How to Become Wise


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Edited October 14, 2008

How to Become Wise Rich Nathan October 11-12, 2008 Everything Your Parents Should Have Taught You (But Probably Didn’t) Proverbs Series Proverbs 4:1-27 Robert Coles, who taught at Harvard for many years, told a story about a conversation he had with a sophomore student. She had been raised in a lower middle-class family in the Midwest; she cleaned dorm rooms to help pay her tuition. While she was working one day cleaning a room, a student with whom she had taken two ethics courses propositioned her. He grabbed her and propositioned her to have sex. The sophomore, in tears, told Professor Coles, “Listen, he received A’s in both of your courses in ethics, and look at the way he behaved with me.” She was really angry and she snapped and said, “I’ve been taking all these courses and we talk about what’s true and important and what’s good. Well, how do you teach people to be good?” Robert Coles went on in his article to say that it was obvious that being smart and being good or wise are not the same things. Being smart does not equal being wise I’ve been doing a series from the book of Proverbs, a book that is all about wisdom – discovering wisdom, valuing wisdom, pursuing wisdom. I defined wisdom as mastering life’s complexities – developing skill in your relationship with God and your relationship with all sorts of people, and learning how to handle all kinds of situations – poverty, prosperity, sickness and health, crises and opportunities. Wisdom goes beyond where either science or morality can take us. Certainly, wisdom has a component of knowledge and it also has a component of being moral. But wisdom is more than knowledge and it is more than being moral. There are often a range of choices we can make regarding who we’re going to date, or where we’re going to work, or who we are going to be friends with – all of which would be moral. From those choices, we need to decide what the wise thing to do is. If we’ve ever needed an example of the difference between being smart and being wise, we certainly have seen it played out in our economy over the last month. We have on Wall Street all of these brilliant people with their Harvard MBAs. But they have no virtue, no wisdom. We’ve seen person after person who has been willing to gamble away the reputations and, indeed, the very existence of companies that are more than a century old. Gambling away the jobs of tens of thousands of employees and millions of shareholders on investments that not even the CEOs understand. These companies hired Nobel Prize winning

© 2008 Rich Nathan

physicists and mathematicians to create computer models that supposedly could manufacture risk-free risky investments. That’s an oxymoron, a risk-free risky investment. But somehow they’ve convinced themselves that by some sort of alchemy they can turn toxic waste into gold. Brilliant people without wisdom. There is a story that just came out this past week about AIG, a company that the government has bailed out to the tune of $85 billion. And now we are going to give them tens of billions more in taxpayer money. You probably heard on the news about the recent AIG retreat. Here is a company executive that has taken billions of taxpayer dollars. Now in this environment you ought to know that the spotlight is right on you, that everything you do is going to be looked at with a microscope. The press is watching. What incredible arrogance! Having taken billions of dollars in taxpayer money because of their own foolishness, they decided that it would be a good time to take their executives and independent agents on a $400,000 retreat. And they are planning another expensive retreat this next week. An utter lack of wisdom. Every one of us needs wisdom whether you were an amazing student in school, or a poor student. Wisdom is not a matter of intellect. We constantly are asking basic questions like, “Should I stay in this relationship or not?” “Should I date this person or not?” “Should I marry this person or not?” “How do I cope with a divorce?” “How do I deal with the fact that I’m terribly unhappy on my job?” “Should I blow the whistle on a corrupt employer or someone who is harassing me on the job?” “How do I deal with my in-laws?” I find that those of us who are followers of Christ often ask the very same questions. We who are followers of Christ desperately want wisdom. We find ourselves in complicated situations regarding child-raising, or friendship, or extended family, or work, love and romance. We’re trying to discern what is God’s will? What is God saying to me regarding this complicated life issue? And you know the typical ways that Christians go about trying to discern the will of God. There is the finger in the Bible method. You say, “OK, God, I want to know what you think about this move to another city, or if I should date this man, so I’m going to stick my finger in the Bible and it has landed on 1 Chronicles 26:18 which in the King James version reads: At Parbar westward, four at the causeway, and two at the Parbar. And while you puzzle at the meaning of that verse, you think, “Yes, I think that is a yes regarding me dating this guy.” But you also look inside and see if you feel peace. Maybe you ask God for a sign. But the book of Proverbs has a whole different approach to gaining wisdom than the typical methods we Christians use in discerning the will of God. “Do we feel OK inside?” “Did my finger land on the right verse?” “Did a bird fly overhead as a sign to me of God’s will?”

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The book of Proverbs says that the way that you make wise decisions is by becoming a wise person. That seems obvious, but it is not really very obvious. Wise people make wise decisions. They generally make wise financial decisions. They make wise decisions about who they are going to trust and whom they are going to be friends with. They make wise decisions about the kind of house they are going to live in and the job they are going to take. Wisdom will not work for you if you are a foolish person and say, “Okay, God, I need to know if I should enter this romantic relationship. I’m going to look inside and see if I feel peace.” The way you discover God’s will and have God’s wisdom in a situation is by becoming a wise person. Well, how do we do that? That’s what I want to talk about today in a message that I’ve titled “How To Become Wise.” Proverbs 4:1-9 Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. 2 I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching. 3 For I too was a son to my father, still tender, and cherished by my mother. 4 Then he taught me, and he said to me, “Take hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands, and you will live. 5 Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. 6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. 7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. 8 Cherish her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. 9 She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown.” How do we become a wise person? Proverbs 4, first of all, tells us to: Listen to the voice of experience I don’t know what is on your resume, but I was going to write a resume that had to do with requiring wisdom, I might put down the name of Mrs. O’Boyle, my 6th grade teacher, who took me aside one day and said, “Richard, I am really surprised at what you did in following the crowd. I expected that out of some of the other kids in the class, but I never expected that of you.” That really stung. I would put down Warren Campbell, my first pastor when I was 18. Warren was a blue-collar guy who was in bi-vocational ministry for most of his adult life. It was only in his 50’s that he finally pastored a church that could afford to pay him a full-time salary. Warren taught me about giving my whole life to Jesus Christ. I would certainly put on my resume John Wimber, who taught me so many lessons regarding being a follower of Christ and also being a leader.

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I would put my InterVarsity staff worker and an older Christian who employed me at a Christian bookstore for two years while I was in college. I’m sure if you put your resume together on how it is that you’ve gained any wisdom in life, any ability to handle life’s complexities well, you could point to your grandparents, or parents, or teachers, or pastors. In Proverbs 4:1-9 Solomon commends not only his own instruction and example to his sons, but their grandfather’s instruction: Proverbs 4:3-4 For I too was a son to my father, still tender, and cherished by my mother. 4 Then he taught me, and he said to me, “Take hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands, and you will live. There is: A responsibility to pass along wisdom A couple of decades ago there was a 35-year old reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He had been with the newspaper for only a year before being assigned to write a very sensitive column called “Heard on the Street.” Soon after, he was fired for leaking information to traders for profit. The Wall Street Journal’s managing editor washed his hands of any responsibility for the reporter’s professional collapse. The managing editor said: In the final analysis, no matter how strong the ethical codes we issue and how carefully we check a reporter’s background before hiring him, the only thing that prevents occurrences like this is the character and sense of commitment of each of our people. In retrospect, it is difficult to imagine what we might have done to thwart his acts. One philosopher said in an article that the Wall Street Journal absolutely shared moral culpability with this fallen reporter. He wrote: Evidently, the Journal has no sense of how moral character is nurtured – the need for mentors and time in rank before “morally risky” assignments are given, the sense that character is cultivated in the community of shared ideals and expectations. In other words, who at the Journal attempted to mentor this young man? Who tried to pass along to him wisdom regarding how to negotiate this very sensitive issue of trust?

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The church has a role of passing along wisdom to young adults and children. Whenever we do a baby dedication what parents are doing in dedicating their children is making a commitment to pass along their Christian faith. They promise to raise their children in a knowledge of Christ’s love and to teach their kids what has been taught to them. And one way that we as adults can show that we take our responsibility to pass on wisdom seriously is to connect with some of our children as a children’s ministry worker here at the church, or as a youth worker in teen ministry. Parents are sometimes bothered that their children find it easier to talk openly with other adults. But this is easy to understand. Many of the issues that cause tension in the home are not present when a child talks with another adult. Another adult taking an interest in your child communicates to your child that they have worth. One way that you can show that you value your Christian faith and don’t want it to die with you and your generation is to pass it along to a child or a teenager here at the church by working in children’s ministry or by volunteering in our teen ministry. You know, my generation may be the first generation in the history of the world whose parents’ abdicated the responsibility to pass on wisdom. After WWII many parents turned parenting over to the experts – to Dr. Spock and others who claimed to know how children should be formed. Parents turned child raising over to schools. They turned child raising over to media. They turned child raising over to their children’s friends. My generation lost the wisdom of the ages. A responsibility to receive wisdom But if you want to become a wise person, you’ve got to learn to listen to the voice of experience. Maybe you say wisdom is not really found in my family; it is not found with my father or mother. But maybe it is found with your grandfather or grandmother, as Solomon points to his sons’ grandfather. Or maybe wisdom is found with an older couple in this church – a small group leader, a pastor, or a mentor at work. I recently read a study in which a person systematically looked at the psychology of wisdom comparing the performance of younger and older adults. While it is absolutely the case that old adults may struggle with short-term memory, or remembering people’s names, studies indicate that older people absolutely get something in return for their difficulty in remembering – they get wisdom; they get good judgment. Researchers tested younger and older adults on handling complicated situations in life – how to respond to a suicidal phone call from a friend, or how to give advice to a 17-year old who wants to get married. Invariably, it was the older adults who were able to come up with really creative solutions for what they were facing. They listened better. They were able to navigate the ambiguities and uncertainties in the life of the person they were

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talking with. They didn’t have a one-size-fits-all approach. They weren’t as rigid in their thinking. One of the places that I have looked to gain the wisdom of the ages over the last several decades has been to read great old books. C.S. Lewis, my favorite Christian author, wrote a wonderful little essay in his book God in the Dock. It was titled “The Reading of Old Books.” He said in this essay that if you are forced to choose between reading a new book and reading an old book that you should almost always choose the old book because the old book has stood the test of time. Here is what he writes: Of course there isn’t any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them. In other words, if you want to figure out how to find a great husband or wife, one of the best things you could do is read an old book on the subject. They are not going to simply reinforce mistaken 21st century notions of romance, sex and dating. Likewise, if you want to learn about dealing with grief, or how people cope with crisis, or cope with death, you might want to listen to the wisdom of the ages. Listening to the wisdom of the ages is especially necessary when we are dealing with our spiritual lives. We are not the first people on the face of the earth to try to practice a spiritual life or find spiritual truths any more than we are the first people on the face of the earth to try to succeed in chemistry. If you wanted to do chemistry, you could sit in a room and create a periodic table of elements on your own and figure out every chemical reaction. But you would run out of life before you were able to really do anything meaningful in chemistry. We build on the wisdom of the past when we are doing science, or really when we are doing anything. We need to build on the wisdom of the past in our spiritual life as well. If you went around the city of Columbus and talked with people, you would find many, many folks who say, “I don’t think you need to go to church in order to develop your relationship with God. I think you can do it on your own. I don’t believe in organized religion.” I always want to say, “Well, do you believe in disorganized religion? Religion that is sort of slapped together in some slipshod seat of the pants method?”

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Why do you think that you can, on your own, discover the best way to have a relationship with God anymore than you can figure out on your own the best way to do chemistry, or to build a car, or to raise your kids? Here is an illustration for you: Let’s say that you plan to sail in a little boat from New York to England. You could set out on your own and say, with Frank Sinatra: “I’m going to do it my way.” But the journey to England would sure be a lot easier if you brought with you maps developed past sailors concerning the currents and the reefs and the various points of longitude and latitude along the way. Without the wisdom of the ages you are likely to die out in the ocean. If you choose to set out for a foreign country named “God” and you want to develop a spiritual life, you could launch out in your little sailboat. But it would be easier for you if you had the maps and the collected wisdom of spiritual masters from the past. That’s what church is. The church is a place where people are gathered to hear the wisdom of the ages regarding the spiritual life. Here is where the currents are. Here is where the reefs are. If you go in that direction, you are going to be washed overboard. This is what proved helpful to someone who really developed a sustained relationship with God. How do you become a wise person? You do not have to learn everything on your own in the school of hard knocks. Listen to the voice of experience? How do you become a wise person? See life as a journey Proverbs 4:10-19 Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many. 11 I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. 12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble. 13 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life. 14 Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers. 15 Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way. 16 For they cannot rest until they do evil; they are robbed of sleep till they make someone stumble. 17 They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. 18 The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. 19 But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. There are about 15-20 different words Solomon uses to communicate that if you want to become a wise person, you must see life as a journey, as a path, as a walk. Now, it is interesting how many of the great stories in history portray life as a journey. We see this in the Bible in the Old Testament book of Exodus. We find life as a journey in Homer’s Odyssey, and in Virgil’s Aeneid, and in the Canterbury Tales, and in Don Quixote, and in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and Jack

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Kerouack’s On the Road. Life as a journey is found in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The picture is everywhere in every century. Life is a journey. It is voyage. It is a pilgrimage. It is a quest. It is an odyssey. We’re all somewhere along the way between the beginning and the end of the road. And the Bible uses the journey metaphor hundreds of times. We read it in verses like: Genesis 5:22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Genesis 6:9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Genesis 48:15 Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, Psalm 23:3-4 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Life is described repeatedly as a walk along a path or a road. Life is not described as a long jump. It is not described as a pole vault. We don’t leap into wisdom. We become wise people step-by-step. Folks are always coming up to pastors and saying, “Pastor, listen, I’m sinking in debt. Do you have an answer for me to pay off all my bills? I want to catapult into a solution for my debt problems. I want to pole vault into prosperity.” Proverbs says that’s not the way life works. There are these steady, boring, mundane, repeated actions – left foot, right foot – little things you do every day to change your purchasing habits; spend a little less, earn a little more. “Pastor, my marriage is falling apart. My wife said she wants to leave. Do you have a quick answer for this – maybe a counseling session or a one-hour sermon?” Proverbs says that the way to have a great marriage is step-by-step.

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Monday you get up and you are kind to your wife or husband in the morning and evening. And Tuesday you get up and you are kind to your spouse in the morning and in the evening. And Wednesday you get up and you are kind to your spouse in the morning and in the evening. It is not jumping into an answer. Jumping exhausts you. You can’t keep it up. Walking, one foot in front of the other. Becoming a wise person is the result of little choices you make day after day. What you become whether you are a wise person or a foolish person is not the result of great epiphany, some great spiritual revelation that you have at a conference. That is not the way you become a wise person. It is not the dramatic events. It is by putting into your life a set of wise practices. I’m going to get up tomorrow and spend time with God. And then I’m going to get up on Tuesday and spend time with God. And I’m going to get up on Wednesday and spend time with God. And I’m going to choose to pass on dessert on Monday. I’m going to choose to pass on dessert on Tuesday and Wednesday. And I’m going to begin walking on a treadmill step by step-by-step. Wisdom, like a good marriage, like financial health, like a healthy body cannot be acquired quickly. Solomon contrasts the path of the wise and the path of the foolish. He says concerning the path of the wise: Proverbs 4:11 I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. And he talks by implication about the path of the foolish in verse 12: Proverbs 4:12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble. The path of the wise is a straight path. It is simple. It is not complicated. The path of the foolish, by way of contrast, is a path of stumbling, twisting your ankle. It is like picking your way along a rock-strewn path that’s filled with rocks and slippery rocks where it is easy to turn your ankle. Have you noticed, friends, how complicated the lives are of those who are not wise? I discovered this in college. I had a friend who asked me for advice and she proceeded to run out a story with me that took about a half hour. She had been dating one guy, but then she liked another guy and so she began to secretly date him. And the first guy found out about it and began by stalking her. She lied to her dad and they needed to have the police come. And she was staying at another guy’s house for protection and this other guy really liked her

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and she had feelings for him. After listening for 30 minutes I couldn’t keep the guys straight and who was who and who she needed to get a protection order from. And I’ve seen this over and over in the lives of those who are not wise. Their lives are so complicated. It is exhausting to pick your way along a rock-strewn path. One of the reasons, friends, that you want to become a wise person is that it makes life so much simpler. Try to organize a wedding of a child where there’s been several divorces on the part of the parents and figure out who is going to walk the daughter down the aisle and where do people sit, and how do you work the dais. You need a computer program to figure it all out. It is not only that the lives of the wise are uncomplicated, but the life of the wise is free vs. the addictions and compulsions of the foolish. Proverbs 4:14-17 Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers. 15 Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way. 16 For they cannot rest until they do evil; they are robbed of sleep till they make someone stumble. 17 They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. There is a compulsiveness when you are not a wise person. Have any of you found yourself unable to sleep because of an addiction? Your mind is racing, your heart is racing, your body is crawling, and you’ve just got to give yourself one more time to the addictive substance. You toss in your bed when you are addicted to anxiousness or anger. It is wonderful to be wise because you are free. You are not restless. You can easily fall asleep. Not only does Solomon contrast the two different paths, but he contrasts the two different destinations of the wise righteous and the foolish wicked: Proverbs 4:18-19 The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. 19 But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. This statement regarding the foolish wicked in verse 19 is really profound: Proverbs 4:19 But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. That is a great picture of the foolish wicked. They are people who don’t connect the dots; folks who do not connect action and consequence. “I just don’t know why I’m having so may problems financially. I can’t figure it out.” Really? You

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don’t link together what you’ve been buying and your income? You don’t see that you are maxing out your credit cards and buying more than you can afford? You don’t link together the fact that you haven’t held a job with your financial problems? You don’t connect those two? “I just don’t know how I got pregnant. How could this have happened?” Really? Well, you don’t see a connection between what you did and your pregnancy? But this is the mark of foolishness: Proverbs 4:19 But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. It is regarding their final destination that we see the sharpest contract between the wise person’s life and the foolish person. When I read this line in verse 19: Proverbs 4:19 But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. I can’t help but think about Jesus’ description of hell as darkness in places like: Matthew 8:12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” See this idea of life as a journey, life as a path, helps us to better understand our eternal destinations. Each time we make a choice, we’re putting a mark on our souls. We become more resentful, more bitter, more full of lust, more full of envy, more self-absorbed and self-pitying. Step by step, step by step we walk into deeper and deeper and deeper shadows. Or step by step we choose forgiveness, we choose to trust in God, we choose mercy, we choose kindness and generosity step by step we walk into greater and greater light. This enables us to understand one of the most difficult doctrines in the Bible. That is the doctrine of eternal punishment. How in the world could a good God send someone to hell forever? Perhaps you have asked that question? How could it be that someone could be sent to hell forever? Some people have rejected the Christian God altogether and said, “I can’t ever believe in a God who would send someone to hell.” The picture they have of eternal punishment is that moment someone dies they appear in the presence of God and God says, “Well, you lived a good life, but you make a wrong choice regarding Christ.” And he pulls a lever; the trap door opens underneath them,

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and they tumble down into hell while they are screaming, “But I want a relationship with you, Lord.” God laughs and says, “It’s too late.” But that is not the biblical picture at all. The biblical picture of human beings is that we go on forever in the direction that we are headed. What if you didn’t stop going in the direction you are headed when you died? What if your life really continued so that you not only go in your current direction for the next week, step by step, or the next month, or the next year, or ten years, or 30 years? What if you continued in the direction that you are currently going forever? Do you like the direction that your life is going? Would you want to have more of the same in your life not only in 10 years or 30 years, but eternally? What if the choices you make now regarding forgiving other people, and getting free of addictions, and choosing wisdom over foolishness, what if those had eternal consequences? But there are many things we do not have to bother about if we only live 80 years or so. But when I consider that I’m going to live forever, I better take care of some of those things – a bad temper, bitterness, envy. C.S. Lewis said: It is not a question of God sending “us to Hell.” In each of us there is something growing up which will of itself be Hell unless it is nipped in the bud. Those who are in darkness eternally have chosen that path for their lives. They refuse to be in the presence of someone bigger than them, better than them, wiser than them. To become wise, you must see life as a journey heading into eternal destinations. And to be wise, you must: Give yourself entirely to pursuing wisdom Gaining wisdom is not just a matter of your intellect. It is a matter of your ears: Proverbs 4:20 My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. It is a matter of your eyes: Proverbs 4:21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; Your heart: Proverbs 4:21-23

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Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Your body: Proverbs 4:22 for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. Your mouth and lips: Proverbs 4:24 Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Your eyes and pupils: Proverbs 4:25 Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Your feet: Proverbs 4:26-27 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. 27 Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil. You say, “How do I do that, Rich? How do I give myself entirely to pursuing wisdom – my mouth, my ears, my eyes, my hands, my feet, my heart? How do I give myself entirely to pursue wisdom so that it is not just a matter of my intellect, but my whole being is engaged?” I asked last week, “What if wisdom is a person?” What if the pursuit of wisdom is simply the pursuit of the Wise One – the wisest one, namely Jesus Christ? Follow the Wise One See, Jesus is the wisest person who ever lived. And if you want to become wise, you give your whole self to following Jesus’ pattern of life. We say, “I can’t follow your pattern of life, Jesus. I can’t imagine turning the other cheek when someone slaps me. Or not wanting to rip off someone’s head when they spit at me. I get angry with small slights. I get angry when someone verbally condescends to me. How can I stop being such an easily angered, easily irritated person and become more like Jesus, who is able to forgive and forebear?” Well, you just need to try harder. You are not trying hard enough to be a forgiving person. Try harder. That’s what most of us think in any area of life. How can I be kinder? Try harder. How can I have a pure heart? Try harder.

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A few years ago Dallas Willard wrote a wonderful book called The Revolution of Character. It is subtitled, “Discovering Christ’s Pattern for Spiritual Transformation.” I would recommend this book to any of you who say, “I really want to change my life.” Willard talks about how to change your entire life – your feelings and how to change your thought life, your bodily habits and our character. The way to change things in your life is not to try harder. Rather, there are certain tried and true practices that we find spiritual masters throughout the ages doing that have led to changed lives. We find the spiritual disciplines practiced by the wisest person who ever lived – Jesus Christ. Here is how Dallas Willard defined the spiritual disciplines or the best spiritual practices of past spiritual masters: Spiritual disciplines are activities that are in our power and that enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort. You cannot by direct effort make yourself into a forgiving person, or a pure person, or a kind person, or a humble person, or less anxious, or less angry, or less bitter. But what you can do is put yourself in the presence of Christ and the presence of Christ will change you. Let me share with you a practice that I’ve been engaged in. Over the last few months I’ve been reading again the life of Jesus in the gospels. I started with the gospel of Luke. And each morning I take an incident in the gospel of Luke from the life of Jesus and I read the text out loud slowly – 10-15 verses from the life of Christ. I read the text aloud slowly. Then I read the text again slowly. And then I read it out loud a third time. I’ve now not only read it, but I’ve heard it three times. And it is becoming fixed in my mind. I then put my Bible down and try to picture the scene. I imagine where Jesus was and the crowd around him and what they’re saying. I write my observations in a little notebook. So the other morning, I was reading Luke 7 and here is what I wrote in my journal: Jesus is approaching the city gate. There is a crowd with him – the spiritually hungry, political zealots, his disciples, thrill seekers, the needy, and the poor. People are talking; they are excited. There is a buzz going on because of all the healings Jesus has done. And just then a funeral procession goes by and there is another crowd coming towards him. Suddenly there are all these competing expectations. Jesus maybe your crowd felt interrupted. They wanted to see a healing and this funeral interrupted their plans. Maybe a few, a very few, wanted to see what you would do as the funeral approached. The crowd coming with the widow probably had professional mourners. They were crying. A few of the widow’s friends are walking down the road supporting the widow. The widow is inconsolable. Her son is dead. She is wailing, “Why God did you

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not also kill me? Why am I still living? How can I go on? You took my son, Lord, what am I going to do?” Jesus, your impulses were so trained that you immediately feel what you should feel. No matter what you encounter, you always feel the right thing. You always say the right thing. You always do the right thing. Whatever spontaneously happens, you are always wise. For me, I feel tapped out so easily. I often feel, “Here is a situation that is going to take a massive amount of my energy or effort,” but you so naturally allowed your heart to go out to this widow. Jesus I stand in awe of you. I admire you so much. Please share your heart with me. I want to feel what you feel as you look at people in pain. You need wisdom? The Bible says become a wise person. Let’s pray.

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How to Become Wise Rich Nathan October 11-12, 2008 Everything Your Parents Should Have Taught You (But Probably Didn’t) Proverbs Series Proverbs 4:1-27 1. Being smart does not equal being wise 2. Listen to the voice of experience (Proverbs 4:1-9) A. The responsibility to pass along wisdom to the next generation B. The responsibility to receive wisdom from those who are older 3. See life as a journey (Proverbs 4:10-19) A. Life as a path B. Two different paths (Proverbs 4:16, 17) C. Two Different Destinations (Proverbs 4:18, 19) 4. Give yourself entirely to pursuing wisdom (Proverbs 4:20-27) 5. Follow the Wise One

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