Sunday, September 3, 2006 – Labor Day Weekend – Communion – “Worship in the Quad” – Baptism at Lake Meridian
Be it resolved: We will be men and women of wisdom!
Proverbs 4:1-27
5 Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them. Proverbs 4:5
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What a wonderful day to be in the out of doors, to soak in the beauty of God’s handiwork, to acknowledge God’s power as we seek to shade ourselves from His Sun, S-U-N.
In a very strong sense, this message is a kick off to our fall ministries. You see, I want you to make a resolution, I want all of us to make a commitment, to being men and women of wisdom, to being boys and girls of wisdom.
Now, when I speak of wisdom, it is not simply knowing and doing the right thing. When I speak of wisdom, I am really speaking of Christ, for Christ is the personification of wisdom. In most cases while reading in the book of Proverbs, wherever you have the word wisdom, you could replace it with the name, Christ.
The text we look at today in Proverbs is chapter 4. It’s an exhortation to choose life over death. Solomon, the writer, tells us that we choose the road we will travel. One leads to life. Others lead to death. One we can call Wisdom Way. The other, Wicked Bypass. When we choose Wisdom Way, we are really choosing life. And, the way we do that is by following and obeying wisdom at every point and juncture of our lives.
This proverb is very much a life or death debate. Will you choose life or will you choose death?
Now, I can hear you saying, “Well, Dan, that’s a silly question. No one in their right mind would choose death.”
O, how I wish that were true. How I wish everyone was choosing life. But, reality tells us, that’s not the case. People every day, even good people, choose to walk the dark road to death. And from their perspective, it may even sound reasonable why they do.
You see, the fact is, and Solomon tells us, choosing life is expensive. And, it is seldom convenient. Furthermore, we will face strong opposition in our pursuit of the wise life. There are three powerful reasons why so many people simply fail to choose life.
But, the fatherly Solomon urges his son to overcome these obstacles to real life. He states that the road to life is the road of wisdom and understanding. Taking that road is worth every penny a person has, everything a person has. It’s that valuable and that important.
When wisdom becomes our companion, we are the recipients of multiple benefits. Wisdom provides protection from foolishness and sin. Wisdom enhances life by increasing joy and diminishing regrets. Wisdom expands life by enlarging opportunities and reducing failures. (consider repeating this paragraph.)
Yet, the greatest obstacle to walking the road of wisdom to fullness of life is within us. We have to want it. We have to choose it. We have to give ourselves fully and wholeheartedly to it. Fact of the matter, the road of wisdom is demanding. It calls for us to be preoccupied with its teachings and truth. It demands vigilance and alertness to intruders and detractors. It requires focused living in order to stay on course and finish well. But, it is all worth it because the product of wisdom is a full life, expansive in healthy relationships and overflowing with satisfaction. It’s worth it because the end result of wisdom is eternal life with the One who best personifies wisdom, Jesus Christ.
Following our review of Proverbs 4, I’m going to ask you to commit yourself to walk the road of wisdom, to accept its demands and pay the price. I just wanted you to know this up front. I will be asking you to make a commitment to be a person of wisdom. Keep that in mind as we read through Proverbs 4.
Now, to assist us in understanding what we’re reading, it is helpful to know that often in Hebrew writing, the writer will state the same thought in two parallel statements. Knowing this, we then can see that the word “understanding” is a synonym for “wisdom.” We don’t have to spend lots of time trying to figure out the differences between wisdom and understanding. Rather, see them as a synonyms.
When Solomon says he was “a boy in his father’s house,” it means the same as being “the only child of his mother.” When he says, “don’t forsake wisdom,” he means, “love her.” When he says, “wisdom will protect you,” another way of saying that same thing is, “wisdom will watch over you.”
Proverbs 4 is full of repeated thoughts. It’s like shining two lights on an object from two different directions so we get a clearer grasp of the idea, or the thought.
We see this immediately in verse one, where “listen” is synonymous with “pay attention.”
Proverbs 4:1-27 (NIV)
4 Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.
2 I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching.
The context for this Proverb is the home and the relationship of a father has with his sons. The book of proverbs is specifically directed at sons. But, in most circumstances, the lessons apply equally to daughters.
But, we mustn’t miss the importance of the context. In the past, we’ve spoken often about the evangelistic heart of our God and the need for us as a church to involve ourselves in making the Good News of Jesus Christ known in all our spheres of influence. But, Proverbs 4 opens with the underlying truth that our evangelism begins at home.
Howard Hendricks once wrote, "If Christianity doesn't work at home, it doesn't work. Don't export it." (quoted by James Dobson Straight Talk to Men and Their Wives. - p. 92).
Sadly, it might be that the reason we are not evangelizing may be because Christianity simply isn’t working for us. We are not living it. So, thus, we remain silent. You see, we can’t export what we don’t possess.
But, here in Proverbs 4, the writer is giving us a strategy to really live in the grace of God and grow a life that is truly worth sharing with others.
What Proverbs 4 is telling us is, God has a plan and God’s plan does work. It can work in our homes. It can work in our relationships with our children. It can work in our church. But, and listen carefully, it will cost us.
Now, I want to be clear about this issue of cost. God offers us freely the gift of life in His Son, Jesus Christ. Forgiveness of sin and coming into a relationship with Jesus Christ is not for sale, it cannot be bought. It is truly a free gift.
But, there is only one place in our hearts for a lord, a boss. And Jesus tells us that we cannot serve two masters. Thus, when we receive the free gift of Jesus Christ as our Lord, that act displaces our previous lord. If it didn’t, then we need to have a one-on-one conversation with the Lord Jesus to get things figured out.
It’s not at all dissimilar to us making the choice of which airplane we’re going to ride in to our selected destination. Once we have taken our seat in the Alaska Airlines plane, we have, in effect, said “no” to Southwest, Northwest, Delta, American West, United, and all the other airlines. Just as we can’t sit in two different airlines at the same time, we can’t serve two lords at the same time.
This is what I mean when I say, God’s plan works, but it will cost us. We have to embrace the reality that Jesus Christ is our Lord and that we serve no other. And, at times, that may feel like a very costly way of life.
It’s not so ironic that the sermons by John Hoeldtke the past two Sundays focused on the relationships between a father and his sons. Luke 15, therefore, provides a helpful backdrop for our looking at Proverbs 4. There is a responsibility of the father or parents, if you would, to initiate a loving and mentoring relationship with his children. There is also a responsibility of the children to obey and learn from their parents.
We know from the story of the prodigal son that there was nothing deficient with the father’s deployment of love and mentoring with his son who ran off. Yet, the son turned his back on his father. He walked away from wisdom. A very foolish thing to do.
But, it seems clear that the son’s return was grounded in the relationship the father had built with his son from infancy, giving the son good reason to go back to his father when he came to his senses.
So, the context of Proverbs 4 is the home. It’s the starting point for life. It’s the foundation for a lifetime of compassion and outreach and ministry. And, parents, and particularly fathers, are at the center of the home.
We all know too well the price we as a nation are paying for absentee dads. Children raised without dads significantly raises the crime rate, the illegitimacy birth rate, the use of drugs and a host of social and health problems.
But here we have a father who committed to his family and he is urging, almost pleading, for his sons to learn from him lessons that will bring them understanding. The dad is declaring that he is in a mentor/student relationship with his sons.
3 When I was a boy in my father’s house, still tender, and an only child of my mother, 4 he taught me and said, “Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live.
If we are going to be men and women of wisdom, it begins early, the act of taking hold of truthful words, particularly God’s. To lay hold of them, to keep them, to obey them is a necessity if we are going to be men and women of wisdom. And, it’s best to start early.
This also tells me that it’s the responsibility of parents to get their children started on the road of wisdom. And, if we children have parents who are trying to do just that, the smartest move we can make is to cooperate with them. (repeat.)
5 Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them.
6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.
Here we have a mixture of positive affirmations and negative exhortations. If we are going to benefit from wisdom, we need the negative exhortations to not forget its words or swerve from them; not to forsake them. And, indeed, we will benefit from acquiring wisdom. She will protect us and watch over us.
7 Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
8 Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you.
9 She will set a garland of grace on your head and present you with a crown of splendor.”
Wisdom and understanding are worth everything we have in order to obtain them. Not only does wisdom carry an exceptionally high price tag, it is worth every penny of it.
There are many things that catch my fancy because of their unique features or exquisite beauty. They most often have a price tag that is so far out of reach for me that I don’t even linger to drool in hopes of ever possessing them. I’m pretty much o.k. with that reality. I believe I can say with Paul that I have learned to be content with what I have.
But wisdom is in a category of its own. Its price tag must not turn us away. Interestingly, its price is tailor made for everyone. It simply costs each of us everything we have, not more than we have, not less than we have, just everything we have.
What does that say? That if we fail to gain wisdom, then nothing else really matters. Jesus put is this way, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet forfeits his own soul?” There is one thing for which to sell it all. That’s wisdom. The irony is that in doing so, we will become immensely rich. O, not necessarily by the world’s standards, but we will be contentedly satisfied and live lives of gratitude for whatever we have.
10 Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many.
11 I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.
12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble.
Notice what an invaluable companion wisdom makes. I don’t want to go anywhere without my friend, wisdom.
13 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.
14 Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil men.
15 Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way.
16 For they cannot sleep till they do evil; they are robbed of slumber till they make someone fall.
17 They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
18 The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
19 But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.
Solomon let’s his son know that all those who walk with God, who seek after God’s wisdom, will face hostile opposition. It would be most unwise to link up with evil men. What a road to disaster! What a path to death!
20 My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body.
Solomon alerts his son and us to the discipline that is required of those who pursue wisdom. We have to discipline our ears. We have to discipline our eyes. But, those disciplines will pay great rewards.
The most important discipline is to guard our hearts.