50 DAYS OF WISDOM - DAY 34 "Wisdom as developing common sense" Proverbs 16:16-33

SALT WATER

Boat Trip with friends to a secret spot last year

CLEAN WATER

My whiteboard in my garage where I keep track of places that people have personally asked me to come and help them

LIVING WATER

My favorite church theologian Jeff Spicoli

Today I want to talk to you about Proverbs chapter 16 through 33. Says how much better to get wisdom than gold to get insight rather than silver. So the Bible teaches us that our number one pursuit should be wisdom from God.

God created us. He designed us. He architected our life and he has a purpose for it. So we want to be inclined to get as much information from him as possible. Next verse says the highway of the upright avoids evil. Those who guard their ways preserve their lives. So the idea is not to get as close to the cliff as possible and look over and see how far you can fall. The goal is to keep yourself well away from potential hurt, potential poor decision making.

Now in the Old Testament the Pharisees made a living off of this. They would take a principle, a command, a law from God and they would build an entire ideology based on avoiding even getting close to those law breaking scenarios. So we don't want to go to that extreme. What we do want to do is practice some common sense and some discernment. Pride goes before destruction. A haughty spirit before a fall. Well need we say more? How many people do we have to see who get full of themselves and their lives blow up before we realize that this verse is true? When you start thinking you're a lot, God's about ready to humble you. So unfortunately we have to learn that lesson a few times. The Bible says humble thyself on the side of the Lord and he will lift you up. So we want to run away from pride, run to humility.

Verse 19, better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud. So you'll eventually get wherever you're going in life when you set goals and you have ambition but you want to ask yourself the question, how am I going to get to the destination that I'm going to? The Bible teaches humility, hard work, integrity, character, no shortcuts at all. Now look at verse 20, whoever gives heed to instruction prospers and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord. So when we receive instruction from God in his word then our trust in him goes up and then we prosper. When we don't trust in God's word, when we trust in ourselves our prosperity is diminished. We're not talking about physical prosperity, we're talking about spiritual prosperity.

Verse 21, the wise in heart are called discerning and gracious words promote instruction. So gracious words promote instruction because you always want to take into consideration who's listening to what it is that you're saying. You want to make sure that you say it in just the right way at just the right time. The Bible says that this is seasoned with grace. A lot of times people deliver the right message in the wrong way and it gets wrongly interpreted. So we want to make sure we communicate with grace, with humility and with kindness.

Verse 22, prudence is a fountain of life to the prudent but folly brings punishment to fools. So prudence, otherwise known as self-discipline is one of your greatest assets in life. And so you want to view your discipline and your prudence as one of your primary assets and the more mature that you get the more you realize that you need to manage yourself.

Verse 23, the hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent and their lips promote instruction. So not only is self-discipline important but then you'll learn how to be disciplined with your words and when you learn to be disciplined with your words they'll actually have something to say when you speak and that will be the instruction that people need to hear. So self-discipline isn't just for our habits, it's also for our speech and our words.

Look at verse 24, gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. So as we get prudence, we get self-discipline, we view our words as assets to be used for the benefit of others and then your words become like honey and healing to people who need it. So words can be honey and they can be healing to those who need to hear those words. That's a good thing.

So look at verse 25, there's a way that appears to be right but in the end it leads to death. So there's the way that we think words should be spoken. There's a way that we think instruction should be given but it leads to death. So this goes back in this context to the delivery of how you speak. How many times have you said the right thing and the wrong way you got the wrong result? You want to say the right thing and the right spirit, the right wording and you'll get the right result. You'll get empathy, you'll get listening and you'll have dialogue, you'll make progress.

Verse 26, the appetite of laborers works for them, their hunger drives them on. So the Bible teaches that if you want to eat you have to work. Our culture teaches not that. So Bible teaches if you want to eat you need to work and this can start when kids are really little you have to equate work with eating. You want to eat, you got to put in work. Very simple, you don't work, you don't eat.

Verse 27, a scoundrel plots evil and their lips it is like a scorching fire. So scoundrels they actually come up with schemes and dreams and plans to subvert, manipulate, dominate and coerce others. This is not the heart of God. That's actually the opposite of the heart of God. A perverse person stirs up conflict and a gossip separates close friends. So perverse people, scoundrels, they're constantly arguing, constantly stirring up conflict, constantly sowing chaos, gossip, envy. This again is not the heart of God.

Verse 29, a violent person entices their neighbor and leads them down a path that is not good. So violent people again they don't have your best ends in mind, they're literally using you as a pawn to get what they want. Let me ask you a question, do you want to be someone's pawn? The answer is of course not. You don't want to be a pawn, you want to be empowered by God. That's different. So don't let violent people use you for their ends.

Verse 30, whoever winks with their eye is plotting perversity, whoever purses their lips is bent on evil. So winking carries with it an intention. And so this gets to the intentions of people. You want to make sure that the people that you're getting advice from have your best interests in mind, not their own. So very important that we take into consideration people's intentions when we're dealing with them.

Verse 31 Gray hair is a crown of splendor, it is attained in the way of righteousness. This is a way of saying that we're to show respect for people who have lived a long time. People can get gray hair when they're young, does that mean they've attained the way of righteousness, not necessarily this is a metaphor. It's a way of saying that we should show respect to people who have lived before us, even if we disagree with their decision making, just simply based on their age.

Verse 32, better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. The Bible teaches that prudence and self-discipline and patience is the apex asset. It's a paradox. The more patience you have, the less time you have. Your time on earth is ticking down, but then you get better insight into how to make better decisions. It's a total mind blow, but prudence, self-discipline and patience are the assets.

And then lastly today, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from God. So a lot of times we just offer our best plans, our best insights, and we make plans according to those, but ultimately it's the Lord that directs our steps and determines their results.

And thanks so much for looking at the last part of Proverbs 16 today. There's so much wisdom in this book. I hope you join me next time. Until then, I hope you have a beautiful day.