Proverbs - Lesson 1

Transcript

1. 0:00I don't think I'll finish all the book of Proverbs or say all that we need to say. And I kind of want to set the stage for the class by telling you that we're really going to get into some issues together and talk together, and I want your input. And the class is going to be designed for those people who want to have an outline every week to follow and who really want to make an effort to change their lives. And so I really want you to be intensely interested in what we're going to do in this class.
2. 0:31And if that means we end up with five or six people, that's fine. Because I'm not going to have some kind of a performance in terms of the way I teach this class. I simply want to deal with some issues of life that I think are very, very important and that the book of Proverbs deals with in all of its writings. So I want to introduce the work by simply going to the outline and going through some statements that I put together.
3. 0:56And these are simply some thoughts that rolled off the top of my head, and I want to begin with you with those thoughts and show you what we're going to try to do in the book of Proverbs. And if you look under the introduction, I say that God created us to live. And that's kind of a simple statement, and it doesn't take too many brains to understand the truth of that statement. But he created us to live happily. He created us to live in peace. He created us to live optimistically.
4. 1:26And in the book of Proverbs, he fills the book with little short statements that are designed to tell us how to live in a happy fashion. Let me begin like this. Do you want to live in a happy fashion? Do you want to be even more happy than you are right now? Do you want to live more peacefully in life than you live right now? Do you want to live with more optimism or more hope?
5. 1:55or more of that bright, rich outlook toward life than you have right now. God created us to live, and I think he created us to live like this. And the book of Proverbs is filled with material in regard to those subjects. And then I make a statement. Life involves self, and it involves family, and it involves money, and it involves work, and it involves people. Now, I didn't look that up any place.
6. 2:26I just sat down and started thinking, what is my life all about? And I'm going to tell you in the beginning, I'm teaching this class, first of all, for me. When I agreed to teach a class, out of all the possible classes, I said I will teach on a Wednesday night on this subject because I wanted to go through this for me. I hope you'll want to go through it for you. And so I started thinking about what's my life all about? What do I run into every single day? And one of the things my life is all about is me.
7. 2:56I have to deal with a whole lot of self as I live day by day. And I have to deal with my family as I live every single day. There's not a day that passes that I don't deal with my family. I deal with my children. I deal with my wife every single day that I live. And virtually every day that I live, I deal with a money issue. Now that may not be the same for you.
8. 3:26Maybe you don't think about money as often as I think about money. But I am forced almost every day of my life to think about money and to look at the money situation of my life. And so it plays a big, big role in what I live like every single day. And work plays a major part of my life. Does it play a major part of your life? Now, if I'm missing something, I want you to tell me about it.
9. 3:55If I'm leaving something out, I want you to tell me about it. If I'm putting something in that doesn't make any sense for your life, then I want you to tell me about that also. But when I get past self, and I get past family, and I get past money, and I get past my work, what else is left from my life every single day? Look at your outline once in a while. Don't read it, but look at it once in a while. People. Every single day I'm forced to deal with people.
10. 4:26Some people I deal with don't seem to like me so well. Do you ever have that? I thought everyone liked me. I want everyone to like me. But guess what? There are some people who approach me and I get the impression very quickly they don't like me so well. And so I deal with those people and I also deal with people who like me a whole lot almost every day. I deal with people almost every day that I don't even know. I'm always forced to deal with people.
11. 4:59And so as I look at the life of Ken Jones, I decided today that it involved some of self and some of family and some of money and work and people. And beyond that, I'm not sure what my life is. Beyond that, I'm not sure what else happens in my life day by day. But I know those things are involved in my life. And it's interesting, the book of Proverbs uses those as the primary issues of the book. The book of Proverbs is going to talk a lot about self. The book of Proverbs is going to talk a lot about
12. 5:31Money. It'll talk a whole lot about our families. It'll talk a whole lot about how we deal with our work life and especially with how we relate to other people. Again, little simple, short, but powerful and penetrating statements. And then I wrote down number C, and maybe this is not you either, but it's me. I found that life is filled with some highs. You know what I mean when I talk about a high? What's a high spot in life?
13. 6:10Pay raise? Absolutely. Because money becomes so important, a pay raise may be a high spot in life. What's another high spot in life? A promotion? A birth of a child? Because promotion involves money and it involves work and a child involves family. What's another high spot in your life? Graduation. Because graduation probably has something to do with self. I have achieved what I've been wanting to achieve for a long time. Anybody else have a high spot?
14. 6:43Retirement? Retirement's a high spot. The life is filled with a lot of high spots. And I have them once in a while. But how often do I have high spots? Every day? Maybe not. Once a week? Maybe. Once a year? Hopefully. I have a few high spots. Tell me what a low spot is.
15. 7:15All right, because getting fired involves money, and it involves your work life. What? All these things can produce low spots. You ever had a low spot because you thought you failed? You've heard me say this before, but I will tell you, when I preach a sermon that I thought was supposed to be a good sermon, and I blow it, it just doesn't work. And you, I can tell by looking in your eyes and looking and expressing your face when I blow it, it's low Sunday evening for me.
16. 7:49I kind of crawl back home. And Monday morning, I walk in this building, and what I want to do is figure out how I can get in this building and get to my office without seeing one person. And I mean it. I don't want to see you because I'm dragging. I'm low because I haven't done what I wanted to do. I can get really low because of family situations. I can crawl out of my house being so low because of family situations. Problem with Mitch. Problem with Jenny.
17. 8:22A problem with the kind of husband that I've been being. And I can kind of crawl out of the house. And I can get low because of money. Finances. You ever get low because of finances? You ever have something hit you and you didn't plan for it? You don't have enough money for it right now? Or do you ever have something that you need to do and you look at how you're going to do it and you can't quite do what you need or want to do? And finances begin to grate on you and you kind of sink. Ever happen to you?
18. 9:00Do you ever have a low spot because of people? It aggravates me so I can have 100 people, literally 100 people, walk by and smile and say maybe some good things, not necessarily about me, but some good things, and I can have one person, one person, and I know this person is off the wall, shouldn't even listen to them, they say one thing, and what happens to me? I think, good night. How could I be like this? How could I think this? And I start to fade again.
19. 9:33Or one person just comes across so hateful and so hard and that person can ruin my day. And so I have some highs and I have enough lows to satisfy me. And then you know what else I have a whole lot of? You read your outline. Just a whole lot of the ordinary. It's just day after day after day, the same old thing. There are some ordinary days.
20. 10:03Some ordinary days when everything this Monday happened just like it did last Monday. Everything this Tuesday happened just like it did last Tuesday. And you know, I've heard people say, in my life it feels like I'm only existing. I'm not really living, I'm only existing. You ever said that? The alternative's not so good. But some people exist, only exist, and they live so much on the lows that they finally decide for the other alternative. The book of Proverbs deals, I think, with...
21. 10:38with that kind of life. And then part D, I say life is a function of attitude, thoughts, and actions. Now, again, you may disagree with this. This is nothing profound. This is something that I threw together rather quickly. Trying to decide what my life was all about. And life is a function of attitude. Now, what's attitude? You've heard me talk a lot about attitude lately. Mention it from the pulpit, mention it in other classes. What's attitude? It's a state of mind.
22. 11:09Or mood. That's what an attitude is. Do you know attitudes become a habit? Do you know the attitudes of life become a habit? The moods of life, the state of mind. Life's full of habits. Everybody do your hands like that. Do your hands like this. And look at how you got your hands. And I want you just to move your fingers over one notch. See that? Now pull your hands apart. Put them back together. How'd your hands go together?
23. 11:43Just like I did the first way. When you put them over the other notch, how does it feel? Weird. Funny. Fold your arms. Just fold your arms. Now I want you to try to do it the other way. No, no. Unfold your arms now. Let's do it again. You guys may need this class. You're a little bit. Now just fold your arms. Now just take this hand right here and put it up on this one. And take this one and back it in like that. Does that feel kind of funny? Now, one more time. Just fold your arms. How do they go together?
24. 12:16like they did the very first time. You know that you just develop things like this or habits all the time, and guess what? My old attitude becomes a habit. So much so that I become very predictable. And what do I mean by that? Who's one person you think might be able to predict me? My wife. And so a certain set of circumstances can happen, and she's going to know immediately how I'm going to react.
25. 12:45and she might try to remove some of those things to cause me not to react the way she thinks I'll react. You understand that? Because she doesn't want to see what she knows is going to come. She's seen it too many times before. It's a habit. It's a habit that I have this frame of mind or this mood that overwhelms me, and when I have this particular attitude, it affects the way I think in life. It'll affect how I look at an opportunity. It'll affect how I look at something that's...
26. 13:18that looks kind of bad to me. It'll affect how I look at the morning sun. It'll affect how I think. And if it affects how I think, will it affect how I act? Sure it'll affect how I act. And with the wrong attitude, I'll think the wrong thoughts and I'll be moping around over things I ought not to mope about. And I might be happy over things I ought not to be happy about. Now, do you understand what life's all about? I know you do.
27. 13:56You already knew all this before you came. You know that God created us to live happy, peaceful, optimistic, wonderful lives. And you know that your life involves self and family and money and work and people, and you have highs, you have lows, and you have a whole lot of just ordinary. Same old thing. And you already knew that life had something to do with an attitude and how much of a habit attitudes can be and how they lead to different thoughts and actions and so forth. Well, go to part two.
28. 14:30I want to say something about wisdom because the title of this class, and I didn't even get the title. I didn't assign the title to this class. When I agreed to teach a class, I came back to this title. I said, it would just be all right. I said, fine with me. But I want to say something about wisdom. What is wisdom? I've always struggled with that definition a little. I've heard some people say, well, now, wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge. Oh, I don't know. I don't know.
29. 15:03I put a little illustration here that PhDs are often accused of having a lot of knowledge and no common sense. You ever been accused of that? I've been accused of that. I can remember when I was at the university as a student, and I would work part-time in the engineering lab, and I would go out there, and they would have me do things or make things, and I am the world's worst at trying to make something. I remember one time I had this, oh, it was a,
30. 15:36cryogenic chamber where you put peanuts through this liquid nitrogen and would freeze them and try to remove the skin and then you put them through this other apparatus and i was supposed to work on the other apparatus which is made out of solid aluminum and i remember stripping the threads clear out of this aluminum thing that they had spent long long time making and i remember this technician looking at me and said are you sure you want to be an engineer he said a few other things i can't repeat them here but you know he said you don't have any common sense jones
31. 16:07Now, he was wrong, surely. But he was saying, you may know something about a book, but you don't know how to do anything. Well, I'm not sure I like that definition. I heard a definition of wisdom one time that I've liked, and it's kind of stuck with me. Wisdom is the ability to see things the way God sees them. Now, hold on to that one. Wisdom is the ability to see things the way God sees them.
32. 16:39or the ability to react the way God would react in the same given situation. I pray for wisdom almost every single day. I guess I do every single day. Part of my prayer life is give me the wisdom to deal with people correctly and give me the wisdom.
33. 17:03to deal with the situations that will arise today correctly. And one thing I'm asking in all that, and sometimes I go ahead and say it, help me to see the things the way you see them and deal with the things the way you would deal with them. You know, I think the book of Proverbs is exactly that. I think in the book of Proverbs, we're going to open up this book and we're going to let God show us the way he sees life and the way he sees everyday happenings in our life.
34. 17:36And God's going to say, in effect, if I were there living in this particular situation, here's how I'd live it. Here's how I'd do it. Now, if you'll do it that way, everything will turn out right. Now, let me ask you, does that excite you at all? We're getting down to the core of living the way God wants you to live. Does it excite you to think about maybe seeing self and family and money?
35. 18:09and work and people a little differently, a little better, so that you can live a little better. Does that excite you at all? Well, if it doesn't excite you, it's the wrong class. And I'm not saying it harshly. I'm just telling you that I want people who attend this class to dig in with us. And I want us to work hard at changing our lives because I want to walk out of here in 12 lessons, one quarter, I want to walk out of here different Ken Jones.
36. 18:41That's my purpose right now. I intend to walk out of this class a different Ken Jones. I want you to intend right now to walk out of here a different whoever you are. It would be tough for you, Al, but we want you to do it. We want a difference. And that's what I plan to do. Now, let me take you to the book for a moment and show you some things that I think ought to be said right in the beginning. Just to kind of let you know that all these things I'm saying are not just...
37. 19:11just totally off the top of my head and totally wrong. So I want you to go to part A under Roman numeral 2, and I want you to read some things with me. Let's go to Proverbs chapter 1, and I guess this is kind of the purpose of the book. As I can see it, this kind of tells us what it's going to be all about. Let's read it together. The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. I'll stop right there and tell you about Solomon.
38. 19:48Why does Solomon have any right to be involved with God in writing all this? He had an interesting alternative, didn't he? God came to him and God said, you're going to be the choice. You're my king to follow whom? Your father whom? David. Now what kind of king is David? Good or bad? Good.
39. 20:16In all the eyes of the Israelites, as they look back for the centuries that followed, and they look back at the kings, whom did they call the great king? David. And the scriptures talk about David over and over again as this great, great king. And he was some kind of a person. Had his hard times. We studied his life not long ago, but he was some kind of a good person. David had a lot going for him.
40. 20:41and he was a mighty king, and he was a warrior, and all these things, how would you like to take his place? How would you like to take his place as king? And so when it falls on Solomon, the son of Bathsheba, he feels like I think I'd feel. How am I going to do this? And God says, like he always does for the people he wants, and he wants all of us. That's the way God always works, always. He says, in effect,
41. 21:16I want you to be successful with what I've given you to do. Now you ask for whatever you want. And he thought about it for a moment and he said, well, you've handed me a big job. There are a lot of people to lead. And my father David, and I'm paraphrasing all this, my father David is a good king. I think what I better have is some wisdom to know how to lead these people. How did God feel about that? Remember the story?
42. 21:52It almost sounds like God was shocked to me as I read it. It almost sounds like God was surprised. Almost every person you ask that would ask for what? I'd like to have some wealth. I'd like to have a long, long life. There's a lot of things I'd like to have, folks. And if God would tell me, ask for whatever you want, which he has told me, I could think of a lot of things. But Solomon says,
43. 22:22I better have wisdom to do the job. And God says, you've got it. You've got wisdom. Not only because you did this, because you asked for wisdom, not only will I give you wisdom, but I'll make you live a long time, and I'm going to give you lots and lots of wealth. Let me give you a little preview. If you'll live like we're going to study, and you'll follow it with all your might, you're going to have to quit worrying about money because you'll have all you need. Now listen to that.
44. 22:54You have all you need. If you live like we're going to talk about living, you're going to have a lot less family problems. God's going to take care of the people who live like he said to live. Living's not tough, folks, if you do it right. It irons out fairly quickly when you start doing it right. And that's what the book of Proverbs is all about. Solomon says, I want to tell you some things I gained from the wisdom that God gave me. Now, the Proverbs, verse 2, for attaining wisdom,
45. 23:28discipline, for understanding words of insight, for acquiring a disciplined life and a prudent life or a wise life, doing what is right and just and fair for giving prudence to the simple. Now listen to that. Have you ever been kind of simple? Ever been kind of simple? Or maybe we could put another word. Have you ever been kind of foolish or played the role of a fool? This is for
46. 24:07giving wisdom to those who really need wisdom. This is for knowledge and discretion to the young people. Let the wise listen and add to their learning. Now you may be in good shape because wisdom comes in part from living this life and continuing to study. Some of those of you who are older in this class, you may have a lot, but it says let the wise listen and add to their learning and let the discerning get guidance.
47. 24:38for understanding proverbs and parables and sayings and riddles and so forth. That's the purpose. Go to chapter 2. I want to read these first few verses. I want you to tell me what it's saying. My son, if you will accept my words and store up my commands within you, if you accept and store up my commands, turning your ear to wisdom,
48. 25:10applying your heart to understanding, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord gives wisdom and so forth. What's the message? You missed this message and it's wrong class. What's the message? All right.
49. 25:51It's kind of interesting. He says if I want it, I'll find it. Okay? Okay. Well, I'm going to tell you something I think, and you may well disagree with me. I believe you can have anything in this life you want. I think you can have anything that you want if you're willing to focus on it enough for a long enough period of time. I believe you can have anything you want if you'll focus on it long enough with all your might.
50. 26:39Now here's the problem. A lot of people focus on a bunch of different things, never end up with anything they really want. A lot of people never focus on anything, and they sit back and they wish their life away and live frustrated lives because they never focus on anything. But I'm going to tell you that if you want all of what we've described tonight, you're going to have to focus on the wisdom.
51. 27:14that he's talking about right here in all this book. Focus on wisdom. That's seeing things the way God sees them and acting like God would act. Focus on that with all your might. Nothing else makes any difference. You seek it like you would seek what? Treasures. Or you seek it like you would seek, what else did it say along with treasures? Silver. Now, why did he put this in here? Even back in that day, where were people headed? What did they want?
52. 27:49Money, silver, treasures, those things that look pleasing to the eye. It'll make me think my life will be better. He said, now you stop where you are. All of you, stop where you are. And you look for this thing called wisdom with the same fervor or more fervor than you would look for anything in this world. It's number one, folks, to be able to see life like God sees it.
53. 28:18to be able to respond to life the way God says to respond to life. When you get that principle down, and that's your whole core of life, I'm going to do it like God says to do it, everything else, he's going to say, comes together. Everything else will fit. That's what he's talking about. Now, back up to chapter 1 for a moment. Verse 32. Here's your alternative. You can get up and leave this class and say it's not for me, but here's your alternative.
54. 28:59For the waywardness of the simple, the waywardness of those who don't have wisdom, will kill them. Do you believe that? How long will it kill them? How long will they remain dead? It's kind of a dumb question, isn't it? Let's just say forever, all through eternity. Waywardness of the simple will never get you anywhere with God. And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
55. 29:41We've got a whole lot of self-destruction going on in this world of ours. But whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease without fear of harm. Did you catch that one little statement? Be at ease? That's kind of what I'm looking for. I kind of want to, maybe I've described it the best I know how to describe it. I kind of want to be at ease with myself. I kind of want to be at ease in my family.
56. 30:17I kind of want to be at ease at my work. Not lazy. I'm not talking about that. Nothing to do. I just want to be at ease with it. I kind of want to be at ease with the people with whom I deal day by day. How do I get that? What's the value of wisdom? What's the value of seeing things the way God sees them and living the way God says to live? Safety. Ease. Good life. That's what he's saying. Go to chapter 3, verse 13.
57. 30:55is the man who finds wisdom. Now, if you've sought after it and you've found it, you're going to be what? Happy. Happy is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains his understanding. For she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. Do you believe that? Now, it's a kingpin principle. You've got to start believing right here.
58. 31:24If you can see life the way God sees it and live it like God says to live, it's going to have better return for you than gold. You'll find it in verse 15, she is more precious than rubies. Nothing, now listen to this, nothing you desire can compare with her. A long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor. Do you see what he's saying? You'll get everything you want.
59. 31:58Everything you want, you'll get by seeking things God's way and living like God said to live. Everything you want is going to be yours. Now, I'm not going to tell you in that statement that you're automatically going to get everything you want right now because I think if you live by the wisdom of God, your wants will change some. You understand that? If you live by the wisdom of this book, your wants may well change before we get through this study.
60. 32:28But at the same time, however your wants changed, those things that become very, very precious to you and make you understand how life ought to be, you'll get all that by seeking it through God. Wisdom. I'm off base. Some of you are looking at me like you think I'm kind of crazy. You think I'm off base? Are you willing to seek for it in the next quarter with all your might?
61. 32:56I think if these people right here, all you people right here, will with me seek for it with all our bites, we'll walk away in three months' time different people. Now, turn over to the back side of that paper. Because here's what we're going to study. And I don't want you to get turned off by the subjects now because we're going to deal with the kind of things that I've been talking about. And here's what we're going to study. We're going to study lessons, first of all, on self.
62. 33:27As I looked through the book of Proverbs, I decided probably the place we ought to start is with self. The problem of self-trust, the problem of self-control, and the problem of self-destruction. And if I can get you to quit trusting in yourself, and if I can get you to control the appetites that you have, and if I can get you by this book to see that God says that you control yourself in things like envy and jealousy and pride, we're going to be on the right road.
63. 33:59to living like he says to live. I'm going to throw in, kind of related to self, lessons on the tongue. I think you can do a whole lot to destroy your family and the people around you and your work. And I think you can lose money and I think you can destroy, you just destroy all of it if you use your tongue wrong. So only in the book of Proverbs. I'm not going to get out of the book of Proverbs one single time. We're going to look at how God says to say and not to say.
64. 34:31Then the book of Proverbs deals a whole lot with families. And so I'm going to talk about parents. I'm going to talk about children. And I'm going to tell you exactly what God says about how to honor parents, how to discipline children. Talk about marriage. The book of Proverbs will be very, very stout on issues like adultery, for example. We'll be just as stout as the book of Proverbs is. I'm going to talk about money.
65. 35:05And I think the secrets to money, Keith Bonner is a financial planner. He may disagree, but the secrets to money will be found in generosity and frugality. People say, how can those two ever fit together? And God's plan is they fit together in harmony and they work continually. We'll make some statements about poverty. We're going to talk at least in one lesson about integrity. A lot of things are messed up in families and work, just all those areas because of a lack of integrity.
66. 35:42I'm going to end about, begin to end with God. Book of Proverbs says a whole lot about his providence. A whole lot about his care for us. A whole lot about how we ought to fear him and therefore trust him. And then I'm going to end with taking and giving advice. Because I'll end by telling you if you can't take the advice of God, you missed the point.

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Up next in this series

Proverbs - Lesson 2

Ken Jones·Proverbs·2020·Audio · 42 min

This lesson introduces Proverbs by stressing the difficulty of change and the danger of self-destruction. Using a South American tribe’s refusal to change, the teacher illustrates how habits and fear can destroy lives. Proverbs helps us confront self-destructive tendencies, especially fear and pride. Fear—of poverty, illness, aging, death, loss, criticism, or failure—robs confidence and paralyzes decisions. Too much self-trust either leads to fear or to pride, both of which destroy. Proverbs warns that pride precedes destruction, breeds quarrels, and makes people hard to live with. The call is to humility and trust in God, not self.