Luminous spiral galaxy surrounded by colorful nebulae and stars

The Wisdom of Creation

“The Lord acquired me at the beginning of his creation, before his works of long ago. I was formed before ancient times, from the beginning, before the earth began. I was born when there were no watery depths and no springs filled with water. Before the mountains were established, prior to the hills, I was given birth—before he made the land, the fields, or the first soil on earth. I was there when he established the heavens, when he laid out the horizon on the surface of the ocean, when he placed the skies above, when the fountains of the ocean gushed out, when he set a limit for the sea so that the waters would not violate his command, when he laid out the foundations of the earth. I was a skilled craftsman beside him. I was his delight every day, always rejoicing before him. I was rejoicing in his inhabited world, delighting in the children of Adam.” (Proverbs‬ ‭8‬:‭22‬-‭31‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

One of the more common slang words for something old is to refer to it as “OG.” That’s technically short for “original gangster.” The phrase came out the urban hip hop culture as a way to establish something as authentic and real. Today it gets thrown around all over the place as a way simply to refer to things that are old or otherwise authentic. Well, when it comes to creation itself, it’s hard to imagine something more authentic and original than wisdom. Let’s talk about how Solomon describes it here.

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Split scene showing an elderly scholar in a library and a young executive in a modern office

The Real Wealth of Wisdom

“With me are riches and honor, lasting wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than solid gold, and my harvest than pure silver. I walk in the ways of righteousness, along the paths of justice, giving wealth as an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.” (Proverbs‬ ‭8‬:‭18‬-‭21‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Do you want to be rich? Who doesn’t? Sure, you may be able to find someone here or there who will claim they are perfectly content where they are, but I suspect just about all of us could think of what to do with a sudden and great infusion of wealth—and I don’t just mean charities you would support. And yet, it is true that there are many ways to be rich, not all of which have anything to do with the volume of physical resources you control. Every single one of these manifold of ways, though, has one thing in common: they all start with wisdom. Let’s talk about it.

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Scholar writing notes beside books and a globe in a historic library

Many for the Price of One

“I, wisdom, share a home with shrewdness and have knowledge and discretion. To fear the Lord is to hate evil. I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech. I possess good advice and sound wisdom; I have understanding and strength. It is by me that kings reign and rulers enact just law; by me, princes lead, as do nobles and all righteous judges. I love those who love me, and those who search for me find me.” (Proverbs‬ ‭8‬:‭12‬-‭17‬ ‭CSB – Read the chapter) ‬‬

One of the ways businesses try to increase their bottom line is by selling things in sets. Product B is good, but it really only works at its maximum potential if you also have Product A with it. Of course, if you purchase Product A, Products C, D, and E will also work better. Product A is the thing that ties them all together and completes the set. Wisdom and its fruits are like that. The fruits are all good, but if you try to acquire them independently of wisdom, they won’t work as well. Let’s talk about this as Solomon tells us about some of wisdom’s accompaniments.

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More Like Him

It is necessary and often good to talk about the challenges facing a marriage. Until we properly understand the nature of the problem, we don’t know what it is we are trying to solve. However, unless we have a positive vision and understanding of what marriage was designed for in the first place, we’re not going to be able to point things in a direction that can help prevent future challenges. Last time, as we started our new teaching series, The Journey of a Lifetime, looking at what the Scriptures have to say about marriage, we identified the problem: sin. This week we are going to look at what marriage was designed for in the beginning so that we can walk away from the problem in the right direction.

More Like Him

I’m going to show you an image of something, and I want to see if you know what it is? For some of you, this is probably going to be really easy, but a few of you might not have any idea. In fact, I’m going to show you a couple of different images for us to talk about. Let’s start with that first image. What is the thing sticking up out of the container here? Be honest with me now: How many of you knew this was a potato masher without being told or without cheating by reading the answer in your copy of my manuscript before the service even started? How many of you genuinely didn’t know what this thing was and wouldn’t have known without being told? Everyone else apparently is just confused. 

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Woman writing in a journal beside a historic stone church and cemetery

Do You Even Want It?

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew‬ ‭28‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Other than the month of July, for the past seven Fridays we have been talking about different factors than contribute to church growth. None of them are guarantees. None of them in isolation from the others are likely to accomplish very much. Together these do not form an exhaustive list. I’ve read books on church growth before. Some of these things have been mentioned in those list, some of them have not. What this has been is a list of things that have contributed to the season of growth my church is currently experiencing. There are more we could probably talk about, but these have so far been the six that came to mind first. At the end of the day, though, real and sustainably growth happens because God directs it. Today we are going to end this series by talking about one last critical factor for any church thinking about growth: Do you really even want it?

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