Welcome to the Susquehanna Valley Baptist Pulpit, preaching a life worth living, abundant life in Christ, and now the message. This year's theme, as Pastor Starnes had mentioned, is Above and Beyond for Christ, taken of course from Philippians chapter 2. Verse number 21, which says, And now the verses surrounding that, as Pastor Starnes had mentioned, they are certainly encouraging, talking about Timothy, but if you were just to look at that one verse by itself, that's a very sad verse. It's a sad verse that all seek their own and not things which are Jesus Christ. The sad part is of course we know that the world, that certainly applies to the world, that applies to those that don't know Jesus Christ as their Savior, but the sad and unfortunate thing is there are a lot of believers as well who don't seek the things of Christ, even as believers. I'm going to preach two messages today about the things that we need to be seeking as believers. But especially as young people, what should you be seeking as a young person? What should you be seeking? The thing that I want to focus on in this message is sadly what I believe most young people do not focus on in their lives and do not seek in their lives. And that's because most people, and I would even throw in adults, even adults think that the thing we're going to talk about today is only achieved with age. That the only thing that can bring about this thing that we ought to be seeking is age, but the truth of the matter is nothing can be further from the truth. I want to speak this morning on the subject of the importance as a young person, and of course this applies to all believers, but especially you as a young person, the importance of seeking after wisdom. Seeking wisdom. Now we know who is wisdom personified? Jesus Christ. And so we ought to be seeking. Of course, we need to go above and beyond seeking Christ, and part of that is seeking wisdom. You know, every person, whether you're young, old, whether they're lost or saved, every person that's ever lived seeks after something. We all seek after something, but as believers, there is something that ought to be the principal pursuit of our life, something that we are seeking after as the foundation of our life. What is it? What is it? It's the same thing for young people and adults. The principal priority of our lives should be the pursuit of wisdom. It should be wisdom. Look at Proverbs chapter four, verse number five, it says, Get understanding, forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee. Love her, talking about wisdom, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is what? Everybody say it with me. Wisdom is what? Come on, I know you guys can say it a little bit louder than that. Wisdom is the principle thing. It's the principle thing. Therefore, get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding. Solomon says, Solomon of course is writing the book of Proverbs and he says wisdom is the principal thing. It is the primary thing that we ought to be seeking. Anybody know who Solomon is writing this book to? Anybody know? his son, right? He's writing it to his son. And he said, of all the things, son, that is clamoring for your time and for your attention and trying to get your focus and attention, he says, son, don't forget, don't neglect wisdom. And when you get wisdom, get it with all of your getting. You know, one of the greatest false views, again, of wisdom, as I already mentioned, is that wisdom is the result of age. You know, when we think of somebody wise, what do we normally think of? We think of somebody that's old, we think of somebody that has a long gray beard, right? We think of somebody that is up in age. And we think that only age or experience alone is what brings wisdom, but that's not true. That's not true. I'm gonna be honest with you this morning. I've met a lot of young people. I was a youth pastor for many, many years. For over 20 years, I was a youth pastor at multiple churches. And throughout my years of working with young people, one thing has been evident to me. I have met a lot of intelligent young people. I've met a lot of clever young people, very talented, very gifted young people. And there's no doubt that some of you or all of you fall into those categories as well. But you know what I haven't met? I've rarely met a wise young person, a wise teenager. Why is that? Is that because young people are incapable of being wise? Is that why? No. The reason is because most young people don't see the pursuit of wisdom as being important in their life. Friends are important, sports are important, relationships are important, hobbies are important, right? And we make those things a priority in our life, but rarely do I see a young person that wants to make wisdom a priority in their life. And the same can be true, by the way, of adults. Again, this message applies to adults as well, so if there's any adults in the room, I'm not just preaching to the young people, I'm preaching to myself as well. In Proverbs chapter eight, wisdom is crying out. Wisdom is trying to get the attention of people. And it says in verse number four of Proverbs eight, unto men, unto you all men I call and my voice to who? The sons of men. Wisdom is crying out saying, look for me, find me. I'm here for you to find. The problem is not that wisdom is not available. The problem is people aren't looking for it. People aren't seeking it. Wisdom is seeking for people. Wisdom is seeking for young people. but how many people are seeking it? The book of Proverbs was written again to a young man, Solomon's son, who Solomon was begging and instructing his son to seek after wisdom. What is wisdom? Well, we all know that God is wisdom. God is wisdom personified. Christ is wisdom personified, but God is wisdom. We know the word of God is wisdom. And by the way, this book that you hold in your laps, God himself is the only source of true wisdom in this world. Anything that says it's wisdom, but ignores this book and ignores the clear teaching of the scriptures is not wisdom. It's a counterfeit. And the world's filled with them. The world will tell you what? That it's wise for a person to live with somebody before they get married. They'll say that's wise. According to this Bible, what? It's counterfeit. That's counterfeit wisdom. It's okay to drink alcohol as long as you have a designated driver. That's wise. Counterfeit. Your body, your choice. Have you heard that before? Counterfeit. That's counterfeit wisdom from the world. Just follow your heart. Do what your heart tells you to do. Counterfeit. Turn to 1 Corinthians 2. Keep your place. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12. This is Paul, of course, talking to a bunch of carnal believers here at this church. And he says in verse number 12, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit, which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Notice that phrase. We can know those things that are freely given to us by God, which things also we speak, not the words, which man's wisdom teacheth, right? He's not talking about the wisdom of this world, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Paul says, something has been freely given to us by God. What is that? It's not the wisdom of men. He says, what is it? It's the wisdom of God. It's the wisdom of God. And we can study that wisdom of God, the word of God, by doing what? Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And the Holy Ghost teacheth us these things, which is the wisdom of God. That's God's plan for making his wisdom available to all of us. If you do not spend time in this book, then you are not seeking wisdom. If you are not spending time with Christ in your devotions, then you are not seeking wisdom. He's given to all men freely. There is no hindrances to being in God's Word and having a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, our Savior. It's available to anyone, everyone in this room. So then again, let me ask you the question, why are so few people wise then? The book of Proverbs, if you turn back to the book of Proverbs, shows us that people react to wisdom in three different ways. People react to the Word of God in three different ways. There's three different categories of people we see in the book of Proverbs. First, and you might have heard these before, and I'm sure you have, number one, there's the simple. Right, there's the simple. Proverbs chapter 7, verse number 6. This is any person who is ignorant of God's teachings. It says in verse number six of Proverbs 7, for at the window of my house I looked through my casement and beheld among the simple ones I discerned among the youths. Now here's a young person that the Bible is calling simple. Why? Because a young man void of understanding. This young man was void of understanding and so the Bible describes him as being simple. Now that doesn't mean that You're dumb. You know, we use the word simple as a derogatory term a lot of times, but the word simple here just means untaught. They're ignorant of truth. Maybe it's a young person that hasn't been raised in church. Maybe it's a young person like Timothy who came from a split spiritual home. Maybe it was somebody who hasn't been taught the Word of God or taught the Bible. God calls them simple because they don't know any better. They're untaught. But then there's a second category of people we see in Scripture, and that's what the Bible calls foolish. Proverbs chapter 1, verse number 7. The foolish is a person who has been taught the principles of God's Word, but they choose to reject it. Proverbs 1.7 says, For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools do what? They despise wisdom and instruction. These are the people that do sit under the sound teaching and preaching of your pastors and your youth pastors and your parents. These are the ones who have been taught the principles of God's Word. But instead, what do they do? They reject what they hear. It's not important to them. These are people who come to church, sit in Sunday school class, come to youth rallies, praise the Lord, I'm glad you're here. Come to Bible conferences. They're not ignorant of the teaching of God's Word. They've been taught it. But instead of receiving it, they reject it. They refuse it. It's much worse than being simple. It's being foolish. And then lastly, of course, the best category is the wise. The wise. Look at Proverbs 21. This is a person who has been taught the Word of God, but instead of rejecting it, they choose to believe it. They choose to apply it to their lives. This is someone who listens and is attentive to the preaching of God's word. This is somebody who believes that God's word and wisdom is important in their life. This is someone, listen to me, is willing to adjust and change their life, change their behavior so it lines up with the word of God. That's somebody that's wise. Proverbs 21, 11, when the wise is instructed, he receiveth knowledge. Proverbs 8.33, hear instruction, be wise, and refuse it not. You know, on any given church service, there can be any or all three types of these people sitting, listening to the message. There can be three types of people here right now in this youth rally. You can have the simple, you can have the wise, you can have the foolish. The question is, which one are you? Which one are you? Let me give you an example. Maybe you're here. or you are here, maybe there's somebody here today, maybe it's your first time in an environment or a setting like this. It's your first time coming to a youth rally. Maybe it's your first time in a church setting. Maybe it's the first time you've ever heard the word of God preached. I don't know everybody's background. You've never been taught the Bible. It's your first time hearing about sin, hearing about the importance of God's word, hearing about the importance of seeking Christ. That person, if there's a person like that here this afternoon, this morning, you would be what the Bible calls simple. You're untaught. But sitting right next to that person might be a young person who is a member of a church. Maybe you're a member of this church. Maybe you're a member of another church. Maybe you've grown up in church. They've heard Bible teaching and preaching their whole lives from their pastors, their youth pastors, their parents, their Sunday school teachers. And you might have somebody like that sitting here listening to the message, but instead of listening how they can grow, how they can go above and beyond, they are daydreaming. Maybe there's somebody here that is not paying attention at all. Maybe there's somebody that is sleeping through most of the message, not paying attention, could care less about what's being preached and taught. And maybe the little parts they do hear The spiritual truths they do hear, they decide to reject and ignore. That type of person, the Bible says, is a fool. They're a fool. And then sitting next to those two people might be another young person. And again, maybe they've attended church their whole life. They're hearing the preaching of God's Word. They've been under that influence for a long period of time. But the difference is they look forward to the preaching of God's Word. They look forward to teaching and how they can grow in their Christian life. They want to learn what the Bible says. They don't just come to youth rallies like this because their parents made them or to hang out with friends or to play games or get some of this nice candy up here or protein bars on this table. Godly instruction to them is valuable. And the Bible says that person is wise. The question is of these three, which one describes you this morning? Which one describes you? Which one of these will describe you tomorrow when you go to church? Let me give you a good definition of what wisdom is. Wisdom is this, and I think it's good for all of us to know, and I'm going to repeat it twice because it's a good definition. Wisdom is the ability and the willingness to base our thoughts, actions, and decisions on the word of God. I'm going to say it again. Wisdom is the ability and the willingness to base our thoughts, our actions, and our decisions on the Word of God. The key part to that definition are those two words. It's the ability and the willingness. Both have to be present for a young person, for any person to be wise. The simple doesn't have the ability because they've never been taught. The fool doesn't have the willingness because they reject truth. It's the wise person that has both the ability and the willingness. That's what makes them wise. Turn to Luke chapter two, if you would please, Luke chapter two. This is The only passage in the Scriptures that talks about Jesus as a teenager, as a young person. The Bible says in Luke chapter 2 that Jesus was full of wisdom and increased in wisdom of God and man. Anybody know how old Jesus was at this time? The Bible tells us. Anybody know off the top of their head without looking how old was Jesus in this passage of Scripture? He was 12 years old. Do we have any 12 year olds here? Raise your hand if you're 12. All right, three of you, amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. This passage of scripture definitely applies to you then because this is the same age Jesus was. Even though Jesus was God, we know Jesus was God, he still made the getting of wisdom a priority in his life. It was important to Christ. Let me ask you, how important is wisdom to you? If Christ sought it, how much more should we seek it? Who's ever been on a scavenger hunt? Anybody like scavenger hunts? I really enjoy them. When I was a youth pastor, we would take our young people out at least once a year, maybe twice a year to go on certain scavenger hunts. Before the invention of the cell phone, you'd have to go out and hide things or find things within the community and make a list. Now that we have cell phones, anybody ever heard of geocaching? It makes organizing scavenger hunts much more easier. But I would take the young people on geocaching activities, and if they wanted to win, they would have to go through the list of items that I gave them and determine which one was worth more points, which one was more important to them, and they had to set priorities about which ones they wanted to find first until time ran out. And it was always the team that set the right priorities that won. And it's the same thing with our Christian lives, by the way. We all have choices to make. We all decide what's important to us. Every one of us decides what's going to be important. Everyone hearing my voice right now is making a decision whether or not this message is important to you. Every one of you is. And whether or not it's important enough for me to pay attention. We all decide what's important to us. The Bible is clear that what should be important to us. Again, Proverbs 4 says wisdom is the principal thing. God says the most important thing to seek after, especially as a young person, is wisdom. Remember Solomon's writing to his son, right? And that responsibility of getting wisdom, who does that fall on? Does that fall on your parents for you to have wisdom? Does that fall on your pastor for you to have wisdom? Who does that responsibility fall on? It falls on who? Well, God gives us liberally, right, wisdom, but who does it fall on to receive wisdom for themselves? You, right, us. I'm responsible if I'm going to be wise. You're responsible if you want to be wise. Proverbs 3, keep your place here in Luke 2, we're going to turn back to it in just a moment. Proverbs 3, verse 13. shows us how important seeking after wisdom is. Proverbs 13, it says, Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her. Of all the things that you can seek in this world, nothing compares to what? Wisdom. Nothing. Wisdom is so valuable that God expects us to desire it so badly that we seek it more than we would if we were given rubies or gold or silver. Now if I were to tell you that one of the activities today is a scavenger hunt and that before I came, before the services started, I had a bag of gold coins that I hid somewhere on this property. And the first person that finds those gold coins can keep them for themselves. If I were to tell you that, I think it's safe to say that nobody would be sticking around in this auditorium for me to finish my message. You would be out looking for that bag of gold coins now. The reason you're not doing it is because you don't believe me. If you believe me, you would be out looking for it now. But as much as you would be looking for that bag, you would be turning up everything, going in every closet, looking under everything that you could. As much as everybody would be looking for it, that would be your number one priority above everything else. And just like you would be seeking that, the Bible says there's something we should be seeking even more than that, even longer than that, even more valuable than that. What is it? Wisdom. It's wisdom. If you're here today and you say, Pastor Downs, I wanna be a wise person. I know wisdom is important. I want to make seeking wisdom a priority in my life. I'm just gonna give you a handful of things quickly. I know my time's running out. A handful of things that God requires of us in order to gain wisdom. All right, number one, the first thing, and the most important thing when it comes to wisdom, number one is fearing the Lord. Is fearing the Lord. Look at Proverbs chapter one, verse number seven again. All wisdom comes from God and it starts with fearing God. It says in Proverbs 1.7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 9, you don't have to turn there, but if you're taking notes, Proverbs 9, verse number 10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 15.33, the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. You know, there are two undeniable facts about God. Number one, that God loves people. There's no denying that God loves people. How do we know? Because he sent his only begotten son to this world to die for us. God loves people, but there's also another undeniable fact about God. Number two, he hates sin. He hates sin. And if you don't know that about God, then you don't know God. That's the God of the Bible. He loves people and he hates sin. And because he loves people and he hates sin, God is to be both loved and feared. We should love him because he loves us, but we should fear him also because he hates sin. If we don't love God, if we don't fear God, we are never going to obtain wisdom. We're never gonna find wisdom. I know many say that, you know, fearing God, the fear of God just means respect. It means reverence of God, and it's certainly an aspect of that, but fearing God is much more than just that. You know, when I got in trouble as a child, which was a lot. Hope that's not your testimony. I feared my father. I feared my father. Now I wasn't afraid of my dad, but I certainly feared him. I feared him. What did I fear about him? I feared his punishment. I feared the fact that I hurt him, that I disappointed him, that I let him down. You know, people don't fear God today like they should. That's something that's missing in many believers' lives. We're so quick to remember, if I were to start saying, name something, give me an attribute of God, most people would start off with God is love, and praise the Lord, I'm thankful God's love. God's forgiving, praise the Lord that God is forgiving. God is gracious and merciful, and I praise the Lord that God is all of those things. But most would not, would be lower down on their list that God is righteous, that God is holy, that God is just. God must be feared if we are to have wisdom in our lives. If we don't fear God, we will not be wise. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the foundation of wisdom. Without that, we cannot have wisdom. Number two, another thing that we must do to be wise, and this may seem simple, and it is, we need to study the Word of God. We need to study the Bible. This is wisdom. And you may be thinking as a young person, I know I certainly did, well isn't that what pastors are for? Aren't pastors supposed to study the Bible? And youth leaders and Sunday school teachers and parents, aren't they supposed to study the Bible so they can teach us? I'm not a teacher yet. I read the Bible, isn't that good enough? And notice I didn't say read the Bible, I said study the Bible. There's a difference between the two. I've told young people, as long as I've worked with young people, and I believe this is true, The teenage years are the time to graduate from reading the Bible to studying the Bible. And when is that? In the teenage years. Your years now. You must learn to grow and to feed yourselves. As teenagers, what are you learning to do right now? As teenagers? Some of you? Anybody have their driver's license here? One of you? Okay, a few of you. I know Annabelle, who's from our church, says she's looking forward to getting her driver's license. The teenage years you learn to start driving for yourself. You start doing your own laundry. Hopefully you start doing your own laundry. You learn how to cook your own meals. You get a job. You learn what personal responsibility is like. You start paying maybe some of your own bills. You learn how to handle more responsibility. You learn how to grow into adults. Why would the Bible be any different in the teenage years? You know, we don't expect our parents, we don't expect adults to spoon-feed us baby food the rest of our lives, but we expect them to do that when it comes to the Bible? What did Luke, again, in Luke chapter 2, turn there, please. Preacher, I don't have a clock. You're going to have to, like, flag me when. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Luke chapter 2, verse number 40. Luke chapter 2, this is one of my favorite passages of Scripture. talking about the young years, the teenage years of Jesus Christ. Look at Luke chapter 2 verse number 40. What does verse 40 say about Jesus? I want to show you a transition that we see in Jesus' life here. Verse 40 it says, and the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom. and grace of God was upon him. This, again, was at the age of 12. We already looked at that. At the age of 12, the Bible says that Jesus was filled with wisdom. Why was he filled with wisdom? Was it because he was God? Now, of course, God is wise. God is wisdom. But he was filled. It uses that descriptive word, that adjective, filled, because this was the result of what others had poured into him. His mom teaching Him the scriptures. His dad teaching Him the scriptures. He was filled because of what was poured. You don't fill something unless you do what? You pour it in. And Christ was filled because of what others had poured into Him. But 12 verses later it doesn't say that Christ was filled anymore. What does it say in verse 52? Verse 52 it says, And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature. and in favor with God and man. That's different than being filled. Before the age of 12 the Bible says he was filled with wisdom. After the age of 12 it says he increased in wisdom. What's the difference? Well being filled with wisdom is what others pour into you but increasing in wisdom is the result of your own actions. If I'm going to pour my life into somebody, then I can do that. But I can't make them increase unless they have that initiative themselves. And we see that with Christ. He took the initiative. He contributed to his own growth and wisdom. And when did he start doing that? At the age of 12. At 12. Most think 12-year-olds aren't capable of wisdom. But Jesus sets the example, does he not? The teenage years of a young person is this time to start feeding yourselves. Start feeding yourselves if you want to grow in wisdom. 2 Timothy, we know this verse, 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2 Timothy It requires work. That's why, not just young people, that's why most believers that don't study the Bible don't do it. And when we do the work, the Bible says right here, so we won't be ashamed. And so we can rightly divide the word of truth. You know, there's going to be a lot of believers one day both young and old that are going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ one day. And the judgment seat of Christ is for believers. There's going to be believers standing there that are going to be ashamed. They're going to be ashamed. The Bible says that there's going to be loss of rewards. Why? They're going to be ashamed of the little time they put into spiritual things. They're going to be ashamed for having such a shallow knowledge of the Scriptures and a shallow knowledge of God's Word. The Bible says we can study so we won't be ashamed. You know there are two types of Christians, I believe, two types of Christians. Those who are satisfied with where they are spiritually and those who aren't. The question is which one are you? Are you content? Are you satisfied? Is it just status quo? Just keep things going the way they are, I'm fine. I'm comfortable, you know, the Bible says in Revelation chapter 3 there was a church, there was a whole church that was described this way, the church at Laodicea. And they were so lukewarm, they were so comfortable, they weren't hot, they weren't cold, they were just comfortable in their Christian life. The Bible says that it made God sick. It nauseated Christ. Again, the question of which one are we? Another thing we need to do to seek wisdom, number three, is learn to receive instruction. Learn to receive instruction. Look, we cannot, if you want to increase in wisdom, you cannot do that if you don't have the right attitude towards instruction. Proverbs chapter nine, verse number nine, says, give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet the wiser. You know what the heart of a fool says? And maybe you've said that. I know I have, especially when I was younger. I oftentimes will find myself saying it even now as a pastor. Why? Because we battle the old nature, the old flesh. But you know what a fool says? A fool says, I don't like people telling me what to do. No one's going to rule my life. No one's going to tell me how to live or what I should be doing. But you know what the heart of a wise person says? A wise person says, thank you, Lord, for putting that person in my life. Thank you for putting that teacher in my life. Help me, God, learn as much as I can from that teacher, from that instructor, from my parents. If you're the type of person that thinks they know everything and can't be corrected, then you're a person that does not seek or love wisdom. If you want to seek after wisdom, learn to be teachable. Learn to receive instruction when it's given to you. Along with receiving instruction is the opposite. Learn also to receive rebuke. Learn to receive rebuke. Listen to me, young people. Receiving rebuke is necessary in gaining wisdom. And nobody, including this preacher right here, is above rebuke. No one. Proverbs 9.8 says, Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man, though, and he will love thee. He'll love thee. Proverbs 15, 31, the ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among who? The wise. You know, nothing will reveal the maturity, the spiritual maturity of a person more than how they handle when somebody corrects them. I was reading not long ago of a young man that was recently saved. He transferred to a Christian school. He was a senior. And he was unfamiliar with the rules and the etiquette that was required in a Christian school. I can relate. I was not saved until later in life. I went to a secular college studying to be a chemist and with a emphasis in pre-med. I got my life right with the Lord. I went to Bible college when God called me to preach. And let me tell you something, that was a completely new experience to me. I was not ready. I was not ready for the etiquette. I was not ready for the rules. I was not ready for those things. I can relate to this young man. And so some of his conduct in the school, because he was unfamiliar with these things, was unacceptable. And so the principal called him into his office for the first few weeks of him being there, and the principal came down on him pretty hard. But the young man said this, and I quote, he said, I came to this school in my last year because I want to serve God with my life. He said, if you see anything, anything at all that I am doing wrong, he said, please let me know. What is that? That's an attitude of somebody that is seeking wisdom. When I first got saved, I wanted to learn everything that I could. Again, I didn't grow up in a Christian home. My parents, even today, are still lost. I remember going to other believers and telling them something similar. If you see anything in my life that needs to change, please let me know. I remember, again, going to college as a young Christian, sitting in my Bible classes, thinking, wow, this is the first time I've ever heard anything like this. I was an Old Testament survey, and Bible doctrines, and all of these classes. And I thought, this is the most exciting thing I've ever heard. And I would look around at other students and other believers there, and they weren't as excited as I was. Most of them had heard what was being taught their entire lives. But for me, it was all so new. I wanted to soak it all in. I wanted instruction. I wanted to accept rebuke, because I know both were needed in my life to make me what God wanted me to be. I pray, by God's grace, that will always be my attitude. Always. There is no age that I will get where I will be above instruction or rebuke. And especially as a young person, we need to have that attitude. I have so many more I want to share with you. I'm just going to give you one more and I'll be done. Number five, if you want to seek wisdom, you also, number five, must seek wise counsel. You know, if we desire to seek wisdom, what are we going to do? We need to seek people who have wisdom. Surround ourselves with those who have what we want. The reason most people surround themselves not with wise people is because that's not what they're seeking. What do athletes, aspiring athletes, or aspiring business people do? They intentionally surround themselves with other people that have what they want. If their desire is to be a professional athlete, they're going to find another professional athlete to be around and to learn from. Shouldn't we do the same thing if we're seeking wisdom? Proverbs 11, 14 says, where no counsel is, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Even as a young person, we need to intentionally surround ourselves with wise people. Someone once, very wise, once said, show me a person's friends today, and I will show you what they will become tomorrow. And it's true. Show me what your friends are today. And that doesn't just apply to young people, by the way. That's adults as well. Show us who our friends are today and you will see what we will be like tomorrow. God says it a lot more strongly than that. This will be our last verse, Proverbs 13, 20. God says it much more strongly. Proverbs 13, 20 says, he that walketh with wise men shall be what? Wise. But a companion of fools shall be destroyed. shall be destroyed." There are far too many young people that have been destroyed, not because they've had some desire to go off and sin, they've been destroyed simply by the company they kept, by the friends they had. Paul told a bunch of carnal believers in the Church of Corinth, be not deceived, don't fool yourself, evil communications corrupt good manners, and they do. You know, every one of you are at the age right now where you need to make wisdom the principal thing in your life. If you want to go above and beyond seeking Christ, the foundation, the principal thing is seeking wisdom. It's seeking this word. It's seeking a personal and intimate and daily relationship and fellowship with Jesus Christ. Jesus started, Jesus increased, began to increase in wisdom at what age? Twelve. At twelve. And again, it starts with fearing God. That's where it starts. It's the foundation. It's the beginning of wisdom. It includes studying the Bible for ourselves, learning to receive instruction, learning to receive rebuke, and then surrounding ourselves with other wise people. And if we do that, you know what we do? We will make wisdom the priority thing. We will make wisdom the principle thing. Don't let the theme verse Not the verses around it, but this verse right here. Don't let this verse of this conference be the theme of your life. For all seek their own and not the things which are Jesus Christ. That should not describe our lives. Instead of seeking our own, decide I'm gonna seek the things which are Jesus Christ. And I'm gonna start with seeking Him. Let's pray. Thank you for listening. If you would like to contact us, please write us at P.O. Box 126-541-Harrisburg, PA 17112 and visit our website at www.svbcpa.org. Until next time,