Turning On the Lights! Friday June 7, 2024 Let’s talk about Wisdom and the fear of the Lord!
Good morning, Good morning my brothers and my sisters! It is Friday June 7, 2024 and Welcome to Turning On the Lights! We know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. Today we go into Job 28 and Proverbs 3 to reinforce that. All of our knowledge and human understanding is useless if we do not / will not submit it to the Lord and be guided by His will through the power of His Holy Spirit. Let us rejoice in the fact that the Kingdom of God grows and that our sovereign Lord has a firm hand on the tide of human history. may God bless you and keep you and, as we say on Fridays – WE WILL SEE YOU IN CHURCH!
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This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – June 7, 2024
Good morning, good morning, my brothers and my sisters. Facebook started me out muted. Maybe they’re trying to tell me something. Who knows? Welcome to Turning on the Lights. Welcome to the Church Town Church of God. You’re looking at a side view of my office if you’re listening on the podcast. Thank you. If you’re listening on Apple, rate and review. If you’re listening on Spotify, subscribe. Let us know what you think. But there it is. I’m going to be cooling it down here today because there is a Randy Simpson concert tonight. We were singing in here last night. It’s fairly cool. I cooled it down a little bit. I’m going to cool it down tonight for the Randy Simpson concert. I won’t be there because I’m taking my grandson to Williams Grove. He is going to be well, my daughter, son in law and myself are taking my grandson to Williams Grove for his first racing experience. There’s the altar. There’s the lights that we talk about when we talk about, you know, turning on the lights. And I’ll be with you in just a minute. We’re going to talk about wisdom this morning. We’ve been kind of all over the place. Turn that on. Turn that on. There we go. Oh, father, we do pray that your word will shine forth today and touch the hearts and minds of those who believe and do not yet believe in Jesus name. We pray the power of your Holy Spirit will emanate throughout this world. Amen. So here we are. If you’re going to follow along in your Bibles, there’s the sanctuary. Oh, no. I dropped my tripod. Hold on. I know it’s like an earthquake right now for you guys. Let’s get you on here. Get you stabilized. There you go. Amen. Indeed. If you’re following along at home, we’re going to be taking a look at Job 28. Proverbs three. What do they have in common? Let’s find out, shall we? Let’s go to the Old Testament and talk about a little bit of wisdom. Job 28, Proverbs three. Now, I did not prepare my Bible, so I’m going to have to be talking to you while we do this, because I was just thinking about things this morning as I was doing my morning reading. And Job talks about wisdom. Now, you know, Job, Job. There are some things in Job that are just some of my favorite things like, is it 23 where he says, hold on, seriously. Just take a moment and listen to me. Then you can go back to mocking me. And my goodness, like as a teacher and as a pastor, you feel like that all the time. Hold on. I’ve got something serious to say. Listen to me. Hear what I say. Then you can go on mocking me. And I thought, man, that’s like my teaching career perfectly. He has some great sayings. 25. Job 25 is hilarious. All right. All right. Hold on here. Hold on here. Hold on here. Well, we’re going to go to Job 28. I swear we’ll get there. And Proverbs three. All right. Where are you, Job? Go to Isaiah. There’s Proverbs three. We got Proverbs three. I know. Well prepared. Well oiled machine. Well, you know, I went and I got my grandkids last evening. And we were playing and having a good old time. So now you know what? I didn’t really prepare all that great for this morning. And it kind of came to me because as we were there’s Job. Let me read Job 25. First of all, this is great. Like if you’ve never read this, 25 is one of the shortest verses in the Bible. Then build that the shoe. I replied, God is powerful and dreadful. He enforces peace in the heavens. Who is able to count his heavenly army? Doesn’t his light shine on all the earth? How can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone born of a woman be pure? God is more glorious than the moon. He shines brighter than the stars. In comparison, people are maggots. We mortals are mere worms. Now that has some theological implications. Did you catch? How can a person born of a woman be pure? OK, we learn that later. We learn that later. And this is a constant theme of Orthodox Christian preaching that Jesus is born of a woman. One hundred percent human. So there there is that. Good morning, everybody. But then there’s always there’s always stuff in Job that just cracks me up. Just cracks me up. So Job 28. He’s on. He’s not on a roll here. Job speaks of wisdom and understanding. Let’s move along to verse 12. But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding? No one knows where to find it, for it is not found among the living. It is not here, says the ocean, nor is it here, says the sea. It cannot be bought with gold. It cannot be purchased with silver. It’s worth more than all the gold of Orphur, greater than precious onyx or lapses lazuli. And I don’t know what lapses lazuli or lazuli is, but it’s mentioned throughout the Old Testament several times. I think it sounds cool. Wisdom is more valuable than gold and crystal. It cannot be purchased with jewels mounted in fine gold. Coral and jasper are worthless in trying to get it. The price of wisdom is far above rubies. Precious peridot from Ethiopia cannot be exchanged for it, for it’s worth more than purest gold. But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all humanity. Even the sharp eyed birds in the sky cannot discover it. Destruction and death say, we’ve heard only rumors of where wisdom can be found. There you go. Now, Joe, in general, will paint a rather bleak picture of human beings. He is in the middle of his suffering. His frenemies are trying to speak wisdom into his life as they know it. At that time, you must have sinned. And you’re being arrogant and haughty and saying that you haven’t sinned. Well, we know that he hasn’t sinned because in the beginning of the book, God says, how about my righteous servant, Joe? We know that he is a righteous man. Now, does that mean he’s never sinned? Let’s set that aside. That would be a Jesus Christ issue, a Messiah issue. But we know that he’s a righteous man. He’s done everything right before the eyes of God. We know that he’s going to blow this theory out of the water, this theology out of the water, that God only punishes those who commit sin and have sin hidden sin in their lives. This is part of what Job is all about. Because God comes in at the end and says, I’m sovereign. And he looks at the frame. You guys be quiet, Job. You be quiet. I’m going to speak and I’m going to tell you the way it is. But in the meantime, Job goes through long diatribes. As do his friends about the plight of humanity, the plight of man. And one of these things is certainly man is of a mortal body. And this body will die. There’s no escaping that. But man also in this spiritual sense, in this intellectual sense. How do we even do that? Where can wisdom be found on this earth? Where can wisdom be found for the average person? And he uses a lot of anthropomorphic type stuff. The oceans and the seas and the mountains and the rocks. No, they don’t know. They can’t. You can’t find it there. And they don’t know where it is. So where do we find it? He says it can’t be found on the earth. It can’t be found by mortal man. It can’t be found in your own strength. It can’t be found wherever you may go to feel. You know, this whole thing where they’re like, I don’t need to go to church, man. I can go to the top of a mountain. I just feel the presence of God. OK, great. And that’s fine every once in a while. I know, right? I do the same as well from time to time, usually during the weekdays, because I’m busy on Sundays. But it’s sort of that that feeling like. I can do this on my own. I will seek wisdom in the quiet moments. I will find good morning. I will find wisdom where wherever I can find it. I will. I know this and I know that and I don’t need God and I don’t need his word because I can look around. And I’m so intellectually superior to nature and to most human beings that I can discern wisdom. And Job is theologically shooting holes in that, saying you can’t. And we see in the process of the conversation with his frenemies that that’s true. They’re speaking their truth as they know it. Good morning. This is what they understand about God. And they know that they are true. But they are right. But they are wrong. And go and Job knows that he what he is saying is true. And in in part it is because we know that Job is a righteous man. But now he starts. He goes over the deep end, talking and challenging God and saying, I want to have a conversation with God. Put me on trial, guy. All these different things. And that’s when God says, OK, this has gone far enough. So the wisdom of all of these people is their own wisdom. And Job, you know, by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we learn like Job’s like, where is wisdom? You can’t find it anywhere. But verse twenty three of Job twenty eight, God alone understands the way to wisdom. Boom. And I love these nuggets that we have. Like you say, you have the general and I preached on Job a little while ago. And you have these big narratives throughout Job, the big teachings that God wants to get across it. But throughout it, you find these elements of Orthodox faith that are there and being brought forth in God’s word by God himself to keep us grounded. The story doesn’t go off into the weeds and this one does, and God has to bring it back at the end. With two or three chapters of like sovereignty slapped down. But here we hear truth. And Job is speaking truth. God alone understands the way to wisdom. He knows where it can be found. For he looks throughout the whole earth and sees everything under the heavens. He decided how hard the winds should blow and how much the rain should fall. He made the laws for the rain and laid out a path for the lightning. Then he saw wisdom and evaluated it. He set it in place and examined it thoroughly. And this is what he says to all humanity. The fear of the Lord is true wisdom. To forsake evil is real understanding. Where do we hear that? We hear that in Psalms. We hear that throughout the Old Testament prophets. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding. It’s the beginning of wisdom. Why? Because the only wise one is God. If you seek wisdom, much like we seek the peace of God’s Holy Spirit, much like we seek the love of God, much like we seek the joy that permeates our hearts, regardless of circumstances. We seek wisdom that supersedes the wisdom of man. We seek wisdom that is in accordance with God’s will. So that his disciples will live according to his plan and his kingdom will grow according to his plan. Now, all of these things are going on around us. We see and you know, this is not. But when you look at the institutions of higher learning in the United States of America and you watch how they’re being taught. And you see the results of the highest levels of wisdom. If you’re listening, I’m doing air quotes. The way we see the highest level, the results of the highest levels of the wisdom of man with the most ignorant young people who have no clue what they’re doing, what they’re protesting, what they’re saying. And there is no grounding or understanding of history, historical context, let alone the even defining the terms of modern conflict and what they’re protesting modern. And right now we see the product of human wisdom all around us when we see the detrimental uses of technology, when we see the weaponization of artificial intelligence, when we see all of these great accomplishments of man that do what really serve man. Now, only when we are living in God’s will, will we understand how to serve him and serve one another. God alone holds the keys to wisdom because God is wisdom. If you want wisdom in your life, if you want that understanding that goes beyond learning, if you want that understanding that goes beyond intellect, then we seek God’s will. Now, like I said, the enemy would have us believe that you can go out and be encyclopedic in your knowledge, and that is wisdom. And that’s a lie. The enemy would have us believe that you can go to the quote unquote greatest institutions of higher learning in America and find wisdom, and that is a lie. What you can do throughout the course of your life and what you can do in high school, college, trade, whatever you’re doing in life is learn things. Yes. Do you want to know how those things can be applied for the good of humanity? Do you want to know how those things can be applied to the glory of God? Do you want to know how those things can be applied to the glory of God, to the edification of self, to the building of home and family, and for the betterment of humanity? Don’t decide for yourself. Seek God. Seek his will through Jesus Christ. Repent. Believe. Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit. And pray on your knees for wisdom, regardless. It could be wisdom in your life, in your job, in your relationships. Every aspect of your life is covered by the wisdom of God. And it’s important to understand that because there is a separation. You know how we talk about those attributes, the big attributes that we receive, the big gifts that we receive, if you will. Joy, love, peace, wisdom. They are different, like the world has their definitions of all of those things. And then there is God’s definition of them. There is the indwelling of this gift of joy and peace and love and wisdom and hope. You want to go all adventy? And those are God’s definitions, and sometimes that definition is evolving in God’s will. But what is your hope for this life? What is your peace? Who is your peace? Who is your joy? What is this sense of joy that is beyond all of your circumstances? Even in the gravest of circumstances, you have this joy. That indwells you and motivates you and brings you peace. And that’s not of the world, people. You can’t get that in college. You can’t go buy that. You can’t earn that in any way. It is a gift of God’s Holy Spirit. And that’s where people, you know, Christians take this for granted at times. OK, a lot. And those who are not Christians don’t understand. Why are you still hopeful? Have you not watched the news? Well, because God is sovereign. Have you not read Job? God is sovereign. His history, according to his will, is being worked out according to his plan. I have faith in that. And my hope is not in any political institution or anything that man can do or anything that man can build or any technology that is out there. My hope is in the Lord. I stand on his promises. And nonbelievers go, OK, I’m going to go out there and be all stressed out and worried over things and trying to fight for change. Well, as a Christian, I’m going to educate myself and do my civic duty and all of those things as well. But be stressed out and worried over it. I’m not. I’m going to do what I’m called to do. So there’s Joe and he sets us up. He says, wisdom can’t be found anywhere in the world. Where can it be found in God? And he’s kind of taking this as a shock to his friends because his friends are trying to share their wisdom with him. And he’s like, oh, you’re so smart. You think you’re so smart, but you’re not because wisdom can’t be found here on this earth. Wisdom can only be found in God. And if anybody is again, according to the for the purposes of the story, there’s a lot it’s a lot more nuance than this. But for the purpose of the story, if any one of these characters is closer to God, it’s job. God has said himself, how about my righteous servant, Joe? Try to go get him. So we know that Job does things right in the eyes of the Lord. Cool stuff, right? Do we not know that? Check this out. Proverbs three. Now, this is wonderful because we wisdom is personified in Proverbs. And oftentimes we equate it with the spirit of the Lord. We equate it with the word of the Lord, the law. Goss, we equate it with Jesus Christ. And I think that it’s a little bit nebulous in terms of this personification. But we know in general, what is being presented is that wisdom is of the Lord. If you want to seek wisdom, seek the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So there’s your general statement that is true for all of the faithful. And so Proverbs one through five, you read that and you read this narrative, right? It’s not the funky little couplets of Proverbs that you get this narrative about wisdom. What wisdom is, who wisdom is, how we seek wisdom, what are the results of having wisdom? What are the results of not having wisdom? And you’re going to hear some of the same thing. My child, this is this father son interaction. Never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. If you do this, you will live many years and your life will be satisfying. Never let loyalty and kindness leave you. Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people. And you will learn a good reputation. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will and all you do. And he will show you with which path to take. We hear that in the Old Testament as well. Again, more of the same. All throughout the Old Testament, right into the New Testament, when Jesus is asked, what are you know, what are the what is the what is the primary commandment? And he says, seek the Lord God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. Right? Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the all of the law and the prophets are wrapped up in this. These commandments. And we see this throughout. Nothing happens in the Old Testament, even through the sacrificial system, without seeking the Lord first. You can go to the temple with your animal sacrifices and your heart is far from the Lord and go through the sacrifices. And they mean nothing. And there are several cases throughout the Old Testament where the Lord says, I don’t seek those sacrifices. First and foremost, I seek the sacrifice of your heart to me. Now, through this physical act, I am willing to make you right with me. He seeks a broken and contrite heart, we learn. He seeks to turn heart of stone into heart of flesh. He commands us to seek him first in all we do. And do not lean on our own understanding. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body, strength for your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain and your vats overflow with good wine. My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline. Don’t be upset when the Lord corrects you. For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as the Father corrects a child in whom he delights. Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. For wisdom is more profitable than silver and her wages are better than gold. Wisdom is more precious than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare with her. She offers you long life in her right hand and riches and honor in her left. She will guide you down delightful paths. All her ways are satisfying. Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her. Happier are those who hold her tightly. By wisdom, the Lord founded the earth. By understanding, he created the heavens. By his knowledge, the deep fountains of the earth burst forth and the dew settles beneath the night sky. My child, don’t lose sight of common sense and discernment. Hang on to them. Okay, so first of all, let’s get the piece of all of the promises of wealth and riches and all of that out of the way. The wisdom literature of scripture is meant to be taken as a whole. We have Ecclesiastes, we have Job, we have Proverbs. And we take them as a whole. What Proverbs teaches is that the joy of the Lord is eminent in all that we do when we see him first. So you can take all of those promises and wrap them under that umbrella. Just like in Ecclesiastes, we learn being far from the Lord or even being with the Lord, yet being far in him, far from him in our heart leads to all of these horrific feelings and these horrific things. We take this as a whole and we learn what? That we should seek the Lord first and that we should be very intentional in our relationship with him. Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Job, Proverbs all talk about these aspects of either being close to the Lord or far from the Lord. So there’s wisdom literature. You can’t just take a proverb and say, hey, this is a promise. No, it’s a proverb. And there’s a difference. Right. And it all is contingent, as all the scripture is contingent upon being in a right relationship with God. But we hear again that wisdom comes from the Lord, that it cannot be found in our own human understanding. It cannot be found in our intellect. It cannot be found in nature. We can learn all the things that we want to learn. We can go to actual good colleges and have incredible educations and understandings of history and all of those things. But we will not be wise. Until all of those things that we know and all of those things that we can do are laid at the feet. Of God. That is what is important. That is wisdom we will receive. From God purposes for all of those things that we know, all of those things that we can do. Good morning. We will receive. Right. Is this the new one today’s? I guess it’s Friday, June 7th, 2024. We’re live and we’re getting ready to be un-live, not un-alive. We don’t want to do that today. But we’re finishing up here. And we’ve been, like I said, I’ve taken an opportunity. Tuesday, we talked about discernment and good and evil and discernment in the Church Town Weekly. I talked about marriage. Today, we’re talking about wisdom. You should have. I tag you every time. Because these are things that have been on my mind, I have not been of a consistent mindset. I think that taking those couple of weeks off has allowed me. To go off on this rabbit trail and that rabbit trail and read different things and and think about different things. And because sometimes as a pastor, those Sundays, they just keep pounding away. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And you are you actually receive tunnel vision even in scripture. And I feel as though I’ve been released from that. And it’s a wonderful feeling. And we have the grounding as we as we continue in First John. Here in church, down in First John for this Sunday. But yet I have been here, there and everywhere in my readings over the past couple of weeks. So I hope that that does. There is understanding there in terms of the differentiation between understanding knowledge, intellect and wisdom. And the enemy would like us to conflate the two. Oh, wow. You have you know, you’ve been seven degrees and you learned all these things or you are incredible with technology and all these things that you know and all these things that you can do. Oh, you are so wise. No, you’re not. Unless all that you know and all that you can do is laid at the feet of Jesus. Through your repentance and your salvation, the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit, you will use those things, do those things, think those things wisely because they will be in accordance with his will. That’s the message of today. And we see it in Job. Job 28. We see it all through the beginning of Proverbs. And I would encourage you to read the first few chapters of Proverbs. And we see the same message. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. And what does that mean? It means wisdom begins with the Lord. Wisdom begins with the understanding that our salvation is dependent upon the grace of God. And that is available because of the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Repent. Turn to God. Believe in the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Receive God’s Holy Spirit. You will see the world in a completely different way. Selfishness will be replaced with self-awareness as a disciple of Christ in this world. Father, we pray that your word will penetrate hearts and minds this morning. Lord, we love you. We turn to you for all things physical, all things intellectual, all things, of course, spiritual. We turn to you for our love, our sense of love and how we love. We turn to you for the peace that surpasses all human understanding. We turn to you for the hope that we carry in our hearts, regardless of the circumstances of our lives or the circumstances of the world. Lord, we turn to you for wisdom. Use us as you will, according to the gifts that you have given us. The abilities that we have, they are yours, Lord. In Jesus name, they are yours. Amen. God bless you guys. The Holy Spirit, indeed. That’s the only way. Holy Spirit, indeed. That’s the only way they are yours. Lord, use them for the power of your Holy Spirit. Show me your will, your purpose. All things. All things. Not just all your Christian-y things, all things, who you are, what you do, what you know, everything. You’ll bear the Lord’s. Give him over. Make yourself a living sacrifice unto the Lord. Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Amen. Hey, guys, we will see you in church Sunday morning. The new song singers are singing. Woo hoo. We got songs. They sound good. We’re in first. If I say first, James. Thank you. First, John chapter four. We’re going to be talking about love and unity. Oh, it’s going to be touchy feely. We’ll all be up giving group hugs. Now we want to be doing that. But you’re going to hear some of the same stuff because all of the things that are talked spoken about in John four, much like first Corinthians thirteen are impossible to achieve as an individual or a group without. The power of God’s Holy Spirit. So, as always, on Friday, what I’m going to say next is to see you in church.
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