Sermon or Lesson:  Pursue Wisdom - Part 3:  Additional Purposes Of Spiritual Wisdom  (NIV based)

[Lesson Question:  Discuss, generate, and compile a list of purposes that God wants spiritual wisdom to facilitate and/or accomplish.]

SECTION POINT:  God intends that a broad purpose of spiritual wisdom is to facilitate and/or accomplish comprehensive godliness and excellent ministry functioning in every true believer.

ADDITIONAL PURPOSES OF SPIRITUAL WISDOM:
- - In addition to the numerous purposes that are inherent within the description and qualities of spiritual wisdom that are described in the previous document "Part 2" of this 'Pursue Wisdom' series, spiritual wisdom also facilitates the accomplishing of other purposes in us true believers.
- - Spiritual wisdom from heaven encourages us to engage in ongoing study of the Scriptures, even to the extent that "[our] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law [we] meditate day and night", which nurtures the building of our understanding of the Scriptures.  (Psalms 1:2)
- - This growth in understanding of the Scriptures can furthermore move us towards acquiring a fuller "knowledge of [God's] will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding".  (Colossians 1:9)
- - Consequently, this spiritual wisdom in understanding the Scriptures and God's will then can assist us in "making" correct, wise, and godly "judgments about all things".  (v.15 in 1 Corinthians 2:14-15)

-- Upon facilitating an adequate level of understanding of the Scriptures, of God's will, and of making wise judgments about all things in our life, spiritual wisdom can then facilitate the producing of:
- - - - biblical purpose and motivation for living a godly and obedient life, which of course leads to the goal of reaching spiritual maturity;
- - - - biblical guidance and direction daily in how we live, for examples in such ways as exercising godly wise self-control and self-restraint in our own thinking, speech, and behavior;
- - - - biblical guidance in decision-making that inevitably and sporadically pop-up each day, which would contribute to achieving a high degree of accuracy as to what the outcome of those decisions will be;
- - - - biblical guidance and insight in formulating and executing solutions to various kinds of problems and difficulties that are encountered each day;
- - - - assistance in recognizing when problems are spiritual in nature, which thus require a spiritual solution to a spiritual problem; and then determining how to properly and effectively find and apply information, principles, instructions, and commands from the Scriptures to successfully treat each spiritual problem;
- - - - strength in beneficially adjusting our perspective to be biblical when enduring various kinds of hardships, suffering, pain, devastation, loss, and etcetera;
- - - - visible evidence that "wisdom and understanding" facilitate improvement change in us, to a "good life" that produces good "deeds" and "humility", as described in James 3:13 - "Who is wise and understanding among you?  Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.";
- - - - biblical purpose, motivation, and progression to achieving excellence in doing ministry work that aligns to and utilizes how God has spiritually-gifted oneself, and fulfills whatever He has called that true believer to do;
- - - - boldness to "proclaim [Christ]... with all wisdom" - "making Him known by publicly announcing, declaring, and spreading the news about" Him;  (Colossians 1:28; Strong's #2605 and AHD - 'promulgate')
- - - - willingness and self-motivation to go through academic training in ministry, in order to be qualified and equipped to engage in the ministry work of teaching the Scriptures, which involves persuading, "admonishing, and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect [or "full-grown, complete"] in Christ".  (v.1:28; Strong's #5046)

- - To condense these purposes of spiritual wisdom into a concise statement, God purposes spiritual wisdom to facilitate in each true believer the establishing of godly living that is simultaneously active in doing substantial ministry work - in other words, making disciples who bear much fruit for God's Kingdom.  (Matthew 28:19-20; John 15:8)
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[Lesson Question:  Analyze, discuss, and generate a description of God's purpose of 'bringing blessings' upon true believers who use spiritual wisdom.]

SECTION POINT:  God also purposes, desires, and orchestrates that the use of spiritual wisdom by true believers will bring great blessings in their life.

PURPOSE OF BRINGING BLESSINGS:
- - God has designed that blessings come upon us true believers through our use of spiritual wisdom, as declared in Proverbs 3:13, "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding".
- - God has ordained that a significant purpose of spiritual wisdom is for it to be used or applied appropriately in opportunities when they arise, so that we earn or acquire, and accumulate blessings from God.
- - God wants to pour out blessings upon us, by means of this manner.
- - Matter of fact, He even advertises and highlights some of the blessings that await us when we appropriately use spiritual wisdom, for example, continuing in Proverbs chapter 3 with verse 14: "for she [wisdom (v.13)] 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."
- - Of course, we need to be careful how we interpret this list of blessings, because obviously some of the blessings may be literal, some may be in the figurative equivalent, some in general, some in specific, some in the present, some delayed into the future, and some delayed into the eternal future.
- - But nevertheless, the point here in these verses is that spiritual wisdom brings great and valuable blessings to true believers who use spiritual wisdom.  The more that usage is conducted, the more blessings that are incurred.
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[Lesson Question:  Read, study, and discuss 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, with the goal of developing a description of how spiritual wisdom and its purpose to bring blessings fit with the content of these verses.]

SECTION POINT:  God even discloses advance information about the judging for eternal rewards, for the purpose of facilitating true believers in now taking spiritually-wise action to maximize earning the great blessing of eternal rewards.

PURPOSE OF FACILITATING THE EARNING OF ETERNAL REWARDS:
- - In 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 is presented an extremely crucial informative declaration about a future event situation that all true believers will face and go through: "11. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.  12. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13. his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light.  It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.  14. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.  15. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."
- - These verses describe the method and criterion that God will use on Judgment "Day" to judge the "work" of each true believer's life, in order to determine what does or does not qualify to earn eternal rewards, which are highly-valued and readily-visible blessings and honor that will hold that value forever. (vv.12-13, 8,10c)
- - Each instance of "work" that a true believer does in life, by means of using what will be shown to be 'spiritual wisdom', will "survive" God's quality "test of fire", and will earn him/her eternal rewards for those instances of 'spiritually-wise' work.  (vv.14,13b)
- - And to the contrary, each instance of work that a true believer does in life by means of using what will be shown to be 'foolishness', will be determined as being worthless in God's sight and will be "burned up" in God's "test of fire", thus earning no eternal rewards for those instances of 'foolish' work that were done by the true believer during his/her life.  (v.15)
- - There will be a "suffering of loss" of one's time, efforts, investments, and devotion to what God has determined as worthless work in life, which will glaringly be exposed as 'foolishness'; however this "loss" absolutely will not and in no way include a loss of that true believer's eternal "salvation" in "Jesus Christ", nor incite any kind of torture or physical punishment in the eternal future upon that true believer.  (vv.15,11)
- - In light of this future judgment process, the key is to make the wise choice to here and now and henceforth serve God, which will ultimately earn great and eternal rewards blessings from God, rather than continuing to proceed down the foolish course of serving oneself, which will ultimately prove to be foolish, futile, and totally worthless in earning any rewards blessings from God.
- - God has presented to us true believers "wisdom and understanding" in the form of this advance information in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 about eternal rewards, and He has given us access to His spiritual wisdom from heaven so that we will now make the wise decision to henceforth substantially pursue earning eternal rewards, which He wants to "lavish upon us" "in accordance with the riches of [His] grace" - if we do work in this life that He determines will earn those rewards.  (Ephesians 1:8,7)
- - Each of us true believers should use all of the spiritual wisdom that we have, to very carefully and seriously consider this supremely important and urgent advance information, declaration, and warning to all true believers about eternal rewards blessings.
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BIG IDEA:  God purposes spiritual wisdom to facilitate bringing blessings upon true believers in this life, and in the next life for eternity.

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APPLICATIONS:

- - Up until this far in your life as a true believer, have you acquired enough spiritual wisdom that sufficiently enables you to usually understand the Scriptures?
- - Have you acquired enough spiritual wisdom to sufficiently understand God's will?
- - Have you acquired enough spiritual wisdom to usually 'make correct, wise, and godly judgments about all things' that you encounter in your life?
- - Have you acquired enough spiritual wisdom so that you have established and successfully maintain godly living?
- - Have you acquired enough spiritual wisdom so that you are actively and regularly doing substantial and excellent ministry work?
- - If your answer is 'No' to any of these previous questions, then are you going to do anything to alleviate these deficiencies in possessing enough spiritual wisdom?

- - When opportunities or challenging situations arise for you, do you in essence look for spiritually-wise courses of action to take or to respond with?  Or instead, do you look for the easiest, or cheapest, or natural-reactionary course of action or response to take?
- - Have you ever seen, or detected, or heard about any persons (or perhaps yourself) receiving blessings from God because they had acted or responded with spiritual wisdom when they encountered an opportunity or challenging situation?

- - Do you see the wisdom and comprehend the extent of urgency and value in prioritizing the doing of God-approved 'work' for His Kingdom now and henceforth in this life, in order to maximize earning eternal rewards blessings on Judgment Day?
- - Or instead, are you going to continue to work on building your own little kingdom, pursuing what you want for your comfort and gratification in this life, even though God will determine that work to be worthless and foolishness in His sight?
- - Can you imagine what it will be like to regret for all eternity that you made the wrong and foolish choice in this life of working on building your own little kingdom rather than working on building God's Kingdom?
- - Perhaps during the next weeks of further studying this series on "Pursue Wisdom", you should meanwhile take some time to seriously and thoroughly ponder whether or not you would do well to prepare for this coming assessment by God of your 'work' in this life, that will determine how much eternal rewards you will receive.
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[Additional Lesson Questions to ponder (optional, if time allows):
- - Analyze and discuss how each of the qualities and implied corresponding blessings, cited in Proverbs 3:14-18, manifest their impact and blessings on the life of a person who uses that wisdom.
- - Do you know of an actual and true situation that you can share in this meeting, in which someone received tangible blessings from God because he/she had acted or responded with spiritual wisdom when he/she encountered an opportunity or challenging situation?  Of course, please share your story without disparaging or embarrassing anyone, or without glorifying and exalting yourself.]
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Works Cited:
The American Heritage Dictionary (AHD). 3rd ed., ver. 3.6a (CD-ROM). Cambridge, MA: SoftKey International Inc., 1994.

Bible. “The Holy Bible: New International Version.” The Bible Library CD-ROM. Oklahoma City, OK: Ellis Enterprises, 1988.

“Strong's Greek Dictionary.” The Bible Library CD-ROM. Oklahoma City, OK: Ellis Enterprises, 1988.
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