Your Way Is Better

Your ways better

Okay, we’re we’re gonna jump right in this morning. Will you turn with me to Isaiah 55, verses eight and nine? These are familiar scriptures, these are these are scriptures, you hear scriptures that many of you in the room will know, but they’re profound, and we need to be reminded of them often. And so what it says is,

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Will you pray with me? Father, we just come before you and we thank you. We thank you that you are present and that you are here in the room with us. And we ask, Lord, that you will open our ears, open our hearts, clear our minds so that we can hear what it is that you have to say, what it is that you have for us this morning. And we do this, we set our minds and our thoughts and our hearts on things above, on the things that are yours for us to see, on the things that are yours for us to gain. And so this morning we just take this time and we commit it to you. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

You know, as I was kind of studying and preparing for this, I have an eight-year-old, and so when we’re in the car, we listen to all kinds of stuff. Okay, she loves music, she loves listening to different things, she’s got her own playlist that she likes to be the DJ in the back car in the backseat of the car, and she’s on the phone and she’s picking the songs and all that kind of stuff. And so we’re always adding things that she likes, but we also like sneak in things that we know she might like and things like that. Well, if you’re on social media at all or aware at all, you know that Forrest Frank is like a huge deal right now. He’s got like some new song coming out every week, okay? And the kids and young people eat it up, okay? They’re eating it up, and it’s a good wonderful thing because it’s godly music, so we want them listening to it.

But you know, when you’re in the car, a lot of times, like as a parent, you tune out the music because you’re like, wow, I’ve heard the song 15 times in a row. Because if your kids are anything like Grace, she just wants the same song over and over and over, and it’ll drive you crazy. But one day we were listening to Forrest Frank in the car, and I was actually listening, I was actually paying attention to the words and the lyrics. I searched the world till my head hurt just to find out your ways better. And that’s my title this morning, your ways better.

But it really got me thinking like how often do we do that? Like, we search everywhere, really until we exhaust every option in the world to just find out what we already knew, which is God’s ways better. Like, but why do we do that? Like, why do we search everywhere else? We love Google to find answers. Now it’s chat GBT that we use to find answers. We use it for listen, no no condemnation for me on that. I use it too. But we use it, it should be a tool. But we use it like it’s the gospel, and it’s not. We we talk to everyone. And I’m not, I’m not like joking. Like, like we talk to everyone around us before we turn to God. We just do. And people have wisdom for us. I’m not saying that they don’t. But we do that and we make everything that we want help and want wisdom on, we make it so complicated. Like we make everything super hard and super difficult and super confusing. And really what we need to shift our attention to is saying, like, okay, well, I know your ways better, so maybe I should start there.

But let’s be real, we don’t. Instead, we get ourselves, we searched, we’ve searched, we’ve searched, we’ve searched all over the place, right? And then in a moment when everything is really difficult, that’s when we hit the ground and say, God, I need your wisdom. God, I need your help. And we go from like in the moment, like we’ve been searching for so long. Well, now we’re on our knees and we’re and we’re rushing God. We’re like, I need an answer right now. Like right now. I need an answer now. And it’s like, God’s like, I’m not gonna like speak from heaven and just give you the whole gist of it. But it’s like you’ve been dealing with that issue for months, or you’ve been struggling with that question for months, and because you looked everywhere else before you turned to God, you’re desperate. You’re desperate.

And listen, we need to pray those prayers. And there are moments when though that’s all you can do. Like there are many times I’m like, okay, God help. Like, please help. And that’s all I can say. There’s nothing wrong with that. But but we get ourselves into these places where we we make these kinds of prayers. And hear me, there’s nothing wrong with them. God, should I take the job? Give me a sign. Give me a sign. Lord, this is when I pray. Lord, help me handle my crazy eight-year-old. And could you give me like an instruction manual that’s specific to her? Like these are the prayers we play. Pray. Please make me feel better that it’s not just me. These are the prayers we pray. Like, and then there’s Father, should I should I talk to my friend about whatever the issue is that you’re having with your friend? And if the answer is yes, could you tell me exactly what to say? Like, that’s how we pray. That’s how we ask God to give us wisdom on a situation.

We’re actually looking for permission

And it got me thinking, like, okay, these are there’s nothing wrong with these prayers. These prayers are real prayers, these issues are real issues, there’s nothing wrong with it. But the the thing is is what we’re actually looking for is oftentimes not wisdom. When we pray these prayers, a lot of times what we’re looking for and asking God for is permission. Yeah. We’re asking God for permission to keep doing what we’re doing or not doing. We want him to put that rubber stamp. You guys remember that rubber stamp that like said approved that would like go on something? Maybe it’s only on TV, but it’s like that’s what we want. We want God to like take our file out and see the prayer and stamp approved that what we’re doing is good. Like that’s what we’re really looking for. Or like I used to love when you’d get the gold star, like on your paper at work at school. Like I wanted the gold star because that meant I did a good job. That’s what those prayers oftentimes really are. That’s what we’re looking for. We’re not actually looking for God’s wisdom. We’re just looking for him to say, like, nah, it’s fine, just keep just keep doing what you’re doing.

But here’s what’s crazy, and I think we kind of miss it. Like, God actually wants to give us very specific guidance. He really does. But we’re too busy begging God for like little details and little things that He’s probably not going to provide us with, but the answers are right in front of us. The answers are in your Bible. You’re looking for like grace needs blank, and this is what you do, period. Like that’s what you’re looking for. But that’s not how God speaks. Not often, not all the time. A lot of times it’s just right here for you. It really is.

So let’s let’s examine those prayers and see what maybe the Bible actually says about those prayers. So, God, should I take the job? Give me a sign. Here’s what the Bible says. Seek wise counsel, consider your gifts, pray for guidance. This morning we don’t have time to go to those direct scriptures, but I encourage you to write them down. See that that is the instruction that God provides. But when we’re praying that prayer, we’re hoping that God’s gonna like give us some random sign, but God doesn’t work that way. Instead, he points us to the clear direction that he provides in his word. Like that’s the wisdom that you’re looking for. That’s what you’re seeking.

Let’s look at the next one. Should I talk to my friend about this issue? Whatever it is, we’ve all got different kinds of issues. And then, if yes, tell me exactly what to say. I feel this way all the time. I’m like, please tell me exactly what to say. But let’s let’s look at what scripture says. Go dire go to them directly first. It’s a big deal. Directly first. Speak the truth in love. And there’s the references for that. So God doesn’t script what we can what we’re gonna say, and he doesn’t do that because we’re human and we’re unpredictable. We’re unpredictable. He can’t give us exactly what to say. And and that’s not how we learn, that’s not how we grow. But he does give us how to the principle. Go to them first and speak the truth in love. But you’ve got to do the work of finding that to know that that’s what you’re supposed to do.

Okay, here’s the last one. How do I handle my crazy eight-year-old? Send me a detailed manual. I really need an answer to this one. Here’s what the Bible says. Train them in the way they should go, discipline with love, be patient and kind. And there’s the references for those things, and there’s more. So God doesn’t give us a step-by-step manual, unfortunately. I wish he did. But he does give us principles that are timeless. They’re timeless. Those same principles that we teach grace, she will hopefully teach to her children. So the wisdom goes beyond just us, it goes into her, which is for the next generation.

So, see, God’s word provides exactly what we need. But we treat his word like a suggestion and not direction. That’s how we treat his word. We think it’s a suggestion. So we have to stop treating God’s word like a suggestion box and treat it like the instruction manual that it actually is. Because it really is giving you the clear direction you need.

What actual biblical wisdom is

And so I think the part about this is that we honestly don’t understand what actual biblical wisdom is. We it’s complicated because the world’s complicated. But God makes it pretty clear what wisdom is. So before we get into what it is, let’s talk about what it is not. Do your kids have a magic eight ball? Did you have one? I know it’s switchcraft. As David says from the front row. So here’s the thing. I had one when I was a kid. I’m sure many of you had one when you were a kid. We bought Grace one, I don’t know. Did she see it on a show? I don’t even know how she knew what this thing was. But she asks it questions. You know, does my dog love me? I feel like I’ve heard her ask that question. There’s been a few others, but like I think one day I heard her say, like, will I be a YouTube star? Because that’s what kids want to be these days. I don’t know. I I don’t know. But here’s what it does she shakes it, she lifts it and it says, seems unlikely, or whatever the saying is, right? And she so she turns it over, shakes it again, waits and shakes it until it says yes, right? Until it says the thing that she wants it to say. Okay.

Well, I kind of think that’s sometimes what we do with God. We come to him and we here’s our question, here’s our prayer, here’s the thing we need help with, and we just like keep shaking until we get the answer that we want. Well, that’s not wisdom. That’s not wisdom. So wisdom is not getting God to agree with what we’ve already decided. That’s not what wisdom is. And wisdom is not claiming that God is silent when we’re refusing to do the work. To like seek out wisdom. Like, like that’s what we do. We we like make these claims. And then I think it’s just really important to be reminded that wisdom is not just like our own intellect. It’s not like the knowledge that we have, it’s not like the facts we’ve got stored up in our brain. Like, like we we know all kinds of things. And because of social media and Google and all the things, we know more and have more at our fingertips than we’ve ever had before. But just because we know some fact doesn’t mean we know truth. It doesn’t mean we know the truth. And so that’s what I think some we often treat wisdom like. That it’s just like it’s gonna come to us right when we need it, it’s gonna say exactly what we need it to say, all of those things, and that’s just that’s just not what it what it is.

So, what is actual wisdom, like biblical wisdom? Wisdom is the ability to think and live in a godly way. That’s what wisdom is. Wisdom is learning how to think like God thinks, and to live the way he designed us to be living. It’s a life that bears fruit, that’s wisdom. So wisdom isn’t about like having the right answers to everything that we have questions about. It’s about knowing how to live life in a way that brings life. Like brings life and blessing and gives God glory in the earth. That’s what wisdom is. And so when we when we really start to break it down, God’s way of thinking leads to God’s kind of living.

And that’s what wisdom is. It’s that we know we know the scripture. Like many of us in this room can quote scripture. We’re very capable of quoting scripture. We may not know it’s scripture, but we can quote it. We we can. We know it. But if we’re not putting it into practice, then we’re not living out wisdom. We’re not living it out. We’re not applying it. And so the application of what we know has to translate now. So the way I see it is we learn what we have, like we learn this really incredible piece of like, hey, I know scripture. And then sometimes we transition to I understand scripture. But we don’t do the action step of applying scripture. That’s the key. We actually have to start applying it.

And listen, when when it comes like that you really need something, like you really need God’s help. I look, like for me, if I’m in that place, I look all kinds of places. Like I really do. I I talk to people, I read books, I go off of the experience I’ve had in the past, things like that. And that stuff is all great. I am not telling you not to do those things because we need to do those things. But that that’s a resource. It’s a resource to you. It’s not the source. It’s not the source. And wisdom truly is right in front of us. It’s right in front of us. And we act like it’s missing. We act like it’s it’s like I can’t find it. I can’t find wisdom. But the truth is it’s right in front of us. And so true wisdom can only be found through knowing God and acknowledging Him for who He is. And that’s everything about Him. That’s His glory, that the fact that He’s the Lord of your life. Like that’s it’s really knowing who God is.

Colossians 2 verse 3 says, all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. All treasures of wisdom are hidden in Christ. Think about what that actually means. So remember back in Isaiah in chapter 55, it says, My ways are higher than your ways. Well, now that Jesus has come and we’ve accepted and we’ve we’ve asked Jesus to be in our life, we are in Christ. So his ways and his thoughts are available to us. They’re available to us because we have access to the Creator in a way that we’ve never had before. Like it’s available to us. That is huge. That is such a big piece that we miss, I think. That because we are in Christ, we have access to those thoughts that are higher. Those ways that are higher. They’re not hidden from us if we’re in Christ.

And so we have to take wisdom out of being this thing that’s a need and a necessity and turn it into a way of living. Because most of the things we ask God for wisdom for our daily life. I think sometimes we think like, oh, I only come to God with the big stuff. No. We need wisdom for everyday living. For the relationships we have, for how we parent, for how we drive to work, for how we behave at work. That’s what we need wisdom for. That’s what we really need wisdom for.

The fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom

And so the key component here is I think we’re kind of missing out on what the foundation of wisdom is. So the scripture makes it very clear. Like it’s not a again, like we said, it’s not a big mystery. It’s written over and over. I’m gonna read three verses. There’s many more.

Proverbs 1 7 says, fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Psalms 11, verse 10. Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom. All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom.

Proverbs 9, verse 10. Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.

So I think it’s pretty clear what the foundation of wisdom is. It’s the fear of the Lord. But we don’t talk about the fear of the Lord that often. I don’t think it’s like a bad thing or anything like that, but I think because we don’t talk about it, sometimes we don’t we misunderstand it. Because the world now in particular feeds off of fear. We feed off of fear. So when we hear the fear of the Lord is a the foundation, our minds automatically, whether we know it or not, goes to I’m afraid. That’s what we go to. But that’s not what what he’s talking about here. This is not fear in that we go run and hide. That’s not what this is. This is fear in that we have deep respect. Reverence and awe of God. That’s what this is talking about.

You know, have you ever like everybody’s got the thing that makes you kind of gasp at God’s creation? Everybody’s got the thing that kind of ministers to them. Maybe you’ve like been to the Grand Canyon and you see the vastness. Maybe you’ve been on the beach at sunset and the sunset with the the ocean and the waves just speaks to you. That have you ever had that moment where you’re just in awe of what God created? That’s what wisdom comes from. Is that awe, that reverence of who God is. And so we’ve got to kind of do the work to, when we read scripture about fear of the Lord, to not immediately go to the fear that we know. Like we’ve got, it’s it’s so ingrained in us that the word fear means to be afraid, and we focus on it, like we focus on fear in the wrong way.

So you guys know this about David and I. We watch way too many scary movies. The good, the bad, everything in between. We watch him. But it’s like what’s fun about that is the adrenaline, the fear that’s not actually coming at you. But it’s like if Grace sees a spider, she screams like she’s dying in the house, and that’s her fear. That’s me if I see a snake. I I cry, I run. There was a youth conference we had here one day, one year, and somebody left all the doors open, and there was a snake in the building. I won’t tell you where. But I was in charge of storm, and I refused to go in certain rooms because the snake might still be there. I knew it was gone. David Goldman got it out. I knew it was gone, didn’t matter. I was going in that room. That’s fear, like that’s real fear. That is not what we’re talking about here.

This kind of fear is going to lead you to the Father. So differentiate in your mind that most fear leads you away from something. This kind of fear leads you to something. It leads you to God, the Father. And honoring him, respecting him, showing reverence and awe because he is the creator. He is your father. So this kind of fear is gonna help you take God seriously. You’re gonna recognize the value of his words, his presence. That’s what this kind of fear is gonna do.

So what’s the problem? Sounds great, sounds sounds easy. Well, here’s the problem. We’re human. It’s unfortunate. But because of that, we know no longer naturally fear the Lord. It’s not a natural thing. Because of the fall, we are disobedient, we’re rebellious, we’re selfish. It’s not news to us. We all know that’s true. We don’t like to admit it about ourselves, but but we are. And those things make it become a barrier to wisdom. Because we we have to just make this conscious effort now to have this reverence towards the Father. It’s not gonna be an automatic thing, it’s not, it’s gonna be a daily thing that you fear the Lord. It’s a big deal.

Fools despise wisdom and discipline

And so let’s go back to Proverbs 1, verse 7. Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and discipline. So the second part of this verse is basically saying if you don’t do the first part, you’re a fool. And and I I know a lot of you in here are saying, like, no-uh, I’m not a fool. I’m I’m no fool. Because what we think of a fool is well, what I think of as a fool is like the person who intentionally does the dangerous thing knowing they’re gonna get hurt. Like, I’m like, you fool. You knew that was gonna happen. Like that, the picture we have of a fool is is always making bad choices, is is always doing the thing that causes harm. Is like those are the things we attribute to being a fear to being a fool. But according to scripture, a fool is someone who rejects God’s wisdom and chooses to live apart from his ways. Which makes me say, uh oh. I I probably do that. So I am I am a fool in certain circumstances. Maybe not all the time, but we make those choices.

And so for those of you that are still like digging in and you’re like, nah, I’m not a fool. Nope, that’s not me. Let’s look at a few a few ways that we can see our foolishness. Of course, what we just read, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. So fools despise wisdom and correction. None of us like being corrected. Like that doesn’t ever feel good to us to be corrected. But when we reject God’s wisdom, wisdom and instruction, we’re foolish. We’re making a foolish decision.

Another thing fools do is they’re self-confident instead of God confident. Proverbs 12 15 says, the way of fools seems right to them. But the wise listen to advice. So fools will trust their own thinking, their own knowledge, their own intellect over God’s word. And I think that that’s a really big one for a lot of us. It really is. That we we think what’s going on up here is superior, and it’s because we’re thinking it all day long. And we’re not we’re not listening to the advice that God is providing to us. We overlook it.

The last one is we repeat the same mistakes. We’re all we’re all guilty of this. Psalm 26, 11, as a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly. Such a gross image. It really is. If you have pets, you understand it’s a gross image. But it’s there because it makes sense. Like I love our dogs, our animals, probably too much. But they’re dumb. They do go back to the thing they just threw up. It’s a perfect visual for what we do when we sin and we just go right back. When we make the mistake that we said we were never gonna make again, and we go right back. That’s foolish behavior.

So we just have to recognize that within ourselves that we are foolish when we ignore God’s wisdom. It’s foolish to do that. But here’s the good news. If you don’t want to stay a fool, God gives us direction to make wisdom a reality. To make wisdom a reality in our everyday life. So that’s where we’re gonna spend the rest of our time this morning. I’ve got three ways, three things that will make wisdom a reality in your everyday life. Not just when you need it, but every day.

Matthew 7, verse 7 through 8 says, Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

These scriptures come from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is teaching how to live the Jesus way. And so he’s giving us some clear instruction. It can be applied in many different scenarios. But we’re going to look at this from the place of wisdom this morning.

Ask

So the first thing he says is to ask. It’s to ask. And honestly, the ask is important. The ask, the actual going to and asking is important. Because an ask is an invitation. You’re saying, God, I need your help. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know the right way to do this. I need your help. So the ask is really important.

James 1 5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

So see, God wants to give you wisdom. He really does. And I believe that, like deep inside of me, that God wants to give you wisdom. But we do have to ask. It says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God. So it’s clear. When we ask, we’re just saying, hey, I need your way. I need your thoughts. I need you to show me the path. It’s not a bad thing ever to ask. We’re always telling Grace, just ask. Just ask. But we have a fear at times of asking. But God is saying, I want to help, but you have to ask.

You know, this past month, I have literally prayed this prayer many times. God, I need your wisdom, your insight. Help me see with your eyes, hear with your ears, give me the discernment I need in this situation. I pray it over and over. I’ve prayed it so many times in this last month. And I have a lot of conversations with a lot of different people, and sometimes it’s about like when you’re talking to two people, but it’s about the same situation. Like, I don’t want to hear their sides. I want to hear what God is saying. That’s what I want to hear. And so even I pray that prayer before I go into meetings. Sometimes I pray that prayer while I’m in the meeting. Don’t worry, I say it in my head. They might think I’m crazy if I did that. But but I’m praying that prayer all the time, and it’s because I don’t want my own intellect. I don’t want my own feelings in that. I want to hear what God has to say.

And and I was just reminded as I was as I prayed those prayers, as I’ve studied this of King Solomon. You know, God came to him in a dream, and he God says this to Solomon, ask for whatever you want me to give you. God is saying that. Like, ask me and I’ll give it to you. Like, could you imagine if God came to you and said, hey, ask me for anything and I’ll give it to you. I think we’d all probably ask for something stupid. Like we probably all would. Like, as I’m thinking about it, I’m like, I don’t know what I would ask for. But a lot of people would ask for money for a long life, you know, those are the kinds of things. And I think that’s probably what God expected Solomon to do, but that’s not what he did. Solomon says, I’m just a little child, and I don’t know how to carry out my duties. Give me a discerning heart. That’s what he says. I love it. He says, I don’t know. I don’t know how to do this. So you show me what to do. I love that. Like he so understood something we don’t, which is that our agenda is not that great. That we should go after God’s agenda. And he knew that.

And so I think that that’s just a beautiful way for us to come to God often. Is like, I’m I don’t know. I’m just a kid. Like, I don’t know. Like, we’re all children of God. We we’re gonna be his kids forever. Don’t feel bad coming to God saying, I’m just a child and I don’t know what to do. Or, hey God, I don’t understand. Help me, know what to do. That’s the ask. That’s the ask.

But I do think it’s really important to note that when we come to God and ask, our motives matter. Our motivation for the ask really does matter. And we all know this. Like, have you ever gotten a gift that feels like not thoughtful? Or words come to you that feel like, yeah, I’m sorry, but you totally know they don’t mean it. Like the motive behind that doesn’t mean anything to us. Well, the same would be true if we come to God with the wrong motives. It’s not gonna have the meaning that we want it to have. And so James 4 3 says, When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives. So sometimes we’re asking and we’re asking and we’re asking, but we’re not, we’re not asking ourselves, am I coming to God with the right motivation? Because our motives do matter, and so when you come to God, you need to put down your agenda. You have to. When you’re really seeking God’s wisdom, your agenda doesn’t matter. It doesn’t. His does. His matters. And so when you’re able to do that and really check your motivation and be honest, then we can come to God and say, okay, here’s what I need help with, but you’re coming for the right reasons.

And so I just think it’s so important to remember that we’re supposed to come confidently before God. We we we have access to the Father to ask, to come to Him. We have that. So we need to come confidently and boldly, but we still have to come with humility and reverence for who he is. So we don’t go in demanding, we don’t go in begging, we don’t have to. It’s right there for us. But we do have to come in a heart of reverence, of fear for the Lord.

Seek

So, okay, we’ve asked. We say, okay, cool, I’ve asked. What comes next? This is where I think we mess up. We’re good at the ask. But then we just stop. When we don’t get the audible answer. When God didn’t speak with a booming voice or write on the wall for us, we just quit. We say, God, God was silent. He didn’t answer. That’s where we stop. Can’t stop at asking. You also have to seek. You also have to seek.

This past Tuesday, Grace was in kids, and she hid. Grace loves to hide. She has since she was itty bitty. We’ve all lost her once in the family, more than once. Shirley’s lost her, I’ve lost her. But as a result, I hate hide and seek. Like deeply hate it. Because I can never find my child, and it’s really stressful. And time when she was, I think three, we were here at the office. Grace always came with us to the office, and we were back in the offices, and everyone had left for lunch except myself, Hannah, and Pastor Cindy. And then Grace is here. And everything’s locked, the building’s locked, the the office outer doors are locked because everybody’s at lunch. And Grace runs off after we’ve had lunch and hides. We cannot find her anywhere. And this building is huge, okay? And when you’re in this building by yourself, it’s really big. I knew she was in the office. Like instinctually, I knew that. Also, that door that gets you in and out, it’s very loud. I hadn’t heard that open. I think we searched for her for 20, 25, maybe 30 minutes. And I called David in a panic. I don’t even remember where you were. Oh god, he was in Santa Fe. So that was really scary because he was really far away. And we’re just looking, we’re calling Grace’s name, she’s not answering. I mean, this is awful. And then all of a sudden, my mom hears Cinny, and here comes Grace out of her office. We searched that office 14 bazillion times. Well, come to find out, Grace was moving. We would leave a room and she would move a spot. Three years old, and she’s that quiet and sneaky. It’s incredible. So now you understand why I hate hide and seek.

But as I was thinking about this and processing it, that’s kind of how I think we feel like wisdom is. That it’s like moving. That is like really hard to find. But all it is is like the wisdom you received here. Well, now life has gotten more complicated, and so you need more. But you think the wisdom has moved. You think the wisdom is changed. And so we start looking in all the wrong places. Like, I feel like I looked in every wrong place for grace. But at the end of the day, she was just having fun. She didn’t know. Like, nothing bad happened. And so when we treat things like it’s moving on us, and that that’s a bad thing, no, it could mean that you’re growing. And that you’re ready to take the next step. But if we feel like wisdom is moving and shifting and changing, and then we start looking in all the wrong places again, then it’s gonna be hard to find.

And and I just think we need to be aware that we really do often look for wisdom in the wrong places. We really do. Like we look to ourselves, we we look to like how am I feeling about this? Or the the knowledge that you do already have. And may I just say, I think it’s very wise for us to not trust ourselves. Like, I don’t think it’s a bad thing when it comes to like needing God’s wisdom to say, like, yeah, I don’t got this figured out. I really don’t. It’s your God, I need you to take that. So I don’t think that’s a bad thing. We go to people. And oftentimes people are just as confused as we are. Like, that’s just true. And hear me, I’m not saying you shouldn’t seek out wisdom from other people, your leaders, your mentors, people you deeply trust. But my warning to you, and this is probably more to girls than it is to guys, but don’t let just talking with your friends about a subject and then them agreeing with you make it wisdom. That’s not wisdom. They have to be speaking to the situation. They need to be people that will correct you when you’re wrong. But if your way of finding wisdom is just sitting with the people who agree with you, that’s not that’s not wisdom. So don’t so don’t trick yourself.

And I’m sorry, young people, all the ages, Instagram, TikTok, that’s just not where wisdom is. I know they can make it pretty with a graphic or make it funny with a video, but you can’t trust everything you see and hear on those apps. I am sorry, but stop watching some of those reels and thinking that that is God speaking to you. I am sorry. But we get a lot of questions of like, is this true? Is this true? You gotta seek. You cannot take things on social media at face value. And you cannot chalk that up to being the wisdom of God. So be careful.

Plain and simple, our seeking needs to take place in God’s word. That’s right. It’s just that simple. When it’s time to seek, when it’s really time to seek, it needs to take place in God’s word. And when we choose to seek, like really seek the Bible, you go from a place of just asking, which is really passive for the most part. It’s just prayer for yourself. It’s words, it’s putting that. But when you decide to seek, you’re putting action. You’re putting an action to it.

Psalm 119, verse 105. We know it well. Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.

His word is a lamp. His word. That’s what’s gonna light the path. And so just know that the principle is very clear. Wisdom comes from his word. And not from scrolling, not from the friends that agree with you. Wisdom comes from his word.

So what is seeking actually look like? Well, I’m gonna suggest that you get an actual physical Bible. And the reason I suggest that is for this reason. This is Lauren’s Bible. I borrowed it because I forgot mine at home, but her I have this exact Bible. And my Bible looks just like this. But look, she’s got post-it notes with stuff written, she’s got highlights, she’s got all kinds of stuff in here. And my Bible looks the same. I write prayers, I highlight, I underline, I when I hear something in church, I write it in the margin so I don’t forget. Bibles should not look pretty. Bibles should look beat up because we’re using them. I have a Bible down there that I was gonna use, but the highlights are so faded because of how long I’ve had that. There’s Matt, like like packing tape holding the Bible together. That’s what Bible should look like. Because we’re using them. So if you don’t have a physical Bible, let us get you one. And I say that because it’s real easy when you’re on your phone to get distracted. It’s just real easy. And for most people, unless you’re David, you lose things on your phone and you can’t find it. He doesn’t. I don’t understand it, but I do. I lose all kinds of stuff on my phone. But that’s why I say a physical Bible. When it’s time to seek, you need something in front of you to write to work. You gotta do the work.

Other things to do, I tell you guys this all the time. Write those scriptures somewhere where you can see them. I’ve got a bulletin board in my bathroom, it’s got prayers, it’s got scripture, it got it’s got all kinds of things. If you’re dealing with a specific situation and you don’t and you want it with you all the time, type it in your phone. Have a note, have something that you can read those scriptures all the time. Because the more you read it, the more you meditate on it, the more you it will come up in you when you need it. Because just because, like we said, like wisdom doesn’t move, but oh okay, this this piece that I needed help with has been answered. Well, you’re probably gonna need it again. And so if you’ve done the work to study it, when something similar comes up, that’s what’s gonna come up in your spirit, which is the wisdom that you need. So we seek.

Find

Find. Let’s go back to Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 and 8.

Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks, receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

So this says, seek and you will find. But what do we find when we seek? The simple answer is well, we find wisdom. That’s the simple answer. And it’s true, we do find. Or the thing that we currently feel confused about. Wisdom isn’t just for that. I honestly believe that as believers, wisdom should be a way of life. It should be how we live. So if wisdom is a way of life, then we never fully find wisdom. We never fully find it. We never fully, we never fully find it.

And so here’s something that I’m learning. And I mean this. Like I’m I myself am learning this. That when we truly find wisdom in our everyday life, it’s gonna change how we live. So wisdom doesn’t just give us answers, it gives us a new pace. It gives us a new rhythm to life. For our everyday that matches God’s heartbeat for your life. For your life. And so when we find and we walk at a holy pace, doors open. So that’s the other part of the verse. Seek and you will find, knock and doors will be opened. It’s such a beautiful picture of wisdom being a part of everything. Because we find a new way to live if we’re constantly seeking out God’s wisdom.

You guys hear me say this, it’s it’s not gonna be new, but I think it’s always important to be reminded of. You know, Jesus just never hurried. The time on earth for him was short. It was 33 years, and only three of those was he actually doing the work that we read, but he was never rushed. Never like you never like Lazarus is dying, and he doesn’t rush, he doesn’t let pressure, expectation, urgent things, he doesn’t let those things push him out of the pace that God had for him. So think about how that turned out for Jesus. Everything was perfectly timed, the mission was perfect, and the timing was perfect. So what if we followed that example? What if we followed that example?

You know, today, August 24th, is an interesting day, and you’re not gonna be in trouble for not remembering this. I feel like everybody should know that. Twenty-three years ago on this day, David asked me to be his girlfriend. Which feels so silly to say now. Like that’s I don’t know how young people do that anymore. Like, do you ask? I don’t know, that’s how it was when we were kids. Jesse and Christine were there on that day. But that was 23 years ago today. And dates are a big deal to me. I’ve had a lot of people lately ask me what what my tattoos are. Well, they’re dates, they’re dates that are meaningful to me, and that date is not on there. It’s not that it’s not meaningful, it just it’s kind of a moot point now. We’re married, and that’s the date that matters now. So we’ve been together for 23 years, which means we’ve spent more of our life together than apart. We’ve been married almost 17.

But something about David and I that I find is very much God in us is the pace we walked out our journey. We dated for six years before we got married. He was patient to desires I had in my heart before we got married. He was patient to that, and we got married after six years. It was almost 10 before Grace came into our lives. Grace was born in September, and our tenure or in July, and our 10-year anniversary was that September. So that’s not a pace that most people want to take. We changed jobs, changed career paths. We had many opportunities in those moments to quit. When we were in youth ministry and young adult ministry and those kinds of things, honestly, the trend was if you weren’t moving into lead pastoring at that, like in your 20s and 30s, then you just left and started your own church. And that’s not what we did. We stayed the course and we stayed the pace.

And I’m I’m telling you, people thought we were nuts. We were asked all the time, why aren’t you getting married? Why aren’t you having kids? Why aren’t you starting your own church? We were asked those people thought we were nuts. But it always astounded me that David and I never gave in to the pressure. We didn’t give in to the pressure of friends getting married before us, and and being honest, that was hard. I think one summer we had six weddings where friends got married before us, and I mean this is years before we chose to get married, but we didn’t give in to that. Our friends started having kids, and we didn’t feel ready, we didn’t give in to that. We didn’t give into our age, we didn’t give into position, we continued to walk it out, and I didn’t know this until later, but I honestly believe that both of us were just walking in God’s wisdom and at a pace that He set for us.

And here’s something that’s interesting. David and I’s pace of life is not the same. I like things slow and thought out and take my time. And he moves much faster. And so for us to have walked this journey for 23 years and to be in the position and the place that we are, and I mean this, we are very happy. We have a wonderful life. But I believe with every fiber of my being, it’s because we both chose to follow God and the wisdom that he put in front of us. And that meant that there were times I had to speed up, and there were times he had to slow down, and we weren’t always having those conversations. But because of God, and we and us making a choice that I honestly didn’t realize I was making, but now I see it, and now I trust it in a way that you can’t shake me. If you try to tell me that we need to go this way and do this, but I don’t believe that that’s what we need to do, I trust God. I trust to follow God’s timing.

I think that there were many times David and I would knock on doors and they didn’t open. But you know what we didn’t do? Kick it down, force it open. We just walk waited, we found what I genuinely believe was a holy pace. Not our pace, a holy place. And I have no doubt in my mind that the reason that David and I are where we are is because of God and our connection to the Father. And here’s what’s important, and here’s what you need to know. What I’m not saying is that you do it our way. That’s not what I’m saying. That was what God set before us. You have to find the pace that God has for your specific journey. You have to find yours. We can give you advice, we can give you counsel, we can do all of those kinds of things, but it’s only God who can set the pace. Trust me, if you ask, if you seek, you’ll find, and those doors will open. But you’ve got to do it at His pace. And that’s what I mean when I say wisdom is a way of life. Because the only way you get through those places is with God’s wisdom. Every single day, not just when it’s hard.

So how do you find your holy place? Start by asking God, what’s the next right step? Not the fast step. Don’t ask him for the quickest way. Don’t ask him for the loophole. Say what’s the right way. And that may mean you speed up, that may mean you slow down, but it means that you are always trusting God with the outcome and with the process. So find the pace. Find it. Do the work. Because I can honestly tell you it’s worth it. It’s worth it. Finding your pace is worth it.

Make wisdom a reality

Will you stand with me? Just as we close, I just want to remind us of a few simple things. Wisdom isn’t something that we turn to when we’re just stuck or confused. We definitely do that, but that’s not all it is. Our goal should be to make wisdom a reality. That should be the goal. Make wisdom a reality by asking, seeking, and finding. And when we do that, you’ll honestly be able to say that your way is better, God. And really mean it. That should be our prayer. God, your way is better. So move me out of the way. So I can follow your way. Can you can we just take a moment and ask the Father for that this week? That we would look for that and that we would find it.

Father, we come before you and we thank you that you are such a gracious God. We thank you that you want to give us wisdom and that you want to provide the help that we need. Father, I ask today that each person in the room will come to you and will ask you for what it is that they are seeking. And that as they seek your word, they will find what it is that they need. But then, Father, I ask that they will take it to the next place, which is finding the pace that you have for their life to make wisdom a part of their everyday reality. Father, I’m just so grateful that you have done that for me and that you will continue to do that for me. And I believe that you will do that for every person in this room today. And so, Father, we just ask, all of us in the room right now, we ask for your wisdom. And we believe that this week will be a new step towards finding wisdom as our reality. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.