Choosing the Path of Wisdom - Life
The metaphor we have heard ‘life is a journey” is probably very familiar to each of us.
The bible frequently tells us to choose the right path, but the world we are in today leads us
To thinking that there are many ways to God, and that any path you follow will eventually get
You there.
Jesus made it very clear that in this life we can only go one of two ways, each of them lead to
A different destination.
Everyone must choose which path they will be on.
There is that open road, easy street, do whatever whenever however YOU want to do it
There is that narrow road which leads to life, you are a passenger allowing God to direct your path
There is no middle of the Road.
That narrow path, is salvation. Letting God control our life. Upon receiving Christ, we made our first step
In achieving wisdom. So first… you have to be saved to receive wisdom.
In the book of proverbs the words PATH and Way are found nearly 100 times.
Throughout the book of Proverbs we are going to look at Gods ways of showing us how to be wise, to
Have wisdom. Today we are going to look at what we need to do for wisdom.
Starting in Proverbs 2 we are going to look through the chapter and see what it tells us about receiving wisdom:
Read Proverbs 2: verse 1a “my son if you receive my words”
RECEIVE – (accept) Gods word
Proverbs 2:verse 1b “and treasure my commands within you”
Hide them, store them up in our minds and hearts
chp 2: verse2a “so that you incline your ear to hear wisdom”
Incline your ear, or develop and ‘ear’ for wisdom
Chp 2 verse 2B ‘and apply your heart to understanding’
Set your heart to get understanding
Chp 2 verse 3 ‘yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding
Ask for it! Cry out for knowledge and understanding
Chp 2 verse 4 ‘ if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures..”
seek wisdom or search after it if it were a treasure
that last one…like a minor searches for gold…. Spiritual wisdom isn’t a once a week job
it requires discipline, commitment and longing for and its forever.
In the world we are in with habits of things that are time consuming, our spiritual
Appetite is poor which makes our knowledge unpleasant.
Studying the word of God, is food for our soul.
If we don’t we fall prey to enemy’s that lurk on the paths of our life. We have to do our
Part to keep our soul healthy. If we do our part God will keep His promise and protect us from
The enemy.
So why are we so eager and willing to work hard in getting our education and in our workplace but lack
Applying ourselves to Gods word? We have so much more to gain with spiritual riches than any class at
School or place of employment or even the money we make can ever give us.
So I would like each of you to ask yourself, is there something that you are devoting time to other than
God that is holding you away from receiving wisdom?
The next part of Proverbs 2, teaches us that there are rewards and promises for seeking wisdom
Look at verse 5a, “then you will understand the fear of The Lord”
understand the fear of the lord
Look at verse 5b, “and find the knowledge of God”
now this is not saying that you will know what God knows, because if that were the case then you
would be God. Its saying that you will gain better understanding of Gods plan. Remember,
the definition of knowledge is knowing the right thing to do or information of sound character
3. Look at verse 6, “for the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding”
-if we have more understanding of Gods plan that will make our decisions in life a lot more simple
We will be able to see things more clearly
Someone read verse 7
4 victory is in store for the upright
5 God will be a shield to anyone whose walk is blameless
Someone read verse 8
God guards and protects the faithful ones
Someone read verse 9 - you will understand what is right and just
Now verse 10 - wisdom will enter into your heart and knowledge pleasant to your soul
These words stress the internalization of wisdom. It doesn’t merely mean to provide knowledge it
Means to provide insight to be learned intimately and practiced. And it saying pleasant means you
Will have a fullness to your soul
Proverbs 3:
God tells us that when we are obiediant to his precepts wisdom will direct our paths
God keeps His promise when we are obeidiant because our obiediance prepares us to receive and enjoy what he has
Planned for us.
Our responsibilities are:
First To receive Gods guidance we have to keep Gods truth Read 3:1
Vs 1 tells us not to forget Gods law. Do you know what Gods law is? We learn Gods truth through His word
The will of God is revealed in the Word of God” Colossians 1:9-10
secondly Read Vs2-4 -not only are we to read Gods word we are to obey His word. By receiving the word within ourhearts we experience
Growth in godly character so that mercy truth love and faithfulness become part of who we are then we bear fruit (the reference
Tie them around our neck, if we wear something around our neck, who can see it? That shows other people we are of God without
them asking. Vs 3-4 tell us that if we do days will be added to our lives and we will have peace.
Read vs 5-8
Vs 5
Third we can trust-In verse 5 the word ‘trust’ translated means to lie helpless facedown.
The danger we face today is that we lean on our own understanding and miss Gods will
The warning mentioned in these verses isn’t telling us to turn off ourselves and ignore our
Common sense and intellegance its cautions us not to depend on our own wisdom and experience
It is also stressing the importance of obeidance.
Vs 6 – God is making us a promise of directing our paths if we obey Him, yes that promise
Is predicated on our obideance
*** this means to us we are to be totally committed to Him*** (See romans 12:1-2)))))))))))
It says by doing so we will have health and strength
Read vs 9-10
Fourthly- we are to honor the lord with tithes and offering just as has been done since the
First Hebrews giving the first crop
BY honoring God with our tithes and offering we will have the promise of plenty
Read vs 11-12
Fifth-be submissive to Gods chastening
Chastening is part of Gods plan to help His sons and daughters mature in godly character as it says in(hebrews 12:1-11))))))
God chastens us not as a judge punishing a criminal but as a parent disciping a child. HE acts in love and his purpose is that
We might become ‘partakers of his holiness’ ((Hebrews 12:10)))
Sometimes we are chastened because we have rebelled and need to repent, other times he does it to keep us from sinning
And preparing us for his special blessings. NO matter how much it hurts, it wil never harm us because God always chastens in love
As it tells us in Deuteronomy 8:2-5)
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