If you’re able, I want to invite you to open up to James 1, verses 5 through 8.

That song we just sang, Be Thou My Vision, has really become one of my favorites, and I know it’s a favorite of Pastor Pyatt’s. Thou and Thou only. I remember over the past couple years when I was at seminary, we have chapel Tuesdays and Thursdays, and there was one chapel service we were singing that in. Those words, that line of thou and thou only are first in my heart, really struck me. And beg the question of are you first in my heart? That’s a challenge to all of us.

James chapter one, verses five through eight, we’ll be continuing on in our series in James. So I’ll be reading verses five through eight. Starting in verse five, James writes, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith, without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the book of James and your word, and I pray today, as we seek to understand the wisdom of God and what that means for us and how we are to ask of it, I pray that you will give us wisdom, and the Holy Spirit will minister through me as I preach this morning. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Part of living as a human on planet Earth is at times you will need advice from others. You will need wisdom from others. It’s part of life. It’s part of growing up. We experience new things, a new job, going to buy a new car. Whatever the situation is, we need advice on things. You need advice. And I remember once as a young college student back when I was on a nursing major, At the small college I was at, I needed some advice on a test I was taking, how I should take it again, if I should take it again.

So I went to an academic advisor. The whole point of an academic advisor or guidance counselors is that they’re supposed to give advice and give counsel. In theory, it’s supposed to be good. They’re supposed to know more than you. So I sit down with this academic advisor hoping to get good advice. was some of the worst advice I’ve ever gotten in my life. And the worst part about it is, as the conversation continued, I was thinking to myself, like, oh my goodness, I think I maybe know more than this guy. He looked at me at one point and he said, which this is, you hear this from a lot of people, but he said, he said, all the answers you need to know in life, they’re already in your head. You just need to find the key to unlock them.

Which is, I’m just sitting there, I’m like, you are such an idiot. I didn’t say that to him. I did not say that, but I’m like, oh my goodness. And like there was no good advice. And I walked out of there thinking like, I bet there’s these young college kids coming out of here thinking, oh my goodness, I can change the world. And I’m like, oh goodness. But it was bad advice. And as humans, we sometimes give bad advice, we sometimes receive bad advice.

But when we’re talking about God, and more specifically the wisdom of God, it’s important to note and to understand that he does not give bad advice. And I even want to go beyond that. God doesn’t give advice, because advice can be good or bad. God gives wisdom, and wisdom, as we understand it biblically and as we’ll talk about in this sermon, is never bad. It’s only good and it’s only godly. So God doesn’t give advice, he gives wisdom. He’s godly counsel. And he knows more than us, which is why we need his wisdom. And when we come to this passage today, James 1, verses 5-8, we see that Christians are to ask for wisdom from God.

Now where we are in this book, remember last week we covered verses 2-4, where James says, consider it all joy when you face various trials. Trials will produce spiritual maturity. And remember also in this first chapter, he really seems to be introducing these major themes, five through eight. Like we’re talking about today, he’s talking about wisdom. As we go on later in the book, he’ll talk about that theme again, wisdom. And now he begins a discussion regarding wisdom. In verse 5, But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. It’s important to understand that verse 5 is coming right off the heels of verse 4.

Right off James’ discussion concerning trials and tribulations and taking joy in them. It’s important to recognize that this verse is connected to that. James is saying, you’re gonna experience trials, consider it all joy, and when you’re going through these trials and tribulations and you’re experiencing them, go to God in them. Ask for wisdom in the midst of them. Ask for his counsel. Call out to him and let him ask. My version says, but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. Your version may say something different, but let him ask is another imperative. James is telling them they need to ask for wisdom. He’s not saying like, okay, if you’re going through a difficult time, maybe do this, maybe ask for wisdom, maybe go to this person. He says, let him ask of God. He says, do this. It’s a command. This is what you need to do. He’s telling these Christians, hey, you need to do this. When you’re going through these bad times, go to God. Ask for wisdom, not a recommendation. They need wisdom, and more specifically, they need the wisdom of God to deal with the trials of life. That word need is important in the Christian life.

Now, as humans, we don’t like the word need. We don’t wanna feel like we need others. We don’t wanna depend on others, but we need God, and we need his wisdom. We need wisdom for the Christian life. Helps us grow as believers. So they’re going through these trials that will produce spiritual maturity and they go to God and ask for wisdom. And this wisdom also helps with the spiritual maturity. Before going on, I want to take just a moment to just go over some of the biblical, what it says biblically about this idea of wisdom. What is wisdom according to the Bible? And wisdom, in somewhat of a nutshell, is concerned with how we are to live in the world that God has placed us in. How are we to live on this little blue ball? It deals with practical, godly living in a fallen world.

Practical living, much of what James is talking about in this book. How are we to live in an ever-changing, sinless world? How are we to interact with sinners? How are we to do our jobs? How are we to live our lives? And that’s what wisdom is dealing with. And this is wisdom in Hebrew literature, in the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. And James is part of wisdom literature too. Many echoes of what’s found in Hebrew literature. My Old Testament II professor at seminary really, in my Old Testament II class, really helped me understand this idea of wisdom, especially in regards to the Hebrew literature and what it means. He had this one quote that said, one aspect or one side of wisdom is understanding the fundamental issues of life in relation to God. I love that quote so much. Understanding the fundamental issues of life in relation to God. How do we understand our life as we live it in relation to what God says? Seeking to see life as God sees it and not as we see it.

So it’s not, okay, here’s my situation, here’s the trial, here’s what I’m dealing with, how do I see it? What’s my perspective? James is saying, no, that’s not what wisdom is. Wisdom is how does God see it? What does his word say about the situation? Understanding the fundamental issues of life in relation to God. What does God say about my situation? What does God say about my marriage? What does God say about my job? What does God say about how I interact with my neighbor or my family? Seeing life as God sees it. God is the source of wisdom, and he’s the goal of it. So we’re asking for wisdom from God, and we can only get it from God, and this wisdom we get from God will allow us to know God more and more. It’s beautiful. And this wisdom leads to spiritual maturity. Hence why these Christians that James is writing to You need to ask for it in the midst of these trials. And the book of Proverbs shows us the importance of wisdom.

The pastor read earlier Proverbs 1, 1-7, and I’m gonna read Proverbs 1, 2-7. So if you’re able, you can turn there. Proverbs 1, verses 2-7. Proverbs, of course, is famous in Hebrew wisdom literature. It speaks much about the idea and concept of wisdom. And in Proverbs 1, verses 2-7, Solomon, the writer, introduces this idea of wisdom. And essentially what his main thrust of this book will be. So Proverbs 1, starting in verse 2, we read, To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness justice and equity to give prudence to the naive to the youth knowledge and discretion a wise man will hear an increase in learning and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel To understand a proverb and a figure the words of the wise and their riddles The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. And there’s a reason that wisdom is one of the first words mentioned in the book.

One of the first words mentioned in verse two, to know wisdom and instruction. It’s the primary purpose of Proverbs, of this book. To know wisdom, what it is. The significance of it. In fact, the first six verses describe the necessity of wisdom. To receive instruction and wise behavior. Wisdom is a necessity in life. We need it. In verse five, a wise man will hear an increase in learning and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. Verse five shows that the wise man seeks more wisdom. So the wise man does not just stop with the wisdom he has, the wise man continues to ask for more wisdom. We see that with Solomon. When he becomes king, he asked the Lord for more wisdom. To be wise, which should be our prayer every day. So wisdom doesn’t stop. We should be continually asking for more and more.

So we see verse five, the wise man seeks more wisdom. And then verse seven, fools despise wisdom instruction. What is the fool? The fool is the one who despise wisdom. So the wise one who’s asking for wisdom seeks to see the world as God sees it. Where the fool seeks to continue seeing the world as he desires to see it. I’m going to continue to see the world how I want to see it. I’m going to see my problems through my perspective. I’m going to see the problems of life through my perspective. And I will reject to see them the way God sees them, the way God understands them. Wisdom is seeking to understand life and how we are to live in the way that God understands it. That is wisdom. Proverbs 9, verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Obedience and reverence to God is the beginning of wisdom with a healthy dose of fear as well. And this is the wisdom that James is talking about in James chapter one verses five through eight. These Christians he’s writing to, they need to ask for wisdom to understand their trials as God does and how to walk through them. We talked about last week, trials and tribulations and the difficulties of life are very, very hard. They’re difficult and not easy. But we need God through them, and that’s what James is saying. You have this difficult situation in life. You need to see it as God sees it. You need that clarity. Wisdom provides clarity on the situation, provides clarity in what to do sometimes. And it’s important, verse five, it says, but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach. Those words, generously, is an interesting one.

In the Greek, it’s the only time this word is used in the entire New Testament, which, as Pastor Piatt has told us numerous times, is referred to as a hapax legomenon. It’s a very fancy word, which just means this is the only time this word is used in the New Testament. And whenever we come to a word like this in the Bible that’s only used once, it’s important to try to understand why is it used. Because the Holy Spirit doesn’t make mistakes. He certainly didn’t make mistakes. So this word was used intentionally. So it’s significant. And this word, in the NASB and actually most translations I looked at, translate this word as generously.

But it can also be understood as God gives wholeheartedly or unwaveringly. He is unwavering in his giving and does not hold back. He knows what he needs to do and he does it. He’s not wishy-washy. He’s not divided in his intentions. He’s not divided or easily swayed as humans are. Humans are easily divided and easily swayed. And he is not unsure if he should give wisdom. He just gives it. So he gives generously, wholeheartedly, unwaveringly. What comfort that is. We have a God who gives unwaveringly. He doesn’t sit up there thinking like, do I need to give wisdom to the pastors of Fellowship Baptist Church? Do I need to give wisdom to the deacons or the members of Fellowship Baptist Church? No, he knows what he will do. He doesn’t second guess or third guess. Isn’t that comforting to know the one who planned redemption, who saved us, who keeps us secure, doesn’t change his mind, isn’t sitting up there like we do and second guesses himself and is wishy-washy? He gives generously and unwaveringly. And he does this without reproaching or demeaning us.

The NIV, I like the way it translates this part. It says, without finding fault, he gives freely, without pointing out our faults, which we as humans do often. Okay, I’ll give you this, but I’m giving this to you because you messed up. You know, I’m giving this to you because you blew it. God doesn’t do that. Without reproach, without finding fault, What grace and mercy? Because he can’t find fault because there is fault. But he doesn’t do that. He freely gives it because he loves us. James wants his readers to know that if they cry out to God for wisdom, he will answer. The end of verse five, and it will be given to him.

This wisdom will be given to the man who asks. And this verse seems to echo the teaching of Jesus It’s found in Matthew 7, verses 7-11. Jesus says on the Sermon on the Mount, Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? How much more will your Father who is in heaven give to those? Give what is good to those who ask Him.

Now these verses, when Jesus says them on the Sermon on the Mount, He’s talking more than just about wisdom. He’s talking about their daily needs that humans and Christians will need. Go to God with them. I do want to say, and I mentioned this last week, if you’re reading this verse and you’re thinking, oh man, I can ask for that new shiny car or that new whatever it is you want. It’s not really what Jesus is talking about here. He’s talking about needs, things we need. You know, not your shiny new car or whatever it is you desire, your daily needs. But we can also understand this as wisdom. We can go to God and ask for wisdom and He will give. Or what man is there among you who when his son asks for a loaf will give him a stone? That makes no sense. Or if he asks for a fish, will he not give him a snake? Will he? The father gives to his child.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, so even the evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? God gives, and he gives freely. And he gives what he believes we need. And what he believes we need is what we need. When we ask for godly wisdom, it will not be denied. And we can take great comfort in that. He will give it. That doesn’t mean he’ll write it in the sky saying this is what you need to do, but he does give it. And as we look at this first verse and see how it applies to our life, we need to understand that first and foremost, ask. Ask for wisdom. It’s actually the first point of my sermon, ask. That’s what we are to do, ask for wisdom. We need it. I’m sure all of us can sit there and think of times where we didn’t listen to wisdom, or we can think of times right now where we’re like, I need wisdom.

We need the wisdom of Christ that’s talked about in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. Paul writes there, but by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And for those who have asked Christ to forgive them of their sins, and ask them to become their Lord and Savior, they have become, as John MacArthur says, wise in Christ. MacArthur points out how this wisdom is knowing that you are a sinner, knowing that we are sinners in desperate need of salvation. Wisdom, the wisdom of Christ, is knowing I need Christ. What did I talk about earlier? I said the Christian life is knowing that you need God. You are not just an island on your own. You need him. The wisdom of Christ is saying, I need you, Christ. All I have is Christ. I can’t do this on my own. I cannot save myself. You are the way I have access to the Father. The wisdom of Christ is God’s wise, unfolding plan of redemption that’s found in Christ. And this wisdom of Christ also manifests itself in once you are a Christian, knowing how to live the Christian life, the sanctification of the Holy Spirit within our lives. And also, as we talked about earlier, once you are saved, beginning to understand and to see the world as God sees it.

As James is talking about here, go to God in trials to ask for wisdom, but also go to him out of trials. Go to him in the good and the bad, which we recognize, we talked about last week, that even the trials produce good. But even in those, what we call, minute decisions of life, Go to him with school questions. Where should I go to college? Ask for wisdom in that. What job should I do? Ask for wisdom. In all reality, we should go to God and ask for wisdom in every decision in life. I said minute decision, but there’s really not many small decisions. Even those quote unquote small decisions have impact. Go to him when you’re in a relationship. That’s a big deal. You’re seeking who to spend the rest of your life with? Because you certainly don’t want to get up there on the day of your wedding, and you’re about to say, I do, and you think to yourself, I don’t know, but I’m already up here, so I’m going to say I do. That’s not what it’s supposed to be.

I remember the day I got married to Carrie. There was no doubts whatsoever. It was clear, and I had prayed, and I had asked for wisdom. I remember my dad would sometimes tell me, he said, when you’re in a relationship, You need to pray for wisdom and you need to pray that if this is not God’s will, He will reveal it to you. And as odd as that sounds, that is wisdom. That’s asking for wisdom. And that hits on a key part of wisdom. We’re praying for what God wants for us and not what we want. And that’s hard because we want things. I want things. I love vacationing. I love to just go. Sometimes my poor wife, she gets so frustrated with me, because I’m like, Carrie, what if we go here? Or what if we do this? And she’s like, why don’t we just do this? And I’m a dreamer. I’m a planner. Like, let’s do all these things. I would love to just go to all these places. But that’s not always what we need to do. We need to live our lives where we are. And if we follow our desires and what we want, What happens is it’s often contrary to what God wants for us. So asking for wisdom is saying, God, what do you want for me? And we should go to others for wisdom and counsel.

Now, remember what I said earlier, sometimes humans give bad advice. So if someone comes to you for advice or wisdom, before you give the advice or wisdom, pray for wisdom yourself. Because you need to have wisdom when giving wisdom to others. Because you don’t want to be like the academic advisor I went to who gave bad advice. And humans can give back counsel, but I want to say, the pastors here at Fellowship Baptist Church, Pastor Piatt, Pastor Ryan, Pastor John, Pastor Ben, Pastor Harold, Pastor David, Pastor Chuck, can give great, wisely, God counsel. Our deacons can give great, wisely, God counsel. I grew up in this church, and I know for a fact that we have so many people here that can give great, wisely, godly counsel. So seek it out.

Don’t be like King Rehoboam that we read about in 1 Kings 12. The people come to him and say, your father Solomon put a great yoke upon us. Can you lift it? And he goes to the elders of Israel and says, what should I do? And they said, the yoke was strong. You should lighten the yoke, lighten the load. And he says, come back in three days. And he goes to his buddies, which is like never a good sign. You’re talking to the elders, the godly wise men, and then you go to your buddies. I have great buddies. I love my buddies. They’re not, they’re my buddies. And I can get sometimes more godly counsel from pastors and elders. And he goes to his buddies and his buddies say, make the yoke stronger, make it harder. And he rejects sound godly advice, godly wisdom, and messes up the kingdom. He should have listened to the wise counsel of the elders. And seek wisdom in the word of God.

Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the book of James. Ask for wisdom. And as we go to God to ask for wisdom, it is important that we ask rightly. Which brings me to my second point, ask rightly. So ask and ask rightly. And this covers verses six through eight. I’ll read those briefly. Verse six, but he must ask in faith without any doubting. For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

So James has explained that Christians are to ask for wisdom, and now he explains that they are to ask in the proper way. So we’re to ask for wisdom, but there’s a proper way in which to ask, and the proper way is to ask in faith. They’re to believe that God can supply the wisdom they need. It’s important to understand these few verses, we see faith contrasted with doubt. There’s the man who asks for wisdom in faith, and then there’s the man who asks in doubt. Craig Blomberg says that faith refers to not doubting God’s character. We’re not doubting that He can do what we’re asking Him to do. In the first century in these times, these people James is writing to, now these obviously were in the New Testament. This is not the Old Testament. These individuals, these are Jewish Christians James was probably writing to.

So these Christians would have grown up with the stories of the Old Testament, the mighty acts God had done that had been passed on for hundreds of years. So they had been told and understood what God not only could do, but has done. And we have the same information. We’ve read and even seen in our own lives what God can do. So asking in faith is understanding that God, you are good, you are merciful, and you are just. You can do what I am asking you to do. Not, I hope you can do this, but asking him and believing that he can do it. That belief needs to go on with the asking. In Psalm chapter six, verses four through 10, we see that David believes God can do what he is asking him to do. I’m gonna read verses four through 10 of Psalm six.

David writes, return, O Lord, rescue my soul. Save me because of your loving kindness. For there is no mention of you in death. And she all who will give you thanks. I am weary with my sighing. Every night I make my bed swim. I dissolve my couch with my tears. My eye has wasted away with grief. It has become old because of all my adversaries. Depart from me all you who do iniquity. For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication. The Lord receives my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed. They shall turn back. They will suddenly be ashamed. He asks, return, O Lord, rescue my soul. He asks for salvation from his enemies. And it ends with the Lord receives my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed. Future tense, he knows it will happen. They shall turn back. They will suddenly be ashamed.

What David is asking for, he knows will happen. He knows it can happen. He believes in who God is. He recognizes he can do it, what he’s asking him to do. That’s asking in faith. And we need to believe that God can do what we are asking him to do. We must have an unwavering confidence in the unwavering God. It’s the unwavering God, and we need to have unwavering confidence in him, not wishy-washy. Not, and oftentimes, I’m guilty of this, and many of us are, we go to pray and we say, Lord, we ask for something, if you can do this, but we don’t necessarily believe it. And sometimes, sometimes it’s hard to believe it when you’re asking for that person to be saved, who you’ve been praying about for 30, 40, 50 years maybe. Or a wayward child, or your job that you’ve been stuck in to get better. You get to a point sometimes, can it get better? Can God do this? But he can. And that’s where faith is. In the midst of the trial, in the midst of the hurt, in the midst of the pain, I know you can still do this, God. That’s asking in faith.

And that’s what James is telling us to do. As we go on, we see the imagery is given of a man chaotic like the seas. The imagery of a man who asks in doubt. Second part of verse six. For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea. Driven and tossed by the wind. James describes with a lot of detail here this doubtful man. He lacks confidence in God, this doubting man. Doug Moo describes this man as a divided man. He’s an aimless man. He doesn’t know what he has to do. He doesn’t know where he’s going. His focus is not on God. He’s not asking in faith. And as we move on to verses seven and eight, we see that James continues to elaborate on this doubting man.

Verse seven, for that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord. Being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, the imagery he uses. This doubting man is not good. And as we read these verses, we see that asking in doubt is bad. It’s not good. This man will not receive anything from the Lord. He will not receive wisdom from the Lord. In fact, he should not expect to. If the doubting man reads this, he should realize, oh, well, if I’m not asking in faith, I will not receive what I’m asking for. And these verses, they should almost be viewed as a caution sign. Do not doubt what God can do.

It should blare in our mind the imagery that’s painted. The doubting man is tossed to and fro, unstable, divided. He’s the man tossed by the waves. He doesn’t know what he believes. The doubting man struggles with what he believes. He’s doubting who God is. If you’re doubting what God can do, you’re doubting who he is. Aimless drifting. I’m sure all of us can think of an individual or know somebody who is aimless in their life or drifting, hasn’t maybe found what their calling is or what they’re to do. They’re unstable in life. They don’t have a goal, they don’t have a purpose. And part of asking in faith is recognizing our purpose, to glorify God, to go to Him.

The doubting man forgets their purpose. He doesn’t know what he believes. And scholars point out that this wavering man, this divided man, this unstable man, this wavering man is contrasted with the unwavering God found in verse five. So we have the unwavering God and the wavering man. Man wavers, God does not waver. He does not waver in who he is, he does not change, and he always knows what to do, and he always knows what’s best for our lives, and how to live our lives. But man does waver. He does doubt. He’s tossed to and fro. And this is why we need God in his wisdom, because we doubt. Because even though we’re saved from our sins, we still sin.

There will never be a point in our life here on earth where we will not need the wisdom of God. Day and night, morning and afternoon, we need it. And asking rightly of God means asking in faith. As we see how these few verses look for our lives, we need to remember we’re to ask for wisdom and we’re to ask for wisdom in faith. We need to believe that God can do what we ask of him. Don’t go to him, wishy-washy, you’re divided, God, maybe you can do this, I don’t know. Believe that he can. Believe that he can do it. But it’s also important to remember that that doesn’t mean he necessarily will do it.

Now, he will give wisdom, this passage talks about that, but expanding beyond just wisdom, asking for God for our daily needs or taking our petitions to him, that doesn’t mean he will always ask or answer or do what we’re asking him to do. He may not take away the diagnosis that you’ve given. He may not take away the current financial difficulty you’re in. But that doesn’t take away from who he is. That doesn’t take away from his goodness or his mercy or his sovereignty or his justice. Our situations don’t change who God is. He acts according to his perfect and wise will. And that’s not always easy to understand what his wise will may be. But it is wise and it is his will. And in the midst of asking for wisdom, we need to pray also, Lord, help me to understand your will, which is part of wisdom. Help me to understand what’s going on as you understand it.

Actually, flush out in your prayers what this wisdom is. Because wisdom is one of those words, as Christians, we throw around a lot. And I think sometimes we throw it around so much we tend to forget what it actually means. And we can do that in prayers. Give me wisdom, Lord. I need wisdom in this decision. I need wisdom now. But maybe sometimes we just need to sit and say, Lord, give me the understanding I need to see the situation as you see it or as you understand it. Because I need that. Scripture testifies to the perfect wisdom of our God. The miracles that he did. The many wonderful, mighty, wise acts he did. And of course, the taking away of sin through Christ, His wise plan for redemption, that perfect plan where He took ruined sinners who deserve nothing but eternal damnation in hell, and through His Son, Jesus Christ, provides a way of salvation.

With the youth group, I’ve been doing a series on what is the gospel? And we’ve been talking about some of it. I see Harvey nodding his head, yes, yes, he remembers it well. But we’ve been going through some of the four key tenets of the gospel. God, sin, Jesus, and belief. And we talk about how with sin, it’s the creature us shaking our fists at the creator, saying we reject you. We reject your wisdom, we reject your guidance. But this coming week is Jesus, which, spoiler alert to these group, but when we talk about Jesus, we’re understanding that when he came to earth and died for our sins, he paid the penalty. The penalty that only he could pay, but what else he did was he took away our guilt.

And only God could take away the guilt. Only the God whose perfect and wise plan could be fulfilled through his son. Because we can’t take away our guilt, only he can. And to stand before God, to enter heaven, we have to stand innocent. And we can’t stand innocent if we’re guilty, but Christ paid the penalty and took away our guilt. And that’s all because of the wise, unfolding plan of God. I mean, that’s who our God is. That’s who we pray to. The one who, before he created the earth, Said, I’m gonna save this person. He didn’t say, I’m gonna save 50 people. I’m gonna save this amount of people. I’m gonna save specific people. He thought of you. He thought of me. He thought of your great, great, great grandchildren. He thought of your great, great, great grandparents. It’s a personal God who wants you to come to him, who wants a relationship with you.

Look to our own lives to see the wisdom of God and how he planned the universe, how he designed human beings. Human body is amazing. It’s a complex system of 11 systems, organisms, all working together. And when you just even begin to study it a little bit, you think to yourself, there’s no way that this is an accident. There’s no way this could be millions or billions of years or however many of evolution or this is just chance. This has intent behind it. There’s a reason for this. There’s a wise plan behind it. God’s love is rooted in who he is. And we can have confidence that God will give us wisdom and answer our prayers. He may not always answer in the way we want him to in that moment, but he does answer. And when we ask for wisdom and we ask for wisdom and faith, he does give it.

As a young college student, I received bad, terrible, awful advice. Advice that I quickly ignored, and it was one of those times where it was okay to quickly ignore it. But God does not give bad advice. God does not give advice. Wisdom and he gives wisdom to those who ask for it and asks for it in faith and the question is will you ask for wisdom? We need it day and night. We need every day of our lives We need to pray and ask for it.

I Wanted to close with reading. I believe it’s a third verse of the song the first song we sang the perfect wisdom of our God Don’t worry, I won’t sing it I’m just gonna read it but Oh, grant me wisdom from above to pray for peace and cling to love. And teach me humbly to receive the sun and rain of your sovereignty. Teach me humbly to receive the beautiful times and the difficult times. Each strand of sorrow has a place within this tapestry of grace. So through the trials, I choose to say, your perfect will and your perfect way. Is that our cry, your perfect will and your perfect way? Oh, grant me wisdom from above. Is that what we’re doing each and every day? I hope that you are, because it’s what we need.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for you. and who you are. You’re the wise, all-knowing, sovereign God who grants wisdom from above. And I pray that we ask for wisdom, but that we just don’t come wishy-washy and divided and aimless, but we come in faith, and we ask in faith. And as I pray for wisdom today, I pray knowing that you can and will give it. And I pray that everyone here asks the same wisdom. In Jesus’ name, amen.