James chapter one, let's begin at verse number one through to verse number eight. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let us pray. Lord, we come to you tonight, and we ask that You would open to us the word of truth. How we need Your wisdom. We come to you as children. As Solomon confessed himself, so are we, Lord, children in understanding and discernment. Make us to see the great wisdom of God and to know the wisdom of God. Send Your Holy Spirit now to open the eyes of our understanding, to teach us Your truth, and to bring us into a joyful knowledge of Your word and of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Last week, we considered verses two to verse number four from the book of James chapter one and considered that God has good purposes in trials. So, trials serve to the testing of our faith. The testing of our faith produces a steadfastness of faith, and a steadfastness of faith, in turn, produces more and more of the perfect man in us so that we look more and more like Jesus Christ as we are confronted with trials and respond in a God-honoring way. And verse five to eight, however, is somewhat unclear as to its connection with verses two to four because James just goes on to say in verse number five, "if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." James introduces another entire topic, wisdom, and after he's done just speaking about trials, and then in verse nine to 11, he's going to talk about, give some instructions to the rich and to the poor. But one thing James doesn't do is he doesn't explicitly reveal the lines and links and connections between these verses. And part of honoring authorial intent, the author's intent, is to honor the silence as well as what he said. But there is an assumed link that we must, that we are safe to assume. And that is that there are two ways that trials directly relate to wisdom. One is that we need wisdom in order to perceive trials as James has explained them in verse two to four. You see, James has just done explaining to us how important trials are for our spiritual growth and for the strengthening of our faith. And so we need wisdom to be able to see that. We need insight. We need understanding. We need the heart and mind of God towards trials in order for us to appreciate trials the way that we are meant to appreciate them as James just has explained. But in a second way that this links to the verse before, the verses before, is that we also need wisdom to know how to respond, particularly when we're faced with various difficulties and trials in our life. Isn't that right? Whenever we're faced with trials, one of the things that we all feel is I don't know what to do. There's a hardship, and all of a sudden there's a sort of fog that comes over our mental state. And it's definitely safe to assume that this is what James is talking about. You're in the midst of a trial, you're in the midst of a difficulty. Well, understand that there is the wisdom of God and this wisdom of God is available to us, and God is so ready to give it to those who ask Him in faith. There is a proverb of Solomon which captures the heart of our text that we'll be looking at this evening. And that is Proverbs chapter 26 verse 12 which says this: "Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him." The person who is wise in his own eyes believes that wisdom is inherent to him. He believes that wisdom comes from him. He is blind of his need for the wisdom of God. He is safe, as it were, he thinks he's so safe, as it were, in his own understanding. And therefore he acts independently of God. There are other proverbs in Solomon that suggest the same thing. In Proverbs 14:12, "there is a way that seems right unto a man." There you have it. The way which seems right unto a man, but the ends of that way are the ways of death. A man who is wise in his own eyes. There's a way that seems right to a man, but it's actually not the right way. It is the way that leads to death. But there is this sort of independence from seeking God for wisdom because this man is wise in his own eyes. The same is true of a very common passage that many of us have memorized in the Proverbs, which says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil." And there you have it again. Lean not on your own understanding. Don't be wise in your own eyes. There is a way which seems right to a man. Rather, fear the Lord, meaning search out the ways of God, seek out the wisdom of God for how you ought to live, and He is the one that will direct your steps. He is the one that will make clear the pathway that you are to take and the way in which you are to behave. And therefore, as we come to this passage of scripture, it's helpful for us to, helpful for us to see how those proverbs relate to this text because James is essentially saying something similar. He says in verse number five of this text, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all and without reproach, and it will be given him." Here is a conditional statement that poses a question to us. If any of you lack wisdom, and it poses a question to us that can come in this kind of a way, will be understood in this way: "Do you lack wisdom?" If any of you lack wisdom, the question comes, do we lack wisdom? Well, what is wisdom? As Tom rightly pointed out, wisdom is the ability to discern and to apply knowledge, skill, and experience in harmony with the purposes and will of God. It is insight, but it's not merely knowledge. It's not only knowing what to do; it's knowing how to do it. It is not only knowledge, but the use of knowledge. It may be like the difference between knowing the Bible and knowing how to use the Bible or live the Bible. Have you ever been in that sort of situation before? I find myself in that situation all the time. I'm handling the Bible quite often, but then you come to a situation in your life and like, "What do you do here?" And you pray, and God shows you something that you already knew but you didn't see. Meaning you already knew because you knew what the Bible said about that, but you didn't see how it applied to that situation that you were faced with. That's the idea of wisdom. Not just simply knowing the Bible, but knowing how to use the Bible in our lives, knowing how the Bible relates to our situation, and how the will and purposes of God, thinking God's thoughts after Him, thinking in a way that God would think, as if God was among us, as He was in the person of Jesus Christ. It is essentially to have the mind of Christ. Now, this passage, which poses a question to us, "Do any of you lack wisdom?" there are two ways that this statement leads us to the same conclusion, meaning the same answer. The answer of that question, or of that conditional statement, is assumed. You can guess what the answer is. Yes. Do any of us lack wisdom? Yes, is what James is saying to us. And he's not just saying this because that's the way that the Greek text is actually constructed. It actually is meant to have a rhetorical effect. The word if there is if, and it's assumed that this is true, is how we're meant to understand this. But not just because of how the text is, is, you know, put as it were in the, in the original, but also because just of simple common sense as we understand who we are and what wisdom James is actually talking about. Just think about it for a moment. We are the creature, God is the creator. James is saying, "Do any of you lack wisdom?" Let's just think about this generally for now. Let's answer that question generally. Do any of us lack wisdom? Yes, we lack wisdom. But lack wisdom compared to what is the important question, isn't it? Because you see these people, they're in and out of prison, they're going through a rough time in their lives, they're making bad choices, and you think, "Well, I'm much wiser than they are." They lack wisdom; I don't lack wisdom. Yes, comparative to someone, you know, that that you are behaving more wisely than, then sure, you don't lack in comparison to them, but this is not what James is referring to. He's showing us that wisdom comes from God. And He's talking about the wisdom of God. So if any of you lack wisdom, and generally speaking, what he's saying is that as it relates to God's wisdom, we always lack wisdom. In fact, when we look at it this way, being creatures and God as creator, and James is holding to us the standard of the wisdom of God, there is never a time where we don't lack wisdom. Even when God answers our prayer for wisdom, do we still lack wisdom? In this general sense. And this is so clearly seen in the life and example of Solomon. You know, Solomon asked God for wisdom, and God gives him wisdom. And so Solomon makes wise decisions and he exercises that wisdom as we saw in the passage. God says to him, "Behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you, and none like you shall arise after you." But you know what? Solomon was still the wisest of the fools. And even though the queen of the South came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, Jesus said, "Behold, something greater than Solomon is here." As long as Solomon was a man, he lacked wisdom. He was unlike the God-man, Jesus Christ, perfect in wisdom. He was no match for him. But if we apply ourselves to the question specifically, the answer is also yes. Not only do we lack wisdom because we are the creature and He is the creator, and we can never ascend to the fullness of God's wisdom because we are finite beings and He is the infinite God, but yes, we still lack wisdom with regards to our everyday lives and the individual decisions that we make day by day. Only a fool goes about life not concerned about making right decisions. Why? Because we all understand that we lack discernment and need more at every junction of life. We lack. Do you feel that you don't really properly discern the purposes of God that are unfolding in your life, like trials and difficulties? Yes, well therefore we need wisdom. Do you ever feel like you don't know the answer to the question, "Who should I marry?" "What job should I take?" "How do I handle my child's disobedience?" "How do I plan well for retirement or help my spouse through a particular difficulty?" "What is God's will for my life?" You know that question, "What is God's will for my life?" That is ultimately a question of wisdom. Because wisdom is understanding and discerning God's purposes, and we need to know what God wants us to do. Now, I can give you biblical principles about all these things that we have touched on, but you still would ask the question, "But who, Lord, should I marry?" Guide me. Show me. Make it more clear to me. There's still an ounce of confusion and a vagueness and a lack of clarity there. I need wisdom to make the decision. And James reminds us that wisdom comes from God. It doesn't come from ourselves. It is not inherent to us. It's not something that we were born with. It's something we need from God and have from God. God is the source of wisdom. God is the fountain of wisdom. But what James is helping us to understand is, okay, God is the source and fountain of wisdom and wisdom is with Him, but how does that wisdom come down to me? The great purposes are with God. God's thoughts are with God. But I want to know them. I want to live them. I want to know the answer to these life's questions. I want to discern the ways and wisdom of God so that I might walk in His counsels and obey all His will. And James reminds us that we therefore must obtain wisdom from God. But in what sense does it come to us? You know, and often our answer to this question is that wisdom comes to us from the knowledge of the Bible. And I would say that is true, but it's not what James strikes at, does he? What does James say? "If any of you lack wisdom, which we do, let him ask God." Basically, James says, "Let him pray." The text is much more supernatural in its expectation than we would like to believe. We assume if any of you lack wisdom, let us read. And so we should read. But let us read and pray. Let us pray, pray, pray, pray as we read. Let us seek counsel, but pray. Let us pray, is what James says. In fact, this is the very thing that we must do in order to obtain wisdom, for it is with God. And we need it. And James says, "Pray. Pray for it. Ask God for it. Beg God for it." Wisdom, James is helping us understand, is supernaturally given to us by God, and it comes to us relationally. We pray for wisdom to the living God. We ask God, and God as a relational God, He shows us. He guides us. He speaks to us. He reveals things to us. He helps us get the clarity we need to live the life that we ought to live in this world. And James is helping us understand that discernment is not primarily an intellectual exercise. It's not without the mind, it's not without the intellect, but it comes to us relationally as we depend upon God and ask God for it and seek God for it. Discernment is primarily spiritual and not merely intellectual. Never forget this. The Jews read the Old Testament and do read the Old Testament, but what does Paul say in 2 Corinthians chapter 3? They read it with a veil over their heads. They can't discern its contents. They're utterly blind to it because they do not have the true relationship with God through Jesus Christ. "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have life, but they are they which testify of me," said Jesus, "and you won't come to Me that you might have life." Meaning that we could get any Pharisee in any history, in any period of, of, of Jewish history to stand before us and recite to us the entire Torah, which he would know far better than what we would know, but he would still be a fool. Because he cannot discern the contents of the Torah as they relate to the purposes of God and are to be applied in his life. He's unwise. Blindness is a moral issue, and wisdom comes from the fear of the Lord. Once again, the fear of the Lord is relational, isn't it? It's about our posture towards God. It's about how we perceive God. It's, it's how we view God. It's living in the presence of God. It is living, as it were, coram Deo, under the eye of God. This is what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord. It is relational. It is conscious of the God of heaven and earth who is not only alive, but He is present, who seeks to guide and lead us and to teach us His ways. And so the text is much more supernatural in its expectation, and discernment is primarily spiritual and not merely intellectual. And therefore, this passage is dynamic and not static. What we are called to here is a call to prayer. What James is helping us realize here is that you cannot live wisely without having a living relationship with the living God of heaven and earth. You must be before Him in prayer to obtain wisdom. Wisdom is about hearing God. It is about discerning the mind of God and the will of God and understanding what God would have us to do and how He would have us to live in the particular situations that are before us. This is about discerning His will. This is about the application of His revelation, not just His revelation itself. And so, yes, has God spoken in His word? Yes, He has. The great wisdom of God is revealed to us in the word of God. But what is the word without the Spirit but a dead letter that profits us nothing? The Spirit must illumine. The Spirit must reveal. The Spirit must lead and guide and lead us into the truth and its application for us in our lives. So our search for wisdom, as James points out to us, is primarily related to how we seek God for it. It is important that we understand that. That our posture toward God should be one of seeking Him for wisdom. Our search for wisdom is a search to hear from God. And the wonderful thing about this text is that it describes God to us as someone who is so willing and ready and excited to give us wisdom. It's not like wisdom is treasure, but it's not like a treasure chest that is hidden somewhere deep, somewhere in some cave in some part of this planet Earth, and God gives us some vague map and says, "Hey, go find it, and hopefully one day you get it, and when you get it, then you'll have it." No, it's not like that. Yes, wisdom is a treasure, but we know exactly where it is. It's with God. And God makes the path so easy and so clear for us. He just says, "Just come to Me in prayer and ask in faith, and I will give it, and I will pour it out, and I'll make it all yours." Look how God's described in this passage. It says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." You know, the English cannot really bring this out as clearly because it would kind of fudge the sentence. But what it actually is saying is, "Let him ask the giving God." Who gives generously, but we don't want to double up on the translation of "give." But let him ask the giving God. This is how God is described in this passage. One whose posture is to give, one who wants to give, who is the giving God. This is how he's described. And James says, "If you lack wisdom, go ask the giving God. Like, that's him. That's what he's like. That's his nature. That's his character. He is a God who gives." And he gives generously, means he gives with a single heart. He doesn't give as it were, just so he can get in return. He gives because he delights to give. And he wants to give. And he gives in abundance. He gives generously. And he gives without reproach, says James, which means he gives without scolding us or making us feel guilty for asking him. It's not like, "Do you lack wisdom?" Yes, I do. And you say, "God, I need wisdom," and God says, "I knew you lacked wisdom and why are you asking me? Haven't I already told you?" James is saying this is not the God that we go to for wisdom. The God before us in this text is a God who's a giving God, whose posture is generous, and he's just pouring it out. He wants to give it. And what's amazing about it is that he presents God to us like this rich, generous dad. The giving God, or like the dad who gives. Can you imagine it? The dad who is rich and generous, whose greatest joy is to give to his children what they need. It's his joy. He always is looking for ways, he's always waiting for opportunities to invest in his children's lives when his kids ask him for something. He doesn't think when they do ask him, he doesn't say to them, "Go get your own money," nor does he take the opportunity to reprimand them for their lack, nor does he hesitate to think twice. No, not even for a moment. The generous, rich father who loves his children and wants to meet their needs has a mindset that interprets their lack as his opportunity for him to do what he delights in doing most, and that is providing for the needs of his children. The whole mindset of the giving God interprets our lack of wisdom as His opportunity for God to do what He delights in doing most, and that is providing for our lack of wisdom. This is the God that James wants us to know who has all wisdom, who lives in heaven, and as we're scrambling down here wondering what to do and so confused in the fog of life, the God that has all the answers is ready to give us help. He is Jehovah-Jireh. He is the generous giving God, not the stingy God. His heart is single. His heart is not divided. He doesn't withhold. And if you don't believe it, God says to us, "Look at the cross and tell me you don't believe it." For He who spared not His own Son, says Romans chapter 8 verse 32, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not freely with Him give us all things? All things. Meaning, if God gave us His own Son, the most precious possession that was His from all eternity for our salvation while we were yet sinners, how much more will God graciously and freely give us everything we need? He's the giving God. This is part of who He is. You don't need a second blessing to obtain wisdom from God. You don't need a special pass to access God's wisdom. In fact, the one condition that James puts before us in this text, he says, "Let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." He gives us that assurance. But look what he says. The one condition in verse 6 is, "But let him ask in faith." The same condition of our conversion, which is so wonderful, isn't it? We have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are saved. So this is a path we've all walked before that have come to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. He says, "That's the same kind of attitude you have to have when you come to prayer with God in order for you to obtain wisdom." It's not meant to be complicated. The one condition is that you ask in faith. And faith in verse number six and verse number seven and eight is contrasted with doubting. So what faith is not, we are meant to understand by what doubting is. So when we learn what doubting is, we know the opposite of that is what true faith is. And we learn it this way. And He gives us an image and a picture. He paints a really beautiful picture for us. I don't know how beautiful it is, but it's beautiful in that it makes sense. It's a pretty troublesome picture, but it's a beautiful picture. Look what it says in verse number six, "But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind." He helps us realize that the doubter is one who is driven and tossed by the wind. It's important to understand that the word driven is key, and wind. He is driven and tossed by the wind. He is not driven by faith, the doubter, nor is he driven by his true desire to know what the will of God is. He is not driven by the convictions of God's word, neither of God's promises. Rather, there is an external empty pressures driven by the wind that govern his whole approach to prayer. That's why he vacillates. That's why he's to and fro. He comes to God, but he doesn't come in faith because his mind is divided, not single. He's maybe asking himself this question, "Do I really want to know what God thinks?" Have you ever found yourself doing that? I have. "Lord, I just really want to know what is the right... and I ask, "Do I really want to know? Or is this like duty box ticking? I've asked God, and now you know, go and do what you want to do." Do you really want to know what God thinks? Do you really want to know what God says? Do you want, do you really want God to tell you what it might mean for your life in order for you to obey Him in this particular situation, no matter what it costs? Isn't that amazing? We want wisdom from God. "God, who do I marry? Show me, Lord." And what if God says to you, "I don't want you to get married"? Gives you the gift of singleness. I mean, do you really want to know? And so there's this sense in which we can come to God as like a sort of ticking boxes and and doing our duty, but there's this sort of we're being driven by an external pressure. We really want something fulfilled in us, and we're hoping that God will just give us the answer we desire. Or perhaps we're fearful or motivated by just circumstances that are around us. And what James wants us to know is that the doubter, the one who comes to God doubting, is one who is driven by external circumstantial pressures. He is not driven by faith and true desire to know what the will of the Lord is. And this is why he goes on to verse number seven to describe this man as a double-minded man. In verse number seven, it says, "For that person," this is the one who is the doubting person, which means the divided person, he is a doubter, and "For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord." Verse 8, "He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." And the double-minded man literally means he's a two-souled man. He's divided. He doesn't really believe perhaps that God is wise. He perhaps doesn't really believe that God is generous and he is the giving God that that will reveal when we ask Him, will guide our steps. He would prefer perhaps to operate independently from God and to be that man who is wise in his own eyes. And that is because perhaps his heart is divided in its loyalties. There's a bad heart posture. There's a bad condition of heart here. So this man is a doubter who is two-souled and double-minded, and he is one, therefore, that is driven by the wind and tossed about. And so James says, "The fruit of this man's doubting," this kind of doubting sort of prayer life, this kind of externalism, this lack of true religion found in this man that is demonstrated by a lack of faith in approach to God because he doesn't really want to know what the will of the Lord is, perhaps, or he doesn't really trust who God says He is, he says, "The fruit of this man's prayer life is ineffectual praying." Verse seven tells us here, "For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord." He should not assume that just because he comes to God with his body but has a divided heart, that God is going to receive his prayer and answer his prayer and give him what he asked for. He appears before God, there's a sort of a religious externalism here, but he obtains nothing from the Lord and he shouldn't suppose that he will if he does not meet the conditions of faith. Secondly, this man has an instability of life. Look at verse number eight. This is the fruit of being driven by doubt. "He is a double-minded man," and what does it say in verse 8? "unstable in all his ways." He's double-minded. His approach to God in prayer, being two-souled, double-minded, now filters into his life, and he is unstable in all his ways. His life and soul are exactly like the waves, driven by the wind and tossed. And therefore, he has an instability of life. And why does he have an instability of life? Because the man that seeks to be wise in his own eyes, there is more hope for a fool than for that man. God will not honor the double-minded praying because it is offensive to God's generosity and it's and and offensive to His heart which is single and generous. The doubter's heart is divided and it is doubled, double-minded, and it doesn't really want to know God's will, but God's heart is single and it is generous and he is pouring out his wisdom saying, "Come and get it." And so he says, "You come to me with faith. That's the faith that pleases me. This is the faith that I respond to. This is the faith that I will honor." Now, it's not asking for a flawless faith, no, but rather a complete dependence upon God, even when our faith is small. Like that man who saw Jesus and he said, "I believe, help my unbelief." He is different to the doubting man in verse number eight who seeks to be wise in his own eyes and is driven by the wind and tossed. No, the cry of the man who said, "I believe, help my unbelief," is a man who's utterly dependent upon Jesus for help, that he knows that even he needs help to believe in Jesus. It's a vastly different situation. One is a man who comes to God like a child, like Solomon did, saying, "I'm but a child. Help me." The other is self-confident. And faith in this text is not complicated. Basically what James is saying to us is just trust who God says He is. If God says He is the all-wise and generous giving God, then you trust that giving God. And you trust Him by running to Him, by coming to Him, by trusting Him through prayer. You do this by desperate need for His wisdom. You say, "I want His mind. I want His heart. I want to know His the pathway for my life. I want eyes to see what direction I need to make in life." And therefore you come with dependence upon God and you trust and wait upon God that God will answer your prayer. God speaks to us. And it was an amazing thing because just today, just this morning, I opened up my devotions, you know, I read "Morning by Morning" by C.H. Spurgeon. And guess what C.H. Spurgeon's devotion was on? It wasn't on this text, but he says everything this text says. And I'm sitting there thinking, "Oh God, yeah, you do speak." Because I was reading that and I knew God was speaking to me. And he was showing me about the lack of wisdom in my own life. And he was showing me the importance of this truth for us. And he was assuring my heart before him by the Holy Spirit as I was reading Spurgeon's "Morning by Morning" just this morning, the 30th of August, saying the very same things to me that I am about to be saying that I've been saying to you. And this is a portion of what Spurgeon's devotion said this morning. He said, "There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall he do? Should he vex himself by despair, fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God and spread the case before him. Tell him your difficulty and plead his promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child and wait with simplicity of the soul upon the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God, but wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in him. For unfaithful, untrusting waiting is but an insult to the Lord. Believe that if he keep you tarrying even to midnight, he will come at the right time. The vision shall come and shall not tarry. Wait in patience, not rebelling because you are under affliction, but blessing your God for it." I don't know about you, but that touches everything that I've shared with you this night. And I read that this morning after I prepared this sermon. You lack wisdom? God can give you clarity. He can give you direction in life. He can help you make decisions. He can help you about the questions about pathways and junctions in your life and decisions you need to make. Yes, read your Bible. Read it, study it with every fiber of your being. But as you read it and study it, pray, pray, pray, so that that word by the Spirit will come alive to your soul and apply to your situation in a way that you haven't seen before. And as you go about seeking counsel about the directions you need to make in your life, pray, pray, pray. You know why? Because the answer is not always in the specific words of the text of scripture, or the answer is not always in the counsel itself, but what God shows you through the counsel and in your reading. What He illumines to your heart by the Holy Spirit of promise, as you seek Him in dependence upon Him. We cannot look at a passage like this without seeing Jesus. We should see the answer to our lack of wisdom in Christ, who is the wisdom of God. "Something greater than Solomon is here." Jesus Christ, His gospel. And Paul says that Christ is the wisdom of God and Christ is the power of God. And it is through Jesus Christ that we can even have the access to God in prayer to even ask God for wisdom. It is through Jesus Christ that the mind of God is revealed to us, that the generosity of God is revealed to us, that the grace of God is revealed to us. How can you understand God as the giving God without Jesus, who God demonstrated His, His, His generosity to us in giving us His Son when we were still yet sinners. God's purposes for the entire world and for our entire existence and life are to be found in Jesus. The world makes sense through Jesus. It is through Jesus' person and His work that we understand who we are and where we're going and all the answers to life's questions are answered in Jesus. He is the wisdom of God. He is the power of God. And without Him, we are still in darkness, and without Him, we are lost, and without Him that we are blind. And without Him, we have no access to the God of wisdom who gives us wisdom. And when you read Proverbs, especially Proverbs chapter 8, you see this character called Lady Wisdom. They don't call her Lady Wisdom, but it's wisdom personified as a woman. And as you read that, you say, "Hang on a minute. This is a type of Jesus. This is pointing to Him." You can read it in your own time, but Proverbs chapter 8 tells us that wisdom was there in the beginning of creation and the Lord possessed her at the beginning of time. And God brought her forth from all eternity, the eternal begotten son. Wisdom was beside the Lord even before anything was ever created. And then it goes on to say that this wisdom is one who calls out and calls out. So I took the liberty to take the passage of scripture and swap wisdom with Jesus's name. And I want you to hear it just for a moment. As you look at your life and perhaps the folly of your own heart and the darkness that is there and say, "I need direction," listen to the word of God which says to us, "Does not Jesus call?" Or wisdom call. "Does not Jesus raise his voice? On the heights beside the way, at the crossroads, he takes his stand. Beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals, he cries aloud." He's everywhere, seeking to make his wisdom known. He cries aloud, saying, "To you, oh men, I call, and my cry is to the children of men. Oh simple ones, learn prudence. Oh fools, learn sense. Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right. For my mouth will utter truth. Wickedness is abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are righteous. There is nothing twisted or crooked in them. They are straight to him who understands and right to those who find knowledge. Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better, or Jesus is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot be compared to Jesus. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself. All who hate me love death." To know Jesus is to know wisdom. To have Him as Lord, to have Him as Master, to know Him as King is the key to wisdom. But to reject Him is to be wise in your own eyes. And there is more hope for a fool than for that person. He is the wisdom of God. You're tossed about in life's sea, and you are drowning beneath the wave. Open your eyes and look. There's a boat that comes. And there is a Savior who calls out, who is the wisdom of God, who cries out to you, "Do you lack wisdom? Ask Me. Ask Me. I will be to you life. I will be to you a guiding hand. I will be to you a Savior that will save your soul and lead you away from death into God's everlasting kingdom." There is the wisdom of God. Do you hear it? Never forget the giving God is ready to give it. Just ask Him in faith, even now for the salvation of your soul. Let us pray. Father, we come to You, recognizing our lack of wisdom, but acknowledging You as this generous God who has given us not only in Your Son, but through Your Son, all things. May we ask and believe that the lack of clarity and the fog in our lives may be cleared up as we wait upon You and pray in faith, trusting for You to guide us. Keep us from stepping to the left or to the right without an assurance of faith, knowing that You are the one that is guiding our steps in accordance with Your will. Thank You for Your mercy. Thank You for Your kindness. Give us wisdom, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.