# Giving Wisdom

May 14, 2026

This week’s missionary letter is from the Deans to Switzerland. They were just here with us at the missions conference. It says, “Hello friends and faithful supporters. We’ve made it to the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Over the past 25 months, we’ve traveled 106,625 miles, purchased 7,108 gallons of gas, averaged an oil change every three to four weeks, and experienced an incredible journey.”

We have had the privilege of visiting 138 churches across 28 states, and by God’s provision, we’ve reached our goal of 100% support. God has been so faithful. As we look back, we are in awe of His grace, protection, and mercy every step of the way.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your prayers, financial support, and encouragement. We are deeply grateful and truly humbled by the wonderful people we’ve met along the way and your partnership in this journey.

Looking ahead, we’re excited for what’s next. As mentioned in our January-February prayer letter, we’re preparing for the trip over with the whole family before beginning linguistics training. We’ve officially purchased our tickets to Switzerland and will be leaving June 2nd, and are thrilled.

It’s been especially encouraging to see the kids excited and ready for what lies ahead. One unique challenge this time around is the size of our family. When searching for rental cars, there were plenty of options until we needed seating for six. Larger vehicles like SUVs aren’t common, almost non-existent in Switzerland. So our choice is quickly narrowed, and the remaining options haven’t been exactly budget-friendly.

While we don’t expect to have a vehicle long-term, we’re planning to rent one for about a month during this trip. Once we land, we will be staying at a hotel near the airport. Hotel rooms only accommodate up to four people; therefore, we must purchase two rooms. Thankfully, this will only be for overnight. We’re very thankful to have secured temporary housing for this trip at the language school we will be attending for phase two of language training, located about 40 miles outside of Geneva.

We praise the Lord that they’ve decided to allow us to stay there while classes are not in session. This will allow us to fill out all the proper paperwork and pay the fees associated with attending school there after the completion of phase one, which is roughly nine months in Bowie, Texas, starting in August. As we move forward, we would greatly appreciate your continued prayers for safe travels, this upcoming trip, the start of linguistics training, and for all the details in between.

Just pray. It may be mid to late July before our next letter due to being in Switzerland and then transitioning to BBTI. A lot of moving parts. The next letter will be written by the kids and their experience in Switzerland. It will be worth the wait in the Lord, the Deaton family.

Dear Lord, we thank you so much for the Deetons, for everything that they’ve gone through over these past two years on the road, for all the miles they’ve traveled, although I’m sure hard miles they’ve traveled. And Lord, they’ve stuck with you through it all, and now they’re on the other side of it. We pray as they get ready to attend language school—it seems like about nine months in Texas starting in August—that you would help them with the language school.

God, as they get ready to travel over to Switzerland for the next month or two, we pray that you would help them with all the transitionary stuff that’s going to be happening there, that you would just provide them safety in the flight over. God, that you would help them to find an affordable rental car. You would give them safety as they travel over there, and they give them safety as they come back.

Lord, these are dear people who just have a goal to share your gospel in a place where there are not many other people sharing the gospel. God, I pray that you’d help them to see much fruit to their account, not because of who they are or what they’re doing, but because you’re a great God. You’ve promised your word would not return void. So, Lord, be with the Dietans and everything they have coming up, and we ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.

Good to see everyone here on Wednesday night. I like it; more and more people coming in. I’m like, keep coming, keep coming, you know. And good to see you here tonight, every single person.

And congratulations to Abby! In three weeks, a little boy is coming. Congratulations! Yeah, let’s get right here. Come on now. That’s huge. And that’s great. And, of course, grandmother’s very happy there, too, you know, so we’re excited for them. And good to see them tonight.

If you need a prayer request card, one of those chairs in front of there ought to have that. Get that, fill that out. We’ll get Brother Josh up here to lead us in prayer in just a moment here.

This Saturday will be our last—no, no, no, we got one more. Two more spring soul-winnings left. We’d love to have you come out at 9:30 this Saturday, and just God bless us going out and giving it. I think every Saturday this spring that we went out, at least one person has bowed their head and asked Jesus Christ to save them this week.

I think in the 80s, a man goes to church, but he had no clue they were going to heaven. He just didn’t have a clue. He listened to every word and was glad. He wanted to bow his head. They said he was talkative, but when he got the gospel, he just quieted down and listened to every word and bowed his head and asked Jesus Christ to be his Savior in his 80s. He just needed someone to lovingly show him a clear plan of salvation.

So God just bless us. If you can go outside, I’d love to have you come forth and see what the Lord will do in that. If you’ve got your prayer cards filled out, pass them out in the aisle, and we’ll get those gathered over to Brother Josh.

I appreciate Brother Steve Goldforth leading song for us on Wednesdays, and Brother Joshua has done a wonderful job. I appreciate him doing it for us for months now, and I appreciate that. And then Brother Goldforth with us stepping in there, and we appreciate both of those to do what needs to be done to keep the work of the Lord going.

My goodness, we don’t have that. We’re all prayed up, I know. Good, we got one over there, and good deal, good deal. Keep praying. I’ll just say this: keep praying. We’ll pray here in just a minute about the building, but all the details are not all discussed yet, put it that way, but it’s still in works, so keep praying about that. We’ll let you know a little more here just a minute. Brother Josh, come lead some prayer at this time.

All right, so we have two tonight. The first one is from our bus mom, Amanda, who I just looked up, and she’s been coming a little over a year now. But her mom, Jody, is having some medical decisions that need to be made, and she needs wisdom and peace. That’s her prayer request, and then praises or it’s God’s love.

And then Ms. Sarah Chisgar: Prayer request, Emma Vanderpool. Donnie and Debbie’s grandchild has HSP. She is eight years old. She’s at Vanderbilt Children’s Center. She is not eating and is in a lot of pain. They may have to give her a feeding tube. Please pray that she will continue to heal and that they will find out why she has pain in her stomach and legs.

All right, so let’s go ahead, and we’ll lift these up to the Lord.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you, Lord, and we’re so thankful that you’ve given us a church, a place that we can assemble. Lord, we thank you for giving us a pastor that leads by example and goes out soul-winning, and Lord, that has that as the heart of our church. Lord, we pray now that you be with him as he gets ready to deliver a message that we pray will touch our hearts and not just be pretty words that we want to hear.

We do lift up these two prayer requests tonight. We think of Amanda and her mom and the entire situation going on there. Lord, we pray that you be with her and give her guidance, give her mom guidance, give her father guidance, and just be in that situation and be with the doctors so they’ll be able to take care of it and give her good wisdom.

Lord, we also think of this young lady, Emma, who is also in the hospital right now going through a lot of different stuff as an eight-year-old. Lord, we pray that you give those doctors wisdom, give them the guidance they need to help her heal, help her get better quickly, be with her grandparents as they’re going through the situation, and her parents. Lord, we just—we know that you’re the great Physician, that you can heal everybody, and Lord, that there’s a plan for everything that we go through.

Lord, we thank you for all the things you do. We ask that you bless these tithes and offerings, and Lord, be with us the rest of this evening. In Jesus’ name, amen.

I appreciate you leading this in. We’ve got ten minutes till 7, but we have been praying at 7, as close as we can get to 7, for the sale of this property here. And, of course, I made the announcement Sunday morning: what a praise the Lord, glorious announcement—that someone has put an offer in for this property for $2.3 [million], cash offer. And we still have to negotiate details. We haven’t gotten to, really, myself and the other pastors have got to talk. Real estate agents are still talking back and forth about them, where the closing will happen at, and just details. We do want to make sure they can follow through, so some of that’s part of it. They offered some financial statements and whatnot. So it’s just going through all typical real estate things right now.

And we are trying to move the closing up. And then once we get that signed, our counteroffer has it in that we have to have all the schedule and details locked in before we close. But we haven’t gotten to that point. We’ll really talk about scheduling things like that. But it’s in work. It’s in progress.

Here’s the thing, and it’s so true. By the way, good to see Brother Christian slipping back there. Good to see him. And just—pray for Brother Christian and Ms. Ujou. They had a little one a couple of weeks ago. Ms. Ujou was about four months along, and that little one went home to be with the Lord. And so you pray for them, if you would, for that family. And good to see Christian tonight, and pray for them.

But it’s amazing. We’ll try to make things happen, and I’ll do all I can, but it just doesn’t go forward. And then you start praying. And when y’all started praying, all of us wherever we were at 7 o’clock, we just stopped and prayed. It just seemed like things started happening. And we do have this offer. That’s a great offer, and we’re excited about it, but let’s keep praying until it gets all the way closed.

So let’s just keep praying about that. I’m going to ask—we’ve been asking you to do this a little different—but I’m asking the whole church: we just come down to the altar. A lot of you are used to it now. I’m going to ask just come down. If you get on your knees, great. If you can’t, man, sit on the front row or something. Let’s all just come down, if you would. Let’s just pray together. I’ll have two different men to lead us in prayer over this. But don’t just listen to them pray; let’s all be praying for God to work. It’s God’s church. It’s God’s property over there.

By the way, it’s exciting to see the progress over there. We did have a pre-con meeting Monday that went well—I was not at it. Builders, hey, they’re taking care of that, but things are moving forward, so keep praying about all those details if you would.

Let’s see, Brother Rick, can I get you to lead us? One of the men, and Brother Chip, I was trying to get you before he got down. Can I get you to lead us? I think all of our men have led once, and we’re kind of going through the second time. These men will lead us and pray.

Our goal is—our goal is to be able to use the funds from the sale of this for the build before we have to draw from the loan. We got a loan process ready to go, but once you start drawing from that loan, there’s interest, and we don’t want that until we can use the proceeds from this first. So that’s our prayer, that’s our goal in it. So would you pray? Would you pray? It’s amazing when you pray. I just—I believe in your prayers, and I know we got a good God that answers prayers. So let’s go to Him in faith, and these men will lead us at this time.

Dear Lord, we come to you humbly again at this appointed time, as we’ve been doing for over the last month or so at around 7 o’clock, Lord, to pray for the sale of this property, Lord. And we’ve got an offer, Lord, but all the details need to be worked out over the next weeks or so to finish the final details, Lord, so that we can sign the paper and make it all official, work toward the closing date, Lord. We know that you can work on all these fine little details and bring it to fruition, Lord, but we just come to you each one individually to pray humbly, Lord, that we could work this out in a timely manner, Lord, so we don’t have to borrow from our loan quite yet, Lord. Just to thank you for bringing us along this far. Just keep us faithful that you’re going to bring it all the way to finality, Lord, here in the next month, two months, Lord, and then we just go forth with the building process and all that goes on over the next year or so as it goes forward, Lord. We’re so grateful that you’ve led us along this far, Lord. We just pray humbly to you again, Lord, that just we just ask that it come to fruition here in a timely manner, Lord, and we’ll just give you all the praise and honor and glory, Lord. We ask this in Jesus’ name.

Heavenly Father, Lord, just to continue with Brother Rick’s prayer, we want to just please you. Lord, we want to be able to enjoy a new building, but we want to get in there according to your timing. And we pray, Lord, that this is it. May we not be disappointed with time and all the effort. Help the buyer be able to get their financing and for it to be solid and nothing rickety or anything, just solid, Lord. And we just want to please you. We love you, Lord. And we know that you know everything and you’re looking forward to surprising us with all kinds of things we can’t imagine. But we still want to be faithful to come to you and trust you every single day at 7 o’clock as we’re doing now.

And just to love you and let you know that you are the center of everything. We’re not trying to run a company here, Lord; we are your church. And we just want everything to go clean and be able to enjoy the new building without any hassles, with no interest, and just be able to tell the story that was just impossible—how this little country church could change the world right there in Smyrna, on on the road there, Lord, unexpectedly. So we pray, Lord, that we’re pleasing to you and able to tell that story, and we pray all these things because of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. We pray, amen. Amen.

That’s not what it’s about. Father, let someone get helped. Then about midway down, he says to what? To perceive. Then verse number three, he says to what? To receive. And then verse number four, to what? Now, there’s a pattern there. There’s a pattern there.

Verse one talks about these Proverbs. Solomon is the one that compiled them. He didn’t write them all, but he compiled them. He was the wisest man besides Jesus Christ, and there’s a purpose for it. This is kind of the introduction still of the book of Proverbs. And he said, I want you to know.

Now, knowing is kind of like head knowledge. You know, there’s a lot of people that have a lot of head knowledge but not a lick of common sense. Proverbs is all about knowing or having wisdom on how to live in this sin-messed-up world. Now it starts—it starts there: to know. But it’s just talking about you got a little head knowledge. All right, that’s a good thing to know. By the way, the wisdom there is…

It has to do with applied wisdom there. But you got it in the head. Then he says the next thing; he says to perceive. That perceive—you, by the way, the words of instruction, understanding—you don’t just have it here, but you kind of grasp it more. It’s just not a formula, but now you’re grasping it. You’re getting it maybe a little bit beyond your head. You’re perceiving it. You’re understanding it. You grasp the truth, if you will. All right?

Then the next thing he says, to receive. Now, receive is a little bit stronger. It’s not just you got it in your head. You’re not just grasping it now, but you put it in your life. You’re living it now. You have it. You’re putting it into practice in your life now.

And then the next thing he says, he says to give. How many out there you would like to give to the next generation something? Anybody like to give? Yeah, a lot of grandparents, and I’ve seen a future grandmother here in a couple weeks. You really—yeah, yeah. And all of us sit there and give to the next generation or give to your children, and you want to give.

Now, here’s the thing: there’s a little formula here to all this. And you give this last part; you’re ready to give. All right. Now let’s go back here a little bit and just, just quickly here. He says to know wisdom. And that’s really how to live in this world, how to apply truth. You got it in your head.

But then this instruction to know wisdom and instruction. Instruction is kind of like, oh, if Ms. Chisgar says, “No, we’re not going to do that in school.” She’s correcting them. It’s like if we’re walking down the aisle here and somebody wants to go here and here, and you say, “Nope, we’re going to stand the center aisle.” That’s instruction. Wisdom is to know what to do. Instructions are about knowing what not to do. And you get this knowledge, and then you perceive.

All right. Let’s say that Brother Patterson back here, one of his grandchildren comes to him and says, “Hey, I’m not sure what they call—do they call your grandpa or Brother Patterson?” They say, “Grandpa.” Maybe they’ll say, “I want to buy this car, and it’s going to cost—I don’t know—it’s going to cost $15,000.” And it’s going to cost $15,000, and the payment’s going to be a little bit less than $300 because I put $15,000 in a little calculator and I figured out 60 months. It’s going to be a little bit.

And he says, “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Well, that’s a little bit of head knowledge. But then if you perceive it, he says, “Now, let me ask you, Brother Patterson, are you talking to Emily or Grace?” Which one are you talking to here? He’s talking to one of them.

And he says, "Well, will you know when you buy that $15,000 car, there’s sales tax in there? And that sales tax, I mean, you’re going to pay, you know, somewhere around, you know, 7% to 9% sales tax on that. And so it’s not just $15,000, but then you got sales tax going to be about $1,100, you know. And have you thought—have you got insurance yet? And, you know, insurance for a young person driving a Jaguar, right? I don’t know what it is. You know, it’s going to be $150, $200, especially if you’ve got a loan, you’ve got to get full coverage.

“And so you’ve got insurance, and then you know gas nowadays. Wow. I mean, I’ve seen a little meme picture thing, and it was the dial was here and was in the middle, you know, and this over here is your wallet full, gas tank empty. And as it goes like this, you know, the gas tank’s full while it’s empty, you know. And that’s what it is nowadays. And he says, you know, so it’s going to take you, you know, $50 a week for gas.”

And they said, “Well, Grandpa, at the beginning they said, ‘Grandpa, I make my second job—I make for my spare time job—I make about $150 a week,’ you know, so I can do $300.” Well, you know, you’re factoring in, you know, $50 a week for gas, and then your payment’s going to be more than $300 a month because you’ve got the sales tax, and they’ve got insurance. And then cars—you know this crazy thing? I don’t care what you drive, if it’s a Ford, Chevy, or Jaguar, they all have this thing called maintenance.

We had a young person come here years ago. They didn’t know you had to change the oil in the thing. And they put—I don’t know, I want to say—I can’t remember how many miles he put on that car until it just locked up. And he’s like, “What’s wrong with this thinking car?” You know? Well, you have to change this oil in there, you know.

But here’s the thing: the knowledge is, no, that’s a bad deal. Don’t buy that. You don’t need to buy that. But if you perceive, he grasped. He can give some details. He can give more information to that young person and let them come to a conclusion. There’s perceiving the whole picture. There’s a lot more to it.

And he says, you know, we used to want to do instruction—what not to do—but you perceive words of understanding. And you grasp not just why, what not to do, what to do, but why. And perceiving is so very important. A lot of people can say, “Well, that’s wrong, that’s wrong,” and “You’re doing this wrong.” And I understand all that. I’m not saying that’s necessarily bad. But if you perceive, you might know why they’re doing those things wrong. See?

And he says, “Look, I want you to do the Proverbs of Solomon: you get to know wisdom and instruction, and you perceive the words of understanding.” And then he says, in verse number three, he says, to receive. You receive the instructions of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity. Wisdom, we ought to kind of know what to do; justice, you know what is just and right; and the judgment, you know what ought to be done when things go wrong and people go wrong—judgment. That equity has to do with fairness.

You know, there’s always two sides of the story. I met with someone today for—oh my goodness—maybe two hours, and I heard their side of the story. And I think there’s some accuracy to it, but I guarantee you tomorrow or the next day or so, I’m going to hear the other side of the story. And typically there’s a little bit of truth on both sides, typically. And fairness, equity—you know, that’s so important. I think about spouses; it’s so important that we deal fairly and justly, not impartially. And Proverbs will help you grow in that.

And he says, but you receive—you receive these things here. Now, here’s the thing I just want to emphasize for a minute about receiving: If I want to—I’m looking for a songbook. Is there a songbook right there, Brother? Brother—if I want to pass something on, say, I want to—I really just have a desire, I want to give Brother Robert a songbook. Well, if I don’t have a songbook, I can’t give it to him.

And you find this a lot of times: people want to give to the next generation, but honestly—not trying to be mean—but their life’s a wreck. You’ll find somebody, but they’re giving everybody financial advice. They want to tell everybody how to run their finances, and the honest truth is they’re in debt up to their ears. They don’t own the thing they have. They don’t own their car. They don’t own their house. I mean, they’re just in debt, and their finances are—it’s not—they’re not financially sound. And yet they’re giving everybody advice. And you know, the honest truth is typically, you know what? Typically that goes in one ear and out of the other because I can’t pass something on unless I have it. I’ve got to have it to be able to give it. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

You’ve got to receive. Can I just say a couple of things along that line? If you won’t—it’s amazing how many people have marital advice and their marriages fall apart. Y’all out there tonight? Man, go to the workplace. Man, you see it everywhere. And by the way, you know, you don’t have to have a perfect life. You don’t have to—you know, fine—but you can get things back in order. But really, if I’m going to pass on something, I need to receive it, I have it, and I’ve got my life back straightened out of it, and then I’m able. You know those—that next generation typically, they don’t do what you say; they do what you do.

Someone said, “Your talk talks, but your walk talks so loud, I can’t hear what you’re saying.” And he says to receive.

You receive these, and you’ve got it in your life. And that doesn’t mean your life is perfect, but you’ve received some wisdom and instruction and justice and judgment and equity, and you’ve got these things in your life. And when you receive it, the wonderful thing is that next verse, verse number four: he says, then to give. Now, this is interesting: to give subtilty to the simple.

Remember over there, Satan in the garden of Eden, and he was more subtle than any beast—just sly and slick. And what is it saying here? This subtilty, or subtle—and it can be just a little bit; they can easily slide back and forth—but it’s a positive thing here: to give subtilty to the simple. As simple as someone that doesn’t have major permanent marks in their mind or heart or life.

And he says, you’re able to give someone the ability to kind of slide here and there. Here’s, I think, the easiest way to put it: to miss the potholes of life. They’re able to kind of slide around all the hurts and pains of this whole world. Everybody’s going to have some hurts and pains if you live in this world, but they’re able to miss some of the major things.

I was talking about someone to another individual and said they’re not married; they’ve not met the right one yet. And they said, “That’s a wise thing. Tell them, ‘Don’t get married,’ and tell them, ‘Meet the right one.’” And I thought, well, that person got a little wisdom, and they’re helping that younger person miss a pothole. I’d rather not be married than married to somebody you don’t want to be married to. You’re talking about heartbreak.

And so you receive, you got these things, you’re able to give to the simple. Hey, let me tell you how to avoid some major heartbreaks in this old world. And that’s what he’s speaking about there. He said you can give—you can give to these folks, the simple—you can give them the ability to miss these hurts and these pains of this old world.

And then he says right there, he says, to the young man knowledge and discretion. That, you can give to a young man; he’s gaining knowledge. Typically, he can see it so much in your life. And that discretion—that discretion, maybe a little bit—you ever hear this in our day and time? We use this term a lot in education; you use this term a lot: critical thinking. Well, that’s discretion. You’re able to look at something and think it through. And you have some little critical thinking about the situation. You have some discernment; there’s some discretion about matters, see?

And he says you can give. Now, here’s the thing: he says to know, to perceive, to receive, and then you give. But then that verse number five—that verse number five is very, very important right there. Verse number five, he says, “A wise man will hear.” Now, time out for a second. Or okay, if a wise man will hear, what do you think the reverse side of full—or someone that’s not wise—what are they going to do? They’re not going to hear.

You see, you can offer it. Brother Robert, can we get that songbook back? Would you not take it this time, please? He was so gracious—a good illustration while ago. But you see, you can say, to give, “I want to give.” And Brother Robert, you don’t take it this time. You don’t want it. He says, “I don’t want your stinking—” He says, “I want that song. That’s my songbook. Don’t take my songbook.” But if he said, “No, I don’t want that, keep your songbook.”

You can give. Now, a wise man will hear. He’s like, “What am I supposed to do here, man?” He’s like, “What am I supposed to do here, man?” He’s not trying to give me a hard time; he’s trying to help. But you know, not ever—they have a choice to make. He’s a great leader, a great leader in Christianity. He’s gone by; he’s in heaven now. I love him. He’s one of my heroes. But he used to say this. He used to say, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”

Can I be honest with you? That’s not true. Adam and Eve had the best leader in the world, and they fell. Now, a lot does depend on a leader. Look, you can have the best leader in the world. Jesus had Judas as one of the apostles. So there is on the part of the follower, there is a matter: are they a wise man who will hear?

And that’s right after this, you know, to know and perceive and receive and to give. And they said, “Hey, a wise man’s going to take it.” I thought about this when I studied this today, and I remember years ago when I was a teenager and I started working a job. And my youth pastor came to me and he said, “Paul,” he said, “I’ve watched it over the years. He said, ‘A job gets more good teenagers out of church than good teenagers.’ Because the good teenagers, they’re willing to work. They’ve got a good work ethic. They’ve got a love for the Lord, good hearts. And he said, ‘I’ve watched jobs get more teenagers out of church than anything.’”

And I got stuck that back in my head. And over the years, I’ve told that to some of our young people, and some take it and some don’t. And I’ve watched a lot of them get out of church. By the way, you can make money, but, you know, if you’re just not in church, not have me—I live a little—and I watch some take it, some don’t.

And he says here, look, you give. All right, you did all this, and you’re ready to give. But you can’t make them all take it. He says right there, “A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.” That increased learning—that’s so very, very important.

Well, none of us got it all together. We should always be learning. Always. I had a man come to me Monday. He wanted to meet. We met, and he had some advice for me. Not bad. Came with a great attitude, great attitude. And you know what? He had some great thoughts. Some great thoughts. And did one or two of them bother a little bit? Well, sure, I’m human, but it was great advice, and he loved me, and he came with a great attitude. And I would be foolish not to learn and grow from that. Really, I’d be foolish; I’d be proud.

And he says, “Hey, a wise man is going to increase learning.” And then it says, “A man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel.” He’s going to be looking and he’s going to attain; he’s going to get wise counsel. He’s going to be looking for advice; he’s going to be looking for counsel. You know, don’t ever get to the point—well, I’ve been there, done that on everything. No, you’ve not been there, done that on everything. You don’t have the T-shirt for everything. And by the way, even if you do, there’s probably something you can learn about that same thing from somebody else.

And he says, “A wise man—you’re going to look for counsel.” Now, here’s a good thing. We’re going to be done. You’re going to like it. I don’t have my right notes; we get out quicker, you know. It’s a good thing there, you know. But he says, you know, you perceive, you receive, you give. A wise man will hear and increase learning; a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel.

Here goes on, by the way, the key verse—we missed it, but the key verse we mentioned a couple of weeks ago—that’s verse number seven: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” That’s where you’re at the beginning of it: you acknowledge, “Hey, the fear of the Lord—God is God; He has the right to make the rules in this world.” And no, we don’t have it all together; man doesn’t. God’s the one to say what morality is or isn’t, and He’s the one that gives true wisdom. And that’s the beginning of all.

But then you know and you perceive and you receive and you give. And, you know, here’s an encouraging thing: there’s always, every generation, always a wise person somewhere around. Sometimes they come—sometimes from places you never dreamed they come from. It’s just—but I promise you. And sometimes it’s not even the person you’re dealing with; it might be somebody else watching the situation. But there’s always—there’s always a wise person that wants to know, and they’re going to learn or they’re going to grow. It may be your neighbor. It may be—you just never know.

I thought about the letter that we received, oh, a year ago, from a young lady who grew up in our church. We had spent some time head over her house, whatnot, some. And when she got a little bit older, she got out of church and messed her life up somewhat. But she said when she hit rock bottom—and I’ve read the letter in church before—but she got hit rock bottom. She thought, she said, “I just thought about Jesus.” And she thought, “I learned about Jesus at that church.” And she gave her life to the Lord, and she’s married now and kids and in church and whatnot.

And, you know, when we got that letter in the mail, I had to think, “Now, who is that? Let me think.” And I don’t know her well, but it took me a while to remember who it was. But I’m just saying, you just never know. Well, there’s always a wise person somewhere. Listen, watching, wanting to learn. It’s just amazing. Half the time we think it’s somebody else, but this other person’s listening in. And the good thing: the wise person, they’ll hear. So often it’s not the person—what does the Bible say? Smite this corner, and it’s not going to help him, per se, and the simple will beware, you know? That’s scorn, or they’re not going to listen to anybody. I just—not going to listen. But sometimes you’ve got to take care of that, not for them, but there’s a simple person over here that’s going to increase in wisdom. But there’s always someone there somewhere around that’s going to hear, and God’s going to use that.

But God’s formula, and really He’ll use the book of Proverbs. And that verse number one: “The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel.” He says, “You know wisdom, instruction; you perceive the words of it.” And he said, “You receive; you get it in your life; you receive it all the way: the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, equity. And then you give to the simple subtilty, to the simple, and to the young man, knowledge and discretion.”

“A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.”

I’ll just bow your heads for just a moment here. Let’s just pray. And Lord, Lord, help me to know, help me to perceive, help me to receive it in my heart, my life, help me to give. And Lord, let there be wise people around that—let there be wise people around that want to learn and grow. Would you pray? Just spend some time. I’m going to ask you if you stand. We’ll have a word of prayer. And just spend some time talking to the Lord. If you want to come to an old-fashioned altar, we’d love to have it. Have a Lord and calls you and lead you. We’ll pray. And you spend some time with the Lord. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Lord, help us, help me, Lord, to know it, to perceive it, to receive it and give it. And Lord, I pray, should let wise people go all around just as we give wherever we’re at. Lord, let there be wise people that—let there be wise people that hear and increase in learning. And Lord, we’ll thank you for it. And Jesus, then we pray, amen.

Original File: 2026-05-14 - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Giving Wisdom - Wednesday PM 05⧸13⧸2026