Holding Fast To Godly Teaching

Holding Fast To Godly Teaching

Proverbs 6.20 My son, keep your father’s command

    and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

21 Bind them always on your heart;

    fasten them around your neck.

22 When you walk, they will guide you;

    when you sleep, they will watch over you;

    when you awake, they will speak to you.

23 For this command is a lamp,

    this teaching is a light,

and correction and instruction

    are the way to life,

On this Mother's Day we look at a Word of Encouragement from Solomon to his son. He is urging him to hold fast to the things he has been taught by him, his father and mother. He is exhorting him to obey their words and not to forsake them.

He is speaking about the two closest people in our young lives: our father and our mother. I realize there are failures, some painful ones, some unspeakable ones. The majority, the norm, He is speaking about God. 

Fathers and mothers hold special places in our lives and hearts.

I want to talk to you for a moment about the need of becoming spiritual father and mothers. For a variety of reasons, not the least today is the breakdown of the home, there are children and now young and middle aged adults who need someone other than their biological parent to fill that the role of a father or mother.

Psalm 68.6 God sets the lonely in families.

I know these are very difficult times for the family in America.

On the way back from Haiti in January, on the plane... 

"That little girls thinks you really are her Daddy! And in many ways you are!"

If we open our eyes and hearts, God will open our hearts.

"How do we let human beings live like this?"

He will enlarge our families!

I thank God for the people who have stepped in!

Solomon is telling his son to hold their teaching close. Honor them by listening to them and obeying them even when you get older and grow into young adulthood and beyond.

This is what the word "always' means in verse 21. Some versions read continually. This literally is perpetual. 

1. The Admonition To Do This-v.21

Two things we are being told to do.

*Binding them on our heart always

Tie tightly, robustly and vigorously

To conspire- think through ways of obeying. Find out what pleases the LORD.

Closer than anything else we are to hold the Word of God around our hearts.

*Run every decision through God's Word.

*Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

*Fastening around your neck

The place where the cud is chewed

Ruminating On God's Word... over and over.

Meditate on it.

We try to keep our songs very scriptural to help get the Word inside you!

So that Christ may be formed in you.

These words are extreme. Too many follow Jesus from a distance. Many are secret disciples. This is talking about a complete allegiance to the words of the Proverbs and the law.

The Proverbs are the laws of life.

2. The Blessings of Obedience-v.22

*When you walk

lead you.

The leadership of the Holy Spirit

into all truth

testifying about Jesus

filling us 

In our daily lives the Word, the commands we read in this book  ought to lead the way,

*When you sleep

guard, take charge, protect

Rest well

He grants sleep to those He loves.

No need to fear.

*When you are awake

to put forth thoughts, mediate, muse, commune, speak, complain, ponder, sing

3. The Components Of This Executive Order-v.23

All we need!

Lamp for us to see the way

Light for to see things clearly

We are given light to see the way, light to walk on the right path (even at midnight), The power of His Spirit to do it.

Instruction

Way to life

The LORD has given us direction in His Word. He admonishes us to hold fast to it. He tells us of the benefits. He calls us to obey and gives us the necessary tools to do so.