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[0:00] We read from Proverbs chapter 1, which we'll find on page 635 of the Church Bible. Page 635.

[0:14] The introduction to the book of Proverbs. Its purpose and theme. Let us hear the word of God.

[0:27] The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. For gaining wisdom and instruction. For understanding words of insight.

[0:41] For receiving instruction in prudent behavior. Doing what is right and just and fair. For giving prudence to those who are simple.

[0:54] Knowledge and discretion to the young. Let the wise listen and add to their learning. And let the discerning get guidance.

[1:05] For understanding proverbs and parables. The sayings and riddles of the wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

[1:18] But fools despise wisdom and instruction. So ends our reading. Good morning.

[1:39] Boys and girls, grown-ups and adults. Do the kids want to come forward? I don't know, do they? Do you guys want to come forward? Maybe. Are you brave enough? You can bring adults if you want to. Why not? Should we come forward?

[1:49] Right. Great. I really enjoyed Malcolm's reading.

[2:00] How great was that? It was amazing, wasn't it? It was lovely. What a joy to be at church on Sunday with our friends and family. Let me pray for us as we start. So, Father, we thank you for this time to consider how we can be wise.

[2:15] We thank you that we can come together from the youngest child to the oldest grandparent and learn all about you and how you have made wisdom known to us.

[2:26] In Jesus' name, amen. Great. So, let me ask you a question, boys and girls, grown-ups and adults, grandparents and cousins and aunties, what excites you?

[2:41] What makes you happy? What keeps you going all day? Now, it might be sitting on a beach, reading a book, perhaps. Maybe it's zooming down a wave.

[2:53] I grew up on the beach surfing. I love zooming down waves, floating in the tube outside. Maybe it's zooming down a mountain on skis. Maybe you're someone who's never been skiing before.

[3:05] Maybe you tuck and go and you turn out of the bottom. Maybe it's having a meal with friends. That makes you really excited. And Proverbs is a book that's written to young boys and girls to teach them about wisdom, about how they can have the good life.

[3:25] That is, the life that we all want, that will excite us, that will thrill us, and that will keep us going. And it's the life that God intended for all of us to have.

[3:40] So why not turn to our neighbor there and just talk about what is your good life. So just turn to a friend, maybe a friend next to you, jibba-jabba, jibba-jabba, and then we'll get going again.

[3:51] What get you excited? I'm confused.

[4:03] Right, I'll give you another moment.

[4:23] And five, four, three, two, one. Great, let's hear what is your good life.

[4:34] Should we ask some of the youngsters at the front? Anyone got a suggestion? Yes, Emily. Water slides. Water slides, amazing. Yes, go on.

[4:46] Pardon? Minecraft. Yes, that's amazing. You can build all sorts of worlds, exciting. Those are all fantastic things that make life good.

[4:57] But I wonder if you've noticed a problem. If we're looking for the good life, we're looking how to be wise so we can get the good life. Is that life is not always good, is it? So sometimes we stub our toe.

[5:10] Sometimes our little brother and sister pulls our hair. Sometimes our friends are not very nice to us. Life isn't good sometimes. So if we're going to seek to know the good life, if we're going to know that, then we're going to have to figure out how we can get through these problems.

[5:27] And for that, we are going to need wisdom, being wise. I wonder if you've ever heard that word before. Wisdom. What? E-S-E? Did I say it right? No, no. But maybe you have heard of it.

[5:40] And let's think about that a bit. So wisdom is seeing and knowing. So seeing. What wisdom means in seeing is that we see that God made the world and everything in it.

[5:55] So you think about the world, all the birds and the bees and how amazing it is. And then you think about everything that's wonderful in life. So maybe it's a hug from mom. That's amazing.

[6:05] Or maybe it's a brilliant sunrise. That's amazing. Or maybe it's a beautiful picture. That's all the good things that God has made. And I wonder if you saw that in our reading this morning.

[6:18] So we'll just look at that first. First three, if you're grown up, you maybe got it there. What does he write? To receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, in justice, and equality.

[6:31] Slightly different phrasing there. But those are all things that come from God. Those are all God things. If God did not make the world, then we would have none of that stuff.

[6:44] None of that good, amazing stuff in life. And so God made the world exactly as he wanted it. And if we live life God's way, life is amazing and wonderful.

[7:00] Then we can know and have the good life. But seeing also means that there's lots in life that God is not happy with.

[7:11] Lots of things in the world that God is not happy with. And that's the Bible's word for sin. So we think about pollution, litter. That's something that God's not very happy with.

[7:22] Or we think about crime. We think of knives and that. That's something that God's not happy with. Or we think about bullies at school. That's all stuff that God is not happy with.

[7:35] And those are all the problems that spoil life, that ruin the good life for us. And so wisdom is seeing, but it's also knowing.

[7:46] And that's knowing how to live life, to get through all those problems, so we can know the good life, the life that God intended.

[7:57] And seeing how God will ultimately fix that problem in the end. Now, I wonder if you've ever thought about how big the universe is. Who knows where Scotland is?

[8:08] Can anyone see Scotland on the map? It's right at the top there. Amazing. Maybe see Glasgow. And then Britain's on the planet Earth. And we see the Earth there.

[8:18] Maybe we can see Britain around the corner. There's Africa slightly underneath. India's right in the middle on that picture there. And then we think about our Earth as in the solar system. And so we think about all the stars and the planets.

[8:31] And obviously the sun's a lot bigger than it is in that drawing there. And then we think about the solar system as in a galaxy. And the galaxy's massive. And then we think the galaxy's in the universe.

[8:42] And the universe is huge. It's absolutely ginormous. And then we think about all the possible problems that could happen in that huge, great, big universe.

[8:56] I wonder if you can think of any problems. So I thought of some. What about if I get snowed in on my way to school? That's a big problem. Maybe not today. But hopefully in six months' time.

[9:08] What about if I run out? This happens to me a lot. If I run out of clean clothes to wear, what am I going to do then? That's very awkward. Or even worse, what if I run out of Nutella?

[9:22] That's horrendous. What if my dog ate my home oak? That's a massive problem. What about if I become an astronaut and I get stranded on a faraway planet?

[9:34] That's a horrendous problem. And so we all need wisdom to get through these problems. Now, I wonder where we might find wisdom.

[9:47] Do you guys have any suggestion how we can be wise, where we can get wisdom? Anyone from the front here, maybe? Any thoughts? No? Well, luckily, I've been thinking for us.

[9:57] I thought about some thoughts about how we can be wise. And the first thing is, I thought, well, if we're going to be wise, what we're going to need is, we're going to need lots of rules for every situation. And then if I listen to the rules, if I am a teacher's pet, then I'll be wise.

[10:12] And the teacher can tell me that I'm wise. So I thought of some rules. I need, well, I need rules for doing my homework. I need rules for doing my washing. I need rules for looking after my parents and my brother and sister.

[10:26] Rules for, to govern the rules, of course. And then rules for being a good worker. Rules for general tidiness. Rules for folding clothes.

[10:38] Rules for coming to church. Rules for, what other sorts of rules? Rules for looking after my goldfish. My pets. Tons and tons of rules.

[10:48] But wait, there's another way that I can be wise. I wonder if you've thought about this. What if I've got my rules there, but I can also get lots of experts to help me be wise.

[11:00] I wonder if we have any experts or people that are very good at knowing stuff this morning. I think someone's been volunteered. One grant. Right. Do we have any experts?

[11:11] Does anyone know how to? Yes. Does anyone know any dancing here? Are there any experts at dancing? Yes, Rach. Come on.

[11:21] Up you get. There we go. There. Just about. Right. Up here. Up here. All right. One more. Dancing. Is there anyone? There we go. Right. Grab that. Is there anyone good at making models?

[11:32] Any making models experts? Well done. Up you get. There we go. Right. Anyone good at shouting? Any experts at shouting? There we go. Zach. Right. There you go. Well done.

[11:43] Anyone good at cleaning? Right. Anyone good at cleaning? Experts in cleaning? Not quite. Not quite. There we go. Do you want to be experts in cleaning? We've got lots. Anyone good at drama? I know there is a lot of drama.

[11:55] Yes. Here we go. Right. Well done. Anyone. Right. Popular one. Anyone good at playing? Maybe. Anyone experts in playing? There we go. Lots of experts in playing. Less popular.

[12:05] Anyone good at reading? Maybe. Right. There we go. Well, I'll tell you what. You're good at cleaning. So I'm going to say you're good at music as well. We like to do this as well, don't we?

[12:16] So you can be good at music as well. Good at sports maybe? Right. Right. There we go. Right. Yes. You can be good at sports because you're obviously good at that.

[12:26] We'll get you to be good at everything. Anyone good at drawing maybe? Right. There we go. Right. Drawing. Anyone good at flipping burgers? Right. We'll get someone else.

[12:38] Right. What about? Oh, here's a good one. Anyone good at sums? Sums. Calm down. Right. There we go. Right. Oh, wait. I need more rules now to be wise. So I need rules for washing.

[12:51] Rules for all sorts. This is absolutely hopeless. I'm going to be keeping rules forever. Writing rules forever. And I'm going to have this great crowd of experts following me everywhere.

[13:03] This is absolutely hopeless. And it's never going to help me out for anything. So well done, boys and girls. Why not grab a seat? Should we grab a seat?

[13:13] Should we grab a seat? Well done. Well done. Should we sit down? Our experts. Let's get our experts to sit down. If only there was some way that I could know someone who created the universe and everything in it, who was an expert in everything, who knew exactly how the universe made and how I could be wise and live the good life, who shows me exactly what God is like.

[13:43] I wonder if there's anyone like that. Can you guys think of anyone like that who made the universe? Who could show me exactly what God looks like? Who can teach me how to be wise?

[13:53] Have you got a suggestion there? Who was that? Yes. That's exactly right. Jesus shows us how we can be wise.

[14:06] How we can know exactly what God is like. But our proverb, he puts it slightly differently. He speaks about the Lord and there he's speaking about Jesus' Father, God, who made the universe.

[14:21] So how can we be wise? He says, don't trust in rules. Don't trust in experts. We all love rules and experts. But he says, we should fear the Lord.

[14:31] The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge or wisdom. So a couple of thoughts there. The Lord, that's Jesus.

[14:42] Jesus' Father, we think about there. And we also think about fear. What does he mean by fear? He doesn't mean like scared of a monster. Ah, this is petrifying.

[14:52] But that's, he's talking about how we might fear and respect our parents. Yes. And how do we fear and respect them? Well, we know they love us. We know we love them.

[15:05] Sometimes we get stuff off sides. But we always try to listen to them. Because we know that they care and they love for us. That's the kind of fear that he's talking about there.

[15:17] And then I wonder if you noticed how wise he was in what he's written here. What does he write? He writes, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. And you think how infinitely massive the universe is.

[15:31] How big God is. He's made everything. And then you think how small we are. I can barely flip a burger. I can barely keep myself tidy and clean. I'm only, I can never be perfectly wise.

[15:45] But if I practice and work hard, then I can start to begin to be wise and figure out how to live life God's way.

[15:57] So it's a bit like my high school art drawing class. So here's a drawing that I did right at the start of a high school art drawing class. It's a masterpiece, isn't it? Lots of nods.

[16:07] Yes, yes. I've drawn that brilliantly. But I practiced. I practiced art. And eventually I got better. And I drew this. Not really.

[16:18] Now think how big and amazing God is. What kind of picture would God draw? Well, here's a suggestion. He's obviously drawn this. An amazing sunrise or sunset.

[16:30] Even bigger and better. And so Proverbs isn't a list of promises of how we can live the good life and grow in wisdom and knowledge.

[16:42] But it encourages us to practice that. To try and figure out how we can do that as a family together. And when things do go wrong, and things do go wrong in life.

[16:54] Because there's all sorts of problems in our great big world. Then we can know that we have a Heavenly Father and a Savior, Jesus. Who loves and cares for us.

[17:05] We might not always know why the problems are there. But we can know the God who does. Are those good things for us to think about and pray? Shall I pray for us? Right.

[17:16] Can we try this? P-R-A-Y Dear Father, thank you for the Proverbs. Thank you that you want us to be wise how to live in your world.

[17:30]  Thank you for Jesus. Amen. Right. Shall we take a seat? Back, go sit with our parents. You guys have done very, very well.