Please turn in your copy of God's Word to Proverbs chapter 18. We will be looking at verses 1 and 2, but I would like to read the first 9 verses. Hear God's word. A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire. He rages against all wise judgments.

A fool has no delight in understanding but in expressing his own heart. When the wicked comes, contempt comes also, and with dishonour comes reproach. The words of a man's mouth are deep waters. The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook. It is not good to show partiality to the wicked, or to overthrow the righteous in judgment.

A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calls for blows. A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul. The words of a tale bearer are like tasty trifles. They go down into the innermost body. He who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great destroyer." Thus far the reading of God's Word.

May He be praised in its reading and hearing. Heavenly Father, We thank you for your word. May it be to us more precious than gold, more desirable than silver. May it be the word of life to us. May you use these words in our lives to instruct us, to comfort us, to guide us in the way in which we should go, to show to us more of our blessed Savior Jesus Christ, To enable us to not just hear of you and know of you, or even know you, but to drink deeply of you.

You. This we ask, and also that you might sanctify this vessel of clay to Bring forth your riches, that the glory may belong to you and not man. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, this verse has two different translations, and depending on which version you are reading which version you are reading from. You may have wondered if I was reading the same verse.

The Geneva Bible translates that first verse very differently. It says that, for the desire thereof, he will separate himself to seek it and occupy himself in all wisdom. The King James says, through desire, a man having separated himself seeks and intermedals with all wisdom. The Bishops Bible, which many would say has a lot of translation errors, but It says, Whoso has an earnest desire to wisdom, he will sequester himself to seek it and occupy himself in all steadfastness and sound doctrine. That is almost like an exact opposite of what the ESV or the New King James that I read from this morning say.

The ESV says, whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. He breaks out against all sound judgment, or the text that we read. And so we have to ask, well, what is this verse? And I don't know. I don't know.

There are, in Hebrew, many difficult verses, and this is one of them, because Hebrew is a language that has few words and oftentimes leaves out the verb of the sentence, or will leave out the subject of a sentence, And that has to be supplied by the context. We talk that way often. We will say things without a subject or a verb, and we can fill it in from the context. And that's, like many verses, that's what we have here. We can sometimes gain some insight from couplets and antithesis, where we see a but, we can assume that the previous verse is saying the opposite, and so we can take the verb or the subject in that couplet, the antithetical part or the synthetic part of the proverb, and read it back into or read forward into the text.

But in this case, people have been divided, and depending on which text you read and which text the commentator is following, you can get two very different understandings. Both are certainly within, both translations certainly fit the rest of scripture. Both are teaching truths. It's certainly true that a man who isolates himself is somebody who seeks his own desire and he does rage against sound judgment. That is a very biblical concept.

That is the nature of a fool to isolate himself from all outside influence, from people that may be able to speak to him or to offer guidance or counsel. We could even apply that to church governments that lack a plurality of elders and result in isolation in one person. But I believe, just in looking at this, I think that the Geneva and the King James seemed to me, And I only say this because these are translations that have translated it this way seem to me to To capture the sense of these words and so this morning what that's how I will look at it, and we'll look at it from the standpoint, as Geneva has translated it in the King James, that this is saying that Those who have a desire to wisdom separate themselves to seek it and they occupy themselves with all wisdom. Or as the King James says, they inter-metal with it. I think maybe that one word, inter-metal, is not used very many times in the Bible.

It is only used, I think, three or so. And the other two cases, it's not used in a good sense. It's used in the sense of a quarrel. And that seems to be, for the people that go that way, that seems to be the factor that moves them that way. I think though there are some other prepositions and so on that are part of this text that I think the Geneva and the King James seem to pay more attention to.

But Either way, we are stewards of God's gifts. All that we are, all that we have, The intellectual, the physical abilities that we have, all the latent possibilities that are within us, they are God's gifts to us. And we are responsible as stewards to use them according to His will and to use them for His glory. Someday we are going to render an account of our stewardship. What have we done with the gifts that God has given to us?

He's given to us a heart, a mind, that can think, that can reason, that can understand, that can inquire into this world that He has given to us, and in which He has placed us to have dominion over it. We have a stewardship of this earth. And we've been given abilities, even as Adam was charged to go out and name the animals, he was beginning the very first scientific process, that of taxonomy, classifying the things that God had made. Now, we don't deserve the gifts that God has given us. He gives different gifts to different people.

We don't all have the same gifts and abilities. We don't all have the same office. We don't all have even the same, not only are our gifts different, but they are not given an equal measure. Some, God has said, have given great gifts to some people. And He has given fewer gifts to other people.

He's given different gifts. Romans 12 and other places speak about these differing gifts. Some have gifts of service. Some have gifts of rule and management. Some have leadership.

And some have gifts of teaching. Some have even gifts of giving. Now who would have a gift of giving? Who would have a gift of being able to give of their wealth? Well we read in Deuteronomy 8 that it is the Lord that gives us the power to get wealth.

So where somebody has great skill in business and can easily acquire wealth, that is a gift that God has given them. That they are to use, according to Romans 12, to glorify the Lord, to edify the body of Christ, to exercise a godly rule and dominion over the earth. So we don't deserve gifts from the forgiveness of our sins to the gift of physical strength, like Samson. Samson was given a physical gift, that of great, great strength. And he was to use it to deliver God's people.

He was raised up as a ruler, a deliverer in Israel with a physical gift. His physical gift was simply that of raw, brute strength. He was a man who could just take the gates of a city and just lift them right out of the ground, and walk with them, put them on top of a hill. That was a gift that God had given him. And he was responsible as a steward to use that physical gift for the glory of God.

So we are responsible then as stewards to discipline ourselves and to regularly use those gifts, to develop the habits, discipline habits of using the gifts that God has given us. To develop and use these gifts. Habits are simply those disciplines that have become ingrained into us through their daily and regular use, day after day after day. Habits can be strengthened as we act on them. And they can be weakened by inaction.

So we have to say then that excellence as a steward of these gifts that God has given us is an art that is One by training and by habituation Now sometimes we often want to erect a wall between what we think of as spiritual gifts and disciplines and what I'll call physical or material gifts and disciplines. We think in terms of an either-or. We think in terms of our use of our time as a 50-50 split or a 90-10 split. I spend 10% of my time in spiritual disciplines and 90% of my time in material disciplines or pursuits. But we really should think of all of our gifts, material gifts and resources and spiritual gifts, as an inseparable part of who God made us to be.

Now what does that mean? Well when you eat a cake, you can't eat the flour separately from the sugar. Those two are inseparably joined together in a cake. Now when you made them, yes they were separate components, but once they are put together and you bake the cake, they are inseparably joined together. There is no way you can separate out the sugar and not eat the sugar and only eat the flour in the cake.

Or eat the sugar and leave the flour for some. They are inseparable. And that's the same way with our spiritual and material gifts and resources. They both come from the Lord Jesus Christ, our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. They are both His gifts, and they both are important to our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so we should see them as completely and inseparably meshed together and equally, in that sense, vital. Half of the Ten Commandments pertain to how we relate to one another. How we use the material blessings that God has given to us. In fact, Paul said everything we do, even our eating and drinking, even those mundane things, are to be done to the glory of God. So you need to think of our Christian life as that cake where the sugar and the flour are meshed together in an inseparable way and that we're to use all of the gifts that God has given to us the spiritual ones as well as the physical ones together.

That means we need to use our spiritual gifts when we are engaged in material pursuits. And we need to remember the wisdom of material wisdom that God has given to us even when we are thinking of spiritual matters. There are two errors we can fall into. We can try and bake the cake with only material ingredients. The Bible says, What profit is it if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?

But you can also try and bake a cake with only spiritual ingredients. And James says, what profit is there in being a hearer of the Word and not a doer. A doer requires using material and physical gifts to accomplish something. God created us with a physical body and He put us in a physical world. And the bodily part of our existence is critical to our soul and to our spiritual life.

And so we can't fall into an error on either side. And so we come then with that background to this first verse that says, For the desire thereof, he will separate himself to seek it, and occupy himself in all wisdom. Occupy himself in all wisdom This is the Bible's instruction God's word to us about How to achieve abiding success And Just a quick look at a couple of the key words in here, and then we'll look at five principles that are enumerated here. It says that, for the desire thereof, a man will separate himself. That's a physical separation.

That word speaks of a physical separation. Such as when the nations were separated at the Tower of Babel by the tongues that they spoke. God physically divided the people By giving them different languages so they couldn't communicate with each other, they were forced to go their separate ways and to unite with people that spoke the same language. God did that. He divided the people.

And that's the same word that's used in our text. Abraham and Lot separated themselves. You remember when the land could not sustain all of their flocks and herds. There wasn't enough water for them all. They had to separate and go two different directions.

It's the same principle, same word. Proverbs uses this word as well. It speaks about, he that covers a transgression that seeks love, but he that repeats a matter, separates very friends. It's the same word there, separate, causing two people to go separate, to separate and go different directions. The lot causes contentions to cease and parts between the mighty.

It creates a separation. So this is saying first of all that a man who has a desire for wisdom will separate himself to seek it in that sense. But then this last word I want to look at a minute, this, occupy himself in all wisdom. That is not the usual word that we have seen in Proverbs for wisdom. There are several different words for wisdom.

This is not one of the typical words. This is a relatively infrequent word for wisdom. And it has more to do, If you actually read the lexicon's definition of it, it actually has to do with... It's defined as efficient or sound wisdom, sound knowledge, even success, or abiding success. It says abiding...

One of the lexicon said it means abiding success the effect of sound wisdom this is speaking of an enterprise. This is really speaking about work. Job 5, this word is used, it says that, "...he disappoints the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise." The word enterprise is the word for wisdom in our text. God disappoints the devices of the crafties so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. It implies that the wicked are working in the material world and God is frustrating their devices so that they cannot achieve their enterprise.

The ESV says so that their hands achieve no success. That word Success is the same word for wisdom in our text. In Isaiah 28, which I think we're going to come back to, talks about a very practical matter. A vital interest to all of us, how we get food. It talks about in Isaiah 28, it asks the question about the farmer and how does the farmer know how to plant and how to harvest and how to prepare various different grains for food.

And so it says in Proverbs 28, does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods? That's a very basic question, right? We would think anybody with any common sense would know that you don't just keep plowing the field over and over again hoping for a harvest. That's the question, Isaiah.

Does a plowman do that? No, it says when he has leveled its surface, doesn't he sow the black cumin, scatter the cumin, plant the wheat in rows, the barley in its appointed place, the spelt in its place? Then it says, well, how does he know to do that? How does he know not to just keep plowing the field over and over again? Where did he get that?

We would say That's common sense. Anybody knows that. But Isaiah says, God instructs him in right judgment. His God teaches him. Even this, what we would call common sense, this basic thing of practical, How many times do you need to plow a field?

How do you plant the wheat in rows? Bible says that God teaches that. For the black cumin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor a cartwheel rolled over the cumin, because that would ruin the crop. But the black cumin is beaten out with a stick and the cumin with the rod. Red flour must be ground.

Therefore he does not thresh it forever. It would ruin the crop. He doesn't thresh it forever, break it with his cart wheel, or crush it with his horseman. How does he know this? Isaiah says, God teaches him.

And it says, this is the God who is excellent in guidance or wisdom. And that word, guidance or wisdom, or in some of the older texts it says working wisdom or works. That's the same word for wisdom that's in our text. We see then this wisdom that's spoken of in our text is this wisdom that's associated with success, that's associated with enterprising and working in the material world that God has made. And so what does this text say about how we get this wisdom?

How do we achieve abiding success in the eyes of the Lord with our life using the talents that he has given to us as good stewards. How do we get there? Well, this text gives us some principles. The first is a desire. A desire.

Charles Bridges says that Desire is the chariot wheel of the soul, the spring of energy and delight. It begins with a desire. It is a God-given desire. But it is a desire nonetheless. The steps that we take in any direction always begin with a desire.

Sometimes God causes us to take steps in a direction that we aren't planning to go. But there is a desire there. This desire is a good thing. It's a good thing. These desires, when we have these desires in our heart for things that are wholesome and good and righteous, We need to recognize that these are desires from the Lord.

Even when we see them in our children, their inclination or desire to a certain thing, we should nurture that desire and help them to cultivate that desire. Even becoming a minister of the gospel begins with a desire. And Paul said that that is a good desire. Desire often springs from a fascination with some aspect of God's creation. And that's the second principle.

In verse 2 it says, a fool has no delight in understanding. That means that a person who is wise will have delight in understanding. There will be a wholesome fascination with some aspect of God's creation. Psalm 111 says, the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

The works of the Lord are great, and those who have pleasure in those things, they seek them out. They want to understand what God has done. They want to know more about what's behind what they're seeing. They want to understand the wisdom by which God has made and governs and sustains the world. That fascination is a good thing.

Columbus was fascinated with the ships as they came into port and he could see that mast just get higher and higher and higher as they came closer due to the curvature of the Earth. In fact, when I was at sea, we actually had an equation, I don't remember anymore, but we could estimate the distance of another ship based on the height of the mast, above the horizon. A test pilot I heard speak once, and he was a test pilot flying high-performance, cutting-edge, break-the-envelope kind of military jets into his 70s. Had this to say about when his fascination with airplanes came. It came because he was a little kid about like three or four or something.

His father needed to re-roof the house. And his mother was gone, so father took him up on the roof and nailed him to the roof by the seat of his pants, so he wouldn't fall off. And what do you know, there was an airport right there house, And so he spent his day watching the airplanes, and developed an intense fascination for how could this thing stay up in the air? And it became the calling of his life. And he was very good at it.

Edison became a newsboy. And He told somebody who was interviewing him who wrote a book on a number of inventors and people that have achieved success in different areas, She just interviewed them to understand a little bit about their habits and principles. And he said, he became a newsboy and he liked it. And being a newsboy is not something that most of us would consider glamorous. It's something that some children might do in order to get a little spending cash.

At least when I was growing up, that's what you did. I don't think I've heard of anybody having a newspaper route around here in a long time come to think of it. But that's what they used to do when I was growing up as a child and it wasn't something that you people enjoyed or thought of as enjoying but Edison says he liked it he enjoyed it And he said he made his first coup as a newsboy in 1869 when he says in his words, I bought up on futures. That means he got on a loan. Basically, they advanced the papers to him.

I bought on futures a thousand copies of the Detroit Free Press containing important war news, gained a little time on my rivals and sold the entire batch like hotcakes. The price reached 25 cents a paper before the end of the route." That was from a boy who liked what he was doing, who took enjoyment in it. He said, I ran the grand trunk herald too at that time, a little paper, I issued it out of the train. He became interested in telegraphing because he saved a boy from the train and that boy's father was the train station master. And in exchange he taught Edison the ability to log telegraphy, how to send telegraphs.

And That led to his being hired by the rail company as a telegraph. And from there he may start inventing improvements on the telegraph. Because he had a fascination with the things that he was working with. He was, even though I don't think he was a Christian, I don't think we have any evidence of that, he was fascinated by the Lord's works, as Psalm 111 says. Now if an unbeliever like that can be fascinated, I don't know that he was, but if he can be fascinated with the Lord's works, how much more we who know the Lord Jesus Christ, who by his wisdom has made the world, how much more are we not to be fascinated by the works of the Lord and have a desire, as Psalm 111 says, to inquire into them.

A little later on in the interview, this interviewer asked, What makes you work? She asked with real curiosity. What impels you to this conscious Edison, to this constant tireless struggle? You have shown that you care comparatively nothing for the money it makes you, and you have no particular interest or enthusiasm for the attending fame. What is it?

His answer? I like it. I like it. He was fascinated with the principles of electricity and magnetism and all these things that God made and He had a desire to inquire into them the third principle in our text is that we must separate ourselves from distractions. There needs to be a desire for wisdom and a pleasure, taking a pleasure in God's world and the works that he has done.

But then thirdly, if we're going to be serious about this wisdom that is abiding success, then we have to separate ourselves from the distractions that would suck away our time and our ability to understand the area that we have chosen. We have to separate ourselves from foolish people, from bad company, from excessive and unprofitable leisure. First Corinthians 15.33 says, bad company corrupts good morals. If we are going to be a good steward, rightly using the resources that God has given us for His glory, then we can't be around bad company. You can't expect to have this wisdom of success if you're walking with people going the other way.

Proverbs 13 20 says a companion of fools will be destroyed. Jesus spoke about the seed of the word falling on soil that was filled with weeds and it choked. The cares and pleasures of this life choked that seed and it didn't bring forth any fruit. If we are going to be fruitful people in the field that God has given to us, then we have to separate ourselves from those things that would distract us, consume our resources, or lead us the wrong way. We see this when God was preparing people, preparing leaders.

He often separated them and led them away. When he was calling Abraham to go into the land of Israel and to be a sojourner there and to stay there his whole life and never realize what God had promised him. God led him away at night. And he brought him forth abroad. And he said, now look now toward the heaven and tell the stars.

If you are able to number them, and he said, so will your descendants be. He took them away, he showed them the stars, he gave him a picture of what the future would be, what God would do through him. God took Moses away from Egypt into the desert for 40 years before he called him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. God put John the Baptist in a desert. Luke tells us that the child grew and waxed strong in the Spirit and was in the deserts till the day of his showing to Israel.

God separated him, to prepare him to be that Elijah who would proclaim and make straight the way for the Lord. And then when it was time, God brought Israel to Him. They went out to Him. God sent Paul to Arabia for three years. Jesus, we read in the Gospels, often rose early to meet alone with his Father.

Mark 1 says, And in the morning, rising up a great while before the day, before dawn, He went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed He separated himself Separate himself from the distractions that would prevent him from focusing on his work that of praying to the Father He also stayed out late all night. He would spend all night alone. Luke tells us that he went one day in a mountain to pray and he continued all night in prayer to God. He separated himself away where he wouldn't be distracted, where he could focus all of his mind on prayer. If we're going to have this wisdom of abiding success, we have to learn to separate ourselves from amusements, things of no thinking.

There are countless activities that will waste your time. There are countless good activities that can waste your time. But there are also countless meaningless activities that can waste your time. We have to separate ourselves from those things. Sometimes you might just have to, like I did once, you just have to take those games off the computer.

They used to come with the systems and you find if you're spending too much time on them you Cut them out because we have to separate ourselves from anything that's going to distract our ability To seek this wisdom And the things that require no thinking ah musing are the first things that we should look at cutting out. But we're even going to have to make hard decisions about good things. We can't do everything. If we're going to achieve this wisdom that is abiding success in our enterprises, then we have to make hard decisions about even the good activities that we need to cut back or eliminate, which things we can go to and which things we can't go to. There has to be a single-mindedness of purpose, a mental separation and focus upon what we're doing.

And That means sometimes even separating ourselves from good things. Paul told Timothy, No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life. Now there is nothing wrong with the affairs of this life, but if you're going to be a successful soldier You have to separate yourself from all those things Because you cannot fight a war while you're worrying about paying the electric bill No man that wars and tangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please both him who has chosen him to be a soldier. God has called us to be His soldiers. He's given us a calling.

He's given each of you a calling. It's an honorable calling. It's a holy calling. He's given you the gifts for that calling. And it's your duty to develop those gifts.

To separate yourself from the things that would prevent you from developing and utilizing those gifts. So that you can please Him who has called you and saved you, the Lord Jesus Christ. He who loves pleasure, Proverbs says, will be a poor man. He who loves pleasure will not have this wisdom that is abiding success. Proverbs 2 speaks about applying our heart to understanding.

We have to be able to dedicate all of our resources and talents to the enterprise that's before us. A whole heartedness. The Bible says whatever you find to do, do it with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Paul told the Philippians in chapter 3, But what things were gained to me, these I counted loss for Christ, yes, doubtless. And I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ Paul was Called to be a missionary and evangelist to the Gentiles and he counted everything else Worthless willing to lose everything else to that he might focus on the purpose for which God had called him.

The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. People who are going to achieve great success in this world. Do so through great dedication and great sacrifice. Fourthly listen to the wisdom of others. A fool, it says, has no delight in understanding, but only in expressing his own heart.

You're not going to get, you're not going to learn anything when you're talking as someone said once. To get this kind of wisdom we have to be willing. We have to be willing to listen, We have to be willing to listen, we have to be willing to talk to others, we have to incline our ear to wisdom. Talk to people who have labored their whole life in the field that you are interested in. Get around them.

Read about people who have gained abiding success. Read about their life habits. Learn from them. Be willing. Listen.

Listen. Fifthly, seek wisdom diligently. King James says, intermedal. Intermedal. That intermedal with wisdom.

It's a word That means an ongoing, intensive disclosing to oneself. It's in the reflexive, it means it's something we're doing to ourselves. And it's such that it means it's in an ongoing sense. An ongoing disclosing to oneself. This is the active work of seeking wisdom.

This is what Proverbs 2 speaks of. It says, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom, there's the listening, and apply your heart to understanding, Yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasure, just think of what people did, those miners in the gold rush of the 18th, mid-19th century in California. Just think of the intensity of what they did to seek gold. Leaving their homes, traveling across the country, hazarding many dangers, sleeping under the stars, treasures, sleeping under the stars, living outside, simply to be able to find some gold flowing down a river bed. If You search for her as for hidden treasure Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God there is that that intermeddling or as the Geneva says, occupy himself in all wisdom.

That urgency to work, urgency to study, urgency to learn. The opposite of what Proverbs 24 says, you had a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall your poverty come as one that travels and your want as an armed man. If we're going to have this abiding success, this wisdom, there has to be an urgency, a diligence to seek it, not a folding of our hands and sleeping another few minutes. Andrew Carnegie did not have any money for books and he never went to school of any kind apparently. That's what he said.

The only thing he knew was what he had taught himself. But there was a gentleman in Allegheny City, that's where he grew up, Pennsylvania, by the name of Colonel Anderson, who opened his personal library in his own private house every Saturday for people like Andrew Carnegie who didn't have any other books to come and read his books and Andrew Carnegie says he looked forward every week every day for Saturday when he could go to Colonel Anderson's house and read his books. He was deeply involved, dedicated, diligently pursuing wisdom. One man of God who has gone to be with the Lord, his children tell the story that They got up one morning at something like seven and their father was fully dressed and had been working in the study a long time. Another day they got up at six and their father was in there at work.

The next day they got up at five and their father was in there at work and that was their memory of this man. Edison in this same interview I talked about earlier said to the lady, he said, Oh, I don't work hard now. I come to the laboratory about 8 o'clock every day and go home to tea at 6 and then I study and work on some problem until 11, which is my hour for bed. In his interview this lady said, well, 14 or 15 hours a day can scarcely be called loafing. And he said, well, for 15 years I worked an average of 20 hours a day.

When he was 47 years old, he estimated his true age as 82 because that would be how old he would be if he had worked that many hours at eight hours a day. She says that he says sometimes he would work 60 consecutive hours on a problem and then after a long sleep he would be refreshed and ready to start another one. That's the example of the dedication that produced over a thousand U.S. Patents more than anyone else in the US. Now this isn't an exam, I'm not extolling this as an example for you to follow.

By any means. I'm mentioning this as an example of what dedication is. And what it takes to achieve this kind of success. Fathers and husbands can't do that and should not do that. That would be a dereliction of their duty of failing to pursue their calling.

Paul recognizes this distinction. You see, not everybody has been given the same calling and the same gifts. But we all have to use these principles in the calling that God has given to us. And Paul recognizes that distinction in 1 Corinthians 7, where he says that he that is married has to care for the things of this world, how he may please his wife. And he says the same is true of a woman, an unmarried woman, the difference between a wife and a virgin.

The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord that she may be holy in body and spirit but she that is married carries for the things of the world how she may please her husband. Paul is not condemning that but those are two different callings. Those are two different callings. They both, both of those, the married and the unmarried, are both to pursue their calling with diligence, to seek wisdom. A single person has an advantage then in these areas.

They can be focused and able to dedicate themselves to something. Spiritual service such as Anna, who for seven years she was married and the rest of her life at 84 she spent in the temple. She dedicated herself to that. Paul remained single so that he could travel and be away. Even though he said to the Corinthians, don't I have a right to take a wife?

Paul told Timothy, study. Study to show yourself approved under God, a workman that doesn't need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Scriptures. Told the Philippians, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul was dedicated to his calling, to what God had called him to do. So do the hard things.

Seek diligently for this wisdom. It is the Lord's. The earth is the Lord's. And all that is in it is the Lord's. We are His servants.

Eric Liddell said, No man who really is a man ever cared for the easy task. There is no enjoyment in the game that is easily won. It is that in which you have to strain every muscle in sinew to achieve victory that provides real joy. Eric Liddell was born to missionary parents in China and grew up in China. He ran in the 1924 Olympics and won.

His story was made into a movie. And then after that, he went back to China as a missionary and died in an internment camp there in World War II with a brain tumor. But he understood this, that all of his life, that all of his gifts were dedicated to the Lord. He understood the sense of God's pleasure when he through habituation and diligence achieved great success as a runner. But even in that, his spiritual and material were joined together, and he refused to race on the Lord's Day, training instead for another race, that he didn't have as much experience and wasn't as good.

Today everybody knows who he is. He actually wrote a book on spiritual disciplines. This abiding success, as we read, Pastor Carl read, comes from the Lord. It comes from the Lord. Doesn't matter what your gift is, what your calling is, whether it's laboring in the dirt, laboring mentally with principles, with things that you can't see like electricity and magnetism, laboring with your hands to build, or being a newsboy.

The wisdom to know how to do that task comes from the Lord. The ability to have success in that endeavor comes from the Lord. May He be glorified in each of our lives, in each of our lives, as we use these talents and these gifts to glorify Him on this earth. Almighty Heavenly Father, we do thank You that the earth is Yours, and the fullness thereof, And we who dwell in it are also yours. You have created us.

In your wisdom and in your knowledge, you have created us and put us here. You have even ordained the fall, that the excellencies of your mercy and your justice Your mercy and your justice might be displayed to the hosts of heaven through your church. Lord you have given to us the bodies that we have. We yield them to you as instruments of righteousness. Our hands, our feet, our mouths, we yield to you.

We yield to you. We ask that all of these might be moved by your spirit, might be compelled by your Spirit dwelling within us. That we might give thanks in all things, and rejoice in all things, and pray without ceasing us even As we go about the material work that you have called us to, Father, grant to us joy in it, and delight in it. And may you enable us to do it as unto you and not as pleasing men, yes even in our eating and drinking. May we display this wisdom and glorify you.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.