All right, well, tonight's study and what is wisdom is going to be pre-recorded. I'll go ahead and get that out of the way now, so you don't figure it out halfway through when you realize that I'm not responding to people the same way I normally would, and when I don't take questions at the end. The reason for this being that I have somewhere I have to go today, trying to help and be a blessing to Brother Morgan. And so, because I'll be out of town, I needed to go ahead and do it this way. But I'll try to make sure it's a good and interesting lesson for you. Try to keep it short as I can, since it is a prerecorded message and not draw it out too long. But I want to continue our study and what is wisdom by looking at the blessings of wisdom. Primarily, I'm going to use Proverbs Chapter 8 as a crutch for this. But in reality, you could preach this almost exactly the same thoughts if you started in Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 9. It's over and over, you get these lists like this, talking about wisdom and why it's such a blessing. Also, I'll note that if I'm speaking softer than normal and trying to be a little more quiet, it's because I am recording this way past midnight in order to make sure you had some kind of Bible study tonight, because I didn't want to leave you without one. And everybody else in my house is asleep, so I'm trying not to wake anybody else up by recording this for all of you. So that just makes it an added blessing. But Romans chapter, or sorry, Proverbs chapter eight, Romans eight's one of my favorite chapters. So it's just there in the brain. Proverbs chapter eight, doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice. She standeth at the top of high places. By the way, in the places of the path, she crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom, and ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Here, for I will speak of excellent things, and of the openings of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth, and wickedness is an abomination of my lips. All the words of my mouth are unrighteousness. There is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to him that find knowledge. Receive my instruction and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies in all things that may be desired or not to be compared to it. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength. Now, I apologize. I should cut off on verse 13. Verse 14, you start another portion of this chapter. This chapter actually deals with, even though it's titled a lot of times as the blessings of wisdom, it actually deals with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. Wisdom takes the primary spot as the first thing it talks about. Understanding actually gets more verses, I believe, as the majority of The chapter is about understanding, and then you get a few verses there at the end where it's talking about receiving instruction, and you begin to really talk more about knowledge at that point. So we'll stay out of the area where it's talking about knowledge and understanding, because we'll save that kind of stuff for when we're talking about them today. We just primarily want to focus on wisdom still, because we gave a definition. Again, the base level definition of wisdom is always going to be the ability to apply knowledge. It's the best one I've ever found. If I ever find a better one, I'll change that answer. However, I do think the more biblical defining is that wisdom is some compound of justice, a sense of justice, judgment, the ability to make decisions, and equity. Equity being of those three. Ability to separate our emotions and our thoughts and our opinions and all of those things from our decision making so that when you have wisdom, you have something in you that's a moral compass, pointing your decisions and your thoughts to that, which is right. You have within you an ability to weigh the information that's been given to you and make decisions based off of that. And you have the ability to leave your own personal biases out of that decision making. So having said that, that's what I believe wisdom is, and it's foundational principles, as God, I believe, defines it, is one of those things, it's a much more complicated subject than to just give it a straightforward, you know, knowledge is what you know, understanding is the ability to understand kind of answer. I think it requires more than that. And so, like I say, the easiest is the ability to apply knowledge, but as you see, once you begin to look at the Bible definition, it's actually deeper than even that. So in this passage, I think there's three things you can count as a blessing. And the first one may actually sound a little bit silly when I go back and show you what it is, but it's a big enough blessing to God that he actually, in all of those passages I referenced, Proverbs 1, 2, 3, I guess even in Proverbs 4, almost every chapter leading up to chapter 9, God has this long list like this about wisdom somewhere in them, and all of them talk about this one point. So let me read it from Proverbs 8 again. We'll read the first four verses again. Doth not wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high places, by the way, in the places of the past. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors, unto you oh men i call and my voice is to the sons of men now again this may sound silly but to me i count this as one of the blessings that wisdom is readily available uh that wisdom is not something you're necessarily born with you can be born with more wisdom than somebody else, but to be truly wise is not something people are typically born with right out the gate, that you are full of wisdom. You may have more natural propensity for it, a higher capacity and so forth, but it is something that grows and cultivates within a heart. We've seen that, we've talked about that already, that wisdom and understanding proceed forth from the heart, knowledge is a matter of the mind. And so because of that, They are abilities more so than something you just possess. Your knowledge is something you possess, you retain it, you keep it. Wisdom is something you grow and cultivate within your heart. And because of that nature, that relationship that wisdom and understanding have, they grow and you cultivate them within your heart. It's not something you're normally just born right out the gate with an abundance of. Again, some have a higher ability, some have different areas where you see this. But I can look at my kids, for example, because I've had the benefit of watching them from their birth, and they each exhibit aspects of wisdom and understanding and intelligence, but they do it very differently. And you see that each of them were born with different levels of these things. So I think it's important to be able to look at that. Whereas Hannah, for example, the baby of them all just seems to have a natural ability to a perceptiveness. You have to really take stuff in and look at it and try to understand what's going on there. So, you know, desire is very good at just soaking up information. He can quote stuff back to you. You remember stuff that it's almost impossible that you should be able to remember. Whereas Hannah, on the other hand, you see it. There's a. Curiosity within her and a desire to understand the world around her. Whereas Emily is actually quite good at just picking stuff up pretty fast and learning things. She's just not good at expressing it. She's too shy and so forth. So it's just to show that, you know, three children from the same two parents raised in the same house are not born with the same exact abilities when it comes to wisdom and understanding. One's more understanding, one has a better ability to retain information, one has a better ability to use that information and so forth. So every child is different. Every person is different. However, wisdom is readily available to everyone. That's the point that's being made here, that wisdom is standing in the streets and begging for you to hear her. She's crying out to you. It says, does not wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice, that both of these things are begging you to open up your heart and give a place to them to grow. It says she's standing at the top of the high places by the ways and the places of the paths. So, you know, it almost says to say, you know, she's crying from the mountaintop and by the roadside, begging you to hear what she has to say. She cried at the gates at the entry of the city and the coming in at the doors. So, you could look at that one of two ways that she's standing at the entrance. So, you know, from the time you will walk in the door, you know, she's there calling out to you. The other idea that I see that's interesting in that as well as, you know, the gates was usually the place of commerce, the place of business, where the leaders would sit down and discuss and so forth. So it seems that in any place, you know, especially in place where decisions must be made, she's there begging to be heard. This is unto you, oh man, I call in my voice is to the sons of men. So she's calling to us to mankind and she's begging us when you're making decisions, when you're having to choose what to do, whether you're on the road or on the mountain, wherever you're at, wisdom is calling out to you. And again, it seems maybe simple. It makes you like it's not that big of a deal, but God makes a big deal of it because it really is a blessing because. Again, none of us are born overwhelmed and with an abundance of wisdom. Nobody's born with such a burden. Instead, wisdom is something that is a blessing that we have the ability to grow and cultivate within our hearts just by changing some habits, by doing certain things. And Proverbs 2 is a good place for that. So again, there's several chapters we could go to for these salts because it's spread out across Proverbs, but I only have so much time, so many verses. I can read in one lesson, so let's go to Proverbs 2. We've read this before, we'll do it again. It says, my son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding. Yea, if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding, if thou seek her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. So I'll read more because there's more to be read there in that passage, but I want to pause on that part to emphasize that wisdom is begging for you to hear. The only thing needed is for you to listen, that God has given you his word. He's given you wisdom in his word. He's put the capacity to learn and gain and increase in wisdom and understanding all around you. And it really comes down to whether or not we are willing to listen with the heart and with the ear, with the ear so as to take the information in with the heart so as to actually receive it. because you can let something go in one ear and out the other. But it's with the heart that you'll actually receive that information. It's with the mind you store information. We get that. We've talked about that before. But in terms of actually taking to heart what's being said, that's the idea. Wisdom there, wisdom's prime, but you have to take it to heart. You have to be willing to let wisdom pierce through the hardness of the heart and actually grow something in you and increase something in you and teach you in some way. Now, having said that, I really love, and that's why I chose this one, because again, chapter 1 and so forth have this, but I love the way it said in chapter 2. It's one of my favorite things in Proverbs, I guess, when he makes the statement that if we'll search after wisdom as a hidden treasure, we'll look for it like a man would look for silver. the way, you know, man mining, I think of the gold rush there in the US and across Alaska and all of that, where you had men abandoning their homes, their families, their old jobs and their old lives and all of these things, you know, forsaking everything, giving it their entire heart, you know, braving the elements, risking their life, you know, many dying, being willing to fight for it and even kill for it if necessary to go find Maybe a little bit of gold out there in the water because we found out there was gold out there. You saw it in California as well. You saw it in a lot of places wherever there's been a gold rush. You see that with diamond mining and stuff and in parts of the world today that people are willing to forsake everything and you. put this is the greatest priority of their life. And while you could take it that far when talking about wisdom, it's the seeking is a hit treasure park. It really stands out to me because the intent, I believe, of that statement is to search it like you would with a treasure map, to search it like you would when you're wanting to find anything. You know, when you want to find something, you follow the clues, you connect the dots, you study it, you learn about it, you invest yourself in this. I mean, I've always enjoyed a good adventure movie or something. I don't watch a lot now, but growing up, I mean, I had the entire Indiana Jones collection, all that kind of stuff. I liked. It's silly as it might have been because of the fact that you had this story where somebody has to connect the dots. Somebody has to follow the clues. They have to figure stuff out. That's a treasure hunt. I mean. I proposed to my wife with a scavenger hunt. I set up a scavenger hunt where I laid clues for her out around the city, got her brother and sister involved to make sure she stayed on the right track. And I made her go hunt for the information, hunt for the clues to get to the prize. And that's kind of the way you have to treat wisdom as something that you really have to put the effort into. So that's where, like I said, I'm not going to say you take it as far as a gold rush when you're willing to forget your friends, family, murder people, and all this kind of stuff to get ahead. That's not what I'm saying with wisdom. But I'm saying be willing to put the work into it. It's there. It's readily available. It's not like you have to go with a pan and stand out in the ice cold water and pan for hours, hoping, or days, or weeks, or years, hoping to find just enough gold to justify your sacrifice. Wisdom, you just have to pick up a Bible and read for a few minutes and you're already increasing. You have to find somebody who's got some wisdom in their heart and mine it out and you're already increasing in wisdom. You just have to listen. You have to be willing to hear what's being said. And I've just noticed this drawer behind me has been open this whole time. And it's really starting to irritate me. Somebody borrowed my stapler and the drawer didn't get closed. But anyways, going back to wisdom is something you just have to be willing to mine it where it is. Bible's full of it. There's plenty of people, you know, that are full of it. There's plenty of places where, you know, to find wisdom, you just have to be willing to look and you have to be willing to receive what's there. Now saying that, though, more than anywhere, there is one person whom, you know, has wisdom and that's God. And Proverbs 2 even stresses that. Proverbs 2 in verse 6, where we left off at. It says, Now, so maybe I can throw a verse line there as well. Now, think about that for a minute. He just told you you want wisdom, mine it out, you dig for it. He talks about a man of understanding will, you know, taken that a man with wisdom in his heart. It's like a deep well and someone of understanding will draw that out of them. You know, they'll, you know, they'll prod them and provoke them to, you know, to spill out that wisdom that's inside of them. Like how you drop a bucket in the well and pull the water out here. He's telling you, you know, if you really want to increase in wisdom, it's there. You just have to be willing to look for it. And more than anything, you have to be willing to look for it in the person of God, through his word, through... I like the way James says it. James says, If you really want to increase in wisdom, talk to the one who has it. Talk to the one who is able to give exceedingly abundantly. And if you don't understand that upbraideth not, that upbraideth not means he doesn't look down on you because you have to ask. Uh, you know, I know I, for example, am guilty. Sometimes somebody asked me a question. I feel like it's a simple question. Uh, and I make them feel dumb sometimes because they had to ask it. I don't mean to do that. Uh, it's the sharpness with the way in which I speak. Typically, uh, it's the snarky, you know, sarcasm and stuff like that that comes out that I don't even mean to do sometimes. And I apologize if I've ever made someone feel that way, who's listening to this. I've ever made you feel dumb for asking me a question. Please don't. I mean, if you ask me the same question a hundred times, you know who you are. I apologize, but not as deeply as I do to everybody else. But if you're asking me a question and you're genuinely wanting to learn something, you're really taking it to heart and want to know something. Then please don't let me make you feel dumb for that. It's good that you want to learn. You should be trying to increase in knowledge and in wisdom and understanding. You should be trying to build upon what you already have and so forth. And God invites you to do that with him. He says wisdom comes out of his mouth that God pours out wisdom that his word, his Bible is full of wisdom. Pick it up and mine it out. Treat it like you are a miner who is trying to get the silver out of the earth or the gold out of the rivers or whatever, and go to work like a treasure hunter. Connect the dots. Don't be afraid to write down and make notes of stuff. You know that the reason why I have what understanding I have of Proverbs and all of this that I do is because I made notes and I compared those notes and I rewrote those notes and I updated those notes and so forth over and over and over again. So that every time I was reading through Proverbs, it was like I was pouring over a treasure map and I was increasing what I knew about the information there. I was okay, first time I knew this much, now I know more. So my ability to better discern the treasure and find out where it is was increased. And that's the relationship he's explaining to you here. And this way we should treat God's word. Now, I apologize, I think I didn't reread verse five. We read it the first time through, but it says, chapter eight, get ready to read chapter two, verse five. Oh, you simple understand wisdom and you fools be of an understanding heart. What you need to do according to chapter eight, you know, we jumped to chapter two, maybe a little bit too fast, but what you have to do according to chapter eight, is just be willing to understand with your heart, you know, apply your heart to understand. That's your try. I mean, it's what it means. It means, you know, with your heart, do your best to understand what wisdom has been presented out there to you, you know, to understand the wisdom that's there, whether that be the word of God, whether that be wise counsel or whatever, apply yourself to understand that. And then verse six picks up with the idea for I will hear for I will speak excellent things and the opening of my lips shall be right things." Which brings me to the second blessing. And that's that wisdom, it speaks right things. One of the blessings about wisdom is wisdom in its purest form. Now do bear in mind that the Bible talks about more than one kind of wisdom. There's wisdom from above, wisdom from below. Wisdom from above, it goes into that sound wisdom that is easy to be entreated and so forth, pure and all of those things. whereas wisdom from below is that one that's earthly, sensual, and devilish. It's based off of how we feel and so forth. And in that reality, he's presenting it more so on a spectrum where you're going from wisdom towards foolishness. And we showed that. In fact, I haven't threw up the chart yet today, so let me throw that up there for good measure. But we've shown that form in looking at this. If you look at it in terms of a spectrum, you have wisdom, and as you go down into the negative, it becomes foolishness. So wisdom being our worldview and an ability to understand or to measure the world around us, to make judgments about it, and to have a sense of justice in terms of what is right. And being able to take ourself out of the equation and just apply the knowledge of what we know about all of this. If wisdom is that, then what you wind up with is this definition of wisdom, Some people, their worldview, their ability to apply their knowledge of the world, their sense of morals and their compass, their. Their ability to take the information to have make decisions on it, take themselves out of the equation is less than others. They maybe they're not all the way into the realm of foolishness. They're still in the realm of wisdom, but they're not leaning towards sound wisdom. So, what I'm talking about right now is more towards the realm of sound wisdom. It's when you're on the right path. Wisdom is, you're really giving your heart to wisdom. You're getting as far from foolishness as you can. And in that regard, what he says about it is, wisdom says, listen to me, I'm going to tell you excellent things. I'm going to tell you some stuff that really is. It's going to help you so much. I'm going to tell you what is right, and that's the thing that I say is a second blessing about wisdom. It tells you what's right. Wisdom is, according to verse 7, always desiring to look to the truth. So verse 7 says for my mouth shall speak truth and wickedness is an abomination in my lips. So wisdom is says says that. Wickedness is an abomination to it, to the lips of wisdom. So think about abomination being a sin against the nature of something, the way that something was designed to function. So in that you see the things God calls an abomination, which I intend to preach on this soon as God will let me, probably early in this next year, that there are things that are an abomination because they're a sin against the nature of how something was designed to function. So, for example, homosexuality is said against the nature of the home and how we were designed for marriage and so forth. Even men wearing women's clothing and women wearing men's clothing is an abomination because you're sitting against the nature of how God's designed you as a human being to look and be. Sowing discord among the brethren is a sin against the nature of what a family and a church and all those kind of things wherein you are given the brethren relationship are supposed to function. It's not just a sin, it's a sin against the very nature of something so that it becomes disgusting and abominable like a monstrosity. So, to wisdom, wickedness is a monstrosity. It's a sin against the very nature of what wisdom should be. Wisdom is focused on the truth. Wisdom, as it says in verse... Verse seven again, for my mouth shall speak truth. Wisdom is always, as you increase in wisdom, it's always gonna be focused to the truth. I mean, think about it, what is it? Wisdom is justice. Justice is a moral compass that's always pointing towards truth, towards what is right. Now, again, as someone's lower on the scale of wisdom and their worldview is skewed and broken by certain things, then their moral compass will also be broken. But the more north you go, the easier it is to point to that true north. You're a little closer to the magnetic pole of truth. So because of that, the compass of justice will point towards truth. You have judgment. It's the ability to look at things, to discern it, to think about it, to measure it out and make a decision. to determine what's true, what's right. You think about equity, it's the ability to take yourself out of it, take your emotions and your feelings, your thoughts on the matter and your biases and get rid of all of that and junk it so that only the truth can prevail. Wisdom is very much focused on the truth. It's at the heart of what wisdom is trying to promote and provoke you towards. It's truth. So as our wisdom becomes more and more sound, that being the pinnacle, as it becomes more and more sound, then because of that, our... Our wisdom will always point more and more towards truth. That's the simple thing I'm trying to say. So the wisdom, it speaks right things. It's trying to point you and teach you that which is right. You see that even more as you continue. I mean, verse eight says, all the words of my mouth are in righteousness. There is nothing forward or reverse in them. Now, if you think back to the chart, we'll throw it up one more time for good measure. What is the bottom of the scale? If the top is sound wisdom, And as it gets closer and closer to foolishness, you just have wisdom as you cross the border from the fear of the Lord to unbelief where the full has said it is hard. There's no God. It creeps over into the realm of foolishness, but foolishness when it reaches its pinnacle or it's. That was sort of that Nadir, I guess, would be the very bottom at the opposite of a pinnacle. But when it reaches its depth, its pit, what you wind up with is that it reaches for forwardness, wherein you are intentionally deceitful. You're not just oblivious to the right application of knowledge. You are distorting it and trying to deceive people. You're intentionally lying. intentionally trying to distort the truth. So you see that relationship better. Truth is very much at the heart of wisdom. And the further you get away from that, the more you get into foolishness. So that true wisdom will always get further away from forwardness, the distorting and the deceiving of the truth. Wisdom will always be trying to take you away from that. so that truth is not flexible, it's not twistable, it's not, well, hath the Lord really said? Did the Lord really say that? Yea, hath God said? Where truth can't be played with in that kind of way, where truth is set and fixed, and our opinions about it don't matter. It's just, it is what it is. That's where wisdom is always going to take you, whereas foolishness is going to take you away from that, to where the truth is very malleable, and you can make whatever you want out of it, so that you become forward, you know, a liar, a deceiver. Now, saying that, you see that the intention of wisdom is that my words, the words of my mouth are in righteousness, so that what wisdom is teaching you is right. Now, again, we may, because of failures on our part, because a lack of wisdom, misuse it, misapply it, and so forth. But wisdom is right. It's going to, in its natural form, point you to what's right. Verse nine says, they're all plain to him that understandeth, and right to him that findeth knowledge. So you see that relationship that's always being built upon throughout Proverbs of understanding, wisdom, and knowledge. And it says to him that has understanding, Everything that wisdom has to say just makes sense. It's just natural. You just understand it as simple as plain. And it's the Bible. Actually, I'll be glad when we talk about understanding because the Bible says a lot of nice things like that about understanding. Understanding is far more important than you probably give it credit for right now, simply because we haven't talked about it yet for you to see it. And normally you think highly of wisdom and knowledge. You don't think a lot about understanding. And it says, and write to him, to them that find knowledge. So that would say that the more you increase in knowledge, the more your wisdom, the more you find wisdom to be right. So the truth of the matter is that there is a relationship here in the heart that has to be understood. And that relationship is that a man can have knowledge without having wisdom. You can be foolish. You can know a lot of things, but not know how to use it. But when those two things are together, knowledge and wisdom create something beautiful. Of course, if you have wisdom, understanding is going to grow. Understanding will always grow in a heart where wisdom is growing, just as scornfulness will grow in a heart where foolishness is growing. Those two things must go hand in hand together. So noting that, the same way that wisdom is plain to him that understandeth, as we increase in knowledge, it should help us to start to see that wisdom is right. It should be that the more you know about the world around you, the more you see that what wisdom is showing you is right, that to help you come out of that foolishness, that should be the way it goes. Then verse 10 brings me to my last point. I'll read verse 10 and 11 together. It says, sorry, I received my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choice gold for wisdom is better than rubies and all the things that may be desired or not to be compared to it. Now, this is a statement that's made many, many times throughout Proverbs, some variation of this. that wisdom is a treasure to be received. It's not just readily available. It's not just a, you know, something that speaks right things, but it's a treasure to be received. And that's, that's great. I mean, you know, if gold was easily available to you, you'd be rejoicing and celebrating in the streets right now. You know, if you had an easy access to some of these things, I know Nick right now, if he had an abundance of silver, if it was readily available to him, he would be rejoicing in the streets. If we knew how to find treasures easy, if we knew where there was a pile of rubies laid up and we just had to go get them, we would be thoroughly enjoying that. And yet you have such a great treasure and wisdom that is readily available to you and we fail to receive it sometimes. We fail to really give it the time that it deserves and actually try to increase ourselves in wisdom. So what he's telling us here is that wisdom is something that should be desired more than gold. And choice gold is to say, you know, precious gold, that gold that you really want, the high quality stuff. So it says receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choice gold. So you get wisdom and knowledge here being talked about. Wisdom is the one who's still speaking at this point. This is, you know, if you're going to take something, listen to what I have to say more than trying to find silver. And for that matter, you know, increase knowledge, learn some things more than trying to get that fine, precious gold for wisdom is better than rubies. And all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. That's why he says in chapter 4, the wisdom is the principle thing. If you're going to get anything out of reading Proverbs, he says, get wisdom because that's the treasure to be found in the book of Proverbs. That's the treasure that he's trying to give you. All these other things are just icing on the cake. They're great, but wisdom is the treasure that you're supposed to be mining for when you read Proverbs. And so it's a treasure that's better than rubies and all that you can desire, he says, or not to be compared to it. I mean, you think about Solomon, it may sound silly to use this as my example, but because he asked God for wisdom to rule his people instead of for riches or longer life, God gave him all of those things. And what's interesting is God tells him that he gave him all those things because of the fact that he asked for something not selfish. He asked for wisdom instead of asking for those things. And it's one of those kind of, you know, seek ye first the kingdom of God, then these things should be added to you kind of things. But what you'll note is that God gave him those things through his wisdom, that it was his wisdom that allowed him to accumulate a lot of that. Because even the Bible teaches that wisdom allows us longer days and a better life. But let me, before I get sidetracked and trying to go to that passage, let me read verses 12 and verse 13 and give some thoughts on them. Those are the last two verses from this chapter, then we'll hit a few other verses and we'll move on. So verse 12 and verse 13. It says I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions. So you see that wisdom is accompanied by some of the greatest things you could ask for. Prudence is an ability to look ahead and see where your path is taking you. He says wisdom allows you to know witty inventions, which that's what I still struggle with exactly what he means by that statement. Let's just say, you know, it's those witty, those intelligent, you know, thought out things. It helps you to know them to understand that we even, I would say, but wisdom is, it dwells with prudence. It dwells with that ability to look where your path is taking you and what you're going to be doing. And then he says, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. But this is wisdom speaking, it says, pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate. So fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the fear of the Lord will naturally produce a hatred of evil within you. The more you see God for who he is, the more you see evil for what it is and you'll hate it. Wisdom says that as it grows in your heart, you'll hate pride. And that's something you'll note. I don't wanna pull up the chart again, but you'll note that the extension of an understanding heart is humility. The extension of a scornful heart is proud Holy Spirit. So you see that, that wisdom naturally goes against pride and arrogancy. Then the evil way, we've already talked about that because the fact that wisdom wants to point you to what's right, wickedness is an abomination against wisdom. And the froward mouth, do I hate? Again, the mouth that would be quick to play loosely with the truth, to misuse the truth and to lie and so forth. So that when you look at wisdom, it's such a treasure, largely because wisdom helps promote the good things there for you, the things like prudence. And it helps you to stay away from the things that are destructive, like pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the forward mouth. So wisdom is such a treasure because it protects you from so many things. Now, saying that, let's go to Proverbs 9. I meant earlier to read verses one through six and failed to, so we'll do some extra reading right now. But don't lose your train of thought, because I'm actually trying to get to verse 11 and 12. Starting in verse one, it says, Wisdom hath built her house. She hath hewn out her seven pillars. She hath killed her beasts. She hath mingled her wine. She hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens. She crieth upon the highest places of the city. Whoso is simple, let him turn and hither. For as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live, and go in the way of understanding. He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself a shame. He that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man, and he'll be yet the wiser. Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. For by me, this is what I told you to keep your train of thought for. For by me, thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself, but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. So wisdom is such a treasure to you because it increases the days of your life. Now, I wanted to read that earlier parts of the passage because it shows you some of how you can increase in wisdom. And that's our first point we're talking about this readily available. She cries out and so forth, and she's prepared the way for you. You just have to be willing to receive wisdom. But since we're over that point now, let's focus on verse 11. That by wisdom our days shall be multiplied in the years of our life shall be increased like that commandment with promise. If you honor your mother and father, he's telling you if you'll get wisdom, you'll increase your days here on the Earth. You know that foolishness is a deadly wisdom is full of life. If I can put it that simply. Then Proverbs 313 through 18. It says. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things that thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her. and happy is everyone that retaineth her. The Lord, by wisdom, hath founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew. My son, let not them depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. So shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble. I'll stop there, but it goes on. There's still a lot of good stuff going on throughout the chapter, but just for the sake of timing. What you note here is this idea that if you want to make your life a more peaceful and happy life, one that's free of some of the troubles that come from just making the wrong decisions from falling into temptations and all of these kind of things. Then wisdom is a blessing to you because wisdom is a treasure that happy is the man that has it. I mean, you think you'd be happier with more money. God said, you'd be happier with more wisdom. You think you'd be happy for you if you had a wealthier lifestyle and all these kind of things. If life was easier, you didn't have to work so hard. God says you'd be happier if you had more wisdom. And so this is really one of those matters of, do you trust God or not? Because our mentality, our way of thinking tends to be that I need this, I need that. And I have this big list of stuff that if I just had that, I'd be happy. Now, the truth is we understand as believers, I'm assuming most everyone listening to me right now is a believer, but we understand this, that Our happiness will, you'll not find contentment or fulfillment or meaning or purpose or any of those things in life without Christ. No matter how good the job, no matter what you're trying to do without Christ, it's going to be unfulfilling. It's going to be empty. You're going to be hungry. With Christ, the worst job in the world can be fulfilling. But he's adding to this. You want to, even as a Christian, make your life a little more happy. It's not money that you're looking for right now. It's wisdom. Wisdom will help you to get your life on a better track and help you to be a much more happy and peaceful and healthy person spiritually speaking. So with that in mind, what I say to you today about the blessings of wisdom. The first blessing, let's go backwards. Actually, the blessings of this wisdom is a treasure that if you have it, your life will be so much the better for it. You'll be happier and life will be better and easier. It'll prolong your days. I mean, it increases every benefit of your life. You need it. You need it so much. Don't get it. You have to have it if you want to have a better life. Even as a Christian, it will make your life better if you'll just increase in wisdom, wisdom. It speaks right things. It's not just a treasure to be received. It speaks right things. And so it will guide you in what is right. It'll keep you from things that are wrong. It will help you to have a better life because it's taking you in the right path. And the biggest blessing of all, when you look at it that way, is that it's readily available. If you lack it, ask God who give it liberally, meaning he gives it freely and abundantly. Ask God who giveth it liberally and upbraideth not. Seek it like a hidden treasure. You dig in God's word and you mine for it like it's a lump of coal that's going to pay your house off and buy you a new home. Look for it like it's a lump of gold that's going to do that for you. And if I said call a second ago, I apologize. But a lump of gold that's going to buy you out of every debt you've ever owed. Look for wisdom like that. Look for wisdom like it's the lifeline that you need to help you through the next day. Dig for it. Search for it as a precious and hidden treasure. Do it first in the Word of God, then in people who you see wisdom. But look for it. If you see wisdom somewhere, mine it out. If you see it's down in somebody's heart, draw it out. If there's counsel down in somebody's heart, there's wisdom there. Take your bucket, reach down in that well and draw it out. If you know there's wisdom somewhere and you can dig a little bit and you get it, dig a little bit and get it. If that means asking me questions, then so be it. I may not be that wise of a person, but if that's how you can get wisdom, do that. And don't let anybody make you feel dumb for doing it. But ask your questions, do your research, study your Bible, learn how you need to learn to increase in wisdom because it's around you. It's crying out to you. It's readily available. And it's the treasure that you need so desperately to receive to make sure you're on the right path because it speaks right things and to make your life a much more rejoicing and happy life. If you would just seek wisdom as the treasure it is. So that's my thoughts tonight on the blessing of wisdom. I hope that encourages you and helps you on this next step of your journey and understanding what is wisdom. And maybe the lesson tonight is why you need wisdom. But anyways, I hope it's a help to you. I look forward to continuing this study. So next week, we'll be in this again the following week. We're actually doing another zoom Bible study and it's. One that I think a lot of you will want to be a part of. So if you're able to do those, make sure you try to join us when we do that one. But anyways, thank you again for being part of this study. I'm not going to drag it out. If you do have a question again, it's not live. I can't answer them live like I would normally try to, but put it in the comments and I'll do my best to make sure I give you an answer in a timely manner. All right. Thank you. I hope you have a good evening. We look forward to seeing our people at church tomorrow night.