50 DAYS OF WISDOM - DAY 32 "Wisdom as Exclusivity" Proverbs 15:23-33
SALT WATER
Cool Tide Pool at Kilometer 61 in El Salvador
CLEAN WATER
On the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec on my Ride4water
LIVING WATER
One of the best churches I have ever been to in El Salvador
I’m going to talk to you about Proverbs 15, verses 23-33. Wisdom as exclusivity.
Verse 24 says that the way of life winds upward for the wise, that he may turn from hell below. This brings up the idea of the exclusivity of heaven and the exclusivity of hell.
Now, hell isn't something that people like to talk about. They actually just like to talk about the converse of that, which is of course heaven. Everybody believes in heaven because everybody believes that they go there no matter what they do and no matter what they believe in.
Well, the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible says that Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father, but by me. Jesus is pretty clear. He's the path. When you die, you can talk to him about the directions that he gave about how to get to heaven, but if you're unwise, you're going to live a life that's far from God. If you're wise, you're going to live a life that's close to God. Now, we like to talk about heaven. We like to talk about success.
We don't like to talk about hell, and we don't like to talk about suffering. The reality is we get both in this life. We get success. We also get suffering. We get heavenly moments. We get hell-filled moments. It's part of the full human experience. We like to emphasize one versus the other. Reality is you get both.
A lot of times, simultaneously, that's called being an adult, and that's called being mature. Look at verse 25 here, the Lord will destroy the house of the proud, but he will establish the boundary of the widow. God hates pride. The Bible says that God opposes the proud, but that he gives grace to the humble. Quickest way to get into God's will is through humility. I mention that a lot in my teachings.
Well, here he says he's going to destroy the house of the proud. The Bible gives so many warnings about being prideful. In fact, we should just pray right now, Lord, would you give us your humility, not our pride? Anytime we exchange our pride for the Lord's humility, we're taking a step towards God. That's pretty exciting.
Look at the next verse. He says in verse 27, he who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live. Wow. You know, greed will get you. Greed will act as a corrosive agent in your life. Pride teaches you to take everything that you can get. God teaches you to be generous with everything that you already have. It's a fundamental different value system.
Look at verse 28. The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil. The wise person thinks before they speak. The wise person considers, well, how should I answer this question in a way that's first of all, truthful? And then secondly, for the benefit of the listener to encourage them and to build them up. Well, what does the wicked person do? He just says whatever he thinks. It doesn't take into consideration the ramification of his words. Verse 29 is a gem, the Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous.
You know, you don't have to be perfect to follow Christ, but you do have to be genuine. And genuine just says, Lord, would you guide me today? Would you direct me today? Would you lead me today? I don't want to be far from you. I want to be as close to you as possible. Lord, hear my prayer.
And look at verse 30, the light of the eyes rejoices the heart and a good report makes the bones healthy. Wow. Something about giving a good report. A good report is based on perception. Now, this is the lesson of Joshua sending out the spies into the land. One came back with a negative report, two came back with a positive report, a report of faith. We should train ourselves to see everything through the eyes of faith, through the eyes of hope, through the eyes of belief, through the eyes of perhaps God can do something in this situation.
Look at verse 31, the ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. Wow. The wise person will always learn from their mistakes every single time. You don't have to live really for more than a day to do something wrong, especially if you're me. But wow. You can hear the rebukes of life, life will rebuke you. Situations will rebuke you. Circumstances will rebuke you. But the wise person can learn from the situation and learn from the circumstances and then get wisdom from it. So all failure is useful in the sense that it helps us become wiser. That's pretty exciting.
And verse 32, he who disdains the instruction, he who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding. So actually, if you don't listen to the Lord's instruction, you're doing yourself a disservice. You're literally wasting your time on earth. But if you learn to listen to rebuke, you're going to get understanding. A couple episodes ago, I talked about the value of correction.
I did an entire teaching on this about rebuke and correction and how useful it is. Certain plants and trees, they only grow when you cut them back, you prune them and we're very much that way. And the last verse for today, look at 1533. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility. If we'll just learn to be humble and walk in the Lord's humility, then the Lord is like a coach and he's the coach of all of the players in his team. And then he just puts you where he wants you. And that's really the goal of life, to be where God wants you to be, not where you want to be.
Sometimes there's a difference between where we want to be and where God wants us to be. Jesus is the coach. He puts his players where he wants because he can see things that the individual players can't. He can look at the whole team and look at the whole field, tell you where to go, tell you what to be, just the right moment at just the right time. And you'll bear fruit in your life, which is the goal of life. I'm glad we can finish Proverbs chapter 15 today.
Thank you for joining me and until next time, I hope you have a beautiful day.