This week as I was preparing for this sermon, I asked a young man at the bus stop what motivated him. And as I asked him, he thought for a little while and he said, his family. He said, if they're happy, then I'm happy. There was a value to his family that he had, whether their love, their affection, or maybe their approval, that motivated him. Often many of us might be motivated by the same thing, or maybe you're motivated by security or comfort. And you value money as it leads to security, or you value quiet and it leads to comfort. The young man had to catch his bus, so we didn't get to finish our conversation. But before he left, he asked me, what motivates you? When he asked me that, I sort of similarly stared and thought. The answer I said to him was quite complicated. I said to him, it feels like motivation is a moving target. There are days where I'm motivated by success, other days where I'm motivated by reputation, other days where I'm motivated by security. But most often I'm motivated by comfort because I value ease. Motivation for many of us, not just me, can be elusive. It's a moving target, it's a moving gust of wind that fills our sails. And depending on the day, it'll change our direction. Though motivation can be elusive, there are values that we all seek after, like wealth, honor, peace, love, joy, pleasure. The list goes on. Solomon, knowing the value motivates action, tells his son the values of wisdom. And these values that are written here are the ones that we often so easily seek after, but seek after them in the wrong place. Solomon tells us that they are found in wisdom. In this text, we are told the value of wisdom so that we would seek after wisdom. Wisdom is a blessing that Solomon's son should know, and we as readers should know as well. Because if we do find wisdom, we'll find something that's greater than gold, something that leads to a flourishing that is greater than the flourishing of Eden. We'll even know the building blocks of creation. That is what Solomon pends for us here. Wisdom, according to Solomon, is valuable, so it should be pursued. He tells us that wisdom is worth it, and it's worth it because it is precious, because it prospers, and because it's foundational. And so that will serve as our outline this morning. It's written for you and your bulletin. Let us consider our first point, that it's precious. Wisdom is worth it because it's precious. Look at me at verse 13. Solomon tells us, the person who finds wisdom will be blessed. The poem furthers this point by having the word blessing repeated in verse 18. Bless her those who find wisdom, bless her those who hold fast to her. This is what scholars call an inclusio, where a word bookends a series of verses in biblical poetry. They put the word at the beginning and the end. And what the author is trying to do is tell us their main point. Solomon wants us to know the value of wisdom at its core is the blessed life. Wisdom is the path to blessing. The Hebrew word for blessed used here is one that we are familiar with with our study of Matthew. If you remember, there are two different words for blessing that can be used in Hebrew and Greek. In Hebrew, the word blessing can be the word barak, which is speaking to God's divine fortune and life. Or there can be a shear, which is the word that's used here that speaks about happiness, wholeness and flourishing. As I thought about the term in our particular context, I try to think of a way that this could be a little bit more sticky for us. Because blessed seems like it's associated with the divine favor. And I think it can be compared to the idea of contentment. Contentment is the state of happiness which where a person is satisfied, not in want of anything else. When said this way, we can see the value of wisdom a little bit more clearly. Contentment or the state of being satisfied is constantly under attack by the flesh, the world and the devil. We are bombarded with the feeling and the temptation towards discontentment, whether by material possessions, the next milestone, or the constant comparison trap that we feel in our hearts. Whether that comparison trap affects you and your thoughts about our church, your spouse, your friends, your homes, or the list goes on. We even live in a digital age that amplifies this rep, restless desire, this restlessness towards comparison. The cure of contentment that Solomon calls us to hear, to be satisfied, to be flourishing, to have a whole life, is not found by gaining the world. It is by finding wisdom. If wisdom is found, we'll find something that is precious. That's what Solomon tells us. He tells us that wisdom is precious and he gives us three different or four different ways that he explains this between verses 14 and 15. He's four different ways. He says, better is gain from wisdom than silver. Better profit than gold. More precious than jewels. Finally, finally, climaxing, telling us that nothing can compare to wisdom. Wisdom is worth it because it's precious, because it gives satisfaction. Unlike gold, silver, jewels, or anything else we can desire, wisdom, if it's found, cannot be taken from us. It cannot be stolen. It cannot rust. It is not finite like wealth. The reality is that wealth will not ever satisfy us. We'll always be thinking with any amount of money that we have that maybe I just need a little bit more. If I had a little bit more, then I would be okay. But if we find wisdom, we find blessing, we find contentment. There is a way and form of satisfaction that our souls find that cannot be found in material possessions. The wisdom that Solomon sings of here, that he instructed us of earlier in chapter two, is not like earthly treasure. That is here today and gone tomorrow, leaving us fearfully wanting for more. Wisdom that is personified here, the wisdom of God is the word of God, giving us skillful instruction for life. It is culminated in the person and work of Jesus Christ. If you remember, this is the definition that I gave over the last few weeks, that wisdom is like this 3D cube. It has many sides and many facets, because the wisdom of God as found in Proverbs is the word of God, given by the spirit that we live skillfully and is embodied in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. This is why wisdom is so worth it. This is why the person who finds wisdom is blessed. It's because they have found Jesus Christ. Christ is the person by whom that we would know satisfaction. In Him we have riches forevermore, an inheritance that cannot be taken, one that is given by Him and known in Him. This is why Paul in Philippians 4 can say that he knows the mystery of contentment. It's because he knew Christ, he knew the power of Christ. He knew the blessed life, he knew the wise life, he knew the satisfied life, because he found the wisdom of God. He found Jesus Christ. There are many books and movies that tell us, are people going to dire lengths to find hidden gold, treasure or wealth? Think of Indiana Jones, or think of Pirates of the Caribbean, or Treasure Island. There are people in all of those stories that go to great lengths to find wealth. And there are many who do the same today. Traveling, striving, fighting, all to get something that they can only enjoy in this life. In saying that, I'm not saying that wealth is bad. I'm saying that it's simply not ultimate. I'm saying that it will not lead to satisfaction, and that is exactly what Solomon is saying here. It will not lead to true lasting contentment and flourishing. It simply cannot. The blessing and preciousness of wisdom extends beyond today. The promises are rooted in the eternal life with Christ. And we can gain by it today. We can know its blessedness and incomparable wealth today and in the life to come. Church, wisdom is infinite. Wealth is finite. When discontentment strikes, because it will, my hope for each of us is that we'd look to the cure, that we would look to Christ, that we'd find Him and begin to believe in Him, knowing His unsearchable riches that can be known in a relationship with Him. Some of you in this room, we have found Christ. We have found the wisdom of God. But we do not treat it like the pearl of great price. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest wisdom for us to know. We cannot exhaust it. We must know it more deeply, know Christ more intimately, so that we would know blessedness truly. But we can so easily pass over Christ's satisfaction for lesser things. I know I've done this. I continue to do this. And if that is where you are today, confess that to the Lord. Confess that you have exchanged Him for something that is lesser, thinking that it would give you contentment, thinking that it will give you satisfaction. Turn and see Christ and know the blessed life. There are others of you who have yet to find Christ, have yet to know God's wisdom. The question for you I have this morning is why wait? Why put off believing in Jesus? You're only forsaking true and lasting satisfaction by doing that. This is the satisfaction that riches can't reach, that bottles can't bring, that pleasure can't present. The truth is that all of us have this God-shaped hole in our hearts, and we try and fill it with so many other things, but the only thing that can fill it is Christ. This precious blessing can be yours. You can begin on this path of eternal, inexhaustible satisfaction, but it begins and ends with seeking Christ. So would you seek Him in prayer today? That you would find Christ, that you would find true contentment and true blessedness. Wisdom is worth it. It's worth it because it's precious. Not only that, because it prospers, which brings us to our second point. Look at me at verse 16. In verse 16 we're given a picture of wisdom where the prizes of salvation are in her hands. Her right hand has long life, and her left hand has riches and honor. Verse 17 goes on to say, her ways are pleasant, her paths lead to peace. Just going to take a moment. There's clearly something going on in our city. Why don't we... I'm going to pray for whatever is going on, and we're going to continue. Heavenly Father, there is much need and distress clearly in our city right now or around us. We ask whatever the police or firefighters or ambulances are racing to, whether an accident, a fire, or a crime. We ask, O Lord, that You would be with our firefighters, police officers, and service workers, that You, O Lord, would meet their needs, that You'd find correction and justice and peace, and that You, O Lord, would be present. Praise things in Jesus' name. Amen. Sorry about that. We're given this picture of wisdom where the prize of salvation is in her right hand. We see long life. We see riches and honor. Verse 17 goes on to say that her ways are pleasant, her paths lead to peace. This want for a long life, riches, honor, ease, peace, are not all bad. Often we're told, maybe by preachers or some well-meaning Christians, that these are not good things. But the desire for life, identity, ease, and peace are not indiscriminately evil. They are good things that can become bad if they are sought from the wrong source, in the wrong way, at the wrong time. God tells us here that seeking life is valuable. He tells us that ease is valuable. He tells us that peace is good. But long life, if it's severed from the source of God, if it's somehow trying to be found on earth, that is not a good thing. Ease, if tried to be found in a form of being devoid from work, it's not a good thing. The cross-reference that the ESV Bible has for that is quoting Jesus in Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus says, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. What we must see is that there is still a yoke. There is still work to be done. Peace is good, but it's not found in silence or in activity. Honor is good. If we are pursuing it just to get the praise of man, it is not. Instead, we are looking and striving for the glory of God, that we would hear the words, Well done, good, and faithful servant. When we make other things, the other sources and other ways, the path to prospering, that is evil. That is wrong. But what we see here is that wisdom prospers. It leads us to eternal life, to riches, to honor, to pleasantness, to peace. These values that are listed here are the backbone of many motivations in this life, like I said in the introduction. Like I'm saying even at this point. And so often we think that we can get eternal life, riches, honor, or pleasantness, or peace somewhere else apart from God. What the Scriptures tell us here, it is by holding fast to Christ. This is where we flourish. This is where we will find contentment. All of these longings that we have, like I said, we easily misplace and seek it apart from God. But this text tells us clearly that their fullness is only known from God Himself. The prospering life that wisdom presents here is an echo of the Garden of Eden. Though commentaries debate whether this reference here to the Tree of Life is Eden or not, they wonder if this is Edenic or if this is simply a picture of flourishing. And though I appreciate the debate, I think the text actually leans towards it, actually pointing towards the promises of paradise and the picture of paradise. The picture of paradise where humans lost paradise due to their sin. This connection to Eden grows when we find out the word one in verse 13, which I translated in me retelling it to you as person, is the Hebrew word Adam, which means human or humanity. The true blessing of humanity is found in the wisdom of God and is imaged in the Tree of Life. The place where the wise are given life, wealth, honor, pleasure and peace is not just also an echo of Eden that is found in Genesis 2 and 3, but it points towards the new heavens and new earth. Apart from the Tree of Life being mentioned in Genesis and a few times in the Book of Proverbs, the only other time that we see the Tree of Life mentioned, is found in the Book of Revelation. In Revelation 22, we see again that in the middle of this holy city that is to come, we see it standing in the middle of it, representing the removal of sin's curse, where humanity lives with God eternally, but due to Adam and Eve's sin, they were cast out of the garden and barred from eating the Tree of Life. But in the new heavens and new earth, the Tree of Life stands as the promise of restoration. The place where humanity will know eternal life, abundance, honor, pleasure and peace. Where sin that robbed us of all these blessings is no more. The prosperity of Eden, the promise of the new creation, can be ours. We can lay hold to it now by holding fast to the cross of Christ, by which we have eternal life. The riches of His inheritance, the honors of being co-heirs with Him, the pleasure and peace between God and man that come by Him and in Him. The question though we must naturally ask is, what are we holding on to? What are we holding fast to? Thinking that will lead us to prosperity. Is it Christ? Or have we believed a lie and misplaced where we think blessing is coming from? One of the points in our summer book that was repeated to us throughout its reading, if you read it, is that sin lies. Sin presents a promise that we would turn from God, the giver of good gifts, and turn towards temptation, that we would be hooked, that we would be caught by it. And if that is you this morning, if you've been caught and you've believed the lie thinking that prosperity and life comes anywhere else from other than God, turn to Christ. Know the true value of wisdom. Solomon tells us that the value of wisdom is found by holding fast to Christ. The temptation to loosen our grip and think that paradise is found somewhere else is something that each of us will face. It will always be present, but would we not fall for that lie and said, would we believe the truth and hold fast to Jesus, the embodiment of God's wisdom, the one who hung on the tree so that we could have life, so that we would know where true prosperity is found. Would we seek him? Would we hold fast to him? And lastly, would we know him? We've seen that wisdom is precious, that it prospers. Lastly, let's look at that. It is foundational. Solomon includes his wisdom song with speaking about how God's, how the Lord created the world by wisdom. This tells us that wisdom is at the very fabric of creation, that the grain of this world is made by wisdom. We know from Genesis 1 that God created by a word. From John chapter 1, we know that that divine logos, that word became flesh. And his name is Jesus Christ. In Colossians chapter 1 verses 16 and 17, which we walked through earlier this year, we looked at how God created all things through him and for him. In Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2, it tells us that God the Father created all things through his Son, Jesus Christ. Throughout this sermon, I have referred to Jesus as the Wisdom of God because of the truth found in 1 Corinthians 1.24 that tells us that Jesus is the Wisdom of God. The whole of creation was founded by wisdom. It was founded by Christ. He is the divine architect that had the plan. He is the divine builder that created. He is the one and only sustainer of the breath in our lungs. He is the very Wisdom of God. And in this we see that wisdom's worth is foundational. It's because by wisdom, the heavens and the earth were created. If we want to live with the grain of creation, we must trust in this foundational reality. We must trust the founder himself, Jesus Christ. Church, wisdom is worth it. It's precious. It prospers and it's foundational. A better way to phrase this as we close is this. Jesus is worth it. He is the Wisdom of God. He is precious. He prospers and he's foundational. He's worth it. So would you look to him? Would you believe in him? And would you hold fast to him and know him? May we live like this more and more. Let us pray.