Proverbs Part IV: Wisdom as a Partner
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
What is wisdom?
Why is wisdom important?
Where can we get wisdom?
Today’s Question: What do we do with wisdom once we have it?
1 Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, 2 for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching. 3 When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, 4 he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. 5 Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. 6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. 7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. 8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. 9 She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”
Fewer words ring as sweet as when the Father speaks to His children. His words are like the sweetest honey to those who are called by His name. His words are a delight. Even His reproof brings steadfast faith and joy.
O how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
For they are ever mine.
I have more insight than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged,
Because I have observed Your precepts.
I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
That I may keep Your word.
I have not turned aside from Your ordinances,
For You Yourself have taught me.
How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.
Solomon: the wisest man in Israel, and his father David: Psalmist, King, and Shepherd
Growing up as a pastors kid I felt a lot of pressure. I always felt like a fish in a fishbowl. Everyone knew my name. Everyone watched me and everyone had opinions about how I acted and looked. I can only imagine what it might have been like to be in Solomon’s shoes. In a time when it was uncertain who would succeed David as King of Israel Solomon arose as an unlikely choice. He was a child of forgiveness. After Bathsheeba and David’s first child died Solomon was their next child. Despite all of David’s other sons it would be Solomon who would take the throne of Zion. With the pressure of a nation watching him, David spoke to Solomon these words.
When I was a son to my father,
Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother,
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.
“Do not forsake her, and she will guard you;
Love her, and she will watch over you.
“The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom;
And with all your acquiring, get understanding.
“Prize her, and she will exalt you;
She will honor you if you embrace her.
“She will place on your head a garland of grace;
She will present you with a crown of beauty.”
These words were engulfed in anguish. David was known as a man after God’s own heart. He was holy. He was a man of great faith. He was a leader mighty in battle and instrumental in (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) writing the book of Psalms, a tool the church would use to come before God in worship for generations to come. (BTW it is still being used even to this day!) David however knew firsthand the pain of foresaking wisdom. He hurt a lot of people with his actions. He crossed lines he thought he would never cross. Yet, here he stands before Solomon, a child who should never have existed, sharing the wisdom he had learned.
Sometimes the best way to learn wisdom is by other people’s failures.
My Dad had a similar experience to David, granted he never had someone murdered by military combat, but he did struggle to have integrity in his ministry. He too hurt a lot of people, our family especially. Just like David, that humbling experience brought him before God with a repentant heart, and through that restoration my dad became one of the wisest men I have ever known. God grew my dad through that refining process into one of the most influential pastors and friends that I have. God used Psalm 51, a Psalm David wrote after being confronted with his sin, to anchor my dad in his faith. Since then I have learned first hand the power of a father’s wisdom. David appeals to Solomon, “Here the words I share with you know. Please do not make the same mistakes I did. Please stay on the path of righteousness because wandering leads to heartache.”
The great thing about our God is that He is not like human fathers. He will never let us down or fail us. We can trust that God is good and is wisdom is never failing. He is a good, good Father. God’s good wisdom is for our benefit.
Godly wisdom leads to Life (v. 4)
Godly wisdom leads to Insight (v. 5 and 7)
Godly wisdom leads to Safety (v. 6)
Godly wisdom leads to Exaltation (v. 8-9)
Godly wisdom is a beautiful partner. There is nothing greater than God’s wisdom. It should be cherished and lifted up. Just like a marriage, wisdom takes work. Do not neglect it. Develop wisdom and never stop. King David knew the value of a crown and yet he knew that a crown of wisdom was worth more than any made man object could ever be worth.
Hear, my son, and accept my sayings
And the years of your life will be many.
I have directed you in the way of wisdom;
I have led you in upright paths.
When you walk, your steps will not be impeded;
And if you run, you will not stumble.
Take hold of instruction; do not let go.
Guard her, for she is your life.
Do not enter the path of the wicked
And do not proceed in the way of evil men.
Avoid it, do not pass by it;
Turn away from it and pass on.
For they cannot sleep unless they do evil;
And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.
For they eat the bread of wickedness
And drink the wine of violence.
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
The way of the wicked is like darkness;
They do not know over what they stumble.
If you didn’t know already, the way of the wise and the way of the foolish are not the same. There is a stark difference between the two. Solomon describes the difference as someone walking on a smooth path in the daytime versus someone walking a rockey path in the dark. A foolish person does nothing but stumble. The foolish live in the dark but the wise are brought out of darkness to live in marvelous light. Delivered from the domain of darkness to shine the light of Christ to a dark world.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;
nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
We are called to walk in the way of wisdom, but how do we walk in wisdom?
Walking in Wisdom requires transformation
Over and over and over again we see in Scripture that good works follow salvation. They do not preceed salvation. In order to be be wise and walk the way of wisdom one must first trust in The Way, The Truth, and The Life, Jesus Christ.
Walking in Wisdom requires illumination
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
In order to walk according to the wisdom of God we have to know His words
Walking in Wisdom requires intentionality
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Do not make provision for sin but starve it out. Rather than making oportunities for sin make oportunities for sanctification.
My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your sight;
Keep them in the midst of your heart.
For they are life to those who find them
And health to all their body.
Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.
Put away from you a deceitful mouth
And put devious speech far from you.
Let your eyes look directly ahead
And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.
Watch the path of your feet
And all your ways will be established.
Do not turn to the right nor to the left;
Turn your foot from evil.
Solomon closes this chapter by calling us to follow God’s wisdom with our ears, eyes, hearts, words, mind, and feet.
Hold fast to Wisdom with your ears, eyes, heart, words, mind, and feet
Does wisdom recieve this kind of attention from you?
Think of David. With his ears he became deaf to the voice of God in his life. With his eyes he looked and lusted for Bathsheeba. With his heart he hardened himself to God’s compassion and mercy. With his words he called for the execution of Uriah the Hittite. With his mind he concieved plans to cover up his sinning. With his feet he wandered from the path of wisdom and was quick to shed blood.
Does your heart flow with springs of life or sin and death? The state of our heart says alot about who we are. Just like the heart determines physical life, the heart too determines the state of our spiritual life. We desperately need new hearts. Ezekiel 37 says we need God to step in and transform our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. John 3 says we must be born again. Born once in the flesh and born again in the Spirit.
What does it mean to hold fast to Wisdom?
Phillip and the chickfila cow tree story
What does it mean to speak wisdom?
Do your words build others up or tear them down? A fool uses their words to destroy but a wise man uses their words for life. It was with a word that God spoke life into existence. Words are precious tools in the eyes of God. It was through the Word that God brought salvation to the earth through the Son Jesus.
Think about your actions. We as Christians are called to follow Christ with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. With our actions we either grow in sanctification or give in to sin. We can choose to be intentional, carefully considering the path we walk on, or we can be reckless and careless, wandering from the path of righteousness to our shame. Praise be to God, even when we fall short we can find forgiveness in Jesus.
How will you respond to the Father’s instructions?
A Tale of Forgotten Wisdom:
There once was a king mighty and strong
Who grew in his wisdom, his stature, and song
He lived in a kingdom holy and devout
His heart remained humble despite all the clout
When the time came that he should go to war
the king couldn’t seem to get out the door
He strolled on his rooftop looking for trouble
and found a woman bathing with brush and with bubble
The secret wisdom once found in his chest
was replaced with lusting deep under his vest
The man used his power to take her as his own
To use her as he wished til her husband came home
Little did he know a baby was conceived
so he plotted and lied, he murdered and deceived
He did away with the husband consumed by his pride
and took then the wife to be now his bride
Hidden and safe thought he behind his lie
But he could not run from God’s watchful eye
God sent a prophet to set straight his course
To make right what the king had taken by force
“This thing you have done with wicked intent
Has not God given you all? Are you still not content?”
So the king cried and there he repented
Oh the pain that wisdom could have prevented!
He called out again, “Lord forgive me my blunder
restore again the wisdom that know’s torn asunder
purge me of evil, malice, and sin
Lord please make me new all over again.”
Despite what he’d done the Lord offered redemption
Through the wife he had stolen would come sin’s prevention
What man meant for evil God works for well-being
To offer salvation from sin’s grasp He’s freeing
So cling to wisdom do not let it flee you
Follow its statutes and hold to its values
Please do not wander and please do not stray
Remember God’s calling to trust and obey