Pastor Mike at JBC started a 10 week series on Wisdom. It is going to be an awesome series if they are all are as good as tonight’s introductory sermon to the series. Wisdom is probably my favorite topic to study in the Bible because there are so many blessings attached to having wisdom. The Bible also talks about the fool, the person who is short on wisdom, and the consequences that the fool experiences in his life. Wisdom is like gold, it doesn’t jump up and bite you when you walk by, if you want it you have to seek it diligently. When my Dad was alive he had a gold claim in Southern Oregon, and he and I would work it about 10 days a year in order to keep it, and of course to find gold. This was back in the day when gold was $35 an ounce. We would run a little portable dredge for hours in the creek where our claim was, sucking up dirt, gravel and sand off of the bottom of the creek into our sluice box. Then we would empty the contents that were in the sluice box into a five gallon bucket and sit in the creek on a rock and pan the sand and gravel in the bucket for hours looking for little bitty flakes of gold. With each pan of gravel out of the bucket, after carefully swirling it around in the pan we would get a couple of flakes of gold, and then we would pick it out with tweezers and put it into a pill bottle. We usually got a couple of ounces in our 10 days of back breaking labor. It was a lot of work for $70, I did it mostly to be with my Dad, but I also enjoyed the challenge of finding something so allusive.

Proverbs 3:13-15 How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her.

My Dad used to say, “just because you get old doesn’t mean you get wise, there are a lot of old fools running around.” Wisdom is everywhere to be found, but only those who seek it diligently will find it.

With wisdom we will make right choices in life, with wisdom we will say just the right words at the right time, with wisdom we can solve problems that come into our life, with wisdom we can make good use of our time, with wisdom we manage our money perfectly, with wisdom we will raise good kids, with wisdom we will have a good marriage, and with wisdom we will influence people positively. Do a little self-examination, and ask yourself how much wisdom you really have. Another quote from my Dad, “The worst kind of fool is one who is one and doesn’t know it.”

A good way to start your diligent search for wisdom would be to attend services at JBC this next 10 weeks, listen to Pastor Mike, and learn how to seek it. You can also listen to the series on our pod cast or go to our web site, jbc.church and under sermons you will find it.

Relationships grow close and intimate with good communication. Talking to another person or to a group of people in such a way that they are truly taught, motivated, blessed with joy, and feel loved is a skill that we can develop, or not.

Proverbs 16:23-24 The heart of the wise instructs his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips. Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Most learn their communication skills from the people they grow up with, their peers, and television. Some have been blessed with good models who have gracious speech and good communication skills, but most have not. Speech in a culture without purposeful and strategic work to improve will gradually deteriorate in clarity, that is it won’t communicate clearly so others can understand the message, it will lose it’s power to influence, and the quality of relationships will suffer.

Nothing has the power to knit people together in real unity that results in joy as much good communication does. When we can clearly share our needs, our struggles, our pain and disappointments others are moved to support and encourage us. When we paint pictures with our words of our dreams, our desires, and our goals others are inspired to help us. When we speak words that give grace to those who are hurting they are drawn to us. When we stir and inspire others to growth and greater accomplishment with our timely encouragement they will value us.

Many relationships, marriages, families, and friends struggle, and are filled with conflict, hurt feelings, lack of joy, feelings of being misunderstood, unappreciated, and unloved because of poor communication skills.

Wisdom in communication comes to the person who seeks it diligently. It comes to those who seek it humbly from those around them who obviously have this skill. To those who read good books on how to “win friends and influence people”. It especially comes to those who, when they have relational struggles assume the blame for having communicated poorly, selfishly, rudely, or hurtfully, and diligently work at improving by learning the skills of good communication.

My wife Patty has about 18 chickens, and she likes her chickens, I can’t figure out why but she does. The fence around our chicken yard is getting old, tired, and it sags a lot, sounds like me! So it doesn’t do a very good job keeping chickens in so we have chickens wandering around our house, in the yard, in the drive way, and occasionally I find one in my shop. They mostly all go into the chicken coup at night finding their way back into the fenced chicken area. I have been promising to replace the fence, but I have successfully found other projects to keep me busy, and have procrastinated on the chicken fence. Every night the last thing I do is sit in my sauna, and nice and hot and relaxed I jump into bed. Last night I went out the back door of our bedroom to the back porch to get into the sauna and there was a chicken who had not found her way back into the chicken coup roosting on our back porch. As I went out the door I tripped over her sending the chicken into a frenzy and startling me out of my wits. So tonight I was looking for and pricing chicken fencing. As I was looking at the cost of the fencing and the time it was going to take, and the cost of the chicken food, I thought, I bet the eggs we get off these stupid chickens cost ever bit as much as eggs at winco. As I was working myself up onto a lather over these stupid chickens I thought, “Patty didn’t get to excited about my boat building project and complain that fish in the grocery store probably cost way less than the ones I brought home. Or the deer and elk hunting trips and the lack of venison in our house. Yep, I think it would be a good idea to let Patty have her chickens, and I will get that fence fixed this next week for sure.

I went and had one of those body fat, muscle, water analysis done today. This was a fairly expensive piece of equipment that did the measuring and calculations, not like those bathroom scale contraptions. The results were a bit discouraging as I saw how much of my body is fat. The Word has an ugly sound when you say it, doesn’t it? Fat ! Yuk, sounds terrible. I don’t know if discouraging is really the right word, because now I am highly motivated to get rid of that ugly word, fat! Maybe a better word would be deflated. I thought I was a macho tough guy, and come to find out I am nothing but a Pillsbury dough boy! Oh well, I guess I better get with the exercising and the dieting even more seriously than I have been, though I have been doing pretty good for a week. I guess this part of my life is just like the spiritual part, it is long term endurance that spells success, not short term endurance. Short term endurance isn’t even endurance, just temporary success that does nothing. Lots of people start well in their walk with Christ, but only a few finish well. Most drift away from total devotion to Christ because they get entangled in the world, they get weary, they get discouraged or they get just plain old lazy. Hebrews 12 says “run the race with endurance”, I intend to do that. Three key things will keep me from drifting away; (1) fear of falling away because of the ease of doing it and the eternal consequence at the Judgment Seat of Christ if I do, (2) Regular self-examination of my attitude, use of time, and faithfulness to the basic disciplines of the Christian life, and (3) good friends who will encourage, motivate, and reprove me when I need it.

A leader is an influencer of other people. Last night Clemson won the national college football championship behind the leadership and skill of their Freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence. It was a very fun game to watch as Clemson outplayed Alabama most of the game. Today I listened off and on to interviews and sports talk programs about the game and read a number of articles about it as well, and one of the things that came up repeatedly was Trevor Lawrence’s faith in Christ as his personal Savior. He has become a legend in the football world very quickly, and has a huge platform from which to influence people in regards to their faith in Christ, and he seems to be taking advantage of the attention he is getting in order to bring attention to his Lord. It is always so encouraging to me to see someone being a positive witness for Christ. As Christians we are commanded and commissioned to be a witness for Jesus, but very few do much to purposefully influence others towards faith in Jesus. Winning the National Football Championship would certainly make it easier to be a witness in the sense of people wanting to hear From you, but many a sports winner has been ridiculed and made fun of because he dared be a witness for their savior, so it takes courage to identify with Christ and speak up for Him. I think most people are timid about their being a witness because of the fear of what people may think. I pray for every person who attends JBC every week by name, and one of the prayer requests I make to God on behalf of each person is that God would give them the courage to be an effective witness for Him. I will keep praying this request for every person every week.

Tonight we had a dozen guys over to our house to watch Clemson stomp Alabama for the National Championship in College football. We had a great time with 10 rooting and cheering for Clemson, and 2 for Alabama. Everyone brought food with barbecued ribs being my favorite by far, and there was pizza, Paddington’s Pizza, taco’s, fried chicken, barbecued chicken, chips and dip, cheese salami and crackers, and a cooler full of Soda Pop. The food was great, the game was fun to watch and the fellowship was awesome. As I sat enjoying the company and fellowship, the game and the food, I thought I wonder if this kind of thing had existed during the time of Jesus, if he would attend and be part of something like this. Then I thought of the party that Levi threw for Jesus when he became a disciple of Jesus after responding to the invitation that He gave to follow Him and be trained as an evangelist in Luke 5:27-30,

“After that Jesus went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.

And Levi gave a big party for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”

So I think Jesus would have come to my football Party, but it would have been with a very clear purpose, to influence people to follow Him as their Lord. Life lived with no clear compelling purpose is like a dog chasing his tail. So many people just live life as a victim, with no clear eternal purpose that gives them zeal and passion, and a great sense of worth and value.

My life purpose is to please the Lord in all I say and do, to serve the Lord and to do His will, and to influence as many people as I possibly can to be growing, fully devoted followers of Jesus. Every morning I declare my purpose out loud, present my life to Jesus as His servant, and ask for His guidance, strength and wisdom.

Today and last night 20 of those in the Leadership classes that I teach gave a 5 minute testimony about goal setting and about a few of their favorite goals for the year. They were very inspirational and those in JBC who were in the audience responded with great praise. Teaching these classes is the most rewarding thing I do as a Pastor, because the growth in the lives of these men and woman is so obvious. These kind of days when 20 of them all get up and share in such a clear and humble way makes me incredibly proud of them and thankful to be part of the reason for their growth. I pray extra for those in my classes that they will become champions for Jesus, and that they wont lose what they have gained and grown to become.

Men’s breakfast at JBC was this morning at 7 am. There was 121 guys there, and it was a great time of eating, fellowshipping, and hearing a motivational message from Jeff Carter on being “Strong”. I had fasted the previous 36 hours as part of my goals of fasting 36 hours once a week so I only ate a small helping of scrambled eggs and 6 pieces of bacon, and it tasted so good😀

As I walked around saying Hi to everyone, chatting, and introducing myself to the guys I didn’t know or had forgotten their name since the last time I had seen them, I thought what a good ministry and monthly event this is. Guys need good friends, but often the responsibilities and pressures of life crowd out “friend time”. Men are often “self-sufficient”, and don’t realize how important this kind of time is for inner renewal, or they just don’t want to admit that they need it. As I sat eating with some friends, listening to the message, and then hanging out afterwards I said a little prayer in my mind, “Thank You Lord, for the very special blessing that I have of so many very good, and close friends, this truly is a major source of joy in my life”!

Some might think that the reason that I have so many friends, not just close acquaintances, but guys who help me in a jamb, go fishing with me, pray for me, and spend time just talking about life, God, and goals, is because I am the Pastor. But I know lots of Pastors who have very few friends, close friends, real friends. I think the reason I have many friends is because I put a very high value on the role friends have in my life, and I in theirs. I know without a doubt that because of my friends I have much more joy in my life than I would have without them. I have a healthy soul because of the part they play in my life of giving me God’s grace as a source of strength and stability. Men who have lots of healthy relationships with other men is because they choose to, they look for friendships and they are friendly.

I had a much longer “todo” list today than normal for me. That happens on Fridays often because I have all these things that I put on my list all week long and didn’t get them done. Reminds me of when I was a kid growing up on the farm. Anything that we didn’t finish off for dinner each night went in the refrigerator and then all of it went into a stew for Friday night, so the motto at dinner was. “What you don’t eat tonight you will eat on Friday”. Well that was my day today, stew. I never minded stew on Friday as a kid, it usually tasted pretty good, and I like stew now, but I don’t like a “stew todo” list. But they were important things on the list, so how do we make this a fun and interesting day instead of boring. Cleaning up my shop was one of the items on my list, and it was on my list every day this week but I never did it, because it is a tedious and boring activity. So I decided I would do it in 15 minute blocks of time, and in between the block of 15 minutes I would do something that was fun and challenging. I had several other tedious, boring jobs on the list that I had rolled back all week long so I was spending most of the day alternating between the “Do I have to do this” jobs, to the “wow, this is fun” jobs, or goals. A major principle of time management is that most of our wasted time in a day happens during the transitions from one job to another, because momentum is lost and needs to be regained every time we switch activities. So, switching activities may be more interesting, but it has potential to be a huge time waster kind of day. As I thought about this during my second 15 minute block of time activity, I decided that when I finished my 15 minutes of drudgery in the shop I would run to the location of the next thing on my list, and the running to the next job would help me get myself in 4th gear quickly. It actually worked quite well, but I did have to resist the urge to drive to fast when a couple of times the next thing on my list required that I change locations to my office or a trip into Albany for a meeting, and then a few items at Sportsman’s Warehouse , and Home Depot😀.

One of the things that I teach when I teach goal setting is that you want a couple of B-HAG’s (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), to stretch you, get you out of your comfort zone, and to add some energy to your life, but is also good to have a couple of goals that will be quick wins so that you get motivated to keep pursuing the rest of them. I had written several that I anticipated that I would put in the win column fairly soon, and I did, but one I expected to be a grind, and a possible loser, has turned out to be a big win, at least in the first 4 days. It probably isn’t really a valid win because there is so much time to go before I am a conqueror, but I am super excited by the early success anyway. So far I have lost 7 pounds on my diet goal!!!🤪 My goal was to lose 1 lb by now, 1/4 pound per day. I know, I know, I can hear you say it, it is just water loss. Listen, if you are going to be involved in helping me accomplish my goals you need to be positive and encouraging even if you know it is bogus loss. I am so stoked right now I know I am going to conquer this one. I haven’t really been doing any real hard dieting, just eliminated sugar, flour, potatoes, and rice and I am staying conservative on my portions. So my goal was 37 lbs, and Now it is 30 lbs, super. Another one of my goals was to fast 36 hours straight once each week, and I haven’t done that one yet, so I am anticipating that I will pick up an extra pound of loss when I do that one tomorrow. Actually, official start time is 7:00 pm tonight and then I will eat breakfast at “Men’s Breakfast” at JBC Saturday morning. Great way to break a fast, 15 pieces of bacon and scrambled eggs!!😀😀