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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
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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,
The Importance of Seeking Wisdom
Series Youth Meeting
A great majority of youth in our churches lack wisdom simply because it isn't a priority to them. Wisdom is not on their bucket list to gain. But it is shown in the Word of God and in the life of Jesus Christ, that any youth who has a relationship with God can be wise. Wisdom should be the pursuit of every believer, but especially of the youth.
| Sermon ID | 824251824381772 |
| Duration | 39:22 |
| Date | |
| Category | Youth |
| Bible Text | Proverbs 4:5 |
| Language | English |
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