Hey, can we clap again and just say that's true today? Jesus isn't finished with us yet. I don't know how you walked in here, what part of your life, maybe you're hiding, maybe you're ashamed of, maybe a part of your life that you feel like. If God saw that, he wouldn't love you.
In the reality this morning, what we're here to remind each other about when we doubt is that God loves you, not a future version of you, but right where you are. Amen. And he knows, he knows what he's building in you, what he's forming in you, and he's not done with you yet. And here's the reality.
The reason why we do this once a week is we need to be reminded of that, because we forget. And so that's what we're here. We're declaring this, raising our hands, praying about this, looking at scripture and God's word about this to remind us who we are in Christ. So that's what's happening here today.
If you're new, we're glad you're here to be a part of that. My name is Tim, I'm the pastor here, so glad. You have joined us if you're in the room, if you're joining us online, we're so glad you are here. I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna prepare our hearts for God's word, would you pray with me, Father in heaven.
Gotta thank you for this group of people, gotta thank you for you, that we have today, in this moment, God, and God's people. That we wouldn't take that for granted, we wouldn't miss this moment to know, God, that you are in front of us behind us, reminding us of who we are and you. God, I recognize there's so many competing reminders every single day of our lives, some that come from within and some that come from without of who we are and how we're not good enough for how our past defines us, or we can't walk this Christian life, and God, I pray in the name of Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, you would break those strongholds this morning, and you would be the loudest voice in our ears. God, I pray now as we open your word that you would open our ears and eyes to it.
And we might see it and hear it afresh, God that you would sharpen our minds, you would soften our hearts to not just receive your word, but to do what it says. We pray that now, buy your spirit through your word in the name of Jesus Christ, and everybody said, amen, amen, you can be seated. Well, earlier this week, I was spending time with a good friend who's a flight instructor, and we were talking through just the different levels of what it means to be a pilot. He was explaining all the different levels to me, and he said, you know what I'm talking about, the hardest jump from level to level is from level one to level two.
That level one is a private pilot, and level two is an instrument rated pilot. And so you have private pilots, and in level one, it's hard to learn how to fly a plane, but people can often do that because a private pilot is just someone who can fly in perfect conditions, like clear, sunny, blue sky, phoenix. That's a private pilot. What sets apart the instrument rated pilot, and that jump from level one to level two is the ability to fly not in clear skies, but in the clouds.
And he talked about, hey, Tim, even sometimes a good train pilot will get lost in the clouds, they'll fly uneven, they'll often get lost or run into a mountain right in front of them and crash, because they can't see. And he said, but an instrument rated pilot, if they really know what they're doing, they have these instruments inside the plane that help become their eyes and ears and help them see what's in front of them, even if they can't really see it with their own eyes, and they can fly safely, even amidst the clouds. Now why tell you that? Because life is flying through the clouds, right?
Life and making decisions in life is not flying in clear, sunny, blue sky, phoenix, amen? Especially in 2021, we're flying in the clouds, right? We can't see what's in front of us. How many of you have said, like, I don't know what's happening next year, much less next week, anybody?
Right? And yeah, we're still making decisions. I don't know about you. We're making decisions for my family, for our church, and yet I can't always see what's in front of me.
It's not always clear to me, and I wanna make the right decisions, but it's hard to tell which way I should go for my kids, for my wife, and our finances, and our church. And I know many of you feel the same way, right? Whether you're making summer vacation plans, and you're like, I don't know, we kind of forgot how to do this, right? Or whether you are, you're deciding which school your kids should go to, and phoenix, we have open enrollment, right?
Which is sometimes this amazing thing. And then at other times, it's this horribly stressful thing, because when your middle schooler is choosing their middle school, it feels like they're choosing their college and their career, right? You're like, I don't know which way to go. And some of you with your job, it feels this way, and some of you in family, it feels this way again, after this last year, some of you all had some good relationships with your family, some of you had some tumultuous relationship with your family, and listen, I think all of us have a confusing relationship with our family now.
Because of politics, because you don't like wearing a mask, and they do, and it's not that simple. You think one way is for the love of the world, and one way is being oppressed by an evil government, anybody with me? Don't raise your hand if your family's in the room, right? We're flying through the clouds, right?
It's a which way do we go with our family? Which way do we go in this decision, this plan? That's what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about the next five weeks.
How do we see clearly, even in the clouds? How do we know which way to go? So we're starting a new series today called Which Way, and it's a study in the book of Proverbs. We have a whole book in our Bible, did you know this, that talks about which way we should go, and how we make decisions according to wisdom.
So I'm gonna invite you to grab a Bible. If you're at home, get a Bible out, put the kids aside, get a Bible out with them, and open up to the middle of your Bible and meet me in the book of Proverbs. And we're gonna start at the beginning of the book. Proverbs, chapter one, so meet me.
There, get God's word in front of you. We always say it, the power is not in my word, it's in God's word, so meet me in Proverbs, chapter one. And we'll read the first seven verses together. Proverbs one, starting verse one, it says this.
The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. This is Solomon who was considered the wisest person to ever live. Verse two, to know wisdom and instruction. Do you understand words of insight?
To receive instruction and wise dealing and righteousness and equity. To give prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth. Let the wise hear an increase in learning and the one who understands obtained guidance. To understand a proverb and saying the words of the wise and the riddles, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Yet fools despise wisdom and instruction. Now, many of us, whether you grew up in the church or not, you've at least read some of the book of Proverbs. Even if it's just sipping your coffee in a mug that happens to have a proverb wrapped around it, you've been exposed to the Proverbs. In fact, even people in our culture who are not believers in Jesus, they'll quote Proverbs, like on their social media timelines or maybe in a conversation with you.
But they don't even believe in God, but they just think, hey, the book of Proverbs has some nice cute sayings, some helpful things to consider in life. But right away, we see the Proverbs are more profound than that. Did you notice it in verse two? It says, the whole purpose of the book of Proverbs is to know wisdom.
The book of Proverbs is not just cute sayings to go up on a piece of art on your wall or to be knitted into a blanket. The book of Proverbs, the whole goal of Proverbs is to know the wisdom that comes from God. In fact, that word wisdom, it's used about 100 times in the book. It's literally this word, hokma.
That word hokma means skill. It's the idea in the context of being a craftsman or a sailor or a musician or an artist. It's not just the acquisition of knowledge, it's the application of knowledge. So it's not just somebody who knows a lot about wood.
It's somebody who knows how to craft an amazing dining table out of that wood. It's not just somebody who's read some books about boats and ships, it's somebody who's able to sail that ship beautifully across a notion. I think of these ballet dancers in our church. We have a group of ballet dancers if you've ever been to this, just to see the Nutcracker downtown, you've seen some people in our church, or some of the main performers in ballet, Arizona.
And we have to know them, not just as people in our church, but as friends, they're in our community group, several years back. And I remember the first time they invited us to the ballet. And to be candid, they know this. This isn't going to crush their spirit, OK?
They know I wasn't a huge fan of the ballet, right? And yet when they invited me to their performance of Romeo and Juliet, I said, yes, I would love to go. While probably with my wife, Jay, I'm like, are we really doing this? But what happened is I had a relationship with these people.
So I knew their ins and outs. I knew their daily routine. I knew all that they put in for months, from eight to five, not just learning to plie, somebody on press, but I knew that, right? But learning how to plie and turn and spin with another person, in rhythm with that other person.
And not just with that other person, but with a lot of other persons, and for them all to be on the same page, and not even just like to dance to a cool song, but to show you and depict an amazing story, specifically Romeo and Juliet, and specifically two people in our church, 9, and Jill Iovino, at that time we're dating, and they were Romeo and Juliet. Come on, people. And listen, we can celebrate their life, and a lot better than Romeo and Juliet. And just had a baby, right?
Yeah, you can clap for 9 and Jill, that's fine. But listen, here's why I didn't fall asleep in that ballet, because I knew all of that. And I started to see, these people don't just have a skill, they're not able to just deflect or stretch in a certain way, or even dance, they are telling a beautiful story, skill, that's wisdom. Except it's not just skill and a craft, it's the skill of living.
It's a life like that. It's people who don't just have intellect, but they have the capacity, and they have the knowledge, and the wise counsel in their life, to navigate life beautifully, where any of you know this, you have people like this in your life, where you look at them, you're thinking, that guy's wise. And we don't always get along even, and I'm not a similar personality to them, but I respect that person. That I can look at their life the way they make decisions, and the way they navigate plans, the way that guy leads his wife, the way that person interacts with their kids, the way they excel in their job.
And I just respect, it's beautiful. You guys know people like this? And it's not just people with a long beard, who can wax eloquence from a book, right? It's a skill of living.
And we see that, and it's beautiful. And that's the way, even just Proverbs 1 describes wisdom, the skill of living. Look at verse 2 with me. And he explains what this skill of living looks like.
It says it's insight for your life. That word, insight, is the ability to see clear distinctions in life. You know people like this? They're able to see two different things and understand the pros and cons.
They see clearly where maybe you look, and you're like, I don't know, just all kind of same to me. Like, no, no, no, do you not see? Like, I'm gonna get a bullet point list of this one versus this one. It's a skill of living.
It's insight. We've seen verse 3, it's wise dealings. Now that doesn't just mean you're a savvy negotiator, or you can crush it at garage sales. That's not the kind of wise dealings.
How do we know? We look at the text, it says, this leads towards righteousness, justice, and equity. It's wise dealings in relationships, in life, that leads to not only your flourism but the flourism and other people. You know people like this.
They're just really good with people. They interact with people. They can get a deal done. They can negotiate, but they don't harm others in their path.
They help others flourish towards righteousness, justice, and equity. That's wisdom. This is skill for living. Verse 4, we see it's prudence and discretion.
It's discernment in real life situations. It's prudence, it's discretion. It's understanding, not just the right thing to do, but doing the right thing when it counts. Doing the right thing in that climactic moment of crisis and that person makes the right decision when everything's on the line.
This is the skill of living. This is wisdom. This is the path of wisdom. Many times you'll see in the book of Proverbs, wisdom is described as a path, a road, a way.
And so while many of us, we may look at this idea of wisdom and a skill for living, and we may look at the decisions that we're facing and try to be a parent to our kids, try to be a good friend, try to be a good employee, or employer, try to navigate the craziness of COVID and all the different things we're dealing with in politics and even just your summer plans, big to small, and you may look at those things in a vacuum, in a church building. You may say, hey, I want the way of wisdom. I need some insight, I need some prudence, some discretion. Like, Tim, is there a sign up sheet?
I'll sign up for that path. And we may say that right now in this moment, but the reality is it's not just a moment of wisdom, it's a way of wisdom. It's a path. And it's not just a path of wisdom, there's a competing path of folly.
We see in verse seven, it talks about the fool. And as much as Proverbs talks about the wise person, it also talks about the foolish person. As much as Proverbs talks about the path of wisdom, it says there's a competing path of folly. And we even see it in verse seven, this person who's a fool despises instruction.
And what we have to realize is these two paths, again, remember, life is cloudy. And so while many of us in this moment are like, I'll take the path of wisdom, yes, please, many of us don't in real life. The other six days of the week in your family, instead of resolving a conflict peacefully, humbly, apologizing first, not defending, not deflecting, instead of owning that conflict in your marriage, some of you were there this morning. Instead of doing all that, you lashed out.
And while you may say, well, I want the path of wisdom, then that moment you took the path of folly. But here's the reality, when you did that, when you lashed out at your spouse this morning, not many of you woke up today and said, hey, I wanna lash out at my spouse, cause conflict with her and maybe go about ruining our marriage. And that's my plan for Sunday. Let me put that in my eye calendar.
Nobody does that. We want the path of wisdom, but yet, so many times we take the path of folly and much of the pain that we experience in life is because we go down the path. Now, why do we keep going down the path? If it leads to conflict, if it leads to destruction, if it leads to sadness and discord and our relationships and our finances and our plans, why do we keep going down the path?
Because it's cloudy. Because as we look which way to go, it's cloudy. It's like this morning, my daughter, my youngest daughter just turned six. Yeah, so if you saw a little girl with a big, what was it called?
Just show, yeah. A big headband that says, happy birthday or birthday girl. That was my daughter, tell her happy birthday, okay? This morning she just started six years old.
So we're at our dining table. My wife always decorates the table. And so we have all these presents when she wakes up in the morning out in front of her to see. She's got donuts and every candy you can imagine, right?
So pray that she doesn't vomit later, right? So my daughter wakes up six birthday. She's super excited. All these presents.
And she starts picking out like, which one am I gonna open up first? And one of the first presents that she opened up, which was wrapped, wasn't a present for her. It was a present for my dog, Lincoln. Especially she opens up, my daughter's really sweet.
So she opens up this present. She's like, oh, this is for Lincoln. She's not bummed at all, right? I would be bummed.
Would she be bummed? But she opens up this present, she realizes that's for Lincoln. And she goes to the next present, which was for her, which was Giffes, a Barbie camper. A little bit better than the dog present over here.
But here's the reality. Both of those presents were wrapped the same. You see, if my daughter saw a Barbie camper, but also a dog bone, which one is she navigating to first? Barbie camper, amen?
That's what she's going towards. We get there both wrapped and they kind of look the same. So she opens the dog gift. Life is flying through the clouds.
Life is this. Both presents are wrapped the same, but inside there's something very different in each one of them. And we have to discern how do we make that decision? So we have to know how do we choose the path of wisdom?
How do we tell these paths apart? How do we not choose the path of folly that ruins our lives? So we have to ask, how do we spot this path of folly? Well, this passage helps us as well as the rest of the book of Proverbs.
We see it in verse seven. This fool, this path of folly, what despises instruction? Later in verse 25, it ignores counsel. Despises instruction ignores counsel.
That's how you know there's a path of folly. And some of you have experienced this. Some of you have seen this in life. I know as a pastor, always a red flag for me is when somebody texts me or comes to me and says, hey, pastor, I want to speak with you about a decision we have made in the past.
Hey, pastor, we need to talk about our marriage because we are getting a divorce. We decided. Hey, pastor, we need to talk about this. Like I'm moving away.
I'm taking this other job and I just want to let you know and say goodbye. There's always a red flag with that in my life because it's someone who has not sought out wise counsel. It's someone who has despised instruction and only is willing to talk about it after the decision is already made. Listen, the majority of the time when I get to do marriage counseling is too late.
Maybe they're doing it to check a box off the list, but they have already decided in their minds. And listen, I don't know a lot of decisions that have been made that are really good, wise decisions that didn't receive any outside counsel. I know a lot of people who have made really horrible decisions that have ruined their lives and others in isolation with no counsel. I know a lot of people from addicts to adulterous people and all those decisions were made in isolation.
Why? There's insanity in isolation. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. They ignore counsel.
So how do you spot the path of folly? And not just thinking about other people, some of you don't think, oh yeah, I know I got like that. Oh, honey, I don't know about your spouse right now. It's not just thinking, think about your life.
What areas of your life are you ignoring counsel? Or you just think, I already know. Why do I need to ask somebody? I already know why don't I need to ask God or God's people.
I already know what I'm doing in my relationship. I already know what I'm doing with this job. I already know Tim, we are moving. And what part of your life are you ignoring counsel?
And listen, maybe it seems like a good thing. Maybe you're like, well Tim, but it's an easy decision. I mean, look, it all lines up for this job. I mean, I get more money.
I get a promotion. I mean, it all lines up. But have you thought that maybe you have some blind spots and you can't see some areas of that position. It's wrapped in nice gift wrapped paper.
But inside, there's a dog bone. And you can't see it. So you can't see, yeah, I'm going to take this job. More money, more prominence.
And I'm going to leave my community and God's church and this protection that I have with people who are challenging me and comforting me and encouraging me in my life. And maybe you can't see that, but somebody else could. And they can help you see. Have you considered these things?
What part of your life, in your marriage, in your family, in that conflict, in your plans? Are you ignoring counsel? It may not seem like it, but that's a path of folly. And that's not the path we want to go down.
We want to go down a path of wisdom. And it is difficult because we do see just, we see small steps. We don't see the path. We see what's right in front of us, especially with folly.
A lot of times we'll think, hey, in a moment, this is a great decision. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. And we see in a moment, like, if I do this, it will lead to this. And we don't consider, you're not just in a moment.
You're walking down a path. That's not just a text message. You're going down a path. That's not just an agreement of what you're going to spend this money on in this specific thing.
It's leading you down a path. That's the whole book of Proverbs. There's paths. Every decision leads to a destiny.
Every practice puts you on a path. And so the reality is what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas is not true. You carry that debt or that disease back home with you. Amen?
It's not true. So you're always on a path. But we have a hard time seeing that. And here's how you know this is you'll say, well, Tim, it's just a text without other person that you're attracted to, that works with you in the office.
You'll see, but in the moment, it's just a text message. Like, that would be mean not to respond to that other person. But in your heart, you know, there's a path that that text puts you on. You'll see with your financial dealings.
Well, Tim, yeah, I don't give to the church. We just have these other things in our life right now. I don't practice the life of generosity. I mean, the Bible says something about that.
I know, but it's just a, I've just spent some money at this place. I'm just allocating my resources this way. And we'll just see the moment. We'll just see the practice and we'll miss the path.
So the book of Proverbs is gonna tell us every practice leads to a path. You see, the reality is most of us don't wake up and just say, hey, I wanna commit adultery today. I wanna ruin my life and my marriage. And I want the rest of our lives for our family.
I want my kids to have two Christmases. That's what I want as we have our coffee. Who says that? No one.
But how many times do you see, hey, just a text here, just a click here? Just a conversation? Just an emotional exchange here? It's just these compartmentalized things.
And scripture's gonna tell us, no, you're in a path, a folly that leads to Proverbs is gonna tell us, destruction, it's gonna say, shield death. And that text message isn't just, somebody who need to hear this right now, that text message isn't just a text. That click isn't just a click. It's leading you down a path.
That financial decision. It's not just a decision in that moment. It leads to a destiny. We see it in the Bible and it got like a Samson.
You think of a guy like Samson, some of you remember Samson vividly from your Sunday school flannel craft. And the first thought when you hear about Samson is this really yoked up buff guy, right? But have you read the story of Samson in the book of Judges? It's a tragic story.
It's a lot about this guy making decision after decision, not for flourishing, but that leads to death. In fact, the story of Samson ends in his own death and the death of lots of other people. At one point, he's not only bald but blind. And he's not that yoked up strong guy that we read about in Sunday school on our flannel graph.
But how does that happen? The Samson wake up one day and just think, hey, I wanna be bald and blind. That's my greatest wish. Hey, I wanna kill myself and kill everybody around me.
Is that what happened? No, one little decision at a time. You see, Samson took his Nazarite vow, we agreed to not do a lot of stuff, agree not to touch anything dead. But he makes a decision in a moment.
He says, hey, I want some honey out of that deadline. Under your thinking, that sounds amazing, right? And Samson said, yeah, I'm gonna take some of that honey. He touches the deadline.
Samson's not supposed to drink any alcohol. And yet he has a week long bachelor party, next level where he drank the whole week. Just seems like I just have fun with the guys. We see Samson attracted to a woman who doesn't have his faith in his God instead of his faith in other gods.
And he's like, well, she's beautiful though. Did you see how she likes me? You see how other people talk about her? And I get to be with her.
He just sees this as a decision and doesn't consider how will it affect his destiny. It's just a practice. It's not a path. And yet all those little practices lead to a path, a destruction for many of us, it's that way.
What pains me is to see people making these little decisions and never considering the destiny, making these little practices. I can cheat on my wife. Like it's gonna work out. I'm gonna navigate.
I can make this shady business. It's gonna work out. I can cheat my way through school. It's gonna work out to me.
I'm gonna savvy negotiate. I can figure this out. And that has never worked in history. And yet we don't see history.
We don't see the path. We just see the decision. We just see the practice. And Proverbs is gonna open up our eyes to see the path and say, every decision, that text, that click, that conversation, the way you deal with your money, every decision leads to your destiny.
You need to consider it. We see that just as we look at the life of Samson. We see that in all of life. So how do we choose the path of wisdom?
If we don't wanna go down this path of folly, how do we choose this path of wisdom? Look at verse five. It sums it up for us. It says, let the wise hear.
That's a big word here. Let the wise hear and increase in learning, another big word. And the one who understands obtain guidance. I want you to focus on those three words.
Hear, listen, obtain. Hear, listen, obtain. The fool who always make this decision on this path, the fool will not hear, will not listen, will not obtain guidance. How do we choose the path of wisdom?
We do those things. We hear, we hear God, we hear God's people. We listen to God and His work. We increase, did you notice that?
We increase in our understanding. We don't just say, well, I've been a Christian for a long time. I know some of those verses. And we kinda get comfy in our chair, in our queue, in the church.
And we increase continually in our learning. We hear, we obtain guidance. I don't know how many people I know who will say, Tim, I would love a mentor in my life. And they could be young or old and just say, I would love somebody who's ahead of me to teach me and coach me.
Do you know where I can find that person? Could that person come to me? Can I sign up for a class and that person disciple me? And I'll always say, hey, yeah, let me help you.
Go find that person. Walk across the aisle and meet that person and say, hey, can we go to lunch together? Can I just pick your brain about your marriage, your profession? And to that point, they usually say, well, I don't wanna do that.
I mean, that could be awkward if I asked somebody else to lunch, I mean, I don't know how to do that. And the scripture's gonna say, how do we obtain wisdom? We obtain it. We go get it.
We humble ourselves enough to, after church today, see somebody else across the aisle and say, hey, can we get coffee this week? I wanna learn. I wanna seek this wisdom. We obtain it.
We hear. We listen to other people in our community. Not everybody. That's the simple in the book of Proverbs.
Who listens to everything. No, but we listen to a few people who know God, who know his word. That's how we obtain wisdom. Who are you listening to?
We have a lot of voices speaking to us every day, throughout the week, from you and from without you. Who are you listening to? The wise one is gonna listen to God and God's people. And I love that in verse seven, it puts it in the context of relationship.
Do you see that? It says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The reality is wisdom isn't just memorizing some words. It's knowing a person.
It's having a relationship with God. Wisdom isn't just a proverb. It's a person. And we're gonna see in all of scripture, that person is Jesus Christ.
That the first step, you say to him, how do I get wisdom? The first step to getting wisdom is hearing from, learning from, obtaining guidance from Jesus Christ in relationship with him. It's understanding, hey, I am not God, but he is. So I wanna listen to him.
I wanna learn from him. I'm not just gonna memorize some words. I'm gonna cultivate a relationship with Jesus. We see that in Proverbs chapter 30.
There's this guy named Agor. And he writes this. And he says, surely I am too stupid to be a man. One of my favorite verses.
Surely I'm too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the holy one. And then he says, who has ascended to heaven and come down?
This guy Agor, he's looking for wisdom, and yet he knows he doesn't have it, but he thinks somebody does. And it's the person who has ascended and descended. It's God. And if I could just talk to God, then I could have wisdom.
Fast forward to John chapter three. Jesus is talking to a guy named Nicodemus, who knew a lot, had a lot of intellect, but didn't know wisdom. And in John chapter three, Jesus says this. He says, no one has ascended to heaven, except the one who has descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
In fact, in your Bible, if you read John chapter three, you'll see your concordance, a reference to the Proverbs chapter 30. Then in that moment, Jesus is saying, hey, you know the one Agor was looking for? That's me. I'm that one.
Wisdom is more than just the Proverbs, it's the person's name is Jesus Christ. If you get to know Jesus, you hear from him, you increase in learning from him, you obtain guidance from him and his people in relationship. If you get to know Jesus, you'll get to know wisdom. So what path are you on?
I wanna save some of y'all today. We're gonna talk about plans and finances and family over the next five weeks. We're gonna talk about specifics, but I wanna save you today. I do not want you to experience the pain of going down the path of folly.
I want some of us by the power of the Spirit in the name of Jesus to wake up to wisdom. And stop going down that path of folly. All of you know those areas of your life where you're going down the path of folly. You know that relationship, you know that text message that you gotta stop sending.
You know that financial area of your life. You gotta do something about a change. You know that conflict in your family. So right now, would you just choose the path of wisdom, the path of Jesus?
The one who knows all, would you increase the learning from him? Would you just make a commitment at the beginning of the series? I'm gonna come back for every week of the series. I'm gonna catch it online because I want to not just learn some words, I want to learn the words of Jesus and his wisdom for my life, for my family, for the people around me.
Imagine if we all did that in this room. Imagine if all of us did that watching online. How would that change your life and the lives of others? If we chose the path of wisdom and diverted from the path of folly.
Right now, not wait. If we did that today, that's what's before us. Would you make a decision to go the path of wisdom, the path of Jesus Christ? That's pretty good, the Father in heaven.
God, I thank you for clarity amidst the clouds. God, I pray that we would have that today. God, in our finances, in our plans, in our family, and in real life, street level situations. We would walk in wisdom, the Phoenix Bible Church would be known as a group of people.
They don't have everything right, they're imperfect people, move by the perfect love of Jesus, but they are wise and they're seeking the wisdom of Jesus Christ in relationship with you. God, we would know that your name is where we find wisdom. That's where the wisdom is, that's where the power is. That's how we can avoid the folly.
It's clinging to you, Jesus. Above everything else in our life, above our own instincts, above our own gut reaction to things, that we would cling to you, that we would declare the name of Jesus over every decision of our lives. God, I pray that over these men and women today. God, I thank you for accomplishing that and going before us.
God, we pray that in the name of Jesus. Everybody said amen.