Is "What Would Jesus Do?" The Best Question for Decision Making?

In 1896, Charles Sheldon, the minister of the Congregational Church in Topeka, Kansas, wrote a novel entitled, “In His Steps.” That novel popularized the use of the question “What would Jesus do?” as a tool for making moral decisions. This question stuck around among Christians after that time and then enjoyed a big resurgence in the 1990’s through church youth groups. It has remained very popular ever since.

As surprising as this may sound, though, I think the popularity of this question overshadows an even better question that we could ask when facing moral dilemmas. Now, don’t me wrong—“What would Jesus do?” is certainly a fine question. It’s a far better question than “What would feel the best?” or “What would offer the path of least resistance?” Nevertheless, I think the question suffers from some drawbacks—some that stem from our response to the question, and at least one that stems from the question itself. What are these drawbacks?

1. We often assume we already know Jesus well enough to answer the question

Many people would say they’ve got a good grasp of what Jesus was all about—at least in His personal interactions, anyway. “He was all about being nice and polite, right? Inviting children to sit on his lap and what not.” If we already know Jesus so well, there doesn’t seem to be any need to take another, closer look at His example before we decide what He would do. But this is precisely where we take a massive wrong turn.

In this day, when only 32% of regular churchgoers read the Bible everyday¹, we’d better pause and think before we claim to know Jesus well. Have you ever read one of the Gospels all the way through? How about all four of them? They don’t all contain the same stories, so it’s important to read them all. If you haven’t done so yet, are you sure you know Jesus well enough to state what He would do?

If we try to decide what Jesus would do without cracking open the Bible and thinking long and hard about the question, the decision we reach could be far off the mark.

2. We over-emphasize some of Jesus’ actions and teachings and neglect others

Let’s face it—Jesus was a complex individual. We would not have predicted that all of His sayings or all of His actions would have come from the same person. The same Jesus who said He was gentle and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29) also said that He came to cast fire on the earth and wished it was already kindled (Luke 12:49). The same Jesus who took children in His arms to bless them (Mark 10:13-16) also chased other people with a whip because they desecrated a holy place (John 2:13-17).

It takes great care and deliberate effort not to create a one-sided caricature of Jesus, but many times that’s exactly what we end up with in our minds. We tend to highlight the sayings and actions that we’re comfortable with and all but ignore the ones that make us squirm. But if we don’t consider the full range of Jesus’ words and deeds when we try to follow His example, how confident can we be in our declarations about what He would do?

3. The question runs the risk of downplaying the uniqueness of Christ

When we ask “What would Jesus do?” there seems to be an assumption that we can think along exactly the same lines as Jesus; that we can weigh exactly the same considerations that He would. But for all the ways in which Jesus was similar to us, He was still different from us in some highly important ways. On some occasions, He took the actions that He did because He knew the inner thoughts of others (think of the healing of the paralytic in Matthew 9) or because He knew the future (think of Christ’s delay in traveling to Bethany before raising Lazarus in John 11). And I hardly need to mention Christ’s ability to do miracles!

Those differences present some difficult hurdles to jump in our efforts to decide what Jesus would do in our present-day situations. I don’t know the inner thoughts of others; I don’t know the future. How do I know that Jesus wouldn’t have made a very different decision than me based on His knowledge of information that isn’t available to me?

A better question

“What would Jesus do?” can be a fine question IF the preceding drawbacks are kept in mind. Obviously, we want to imitate our Lord as much as we can! But I think there’s an even better question that deserves more of our attention. It is not “What would Jesus do?” but rather “What did Jesus command?” Or even better yet, “What did Jesus and His hand-picked representatives command?” We’ve got to bring the writings of the Apostles into our decisions; after all, they are the ones whom Jesus commissioned to make disciples and “teach them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matt 28:20).” He promised that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth (John 16:13), so we have it from Jesus that we better listen to what the Apostles had to say.

Commands offer us much greater clarity than an example ever could. The example from a person’s actions can be difficult to apply from one situation to another—even when we know that all of a person’s actions were morally perfect, as in the case of Jesus. But commands, by their very nature as directives, point us very clearly in the right direction. Yes, we will still have to sort through some questions about the precise steps that we should take, but commands make the general outline of the path very clear.

So as you make your decisions, I would encourage you to give your primary focus to the commands of Jesus rather than His actions. Actions can be helpful illustrations of a command, and thus we can and should learn from them, but commands offer greater clarity. So lock in on the commands of Christ and His Apostles!

References:

1. https://factsandtrends.net/2019/07/02/how-many-protestant-churchgoers-actually-read-the-bible-regularly/

God: The Wisest of the Wise--Proverbs series

According to the biblical record, King Solomon was the wisest and most powerful king of his time—perhaps of all time. We have this conclusion from no less an authority than God himself. Early in King Solomon’s reign, God appeared to him and basically gave him a blank check. He simply said to Solomon, “Ask what you wish Me to give you.” You may know this story already—Solomon decided to ask for wisdom, and in response God said, “Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days” (1 Kings 3:12–13).

We’ve been studying the words of this wise man for several months now in the book of Proverbs, and I think we certainly have seen some keen and penetrating insights into life. But perhaps the quality that truly made Solomon the wisest man around was that he acknowledged that God was even wiser! Solomon said this and more about God in the book of Proverbs, and today we’re going to study what this book teaches us about our Creator.

This subject is one that is of no small importance. Pastor A. W. Tozer once wrote, “What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Worship is pure or [impure] as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most [important] fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.”1 If this is true, then let’s allow Proverbs to clarify our mental image of God today!

What does Proverbs teach us about God?

I. God Knows Our Actions And Attitudes

This is a lesson that we teach our youngest Sunday School kids, but a man as wise as Solomon felt it was important enough to mention. Look at Prov. 15:3 [READ 15:3]. Here we are told that God watches everyone and takes note of our actions. Notice something about God’s knowledge here—His knowledge is first-hand knowledge. He doesn’t have to rely on someone else to tell Him what is going on—He observes everything first-hand, so there’s no possibility that a messenger got the story wrong or that details were left out.

Compare this with the knowledge of someone like the President of the United States. Our president has a tremendous amount of information available to him, but that’s only because we have a network of people around the world that collect information for him. Ambassadors, spies, our government allies—all of these people make information available to him, but this is nothing like God’s knowledge. God doesn’t need anyone to inform Him of anything. As Paul wrote in Romans 11:34, “Who has been his counselor?”

But God not only knows our actions—He knows our attitudes as well. He not only has an external knowledge of us, but an internal knowledge as well. Let’s read Prov. 15:11 [READ 15:11]. These two words—Sheol and Abaddon—are simply Hebrew words spelled out in English letters. So the first part of what I just read from the English Standard Version isn’t actually a translation—they just brought the Hebrew words into English in order to leave the interpreting up to us. Now some translations say, “hell and destruction,” and others say, “death and destruction.” I think “death and destruction” would be more accurate because the idea of sheol is not exactly the same as the idea of hell; its basically the idea of the grave or the afterlife. The destruction mentioned here would probably refer to the decomposition of the physical body in the grave.

But the basic idea of this verse is very clear—if even the grave and the afterlife are known to God, then how much more does He know our hearts!

But apparently God doesn’t just know our hearts—it seems that He actually knows them better than we do! Turn to Prov. 21:2 [READ 21:2]. This verse touches on the potential that we have for deceiving ourselves. We can convince ourselves that we are right in basically any situation—even when we’re doing something sinful! We can convince ourselves that we have some kind of special exception in certain cases. We can justify virtually any kind of behavior, but God sees the reality of things. He understands our true motives when we may not even understand them. God revealed the same message to the prophet Jeremiah when He said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds” (Jer. 17:9–10).

The application that we should take from all of this has both a challenge and an encouragement to it. The challenge is that we must not think that we can hide anything from God. He knows us better than we know us, so how could we hide something from Him? The encouragement is to remember that God doesn’t miss anything that happens to us. If someone hurts us or robs us of justice, God knows! If we are dealing with fear or deep emotional wounds, God knows! He knows, and He is there for us.

But not only does God know all things…

II. God Is In Control Over All Things

We see a lot of turmoil and upheaval in our world right now, but be assured that our world does not operate by chance or simply by the whims of human beings. God, the Creator, is still in control over His creation. Look at Prov. 16:9 [READ 16:9]. Verses like this strike a blow at our pride, don’t they? Now, there’s nothing wrong with planning, but as the old poem says, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” and that’s because we’re not ultimately in control! We can make all the plans we want, and have every detail accounted for, but ultimately it is God who determines what actually happens. History has rightly been called “His-story,” because God is the author.

Now, common people like ourselves can certainly understand that we’re not in control, because we’re used to being effected by things that are out of our control—like the economy, or the weather, or international politics. But surely this lesson wouldn’t apply to a king, would it? Who has more control than a king? Well, let’s read Prov. 21:1 [READ 21:1]. I love the picture of ease that comes through in this verse. It’s like when you water your lawn. It’s not hard—you just turn the water on, and turn the water off, however you please. And if you want more water in a certain spot, you just move the sprinkler. Aside from maybe a little walking, its as easy as can be!

That’s what God’s control over the most powerful people in the world is like! Its not difficult for Him; its really very easy. He just directs their hearts any way He wants!

Now this lesson brings up all sorts of questions for us that we really cannot completely answer. Some of these are philosophical questions, like “How do our choices play into God’s control?” or “If God is in control, do we really determine our own destiny?” But some of these questions are much more personal and even painful, such as “If God is in control, why do bad things happen in my life?” As I said, I don’t think we have a complete answer for this question, but I do think that our next lesson gives us at least a partial answer.

III. God Works To Purify Our Hearts

One of the purposes behind everything that God allows is to remove the impurities of sin from our hearts. Notice what Prov. 17:3 has to say [READ 17:3]. You probably know that when silver and gold are mined out of the earth, they don’t come out of the ground ready to be formed into jewelry. Because of geological and chemical processes, they are often bonded with rock and other materials, so they are put through a refining process to separate the precious metals from everything else—to purify the silver and the gold and thus reveal their true beauty and quality.

According to Prov. 17:3, God puts our hearts through a similar process. The contamination of sin is thorough within our lives, so that even our hearts are corrupted. Thus, even our most noble and godly desires may be bonded together with impure motives, goals, or aspirations. And so as God sovereignly directs our lives, part of His design is to melt away these impurities that pollute our hearts.

This purifying process is what Paul had in mind in Romans 8:28 when he wrote, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” And the good result that Paul had in mind is defined in verse 29: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” There’s the goal; there’s the point of this whole process—that we might be conformed to the image of Christ, so that we can be faithful representatives for Him today and become joint-heirs with Him (Rom. 8:17) as servant-leaders in His coming kingdom on earth.

Now I do not mean to minimize the pain that any of you have endured through the circumstances of your life, because that pain is very real and it can be very intense. Let’s face it—when we talk about being purified by God and compare it to gold being melted in a furnace, that doesn’t sound entirely pleasant, does it? I’m sure if gold could talk, it would probably scream as its being refined. Sometimes that’s where we find ourselves—screaming and crying out to God to put an end to all the pain. But please remember the final product, my friends. If you allow God to purify you, you have that moment to look forward to when Jesus will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.” That’s why Paul could say, “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:16). Don’t lose hope as God shapes you to be more like His Son.

IV. God Desires Obedience From Us More Than Religious Formalities

One of the reasons that God purifies us is so that we will offer Him obedience from the heart rather than just go through the motions of religious activity. Turn with me to Prov. 21:3 [READ 21:3]. This verse expresses a consistent theme of the Old Testament—God certainly did want the people to offer sacrifices, but He wanted the worship that flowed from the people to be consistent with the rest of their lives. He wanted their obedience first and foremost, and then their worship was to be simply one more expression of a life of obedience.

It is far too easy to go through the motions of worshipping God and not follow through with a lifestyle of worship. In corners of the world like Montezuma, KS, we often find what we might simply call “countryanity.” Countryanity is the basic religious mindset in many rural areas. It embraces a strong tradition of going to church, but sometimes it means little more than that. We hear this loud and clear in a lot of country music. The basic religious worldview of country music sounds something like this: “Yeah, I may get drunk and chase cowgirls over at the honky-tonk on Saturday night, but I’m in the front row at church on Sunday morning singing old-time gospel hymns at the top of my lungs.” Well, I don’t think “hymns with a hangover” is quite what God desires from us. He’ll take the hymns, but the hangover He can do without. He is pleased with our worship when it flows from a life of faithfulness and obedience.

And in light of what we’ve learned about our God today, how can we give Him anything less? If we simply give the Lord half-hearted obedience and worship, who do we really think He is? Do we truly think of Him as the God who knows all things and controls all things and who works to purify us, or do we think of Him as some kind of optional accessory in our lives? To quote A. W. Tozer again, he said, “We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.” What does the direction of your life say about your mental image of God? We would be wise to take a cue from a man of wisdom like Solomon and make sure that we think of God the way He truly is—the King of all things, who works for our good and His glory.


1. A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, (San Francisco CA, HarperSanFrancisco, 1961) Pg. 1. Updated wording in brackets is mine. The original words are “base” and “portentous.”

Characterizing Wisdom--Proverbs series

It's funny at times to see how far people are willing to go to imitate the characteristics of people that they admire. Young athletes can be particularly interesting to watch. Young baseball players have always tried to hold their bat the same way as their favorite Major League players, or wear their pant legs up or down depending on the style in the majors at that time. Some businessman noticed this many years ago and created Big League Chew--bubble gum that is shredded up like chewing tobacco. So even though Little League players couldn't chew tobacco, they could still have a bulge in their lip just like their favorite baseball player!

I saw a particularly ridiculous example of imitating someone else's characteristics when I was in junior high. For a few months one year, there was a trend going around among junior high students to carry around pacifiers and suck on them. Unfortunately I think it had some kind of tie-in to the drug culture, but some of my classmates thought it was cool so they walked around sucking on pacifiers!

Yes, people will go a long way to imitate others that they admire. I hope over the last few weeks that you have started to admire the idea of having biblical wisdom, but perhaps you've been thinking, "What do wise people look like?" What kind of habits do they have in their lives? What are the characteristics of a wise person? That's the question that we're going to address today.

What are the characteristics of a wise person?

I. A wise person will accept advice from others (1:5, 9:9)

Let’s look at a couple of verses together [READ 1:5, 9:9]. We learned last week that wise counselors are one of the sources of wisdom that Proverbs describes. The wise person realizes this and is therefore willing to seek out and accept advice from other people—and not just advice but correction and criticism as well. Proverbs 15:31–32 says, “He whose ear listens to the life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. He who neglects discipline despises himself, but he who listens to reproof acquires understanding.”

So we need to seek advice from other people, and we need to be willing to honestly consider the correction and criticism that we receive from others—even if that criticism is not offered in a very kind way. The fact that someone is rude does not necessarily mean that they are wrong. We can call this the Simon Cowell principle, for those of you who’ve seen “American Idol.” If you’re not familiar with that show, Simon is one of the judges and he’s extremely rude when he criticizes the singers, but he’s usually right.

Now we all understand that other people are not always correct when they criticize us, but a wise person will honestly consider what others have to say without simply rejecting it out of hand.

II. A wise person will trust the Lord’s point-of-view rather than his own (3:5–8)

Let’s read Proverbs 3:5–8 [READ 3:5–8]. This trait is so important for us to embrace because God frequently commands us to do things that seem counterintuitive to us. For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Now normally we’re tempted to think, “Yeah, I’ll pray for them alright! I’ll pray that God will rain fire and brimstone down on their heads!” But obviously that is not what Jesus meant. He goes on to say that we should love our enemies because that’s the way that God acts—He is kind even to those who do not worship Him.

So when we encounter commands like that, we have to trust God’s point-of-view, because those commands cut against the grain; they are usually the opposite of the way that we tend to look at the world. Think about the command against seeking to get revenge against other people. We’re often tempted to think, “Yeah that sounds good, but if I don’t show this person that I’m not going to take this stuff, they may do the same thing again.” Or, we kind of give these commands a trial run—we follow them at first, but if they don’t seem to be working 5 minutes after we followed them, then we feel like we can go on to our own plan!

But the wise person realizes that we must adopt God’s way of looking at things rather than a merely human way of looking at things. God knows all things, He is in control of all things, and remember—He knows how life works because He created it and He established the moral laws that govern it.

III. A wise person associates with wise people (13:20)

The principle behind this trait seems fairly obvious. Let’s see what Prov. 13:20 has to say [READ 13:20]. I’m sure you’ve all heard the old statement “you are what you eat.” That describes us physically, but it seems that morally we would not be far off if we said “you are who you hang out with.” The people that we befriend have a significant impact on us. They can help us draw closer to God, or they can drag us away from Him.

Sometimes we try to get around this principle with an argument that sounds very godly. We say, “I know these people have a sinful lifestyle, but how will I win them to Christ if I don’t befriend them?” There is a legitimate question there if we ask it with the right motives, but we need to understand the difference between being friendly to someone and befriending someone. We should be friendly to everyone—we should show them kindness and respect, and we should even seek to do good for them if we are able.

But befriending someone is different. When you become friends with someone, you give them special access to your heart. You share thoughts with them that you wouldn’t share with just anyone. You also tend to gradually adopt their point-of-view because your friends are special to you and you want their acceptance and praise. You don’t want to lose their companionship and so you often start to act like they do.

So because of the access that your friends have to your heart, this principle from Prov. 13:20 is so very important. So if you want to be wise, become friends with wise people. They will pull you in the direction of wisdom, and they will also serve as a great source of advice and correction.

IV. A wise person is thoughtful about his way of life (14:8)

Let’s look at Proverbs 14:8 together [READ 14:8]. Now let’s unpack this Proverb a little bit. The book of Proverbs often uses the metaphor of a person’s “way” or a person’s “path,” and that metaphor basically refers to a person’s way of life or lifestyle. So the first part of this verse tells us that the sensible person exercises wisdom by understanding his lifestyle. This implies that the sensible person has been thoughtful about his way of life. He has carefully considered his choices and where they are most likely to take him. He hasn’t just stumbled through life without reflecting on where he is headed.

The fool, however, has been deceived by his own foolish choices. Perhaps he thought his way of life would take him in one direction when in fact it was taking him in another direction because he was living in a foolish way.

So this Proverb drives home for us the importance of being thoughtful about the way that we live, which means that we must make time to reflect upon our lives—to consider the decisions that we’ve made and the decisions that we still have to make and to seek to apply wisdom to our situations.

I think today we often face two enemies that keep us from living a reflective life. First is the temptation to simply entertain our minds rather than engage them in serious thought. We have a dizzying number of entertainment options available to us today, and most of them are pumped directly into our homes. Without even realizing it, we can spend untold hours subtly shaping our way of thinking through entertainment, and all the while we are crowding out some of the time that we could use for giving serious thought to our lives. This is a very serious matter because when the Bible describes spiritual growth, it describes it as a process that begins in the mind. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” So if we want to grow spiritually, we must cultivate a healthy habit of reflecting on our lives.

The second enemy that keeps us from a reflective life is the temptation to give our emotions and our feelings the primary place in our decision making process. Much of our culture is based on the motto, “if it feels good, do it.” Obviously, the danger here comes when we make choices based on our feelings without truly thinking through our choices and their potential consequences.

The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way, and so a wise person gives serious thought to the way he lives.

V. A wise person is not eager to blurt out what he knows (10:14)

How many of you like a “know-it-all?” Oh come on, we all like those kinds of people don’t we—people who always have the right answer and always share advice whether we ask for it or not? Well, a wise person may have tremendous knowledge, but he is not a know-it-all. Look with me at Prov. 10:14 [READ 10:14]. The point of this proverb seems to be that the wise person acquires knowledge and hangs on to it—presumably to share it at the right time. But the foolish person has no control over his mouth and gets himself in trouble for it—presumably in this verse by speaking out of turn or simply by speaking without thinking. In Proverbs it is considered a very foolish thing to have a mouth that constantly talks. The wise person is thoughtful and selective when speaking, and he knows that there is a proper place and time to say certain things.

We all understand that when you’re trying to share wisdom or knowledge with someone else, there is a right place and a right time to do it—especially if you’re correcting someone else. Another person may genuinely need to hear what you have to say, but you can turn them off to your message if you speak to them in the wrong way or at the wrong time.

I think this is a lesson that we need to keep in the front of our minds when we’re speaking to our children. As parents, our children certainly do need our correction and our discipline, but we can correct them in very hurtful ways if we use the wrong tone of voice or the wrong words or if we lose our patience or our temper. Yes, they do need our discipline, but that doesn’t give us a license to disrespect them or to belittle them. A wise person stores up knowledge to share it at appropriate times and in appropriate ways—NOT in the way that foolish people speak.

VI. A wise person is not lead astray by the apparent joy of foolishness (15:21)

Let’s read Prov. 15:21 [READ 15:21]. The word “understanding” here is a very close synonym to wisdom. The idea is that the man of understanding continues to follow the right path even when a temptation comes up from the momentary pleasure that sin brings. Let’s be honest—sin does have momentary pleasure, doesn’t it? Sinful behavior feels good while you’re doing it; otherwise, it wouldn’t be tempting. But sin only brings momentary pleasure, and ultimately it is deceitful because it doesn’t bring the fulfillment that it promises. The man of understanding recognizes this and thus chooses to follow the godly way rather than chase after momentary, sinful pleasures.

So I believe this verse teaches us to look at the reality behind the temptations that we face. Yes, the path of sin may be fun for a moment, but where does it ultimately lead? Let’s take one temptation as an example—think about the beer commercials that you see on TV. They never show alcoholics on those commercials, do they? They don’t show children going hungry because mom and dad have spent their last dollar on booze. They don’t show grieving parents who have just lost a child to drunk driving. No—what do they show? They show beautiful women and handsome men, and they’re always having a party, right? So what’s the message? Life is a constant party when you drink beer!

But the man of understanding looks past momentary pleasure and considers the consequences. Thus, he chooses to stay on the path of wisdom, which will ultimately bring about much more desirable results.

These are just a few of the characteristics that a wise person will have in his life. We could talk about others, but I want to take a moment to hopefully leave you with a note of encouragement today. When we study a list of character traits like this, it can be very easy to feel overwhelmed and discouraged. I’m sure we can all look in the mirror and see room for growth in every one of these areas, and when we realize that it can be easy to think, “Wow! I’ll never qualify as a wise person.” But remember one thing, friends—a wise person is willing to accept correction. A wise person understands that he has room for improvement; it is the fool he thinks he’s got it all together. So if you’re willing to acknowledge your need for growth, you’ve taken the first step on the path of wisdom! You’re headed in the right direction, now just keep going! Look for wisdom in the places we discussed last week—pray to God for it and study His Word, talk to wise counselors, learn from nature and from the experiences of other people, and do this with urgency and passion and determination. You’re headed the right way, just keep going and you’ll find yourself getting wiser every day!

The Hunt for Wisdom--Proverbs series

I’m sure I don’t have to tell most of you that we’re getting into a great time of year for hunting. Pheasant and quail season is about to open, turkeys will be in season most of the winter, deer are in season right now, as well as ducks. I’ll bet some of you have already been thinking about cleaning your gun or getting some new arrows or fletchings.

You all know that in order to be a successful hunter, there are certain things you have to know. First, you have to know where to look. When you’re hunting for a particular animal, you have to know what kind of habitat that animal lives in. You’re not going to be a very good duck hunter if you set up a duck blind in an area where there’s no water. Likewise, you’re going to be pretty disappointed if you try to hunt for moose in Kansas. And even when you’re in the right habitat, you still have to look for the right features—like sources of food and sources of shelter.

Second, you also have to know how to hunt the animal that you’re trying to track down. You’re not going to have much success deer hunting if you walk out into the woods and say, “Heeeeeyyyy deer! Hey deer! Hey! Hey!” Nor will you have much success if you sit in a field and somewhere and wait for a pheasant to come to you.

So those are some of the basic principles that you have to know in order to be a successful hunter—you have to know where to look for your prey, and how to hunt it. This morning we’re going to talk about acquiring wisdom, and what we’re going to discover is that those same principles apply to the hunt for wisdom. If you want to acquire wisdom in your life, you have to know where to look for it and how to get it. You have to make sure you’re looking in the right places and make sure that you’re carrying out the process in the right manner.

So those are the two questions that we’re going to deal with today—1) Where do we look for wisdom; and 2) How should we seek wisdom?

I. Where do we look for wisdom?

There are all sorts of people around us today who claim that they can offer us wisdom to live by. We can turn on Oprah or Dr. Phil, and they’ll have some advice for us. Or we can read Dear Abby in the newspaper, or even an editorial column in the newspaper. Or we can go to the library or the bookstore and find self-help books for anything that you want to become or overcome, and of course we can go online and find opinions from anyone who knows how to type.

But where does the Bible tells us to look for wisdom? This should really be our starting point, and we should look for wisdom in the places where it tells us to look. Let’s consider five sources of wisdom that are described in the book of Proverbs

A. To the Lord (2:1–6)

First of all, we should look to the Lord for wisdom. This comes as no surprise I’m sure. We will see in a few moments that we can look to certain other people to find wisdom, but ultimately all true wisdom comes from the Lord. Let’s read 2:1–6 [READ 2:1–6].

So the Lord is ultimate source of all true wisdom, and this makes perfect sense when we remember what wisdom is—wisdom is based on the moral laws that God built into the world, and if we want to find out how the world works in terms of morality, it makes sense that we would consult the builder.

But how do we acquire wisdom from the Lord? The same way that we would acquire wisdom from anyone else—by communicating with that person. Communication, of course, is a process where we speak to someone and then listen to what they have to say, and when we think about communicating with God, we get to speak to Him through prayer and hear from Him through Bible study. We can speak to God in prayer and make requests of Him, and one of the things that we can ask for is wisdom. James 1:5 says, “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.” We can talk to God about the things that are troubling us or confusing us, and then we can search the Bible to find out what He has said about handling the situation that we’re in, and according to 2 Timothy 3:17, the Bible contains everything that we need to know about living in a manner that pleases God.

B. To our parents (4:1–4)

Now some of you are thinking, “Ah, man! I knew he was going to mention this one.” Well, I mention it because Proverbs mentions it. Let’s read 4:1–4 [READ 4:1–4] As I said last week, much of the book of Proverbs is explicitly written from the perspective of a parent instructing his or her children. There is just no way to read Proverbs and avoid the conclusion that your parents are a major source of wisdom. That’s why God tells us repeatedly in the Bible to respect them and obey them.

Young people—please don’t miss this! I’m talking to you teenagers, and to you middle schoolers, and to you kids in elementary school, and to all of you who still live under the authority of your parents. God tells us to obey our parents because they really do have wisdom—especially if you have Christian parents who are seeking wisdom themselves. God has made our parents a source of wisdom and protection in our lives. Don’t be naïve about this! The reason that you may face so many temptations to fight with your parents is because Satan wants to drive you away from a major source of guidance and protection! Don’t be fooled!

Mark Twain had a humorous way of looking at just about everything in life, and this area is no exception. Mark Twain once wrote, “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” I realize that your parents might barely know how to use their cell phone, but they know a lot more about life than you think, so listen to them and obey them.

C. To nature (6:6–11)

Let’s take a look at 6:6–11. In this passage, Solomon is telling a lazy person to get a move on things, and he tells the lazy person to learn a lesson from ants [READ 6:6–11].

There really are some important lessons that we can learn simply from observing the world around us. Not long ago I was talking to Shirley Buller about gardening. She was telling me that there really is no such thing as a green thumb. Anyone can be successful at gardening—it is simply a matter of doing the right things in the right way at the right time whether you feel like it or not. She pointed out that there are some spiritual lessons we can learn from that idea as well, and I would have to agree. A lesson like that can come simply from observing the way that God’s creation functions.

D. To wise counselors (24:5–6)

Proverbs 26:12 says, “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” Two of the most important lessons that we need to learn are: 1) I don’t know everything; and 2) I can, in fact, be wrong. Notice what Proverbs 24:5–6 have to say [READ 24:5–6]. We all need to realize how desperately we need the advice of other people around us who are wise—not advice from just anyone, but from people who have acquired wisdom. When you need wisdom, that is not the time to go to the friend who always tells you what you want to hear. If you need wisdom for a decision, you need to talk to a wise person who has faced that decision before. Or if you’re facing a crisis, talk to a wise person who has been down that road already. Talk to people who can also give you insights from Scripture.

We really put ourselves in a dangerous situation if we think that we don’t need advice and correction from other people. Most of the time we can only see an issue from our own point of view, and outside of that its like we have blinders on—we can’t imagine that another point of view even exists! But we need to be careful about making decisions based solely upon our own base of knowledge. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” We can avoid dangers like that by consulting wise counselors.

E. To the experiences of others (7:6–9)

In Proverbs 7:6–9, Solomon describes how he observed a young man get caught up in adultery [READ 7:6–9]. Solomon is obviously warning his son from getting caught in a similar temptation, but he also communicates the principle that we can learn from the experiences of others. This is certainly true for you kids out there who have older siblings. Boy, can you learn a lot from them—particularly from their mistakes. If you see that one of their choices sent your parents through the roof, you can make a mental note to avoid that choice.

But we can all learn simply by observing the people around us—not by snooping in their lives, but simply by observing the choices they make and then taking note of the outcome. We can learn how to succeed at something by watching people who have already had success. And, of course, we can avoid trouble by avoiding the choices that were made by people who have brought some trouble upon themselves.

So we’ve seen now several places to look in order to find wisdom, and if we would take advantage of all of them, we would really be on the right track. But knowing where to look is only part of the equation. How should we seek it? That is the question that we need to deal with next. Let me make two points about this question and then we’ll be done.

II. How should we seek wisdom?

A. With urgency—before its too late! (1:24–33)

While it is certainly true that we can learn from our mistakes, it is highly preferable to avoid mistakes in the first place by acquiring the wisdom we need to avoid making foolish choices, because after we’ve made a foolish choice, it will be too late to find the wisdom that we need get us out of the mess we’ve created. Look at Proverbs 1:24–33. Here Solomon has again described wisdom as a woman who is calling out, and in these verses she says [READ 1:24–33].

Quite a warning from Lady Wisdom! If we reject wisdom and make foolish choices, we may have to deal with some very severe consequences. And yes, we may learn some lessons that will help us down the road, but it will be too late to undo the foolish choices we’ve already made, and depending on our choices we may have to deal with life-long consequences.

So the moral of the story is this—get wisdom now! Start today! Every day that goes by in which we are not seeking more wisdom is a day that we leave ourselves vulnerable to foolish decisions that may alter our lives forever. So we must start now! It is too risky even to put it off one more day—start hunting for wisdom today! It is open season for wisdom!

B. With passion and determination (2:1–5)

Look with me at Proverbs 2:1–5, and notice the passion that is described here in the hunt for wisdom [READ 2:1–5]. Now I guarantee that if you somehow discovered that there was buried treasure in your backyard, you would be out there this afternoon with a shovel! And you would dig up your whole yard until you found it! Well friends, as we hunt for wisdom we are hunting for something that is more valuable than silver and gold, so we should have an even greater passion in our pursuit of it.

Think about the passion that explorers have shown in the past as they’ve looked for hidden treasure. Think about a man who came near Montezuma looking for hidden treasure—Francisco de Coronado. Coronado was a governor in Mexico when he heard about cities of gold up north in the present-day United States. He invested a large sum of his own money and set out with an expeditionary force of 1,600 people. As you probably know, he never found any cities made of gold, and he was forced to return to Mexico injured and bankrupt, yet he had spent 14 years looking for treasure that he never found because he knew how valuable it would be if he did find it.

The Bible tells us to hunt for wisdom as if we were hunting for hidden treasure. That means that we must have passion and determination. We cannot pick up our Bibles once a week on Sundays and expect to gain much wisdom—we must passionately study the Scriptures. We cannot consult wise counselors on only a few decisions and expect to make consistently wise choices—we must consistently seek advice. The stakes are too high to do otherwise; the profit of wisdom is too great to pursue it with a half-hearted effort.

So as we hunt for wisdom, we must look in the right places and do so in the right manner. But the best part about hunting for wisdom is that wisdom wants to be found! Wisdom will not escape from you if you look in the right places in the right manner. If you pray to God for wisdom and then look for it in the way that we’ve just learned from Proverbs, you will find it, and with it you will receive all the benefits that flow from it. So my friends, TODAY IS OPENING DAY! Let the hunt for wisdom begin!

The Fabulous Benefits of Wisdom (No Foolin'!)--Proverbs series

During my college days at Calvary Bible College, the music department put on a production of the musical “The Music Man.” I decided to try out for the show, and I managed to land the role of Harold Hill—the Music Man himself. If you’re not familiar with this musical, its set back in the early 1900’s, and Harold Hill is a rather dishonest travelling salesman who travels around small Midwestern towns trying to make a buck. His pitch is to sell the townspeople on the benefits of starting a boys marching band, but his real plan is to collect the money for instruments, uniforms, and instruction books and then keep it all himself and get out of town before anyone can catch him.

One of the most famous songs from that musical is the song “Trouble.” In this song, Harold Hill begins to set the townspeople up for his sales pitch by telling them about all the trouble that they can avoid with their children if they can find a way to keep them busy after school. They can keep their kids from fritterin’ away time at the pool hall or from gambling on horse-track races. They can keep them from dancing to rag-time music and from hiding dirty books in the corn crib. And best of all, they can keep them from using words like “swell” or phrases like “so’s your old man!” And of course, Harold Hill then offers to form a boys’ band as the perfect way of providing all of these benefits.

Now the reason that I mention all of this to you is because this morning I am going to try and sell you on the benefits of wisdom, and the benefits that I am about to describe to you will sound fabulous and so amazing that you may think I’m some kind of con artist. The benefits that we are going to discover will sound too good to be true—and they would be, if they weren’t all listed right here for us to read in the Bible.

This morning we are going to start a study in the book of Proverbs, and we’re going to begin by studying the concept of biblical wisdom. We’re going to answer two questions today: first of all, what is wisdom, and second, what are the benefits of wisdom. Let’s waste no time here in addressing these questions.

I. What is wisdom?

Many different ideas may come to your mind when you hear the word “wisdom.” You may think of a guru sitting on a far-away mountain top, pondering the complexities of life. Or perhaps you think of a college professor sitting an office filled with books. Or maybe you think of one of your parents or a grandparent or some mentor who has shared some valuable life-lessons with you.

Well the book of Proverbs has an awful lot to say about the subject of wisdom, so as we begin this study it will be very helpful for us to define what wisdom is according to the Bible. Now Proverbs doesn’t exactly offer a dictionary definition of wisdom; rather, it tells us the kind of person in whom wisdom is found, and to sum up this description of wisdom we could say this:

Wisdom is found in the person who fears God and thus recognizes and lives by the moral laws that God has established in our world.

Notice a couple of things about this description of wisdom. First, wisdom is not primarily an intellectual trait—it is first and foremost a moral trait. You do not have to be Albert Einstein in order to have wisdom. In fact the mental aspect of wisdom comes into play only after a moral choice has been made to fear God and thus to honor Him with your life. It is only after you have made that choice that you can truly understand the moral laws that God has established in our world.

Second, notice this concept of moral laws. Just as there are physical laws in our world—like the law of gravity—there are also moral laws that God has built into our world. These moral laws tell us what the normal outcome of our choices will be unless some other factor intervenes. In this respect they are exactly like the physical laws of nature. Think for a moment about how these physical laws work. For example, the law of gravity tells us that if we see a large metal object in the sky, it is going to fall to the ground. However, if that large metal object is an airplane, then the laws of aerodynamics intervene so that the airplane does not fall to the ground. This doesn’t mean that the law of gravity is false—it simply means that something else intervened in this particular case.

Now the moral laws that we encounter in Proverbs function exactly the same way, and what this tells us is that we are not to regard the Proverbs as promises, but rather as principles. The Proverbs don’t tell us what will always happen; they tell us what will normally happen unless something else intervenes. Let’s take a very familiar proverb as an example of this so you can see what I’m talking about. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.” This Proverb tells us what normally happens when you train and instruct your children—normally that training will stick with them and they will continue to live the way that we have trained them. But we all know that at times other things intervene, like the child’s own will. Sometimes they choose to reject the training that they’ve received. But this doesn’t make the proverb false because it was never intended to be a promise, but a principle.

So that is how these moral laws work, and according to Proverbs the wise person will come to recognize and live by these moral laws because he or she has chosen to fear the Lord. That moral choice to fear the Lord puts us in the proper frame of mind to acquire wisdom and thus to reap the abundant benefits that come from living in a wise manner.

And just what are the benefits of wisdom? Why is wisdom such a desirable thing to possess?

II. What are the benefits of wisdom?

The book of Proverbs was written mostly by King Solomon, and Solomon described the benefits of wisdom in several lengthy passages within the first nine chapters of the book. We’re going to make a quick run through these passages this morning to discover the benefits of wisdom. Let’s start with a look at Proverbs 2:1–22.

Proverbs 2:1–22
[READ 2:1–5]

I. Allows us to discover the knowledge of God—2:5
Here we find the first benefit of wisdom—it allows us to discover the knowledge of God. Not long ago we studied Philippians 3, and in that chapter the apostle Paul goes on and on about the all-surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ—getting to know His mindset and the way He thinks. Some of the fathers of modern science used to say that they were simply trying to think God’s thoughts after Him, and that’s what wisdom allows us to do in the moral realm. It allows us to understand God’s moral point of view and thus adopt His mindset toward the world.

Let’s continue reading [READ 2:6–8]

II. Gives us protection from injustice and evil—2:6–8, 11–15
Wisdom does this in a variety of ways. In these verses we are told that God Himself provides protection for those who live in a wise manner. We will also see that wisdom helps us avoid getting involved with evil people, and one of the lessons of Proverbs is that evil people often get trapped by their own schemes. So wisdom helps us avoid bringing evil upon ourselves by teaching us how to avoid evil choices.

Continuing on [READ 2:9]

III. Allows us to make decisions that are right and just—2:9
One of the most common questions that Christians wrestle with is “How do I know God’s will?” or “How do I know what choice God wants me to make in this situation?” According to this verse, wisdom helps us answer those questions; it helps us understand which choice to make. It says that wisdom allows us to discern righteousness, which means that we will understand which choices actually line up with God’s standards. It says that wisdom will help us make decisions with justice and equity. This is very important for anyone in a position of leadership. That would include parents, bosses, or administrators of any kind. Wisdom will help you make decisions that are fair.

Let’s keep reading [READ 2:10–19]

IV. Delivers us from sexual sin—2:16–19
In our country today, sexual sins are more acceptable than they have ever been in our nation’s history, and so we find ourselves living in a culture that is highly sexualized. Sexual images and suggestions are almost everywhere around us, and so we encounter almost constant temptation in this area.

But the reality is that sexual sin is no less harmful than it has ever been, so the stakes are very high for us as we battle sexual temptation. According to Proverbs, wisdom will help us avoid sexual sin by helping us cut through the lies that we are told about stepping outside of God’s designated boundaries in this area. Wisdom will help us hold on to the truth so that we are not lead astray by misplaced desires or by the temptations of other people.

Then the final verses of this chapter say [READ 2:20–22]. Now go with me into chapter 3, beginning with v. 13 [READ 3:13–15].

Proverbs 3:13–26

I. Yields a profit for life that is better than silver and gold—3:14–15
I’m sure many people can’t imagine that anything can yield a better profit for life than money can, but wisdom does according to the book of Proverbs. It’s really not hard to see why when we stop and think about it. Money can buy us some nice things in life, but it can’t even begin to meet the spiritual and emotional needs that we have. But wisdom will give us spiritual peace, emotional peace, and even financial peace as well. Money can only touch on one of those areas, whereas wisdom gives us all three. And we all know how quickly money can disappear—just ask anyone who had invested funds with Bernie Madoff! But wisdom will always be with you. Remember—wisdom is based on the moral laws that God has built into our world. They are not subject to the whims of the stock market or anything else.

Let’s keep reading [READ 3:16]

II. Results in long life—3:16
Now it may surprise you that wisdom will help you have a long life, but according to the Bible, its true! It seems that wisdom primarily accomplishes this by helping us avoid foolish choices that may cause us to die prematurely. In Proverbs, it seems that the most likely foolish choice in this area would be the choice to get involved with violent people who scheme and plot to do violence to others. According to Proverbs, these people often end up falling into their own traps. Proverbs also exalts the benefits of diligent labor over laziness, and we all know the harmful effects that laziness can have on our overall health. So wisdom can help us lead a long life.

III. Results in honor—3:16
Also here in this verse we find that wisdom can lead to honor. It also mentions riches here, but we’ll talk more about that in a moment. We all know that no one really respects a foolish person. A fool usually brings nothing but embarrassment upon himself. But according to Proverbs, one of the direct results of wisdom is a life of integrity, and everyone can respect a person who has integrity. A person with integrity finds a good reputation with other people and is thus highly respected and honored. So wisdom will result in honor for us as well.

Let’s keep reading in v. 17 [READ 3:17]

IV. Leads to a pleasant and peaceful life—3:17
This benefit almost sounds good enough on its own! Wisdom helps us avoid bringing unnecessary trouble into our lives. Many of the problems that we face in life are problems of our own making, but wisdom will help us avoid these things so that life can be more pleasant and peaceful.

Then the rest of this passage describes some benefits that we have already seen [READ 3:18–26]. Now finally, let’s go over to chapter 8 and discover a few more of the benefits of wisdom. In the book of Proverbs, Solomon is writing first and foremost to his own sons, and so in several passages he describes wisdom as a desirable woman whom his sons should pursue. And that’s what we find in chapter 8 [READ 8:1–18]

Proverbs 8:1–36

I. Shows us how to live a righteous life—8:18, 20
When we assess our lifestyles, we’re often tempted to measure ourselves against other people, and we can all find someone who seems to be worse than us so we can pat ourselves on the back and say that we’re doing okay. But righteousness is the idea of meeting God’s standards, and wisdom will help us lead a life that does that. Remember, wisdom helps us understand God’s moral point of view, and with that understanding in mind, we can focus on meeting His standards instead of measuring ourselves by different standards.

Let’s continue here [READ 8:19–21]

II. Results in wealth—8:21
We’ve already read several times that wisdom results in riches and wealth. Now this is not a prosperity gospel or anything like that that would teach us that we’re all supposed to be like Bill Gates. These verses just express a very simple principle—if you handle your money in a wise manner, the normal result is that you will hang on to more of it. You won’t be wasting your money by spending it on foolish things and pursuits. You will use it in a wise way that will lead to financial strength and prosperity.

Now remember what we said earlier—proverbs express principles, not promises. This lesson does not mean that every rich person is wise or that every poor person is foolish. Nor do these verses teach that God is promising us a fat bank account. They are simply telling us that the normal result of wise financial management is that you will prosper.

Let’s read the rest of this passage [READ 8:22–36]

III. Leads to blessing from God—8:35
When we live in a wise manner, we will have a lifestyle that God supports rather than one that God opposes, so rather than receiving a lot of discipline from God, we will receive encouragement from Him. Verse 35 says that we will obtain favor from the Lord. He will bless us, and those blessings will probably take the form of the benefits that we’ve just described from wisdom.

These are the benefits that can be yours if you will pursue biblical wisdom in your life. And after hearing all of these different benefits, if you can honestly say that you’re not interested in gaining more wisdom, I don’t know what more it will take to convince you. If you don’t want to play the part of a wise person, Proverbs does offer another role for you to play in life. It is called “the fool.” So as Solomon set before his son a choice between wisdom and foolishness, I set the same choice before you today. And shouldn’t have to tell you—choose wisely!