TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Morning Manna - August 12, 2025 - Proverbs 8:32-36 - At the Gates of Wisdom

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

In today's study from Proverbs 8:32-36, we hear Wisdom’s final and most urgent plea. She calls us not only to listen but to wait daily at her gates with expectation. Those who find her discover life and favor from the Lord; those who reject her unknowingly embrace their destruction. In a world flooded with noise, Morning Manna reminds us that God’s wisdom still cries: will we stop to hear it?  Teachers:  Rick Wiles and Doc BurkhartYou can partner with us by visiting FaithandValues.com, calling 1-800-576-2116, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961.Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves!AmericanReserves.comIt’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today!Amazon.com/Final-DayApple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books!books.apple.com/final-dayPurchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today.Sacrificingliberty.comThe Fauci Elf is a hilarious gift guaranteed to make your friends laugh! Order yours today!Trunews/faucielf

Good morning. Welcome the morning manna for Tuesday. We are glad that you are here. Doc and I are away. This is pre-recorded. We are attending a educational conference this week, and so we pre-recorded our lessons so that we could have full attention at the educational sessions. And I know I'm certain that all of you are supportive of this plan. So we are in the we're in the last verses of chapter 8 of the book of Proverbs and today we're going to be looking at verses 32 through 36 I'm going to pray Doc's going to read the word of God

and both of us are going to jump into this study Almighty God our dear Heavenly Father Father we thank you for gathering us together we are in one accord and eager to be taught by your spirit so Father bring forth the

the gems, the precious stones, the treasury that wisdom offers us, which is in your word. Teach us wisdom and understanding, discernment, and discretion for our benefit and for the glory of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. And good morning, everyone. We love having you here with us on Morning Manna. And we are continuing our study in Proverbs chapter 8. And we've spent a couple weeks here in Proverbs 8. This is really a gold mine of wisdom here throughout Proverbs chapter 8, and we'll be finishing chapter 8 today as we look at verses 32 through 36. So if you've got your Bibles, go ahead and let's turn there. I'll be reading from the King James this morning starting at verse 32, and it reads, now therefore harken unto me,

O ye children, for blessed are they that keep my ways, hear instruction, and be wise and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the post of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul, all they that hate me love death. God bless the reading of his word today. Yes. So, Doc, you know, I've said, various times in the past. I'm not a, I'm not somebody you would call as a handyman to come over to your house and fix something. That wouldn't be very smart. I'd eventually get it fixed, but we'd go through a process. So for me, I have to look at the instructions. If I have the

instructions. If I have a manual, if I have a blueprint that I can look at with step-by-step instructions, I'll get through it. I'll get it fixed. The Bible is God's instructions to us. It tells us, if you do these things, this is what happens. Positive and negative. after seven of Proverbs, there was plenty of what would happen in the negative realm. In Chapter 8, it's telling us the positive things that will happen. Yes. In fact, verse 35 says, for whoever finds me, meaning wisdom, finds life and will obtain favor from Almighty God. So the way my brain works is, okay, Rick.

you desire to have favor with God. What must you do? So I go into the Word of God and I find things that give a promise. It says, whoever finds wisdom, finds life and will find favor, obtain favor from Almighty God. There it is. You're writing down. There's your instruction. I mean, it really simplifies it.

You don't have to be a great deep thinker. it just read what it says and do it yes if you if you desire favor from god then find wisdom it's his promise his guarantee that's why we're studying proverbs so those of you who are really paying attention to these classes and you are internalizing these verses and you are putting them into practice in your life you will see results. God will encourage you. Things will happen in your life.

He sees that you are taking his word seriously, and he will meet you there and encourage you. He'll do things for you to let you know, I'm paying attention to you. I see it. I see the progress that you're making. So let's go to verse 32, and it says,

Now, therefore. So you get two. big words now start this out now and therefore and then the third one harken now therefore harken unto me really trying to get your attention there isn't yes when now why therefore for all the reasons i just told you in the other 31 verses do what harken pay attention listen not just hear the words but receive the words now therefore hearken unto me who oh ye children that's everybody everybody for blessed are they that keep my ways how are you blessed by keeping the ways of wisdom So we'll start with the first segment of first 32.

Now therefore harken unto me, O ye children. So you've got a rhetorical transition. It's linking all of wisdom's preceding claims of her pre-existence, her creative role at the time of the creation of the universe, Her divine origin, and it's all linked to this urgent call to mankind. Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children, all the children of God. So there's a strong, personal, imperative command and instruction, not casual hearing,

but fully attentive, obedient, diligent, listening. It's not only imperative, it's also affectionate. Yes. It's authoritative and yet it's affectionate. It's a strong appeal to children. We're talking adult children, but the children of God. There's affection. O ye children.

It's a universal call to the entire human race. Again, this is not limited to the Jewish people. It's not limited to Christians. It is to the entire human race. It is addressed to all who are willing to learn and submit to the guidance. of wisdom her counsel is not arbitrary but

it is based on the principles that govern the universe you don't have to obey you have a choice but we're talking you would be disobeying the rules that establish the universe just don't ponder that one

you're going to go against the rules that establish the universe right what word do we have for that doc we've got an English word that I don't know how it's translated another language we saw it call it stupid yeah yeah it's a big duh why would you do that okay why would you go against the operating instructions yeah for the entire universe so wisdom's call to mankind is grounded in the reality of her eternal nature her creative power and we're taught as disciples of jesus christ that the purpose of wisdom's grand revelation to humankind is to establish her divine authority and her credibility to provide a a compelling reason for all men and women to listen and obey.

Again, this is not to just members of the Jewish race. It's not just to people who believe in the name of Jesus Christ. This is a message to Muslims, to Buddhists, to Hindus, to atheists, to agnostics, to everybody. He's not excluding anything. anybody he's saying listen to this this is wisdom crying out to you now my view is if you if you respond to wisdom you won't be a buddhist or hindu or an atheist or or whatever right because if you if you pursue wisdom wisdom's going to lead you to the cross because it's wise to be saved yes it's the wisest thing you'll ever do is that

humble yourself at the cross. Again, think of the tone of this call, this affectionate call to humanity, and compare it to the deceiving, destructive, tempting call of foolishness, of temptation. For blessed are they, keep my ways here's the promise yes you can walk to the bank with this one it is a promise of happiness and well-being for obeying keeping the ways of wisdom there is no excuse for people not to be blessed

for you not to be blessed it doesn't mean that you're not good there are a lot of good people who are not blessed you know why even though they're good even though they're good even though they love the lord they don't pursue wisdom and therefore they lack in their lives so the four in the beginning of this verse it is introducing the profound reason the ultimate reward for heeding wisdom's call and embracing her counsel blessed are they happy blessed means happy happy are they it speaks of the sermon on the mount in the new covenant Jesus said blessed are those wisdom says blessed are they happy right true comprehensive happiness in all aspects of life spiritual social physical financial financial emotional

emotional depressed people are not happy depressed people are not happy depressed people are not blessed i know depressed christians that's an oxymoran how can you be saved and be depressed how can you claim to know christ and walk around every single day year after year in a state of gloom and doom and depression how do you do it well i think for a lot of them rick they haven't been taught that Christians are supposed to be living in joy. So many have been taught that Christians are supposed to be unhappy. They're supposed to be mournful, that there's not supposed to be any kind of hope or anything. That's not the case at all.

Happy, happy, happy, happy. We serve a happy God. Amen. If you sit around all day long, thinking about your feelings and your emotions and you live in that carnal world where everything is external and somebody else has to make you happy

because see that's the problem with a lot of people their happiness comes from external stimulation and they think somebody else is responsible to make them happy I'd be happy if it wasn't for him I'd be happy if it wasn't for her no you you are to be happy because of Christ Does that mean there isn't somebody in your life causing it?

Of course it does. I mean, of course it could happen. But I'll tell you what, you get over into joy, it messes up their mind. They don't know what to do because you've got joy and you're not responding to whatever they were doing to you. Be filled with joy. So, blessed are they to keep my ways? okay that's a non-negotiable demand a non-negotiable condition to receive wisdom's blessings you keep her ways consistent obedience diligent application of wisdom's principles end of

discussion so there's a clear cause and effect relationship obedience to wisdom's principles is the guaranteed path to a life of profound blessings. So Christianity is not a life of austerity, deprivation, restriction, depression. Christianity is to be a life of happiness, of fulfillment, of blessings, of blessings. We've got to get back to this place of Christians being the happiest people on earth. The unsaved should be looking at Christians saying, what is it about them? Why are they always happy?

Why are they always singing? Why are they always rejoicing? Because they have Christ inside them. And they're blessed. They're happy. And when you pursue the ways of life, God happiness is one of your rewards we get to verse 33 hear instruction and be wise and refuse it not this is simple hear instruction with your ears hear it and then be wise

the words of wisdom are coming at you you let them go into your ear once they get in your ear it's now The ball's in your court. What do you do once the word gets in your ear? You be wise. Be wise. See, Christianity is being, not doing. Not do wise, be wise. Don't do salvation, be saved.

Don't do salvation. blessing, be blessed. Amen. If you get into the doing thing, you're always thinking you have to do something to acquire something. But Jesus is always teaching be. Be happy, be wise. And refuse it not. Hear instruction.

Hear instruction, be wise, refuse it not. The hear instruction is a direct, simple, powerful, imperative from wisdom, demanding that all humanity actively listen to and receive her counsel, her instruction. The instruction that's mentioned here is moral guidance, discipline, correction. All that is part of instruction. You know, when you go through spiritual discipline and correction, the right attitude to have should be, wow, my father loves me.

Yes. My father's paying attention to me. I'm being corrected. That means he loves me. Instead of bawling and crying and all kinds of emotional reaction that you're going through correction and discipline, you ought to be rejoicing, saying, my father in heaven loves me. How do I know? He's correcting me. Amen.

Glory to God. My Papa knows my name. My Papa is watching me. my papa is only correcting me because he loves me. Hallelujah. And if he loves me, I'm his child. And if I'm his child, I have everything that he has.

That's the right attitude to have. So there has to be a willingness to be taught, a readiness to be taught, a readiness to receive, receive instruction and a willingness to be disciplined the Lord's discipline is not cruel he doesn't beat you with club he doesn't put waltz on your back that's not discipline no that's cruelty that's abuse So there's a contrast with the proud, the foolish, who think that they know everything. They refuse to listen.

They refuse to follow the instructions. They believe that they are above the Bible. The Bible's an old book. It's been around thousands of years. who's wasting time reading an old book but it's not an old book it's a living book it's alive the words on those pages are alive it says and be wise it's one thing to listen but you have to then put it into practice and when you do you become wise the responsibility is on you and me to be wise wisdom doesn't on its own make you become wise wisdom instructs you on how to be wise

but it's not forced on you you have to choose to be wise it's it's simply a change of attitude change of mind almighty god my father i desire to be wise come holy spirit and teach me wisdom that i might be wise so that i might be a pleasure to you see now you're pleasing the father right because you've chosen to be wise you know i've been foolish too many years in my life i've been unproductive too many years now i've chosen to be wise and in heaven the father saying man we've got something happening down there let's go amen and you know what starts coming your way favor favor favor he's fanning the fire come on keep going i've been waiting for years for you to say these words you doubt me put it into practice just put it

practice watch what happens power wisdom has a power to transform your life wisdom has the ability the power to transform a simpleton into a wise man or woman amen and refuse it not in other words don't refuse it so the final segment of this verse is a urgent negative command refuse it not it's a warning against foolishness of willfully rejecting wisdom's counsel I mean this is this is a climatic wrap up of chapter 8 refuse it not if you know what's good for you don't refuse

wisdom don't refuse yeah if you know what's good for you don't refuse wisdom's counsel you'll suffer for it wisdom won't make you suffer your ignorance of wisdom

will cause you to suffer wisdom's not going around punishing anybody these are self-inflicted wounds when we willfully ignore or violate wisdom so the instruction to say to refuse it that that means

actively deliberately reject instruction from wisdom to turn your back on it to choose another path well the only other path is foolishness there's no middle ground there's only wisdom and foolishness there's no middle road there's no compromise between wisdom and foolishness you've got to have you got to be on one road or the other you can't put one foot on wisdom and one foot on foolishness that's going to be painful to try to walk like that yes because there's a big gap between those two you're going to have your legs spread wide open there's no way you can travel those two roads so rejecting wisdom is open rebellion against a life of blessing itself

When you, a person deliberately chooses to reject blessings. Man, that is a, that's the epitome of foolishness. Can you imagine? Wisdom standing on the street, standing on the intersections, that's crossroads, at the gates, at the doors. holding a sign free blessings would you stop if you saw a heavenly being holding a sign saying free blessings today i would be pulled my car over really fast saying hey what you got but wisdom must be perplexed every day humans driving pastor saying I'm not interested or even worse sticking their fist out the window saying get out of my place right not just refusing it but

rebelling against it yes I'm gonna do it my way well Frank Sinatra made a lot of money singing that song yes but how did it work out Frank I only got knows yeah only god knows i it's a nice song but the lyrics are wrong we should be doing it his way yes it had been nice if frank sinatra would have saying i did it his way but that's not how the song was written so the command should not refuse wisdom implies that the decision to reject wisdom is a personal culpable act as she has made herself available and so there's no excuse to deliberately reject wisdom and so this is the final plea to turn back from a path of foolishness before it's too late

verse 34 blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gates waiting at the post of my doors now we're back to the gates and the doors right now this this is the and you see this a lot in proverbs where you have what's called a counterpoint

proverb where you have a proverb and it's relating back to a proverb that was given in the past and it's like bookends and so if you go to chapter eight verse three you see wisdom and what's wisdom doing wisdom is crying at the gates at the entry of the city at the coming in at the doors that's wisdom coming to your place to your city to your city to your and now here's the counterpoint proverb blessed is the man that responds and comes to my gates comes to my doors seeking wisdom so wisdom has made the effort to make wisdom known but the blessing is when you respond to it and come to wisdom's gates and to wisdom's door so this verse is talking about a man or woman who recognizes the value of wisdom rejects foolishness doesn't wait

on wisdom to come to him or her but actively goes out seeking her knowing where she hangs out at the gates at the doorpost in other words this man or woman knows where to find wisdom and that person is blessed that person is happy happy is the man or woman that heareth me the true comprehensive happiness that's flourishing in all aspects of life the phrase that heareth me it establishes the primary essential condition for this blessing if you desire to be blessed which means happy you must hear wisdom not only listen with physical ears but you have to hear with your heart you have to receive internalize submit to wisdom's instruction now again let's look at the contrast with foolishness

what does foolishness promise destruction ruination shame wisdom excuse me wisdom calls out and temptation whispers wisdom calls out and says come and get it i've got blessings i've got happiness i have riches come and get it temptation whispers i have pleasure i have your basis carnal desires come and get it and i'll give you destruction and ruin and shame why doesn't temptation call out why does temptation whisper

what's part of the deceptive nature of temptation the whispers in the corners in the darkness in the still of the night whereas wisdom's out there when the sun comes up wisdom's out in the streets

as the traffic's going by. Wisdoms in the doorposts people are going to work. Wisdom's out in places of commerce and activity. But temptations in the corners. Temptations in the dark areas. And yet,

if our heart has anything in it that temptation can cling to, it will pool on you like a magnet yes so happiness fulfillment is not found in the pursuit of the world but in the pursuit of truth and so what we're being taught here is that a path a path of a life a life of blessing and a life of peace begins with a humble, teachable spirit. Lord, teach me wisdom.

I don't desire to be a fool. I desire to be wise. Teach me. You promised you would give wisdom to me liberally. I'm here. Feed me. And you have an absolute 100% guarantee. from God Almighty he will feed you with wisdom and bless you and make you happy in every aspect

of your life and Rick in a lot of ways this this is a reflection of the salvation call to the Lord's calling out in the public square he's calling on he's not a secret. God's calling out for you. He's he's mentioning you by name. He's calling for you to come and find wisdom. But there comes a point where you have to go to wisdom's gates, to wisdom's door. And that's the same in the salvation experience too. God is called forth. But you must come to the Lord. You must come to him. The invitation, if you will, I'm making an invitation. the invitation has been sent but an invitation is no good if you don't accept it and you don't take up the invitation on its offer you can say you're invited all day long but until you show up for the event it means nothing right that's right have you ever been invited to something and you didn't go well the invitation was good and then you hear later from people who went and they said man doc you missed you missed the most awesome event why weren't you there

because you didn't place value on the invitation yeah you had something else to do but many times wisdom in our life you know we can have various problems in our life it can be a physical health problem it can be emotional it can be relational can be financial there's all kinds of problems that we have and many times what we need is not a quote miracle from heaven to make that problem go away what we need is wisdom and god's trying to tell you if you just change this one thing you're doing in your life that problem would go away yes i've had health issues. Nothing major.

I'm not talking about hospitalization thing, but, you know, where I just, Lord, what is causing this? And I seek the Lord. And he gives me wisdom. And he says, you've got to change your diet. Get this out of your diet. Do this. Or give me instructions. Okay, I didn't have to go to, I didn't have to drive 500 miles and go to a healing meeting,

stand in line for two hours I just ask the Lord what is it Lord I desire this problem to go away and he gives me instructions he'll open up your mind and you'll realize there it is that's what's causing it

sometimes it's just a tweaking in your life a small thing I think about the the disciples they fished all night they didn't catch anything the morning comes there's jesus on the shore hey boys how's fishing it's horrible we fished all night we didn't catch one fish and what's jesus doing what's jesus doing on the shore he's cooking fish he's frying fish and he says hey i've got a suggestion take that net and drop it on the other side of the boat now first peter and the guys are

thinking we know how to fish oh look we're not novices we're professional fishermen i'm telling you we fished all night and we didn't catch one fish there ain't no fish there ain't no fish in this water right now but they didn't say that that's not how they responded that's how people would respond to others what did they do they obeyed his instruction now they might have been rolling their eyes as they did it dragging the net across the ship okay I'm going to do it for Jesus going to do it for Jesus not for anybody else I'll do it for Jesus and I'll show him I'll show him there's no fish

over here and logically when you think about it you know one side of the boat or the other what difference does it make right so that's the point in this in this story all they had to do

was slightly tweak their actions yes they didn't have to go to another sea they didn't have to buy another net they didn't have to get a bigger boat all they had to do was move the net from one side to the other. A small tweaking, a small alteration of what they had been doing for hours.

What they were doing for hours didn't work. Then Jesus gave them some wisdom. Move over to the other side. And guess what? They cost so many fish. They almost sank the boat. This is what I'm saying. This is how wisdom in our life that we don't need,

where we're going to God, you know, do this great miracle in my life. And he's saying, just go on the other side. I'll do the miracle if you just make this one little adjustment. That's what wisdom does for you. You don't need the lightning bolt. You don't need the miraculous thunders of a healing of it. Just move to the other side. do a minor tweaking alteration of what you've been doing but seek the lord let him give you that

instruction so watching daily at my gates we mentioned this a few minutes ago these the wise people are those who watch daily at whose gates wisdom's gates you're watching they're watching for what the appearance of wisdom we know she's going to be here she's always here at this gate this is where she hangs out we're going to get there before her we're going to be the first in line that's her gate that's her gate and they've got big smiles on their face when wisdom walks up to the gate in the morning what is this it's a diligent active consistent seeking of wisdom in the public spheres of life this isn't in a restaurant crouching down lord bless this meal i told doc about a my favorite my favorite relative outside of my immediate

family here's my great uncle grover He was the most God-fearing man in my childhood. And I told Doc, I said, when that, like at Thanksgiving, when Uncle Grover prayed over the Thanksgiving meal, even the turkey bowed its neck. He was a godly man and he didn't care. His voice carried the righteousness of his. life he was out in the open he was a successful business man very successful businessman in his city in today's i don't know what he he've been worth millions of dollars in today's money god gave him a successful business but he was always out there letting people know he

loved jesus christ i remember at his funeral and I was in my in my 30s and I was at his funeral and his pastor came to me and said I got to tell you something about your great uncle I said what's that he said well I would make pastoral house visits to him I'd go once a week every two weeks I'd make a point of going over to his house just to encourage him because Uncle Grover was up in his 90s and he was living alone his wife had passed away and he said i'd go over there to encourage him and he said you i guarantee it happened every time i said what's that pastor he said your uncle grover would get his bible out and teach me the word of god he said every time i'd leave his house saying he did it to me again he encouraged me i went there to encourage him and he flipped it on me and encouraged me praise god see he was a man watching daily at the gates I wish he were alive today

wish he were alive today wish I could talk to him and ask him about things but I now know what he would say Rick be at the gates be at the gates seek wisdom read the word seek wisdom apply it you can do what i did all i did was obey the bible so at my gates those are the city gates

the prominent places in the public sphere of commerce justice education social life trading retail everything those are her gates you are to beat whatever what what gate do you sit at You're sitting at one of those gates every day. You're either in trade, in business, or you're in education, you're in health. You're in something, you're in some form of relationship every day. That's your gate. You are to sit there waiting on wisdom, eagerly anticipating wisdom's arrival. You're watching daily at her.

gates gives you a different perspective about it now doesn't it yes that you are to take wisdom into the public sphere in your work in your civic duties in your business dealings in your education in your social interactions in the courtroom in the hospital every place take wisdom so the pursuit of wisdom is not a one-time event it's a continuous daily discipline that permeates all aspects of your life but the fools are void of understanding to be void is to be empty they're empty headed fools who is a fool anybody that has no wisdom in their head that's that's a simple definition of a simpleton a person who has no wisdom in their head and waiting at the post of my doors so they're watching at the gates

they're waiting at the post the post of doors at the door at the door post the gates are where you you enter into the city the post are where you enter into specific buildings right now you're entering into the college the high school the elementary school the hospital the doctor's office the police department you're entering into the buildings of human activity you are to take wisdom with you you're you're waiting at her doors see those are her doors they don't belong to the devil she's not wrestling with the devil the devil's not say hey that's my courthouse that's my school no wisdom says well the doors are mine And everybody that comes through this door must make a decision to be wise or be a fool.

Yes. Puts it in a different perspective now, doesn't it? When you cross the door, when you go through the door, you're making a decision. I'm coming in as an idiot or I'm coming in as a blessed, wise man or woman. Think about that the next time you go through a door. and you go to Walmart you go to the grocery store you're going through the doors wisdom's there those are her doors they're heard they're not they don't belong to Walmart they belong to wisdom those are her doors and she's checking see Walmart checks you as you come out

wisdom checks you as you go in wisdom's looking for the receipts before you go in I like that do you have the receipts have you paid the price to be diligent in seeking wisdom no I like that I really do but fools are reckless they're impulsive you see somebody that's impulsive they've got foolishness in them impulsive behavior they're not thinking through they're not they're not anticipating the danger of their impulsive acts what it could cause the danger it could cause them or others they're impulsive they're reckless first 35 for whoso findeth me find of life and shall obtain favor of the Lord. Again, we start with the word four, F-O-R.

It's a direct link linking verse 35 with verse 34. Those who are waiting at the gates and the doors, yes. And the doorpost. What did they get? for those who do those things they find me wisdom they find life and they obtain favor of the lord the promise that the successful outcome of life of diligently seeking wisdom is to receive this profound reward of receiving wisdom and the favor of God. Whoso findeth me.

That's speaking of the culmination of searching for wisdom. See, there's one thing to seek. That's the first thing you have to do. You can't find without seeking. But what's the point of seeking if you never find? where we're at now is the seeker has now found the bells are ringing i got it i located it i've been seeking i've got it and what do you get favor favor from the lord the lord favor signifies god's divine approval grace blessing goodwill and delight directly coming from your

heavenly father it's such a simple verse but it is so loaded with so much rick that so many people say, well, yeah, I serve God or I follow the Lord. I go to church or I follow this preacher or that preacher. But does anyone really seek the favor of the Lord? Does anyone really seek the approval of the Father? Really think about it. I mean, does anyone really, really seek the favor of the Father? And that's what wisdom is prying out here.

If you seek after me, you find that favor. Yes, that's what I hope we are doing here with these lessons. That we're stirring and motivating all of us, teachers and students, to truly seek the Lord, to seek his favor, his approval. But to seek him and to obey him, The primary reason is not to obtain his favor. The primary reason is to give him pleasure. Right.

If you make pleasing the Lord your primary objective and watch what happens, he'll load you with blessings. They'll hunt you down. The blessings of God will hunt you down. And we can get into a whole other series of lessons because there will be people who get jealous, who are envious. I can't help. I'm just blessed. They don't want to hear that because they don't want to pay the price to be blessed.

Because that means giving up their self. That means submitting. They're not interested in doing those things. They're just angry and jealous and envious that you're blessed. But so what? to say so what there's a great words so what

I've been saying that a lot lately so what things that used to upset me so what I don't care I don't care so what it's liberating to say so what

I've got a lot of phrases I've been saying lately that have been therapeutic to say I'm not perfect doc I have issues what

I do I have issues okay like I struggle at being patient with slow drivers I really do well they are slow

yes okay remember Florida is is a retirement state. And we have a lot of people who practice their retirement on the highway. And the sidewalks. And the sidewalks. Yeah, they're just retired.

Everywhere they go, they're retired. And I have to work at it, you know. I have to work at being patient with slow drivers. And what I've been doing, Doc, is I've been, when I get somebody that, it's always like, you know, I got the road to myself. You know, it's a two-leen road, and I got the road to myself. There's nobody in front of me and nobody behind me. And then all of a sudden, Gramps pulls out right in front of me

and drives 25 miles an hour on a 50-mile-an-hour road. Like, why didn't you just wait until I went past? Why did you have to do that? Okay, that used to upset me. But see, what I do now is I'm working on some inventions in my head. And while I think about these inventions, it helps me deal with this. It's like the one invention, Doc, is I've got a snowplow attached to my car. So I've got an imaginary snowplow.

And I just start thinking, okay, I'm dropping the snowplow down and I'm pushing this car over to the side. But that seems, I don't think. think that idea is going to work that's i don't know if i can market that it seems somewhat intrusive doesn't it so i've got another one i got another idea this one's much better attach a big crane arm on the roof of my car and it's it's mounted on a round pedestal that rotates 360 degrees and now when one of these cars get in front of me I just start moving the crane arm

and it comes and it has a large chain with a huge magnet on it and it just picks the car up and I swing them around and put them behind me and I set them down gently that that keeps me calm while I'm thinking about how to how to build that prototype so I'm I'm looking for investors I think the crane idea has has got potential what I'm going to say we all have

we all have issues okay God the Holy Spirit is working in all of us okay our lives change when we get serious about seeking his wisdom seeking his ways seeking his presence how to bless him how to make him happy what can i do today to make my father happy really you want to ask him that question guess what he'll answer he's got a list of things you could do that would make him happy today you know for some it would be stop being mean and ugly so some others put a smile on your face others let go of some of that money and bless some people who need help for somebody else

learn to encourage those who are depressed he's got suggestions for us for us others he'd say stop being judgmental he's got suggestions you ask him what can i do to make you happy oh i'm glad you ask let me tell you some things i see in you let's change them and that will make me happy are you willing to go there see but when you go there and you allow the holy spirit to work in your life the promise is favor favor the promise is absolute it's certain those who find wisdom and walk in her ways will without question receive god's favor and be welcomed into a closer relationship with their maker but the fools encounter the wrath of God.

If they continue down that path and refuse to change. Verse 36. What time we have? Oh, I got to hurry up. Verse 36. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. Ouch.

You hate God. You love death. but he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul the but see this is this is the stop sign we're cruising along they're pretty good we're talking about blessings in favor all of a sudden here comes the sign but stop pay attention here's the opposite of the blessing if you continue to deliberately sin against God in over a long term

you are damaging your own soul yes and how do we sin against wisdom by rejecting it by rejecting it So we start off chapter 8 here with wisdom crying out, seeking, seeking anyone who will listen. And yet we ended here with verse 36, you keep ignoring me, it's going to cost you your soul. Yes. Because he interprets long-term persistent rebellion as hatred towards him.

Yes. this isn't we're not talking about somebody you you backslide or you're tempted you're falling to sin or something going on in your life that's not what this is about this is about long-term persistent rebellion against god and god says the only way i can interpret this is you hate me how else can he see it if it the only way he can see it is you are rejecting me and the reason you're rejecting me is because you hate me it says all they that hate me what the scripture is saying is that there is a profound underlying attitude of those who choose foolishness it's not just passive ignorance or simple misunderstanding it's a deep internal

willful hatred of wisdom that is called rebellion and rebellion is what as the sin of which crime wherever there's rebellion there's stubbornness those two are twins you find a person who's stubborn bullheaded hard-headed

set in their way you'll find a rebel and that's a dangerous combination stubbornness and rebellion because usually what happens is that as the years go by people that that cultivate those two things stubbornness and rebellion they get deeper and deeper into they get set in their ways and then they reach a stage in their life where they can't get out of it they can't get out of it without a divine act of god in their life i mean something big and dramatic's got to happen he said they love death so you got to love something Dean Martin, everybody loves somebody.

Sometime. Sometime. So this is, everybody loves something, wisdom or death. Choose one. You can love wisdom or you can love death. There's no middle ground. Some people say, that's too dogmatic. No, I'm sorry.

that's what the word says you love wisdom or you love death so it death is the ultimate tragedy the terrifying consequence of hating wisdom again this is not ignoring wisdom this is not misunderstanding wisdom this is willful hatred of wisdom and that is that shows that shows up in people who are stubborn and rebellious. And you can see that in, I mean, you can go to the prisons and see people

who are stubborn and rebellious, and you can go to the halls of Congress and see people who are stubborn and rebellious. You can see it in universities. You can see it in the news media. You can see it in Hollywood. There are people. in every strata of life and every spear of life who are stubborn and rebellious and the bible says you are

choosing your loving death doesn't matter how rich you become how famous how powerful at the end you've loved death so we're told to find life those who pursue wisdom find life but those who reject wisdom love death you get you have two diametrically opposed outcomes but the ultimate destination of a life of foolishness is not just unhappiness and inconvenience but spiritual moral death because you willingly embraced foolishness A powerful warning. I mean, this proverb chapter 8 is ending

with the ultimate truth about the nature of a choice, a choice for foolishness or a choice of wisdom. And it's telling you in clear, unmistakable terms, to reject wisdom, is to love death. I don't know. What else could Proverbs say? It's expressing a bitter reality

that the pursuit of foolishness, the pursuit of sin is a suicidal act. You're committing suicide with your soul. Soul of Suicide. Okay, Doc, that's it. Wrap it up here for today. All right. We appreciate you being with us here

in this Tuesday edition of Morning Manna. And we encourage you join us again tomorrow, 8 a.m. bright and early on faith and values.com. And be sure to, if you ever miss any of the episodes of Morning Man, you can always check out the archived programs that we have on faith and values.com. And we're also available on a number of social media outlets. including places like Rumble and YouTube and X and just about everywhere you can imagine and so you can check us out in a lot of different places

and we appreciate if you help us share that information with others if this has been a blessing to you maybe it'll be a blessing to someone else as well all right Rick any final words before we sign off for this Tuesday edition that's it for today see you tomorrow all right God bless you everyone we'll see you on day.