(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, in Proverbs chapter 15, the part that I wanted to draw attention to is there in verse number 12, where the Bible reads, A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him, neither will he go unto the wise. And what I want to preach about tonight is the subject of going unto the wise. Going unto the wise, and the Bible tells us here why people do not go unto the wise, and that's simply because they do not like being reproved. Now right away when we hear the word reprove, we think of preaching, because the Bible commands a preacher to preach the word, be instant in season out of season, and the first thing is reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. This explains why some people don't want to hear biblical preaching, why they will not go unto someone who can give them biblical preaching. Now in Proverbs 1 verse 5, you don't have to turn there, but it says a wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. He's going to go unto the wise. He's going to go seek out wise counsels and good advice. It says in verse 6, to understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. In chapter 20 verse 5, the Bible reads, Council in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Now turn if you would to 1 Kings 22, 1 Kings chapter 22. You see all throughout the Bible, there's a concept that comes up over and over again in the Old Testament, and that's this idea of people going to inquire of the Lord. You probably notice that a lot when you're reading the Bible. It talks over and over again all throughout the Old Testament about people inquiring of the Lord, or going to ask counsel of the Lord, or inquire at the mouth of the Lord, and this is one of those examples. It says in 1 Kings chapter 22 verse 4, And he said unto Jehoshaphat, and this is an ungodly king who's saying this, it says, And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. Verse 5, And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire I pray thee at the word of the Lord today. See Jehoshaphat knows that, you know, before he's going to make a major decision, he should inquire of the Lord first. And it says in verse 7 that he wanted to inquire of the Lord. Verse 5 he said he wanted to inquire of the Lord, look at verse 6, Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. Verse 7 says, And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him? Now right away, doesn't that seem odd that four hundred prophets are brought to him? And he says, well is there anybody else? Now look, four hundred is a lot. So you'd think that four hundred would be enough, wouldn't you? But Jehoshaphat could perceive that the word of the Lord was not with these guys. He knew there was something wrong with these prophets. Now let me tell you something, phony preachers are a dime a dozen. Show me where in the Bible you see four hundred godly prophets being called in. You know, it's not that easy to find a man of God, a godly prophet. And obviously there are far more than four hundred in this world, but I mean you just don't see them traveling in big groups of four hundred. Whereas ungodly preachers, man, they get together in groups of four hundred all the time. And so what we see here is that these preachers are coming together, but Jehoshaphat can perceive right away that these guys are phonies, that the word of the Lord is not with them. And so he says, look isn't there anybody else, isn't there another prophet of the Lord that we could talk to? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, verse 8, there is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him. For he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah. Isn't it interesting that out of all the prophets that the king of Israel can find, four hundred phonies and one good prophet. That's probably about the ratio today, I mean sad to say, if we took the entire world. And so when Micaiah's brought, it says in verse 13, and the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah, spake unto him saying, behold now the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth. Let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them and speak that which is good. And Micaiah said, as the Lord liveth what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak. And so here we see that he's being told to preach a positive only message. And he's also being told, preach what everyone else is preaching. Go with the crowd, go with the flow, do what everybody else is doing. But what I want to point out about this is that the reason that the king of Israel hated Micaiah was because he prophesied negative things to him, and the Bible told us that a scorner loveth not one that reproveth him. That's why the king of Israel did not love Micaiah, because he reproved him. And neither will he go unto the wise, that's why the king of Israel wouldn't go unto him. Micaiah was wise. The four hundred prophets were foolish. He was going to get foolish counsel, foolish advice that would be his downfall because he would not go to the wise and he ends up dying as a result, because he won't listen to the truth. He won't listen to the preacher that actually tells him the truth. Go if you would to 2 Kings chapter 1. And you know, again, this is a theme in scripture. We can't really look at all the different times tonight that the Bible talks about inquiring of the Lord, but it's a major theme in scripture, it's something that we see over and over again. All of us have times in our life where we need advice, or where we're wondering what to do, or we're wondering what is right, or we're looking for answers on a particular subject. So the question is, where do we go to get those answers? Do we go to the wise, or do we go to the foolish to get those answers? Now here it says in 2 Kings 1-1, then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab, and Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria and was sick. And he sent messengers and said to them, Go inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this disease. But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a god in Israel that you go to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Now therefore, thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die, and Elijah departed. And when the messengers turned back unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye now turned back? And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Is it not because there is not a god in Israel that thou sendest to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." Here we see a man being rebuked and told, look, you need to go to God for your answer. You need to go to the God of the Bible, the Lord God of Israel, and not go to this ungodly Beelzebub, god of Ekron, to get advice and inquire of him. How do we apply that today? Obviously God does not speak to us audibly today, neither does God speak audibly unto a prophet that will come and give us a new revelation. But we have something better than that. We have a more sure word of prophecy because we have the entire Bible at our fingertips. And look, the answers are in the Bible. So instead of saying as this man said, you know, it's because there's not a god in Israel that you have to go to this other phony god from Ekron, you know, I'd say, don't you, is there not a Bible in your hand? Is there not a Bible in your house? Why do you not know how to live your life? Why do you not know what the answers are? Why do you go to the world? Why do you go to a psychiatrist? You know, why do you go to the counselors of this world to get advice and, and go to, to the world's philosophers to figure out how to, you know, have a marriage or how to live your life, raise your children, or you know, you're sad, you're depressed, you go and see a doctor, a psychiatrist, you know, why don't you go to God? Why don't you inquire of the mouth of the Lord to get the answers that you need? And you know what? The answers are in the Bible and the answers are found if you show up to church and listen to biblical preaching. Now look, I don't have a special revelation from God. God does not come to me and, and speak to me and give me a new word to preach. But you know what? I have studied this book and I'm preaching this book and I'm preaching God's word. So just as much as the prophets of the Old Testament spake God's word, if I'm preaching out of the Bible, it's still God's word. In fact, we have more of it. We get even more truth and the answers to a lot of the questions that you have in life are found by showing up at church and listening to biblical preaching and you will get the answers that you're looking for in your life. And oftentimes if you pray and ask God to reveal something to you, forget oftentimes, always if you pray and ask God to reveal something to you, He will reveal it to you. Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh find it and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. And so if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that give it to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him. Do you lack wisdom tonight? Do you lack wisdom in a certain area of life? If you ask God to give you that wisdom, He will give it to you. He can give it to you in a variety of ways. He can give it to you through your personal Bible reading. Sometimes the idea will just pop into your head. Sometimes you'll get it through biblical preaching. But if you are seeking answers, if you're seeking the truth and if you're seeking wisdom and if you go to the Lord and inquire of the Lord for the answer, God will reveal the answer to you. There have been things that I struggled with over the years. I remember, for example, here's a great example when I was a teenager. You know, I didn't know the Bible as well as I do now. I hadn't really read it cover to cover but one time, you know, in my late teenage years I was just starting to really learn the Bible and read through it cover to cover over and over again and so I was new to a lot of scriptures and passages. Even though I'd grown up in church, you don't really know the Bible until you read it cover to cover on your own. And that's why I strongly encourage, if you've never read the Bible cover to cover, that needs to be your main, the main thing that you get out of this sermon is you need to get a Bible and you need to read it cover to cover. And it's not that hard, it takes about 15 minutes a day if you read through it and just to prove to you that it takes about 15 minutes a day, if you listen to Alexander Scorby reading it on audio, he doesn't read that fast. I mean, he reads it at a pretty reasonable speed. And if you just do the math on it, it's 15 minutes a day and you'd listen through the whole thing, even a little less than that. So if you're an average reader and you read the Bible 15 minutes a day, you can get cover to cover in a year. If you read it an hour a day, you'll get through it four times in a year. So you can read the Bible and learn. That's really important. But I remember as a teenager when I was a little newer to a lot of passages in the Bible, you know, I was confronted with Romans chapter 9 and, you know, by a Calvinist that was confronting me with Romans 9 and trying to indoctrinate me with Calvinism and convert me over to Calvinism. And I knew that Calvinism just wasn't right because it didn't add up with so many other scriptures and it didn't seem right and there were so many verses that contradicted it. But I just, I couldn't really figure out what to do with Romans 9. I mean, I looked at Romans 9 and it seemed to be teaching, you know, Calvinism. And so I remember struggling with that and I just remember I just prayed every day and I just kept reading it and I just kept praying, God, would you help me to understand this passage? I don't understand it. Reveal it to me. And God revealed it to me. You know, just through studying it and it just, one day, just reading it, it just bam, it hit me. And again, I'm not, I don't want to preach on Romans 9 tonight, but it's pretty easy to disprove. Once you realize, I'll just, you know, in case you're not familiar, just to give you the key is if you go back to the scriptures that are quoted in Romans 9, you go back to them in the Old Testament and the one about Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, and the elders shall serve the younger, you'll find out that's not even about Jacob and Esau, it's about the nations. He says two nations are in your womb, the elders shall serve the younger. And that's proven further by the fact that Jacob never served Esau in his lifetime. Read the whole book of Genesis, you'll never find Esau bowing down before Jacob. You'll never find Esau serving Jacob. It was the nations. And so that chapter is talking about the nation of Israel versus the nation of Edom. It's not talking about, you know, personal salvation being determined by God, it's talking about different gifts and callings of God that are chosen. And you know, I'm not going to go into that and preach that, but I'm saying that's something that was revealed to me through prayer, through studying the Bible. God gave me that wisdom that I was looking for. You know, another chapter I struggled with was 1 John chapter 3. And I struggled with part of 1 John chapter 3 and I prayed to God and about a week, week and a half later I had my answer. But there are other things that I prayed to God about, other areas where I've asked for God to give me wisdom, and it took many years for God to answer my prayer. And I remember even praying again saying, God, I asked you to reveal this to me and I'm just, I'm not seeing it, I asked for wisdom, you said you'd give it to me, what's going on God? And you know what, eventually the answer came because the answer always comes. It just doesn't always come immediately, but God will answer you. God will give you wisdom. And so we need to go to God first, not run to the world, run to the doctor. And I'm not saying it's bad to go to the doctor, there are times to go to the doctor. The Bible says they that behold need not a physician but they that are sick. So you know, when you're sick sometimes you do need to see a doctor. But sometimes people are so anxious to run to the doctor or just run to a psychiatrist or just run to the counselor of this world, run to Ekron to talk to Beelzebub, instead of first going to God, first going to the Bible. First coming to church and hearing the preaching of God's word and inquiring of the mouth of the Lord instead of inquiring at the mouth of the ungodly and the counselor of this world and the doctor Phils and the oprahs of this world. Oh they have plenty of advice for you, but it's the wrong advice. And so we need to be careful that we go to God first. Here's a perfect example, Genesis 25, another scripture about inquiring of the Lord. It says in Genesis 25, 21, oh that's funny I was just talking about this coincidentally. I was just mentioning this, it wasn't in my notes to tie these two things together. But it says in Genesis 25 verse 21, and Isaiah, I'm sorry, Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren and the Lord was entreated of him and Rebekah his wife conceived and the children struggled together within her. And she said, if it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. So right away she's pregnant and she's happy about being pregnant and she knows it's God answering her prayer after 20 years of praying, but she's a little bit disturbed by the fact that the children are fighting in her womb, these twins. You know, I mean, she doesn't know what's going on, but here she is pregnant and you know when ladies are pregnant they feel the baby kicking and everything, but this is like a battle that's going on in her womb. And it's disturbing to her that there's just so much violence going on in the womb. And she's praying to God saying, God, I don't know what's going on. And she went to inquire of the Lord and the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels and the one people shall be stronger than the other people and the elders shall serve the younger. And you know, I even heard a preacher once say, and I agree with this, I heard a preacher say that before you even put an Advil in your mouth or put an aspirin in your mouth, you should first pray to God and turn to him first and ask him to fix your headache or whatever the problem is. I mean that's great advice. I mean instead of just being so quick to just, oh, you know, turn to, you know, we should go to God with all of our problems first and inquire of him. You know, something's going on in your womb, something's going on with your pregnancy. I'm not saying not to go, you know, seek out attention or seek out the middle. But I would pray on the way there. I would pray first. I would always go to God first because sometimes God can reveal things to you and bring things to your mind or step in and intercede and fix things in a way that's greater than what man can do for you. And so what am I talking about tonight? I'm talking about going unto the wise. I'm talking about inquiring of the Lord, not inquiring of this world or inquiring of Beelzebub or inquiring of the ungodly. The Bible says, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And remember, the scorner is the one who loveth not him that reproveth him. Neither will he go to the wise. So the same one who walks in the counsel of the ungodly is the one who doesn't want to go to the wise. You see, there are people who will literally be going to a Bible-believing church that's preaching all kinds of doctrine where they are learning something every time they come there. Or at least half the time they come there, or at least most of the time they come there. They are learning biblical truths and they're being fed, but then they get offended by something that's preached because they don't like being reproved. And so then they'll turn around and go to a church where they learn nothing, but it's comfortable there. They go to a church where they can be comfortable, they're not going to be reproved, they're not going to be rebuked, they can sit back and relax, but they're not learning anything. Go to the wise, go to someone who knows something that you don't know so that you can learn something. And to me, one of the main reasons why I like to go to church is to learn something. I mean, if I were a church member and I weren't learning anything, I would try, I would switch churches if I could. If there were another church where I could learn something, because to me, yes, church is a place to worship God, yes it's a place to sing the hymns, but to me it's also important that it be a place of learning. That's why the pastor must be apt to teach. That's why he needs to give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. Doctrine means teaching. You know, we need to go to the wise and not be afraid of having someone reprove us. You know, when someone tells you that you're wrong, when someone tells you that you've done wrong, when someone points out something wrong, instead of getting upset, instead of getting angry, instead of hating that person like the king of Israel hated Micaiah the son of Imlah, you should love them, because the Bible says, rebuke a wise man, he'll love you. And if you go to a church where you get reproved, that's a church that's feeding you. That's a church that's helping you grow. That's a church that's fixing the problems in your life. Over and over again, the Bible rebukes people not inquiring of the Lord, and inquiring of the wrong people, and getting advice from the wrong people. Go to Jeremiah chapter 5, Jeremiah chapter 5. While you're turning there, I'll read you from Psalm 27.4. It says, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. To go to God's house and inquire of the Lord. Now look, oftentimes the Bible has the answer for you if you just open it up and read it, pray, read your Bible. If you're just coming to church, you can get the preaching that you need. Or perhaps if there's a certain subject that you need to learn about, you could also get the sermons that have been recorded from the past. And there are all kinds of subjects that are covered and you could learn that way. There are a lot of different ways to learn through God's Word. The Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 4, therefore I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish, for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God. I will get me unto the great men and will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God, but these have altogether broken the oak and burst upon it. Look, he's talking about going to someone who's a great man, going to someone who's a great woman, we're going to talk about that a little bit later in the sermon, but going to someone who's a great man and asking him or learning or just listening to him, just getting knowledge from him, getting the truth from him. You think of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus. There was no greater man than Jesus Christ and she sat there and just listened to everything that he said. And you know what I love about that image of Mary sitting and listening to Jesus, one of my favorite stories, because you know what, it's humble. She's sitting at his feet and she's just humbly wanting to hear what he has to say. Remember Martha rebuked her because Martha felt like she wasn't doing enough work. And Martha said, look, I'm doing all the work, she's left me to serve alone. And Jesus said what she's doing is better because she's sitting and listening to what I have to say. And look, when there is wise preaching and wisdom coming out of the mouth, especially from Jesus himself, I mean, if you're smart, you'll listen to it. You'll be there, you'll listen. But I was thinking about this, how going onto the wise and getting the truth from the wise and getting counsel from wise people is sometimes something that takes humility. Now I've noticed this phenomenon amongst people. Some people like to be a big fish in a little pond. Some people purposely like to go to a church that's lame so that they can feel like they're the most spiritual person in that church because maybe they are. They'll purposely go to a lame church where they can be the big fish in the little pond because then they can bring in the soul winning and they can start everything. Which it's great. I mean, hey, bring in the soul winning, get things going. But you know what? There are people out there who like to hang around with people that are less spiritual than them all the time to make themselves feel spiritual. They hang around with people that are less spiritual. And I thought of a great illustration about this. I was thinking about weightlifting and I learned some weightlifting from Brother Chris Segura. I like to exercise and stay in shape and be fit. And so I remember I called up Brother Segura, because I knew he knew a lot about weightlifting, and I asked him, hey, you know, can we lift weights together? I want to learn from you. I want to learn what you have to know about weightlifting and so let's lift weights together. You know, and I went to his house and basically he was teaching me. I was learning from him, okay? But see, I had to be humble because it was a subject that he knew more about. Now if I wanted to, I could find the wimpiest guy in this church, right? And I could say, hey, let's go lift weights together, right? And I could make myself feel good, right? By, you know, lifting weights and then, you know, oh here, let me take off a lot of weight for you, you know. And then, here, let me show you how, here, let me put it all back on for me, you know. And here's the thing. If I wanted to just have an ego boost, right, I could find the skinniest, scrawniest, wimpiest person I could find and make that my weightlifting partner, right? Make that my running partner. You know, make that the person that, just to make myself feel good. But see, if I'm smart, I would go to somebody who is more advanced than me, right, that can challenge me and push me further and teach me things that I don't know. I'd rather go to that person, okay? But see, many people don't want to go to the wise because they don't have the humility to take a backseat to somebody else, to close their mouth and open their ears and say, okay, show me how to do this. And, you know, obviously weightlifting is not the most important thing in life, but it's just an illustration of just, you know, going to somebody who knows more about it, somebody who's better at it, it could be a humbling experience, maybe, but you know what? You're learning, you're growing, you're gaining, but it makes way more sense, you know, to go to somebody who knows more and go unto the wise. But the scorner doesn't want to go to the wise. He wants to go to the fool because it makes him feel better about himself. You know, I'd rather go to a church where the people around me are, they challenge me. You know, where I go to church and I look around and I see all the soul winning that goes on and I see the clean living that goes on and I see the Bible reading that's going on and the Bible memorization that's going on and it challenges me and motivates me. And look, I am not a perfect person. I am not arrived. I am not the Lord Jesus Christ here. And so even as a pastor, that doesn't mean that I'm just always the number one guy in every area of life. I am number one. No, that's not true. There are people in this church where I can get around them and they can challenge me to grow spiritually because different people have different strengths. And you know, I like going to a church that can help sharpen me, like iron sharpens iron, and motivate me. I don't want to go around and just find the weakest group of Christians I can find just so I can feel like, well, you know, I'm doing a lot better than these people. No, I'd rather find people that humble me and where I look at them and say, oh man, I need to catch up to him in this area. I need to do this and that. You know, this is what it means to go unto the wise. It's humbling to say to somebody, can you explain to me how to do this? Can you teach me how to do this? Whether it's weightlifting, maybe it's working on your car, maybe it's something in your house, hey, can you teach me how to fix this? Can you explain to me? I remember one time I was at a pizza place and I noticed that this pizza place was very well run and all the employees were happy and they were all obedient and the manager was just firmly in control of this place. And I remember going to him and telling him, you know what, leadership is an area where I lack and I want you to explain to me how you run this place so well and how you were such a good manager because I said, your employees are obedient, they're happy, you're firmly in control, everybody's doing their job. I said, this is the most well run pizza place. I said, teach me, explain to me what you're doing. What tips do you have? I mean look, that's what you'll do if you're smart. You'll go to the wise and try to learn from them and try to understand what they do and how they do it and you'll gain knowledge. But some people are a know it all. They're a know it all. They don't want to ask some pizza manager about leadership principles because they're a know it all. They already know everything. And what do you teach the person who already knows everything? You can't teach them anything. And you know what, it doesn't matter whether you're the pastor, it doesn't matter whether you got saved yesterday or whether you've been saved for 30 years, 40 years, you have something to learn. You do not know everything. Everyone can teach you, and you know I heard a famous quote too that said, you know, everyone knows something that I don't know, therefore all men are my teachers. You know, even the lowliest person can teach you something. And if you're smart, you'll go to people that are wise and get instruction from them. You know, if you see someone in our church who is good at soul winning, you know, you'll go soul winning with them. Try to watch them, you know, learn from them, see what they're doing, see what you can glean from them, and try to emulate them. You know, you might see other people in the church that have other skills or other abilities or things that they're doing well. And you know, you might be out soul winning with someone, and by the way, this is something that I'm sure happens. Where you're out soul winning with somebody, right, and your soul winning partner tells you, hey, let me tell you how you can improve your soul winning. Hey, let me give you a little tip about your soul winning, and you know what, there are some people where if you did that to them, they'll get upset. You know what I mean? Because they don't like somebody reproving them. Even to just kindly say to them, hey, can I give you a tip that'll improve your soul winning? Well, who are you to sell me out of the soul winning? If that's your attitude, you're a fool. If somebody said to me, can I give you a tip, and I'm the pastor of the church, if somebody said to me, somebody in the church said, hey, can I give you a tip to improve your soul winning? If I bristle at that, like, what, me, I'm the pastor of the church, what are you talking about? You know what, that just shows, that shows that I'm backslidden, you know, that shows that I'm prideful and arrogant. If somebody said that to me, I would say, sure, yeah, tell me, what do you think? Now that doesn't mean that you're necessarily always going to agree with the person who's reproving you or correcting you, but you might, but you should have an open mind about it and listen to what they have to say. And you know what, if it makes sense, you should implement it. You know, if they say, hey, you know, here's a better, and I, when I go soul winning with people, I always do that. If I go soul winning with somebody and I see somebody doing something that I don't think is ideal, I'll often say to that person, hey, can I, can I give you a tip to improve your soul winning? Can I help you do better? You know, and usually people are very humble and say, yeah, sure, tell me what you think. And I'll tell them what I think. And if that person then just turns around and ignores what I tell them, I'm, I'm not upset, I don't care. You know, it's, it's up to you how you want to go soul winning. The only time I ever just say to somebody, no, you're not going to go soul winning like that is if they're preaching false doctrine. You know, but if somebody's not preaching false doctrine, but maybe they're just doing something that I think is ineffective, not helpful, you know, I, I'll usually tell the person, hey, here's a way, and this is what you should do, by the way, if you're out soul winning with somebody and you feel like somebody's doing something wrong in their soul winning, not talking about preaching false doctrine, but maybe they're just doing something that's not the best way to do it. You know, I always just bring up to people, hey, you know, let me give you a tip to help improve your soul winning, but if they don't take my advice, I don't care. You know, they can continue doing it the way they're doing it, unless they're preaching false doctrine, it's up to you. And by the way, everybody does not need to go soul winning exactly the same way. As long as the basic elements are there, you know, as long as you're preaching the gospel, as long as you're making it clear that it's by faith alone, as long as you're teaching the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, as long as you're talking heaven and hell, we're all sinners, Jesus died, death, burial, and resurrection, you know what, there's more than one way to skin a cat, you know, we don't all just have to be a clone of one another. And that's what I like about our church, you know, you see variety amongst the soul winning, but, but as long as it's not false doctrine that's being preached, I think it's great that there's a variety because God can use different people and different approaches to reach different people. But the Bible says, he that winneth souls is wise. And if you're smart, you'll go unto the wise, meaning that you will go soul winning with as many different people as you want, as you can, and listen to what they're doing, and not just think to yourself, I already know everything about soul winning. To this day, I pick things up about, about soul winning from you. When I go soul winning with you, I'm a silent partner, I listen, and I pick up things that I like and that I'll use and incorporate, okay? That's how you grow. And honestly, if you're smart, you'll go soul winning, you're in a church that has so many great soul winners, so many people who have so many hundreds of hours of experience soul winning, I mean, if you're smart, you'll take advantage of that and pair up with these people and learn something and go with them and gain knowledge, gain instruction, go unto the wise. And if somebody is soul winning with you and they tell you, hey, I think a better way of doing that would be X, Y, and Z, don't bristle, don't get upset, thank them. And if you agree, then incorporate it. If you don't, then you don't. But you know what, you should be able to handle having someone reprove you and give you that kind of advice. Now, if you would go to Proverbs chapter 8, because it's interesting that, you know, the Bible talks about going unto the wise and it talks about, you know, getting advice from the wise man or listening to the wise man's preaching or just talking to wise people. The Bible says if you walk with the wise, you'll be wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed. That's why I would like to go to a church that's filled with wise people so I can get around them, glean from them, learn from them. I don't want to be a big fish in a little pond, I want to be a little fish in a big pond. Because you know why? I have room to grow. See they say that a fish will grow bigger if you put it in a bigger bowl, right? You know, you put the fish in a certain size bowl, it'll stay a certain size, then you put it in a bigger bowl and the fish will grow. Who's heard that before? I want to be a little fish in a big pond because I want to grow. I don't want to stay the same. But not only are men wise, not only do men have wisdom to offer, but the Bible also talks a lot about women having wisdom that they can offer. Now it's interesting because Proverbs chapter 8 is a chapter that's all about wisdom and in fact it personifies wisdom. You know what it means to personify something? That's where you take something that's not a person but you treat it like a person. So here wisdom is compared unto a person and that person is of the female gender. It's interesting because look at verse 1. It says in Proverbs 8, 1, Doth not wisdom cry? Now we know that wisdom is really just a concept or an inanimate object. Wisdom can't really cry, literally, can it? But here it says, Does not wisdom cry? And understanding putteth forth her voice. And then it says, She standeth in the top of the high places. By the way, in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in of the doors. Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. O ye simple, understand wisdom and ye fools be of an understanding heart. Now jump over to chapter 9 if you would. I'm going to come back to chapter 8, but jump over to chapter 9. The Bible says in Proverbs 9, 1, Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars. Again, we're personifying wisdom here in the female gender. She hath killed her beasts, she hath mingled her wine, she hath also furnished her table, she hath sent forth her maidens, she crieth upon the highest places of the city. Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. As for him that wanteth understanding, she sayeth to him, and remember that wording, and jump down to verse 13, because he's going to use the same wording about the foolish woman. It says in chapter 9 verse 13, A foolish woman is clamorous, she is simple and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, to call passengers who go right on their ways. Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. And as for him that wanteth understanding, she sayeth to him, does that sound familiar? See, it's identical wording. God compares wisdom and foolishness unto two women that are basically vying for your affection, right? The wise woman sits in the high places and she's calling out saying, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. The foolish woman's saying the same thing. And of course she says, stolen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant, but he knoweth not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depths of hell. But here's what's interesting, go back to chapter 8. So we see that wisdom is personified as a woman in contrast with foolishness, the foolish woman that leads down the wrong path. Look at Proverbs chapter 8 verse 12. It says, I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions. I want you to pay special attention to the word prudence there. Then it says in verse 35, for whoso findeth me, findeth life and shall obtain favor of the Lord. Now keep your finger there in Proverbs 8 35 and go to chapter 18 verse 22. Keep your finger in Proverbs 8 35 and look at Proverbs 18 22. In Proverbs 18 22 it says this, whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord. Look at Proverbs 8 35, whoso findeth me, talking about what? Wisdom. Whoso findeth me, findeth life and shall what? Isn't that the exact same wording? So in chapter 8 it says, whoso findeth wisdom, findeth life and shall obtain favor of the Lord. In Proverbs 18 22 it says, whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord. So basically what we see there is that women can also be a source of wisdom. Your wife can be a source of wisdom and that's why you should marry a wise woman. The Bible over and over again talks about the foolish woman. How many times? The foolish woman this, the foolish woman that, the foolish woman that. And then other times talk about a wise woman. A wise woman buildeth her house but the foolish plucketh it down with their hands. Over and over again we see the wise woman and the foolish woman in Proverbs contrast it. There's nothing wrong with getting wisdom from your wife or getting advice from your wife. But here's the problem. In most marriages there is a power play going on where there's a power struggle where there's not a clear authority. I mean this is most marriages today even amongst Christians, even amongst God's people and you can see it. You can see where there's a struggle between husband and wife of who's the boss and it's just never resolved. It never fully gets resolved where the wife just submits to her husband and the husband is ruling the home and you constantly see this power struggle going on. And you know what that power struggle does? It makes it impossible for the husband to get wisdom from his wife because he has to stay in charge and so he has to constantly be battling for that position of authority. But once you as a husband have total authority in your home, that gives you the freedom to be able to get wisdom from your wife because hopefully your wife is wise, hopefully she has good counsel and good advice and so, you know, a lot of times when I preach a lot about men ruling the home, men are the boss, you know, wives obey their husband, you know, people get the idea that I'm somehow degrading women. Which nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible says that we as husbands should give honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, okay? But the Bible does not teach that women are just foolish creatures. I mean the Bible does not teach women are dumb. That's why they need the husband to lead. I mean is that what the Bible says? But see, women who think that, then they think, well I'm not dumb therefore I don't, you know, I don't need to follow him. I can do it myself. Look, the Bible's not saying you're dumb. The Bible here is even talking about women being wise and about your wife being wise and about wisdom being personified even as a woman. So look, women can have great wisdom, but I'll tell you this right now. If you're a woman and you think, well I'm so wise, I have all the answers, I wish my husband would listen to you, you know why your husband's not listening to you? Because he's angry at you for trying to take over and rule the home. And as soon as you will back down and bow to his superiority as the leader of the home, not that he's better than you in general, but that he's higher in the chain of command, look, then your husband will respect you and love you and want to hear what you have to say. When you humble yourself and submit to his authority, then he has the freedom to, look, you know how I know this? Because I am a man. Okay, and you know what, as a man, I don't want to be ruled over by my wife. No man does, okay? Men want to rule their home. And you know what, my wife is very submissive to me. My wife is a wonderful, great example of obedience and submission and you know what, that's why I get all kinds of great advice from my wife and I learn all kinds of things from my wife. But you know what, if my wife were bossing me and my wife were constantly rebuking me and telling me what to do, I wouldn't want to hear a thing that she had to say because I'd be more interested in fighting to get my position back as the head of the home so I could stop being emasculated of my proper God-given role. Are you listening to me? And let me tell you something, if you want your husband to listen to you, submit to your husband and then let him tap into your boundless wisdom, okay? And that's what the Bible's teaching here, but here's the thing, go to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter number 2. And so obviously, you know, husbands being the leader doesn't mean that they can't ever learn anything from their wife. Let me give you some examples. Can I give you some examples of things I've learned from my wife over the years? For example, you know, a lot of my beliefs about homeschooling I learned from my wife. A lot of my beliefs about natural health and things along that nature, I've learned from my wife. You know, a lot of my beliefs about, what was the other thing I was going to bring up? Even birth control. You know, a lot of that I learned together with my wife. And you know what? She was a, because when I won my wife to the Lord, you know, before she got saved, she was a total left wing, you know, I don't want to say communist, but you know, I'm not saying she was, but you know what I mean. She was basically just a left wing liberal. Because that's how she'd been raised and taught and she wasn't saved. And so obviously when my wife got saved and when we got married, I taught her a lot of things. I mean, I taught her about being a Christian, I took her out and taught her how to go soul winning, I taught her the Bible, I taught her the basics of Christianity, but you know what? She taught me a lot also. And part of the reason why she taught me a lot is because she was a new believer. I'd been raised in a Christian home my entire life. Well, when you're raised in a Christian home your entire life, you get a lot of things that are just tradition that you didn't really get from the Bible. You just kind of got them from church and got them from growing up in a Christian home. Whereas because she was coming into it with a fresh set of eyes, a new believer, she didn't have all these traditions and things entrenched, so she's just coming in as a new believer just reading the Bible and she would point things out to me sometimes where I was wrong and say, well, you know, doesn't the Bible say this? And I'm kind of like, wow, I always just kind of took that for granted because that's what I've heard my whole life in church, but you're right, the Bible does say that. And see, it's good to learn things from your wife too. You can learn things from your wife. But you know what? If your wife is trying to boss you around, then I wouldn't listen to her. You know what I mean? It's more important to be the boss than to learn from your wife. But once you're the boss, you can learn from your wife and get all this great wisdom. I thank God that my wife is very intelligent and very wise and has taught me some things that I preach. I learned from her, okay? And I'm not ashamed to say that because of the fact that, you know, women can sometimes have great wisdom and there's nothing wrong with that. But there is something wrong with women being an authority over men. It's what the Bible teaches. So again, it's just the fools of this world, the atheists of this world, they'll say, oh, you're degrading women and tearing down women. I'm not tearing down women. I'm not degrading women. I give honor unto my wife. But you know what? She's not the boss and she's never going to be the boss. It'll be over my dead body that she's the boss. So anyway, do you see how that balances out? And it helps balance the power. Where the husband is in complete control and authority, but you know what, he can still get at wisdom and advice and then you can have the best of both worlds. You can put your heads together on things and there's no threat there to your manhood to be able to do that. You see what I'm saying? And so I've been able to learn a lot of great things from my wife over the years. But also, as a woman, if you're smart, you'll learn from other women in the church. Because you know, we talked about right now, obviously, soul winning and preaching and biblical things like that, but look what the Bible says in Titus chapter 2 verse 3. It says, the aged women likewise that they be in behavior has become of holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. So doesn't that teach right there that basically the women of the church should learn from other women in the church? Basically there's wisdom to be gleaned from one woman in the church to another. And the type of things that they can learn from other women in the church are things like being sober, things like loving their husbands, things like loving their children, things like being discreet, being chaste, chaste means what? Pure, right? Being chaste or pure, keepers at home. Look, women can learn from other women how to be a keeper at home, how to be good, how to be obedient to their own husbands. Look, if you as a woman see something in another woman that you would like to have in your life, if you're smart you'll go to that person and get counsel and get advice. But you know what many women will do? As soon as a woman takes them aside and tries to teach them something, because by the way let me just say this right now. This scripture is not teaching that women should get up behind the pulpit and teach and preach. That's not what this is teaching. This isn't teaching Joyce Meyer. But let me say this though. Let me say this though, you know oftentimes a wise woman in the church could speak unto another woman in the church and explain something to her? See all of the teaching in church doesn't take place behind the pulpit. There are conversations that take place before church and after church where teaching is going on. There are conversations that take place out soul winning between doors where teaching is going on. You know my best friend Roger Jimenez that's pastoring in Sacramento, California? You know what? I taught him a lot when he was a teenager, when he was 16 years old and I was 20 years old and guess when I taught him? Out soul winning. We'd be out soul winning and between doors I was just indoctrinating him the whole time. Okay? Why? Because of the fact that that's a great teaching opportunity to talk about the Word of God. Was I the pastor of the church? No. Did I have an official title or official position? No. But I was still, look, you can teach people the Word of God. You can teach people principles and women, the Bible teaches, should be, this is what it says in Titus chapter 2. It says that they should be in behavior as becometh holiness that they may teach the young women. It says, look, they need to be godly and righteous so that they can teach other younger women how to do those things and how to be that way. And so look, if a woman came up to you and said, you know what, I can see that you're struggling to obey your husband. Can I help you with that? Can I just give you some thoughts on that? Let me, you know what, most women would just have a cow if that were said unto them. Isn't that true? Oh, how dare you, ah, hot! But isn't that exactly what the Bible says that the aged women do to the younger women, to teach them to love their husbands, to teach them to love their children, to teach them to obey their husbands? I mean, is that not what it says? Am I reading a different Bible than you? That's what it says. Hey, can I teach you, can I teach, let me teach you how to be a little more discreet. Ah, what do you do, how dare you! But isn't that exactly what the Bible says? But you know what, 90% of people couldn't handle that. You know what I mean? They couldn't handle, a younger woman that couldn't handle an older woman, and maybe not physically older, maybe just older in the Lord. Maybe one who's been saved longer, right? One that just has more experience, to come to her and tell her, here, let me teach you, you know, a little more how to be chaste. Let me teach you how to be a little more discreet, okay? You know what discretion means? Discretion is knowing what is appropriate to say when, right? Someone who has indiscretion is somebody who says the wrong thing at the wrong time. You know? For example, how about a woman who is talking bad about her husband publicly? Making fun of her husband publicly? How about a woman who is talking about the bedroom publicly? You know, things that should be kept private? How about a woman who is, you know, just talking about things that are crude or crass or that are not appropriate? You know, what if an older woman said to a younger woman that she needs to learn how to love her husband, and here's some advice I could give you on that area. Let me give you some advice. You know, are these the conversations that ever take place in any church in America, I'm wondering? Is there any church in America today where, I mean, somewhere on some planet somewhere is some woman walking up to another woman in church, and I'm not saying criticize her, I'm not saying insult her, but just say, here, let me give you some tips on how to obey your husband. I mean, has that conversation ever happened since the New Testament was written? I sure hope so. Here, let me teach you how to, how about this? Let me teach you how to love your children. You know, and not to just be frustrated with them all the time, not to just be mad at them all the time, not to just be angry, but to actually love and enjoy your children. Here, let me give you advice. See, it's not just men that have wisdom, it's women that have wisdom also. Godly women that could teach the younger women, godly women that could be an example to the younger women. And look, the wise woman will go unto the wise elder woman and learn these things. But the foolish woman will not love the one that reproves her. She won't go unto the wise. She doesn't want to hear it. She doesn't want to learn anything. Look, I don't know everything and you don't know everything. We all need sometimes to be given counsel or to be given advice or to be given teaching or doctrine. I'm not saying that you necessarily have to walk up to me and ask me a question because a lot of the questions are just answered in the preaching. You know, a lot of times I could just refer you to a sermon that I've preached. Or a lot of times you could even just go on the website or just search out that sermon and just download it and listen to it. Or a lot of times it might not even be me that you ask, but you could rather ask someone else in the church who you look up to as a godly man, right? I'm not the only person in this church that has answers. I'm not the only person in this church that knows anything about the Bible. But you know what? You could go up and you could ask a question and get an answer. You could pray to God and inquire of the Lord and you could get an answer. You could go to the Bible and get an answer. But if you're wise, you'll be learning all the time and when someone actually takes the time to teach you something or to reprove you and tell you, hey, I've noticed an area where you need some work. I love you. I want to help you. Let me give you a little advice in that area. You know, if you're wise, you'll love it and you'll thank them and you'll take that advice. And by the way, we saw from the Bible, this goes male and female, doesn't it? Is this only the men need this? Only men have any wisdom and counsel to give. Only men need to ask someone for help. No. The Bible teaches that in the church, yes, we have men teaching men in the church, both behind the pulpit and also just before and after the service, between doors at soul winning, there should be conversations going on about the Bible, about, you know, you say, well, aren't you afraid people are going to teach false doctrine? No, because our people are smart enough to identify false doctrine when it's preached and when it's taught. But you know what? Before church, after church, you know, ladies, have an intelligent conversation. Men, have a biblical conversation, have an intelligent conversation. Let there be an exchange of wisdom. I thank God that we don't go to a church where after church everybody's just talking about things that have nothing to do with the Bible all the time. Now look, I understand there are sports, there are activities, there are guns, there are things that we're interested in and it's fine to talk about those things. But you know what? I love talking about the Bible too. Don't just always talk about something else. You know, talk about the Bible. Learn something. Teach something. And ladies also, you know, there are ladies who have tips about homemaking skills. The Bible talks about learning to be a keeper at home. There could be ladies who have skills when it comes to, you know, their family life and their marriage and their child rearing, soul winning. You know, as a lady, you can go out soul winning with other ladies and learn soul winning from other ladies, right? This is something that we all need to come to a church and look, why do I preach this? Because there are people who will quit the church and go to a church where they learn nothing when there's all this information right here for you to learn. You're sitting in a room full of people who know a lot of great things and you go somewhere else because you're offended by something that's preached or you're offended by somebody trying to teach you something because you already know everything. You need to be humble enough to go to God, to go to church, to go to your pastor, to go to men in the church, to go to ladies in the church and to get the wisdom and the information that you need to be a successful Christian and not think that you know everything and never ever get angry and offended and get all blah, blah, blah, you know, when somebody tries to correct you because they're correcting you because they love you and they're helping you. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. We thank you so much for your word and we thank you for all the wonderful things that we can learn from it. We thank you for Faithful Word Baptist Church, which is a place of learning. Help us to learn as much as we can while we're here. Help us to tap into the resource of godly men and women in this church. Help us to realize that, you know, there are other men in the church besides Pastor Anderson that have wisdom and knowledge and understanding and that have answers to our questions. And help us to understand that there are ladies in the church that can teach the younger ladies, the newer believers, those who are inexperienced or those who lack skill or wisdom in certain areas. Help us to be a learning place. Help us to be a place of counsel and teaching and doctrine and not a place of proud people who think that they know everything. Help us to always be ready to learn and to grow and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.