The Desperate Need For Wisdom | Pastor Shane Idleman

Shane Idleman: How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. If you hate knowledge and you hate wisdom, the Bible calls that a fool. The fool has said in his heart that there is no God. Wisdom says, "Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you." See, that's the whole purpose of rebuke. The Bible's rebuking here. It's saying, listen, you delight in hating knowledge, but turn now, turn back to me. That's the whole point of the Bible calling us to do that: to turn and repent.
Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us here at Westside Christian Fellowship, located in Leona Valley, California, one hour north of Los Angeles. Today on Regaining Lost Ground, we hear the second part of a profound study into the beginning of Proverbs titled, "The Desperate Need for Wisdom." Puritan preacher Thomas Watson once exclaimed, "The fear of God promotes spiritual joy. It is the morning star that ushers in the sunlight of comfort." Please join us for this reverent, sober-minded sermon from Pastor Shane as he opens up the truth of God's word, reminding us today that knowledge only begins once we fear Almighty God. For more information, visit us online at WestsideChristianFellowship.org. We also encourage you to hear more truth from Pastor Shane with the Idleman Unplugged weekly podcast. And please be sure to follow us on most social media platforms. And now, from Westside Christian Fellowship in Leona Valley, California, here is Pastor Shane Idleman.
Shane Idleman: Verse 17, "Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird." Now, let me clarify this really quick. He's saying "in vain" when they would catch birds, you'd have to hide the net and hide the traps and all this. But he's just saying, surely in vain you put the net out when the birds can see it. You're not going to catch anything. You're doing that in vain. But they lie in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; it ends up taking the life of its owner. Another translation says, "So are the fate of everyone who is greedy for gain. It ends up robbing you of life." Let me tell you right now, when you pursue riches, it will rob you of life. You'll live your whole life laying on your deathbed and say, "What in the world was that all about?" because it robs you of life when you pursue those things. I've talked about this before. If you go online, you can get the sermon "Money: Master or Servant." We talked about this, so I don't want to belabor this point either, but it begs the question: is money right now a master or a servant? In our economy, even today, we see this. We don't realize the Bible would often parallel money (mammon) and God as opposites. You either pursue money—and that's basically, in the Old Testament, oftentimes idolatry and gold and silver and the things of the world—or you pursue the things of God. Because Jesus said, "You cannot serve two masters." You cannot. You can come to church and act as if you're serving God, but the bottom line is, where is your checkbook going? Oh, don't let me get on this topic. You cannot serve two masters. Either you'll love the one or hate the other, or you'll despise the one or be loyal to the other. You cannot serve both God and this world, God and money. We see it all the time. You've seen it before. It comes up slowly, and people get more hooked to this. A good indication is—and I don't say this a lot, so it's okay to say it now—but giving is a good reflection of a heart. If a person doesn't want to give—I don't care if you give to Grace Resources, give to James MacDonald online, give to Woodrow Kroll, give all these—give. If your heart is giving, if it's a giving heart, that's a good indication that money has not mastered you. But if you need to hold on to everything as if you're God and "I don't want to let anything go," there's not a giving heart. There, money is your master. You don't trust in God. I don't trust in God; I trust in money. I need this money here because I don't trust in God. I know the Bible says give, but I dare not try that out. What about if I don't make it? What about if I sink my ship? God's saying, "Test me, try me in this." God loves a cheerful giver. I've got stories and stories. I was just thinking of them last week. Me and Morgan were going over them, even recently. I had to get new tires on my truck. I was like, went to the store and they're like, "$800 for good tires." I'm like, "What? That's ridiculous." Randy even told me, "You better get new tires. You're going to get something," because the steel was almost coming out on the sides. I'm like, "I gotta get tires." So I asked them, "Do you sell used tires?" and they're like, "We don't sell used tires. This is a tire store." So that week I was thinking, man, we're not going to—because for the last 12 years, we've always—make $2,000 a month, we give $200. $3,000, $300. $4,000, $400. $5,000, $500. Whatever, 10%. We're not legalistic; we're not tied to that. I understand it was Old Testament law, but it's a good amount to give because it hurts. It hurts a little bit. It hurts quite a bit. So I was thinking, let's not this week; I need tires. Let's not do that. Lord, I'm going to obey you. Clearly, you can help me out of this. So I went ahead and did it. Within two or three days, I'm driving to somebody's house. I go in their garage and they've got four brand new tires. They just put them on their car, but they want bigger ones. They go, "You can just take them for $200 bucks." So it just—it happens all the time. Because see, my flesh says, "I got to hold on to this money. I need some things at the house. I want to do this to the garage. I need this money. I can't let it go." Another time we prayed for a stainless steel refrigerator for years. Ours was 20-some years old. Same thing. I've got, oh, I could just go get it now, it's on Home Depot, they're on sale. No, we've got to give because I don't want it to become a master. It's hard for me. So we just gave, gave. And then that week some lady said, "Hey, we're moving to Nevada. We already have a refrigerator. Do you want this stainless steel one, four years old? Just take it." See, but that's how he—we don't realize. We don't see that side. We don't see God moving. How many times does he prevent accidents or car insurance or doctor visits or health issues or taxation? It seems like people that are always hoarding and trying to save are always going through problems and issues and this and that. They never have enough. But those who give to God, he opens several other doors you don't even know about. Because the power's in the application. You don't know until you apply. "Lord, I'm going to give to you, even if I don't see it. I'm going to trust you even if I don't feel it, Lord, because your word says and I hold you to your word." I can give example after example after example. And giving, I found in my own heart, is a good test of the heart. I remember when construction was plummeting. I've told you guys this story before. My account was draining like a water hose that was on. There were a few months there that I thought, "I'm not tithing this month. I'm just not going to give." And all hell broke loose and it got even worse. So I started giving back to God. All these doors opened. I sold equipment that I never should have sold for this price. Money came in here and this. God was just opening doors because you're honoring him. See, we don't see it, though. All we see is, "Oh goodness, I needed that money." But he says, "Okay, now let me bless you." See, when we understand how God blesses people, it's not just financially. "Lord, keep my kids healthy and safe all year. I don't care if I don't get any other money. Lord, keep my family safe and healthy all year, all summer, all winter." We pray for those things because God can bless us. And that's what the Bible says. "Such is the fate of all who are greedy for gain. It ends up robbing them of life." Well, you can get in a rut where you stop giving because you're not making as much. You say, "I'm not going to give anymore." But God still says, "Listen, honor me. I'll open up doors you don't even know about." You want an IRS audit to visit your house? Then you're going to owe about four or five thousand. Or do you want to give to me and let me prevent—now, that might happen. I'm not saying it won't happen to me. That was fine, so that was good. That was 10 years ago. But it was one of the most grueling processes of my entire life. A receipt for everything. Every mile you drive, everything has to be perfect. Verse 17, we just read through verse 19, "So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It ends up taking away the life of its own." Just remember that. When you give money, whether it's to church or charities or whoever, you're releasing that power that money has over you. That's one reason why we do it. It's the number one bill right when you get paid, right to the church. It has to be priority. It has to be, because it's not going to happen on its own. When a couple weeks go by, "Oh, we can't squeeze that anymore. We'll just miss this month's tithe. We'll get it next month." "And when I win the lottery"—I hear this all the time—"when I win the lottery, I'm giving a hundred thousand to the church." No, you're not. If you don't give anything now, you'll come up with some big excuse then. "When I sell my house, I'm giving." No, you don't. People don't do that. But they excuse their actions thinking someday I'll do that. As if God's in heaven going, "Darn it, I really needed that this week." He's just testing your heart. God does not need any money whatsoever. People forget that. The church doesn't need any money. I opened a checking account with a hundred dollars and we've been saving ever since for two years. We don't need anybody's money. We don't promote it. We don't ask for it. We just say, "Lord, whatever you want to do." He doesn't need it. It is a release valve that allows you to receive the blessings of God. So as a pastor, I must talk about that. How can I talk about the riches of Christ, the riches of the cross, but not the blessings of giving? "You'll have this and you'll be this and you'll be a CEO"—that's not biblical. That's heresy when you begin to put money as your God and you're giving to God so you'll become this. The other side of it—and I've said this before—is when you ignore it because of the reputation it's had in the church. "Oh, they come to church. All they want is your money." I'll tell you right now, I don't want anybody's money. God's been providing for two years and we haven't asked ever. And he's going to continue to, probably more so than most people think. He opens tremendous doors. People giving resources. The church, when they said, "You can use our church free" when we first started. That never happens unless God's in it and you're putting him first. See, now this is a hard lesson for me, too. You think I just love to give? "I just love to give." No, we need to be cheerful. I need to work on that. Sometimes I'm like, "I can't believe I'm writing a check for a certain amount. We need this money right now." But that's what it is: a biblical principle because it's all about trust and faith. That's what faith is. If you want to get really nitty-gritty on faith, it's trusting God when you don't see the end result. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," Hebrew tells us. So you're believing in what God has promised even though you don't see it. That's faith. If I open up the mail and there's a hundred-thousand-dollar check and say, "Now I can tithe," that's not faith. Of course you're going to do that. But saying, "Lord, I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to trust you to see me through." That's faith. And without faith, it's what? It's impossible. It's impossible to please God. The Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God. So many people in this room, I guarantee because it happened to me, are praying, "Lord, open this door," praying, praying. Feels like my prayers are hitting the ceiling. God's not hearing anything. Because we're not giving. We're holding on to everything. There's no faith in God. We have faith in ourselves. "I'm worried about the economy. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do that." I'm holding on to everything. "I'm not going to give right now in this season of my life. My ship will sink." There's no faith there, so you're not pleasing God. So prayers aren't being answered often. Because it's those who are walking in the will and ways of God. I do believe that a giving heart opens many doors to God's will. Absolutely. You can find it throughout scripture that those who give—those who just give, "I don't really have it right now, but I'm going to give to you, Lord"—he blesses them. He opens doors they never dreamed possible. But it starts right here. That's all money is, is a heart check. That's all it is. It's a resource that we use. It's a commodity to buy and sell and receive. Our whole life has to revolve around it because everything hinges on it, but it checks the heart. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, but it also spends. I just thought of that one. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will—the hands will spend. So the Bible's crystal clear on that. And as a pastor, sometimes I feel bad because I don't talk about it enough. A couple of you guys in this room, you know who you are, you've called me on that. "You've got to start talking about giving more. You've got to start talking about how it can bless people." I don't want to be one of those guys. We don't have to be one of those guys if you just balance it with what the Bible says. And the Bible says, "Such is the fate of all who are greedy for gain. It ends up robbing them of life." How are we greedy? All greed is, if you look it up, is holding on to things more so than you should. Money's a terrible master, but it's a wonderful servant. See, it's not meant to—you're not meant to get a whole bunch, now buy a 6,000-square-foot house. Now get a whole bunch, now buy 14 cars. Now get a whole bunch and get that condo I always wanted up over there. Now get a whole bunch and do this. That's just hoarding and greed. The whole concept is to give, and then sure, save as much as you can, earn as much as you can, but also give as much as you can. It's like—listen, this does not have me because I'm giving it. This does not have me; I'm giving it. The hardest times usually are the biggest amounts. One time we sold our house and then we made a good amount. I was like, "Oh my lord, that's going to be a big check. I mean, you know what we could do with that?" But as soon as you start to think that, you've just got to write—just, "Lord, here, you have it. I give it to you." It's a giving—that's what the New Testament teaches: on giving. God loves a cheerful giver. There's not an amount, there's not a qualification, there's not this. What has God put on your heart to give? For some people, it's a little. For others, it's a lot. So it doesn't—you see what I mean? It's not about how much. It's about the heart. It's always about the heart. If the heart's right, the giving comes. There's no end to that. Verse 20—oh interesting, I put on this money issue that most on their deathbed have huge regret. In essence, they're saying, "It robbed me of life." I've talked to men who were dying, older men. They said, "I missed my kids. I wish I would have had that time back, those 10, 20, 50 years. I would have did things differently. I wouldn't have pursued those things. I would have loved my children. I would have loved my wife." Now they're living in regret on their deathbed, or close to that. It ends up robbing them of life. Life is gone. We don't realize that. We don't get tomorrow back. We sure don't get last week back, and we won't get today back tomorrow. It's all about living. That's why as hard as it is and we're trying to raise our kids in the fear of the Lord and spend time with them, yet also minister at the church and still make sure that when we go to bed tonight, we can say, "Did I spend enough time with my kids and with my family?" Verse 20, "Wisdom calls aloud outside." I love these verses. Here's why: there is no excuse. There is no excuse in the body of Christ. There's no excuse in our life because wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open square. The open square's where where people met to receive information. Before the internet, before text messaging, before Drudge Report, before the news. They didn't have any of that. They went to the open square. They went to the gates of the city. So he's saying wisdom cries aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses and at the openings of the gates in the city. She speaks her words with clarity. So wisdom cries out. There's no excuses. We can't say, "I didn't know." Wisdom cries out. Actually, there's wisdom, I believe, in our heart, too, that God's—the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Do you ever get that? "I shouldn't do that. I shouldn't do that." And that's one of the reasons we're in the debacle with the housing market. "I know I qualify for 400,000, but I better buy 250." Oh, it feels so right: nothing down, stated income. It's crumbling now. It's crumbling now because wisdom cries out. There's no excuse. We know what to do; we just don't do it. Most of the problems that we're in, we know how we got in the situation. I don't counsel very many few people who say, "I have no idea how I got here." I know exactly how I got here because I didn't apply wisdom to my life. But as a word of encouragement, God always calls us back. See, that can be frustrating, but it can also be very encouraging. Because when a man finally recognizes, "I've done damage. I'm at the end of myself. Lord, will you help me?" he says, "Absolutely. This is where I can jump in. This is where I can turn your life. This is where I can restore the years that the cankerworm and the locust took. This is where I can restore your life, restore your marriage, restore your fruitfulness, restore your joy and your peace. I can bring back." Sure, there's consequences, absolutely. There's consequences to our choices, but God always calls us back to live. Because here's the difference: now we can live in his arms, redeemed and restored, and let him guide us and direct us with the consequences, or we can live outside of his will and still deal with the consequences and have it get worse and worse and worse. So he always calls us back. That's what I love about God's word. You'll go through it. He'll say, "If my people will turn back to me." "Oh Israel, turn back to me." Paul would say in some of the writings, "Listen, turn back to God, you churches that are going astray." What did Jesus say to five of the seven churches in Revelation? Two he had praises for; five he said, "You've left your first love. You've allowed compromise in the church. You've allowed false doctrine. You've become rigid. You've become dead. You've become arrogant. Return to me before it's too late." It's always that call of returning back to him. Verse 22, "How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. If you hate knowledge and you hate wisdom, the Bible calls that a fool." The fool has said in his heart that there is no God. Wisdom says, "Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you." See, that's the whole purpose of rebuke. The Bible's rebuking here. It's saying, "Listen, you delight in hating knowledge, but turn now. Turn back to me. Turn at my rebuke." That's the whole point of the Bible calling us to do that: to turn and repent. And you know, that's one of the great themes of this church, is always wanting to get people to repent. And that's all it is: repentance is I'm walking this way, it's not going like I thought, I'm going back to God. I'm repenting. Change of mind leads to a change of action. Now I'm walking this way. I'm walking in a format of repentance. I've repented; I've turned around. I'm turning back to God. That's why Peter can say, "Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out and times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord." It's in that right relationship with God that blessings come and forgiveness and we can feel refreshed in the Lord. When people aren't in right relationship with God, even though they're Christians, they're bitter and they're angry and they're upset and all these things. All these emotions are just so angry because they're not in right relationship with God. He wants them to break and return to him and the joy and the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what he calls us to do. Now I love where it says that, "Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you." Now, this can get a little controversial, and it shouldn't. "I will pour out my spirit." I'm going to actually speak on this at Gracefest in the afternoon on the fully surrendered life. I think I have 10 or 15 minutes, unless I can get some more time out of Ron. I'm going to talk to him. Just kidding. But I want to talk briefly on this "pour out my spirit upon you" because a lot of people don't realize this. But in the Bible, a lot of times you'd see the Holy Spirit coming alongside someone, right? They'd come alongside, and it's where we get our word *parakletos* from. It's a—they come alongside of you. The Holy Spirit will come alongside of you, convict, draw, all these things. But then the Bible—there's another, believe it's a preposition, *en*. Then the Holy Spirit becomes in us, *en*. And now he dwells inside of us. We have the Holy Spirit as believers. But the Bible also uses another interesting word: *epi*. It's an overwhelming of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit came upon a believer or a church and that place was radically changed. And that's the one that people get a little weird about. We don't want to talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I don't want to talk about the unction of the Holy Spirit. I don't want to talk the power of the Holy Spirit. I don't want to talk about the empowering of the Holy Spirit. Actually, let's don't even talk about the Holy Spirit. There's a problem there. Because the Bible says when you embrace me, when you break, when you humble yourself, when you fully turn your life to me, I will overflow you—*epi*—with my spirit. Now you have the Holy Spirit residing in you. Now you know what Jesus said, "When you believe on me, as the scripture say, out of your innermost belly will flow rivers of living water." This is what the prophet spoke of when he said his word is in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones. This is what Peter talked about when he said times of revival, refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord. So this is nothing to run from; it's something to run to. "Lord, I want all of you. Will you fill me with your Holy Spirit? Will you endue me with power from on high?" Because there's a difference between Shane having the Holy Spirit *parakletos* next to me, and then there's a difference between when I believe and now I have the Holy Spirit residing in me. But if I live lukewarm, watch everything the world watch, hangs out with the wrong people, I've quenched and grieved the Spirit of God. I have no power of the Holy Spirit in my life. I haven't witnessed in five years. The Bible's boring. I don't want to come to church. I definitely don't want to come to this church because it's too convicting. Hello, Regaining Lost Ground listeners, this is Pastor Shane Idleman. Hey, I want to let you know that my new booklet titled "A Calculated Assault Against Cancer" is now available. You can download it for free right now at ShaneIdleman.com. Again, my new booklet, "A Calculated Assault Against Cancer," is now available at ShaneIdleman.com. And the reason I did this is because there's so much negativity and fear that encompasses that word, and especially in the medical industry, there's not a lot of hope. And so I want to release this booklet to give people hope and perspective and let them know, hey, with God, all things are possible, and his sovereignty can be your sanity. So again, get this to anybody struggling with their health, especially and primarily cancer. The title of the booklet is called "A Calculated Assault Against Cancer," and it's available right now at ShaneIdleman.com.
Guest (Male): Westside Christian Fellowship is located 60 miles north of Los Angeles in Leona Valley, California. Thank you again for listening to today's message of Regaining Lost Ground, where we are reminded daily: times change, truth does not.