Wisdom, Who Is Wise? by John.

Wisdom? Who is Wise?
Proverbs 11:30 Introduction:
1. (1) We live in an era filled with contrasts. We have a world in which far more than half the people exist in poverty, while a few have so much money they can't find ways to spend all of it. Some of these people have no desire for money, just for enough to eat and a comfortable place to sleep while others seem to be unhappy because they don't have all there is.
(2) We have highly educated people, and people with no formal education at all.
(3) We have crippled people who would love to be able to crawl. Others are proud that can leap their own height, or perhaps run a four-minute mile.
(4) Some very intelligent people have no formal education while some with very little intelligence proudly display doctor's degrees.
(5) There are artists who use paint, crayon, engraving, and stone cutting, and at the other end of the spectrum those who are physically blind, unable to view the world's art.
(6) We have deaf mutes unable to hear or speak, and we have mothers, for instance, who can hear a pin drop at a hundred paces and preachers who can charm the birds out of the trees with their words.
2. Variety: (1) We have to assume that God likes variety because there is so much of it. We see variety in animals, birds, reptiles, human beings and pets.... We could go on listing these things for a long time without being repetitive!
3. Color (1) We haven't mentioned Color: We have human beings of color, and actually we are all colored people. We have kinky hair, curly hair, straight hair, no hair, blonde, brunette and a few with a streak of white or some other color in otherwise naturally shaded hair. That reminds me that my brother was blue eyed, until he opened his eyes wide, and then you saw that the top of his left eye was brown!
4. Our God is so Great! He loves us so much! And as far as I can tell, He never tires of introducing news things to us! Every time we think we've learned all there is, the volume of knowledge doubles again!
5. Christians never need to be bored in this world, and I am sure we will never be bored in heaven. Early in my life there were great arguments about someday splitting the atom, and now we fear other nations are building atomic, or hydrogen bombs.
6. If there ever was a time we need to be wise, this is it! But we don't need worldly wisdom. Ours must come from God!
7. I've already mentioned we have intelligent people and people who are run of the mill, but we also have a few who are way below average for a number of different reasons. No one should look down on us because of our education, intelligence, or lack of either one. It's a sad truth that some of us do look down on anyone who is not as blessed as we are.
8. There's a place in Mississippi called Sullivan's Hollow. There's never been a town there as far as I know. It's located about midway between Jackson, the state capital, and Hattiesburg the home of Mississippi Baptist College. Back in pre-WW II days, I am told they had signs on the road in and out of the area that said any black person found here after dark will never leave!
The Baptist Church had a revival, and the old man Sullivan was finally persuaded to attend. He did it just to get his family off his back. The preacher was somewhat awed by that grim-faced old man, but he delivered a Georgia sermon...you know what that is, don't you? Well, it's long, and so loud the preacher won't have a dry thread on him, and he'll be standing on about four inches of britches legs when he's done! There was a young fellow the people called a half-wit. He answered the altar call and accepted Christ. The preacher continued the invitation, and the young fellow got up and walked toward the back of the church. Every head followed him until he stopped right in front of old man Sullivan. He bent over whispered in his ear and straightened up. The old man stared up at him and shook his head. The young fellow leaned over and whispered in his ear again and walked out of the church. Everyone wondered what that boy said. No one dared mention religion to that old man! After several verses of the invitation song, old man Sullivan got up, went forward, and professed faith in Christ. It shocked everybody including the pastor, so he asked Mr. Sullivan if the young man had influenced him to become a Christian, and the old man said, "Yes, he did. He asked me if I wanted to go to heaven. I shook my head. Then he leaned down and whispered, 'Well, go to hell then.' And that did it!"
Now a minister told that story, and his point was that we might save someone with a simple, direct approach. My thought is, you don't have to be smart, well educated, or even socially acceptable to lead someone to Jesus, but you do have to be wise!

I. Proverbs 11:30 says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he who wins souls is wise." I see three facts in this verse:
1. The righteous life bears fruit to eternal life.
2. Since the writing is poetic in form, the Hebrew rule is, the second half of the verse rephrases the first, adds something else to the first, or contrasts with the first.
(1) Considered the second way, it is wise to win souls.
(2) Taken the first way, a wise person wins souls.
(3) Third, this is O.T. so I take it that the Scripture is saying we can get people to change their minds toward God. NT tells us it will be His Spirit who changes their hearts, and works out their salvation.
3. We may persuade people to trust the Lord, but it is the Lord, and only the Lord, Who does all the saving.
4. Even in Solomon's day, God told us how to recognize a wise person and how we ourselves can become wise.
5. The process is simple to state, but not so simple to accomplish.

II. First, Do you really want to be Wise?

1. Persuade men to put their trust in the only real God, the One Who reveals Himself both in the Bible and directly to the human soul.
2. How can you do that?
(1) First, live like Jesus did when He walked the earth. I John 2: 5b and 6: "This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."
a. If you don't live spiritually as Jesus did, your claim is untrue.
b. Worldly people can tell a real Christian from a phony in the blink of an eye!
c. It's true that people let Satan confuse them sometimes, but if they go directly to God in prayer, He opens their understanding to the truth.
(2) Second, fill your life with good and avoid the bad the rest of the world does. People know and notice the difference! They are not likely to change their minds, if our claim doesn't ring true.
(3) Third, love people the way God loves them.
a. I'm talking about the kind of love that the Father displayed when He sent His only born Son to die for us.
b. Again, lost people know, and they can spot a phony. Satan aids them in that! In fact, Christians out of fellowship with the Father are one of the strongest tools Satan uses to keep lost people lost!
(4) Fourth, deliberately seek to lead others to the truth of the Gospel.
a. Most people hear preaching at church if they go to church, or on the radio, or TV, but too often they don't really apply it to themselves. As the old saying states, "It just goes in one ear and out the other!"
b. Your visiting with them will cause them to say, "Hey! You mean the preacher was talking about me?" Or, they will at least get the idea God cares!
(5) Fifth, we must pray for, and if possible, with the people we want to meet Jesus.
ill. When I was very young, I was in church every Sunday morning and night. I never applied the message to myself. I just wondered how long the preacher was going to preach, or when the Sunday School bell would ring ending the class. I had a very strong, uncontrolled temper. When I got angry, my mother took me into the bedroom, knelt by my dad's bed, pulled me down beside her, and she prayed for me. When I asked her why, she said, "I don't want you to end up in the penitentiary. That would break my heart!" Those prayers did not make me a Christian, but they did make me scared of doing wrong! She really got my attention, not through scolding, but through prayer!
When you pray with lost people, they get the point that you, and probably God, care about what happens to them in their future! And you've shown yourself to be wise!

II. A Wise Christian is a Soul Winner.

1. I don't think most Christians understand what a soul-winner is because we think that when we do the things we've already mentioned, people will automatically become Christians.
(1) If that doesn't happen, we think we are at fault! And we may be, but that's not necessarily true.
(2) Maybe there's unconfessed sin in our lives, and that lost person sees it.
(3) That may happen, too, but the fact is, we don't save people!
(4) God does the saving, and He uses the Gospel to do it.
(5) If we give the Gospel to people, we've given them the one thing they need to live forever!
ill. If you saw a person drowning in a swimming pool, what would you do? Jump in and save him? Call the lifeguard? Dial 911? What would you do?
When I took lifesaving in college, they taught us how to go about every possible circumstance to save a person from drowning, and to be safe ourselves.
The very first rule was, don't go into the water if it is not absolutely necessary! Use that long pole with a crook on it. Throw the person a life preserver. Those things you can do even if you can't swim!
When you are dealing with lost people, be aware of your limitations and theirs, but don't let them keep you from doing God's will. Use your limitations to do it right!

III. Connecting this text with Jesus' Words in John 15:5: seals your wisdom.

1. Every Christian bears fruit because of his relationship with Jesus, the Vine.
(1) How much fruit you, as a Christian, will bear is variable.
(2) He first states simply that you will bear fruit. That means every Christian will bear some fruit.
(3) The second indicates you will bear more fruit.
(4) The third indicates you will bear much fruit.
(5) Considering the parables Jesus used, we have to be aware that some of us will bear more, some less.
2. Again, Jesus does all the saving. It is our job to point people to Jesus in a winning way.
3. To do that requires two things:
(1) We need the powerful presence of God's Holy Spirit.
(2) We need to be in contact with lost people.
a. We may visit people we just think are lost specifically to tell them about Jesus.
b. We may tell people we already know, perhaps really love, about Jesus.
c. We may stage activities to attract and educate people about Jesus.
2. But when all is said and done, the fact is, you will bear fruit because you are part of the Vine,
Jesus! Producing fruit is absolutely natural and certain for Christians!
(2) But we must be sure the glory of all we do
goes to our heavenly Father, to His Son Jesus, and to God's Holy Spirit Who seals every person to the very day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30 says: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." "Sealed" is past tense and means every believer who places his life in the Lord's hands is immediately sealed all the way to heaven!

IV. Please God!

1. We've talked about being wise, and about winning souls.
2. We have not paid much attention to the first part of that verse, "The fruit of the righteous."
3. It seems reasonable to say that the fruit of a Christian is another Christian, but since we don't do the saving, is that true?
4. Perhaps we need to consider the word, "righteous." (It is tsaw-DEEK in Hebrew.
(1) The righteous man or woman is moral, upright, someone who is dependable.
(2) Someone recognized by his neighbors as a good person.
(3) Such a person in Solomon's time would be highly respected and should be now.
(4) The person from the New Testament on is a Christian rather than a godly Jew.
(5) Perhaps you feel you are too much a sinner to fit that description.
(6) Let me remind you that Isaiah said in Isaiah 64:6:"...All our righteous acts are like filthy rags..." Without Jesus we could not be clean!
People notice the difference in our lives, and they want to know Jesus, too.
(8) Perhaps you haven't given your life to Jesus... Look around you. Most of these have given their lives to Him.
(9) Give yourself to Jesus right now. The altar is open for you. We will pray with you, counsel you, and help you to know our Lord Jesus!

































































10. I only mentioned two of the three things I see in that verse. The third is reproduction. Every soul who comes to Jesus, will bear fruit, and when you lead one person to Jesus, that "tree of life" has already started growing! It should continue growing until Jesus comes to take us home.
11. If you aren't a Christian, give yourself to Jesus and start a whole new tree of life!

Abbreviated form Magnolia Rd, 3/20/2011