Men, because we're recognizing the graduates tonight, I'm going to be preaching a subject
that's related to education and that ties in with graduation and the title of my sermon
tonight is Life Long Learning. Life Long Learning. Many people have an attitude that you go to
school when you're a kid and then you graduate from high school and then you're kind of done
learning. You just work and live your life and so forth. Or maybe people go to college
and then they finish that and then it's like they stop learning new things. They stop studying.
But in reality, we as Christians should be life long learners. We should constantly be
learning and gaining new information, growing in knowledge, wisdom and understanding. If
you would, just flip over to Ecclesiastes chapter 4, just a couple pages to the right
in your Bible. Whatever your job is, whatever your career is, whatever stage you find yourself
in, you should be continually seeking knowledge, growing and learning new things and not get
to a point where you think you know it all or where you even think that you know enough.
We should keep on learning. Look what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse
13. Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be
admonished. So this guy's to a point where you can't admonish him anymore. He's not willing
to learn anything new. He's not willing to gain any new information because he's a know-it-all,
right? And the Bible says, For out of prison he cometh to reign, whereas also he that is
born in his kingdom becometh poor. So he's going to fail as a leader. He's going to fail
as a king because he's not learning new things. There's no growth there. Look if you would
at Proverbs chapter 28, just a few pages back to the left, Proverbs 28. While you're turning
to Proverbs 28, I'll read from you from 1 Corinthians chapter 8 where the Bible reads,
Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge
puffeth up, but charity edifieth, and if any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth
yet, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. So the Bible, let me read that again. And if any
man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. So the Bible's
saying that knowledge tends to puff people up, and then they get to thinking that they really
know a lot. And the Apostle Paul is saying, if you think that you know a lot, that shows how
little you know. The more that you learn, the more that you grow in knowledge, the more you realize
that you don't know. The more you read and study the Bible, the more you realize how much there
really is in the Bible, how big of a book the Bible really is, how deep the Bible is, and how
many truths are in the Bible, and you realize, wow, this is going to take the rest of my life
to study and learn the Bible. And it's like that in all areas of life. The youngest people often
seem to know the most in their own minds, right? I remember when I was a little kid, I used to
think that I could drive a car if only I could reach the pedals, you know, but I thought that
was the only obstacle. Of course I know how to drive a car. I played pole position, you know,
I don't even know how many times, you know. What's the difference, you know, the low, high? I mean,
I got it. But anyway, look at Proverbs 28 verse 11. It says, the rich man is wise in his own
conceit, but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out. Go to chapter 26 verse 12,
probably just right on the previous page. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more
hope of a fool than of him. You see, at least the fool might get smarter down the road, but the man
who is wise in his own conceit, the man who thinks he knows everything, there's more hope of the fool
than of him. What do you teach the guy who knows everything? That's what I find myself saying a lot
when I'm out soul winning and I knock on the door of somebody who's just a complete know-it-all. Of
course, they're not saved. They don't know that they're going to heaven. They have no clue how to
be saved, but you say, well, can I show you from the Bible? Oh, I've read the Bible. I know all
about that. I already know what the Bible says. And I always walk away and, you know, once we're
out of earshot, I say to my soul winning partner, hey, what do you tell the guy who knows everything?
You know, why show him anything? He already knows it all. And of course, he doesn't. And he's
showing how little he knows. Now, let's go to Proverbs chapter one. The book of Proverbs is
probably the book that emphasizes these things the most. Learning, instruction, growing in wisdom,
understanding, knowledge. Let me just, first of all, give you the layout of the book of Proverbs.
The way the book of Proverbs is broken down is that chapters one through nine are making the
case for why wisdom is so important, why learning is so important, why education is so important,
why we need to seek after knowledge. So chapters one through nine are explaining all the pitfalls
of being an idiot, of being foolish, of being ignorant, of being uneducated, of not knowing
what the Bible says, of not knowing how the world works, all the bad things that are going to happen
to you. And also in chapters one through nine, all the blessings if you learn and if you grow
in knowledge and if you seek out the word of God and his wisdom. So chapters one through nine is
explained to you why you need wisdom. Then chapters 10 through 29 is sort of the meat of the book of
Proverbs. Chapters 10 through 29 are the Proverbs themselves. And these are those little short
couplets that give you kind of just one gem of wisdom per verse, right? And it just goes on and
on for chapters 10 through 29. And you can sort of tell that you're entering a new phase in the
book of Proverbs when you get to chapter 10 because chapter 10 verse number one starts out
by saying the Proverbs of Solomon and then it gets into them. So you can see there's like another
little introduction there because we've entered a new phase after chapters one through nine. Then
chapters 30 and 31 are these two standalone chapters at the end that provide a conclusion
and give some further wisdom. So chapters one through nine are more of a story in a sense.
Like, you know, they read like a story. Whereas chapters 10 through 29 are each verse kind of
stands alone as its own thought most of the time. And then chapters 30 and 31 are the concluding
material. Let's start out in chapter 1 verse 1. The Bible reads, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son
of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding,
to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity, to give subtlety to the
simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear, watch this, and will increase
learning. And a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels, to understand a proverb and
the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. People who don't like to learn,
what does the Bible call them? Fools. If they despise wisdom, they despise instruction,
they are foolish indeed. Verse 5, a wise man will hear. He's going to listen and he's going to
increase learning. The Bible says a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.
That means he's going to seek out smart people and learn from them. Seek out people who know
more than he does, get around them, pick their brain, talk to them, listen to them, not surround
himself by fools, not surround himself by idiots, right? Surround himself by wise counselors that
can give good advice and good teaching. We need to increase learning. Now if you would flip over
to 1 Kings chapter 4. We'll come back to Proverbs if you want to stick a bookmark there or something,
but we're going to go over to 1 Kings chapter 4. What am I talking about tonight? Lifelong
learning. I'm talking about continuing your education as an adult. So this will be my message
to the graduates tonight to continue your education. Although you finished your 12th grade
material and you're done, you got your high school diploma, you want to keep on studying. You want to
keep on learning. And to those in the room tonight that are 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, even older than
that, you want to keep on learning. Increase learning. Don't get to a point where you're done
learning, where you're done growing. No, you keep on building your knowledge. Now what are some ways
that we can continue our education as adults? Well obviously the one that's kind of a no brainer is
to read your Bible. I mean if we're reading our Bible every day, and I'm not talking about reading
just one or two verses, but if we actually do a serious chunk of Bible reading, if we sit down for
15 minutes and read three or four chapters or even sit down for an hour and plow through some
serious Bible reading, you're going to learn something. I mean if you're paying attention, if
you're actually focused on what you're doing and you got your Bible out every day, how can you not
learn something if you're reading your Bible every day? That's a great way to just continue your
education and keep learning, keep growing, keep getting smarter. But number two, you can continue
your education by reading books on other subjects that interest you. Besides just reading the Bible,
you can then read books on other subjects that interest you. You know maybe you could read about
foreign countries, you could read about history, you could read biographies, you could read books
about animals, plants, whatever. And these books are found at the library and it's free. There's no
charge, there's no cost. You get your library card and there's just so much knowledge and
information available and you can delve into whatever the subject. You know there's nothing
wrong with an adult walking into the library and pulling out a book on some random subject that
interests you and learning something, getting smarter, gaining some intelligence. Solomon was
the wisest man who ever lived. He was given wisdom by God. Let's see what the Bible says about him.
1 Kings 4.29, and God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of
heart even as the sand that is on the seashore. This is not a shallow man. This man has some
serious depth to his knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. And Solomon's wisdom excelled,
verse 30, the wisdom of all the children of the east country and all the wisdom of Egypt. Look at
verse 32, and he spake 3,000 proverbs and his songs were 1,005. So not only did he have great
wisdom in the things of God, but he was also a musician. He had 1,005 songs. Then in verse 33,
it says he spake of trees. So it's not just the Bible that he learned about. He also just learned
about the natural world. He also learned about other subjects that interested him. He spake of
trees everything from what? The cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even under the hyssop that springeth
out of the wall. I mean, you could sit down and have a conversation with this guy about plant
life, and he could talk to you intelligently about all kinds of trees and bushes and flowers and
plants and moss and, you know, everything from a little plant that springs out of the wall to a
giant tree. This guy could hold his own in a conversation about plants, all right? And then
it says that he spake of trees, but then it says he spake also of beasts and of fowl and of creeping
things. I mean, this guy knew about birds. He knew about fishes. He knew his insects. He knew
his spiders. I mean, this guy knew stuff, right? I mean, he learned things. He was wise, and the
Bible is taking the time to explain not only just his prowess in the Word of God and in the wisdom
of ruling a kingdom, but also just knowing about animals, knowing about plants, knowing about music.
He sounds like a pretty well-rounded, well-educated man, and God is praising him for that in these
scriptures. And it says in verse 34, there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from
all kings of the earth which had heard of his wisdom. I mean, people wanted to hear what he had
to say because he had so many wise things to say. And of course, Jesus Christ pointed to this and
talked about how the queen of the south is going to rise up in judgment and condemn those who
rejected Christ and condemn those who didn't listen to the Word of God because she came from
the uttermost part of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. You're not going to believe this, but
your friends at work are going to be more likely to want to hear the gospel from you if they don't
look at you as a complete idiot. I mean, if your friends at work look at you as being a smart,
intelligent guy, they're going to say, you know what? I'm going to ask him about religion because
he's the kind of guy who does his homework and he knows what he's talking about. And if he explains
to me how to be saved, if he explains to me what the Bible says about Jesus Christ, what the Bible
says about heaven and hell, you know what? That's somebody that I would listen to because I see him
on the job and he knows what he's doing. He is smart. He has wisdom. And that leads me to my
third point. Point number one was read the Bible. Point number two was read books on other subjects
that interest you. If you're like a Solomon that wants to learn about animals, plants, or you know,
I like to read history, I like to read biographies, I like to read all kinds of books, in fact. You
know, whatever it is that you're interested in, just to gain knowledge, just to become smarter.
But number three, gain knowledge and skills related to your job. This is so important.
Certain careers, if you don't keep learning, if you don't keep gaining knowledge, you're going to
get left behind. I mean, if you're a computer programmer, if you're working in any kind of
electronics, you know, that stuff's changing all the time. You better be up to date. You better be
keeping up with it. And you know what? The other guy is clocking in at eight o'clock and he's
clocking out at four thirty and from four thirty until the next morning at eight, his job doesn't
even enter his mind. But you know what? If you're smart, you read a book about the field that you're
in. Read a book about it. Try to learn more. Or go on YouTube and watch tutorials. You know,
whatever it is that you work with. If there's a software that you work with at your job, boy,
find a tutorial on that and run through that. Learn more. Excel at it. Do your best. The Bible
says, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. The Bible says, Servants, be
obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and singleness
of your heart as unto Christ with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men. So when we
go to our job, we should do it as unto the Lord. And part of doing our best is making sure that
we're up to date on our education. Okay, now for me, this is important as a pastor. I mean,
I can't just say, Oh, well, I've already read the Bible so many scores of times. I mean,
I've been studying the Bible for years. I've been preaching for years. I pretty much know what the
Bible says. And, you know, I don't need to keep learning. I've got enough to preach for the rest
of my life. I can just phone it in on the next sermon. But I'm not gonna do that. That's not
what the Lord wants me to do. What I want to do is read the Bible every day, study the Bible,
dig into it, spend hours upon hours in it and keep learning new things so that I can get up in the
pulpit on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, bringing fresh truths, not just warming up
the same stale sermon from five years ago, brush the dust off that outline and preach the identical
sermon once again. Now there are things that need to be repeated, but I need to keep getting a fresh
perspective, keep learning new things. And plus even just to retain what you've learned, you got
to keep reading. You got to keep studying. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've gone back and
listened to one of my own sermons from like eight or nine years ago. And I'm thinking like, I said
this and I'm listening to stuff. And sometimes I'm, I'm learning new things. Like, that's a great
point. I never thought of that. But then I think I must've thought of that because I'm the one who
said it nine years ago. So, you know, I go back and listen to stuff and I've totally forgotten even
just in that amount of time. And people sometimes walk up to me and tell me, Oh man, you preached a
sermon and you said this, this. I'm like, I think you're mixing me up with somebody else. I don't
think I ever said that. But then sure enough, I did say that. Why? Because we forget things, don't we?
I mean, the Bible is a huge book. If you're not reading the Bible every year of your life, it's
going to get foggy in your mind. Even Bible stories that you've heard over and over again, if
you're not continually reading it, you're going to forget stuff. So, you know, for me obviously as a
pastor, you know, that's my job is to know the Bible, right? And to study the Bible and to preach
the Bible. So I got to keep learning. But not only that, there are other aspects of my job where I'm,
I'm obviously doing a lot of stuff on the internet, the YouTube channel, the church website, other
forms of social media. You know, I try to stay on the cutting edge of that stuff. I'm constantly
trying to learn new things and new techniques and, and ways to do a better job. You know, when it
comes to our missions program, you know, I'm constantly studying and reading. I mean, where do
we get these ideas? Let's go to Guyana. Let's go to Jamaica. Let you know, you know, where we get that
is from reading books, studying, figure out, okay, what's the religion? What's the demographic? What
are the people like there? What are the visa requirements? What are the flights? And trying to
learn and figure out what is a good place for a missions project by research, study, learning. But,
but you've got your, you know, I've got my job, right, of leading the church, but you've got your
job and your job is just as important to you as my job is to me, or at least it ought to be, right?
So obviously you're not a pastor, but whatever your job is, you know, I remember when I used to
work in low voltage electrical, and I was doing things like alarm systems, and I was doing
telephone systems, coaxial cable, and CCTV, and home automation, and home theater, and doing audio
systems, and things like that. You know, I would pull out books at the library and read up on that
stuff, so that when my co-workers talked about it, I could have an intelligent conversation. And that
helped me to do a better job at work. You know, I even, when I was doing fire alarm systems, I
signed up for a class in the evenings to learn about fire sprinklers, and everybody in the class
was a, was a firefighter, or they were trying to be a firefighter, and everybody acted like I was
crazy, like why are you here? You're not a firefighter. You don't want to be a firefighter. And I said,
well, I'm a fire alarm technician, so I'm just trying to learn about sprinklers because, you know,
I'm constantly dealing with the sprinkler guy, so I want to know history. And, you know, I was able
to make money at various times, where people were in a pinch, and even though I was the alarm guy,
I could step in and say, you know, I can fix that. I know how to fix that, you know, and I could make
a little extra money. Hey, you know, it doesn't matter whether you do an electrical or sprinklers,
if the money's green, you know, you can get it done, right? And so, you know, any time you're gaining
information. You know, the Bible says in all labor there's profit. In all labor there's profit, but
the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. But, you know, another thing that I found to be true
in my life, this isn't what the Bible says, but I found that in all learning there's profit, too.
You know, any time I've studied something, especially job-related, it always comes in handy
eventually. You end up using the stuff that you learn. And so, whatever your job is, you know,
think about your job tonight. Think about it. What do you do for a living? You know, is there
something that you could learn? Is there some tutorial you could watch? Is there some book you
could read? You know, maybe you're a manager or maybe you're, you know, running a company.
You know, I'm sure that there are books about leadership and management. I mean, I don't care
what you do for a living. You can always learn more. And you say, well, I'm a stay-at-home
wife. I'm a stay-at-home mom. Well, look, if you're going to effectively homeschool the children,
you better keep learning. You better be a lifelong learner. I mean, these three children
that graduated from homeschool tonight, they had to have parents that knew enough to be able to
teach them and educate them. So it's important for moms to keep reading and studying and learning.
And of course, even when it comes to cooking, you know what, it's not just phone it in. Peanut
butter sandwich. Hungry man out of the freezer. You know, my wife just today was talking to me
about this new source that she found for books and magazines and everything like that. And she
was showing me, look at all these cooking books. Look at all these cooking magazines. You know,
and she's showing me all the meals that I'm going to be enjoying.
Why? Because she's a lifelong learner. She's not still just making that same tired old meal
from the first year of our marriage. I mean, she's spicing it up. She's mixing it up. You know,
she's learning something new. She's taking her job seriously and giving it her best. Right?
So it doesn't matter what you do tonight. It doesn't matter who you are. Don't think, oh,
this is for the graduate. This is for the men. This is for the women. This is for the young.
No, it's for everybody. Lifelong learner. I hope that when I'm 60, 70, 80 years old,
I hope I'm still learning new things and reading new books and gaining new skills
and that I don't just get to a point where I'm done learning. You know, we don't want to get
there. What else could you do? Number one, read the Bible. Number two, read books on other
subjects that interest you. Number three, gain knowledge and skills related to your job. Right?
Very important. I mean, it's what you do all day. And you know what? Just look, five hours in front
of YouTube on tutorials, that goes a long way. You know what I'm talking about? It goes a long way.
I mean, look, I've done so much stuff with just knowledge from YouTube.
I mean, repairs on my car. And I'm not a super handy guy, okay? I'm not one of these guys that
just gets in there and fixes cars and stuff like that. But you know what? I went on YouTube and
figured out how to change the rotors on my minivan and, you know, and saved a bunch of money just by
doing it myself. I literally just typed in the exact model of van that I have, changed the rotors,
and it just, it was the exact van. And I just kept pausing the video. I just did what he did. You
know, monkey see, monkey do. And I got it done. You know, I installed a garbage disposal under
my sink. I just typed in that garbage disposal and just watched the video, watched the guy do it.
I mean, I literally enclosed my whole patio, installed doors, windows, everything. It was 100%
from YouTube. Just how to get it done. I'm not kidding. I mean, you know, there's so much knowledge.
We live in a day where knowledge is so easy to get. Shame on you for being foolish. Shame on you
for being ignorant. Shame on you for sitting around goofing off and not even just taking a
couple hours to get better at your job. Just to, yeah, it's my free time. Well, you know what,
if it's your free time, then why don't you sit in a lounge chair, get a nice glass of lemonade,
and open a book and spend a couple hours getting smarter so you can do a better job on Monday
morning. Why not? Why not? Relax with the Bible. Relax with books to read and get smarter. Learn
something. Gain knowledge. And I'm telling you, a little bit goes a long way because the average
coworker at your job, he would never dream of doing this off the clock. He would say,
you know, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to, you can pay me to read that book or pay me.
But you know what? You will outshine them and excel them if you just put in a little effort
outside, a little bit of outside effort. It's going to go a long way. I believe that. So gain
knowledge about your job. Now, other things you could do, of course, you could learn a foreign
language. You could learn a musical instrument. You know, learning a musical instrument makes you
smarter. Learning foreign languages, it's like exercise for your brain. It's like going to the
gym for your brain when you learn new things, when you study. Now, obviously, you know, if you're at
a certain age and you've never done anything with foreign languages and you've never done anything
with music, there is a point where it's kind of too late to start on those particular things.
You know, there's kind of a window that closes around the time you're 30 years old on music
and on foreign languages. But if you've done those things, if you've dabbled in those things
when you were younger, if you built some of those neural pathways in your brain back when
you were a teenager in your 20s, you know what? Maybe you could fire those neurons up again and
see if those pathways are still there and study a foreign language, study a musical instrument.
You know, if you're in your 20s, you know, study these things, learn these things before that door
closes on you. Take that opportunity of being young. You know, when you're a teenager and when
you're in your 20s, boy, you can just soak up information and skills. Take advantage of that
time in your life. Don't be wasting your brain down at ASU playing beer pong, smoking pot,
drinking, killing brain cells, partying, being an idiot, staying up too late, sleeping in too late,
you know, don't ruin the best years of your life. Hey, use those years to gain knowledge,
wisdom, and understanding so you can enjoy the whole rest of your life serving God
and reaping the benefits of being a wise person. Look at Proverbs chapter 2. Proverbs chapter 2,
we're just going to hit a couple of highlights from this first section of Proverbs because
remember chapters 1 through 9 are the chapters that extol the virtues of learning and rebuke
the fool and the ignoramus and tell him all the bad things that are going to happen to him
if he doesn't get some smarts. He doesn't learn something, right? Telling the young man,
don't be a drunk, don't fornicate, don't be an idiot, read the Bible, learn something, be smart,
and live your life right when you're in your youth. Look at chapter 2 verse 1,
my son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee,
so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding. This is one
of my favorite passages, I love this. Yea, if thou criest after knowledge and lift up thy voice
for understanding. I mean, this paints such a vivid picture, doesn't it? Of somebody just
literally screaming out like, please teach me, please let me learn something.
I mean, that's passion for knowledge. I mean, the Bible says we should desire and have passion
for knowledge, for wisdom, and I say we should crave it, right? Not, oh please give me another
ice cream cone, please let me party until I drop. No, please let me learn something.
If thou criest after knowledge and lift up thy voice for understanding,
if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures. I mean, imagine if you
had that treasure map, right? And you knew it was legit to those Spanish coins that were buried
somewhere and you know that you're going to be able to find this great treasure. I mean, think
about the effort that would go into it, think about the excitement, the heightening of your
poles. That's how we should approach learning. That's how we should feel about gaining knowledge.
That's how we should feel about learning the Bible and learning whatever the subject we're
applying ourselves to. We should seek after it as silver and search for her as for hid treasures,
then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. You want to know
why one person has great knowledge and wisdom and understanding of the Word of God and the
other person doesn't? I'll tell you one word, desire. You don't have to turn there. Proverbs 18
1, through desire, through desire, a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth
with all wisdom. It all starts with the desire to learn. When you cry out for it, seek it,
search for it, that's when you'll find the knowledge of God. And the Bible says in verse 6,
for the Lord giveth wisdom and out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
Now, what does understanding mean? Well, the word that we use a lot in 2018 is the word
intelligence. The word intelligence is synonymous with understanding. Think about something being
intelligible. What does it mean if something is intelligible? Able to be understood, right?
Because intelligence is understanding. So the Bible uses the older word understanding that
we don't use as much as we would say he is very intelligent. The Bible would say about that guy
that we say is intelligent, he has understanding. This guy understands. The Bible says God's mouth
gives us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Go to chapter 4, verse 5.
Chapter 4, verse 5. Get wisdom. I mean, this should be your motto.
Get wisdom. Get, you know, instead of got milk, you know, it's got wisdom? Get understanding.
Forget it not. Neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not. She shall preserve
thee. Love her and she shall keep thee. Do you notice how it's her, her, her? You know what
the Bible is talking to the young man? He's saying, you know, fall in love with learning.
Fall in love with wisdom and knowledge and understanding. As you would chase after that girl
that you're infatuated with, that woman that you love, he's saying, you know, you need to feel that
way about wisdom. You need to get excited about learning. You need to seek after her. That's
whose phone number you need is knowledge, understanding, wisdom. Love her and she shall
keep thee. Wisdom. And don't miss this. These are some profound statements. Don't think that this
is just, you know, exaggeration here. I mean, he's being very repetitive here in these first nine
chapters. And what does he say in verse 7? This is a profound statement. Wisdom is the principle
thing. What does that mean? What does principle mean? It means it's the first thing. It means it's
the main thing. It's the primary thing. It's the most important thing. Isn't that what the
Bible is saying? You know, if you say, what's the main thing? Wisdom is the principle thing.
That's what it means to be principled. You know, it comes from the same root word as like a prince
who's what? The firstborn son. The principle thing is the primary thing, the main thing, the
number one thing, right? Wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore, get wisdom. And with all thy
getting, what do you get thrown into the bargain? With all thy getting, get understanding. Exalt her
and she shall promote thee. She shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her. You know,
if you actually let these words sink down into your ears, if you actually listen to this sermon
and you hear these admonitions from Proverbs chapter 1 and Proverbs chapter 2 and Proverbs
chapter 4, you don't just let this just go over your head or in one ear and out the other. I mean,
if you take this and embrace this and say, yes, that is my philosophy. This is who I am. This is
what I believe. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to spend my life seeking wisdom and
knowledge and understanding. If you do that, wisdom will promote you, bring you to honor,
and bless you for the rest of your life. Look at verse 13. Take fast hold of instruction.
Let her not go. Keep her, for she is thy life. Now, what does instruction mean? It means being
taught, learning, right? Someone's instructing you or teaching you. Take fast hold of instruction.
Here's what I think of when I hear this verse. I think of that dog that would bite onto that
chew toy and you can grab the chew toy and lift it way up off the ground and the dog is just
hanging by his teeth, hanging by the chew toy and just won't let go, right? Take fast hold of
instruction. Let her not go. I mean, we need to just bite onto that thing and people try to take
it away from us. They can't get it away from us, right? But then he goes on to say, let her not go.
Keep her, for she is thy life. Okay, imagine if your life, imagine, you know, you're hanging from
a rope over a cliff and you let go. It's all over. How tight are you going to hold onto that
rope? How much pain are you going to endure to continue to hold that rope until help can come?
I mean, you're going to hold onto that rope for dear life because otherwise you die.
He's saying, look, this is your life. That rope is learning. That rope is instruction. And you
know what church is? A place where you learn. A place that makes you smarter. An instruction
place. And so look, you know, you just church, splat, reading the Bible, preaching.
I don't like to read. There's a name for people who don't like to read.
Foolish. You say, well, I don't like to read. Change. Here's a Bible word. Repent.
Because the Bible says, seek ye out in the book of the Lord and read.
If you don't like to read, I got bad news for you. God gave you a book and that's how he chose
to communicate with you. So you better start liking reading. I just don't like to read. Then
change and start liking it. Embrace it. Love it. Learn it. And by the way, you say, well, I don't
like to read. That might just be because you're just not good at reading. Have you ever noticed
that we don't like to do the things that we're not good at and we do like to do the things that
we're good at, right? I mean, there are a lot of things that I don't like to do, but part of it
is just because I'm not good at it. If I could just automatically become good at those things,
I'd probably start liking them. I mean, if I was just awesome at something, I'd probably like doing
it no matter what it is. Like I used to hate running, but part of that was just that I was
just such a bad runner. But in theory, if I could have just run and not been weary and walked and
not fainted, then I would have loved to just sprint through the forest like a doe or a young
heart upon the mountains of beather. I would have been leaping on the mountains and skipping upon
the hills. I mean, look, we like to do the things that we're good at and we don't like to do the
things that we're bad at, but then the problem is then the less we do them, then the worse we get
at them and then the less we want to do them and then we don't do it. But here's the thing,
with reading, it's one of those things where you got to just bite the bullet and start doing it.
Read out loud, maybe. If you're not good at reading, start reading out loud. Get better at it
and then you'll start to like it after a while because we like the things that we're good at.
We like the things that we do. It's sort of like a food. What foods do we like? We like the foods
that we eat all the time. I mean, if you grew up in India, you'd love Indian food. If you grew up
in China, you'd love Chinese food. If you grew up in Mexico, you'd love Mexican food. If you grew up
in America, you'd love junk food. Whatever the food is is what you grew up with. And when somebody
comes at you with a food you don't like, it's usually just something that you didn't eat a lot
of. And I've heard it said that if you eat something 11 times, you will begin to like it.
And I have experienced that in my life where there were certain foods or drinks that I did not like,
but I set out, I'm going to like it. And I just ate it and ate it. And after 10 or 11 times,
not only did I like it, I began to crave it. Because our taste buds can like anything,
you know, that they're trained to like. What music do you like? The music that you grew up with,
the music that you've heard all your life, right? Other people who grew up, I mean,
look, people who grew up around jazz love jazz. Okay. Now I never grew up listening to jazz.
I never had a jazz phase. And, you know, I made it all the way to 30 years old without listening
to jazz. That means I'm never going to like anything jazz for the rest of my life.
That door's closed. That ship has sailed. I'm not trying to like jazz. I'm just saying like,
you know, to me, like when I hear jazz, you know, that kind of jazz just kind of goes all over the
place. My mind can't figure it out. Who knows what I'm talking about? Like, you know, give
me three chords. You know, the hymns are like three chords. Amen. But I'm saying like, you know,
this jazz that just kind of like, it's just, it's all over the place. It's like, where's it going
to go next? And my brain just gets worn out trying to figure out what's going to happen next. And
I'm just like, forget it, man. This is just, who feels the same way? All right. So the point is
we like the things that we're good at, the things that we do. So if you're not a person who loves
instruction and learning, you know, this isn't something you need to work on and just start
setting aside a reading time, whether you like it or not. Right. And then you'll start reading.
And guess what? After a while, you're going to get better at reading. You're going to get faster at
reading. You're going to start to enjoy reading. Whatever the learning, whatever the skill,
you got to build that skill. Take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go. Keep her for she
is thy life. Could it be said of you? Learning is your life. Instruction is my life. Wisdom is my
life. I am in love with wisdom, learning, knowledge, and understanding. I mean,
I'm just not going to let go of it. I mean, if I find a good teacher, if I find a good means
of being taught and being fed, man, what's it going to take? Because I'll do it to get
that information because that information is gold is better than gold.
How many people have been handed a million dollars, $3 million, $5 million. And what did
it do? Ruin their life. They ended up with less money by the time it was said and done.
But you know what? If I could hand you wisdom, if I could have you knowledge and understanding,
you will have all the money you need for the rest of your life. Right. I mean, look,
you get good at your job, get the skills to pay the bills, and you know what? You will have all
the money that you need for the rest of your life. So instead of just thinking about chasing after
money, think about learning. Now, the school system does the opposite. Down in the college,
they're thinking about one thing, getting a degree so I can get a job where I work as little as
possible and get paid as much as possible. Maximum pay for little effort, right? Pass the beer,
pass the drugs, right? I mean, isn't that what's going on down at the university campus in many
cases? Okay. But what we ought to think is, well, you know what? I want to learn. I'm here to learn.
You know, if I'm going to sit in a classroom, I want to learn something. You know, if I'm going
to sit in church, I want to learn something. If I'm going to sit down to read my Bible,
if I've got some free time, you know, I want to learn something. I want to grow. I want to know
new things. It's my life. It's your life. This is what the Bible says. This isn't my opinion
tonight. This is the Bible. And the Bible is repeating it over and over again. And if you sit
down and you read chapters one through nine of Proverbs, you're going to walk away saying, you
know, God really wants us to study and learn and read and know new things. And of course, it all
starts with the Bible. It all starts with his word. That's the preeminent source of information.
The Bible. But then there are all other areas of life and all other things that we do in this life.
We need to strive to put our effort into whatever we do. Amen? Let's bow our heads and have a word
of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the book of Proverbs and the exhortations to work
harder at learning and growing in knowledge. Lord, help us never to get to that point where we think
we've arrived, where we know it all. Nobody can teach us anything new, Lord. Help us to keep
growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And Lord, I pray that
you'd bless our homeschool graduates and also our graduates from the traditional school system,
Lord. I just pray that they would all continue to be lifelong learners and keep on studying and not
just think, oh, education's over. No, education is just beginning. And so, Lord, help us all at
whatever stage we're in to love and seek after learning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right. We broke our record tonight. How many have we got?
306.
306 tonight. All right. Very good. So, excellent.