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Pastor Mejia with your spirit now and please just manifest your word to us through the preaching and help us to be edified and equipped for the works you've ordained for us in Jesus' name we pray amen. Amen okay we're in the book of James chapter number three look at look down at your Bibles of verse 13 it says who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom and each week we've been studying through proverbial personalities that are written in the book of proverbs and we've looked at a couple of them within the last couple of weeks or even months we looked at the simple the fool the strange woman the angry man and last week we covered the slothful man now we're going to switch gears here and highlight the more positive personalities of the book of proverbs and in fact this morning we're going to go over the wise men and not the wise men but the wise man it says there in James 3 13 who is a wise man endued with knowledge among you let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom now who is the wise man who's the wise guy okay according to the bible how would we define this man of wisdom well a simple definition would be this is that a wise man is an individual who possesses God's wisdom and conducts himself accordingly okay he knows what God's word says and he does it and that's the simplest way to define the wise man because of the fact that there's so many attributes and characteristics that are tied into the wise man based upon not just what he knows but what he does with what he knows okay he is known in the bible as the wise man or the book of proverbs as the wise man he's known as the prudent man the righteous man and the man of understanding now go with me if you would to proverbs chapter number one proverbs chapter number one let me read to you from a couple other verses here ecclesiastes 8 verse 1 says who is the wise man and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine what does this mean it means that a person who's wise often stands out okay his face is shining he has a different countenance to himself and he obviously is someone who possesses God's wisdom in such a way that it makes him distinct from other people proverbs 15 verse 19 verse 20 excuse me says a wise son maketh the glad father but a foolish man despiseth his mother so when a son or a daughter is wise they make wise decisions they know how to exercise wisdom in their life you know they cause their parents to rejoice they cause their parents to be proud to be proud of them to be grateful for them and let me just say this is that anyone in this building can be wise okay if you're a fool if you're simple-minded if you lack wisdom that's okay because of the fact that we all have access to the wisdom of God if you're saved if you have a bible and you are living according to the dictates of the word of God you can have wisdom and in fact the bible tells us he that walketh with wise men shall be wise so a great way to gain wisdom is to be around wise people okay be around God's people be around those who have wisdom have prudence get away from foolish people you understand the bible says that a companion of fools shall be destroyed and that's a good uh verse for young people to make sure that they're not always hanging around their contemporaries you know their high school buddies their friends those who are the same age as them because they have nothing good to offer you most of the time okay if you really want wisdom you want prudence you want knowledge you get around people who have and obtain that virtue but not only that you know you not only gain wisdom by being around wise people the bible says literally you can get wisdom by just asking for it so really this there should be no reason why people don't have wisdom right God gives us so many avenues and ways that we can obtain wisdom and one of the easiest ways to get it is by asking for it the bible tells us in James 1 5 if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and abraighteth not but let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that waverth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord if you lack wisdom in a certain situation in your life you lack wisdom in your marriage you lack wisdom in your child rearing at your job at church with bible reading all you have to do is pray that's all you got to do you say God please give me wisdom for this situation and if a thought arises in your heart that says well I don't know if you'll give me wisdom then you're not going to get anything because the bible says don't be like a wave tossed to and fro let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord if you're asking in faith and you believe that God will give it to you liberally which means generously that he's not going to correct you for asking for wisdom God says he'll give you that wisdom but if you start doubting you start wondering oh man if he's even going to give this to me then you know what you're not going to get anything at all okay and so a great way to get wisdom is by simply praying and asking for it and it should be said of us as God's people then we wake up in the morning or throughout the day we're just constantly asking God for wisdom right because look folks we don't have everything figured out you don't have everything figured out right we all are you know on the same plane we're in the same world we have the same word of God we all deal with struggles we all have problems issues arise where you know we we need a solution and you know what we need God's wisdom we need to read the word of God but we also need to pray and ask for wisdom the problem is this is that people often seek the wisdom of this world for spiritual problems you understand they have a spiritual problem so they go to the wisdom of this world to solve that spiritual problem now we need God's wisdom okay to solve those things so let me give you a couple characteristics of the wise men okay first and foremost the wise men this is very basic but this is important the wise man is always growing okay and by the way this is obviously applies to the women as well but uh for the sake of just you know using the text here we're going to talk about the wise man the wise man is always growing what does that mean well he avoids being a stagnant Christian see a lot of times Christians can become very complacent apathetic they just kind of well I kind of I'm already saved I got the bible I read my chapter a day I read five chapters a day this is what I do but a wise man on the other hand is not come is not content with just being there he wants to continue to grow he wants to add to his faith virtue to virtue knowledge to knowledge temperance to temperance brotherly kindness and so on you know a wise man understands the value of growth okay whereas those who are not wise they're just kind of like yeah I'll let life happen to me instead of them happening to life okay he understands that there is always more to learn more to do that there is something that he wants to obtain that he does not know and so a wise man doesn't act like he knows everything he understands that he does it the fool is the one who says I know I know you know you try to teach him something like oh I know that I know yeah I know you know you try to impart some knowledge and some wisdom I know that yeah I know I know that's like their favorite phrase to use I know and what do we know about the bible we know that when a person says I know I know I know most of the time they don't know they want to portray themselves as being a person of knowledge and wisdom when they don't really have it whereas the wise man is humble enough to understand I don't know everything I just want to learn and if this person has information that I don't have I'm humble enough to actually learn from this person and look folks you know me as a pastor I don't know everything there is to know about the bible I do know a lot about the bible because this is my job if I didn't know a whole lot about the bible I shouldn't be pastoring okay obviously I know the word of God I read it from cover to cover but there's always more to learn and here's the thing is that I'm always calling my pastor friends to ask them about passages of scripture that are a little more difficult for me to understand why because the fact that the fact is is that I don't know everything there is to know about the bible yet the bible is an inexhaustible book there's nothing you know you can't learn it all in one lifetime you're always learning the wise man needs to have that type of attitude look at proverbs 1 verse 1 it says 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 judgment equity to give subtlety to the simple to the young man knowledge and discretion look at verse 5 a wise man will hear now I know you're listening but are you hearing a wise man will hear and look what it says and will increase in learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel so what does the bible tell us the bible is saying that the wise person is constantly increasing his knowledge now here's the thing is that in church when I'm preaching God's word most of the time I'm going to be preaching things that you have already heard in times past whether from me or from other men of God but the reality is this is that we constantly need to be reminded of things because when we're not reminded of certain things they don't get reinforced in our lives and then we forget them okay I mean haven't you ever heard a sermon where it's just like you've heard that before but then you hear it again you're like oh yeah I forgot about that that's true that's very true or it's just like man I completely forgot about that you know or I didn't know that but maybe you did know it maybe you looked in your bible you actually marked it in your bible in times past like oh man apparently I knew this in times past well here's the problem is that we constantly forget things you know we got all kinds of things going on our jobs our families problems you know finances or whatever it may be and we're constantly dealing with things and so information is constantly being put in and information is constantly going out this is why we constantly have to stir up your your pure minds by way of remembrance the bible says okay constantly remind you and we need to increase in our learning look at proverbs 24 if you would proverbs chapter 24 let me ask you a question are you growing today are you learning something new are you improving yourself mentally spiritually physically are you getting better at just being a christian that should be our goal as christians is to become better christians each and every day each and every week quarterly yearly we should seek to improve look at proverbs 24 verse 3 through wisdom is in house building and by understanding it is established and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches a wise man is strong the bible says yea a man of knowledge and creaseth strength so wisdom gives you strength but adding knowledge to that wisdom will increase your strength the bible says for by wise counsel thou shall make thy war and in a multitude of counselors there is safety that's why it's important that we actually listen more than we speak sometimes you ever noticed that god gave you two ears and one mouth two ears one mouth why because he wants us to listen more than he wants us to talk why because he wants us to learn and increase in knowledge more than to disperse the so-called knowledge that we think we have okay and so the wise man seeks to excel at his craft go to proverbs 17 proverbs 17 and augment his skills he's constantly developing himself okay don't be the fool don't be the slothful person don't be the individual who's just content where they're at they're satisfied i'm not gonna i'm just gonna read the bible just once this year hey that's great but if that's something that comes pretty easy to you why don't you challenge yourself a little bit amen why don't you challenge yourself to just learn a little more to push yourself to raise your lid to become better at what you do okay and you know push yourself to that limit try to raise your lid increase your strength augment your skills develop yourself to become a better person proverbs 17 verse 27 look what the bible says he that hath knowledge spareth his words and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit now what does it mean to be excellent we ought to think something that's excellent something that is refined something that's near perfect but really excellent simply means to excel so someone of an excellent spirit is someone who succeeds it's constantly moving forward okay and the bible says that a person who understands a man of understanding will have an excellent spirit why because they know they have not yet arrived so if they understand they have not yet arrived they don't know everything there is to know about life about the christian life about the bible they're going to seek to excel and succeed and push forward and learn more think about daniel the bible says that an excellent spirit was found in him because he's constantly learning new things he's constantly you know uh uh pushing and and and and promoting the agenda of the king he's causing the kingdom to succeed he is being promoted he's excelling he's succeeding he's going forward okay the bible tells us in genesis 49 verse 4 unstable as water thou shall not excel so you think of water is very unstable and because it's unstable it's not necessarily excelling he's comparing rubin to this person to to this right here he's saying you're unstable as water you're not going to succeed you're not going to excel so the counterpart to that is that when you are stable you will succeed now this is important don't miss this stability is extremely is an extremely important element in order to succeed in the christian life hey if you want to succeed in church stay in church you want to excel spiritually be stable in church okay now obviously we go through seasons when you know we can't be as consistent in church for whatever reason you know for example we have a church where like babies are being born like all the time you know women are constantly pregnant which is a big huge blessing amen it's actually a sign of god's blessing on a church where women are bearing children and sometimes you know they can't make it to church because they are you know pregnant that's that's a reasonable reason why people can't make it to church or how about this sometimes you know there's a sixth season you know your projectile vomiting you can't be consistent in church if you're projectile vomiting okay you know there's different reasons why people can't be consistent but let's remove let's say those elements are not there and you are an able body capable of coming to church you should be in church because it brings stability to your christian life the only way you're going to succeed in reading your bible is by being stable in your bible reading reading every single day praying every single day the only way you're going to excel in any area of life is by having consistency and stability in that particular area okay or else you're going to be unstable as water you shall not excel see the the wise man is stable he is good at doing the average every single day he's good at waking up in the morning every single day he's good at reading the bible every single day he's good at going to work every single day he's good at reading a book every single day he's good at just adding to his faith just a little bit every single day jack hyles said this greatness is the continual doing of the average and that is true greatness is the continual doing of the average just doing that which is average every single day being stable will actually catapult you to doing something that's greater to increasing yourself developing yourself to being a better person okay the bible says in proverbs 20 verse 5 counsel in the heart of man listen to this is like deep water but a man of understanding will draw it out so what does that mean you know a person who understands if you run into an individual who has deep understanding of a particular subject life experience whatever it may be their counsel is within their heart like deep water okay it's like a well it's very deep and only men of understanding will be able to draw it out only a man of understanding will seek to pay attention will seek to apply will seek to ask the right questions will seek to draw out that water from that well of wisdom and counsel okay in other words they're willing to put in the work to draw out the knowledge and wisdom that they need for life what are we talking about here we're talking about the wise men who is constantly growing and look i want to challenge you as a church as our church here for 2022 have some goals for your life to grow to increase yourself to read some books to get outside of the realm of that which you're typically used to to learn something new exercise your brain exercise your body exercise yourself spiritually you know we talked about fasting a couple weeks ago maybe that might be a practice you might want to get into that's a good practice even if whether for spiritual or just for health reasons obviously if you're breastfeeding don't fast you know if you have some sort of health issues consult your doctor for that but i'm talking about if you're just like a regular able-bodied person it'd be good to learn the discipline of fasting i've never done it before great now you have an area that you can grow in that's great that's something that you i feel uncomfortable with that that's great you know it's good to put yourself in a place where you're uncomfortable with something right yeah because that means you don't know it right right whereas you know it's easy to do the things that we're comfortable with because we're good at it we already are familiar with it it's another thing to place yourself in a position where we're it's foreign to us it's it's you know it's alien to us we don't really know it that well that's what we need to that's where we need to go because that's the area we're going to grow in okay we're going to increase turn to Proverbs chapter 9 if you would Proverbs chapter 9 so the wise man is constantly growing not only that but the wise man listen to this welcomes correction instead of disdaining it now this now we're going to step on some toes okay we'll see who's wise what does it mean the wise man will actually loves correction doesn't like how it feels but like the fact that he's being corrected great okay he views reproof as an indicator of love and sees the value in being corrected he doesn't dwell on the humbling nature of a rebuke but rather focuses on what needs to change to succeed because you know being rebuked is humbling right it's not nice at all it's a little embarrassing you know a little it causes you to be ashamed a little bit because you're being told that you're wrong you're being told you're actually doing it wrong you have a bad attitude you're doing this action wrong this needs to change so you know no one likes to be told that they're wrong but here's the thing if you want to excel and succeed in life you have to be told that you're wrong that's right because you're not doing everything right right and so a person who loves you will tell you this needs to change in your life and the wise person will say thank you for that i needed that because i want to succeed in life but the person who wants to live in candy land in this fantasy world he wants to be an avatar for the rest of his life and just live in the meta meta metaverse in this fake world where he's perfect she's perfect there's nothing wrong we have no deficiency whatsoever that person doesn't want to be corrected because they think they have everything down packed whereas the realistic person the person who actually lives in the real world understands i am deficient in certain areas and i need people to tell me so i can improve in those areas okay look at proverbs 9 verse 7 he that reproveth the scorner get it to himself shame what does that mean when you correct the scorner someone who just does not like correction the person who's reproving that person will be embarrassed for them because they can't take it and he that rebuketh the wicked man getteth himself a blot verse 8 reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee rebuke a wise man and he will love thee the bible says that's pretty interesting so the person who is a scorner if you rebuke them they're gonna hate you for they're bitter against you they're mad at you they think you got something against them they they think that you know you just you got it out for them or something like that whereas the wise man when he gets rebuked he's like man i love this person because he at least he's willing to tell me the truth and let me just say this love people who are willing to tell you the truth don't love the joel holsteins of this world this is my bible you know where god's not mad at you you're doing fine and dandy nothing's wrong with you here's your consolation prize here's your consolation trophy for participating those people don't love you those people are lying to you whereas you know people who actually have your best interest in mind will reprove you they're rebuking why because they want you to change they want you to improve that's what the bible tells us that preaching should have rebuking and reproof preach the word to be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine the bible says so you know the preaching that is deficient of reproving and rebuking and correction is not preaching at all because you have to be told that you're wrong you have to be rebuked regarding sin you have to be rebuked regarding the way that you're thinking your attitude whatever may be in order to improve who you are now obviously the pastor who is doing it has to have long suffering and doctrine in other words rebuke people but understand that not everyone's at the same spiritual level people need we need to be patient with people long suffering with them etc but the but the at the end of the day rebuking a wise man will cause that wise person if they're wise to love the person who's who's rebuking them because they understand this person actually loves me enough to tell me the truth it says in verse 9 give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser teach adjustment and he will increase in learning the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding isn't that interesting that verse 10 is placed with verse 8 and 9 the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom so a wise person is a person who fears the lord and understands that it's not all about them they can be corrected because ultimately they fear god and they understand that rebuke rebuke and reproof correction comes from god through a human instrument go to proverbs 17 so look if you know a scorner don't correct them because you're just gonna you're gonna be added to their hate list if you know a scorner a fool and you're like yeah but they need to change in this area don't correct them because if they are used to scorning and hating reproof they're just gonna hate you even more they're gonna be bitter towards you let them destroy themselves if that's what they want invest your rebuke hey rebuke and reproof have value invest that rebuke and reproof upon someone who will actually take it use it and and learn from it okay look at proverbs 17 verse 9 he that covered a transgression seeketh love but he that repeateth a matter separated the very friends a reproof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool what are stripes whips you can give a hundred whips to a fool and the fool still will not learn i mean that's crazy because my mom only needed to whoop me once i'm talking about one session not over a lifetime you know she whooped me once and i already knew you know we're at the store and uh misbehaving all all just a pinch on the shoulder was all i needed it's just like not even words or like if we're like uh you know i'm not in close proximity to her or something when i was a little kid you know all she needed to do was a look you know and and you know whatever i was doing i just immediately stopped because i knew i was gonna die when i got home i was dead and then you go home in the car you try to change the subject and you know try to make it forget about those things you know i feared my mom well the bible says that a hundred stripes don't even work for a fool okay now some of you parents you know you're thinking about your two-year-old or something you're like man i feel like this is my son constantly spanking him constantly spanking my daughter they just don't get it that's different obviously because you know they just they need to be trained and this is what the bible says so we need to obey that commandment no matter what and it does work by the way okay you just don't sometimes you just don't see immediate results right and let me just say that some children are just more strong will than others right yeah and god gave them a stronger will so that means you know be consistent and that child is going to do something great for god in the future one day okay because they're they're going to get beat up by satan and the flesh and all these things and they're just they're just strong with it like i'm not submitting to the will of satan i'm not submitting to the will of this wicked world or whatever it may be it just needs to be directed but it says a reproof just one reproof actually enters more into a wise man so they actually get the correction they don't need the stripes they don't need 100 they don't need 50 they need one correction and they get it they understand it look what it says in verse 11 an evil man seeketh only rebellion therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him this is interesting listen to this what he's saying here is that a person who is evil or has evil intentions he only wants to rebel so because he wants to rebel he's not under authority he doesn't care for correction therefore any messenger that is sent to him is always cruel so a person who's just a rebel any messenger of reproven or correction he immediately views that person as just being cruel oh you're being mean to me oh you hate me oh you got something against me whereas the wise person doesn't see it that way because he's not rebellious he's under authority he's under god's authority he's under pastoral authority he's under his his parents authority he's under just authority in general and for that reason that's why he loves the person who approves him because he's not a rebel the person who's reproving him he doesn't view him as being cruel and and mean and you're just a bad person and oh you hate me and i'm just a victim and i've had a heart all my life you're just adding to it but the person who's rebellious he views the messenger as cruel because he's just rebellious go to proverbs 15 a couple chapters back it says a scorner verse 12 a scorner loveth not one that reproveth him neither will he go unto the wise so anybody who's a scorner in here you're hating what i'm saying right now they're just like i can't believe this guy he's preaching against me or something you know yes i'm preaching against all you guys preaching against every single one of you and it says preaching against every single one of you and it says here neither will he go into the wise why would you go into a wise person for counsel for understanding because there's something that you're deficient in knowledge of that you don't know and so you want to gain that knowledge well a person who's a scorner refuses to go to the to the wise person refuses to go to the person of understanding because they're going to tell them something that they don't want to hear you know most people want you to give them counsel that they want they don't want to hear what they need to hear they want to hear what they want to hear approve you know approve my decision here that's what they want that's that's sometimes the counsel that people are looking for and by the way when the bible says in a multitude of counselors there's safety it doesn't mean go to five different counselors until you get the answer you want right which is exactly what people do sometimes and by the way if you come to me asking for counsel and i give you counsel and then you start going to everyone else to ask for counsel then you just that's useless that's pointless what you're doing is not asking for wise counsel you're asking for someone to agree with you and the decision that you want to make okay multitude of counselors their safety is referring to the fact that if you have multiple people around you a cabinet of counselors who have wisdom you have different options of people that you can go to for different areas of life there's a multitude of counselors in our church there's people who have you know raised adults they are raising teenagers they're raising children they're experts in breastfeeding or they're experts in cooking they're experts in certain jobs you know there's a multitude of counselors that you can go to this doesn't mean go to the person go to five different people until you get the answer that you want okay proverbs 19 25 says smite a scorner and the simple will be where and reprove one that hath understanding and he will understand knowledge go to proverbs 25 verse 12 it says here in verse 12 of proverbs 25 as an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear so you think of an earring of gold an ornament of fine gold what does it do it adds to that person's appearance right kind of adds more value or it adds more luster or beauty to that person well in like manner a wiser approver upon an obedient ear adds to that person's virtue so when you gain wisdom from someone it's like some it's like that reprover basically puts a piece of gold on you to just makes you better makes you prettier makes you more beautiful makes you more comely to look upon in a spiritual sense okay go to proverbs 14 if you would proverbs 14 actually you skip that go to uh let's see here go to proverbs 10 proverbs chapter 10 let me let me blow through this point real quick the wise man plans ahead okay he is prepared and makes provision for any potential distractions or delays proverbs 14 says the simple believe believeth every word but the prudent man look as well to his going proverbs 22 verse 3 says a prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself but the simple pass on and are punished the bible tells us so a prudent man or a wise man he plans ahead he looks at 2022 and he makes a plan and by the way he's flexible as well because sometimes you make plans and it doesn't go according to plan but it's better to have a plan and have certain parts of the plan that don't work than to not have a plan at all and nothing works okay hey a dream without a plan is only a what a wish a dream without a plan is only a wish oh man i have this dream in 2022 to lose 30 pounds i have a dream to get this promotion i have a dream to put you know to have this possession yeah but what are you actually doing to actually reach that though well i'm just dreaming about it i'm about i'm about i'm all about that naming and claiming ministry if i name it i'm gonna get it if i believe it no it doesn't work that way all you're gonna get is a big disappointment when you realize that you don't have that what you really wanted and look dream big i'm a huge believer in dreaming i love dreaming i love thinking about the potential of our church i love thinking about my personal potential the potential of our church families the potential of the men in our church and what they could potentially do in the future i love thinking ahead i love being a visionary but if i want those dreams to come to flourishing we need to put a plan to it because if not it's never going to come to flourishing and so my challenge to you is to take november and december or the remainder of november into december to put a plan to your goals in 2022 oh that's so far ahead yeah well this is how far you have to plan in order to make it happen and don't wait till the last minute you know it's like well i plan to have this in january it's like well you should have planned like six months ago though now what you know and so make sure that you're wise you're preparing for potential delays and distractions and for success plan for success in your christian life you know get a vision for your own life like well i don't really have a vision to do anything big well i mean do you have a vision to like read your bible that's a big thing you have a vision to memorize scripture that's big hey do you have a vision to become a bona fide soul winner that's big hey aren't you thankful for our team leaders in our church who strategically train you on how to become a bona fide soul winner a hikes program become a bona fide solar in six months or less i don't know how long it takes with his team or whatever but they have strategic plans why because he has a vision for his team and he says by this time i want them to become uh uh just a full-fledged soul winner where they're presenting the gospel they're getting people saved that requires a plan it's not like hey you're going to be a soul winner just just do it all right in the next couple weeks just make sure you just copy me and all no it's just like there needs to be you know if it's not specific it's not dynamic it needs to be specific and so plan your success for 2022 be wise okay and and plan beyond plan beyond or dream beyond what you think you're capable of don't think don't don't dream small either hey small dreams move no man's soul don't dream small i plan to read the bible you know uh i've already read it once every year i'm gonna plan to read it again this year once that's great but come on let's let's dream a little bigger smite the ground a couple more times like elijah said right ask for more pots as elijah told the woman you know dream big go beyond what you think you are capable of doing like yeah but that seems unrealistic well here's the thing with dreams okay they are unrealistic that's why they call dreams but it really depends on you and how much hard work you put into it and you know what once you reach that goal and accomplish that and excel in that area it's going to give you the confidence to dream even bigger than that now if you're like not me okay then stay doing what you're doing then don't affect me none i'm trying to help you to be better at your craft be better as a christian be better as a soul winner okay next one the wise man listen to this the wise man is diplomatic yes i said it he's diplomatic okay now what does it mean to be diplomatic to be diplomatic is to be skilled in dealing with sensitive matters or people tactfully so what is the wise man he's tactful it doesn't mean he's nice it means he's tactful it means he is appropriate now folks this is a virtue that sometimes young men just need to learn inside and out amen i mean people in general but i'm gonna pick on the young men in our church okay because i love you and i'm approving you you know you need to learn to be diplomatic sometimes and look diplomatic doesn't mean compromising diplomatic doesn't say well you know i know god says that we should kick out the fornicator but i don't think we should no obviously that doesn't call for being diplomatic if god says this is what we need to do this is what we need to do plain and simple but there's a lot of matters in life that are not black and white they're kind of in the gray area and in those instances when conflicts arise in our church between two people we need to learn to be diplomatic and just resolve the issue okay be skilled in dealing with sensitive matters to be tactful hey young men learn how to talk to adults hey if i can challenge you in any area i'll challenge you in this learn how to be appropriate in your conversations with adults that's an important virtue no an important virtue for me is to memorize romans one bless god all right that's good but can you also learn this though because the bible says that we are to be tactful we are to be wise and we are to train or teach our mouths to answer in fact here's the biblical term for it discretion that's what the bible says he has a keen sense of what to say or to do to avoid given offense ski he has a skill in dealing with difficult or delicate situations you know what i think of when when when i think about this particular part i think of joseph in the bible i think of daniel in the bible these men were very wise there's a reason why they excelled because they were able to answer in such a way that gave them listen to this credibility you know what we as men want respect you know how we get respect by gaining credibility and you know how you gain credibility by learning how to be appropriate and solving problems and resolving conflicts because we want to be respected by everyone but especially those who are older than us don't you want someone older than you to respect you of course we want to esteem not treat us like kids oh that's so and so that's just how we always behave that should never be said of you it should be that the older people in our church would be willing to come to you for advice and wisdom because they know you're a person of discretion you can solve issues you know how to resolve conflicts let me just say this is that i'm like the chief resolver of conflicts in our church because i'm the pastor but there should be others in here as well there should be other men mori is a problem solver hi should be a problem solver vitor could be a problem solver brother kerry could be all of us should be problem solvers so that means you don't need to necessarily come to me with the conflict if you can resolve it on your own right you understand there's no more cups and go get them and refill it there's no more toilet paper in the men's restroom in the ladies restroom then go tell you lisas to refill it be a person who seeks to solve problems and obviously i'm not necessarily referring to those problems i'm talking about relational problems learn how to be diplomatic the bible tells us where do i have you turn progress 10 promise 10 verse 11 says the mouth of the righteous man is a well of life but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked you know well is where people obtain water and so people all types of people come to that specific well for life well your mouth should be like that well where people come to your mouth to say what does so and so think about that what do you think about this what's your advice about this look at proverbs 16 proverbs 16 verse 13 righteous lips are the delight of kings and they love him that speaketh right the wrath of a king is as messengers of death so when when the king's mad it's like someone's gonna die but look what it says but a wise man look listen what it says will pacify it how is it that a wise man can pacify the wrath of a king who just wants everyone dead i'll tell you how by the way he speaks right i mean there's plenty of examples of people i mean joseph and daniel are some of the best examples of the bible of this where the wrath of the king is just incited and based upon what they said their discretion their appropriateness they were able to pacify the wrath of king nebkenezer right by what they said and so what does this tell us it tells us that they know how to be diplomatic about certain situations in the light of the king's countenance his life in his favors as the cloud of the latter rain how much better is it to get wisdom than gold and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver you want to be a person who's not only appropriate you want to be a person who deals well with problems people bring problems to you because they know you know how to solve like they bring the arabics cube to you because they know you can solve the arabics cube they're like well let's go to so and so because they know how to answer this matter they know how to deal with the situation proverbs 12 verse 16 says a fool's wrath is presently known but a prudent man covereth shame proverbs 12 23 a prudent man concealeth knowledge proverbs 13 16 every prudent man dealeth with knowledge the bible says so what does this mean it means when a person comes to you with their problem you know how to conceal that problem from everyone else you don't go and tell everyone about it they know how to conceal a matter okay james 5 20 says but let him know that he which converted the sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins be wise learn how to answer be appropriate learn what to say but also learn when to say it you know we're in that three month gap so every three months i gotta like you know talk about this right you know learn to be discreet learn to be appropriate learn to be diplomatic and not be the person who throws gasoline into the fire you're throwing wood into the fire there's a fight that breaks out at our church or something like that and you're just like oh you're just like you know the instigators now obviously you know amongst the brethren do that when we're like together and all that because we know we're messing around and stuff like that but when there's like a literal some some some literal fight taking place in our church or there's you know don't be the instigator be diplomatic about it that's right learn how to just completely turn off the fire and and bring equilibrium to the situation okay go to proverbs 15 the wise man number five the wise man learns from other people's mistakes if he lacks experience he borrows from the successes or the mistakes failures of others okay the bible says in proverbs 15 verse 31 the ear that here at the reproof of life abideth among the wise look at proverbs 21 in verse 11 when the scorner is punished the simple is made wise and when the wise is instructed he receiveth knowledge the righteous man wisely consider it the house of the wicked but god overthrown the wicked for their wickedness what do they do the wise man doesn't need to experience evil sin and wickedness to know the effects of it he learns from the experience of others he sees what alcohol does to drunkards he sees what fornication does to the fornicators he sees what sin does to a person and he steers clear of that action because he has learned from the mistakes of others he doesn't repeat the mistakes because he's already seen them being repeated by someone else okay and here's a great example of this you know sometimes putting the kiddos to bed it's pretty difficult sometimes okay you know they just have a hard time going to bed so they got to be trained and they got to be spanked and all these things but often what happens is you have one sacrifice or you know that's the one that gets the most spankings but you know what that little one teaches everyone else and it gives everyone else a sweet spirit because then that that little one gets a pretty bad and then the other kids are like love you mom good night mom and then they stay in bed so what are they doing they're being wise they're learning from the mistakes of others they're like you know we shouldn't get out of bed we should just stay in bed if not we're gonna suffer the same consequences as our sibling okay so in like manner you know we need to make sure that we learn from the mistakes of others that's what makes us wise don't say well that's the mistake that person made but i'm the exception to the rule i can get involved in this sin i can get involved in drunkenness and fornication and all these other sins and the same outcome will not happen to me no it's false you you're a fool at that point go to proverbs 21 or you're you are in proverbs 21 look at verse 22 next one the wise man as i mentioned before is a problem solver verse 22 says a wise man scale at the city of the mighty and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof this is an awesome verse because this is what it's saying you know a mighty city is mighty because in these days because of the walls that they built and so the confidence of the city rests upon the fact that the walls are impenetrable you understand they have strength in their confidence based upon the walls that they have well a wise man is able to scale the city breach the walls and what does he do he actually cast down their confidence he removes their confidence because he solved the problem of how to get into the city you understand and a wise man this is what he does he sees a problem and he fixes it he sees a situation it just seems like oh man this is irreparable and he repairs it in other words he doesn't have any excuses he removes all excuses he scales the city he removes the confidence and you know what he does he removes the confidence from that city and he gives the confidence to those who are watching him so this is what you want to do young man solve problems and what you do is you instill confidence in those around you that they can also solve problems you know we all need someone to inspire us all right we all need someone to challenge us to inspire us and how do they do that when they're far more ahead of us than we are in the area that we want to be successful in and when we see them succeeding in a certain area we see them and say well you know what he just cast down the confidence of the strength thereof i'm gonna try it too i'm gonna scale that city i'm gonna solve that problem i'm going to accomplish this goal whatever it may be but what they're doing is that they're solving the issue they're solving the problem and they're getting it done be a problem solver not a problem finder oh man i didn't have that in my notes but let me just talk about that there's a big difference between being a problem finder and a problem solver and sometimes people who are problem finders think that they're problem solvers because they pointed out the problem but that's not solving the problem that's pointing it out this is like oh yeah i'm very valuable in this church because uh i figure out all the deficiencies and where they need to fix this you're not solving anything and this is this is what i tell my wife okay anytime she brings a problem to me i tell her this did you bring a solution i said don't give me a problem if you don't have give me three options for solutions i said next time when you bring me a problem something that needs to be solved i want three potential solutions to solve it because i don't want just problems being brought to me i want you to think through a way that we can resolve it what good is it to just bring problems and she does bring uh solutions okay she brings options but what good is it to bring a problem when no solution it's just like here's the problem god bless you and you just like walk away or something you know better to say hey here's the problem but here's three things that we can do to solve it you pick which one you would like to do that's a great way to do it and you know what if you do that your job your boss will love you there's like hey boss there's this issue and here are three things that we can do to fix it you choose which one you want because you're the boss because the boss wants problem solvers not problem finders pastor you know i see something over here it needs to be cleaned up well bring me a solution better yet bring a broom better yet go bring a vacuum you know alex the other day you guys remember when he solved the problem out in the foyer during the middle of the service who was there i was preaching i don't what was it i was talking about something and all of a sudden he's like vacuuming out there he's yeah he's doing the oh yeah dude he was doing the right thing but the wrong not the wrong way just at the wrong time but he's being a problem solver he's not like going to get ulysses to go clean it up he's just doing it himself okay so be a problem solver not a problem finder something wrong with finding problems but we could all do that we all know how to find problems super easy it requires no skill whatsoever to be critical and find problems in a church find problems you know with the building find problems it's easy it's another thing to actually get creative have a mind of witty inventions to create options to solve that problem it's at that point that you actually your value increases as a person when you bring a solution to the problems does that make sense go to proverbs 11 here's my last point we're done now by the way obviously there's problems that you may not be able to find solutions to that you need to come to me with like here are the problems and i don't really know a solution to that's why i'm bringing it to your attention but if it's at your level and you understand you have the wisdom you have the skill bring a solution bring multiple solutions okay i'm not saying don't bring them it's like oh man you know there's uh there's like a a drug addict in the foyer right now and i don't really know what to do but i don't want to bring a problem i don't want to bring this problem to pastor because i don't really have a solution for it so we'll just let him be there or something no at that point if you don't know what to do which is pretty simple to know what to do just bring it to me then obviously if there's certain issues in the church do you feel like you just don't know what to do obviously bring them to my attention and look if you feel like your solutions are a little questionable and you don't really know if that's the right thing to do better safe than sorry don't do it just bring it to my attention like i got three i got three options you know and then when you actually do one of them it's like that was a really bad idea you should not have done that okay when in doubt come ask me lastly the wise man doesn't jump to conclusions look what it says in prophecy 11 verse 12 here's a perfect verse for that he that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor but a man of understanding holdeth his peace so a person who's void of wisdom will despise his neighbor because he's loud because he's doing whatever and you jump to conclusions as to why they're that way it was like that person's so stupid they're probably wicked they're probably some sort of reprobate or something for sure they're a sodomite they're wicked what are you doing you're jumping to conclusions why is that because you're void of wisdom but a man of understanding the bible says will hold their peace now why is the man of understanding holding his peace because he realizes there might be some other issues out there that i don't know about you understand you hear some some something going on over there or your neighbor is being kind of annoying or something like that it's just like instead of jumping to conclusions the wise man says there's other variables in that situation that we probably just don't know about so before i even say anything i'm just not going to say anything at all until more information comes out or something like that you understand don't jump to conclusions with anybody unless the conclusion is just right before your face unless you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that person's a reprobate or something like that never jump to the conclusions regarding people who potentially might be reprobates because calling them a reprobate is a very condemning insulting i mean you're calling them the worst scum of the world you're basically saying that they're the children of the devil that's what you're saying when you're calling them a reprobate you understand so don't jump to that conclusion unless you know beyond a shadow of a doubt now how do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt if they tell you or if they just full-blown look like one there's like there's no argument here i know what this person is but if they're just like annoying and they're just worldly and they're immoral they're just they're just worldly people don't jump to conclusions well i'm going to jump to the conclusion okay then he's just not wise that's what the bible says because the man of understanding actually holds his peace in other words like i'm not going to uh pronounce a verdict yet until i know all the information right oh you're just like a bleeding heart or something like that no i'm just a wise person into it now certain instances it's like the information is there the evidence is there and some people will still say oh we don't know that yet it's like what do you mean the evidence is right there i mean this this happened recently folks yeah where this um this youtube guy uh good hoax you know whether paul calls him good hoax or or no hope okay you know what was was teaching that you don't have to call upon the name of the lord to be saved you don't have to verbally call upon the name of the lord to be saved which is obviously is a false doctrine and you know there's a bunch of people backing them up and they're like how are you know how are you going to say this about him and it's just like well here's the evidence here's the here's the screenshots here's the statements where he literally said i've never asked jesus to save me okay here here it is because you know in the day and age in which we live especially new ifb years we screenshot everything everything gets screenshotted and filed away it's like it's like the reprobates reprobates false doctrine false prophets oh here we go norm diabont pull it out right there and you know they're showing him they're showing these guys and then this guy's just like oh i don't care what that says you know it's like the evidence is right there then you're just an idiot then right it's like people who support biden although i don't i don't even know if anybody supports biden anymore i don't even think his own spine supports him anymore to be honest i don't even think his spine can even hold him up anymore okay well you know people who like support biden is like in spite of all the evidence that he's just a wicked pedophile that he's just destroying this nation beyond recognition but he's basically like almost like the nail in the coffin for the united states and people are just like oh no he's like what are you talking about haven't you seen the stickers at the gas station how can you ignore everything that's taking place in spite of all the evidence so that's not a matter of jumping to conclusions the conclusion is right there before you the guy's been seeing sniffing head children since a long time ago so it's pretty obvious that this guy is a bad person that's not what i'm referring to i'm referring to jumping to conclusions with no evidence at all or minimal evidence that even then is still questionable you understand and so the wise man will hold his peace and will hold it until afterwards because he doesn't want to jump to conclusions if i was to see the answer at the matter before i hear that it is foolishness and folly okay so what's my what's my instruction this morning be wise be a wise man don't don't let folly be a sport unto you oh that's just me i just jumped to conclusions that your sport is folly and foolishness and it's not something you should be glorying in to be a person of indiscretion foolishness a lack of knowledge and stupidity we should seek to be wise people and not all of us have this down pat obviously we don't this is it's a balancing act you understand but we can we can weigh in heavier on the wisdom than on the foolishness though right you understand we should weigh in heavier on prudence and understanding and knowledge than we do on foolishness and folly because we're all going to be a little foolish and folly from time to time we're all going to jump to conclusions from time to time we're all going to make mistakes and and make bad calls and do stupid things but maybe minimal amount of times may the times that we solve problems outweigh the times that we don't may the times that we solve problems outweigh the times that we just find problems you understand and so let's let's be wise people let's pray father we thank you so much for your word and for the wisdom found in your word lord i pray that you'd give us wisdom and thank you so much for giving it to us liberally generously we need it today we need it tomorrow we need all the days of our life help us to remain in the fear of the lord so we can increase in our wisdom and knowledge to make wise decisions to become more efficient and effective in serving you and being dads and moms and employees and church members lord help us to have the wisdom of god in our lives in jesus name we pray amen