Calibrating with God
(Proverbs 29:20, 23-27)
1. One man: “While working as a prison guard in Prague, part of my job included a lot of walking up and down the prison corridors. I used to pass a lot of bad Czechs.” Ouch!
2. Checking account checks, different story. Some people balance their checkbook monthly, and then there are people like me who figure their mistakes will balance out my mistakes.
3. Still, I do give things a glance just in case I might need to calibrate my checkbook.
4. One definition of calibrate is: “correlate the readings of (an instrument) with those of a standard in order to check the instrument's accuracy.”
5. For the Bible-oriented Christian, the habit of calibrating our lifestyles and thought life with the Word of God is an ongoing practice. We tend to drift.
Main Idea: Part of serving Jesus Christ is our lifelong commitment to calibrate and recalibrate what goes on within us and what goes on in our relationship to the people in our lives. This frequent adjustment is based upon His revealed will in His Word.
I. We Must CHECK Our Pride or Prepare to Dive (20, 23).
A. We Must Ponder before We Speak or EMBARRASS Ourselves (20).
1. This is a social dive.
2. Are we talking to talk, or do we know something about what we are talking about?
3. Sometimes we talk because we are uncomfortable with silence or gaps in a conversation, and that is often when we say the dumbest things.
4. We need to process what we hear…. Correcting a deficit of listening skills.
5. If we get serious about listening, we will delay our responses a bit.
James 1:19, Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…
B. We must be aware that PRIDE is an issue for each of us (23).
1. Pride can be used in a positive or negative way; in Proverbs, negative.
2. We all want attention, we all want to feel like we belong, and we all want to matter.
3. The relationship between seeking attention and pride has not, to my knowledge, been thoroughly hashed out.
• “Attention is other people thinking about you, and if there were ever humans who didn’t need it, they are now extinct.” Leo Benedictus
• A famous Jewish mother joke: Question: How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: “Ah no, I’ll just sit in the dark. Don’t worry about me.”
• A humble person does not think poorly about himself, but self-interest is tempered by interest in others; he may enjoy competition, but he doesn’t find his worth based upon his social ranking or bragging rights.
C. We should view an attitude of SUPERIORITY as a vice.
1. Pride, or arrogance, is based upon an inflated view of ourselves and our importance.
2. The parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14).
3. Nowadays, pride is often titled as “Superiority Bias.” It is that feeling of superiority that makes for pride. People even feel superior because they have no education, no particularly notable skills. They are more normal, they think, thus superior.
• Tests have shown that about 90% of drivers declare themselves above-average.
• 87% of MBA students estimated they were doing better than most of their peers, and 94% of professors think so, too
• Some 70% of high school seniors say they have above-average leadership skills, but only 2% say below average
• Stock brokers are convinced they make better bets than their peers, which is demonstrably false, and
• if you've ever been to a dating site, you know most people say they are above-average looking [peoplescience.maritz.com]
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4. The Dunning-Kruger effect, where the less you know about something the more confident you are about your opinions about that subject – is another example.
D. We must quickly APPREHEND our arrogant words and thoughts.
II. We Must FEAR God More than People (25, 24, 26-27).
A. All of us fear man, and that is not all BAD.
• Romans 13:4b, “But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain…”
B. In Hebrew thinking, it is about WHO we fear more (25).
• Love vs. hate
• Everyone needs to memorize the first part of vs. 25: it is huge!
• We so want to belong and to conform to whatever group we identify with…
C. One example of fear of man: refusing to TESTIFY for the prosecution (24)
1. It is possible that this verse refers to an accomplice of a thief, but it is also possible it is referring to an indirect accomplice, one who aids and abets by silence.
2. Derek Kidner suggests this understanding: “he is really partner with a thief who, being called to testify, says nothing.”
3. Leviticus 5:1, “‘If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible.”
D. We can be tempted to put our faith in rulers, but pure JUSTICE comes from the Lord
(26).
1. We should respect our leaders, whether we agree with them or not.
2. We should also not be surprised to see our rulers mess up.; although God has established authority, it is always flawed.
3. Only God gets it right 100%, but we have to wait for judgment day before all wrongs are righted.
E. If we fear man more than God, we might CALIBRATE our moral code based upon whatever social group surrounds us (27).
1. Many churchgoers, perhaps even some true believers, have let the fear of man determine their views of human sexuality/marriage.
2. Others let materialism or status determine what they do.
