From the very beginning, God designed us to work. Working is how we live and rule in God's world, but since the Fall, we, as the workers, act unfaithfully. The Proverbs give us the portrait of a faithful worker who is righteous, diligent, and prudent, but we can't transform our work ethic on our own. We need the work of the Faithful One to transform us so that our faithful work can exalt our faithful Savior.

Our world is full of beauty. From paintings to people, we see beauty all around us because our Creator God is beauty. But sin can twist and distort our longings for beautiful things by making us ignore the Creator and create idols for our hearts. But godly wisdom isn't found in rejecting beautiful things; it's what gives us godly vision for godly beauty.

From the beginning, the family is the foundational unit of society and culture. But in a sin-infected world, we need wisdom to not only navigate the challenges of parenting but also to see the privilege of parenting. Pulling from Proverbs 24:3-4 again, we must build our homes, our children, our parenting—our very lives—on the wisdom of God. 

When cracks begin forming in the walls of a house, the problem isn't with the walls; it's with the foundation of the house. In a similar way, we see in Proverbs 24:3-4 that if a house isn't built on wisdom, it will eventually crumble. This is why we must build our homes, our marriages, our very lives on the wisdom of God. 

What are the most essential things for living? Some might put food, water, and shelter at the top of the list, but what about friendship? Friendship is an often-overlooked idea, but it's something the Proverbs speak frequently about as essential for a life of wisdom. But how can we pursue friendship? What does it look like to be a true friend? How can we overcome the guilt of failures and the shame of loneliness? As the Bible will show us, true friendship with others is restored by true friendship with Jesus. 

With advancements in life-saving technologies, our modern society has done a good job of avoiding death until the last possible second. But this is not how death works. In the Bible, death is personified as a shepherd for the arrogant (Ps. 49:14) and a consumer of flesh (Job 18:13). Death comes for us all. No matter how long we try to avoid it, it will claim our lives. But the good news of Easter Sunday is that Death no longer has any power over us because it could not hold Jesus in the grave. Jesus came to overcome the power of death to give us new resurrection life now and in the future. The big idea from Acts 2:22-40 is this: Because death could not hold Jesus Christ, it cannot hold us.

Our world cries out for justice, but how does God define justice? If the foundation of his throne is justice and righteousness (Psalm 89:14), what does it look like? True justice begins in the pursuit of godly wisdom, so that the saint devoted to godly wisdom understands and lives out godly justice.

Would you consider yourself to be an angry person? We often associate anger with explosive outbursts, but we can often miss its more subtle forms that leak into most areas of our lives. The truth is that we all have a problem with anger. The problem is that our anger is directed at the wrong things, at the wrong times, in the wrong ways. But anger isn't the problem; sin is. This is why the redemption of our anger begins when we fully surrender to Jesus.

Words have a powerful place in our lives. With our words, we can build people up and tear them down. We can give people life, or we can promote death. This is the power of words, which is why the Proverbs have so much to say about our words. Because how we use our words reveals what we believe about God, we must use them wisely.

Everyone wants wisdom. Wisdom helps us navigate which job to take, who to marry (or not marry), and how to parent our children. For centuries, people have turned to sages and gurus for wisdom on how to live and make decisions. But the Bible offers us something different. It tells us of an all-wise God who created and sustains the world with wisdom. He has written it into the fabric of creation and uses it as the center stage for his Story of Redemption. The center of Biblical wisdom is a relationship with the One who holds “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col. 2:3) The book of Proverbs addresses this deeply human desire for wisdom by showing us how things should work in God’s world if we live according to his way.

But we need to be able to answer three questions because our source of wisdom directs the orientation and outcome of life: What is wisdom? Why do we need it? And how do we get it?