The Sword of the Spirit Podcast
Get Wisdom, pt 1
This podcast is hosted on Pothome.fm, an intelligent podcasting platform that you can use to host unlimited shows and episodes and have unlimited downloads. Pothome comes with many intelligent features, like Pothome AI, which automatically creates transcripts, chapters, suggests titles, show notes, detects people, and creates clips. You can use Pothome AI unlimited for all your episodes and all your shows. Go check it out and start your free 7-day trial at Pothome.fm. Pre-millennial, pre-tribulational, dispensational, independent, and standing on the inspiring, preserved Word of God, the King James Bible, and our final authority. This is the Sword of the Spirit Podcast with your host and Bible teacher, Joseph Rusiello. Take your Bible, sit back, and join us as we open and study the Word of God. And now, here is your host. Well, hey there, folks. This is Jerusalem, and it is great to be with you once again as we open up and study the precious Word of God, your King James Bible. And you know, folks, as always, whenever and wherever you find yourself listening to us, it's always my prayer that you also find yourself in the grace and in the mercy of our Lord and Savior, the Lord, Jesus Christ. Welcome to the Sword of the Spirit Podcast. Well, all right, all right, our not-live studio audience chiming in there. That's wonderful. Thank you so very much for being with us tonight. And we are live once again at the Asylum Studios broadcasting from the pimple on the backside of Texas, the beautiful city of Eagle Pass. Well, folks, it's not a Thursday night, it's a Friday night, and we decided to move the show this week because I don't know how your week went, but my week was incredibly, incredibly difficult, had a rough time this week, and I just did not feel fully prepared to do the show last night, so we decided that probably the best thing to do was to put it off for the night and start fresh on Friday night. So we've done Friday night Bible studies in the past, and it always seems to work out well. Never really had too much of a problem with it, but again, it's, well, it's Friday night. It was 101 degrees when we started the show here tonight, and so it's hot, but it is beautiful out there. It is absolutely beautiful. It is still a beautiful night for a podcast, and like I said, this past week has been absolutely insane, man. It was like just crazy. One thing after another, after another, after another with the job, had to pull some crazy hours this week, and, but you know what, it's Friday, I appreciate that it's Friday. We're going to do our show tonight, tomorrow we'll be doing the prep for Sunday, and looking forward to spending some time in the Word of God tonight and tomorrow in preparation for that. So again, I hope you guys had a great week. I hope you were looking forward to this because I have. We finished up our study of the spiritual side of the American Revolution, the spiritual side of American history. We started with the American Revolution, and we pulled our way all the way up through into the early part of the 20th century. And I figured that would be a good point to kind of wrap it up. And the reason why is I really wanted to get into where we were going next in our study. We're going to be moving on starting tonight into a seven part series in the Book of Proverbs. Now the Book of Proverbs is the Book of Wisdom, right? So it's an important book. It's an extremely important book to know. I mean, how many of you think that you're as smart as you need to be? Do you think that you can kind of gain a little bit more? Do you think you can learn a little bit more? Well, I know I can. And I know I need to, and I know I should. Learning is a lifetime project, and applying the learning is wisdom. Now real wisdom in your Bible is set in absolutely distinct contrast. When I say real wisdom, I'm talking about godly wisdom, heavenly wisdom. It's set in a real distinct contrast against worldly wisdom. But before I start preaching the message to you, how about we get started by heading over to our website, sort of the spiritpodcast.com, sort of the spirit podcast.com. When you get over there, head over to our context section and open up that web form. Send it over a message. Let us know whatever's on your heart, whatever's on your mind, any questions, comments, cares, concerns that you might have. And also, don't forget to send over those prayer requests. Now if you don't like to use the web form that's fine, you can always email me directly at info@sortofthespiritpodcast.com. That's info@sortofthespiritpodcast.com. Now also, if you would while you're on the website, please look for that support button on our homepage. And remember that this is a modern value for value podcast. So if this podcast has been a blessing to you in any way, if the video feed's been a blessing to you, if you've received anything of value from what we are doing here, why don't you consider a donation to the show? Help us keep this thing going. We don't run ads, we're not monetized, and we are absolutely totally, totally dependent upon you, our listeners, to help keep this thing going. And we really do need your help. Because when you're making your contributions and your donations, it's not just to keep the lights going here and everything else going. It's also that we send out literature, we send out Bibles to folks that request them. Not a penny of what you guys send goes in my pocket or our producer's pocket, none of it. It all stays with the show and then gets distributed out. We send out donations and love offerings to active missionaries that we know that are out there in the field serving. We purchase Bibles for folks that request them. We send out literature of other types. We do an awful lot with your donations and contributions. So if you're still sitting on the fence about that, why don't you pray about it and see if the Lord leads you to do it. And if He does, make that donation. Head over to the website, click that button, and send over your donation in any amount possible. We would greatly, greatly appreciate it. Now listen folks, this is exciting for me too because another reason why I was excited and didn't really want to cancel the show this entire week, I wanted to make sure we got it in this week, is because folks, this is episode number 200. And it absolutely floors me when I think about this is episode number 200. We, I did not ever plan to get this far with the show, I really didn't. And I told you before that this is the third or the fourth incarnation of this particular podcast, different names, but still same contact, same concept, same format basically. And we, every other incarnation that we did just ended after about five to ten episodes. But here we are now, this is 200 episodes. This is absolutely incredible. And thank you so very much for all of your support, your prayers, everything. Thank you so very much for it. It's a real blessing for me to be able to study the Word of God and to bring these lessons out to you guys. And the feedback that we've gotten has been just absolutely amazing and so incredibly grateful to every single one of you for everything. Thank you so very much, and God bless you for that. All right, how about we get started here, let's take our Bibles and let's head over to the book of Proverbs. We are drinking our coffee tonight out of our very large, don't tread on me, thermal coffee cup. This is, I love this thing. This is like, this is probably six cups of coffee right here. It's amazing, I love it. And of course, we're drinking blackout coffee. When we first started doing the show, it used to do this whole slurping thing. But I think we kind of graduated from that. We grew up a little bit, I guess. But all right, how about we take our Bibles and let's get on over to the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter one, Proverbs chapter one, excuse me, I couldn't get to the mute button fast enough there. All right, Proverbs chapter one, now to kick this whole thing off, I need lesson number one to be really kind of just an introduction. So this really isn't one of the life lessons that we're going to talk about. I mean, certainly you could, and hopefully and prayerfully, you can gain something from it that'll serve in that category. But I thought, you know, man, this stuff, there's so much stuff here. There's so, so much stuff in this book that we absolutely need an introductory lesson. All right, so Proverbs and chapter one, Proverbs chapter one. And you know, if you want a really, if you want to know a little bit about Proverbs, you know, the history of it, the placement of it, Dr. Ruchman has about as good of a condensed introduction to it as any of them that I've read, and I've read quite a few of them. And so you can find those in his commentary bible, if you'd like to read that. I think it's great and it really helped me kind of formulate how we were going to go with this particular study. Proverbs chapter one and verse one, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. All right, well, that should right off the bat put to rest any further doubts about who wrote this book, all right, Solomon wrote the book. Now there are a couple of other possible authors that contributed minor phrases in the book, and you know, we'll see that later on. But overall though, what's the purpose of the book, all right, now verses two, three and four are going to list nine things that Solomon is proposing that we gain information and wisdom about, all right, so that's verses two, three and four, all right, number one, verse two, to know wisdom and instruction, all right, so I want you to notice that wisdom and instruction are grouped together, all right, that's number one, to perceive the words of understanding, that's two, to receive the instruction of wisdom, all right, that's three, justice is four, and judgment is five, and equity is six, to give subtlety to the simple seven, to the young man knowledge and discretion, that's eight, and a wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise councils, all right, so those are the goals that the Holy Spirit has set forward for the Book of Proverbs, all right, now notice that the whole thing kicks off with to know wisdom, to know wisdom, to become acquainted with wisdom, to be familiar with wisdom, to be on a first hand basis with wisdom, now to know wisdom indicates to obtain the ability to draw judgment and moral and spiritual matters and to discern spiritual issues, you know, God doesn't really give a wit about worldly wisdom, all right, and we're going to see that they're held in direct contrast, worldly wisdom versus heavenly wisdom, real wisdom, like I said earlier, in your Bible, is set in distinct contrast against worldly wisdom, just like diamonds are set against the garbage can, all right, now take your Bibles and we're going to run out this wisdom thing a little bit, because the theme above all other themes in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is wisdom, God wants his people to have, possess, utilize, and exercise wisdom, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes use the word more than all the other books combined in your Bible, all right, they are the books of wisdom, God wants you to be wise, God wants you to be wise, I mean, do you think God wants any of his people to be dumb, you know, to be stupid, now let me ask you this, and I asked you earlier, how many of you think you're as smart as you need to be, you think you can gain a little bit more knowledge, do you think you can learn a little bit more, you know, like I said learning is a lifetime project and applying the learning is wisdom, it's like somebody once said to me that knowledge is knowing that a tomato is fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad, okay, applying the learning is wisdom, all right, but let's go over to James chapter three, James and chapter three, and when we get to James chapter three, we're going to see that this theme of wisdom is a cross section all across the Bible, God wants his people to be wise, all right, now in James chapter three, and you know, before we get to the definition of wisdom, there's just some other things that we need to consider, okay, first of all, as I've already said, and I just want to kind of go back over it, worldly wisdom, and there really is such a thing as worldly wisdom, there are a lot of people out in the world that are intellectually smart, you know, they've got a lot of things going for them, but it kind of reminds me back of those dudes back in, kind of reminds me of those dudes back in the Old Testament from the tribe of Issacar, do you remember them, now I think it's first Chronicles chapter 12, and you could check me out on that, but I think that's correct, and again this is just a sidebar, I'm kind of like half shooting from the hips, but you know, we'll get to James in a minute, but in first Chronicles chapter 12, you have all the various tribes of Israel are listed, and they're listed numerically according to the contribution that they were making to Israel's army at the time, and some of the numbers that they were being contributed were very large, I mean the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Benjamin, they're contributing thousands and thousands and thousands of men to this militia army, and then you get down to the tribe of Issacar, and it says they contributed two hundred men, you know, and then you're thinking, you know, what's going on here, you know, what's the matter with these guys, but then as the narrative continues on it tells us that they were very wise, but then as we examine it, they were wise in the wisdom of the world, and the reason we know that is is that in the very next chapter, chapter 13, you know, the boys in the band, they get together and if you're familiar with the story, you know, they said, hey look, you know, we need to bring the ark back, we need to move the ark, and so what they did was they built a cart, and they put the ark on the cart that was drawn by oxen, well, that wasn't the designated way to move the ark, way back in Exodus, there were four rings on the corners of the ark, and there were these staves that went through the rings, and the priests were supposed to carry the ark on their shoulders, you see, and God was very, very specific about that, but you see, they had a meeting of all the heavyweights, including these two hundred men of Issacar, and these guys, like I said, they were supposed to be the sharpest tax in the box, you know, that the brightest light bulbs in the whole building, that's what they were supposed to be, and no one, no one raised an objection to the movement of the ark in that particular method, no one, they all said, oh yeah, that's a great idea, well, do you remember what happened? One guy got nailed, he got killed as a result of that old effort, you see, because God was frowning prodigiously upon that, he said, no, no, you do it the way that I told you to do it, so there's a worldly wisdom, these two hundred guys of Issacar, they were up to speed on the stock market, all right, they knew about all the ups and downs of Wall Street, they knew about, they knew all about equities, and they knew all about funds, and they knew all about that stuff, you see, but when it came to spiritual things, when it came to spiritual things, they were just dumber than a post, all right, so God says there's a spiritual wisdom, and that's what we're going to, and that's really what we're all in desperate need of, because spiritual wisdom, you know, it flops over into every aspect of our lives, you know, even in the carnal part of our lives, like you know, when you're going out buying groceries, and automobiles, and paying your bills, and all the rest of it, so in James chapter 3 and verse 13, James chapter 3 verse 13, who was a wise man, and in dude with knowledge among you, let him show out a good conversation, his works with meekness of wisdom, but if you have a, if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth, this wisdom descended not from above, but as earthly, sensual, devilish, for where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. So clearly, and this, you know, would really withstand a great deal of examination, but the point of it is that I think we can extract from this text very clearly is there's worldly wisdom, there's godly wisdom. God is not interested in us gaining worldly wisdom, he's interested in us gaining spiritual and heavenly, godly wisdom. Alright now go over to 1 Corinthians in chapter 1 with me, 1 Corinthians in chapter 1, not to be outdone by James, Paul has to chime in a little bit, and you know, just a passing thought kind of, kind of went through my head as I was studying this material this morning, I thought, you know, there you go, James sets forth that contrast very clearly. Now, now James, doctrinally, it's primary application is to tribulation Jews, well how do you know that? Well, who's James written to? James 1 1 to the 12 tribes that are scattered abroad. Now if any people are going to need wisdom, if any people are going to walk this planet after the rapture takes place, they're going to need to have spiritual understanding and discernment of the Scriptures, it's going to be that bunch, it's going to be that bunch right there. Boy, I mean they are going to need it, man, they're going to need it. I mean, number one, number one they're going to have to separate church age doctrine from tribulation doctrine, they're going to have to have a grasp of Hebrews and James and Revelation and 1st and 2nd Peter and Jude, you know, they're going to have to have a grasp of that that probably we don't really need to have. I mean, it's good if you do, amen, it's good if you do, but it's necessity is going to fall upon those poor folks right there. And so Paul says, or James says, don't seek after worldly wisdom, go after spiritual wisdom. All right, now 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 19, "For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the dispute of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God." All right, now did you get that? The world by wisdom knew not God, all right? That's worldly wisdom. The world seeks God, you know, through the vehicle of worldly wisdom. They don't get it. They'll never arrive at the destination as long as they're utilizing worldly wisdom to seek God. They can't get it. It's impossible. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now, honestly, I cannot tell you what a, what a comfort that is to a preacher's heart. You know, because, you know, sometimes you, you know, you're preaching, you're explaining things over and over and over again, you know, that just seemed so simple, particularly when you're trying to, you know, convey the message of the gospel to lost people. And sometimes you just think, man, I almost feel foolish explaining some things, you know, some of these things that are just so simple. But it's not simple to the unsaved mind, you see? It's all cloudy. It's foggy. And so God says that he's pleased by the foolishness of preaching. All right. Now look down on verse 27, verse 27, "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to not things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." The very idea that God continues to confuse with the wisdom of this world, and they are confused. They are confused. All you have to do to know that is watch Congress in action. That's all you need to do is just watch Congress in operation, watch them in action. Are they confused? They're just, I mean, they are just upside down, sideways, backwards. They are just confused, you see? And God says that the reason that he prescribes the confusion to the wisdom of the world is so that no flesh should glory in his presence. Because if they could figure God out, if they could examine and analyze and evaluate God in the light of worldly wisdom, then they could glory in his presence. But they can't do it, see? And so that no flesh should glory in his presence. All right, one more. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter one. Ecclesiastes chapter one. Now, do we need wisdom? Well, these seven lessons all require an adaptation and an application of wisdom. That's what they require. And so before we launch into any of those, I guess we better learn a little bit more about wisdom itself. All right, now in Ecclesiastes chapter one and verse 17, Solomon says this, and I gave my heart to no wisdom and to no madness and folly. I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit, for in much wisdom is grief. And he then increases knowledge, increases sorrow. Well, that doesn't sound right. Right? That doesn't sound right at all. That sounds, that sounds pretty contradictory, doesn't it? Solomon says, I sought wisdom. I desired wisdom. I wanted wisdom. You see, and all I got out of it was folly and vexation of spirit. So in other words, it didn't profit him. It didn't benefit him. But you know what he's talking about here? He's not talking about heavenly wisdom. He's talking about worldly wisdom. He sought all the wisdom of the great philosophers. He sought all the wisdom of the world. He sought the wisdom of the, you know, the intellectual giants and you know what that produced for him? Nothing. A big old goose egg. He got nothing out of it. Nothing. Well, there you go. You can't seek the wisdom of the world. You can, I'm sorry, you can either seek the wisdom of the world or you can seek the wisdom of God, you know, you know, observe what, what, what worldly wisdom produces. Just observe worldly wisdom. Stop and think about it. All you have to do is just be a cursory student of history to know that worldly wisdom has produced pride, wrath, envy, confusion, jealousy, wars, rumors of wars, bad science. Now look, you've heard me say this before, God's not opposed to science. All right. He's opposed to what he calls science falsely, so called, you see, and bad philosophy. That's what worldly wisdom has produced. Heavenly wisdom, on the other hand, produces something completely different, something entirely different. Go with me over to Galatians in chapter five, Galatians chapter five, and let's see what heavenly wisdom can produce. All right. Now Galatians in chapter five and verse 22. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such there is no law. Well, those sound like good things. Those sound like really good things. You know, if everybody was exhibiting the fruit of the spirit, there wouldn't be one problem with there. There wouldn't be one problem. If everyone had the fruit of the spirit, we could all just get along. But how are we doing getting along with Saudi Arabia? And how are we doing getting along with North Korea? And how are we doing getting along with the European Union? And how are we doing getting along with China? Now that's international stuff. I understand that. I know. But we're going to see in a little while that godly wisdom even greases the skids for good politics. Imagine that. Just imagine that. So here we are. Now the fruit of the spirit. But as opposed to let's back up to verse 19. We read the fruit of the spirit. Let's back up to verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variants, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. That's a nice list there, right? You know what? You know what? Paul just listed right there. He listed all of the results of worldly wisdom. That's it. That's all there they are right there. So they're held in stark contrast over and over and over again by word and deed, an example throughout your Bible. Okay. So where do I have to go to get wisdom? Where do you got to go? Is there like a, is there like a wisdom pool or a mine or a bank someplace? Think about it. Wouldn't it be nice if you could, you know, just go down to the bank of wisdom and draw out a check and say, man, okay, this is going to get me through this week. But that doesn't exactly work that way, does it? It doesn't work that way. So where do I have to go to get wisdom? Take your Bible and go to 1 Kings in chapter 3. 1 Kings in chapter 3. Now, I realize that, you know, this is all, you know, pretty academic so far. And this might be not something new to you if you've been saved for a period of time, if you're a Bible believer for a period of time. But you know, sometimes I think we got to cover the basics before we get into anything beyond that. And, you know, it never really never hurts to remind ourselves of some of these, some of these basic truths. You know, the one thing about the old stories in the Bible, they never grow old to the believer. They never do because every time you go through these stories, every time you run through them, you're going to pick up something that you didn't see before. You'll say, well, which, you know, look at that. What happened to me when I was doing this study, and I was doing the preparation for all this. That happened to me many times. Oh, look at that. I didn't see that before. How come I didn't see that before? All right. Now, first Kings chapter three and verse five. In Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, ask what I shall give thee. I have never had a dream like that. Never, never. I'm still waiting. Now, the reality of it is I'm not expecting it. But if I did have a dream like that, and God showed up and said to me, Joe, what do you want? I would like to think that I would have enough wisdom to ask for the right thing, not the wrong thing, you know. Now, I wonder though how many believers would say God helped me win the lottery, you know. But I hope that you'd have wisdom enough to ask for the right thing. Well, so the Lord shows up, right? And he says, hey, Solomon, what do you want? All right, verse six. And Solomon said, now I showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he walked before the in truth and in righteousness and an uprightness of heart with thee. And thou has kept him this you have kept for him this great kindness that thou has given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. And now oh Lord, my God, thou has made thy servant king instead of David, my father, and I am but a little child. I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou has chosen a great people that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad for who was able to judge this so great a people. And the speech, please the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. All right now. So Solomon said, you know what, I need help. I need a lot of help. And God said unto him, because that was asked this thing and has not asked for thyself long life, neither has to ask riches for thyself nor has to ask the life of thine enemies, but had asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment. Behold, I have done according to thy words, lo I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. Now, this, this, this, this wise and understanding heart is later translated as we'll see and condensed into one word, wisdom, wisdom. Solomon said, what I really need here is wisdom. All right, that's very good. All right, go to chapter four and verse twenty nine, chapter four verse twenty nine. And God gave Solomon wisdom. All right, here it is now an understanding exceeding much and largest of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore and Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East country and all the wisdom of Egypt. So he's wiser than anybody. Verse thirty one, he's wiser than all the well known philosophers and educators. All right, verse thirty two. And he spake three thousand proverbs and his songs were a thousand five. And he spake of trees from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, he spake also of beasts and of foul and of creeping things and of fishes. So in other words, Solomon had wisdom beyond just direct spiritual application. He knew about nature, he knew about biology, he knew about all kinds of things. And he observed the world that was out there. He was a great observer and there and verse thirty four and there came and there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom. Wouldn't it be great to be that smart? Wouldn't it? Wouldn't it? Would you ever feel stupid? God knows right here. You know, do you ever feel like, you know, I was a little, I was a little bit smarter in this area or, or that area, you know, or something else, you know? Well, if you don't, God help you. Now, not only in ruling Israel, but, but this bled over into, as I mentioned a little while ago, international politics, look in chapter five and verse twelve, chapter five and verse twelve. And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he promised him and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon and they too made the league together. Now, Hiram was, was king over what you and I would call Lebanon in, in that part of the world. And so, you know what they came to? If you read the narrative on down, all the way on down through, you know, you know what they arrived at? They arrived at a workable, equitable trade agreement. You know what you need to have a good trade agreement? You need wisdom. You need wisdom. Now, you know, America as, as President Trump had pointed out, has been taken advantage of for decades and decades and decades, you know, and then, and when President Trump stood up and said, you know, I'm not going to put up with this any longer, and you know, the liberals, they started screaming and howling and you know what their problem is? Worldly wisdom, not spiritual wisdom, worldly wisdom. Now, I am not suggesting that President Trump is necessarily operating under the umbrella of spiritual wisdom, but you know, perhaps to some degree, he is by, by, by virtue of the fact that there are thousands and thousands of believers in this country that pray for him. Folks, never discount that prayer. Never discount the power of prayer. So, he stands up and he says, you know, we're not going to put up with it anymore. Hey, Mexico, guess what? Hey, China, guess what? Hey, European Union, guess what? We're not going to be your patsies anymore. We're going to have an equitable trade agreement. Wisdom negotiated that whole thing. All right, we need wisdom and wisdom will be noticed. If you're wise and when I say wise, I kind of integrate the word smart. But when we think of smart, we think of intellectual prowess, right? You know, there are a lot of people that are that probably wouldn't do particularly well in an IQ test, but are wise, but are wise, you know, wise and heavenly things. They may not know a lot of things that would appear in an SAT exam, but that doesn't mean for a moment that they may not be wise. Wisdom is noticed. You know, just think back in your own life. You know, just think back in your own life. You know, your family, your associates, your friends, and the sphere of influence as you were growing up and coming up through the ranks of humanity. Was there anyone? You know, maybe it was a teacher, maybe it was an uncle or a father or a mother. You know, is there anyone in your life that stood out in your mind's eye being just particularly wise? You know, if there was one person, if there was one person that you could think of, if you needed real sound advice, it would probably probably be that person that you would go to, right? Well, you know, probably a lot of you can say, I can definitely identify someone like that, you know, I can think of somebody like that. Now, you see, it's just, you know, it's different for different individuals, right? Different people for different individuals, but be that as it may, wisdom will be noticed. Wisdom will be noticed. All right, go to chapter 10, First Kings and chapter 10. First King and chapter 10. All right, now what we have here is the Queen of Sheba. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train with camels that bear spices and very much gold and precious stones in verse 2. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in his heart, in her heart. And he answered all of her questions in verse 3. And that kind of blew her away. All right, and then in verse 4. And when the Queen of Sheba had seen all of Solomon's wisdom and the house that he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cupbearers and has ascend by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. So all the wind had left her sails. She had come to Jerusalem, you know, evidently, probably on the camel of pride, as it were, of herself thinking, well, you know, after all, I am a queen, I'm a big shot, you know, I have, I have my own bragging rights. But after she saw Solomon in his element, man, she was just out of breath. She was out of wind. And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom, how be it I believed not the words until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told to me thy wisdom and prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard. You know, wisdom generates prosperity. Wisdom generates prosperity. Now, you know, we all know that spiritual prosperity is a whole lot more important than physical prosperity. You know, be rich in the things of the Lord. However, verse eight, happy are thy men happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee that hear thy wisdom. So wisdom creates an atmosphere of happiness. It just does. It just does. If there's wisdom in your house, it'll be a happy house. It'll be a contented house. It'll be a house that people enjoy being in, you know, can't wait to get there. It's it's that kind of house. If wisdom abides there. I mean, just look at the text in verse nine, blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel because the Lord loved Israel forever. Therefore, he made the king to do judgment and justice. Now, now, folks, that's critical. Judgment and justice. You know what that requires? That requires discernment of what right and wrong, judgment and justice. Now, by all theory, a judge is supposed to be dispensing just that judgment and justice. Now, if he's a wise judge, he'll have to be discriminating and understanding the difference between right and wrong. All right. And this requires that which is absolutely necessary in dealing with apparent differences or things that are not equal. All right. Now, listen to me. All right. The world in all of its nondiscrimination policies, you know, and every time you flip on the news, they got a new one, right? You can't discriminate against this. You can't discriminate against that. You can't discriminate against this other thing over here. All these different things. You see, you know what they're trying to do? They're trying to rob you of wisdom because wisdom discriminates. Wisdom says that's wrong. And that's right. Wisdom doesn't make everything gray. You know, wisdom makes things black and white, cut and dry. That's wisdom. So, you know, all this non-discriminatory stuff that we have floating around out there today, you know, you got to be really careful about that. Now, you know, we all understand that the Lord warned us, judge not that you be not judged, right? We've all heard that. We get that. We understand that. But you know, that verse has been quoted and quoted and quoted and overworked to the max by all kinds of liberal people that, but I'll bet you, but I'll bet you this. I'll bet you this. There isn't one of them. You know, in fact, the next time someone says to you, well, you know, the Bible says, judge not that you be not judged. Ask them what the balance is to that. Ask them what the Bible is a balanced book. I mean, doesn't your Bible say a false balance is an abomination to the Lord and adjust weight is his delight? The Bible is a balanced book. Okay. On one side, judge not that you be not judged. We get that. But he gives further revelation when, when Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, 15, he that a spiritual judges all things. You see, that's the balance. That's the balance. That's what makes the thing equitable. And then, and Paul even went a step further over in, in, in Romans chapter 14 verse 13, when he tells us to judge doubtful practices, you know what that is? That, that's certain lifestyles, doubtful practices. You're supposed to judge those things. They're certain lifestyles. And I don't know about you, but I grew up in a home where, where they judged my friends, you know, my parents judged. I don't want you hanging around that kid. You got it? I don't want you hanging around that kid. All right. There was some wisdom being exercised, predicated upon, discriminating and making a judgment. Now, testing and temptations often come along to try your faith. Go to James chapter 1, James chapter 1. All right. James chapter 1 and verse 3. I don't know what, let's start in verse 1. Why not? We're not in a rush, right? All right. James chapter 1, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes, which are scattered aboard, greeting. My brethren, counted all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Why should I? I don't want to. Why in the world should I counted a joy when I fall into a whole rat's nest of temptations? Why should I say, Oh, man, I'm just a happy camper. I'm just surrounded by temptations. Now, keep in mind, you know, as we allow the Bible to interpret itself, a temptation is often defined as a trial because over in Genesis, Genesis 22, as, as, you know, we read the story that God tempted Abraham in the event of taking, of him taking Isaac up to sacrifice them. And then when we get to Hebrews 13, the temptation is defined as a trial, the trial, you see? All right. So why should I just be, you know, jumping up and down and shouting, you know, hallelujah and having a, you know, just a plain old baptic hostile fit when I'm surrounded by trials? Well, here we go. My brethren, counted all of joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Now, divers, that's not like somebody jumping off a cliff into a pool of water. Now, all right, that's not what it is. All right. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith, work with patience. So you know what a trial is? A trial is to increase your faith. The trial is to increase your faith. Knowing this that the trying of your faith work with patience, but let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. Now, what's the remedy? What's the remedy? What do you got to do here? What do you got? Well, they can only be overcome. All these various trials and difficulties. They can only be overcome by wide. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that give it to all men liberally and and abrade if not, and it shall be given him. So approach number one, when facing trials is to ask God for wisdom. You need wisdom. You got to habit, folks. You desperately need it. All right. Now, and there's something else you need to be. Verse eight, a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. So don't be double minded. Be singularly minded in the things of the Lord. Be singularly minded. All right. Now, let me see. We're going to conclude here. I got about 15 minutes to go. Let's see. To look at my online here. So to prevent stupidity. I'm sorry. I just couldn't think of it of a better word. So that's what I wrote down. To prevent stupidity, we have to tap into an infinite source of wisdom. Have you ever thought about the word infinite? I mean, eternity is infinite. Is it not? I mean, from our perspective, from our perspective, the universe is infinite. It just goes on and on and on and on and on. All right. The Bible indicates that there's there's an infinite source of wisdom. Now, all worldly wisdom has a beginning and has an end. It travels within the confines of a circle, but heavenly wisdom, heavenly wisdom has it has no beginning. It has no end. It just goes on and on and on. It's infinite. Oh man, that's the kind of infinite. That's the kind of wisdom that we need to tap into. We need to get plugged into that. You know, more and more, you know, you see these truck stops and so on, you know, coming up with the little plug-in stations for the electric cars. And I noticed that the last time I drove up to New York to see my sister, you know, you know, you kind of pull in there and you plug in and, you know, I really don't know how they work and, you know, I'm sure that the pay for it, but you see, they're plugging into a source of energy and they're receiving energy in their batteries. Well, but it only takes them so far and then I got to go to another place and plug in again, right? And I realized before anybody says that I realized the same thing is true with fuel, you know, you know, diesel and gas, you know, you know, whatever. You got to keep getting more and more and more. You got to keep going back to the station. Well, wouldn't it be great if you could just get all plugged in and never have to get plugged in again? You know, just keep going. So God has made that available to us an infinite source of wisdom. Go to Psalm 147. Psalm 147. Psalm 147. Psalm 147. You know, folks, while you turn in there, I had a week like you wouldn't believe. I am absolutely exhausted. I don't know if you hear my voice. I am tired. So I'm a little tongue tight here. That's why I took the big boy out for coffee today to try to keep me going here. But, you know, so forgive me for the slip ups. Psalm 147. Psalm 147. You know, wisdom might have been not to do the show tonight too. Wisdom might have been to wait till next week. But what is wisdom? What is wisdom? Well, wisdom is the ability to take God-given principles and truths and apply them in such a way that they work for us. That's wisdom. Psalm 147 verse 5. Great as our Lord and of great power, His understanding is infinite. So, in other words, there's no end to it. You will never run out of God's understanding. Get plugged into it. Get plugged into it. Go to Romans chapter 11, if you would. Really quick, Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11 verse 33. Romans 11, 33. Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. They're absolutely unsearchable. You'll never be able to come to the end of them. You'll never be able to come to the conclusion of them. Now, what would this kind of wisdom do? Well, it helps us in understanding the most minute matters. Sometimes we think that, well, we need wisdom in the big issues of life. You know, you go in car shopping. God help you through doing that. You need wisdom, right? You got to buy some real estate. You need wisdom. You're raising children. Do you need wisdom? I mean, there's multitudes, multitudes of issues that it's very clear that we need wisdom. But then, of course, you know, there's the little things in life, the little things, you know, just a little mundane, you know, routine, daily things that we might not think too much about one way or the other. But do we need wisdom? Look, I'm not a wise grocery shopper, okay? I'm not by a long shot. You know, I, you know, if I go into the store, you know, that's the one I want, you know, I think, you know, I need that, I need this and I need that and I need this and this and this and I just throw it all in the basket and then, you know, let's go. That's the deal. That's how I do it. And I'm sure I'm not alone in that. You know, you know, I'm not a wise grocery shopper at all. I mean, but of course, if you're interested in saving money, you know, I guess a little wisdom helps. But and there now, it's just a mundane routine thing of life. I know that. But I want you to look with me over in Matthew chapter 10. Alright, Matthew chapter 10. Let's let's see if God's interested in that kind of stuff, the little things, little mundane, minute, little things. Matthew chapter 10. Wisdom will help you understand the minutest, if that's a word, matters of life. Matthew chapter 10 verse 29. "Are not too sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your father, but the very hairs in your head are all numbered. Fear you not therefore, ye are more value than many sparrows." I mean, we can crack a lot of ball jokes with this particular verse, this passage of scripture right here. But really, I mean, really, who cares how many hairs are on your head? You know, it's just really not that important. I mean, who cares, really? Alright, now, the Lord, that's an analogy that the Lord has utilized simply to demonstrate, that if God cares about sparrows and God cares about the numbers of hairs in your head, God cares about the minute details of your life. You know, we think that, you know, well, God's only concerned about the great, you know, big issues. No, no, God's wisdom can be applied to any and all aspects of our lives. And the more that we utilize it will be like Solomon's crowd, you know, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy. I want to be happy, don't you? Don't you want to be happy? I want to be happy. Alright, but that's not all. Wisdom helps us understand the affliction of the saints. Go to Psalm 142. Psalm 142. Sometimes the saints are afflicted in a variety of ways. And I'll tell you what, you know, I've looked at so many situations over the years, both personally and in ministry, you know, families and individuals and people going through stuff, man. And you know, sometimes I just shake my head and I say, God, I just don't get it. I don't understand it. I wish they didn't have to endure this. And, you know, Lord, help me to understand this. Help me to understand what the end game here is. Help me. Well, the Psalmist was suggesting that very dilemma. Psalm 142 verse 1. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, with my voice unto the Lord that I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before him. I showed before him my trouble. Now I've done that. I guess, you know, a few times in my life, you know, when I, when I complain to God about my troubles, you know, but I also know for a fact that I've complained to God a whole lot more about other people's troubles. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked, had they privily laid a snare for me. I looked on my right hand and beheld that there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul. I cried unto the O Lord. I said thou art my refuge in my portion in the land of the living, attended to my cry for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy name. The righteous shall compass me about. For thou shalt deal bountifully with me. And the Lord says, all right, here's the end game. You know, the fat lady hasn't sung yet. It's not all over yet. You see, don't forget there's still something down the trail. Wisdom helps us to understand a little bit more about affliction of the saints. Look with me in Exodus chapter three. Exodus in chapter three. And Exodus chapter three in verse, verse seven. Exodus three, verse seven. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So God heard their affliction. He observed it. He said, I've heard it. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, to bring them up out of the out of that land, unto a good land, and a large unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the parasites, the high vites, the Jebusites. Now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come up to me. And I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. So again, God says, I observed your afflictions. I observe it. I've got something better for you. And concentrating on that, setting our affections on things above and not on things on this earth gives me a better under a better appreciation for understanding the afflictions of God's people. That's wisdom. That's wisdom. And then to understand our infirmities, as well as our afflictions, look in Psalm 103 Psalm 103 and verse 14. Verse 14, "For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it, no more." You know, the Lord understands our infirmities. The Lord knows that our frame is just dust. And wisdom helps us gain a real solid appreciation of that, and what God knows. Wisdom, wisdom helps you to understand also the prosperity of the wicked. Now, I'm not going to take you over there because I really want to close this up. But over in Psalm 73, you'll pick up that whole concept. Pretty much the whole Psalm is dedicated to that. Then, you know, the Psalm says, you know, I don't get it, God. I don't get it. You know, why are these fat cats on Wall Street billionaires? And they live like the devil, and they hate God, and they hate his word. I'm not saying, I'm not saying they all do, but I think probably most of them do. He said, I don't understand this whole thing. I don't understand why the wicked prosper, and it's wisdom that helped the Psalmist. All right, one last verse, one last verse, Colossians chapter three, Colossians and chapter three, and verse 16, left the word of Christ dwelling you richly in all wisdom. You know, I want to be rich. I want to be super rich. I want to be, I want to be mega rich. Don't you? Don't you? In wisdom? In wisdom. I'm not talking about American dollars. I'm talking about rich wisdom. I want to be rich in wisdom. Let the word of Christ dwelling you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. And here's a sidebar that Paul throws in there, and I find it quite interesting. In Psalms, in hymns, and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, if you're rich in wisdom, it can help but show up in your music. It's a fascinating connection. It'll show up in your music. Now, what's our access to wisdom? How do we gain wisdom? Let the word of Christ. Do you know what the word of Christ is? It's this thing right here. It's this Bible right here. This. This. When we fail to recognize and we fail to utilize God's wisdom regularly, when we fail to be confronted by God's wisdom, to be somewhere like the church house, or somewhere where we can learn about God's wisdom, hear God's wisdom taught and preached. And when we sit down in our quiet time by ourselves and read the word of God, that's accessing wisdom internally. Now when we don't do that, when we don't do that, we fail to take advantage of all the wisdom opportunities that God gives us. And do you know what we're really saying to them? Do you know what we're really saying? We're saying, "Okay, God, I'm smart enough. I don't need you right now. I got it all figured out." Really? Probably not. Probably not. You know, it's dangerous territory to think you got anything figured out. You've got to trust the Lord and lean not until you're own understanding. Amen? And I'll help you and give you wisdom. You know, there have been certain circumstances that I've had to deal with over the years and I've just had to, you know, follow my face and say, "God, I don't know how to deal with this. I need the wisdom of Solomon. And I know that you're the only source. You're the only place that I can get it. God, I need some help here." You know, there's a lot of times where I'm just building a sermon. You know, I get through one point and I think, "Okay, all right, where am I going with this? You know, where's this going to lead me to?" And then the Lord says, "You know what? It's time to take a break. Take a break and beseech me for some wisdom." And I can tell you, I can tell you, it's effective. It's effective. But, I mean, there's been so many, I mean, multiple times when I just felt like I hit a roadblock. You know, I'm halfway through a sermon and I don't know which direction to go. You know, I come to a fork in the road and, you know, do I go here? Do I go there? Do I do this? Do I do that? And I say, "Lord, I'm a knucklehead. I don't know what to do. Can you give me some wisdom?" And you know, sometimes it comes instantaneous. Sometimes it comes a little bit later on. But a light bulb goes on. But it's not my light bulb. Because, you know, I'm really not that smart, okay? I have an IQ of about 50. Don't say amen. But the Lord's IQ is infinite, right? Infinite. And I have people that come to me regularly and they'll say things like, "Well, you know, I was talking to somebody about some spiritual issue and this and that. And I really didn't know how to respond." Well, here's a thought that just might jar the person that you're talking to. Just say this and say, "Hey, you know, if you don't mind, maybe we could just stop for a minute. I'm not sure how to answer that question, but let's pray and ask God for an answer. Oh, God, now this guy wants an answer to this and I'm not sure how to answer, but I know your book has the answer. And so help us search your book. Boy, you want to talk about getting somebody nervous, right? And, you know, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with that? You are simply implementing what God said. If anyone, if any of you, if any one of you lack wisdom, let them ask of God, right? What's wrong with that? What's wrong with that? So when we fail to do it, we're simply suggesting to an infinite Almighty God, we don't need His help. Well, I don't know about you, but I need it. We need it and you need it. So just an introductory subject on wisdom because every one of the lessons that we're going to pursue, and they'll be very specific, you know, but they're all predicated upon God's wisdom. Here is God's wisdom. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for how it minishes to us. God, allow us, I pray, to feed on it, to relish it, to enjoy it, to appreciate it, to reverence it, to be thankful for it. Lord, it's your wisdom, and it's God's people seeking your wisdom. Help us, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, folks, what we're going to do here is we're going to take our break, and when we come back from this break, we'll get into our prayer list. Folks, this is the Sword of the Spirit podcast. Don't forget, this is a live show every Sunday at 3 p.m. Central Time and every Thursday at 7 p.m. Central Time. It's a rarity that we do a Friday show, but here we are. And don't forget to head over to our website, SwordofTheSpiritpodcast.com, and send over a question, comment, a prayer request, any concerns that you might have. We would love to be able to talk to you, and we're going to take this break. All right. So folks, this is the Sword of the Spirit podcast. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share it with your friends, your family, and your followers. That way, you'll help us spread the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And we'll be back right after this to stay with us. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Come on to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn at me, for I am me can lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest into your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, that ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will in no voice cast out. Jesus stood and cried, saying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. And the spirit and the bride say, "Come, and let him that heareth say, come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely." Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hey folks, welcome back to the Sword of the Spirit podcast. This is Joe Rusiello, and we just finished our first episode of our first message actually on getting wisdom, getting wisdom, the first of a seven part series that we're going to be kicking off today. So I hope it was a blessing to you. I hope you got some information that I think, not exactly as smooth of a message as I thought it was going to be, but I attribute that to the fact that I am utterly exhausted and cannot wait to go to bed tonight. So it's been one of those weeks, man, been one of those weeks. All right, well, we've come to the portion of our show where we go through our prayer list. Now folks, if you have any prayer requests whatsoever, just head on over to our website, sortofthespiritpodcast.com, sortofthespiritpodcast.com. And you can open up that web form, send them on over to us, or you can email them to me directly at info@sortofthespiritpodcast.com, that's info@sortofthespiritpodcast.com. Now, as always, we go down our prayer list. We haven't broken down to three categories. We have salvation, sick in general. And we are currently praying first and foremost for salvation for MICA, candy, and Eddie. And we always pray for the folks in need of salvation first, because salvation is the single most important decision that anyone will ever make in their entire life. And the reason for that is that it has eternal consequences. It has eternal consequences. We don't want to see anyone go to hell when God has provided a way not to go to hell. So we always pray for these folks first. That's MICA, candy, and Eddie. And then we go down to our sick list. And we're praying for Yisanya, who has been fighting cancer, Maricella, who is recovering from a triple bypass, Rosa, who's heart troubles, Lorena, who has been battling cancer, Emmanuel Farkas, who has been battling bone cancer, my sister Laura, healing from her surgery, and we're also praying for Ruth Solano for her overall health. And then going down our general prayer list, we're going to be praying tonight for Henry for a direction and clarity in his walk with the Lord in his life and his ministry, his family. We're also praying for Angela for direction and clarity in her walk with the Lord. We're praying for, we are praying for Ashley for her peace and life and her soul. We're praying for Larissa for employment opportunities, we're praying for Claude for his particular needs in his family. We're praying for Eddie, who is the same Eddie from the Salvation List, who's been battling addiction. We're also praying for Ed for his health and well-being. We're praying for Isabel, who is a single mom with some undisclosed needs. And we're also praying for my sister, again, Laura, as she'll be traveling to Florida next week. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank You so much, Lord, that You are the God of salvation, that You are the great physician. Lord, that we can come before the throne of grace, and Lord, we can petition the throne of grace for our prayer needs. God, we just thank You so much that You provided the gift of salvation for us through Your precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank You that You've made it so simple, that it's not complicated, that all we have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we be saved. Father, thank You so much for that gift. Thank You so much for the timing of that gift. Father, we just pray today for Micah and Candy and Eddie. Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit would bring conviction over their souls, Lord, and that they would reach out and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would put their full faith trusting confidence in His shed blood on the cross of Calvary, that they would put their faith and trust in His death, His burial, and His resurrection. And Lord, that it would accept the gift of His precious blood to pay for their sin debt. God, thank You so much for that. Father, we just pray for them. We ask You, God, just to draw them into Yourself, and that they might be saved. Father, then going on down to our sick list, Lord, we pray for Yisania. Lord, struggling with cancer right now. We're praying from Mary Selah for her recovery from surgery. I'm praying for Rosa, who's still experiencing some difficulties with her heart. We lift up Lorena, who's fighting cancer again, a return of cancer. We're praying for Emmanuel, who is struggling, Lord, with bone cancer. We pray for my sister Laura for healing from her surgery. And Lord, we lift up Ruth Solano to you tonight, and Lord, we just pray that you would just touch her body and bring her healing as well. Father, we just thank You so much that You are the great physician. Father, we just pray that You would give the doctors and the physicians and the medical personnel that are working with each one on our sick list. Lord, You would give them wisdom and discernment as they look for treatments to take care of the situations that are presented. And God, we pray that You would just wrap your arms around them, that Your healing hand would be upon each and every one. And Lord, that You would bring comfort, You would bring mercy and grace to each one. Father, then we also pray for Henry, Lord, we just ask You to continue to bless Him and protect Him. Lord, as He leads His family, we ask You, Lord, to just be a lamp unto His feet and a light to His path as He seeks to do Your will for His life. Lord, we just pray that You would give Him wisdom. We pray that You would give Him discernment. Lord, we pray that You would just open up opportunities for Him, and Lord, that You would put a hedge of protection about Him and His family. Father, we pray for Angela, for direction in her life and her walk with the Lord, and for clarity in her thoughts. God, I just pray that You open up an opportunity there for her as well. Father, we pray for Ashley, for her particular needs in her life and in her soul. God, I pray that You would just bring comfort, Lord, that You would be a hedge of protection about her as well. And Lord, that You would need her specific needs. Father, we also pray for Larissa for employment opportunities. Lord, we just ask You to open up a window of opportunity there. God, we also pray for Claude, our producer. Lord, we just pray that You would just give Him clarity in His decision-making process. And God, I just pray that You would just meet those particular needs that He has expressed to me in regards to His family. Lord, we also pray for Eddie, who is not only for a salvation, Lord, but we pray for the addiction that He struggles with. And then God, we also pray for Ed, for His overall health and His well-being. We pray for Isabel, Lord, that You would meet her particular needs. And then we pray for my sister, Lord, we ask that You give her traveling mercies as she's heading out from New York to Florida for a few days to see the grandkids and my niece and nephews. And Lord, we just pray that You would just be a blessing to everyone on our prayer list tonight. God, I pray that You would just meet every need that we presented forward. According to Your will, Lord, not ours, Lord, I pray that You would meet every need that we have, not every want. And God, we just pray that You would just be glorified, magnified, and lifted up for it. Father, thank You also for the time we're spending together tonight. In the podcast, Lord, thank You for the message that You gave us. Father, I just pray that it was a blessing to those that were under the sound of my voice tonight. And Father, we just thank You. We'd ask You to bless the rest of the show as we go in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, there we go. All right. So again, if you have any prayer requests whatsoever, just head over to the website, sortofaspiritpodcast.com. Use the web form, send them on over. Or you could always just send them over to us through email, that info at sortofaspiritpodcast.com. All right. How about we get to some announcements? All right. Well, let's see. Like I always say, it wouldn't be the sort of a spirit podcast, or we didn't have some kind of a goof somewhere along the way. But my fault, my fault indeed. Thursday night Bible study, every Thursday night at 7 p.m. Central time, 8 p.m. Eastern time. We have just wrapped up our study of the spiritual side of American history, the American Revolution. We went from the founding of the country, from the colonial days, all the way up through to the early 1900s. And we looked at wonderful, wonderful examples of faith that was on display in the foundation of our country. And I hope it was a blessing to you. It was a blessing to me. It brought back a lot of things that I had long forgotten, but I praise the Lord for it. And now we're moving on, and we're going to be talking about wisdom, lessons and proverbs. And we're going to be talking about this for the next seven weeks. So I hope you guys got a blessing out of the night show. And looking forward to next week, Lord willing will be back on Thursday nights, not Fridays. And we look forward to that. Also, sermon Sunday broadcast every Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. Central time, 4 p.m. Eastern time. So where can you find us? You can listen to us on our website at sortofthespiritpodcast.com. We have a little player right there on the homepage. You can just listen in right there. You could also find us on all of your modern podcast apps, like podcast guru, fountain.fm, truefans.fm, and so many others. You could also find us a video on Rumble, which as you guys know, I love doing the video. And I say that quite sarcastically if you are a new viewer or listener. But it's like a government program. You know what I mean? You know, once you get started, you just can't stop. So that's why we're still doing it. But you could find us all. You could find all of our shows available on all of those podcast platforms. And so we look forward to making a connection with you guys. Alright now folks, if you are in the Eagle Pass area and you're looking for a good King James Bible believing and Bible teaching church, why don't you consider paying us a visit over at first Baptist Church of Eagle Pass. We meet at 664 North Monroe. Our Sunday school hour starts at 10 a.m. Our worship service begins at 11. Our Sunday evening service is at 6. And our Wednesday night Bible study is at 7 p.m. For more information, just head over to the churches Facebook page. All you need to do is log into Facebook search for first Baptist Church of Eagle Pass. It's the only one in Eagle Pass. And once you get there, you're going to find a lot of really helpful information as well as information about the podcast. And like I always tell you, this podcast is not an official ministry of First Baptist Church. I am just a member of the church who has a podcast and the church allows me to use a Facebook page to distribute it. So that's a real blessing for me and I appreciate that immensely. And I want to say thank you to those folks and of course to our pastor, John Monk. All right. Now, if you find yourself interested in prepping, you're going to want to head over to the Contra Radio Network. The Contra Radio Network is a single podcast that houses nearly a dozen talented podcasts and vidcast hosts and artists from around the country who release content daily. The Contra Radio Network releases 15 to 20 shows a week depending on current events and there are no issues that are off limits. You want to break down the current events? They got it. You want to know more about preparedness and self-sufficiency? Got it. You want a guy driving around, renting like a lunatic? If that's what you're into, you got that too. You want to hear about politics, sports, campings, firearms, or more Bible studies? Contra Radio Network has it all covered. You can visit their website at ContraRadioNetwork.com. Also, you can listen to all of their shows on whatever podcast platform you listen to. All right. Armory One. Armory One is a business that's owned and operated by a good friend of mine named Carl. Armory One provides Texas license to carry certification and leverages over 30 years of military and law enforcement experience in instructing students in the safe use of firearms. Armory One also offers courses on self-defense with a handgun, active shooter preparedness, home defense, and much, much more. Head over to their website, ArmoryOne.com, to get more information, especially about upcoming classes. All right, folks. War Tribe Armory. The War Tribe Armory is located right here in beautiful Eagle Pass, Texas. 3037 US 57. War Tribe Armory is veteran owned and operated, and if you are looking for services like Sarahcoat engraven cleaning, stippling, restoration, refinishing repairs, or if you're looking for a custom-built gun sale magazine holsters or trade-ins, War Tribe Armory is the place to go right here in town. They do fantastic work, guys, by the way, to be honest with you. A couple of our listeners have used them to do some refurbishing of old firearms, and they do spectacular work. Not just saying that because they're friends, but you should definitely check them out. You can head over to their Instagram at wartribe.armory. You can go to Facebook at War Tribe Armory, or you can email them at wartribearmory1133@gmail.com. All right, and let's see, the programming announcement subscription. Head over to the website, open up the web form, send us your email address, and get yourself on the programming announcements email list. All right, we're going to start to phase out the text group, so if you're on the text group and you're listening, be sure to get me your email address this way. I can put you on the email list. It's the best way for us to reach everybody during the course of the week, so just get yourself on the list. It doesn't cost you anything. It's absolutely free. We're not going to sell your information, share your information, give it away, or anything else with it. We're only going to email you when it comes to programming announcements, like show starts, show times, changes of those things like we did for this one. All right, so get yourself on the mailing list, and this way you'll stay in the know. It's important. It's very important. All right, what about the socials? Well, we are on all of the usual socials, like Twitter at the SOTS podcast, TikTok, Getter, Instagram, and Truth Social. All right, we don't have any birthdays to announce this week, so unfortunately we don't get to play the birthday song. Hey, that's okay, though. There'll be one coming up shortly, I'm sure. All right, let's go to our shout outs. All right, now, if you want to get your name, shout out across this beautiful plane on which we live. All we ask is that you make a donation of at least $16.11. And you can do that by going over to our website, sort of the spiritpodcast.com, and look for the support tab. Hit that thing, send it on over to us $16.11 at the minimum. We'll get your name, shout out all across this beautiful plane on which we live. You could also make donations in cryptocurrencies. We have our Bitcoin wallet set up on the website as well. If you're listening on one of the modern podcast apps, you can boost us with satoshis, which is basically just a micro payment of Bitcoin. Really pennies, but you know what? Every little bit helps. So we also want to say thank you to all of the folks who have made donations below the $16.11 mark. Thank you so very much for that. We really, really do appreciate it. All right, modernpodcastapps.com and podcastindex.org. You hear me regularly talk about the modern podcast apps. Those are the two places to go to get them. They are fantastic apps. I love them. They are all part of the podcasting 2.0 environment. I really like them. I use podcast guru pretty much for everything at this point. I love the fact that I get transcripts. I love the fact that you can send boost. You can receive boost. You can do all that stuff through there. They're just great, great apps and they just keep getting better. They keep improving. So try one of them out. You know, head over to modernpodcastapps.com or podcastindex.org. All right, now if you want to get your voice out there, you can very easily, easily record a little bumper for us, a little promo like you've heard on our breaks. We'll give you the script if you're interested. Just email me and you could just record yourself saying the script and then we'll put it to music and we'll get it up on the breaks. And your voice will be heard all around this beautiful plane. So you should definitely do that. It would be a blessing for us. It would be wonderful to do. And that would be a way that you can contribute. Otherwise, we have to go out and you have to hire people to do it. And why do that when we have such a great audience? An exceptional audience, like I always tell you and I tell everybody. So just head over to the website and use the contact form, send it on over to us. We'll put it all together and we'll get it into the rotation. All right, and then last but not least, we also want to say thank you. We have a few thank yous we want to do. Salvation, first of all, thank you to the Lord Jesus Christ for paying for my sin debt on the cross of Calvary. And he's willing to pay that debt for you as well. All you have to do is put your full faith, trust and confidence in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Call upon the name of the Lord and thou shalt be saved. The Scripture is very, very clear on it. There is no salvation outside of Jesus Christ. Your church is not going to save you. Your baptans is not going to save you. Taking the cookie and the juice is not going to save you. None of that saves you. Muhammad's not going to save you. Mary's not going to save you. Pope's not going to save you. The only way you get saved is through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and putting your full faith, trust and confidence in that alone. And that's it. That's all there is to it. And I've said it many, many times, I think one of the greater torments of hell are going to be when people die and end up in hell and look back and realize that there was no need for them to be there, that God had made it so very, very simple. Just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. I also want to say thank you to the Lord for giving me the opportunity to serve Him, for allowing me this opportunity to do the podcast as flawed and goofy as it could be at times. It's a blessing to be able to do this with you guys. I really appreciate you. I love spending this time with you. I look forward to it each and every week. I get really disappointed when we have to change the schedule or cancel, which praise the Lord we haven't had to do very often. But this is something that I love to do and I look forward to doing it with you. So again, thank you to the Lord for allowing me to do it. It's an amazing platform that He gave us. We're heard all across this plane. We're distributed all across. It's a great platform to tell people about the Lord Jesus Christ. I also want to say thank you to every one of you who have been supporting us through your prayers. Thank you so very much for them. Please continue to pray for us here at the show. Pray for the ministry. Pray for my family. Pray for our producer. Pray for all of those that are on our prayer list. And pray for me as well as we continue to move across all these subject matter that we're looking to get across. I also want to say thank you to all of you who have been supporting us financially, especially those who have been with us from the very, very beginning. Thank you so very, very much for it. And God bless you for helping us out in that way. Thank you so very much. Also, when I say thank you to all of our listeners, every single one of you who have been listening to us faithfully from the very, very start. God bless you for that too. Thank you so much. And please continue to share the show with your friends, your family, your followers, like, subscribe it. Whatever you have to do to get us trending, to get more people to hear at the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, look, folks, I'm not looking to be a rumble star or anything like that. I'm not looking to be popular, famous, whatever you want to call it. I'm not looking to be like the next Joe Rogan. Wouldn't mind making the money, but I'm not looking for it. It's not really what I want. I just want people to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I just want people to hear the Gospel message. I want people to hear about the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the most important thing that we have to do today. So, you know, I really appreciate everybody that's been sticking with us. Thank you so, so very much for it. All right, folks, I think that's going to just about do it for us for tonight. Again, thank you for taking the time to be with us on your Friday evening. Head over to our website, sortofthespiritpodcast.com, sortofthespiritpodcast.com, click on the contact section. Send us over any comments or questions, your prayer requests. Also, look for that support, the show tab, and if you could help us out with a donation in any amount, we would appreciate it. All right, folks, make Bible study great again. Go podcasting, keep a steady stride, and win the lost, no matter the cost. Good night. God bless you. Goodbye. ♪ ♪ ♪ I'm hungry. Let's give a taco. [BLANK_AUDIO]