
    you will have a product in your life that will be happy.
  • 00:44:05
    Too many times I know in my past I believed that, like,
  • 00:44:08
    if I gain godly wisdom, then I got to be like a monk
  • 00:44:11
    and I got to, like, turn off all electronics
  • 00:44:13
    and go live in the caves of Tibet and go, like,
  • 00:44:16
    chill up there and do whatever they do up there all day.
  • 00:44:19
    I don't know.
  • 00:44:21
    But no, no, no. God's saying, look, a product of
  • 00:44:23
    you finding wisdom is that you're happy.
  • 00:44:27
    So that means this, that means if we pursue wisdom,
  • 00:44:30
    the result is happiness.
  • 00:44:33
    Too many of us switch those, don't we?
  • 00:44:35
    We pursue happiness and hopes to get wise.
  • 00:44:40
    God saying, No, I'm going to lay this out for you in order.
  • 00:44:43
    I'm going to lay this out to you
  • 00:44:45
    in order that you should pursue it.
  • 00:44:47
    Proverbs 4:7:
  • 00:44:57
    I'll see you guys next week. This has been fun. [laughter]
  • 00:45:01
    It's really clear.
  • 00:45:03
    It's really clear in Scripture that wisdom is the thing.
  • 00:45:05
    Like it is the thing,
  • 00:45:07
    that's why we've dedicated seven weeks to it.
  • 00:45:08
    That's why we've got to uncover it.
  • 00:45:10
    That's why we've got to beat back
  • 00:45:12
    all the lies and the noise around it.
  • 00:45:13
    It's because it is the thing.
  • 00:45:17
    Now finding godly wisdom, I wish there was a magic pill.
  • 00:45:21
    I wish there was, like, a DoorDash for it.
  • 00:45:23
    Which you can get anything on DoorDash, by the way.
  • 00:45:25
    I don't know if you know that, literally anything.
  • 00:45:27
    Name a product, we will buy it on DoorDash.
  • 00:45:29
    It'll be here by the middle of next service.
  • 00:45:32
    I was at a wedding recently in Florida,
  • 00:45:34
    and my friend had a teenage son that something happened
  • 00:45:39
    with plumbing at the home. He needed a plunger.
  • 00:45:41
    So at the wedding, we just ordered him a plunger
  • 00:45:43
    from four states away, and it showed up in 30 minutes.
  • 00:45:46
    It was fantastic.
  • 00:45:47
    Like, we live in a really sweet time in history
  • 00:45:49
    where you can just do that,
  • 00:45:50
    and you could pick up like chicken wings on the way.
  • 00:45:52
    So someone would give you a plunger and chicken wings
  • 00:45:54
    and Pepto all in the same -- [laughter]
  • 00:45:58
    It's an amazing thing and it doesn't take a lot of effort.
  • 00:46:02
    Godly wisdom is not like that. You've got to seek it.
  • 00:46:04
    You got to work. You got to work towards it.
  • 00:46:06
    It's not a mistake that we just came out of the Book of Acts,
  • 00:46:10
    all about movement, all about the acts of the early church
  • 00:46:13
    and the acts of the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:46:15
    It's not by accident that we did that and then wisdom,
  • 00:46:18
    because if you want wisdom, it's going to require action.
  • 00:46:21
    It's going to require movement.
  • 00:46:23
    And you've got a seek it from God.
  • 00:46:25
    Let's read Proverbs 1:4-6.
  • 00:46:39
    If you seek her as silver. Who's her? Her is wisdom.
  • 00:46:42
    Solomon had this really interesting personification
  • 00:46:46
    of wisdom where he describes wisdom as a righteous woman,
  • 00:46:49
    and he describes foolishness as like an immoral woman.
  • 00:46:54
    And he says, "Listen, if you seek her, if you seek wisdom
  • 00:46:57
    as you search for hidden treasures,
  • 00:46:59
    then you will understand God.
  • 00:47:01
    You will understand wisdom."
  • 00:47:06
    I wonder how many of us are seeking wisdom like that.
  • 00:47:10
    I wonder how many of us in our in our everyday lives are like,
  • 00:47:13
    Man, I just want to be wise and show up wise in this situation
  • 00:47:16
    or I want to have godly wisdom here in my life right now,
  • 00:47:19
    at my job, at home, or wherever,
  • 00:47:22
    or when so and so cuts us off in traffic,
  • 00:47:23
    which oh, Lord, if that happens again.
  • 00:47:28
    Are we seeking wisdom like that?
  • 00:47:29
    Or are we like, Nah, we got it all.
  • 00:47:30
    It's cool. I got it figured it out.
  • 00:47:32
    I know a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
  • 00:47:34
    I got my Bible verses.
  • 00:47:35
    I show up to church within five minutes of it starting.
  • 00:47:37
    No one knows. It's fine.
  • 00:47:40
    Or are we seeking wisdom?
  • 00:47:41
    You see, because people who are wise, they keep seeking.
  • 00:47:47
    The Christmas story,
  • 00:47:48
    not the movie with the kid with the thing,
  • 00:47:50
    but the the actual Christmas story in the Nativity scene
  • 00:47:54
    features three wise men.
  • 00:47:57
    And the origins of those wise men are Jesus was born
  • 00:48:00
    and they are off doing their thing in a faraway land.
  • 00:48:03
    And they see a star and they go, "Something's happening there."
  • 00:48:06
    And they start to pursue that and they risk their life,
  • 00:48:10
    they risk a lot to get there. You know why?
  • 00:48:14
    Because they were never satisfied with what they had.
  • 00:48:16
    They always knew that God had more for them.
  • 00:48:19
    And when it comes to wisdom, if you're satisfied
  • 00:48:21
    with where you are, you will not grow.
  • 00:48:23
    You've got to seek.
  • 00:48:24
    You've got to get up and actually seek wisdom.
  • 00:48:28
    And God wants to give it to you.
  • 00:48:30
    He's not hiding from you.
  • 00:48:32
    He's not hiding wisdom from you.
  • 00:48:37
    They understood, the wise men understood that
  • 00:48:40
    they had wisdom that God had given them,
  • 00:48:42
    but they needed more.
  • 00:48:45
    They weren't just wise in their own eyes.
  • 00:48:47
    They wanted to be wise in a godly way.
  • 00:48:49
    Proverbs 3:7:
  • 00:48:53
    People who are wise in their own eyes, they're like,
  • 00:48:55
    "Yeah, okay, cool.
  • 00:48:57
    Like, I'll just kind of hear this stupid thing
  • 00:48:59
    and then continue on with my life."
  • 00:49:00
    People who want to seek wisdom are growing, are taking steps,
  • 00:49:04
    are stumbling towards it even when it's uncomfortable.
  • 00:49:06
    That's what God has for you.
  • 00:49:08
    That's what God has for me as His followers, wisdom.
  • 00:49:11
    God wants you and I to grow in wisdom,
  • 00:49:13
    and there is a biblical framework on how to get there.
  • 00:49:16
    And this is the part that I'm really excited to unpack
  • 00:49:19
    with all of our teachers over the next couple of weeks.
  • 00:49:21
    There are like, it's like a three part approach
  • 00:49:24
    to how do you get wisdom?
  • 00:49:26
    And it starts in Proverbs 1:6, it says this:
  • 00:49:35
    Oftentimes in our world, we sort of, like,
  • 00:49:38
    put wisdom, knowledge, understanding
  • 00:49:40
    sort of on the same playing field, but they're different.
  • 00:49:42
    They're similar words, but they're very distinct
  • 00:49:45
    and they're distinct on purpose in the Bible.
  • 00:49:47
    In Proverbs 9, it says it again.
  • 00:49:55
    It's all throughout Proverbs,
  • 00:49:57
    knowledge, understanding, wisdom.
  • 00:50:00
    And there's an important breakdown that we need to have
  • 00:50:04
    as we explore the next couple of weeks together
  • 00:50:07
    on what wisdom looks like in whatever area of your life.
  • 00:50:09
    Step one, right, the first part of understanding
  • 00:50:13
    what godly wisdom is and getting to godly wisdom is knowledge.
  • 00:50:18
    Knowledge. Those are the facts. Those are the facts. Okay?
  • 00:50:23
    Knowledge is sort of a commodity in our world right now.
  • 00:50:26
    It's not like super treasured
  • 00:50:28
    because we have it at our fingertips. You know?
  • 00:50:29
    You can get AI to basically write you anything.
  • 00:50:32
    Have you ever used AI to write you an email?
  • 00:50:35
    Fantastic life hack.
  • 00:50:36
    Also, it just gives you knowledge. That's it.
  • 00:50:38
    It doesn't give you anything else. It just gives you facts.
  • 00:50:41
    It spits those back out and that's all it has.
  • 00:50:44
    It can't be the end result for us
  • 00:50:47
    if it's the beginning result in godly wisdom.
  • 00:50:49
    You see, we're often looking for knowledge and that's it.
  • 00:50:52
    And if you turn on the Internet, you're often seeing
  • 00:50:54
    people throwing facts back and forth.
  • 00:50:56
    A lot of the problems we have with each other
  • 00:50:58
    is because your facts don't line up with my facts
  • 00:51:01
    and his facts and so everybody's got these facts
  • 00:51:03
    that they're just tossing around randomly,
  • 00:51:05
    and we're never getting the knowledge.
  • 00:51:07
    Let me read you what it says here in Proverbs 1:7.
  • 00:51:16
    The word fear shows up a lot as you're reading Proverbs
  • 00:51:19
    and the Wisdom Literature, fear of the Lord.
  • 00:51:22
    It's important we know what that word means. Okay.
  • 00:51:25
    Fear of the Lord here translated
  • 00:51:28
    doesn't mean like scary movie fear, right?
  • 00:51:30
    It doesn't mean like Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger
  • 00:51:33
    or whatever the little doll thing that runs around,
  • 00:51:35
    which is a weird concept of a movie, by the way. Right?
  • 00:51:38
    That little doll, kick it, movie's over.
  • 00:51:42
    But it's not that kind of fear. It's not horror movie fear.
  • 00:51:45
    The fear of the Lord here is describing reverence.
  • 00:51:49
    It's basically taking God seriously.
  • 00:51:51
    So translated another way:
  • 00:51:54
    taking God seriously is the beginning of knowledge.
  • 00:51:58
    So you don't get to knowledge of God
  • 00:52:01
    without taking Him seriously.
  • 00:52:03
    What does that mean for you?
  • 00:52:05
    That means digging into His Word.
  • 00:52:06
    That means being around other people who are following Him.
  • 00:52:10
    Getting knowledge about God is taking Him seriously.
  • 00:52:14
    And that is step one. That is step one in godly wisdom.
  • 00:52:18
    It's foundational that we seek knowledge and continue to seek,
  • 00:52:21
    but then that can't end there.
  • 00:52:23
    We have to go to the second word: understanding.
  • 00:52:26
    Understanding is basically like
  • 00:52:28
    the connections between the facts.
  • 00:52:30
    So there are facts that sort of live sort of in outer space,
  • 00:52:33
    but someone has to connect them all to see, like,
  • 00:52:35
    to understand what the bigger picture is.
  • 00:52:37
    You've got to see the facts.
  • 00:52:39
    You got to understand the facts.
  • 00:52:41
    You got to put the connection between them.
  • 00:52:43
    I saw this ad on social media. It's a shoe advertisement.
  • 00:52:48
    I want to show you it real quick. There it is.
  • 00:52:51
    It's a advertisement for shoes.
  • 00:52:54
    And here's their tagline: The closest to barefoot you can get.
  • 00:53:01
    I don't know everything about everything,
  • 00:53:03
    but the facts that I know is like,
  • 00:53:04
    there are shoes. People need shoes.
  • 00:53:06
    I thought people needed shoes so that they weren't barefoot.
  • 00:53:11
    I was like, is this company hot in Kentucky?
  • 00:53:13
    Like, what's happening they want to be barefoot?
  • 00:53:15
    What's going on? [laughter]
  • 00:53:16
    I love Kentucky and the people down there.
  • 00:53:18
    It was weird. It's like, I don't understand.
  • 00:53:22
    Why would you market shoes that make you feel barefoot?
  • 00:53:26
    It's like going to a restaurant.
  • 00:53:27
    No restaurant has ever been like, "You hungry?
  • 00:53:30
    Good. Come eat with us.
  • 00:53:32
    The closest to hungry you'll ever feel."
  • 00:53:34
    That doesn't make any sense.
  • 00:53:37
    But then we went to go buy a pair of these shoes
  • 00:53:39
    and they were sold out.
  • 00:53:41
    Turns out there's a market for people who enjoy the feeling
  • 00:53:44
    of being barefoot but also want to shoe.
  • 00:53:48
    Not my people, but there are people like that, right?
  • 00:53:51
    See, I had to put the facts together
  • 00:53:53
    to be able to understand.
  • 00:53:54
    And my understanding was limited.
  • 00:53:56
    My understanding of the situation was limited.
  • 00:53:59
    That's why I need understanding outside of myself.
  • 00:54:01
    And in the same way, if you are going to have understanding
  • 00:54:03
    about the knowledge of God, about the facts about God,
  • 00:54:06
    you have got to have people helping you along the way.
  • 00:54:08
    And more importantly,
  • 00:54:09
    you've got to have God's voice in that as well.
  • 00:54:11
    There's a call to gain godly understanding,
  • 00:54:14
    and also a call to not lean on our own understanding.
  • 00:54:17
    Here's what it says in Proverbs 3:5-6:
  • 00:54:29
    Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
  • 00:54:30
    and lean not on your own understanding.
  • 00:54:33
    Starting with knowledge, getting the facts,
  • 00:54:35
    leaning on understanding to put them all together.
  • 00:54:39
    And then we get to wisdom.
  • 00:54:42
    And wisdom is simply acting on what you know and understand.
  • 00:54:47
    That's it. That's the magic. There's no magic pill to it.
  • 00:54:49
    It says acting on what you know and what you understand.
  • 00:54:53
    The most important thing about biblical wisdom
  • 00:54:55
    is that it is an action.
  • 00:54:58
    Jesus calls this out in a really great way in Matthew 7
  • 00:55:01
    in one of his most famous sermons, He says this:
  • 00:55:14
    Whoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them,
  • 00:55:19
    that person is wise.
  • 00:55:22
    Now, when we think about this framework,
  • 00:55:24
    we're going to be unpacking it
  • 00:55:25
    in different spheres of life every week.
  • 00:55:28
    I've got an example for you that I think is going to hit home.
  • 00:55:31
    I think it makes sense. I think it's a real world example.
  • 00:55:33
    I'm going to share it with you. Okay. It comes from my life.
  • 00:55:36
    I grew up in South Florida. Okay.
  • 00:55:38
    My family migrated here
  • 00:55:39
    from Trinidad and Tobago when I was a kid.
  • 00:55:41
    They came, I grew up in South Florida.
  • 00:55:42
    I moved to Pittsburgh for a few years.
  • 00:55:45
    Now Pittsburgh, they got a football team there.
  • 00:55:51
    Here we go. Here we go. "We don't have a mascot."
  • 00:55:58
    The Steelers are a good team.
  • 00:55:59
    They're a historically great team.
  • 00:56:01
    They got six rings over there, like, it's a thing, you know?
  • 00:56:03
    Their record 68 and 39 versus Cincinnati.
  • 00:56:07
    Like they've been dominating. Those are the facts.
  • 00:56:11
    Those are the facts.
  • 00:56:13
    Understanding would lead me to say, "Well, Pittsburgh's
  • 00:56:17
    just a historically better franchise than Cincinnati."
  • 00:56:21
    But wisdom would tell me -- [laughter]
  • 00:56:23
    that we got a pretty solid team this year.
  • 00:56:26
    You know what I'm saying?
  • 00:56:27
    We got a quarterback that can do his thing.
  • 00:56:29
    We got some support there.
  • 00:56:30
    We got a little thing happening.
  • 00:56:32
    So wisdom might tell me
  • 00:56:34
    the Steelers ain't got it this year, boys.
  • 00:56:37
    So wisdom would tell me to put all of that together
  • 00:56:40
    and as we walk that out, I'm praying for a Super Bowl win.
  • 00:56:48
    I don't know if you're allowed to pray for a Super Bowl win,
  • 00:56:50
    but I'll give it a try. Aggressive mistakes. No.
  • 00:56:54
    Wisdom is looking at the knowledge,
  • 00:56:56
    but looking at the facts,
  • 00:56:58
    putting them together and acting it out.
  • 00:57:00
    When I was in Pittsburgh, I had a job that had me
  • 00:57:05
    traveling the country
  • 00:57:06
    doing different ministry events for young people.
  • 00:57:08
    We would do 3 or 4 events a week
  • 00:57:11
    in different cities along the way.
  • 00:57:12
    So we were always on the go. We were always moving, right.
  • 00:57:15
    And it was a great run.
  • 00:57:17
    And I had a great time doing it.
  • 00:57:19
    I met a lot of awesome people.
  • 00:57:20
    I met my wife doing that. It was it was fantastic.
  • 00:57:22
    And I had this, I had these facts
  • 00:57:24
    that that window was closing for me.
  • 00:57:26
    Like, I was getting a little bit older.
  • 00:57:27
    I felt like I needed to kind of plant some roots, right?
  • 00:57:30
    Because I wanted to raise a family.
  • 00:57:31
    I wanted to have a family one day.
  • 00:57:33
    So the facts told me like, hey,
  • 00:57:34
    if you want to raise a family well,
  • 00:57:36
    you should probably plant them in a certain area
  • 00:57:37
    and, like, let them develop and grow there.
  • 00:57:39
    Those were the facts.
  • 00:57:41
    So my understanding as I tried to tie these facts together
  • 00:57:44
    was one of the facts was there was an opportunity
  • 00:57:46
    in Cincinnati to come serve.
  • 00:57:47
    And there was a place called Crossroads.
  • 00:57:49
    This was ten years ago, by the way, a long time ago it feels.
  • 00:57:52
    Ten years ago and it felt like it was the right place.
  • 00:57:55
    It felt like this was the place too that that, like,
  • 00:57:57
    lined up with what my wife and I were about.
  • 00:58:00
    And it was, like, a place we could call home.
  • 00:58:02
    It was also my understanding that
  • 00:58:04
    we didn't know anything really about Cincinnati,
  • 00:58:07
    like, we knew Cincinnati as that city
  • 00:58:09
    that had the really sweet view when you came in from the north.
  • 00:58:12
    And we knew Cincinnati was that city
  • 00:58:14
    where I-75 was under construction a lot.
  • 00:58:17
    Remember we thought to ourselves, "It'll be over soon.
  • 00:58:22
    You can't have construction forever." [laughter]
  • 00:58:27
    Didn't tie it together. Right?
  • 00:58:29
    And so we moved here and so we moved here.
  • 00:58:31
    We took that knowledge and we took that understanding
  • 00:58:33
    and we put it to practice and we moved.
  • 00:58:36
    Now today, ten years later, I recognize
  • 00:58:39
    that was us activating godly wisdom because
  • 00:58:41
    we had knowledge that this is what we needed to do.
  • 00:58:43
    We had understanding that this was an opportunity to do it
  • 00:58:46
    and that the dots started to line up.
  • 00:58:48
    And so we started walking it out.
  • 00:58:50
    Now, has it been all roses? No, absolutely not.
  • 00:58:53
    There's something powerful about having to stay
  • 00:58:57
    in a community even though things don't always go your way.
  • 00:59:00
    There's something powerful and growing
  • 00:59:03
    about having to stay in it, and not look for the eject button.
  • 00:59:05
    See, when I was traveling, I was out in two days.
  • 00:59:08
    So whether or not it went well or not, I was like,
  • 00:59:10
    Deuces, I'm going to the next one.
  • 00:59:11
    It was easy, but now I'm a part of the community.
  • 00:59:14
    I'm a part of a church. I'm a part of a body.
  • 00:59:17
    I'm part of a movement.
  • 00:59:18
    And we're planted here and we're seeing that wisdom activate.
  • 00:59:22
    We're seeing the wisdom of God show up in our lives
  • 00:59:25
    in new ways that we didn't even expect.
  • 00:59:28
    We have deep friendships now.
  • 00:59:30
    It took a while to get there, but we kept going after it.
  • 00:59:32
    We have people that we can call
  • 00:59:34
    if there's a crisis now in our lives.
  • 00:59:35
    It took a little while to get there, but man,
  • 00:59:37
    I'm telling you it works.
  • 00:59:40
    When you take your knowledge, take your understanding
  • 00:59:43
    and put it into practice,
  • 00:59:44
    God shows up and you get godly wisdom.
  • 00:59:46
    I'm a better leader, father, and all of those things
  • 00:59:49
    because of this place, because we stepped into
  • 00:59:52
    what God had for us here.
  • 00:59:53
    And God wants the same thing for you.
  • 00:59:55
    God wants the same thing for you.
  • 00:59:56
    He wants you to activate that knowledge,
  • 01:00:00
    activate that understanding, and start to actually walk it out
  • 01:00:02
    before you have all the details figured out,
  • 01:00:06
    before you know the exact answers to all the questions
  • 01:00:09
    He wants you to get up and move.
  • 01:00:12
    You grow in wisdom by doing it.
  • 01:00:15
    It's like you grow in fatherhood by doing it.
  • 01:00:17
    That's how you grow in godly wisdom,
  • 01:00:18
    and that's the way God has set it up
  • 01:00:20
    and that's what He wants for you.
  • 01:00:21
    You will have to act on incomplete knowledge
  • 01:00:23
    and understanding.
  • 01:00:24
    You will have to move on that.
  • 01:00:27
    Here's what 1 Corinthians 1 says:
  • 01:00:38
    You see that there?
  • 01:00:39
    Do you see it there tucked away in the verse?
  • 01:00:42
    In Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom.
  • 01:00:47
    See, when you allow Jesus to come into your life,
  • 01:00:49
    He gives you power, He gives you access to Himself,
  • 01:00:51
    He gives you a model for life,
  • 01:00:52
    and He gives you Himself as a source of wisdom.
  • 01:00:57
    So where are you in life? Where is your thing?
  • 01:00:59
    Like, where is it that you need wisdom?
  • 01:01:00
    What aspect of your life
  • 01:01:01
    do you want the wisdom of God to show up
  • 01:01:03
    and not be like anything else,
  • 01:01:04
    but be more powerful and more potent?
  • 01:01:08
    As we start to wrap this thing up,
  • 01:01:10
    I want you to think about your life for a second.
  • 01:01:12
    But I want to do something different to end our time here.
  • 01:01:15
    Everybody, stand up real quick. Just stand up with me.
  • 01:01:17
    Stay where you. Stand up.
  • 01:01:19
    Don't start packing your stuff up yet.
  • 01:01:20
    Just stand up for a second.
  • 01:01:23
    And I want you to think about your life.
  • 01:01:26
    Another portion of scripture, Jesus says,
  • 01:01:28
    I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.
  • 01:01:32
    There is a way to godly wisdom and it goes through Jesus.
  • 01:01:40
    Last verse I want to share with you today is from James 1:5:
  • 01:01:56
    You lacking wisdom today? Ask God.
  • 01:02:00
    You need more wisdom in a certain situation in your life?
  • 01:02:03
    Ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach.
  • 01:02:08
    That means God has wisdom He's ready to give you,
  • 01:02:11
    all you've got to do is take the step and actually ask Him.
  • 01:02:15
    He's got something for you that's more than you could ask
  • 01:02:18
    or imagine, that will be the thing that needs to happen
  • 01:02:21
    in the situation that you're in, and He is waiting for you
  • 01:02:24
    to ask Him, and He's going to give it to you freely.
  • 01:02:29
    He's given us His Son freely. He's given us Jesus freely.
  • 01:02:32
    And He's given us all that comes with that.
  • 01:02:34
    You want to be a better dad? Ask him.
  • 01:02:37
    You want to be a better spouse? Ask him.
  • 01:02:39
    You want to be a better teacher, a better student,
  • 01:02:41
    a better roommate, a better person in your neighborhood?
  • 01:02:44
    Ask him. He has it for you. He's good like that.
  • 01:02:50
    He's good to us.
  • 01:02:52
    So maybe your first big step as we get into the wisdom thing
  • 01:02:56
    is simply asking Him.
  • 01:02:58
    Where do you need wisdom today? Where do you need it?
  • 01:03:01
    I'm going to say a prayer for us.
  • 01:03:03
    And while I'm praying, I want you to be praying
  • 01:03:06
    and just saying, "God, I need Your wisdom."
  • 01:03:08
    Insert the blank wherever it is.
  • 01:03:10
    Ask Him from your heart right now.
  • 01:03:12
    God, thank You for this time.
  • 01:03:14
    Thank You for Your wisdom and Your goodness.
  • 01:03:18
    Thank You for the way that You love us,
  • 01:03:21
    the way that You lead us.
  • 01:03:23
    God, thank you for the knowledge of who You are.
  • 01:03:25
    Thank You for understanding how all of that ties together
  • 01:03:27
    and is relevant to our lives.
  • 01:03:30
    And God, we're asking for wisdom.
  • 01:03:32
    We're asking for wisdom in our home, wisdom at our job,
  • 01:03:35
    wisdom wherever it might be.
  • 01:03:37
    We need You, Lord. We need You, God, to show up.
  • 01:03:39
    We're asking You, God, please give us wisdom.
  • 01:03:42
    We know You want to give it to us, God,
  • 01:03:44
    so we thank you in advance.
  • 01:03:46
    Now with your heads bowed and your eyes closed real quick,
  • 01:03:48
    just, hey, if you're a dad in here,
  • 01:03:51
    I just want you to put your hand up
  • 01:03:52
    really high for me real quick. Just put your hand up.
  • 01:03:54
    So if you're around a dad or with a dad,
  • 01:03:56
    just put your hand on their shoulder just real quick
  • 01:03:59
    or put your hand out towards them
  • 01:04:00
    if it's weird to touch them or whatever, that's fine.
  • 01:04:03
    I just want to pray a special blessing over fathers today
  • 01:04:07
    on Father's Day as we get into wisdom.
  • 01:04:10
    Being a father requires a lot of wisdom and we all need it.
  • 01:04:16
    So let me say a prayer for you, dads.
  • 01:04:19
    Father, thank You for the way that You love us
  • 01:04:21
    and the model that You have given us
  • 01:04:23
    so that we can give to our children.
  • 01:04:25
    And God, I pray for all of the fathers in here.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up! This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What stood out to you most from the message?

  2. Why do you think that stood out to you? What do you think God might be trying to say? (It’s ok if you’re just guessing. This will give you some space to process what it might be.)

  3. What did the message tell you about God?

  4. What did the message tell you about people?

  5. What is one way you can respond to what God might be saying to you this week?

  6. Now share a prayer request for the week. Whoever loves taking notes can jot them down (and maybe put them in a group chat, if you have one). Make sure to go around the circle and pray for each other at the end of your meeting, and throughout the week.

More from the Weekend

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Jun 18, 2023 1 hr 5 mins 44 sec

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