The LORD's Day September 30, 2007

The Purpose of the Proverbs
Proverbs 1.1-7

Proverbs is a book in the Bible that could be subtitled, “Learn and Live”. We use the old saying to comfort people when they have made a mistake, “Well you live and learn.” Proverbs is written so that we could avoid many mistakes, sins and wrong paths. It is a book of life in a positive sense as well. It tells us what to do, the right attitude to have and the life decisions that will bring God’s blessings rather than sin’s consequences.

The Proverbs helps us to avoid unnecessary pain and suffering in our life. They are the stepping stones along the straight path that leads to life and heaven. Listen to them and obey them and you will experience God’s blessings, including His discipline. Ignore them and you will play the fool, someone the Proverbs often refers to.

Training and learning and growing are challenging experiences. Good things come out of them but sometimes the path is not the one of least resistance. One of the reasons people do not follow Jesus is because of persecution. It is also because that when we do we are submitting as He did to our Father in Heaven. The first section of the Proverbs tells us about things like this. It explains in detail what the purpose of the Proverbs are. Today there is an abundance of little sayings about life. The Proverbs are far beyond that. They are far beyond cute little sayings and go right into the heart and soul of the people who read them and they even speak of the heart and soul of those who do not.

Through this fall and into winter we are going to look at these wonderful words of life.


1. The Proverbs are for Right Thinking -v.2

for attaining wisdom and discipline

The word wisdom in this verse means “skill in war”.

We are in spiritual battle. That battle is spoken about throughout the Proverbs. It is the LORD against Satan, Good against evil, Righteousness against sinfulness. The Proverbs helps us to be skilled in fighting this battle. We sharpen our spiritual senses through spending time in the Proverbs.

For example Proverbs 15.1 says, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Have you ever answered someone who was mad at you with a harsh word and watched the battle escalate? Afterwards you thought, “I wish I could take that back This is not good.” Well a gentle answer turns away wrath. When my girls were growing up that was hung on the refrigerator door and they memorized it. Some of us need to memorize it so we can practice it.


Let me go a step further. I was with two of my daughters this week for a little while. In our conversation we talked about a professional person whom we all have seen. The girls spoke about the receptionist in the office. She is mean. I am sure there is something just below the surface in her life that is causing her to be this way. One day the LORD (I know it was from Him because of the results) put it my heart to ask her about her son- she had pictures of him on her desk. Her heart melted and opened and the sweetness displaced the anger. I told the girls to talk to her about her child and see what happens. A gentle answer... here is some of the wonder of the Proverbs... an answer is a response... gentle means soft, tender, delicate. See how this works. We reap what we sow.

This word wisdom has to do with administration. Getting things done God give us wisdom on making the most of every opportunity. Help us not to waste time. Help us to get proper rest and nutrition.

Wisdom is also shrewdness. Jesus commended the manager in Luke 16 for this. The Proverbs helps us develop this. Many Christians lack it.


for attaining wisdom and discipline
discipline-chastening, correction. The Proverbs are part of God’s Word. Hebrews 4.12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. God’s Word cuts into us. It exposes our inner most thoughts and corrects us. We are inwardly changed by God’s Word coming into our hearts.

One of the purposes of the Proverbs is to bring correction to our lives. As we make this journey through it the next 6 months we will see this truth become a reality in our own lives Open your heart to the Truth and Jesus Himself will touch you and set you free in ways you may not even be aware of that you have need of at this moment.
for understanding words of insight
understanding = discernment
I pray that all of God’s people would be given an increase of discernment. We all have a measure of discernment because of Jesus being inside. His Spirit gives us this (I John 2.20-27).Some have the spiritual gift of discernment. Most of us need to seek it like Paul said to in I Corinthians 14.1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts...
Proverbs helps us develop this gift. There are many things that enhance spiritual gifts as we read and study God’s Word and discernment is one of them. There is so much pain and confusion that could be avoided if this gift were more active in the lives of believers. False teacher would not be having the response and following they are.

The reading and studying of the Proverbs help us distinguish spirits. They show us what is behind certain actions and even attitudes of people. They open human hearts.

2. The Proverbs are for Right Living. v.3

for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life,

acquiring=marry, take a wife, snatch, take away
Become one with the Proverbs. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. This is a book of the Bible that is meant to be shared with each other, quoted to one another, used a counseling tool between believers. As I spend time in the Proverbs, I am snatching up the truth and living right.

prudent= look upon with insight
We look at life emotionally and financially. What does it cost? How will it make me feel? We look at it as we shared recently that we are going to heaven on beds of ease. We seldom look on it with insight, learning from our own lives and the lives of others. To be prudent is to look on it in this way- gaining insight from life’s lessons.

One of the purposes of the Proverbs is to help us enjoy life. It is to help us avoid bad situations and bad people and bad attitudes. It promotes healthy living from an emotional spiritual standpoint. It tells us how to avoid financial stress and the benefits that come from not being rich. It is straightens out wrong thinking and helps us live right.


doing what is right and just and fair

fair=evenness, uprightness, straightness, equity, evenness, level, smoothness
rightly

Micah 6.8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.


3. The Proverbs are for Simple People and Young People. v.4

One of the purposes of the Proverbs is help the simple and the young, those lacking wisdom, spiritual maturity. It makes up what they lack in learning from life and experience.

for giving prudence to the simple,
prudence=shrewdness, craftiness
Once again Jesus commended the manager in Luke 16 for his shrewdness. So many times God’s people do not possess that. We are naive. The simple are naive and need to learn to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

for giving prudence to the simple
simple= naive, foolish, open minded


There is a sense in which being open minded over some things is an asset. There are other things we need to be tough minded about. There are non-negotiable things. The Word of God gives us things that cannot be altered. There some things that are always wrong, no matter what the circumstances. We need to be closed minded about such things. The simple are open minded about all things. I remember hearing things along the path of life from others. They were condoning sinful behavior in others and that is wrong. It used to upset (still does) my spirit.

knowledge and discretion to the young-
knowledge= perception, skill, discernment, understanding, wisdom

The Proverbs gives all these things to the young. How children and teens need this. Look at the passage we read this week and how young people bent on doing evil try and bring along someone who has been brought up to know better. Discernment will keep a young person from going down the wrong track, from getting his feet on the path that leads to destruction. Such discernment is received from the Proverbs. Let’s encourage the young people in our life by teaching them these things.


4. The Wise and Discerning Grow By Proverbs -v.5-6
Let the wise listen (implied obedience) and add to their learning (insight)
and let the discerning get guidance(direction, counsel, guidance, good advice, wise counsel direction)- for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise. We need wisdom to understand the Proverbs. We need the LORD to help us interpret His Word, to understand the depth of it. He will help us.

So many are in a state of arrested spiritual development . We ought to be growing in our knowledge about God’s Word and growing in the grace of God and fruit of the Spirit. Proverbs is a book that helps us feed the inner man with spiritual truth for life. It helps even those who are well along on the path to grow. Do you see the implication here? We ought to all be growing until we see Jesus face to face and become like Him. Follow His example We are told in Luke’s Gospel as a boy, Luke 2.52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Doesn’t it amaze you at times how much you need to grow in becoming more like Jesus? The Proverbs are given to help us on that path. We are on the way to heaven and on it we reflect more and more of the LORD Whom we are looking to.

They are for all of us

Let’s grow in love, wisdom and grace
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The LORD’s Day
September 30, 2007

We Worship In Singing
We Worship In Prayer
We Worship In Hearing the Word of God
The Purpose of the Proverbs Proverbs 1

*Tithes and Offerings can be placed in the box at the rear of the sanctuary*
Please join us for coffee and bagels downstairs if you are visiting today.
Prayer Meeting - 6pm at the parsonage

This Week
Bible Reading Proverbs 2
Monday Men’s Prayer Meeting 6:30am in the church basement
Wednesday Bible Study- 7:30pm at the Parsonage
Thursday Bible Study 10:30am at the church
Next Lord’s Day
Morning Prayer- 10am in the church basement
Morning Worship- 10:30am(Sunday School for Children) The LORD’s Supper
Spanish Service- 4pm

In Your Prayers For All of God’s People

Remember the men serving in the armed forces: Bradley, Julia Bujold’s grandson with Special Forces in Afghanistan, home on leave right now, Ken Brown, Pastor’s friend’s son on his third tour of Iraq- He will be home soon. Please pray for the whole family. Billy Knapp, Jr. in Iraq with the Marines (neighbor of the church and Pastor- Billy’s sister graduated from Good Shepherd). He is due home at Thanksgiving. Matthew Klaus, brother of Good Shepherd parent in Iraq as a firefighter for Haliburton. Pastor’s nephews’ and niece’s cousin Kim’s husband, Jay, in Iraq. Pray for them and the others away from their families. Praise God for keeping David Louis, Jake Morgan and Tom Hindelang safe during their times in Iraq. Please pray for Johnathan Kruzner (friend’s son of Rudy Migliore) who lost his arm from a roadside bomb in Iraq this month. Christine Frankland, Katharina’s daughter, went to be with the LORD yesterday afternoon. Remember Robert, her husband and Jonathan, her son as well as Katharina and the rest of the family. Kathy, Ziggy and Margot’s daughter-in-law, under the doctor’s care for fibromyalgia. Thank God for answers to prayer for her. Pray for Eloise Brooks’ Family during this time of loss and sorrow... Remember Jean Louis on dialysis. Grace Martin, Edie Raevis’ daughter, recovering from surgery on her back and uindergoing Physical Therapy. Edie’s daughter’s mother-in-law, Millie Espisito has a severe infection and is in grave condition. Reginald Mooney, friend of Terri and John Garry, with a tumor in his kidney. Please remember Pastor’s friend Kim Richardson’s daughter, Kelly had a mastectomy this past Tuesday. Please remember this whole family in prayer. Pastor Jerry Bonfiglio’s family who has been through so much grief this summer... Leah May’s cousin, Joan, respiratory problems now home. Leah was taken to the hospital following Eloise’s funeral on Thursday. She is home now... Lucy Mancini under Orthopedic Specialist’s care and physical therapy for pain and injuries resulting from the accident. Pastor’s Dad., Larry Mancini, Sr. came through surgery to remove a blood clot on the brain very well Friday. Stephen Huges, brother of a Good Shepherd Nursery School Mom, their parents home in Hewlett was destroyed in a fire.. Please remember Dr. And Mrs. Mucci in your prayers as well as Judy’s daughter Tatum. Alice Gordon’s brother, Everette, in Illinois, two blood infections along with another serious medical condition. Mary Von Fricken was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. She is having pacemaker problems as well. Anka’s family in their time of loss and grief. Joey Reda (Charlie and Diane Davison’s Grandson) experiencing some heart arrhythmia and had been wearing an event monitor for this past week to record them. Pastor’s friend, Rudy Migliore, received a very good report from the doctors this week.
Romans 12.15

*If you are would like to put together a shoe box for a needy child this Christmas see Margot for information.*