Well, hello church, if you would open up to Proverbs chapter three. Proverbs chapter three, we're going to be in three different books today. I'll tell you about that in a moment, but let's start in chapter three and we'll read 13 verse 13 through 17. This is God's word. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding for the gain from her is better than the gain from silver and her profit is better than gold. She is more precious than jewels. And nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her hand, and her left hand are riches in honor, her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Blessed are those who hold fast. Father, Lord, just as we sang on Your Word, we hope, what else do we have, Lord, but Your Word and Your Spirit. We just pray, Lord, that You would block out all other things that could distract from Your Word. And by the power of your Holy Spirit, we pray you would speak to us, that you would change us, that you would revive our joy, and that we would exalt you through your word. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. We got five weeks left in this series in the Old Testament, overview in the Old Testament, hitting these main themes and how they all point to Christ. And we are moving fast at this point, which For me as an expositor, there's a lot of death to self happening in sermons like the one today. Normally, we'll spend a month in a chapter, a month in a chapter easily. We'll spend a few years chapter by chapter, verse by verse going through a book of the Bible. Today, we are going to cover 93 chapters and three books of the Bible and one sermon. So not my preference. I think there's great benefit to this. That's why we're doing it. And I got four questions today that I want to answer. We'll go ahead and put the first one up on the screen. Question one, why do we need wisdom literature? That's our theme today, wisdom literature. Just so we're on the same page as to what we mean by wisdom literature, some people would say wisdom literature is compiled of five books of the Bible. They would say Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Solomon would be the wisdom literature. And then that's, I would say historically though, more have said wisdom literature is only three books, Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. And that's what we're going to focus on today. We should probably start with the definition of wisdom, which the ESV gives us, I think, a good definition of this word, wisdom, hukmah. It is skill in the art of godly living. skill in the art of godly living. I've mentioned this before, but about 20, 25 years ago, there was a man named Dan Goldman. He wrote a book. He coined the term emotional intelligence. And this guy, he's not a Christian. I don't really know what he believes, but he just wrote this book on emotional intelligence and he coined the term EQ. as opposed to IQ, EQ. And what he kind of argued EQ was, was the ability to apply the right emotions at the right time in the right way. And so you need to hate the right things at the right times, love the right things at the right times, say the right things at the right times, do the right things at the right times. And he said, this is EQ, emotional intelligence, which is very similar to the biblical idea of wisdom. and uh... since goldman's book there's been a lot of you know this has been widely accepted as this being a legitimate way to understand someone's intelligence uh... and it's been a lot of studies have been done that have found that high iq You could have a high IQ and you could still have major relational problems. You could not be able to hold a good job. It just wouldn't work out in many areas of life, although your IQ could be really high. EQ, on the other hand, would give someone the ability to prosper in much of their life. And so Goldman's book is helpful on EQ. He's just about 3,000 years behind the game because the wisdom literature has been saying the same thing for a long, long time. Ephesians chapter five, verse 15 through 17, it gives us a good practical understanding of wisdom. What do we mean by wisdom? It says this, look carefully then how you walk. not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." So wisdom is the ability to understand the will of the Lord, to make the best use of the time. Wisdom is the ability to not entertain every thought or go after every emotion, Wisdom is the awareness that our own heart and ideas cannot be trusted, but the Lord can. Wisdom is clear thinking about the consequences that our actions bring. Wisdom is the ability to diligently seek the right things at the right times. It is the renewed mind with the ability to test and discern the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect. That's wisdom. Ground level Christianity, that's why one scholar said this, wisdom literature is pushing toward the formation of the whole person. So who wants to be, hopefully nobody, who wants to be a woman who is very diligent to have her devotion every day, but who is not diligent in serving others? Who wants to be someone who's diligent at work, but then comes home and can't control themselves with food or entertainment. Who wants to be a person who talks gentle and kind to strangers, but then lashes out on their spouse or their loved ones verbally. And so wisdom literature is working toward the formation of the whole person, the whole of who we are. And I don't have to tell us how important this would be. And this isn't something that falls in our laps. You don't just grow into wisdom. You're certainly not born with it. Proverbs says, in fact, we're born with foolishness in our hearts. That must leave us and wisdom must be acquired or attained. It must be sought after. Guys, why do we want wisdom? Some of you here, I know this has got to be true, some of you here are very unhappy with the way your life is right now. Very discontent. And you're living, what's motivating you to keep going is that you think there's something out here, something ahead, that once I get that, Once that happiness becomes mine, once that thing becomes mine, then I'll be happy, then I'll be content, then I'll be satisfied. And there's always a better job, a little bit improvement on our looks, a little bit of better health, maybe a little more sleep, right? Some circumstance changing and improving so that the happiness can come. I just wanna say today, what you really need is wisdom. Proverbs 3 says this, Proverbs 3.13, blessed is the one who finds wisdom. The gain from her is better than the gain from silver or her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels. And listen to this, nothing you desire can compare with her. Nothing you desire can compare with wisdom. and what she can provide you. So that leads to question two, where do we find this type soul satisfying wisdom? Where do we get this? And what I want to argue for for a few minutes is that it comes from Jesus sitting at the feet of Jesus and Jesus being our counselor. And in the Old Testament, like Jeremiah 18, 18 says in the Old Testament, God's revelation is given in primarily three ways. So you have priests who taught the law of God. You have prophets who spoke the word of God. And then you have this category of wise men. who gave the counsel of God. And so we've already seen there's certain places in the Old Testament where the priests, Jesus stands as our priest, the greater priest or the prophet, but wisdom literature, Jesus comes to us as our wise counselor. He is the smartest human to ever live. The Bible says as a boy, he grew in wisdom. He's the shrewdest man to ever live. Nobody ever out thought Jesus. He is a genius. And 1 Corinthians 1, 24 and 30 says that Jesus is the wisdom of God. Colossians 2, verse 3 says, all of God's wisdom is hidden in Christ. And so Ray Ortlund put it very simply. He said this, the book or the wisdom literature, he says, is like having a conversation with Jesus. It's Jesus coming to us as our counselor and mentor, sitting together in the counseling room. And he not only loves us, he understands us. You got to get this idea of Jesus just merely being this far off distant deity in heaven disconnected from our lives. He's got to come closer to you where you're hearing Him and you're hearing the wisdom literature as Him speaking to you as your counselor. helping you figure out how do I live life in this world. I mean, with all my failures and he has the authority to speak into your failures because he never failed. And I got to stop there because I, and I want to linger here for a second because we live in a unique day. We live in a strange, a really strange day. Because we, in our culture, we tend to elevate as the authorities, the voices of authority and real wisdom, people whose lives are filled with failure, and they, in the name of authenticity, broadcast that failure as a badge of authority. So for example, we take, Take a parent who's raised children. They've raised four kids and they go, I have no idea how I did it. I probably believe what's wrong in most things. I have no idea what I did, but they're alive. And we go, man, look how honest they are. I mean, they're just so raw and honest and they're so vulnerable. They're willing to say how they messed up and they don't know what they were doing. I'll listen to them. And it's like that honesty and authenticity makes them an expert. And then, and juxtapose that, I mean, with Jesus who gives us 93 chapters of wisdom, perfect, flawless, not birthed out of failure wisdom. And yet we go, oh, I want to listen to the person who just messed up all the time and knows it. As if they're the authority because experience and authenticity in our day have been too highly elevated. My morning devotions yesterday, I was reading in Isaiah 28 verse 29, and it said, the Lord is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom. And he doesn't charge $100 an hour to hear your problems. And he knows you better than you know yourself. And He's a wonderful counselor. I mean, wouldn't it be wise to seek Him first, to hear Him out before we go to less qualified, less educated people? Guys, it must grieve the Lord for Him to look down and see how many problems we have. He sees more problems than we see in our lives. We think, if you look at your life, you're like, man, I've got so many problems, there's sin here, there's suffering here, there's this thing I can't figure out how to handle. I mean, he sees more than we see of that. And how it must grieve him when we go to a five minute blog post or we flip on a YouTube video and we think we're gonna find the solution really quick, really easy. And we haven't stopped to listen to 93 chapters of wisdom literature. And if we include Psalms and Song of Solomon in that, that's 251 chapters of wisdom literature, pure, unadulterated, without failure, always applicable, wisdom from Jesus, right there before us, about parenting, about marriage, about relational struggles, about our words, about sexual temptation. Anything under the sun has been spoken about before. Some of y'all know I have a, my undergrad is in philosophy, secular philosophy, and then I've spent a lot of time in the last 10 years or so studying psychology, just not for the fun of it, but it's interesting to me. But what I've found is how overly simplified, not the language, the terminology and language is very complicated, but the actual advice that's given to people is overly simplistic. It tends to minimize the complexity of our issues. But the Bible and wisdom literature is far more careful and nuanced and multifaceted because Jesus understands the human psyche and he gets human development. And He's the smartest person to ever live, uniquely qualified to counsel us. I mean, what an understatement that one wiser than Solomon has come. Jesus is infinitely wiser than Solomon. And He's given us so much. So, so much. Guys, as a pastor sitting and, I mean, I could look at my own life and it would be sufficient, but then I see y'all's lives, I see others' lives, and I go, man, the problems, the suffering, the pain, the confusion, the sin. And if you come to me and ask for some sort of help, I will happily tell you, this is over my head. What you just told me is over my head. You need something more than my personal experience. You need something more than quick, trite answers, more than a listening ear, more than a little encouragement. You know you need something more than that. We need objective, thoughtful, time-tested, not new and trendy, but ancient, always applicable truth from Jesus. You'll find a lot of it in the wisdom literature. So here's the real question. Who really knows how life works and whose counsel are you going to trust with your life and the life of those you love? Which leads to the third question. What does each book uniquely contribute to Jesus' wisdom literature? So we've got these three books, right? Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. So let me walk through these individually and say something quickly about each of them. Starting with Proverbs. I won't say a lot about Proverbs. We've spent a lot of the earlier time in this year going through the book of Proverbs. So I'll just remind us of a few things. Proverbs is literally designed as a parenting tool, all right? It mainly comes from a father speaking to his son. So if we have children, Proverbs should be open all the time. We should continually be putting before our kids the Proverbs. It was designed to be used that way. And so you're going to hear from the Proverbs not how to make a lot of money and get a good job and throw a ball and get a scholarship. You're going to hear parental wisdom on how to be loving and joyful and God-honoring and prosperous in all areas of relationships and responsibilities. How to avoid addictions. I mean, that one alone, how many teenagers lives are ruined and college students lives are ruined because of addictions? And then they get into their adult life and don't know what to do. And man, if they had a father that would have just pointed them to Proverbs and put that before them all the time, they could have avoided a lot of that. I mean, I've seen men delivered from sexual addictions because of Proverbs. specifically Proverbs 5 and Proverbs 7. Let me just read a portion of chapter 5 of Proverbs. I think it's starting in verse 1. It says, my son, be attentive to my wisdom. Incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps follow the path to Sheol. And then later it talks about this boy following her, this young man following her to her house and it says, he did not know it would cost him his life. You put that before your son over and over again? You think he won't think twice about what he does with his body, about what he does with the young lady? There's wisdom. We just ignore these things. We throw out trite little bits of advice when we have something very authoritative to read. I mean, how many men would not struggle with the things they struggle with? Even women struggle with the things they struggle with, had they had a father who would just read Proverbs to them regularly. I mean, how many of you would not have things you regret so badly that you've done, If your father would have read this, or your mother would have read this, or you would have read this. Maybe the issue isn't that, maybe it's laziness. Well, Proverbs chapter six, memorize it. Deals directly with, there's so much in Proverbs. Let's look at Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes gives us a different type of wisdom. I'll sum it up like this. It shows us that life is meaningless without God. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. That's how the ESV says it. So here's the message of Ecclesiastes in a few words. Life is difficult and then you die. That's Ecclesiastes in a few words. Life is difficult and then you die. Bruce Watkey, a top scholar in wisdom literature, he said this, the book of Ecclesiastes is the black sheep of the biblical canon. It is the delight of skeptics and the despair of saints. And then when you read it, you say, Amen. That is pretty accurate. It's like if you wake up, you know, you wake up, you have one of those mornings, you're like, I don't want to go to work. I'm going to go, but my heart's not in it. I'm certainly not doing this unto the Lord or out of love for others. And so you just get in the Bible and you go, I'm going to pray and try to renew my mind. for a moment and you mistakenly open to Ecclesiastes. And you read chapter two, verse 23, that says, all his days are full of sorrow and his work is a vexation. Even in the night, his heart does not rest. This also is vanity. And you go, okay, I better keep reading. And you get to chapter four. Then I saw all the toil and all skill and work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after the wind." And you go, I better keep reading. And you get to chapter nine. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. And you're like, okay, that sounds good. Do my work hard. And then you keep reading. For there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol to which you are going. I mean, you don't just get done reading Ecclesiastes and go, man, that was just encouraging. I've never heard anyone read Ecclesiastes. It's an odd book. I mean, listen to chapter 3, verse 19. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same. One dies, so the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. And you see why a skeptic of the Bible would be like, oh yeah, I love Ecclesiastes and all the saints. It's our despair. We go, why do we have this book? I remember in college I had a class called Existentialism, and it was the first time I ever read the book of Ecclesiastes. I was a new believer, and in this class I began to read it, because Existentialism, I mean, you could basically say the idea is God is dead, therefore, because God's dead, everything is meaningless, nothing matters, the only thing to look forward to is death, Because death finally frees you from the futility of living on this big ball of dirt and water called earth. That's existentialism. And I remember sitting in this class and reading all of these different philosophers talking about existentialism and thinking, that sounds a lot like Ecclesiastes. And I start reading Ecclesiastes, I'm like, man. Like, they're actually picking up on some really true things here that actually seem a lot like Ecclesiastes. And then you get to this. Unless God isn't dead, what if God is alive? And that's actually how you understand, the key to understanding Ecclesiastes is getting to chapter 12. Because in chapter 12, verse 13 and 14, we see this. The end of the matter, after all has been heard, fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, every secret thing, whether good or evil. So, yes, life is meaningless. Nothing really matters unless there's a judgment in which God judges all things. And if that's true, everything matters eternally. That's how you understand Ecclesiastes. Read it in light of chapter 12. Let's go to Job. Job is another type of wisdom about how to trust God when evil and suffering comes that does not make any sense. And so the book opens revealing a God-fearing man, Job, who loses everything in a day. So he loses all his money, he loses all his property, he loses his whole family, his health, his reputation, his popularity, everything's gone. except his life, he's still alive, and his wife, she's still alive, which would have been a blessing if she wasn't alive. Because, I mean, this is part of the suffering was his wife. In all honesty, it's how the narrative reads. She's like, Job, curse God and die. After all that happens, you should just curse God and die. That's not a blessing to Job. She adds to his suffering. And then you look at what is the other thing left? He has some friends and you go, well, at least he's got some good friends. And they are good friends at first when they're silent, right? When they're not talking, they're great friends at the beginning, but then they begin to talk and they begin to add to his suffering and his confusion more than helping him in his suffering, which is a good lesson to us and helping people who are suffering. And the big wrong thing that his friends do is they have a view of wisdom that the type of suffering and evil that Job's experiencing, it has to be because of something evil Job did. It must be that he's being punished for some sin in his life. And then Job begins to think this about himself. Maybe I am suffering because of something I have done when at the beginning it says, no, this is a righteous, God-fearing man. That's not why he was suffering. And it's all just kind of a lot of confusion and different opinions until we get to chapter 38 in Job. So a lot of chapters until God finally speaks into the confusion of suffering. He says, where were you, Job, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely no. Who stretched out the heavens and shut the sea with its doors, saying, Come this far and no further? Since you were born, have you commanded the morning and caused the sun to set? And it goes on, God speaking into Job's suffering. And that's why Daniel Frederick said this. Wisdom literature gives us a sovereign, predetermining God who acts in ways that are fully calculated, yet incalculable. And I would simplify that statement by saying, you just can't fit your life into a nice little box that if I just obey these rules, if I just do these things, then everything's gonna go well. All right, we know it doesn't work like that, right? Not that we've obeyed all the little things anyway, but even if we did, it doesn't always make everything go well. It's like, I've been wrestling with this lately, because I have a friend, a really close friend. He used to be a pastor in Dallas. He's preached from this pulpit. And he's the best pastor I've ever known. I don't say that lightly. He's an incredible preacher. The church he was pastoring was thriving. He's no longer a pastor, not because of moral failure, but because of he has a chronically sick wife that he stepped down so that he could get a job to get a better insurance plan and care for his sick wife. Now you explain that. I mean, I was just in shock when I heard this. I'm like, this doesn't make sense, Lord. You could just heal her. He could keep preaching. He could keep pastoring. He could keep doing what he's so good at doing. This is advancing the kingdom. How do you understand that? You know, if I only had wisdom that came from Proverbs, I might be tempted to say, well, he must have done something. This must be some act of discipline on God's part, right? But Job gives me a category to say, no, not necessarily. This man could be very righteous and blameless. And the Lord is bringing suffering into his life, because like 1 Peter says, so that the proven, the tested genuineness of his faith might prove more precious than gold. That God sometimes puts suffering into the lives of his people, not because they aren't righteous, but because they are. And he wants to prove their righteousness and their faith more. We need the wisdom of Proverbs. Man, yesterday I'm sitting, I'm laying on the couch and I'm reading an article about North Korea. I got caught up reading this article. I've known about North Korea and what's going on there a long time, but I'm reading over these things that people are suffering there and I'm thinking, I am laying on my couch. in my comfortable house with a life that my worst trials would be paradise to these people. And I almost questioned God. And I remember Job 40, where God, the Lord said to Job this, shall you contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it. And then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. Silence. He had the wisdom to know what is out of his league to judge. I will not be God's judge. God can run the universe on His own. He can orchestrate my life better than I can. There are many things I don't know that He knows. His ways are higher than my ways. I will stay silent. I will pray that God helps me to trust Him. That's the fruit that came out of all of this suffering for Job as he began to see God's sovereignty over suffering. And it began to deepen a fear in Job. This is our last question I want to look at. Could fearing God be our wisest posture? Fearing God. Could fearing God be the wisest posture? The pinnacle of wisdom? The beginning of wisdom? The pinnacle of wisdom? Could it be? Let's just jump, I was going to give some New Testament references. Let's just jump into the Old Testament. Proverbs says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So that if you don't fear the Lord, you haven't even begun to get wisdom. It's the beginning. So without the fear of the Lord, You don't have wisdom. It is the beginning of wisdom. Ecclesiastes says this, the end of the matter after all has been seen is fear the Lord. So the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. It is the end of wisdom. Then Job, here's our other one. Job 28 says, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. So the central theme of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job is the fear of the Lord. Now let's think about this. What is the big problem in our city or our country? The big problem, according to Romans 3, is there is no fear of God before their eyes. What is our problem every time we sin? It's that in that moment of sin, we were not fearing the Lord. Ed Welch, one of the great biblical counselors of our day said this in a book on addictions. He said, here is the ultimate protection against addictions, the fear of God. I can easily be backed up with Proverbs alone. Proverbs 14.27, the fear of the Lord is the fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death. Or Job 1.8, Job was a blameless and upright man who feared God and turned away from evil. The fear of God always going with the turning away from evil. Proverbs 16.6, through the fear of the Lord, a man avoids evil through the fear of the Lord. In my devotions this morning, I said I was reading through Isaiah right now, chapter 29 this morning, and I wanted to put this before us because I feel this may speak to somebody on this. Isaiah 29.13 says this, The Lord said, because this people draws near with their mouth, they honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? Jesus quoted that. And he says this, their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. I throw out this fear of God thing before us. Is that just something you've learned about in the Bible or is that a reality in your life? There are people who it's just something you've learned, the fear of God. Okay, I can explain that. Who cares if you can explain it? Is it a reality in your life? You say, well, the verse goes on. It says, you say, who sees? Who knows? That's the person who just, they know the concept of the fear of God, but they don't actually have the reality in them. They just say, God doesn't see what I'm doing. God doesn't care who, right? You have these secret parts of your life that you think doesn't matter. Nobody else notices. I'm not getting in trouble. I'm not hurting anybody. What's the ultimate problem? God's watching and you don't care because you don't fear him. But a fear of God means even when I'm in secret, I want to do the Lord's will. A fear of God really is the solution to all the other problems that we deal with. All the sins in our life. This is the root thing. If you fear God, you're going to turn away from evil in whatever form or fashion it comes. That's what Proverbs repeatedly says. Guys, we can't be saved without a fear of the Lord. Psalms 27 one says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Nobody giggles their way into the kingdom of God. Nobody's laughing and playing around when they get genuinely saved, because they're meeting God. Psalms 40 verse 3 says, Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Psalms 34 7, The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and He delivers them. Psalm 25, who is the man who fears the Lord? His soul shall abide in wellbeing and his offspring shall inherit the land. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him. So if you're not a friend of God, you're an enemy of God. And it says the friendship of the Lord is for those who go to church. No, read their Bible faithfully. No, the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him. You say, yeah, but fear doesn't really mean fear in the Bible. It means reverence, right? If it meant reverence, it would be translated reverence. It's translated fear for a reason. It means fear. I've shared this before. I feel like this is a helpful illustration to get across the concept, but there was a news article that came out. few years ago that someone told me about about this ufc fighter who a few guys break into his house at night if he was like three burglars break-in and they're downstairs and he hears something he goes down and he takes out these three guys with his bare hands in his kitchen destroys the guys bare hands, like what do you think that next morning that wife thought or those kids that were upstairs sleeping thought when they heard their dad just took out these three guys with his bare hands in their kitchen? They're not scared he's gonna turn and do that to them. You think they aren't gonna fear him? There isn't gonna be a healthy level of fear to go, our dad has this ability? He has this type power to protect me with? It's a fear that leads to trust. It's a fear that gives us trust. This is a helpful way. This is how we talk about it with our kids. I think this is a very simple way to understand the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is not what makes you run away from God. That's what people do when they don't fear God. A fear of God, drives you to Him because you're scared to run away from Him. And because you know, if I run to Him, He never rejects those who come to Him. He is always a refuge for those who come to Him. So I fear running away in sin. I'm going to run to Him. He can protect me from all evil. That's a real fear of the Lord. Listen to this verse, Psalms 130 verse three. This used to baffle me how this connection worked, but listen to how it said, Psalms 130 verse three and four. If you Lord kept a record of sins, oh Lord, who could stand? Who could stand? But with you, there is forgiveness. that you may be feared." You hear that? There's forgiveness that you may be feared. Do you not fear a God who would send His Son to die for your sins? Because your sins required death. And He sends His Son instead to take the penalty for your sins against Him. Do you not fear God like that? Spill the blood of the innocent, His own Son, for you to forgive all of your sins. With you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. That's why John Newton in the amazing grace, what did he say? He said those famous lyrics, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear." Grace that taught my heart to fear. He could crush me, but instead he crushed his son for me. I'm gonna draw near to a God like this. I'm gonna fear running away from a God like this. I'm gonna entrust my soul and my eternity to a God like that. Guys, when we really begin to get a glimpse of our sin and how unfixable we are, how unfixable those around us are, how complex and weaved together suffering and sin are in our lives and lives of those we love, where else can we go but to the Lord? Where else can we go but to His Word, trusting His Spirit to give us some sort of breakthrough and help. We are just a generation of those who want the easy, quick thing. Give me a little quick video that can help me with this massive problem that could send me to hell, but I'll take a five-minute video to help me out, rather than go, Oh God, help me. I'm going to trust Your Word right now. Spirit of God, give me something here. Do a miracle. Seeking wisdom is not an easy, quick thing, but it's available. I want to end this with one passage. If you'll flip quickly to Proverbs 2. Proverbs 2 verse 7. Hear this as such good news today. This is good news. Proverbs 2, 7, it says, he stores up sound wisdom for the upright. It's there. Just picture all of this wisdom in heaven waiting to be supplied to you. There is nothing stopping you from getting that wisdom stored up if you want it. That's the key. If you want it. You gotta want it. Go back to verse one. Cue in on this word, if. Getting wisdom from God is contingent on something. You don't just get it automatically. It's contingent on something. You have to do something to receive the gift of wisdom. What does it say in verse one? My son, if you receive my words, words of wisdom, Verse 3, if you call out for insight. Verse 4, if you seek it like silver and search for it as hidden treasure. Then the promise, verse 5, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find knowledge. Verse 10, then wisdom will come into your heart. Jerry Bridges said, earthly wisdom can be gained through study, but heavenly wisdom comes through prayer. Remember what James 1.5 says? If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. Solomon was not born with wisdom. What did he do? He asked. And God gave it. So when your next problem comes, who are you gonna turn to? Where will you go? Who will you listen to? Who will you call out to? I hope it's to Jesus, our wonderful counselor. who has storehouses of wisdom waiting to supply to our need. Let's go to him right now and ask for that. Father, Lord, you are wise and we are foolish. And whatever wisdom we have is wisdom you've given us. And so we're grateful. And Lord, wherever foolishness is still leading us into sin, Lord, wherever it's still leading us astray, we pray, Father, that we would see that and we would call out for wisdom. We pray that we would grow in the fear of you so that we would forsake all that is harmful to ourselves and to others. Lord, we need your help. We thank you that wisdom is In the storehouses, it is there waiting for us. We pray, Father, you would deepen our hunger to seek it. We thank you that all of your wisdom is in your Son, Jesus Christ. Praise you, Jesus, for what you've done for us. We just celebrate it today. We put our full hope and trust in your sufficient work and your sufficient word for us. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.