I'll tell you what, we can see the signs of Jesus coming back. Yeah, it could be today. Well, we're gonna go to, not there. Proverbs chapter two we're gonna start out in. Proverbs chapter two. The Bible talks about wisdom, and it's real important that we get some of it, especially in the day and age we're in, not just for knowing to understand the Bible, but to guide us in each day. We need wisdom of God, not of the world. There's two different types of wisdom. If you follow your heart, you know where that leads you. That's already deceived you. So let's look at some wisdom today and we'll see if we can get something from God that'll last us for a while. Let's pray. Father, we love you and thank you that we can stand before you, Lord, and worship you in truth and wisdom. Lord and God, I just pray that you would meet with us tonight. Lord, I pray for each and every heart that's here. I pray for our pastor and his family which travel all around the country, and Lord, I just pray you'd keep them safe. Be their buckler tonight, Lord. Be their intimate protector. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In Proverbs chapter two, it says, and my son, if thou will receive my words and hide my commandments with thee. There's the instruction. receive his words, a lot of times we, I was telling Sunday school today, we doubt God when he tells us to do something. And we should never doubt God. God will never steer us wrong, he'll never tell us to do wrong. He's a God that cannot lie, and he will not tempt you to do wrong. And if you're tempted to do wrong, you know it's not of God. And so he gives us instructions on how to get there. If you're not reading the book, you'll never find wisdom. So that thou incline thy ear unto wisdom. Is your ears inclined to wisdom? And apply thine heart to understanding. Yea, if thou cryest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding, God says if you have, you have not, because you ask not. We just, we fail to ask God for things every day. I do. And so, he says, it's right here, you just gotta ask for it. And then he says here, if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as four hid treasures, then thou shall understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Boy, if you lost your wallet, you'd be digging for that, wouldn't you? If you lost, say, your wife was stranded or your spouse, I should say, was stranded somewhere in the country, you'd do desperate things to try to find her or him, him or her. And he's saying, you gotta look, you gotta knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Come before the Lord, and he won't let you down. Find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth, cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous. He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shall thou understand righteousness and judgment and equity, yea, every good path. I wrote down here, as God being our buckler, It reminded me of a close, intimate protection. You know, when you were off fighting wars, there was a close, intimate protection with you, the Holy Ghost. He protects us when we're out in the world. Let's run over here. I was thinking of this over here in 1 Kings 13, verse four. This is close, intimate protection. And it says, and it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the sayings of the man of God, which had cried against the altar of Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it back, pull it in again unto him. God is closely protecting us. This guy thought he was gonna lay hold on the man of God and his arm dried up. And I just took that to be an intimate protection that we maybe overlook sometimes. And if we're not thinking about having this protection, our heart or our flesh is not gonna allow us to do the things that God wants us to do. Because in our flesh dwells no good thing, as Paul said, right? So we have to be careful and we have to trust God that if he wants you to witness to somebody, just witness to him. If he wants you to, who knows what he wants you to do? Maybe he wants you to preach the frogs on a stump in the swamp. Right? You just do what God says and trust him, that he is the way, the truth and the life. Now let's go over here to, to first, or James, excuse me, James chapter one. And we'll go through this a little bit. James chapter one. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when you've fallen into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. None of us like to be tried very much. It's a tough thing to go through. God allows it for a reason. That's why we have to continue to remember that He's our intimate protection. And then we can focus on what He's trying to do with us. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Hear that? We're in need of nothing if we're doing God's perfect work. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and abradeth not, and it shall be given unto him. Let's stop there. There's a few things I was thinking about that we need to ask God in wisdom for. we should ask God to put a little bit of fire back in our soul. Why? For the world. We were saved that we might serve God and win souls. It was just a couple of guys God chose to be his disciples and they turned the world upside down for Christ because they were on fire for God. They lost their lives for it. And sometimes Even I have to wonder. God said to Paul, I'll show him what things he will suffer for my name's sake. What things will I suffer for God's name's sake? That he wouldn't give me grace to get through, because that's what he does. I remember hearing the testimony of a guy, and I can't remember his name, but he was martyred. tried to light him on fire, and he was singing gospel hymns till his arm fell off. And he just kept singing. And then they went and stabbed him until he died. He just kept on going. He said, it doesn't hurt what you do to me. God gave him grace. to get through, why? Because he was a test. Listen, this happened a long, long time ago. And here I am telling it behind the pulpit. And I heard it from the pulpit. We must be asking God for wisdom to put a little bit of faith back in our Savior. Not just fire in our soul, but faith in our Savior. When we doubt God, we lose a little bit of faith, because it's faith that keeps us going. We cannot please God without faith. And we need to remember that at all times. We need to remember, no, God said, he'll not tempt us to do wrong. God said, if he tells you to do it, do it. When God told me on vacation, I just happened to, so Tabitha and I were here in church. You've heard the story before, but I'll say it again. I made sure before we even left Michigan that we had a church to go to while we were here. And not only did I get locked in an elevator in Whitefish before we came to service, I still made it here on time. And in that first service, Pastor Bergstrom preached to me the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit said, this is where I want you. And that's why we're here, because I was in church where God could speak to me. Isn't it interesting how in righteousness, he can guide you where he wants. Back home, I asked him, Lord, While we're in Montana, I need to go to a church that you would approve of. And so I looked up a bunch of churches in the area, and when I read the doctrinal statement here, the Holy Spirit gave me peace to know this is where he wanted us, and this is where we are. God gives us wisdom when we ask He wants us to know His will for our life. It's not been easy. You miss people that you leave, but you love people that He brings you to. And as believers, we love one another through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we serve together. to be a testament to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every time you and I leave our driveway to go to church on Sunday and Wednesday, everybody around your neighborhood watches you go and come back. That's a testament. They know where you're going. They know when you're dressed up with your wife and leaving for church. Yeah. And they know when you pick her up, you're going to church. Our neighbors know when we leave the driveway together in a race to get here, we're going to church. Stephen always wants to race Mr. Eisler. We can't never seem to beat him though. One of these days. But we need to put a little faith back in our Savior because we can't please Him without it. We need to ask God to put some fault back in myself. I have to be careful that my pride don't rise. I don't know about you, but I get prideful sometimes And I have to realize that's a fault of mine. God hates pride. And if I come here with pride, He don't want me up here. He don't want us doing this in our flesh. He don't want us leaving for church in the flesh. We have to remember, we're faulty. But God says, If you'll confess your sin, I'll be faithful and just to forgive you of your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Not only did he forgive you for the sin that you confessed, but he forgave you for the sin you forgot about. He made you clean again so he could operate in you and I. Isn't God great? I'll never forget the day, March 22nd, 2009, when I knew I'd been reading the Bible for a month and the Holy Spirit came upon me at home and I knew I was lost and on my way to hell. I was actually scared to drive to church because I didn't want to get in an accident and go to hell. And I knew that was the last time the Holy Spirit would deal with me. And I knew when I bowed my knee to the Savior and asked him to forgive me of my sin and make Jesus Christ my Savior. Boy, oh boy, there was a change in my heart that took place. I knew the Holy Spirit had dwelt me at that moment, and it changed my life forever. You have not, because you ask not. We gotta ask God sometimes to put some fun back in our service. Sometimes we can get down and out. Sometimes, who knows, maybe it's 100 degrees that holds us down a little bit. Maybe it's something else. Maybe something happened in our lives that is discouraging. It's hard for me to know that pastor's mom passed away. I've not went through that yet. My mom's still alive. But that hurts me. I feel bad for them. and it gets me down if I'm not careful. I got to give it to God and ask him to bless them and take care of them. They're coming from all around the country. Even people that's not rightly family, but friends. We don't want things to hold us back from the fun. You know, it's joyful to serve the Lord. When you're having fun, there's some joy involved. You've always got a smile on your face when you're serving the Lord with all your heart. We need to ask God to put some fear back in our service for God. Fear of disappointing the Savior. I know we all do that once in a while. All we got to do is not do what he wants. I just don't feel like going to church. I felt like that recently with my arm hurting and my back and my hip and just all this stuff. And I just think God wouldn't mind me not going to church tonight. You have the mind of Christ. It comes back to answer you. You need to go to church. That's what I called you to do. That's part of your service to me. We need to fear God. There's a verse in Jeremiah. Let's see if I can find it real quick. Maybe I don't. Well, it talks about us not fearing God because we're backslidden. And it says that it's because my fear is not in you anymore. And we gotta be careful when we get to that point that we bend the knee to God and ask him to forgive us and restore that fellowship. Because we can get out far enough, he says, you won't return. See, God only, he only will bring us back if we wanna come back. God says, if you will not follow me, you must go your own way. And so when God's standing here with us and we go this way and God still stands there, we're away from God. That's how it works. And until we decide to turn back to God, he just lets us go. And then we're in trouble. Oops. So we need to ask God to keep that fear in our hearts so we won't stray from Him. Keep that intimate relationship going and you won't disappoint the Savior. He wants fellowship. We need to ask God to put the fallen back in our sight. There's people that were here one day and now they're gone. Some of them are saved and some of them aren't. We don't know. God says they went out from among us because they're not of us. He says some of them just fallen. Something happened, maybe they were discouraged over the carpet, over the chairs, Maybe somebody said something to him, oh, I'm not going back there again. I've seen this all in church before. In my short time of being saved. I've seen 47 people walk out the door in a week. Because there was some of this going on. Five deacons and families, song leaders, Poof. Gone. We need to put some of these fallen back in our sight. We need to ask God to help us redeem some of them. If they're saved, they need to be here. Maybe some of you know some of these people. We love you. Why don't you come back and serve with us? We need to ask God to put some food back in our service from the sermon. If we don't want what God has, it's not gonna work right. But if we'll eat it, and we'll fill up on it, I say dive deep, see down long, and come up full into this book. and it'll fill you up. There's been times I didn't even eat real food the rest of the day after I spent so much time in here. I forgot I was hungry. Because the word of God is everything to us. Jesus is our savior and he wants us to be filled up with his word. Keep my commandments, he says. Paul was, you know the story about Paul, witnessed the death, took part in the death of Stephen on the road, before he went on the road to Damascus. And that was such a testimony. I believe when he looked up and saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God, he's being stoned, he's being chewed on, he's being beaten, and he just looks up to heaven. I can see myself trying to get away. Lord, forgive them. for they know not what they do. And he fell asleep. And that worked a story in Paul's heart, didn't it? It wasn't long after that he met Jesus. He got lighted off his horse. And the first thing he said was, Lord, what would thou have me to do? He went from killer to saint in a minute. And you know the rest of the story. He served till he lopped his head off. He wrote most of the books in the New Testament. They witnessed him being bitten by a poisonous snake. Nothing happened to him. You know why? He had an intimate protection. They called him a devil. The world did. He must be a devil to get bit by the snake and not die. No, he knew the Savior, and the Holy Spirit protected him from that bite. Why? So he could be a testimony unto those around him. We need to be asking Jesus to make us a blessing to somebody that we cross tomorrow, or the next day, or maybe this week. Help us be a blessing, not just to one another, but to the lost. I love seeing visitors coming. I seen a new visitor today. Now, I think his name was Ian. I don't remember now. Evan. Yeah. Came in with a smile on his face, shook my hand. He was excited to be here. Were they from another church? Oh, okay. Well, praise the Lord for that. And then we've seen Scott here today. That was good. He's been going through a lot. But let's not get away from asking Jesus for a little bit of wisdom, because he wants to give it to us. He wants us to have the wisdom to raise our kids, to reach the lost, to stay really tight fellowship with one another. Isn't God good? He is the best. Let's pray.