The Way of Wisdom- June 28, 2026

Big Sky Christian Fellowship Summer Series from Proverbs

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

This evening we do begin a new series called The Way of Wisdom. For the next seven weeks, we will be in the book of Proverbs. And if you look at the very end of your outline, there's a little challenge at the end there that says to read five Proverbs. What it meant to say was uh read five chapters of Proverbs each week uh for this series, and you will get through all 31 chapters. And I even gave you some days off, right? So if you if you do the math seven weeks, you got four weeks, four, four days extra. So you should be all right. All right. So uh 31 days, you'll take some days off. That's okay. Uh, but my challenge to you for this summer is become more wise by reading through Proverbs as a church. So take on that challenge uh throughout our time together. Tonight we will be in Proverbs chapter nine. Proverbs chapter nine. It says this. Wisdom has built her house, she has set up its seven pillars, she has prepared her meat and mixed her wine, she has also set out her table. She has sent out her servants and she calls from the highest point of the city. Let all who are simple come to my house. To those who have no sense, she says, Come, eat my food, and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and you will live. Walk in the way of insight. Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults. Whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse. Do not rebuke mockers, or they will hate you. Rebuke the wise, and they will love you. Instruct the wise, and they will be wiser still. Teach the righteous and they will add to their learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you. If you are a mocker, you alone will suffer. Folly is an unruly woman. She is simple and knows nothing. She sits at the house of her door on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way. Let all who are simple come to my house, to those who have no sense, she says, stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is delicious. But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead. It's as far as we'll read this evening. There is an outline in your bulletin. Last night I got the chance to go down to our school and to watch an incredible play uh and musical called Matilda. And it was absolutely phenomenal. All of the local kiddos uh do this thing every summer called Big Sky Broadway, and it culminated this past weekend uh in this musical called Matilda. And so we all gathered in there and we got to watch this amazing play written by Ronald Dahl, the guy same, you know, James and Giant Peach. You remember some of these stories from when you were young, and they were telling the story of Matilda. And Matilda's a super interesting story because Matilda, she's this, she's this little girl, this sweet little girl who loves her books. She loves wisdom and she loves knowledge and she loves reading. She she can even speak a little bit of Russian, we found out. She is wise beyond her years, and yet she is being raised by these unruly parents. These parents who sing songs about being loud and proud. In fact, they picked on us in the audience about watching TV, and they said we should watch more TV. And the bigger the television was, the smarter the man was. In fact, they sang a whole song about the bigger the TV, the smarter the man throwing the books away and living in these foolish and unruly ways, living selfish and greedy lives. And what was so striking last night was that there were two stories being told within one story. One story of this loving teacher who cared about Matilda, who was gentle and kind and cared for her and wanted her to learn and grow and mature into who she was meant to be. And then these unruly parents who just wanted things for themselves. They were selfish and greedy and didn't care about the books that Matilda had. And there were two, two pathways that were on display for all to see last night in the play. And I thought, I gotta, I gotta start out my sermon tomorrow with this. Because it's Matilda and plays like this that reveal to us something very simple in life, something that we are going to unpack throughout this series together. There's a metaphor, and the metaphor is simply this there are two ways to live in this life. There are two ways to live in this life. One way is the foolish way. We will see this throughout this series. There is a foolish way of living, and then on the other hand, is the wise way of living, the foolish way of living and the wise way of living. And so the big idea for this series is simple. The big idea for this series is simply this. We want to be a church, we want to be people, we want to be individuals who walk in the way of wisdom. We don't want to be foolish with the foolishness of the world. What we want to do is walk in the way of wisdom. And so the way we're going to do that is by looking at this book of Proverbs. What does Proverbs mean? Well, a proverb is simply this: a wise saying. A proverb is just a wise saying. There's all kinds of proverbs out there, especially in the meme age. You see proverbs all the time pop up on Instagram. Some of them are wise, some of them are foolish. I'll leave it up to you to figure out which is which throughout this series. But we are filled with Proverbs. And in this day and in this age, it was the same thing. What we have in the book of Proverbs is a collection of wise biblical sayings. Multiple writers within this text, multiple teachers within this text. One of the primary ones, we'll talk about him tonight, is King Solomon. King Solomon writes these first nine chapters of Proverbs and other pieces of Proverbs. And he is one of the main writers of this, also known as the writer of Ecclesiastes, although there's some debate around that, and connected to the Song of Solomon, these wise books of Scripture. And so we want to walk in the way of wisdom by looking at this book that is a book full of a collection, full of wise and biblical words for us today. And we want to choose the right pathway. So what I want to do today is simply, I want to set out, I want to set out sort of the table of what we're going to deal with this summer. I want to just set it all out for us so that we might know where we are headed. And I want to take this passage to describe these two ways that we are going to engage with throughout the summer. So the first pathway is the way of wisdom. The pathway number one is the way of wisdom. I'll read this whole passage. Wisdom has built her house. She has set up its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and her mixed wine. She's set out her table. She has sent out her servants. She calls from the highest point in the city. Let all those who are simple come to my house. Let those who have no sense, she says, Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and you will live. Walk in the way of insight. See, the way of wisdom is personified often in the book of Proverbs as a woman. As a woman, if you go back to Proverbs 1, it starts out that she is wisdom. And for those of you who are thinking, she is wisdom, and folly must be a man. No, she's also folly. So don't get ahead of yourself, right? But she is personified as wisdom. This beautiful, God-honoring, truth-telling, gracious woman who invites us to her feast. That's a picture that we're given in this passage of who this woman of wisdom is. It's this woman who's calling out from the highest point in the city. Come, come into my house, come and look, listen for the ways of insight. Come that you might live. This is the invitation to the way of wisdom. And throughout our time in Proverbs, we will hear her speak about the path, the way of wisdom in ways like this. Proverbs 3, 6 says this in all of your ways, submit to God, and he will make your path straight. Proverbs 3:17. Her wisdom's ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. Proverbs 4.11, I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. Proverbs 4, 18. The path of the righteous is like a morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. Proverbs 8, 20. I walk in the way of righteousness along the paths of justice. Proverbs 9, 6. Leave your simple ways and you will live. Walk in the way of insight. Proverbs 10, 29. The way of the Lord is a stronghold to those who have integrity, but destruction to the workers of evil. Proverbs 12, 28. In the way of righteous there is life. Along that path is immortality. Proverbs 15, 24. The path of life leads upward for the prudent, to keep them from going down to the realm of the dead. And finally, Proverbs 16, 17, the highway of the upright avoids evil. Those who guard their ways preserve their life. This is the way of wisdom. And if we personify wisdom and we think about this passage that Solomon is culminating here in chapter nine, he is saying that wisdom is calling to us, inviting us to feast on the words that I just read. To feast on the wisdom of God, the things that will bring us life, that will bring us joy, that will bring us peace, that will help us walk down this pathway toward Him. This is the way of wisdom. And it's more than just the way of wisdom, because wisdom herself, in this passage, verse six, says this leave your simple ways, and you will live, walk in the way of insight. So it's not just about being wise. What it's actually about is the wise saying is that the way of wisdom, it leads to life. What we're talking about throughout this series is no less than life and death. That is how Proverbs puts this before us. Wisdom not only just leads us to being wiser, no, true and biblical holy wisdom leads us to life, ultimate and true and pure and holy life. And that is the pathway that is set out for us by this first woman calling from the high point in the city. And I wish the passage just stopped there, don't you? I wish the passage just stopped bare there, but there's also a second pathway, is there not? There's a second pathway that is described in this passage as well. And what is it? It is the way of folly, the way of foolishness. Pathway number two is the way of folly. And folly in this passage is also personified as a woman, a temptress. So it says this folly is an unruly woman. She is simple and knows nothing. She sits at the door on her on her house, on the seat at the highest point in the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way. Let all who come, that let all who are simple come to my house. To those who have no sense, she says, stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is delicious, but little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are dead are deep in the realm of the dead. So the opposite side of what we're talking about is the way of folly. We've got the way of wisdom, which is personified of this beautiful woman who allows us truth and grace, and we feast upon all of the things that she's about to teach us in the book of Proverbs. And on the other hand, we're invited into another house. And that other house is a house of destruction. That other house is a house of lies. That other house is a house that might look good, but underneath the service, there's ultimately something evil within there. There's foolishness and folly to be found, and both are offering a feast. This one is offering a feast as well, a feast of stolen food, a feast of doing things in secret that no one knows about. And this is the pathway to folly. Proverbs describes this pathway of folly as well. Proverbs 115 says this, my son, do not go along with them, the wicked. Do not set foot on their path. Proverbs 4.14. Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of the evil doer. Proverbs 4.19. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not even know what makes them stumble. Proverbs 5, 21. For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all of your paths. Proverbs 7, 25. Do not let your heart turn toward her evil ways and stray into her paths. Proverbs 12, 15. The way of the fool seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. Proverbs 14, 12, there is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. Proverbs 14, 19. Evildoers will bow down in the presence of the good and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. Proverbs 16, 25. There is a way that appears to be right, but it once again ends up to lead to death. And Proverbs 22, 25. Or you may learn their ways, and you may get ensnared. You see, there are two ways of living: the way of life, the way of wisdom, and then the way of folly, which isn't just about being foolish. No, what Proverbs describes to us, it's not just folly, it's more than that. And this is the wise thing that goes along with that. The way of folly, it leads to death. If the way of wisdom leads to life, the way of folly leads to death. Verse 18 says this, but little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are dead in the realm, are deep in the realm of the dead. You are invited to a second party, a party of folly. And so I want this to stay simple for us this evening as we as we set out this pathway, as we set out this table to see what we're about to embark on throughout the summer, because there are two pathways, and you've been to them before, have you not? Like, have you ever been to a feast? Talk about this a couple weeks ago. A feast when it was like great conversation. Somebody opened in prayer, maybe they read some scripture. You talked about the deeper things that were going on in your life. You walked away and you were like, I am so full, not just of food and of drink, but I'm full of memories and laughter and fun and joy from that moment. Have you been to that party? We've all had a glimpse of this, have we not? If you haven't, you need to go to better parties, okay? Come over to my house on Saturday morning. We'll have some fun, okay? Right? These moments where we're invited into a feast that truly satisfies what we need. That is the first invitation. But the second invitation, we also know this. All right, I'm not gonna have you raise your hand on this, but you ever been to a really bad party? You ever been like a lot more yeses there? Okay, all right, all right. Reading through you've been parties where you're like, I shouldn't be here, right? You've been to parties where it's like what we're what's happening here is is like secretive and it doesn't seem life-giving, and it seems to be filled with regrets and pain and anguish, and maybe it's fun for a moment. Some of you are thinking about some college memories right now. Okay, all right, right? But you leave that party ultimately in what? You are unsatisfied. You are unsatisfied. It does not give what you are longing for. And church, you need to hear me well. This invitation is for us. This invitation is for us now and here. There is folly all around us, church. There is folly all around us. Not hard to find folly. We were in the Friday morning Bible study and they brought up a couple uh different books. Um, one of them was The Anxious Generation, The Anxious Generation, which is talking about the levels of depression and suicide and mental health disorders that are coming directly out of our technological bubble, coming directly out of kids handling phones and things that they shouldn't handle and they're not ready for in this life. Why? Because folly is at your doorstep. Folly is inviting you in to more folly. I'm gonna push on you a little bit. Like you, you better have some moments in this series where you're like, I'm foolish. That's foolish. The way I'm spending my time, that's foolish. Because we live in a world full of that, another one of my favorite books, amusing ourselves to death. We we live in a society and a culture that we just want to stuff all of these things within our soul, never being satisfied. So throughout this series, this is gonna get to you. So if you don't want to hear that, you might want to find another church for the next couple weeks, okay? All right, because that is the easy invitation, but there is a deeper invitation, a deeper invitation from God Himself to come, to come to the waters, the living waters, to come and eat and drink, and never be hungry and thirsty anymore. And there is a choice for you to make, and that's the question. That's the question. What path will you choose? What path will you choose? The way of wisdom or the way of folly, the way of life or the way of death? And it's even bigger than that question. You want to know why? Because, like a thousand years after Solomon, there's this guy that shows up, and he's this itinerant uh rabbi from this little insignificant town called Bethlehem. And his name's Jesus. And he starts having these people who follow him. And so he sits down with these followers of his, these people that he calls his disciples, and he starts talking to them in these amazing, wise words. He uses riddles and he uses stories just like some. Of the Proverbs. He sounds very familiar to some of the wisdom literature of that day, but there's something even more interesting about him. He comes with this authority that none of the other religious leaders have. And Jesus starts teaching and healing and being with the people. And then he starts saying things like this wide is the gate, and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. He continues when he says, Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock, while the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. When the storms of life came, only one house stood, the house of the man who built his house on a rock. And in the midst of these wise sayings, in the midst of them leaning in and asking, who is this man, this man who is filled with wisdom, filled with grace, filled with this truth? Could this be the incarnate, the incarnate man of wisdom? He invites them by saying this, I am the way and the truth and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. He invites you to a feast as well. Jesus in Matthew 22 paints this picture of the feast of the Lamb. And in Revelation 19, we know that the end of all things will culminate at the wedding feast where we feast upon the wisdom of Christ. So which will you choose? Wisdom or folly? I'll end with this: a hidden gem. We like bonuses. Okay, bonus. The hidden gem is the fear of the Lord. I don't have a lot of time to go into this, but this is fun and it's Hebrew and it's cool and it's nerdy, okay? Chad talked about this a couple weeks ago when he was talking uh through one of the passages in our last series. I highly encourage you to go check that out. Um, but one of the Hebrew poetic devices that's used in scripture is something called a chiasm. A chiasm. It's like a way that they write so that you notice something. It's like a hidden trinket in the middle. And so, in the midst of reading this, we recognize that it's a chiasm because at the beginning it talks about wisdom and this woman who invites us into this feast. And at the end, it talks about uh folly and how she invites us into the feast. And then you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's important. So, what's in the middle and in the middle? In verse 10, it says this the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Come back next week, we'll talk about that. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are the source of all wisdom, all truth, all beauty, all grace, that you are the true source, the true light, that in you all things are held together. Jesus Christ, we lift you high. We desire to seek after the wisdom that only you have. We desire to feast on the things that only you have. God, would you throughout this series shape our lives to be wise, to put away the foolishness of the world, that we might hear your voice and passionately follow your way. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.