CCS Sermons
Proverbs 4
It's no surprise to God because, obviously, somebody here, maybe me, needed to finish the book of Proverbs at this point. We started months ago with chapter five and here we are in four. So let's pray and see what the Lord has for us. Father God, thank you. Thank you for your word. Thank you that we have entered your courts with praise for your worthy. Thank you that we can remain in your courts, honoring you, listening to your Holy Spirit, seeking to be equipped so that we can make a difference in this world and in our church and in our families. So open our eyes to your word tonight. We pray all this, the name above all names, the name of Jesus, amen. So I feel like I've been a broken record all of these weeks repeating the same themes over and over again, you know, I guess we can blame that on Rhea Bohem who didn't listen to his dad, Solomon, and Solomon had to tell him more than once. Maybe we could blame it on the other youth that Solomon was instructing. Maybe we can blame it on ourselves that we need to hear things more than once before we get them, you know, everyone, all believers need to be reminded of the truths of God's Word and here in Proverbs, you know, the truths of wisdom, the themes that we've seen over and over again, themes about peer pressure, themes about a good work ethic versus laziness, of foolishness versus wisdom, family, relationships, the youth, use of our mouth, the things we say and especially, you know, the fear of the Lord. One thing I discovered going through Proverbs this time is how often the fear of the Lord, having a proper fear of the Lord and the benefits of having the fear of the Lord make in our lives. So Proverbs 4, we're going to continue some of those themes and we're going to continue the warning of do not and so keep your eyes open for that phrase. For Solomon begins, "Here my children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to no understanding, for I will give you good doctrine, do not forsake my law. When I was my father's son, tender in the only one on the sight of my mother, he also taught me and said to me, 'Let your heart retain my words, keep my commands and live.'" So here we have the instruction of a father. It's kind of interesting to say, "Hey, here are my children what your father has to say." This is a father. So we can't just say, "Hey, Solomon's not my dad, I can blow him off." One thing we see here, he was impacted by his father David and he's passing this on to his children. I've now got adult children, I've got grandchildren, I'm realizing that that call to pass on God's wisdom didn't end when my last kid turned 18. I get to make an impact in the lives of my grandchildren and hopefully I've made an impact in my own kids' lives where they can say, "Hey, I learned this from my dad." We all have a legacy with the things that we pass on. We don't get to a point where we can say, "Hey, I've done my job, I'm off the hook." We are impacting future generations, not only our physical families or our church family too, and of course ultimately when we're told here the instruction of a father, I think of our father God, the capital F father, here the instruction of our father. We are all his children and verse one tells us, "Hey, listen up, we need to hear." He says, "I'm going to give you good doctrine." That word doctrine is just an old word for teaching. I'm going to teach you some important stuff, got to pay attention. We get that warning there in verse two, "Do not forsake my law." Kids, all of us kids, we need to be warned sometimes. That's what we're told that all scriptures God breathed and it's useful for correction for training and righteousness, for reproof. We get to just be impacted by the many ways that the Holy Spirit will reveal the scriptures to us. First three, you know, he does remind them, "Hey, when King David, when I was his son, my mom's one kid, ten during the only one, my dad started teaching me when I was young and said, "Let your heart retain my words. Keep my commands in live." It's that word "heart" again, I've commented on it a couple of times. We think the Old Testament is all of these laws and do's and don'ts and outward things. The heart is very important because it's the same God in Genesis 1-1, all the way to the end of Revelation. So, here's a command to our hearts that our hearts need to pay attention, that our hearts need to remember, that our hearts need to keep the commands in live, application right there. What do I keep? What do I retain? What do I remember? I've decided that remember is one of the key words of the Old Testament. I said a key word in the New Testament also. We need to remember, we forget too quickly. So verse five, here's what we get to do. Get wisdom, get understanding, do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her and she will preserve you, love her and she will keep you. So, wisdom is personified. We've seen that, we saw that when we began our study, we saw that in chapter six especially. Wisdom personified as this woman. The call there is, don't forget, don't forsake her, don't think I don't need wisdom, we need wisdom. In fact, you don't just need to need it, you need to love it and we get to love God's wisdom. But we see it says get, that was them, get that understanding in verse five. Getting is not something you do by osmosis, it's an effort. Make an effort to get, the Hebrew translated get here and many other places in the Bible it's translated as buy or purchase, you know, wisdom isn't cheap, wisdom is valuable. So we should be mining for wisdom like treasure in God's word. Tells us in verse seven, wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom and all you're getting, get understanding and here's this continued call. It's a valuable buy it, purchase it, invest in it, you need wisdom. So how do you get wisdom? Maybe that's a legitimate question to ask it this time. How do we get it? Well, right here, chapter four verse one, hear the instruction of a father. You know, listen to the instruction of others, your spiritual fathers, your heavenly father. In Proverbs nine, ten, we see that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so having that relationship with God where you are in awe of who God is, where you honor and respect him, where you fear him, that's part of getting wisdom. Second Timothy two, fifteen, tells us to study the show ourselves approved and you need to part of getting is spending time in God's word, studying, digging in. Well, whatever you're still struggling. The commentary on the book of Proverbs has the answer. Go to James one five, if any of you lack wisdom, what are you supposed to do? Ask a God, pray, Lord, I need wisdom in this situation. Help me to know what to do. Colossians one nine, I like this, you know, Paul wasn't asking for wisdom. For himself, in Colossians one nine, we see he prayed for the Colossians that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom. So intercede for others, and I think just how we began the chapter tonight, intercede for your kids, intercede for your grandchildren. Lord, the apple didn't fall far from the tree, did it, oh, help my kids, help my son, help my granddaughter. So God's word, you know, doesn't just say can't wisdom, it helps us, shows us, okay, you want to make an effort here, this is how you do it, you pray, you study. You listen, any of you lack wisdom, ask of God. Verse ten, hear my son and receive my same, oh, this Solomon's got a normal son, he's got to tell him, you know, twice in the same chapter to listen. Hear my son, receive my sains, and the years of your life will be many. One of these good principles that we see in Proverbs. Some people will struggle and say, oh, this is a promise, and you know, my son listens, he's going to live to be old. You know, good wise people don't die from drunk driving or don't die from venereal disease, but good people are still run over by drunk drivers. Good people still go to the jungles of Peru to share the gospel and are martyred for their son, but boy, fruitful years, so hear my son. Verse 11, I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in the right paths, so one on one teaching, I have taught you in the way of wisdom, you know, this is, you know, sitting down, having a devotional, reading the Bible with their kids, reading the Bible with others who you are sharing with, who you're discipling with. You know, Solomon didn't just say, hey, reeboam, here's a link, here's a QR code, you scan this QR code, go to this website, it'll answer all your questions for you. He said, I've taught you, I didn't, you know, send you to a school that time to be a Christian school, I didn't, you know, give you a book, when I sit, I'm going to invest time in you. Who are you investing time in? I'm looking, I'm seeing, you know, believers in various stages of their walk, for a lot of you, you know, yeah, we can always get wisdom, a lot of you are in the stage of going to somebody and saying, hey, I want to sit down with you, a cup of coffee, let's talk, let's open up God's word together. In verse 11, he's able to say here, I have led you in the right paths, but if he's leading him, he's being an example. So here he's saying, hey, do as I do, not just as I say, I've led you in the right paths. So from what we know about Solomon, I mean, eventually he's skewed off, we don't have to. We need to decide that we're going to be an example, you know, I want my church to be blessed by my use of my spiritual gifts to impact the body of Christ. I want my city to be blessed. I want, you know, Mexico to be blessed, for South Africa, for the Philippines. But it takes leading. I have led you in the right paths. Now, because of this one-on-one teaching, because of this example, because of this repeated play, you know, listen, pay attention. In verse 12, he can say, "When you walk, your steps will not be hindered. And when you run, you will not stumble. If you've got wisdom, you recognize obstacles, you recognize bear traps on the path." You know, we are sojourners. We are travelers on this planet and my favorite Larry Norman line in one of his songs was only visiting this planet. And so we are traveling, we're walking. We've got an example shown us the right paths, and we're seeking for wisdom and we're sensitive to the Holy Spirit when we come to a fork in the road as we're walking. As we see an off-ramp, you know, we have a source of wisdom. What do I do about this off-ramp? Fork in the road. There shouldn't be a fork in the road here. Where did it come from? Well, the person leading me, what path did they go on? I don't know. I guess I need to get the road map out. Holy Spirit, show me the road map where I am, where I'm traveling, where I need to go. When you walk, your steps will not be hindered. Of course, if God wants to close the door, that's his prerogative. To me, that's not a hindrance, that's a rescue. And so God does, you know, put speed bumps for safety, not a hindrance, it's a rescue. Solomon continues verse 13, "Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go, keeper, for she is your life," man, he doesn't, you say, hold on, keep a firm hold, there's a recognition here, you know, the world is going to try to pull this out of your hands. The world is going to try to make you, you know, leave it on top of your car when you drive off. The world is going to try to distract you. And because the world is going to distract us, we need to hold on firmly and not let go. Yeah, book of Proverbs, don't read it once and then say, okay, I'm done with that. And I kind of apologize at the beginning because I've felt where I've repeated myself for the months that we've been going through this book. Oh, here's another verse about the poor, oh, here's another verse about laziness. It's kind of like, Lord, I've told them enough about, you know, family, you know, don't you think they've gotten it by now? Well, we're told to keep firm hold of it. Obviously, there's something that I needed and you just get to go along for the ride as I, you know, am paying attention to what the Holy Spirit has to say. After the call to take firm hold, after the call to keep her, for she is your life, we get a warning. Verse 14, do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of evil, avoid it, do not travel on it, turn away from it and pass on. There are times we just need to repeatedly be told, do not. Isn't that true? Do not, do not avoid, turn away, do not. We saw a lot of these warnings in chapter two. Stay away from the wrong crowds, you know, Timothy was told to flee youthful lust. I mean, Timothy is Paul's assistant, he's, you know, one of his troubleshooters that he can send off for ministry, so he's not a punk kid and he's warned, flee youthful lust and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart. When I teach to youth, we'll hit this verse sometimes. This one in Proverbs 13.20 about, you know, walking with the wise for the companion of Fuell Suffer's harm. Those junior hires and high schoolers hear it, add knowledge, they need it, they need to know. You can flee and hear the, hear the call is to flee. But then, Timothy is told, you know, you're not just going to flee and run around like a chicken with your head cut off. Here's some good things to pursue. Instead of just thinking, oh, I got to get away from this, hear positive things, focus on righteousness, faith, love with those, you know, yeah, flee, flee these negative, the path of the wicked here, the way of the evil in verse 14. But you don't do it by yourself. You can't do it by yourself. God's given us our brothers and sisters in Christ for us to pursue the good things with. And so we've got this warning, you know, we've got a lot of positive things. We've got a lot of, yeah, follow my example. But there is the Holy Spirit inspired warning here in 1415 and continuing, hey, do not. The path of the wicked, you know, yeah, re-aboom, or whoever the kid was. You're sitting there, you kind of, okay, dad, I've heard enough and rolling their eyes at dad while he's talking, thinking about, hey, I'd like to hang out here. And by the Holy Spirit, Solomon goes, don't, don't go there, don't hang out with him. Avoid that YouTube page, avoid that TikTok influencer, flee youthful lust. And he goes on to explain about these people. He says, they don't sleep unless they have done evil. For their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall, for they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. It's almost already Pete of chapter 2, verse 15. The wicked think it is a joke. It's a game to make Christians and especially Christian teenagers to fall. There are TikTok influencers who have admitted their purpose is to get Christian teenagers to renounce their faith. They're out there praying on our kids. And, you know, here they don't sleep unless they've done evil. They feed off of destroying the walks of believers. They think it's a joke. The contrast, then we get in verse 18. The path of the just is like a shining light, shining sun, I'm sorry. That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of wickedness is like darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble. What a contrast here. We've got these two paths. You know, Jesus talked about the two paths, the narrow way, the narrow road, the broad path, you know, that's not something that was new to Jesus. He inspired it, you know, hundreds of years earlier. So the path of the just versus the path of the wicked. We see shining sun versus darkness. We see perfect day in verse 18 and stumbling in verse 19. The contrast between these two paths, a lot of people think, oh, I'll kind of find the gray area in between. There is no gray area in between. There are two paths here or two roads. I looked up the song, I wrote it down. I remember hearing this song before I dedicated my life to the Lord, two roads by country faith, old Marnotha music, Calvary Chapel Group. Two roads from which to choose, the road to glory or the fool's highway. Two roads from which to choose, the rocky one or the Lord's new freeway. Choose before the Savior comes, the road to glory or the rocky one. Please decide before the Lord descends, sweet road to glory or the bitter end. We've got these paths and God's children, born where as we said, can't expect to be led by God if they try to shuffle between these two paths. You can't go back and forth, choose the path of wisdom. Find the spiritual father who will say like in verse 11, I have led you in the right paths. 20, boy. My son give attention to my words, he's kind of like, hey, you're drifting off, boy. Listen, incline your ears to my saying. What do you incline your ears to? We're going to have a lot of challenges here, a lot of application questions as he wraps up chapter four. What do you listen to? Music, rumors, politics, talk radio. I guess audible books could be counted too. What do you use your ears for? What are you listening to? The call here, hey, son, give attention, listen, use your ears and pay attention to my sayings. Now he moves to the eyes. Do not let them depart from your eyes. What are you looking at, boy? Son, don't let this depart from your eyes. We are people of the book, you need to be using our eyes on God's Word. Keep them in the midst of your heart. Here the heart is involved again. Son, I don't want you just going through outward motions. I don't want you putting on an act for dad here. This has got to be in the midst of your heart, verse 21. Keep them. We see that challenge again, you know, to keep. If we can just listen to it once, let me just go through the motion. This needs to be a commitment. You got to keep this. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. No. You listen to the right things, you're looking at the right things, your heart is in the right place, it will be a benefit, you know. Those who are suffering from depression, here's something to consider, where's my heart? Those who are suffering from bitterness. Where's my heart? You keep these in your heart, and they are life, and they are health. Well, he's got to repeat himself to his boy, father's got to repeat himself to us, verse 23. Keep your heart with all diligence, for how do it spring the issues of life? Some would say this is the key verse of chapter 4. Now, we know our hearts are inclined to sin, Jeremiah 79. I think I heard it on a Sunday morning here recently. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Your heart is inclined to sin. So here it's going to take diligence to keep your heart. You need to be actively keeping it, you need to be praying for help, don't drop your guard. And the Bible has a lot to say about the heart, right? Where's me again? I mentioned him once, I've got a quote from him. The Bible warns us to avoid a double heart, Psalms 12, a hard heart, Proverbs 28, a proud heart, Hebrews 3, a cold heart, Matthew 24, and an unclean heart, Psalm 51. So we need to keep our heart. We drop our guard, we've got issues of hardness, we've got issues of pride, we've got issues of it's getting cold, getting unclean, and if the heart's deceitful above all things, this is a cry out to God type of moment. This is, "Lord, help me here, help me because I'm trying to keep my heart and I'm not sure which heart I'm keeping." Is it deceitful and is it the one that you're washing? Is it the one that's being cleansed by your word? One more reason for prayer, 24, put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you. So we dealt with the ears, the eyes, the heart, here we got the mouth and I've commented many times, I am surprised at how often the lips, the mouth, the tongue, the words that we say and how we say it are mentioned in the Book of Proverbs. What do you say? What jokes do you tell? The call here, put perverse lips far from you, put away from you the deceitful mouth, the lying mouth, and time to go to the Lord and fall on our knees again, 25, who comes back to the eyes, let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you. Again, what do you watch? What do you read? Our eyes are a gateway into our souls. What type of things are you looking at? Let your eyes look but let them look straight ahead. So wrapping up in 2060 says ponder the path of your feet, let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or to the left, remove your foot from evil. He finishes up with this warning, do not turn to the right or left. Don't get sidetracked. I'll quote gold five from Star Wars, stay on target. Stay on the path. So ponder the path of your feet, second Corinthians tells us to examine ourselves. Think about what path you're on. This is the final application question as we wrap up the book. Where are you traveling? What path are you on? Are you thinking about what path you're on? Are you pondering where you're going? And finally, we've got a book here about wisdom. We've spent, I'm not sure how many weeks in it. From what ways can wisdom guide you and protect you on the path? Let's pray. Father God, we are thankful for your word. We read stuff like this and realize that we need a work of your Holy Spirit. That our hearts would know which one of these verses applied to us tonight. This is the one about our eyes, about our mouth, about our heart. Is it a reminder to stay away from the wicked? Is it a reminder to be your good father? Lord, thank You. That we can ask for wisdom because we sure lack it. So we come to You. We ask that You would continue to teach us, that You would continue to give us wisdom. We may have completed this go around at the book of Proverbs, but your Holy Spirit's not done with us yet. Jesus' name, we pray, the name above all names, amen. We've got some time to pray, to get together and pray. I will give an update, Sarah, Sandra and I saw Ted on the way here tonight. It's a miracle. It is an answer to prayer. How much he's progressed. And so they told him after doing stuff today that he can go home tomorrow. So God answers prayer. God answers prayer. And so since we have seen that God answers prayer, we should break up into groups of four or five and do some praying. We've got Celeste. I didn't hear how the surgery went, but she had surgery today. She was supposed to go home around six o'clock. We have an update. She's home, all right. Alison went to the ER again. I understand this morning something was passed on, or was that an old prayer request? Yeah. And in the midst of all of these people, like to ask for prayer for our missionaries in Mexico, they're training church planners this summer in Latin America. And for the first time, they've had a couple come from Chile and Brazil, and are attending the training that they have.