Well, good morning, church. It's another glorious day to be in the house of the Lord. How's everybody doing today? All right. So let's start with reading a scripture. A faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time. And that's Titus one, two. All God's people said, Amen. All right, let's all stand together. We're going to raise praise. Oh, you made the earth and you made the stars You know my name, you know my heart You're always there, you're never far away So amazing, as you paint the sky so amazing see the birds ride on the winds they fly so high mountain peaks so tall they seem to touch the sky creation of your Show me something Love me like you do Love me like you do me my lord you're so amazing Dry and thirsty, so Try your thirsting soul Lord, hear our prayer Forgive our sin And as we call on your name Would you make this a place for your glory Come to your people, as we've grown here Hear us from heaven, touch our generation We are your people, crying out in desolation so Open the blind eyes, unlock the devil's Come to your people as we draw near Hear us from heaven So take a moment and greet the person next to you. Tell them your name. Tell them that you're glad to see them in the house of the Lord. I'd also like to ask the ushers to come forward. If the ushers could come forward. So Father God, we are privileged and grateful to be called your children and we get to call you Father. Lord, we want to take this opportunity that we want to give back a portion of what you provide. Lord, we are just thankful. Lord, I ask that you would accept these offerings, that you would multiply them and use them to glorify your name and your kingdom and all God's people said. Amen. Come out of sadness, from wherever you've been Come broken hearted, let rescue begin Come find your mercy, oh sinner come kneel Earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal Earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal ♪ Lay down your hurts, lay down your hearts ♪ ♪ Come as you are ♪ ♪ There's hope for the homeless and all the wretched arrayed ♪ ♪ Come sit at the table, come taste the grays ♪ ♪ There's rest for the weary So the Lord just wants to meet you right where you are, so just come to the Lord however you are. So why don't we all stand together, we're gonna dance like David danced. I just need... No longer will we give our hearts to the things of this world We will offer to you. We will for the day when every knee will bow. We will join with the angels around your throne. Music Music of this world we will offer to you Bless the Lord, O my soul O my soul Worship His holy name Sing like never before, oh my soul, I'll worship your holy name. dawning it's time to sing your songs again worship his holy name a thousand reasons day when my strength is failing the end draws near and my time has come still my soul will sing your praise All your hearts, go. I lost myself at a loss for words And the funny thing, it's okay The last thing I need is to be heard But to hear what you would say Your majesty to be still and know that you're in this place. Please let me stay and rest in your holiness. Word of God, speak now. ♪ Beyond the music, beyond the noise ♪ ♪ All that I need is to be with you ♪ ♪ And in the quiet, hear your voice ♪ ♪ Word of God speaking, would you pour down like rain ♪ ♪ Washing my eyes ♪ Please still let know that you're in this place. Please let me stay and rest in your holiness. Verticals begin to pour down like rain, washing my eyes to see your majesty. Please still let know ♪ Please let me stay and rest in Your holiness. ♪ ♪ Word of God, sweet day. ♪ ♪ ♪ you Come Thou Fount of every passing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, Praised the mount, I'm fixed upon it, Mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy side. And I hope by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus saw me when a stranger, wandering from the forest, How Your kindness yet pursues me How Your mercy never fails me Till the day that death shall lose me I will sing, O I will sing O to grace, how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be! Let thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to thee, Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above. How Your kindness yet pursues me, How Your mercy How Your mercy never fails me Till the day that death shall lose me I will sing, oh I will sing How Your kindness yet pursues me How Your mercy never fails me I will sing, oh I will sing. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above. Amen. Please seal our hearts, Lord. We praise You, Jesus. So you guys can have a seat. And if you're joining us online, welcome. God bless you and stay tuned for Pastor Jack. All right. Am I live, Cheryl? We're live. So we're going to continue in our series of Proverbs. And I'm going to ask you to follow along as I read the first five verses of chapter two. And as I read them, I want you to pay attention to what the scripture is saying to you and I. Although this is Solomon writing to his son, who's maybe 17 or 18 years of age at the time, I want you to be thinking about, what is the scripture saying to me? So follow along. My son, if, look at that word, if you will receive my sayings. and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding, another if coming, for if, if my son, you cry out for discernment and lift your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasure, You see that? Then, verse 5, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. Now as we continue to dig into the book of Proverbs, I need to ask you some important questions this morning. What is the counsel, and I don't have a slide for this ladies, what is the counsel that you're exposing yourself to day after day? Now it should be obvious to all of us by now that God has designed you and I, all of us, with an important need to receive counsel from Him. Every day you and I are bombarded, we are being counseled in some way, somehow, by someone. Now I want you to think with me this morning, church. If you're on any social media platforms today, your mind, your life, whether you realize it or not, is receiving some sort of counsel. Whether it's Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, or any of the others, there is this ongoing intense influence that is trying to speak into your life. Amen? Your life and its shapes, how you view the world that you live in, even the music that you and I listen to. So let's dig into the word of God this morning and apply it to our lives. Slide three and four. We're going backwards a little bit just to recap what we had looked at in our last time together. This was Proverbs 1, 32 and 33, the last verses of that chapter. For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But he who listens to me shall live securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil. And in the New Living Translation it says this, For the simpletons turn away from me to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency, but All who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm. So here Solomon is bringing to close his treatise on wisdom. And we've seen what happens to the naive person and what happens to the person who chooses to embrace wisdom from God as a way of life. We looked at that word waywardness. Now we don't really use that word a lot today, so what does that mean in today's vernacular? Well the word has the idea of turning away from what is right and proper. It has the idea of this willful disobedience, this headstrongness, this delinquency. And of course complacency describes a person who is just careless. A person who is smug and they're just satisfied with themselves wherever they're at. So here, Solomon is speaking of a person who is foolish, who has completely turned his back on God's wisdom. I hope that's none of us today, church. See, this person has a false sense of security and it's there because they're following their own foolish behavior right up to the moment God's judgment falls on them. And then we looked at what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. Look at the slide five in Ezekiel. Chapter 16, verse 49 and 50, ìBehold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore, I removed them when I saw it.î And, of course, the NLT says it this way, ìSodomís sins were pride. gluttony, laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She, Sodom, was proud and committed detestable sins. So I wiped her out as you've seen." Do we see a church? The person who chooses to reject God's wisdom is going to face the consequences of their decisions. It's their choice. Look at slide 7. This begs the question. Where has rejecting God's wisdom shown up in your life? Oh, it's getting quiet now, Dr. Carter. Think about it. Do we see where it shows up in our lives? Where we want our own way? See, there is this turning away from God, and that's what causes a person's own destruction. But look at slide 8. But there's that clause, that word but. All who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm. I want to share some powerful words from one of my very favorite authors, Dr. Ed Welch. Slide 9 and 10. This is what Dr. Welch says. And we looked at this almost a month ago. Imagine having temptations lose their allure because there is more pleasure in walking humbly with our Lord. Imagine waking up and strategizing how to please God, who loves you, rather than where you will get your next drink or fix from. Ooh, this would be freedom. He goes on to say, slide 10, the basic idea behind the fear of the Lord, however, is much broader than our modern understanding of fear. While the holiness of God will leave many knees knocking when Jesus comes again, a mature fear of the Lord is more akin to awe, devotion, and worship. It is a response that says, your glory is irresistible. Your glory is irresistible, God. In your presence, nothing else matters. You are all that I desire. Church, can we say that this morning? Slide 11 and 12. So now we dig into chapter 2. My son. You can, you know, our English doesn't always do good, but you can feel the emotion in a father's voice. Son, if you will receive my words. Son, if you will, if you will treasure my commandments within you. Or as the NLT says, son, son, listen to what I'm saying. Treasure my commands. So let me ask you this question, looking at that verse, what kind of temple are you? So why do I ask that question? What does that mean, Pastor Jack? Well, I'm glad you asked. You see, Solom is using what we call the conditional clause here. He's using that word if. You know, if and then, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments. So, the idea here of receiving in the Hebrew has the idea, church, to accept or to take into one's possession. Solomon wants his son to take his commandments into his heart as a possession. It has the idea also, receive, of storing up treasure or hiding and concealing something, but for a definite purpose. So there's a lot of meaning wrapped around that word receive in the Hebrew there. So the idea is this. This would be kind of a way that if it was me talking to my son, I would say, son, listen, I have something that you need and do not yet possess. I have knowledge and wisdom, son, that you need. So you need to humble yourself and be willing to receive it. Look at slide 13. John Kitchen says this way. He says, well, the humanistic notion that all I must do is look within myself is worse than nonsense. It's demonic. because God has what we don't yet possess. The first conditional statement teaches me who I am. I am a person who needs God's counsel. Well, Pastor Jack, how do we back that up? I'm glad you asked. Slide 14. James 3.15, he says, this wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but earthly, natural, and demonic. Now church, do you and I remember where the commandments were housed back in Solomon's day? They were housed in the inner sanctuary which was called the Holy of Holies or the Naos. So you have the Hurion, that's the temple overall. And then, you know, there's a court of Gentiles and a court of women. And as they go more and more into the center, you have a place in the center called the Holy of Holies. In the Greek, it's called the naos. That was the holiest place in the temple. And that's where the priest would go in once a year to take the blood from an unblemished lamb and sprinkle it on the ark as an appeasement for Israel's sin, as a covering for their sin. So that was the Holies of Holies. And what Jesus talks about in Matthew 6, 21, slide 15, is where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So if you will receive my words and treasure my commands within you, okay? So I want you to think about that. You and I, whether we want to agree or not or admit it or not, we all live every day in pursuit of something. In fact, whether we want to admit it or not, we actually orchestrate our lives by how close you and I are to come to getting that thing that we're chasing after. I want you to be thinking this morning, what is that valuable thing that you chase after day after day that you think you need? What is it? I watched the lottery and puke all over the floor because they're sitting there, you know, $1.3 billion. You got a broke person that can't take care of 50 grand a year and he's going to manage that? Yeah, okay, right. So think about what is that valuable thing that you're chasing after every day that you think you need? Remember, what you treasure most controls your heart and desires and controls your life. So Solomon, knowing this is what his son's heart needs to be, he wants his son's heart to be an inner sanctuary, a naos, to house the Word of God. That's where he was driving at. He wants that to be the place where you have the Word of God sitting at. In fact, slide 16, Psalm 119.11. David says, your word I have treasured, where? In my heart, that I might not what? Sin against thee. Church, Solomon wants these commands to be the guiding principle in his son's life. He wants his son to pay close attention to them in his life. Wherever he goes, those commandments are treasured and housed in him. He wants his son to live them out every day in his daily life. Can we say that we do the same thing? See, God wants that for you and for me. God wants us to have a Biblical worldview, not like the fool who lives in a secular world full and has God out of his life. Look at slide 17 and 18, Proverbs 10, 14. Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish ruin is at hand. Or as the NLT says it, The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin. Hear me this morning. Wisdom comes to you and I by receiving God's word implanted in our heart. His inspired, infallible, inerrant word planted in our heart's church. What does James tell us? Slide 19. James 121, therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness in humility, receive what? What does the Bible say? Receive the word what? Implanted, which is able to save your souls. Or, slide 20. James says to this young church, get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives. He doesn't say set it aside to play with it and toy with it later on, because toying with sin just destroys you. He says, get rid of all filth and evil in your lives and humbly accept or receive the word of God implanted into your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. Hear me this morning. James is saying essentially the same thing Solomon is teaching his son, the word received. James says, receive the word implanted. Now, the Greek word is decame. It has the idea of the same thing, taking to oneself what is presented or brought to another. Take it and have it implanted, and futas. Has the idea of planting a seed in the ground. Webster's Dictionary defines that this way, slide 21. To put something in a specified place to insert firmly. Church is God's word being inserted firmly into your lives. So the decisions you make in your life are consistent with God's will for your life. The idea here is that God's Word is to be planted, and not just planted, but taking root, germinating in the believer's heart. We are to receive it and take possession of it and have it grow. You see, He wants us to do that with a submissive and teachable spirit. He wants us to have hearts that are cleansed from pride and selfishness. Hearts that are cleansed from gross moral corruption and wickedness. He ends that verse with, which is able to save your soul. Church, it is God's word that brings us to the truth of the gospel. Don't let any false prophet tell you there's any other way. You're reading what the text says. The power to save your soul. Receive God's Word planted in your hearts. It is the power to save your soul. It is God's Word that shows you and I the way of salvation. Remember Paul's teaching back in Romans 116, slide 22? Paul says, I am not. He uses a form of speech called litotes. It tells you what something is by what it isn't. I am not ashamed of the gospel, the eugalion. Why? It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew and also the Greek. Do you see a church? It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Look at how Paul Washer, another one of my favorite authors, spells it out. This is what Paul Washer says. This is slides 23 through 25. Now I want you to take a good look at this and really chew on it. This is important stuff. Paul Washer says, to receive the gospel is to reject the world. He goes on to say, to receive and follow the gospel call is to reject all that can be seen with the eye and held in the hand in exchange for what cannot be seen. It is to reject personal autonomy and the right to self-government in order to enslave oneself to a Messiah, that's Jesus, who died 2,000 years ago as an enemy of the state and a blasphemer. It is to reject the majority and its views in order to join oneself to a berated and seemingly insignificant minority called the church. Slide 25. It is to risk everything in this one and only life in the belief that the impaled prophet is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. And He indeed is. So to receive, slide 25, to receive the gospel is not merely to pray a prayer and asking Jesus to come into your heart, but it is to put away the world and embrace the fullness of the claims of Christ. A man who receives the gospel trusts exclusively in the person and work of Jesus Christ as the only way of right standing before God. Amen? Don't you ever forget any of that, church. So let's go back to Proverbs. In Proverbs 133, Solomon says, but he who, slide 26, listens to me, slide 27, Bruce Waukee says this. To pay attention to a command entails carrying it out. Change of being, that's the Greek word metanoia, which means basically you go in the opposite direction, is not brought about by straining and willpower, but a long deep process of unselfing. Oh, unselfing church. So look at Proverbs 2.2, slide 28 and 29. Solomon, again, just admonishing his son, says, son, make your ear attentive to wisdom. Incline your heart to understanding. Slide 29. Son, tune your ears to wisdom. Son, concentrate. concentrate on understanding. So the real question, this begs the question, okay, well Solomon, what did you mean when you said make your ear attentive? The Hebrew word is kashab. It means to pay close attention, be very mindful and observant. He wants his son to really tune in to what he's saying because it's life and death. That Hebrew word for incline your ear to understanding has the idea to stretch church, to spread out by implication, to bend down. You're bending over and you're really trying to listen. What are you saying, Dad? Dad, what are you telling me? John Kitchen says this, Psalm 30, to incline one's ear, or I'm sorry, to incline one's heart is to extend it, to bend it purposely in a certain direction. The heart is the center of who you are. It describes our intellectual and reasoning and ability. So you can see the emotion in this father's voice of what he's trying to get across. Son, bend your ear, listen to what I'm saying. Slide 30, he goes on to say, if I am to function wisely and successfully in God's world, it will require knowing who I am, what I value, and who I listen to. I want to read that one more time. Tune in on what I just said there. If I am to function wisely and successfully in God's world, it will require knowing who I am. What do I value? What do I listen to? So Solomon wants his son to tune in, pay close attention, and obey what God commands. And he wants the same for you and for me, church. Hear me this morning. I want to apply this to where we are today. I want you to listen to this. Be very careful who and what you listen to. Why don't you look at slide 31 and 32. Look at this. Here's a way of us taking it today and putting it into where we sit today. When you listen to music on the radio or on your laptop, on your cell phone, ask yourself this question. Where is that music taking you? What does it make you think about? As a musician growing up in a secular world before I got saved, I listened to stuff that I couldn't even imagine today. So when you listen to music on the radio, ask yourself, where is it taking me? What's it make me think about? Is the music I'm listening to, is it earthly? Is it fleshly? Is it sensual? Is it demonic? If you're watching TV or movies, what are you listening to as well as watching? Where is it taking you? What's it make you think about? Imagine standing before God on Judgment Day and He's playing the real tape back of the things we listen to and watch. Would we be ashamed? I know I would. How about you? Is it fleshly? Is it sensual? Is it demonic? What does it have you thinking about? How is it shepherding you, discipling you, counseling you? Where's it taking your mind? Be very careful to who you listen to and who you allow to speak into your life. We need to be stretching out our entire being, hunkering down and listening to what God wants us to listen to. So in reflecting back over this chapter where Solomon is warning his son against participating in sinful behaviors, You know, this all had me looking back at James 1.21 again. When we refuse to study and implant God's Word into our hearts, church, listen, when we refuse, this is where we see the breakdown in our lives, breakdown in our homes, our families, breakdown in society, and breakdown into the lives of others. You counsel people just by your behavior every day. So many people today, they choose not to value the scriptures enough to invest any time in studying it, but they can watch 17 hours a day of TV, and then they wonder why their lives are shipwrecked. They wonder why there's nothing changing. Well, what do you feed in your mind? Fathers not leading their families or discipling their wives and kids. Look once more at James' teaching on slide 30. James is admonishing the believers to receive the words of the Lord with humility, just exactly like Solomon wanted for his son. Look at James 1.21 again. Putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness and humility, receive the word and plan which is able to save your souls. And of course the NLT. Get rid of, get rid of all filth and evil in your lives. Humbly accept or receive the Word of God that has implanted into your hearts for it has the power to save your souls. So let's break this down for a moment because we want to take the Word of God and apply it to where we are today so it can tell us where we need to make the course corrections, Church. Notice he says, putting away all filthiness. That word, putting away, is actually two Greek words. Apo, meaning away from something, right? Avoiding something. Apo means away from something or avoiding. Tithame means to place. So what does James want us to put away? What does he want us to avoid and forsake and get rid of? He lists it right here in the Bible for you. Filthiness. Hupereiae. Filthiness. That has the idea, church, of grossly indecent or gross moral corruption. It even has the idea of this dirty, foul, like dirty smelling garments. He ties this with an all that remains of wickedness. Kekos is where we get the word evil from. Kekeia has the idea of depravity. Totally evil. In what he's talking about here, church, this is important. He's talking about deliberate behavior. See, that kikia, that word in the Greek, has all the flavor of sin that is deliberate and intentional. So, anything that we are doing deliberately and intentionally that we know to be wrong, get rid of it! If you have filth in your home that you shouldn't be viewing, get rid of it! Amen? He says, and all that remains, look at slide 35 with me. Have we stripped these behaviors from our lives yet? Or are we still practicing these behaviors as a way of life? Is there any part of our lives where we still find ourselves practicing or involving ourselves in any grossly indecent, morally corrupt behavior? I want you to think about it. Just take a look over your life the past week. Is there any part of my life where I still find myself practicing or involving ourselves? Is there anything I'm watching I shouldn't be looking at? Anything I'm listening to, I shouldn't really be listening to that. Do I have friends in my life that are encouraging me to do things that I know are grossly evil and immoral? Those things that God has taught in his word to be sinful, are we still deliberately, are we kikias? Are we deliberately and intentionally practicing these behaviors as a way of life? It's quiet in here, Dr. Carter. Are there things in my home and your home that need to be thrown out and getting rid of that have a seductive influence over my behavior? Think about that. I want to share with you something that Wayne Mack says, another great theologian. Because to get rid of all that means I've got to humble myself. And one, I have to confess my sin to the Lord. Lord, I have willfully been disobeying you, knowing it's wrong. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to continually cleanse us from all unrighteousness, 1 John 1.9. So look at what Wayne Mack says about humility. Humility then consists in an attitude wherein we recognize our own insignificance and unworthiness before God and attribute to Him the supreme honor, praise, prerogatives, rights, privileges, worship, devotion, authority, submission, and obedience that He, God alone, deserves. It also involves a natural, habitual tendency to think and behave in a manner that appropriately expresses that attitude. Do we have that attitude towards God? Or do we like to play God in our own lives? Slide 38. In other words, the attitude of humility is always seen in humble, Actions. It means having a servant's mindset and always putting self last. Ouch. Cuts to the heart, doesn't it, church? Slide 39. Think with me about behaviors that are opposite of humility. These are behaviors that would be the opposite. Our behaviors and our relationships are driven by what we want, not God's purpose. Is that true about us? Is our behaviors in our relationships, are those behaviors driven by what we want, not God's purpose? Think about it in marriage. We can easily manipulate the truth to get what we want out of relationships. We can find ourselves controlling relationships by venting our anger or by holding it over a person to control him or her. Remember what you did four years, 22 minutes ago? Ah. You know, it's like we're sin archaeologists. We're angry at somebody. So we're going to grab something they did like five, 10 years ago. We're going to resurrect it. And we're going to hurl it like a weapon, a master truck. What you did 10 years ago, three minutes ago, 22 seconds ago, ah. I know none of you all do that, so that's OK. How about this one? We want to protect what we have rather than offer it to serve others. They are behaviors that are the opposite of humility. If we see ourselves in those behaviors, we need to repent. We need to metanoia. We need to confess and turn away from them. You see, these behaviors, Church, are clearly the opposite of humility. which means that we should be esteeming others as greater than ourselves. Humility is very, very important to God. In fact, God will often let us fail our way into true self-knowledge. Think about it, slide 40. Here's one I know some of you will like. Have you ever asked God time and time and time and time and time again to deliver you from an ongoing sin in your life, but it's like crickets, you hear no response from him? Ever do that? Lord, if you just take this addiction away from me, I'll never do it again, God. No, never. You might ask questions like, God, where are you? Hello, do you hear me, God? You see, God will all, and I know this in my own life, believe me. I'm preaching to the choir here. God will often allow us to stew in our problems. for a purpose, and that purpose of stewing in our problems is to deepen our humility and bring you and I to the end of ourselves. You see, church, our need to be humbled is sometimes greater than our need for deliverance. He hasn't cooked us enough yet. So then here is God's answer. Hey, child, child, do you hear me? That's the question. You know, we could put God on trial and say, do you hear me, God? But God's like, whoa, whoa, hold on. Do you hear me? And when people's Bibles are closed up and they got more dust on them than a farm out in the middle of Arizona, and then they're wondering, well, God, you don't speak to me. Well, you know what? You're not allowing me to speak to you. You're more interested in watching the 500th episode of Law and Order and CSI. Oh, Dr. Carter, I'm stepping on toes now. But that Bible sits there, and sits there, and sits there. And the one that gives you the wisdom to change your life, it's crickets, because you're not allowing to speak to them. Because see, the Holy Spirit never works independently from the word. How about Isaiah 66 to slide 41? For my hands made all things, thus all things came into being, declares Yahweh. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word." Now take a look at that verse, which is every day you open up your Bible, I promise you it's still there. It's still there. Look at that verse and ask yourself, am I humble and contrite in my spirit? Do I tremble at all at the Word of God? Am I that close to God that I can almost smell Him, that I tremble at His Word and its effect that it has on my life? C.J. Mahaney says this in Psalm 42. Look at this. Humility draws the gaze of our sovereign God. Let me read that again. I want to make sure that penetrates. Humility draws the gaze of our sovereign God. Here he is addressing the Israelites, a people chosen by God from among all the nations of the earth. They possessed the temple, they possessed the law of God, but they didn't tremble at his word. In a sense, they had everything going for them except what was most important, they lacked humility before God. Let's look at Proverbs 2, we're almost done. Listen, I only have about 28 pages to go. You'll be out of here by 4 o'clock, I promise. No, I'm almost done. Proverbs 2, here's another clause, that if again. For if, son, if you cry out for discernment. Son, if you lift your voice for understanding, or as the NLT says, if you cry out for insight. and ask, ask for understanding. Notice those two verbs there, those two action words there, cry and lift your voice. Both of these words, as they are used here in this text, have the idea of a person who is desperately pleading because they know they lack the wisdom that they need. There is this crying out for knowledge and understanding. So again, how does God speak to us? Church, he speaks to us as we study and we commit his word to memory. People can memorize, you know, here's something from 1970s. Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. We still remember that. Boy, they counseled us good. It won't kill me, right? But that's the point I'm trying to make here. There is this crying out for knowledge and understanding. That's what was going on there with Israel. So God speaks to us as we study and we commit His Word to memory. The Holy Spirit takes it and makes that Word personal and intimate in our lives. And He really does do that if you get into the Word. Wisdom is found as we pay careful attention to God when He speaks to us. Let me say that one more time so you're not asleep. Wisdom is found as we pay careful attention to God when He speaks to us. As I have said it many times before, the Holy Spirit never works independently from the Word. Let me close with a summary from the Preacher's Outline in the Sermon Bible, slide 45-46. I want you to encourage you this morning to try to commit some of these principles to memory. We can find wisdom by receiving God's holy inspired word. If we drop dead today, Dr. Carr and I will always do one thing, point you to the word, point you to the word, point you to the word. Not to us, but to the word. We can find wisdom by recognizing what a priceless treasure God's Word is by studying and storing this treasure into our hearts so that it will be there when we need it. We can find wisdom by paying attention to God when He speaks to us. And it's 546. We can find wisdom, how? By yielding our will to God so we can understand His Word. And we can find wisdom by prayer. We can find wisdom by earnestly, diligently searching for it. And it's found in the Scriptures. If you want to change 2023 for yourself, Why don't you commit to taking two or three minutes a day and reading one chapter of Proverbs every day? Do you realize if you read just one chapter of Proverbs, just one a day, at the end of one year, you will have read every chapter 12 times. Don't tell me that can't change your life. Just read it and say, God, what are you saying to me through it? Get on your face, get on your knees and say, Lord, work with me, help me. Unless you want to keep repeating the same year, year after year, expecting a different result without doing anything and wondering why everything is the way it was last year. God speaks to us through his word. I'm going to ask you to bow your heads this morning. I know that we covered a lot of material this morning. I want you to think about where you are right now with your walk with the Lord. We learned about Elvis Presley's daughter. I'm sure she did not realize that at 54 years of age, she would die of a heart attack. She didn't know when she was going to die, but she's dead. It's appointed once for a person to die and then a judgment. I want you to think clearly about this. This is the one thing, whether you're a believer or non-believer, everybody can agree on. Someday you're going to drop dead. You are going to draw your last breath on earth, and that's it. There's no, what's behind door number two, Johnny? That's it, you're done. It is appointed once for a person to die, then to judgment. Ask yourself this, if you were to drop dead today, somehow you had no clue you were going to die, but you were to die today, and you were to stand before God, and God was to look you straight in the face and say, why should I let you into heaven? I want you to think about what your answer because there's only one correct answer to that question. There's not five or ten. Just think about it. If you were to drop dead today, you had no idea you were going to die, next thing you know, you're there and you're ushered before the great beam of seat of the Lord. The Bible says we must all appear before the judgment seat of God to give an account of the deeds we did while we're here on earth alive, whether good or bad. There's one answer, church. is to look at him and say, because I placed my faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, his death on that cross, that crimson blood that was spilled to pay my sin debt in full. You can't buy that. You can't earn it. You can't negotiate for it. All you can do is receive it. It's a gift. You, you come to the end of yourself. You're real. Listen, there's no act by what you and I could ever do to make ourselves right with God, because it's all God's plan. The only thing that God the Father will accept to allow you into heaven is that His Son Jesus Christ paid it all. The worst about you, the very worst about me, the Father took and He placed the worst about you and me onto His Son. And He took the very best of His Son and He placed it on you. So when you stand before the Father, you are covered in the blood of Christ. This one's mine, dad. So if you are here today and you have not surrendered your life to Christ, I want to encourage you to surrender your life to Christ as he has been freely now offered to you in the gospel. Listen, being good does not get you into heaven. Being good does not save you. Tithing doesn't save you. Baptism doesn't save you. There's no second chance when you die. There's no other place you go where you get to do it all over again. It is appointed once, hap hakslama, once for a person to die than to judgment. So please understand that church. Someday you and I both know we're not going to wake up here. And if everything God said in his word is right and you have not surrendered your life to him, you're in trouble. You are in trouble because God will not allow sin into heaven. I picture Jesus, when you surrender your life to Him, He takes that robe of righteousness, He wraps it around and He says, here, let me take you to the Dad, let me take you to the Father. So if you were here this morning, please, I want to encourage you to surrender your life to Jesus Christ. He is the way, He is the truth, He is the life. And no one comes through the Father except through the Son. Amen? May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His counsel upon you and give you peace. In Yeshua's name, amen.