Proverbs 1:1-7
Words to Live By
Wisdom is defined as the ability to use knowledge in the right way
Ill - Pithy Proverbs for Today
A skeptic is a person who, when he sees the handwriting on the wall, claims it’s a forgery.
A successful marriage isn’t finding the right person -- it’s being the right person.
Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death.
God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.
If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you can bet the water bill is higher.
It’s all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are done.
It isn’t difficult to make a mountain out of a molehill -- just add a little dirt.
Some folks wear their halos much too tight.
Some marriages are made in heaven, but they ALL have to be maintained on earth.
Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, and faith looks up.
Standing in the middle of the road is dangerous. You will get knocked down by the traffic from both ways.
The best way to get even is to forget.
The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground.
The tongue must be heavy indeed, because so few people can hold it.
To forgive is to set the prisoner free, and then discover the prisoner was you.
Too many people offer God prayers, with claw marks all over them.
Words are windows to the heart.
You’ll notice that a turtle only makes progress when it sticks out its neck.
A turtle on on a fencepost didn’t get there by himself.
You have to wonder about humans, they think God is dead and Elvis is still alive!
(Authors note - I did not use all of these)
As we examine God’s Word we see that God gave Solomon great wisdom. Being the king of Israel and King David’s son, wisdom still only comes through God. Pedigree won’t attain it. Still, one wonders how much wisdom Solomon exhibited as he had 700 wives & 300 concubines....& 1000 mother-in-laws!!!
The first type of wisdom God gives us is
Practical wisdom (2)
This type of wisdom gives us 3 things.
It gives us direction.
It gives us discipline.
It gives us discernment.
Wisdom is practical in everyday decisions. Heres a look at 3 churches who used ’wisdom’ in resolving a problem.
Ill – New Members in Church
A small town had three churches: Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist. All three had a serious problem with squirrels in the church. Each church in its own fashion had a meeting to deal with the problem. The Presbyterians decided that it was predestined that squirrels be in the church and that they would just have to live with them. The Methodists decided they should deal with the squirrels lovingly in the style of Charles Wesley. They humanely trapped them and released them in a park at the edge of town. Within 3 days, they were all back in the church.
The Baptists had the best solution. They voted the squirrels in as members.
Now they only see them at Christmas and Easter.
A second type of wisdom is
Intellectual wisdom (3-4)
This wisdom we receive from God
Notice the three aspects in what we receive...
Justice – is defined as doing what is right
Judgement – is described as making the right decision
Equity – is determined to be the right principles to guide us
A second part of intellectual wisdom is
to relay to the simple and naive
These three aspects are...
Prudence – use wisdom in what we do
Knowledge – information to act upon
Discretion - thoughtfulness to others
Christians should exercise some intellectual wisdom when ministering to others.
Ill – Atheist Admires Christian Service After Hurricane Katrina
"It ought to be possible to live a Christian life without being a Christian," laments Roy Hattersley, a columnist for the U.K. Guardian. An outspoken atheist, Hattersley came to this conclusion after watching the Salvation Army lead several other faith-based organizations in the relief effort after Hurricane Katrina.
"Notable by their absence," he says, were "teams from rationalist societies, free thinkers’ clubs, and atheists’ associations—the sort of people who scoff at religion’s intellectual absurdity." According to Hattersley, it is an unavoidable conclusion that Christians "are the people most likely to take the risks and make the sacrifices involved in helping others."
Hattersley also notes that this pattern of behavior goes beyond disaster relief:
Civilized people do not believe that drug addiction and male prostitution offend against divine ordinance. But those who do are the men and women most willing to change the fetid bandages, replace the sodden sleeping bags, and—probably most difficult of all—argue, without a trace of impatience, that the time has come for some serious medical treatment.
"The only possible conclusion," says Hattersley, "is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make [Christians] morally superior to atheists like me."
Roy Hattersley, "Faith Does Breed Charity," Guardian.co.uk(9-12-05)
A third type of wisdom God gives is
Moral wisdom (5)
When we search for God’s moral wisdom, which is recorded in His Word, one will do several things in response.
First, he will listen to God. To listen means to hear with the intent to obey!
Second, he will learn from others. Godly counsel helps us hear more clearly the direction He is leading us.
Third, he will live with others. Prov 13.20
Ill - Changing Lanes
Changing Lanes tells the story of lives Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck), a successful lawyer who has been grandfathered into the firm of his wife’s father. Now on the inside, he finds out just how corrupt the firm is.
When Gavin is forced to make a huge moral decision at work, he goes to his wife, Cynthia, for wisdom, only to find that she, too, counsels him to bend the law and live in the moral gray zone.
As she talks with him over lunch at a stylish restaurant, Cynthia lifts up her mother as a good example of how to deal with moral uncertainty.
Cynthia asks, "Did you know that my father had a mistress for 20 years, and my mother knew about it?"
"Why didn’t she leave him?" Gavin replies.
"She decided it would be hypocritical to leave a man for cheating at home, when the expensive life she enjoyed so much was paid for by a man whose job was based on finding ways to cheat. If you want to continue to live the way we’ve been living, you have to steal. I could have married an honest man. I could’ve lived with a professor of Middle English, for example, if he was a moral man and had tenure at Princeton. But I didn’t. I married a Wall Street lawyer. Which means I married someone who lives in a world where, when a man comes to the edge of things, he has to commit to staying there and living there. Can you live there, Gavin? Can you live there with me?"
Gavin’s conscience will not let him ’live there’ with Cynthia. At the end of the movie, over a fancy dinner, Gavin breaks the news to Cynthia and her parents that he will not be compromised—and that both he and they will have to pay the price for living right.
Elapsed Time: 00:54:52 to 00:59:00 (DVD Chapter 9)
Moral wisdom understands the parameters God has given us. We often wonder why Christians, and certainly ministers, do not seem to understand this.
A fourth wisdom is
Teachable wisdom (6)
In this passage, we see an area we don’t understand. Riddles, enigma’s, and dreams will be understood through asking and trusting God.
There is a time of desperation. When we don’t know we ask & wait.
There will be a time of illumination. Only God provides the answers!
Finally, there will be a time of application. When you learn something, you apply it to life.
Ill - The Duck Parable
A parable is told of a community of ducks waddling off to duck church one Sunday to hear their duck preacher. After they waddled into the duck sanctuary, the service began and the duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly.
He pounded the pulpit with his beak and said, With these wings, there is nowhere we ducks can not go!
There is no God-given task we ducks cannot accomplish!
With these wings we no longer need walk through life.
We can soar high in the sky!
Shouts of Amen! were quacked throughout the duck congregation.
The duck preacher concluded his message by exclaiming,
With our wings we can fly through life!
WE......CAN.....FLY!!!!¨
More ducks quacked out loud AMENS! in response.
Every duck loved the service.
In fact all the ducks that were present commented on what a wonderfully convicting message they had heard from their duck preacher....and then they left the church and waddled all the way home.
Too often we waddle away from worship and live the same way we waddled in....Unchanged.
Finally, God gives everyone the opportunity to know Him through
Theological wisdom (7)
This is the key verse in this text and possibly all of the Book of Proverbs. Wisdom is about KNOWING Him!
There are only 2 types of people on planet earth.
The first are called Saints...because they trust & place their faith in Him!
There is an awe & revernce for God.
The reverence for God is not necessarily in fear but a desire not to hurt Him in disobedience.
This is the beginning of eternity & our walk with Him.
The second are called Sinners...because they hate & distrust Him. They have only contempt & malice for God and the result is condemnation. There is a foreboding of darkness that surrounds them. Proverbs 8:36
Joshua tells us in Joshua 24:15, "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve." Today is the day to experience and enjoy the true wisdom of God through Jesus Christ.
