Living Wisely in a Complicated, Unfair World

God loves me. God is in control. I don't understand why this is happening. You're gonna have to come to grips with those three statements and realize that all three are true. God loves me. He wants the best for me. God is in control. None of this came into my life without his knowledge. Nothing came through the back door and kind of snuck in unaware. It's not the way it works. God is sovereign and I still don't understand what he's up to. [00:46:05] (37 seconds)  #SovereignLove

Well what what in the world does this tell us? Well Solomon is actually opening a door for the gospel here. You see every other religion other than Christianity says that the way to get to God is to try harder, to do better, to be righteous enough to get to God. And Solomon is leaning us toward, he's pulling us toward the truth that our righteousness is not something we cook up on our own, it's not something we perform, it is something that is granted to us as a gift of God's grace. [00:52:43] (32 seconds)  #GraceNotWorks

life is a lot more like an essay test than a math test Because what we want to think is that if I just had the right formula, I'd always get the right outcome. If I just do the right things, then good things will happen to me. But what about the person who seeks to live for Jesus, who seeks to do the right things and the doctor says you have cancer? Sometimes the formulas don't answer every question in life. Life sometimes is just really, really complicated. [00:35:41] (38 seconds)  #LifeIsAnEssay

Here's what he's saying very practically, don't panic when someone criticizes you because they only know the half of it. The truth is if they knew everything about you, they they wouldn't just criticize you, they'd be apoplectic. I mean, you can work look that word up. But don't don't panic over criticism because you know the truth. They're criticizing you for something you did wrong. You know you did it wrong. You know you've done other things wrong. He says the truth is if you hear your servant cursing you, you've done the same thing to others. Don't panic over criticism. [00:53:58] (36 seconds)  #DontPanicOverCriticism

But one wise woman saved a city. And what Solomon is saying is that with wisdom you can save your life and wisdom about yourself. And here's the first thing you need to understand about yourself. You are not morally superior to anyone else. You are not. There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins. Nobody's perfect. We love that expression. We say that a lot. We usually say it when we make a mistake, not when somebody else does. [00:50:25] (38 seconds)  #WisdomOverPride

We use nobody's perfect as an excuse But when the bible says that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, when the bible says no one is righteous, not even one, it's not an excuse, it's an indictment against all of us. And what Solomon is saying is that be self aware, add some humility to your life because even if you are a follower of Jesus, you are not morally superior to anyone else. We love to compare ourselves to others when it comes to spiritual things. Well, I might be bad but at least I'm not as bad as you. We love to do that stuff. [00:51:04] (42 seconds)  #HumbleAndSelfAware

None of us are deserving of God's grace. None of us can earn a place in heaven someday. It is a total gift of God's grace because we are all sinners. Well practically what does that mean? I think practically that's what Solomon gets to in verse 21. Don't pay attention to everything people say or you might hear your servant cursing you for in your heart you know many times you yourself have cursed others. [00:53:30] (28 seconds)  #GraceNotEarned

What Solomon is saying to us is something that some of us have got to grasp onto. It will help you in life if you will come to grips with this three word statement. If you're a note taker, you should write these three words down. I'm going to tell you that this will save you from a lot of disheartenment, a lot of disappointment, a lot of disillusionment in life. These three words will help you. Here they are. Life's not fair. It's not. [00:40:26] (29 seconds)  #LifesNotFair

I mean he is he he is moving in ways that I cannot see and what he allows is for a purpose and I don't always understand it but I know that he loves me and I know that he's sovereign and in control. So what's the bottom line? Well Solomon says this, and I verse 26, and I find more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her. [00:58:35] (38 seconds)  #SinIsATrap

Solomon says this, he says while you can't understand everything that's going on you need to always keep in mind that sin is seductive and destructive. Now when he uses the image in that verse of the woman who is a trap, trust me there are men who are traps too. But he's using an image that he actually draws from Proverbs chapter three when he was advising his son not to go to the house of the adulterous woman. [00:59:12] (30 seconds)  #BewareSeduction

Some of you are very sensitive to criticism. Most of it none of nobody likes to be criticized, but some of are very sensitive to criticism. I want to give you a piece of advice. You don't have to accept criticism from anyone that you wouldn't accept advice from. If you wouldn't trust them for advice, you don't have to take their criticism. Just smile at them, thank them, go on. I've been criticized my entire ministry. Preachers just get that. I mean, it's just part of the deal. [00:54:41] (28 seconds)  #ChooseYourCritics

Scientists tell us that upwards of 95% of the universe is what they call dark matter. Now the Marvel series of movies took that concept of dark matter and made it sound sinister and evil. Actually dark just means shrouded, they just don't know what it is. And they're admitting that about 95% of the universe, they they don't have any clue what it is. They just call it dark matter and and it's sort of theoretical and they just don't understand it. [00:57:29] (33 seconds)  #MysteryOfDarkMatter

I don't know why that horrible thing happened to you and you may not ever figure it out in this life. You might not. Now maybe someday you there's this unveiling, this the curtains pull back and go, oh, that's why that happened. But a lot of times you don't. Solomon says what exists, it's just a it's a mystery, it's it's beyond reach, it's very deep. [00:57:04] (24 seconds)  #SomeThingsRemainMysteries

What are you doing? Destroying the Lord's inheritance. And she's talking about the the children in the next generations that are there. Why would you do this? Why would you kill mothers with unborn children? Why why would you kill the women of the city who are not warriors? And I think she talked to him like my grandma would talk to me. I think she put his finger, her finger in his face and just said hey, why are you doing this? [00:49:32] (22 seconds)  #ProtectTheInnocent

and there was a civil war in Israel and David's forces won so he gets back on the throne. But immediately after that there's a little lesser known story about a man named Sheba. And Sheba also rebelled against David and he tried to take the throne. Well David looks at the commander of his army Joab and he says Joab this guy Sheba will do more damage to us than even Absalom did if we don't get on this right now. And so he sends Joab and the army out and they catch the guy in this city. [00:48:32] (32 seconds)  #ShebaRebellion

And Joab says, you know what, you're right. And she said, if you won't do this, we'll take care of it. And he says, okay, I'll let you take care of it. I'll give you a little time. And in a few hours, something flew over the wall of the city. It turns out it was Sheba's head. [00:49:54] (16 seconds)  #RebellionEnds

What is he trying to tell us in this part of the passage? He's saying that being wise, being understanding about the way life works is better than having 10 warriors in a city. There's a story in the old testament, from the life of king David who was the king of Israel. There's a point in David's life when he went through a really horrible season. It was later in his life. His son Absalom rebelled against him, tried to take over the throne, was gonna kill his father, [00:47:59] (33 seconds)  #WisdomBeatsForce

Joab says, well David says this guy's gonna do more damage to us than even Absalom did and that was pretty devastating. So what I'm gonna do is to make sure I get him and I get his followers, we're gonna wipe out this whole town. We're gonna kill every man, woman, and child in this town. And this one woman comes out and she has she says Joab, I wanna talk to you. [00:49:09] (23 seconds)  #OneWomanSpeaks