Join us as Pastor Jared continues our series in Acts as we follow Paul and his courageous stand for sharing the Gospel.

This week we will be in Acts 21:37-22:29 considering Paul’s defense of his life to the crowd in the temple. Paul does an interesting thing when given the opportunity to speak to the angry crowd, he defends himself with his testimony. Basically for Paul, the defense of his life–the things he does, what he stands for, and what he teaches–is wrapped up in how he met Jesus and Jesus changed his life. As we look at Paul’s defense I think there are good things for us to learn about how we can share the Gospel as God gives us opportunity. Paul gives us a simple example of how to share our testimony as he tells us about his life before Christ, how he met Christ and was transformed, and what his life is like now. Of course to share this kind of testimony you need to have experienced salvation in Jesus and live currently as if he is Lord of your life.

For the next several weeks we will finish out the book of Acts looking at chapters 21-28. In these chapters we will see Paul give more of himself to the Gospel ministry Jesus has called him to, and in the process, Paul will begin to look a lot more like Jesus himself. We will look at Acts 21:1-36 tomorrow and consider what it means to hear the Spirit’s voice and lose our life so that we can find it as we join Jesus in his ministry to save the lost world around us.

We have looked at Proverbs 1-9 and now will consider one more chapter, Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31 provides a fitting end to the book of Proverbs as it shows us lady wisdom in action, personified as the “excellent wife.” If you look closely the “excellent wife” does the very same things lady wisdom has talked about and done in chapters 1-9. Really, Proverbs 31 is a celebration of Godly wisdom. The chapter will encourage us to celebrate Godly wisdom, walk in the blessing of wisdom, and worship the wisdom of God that has been revealed to us in the face of Christ.

This week in our series “Walking in Wisdom” we will take a look at Proverbs 9. This is the final chapter in the introductory section of the book of Proverbs where Solomon is urging his son to find, get, and live by Godly wisdom. In chapter 9 Lady wisdom and lady folly will make one final appeal and we as the readers have a choice to make. Will we follow lady wisdom and find life, or will we be seduced by lady folly who will take us on a path towards death? The choice is ours. The Bible encourages us to take up wisdom by making Jesus, the very wisdom of God, Lord of our lives.

This is a really great chapter in Proverbs and in the whole Bible that makes Jesus shine. After three weeks of hearing warning and instruction on how to avoid lady folly, lady wisdom comes back in a very triumphant way and invites us to live in a better way in Jesus. Her invitation is to gain wisdom and find the blessing and favor of God as we place our faith in Christ. In chapter 8 wisdom lists out her virtues and then shows us why she is most qualified to teach us a better way of living in Jesus. The NT writers pick up what Solomon says in chapter 8 and then show us how Jesus is the fulfilment of what lady wisdom has pictured for us. What a great chapter.

In this chapter Solomon again urges us to get and hang onto wisdom. Then he gives us a big illustration of what it looks like to be foolish as he describes a young man that is ensnared by the forbidden woman. Solomon wants us to love the word of God and let it sink deep into our souls so that we can stand strong in the Lord when temptation comes our way and enjoy the blessing of walking with God.

In this chapter Solomon will continue the contrast between walking in Godly wisdom and being tempted by lady folly. Solomon will also have lots of practical advice for us before he returns to the theme of adultery–both to speak about the dangers of sexual sin and as a metaphor for any of our spiritual rebellion against God. Solomon ultimately wants us to get a hold of Godly wisdom and not let go of her so that we can live a life of blessing with the Lord.

Chapters 5-7 will introduce us to the forbidden woman, really the opposite of lady wisdom. Unlike lady wisdom, the forbidden woman will steal, kill, and destroy the life of the one who engages with her. Solomon’s push to us this week will be to choose wisdom, walk in sexual purity, and experience God’s blessing.

This week we will consider Proverbs 4 together in our series Walking in Wisdom. In this chapter Solomon will make three important appeals to us: 1) to receive wisdom, 2) to walk on the path of righteousness, and 3) to embrace wisdom with our whole being. Solomon’s word to us is that if we will take these steps and embrace Godly wisdom, our life will go really well. The path to wisdom starts by making Jesus Lord of our life. Life going well doesn’t mean that we won’t face adversity, but we will face it with God on our side and will have the tools to walk in a way that honors the Lord. For the Christian, as Solomon says, life only gets brighter and brighter as they walk in Godly wisdom. Come consider walking in Godly wisdom in Christ with us this Sunday.