The Way Of Wisdom

0:00 We are starting today, by introduction anyway, the book of Proverbs today. I know. Book of Proverbs. And I got to tell you why. I got to tell you why it's so nerve-wracking for me. The book of Proverbs, it's not themed out like any other book of the Bible. So for example, if you are teaching in the book of Matthew or Exodus or 1 John or Ephesians, you've got a theme that flows through and it's gorgeous. how all that works. And then you come to the book of Proverbs, which is like shotgun,

0:37 buckshot theology. It's remarkable. And so the whole nature of the book of Proverbs is not a preaching style delivery, but it's more like table talk. How are we going to do that on Sunday mornings? I don't know. I'm really, you're fine. I think you're fine. You'll sit there and you'll figure out if I'm doing an okay job or not on it. But let's just remember this, the book of Proverbs. This is something where in the book of Proverbs, you're to basically sit down with someone and go through the book of Proverbs or just yourself and read them. One by one. Even though you'll see many times where there's repetition, it's one by one. And so I'm going to really ask all of you guys between now and next Sunday to please pray for me as to how, here's my goal, is to get through one chapter a week by picking out three of the prevailing Proverbs out of one chapter. Does that make sense to you? Great, because it makes no sense to me whatsoever. That is so not my style, you know me, is I'd rather camp in a chapter for a couple of months. But book of Proverbs, Look, we all need it. There's a reason why I think God has led us to go to this book, is that it is the book of wisdom. And with all of the knowledge that we are acquiring as a civilization, as a people, knowledge in the way of technologies, knowledge defined in the sense of learning certain things, we scarcely can call it even actually knowledge. Yes, hallelujah, Our astronauts are back home.

2:23 They made it back. And that's amazing. But all of that happened by tremendous understanding of sciences. That said, it may not necessarily convey into the realm of knowledge. And I'll make more of that in a moment. You say, well, Jack, isn't all that science stuff knowledge? Yes, it is. But it's more like how a medical doctor might be or an attorney. You know, now in this world that you and I live in, And if you've got a problem physically, look, I've lived long enough to watch the progression of this. When I was a little kid, we all went to the same doctor. I mean, we didn't go to the same doctor, but we went to the doctor. And now you go to the doctor long enough to get a referral to a specialist. Everything has been specialized. Are you tracking with me? Same in law.

3:15 There used to be lawyers, and now there's lawyers of certain particular types of need. And they are very knowing about that topic, but not on the broad view. God desires you and I to be very, very knowledgeable on the broad view of everything. Does it make sense? We are not to be, in fact, that's why, listen, there are churches that only focus on, for example, topical messages. And though they're wonderful, they don't usually take you through all the doctrines of the Bible. There are some churches that only talk about Bible prophecy, and they don't talk about anything else. They don't talk about sin or repentance or other doctrines. Are you hearing me?

4:06 You can have some information, but it may not be knowledge. The book of Proverbs fixes all that. We need this book. And listen, the Christian church needs this book. Parents need this book. Kids need this book. Churches need this book. America needs this book. But America's not going to get this book unless you and I get it inside of us. And we live it out. And so we're looking at really the theme of the entire book will be the way of wisdom. the way of wisdom. So I'm going to ask you to stand if we'll read it together. The first seven verses, don't get excited. This is just the introduction. We'll never make it. Proverbs. We're going to learn today what a proverb is. We're going to learn about the man Solomon. We're going to learn about the wise of it all.

5:00 And how do we acquire wisdom? I'll read verse 1 if you'll pick it up in verse 2. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction. To perceive the words of understanding. To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity. To give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear and increase learning. And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. To understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. Lord, we pray that as we christen this book of yours, 3,000-year-old document that's before us, its wisdom, its knowledge, its instruction has never changed.

6:02 It is more needed now than maybe ever before, at least in our lifetime. Father, we thank you today that we are a people that have come to the worship and to the knowledge and to the love of the living God. You are the living God. You are the Savior. You are the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. You are the sum total of all that there is to know is known through you. You are truth. And we pray today, Father, that by your Holy Spirit being present, you would equip us both to proclaim your word and to ingest your word, that it might, Lord, trickle down to our feet, to the tips of our fingers, and our lips, that we might live out the Christian life in wisdom. So Father, we dedicate this entire book now to you, and we pray that should we be granted the time to come to the end of this book, it will have a dramatic impact in our lives.

7:02 We pray it in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen. You may be seated, church. the way of wisdom. So obviously, we start out looking at the life and the times of this man, Solomon. We've all, I would think, have heard enough about Solomon in some way, shape, or form, the son of David. Technically, of course, the son of David and Bathsheba, if you remember. Now look, that was not David and Bathsheba's first son. The Bible tells us that David, In fact, this is probably too much information. But you remember when David, it was springtime, and David was supposed to go to war with the armies of Israel. Israel had been dominant. Israel had been powerful in their victories. And they were prospering under King David. Known today, still today, as Israel's greatest king.

7:56 That is true, but you might find it interesting to note that Israel experienced absolute peace and no war under one king only, and it wasn't David. It was the man Solomon. Did you know that? Solomon was the king that was known for peace and prosperity for the nation of Israel, and there's a lot to that, and we'll hear more about it over the weeks and so of going through this book, but David was supposed to go to war, but in their success, David had gotten sloppy. David slept in. And all the troops and all the commandos of Israel went to battle in David's day, but David stayed home, the Bible says. He wasn't supposed to, he stayed home. You know, listen, the temptation to get into that retirement mode or maybe you're young and you're not in that retirement mode, but you've enjoyed some form of success, so you kind of pull back, so to speak, off the throttle, or you glide or you cruise.

9:00 You get a little sloppy. Well, David got a lot sloppy. He didn't go to battle, slept in, got up one morning, walked out of his palace, probably yawning and scratching his beard or whatever. And he goes to the edge of his patio and he looks down and leave it up to Satan, no doubt about it. There's this woman that's bathing on a few houses over on top of the roof, which is not uncommon for Israel even to this day. The roofs are flat there and they just keep building up. And David sees Bathsheba. He doesn't know it's Bathsheba. He sees her and she is a knockout. And David, instead of being in battle, you know, idle hands are not good. What is that old saying? Are the devil's workshop or mischief or whatever. And David looks at her and he starts to lust for her. And then he goes to one of his military leaders, or at least one of his assistants, and says, who is that woman? And they said, oh, that's Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite. He's one of your great soldiers.

10:13 And fast forwarding, David seduces her. And she becomes pregnant. And then she says to David, I'm pregnant. Uh-oh, well, your husband's been at war. This is not good. So then he sends a communique out to the front line saying, have Uriah come back home. I want to give him a vacation. And David tries to make sure that he sleeps with his own wife, right? To make it look like it's going to be his kid. You say, wait, Jack, are you talking about the Bible or some Hollywood? I know, right? This is the Bible, folks. And Uriah is so dedicated to his fellow soldiers and to the king that instead of enjoying his wife on sabbatical or on leave, he doesn't go home to sleep with her.

11:05 He sleeps outside the house. He won't enjoy the benefits of marriage while his troops are deployed. Are you hearing me? What a loyal guy. David finds out about this. Fast forward again to the point where David says, look, this guy, this guy, he's just, this guy's too good. Put him out in the front of the battle. Make sure he's leading one of the attacks. And then I want you to make this certain kind of command. Have everybody retreat, but leave him out on the battlefield alone. Let the enemy kill him. So David murders Bathsheba's husband. and then David takes her to be his wife, and then they produce children, obviously. Solomon is one of those boys that come out of that union, and you say, man, this is sordid. Yeah, it is. So is life, and God gives us the Proverbs because what happens as Solomon now comes onto the scene to be the king in David's passing,

12:17 Solomon doesn't know quite what to do. We'll read about this in a moment. And Solomon, though he, in a sense, was a product of a very sinful series of sins by his father, God has a heart and a love for Solomon that is quite amazing. One that is literally affected you and I to this very day. If you're taking notes, and I hope that you are, there are two prevailing verses that are throughout the scripture on this one of the book of Proverbs, but one of the most primary, if not the number one thing, is verse seven. You read it a moment ago. The front end of verse seven, if you might want to put on the top of your notes, it's the same. It should be the same every week, and it's Proverbs one, verse seven, and it says, the fear or the awe. Think about that. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Or we can say it this way. So maybe some of your versions put it like this. The awe of the Lord, to be in awe of God, is the beginning of wisdom.

13:19 you think about the governing power of that. How about this, everybody, in light of my announcements? Think about the government of God in your life. Is God king? Is God the Lord? Does God rule? Is he your chieftain? Is he your master? Is he your overruling power and authority? He is to be. and that's what he wants in our lives. But it's important to realize this, that David writes, because we talk about writings, my goodness, Solomon's going to be prolific. David was prolific. David writing the book of Psalms predominantly. Not all of them, but most of them by far. The Psalm writer. David is that personality I've mentioned in times past where I think women gravitated more toward David in a sense than men do, though men certainly did. David had his mighty men of valor, there's no doubt about it, but women have a better balance, I think, this way. David represents, I think, so much the life of the believer in our day and age, and maybe throughout all of time in this way. David was a man after what? God's own heart. God revealed himself to David in very, very unique ways. He He revealed himself to Abraham in very unique ways.

14:46 Moses in very unique ways. David in very unique ways. That said, David had very much of a born-again type of relationship with God, even though that, of course, was not the call upon the Old Testament economy. But it is in the New, of course. You must be born again. The Bible says, David prayed like you and I do. He had great victories like you and I do. David had great defeats like you and I do. David often had times of great despair. David was prone to the pits of darkness and feeling unworthy, going through a tremendous tug-of-war within himself. And from his life, mark it down, he writes Psalm 1.

15:42 So where does Solomon get such an influence? Dads, listen up carefully. Solomon got it from his dad, I do believe. Of course, by the Holy Spirit. But listen to Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. By the way, Christians are to seek godly counsel. Nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. By the way, notice the digression. Blessed is the man who walks not, walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands or stands still in the path of sinners, nor, look, sits in the seat of the scornful. In other words, if you're going after a worldly counsel, you're just gonna go down. You're gonna walk over to it, you're gonna stand there and look at it, and then you're gonna sit down and it's gonna pull you in. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, the word of God, and in his law he meditates day and night.

16:36 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its own season. This is beautiful. If I was a dictator in education, I would make this like the commencement service for every high school or college. Wow, look at that. Whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, the way of the ungodly, shall perish. That's David. Listen, that's Psalm 1, and it begins to go proverb-like at verse 6. You're going to hear a lot of this. Proverbs are the teachings, and I'll give you more of the exact definition in a moment. Proverbs are like teaching by what's contrary, or the opposites. There is the godly, they shall prosper. The wicked will come to destruction.

17:41 That's a proverb. You saw the action. If you saw this great movie we've been talking about, The Great Awakening, you saw moments of that. You know who was a master at this, though it was not biblical knowledge or information or wisdom, but he was great at it, was Ben Franklin, the author of Poor Richard's Almanac and many other sayings. You could look up the many hundreds, if not thousands of quotations or statements by Benjamin Franklin. And one of them is, and he actually said this. In that movie, when George Whitefield is standing there in the print shop with Ben Franklin, George Whitefield, when they come to the agreement, I'll preach, you print my sermons. Franklin's all excited about that because it sells papers. That's what he did.

18:34 He was first, of course, the printer, Benjamin Franklin. And when Whitfield, when they shook hands, Whitfield said, a match made in heaven. And Franklin responded and said, or a coincidence or something like that, or a deal made, yes, or a deal made in a print shop.

19:00 Two different men, two different worldviews, together, opposite conclusions. Both of those landing points of each of those men were contrary to one another. Are you hearing me? And yet in life, they were partners. As Whitefield preached, Benjamin Franklin printed. And then as, well, I want to ruin the movie. If you go see the movie, fast forward and go to the end of Ben Franklin's life. And you'll see the glorious true account of how Ben Franklin ended his life. Quite awesome. As Whitefield as well. Instructions and observations are something we always want to be watching for. And I want to give you this quote here right now. I want to read this to you. With the passing of every decade. Listen, this is awesome, everybody. By the way, if you're a skeptic in the house, listen up. With the passing of every decade, century, or millennia, since the writing of Proverbs, there has been no discovery that has proven one proverb to be wrong or untrue.

20:03 Exactly wow. Now, we're going to read tons of scientific observations that are 3,000 years old, and modern-day science as of the 21st century not only does not debunk them, but actually agrees with them, which proves the authorship of the Holy Spirit in the writing of the book of Proverbs. God uses these men that are yielded to him and called by him. Next quote is this. Solomon is one of the most prolific writers, if not only the Old Testament scripture, of not only the Old Testament scripture, but of all humanities, obviously world famous throughout every generation. He wrote over 3,000 proverbs in total. The topics that he covers range from human reasoning to animal life, meteorology, astronomy, psychology, anthropology, oceanography. You're going to get that out of Solomon.

21:05 And the most important, theology. Remarkable. Again, God's the author of the scriptures. How about this? 1 Kings chapter 4 verse 29. All this introduction for today. And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding. Notice, everybody, the wisdom and the great understanding is a gift from God. Can you remember that, everybody? Look, I don't know anything. No one's told me that you're here today if this shoe fits. You might be so enamored and so devoted and so given over to higher education. God bless you. That's awesome. But in all of your learning, don't lose God. Don't forget God. Take it from Isaac Newton, who you're not as smart as him. He knows better. Isaac Newton learned that through learning, it brought him closer to God and to the worship and the appreciation of God.

22:02 Don't become, I like an old friend of mine used to say, do not become so educated that you're educated beyond your intelligence. That's a great word. He goes on, and largeness of heart, like the sand of the seashore. Thus Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.

22:26 Remarkable. It goes on in 1 Kings 4 verse 31. In the middle of that verse it says, His fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations. He composed some 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs. He could speak with authority about all kinds of plants. from the great cedar of Lebanon to the tiny hyssop that grows from the cracks in a wall. He could also speak about animals, birds, small creatures, and fish. And kings from every nation sent their ambassadors to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, the Bible says. Man, we need somebody like this today, don't we? This is so foreign to us, but it shouldn't be. But that's okay. Guess what, Christian? You and I as believers, you're going to see how you and I have the opportunity to ask God for divine supernatural wisdom for the living of our lives. if we had asked him earlier in our lives, we would have avoided a lot of pain, sorrow, and chaos.

23:36 Remarkable. A God-given gift. In 1 Kings 4, verse 25, we say 1 Kings, 1 and 2 Kings, because Solomon was a king. It says, And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, Each man under his vine and his fig tree. I like that. You might say, what's a vine and what's a fig tree? Today, it's your gazebo and your hot tub.

24:02 It's like just, you know, just want to live life. I think, this is my personal observation. I don't care what your religion is. I don't care where you are, what country you're from, what continent you're on. I think a normal person, even if they're in the wrong religion, Maybe they haven't heard the true love of God and the gospel of God yet. Maybe they're messed up in the wrong religion. If they're normal, they're going to want to live and they're going to want to have life and enjoy life. Because God put that in your heart as humans. I think when you go murderous and kamikaze crazy jihadi-like, I think that is an absolute perversion. human beings ought to want to live and love life from Dan, that is way up in the north of Israel, as far as Beersheba, way down south, all the days of Solomon.

25:00 No war. Remarkable. Only king in all of Israel. God blessed him. By the way, again, observation from opinion out of the scriptures. Is it possible that God's wisdom given to Solomon, that Solomon in the early days used that wisdom so beautifully that in the area of negotiating or trade with the neighboring kingdoms was so effective because he was so wise that it avoided war? Possibly. Possibly. The Bible says in Genesis 15, verse 18, regarding this issue of war and no war. The Bible says in Genesis 15, And on the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying to your descendants, that would mean Solomon, I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.

25:58 That's the promised land, by the way. You guys, I know that Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, they don't want to hear this right now, but it's the Bible and the Bible never changes. But I'd like to show you a map of, first of all, this region of Solomon's kingdom. This is important. This is Solomon's kingdom, and I want you to take a look at the reign of Solomon. Here's the reason why. Are you guys listening? Did you hate history in school? I did, because I had horrible teachers. It wasn't until I became a Christian that I wound up loving history. so check this out when it came to land where the kings of Israel presided over no king presided over more land promised to Abraham than Solomon but Solomon fell very short this is important Solomon fell very short of the land promised to Abraham Solomon never got to realize all of that property are you hearing me?

27:04 Listen, for this reason. There is one that is greater than Solomon who is coming, who will be the one who sits on his throne. And when you study the millennium, when Christ sits on the throne in Jerusalem, in Zion, the Bible tells us that the parameters of the promised land, I'll show it to you in a moment, that will be the kingdom of Christ. Even though his kingdom will encompass the earth, This will be his, I guess what I'm saying is under Jesus Christ and his government, then the promised land to Abraham will be totally fulfilled. Solomon came close. Right now today, Israel's a fraction of it. But look at this, all the way down to Ezon-Geber, that's down to the Gulf of Agaba or Eilat, down towards Sinai.

28:00 Look at Philistia, where the Philistines come from. Look at all of this area, all the way up into areas of Syria today, way up there. Remarkable. That's what he presided over. Next slide, I think, is kind of basically the same. You can get the idea of that. And the Great Sea, of course, being the Mediterranean. Now, watch this. Look at that little area. If I say little, it's the biggest under a king. Now, look at what was promised to Abraham and what Christ Jesus will have his kingdom over. look at that go all the way to Egypt see the Nile River that's that sharp edge on the left side see Cairo the Bible has promised this to Abraham this will be the kingdom how about this this will be the city limits so to speak of Jesus' earthly kingdom though he will rule the world notice it goes all the way to Basra over by Kuwait why?

29:00 because the Euphrates River goes all the way up, and then you look at the area in Syria, up near where it meets Turkey, and then all the way down. That is awesome. I thought you'd be impressed with that. That's pretty incredible. That's the area promised to Abraham. So for example, just because my announcements probably offended some people, I'll just push the envelope and go all the way. so people will say something like this with the debates and the negotiations going on in the Middle East right now we want Israel to go back to its pre-69 borders pre-67 1967 borders we want Israel to go back we want Israel to become smaller what are you citing that on it's pre-1967 borders Go back. Go back. Some of you are getting this. Go back. Go back. I say, listen, UN, UN, I say go back. I say go back. Go back. Not 1967. Keep going back. Go back. Go back. Go back to about 900 BC.

30:14 You want to go back? Go all the way back. Go all the way back. Keep going back until you bump into the Bible that says, hey Abraham, it's my earth, I made it, and I'm promising you this land. Now all of a sudden, the whole world is divided, watch, over one promise. And the promise is, to this land God says, I promised to Abraham.

30:42 And we're on the brink of a world war actually over this promise. If you believe in God, it's clear. If you don't believe in God, it's war. Make sense? It's remarkably simple. It all comes down to, do you believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Quite remarkable. And so in, again, Oliver introduction, guess who wrote even the book of Ecclesiastes? Anybody know that? Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. and he wrote that book while he was king. So I mentioned for a moment, remember how David should have gone to war but he didn't go to war? Solomon was doing tremendously great and then he got sloppy. And then you know the story. He started adding horses and chariots to his garages. Remember, God says, I don't want you to acquire horses and chariots because you'll be tempted not to trust in me.

31:39 And he did great for a while. but in his prosperity he forgot God. and he began to buy chariots and horses by the thousands. He began to acquire women from surrounding nations because they were gifted to him as these, and that was normal in those days. If you have, if we give you some of our most beautiful women, you know, Miss Baghdad or whatever, I don't know what, Miss Damascus or something. I don't know. If we give her to you, you promise not to war against us. You know, Indian tribes did that in America. It's just part of the deal. They still do it today in the Amazon.

32:32 It's like an agreement. Solomon had thousands of wives. Horrific. Insane. What do you do with one? Having one. having one is something having one is something keeping one is something Lisa and I will be coming up on 47 years I think this June No, it's all because of her. I mean, look at me. She puts up with, I'm crazy. She's stable. It's the Lord.

33:06 But Solomon's life in some ways, maybe in many ways, was a life that was tainted by circumstances and labels. Though he may be king, there's things like that that you and I have to deal with in life. And I want you to be encouraged. Because in the midst of it all, in 2 Samuel 12, 24, the Bible tells us that when Solomon is born to them, it says, now the Lord loved him. Out of nowhere, the Bible just drops that truth. The Lord loved him. Can you take that? Can you handle that? That the Lord loves you? Well, I'm not Solomon. You're not supposed to be Solomon. I'm not Solomon. But God loves you nonetheless. Well, you know, I come from a sordid past. So did Solomon. Well, my dad wasn't perfect. Get in line. Neither was David. But God says, I love Solomon. And God loves you.

34:00 And in my notes, if you have my notes, it's verse, or page four, it says, now the Lord loves Solomon and Jack and Michael and Amber and put your name in there. In 1 Kings chapter three, verse five, the Bible says, at Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. and God said, ask what shall I give you? Wow.

34:26 Now you might be saying, I wish God would appear to me in a dream and ask. Well, I tell you what, friend. Little word of advice. Get committed to a cause that glorifies Jesus and don't be surprised if he appears to you and says, ask of me what you need. The greatest way, This is not a plug for you to get involved. I thank God for the incredible amount of servants at this church. But do you really want to see God move in your life? Get out there on the edge where you can't pull it off, and it has to be him. That's called Christianity. Get out there where you're dry mouth and nervous about it, and you're terrified, and it's like, I don't see how this is going to work. Good for you. That's where God comes in and does all that. And so Solomon becomes king and he doesn't know what to do.

35:23 Ask, what shall I give you? And verse 10 says, in the speech that is of Solomon's request, please the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. Then God said to him, because you have asked this thing, he asked for wisdom, he asked for knowledge to watch over God's people. and have not asked for a long life for yourself, nor have you asked for riches for yourself. You haven't asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for your self-understanding to discern justice. Behold, God says, I have done according to your words. Behold, or see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart. This is what we want. Church family, we want a wise and understanding heart. It is my intention for me personally in this study to enlarge or increase my heart to be a wise and understanding heart. I want you to come every Sunday with that intention.

36:19 I'm gonna enlarge my heart this Sunday. We're gonna go to church. We're gonna learn about wisdom. We're gonna learn about knowledge. We're gonna learn how to live life in such a way that gives God honor and glory. And all the while, listen to this, all the while, we need not have to make mistakes that our flesh so often gets us into. We don't have to. We can hang on to him. I'm calling this what is a grand slam for all of us. 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. When we look at the book of Proverbs, remember this. All scripture. Can I change up the words? All of the Proverbs is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Look at it that way. Also this, in Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23, this is that other verse, Proverbs 1, 7, and Proverbs 4, 23, those two verses are the summation of the entire book.

37:18 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. guard, garrison your heart, guard your heart, guard it. Our culture today, our young people today, listen, grandma and grandpa, mom and dad, listen, to our children and to our children's children, we must communicate to them, figure out how it works in your family. Get your kids, if they're gone, call them up. Send them a video. Do FaceTime. Tell them. this is grandpa calling and just got out of church today. And I want to encourage you kids about something. The Bible says in Proverbs 4, 23, to guard, to keep your heart with all diligence because out of it springs forth the issues of life.

38:12 Kids, the way that your heart and what your heart gravitates toward and what you want, match it up against the word of God. Throw out that which is not right with God. add to what is from God put it into practice kids do it what about this we don't have to guess do it do the word of God watch what happens give them that challenge kids today need a challenge they may not think so they need a challenge and why not give them a challenge to pursue God we need to do that like never before we learn best no doubt about it we learn best by listening which is also connected to observation and experience which is the reality that we're going through. That said I think you'll be accustomed to this in two specific areas of what is known in scripture as poetic writings.

39:13 It doesn't mean it's poem. It doesn't mean it's made up. It's the way it's delivered is parables and proverbs. Remember that. Parables is casting illuminating truth alongside someone's head so that they might see what you're teaching in an illustration form. Jesus, of course, was the master. And then Proverbs is, as I said, teaching by comparison. Little snippet, sentence or two, maybe two verses at the most, illumination. Amazing. So write this down if you would. What is a proverb? Very important. This is what a proverb is. It is a concise to the point way of communicating truth or wisdom by making truth or wisdom mentally tangible. That's a cool statement.

40:07 Or graphically real. Mentally tangible. What does that mean? Even though it's a thought in your head, it is so dramatic that you don't forget it. We need this today. Are you guys still with me? Okay, you're very quiet. I hope that's a good sign for the rest of the series. And graphically real. Boy, you and I live in a world that's graphic, is it not? But is it real?

40:36 There's a lot of graphics. We don't know if it's real. Most of the stuff on your internet, thumbnail, YouTube, whatever, search, fake. Have you ever, you know what I'm talking about? You see the picture where you go like, let's go deep sea fishing. And then you see this, you see some guy with his rod and it's a photograph. And the guy's catching like a 5,000 pound sea bass. And you say, look at the size of this guy's catch. It's amazing. It's fake, my friend. Can't you see that? But listen, if you downsize and scale the image back, if it's still photoshopped, so to speak, it's still fake.

41:18 A proverb will give you and I exactly what we need for this 21st century to expose false from true, to reveal false from true. And so listen, almost interchangeably, proverbs and the next thing is wisdom. What is wisdom? This is great. Wisdom is the proper use and application of knowledge. I'll talk about this in a second. I'll come back to it. Using what you have learned, knowledge, experienced, listen, this is important, discipline, to make good life decisions. Check this out. It is the proper use and application of knowledge. You could be the greatest brain surgeon on paper that UCLA has ever produced. you could be the number one you can get the best grades as a brain surgeon in all of the American medical history of the United States, you're the perfect A's and beyond.

42:25 I don't care one bit about how smart you are regarding books. I don't care. I want to know if you can work on my brain. Are you hearing me, folks? Have you ever seen people? Leave it up on the screen, guys. have you ever seen people have you ever heard of this? I've heard of it I don't want to see anybody like this but I've heard of it have you ever heard of people who are like life counselors but they've never had children that was my next statement or they have never been married and you got your degree where usc well usc this right now if you if you ain't been married and if you ain't got kids you're working out of a half deck there friend because you can learn all you want the experience or the discipline is putting them together.

43:28 You could, listen, none of us would be happy if the guy gets on. If you're catching British Airways this evening till Heathrow and the captain goes, this is your captain speaking. Glad you guys are all on board. We're going to be leaving soon. We got the best flight attendants, all that jazz. This is a great airplane, super duper. And maybe you'd all like to do it. I'm really excited to be with all of you today. because I've never flown this aircraft before. Have a great trip. I want off. I want off. those of you who have gray hair or no hair, you are so valuable. Lisa and I were just talking about this yesterday. You and I are so valuable because we've got some miles behind us.

44:25 And we've got young people who, bless their hearts, all over this campus, young people are getting married, they're meeting young people here on campus, which we don't want this place to be like a meetup place, but it's happening. I'd rather have people meet up here than at Joe's Bar and Grill. And they're having, they're getting, I got to put that in order. They're meeting up here, they're getting married and they're having babies. We have babies all over the place. This is a baby church. And here's the amazing thing. Seriously, because they didn't have a Christian upbringing, they don't know what to do. And what we need is older people to come along and disciple them like a grandma and a grandpa because they've never had a grandma or grandpa. And they need to be told this and that and the other thing. Literally, I say that because I spoke to a young couple not too long ago. I did their wedding and I asked them, how's it going? And they went, um, fine.

45:24 You could tell that they didn't know what they were doing. Doesn't the Bible tell us that the gray hairs ought to come along? Those that are young and to school them and help them and disciple them in life? Absolutely. That would be like a living proverb right in front of them because you are linking the learning of it, the knowledge, to experience.

45:51 And that's the best. Very, very important. Colossians chapter 4 verse 5 says, walk in wisdom toward those who are outside. That is the non-believers redeeming the time. That's a beautiful statement. Walk in wisdom toward those who are unbelievers redeeming the time. There's two commandments. Walk in wisdom toward the unbeliever walk in such a way that you're redeeming the time. This is amazing. By the way, the word walk, look at this beautiful meaning. Walk in wisdom. To behave or conduct yourself toward life. No, look at that. Toward life. living, to walk forward to the finish, to live in a way that occupies the day, implying day by day, every day until the end of life. Wow, one word with that incredible meaning in the Greek language, walk in wisdom, beautiful and powerful.

46:46 Jesus said seven times in the book of Revelation he who has an ear to hear let him hear what the spirit says we have to listen. Wisdom is teaching by discipline, not by punishment. But the time we have remaining, and I want to make sure I get through this. Church, listen, this is going to be heavy. Again, all the way, all because of introduction. Next week, we'll get into the verses of it all. Listen to this. I was reading some old stuff. I say old stuff. So much has changed. This is about 1954. I want you to see this, and I'll read it to you on the screens. In our nation today, as a culture, we have forsaken wisdom, teaching through discipline, and have instead defaulted to punishment through ignorance.

47:47 One of the tragic results of that is the complete and total failure of what a family is and how it works, which has led to the unraveling of our society. Because we have adopted the wisdom of the world, we have forsaken God's instructions. For example, why do we have overcrowding in our prisons today? The answer is that we have adopted punishment over discipline. If a father instructed his child by discipline, according to the scriptures, listen to me. Some of you are already starting, the hair on your arms or whatever, you're starting like, father's discipline. Just because you and I had rough experiences doesn't negate the authority of God's word, the Bible.

48:45 Don't let our life's situation interpret the Bible. God says this. I mean, I think he agrees with this. According to the scriptures, that child would grow up understanding his or her proper place in the world and how to flourish in the world no matter the condition that the world may be in. We need that today.

49:10 When that fails to happen, we substitute discipline with punishment. In doing so, we have failed to properly discipline, instruct, and educate our children in how to be a God-honoring witness with their lives. That is tragically insightful because, listen, according to the Bible, and I'll read some of these passages, there'll be more in the future. We are instructed as fathers and as parents to discipline our children. The Bible says so. You're feeling the pushback to that because this culture has swallowed you up.

49:51 The Bible says a child left to themselves will grow up to be a reproach to their parents. The Bible says that when we discipline our children, We drive evil far from them. Did you know that? The reason why we have an adverse reaction to this encouragement to be scriptural and biblical lovers of our children, most often in the areas of discipline, is because that's the way God has intended it, but it's to always be done God-like by believers who love their children. who don't respond in the flesh and in a carnal way where they beat their kids. God never said beat your kids.

50:43 But see, you and I live in a culture of abuse. Why? Because we've been brought up in a culture where we've been taught wrong and we've not been told the Bible. but when parents ignorantly, I say, cutting them slack, punish their children, I want you to know right now, nowhere in the Bible is a parent authorized to punish their child. Did you know that? Did you know that God punishes the ungodly? That's his preview. Did you know that God disciplines his children?

51:25 Boy, is there a big difference. Here's how God does it. Jack? Yes, Lord? You know, you saw what you just thought in your head a moment ago, didn't you? Yeah, but, you know, we're all human. Yeah, well, that's why I came and died.

51:45 And that gets in the way of you and I in our fellowship together. And to be quite honest with you, Jack, I can't stand to be separated from you. I want to be with you in every moment of your life because I love you. And so I'm warning you, don't let that happen again. Arrest that thought, rebuke the temptation, take it to the cross, and move on in power. Yes, Lord. Why would he tell me that? By the way, I just paraphrased several scriptures. Why would he do that? Because he loves me. but listen, if you're growing up and you're a kid and you don't exactly appreciate nor know what's right or wrong yet, and you cross that line, you do something wrong, and the next thing you know is you've got a pair of knuckles slapping you across the room, that's called punishment, and it creates, listen, it creates chaos.

52:45 Chaos in the home, chaos in the child's life, fear, and an ungodly way of fear. There should be a reverential awe that children have for their parents. And by the way, they're kind of born with it in a way. They think mom and dad are the greatest thing on the planet. That's why even a parent who abuses their child, did you know that child when they're young will defend the parent? Wow. when we love our kids, we will discipline them in a godly way. Solomon is going to be teaching us this, instructing them. Now, a great thing is God tells you what's wrong. Now, let's say it's God, now it's time for God to discipline. God says, I told you five times not to do that. You kept doing it. So here's what we're going to do.

53:39 In the following days, I'm going to put you in the penalty box. Don't whine about it when it happens, Jack, because you won't listen, so I'm going to deal with you this way to get you to pay attention next time. And then we go like this. No, God, please, I'll never do it again. He knows better. You will do it again.

54:00 Man, I'm trying to get this done. Remember when Jesus said, I've got 99 sheep. They're all fine. There's one missing. you little obedient sheep, you stay right here. I got to go after that one. And Jesus goes after that one. And when he gets that one, he brings it back. Jesus did not tell you what many of the shepherds did in those days. If that little lamb ran away, they would bring it back. If he ran away again, he would bring it back. If he ran away a third time, have you ever heard the word third time is the charm? The third time, the shepherd would go after the little lamb. You know, listen, God will go after you if you're a Christian. If you're, I was going to say hanging out with Rocky or Bubbles, but Rocky's sitting in the front row right now, so I don't want to.

54:56 If you're hanging out with Billy Bop and Bubbles, and God told you not to do that, and you keep doing it, you know what, God, you know what, if you belong to God, here's what you'll do. Here's what he'll do. He'll go get you. But on the way back home to the flock, to the fold, he's going to pause and you're going to be, oh, good, we can take a break. Yeah, we are going to take a break, but you are the one that's going to be broken. And the shepherd stretches out the back leg of that little lamb over two rocks with space in the middle. He takes his rod, not the staff, the staff for rescuing the little lamb. The rod is for disciplining them. And the discipline is this. I love you, little lamb, you little... You little lamb chop, you. And he breaks that bone of that back leg.

56:02 lambs terrified of course hurting he puts now because he can't walk he puts now the lamb on the back of his shoulders and he walks all the way back home and for weeks he'll carry that lamb on his shoulders by the end of the entire event the lamb will limp for the rest of its life but the limp sounds like jacob hello remember jacob wrestled with his shepherd shepherd took his joint, his hip out. Jacob limped all the days of his life, but he stayed close to the shepherd. A shepherd who grows up on the back of, a sheep who grows up on the back of its shepherd's shoulders because of a broken leg has a proximity of nearness that the other sheep do not have. he knows the shepherd's heartbeat, the shepherd's sweat, scent, sound, everything about the shepherd becomes intimate to the lamb that had the broken leg.

57:00 that's a lesson for all of us Isaiah 55, verse 3. Incline your ear and come to me here and your soul shall live. Next verse. Proverbs 3, 12. For whom the Lord loves, he corrects, just as a father, the son, in whom he delights. Think of that. That is the, by the way, I think that's the verse behind this. Son, I'm going to have to discipline you now because of your disobedience. And I got to tell you, buddy, it's going to hurt me much more than it's going to hurt you. When you're a kid, you think your parent is lying until you become a parent.

57:46 As a parent, wouldn't you rather be the one disciplined if your kid would get it? Think about it. If the option was this, if the dad would wind up being injured for the child's disobedience, the dad would do it if he knew the child would learn from it. Are you hearing me? Anybody who doesn't have kids yet, listen up. What I just said is a painful reality of what it means to grow up.

58:11 Your love for your kid is so much so that you would take anything, and that's part of us having a hard time of letting go. We want to bubble wrap our kids, and we think we're doing them a justice. We're doing them an injustice. we got to prepare them now. I don't care if your kid was hatched yesterday. We got to prepare them now. The day that baby's born, you are raring that child to be let go. Wow. the parents delight in the child. They want them to prosper and to live and to go out and walk with God. Next verse, Proverbs 22, 6. There it is, Lee. Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. By the way, train up a child.

59:05 I don't mean to be crude, but it's a rough world we live in right now. Train up a child in the way that he should go. I don't care if it's a he or a she. How do you know? Look under the hood. I'm dead serious. There's a lot of people that I think need to be removed from parenting. It's child abuse to tell your little girl that she may or may not be a little girl. That is child abuse. Biology, chemistry is a real science. And God knows what he's doing. Wow, do we live in a perverted age? Next verse, Ephesians 6, 4. And you, fathers, do not provoke your child to wrath. Don't taunt them.

59:55 Don't pick on them. Call them dummy, loser. Of course you can't. Your sister can throw it farther than you can. but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Wow, don't provoke them. Encourage them. Dad, mom, you guys have almost divine voices to the ears of a child. Next verse. I don't know how many verses we have, I forgot. Colossians 3, verse 21. Fathers, do not provoke your children unless they become discouraged. In other words, mom and dad, you and I should be the last ones that discourage our kids? Hebrews 12, verse 7. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons.

1:00:48 For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? Proverbs 19, 18 Chasten your son while there is hope and do not set your heart on his destruction Remarkable Powerful I'll leave you with this.

1:01:16 God's instruction to us from his Bible is that we might live. Isn't it amazing today that God's word to us is that he wants us to be wise? Friends, you know what you're not going to hear in the book of Proverbs? That God wants you smart. Is there something wrong with being smart? Not at all.

1:01:38 You can have all the smarts in the world, as Marty Getz says, smarts. If you don't have wisdom to live out that smarts, you're going to be a disaster. You're going to be the smartest convict, the smartest criminal in jail. and we as parents must do everything we can to instruct I tell you what we are going to be getting I probably shouldn't tell you this but eventually we're going to get to several chapters where Solomon is going to tell us how we should conduct ourselves when there's an immoral woman in the vicinity SD wow if your husband doesn't want to come to work come to work if your husband or your wife doesn't want to come to church that week you may want to ask them why watch out for this person when you hear her say this or when he does the other watch out practical things wisdom to live life so here's how we're going to end every study I'm going to ask you to stand, and we're going to do this every week.

1:03:00 the Bible tells us in John 15, verses 7 and 8, if you abide in me, Jesus said, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. For by this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. Okay? We are going to see this verse every week at the end of the service. Until this book, the Proverbs, become our flesh and bone. And this is what we're going to do. Let's pray together.

1:03:42 Heavenly Father, I pray this blessing over these, your people. Lord God, in Jesus' name, I pray that you would help us to see the difference between ignorant punishment versus loving discipline in our own lives as believers. I pray for them, Father God, that they would know that it is your will that they be wise and full of wisdom and knowledge. And so because of that, Lord, we together now receive this blessing as we request this day. We ask of you, Lord, wisdom and knowledge. Grant us, Father, the ability to discern and to be able. to know what is from you and what is not from you. I pray that this body of believers, Lord, that we would experience your favor.

1:04:41 God, that just because we have invested in your truth today, as we go from this building, as they walk out of the threshold, may there be, as it were, mantles of favor and grace and wisdom coming upon their shoulders, and may they see this supernatural gift that God gives wisdom if we ask. So Lord, all week long, may we be constantly reminded by your Holy Spirit to ask for wisdom. Wisdom for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Wisdom for every hour. Wisdom.

1:05:20 Oh God in heaven, we receive and we thank you Lord that wisdom was personified in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead, that in Christ and through Christ we are saved, plus nothing else, faith in him and him alone, that we might walk in wisdom and bring as many men and women and boys and girls with us into the kingdom of God. We pray it in Jesus' name and all God's people said, Amen. Welcome to the book of Proverbs.