Today’s message is part of a series called Soar. Dive into God’s Word today with Pastor Ben and learn what wisdom God has in store for you. Four Ways to Get Wise! 1. Win Souls 2. Increased Learning 3. Seek God 4. Embrace Christ
I want to continue our series today on what I’ve been doing so far this term. With that in mind, I want to read to you Psalm 18:35. It says this.
You protect me with your saving shield. You support me with your right hand. You have stooped to make me great. I’ll read that again you protect me with your saving shield. You support me with your right hand. You have stooped to make me great. Another translation says you give me a shield of victory. Your right hand sustains me. You stoop down to make me great.
Psalm 18:35 NCV You protect me with your saving shield. You support me with your right hand. You have stooped to make me great.
The theme for our church this year is called On the Fly. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 40:31 that those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They’ll mount upon the wings of eagles.
Isaiah 40:31 NKJV 31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
So what that means is this. God desires that we rise and mount up to another level. Notice this. He stoops down to make me great. It was written by King David. David is saying that the Lord stooped down to make him great. If you want to encapsulate salvation, it’s a little bit like that. He stoops down into our mess. He stoops down into our sin and shame. But he doesn’t stoop down and then causes us to stay down. He stoops down and then he elevates us. He makes us great. He transforms us.
A Plan And Purpose
When you become Christian, I say it’s the best of both worlds because not only do you get a ticket to heaven after you die, which is awesome but even more than that, God has a plan and purpose for your life right here, right now. When you put your hand in the hand of the Lord, he can transform your life and cause your life to be amazing. The Bible says he takes the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Give your life to Christ and you’ll be amazed at what he does. Not only does he forgive you of your sin, not only does he fill you with joy. Not only does he save your soul but he’s got a plan and purpose and he can do incredible things in and through your life.
Kingdom Principles
He stoops down to make me great and so we’ve been doing a series in our church called Soar. And so basically what that means is, there are many principles in God’s word that if we apply to our lives he promises will take our life to a whole new level. Now, the interesting thing about it is that the principles in God’s word are not the same as the world. The world would say if you want to get ahead, you gotta compromise, if you want to get ahead, you gotta do this and that but that’s not actually what the scripture tells us. We are part of what’s an upside-down kingdom. What the world says is good is not necessarily what the word of God says is good.
Sometimes we could be tempted to compromise our convictions and values. You’ve heard me talk to you before about the television show, Survivor. I used to watch Survivor and think to myself, can you win this show without lying and cheating? I came to the conclusion, I don’t think you can. You can’t win it honestly. I thank God that the Christian life is not a game of Survivor. You can do things God’s way and he can do great things in and through your life. But as I said, it’s different from the world. So, we’ve talked about a number of principles. Myself, Pastor Noa, and others about some principles in God’s word where he says, if you do this, he’ll do great things for your life.
One of the things we talked about was honour. The Bible says, if you honour others, God himself will honour you. We talked about the concept of humility. The Bible says, if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, he will exalt you in due season. He talked about generosity. The Bible says the world of the generous gets larger and larger but the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
Today, I want to talk to you about another principle in God’s word that says, if we apply this to our life, it will cause great effect and it’s found in Proverbs 4:7-9. It says this, wisdom is a principle thing. Therefore, get wisdom and in all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her and she will promote you. She will bring you honour when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace. A crown of glory she will deliver to you. Who’s the she it’s talking about? Wisdom.
Proverbs 4:7-9 NKJV 7 Wisdom is the principle thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.8 Exalt her, and she will promote you; She will bring you honour, when you embrace her.9 She will place on your head an ornament of grace; A crown of glory she will deliver to you.”
It’s saying there that wisdom will promote you bring you honour, place on your head an ornament of grace, and a crown of glory. It’s all available to us through wisdom. Wisdom is one of the great keys to living and advancing life, that will cause you to soar beyond your circumstances. Wisdom is the principal thing.
Now notice this it says, get wisdom. So, you might be sitting there saying, well, you know, not naturally a very intelligent person. Didn’t do very well at school. Some people might say I’m a little bit slow. Maybe this doesn’t apply to me. No, no, no. It says we can get wisdom. If you don’t have it, we can get it. God will not offer it to us if it was not available. It’s not like he’s teasing us. We can get wisdom and so I want to talk to you today briefly about four keys to getting wisdom.
Four keys from the scripture about getting wisdom so we can become wiser and access the promises associated with wisdom. So I want to talk to you today about four keys to getting wise. Every one of those points every one of the points starts with one of those letters. So four keys to growing and getting wisdom.
1. Win Souls
The first one is this. It’s found in Proverbs 11:30. It says this:
Proverbs 11:30 NKJV The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who wins souls is wise.
It’s really interesting, isn’t it? What has that got to do with wisdom? Well, the first key, it starts with W is to win souls. Win souls. How is winning souls? What has it got to do with wisdom? What has it got to do with any of that? Well, winning souls, if you have an attitude of winning souls, that means it helps us with our priorities. It helps us to stay on mission. One of the reasons why we are still here on Earth is because there’s something we can do here that we can’t do in heaven.
You know, you can pray in heaven because prayer is just talking to God. So, you can spend all your day in prayer here but you know what? You’re going to do that in heaven as well.
Praise, we can actually do there as well. You know, the Bible says that God is completely surrounded by the throne. People praising him 24/7. Singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Some people say, I want longer worship. I promise you, when you get to heaven, you have the longest worship you’ve had in your life. You’ll be worshipping nonstop. You’re going to be worshipping 24/7. We can do that here but we can also do that there.
You know, you can be generous in heaven as well. We can be generous here but we’re generous in heaven. The Bible says that God gives us a crown of glory. What are we going to do with that crown of glory? We’re going to lay it at his feet. Bible indicates we’re going to have more than one crown of glory. Some of us, some of you guys are going to have crowns stacked up and you’re just going to keep throwing them before the throne room of grace. It’s going to be awesome. You can be generous here and you can be generous there. But you know what you can do here? You can be healed here and healed there.
But you know what you can’t do there? You can’t win anyone across there. We can only do that here. If we lose sight in our Christian life of our mission here on Earth which is to win souls for Christ. Our lives Christian lives get weird. We start making things more important than what they really are. We start focusing on things that are secondary issues, not primary issues. The body divides over secondary issues. Things that are kind of important but not the most important. But if you have an attitude of winning souls it will help us to understand the main reason why we are still here on earth. We exist to glorify God. But we can exist in eternity friends.
The main reason why we’re still here on Earth is to see other people. We win them into the Kingdom of God. That’s why the final command to the disciples was to go into all the world and have glory times, he didn’t say that. Go into all the world and spend the entire time 24/7 praying and fasting and reading your Bible. It’s important to do all those things but, he didn’t say that. He says, go into all the world and preach the gospel. And make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them everything that I have taught you.
Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
The whole reason we’re here. Our mission is to win souls.
Just before this service at 8:30 am, did our annual school staff dedication where we dedicate the staff of our school, it’s something to be incredibly proud of. It is so successful. We have over 4300 students with the largest Christian school in Australia, the largest private school in Queensland and we only go up to year 10 at Pimpama right now and only up to year 4 at Logan. Our school is absolutely a juggernaut. It’s something to be incredibly proud of and it’s something as a Church we need to embrace and be proud of.
One of the things it’s that successful people come and they want to know what’s the key. What’s the secret? You know. Why is the school so successful in that sort of thing? And they get a little bit disappointed when they find out what it is. It’s not something that they want to hear. One of the major reasons why the school is so successful is because in all the education, in the view in all the indoctrination, in all the safe environment, in all the provision, and all the excellence, there’s one thing at its core. And that is to win souls.
Sometimes we’ll have people come to us and say, oh, you know, I heard there were some kids out there, they were swearing, they come from non-Christian families, and you know, what they were saying is, I want a Christian academy, you know, where it’s only Christian kids. That’s nice, but God has not called us to do that. He’s called us to win souls. So, the people that don’t know him can come and encounter the love and the presence of God. We just did a thank you earlier today for Guy Almarod. Many of you would know Guy. Guy has been in our church basically since day. Got. saved in our church.
And he has been the chaplain in our school for over 25 years. And he’s finishing up next week. So it’s somewhat the end of an era. Guy kind of broke the mould for what a chaplain is supposed to do. Because he is an evangelist. He said well my role is just at the school to see as many of the unsaved kids get and he stayed on the mission and because of that, our school is successful, because of that, we’re blessed, and we’re prosperous because we haven’t gone off and focused on secondary issues, worrying about who’s in government, worrying about policy, worrying about theological goat trails, worrying about arguing about the tiniest, little theological thing, we’ve stayed focused on the mission, and because of that, we’ve been incredibly blessed.
As a Church, we’re going to stay on mission. He who wins souls is wise. It doesn’t say he who wins arguments is wise. It doesn’t say he who is right. Reinhard Bonnke said this, he said, I’d rather win souls than arguments I’d rather win someone into the kingdom than try and prove myself right. And in the same way, he who wins souls. That’s why we’re such a friendly church because we don’t mind if people come with a little bit of mess. Where are you going to get your soul saved? You have to get your soul saved here. That’s why we like that sort of stuff. We want to see people come in and encounter God and as we stay focused on that mission, we will find that and we’re going to have a ministry that is incredibly wise. The same goes for our own life as well. He who wins souls is wise.
2. Increased Learning
The second thing is this, says in Proverbs 9:7-9.
Proverbs 9:7-97 “He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself, And he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself.8 Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you; Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
The second key to growing in wisdom is increased learning. Now, notice this, increasing learning is an attitude. It’s outlining there that if you do this to a scoffer and you do this to a wise man, you get a different result. You instruct the scoffer and nothing happens. But you instruct the wise men who gets wiser. So learning is not about the course you go to. Learning is about the attitude we have. It’s an attitude of teachability.
Notice this. It doesn’t say a wise man is never rebuked. So the awesome thing is this. You don’t have to be perfect to be wise. You don’t have to be someone who is mistake-free to be wise. Rather it’s our attitude and response. We should always have a teachable attitude. I was hearing about one man and he said his attitude is this. That every man is my master. That every man I encounter. They know something better about something than what I do.
It’s so important. One of the things that have helped me in my personal growth is receiving mentoring from others and in areas where I’m weak getting mentoring from people who are strong in that area. To be honest there’s been plenty of times because I like talking. I don’t know if you notice that and the thing is that I’ve had times where I’ve sat down with someone and I’m there to hear from them and I find myself rabbling on about me. I’ve still had to tell myself, man, just quiet. Like, you’re here to learn. You’re not here to tell ’em how awesome you are. The whole reason you’re here is because you’re not awesome and that sort of thing and I’ve had to catch myself and flip my attitude and say, I’m here to learn something, to digest what’s taken on board.
You heard me talk to you the other week about humility and the Fonz, Happy Days. Everyone changed in happy days except the Fonz. Fonz didn’t change still have the same leather jackets, still had the same hairstyle. Not quite the same waistline but everyone else grew up and he didn’t. I think it was because he could never change, he could never admit he was wrong. Now, I know that that’s a long theological bow to draw but the reality is this, when we have a teachable attitude, when the moment you think you know everything, there’s a moment of foolishness is awaiting us.
Millionaire Mindset
Now maybe there’s something you need to do and you need to grow, maybe go do a course. That’s why the Bible says, use all that you have to get wisdom. You can use the money to actually go and get wisdom. There’s a book called the billionaire mindset. It talks about the difference between people with a Millionaire Mindset and people with a more working-class mindset. It’s not about judging people or anything like that. But Millionaire Mindset is this. They are willing to pay money for the knowledge they don’t have. A significant portion of their budget is spent on accessing knowledge that they don’t have.
Working Class Mindset
The difference with the working mindset is I go and work and I get it. Sometimes no one tells me what to do. I’m going through this and that sort of thing. But actually the higher you rise, the more teachable we have to become. Spend money on our personal growth. I’m not saying I’m a big fan of big motivational courses or anything like that. I’m certainly not saying that. But you notice people that are going to those things are already people who are rising in their life. Because they realise I need to grow and have that teachable attitude. In the same way that’s how we will grow.
God has got more learning and more growing for every single one of us for the rest of our life. Increasing and learning are one of the great keys. Proverbs twenty-six verse twelve says this,
Proverbs 26:12 NKJV Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
So we need to have a teachable attitude and be willing to increase in learning.
3. Seek God
The third thing is this. It says in James 1:5.
James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
The third key to growing in wisdom is to seek God. I love this verse. This is one of the great benefits so many benefits of having a life with Christ. But one of the great benefits is that we have access to him. Pastor Noa said before that we have access to the throne room of grace. We can access God, his presence and also his wisdom. We serve a God who’s a communicating God. Our relationship with God. We serve a God who speaks. You can spend time with him and spend time in his word and he can speak to us. Notice it says here, if you lack wisdom, it doesn’t say too bad. It says, if we lack wisdom, then, we should ask God for wisdom and he will give it to us freely and liberally. We have access to him.
King Solomon
Seeking God is a way that we can increase in wisdom. The greatest example of this in scripture is King Solomon. The Bible tells us that one night, the Lord came to him and said, ask me whatever you want and I’ll give it to you and so, at that moment, God came to him with a blank check and he could’ve asked for anything. He could’ve asked for riches. He could have asked for the honour. He could’ve asked for victory over his enemies. But he didn’t ask for any of those things. He said, Lord, I need wisdom and I need knowledge. To help me lead your people. God said, well, because you’ve asked the right. After all, you’ve asked for the right thing, I’ll give you the riches and the honour as well. The Bible says that Solomon became the wisest man that ever lived.
Now, who knows Solomon did make some mistakes as well. The Bible says that Solomon became the wise man that ever lived. How did he get that wisdom? He got that wisdom because he asked for it and God gave it to him. Maybe you’re in a situation where you don’t know what to do. Everyone else around you doesn’t know what to do. What should you do? Seek God. He can give you the wisdom that you need. Maybe you need to take time. To just stop and think. Spend a bit of time seeking God. Just to pause. Take that time because God will give you the wisdom you need. Especially so, if you’ve got two options and you don’t like either one of them. Have you ever had a situation like that?
Well, you’ve had a couple of options and you know, neither one of them is right. What do you do? Seek god because you might be amazed. The third option might manifest. One of the things I do when I teach ethics is that I talk about that, because I firmly believe that we can live our Christian life free of compromise but it means that some we need great wisdom to know how to navigate that. It’s in those moments when you don’t like the two options. Instead of grasping at one, you wait. Lord, what do you want me to do? You’ll be amazed at the wisdom that becomes apparent in that time.
My favourite example of this is when Jesus was confronted by some people and they caught a woman in the act of adultery. Some teachers of the Lord brought her, threw her in front of Jesus in the middle of a class that he was teaching with people all there watching. They’re trying to trap him. They wanted him out. They wanted to undermine his ministry. They threw this woman in front of him and said, the scripture tells us that we’re supposed to stone her. What do you say? Now, that’s an ethical dilemma. Because he can’t violate the word but he also understood God’s heart. It looked like the two options were this. Violate the word and have her killed or disobey and let her live.
So, what did he do? Well, the Bible says, he started drawing on the ground. Took his finger and started writing in the dirt I’ve heard lots of people preach on that because I reckon they know what he wrote. I remember one person said, yeah, he wrote the Ten Commandments and as he wrote them, he pointed to people. He said, I know you did that and then they left it doesn’t tell us that he did that. Now, some people say that he wrote the penetrate. That would be a long time to write down all of that. Heard of one old preacher who said that Jesus wrote the words to Amazing Grace. Which I think happened after this incident. Do you know what I’m saying? The reality is the Bible doesn’t tell us what he wrote. If you read him too far, you’re going to go around a theological goat trail. It doesn’t tell us what he wrote. It just told us that he wrote. What was he doing? I reckon he was doodling Father help. I don’t know what to do. Tell me. Paused. Wisdom. I don’t like that option, that option. You’re not going to force me into a decision. You’ll learn that about me by the way, Church. No one forces me into a decision.
Okay, show me what to do, Lord. I know. He who is without sin casts the first stone. The third option, some of you need a third option right now. I’m going to be too harsh or I’m going to be too liberal, none of it seems right. What am I going to do? I do not know. So I’m going to wait. Ask for help and wisdom. It materializes. Third option. Someone needed to hear that today. I didn’t say that in the first service because someone here needed to hear it. Seek God for wisdom and he’ll give you the wisdom that you need. Amen?
4. Embrace Christ
The fourth one was this, embrace Christ. Proverbs 9:10 says,
Proverbs 9:10 NKJV “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
So, wisdom sprouts from the foundation of the fear of the Lord. Bible tells us in Psalms, the fool says in his heart, there is no God.
Psalms 14:1 NKJV The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.
Without a foundation of Christ and the word of God, foolishness will reign. Silly decisions get manifested because it’s not founded upon Christ. So, the fourth key is actually to embrace Christ. Embrace Christ. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. When you embrace Christ, you know that all of a sudden, my choices start changing and my choices start getting better. Why? Because it’s founded on that foundation. I have 2 degrees. My first degree, which I never talk about was a Bachelor of Arts. Majoring in Politics and Philosophy. Which means you can lie and argue.
I did that 30 something years ago and I did Philosophy. Honestly, I hated philosophy. I could not stand it. I would sit there saying this is driving me round the twist. They’d go on with the dumbest arguments about the dumbest things. I remember they spent two hours talking about if you took a piece of string segmented it into an infinite amount of pieces and then put it back together how long it would be, infinite. But that’s just so stupid because that can’t happen, right? Or another one where the lecturer said, if you walk from here to the wall and went half the distance each time, you’ll never reach the wall.
I watch some of it because they just talk about stuff that’s just rubbish and makes no sense without a foundation of Christ and the word of God. When you remove all absolutes, you’re an absolute nut job.
There’s a multiplicity of absolutes based upon the foundation of God’s word. You remove God’s word, you go silly. Every society that removed God’s word and became humanistic, did not end up the way they said they would because it doesn’t work. Life doesn’t work without a foundation of the word God. When we remove the word of God we lose sight of our mission. We get into dumb arguments on social media, saying stupid things, showing videos of my cousin’s relative, son-in-law, sister’s spy in that company put this out. And then good Christian people. Foolish. win souls. and thank you. and society goes off.
That’s why let me tell you right now. Now, one thing we need to guard and protect here at King’s. Is that we can preach the gospel to our kids. Don’t care about the length of their heads, be honest. Don’t care what they put on their head. Nothing like that. Who cares? We preach the gospel. He wins souls. Foundation of the word. Who we’re allowed to employ? Very, important. The ability to discern and to choose. Because the beginning of wisdom is on the foundation of embracing Christ. And staying on the mission of winning souls. People ask us all the time. What is the key to the success of King’s Christian College? Let me tell you. Because as a board we’re holding very tight to make sure that we stay on mission and stay focused on the word of God, and keep that going in that direction and as we’ve done that seek first the kingdom of God and all these other things will be added to you. Put him first, the foundation and there is a success.
Religion says you follow God’s ways. It’s failure and poverty. That is not the word of God. The word of God says you do things his way you’re going to win. Wisdom comes from embracing Christ. Maybe you’re here today and you don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Can I encourage you? You’ve already made one very good quality decision today. You’ve come to the house of God. Another firm quality decision you can make is to embrace Christ, give your life to Christ. Life has more meaning. It makes sense. This whole thing that you built, when you put it on the foundation of Jesus Christ. It’s going to make sense. Amen.
Embracing Christ. That’s why the Bible says that those who wait on the Lord shall mount up. It doesn’t say those who wait on the election result. It doesn’t say those who wait on when mandates are lifted. It doesn’t say those who wait on policy changing. Those who wait on the Lord, if you take the Lord out. You’re not renewing your strength. If you take the Lord out, you are not mounting up onto anything, but you wait on the lord and you’ll renew your strength and you’ll mount up. You’ll start soaring. We’re going to be on the fly. Amen. Praise the Lord.
Why don’t you give the Lord a hand of praise? Increase learning, Seek God, Embrace Christ, you will get wise. If you get wise – honour, riches, blessing, are all in your future. You’re going to rise like never before. Amen. Maybe you’re in this position. In this place today. You’re saying, Ben, right now, I have a dilemma. I do not know what to do. I have no idea. I’ve got these options. I’m not sure. I don’t know what to do. You’re in the right place today, friend. Because the Bible says, we can ask the Lord for wisdom and he will give it. So, all we gotta do is ask. You may not have it in you but it is in him and you’re in him and so maybe you need wisdom today. Well, we can ask and he will give us the wisdom that we need.
