There was once a young man who went to great lengths to search for wisdom. In his travels he visited some of the most distinguished philosophical people of the age; and while he never truly got his question answered, what is the secret of wisdom, he learned that there was a man of great wisdom living high in the Himalayas which the local people attributed to him as being their oracle. So he set off to find this wiseman, and while traveling through foreign land, spending nearly all his money, fighting off wild beasts and bandits, the young man finally located the wiseman. The wiseman was sitting rather humbly in his chair outside his hut and the young man approached him and said, “Oh Master who is of great wisdom! I have traveled far to search for the answer, What is the secret of wisdom?" The Master replied: "Good judgment." The young man not fully satisfied with his response asked, "But how do you get good judgment?" The Master replied: "Experience." The young man still not fully satisfied asked one final time, "And how do you get experience?" "Ah," said the Master: "Bad judgment." There is some truth in those wise words for such a simple question.
Wisdom is indeed one of the greatest gifts God has given to us! We would not be who we are without wisdom; but this begs the serious question, what is wisdom? In looking that definition up, most all resources I found suggested wisdom is ‘knowledge that is gained by experience,’ much like what we already heard and know. But the problem with this definition is what knowledge are you experiencing? Is it of God or of the world? Do we gain knowledge by experiencing how to rob a bank; lying to people; cheating on your spouse; swindle the government out of what’s not ours? What is the source of our knowledge? I once heard someone say in a movie a very humorous comment about a politician. It said, “I am a politician which means I am a cheat and a liar. When I’m not kissing the babies I’m stealing their lollipops, but it also means I keep my options open!” Wow! What a statement!
In starting our journey friends, we are going to look at the gift of wisdom and we will start with Gospel of John chapter 6 verse 45, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.” Here we see where it was God’s full intent for mankind to learn and have knowledge of Him. As we learn we grow in wisdom; but not just any wisdom, Godly wisdom! For some people wisdom is a two-edged sword, meaning they want to be successful in the world; being popular and wealthy, but at the expense of losing what God has to offer. The Gospel of Mark tells us “For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” If you think about it, wisdom is not to gain a profit that benefits our bodies, our carnality or even our desires, but something far more important, our spirit!
When I think of wisdom, one of the first people that come to mind is King Solomon. According to scripture, God gave him a choice between being blessed with Wealth or wisdom! Solomon chose wisdom. Solomon knew that wisdom of God makes all the difference. The book of Proverbs tells us “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” This sinful world has no leverage on wisdom; we cannot compare anything to it! Fearing God is not fear that the world produces, it’s a Holy fear, a reverence of an eternal God of all creation who desires and deserves worship and praise. From this concept alone we ‘start’ to gain wisdom that only comes from God.
A pastor had a talk with his congregation about wisdom one Sunday and he stated, “We are told this is the Knowledge Economy. The Information Age. But where is wisdom to be found? Great question – where is wisdom to be found? Google it. I did. You could do it too. Guess what came up as the top answer? In fact, as I type into Google, “Where is wisdom to be found?” I scroll down and just keep rolling - and every answer, the first 25 at least – come from the Bible. From the Book of Job, chapter 28:12, that says, “But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?” Google can’t tell you the answer, but it can tell you where to find it, in God’s Word.” Can I get an Amen. The pastor was so spot on!
Don’t be fooled friends! The gift of wisdom comes by way of God and no one else! To help better understand it, we need to start where Jesus started even as he was a child. As it was for all Jewish people, learning God’s laws, the Torah, was mandatory. For any young person, Deuteronomy chapter 6 would have been one of the areas where Jesus would be required to memorize. “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Everywhere and in everything, we put God first with all our love! Can we honestly say this morning we do that? Do we trust God in times of hardship, do we learn from God during our misfortunes of life, do we experience God’s grace when we make, as the wiseman said, “bad judgements,” and the list goes on. The gift of wisdom friends all starts with God, not the library! Jesus himself tells us to learn of him by way of giving God all parts of who we are by consuming Him. “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” 52 Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” Boldly friends, we are nothing without God! Nothing we can ever do will change the fact that God made each of us in His image, and God desires us to abide in Him and Him in us! To do this, we must learn of Him, gain wisdom and allow that wisdom to shape us, mold us and ultimately purify us! Nothing we do will ever change God’s principles on wisdom. So where do we go from here? What do we do with it? Well first, we should never try to synchronize the world’s wisdom with the Gospel of Christ! It’s tempting I know! We listen to great people and read great materials that suggest a self-help remedy to knowledge, wisdom and power; all to discover what the world promises does not deliver on its goods. If you think clearly on wisdom friends, we are to hold onto and celebrate the cross of Christ, whereas the world teaches doctrine that is downright foolish. Second, all people will eventually kneel before God and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. As we learn and rally around the cross, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus and the wisdom and the power of God, this is what binds us to wisdom; whereas the world wants to slowly tear us apart by looking at wisdom being something man created or self-indulged where you hear, “We are our own Gods!” “We created our own wisdom, knowledge and power!” What fools! Third, as God calls people to himself, we learn the gift of wisdom by living the faith of the risen Christ! Just as we read in Deuteronomy, every ounce of our being needs to portray God. We live it, breathe it and as Jesus tells us, we eat it! We are God’s and God’s alone! There is no room for anyone else! I remember my Grandmother once told me that certain types of Gospel music she loved so much that if she could eat it up she would! I sort of understand that concept!
In closing, it was President Lincoln himself that stated, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.” To live our one and only life in such a way that when it comes to an end, and it will, God looks at us and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done." This is wisdom. Living our life for God, this is wisdom! From the moment you wake up until you go to bed at night, love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and then you walk through the day and love the people that you see and love them like you love yourself, this is wisdom. All things in being an obedient serving of God friends, That's the gift of wisdom. Amen.