Pastor Podcast - Proverbs 9 - Two Invitations (Wisdom & Folly)

Two invitations are sitting in your inbox every day, and Proverbs 9 refuses to let us pretend they’re equal. One voice offers a table set for life, clarity, and steady joy. The other whispers that what’s hidden is harmless, that stolen water is sweet, and that quick pleasure is the same thing as freedom. We slow down the contrast between Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly and ask the question that actually matters: what are you training your heart to RSVP to when nobody’s watching?

We also dig into why biblical wisdom is not the same as worldly wisdom. Wisdom in Proverbs is a way of living under God’s authority, not a bag of tips. That’s why repentance shows up as a practical turning, not a vague feeling. We talk about the modern pull of instant gratification, the dopamine loop, and how culture markets secrecy and impulse, especially around sexual immorality and the stories we absorb through screens. Folly promises a shortcut, but it always sends an invoice later.

Then we land on the center line of the chapter: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” We unpack fear as reverence, obedience, and taking God seriously, the posture that keeps us humble and teachable instead of defensive and scoffing. If you want insight, peace, and a life that holds together, it starts with knowing the Holy One and staying close to Jesus. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s at a crossroads, and leave a review with one area where you’re choosing wisdom this week.

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Transcript

Proverbs 9 And Two Clear Paths

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Well, hey, Lifehouse family. Welcome back to our Monday time whenever you watch it during the week, but going deeper, reflecting with Pastor Mark, getting further into God's word from the sermons on Sunday, and we're just continuing our journey through Proverbs. We're moving through the first nine chapters to chapter nine, laying the basis, the foundation for everything else that the book will really give us, wisdom-wise. But this week, two clear paths. You know, there's there's we we have options. We're uh I know in the U.S. we like options. There are two invitations here we talked about.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Yeah, and I think, you know, the the title at the ESV, you know, the of the chapter nine of Proverbs is the way of wisdom. And I just want to reiterate like this isn't just any kind of wisdom. It's not conventional wisdom, it's not worldly wisdom, which often actually contradicts and contrasts the wisdom that's imparted through the book of Proverbs. But it has been kind of uh interesting. I mean, I've throughout my Christian life been aware of the Proverbs, studied them, read them. But in this season, you know, even though King Solomon in Proverbs chapter 9 doesn't directly address, as he did in Proverbs 1, 2, and 3, you know, the other Proverbs that we've looked at, you know, my sons, my son, really the tone hits me because this is the season that I'm life in in life. It really is that of a loving father imparting wisdom into their children, not as young children, but as they kind of step out into adulthood. So they're they're coming of age and stepping out on their own and having to make their own choices. And so that's really the tone is this loving father exhorting their children to make the right choices, the good choices, the best choices, the right choices. And that's really kind of the season that I'm in, as you guys know. My youngest daughter is getting married in two weeks, and so you know, they're stepping out, and you know, you hope for the best. You've had these 18, 20, you know, years with them, imparting wisdom and godly speaking truth, sowing seeds of truth into their hearts, and you just are praying and you're cheering for them, like make the right choices. And that's really the tone of this. And King Solomon, yeah, these two invitations kind of personifies kind of as a teaching tool. He illustrates the points that he's been making and continues to make with saying, like, look, there's two paths, right? There, there's these two ladies, lady wisdom and lady folly, and like they're both, you're invited. Like you can hear and and you know respond, you know, to these two invitations. But and we all have these, you know, we can relate to having competing invitations in life, but this is like clearly by using these illustrations, there's an obvious choice. Like there is a right choice. Like you want to accept this invitation and from Lady Wisdom, and you don't want to accept the invitation from Lady Folly. Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

So two clear paths. And I think, like you say, getting to that point of this is the way you can live your life. You know, there's two options before you, because too often we get focused on like just don't do this, you know, this is what you gotta do. Instead of like, hey, here's here's your options, you know, and this is a choice that you will make. And so yes, we have to lots of prayer, but it has to be that daily, I think we see in here as well. You know, like each day it has to, you know, just be our posture of seeking wisdom. It's not something you just get the one-time thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Pursue wisdom. You want that when you get the invitation, yeah, don't hesitate. Like RSDP, attend that celebration. Let's look at the first invitation real quick.

Lady Wisdom’s Open Invitation

SPEAKER_01 3:42

So the first six verses speaks of wisdom as a lady, lady wisdom, and says she's built her house, she's hewn her house with seven pillars, and so this is really pointing to you know a woman whose house is in order. She's leading a grand house, she's slaughtered her beast, so there's the celebration. So, meaning like everything is in order. She's mixed her wine, she's sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town. And I love this in verse 4. The invitation is whoever is simple. So this isn't an exclusive party. Like everyone is invited, and I cannot help but think about the gospel, right? And how you know, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Like whoever, everyone, like the gospel is the power of God for salvation to the Jew and to the Greek, like everyone. And so, really, there is kind of this pointing forward, like you it is important to read the Proverbs and make that connection. And so, really, the greatest wisdom of all, like the greatest truth is that of the gospel, right? This is the truth that Jesus says that will set you free if you know it. And so I love that invitation from this gracious woman, wisdom, lady wisdom, whoever is simple. And if you remember, that's not necessarily meant to be a derogatory term. I'd never want to necessarily be described as simple, right? You know, but it's really whoever like needs to learn, whoever wants to learn. And I think it's wise to kind of know and understand that you can always learn something, you can always grow. Like no one has arrived, you know, and knows everything about everything, like God's infinite. Like there's just always more to see, to know, and to learn. And so, like whoever though knows and understands that, like the invitation is let him turn in here, right? To him who lacks sense, like it's come, eat, like, you know, be filled, like be satisfied, drink of the wine that I have missed, leave your simple ways and live. Like I I talked yesterday about the idea of repentance, like you cannot, you know, be on two roads at the same time, two places in the same time. Like, either you can pursue wisdom, or you can't do you can't do both. And so leave your simple ways and live and walk in the way of insight. What's on the table ultimately is life, right? So I don't know, any

Lady Folly’s Sweet Lie

SPEAKER_01 6:01

anyway.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Well, I think that's the we look at the invitations, wisdom versus folly. You know, wisdom says leave and live. That's not what folly says. It just says, turn in here and then. So what folly promises is pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Right. But what ends up happening is death. Right? Her guess, like we're told. So the end of the proverb, we see this invitation. You know, what this so those who accept that invitation, despite what she says, she promises pleasure, right? Let's talk about verse 17 in a minute. One of her messages is stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. It's interesting what's behind that statement. But those who listen to her, who fall prey essentially to her seduct, seducing, they don't know that the dead are with her. That's the guest of her party. Like the wages of sin is death, and that those who attend her party, her guests are in the depths of Sheol. It's referring to hell, right? The place of the dead. Like, you don't want to go there. You don't want to accept that invitation. Stolen water is sweet, verse 17, and bread eating is.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Give us a little more of the context, what that would have meant to be.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yeah, the ancient Jews, yeah. The the people that were receiving this message in that context would understand and know that's referring to sexual liberality, right? Like drinking from the fountain that does not belong to you, right? And there's other even proverbs that kind of allude to that idea. And I was as I was thinking about that, I I thought about just media in our day and time. I mean, really, this is what pretty much almost every TV show and every movie this day says is like sexual immorality, like any sex outside of a biblical, God-honoring marriage is sin. Stolen water is sweet. You know, bread eaten in private, in secret, is pleasant. This is the message, pretty much, of every movie out there today. And it's frustrating. Tammy and I talk about all the time, like we just want to watch a movie, you know, that's clean and that doesn't have like this message in it, you know, some somewhere, like they throw it in at some point, you know, and sometimes there can be good movies, and it's like, why'd they even throw that in there? Because this is the lie, this is the message, the invitation is essentially, and this is what you know we're exposing ourselves to. We're allowing our children to be exposed to to listen to these lies. And that this is one of the lies of Lady Folly, stupid, you know, and really it is sweet. Like the fleeting pleasures of sin, at first it's fun, you know, but the consequences unfortunately are eternal, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:34

And ultimately enslaving. We know that sin enslaves you. So it's this instant, and we were talking like just our culture is so instant gratification. You know, I can get it delivered same day, or I can pull it up on my phone and watch it. You know, I don't have to wait on anything. So what's wrong with getting a quick, you know, pleasure hit? You know, dopamine is a big thing that we're finding all the biological reasons that God's word is true, but you know, the dopamine things, which eventually then it enslaves you because you need more of it and now you're addicted to it. And that's what folly does. It's hanging this out there, but ultimately it gets your hooks in it. And don't take the bait, right? This is what Solomon's saying. You know, I think C.S. Lewis said too, like, on the theme of the simple, like we're simple in sin. The more we give in to folly, the more we succumb to that. It actually makes us more animalistic. We're just controlled by our desires and those instant things rather than being wise and having the big picture in mind. Like the more you give in, the more you're just, and that's what you're saying with our society. Like, we're actually becoming very simplistic and debased in not having satisfied with simple simple pleasures rather than the wisdom and the glory.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Then deep pleasures. I mean, like really at the end of the day, you know, no one satisfies like Jesus. And there's not true true and abiding joy, you know, and peace are found in Jesus that that that accords with godly wisdom and spiritual wisdom as opposed to this temporary pleasure, the fleeting pleasures of sin. And, you know, even just thinking about the context again and the tone of a loving father speaking to his child that it's entering adulthood, I often talk about, because this is the season I'm in, the frontal cortex of our brains, and how that's the last part, scientifically speaking, of our brains that develop. It's the part of the brain that helps us, you know, understand or think about long-term consequences to, you know, current choices. And so really that's the thing. Like what this father, loving father, may not know about the frontal cortex. King Solomon might not have known about that, but what he understands is that like, you know, young people and and young adults can fall prey in a way that maybe some of us who have been around the block a couple times like and have experienced that, yeah, it may be temporary, temporarily sweet, and it might be fun for a season. It may make you feel good in the moment, but the consequences long term will not be good. And so you don't want to drink that water, you don't want to eat that bread. You want to eat the bread of wisdom and drink the wine of wisdom and be satisfied in ways that endure and persevere instead of leading to death.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

We actually teach a lot of that in financial peace. If you ever take the financial peace class, advertisers and marketers, everything, they're trying to get your frontal cortex off and get you into more of like a fight or flight, which is a fear of missing out. Like FOMO. Afraid I'm gonna miss out on this pleasure. And so you get in kind of this panic and it forces to make the bad decisions rather than keeping that wise area engaged and thinking things through. It's that's how people get in debt and spend money that they shouldn't spend or make decisions that they shouldn't make, that eventually then again just will spiral. You know, the first it starts with those little steps, just going, you know, like you said in the sermon, those who are going straight on their way, if I can get you to just take a little step, you know, one way or the other, and the consequences then follow on from there.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Absolutely. So you definitely want to be accepting the invitation from Lady Wisdom. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

So where are you going to RSVP?

SPEAKER_01 12:12

RSVP to Jesus. Like say yes to Jesus and not to Lady Folly. Say no to sin, right? And to folly and stupidity, really, at the end of the day. So we see these two invitations. Hopefully, you've accepted and responding to the right invitation. Then we see these two responses really in the middle of this proverb.

Scoffers Or Teachable Hearts

SPEAKER_01 12:32

And really, I we can't get too much into it, but there's a chiasm here. If you understand it, know what that is, and it's so beautiful. Tell us briefly what that's. Well, I mean, I, you know, I haven't really prepared to teach, but I I understand and know what it is, but it's it's really result, it's the form or the structure of the proverb that in that day, in that time, was a literary device used to draw attention to the main point, in a sense that they would do, you know, these two contrasting clearly, you know, which in this case is lady wisdom, lady folly, lady wisdom at the beginning, lady folly at the end, but they point to the central truth or the main point or the thesis. And that's what we see. So it's a structure that people kind of were familiar with that would help them and lead them to say, okay, the point that he's making is kind of the center, the main idea. So, yeah, hopefully that will bring some clarity to it.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

So hopefully, if you're listening, you'll see this often in Psalms, often in Proverbs. It draws your attention to the center of the very common throughout scripture of what we're looking at.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Yeah, it's not necessarily in our society and culture something that we're familiar with. And so sometimes we can be oblivious into it unless we've like really studied, but there is that there. So that's it, that's even more beautiful. Like these aren't just like he's not throwing up words, you know, these are very intentional, precise, it's very structured. And so in the middle of these two invitations, lady wisdom, lady folly, we see these two situations, right? And really what he's mapping out is, you know, and saying essentially is you know, you have one situation that is those who do not listen, who do not have ears to hear, who are not willing to accept constructive criticism, and who don't want to teach, who don't want to learn because they think they know everything, and that's dumb, right? You don't want to be that person. And then on the flip side of that, the wise person who accepts instruction, right? And who benefits from it, who grows, who learns, who improves, you know, and so which one are you? Do you have ears to hear or do you not have ears to hear? And are you thereby a scoffer? Are you thereby wicked, you know, as the proverb refers to?

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Yeah, how will we respond? And I think that's the idea. Again, just thinking like people who think, oh, I'm a pretty good person, I've got it figured out, I don't really need Jesus, you know. So it starts with Jesus, and then we realize, hey, we need to listen. You know, if if Christ is our Savior, he is our King, He has our best interest in mind. So I want to follow him. But the scoffer doesn't want to hear it. And unfortunately, some people can say they believe and respond and like, I want salvation, but then I don't want to change my life. So that's still something that's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Even though changing their life by following Jesus will be such a blessing. I mean, I mean, really, I see, I can't help but remember the testimony of the hypocritical Pharisees, right? Those people who knew everything, considered themselves the the upper echelon, the righteous men of God who were but really wicked men, hypocritical men. Jesus confronts them in the gospels, calls them out, says, Woe to you, woe to you, woe to you, because they just refused to listen. And but he said, Listen, if you just would repent, if you just would believe in me, like you can be saved, you know. And you know, I experienced that we had the Peach Festival this past weekend. And anytime you go out into society, you engage people who just do not want to hear what you have to say. I mean, you they see the word church or Jesus, and they have this notion or conception or idea, you know, a misunderstanding of who he is and what we as his followers are about. And so they just refuse to listen. I mean, they stick their ears literally, proverbially, you know, but they stick their fingers in their ears like the Pharisees did and refuse to hear, and it won't go well with them. You know, at the end of this, he says if you're wise, if you scoff, you alone will bear it. Like you'll be held responsible, like like there's a consequence for not being willing to hear. On the flip side, the wise, like it's good. It is so wise to listen, to have ears to hear. And we see that admonition, that exhortation, like let him who has ears to hear hear, you know, in revelation what the Spirit says to the churches. You know, like when Jesus was preaching, like those who were blessed were those who picked up what he was laying down, who responded in obedience and and accepted and received the truth that set them free. He came to set people free. And so it's wise to listen to the truth, not to folly, but to truth, specifically the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just think of my time, you know, working kind of in the corporate world and structure. It's like the best leaders I knew knew what they didn't know. Like they knew they had blind spots, they welcomed, like, hey, if messing up, they had humility all the time. And I always tried to model this. Like when we're doing annual annual reviews, this is a two-way street. You know, you tell me, you know, where I can help you better, being open to that. The worst ones I worked for were the ones who just thought they had it all figured out, were very arrogant. I'm, you know, I'm you you're the follower, I'm the leader, you just sit down and shut up. And those people were very hard to work with. And when they would make mistakes, they wouldn't own up to them. So just you see that wise way to lead people versus not. And that's obviously applies more broadly, but just as an illustrative example.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

By the grace of God, as a leader, you know, of this church, I'm the lead pastor here by God's grace. I know that apart from God I can do nothing. I do know that I still have so much to learn. And it really is always concerning to me when people come and present themselves as knowing everything, and there's no humility. And I often tell people, you know, that when I'm looking for people to serve alongside us, maybe their staff, or just to serve as leaders here, what I say is I'm looking for fat people, right? Faithful, available, and teachable, right? And that trait, right, what's what's that look like? That's humility. Like just like you're saying, it kind of coincides with what you were saying. Like we want people who understand and know that there's more to learn, more to know, to see, and they have ears to hear, and they're willing to accept constructive criticism, which can be hard. But but yeah, like we all want to grow, we all want to learn, and there's more to see, there's more to know. God's infinite, so there's it's impossible to know everything that you can know about God. You know, right now we see dimly, like we don't know the half of it. We're just barely scratching the surface. And I think it's wise to kind of know and understand that and to be humble, and we should all be teachable. We all have something to learn. No matter how old we are, no matter how many times we've been around the block, we should always remain in a posture of being willing to be taught.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

It's one of my favorite verses, it's first or second Corinthians. You know, we're being transformed from one degree to the next. You know, the idea is, you know, we're justified, but then we're sanctified, and we should be open to, all right, God, what's the next thing I need to learn to be more Christ like? We're being transformed, but it's happening over time. And so we're open to that. Because you know, it'd be super painful if God just came everything that needed to be corrected at once, like, whoa, you know. Or you know, continue to search my heart. David praise you. Search my heart. Know my wicked ways. You know, so where are we open to reproof? That's why we read God's word, so we can change, not to just you know, have an echo chamber, I think of as you were preaching yesterday. Social media. Everybody goes on there because they want likes and they want to just be affirmed. And that's the big thing these days, right? You have to affirm me rather than being open to how can I draw closer to the Lord. Yeah. So we want to have ears to hear.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Well, let's do it.

Fear Of The Lord Defined

SPEAKER_01 20:28

This chiasm points to verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the holy one is insight. You know, that that that's that's where it begins. You know, the fear of the Lord. Let's talk about that. The fear of the Lord, this is kind of this concept.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Keeps coming up, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Something we have to get ready. I know you said people can struggle with that. Yeah, so I I think it kind of plays out not just in terror fear. So we kind of use that word fear when we watch a hair a horror movie or when we see like a wild animal like a bear or a shark or something. And I think that there is an appropriate terror, right, that we should feel with the awesomeness of a holy, righteous God. You know, I mean, I think about Isaiah's response in Isaiah chapter six, woe is me, you know, when he was, you know, was given that vision, that revelation of the Lord high and lifted up, sitting on the throne. You know, but then beyond just the terror, like there's this obedience, you know, this this submission, you know, in connection with fearing the Lord, you know, in that Isaiah chapter six passage, Isaiah's response to the Lord and what he's seeing is like, here am I, send me, like wherever, whenever, whatever. Like that should be our posture, you know, uh connected to the fear of the Lord. And then beyond that, it's reverence to his majesty, like this awe of his grandness, his majesticness, his infiniteness, his eternal, his holiness. And so it's kind of like those three things combined, but really. Really, to just kind of sum it all up and and and to to to simplify what it means to be fearful, I would say it means to be faithful. Like, like really to be fearful, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, is simply to be faithful to the Lord, right? To serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness, to worship him in spirit and in truth, to consider him, acknowledge him in all our ways, right? To truly fear the Lord is not something that we can compartmentalize and do at certain times or on certain occasions, but it's it's a lifestyle and it's a it's a constant posture. It's living in light of who he is and what he's done, right? That is what it means to fear the Lord, and it's the beginning of wisdom. And as you walk on that road, walk in faithfulness, serve in faithfulness, more and more wisdom, more and more understanding comes, right? I always say like it's like a treasure hunt. Like my life, following Jesus is just like the more you seek, the more you find, right? He he wants you to know him more and more. And so that should be our constant posture and pursuit.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

I just think examples, you put it well, like in the presence of greatness or authority. Right. You know, would you go up, you know, I can't throw a football, you know, very far. But if I went up to, you know, you think any of the quarterbacks these days, we got Eagles fans, you know, could bring up Eagles. Am I gonna go tell them how to play quarterback? Like, no, I'm gonna listen to you. You know, a lot of times if you ever go to conferences or things, but again, kind of just our cultural attitude because of the internet and things, we can look things up. And so we're a lot of times. We'll go to the BT, right? We'll go to the doctor and tell the doctor what's wrong with us rather than, hey, help me understand what's wrong with me. So we just get that kind of arrogant attitude that is not the fear of the Lord. I think the other thing you said that hit home yesterday is taking God seriously. Right. A lot of times we claim we believe, but then we don't think of it seriously. I think it was uh A.W. Tozer, you know, what we think of when we think of God is the most important thing about us. And a lot of people are like, well, uh, you know, you think a lot of things, but that will shape our actions. That will shape which direction we choose. Are we going to take God seriously when he says folly leads to death and sin is going to enslave you? Do we actually believe that? Do we take God seriously? Or we're like, eh, you know, I'll figure it out. You know, Satan in the garden. Did God really say what will be our attitude, or will we take God seriously? And that's what fearing the Lord is like. We believe. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

I referenced that devotional, that classic devotional.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

I think I you told me that I said by Oswald Chambers. I think I referenced the wrong author, even though I knew it was Oswald Chambers. But that is a classic. Yeah, and just as an aside, if you need a daily, it's a really good, it's like a 365, you can pick one up, just amazing devotionals that will challenge you.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

One page, you know, devotionals, very short, maybe one to two pages, but very it's a classic. And so, but really that that title kind of defines, or you know, like like to have the attitude, you know, I wanna my utmost for his highest. Like that's what he deserves. He's worthy of that. And so that's connected to the understanding of what it means to fear the Lord, to have that perspective and that goal, my utmost for his highest, which coincides with that awesome classic devotional.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

So that's where it really comes comes home of that attitude, which then will play out in the invitations we accept, the attitudes we have in our situations. Absolutely. So getting that center point is critical to going that

Knowledge Of The Holy One

SPEAKER_00 25:34

direction.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Aaron Powell And the last half of verse 10 where it says the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. And so there's so much packed in just that statement, too. So knowledge, not just like cognitive, like you know, awareness, but like experiential relational knowledge of the Holy One, as it's translated in the ESV. But if you look at the Hebrew, it's actually the Holy Ones, which points to the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. That is insight, that's understanding, right? So as you relate and as you walk in right relationship with the Lord through Jesus Christ, like just you'll understand more and more. You'll see, right? Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3, right? Unless you're born of the Spirit or born again, like you cannot even see the kingdom of God. And this is what essentially chap chapter 9, verse 10b, that second half is saying. Like, like, like when you when your eyes are open, right? And that's that's really like there's blind people whose eyes are opened in the gospel. Jesus opens blind eyes, he unlocks deaf ears for people who could not hear, they can then begin to hear. So knowledge of the holy ones is insight. So just to kind of tie all those ideas together is pretty profound and gosh inspiring to me as well.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

I also think it's always an important point. You know, as we see people whose eyes are closed, ears are closed, like it has to start here. Like a lot of times we want to get into, you know, whatever sins, whatever struggles, things that we know are wrong because we understand wisdom, but we're not going to help people by starting there. You know, we have to have the insight of the holy one to really understand that. So sometimes people get into these arguments about homosexuality and all these things, which we know are wrong. And we're not, and like you said, sexuality outside of marriage, like we know these things, but it has to start with that knowledge of the holy one. Because if we just come at people condemning without sharing this insight, that's where we'll talk past each other. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

So and the other thing is too, you know, knowledge of the Holy One is insight. So knowledge meaning like right relationship, like we can be out of fellowship, so to speak, like sin in our lives. We can still be saved and have a relationship with God, but there can be like hindrances, right? What when sin affects our ability to hear, and and unfaithfulness to the Lord affects our ability to see what we need to see. So it will affect our ability to have the right understanding and insight of even godly truths. And so it's important, again, to be in right relationship with the Lord, to continue to listen to Lady Wisdom, to continue eating her bread, right? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word, you know, to drink from the fountain, you know, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a fountain filled with blood, like and so we just want to drink rivers of living water, you know, will flow through us. So that's the water we want to drink. That's how we want to be nourished and sustained by the word of God and that wisdom, and that's where true liberty and freedom is found. And I would also say with that understanding and insight, as is promised here. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Period. Drop the mic. This is the thesis of the book of Proverbs, and specifically Proverbs

Practical Next Steps And Closing

SPEAKER_01 28:50

chapter nine.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

So a lot of application here, but what do we have to look forward to this week? Continuing, continuing forward. Continuing in the book of Proverbs. Yeah, I got some studying to do today. Studying up. So yeah, looking forward to it. Well, again, Proverbs, such a great book because it does, when we get this right, gives us so much wisdom how we can live out our faith. And so stay tuned. We'll be continuing through in the coming weeks. But Livehouse family, thanks for joining us. As always, we pray this encourages you during your week to seek that wisdom, which as we've talked about in James, like ask God for wisdom. He provides it. And so, whatever decisions, whatever may be going on in your life, seek God's wisdom, seek that way, don't fall prey to folly. So we'll look forward to seeing you next time.