Sunday Worship Service 4-14-19 - Prov 4,10-27 Continuing in the Tradition of Wisdom

Prov 4 Sermon 1-9 (how to get going) 1Hear, O sons, a father's instruction,     and be attentive, that you may gain insight, 2 for I give you good precepts;     do not forsake my teaching. 3 When I was a son with my father,     tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, 4 he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words;     keep my commandments, and live. 5 Get wisdom; get insight;     do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. 6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;     love her, and she will guard you. 7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,     and whatever you get, get insight. 8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;     she will honor you if you embrace her. 9 She will place on your head a graceful garland;     she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.” How to get started V1-4: We’ve heard this before, but here we see 3 generations – a TRADITION of wisdom. Grandfather, perhaps already gone. The value of tradition: this has been tested and proven. Those who have been faithful before us have one significant advantage – they have finished the race. We are less than proven, we haven’t finished yet. We may yet turn aside, you don’t know if next year I might be a radical, Scripture denying, leftist. Those who have gone before, we can see the whole course of their lives and whether it had staying power, persevering to the end. Tradition is the right of those who hold stake in us to speak into our lives which is not negated by death. Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. V4-5… Part of the teaching is to listen to teaching: Rule #1 (obey all rules). First teaching is “be taught”, the value of teaching/learning. Learning is learning. Wisdom is to get wisdom above all. You don’t need anything more than you need wisdom (whatever you think you need, whatever the world tells you you need, you need wisdom). Part of the wisdom is to learn from the past, learn from the previous generations, the wisdom of age – and that is NOT the message of the world – what is new is what is valuable. No, what has lasted, what has been timeless, that is what is valuable – listen to what someone says who has been where you are. “Son, where you are I have been, and where I am you will soon be.” V6: The relationship with wisdom – walk with her, don’t walk away from her, be faithful to her, don’t just take her with you when its convenient and leave her at home or church when you’re somewhere or with someone who is not hip. If you do that, you’ll be kept. This is a love relationship, not taking one for granted, and you will be guarded. V7: If you’ve begun to desire and seek wisdom, you’ve already begun to be wise. That’s the point – your heart and mind has changed – the firstfruits principle – if you give the first part, the best part, then the rest will follow and be considered holy. “though it cost you everything” … whatever you do … above all else … before everything, before you start down your journey, before you start your life … that’s why it’s good to start with the father to son, parent to child, it starts at the beginning of life and all that we pick up from our parents – God is about making a covenant not just with a person but with a family. V8-9: Prize, embrace (ABBA), exalt, honor. You will be lifted up higher than your present circumstances. Generational poverty (Charles Murray and Robert Putnam) – the correlation between the disintegration of the family and the struggle of the lower classes – this is what creates generational poverty – perhaps there are systemic adjustments or whatever, but the factor with the highest correlation coefficient is the family and lack thereof – there is no tradition of wisdom, there is no wisdom, that has been left behind and broken and a cycle of struggle leading to failings, poverty, darkness. Versus a cycle of flourishing, (still with struggle but leading to), prosperity. Charles Murray (a secular thinker at Harvard) his advice to America is for the middle/upperclass to preach what they practice. My neighbor was a poor class and married a guy in the middle-upper class (she thought he was poor like her because he lived in a cheap, dumpy apartment in college, not knowing that the reason he did was to SAVE money. They will spend the money on a big screen TV. There is no concept of delayed gratification leading to a better overall existence – investment leading to victory, security, prosperity, stability. She said he taught her that and it took her a few years to “get it”, she wanted to spend and he wanted to save. And, now that they have a child, she gets is and she’s a bigger saver than he is. V9: Again, it’s not just about efficiency and function, it’s also about beauty, form, grace. Interesting to think that Jesus preached to Ephesians, and Jesus teaches us wisdom through the parents. 10 Hear, my son, and accept my words,     that the years of your life may be many. 11 I have taught you the way of wisdom;     I have led you in the paths of uprightness. 12 When you walk, your step will not be hampered,     and if you run, you will not stumble. 13 Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;     guard her, for she is your life. 14 Do not enter the path of the wicked,     and do not walk in the way of the evil. 15 Avoid it; do not go on it;     turn away from it and pass on. 16 For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;     they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. 17 For they eat the bread of wickedness     and drink the wine of violence. 18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,     which shines brighter and brighter until full day. 19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;     they do not know over what they stumble. Intro: Ps 119:95ff (your commandments make me wiser than my enemies/teachers.) How to keep going: V10: begins a new section: appeal to apply oneself to learn – openness to… Section on how to keep going – way, path, walk, step, run, path, walk, alternate paths – path, way, stumble. V11: way, path – about a journey, not immediate results, the payoff is at the destination. To teach is to lead, to lead is to teach (living example). Uprightness = wisdom. Living righteously before God. V12: it will be there when you need it, when you call on it, it will answer – it will serve your walk. V13: Keep hold = aggressively seize (used for rape and the temptress to the simpletons). Keep hold, don’t let go, guard (rich nuanced repetition) – why – life and death (this is not optional, not neutral, no third way, no compromise). V14: alternate path – do not enter, do not walk V15: 4 of 5 words are 2nd person imperatives, all repetitions of the same concept with rich nuanced vocabulary to punctuate the point, to reach the hearer. V16-17: desperate for satisfaction from something else. bread and wine – satisfaction, sustenance, trading the creator for the creation. Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost – “So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, Farewell remorse; all good to me is lost; Evil, be thou my good.… Women turn to food when they are not hungry because they are hungry for something they can’t name: a connection to what is beyond the concerns of daily life. Something deathless, something sacred. But replacing the hunger for divine connection with Double Stuf Oreos is like giving a glass of sand to a person dying of thirst. It creates more thirst, more panic. Women, Food and God, Geneen Roth (non-Christian) V18-19: way and path again … like dawn – you see that things are getting clearer, not immediate, but better and better! Don’t look at where you are, look at where you’re going – don’t think about how far away it is, just keep taking steps toward it. Philippians 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Contrast the way of wicked: the don’t know they set traps for themselves, they stumble themselves … and that’s the way of darkness, the lack of awareness, they don’t recognize the light from the darkness. It’s a blindness, a hardness of heart. Think of when Christ died – it became dark – a physical illustration of what was happening. John called Christ the light of the world, no one who follows him walks in darkness, his life is the light of men. And, then Jesus says YOU are the light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden, let your light shine before all men that they might see your works and praise your Father. The light of Christ will dawn in your hearts and will become brighter and brighter to noon-day brilliance – glorification. 20 My son, be attentive to my words;     incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Let them not escape from your sight;     keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them,     and healing to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,     for from it flow the springs of life. 24 Put away from you crooked speech,     and put devious talk far from you. 25 Let your eyes look directly forward,     and your gaze be straight before you. 26 Ponder the path of your feet;     then all your ways will be sure. 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;     turn your foot away from evil. V20-22: Another call to attention. It starts with hearing! Then goes through the eyes and what you see, then goes down into your heart. The whole of you will be renewed. V22-27: Heart, Mouth, Eyes, Feet. Again, wisdom has come from the outside in (ears, eyes, heart). And, now it works its way from the inside out. It must get to the heart and then flow from it. V23 is astonishing – your heart becomes the spring of life. God is in there – John 7: “37On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, asf the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” It started with communication in and starts with communication out. “We cannot help but speak of what we have seen and heard.” Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Your speech will be changed. What you talk about will be different – the content and character of your speech. Your speech will now be oriented by love of God and people – no longer devious and selfish and shallow and meaningless (crooked), but straight. The eyes – the way you see the world will be different, also a command to keep your eyes straight ahead, and not turn to the right or to the left, not get distracted by the world, covenant with our eyes, not looking toward meaningless things and other things for satisfaction. “I lift my eyes up to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from you, Maker of heaven and earth. The maker of the mountains.” Feet – path, way – your path in life will follow from your commitments, your faith, what you really believe. Ponder this, and your path will be sure. What you really believe in your heart about God will determine everything about you. And, once on that path, don’t take it for granted, we’re always 5 minutes and one step away from disaster. “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Jesus really is my Lord, he is Lord over all of me, his claim is on my whole being. “whether in life or in death we belong to God” – what is our only hope in life and death? This path, this way of wisdom, this light that makes us see, this word of Wisdom … how can we who are sinful hope to enter into this tradition of wisdom, continue in it, and not get lost along the way? “I am the way, the truth, and the life – no one comes to the Father but by me.” Rom 10:17 Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.