Kingdom-Minded
The Way of Wisdom
Sunday, May 18, 2025
Welcome! Isn’t it glorious this time of year to see all the flowering trees and early spring flowers with bursts of color after months of brown and lifeless-looking scenery all around us? See, the Lord is doing something NEW, do you know it? Spring is our assurance that when we are in darker, dreary, lifeless-looking seasons, something NEW is just on the horizon, and it comes every single year! And without fail, it delights us in vivid colors popping up, delicious scents like the lilacs and flowering trees, and hope that we are beyond the dark and colder days. Spring is a reminder of how God renews and refreshes the land. And this is exactly what He does in our hearts as well, when we remain faithful to Him and stay near Him. Our lives have seasons that change.
Today is the day the Lord has made, this is the season the Lord has brought forth to show the wonders of His glory and to delight our senses. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Call to Worship: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:33-36
Prayer: God of holy wisdom and majesty, we are seekers on the way to a deeper wisdom and a wider vision. Our lives are full of information and opinions, but in the midst of it all we long to hear the voice of wisdom – Your wisdom, God – cutting through the noise and teaching us how to live righteously.
God, we have come here this morning to learn wisdom from your Word, from your Holy Spirit, and from one another. We have come so that wisdom may call us out of the darkness and into the light. We have come to have the deeper, richer, wisdom-filled life that you have promised to each of us. Oh God, make us ready to hear the Words spoken to our hearts this morning. Call us to hear your wisdom and grant us the courage to respond. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Praise Songs: Oceans, Trust in God
Intro: How many of you thought you knew it all, or at least certainly more than your clueless parents, when you were younger? Maybe you wondered how they survived at times because they were so out of touch. You gave thanks that you were blessed with such profound understanding of life, and maybe even asked God to have mercy on your poor parents who just didn’t get it. Eye rolls, scoffing, and lots of ughs…. They were expressed because of their inept ability to see how much you knew and how right you were.
Fast forward several years as we head out into life on our own, and we find out there is so much we don’t really know about- with deciding on insurance, making investments, using the healthcare system, and especially as we begin parenting, how do we get this crying baby to sleep???? Who do we call for the many life questions that pop up….none other than our ignorant, inept, but suddenly so wise…. Parents. The ones who have walked those paths, been through all the things, lived some life, and have the battle scars to prove it. We cry out, Help me! I don’t know what I’m doing; I don’t know the way; what has worked for you?
Parents bearing the title of being “clueless”-hold on- your great reward is coming! It does come full circle.
To all of our parents, we treated like this-we’re sorry-we were the ignorant and clueless ones-but in time we learn it is good to listen, to be teachable, to ask for help and guidance. We can take time at the end for a call to repent for those who need to.
You know, we treat God in this same way so often in our lives- like He is the clueless one or that He is inept at handling our problems. You might not say that your actions show what your heart truly believes when you are not seeking or following God.
Pride tells us we know it all and have life all figured out, so we don’t go to Him for counsel, we don’t read His Word because we don’t need it. We don’t pray and ask for His daily leading; we don’t ask the Spirit to grant us understanding of God’s Truth compared to our truth we have come to know. Because “we’ve got this” … until we don’t. This is a heart of folly. We’ve all been there.
You know exactly what I’m talking about in those moments when we don’t have it together. Your pride might continue to tell you it’s ok, you’re fine, but your spirit inside is crying out, “Abba Father, I need You! I don’t know what to do!”
God is so gracious to gift us with wisdom so we can understand, discern, and follow where He leads us. But to gain this wisdom, there is a cost and sacrifice made on our part. It will cost us laying down our selfish desires-meaning seeking after all that pleases me in life; it will cost us time to read His Word, to pray, and be with Him so we get to know Him; and it will cost us financially. But as we’ll read here in a moment, the rewards are great, beyond anything this world can offer us, and these rewards are eternal, not temporary.
We’re going to enter a new series called Kingdom-Minded. As a reminder, this year God is calling us to look closely at the life and example of Jesus- our yearly focus is Simply Jesus. May we all choose to press into Him more and come to know Him more personally, and then follow His teaching. Being Kingdom-Minded means we are learning to live for God’s purposes above our own; we are learning to see the world through His eyes; we are learning to say yes to what He is asking of each of us in bringing about His Kingdom here on earth.
Wisdom is the beginning and foundation to live Kingdom-Minded. Wisdom was with God as He formed the earth and all of creation. We can’t understand God and His ways without wisdom that comes from God. We won’t care about His purposes without wisdom to shape and teach us. We won’t reflect Jesus in this world, without wisdom, making His character and heart known to us. We must pursue and cherish wisdom.
To understand this wisdom that comes from God, we can look to the Proverbs. I encourage you to read them often, for there is great truth and application within each Proverb, and there happens to be one for each day of the month-so you can read them over and over again.
Let’s look at Proverbs 3 today. I invite you to listen to what is asked of you as you walk with God and grow in your faith. Then hear the outcome of your faithfulness. May we have teachable hearts today. May we choose to trust in God and heed His ways that are far superior to ours.
Proverbs 3:1-15 NIV
My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart,
2 for they will prolong your life many years
and bring you peace and prosperity. 3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord and shun evil. 8 This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.
9 Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops;
10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. 11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. 13 Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding,
14 for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.
15 She is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with her.
- Seek Wisdom Above All Things.
Knowledge is good and important to acquire throughout our life- we should have an attitude of continual learning as we remain on this earth, for there are countless things to learn about, and our brain, even though you might feel quite the opposite some days, can store information beyond what you can fathom. The truth is, we only use a tiny percentage of what our brain is capable of. God has gifted us with this incredible mind, and beyond just acquiring knowledge to spew out fascinating facts at dinner parties- He wants us to seek after wisdom.
Why? Because wisdom is the path that will guide us and help us discern what is right, good, and true. Wisdom reveals God’s will and grants us understanding of His ways that can seem foreign to us at times.
The truth is we cannot live Kingdom-minded without walking in His wisdom because we won’t see and we won’t understand. Wisdom teaches us who God is and calls us to revere His great name.
Folly is the opposite of wisdom and leads only to destruction and promotes selfishness. Folly leads to hurtful words and actions, thus bringing about broken relationships.
Wisdom teaches us to hold our tongue, to seek to understand one another rather than simply judge and condemn others. Wisdom protects, restores, and unifies.
Proverbs 3:1-2 My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart,
2 for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.
Proverbs 3:14-15 14 for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. 15 She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.
If you look at times you have applied the wisdom of the Lord and the times you have walked in folly, can you see why we’re told wisdom is more precious than rubies and yields a better return than gold?
Proverbs 4:7-8 NKJV 7 Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore, get wisdom.
And in all your getting, get understanding. 8 Exalt her, and she will promote you; She will bring you honor, when you embrace her.
We see throughout the book of Proverbs, in particular, a major emphasis on learning the importance of gaining wisdom in our lives and cherishing wisdom above anything else we can chase after, that being the wisdom of God. In another chapter, we read, walk with the wise and you will become more wise. I propose to seek out opportunities to connect and surround myself who are walking in the wisdom of the Lord, who have walked longer, who have pursued Him in His Word and Truth-because I believe this- who we surround ourselves with matters. There is effort and sacrifice in doing this-but again, the reward is great! The gift is increasing wisdom and understanding that affects our entire life.
- Trust in the Lord.
Proverbs 3:5-6 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
So here we see, we don’t know it all, and if we are wise, we submit our ways to God and follow where He leads. We must make a choice to trust God- with all our heart-with all things in our life- and we lay these things at His feet and say I don’t know the way, but I trust Lord that You do.
Because we have been wounded by others- let’s be clear- by others who are broken, flawed, and selfish at times, we might find it hard to trust. We project their faults on our faultless God; their disappointments and rejections onto our faithful God, and we withhold trust, thinking foolishly we are protecting ourselves from getting hurt.
But wisdom reveals to us, He is the very One we should trust with all our heart, for He will not abandon, not lead us astray, or plan evil for us. He is for us, with us, and leading us on a path of righteousness always, because that is who our God is. His character does not change.
The truth is, we fail to trust because we fail to know our God as He is, as He wants us to know Him. So if you don’t fully trust God today, a good place to start would be seeking to gain the wisdom of God-find out who He is in His Word, because He will surely reveal Himself to you as you seek.
Why is it worth putting our trust in God? He tells us:
Jeremiah 17: 7-8 7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
If you live in this truth, isn’t it wonderful to have this assurance and peace? If you don’t, wouldn’t you like to? This is a promise from our God as we trust in Him. Just like building trust with anyone else-you must make time and be with Him. How much effort do you make to get to know God personally? Your level of trust will directly reflect the amount of time and effort you spend getting to know Him.
The time you put in will be gifted back to you tenfold, even one hundred-fold, as you make knowing Him your great treasure. The only one who can help you trust in the Lord is you, as you choose to.
As we talk about often, just because we trust in God doesn’t mean we won’t walk through the valleys, but the promise is we’ll remain in His peace as He guides us through.
Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Think about this- how valuable is peace to you? Our circumstances will always be in flux. Jobs will come and go, children will have challenges we navigate through, marriages will have hard seasons, health will ebb and flow, friendships might drift apart…this is a given. We’re all living this whether or not we walk in the wisdom of the Lord. BUT to have the gift of His peace that is with us, as our rock to stand that is priceless. The gift is given; the choice to receive it is ours. Peace magnifies as our wisdom from the Lord increases.
- Humble Yourself Before the Lord.
Pride goes hand in hand with folly.
Here is the truth: God cannot lead where we will not follow. How many know that to be true?
Proverbs 3:7-8 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. 8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
To learn to walk in the wisdom of the Lord, we must humble ourselves and acknowledge that there is much we don’t know and much we don’t understand, and that we have this amazing and gracious God who wants to lead us if only we will be teachable.
Proverbs 3:11-12 11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.
We all need discipline-just as all children do from their parents. We are not serving our children well by letting them run without any guidance, correction, or discipline. We aren’t setting them up to make confident decisions as adults, to be considerate and giving citizens in the communities they live in, or to be faithful Christians who follow the Lord. So it is with our heavenly Father- He too desires the best for us, and there are times we need correcting, we need discipline when we wander astray or pride rises up. We need to remember when those times come, to receive His correction-because as we do, He will surely lift us up again.
James 4:10 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Wisdom helps us understand this truth-that it is in meekness and humility that God will exalt us. He opposes the proud and arrogant. Wisdom is our protector and shield, positioning our heart to be teachable. Why? So we can bring glory to God. Remember, we are here for His purposes, to learn to live Kingdom-minded, not for selfish gain.
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Who is it who has a good name among others? The foolish and arrogant? No. They are quickly forgotten.
It is the wise, the discerning, the humble ones. Those who live for the Lord.
One of the things I love most about officiating celebrations of life is these moments when you know the one we are remembering was someone with a good name among people and God. The stories flood in about how they lived, how they influenced others, and the great and lasting impact they made. To me, that is a life well-lived, one where we leave the world or those around us better off. May each of us choose to live well and embrace wisdom, for surely the good name and favor will follow as we do.
- Honor the Lord.
This proverb goes right to our heart, and what we humans tend to value and hold tightly to our money. God doesn’t need it- let’s be clear. He created our entire world and all things in it. So why would the God of the universe, who doesn’t truly NEED our money that we work so hard for, call us to give a portion back to Him?
Proverbs 3: 9-10 9 Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops;
10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
Malachi 3:10 NASB 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and put Me to the test now in this,” says the Lord of armies, “if I do not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
When we store up all our money for ourselves, who are we trusting in? Self, Not God.
This is a whole message unto itself. This is not meant to condemn, shame, or guilt anyone here today. Remember the message is on learning the Way of Wisdom- so it would behoove us to ask Why do you want the first of our finances, Lord? What is your reasoning, and what does it do for us?
It honors Him as God, the giver of all that we have. You might begin to think you did everything to acquire all that you have in life and put yourself on a pedestal. Pride tells you that. Humility recognizes that our God is the one who provides and blesses us in every way. It also teaches us to trust Him- when we give off the top-we are saying I put YOU first in my life and trust You will make a way to bless me in all other needs that I have. It also teaches us to be Kingdom-Minded and learn to give generously to help others and lift them as God lifts us.
God never asks us to give beyond what we have-but He does ask us to trust and give from what we have to the glory of His great name.
Psalm 29:2 NLT Honor the Lord for the glory of his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
Our worship is demonstrated in all aspects of how we live our life- in our prayer, in reading His Word, in praising His name, in serving, and in bringing our sacrifice- this is all worship to honor our Lord.
We are here to make Jesus’ name known throughout all the earth- this is how we honor the Lord. Learning to live Kingdom-Minded is understanding our prayer, we speak “on earth as it is in heaven,” is truly praying for God’s Kingdom to manifest here on earth, and we are in agreement to help bring that about.
Conclusion: To be Kingdom-minded, we must earnestly desire and apply the wisdom of the Lord. Seeking wisdom is where we begin. Trusting will keep us on the wise path. Humility keeps us teachable. Honoring demonstrates our understanding of God and His Majesty. Cherish wisdom.
Let’s pray:
Blessing: May the holy wisdom of God guard your ways and guide your paths. May the living truth of God enlighten your hearts and open your minds, and may the living Spirit of God give you life, and life to the full!
Amen!
Romans 11: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
