Good morning. Well, it's actually been a really good morning. I mean, we've got to spend time with each other. Spend a little time with Jesus in the Lord's Supper, and then to be reminded the truth of how much God loves us, that He's not mad at us, that He hasn't given up on us, that He's for us, that He's gone so far as to adopt us as His very own kids. Well, it's good to be back together. I really appreciate Ken speaking the last couple weeks and appreciate how often he's able to be with us. Next Sunday is a big Sunday. It's Baptism Sunday. It's uh one of my favorite days of the whole year. It is such an exciting day. And if you don't know, baptism isn't a ritual. It's not something we check off our have-to-do list. Um it's an exciting statement that I'm all in. Maybe I want a new life. Maybe I'm starting over. It's a chance to do literally what Jesus did as he was baptized, and we get to do the exact same thing. And it's a chance to do figuratively what Jesus did to die and to be buried in the water, then to be raised out of the water. But the important thing is to a whole new life. And so we're going to do that next Sunday. If you've never been baptized before, and it is such a great uh thing to do. In fact, it the Holy Spirit promises us in God's word uh to bless us uh when we do that. Um we do something kind of unique. You know, in Jesus' day, Jesus didn't baptize his followers, his other followers baptized each other. And so if there's someone uh another believer that's uh special to you and you would like them to baptize you, just please uh ask them and and uh we'll do that. If you'd like uh me or Susan or anyone here, uh we would of course be honored as well. Um if you'll sign up in the lobby, that'll help us plan a little bit, but really shorts, t-shirts, a towel is uh is about all it takes. But it's a big day, and it's not you know, usually there's somewhere between 50 and 75 of us get baptized, and it's not one big event. It's actually 50 to 75 big events that are really important markers uh in our lives. And so that'll be uh next Sunday. Uh Susan announced last week uh 21, which is a 21-hour getaway with God and and other women. Uh you can sign up for that today if you'd like in the lobby afterwards. Uh it is July 13th and 14th from 6:30 p.m. until 3.30 p.m. uh the next day. And so for some of us dads and grandfathers, it's gonna be uh 24 hours with our children and God. And uh so that'll be cool too. Uh Sunday, May 20th is is bless the bikes. It's a great uh uh day to invite people that uh ride or uh just enjoy uh motorcycles. A bunch of us will ride in and then we'll hang out afterwards, and and we'll we'll bless everyone and really just ask for God to keep us safe and and and to bless our lives, and then we'll crank up all the bikes at the same time, and it's loud and awesome, and we'll hang out and and uh eat and listen to music after that. But it's a good time, it's like a bike show, and uh that's gonna be a really good day. Um thanks for your your giving. Um, you know, it's just so important uh for us to be able to do this together, and it's such an important part of our individual lives and our uh trusting God and seeing God working our lives. And so we don't pass a play, but we can do that back at the there's uh four stations in the back, and and uh we can also give uh online. Okay, we're gonna start something new this morning, and so let's uh start by asking God's help. So, Father, we praise you. Thank you for being such a great God, for adopting us as your very own children. Holy Spirit, we thank you for being our teacher and our counselor, and I ask you to teach us today that each one of us would leave uh encouraged by you with something we know was meant directly for us. And Jesus, we we praise you, we thank you for saving us and uh for being our friend, our brother, our Lord. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Okay, so I'm gonna ask something of each of you, and that is that we close our eyes and take a little daydream together. And I know that's not a difficult ask because uh you gotta admit, daydreaming in church comes pretty naturally. But here we go. I want you to imagine an encounter that you unexpectedly have this afternoon. You're sitting alone, and so if you have a spouse and children, this encounter might be miraculous already, because you have a moment alone, but there you are. And a person approaches you, but he doesn't startle you or make you feel fearful, just the opposite. You feel suddenly peaceful. You know, for a quick moment, you wonder if he might even be an angel. He says, I have something for you. He says, God's chosen you to be the next one. The next what, you ask? The next to choose. And he places in your hand a book, and it looks and it feels old and weathered. It seems small, maybe only 25 pages or so. And he says that in this book lies a long life, riches, and honor. God's handpicked you, he says, to be next. And so maybe you start to argue. You're a long way from any of that. You don't necessarily right now feel close to God, let alone handpicked by him. It's up to you, he says. God says you're the next one. This book's gonna ask you to make 11 choices. And if you will, you will have a long life, riches, and honor. One last thing, he says, you have to commit. You need to sign for it. It's kind of like a library card, but a much bigger deal. And you look and you see your name typed in a place for you to sign. And you can't help but notice that there's a signature right above you. It's Tony Dungey, the football coach. And above him is Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A. And then there's Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, and then Johnny Cash, and then Rosa Parks, and then John DeSalk. And it goes on. C. S. Lewis signed it, the Wright brothers, George Washington, Christopher Columbus. And it's so exciting to see those names and to see their actual signatures there. And the names keep going, and there's bunches of them, and you don't even recognize them all. But then one jumps out Yeshua. And Jesus had read this very same book. And to see his signature, it brings you to tears. But the man says, It's your turn now. And so you go ahead and sign right below Tony Dungey. And he says your name once gently. He says, I'll see you again in August. That's when I pass it on to the next one. Eleven choices and everything in your life will be better. Friends, family, your entire future has changed. Eleven choices and a long life, riches and honor are yours. Now you look at the small book in your hand, you can't believe this is happening to you. You look up, he's gone. The book is still with you. So you open to the first page. Could God handpick you? Could He give you a book? That if you just made some simple choices, you could have long life, riches, and honor. Proverbs 3 says, 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. I read a book a couple weeks ago. Um it's called Traveler's Diary. You may have read it. It's a great book. Andy Andrews wrote it. And the premise of this book is the character uh goes back through time and interacts with seven famous people. And in these interactions, they reinforce their most famous character trait to him. And then at the end of each of the chapters, he's got to make a decision. Does he want that character trait in his life? And we're not going to go back and look at historical figures, except maybe Solomon and Jesus. But in the book of Proverbs, there are 11 choices to make. And between now and August 26th, I'm speaking 11 times. Ben Sykes is speaking at the end of May. Ken Kington will be back in June, just in the first week of August. But I have 11 times, including today. And each time I share, God's going to confront us with a choice. It's going to be a choice from this short book, 25 pages long in my Bible, as we read this book of wisdom. And there's two things I want to clarify. First is I want to make sure you know that I don't necessarily, I don't know what the right word is, adhere to what would be known as a prosperity theology. And I'm sure that label means different things to different people. But to the idea that God wants us all to be rich and that wealth is a sign of God's approval. I don't believe that. I believe that we all go through different things and different times, and God has a whole life of experience for each of us. But I do know God wants his kids to be blessed, and he does want us to have more than enough to share and to enjoy. Jesus tries to help us understand this. He says, You parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not. So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him? Okay, so I'm just an earthly father, like Jesus is talking about. And I would never sit around and think, boy, I hope my son struggles financially his whole life. Boy, I hope his first two or three marriages don't work out. I hope my daughter gets big credit card debt. You know, it just almost hurts to verbalize that. Well, our Father in heaven wants us each to have a great life. But we have to make some choices. We started this year off in January talking about how we don't control the externals. We talked about having a great year and how that really will come from inside as God transforms us inside. Then we'll have a great year of growth and of change. And one part of that is godly wisdom. As we go along, I think you'll be surprised at how often God correlates God's wisdom with a great life. And the second clarifier is that we're talking about God's wisdom. That's a whole lot different than man's wisdom, or even wisdom in general. We're talking about God's wisdom. It's often counterintuitive. You know, we don't. So we have to seek it out. We have to value it, we have to want it. Um, here's an example. The first time I ever got a pre-approved credit card in the mail, I couldn't believe it. Somebody had just given me $5,000. It's like the greatest day of my life. And then a couple more came. And so eventually, Susan and I had to make a choice to get out of debt. You know, we did it the way some of us are probably doing it now. We took our highest interest rate credit card, made that payment. As soon as that was paid off, we added that payment to the next one, and we kept doing that. We had like a debt snowball, and um eventually got a payoff. And got to the point where we had a choice of whether or not we should think about paying off our house. And my accountant said, you definitely don't want to pay off your house. Um, because you know, you get uh a tax deduction for the interest payment, and you know, if you figure that out, it's only you know three or four percent. Um, and you're definitely gonna make seven or eight percent, you know, in the market. So uh you know, don't be stupid, don't pay off your house. Uh thankful, thankfully, Susan and I had read this little book that's only about 25 pages long in my Bible. And there it says, just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender. Now that's God's wisdom. And so, just in as a point of conversation, you know, I've probably had 10 different people who are in a situation or position, they say, Man, I don't know. I'm thinking about whether or not I should pay off my house or if I should invest it somewhere else. Get out of debt. That's God's wisdom. You know, get to a point where we can live with no debt. That's the difference between man's wisdom and God's wisdom. And so when the stock market and housing prices crashed at the same time, we were very thankful that God took the time to write that advice down for Susan and I. Wisdom starts with knowing that God our Father, our Abba Father, Daddy Father, that He loves us, that He knows best, and we can trust Him. Proverbs 9 says, The fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment. And so the fear there is not fear like scared fear, it's fear like respect. Knowing God, knowing that he's in charge, knowing that his ways are the best. That is the start of all wisdom. Doing things his way makes all the difference. Now the opposite's true as well. I can tell you from personal experience, it is no fun being a fool. You know that uh I started a new company about a year ago. It wasn't just me, it was me and a group of friends. Um that's good because we're all in this together. You know, we've we've got work and responsibilities, and we still together we volunteer our time, and we're a volunteer church, and it's it's a cool thing that God's doing. But I started uh the first company I started was about 20 years ago. Did that for the first time. A business associate asked me to go into business with him, and I really wanted to do it. I was fired up. I'd been in the corporate world for 10 years, and I was kind of getting tired of that and travel and different things, and so I was really excited about it. Susan, not so much. She had huge reservations, mostly that she didn't trust this particular individual that I was gonna go into business with. And so she was hassling me the whole time about, you know, I mean, have you checked that out? Do you have this in writing? Do you have a contract? You know, and I'm like, you know, you don't want to start a relationship that way. We've got to start this relationship with trust. And believe me, I've got good instincts. And um, I thought of all these reasons to discount her advice. Well, the guy turned out to be very dishonest. Very. And that created a huge issue for Susan and I. I mean, it ruined us financially. It put a strain on our marriage that we barely, I mean, barely survived. Now, why did that happen? It happened because I was a fool. Proverbs 12 says, Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others. It's no fun being a fool. And so who do you think I was mad at for that whole situation? God, of course. Where was he? I mean, what had he ever done for me? How could he have let that happen to me? Proverbs 19 says people ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord. It's in the book. It's in the book. A small 25-page book written 2,500 years ago. It described me and being a fool's, no fun. And so we started over by ourselves this time. And I've talked about this before, and I just talked about this recently. But it was at that time that I started reading the book of Proverbs. Somebody had suggested it. I thought it was a good idea. And the book of Proverbs is cool because there's 31 chapters. And so it's really simple. I'd just get up in the morning and I'd read whatever chapter corresponded with that day of the week. So today's April 29th. I'd get up, I'd read chapter 29. And so over time, it was a slow start, but things started getting going a little bit. And we had a couple of employees, and that turned out to be a real pain in the net. Um, because, you know, they had issues to deal with, and there was all kinds of stuff. And so I thought, you know, it's not worth the hassle. You know, I think I'm going to restructure things, and I'm just going to figure out a way to do this by myself. But that was March 14th. And Proverbs 14 says, without oxen a stable stays clean. But you need a strong ox for a large harvest. Now, everyone who leads people knows that with people comes a lot of crap. I know that's twice that's been said in the same morning. But that's literally what this proverb says. You know, it might be nice to have a clean stable, but there's things that are nicer, and you can do so much more when you do it together. And so then I'd read things like on the 11th, Proverbs 11, 1. The Lord detests the use of dishonest scales, but he delights in accurate weights. And so I would try to do everything the right way. You know, just make sure that we did things the way God would want us to do them. And so as the company grew, I had to figure out how to pay people. And in the small book, God says, the generous will prosper, but those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. And so we adopted a phrase as part of our company culture. And the phrase is we don't ever want to be fair, we want to be generous. And so that was true with customers, that was true with vendors, that was true with our teammates. That we're going to trust God to prosper us. He's so generous with us. We are going to be generous with others. So things kept going. It didn't always go smooth. You know, we had one person that was a negative, critical person that was on the team. And we didn't have anyone to do that role but her. She was the only one to do that role until the 22nd of that month. When I read, pick out the troublemakers, and things will quiet down. You need a break from bickering and griping. Actually, I just quoted that proverb to someone a couple weeks ago because there was a similar situation. And so we let her go that day, and God provided someone else with a great attitude that was a real joy to work with. And it was like that every week. You know, and in the end, we went from total despair to a life-changing experience. And I tell you that because I want you to know that God is a loving father and you can trust him. And you can trust his wisdom. He says, with his wisdom, in one hand is long life, the other hand is riches and honor. God says that. Believe it. Seek his wisdom. Now that statement, in one sense, is a promise to each of us, but it's more of a long-term promise. Because we all won't die. So that's a eternal life, that's a pretty long life. And in heaven, we will all have riches and honor. But this book is not about heaven. This book is about now. This book is about our life today. And so these are not so much promises as they are principles. This is the way to do it. This is the way to live your life. This is how things work. Do it this way. And so every now and then there's a curveball. Every now and then things get messed up. But these principles are true. They work. They are the principles that make a great life. And so each week, 11 times, we're going to look at God's wisdom from Proverbs. But we're also going to look at Jesus and what he taught on that particular choice and how he personified perhaps that particular choice. And it will be the best investment that we can each make in our futures. Proverbs 24 says, My child eat honey, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to the taste. In the same way, wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, you will have a bright future, and your hopes will not be cut short. To want God's wisdom is to want to be like Jesus. You know, it's interesting how we don't know too much about Jesus from when he was a baby to when he's about 30 years old. You know, like one to twelve, nothing. And then there's this statement. It says, There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God's favor was on him. That's described in the first 12 years of Jesus' life. And then there's a little uh encounter where Jesus goes to the temple, doesn't tell his folks, they get scared, they get mad. Um he says, I had to be about my father's business. And then, so that's age 12, between 12 and 30, this is how Jesus' life is summed up. Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people. To have God's wisdom is to follow Jesus. He actually, you know, when we were daydreaming together, and that name Yeshua was on the list. Jesus read these very same words. The book of Proverbs. Jesus is the greatest example ever of God's wisdom. 1 Corinthians it says, but to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And so we got to get God's wisdom. And we're gonna get it together and we're gonna do it in two ways. The first is pretty simple. We're gonna ask him for it. If we ask him, if we ask our Father, our Abba Father, he will supernaturally give each of us more wisdom. That's what he does. You know, when Jesus sent out a group of his followers, it was kind of like a mission for him, he said this. He said, Don't worry in advance about how to answer the charges against you. For I will give you the right words and such wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to reply or refute you. I've thought about that a lot. We've all been in situations, I think, where we're like, I'm not gonna know what to say. You know, and people on the prayer team can appreciate this each week because God's got to show us what to say. You know, and so I knew that first part. Don't worry about it too much. God will give you the words. I didn't really notice the second part, that he will give us the wisdom. He'll give us the wisdom to handle any situation. And so we can ask God for it. James, Jesus' brother, says, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. That's a big thing, to not rebuke you for asking. Because that's not really how we operate. Okay, so if I said, hey, you know, I did something this morning, um, Susan left to come here early, and I took all of her shoes and purses and jewelry, I sold them, and I bought a mountain bike. You would say, that's stupid. And then you'd give me wisdom, like you better not go home. Um, which is true. But you see, that's what we do. We make we honestly, in our lives, we sabotage ourselves far worse than that. But God doesn't even rebuke us. He doesn't say, Oh, I told you so, oh, that was dumb. He says, here, let me help. Wherever you're at right now, let me help. If we need wisdom, all we have to do is ask for him. And there's a lie about God that I would guess most of us believe. And the lie is that if we ask God for something, especially a character type trait, we gotta be careful. Be careful what you ask God for. You know, if you ask God for humility, he is gonna stick it to you. And you'll be humble, all right, after everything falls apart. See, God is not like that. God is just the opposite of that. That is a lie. Jesus says if we ask our Father for bread, he will not give us a rock. If we ask him for a fish, he won't give us a snake. And so maybe you're doing well at your job, or maybe things are happening, or you're good at something particular, and you feel yourself just getting a little cocky. You know, you can say, hey God, help me be humble. I don't want to be like that. I want to be humble. And he's not gonna stick it to you. He will gently, supernaturally help you to be humble. And the thing he says for sure, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. He's not gonna give us a hard time. Father, I need your wisdom. God will give me your wisdom. You know, just thinking about this, uh reminded me how little, how rarely I do that. It reminded me how important God's wisdom is and how rarely I specifically ask Him for it. But he'll give it to us. The second thing is we have to go for it. We've got to seek it, want it, search it out, learn it. It doesn't come natural. In Proverbs 22, it says, a youngster's heart is filled with foolishness. You know, our grandson Brighton, he doesn't live with us, but still our house is like this weird combination of Chuck E. Cheese and Fort Knox. Because we got now everything from about this high down locked up. It's because we're not born naturally wise. You know, we want to stick our fingers in light sockets. We want to eat dishwasher detergent. We think we can go downstairs. It's true for all of us. It doesn't come natural. We are bombarded with foolishness. We're bombarded with foolishness. Proverbs 4 says, if you prize wisdom, she will make you great. Embrace her, and she will honor you. She will place a lovely wreath on your head. She will present you with a beautiful crown. My child, listen to me and do as I say, and you will have a long, good life. So we started with a daydream together, but this is not a dream. This is true. It is a real choice. Are you going to be the next one? Will you and God change your life forever? Will you read and apply God's book of wisdom to your life? And that's our first choice. I will choose God's wisdom. I'll ask God to give it to me supernaturally, infuse it into my heart and my spirit. I'll seek it with all my heart. I'll read parts of his wisdom every day until thinking his way becomes more natural. More than money, more than pleasure, more than approval, I will seek God's wisdom. Knowing in one hand she holds long life, and the other, riches and honor. So here is my personal promise to each of you. On August twenty sixth, twenty twelve, when we make our last choice from the book of Proverbs, each of our lives will already be better. Much better. Our family, our friends, our work. It is literally impossible for them not to be. Because we have a Father who loves us, and we're grabbing hold of God's word and making it part of our lives. In Isaiah 55, 11, it says this it is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. And so we will choose God's wisdom. So if the worship team comes up, we'll stop there for this morning. Jesus, we read, is the wisdom of God. Who could have ever come up with a plan like that? I mean, that God would come like a man, and that he would be a man, and he would show us what God is really like, and he would show us what love is like. He would show us, prove to us how much he loves us. He would show us how to interact and treat other people. He is the wisdom of God. He would defeat death and give us an opportunity to reconnect with our loving Father. Connecting with Him is so simple. It's just in our own way, in our own words, saying to Him, Help me. I need you. You know, whatever it is, wherever we're at, I'm sorry. I want to follow you. I want to trust you more. I want to be like you. That's all it takes. And he created us with a spirit in God's image. And when we do that, that spirit comes alive and it connects with God's spirit. And the process starts and the transformation starts and it happens from the inside out. So you can do that today if you've never done that before. All right, next week, choice number two. Let's uh pray and then we're gonna sing one more song together. Well, actually, let's stand and pray. Please. Then we'll be ready to sing one more song together. Father, we just praise you. Thank you for being such a great God. God, I ask you to bless every person here, every single one of us. We've got many different things going on in our lives, and we and we need different things right now. Please give each of us what we need. And we all need more of your wisdom, God. So stir up our hearts. But you just stir us up so we want that. We desire that more than other things that right now, that we want your wisdom. And please give it to us supernaturally and give us a heart to seek after it. And Jesus, we thank you for being God's wisdom itself, for loving us, saving us, being with us forever. It's in your name we pray. Amen.