Wisdom is looking for you

I invite you to open your Bibles to the Book of Proverbs, chapter 1, verses 20 to 21. How many of us know that God speaks? How many of us know that God spoke in the Bible and continues to speak to those who have ears to hear it? Amen. I ask God that I am one that is always listening to his voice and that you are too. Proverbs 1:20 to 21. We are going to observe how God sometimes speaks with a soft, calm voice, but sometimes God also yells at us. Let's see about that.

"Wisdom calls out in the streets, raises its voice in the squares, calls out in the main meeting places and at the entrances of the city gates, says its reasons."

Lord, I thank you, that your wisdom is not silent. Thank you, Lord, that your wisdom is not hidden. Thank you that your wisdom, Lord, is more than within our reach. I ask you that I be a wiser man in you and that your people also learn wisdom. Speak to us on this day, let it be the voice of the good shepherd speaking in this place, I ask you in the name of Jesus. Amen.

How many of us know that life is complicated sometimes? Sometimes there are complicated situations. Sometimes they are complicated situations because we look for the complications and then we pay for it. But many times it is not like that, many times there are complications just because life is complicated. Perhaps you are a father, a mother, of a young adolescent who is half rebellious, or perhaps more than half rebellious, and no matter how much you insist, it goes in the other direction. You don't want to push him from the ways of the Lord but you can't keep quiet either, what do you do? Maybe you are a single mom dealing with life's challenges, paying bills, trying to create a healthy environment for children in an environment, in a world that is increasingly ugly and violent. Perhaps you are a married couple who both entered into the marriage with children from previous marriages and sometimes the two families do not mix so easily. It is called in English a “blended family”, as if it were just so easy for them to come together. It's never like that. There are complications.

Perhaps you are a young adult trying to choose a career and decide what to do with your life. Maybe you have to choose who you're going to marry and you don't want to make a mistake with big decisions. What are you going to do? Maybe you're a teenager, maybe you're a teenager and you're in high school, you're a teenage girl dating a guy that you love but he's pushing the limits. You don't want to lose him but you want to keep your principles as a Christian. What are you going to do?

Maybe you are a young teenager, a teenager, who is in school and there are temptations of drugs and gangs and there is pressure from all sides. What are you going to do? How are you going to deal with that? There are challenges in life, there are complications. Maybe you are looking to pay the bills and the money is not enough for everything you have to pay. Maybe you get a tough diagnosis for a child, for a parent, for yourself and you don't know what you're going to do with it. Perhaps the marriage is cooling off and I don't know how to revive it again. Maybe your boss is a terrible tyrant and you don't know how to respond to him but you can't lose your job. There are complications in life, legal situations, financial situations, family, problems that seem to have no solution. And sometimes people come to the pastor for advice, I have bad news and I have good news. The bad news, at least I don't have the answers. The good news, I know who does have the answers, and He is the wisest in the universe.

The Bible says, “Why do you say, Jacob, and your Israel speak, My way is hidden from the Lord and my judgment has passed from my God. Haven't you known? Have you not heard that the eternal God is Jehovah, who created the ends of the earth? He does not faint or get tired with fatigue and his understanding is not reached by anyone. Thank God, He gives strength to the weary and multiplies the strength to those who have none."

God is wise. All we have to do is ask. All we have to do is ask for it. The Bible clearly says, if any of you lacks wisdom, ask God who abundantly gives to all without reproach, and it will be given to you.

I know people who – and one of the wisest people I know in this world, by chance, is our pastor, Roberto – when he was a child he asked God for wisdom. I don't know if you knew that. The Lord answered him with one of the most discerning hearts I have ever known. I don't say it just to flatter a person, but to celebrate that God hears prayer.

If we seek wisdom there is a God who wants to give it to you. I have even better news, it's not just that you have to seek wisdom, God invites you to seek wisdom, it's that wisdom is seeking you. Look for the book of Proverbs 8 with me and we will stay in Proverbs. Proverbs 8:1 to 4.

“Does not wisdom cry out and intelligence give her voice? In the heights next to the road, at the crossroads of the paths he stops; in the place of the gates, at the entrance of the city, at the entrance of the gates, he cries out: O men, to you I call, I direct my voice to the sons of men…”

God is crying out wisdom to you. It's up to us to listen to it. Listen to that voice that is speaking, wisdom is looking for you and even better news, wisdom is the key to success and happiness in life. It is so.

Faith in Christ is the key to your salvation. The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom, of knowing, God, you are God and I am not, I have to learn from you, and here comes a flow of teaching from above. And wisdom gives you success, happiness, and prosperity in life. It looks like it's selling something, but it's not.

Proverbs 3:1. How many do you want to live long days? I do. It would be good.

"My son, do not forget my law, and your heart keep my commandments, because length of days and years of life and peace will increase you."

How many here want good fame with the people? You want a good reputation, that people like you, love you. Look what the word says, verse 3:

“…never mercy and truth depart from you; tie them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and you will find grace and good opinion in the eyes of God and men.”

How many want health? Look at that, verse 7:

"... Do not be wise in your own opinion, fear the Lord and turn away from evil, for it will be medicine for your body and refreshment for your bones."

How many want money? Does anyone want money? Yeah, it feels wrong to say it, doesn't it? Am I allowed to say yes to that? How many want money? To have to pay the bills, you just have to give me a personal offering and well…. No no. But look at verse 9:

“…Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; and your barns will be filled with abundance, and your presses will overflow with new wine.

God can bless in that way. Many things, there is health, there is prosperity, there are riches. How many here want to sleep a peaceful night? Maybe some young moms who would give anything for a night's sleep. Look what it says in verse 24:

"...When you lie down, you will not be afraid, but you will lie down and your dream will be pleasant."

Oh how rich. All this promises wisdom. Wisdom is worth more than everything. If we are going to look for one thing to have prosperity, success and peace, let's look for wisdom because it works, it works because God's wisdom is not a trick for quick success. Many books are sold with many tricks to achieve quick money, so that everything works out for you quickly, two or three easy little steps. We as Christians know where the recipe is, and it is here, it is within our reach, for those of us who seek. Because it is not based on tricks but is based on the truth of God, the prosperity, the wisdom of God is written in the foundations of creation.

In English I said like this, it's woven into the fabric of the universe. I felt kind of poetic in the morning, it's woven into the mantle of creation. It doesn't work in Spanish. But like this, all creation is in the footsteps of wisdom, they are principles of creation and work for the good of those who obey it and for those who resist, they harm themselves.

Now, I have to say something quick before, there are many proverbs that say that if you do good, you will do well in life. If you work well you will earn money, if you live a healthy life you will not get sick, if you choose a good wife well you will never have problems, they say many nice things that are true but one can easily fall into the error of thinking, that if I serve God nothing bad will ever happen to me. Because of this, another book of wisdom called the Book of Job was written. A wise man, a just man, an upright man who suffered not because he did anything to deserve it, but because we live in a complicated world, a fallen world, where there is a devil conversing with the Lord and sometimes even doing good, problems will come. But even in problems, for the person who lives according to wisdom there is victory and there is blessing. Amen.

And we are not talking about many schools, although I love school, I am very geekee, I like to read all these things, but school does not give wisdom. One can never have studied anything and be the wisest of all, one can have a doctorate and be the dumbest of all. We are talking about wisdom from God, from above, which is based on principles that cannot be violated, they are inviolable. These are laws that are unbreakable. Like the law of gravity, we all have to obey that law, like it or not, like it or not, we all obey the law of gravity, because it is a law bigger than us. It is so with the laws of wisdom.

They are not broken, these laws, we break ourselves against them. If we try to violate them, they don't change, we suffer, because they are real principles that are independent of you and me.

I had an interesting conversation with my son this week. One night my wife and I decided something special, we are going to take him out for ice cream after a school event, and my son ate, ate, ate like crazy, 8 years old… that night, he had a stomach ache in bed . And I was there praying, and I was the one who let him eat it so… but he was there, and I said, “Well, son, because you ate a lot of ice cream.” And he asked me a question, “Daddy, why doesn't eating ice cream make you feel good and eating chicken and broccoli makes you sick? I would prefer that, daddy, why not? I said, "Look, I'm very sorry – I'm very sorry – but that's the way things are and either you accept it and live well or you violate it and things go wrong for you."

It does not depend on your mission or your power, nothing, it is a law. Christian or not, we have to submit to these principles. Just yesterday, I tried a new pizza for me that I had never tried, called Buffalo Chicken Pizza. That sounds interesting. We ordered a Buffalo Chicken Pizza and mind you, doing well that day, I was helping a little brother move his things, I was there with a brother, we prayed before, and it didn't work out. No matter how anointed you are, Buffalo Chicken Pizza is going to dislike you. It doesn't matter, you're going to suffer. Prayer doesn't work for that.

It is that we as Christians think that we are so anointed that the rules of wisdom do not apply to us, that we can do what we want and it will go well for us, because it is true. I asked myself that, why is it that many times even unconverted people are wiser than me, than we Christians? And a problem occurred to me, that many times we are so used to the supernatural aspect of life that we neglect the natural aspect of life, which also has God's wisdom in it. And so, because we are used to God doing miracles, we think that we can walk on the water like Jesus and God is going to do the miracle. So that's why we sometimes live dangerously and God watches over us. He sends his angels and keeps us from evil, but the angels get tired, I think, because we put them to work too much. And God saying, look, I am paying my angels a lot of overtime for you, because you are neglecting the laws of wisdom and I have to save you over and over again.

I was in traffic a few days ago and there was a car that after changing the light the car did not move, the person stayed there, and I saw that it had many Christian bumper stickers everywhere, and I saw that the car began to move but bad, I say, will the brother be okay? So I looked here what's going on? I was there doing texts in the car. And a brother... but no one that I met from here, don't worry, I don't think I see him here, but we think that because we are Christians, because I have the bumper sticker, I'm doing well. The Lord says, you have to put wisdom into practice, maybe you go to heaven but faster than you should, because these laws are not broken. Wisdom, principles, principles, principles.

The word beginning means beginnings. They are the first things. They are the most basic laws of life. honest work. honest money. Marriage between a man and a woman for life. Process, that things take their time. Responsibility, actions have consequences. Prudence, love, love your neighbor as yourself. Integrity, keep your promises in life. Wisdom, basic principles, principles, principles. It works, they are our life. If we listen to God's principles in every situation in life we will do well.

But the thing is, there are other voices. Proverbs 9:14 say that there is another woman. We have in the book of Proverbs the wisdom woman, but there is also the foolish woman who wears:

“…He sits in a chair at the door of his house, in the high places of the city, to call those who pass by on the road, to those who go straight on their paths, and he says to any naive, Come here. And to those who lack sanity he says: Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is tasty.

I don't know why one is going to steal water but it seems that it is sweet, if you do it according to her.

“…But they do not know that the dead are there, that their guests are in the depths of Sheol.”

All cheating to make quick money, doing evil, and they won't pay you because you pay your tithing, so it doesn't matter that you get it bad. The lies of necessity that are there to deceive us.

I have thought a lot about young people today, boys especially who can make thousands of dollars in an afternoon selling drugs because Satan knows how to bribe people. But how do you earn money according to the word? According to the wisdom of God, play the lottery? Find a way to make money well boy get a job. But me here earning 8 dollars an hour and my friend 1000 dollars in one afternoon? In the long run it is better to be alive in 10 years with money in the bank than to have thousands of dollars and be in jail or dead after a few days.

Which voice are we going to listen to? Let's seek the voice of God, of wisdom, in every practical situation of life. Many times we make a distinction between spiritual life and life in the world, and we are very spiritual in the church environment but when we are at work, with friends, on the street or whatever, we forget our Christian principles. If they don't know you're a Christian at work, well, we have to go back to the altar here, because faith has to touch every area of life.

And it's here in Proverbs. We are going to look at some proverbs that show how God wants to speak wisdom in the details of life. Proverbs 13:11. I tell you a personal testimony. I was eating dinner one day this week with my children and my wife, and they asked me a question that I don't know what in the world, that I didn't have the answer to. I usually make up the answer but I never fool them, they know, and then they say, "Daddy, why don't you ask your phone?" Because the phone has all the answers. “Okay, I'm going to ask my phone. Phone, what is I don't know what?

And there, asking the question, an offer came up on the screen, "You have been chosen from all the residents of Norwood to receive a free gift." I said, wow, how interesting. I want a free gift. I like free gifts. This is good. And my daughter, 6 years old, "Daddy, it's a hoax, don't believe it." Then he says, 'what gift do you want? Well, it doesn't hurt to investigate what gifts they're offering me. An Iphone 6, how nice, I would like an IPhone 6, I need it. My daughter, "No, don't do it, don't do it." “Okay, I decide to listen to Miss Wisdom because I know that God is speaking through….” Proverbs 13:11 says:

"The riches of vanity diminish, and he who gathers with a laborious hand increases them."

Proverbs 20:21 "The goods that are acquired in a hurry at the beginning, will not be blessed in the end."

Why look for fast money? It is better to earn it day by day, working, saving, being generous with God, being prudent, and little by little it grows. It's not very flashy, it's not very flashy, I want to hear testimony from someone who finds a million dollars under their pillow or something like that one day. I want to hear that. But the truth of life is that it is little by little. Those who have experienced it are known to be here.

There is a saying in English easy come, easy go. If it comes easy to you, it goes easy and faster. Another testimony Proverbs 23:31 to 32. These are only examples of wisdom. In Puerto Rico about 15 years ago I received a scholarship to travel and eat very well, so I was in Puerto Rico and I was with a Cuban friend and his mother is a Cuban pastor. And she came to visit us in Puerto Rico and took us to one of these very nice resorts and we saw the beach and ate. We didn't stay there but we were there and there was a casino where you have those machines that you throw in a coin and coins come out. And my friend and I were walking there with his mother, and we saw someone there and he was coming out of one of the machines that had coins and coins and coins in a cup, as if it were a rain of money falling, falling, and change a cup and put another. The young man and I stood there watching. The mother quoted us a proverb 23:31 to 32.

“…Do not look at the wine when it reddens, when its color shines in the glass. It enters gently, but at the end it bites like a snake and causes pain like an asp.”

Don't look at it too much. If you know it's going to kill you, why stay there looking at it, looking at it. It's like Eve in the Garden of Eden, God tells her, "You can eat all the fruits except that apple," even though he didn't say apple, why stay there looking at the apple, look at it, look at it, watch apple movies, read apple books, apples, dreaming of apples. I'm not going to eat it, but how interesting it looks. I just want to look at it for a bit. Why hypnotize yourself with that? principles of wisdom.

I'm picking almost at random, Proverbs 15:15, one of my favorites. How many here this week had a bad day, that you were in a bad mood? You caught the rain one day, you came in, the boss told you something, you were in a bad mood and well, someone has to pay for it, the wife has to pay for it. If the boss treated me badly, well, I'm going to be mean to the family. We have a bad mood, we go in there, the Bible says the following:

“…All the days of the afflicted are difficult, but the happy heart has a continuous banquet.”

Every day of the afflicted, but life afflicts me, that rain afflicts me, the boss afflicts me. Maybe it's true but if you are going to live as a victim you are going to be, as the word says, with difficult days. But if we choose a grateful heart with God, it is not that everything is fine, but life becomes a continuous banquet. Because joy is not on the outside, it is on the inside. Amen.

One can choose joy. One can choose to be grateful. I can't control the boss, but I can control my attitude towards the boss; and I can't control the rain but I can have a sun inside and make life a continuous banquet. Wisdom. Principles of life, that if I live like this it is a continuous banquet. Amen.

There is much more. I will choose just a few. Here is an interesting one. In Proverbs there is a lot that talks about human relationships, how to handle friendships, marriage, legal situations, a little bit of everything. Look at 25:17. Very interesting. Says:

“…Hold your foot from your neighbor's house, lest he be disgusted with you and hate you.”

Sometimes we have to ask ourselves the question if I am too clingy a friend. But I love with a good heart, but it's too much of you, a little less of you. There are nice principles in that, that human relationships to be intimate with people sometimes also require a little space, air, oxygen, air for you to breathe. Sometimes in marital conflicts when you feel… sometimes give a little space and let the person breathe a little and then they will value you a little more, they will remember that they love you, when they miss you. Wisdom. Principles of wisdom.

I don't want to be too creative but there it is. One more. There are so many more of these. Proverbs 11:15.

"... Anxiety afflicts the one who is a guarantor for a stranger, the one who hates the guarantees will live safe."

Financial arrangements, when one commits too quickly to a person or situation in which one would not have committed. I remember one day, my wife and I, I don't know if any of you have tried that on vacation, there are hotels that sell what are called time shares, and if you submit to a sales presentation they give you a free hotel night . Well, we like free stuff, that's fine. So we suffered with a presentation from them and the free night.

One day we were there at the presentation trying to sell us the hotel, if someone has a time share I'm not saying that this is bad, it occurred to me, but they were selling us and you know that salespeople can be very good, they know how to make you feel that you you die without it. you have to do that, so they were there selling and we were listening, how interesting, and they write the numbers. Wow, if I buy it I will earn money, how interesting. Did you know? One can write with numbers and lie with numbers, I don't know how they do it but it is done.

They were there and we, how interesting, later we decided not to buy, but we left after a long time. The first thing my dad told me, my dad is not yet a man of the church, although I have a lot of faith, but he is a wise man, a good man, a lot of wisdom and we went out and he said, the first thing he said to us, "You didn't sign anything, did you?” You didn't sign anything, did you? Because he, even though he is a non-believer, knows that anxiety afflicts the person who is the guarantor of a stranger and the one who hates the guarantee lives in safety. That a quick deal is a hoax sometimes. If something sounds too good to be true it probably is not true. If something sounds too good to be true, it most likely isn't. Don't commit easily, take your time. If someone is pushing you too fast to make a decision, it means they don't want you to know what you're committing to. Principles, principles, principles of wisdom.

Because we live in a dangerous world with foolishness around us, with a devil who wants to complicate our lives and now more than ever the people of God have to be wise, cunning as snakes, innocent as a dove to know how to navigate life's situations.

Have you ever taken the time to ask God for wisdom for your work, for your marriage, for raising a child, dealing with a legal or health situation in the family? God knows the answers. He knows everything. He is the wisest being in the universe and the Bible proves it. He knows everything about finances. He knows everything about marriage.

You know that there is a book in the Bible that deals with sex. You know that? Forgive me, I don't want to say anything bad. The book of Songs talks about sex in the context of marriage between a man and a woman, about how something healthy, something good, God wants something good in it. the world has upset it and changed it because it is a gift from God and the devil wants to lower it, but God wants to be Lord of our lives in the sexual area. He wants to be Lord of our lives in the financial area, in the area of work, with our children, at school, in everything we do, we can say, Jesus, you are Lord and you are going to guide me in what I am going to do. to do.

If we are willing to listen God is more than willing to teach you. We enroll in the best school in the universe. God is once again my personal tutor and every life situation becomes an opportunity to learn from him and it is a conversation, a constant dialogue.

You know, any experience, a problem, especially a failure, I can complain and blame others or I can say, Lord, what can I learn from this? And the Lord says, "Now we're good." What are we going to learn from that? a problem instead of saying why, why, why, why. Lord, what do you want to teach me with this? And God begins to teach and speak to you.

Jesus said, in the book of John 14:26, he said, I have more to tell you, but you can't take it right now, but the comforter, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and will remind you of all that I have told you. The Holy Spirit speaks to you, speaks to you, and every situation becomes a teachable moment.

I want to tell a testimony. I was at school studying, at the university, and I had an assignment to do, an essay that I had to write, it was something very hard for an evil teacher, who liked to give people bad grades. And a knock on the door, “Gregory, prayer night tonight. Do you want to come pray with us?” Now I had a decision to make, what am I going to do? The Bible doesn't always tell you what to do in situations like this. Sometimes when this happened to me, I told them, well, I can't pray tonight because God also wants me to study. But I took a moment to pray, he says, Lord, what do you want me to do right now? And I felt the Lord say to me, "I want you to take a risk with me right now and go pray and then do your homework."

Okay, this time I'm going to jump. I'm going to do something half crazy but I think it has wisdom from you, honor God with your goods, with the first fruits of your presses. So I tried that, I prayed, I sat at the computer, it was already 11:00, I, oh, oh, what's going to happen to me? I started slow, slow, slow, at 1:00, 2:00 in the morning and that was an essay that had nothing to do with Christianity, it had to do with the history of the English empire I don't know what. It had nothing to do with anything, it was something like that.

But already at 1:00, at 2:00 in the morning, as if the heavens had opened, I began to understand what was happening in England in the year 1688 in this situation that I had to study and I began to write. It makes sense, God is giving me wisdom. I said, Lord, you were there, explain to me what happened. And writing, writing, and this evil teacher, maybe a good man, I don't know, but a tough teacher, who we hated for being evil, gave me my only A+ and I knew… wow, but look God knows the story of England in the fifteenth century. How does God know about that? Young people, students, does God know about math? Does God know about that?

Languages, God knows English. Does he know how to speak English or only Hebrew and Spanish, as we believe here? maybe he can teach English, Spanish, maybe God can teach you what to do. Ask him for wisdom. God opens the heavens, he says, "I want to explain it to you." If I have that attitude, whatever book I read, I am reading it, evaluating it according to God's principles, I never believe everything in a book, but I evaluate but God teaches me, poetry book, psychology book, science book, I don't know what, God is going to speak to me if I read critically, thinking about God's word, seeking God's wisdom, God is going to give me, Most of all, I have found that God speaks to me through the advice of people you knew in my life

There is another proverb that says he who walks with the wise will be wise. Show me who you're with and I'll tell you who you are. Wisdom sticks. I choose wise friends and mentors. And I want to learn from them. At this time in my life I am especially looking for wise parents because I need wisdom to raise children. So if I see a father that I think, wow, that man takes good care of his children, I stick with him, I observe and try to learn from him, because I know he has something to teach me.

As a pastor, I look at my mentor, Pastor Roberto and others who are here, and I look at them and at first I imitated them, what would Roberto do? And then I try to be like him and I don't fool anyone, but at least I learn principles, wise people, especially people older than you. The Bible says in proverbs that gray hair is a crown. People of legal age, grandparents, granny, people who have already lived, who have already made their mistakes and their problems and have learned what to do and what not to do, why make the same mistakes, we can learn from them. Wisdom.

If we are willing to listen, God is willing to speak to us. I want to be like this. And I thank God because I feel that this church is a church that loves wisdom. I feel that. and I know that some of us can be somewhat critical of our brother, and say, but wise guy? What church are you in? But not. I feel in this church that there is a love for wisdom, there is a hunger.

When we give a class, the class fills up in 5 minutes, there are not enough classes for the desire and hunger that there is. Today there are 60 people upstairs finishing a journey of the Holy Spirit. There is a hunger and thirst for wisdom, wise people, people who want to learn from God, that we be like this, that we be people who say, Lord, if I am going to look for one thing in this world, I am going to look first for the Kingdom of God and your justice. and I will seek from you wisdom for practical life.

In every life situation I will walk with you and you will show me the way, because you are the God of solutions. Some of us are experiencing problems, problems that we seek perhaps because of mistakes we made in the past. There is a beautiful song that says, “Yesterday is over, I need you today. Today is the day of salvation, today is the day of the new beginning." You can, I can start this today, I can't control what I did yesterday, this is over, but today God wants to speak to me. He is going to teach me how to deal with this situation and I am going to know what comes from him and we are going to see the fruit that he bears. Amen.

I invite the musicians and we are going to begin to ask God for that and I invite each one this week to look for a life situation, when you take a moment and remember to look for the God of wisdom to speak to you and The heavens are going to open and solutions are going to come to you. Amen.

Let's stand up and pray together. Oh my Father, I thank you that you are the God of solutions. Thank you, Lord, that no one can reach your understanding, Lord. Thank you, Father, that you made, Lord, all creation with wisdom and you know what we have to do and how we have to live. Father, I ask that you give your people an insight, a discernment to see the deceits of the world around us, to observe the lies around us and that we can listen to the voice of wisdom and submit to it and observe, Lord, what What are you going to do. I ask you, my God, for teachable hearts, Father, that we be good students of you, that we learn from you and from others around you and that you walk us on a path of success. I ask that this be from you and be real and palpable, I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.