Latest / HBCWestminster / 11.15.23 Proverbs 2:1-22 Pastor Danny Gardner

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11.15.23 Proverbs 2:1-22 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

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  I've divided chapter two into two major portions, what I'm calling the ifs and thens of the biblical
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  wisdom. And I'm going to attempt to preach the entire thing in about 35 minutes. And so would
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  you stand with me in honor of God's word as I read our text for this evening, Proverbs chapter two
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  and verse one. My son, he says, if you receive my words and treasure up my commands within you,
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  making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding. Yes. If you call out
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  for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as
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  hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God
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  for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound
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  wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of
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  justice and watching over the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness,
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  justice and equity. Every good path for wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be
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  pleasant to your soul. Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will guard you, delivering you
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  from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech who forsake the paths of righteous uprightness
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  to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil
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  men whose paths are cricket and who are devious in their ways. So you will be delivered from the
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  forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
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  Who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God for her house
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  sinks down to death and her paths to the departed. None who go to her come back, nor do they regain
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  the paths of life. So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous
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  for the upright will inhabit the land and those with integrity will remain in it.
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  But the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
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  And you pray with me. We ask living.
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  And faithful God, the God in whom we live and move and have our being and who is made known to us
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  in Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask you to bless us as we look to your word this evening.
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  Remove from our minds, Holy Spirit, remove from our hearts, whatever impediments hinder
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  our worship and dampen our joy. Increase within us that holy longing for closeness,
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  which can open up our lives to fuller delight and to a deeper commitment.
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  By you and through you and for you, may our lives publish your praise.
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  May our hymns and our prayers, our searching thoughts, our hearing of the scriptures be
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  pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. In the name of Christ Jesus, we pray.
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  Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. Are all lifestyles created equal? Are there paths which, if chosen,
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  will more likely produce happiness and longevity? Is it possible to gauge how long someone is going to
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  live and how happy they will be based on the lifestyle choices that they make?
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  Our culture would argue that any choice you make is a good choice. Anything our culture would say
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  you're passionate about and devoted to is good for you and is right for you, they would say.
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  Any path you take ends with blessing.
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  It seems as though the only people who are willing to admit the truth
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  are life insurance agents. When I turned 40, I took out a life insurance policy because I thought
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  it's time to put on my big boy pants. I got to make sure at this point that I'm doing what I'm
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  supposed to do in order to ensure that Hallie and my boys are taken care of if something horrible
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  happens to me. And the process of taking out a significant, a large life insurance policy is
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  funny. They ask all kinds of personal questions. They came to me and said,
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  do you smoke? And if so, how often? Do you drink? And if so, how often? Do you exercise?
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  And if so, how often? Do you have a criminal record? How often do you receive speeding tickets?
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  That was one of them they asked. Do you travel often? And where to? How much money do you make?
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  How much money do you have?
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  What is your waist size? And do you mind if I confirm that?
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  They really did. The lady came in. What's your waist size? And I was like, I don't know, 34?
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  I mean, that's the size pants I wear, right? So I just assumed. She literally pulled out a tape
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  measure. Do you mind if I confirm that? I was like, I kind of do, actually. I kind of do.
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  Can you imagine if I just said, you know what? Listen, that's personal.
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  My personal choices shouldn't make any difference to you. And how dare you imply that what I do with
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  my own life might not make any difference to you. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't
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  know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't
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  You can't judge me. But what would her response have been?
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  Mr. Gardner, thank you for your time. I don't think we have a life insurance policy that is
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  going to fit your lifestyle choices. I don't think we're going to provide life insurance
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  for you. Why do they ask those questions? Why are they the only ones who will say some things
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  are right and some things are wrong? Because it's obvious that your lifestyle determines
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  your longevity.
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  They know it. If you have certain habits, those habits tend to either increase or decrease your
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  life expectancy. And not all decisions are the right decisions. It is possible to waste your
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  life. Ask your life insurance agent. It is possible to destroy your own life based on the decisions
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  you make. Now we know, we all know that the word if, which you're going to notice happens three
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  times in our text, right at the beginning, if, if, and if. We know that that word if begins a
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  conditional clause, it's called. Now in Proverbs chapter two, it means that whatever blessing
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  follows will only be granted if certain conditions are met. If you will do this, then these blessings
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  will flow. It also implies that humanity, you and I, as we sit here this evening, actually have a
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  choice about whether we want to be blessed by God or not. We actually get to choose whether
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  this blessing will be granted or not. We get to choose whether this blessing will be granted or
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  not. We get to choose whether these blessings will apply to us or not. It implies not only that we
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  have a choice, but it's actually saying, as I said last week, and I ended with this, if you were here
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  last Wednesday, that the wisdom is about to be laid at our feet. And so we're going to have to
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  decide if we're going to pick it up. And logically then Proverbs chapter two is saying that the
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  acquisition of wisdom is an active pursuit. It's not a passive endeavor. Wisdom doesn't just happen
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  to you. You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it.
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  You have to go and get it. Wisdom doesn't just automatically pile up in those of us who are
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  the oldest. If that were true, then the oldest people would automatically be the wisest. And
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  that's sometimes true, but it's not always true. Unfortunately, some of the biggest complaining
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  self-absorbed babies I've ever known have been full-grown men. They haven't acquired wisdom.
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  They haven't sought for it as hidden treasures. They haven't pursued it as silver. And yet you're
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  looking at a full-grown man who is actually a full-grown man. And you're looking at a full-grown
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  man acting like a child who is pouting and having a temper tantrum. Why? Because wisdom doesn't just
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  automatically come with age. On the flip side, there have been some very young people who have
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  exhibited maturity and wisdom and discernment well beyond their years. Why? Because they have
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  employed these conditional clauses. They have done what the scriptures have said. And the promise of
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  God never fails because they have pursued wisdom. God has given it.
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  So what I'm going to give us this evening are three conditions, three ifs, and then seven thens.
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  And isn't it just like our Lord to say, listen, if you'll do three things, I'll do seven. He'll give
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  us so much more. All you got to do is this, and I'll do this. And so let's go through it tonight.
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  If you're taking notes, feel free to use those notes or not. It doesn't matter to me. You can
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  set them aside. It's hopefully just to help you kind of follow along since there's a lot
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  of text this evening. But first, how do we actively pursue wisdom or
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  what are the ifs? Number one, we must be receptive. And notice again in verse one,
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  my son, if you, there's that conditional clause, if you receive my words, how many times have you
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  heard something, gotten advice and thought, you know what? Why didn't anyone tell me that earlier?
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  Have you ever gotten advice like that? You were like, man, if somebody had told me this when I was
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  young, that would have been good to know. Only then to realize,
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  but they did tell you. And you didn't listen. You didn't have ears to hear. Has that ever
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  happened? Do you ever go to your parents or somebody and say, why didn't you tell me this?
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  And your parents were like, we did. Danny, we told you exactly this. This is exactly what we
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  said would happen. But you wouldn't listen to us in the moment. Here's another funny one. How many
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  times have you read in God's word, something that is complete, totally revolutionary only to realize
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  you underlined it last year in your Bible reading? You're like, this is the first time I've ever seen
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  this. This is incredible. And then realize, no, I actually underlined it last year.
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  The question posed to us by the author here is what happened last year that caused you not to
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  apply it this year? Why have you been sitting on it this whole time? We know that dogs bark at
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  fences and they howl at the moon and they smile at the moon. And so we know that we've done a great
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  smell the perimeter of their yard. Why? Because they're dogs. That's what dogs do. Rabbits hide
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  in the grass. They're skittish. They twitch their noses. Why? Because they're rabbits and cats claw
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  up furniture and use their neighbor's lawns as a toilet and are a nuisance to humanity. Why? Because
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  they're cats. Animals act according to their instincts. That's what they do. But unlike animals,
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  animals, humans have been gifted by God with the ability to change their behavior according
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  to whatever governing principles they choose. John Phillips words it this way. God, he said,
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  oh, I might've missed that one. John Phillips said it this way. He said, God made people
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  not puppets. God made people not puppets. And prior to the fall, Adam and Eve could walk with
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  and respond in perfect oneness to the spirit of God. We know the story. Sin marred humanity.
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  It cursed us.
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  It bent our minds and it bent our hearts toward evil. And in that fallen state, we now found that
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  we have little success, that we have the uncanny ability to be weak against temptation. Isn't that
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  true? And yet stubborn against righteousness. How can we be both weak and stubborn at the same time?
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  The answer is because of the fall. We've all been cursed. And so we are weak when it comes
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  to temptation and yet stubborn against the right things to do.
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  And the spirit of wisdom has been offered again through the blood of Christ.
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  That governing force that has been missing since sin that broke the communication communion between
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  God and man has now been regifted as the spirit of wisdom through the work of the cross.
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  You say, well, what does that mean? John Phillips, I think says it succinctly when he says wisdom is
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  available to us. That's what it means. We can now pursue and seek and ask for the wisdom that we
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  used to have in the garden. We can now pursue and seek and ask for the wisdom that we used to have in the garden.
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  But which was lost to us, it is available to us. And by virtue of our regeneration, in other words,
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  we are now Christians. We have a predilection, a bias toward the word of God, the ultimate
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  depository of divine wisdom. But wisdom must be received. We must be receptive to it.
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  Psalm 40 says it this way, in sacrifice and offering, you have not delighted,
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  but you have given me an open ear. Literally saying ears, you have dug out,
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  for me. Like the little kid who's plugging his ears and screaming at the top of his lungs.
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  The psalmist says, no, you caused me to stop screaming and pulled the fingers out of my ears
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  so that I could hear the truth. And in hearing it, we can understand the mind of God. We can begin
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  to understand his heavenly wisdom. We must be receptive to wisdom. But not only that,
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  the second with the other if clause,
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  we must be responsive. We must be responsive to wisdom. Notice it continues. If you receive my
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  words and treasure up my commandments within you, making your attentive to wisdom, inclining your
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  heart to understanding. Yes. If you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
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  we must not only have open ears, we must also have open hearts. It's been said,
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  there's no greater distance than the 18 inches that separate a man's head from his heart.
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  And we must allow,
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  the word not only to enter our ears, but to penetrate our hearts. Here in verse one,
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  it says that scriptures, the scriptures of wisdom were a treasure to the author.
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  Can I ask honestly, are the commandments of God, your treasure? Are they honestly your most
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  prized possession? Is the Bible you are holding in your lap, the most valuable thing in your life?
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  I've been confronted with my own ignorance.
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  I've been confronted with my own ignorance. When it comes to the word of God, you'd think that by now
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  I'd be an expert in it. Having been saved for almost 34 years at this point,
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  having multiple degrees in it, having studied it for so long, you'd think I'd be an expert in it.
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  And yet there are still so many things. I don't know. Not only have I been saved for 34 years
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  and have all of these degrees and whatever, but I live in a country, in a Christian country,
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  historically Christian country,
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  in a Christian culture that has been historically Christian for 2000 years.
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  I would think at this point, the church would be loaded with experts.
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  We should be loaded with teachers. And it's kind of embarrassing to admit maybe how much time we've
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  wasted. We should probably be further down the road than we are in our ability to discern truth
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  from error and our ability to preach in season and out our ability to provide an answer for the
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  reason for the hope that we have.
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  It's interesting. The letter to the Hebrews was written to this
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  church that should have been the same way. They should have been mature,
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  but they weren't. He says this about this. We have much to say, and it's hard to explain
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  since you become dull of hearing, though, by this time you ought to be teachers.
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  And I wonder how many of us in here have been saved for years, even decades,
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  decades, and are still feeling inadequate and incapable of teaching it to others.
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  Like, man, if that's true, what have we been doing?
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  What have we been doing? We have ought to be teachers, but he says instead, he's rebuking
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  this church. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of
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  God. You need milk, he says, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled,
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  not good at his job, he says, in the word of righteousness, since he's a child, but solid
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  food is for the mature. For those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice
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  to distinguish good from evil.
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  And the Lord has given us days, hours, weeks, months, years, decades, even centuries at this
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  point in the Western church to get to know him through his word. And can we all agree
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  to stop using the lamest excuse in the book, which is that we don't have time.
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  The problem is not lack of time. The verse one would say the problem is that we don't consider
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  the book our treasure. That's the problem. We prioritize other things.
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  Above it, Psalm 19 says this, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of
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  the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the
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  heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord
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  is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Now,
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  look what he says. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold and sweeter also
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  than honey and drippings from the honeycomb. Several years ago, I was having lunch
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  with a bunch of, and this is what they called themselves. There was a whole group of them. Some
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  of them coaches that I was coaching with others of them, family members of baseball players that
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  I was coaching. All of them had grown up Catholic. It was interesting. They had all, I was the only
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  pastor there and all of them were all now Christians. They'd all converted out of
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  Catholicism into Christianity. And they called themselves, I didn't call them this. They called
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  themselves recovering Catholics, having lunch with all of them. And they just started talking.
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  I wasn't even saying,
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  you know, it's interesting by their own admission, by their testimony, they weren't allowed to read
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  the Bible without a priest present. They weren't allowed to read it. One of them even says, you
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  know, when I was a little girl, this mom says, when I was a little girl, we were told not to
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  bring our Bibles to church. Isn't that crazy? No, what a privilege we have not only to own a copy
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  of God's word, but we own a copy of God's word in our own.
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  Language. And we're actually part of a church that encourages us to treasure it,
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  to commit our way to it, inclining our hearts to understanding.
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  The person who hears, but then doesn't do is like the man who hears the tornado siren,
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  but continues along his merry way. Internalizing the scriptures, the Proverbs say will always pay
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  rich dividends. And then the verse three,
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  says, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, wisdom, we know comes
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  from the mouth and mind of God. And so it makes sense that we who desire wisdom would ask him for
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  it. And yet it seems that we rarely do. And verse three says, call out for it and raise your voice
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  for it. The beg the Lord for it. Like Solomon did. Do you remember this? First Kings chapter three,
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  the Lord comes to Solomon, King of Israel, young Solomon, before he'd blown it and said,
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  ask what I shall give you.
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  What do you want, Solomon? I mean, this is what a blank check from the Lord.
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  What do you want? You remember what Solomon said? Your servant is in the midst of a great people,
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  too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant, therefore,
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  an understanding mind to govern your people that I may discern between good and evil for who is
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  able to govern your great people. And you know, the Lord has granted us the same privilege.
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  Jesus,
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  said, ask, ask me and you will receive. And everyone who receive asks, receives. And for what
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  do we ask? He's given us this promise. Ask invitation, ask whatever you want. And for what
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  do we ask? Lord, I'm tired. Lord, my knees hurt. Lord, I want more stuff. Lord, I don't want to be
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  uncomfortable. I got to give a disclaimer here. There's nothing wrong with praying for those
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  things. But I think, I think that sometimes we miss the greater offer.
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  There's a heavenly offer because our minds are set on earthly things.
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  Can you imagine how our requests would be transformed if we actually set our minds
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  on things above, Colossians 3 says, and not on earthly things. And you know,
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  what's interesting, the testimony of Solomon concludes with the Lord's blessing. It says this,
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  after he'd asked for wisdom, it says, it pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God
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  said to him, because you have asked this for wisdom and have not asked for long life or riches or for
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  the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right.
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  Behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind so that none
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  like you has ever been before. And none like you shall arise after you. And I'm going to give you
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  everything you didn't ask for. Right? I also give you what you have not asked. Riches, honor,
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  no other King shall compare with you all of your days. Because Solomon asked,
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  for heavenly things, he received earthly things as well. But the reciprocal is not true.
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  Minds that are set on earthly things will often receive them, right? We know that to be true,
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  but the Lord does not offer the promise of heavenly things when they are never sought.
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  Not only do we need to be receptive to the scriptures, but we've also got to be responsive
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  to the scriptures.
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  Notice third, the third conditional statement is that we've got to be resolute.
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  Resolute. The third, if verse four, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden
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  treasures. I used to enjoy watching those shows about gold miners. And remember that
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  like three year span where those were the hot thing on discovery channel.
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  There's an entire season of television about guys in Alaska and do whatever they got to do to find
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  gold. And it always disturbed me at the end of each of those seasons when they held up this
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  little masonry.
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  It was a little mason jar of gold that they had unearthed. I couldn't believe they had spent their
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  lives fortunes. They had taken months away from their families. They had literally moved mountains
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  for such a small amount of gold, right? This little jar like this. Now, most of the time they
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  couldn't even cover their own expenses. And it was disturbing to me. I would often at the end of
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  those seasons wonder who could waste so much time seeking such a small treasure. And then one day,
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  the Holy Spirit just opened my eyes and said, I'm going to go find gold. I'm going to go find gold.
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  I'm going to go find gold. I'm going to go find gold. I'm going to go find gold. I'm going to go find gold.
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  And he opened my eyes and asked me, and who would spend the summer watching it?
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  All right. Touche, Holy Spirit. The promise of divine wisdom is so much greater than minerals
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  and precious stones. It will always deliver. It will always cover your expenses. But verse four
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  says we must mine for it as diligently as those men who were seeking their fortunes. We must push
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  aside mountains of gold. We must mine for it as diligently as those men who were seeking their
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  fortunes. We must be willing to divert rivers. We must toil and agonize, understanding that the
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  payoff is worth far more than the effort expended. If you receive, if you respond, if you are
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  resolute, then, then the Lord says, you will understand. Then you will understand. We get to
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  the thens. Does following the Lord pay off? And what are some of the immediate benefits or
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  blessings of heeding, wisdoms, call? Notice verse five. You're going to understand. Then you will
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  understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Understanding might be the
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  most underrated of all of God's blessings. In layman's terms, understanding means the Lord
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  turns on the lights. Your life will begin to make sense. But the text continues by saying that you
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  will also find the knowledge of God. And that's an interesting statement. Not only does this mean
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  that those who seek the words of God will have the mind of God. You'll have,
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  you'll have God's perspective. You'll have God's knowledge. You'll have God's wisdom. You'll begin
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  to think like God thinks, but it also means that you will come to know God himself in a greater way.
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  Franz Delitzsch has said this. This is translated from his commentary in German.
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  He who strives after wisdom earnestly and really reaches in this way, fellowship with God,
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  strive after the Lord, seek me, the Lord says, and I will be found.
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  For just as you seek the word of God, you will find the word of God.
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  Just as he gives wisdom, it is nowhere else found, but in him. And it never comes from any
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  other source, but from him as communicated through the medium of his word. We do not glorify God.
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  I'm sorry. We'll, we'll continue that in just a moment. First, you will understand. But second,
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  notice you will receive. Look at verse six. Not only will you understand, you will receive. For
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  the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. The Lord gives,
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  and that means that we get.
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  We don't serve a stingy God. In fact, we don't serve a God who needs to be served.
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  We've got to break from the mentality that God needs us in some way, or that
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  God takes from us, or that God wants what we have. We've got to break the mentality that the
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  Lord is our employer, who depends upon and who benefits from our labor. Do you remember that day
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  in John chapter four, where Jesus is walking through Samaria, he sits down next to a well,
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  the woman comes out and he has this conversation with the woman at the well. Do you remember that?
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  And he asked her for a drink, right? And then he said this, he said, if you knew who was asking
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  you for a drink, you would ask him for a drink and he would satisfy you with living water. You
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  would never thirst again. John Piper words it this way. He says, the implication is that those
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  who do ask Christians who spend time in prayer, they do it because they see that God is a great
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  giver. Christ is wise and merciful and powerful beyond measure.
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  And therefore their prayer glorifies Christ and honors his father. The chief end of man we know
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  is to glorify God. Therefore, when we become what God created us to be, we become people of prayer.
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  Here's a great discovery. We do not glorify God by providing his needs,
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  but by praying that he would provide for ours and trusting in him to answer. Let me, let me just say
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  that I'll, I'll repeat that last line. We don't glorify God by providing his needs. He's not the
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  one who needs us. He's not the one who needs us. He's the one who needs us. He's the one who needs
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  us. Do you see what he's saying? We don't glorify him by providing for him. Instead, we pray that he
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  would provide for us, take care of us, Lord. And then we trust him to answer. The Lord is a giving
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  God and we will receive. Notice third, third, we'll be shielded. Verse seven, he stores up sound wisdom
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  for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity. The person of integrity is the one
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  who walks in perfect innocence and full submission, who seeks good without exception and perhaps
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  nothing protects a person's testimony and upholds the reputation of Christ like a life
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  of integrity. Perhaps nothing tears it down more quickly than compromise. You'll be shielded,
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  he says, but notice fourth, another, then you'll be watched over. Verse eight, he guards the paths
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  of justice and watches over the way of his saints. You ever confronted with the precarious nature of
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  life?
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  It feels as though we just flit through our lives, blissfully unaware of the imminent danger posed to
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  our souls at nearly every turn. We can treat sin so recklessly and casually as though it were a
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  playful puppy whose teeth couldn't possibly harm our thick skin. When in reality, sin is an entire
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  pack of ravenous wolves waiting to descend upon us at the smallest opportunity. My youngest son,
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  Chase, who is now 13, he's in the eighth grade. He's sitting next door in youth group right now
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  when he was a little boy. He was a little boy. He was a little boy. He was a little boy. He was a
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  tiny little dude. I don't know, eight or nine months old, you know, couldn't walk yet,
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  but was kicking around and using his legs and doing all of that. We sat him in one of those
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  little baby saucer things, you know what I'm talking about, right? You stick them down in
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  this thing and it's got like a tray thing that they can spin and look around and whatever. But
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  it's nice because your kid is entertained, but you know where they're, you know, you know,
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  when I come back in five minutes, he's still going to be in this thing, right? And so he was
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  sitting there. It was a nice, cool day outside when we lived in the city. He was sitting there
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  in LA, nice, cool day. We opened up the front door to let a breeze come through. Our next door
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  neighbor, who was a very kind woman, but lived by herself and had a very large black dog, right?
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  And not a friendly one. Our next door neighbor, Nancy, let accidentally, I think, let this dog
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  out. And the dog just had a foul temper, you know? And so I was watching, I was watching inside of
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  our house and Chase was right inside of our front door. And one of these little jumper saucer
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  things bouncing around and giggling and just, you know, having fun and doing whatever nine month
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  old little boys do. And the front door was open and I could see out the front door. I was in the
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  living room. I could see out the front door, the dog out in her front lawn, kind of looking around
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  and smelling and doing this thing and whatever. And then look, I saw him look up and look through
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  our front door and I saw him look at Chase. I could see it. And you know, you can tell dogs
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  kind of, you can tell what they're thinking, right? You can see the gears spinning. He sees
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  this little baby there and just turned.
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  Like this. And he looked straight at him and just jumped down on haunches and just started
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  booking after this dog. And it became a race, um, between me and next door neighbor's dog,
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  you know, next door, Nancy's dog, uh, who is going to make it to the front door first.
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  Right. And I just started running and I'm, you know, making my way over. And this dog is
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  trucking like German shepherd, big black German shepherd dog, uh, running to the front door.
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  And we got to the front door at the same time. And you guys, I grabbed that big, we had a big
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  oak front door.
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  I grabbed that front door and I slammed that thing shut on next door, Nancy's dog, you know,
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  and I was not concerned with the consequences, um, because that dog was going to eat my son.
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  He was not thinking I'm going to come lick the baby's face. I mean, it was snarling, drooling
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  fangs bared coming at my boy, you know, and I was like, there is no way. And if, if I accidentally
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  pinch this dog's head off, I'm fine with that. Right. I mean, I was okay with it. I am going
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  to be a dog. Right. There is no way the dog, you know, it's interesting. I slammed this thing
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  shut. I hear it smash against the door and just kind of turn around and ran away. It was perfectly
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  fine. You know, my heart is pumping or whatever. I'm like, did anybody see that? You know, I'm like,
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  Holly, you know, I turned around and chase was oblivious, smiling, laughing, flipping the thing,
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  hitting the buttons, doing whatever. Right. You guys read again.
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  Verse eight, he guards the paths of justice and he watches over the way of the saints.
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  We are sitting in the baby saucer. That's us completely oblivious. And we've got a heavenly
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  father who is looking out for us and watching out for that ravenous pack of wolves that is
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  ready to come and eat us and is willing to pinch their heads off in the front door is willing to
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  just consider that if we will be receptive to the word and responsive to the word and resolute in
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  suit of wisdom. The promise is that God will shield us. That means that for those who choose
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  wisdom, the Lord actually keeps them from trouble. He preserves us during troubling times. And
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  honestly, most of the time, I think that we're completely unaware. We don't even realize that
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  he's doing it. It's an awesome promise. Notice fifth, we will understand right from wrong.
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  Verse nine, you will understand righteousness and justice and equity and every good path that
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  God has given us. We will understand righteousness and justice and equity and every good path that
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  we know is not just having a high IQ, but rather having a moral understanding of good versus evil.
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  It's the ability to see life in the world from God's perspective and then to act
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  accordingly. Notice sixth, this says you will be happy. What a promise this is. Verse 10,
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  for wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
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  That makes sure that you notice the text does not say your lives will be easy. Ease of life
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  should never be confused with happiness.
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  Oftentimes those who have the easiest lives are the most miserable.
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  But consider for a moment, the testimony of the first apostles,
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  the first disciples of Christ after his resurrection, Acts chapter four, the very first church, Peter and
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  John answered, whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you got
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  to judge, but we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. When they'd further threatened them,
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  they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people for all were praising God
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  for what had happened. So they stand trial. The next chapter, Acts chapter five, when they had called
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  in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus. And then they
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  let them go. They left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
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  dishonor for the name of Jesus. These men's lives were not easy and yet they were filled with joy.
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  What a promise this is. If you pursue wisdom, you'll actually be happy.
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  Verse 11, notice seventh, you will be delivered. And with this, we end, you will be delivered. And
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  notice there are two specific people. Our text says you will be delivered from the first is the
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  indiscreet man. Look at verse 11, discretion will watch over you. Understanding will guard you
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  delivering you from the way of evil from men of perverted speech. You know, that word perverted
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  speech literally means seductive speech, enticing you away from the way of evil.
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  Away from the voice of your father, away from the voice of God. This man seeks to distort reality
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  so that his victims can't think straight. Whether he means well or not, whether he actually believes
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  what he's even saying or not, doesn't matter. His counsel and advice go against the truth
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  of God's word. Notice it continues in verse 13. They forsake the paths of uprightness.
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  They walk in the ways of darkness. They rejoice in doing evil. They delight in the perverseness
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  of evil.
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  Men whose paths are cricket and who are devious in their ways. Anyone who seeks to justify sin
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  or explain away sin because of extenuating circumstances. Anyone who calls bad good and
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  good bad is a perverse speaker. That person is leading you down dark paths,
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  paths, which will only lead to hurt. And let me tell you their script. I can even tell you how
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  they word it because their script hasn't changed in generations. Sin is not a big deal.
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  Sin can be handled. You can handle it. Or this one. If they loved you, they'd let you do what you
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  want. Or if they loved you, they'd be happy for you. If it were bad, they wouldn't have legalized
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  it. Here's another one. Follow your heart. Treat yourself. Get whatever it is you want.
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  How can that be true? It happened so long ago. Or swearing. It's just a word. It's just how
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  people talk. It's not wrong if it doesn't hurt anyone.
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  How can they call themselves Christians if they keep telling you what to do?
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  These are the speech patterns of the perverted man, the seductive man. Notice you'll be delivered
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  not only from him, you'll also be delivered from the indecent woman. This is the first time we've
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  ever met the forbidden woman in Proverbs, but it will not be the last. Second in frequency,
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  only to Princess Wisdom herself, who we talked about last week, is the adulterous woman.
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  She's given a lot of airtime because nothing else will ever be able to get her out of the way.
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  We'll separate a man or woman from God faster than seeking happiness where it cannot be found.
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  And that is what she represents. There is a promise. And this woman, the forbidden woman,
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  represents a promise of happiness where happiness cannot be found. We're going to see in verse 16
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  that her purpose is clearly to rival the father for his son's affection. Remember last week when
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  I said, what better way for a father to tell his son, what the better picture of a father to
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  communicate to his son, something to chase after than to call wisdom.
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  A beautiful woman, right? Chase after her. So now the enemy is creating a counterfeit beautiful
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  woman. And you pick up in verse 16. He says, you will be delivered from the forbidden woman,
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  from the adulterous with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth,
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  who forgets the covenant of her God. Her house sinks down to death and her paths to the departed.
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  None who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.
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  We see that her,
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  her purpose, right? Like I said, is to rival the father's advice. And he says here, adulterous
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  adultery is never in the will of God. Never. It will always end in a heart that is distant from
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  the Lord. Always. I'm not saying that it can't be repented of and forgiven of. I'm not saying that
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  God and his infinite wisdom cannot still work all things for the good of those who love him. Consider
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  the author. The author was the result of an adulterous affair between David, his father,
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  and Bathsheba. But an adulterous relationship is never,
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  ever God honoring. The adulterer of Proverbs two had forsaken her husband. She'd forsaken her God
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  would only ever lead her victims to do the same.
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  And can I implore you? I mean, there's a hundred of us here tonight. Maybe there's someone here who
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  is having an affair or who's thinking about having an affair, tempted even by the thought
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  of having an affair. The only God honoring response is to stop, stop, repent,
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  confess, get off of the path of the wayward, adulterous woman, and go back to your God.
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  And you say, well, what if I do? What if I do? Is there really any good reason to do it God's way?
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  Yes. Look at verse 20. If you do, you will walk in the way of the good. You'll keep to the paths
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  of the righteous. The upright will inhabit the land and those who with integrity will remain in
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  it. But the righteous will keep to the paths of the good. And the righteous will keep to the paths of the
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  wicked. The wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out for it. Don't
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  fall for the lie that all lifestyles are the same. They are not created equal. Don't believe the
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  liars who say that no choice is the wrong choice. It's not true that you should live your life
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  however you want. And that's what will make you happy. It's not true. The happiest, fullest,
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  and most satisfied we will ever be is when we are obeying the Lord and submitting to his will.
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  And as an added bonus, our life insurance premiums will go down.
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  Let me pray. Lord, thank you for your word, which speaks so clearly. And God, I pray
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  that you would bless us as we apply it. Lord, I pray that we would be a people
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  who are receptive to your word and that respond to your word. Lord, we know that it's good to own
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  the Bible and it's good to read the Bible, but it's even better still to actually do what it says.
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  And so, Lord, make us a people who not only hear your word, but do it. And God, I pray that we would
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  be resolute in our pursuit of your word as a treasure. And God, if we do those things, we pray
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  that all of those blessings we just listed for understanding and joy and life and even
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  prosperity and all of those promises that you give to us in your word would be fulfilled.
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  Lord, thank you for being a giving God. In Jesus' name, amen.