Reaping the Blessings of Wisdom

Well, tonight we're going to be jumping into the book of Proverbs again, Proverbs chapter number three. So if you have your Bibles, if you would join me, Proverbs three.

We looked at the first half last Sunday, last Wednesday, and we're going to look at the second half of this study in chapter three tonight. Proverbs three, probably the most famous verses that we have in this chapter are verses five and six. People often quote those rightfully so to trust in the Lord with all of your heart, not to lean on your own understanding in all your ways.

Acknowledge him and the Lord will direct your path. So wisdom is a director and we are to submit ourself to that. Tonight we're looking at verse 13 through 35, and this is really a oracle of blessing, a declaration of God's favor upon those who would implement the truths that we find here. And so if you want to be a blessed person, apply these truths of wisdom to your life.

And we see that as it picks up in verse 13, and we'll go down to the end of the verse chapter. It says, happy is the man or blessed is the man that finds wisdom and the man that gets 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 things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches in 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 retains her. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth by understanding he established the heavens by his knowledge the depths are broken up by the and the clouds drop down to do my son let not them depart from thine eyes keeps down wisdom and discretion so shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck then shalt thou walk in the way safely thy foot shall not stumble when thou lie down thou shall not be afraid a thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet it's always good to have a good sleep isn't it be not afraid of sudden fear neither of desolation of the wicked when it comes for the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken withhold not good and if you notice there is a from 27 down he's saying things you should not do withhold not good from them that to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it say not unto the neighbor go and come again tomorrow I will give when thou hast it by thee devise not evil against thy neighbor seeing he dwell is securely by thee strive not with a man without cause if he have done thee no harm 31 envy thou not the oppressor and choose none of his ways and then in conclusion verse 32 says for the forward is an abomination to the Lord his secret is with the righteous the curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked but he blesses bless blesseth the habitation of the justice is this is somewhat reflective of Psalm 1 the end last three verses there of Psalm 1 that he will bless and prosper those who are faithful to him and the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked but he blesseth the habitation of the just surely he scorns the scorn but he giveth grace into the lowly if you read verse 35 as we conclude the wise shall inherit glory but shame shall be the promotion of fools and Lord that is our desire to be wise let us put off foolishness let us not play the fool in life and what is a fool a fool is one who says there is no God a fool is one who also lives as though there is no God and so let us depart from such ignorant depravity that grips us and wants to pull us into foolish life how often Christians can declare their theology but live practically as an atheist in a life that is not fearing God not honoring God and Lord help us to be wise both in mind and heart and in life Lord may when people see us they know that we love the Lord Jesus Christ that you would be not only on our lips but in our life in our marriages in our children's lives that would be passed down to them Lord I pray if anyone tonight doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ that this would be the night that they would come and repent and trust in you bless the kids tonight the teens commit this time to you and ask it in Christ's name and God's people said man you may be seated this evening well this first half of Proverbs chapter 3 speaks about wisdom as being a guide as one who is to lead and direct your paths again verse 5 and 6 are key verses there and wisdom is to direct your path if you do four things we saw last time you need to trust God's truth to obey it and we saw secondly we need to trust God with our heart and will that's trust in Lord with all of our heart and what's interesting is when the Bible says to trust God at the same time there is a distrust that has to happen so as you actively positively trust God you have to at the same time learn to distrust yourself the wise person doesn't have a lot of confidence in his own heart the Bible says he that trust is in his own heart as a fool that's why the Bible says trust in Lord with all of your heart lay not on your what understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he's going to direct you so thirdly trust in God with your resources it's interesting that trust is immediately followed up by financial stewardship where he's saying honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase because really how can I say I trust God if I don't trust him with the resources I have in my life right so so we need to trust God with our substance and he says give him of the best of thy first fruits the best God is worthy of not the last portion but the first first portion and I always think about Jesus Christ is called the first fruits the Holy Spirit is called the first fruit in Romans chapter number eight as well that God has given to us should we give him less than our best and then number four we saw last time trust God to discipline you it wraps up that section by letting us know that whom the Lord loves he corrects or disciplines even as the father of some in whom he delights I can tell you I've never enjoyed discipline I never was like dad could you please bring down some discipline upon my soul I think I need it I was never a volunteer for that I was kind of like USAID when Elon Musk showed up right you just don't want the discipline anybody else happy that that is getting cut down every day I'm like I enjoy watching the news I didn't enjoy it for like four years and I finally get enjoy for a few weeks and it's nice but we need to pray for our country and our leaders and that God's guidance would be there but but we also need to understand that discipline is an act of love God says whom he loves he rebukes he chastens we see that even in Revelation 3 now in chapter 2 Solomon especially encourages us to seek and pursue wisdom and here he speaks of the prophet wisdom brings its blessing to those who would value and obey its truth someone said that you cannot break the laws of God you can only break yourself against them when you violate them and that is true every action builds an attitude and every attitude builds a character and every character yields a destiny and so I think about Galatians 6 7 this is a very important verse that it would have been very good if we got a hold of this as young people when it says be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man so if that shall he also reap if I don't reap what I sow then then I would in effect in some way seek to mock God I got away with it I pulled it off but that's not going to be the case God knows this law this this reality that he is placed in our life called the law of sowing and reaping just as gravitational pull the electronic electromagnetic forces is also a law that God has placed into the universe that is fine-tuned to one in ten to the fortieth power so also the law of sowing and the law of sowing and reaping is is placed by God into creation and God knows this and he loves us and desires that we would reap good fruit which we will have our lives blessed by and not have painful things happen to us if we go the wrong way now in this principle we see everything God asks of us he does it because he wants us to have a blessed end God God doesn't want to punish us needlessly he is a God of grace we think about James 1 18 every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights he wants to be gracious and merciful to us and if you want to measure your faith it really is measured in the obedience that we give that if we were to trust God we would obey God and we believe that God has our best in mind that that because just like when when Peter was in the boat for him to step out of the boat when Jesus says come to me walking on water there was a level of trust he had to first implement before he could take a step and in our lives for us to be able to trust God or to take steps of obedience we have to trust him and so our faith or our trust is really measured by our obedience obedience is the test it's not verbally tested as much as it is physically and actually tested by what our life does now as we walk through this we're going to see some things the blessings that wisdom gives and we need to implement these if we were to trust God if we were to say God I believe that you want my best in life that I that I believe that you are a good father I believe that you not only save me but you're sanctifying me and one day will glorify me and it all things do in fact work together for good to them that love God who are called according to his purpose if I if I truly believe that then I would trust what God says over what I think over what I feel over what my intuitions are I would distrust myself to the trust of God and and let's look at some thoughts here the first is the blessing of wisdom in verse 13 he says happy is the man that findeth wisdom verse 18 also says happy is everyone that retains her holds on to her holds on to wisdom this is also reflective of the beatitudes now in the bible there's two types of prophetic pronouncements they're called oracles of will and oracles of woe oracles of woe were oracles of divine judgment you'd see that in the Jesus would do this to the Pharisees he would say woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites just read Matthew 23 I think there's eight of those woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites woe that was a divine pronouncement from a prophet in a prophet's office saying that there is judgment coming to you you get the revelation these are the woe judgments that are coming they would say woe woe woe into the inhabitants of the earth so we see that this was a declaration of a prophet saying that there is judgment coming the opposite of that is an oracle of will akin to the word well-being and it was saying blessed are you happy are you the favor of God is upon you not the judgment of God but the favor of God is upon you and when Jesus opened up his sermon on the mountain what did he do he gave eight oracles of will blessed are you that mourn for you shall be comforted blessed are they that are poor in spirit theirs is the kingdom of God blessed are the meek and he's saying there is divine blessing divine favor upon the person that would do this this same thing is being laid out here there's actually eight of these throughout the book of Proverbs and we see it here in verse 13 happier blessed is the man that would find wisdom there is a divine favor upon you there is blessing upon you and it and it implies that God is pleased with you like God is pleased with what you're doing I don't know about you but I want to please God I would be satisfied honestly to displease everybody if I could just please him you just want to really get it right with him that's why when I preach I've said many times through the years that I I'm not so concerned with what you and it sounds always crude I don't even like to say it out loud but I'm not so concerned with what you think I really just want to make sure I get it right with the Lord I want to make sure the text is hundred and and I know that I will give an account of everything that I preach and that my judgment will be more severe than anyone else at lighthouses the the preacher is set to a higher standard than anyone else look at Moses he didn't go into the Promised Land for hitting a rock is that a high standard it's a high standard that's why James 3 says don't desire to be many teachers for yours is the greater judgment right so it's a big deal that we we make sure the word is broken down correctly and don't just whimsically throw it out there and and take it in a casual manner and and I think every father needs to feel that way about their own home now the Hebrew word happy there again also means blessed this is this is how Psalm 1 1 opens up blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly doesn't stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful so if you want to find favor with God if you want to do that then then verse 13 says find wisdom find it well where do I find it well that's where the Word of God would come in isn't it and and I also want to let you know that God wants you to be filled with joy and blessing happy is the man to find with wisdom the man that gets understanding God is God is a God who is pleased to bless his people John 15 11 the day before Jesus died he says I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full that's a wonderful thing God is not a God who wants to take away joy and blessing he actually is a God who wants to make it infinite for us and we know Psalm 16 11 tells us that it is in his presence is fullness of joy right John 17 13 now I come unto thee and these things I speak into the world Jesus says that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves this goes on and throughout the Gospel of John first John talks about it often he says in verse 13 the man that finds wisdom that getteth understanding so there is a this is a continual action of findeth and a getteth this is this is also letting us know if you need to find something and get something it means you didn't start with it we don't come into the world with a a wise life we come into the world as simple uh depraved beings that need to be taught the truth proverbs 1 4 says he wrote this to give some subtlety to the simple and the young man knowledge and discretion I didn't have knowledge and discretion as a young man I didn't understand a lot of things we gain wisdom from God's word and from the word of God and from the God of the word proverbs 2 6 says for the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding so you find and you get wisdom and understanding from God and his word and and also to find and get speaks of pursuing and laboring for it the word findeth literally means reaching obtaining to seek getteth literally means to draw out as as though you were digging out precious metals so so you're seeking it and you're seeking to draw it out that's how we are to handle the word of God 2 Timothy is calling us to study to show ourself approved unto God so so Solomon highlights the blessed person the happy one is who gains the riches of wisdom secondly he highlights in verse 14 the value of wisdom in verse 14 he says this for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain there of than fine gold merchandise here is a term for trading for selling it's saying that there is nothing worth trading wisdom for you're never going to get a better bargain than having wisdom it's more valuable than silver or gold this is gold dug from the ground this is called here fine gold you know gold doesn't typically come in large clumps I remember years ago watching one of those shows where they were like gold diggers and you know they'd be they have the sluice boxes and all that's coming down and they would have just little specks of gold because it's heavier than the other rock and debris that's going and it would get trapped and those little flakes they would end up melting down into bars of gold but they they are precious it's precious gold this is the idea of this this is something that's mined out it is it is very valuable and as anders says though gold and silver are undeniable measures of wealth they can provide only the things that money can buy and wisdom can provide you things that money cannot buy it yields a better return than money it's in better investment of your life to get wisdom than to get financial things verse 15 he goes on and says she is more precious than rubies this is talking about precious metals and this is really reflective of matthew 13 as well when jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant man seeking goodly pearls when he found one pearl of great price he went and and he and he bought it he he was willing to give up everything for that one pearl and and when we get into proverbs 8 it just very much seems though that wisdom is personified as though it would be the lord jesus christ himself and we know according to colossians that in christ is all the fullness of wisdom and knowledge embodiment in christ he is the fullness of that and it says here all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her the rich man would have done well to gain that wouldn't he jesus what must i do to enter the kingdom the embodiment of wisdom before him all that wisdom could be could not usurp the wisdom of christ and and that man went away sorrowful to leave jesus so he could hold on to the riches of his life what a foolish decision and we would be wise to learn that the gain of this world is loss if we don't gain christ all the things you can have are not to be compared solomon is telling us that wisdom is more valuable than all the wealth and the possessions of life today our world has so often placed value on the cheap and it's cheap and the valuable when is the last time somebody in our world said you know what you need to make sure you hold a priority to the word of god when's the last time you had a family member say hey i know your kids are playing sports but are you getting them in the word nothing wrong with getting them in activities right nothing wrong with that but there is something wrong if there's not a priority on this does that make sense hey what'd you have for dinner i hope you had a good meal but did you have a good bible study anytime this day or week there needs to be an elevation in our conversation and you know when you prioritize the word conversation goes that way you ever notice that when you love the book it just comes out in the day and you start losing your taste for some things that the world offers it just your taste buds change i'll never forget my wife saying you know i she walked away from scholarships and everything she was going to do in college for soccer and she said i've never regretted it once i've never missed it just good with it the things of god are so much better so much better you'll never get to the end of your life and say man i wish i would have given the things of the world more of my time energy and focus and resources and how much we trade wisdom for nothing wrong with relaxing watching tv reels or taking time for social media but if you don't have time for the word of god what does it say about the value of god's word if you don't give it time yet you give endless time to reels social media and tv god's wisdom will reward you at the level that you cherish it if it's valuable it will be a rewarder to you it will treat you well listen to mark 423 this is one of the most precious passages in the bible he said if anyone has ears to hear let him hear then he said unto them take heed what you hear with the same measure you use it will be measured to you and to you who hear will more be given for whoever has and he's talking about whoever has the truth given to them whoever has through him more will be given but whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away from him so in other words what jesus is saying the size of the cup of listening and desire that you bring to my word and my truth i will measure back in proportion the sir the the the portion back in the size of bowl that you've offered to me with your hearing and if you've come to me with a belonging and a desire to really grasp and know and and and you've given a full bowl to that and you say lord fill it up he said i will give to you and i will give you more than what you were expecting but if you don't if you come and you treat it cheaply and it's kind of like the idea when somebody says well i read today but i didn't really get anything out of it probably because your bowl was filled with other priorities we had a martha bowl it was it was scumbered about right there's so many other things anybody else struggle with the martha bowl sometimes yeah let's confess it we do we all do and and so that's why it's good to do it in the morning it's good to have this off it's good to just get alone it's good to spend time in prayer and a song get your heart prepared have time set aside be in a room by yourself no one is around get alone isolated no distractions treat god as the treasure he is in in in your heart longs for him like the precious fruit and the imagine if you could get the best cup of coffee that your life would ever have known and the only way you could get it was you had to wait for 15 minutes in utter silence and you couldn't look at your phone for some reason it would mess the machine up it knew you couldn't talk to anybody else i just wonder how many casual christians would gladly wait 15 maybe even 30 minutes for one of the great and best cup of coffee that they could ever have in their life every day they wait gladly in silence and they weren't allowed to think about anything else have other conversations just had to focus on it and it kept producing the best tasting cup of coffee they've ever had in their life do you understand what he's offering he says bring your cups bring it to me it's better it's better than the fine gold that men dig out of the ground it'll treat you eternally better temporarily better blessings from heaven i know you don't always understand it now because we're we as creatures are so temporal aren't we we're so we're vapor length lifetime and we're vapor length thinkers our focus is thin and and so the the let me say this the way into the glories of the riches of the word is through the valley of sacrifice to get it it must cost you something we want the cheap avenue and god won't give it like that so so it's like oh the only way i can get my bowl filled with the things of god is i got to pour out what's in it right but i want to pour that out i want to keep i want to keep that stuff in there and god says no you got to empty it so so we we come to this every day and i i just i just think mary got it mary got it she uh she's like uh sorry peter james john andrew uh i'll get your food later right yeah i mean there was some big sacrifice going on martha was over there cumbered about sweet martha i just think friends the price is is greater the value is greater and every morning i think and every day it's being offered that's why i think it needs to be early what we prioritize we usually do first first thing i do i get up in the morning and i'll come down i like to you know grab some coffee get some water whatever and and i like to get to my office as early as i can about some things and just get alone with the lord and it's just so rewarding to be there number three is the rewards of wisdom verse 16 length of days is in her right hand and her left hand riches and honor she's just pouring out blessing with both hands right hand is always typically first throughout the bible the hand of blessing the greater blessing but but here he says in his right hand is length of days god is a giver of life you know people fight for life they fight to extend their life psalms 21 4 he asked life of thee now gave us to them how long did god give you life even length of days forever and ever what do you need to do just ask him it was so wonderful to get with a couple of these guys i was so encouraged by it too uh thursday morning i had a couple guys who were not even saved they worked from saturday at 11 p.m to 11 a.m in the morning and they could not wait to get here after a 12-hour shift to talk to a preacher isn't that great i was like i don't think i could even have done that i'd have been down and they were so attentive like for an hour just asking questions eyes wide open just taking it in i was like i felt like the richest man in the world talking to two people who want the word it was the greatest it's it's it's so wonderful to me like whatever the world would offer me like whatever game and event i used to play that was exciting is nothing it's nothing this is the most rewarding thing in my life to give the word to people who want it and then to kneel down and say i said when do you guys want to fully surrender all that you are to all that he is that he would be the lord of your life you would get out of the driver's seat he becomes lord of all that you are and be saved and they said right now i said well let's kneel down and i said and you ask him what you want him to do for you and to hear these men both call out in their own words one after another just wonderful coming to foundations the next morning excited telling their boss who's an atheist about it isn't that exciting i said praise god so good i uh you it's it's just length of days this is this is the reward we offer people eternal life we we offer them length of days forever and ever if they would just receive it wisdom brings life in its right hand length of days verse 18 calls wisdom here a tree of life to them that laid hold on her you know adam and evil were expelled because they'd reached forth and took the fruit and no doubt proverbs is using this in reflection of that but wisdom is the one who offers length of days forever verse 22 it's life to your soul it says and in verse 16 it says and in her left hand is riches and honor provision and promotion are those two things riches and honor it will provide for you and it will honor you those who have wisdom will have enough and they will be promoted look at verse 17 this is good her ways bring pleasantness and peace you know the bible tells us the way of the transgressor is hard anybody ever learned that the hard way sin is tough sin creates turbulence pain regret guilt sorrow suffering living with wisdom on the other hand will direct us to live the life god has called us to and it will produce great fruit pleasantness and peace i remember years ago being at a recovery house talking to some guys in this recovery house some pretty tough situations they were they were all a group of guys that were just really really rough some of them were not saved and had lived a very broken broken life and addiction and i asked them this question i'll never forget it i said um i said what would you guys give for peace so what would you give to have peace in life and and i'm telling you some of these guys started breaking down in tears they said i would give anything anything for peace you can see the desperation in their eyes what what they would give to have peace and i said let me tell you how to get it i tell you the world is suffering seeking for peace we have a lot of people in counseling helping people in the area of psychological help people that are dealing with internal agony pain they're trying to figure out how do you calm the storm on the inside right how do i how do i bring the temperature down the agony of the soul sin robs men of joy peace gives them sorrow and anxiety and psalm 119 165 gives us a great answer it says great peace have they that love thy law galatians 5 22 but the tree of the fruit of the spirit is love joy and peace like the gift of god is is peace one of the reasons people have immediate peace when they come to christ is this they stop driving themselves they they surrender to god as the as god they stop they stop playing god in their life and they surrender the true god and they realize you know what my life is not by accident it's my own purpose he's sovereign over everything says in verse 18 happy is everyone that retains her happiness pleasantness and peace aren't guaranteed by financial success or by physical things but they are guaranteed by god's wisdom so the blessing value and reward of wisdom look at fourth truth here in verse 19 to 20 the example of god's use of wisdom here i love these kind of statements the lord by wisdom hath founded the earth by understanding hath he established the heavens one of the things i long for um i think about this often i think i probably think about it every every week i am dazzled by the sky the sunrise and the sunset are glorious to me the stars are glorious to me i i i love to look at that it's it it's uh i like to do a little painting on the side and i realize the difficulty of duplicating that as an intellectual being as a person that has the ability to do things and then the sky creates these patterns and beautiful colors and they transition and it's just you know god could have made everything gray or bland but yet he dazzles us and this is a fallen world that's dazzling us and if the creation can produce that what would the creator look like the the the the wonder of it all you ever you ever seen some of those um pictures that the hubble has done when it's gone into deep space and it sends back some of these pictures and it's like wow i want to one day just gaze upon god's creation with eyes that can begin to see it i i you know my eyesight's not great and so um to be able to grasp that i i i get why there's people who fall into the worship of creation right they worship the creation more than the creator because if they don't believe in a god they realize something is great about the creation so much you that they begin to in fault worship it but just like if you saw payton manning play you wouldn't worship the football you would you would celebrate the athlete it's not the creation that's deserving it's the creator but here we see in verse 19 and 20 it's by his wisdom that this was created psalm 104 24 oh lord how manifold are thy works and wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches some in society have looked at the world and think that it's a result of dumb chance that it just got lucky that the cosmos is the creation of unintelligible design now some in society who believe in evolution believe there must be thousands or millions of other planets with life on them the earth is just one planet of many is that true or there is the earth really that unique to have life or they're perhaps untold millions of other populated planets the answer that science has brought back is an unequivocal no though billions and trillions have been spent on the exploration for life in space there has been absolutely no evidence for life planet earth has now been shown to be almost infinitely complex and designed for life to consist it really staggers the mind especially when you get into the area of physics the earth is 25 million miles in circumference circumference it weighs six septillion five hundred and eighty six six trillion tons hangs in empty spaces space spends at a thousand miles with perfect balance as it spins it goes around a 580 million mile orbit around the sun at a thousand miles per minute does all this at a perfect 23 degree angle that allows our seasons to be exactly what they are and the sun is 12 000 degrees fahrenheit if it were two percent closer to the earth we would burn up two percent further away we would freeze to death for more than a decade galermo gonzalez an astrobiologist at iowa state university has researched the characteristics in a planet that are required to sustain complex life the estimates vary but the current list of these factors would number at least 20 there's at least 20 things that need to be true for life to exist you have to have an oxygen-rich atmosphere liquid water large continental land masses a home star with the right temperature and mass an orbital path that is not too far or too close to the home star a moon large enough to stabilize the tilt of the planet a magnetic field strong enough to deflect the sun's radiation i mean by the way you know just just by another fact the the sun itself controls all of our weather patterns or you know rain clouds storms everything that goes on the wind and we receive one one billionth of a percent of the heat from the sun coming off of it and it drives everything on the planet so theorists attempted to calculate the odds of all the necessary factors for life to appear at the same time on the same planet a conservative estimate is one thousandth of one one trillionth that is uh that is that goes beyond the number of what they consider the number of probability or ability proverbs 3 19 says the lord by wisdom founded the earth by understanding he established the heavens god's wisdom and fine tuning is also staggering atheist lee strobel said it was the evidence from science and history that prompted me to abandon my atheism and become a christian it's it's un i could not believe enough to be an atheist if one of these examples again this is just one in the 20 is gravity if you didn't have gravity you wouldn't have planet stars or any complex organism the ratio of electromagnetic force or gravity is fine tuned to one in 10 to the 40th power this number is just staggering the following is a helpful illustration lee strobel gives this illustration in a video he did if you've never seen it i would encourage you to watch it it's called case for a creator done by an atheist became a believer he was a writer for chicago tribune graduated from i think yale university wife became a christian he thought his marriage was over spent two years studying out the claims of christianity at the end of it he said there was so much overwhelming evidence for the case for christ he became a believer and uh but but he he gives one illustration he said if you take the uh entire universe he said imagine a ruler made up of one inch increments and stretched across the entire universe a distance of some 14 billion light years and the ruler represents the possible range for gravity in other words gravity could have fallen on any of those one inch increments across the 14 billion mile you know 186 000 miles per second is the speed of light 14 billion light years wide this is this is an unimaginable distance so how finely tuned is one in 10 to the 40th power it just so happened to land on the exact inch marker in the span of a 14 billion light year wide universe and if it was moved just one inch one inch compared to that entire ruler spanning the known universe it would kill everything on the planet the only thing you would have is tiny organisms very very very small it would wipe out everything so you're going to tell me that's just one of the 20 parameters and it just happened to land there are we understanding when the bible says the lord by wisdom founded the heavens and the earth he set that exactly on a razor's edge for life to exist that's just one example you can go down into things like the deoxyribonucleic acid the human cells which there's a hundred trillion cells the cell is more complex as one scientist said the new york city peter guinn and sharon begley mary hager in the secrets of the human cell in newsweek said each of those 100 trillion cells functions like a walled city we don't even we you know we don't even think about this we just live today but at the same time that we're living putting all kinds of unhealthy stuff typically in our bodies all of this stuff is still working so your 100 trillion cells are like little walled cities power plants are generating the cells energy factories are producing proteins vital units of chemical commerce complex transportation systems guide the specific chemicals from point to point within the cell and beyond centuries at the barricades control the export and import markets and monitor the outside world for signs of danger disciplined biological army stand ready to grapple with invaders a centralized genetic government maintains its order and within a single bacterial cell are an estimated 1 million to 3 million protein molecules including 2,000 to 10,000 different kinds of enzymes all in a space of 1 to 25,000 of an inch in diameter and every single second of every day over anywhere from 10 to 50 million cells are being killed off and replaced every second of your known life that entire new york city is being created as others die off and it's just happening all the time who did that when charles darwin thought the cell was like a blob of protoplasm that was like jelly he had no comprehension and he said if it could be evidence that these could not come by sequential processes then my whole theory would fall apart and it quite frankly has it's ridiculous a hundred trillion cells you know if you took the dna out of your cells it would be so small you'd have to look through a high-powered telescope to see it you but if you stretch those little dna strands out they would be seven feet long and if you put them end to end they would go to the moon and back one half million times and they would fit inside of a teaspoon is that is that incredible the designer did you know you the bible says you are fearfully and wonderfully made aren't you glad you didn't come about by chance right it's it's utterly ridiculous our kids need to be taught these kind of things don't they that's why we've put together i've put together a 10-week study on creation evolution these kind of this kind of information where we always take our teens through that college students do that so they can understand they'll bring it to their science teacher at school and say hey you know i got an answer for these things it's important for them so that when they step into college they don't have they don't have a church that simply says just believe but they can say hey let's ask the tough questions and give good answers we need to be able to do that okay and if you ever have a child that says well why do i believe this don't get upset with them just say that's a good question now let's go find the answer number five the providential care of wisdom we see the power of wisdom displayed through god's creation the providential care of wisdom last couple things very quickly verse 21 he says my son let not them depart from thine eyes keeps on wisdom and discretion so shall they be life unto thy soul grace to thy neck then shalt thou walk in the way safely thy foot shall not stumble when thou lies down thou shall not be afraid yea thou shall lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet so here you see that god will keep you from wondering the wisdom will be your life it will keep you on the right path it will give you peaceful sleep says in verse 24 and 5 if you get afraid god will be your protecting shield think about psalm 23 4 do i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i talk to people often who come to the end of their life and just recently last week an individual told me you know i'm i'm ready to die and if the lord takes me i'm good to go i just read something this week that was i've never heard a guy say it and i probably won't quote it exactly correctly but it was it was a profound reality that you know when we die it's not really death it's just we're being loosed from the prison of our body we're being set free from this who would ever look at a chrysalis and or a or a you know a little caterpillar thank you yeah i know they're called there's these things that climb around on the ground and i hate to step on them and nobody would look at that and say oh you know you got to stay in that form you never want to get out of that body you know you look down upon that thing and just kind of gross i know there's some people here we got some you know we got some people that are experts in that field right now sitting in this room people who've written books on these kind of things and but you know and they think they're beautiful and stuff i look at them i'm like i don't like caterpillars climbing on me some people pick them up and they're just like the little fat ones that little wiggle around you know these things and you look at them you're like yeah this is kind of a helpless guy you know sometimes i'll maybe you know kick them across the concrete and like you know get off there you don't want to run them over you know don't write me a letter because i didn't pick it up and put it on a branch and feed it and all that stuff but you just but you know there is a better life for him there is a better existence that's coming right and and and i think so oftentimes we we we can have such a earthly focused mindset that we forget that this body is not heaven if it feels like it's going downhill it's because it is we we will be set free from this bondage of the flesh and romans 8 talks about the whole creation groans and travails together in pain till now so the sixth thing here we see the warning of wisdom verse 27 through 35 this is a concluding section here he says in verse number 27 and if you notice these are all again things that we need to not do he says withhold not good from them to whom it is due don't procrastinate if somebody is is in need seek to help them verse 28 say not into thy neighbor go and come again and i'll help you when you know when i'm when it's convenient i had a precious lady in our church reach out to me today and she had just recently had her her mother had died just a couple months ago and and they're they're up in years now this couple and and she just had her part of her leg amputated because of some health and and just a sweet couple and her husband's dealing with cancer and and i said listen if you guys need anything in your house and your property just anything just please let me know and they hate to ask you know how people are they just don't like they're not used to asking they don't like to ask and and and she broke down she said there's just i need some help with some stuff around my garage and around the yard if maybe in the next month there's maybe two or three people that could help and i'm like yeah yeah so if that's something that you would be like hey i would like to help that individual out see braden and and we can make that happen and um but we're wanting to but you know those kind of things come up and and um how sinful it would be to say ah you know i don't think we can get around to that sorry you know it's not convenient what if it's a little chilly that day don't don't don't don't procrastinate don't put it off if you're able to help somebody be be a blessing to them he goes on and says in verse 21 29 devise not evil against thy neighbor seeing he dwelleth securely by thee uh don't don't come up with some evil things and again he's telling you'll be blessed if you do what's right wisdom will protect you from the wrong and these are the things you cannot do verse 30 strive not with a man without a cause the bible tells us in romans 12 as much as life and us live peaceably with all men verse 31 envy thou not the oppressor don't choose his ways and then the conclusion of this in verse 32 through 35 is is really highlighting those who sow evil will reap god's judgment those who sow obedience will reap god's blessing in verse 35 the wise shall inherit glory but shame shall be the promotion of fools and so i asked tonight what are you sowing what what is your life producing and and i will say the only way we can maintain a correct perspective is to to keep the lens of scripture on our hearts and on our eyes and our minds let me let me conclude with psalm 37 this is such a wonderful text it says fret not thyself because of evildoers neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as a green tree trust in the lord and do good so shall thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed delight thyself also in the lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart commit thy way into the lord trust also in him he will bring it to pass he will bring forth thy righteousness as light and thy judgment is a new day rest in the lord wait patiently for him fret not thyself because of him who prospers in his way because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass wouldn't that be a great section to memorize to put that on your heart to think about that to dwell on that you think it might guide us in our day to remind us not to trust in our own self but to lean on him and so tonight if you want a life that's blessed by god it starts with a trust of the lord a distrust of self a per a pursuit a reaching forth a getting of wisdom recognizing that god is the giver of that and valuing it enough that if you were to stand before him in silence for 15 minutes like a cup of coffee that we would so often stand for that we would say he's much more valuable than any liquid i could have he is the one who can give me something more valuable than even fine gold and so tonight let's just let's just continue to lift up the glory of christ let's continue to elevate the things that need to be elevated and to be that's really the job of a preacher isn't it every week you should come in and be like i need to be washed in the water of the word i need to let it do a cleansing effect because the world keeps trying to saturate me with things that are not always true and i need to be reconciled back to where it is right in my eyes and understanding of truth and so let's stand tonight as we close in prayer