Decisions, Decisions

Estimated the average adult makes 35,000 decisions a day

 

Most of those are automatic or require very little energy

  • What socks to wear
  • Check Social or not
  • Sleep in for another 10 min
  • Which way to work
  • Where for lunch

 

Low impact vs Big impact Decisions

  • Big impact – Important decisions that cause a big change
  • Low impact – Seemingly small but accumulate to major effect

 

For both of these decisions, we need WISDOM

 

Wisdom: The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment

We have all looked back at a decision and wished we could change it

  • Knowing what I know now
  • If I could tell my younger self

 

God’s original plan was for mankind to lead alongside Him in His new world

 

Adam and Eve

  • God would give them HIS wisdom
  • But they choose to define it themselves
  • Tree of Good and Evil

 

That’s been the struggle ever since

  • Every generation trying to discover what is GOOD and what is EVIL

 

Let’s look at the book of Proverbs

  • Written by King Solomon, David’s Son
  • One of the wisest men in history

1 Kings 3

7 “Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place. Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership. 8 Your servant is among your people you have chosen, a people too many to be numbered or counted. 9 So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?”

 

10 Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had requested this. 11 So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life or riches for yourself, or the death of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to administer justice, 12 I will therefore do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again.

 

That’s great and all, but what about us NOW?

 

HOW DO WE GAIN GOD’S WISDOM AND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE GET IT?

 

Book of Proverbs

  • Written by Solomon containing His God-given wisdom

 

1: God’s Wisdom Must Be Searched For

Proverbs 2

1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,

2 listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding;

3 furthermore, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,

4 if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure,

5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.

6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

 

One of the most difficult facts of life is that the best things are gained through difficulty

  • Money doesn’t save itself
  • Healthy foods don’t eat themselves
  • Good kids don’t raise themselves
  • Great marriages don’t build themselves

 

While we know this, we often choose to settle for something easier to obtain

  • We make GOOD EXCUSES for why things didn’t work out

 

The first thing Solomon tells us about wisdom is that it must be searched for

  • it’s like a treasure

 

You only search for something that is VALUABLE to you

 

BIG QUESTION:

DO YOU BELIEVE GOD’S WISDOM FOR YOUR LIFE IS VALUABLE

  • Every person must ask themselves this question

 

If it is valuable, you will search for it

  • Like a lost treasure, because it is

 

But what is standing in our way?!

 

Our desire to live by OUR wisdom instead

  • Why search for wisdom when we can use our own

 

When we start living by God’s wisdom instead of our own

 

2: God’s Wisdom Leads and Protects Us

Proverbs 2

7 He stores up success for the upright; He is a shield for those who live with integrity 8 so that he may guard the paths of justice and protect the way of his faithful followers.

9 Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and integrity—every good path.

10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight you.

11 Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you.

12 It will rescue you from the way of evil— from anyone who says perverse things, 13 from those who abandon the right paths to walk in ways of darkness, 14 from those who enjoy doing evil and celebrate perversion, 15 whose paths are crooked, and whose ways are devious.

Close eyes and pretend

  • Walking down a familiar path
  • Get pulled to a side path
  • You cannot see back or forward
  • The only thing you can go on is your own gut feeling
  • Doesn’t take long to get tied up in vines or fall down a ditch

 

Two big problems when walking blindly

  • You can see where you will end up
  • You know where you made your mistakes so you can’t know what know to do
  • Keep making the same mistakes, not knowing they are mistakes

 

A familiar path is what you think you know about life

  • Living how you feel most comfortable

 

But at any time, you can be pulled into unknown paths

 

Without God’s wisdom, the only thing that can you is you

  • Specifically your EMOTIONS

Emotions are TERRIBLE leaders

 

Emotions are driven by:

  • Our own desires
  • Our Past
  • Our friends
  • Our culture

 

Emotions can be decided and turbulent

 

When we walk in God’s wisdom HE:

  • Stores up success
  • Is a shield
  • Guards and protects
  • Gives understanding
  • Rescues us from evil
  • Evil people
  • crooked paths

 

Every day, you, your family/children are bombarded by different types of wisdom

  • Culture
  • Others
  • Self

 

Those “wisdoms” only lead to heartache, heartbreak, and death

 

Look at the decisions in our culture right now?

  • When does life begin and what is its value?
  • Who am I and what is my worth?
  • Why does it matter who I love?
  • What value is traditional morality over new ideas?
  • Does it matter who I connect myself through sex with?
  • Is gender a spectrum or set by biology?
  • Why is marriage important anymore?
  • Is there even a God, so what if it’s not?

 

In each of these things, without God’s wisdom, we are walking blindly

  • Not knowing where we are headed and not sure where we made the mistake

 

So here is the question we should all be asking:

 

According to God’s wisdom, what is the WISE thing to do?

  • For my future
  • In this present situation
  • In my response to culture
  • When I feel lost and out of place

 

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