May 18, 2025 | Wisdom Works | Proverbs Part 12

Wisdom Works | Proverbs Part 12

Proverbs 9

Wisdom has built her house;
    she has hewn her seven pillars.
She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;
    she has also set her table.
She has sent out her young women to call
    from the highest places in the town,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
    To him who lacks sense she says,
“Come, eat of my bread
    and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways, and live,
    and walk in the way of insight.”


Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse,
    and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;
    reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
    teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
    and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
For by me your days will be multiplied,
    and years will be added to your life.
If you are wise, you are wise for yourself;
    if you scoff, you alone will bear it.


    The woman Folly is loud;
    she is seductive and knows nothing.
She sits at the door of her house;
    she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
calling to those who pass by,
    who are going straight on their way,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
    And to him who lacks sense she says,
“Stolen water is sweet,
    and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
But he does not know that the dead are there,
    that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. (ESV)

In his sermon Wisdom Works from Proverbs 9, Jon Farra draws a vivid contrast between the calls of wisdom and folly, emphasizing the life-altering outcomes of choosing one path over the other. Wisdom is portrayed as a gracious host who offers nourishment and life to the simple, calling them to leave their naïve ways and walk in insight. In contrast, folly mimics this invitation but leads her guests toward death and destruction. Farra highlights that both voices are always calling, often through influences like media, relationships, or personal habits. Only one leads to true life.

At the heart of the message is Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Farra presses into this idea, asking listeners to reflect on what they fear most and whether the fear of the Lord genuinely shapes their daily decisions. Wisdom begins not with clever strategies or self-improvement but with worshipful reverence and submission to God. Farra challenges the tendency to seek wisdom without seeking God himself, warning that this shortcut robs us of true transformation.

He weaves in modern illustrations, from advertising overload to personal stories of running and cheating in school, to show that we often respond to both wisdom and folly simultaneously in different areas of life. While we might reject obvious sin, we may still live passively with arrogance, apathy, or anxiety. These subtle forms of folly also need to be repented of. Farra encourages listeners to pursue spiritual habits, such as private prayer and heartfelt worship, that draw them deeper into a relationship with God.

The sermon concludes with an exhortation to evaluate who has our attention, how we respond to correction, and whether we are truly walking in the way of wisdom. Ultimately, Farra reminds the congregation that wisdom is not just information to gain but a Person to know: God himself. God invites us to leave our simple ways and live.

Transcript of Wisdom Works | Proverbs Part 12

Thank you for worshiping. Thank you for pointing people to God. May His word, may we all come under his word today.

Reading Proverbs 9

Let's go to Proverbs chapter nine. We will simply read the text. This is Proverbs chapter nine. Wisdom has built her house. She has hewn out its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine. She has also set her table. She has set out her maids and she calls from the highest point of the city. Let all who are simple, come in here. Let all who lack judgment. Come and eat my food and drink my wine. I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live. Walk in the way of understanding.

Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult. He who rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still. Teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the holy one is understanding, for through me your days will be many and your years will be added to your life. If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you. If you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.

The woman Folly is loud. She's undisciplined without knowledge. She sits at the door of her house on the seat of her highest point in the city, calling to those who pass by, who go straight on their own way. Let all who are simple come in here, she says, and those who lack judgment, stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is delicious, but little do they know that the dead are there and her guests are in the depths of the grave.

Opening Prayer

Let's pray. Father, thank you for the gift of your revelation to us in the person of Jesus, and throughout all of scripture, thank you for wisdom and the opportunity that we can be, have the gift of knowing how you see the world is best. Thank you that you are a jealous God, not wanting us to go astray, but return to you.

Part of that is that that is a parent's love knowing that, um, bad choices destroy you. So father, um, grant to us that, um, love understanding of your love for us today. Thank you that you give us your word for our benefit and your glory, and we ask Jesus that we would rightly divide it this morning in your precious name. Amen.

Review: Proverbs 1-8

Proverbs chapter nine. Want to start with the single question of when do you need wisdom? You guys can turn off the stage lights. Maybe that'll illuminate that a little better. Uh, when do you need wisdom?

I'll start with, uh, two word pictures here. We've used this before, but there's, there are things in life where we come to the edge of something, a precipice, like, am I really gonna do this?

And, and sometimes it's an approach avoidance thing of like, oh, I'm not sure. And maybe, and well, okay, uh, think of the time when you were engaged and you were about to be married and you're like, is this for real? Is this a good idea? Everyone has that a little bit. Um, and that's the, the, the marriage is a big thing, but maybe it's moving out of the house. Maybe it's deciding which college to go to. Maybe it's, you can, you can pick your experience, but there are many things where you prepare for something and you're, you're nervous about it. Do you need wisdom in that?

The other word picture is, maybe this is just because the end of a school year that we feel this a little bit more right now, but it's not so much the edge of something. It's the fatigue of something. It's like, oh, this is hard. I'm, I'm 25 out of 26 miles through the marathon and I'm just tired and I, oh, I, I, I know I need to finish this, but it's, it's difficult.

Now that might not be a physical race for you. That might be forgiving somebody. Yet again, that might be a a in, in our academic world, taking the final exam or finishing that final project with the best of your ability. That may be, uh, working on a project in your house because it's been hard and you need to finish it, right, or, well. I'm not sure what areas you might need wisdom on, but there is both a fear element in our experience and there can be a fatigue element in our experience.

So, uh, pastor Jed has rightly divided the word of truth from Proverbs one through eight. So this is, this is Proverbs chapter nine, and this is kind of the end of the introduction of Proverbs one through nine is, uh, a good introduction and then from chapters 10 to the end, it's a bunch of topical points. So I'm kind of, we are, we're kind of wrapping this section up. Last week was, um. Mother's Day and we, uh, he spoke on the wisdom and the care, uh, obviously the example of mothers in that. Um, and then before that it was evil doesn't always look ugly and how the world frames it and how the devil frames it and how even our flesh frames it we're often drawn to it.

One of his points was also that the world says it's chaos and it's survival and it's chance is how we started. And yet we're, but God has an order. God delights in his creation and God grants wisdom.

Recently I was listening to the, the Unexplainable Universe. The, the Unsolved Mysteries. There's this thing called the Great Courses. I was listening to this audio book about it, and it's a, it's a famous physicist talking about the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics and a bunch of other things I don't know much about other than those words, but it, it was, it was trying to, it was, it was explaining things that. And one of his points was that there are things that defy our logic in astrophysics and the speed of light and things like that. And then there are things that are even beyond our imagination and we can't even imagine how big the universe is.

From a theistic point of view we would say, well, what he's missing in that is God. What he's missing in that is. It's like a bunch of, I'm pointing at Becky Jordan. She's had, she's had a whole generation of kindergartners come through their room and, and one of the physicist questions is, isn't there a rule book out there somewhere? Isn't there some way to give us knowledge and insight other than our observation? We would say yes. But I in, in Becky Jordan's classroom, if there's a bunch of kindergartner, there's a bunch of five year olds sitting around the table saying, we're gonna figure this out by ourself. You're like, well, there, there's a textbook in front of you and there's a teacher in front of you explaining it. And yet maybe those kindergartners don't wanna read the book and don't wanna listen to the teacher whi, which might be a parallel to our world when they think of scripture and they think of our Lord.

So as we wrap this up, we are not only pursuing wisdom, we are pursuing the author of Wisdom, which is ultimately the point, and then wisdom is considered in, in, uh, Proverbs eight alone, but other places, wisdom is talked about as a faithful friend, a companion. Wisdom is talked about as an architect, one that builds you build in wisdom. By wisdom, God created the world. And then wisdom is also one that equips wisdom, is that prepares the, the mission statement for Berean Christian School is to equip students to impact their world for Christ.

Equipping means giving tools, giving preppa preparedness, giving skills, wisdom. Does that for us.

So that's, if you call it a way of introduction, a way of reflection, uh, that's kind of where we've been. My question to you is what do you like to build with? What is your preferred creative methodology? Is it planting a garden? Is it painting something? Is it music? Is it, you, you can pick your medium, but we all are because we're made in the image of God. We all like to create. God's medium is wisdom.

Fear of the Lord | Proverbs 9:10-12

Alright, so let's look at the text. I'm actually going to divide this up in a little bit of a different manner. We're gonna jump to the middle of the text. Nine. Um. 10 through 12 and then we're gonna go back to the calling sections, which is both before and after this. So this is chapter nine, verses 10 through 12.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, wisdom of the holy one is understanding for through me. Your days will be many and your years will be added to your life. If your wise, you are wise, uh, you will receive the reward. If you mock you alone will suffer. Alright, the first question I want you to answer to yourself is, what do you fear?

Pull up something in your mind that you're afraid of. If you say it a little stronger, what's something you've lost sleep over recently? What do you fear? What do you love? What do you worship? Those drive deep and give us insights into our own values quickly.

George Waller as a counselor, will often say anger sits on top of fear. He said that to me a few times. And you say, well, when, when you, when you're expressing anger, you're, you may be afraid of something, there may be something underneath that that is motivating that. So, a little bit of the convicting question is, when's the last time you lost sleep over the fear of the Lord?

What it says here is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy one is understanding. 13 different times in the Book of Proverbs, the term, the fear of the Lord is used. In fact, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge is Proverbs one, seven. So you can talk about the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So both knowledge and wisdom are gifts of the Lord. And when something is used numerous times in scripture, God may be making a point.

22 times the word son or sons is used in this section. So when you think of my son, take in this knowledge, sons use, walk in this wisdom, and if you fast forward through the gospels and then to the epistles, you talk about God calling us the sons and daughters of God. It's meant to be personal. It's meant to be as a father, is teaching his son. That's what a gift it is that God calls us sons and daughters of God, and he gives us these tools to understand.

So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So pull up in your mind a time where you needed wisdom recently. Maybe it was a big deal like salvation or marriage or college or job change or something.

One of my daughters was putting Chapstick on her feet recently. You can guess which one you'd say. Well, let's, let's apply some wisdom to that. That's not what Chapstick is for.

Is it watching one more show before you go to bed? Is it your relationship with sugar or alcohol? Is it relationship with the tone in your voice when you answer your children? I can't speak for the spots you need wisdom in your life, but that's the gift of the spirit, is he brings that to us on a case by case basis.

The the other problem with this is that it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We often want wisdom without the fear of the Lord. So we say, God, just, just help me discern something. I need to make a decision. Maybe it's a financial investment. Maybe it's any sort of choice. Maybe it's how you relate to your neighbors. Maybe it's you can pick your spot. But the gift of God is, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So we pursue the Lord, we worship, we pray, we serve, we love, we lead, we engage with the Lord, and that produces that wisdom.

We're often drawn to the shortcut or the result without the relationship. I want wisdom. I don't necessarily want the Lord. Maybe we'll even say it. I don't want the time it takes to put into the relationship with the Lord. I just want wisdom. Why are we drawn to that?

Viktor Frankl was a Austrian psychiatrist who went through the concentration camps. He wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning. It's, I think it's the one of the library of Congress's top 10 reads. It's very insightful. And one of the things that says is that both success and happiness are, are doors that open outward. As we serve other people, we end up having this success. We end up having the happiness. But if we're trying to get success and happiness ourself, we'll never find it. And you say, okay, that's a psychologist who wrote that a long time ago.

You tend to listen a little bit more when someone has gone through a concentration camp experience and is referencing what does it mean to serve and pursue success or happiness when everything in your life is taken away from you?

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The knowledge of the holy one is understanding.

So this, this goes back to the worship and the knowing God. If you look at the Book of Job, pastor Jed ran through the Book of Job for us. There's often the why question, why, why, why, why, why, why, why? And before we get too convicting, we need to go look in the mirror on that.

How does God and Job end the Book of Job? It's not why, it's who.

And when God speaks, Job repents. And he never gets the why question answered. We know more about the Book of Job. We know more about job's life than Job knew about his life in the respect of what was behind the curtain. Job didn't know. He knew who.

So my prayer for me and my prayer for you is as we pursue the fear of the Lord, may we be drawn to the Lord and not just the result of it. May we be drawn to the who, not just the why, because this I, I, I put a few warnings up here. When you look at the life of Solomon who wrote this book, when you look at the life of Solomon who wrote Ecclesiastes, we know a fair amount about Solomon's life. And he knew it all. In fact, he, God said, what do you want, Solomon? And he said, give me wisdom that I may govern your people. And then God said, good answer, Solomon. I will also give you wealth and long life, whatever the other one was. Anyway, I'm gonna bless you. riches. Thank you. See you talk to a literate group, scripturally, they fill in the blanks for you.

And so. He had special wisdom from God, and this is likely written toward the end of his life. The Book of Ecclesiastes is likely written as grandfatherly advice, but Solomon wasted much of his life. His heart did not walk with the Lord. He pursued things God told him not to pursue, so he knew it and he didn't walk in it.

The GI Joe saying, knowing is half the battle. Okay, good knowing is half the battle. What's the other half doing something about it, which is all throughout scripture. It's not just cognitive ascent. I mean, the book of James warns us, you believe in God good, so do the demons, and they shudder. When you look at the Pharisees, Jesus', strongest words for the phar or strongest words were toward the Pharisees, and they were the, they were the, the pastors of that environment. They were the ones who knew scripture. They were the ones who knew that were in positions of leadership. And Jesus called them out time and time again for their missing the big mark, missing the point, missing love. And the Book of Titus has the same kinds of warnings about people who say it and don't walk in it.

So when you think of the fear of the Lord, in the beginning of wisdom, knowledge of the holy one is understanding. May the big things be right and may the little things be right.

James Clear wrote a book called Atomic Habits. Anybody read that one? It's a good one. And it talks about habit stacking. So if you want to get a little more healthy, do your 10 pushups before lunch and then have an apple on the counter so that you do your 10 pushups and then you eat your apple kind of thing. So you build habits in your life. When you think of the habits of your life, and it's not just health habits, you can talk about the drinking water thing. You can talk about whatever health thing you want, but what about spiritually? What are your spiritual habits?

How's your prayer time? Not corporate prayer time, not church prayer time. Praise God for you being physically here and engaging digitally and knowing the word of God. How's your personal prayer time? How's your personal worship time? How's the part of your life that nobody sees? But as you build those habits, you know Jesus better. You're drawn to not just the wisdom, you're drawn to the knowledge of the holy one. You're drawn to the fear of the Lord.

On good days, that's easy, uh, to, to use a, a running parallel. There are days you feel like you can run forever, and there's other days where you put on your same workout clothes and you go exercise, and every step is just hard.

I had a pastor who used the question, do strong Christians feel strong?

Often not.

Let's go back to the question about fear. The fear of the Lord is a beginning of knowledge. Solomon at the end of his life reflects on the fear of says, this is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep his commands, for this is the chief end of man, for God will bring every deed into judgment, whether good or evil.

Philippians chapter two verses 12 and 13. Say, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to willing to do his good pleasure.

May the fear of the Lord be present in our lives. Alright.

Two Are Calling | Proverbs 9:1-6 and 9:13-18

What? Who has your attention? Turn to somebody right now and tell them one of your favorite advertisements. What's an advertisement that has gotten your attention, made you laugh, made you want to do something about it? Tell somebody right now a favorite advertisement.

According to statistica.com, $917 billion was spent in 2024 on advertising, $917 billion. Could that have been put to any better use? When you start calculating the amount of dollars spent on elections and campaigns, you're like, really? Like, is that really the best use of our time and money? I'm not picking on it, I'm just referencing the enormous amount of money that people pay to get your attention.

They do some pretty dumb things. You know what? It works right. All right. Each person, this is an estimate according to the website The Drum, which is apparently a marketing and branding website. Each person is subject to between 4,000 and 10,000 advertisements every day, between four and 10,000 advertisements per day ping you.

Whether it's a, I actually, when I was, I was doing a little bit of research on different commentary sites for this, and they have little banner ads across the bottom that kept pinging. I'm like, I'm not paying attention to that right now. I'm trying to look up a commentary thing. Leave me alone. They don't make 'em like they used to.

The point is, is that. We are bombarded by advertisement. We're bombarded by things that want to get our attention. So what has your attention? Who has your attention?

If you're to ask the question a different way. If when this person speaks, I listen. Who's your favorite podcaster? Who's your favorite pastor? Who's your favorite musician? Who's your favorite athlete? Who's your favorite somebody. Somebody. Somebody. If that person came and did a TED Talk, I would go. You have people in your lives that you would go here. That's good.

Alright. All right. So. This section talks about two people are calling you all the time. Wisdom has built her house. She has hued out her seven pillars. She has prepared her meat, she has mixed her wine. She has set her table, she sent out her maids and she calls from the highest point. Wisdom is calling you.

And the message is, let all who are simple, come here. Let all who lack judgment, come and eat my food and drink my wine. Verse six is her message. What is wisdom's message? Nine six will tell you the message of wisdom is leave your simple way and you will live, walk in the way of insight and understanding.

Now, hold that thought. Put a pin in it. Let's go over to the other one calling. Verse 13. The woman folly is loud. She is undisciplined, and without knowledge. She sits at the door of her house at the high point of the city, calling to those who pass by, who go straight on their way.

She's also calling saying, let all who are simple. Come here, let all who lack judgment. So Folly is also calling. What's Foley's message? Verse 17. Stolen water is sweet food eaten in secret is delicious. If it feels good, it's right for you. I want it all. I want it now. You deserve it.

You can pretty much put in, um, advertising jingles to this because that's the message. Uh, you, you, you are worth it. You pay attention to you.

By the way, one of Satan's tools is not to get you to worship Satan. One of Satan's tools is just to get you to worship you. You deserve a break today. Yes, you do. That's Foley's message, whereas wisdom's message is, leave your simple ways.

What was John the Baptist's message when he started preaching? Say it louder. Repent for the kingdom of God is near. What was Jesus's message when he started preaching? Repent for the kingdom of God is near.

What does repent mean? To turn away from, to walk the opposite way. You're going this way. You repent. You are now going this way. You turn away from. So wisdom is telling you the message of wisdom is leave your simple ways. Leave your earthly ways. Leave your worldly ways. Leave your natural ways. Leave your secular ways.

Now th this verse is interesting because it says, leave your simple ways. It can also be translated. Leave the company of the simple, leave the company of the earthly or the worldly. So to be a little personal, pull up a person in your life who's a bad influence on you spiritually.

Now to get a little more personal, pull up a media force in your life that is a bad attitude has a bad influence on you spiritually.

I don't mean to pick on you, I just mean to use the words of leave your simple ways can also be threaded as leave the company of the simple. Repent for the kingdom of God is near. It said. Leave your simple ways is the message. Wisdom's messages. Leave your simple ways. God's way is best. That's wisdom's message.

Truth is how God defines the world. Love is how God wants us to interact with the world. When we walk. In truth, when we walk in love, we are walking in wisdom.

A time in my life where I was pursued wisdom, so back in middle school, I, um, I became a runner. So when I was growing up in life, uh, we couldn't do organized sports until seventh grade. So in seventh grade I went out for the cross country team and I went out for the track team. Now my dad had been a cross country coach for, uh, a long time before that.

And so when I was like five, I would like ride my bike next to him running and we would go exercise together. So I had a good role model in my life for that and I pursued exercise in the form of being a runner. Now that's seventh grade, and I ran seventh through 12th grade. I was never super great. I got a little bit good and I was a runner and I'm 47 and a half years old. Half is still a big deal in my house. I still run and I'm still blessed to run with some of the people in this room, and it is wisdom in my life. It is a gift. It is fellowship, it's physical exercise. It is. Uh, and God in his wisdom organizes our connections in our life. And so I often notice that when I'm physically fit and focused, I tend to be spiritually fit and focused.

And sometimes when I'm physically passive, I'm spiritually passive, so physical, spiritual, relational, that all adds up together. I'm grateful for that step of wisdom that God wove into my life as a middle schooler.

I you walk to this side of the stage. Also, in seventh grade,

my school came out with something called outcome-based education. I don't know if you've ever heard of such things. It was a big push in the eighties and the nineties, and it was basically you can take a test as many times as you want until you get the outcome. There's value in that. Let's create, let's pass a skill instead of just take a test. Good.

Well, you know that students figure out not always the best way to handle that. So teachers would simply pass tests back. You would study it again, and you would go take a new test. That's the good side of it. The bad side of it, as in middle school, we would just pass our tests around the room to each other and we would get somebody else's right answer, and we would write it down on our right, on our test and turn it in, and therefore pass the test without trying at all.

We might use big words like cheating. Creatively sharing information quietly when the teacher wasn't paying attention. And I developed a habit in math in middle school of cheating.

I struggled through middle school math. I struggled through high school math. I did not learn some of those basics. I answered the call of Folly instead of answering the call of wisdom In that experience.

Now the other parallel here, the other observation is these two things were happening in my life at the same time.

We like to say that's a good person. That's a bad person. That person's making good choices, that person's making bad choices. We can be listening to folly and wisdom in different parts of our life synonymously.

One more point before we move on is we think of big deals in our life like adultery, addiction, abuse, or abandonment. Those are really big bad things in my life, and those would be the ways of the world. Those would be folly. Those would be destructive to ourselves and to those around us.

But rooms like this can say, well, I don't do those things. That's not me. I'm not like that. And we can compare ourselves to say, not me.

Anxiety, anger, apathy, and arrogance are also folly. We in this room can say, oh, those aren't that big of a deal. Everyone has those things in their lives. I'm managing it okay.

The same message from wisdom is present. Leave your simple ways. Leave your earthly ways. Leave the way of anxiety and trust. Leave the way of anger and forgive. Leave the way of apathy and serve. Leave the way of arrogance and be humble.

In fact, Colossians three, 12 through 14, say exactly that. Clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility and patience. Forgive as you have been forgiven, and put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. That's the way of wisdom. Instead of being accepting of folly.

Take a second to meditate on your life for an area of wisdom and an area of folly, and ask the Lord's help in it right now.

Let's keep going.

Correction | Proverbs 9:7-9

Correction. There is a warning here. Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult. Whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse, do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he'll be wiser. Still teach a righteous man and he will add to your learning.

Correction is hard as parents or grandparents. We want our children. And John says it in first John the third John chapter four. There is no greater joy than to see my children walk in the truth. What a blessing that is. And the other side of that, what a heartache it is when people don't.

So correction is clearly one of the directions, the Lord toward us, and us toward our children or grandchildren or people in our lives, or if you're in a spot of leadership. But there's a warning here. It doesn't say, don't do it. It doesn't say, don't correct other people. It just says whoever corrects a marker will invite insult. Whereas if you instruct a wise man, he'll be wiser still.

So it's sometimes seen in the, in the results. It's sometimes seen in the trajectory. It is the word of God that is good for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training and righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Are you coming under the word of God for your own life? Are we praying the word of God over other people's lives?

Oh, you, uh, over in Hebrews chapter four, 12 and 13. For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it will penetrate even dividing the soul and spirit joint and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attentions of the heart. Nothing in all of creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him, which we must give an account.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith that we profess for. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who is tempted in every way, yet we are yet without sin. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may have receive help and find grace in our time of need.

Those are great pictures of God leading us.

How many of you would rather correct a child than correct an adult? Okay. Most of us. How many would, when you look at the book of Judges, 13 times, they went through that cycle of sin and correction and repentance and forgiveness, and then they did it again, and then they did it again, and then we go look in the mirror. We ask ourself, why does the poison ivy feel so good to scratch? It kind of does, doesn't it?

That's part of the gift of God is he brings us under his word and we have that opportunity to bring others under his word.

Applications

I'll close with just a few points. How is your relationship with God? How's your prayer life?

Going back to the fear and the fatigue part, there are opportunities that we want to continue to do, right? Do, don't become weary in doing good for in the proper time. You'll reap a harvest if you do not give up. Do good to those, especially to the household of believers. That's the picture of the farmer who plants the seed and tends it and tends it and tends it until it produces fruit.

Sometimes this is seen in our words. In, I don't know much about statistics, but people who do use words like inversely proportional, the more something goes up, the more something else goes down. The more this goes down, the more this one goes up. Directly proportional is if I study, I'll get a good grade. If I work out, I'll be healthy. Now, you could do that inversely proportional. If you say, the more I work out, the more weight I lose. So if it's like inversely proportional means goes in opposite directions directly. Proportional means it goes the same.

When you walk through the doors of Berean Bible church every Sunday, there's a banner on this side and there's a banner on this side, and it says, prayer and gratitude.

When we have prayers and gratitude in our life. Our complaining and our scoffing goes down. When our complaining and our scoffing goes up, our prayers and our gratitude go down.

So when you pursue wisdom, you want to pursue the Lord and the things of the Lord, and the Lord gives good gifts.

Isaiah was speaking to the youth this past Wednesday and talking about you don't wanna be afraid to meet God. We had a service yesterday for David Rose. David Rose was ready to meet the Lord.

We put out our graduation cupcakes for David 'cause he had graduated.

Paul is saying, at the end of his life, I have run the race. I have kept the faith. He is he. He is the Paul. Here is the recipient of wisdom, but Paul here is the recipient of wisdom because of the fear of the Lord, because of the knowledge of the Lord, because of the relationship with the Lord.

May those things be true in our lives and made those things motivate us onto love and good deeds.

Closing Prayer

Let's close in prayer.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the wisdom that you pursue us with it. Thank you that that is connected to the fear of the Lord and the relationship. We ask for good application in our lives. We ask that we would answer the call of wisdom in our lives, and leave the way of folly, and leave the company of folly, that we may serve you well, that we may be filled with love and good deeds, that your word may be true in our lives and that you may prepare us for righteousness, not just for today, but for every day in our life, so that on the last day of our life, we may be saying, praise the Lord.

Thank you for the gift of one another. Thank you for the gift of your word. Thank you for the gift of worship. Thank you for the gift of fellowship. We ask Jesus that you would be honored in our day and in every day of our life. In your precious name, we pray Jesus. Amen.