Words to Listen to

Proverbs 2:1–2 ESV

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;

Making Your Ear Attentive to Wisdom

These first two passages are passive in nature. They are things that we allow to happen to us. we have no say on the reception of something. but verse two is what makes this interesting. incline your ear to understanding, as a parent, our ears are inclined to many things. Have you ever been doing something in another room and hear something that was uncharacteristic of the situation. typically this prompts us to act. Or how about a mechanic. who can hear a slight sound in you car and be able to identify it. or this is my favorite, many musicians have what is called perfect pitch. This gives them the ability to hear a sound or a note played and recall the exact key of that note. Two things, if that is you this morning, I am very sorry and also would you be willing to join the music team. What Solomon is telling us here is that we are to make our ears attentive to hear this wisdom. When someone speaks, its the ability to know this is wisdom, or rather, this is a foolish. We have had this happen before.

Incline Our Hearts to Understanding

The second half of this passage tells us to incline our hearts to understanding. To feel willing or favorably disposed toward something. To understand something in this passage lends us to assume that this will take root in our practice. Understanding is reached when we are looking to achieve something. The reason we learn scales and gain understanding of a piano is that we can form more beautiful music. The reason we learn to weld correctly is that we can have a more sure confidence what we are putting together. The reason we study the word and learn and memorize scripture is that when the storms come and the winds blow in life our understanding in Gods word helps up navigate the difficult questions. How do i manage this diagnosis? How do I love a rebellious child? How do I hold on in a loveless marriage? How do i break a crippling addiction.

You see we can hear words of wisdom all day and sometimes litterly twice on Sunday, but if we are not inclining our heart to understanding this wisdom we hear. This might as well be a yoga class, and I know for a fact no one wants to see me in yoga pants.

The second part of these 4 verses take on a active posture.

Look at the affirmation here.

Proverbs 2:3–4 ESV

yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,

See this language that is used. Call, raise your voice, Seek it like silver, search for it.

I know one thing we have all done here was lose something. Weather it was a set of keys, a shoe, a child, that doggone remote control that I am certain the children hide just to get a rise out of me. Can anyone relate to that. (show of hands)

You see the urgency here. This is a crying out. A proclamation and a plea for understanding. There have been a few moments in my life where my desire for understanding has weighed heavy in my chest like a stone. Jackie and I for a season of our lives purchased a home and when you buy a home you spend a significant amount of money if on nothing else a security that the homes basic plumbing and electrical would be sound. I can see the smirk on some of your faces and yes, if I could talk with that Ryan from a fews ago I would quicky correct him. We soon came to find out that after a couple -20 degree days this was not the case. The water in the pipes froze and causing the water in the base bored heat to freeze. I cannot express to you enough that with two small children at the time and one on the way. my plea for understand was loud! I desired greatly to know what the cause to my issue was. Where was the source of my problem. I became ravonous about it, I searched high and low for the issue. it became my passion. I watched, what must have been hours worth of you tube videos trying to find a solution. I called everyone I knew who knew anything about plumbing.

the solution became like silver to me, and I searched for it like hidden treasure.

Can I ask you something Church. When was the last time an issues came up in your life and you searched for the answer in the scriptures. I mean I don’t think any one of us would disagree that the scriptures contain everything pertaining to life and godliness. So, the last crises that came up at work, did you search the scriptures, did you ask God for insight and understanding. When life at home was unsteady and uncertain, did you pour over the word and see what it said? When you had conflict did you call out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding.

Last week we discussed in our life group creating this second nature in us. something that was taught to me by my youth pastor is that we should develop a mentality that it is physically impossible to walk past a piece of garbage without picking it up. I would like to take this a step further and say that we should develop a mentality that what happens in our lives, our default is to seek what God will say on the matter. to search his word.

In the same since, not doing it would be as if we are refusing to breath. It should be a natural as taking a breath.

Why is all this important? As we read through this we see he keeps driving home this point.

I’m going to help us out a little, if you mark in bible put a bracket around verses 5-8 and then verses 9-11.

If all of this just reads as conditional terms than what the the pay-off. If we do all this then what happens.

Then We will have an Understanding of God and his Ways.

Verse 5 gives us a great Segway into summarizing these passages. look how beautifully he does this.

Proverbs 2:5 ESV

then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Then this gives us a window into the type of character it develops

Proverbs 2:6–8 ESV

For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.

from your mouth come pleas for guidance and instruction, from his mouth comes not just instruction, or guidance, but understanding.

real quick, can we just take a second and praise God for the Holy Spirit, that when we sit a read the word, and pour over it seeking the face of God, the spirit lights up the very parts of our life that are so choked in darkness and gives us understanding of his word.

So in these verse the pay off is we have understanding of God and all his ways.

But wait there's more....

Proverbs 2:9–11 ESV

Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you,

Yes we have understanding but we also have a proper way to live. See in that passage hes actually giving us an incredibly pragmatic payoff.

Then we will have an Idea how to Live in Righteousness

If this passage tell us anything, its that there is a way things work because what were about to encounter in these next passage is the reason all of this matters. This the is the battle before us.

Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs ((3) Second Exhortation (2:1–22))

THE TWO TEMPTERS

(2:12–19)2:12–19 Two tempters face the young man as he enters adulthood and must make decisions about the course of life he will follow.

The first is the evil man, the criminal, who holds out the promise of easy money (vv. 12–15; cf. 1:10–19),

The second is the evil woman, the prostitute, who holds out the promise of easy sex (vv. 16–19; cf. 5:1–23).

The tempters are distinct but in some ways similar. The corrupt man speaks words that are “perverse” (v. 12). That is, he justifies his way of life with a distorted and twisted set of values in order to persuade others to join him. We saw this a couple weeks ago in the beginning of proverbs 1

The immoral woman speaks words of “seduction” (v. 16) to inflate the ego of her victim and draw him in.

The immoral man abandons the straight paths (v. 13) whereas the immoral woman abandons her lawful husband and the promise she made before God (v. 17).

The evil man goes in paths that are dark, crooked, and devious (vv. 13, 15); he leads those who follow him into a wilderness of confusion.

Rather than lead her victims along paths, the evil woman draws them into her house, and the house is in fact the gateway to death itself (vv. 18–19).

Finally, both of the tempters lead their victims to destruction.

The evil man draws his followers into moral decay, the corruption of taking pleasure in perverse evils (v. 14). Those who enter the house of the immoral woman, on the other hand, find only the ghosts of those who preceded them and discover too late that there is no exit (vv. 18–19).

This is a powerful image accurately and graphically describing the situation of those who have followed the allurement of sexual sin.

Its no mystery that as we read proverbs together church we are seeing this appeal to the two ways. The way of righteousness and the twisted path of wicked.

Just as the promise of life contrasts with the certainty of death

“So you have chosen death.” - Saurmon

Words spoken to Gandalf in Tolkien book Lord of the rings Series, when offered to join the forces of evil and reign in power.

When the family and I moved back from Alaska I still had a severe itch to go on an adventure. Everyone was in quentee so I figured that I would snag Lincoln, we would load up the car and head north to do some camping. I have some good amount of experience in the woods, i’m going to call myself Bear Griles, but I could survive. since it was early April, the Adirondacks still have a good bit of snow, so I figured a few bits of cold weather gear would suffice for this trip. Lincoln and I look at some pictures and landed on Snowy Mountain. We did the hike in a few hours and i quickly realized that the night we were gonna have camping was probably going to be a bit more then the boy could handle. My attempts in distracting him with beans a other treats from my pack sufficed until the sun began to set over the mountains and the last bit of winter began to speak. Lincoln was not having it. I had a choice to make at that point. we could grin a bear it and just embrace the cold in our warm sleeping bag or make a mad dash for it and get the tent and all the supplies together to maybe make it back to the car before the sun set completely and we would find our selves in the dark. Time was not on my side and in order to persevere any future trips with Lincoln I made the call to pack it in and get out. We did make it back to the car and he, as you can see in this photo was exhausted.

unfortunately the choices that we are confronted with in life don't tend to be this easy and while this was not a life or death choice. The battle field does lay before us every day. And each time our alarms go over we swing our legs around to get out of bed. the power of life and death lay before us. we can choose life and live in righteousness or choose death. Unfortunately we are told in Matthew that

Matthew 7:13–14 ESV

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

More and more frequently I see Men and Woman who are taken out of the battle by succumbing to what the temptress says and what the deceiver promises

so my conclusion to you is this church. That while we are battling and fighting for our hearts. we are are not alone that we have one who is battling along side us. That we do this with the hope that he is coming to rescues and restore us.