This morning, we're going to be reading, we're going to be studying through or preaching through Proverbs and a portion of Hebrews. But before we do that, why don't we pray? That's something I need desperately this morning. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning, even as we spoke in the kids' talk, even as we have sung in the songs needing to be carried by you. Lord, carried by you in our hearts, our minds, our desires, our understandings, Lord, everything must come from you. And so we pray this morning for your leading, your leading in your word, your leading in our lives, Lord, that we would be surrendered to you, the one who has sent his son to save us, to lead us in to glory, which is a relationship with you, into the best place we could be. Father, we come before you, Lord, praying for your mercy and your grace this morning as we sit before your Word, waiting upon you. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. As parents, we teach our children what we think is best, don't we? When they're very young, the wisdom we give them is quite simple. It's mostly don't stick your finger in that, don't put that in your mouth, don't wipe that on the wall. We all have different stories that we've either experienced or heard. As the kids grow older and they grow more complex, the wisdom that we offer them is more complex. It's not just simply how to stay alive for a few more moments. It's where we start to speak about how we see the world. how they fit into the world. We speak about morality, about what is good and what is bad and how to deal with their own thinking and their feelings when they engage with fear or anxiety, sorrow, anger, how to endure hardships and as we've sung so many times this morning, where to place their hope for their lives. It's our hope that through the passing on of this wisdom, our children will not just survive, but in fact thrive in this life. Avoiding the pitfalls of poor decisions that perhaps we ourselves have made. Our hope is really that they'll turn out better than us. And while we have this hope for our children and we can put a lot into the process, it is only half of the equation. Not only do you need to speak and share the wisdom with your children, but our children and us as children of our parents and of our Heavenly Father, we need to receive that wisdom, to retain it, to listen and remember. In our passage this morning, the dad that we have encountered in the book of Proverbs again and again has words for his son and he tells him something important. It's words about how to engage with wisdom, how to hold it, how to treat it, how to handle it. Don't forget it, he says, don't forget it. Now there's only one reason that we or the sun would need to hear such words and that is that we have a tendency to forget. We forget in lots of different ways. We forget details, the when, the where, the how, the why, the who. I had my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I didn't even know how old I was. I actually thought I was a year older. We forget significance. The more a thing is profound and important and things that are even urgent today, tomorrow are less important, less urgent, less profound. Even when we create habits around something that's important to us, those habits so quickly seem to turn into empty rituals. And when we think about how many of us have a habit of prayer, Wake up in the morning and pray. We pray before our meals. We pray at the end of the day. And how many of us have felt that from time to time, those prayers have become an empty ritual, shallow and dry. We're just performing the actions. We tend to forget truth. I remember A.W. Tozer once wrote that over time, even the greatest truths that we encounter over time finds their place amongst the lies in our minds. I think there's some truth to that, that the light of truths begins to diminish. And we can actually replace them with a lie if we don't continue to refresh them. Teaching and wisdom, no matter how important, how good it is, if it is forgotten, is useless. And it's because we have this tendency to forget that dear old dad urges his son, don't forget my teachings, but instead let them into your heart. Now the heart in the Old Testament is more than the seat of emotions as we have it in our culture. In the Old Testament, the heart is the place where your personality, your mind, your will, your intellect and your emotions come from. It's who you are. So when dad says, Put these things in your heart. Don't forget this wisdom. He wants the son to store them in a place that will fundamentally change his character, who he is, how you act. I want you to be changed by my wisdom, what you desire, what you know, how you feel. This is a significant request from the father. I can tell you now that some of the things my dad taught me did go into my heart. And they've changed who I am. And other things, not so much. I picked and chose what I thought was good and bad. And I strongly suspect my children will do the same. For mums and dads, as we read in that Hebrews passage, they discipline us for a short time as seems best to them. but it's different concerning the teachings and the instructions of the Lord. He doesn't teach for a short time as seems best. He disciplines us for our good in order that we may share in his holiness. The Lord guides and teaches and leads and even disciplines us forever. And his instruction is faultless. I wonder if you've ever given out a piece of advice to a child or to a friend and wondered at the end, gee, I hope that was the right thing to say. We can be uncertain. We do our best, but it's not always what is best. Well, the Lord never has those moments. His teaching is always good. It is always best. Leading us deeper into holiness that is deeper into relationship with Him. This is not teaching where bits and pieces are to be picked and chosen and others left out. It is all good. And good and that leads us to Him. All of it is to be taken and placed deep inside of the heart. To instruct and shape us, our personalities, our wills, our want, our intellect, our emotion. We're to give ourselves to this perfect instruction that he gives us and let it do its work upon us. His wisdom leading us to great blessings as we read all throughout this proverb. A long life filled with peace and prosperity. And we'll talk a little bit more about that shortly. Well, the data of Proverbs doesn't only equip his son with teachings, but also character. Those of you who were here for our parenting series a little while back where we watched the videos by Paul Tripp will remember that Tripp encouraged us not just to teach our children morality, but to seek to teach them character. Something that's far harder to obtain and far deeper in their hearts. Now there's a lot of good character qualities out there that we could pick and choose to teach our kids. Humility, Courage, respect, teachability, generosity, trust, care, justice, authenticity, self-discipline, confidence, dedication, all the things that Google told me were good characteristics. They're all good characteristics to have. Which would you pick? All of them? It's quite a task. I find it interesting that the father of Proverbs here picks two. loyalty and faithfulness. He wants the son not to forsake or abandon these traits. Instead, he insists the son bind them around his neck and writes them on the tablet of his heart. Now, we've spoken about what it means to have something in the heart, to make it a part of your innermost being, but to bind around the neck is something different. It's an image of something like wearing a scarf. It is visible and able to be witnessed by those who see you, that pass by. When I was in year eight, one of my friends got into trouble with some of the older kids, some of the older, somewhat more aggressive kids. The details are forgotten, but I remember there was a moment of conflict in the yard one day. Everyone drop in lines, the older kids versus the year eights, like we were going to war. Puberty had given advantage to one of us, one side significantly more than the other. And I remember standing on my friend's side, as a small year eight, feeling quite nervous, but certain I was going to be loyal. I was going to stand by his side through this. I wasn't going to abandon him. Well, thankfully, that loyalty didn't get too tested because the argument fizzled out after a while. Everyone went their own way. But shortly afterwards, my friend turned to me and he said, why didn't you say anything? Why didn't you stand up for me? I thought, didn't you appreciate my silent contribution behind you? Couldn't you hear my knees knocking? I'm glad it didn't turn into a fight because I don't know how well that loyalty would have gone. The truth was that while I was loyal or fighting to be loyal in my heart, I hadn't tied it around my neck. It wasn't obvious to him. And so to him, it wasn't loyalty at all. Are we being loyal and faithful to the Lord if it is internal only? And our actions and our words don't display it. The character, character it seems, takes place, it begins in the heart but reaches maturity when it starts to reveal itself on the outside, when it's tied around the neck. Well, Why do you think that these two characteristics, this loyalty and faithfulness that the father wants his son so badly to possess above all the others, why does he pick them out of all the different characteristics? Perhaps more poignantly, we ask the question, why are they important characteristics for us to have above all others? I think we see why when we look at the following three stanzas. You see, verses one through to four acts like the father's introductory wisdom for this passage. The first two stanzas, verses one and two and three and four speak about the handling and the impact of wisdom and character that leads to significant blessings, the long life and the peace and the prosperity. But the father moves now to share with his son the meat of his words, and answers our question of why loyalty, why faithfulness, why are they important? You see, the wisdom that the father sees as most vital to his son, that he wants to be kept in the heart of his son, it focuses on a single relationship, a single relationship, just one person. that if the son is loyal and faithful to, this person will establish his son forever, for all of his life. This person is pivotal to the father's hope for his son. And who is it? The Lord. It's his relationship with the Lord. Verse 5 says, trust in the Lord. Verse 7, fear the Lord. Verse 9, honour the Lord. These aren't just intentions and beliefs that we have in our heart, unable to be witnessed by others. The father here, the dad of Proverbs, is providing his son and us instructions in what faithfulness and loyalty to the Lord looks like externally, internally and externally. Trusting in him looks like submitting to or acknowledging the Lord in everything you do. Fearing the Lord is turning away from evil. Honoring the Lord is giving him the best that you have, a portion. It's clear that the father wants his son to have a very specific relationship with this Lord. One that acknowledges the son's complete dependence upon him for the future, for everything. And this dependent relationship and all the ways that it works out are to be at the very heart of the son. All of the son's life given to a profound understanding of his dependence upon the Lord. The dad knows that the Lord is his son's hope for a future. His only hope. And we just listen to the blessings that the father speaks of when in relationship with the Lord. What God pours out upon those that he finds favor with. Verse six, he will make your paths straight. A life where all obstacles are taken away. Verse eight, health and nourishment for your flesh and bones. Verse 10, barns filled with overflowing vats of wine brimming over with new wine. And all the son has to do is be faithful and loyal to the Lord. And all of this is his forever. but the dad also knows that the greatest threat to this relationship and therefore the greatest threat to his son's life, his peace and his prosperity, it's not Islamic State, it's not global warming, it's not overpopulation or the quality of his son's education, The thing that threatens the son's future, his relationship with this Lord that would give him everything for his life is none other than the son's own high view of himself. A threat that has in fact undone all of us from the beginning. Do not lean on your own understanding. Do not be wise in your own eyes. And although the text doesn't say it, if you're honoring the Lord, you are not honoring yourself. It was the sin of Adam and Eve from the beginning, wasn't it? To eat the fruit so that they might be like God. No longer dependent in relationship on the Lord, but equal having understanding and wisdom of their own, no longer needing to honor him, but being worthy of honor themselves, certainly not needing to trust and fear and honor the Lord. And yet we know where that path led. Their path, that path of self-sufficiency didn't lead to long life and peace and prosperity. It led to death. Unless you are faithful and loyal to the Lord, depending on him for all things as we were created to be, there is only death. That's not the bright future that the father wants for the son. But who can do such a thing? Who can remain loyal and faithful in all that they do? Who can trust and fear and honor the Lord without fault? Not me. Not you. Not even the son in this book of Proverbs. The dad in these passages, he knows this, I'm sure of it. Despite all the good wisdom that he has shared with his son, he will fail to remain faithful and loyal in all that he does. That he, like us, will lean on his own understanding. He'll be wise in his own eyes. He'll be like Scully, coming up with his own solutions. And to the Lord, they'll seem just as ridiculous. The son will step away from the one that is so generous with his blessings to those that are dependent on him in preference for self-sufficiency, for independence. I believe the father knows that the son will fail, and I believe that he still, despite knowing this of his son, has a hope for him. And I believe it only for one reason, it's this closing piece of wisdom, this final stanza that the father tells his son in verses 11 and 12, my son, do not despise the Lord's discipline. Do not resent his rebuke because the Lord disciplines those he loves. As a father, the son he delights in. This dad of the book of Proverbs can have hope for his son's future, even though he knows he will fail, because the Lord loves his son. And the Lord's love for his children is expressed in the most remarkable way, that even when they fail and fall from him because of their ego, he draws them back into relationship with him. So the Lord draws us back into holiness because of his love, and he does so by discipline. Punishment, hardships, difficulties in life that the Lord gives in order that his children might be brought back into his holiness. When the children begin to wander away down a road that would otherwise lead to their total destruction, God disciplines them back to life. Do you remember the Genesis, not Genesis, it is Genesis, the Genesis story from the Tower of Babel They said to each other, this is all of humanity at this stage, come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. And they use bricks instead of stone and tar instead of mortar. And they said, come, let us build ourselves a city, a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower and the people that the people were building. And the Lord said, if as one people speaking the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so that they will not understand each other. And so the Lord scattered them over all the earth and they stopped building the city. It struck me as I read this story that here is an example of the Lord disciplining humanity, his children. It's an example of humanity becoming self-reliant. In the Lord's own words, nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Which means what for their relationship with the Lord? It won't lead them to trusting Him, fearing Him, honoring Him, but it will lead ultimately to their destruction despite what looks amazing in this current time, a great monument to humanity. But because the Lord loves them, he disciplines them. He introduces a hardship into their lives that changes them forever. Like a father would his children, and in doing so, they cannot be self-reliant any longer. They must turn to the Lord. This is the wonder of his disciplining action. And he does the same for us. How many of us have a testimony where we got to the end of a trying period, perhaps a time of great sorrow and difficulty, and we look back only to see that through that time, the Lord has only led us deeper into relationship with Him, deeper into holiness through this discipline. that God, through this difficult time, has revealed sin in our lives that we were not even remotely aware of. A lack of trust, or a lack of fear, a lack of turning from evil, of honoring the Lord, of faithfulness, of loyalty, that we were, in fact, beginning to wander down a road that led only to death. even though it seemed wise to us. But in His grace, He corrected us. And He brought us back to Him. How many of us, despite what might have been a season of terrible pain and sorrow and difficulty, have said in the end, thank you, Father. Now it is hard perhaps to hear these words, particularly when we're in the midst of a season of difficulty. And he knows it's hard. Otherwise his warning to his son wouldn't have been, don't despise the Lord's discipline. Don't resent his rebuke. Hebrews wouldn't have encouragements to endure the discipline of the Lord. Discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant in the time, Hebrews says. But both of these writers know that it is beyond, no, it is beyond hard times, but sorry, as wise men, they know that the fruit of the Lord's discipline exceeds any of the sorrow and the difficulties of this present time. The last part of that verse 11 in Hebrews, it says, now discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those that have been trained by it. This discipline that we receive is love. It's an act of tremendous mercy and grace on behalf of God towards sinners, and it is utterly undeserved. And it is made only possible through Jesus. We've said it before, and we'll just say it again, possibly every Sunday. For the rest of your lives, Jesus is the perfect son. He lived in perfect relationship with the father, faithful and loyal. He trusted him and he feared him and he honored him in all the right ways without error. The son that truly deserved all the blessings of the father, of long life, of peace, of prosperity, of conflict, and he gives them to us. And instead he takes and reaps the reward of our rejection of the Father. His life was not long. It was not filled with peace but conflict. And ultimately death, the death that we deserve so that we might have the blessings of the Lord poured upon us. He gives the Father's love to us so that we might receive even such a great gift as discipline. Now we should talk in closing about these blessings is what we have read this morning, prosperity gospel. It's important to talk about, isn't it? The idea that God is out there filling the lives of his children only with wealth and prosperity in the present day. Is that what we find in these passages? The Bible teaches, as we read this morning, that God loves his children. And that he is a father, as a father to us, in a very similar way to we are fathers to our own children. And like all good dads, he loves to give good gifts to his children. Many of us can attest to the good gifts that we've received from the Lord, of the way that he has kept and supported us. But he's also a good father that at times, the blessing that he gives to us is in fact his discipline, rather than the blessings as we would currently understand them. rather than wealth and long life in this current age. And he does so, so that we might not wander from him, but instead press on into greater blessings than what we would currently understand. That is to say, a long life that it goes on into eternity wealth and of prosperity that is all the blessings of being a son of God not just a wealthy son of man and he does this so in saying that both instances where the Lord gives good gifts Here and now and also discipline are both the actions of the love of the Lord, but his goal is to bring you into him. For those who believe in the prosperity gospel, they cannot see that there is any love in trying times. That discipline could have any purpose to it. They can have any reason, like you and I might have, They cannot say as we would with Paul in Philippians, I have lost everything. Everything is gone. But it was worth it to gain Christ. And I have him forever. And I do it again because of the surpassing value of Jesus. and do it again for the one that would love us all the way into the kingdom, despite rebellion, into the arms of this perfectly loving Father. Let's pray. Lord God, I pray this morning that Lord, just thanks. I feel like I say that at the end of every sermon. It just becomes more and more true. We've received everything from you. And we've brought nothing but trouble. And yet you continue to delight in pouring out grace at great cost to yourself. Just because you love us. I give thanks, Heavenly Father, that we can have a relationship restored to you, brought into your holiness, that sacred place. Because of your Son, out of your grace, even when we didn't deserve it. I pray this morning that we have seen more than anything, Lord, just your character. Of how wonderful you are. And the delight that comes with following your ways. But the assurance that you are the one that even in times of difficulty are leading us to you. Help us to be encouraged and reminded Lord of the suffering of your own son, as an encouragement that where we suffer, we suffer for the sake of being restored because it's no longer leading to destruction. He's taken that away. We will never suffer as the son suffered because of you. Thank you, Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, amen.