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All right, let's open a word
of prayer and we will get started. Heavenly Father, we come before
you this morning and so much to be thankful for our salvation,
this church, the fellowship that we have. I mean, we always be
ever grateful. And thank you for this special
day with the Lord's Supper, with the fellowship, and the potluck,
and the congregational meeting. So many things to celebrate and
be thankful for. So just guide us now in the book of Proverbs.
Continue to help us understand it to apply in our lives. In
Christ's name we pray, amen. Does anyone need a Proverbs 4
handout? I think I got a couple extras.
All right. If anyone does, just raise your
hand or just grab it by the piano. We're on page 177. And we're in the middle of the
chapter, essentially. And what we're doing is going
through, again, the wisdom of Solomon. And we're talking about
wisdom, of course. And so I'm sure you've seen this
little emblem somewhere. Have you hugged a friend today?
Of course, it's for pet lovers. But I would say, have you hugged
wisdom today? That's the idea. And of course,
this is the far side. Whoa, Mr. Lewis, we don't know
what that thing is or where it came from. But after what happened
to the dog last week, we advise people not to touch it. Fortunately,
wisdom is not such a creature. OK, so we're on page 177. And we're at number three, the
pertinent principles. And let me just go to the book of Proverbs
where we're at here. And again, we're in Proverbs
4. And it helps if I can type Proverbs correctly. All right,
do not forsake her. Yeah, exactly. All right, we're
at verse six. And let me just read the first
five verses to give us some context. Hear, O sons, the instruction
of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding.
For I give you sound teaching. Do not abandon my instruction.
When I was a son to my father, that would have been Solomon
to David, tender and the only son in the sight of my mother,
Bathsheba, that would be. Then he taught me and said to
me, let your heart hold fast my words. Keep my commandments
and live. Acquire wisdom. Acquire understanding. Do not forget nor turn away from
the words of my mouth. Now, we're going to make the
switch to where we now start to personify wisdom. And remember,
we're personifying it, making it like a person. And it's female.
This is not the Holy Spirit. So totally different. Though
wisdom comes from God, And the wisdom comes from the Spirit
as it illuminates to understand it, but wisdom itself is not
the Holy Spirit. All right. So it says, do not
forsake. She will preserve you. And so
look at this combination of phrases that we see. And then continue
to the next one. Love her. and she will keep you. So there's these little built-in,
I don't want to say promises, that's probably too strong, but
they're definitely principles. If you don't forsake wisdom,
meaning you embrace it, you obey it, it's going to protect you.
It's going to preserve you. It's going to help you navigate
through life. And I'm telling you, and you
guys know this firsthand, you know that when you've understood
the word and you've applied it, it allows you to avoid certain
troubles. Love her and she will keep you.
Wisdom is the principal thing. Get wisdom, get understanding. And then it goes on, the beginning
of wisdom is get wisdom and understanding. And getting is the same word
as Proverbs 4, 5, acquire and purchase. In other words, this
is your priority. This is what you're trying to
acquire. And then it goes on, exalt her, which is interesting,
put her first and she will promote you. After all these years in
my corporate experience, having made a lot of mistakes as a young
man, I've been exposed to a variety of individuals over the years,
I've learned a few things. And it's amazing how that helps.
It really does. Situations that were once a first-time
unfamiliar are now, oh, I know exactly how this is going to
play out if I do A, B, or C. That's the idea here. And then
embrace her, she will bring you honor. Wisdom, as I said before,
is being personified as a woman. You can see those passages there. Now, there's two pairs of commands
that are given with four principles. So command number one is do not
forsake her. And then it goes on, and that
is prepared to love her. So I love the spectrum there.
There's one thing nice about Proverbs is it's a spectrum through
contrast. The very definition of love is
not to forsake. Romans 8 38 I'm persuaded in
either death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers
nor things present or things to come Nor height nor depth
nor any other creative thing Shabbat a separates from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord I have to double
check and make sure the microphones on So you can see the full range,
right? There's this not forsaking, but then there's this loving.
And the two complement one another. 1 Corinthians 13, 4, love suffers
long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does
not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does
not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice
in iniquity, but rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things. John 14,
15, if you love me, you keep my commandments. 2 John 2, that's
a weird way I did that. This is love, that we walk according
to his commandments. This is the commandment that
as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. And in
Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer
I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me. So when you think about forsaking,
this is really key. If you're not careful, you can
make this legalistic. You can make this duty-driven.
You can make this a checklist. and now there's no passion in
it, it's just, okay, this is what I'm supposed to do, I'll
just do it, I'll grin and bear it. But by adding the loving
part, we're now understanding that, okay, this is from within,
this is, I want this, I desire this. And that's the idea here
that we wanna avoid, because this can happen, we lose the
love, like one of the churches in Revelation, you've forsaken
your love. Okay, commandment number two, exalt, is paired
with embrace. And I don't know if I've got
the slide here. I guess it's not there. I thought
I had a best friend slide. Oh, yeah, that was the one earlier.
OK. Exalt, revere, honor, and respect. A little different as
you look in the definition. We think exalt meaning put someone
above us, right? But this is the idea of revering,
honoring, respecting. Embrace is affection. It's like
holding someone's hand. Ephesians 5.25, husbands love
your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, gave himself
for her. So you might sanctify and cleanse her with washing
of the water by the word. And then you might present her
to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but she would be holy and without blemish.
That's the picture. That's the exaltation that we
will have. We are revered in this way. Of
course, we'll be resurrected and glorified, and that makes
all the difference. Ephesians 5 28 husbands ought to love their
own wives as their own bodies He who loves his wife loves himself
for no one ever hate his own flesh But nourishes and cherishes
it just as the Lord does the church Now look at this principle
number one. She'll preserve you. This is
the path Not forsaking wisdom will keep you on a holy path
that pleases God We've read these verses earlier. Proverbs 2.8,
he guards the path of justice, preserves the way of his saints.
Proverbs 2.20, so he may walk in the way of goodness and keep
to the paths of righteousness. And as we've been watching and
working our way through Proverbs, the path is a straight path.
That's God's word. You veer to the left, you veer
to the right, now you're moving away from Christ and his word. Principle number two, she will
keep you. Here's the protect. Loving wisdom
helps you wisely avoid the evil way and navigate a safe path
through life. Keep in mind, those who desire
to live godly will be persecuted. So it's not a path that's perfect
and easy and without trouble, but there is grace for that as
well. And then Proverbs 13.6, righteousness guards him whose
way is blameless, but wickedness overthrows the sinner. And then
we see this third principle, this promote. So we've seen the
path, the protection, now the promotion. Exalting wisdom results
in one having a good name and reputation. God's favor can elevate
a person. Of course, Genesis 39, Joseph
is a great example, right? Genesis 39, 21, the Lord was
with Joseph, showed him mercy, gave him favor in the sight of
the keeper of the prison. And it's so fascinating with
Joseph, I think I shared this before. Up to that point, the Lord Jesus
Christ, pre-incarnate Christ, had personally visited Abraham. Isaac, Jacob, but not Joseph.
We don't have any scriptures that says he appeared to Joseph. But we do see the presence of
God helping, giving favor to Joseph, which shows you even
more faith, right? We don't believe he saw the pre-incarnate
Christ, but he obeyed him in faith. It's a beautiful picture.
Genesis 41, 37. So advice was good in the eyes
of Pharaoh, in the eyes of all his servants. And Pharaoh said
to his servants, can we find such a man in whom the Spirit
of God has the Spirit of God? Then Pharaoh said to Joseph,
inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as
discerning and as wise as you. You shall be over my house, and
all my people shall be ruled according to your word. Only
in regard to the throne will I be greater than you. So think
of Joseph, the brother that was favored by his father, But his
other brothers were jealous and envied. Toss him to a pit. So
now he's lost his family. He gets sold into slavery. He's
now under Potiphar. His wife slanders him, resulting
him in jail. And he did nothing wrong. He
was just being faithful. But he's being obedient. He's
being wise. He's being a good steward. And
in God's time, he is exalted. That's the picture. It goes on
to say, then Pharaoh took a signet ring off his hand, put it on
Joseph's hand, clothed him in garments of fine linen, put a
gold chain around his neck. And he had him ride in the second
chariot which he had, and they cried out before him, bow the
knee. So he set him over all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh also
said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, no
man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. I do
believe in one sense you could argue that Joseph is a picture
of Christ in the millennial kingdom coming and so forth. So it's
kind of neat there, a little picture there. And then principle
number four, she will bring you honor. This is privilege. Embracing
wisdom in one being distinguished among the man or the men, among
man. Daniel 1.9, now God had brought
Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs.
Daniel 5.11, there's a man, your kingdom, the spirit of holy God
in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom,
like the wisdom of the gods were found in him and King Nebuchadnezzar
as your father, your father, the king made him chief of the
magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans and soothsayers. Of course, this
was Belshazzar, who did not listen to the wisdom and it was already
set. So, you know, here's the thing
to remember with these. Does this happen overnight? It
can take time, years. And that's the process. We don't
get smart overnight. We can read a book, think we're
knowledgeable, but it's a whole other thing to apply it, to own
it, to have it as a conviction, to have practiced it. And this
is where obedience comes in. We do great. We can get knowledge
so easy today. Chat GPT is my best tutor. If I don't know anything, I'll
ask it, and I get a quick summary. But that doesn't mean I really
know it. I mean, I understand it and can apply it. And so wisdom
is something that you're applying daily, and then you start to
grow. And these are the implications
of it later. Questions? Thoughts? What do
you think? True to experience? Wisdom, unfortunately,
doesn't come overnight. And as we raise our kids and
grandchildren, we definitely know that to be true. Yes, Michael? You can have a whole lot of knowledge,
but without wisdom, it's useless. Right. Yeah, they start to apply it
for the benefit of others. Some do pretty good in the poker
tournaments, I hear. But even then, they don't always
win. So I have this little chart here, the eternal wisdom of Yahweh.
Israel's wisdom tradition seen in Proverbs Yahweh's wisdom perceived
in creation by faith lady wisdom as a metaphor just kind of brings
all three of those concepts Into it. All right. Let's look at
Proverbs 4 9 the preeminent prize and let me just read Proverbs
4 9 She will place on your head a
garland of grace. She will present you with a crown
of beauty and It's a beautiful picture. Of course, this is a
little weird for us in modern day. Someone put a wreath on
our head and we think we're in some kind of show or some sort
on a stage. And look at Proverbs 1.9. This
is just repeating what was said earlier. For they will be a graceful
ornament on your head and chains about your neck. She will deliver
to you a crown. It's a diadem of glory, which
is a status. Now, when you pair these three
truths, It points to our justification, sanctification, and glorification.
I don't want you to miss this. It's pretty cool. 1 Peter 5.10,
but may the God of all grace, who called us into his eternal
glory, which, by the way, is a verse we'll be covering today
in this message, by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while,
perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. Ephesians 2.8,
for by grace you've been saved through faith, not of yourselves,
as a gift of God, not as a result of works, lest anyone should
boast. And then 1 Peter 5, 4, when the chief shepherd appears,
you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.
So even in the Old Testament, there was this picture of faithfulness,
service, reward, exaltation. And we see that in an earthly
perspective, but there is, isn't there, a whole spiritual perspective. And something I was, as I was
going through the message last night, that just really struck
me. is the theme of suffering is just everywhere, right? And no one's exempt, not even
Christ himself. This whole life, I'm convinced,
even though there's some joy in it, and I don't want to get
you all down with this statement, but life is suffering for a season. And then when we've been faithful,
we've persevered through it, we've learned our lessons, Lord
takes us home and then he exalts us. And what's sad about suffering
is that most people who are struggling in life, many times, let me say
it a different way. If you embrace suffering, it's
a great tutor. and doesn't defeat you, it strengthens
you. But if you resist suffering,
refuse to take the lessons, refuse to learn from it, learn to accept
it, you get in a really bad state because you're trying to avoid
reality. And so I've just learned, change or die. I know it's a
little bit extreme, but coming out of my drug and alcohol addiction,
where I pretty much destroyed my whole life, there was a lot
of suffering, self-inflictions in my life. I had to change. Now, I couldn't do that without
Christ. But each and every day, little by little, the distance
between my suffering that I self-inflicted on myself got further and further
away, and I got to experience, yeah, Suffering with learning
from the lessons is important. So often, we just, it's like
when you get pulled over. Man, why is this cop after me
today? Well, I was the one who was speeding.
I didn't do anything. He didn't do anything wrong,
right? So often, when something goes wrong, we're like, it's
your fault. And I think suffering is designed
to break our pride, teach us that wisdom, and grow. So we
don't make the mistake. All right, thoughts on that?
Can anyone relate or am I just the oddball here? Okay, I'm just
the oddball here. Thanks, Dennis. Okay, so the
preeminent prize as we're going, let's see here. Let's go to,
to embrace wisdom is to embrace the word that leads us the only
way to God. And so back to my original book
where I was going all this. This is why people, when they
suffer, either end up receiving Christ or rejecting Christ. And
when they're suffering, they get mad at God and harden their
heart towards him, which is the exact opposite of what God was
intending to do. Okay, the biblical model, the
family of faith. You got grandpa, grandma, you
got dad and mom, you got son or daughter. Male leadership
is the primary role to know, obey, and lead in doctrine and
example. But again, it's not solely the
husband's work, the male's work, the woman, the wife, She plays
just as a part of a role as the man, it's just that the man is
ultimately held responsible before the Lord. Okay, any questions
on these first nine verses? Pretty cool. But again, you see
it's a marathon, not a sprint. It's a mountain climb, it's a
valley, it's up and down, but hopefully in the end you're making
progress. OK, ready for the next section?
Verses 10 through 19. So let me go ahead and read that.
You can see I put it in parallel. For the most part, sometimes
the tabs get messed up. Hear, my son, that's a command here,
and receive, another command, my saints. And the years of your
life will be many. I have taught you in the way
of wisdom. I have led you in the right paths. When you walk,
your steps will not be hindered. And when you run, you will not
stumble. Here's the command, take firm
hold of instruction. Do not let go. Another command,
keep her for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the
wicked and do not walk in the way of evil. Another command,
avoid it. Do not travel on it. Another command, turn away from
it. And another command, and pass on. For they, this is the
evil ones, do not sleep unless they have done evil. And their
sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. For they eat
the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the
path of the just is like the shining sun that shines ever
brighter until the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like
darkness, and they do not know what makes them stumble. OK. This next section is the next
generation. Choose your path wisely. So let me get caught up here.
And OK. We're almost there. OK. There we go. Okay, so the next generation,
choose your path wisely. So this section is broken down
in the foundational principle. The word of God must be heard
and received. The faithful pattern, the word
of God must be taught and lived. The fortified passageway, the
word of God will give you freedom and liberty. And then the fervent
perseverance, the word of God requires passion and priority. So that's the overview. So let's
jump in here. The word of God must be heard and received. Proverbs 4 10, hear my son and
receive my sayings and the years of your life will be many. So
here's a question. Hear my son. Does that sound
familiar? Yeah. In the book of Proverbs,
it's actually mentioned, you can see there many times, one,
two, three, four, five, six times. My son, hear the instruction
of your father. Don't forsake the law of your mother. Hear,
my son, and receive my saying, and the years of your life will
be many. A wise son heeds his father's instruction, but a scoffer
does not listen to rebuke. Cease listening to instruction,
my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge. Hear,
my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way. Listen
to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother
when she's old. It's a pretty big assumption here. Dad is actually
giving wisdom, right? And that's how it's supposed
to be, a godly father giving godly wisdom to his son to be
godly. But our father is imperfect?
Yeah. And that kind of mucks things
up, doesn't it? Application. Dad and mom should
be giving biblical wisdom to their children through word and
deed. And the children should listen and learn biblical wisdom
as well as the model what they learn. Keep in mind that life
stage is important, meaning them where they're at, and supplement
key truths where it is needed in their life. So there's reading,
explaining, modeling, there's memorizing, there's studying,
there's praying, there's discussing. Of course, there's things like
Awana, Bible study, serving retreat missions, et cetera. There's
a lot of ways to get the word in you, but there's only one
way to get the word out of you, and that's obedience. And that's
the challenge. Now, outside the book of Proverbs,
look at some of the negative stuff. Genesis 27, Therefore
my son Jacob, obey my voice, Rebekah, according to what I
command you. Therefore my son Jacob, obey
my voice, Rebekah, flee to my brother Laban in Haran, Esau. So that was kind of a bad situation.
I remember when Jacob deceived and Esau was pretty mad and probably
would have killed him. And so he had to bail. Not the
best wisdom from mom, but necessary at the moment. But she created
that situation in the first place, didn't she? Deceive. She wasn't
trusting in the Lord. Deuteronomy 21, 20. And they
shall say to the elders of a city, the son of ours is stubborn and
rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He's
a glutton and a drunkard. And then they would take that
son out and stone them, the elders would stone them. And then, of
course, you have Phineas and Hophni, Eli's sons. No, my sons,
for it is not a good report that I, Eli, hear. You make the Lord's
people transgress. If one man sins against another,
God will judge him. But if a man sins against the
Lord, who will intercede for him? I love that, because we
know the answer. Nevertheless, they did not heed
the voice of their father, because the Lord desired to kill them.
Interesting in the sovereignty of God, the hardening of hearts,
the way consequences work through. Conclusion, mom and dad are not
without sin. Children should not obey nor
model unbiblical wisdom and counsel from dad and mom. On the other
hand, children must be made aware of rejecting biblical wisdom
and the consequences that follow. This is hard, isn't it? you're
growing up and you're young and you think you know everything.
I don't know if it's the youth that's flowing through the blood
that just makes you think you're on top of the world and you know
everything. How many times have you heard kids say, I know, I
know. Maybe I'm just the only one. Okay, insight. Can you discern the difference
between biblical and worldly advice that is given and received. This is something that I've really
tried to work on in my own life, because there's really some smart
people out there. And even within the church, it'll
come across, oh, that sounds so good, that sounds so wise.
But if you actually think about it, it's very opposite of the
scriptures. I was trying to think of some
examples. But I think the best is just how you deal with sin.
Well, maybe we should just, you know, overlook this one. There
is verses that say it's godly to overlook a transgression.
But many times we're talking about, well, probably the best
example is when people try to use their personal preferences
and make that law. That's a good example. certain
type of music, certain type of dress, certain types of activities. There's just a lot of ways, but
we have to learn to discern the difference. That when we hear
what sounds on the surface wisdom, we have to ask the question,
but is that biblical? And that's what you want to ask. Because
a lot of times, and you know this, between a lie or on the
outside of a lie is two truths. And sometimes very hard to figure
out which is which. Implication, true hearing, listening,
is linked to receiving, taking, and seizing. So how good is your
hearing? Let's take the test. Here we go. 10 tests to check
your biblical hearing. Do you in prayer review the week
and confess your sins? Praise God for his character
and help, and intercede for others in prayer? Do you read ahead
or study ahead to be prepared for the message so as to get
more out of the message? This isn't meant to give you
guys guilt trips, so don't worry. Do you get to bed early on most
nights before church to be rested and alert for worship? Are you
asking God to help you understand the passage better? Do you take
notes or engage the sermon in an intentional way to gain wisdom
from the word for personal application? Do you intentionally seek to
immediately apply one or more of the truths from the message
or Sunday school? Do you share with others what you are learning?
Do you have other preachers or resources that help you understand
difficult passages? Do you have a pattern of reading
God's word, alone plus others, family, friends, et cetera? And
10, are you praying for your pastors and teachers? Now, this
wasn't meant to be from me, but it actually comes from, so Ken
Ramey, he has a book called Expository Listening. I know this guy, he's
a good guy. This was his dissertation, and it's pretty interesting,
because he comes from the perspective of what's our role and responsibility
And I'll be honest with you, this is one way that I grew.
I would listen to MacArthur and take lots of notes. And again,
sometimes it wasn't just the notes. I'll say this, I don't
have any of my notes left over, but it was the exercise of in
the moment, staying engaged. That really helped me. And so
question for everyone, what is the one thing that has helped
you to know the Bible better? Just out of curiosity, what is
the one thing that helps you know the Bible better? Study. Do you study a passage? Do you study a book? Do you read?
Do you get books out? Like, how do you study, Michael? Passage
at a time, really. Yeah. And do you just pick a
random one, or you just pick something that you're working
your way through? Working my way through. Yeah. Cat. Yeah, so your own kind of application
handout. Yeah, this is what it means.
Boom, boom, boom. What else? Got questions. Got questions. Great website. And because it
really does a good job of outlining, getting to the heart of the matter. What else? Any others? Yeah, that's the inductive Bible
study process, right? Reading with a purpose, one verse
at a time, context smaller. Yeah, Derek. Listening to multiple
pastors online. Yeah. Yeah, getting sometimes
hearing another preacher say it's like, oh yeah, that makes
more sense that way. These are all the different ways that,
yeah. One of my former pastor who you, we prayed for last week,
Dwight Hall. Yes. From Calvary Chapel. Calvary,
yeah. Yeah, that can happen. Illumination by the Spirit helps
you. Yeah, and it's a process, right?
But each of you got to figure out a way, what's the best way
to learn, and make it a process, make it a part of your life.
You may never be a preacher or a teacher, but you can still
be just as knowledgeable. Michael? I think what you should
always do is ask the Holy Spirit. Try to train yourself to ask.
Yep, absolutely. And I'm a firm believer of that.
You start a study, I always say, Lord, open up my mind, because
I don't understand anything. And you've got to train yourself
to do that. Yeah, and you can't do it the
last minute. It has to be a process, right? Saturday night specials
don't come that often. So yeah, so all right, so here's
that other question again. Can we really add years to our
life? Exodus 20, 20, 2012. Out of your father, mother, your
days may be long upon the land which the Lord God is giving
you. And you can see each one of those. Job 14, five, since
his days are determined, the number of months is with you.
You have appointed his limits so they cannot pass. Job, after
he lived 140 years and saw his children and grandchildren for
four generations. 2 Kings 26, I will add to your days 15 years,
and I will deliver you in this city from the hand of the king
of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own namesake
and for the sake of my servant David. Many, not quantity, but
quality. Abundance in years. That's the
idea behind the text as I've said from the beginning Outside
of a few exceptions like Hezekiah where God says I'm gonna give
you or Job. I'm gonna double When he talks about your days
being longer, it's really the quality of the life of course
if you're rebellious and you do some stupid stuff then yeah,
your life is cut short and And this is one just in the general
principles. Typically, rebellious people who are taking extreme
risks tend to die sooner rather than later. And those who are
more conservative and so forth tend to live longer than shorter.
but we can't extend years to our life, but we can live in
such a way to improve the quality of our life. And God's all a
part of that. Okay. Sure. Well, I had that
in it, but there you go. Okay. Let's go to the next one. We got a little more time. Proverbs
part three, the next generation, choose your path wisely. The faithful pattern. Look at
verse 11. I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led
you in right paths. The implication, and look at
this, to avoid hypocrisy, the talk and walk are joined and
must never separate. These are the two sides of the
same coin of Christian living. And look at this, I've taught
you the way of wisdom. He doesn't say, do what I say,
not what I do. He's saying, I've led you in
the right paths. I do what I say and do as I do.
There is a way. or manner of wisdom. And any
way that is not wise is unwise. Sometimes it can't be clear,
two choices, one moral and the other immoral. But often, sometimes
it can be subtle, the difference between best and good. Proverbs
14, 12, Proverbs 16, 25, there's a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way of death. That is always the tricky one.
The way of wisdom has a specific path, a direction that is toward
God and away from the world. It is always a proven way. I
have a little farsight here. Now take them big burns, Barnaby.
Never eat a thing. Just sit and stare. They're probably
thinking their life is going to end soon. Derek. Yeah, I mean it's certainly ultimately
yes spiritual because this is all about wisdom But some act
some immoral activities can lead to both physical death and yeah
Correct yeah, and sometimes the scriptures in the Old Testament
particularly try to keep those together because life how you
live is connected to life eternal and Here's a little story. In the southern seas, an American
vessel was attacked by a wounded whale. The huge monster ran out
for the length of a mile from the ship, turned around, and
with the whole force of its acquired speed, struck the ship and made
it leak at every timber, so as to begin to go down. The sailors
got out all their boats and began to pull away from the ship. Just
then two strong men might be seen leaping into the water.
They swam to the vessel, leaped on board, and disappeared for
a moment. And then they came up bringing something in their
hands. Just as they sprang to the sea, down went the vessel,
and they were carried away in the vortex. But they were observed
to both of them be swimming, not as of struggling to get away,
but as of looking for something, which at last they both seized
and carried to the boats. What was this treasure? What
article could be so valued as to lead them to risk their lives?
It was the ship's compass, which had been left behind. And without
it, they could not have found their way out of those lonely
southern seas into the high road of commerce. The compass was
life to them. It would be used to point them
in the right direction. The Lord gives us all his abundant
grace that we may take fast hold of divine instruction. It's a
good reminder, the word is our divine compass. Okay, all right,
let's, okay, we got that part. And yeah, okay. So let's look
at this next one. The way of wisdom, like I said,
is a specific path, a direction toward God and a way from the
world. It's a proven way. Look at salvation, the way. Jesus
said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me. But in the world today, right,
doesn't people try to say, oh, there's many paths. Right? Can you discern the difference?
The past, unbeliever, Ephesians 2.1, and he and you he made alive,
who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked
according to the course of the world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, that's Satan, the spirit who now works in the
sons of disobedience, among whom also we were once conducted ourselves
in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh of the
mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
That's a path, but it's worldly. Present believer, Ephesians 2.10,
for we are his workmanship. The Greek word is poema, which
sounds similar to a poem. Created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in him. God
is using our life to make a poem with it. Better versus best. 1 Thessalonians 4, 1. Finally
then, brethren, we request and exhort you and the Lord Jesus
that as you received from us instruction to how you ought
to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that
you excel still more. This is hard. This is, I don't
know if you know this. I learned this from a carpenter.
I may have shared this before. A carpenter will use his tools, and then
every year or so, depending on how often they use them, they
will upgrade the tools to something that requires more and more precision.
Because if they keep using the same tools, they get actually
less precise. And so they're always refining
and upgrading their tool set ever more. And that's the idea
behind excelling still more. You're obedient, but you want
to be more obedient. There's areas of your life that
are still you're struggling with. You want to address those and
begin to move. And so the idea, we do this at
work all the time. To improve, it has to be measurable,
right? Got to know what's broken or
what needs to be fixed. There has to be connected to
that instruction that can take you from point A to point B,
right? It has to be achievable. but
then incremental. If you skip rungs on a ladder,
you're just gonna fall off the ladder. And so when we try to
improve ourselves, don't go from here, from A to Z, go A, then
B, then C. Maybe it just means, okay, today
I'm just not gonna do it two times, I'm gonna just do it once.
Now, of course, if it's sin, it's zero times, but when you're
trying to improve and you're growing in godliness, it's incremental. I need to grow in this. Maybe
it means memorize a verse as a reminder every day. Asking
God, this is a bold prayer and be careful how you use it. But
just go to the Lord and say, Lord, this is the area of my
life I need sanctified. I'm open to however you want
to fix me. Give me some wisdom, some verses to memorize. Give
me some circumstances to practice. And he will open those doors
for you. Just be ready. Never easy. Okay, the way of wisdom, like
I said, has a specific path. Now, fortified passageway. The word of God will give you
freedom and liberty. This is such a neat thing, but
I'm going to break up the second here for another cartoon from
Farside. Ernie, look what you're doing.
Take those shoes off this instant. He's stepping on everyone. When
you walk, your steps will not be hindered, and when you run,
you will not stumble. So we move from walking to running. This is the effort to live a
godly life. Hebrews 12.1 Therefore we also,
since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let
us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares
us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."
When you start to prune the sin out of your life, that's where
you're walking, you know, because you can't go very fast when you're
hindered by your sin. But as you become more godly
and life becomes more ordered, You can do more for the Lord.
You're more efficient, you're more effective. Proverbs 19,
five, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and
rejoices like a strong man to run a trace. That's just a beautiful
picture of the son. Second Timothy four, seven, I
have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have
kept the faith. That's a picture of Paul at the
end of his life. Not hindered means restricted. Not stumble,
which means become weak, fatigued or moral failure. This verse
transitions from being shown the path of wisdom to now venturing
out and living life wisely. It's a journey and it's a race
of endurance. I like to say it's not a sprint,
it's a marathon. Though sometimes it feels like
it's a sprint and a marathon. When you're on God's path living
obediently to his word, It does not matter if you walk or run.
When you are living wisely, according to God's word, you will not be
restricted. God will not be hindering your
steps, nor will you have to be chastened for sin. You will face
obstacles, but not being trapped by them. Philippians 2.14, do
all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become
blameless and harmless, children of God, without fault in the
midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine
as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that
I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or
labored in vain. Yes, and if I am being poured
out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your
faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all." Paul understood
how to run the race. He understood how to remove those
things that hindered him, but he never lost sight of the others
around him as well. Application, Galatians 5.13,
for if you, brethren, have been called to liberty, for you have
been called to liberty, only do not use your liberty as an
opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Here's a picture of a very, let's
just say, curvaceous mountain road. The dirt and rock road
that stretches about 40 miles and descends from La Paz at 12,000
feet down to the beautiful rainforest of the Coraco at the edge of
the basin of the Amazon River is a road of death. In 1995,
the Inter-American Development Bank called this stretch the
world's most dangerous road. So let me show you another picture
of what that looks like. So here you go, there's Death
Road. So you're going from this high and going down into the
Amazon. An average of 26 vehicles fall
off this road each year and 200 to 300 people lose their lives. As if steep hillsides, cliffs
and drop-offs with no guardrails aren't bad enough, the road sometimes
has room for only one vehicle. Rain and fog complicate the trip,
along with muddy surfaces and loose rocks, On July 24, 1983,
more than 100 passengers were killed when a bus veered over
the edge and crashed into a canyon. Despite the danger, the road
has become an increasingly popular tourist attraction since the
early 1990s. What is wrong with us? But it pictures life, right? And to stay on the path means
staying biblical and godly. And so walk versus run, the efforts
to live a godly life. And I think we're going to stop
here. I think I've got those. Yeah. Yep. Let me just make sure. Okay, yep, we'll stop right here
with fervent perseverance. Any questions from the lesson
today? I'm trying to have less lecture
and more interaction, but Derek. Yeah, sometimes we pray without
understanding the implications of our prayers. All right, let's
close. Yes, Chris. Yeah. Yeah, let me pull that
up real quick because I don't have it memorized. There's a limit to all my mind. You're welcome. All right, let me just close
in prayer and then we'll break for worship and then a meeting and
finally that yummy food that smells so good. Heavenly Father,
thank you for this teaching this morning from your word, and just
help us to stay on the path. Help us to find the liberty and
the freedom in obeying you. In Christ's name I pray, amen.
All right, we'll pick up next week at verse 13.
Proverbs 4:6-12
Series Proverbs
| Sermon ID | 22252132422988 |
| Duration | 44:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Proverbs 4:6-12 |
| Language | English |
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