PRICELESS

Priceless - Proverbs 1:1-7

Proverbs 1:1-7

1 - WHY WE NEED THIS BOOK, v. 1

2 - THE GOAL, vv. 2-3

3 - THE INTENDED AUDIENCE, vv. 4-6

4 - THE FOUNDATION, v. 7

INTRODUCTION:

This morning we begin a new series of studies, in a book of the Bible that has often been neglected in the Church circles I have grown up.

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PROVERBS - WHY WE NEED THEM, v. 1

Do you remember the MasterCard commercials ago? Zamboni; travel. I was reminded of them on our vacation - Back from camping to sockeye season on the Fraser - the part of me that is cheap (and that's a big part of me) - always looking to save a dollar here or there - that part of me sees sockeye season as a great way to fill up the freezer with good, healthy meat - for a fraction of the price of buying fish in the grocery store. The provider in me, loves the idea of being able to feed my family, through the winter, with food that we caught ourselves, for free.

We have been reminded, that it is not 'free' to bring home fish that we have caught. License - $150 for three of us; gas to go out to Chilliwack - $10 per trip to get to the river - - - losing gear - - about $10 per trip; cost in years of life - when you get excited about the fish that has chomped on your hook - only to find out that it was no fish - but the hook of the guy about 10 people up from you, who keeps letting his line drift down the river - getting tangled with everyone else. Or when you finally get away from the crowds on your brother in law's fancy new boat - only to find yourself floating helplessly down river, because he forgot to check his gas level before you left the shore -

But back to the commercial - all of the costs aside - spending time with your boys - in a shared activity, with a shared goal, in God's beautiful creation THAT IS . . . PRICELESS.”

Let me take the message of that commercial and apply it to your life: There are many things in this world that people value and strive for – that can be purchased. What do you value? Education? 100,000 should be almost enough to get you to a PhD. Great Physique? 50/ month for a gym membership should do that. Living a lavish lifestyle? You need to get into professional sports - - OR into the oil business.

But to be known as WISE - - That, friends, is priceless.

Not long ago, there was a report in Christianity Today magazine on pastors who have been forced to leave their churches. When you hear “forced to leave” - you probably get all sorts of ideas - of great failures. Bad Preaching was the cause in 6% of cases; Physical/Mental illness – 9%; Not doing job – 12%; Value Conflict – 28%; Lack of Relational and conflict resolution skills – 46%.

In other words, in almost half of all cases – where a pastor is forced to leave – the reason is that he lacks wisdom in dealing with people.

Not just pastors either. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers 2 of the top causes of marriage breakdown are: 1) poor communication, and 2) financial conflict. Those are both wisdom issues.

Think of your own life – where do you struggle?

There are the consequences of sin that leave us frustrated, there are the wrongs we suffer from others, there is pain in this world - - But isn’t it true that so much of our ongoing joyless existence – frustrations - - come because - in the choices we make, ON OUR OWN - the choices we make are not made WISELY.

BRUCE WALTKE: Of all the professors I had in my years of schooling - the one who made the greatest impact on me. Not a dynamic preacher/teacher, by any means. He speaks with a New Jerseyaccent so thick, sometimes you want to laugh when he talks. But when he speaks, you listen – because recognize in him a depth of wisdom that you can almost touch. I hardly think it is a coincidence that he has been studying the book of Proverbs for 35 years - and has written a massive, 2 volume commentary on this book that stands as the most thorough treatment in the English language.

There was always something about him that when you rubbed shoulders with him in the classroom, or sat down for coffee with him - you recognized that you were in the presence of wisdom and there was something there that could help you

I want to be wise. And, friends, I want wisdom for you too.

Turn to Proverbs 3:13-18.

That's what I want for us. As Waltke puts it, “In a world bombarded by MINDLESS SLOGANS, inane clichés, trivial catchwords, and godless sound bites, the expression of true wisdom is in short supply today.

“Don’t sweat the small stuff” “When Life deals you a lemon – make lemonade”. What a load of shallow tripe. We need deeper guidance than that.

In this world, the church stands alone with the inspired traditions that carry a mandate for a holy life from ancient sages, the greatest of whom was Solomon, and from the One greater than Solomon, Jesus Christ, in whom, the NT tells us - are hidden all the riches of wisdom and knowledge.

Derek Kidner writes, “The book of Proverbs takes up those matters that are too fine to be caught in the mesh of the law, to small to be hit by the broadside of the prophets” (Derek Kidner).

We are learning the Ten Commandments together - that's good - it's important - need to never forget that idolatry, dishonoring parents, coveting - go against God's Word. How do you speak to your spouse? How do you handle your money? How do you conduct yourself in business? This is a book that addresses the nitty- gritty of life in this sin-stained and messy – but still God-created and ordered world.

God speaks in different ways to and through the writers of Scripture – Moses –God says I didn’t speak to Him in riddles . . . God speaks to Moses face to face on Mount Sinai –

Prophets – God appeared in visions and spoke to them – audibly. Isaiah chapter 6: 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, ‘‘Here am I. Send me!”

So what about wisdom literature? What about Proverbs? God inspires Solomon and the other contributors to this book, as they look around at the creation before all of our eyes – and point us to the order that God has embedded in the most ordinary features of this world - an ant doing its work. A stone wall, falling down. THis is not Natural revelation - this is God's special revelation, to Solomon and the other sages of Proverbs - through the way they see creation.

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2. THE GOAL, vv. 2-3

v. 2, “for attaining wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight.”

If you have a King James Version here, it reads, “to know wisdom . . .” It is right, but it doesn’t quite convey the idea here. It is not knowing about – You do not know it until you experience it.

Remember teenage years – your first 'love'. You thought you had finally found the person you had waited all your life for – Okay so you were only 14 and you had never met anyone outside of your school – but this girl was so special, and she felt the same way about you – at least for a while. For weeks you could say, “She’s my girl,” and everyone else was jealous of you.

Then one day, tragedy struck and she said she just wanted to be “friends” - - Your heart was crushed. “I gave her the best days of my life! I loved her”. At least you thought you did. It wasn’t until you grew up and developed a relationship with someone else that you realized - - “This is what love really is”. You can read about love in all the dictionaries and books you want - but you cannot KNOW love until you experience the real thing.

You can know about Jesus – but it is not until you put your trust in him – experience His forgiveness and grace and sweet companionship - - that you really know Jesus. You can know about wisdom – can know the proverbs in your head, by memory - and still live in foolishness. The goal of this book is that we would know the joy-filled experience of living wisely.

As we come to the book of Proverbs - I want to make sure that you have something very clear in your understanding: This is not a 'how to' book. This is not a book filled with 'new year's resolutions' for you to stick on your bathroom mirror and determine to follow in your own strength. If you treat the proverbs in that way - they will mock you.

In giving us this book - God does not intend to crush us with layer upon layer of demand. He intends to HELP us. The book of Proverbs is practical help from God for weak people like us, stumbling through daily life. It is His counsel for the confused, his strength for the defeated, His warning to the proud, his mercy for the broken. The book of Proverbs, like every single other part of the Scriptures - the book of Proverbs is GOSPEL - good news for the foolish, through the Wisdom of God. Don't run away from

Look at verse 2, second half - "... to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give PRUDENCE to the simple ..."

PRUDENCE - the word can have negative sense - can mean 'shrewd', or 'cunning' or 'deceptive' - it is the word used to describe the serpent in Genesis 3:1 - crafty, scheming serpent.

But the idea here is not negative - it is of humbly, reverently, under God - living shrewdly – SKILFULLY. When you learn to drive - you are not content to drive through the streets, as if you are driving a bumper car - - bouncing off of every obstacle that gets in your way - - - your car - - more importantly - your PARENT's car is valuable - whack your club into the grass – and hunt through the forest for your errant ball - - You want to do it right. So you practice – take lessons, you do what you can to help you do it right.

And the more greatly you value something, the more determined you are to know how to do it well. We only have 1 life to live on this earth, friends, what could be of greater value than to know how to live it SKILLFULLY?!

C.S. Lewis in the “Abolition of Man” bemoans the world in his days, which was picking up speed on the highway of godlessness – a highway that we are now RACING along today. A society that rejects an absolute truth – the notion that there could be objective right and wrong, and in its place puts values, is a society that is doomed :

“In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”

We need the wisdom of Proverbs

TS Eliot - "Where is the life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"

In our chaotic lives of constant stop-start-stop-start-short attention span - where we are assaulted by an endless stream of momentarily visible Twitter-feed fragments of information, we have been reduced to one splinter factoid after another, and we are trying to patch together some kind of elegant whole worth living.

Nicholas Carr wrote an article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" and in it he points out how we are being changed by the electronic media that we have come to depend on, and how we need to change back:

"As the media theorist Marshal McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski."

Being fed a constant diet of

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3. THE INTENDED AUDIENCE, vv. 4-6

Who is the intended audience of Proverbs? Vv. 4-5 tell us that there are 2 main groups.

1. The Gullible

First, v. 4, says that the proverbs are “for giving prudence to the simple”. The word “simple” is important. It is not speaking of a simple lifestyle – It is speaking of a simple ‘mind’ – the Hebrew word here, ‘peta’im’ literally means ‘open’. ‘Simple’ is a good translation that captures the idea - - Another good fit would be the word - “Gullible”. You see, openness, in the Bible is not a virtue - - it is a WEAKNESS - - - And . . . .

The problem with our society today is that we are open to everything and committed to nothing. We are “simple” – believing anything we are told. And it seems that every snake-oil salesman today who rolls his wagon into town and sets up shop - - can always dupe at least some people.

The book was primarily written for young people at the age of puberty - - just before they were old enough to be married. They are ‘simple’ or ‘gullible’. If that offends you, "I'm not gullible" -

Don't take it personally - it is not a knock against your intelligence. It is a statement about the limitations caused by age - because of their young age – - - they lack experience. The wisdom here is meant be a compass by which to steer the ship of life.

It has struck me recently what a tragedy it is that most of our children In the church today are ignorant of this book and its God-inspired guidance for their lives.

When we were on holidays, we did some shopping. Walking up to the glass doors, heading into a store - I stopped, suddenly, in my tracks. I noticed, saw the reflection of the boys in the glass and I was blown away - I have always been considered tall - and I noticed that I am the third tallest in my own family - and not far from being fourth. I used to hold each one of those boys in one arm. When did they get to be my size - and taller?

Also, while on holidays - two of our boys earned their licenses - Noah can now drive on his own - and Elijah has his learners. Sitting beside my youngest, watching him controlling 2 tons of machinery, driving down city streets - I found myself awe-struck, looking at him - - our little baby, is becoming a man - - I mean, REALLY becoming a man – with a body that is more and more like a man’s body – and real hair beginning to grow on his legs.

It doesn’t take long, though, for the wonder to turn into heart palpitations – He’s growing into manhood - - Will he be prepared to live skillfully and purposefully in this world ? Will your children and mine be equipped to navigate their way through the minefield of destructive choices that will confront them in the days an years ahead? Are you equipped?

“A wise son brings joy to his father but a foolish son grief to his mother” chapter 10.1

So this book is written to our children - those who are gullible - open-minded.

2. The Wise

But there is another group specifically to whom this book is specifically addressed – This group is on the other end of the spectrum from the simple. Verse 5 speaks to them, “Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance.”

Do you get the point? This book is for everyone. Either you are simple – and in need of instruction in the ways of wisdom - - OR - - you already are wise and will benefit from, what the teachers among us call, some ‘Professional Development’. You never outgrow the book of Proverbs. But no matter who you are - - Proverbs is for you.

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4. THE FOUNDATION, v. 7

v. 7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

There are no more important words in the entire book of Proverbs or in any human study of wise living – than these words in Proverbs 1:7 - - “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge . . .”

This is a book that God has given us so that we can know how to live WISELY - SKILFULLY. But be careful. This is not merely a how-to book, it is a character developing book. In case you did not already know – the short proverbs that we usually associate with this book – don’t begin until chapter 10. Chapters 1-9 are all prologue. There’s a reason for that: FIRST, your heart has to be prepared, and only then are you ready to receive them - like soil for the seed. And if you think that you can pull the proverbs out of this book, shove them in your back pocket like paper fortunes out of a Chinese cookie – the proverbs will mock you. It will not work.

Like the New Year’s resolutions we make year after year: “No more junk food! This year I’m only eating whole grains and vegetable and soy . . . STUFF”. Sure enough, January 2 rolls around and – “so much for this year”. The reason for that is that as long as I still love junk food – it’s not going to work - - I need to have my tastes changed. And that – I cannot do on my own, so the foundation is given to us, of where this wisdom comes from:

Don’t miss the fact that it is not the fear of GOD – but the fear of the LORD where wisdom begins - - - The LORD is God’s Covenant name. It is only in relationship with the LORD, through Jesus Christ His Son, that your heart can be changed so that you come to treasure the Wisdom of God.

Do you remember John Bunyan’s classic allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress. Pilgrim wakes up to realize that he is living in the city of destruction. He knows God’s judgment is coming and he has to flee. Sets out for the Celestial City (heaven). But he finds he cannot get on the road to the Celestial City, until FIRST, he has gone through the wicket gate - - He either goes through the gate – and he is on the road to the Celestial City – or he turns around and goes back to the City of Destruction - - Those are his only 2 options.

Here too - at the beginning of Proverbs - we are given only TWO options: The fear of the Lord is the beginning . . . that's the first option. You begin the road to heaven's Celestial City

... Or, you go back to the city of Destruction: in the second half of v. 7, "... fools despise wisdom and instruction".

Friends, the stakes in the book of Proverbs are high - - life and death.