World-Renowned Wisdom, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Those of you that are in those so-called secular fields, you're supposed to be demonstrating God's wisdom and his beauty in those places. Solomon's life shows you what you are supposed to do with prosperity. You're supposed to use your success to point people to Jesus, and so you need to do what you do well, like Solomon, and then stand before the kingdoms of the world and point them to Jesus. Hey, welcome back to another week of solid biblical teaching here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch.

Question for you. Doesn't it seem like a lot of us tend to see pastors and missionaries as the super Christians, that they're blessed with an extra dose of holiness and wisdom and understanding because of their profession? We tend to think getting serious about God means giving up our day job and going into full-time ministry. But today, Pastor J.D. reveals that every job is actually a full-time ministry. It's part of our teaching series on the life of Solomon called The Man Who Had It All.

And remember, you can catch up on previous teaching anytime at jdgreer.com. Now here's Pastor J.D. returning to some world-renowned wisdom here on Summit Life. Chapter 4, 1 Kings, describes the way that the gift of wisdom that God gave worked itself out in Solomon's life. Solomon was going to become incredibly proficient as a number of things.

First of all, governor. He evidently had an unbelievable ability to organize people. Chapter 4 tells us that his cabinet consisted of religious leaders and historians and military and financial experts. And Solomon was also proficient as a judge.

Solomon ruled with insight and justice and fairness and particularly compassion for the poor. He was prolific as a builder. He constructed a temple that was one of the most magnificent structures ever built. He was a financial genius.

He brought Israel into a time of unparalleled prosperity. He was prolific as a scientist. He became an internationally known expert in natural history, zoology, ornithology, and botany. And maybe best of all this, he was skilled at love.

He was the love doctor. He wrote a book called Song of Solomon, which was an insightful and epic book on love and sex that Hebrew boys were not allowed to read until they were 18 years old. Finally, he was a prolific author and artist. First Kings 4 tells us that Solomon wrote more than 3,000 proverbs and more than 1,000 songs.

The point that I want you to see, listen, here's the point. Solomon's wisdom was not just spiritual. God's wisdom, you see, listen to this, applies not only to the spiritual realm.

God's wisdom applies to the so-called secular realm as well. So chapter 4 tells us that his wisdom and success was so great that it gained worldwide fame. Chapter 4 verse 31, his reputation and all these things extended to all the surrounding nations and a lot of people heard about his wisdom and it brought their attention to the God behind it all. Probably the climatic moment of Solomon's life occurs in chapter 10 when it says that the queen of Sheba, I'm very far away, she heard about Solomon's fame. She came to Solomon and spoke to him about everything that was on her mind. So Solomon answered all of her questions. Nothing was too difficult for the king to explain to her.

Now watch this. When the queen of Sheba observed all of Solomon's wisdom, when she saw the palace that he built, the food at his table, his servants' residences, his attendant service and their attire, his cupbearers and the burnt offerings he offered at the Lord's temple, it took her breath away. She said to the king, the report I heard in my own country about your words and about your wisdom is true but I didn't believe the reports until I came and saw it with my own eyes.

Indeed I was not even told the half of it. Your wisdom and your prosperity far exceed the report that I heard. How happy are your men? How happy are these servants of yours who always stand in your presence hearing your wisdom? Blessed be the Lord your God. He delighted in you and put you on the throne of Israel because of the Lord's eternal love for Israel. He has made you king to carry out justice and righteousness. Here you've got a so-called pagan queen who has heard about this and she comes and says, I didn't understand the half of it.

I know God has to be at work in all of this. What you are seeing here is the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham to bless his people, to put his wisdom into them so that other nations would come to believe. In Solomon, you and I get a little taste of what the reign of the kingdom of God is supposed to look like and here is the application for you. God has promised to put this spirit into you also. Now I am not saying that we can all become as smart or as proficient in these things as Solomon was. But we do know that the kingdom was fulfilled in Jesus and Jesus has put his spirit in us and through us he can give people glimpses of this kingdom just like Solomon did. Those of you in so-called secular work have got to see yourself as God's emissaries of his wisdom and his beauty and his skill.

You are supposed to imitate the wisdom of Solomon where you can and you are to ask God for that wisdom where you don't have it. One of my favorite stories that kind of illustrates this is the story of Eric Liddell whose story gets retold in the movie Chariots of Fire. Eric Liddell was in the 1920s a young man who felt called by God to go be a missionary to China and that's what he was planning on doing but he was also incredibly fast and so in some races he got people's attention and the Olympic committee came and said we think you should try out for the Olympics and Eric Liddell said I can't do that because I'm called by God to be a missionary and they said well we think you should try it anyway. So he has this whole kind of wrestling of what should I do and he says you know I'll run and his sister Jenny has a really difficult time with this because she's like we're called to go I'll be missionaries over there and he's got this famous kind of line this is if you've seen any of it this is the line you probably remember he said yes I know that I'm called to be a missionary and I will do that but God also made me fast and he made me fast for a reason and when I run I feel his pleasure. And so Eric Liddell runs and he gets all the way to the finals of the Olympics and you know the story when he gets there they got to do the they're going to do the heat on Sunday and he's like I can't do that because that I believe it dishonors God to do it on a Sunday and so they said well we can't change the heat he said well now I'm out.

So eventually they say well what they put him in a different race that was four times longer on a different day he wins the gold medal in that one and he's able to use that position to tell people about the greatness that is in God. We need Christians of supernatural insight and peace inserting themselves into the contentious discussions of our day just like Solomon did. We need people of Solomonic wisdom that are leading these discussions and God will give that to his people if we ask and we can do that to bring glory to God. In this country we face a crisis of the family.

My friend Trevin Wax says that sadly we're getting to a place where when you see a married couple walking down the road and they're pushing a stroller and the dad is engaged and the couple is treating each other with respect he said you can just about assume that they're born again Christians. He said now that's a really sad fact for our culture but it also gives the church an extraordinary moment of opportunity because the church can be a place that shows what healthy selfless grace-filled families shaped by God's wisdom looks like. In the church we can show what it looks like for somebody to be crazily successful at business but then use their success to serve and not to exploit. Have you noticed how our culture doesn't really know what to do with success? On the one hand they love it they praise it they want to obtain it but on the other they like to portray rich successful people as bad because they've obviously used the capitalistic system to exploit other people and in their richness they've corrupted and only become caring about themselves and not about others. Well in the church we can provide examples of people like Solomon who are crazy successful in their field but use their success to serve and bless others rather than to hoard for themselves. People who are insanely generous.

We saw an example of this couple weeks ago some of you probably did too. Derek Carr the NFL quarterback that just got drafted that just got the biggest payday in NFL history. There's this interview and the interview that he was asked what are you going to do with all this money Derek?

You're richer than anybody has been in the NFL because of this signing bonus you just got. His answer he said well the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to go splurge on Chick-fil-A which I thought was wise in its own right he said but you know anytime I want my wife and I want to go we're just going to go we're not going to look at the budget we're just going to go. He said that's number one. He said the second thing I'm going to be doing is tithing to my church because God should get the first and the best and if God has blessed me this way I want to honor him. Well the reporters are like ah yeah be serious.

He's like I am serious and they kept well what are you going to do after that? He said you know I don't know I'm just excited about how much good this is going to do for other people. What you've got is somebody that has been given a Solomonic level of skill and that has used that success to be able to point people to the value and the beauty that is in God. This is in part God's agenda with his people. The point is summit church listen to this God does not simply want to show off his power in the church.

This should be a familiar theme to you but the majority of what God wants to do he wants to do outside of the church in the world. I point out to you quite often probably there are 40 miracles in the book of Acts 40. 39 of the 40 happen outside of the church which tells you that 39 40 is of what God wants to do in a society he wants to do outside of this meeting right here. Now as a guy who works inside the church that means I've got access to about 1 40th of the power of God. That's probably not great interpretation technique but you understand my point. My point is that 39 40th of what God wants to do he wants to do through you in business and education and the arts.

He wants to display his beauty there. Do you understand that? Because that will change how you begin to look at your so-called secular vocation. When you talk about a moment with the power of God most people will talk about a moment in one of the sermons that I preach. That's when the power of God was really evident or a moment in worship when they got goosebumps like oh God was so present there. Yes I'm glad God is present there but that's 1 40th of what he wants to do.

39 40th of what he wants to do he wants to demonstrate through you. I'm reminded of the story of Abraham Lincoln when right after Robert E. Lee they had lost at Gettysburg and they pushed his army back down below the Mason-Dixon line. Abraham Lincoln is meeting with his war council and one of the generals comes in and says President Lee and I am very glad to tell you that we have finally pushed the enemy back into his territory. The story goes that Lincoln looks at his generals and says when are you going to learn the whole country is our territory?

They stole it. The whole thing belongs to us. God is great. God loves seeing the church succeed but when is the church going to learn that the whole world there's not one square inch of the entire cosmos over which Jesus does not emphatically declare that's mine. And those of you that are in those so-called secular fields you're supposed to be demonstrating God's wisdom and his beauty in those places. Solomon's life shows you what you are supposed to do with prosperity. Listen your wisdom and skill in business is directly tied to your ability to be able to bring the Queens of Sheba to Jesus. You're supposed to use your success to point people to Jesus and so you need to do what you do well like Solomon and then stand before the kingdoms of the world and point them to Jesus. Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Before we get back to Pastor J.D. 's teaching I want to take a moment again to talk about our incredible team of gospel partners.

We should always be celebrating them but this month we're shouting them out as much as we can. They're more than just financial supporters. They're prayer warriors. They're ambassadors. They're what makes this ministry a reality day after day on your radio, your phone, in your home, and in your workplace. Their commitment not only helps us reach people across the nation but also allows us to create incredible resources like this month's exclusive study called Goodness in the Middle, an eight-part walk through Psalm 23 that'll remind you just how good our Good Shepherd really is. If you've been blessed by Summit Life why not join our gospel partner team today?

Give us a call at 866-335-5220 or head to jdgreer.com. All right let's dive back into today's teaching here on Summit Life. Once again here's Pastor J.D. Well like I told you there are certain aspects of Solomon's wisdom that only God can give but there's a hard attitude toward wisdom which is wisdom's foundation that we are all supposed to have. So I want to spend the last six or seven minutes that I have here letting Solomon instruct us about how we're supposed to seek this wisdom. This is in other words what you're supposed to do if you want to pursue this kind of wisdom. Proverbs 9 is where we're going to go through this but ironically this is what Solomon will depart from in his later years. In chapter 9 of Proverbs Solomon instructs us how to seek wisdom by personifying wisdom as two really attractive women, two young attractive women. He's going to let one represent wisdom and one represent foolishness and he's going to compare them and he's going to say let me show you how to seek real wisdom.

You ready? Here we go. Wisdom has built her house. She's carved out her pillars.

Seven pillars. She's prepared her feast. She's mixed her wine or grape juice for you Baptist.

She's also set her table. She calls out from the highest points of the city, whoever is inexperienced enter here. To the one who lacks sense she says come eat my bread and drink the wine that I have mixed. Leave inexperience behind and you will live. Pursue the way of understanding for by me your days will be many and years quality of life will be added to your life.

Then she's going to begin to explain what wisdom looks like and watch what she says first. Don't rebuke a mocker or he will hate you. Rebuke the wise and he will love you. Instruct the wise and he will become wiser still.

Teach the righteous and he will learn more. It's interesting to me that the first thing she characterizes as a wise heart number one is that the wise person receives correction. The wise person is willing and eager even to receive correction.

Quick question. Does this describe you? How quickly and naturally and easily do you receive correction? How much correction can you hear from somebody without firing back or finding fault with them or impugning their motives or just shutting them off? You know I will tell you I am always at my very best articulating Veronica's faults right after she has pointed out one of mine. I don't know what comes over me but just the spirit of eloquence comes into me and man I can articulate with clarity and my memory becomes razors.

Don't you remember Thursday six years ago on a January night you said that and I'll bring it back up because I just don't like to be corrected. Or how about this when you're in conflict of some kind say a political discussion with somebody that's different than you are you more interested in understanding things from their perspective or are you more interested in making sure they understand the truth of your own? The humble person James says is quick to hear slow to speak I mean you never speak you just slow to speak and slow to anger. The wise person recognizes there is usually more about an issue that he doesn't understand than what he does understand. Listen this is hard for me because I've got opinions on everything my wife says about me often wrong never end out right and I think they are fairly well thought out opinions but what I've learned is that there are people who have had different experiences than me and they come from different backgrounds than I do and if I'm humble I will spend twice as much time listening to them and understanding their perspective or at least trying to.

I'll spend twice as much time doing that as I will trying to get them to understand my own. Characteristic number one the foundation is you're humble enough to actually receive correction from other people and ultimately from God. Characteristic number two verse 10 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. The fear of the Lord is where it all begins. So number two the wise person fears God. Now fear of God I've explained this before doesn't mean that you sit around terrified of God all the time.

The reason I know that is because we're supposed to relate to God like a child does to a loving father but you fear God in that you recognize the power and the importance of his value in your life. Think of fearing God similar to how you fear the sun S-U-N. Most of us didn't wake up in the morning and say oh my goodness what is the sun going to do to me today? Right we're not terrified of the sun but we recognize the power of the sun. We know the sun is necessary for life. We also know that being in wrong relationship to the sun can end up in death.

We even know that over exposure to the sun can harm us and so we love the sun we're grateful for the sun we don't want to be without the sun but we try to stay in right relationship to the sun. To fear God is to know how valuable he is in your life how much you depend on him and how foolish it would be to get on the wrong side of him or to be separated from him. Your fear of God is going to be measured by how attentive you are to your relationship with him.

For example how submitted are you to his word? Listen when you fear God the reason you choose not to disobey God has less to do with feeling guilty and more to do with being afraid of being out of fellowship with God. And you become afraid of disobedience that's what it means to fear God.

I don't want to be separated from him. Or here's another one how attentive are you how diligently are you seeking to know his word? Because neglect of God's word or laziness and knowing it is every bit as bad as defiance of it. If you know God and you fear God you crave what he says on various issues in your life. Here's another metric how healthy and robust is your prayer life? I've often told you when you fear God prayer will come as naturally to you as breathing does because you just instinctively know how dependent you are on God so naturally you pray.

Right? I don't breathe I don't breathe because it's the right thing to do. I don't breathe because I feel guilty if I don't breathe. I don't have accountability partners that check on me like three times a day. Hey man you're breathing? You're breathing today?

You got to do the right thing. I don't do that because my body craves air and I know that I would be dead without it and so I naturally breathe and that's how prayer is supposed to be. You're supposed to instinctively know how much you depend on God and prayer should come as naturally and instinctively to you as oxygen feels to your body. That's how a person who fears God is with God.

Their thought in every situation is what does God want and what is God's power where is it? Now what he does Solomon then turns to the other attractive woman and that person is named Folly. Now you're gonna he's gonna give third characteristic here just a second but let me get you to it. Folly is a rowdy woman she's gullible and knows nothing and she sits by the doorway of her house in a seat at the highest point of the city calling out to those who pass by who go straight ahead on their paths. Whoever is inexperienced she says enter here to the one who lacks it she says stolen water is sweet bread eaten secretly is tasty but the one who enters there doesn't know that departed spirits are in her house and that her guests are in the depths of hell itself. What you should first notice from that description is how similar the two women are. They both look alike, they both sit at the same place, they both say basically the same thing. They call out to those you who were young and inexperienced and those you who want fulfillment come and enter into my house and you will find it but whereas wisdom calls out to those who are humble and fear God and open to correction Folly makes its appeal to those who want immediate satisfaction.

Did you notice the the primary difference in what they said is really only one phrase it's identical except for one phrase right here. This is what wisdom says what what Folly says is this stolen water is sweet and bread eaten secretly is tasty in other words who cares where this bread comes from it tastes good right now. To be foolish listen doesn't mean that you hate God.

To be foolish means you just really want something some bread some kind of water metaphorically speaking maybe the bread of success maybe the bread of romance maybe the bread of sex or the the family or pleasure and you want that so bad that if you've got to leave God behind temporarily in order to get it then so be it which leads me to number three the wise person values fellowship with God above everything else. The wise person says no no I cannot leave God even to get that really good bread that I want. Some of you are listen they're right now because you're in a situation where you're having to choose whether to do it God's way or whether just to get that bread in whatever way possible.

For example those of you who are living or sleeping with somebody who you're not married to there is a good bread and it's called companionship it's called relationship. The question is you're gonna be willing to do it God's way or you're gonna leave God behind to get that bread because it tastes sweet for a while. For some of you it's success it's success you're in a choice right now is you want to get up to the top of that corporate ladder as high as you can get and the question is you're going to do it God's way or you're going to do it in a way that burns you burns God burns your family. For some of you it's you're going to experience it in the area of getting financially to a place that you want to be.

Nothing wrong with wanting to be at a good financially comfortable place but the question is are you going to do it God's way and some of you are going to choose unfortunately to go the way of folly which is I'm going to disregard God's laws when it comes to tithing and to generosity and I'm going to do it my way. Those of you who are wise what you will say is yes these are breads and this is water that I want but I would rather have God and none of those things than I would have all of those things without the presence of God. Let the Lord fill you with wisdom that exceeds even that of Solomon. Today's message from Pastor J.D. Greer is part of our series called The Man Who Had It All and if you've missed any part of this series you can catch up or download the free message transcripts at jdgreer.com. Pastor J.D. and I recently sat down to talk about our new teaching series on the life of King Solomon called The Man Who Had It All.

Here's what he had to say. Yeah Solomon the man who had it all a man who I mean wisdom power wealth romance sex you know Solomon is known and rightfully so as one of the wisest men who ever lived but it shows us that even for wise good people the devastating consequences that come when we allow sin to remain unchecked in our lives as you're listening to this message series and you're you're you're pondering Solomon's mistakes we got a bible study we want to offer you that study is called Goodness in the Middle and it's a study of Psalm 23. It was written by Solomon's dad David and it's going to show you how you can trust God in times when when life feels like chaos and not turn to sinful pleasures or compromises as a way of you know medicating your soul. You should grab a copy of this eight-part bible study right now that'll take you through one of the most rewarding and beloved parts of scripture Psalm 23. You can order that today at jdgreer.com. We'd love to thank you for your gift with a copy of this brand new resource from Pastor J.D. called Goodness in the Middle based on one of the most famous psalms in all of the bible Psalm 23.

Call us at 866-335-5220 or you can give your gift online at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vidovich. You know popular thought says that there are a lot of ways to know God but is that really how it works?

Does every religion just have a different piece of the same puzzle? J.D. Greer answers that question Tuesday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.