The Value of Wisdom // Wisdom That Works, Part 3

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Most investments yield a return during the good times. But when the storm clouds roll in - a global financial crisis for instance, they fall in a heap. What you and I need is an investment that, sure - has a return in the good times, but delivers its greatest return during the tough times. That’d be worth its weight in gold!

Have you ever thought of the concept of making a wise investment? I mean why do people make investments? Why do they take they're hard earned cash and buy shares in a company or build their own little enterprise or buy an investment property?

Why? Well not so much for the fun of it, people make investments in order to achieve a return. On the stock market the price of shares in a particular company, they go up and they go down according to the markets perception of the return that they can make on their investment in that company.

So if the company has a good profit growth forecast and the industries segment has a good outlook, the share price goes up. Why? Because people buy into that stock so they'll reap the reward. But if there's a down grading in the profit outlook, if there are storm clouds on the horizon for that particular industry sector the price goes down as people sell out to avoid making a loss.

And when the whole economy comes crashing down, well it doesn't matter what we're invested in pretty much we lose out either in the capital value or the return or, as often the case, both. That's the way of the world.

But it's not Gods way. God has an investment that we can make in the good times, that pays dividends in the tough times. In fact that's the whole point of this particular investment. And that's what we're going to chat about on the program today.

On Monday we kicked off a new series of messages, 20 in all so it's a four week series called, "Wisdom That Works". Intuitively we all kind of know that wisdom's a good thing, we all would like to have some more of it and so you can ask yourself, why is it that we're not all as wise as can be? Why is it that we're not all full to overflowing with the wisdom of Solomon?

Well the answer is simple. Because like any investment wisdom requires a sacrifice. If I invest some of my hard earned cash in this company or that on the stock market then the point is that I can't use that money to buy things that I would like to have today. Instead it's locked away, hopefully because it will earn me a good return. That's the concept of investing. Sacrificing now so that we can benefit later.

And it's the same with wisdom. But the mistake that we often make with wisdom is that we imagine that it's just about having the knowledge and the experience and the principles. All those things are necessary but they don't become wisdom until we put them into action, until we live them out.

That's when we demonstrate that we have wisdom. So back to this question, why is it that we're not all living virtuous lives and reaping the harvest of our wisdom? Because we haven't bought into it. And when do we buy into a company? When we think we'll get a return.

The problem for most people is that they don't perceive a return on the investment, the up front sacrifice when it comes to this precious commodity that we call wisdom. So today, today we're going to look at what accountants and the economists call ROI, the return on investment.

It's a wise thing for me to do to invest in relationships and to forgive people but there's a cost to do that because sometimes I want justice in a relationship and they've done wrong and sometimes I'm too tired and I couldn't be bothered. Here's a practical example.

So being wise, living out what I know is right requires an up front investment. There's a cost and the thing that's going to motivate many a person to be honest is not so much doing right, it's the return on investment. ROI is a powerful motivator.

So lets dive into the Book of Proverbs, Solomon’s advice to his young sons and lets see what it says about the ROI on the investment of wisdom. Proverbs chapter 1 beginning at verse 20:

Wisdom cries out on the streets. In the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out. At the entrance of the city gate she speaks. How long o simple ones will you love being simple? How long will you scoffers delight in your scoffing and how long will fools hate knowledge?

Give heed to my reproof. I'll pour out my thoughts to you, I'll make my words known to you because I've called to you and you've refused. Have stretched out my hand and no one heeded. And because you have ignored all my council and would have none of my reproof I also will laugh at you in your calamity.

I will mock you when panic strikes you. When panic strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you then you will call on me but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently but they won't find me because they hated knowledge and didn't choose the fear of the Lord.

Would have none of my council, despised all of my reproof therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices. For waywardness kills the simple and the complacency of fools destroys them but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease without dread of disaster.

I love the old Hebrew writings and the way they use picture language and here we have this picture of wisdom as a person calling out to us in the middle of life. "She's standing on the street corner, she's stretching out her hand but everyone walks by and ignores her, they're too busy with life." Doesn't that just hit the nail on the head?

Yesterday we looked at Solomon's advice to his sons about, well about the company they keep. Keep bad company and those people will lead you astray and it will cost you a lot of pain. That's it in a nutshell. So times were good and his sons had the choice, we can either listen to dad, we can take his advice, we can turn away from our bad company or we continue hunting with the pack.

Wisdom is something that is so often comes to us when the times are good, where the economy is buoyant, when the returns are strong. She cries out to us, she stretches out her hand but we ignore her because we're too busy enjoying the good times.

So we have a choice, we either act on the advice and live out the wisdom of God in the good times, when it appears that we don't even need His wisdom, when it appears we don't need to make a sacrifice. We either do it then or we don't and the whole point of wisdom is that we need to act on it in the good times. It's like a foundation, it's an investment in order to reap the reward in the bad times.

That's when the ROI comes, that's when we get the return on investment, that's when wisdom comes into it's own. Let me say that again, wisdom is the one investment that we can make that delivers a dividend in the tough times. All the other investments come crashing down in the tough times but it's the dividend of wisdom that stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Listen again to what Solomon had to say. Proverbs chapter 1, verse 32:

For waywardness kills the simple and the complacency of fools destroys them but those who listen to me will be secure and live at ease without the dread of disaster.

So wisdom either helps us to avoid the bad times as in the case of Solomon’s advice to his sons about keeping bad company, or when the bad times hit, which hey, let's face it, they inevitably do don't they? We don't want bad times to hit but they do. In those bad times wisdom pays dividends. Security amidst the tempest of life.

It's like putting away some savings today so that we can have some spare cash on a rainy day. Bad choices inevitably lead to bad outcomes and bad consequences. Wise choices, living in the wisdom of God, they pay dividends. Now it may not lead to the perfect outcome we had planned in our heads but wisdom pays dividends, huge dividends in the tough times.

This is wisdom that works.