Destination: Proverbs 1-31 | Skip Heitzig

[Music] walls are an important symbol in the Bible they signify safety protection and vigilance the book of Proverbs says that a man without control is like an unwalled city where enemies have free access to do harm how are your spiritual walls what condition are they in if you build them with the truth of Scripture and maintain them with faith prayer and study they will serve you well but if you neglect them and allow ungodly influences to have free access in your life you will suffer damage let's learn the lessons of history and also remember that the Lord is like a strong tower the righteous run to him and they are safe as we soil the book of Proverbs if you lack wisdom ask God and he promises to provide [Music] somebody estimated that if you were to gauge measure accumulated knowledge from the beginning of recorded history to 1845 and you measured it by one inch so that one inch represents all of the knowledge accumulated from the beginning of recorded history to 1845 then the knowledge from 1845 to 1945 a hundred years later that had been learned in that period of time would be three inches and that the knowledge gained from 1945 to 1975 thirty years later would be the height of the Washington Monument in Washington DC because we are exponentially increasing facts and knowledge so since 1975 to 2008 is somewhere up in space Isaac Asimov the scientist once said based at the rate of knowledge growing today by the time today's child reaches 50 years of age 97% of everything known in the world at that time will have been learned since his birth now we've turned to the book of Proverbs one of the most frequented books one of the most read books in the Old Testament I would say next to the Book of Psalms this book ranks right up there with familiarity among Christian believers in fact I actually know a guy who used to think the last book in the New Testament was proverbs because you've seen those little New Testament with Psalms and proverbs he swore that was the last book in the Bible it only goes to show that along with the New Testament we love to read the Psalms and the Proverbs now the book of Proverbs is the third of the five poetic books in the Old Testament so we have job Psalms and now proverbs and after this there'll be two more this is also the first book written by Solomon there's going to be three all together two after this but this is the first written by this son of David King Solomon Oh King Solomon was quite a guy we remember him from our SETI's way back but he pinned with his own pen three thousand proverbs we only have a sampling in this book just a little over five hundred but he wrote over three thousand proverbs and one thousand and five songs and we have just a sampling that is recorded here in this book the word proverb in our language the English word comes from a Latin word Pro ver be AMA now let me explain it to you because as we take these two words that have been put together we understand what a proverb is pro verbum pro means on behalf of or instead of and verba verb or words instead of words so what you have in a proverb is a short saying instead of a whole lot of words a pithy saying we would call it an epigram or a maxim or an aphorism that's what a proverb is it's a short statement that takes the place of long words a Spanish novelist Cervantes said it's a short saying based on long experience now every culture has proverbs we have our own proverbs and you know them for instance nothing ventured nothing gained see I knew that you knew it don't throw the baby out with the bathwater look before you leap don't make a mountain out of a and there are many other such proverbs that every culture including ours has now what's different is these proverbs are inspired by God they're not just good advice this is God's advice this is inspired scripture that we look at and I would recommend that you look at them daily what's great about proverbs that are divided up into 31 chapters and every month has about 30 or 31 days and if you were to read a proverb a day for an since I read this morning proverbs 26 as part of my daily bible reading because you have these sayings and when you revisit them every month they're like little tiny verbal bombs that detonate in your brain there they're able to just make the great impact and they're easy to memorize because of the way that they're written but these are inspired by God now to divide the book or outline the book is a little tough you can do it linguistically but there's really no thread of topic that flows through the book it's it's sort of like a mishmash of different things put together but there are certain divisions that I'll just make you aware of and then we'll disregard them for our study tonight but linguistically you can see how the book is divided because at the beginning of every section it gives you a little banner statement these are the Proverbs of Solomon and that's in chapter 1 also in chapter 10 so chapters 1 through 9 sort of form a block together chapters 10 through 24 form a second block with another subheading these are the Proverbs of Solomon and there are four of those so I'm going to divide it up this way chapters 1 through 9 are principals from Solomon principals from Solomon especially to those who are young there is the repeated phrase in this section my son my son it's a father teaching his son in fact Haley and his Bible handbook says this is the best guidebook to success that a young man can follow in chapters 1 through 9 are these principles from Solomon toward the young then chapters 10 through 24 are Proverbs of Solomon and these Proverbs of Solomon will contrast the righteous versus the wicked the wise versus the foolish and then chapters 25 through 29 our precepts by Solomon now he wrote them but he didn't compile that section and there's a little subheading that says that King Hezekiah basically commissioned a literary group to take some of the other Proverbs of Solomon and place them in this section and that's the third section of Proverbs then the last two chapters are written not at all by Solomon but by a guy named Igor a GU R and King Lemuel we have no idea really who that was but their names are given in those last two let's look at chapter 1 verse 1 we have the mission statement given right off the bat the Proverbs of Solomon the son of David the king of Israel to know wisdom and instruction to perceive the words of understanding to receive instruction of wisdom justice judgment and equity to give prudence to the simple a better translation might be to the naive to the young man knowledge and discretion a wise man will hear and increase learning and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel there's something you notice about a wise man or woman they're always learning they're never content they never say don't tell me I already know these things they're always open to increase their knowledge they grow in it the talmud said he who adds not to his learning only diminishes it and so here you have the proverb a wise man will hear an increase in learning a man of understanding will attain wise counsel and then verse 6 to understand a proverb and an enigma the words of the wise and their riddles you will notice in proverbs or you already have noticed in reading them that the word wise and wisdom are often repeated in this book in fact 120 five times in this book those words appear either wise or wisdom and that really is the overarching theme of the book then isn't it to acquire and apply God's wisdom for daily living so we have an increase in knowledge if you were to look back from 1845 to 1945 to 1975 to 2008 we are exponentially growing in knowledge but where is the wisdom to go along with it that's really the issue yeah we have a lot of facts and we can google anything and get instant information but it's it's the wisdom to deal with the knowledge that we have that is key and proverbs is full of such wisdom now just for fun I looked up wisdom in good old Webster's dictionary and I found it's a very different definition than the Bible definition here's webster wisdom is accumulated philosophic or scientific learning ie knowledge so one of Webster's definitions is that wisdom and knowledge are tantamount to the same thing acquired and accumulated scientific and philosophic knowledge learning the Bible has a very different definition for the Bible definition presupposes that God is in the mix if you take God out of the mix according to the Bible you lose the foundational definition of wisdom for the Bible says it's the fool that has said in his heart there is no God or literally no God there may be one I just don't want anything to do with them is the idea The Fool has said in his heart no God in the Hebrew language the word wise is calm and the word wisdom is home ah same root same difference basically Hakam and hokhmah and what it literally means is someone who is skilled or someone who's an expert eater it originally referred to somebody who was trained up in a discipline they knew that discipline very well they were experts in their field that's wisdom when you apply it here and you see it through the lens of the book of Proverbs those two terms wise and wisdom could be defined as this having the expertise to live well it's the skillset to live well an expert at godly living is the idea something you discover about wisdom as you go through this book wisdom is not necessarily directly proportional to your IQ it's not directly proportional to your SAT scores aren't you glad about that and it's not necessarily directly proportional to your age you can be an older fool you can live a long time but not gather the skillset to live well Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote in the Church of God there are children who are seventy years old yes little children displaying all of the infirmities of declining years one would not like to say of a man of 80 that he has scarcely cut his wisdom teeth and yet there are such on the other hand there are fathers in the Church of God wise stable instructed who were comparatively young men the Lord can cause his people to grow rapidly and a far outstrip their years okay that's sort of the introduction of the book that's the purpose statement of the book but because the book isn't laid out in any kind of systematic form in terms of topic and because we're doing this from 30,000 feet this is a a weekly flyover of each book what we're gonna do tonight is notice the the prominent mountain peaks in the book there are several themes and sub-themes and we don't have time for all but the ones that loom the largest I want to cover four mountain peaks and to do that we're going to camp on a section of Scripture and each four but then because there all of the truths regarding that mountain peak or topic aren't all in the same section but are scattered throughout we're gonna have to pull those stones of wisdom and put them all together so here's the first mountain peak that we're gonna cover and I want you to turn to chapter 1 right we're at it's the fear of the Lord versus the fear of men the fear of the Lord versus the fear of man this is one of the most prominent themes in this book in fact I like to see this as the grid to which we filter everything in life that's why it's put right up front verse 7 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge later on in the same book it will say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom but fools despise wisdom and instruction so the fear of the Lord is the beginning a better translation the most important part or the chief part or the summit as one old translation puts it it's the summit of all knowledge it's the most important component of what you learn in life the fear of the Lord there are 18 references to the fear of the Lord in the book of Proverbs 18 separate occasions this is referred to 50 times throughout the Bible the fear of the Lord comes up well when God repeats himself 50 times I think it's important so here's the question what is it exactly what does it mean to fear the Lord we we've all heard that some of us have heard our parents say I'm gonna put the fear of God in you and so we don't think of that as an endearing term something that we want to get acquainted with let me tell you what it's not first it's not a superstitious dread of God as if God's frowning all the time from heaven and just can't wait for you to mess up so he can strike you down that's not the fear of the lord the hebrew term fear of the lord he wrought Yahweh is the Hebrew it speaks of reverence was a term early on applied to how children treat mom and dad in Leviticus children Revere yet a is the word Revere your father and your mother so here is what I think is the best definition of the fear of the Lord as defined in the scripture it is a reverential awe that produces humble submission to a loving God once again reverential awe that produces humble submission to a loving God the only dread is that we would displease God it's big it's built on relationship not on rules it's because we love Him we relate to him for what he's done for us he's redeemed us were his children because of that relationship we are fearful we are in dread of doing something that would displease him why because we love him in response to his love for us so when we're in that relationship we have a reverence and awe a holiness it's the response that it produces humble submission to a loving God now when you have it it does something for you first of all it'll keep you from evil proverbs chapter 16 verse 6 by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil that'll keep you away from things you shouldn't be involved in how do I stop doing that habit develop a fear of the Lord that's the beginning that's the chief part that's the summit of knowledge and wisdom proverbs 8:13 says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil pride arrogance and the evil way I tell you who comes to mind when I think of this little Joseph in Egypt you know the story he was sold by his brothers as a slave first to the Midianites then to the Egyptians and when Potiphar's wife remember the story tried to get him in bed nobody was home Joseph was young hormones were raging Noble he was looking he knew God was looking he knew he wasn't alone in that house and he said to Potiphar's wife when she said come to bed with me he said how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God now you can look this way and you can look that way and nobody's there looking but don't forget to look up and he got that and it was that reverential awe that produced humble submission to a loving God that kept him from that situation so it'll keep you from evil second thing it'll do for you it'll increase your quality of life it'll increase it's what Jesus called an abundant life I have come that they may have life and have it to the max that's my translation of more abundantly you can live life turned up to ten by the fear of the Lord you want a quality of life develop the fear of the Lord proverbs 14 27 says the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death then there's proverbs 14 26 the verse right before that in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children will have a place of refuge think of Abraham bringing his son Isaac to the top of Mount Moriah absolutely confident in God did he understand the situation no did it make sense that he would take the son that came miraculously that was the only son of promise up to a mountain and plunge a knife in him no but God said do it so he thought I'll do it God will resurrect him if he needs to but he had strong confidence and when he acted on that obedience by the fear of the Lord the angel came and stopped him do you remember what the angel said he said don't lay your hand on the lad for now I know that you fear God so it'll keep you from evil it'll increase your quality of life that's the first mountain peak and that theme runs 18 different times through the book of Proverbs it's one of megha themes of the book ii mountaintop I want to draw your attention to you can turn over to proverbs 6 is the diligent person versus the lazy person the diligent person versus the lazy person I heard about one guy who was actually in a cartoon that I read I think it was a peanuts cartoon and one of the characters said I love work I can sit and watch it for hours that's the lazy person and you'll see what I mean look at proverbs 6 verse 6 go to the ant you sluggard you slothful person would be another translation you hater of work go to the ant you sluggard consider her ways and be wise which having no captain overseer or ruler provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest how long will you slumber o sluggard when will you rise from your sleep a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep and so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler and your need like an armed man I do think and proverbs bears this out that as believers as followers of God as redeemed ones by Christ we should be concerned about the quality of the work that we do we should be able to tell our employer or would-be employer you hire me and I'll be the best worker you got I actually remember doing that after reading proverbs I was looking for a job in radiology that was my discipline in medicine years ago in California I went to a prospective Hospital and there weren't any job openings and so I said to the head of the department I said look because he said we'll call you I said look I know a lot of people are vying for this job if you hire me I'll be the best worker in this department he looked at me said you got the job so now I went home thinking now I have to produce now I have to keep my word now I'm going to be scrutinized more than ever before because I told them I'm a Christian and I my work harder but isn't that how we ought to be shouldn't we be able to say right up front you hired a child of God you're gonna get the best possible worker you can find for your money diligent now something about work I just want to clear up because every now and then I'll hear people say well you know work is a curse it's because man fell that God cursed us with work uh-uh it's not work that's a curse it's the sweat of the brow created by work that is the curse in fact as soon as God created man the first thing he did was employ him he placed him in the garden to tend it and to keep it and one of the Ten Commandments it says six days you shall labor and do all your work so work happened and was assigned a man before the fall not after the fall the curse was the sweat of the brow but even part of the top 10 list of God is that for six days were to be workers and to work diligently now as we compare the diligent versus the lazy person and proverbs is very colorful with these comparisons and contrasts a lazy person is someone who doesn't finish things listen to this description this is proverbs 12 verse 27 the lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting okay there again there's a proverb there's a short saying based on long experience here's a picture of a guy who finally gets up enough courage and enough strength to get up out of bed and okay I'll go hunting and he gets out there and he he kills his game and then he says I'm done now but but now you got it all you gotta do is cook it I don't want to cook it that's like too much work wait but you already killed it it's yours what an apt colorful picture of someone who is lazy a lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting listen to this description this is proverbs 19 verse 24 a lazy man buries his hand in the bowl and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again goodness gracious he's got a cereal in front of him takes a bite that's pretty bad isn't it he won't finish things he starts something doesn't finish it there's another mark of the lazy person he refuses to face things he's always got an excuse ever known somebody with a whole list of excuses it's too cold it's too hot it's too far it's too hard there's always an excuse proverbs 22 verse 13 the lazy man says there's a lion outside I shall be slain in the streets again proverbs 20 verse 4 the lazy man will not plow because of winter he will beg during harvest and have nothing so here's a guy who rationalizes his laziness I can't do it because there's this obstacle he's got an excuse it was Billy Sunday who said an excuse is simply the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie okay here's another description proverbs 26 verse 14 as the door turns on its hinges so the lazy man on his bed it's incest malarious you know there's only one kind of movement a door does this sort of turns this way and turns that way it's stuck by the hinges there's our lazy guy the only movement he makes is this side and that side it's like the kid who said I always do my exercises every morning as soon as I wake up it's up down up down up down and then I say okay now for the other eyelid up down up down this is the lazy man who turns on the bed so the Christian worker should be someone not marked for laziness mark for Dell excellence you know that when you hire that person or when you ask that believer to do a task it's gonna get done with integrity and excellence it's gonna get fully done I've always been intrigued by the Stradivarius violin not because I can play one not because I know a lot about them but it was the philosophy of Antonio Stradivarius that has always moved me he said that he was a believer in God and he said that he was the staunch Christian and he said this he said God needs violins to send his music out into the world that's why any violin leaving my shop must be as near perfect as humanly possible and he sought to instill that mindset in his employees in his workers anything that gets released with my name on it Antonio Stradivarius must be near perfect as humanly possible because God needs to send his music out into the world and he said if my violins are defective then God's music will be spoiled it's a good way to live in any product you make and any job you hold there's a third mountain peak in the book of Proverbs we've covered - there's a third stay in Chapter six because it's close and there's several others we'll refer to but now is the difference between the good mouth and the bad mouth a wholesome tongue and an unwholesome tongue good words and bad words and that is another mega theme throughout this book in fact the terms tongue lips mouth and words appear in the book of Proverbs 150 times okay now right about now everybody here is starting to get a little restless because this is a subject that we all deal with right we all deal with this don't we this is an issue for every one of us even James said no one contained the tongue and the first time we all read that we said yes amen but it can be given over to the Lord there can be a spirit control life and one of the evidence will be a tongue that is wholesome chapter 6 verse 16 is a very important anchor text for this there are six things the Lord hates now it's stop right there any time you read a statement like that that that's a huge statement because as children of God who walk in the fear of the Lord one of the things we want to do is love what God loves and hate what God hates it would only seem that whatever God hates it's like okay you give me that list I'll memorize it and I'll make sure to stay away from it because I so love God and I fear him I reverence him I want to stay away from that this is what God hates six things God hates yes seven are an abomination to him a proud look a lying tongue hands that shed innocent blood a heart that devises wicked plans feet that are Swift in running to evil a false witness who speaks lies and one who sews discord among brethren just notice in that list that three items out of seven on that list deal with sins of the tongue and it says God hates this that should send up an automatic red flag something we want to stay away from now fortunately we know the solution because if if these are things God hates you just reverse it and you'll find out what God loves he would love a wholesome tongue an honest tongue one who doesn't so discord but brings unity etc proverbs 25 verse 11 I think is a good flipping of the coin of what we just read in that text proverbs 25:11 a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver words fitly spoken how many times have you said something and when you said it you went shouldn't have said that I do it a lot and it goes on it's like I come back I can't bring it back but you'd love to write so it behooves us to carefully choose the manner in which we're going to express something words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in settings of silver you know what we're fond of doing is Americans is saying anything and say well you know what I mean right you you know what I mean be careful with that listen to what Mark Twain a great American writer once said the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug words fitly spoken when an ambassador represents our nation or a congressman the district or the state they use words to get their point across they have to be carefully chosen powerful words when a teacher wants to stretch the mind of a student he or she must choose the right kind of words when a lawyer defends a client if especially if the client is innocent words can mean life or death when I asked my wife to marry me I used very clumsy words she didn't understand what I was saying i rambled on for 5-10 minutes until she finally said nothing to stop did you just ask me to marry you uh-huh it was words that grabbed my heart in 1973 when I was watching a Billy Graham crusade on television I turned up the sound and I heard his words the words of truth the words of life and I responded to the words that were shared as he looked into the camera and said if you're watching about television you can know Christ and it's like boom those are words right to my heart and I responded proverbs 18:21 we're told death and life are in the power of the tongue death and life what does it mean well here's a sampling words can affect your emotions you hear certain words and and it causes delight or it causes sadness you've all heard scathing words you idiot you fool you empty-headed whatever oh those are just so degrading they affect your emotions proverbs 12 verse 18 there is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword but the tongue of the wise promotes health ever ever meet a sharp tongue individual you know the kind a verbal terminator they can dice you and slice you with just a few words they're so articulate golden tongue acid-tongued in some regards proverbs 12 verse 25 anxiety in the heart of a man causes depression but a good word makes it glad again proverbs 16 verse 24 give you see what we're doing we're camping on a core anchor text and reaching for those other truths in other parts of the book proverbs 16 24 Pleasant words are like a honeycomb sweetness to the soul and health to the bones think about words being sweet a soft answer is another one chapter 15 verse 1 a soft answer turns away wrath there was a pastor who was preaching a sermon based upon that text we just read proverbs 1624 pleasant words are like a honeycomb and and he he gave the text and then he said you can always catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar there's a wife and a husband listening to the sermon and so the wife turned over to her husband as soon as the pastor said that she said honey I love how your muscles rip when you take out the garbage you see here's a gal but trying to get her husband to take out the trash take out the trash he wouldn't do it so he thought okay honey versus vinegar pull your muscles ripple and I love it when you take out the dread all right I'm the sanitary engineer so words affect emotion second words affect your relations how you feel about other people can be altered based upon reports you hear about other people did you hear me TV really well I won't have any integrity to actually check it out for myself cuz that sounds so juicy and good and that's fun to believe and even more fun to spread so they can affect your relations proverbs 16 verse 28 a perverse man sews strife and a Whisperer separates the best of friends have you ever had this experience and I bet you have or somebody you know you meet after a period of time and you see them and they're cold to you they're cold towards you they're unresponsive they're sort of distant and aloof you wonder why and you find out they've been listening to words from somebody else they haven't had the decency to talk to you personally and get the other side of the story and so now there's they're disposed to you relationally and it's adversive so words affect your emotions words affect your relations death and life are in the power of the tongue now we do speak a lot every human being does the average person will spend one-fifth of his entire life time talking one fifth of your life will be spent using words it's estimated that in one day you will use enough words to fill a 50 page book in one year you will develop if you chose to record them a hundred and thirty two volumes each containing four hundred pages in a lifetime the words that you speak would amount to three thousand volumes or 1 million five hundred thousand pages of words so this is a mega theme in the book of Proverbs how a wise righteous person versus an unwise foolish person uses their speech a mega theme now we also know too that there is a difference in the sexes between male and female and as to how much verbage is used some we're told that women are more articulate than than men are and so if you're wondering women why when your husband comes home and he just grunts oh honey my days been like this what's your day been like huh you know you're ready to keep going he's ready to end it because he's used up his quota and and it's good for men and women to understand there are differences in the way we communicate it's just the way it is it would behoove men to learn that and to step in and to become a little more talkative and just sort of stretch it you can spare another five or ten words beyond what you've used that day or another few hundred whatever be gracious and women you should also realize that your husbands aren't as good at it as you are and not as articulate perhaps and and I know I'm painting with a broom it just happens to be true okay let's go to the last one and we'll close the the fourth mountain peak scene in the book of Proverbs one of the mega themes I'm gonna cast it this way it's the difference between friendship versus isolation friendship versus isolation really I'm speaking about relationships wholesome relationships with buddies with children with husbands and wives but but I'm gonna put it this way relationship but it's friendliness versus isolation turn to proverbs chapter 18 for this proverbs chapter 18 one of the greatest titles you could ever give another person is the title a friend and I'm convinced that a person can only have a few you could count them on your hand a few really good friends in life but what an honor to be called a friend of somebody else it's not to be used lightly verse one a man who isolates himself seeks his own desire he rages against all wise judgment I've met people who have been burned by relationships burned by friendships hurt because of what people have done in the past and they get to a point in life where they become calloused and their attitude is why bother why should I even do this again it's better if I just withdraw and be alone I'll go it alone that's against God's order first book of the Bible it is not good that man should be alone your Creator recognized you need people even though you needle people you need people and even though they needle you they need you as well it is not good the man should be alone a man who isolates himself seeks his own desire he rages against all wise judgment unless you form meaningful relationships with people where there is openness frankness honesty and accountability you become more isolated you don't grow emotionally you don't grow personally or spiritually other people help you get stretched they do you are a wonderful person when you're with yourself you're never more sweet or never more godly if either just so much fun to be with alone but where life really gets tested is when your personality rubs up against somebody else's personality and theirs against yours and that's why I've never bought the phrase mutual incompatibility you've heard it we're divorcing on the grounds of mutual incompatibility as if to say I'm gonna find someone else out there who's compatible with me you'll never find a person every human being is mutually incompatible with every other human being at some level maybe not the first week maybe not the first month maybe not even the first year but give it time we're people and when people rub against other people they discover flaws and others and certainly they should be discovering flaws in themselves that's why you need friendship meaningful relationship and proverbs will tell you how to develop that back in chapter 17 verse 17 you're right around that section look at the value of a friend a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity and then look up again in chapter 18 at verse 20 for a man who has friends must himself be friendly but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother and in chapter 27 verse 17 one of the most famous ones men's ministries use it notoriously so as iron sharpens iron so a man sharpens the countenance of his friends so you get the idea friends are fortifying and they're strengthening they they influence us when they're around you okay so we need them we get that but here's the secret go back to chapter 18 for just a moment look at verse 24 and look at just the first part of that a man who has friends must what himself be friendly look at it again a man who has friends must himself be friendly in other words this is how friendship works somebody's got to take the initiative reach out and say hey what are you doing let's get together let's develop this group let's be accountable it's whatever somebody has to do that you have to be friendly this is exactly what Ruth did remember when Naomi was at the crossroads and her husband had died and her two sons-in-law and she's with her two daughters-in-law and one of them is Ruth and she says you go back I'm going back to Bethlehem Ruth took the initiative and said where you go I will go your people will be my people your God will be my god Jonathan did this with David David needed a friend Jonathan the king's son King Saul's son reached out and developed a fortifying friendship with David so all of that to say this no steeping in your own mire and saying nobody likes me I'm just gonna go away nobody really cares about me nobody's interested in me take the initiative I can just hear excuses but I'm shy you don't understand I'm different I'm shy three-quarters of the people around you are also shy somebody's got to take the initiative and you'll find when you are friendly it will be get friendliness when you love and reach out it will be get love and outreach a man who is friends must himself be friendly Albert Speer was the name of a man who was close to a Dolf Hitler in fact he wrote a little section in a biography of Hitler and Albert Speer said if a doff Hitler had friends I suppose I would be his best friend though he was close to no one really I was probably the closest to him of anybody on planet Earth and he said Hitler wallowed in his own charisma but he could not respond to friendship instinctively he repelled it he repelled it and he became isolated he isolated himself to his own hurt and to an entire continents hurt its destructive well let's close with the last chapter shall we proverbs 31 though not written by Solomon but King Lemuel whom some think actually was a pseudonym another name for King Solomon proverbs 31 I'm only gonna look at a few verses but talks about the wonderful friendship of a husband and wife and especially a husband extolling the wife of his youth verse 10 who can find a virtuous wife for her worth is far above rubies the heart of her husband safely trust in her so that he will have no lack of gain she does him good and not evil all the days of her life verse 28 her children rise up and call her blessed her husband also and he praises her many daughters have done well but you excel or outdo or surpass them all in other words if I can give you a free rendering of this there's a lot of women out there honey but there's only one for me and that's you you surpass everyone I've ever met well I told her that when I got married 40 years ago you know what if you told her that again well she'd melt maybe she hasn't heard that in a long time I don't want to give her a coronary or anything but but if you were to say that and really mean that I could change a lot of things listen to the words of James Hewitt who wrote this and I quote husbands who kiss their wives every morning before leaving work usually live five years longer than those who do not I can just have reaction to that whoa pucker up get ready a kissing husband has fewer automobile accidents losses up to 50% less time from work because of illness and earns 20 to 30% more than a non kissing husband one of the best things for your portfolios gentlemen is to love your wife to rise up and call her blessed the friend that God has given you one of the mega themes of this book verse 30 charm is deceitful beauty is passing but a woman who fears the Lord she shall be praised so Solomon you got to admit unusually talented insightful leader amazing guy very wise in fact it's because he asked for that he asked for that he wanted wisdom he knew he needed wisdom first Kings chapter 4 god gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight and breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt he was wiser than any other man and his fame spread to all the surrounding nations men of all nations came to listen to Solomon's wisdom sent by all the kings of the world who had heard of his wisdom now we've just touched on four mountain peaks of 513 of the most important of the 3,000 proverbs that Solomon wrote that are recorded here but here's where I want to end on a sobering note if you'll let me though Solomon was wiser than any person as the Bible says though he began his reign his career with wisdom he died a fool he died a fool he turned toward idolatry he married three hundred wives seven hundred porcupines I mean concubines so he had a thousand plus women in his life who turned his heart away from Yahweh to worship other gods became very conflicted became very foolish here's a guy that wrote some of the greatest pearls of wisdom ever who didn't live according to his own advice I got to tell you as a pastor as a preacher as somebody gives Bible studies every week to me that sobering if I don't live by the truth I preach I'm a fool if you don't live by the truth you hear and say Amen - you're a fool so we're left with this the Bible says be doers of the word not just here's I read an article about an instructor a driving instructor in Berlin Germany he has instructed thousands of people how to drive cars he doesn't have a driver's license it's because he didn't want to go back after failing the test and try to take it again because he was too intimidated and that was 43 years ago 43 years he's been helping people get driver's licenses he ain't got one he's the instructor so we're warned by Solomon's life he trafficked in wisdom he died a fool I want to close you can turn to it if you'd like or you don't have to all just read it it's a it's an appeal really in Proverbs eight I'll just read it to you there's just a few verses proverbs eight is a picture of wisdom personified as if it's a a woman standing at the head of the gates of the city calling out to people who are walking to the streets of the city in verse 32 now therefore listen to me my children for blessed are those who keep my ways here instruction and be wise do not disdain it blessed is the man who listens to me watching daily at my gates waiting at the post of my doors for whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord but he who sins against me wrongs his own soul all those who hate me love death powerful powerful appeal so you can see why it's a good thing if in your normal Bible reading you take one proverb a day and you just meditate on those little truth bombs that well detonate as you maybe commit one or two to memory throughout the day they just give off those beautiful explosive charges and remind you of some of the most salient truths that we cover tonight the fear of the Lord being diligent friendship etc [Music]

Channel: Skip Heitzig

Views: 1,950

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Keywords: How to study the Bible, How to read the Bible, Jesus, Skip, Skip Heitzig, How to know God, Proverbs, wisdom, love and lust, life and death, friends and enemies, God loves, Old Testament

Id: IgGXPn6pMCU

Length: 54min 49sec (3289 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2019