Sunday
Morning Bible Study
September
3, 2017
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken
hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Is the church loved? Regular: 2900
words Communion: 2500 words Video=75wpm
Video: Mexico trip from August
Hurricane Harvey – places you can donate to include Samaritan’s Purse, the Calvary Chapel Association
website, and the church in the center of most of the activity – Calvary
Houston.
If you are interested in going to Texas to help with the cleanup, let me
know and I will put you in touch with those who are sending teams, as I am
aware of them (probably Calvary
La Habra).
Next Sunday is our annual Baptism.
You may be wondering what it’s all about.
It’s about food and fellowship. Church potlucks have the best food. (see the
flyer).
It’s about bounce houses and giant waterslides.
Most of all it’s about celebrating with those who are taking the step of
baptism.
The Bible doesn’t teach that we are saved by being baptized, but that when
we are saved we respond by being baptized.
Baptism is meant to paint a picture.
It symbolizes being buried with Christ in baptism, and being raised in
newness of life. It’s meant to be a public
way of telling your friends and family that you have chosen to follow Jesus.
Some of you were baptized as babies.
Our intent is not to criticize that – we’re glad that your parents were
trying to do something to connect you to God.
BUT, the Bible teaches that baptism is for those who believe and
repent. Babies are a little young for
that.
So if you have not been baptized since you’ve come to believe in Jesus as
your Lord, then come and get baptized.
Invite your family and friends – they’ll come to see you do this. And they’ll hear the gospel.
Bring clothes you don’t mind getting wet in. Keep it modest.
And be here next week after second service.
The book of Proverbs is all about wisdom.
I think that as a guy who has crossed the age of 60, that I have picked up
a little wisdom along the way.
Yet I find that I still have a huge need for more wisdom.
Wisdom is not about knowing facts.
Wisdom is about knowing what to do
with what you know.
Wisdom is knowing when to do it.
Wisdom is knowing how to do it.
4:1-9 Grandpa’s Words
:1 Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, And give
attention to know understanding;
children – literally “my sons”
:2 For I give you good doctrine: Do not forsake my law.
:3 When I was my father’s son, Tender and the only one in the sight of my
mother,
:3 When I was my father’s son
This is Solomon writing. Solomon was
the son of David
:3 the only one in the sight of my mother
Solomon is recalling when he was very young and the only child of his
mother Bathsheba and David.
Later Bathsheba would give birth to three more sons (1Chr. 3:5)
(1 Chronicles 3:5 NKJV) —5 And these were
born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon—four by Bathshua
the daughter of Ammiel.
:4 He also taught me, and said to me: “Let your heart retain my words; Keep
my commands, and live.
:4 He also taught me, and said to me
Solomon has already stated several times that he is teaching these lessons
to his son (and now children, vs.1).
The rest of verse 4 through the end of verse 9 are what Solomon recalls
being taught by his father David.
Lesson
Parenting
It is amazing to me that some people have this notion that they do not want
to influence their children when it comes to believing in God.
Are these people also careful to not introduce things to their children
like food or water? How about chocolate
or Disneyland?
Is there anything more essential to life than knowing God?
Is there anything more wonderful in life than having a
relationship with God?
Illustration
The late J. Edgar Hoover was once
asked, “Should I make my child go to Sunday school and church?” His reply was
both Scriptural and practical. “Yes,” said the former head of the FBI, “you
certainly should, and with no further discussion about the matter. You may be
startled by my answer, but what do you say to Junior when he comes to breakfast
on Monday morning and announces he isn’t going to school anymore? You know! He
goes! How do you answer him when he comes home covered with mud and says, ‘I’m
not going to take a bath.’ Junior bathes, doesn’t he? Why all this timidity,
then, in the realm of spiritual guidance and growth? You say you’re going to
let him wait and decide what church he wants to go to when he is old enough?
Quit your kidding! You wouldn’t wait until he’s grown up to choose whether he
wishes to be clean or dirty, would you? Do you let him decide for himself whether
to take medicine when he’s sick? Do you? How shall we respond, then, when
Junior says he doesn’t want to go to Sunday school and church? That’s easy!
Just be consistent. Tell him, ‘Son, in our house we ALL go to Sunday school and
church, and that includes you!’ Your firmness and example will furnish a bridge
over which youthful rebellion will then travel into many rich and satisfying
spiritual experiences.”
What we see in this passage is the very pattern that God set up for parents
in the Old Testament.
(Deuteronomy 6:4–7
NKJV) —4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord
our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall
love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these
words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall
teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in
your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
This speaks of teaching about God during all aspects of
life.
Paul wrote,
(Ephesians 6:4 NKJV) And you,
fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the
training and admonition of the Lord.
David taught his son Solomon about God.
Solomon is now teaching his sons about God.
We continue with what David taught Solomon…
:5 Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the
words of my mouth.
:6 Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will
keep you.
:6 Do not forsake her
Does this mean that Solomon always
acted with “wisdom” his entire life?
No.
He broke his own rules.
For a time, he lived his life for
pleasure.
(Ecclesiastes 2:3 NLT) After much
thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. And while still seeking wisdom, I
clutched at foolishness. In this way, I tried to experience the only happiness
most people find during their brief life in this world.
In the end, Solomon realized that
though “wisdom” didn’t solve all of life’s problems …
(Ecclesiastes 2:13 NKJV) Then I saw
that wisdom excels folly As light
excels darkness.
:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And
in all your getting, get understanding.
wisdom – chokmah
– wisdom; the ability to apply knowledge or experience or understanding or
common sense and insight.
principal – re’shiyth
– first, beginning, best, chief
understanding – biynah
– understanding, discernment
:7 get wisdom
Lesson
Acquisition
Wisdom isn’t knowing a lot of
facts.
Wisdom is knowing how to live life,
how to do things.
Illustration
One grandma
writes,
One day while my
daughter-in-law and I were chatting on the phone, her 9-year-old son, Aaron,
had a problem with the VCR. Aaron is hearing-impaired and so he signed to his
mother that the VCR needed fixing. She, in turn, signed to him that he would
have to wait until she was finished talking. Shortly after that my
daughter-in-law's doorbell rang and she hurriedly brought our conversation to
an end.
She went to the
door and there was Aaron. Knowing how extended some of his mother's phone
conversations could be, he had gone outside and rung the doorbell. He had never
heard it in his life, but he knew how to use the device as a problem solver.
-- Betty Sowder, Joplin, MO, Christian
Reader, "Lite Fare."
That’s a wise kid.
Wisdom isn’t something you’re born
with, it’s something you “get”. You acquire wisdom.
A measure of it might come through
the reading of books.
It is might be through learning to
listen to those who are instructing you – whether it’s your parents, your
teachers, or your friends.
It certainly comes when you learn
to pay attention to the lessons of real life – whether it’s the mistakes you
make in your life, or watching what others go through.
:7 Wisdom is the principal thing
Right after becoming king, Solomon had a dream where God gave Solomon the
chance to ask for anything he wanted.
I find it significant that Solomon’s reply reflects what his daddy taught
him.
(1 Kings 3:9 NKJV) Therefore
give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may
discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of
Yours?”
:8 Exalt her, and she will promote you; She will bring you honor, when you
embrace her.
:9 She will place on your head an ornament of grace; A crown of glory she
will deliver to you.”
ornament – livyah
– wreath; a garland, a decorative headdress
grace – chen
– favor, grace, charm
As we’ve seen before, Solomon is personifying wisdom as a woman.
If you make wisdom a priority in your life, you will see the benefits.
4:10-19 Wisdom is Safer
:10 Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, And the years of your life will
be many.
:11 I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths.
:12 When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, And when you run, you
will not stumble.
:13 Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her, for she is
your life.
:13 Take firm hold of instruction
Lesson
Embracing Discipline
instruction – muwcar –
discipline, chastening, correction
This was the word we saw last week translated as “chastening” in:
(Proverbs 3:11–12
NKJV) —11 My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor detest His correction; 12 For whom the
Lord loves He corrects, Just as a
father the son in whom he delights.
Sometimes the difficult times we go through are God’s way
of getting our attention in order to teach us, to get us on the right path.
Don’t get mad at God over the difficult things you’re
going through. Instead try to figure out
if God is trying to teach you something.
In our verse here, we need to “take firm hold of instruction”.
God keeps a costly school. Many of its lessons are spelled
out through tears. Richard Baxter said, “O God, I thank Thee for a bodily
discipline of eight and fifty years”; and he is not the only man who has turned
a trouble into triumph.
This school of our Heavenly Father will soon close for us;
the term time is shortening every day. Let us not shrink from a hard lesson or
wince under any rod of chastisement. The richer will be the crown, and the
sweeter will be Heaven, if we endure cheerfully to the end and graduate in
glory.
--Theodore L. Cuyler
The finest china in the world is
burned at least three times, some of it more than three times. Dresden china is
always burned three times. Why does it go through that intense fire? Once ought
to be enough; twice ought to be enough. No, three times are necessary to burn
that china so that the gold and the crimson are brought out more beautiful and
then fastened there to stay.
We are fashioned after the same
principle in human life. Our trials are burned into us once, twice, thrice; and
by God's grace these beautiful colors are there and they are there to stay
forever.
--Cortland Myers
As I get older, I find that my life seems to be defined by one physical
ailment after another.
Am I learning to embrace the things that God is wanting to
teach me?
:14 Do not enter the path of the wicked, And do not walk in the way of
evil.
:15 Avoid it, do not travel on it; Turn away from it and pass on.
:14 Do not enter the path of the wicked
Lesson
Choosing paths
Which path are you going to walk on in life? That’s what wisdom is all about.
In the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the bad guy at the end of
the movie has a chance to drink from a magic cup and live forever, if he
chooses the right cup.
That’s not a bad picture to remind us that there are consequences from foolish
choices, or when you let other people make choices for you.
:16 For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; And their sleep is
taken away unless they make someone fall.
:17 For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
:18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun, That shines
ever brighter unto the perfect day.
:19 The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what
makes them stumble.
:18 That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day
Lesson
Growing brighter
The right path of right choices is about
how you grow as a Christian.
You can’t sit still as a Christian.
You’re either
going to be going forward, or sliding backward.
God’s desire is that we become more
and more like Him.
Daniel the prophet wrote,
(Daniel 12:3 NKJV) Those who
are wise shall shine Like the brightness
of the firmament, And those who turn
many to righteousness Like the
stars forever and ever.
Paul wrote about how we are transformed for the good.
(2 Corinthians 3:18
HCSB) We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the
glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to
glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.
As we spend time with God, His glory rubs off on us.
Moses would go into the Tent of Meeting to hang out with
God, and his face was not covered with a veil. When he came out he glowed from
being in God’s presence.
Take a few minutes each day to intentionally spend time
with God.
Read the Bible.
Pray. Listen.
John wrote,
(1 John 1:7 NKJV) But if we
walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
We’re not going to ever be “perfect” in this life.
But we can learn to walk in God’s light.
When God shines His light in our lives, we see all kinds
of things that don’t look quite right.
If I shaved every day in the dark, you’d probably see
patches of beard growing in spots on my face.
Yet when I have the light on, I’m able to see what needs
to be shaved.
When I’m open to God’s light on my life, I will see my sins
and imperfections.
I need to respond to that awareness by bringing my sin to
Jesus and asking Him to cleanse me.
When I’m walking in the light, I will find others to share
the journey of life with me. I’m not alone.
Video: LOTR – You Shall Be The Fellowship
of the ring
Some of the people may seem a little strange, but the
journey is so much easier when you are not walking the path by yourself.
John 1:7
If we walk in the light, as He
is in the light.
As He is in the light! Can we ever
attain to this? Shall we ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as He is
whom we call "Our Father," of whom it is written, "God is light,
and in Him is no darkness at all"? Certainly, this is the model which it
set before us, for the Saviour Himself said, "Be ye perfect, even as your
Father who is in heaven is perfect"; and although we may feel that we can
never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it, and never to be
satisfied until we attain to it. The youthful artist, as he grasps his early
pencil, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo, but still, if he
did not have a noble beau ideal before his mind, he would only attain to
something very mean and ordinary. But what is meant by the expression that the
Christian is to walk in light as God is in the light? We conceive it to import
likeness, but not degree. We are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in
the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, though
we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too
bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and
so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth which belongs
to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord
always before me, and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, after
conformity to His image. That famous old commentator, John Trapp, says,
"We may be in the light as God is in the light for quality, but not for
equality." We are to have the same light, and are as truly to have it and
walk in it as God does, though, as for equality with God in His holiness and
purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the
perfection of the Most High. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and
perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.
4:20-27 Head, shoulders, knees, toes
:20 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.
:21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your
heart;
:22 For they are life to those who find them, And health to all
their flesh.
:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the
issues of life.
Living wisely involves some body parts.
Not really heads, shoulders, knees, and toes, but you’ll get the point.
:23 Keep your heart with all diligence
Lesson
Heart
The heart is the chief thing.
Real holiness comes from the heart, not from what’s enforced from the
outside.
If you want to grow closer to God, you need to pay attention to your heart.
Jesus said,
(Luke 6:43–45 NKJV) —43 “For a
good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not
gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth
good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.
For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
We’ll talk about
our mouths in a moment, but the point here is that often the things that come
out of your mouth are simply an outpouring of what’s in your heart.
What kinds of
words characterize your vocabulary? Are
they words of anger, complaining, criticism?
Or words of encouragement and thanksgiving?
Sometimes our hearts can become hardened towards God.
(Hebrews 3:12–13
NKJV) —12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while
it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin.
Callouses build up
on your fingers when you learn to play guitar.
The pain of pressing your fingers against the steel strings eventually
goes away as a thick layer of skin develops.
That may be good
for playing the guitar, but it’s horrible when it comes to your heart and
staying sensitive to God.
Cholesterol normally won’t stick to a heart’s arteries
unless there is some sort of damage or inflammation.
As cholesterol builds up in your heart’s arteries, you will
face a heart attack if the blood flow is blocked.
Here’s what one of my main arteries looked like when I had
my heart attack. The black line is the artery where the blood stops from the
blockage.
Here’s what it looked like after it was reopened and the
stents were put in place.
When you’ve had a heart attack, you learn to pay attention
to the heart, or else you will die.
We deal with the callouses or blockages in our hearts by
allowing people close enough to us who will challenge us and “exhort” us to
follow Jesus. They’re the “stents” that
get your heart working again.
:24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth, And put perverse lips far from
you.
:24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth
Lesson
Mouth
In our unguarded moments, our mouth
is a reflection of what’s in our heart.
When we aren’t paying close
attention and we just let things “slip”, we have a clue as to the condition of
our heart.
But often, we do pay attention to
what comes out of our mouth.
The mouth can cause a world of hurt.
The old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never
hurt me” is simply not true.
Words can cause deep hurt in others.
James wrote,
(James 3:5 NKJV) Even so the
tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how
great a forest a little fire kindles!
Words are little things that can cause big trouble.
Illustration
In
1987, a squirrel touched off a power failure in Trumbull, Connecticut that shut
down the Nasdaq system and kept more than 20 million shares from being traded.
In
2015, a squirrel got into a Bay area PG&E substation and plunged 45,000
electric customers into darkness for two hours.
Squirrels are like those words we speak. They may be little, but they can cause a lot
of damage.
Sometimes little
things like squirrels can affect a whole church…
Video: Ray Stevens – Mississippi Squirrel Revival
Not all squirrels
are bad. Some can do good in a church.
Solomon wrote,
(Proverbs 12:18
NKJV) There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, But the
tongue of the wise promotes health.
How are you going to use your mouth?
A wise person is careful how they use their mouth.
A wise person will choose to be silent rather than run the
risk of saying something stupid.
Paul wrote,
(Ephesians 4:15 NKJV) but,
speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the
head—Christ—
(Ephesians 4:25 NKJV) Therefore,
putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his
neighbor,” for we are members of one another.
And,
(Ephesians 4:29 NKJV) Let no
corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary
edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
:25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before
you.
:25 Let your eyes look straight ahead
Lesson
Eyes
Distractions can cause you to get off track.
Horse carriage drivers will sometimes put “blinders” or “blinkers” on
horses to keep them from being distracted of spooked on a busy street.
Racehorse trainers will use blinders to keep the horse’s
attention on the race instead of distractions.
James wrote,
(James 1:14–15
NKJV) —14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires
and enticed. 15 Then, when
desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown,
brings forth death.
Your eyes are one of the ways that temptation gets into
your head and triggers the temptation.
It’s not the only way, but it’s a significant one.
Sexual sin is a sin that is particularly affected by the things you allow
in through the eyes.
Job wrote,
(Job
31:1 NKJV) “I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young
woman?
It is not possible to block out every visual trigger that can stir up lust
in your heart.
But I will tell you it’s a lot easier to deal with lust
when you’re only bombarded by ten things a day, than when you are bombarded
with ten thousand.
Adding technology to block sexual content isn’t going to
address your deeper heart issue, but it can help with the eye gate.
:26 Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established.
:27 Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil.
:26 Ponder the path of your feet
Lesson
Feet
Feet are what take you places.
Be careful where you go.
Be careful where you plan on going.
If God is directing your paths
(3:5-6), then learn to stay on those paths.
“to the right or the left”
You see this phrase used about a half dozen times in connection to the
direction of our lives.
God told the children of Israel at
Mount Sinai:
(Deuteronomy 5:32 NKJV) “Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you
shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
When Joshua took over from Moses, God told him,
(Joshua
1:7 NKJV) Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do
according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from
it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.
Turning to the “right” or the “left” are not the choices
of which path, but are indicative of getting off God’s path.
There’s a wonderful promise in Isaiah that speaks of how God will be
guiding us.
(Isaiah
30:21 NKJV) Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is
the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.
This is not saying that God will be whispering to us,
“Turn right here”, or “Turn left here.”
I think the idea is that whenever we get off the path by
veering to the right or the left, God will whisper to us that we’re off track. This is the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Suppose you are going to spend your next vacation going to a family reunion
in San Francisco.
You are planning on leaving on a Saturday, and the family
reunion starts the following Monday and lasts for a couple of days. And you are driving.
On your drive, are you going to get off the freeway every
time you see something interesting?
If you get off the freeway for everything that catches
your attention, you may never make it to San Francisco.
Don’t sacrifice the bigger goals in life for the
distractions.
Can I suggest a destination?
The ultimate path God wants you on is to know Him.
There’s a name for that “path” you need to be on, and it’s “Jesus”.
Jesus said,
(John
14:6 NKJV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through Me.
Don’t let anything distract you from knowing Him.