Well, good afternoon. It's always a joy of mine to see you all on Wednesday and a special joy today to be able to share a few words from God's word with you. It's a privilege to join into this series on Proverbs and today we come to a topic called putting God first. It's a big part of wisdom and it comes from Proverbs chapter three I'm gonna focus on verse 13, but also read it in the context of the next few verses after it, which really expand on the truth of verse 13. So, let us look at God's word and read it together. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding. For the gain from her is better than silver, than gain from silver, and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand, and in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called blessed. The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew. This is God's holy, inspired, and inerrant word. My wife Michelle recently lost her uncle just a few weeks ago, and at his funeral, several of his friends with whom he was in a small group spoke, and one of those friends posed a rhetorical question, and that question is this. What are you chasing after? And if you find it, will it matter? That's a very good question to ask, and then to be quiet enough to hear your own honest answer to it. Well, Steve Jobs must have asked himself a similar question years ago. Jobs, as you know, was an innovator. He was a genius. He was an extremely rich man. He's probably the man most responsible for the smartphones that we can't seem to do without anymore. Maybe you're one of those who is holding steadfastly to a flip phone, and if you are, much respect. Stay strong. But tech culture regards, to this day, Steve Jobs as something of an icon. But Steve Jobs had very public regrets. Toward his life's end, he wished that he had spent less time working and innovating and more time with his kids at home. Being diagnosed with terminal cancer really crystallized this in his mind. Jobs realized that what he had spent much of his life chasing after did matter, it was important, but it didn't matter nearly as much as pouring himself into his children. So are we living for what really matters? Are we chasing after that which endures? To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. In other words, are we pursuing with all our hearts the wise life? the abundant, flourishing life that God intends for us? Are we living optimally? And if we are, it will matter, of course, not just in this life, but also for eternity. Well, Solomon states this matter with our focus verse. Again, blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding. And then he poetically explains for the next five verses why that is so. And in that poem, we see this logical progression. And we see this growing intensity that builds to a climax. Finding wisdom makes one blessed and happy indeed. Therefore, the quest for wisdom is worth expending time and energy to achieve. And when you find it, it is worth holding fast, grasping with white knuckles, holding on to with all your worth. And when you hold it fast, he says, do not let it depart. So seek wisdom, hold wisdom fast when you find it, and do not let it depart from you. So first of all, find wisdom. Find wisdom. In other words, as he puts it here, obtain understanding. Wisdom and understanding are like twins here. And they represent the very pinnacle of everything that we should aspire for as humans. Wisdom and understanding is the absolute epitome of human success. Not just as an end in themselves, but as a means to living life to the full. Eating life and then going back for seconds. Enjoying real and lasting peace. Which, frankly, seems to be elusive to most people, even a lot of Christians. So when Solomon talks about finding wisdom, he doesn't just have in mind a fun game of hide and go seek, or sardines, as my kids prefer. The stakes are much, much higher than that. And he's not just talking about finding wisdom by accident, as if you would stumble upon it by happenstance. He's talking about a strenuous and costly and urgent search in which quite a bit is at stake. Speaking of high stakes, my cousin Daryl lost his retainer when he was a teenager. Now, you've had kids, maybe you've got grandkids who have had orthodontic work done, you know that that is not cheap. Well, Darrell had taken his retainer out to eat a sandwich and he had wrapped it up in a paper towel and he'd set it aside. And you know where this is going. Somebody thought that was garbage and tossed it in the trash. And Darrell realized, oh no, my retainer is gone. And he told his dad, my Uncle Gordon this. And Uncle Gordon said, son, I paid for one retainer and I'm not gonna pay for another one. This one's gonna come out of your pocket. Well, Daryl did not have that kind of cash laying around. So he went on a mission, on a no-holds-barred quest to find that retainer. He was turning over trash cans, he was diving in dumpsters. No indignity stood in his way. And after three hours of this filthy, humiliating quest to find it, he found his treasure. Now, he smelled terrible, but once again, he was in possession of his prize. And he held that thing fast. And you can bet, he did not let it depart from him again. He was quite happy when he found his retainer because it was worth it. or more precisely, saving the money that he would otherwise have to shell out for a replacement was worth it. Wisdom in the same way does not come cheap and does not come easy, but it is worth whatever it takes. Nobody ever stumbled upon wisdom by accident. Wisdom does not come willy-nilly to casual seekers. It is accessible, very much so, but only to those who know its value enough to fully embrace it, no matter what the cost is, to undergo discipline for the sake of obtaining wisdom. Now, in the end, wisdom is given by God. It's a gift, but only to those, you see, who appraise its value as something far beyond even the most expensive jewels. precious commodity. And I mean precious both in terms of its inherent value and precious in terms of its scarcity because wisdom is not easy to find. So its value, I'll get it out, according to Solomon is incomparable. And so the one who finds wisdom is happy. and the one who finds wisdom is fulfilled, blessed. And there's both a present and a future dimension to that. Wisdom does have benefits that are immediate, and wisdom also has benefits that are deferred. Just like this beatitude from Jesus, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. See, there's a future comfort coming to those who endure grief in the present. So finding wisdom does benefit you now because it's always, always better to be wise than to be a fool. Wisdom is gonna help you navigate dozens of decisions that you'll make this very day. But finding wisdom also benefits you in the long run, in the marathon of life. It is a means to greater ends down the road. And one of those ends is peace. Now, when I say peace, and more importantly, when Solomon says peace, he's not just talking about earthly peace and quiet. He's not just talking about even freedom from conflict. In fact, the kind of peace that comes from obtaining wisdom may actually bring you into conflict with fools at times. And I don't say fools flippantly. That is a proverbial word. It's again and again. It's the antithesis of those who are wise. But what he's talking about here is biblical peace, shalom, a full-orbed well-being, a wholeness and a health and a human flourishing, this fully integrated abundant life that is overflowing with blessing. Now that is a truly precious commodity. So we're to seek after, and secondly, we're to take hold of that kind of wisdom, to take hold of it. Not only are we to search for wisdom diligently, but once we find it, we are to take hold of it. She, which is what wisdom is called here, personified as lady wisdom. She, Solomon says, is the tree of life to all who lay hold of her. Now we've heard that phrase before in scripture, haven't we? Tree of life. Where have we heard that? Book of Genesis, right? There is a tree in the midst of the garden, the fruit of which, of course, was off limits to Adam and Eve. All the other fruit trees they could enjoy to their heart's content, but that one was off limits. And that prohibition, of course, is the very wedge that the serpent uses to deceive them. Satan is a liar, and he's the father of lies, and he got Adam and Eve to think that they could obtain that tree of life by their own self-assertion. He got them to question the goodness and the love of God and the authority of what God had said, and he deceived them on that basis. So they made up their own rules in the place of God's rules. They tried to snatch that fruit from the tree of life by flouting the rules of God. And by doing that, of course, they missed out completely on that blessedness that they craved at all costs. And anytime you have to rebel against the ruler of the universe to get what you want, it's not going to go well. So they got shame instead of blessedness and they got guilt and they plunged us all into despair. The way to that tree from that point on was barred to them by an angel with a flaming sword. Those who try to grasp wisdom, the tree of life, in their own way will forfeit their lives under that sword. So in what sense now is this tree of life being offered to those who grab hold of wisdom and hold it fast? Well, because this way is by faith and not by human autonomy. This way, you see, is according to God's way. As this chapter starts out with those wonderful verses that we're familiar with, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, in your quest for wisdom, acknowledge Him. Don't try to obtain it your own way. Factor His wisdom into the equation. Talk through it with Him, and He will direct your paths. So, do you wanna take hold of wisdom for your life and receive all the benefits that come with that? Well, there's only one way to do that, and that is to ask for it. And it is that easy and it is that hard. It's easy because it's a gift that God freely wants to bestow, but it's hard because this big, monstrous, primordial sin of pride standing in the way. And that malignancy of pride has to be excised from your heart and you have to be humbled. And when realizing your need enough to ask for wisdom, The Lord gives it willingly to you without finding fault. He does not hold our foolishness against us. Praise be to God. So he will graciously bestow on us by grace what we can't get any other way. And then by that same grace, we are enabled and commanded to hold on to that wisdom at all costs. Hold it fast, the way a young mother would hold her small child's hand when crossing a busy intersection. So seek for wisdom. When you find it, hold it fast. And then thirdly and finally, closely related to holding it fast, don't let wisdom depart. Those that hold wisdom fast are called blessed, happy. It's not just that they are blessed, but it's that they are called blessed. They're recognized by the world as blessed. And don't you want that as a reputation? someone who enjoys the blessings of God, someone who is trusting the Lord with the simple faith of a child while the world all around us goes crazy. Don't you want to be that person, to be known as that person? That is a wonderful, marvelous testimony that our world desperately needs right now. So continuing this personification of wisdom as a lady, the writer says, long life is in her right hand. And in her left hand are riches and honor. So he's picturing Lady Wisdom standing, offering gifts in each of her hand to those who adhere to wisdom. So, long life is a blessing, riches and honor are a blessing. Wisdom offers many gifts to those who hold her fast and don't let her go. And the benefits of that wisdom are long life and health and peace. But we're not to put the cart of the good life before the horse of wise and godly living. If we run after the fruits of wisdom as an end in themselves, they become idols and they destroy us. It's not that we can't enjoy those good things, it's just that we are made to desire more than that. It's why nothing in this world really satisfies us. We were made to delight ultimately not in good things in and of themselves, but in the maker of those good things. So what I'm saying is, we must embrace wisdom incarnate. The one in whom, Paul tells us, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Paul calls Jesus Christ the wisdom of God in 1 Corinthians. Wisdom dwells in Christ to such a perfect degree that he is identified with it. To see the book of Proverbs come to life then, these principles on the page come to life and be enfleshed, we look at Jesus, we look at the gospels. Paul writes, to those whom God has called, Jesus is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And that is good news indeed. Because if you haven't realized it yet, there is no one who fully meets the criteria of wisdom as outlined for us in the book of Proverbs. None of us makes that cut. We're all foolish to different degrees. No offense. I am chief of fools. Not even Solomon himself attained that wisdom, and he was known widely as the wisest man who ever lived. But his shortcomings were downright scandalous. We won't go into them. But it's when we get to the New Testament that we realize that God's wisdom is not this abstract force that is out there, but rather it is a personal quality. That personal quality was fully fleshed out, you see, in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus has become for us, Paul says, wisdom from God. That is our righteousness, our holiness, our redemption. So he is all we need. He is what our children and grandchildren need, Christ. It is what Solomon's son needed. Jesus is wisdom incarnate, and if we are sincerely seeking wisdom, we need to look no further than Him. And not just as an example, though He is the very best example of wisdom there ever could be, but He, as Paul puts it, is more than that. He is our righteousness, He's our holiness, He's our redemption. And in the end, he will again give us access to the tree of life and the new heavens and the new earth. Revelation chapter 22 says, on each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. And Christ Jesus is not just wisdom that waited to be found, taken hold of and held fast. He is wisdom that went on the initiative and came looking for us, for fools like us who were his enemies, who were running from him. He pursued us and he has us now in his grasp and he has said that he will never let us go and no one will ever take us out of his hand. So because he is holding on to us, we can therefore hold on to him. We can spend our lives in the pursuit of knowing the one who knows us. Blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding. What are you chasing after? And if you find it, will it matter? To paraphrase C.S. Lewis in closing, if you search for wisdom apart from Christ, you will totally miss it. But if you search for Christ with all your heart, you will find him in all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge thrown in for good measure. Let's pray together. Father, we are those to whom you promise in your word We admit our need for wisdom. You freely bestow it upon us without finding fault. Thank you that you were a giver of every good and perfect gift, and that you give wisdom to those who admit their need of it. Father, we ask for practical wisdom to navigate the difficulties of life, and we thank you that you have sent to us your Son, who is wisdom incarnate. In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. We thank you that in him was life and that life was the light of men. Teach us to chase after what will endure for eternity. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.