Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 339 | Conversations - Proverbs 8

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339 | Conversations - Proverbs 8 · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Music.
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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
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  where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the
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  well in John chapter four.
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  Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
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  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
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  or on our website at watwm.org,
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  we invite you to sit down with us as we look to the scriptures to learn more
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  about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  Living her life for Christ. She's a happy girl.
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  Music.
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  She's a happy girl.
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  In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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  join Kim Miller and Erica Close in a conversation as we walk with Jesus.
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  In today's conversation, we continue a series on the book of Proverbs,
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  and in today's podcast, we're discussing the lessons learned in Proverbs 8.
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  Hello, everyone. My name is Erica Close, and I'm here with Kimberly Miller.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  And today, we are going to unfold the truths found in Proverbs 8,
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  and its basic tenets are the excellency and eternity of wisdom.
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  I will begin reading them, and Erica will pick up the second can have.
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  Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice?
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  She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the past.
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  She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.
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  Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man.
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  O ye simple, understand wisdom, and ye fools, be of an understanding heart.
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  Hear, for I will speak And the opening of my lips shall be right things.
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  For my mouth shall speak truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
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  All the words of my mouth are in righteousness.
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  There is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that
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  understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
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  Receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choice gold.
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  For wisdom is better than rubies
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  and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
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  I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
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  The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogancy and the evil way.
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  And the froward mouth do I hate.
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  Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength.
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  By me, kings reign and princes decree justice.
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  By me, princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.
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  I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me.
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  Riches and honor are with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness.
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  My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver.
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  I lead in the way of righteousness and in the midst of the paths of judgment.
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  That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance, and I will fill their treasures.
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  The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old.
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  I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was.
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  When there were no depths, I was brought And there were no fountains abounding with water.
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  Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth,
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  while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
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  When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass upon the face
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  of the depth, when he established the clouds above,
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  when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he gave to the sea his
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  decree that the water should not pass his commandment, when he appointed the
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  foundations of the earth.
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  There I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight,
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  rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth,
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  and my delights were with the sons of men.
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  Now therefore, hearken unto me, O ye children, for blessed are they that keep my ways.
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  Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not.
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  Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates,
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  waiting at the posts of my doors.
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  For whoso findeth me findeth life and shall obtain favor of the Lord.
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  But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his soul.
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  All they that hate me love death.
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  This is a really, really neat proverb. It absolutely is.
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  And I love it that he tells us that to find it young, to find wisdom young.
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  But it's never too late.
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  And God gives wisdom to those who ask for it. He gives it to them liberally.
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  And he talks about wisdom's call in the very beginning.
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  Wisdom is always calling after us. I feel like when I think of wisdom as one who is calling,
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  I think of how I believe that the Holy Spirit is constantly calling to us and
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  calling out to us to ensure that we are going down the right path.
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  But wisdom is calling all the time.
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  Amen. And it talks about wisdom when it calls.
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  It's speaking the right thing, as you were saying. It's telling us to do the right thing.
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  It's giving you the direction you should go.
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  And so when we seek after wisdom, and we hear him say in chapter 9,
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  which we're not there yet, but he says the fear of the Lord is the beginning
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  of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
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  And so what we know is that if you want to be wise, you need to have fellowship with the Lord.
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  And so the very beginning of wisdom is understanding your need for the Lord in your life.
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  Absolutely. I think that that's one of the things that I really appreciate is
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  the same way that the Lord has a call upon our lives.
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  And if we're not saved, that call is that we would be saved.
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  But He is literally calling to us all the time. We read in Revelation,
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  behold, I stand at the door and knock.
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  There is a constant knock, a constant call of the Lord that is coming after
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  us and trying to have us as His child and for Him to be our Savior.
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  In the same way, wisdom is always calling, asking us to follow,
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  asking us to understand, asking us to seek after the truth that is given to us, right?
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  Everything that the wisdom gives us, everything God's Word gives us is truth.
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  It grows us in righteousness.
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  There's nothing perverse in it.
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  And all of those that receive wisdom and receive the Lord's instruction receive
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  so much more than anything else ever.
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  The world could give. I love verse 10, receive my instruction and not silver
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  and knowledge rather than choice gold.
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  And 11, for wisdom is better than rubies.
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  And what I love also about that is when you understand that wisdom is always
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  calling you and that wisdom begins by understanding who who Jesus is and having
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  a relationship with him,
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  what you see is the things that are precious to the world, like silver and gold.
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  And rubies and fine gemstones,
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  they can't compare to the wisdom that the Lord gives.
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  And so don't place your trust and your faith in silver and gold and wealth in
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  worldly possessions, but instead place your faith in Jesus Christ,
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  who then gives you the greatest of all, which is wisdom, so that then you have
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  through him all that you need.
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  And the strength to do all that you're asked to do.
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  One of the things that I really appreciate in this proverb is starting around
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  in verse 14, where wisdom says that wisdom is understanding and there's strength in wisdom, right?
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  As we get to know Christ better and we gain his wisdom, we gain strength.
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  And this same wisdom, right, the wisdom that we have that walks us through our
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  days is the same wisdom that 2,000 years ago led a king.
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  It's the same wisdom that ruled nations, right?
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  It's the same wisdom that led the judges in Israel in the Old Testament.
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  But all of that becomes very personal in verse 17, where we read,
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  I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me.
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  And I feel like right there we're not just talking about wisdom,
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  this is about seeking after the Lord because he says he is the Lord the fear
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  of the Lord is to hate evil pride and arrogancy in the evil way and he doesn't
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  want these you know arrogant mouths that are.
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  Spreading discourse. That's all in verse 13.
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  And then he says, I love them that love me. So loving him is following after him.
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  And again, wisdom was with him in the days of old, in the works of old, we're told in 22.
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  And so when we're talking about wisdom, he is telling you,
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  I give you wisdom and the wisdom I give you reveals to you to love me,
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  to trust me, to place your faith in me and to abandon the things of the world
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  and to follow after me so that others will understand who I am.
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  Wisdom sets you apart because wisdom is given of God and godly wisdom is priceless.
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  And knowledge is knowing something. Wisdom is understanding how to use I love
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  that you said that it's priceless because there are verses in this proverb that
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  compare the fruit of wisdom to things that have a price, right?
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  Like gold and silver.
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  There are very sort of monetary words that are used in this proverb like revenue,
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  revenue, and in verse 21, an inheritance, right?
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  But what we gain from wisdom is so much greater than worldly gain.
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  But verse 21 says that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance and
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  I will fill their treasures.
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  He gives us what we need and fills us up and he causes us to inherit what we need.
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  And he tells us to lay up treasures in heaven where moth and rust is not corrupt.
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  And he tells us that out of the abundance of the heart to mouth speaketh.
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  So when we speak wisdom, our heart is in align with what God wants it to be.
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  As we move into the next part of this proverb and we get around verse 22,
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  one of the things that I love so much is that it talks about how.
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  The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways before his works of old, right?
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  The wisdom that we have is the same wisdom that God had.
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  And then this whole proverb goes on and talks about how the wisdom that God
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  gives us, the wisdom that God
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  had is the same wisdom that God had with him when he created the earth.
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  And the creation, whole creation story is like written right here,
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  right? Everything that the Lord did, the wisdom of God was with him in the creation.
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  So when we look at all that the Lord did in creating our earth, in creating us,
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  that same wisdom of understanding and order and putting things together the
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  way they're supposed to be put to order together,
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  we're given that same wisdom.
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  And in verse 32, too. Now, therefore, hearken unto me. So listen to me and keep the Lord's ways.
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  All that same wisdom that God used when he built this whole planet.
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  Is freely available to us. We just have to hearken unto him to have it.
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  And he tells us that we are to hear instruction and to be wise.
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  Don't refuse instruction. Don't be a know-it-all. But he says,
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  if we ask, we shall receive.
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  If we seek, we shall find. If we knock, it shall be opened unto us.
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  He explains to us that if we call unto him, he'll answer us.
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  And we need to be seeking him.
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  He says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.
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  We must learn to hear instruction and to seek it and don't refuse it and hear what it has to say.
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  I love that in 34, we read too, that blesses the man that heareth me,
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  watching daily at my gates.
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  We need to be coming after the Lord and seeking his wisdom every day, right?
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  It's not an infusion. It's not something that we get in one shot.
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  Because when we do that, when we wait at God's doors, when we watch daily at
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  his gates and look for him daily, we get verse 35.
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  Five, for whosoever findeth me findeth life and shall obtain the favor of the Lord.
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  We want the life that God gives us. We want the favor of the Lord.
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  We want to love the Lord and we want to have every blessing that he could ever give us.
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  It is absolutely amazing to me to know that that same wisdom that created all
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  that we could ever see is the same wisdom that is available to me to live this life.
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  That is a gift, a priceless, priceless gift available to all.
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  And he's so clear about what wisdom is that he says it twice.
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  In Proverbs 1.7, he says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
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  but fools despise wisdom and instruction. and in Proverbs 9 verse 10,
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  he says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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  The knowledge of the holy is understanding.
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  Wisdom begins with having a clear understanding of who God is.
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  Absolutely. Well, we hope that you have enjoyed walking through Proverbs chapter 8 with us.
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  I know that we have enjoyed it and I know we're taking some time in each of
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  these Proverbs, but that's what the Lord wants us to do.
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  He wants us to spend time in His Word and spend time with Him.
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  We hope that you join us at your next available opportunity,
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  but most importantly, we hope that you know that Jesus loves you and that you are loved.
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  Music.
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  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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  Thank you to the gospel group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
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  Remember that God loves you. You. You.
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  Music.