Behaviors of the Wise | Preston Morrison | Gateway Church

this weekend we are coming to a part of this series that I've been looking forward to two weeks ago we talked about the way of the fool last week we kind of built a bridge between the way of the fool and this weekend we're talking about the behaviors of the wise the behaviors of the wise now this was a little bit of a crazy week we had our pastors conference in Dallas 4000 pastors from all over the world in town in Dallas and so it's a it's a pretty crazy week so I didn't I wasn't able to get your fill in the blank notes there's still some really strong one-liners in this message and so if you if you get frustrated because you can't keep up don't tune out just go back and listen to it and slow it down and write it down because there are some really strong liners in this message I just wasn't able to get them to the printing company in time with what went on this week and let me just kind of calibrate your thinking a little bit this message is a leadership message all right so if you are called as a leader if you feel like you're a leader and if you aren't aware of this fact every follower of Jesus Christ is called to be a leader just letting the cat out of the bag okay I know we call ourselves followers and we are called followers but in God's kingdom followers are called to be leaders we followed the capital L leader and every single one of us no matter what we do in this life we are called to lead to expand the boundaries of God's kingdom and the week of the pastors conference things kind of go the same way for me every year where I grew up a gateway in Dallas I've told you before I was 21 when I got hired there the church was you know 6070 people now it's about 35 36 thousand and just an amazing work God has done there but every year the pastors conference I sit down with a lot of pastors from churches all over it and they I know this they don't really care about me they just want to know what I've learned over the last 20 years watching Gateway go from nothing to something so big and so I tell a lot of stories and and I share a lot of the things that I've over the last 20 years having a front row seat and it kind of dawned on me these are some of the most valuable things I own the lessons that I've learned and the same is said of you some of the most valuable things you own in life are the lessons God has taught you through some difficult seasons in life and so I want to share some of these things and there are all attached to the book of Proverbs I want to walk you through these five behaviors so take really good notes if especially if you are an emerging leader a younger leader you really need to take good notes because you you have a lot of time on the horizon and the sooner we can learn godly wisdom the better things will go in the long run so take great notes all right here's the first behavior scripture says this is not in any order but the first behavior we're gonna talk about that the Bible says wise people are really good at point number one the Bible says wise people are quiet wise people are quiet one of the things I have learned in leadership is the person who talks the most is never the person who knows the most but have you ever have you ever just kind of watched the person who talks the most they kind of think they're the one that knows the most you know but I timed time again I have been reminded of this truth the person who talks the most is never the person who knows the most listen the way proverbs says it in chapter 17 verse 28 even fools are thought wise when they keep silent with their mouths shut they seem intelligent everybody thinks you're an expert until you open up your mouth and prove otherwise yeah here's the best way I can chemistry the way I've learned it's kind of like baseball talking is like baseball in this way the more you talk the lower your batting average the less you talk the higher your batting average in our elders group in Dallas one of my dearest friends Dennis Lee sixties he never talks in the elders meetings and there are people who talk constantly in the elders meetings and I've learned the people who talked the most are rarely listened to the most because there's just too many words coming out of their mouth but then my friend who never talks something funny happens every time he goes to speak it's like everybody leans in and treats him like EF Hutton okay why because his words are more valuable because he saves them more well let me say it like this when you've learned the habit of silence you have learned the value of words if I gave to one of my children one of my credit cards and I said to them hey use this whenever you need it and let's say my daughter Riley took the card and maxed out the card that has a $20,000 credit limit what would we call Riley well I would call her a few things I can't tell you on this stage probably but what would we say about Riley if she did that here's what we'd say she doesn't understand the value of the money okay then what do we call an adult who talks way too much an adult who does not understand the value of words just let that sink in for a second if you're a little bit Chatty Cathy okay words are powerful and when we use too many of them we are cheapening the value of them proverbs 10 verse 19 says too much talk leads to sin be sensible preston and keep your mouth shut it's a great advice right there and here's one of the things that I learned growing up in such an incredible room filled with some of the best leaders in the body of Christ I didn't have a vote and I didn't have a voice and here's what I learned the best time to speak is after you hear God speak listen I think some of us have convinced ourselves that our perspective and our wisdom is more impressive than it actually is people don't need my opinion perspective wisdom you know what they need they need to hear God speaks through me and some of the most powerful moments when I've opened my mouth have come after hearing God's speak first listen we need to get better as followers of Jesus Christ as those who wait to speak until spoken to and I'm not talking about by the CEO in the room at the table I'm talking about the God of the universe we need to be known as people who speak only after we hear God speak first a wise person is quiet a wise person doesn't have few words they simply know how and when to use them here's the second thing the Bible says about the wise and their behavior it says wise people are humble wise people are humble proverbs 11 verse 2 pride leads to disgrace but with humility comes wisdom humility and wisdom go hand in hand wisdom and humility go hand in hand when you walk in humility you will walk in wisdom now what's the big deal about not walking in humility it's very simple I'd say it like this when I'm not humble I can't get help when I'm not humble I can't get help and when I don't get help I always get hurt we have got to get better at humbling ourselves so that we can get the help that we need I have said many times that humility was one of the the things I struggled most with in my early years in ministry I mean I was jacked up jacked up okay and I was a young kid in ministry sitting down with Pastor Robert and and I said some of the most ridiculous things on the planet I remember one time he sat me down the church was still really small and he said I'm hiring an executive pastor for student ministry who is going to be your boss I the youth pastor at the time I thought that should be my job so I had an attitude about it and here's what I said to him well I sure hope that this guy is one of the three best youth pastors in America because I just can't see myself learning from anybody but them can you even believe you go to church here like who talks like that who-who says something that foolish I'll tell you who talks like that an incredibly insecure man who was deathly afraid of being found out that he had no idea what he was doing I had 75 kids in the youth ministry max what was my mouth doing running itself talking about why I can only learn from three of the best youth pastors in America he should have fired me on the spot but God who is rich in mercy and grace alright how many of you are grateful for that verse right there yeah I can't tell you how many times I have needed to leverage that in a moment where I should have been fired one of the things though that I really struggled with was I felt like I was called to lead I was called to do all these things and and here's one of the things I had as a problem that I see consistently with younger leaders who feel called to do big things they're always in a hurry they're always in a hurry and here's what I would say to any young leader who feels called but it is trying to rush God's timeline go back and read how the Israelites walked around the wilderness the Bible says when the cloud would move the Israelites would pack up and follow it in other words they only moved when God did okay listen one of the greatest evidences of humility for a leader is a willingness to wait your turn a willingness to wait and I'm gonna read you a verse that the Lord used to really knock me down a bunch of pegs in my early 20s proverbs 25 verse 7 it is better to wait for an invitation to the head table than to be sent away in public disgrace this verse is one of the most important verses in my life because I was in such a hurry to get to the head table and there were several times where I literally in immaturity and ignorance pulled up a chair at the head table and was publicly disgraced I'll tell you one such moment I remember the first time a gateway in Dallas was still small and pastor Robert was preaching somewhere else and it was the first time he left me in charge over the services and so I had to do oversight and pastor Jimmy Evans at the time an apostolic elder the Apostolic elder of Gateway church he was preaching for us and so back then we used to sit on the stage and when I found out that it was communion weekend and I was doing oversight and pastor Jimmy was in town and Robert had just told me he was bringing another guy to be my boss and I was mad about it and I was as arrogant and ignorant as all get-out so here's what I said to the Lord it's communion weekend I'm about to the Grand Slam this weekend I mean this is just sitting on a tee this is a low-hanging fruit God Jimmy Evans is here this weekend he is going to walk away from the service talking about how I did communion this weekend again can't even believe you go to church here I'm a literally saying to the Lord I'm gonna just kill this communion so ridiculous so sitting on the stage I'll never forget it I've got the cup I've got the bread and I walk towards the center of the stage to lead the church in communion in the first of several services Jimmy sitting on the stage and I kid you not I stood up to walk from the chair to the middle and in between those two places my mind became like mush I still to this day believe it was a spirit of a little bit of crazy number one but confusion for sure and so I stood up and I start you know giving the walk up to communion and awhile I'm doing and I'm having a conversation in my own head and here's what I'm saying to myself oh shoot which one comes first the bread or the cup the cup or the bread the bread of the cup the cup of the bread which one comes first and now I've got to make a decision okay because the the the walk-up is done and so I gotta just pick one so which one do you think I pick the cup we all know the bread comes first except for this fool in that moment who I'm convinced God put his hands over my head and went watch this one and so I am blessing the cup okay in front of the whole church pastor Jimmy is on the stage and it dawns on me the bread was supposed to go first so here's the new conversation I'm literally having with myself in my head okay I am pretty sure this is a really sharp Church theologically they know the bread goes first they know I screwed up so they probably took the bread first and not the cup because they know they're supposed to take the bread first so I'm gonna bless the cup again and so I did and about halfway through blessing the cup again I notice that everyone is getting ready to take the bread because they've already taken the cup and now what do you do you just go down with the ship like a fool so I had everyone stand and I'll never forget I turned around to go walking next to pastor Jimmy and I will never forget the look on his face he was in utter disbelief needless to say he still to this day talks about what I did in communion that day I got what I wanted but when I got it I didn't want what I got but it is isn't it amazing I pulled up a chair a seat at the head table because I thought just because eventually I feel called to that table that I should sit there right then and here's what God did in His mercy and grace he pulled the chair out from beneath me and he let me fall on my behind in front of everybody why because he wanted to embarrass me no because I needed to learn how dangerous pride was listen here is why pride is so dangerous because it sees God as a competitor God has no rivals when I walk in pride it becomes easy to be convinced that I don't need him to do what I'm doing but when we walk in humility isn't it amazing that God's Word says I will exalt those people I will lift those people up who walk in humility why because wise people walk in humility here's the third thing the wise do the wise are teachable the Bible says the wiser teachable proverbs 13 verse 10 pride leads to conflict those who take advice are wise okay let's just think about this as followers of Jesus Christ everywhere Jesus went he taught do you not think he was trying to make a little bit of a statement like hey this is what my followers do they learn I don't know if you know this but the word disciple means learner that is a follower of Christ I am called to be a learner constantly Jesus taught everywhere it went okay so if Jesus is known for being the teacher his followers better be known as being teachable but see I think a lot of us are afraid to be teachable because it looks bad see we think you're either the teacher or you're teachable that is so untrue the best teachers I know are some of the most teachable people I know the worst teachers I know are the ones who think they know it all and there's nothing more to learn listen a teacher like that can't teach me very much because I don't want to know what they know I don't want their knowledge I want wisdom and wisdom is constantly growing knowledge has a ceiling okay listen we need to be teachable let me show you just really quickly four marks of a teachable spirit because this is something especially for the younger people I want you to understand this is something that can open incredible doors for you in life and leadership all right let me give you four marks of a teachable spirit here's the first one a teachable spirit a teachable person admits they don't know the first mark of a teachable spirit you admit you don't know why is it that when my wife and I are driving somewhere I've never been and she says to me do you know where you're going I take it to mean that she is calling me an utter foolish failure in life and so something comes on me and I respond with this tone like of course I know where I'm going woman why because there's something deep down and insecurity that I'm afraid to admit I don't know okay listen the wisest people you will ever meet are the fastest to admit they don't know when they don't know it is not a sign of weakness to admit you don't know it's actually a sign of wisdom the first mark of a teachable person as you admit when you don't know the second mark of a teachable spirit asking questions someone who's teachable asks a lot of questions the question is one of the most powerful things on earth we don't use them enough we're far too busy making statements when God created us to ask questions a teachable person asked questions third mark of a teachable spirit answers excite them when they find an answer they've been searching for they run around like a giddy schoolgirl a giddy schoolboy I found it I found the answer that's how you treat wisdom when you find it you treat it like the pearl that it is and then here's the fourth one and probably the most important a teachable person applies immediately they apply everything they learn immediately remember we talked last week a spiritually mature person is not someone who knows the Bible a spiritually mature person is someone who applies the Bible a teachable person applies truth immediately here's one of the big things I've learned that the most teachable people I know are most liked by the wisest people I know the most teachable people I know are most liked by the wisest people I know why is that the case because a teachable person treats everything you have learned as valuable they they treat it like the value like like the prize that it is and so they want to give more of it let me explain it like this if after the service I walked up to you in the lobby and handed you a hundred dollar bill and your response was this thanks do you think you would get a dime from me after that let me help you out no but if I handed you five dollars you started running around the lobby like you just won the lotto you think you might get a couple bucks out of me after that you better believe it why because you appreciated what I gave you and you showed me you saw it as a valuable okay listen I hear this all the time from younger leaders how do I get him into her how do I get him into her let me help you stop walking by wisdom every day of your life stop walking by it you're surrounded by wisdom we have people at this church who have spent decades following after God who have incredible wisdom from things they learned by making mistakes and going through hard times and every time we do meet-and-greet they're all around you why would God give you a new mentor that you've been begging him for if he sits you next to one and you don't even talk to him listen the sooner you adopt a teachable posture the sooner God will flood your life with anointed teachers wise people are teachable here's the fourth behavior of the wise they walk with the wise wise people walk with the wise let me show you one of the greatest overlooked promises in the scripture proverbs 13:20 walk with the wise and become wise not take a thousand tests and become wise not study for a thousand years and become wise walk with the wise and become wise look at the other side of that coin though associate with fools and get in trouble okay I here's what proverbs 13 is saying to us there's such a thing as spiritual osmosis anybody know what osmosis is let the kid who got a D in science in high school explained try and explain what osmosis is okay osmosis is a molecular thing it's when two things next to each other one has more of something the other has less of something and the one with more bleeds some of what it has into the one that has less and then they become like this equal okay that that is a D students version of osmosis right there but here's here's what this means practically and spiritually for us as followers of Jesus if we just will walk with the life we will become wise how is that even possible if you're taking notes write this one liner down when you walk with the wise their normal becomes yours I cannot tell you how many times over the last twenty years of my life just walking with the wife has raised the bar of my normal I'll give you a very practical example one of my dearest friends is in his late 60s and he is one of our elders here in Scottsdale and in Dallas and we've known each other for 20 years but we've been very very good friends for the last decade and he before he went to the ministry six or seven years ago he was the president of a bank and when he he took the job as president of the bank the bank at the time was seven hundred million in assets by the time he left they were about eight point four billion in assets okay he's a savant I can hand this guy a 40-page contract and in less than ten minutes he can tell me where all the mistakes and issues are he's a savant okay and he's one of our elders aren't you glad that our church is in hands of somebody like that yes okay but here's what's happened over the last decade especially we'll play golf together we'll go to breakfast together we'll get coffee what we hang out and he'll just be talking about what's going on in his life so I'll start talking about retirement years ago you'd start talking about different retirement vehicles I learned more about preparing for my retirement simply by being around him osmosis I was just walking with them and taking notes I look back I am better in business now than I ever have been before why because I've been walking with people who are really anointed in business God given not just a great business acumen but godly wisdom in business and the more I've walked with them the stronger I've gotten in that area why because when you walk with the wise their normal becomes yours it's a powerful principle now let me let me just say especially to the younger leaders in the room who are always asking how do I get a better mentor okay on this point walk with the wise let me just give you two things that have taken me two decades to learn okay if you're going to walk with the wise you need to do two things all right first you need to walk at their pace walk at their pace not yours here's what that means don't sit down with them the first time you have coffee and say I feel like God has spoken we're supposed to have coffee every week until you die no don't do that don't do that okay that you will never have coffee with them again okay here's what you do if they can only meet with you twice a year you take it and you get excited about it people think that in the early years I you know they always assumed I was just was pastor Robert all the time there would be a year where we'd only be together one time in a year but I learned something when God is involved in the mentorship process he can do more in one time than anybody else can do in six to twelve months so you walk at their pace if they can only give you two times a year you take it and you soak up every second you get with that godly wisdom here's the second thing if you're gonna walk with the wise walk on their path not yours this is a big one and it's gonna be a little a little bit awkward in the beginning when I have a rule with Pastor Robert and a few of my other heroes that I've always had if they ever asked me to do something I always say yes if they say hey let's go to the movies yes and Holly and I have even had a rule I don't have to ask her if they asked me to do something on even have to ask cuz it's just yes hey I got a fly to this part of the country to speak why don't you go with me yes okay years ago I was in my early 20s I was in the middle of a counseling session and if it's going off some I was having a blast God was really ministering to the person and my phone starts ringing and I looked down and it's pastor Robert I said excuse me I have to take this call it's pastor Robert and I just politely excuse myself from my office and I go out into my admins space and and I said hey what's going on he said hey bud what you doing and I said well I'm in a counseling appointment right now is everything okay oh yeah everything's okay I just got the Eagles concert DVD and I want you to come over and let's watch it together I don't really like the Eagles but I like you okay let me wrap this counseling appointment up yeah hurry up hurry up come on let's listen I said how long is the the Eagles concert DVD three and a half hours come on over I will get some to eat and we'll watch it together okay well I always say yes I go to the house and I am trying to stay awake through this three and a half hours I will never forget we got two Hotel California and he just starts bursting with excitement here comes fresh and one of the greatest songs of all time this is one of the best guitar riffs in the history of the guitar I was like what would you say I was half asleep I'll watch the rest of the deal and honestly I was sitting there for three and a half hours thinking okay Lord like I am enduring this nearly four-hour run of nothingness and I know you like you're gonna use him to ring my bell at the end of this four hours like you were gonna give him something from the library of heaven itself to ring my bell we get to the end when that great house was awesome so good such incredible musicianship all right press I'll see you this weekend do what like I just sat through that like where's the Nugget where's the drop the mic moment see you this weekend have a great Friday here's what I learned before you can show someone how much you love their wisdom you have to be willing to show them how much you love them and to this day people look at me every time I'm around Dallas or churches that know of Gateway and they always ask how did you kind of become Robert Morris's firstborn spiritual son and here's my answer because I watched the Eagles concert DVD and you did are you catching the principle if their wisdom is more important to you than their heart you're treating them like a prostitute give me what I want I just want your wisdom their wisdom is not more valuable than their heart the wives walk with the wife here's the last behavior that we're gonna talk about point number five the wise person craves criticism the wise person craves criticism proverbs 15 verse 13 if you listen to constructive criticism you will be at home with the wise okay why do so many of us run away from constructive criticism I think it's because we don't understand what it actually is see too many of us especially if we struggle with insecurity we think constructive criticism what they're communicating to us is you're horrible you're dumb you don't know what you're doing okay listen if you're really gonna be wise you need to understand what constructive criticism is and what it's like okay constructive criticism is like being the driver in a car with a wise person in the passenger seat they know where you're going but you don't you take a left turn and they simply say and we need to take a right turn we've made a wrong turn we just need to needed to go right there okay are they yelling and screaming and telling you how horrible of a driver you are no they're simply saying you're a good driver I know where you're trying to go you just made a wrong turn go back the other way okay too many of us take constructive criticism too personally yes constructive criticism is slightly personal but it is also highly profitable constructive criticism is so valuable one of the best ways to improve as a leader is to get stronger in the areas of your weaknesses and it takes having some godly wise people around you who love you who can say hey that was good really great job you're growing let me give you just a little tweak this would happen time and time again with me back in the early days when when how to oversee and I'd sit on the stage next to Pastor Robert and I would I would say something you know during the ministry time and go sit back down and almost every time he would do this right here he put his hand over his mouth and he'd go hey that was good but but one part of what you said was total heresy and so let's tweak that for next time I can get us out of this hole but but just know for next time don't do it like that okay he was constantly giving me constructive criticism why was he trying to tear me down never forget this constructive criticism builds up d constructive criticism tears down that's how you know the difference and they have two different tones a person who is trying to deconstruct you is firm and strong and a little bit mean a person who is constructively criticizing you has a sweet gentle loving tone because they love you too much to keep watching you do it the wrong way a godly person who is wise crave constructive criticism twenty years ago when I got hired in Dallas they became very obvious to me that I should have been fired I made some really big mistakes trying to learn I stumbled a lot in Pride and there was a moment kind of a breaking point for me where I knew God had called me to do something and listen make no mistake don't look at this and say that's a big calling what God's called you to is just as big that's what he's called me to it's just different okay so I knew God had to call me to something that I felt was big but things weren't going the way I thought they should go it was really rough and there was a moment or what I just sensed the Lord say express them while your calling is big it's so big you can't pull it out off doing it your way the only way it's going to work is if you adopt my ways okay what is wisdom at its core doing things God's Way God's Way always works and here's what I would say to every person listening to this message your calling is huge it is so much bigger than you can wrap your mind around but you will never be able to pull it off doing it your way you're going to have to get more wisdom and here's the good news the god of the universe has gone on record and said to you if you need it just ask me I'll give it to you but I will never be able to pull off his calling for my life without the wisdom that he alone gives and you won't be able to pull off yours

Channel: Gateway Church

Views: 3,706

Rating: 4.8499999 out of 5

Keywords: Preston, Morrison, gateway, church, gateway church, scottsdale, tempe, gateway church sermons, church online, arizona church, arizona churches, scottsdale churches, tempe churches, phoenix churches, gateway people, gateway life, Preston Morrison, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert Morris, Pastor Preston Morrison, Preston Morrison sermons, church sermons, wisdom, wisom series, sermons on wisdom

Id: 9voXr3KSko4

Length: 36min 18sec (2178 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 06 2019