The Call to Wisdom (Proverbs 1:1-7)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles and go to the book of Proverbs. We're going to be starting in Proverbs chapter 1. If you have one of these blue Bibles, the page number is up there for you. If not, just open your Bible to the middle and you'll be very close. And you're on your own from there.
But Proverbs is a book that is wisdom literature. And so we just finished up a series in the book of Matthew. And we try to teach in the New Testament and the Old Testament. We think that all of God's word is profitable and helpful and points us towards Christ and the glory of his salvation. And so we are starting to study the book of Proverbs. And we'll spend the summer here growing in wisdom.
So the Old Testament has the books of the lawless, the first five books. And then it has history books. And then it has the wisdom literature. And then it has the prophets. And so we're going to be in the book of Proverbs, which is wisdom literature. And we're going to be working and seeking as a church family to grow in wisdom.
So you have a job. You're working your job. And it's fine. You're not, you know, your alarm goes off. You don't hit the button and hop out of bed with like a huge smile on your face. It's fine.
Your job is fine. It pays bills. You need a job. You're an adult. You have a job. And then a friend of yours starts talking to you about a career change.
Starts talking to you about joining them and what they're doing. They start talking to you about the exciting work they're in. And some of it does sound kind of exciting to you. You start considering should you move careers. You have mouths to feed. You have bills to pay.
You have some responsibility. But this sounds exciting. But you start looking at it and trying to figure out, is it okay for me to move into this? Is this a good idea? And in that moment, you need wisdom. You're not going to be able to find in the Old Testament law and the Ten Commandments, thou shalt start a business with your buddy or thou shalt not.
There's going to be some laws, some things that tell us, yes, you can do this. No, you can't do that. There's going to be some times where the Holy Spirit gives us wisdom and clarity. And then there's going to be a whole lot of life where you're expected to make some choices. You're going to need some wisdom. You have a precious little baby.
And it's mostly just like a head with a little body attached. And all it does is it cries when it needs something. Whee! Whee! And then it gets a little older. The reason it cried when it was little is because it didn't have words to articulate what it needed.
It gets older and has words and still cries. Cries a lot. Has a little attitude. Starts acting a lot like your spouse. Now the Bible teaches us that we're to train our children, that we're to build them up.
But you're going to need some wisdom. And how do I do this? Practically, how do I help this grow into a functioning member of society? Because if I send it out right now, it's not ready. How do I help it live in a way that people will be able to interact and like this child? And this child will be able to like others and live in the world.
You're going to need wisdom. You have a classmate or a co-worker who's antagonistic. Mouthy. Frustrating. Difficult. We live in a society that frowns upon you just striking them in the face.
So you have to come up with a better plan. You're going to need wisdom. You have adult children and they're struggling in their marriage and you want to help. You want to give some guidance. You want to give some counsel. You also don't want to be all up in their business.
You're going to need some wisdom. My goal today is to introduce this series, to introduce Proverbs to us, to help us understand Proverbs and help sell us on the fact that we need this book. There are places in the Bible that tell us things that we can or can't do. There are places where the Holy Spirit is going to give us some specific guidance. But most of life is going to need wisdom.
The Bible is not going to tell you who to marry and who not to marry. It gives some guardrails, but it's not going to pick the specific person for you. They're not going to be flipping through Galatians and it's going to be like, Jeff's a winner. It's not going to happen. We need wisdom. It's not going to tell you what Job to take.
It's not going to tell you when to retire or what to do with your retirement. It's not going to tell you about where to invest your money or how to invest your money or how to invest your time or who to develop friendships with. We need wisdom. And so the book of Proverbs steps in and helps us. It gives us wisdom. It steps into the gray area of life and offers us some coaching.
And in that way, it's kind of a different book. So we're going to pray and we're going to start reading in Proverbs 1, chapter 1, verse 1. And we're going to start talking about what the book of Proverbs is as we seek to grow our desire to grow in wisdom. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your word.
We thank you that you give us direct commands that we are to obey. We thank you that through your spirit you give us guidance, clarity in difficult situations, words to speak. And Lord, we thank you that you give us coaching and guidance and direction in all the gray areas of life that you help us grow in wisdom and help us learn how to think. And so we pray that we would grow in wisdom this summer as we study your word and as we grow closer to you. In Jesus' name, amen. Proverbs, chapter 1, verse 1.
The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. Solomon gets top billing in the book of Proverbs. He's the wisest king who ever lived. He's the wisest person who ever lived. First Kings chapters 3 and 4 tell us that God comes to Solomon as he becomes king. He's David's son.
God comes to him and says, what do you want? Ask of me anything. And Solomon says, I need wisdom. I need guidance. I don't know how to go in or come out. I need help.
And God says, you didn't ask for money. You didn't ask for peace. You didn't ask for the heads of your enemies. You asked for wisdom and therefore I'm going to give you all of these. I'm going to give you peace. I'm going to give you money and I'm going to give you wisdom.
And then we're told that he was wiser than anyone in his day, that people would flock to him to hear his wisdom. We're told that he was wiser than anyone who came before him or after him. And so most of this book is attributed to Solomon. Now he's not the only one who writes in this, in the book of Proverbs. We are, we have 30 sayings of the wise. We have some sayings from Agur.
We have a section that's attributed King Lemuel, which I think is a little unfair because it just says the words of King Lemuel or Lemuel. And then he says, here's what my mama said. So it really should be King Lemuel's mama gives us some wisdom. I don't know why he gets credit. He just repeats what she told him, but okay. But it's a collection of writings that help us grow in wisdom and call us to grow in wisdom.
So this is not the same level as direct commands or direct promises that we have in scripture. That this is a different genre of scripture, biblical literature. It's true, but it's true in a different way because it's going to say some things. It's going to coach us up and it calls us to think and to think deeply and to grow so that we're able to handle and navigate situations. So if the rest of scripture says that everything happens for a purpose.
Everything happens for a reason. The book of Proverbs comes along that and says, yes. And sometimes the reason is that you're dumb and make bad choices. The book of Proverbs is going to step in and help us make wise decisions, step in and help us understand wisdom. And so at times it will seem contradictory. Proverbs 26, four says this.
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. That's a helpful piece of wisdom. If a fool tries to invite you into an argument, if a fool tries to invite you into his stupidity and you accept the invitation, you're a fool too. That's Proverbs 26, four. The next verse, Proverbs 26, five says, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Answer him or don't answer him.
You just told me not to. Now you're telling me that I should. And Proverbs is inviting us. Both of those are true. If you join a fool in his folly, you become a fool. If nobody ever engages in his folly, he doesn't ever stop being a fool.
And we're called to have some wisdom. We're called to know both of those and to understand what's the situation. Are we on the Internet? Maybe don't engage. Is this fool your coworker or are they in your community group? Maybe engage.
But we're called to have some wisdom that we're called to see as we read the book of Proverbs. It's going to function a little bit different. Some of these are truisms. They're in general how this works. And this is why the Bible has a whole section of wisdom literature. You have the book of Job.
You have Ecclesiastes. Proverbs comes along and says this is in general how the world works. And Ecclesiastes stands behind and goes, sometimes not so much. And Job gives a real specific instance of that. And there are all three calling us to wisdom. But we're going to look in Proverbs and we're going to see that in general this is good, helpful, godly guidance to life.
So verse 2. This is the point of the book of Proverbs. It says to know wisdom and instruction. To understand words of insight. So the point of Proverbs is that we would read it and that we would know wisdom.
That we would grow in instruction. We would understand insight. That word for wisdom is the Hebrew word chokmah. And that word does not just mean, sometimes I think when we think of someone as wise, they're like a sage. They're on a mountaintop. Or you come to them and they're able to give you answers and they work out riddles.
But that word chokmah in the Hebrew is used for other things and other places to help us understand what this means. That in Exodus 35 and verse 31, it's used for the men that God called to build the tabernacle. It says that he put his chokmah in them. And his skill that they might know how to design and build. It's used in Jeremiah 10.9 for goldsmiths. So they have chokmah.
They have skill in working with gold. It's used in Psalm 107.27 for sailors who have chokmah. They have wisdom. They have skill to navigate the sea. So that in some ways this invitation into wisdom is that you might have skill, ability to navigate life.
The skill or ability it takes to build into life. That word instruction is that it's going to help us know what to do. It's going to coach us to understand words of insight. That it would help us see behind the scenes of what's really going on. And so in some ways it works like this. You have what we can see.
What's above the surface. Our decisions. Our options. What's clear to everybody. You took the job or you didn't take the job. But the reality is every time we go to make decisions, there's stuff underneath that where we're actually having to answer questions about what is ultimately valuable.
What is ultimately good. Your kid comes home and they throw their stuff down and they go, that's it. Never playing baseball again. Or I'm never playing clarinet again. Whatever your kid is into. All right.
So you're going to engage in this. And you're going to have to start asking some questions and coaching them up. And you maybe have all this noise about what people are going to think, what you think, your general desire for them to be a concert clarinetist. Clarineter. You have a desire for them to grow in this. But you're also having to answer questions when you get into this as to what's good in life.
What values do we most uphold? What's the purpose of life? How do we get there? You start answering those questions even if you don't know it. And so some of what Proverbs is doing is God is giving us insight into how the world works so that we might see things the way he sees them. So wisdom isn't just the application of knowledge.
It is. It's not just skill. It is those. But it's not just those. It's more. It's bigger than that.
It's godly insight into how to live and how to pursue what is good. It's godly insight into how to live and how to pursue what is good. That God at times is going to call us into things that make sense because he designed the world that are counterintuitive to worldly wisdom. I try to bring this man up every so often, usually about once a year. I want to talk to you for a moment about Nicholas Cage. Nick Cage has a movie called National Treasure, which if you've seen it, it itself is a national treasure.
In it, though, he's going to steal the Declaration of Independence because Benjamin Franklin put a secret map on there because he was part of the Masons. And Nicholas Cage has Benjamin Franklin's special spectacles that he can slide down. And when he puts the certain glasses on, he can see what's really there that no one else can see. And in some ways, the wisdom of the scriptures, the wisdom of the Proverbs, the wisdom that we're invited into is God saying, I want to help you see the world and see some things that you would not have discerned on your own. You would not have been able to see on your own.
I want to help you see below. So it's going to give us some practical coaching. And then there are times where it's going to tell us deep-rooted how that's connected to God's good world. And it says some things that seem counterintuitive. When we talk about money, it's going to talk about how generosity leads to greater wealth. One of the things the Proverbs is going to tell you is if you want to grow in wealth, give money away.
That only works if God has a rule at work in the world that he accomplishes through his power because that's not usually how things seem to work. It says that those who hoard everything, who are stingy, end up lacking. It doesn't work out for them. So there's these things where it's going to talk about top-level wisdom and it's also going to say, you know, there's some things going on behind here that you need to see. So it's worth us growing in this.
Verse 3. So the point of the Proverbs is that we would receive instruction in wise dealing. Don't you need that? Don't you need some wisdom in how to deal with people? How to deal with people well? How to make wise decisions in business and life and investing?
Don't you want some wisdom in wise dealing? It says in righteousness, justice, and equity. Isn't that something that we need to know? What is right? What is just? What is fair?
These words we've heard repeated over and over again these past years. I think everybody's been thinking through what is justice? What is equity? What is actually fair? And don't we need to grow in understanding how God defines that and what that looks like and how we can apply that in life? Isn't this helpful?
Verse 4. To give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. Oh, I know some hearts just started beating fast. Y'all came in here and you thought, I hope we get to grow in some prudence. I was just saying that. I wrote that in my diary this morning.
Amen. That word doesn't, we don't use it often and it doesn't seem to be a very exciting thing that you'd want to grow in. What it means is shrewdness, cleverness. The Proverbs say that a prudent person sees trouble and gets out of the way. Oh, I want some of that. I want to be able to have some foresight into some trouble and get out of the way.
I want to have some ability to see that coming. And what's beautiful about this promise is that it's to give prudence to the simple. Hallelujah. Weren't there times when you were in school and you just thought, nah, my brain's done. I will not be able to move further in this subject. You looked around the class and you were like, oh, they all understand this?
Oh, I'm in trouble. There was a place I hit in math where I just thought, that's enough math for me. I will not be mathing anymore. Thank you. I told someone the other day that when I worked as a cashier, I was the one that when I rang you up, if right at the end after I'd pressed the button, you said, oh, here's the 15 cents. I'm the guy who went.
Hold on, hold on. I had people before just go, I'll take it back. And I was like, that's going to be best for everybody. I can't do that that quickly. I don't know. This is an invitation.
Wisdom is not kept from you because you are not naturally intelligent. And that's a beautiful promise. Intelligence is a different thing. There's a lady somewhere who can barely read, barely write, has hardly a high school education. She knows the Lord. She reads his words.
She follows him. She's got more wisdom than Elon Musk. She has a better handle on how the world works, has a better way to deal with people, has a better way of walking through life. And she's got wisdom because we're invited to grow in it. And it says it will give discretion, ability to make good decisions to the youth. Some of you are like, I'm going to get my children here.
I need some discretion. I got some youth. I'm bringing them. Verse five. Let the wise hear and increase in learning. And let the one who understands obtain guidance.
That's a beautiful invitation as well. You don't reach a limit. You don't hit a spot where you go, I'm wise enough. I'm good. It says, no, if you're wise, you'll keep growing in wisdom. If you have knowledge, you'll continue to get some guidance.
Don't coast. Don't say, I've gotten enough wisdom. I'm good. I'm full up on it. I'll handle everything perfectly from here on out. It says, no, if you're wise, you'll continue to grow.
So that's the invitation of the Proverbs. It says, and understand a proverb, a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. See, the Proverbs are an invitation to think. That's why there's going to be some in here that are riddles. You have to work them out. You have to sit and think on them.
In some ways, they're like hard candy. If you just bite down on them, you might break a tooth. If you just try to swallow them, you might choke. You have to sit with them for a while. There'll be some places where you need to work this out, where you need to grow in wisdom. The invitation of the Proverbs is that we might learn and then live.
So we say in our culture that, you know, live and learn. This is one of the best ways to learn. It's only you're just going to have to live and learn. Somebody's talking to you and you don't want to listen. They'll say, well, you'll live and learn. The idea is that you need to go out there, you need to make some mistakes, and then you'll get wiser.
And the reality is, yeah. Now, hopefully, the Proverbs say there's some people who don't even get wiser that way. Hopefully, if you live through something, you'll learn. But there's a beautiful invitation to learn and then live that's offered to you in the Proverbs. That you can be simple and you can grow in wisdom beyond those who have more years on you and have more experience on you because you'll listen and you'll learn and then live. My older brother went through high school living and learning as he related to my parents.
He was older. He was the only one. He hadn't had anybody go in front of him. I was able to watch. I got to learn and live. I took notes.
I paid attention. Mental note. If my dad says to you, how many times have I told you this? Don't say, I don't know, a million. I got to learn and then live. I got to see someone else make decisions in front of me.
That's one of my favorite jokes is three men walk into a bar, the fourth one ducks. The ability to see people go in front of us. At this point, don't laugh because... Just laugh when you get in your car. Don't laugh three minutes from now. But the ability to see people go in front of us and make decisions based off of that and the Proverbs are inviting us into that.
Verse 7. This is the theme of the book of Proverbs. And we'll see it throughout. This phrasing shows up a bunch, but this is where everything hangs on this. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Knowledge.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Just so you know, if you've been sitting here this whole time thinking, I don't need any of this. You just showed up in the Bible in the back half of verse 7. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. This is the theme of the book of Proverbs. That we would see the Lord.
That's where we start. That if you're going to grow, if you're going to understand, if you're going to approach wisdom in the way that we're supposed to, we exist in His world. We're going to listen to Him. I bought some furniture from Ikea before. And I got it home and I unboxed it. I did not pull the instructions out and say, what do Swedish people know about furniture that I don't know?
And throw it away. USA. I didn't do that. I need their help to build the Pyongyang or whatever the name of that chair is. I need their guidance. And the reality is God created the world.
And one of the ways we grow in wisdom is we listen to Him when He tells us how it works. We come to Him seeking to understand Him. We approach Him and we have to see Him clearly in order to see ourselves clearly. So this verse that shows up again in chapter 9, verse 10, it says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is insight. And we begin by understanding Him.
We begin by approaching Him, listening to Him, knowing Him. That helps us understand the true wisdom of the world. That we know God. Or chapter 15, verse 33 says, The fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom. And humility comes before honor. One of the reasons that we have to know the Lord first and see the Lord first is that we have to rightly see ourselves.
We have to rightly see Him so that we'll rightly listen. That we have to have humility if we're going to grow in wisdom. I have a quote from C.S. Lewis that I think is helpful. He says, As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people.
And of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. So that we approach in growing in wisdom, we have to see the Lord. We have to see Him as big. We have to see Him as glorious. And we have to have an appropriate fear, reverence for Him that we would submit to Him. I have a six-year-old son.
He's pretty smart as far as six-year-olds go. He's a fool. And that's not being mean. We're going to get there in Proverbs. But that's what it says about your children.
They're foolish. They're ignorant. Even if they're intelligent for their age, if they have decent functioning brains, they're foolish because they don't know how the world works. I was recently trying to teach him how to swim. I'm trying to explain to him how to swim. And he's just talking and talking.
He's cutting me off to tell me things. And I had to say, Archer, stop. Stop talking. Shut your mouth. I said, Son, do you know how to swim? No, sir.
Do I know how to swim? Yes, sir. Why are you talking? Are you going to just coach yourself into swimming? I said, When you went to kindergarten, did you know how to read? No, sir.
Did your teacher know how to read? Yes, sir. Who taught you how to read? Your teacher or you? My teacher. Okay.
A lot of us approach God, approach scripture. Even in this series, you're going to approach the Proverbs and you're going to be talking the whole time. And you're going to hit passages that you go, Don't like that. Don't agree with that. Don't agree with that. And in that moment, you've stumbled upon a place where you need to grow in wisdom.
And you can reject it or you can say, Hold on a second. If God's saying something I don't agree with, maybe I ought to fear him. Maybe I ought to humble myself. Maybe I ought to listen. Maybe he has something better to say. And the Proverbs is going to say, One of those responses is wise and one of those is foolish.
But it's inviting us to make the wise response to a glorious God who has good wisdom for us. So, as the Proverbs go, there's a lot of introduction in the first nine chapters. We're going to cover some of that again. A lot of it, though, is trying to sell you on You Need Wisdom. It's one of the reasons why we want to start this series because this is this way, because this is how Proverbs starts. You need this.
It's good for you. It leads to life. It leads to joy. It's better than gold. It's better than silver. If you've got to choose between money or wisdom, pick money.
If you ever meet a genie and they give you grant you wishes, choose wisdom. That's the point of this. It's better to pursue. Just for the record, for some of y'all who aren't part of church and this is your first time, Christians don't actually believe in genies. Just throw that out there. There are some things we believe in that you probably don't, but genies isn't one of them.
All right. Chapter 9, verse 1. It says, This is what they say. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. To him who lacks sense, she says, Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and live and walk in the way of insight.
Lady Wisdom goes out into the crowded places and calls. Come learn. To the simple. Come learn. Come partake in the goodness of wisdom. And she's got good stuff.
Her table is set with good stuff. Come. Come get life. That's an invitation to you. That's an invitation to everyone in this room that you can come to the Proverbs. You can come to the Lord.
You can submit and you can get wisdom. Verse 13. The woman folly is loud. She is seductive and knows nothing. I appreciate that description. Lady Wisdom is not ever said to be seductive.
She's got good stuff. She has her table set. She's made good choices. Lady Folly looks better on the outside. Has nothing. Has nothing to offer.
So there's even places in the Proverbs where it says there's a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death. There are moments where you go this feels good. This seems right. The Proverbs acknowledges that and says no, no, no. You need wisdom. You don't need to just follow your intuition.
You need to grow in a way that helps you counteract your intuition which is sinful and bad. Because the woman folly is loud. She is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house. She takes a seat on the highest places of the town. So she goes to some of the same places calling to those who pass by who are going straight on their way whoever is simple let him turn in here and to him who lacks sense she says.
That's verbatim what verse 4 was. Lady folly makes the same cry calls to the same people as lady wisdom. The invitation is laid out for you to go one way or the other. Verse 17 stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant but he does not know that the dead are there that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. One is an invitation to life one is an invitation to death. Wisdom offers you life.
Wisdom has a table set with good food mixed wine. The lady folly says water is nice let's eat bread in secret. She has less to offer and ultimately leads to death but the reality is you are headed in one direction or the other. Time does not let you sit still. You are progressing one way or the other. You are growing to be more wise or more foolish.
The invitation is that you would respond to lady wisdom that you would seek this that you would begin to read this you would begin to study this that you would stick this out that you would where the Bible contradicts you submit in humility knowing that the Lord has more sense than you do. That you would receive the call of wisdom. Choose wisely. Now I got some good news and I got some bad news. Let's talk about Solomon for a second.
We'll go bad news first. Solomon wisest man who ever lived. You will not outwise Solomon. 1 Kings chapters 3 and 4 tell us wisest man who ever lived. 1 Kings chapter 11 you just follow his life out and he derails it. Quits following the Lord. runs into sin pursues sin pursues foolishness wrecks God's good plan for their kingdom that ultimately the next sons that he has they split the kingdom in half that he runs after idols.
Wisdom is good and you need it. Wisdom is insufficient to fix you. Wisdom is insufficient to fix your sin problem. That ultimately we have a sin issue that we need wisdom and guidance from the Lord. We need his teaching so that we might navigate life well but it will ultimately not satisfy our soul or fix our sin. Wisdom is good but it is insufficient. that is the bad news.
I have some good news. I do not know if you are familiar with the gospel of Matthew but in Matthew chapter 12 Jesus says this he says the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment that is the queen of Sheba she came up to listen to Solomon she was like I want to see if he is actually this wise she showed up and she was like yep and then she gave him a bunch of spices and left will rise up with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon behold something greater than Solomon is here. Jesus came to do for us what Solomon could not do. Jesus did not come because we lacked in wisdom Jesus came because we needed a savior.
He did not come because you need more coaching and you need more counseling and if you just had the right bit of information you could fix the problem no he came because you can't fix the problem but he's good and he came to redeem those who are in sin so that we might have hope. That's why Jesus' primary work was accomplished on the cross not when he sat and taught. He sat and taught so that we might understand the cross so that we might believe in the cross so we might hope in the cross he healed so that we might believe that he was who he said he was but he rose from the grave died for our sins conquered death and hell in our place so that we might have hope and he is greater than Solomon and the scriptures tell us that he is the wisdom of God that if you understand the wisdom of God if you understand how he works and what he's come to accomplish in the world you need Jesus. That's what 1 Corinthians chapter 1 says it says it in verse 24 and verse 30 we'll read both it says but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God 1 Corinthians 1 30 says because of him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God righteousness sanctification redemption Colossians tells us that all of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ so we're going to grow in wisdom but we're going to do it as those who are submitting to Christ and who see him as the ultimate Revelation of the wisdom of God that came to redeem sinners that did not come to put the weight on you for you to accomplish your salvation but came to rescue us so that we might follow behind him in obedience and joy you're going to make some terrible choices that's why we praise Jesus because he redeems he became for us redemption was that last verse it's not up there anymore he came for us redemption that he fixes our brokenness so we're going to listen to Solomon knowing that we have the greater Solomon in Christ the band is going to come back up as we go through this this summer we will get to spend different times talking about different we're going to walk through this and we're going to take it topically we're going to see what it says about money we're going to see what it says about parenting we're going to see what it says about truth about words we're going to grow in wisdom but as we do that we're going to consistently point ourselves back to Christ who gives us hope and who shows us what the ultimate wisdom of God is that he would redeem sinners now in a moment we're going to take communion communion is set up in places all around the room it is for believers it is us celebrating the literal physical work of Christ on our behalf that he died for our sin that he shed his blood that his body was broken that he was placed in a tomb that he rose from the grave and that in this work we have hope that your hope today is not that you would learn enough to be good enough to handle this on your own but your hope is that Jesus has already come and we have hope in him if you are a believer we invite you to take communion we want you to consider yourself we want you to consider your sin we want you to repent acknowledge where you need the grace of God and then celebrate that it is finished and the grace of God is for you in Christ who is the wisdom and power of God in our place on our behalf if you are not a Christian this is not for you we would love for you to come to know Christ in his salvation we would love for you to submit to him and to receive humbly the wisdom and grace that is offered to you through the cross to repent of your sin and to be redeemed by him so in a moment we will begin to play and sing you pray when you are ready go to the tables take two of the cups return to your seat and as you are ready partake in communion stack your cups and just take them out with you when you leave let's pray God we thank you for your grace we thank you for the hope of the wisdom the invitation into life ultimately fulfilled in the work of Christ who invites us into the finished work of wisdom salvation through your son and so we pray that we would grow in our love for Jesus and that we would grow in wisdom that we who are simple would gain prudence and that those among us who are wise they would continue to grow in wisdom as they walk in humility that they might unlike Solomon make it to the end of their days loving praising and worshiping you in Jesus