Immanuel Sermon Audio
Proverbs (20:66)
Before we start I'll just say I know that my face is red. You don't have to tell me. We went and served pizza with team flow in the park today and in February in Odessa you can get a sunburn and so I did today and so we served I think we served 180 kids pizza today and I think that was their biggest group yet I'm not sure about that but had a good group and we will do that again at some point if you weren't able to come today and you want to come down and help serve pizza we would love to have you. So book of Proverbs found it in your Bible and now we're going to review the test and there's 13 statements and I asked you to tell me are they in the Bible or are they not in the Bible and so our maestro upstairs Mr. Lucas is going to put them up on the screen one at a time and the first one is God won't give you more than you can handle here go thumbs up or down in there not in there and the answer is no is not in there if you want to look up 1 Corinthians 10 13 you can jot that down I'll give you some references as we go through these 1 Corinthians 10 13 talks about God not tempting you beyond what you can resist that's entirely different than saying God won't give you something you can't handle in fact Paul elsewhere tells the Corinthians he describes a situation in his life and he says we were burdened beyond life itself we we were crushed beyond hope that it was more than we could handle so first one no number two righteousness exults a nation in there not in there and the answer is blue it's in there Proverbs 14 34 if you want to jot that down righteousness exults a nation it is in the Bible number three one of my favorites this to shall pass yes or no the answer is no and this is funny do you know where that came from do you know what popularized that Mike Dicka when Mike Dicka got fired by the Bears as head coach he had a press conference and in his press conference he said you know the Bible says this to shall pass no it doesn't Mike not in the Bible number four no cuz it's not in there Mike Dicke yeah write that out beside Mike Mike Dicke Bears yeah that's right number four give strong drink to the one who is perishing yes or no ooh lots of thumbs down sorry it's in there it's in there Proverbs 31 6 jot it down look it up okay when I when I gave this to you and you guys were cheating and looking on your phones and opening your Bibles I told you be very careful the next one spare the rod spoil the child yes or no the answer is no Proverbs 13 24 says if you spare the rod you hate your son the one who spares the rod hates his son but that is a popularized paraphrase I guess you could say so that one is not in there anybody perfect so far 1 2 3 perfect so far I'm gonna get you I'm gonna get you next gray hair is a crown of glory yes or no it's in there yes it is Proverbs 16 31 16 31 next God helps those who help themselves yes or no the answer is no that came from Benjamin Franklin who was not a Christian Benjamin Franklin said that next is a good one wealth brings many new friends you heard about the power ball people three I think three people split that last power ball I that whether it's in the Bible or not they'll tell you this is true they have a lot of new friends that they didn't have a few weeks ago the answer is yes that is in the Bible Proverbs 19 4 next I know you've heard the next one whether it's in there not God works in mysterious ways yes or no yes or no answer is no that came from a guy named William Cooper and when you look at his name it looks like Calper C O W P E R William Cooper wrote a hymn that has a phrase close to that and it just stuck in Americana and there you go God works in mysterious ways next one borrower is slave of the lender yes or no Dave Ramsey says yes borrower is slave of the lender Proverbs 22 7 22 7 okay I think this is 11 number 11 cleanliness is next to godliness yes or no I really wish this one was in there but it is not in there it is not in the Bible it came from John Wesley founder of the Methodist movement Methodism Methodist churches that's John Wesley number 12 it is better to live in the corner of the house top than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife is that in the Bible Gary Riggs has two thumbs up Gary it's in there yes Proverbs 21 9 there's also one that says it's better to live with a constant drip than with a quarrelsome wife I have a good friend that every now and then he looks at his wife and he says drip drip drip drip lit on yeah write that down so you don't forget that that's a good one okay wait a minute last one who's perfect anybody perfect missed one so we still have two that are perfect number 13 pride goes before a fall yes or no I told you to be careful the answer is no what what you can look up Proverbs 16 18 and I'm pretty sure it says pride goes before destruction a haughty spirit before a fall see see what I did there tricky tricky tricky tricky tricky anybody perfect Amy Riggs Gary she's the only perfect one tonight you're gonna have to use the drip drip yeah that's what she tells you okay so there you go book a proverbs test in all honesty okay Proverbs is a strange book okay Proverbs is one of those books that sometimes you hear something and you think yeah I think that sounds biblical and you say I don't know where that's at that's probably in Proverbs somewhere that sounds like something that you'd read in the book of Proverbs and we just throw all this sort of weird stuff into the book of Proverbs and it's not there on the one hand when you read Proverbs it's very simple right it's very straight forward on the other hand I'm just warning you it's extremely tricky and both of those things can be true and the problem is our understanding of how to interpret the book of Proverbs which we're gonna talk about tonight sometimes we assume things are there that aren't there sometimes we ignore the things that are there in the book of Proverbs sometimes we misinterpret excuse me or we misunderstand things in the book of Proverbs and so on the one hand when you read Proverbs it's one of the most practical easy to apply to your life books and the whole Bible it's also very very dangerous and I told you a few weeks ago when we when we talked about the book of Job and we jumped into the wisdom literature I told you that the book of Proverbs has made a lot of TV preachers extraordinarily rich and successful and the reason they like the book of Proverbs is because they can quote the Bible and many many people will never open it to read it in its context many people will never compare it to other passages in the Bible and try to understand it and when somebody quotes a Bible verse and gives you a reference in their a preacher you sort of say well sounds like he knows what he's talking about and they're really misusing the book of Proverbs in a dangerous way so putting it in the in the section that it falls in it is part of the wisdom literature in the Bible and this is just again a summary of the wisdom books there's five of them Job and Ecclesiastes are reflective wisdom and I'll if you've forgotten these I'll explain them in a minute book of Psalms is a book about worship whether you take it as prayers or songs or poems or whatever it's it's really a book about worship book of Proverbs is instructive wisdom not reflective but instructive and then the song of Solomon is a book about marriage so reflective wisdom just to remind you reflective and instructive Proverbs is instructive it is presenting basic truths about life Job and Ecclesiastes are sort of the counter argument to Proverbs okay if the health and wealth preachers would quote Job and Ecclesiastes as much as they quote Proverbs their theology would be completely different because Proverbs sort of says this is basically how things work in life and then Job and Ecclesiastes say but not always there's exceptions and Proverbs seems to be so straightforward and just direct into the point and Job and Ecclesiastes really make you think and scratch your head and wrestle with what's going on there so different types of wisdom literature let me give you the outline of the book it's really really simple it's not based on theme although you can find some sections within Proverbs that focus on particular themes you can't outline the book that way chapters 1 to 24 are Proverbs of Solomon chapters 25 to 29 are and we're gonna look at these in a minute Proverbs of Solomon that were copied down by the scribes of King Hezekiah and so they're copied by Hezekiah in his scribes chapter 30 is words of Ager son of Jehek and chapter 31 are words of King Lemuel and so I don't know if you've ever noticed this within the book of Proverbs but once you jot those down I just want you to see this look at Proverbs 1 1 it says the Proverbs of Solomon son of David king of Israel and that section continues all the way to chapter 25 and then in chapter 25 verse 1 it says these also are Proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied so new section begins there and then flip over and look at chapter 30 it says the words of Ager son of Jacka and I think I spelled it wrong up on the screen I don't know if I did that on your outline but it's Jacka not Jehek Jacka and then chapter 31 the words of King Lemuel an oracle that his mother taught him so typically when you think about the book of Proverbs you hear people refer to it as a book that Solomon wrote and that ought to be obvious when you look at that outline all but two of the very last chapters are attributed to him either he wrote him down or the scribes of Hezekiah copied what he had written down and added those later but the idea ought to be pretty simple this was not a book that someone sat down and wrote in one sitting right this is a collection of things that were compiled over time and Solomon sort of made a collection and then later they added some more of the things Solomon wrote to the collection and then Ager added on and then Lemuel added on and that happened over time but typically you say yes this was written by Solomon now let's talk about an important word okay let's talk about the word hermeneutics you have maybe never heard that word but this was my favorite class I think in seminary and the class that more times than any other classes I sat in that class I thought people in church need to understand these things and basically hermeneutics is the science of interpreting the Bible and sometimes you hear debates about well how do you interpret the Bible do you take it literally and you got to be careful when you answer that question because you got to say well what do you mean do I take it literally do I look at the song of Solomon which we'll look at next week do I look at that book and do I interpret it literally when he compares his wife to a flock of sheep literally he looks like sheep no not literally but you take it seriously and you understand what it is as literature it's poetry but you also understand that some passages of the Bible are not poetry they're history and you understand that sometimes Jesus as a man communicating with men used forms of speech so when Jesus said it's better for you to enter the kingdom of heaven with one hand than with two and go to hell he said do you take that literally why haven't you cut your hand off why haven't you plucked your eye out well I'm taking it seriously but I think Jesus is using a figure of speech okay so hermeneutics how do we interpret the Bible in Proverbs is unique and so I just want to give you a few ideas a few things to think about in the book of Proverbs first I just want you to see there's different types of Proverbs and just sort of having this category in your brain I think helps you when you read through the book so these are not all of the types but these are the three most common number one there's wisdom poetry and take your Bible that should say 31 not 21 my typo again there's two two strikes look at Proverbs 31 verse 10 to 31 this is wisdom poetry and we're not going to read all of it but we'll read a little bit of it so you get the feel Proverbs 31 verse 10 an excellent wife who can find she's far more precious than jewels the heart of her husband trusts in her and he will have no lack of gain she does him good not harm all the days of her life she seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands she's like the ships of the merchant she brings her food from afar she rises while as you at night provides food for her household portions for maidens considers the field and buys it with the fruit of her hand she plants a vineyard on and on and goes it's a poem okay there's wisdom poetry as opposed to worship poetry that you find in the book of Psalms it's also poetry in Psalms but it's worship directed to God this is instruction directed to you and me to make us wise okay so that's one type second type are two-line proverbs and you find a lot of these from chapters 10 to 29 especially and so let's look at these examples look at Proverbs 22 verse 7 Proverbs 22 7 says the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender okay two lines and basically they're saying the exact same thing right it's making a statement and then it's saying the same principle differently to help you understand it so it's this is truth this is truth and they're both positive or sometimes they're both negative but both of the lines say the exact same thing now look at chapter 10 Proverbs 10 verse 1 sometimes there's two statements in their mirror images one's positive in the others negative or one's negative and the others positive Proverbs 10 1 a wise son makes his makes a glad father but a foolish son is sorrow to his mother okay wise glad father foolish sorrow to the mother mirror images there communicating communicating one big idea and then look at chapter 17 verse 1 sometimes the second line will compare or illustrate or explain the first line Proverbs 17 1 better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife so a dry morsel and quiet is good and then the comparison is the explanation is it's better than a house full of feasting with strife but all of those especially from chapter 10 to 29 are two-line Proverbs and that's just sort of the rhythm of the book right you're reading two lines at a time and sometimes you'll string together several Proverbs so it'll be a four line or a six line or a eight line or longer but the idea is that that a lot of two-line Proverbs and then one more example is numerical sayings look at Proverbs 30 and we'll just read one of these Proverbs 30 verse 18 and 19 says three things are too wonderful for me for I do not understand the way of an eagle in the sky the way of a serpent on a rock the way of a ship on the high seas and the way of a man with a virgin now if you're gonna be just stupidly literal you look at that and you say three are too wonderful four I don't understand which one is not in the three because he gives four things and he talks about three of them and you try to figure out well is it the is it the way of an eagle that is not too wonderful but he doesn't understand and you just say no no no that's just the style of writing right it's like somebody writing a love song today and say there's a million reasons I love you you don't say okay let's count them off number one you just say you mean there's a lot a lot of things I love about you and that's what they're doing here and you find those through the book three things four things you don't have to be woodenly literal you just understand this is poetry so you find these numerical saying so again trying to help you understand how to interpret Proverbs second thing you need to know is this the whole book is addressed to young men the whole book is addressed to young men Solomon wrote most of it and he talks throughout the book to the person he's writing to calling him my son right so he's talking to his boys or one of his boys his children and he's passing down this wisdom to the next generation it's not surprising when you understand this that two of the main issues in the book of Proverbs are violence and sex what are young men need to understand if you're gonna be wise in the world you need to understand biblical wisdom about violence you need to understand biblical wisdom about sex and so I'll give you some scriptures you can jot down if you want to read about that Proverbs 1 8 to 19 talks about violence right out of the gate chapter 1 8 to 19 and there's many passages that talk about different aspects of sex but one extended passage is chapter 7 Proverbs 7 1 to 27 okay addressed to young men even if you look at Proverbs 31 go back to Proverbs 31 right we started reading this poem about an excellent wife even this poem about an excellent wife is focused on the husband of the wife right look how it starts an excellent wife who can find so he's talking about what kind of person can find this wife or to my son what kind of wife should you be looking for he's not writing directly to women but he's writing to his sons saying this is the kind of woman that you ought to look for in the whole poem here sort of meets in the middle if you look right in the middle it's Proverbs 31 verse 23 and look what the middle of the poem says her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land and in Hebrew poetry the middle of the poem is the most important point you find that in the Old Testament and the New Testament in different passages that they sort of write what's called a chiasm in the first part of the poem corresponds to the last part of the poem and then part 2 corresponds to the second to last in part 3 corresponds to the third to last and it meets in the middle in the middle is the most important part or the central idea and it's talking here about when you have this kind of wife verse 23 your husband has a good reputation and so the point is he's writing to to his sons now you got to understand this too that's who he's writing to but there's application beyond just young men right we're all on the same page that doesn't mean women or young women or old women can't learn from the book of Proverbs but what you have to do and this is the next thing on your outline here you've got to try to understand the words so then you can back up and understand the principle when you're reading Proverbs you got to understand the specifics of the situation the specifics of the word and then you sort of back it up to the overarching principle and so I'll give you one example of this look at Proverbs 7 Proverbs 7 says my son keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you keep my commandments and live keep my teaching is the apple of your eye bind them on your fingers write them on the tablet of your heart say to wisdom you are my sister and call insight your intimate friend to keep you from the forbidden woman from the adulterous with her smooth words now just stop okay you read one to five the first words correspond to the last words look at the last words in Proverbs 7 and now oh sons listen to me be attentive to the words of my mouth let not your heart turn aside to her ways do not stray to her past many victims she's laid low all her slain or mighty throng her house is the way to she'll going down to the chambers of death so that last section says listen listen listen listen listen in the first section says listen pay attention listen listen listen listen right so they correspond together and everything in the middle is a warning to his son about having adultery with a woman that's not his wife and there's all sorts of stuff in there and when you read it you first understand okay this is Solomon writing to his son and you understand first the words and then you back it out and you applied the principle of what he's saying and you can apply the principle in many many different situations but when you go through Proverbs you got to approach it that way understand the words so you can understand the principle and listen sometimes in Proverbs I'll be honest with you sometimes in Proverbs you read something and you say I have no clue what that means I have no idea what he's even talking about and the problem is culturally we don't understand the words we don't understand the reference we don't understand what they're talking about they spoke a different language they lived thousands and thousands of years ago their life was very very different than ours it'd be like if you go to a foreign country today and you you're speaking to a group and you're bilingual and you're you're giving a speech and you're talking and then you sort of lose your train of thought and you say to them in their own language you say oh man the cat has my tongue they're gonna look at you and say what did you just say a cat has your tongue what are you talking about you have a pet you brought a pet cat they have no category for what you're talking about you know exactly what I'm saying when I say the cat has my tongue and sometimes in Proverbs you read something and you say I don't understand that and it's a cultural issue it's a language issue it's a time issue and you got to study you got to look up commentaries you got it cautiously search on the internet you got to use study Bibles you got to do something to try to figure out the words so then you can apply the principle okay two more thoughts about interpreting it right hermeneutics number four I think this is Proverbs are not absolute rules they are not you could say they're not absolute promises you could say they're not ironclad set in stone okay they are not these things and I'll give you a couple of examples look at Proverbs chapter one verse 33 the last verse in Proverbs one whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster you see what Job's friends did with that verse they made it an absolute promise an absolute rule right and they went to Job and they said hey Job you have disaster that must mean that you haven't listened to God and Job says what well I don't think I've done anything specific to deserve this and they say no you need to repent you haven't been listening to God that's why disaster came upon you they take a general rule about life and they make it totally totally absolute okay so to bring it into our day how do you apply Proverbs 1 33 to a Christian who gets cancer that's a disaster what do you say to them do you look at them and say oh man you should have been listening to God this one happened no you don't and if you do they should punch you in the face and say that is not biblical wisdom absolutely not and they may come back and say oh but I read Proverbs 1 33 in my quiet time and you're so enlightened you'll just kindly look at them with pity and say oh that's instructive wisdom you need to go read reflective wisdom to balance it out right you balance Proverbs 1 33 with the the reflective wisdom of Job and Ecclesiastes another example obvious Proverbs chapter 10 verse 3 and 4 here you go health and wealth preachers is where they make their living Proverbs 10 verse 3 and 4 the Lord does not let the righteous go hungry but he thwarts the craving of the wicked a slack hand causes poverty but the hand of the diligent makes rich you can do all sorts of damage with those verses if you turn them into absolutes they're true a hundred percent of the time every situation forget other circumstances or or influencing factors this is a hundred percent sure well what do you do with the people who won the power ball they may be hard workers but they may be lazy and this says the hand of the hand of the diligent makes rich and somebody who wins the power ball will say no buying a lottery ticket made me rich what do you do to our friends in Kenya who are hungry and they love Jesus but they work their tail off to barely have enough food to survive do you look at them and say well you know God wouldn't let the righteous go hungry the Bible says that in Proverbs 10 3 you must not be very righteous if you're hungry no you don't you understand that all things being equal Proverbs 10 3 and 4 describes how life normally works okay generally speaking you look at the lazy man and he's hungry you look at the person who works hard and he has enough to eat you understand generally speaking God takes care of his people it doesn't mean he gives them everything they think they need everything we think we need in America but it means God will provide for his people but you also understand this is instructive wisdom and you balance it with reflective wisdom okay so Proverbs are not absolute promises the last idea ought to be obvious Proverbs are general rules for life general rules for life and the exceptions that you experience in life are the exceptions you find in Job or Ecclesiastes or elsewhere in the Bible those exceptions really prove the rule right because when you find an exception there's usually some sort of extenuating circumstance something that's not all things are not equal something that has has sort of changed the game and made the situation different so you look at our friends in Kenya you say why are these people they're hard workers why are they hungry you say they're government and they're their system of life is unbelievably corrupt unbelievably corrupt and it is not set up in any way shape or form so that hard work pays off at all and we in America we may feel like hard work doesn't pay off but we have nothing to compare to what they're experiencing and you say well why doesn't Proverbs 10 3 match their life well there's other circumstances involved that have changed the game for them the person who won the lottery say they're not a hard worker but now they're rich well there's other circumstances you factor in here but Proverbs is telling you this is how life generally works and these things are true because they are the norm there are exceptions but these are the norms now let me just give you one thought this is not on your outline but one thought about studying the book of Proverbs obviously it has 31 chapters and so it is well suited to read a chapter a day into covered in a month if you wanted to study through the book of Proverbs you've probably heard that some of you have probably done that let me give you another suggestion something that Brooke and I did a couple of years ago we went through the book of Proverbs and we did it in the morning and we did one at one chapter a day for a month and we read one verse at a time together out loud and we took a pen and paper and we categorized every verse in the book of Proverbs you can buy this that's fine you can use it as a resource but we did it for personal study and so we went through and we sat down and said okay it's your day to read so you start reading Proverbs one one and two and three and four and we just wrote down what is that verse about the general topic is it about family is it about money is it about marriage is it about wisdom is it about foolishness is it about righteousness is it about wickedness what is it about and we went through and we did this every day for a month and then when you're done you have a list of what the book of Proverbs has to say about all of these different topics and if you find yourself in a pickle and you need some truth that is generally true generally descriptive of life you get your list out and you say man finances are an issue for us right now let's read what the Bible has to say about finances or our marriage is in trouble let's go back and read what the book of Proverbs has to say about marriage or my kids are hoodlums I need to go back and read what the Bible has to say about kids and you read through everything you found about parenting and you got this resource and I've used it a number of times and so what I did tonight there's so much in the book we can't cover it all what I did is I went back to my list that we made when we read through the book and we put a category for each one and I didn't count up exactly because that's a lot of counting but I just sort of read through it and I said what are the three things that we found the most of the three categories that we found more than anything else in the book and then I'm gonna give you those and we're gonna read a verse in each one obviously we could read tons of verses but we're just gonna read one verse in each one and then one bonus category that I really like so the first thing I found when we read through it is surprise surprise wisdom versus about wisdom and these verses sometimes they use the the word learning sometimes they use the word discretion sometimes they use the word understanding sometimes they give you the negative of folly and let me just give you one warning don't waste your time trying to parse these words and say what's the difference between wisdom and understanding what's the difference between wisdom and discernment you're you're missing it right there's tons of Bible studies where you just get down in the weeds like that and you parse these words and meanings in original languages I'm just telling you that's fine but pretty much those words all mean the same thing in the book at the end of the day right wisdom discernment understanding knowledge he's talking about the same thing throughout the book look at Proverbs 2 Proverbs 2 this is the parallel to James 1 just draw a line from James 1 to Proverbs 2 my son if you receive my words and you treasure up my commandments with you making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding yes if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures then if you do all these things then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding that's a great summary verse for the whole book of Proverbs saying do you want to be a wise person do you really want wisdom and are you willing to seek it not just to sit back and say God please make me wise but are you willing to seek for it like you would seek for treasure are you willing to humble yourself and ask God to give you wisdom in these verses say if you do that if you really want it and you will seek for it and you will ask God for it if you're genuine in doing those things then God will give it to you he will give you wisdom James says the exact same thing in the New Testament does any of you lack wisdom let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach let him not ask in doubt being a double-minded man tossed back and forth by the waves but ask believing that he will give that Proverbs says the exact same thing right here a general definition of wisdom you say what is wisdom define it for me here's how I would define it it is number one knowing God number two knowing God's will and number three living your life in light of God's will when Proverbs talks about wisdom understanding discernment knowledge insight on and on and on that's what is talking about knowing God not knowing about God but knowing him personally knowing his will and then living your life in light of God's will and the most confusing part of that definition is for you to say what is God's will how do I know God's will and I'll just let you in on a secret almost always when the Bible talks about God's will it's not talking about should you move to Dallas or Houston is not talking about should you go to UTPB or OC I just what is God's will for me I can't decide I don't want to be out of God's will what if I go to OC and that's not God's will that's not what the Bible is talking about the Bible is talking about God's moral will don't kill don't commit adultery don't lie that is God's will for you and in the New Testament when it talks about this is God's will Paul tells the Thessalonians you want to know what God's will is God's will for you is your sanctification that's his will become more holy following God and do whatever you want to do that's God's will for you so wisdom in the book of Proverbs knowing God knowing God's will in living your life in light of God's will so lots of passages about wisdom second category that we found a lot of closely closely related to wisdom is fearing God and sometimes the exact words are used fear God and sometimes the ideas communicated in a different way but lots of passages relating to the idea that you should fear God passages in the book that describe God as the creator as God as sovereign as God knowing everything as God planning everything as God being a God of justice as God doing what's right all these passages teaching us to fear God and we read it earlier in the responsive reading but look at Proverbs 3 5 to 8 you know these verses many of you do trust in the Lord with all your heart do not lean on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him he will make straight your paths be not wise in your own eyes fear the Lord and turn away from evil it will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones so there you go the idea that you should fear God in Proverbs says you can't have wisdom if you don't fear God and if you truly fear God you will have wisdom those two things are connected in the book of Proverbs last category that I found most frequently the third one I guess I should say is family and I'm using that as a big umbrella I'm putting under family all the passages about adultery all the passages Proverbs 31 finding a virtuous wife all the passages about parenting all the passages about teaching your kids all the passages about disciplining your kids that's a big umbrella for for family but as one example look at Proverbs 24 verse 3 and 4 by wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches and when you read that in the context of Proverbs and you understand what it's talking about with the idea of house he's not saying you got to be an understanding person to put up wall joists and trusses and to put a roof on and to frame up a door right he's saying if you want to build a house right a family it requires wisdom it requires understanding and it's not telling you here that if you're a knowledgeable person that you're gonna have a lot of gold and silver in your house but it's saying by knowledge the rooms are filled with riches precious riches pleasant riches those may not be the riches of the world but they are genuine true real riches and so just one summary passage there about family last category maybe you could say this is the least frequently mentioned thing in Proverbs I want to talk to you about prayer and I say that it's the least frequently mentioned because if you look at Proverbs 30 verse 7 to 9 it is the only prayer in Proverbs only one prayer in the whole book so there's passages like Proverbs 2 that say if you call out to God for wisdom right if you're praying to God for wisdom he will give it to you that's talking about prayer it's not an actual prayer this is a prayer it's the words of agar the son of Jekah Jekah however you want to say it Proverbs 30 and look at verse 7 8 and 9 this is an interesting prayer two things I ask of you deny them not to me before I die remove far from me falsehood in lying give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with the food that is needful for me lest I be full and deny you and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God so how many of you have ever heard of the prayer of J Bez okay popular book I'm not gonna ask you to give me thumbs up or down like we did earlier on whether you like the book I'll just say that a lot of people hate it and a lot of people love it and there's not a whole lot of middle ground on people what they think about the book I don't think it's as bad as the haters think and I don't think it's nearly as good as the lovers think I'm kind of in the middle just just read it and say name okay but I do think that if you're gonna read that book and try to apply it to your life the prayer of J Bez you also ought to be willing to pray the prayer of Ager okay because the reality is as Americans we read the prayer of J Bez differently than almost any people that have ever lived on the planet earth we we cannot help but read the prayer of J Bez and if you don't know what it is you can Google it and look it up we can't help but read it in terms of money and so if you want to pray the prayer of J Bez it's a prayer in the Bible that's fine you can pray it just be willing to look at Proverbs 30 and pray the prayer of Ager before you say in Jesus name amen okay and here's what he prays he says God I have two things that I'm asking of you the first thing he prays for is about falsehood and lying remove it from me I want to be an honest person I want to be a genuine person I want to be a real person I don't want falsehood or lying to be part of my life and he's acknowledging I need your help to do this so what he's saying is I have this in me and I'm asking you for help remove it from me help me with this problem request to is about money and his prayer is give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with the food that is needful for me that's not a very American prayer that is not listen I'm proud to be an American me and Lee Greenwood will stand up all day long okay but listen this is not the American dream it's not the American dream as it is popularly talked about is about a little bit more a little bit more a little bit more better for your kids than for you better for your grandkids and for your kids a little bit more a little bit more a little bit more and this prayer says don't make me poor we like that part I don't want to be poor amen don't make me rich there are not many Americans that pray that God please give me a good day bless this food and do not make me rich today I don't want to be a rich person I don't want to be poor he says but I also don't want to be rich give me what I need and then he explains it if I'm full if I'm rich if I have an abundance I might be tempted to say who is God I might be tempted to say I pulled myself up my own bootstraps I worked hard for this God didn't give it to me I earned every penny I've met people that say that you have to I've worked for every penny that I have I've done it those people have forgotten God so he says don't make me so rich that I rest in my riches and in my hard work and then I think that it's all of me he says also don't make me so poor that I'm tempted to steal to meet my own needs because if I steal then I profane your name I might be tempted to sin because I don't have enough don't put me in that spot because I don't want to profane your name don't make me too rich because then I might forget you really what he's saying is I want to honor you in my life I don't want to have so much that I dishonor you and I don't want to have so little that I dishonor you and so his prayer is give me what I need no more no less not just American sometimes we pick on America too much that's that prayer just just not line up with the wisdom of the world it doesn't worldly wisdom is more more more more little bit more right it's the old American adage how much money is enough money how much just a little bit more just a little bit more just a little bit more and this guy says I don't want them more I just want enough just what I need you find that throughout the book of Proverbs you find wisdom that clashes with the wisdom of the world that just butts up against how the world thinks and how the world believes and when you read this book there's not a whole lot of stuff that points you straight to Jesus and the cross and the New Testament but listen when you read this book and it's a book about wisdom in the wisdom of this book just butts up against the wisdom of the world it's a setup the whole time it's getting you used to understanding God's ways are not the world's ways and then when you get to the New Testament and you read 1 Corinthians and what Paul says to the Corinthians your light bulbs start going off and Paul says look the gospel is not wise according to the world it's not powerful according to the world the world thinks we're stupid for putting our hopes in a crucified murdered man accused of being a criminal the world says that is foolish in weak and Paul says by the world standards it is foolish and it is weak but the foolishness of the world and the weakness of the world is the power of God and the wisdom of God for our salvation and so when you read the book of Proverbs all the way through you're being set up your mind is being prepared to think God's ways are not the ways of the world God's wisdom is not the world's wisdom God's strength looks differently than worldly strength and when you come to the gospel of Jesus it's radical and it's different and it doesn't fit with the wisdom of the world but when you understand Proverbs you're ready to accept that sort of message one that everybody else thinks is foolish and one that everybody else thinks is weak so there you go book of Proverbs in a nutshell lots for you to study and dig around in I will pray and then we will have another focused time of prayer together God we thankful for your word we believe that it's true we thank you for the book of Proverbs and it's such a practical book and it's such a book that has application to everyday life and father even as we come to the the book of Proverbs for wisdom we need wisdom in how to understand it and how to read it and how to interpret it and how to apply it to our lives father help us to balance it with what we see in Job and what we see in Ecclesiastes and what we see in real life but help us to hold on to these things and to believe that they're true we're thankful for the good news about Jesus and we know that the world laughs at it that the world thinks it's foolish that the world thinks it's weak and father our confident trust is that it is the power of God for the salvation of those who believe and so we rest in you and we rest in the fact that your ways are not our ways your ways are higher than our ways and father even when we can't make sense of things and we don't understand things we trust you and we look to you we pray all of these things in the name of Jesus our Lord and our Savior amen