Proverbs - Wisdom For Troubled Times

Do please have a seat.

And if you've bought a bible with you, can you turn now to Proverbs chapter 10? And we're gonna be reading the first just the first 11 verses. So Proverbs 10 verse 1 to 11. Continuing this series that we've been working through in the book of Proverbs. And then after we've had our reading, we're going to sing again.

There is no other name, and then Pete is gonna come and preach God's word to us this morning. But let's let's pray as we come to the word of God together. Father, we thank you so much that your spirit breathed out this word that inspired this word, And we thank you that all of these scriptures reveal to us and make us wise for salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus. And we thank you that with that, they also show us what the life of salvation looks like, that they encourage us They correct us. They show us how to live wise and upright and godly lives in this age that we live.

And we pray Lord, that you would speak to us, please, through the preaching of your word this morning. We pray for our brother, Daryl. Daryl Bets who away also this weekend preaching for a youth a youth group up in Warwick, and we'll be preaching all across the weekend in the book of exodus We prayed that those young people aged between 11 to 17 would grip and grasp the message of that book and that they would see it pointing to the great deliver of the lord Jesus. So please help him in his preaching. We pray as well for Pete, not just this morning, but also this afternoon as he pre is at Grace Church in New Molden and that you would help him and that the ministry of the word would be accompanied by your your blessing at that church as well.

And we ask this all in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. The proverbs of Solomon, A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother. Illgotten treasures have no lasting value, but righteousness delivers from death. The lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.

Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son. But he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son. Blessings crown the head of the righteous. But violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.

The name of the righteous is used in blessing. But the name of the wicked will rot. The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin. Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out. Whoever winks maliciously causes grief, and a chattering fool comes to ruin.

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. Now last week, Tom and Safron were out at Kingston University Fresh's fair. They were talking to new students, they were inviting them along to church. And 1 girl asked asked Tom, I I think a really good question. Her question was, is Church a safe space?

Is Church a safe space? Now that's a terrific question to ask. If she's gonna come to our church, is it a safe space? Now the conversation that Tom had with this girl revealed that she was really asking If it's a safe space for her lifestyle and her behavior and her mindset and her thinking, that that would not be challenged in any way. In fact, it would be applauded.

So is her lifestyle going to be judged in any way or challenged in any way is Church of safe space. In fact, I want you to applaud my lifestyle. Is Church a safe space? It's a great question. Is it a safe space?

Will I be able to come to church and live the way I want to live, live out my lifestyle, have my behaviors without any testing at all. Without any question at all. And here's the answer. No. Church is not a safe space.

It's not a safe space for her because it's not a safe space for any of us. There's no 1 should be safe here in that sense. Everyone from every back background, whatever persuasion you are. Even if you're from a good Christian background or you're the pastor of a church, it's not safe to be here. In that sense?

The answer is no. Church is much more like going to the doctors. You're going to be examined. And if heart surgery is needed, he'll send you there. Church, is much more like going to have an x-ray at the dentist and or however uncomfortable the result is, if there's a cavity there he'll tell you.

If you don't want suffering and pain, then church is not a safe space for you. If you want to stay the same, then church is not a safe space for you. If you think you're right and you know how to navigate through life without any help at all, then church is not a safe space for you. If you think you've already got wisdom enough to survive in the world, then church is not a safe space for you. Is church a safe space Great question.

No is the answer. In church, the bible is opened up and that's what makes it an explosive place. The word of the creator is spoken to us, a word that will challenge us on every level will not leave us alone, will hound us, will worry us, will challenge our thinking and our behavior and our lifestyle and our actions and our motives and our likes and dislikes and our words and the things we say to other people, and the way we work and how we work or if we don't work and how we treat people and how we treat ourselves and how we treat our world. Everything is up for grabs, to be looked at, examined, and queried, and questioned. Your life, your intimate life will be compared to none other than Jesus Christ.

It's not a safe space. And the creator's word claims and claims on you is Church of safe space. Yes. Church is a safe space. Yes.

It's the safest place on earth. Because it's like a doctor's waiting room because everyone in the rates waiting room can't stand up and say I've I have got a problem. What are you there for then? It's the safest place on earth because no 1 is healthy and that's 1 of the reasons why we come. Is Church a safe space?

Yes. It's safe. If you don't know how to handle life. If you failed in every way, that you could fail is a safe space for you. If you're someone who has great struggles and great failures in life, then join the club join with a group of people.

They might have different struggles to you but we all have struggles and 1 of the reasons we're in the doctors waiting room is we got problems. Is churches safe space? If you need help, yeah. And even if you just want to come and look, an examiner or an alternative lifestyle to the 1 that's presented to you now. If you want to examine an alternative lifestyle to what the world is telling you to do, It's a safe place if you come with your questions and disagreements and arguments and think.

Because most of us have been there. So is Church a safe space? No. And yes. The narnia stories are terrific children's stories.

Many of you have read them. Some of you don't know what I'm talking about, but there are a group of stories called the narnia stories, the narnia chronicles. And in the narnia chronicles is Aslan. Aslan is a massive fierce lion. And the children in the story, who haven't met Asland yet, have heard about the power of Azlan and his roar that goes out.

And they're frightened because they're gonna meet him. And they don't know what to do. And they asked 1 of the characters called missus Beaver. 1 of the children Lucy asked missus Beaver Is Azlan safe? And the answer is, from Missus Beaver, safe, my dear?

Of course, he's not safe, but he's good. He's not safe. But he's good. Now Asland is a picture of Jesus in that story. Is Jesus safe Save my dear?

Jesus's safe. Of course, he's not safe, but he's good. He's always for your good, like a doctor that will reveal the cancer, like a dentist that will reveal the cavity. He does it for your good. And when you get to know Jesus and if you're just investigating, when you get to know Jesus, You'll know what that sentence means.

Is he safe? No. But he's good. He's always always for your good. However, what I wanna say here is this.

This is a long introduction. What I really wanna say is this, that to be left on your own is not a safe space to be. If you're left with just your feelings, just your cravings, just your own wisdom, just your own thinking, just your own truths, I wanna say to you, you're not in a safe space. To be left alone is 1 of the most dangerous spaces to be in. Even Plato a great Greek philosopher said an unexamined life is not worth living.

To not have your life put into the scrutiny of someone bigger and wiser than you is not a life worth living. And that's why we're looking at the book of Proverbs. It's the book of wisdom in the bible. It's like a doctor who will ask unsafe, difficult, uncomfortable questions, but for your good. A definition of wisdom that we've already seen as we've been going through this book is that wisdom will listen to an outside voice of a wise a person.

The definition of a fool is that they won't. They won't go anywhere that will challenge them. They want to stay safe. Now, I wanna show you a piece of artwork. We're gonna see it in just a minute.

Turn the lights off. It's gonna come up in just a minute. And it illustrates what happens if you're just left alone in your safe space. I first saw this bit of art and quite a number of years ago in the tape modern and I was blown away by I'm gonna speed it up so it's not quite as good as it is in the Take modern. It always had a crowd around it.

I went back to it about 3 or 4 times and watched the whole thing. It's called still life by Sam Taylor Wood. And it's based on the old still life paintings that came out after the reformation. When people were seeing life in everything, and they used to paint a bowl of fruit. That's that's a still life.

That's the genre of still life like a bowl of fruit on a table. And it's called still life. But what it does is it shows us that still life never carries on. Being life. Still life carries on into death, and that's what this is showing us.

That a safe space where no 1 intervenes with me where I'm left alone, this is what happens. Have have a have a look at little film. That's a safe space. Now what that fruit needs is some kind of miracle. Because the fruit that's picked and left on its own in its safe space, still life is never still.

It goes to corruption. And Proverbs is telling us this. This is why you need to be under the influence of an outside wisdom that's going to speak to you. Now the miracle of being reconnected to the branch is exactly what Jesus says. So Jesus says this in John 15.

I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, You can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you look like a you look like a branch that is thrown away and withers.

Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. What Proverbs is doing is asking the question, are you connected to life to wisdom, or are you in a safe space on your plate without any any outside influence than you have inside decay. That's what Proverbs is telling us. And so Proverbs is here to evaluate us. It's here to ask those direct questions that a doctor that a dentist asks.

To see whether there's cavities, whether there's cancers. To ask those hard questions, to put you up to see whether you're gonna go for wisdom or you're gonna go for folly in your safe space. What's happened is the first 9 chapters that we've looked at in Proverbs is all about showing you that wisdom is better than foolishness, and we've done those talks and you can go and listen to them. In chat and there's a sort of there's a sort of like sustained argument in those chapters. From chapter 10 onwards, It's a very different book in many ways because they're now loads and loads of short, pithy statements to see whether you're a wise person or a fool.

It's much more like a shotgun. A shotgun has hundreds of little tiny balls of lead, that shoot out in all kinds of directions. And from Proverbs 10, there's these pithy little statements, these tiny balls of lead that bash into you. They smack you in the eye. They bash you into the mouth.

They'll hit you into the stomach. They'll hit your heart. They'll bash your hand. They'll bash your feet. And they're asking the question, are you wise?

Are you full? Are you gonna stay in your safe place of decay? Or will you cry out for wisdom for a power outside that will reestablish you into the life giving branch? Now what I I wanted to do, and you'll be pleased I wasn't, but I was toying with it last week, every single verse in Proverbs 10. And then I thought of other the rest of Proverbs.

And I thought, what does it matter if we're here for a long time? But I think you might not agree. I'm gonna group together, and they roughly group together, all the proverbs. In in Proverbs 10. So you're ready for the ride.

And I've put them under themes. Here's my first theme, life It's broad enough. Life and who do you trust? Life and who do you trust as we look at this chapter of Proverbs 10. And that's including how you acquire things and not just acquire things like material things like a car and money and that sort of stuff.

But how you acquire your thinking? How do you acquire things into your life? And what you trust your attitudes your attitudes to work and to people and to wealth. So that's my first big broad point and we're gonna look at some of the proverbs here. Look at verse 2.

Illgotten treasures have no lasting value, but righteousness delivers from death. Now are you a fool or are you gonna be wise on this? This is all about who you will trust in life. And who you trust in life is seen by what you treasure and how you get that treasure. That's the question he's asking.

Ilgotten treasures have no lasting value. See, wisdom looks for a lasting value. It's prepared to put in hard work and it's prepared to wait patiently even in difficult times to get real treasure. Foolishness moves in the realms of now shortcuts, ill gotten treasures. It wants it now.

It's the get rich quick schemes that are so appealing to us. That's foolishness. It's wanting and getting things before you can afford them. That's foolishness. That's ill gotten.

Puts you into great debt and someone else has power over you. It's wanting to get things before you can emotionally handle them, or you're old enough to handle them. It's the toddler that says, I want to play with the gun. It's the toddler that says, I want to play with electricity. It's wanting everything now without thinking through the consequences, listening to wisdom and asking hard questions, ill gotten treasures have no lasting value, thinking and ideas and lifestyles and plans that are not hard 1, that are not scrutinized, is no leaving it to see how It grows whether it will grow into fresh fruit or whether it will bring decay.

They're ill gotten they're grabbed now. They're no thought through. I want it and I want it now. What lasting value did Judas get from his 30 pieces of silver when he sold the Lord Jesus Christ? Ill gotten treasures caused his own death.

Wisdom doesn't look for shortcuts in treasure. Wisdom looks to the Lord God for long term treasure. Wisdom trusts the lord. By doing what is right, Even if doing what is right means initial pain and not getting what you desire right now and having to wait patiently. Look at verse 3.

The lord will does not let the righteous go hungry. It's trusting the Lord and he won't let the righteous, the people who do the right things go hungry. He won't, not in the end. Now, of course, there are people who say, well, what about those Christians in parts of the world that are going hungry? And what about the wicked?

Those who don't believe in God that storing up great treasures for themselves on this earth and the and the the Christians are going poor but actually you've only got to read the Bible a little bit to know that if you fear the lord, there's much more than just surface food being delivered here. Matthew chapter 4. Look at these words. Jesus is being tempted, and it says after fast for 40 days and 40 nights. He was hungry.

Well, he's a righteous man, but he's hungry. The tempter, that Satan came to him and said, if you are the son of God, I mean, if you're the son of God, then tell these stones to become bread. I mean surely, son of God, a righteous man, shouldn't be hungry, and Jesus answered it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Proverbs is talking about much more than just physical gain of food, but something deeper. Look at Jesus again.

He's been talking to a woman at the well. He's been talking about water and so forth. And the disciples have just come back. They'd been off, and now they come back. And it says, meanwhile, his disciples urged him rabbi, that's Jesus, eats eats something.

But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about, and his disciples said to each other, could someone have brought him some food? And he said, my food said Jesus is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work. God provides much more to the wise righteous person than just surface food. There's something deeper and more alive and it's the very word of God sustains us even in difficult times. And we can wait patiently for the physical food to come.

Trust God to provide, That's what wisdom says. I'll trust God. I'll trust his word even in difficult times. But foolishness trusts the desires and the cravings that scream out now now now. A fool would say to the devil, turn the stones into bread.

I want it now. I want it all and I want it now. First 3, the second half. He fwarts the cravings of the wicked. Wicked there are people that just are not wise following God.

That's what wicked are. They're just not following God. So the wicked are left to their own cravings, the nows, the App that sort of surface hungers of this world that they think will be satisfied if they just eat that stone. And the Lord Thorts them. Now why does the Lord thwart them because there's only satisfaction found in the real food of God.

And his words. See, if you're your own provider, if you wanna be left in your safe space to provide for yourself and think for yourself and do your own stuff, then you'll take whatsoever on offer and you'll take ill gotten treasures. You have to, don't you? Because there's no trust for a future. There's no trust in someone bigger than yourself.

So if I can grab what is on offer, I'll grab it even if it's ill gotten, not thought through. Plans for your life, changes in your life, alternative lifestyles for you. Right now, I just grab them because that's what I feel like. Look at verses 4 and 5 of chapter 10 of Proverbs. It shows us just another angle.

Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son. Wisdom you see works hard. Fullishness goes the lazy route. Now, is what is really interesting is that often in proverbs, the lazy person or the sluggard, he's often called, which is a great name, isn't it?

Is is not someone is often someone who just doesn't finish what they've started. That's a definition of a lazy person. They might start something but they never finish it. So are you lazy? Start lots of things but you never really finish it.

So you're starting doing your homework. Yeah? You start doing your assignment if you're a university student, and you'd check your phone. You started, but you'd check your phone. And then you'd Scott getting into YouTube clips and some of those fantastic TikTok things, and the whole day's gone.

That's a lazy person. That's you. That's nearly every student in the in the universe. Unless you're from an Asian background, then you do some work. Lazy person.

Lazyness, you see, goes the easy route. What's calling loudest? What's what's nice right now? Sitting in your safe space, going for what is nice now But still, life never stays still. Internally, you're dying.

Laziness is seen in the extended adolescence of our culture that blames everything or not doing anything. You see it? And there's a law of sowing and reaping that is in this in this world that God has placed in this world. And Proverbs is showing us that. If if you wanna reap, you have to sow.

And if you don't sow, you won't reap anything and you won't reap anything in eternity if you don't sow to the future event of your eternal life. Look at verse 15. The wealth of riches is their fortified city, but poverty is the ruin of the poor. Now in 1 sense, that's just an observation, isn't it? When you're wealthy, you can survive the financial storms, you know, gas and electricity and pet just rising prices.

If you're rich, you can you can you can you can survive that storm. But if you're poor, it just makes you even poorer. So that's that's that's a 1 level, isn't it? But if you apply that to emotions, and the spiritual life and to wisdom and to righteousness. If you apply it to those areas, it's the same thing.

If you're rich in the area of being connected back to the life of God through Jesus. If you're rich in those areas, that when storms come, you're a strong city, you're a fortified city, you have resources. But if you're poor in those areas, ruin comes. If you've just gone with the cravings of yourself, and you've said yes to the cravings, you'll find out what happens. Verse 9 says a similar thing.

Look, Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out. There's security, in integrity, in waiting, in thinking, in being righteous, in listening to wisdom. But someone who takes a crooked path, there's no security. I was on the train not so long ago, and 3 blokes came on without paying. I was just watching them.

It was just a joy to watch them. 3 lads. They came from school, they weren't pre Oh, I don't know I don't know where they come from, but they weren't paying. And I was sitting there with my 60 plus card I didn't have to pay. And I sat there securely, but there was a ticket man coming down.

And I waited sitting secure with my ticket to whip out and say, it'll pay for me. Yeah? But they couldn't sit secure. Their crooked way meant that the journey was difficult for them. In fact, they were looking at the bloke coming and they had to jump off at a station run up to the other end where the bloke ticket man had been and come on the other end of the train and hope that he wouldn't come back.

The security that knowing you're walking with God And the insecurity of a crooked path brings an instability, and that's what Ilgot and Gain does. Look at verse 16, just quickly. The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death. You see that? The wages of the righteous bring life.

See, why do people wanna be rich? Why do people wanna be rich? Why do people not want COVID? In their life. Why?

So they can sin. Flipping COVID, stop them going out sinning. Now, you sit at home, I know. But I mean, not the normal sins. Why do I wanna be rich so I can be independent of God?

So I have more power to do what I want to do. So I can take the alternative life because I'm rich enough to do that. So how are you doing? Whom do you trust in? Whom do you rely on?

Are you in your safe space? You don't realize that you're slowly decaying like the still life fruit. Or are you knowing the security of a god life for you? Which makes you wait patiently and be wise. That's the first thing.

Remy, let's move on. Second thing, words. Look at verse 6 and 7. In fact, we'll leave verse 6 and 7. Because I have no time.

But look at verse 8. Look at verse 8. The wise in heart accept commands, but chattering fool comes to ruin. Do you see that? The wise in heart accept commands but the chattering fool comes to ruin.

Notice the butts. He's always comparing, contrasting, there's butts in it. There's 1 thing work of the the way of the wise but then there's the way of the stupid, the fool. And the fool loves the sound of their own chattering voice. They want to be left alone in their safe space telling you stuff but don't wanna be told anything.

Wisdom wants to listen and learn. Wisdom reads and meditates and discusses and reasons and listens and assesses. Wisdom works through things, asks questions about things. Looks down the road at the consequences, the results, what is this really going to bring? Foolishness has made up his mind and doesn't wanna be confused with any facts.

It doesn't wanna be challenged. It wants to be left alone. It's a still life, a safe space. Foolishness knows only what it knows and it thinks that's the founder of wisdom. That's how foolish it is.

That's why, you know, proverb says that fool is bound up in the heart of a child. A whole idea today is that children are the wise ones and they know everything. No, they don't. They're fools. They know nothing.

That's why they need people to help them and encourage them. Chopper said, you know, at sole at sole age, Everybody's saying you're the wise 1. No, you're not. You're stupid. You come here, is it a safe space?

No. You're a fool. Yeah? Unless you listen to a wise 1. But chattering on about what they think they know.

The fools think they're right on everything, otherwise they would change their mind. But they can't change their mind because they never hear anybody else's ideas. Because they're right on everything, or they won't change their mind because they're lazy and they can't be bothered to change their mind, or They're full of pride and they won't change their mind. To want a safe space where you're never challenged, is a sign of a fool of pride or laziness. Verse 12, look, Words we're thinking about, hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.

A heart that is motivated by hatred capitalizes on people's mistakes. Have you not noticed that about our world? And it capitalizes on people's mistakes in order to bring unrest and to bring strife and anger and disagreement. That's the whole media base this for you, isn't it? They're looking, filming, listening to a mistake A single mistake and they bring it up and they bring it up and they bring it up and they bring it up and they hound people until they're out of out of a position.

It's all for pouncing on people. Have you not noticed that when you've ever disagreed with anyone? You're only gonna be a pastor of a church and you'll know this. When someone disagrees with you and then they're stroppy against you, you've suddenly found they've they've they've kept every single email you've ever said for years and they quote you you think did I say that? Yes.

You did say that on the thirteenth of May 19 41. Well, I wasn't even alive then. Doesn't matter. I've got the email. And you see flipping heck, I think I might have changed since then.

No. You can't have changed. I'm gonna go at you. I'm gonna hound you. I'm gonna wait till you repent publicly of it.

It's extraordinary what people do. To stir up dissent. Now it doesn't mean to say that we cover over wrong doings like the cover ups that are going on in religious societies and all kinds of other groupings. But we are to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to lots of things in our life and we're not to stir up strife with it. If you're gonna live a godly life, have a blind eye and a deaf ear.

And if you're gonna be a pastor, you've gotta have a blind eye and a deaf ear. You come into a room and they're talking about you and you know it. You come into the kitchen at the hub and there's the women's group. And you have to sort of whistle away and pretend that when it suddenly goes silent and make a cup of tea and saying name things to get out quickly. It's madness, but there are people I'm sorry, that I shouldn't say that, but there we go.

Our words are often false, and they're often phony, and we pretend and make promises that we can never never deliver Out of our mouths come criticism and gossip and slandering and cursing and divisions and boasting and lying in hypocrisy and deceitfulness, They all spew out of our mouth. If you compare us to the Lord Jesus Christ, who 1 of his disciples who lived with him for 3 years says there was no deceit in his mouth. Third area, how we treat people. There's a great old saying. I'm taking it out of context, and I have no time to put it in context for you.

But it's a great saying called no says no man is an island. But today, everyone's supposed to be an island. No man is an island. It's a great expression. In other words, you can't act as an island You can't act independently without affecting other people.

Whatever you do affects others. That's the point of that quote. You're not an island. Your freedoms will mean slavery for someone else. Very often.

No man is an island, no woman is an island, no person is an island. Life is not all about you, island, Making your island, making yourself secure, you'll find you'll be a still life full of decay. You weren't created like that. We're not created islands. We're created to interact with people.

That's why we like relationships. However, difficult they they are. No man is an island. Look at verse 1. We only have time for this 1.

A wise son brings joy to his father. Any happy fathers around here? But a foolish son brings grief to his mother. Wisdom you see brings gladness, even to those around you, or sadness. Now you said, well, what, you know, what oh, come on.

Isn't this a sexist thing fun? There's a matter of fact, all this stuff. But just listen to it if you know anything about people. So I can tell you about Ann. When Jerusalem wanted to go to a night club, I was fast asleep.

Snoring away the hand couldn't sleep. She's up looking at the clock. She's grumpy at me because I'm snoring. She's annoyed that I can sleep through the whole thing, wanting to poke me and go, what's going on? What?

Like this? When Carl starts going out. She's worried she can't sleep. I can go sleep instantly, but she and that's that's what happens. You are called, in other words, here, to evaluate your choices in life by how they impact people around you.

In this case, father and mother. You're called for that. See, you're not an island, young people, just going out, doing your own thing. You stay out late at night and mom stays up all night. That means mom goes to work grumpy, even grumpy than she normally does.

That means she might fail at things at work. You island have affected a whole continent. Okay. My fourth point. I must move on.

The rewards or the harvest of foolishness and wisdom. It's the law of what you sow you reap, I'm afraid. Look at verse 24, the wicked dread the the wicked dread were sorry. What the wicked dread will overtake them what the righteous desire will be granted. What the wicked dread will overtake them.

See, what are you afraid of, you who are not connected to God? That's what wicked means. What are you afraid of? What keeps you awake at night? What are your dreams?

Well, they come back to haunt you. The trouble is with this whole business of follow your dreams is that very often dreams a nightmare. What Earth do you want to follow that for? How are you going to guarantee that your dream won't turn out a nightmare? Starts off nice, ends up in death.

And, of course, as the great poet Bob Dylan said, in order to dream, you still gotta be asleep when you're gonna wake up. And strengthen the things that remain. What you want now without thinking through the consequences of then, the dream now, the craving now, the I want this now, so often turns into a nightmare. Look at verse 25. When the storm has swept by the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever.

Jesus told a story based on this verse. When the storms come, when reality hits in, Your dream, your craving doesn't stand up to the truth, but the righteous stand firm. There's security in the righteous. Look at verse 28, the prospect of the righteous is joy. The prospect, you see, something that is to come.

It isn't here quite yet, but it is to come is joy. But the hopes The things that aren't quite there yet of the wicked come to nothing. Look at verse 29. The way of the Lord is a refuge Something to stand in strong for the blameless, but the ruin, but it is but it is the ruin of those who do evil. The way of the lord, the way the lord has set up the world.

If you walk in that way, there's an establishment, an You're established. You're a fortified city. But if you're not, there's no joy and there's no security. Look at verse 30. It's stability again.

The righteous will never be uprooted, but the wicked will not remain in the land. There's no stability in those that don't follow God. They're all over the place. Whatever the popular thing is, that's what they follow. But there's something in a godly man, in a godly woman, or a godly boy, or a godly girl that stands firm that doesn't go with the cravings, and you'll see that their life is good, even through the difficulties, their stability, They're not all over the place.

They're not blown by every mental illness that comes along. They stand strong. So what's your life look like? Healthy fruit hanging from a vine, or still life slowly decaying. Either you're moving towards wisdom or you're moving towards folly, You're either moving towards life or you're moving towards death.

You're either in your safe place which is no place to be. If you wanna be safe or you're in a place that challenges the rottenness in you, goes for you and shows you up for what you are so that you'll cry out for wisdom, a voice above you, a bigger vine to be connected to. And that leads me onto my fifth point. Sorry, Tom. So long.

My fifth point. Is Jesus is our wisdom. This is why church is a safe place to be. It's the doctor that shows you the cancer, the dentist that shows you the cavity and then says, we can deal with that. The only hope you see is to have a son that will follow the father, If Proverbs is the father God's words, we need a son that can obey the father God's word and be the wise 1.

Look at this verse here from the bible. It is because of him, that's God, that you are in Christ. Jesus. Look look at who has become for us the wisdom of God. If you're in Christ Jesus, the wisdom of proverbs is in you.

Whew. That is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Oh my goodness, we could spend a whole free sermons on that. Therefore, it is written that the 1 who boasts boast in the Lord, who are you boasting in, who are you trusting in, who are you You in your safe place or you come out to where Jesus is. Jesus You see his proverbs walking and talking.

Jesus has earned all the rewards of proverbs of refuge, joy following the father. All the promises are yes and amen in Jesus. All the things of Proverbs Jesus is not only your wisdom. He's your righteousness, holiness, and redemption. He's everything you possibly need.

All your laziness, all your vile words, all your broken relationships and selfishness, all your foolishness, is all laid upon him and he buys you redeems you, buys you back into wisdom and righteousness and holiness where you can live as God with God as your father. You're connected again. Look at look at this passage from the bible. 2 Corinthians 5. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, we've got something bigger to live for.

But for him who died for them and was raised again. We've got someone who died and rose again to live for verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone. The new is here.

Weigh, verse 21. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus has fulfilled perfectly all of the son's instructions from the father to live a wise life for you He's your holiness in all your failures of words and life and he fulfills it for you. If you're in price, reconnected to the vine. You're not in a safe place where you would decay and die.

You're in a place that cuts you and and reestablishes you and sticks you into the vine and now there is christ life in you. When you read proverbs, you read proverbs like a blood bought Christian. These are not things to tell you how to get right with God. How to become a child of God. These are the things that tell you what you will do when you are a child of God and their promises that God will fulfill in you.

He will make you these things. He will progress you and grow you into life instead of leaving you in your safe place of death. He would take the fruit of the bowl and put it into the branch. The life of God. These behaviors are what the Lord promises to slowly patiently, lovingly, work in your life.

So Proverbs now is not what I must do They're the things that God is doing in you now. And if he's not, then you need to cry out and be established to him. God is working to push out laziness in your life. As you draw from Jesus Christ, he's working to change your words so that you'll be a grateful person for the Lord Jesus Christ. Is he safe?

No. He's gonna point out all your errors. Is he good? Oh, yeah. Because he'll take all your errors and redeem you from them and make you in to a walking proverb.

So come to him, will you? Being grafted in him. Have you ever ever said Jesus. I wanna be engrafted in you. If you ever said Jesus be my wisdom, if you ever prayed that, well, pray it now.

Trust in him. Have you ever said, Jesus, I wanna trust you, not me. I wanna learn to wait patiently I wanna feed on every word that comes from your mouth, not just the physical things around me. I want the security of knowing but I'm in the wise 1 of God. Have you ever done that?

Have you ever asked God that? Just ask him. In Jesus' name. Well, do that now. Ask him now.

For Jesus is the walking wisdom of God. So have a moment of quiet and Tom will take over. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the words which you've spoken to us this morning. And we thank you for our church family.

And we pray that you would help us to remember both of those things that we've seen this morning that in 1 sense, this is a very safe place for us to be, because we all come here as sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God, who have failed in more ways than we even know have sought ill gotten treasures, have not made decisions based on how they're gonna affect other people, have thought too much about ourselves, and not enough about you and others. And we don't come here then just to point the finger at each other and to judge to spot the obvious failures that others are doing. But we come here all as sinners, all who are known by you and loved by you, and who want to grow in in the knowledge of Jesus, our great doctor. And yet, Lord, we recognize that in another This is a very unsafe place for us to be. And we thank you for that.

We thank you that when we open your word, we encounter a type of sword that is sharp and double edged and cuts through our attitudes and weighs the motivations of the heart and shows us for what we really are. And we pray that you would help us to embrace that corrective challenging work so that we can grow. Help us lord not to be spiritual sluggards who aren't willing to work hard on our own souls and on our own listening. Help us to be those who are open to the advice and the help and the correction that we need from other people, that we wouldn't just believe that we are those sort of people. But we would talk and live in such a way that makes it obvious to others that we are ready to be corrected and how help us to be those kinds of people we pray.

And lord, we thank you most of all for Jesus. Thank you that he is this wise son Thank you that we can look to him and see 1 who lived a life of perfect wisdom and yet through the gospel has become wisdom for us. We thank you that in him, we have holiness and we have redemption. We have forgiveness for our sins. That when we know ourselves to be just defied by faith in the Lord Jesus, we can willingly take the correction from other people because we're not in their law court.

We have been declared innocent and right before you. And so can live wisely. And we thank you for this simple meal that we're about to take. The bread and the juice, which remind us of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, remind us of this 1 who, though perfect, gave himself for us in order to make us brand new creations, who became sin for us, that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. We thank you that Jesus laid down his life.

So that he could make us alive and to plug us into him, to unite us to himself, the source of all truth and life. We thank you that this meal that we can take together reminds us of all of those things, that it gives us a physical, tangible way of applying what we've heard. Morning, bringing the gospel home to our own hearts again. And so help us to take it thoughtfully, help us to take it examining ourselves. We don't wanna live the unexamined life, that we would examine ourselves as we would take it and help us to take it joyfully, knowing that that it is the symbol of our salvation.

And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Ah, man.