Wisdom: A Spiritual Reinforcement. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Transcription

1 Wisdom: A Spiritual Reinforcement The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10

2 October s Character Trait is Wisdom. Seeing and responding to life situations from God s frame of reference. Finding out what you should do and doing it. Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies. Proverbs 8:10 He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. Proverbs 13:20 Spend some time with your child this month explaining the virtues of wisdom. Teach your child to ask God daily for His wisdom to know how to respond to life situations and to clearly see His sovereign purposes behind why things happen. Pray daily that your children might understand this truth and see life from God s perspective. As parents, we should set aside time to teach our children character traits that will make them outstanding, admired citizens. Every day is filled with opportunities for helping them learn about the character traits we value and want to encourage. Related Words or Phrases understanding knowledge insight perceive instruction good judgment discretion The opposite of wisdom is folly or foolishness, meaning the short-term self-indulgence which marks out the person who doesn t think about long-term priorities and goals but lives on a day-to-day basis, asking, What is the most fun thing to do now? James Packer How to Demonstrate Wisdom At Home Seeking each other s counsel and avoiding rash decisions Seeing the family structure as an essential element of family harmony Protecting the family by visualizing the consequences of foolish decisions and determining how to avoid them Family members learning from the examples of wise people Responding to correction with gratefulness

3 At Work or School Seeking a wise and understanding group of friends Filtering all knowledge through the grid of Scripture and rejecting false philosophies Preparing your answer ahead of time if asked to compromise God s Word Asking yourself the question, What would Jesus do? At Church Applying the truths and principles learned to your daily life Character Definitions of Wisdom Making practical applications of truth in daily decisions Seeing the hand of God in every experience of life Learning to see life from God s perspective. Recognizing cause-and-effect relationships in life. Tracing conflicts to their root causes. Learning how to apply principles of life in daily situations. Discerning false philosophies and natural inclinations and rejecting them Bible Stories Related to Wisdom The story of Rehoboam in 1 Kings 12:1-24 The story of Solomon in 1 Kings 3:6-28; 4:29-31 God wants to give you wisdom. I Kings 3:4 Solomon Chooses Wisdom Wisdom is worth searching for. 1 Kings 10:1 A Wise Woman (Queen of Sheba) To be wise, hang out with wise people. 2 Chronicles 10:1 Unwise Guys (Solomon s son) Wisdom is knowing and doing. Proverbs 22:3 The Word on Wisdom What the Wise Parent Teaches Their Children from Proverbs A wise parent teaches his/her children many things. John MacArthur highlighted ten critical lessons about wisdom from Proverbs in What the Bible Teaches about Parenting. We should teach our kids to: 1. Fear God (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10) by: Revering His holiness with a sacred awe of His absolute majesty Fearing His displeasure In the presence of God, true wisdom trembles with a holy, healthy sense of terror and apprehension. Children need to understand that God is angry with the wicked and will punish evil doers (Psalm 7:11-13). They need to understand that when they disobey they set themselves against a holy God who deals out consequences for those who violate His righteous principles. The proper goal of Biblical parenting is to teach a child to fear violating God s standards not your own. The goal is to have them fear being chastened by God. Genuine faith acknowledges God s right to chasten, His right to punish and His right to judge. This fear will prolong their life (14:27), give them a full life (14:27, 19:23), spare them grief by keeping them from evil (16:6), give them profit in God (15:16) and give them confidence (14:26)

4 2. Guard their minds (4:23, Psalm 101:3). The truest test of our character is our thought life (Proverbs 23:7). Out of our thoughts comes our conduct (Mark 7:20-22). You have the responsibility to steer children towards what edifies and away from what does not. You cannot isolate them so you must train them to be discerning and cultivate wholesome thoughts (Philippians 4:8). 3. Obey their parents (1, 8; 4:1-4; 6:20-23; Exodus 20:12). This involves discipline, chastening and correction (3:11-12; 13:24). Chastening helps conform their minds to wisdom and removes foolishness from their hearts (22:15; 23:13-14). The love that leads to proper discipline is a strong and robust love that demands obedience and punishes disobedience because that is what s best for the child. The parent should be grieved about the need to administer punishment and can therefore grieve with the child over the consequence of sin. Chastening must be firm and consistent. If parents are inconsistent, children will begin to regard the discipline as arbitrary and capricious. 4. Select their friends carefully (1:10-18, 13:20; 1 Corinthians 15:33) Your kids moral standards their language, activities, media consumption, etc. will likely not rise above the lowest common denominator of their friends. They need to learn how to discern who will lift them up and who will tear them down and draw them away from God. 5. Control their lusts (2:16-19, 5:3-5; 6:23-33, 7:6-27; 2 Timothy 2:22) This temptation is strong and kids need to be aware of how easy it is to slip down the slope. This involves ensuring that they know how to protect their eyes and their minds and avoiding willfully exposing themselves to temptation to avoid reproach that can last a lifetime. 6. Enjoy their spouses (5:15-20) Prepare them to save themselves for marriage and channel their passion to their spouse. Show them the satisfaction you ve found in marriage by what you say about your wife/husband. 7. Watch their words (4:24, 10:11, 10:19, 12:18, 12:22, 15:7, 16:23, 20:15) Explain to them when it is better not to talk, never to use obscene words and the importance of truthfulness. If a person can train his conscience to live with a lie, his/her conscience will become useless to keep him/her from any sin. 8. Pursue their work (6:6-11, 10:4-5, 22:29) Children need to learn to work hard when they re being watched and when they re not. They need to learn discipline and not be lazy. 9. Manage their money but not to seek riches (3:9-10, 11:24-28, 15:27, 19:17, 23:4) All we receive is to be used for God s glory, so our resources must be used to honor God and help others. Scripture often links moral truth and financial principles, so how money is used is a spiritual issue. 10. Love their neighbors (3:27-29, 25:21-22) This is the second greatest commandment according to Jesus (Matthew 22:39). We are to love those lovable and unlovable.

5 On the flip side, if you, as parents, fail to teach your children to: fear God, the devil will teach them to hate God guard their minds, the devil will teach them to have a corrupt mind obey their parents, the devil will teach them to rebel and break parents hearts select friends carefully, the devil will choose their companions for them control their lusts, the devil will teach them to fulfill their lusts enjoy their spouses, the devil will teach them to destroy their marriages watch their words, the devil will fill their mouths with filth pursue their work, the devil will make their laziness a tool of hell manage their money, the devil will teach them to squander it on riotous living love their neighbors, the devil will teach them to love only themselves The I Wills of Wisdom I will listen to my parents and teachers. I will learn from my mistakes. I will choose my friends carefully. I will remember that there are consequences to all my actions. I will ask, What is the right thing to do? Parents Prayer Lord, You have promised that if anyone lacks wisdom but desires it, we have only to ask You. I seek Your help in developing these qualities in my life and the life of my children. You are the source of all wisdom, knowledge and understanding. I do not desire the wisdom of this world but the wisdom from above. Your Word tells me that the fool will be put to shame but the wise person will find honor. My desire is to walk wisely before You and be pleasing to You in all my ways. In Jesus s Name, Amen.

6 It's important to memorize Scripture in order to stand strong during life's difficult circumstances. When you have Bible verses inscribed in your mind, you're carrying a concealed weapon. You're wielding the sword of the Spirit. (Dr. David Jeremiah) With your family, meditate on these passages during the month of October and begin laying up His words in your heart. Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom. Proverbs 16:16 How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. Mark 6:2 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He catches the wise in their own craftiness ; James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

7

8

9