06-17-07 proverbs for Fathers
Proverbs Chapter 3
The Rewards of Wisdom
1 My son, do not forget my teaching,
But let your heart keep my commandments;
2 For length of days and years of life
And peace they will add to you.
3 Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 So you will find favor and good repute
In the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your body
And refreshment to your bones.
9 Honor the Lord from your wealth
And from the first of all your produce;
10 So your barns will be filled with plenty
And your vats will overflow with new wine.
11 My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord
Or loathe His reproof,
12 For whom the Lord loves He reproves,
Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
I. Possessive My son verse 1
1 My son, do not forget my teaching,
But let your heart keep my commandments;
A. Family
1. Off spring, my son….…..
B. Do not forget
1. We have this tendency
2. Forget what….teaching
C. Let your heart keep my commandments
1. Not head
2. Not intellect
3. Heart, God does not want a mere mental ascension to the intellect
4. But a heart felt heart journey
II. Promises for adherence to the previous word in verse 1
2 For length of days and years of life
And peace they will add to you.
A. Length of day
B. Years of life
C. Peace added to you
III. Further strong advice verse3
3 Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
A. Do not let Kindness and truth leave you
1. Kindness proceeds truth
a) You can be right but unkind about it
2. Bind it around your neck
a) Puka shell necklaces, choker chains….
b) Kindness and truth around your neck
(1) Let them both be a choker to you
(2) Some of us need them to be your choke chain
c) For all you kind ones who think I was talking about the mean people
(1) You might to be choked by the truth they have for you from God
d) For all the truth people out there
(1) We need to proceed our truth God gives us with kindness to be received truth without kindness will not be heard or received
e) Kindness and truth are to be an out ward adornment
3. Write them on the tablet of your heart
a) Engrave them
b) Interesting, this is apply to the inward as well
c) We should match kindness and truth inside and out
IV.Promises for adherence to verse 3
4 So you will find favor and good repute
In the sight of God and man.
A. We will find favor
B. We will have a good reputation With both God and Man
1. If we bind kindness & truth around our necks
2. If we engrave kindness & truth on our hearts
V. Trust in the Lord verse5
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
A. The word translated “trust” in verse 5 means
1. “To lay helpless, facedown.”
2. It pictures a servant waiting for the master’s command in readiness to obey,
3. Or a defeated soldier yielding himself to the conquering general
B. With all our heart
1. The heart that is keep my commandments
2. The one that is engraved with kindness and truth, inward and outwardly
3. Spirit, soul, and body
C. Lean not on our own understanding
1. This would be a tendency
a) Thinking with our head
b) We need to think with our Commandment obedient, kind, truthful heart
c) We must trust Him not only for the salvation of our souls but also for the direction of our lives
d) There must be a healthy distrust of self, an acknowledgment that we do not know what is best for us, that we are not capable of guiding ourselves
e) Jeremiah expressed it pointedly:
Jer. 10:23
“O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps”
VI.In all our ways verse 6
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
A. There must be an acknowledgment of the Lordship of Christ
1. Everywhere we go
2. Everything we do
3. Every area of our lives must be turned over to His control
B. He’ll make our way straight
1. We will not have to wonder where to wander
VII. Do not be wise in our own eyes verse 7
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
A. We do this by
1. Not become arrogant
2. Conceit puts us on “hold” as far as divine guidance is concerned
3. By Fearing God
4. Fear here is not dread, but “reverence of God
a) Expressed in submission to His will
b) Having a proper respect for WHO God is
c) I realize who I am wit…..
B. Turn away from evil
1. Not just do not participate in it
2. But turning away from it
3. Evil is meant to entice
Romans 612-14
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
4. Do we
a) Let sin reign
b) Present our member to unrighteousness?
5. We should
a) Present our selves to God alive
b) We are to act like the living not the dead
c) What are we letting through our senses
6. Sin shall not master you
a) If we were under Law we would fail
7. We are under grace
a) We are free to fail
b) But more importantly we are free to succeed in grace
VIII. Healing to our body & bones verse 8
8 It will be healing to your body
And refreshment to your bones.
A. There is a close connection between man’s moral and spiritual condition and his physical health
1. It has been estimated that fear, sorrow, envy, resentment, hatred, guilt, and other emotional stresses account for over 60% of our illness
2. A terrible toll taken by alcohol (cirrhosis of the liver); tobacco (emphysema, cancer, heart disease); immorality (venereal diseases, AIDS)
3. “He shall direct your paths” is more literally “he shall make your paths smooth” or “straight,” but guidance is surely included in the promise
4. Solomon, by divine inspiration, was way ahead of his times in the field of medical science
IX. Honor the Lord with your first fruits
9 Honor the Lord from your wealth
And from the first of all your produce;
A. From your wealth and what is added to your wealth
10 So your barns will be filled with plenty
And your vats will overflow with new wine.
David Livingston,
“We should determine not to look upon anything we possess except in relation to the Kingdom of God”
B. Consequence in doing so
1. Barns will be filled with plenty
2. More then enough
3. Vats over flowing
a) Good harvest
X. Do not reject the discipline of the Lord
11 My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord
Or loathe His reproof,
A. Discipline
1. Discipline is not easy
2. We do not like it
3. We avoid it
4. We usually have a lot to say about those who dispense it
B. Do not reject discipline
1. Too often we tend to think of discipline as meaning punishment
2. All that is involved in the proper training of a child
a) i.e., instruction, warning, encouragement, advice, correction, and chastening
b) Everything that God allows to come into our lives is purposeful
c) We should not detest it or despise it
d) Neither should we shrink from it or give up under it
e) Rather we should be concerned that God’s purpose is achieved through the discipline, and thus we reap the maximum profit from it
f) God’s ultimate purpose in the disciplines of life is that we become partakers of His holiness
3. Who is the source…ultimately
4. We should have a bigger vision then pain and endurance
5. We need to know the love behind it
6. With holiness being the fruit
XI. Whom the Lord loves he reproves
12 For whom the Lord loves He reproves,
A. The next time God is dispensing love in your life
B. Change your outlook and see if you can say ……Thanks Dad
C. How on earth…..
XII. Last line of the verse 12
12 For whom the Lord loves He reproves,
Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
A. The son in whom He delights
B. God delights in us
C. He would not bother if he did not care
D. Discipline is a proof of love, not anger
E. Correction is a proof of sonship
Heb. 12:6-8
6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.