June 7, 2026 Service - "Lessons from a Shepherd's Heart" Week 1

And so maybe the question that we ought to ask ourselves this morning is this, is what wisdom am I actually taking to heart? An evaluation of the wisdom and the words and the way in which you live and what you receive and take in. What wisdom are you taking in? Because the reality is that all of us are taking something in. We are all listening to someone or something. We're all listening to podcasts or books or different talking heads. We're all being formed by something. [00:47:10] (38 seconds)  #ChooseWisdomDaily

If this is true, if God's is wisdom from on high and not just mere human knowledge or mere human experience that we've learned, the stove is hot, therefore, I don't touch it. If it's just mere human knowledge, but the wisdom from heaven, it brings us the very life of God in us. It reveals this full and complete life that is for you and for me if we will tap into the source of life. If that is true, then I think the opposite must also be true. That the world's wisdom, the way of the world, what seems wise in the world's eyes, brings the dramatic opposite, and it leads us to death, not to life. [00:41:37] (61 seconds)  #WisdomBringsLife

And so are you allowing the wisdom of the world to take root or the wisdom of God? Are you allowing the word and the way of the world to take root or the way and the word of God to grow within? Are you rehashing the messages of culture and receiving it, or are you taking in the promises of Christ? Because whatever we repeatedly take in eventually takes hold of us, and it leads us, which takes us to a second idea from this passage. [00:48:33] (35 seconds)  #RootedInGodsWord

Seems as though the wisdom writer is understanding the depth of our heart and the need for a heart transplant. We find that hearts that are filled with bitterness eventually produce the fruit of bitterness. Hearts that are consumed by fear eventually produce fearful kind of living. A heart captivated by selfishness eventually is producing selfish actions, but a heart instead that is surrendered to God begins to produce what we call in the church the fruit of the spirit. Love and joy and peace, patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self control. See, the fruit of our lives reveal the root of our heart. [00:54:13] (55 seconds)  #FruitRevealsHeart

And maybe it's the constant message that our worth is determined by our success or what we can do or what we can produce. Maybe it's a voice of fear that tells you everything is falling apart. Maybe it's wounds of a harsh word spoken that is echoing and rattling in your heart and in your mind. See, the wisdom writer seems to understand that words have a way of sinking down into us. They don't simply pass through our minds, but they settle into our hearts and they become the sediment of our souls. What we receive and what we cling to and what we store in our souls becomes the sediment that's there. [00:47:48] (46 seconds)  #WordsSinkInDeep

And we live in a world with lots of voices. Maybe noise is the better word actually, that white static, know. We live in this world with lots of noise, and social media offers everyone's wisdom and everyone's ideas. The news and channel cable news offers us all sorts of wisdom and all sorts of ideas, and we have friends who often speak into our lives, and they're offering wisdom and all sorts of ideas, and our culture is offering wisdom and all sorts of ideas. And we find that some of those voices are really not so helpful. Some of those voices are really not so wise. Some of those voices leave us feeling anxious and fearful or bitter or angry or exhausted. And we find that the words that we repeatedly listen to eventually shape the lives that we live. [00:43:44] (66 seconds)  #FilterTheNoise

You see, this father is passing along this wisdom, this godly wisdom to his son saying that the state and the direction and the contents of our heart that it directs and it determines our steps. Why is the world so terrible all the time and everything is awful? Well, have you looked at your heart recently? You know, because there are some good things, Samwise Gallengee says, in this world, and they're worth fighting for. There are good glimpses of God's activity. Don't you see it? No. Check your heart, man. Why does this never work? Why this? Why that? Maybe we need to check the contents of our soul. We find that this heart is the innermost part of a person, and that what is in here will flow outward, and it will show what is inside truly. [00:51:22] (62 seconds)  #HeartDirectsYourSteps

We find Proverbs chapter four that the wisdom writer gives something more than mere human wisdom. The wisdom writer of Proverbs chapter four gives far more than just some good advice. What we're finding and what we're reading is the wisdom writer is giving godly wisdom to a young man's heart and life, and we observe a couple of lessons. And the first is this, is that the words that we take to heart, they can either heal us or they can harm us. The words that we take to heart can either harm us or they can heal [00:36:42] (47 seconds)  #WordsHealOrHurt