Pastor Podcast - Proverbs 2 - The Path To Wisdom

Wisdom doesn’t arrive by accident, and it rarely comes in a neat, distraction-free package. We sit down with Mitch Poe to keep digging into Proverbs 2 and the “path to wisdom” Solomon presses on his son. With Pastor Mark still on vacation, we take the chance to rewind Sunday’s message and talk through what it looks like to pursue God with diligence and depth, not just curiosity. 

We explore why the fear of the Lord is the foundation, and why knowledge alone can’t carry the weight of real Christian discipleship. Solomon’s story proves you can be informed and still drift, which is exactly why Proverbs starts with relationship before it ever gets to the pithy one-liners. We also connect the Old Testament’s purpose to our daily lives: these stories are written down so we can learn from them, avoid repeat mistakes, and grow in humility. 

Then we get practical about spiritual growth in a screen-saturated culture. The path can be dark and crooked, with roots and obstacles you can’t see until you’re close, and distraction is one of the enemy’s favorite tools. We talk about protecting time with God’s Word, why “seek it like hidden treasure” means sustained effort, and simple next steps for anyone unsure where to begin (John, Romans, and James). If you’re working the Proverbs reading challenge, this will help you keep going with purpose. 

Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who needs clarity, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s one habit that helps you stay focused with God’s Word?

New episodes every Monday
www.lifehousemot.com
info@lifehousede.com

Join us Sundays at 9 & 11 AM

Intro music by Joey Blair

Transcript

Welcome And Proverbs 2 Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Well, hey, Lifehouse family. Welcome back to our weekly time where we just take a time out, go back, rewind the the uh recording a little bit, and think a little more deeply about our Sunday sermon. Pastor Mark continues to enjoy some vacation. He'll be back next week, so we'll be back on video. Stay tuned for that. But until then, I am joined by Mitch Poe, who brought the word for us yesterday on Proverbs chapter two. So we're going to talk a little bit deeper, dig in, try to, you said, you know, diligence and depth. So we want to be diligent and keeping going deeper with exploring the scripture today. And we are in the series of Proverbs last week. Hopefully you tuned in to Oscar's follow-up take where we explored just some extra Hebrew and some thoughts on the passage. But today we're going to continue forward in Proverbs 2. And so, Mitch, I thought, you know, especially yesterday was the path to wisdom. So we're looking at, you know, we gotta have the foundation of the why, but what does this path look like? Like where are we going? So any general thoughts, you know, as you studied, especially deeply into Proverbs 2 before we kind of walk through the points.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Thanks for having me, and thanks for the opportunity to expound a little bit further on yesterday's sermon. Yeah, I when I was looking at this, when I was really studying it over, Mark probably asked me this to preach on this maybe five, six weeks ago. So that's about my window of opportunity to really dig into it. And I do most of my study, as I kind of mentioned yesterday in the sermon, early in the morning, and I was reading through this, and this is a great tidbit for viewers. One of the things that I always try to do whenever I'm teaching or preaching, or even just studying a passage of scripture, is obviously really internalizing it and getting it almost into your soul so you can. I mean, I got to the point where, I mean, no joke, I probably read or listened to Proverbs chapter two almost a hundred times. I mean, I got to the point where I could almost have it memorized. But the reason I do that, and I would encourage listeners to do that, you don't have to do it a hundred times, but get it internalized because when you zoom out and you start to hear it over and over and over again or listen to it, you start to see kind

Internalizing Scripture Through Repetition

SPEAKER_00 2:25

of the points or the pattern. Or in my case, it was kind of how my outline broke yesterday for the re-overall sermon. And then I started looking at it, and I came up with a title a couple weeks ago, The Path to Wisdom. And the word path, as I mentioned yesterday, is mentioned multiple times throughout the book of Proverbs. And there's this concentration of it really in chapter two, arguably in one through nine, where Solomon is talking to his son. The phrase my son is in there a lot, the phrase my path or path or paths are in there a lot. But when you combine the two, you get this overall arching, kind of zoomed out message that probably when you kind of think about the book of Proverbs. I don't know about you, but when I think about the book of Proverbs, I think about these short, pithy, you know, one, two, three liners that are just full of wisdom. And that really starts in chapter 10. And there's some of that in one through nine, but when you zoom out, you get the overall context. And this is really kind of how I came up with the title. And that path to wisdom is Solomon almost screaming at his son to recognize the value of wisdom, to gain it. And then he tells him what wisdom is, starting really in chapter 10. So, and I think there's an implicit message there for each one of us that God is not just trying to impart all this wisdom, i.e., chapters 10 through 31, but he wants to get our attention first. So Solomon didn't start with a bunch of rules, if you will, he started with relationship and the relationship that he was having with his son, and by extension us, but more importantly, the relationship we have with our father, God himself. And God's trying to get our attention through those first nine chapters, I believe, in building this relationship with us, saying, You are my child, listen to me, you know, look to me for wisdom. And that's really, I think, the thrust of the book, and what I really kind of in a I've studied Proverbs before, but never, you know, to the point where I was preaching a particular message on it. So I really kind of dove into that. And and and sometimes you dive deep and then you zoom out. And the combination of those two, you see patterns and you see things that you've never seen before. And that's the beauty of God's word. I I mentioned yesterday a couple times that part of our responsibility and really knowing the Lord and understanding that path of wisdom and also who to avoid, who you're following, is understanding scripture, getting it so deeply into your, into your psyche, into your DNA, as I referenced yesterday, that when you're positioned or something presents itself in the world, you're using that filter of God's word to then decide whether or not it it's it's squared with the with the with the word of God. And if it isn't, then you know what to avoid. You know how to really avoid that disaster before kind of learning from experience and going through those things. So I don't know. For me, I I I loved it. I I had a great time yesterday preaching this. I was telling my wife earlier in the week, she was saying, Are you ready? I said, I'm I'm more than ready. I almost couldn't wait to deliver it because I I knew I had a message from the Lord, I had done my homework, I'd I'd study this through, and God spoke to me. And that's where it really starts first. And you you've done this, Nate. You preach first, you're preaching to yourself. Yep. You know, I got one finger pointing at everybody out there, but I got three pointing back at me. And it's so true because I learned a lot about this particular, not just about the content, but about how do you apply the content to Mitch Poe's life, and how do we more corporately apply that across the the Church of Life House? So long answer to a short question. No, that's a good good answer.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

And one of the things, a good analogy, like you said, the fingers. Yeah. Really, when we preach, and you know, for the listeners, just so you don't think, you know, we're because we stand on on the stage, it doesn't mean we're holier than thou or have it all figured out. If anything, you know, it's like, hey, there's a mirror back there, and you're just 100%, you know, God's word is talking to us, and you get to listen and prayerfully get to learn because we've had the blessing of studying God's word. And yeah, you know, if

Solomon’s Books And Wisdom’s Framework

SPEAKER_02 6:05

I ever am speaking on something, I'm gonna read it every day until you know you bring a word because it will continue to deepen, it will continue to speak to you and and bring a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Well, you and I we we've taught two classes here at the church called How to Study the Bible. Yes. The first one we taught was last year, and if you remember, we used the book of Ephesians, which happens to be my favorite book of the Bible. And then last year, this year, we used the book of Ecclesiastes, which I know is your favorite book of the Bible. Both of them start with ease for some kind of a weird reason. I was just thinking, yeah. But but you know, when you go through and you start to look at how you know scripture is outlined, how it's organized, it's it's just fascinating to me to be able to put these details together. And one of the things I mentioned yesterday was, you know, Solomon wrote three books of the Bible. We're looking at Proverbs, which is kind of his classic. That's where every that's a go-to. And I get it. I mean, because there's so much wisdom in there. Don't ignore Solomon and Solomon. Song of Solomon teaches us how to love. And then Ecclesiastes, your favorite book. And I've starting to really learn and love it since uh you and I taught that class earlier this year. Is it's he wrote this in his as a as an old guy, kind of like me, looking back at his life retrospectively, and what can he learn? And he learned it. He pursued everything. He had he had riches, he had women, he had everything. And at the end of his life, he said, All is vanity. Fear God and keep his commandments. And that was like his that was his thesis statement and really the book of Ecclesiastes. So I don't know. I love you know, kind of looking at that, and I think it's a very, very unique perspective that we gain as readers of the Bible in seeing three different books written by the same man, the wisest man on earth, in three different contexts. And then when you get into the book of Proverbs, which is a centerpiece, and then you kind of understand how that is outlined and what the first nine chapters are all about, and then what the last part of it's about. I think it's just a really fascinating story. One other side note, I did not mention this yesterday. My first run through on my sermon when I was practicing was over 65 minutes. And I was like, I gotta cut some stuff. Mark will never ask me back if I'm going 65 minutes. So I think 11 o'clock would have been coming in, and we're not doing that pretty much nine o'clock. So I cut a couple things. One of the things I I intentionally left out yesterday was really in part of my introduction. If you remember, Solomon wrote, uh I mentioned he most of the book of Proverbs is attributed to him. The first 24-ish, 25 chapters are directly written by Proverb by uh Solomon. There's about five chapters, starting about 24 to 29, roughly, that were attributed to Solomon, but they were written by them, it's called the Men of Hezekiah, about 300 years later, which is kind of interesting. So they're attributed to Solomon. And then, but there's two chapters in the book he did not write. It's 30 and 31. And 30 was written by a guy named Agor, and then 31 was written by King Lemuel. And it's interesting because chapter 31 is the classic chapter on what? The wife. What is an excellent wife? And what did Solomon struggle with? He had a thousand of them. So he clearly wasn't doing what God wanted him to do. And if you read Deuteronomy 17, which is God's instructions for kings, and and the nation of Israel weren't even close to having kings at Deuteronomy. They still had Joshua to go, they had Judges to go, Samuel's, and then eventually they got into the kings. Actually, Saul was named in the kings, I think around 1 Samuel chapter 9, something like that. But there are several books and several years of history that went by before a king was ever established in Saul being the first king. But but God gave the instructions for what a king should be back in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 17. And there's really three things he said not to do. One, don't be rich. Number two, don't have a lot of horses. And then number three, ironically, he said, don't have many wives. And Solomon almost instinctively did the opposite of all three of those. Now his riches were given to him by God because he asked for wisdom. So I don't I don't necessarily count that against him, although I think he lived a little bit of excessive, and I think the the number of wives and concubines he had in that sphere of his life is probably you know indicative of other spheres of his life. He probably lived in excess. So but I thought I just thought it was interesting, and I didn't mention this yesterday, is the one chapter dealing with the virtuous wife, Solomon, the wise man did not write. I just thought that was you know kind of kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

Well, and I think some of the things you're talking about too that bring out an important point is why wisdom starts with the fear of the Lord, because it's not just head knowledge. You know, Solomon's life shows that you can know a lot, but if the fear of the Lord is not that daily

When Knowledge Outruns Obedience

SPEAKER_02 10:30

posture that you have, the humility, the desire to live according to God's wisdom, just knowing's not going to do anything. We know that with the gospel. Just knowing who Jesus is doesn't save you. It's that heart posture. So I think that's why that's the start and why the first nine chapters, like you're saying, are so important of getting the getting the why correct. You know, if all you did was read 10 to 31, I think I mentioned this last week when Oscar and I were talking, you know, a book that had impacted me many years ago by Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Great book, gives you a lot of tools, but I'm like, if you don't value people, if you're just trying to influence people or get friends rather than why am I doing this, all you're doing is manipulating them. You know, so if you're trying to get the wisdom of God without God so that you can be successful, that's not where to be. So we always have to have that priority and why these first nine chapters are super critical. And I think, like you brought out yesterday, you know, we don't know exactly, you know, timing and everything, but I think you laid out well, you know, Song of Solomon, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Solomon's figuring a lot of this out, and he's begging his son, like, you got to get this right, you know, like this is what you need to know. And so often, unfortunately, and I was saying before we jumped on the mics, like, you know, learn from other people's mistakes. This is why Christian community and our stories are so important, because I don't have enough time in my life to make all the mistakes. I used to say that in football officiating. We watched all kinds of film of other people's mistakes so that we could be better and not make the same mistakes. You know, something that was super critical because if you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it. So I think this emphasis on getting that right bears repeating. Like we kind of almost kind of constantly have to come back to that. Otherwise, when we start to live wisely and we start to see some of the success, we can get a little bit prideful and kind of lose the why.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah. And I think what's interesting about the Old Testament, the New Testament in two different places tells us in part the reason we have the Old Testament is to live is to learn from those examples. Exactly what you just mentioned.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Things were written down for our instruction. For our instruction. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

I think it's in 2 Corinthians and Romans. I can't remember the references off the top of my head. I think it's Romans 15. But twice in the New Testament, it references back to says the Old Testament was written for our edification, for our learning, and they were written as examples to us. And if you read Hebrews 11, which is the called the Hall of Faith, kind of like the Football Hall of Fame, this is the Hall of Faith. There's, I think, 18 characters that are listed in there. Almost all of them had some kind of an issue with their life, you know, if you read through it, except for probably Joseph. He's the arguably the only other than I think he had a little pride with his, you know, when he was 17, showing a coat of many colors. But other than that, he lived a pretty impeccable life by by at least biblical standards. But almost everybody else that's that's talked about in that Hall of Fame had some issues. David mentioned there, you know, and if you just look at who we talked about yesterday, Solomon, he had his issues, didn't live a perfect life by any stretch of imagination. And having a thousand wives or 700 wives, 300 concubines, doesn't endorse polygamy. A lot of people look at that and some people struggle with that, and they're thinking, well, how did God allow that? Well, I guess the good news is got you know, God still deals with broke, God still uses broken vessels. All of us sin every single day. We all struggle with different stuff, and God can use us kind of in spite of ourselves sometimes. And I think it's that's indicative of what he did with Solomon. David, I preached the last year on the sin David had with Bathsheba from 2 Samuel 11, 12, and then Psalm 51, his his his um prayer of repentance. And he used David, and he even used David after that. He wrote a number of the Psalms after his sin with us. So it can be, you know, it it can be something that you know we all learn from, and the mistakes that we use

Trials, Endurance, And Helping Others

SPEAKER_00 14:20

to your point, you know, you watch film, you watch other people's lives. And the other point I made yesterday, which I think bears repeating, is God will often uh has every plan to give us what we ask what we're asking for, but he wants us to pursue it. And sometimes the pursuit is to change the pursuer. That's the whole purpose. And sometimes we have to walk a path that we don't like and a path that we certainly would not choose. And sometimes while you're going through it, you're sitting there thinking, like, why am I doing what why God am I going through this? Why are you putting me through this? The question we should be asking is what am I supposed to learn from this? And how should I be using this experience to possibly help other people? You've probably done this, Nate. I have. I know I've sat across from people and they're sharing something with me. And, you know, and maybe it's because I'm I'm an older guy and you gain some experience and some wisdom with age, but that doesn't exclusively mean you're going to get there. You have to apply yourself. But you're sitting across from some from a younger brother or sister in Christ and they're sharing something with you, and you're thinking in the back of your head, I went through the exact same thing or something very, very similar five years ago, 10 years ago, whatever that was. Now, blink, the light bulb goes off, and you figure out why potentially I went through that. And it's because of that moment, you're able to share it and to part that wisdom that you gained and that trust that you had in the Lord that particular time. Doesn't mean you did it perfectly, and we've all screwed up, myself included. But if you look at those experiences kind of through that lens, then you can see God's hand in it. And that's what's so refreshing. It gives you so much confidence. Then the next time you're going through something, and we're all going to go through something. James says, when you experience trials, not if, when you experience those trials. But the purpose of that is to build us and to build our the testing of the face produces steadfastness, which is another word for endurance. And that's the whole reason that we go through those things is to build ourselves up, and then ultimately that person, that that person who's gone through that experience can then help another, another brother or sister in Christ that you know might might be in the same place.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Yeah, and two important things, kind of thinking through everything you said there. One, just because we are on the path of wisdom, don't expect that means everything's just smooth sailing. I think you made the illustration yesterday of an attractive path versus a challenging path. And and the idea truly, wisdom, there will be challenges, right? Because not everybody lives according to that way. And so when you're dealing with people who aren't wise, it's gonna be challenging. You're gonna see the fools, you're gonna see the wicked, and that's gonna be hard working with those people. But how we will stay, you know, on the path to wisdom because it's it's not a promise, but then when the hard times hit, if you live wisely, you'll stay on that path because you know this is the way God points, and I always know no matter what the circumstances are, this is the desire to go. You know, so when we have the why right, even when the wicked are doing their thing, the scoffers are doing their thing, the fools, as we look through you know, Proverbs, that's usually how it classifies. You got the wise contrasted with the wicked, the outright evil versus just fools who don't know and don't care to know, or the scoffers who you know rebel against God and and speak. But will we continue to walk that challenging path when sometimes, hey, why are the wicked prospering? You know, like that looks pretty good over there. You know, so sometimes that will be key moments. But like you say, if we've studied and have God's word in our heart and we know the biblical wisdom, that's when we will continue on that path.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Yeah, one thing I intentionally chose this title, The Path of Wisdom, because of the the repetition of those words. But I don't know if you noticed, but if you were there at the sermon or at the service yesterday, you saw the backdrop that I used. And if you haven't seen that, you know, you can pick it up on YouTube. But if you notice the picture that I put up, it was a path. I didn't mention this

The Crooked Path And Distraction

SPEAKER_00 18:10

yesterday, but I was I was kind of googling, you know, Google images for the right path or whatever. Stephanie Light, who does a lot of our uh graphics, her and Tammy, I I was mentioning to her that I needed something, and she sends me like four pictures like within 30 seconds. And I said, let's go with that one, that's perfect. And what I found out though, after the fact, that's an actual path that she took a picture of when she was in Michigan. And they're up there right now. And I thought to myself, they could have probably walked this exact path that I had as my backdrop during that time. But what was unique about the path, if you looked at it closely, there was a lot of roots, it was obstacles way up in the distance. You couldn't see where the path went. It was crooked, it was kind of dark. And that's that's the metaphor of kind of the path that God has chosen a lot of times for us. You can't see where it's gonna or you know down the road too far. Uh the Bible says thy word is a lamp unto my feet. It doesn't say it's a spotlight unto my feet. I can't look 100 yards down the road with a lamp will show you the light right a couple steps in front of you. It'll light up the immediate area, but you know you don't see what you have to trust the Lord and you have to keep taking those steps of faith and look out for the obstacles because the enemy's gonna put roots, he's gonna put rocks, he's gonna put fallen trees, all the above as some of those obstacles for us. And I think those obstacles a lot of times are distractions. And I mentioned this yesterday. This is what the enemy uses. I'm more than convinced than ever. And I think our phones are great tools, but I think they can be you know weapons of the enemy to get us off our game and to use as a distraction. And I'm I'm old school on this, I know that. But whenever I read my Bible, nine times out of ten, I'm reading it from a physical Bible sitting in my lap versus reading it on my phone. Now I've got a couple apps on my phone. I I'm a I'm a huge proponent of the tools that that offers. However, I choose not to read it from my phone when I when I can't. If I'm on a you know, an area and that's all I got, then yeah, that's my that's my go-to. But and the reason I don't do that is why. It's because it's a distraction. Because two minutes later, you get some kind of notification, you get something that pops up, an email hits your screen, whatever it is, and then if you go, you jump over there, guess what? You just lost 15, 20 minutes potentially of time you could have been spending in the word that the enemy, and it might be a very good venture or a very good thing that you're trying to pursue, but the enemy has used something good to take you away from something that's great. And that's the word of God. So, you know, again, I'm old school, not being legalistic or judgmental, but I've always like I like to read from a physical Bible in my lap or on my desk versus off a phone because of the temptation of distraction. I don't know if that helps anybody, but you know, don't don't send me emails if you don't like that point, but that's okay. But I'm just a um call me old school, but I physical leather bible in my lap is is the way to go.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

Yeah, and I think like you're mentioning screens in our culture are designed for what? Distraction, marketing, getting you to buy something or getting information on you. They're not explicitly designed to help you in your faith walk. So can we use them as tools? Absolutely. You know, as Christians, if we think well and we are truly using them in a good, faithful way, I know people, it can be helpful. People like to listen to the Bible, have different apps, but it's a risky proposition, you know, for sure. And that's what something I study a lot a lot. There's been books throughout the years, but even TV was just coming in in kind of the mid-80s. And what all of this has done from a distraction standpoint is shrink down our attention spans, shrink down our mental capacity to think deeply. And so that's what we have to be so careful of, and why a physical Bible making the time is so important. Because, like you say, Satan doesn't need to persecute us if he can distract us. You know, in our society, there's less persecution. But equally, maybe even more dangerous is distraction. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

And the point I was making yesterday about we consume information now culturally in like seven to ten seconds sound bites is so true because that that paradigm, that mental model has seeped its way into how we study the Bible. We read the Bible like we're scrolling social media a lot of times. You're looking for that little teeny nugget. You spend 15 minutes swiping up, looking for whatever you're looking for, and you don't find anything, and then you go to work and you're completely distracted. That's why I think those first four verses of chapter two are so important. There's three Fs, it's that's our part of the F-then

Seeking Wisdom Like Hidden Treasure

SPEAKER_00 22:35

statement. If we do this, then God will do that. And that what we got to do, and and those there's eight verbs or participles that are used in that phrase, and they increase with intensity. The last two are search and look for it like hidden treasure, circ and search and seek. That requires effort on our part. It requires not this social media approach to scripture. It's not something that you're I mean, I mentioned one of the service, I can't remember which one, but the God had woken me up like at three o'clock in the morning for three different days this past week. Last night was no exception. I was up this morning at three. My wife comes out this morning, I don't know, about 6 30 or something, and she says, I saw you leaving the room at three. I was like, Yep, I've been up since three. And I went out in the family room, it's still dark. I open God's word, looking at my computer, I'm looking at my notes, and I'm starting to study for like an another thing that I'm gonna be teaching here before too long. And it's just amazing. I mean, you know, but the point is find a time that you can get alone with God and you can spend some significant time with him. Whether that's if you got 30 minutes, spend 30 minutes. I mean, sometimes I get up in the morning, I'm not saying everybody should do this. I'll spend an hour and a half, two hours, you know, looking at different things. And and everybody doesn't have that luxury, I know. And everybody, not crazy like me, and waking up that time in the morning, but that's when that's when it's best for me. And everybody has different families. So I totally, totally get that. And I'm not saying that's the standard, but man, I used to have a professor in college that said he would spend one night a week, and it was usually Saturday night, and he would set Saturday night aside from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m. on Sunday. He would spend eight hours in Bible study, and then we'd go up the next day, go to church, and then you have a take a nap. Obviously he'd recover, but he spent like a block of time. He was in the word every single day, but he said, I spent a block of time studying one particular thing. And I thought, I took something from that, and that is, you know, spending that significant time, that digging, that searching for like hidden treasure. There's effort, there's there's time that's involved, but man, the reward you get out of it. You when you find a couple, I call them nuggets, I've called them that forever. You find a couple of those nuggets along the way that God can give you. I mean, two of the ones that I that I I I highlighted in yesterday's sermon was those two Bible connections in in verse five and verse nine, if memory serves me, that go back to chapter one. And Solomon is saying if you want the two then statements to happen, one is God shows up, and the other one is the other one is about righteousness, justice, and equity, those are both mentioned in the first seven verses of Proverbs chapter one, which is the introduction to the whole book. In other words, if you want God to unlock the book of Proverbs and all of this wisdom, then you have to, it's conditional on those two then statements. The two then statements, what God will do, but he'll only do it if you're doing verses one through four, which is our part. Put your put the effort in. Go dig into it. Folks, there's nothing more satisfying in all the world than getting into God's word and spending. It's just so Christianity 101. It really, really is, but it's not that difficult, folks. It really isn't. Bible study and prayer and and attending church, you know, and and being around the body of Christ is is that's where it's at. You do those three things, you do them well, and then God is going to bless you and you're gonna see some changes in your life, and he's gonna speak into that.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

I think if I uh kind of summarizing what you're saying, put yourself in position for God to speak into your life, to use you. And too often we think, oh, five minutes, and you know, yeah, oh, God hasn't spoken yet. No, but make those unintentional or intentional, unimpeded times of just focus, you know, like this is when I'm gonna sit and listen. And in our distracted society and in our busyness, we don't do that, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Yeah, and sometimes the the goal miner, you don't hit gold the first day.

unknown 26:12

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

You might not be in position to mine weekend. Exactly. So I mean, don't look at you know, one day you're not getting anything out of it, it'd be discouraged and quit. I mean, just stay after it. God will ultimately speak to you. You know, open his word, open your heart, and pray and and just seek the Lord in that, and he will show up. He does every single day. So it's it's just amazing. I I love this book. I love talking about scripture and encouraging men and women alike to really spend time with the Lord because that's what it's about. And I think that's the the thrust of what Solomon is getting across in chapter two. If you want the the blessing of God, you want the wisdom of God, you want to be on the right path, and avoid the perverse man and the and the promiscuous woman like he's warning us to do, then do the things that are in verses one through four, and that's get after it.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

The position leads to the pursuit, right? We're pursuing that by our positioning, but we are pursuing. And I think it was uh, you know, Vince Lombardi, you know, again, not to draw it to distinction, God's word is much more important. But Vince Lombardi said if we pursue perfection, we may catch excellence. You know, so like if we're pursuing God, you know, we will, you know, kind of what the point I'm trying to make is just

Practical Next Steps And Farewell

SPEAKER_02 27:20

the more we pursue God, the more we will, you know, comprehend, apprehend, He will speak into our lives. So true, and it will change us, right? That's the idea. We want to change. You know, why are we pursuing this? Because we want to be more Christ-like, to be more wise, to be more in line with God's will. And that's why that's so critical. You can't do it if you're not stopping to, you know, do those things.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Yep. And if you don't know where to start, like I said yesterday, start with the Gospel of John, read the book of Romans, read the book of James. It'll tell you who Jesus is, what to believe, and then how to behave. That's a perfect place to start if you're if you're struggling with that and you're not understanding, you know, how do I start, how do I approach this massive book called the Bible with 66 books. Start with those three and start, it'll open up from there. Very cool.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

Yeah, well, for the Life House family, hopefully you're continuing. Oscar gave us the 31-day Proverbs Challenge. So we hope you're continuing. If you're on that track, you're probably around eight or nine, so you're getting ready to finish a lot of what we've been talking about, the encouragement to pursue wisdom and then get into wisdom itself. And so there's, man, all of the book you get so much as far as I think you mentioned yesterday, whether it's finances or you know, situations with how to work with people, marriage, kids, the whole nine yards. It's all in Proverbs. So prayerfully, everyone's working on that. It's again helping you. Hopefully, you're making the time, and we appreciate you making some time to listen to this podcast this morning. Again, just an opportunity to go deeper. So we hope some of the nuggets maybe we've shared from our very finite wisdom, but God's infinite wisdom in his word will be helpful to you this week. We look forward to seeing you next time. Thanks for tuning in to the Life Talk Podcast. If this episode encouraged you, please be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and leave a review so others can find this content as well. And we'll look forward to seeing you next Monday for another great episode.