Proverbs
Intro: (used a powerpoint of these choices. Best to put them all up before asking people to choose one)
OK. Time for an audience participation quiz this morning. Each question is a multiple choice. Let’s say, if you had to pick one of these 4 answers, which one would it be? Raise your hand on the answer that you would give…if you had to pick one.
1. You’re experiencing some financial trouble. Where of these would you most likely go for help?
a. Madam Chloe’s Psychic Hotline
b. Rob Blegojevich
c. Pat Sajak
d. Regis Filbin
2. You feel guilty over something you’ve done. Where do you go for counsel?
a. The National Enquirer
b. The Rockford Register Star
c. Homer Simpson
d. The Home Shopping Network
3. You have failing health. Where do you find help?
a. Dr. Phil
b. Geraldo Rivera
c. Rush Limbaugh
d. The Roaming Gnome
4. You are looking for a spouse. Where do you go for advice?
a. Cupid.com
b. Eharmony.com
c. bartender
d. Facebook
Really, this isn’t to psychoanalyze anyone. It’s to show that there’s a problem in our society. The problem is a basic apathy toward and lack of acquaintance with real WISDOM. We have plenty of situations that need help, but the places and people where we often turn really don’t help, do they?
We’ve been studying King Solomon. Remember, when offered by God anything he wanted to ask for, he chose wisdom. Why? Let’s revisit what Solomon said:
1 Kings 3:7-8 - "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.
In other words, Solomon was up against a hard situation. “Life is Hard – Handle With Wisdom.” Solomon knew it. So, endowed by God with wisdom greater than any other man, and with understanding and knowledge too, Solomon became a collector of wisdom. He spoke 3,000 proverbs, or “comparisons.” (I K 4:32). Many of those are collected in the book called Proverbs, and it even explains itself in its introduction:
Proverbs 1:1-6 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young--let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance--for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.
Of all the helps that are at our disposal for life, I want to show you this morning that wisdom is among the best – that it’s available to anyone – that it works. For those reasons you and I need to get wisdom .
It was George Burns who said, “Too bad the only people who know how to run this country are busy driving cabs and cutting hair.”
Now, the multiple choices I gave you at the beginning weren’t meant to be taken seriously – even though many people do take them seriously. But the life challenges – financial trouble, unruly neighbors, guilt, failing health, choosing a spouse – those are all very real, aren’t they? If you’re like me, and you find that life is sometimes challenging, then it’s time to…
I. Understand What Wisdom Is
We need to distinguish between wisdom and the things that go along with it.
There are basically 3 words that appear in the OT that are translated wisdom. Put together with attempts to explain them, you get something like this: Wisdom is the ability to consistently apply what we know to what we have to do.
One word for wisdom comes from a word that means “between.” It’s the ability to discern intelligently the difference between true and false, between impulsive pleasure and long-range value. It’s skill for living. Some people might call it horse sense – that’s what keeps horses from betting on people.
In other words, wisdom is different than…
Experience. Some people think their experience makes them automatically wiser.
Quote - Lyman Bryson - “The error of youth is to believe that intelligence is a substitute for experience, while the error of age is to believe that experience is a substitute for intelligence.”
Ill - Howard Hendricks tells about a Sunday School teacher who taught for 25 years but who never evaluated the way she taught and never learned anything new. She argued that she should be respected because of her 25 years of experience. He said what she really had was one year of experience 25 times.
Wisdom is certainly helped by experience, but there’s a difference between wisdom and experience.
Knowledge.
God gave Solomon both wisdom and knowledge.
1 Kings 4:29 - God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore.
Neither wisdom nor knowledge works well all by itself.
Man has always been searching for both, except it seems to me that our post-modern world has changed that. Man today isn’t lost in his search for wisdom. Instead, he has substituted the search for knowledge in its place. The ability to get knowledge has increased incredibly in the last decade. As one man puts it, “the very amount of information that computers make available threatens us with cognitive overload: overwhelmed with facts, people tend to mistake data for truth, knowledge for wisdom.” So, the mind of our world has brilliance without conscience; a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
Don’t try to impress me by how much you know about something. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection can be a genius on any subject in 10 minutes now. I can get on the internet, look up “the history of soup” and get sent to 77,000,000 websites. Big deal. To quote Shania Twaine, “That don’t impress me much.”
The internet has placed knowledge in the hands of our kids without supervision unlike any time before. What will happen with the loaded gun we place in the inexperienced hands of our children?
The answer to that can be seen in the amount of research being done by adults in human genetics. Now we have to consider how or if to ban human cloning, stem cell research, and embryonic engineering. What will happen with the loaded gun of vast knowledge placed in the hands of scientists who have only pygmy-sized moral skill to handle it? Yet this relentless pursuit of knowledge speeds ahead.
It reminds of a dog chasing a car. You know, some dogs will approach a car speeding down the road and chase its wheels like their life depended on it. But what would a dog do if it ever caught a car?
Proverbs 26:6-9 - Like cutting off one's feet or drinking violence is the sending of a message by the hand of a fool. Like a lame man's legs that hang limp is a proverb in the mouth of a fool. Like tying a stone in a sling is the giving of honor to a fool. Like a thornbush in a drunkard's hand is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
I knew Keith in high school. He had a brilliant mind. His dad was a professor or something, and he obviously grew up surrounded by a lot of knowledge which landed inside his head. But as smart as he was, Keith was foolish in his choices. I used to get pretty frustrated by that. What a waste.
7 years ago, at my brother-in-law David’s funeral, someone shared a testimony. – my brilliant brother-in-law, the doctor – that for all of the medical knowledge he had, and all the treatments he underwent fighting cancer, his hope wasn’t in medicine at all. His hope was in the Lord. How empty his hope would have been with only knowledge and experience to help him. Instead, his hope was wisely founded on his Lord.
Life is hard. Understand that what we need is wisdom.
II. Value Wisdom
One of my goals this morning is for all of us to leave with a sharper appreciation for the value of wisdom.
If I were to convince you that every 1985 penny was suddenly worth $5,000, would you check your pockets? If you really believed they were that valuable, you’d check your pockets, your ashtray in the car, and probably be digging around in the couch once you got home. It’s amazing how behavior changes when we’re convinced of the value of something. Listen to what God says about the value of wisdom:
Proverbs 3:13-18 - Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.
Proverbs 8:10-11 - Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Jesus once compared the Kingdom of heaven to a treasure hidden in a field. A man discovered it, so he went and sold all he had to buy the field. Why would someone sell everything they owned just to own a field? Because of the value of it. Having Jesus as your Savior, having the promise of eternal life, is worth that. It would be worth giving up everything you have if you had to, just to make it yours. What is it about wisdom that we find God speaking of it with similar words?
Proverbs 4:4-10 "Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live. Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. She will set a garland of grace on your head and present you with a crown of splendor." Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many.
Better returns than gold…long life…riches and honor…peace…blessings…grace…splendor. These aren’t just some clichés. These are the results of getting wisdom, according to God’s word. We just have to decide if we’re going to take God at His word or not. We need to value wisdom.
III. Get Real Wisdom
Going back to those 1985 pennies. You’d probably want to know about the best place to look for them. You’d also want to be able to tell a counterfeit from the real thing.
Where do you look for real wisdom? There’s plenty of phony wisdom in the world. I decided a long time ago that just because someone’s a celebrity it doesn’t make them an expert on any one subject. Why do I have to listen to some pop singer tell me why I shouldn’t eat chicken or shower daily? I’d rather start my search for real wisdom at the source, and God has made it clear where to look:
Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Real wisdom starts with God. Real skill for living, real ability to apply knowledge and make good choices begins with a Christian worldview. The ability to discern between right and wrong, the basis for sound judgment, begins with God.
The reason so many people are floundering around like there is no right or wrong is because they haven’t found this starting point, this foundational truth. It’s not because of a lack of information, and it’s not because they can’t know truth. It’s because their starting point, their worldview, is without God.
At the end of the sermon on the mount, Jesus said,
Matthew 7:24-25 - "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
The wise man is the one who listens to Jesus’ words and puts them into practice.
Abraham Lincoln - “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.”
What a discovery of wisdom we could make if we would just have the same realization that Lincoln had! Maybe it takes feeling responsible for the souls of a lost world to bring us to that point. Oh, that’s right…we are.
I guess we need real wisdom after all. I guess I have nowhere else to go. I guess my wisdom, and that all about me, seems insufficient for the day, and that you and I should be driven to our knees asking God for real wisdom.
Lastly, we need to…
IV. Learn How to Use Wisdom
Alexander Campbell - “I can but gratefully add, that to my mother, as well as to my father, I am indebted for having memorized in early life (in their family devotions) almost all the writings of King Solomon – his Proverbs, his Ecclesiastes – and many of the Psalms of his father David. They have not only been written on the tablet of my memory, but incorporated with my modes of thinking and speaking.”
I’ve already said it – the Proverbs aren’t just clichés. Clichés are something you rattle off without thinking. They may be true, or not. The Proverbs are something to engage your thinking. They’re a tool you use to make good choices.
Ill - To say that something has been made “digital” didn’t used to make sense to me. Now it does, at least a little. Every piece of information in a computer is really based on what’s called a bit. A bit is like a switch – it’s either on or off. It’s either 0 or 1. Put 8 of those together and you get what’s called a byte. With a byte, there’s a huge number of potential combinations. 8 switches that are either on or off. Put millions of those together, and you can store or transfer or manipulate a lot of information – letters, colors, sound frequencies – and when that’s all organized well, it becomes either a picture or sound or an electronic command of some sort. It can tell a rover on Mars to drive forward, play a song in your earphones, or it can project a picture on a screen in front of us here. But it all goes back to a bit – a simple on or off, a yes or no, and then that’s multiplied by millions. Reduce information to these little units, and you can do all kinds of things with it.
That’s how I picture wisdom working.
The Proverbs spell out comparisons: a wise man and a fool, a good man and a wicked man, truth and falsehood, obedience and rebellion, industry and laziness, prudence and presumption, thoughtfulness and selfishness. Off or on. Right or left. They help us see the differences so that we’re left with clear-cut choices, instead of some blob of gray full of compromises and exceptions.
The Bible doesn’t tell me what ratings of movies I should see or not see, but it does tell me what to think about, and what corrupt things do to my mind. The Bible doesn’t spell out the names of the people I should hang around with, but it does tell me a lot about relationships and how they’ll affect me.
Wisdom from God is a tool that helps me make right choices. In a world where people are convinced it can’t be done, I have the tool to discern right from wrong and good from evil. Ecclesiastes 7:19 Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful than ten rulers in a city.
Wisdom is also a tool that helps me make sense of what life dishes out.
James 1:2-5 - Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
The context of this passage makes it pretty clear: sometimes, in order to be able to do vv2-3, we need wisdom. How can we consider trials of many kinds joy? How can we look at the lemon life hands us and still speak about it in positive terms? Life is hard. We need to handle it with wisdom.
Conclusion: At my brother-in-law David’s funeral, it was encouraging to hear the impact his witness had over his last few months. (Aug 2004) It helped my faith grow to hear someone speak openly about his confidence in God even if he were to die. 4 weeks before he died, his last Sunday at church, he went forward at decision time and spoke to his church family in Rolla, MO. He thanked them for their prayers, but he also pointed out to them that we too often expect God to work miracles and don’t accept what we get. He reminded them how Paul prayed for some thorn in his flesh to be removed, but how God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you.”
His last 2 weeks, David’s lungs were overcome by tumors. But rather than questioning why God didn’t heal him, David was instead telling his family he felt sorry for them because he was going to be in heaven and they’d be stuck here for now. He made that journey 7 years ago, July 28.
David believed that God’s grace was sufficient for him, even if that’s all he had. He and my sister kept repeating a phrase: God is great, God is good, and that’s that.
What makes a person able to do that? Wisdom. Wisdom that gives us the ability to make sense of life at its best…and its worst.
I want that for myself. I want to live and die with that kind of insight – with a skill for living that can face any situation.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…
