I want to ask a question. A very obvious question. It's one of those questions where I totally already know the answer to this question. Not because I'm smart, but because it's a question that is obvious. But sometimes you have to ask the obvious questions. Have you ever had a didn't see that coming moment in life? Right? Some of us are thinking, yeah, the last 10 years or so. But no, have you ever had a moment in life where something happened and you were like, wow, I I envisioned a lot of things, but I did not envision that. I did not see that happening. I had one of those a few years ago in 2013. I was on the high school road trip. Every summer we take this amazing road trip with our high school students. It's awesome. And until you've experienced what it's like to be you know hours away from home with a hundred plus high schoolers in your care, that's that's a just a unique experience. We always have an amazing time. And in 2013, we we did a lot of great stuff. We had this optional hike in the Smoky Mountains. It was optional. So about half of our students went. They had to get up early. We drove into the Smoky Mountain National Park. It's kind of a slow drive, and we we parked the car. The way this hike worked is you actually had to hike about 1.5 miles downhill, which is pretty easy. And then you're in this place with beautiful views. And we all went down there to spend some time with God and just God's creation. It was awesome. But then after the hike was was done, or at least once we were done enjoying the views, you had to hike 1.5 miles back uphill to where we parked. And 1.5 miles does not sound like a lot, but if it's uphill the entire time, it feels like a lot more than 1.5 miles. And so we we go there, we park, we we take the hike downhill, we arrive, and it is a beautiful place. It was a little foggy, but it was beautiful, and we're all hanging out with God, we're reading our Bibles, we're praying just in this gorgeous, gorgeous setting. And then we took this big group picture. I have that picture right now. This is 2013, it's a bunch of our high school kids on this hike. And this picture is awesome. But what happened about 20 seconds after this picture was taken, I could not, for the life of me, have seen coming. It was something awful that it was completely my fault. And I'll never forget about it, mainly because there's people in my life that will never let me forget about it, like ever. So, a few things you need to know. There is a young man in this picture named Logan Wilbanks. That's Logan. Right there. Logan is uh is now one of our college interns, so Logan's still here. It's good to know. I've known Logan since he was probably in the fourth or fifth grade. There's someone you cannot see in this picture. It's Nathan Fowler, who leads our worship team. Nathan was just standing right here. That's because Nathan was the one taking this picture. Nathan is an incredible photographer, and actually, before he was on staff here, he worked as a photographer. And so Nathan's taking the picture, picture's done, we're all having a good time. And I thought, because I have to fight to be a mature adult, I thought it would be fun to have some fun at Nathan's expense. And so when you know someone really well, you learn little things about them, like little things that they cannot stand. Nathan and I have been friends for 10 years. I know a lot about Nathan. I know that Nathan cannot stand to have his personal space invaded. So if you were to like tickle Nathan, okay, his reaction, like if you tickle someone, it's kind of a weird thing to do when you think about it, but let's say you did. You know, someone's reaction on a scale of one to ten in terms of how bothered they are by that should probably be like a four. Like, why are you stop touching me? That's really annoying. What are we, five? That should be the reaction. Nathan, it would be like a it'd be like a 15. I mean, it would break through whatever scale you're using to measure it. Nathan cannot stand it. So the picture gets taken. Now all we have to do is wrap up and go back up the mountain to where we parked. And I said, hey guys, you know what Nathan loves? Nathan loves to get tickled. He loves it. And what I saw happening in my mind was Nathan being like, no, no, guys, no, no, please don't. And a few kids like running up and tickling him, him being like, ah, stop. And uh, that's what I thought would happen. That's not what happened. As soon as I say that, Nathan, camera still in hand, he's got this really expensive, nice camera. He just he bolts. He just runs. I mean, we're we're we're on this giant mountaintop, okay? We're not on a road, not anything like that. Nathan just takes off running through the thicket, all these weeds and plants, he's just gone. And ninth grade boys, at the time Logan was a ninth grader, or at least finishing ninth grade, they're kind of like they're kind of like dogs with cars. Instinct just takes over. And so as soon as Nathan bolts, all these ninth grade boys just run after him as fast as they can. And I'm just watching all this unfold. And actually, I have to say, uh, Nathan is a nimble, nimble person. Like, some of us are gonna watch a football game today. You will not see a juke or some type of incredible move that a running back will perform today better than what Nathan was doing as he dodged these ninth grade kids. It was, I mean, it was spectacular. I'm watching Nathan just sidestep and spin out of the way all the while holding this really expensive camera, which is making me so nervous because I'm like, oh, he's gonna break his camera and he's gonna blame me for it. And then I see Logan Wilbanks running full speed, and I see him get airborne, head first, and then I see him collide with Nathan. And he collided with Nathan's lower body, which is really obvious because Nathan's lower body flung into the air. And so you just saw Nathan's legs fly in the air and spin, and then they just disappeared in these bushes. And I ran up to Nathan, and the first thing I said was, Nathan, is your camera okay? Like that was the first thing that came to my mind. And Nathan's just groaning and he's holding his knee. And Logan sits up, and I'm not a doctor or anything near that. I did not even sleep at a Holiday Express last night. So I don't I don't know anything about medicine. I cannot tell, I cannot tell if someone has a concussion or not. But I could tell in that moment that that this kid was not right in the head. Like his head collided with Nathan's knee. It was the back of his head. And he sits up and he he's not all there. And for a few seconds we're trying to like get his attention, and he's sort of responding, and his pupils are doing all sorts of funky stuff. And keep in mind we still have to walk 1.5 miles uphill to get to the cars that we have, so we can go get these guys some medical attention of some kind. And so here we are, we're walking up this hike, and Nathan's having guys help him because he can't put any weight on his knee, and Logan is just like in a daze. And, you know, again, I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure if you have a concussion, you shouldn't go take a jog. That's not what you should be doing. You definitely don't need to exert yourself, but we have to get back up the mountain. So Logan's just walking, and it's it's a nightmare. I mean it's an it's a nightmare. We finally get to the cars and and we we drove, and Logan went to the hospital. He did have a concussion. Nathan was hurt, and it all happened because I said, hey guys, you know what Nathan loves? There is no way I could have seen that coming. It was it was a terrible, terrible experience. I had to call Logan's parents. That was fun. And I had to call Steve, who who was leading the church at that time back in 2013 in the summer, and say, hey Steve, here's what happened. I just want to let you know that Logan went to the hospital. He's okay. Nathan, I think he's okay. Uh and Steve, I'll never forget. Steve said, Oh man, you probably didn't know how much Nathan hates to be tickled. And I said, No. I did. I did know that. And then six months later, I was leading this church. So, I mean, you know what he knew? Another thing that I could never have seen coming. Did not see that coming either, but that's just that's life. Here we are at the start of a year. We were fresh into 2017. And one thing is absolutely certain: there will be things that happen to us and around us this year that we cannot see coming. That's why the book of James in chapter 4 says, Don't get too caught up with your plans. I'm paraphrasing, but he basically says, don't get too bought into your five-year plan because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. You never know what's going to happen. And I'm not saying that to bring us down, I'm not saying that to discourage anyone here because we don't know what's going to happen, but we do know someone who does. See, we have God. And nothing catches God by surprise. There's never been a didn't see that coming moment from God's perspective. And sometimes when we really sit and think about how unpredictable life really is, I mean its unpredictability is actually really predictable. When we think about that, it can actually cause us some anxiety. We can actually get gripped by fear, realizing all the things that could happen, all the things that maybe could go wrong, but we're not supposed to live afraid. The Bible says that perfect love makes fear go away. Perfect love casts out all fear. And so when we have the love of Jesus in our lives, we are not meant to live afraid. We're not supposed to be people who live going, oh, I hope this never happens to me, and oh, what if this happens, and what if what if this goes wrong? And what if I don't know what I would even do. We're supposed to live knowing that no matter what happens, God is with us. And he's faithful. Just like we sang this morning, he's faithful to the end. One thing is certain, though, we we cannot see what's around the corner. We're starting our year in a series called a year of real. What we want is to experience all the real things that God has for us. Because only God has the authority and the power to give us what we really need. We need real love. We need real purpose. That's what we talked about last week. We need real peace and real hope, real joy. We need the real version of all the counterfeit things this world is trying to sell us left and right. And there's this one real thing that God gives to us. This one real thing that He has for us that just so happens to compensate for every didn't see that coming scenario that we could possibly face, and it's wisdom. So this morning I'd like to talk a little bit about real wisdom. The fact that God has it, the fact that we can live with it. Now, I'm not surprised by the fact that when I said wisdom, no one stood up and cheered. Because wisdom is actually really under celebrated in culture. When you think about it, talent is celebrated so much more than wisdom, right? If someone's incredibly talented, we will applaud that, we will celebrate that. But how often do you see someone throw away their talent? Because they lack wisdom. Every year there'll be some high-profile athlete or actor or actress or musician or some person with incredible talent, the kind of talent that we would look at and go, that's obvious talent, and they will just derail all of their success. Derail what should be years of promise and accomplishment. Because they lack wisdom. Because they put themselves in scenarios that no person with just a shred of wisdom would be in. We tend to value wisdom more than more than money itself, but listen to what Proverbs chapter 3 says about wisdom. 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. I think it's appropriate to stop and recognize that in this illustration, wisdom is a woman. Just saying. Okay. 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. Happy are those who hold her tightly. The Bible says that wisdom is more valuable than silver, gold, rubies, you name it. And it is so funny because that is so painfully true, but yet we live in a world that tries to skip wisdom in order to get more financially. See, if I if I gave an unwise person a million dollars and a wise person ten thousand dollars and then checked in five years later, there's no question who would be better off. Wisdom, real wisdom, is unbelievably valuable because see, here's what happens when you have real wisdom. When you have real wisdom, it does not matter what what if scenarios occur, you're ready for them. When you have real wisdom in your life, it doesn't matter that you can't see it all coming because when it comes and it will come, but when it comes, you are prepared to handle it. And let's stop for a second and realize and appreciate the fact that we have a God who loves us so much as his children that he wants us to be prepared. He loves you and he wants your year to succeed. Now, success might be measured differently in his eyes than the world measures it, but he wants your year to succeed. He wants you to be fulfilled, he wants you to have joy, and he knows that things will happen that you cannot see happen, and he wants you to be prepared for that. And so he offers you real wisdom. A kind of wisdom that, frankly, our world does not know apart from God. I'm not saying there aren't wise people in our world. There are. I'm not saying that there aren't people who don't know God that don't have wisdom. I'm not saying that that at all. I've known so many incredibly wise people who don't even believe in God. But and I'm not being judgmental, I'm not trying to cast stones or anything like that. I'm just saying it's a different kind of wisdom. It's a wisdom that that's just missing something, it's incomplete. Real wisdom, the wisdom God gives us, it's complete wisdom. It's it's perfect wisdom. In fact, that word perfect in the Bible, it actually means complete. If you ever read the New Testament and you read something that tells you that God wants your faith to be perfect, you might read that and go, oh my gosh, perfect faith. I can't be perfect because in our in our minds, perfect means flawless, but that word does not mean flawless. It means mature, it means complete. So when the Bible says God wants you to have perfect faith, it means he wants you to have a complete faith. He wants you to be whole. He wants us to have perfect wisdom. Complete wisdom. That's what real wisdom is. In fact, it's really interesting if we look at Colossians chapter 2. It's this letter that Paul wrote to this church, and he's writing about his heart for that church and for some other churches in the area. He says, I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding. It's it's appropriate to pause real quick and recognize that as a church, we are knit together in love. That is what binds us together. We love. We are loved by God and we love one another. But when we gather together to worship God, we also want to grow in understanding. That's why this gathering is so important every single week. We want to grow in that full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery. That is Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now, there's three words that pop up in that set of verses that we almost would look at as redundant. We saw the word understanding, we saw the word wisdom, we saw the word knowledge. And to us, those are almost interchangeable words. That's kind of how our language is. We have a language that's pretty broad. So when I say I love something, I can mean very different things depending on what I'm talking about. Like I love my daughter. My daughter turns three in just a couple weeks, and uh I love my daughter, I love all my kids. I got two boys and a girl, and I'll just say this: I would die for my boys. I would kill for my daughter. You know? Not really, but kind of really. Like the I the idea of murder made no sense to me until I had a daughter, and I'm like, oh yeah, I could kill somebody. Yeah. I can imagine scenarios. She just she has my heart in such a different way. Our babies don't have much hair. I don't know what it is about our genes that combine. Hair is not, you know, part of the equation. Our son Judah has way more hair than either of our other kids had, and he doesn't have very much hair. Lily was born bald. I mean, like like someone had polished her head bald. And uh, and about a year in, there wasn't much, there wasn't much more than that, and she's about to turn three, and her hair is just now long enough that you can make like a little ponytail out of it. Just now long enough. Usually her hair is just crazy. She kind of looks like Doc Brown in uh in the Back to the Future movie. She has this really white blonde hair, and it's just all over the place all the time, and that kind of fits her personality. But then every once in a while now, Megan will dress her up and she'll have her hair in a ponytail, and she looks, she looks older when she does that. And I just get these little visions of her as a teenager and and a young adult, and I just I melt. I love her. I also love buffalo wings, like I mentioned earlier. You know? And I love my daughter and buffalo wings in very different ways. I don't mean the same thing when I say that I love those two things. That would be very odd. If you walked in the room and I was pouring blue cheese on my daughter, that'd be strange. That'd be really weird. Again, I would not be pouring ranch because ranch is garbage. Blue cheese, people. If you're gonna eat, if you eat wings today, who's gonna eat wings today? Anybody? Blue cheese. Blue cheese. No, someone said ranch, you're wrong. Ranch is just blue cheese without cheese. That's all it is. That's all it is. Missing an ingredient. Okay, let's move on to something important. So I I I love my daughter. I I use that word very loosely. Love. I use it to describe all kinds of things. It's kind of how our language is. It's the same with wisdom. And we look at words like wisdom and knowledge, understanding, and to us they're they're redundant. They're the same thing. I could say, hey, that person's really smart, that person's really wise, that person's really knowledgeable, that person's very insightful, understanding, whatever. And for us, it kind of all means the same thing. But when when Paul wrote this in the original language, those words meant very specific things. So, for example, in verse 2, it mentions the full assurance of understanding. And that word understanding in the original language that Paul wrote in was a Greek word sunesis. Sunesis means critical wisdom. It's the kind of wisdom you're gonna use when you have to make a big decision in life, potentially a life-altering decision. I think we've all been in places in life where you know something happens, we've got a big decision we've got to make, maybe we weren't prepared, and we sort of freeze. The weight of that decision is something that we feel and we don't know what to do. We start thinking, oh my goodness, I don't know how I can make this decision because making this decision could change everything for my life, and it's very easy in those situations to get paralyzed. When we're in situations like that, we need sunesis, we need critical wisdom, the ability to recognize the right call in a very, very important moment. Later in verse 3, we see two words, wisdom and knowledge. That word wisdom in the Greek is the word Sophia, and we could call Sophia deep wisdom. It's a wisdom not just of the things of this world, but also the things of God. It's a spiritual wisdom. It helps you understand not only what is happening around you, but maybe what God is doing. And that is so key because God's ways are just different. And sometimes things make a lot of sense to our brain. But if they don't line up with our spirit, we know something's off. And that's a wisdom that we grow in. And then there's that word knowledge. That that word is a Greek word gnosis, and that means practical wisdom. That's the kind of wisdom you employ in your day-to-day life. That's how you get to work on time. I'm sure we all get to work on time. That's how that's how you get through your day with relative success. You employ practical wisdom. And notice that God wants us to have all three, and he doesn't elevate one above the other. He wants your life to be full of critical wisdom. When you encounter hard situations, big decisions, he does not want you to be paralyzed. He wants you to have the wisdom you need to navigate that. And when you're stuck in it and you're trying to figure out what God is doing, what God is up to, maybe what God has for you, God wants you to have that deep wisdom that allows you to discern what to do. That allows you to recognize what God is doing. And he wants you to have that practical wisdom. He wants you to be able to go about your day and know what to do in the normal situations of life. All three of those are vital in God's eyes. He wants our lives to be full of practical wisdom, critical wisdom, and deep wisdom. He wants all of that for you. And it's not until we have all of that kind of wisdom, it's not until we can have that critical wisdom, that practical wisdom, and that deep wisdom that we have real wisdom. Complete wisdom. You can think of those like filters. You know, filters sort of process things. And when you when you have all the right filters in place, your decisions, your thoughts, your ideas, they come out right. Because the filters are right. But you take one of those filters out and you're left with an incomplete thought, an incomplete idea, and an incomplete decision. And truth be told, that's one of the reasons that we see the world struggle so much, is because oftentimes the people who are in leadership, the people making the most important decisions, they're missing filters. They're just missing filters. But God wants us to be complete. How do we get that? How do we actually have that complete wisdom in our lives so that no matter what happens, we're ready, so that no matter what what kind of scenarios we walk into this year, we know what to do. We have that critical wisdom, that deep wisdom, that practical wisdom. How do we get that? I want to walk us through three really easy, really simple actions. I want us to walk out of this room this morning equipped. I want us to be prepared. I want to be prepared for whatever's going to come. So I want to offer you three actions this morning that will help you grow in complete real wisdom, the kind of wisdom that God has. Number one, ask. You ever miss out on something because you just failed to ask? I haven't told the story in a long time, and I didn't even think about it until just now. But when I was in high school or maybe late junior high, my family took me and my little brother out to eat, which was not an uncommon experience. We were just going somewhere someday, I don't even know why we were out, but we went to Red Lobster. Cheddar biscuits.

Right?

Am I right? Cheddar biscuits. These things are amazing. Bravo indeed. So we go to Red Lobster, and you know, the menus are handed out, and we're all we're all placing our orders. And I was old enough to recognize that, hey, okay, money doesn't grow on trees, so I should probably order something that I want, but you know, within reason. Something in the the $8 to $10 range, right? And so my dad orders, my mom orders, and then I order, and then my brother orders lobster fest. Okay. And you don't even have to have been to Red Lobster to get that lobster fest is probably not like $10. And if it is $10, something's wrong with those lobsters. So he he was only, I mean, he's probably fifth grade at the time. He's six years younger than me. So here's this fifth-grade kid, and he orders lobster fest, which was $39.99. And my dad said, Okay. And I was so mad. I was so mad. I mean, I look back on that situation. I'm like, how on the world? They should have said no. No. And then he got it and he wouldn't share it. Like I said, hey, can I have somebody's like, no, you didn't order this. And he was he was right. And I can look back and I can be mad at my brother for having the audacity to order lobster fest. I can look back at my dad and be like, what teachable moment, dad? Tell him no. Teach him how to make wise decisions. But actually, I look back, I'm mad at myself because I could have ordered lobster fest. I just didn't ask for it. Can't be mad at anyone but me. I don't think my dad would have said yes to me, but either way. Sometimes we miss out on what we really need just because we don't ask. In fact, Jesus talked about that. He said, sometimes you have not because you ask not, and it's that simple. So take that and apply it to wisdom. Look at James chapter 1, verse 5. James says, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God and He will give it to you. That's a very, very clear statement. There's no clause there. It doesn't say, ask God, He'll give it to you, unless He's mad at you. Or unless you haven't had a great few months, and then you know He'll see. It just says it definitively. If you lack wisdom, if you need wisdom, do you need wisdom? Does anyone need wisdom? Hello? Yes, okay, good, you're awake. If you need wisdom, ask God. Go to the source of wisdom. Because He is the source of wisdom. Proverbs 2, 6 says this that from God's mouth comes all wisdom. The Lord grants wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Wisdom comes from God, so if you need wisdom, go to God. Ask him. Pray. Make this a daily practice in your life. Just pray for wisdom. God, give me wisdom. Help me. You're going to work and you have a big deal that you need to close, or there's a tough meeting you're about to have, maybe with your employer or someone else that you work with. Say, God, I need wisdom. Help me know what to say. Help me know what not to say. Whatever situation you're in in life, just ask God. And he promises to give you wisdom. It's always a good idea to take God at His word. And when He tells you to do something and promises to back it up, take Him up on that every time. Number two, use the tools that God has given you. I love the Bible. I love it a lot. Because I've never encountered a situation in my life that the Bible does not speak to. It has never happened. I find myself in uncharted waters all the time, and yet no matter what situation I'm in, the Bible has something to say about it. One of the greatest lies of religion is that you cannot approach the Bible. It's too heady for you. You don't get it. You're never going to understand it. No, no, no. The Bible is so valuable. It is so practical. And if you've ever struggled getting into the Bible and having a difficult time grasping what you're reading or knowing where to start, let me just share a resource with you real quick. Go to a website later called the Bibleproject.com. Incredible website, incredible tool for just diving into God's word and understanding it. Awesome. Okay? But the Bible speaks to practically every scenario you can think of in life, and it will give you the wisdom you need. It will help you in an unbelievable way. Take conflict, for example. Let's say you've got some conflict with someone. Someone is upsetting you, something has happened. Conflict's one of those things that we tend to avoid, but it's unavoidable. And honestly, conflict isn't bad if it's handled the right way. It's actually good. But how do you handle conflict? Jesus in Matthew chapter 18 says this if another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. Now he goes on and on, and we could spend a month just talking about Matthew chapter 18 and how to handle conflict. But but just take that one statement. If you've got a problem with someone, go talk to them. And don't involve anyone else. Don't go on Facebook and say something like, when people, and then describe the exact behavior of that person as if they're not gonna know you're talking about them. Right? Don't go and talk to five or ten other people and say, you won't believe what they said to me, you won't believe what they did. I can't, can you believe this and all that? Don't get people riled up. Just go directly to the person and say, hey, can we talk? Because something happened the other day and it really really bothered me. And Jesus actually continues in Matthew 18 about what to do if that doesn't solve it. But if the world we live in would simply just just value what Jesus says there, and when conflict arises, the world would just go to the person directly and not involve anyone else. That would solve so many problems. That would solve so many problems. That's so wise. The Bible will teach you how to handle conflict. Take marriage, for example. Marriage is easy, super easy, right? Easiest thing I've ever done. So there's this verse in Ephesians, Ephesians 5.21, that says, Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. In my house, submit is the S-word. I'll just let you think about that for a second. Megan and I are both very headstrong people. We both believe, and I'm just being honest, we both believe that we know the right thing to do. We both have that naturally. There's a situation, and she wants this, I want that, I'm right, she's wrong. It's just as simple as that. And she feels the exact same way. And so early in our marriage, it was just this clash all the time. Just clash. And it's taken us a while. We've been married, it'll be 12 years this year, but to realize that we need to submit to one another. That it's not about rank, it's not about who's in charge, it's not about who gets to make the call, but to recognize and value and respect the other person's perspective, the other person's other person's wisdom to the point where you can say, we're gonna go with what what you want in this situation. I've thought about it, and I'm willing to let go of my idea. And it's not one person that does that all the time, it's submit to one another. If if people made it their passion in marriage to submit to one another, I'm not saying that there would never be divorce, I'm not saying that all marriages would be just happy all the time, I'm saying it would solve a lot of problems. That's wisdom. Dating. The only thing easier than marriage, right? Finding someone to marry. There's this verse that can seem kind of harsh. Okay, but but I just want you to listen to what it's really saying and think about what God is saying to you. If you're someone that is dating or you want to be dating, you want to find somebody, listen to this. I think it's in Ephesians, 2 Corinthians. That's one of the books of the Bible. My iPad died in between the first and the second service because I'm not wise enough to plug it in. But uh, here we go. Don't team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? Now, if you know Paul who wrote this, Paul loved people, period. Paul was not about saying you're in, you're out. So it kind of seems strange when he's saying this, this don't team up with unbelievers. What's he talking about? Well, take it and apply it to dating. If you're looking for someone to be with, if you're looking for someone to marry, let's say, you deserve to be with someone who will pray with you. You deserve to be with someone who will support you spiritually, not just emotionally or physically or financially, whatever. You deserve someone who will lift you up to God. God, I pray for for my kids, and one of the things that that I pray over all my kids is that God would be their first love. And I just I pray that they would they would have a relationship with God that it would always be their top priority, their first love. And understand what I mean when I say this. You deserve to be with someone who loves you less than God. Because if that person loves God more than they love you, they will be filled with the love of God for you. And that will give them the kind of love they're going to need to forgive you, to understand you, to care about you, the way that only God can. So this is not God saying, don't date this person. This isn't God being the controlling father. This is God saying, I love you enough that I want you to be with someone who will support you spiritually. So if you're looking for someone to date, do not settle for who's around. We're gonna talk about filters. Run run those decisions through the do they love God more than me filter? Do they love God more than themselves filter? And that will solve a lot of problems. See, the Bible's just full of wisdom. Parenting. You're probably wondering how many examples is he gonna list? Two more, I promise. I do know what time it is. Parenting, right? Raising kids is hard. But again, the Bible speaks to it. The Bible says that that you should train up a child in the way that that child should go. Train up a child in the way that he or she should go, and when they're older, they will they'll stay on that path. I heard someone talking about this years ago, and they made the distinction that it doesn't say train them up in the way you think they should go. But care enough about your kids to learn the way they should go. And if the way we approach parenting was, God, help me see my child. God, help me, help me know my child. Help me understand what it is that they're meant to do. Show me what their purpose is, God. And help me help them discover that and and equip them for that. If we would be passionate about that, I'm not saying that that our kids would never get off track because it's not all on us. I mean, at some point in time, it's it's up to their decisions, right? But but I see so many parents trying to mold their kids into what they wish they would have been. But maybe God doesn't want your kid to be you. Find out what God wants for them, make that your heart's desire, and that will help you as a parent more than anything else. The Bible is so wise. Money. No one likes to talk about the Bible and money because the Bible tells you to give your money away. Just the truth. But God's way with money, it is so wise. It is so wise. I I love to give, it's my favorite thing to do with my money, is give it away. And it really is. Not just because I've seen God bless that, because I have, but because it's made me so much wiser with what I have. There's this concept in the Bible called tithing. Tithe means tenth. So it literally means give 10% of what you have back to God. And back in the day that was a temple. Today it might be a church or some ministry that you really believe in that's building God's kingdom. But but we don't we don't push tithing here at His hands. You've been here for long, you know that. It's a biblical principle, it's not a law. So we're not required to tithe in order for God to be happy with us, but it's a principle nonetheless that works. And here's what I love about tithing. Megan and I, for the last, I don't even know how many years, have, like clockwork, given 10% of what we what we get back to God. We give to his hands. And it's funny, uh, I've had people tell me this before. They'll be like, well, that's cheating because you work at his hands. I'm like, look, it's not like I get a cut of what comes in. It's not it's not how this works. I don't know if there are churches that work that way, but it's definitely not how this place works. You know, I'm employed by this church. I get paid a salary, that's how it goes. It's really simple, but but I give, Megan and I give 10% back. Here's what I love about that. Not only does God use it to do cool things like what we talked about earlier today, but we've learned that we don't need 100% of our money to live. We don't. The world does not tell you that. Almost everybody in our country believes they need 100% and more just to meet their needs and get by. That's why we have debt skyrocketing across our nation. Our government believes it needs 100% and then some. Like 7,000% in order just to pay the bills. And that's why if you want to go look up the national debt, it's a number that your brain cannot even fathom. You're like, how many zero how many zeros are what number is that? It's insane. But but God is so wise that he teaches us, hey, you want you want to do well financially, learn that you do not need everything you have to get by. And when you learn how to live on 90%, you learn how to say no to a lot of things that you don't really need. And if you can live on 90, you can live on 80. You can live on 70. And better yet, God promises to bless that. You can look at a verse like Malachi chapter 3. Verse 10 says, Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so there will be enough food in my temple. If you do, says the Lord, of heaven's armies, I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in. Try it, put me to the test. God seems pretty confident that his way works. Because it's wisdom. Okay, we're gonna wrap up with one thing. Anyone excited that we're wrapping up? One person. See, you guys are well, this is good. I know some of you are lying. I know that, but it's okay. I I love wisdom. I love talking about this. I've been bl I've been blessed in my life to be surrounded by some really wise people. In fact, I'm even looking in the audience right now, and I see Scott Kay's over there. What's up, Scott? Is that you, Scott? Nod your head if that's you. I said, nod your head, you waved. That's different than what I said. All right. Is that Ben Sykes right there in the plaid? That's some nice plaid, Ben. Thumbs up to the plaid. I'm glad that's you. It'd be really awkward if you were some dude, but you're far away. So, like, I just even as I stand here, I'm looking out and I see, I see so many people who have been wise people in my life. People that I have gone to in tough situations that have given me so much wisdom. Amazing people. And and it's developed a passion within me for wisdom. But I want to I want to end by saying this today. If you recognize that you need wisdom, if you recognize that this year something's gonna happen, you might need to have some wisdom you don't have right now. Here's the biggest thing to do. Even bigger, in my opinion, than asking God directly, and and even bigger in my opinion than than reading the Bible and using the tools he's given us. And I'm really passionate about that. But here's what it is invest in your relationship with God. Because all wisdom comes from him. And what I mean by this is simple. Do not settle for for wise people in your life. That's really great. You need wise people around you, but don't stop there. Do not settle for a book. Because the Bible is an amazing book that is inspired by God, and even though it was written, the the newest parts of it were written 2,000 years ago, it still speaks to every aspect of our lives today. That's incredible. As great of a book as it is, it's not God. And if you stop at the Bible, you're stopping short of God Himself. Never stop at church, never stop at religion, never stop at anything less than all of God. Because the Bible promises us that when we give our lives to Jesus, that his spirit joins with our spirit, that we literally walk around carrying the very Spirit of God in us. Which means that wherever we go, God's spirit is. And there's never a situation where God does not know what to do. And the more you invest in your relationship with God, the more you spend time with him, the more you worship him. That's what we're doing when we worship, by the way. We're investing in our relationship with God simply by making sure he knows and we know where he stands and where we stand, that he is above everything, that he's over everything. When we worship, we invest in that relationship with him. And when we have that strong relationship with him, he promises, promises to be there for us always. You know, he told his obligatory claps. I love them. I love you. You guys are awesome. It's okay to clap, by the way. Clapping is good. Just make sure you're clapping for Jesus, because he's worth clapping for. So Jesus told his disciples, hey, if you ever get arrested, which is an interesting thing for God to tell you, don't worry about what you're gonna say in your defense. Don't worry about it. Don't even think about it. The Holy Spirit will give you what you need to say in that moment. And if you really stop and think about it from like a preparation standpoint, that sounds like bad advice. If you ever get arrested, don't worry about it. No big deal. Don't even think right now, don't even prepare what you would say. The stakes aren't that high. No, he says, don't worry about it. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is going to show up. We've read so many verses today where God has made us promises. I want to be a person who believes God's promises and who lives in a way that provides God the opportunity to back those promises up. He does know what to do, and his spirit will guide us. So you know what? Ask God for wisdom. Use the tool he's given you, dive into the Bible. The book of Proverbs, by the way, has 31 chapters. They're each really short. You can read them in five minutes. The book of Proverbs is all about wisdom. That's why so many of the verses we've read today have been for Proverbs. So most months have 31 days. Read a chapter of Proverbs every single day. If it's the 10th of the month, read the 10th Proverb, and you'll be amazed how often you'll get something you desperately needed that day. But mainly invest in your relationship with Him. And if you've never begun that relationship, start there. There's no ritual, by the way, there's no like thing you have to do. It's just a recognition in your heart that you need God. And it's a cry in your heart to say to God, I need you. Please come and be part of my life. I put my trust in you. That's where it all starts. And we just keep doing that day in and day out. When we do that, we we live lives that give God the opportunity to back his promises up to us. And he promises to give you real wisdom so that you never have to be afraid of what might happen. Because no matter what might happen, God will happen. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for your wisdom and your love. And the fact that you love us enough to give us the wisdom that we need. God, we live in a world that seems upside down sometimes. We live in a world that's just full of a lack of wisdom in so many key areas of life. And Lord, all of us have an area of life this morning that we need to see grow. All of us have some aspect of life that we recognize needs to change, God, and we need your wisdom to know how it needs to change. We need your wisdom to show us what to change so that it can change. So give us that this morning, Father. Right now, Lord, we just want to worship you. Just a few more minutes longer. A few more minutes in your presence. A few more moments investing in our relationship with you, telling you that you are God and we are your children. We are your followers. We need you. We love you. And we ask all this in your name. Amen.