Well, wisdom is so vital to our lives. As we saw on Monday, looking at stimulants like caffeine, sugar, nicotine, amphetamines, and cannabis, and THC, for some, it's a complex world, and it's getting more complex by the day, and it's a world that we have to navigate with wisdom. We have to.

And for guidance, Psalm 19.7 is one of my favorite texts. Psalm 19.7, the psalmist tells us, "The teaching of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." Making wise the simple. That's the frequent prayer of this simple man, "I need wisdom," which is to say, "I need the teachings and the testimonies of the Lord." And so Monday, we apply biblical wisdom when it comes to stimulants.

And on this pursuit of wisdom recently arrived this clip from a listener who sent it in. It's from a 1981 sermon from Pastor John in Proverbs 4, verses 1-13, talking about where to find wisdom. I had not listened to this message, but I did recently. I love it, because Pastor John opens by talking about our pursuit of joy, which is what drives all of our lives and the substances that we consume.

Pastor John said this, "I believe that all men have this in common, namely, that we all want to be happy." Now, not all of us agree on how to find that happiness or where it comes from, but we do agree that we want it. I think that's common ground for all humankind.

And that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. That's the way God made us. Evil is not wanting to be happy. Evil is seeking and finding that happiness in the wrong places. And goodness is seeking and finding that happiness in places that please and honor God. I can conceive of a world in which we might be called upon to sacrifice our happiness for God's glory.

But that is not the kind of world in which we live. Amen. Evil is not wanting to be happy. Evil is seeking and finding that happiness in the wrong places. Such a great intro to this search for wisdom. Okay, so how do we find wisdom? Here's Pastor John later in that very same message.

And now finally, I want to give you five brief instructions as to how to get this wisdom. These have been really helpful for me to think about again. And I think they all come from Scripture. I'll try to show that they do. Step number one, we must desire it, hunger for it, long for it.

Proverbs 4, 8, "Prize her highly and she will exalt you. She will honor you for your embrace." Those are not cheap words. When you prize something and you embrace something, you love it intensely. And therefore, wisdom has to be valuable to us. We have to want it and crave it.

Otherwise, we will not get it. Second, since wisdom is found in the word of God, we have to apply ourselves to meditate upon the word and study the word of God. And I want to add to that this, not only applying yourselves to the scriptures firsthand, but also giving yourself to read the finest wisdom of the best students of the word for the past 1900 years.

Read great theological books, books that distill the wisdom of God down and help us gain a sense of the sweep of God's revelation and insight into the true meaning of Scripture. It would be folly for us all to start from scratch when there's so much help to be had in great books.

And now I want to give you something really encouraging, because I know what goes through many of your minds when I say that. I don't have the time nor the ability to get anywhere with that kind of literature. If you're talking about great books of theology, I don't believe that's true.

Great books are always great because they're readable, not because they're obscure. Obscure books are not great books. Now, here's the most encouraging thing I can think to say to you this morning. My pastor told me four years ago it changed my life. Here it is. Suppose that you can read about 250 words a minute.

Now, that's not real fast. Most of us can do that. Two hundred fifty words a minute. OK, and suppose that you set aside 15 minutes a day to read a great book, a classic or some book that you've been longing to read that would help you grow in your wisdom, your understanding.

Now, 15 minutes a day for 365 days is five thousand four hundred and seventy five minutes a year. Now you multiply five thousand four hundred and seventy five times 250 and you get one million three hundred and sixty eight thousand seven hundred and fifty words that you could read in a year at 15 minutes a day.

Now, an average book has about three hundred and fifty to four hundred words on a page. So we take three or three hundred to four. So we'll take three hundred and fifty, which is kind of in the middle and divide that into one million three hundred and sixty eight thousand seven hundred and fifty.

And you know what you get? Three thousand nine hundred and ten, almost four thousand pages a year. An average book has about 200 pages. You see the implication of that? You could read 20 books by this time next year, setting aside 15 minutes a day. I tell you, when I heard that, I ran home.

I sat down. I got out my calendar. I looked for that 15 minutes slot and I found it just before supper at five fifteen because I diddle away that that time every night and I set myself to do it. And I read Jonathan Edwards original sin, which is a fat book in two months at 15 minutes a day.

And then I went on to see us, Lewis and George McDonald, lots of other things I've been wanting to read and read. God's all that reading that I said, there's no hope. I don't have time for it. I don't have any space to fit it in. Was now getting done because there was a 15 minute slot that I was using that had formerly been thrown away.

There is hope. You people who think that there's no hope there is. You have 15 minutes. You have 15 minutes. Say the 15 minutes just before you go to bed at night. Go to bed. Pick out a great classic like John Calvin's Institutes or Martin Luther's bondage of the will or commentary on Galatians or John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress or Jonathan Edwards, religious affections or some great book you just been itching to read and say, oh, there's no way and read it at 15 minutes a day.

A big tree can be chopped down with lots of little chops. That's a great incentive, I think, to get wisdom. And then third, we'll just briefly cover these last three. We must pray because wisdom comes from the Lord. And then for we must think of our death very often.

Teach us to number our days that we might get a heart of wisdom. Nothing purges us of folly like thinking of our death. And then finally, we must come to Jesus. In him are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Solomon spoke wisdom. Jesus is the wisdom of God.

Others had spoken truths. Jesus is the truth. Others had made promises in him. All the promises of God are yes. Others had offered forgiveness. Jesus bought it. Therefore, in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. A person who loves and trusts and follows Jesus has and owns the treasure of lasting and true happiness.

And therefore, when the command comes to us, get wisdom, it means first and foremost, come to Jesus. Come to Jesus in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And now may the wise God fill you with his godly wisdom that you might enjoy now and forever the true and lasting happiness that is found in him.

Amen. Amen. True and lasting happiness is found in Christ. This clip came from a podcast listener named Kyle in Geneva, Illinois. I came across this amazing message from Pastor John a few years ago while I was really trying to figure out what it means to be wise. Kyle writes, "There are so many good scripture passages and insights in it, but the part that really made an impact on me was the section where Pastor John goes over how many pages of reading a person can consume in a year by reading for 15 minutes a day." Kyle says he now sets out to read 20 books a year.

Thank you for the clip. Taken from John Piper's sermon titled "Get Wisdom." Preached on May 24th, 1981. The whole message is online at DesiringGod.org. Well, to shift gears here, when it comes to the return of Christ, there are a lot of truths to be celebrated and anticipated. There's also a lot of misconceptions we must cut away from the topic, too.

And Friday, Pastor John is back to walk us through five popular blunders about the return of Christ. That should be a lively one. I'm your host, Tony Reike. We're rejoined in studio with Pastor John on Friday. We'll see you then. 1. What is the return of Christ? 2. What is the return of Christ?

3. What is the return