Day #199: Proverbs 3:1-4

BACKGROUND:

This passage from Proverbs 3 begins with an appeal to follow your father’s teaching.
The son is urged—both negatively (do not forget) and positively (keep)—to heed what he was being taught. If these instructions are part of one’s inner life, two benefits will be realized: longevity, a sign of God’s blessing, and prosperity. The word for prosperity is often translated “peace.” Though it includes peace and prosperity, it is broader in meaning. It also suggests wholeness, health, and harmony.

Love, along with dependability should grace one’s life like a neck chain and should be written, figuratively, on one’s heart. The results of such adherence are favor and a good name (good reputation).


SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)

If God were to tell you, "You can have anything you want. I'll give you one wish." What would you ask for? To win the lottery? A new body? A new husband?

One guy in the Bible got that opportunity. Solomon. His father was David. He was the third king of Israel. In 1 Kings 3, God said, "Solomon, I've been watching your life. You can have one thing. What do you want? Fame? Pleasure? Power? Possessions? What do you want?"

Solomon said, "I want wisdom." God was so pleased with that He said, "Not only am I going to give you wisdom, but you're going to get everything else too that you didn't ask for." And Solomon became the wisest man who ever lived. He wrote a book -- the book of Proverbs. We're going to look at it for the rest of this week - learning wisdom.

The book of Proverbs looks at things… money and sex and power and family and friends, career, success, failure, aging and conflict and we're going to look at it from a topical viewpoint -- the major themes of the book of Proverbs.

Solomon said the key to really having it all is to wise up. Proverbs 4:7-8 say this -"Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do. Whatever else you get, get insight! Love wisdom and she will make you great!"

What is wisdom? It's not knowledge. We're in a knowledge explosion in today's world. There's a lot of information. You can be an educated fool. You can have a lot of degrees and not make any sense. Just watch the talk shows! Can you have a high IQ and not be wise? Sure. You can have a high IQ and make dumb decisions! It's not IQ and it's not intellect. It's not knowledge. It's not even common sense. It's much more than that.

A definition I heard about 20 years ago I think really applies. Wisdom is seeing and responding to life from God's perspective. An attitude and an action. It is a skill that you can develop.

The problem is that we don't usually respond to life from God's perspective. In fact, Proverbs 14:12 says "There is a way that seems right to a man but it ends in death." Have you ever heard anybody say, "I just go with my natural inclinations. I do what I feel." The Bible says that's dumb. The Bible says that your natural inclinations are normally wrong. There is a way that seems right but it ends in a dead end.


Proverbs 3:16-18 says, "Wisdom is more valuable that precious jewels; nothing you could want can compare with it. Wisdom offers you long life, wealth and honor. It can make your life pleasant and lead you safely through it. Those who become wise are happy." What will wisdom do for me? A lot more than you think! That's what we spend our lives trying to get -- long life, wealth, honor, pleasure, security and happiness. God says they're all wrapped up in learning to be wise.


How do I get it? By reading The National Enquirer? By watching Hollywood Squares? By buying a New Age crystal? By listening to Oprah? Primal scream therapy? MTV? Miss Manners column? There is only one reliable source of wisdom. If you want to be wise you've got to go to the source: God's Word.


#1. Read God's word.

Proverbs 1:2 (LB)says,"(Solomon) wrote these Proverbs to teach his people how to live -- how to act in every circumstance."


When it comes down to it there's really only two sources of wisdom in life -- the Word or the world. You will get your insights on life from one of two places -- what God says or what the world says. The world will tell you all kinds of contradictory things. All the founders of modern psychology -- Freud and Maslow and Jung and Rogers and James and every one of them would disagree with each other. The wisdom of the world, the Bible says, is like foolishness to God. You have a basic source of wisdom in God's word.

How many of you believe everything you watch on television? How many of you believe everything you read in the newspaper? the radio? the Bible? Why do we spend more time listening to and reading what we don't believe than reading what we do believe? It doesn't make sense. You read God's word! This is the owner's manual for life. When in doubt read the instructions. It helps a lot. If you want to be wise you've got to get into this book.

But it takes more than reading the book. It takes more than studying it. I know people who are walking encyclopedias of Bible knowledge. They read it, study it, memorize it. They can quote scripture and they're as neurotic as they can be. They've got a walking knowledge of the Bible, but they're nuts! It takes more than Bible knowledge. That's why you have to go to Step Two.


#2. You do what it says.

Proverbs 7:1-2 says, "Never forget what I tell you to do. Do what I say, and you will live. Be careful to follow it." This book is worthless to you if it just sets on your coffee table. It's worthless to you even if you just read it. It's worthless if you don't apply it in your life.

He says two things; First, never forget. Remember. Memorize. When was the last time you memorized a verse in the Bible? Have you ever memorized a verse in the Bible? Why do you think you have so many problems? God's Word is wisdom but it does no good setting on the shelf. There are all kinds of practical insights here. Never forget.

Then he says, do what it says, follow it, apply it. You've got to become a living Bible. First commit it to memory then commit it to action. That's how you become wise. You read God's Word and then you do what it says.

Let's say you were going to go on an airplane trip to London. The flight from LA goes over the Arctic cap -- Canada, Greenland. Let's say over the Arctic circle the plane crashes and miraculously you survive. Right before it crashes the stewardess passes out to everybody a little booklet on how to survive in a snowstorm. So you're there in the Arctic circle with yourself and a book on how to survive in the Arctic circle. You could read the book over and over and still freeze to death. You've got to do what it says.

James 1:22 says, "Don't merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says." If you want the secret to an effective life in one sentence, that's it. Don't just listen, don't just hear it. Do what it says. A lot of Christians, a lot of church attenders, are deceiving themselves. They think they're making it. They come to church and set and hear all these good things and it goes in one ear and out the other. They walk out and they've forgotten it by the time they've got home, much less tried to apply it.

The Bible says when I do that I'm deceiving myself. I'm kidding myself. It takes more than reading it or coming to church and hearing it on Sunday. I've got to apply it in my life. I've got to practice it. That's what helps me become a wise person.

#3. I get to know God.

Proverbs 1:7 says, "How does a person become wise? The first step is to trust and revere the Lord." It's foolish to try to live your life ignoring the One who made you. You were made for a purpose, for a reason. Your creator has a plan for your life. It's ridiculous to try to live life ignoring the very One who made you. You ought to trust the Lord. That's the starting point in becoming wise. Trust the Lord. Circle that.

Who are you trusting? What are you trusting to give you daily guidance? Horoscope? Stock market projections? Your own natural instincts? The Bible says that is a dead end. It seems right but it leads to all kinds of problems.

Why do people make foolish financial decisions? Why do people walk into marriages that are doomed from the start? Why do people start habits that they know eventually are going to kill them? Why do people take more on in their schedule than they can handle? Why do people buy things they don't need with money they don't have to impress people they don't even like? Why do people have an affair and think it won't matter? Why do people fail to prepare for death when they know it's inevitable? Why do people procrastinate accepting Christ when He offers them tremendous benefits and they know it?

Proverbs sums up all those questions with one answer in one phrase -- a lack of wisdom. When you lack wisdom you make dumb decisions and you pay the results. Proverbs 9:10 "For the reverence and fear of God are basic to all wisdom. Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding."


He says "Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding." Do you know God? Not, Do you know about God? but Do you know God? Knowing God means more than knowing facts about God. You believe God exists? Big deal! So does the devil and you won't find him in heaven. I believe in Lenin but I'm not a communist. I believe in Hitler but I'm not a Nazi. I believe in John Birch, but I'm not a John Birch-er. I believe in Jesus Christ and I am a Christian. Why? Because it's more than knowing about Him. I know Him! I have a personal relationship to Him. I've committed my life to Him. That's what it means to know God. You can do that today. You can have that same relationship. It's so simple. Jesus made it so simple, nobody could say it was too hard to understand. Say "Yes" to God. "Yes, be number one in my life. Yes, help me know and understand Your plan."

If God were to give you one request what would you ask for? I hope now you'd ask for wisdom. It says that nothing you could ever want could compare with wisdom. It offers long life, wealth, honor. It will make your life pleasant. It will lead you safely through life. Those who become wise are happy.

I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.