Sunday Service 9-13-20 - Proverbs 12:8-14 - Good Sense from Home to Heaven

Proverbs 13 Sermon C (8-14) - Good Sense from Home to Heaven 1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. 2 A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of evil devices he condemns. 3 No one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved. 4 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones. 5 The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful. 6 The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers them. 7 The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand. 8 A man is commended according to his good sense, but one of twisted mind is despised. 9 Better to be lowly and have a servant than to play the great man and lack bread. 10 Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel. 11 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. 12 Whoever is wicked covets the spoil of evildoers, but the root of the righteous bears fruit. 13 An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips,a but the righteous escapes from trouble. 14 From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man's hand comes back to him. 8 A man is commended according to his good sense, but one of twisted mind is despised. What's going on in our minds? That will determine who we are, and so Paul says that we are to take every thought captive and calls for us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. This is why we're here looking at the Word of God ... because we need good sense, because we need to fight the sinfulness, the twisted, perverse directions that our minds are prone to go. We need the helmet of salvation and all of the armor to keep our minds from being poisoned by the lies of Satan and the allurement of the world ... we need our minds to become strong and stable. And, this works itself out not only in the big picture, but in the small, practical things of life ... When you can simply have good sense you will be a blessing to those around you and someone who is also wise will recognize that and commend you. And, this is not easy - don't take good sense for granted. There are plenty of people who call themselves Christians, plenty of people who fill church pews who lack good sense ... just look at Facebook. And, we have all had moments when good sense would've been a welcomed commodity that we lacked and had to repent later. We will see good sense working itself out in practical ways in the following verses... 9 Better to be lowly and have a servant than to play the great man and lack bread. And, here is one practical example of good sense that also points to profound truth. The culprit here is pride ... are you too proud to need help, to ask for help, to allow help ... will you try to do it all yourself ... connected to that is are you seeking all of the glory and credit yourself? There is this picture of a man who is pretending to be something he's not. Maybe he's pretending that he's of a high station, making sure he's got all of the status symbols - the car, the clothes, the house, the toys, the clubs, etc, and in the meantime, he's diverting resources to these things while the main things for life are lacking ... Or, maybe it's someone who is pretending that he's got it all together, covering up any cracks in the structure so that no one can see what's going on, and in the meantime the pressure and stress builds, the boat is taking on water, and when the storm comes the fall will be great. Christ: Here is the gospel - will you play the great man and lack the bread of life? Will you pretend you're OK when you're actually alienated from God with no eternal hope for your soul? Will you continue to try to play religion and check off boxes in hopes your good works will count for something (in which case, who are you actually serving but yourself with your "good" works)? Or, will you humble yourself and ask for help? And, to whom will you turn? Like Peter said to Jesus, where else can we go, for you have the words of life? This is the beautiful craziness of the Gospel - God Himself whose very nature demands the service of all things actually lowers HIMSELF to become your servant, if you will but lower yourself to call on Him for this salvation. Jesus is God incarnate who came into the world, not to be served, but to serve. He doesn't need us or our service - what does God need from us? Rather, we need Him to serve us and that's what He did. See the one who is actually the King of kings who came to become your servant on the cross - see him serving you in His lowly birth, in his learning discipline and growing in wisdom as a child (though he needed none), in his resistance of every temptation known to man in living a sinless perfect life, in his miracles of healing and spiritual cleansing, in his world-changing, paradigm altering teaching, and ultimately in his giving himself over to undeserved humiliation, suffering, and death ... because He's willing to serve you!! Will you be lowly and have Him as your servant so that you will have the bread he offers, and you will never again hunger ... the bread is his very body, his very presence, his very Spirit to come and sanctify you in Truth and Grace and Love. Or, will you play, pretend to be a great man and in your delusion of grandeur, starve for all eternity. Here is another aspect of the Gospel and the beauty of God's love for us in Christ: God doesn't need us! BUT, He is willing for us to serve Him ... and in so doing, we get to take part in the ultimate purpose of the universe, to glorify God and this IS ultimate Joy. The beauty of a love relationship where we have an ultimate God-glorifying calling and purpose. He allows us to participate in His mission to bring others in as well ... and He allows us to serve Him and to serve them JUST as we were served by HIM!! And, in this we will never be lacking. Though we starve outwardly, inwardly we are full of sustenance that the world knows nothing about. 10 Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel. More practical wisdom here - the righteous person understands significance in ways that are beyond the eyes of his nature, beyond the perception of the world. His wisdom comes from God who is the creator of all things. That beast is the creation of God, and so the one who is righteous has regard for the life of his beast because he has regard for the one who made the beast ... And, doesn't he also realize that to God, he is but a beast and yet God has regard for his life ... Psalm 8:4-6 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? ... We were given dominion over the creation - the earth and the beasts. We are a steward of what God has given us. And, doesn't the righteous person also know that the beast is serving him, and so just treatment shown to that beast is also going to come back to him in many years of good service. This is wisdom. On the other side of this proverb, we have the wicked, and the wicked person, as we've said again and again, is self-focused (his self-focus is ironically self-destructive) and so the only regard he has for his beast is not grounded in God as the creator and himself as the creature, but rather as himself as ultimate (this is foolishness/folly). The beast only matters in as it serves his own purpose and so he will exploit the beast as much as possible to make a buck. This is why even their "mercy" is actually cruelty because it comes from a place of self-ultimacy. Doesn't this apply to humanity even moreso??? Bosses, CEO's, Owners of companies, take notice of this - do you have concern for your employees, those who serve your bottom line as the image-bearers of God that they are? This is Paul's point when he talks about paying a minister so that they are not burdened ... don't muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain - he says is God really concerned about an ox or is there a higher level of truth to be applied there. 11 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. Here is the balance to V9-10. Not only do we ask for and appreciate help, we also apply ourselves and the abilities God gives us to the responsibilities and purposes God has given us. I love this verse ... whoever WORKS (get after it, put the time it ... it's about time-on-task ... do something if it's wrong) ... whoever works HIS LAND ... you don't have to solve all the worlds problems to do what God has called YOU to do. Work your land - take care of the dominion God has given you ... that will also help you not to be too critical of others and their land, because you'll be focused on working your land. And, in general, for the one who works hard at the responsibility he's given, he will be taken care of, his needs will be met with plenty of sustenance. On the other side, the one who is not focused on his own work, and his own land but instead fantasizes about another life (NIV), or is caught up in pursuing something that he is not called to do or he is not cut out for or something that in general has no value (maybe a get-rich-quick-scheme. Don't go chasing waterfalls.) ... that person lacks not only bread, but sense. So, the connection here is: lack sense lack bread ... So, plenty of sense and plenty of bread. I found this verse to be personally challenging ... golf ... I asked my wife and others whether or not I was following a worthless pursuit ... Vanity of vanities all is vanity and chasing after the wind... In the end, there is but one pursuit that cannot possibly prove worthless or in vain - Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" 12 Whoever is wicked covets the spoil (or stronghold) of evildoers, but the root of the righteous bears fruit (or endures). The wicked have to covet a defense (or a satisfaction/pleasure) obtained illegally from without; because they have none within themselves. But righteous people have a legal security rooted in God, which then produces this security/satisfaction within their very character. 13 An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous escapes from trouble. The wicked coveted security/stronghold/pleasure but instead gets a prison ... and the prison is of his own making through sin, specifically sinning through his words. So, through his words, he tries to get what he wants which is security and satisfaction, and these words are sinful words - so lies, deception, hypocrisy, vulgarity, spite, tearing down. And, it eventually becomes the very thing that exposes him for what he is. On the other side, the righteous finds trouble or is found by trouble (probably caused by the evil man in part A), but because he is righteous, he has focused on justice - what is right and wrong, integrity, and his character is also exposed and is found to be pure. And, so he is vindicated. This is Christ's resurrection. 14 From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man's hand comes back to him. Going further, not only is a man satisfied vindicated by his righteous words, but he is satisfied by the resulting state of well-being that his words have achieved. And, we see that oft-repeated principle from wisdom literature that you reap what you sow. What you put in, that's what you get out. From Jesus' parables this ratchets up - the sower sows seed and the seed that falls on good soil produced a 30-50-100 fold harvest, 100 times what you put in - this is divine multiplication. From the parable of the talents we see that when a person uses the resources entrusted to him, he returns a multiplied yield and is then given even more. Here is the deal - what we do in that heavenly land/vineyard - that work comes back in an eternal way. (Mark 10:29-31) Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first." And, this is God's own work - He produces fruit from his mouth that satisfies him with good, with glory and honor and praise, and He puts out all of this work to create and then to redeem a people for himself, and it comes back to him - Of all that the Father gives Jesus, not one is snatched from his hand. So what do we do - We work for a heavenly prize, we get after it in the field that God has given us, and we know with utmost confidence that what we do will not be in vain, will not fail, but will accomplish exactly what it is meant to accomplish and 100 times more - Say what needs to be said. Do what needs to be done - God cares about it, He recognizes it, He commends you for your good sense, and He rewards you with all that you can imagine and more in the age to come. We will be His, and He will be ours. That is our banquet with plenty of bread where we are ultimately satisfied with good, because God is good.