18 January 2015
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Proverbs 3:13-26
Proverbs 3:13-26 (NIV)
13 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains
understanding,
14 for she is more profitable than silver and yields better
returns than gold.
15 She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can
compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are
riches and honor.
17 Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who
lay hold of her will be blessed.
19 By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations, by
understanding he set the heavens in place;
20 by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds
let drop the dew.
21 My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not
let them out of your sight;
22 they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your
neck.
23 Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot
will not stumble;
24 when you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie
down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that
overtakes the wicked,
26 for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your
foot from being snared.
-- on
February 21, 1994, Aldrich Ames, a CIA analyst working in Washington, D.C., in
the Department of Operations, the most sensitive element of the CIA branch
involved in Soviet counterintelligence, was arrested at his home and charged
with spying for the Russians against the United States
-- in his
subsequent court trial, Ames admitted to the charges and confessed that he had
provided sensitive information and the identities of U.S. assets to the
Russians since 1985 in exchange for an estimated $4.6 million -- he was
subsequently sentenced to life in prison without parole for his crimes against
the U.S. and remains behind bars today
-- now what
is amazing about this story is not that an American would betray his country
for financial gain -- this story is all too common -- not only here but in
other countries as well -- no, what is amazing is that this occurred within the
very office of the Central Intelligence Agency responsible for taking in and
evaluating information to determine threats to our nation's security
-- Ames was
a mid-level Government employee with a salary of $60,000 per year -- however,
his lifestyle did not match his salary -- Ames lived in a $540,000 home in
Arlington, Virginia, that he had paid for in cash -- he drove a $60,000 Jaguar
to work every day -- after his second marriage, he had home remodeling and
decoration costs of almost $100,000 -- and he and his wife racked up phone
bills of $6,000 per month, mostly to her family in Columbia
-- and, if
that wasn't enough, Ames showed up to work each day to his office at the CIA
wearing tailored suits made just for him, conspicuously finer than those of his
colleagues -- and he had premium credit cards with monthly minimum payments
higher than his monthly salary -- yet he never found himself in debt
-- looking
back at the case of Aldrich Ames, one has to wonder why his supervisors and
fellow employees in the CIA did not catch on earlier -- all the warning signs
-- all the information -- was there, but they just didn't see -- they just
didn't know what to do with it, and so Aldrich Ames continued to serve as a
mole for the Russians within the CIA for 10 years before he was finally caught1
-- this
morning we are beginning our new sermon series called "Tested and
Approved" -- a look at the cardinal virtues necessary for a successful
Christian life
-- virtues
are the characteristics -- the behaviors -- we need to adopt and to live out
and to make a part of us and our lives if we are to be the men and women Christ
has called us to be -- to live a virtuous life means we conform our lives to
Christ -- intentionally choosing to live our lives according to a high moral standard,
based on the teachings of Christ
-- the
virtues we will be discussing are called the cardinal virtues -- "cardinal
comes from the Latin "card," which means hinge -- these are the
virtues upon which the door of one's moral and ethical life swings"2
-- these are the foundation of our character and form the basis of who we are,
both in public and in private
II. What is Wisdom?
-- this
morning we are going to be looking at the cardinal virtue of wisdom or prudence
-- and what better place to do that than in the Book of Proverbs -- one of the
wisdom books of the Bible?
-- if you
would, look with me again at verse 13
Proverbs 3:13-18 (NIV)
13 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains
understanding,
14 for she is more profitable than silver and yields better
returns than gold.
15 She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can
compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are
riches and honor.
17 Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who
lay hold of her will be blessed.
-- Solomon
urges us to find wisdom -- to gain understanding -- which then begs the
question, what is wisdom?
-- the
dictionary defines wisdom as "accumulated philosophic or scientific
learning or knowledge" -- but I'm going to tell you this definition is not
complete -- it's missing part of the complexity of wisdom as found in the Bible
-- you see, there are different facets -- different meanings -- for the word
wisdom
-- the
dictionary definition I gave you equates wisdom to knowledge -- and that is
true in the general sense -- in philosophy, and even here in the wisdom books
of the Bible, this is known as sophia
-- this is general knowledge -- the gathering of information -- sophia refers to learning about
something
-- all of
us are in the business of gaining knowledge in this way every day -- kids in
school are learning about the basics of science and math and English -- if you
work outside the home, you had to learn the basics of your job -- you had to
learn the skills required to work in your profession -- if you drive, you had
to learn how to drive -- knowledge is nothing more than knowing something about
a subject
-- we have
whole government agencies like the CIA that do nothing but gather information
-- their sole purpose is to acquire information about other countries -- about
other militaries -- about terrorist activity -- they are knowledgeable about
these subjects
-- in the
same way, we are supposed to be knowledgeable about spiritual things -- we are
supposed to know the basics of our faith -- we are supposed to know the Bible
-- to know how to pray -- to know what it means to be a Christian -- that is
what sophia -- that is what knowledge
is -- it is the acquisition of information
-- but
there is another facet of wisdom known as phronesis
-- think of this as practical wisdom -- phronesis
is taking the sophia -- the knowledge
you possess -- and applying it to your life to make relevant decisions on what
to do and how to live -- in other words, phronesis
is putting knowledge to work
-- let me
give you a practical example -- think about driving a car -- about the basics
of getting a license and learning how to drive -- I know the requirements have
changed some since I first got my license, but the basics are still the same --
in order to get a license, you have to do two things -- first, you have to
learn the foundation of operating a motor vehicle -- how to adjust the seat and
the mirrors so you can reach the pedals and be able to see what is going on
around you and behind you -- you have to learn how to physically operate the
car -- how to turn the key in the ignition to start the engine -- how to put on
the brake and how to apply the accelerator -- if you have a manual
transmission, you have to know how to apply the clutch and let it off just
right so the car moves into gear -- you have to know how to park and how to
turn around and how to safely operate the car -- the basics -- that's the first
thing
-- the
second thing is you have to know the rules of the road -- you have to study the
written rules that everyone who drives has to follow -- when to stop at red
lights and stop signs and yield signs -- when to apply your blinkers and when
to apply your hazard lights -- what the normal speed limits are in your area on
various roads, even if there are no speed limit signs posted -- when it's okay
to turn right on red or what lane you are supposed to turn into on a divided
highway when you turn left -- those kind of things
-- these
two things are the information -- the basic knowledge -- the sophia -- you need to get a driver's
license and start driving -- but we all know, there's more to driving than just
knowing how to operate a car and the rules of the road
-- what is
missing is phronesis -- the practical
application of the knowledge you possess to real world situations -- the rule
book doesn't teach you how to drive at night in a storm or how to drive on ice
and snow -- the rule book doesn't cover every situation you'll face in driving
-- what if there's a wreck in front of you? -- is it okay to pass the accident
on the shoulder of the road even though the law says you can't pass on the
shoulder?
-- these
are things that you learn through experience -- these are situations where you
take the knowledge you possess and filter it through your experience and your
understanding of the situation to arrive at a real world situation -- this is
practical wisdom -- the application of knowledge in life
-- this is
what was missing at the CIA in the case of Aldrich Ames -- they had the basic
information -- they had the sophia --
but they didn't know what to do with it -- they failed at applying phronesis
-- so here
in Proverbs 3:13 -- when we read, "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom --
the man who gains understanding" -- know this is referring to both sophia and phronesis -- what Solomon is
telling us is that we will be blessed in our lives if we take the knowledge we
have of God and what God desires and then apply that information in our lives
-- if we make practical use of what God has told us in His word
-- so
wisdom is a virtue, not because it is an action in and of itself, but because it
informs our decisions and our behavior -- wisdom is the filter we use to
determine what we do in our lives -- as Crawford H. Toy wrote, "Wisdom is
the knowledge of right living in the highest sense"
III. The Application of Wisdom
-- out of all the virtues we are
going to discuss, wisdom is the greatest deficit in our world today -- as Brett
and Kay McKay point out in an article they wrote on the virtue of wisdom,
"As our society has become more complex, specialized, and bureaucratic,
the opportunity to exercise practical wisdom has increasingly been replaced
with reliance on rules, regulations, and incentives to achieve our goals."2
-- in other
words, people aren't thinking for themselves -- when they are faced with a
decision, they don't apply the process of wisdom -- they don't take the
information and knowledge they possess and filter it through the context of the
situation and their own experience to arrive at a reasonable course of action
-- instead, they look at what the rules tell them and they follow that sole
course of action whether it is appropriate or not
-- I have
been fighting this at work for months now with our lawyers at the Pentagon --
the law says that the installation commander will meet face-to-face with the
Native American Tribal Governments to discuss with them any projects Moody AFB
is planning to do before we proceed
-- the only
problem is the Native American Tribes we need to talk to are not right next
door -- they're in Oklahoma and they have told us by phone and by written
correspondence that they don't want to talk to us about our projects any longer
-- they don't care what we do on the installation -- "But," the
lawyers say, "the law says you have to have face-to-face meetings and
that's what you're going to do"
-- the
lawyers are deriving their course of action from a rule and are ignoring the
context and the experience and the wishes of the very people who don't want us
to visit them -- phronesis is not
being applied
-- so how
do we acquire this virtue of wisdom? -- it's a three-step process
-- the
first step is knowing -- we need to acquire knowledge -- we need basic
information about life
-- this
information -- our rules of the road, if you will -- needs to come from the Kingdom of God and not from this world -- this
means the basis of our information and knowledge needs to come from God and
from His Word
-- we need
to know God's word -- we need to know God -- we need to spend time with Him by
reading the Bible and praying and worshiping with others and reading other
sources of spiritual commentary and insight
-- we need
to immerse ourselves in the truth of God and let this knowledge of Him serve as
the background data from which we make decisions about who we are going to be
and what we are going to do
-- this
information forms the framework for decisions in our lives
-- next, we
need to understand -- this is where context and experience and revelation come
into play -- in James 1:5 we are instructed to ask God to give us wisdom in
order to understand a given situation and what should be done -- every
situation is different -- every person we interact with is different -- and
there is not a one-rule-fits-all answer
-- so we
seek to understand what God wants us to do in any given situation -- we look at
the basic information we possess -- what does God's word say about this
subject?
-- and then
we look to our experience and the experience of the church -- how has this been
handled in the past? -- what worked? -- what didn't work? -- what should have
been done instead?
-- and then
we ask God to give us wisdom -- we ask Him to give us insight into the
situation and spiritual discernment that we might know what to do in this
particular situation
-- God
speaks to our hearts and reveals to us the truth of a situation in light of His
word and He guides us into making our decision based on His will rather than
the black-and-white of the Law
-- the goal
is to seek understanding of what God wants rather than trying to just adhere to
the Law -- this was the mistake the Pharisees made -- the Law said no one
should work on the Sabbath, so we read in the gospels they tried to have Jesus
arrested because He broke the Law by healing a man with a shriveled hand in the
synagogue on the Sabbath -- a clear violation of the Law
-- but
Jesus pointed out that God's intent -- God's will -- was that good should
always take precedent over the black-and-white rules of the Law -- the Law was
to provide a framework through which to make decisions -- not to be the end-all
on how to act in every situation
-- so we
seek to understand God's will in this particular situation and context within
the framework of our basic knowledge of His Word
-- the
final step is doing -- the application of wisdom to life -- it's not enough to
know what to do -- we must act on what we know
-- our
behavior and our actions must follow our wisdom -- once a choice is made, it
should be carried out
--
following through is the final step in the process of wisdom
IV. Closing
-- In one
of the commercials that was shown at the 2010 Super Bowl, Cars.com tells the
story of a wonder child named Timothy Richman, who demonstrates for us this
process of wisdom
-- when he
was a toddler, he saw a pan of food cooking on the stove catch fire -- he had
heard that baking soda puts out fires, so Timothy threw his rattle at a box of
baking soda located on a shelf above the flaming pan, knocking over the box,
which poured the soda into the pan and extinguished the flames.
-- when
he's a little boy, his father gives him a bike -- and as his father starts to
put on the training wheels, Timothy repeats to himself the knowledge he learned
about how to ride a bike -- "Balance, momentum, and a low center of
gravity," and with that, before Timothy's dad can get the training wheels
on, he pedals the bike away and down the driveway.
-- In
junior high, Timothy confidently walks up to a teen on an Italian beach who has
been stung on the leg by a jellyfish and acting on his knowledge of first aid,
he pours vinegar on the inflamed skin -- he explains in perfect Italian that
vinegar can neutralize jellyfish stings.
-- As a
high school student on safari in Africa, he uses his knowledge of veterinary medicine
to deliver a baby Bengal tiger that was
breeched.
-- the last
scene in the commercial shows Timothy at a new car lot looking scared to death
-- but then he sees a Cars.com sign and pulls out his cell phone and searches
the site on the internet -- The narrator for the commercial concludes, "So
Timothy Richman got his knowledge at Cars.com, regained his confidence, and got
the perfect car at the perfect price."3
-- sophia -- phronesis -- and application -- know it -- understand it -- do it
-- this is the three-step process to acquire the virtue of wisdom in your life
-- wisdom
is the foundation of our lives with Christ -- it is the greatest of the
cardinal virtues -- and to know Christ -- to understand Christ -- and to obey
Christ is our goal
-- let's
pray
1 Websites accessed 18 January 2015: http://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/aldrich-ames;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldrich_Ames
2 Source: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/12/19/practical-wisdom/
-- Brett and Kate McKay
3 Craig Brian Larson, editor of PreachingToday.com; source:
2010 USA Today Ad Meter and Cars.com
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