Speaker 1: Pastor Rick Warren often says, you were made by God
Speaker 1: and for God, and until you understand that, life will
Speaker 1: never make sense. Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope Today.
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Speaker 1: daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.
Speaker 1: That's the word Daily to eight hundred six hundred five
Speaker 1: thousand and four. Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with
Speaker 1: part one of a message called Learning to Live Wisely.
Speaker 2: If God were to say to you, I'll give you
Speaker 2: anything you want in life. Just name one thing I'll
Speaker 2: give that to you, what would your answer be. I'd
Speaker 2: like fewer problems. I'd like to get married, I'd like
Speaker 2: to get out of debt. I'd like to have a
Speaker 2: no more conflict than my relationship. I doubt you would
Speaker 2: ask for what Solomon asked for. This question was actually
Speaker 2: asked by God to a guy in the Bible. God
Speaker 2: comes to Solomon one day. Solomon was the son of David,
Speaker 2: the king of Israel, and later Solomon became king, and
Speaker 2: God asked Solomon one day, what would you like in life? Solomon,
Speaker 2: I'll give you anything you ask for in life. Name
Speaker 2: one thing and I'll give it to you. Solomon did
Speaker 2: not ask for a wealth, he didn't ask for fame,
Speaker 2: he didn't ask for comfort, he didn't ask for pleasure.
Speaker 2: He said, God, I want you to give me wisdom.
Speaker 2: I want you to make me the wisest man in
Speaker 2: the world. Now, wisdom really? I mean, if God had
Speaker 2: asked me, what's the one thing you want in life?
Speaker 2: I don't think I would have asked for wisdom. I
Speaker 2: doubt you would either. That might be on my list,
Speaker 2: but it certainly wouldn't be number one. But Solomon, out
Speaker 2: of all the things he could ask God for, says God,
Speaker 2: more than anything else, I want you to make me wise.
Speaker 2: God was so impressed with this request, so touched by
Speaker 2: Solomon's request, he said Solomon. I'm going to grant it,
Speaker 2: and I'm not only going to give you wisdom. You're
Speaker 2: not only going to be the wisest man in the world.
Speaker 2: I'm going to also make you the wealthiest man in
Speaker 2: the world, the most famous man in the world, the
Speaker 2: most powerful man in the world. Of your day. I'm
Speaker 2: going to give you everything that everybody else wants to
Speaker 2: because you asked wisely. We don't understand how important wisdom is.
Speaker 2: We don't realize that it is the key to literally
Speaker 2: everything else that you want in life. Notice on your outline,
Speaker 2: the Bible says this Proverbs chapter eight, verse eleven, Wisdom
Speaker 2: is more precious than rubies. Nothing else you could ever
Speaker 2: want is as valuable? Are you kidding me? Nothing else
Speaker 2: I could ever want is as valuable as wisdom. It says,
Speaker 2: it's more precious than rubies. I don't really know the
Speaker 2: value of rubies, so I had to look it up
Speaker 2: this week. Highest quality rubies are worth ten times what
Speaker 2: diamonds are worth ten times. Let me put this in perspective.
Speaker 2: A gram of gold is worth about fifty bucks. Specifically,
Speaker 2: a gram of gold is worth fifty three dollars today.
Speaker 2: A gram of ruby's would be worth about fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: That is exponentially more valuable than gold or diamonds. And
Speaker 2: God is saying wisdom is far more valuable to your
Speaker 2: life than you could possibly imagine. And if you will
Speaker 2: get wisdom in your life, it will bless you in
Speaker 2: every other area of your life. This is what you
Speaker 2: need to want more than anything else. The Bible says
Speaker 2: this Proverbs four, verse seven, Getting wisdom is the most
Speaker 2: important thing you can do. Really, really, I mean I
Speaker 2: wouldn't have thought that. I wouldn't think that getting wisdom
Speaker 2: was the most important thing I could do in life.
Speaker 2: But you might circle that the most important thing you
Speaker 2: can do is to get wisdom. Now, what is wisdom?
Speaker 2: Wisdom is seeing things from God's point of view. It's
Speaker 2: not knowledge. You can get no a lot of places.
Speaker 2: You can go to college, you can go to school,
Speaker 2: you can get all kinds of degrees, and you can
Speaker 2: get a lot of knowledge. But person can be knowledgeable
Speaker 2: and not wise. A person can be educated and not wise.
Speaker 2: Wisdom and knowledge are two different things. A lot of
Speaker 2: educated people are actually fools, and a lot of foolish
Speaker 2: people are Uneducated people are actually quite wise because wisdom
Speaker 2: is seeing life from God's point of view, and it says,
Speaker 2: of all the things in life, getting wisdom is the
Speaker 2: most important thing you can do. What I want us
Speaker 2: to do this week hed is two things. Look at
Speaker 2: why is wisdom so important to me? Why is it
Speaker 2: the most important thing that I should want? Why should
Speaker 2: it be the number one goal of my life to
Speaker 2: get wisdom? Why is that the most important thing? And
Speaker 2: then second, we're going to look at how to get
Speaker 2: it now. Fortunately, Solomon the wisest Man wrote a book
Speaker 2: about it. It's called the Book of Proverbs. It's in
Speaker 2: the middle of your Bible. If you take the Bible
Speaker 2: and you open it right in the middle, you come
Speaker 2: to the Book of Proverbs. And the Book of Proverbs
Speaker 2: is a book on how to live wisely. There are
Speaker 2: thirty one chapters in the Book of Proverbs. That means
Speaker 2: if you read a chapter a day, you would go
Speaker 2: through the Book of Proverbs once a month. I know many,
Speaker 2: many businessmen who make a practice to read a chapter
Speaker 2: a day of Proverbs. It is so jam packed full
Speaker 2: of practical wisdom on life, relationships, business, money, time, and
Speaker 2: like that, they read a chapter a day and they
Speaker 2: go through the book once a month. Let me read
Speaker 2: to you the introduction to the Book of Proverbs to
Speaker 2: explain how important wisdom is. It's here on the screen.
Speaker 2: Watch this chapter one, verse one. These are the proverbs
Speaker 2: of Solomon, David's son, King of Israel. The purpose of
Speaker 2: these proverbs is to teach people wisdom and discipline and
Speaker 2: help them understand wise sayings. Through these problems, people will
Speaker 2: receive instruction and discipline, good conduct, and doing what is right,
Speaker 2: just and fair. These proverbs will make the simple minded clever,
Speaker 2: and it means if you're dumb, it'll make you smart.
Speaker 2: These will give knowledge and purpose to young people. If
Speaker 2: you're a young adult, you're a teenager, you should be
Speaker 2: devouring the Book of Proverbs. It will give you purpose
Speaker 2: and knowledge. Let those who are wise listen to these
Speaker 2: proverbs and become even wiser, and let those who understand
Speaker 2: receive guidance by exploring the depth of meaning in these proverbs,
Speaker 2: these parables, these wise sayings, and these riddles.
Speaker 1: You're listening to. Pastor Rick's Daily Health oh Rip will
Speaker 1: be back in just a moment with the rest of
Speaker 1: today's lesson. If you've missed any part of today's teaching.
Speaker 1: You can listen online anytime at pastororik dot com. That's
Speaker 1: pastororick dot com.
Speaker 3: Now you may or may not know this, but today
Speaker 3: is Giving Tuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back,
Speaker 3: and today you can help Daily Hope share the certain
Speaker 3: hope of Jesus Christ with even more people around the
Speaker 3: world because a generous friend of Daily Hope has stepped
Speaker 3: forward with a special twenty five thousand dollars Giving Tuesday
Speaker 3: matching grand This means every dollar you give today will
Speaker 3: be matched up to twenty five thousand dollars. Time is
Speaker 3: of the essence because we'll lose any part of the
Speaker 3: Giving Tuesday grant that isn't matched by midnight tonight. So
Speaker 3: please act now by going to pastororik dot com. That's
Speaker 3: pastorick dot com, or by calling eight hundred six hundred
Speaker 3: five zero zero four. That's eight hundred six hundred five
Speaker 3: zero zero four. And when you give a gift to
Speaker 3: help Daily Hope share the love of Jesus with people everywhere,
Speaker 3: we'll send you the Open Doors, a year of Daily
Speaker 3: Devotions book to say thanks. Remember today your gift will
Speaker 3: be matched up to twenty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope once again. Here's
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 2: Over and over and over again. In the Bible, God
Speaker 2: stresses the importance of wisdom. He says, it's the number
Speaker 2: one thing you need to one in line. It should
Speaker 2: be your number one goal, because if you get wisdom,
Speaker 2: it's going to affect every other thing in your life
Speaker 2: for the better, for the good. Proverbs Chapter nine, verse
Speaker 2: twelve says this, if you become wise, you'll be the
Speaker 2: one to benefit. Circle that word benefit. You'll be the
Speaker 2: one brings personal benefit to you. Wisdom does. But if
Speaker 2: you score in wisdom, you'll be the one to suffer.
Speaker 2: Why because all of the problems in your life come
Speaker 2: from a lack of wisdom. All of the problems in
Speaker 2: your life come from making foolish decisions. The reason you
Speaker 2: have financial problems is because you make foolish financial decisions.
Speaker 2: The reason you have relational problems is because you make
Speaker 2: foolish relational decisions. You don't make wise decisions. There's a
Speaker 2: verse in the Bible that says the way that there's
Speaker 2: a way that seems right to men, to women, to
Speaker 2: human beings, there's a way that seems right to us,
Speaker 2: but it ends in death, it ends in destruction, it
Speaker 2: ends in a dead end. In other words, I make
Speaker 2: decisions with my money that I think seem the right
Speaker 2: thing to do, but they're foolish decisions, and I get
Speaker 2: in trouble. There are things that I do in relationships
Speaker 2: that I think are the right thing to do in
Speaker 2: my relationships, and they seem right to me, but they're wrong.
Speaker 2: They're not wise, and so I have dead ends in
Speaker 2: my relationships. There are career moves that I make that
Speaker 2: seem to be right to me, but they're wrong. They're
Speaker 2: foolish decisions. Because I lack wisdom, I keep running up
Speaker 2: against dead ends. So if I fill my life with wisdom,
Speaker 2: then I'm going to benefit from it. I'm going to
Speaker 2: be wiser, and I'm going to have fewer problems, and
Speaker 2: I'm going to have more success in my life. Now,
Speaker 2: the Book of Proverbs lists all kinds of reasons or
Speaker 2: benefits why wisdom ought to be the number one goal
Speaker 2: of your life. I'm going to just give you eighteen
Speaker 2: of those reasons, eighteen benefits. I've listed the verses there
Speaker 2: on your outline, and I'm not even going to comment
Speaker 2: on these. They're pretty self explanatory. I'm just going to
Speaker 2: read them through very quickly, and i want you to
Speaker 2: circle each of the eighteen benefits to your life if
Speaker 2: you become a wiser person. So let me read them quickly.
Speaker 2: You circle the benefits. Proverbs twenty four to fourteen. Wisdom
Speaker 2: is good for the soul. Circle that good for the soul.
Speaker 2: Get wisdom and you'll have a bright future. Circle that,
Speaker 2: so you're going to have it. Be good for the soul.
Speaker 2: You'll have a bright future. Now you want to succeed
Speaker 2: in life, look at what the Bible says. Proverbs eight nineteen,
Speaker 2: verse eight. Those who get wisdom do themselves a favor,
Speaker 2: and those who love learning will succeed. Circle will succeed.
Speaker 2: You want to be a success in life. It's real simple.
Speaker 2: Get wise, wise up, learn wisdom. The more wisdom you have,
Speaker 2: the more successful you'll be in life. Proverbs eight, verse four.
Speaker 2: Treasure wisdom, and it will make you great. Circle that.
Speaker 2: Hold on to it, and it will bring you honor.
Speaker 2: Circle that. So in the first few verses we see
Speaker 2: wisdom is good for your soul. It'll give you a
Speaker 2: bright future. It will cause you to succeed, it'll make
Speaker 2: you great, and it'll give you honor. Now, everybody, look
Speaker 2: up here. How many of you would say I don't
Speaker 2: have enough time to get everything I need to do
Speaker 2: done in my life. How many say that that's a
Speaker 2: wisdom problem. The next verse says, this wisdom will multiply
Speaker 2: your days and add years to your life. Let's say
Speaker 2: in there, it'll multiply your days when you are wise.
Speaker 2: The wiser you are, the wiser you manage your time,
Speaker 2: and the better you manage your time, the more you're
Speaker 2: gonna have of it. The reason why you don't have
Speaker 2: enough time to get it done is you make foolish decisions.
Speaker 2: You make unwise decisions with your time. The wiser you become,
Speaker 2: the more time you're gonna have. Wisdom is a time
Speaker 2: management issue, and time management is a wisdom issue. Not
Speaker 2: only that, it says it will add years to your life.
Speaker 2: That's a flat out promise of God. God says, if
Speaker 2: you live wisely, you're going to live longer. Now you
Speaker 2: got my attention. Okay, now you got my attention. It's
Speaker 2: going to cause success, it's gonna make me great, it's
Speaker 2: gonna bring honor, it's going to multiply my time. It's
Speaker 2: gonna give me more extend my life. I'm interested in wisdom.
Speaker 2: Next verse Proverbs twenty four to five. Wise people have
Speaker 2: great power. Circle that the more wisdom you have, the
Speaker 2: more power you have in your life. Proverbs three thirty five.
Speaker 2: Wise people will gain an honorable reputation. Circle that the
Speaker 2: wiser you are, the more people are gonna like you,
Speaker 2: the more people are going to love you, the more
Speaker 2: popular you're going to be, the more your reputation is
Speaker 2: going to be honored. And you have a good reputation
Speaker 2: because you're not foolish. You're not a fool You're wise. Now,
Speaker 2: how many of you would like this year to be
Speaker 2: better than last year? Can I see your hands? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think that's unanimous. That's a wisdom issue, making the
Speaker 2: life better. Look at the next verse, Wise people's lives
Speaker 2: get better and better. Why because we're not making the
Speaker 2: same mistakes we made last year. If I'm wiser this year,
Speaker 2: my life is going to be easier this year. If
Speaker 2: I'm wiser this year, my life is going to be
Speaker 2: better this year because I'm not making the same foolish mistakes.
Speaker 2: I'm not repeating the errors of the past. The wiser
Speaker 2: I get, the better my life gets year after year
Speaker 2: after year. So obviously I don't want to be a fool.
Speaker 2: I want to be a wise man. I want to
Speaker 2: be a wise woman. The next verse, Proverbs three sixteen
Speaker 2: to eighteen, mentions seven major benefits of getting wisdom in
Speaker 2: your life. Notice this right, circle them all. Wisdom offers
Speaker 2: you long life. That's the first one, as well as
Speaker 2: wealth that's the sactly. Wealth is a mark of wisdom.
Speaker 2: You wise up to use your money wisely, as well
Speaker 2: as wealth and honor. Circle honor. Wisdom can make your
Speaker 2: life pleasant. In other words, it's not as hard. If
Speaker 2: I make foolish decisions, life is hard. If I make
Speaker 2: wise decisions, life is pleasant. It's easier. Says Wisdom can
Speaker 2: lead you safely through life. In other words, wisdom is
Speaker 2: a protection keeps you from making mistakes. You circle that
Speaker 2: those who become wise are happy. You want happiness. Get
Speaker 2: wise up. The wiser you get, the happier you'll be.
Speaker 2: Wisdom will give them life in other words, true life. Now, friends,
Speaker 2: those seven benefits are so ridiculously over the top. If
Speaker 2: I didn't believe that was in the Bible, it sounds
Speaker 2: like an infomercial. I mean if I held up a
Speaker 2: product and said, this product will give you a long life.
Speaker 2: It will make you wealthy, it will bring you honor,
Speaker 2: It will make your life pleasant and easier than before.
Speaker 2: It will lead you safely through the problem of your life.
Speaker 2: It will make you happy, and it will cause you
Speaker 2: to experience life it was meant to be lived. You've begune.
Speaker 2: I don't believe it. That's unrealistic. But I didn't say this.
Speaker 2: God said it. God said it, and God is telling
Speaker 2: you the value of learning wisdom. This is why we're
Speaker 2: going to do the next six weeks. If you become
Speaker 2: more wise, these things will be true in your life.
Speaker 2: One more verse Proverbs four to twelve. Nothing will stand
Speaker 2: in your way. If you walk wisely circle, nothing will
Speaker 2: stand In other words, you got your dream, you got
Speaker 2: your goal. Wisdom will show you how to get around
Speaker 2: all the barriers. Nothing will stand in your way, and
Speaker 2: you will not stumble. You're not going to make this
Speaker 2: so many mistakes when you run. If you are wise,
Speaker 2: do you see how important wisdom is to your life?
Speaker 2: Do you understand why wisdom should be the number one
Speaker 2: goal of your life? Do you realize how it's worth
Speaker 2: the next six weeks of your life to hear it,
Speaker 2: read it, study it, memorize, meditate on it to learn
Speaker 2: how to live wisely. Now, Like everything else, wisdom is
Speaker 2: a choice. Happiness is a choice. Being close to God
Speaker 2: is a choice. Success is a series of making wise choices.
Speaker 2: Wisdom is a choice. You got to learn to be wise.
Speaker 2: And what I want to do is talk to you
Speaker 2: about what the Bible says are the five ways to
Speaker 2: build wisdom into your life. Bible is very specific that
Speaker 2: if you do certain things, then you make certain choices,
Speaker 2: you will become a wiser and wiser woman, you will
Speaker 2: become a wiser and wiser man. Well, if wisdom has
Speaker 2: so many benefits to my life, why don't we live
Speaker 2: more wisely? The answer is it's harder. It's harder. It's
Speaker 2: quite easy to make foolish decisions. It's quite difficult to
Speaker 2: make wise decisions. We are not by nature wise people.
Speaker 2: By nature, we do the dumb thing, we do, the
Speaker 2: foolish thing, we do the easy thing. You don't come
Speaker 2: out of the womb automatically being wise. Wisdom has to
Speaker 2: be learned. And until you do the five things that
Speaker 2: cause you to learn wisdom. You're not going to learn wisdom.
Speaker 2: You can go to school for the rest of your
Speaker 2: life and not learn wisdom. You could read all kinds
Speaker 2: of books and not learn wisdom, because wisdom is seeing
Speaker 2: life from God's viewpoint. So you've got to make a
Speaker 2: choice to learn. The Bible says in Proverbs four, verse five,
Speaker 2: learn to be wise. Circle the word learn. You got
Speaker 2: to learn to be wise and develop good judgment. That's
Speaker 2: a choice. It's your choice. You don't have to learn,
Speaker 2: you don't have to develop. It's your choice. Recently, I
Speaker 2: got a letter, said Pastor Rick, I regret that I
Speaker 2: didn't open my life to Jesus until very late in
Speaker 2: my adult life. I regret that so much that I
Speaker 2: wasted so many years going in the wrong direction. I
Speaker 2: feel like I will never catch up. Well, you're wrong.
Speaker 2: You are never too old to learn to be wise.
Speaker 2: If you're alive, if your heart's beating, if blood is
Speaker 2: pumping through your veins, that you can learn to be wise.
Speaker 2: You're also never too young to learn to be wise.
Speaker 2: Wisdom has absolutely nothing to do with your age. You
Speaker 2: can be old and a fool, you can be young
Speaker 2: and wise. Would you agree with me it's possible to
Speaker 2: grow older without growing up. Everybody agree with that. Don't
Speaker 2: look out. You can grow older without growing up. A
Speaker 2: lot of people grow old wisdom. You can be old
Speaker 2: and still be a spiritual baby. You're still walking around
Speaker 2: in spiritual diapers at ninety five years of age. Or
Speaker 2: you can be a young person and you can be
Speaker 2: full of a lot of wisdom because you're doing the
Speaker 2: things that make you wise.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy that
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Speaker 1: be back in a moment to close out our time today.
Speaker 1: But first you may or may not know this, but
Speaker 1: today is Giving Tuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back,
Speaker 1: and today you can help Daily Hopes share the certain
Speaker 1: hope of Jesus Christ with even more people around the
Speaker 1: world because a generous friend of Daily Hope has stepped
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Speaker 1: matching grant that means every dollar you give today will
Speaker 1: be matched up to twenty five thousand dollars here's Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick to tell you more.
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