Bible Study Series: Proverbs 15

all right if you're there in your bibles proverbs 15 the book of proverbs is a collection of practical life wisdom given mostly in short memorable statements it's unique in its structure being mostly a collection of those individual statements it's not really drawn out you're not reading long paragraphs or or chapters that expound on a theological concept or principle it's just bite-sized pieces of wisdom that just come one right after the other and in a world where there uh things are getting more and more chaotic and crazy what we need now more than ever is wisdom from on high we need wisdom from the very breath of god so that we can navigate um the days and the weeks and the months ahead amen amen well i'm going to read proverbs 15 the whole chapter and then as we've been doing over these last uh you know a couple months we're gonna then kind of pick out a couple highlighted verses by no way can i adequately teach every single verse and walk through every single verse so i encourage you there's something that really sticks out to you as we read tonight highlight it mark it there take note of it and then afterwards do some research of your own study it and see what god would have for you in that truth tonight so here we go proverbs 15 starting with verse 1 i'll be reading from the new living translation it says this a gentle answer deflects anger but harsh words make tempers flare the tongue of the wise makes knowledge appealing but the mouth of a fool belches out foolishness the lord is watching everywhere keeping his eye on both the evil and the good gentle words are a tree of life a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit only a fool despises a parent's discipline whoever learns from correction is wise there is treasure in the house of the godly but the earnings of the wicked bring trouble the lips of the wise give good advice the heart of a fool has none to give the lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked but he delights in the prayers of the upright the lord detests the way of the wicked but he loves those who pursue godliness whoever abandons the right path will be severely disciplined whoever hates correction will die even death and destruction hold no secrets from the lord how much more does he know the human heart mockers hate to be corrected so they stay away from the wise a glad heart makes a happy face a broken heart crushes the spirit a wise person is hungry for knowledge while the fool feeds on trash for the despondent every day brings trouble for the happy heart life is a continual feast better to have little with fear for the lord than to have great treasure and inner turmoil a bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate amen a hot tempered person starts fights a cool tempered person stops them a lazy person's way is blocked with briars but the path of the upright is an open highway sensible children bring joy to their father foolish children despise their mother foolishness brings joy to those with no sense a sensible person stays on the right path plans go wrong for lack of advice many advisors bring success everyone enjoys a fitting reply it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time the path of life leads upward for the wise they leave the grave behind the lord tears down the house of the proud but he protects the property of widows the lord detests evil plans but he delights in pure words greed brings grief to the whole family but those who hate bribes will live the heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words the lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayers of the righteous a cheerful look brings joy to the heart good news makes for good health if you listen to constructive criticism you'll be at home among the wise if you reject discipline you only harm yourself but if you listen to correction you grow in understanding fear of the lord teaches wisdom humility precedes honor father this is your word speak to us tonight we ask help us god to take what we hear tonight and let it sink deep into our spirits we love you god in jesus name amen and amen now remember we can't break down this entire chapter so please please please dive deeper into verses that jump out to you and get growing uh we're going to look at a couple passages but again please read reread dive deep on your own so here we go um verse number one says this says a gentle answer deflects anger but harsh words make tempers flare when people come to us in wrath and anger we are often tempted to be harsh in our response wisdom shows us the value of a soft answer one without sharp edges or points that kind of answer can actually turn away wrath or calm a moment pride and passion on both sides strike together like two flints we indulge in sarcasm as if we would rather lose a friend than miss scoring a point in the argument all this the world excuses but the gospel sets before us our lord and savior's example and encourages us with to have his spirit so that we should be careful not to provoke or to cause someone to come right back at us you know jesus the one of the turn the other cheek jesus the one who says or when was asked how many times should we forgive someone seven times that seems like a lot i don't know seven times seventy a harsh response to anger will often only stir up more anger it may feel good at the moment but ends up making the situation usually worse and not better i read this quote one time i said many conflicts arise not because the issues separating the parties are so great but because of the temperaments people bring to the confrontation let me read that again many conflicts arise not because the issues separating the parties are so great but because of the temperaments people bring to the confrontation i've been cussed out literally in churches before pastors get to experience a lot of fun things right and so one time i was absolutely um maybe we'll call it blessed out i don't know i was i was cursed at at the altar at one of the previous churches that i pastored at for something that wasn't me they were mad at somebody else but that person wasn't there that sunday and so they thought they would take it out on me and all i did was smile and tell are you done i'm sorry you feel that way can you bring it down a little bit there's still people praying and after they left and slam doors and all that stuff on the way out somebody said how did you do that i would have let them have it well if i would have let them have it then that would have just made for another wonderful story that i couldn't tell and be proud of but someone else could tell and be like this is why i'd ever go to church so we have to make sure that even though we have the opportunity even though we maybe even have the excuse too that we listen to wisdom that says a gentle answer deflects anger but harsh words make tempers flare the best that we can be like jesus and turn the other cheek all right here we go verse 3 says this it says the lord is watching everywhere keeping his eye on both the evil and the good wisdom understands that we are always under the eye of god he sees us in every place even when we are hidden from human eyes you cannot hide from god just because you turn the lights off or just because you put your uh your internet browser on private god sees everything you cannot hide from him god takes note of both the evil and the good and he will deal with the evil according to his righteous judgment and he will bless and reward the good among men evil is often unpunished and good is often unrewarded but god sees all god sees all we might say that god has night vision and he sees all that happens under the cover of darkness i know when we were in college uh it was kind of interesting to be you know 18 19 20 21 22 years old and and be under a curfew on our college campus now it was 1 00 a.m so you know it wasn't like just you know 10 o'clock or nine o'clock but we had a one am curfew and it was because our president said listen nothing constructive ever happens after 1 am nothing you just need to be in better studying in your dorm room because there's something that when you don't think anyone's watching and it doesn't have to be at night but when we don't think anyone's watching or we think that we're alone or we think that no one can hear this conversation that we're having in this back room that we're good god sees it all the good and the bad so if you're striving and you're working hard and you're doing things that no one is giving you credit for because maybe they're not paying attention god sees that too god sees the person that you prayed for or or god heard the prayer that you prayed when you drove past that person that was in need and you couldn't stop god sees it all good and bad all right here we go let's jump down to verse 13. verse 13 says this a glad heart makes a happy face a broken heart crushes the spirit when the mind of a man is inwardly satisfied and full of joy it does good to his body too as appears in his cheerful countenance or a wonderful smile on his face as the text put it that happy face i often get perplexed while looking at old black and white photographs from like the 1800s because you just assume everyone is absolutely on the verge of deep depression if they're not already in it because no one smiles i just i wonder what was going on back then when they you know like all let's get the family together oh i love you so much let's get together you couldn't smile i don't know what it was but there's something about you can just see the joy in people's faces you can see it a glad heart makes a happy face however when grief seizes the heart it detects it breaks the most courageous spirits notice it didn't talk about the outward appearance of the crushed spirit just that the heart was broken and how it can do damage to the insides so from this passage i think it's safe to say that when your heart is full of joy your face will usually show it as much as your face shows it some people's you know your face just you know it's just not a happy face you know you're trying your best you're exceedingly happy and joyful and people are like you okay do you have some sour grapes that's the best day of my life as best as your face can show it when there's joy in your heart it's tough to hide you ever you ever take kids to an amusement park or to a theme park or something like that i mean they walk in uh main street usa in the magic kingdom and i mean their eyes are just lit up this is where it's at joy does that we can't even really you know when you okay it's our anniversary right so you know just we watch the wedding video which i love watching our wedding video i don't know about you i'm sentimental like that but that whole day i can remember at the end of it my jaws hurt from smiling so much my jaws hurt i mean i had pulled off the greatest heist in the history of of heists i mean somehow i got the erica glaze to marry me i mean this was this was great you know i mean i had all the reasons in the world to smile and at the end of the day not even realizing it my jaws hurt from smiling so much that's what joy does and obviously the uh the king solomon here who's attributed to writing uh the proverbs you know he's talking about not just not just joy from good things happening around you but just that contentment that is found with a relationship with love relationship with god so we can so one thing we can learn from the text is that when there is joy in your heart your face will show it that's why i have a friend who when he's leading worship at his church he would tell his congregation listen tell your face what words you're singing tell your face that you love god because right now your face isn't showing it but then the other truth is this if if your heart is broken you may not see it on their face but you may sense it in their spirit so be with people i know it's really hard in our culture where we're constantly on the move and constantly on the go and even in our world of masks and i in distance and isolation and whatnot you know do your best to when you're with people to be with people so you can pick up on those things you know because i know plenty of people who can smile but be broken on the inside so get really pushing the people see how they're doing and and you know sometimes the spirit will speak to you and you'll be able to kind of feel that in their spirit as well all right uh verse 14 next verse says a wise person is hungry for knowledge while the fool feeds on trash in the health world it is said you are what you eat so currently i am a life-sized ferrero rocher i'd like to thank my mom and erica for those wonderful christmas presents um those those little candy chocolates you know wrapped in gold praise the lord they are i only get them at christmas time and i'm just so thankful for them and so that's what i am right now as they sit on my desk in my office at home with the lid off and they just disappear i don't know what happens to them but i believe the that food adage definitely connects to our spirit as well what are you consuming what are you reading what are you watching what are you allowing into your spirit what what is it that you find yourself looking at reading drawn to in your open hours if you're not in the office what's on the tv at the house i believe that can turn into you are what you consume you are what you eat what are you watching if you only watch your favorite news channel or read your favorite political pundit how do you think that is affecting your outlook on life and listen i wrote this this morning i didn't write this this afternoon but there's so much negativity in the world today what are you watching what are you allowing into your spirit what are you hungry for i know that again in the health world your cravings can't always be trusted because your cravings aren't always healthy like when i just started talking about ferrero rochers and now my mouth is watering because i kind of want one i mean they're not horrible for you but you know 10 or 12 at a time can really do a number to your sugar levels but our cravings aren't always trusted our cravings can be changed can be trained to start craving healthy things to start craving good things and so we have to teach our body to crave or to hunger for the right things what are you hungry for the bible is a powerful book which is also the understatement of the century but the bible is so powerful but yet so many people struggle to read it and i'll be honest with you as a pastor it's it is difficult to read um but we have to work and train ourselves to hunger for his word to hunger for the things of god to fill our time not with the trash of the world but with the things of god now i've never been to one to say don't watch tv don't listen to the radio don't watch you know movies don't read fiction that's not me but what i am saying is i will shout from the rooftops um is that we need to be full of the holy spirit and his power and if we know we need that if we know we need to be full of his word we are what we eat and if we are not feeding on the word of god if we are not feeding ourselves the good things of god and we can't expect the power and those kind of that kind of lifestyle to follow you know i can go to taco bell and get a taco and wonder you know why am i making decisions like this because i you can eat that but then you can go to like some of my favorite mexican restaurants and get get a real taco i don't want to settle for for the or when i was in los angeles and you go to one of those street cart vendors and you get a real real taco so many of us we're feeding on trash but we're we're one the results of the real real taco and we're not gonna get that so yes watch your favorite shows watch but know that as we read earlier god watches you and he sees everything you're doing so to watch shows do things read books that's fine but but what are you feeding yourself what are you hungry for because as much you can watch the news all day and not get one step closer to jesus but you can watch the news all day and by the end of it there could be a wall between you and jesus because of what it can do to your spirit don't feed on trash um the matthew 5 6 says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness what are you hungry for hunger for the good things of god don't settle for trash don't settle for things that aren't going to help you grow that things aren't going to just push you down or things are going to just push you down and keep you down and keep your spirit depressed or anxious be hungry for god in his word verse 16 verse 16 says better to have little with fear for the lord than to have great treasure and inner turmoil this is about priority and value the american dream is about amassing stuff it's the never ending pursuit of more and new and more and better in the pursuit of the american dream many people have lost their passion for jesus and even walked away from jesus jesus said in mark chapter 8 verse 36 and what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul having nice things is not a sin but when your nice things have you that's when things have gotten all out of whack this proverb writer here is saying that we need to fear the lord love and worship him and him alone and that's the most important goal in aim in life if you have all of jesus and nothing else you have everything you need but if you have everything that the world has to offer and you don't have jesus you have nothing the pursuit of treasure leads to inner turmoil pursue god pursue god verse 17 is probably the most powerful verse that we can read in this entire chapter so much truth and wisdom in this it says a bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate we have to look at this verse because it points out how the author uh how how the inspired word of god disses vegetables and touts the superiority of steak if you read in the uh hebrew the original language it was medium rare um t-bone porterhouse you get that in the in the i think it's in the hebrew i was reading maybe i don't know maybe maybe it wasn't however the truth is simply this you should value love more than dinner fair or material things emphasizing love and peace is more important than picking the right restaurant and spending extra money even the poor can be happy even the poor can be happy because it's about valuing the right things being with those that you love is so much more important than enjoying the finer things in life with people you hate what do you value be with people you love and eat steak verse 18 verse 18 says this a hot tempered person starts fights a cool tempered person stops them very similar to uh one of the verse one i believe is what we read but the wise man or woman is slow to anger and they have a way of bringing peace and smoothing over contention instead of stirring things up james chapter 1 verse 19 says understand this my dear brothers and sisters you must all be quick to listen slow to speak and slow to get angry fight for peace fight for peace verse 22 verse 22 goes on and it says plans go wrong for lack of advice many advisors bring success the difference between success and failure can often be found in those who plan without counsel without getting help wisdom understands that other people are smart too that wisdom can be found in other places not just yourself so get advice one theologian says about this passage our wisdom lies in self-distrust or at least allowing for the possibility that we may often be wrong so it is most expedient especially in important matters to seek experienced counsel i am not here today without colleagues pastors mentors and even those in our congregation here who have been wonderful voices of wisdom in my life get advice go to god in prayer seek his heart in a situation and go to those that you know are full of wisdom in the holy spirit get advice on certain situations remember you and i do not corner the market on wisdom we need help from others here we go verse 25 verse 25 says the lord tears down the house of the proud but he protects the property of widows those who choose pride set themselves against god one of the most sobering bible passages i've ever read i've studied and i can only come to this conclusion it's not good it's simply this james chapter 4 verse 6 says god opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble it's even reiterated almost verbatim in first peter chapter 5 verse 5. so you get to see it from two different viewpoints two different authors inspired by the holy spirit when you are puffed up with pride you create an enemy in god when you get puffed up with pride when it is your way or the highway when you think you are smarter than everyone in the room when you are better than even god and his word himself if you know better than him god should get instruction from you when pride gets in us god stands against us god will set himself against the proud they in their house as the text says will be targets of god's destruction god protects the property of the widow however and the widow is the picture or the representative of a humble needy person who looks to and depends on god she represents the opposite of the proud and takes special care of those who humbly depend on him pride was the first sin that got satan and the angels kicked out of heaven and to this day god sets himself against those who allow pride to take over their lives pride the negative sense of the word points to a sinful individual who shifts ultimate confidence from god to self they know better than god or they think their way is better than the lord's way they think their way in their life gets a pass to what the word of god calls us to live to pride put you at odds with the creator god of the universe choose humility choose humility verse 26 says the lord detests evil plans but he delights in pure words wickedness doesn't begin with actions it begins in the heart it begins with a thought the text says that the lord detests evil plans plans are are not actions these are things in the mind these are things that are or are thought through that they're trying to uh put something together to attack or to to go against or to go against someone david gizek uh someone who i really read a lot of his writings he has great commentaries out there he says there is certainly a sense in which our actions are more important than our thoughts but our actions begin in our thoughts so what we think is also important to god what we think is also important to god another commentator says how little most people think they are responsible for their thoughts they live as if they were on their own and so can indulge themselves without any restraints solomon knew that a person's thoughts would ultimately be revealed by their words and by their actions god hears the words of the pure and he is pleased but when he sees the plans of the wicked he detests you know in the church there has been many attempts to do good things but when you do good things the wrong way good plans can become evil plans really quick i had a pastor who was in a tough spot of the church and ended up leaving that church and um started a church just down the street it was bad it was bad ugly situation and um and the only thing that came to my mind was even if man like god had given him a dream to plan a church coming out of this church that was not the right way that was not the way that god would honor that that's not the way that things are done in the kingdom that's not what we do we don't try to split and cause division in churches and the bible passage that came to mind was if we're not careful our god-given isaac can be turned into an ishmael if we try to do god things our way it becomes an ishmael if we do god things god's way it can be an isaac it can be a blessing so make sure that when we when we are doing things we say you know what i may feel like i want to do this but what does the word say i want god to help make this plan you know i want to handle confrontation god's way i want to do things god's way i don't i don't want to because i want to do things the right way and not get to my getting into a place where i find myself making plans that are part of the word of god or away from the word of god all right here we go verse 28 verse 28 says this says the heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words this is very reminiscent of colossians 4 6. colossians 4 6 says let your conversation be always full of grace seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone think before you speak pray before you speak i think it said you have two ears and one mouth so think double or listen double before you speak or something like that um but there is that wisdom and then we have to make sure that if we're going to speak it's going to be on purpose if we're going to say something let it be on purpose i don't know about you but as a communicator i can i can watch somebody and i can go he's off script he's never thought about saying this before in his life and yet there he is saying this in front of everyone this should be fun now there are those who are just amazing extemporaneous speakers and you wouldn't even know they went off script when they did but there are those that you can say this isn't planned and this could be bad you know i've actually heard many a preacher blame god for just them not knowing when to stop you know like i and i i had a mentor pastor a friend of mine say listen if you can say it in 15 minutes don't take 30. know what you're saying be purposeful with the words that you say it also reminds me of the second half of luke chapter 6 45 jesus says for his mouth speaks out of the abundance of his heart so we have to be very careful that it says the heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking but the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words out of our heart come the words that leave our mouth we would actually think no no that comes from my brain i thought these things no no the bible says that the words that we say is an indication of our heart the words that we speak are an indication of of of the condition of our heart what we say our inner monologue what we say outside what we say to our kids what we say and when we're angry what we say when things are going the right direction and the big litmus test for me is what i say when i stub my toe on the foot of the bed at night that's the heart indication but out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks and so if if the godly thinks carefully before speaking and the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words we should start to listen to what we're saying because that can really speak to where we are in our walks with jesus so listen use your words calculatingly be smart don't have wasted words be purposeful with what you say don't just flippantly talk don't just spew out don't because because what happens is our our heart will get out and i'm not saying speak in such a way to hide your heart but when we are carefully watching our words we get to see what is in our hearts so if we're thinking about what we're saying when something comes up that we want to say that ooh i shouldn't say that that's not god i gotta deal with myself there's something that's not right i gotta i gotta work on that but if we just it's an indication of our heart here we go uh that's why in proverbs 4 23 what we studied early early on um said this above all else above all else guard your heart above all else guards your heart because it is the wellspring of life we gotta guard our heart you gotta guard not filter our words not just learn when to say things and what audience we can say certain things to and what audiences we can't say other things to we need to make sure that we are measuring our words we're watching what we're saying making sure that they are godly and that we are truly what is coming out of us is pleasing to god all right verse 32 and the last one we're going to look at this evening is this it says if you reject discipline you only harm yourself but if you listen to correction you grow in understanding to refuse wisdom and the instruction that comes from wisdom is to hate one's own soul the text says that you only harm yourself however a more literal translation of verse 32 from the new american standard reads he who neglects discipline despises himself he who neglects discipline despises himself those who reject wisdom hurt many people but most of all they hurt themselves if we want to grow in christ to grow in understanding we must be willing to listen to the word to not think of ourselves as someone who knows better than the word but someone who understands that without the correction and the transformation that comes from the word of god we cannot move forward in christ don't hurt yourself by living contrary to the word of god live by his word and grow because what i have learned in ministry is the more that we disregard the correction of the holy spirit the quieter his voice gets in our lives not because he is not shouting stop or don't but we are learning to drown him out sin always steals kills and destroys that's the only thing that sin can do it's all it can do and if we are not leaving our hearts open to the disciplining of the holy spirit to correct us and to convict us then we will get to the place where we will no longer hear that convicting voice and this isn't a word for lost people this is a word for for people who love jesus i've sat in offices many times counseling people who love jesus but have found themselves in deep dark sin because they started pushing away the voice of the holy spirit and his convicting in their life listen to the word of god if you reject discipline you only harm yourself he who neglects discipline despises himself but if you listen to correction you grow in understanding let's let the word of god do what it does best and correct us so many people read the word of god and and and i i can when i was young i was i would i would only read not only but i knew when i was called to preach i would read the word so that i could preach it to somebody else i was always preparing for a devotional at for a student bible study or for my youth group and i was i was reading the word to preach it to somebody and my youth pastor said matt you're doing it backwards you read the word to preach to yourself you read the word to correct yourself you don't read the word to correct other people you got to correct yourself first and if you do not start correcting yourself first you become the pharisees that put jesus on the cross because they were just whitewashed tombs they looked good on the outside they were dead on the inside let the word of god preach to you first let it correct you and then you can grow an understanding let's pray father we love you we love your word

Channel: Faith Community Church, Clayton

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Length: 41min 8sec (2468 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 07 2021