Calvary Chapel Staten Island

Guest (Female): Hello, and welcome to God In Our City, the daily edition. Your host and Bible teacher is Pastor Dave Watson. Pastor Dave has been the pastor of Calvary Chapel on Staten Island for 35 years. In addition, he is the co-founder and president of the New York Institute for Biblical Studies.

To receive a special downloadable gift from Pastor Dave, please go to calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. That's calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. Now, here's Pastor Dave and our show.

Pastor Dave Watson: Hello everyone, welcome again to God In Our City, the daily edition. We trust you're well, trust your day is going well. It's Wednesday, it's hump day. You've made it. You've survived St. Patrick's Day and now you're going forward to the weekend. We spend so much time wondering what we're going to do on the weekend sometimes we forget that there are five days in between and we can live an incredible life every day as an adventure serving our God, serving our Lord.

We are here at God In Our City, the daily edition. Perhaps you're joining us for the very first time. What we do is we study the scriptures. We look closely mostly at books of the Bible. We tend not to do topical stuff. We do it here and there, but mostly we're working through books and we want you to join us. Come on down, enjoy our time in the word of God. It will bless you and bless you immensely. Not because I'm teaching it, but because it's the word of God and it's so practical.

We've been looking at the Book of Proverbs. We've been thinking about this topic, that is living iSmart in an eStupid world. Living iSmart in an eStupid world. If you've got somebody you know who's borderline eStupid, send this to them. Call them right now. Say, listen, there's a guy on the radio, there's a guy on YouTube, a guy on Facebook. He's going to talk about how to live in this crazy world without making all kinds of nutty mistakes. So give them a call or send this to them. We hope it'll be a blessing.

We have some resources that make our time together very profitable, very productive, and we would like you to have them. We think they're very helpful to you. We have a study guide that goes along with our lessons. We're on week seven in this study in Proverbs and you can just pick up the study guide. How? Come by the church office? No, you can just download it at calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. It's one piece of paper, back and front, a condensed set of notes to help you really get the most out of our lesson.

Beyond that, we have been sending out free of charge, I got your attention right? As soon as I said free of charge, you were with me, you were all in. We've been sending out Proverbs: The Bible Journal version. This is just the Book of Proverbs, but it's a Bible, and it's a journal as well. It has the Proverbs text on one side and the journal space on the other side. You also see there that we have this incredible resource of memory verses that help you put the word of God into you so you don't forget it. Those are available free. You just ask for them. We send them, we pay the postage.

In addition to that, we have a 31-day Proverbs study. Because Proverbs is 31 chapters, you can start it any day of the month. Today's the 18th, you turn to Proverbs 18 and just walk through this study. It really builds a concordance of important topics throughout the Book of Proverbs. While you're at calvarychapelsi.org/gioc, please consider making a donation to God In Our City. Your donations make a difference. They're important. They're a blessing to us. They show us that this program matters to you. So please, if you get a chance, consider making a donation. We're praying for God's richest blessing on you whether you give or not, but it helps us if you're able to participate.

Before we get deep into our study today, I just wanted to talk to you about the practicalness of Proverbs. I was talking to a friend just the other day and we were talking about having too much, having too little. When you read the Book of Proverbs, it actually talks about that. In Proverbs chapter 30, verses seven through nine, it says:

"Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God."

See the practicalness of this? God don't give me too much. Don't give me too much, Lord, or what will happen? I'll deny you. I'll be so into myself. And don't let me be poor, Lord, because I might be mad at you from it. Give me just enough. Very practical prayer in the Book of Proverbs and one I think all of us could relate to. Not having too much, not having too little. Just a gentle thought there as we begin to work our way through Proverbs.

We're in chapter eight and I just want to remind you that our verses that we are looking at come from chapter eight. We're reading in verses 12 through 21. We want to read that today, pray, and then get into our study. Proverbs 8:12-21:

"I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; by me princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries."

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we want to be wise people. We need to be wise people. Lord, our world is in need of wise people. Help us, Lord, in the moments that we have together, the moments we have in this study, not to take them for granted, but help us to take the words of Proverbs and allow them to go down deep into our hearts to change us, to help us to be all that you want us to be. Meet the needs, Lord, of our listeners. Touch each heart we pray today with your word, including mine. We pray this now in Jesus' name. In our Lord Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

So we're taking the iView here looking at Proverbs. This is our seventh week and we're working through some important ideas regarding wisdom. Remember, Proverbs is principles, not promises. We started with a wakeup with Proverbs calling out for us, trying to get the job to be our main counselor, letting us know that she wants to be our main counselor. We talked about her voice, that it's powerful, it's public, it's pointed, and it's personal. Then we talked about the value of wisdom, that wisdom is really priceless to you and I if we will grasp it, if we will allow it to be part of our lives because it's noble.

Not just as it's noble, it's understandable. Not just as it's understandable, there's nothing that's comparable to it. We say all those things and now wisdom's going to give us her resume. First section is wakeup. Wisdom is crying out. Wisdom is screaming. The next section is look up. What is the resume of wisdom? Begins with wisdom's attributes. What is wisdom like? First of all, wisdom associates with prudence. It tells us, "I wisdom dwell with prudence and I find knowledge and discretion." So she's with prudence. She's with those who exercise judgment, exercise wise judgment. That is one of her attributes. She exercises or teaches us to exercise wise judgments.

Then she affirms the fear of the Lord. She associates with prudence, but she also affirms the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 8:13: "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate." So she defines what the fear of the Lord is, but she's also reaffirming it. We know from Proverbs chapter 1 that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. We know that the fear of the Lord results in long life. We know that the fear of the Lord results in blessing with no regret. But here she tells us that the fear of the Lord manifests itself in hatred of evil, pride, and arrogance, the way of evil, and perverted speech I hate. It defines here what evil is. It's pride, it's arrogance, it's a way, it's perverted speech. When I fear the Lord, I reject these things. I don't want these things in my life. And wisdom affirms the fear of the Lord.

Wisdom associates with prudence and affirms the fear of the Lord, and she advises soundly. "I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight, I have strength." So wisdom is one to get counsel from, sound wisdom from. In her imparting these things to you and I, we find strength. Now, what's all the rage now for information? What's all the rage for getting answers? AI. Two letters. Artificial intelligence. Now, I've known about artificial intelligence for nearly 40 years. When I was in Blacksburg, Virginia as an associate pastor, one of the parents in town was in town from Washington State to talk for a year about teaching and getting together with other professors to talk about AI.

AI has been on the scene for a long time and it's burst up upon us now. It's all over the place. People easily can get lots and lots and lots and lots of great information using AI. For the most part, it's almost 100% accurate, but you always have to remember where is it getting its information. It's getting its information from human beings who are inputting the information. But AI is the rage. Here's what AI can't give you. It can't give you godly wisdom. It can repeat it. If it sees it, it can repeat it, but it doesn't know it personally.

So if the resume of the two is put next to each other, which would you choose? AI or wisdom? If you had to get one, Lady Wisdom or AI, if you had to get one to be your counselor, who would you choose? I think many of us would choose AI, but Lady Wisdom has so much more to offer. She has wisdom that is experience-based. She has wisdom that associates with prudence. She affirms the fear of the Lord and she advises soundly. She says it, "I have good counsel, I have sound counsel and I have insight, I have strength." All of that for you.

So the first section was the cover letter: wakeup. I'd like to be your advisor. I'd like to be your guide, your life coach for life. And now it's: look up. Look at my attributes. I associate with prudence. I affirm the fear of the Lord and I advise soundly. But wait, there's more to it. I'm going to show you my achievements. This is what I, wisdom, have accomplished. You and I can't go wrong choosing wisdom because of wisdom's accomplishments. She is the means to great leading. The text tells us, Proverbs 8:15-17: "By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; by me princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me."

She is means to great leading. She leads us. The kings who lead well, lead with wisdom. The rulers who decree justly get that from wisdom. By wisdom, princes and rulers and nobles and all those types of people govern justly. She loves those who love her and those who seek her, find her. She's a means, secondly, to great wealth. What? Yes. "Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver." Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. She is a means to great wealth. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, my yield than choice silver. You cannot believe the blessings that you will get from wisdom.

Then she's a means to a great inheritance. "I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries." I want us just to see just how amazing wisdom is claiming to be. She's saying: I'll lead you in your life. I'll provide for you wealth. When it's all said and done, I'll give you a great inheritance. "I walk in the way of righteousness in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries."

I want you to see this a couple times because I think it's worth noting. She says it in verse 17: "I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me." She says here she's going to grant an inheritance to those who love me. Those who love me. So the question really comes down to this. We see this cover letter from wisdom crying out to be hired. Then she produces a resume that's amazing. She has great leading, great wealth, and great inheritance in her achievements. She's done everything you can imagine and she's a great person.

Will you and I love wisdom? Will we love wisdom? Will we, if you'll pardon the way I say this, forsake all others and alone cling to wisdom? We need to be iSmart in an eStupid world. That will only happen when we take the resume of wisdom and we embrace wisdom. We hire wisdom. Not as a probationary thing, not for a season, but for our life. Have you done that? Have you and I chosen above anything else wisdom? Have we taken the time to just get on our knees and say, God, I can't do this. I'm not smart enough to do this. I've got street smarts, but I don't have God smarts. I can't pull this off.

I can't raise my kids. I'm not smart enough. I can't navigate my job. I'm not smart enough. I need your wisdom. I can't figure out my marriage. I don't have the wisdom to do it. I come before you, Lord. I come before you humbly and I ask you to be my counselor. I want to hire you as my personal wisdom coach. Come into my life and just fill me with your wisdom. Have you done that? Have you prayed that way? Can I encourage you to do that? To be that honest with God, that open with God, and that absolutely humble before God? If you've not, who are you listening to for your wisdom? Blessed is a man who doesn't listen to the ungodly or the sinners or the scorner or the scoff, but the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord and he meditates on that law day and night.

Will you become that person as opposed to the person who is still collecting resumes? When are you going to hire wisdom? When are you going to give her the full-time job she deserves in the midst of your life? It gets really hard to hire wisdom when your life's a mess, when you fail to listen for many years, and now you're looking for wisdom to get a way out. It pains me to say this, sometimes there's not a way out. Sometimes it's such a mess that there aren't good answers. What do we need to do? We need to start today to be people who are living lives of wisdom. We need to start today and how do we start? Wisdom's written you a cover letter. She screamed to you: Wake up! I'm what you need. Look at the value I bring. Then she's given you her resume, her attributes and her achievements. With your whole heart, with my whole heart, let us hire wisdom to be our personal life coach today.

Let's pray. Lord, your word is strong. Your word is powerful. Your word is sharper than any two-edged sword. Please help us to embrace it and allow it, Lord, to change us. Lord, help us to make a choice today. A choice to be those who embrace wisdom wholeheartedly so that you can work deep in our lives. Lord, give us lives that are indeed prosperous. Give us, Lord, lives that are full of prudence, full of your leading, lives that have an inheritance at the end. Lord, help us to live that way by choosing wisdom. We pray these things in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, Amen. Thank you for joining us here on God In Our City. Please take advantage of our resources at calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. While you're there, please consider making a donation to God In Our City. Can't wait to see you again tomorrow on another edition of the daily edition of God In Our City. God bless everybody.

Guest (Female): Thanks for listening to God In Our City with your host, Pastor Dave Watson. We hope the show was a blessing to you. Again, to receive a downloadable gift from Pastor Dave, go to calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. That's calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. Please check out Pastor Dave's blog at nycshepherd.com. That's nycshepherd.com. Please invite a friend and join us every weekday for another edition of God In Our City.