How Proverbs Changed How I See Everything

the book of Proverbs changed my life like literally changed my life in a bunch of different ways I grew up not really having a lot of wisdom like the rest of you but it was it was the first book in the Bible I started to read was the book of Proverbs and it really transformed my life it changed the way I viewed myself the way I looked at the world the way I evaluated situations the ability to have clarity clarity sometimes is so valuable when you're going through hard times just getting an understanding of what's going on I think though that the book of Proverbs might be the least applied book of the Bible that has maybe the most application in it and so I'm happy to do a tour through proverbs 27 today as we take a pause on the mark series just for one week because we make decisions every day and these decisions impact our lives and the lives of people around us and a lot of the decisions in the habits we have right now they're like little snowballs that we're rolling down the hill every day and they they gather snow and then they get bigger and bigger and bigger and they have a much large larger impact down the road than we perceive as we're starting these habits and these behaviors and the way we do things so maybe it's time to restore your focus on the book of Proverbs a little bit and this will be like a teaser for you to do that proverbs I think should be kind of the soundtrack of our lives it should be sort of in the background helping us be informed to make thoughtful choices and decisions whenever we make decisions whenever we need clarity in tough situations or whenever our natural foolishness threatens us which for me is every five minutes we often have the book of Proverbs to sort of correct our path and I think that there's a lot of wisdom here so let's dig in we're gonna go verse by verse through proverbs chapter 27 starting here in verse 1 it says do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring don't boast about tomorrow why cuz you could be wrong pretty simple wisdom right it's pretty basic stuff I think that this this relates though to the book of James James puts it this way in James chapter 4 verses 13 through 16 gives us more detail it says come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such in such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring what is your life for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes instead you ought to say here's what you should say instead if the Lord wills we will live and do this or that as it is you boast in your arrogance all such boasting is evil now sometimes people actually get ahead in business or get ahead in different spheres of life by boasting about tomorrow they sell themselves as like having sort of this great agenda and plan that they're gonna accomplish but the wisdom of Proverbs is saying that this is not a good thing to do and it may mean that somebody else gets gets noticed rather than you because you're not gonna boast about tomorrow now you can say here's my agenda here's my plan I've got it all figured out to the best of my ability but you have to recognize that you don't know if that's actually gonna work you don't know for sure what its gonna happen tomorrow and there's wisdom and just realizing that if you think your plans are foolproof there's always a fool no that could ruin those plans it can always happen so it strikes me though as I think about this idea of not boasting about tomorrow even though making plans is good but not boasting about it right it strikes me how much of modern prosperity preaching does this does this very thing the the guy in the pulpit he's boasting about what's gonna happen to you tomorrow about all the doors that will open and all the blessings that will come and all the prosperity that's coming your way all the the good things that are about to unfold and it's notice how it's always about to happen they're not usually talking about how great the year just was they're always about how great the next year is gonna be the next year they're like how great next year's gonna be how come they aren't just like tell everybody hey you're already riding high remember I told you last year was gonna be great and it was it's just gonna keep going said it's always like this boasting about tomorrow kind of thing I think that there's something unwise about that so the application of this first verse don't boast about tomorrow because you don't know what a day will bring is that you're you're ready for problems in your life because if you think all your plans will work perfectly you don't think about contingency plans you don't worry about okay well and what if this this school plan doesn't work out and what if this business opportunity doesn't work out what if this thing fails in some respect what am I going to do also you don't look like a fool because it will work for a while if you kind of like oversell yourself and oversell your agendas and your plans people will first be really impressed by you Wow a man with the plan you know kind of a person but those who know you well will eventually start discounting everything you say and I've seen this happen maybe you have to the person who boasts about tomorrow ends up being the person people don't trust about tomorrow because they aren't realistic about their expectations so they're exciting to people that don't know them well but the people that know them well tend to value their promises sort of lowly so there's some wisdom there verse two says let another praise you and not your own mouth a stranger and not your own lips in other words it's better to speak highly of somebody else than it is to speak highly of yourself now applying this into your life which it could apply very constantly it requires a lot of self-awareness like I have to actually really honestly look at my own self and think about the things I say the patterns of speech in my life am I more likely to compliment others or to compliment myself am i more likely to speak highly of what someone else is doing or to speak highly of my own my own thing myself we're all naturally interested in whatever we're doing but how likely am I to be that kind of loving person that lifts up others that's the idea it's better to speak highly of somebody else than yourself this it's you you won't notice you're doing this wrong unless you have that real sober evaluation of your own speech and you might be like what's the big deal here well the thing is proverbs not every proverb is about a giant big huge deal in your life it's often about wisdom it's just like this is just wisdom it's wisdom now it's divine wisdom it's not just wisdom that gets you ahead in life it's not just about getting ahead sometimes it's just about walking in the fear of the Lord and this idea of speaking highly of others and not of yourself is a big deal here now verse 1 and 2 I think are connected a lot of the book of Proverbs is these pithy statements like chapters 10 through chapter 29 or something are like pithy sort of statements one liners that you can pull apart and you can try to apply to your life but these two verses I think go together sometimes they do sometimes it's a cluster of verses sometimes they do sometimes they don't I don't want to force it it's not usually that hard to notice when they go together but here I see in verse one don't boast about what you will do and then in verse two don't boast about what you have done instead boast about what other people have done and that's like a good rule of life and imagine being surrounded with a bunch of people that do this that'd be like a nice place to be it's like a nice group of people to be around this is just wisdom that gives you healthy relationships and creates a positive community verse three a stone is heavy and sand is weighty but a fool's provocation is heavier than both now those familiar with manual labor will understand a stone is heavy sand is weighty there are certain jobs where you're like oh man you know moving sandbags large amounts of sandbags it's like that's a lot of work moving stones that's that's a lot of heavy labor so that's the picture you should have in your head but the application is that the fools provocation is heavier than both now it's not the fool the fool is not heavy now that may be true as well I don't know it's possible maybe not but the provocation of the fool or another word to put there is the word wrath that's heavy that's it's a weight it's a burden the fool puts on other people now what on earth is talking about how is the fool give me a burden I think what happens and I'm gonna give you my impression as I read this proverb is that when you when you irritate a godly person they don't burden you the way the fool does but you trigger the fool and they freak out on you and they either with their slow malicious intent slowly heat burdens upon you or they overreact and this is like over-the-top freaking out now they're angry they're wrathful to the point where you're being burdened by their overreaction this is often how fools will control the people around them they'll control them by flipping out and then everyone's like look I won't even argue with you because I think that the burden of your wrath is worse than lugging heavy sand and stones okay I don't want to deal with it and that's what I think we're getting out of this a bad temper here here's an application a bad temper is a burden that we put on everyone in our lives that's a sobering perspective to have to say I'm impatient I have a bad temper right I just yeah sometimes I go off on people maybe we don't realize the burden we're dumping upon everyone in our life when we have that kind of temper and that's a pretty heavy thing to think about I mean that pun intended now the fool often thinks that they're correct about whatever they're wrong about and because they're so burdensome nobody wants to argue with them about it you know people like this in your life probably right who you're like even when they're wrong I don't even argue with them about it because it's just not worth it this is not worth it so this ends up trapping the fool they think that they're winning an argument but all they're doing is cutting off all the sources of Correction in their life because of the burdens they create verse four it says wrath is cruel anger is overwhelming but who can stand before jealousy now the last verse spoke of wrath so there may be some connection here between the two verses the provocation of the fool but so wrath is cruel anger is overwhelming but who can stand before jealousy the idea is that jealousy is like next-level jealousies like an even bigger you know harder issue than these other things jealousy is worse even than wrath and anger what's the wisdom I can learn from verse 4 its watch out for jealousy it's a simple thing it's just watch out for jealousy if you're doing things that provoke jealousy you are in danger this doesn't mean the other person's jealousy is justified or not it's just like a life wisdom thing if you realize like that's going to provoke jealousy and so and so that's something to watch out for to be aware of to do even just to protect yourself and this doesn't necessarily say that the jealousy is wrong or that the jealousy is right there's actually a proverb that talks about the danger of committing adultery with a married one of the dangers is the wrath of her husband he when he gets you he's not gonna have mercy on you like don't be looking for mercy from that guy and so there's like just a wisdom in this it's a recklessness the danger that one brings upon themselves when they provoked that kind of jealousy but I think there's an application to God in this because God is a jealous God now when we say that the world often misunderstands because they're used to the human emotion of jealousy which is more often than not unjustified most of the time of people are jealous or envious it's not a justified thing but there is such a thing as just jealousy right like if if if I go out with my wife and she starts flirting with somebody else and I feel jealous that's actually an appropriate feeling now I can handle it sinfully or I can handle it righteously that's it now I'm now I have that dilemma but that's an appropriate kind of jealousy because of the commitment we have to one another well God is jealous in the sense that we do belong to him were his creation he's made us he's made us for himself it's a good thing it's because of his love and compassion and connection to us that he has a proper kind of jealousy because he's worthy so what I would say there is that we're we're realizing the weight of judgment that comes upon people who turn their back on God and love other things in his place in the sense of idolatry loving the things of this world verse 5 it says better is open rebuke than hidden love this is one of those Proverbs that sticks in my mind a lot I think about this one a lot for some reason better is open rebuke then hidden love open rebuke in Scripture is generally a bad thing this is this is I think we have to understand this context to understand this verse this isn't saying open rebuke is good right now there are those who think it's there it's their primary calling in life to rebuke other people and I want to openly rebuke you actually this would not be open rebuke because I'm not calling you out by name and that's the nature of open rebuke I'm putting a person up in front of a group of people to to point out their error in front of those other people that's open rebuke I think that I think that that's what is meant by the idea and Matthew 15 we're told that when our brother sins against us we should take him aside just us and that one person and have a private convo so that when people offend you the best way to try to seek to initially restore that relationship is a one-on-one thing just the two of you you don't tell everybody else just the two of you if they won't hear you then you can bring other people that kind of thing so Matthew 15 to speaks about this being private rebuke Galatians 6 it tells us when someone is caught up in sin and error that our job as Christians is to go to them and seek to restore them gently so there's like a sense of gentleness that's meant when I'm confronting someone in error I want to try to have a gentleness in that now there seems to be a big exception of the rule and that is when people are publicly proclaiming error they ought to be publicly refuted or rebuked so public teaching requires open rebuke I think that that is consistent Jesus does this over and over but private issues one-on-one sin issues doesn't require open rebuke I don't need to put you on blast I need to go to you privately that's the idea okay so what's the point then if open rebuke is generally seen as a bad thing but it's better than hidden love the ideas that hidden love is even worse than open rebuke oftentimes we don't want to open rebuke because partially we're just embarrassed to I don't want to tell him he's wrong especially in our culture how do I tell people they're wrong I mean I'll tell everybody about them but I don't want to tell them you know and that's kind of where we're at because we don't want the confrontation of it but there's another even worse situation which is when we hide love our compassion for others because we feel it's awkward we feel uncomfortable we feel insecure that by being really loving and gracious to others they may not reciprocate and so we're you know maybe it's a macho related thing this is this is not a healthy situation there's nothing manly about being cold and distant from people there's nothing manly about this it's not healthy for you it's not healthy for your family or your friends now I don't think this proverb is giving you an excuse to go and tell your crush how much you're crushing on them that's not the kind of love we're talking about and often we read when we see love we think oh passion but the scripture often is talking more wholesome kind of love the same kind of love a brother and sister can have and so I think you more along those lines yeah it's a bad situation when we're worried about being macho or awkward or insecure so we're not sharing love and we see this with like Paul in the epistles he writes such so much compassion into his epistles when he says things like Philippians 1:8 for God is my witness how I yearn for you with all the excuse me for God as my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus now I'm supposed to notice like that's like a really he's a moding at them you know he's being mushy in his letter to them in Philippians and he's just like man I yearn for you guys with the affection of Christ Jesus but that's exactly what he was supposed to do inspire by the Holy Spirit to just like emote at them there's something wonderful about being able to tell people not in weird ways but in genuine ways I love you I so appreciate you you know that and we we need that we do need that and so share it don't hide that love share it be open about your love for other people well when I was doing youth ministry I would tell the students don't be embarrassed to tell your tell your parents you love them on the when you're on the phone you know your mom's like I love you and you're like yeah and you hang up because your pet your friends are over here and you're paranoid and I gave him I gave him a good comeback line I said you know justjust tell your mom yeah I love you too mom and when your friends laugh just look at them be like you don't love your mom what's wrong with you I thought that was pretty good anyway open rebuke is better than hidden love but I think the next verse goes with this I think this is another pair of verses verse 6 faithful are the wounds of a friend profuse are the kisses of an enemy profuse are the kisses of an enemy I think that loving rebuke can be seen as the wounds of a friend and that there are times where you call somebody out and how do you know when is windows open rebuke the proper and appropriate move I think when it's fueled by love when you're like man I'm not you if I don't call you out that's a great time to have that open rebuke if that's what needs to happen is when you say if I don't do this I'm not even loving you and you have to apply this you're like well you tell me exactly when to apply this and I'm like look this is the book of wisdom you store up this wisdom and you seek to figure out where it applies in your life and it is it applies in a variety of situations but may the Lord bring it to your mind there are times when open rebukes required and it's when to fail to do so is to fail to love people loving rebuke is the wounds of a friend on the other hand profuse are the kisses of an enemy it says that's the enemy who kisses you they compliment you they flatter you they're not talking about like just literal kisses this is speaking metaphorically about them encouraging you no matter what oh you're doing great you're a superstar and that kind of thing even though it's just simply not true some people I think that they misunderstand this reality that the friend who calls you out is a good friend the friend who tells you you got issues is a good friend and they have this attitude towards the church and the church keeps calling them out because they keep rebelling against Christ in their life and so they decide the church is judgmental I'm not now there are sure there's judgmental churches but you know what there's also there's also churches that are offering the faithful wounds of a friend or someone someone just living in a lot of compromise a lot of issues and so they're their friends who love them who are Christians well I came in you got to come out of that hey man you got to deal with that issue and so they go to the world because the world never offers this correction that's the kisses of the enemy and so there are some that find acceptance in the world but what's being accepted is the things that destroy them and so it can be a real hurtful thing some people leave the church to find the kisses of the world and get a kind of affirmation that's not the the wounds of a friend is the kisses of the enemy is the profuse kisses of the enemy that word profuse it means excessive excessive you're just being like way too affirming that's the idea and the world does this the enemy does is you they're just way too affirming salesmen do this right they affirm everything about you oh man it's I love you I love your hair your clothes your shoes your laughs is great you're such a smart person when I buy this and this is this is something you know it's a sales tactic you know to try to like overly emphasize positive things about people that word profuse could also be translated deceitful that's excessive in other words it's it's it's Trixie - Trixie hobbit maneuver is what it is and they're being deceitful actually so it's the excessive affirmations that reveal to us the red flag that should go up that someone's trying to mess with me right now you know you have in those in your life those people who tell it to you like it is but they care about you there are wounds but they're the ones of a friend and you have those who affirm you no matter what and I think who you go to it says a lot about who you are it says a lot about your character do I hide from the people who will tell it to me like it is and I just start stockpiling those who will just affirm me no matter what that's a dangerous thing and that's what this proverb I think is giving us now I think the gospel gives us a really good application of this verse but faithful are the wounds of a friend profuse are the kisses of the oven enemy now some people say it's Jesus's wounds his wounds are faithful right the wounds of a friend and I think that's a really interesting application but I tend to actually lean this way I would say the offensive nature of saying you have to face the facts of your sin those are the wounds of a friend someone who's preaching the gospel who loves people and they tell them about their sin issues those wounds those are hurtful but they heal they're gonna bring you to the gospel of Christ that's the idea that's in fact it's love unhidden that in itself is love unhidden preaching the gospel and sharing with people even though it may cause roughing in the relationships that's unhidden love on the other hand the world will simply affirm everyone straight to hell affirm them for ever and ever and ever and ever a firmament firma manned it's just a profuse kisses of the world that never stopped the affirming so remember that in witnessing that it's it's love that compels us to preach about sin it's not our hatred of people gosh if you hate him just leave him alone you know it's our love that compels us verse 7 it says one who's full loathes honey but to one who's hungry every bitter everything bitter is sweet but I really pondered on this one as I was prepping for tonight really plotted on this one um here's a question for you okay I think we all get the proper right if you've if you're full you don't even want the sweet dessert like honey type thing not like when the waiter waiter comes did you save room for dessert cuz I just want to save every waiter I never save room for dessert not buying more food we're done but um but yeah you're like no I'm just so stuffed even even something sweet just sounds terrible to me oh we get the idea but if you're super hungry every better thing is sweet right they say hunger is the best seasoning all right so if you're a bad cook just make people wait longer know like your food more but that's not the application of the proverb so which one's better though which one do you think this proverb is saying is better is it better to be full and loath honey or better to be hungry and everything bitter is sweet that's kind of a challenge I'm not really sure to say which one's better I mean it could simply be suggesting moderation it could be suggesting moderation hey your enjoyment increases when your use decreases you're over indulging in the things that you think are fun and they stop being fun they just become obsessive addictions I have to do this all the time but the actual enjoyment of its decreased and there may be a sense of moderation there we do live in a binge culture we do you know this we live in a binge culture and it may be that we need to back off some of those binge things so that we can enjoy them in moderation in their appropriate context one commentator says this he says poverty hath this advantage over plenty that it disposes men to be thankful for the smallest blessings though mixed with care and trouble when the rich sort if they be not very careful are apt to be unsatisfied with Nate and nauseate their most delicious enjoyments upon which they have long sir faded some King James commentary for you they're basically saying it's interesting that sometimes you you will look at somebody who has less and they're really grateful for what little they and someone who has much and they're really not grateful at all something about lacking gives us an attitude of gratefulness there's something there every bitter thing being sweet though I don't know if that's really a good thing I don't know if I want every bitter thing to be sweet maybe we do I'm not really sure how to take that part of the proverb if that's a positive or a negative thing I'm not really entirely sure because I think of young people who who have really bad family relationships so they're starving for a loving healthy relationship and so they hook up with some abusive or basically some horrible match to be a boyfriend or girlfriend because every bitter thing is sweet so even though this person is just as messed up as them and they're both have a unhealthy relationship they're getting this real sense oh it's so sweet it's such a great relationship but they don't know what a healthy relationships like because they never had one not with their parents not with their siblings not with this other person and so I think that's not a healthy position to be in we want to so maybe a sense of moderation somewhere in the middle is the better place to be possibly but there may be a gospel application here which is to say there's a sweet and a bitter side to the gospel the bitter being in my opinion here the bitterness of realizing my sin that's not it that's not fun okay I'm broken that's not exactly a fun experience this sweetness of realizing the forgiveness the grace the salvation in Christ the eternal life that I've been given the hope the relationship with God Almighty for all eternity I mean that's pretty sweet so there's a real bitter and a real sweet side of these things and my thought is that the self-satisfied people in this world they they are full up in the world and so they reject even the sweetness of heaven let alone the bitterness of the of the sin so they're too satisfied in themselves however the starving our would be those people who like Jesus enter blessed are the poor in spirit or those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and they're just starving for the eternal things are starving for they're starving for God and so they to them even hearing about their sin that is even sweet and I and as I say that I think man that's totally my life right like I mean I go yes lore when I when I when I see my sin reflected back at me I'm grateful I mean I'm grateful then that I see it and to this I think some people won't understand to see my own brokenness or my own flaws shine back on me so that I can turn to the Lord and those things to receive forgiveness and have my life transformed I'm grateful for that so even the bitterness is sweet to the one who's starving for the lord alright verse eight says like a bird that strays from its nest is a man who strays from his home like a bird that strays from his nest as a man who strays from his home there is in us I think a lot of us especially after we get married maybe maybe before we have kids maybe after we have kids we have this temptation to get out of Dodge I just want to get out of this house I just wanna get away from these people I just want to get I feel trapped in this life and I just want to like escape this escapism thing and I do not think this is terribly uncommon I think a lot of people feel this way I think it's a temptation that we get my counsel is don't do it don't don't even take one step in the direction away from your home away from your family away from where God has you it is like a bird that strays from its nest which puts that bird in great danger and leaves the nest unprotected it does both of those things we can find escape on the outside by leaving the house and getting involved in things that they're not just things you do outside the home but there are things to keep you from the home you know these are different kinds of things these are things I'm doing in order to keep me out of my own house away from my own family that's really dangerous that's really dangerous or we can do it even in our own house we can find a place in our own house to kind of like nowadays put your headphones on lock yourself onto a screen and basically you've escaped from your family and that's not really healthy either so I'd say don't take a single step away from your marriage your kids or your home in that respect it's not good it's not good and there's another application that may be applying to my walk with God for my home is with God my relationship is with God and the place I belong is with the Lord at all plate at all times and so guard yourself from the things that would pull you further from that relationship you don't belong with the world you belong at home so to speak so verse 9 oil and perfume make the heart glad and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel earnest the counsel that would be heartfelt or heartfelt counsel is another way they could translate that earnest counsel heartfelt counsel I think that this is a friend giving you advice that is genuine it's it's from their heart like not that it's emotional it's there's like a sense of purity in it they're telling you the truth without manipulation and they don't really have an agenda because they're just your buddy right they're not trying to manipulate you to get you to do this and that for them but they're just a friend they're just giving you good counsel it's a good advice from someone who knows you and doesn't have an agenda beyond God's glory and you're good man that's that's like the oil and perfume brings gladness to you it's so good to have that kind of counsel you need this counsel in your life like you really need friends I need friends some of us are starving for friends starving for friends and you feel that need and you don't need a thousand friends right but you do need at least a few at least a couple at least three or four who are like that who can give you that kind of counsel that kind of advice like it's really important in our lives The Book of Proverbs speaks about friendship a lot in fact the the book of Proverbs has the word friend 23 times and that's more than any other book of the Bible more than any other book of the Bible it's it's in there quite a lot I encourage you to pay attention to what proverbs says about friendship we're not very good at friendship nowadays at least our culture I mean it's not like we're not like equipped to be very good at it do you know that ancient philosophers we read about these ancient laws Aristotle and all these guys right but they would literally spend hours upon hours upon hours philosophizing friendship the philosophy of friendship like they would study this topic and they thought it was really important and I don't necessarily agree with a lot what a lot of these guys might say about different topics but I understand the emphasis on friendship I think in the scripture it's there Jesus says he describes our relationship with him as a right relationship of a friend right I've called you my friends there's something really really important here so it's like oil and perfume it gladdens your heart or it's uplifting it's uplifting and friendship is a big deal if you look at proverbs it talks about us choosing our friends carefully let the right just choose their friends wisely for the way the wicked can lead them astray it tells us so I want to be able to pick my friends invest in those friendships it doesn't happen on accident it's an investment of time energy and be a loyal friend be a good friend to that person it's really good for you really good for you now if you have a down heart maybe you should get counsel from a friend there's a good proverb for you you're feeling down well just like oil perfume it has this enlightening effect upon a person well so friendship does the same thing good counsel verse 10 says do not forsake your friend and your father's friend and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity better is a neighbor who's near than your brother who's far away I think the point of this proverb is be a loyal friend be a loyal friend and then you'll receive the benefits of the loyalty of your friends so we need friends and we need to be loyal to those friends friendship is a commitment it's not just an expectation but it is a sense of commitment like your friend is the one who will drop everything to help you out when you need it that's that's the idea and so you need friends that are local like that's real practical advice better is the friend who's nearby than her brother far away the issue here isn't that brothers are worse than friends that's not the problem that's now I don't think what the Proverbs is saying at all rather the the issue is if you have a brother who's far away you're like oh my brother would do anything for me but he's like 500 miles down the road well then you need some nearby friends you need some friends than year near where you live invest in those friendships give some time to building friendships near where you live they're really important simple wisdom take it or leave it I recommend taking the application is you need friends nearby and be loyal to them and being loyal to them is the same it's it's the reverse of what you get at the end of this the day of your calamity that's when they're loyal to you well the first part said do not forsake your friend and your father's friend that's when you're loyal to them help them when they're going through hard times draw nearer to the friend who's suffering so that when you are they will be there for you it's just a good friendship man that's what we're talking about verse 11 says be wise my son and make my heart glad that I might answer him who reproaches me now this is very different feel this verse it's a father to a son be wise my son the father's reputation I get from this is connected to his kids right cuz he's gonna answer those who reproach him did you see I heard about your son he did this oh be wise my son that I might answer him who approaches to me that's the idea it the the parents reputation is connected to their kids now some people think it's connected their financial success oh my son has made a bunch of money my daughter she's very rich and wealthy but that's actually not what this parent is asking for is it this Peris not saying be rich my son be successful in business rather it's be wise what is the desire of a godly parent is that their kids are wise that they have wisdom that's important be wise proverbs 3 reinforces this it says this in verses 13 through 16 blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold she's more precious than jewels and nothing you desire can compare with her long life is in her hand and in her left hand are riches and honor so that the comparison between wisdom and wealth is get wisdom guys get wisdom wisdom will be the avenue through you get all the other things you need in life but you desperately need wisdom it affects everything you are but how often do we ask is this wise is what I'm doing them wise but that's the point that's the point tonight is to start reminding ourselves that we should be asking ourselves about all of our actions is this wise is there wisdom in this wisdom always involves a perspective of God in your life real wisdom good wisdom is gonna always involve right because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom so seeing it from God's angle okay get God in the picture as I evaluate the situation and it will always involve a moral evaluation we see this in the book of Proverbs was it wisdom isn't just how to get ahead wisdom is how to do the right thing right there's a right thing there's a moral evaluation there but wisdom is also going to be a pragmatic evaluation which is to say you look at your life and you go what will happen if I keep doing it this way just a simple pragmatic evaluation God wants us to be wise which also means and I sit I've heard this many times but it means that I will not always be led of the Holy Spirit in every decision I make in life for if I was I would not need wisdom wisdom is a decision-making thing it's a tool for making choices it's a tool for evaluating scenarios so the Lord may give you capacities for wisdom and ask and maybe you know you even do that by the Holy Spirit but he's going to ask you to evaluate and make choices many times now the Holy Spirit may lead and guide you to specific actions I just think I need to be open to both of those and to walking and wisdom and making choices so God wants us to be wise and as I apply this in the big picture verse 11 be wise my son I think God wants us to be wise because it also impacts his reputation Christians provide the reputation of Christianity people more often based their understanding of Christianity or their their thoughts about it based upon Christians not Christ now that may be a mistake right we should look at Christ he is the ultimate Christian but they will often base it off of you and me which is too bad I guess but hopefully we're wise and then it gives an answer to those who want to approach God that's the idea verse 12 the prudent sees danger and hides himself but the simple go on and suffer for it I remember reading this when I was a teen for starting to read the Bible and I remember seen the word prudent and thinking I have no idea what this word means what is prudent mean and it's kind of a shocking commentary on our culture that we don't even have words like prudent in our vocabulary anymore what word do we have for cautiously saying no I won't do that I don't think I'll be doing that we don't like what do we call it and we call them a chicken coward like wimp or something like what do we call them the word the Bible has this prudent they see danger and they hide themselves this is a wonderful trait it's the opposite of Yolo right I don't know if you all know still in fad it seems kind of old school to me Yolo seems kind of all those people try that and died and now no one talked about it anymore but but it's kind of the opposite of that mentality it's it's thinking about the consequences of your actions consequential thinking consequential thinking is is something children don't do very well have you noticed this they're really bad about thinking of the consequences of their actions or their behaviors they just want what they want but I found that a lot of adults are this way as well and the Bible calls them the simple in this proverb right here right there's the prudent they see danger they can look ahead and they see the consequences of actions so they go the other way but the simple I like it it's fun and they just kind of keep going that's the simple now in years of doing domestic violence counseling I can say that one of the things that almost everybody in the program who was convicted of committing domestic violence they almost all had serious problems with consequential thinking that is thinking about the eventual consequences of their current behaviors they only thought about what it would do in the next day or two or maybe the next week or two but not certainly in the next 20-30 years that wasn't something that was on their mind consequential thinking is really a big deal in marriage in business in life what we have to do is look at your marriage and ask yourself if I keep treating my marriage this way what will it snowball into in the future and if that scares you you've got to change and if you're like dude that's gonna be awesome then keep going you know right you think about this with business it if I keep treating my my business or my education this way what's it gonna snowball to in the future if I keep treating my physical body this way what's it gonna snowball into in the future and this is where the prudent four sees the danger and they turn aside they take a different path verse 13 take a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for an adulteress the the idea of a security or a surety is like our modern version of co-signing or putting your neck on the line for somebody else that's the idea hey man I'll cosign sure I'll cosign for that that's the idea when when when this guys think he's doing goes wrong they will come to me to fix it that's the idea generally speaking the Bible's like super against co-signing good advice for all of us to recognize it's like really against co-signing co-signing loans co-signing homeownership things like this it doesn't mean you can never ever do it but it's generally a bad idea generally it's a bad idea something you should not do now why does it say take his garment and hold it in pledge when he puts up his security or cosign in a sense the equivalent of co-signing for a stranger or an adulteress well these two groups of people stranger is these are people you don't really really know but I sort of know them I think there's some like a good guy sure I'll put my neck on the line for you and the Proverbs is like you know you might love them but this may not be the right way to do it that's kind of what it's saying or maybe it's an adulteress or the idea here is an immoral person you know somebody with it has a reputation for immoral behavior and you're putting your your financial future on the line for them she's not wisdom don't do this but I thought I was supposed to love people and help them yes give them money but don't cosign do you see what cosine cosine he's different I'm on the hook for a questionmark debt in the future if this person doesn't do their part of the job that's not something you want it's not something you want take a man's garment I think the idea is it's your garments it doesn't mean taking all the person's clothes off like they're naked the idea is this is a personal thing everyone knows you because they know this garments yours and it's to help you realize that you are personally on the hook so don't cosign there's the wisdom that'll save you a great deal of pain and suffering and if you've ever watched Judge Judy you would realize that she wouldn't have a show if people would take the wisdom proverbs verse 14 whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice rising early in the morning will be counted as cursing that's people who are like not morning people or like finally finally people are gonna get this yeah the applications simple and easy but what's the overall lesson we're learning here I think it's a case for empathy I think it's a case for empathy it's like to realize that all help isn't help all kindness isn't kindness and I've got to do like a survey of where someone's at before I seek to be a blessing to them I have to do a little survey of where they're at before I seek to be a blessing a lack of empathy can cause my kindness to fail and for it to actually be annoying there's just like a real good piece of wisdom there verse 15 a continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife are alike to restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in one's right hand you can't you can't restrain the wind you can't hold back the wind you ever just reach into a single oil and try to grab it yeah it's not gonna work it's not gonna work and you can't stop her and that's why she's compared to continual dripping that would be her complaining or her quarreling like she's just constantly starts fights all the time that's that continual dripping now let me just rescue proverbs from our modern mentality is that if you say anything about a woman you're saying it about women period that's not the case okay just like the Bible talks about a foolish man that doesn't mean all men are that way this doesn't mean all wives are this way either and if any guy out there thinks all wives are this way that's just because you're a jerk and you can't tell that's that's the reality that's just sorry that's the truth you have these like jerk lenses so you see every woman as insane anyhow but there's a huge lesson to learn here and it and it does apply in marriage and that is that there are some women who just constantly start fights in their marriage they're like continual dripping those are this those are the fights and the man trying to stop her from fighting trying to figure out how he can fix things so she won't fight it's like the guy going around his house and he plugs up one leak when it leaks over there and he plugs up another leak and now it leaks over there and it plugs up another leak why because it's a continual drip dripping on a rainy day there is this massive store of water coming down it's gonna find a way in the woman who is leaning towards quarreling and fighting she will find something to be upset about because there's a massive store of quarreling inside of her and it's gonna find a way out I think I think that that's that's the lesson right there if you find yourself and this applies to men too obviously if you find yourself always complaining something's wrong with you I don't know how to pull the covers off well enough to help people see this proverbs takes a lot of introspection and to recognize if I find myself always complaining maybe I have like this sort of discontent inside of me and it's finding its way out in my life through leaky holes all the time and that's and and I'm thinking if people would around me would just treat me better than it would contain me but it's not the case because no matter how well treated you are there's gonna be those kinds of things so that's an extreme situation we're being given an extreme situation in Proverbs and I don't want you to be paranoid maybe this is me maybe this is me now just just seek wisdom from it you know if it applies to you should be obvious if it applies to you however if you're surrounded by someone who's like this who's always quarreling and complaining and stuff I think that this proverb gives you a freedom to realize it's not your fault right you couldn't stop him if you tried okay just go about your business be godly be loving but don't blame yourself for someone else's issues verse 17 says iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens and did I skip something 16 was to restrain her with the is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in one's right hand so verse 17 is where we are now that I say did I not say that someone's confused as probably me I apologize verse 17 iron sharpens iron one man sharpens another we get this one mentioned all the time the idea is that you've just got like two people two people and they sharpen each other you know like the way iron sharpens iron you use a sharpening stone or use a sharpening rod on a knife or something like that and this means that there is some element of pushback in relationship that's healthy and good it keeps us from getting weird I think sometimes but it can also make us like quicker and wit it can improve us it's one of the benefits of friendships and relationships where you kind of don't perfectly agree on everything but it like sharpens you and so we find even some abrasion in relationships it can be a healthy thing iron sharpens iron it's good to be around other people verse 18 whoever tins of a fig tree will eat its fruit and he who guards his master will be honored I think the application seems pretty obvious it's like you're tending a fig tree you're eating its fruit you guard your master you'll be honored master here it refers to anybody who's in a superior position to you yeah whether it was a king or a boss or a teacher just someone in a superior position to you and you have a sense of protection for that person you guard them what is that referring to well I think there's a sinful part of us that wants to tear down those who are in authority over us have you ever since this it's like there's something about those in authority over us we we tend to maybe want them down below us we just want to put our foot on their neck I don't know there's something about it that that's in our nature or sin nature that wants that it may be a rebellion against God ultimately because he gives he puts all authority in place so the idea here is guard your master your boss your leader not immorally not them from their own sins and not not like that not a morally guard them but but here's a question how do I talk about them behind their back that's actually a really big deal how I talk about leaders behind their back not a blind sense of loyalty but a sense of respecting the role in the position they're in and realizing that there is a there's a gardening that's needed because of course they're gonna be under attack now I don't want to be the one providing the attack and I know I've been tempted to do that in the past and it's a good wisdom and good good counsel for us to remind ourselves that we want to try to guard them and it says they'll be honored some of us seek to lift ourselves up by tearing them down instead we realized that we're part of a team we're part of it seem like as a church for instance we're part of a group a team we work together to serve the Lord we don't want to put people on pillars but we also don't want to tear them down verse 19 as in water face reflects face so the heart of man reflects the man the heart of man reflects the man now imagine if you rarely saw a mirror or you couldn't pull your phone out and just look at yourself with the camera to inspect you know make sure everything's still there you know imagine you couldn't do that That moment when you got in front of flat water would be like deeply insightful so that's what I'm looking like you know you would be seeing yourself for the first time in a while you know as you look into that water and so water reflect face reflects face in water so the harder man reflects man I think that the heart is not always on display but like that water occasionally seen this is occasionally it comes out the heart comes out in these rare moments in life where someone's just their heart gets out on their sleeve and everybody sees it for what it is the answer is wow that's who you really are those moments when you are vulnerable and you're very open and you're very just real that's showing you who you really are those are insight moments in your life if you think about the last few times when you've liked not just that you broke down emotionally but rather you responded with the genuineness of your of your heart hmm you know it just came out good or bad that was an insight moment for you to think about and be like I can see Who I am I can see Who I am through this but you can also see who other people are you can watch for other people's sort of heart moments for lack of a proprietary R and you can evaluate and see what kind of person they are you know when they go through maybe a hard time maybe a great time but somehow the heart just comes out and you can take action according to those things verse 20 says shield and Abaddon are never satisfied and never satisfied are the eyes of a man shield and Abaddon shields grave Abaddon's destruction so it's just like no matter how many people die their graves never done they're just more people are going to die it's never satisfied and the eyes of man or human eyes we're never satisfied now this helped me a lot as a young man because I kept thinking foolishly that if I could sate my eyes by seeing this or seeing that then I'd feel satisfied but I found that the more you feed the flesh the bigger and worse the hunger grows and it never seems satisfied and so I apply this to my old walk realizing that all of those temptations to sin those I want I want I want word lies it wasn't going to satisfy it was just gonna create more of a craving and more of a hunger want desire is never satisfied desire grows satisfaction diminishes that's the nature of sin godliness seems to be a whole different path right it's not like that at all satisfaction increases but here it seems it decreases an unending thirst for sin so the application is you simply have to say no to your own desires you're never going to be satisfied so start saying no we look at this post cross and we see a take up your cross die to yourself follow Jesus that's the application lest your eyes your once your desires be the death of you because you keep trying to satisfy them and it never will it'll just ruin you are we going to speed through here and get through the rest of this verse 21 says and the crucible is for silver and the furnace is for goal and a man is tested by his praise okay crucibles and furnaces we're talking about when you get metal and you boil it up and all the muck comes out all the impurities rise to the surface and they can like skim off the impurities so they're purifying that metal well they're saying it that praise to a person does this now this isn't praise like when we're standing in church and we're praising God it's speaking about his praise or when people are praising him so it's when someone else speaks very highly of you it reveals something about you how is that well how you respond reveals a lot about you certain situations show us caused us to show ourselves and pain is one of those situations but so also is praise praise reveals things about you and you can use this in evaluating yourself and evaluating others in a godly fashion I know that we sometimes work really hard on things and nobody notices and that could be discouraging and sometimes you work really hard on things and everybody notices and then they're all talking about it and they're telling you about it and they're like man such a good job on that you did so great that was amazing yeah and do you feel it within yourself that you're now conflicted with some kind of weird spiritual test that's what this is talking about how I respond do I stay humble and godly or like do I have like a puffed up head which is you know comes before destruction right and before the fall these things are coming that you know this is a testing moment for you how I handle praise is an actual moral test in my life be aware of that verse 22 crushed a fool crushed a fool in a mortar with pestle along with crushed grain yet his folly will not depart from him mortar and pestle we're talking I like that little stone bowl and you put like grain or something in there and you have like that little The Rock tool that you grind it all in there that's the mortar and pestle and they're like you could put a fool in there with your crushed grain you could grind him up to dust and you can't separate him from his folly now it's not suggesting do this to people literally no not at all what it's saying is his the fools folly which would be the person to the fool the folly is the dumb thing they keep doing the dumb behavior the foolish behavior they keep doing over and over and over again what they're saying is there's nothing you outside the fool can do to force the fool to stop doing it this is good advice for us all to know people who are committed to folly can't be stopped by anyone by any measure you get the decision to choose your to control your own life you get free well so do they and if they're that committed to their folly there's no magic trick you can do there's no number of times you can save them from the thing they're doing there's no amount of work you can put in that will make them change now here's the flipside you have your own folly - and you might be waiting for the world around you to change to make you stop committing some sin or some issue and my encouragement to you is no outside mortal mortar and pestle is gonna drive out all of your folly from you it's gonna be a decision to die to yourself in to follow Jesus it puts it it puts the responsibility squarely in our lap for the life we live and there's no blame to put anywhere else ultimately the fool's folly the dumb thing that you keep doing nothing will stop it except you but I just don't think I've hit rock bottom yet well rock bottom is wherever you stop going down then you look back and you go I guess that was my rock bottom but it's not just this thing that happens to you when you have no choice to make first twenty three we're gonna read all the way through verse 27 because this is one section here and it says no well the condition of your flocks and give attention to your herds for riches do not last forever and does a crown endure to all generations when the grass is gone and the new growth appears and the vegetation of the mountain is gathered the Lambs will provide your clothing and the goats the price of a field there will be enough goat's milk for your food for the food of your household and maintenance of your for your girls so this I think the application is real simple you know here's the picture in the end of this section in Proverbs 27 is a person who has a lot of wealth they've got riches but they're not there they're tempted to not do the normal daily labors that would help them for the distant future they want to maybe sit on the riches they've already got so they're not thinking forward so don't the applications don't look at what's in the bank look at what's coming in the future be fiscally forward-thinking this real simple application is that you're thinking beyond the moment well I'm doing good right now I can just relax I could I could take some time off and I can do whatever I want that can be potentially dangerous because sometimes the stuff that you think will last doesn't last and then you realize that especially in that culture right when did you have to start farming in order to reap a harvest months down the road right you just start way ahead of time when did you have to start first feeding and taking care of this flock before you're starting to get their milk it was way ahead of time so we want to be investing in things in our lives today that benefit us in the long term we're not living that sort of moment-to-moment without thinking about the future that's the idea now I want to marry this with the words of Jesus a little bit because Jesus also told us not to worry about tomorrow and here proverbs seems to be telling us worried about tomorrow right in Proverbs 27 we're getting this a lot worried about tomorrow except it's not the same thing as worried about tomorrow Jesus isn't saying don't prepare for the future he's saying don't agonize about things you don't know proverbs is saying prepare for the future at the same time it says don't boast about the future because you don't know what's gonna happen so it's an agreement with Jesus here I don't want to worry about the future but that doesn't mean don't prepare for it that doesn't mean don't be ready for it don't be thinking about the fact that you need to have a retirement one day that you need to be ready for the windfall of hardship that may be coming you know your direction will be coming your direction eventually that's just the reality of life so biblical decision-making here in the book of Proverbs is to see yourself in God's vision get God's vision on the situation am I seeing this with God the picture ask yourself a moral evaluation of your situation ask yourself a pragmatic evaluation of your situation and then be able to walk in wisdom and seek to know what your responsibilities and follow God asking is it wise I think whatever you're doing it's good as a Christian they say is this wise is what I'm doing wise it's a way of life wise if I keep living this way in ten years will I be like what on earth was I thinking if your answer is yes I will didn't change use some biblical wisdom here and make some altered alterations in your life this should give us clarity and direction I encourage you guys to be reading The Book of Proverbs there's so much more than I could cover I think the application of these scriptures is so varied and it hits our lives in so many different ways that it's just our job to sort of store up this wisdom in our minds and hearts and let the Lord bring it back to us when we need it at those different crucial moments let's pray Lori thank you for your word the book of Proverbs is a life-changing book constantly Lord but it changes our lives in ways that maybe sometimes don't feel super exciting as we're learning the wisdom but isn't that the nature of of learning we we learn it we store it up we learn it simply by faith knowing that your wisdom is so essential for us and then those moments come where that clarity changed our lives and we pray for that now Lord we pray for wisdom wisdom in our trials and wisdom in the in the good situations that think the plenty we pray for wisdom that we make right and good decisions Lord that we would make your name great in this world as people look and they see a godly and wise people in Jesus name Amen [Music]

Channel: Mike Winger

Views: 145,096

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Keywords: Proverbs 27, proverbs explained, proverbs 27 explained, understanding proverbs, Mike Winger, Mike Winger proverbs, proverbs, wisdom from the Bible, the wisdom that changed my life, How proverbs changed how I see everything

Id: 38VG0nHAhFY

Length: 62min 10sec (3730 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 20 2020