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Proverbs for the day, for February
the 2nd, Proverbs chapter two and verse two. We'll begin reading
in verse one to get a little bit of context. My son, if thou
wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so
that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart
to understanding, yea, if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest
up thy voice for understanding, If thou seekest her as silver
and searchest for her as for hid gold, then shalt thou understand
the fear of the Lord, find the knowledge of God, et cetera.
Now that was all the way down through verse six. So verse two
for today. So that thou incline thine ear
unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding. Now notice
that it starts off in verse one with an if, an if. Notice the
conditional if of the words of God. The important part of it
is that there's an if and a then. If and then. If and then. If
you this, then this. Okay? And that's life. Life is full of if, then. If
this, then this. Now I realize that some of you
probably can remember mathematical formulas where if it's this,
then this. And you can remember solving equations and doing different
things. Well in life, it's that way. It's cause and effect. If
I receive his words, hide my commandments with him." Now verse
two, if I incline mine ear and thine ear and wisdom, apply thine
heart to understanding. Just two main thoughts, okay?
Lean towards the mind of Christ. Lend God an ear. In other words,
lean towards the mind of Christ. And the picture is this, if thou
incline thine ear unto wisdom, and incline is a leaning, it
is kind of tilting your head towards it, making sure we listen. The Bible tells us that in these
last days, or in some last days, they shall turn away their ears
from the truth and shall be turned into fables. They'll want to
hear fables instead, they'll want to. Now the Bible gives
us a promise in John chapter 14, and he gives it to us in
John 14, 26. It says, the Comforter, which
is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall
teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you. And the modern application of
this promise is that if I will read the Word of God, if I will
hear the Word of God, if I will listen to the Word of God, if
I will attend to it, if I will incline mine ear unto it, then
what will happen is I can lean towards the mind of Christ and
the Holy Spirit will help me. When I get like that, when a
believer's doing that, it's like the passages where the Bible
says, and hearing ye shall hear. We know there's some that hear
and they not hear. Okay? You ever notice how sometimes
a conversation can be going on and someone will kind of tilt
their head towards it and ease maybe even into the conversation
because they desire to be in there? Not trying to butt in
or anything like that necessarily. They just would like to be part
of the conversation. The conversation attracted them.
I don't know about you, but you know, sometimes I get the picturing
in my mind and I think of many times this, I picture this in
my mind, I picture what if we're so attuned to things that the
Holy Spirit can just kind of bring a few words of scripture
to our thought or a sentence someone else says, they may not
realize it but it's associated with the Bible or it prompts
you to think of a Bible truth. And so what happens there is
we're going along and all of a sudden we realize I'm leaning,
I'm inclining my ear. He said, thou incline thine ear
so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom. And so the idea
is that we're supposed to be on the alert. We're on the lookout for these
things from God, these words from God. Lean towards the mind
of Christ. Memorize a few verses. Write
a few down. Read scriptures. I mean, it won't
hurt you to have on your nowadays. You can have it digitally with
you on the go. Excuse me. You can have it on a phone. You can have it on a tablet.
You can have a handheld pocket Bible in your in your printed
one in your backpack like I do all the time. Lean towards it. Lean towards the mind of Christ
and when in doubt, think on the words of God. Incline thine ear
unto wisdom. And then, you know, with that,
make it every chance you get. So the first thought is lean
towards the mind of Christ. The second one is in the second
half of the verse, and that is live it out. Live it out. And
apply thine heart to understanding. Hey, I'm going to give you an
example. Whether it be in a little notebook or on some kind of cards,
something you can hang on to or stick somewhere and look at
later, write a truth out. Write it out. Maybe have your
little life notebook. You can have one of these. Some
of them are not much bigger than a three by five thing. I've got
one that you can get at those large bookstores and stuff. And
it's got decent paper. And I'll come across something
in my Bible, and I'll just write it down. And I might not ever
use it to preach or teach, but many, many days, I slow down,
and I open it and I'll flip through it and I might come across a
passage, a reference I've written down. I'll go look at that passage
of scripture and how something affected me on that day and it's
a real help to me. What is the purpose? I want to
apply my heart to understanding. I want my heart to grab it and
then live it out. So write out a truth and then
review that truth. Look, everything in life takes
review. Haven't you ever noticed that if you have a password for
something and you haven't accessed that account or that thing for
a while, sometimes that password can go walkabout on you and you
can't find that thing in your head to save your life? It's
because you haven't been using a lot. Do you ever notice that
other stuff you use all the time? Have you ever had a route you
took to work or something and found yourself taking that route
even though you weren't on your way to work? You've just taken
it so many times. Well, the Bible can help us if
we will review it. That is, we get back in touch
with it constantly. We review it. That's why we read
the same patch of scripture over and over and over, year by year.
That's why it doesn't need to be rewritten. It needs to be
reread, the old-timers said. And so review it, and then meditate
it. You know, just kind of chew on
it. Think on it. It's amazing. I do not have to
understand all the things that go into a good meal to enjoy
it. In fact, one of the enjoyable things is when someone goes to
the effort to take the ingredients, put them in the right amount,
why even where you apply heat and how long and when affects
the outcome of a good dish. And what a blessing to enjoy
it. Well, meditating on the Bible
is not trying to dissect it and figure it out. It's just absorbing
that truth. Simple, okay? Example. What if
you just meditate on the fact that God came to earth, was born
of a virgin, and God took on the body of humanity of a man? I don't have to understand that.
I can't explain it, and I've never met anybody, never met
100 people together. If you put them together, could
explain it. but I still enjoy the blessing of believing it.
It's a mystery, of which there are at least seven in your Bible.
It's a mystery, and we're to be stewards of them. We preach
the mysteries without being able to explain them. That's the marvel
of faith, but it's also the marvel of the power of the word. I meditate
it. And then think about this, about
living it out. Think about the fact that many times what we
want to do is we want things to just kind of be intuitive
and automatic. And God says, no, look, if you'll
just learn to meditate. You know why materialism, when
it burns out, finds people trying to do some of the things they
do in the Far East? Because outwardly, it's the antithesis
of it. It's the opposite thesis of it. It's the opposite type of approach. And so they'll get into meditation
and stuff. Well, you understand, all that is a counterfeit. All of it is a counterfeit of
the real thing. And so don't ever forget that.
That the real thing is I meditate on the book, and I muse on the
book, and I chew on the book. Incline thine ear into wisdom.
Apply thine heart to understanding. And pretty soon it just becomes
a part of how you think. See, we're not trying to go around
and beat people up with that truth. We're trying to let it
have an effect upon our own life, and thereby we can shine the
way God wants us to shine, in a dark and a lost and a dying
world.
February 2
Series Proverbs for the Day
| Sermon ID | 13113746592 |
| Duration | 09:35 |
| Date | |
| Category | Devotional |
| Bible Text | Proverbs 2:2 |
| Language | English |
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