Wisdom is everywhere and you can miss it if you try.

Steve Brown:
Wisdom is everywhere and you can miss it if you try. Let’s talk, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life, here to let Christians know that God isn’t mad at them. Keep listening and you’ll hear that because of what Jesus has done, you’re welcomed home into the family of God because of His radical grace, free from the penalties of sin, and never alone in your suffering.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Okay. I’ve heard all of your complaints, we’re going to get into the actual Book of Proverbs. And I hope that you took notes on the introductory material in this particular book. You will be tested on it. No, I’m not in a classroom. God’s going to do the testing. To show you how much you listened to the introduction and the exegetical, boring stuff I’ve been teaching for the last few days. All right, let’s dig in. And I told you that teaching the Book of Proverbs is kind of like teaching the dictionary. I mean, there’s no outline that really works for the Book of Proverbs. It’s just a lot of stuff. One time, Fred Smith, and I may have told you that, he’s my late mentor, came to speak to the young people, the young adults in our church, and there were a lot of them. And they had a retreat and wanted Fred to do the retreat. Couple of things, I said to him, Fred, don’t mess it up, I’ve said so much good about you. He said, I won’t, I’m going to shine. I said, what do you mean you’re going to shine? He said, if you said that much good about me, if I mess it up, they’ll think it’s their fault. But when he got up, he almost always taught the way the Book of Proverbs is written. He said to those young adults, I’m going to drop some pearls. And, if you find these pearls helpful to you, then use them. If you don’t, just leave them on the floor. And so, let’s start. The first thing you ought to note about the Book of Proverbs is that wisdom, which is what the Book of Proverbs is about, is everywhere. And you’ve got to work at it to miss it. In other words, you can miss it if you try. And a lot of people want to miss it because they don’t like what is taught in the Book of Proverbs. Look at Proverbs 1:20 through 22.

Wisdom calls aloud outside, she raises her voice in the open squares; she cries out in the chief concourses; at the openings of the gates in the city she speaks her words: “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? Or scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge?”

You can miss it if you try. Look at Proverbs 8:1 through 3.

Does not wisdom cry out? And understanding lift up her voice? She takes her stand on the top of a high hill beside the way where the paths meet. She cries out by the gates at the entry of the city and the entrance of the doors.

You’ve got to look for it, or you miss it. I went hunting one time. In fact, it’s the only time I’ve ever gone hunting. I believe that Christians ought to have guns. But if you’re persecuted for your Christian faith, you can’t use them. But if it’s random violence, you can shoot those suckers. Don’t, don’t, don’t send me letters cause I’m too old to change. But anyway, I went hunting and I was preaching at a little church, and I was a young man in college, and they asked me to come and preach, and I’d never preached before, and I’d never gone hunting before, and they took me rabbit hunting. And I remember my friends say, shoot that rabbit, and I said, what rabbit? And he said, right over there, and pointed in a certain direction, and I said, I don’t see a rabbit. He said, well shoot anyway, and I did, and killed this rabbit, and I still feel guilty about it. But the rabbit was there, if you knew where to look, if you had been trained, if you had been a hunter, you wouldn’t have any trouble seeing that rabbit. And when I get home and God says, why did you kill that poor little rabbit, I’m going to say I didn’t see it. Well, that’s what’s going on with wisdom. When you’re a believer. When that passage in I Corinthians works its way out in your life, you see things that others don’t see and when wisdom cries out, you get it cause it is everywhere. And then, as the brighter Proverb says, in Proverbs 1:22.

How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge.

There’s the old sermon illustration about the boy who went to his father and said, Where’s God? His father said, son, I’m really busy right now. Will you talk to your mom? So, he went to his mom and said, Where’s God? And the mother said, Look, I’m cooking dinner. After dinner, ask me again and we’ll have some time and we’ll talk about it. Then he went, Why don’t you ask your grandfather? And so, he went to his grandfather and said, Granddaddy, Where is God? And the man sat down and said, son, I hardly look anywhere without seeing Him there. It’s there. It’s everywhere. We have seen, and I mentioned earlier, that some of the Proverbs go back before God’s covenant people. Some of them are Egyptian Proverbs. That’s because, that’s because wisdom is everywhere. And so, the prayer of the Christian is, Father, I know that I’m lied to in a lot of ways by a whole lot of people. But you’re involved in creation. And the sun and the stars and the people and the way they think, make me sensitive to your wisdom wherever I find it. Hey. You think about that. Amen.

It’s Wednesday and sometimes if I have time on Wednesday, I take some time to answer one or two of your questions. And we love your questions, by the way. Pete will come in on Friday and we’ll spend the whole broadcast answering questions. But, sometimes on a Wednesday I can finish a little bit early and spend some time, we like your questions by the way. You can call 1-800-KEY-LIFE anytime you want to, 24 7, record your question and sometimes we put your voice on the air. Or you can write your question and send it to

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All right, let’s turn to a question or two. What does the Bible teach about the necessity of our forgiving others? What about in situations of harm and abuse? Is God’s forgiveness of me conditional on my forgiveness of others? Well, that’s not one question, that’s three questions. What does the Bible teach about the necessity of forgiving others? Do it. That’s what it does. And it doesn’t give you any wiggle room. I mean, it’s everywhere. And even if you don’t, I mean, I have a hit list on my prayer list and I tell God, I don’t like these people. And I hope you give them the hives, but I can’t do that because you won’t let me. So, I ask you to bless them and confirm my heart, conform my heart to the request I just made. And you know what? He does that. He really does. And I wouldn’t do it if there was some wiggle room. I mean, if I could say, well, when they ask, I’ll forgive them. No, no, no. The Bible doesn’t allow that. Well, if they’re repentant, then I’ll forgive. No, no, no. You’ve just got to forgive. And there’s no way to get around that. Then there’s another question. What about in situations of harm and abuse? There too. But listen, forgiveness takes a long time sometimes, and it doesn’t mean that repercussions should not be a part of the process. For instance, if you have somebody who’s a pedophile in your church, can that person be forgiven? Of course. All sins can be forgiven, but you don’t put that person to teach children in your Sunday school because that would be crazy. And sometimes, sometimes in places of harm and abuse, God slowly and very carefully begins to work that out. Your part, however… is forgiveness. Jeremy, who is the producer of this broadcast, and I were talking just before the broadcast, and Jeremy had been reading a book, and he said, I’m having some problems with the people. And this book told me, and I don’t like it, that the problem is me, not them. They have to fix themselves, or God has to do it, but I have to go to God with myself. Well, I’m old, and I learned that a long time ago. And yes, you have to forgive even the hard parts, but it’s hard sometimes. If you don’t speak to me sometime in church, I can forgive that in a split second. I mean, that’s really easy, but if I’ve been abused in all kinds of ways, that’s not so easy. Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s easy. It sometimes takes a long, long time, a whole lot of prayer, a whole lot of walking with Christ. But he requires that you be in the process and he’ll do the work. Well, that’s it. Before I go, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.