WEBVTT 00:00:02.101 --> 00:00:04.636 Well, thanks for joining us this Memorial Day weekend. 00:00:04.636 --> 00:00:07.373 While we continue in our study of the Book of Proverbs. 00:00:07.373 --> 00:00:10.944 We've been working through Proverbs one chapter at a time. 00:00:10.944 --> 00:00:18.083 Proverbs is known as the Book of Wisdom, and we've worked through chapter one all the way up through chapter nine, taking them a chapter at a time. 00:00:18.083 --> 00:00:23.856 Now we'll transition into studying various topics across the book of Proverbs. 00:00:23.856 --> 00:00:27.926 This week we'll be looking at the topic of character. 00:00:27.993 --> 00:00:35.201 What is the Book of Proverbs have to tell us about shaping good, godly, Christlike character? 00:00:35.201 --> 00:00:38.570 What do we see in the book of Proverbs on that topic? 00:00:38.570 --> 00:00:44.076 When I think about character, I think of it in terms of training truth into our intuition. 00:00:44.911 --> 00:00:48.814 It takes time, it takes training, it takes intentionality. 00:00:48.814 --> 00:00:52.018 And hopefully over the course of life, it becomes automatic. 00:00:52.018 --> 00:00:54.219 It becomes intuition. 00:00:54.219 --> 00:01:04.430 The famous boxer Joe Frazier said that if you cheat on your training in the dark early mornings, you'll get found out under the bright lights of the ring. 00:01:06.031 --> 00:01:13.206 What you do to train your character is what you carry with you into the rest of life, and that's what others will see. 00:01:13.206 --> 00:01:17.977 What is the Proverbs going to tell us about how we develop good character? 00:01:17.977 --> 00:01:26.418 Part of the reason why we're now going topic by topic rather than chapter by chapter, is because of the way the book of Proverbs is structured. 00:01:26.418 --> 00:01:28.221 And I'm going to spend just a minute on that. 00:01:28.221 --> 00:01:32.558 If you didn't get a hand out, raise your hands because you're going to want to peek at that. There'll be people around. 00:01:32.558 --> 00:01:34.227 Just keep it up till someone gives you one. 00:01:34.227 --> 00:01:37.897 We have people with copies ready to hand out. 00:01:37.897 --> 00:01:45.105 But you remember last week we looked at Proverbs chapter nine and how it really wrapped up chapters one through nine because it ended. 00:01:45.105 --> 00:01:55.715 And if you see there in your handout, it ends with this verse, chapter nine, verse ten, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 00:01:55.715 --> 00:02:03.656 And because that verse was there and we know chapter one started with verse seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. 00:02:03.656 --> 00:02:05.191 You see that as bookends. 00:02:05.191 --> 00:02:14.567 Wrapping a wrapper around those whole first nine chapters saying, the emphasis of this section is pursue the fear of the Lord. 00:02:15.300 --> 00:02:21.540 But also we saw in chapter nine this big contrast, and it happened all through chapters one through nine. 00:02:21.540 --> 00:02:26.679 This contrast of the way of wisdom versus the way of folly. 00:02:26.679 --> 00:02:31.116 And this became the central issue of the first nine chapters of Proverbs. 00:02:31.116 --> 00:02:37.056 And ultimately, it's the central contrast of the whole book of Proverbs. 00:02:37.056 --> 00:02:39.925 You got two paths to choose, which you're going to go down. 00:02:39.925 --> 00:02:41.561 Are you going to follow wisdom? 00:02:41.561 --> 00:02:42.427 Are you going to follow folly? 00:02:42.427 --> 00:02:43.263 Which way are you going to go? 00:02:43.263 --> 00:02:44.997 There's no middle path, by the way. 00:02:44.997 --> 00:02:48.334 You're either moving towards wisdom or you're moving towards folly. 00:02:48.334 --> 00:02:51.204 There's not a middle path to choose. 00:02:51.204 --> 00:02:52.739 Now here's why all that's important. 00:02:52.739 --> 00:02:53.939 Here's why all that is interesting. 00:02:53.939 --> 00:02:56.109 That sets up where we're headed. 00:02:56.109 --> 00:03:05.585 If you understand that that's the central issue of Proverbs, you'll see how chapter nine transitions transitions us into chapter ten. 00:03:05.585 --> 00:03:06.818 And you see this on this structure. 00:03:06.818 --> 00:03:11.723 If you have the handout, I just put an outline of the structure of the Book of Proverbs. 00:03:11.723 --> 00:03:17.896 Just a brief overview, and it is based on the titles of the authors of the sections. 00:03:17.896 --> 00:03:21.867 So you saw that with verse one Proverbs Solomon, son of David, King of Israel. 00:03:21.867 --> 00:03:28.274 But here in the second section, chapter ten, this section will go all the way through chapter 22. 00:03:28.274 --> 00:03:31.877 And it has the title The Proverbs of Solomon. 00:03:31.877 --> 00:03:33.879 Now here's here's why all this is important. 00:03:33.879 --> 00:03:34.681 Bear with me. 00:03:34.681 --> 00:03:36.282 I'm going to get into some detail. 00:03:36.282 --> 00:03:39.284 It all fits together, I promise. 00:03:39.352 --> 00:03:41.486 Chapter ten through 00:03:41.486 --> 00:03:44.490 16 is the next big section. 00:03:44.623 --> 00:03:57.270 There are 375 proverbs in that section, and each of those proverbs is just a pair, a contrasting pair sometimes contrast, sometimes complements. 00:03:57.270 --> 00:04:02.675 The reason why that's important is chapter nine has set us up for that. You got two paths to follow. 00:04:02.675 --> 00:04:03.575 Which way are you going to go? 00:04:03.575 --> 00:04:04.877 You're going to go towards wisdom. 00:04:04.877 --> 00:04:06.246 You're going to go towards foolishness. 00:04:06.246 --> 00:04:11.050 And then all along the way for the next 375 verses, you get the contrast. 00:04:11.050 --> 00:04:12.050 Which way are you going to go? 00:04:12.050 --> 00:04:14.954 You get reminded two paths to choose which way are you going to go? 00:04:14.954 --> 00:04:17.824 You see this in the very first verse of chapter ten. 00:04:17.824 --> 00:04:21.560 After you get past the title, the Proverbs of Solomon, here it is. 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:24.764 If you look at chapter ten, verse one, which isn't in your notes. 00:04:24.764 --> 00:04:27.600 So you'd have to turn to your Bible for this. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:30.569 A wise son makes a glad father. 00:04:30.603 --> 00:04:35.875 a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. 00:04:37.110 --> 00:04:46.685 You see that pattern all through these next 375 verses, one choice or another sometimes contrasting, sometimes complementing, sometimes building on another. 00:04:46.685 --> 00:04:56.428 But it's always just these two line statements, these contrasting or building statements, which continues to build off this idea of you’ve got two paths, which way are you going to go? 00:04:56.428 --> 00:05:00.466 And it hits it over and over and over again. 00:05:00.466 --> 00:05:14.880 Now, part of why that's important is I think some of the temptation when we have read Proverbs in the past, I know mine was is to think that it's just a random, scattershot collection of ideas, and I hope maybe I'll happen upon something of interest, but I don't know how it fits together. 00:05:14.880 --> 00:05:28.026 I don't know if the person who compiled it had some grand idea in mind, but even here, and you've seen, especially last week, there is order, there is structure, there is intent, there is a design. 00:05:28.026 --> 00:05:30.228 Even if we don't fully see it. 00:05:30.228 --> 00:05:36.235 Let me just point out one way this shows up in this section of Proverbs. 00:05:36.302 --> 00:05:43.041 So chapter ten, verse one, and this is in your notes in the outline, it starts by calling it the Proverbs of Solomon. 00:05:43.041 --> 00:05:46.478 I said, there are 375 verses in that section. 00:05:47.612 --> 00:05:56.088 Now some people make too big a deal of this, but many of the commentators I looked at said, we think this is actually what's occurring here. 00:05:56.088 --> 00:06:00.625 But the word Solomon, every Hebrew word, every Hebrew letter, has a number attached to it. 00:06:00.625 --> 00:06:05.464 And you can add up the numbers of a name and get the total of that name, though the name Solomon. 00:06:05.464 --> 00:06:09.502 When you add up the letters of that name equals 375. 00:06:10.903 --> 00:06:12.105 That's not a coincidence. 00:06:12.105 --> 00:06:13.139 Sometimes it is. 00:06:13.139 --> 00:06:17.576 Sometimes that can get over analyzed, but there's plenty of places where it's very intentional. 00:06:17.576 --> 00:06:24.050 Matthew, the opening chapter of Matthew with the genealogy, you see it repeated 14 over and over again. 00:06:24.050 --> 00:06:27.620 Jesus from David, David's name, when you add it up, is 14. 00:06:27.620 --> 00:06:28.855 It was very intentional. 00:06:28.855 --> 00:06:31.156 We're saying that Jesus comes from David. 00:06:31.156 --> 00:06:33.192 There are places where it's intentional. 00:06:33.192 --> 00:06:37.829 And the point here is just to point out, there is intention. 00:06:37.829 --> 00:06:45.571 There is design behind the proverbs, even though it may seem kind of scattered and random when you look at it. 00:06:45.971 --> 00:06:47.540 Now, here's what I love about that. 00:06:47.540 --> 00:06:52.310 By the way, I know that when I turn to any book of Proverbs. 00:06:52.310 --> 00:07:00.720 And by the way, how many of you have done this where you know, Proverbs has 31 chapters, and whatever day of the week it is, you turn there and you read that chapter for the day. 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:04.055 How many have done that at some point in your Christian journey of reading the Bible? 00:07:04.055 --> 00:07:09.629 A lot of people, by the way, if you haven't read the Bible much, that is an easy way to get into reading the Bible. 00:07:10.930 --> 00:07:21.507 The beauty of that, and part of the reason why I think Proverbs is designed this way, is that any day of the week you come to, there's going to be something for you that day. 00:07:21.507 --> 00:07:26.646 These different topics are going to get cycled over and over again in chapter by chapter as we go. 00:07:26.646 --> 00:07:32.050 10, 11, 12, 15 as you work your way up over and over again, you're going to find something. 00:07:32.050 --> 00:07:43.161 Every chapter you turn to, it's going to relate to your life, but it's not in some kind of direct, step by step program. 00:07:43.329 --> 00:07:46.064 Life doesn't work that way. 00:07:46.064 --> 00:07:50.403 And the Proverbs reflects that life can be rather messy. 00:07:50.470 --> 00:07:52.004 How many of us are here today? 00:07:52.004 --> 00:07:55.274 And you go, I'm not quite sure how I ended up where I am in life. 00:07:55.274 --> 00:07:58.076 Somehow I got here and I'm not quite sure. 00:07:58.076 --> 00:07:59.312 I thought I was going this way. 00:07:59.312 --> 00:08:03.249 And I went over there and I came back and I circled around a few times, and here I am. 00:08:04.684 --> 00:08:06.351 There's not a direct path. 00:08:06.351 --> 00:08:12.625 There's not a step by step program that you got handed when you were born that you just followed step by step. 00:08:12.625 --> 00:08:15.427 In fact, one commentator said it this way about the Proverbs I love this. 00:08:15.427 --> 00:08:16.728 This guy's name is Tremper Longman. 00:08:16.728 --> 00:08:24.069 He said the random collection of Proverbs reflects the messiness of life. 00:08:25.204 --> 00:08:26.338 It seems random. 00:08:26.338 --> 00:08:28.608 It seems like it's hitting me out of nowhere. 00:08:28.608 --> 00:08:31.276 But when you turn there, there will be something for you. 00:08:31.276 --> 00:08:38.250 And I promise, when you turn to God's Word and you are looking for him to speak to you, he speaks. 00:08:38.250 --> 00:08:40.285 He does over and over again. 00:08:40.285 --> 00:08:43.288 And Proverbs tends to work that way. 00:08:43.556 --> 00:08:44.990 So seemingly random. 00:08:44.990 --> 00:08:48.226 Yet in the midst of the chaos, God is at work creating order. 00:08:48.226 --> 00:08:52.063 Now, character is the topic that we want to address this week. 00:08:52.063 --> 00:08:54.700 We're going to end up addressing ten different topics. 00:08:54.700 --> 00:09:08.380 When we looked at the book of Proverbs, we, Colby and I sat down together and we said, what are some of the main topics that stand out but that also are relevant to us today, to this part of the world, to this time in history? 00:09:08.380 --> 00:09:12.518 And we just came up with what we felt like were some of the ten main ones we're going to address. 00:09:12.518 --> 00:09:15.254 So this week is character. 00:09:15.254 --> 00:09:21.626 What does Proverbs say about character and how can I grow in my character? 00:09:23.195 --> 00:09:31.504 When I think about that word character, I think there's different ways to think about how we develop character. 00:09:32.138 --> 00:09:33.639 I heard one guy describe it this way. 00:09:33.639 --> 00:09:40.812 He said the Greek word for character refers to the idea of stamping an image on something, or cutting an image into something. 00:09:40.812 --> 00:09:44.683 In particular would have been best known for the coins of the day. 00:09:44.683 --> 00:09:49.688 If you wanted to know what the emperor looked like, you would turn to a coin. 00:09:49.688 --> 00:09:53.426 When Jesus held up the coin before the Pharisees and asked them, who's on here? 00:09:53.426 --> 00:09:56.428 Whose likeness, whose image is on here? 00:09:56.828 --> 00:10:00.899 That's probably the only chance you would ever have of seeing the Emperor is on a coin. 00:10:00.899 --> 00:10:05.705 You didn't dial up the internet back in those days and find out who the Emperor was. 00:10:06.905 --> 00:10:11.576 But there's that idea of etching, of cutting, of leaving a mark. 00:10:11.576 --> 00:10:24.490 And when you think of your character, the choices you make day by day leave their mark, cut their path, and over time, that path becomes the path you go to naturally, automatically. 00:10:24.490 --> 00:10:27.092 You easily go there. 00:10:27.092 --> 00:10:35.033 We all are trying to develop good natural ruts, habits, patterns in our life and those things become our character over time. 00:10:35.033 --> 00:10:39.538 In fact, another commentator said it this way I love the way he says this. 00:10:39.538 --> 00:10:49.248 He says your character is the one thing, and I read this last week, you cannot borrow, lend or escape, for it is you. 00:10:49.248 --> 00:10:50.682 It it's who you are. 00:10:50.682 --> 00:10:51.984 It's the way you do things. 00:10:51.984 --> 00:10:53.251 It's the way you live. 00:10:53.251 --> 00:10:55.020 It's the way you make decisions. 00:10:56.054 --> 00:10:59.057 How do we develop good character? 00:10:59.392 --> 00:11:02.495 There's a lot of different character qualities of wisdom we could point out. 00:11:02.495 --> 00:11:08.634 We're going to look at five and they're based off of what James says about wisdom. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:10.802 James is in the New Testament. 00:11:10.802 --> 00:11:16.174 James is often referred to as the Proverbs of the New Testament, the Book of Wisdom in the New Testament. 00:11:16.174 --> 00:11:19.912 And on your sheet you'll see James chapter three, verse seven. 00:11:19.912 --> 00:11:21.480 Here's what James says about wisdom. 00:11:21.480 --> 00:11:24.182 Here is some of the character qualities of wisdom. 00:11:24.182 --> 00:11:25.350 Verse 17 actually. 00:11:25.350 --> 00:11:38.764 The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 00:11:39.130 --> 00:11:43.869 This is what James, when I describe the character qualities of wisdom, James says, here are some. 00:11:43.869 --> 00:11:45.236 Now we're going to look at five of these. 00:11:45.236 --> 00:11:50.676 The ones that I have in bold in here purity, peaceable, open to reason, mercy, sincere. 00:11:50.676 --> 00:11:56.481 Five character qualities across the Book of Proverbs, across the many chapters of Proverbs. 00:11:56.514 --> 00:11:59.118 What does Proverbs say about building good character? 00:11:59.118 --> 00:12:02.388 First, let's look at this word pure or purity. 00:12:02.388 --> 00:12:08.394 And I think when I think of purity, I also think of the issue of integrity, of wholeness. 00:12:08.394 --> 00:12:14.700 That word integrity comes from the word integer, which is a whole number, a complete number. 00:12:14.700 --> 00:12:17.970 When you think of someone who's a person of integrity, they're complete. 00:12:17.970 --> 00:12:21.539 They're the same person in private, they're the same person in public. 00:12:21.539 --> 00:12:22.674 They're not duplicitous. 00:12:22.674 --> 00:12:26.745 James talks about the double minded man, unstable in all his ways. 00:12:26.745 --> 00:12:28.147 They're one person in private. 00:12:28.147 --> 00:12:29.514 They're another person in public. 00:12:29.514 --> 00:12:30.349 You can't trust them. 00:12:30.349 --> 00:12:31.450 They can't trust themselves. 00:12:31.450 --> 00:12:32.585 They don't know where they stand. 00:12:32.585 --> 00:12:40.058 But the person of integrity you can trust, there's a purity to who they are. 00:12:40.292 --> 00:12:45.965 Job said it this way of himself, Till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me. 00:12:47.332 --> 00:12:55.975 At the core of who he was, he considered it integrity to be central to how he lived. 00:12:55.975 --> 00:13:03.182 Now when Proverbs speaks of integrity, notice the contrast here in these three verses I have listed on integrity. 00:13:03.182 --> 00:13:07.886 There's a contrast between integrity and crookedness in each of these. 00:13:07.886 --> 00:13:08.721 Look at each of these. 00:13:08.721 --> 00:13:10.054 Chapter ten, verse nine. 00:13:10.054 --> 00:13:13.725 Whoever walks in integrity walks securely. 00:13:13.725 --> 00:13:19.230 But he who makes ways crooked will be found out. 00:13:19.230 --> 00:13:25.904 3, The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. 00:13:25.904 --> 00:13:34.113 1, better is the poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool. 00:13:35.914 --> 00:13:40.785 The contrast here is between the crooked path and the straight path. 00:13:40.785 --> 00:13:51.931 And last week in chapter nine, we saw that the call of Lady Wisdom and the call of Lady Folly was the call to the simple who was walking on the straight path. 00:13:51.931 --> 00:14:04.543 Even though they were simple, they were trying to walk on the straight path, and Lady Folly wanted to pull him away from that, to pull him off that path to a crooked path. 00:14:04.543 --> 00:14:10.381 But a person of integrity says, I'm going to continue down the right path. 00:14:10.381 --> 00:14:13.384 I'm going to keep moving towards wisdom. 00:14:13.485 --> 00:14:16.488 I'm not going to be pulled aside. 00:14:16.855 --> 00:14:23.162 I'm not going to let my heart be divided and split up and torn a lot of different ways. 00:14:23.162 --> 00:14:25.264 We want to keep moving towards integrity. 00:14:26.264 --> 00:14:29.567 We want to be people who are trustworthy in private and in public. 00:14:29.567 --> 00:14:33.339 I remember when I went to work for FamilyLife, Marriage and Family Ministry. 00:14:33.339 --> 00:14:43.014 I went to work in this role for Dennis Rainey, who was the head of the ministry, and he had a role where young guys would come in and try to learn leadership principles from him for a couple of years and then move on. 00:14:43.014 --> 00:14:46.451 And the guy was replacing who was his time was up, he was moving on. 00:14:46.451 --> 00:14:56.095 He said to me, John Dennis is the one guy that I've gotten to know in my life, the one man that as I've gotten to know him better, my esteem for him has gone up. 00:14:57.028 --> 00:15:08.740 He's the one man I've spent time around that there's the same person in private that he is in public, usually for this guy's experience, as I've gotten to know any man I've seen, it all falls apart. 00:15:08.740 --> 00:15:22.488 They're one person in public, they're one person in private. He said, but with Dennis my esteem for him has gone up and I know many men that way. 00:15:22.488 --> 00:15:25.490 I was so sad for him to hear that. 00:15:26.557 --> 00:15:35.768 Many men in this church, women as well, many people as you get to know them, your esteem for them goes up. You see, they’re not putting on some show. 00:15:35.768 --> 00:15:38.336 And by the way, they're not acting perfect either. 00:15:38.336 --> 00:15:43.708 They'll be the first to tell you I'm not perfect, and they'll be quick to apologize when they mess up. 00:15:43.708 --> 00:15:45.177 We want to move towards integrity. 00:15:45.177 --> 00:15:46.678 That's a key character quality. 00:15:46.678 --> 00:15:48.780 Second is peace. 00:15:48.780 --> 00:15:56.388 30 says, A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot. 00:15:56.388 --> 00:16:00.392 27 says, whoever restrains his words has knowledge. 00:16:00.392 --> 00:16:06.465 And he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. 00:16:06.465 --> 00:16:10.903 I love those phrases a tranquil heart, cool spirit. 00:16:10.903 --> 00:16:19.510 These verses are describing a person not easily rattled, not easily thrown off course by what other people say to them or about them. 00:16:19.510 --> 00:16:22.447 They have a centeredness to them. 00:16:22.447 --> 00:16:24.283 One author I've read described it this way. 00:16:24.283 --> 00:16:28.921 He said they have a non anxious presence about them. 00:16:29.153 --> 00:16:30.556 I love that phrase. 00:16:30.556 --> 00:16:36.628 You've been around that kind of person, a non anxious presence, a strength of presence, just being around them calms you. 00:16:36.628 --> 00:16:38.029 They don't have to say anything. 00:16:38.029 --> 00:16:40.765 You can sense it. 00:16:40.765 --> 00:16:50.042 That's the kind of people we want to move towards, being people of peace, so that life doesn't just send us off course when someone says something. 00:16:50.042 --> 00:16:52.610 In fact, we had a big debate about this among our staff recently. 00:16:52.610 --> 00:16:55.614 I read to them a line out of this book by Marshall Rosenberg. 00:16:55.614 --> 00:16:56.782 I'm going to read it to you. 00:16:56.782 --> 00:16:59.684 Get ready, because this is a lot to chew on. 00:16:59.684 --> 00:17:00.852 This is next level stuff. 00:17:00.852 --> 00:17:03.688 Okay. Get ready. It's just one sentence. 00:17:03.688 --> 00:17:10.229 What other people do is never the cause of how we feel. 00:17:11.029 --> 00:17:11.930 I’m going to read that again. 00:17:11.930 --> 00:17:13.432 Chew on that for a second. 00:17:13.432 --> 00:17:21.240 What other people do is never the cause of how we feel. Now, as you can imagine, there was quite a bit of debate around that. 00:17:21.240 --> 00:17:22.106 Really, never? 00:17:22.106 --> 00:17:24.009 Okay, maybe that's a strong word. 00:17:24.009 --> 00:17:26.478 Maybe it's a little bit of over speak sometimes. 00:17:26.478 --> 00:17:27.512 Proverbs is that way. 00:17:27.512 --> 00:17:29.781 To try to get you to think. 00:17:29.781 --> 00:17:31.150 Here was his explanation. 00:17:31.150 --> 00:17:31.682 What do you mean? 00:17:31.682 --> 00:17:34.286 What other people do doesn't determine how I feel. 00:17:34.286 --> 00:17:36.387 Here's how he explained it. 00:17:36.387 --> 00:17:47.900 If someone arrives late to a meeting, you had a meeting planned, they show up late, and you needed reassurance from them that they care for you, you're likely to be hurt. 00:17:47.900 --> 00:17:49.367 You're likely to be disappointed. 00:17:50.501 --> 00:17:54.573 You're likely to think, how rude are they to not care for other people? 00:17:54.573 --> 00:17:57.942 You're likely to be maybe even angry at them. 00:17:57.942 --> 00:18:08.619 He said, but if your need was not there, reassurance and comfort for you as a person if your need instead was 30 minutes of quiet and solitude, you're quite happy that they're late. 00:18:08.619 --> 00:18:09.855 It's no big deal. 00:18:09.855 --> 00:18:12.557 You're overjoyed. You're full of delight. 00:18:12.557 --> 00:18:16.428 The issue wasn't what they did, it was what the need was within yourself. 00:18:16.428 --> 00:18:18.262 It was the expectation within yourself. 00:18:18.262 --> 00:18:22.000 Here's what I need from them that caused the feeling. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:24.603 Now, whether you agree with that or not. 00:18:24.603 --> 00:18:29.107 Okay, look, I get that there are some things people do with the intent to hurt you. 00:18:29.107 --> 00:18:30.509 They're hoping to hurt you. 00:18:30.509 --> 00:18:33.244 And some people go to extremes to do that. Yes. Okay. 00:18:33.244 --> 00:18:35.980 I'm not minimizing that that shouldn't cause a reaction. 00:18:35.980 --> 00:18:37.415 And maybe but here's the point of this. 00:18:38.784 --> 00:18:52.530 Are we going to be people who are easily manipulated by others, or are we people centered in the peace of Christ, knowing that our significance is in him, not what other people say? 00:18:52.530 --> 00:18:56.667 And do we have a non anxious presence rooted in him? 00:18:57.603 --> 00:18:59.371 That's the kind of person I want to be. 00:18:59.371 --> 00:19:02.374 That's the kind of peace I want. 00:19:02.875 --> 00:19:13.885 And I think especially in this day and age, that is one of the most powerful ways to do evangelism in our culture, because you can talk about Jesus all day long. 00:19:13.885 --> 00:19:24.328 But if your life is utter chaos, if you never have peace, if you're easily stirred up to anger by the slightest thing someone says, people are not going to care what you have to say about Jesus. 00:19:24.328 --> 00:19:25.763 In fact, they're going to reject it. 00:19:27.165 --> 00:19:39.243 But if they see that the things that rattle everyone else, no big deal, that you can weather it, that there is a peace, that there is a centeredness, they're going to want to know where does that come from? 00:19:39.243 --> 00:19:40.278 Where do you get that? 00:19:40.278 --> 00:19:41.212 How do I get that? 00:19:41.212 --> 00:19:42.346 That's what I'm longing for. 00:19:42.346 --> 00:19:45.083 That's what everybody wants. 00:19:45.083 --> 00:19:49.320 I think it's one of the most powerful ways to proclaim the gospel in our world. 00:19:49.320 --> 00:19:54.660 That'll open doors to the gospel unlike almost anything else in life. 00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:57.796 So we want to be people of peace. 00:19:57.796 --> 00:19:59.163 How do we move towards peace? 00:19:59.163 --> 00:20:00.932 Growing character of peace. 00:20:00.932 --> 00:20:01.567 That's what we want. 00:20:01.567 --> 00:20:04.569 That's part of godly character. 00:20:04.635 --> 00:20:10.442 Look at this next one here we have integrity, we have peace, and then we have open to reason. 00:20:10.442 --> 00:20:11.276 Open to reason. 00:20:11.276 --> 00:20:13.010 I put truth and humility. 00:20:13.010 --> 00:20:23.288 I think we talked a lot last week about someone who is teachable, you know, the scoffer’s not teachable, but the person who's wise, you teach them, they'll be wiser still. 00:20:23.288 --> 00:20:28.026 I think there's two other elements, though, to the person who's open to reason, a person who's open to reason loves truth. 00:20:28.993 --> 00:20:32.364 And there's an element of humility to them. 00:20:32.364 --> 00:20:35.701 Look at what the Bible says Proverbs says about truth here. 00:20:35.701 --> 00:20:39.971 Chapter 30 verse five says, every word of God proves true. 00:20:40.806 --> 00:20:43.875 He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 00:20:43.875 --> 00:20:45.644 His word is truth. 00:20:45.644 --> 00:20:47.813 The person who's open to reason loves truth. 00:20:47.813 --> 00:20:51.883 They want to hear truth, and they trust that God's Word is true. 00:20:52.084 --> 00:20:59.156 Not only is it true, it protects, it says it is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 00:20:59.156 --> 00:21:03.060 Not only is it a protection, a shield to ourselves, but it is also to others. 00:21:03.060 --> 00:21:05.063 Look at chapter 14, verse 25. 00:21:05.063 --> 00:21:09.034 A truthful witness saves lives. 00:21:11.068 --> 00:21:15.840 The truth of God's Word is a shield for your life and for others. 00:21:15.840 --> 00:21:21.380 And it is true you can depend on it fully, completely, entirely. 00:21:22.381 --> 00:21:26.951 And by the way, this goes against the mantras of our modern world. 00:21:26.951 --> 00:21:29.520 Now who are you to say what's true or not? 00:21:29.520 --> 00:21:31.789 How can you tell me what my truth is? 00:21:31.789 --> 00:21:32.824 I have my own truth. 00:21:32.824 --> 00:21:34.893 You make your truth. 00:21:34.893 --> 00:21:36.361 There's no absolute truth. 00:21:36.361 --> 00:21:37.962 You might hear them say. 00:21:37.962 --> 00:21:41.732 Which, by the way, is an absolute truth statement. 00:21:41.732 --> 00:21:43.035 You can't have it both ways. 00:21:43.035 --> 00:21:47.172 You can't make truth statements about truth and not believe in truth. 00:21:47.172 --> 00:21:50.174 So you see the madness of that. 00:21:50.776 --> 00:21:54.413 And you gotta have something to offer people they can stand on. 00:21:54.413 --> 00:21:57.015 If it's not truth, what are you going to give them? 00:21:57.015 --> 00:21:58.717 Just temporary good feelings. 00:21:58.717 --> 00:22:01.086 I mean, those can help for a season. 00:22:01.086 --> 00:22:03.821 They're not going to last. 00:22:03.821 --> 00:22:10.194 I went to a wedding yesterday, a friend of mine's daughter got married, and the wedding was held in this ultra liberal church. 00:22:10.194 --> 00:22:13.632 And by that, I mean they don't believe in the authority of God's Word. 00:22:13.632 --> 00:22:18.369 They believe it's probably helpful, but it's not authoritative over life. 00:22:18.369 --> 00:22:23.040 There's probably some good ideas in there, but there's plenty of ways they would say that it's wrong or unhelpful. 00:22:24.843 --> 00:22:28.313 And I was sitting there in this church and they just rented the facility they didn't attend there. 00:22:28.313 --> 00:22:30.548 They thought it was a pretty building. 00:22:30.548 --> 00:22:35.287 I was sitting next to my friend and I said, and I meant this sincerely. 00:22:35.287 --> 00:22:39.423 I asked him, what do you think they're offering people here? 00:22:39.423 --> 00:22:42.361 If you're coming here for church regularly, what are you hoping to get? 00:22:42.361 --> 00:22:43.761 What are they hoping to offer people? 00:22:43.761 --> 00:22:46.765 Because it's not some basis of truth. 00:22:47.499 --> 00:22:48.900 And we talked around a lot of things. 00:22:48.900 --> 00:22:50.167 Of course they're offering something. 00:22:50.167 --> 00:22:52.636 I mean, they're offering, like I said, good feelings. 00:22:52.636 --> 00:22:56.375 A motivational speaker will offer you ideas that help get you inspired and motivated. 00:22:56.375 --> 00:22:58.977 But at the end of the day, it's going to fall short of truth. 00:22:58.977 --> 00:23:07.085 You're not going to have an absolute standard to stand on when times get hard, and that's going to struggle to shape your character. 00:23:08.553 --> 00:23:13.325 Truth is one side of character shaping, open to reason, but also humility. 00:23:13.325 --> 00:23:21.900 33-- The fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom and humility comes before honor. 00:23:23.367 --> 00:23:26.538 If you want to gain honor, start with humility. 00:23:26.538 --> 00:23:30.642 And the way you become humble is you humble yourself before the Lord. 00:23:30.642 --> 00:23:32.676 That's where you find true humility. 00:23:32.676 --> 00:23:33.811 You put him first. 00:23:33.811 --> 00:23:36.748 That's why fear the Lord is at the center of Proverbs. 00:23:36.748 --> 00:23:37.782 He comes first. 00:23:37.782 --> 00:23:40.951 And through that I find who I am. 00:23:42.520 --> 00:23:44.923 And there's a great example of this in the next set of verses. 00:23:44.923 --> 00:23:56.701 Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence, or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be told, come up here, than to be put lower in the presence of a noble. 00:23:56.734 --> 00:24:00.739 You don't want to put yourself in the main seat and they go, no, no, no, sorry, that's not for you. 00:24:00.739 --> 00:24:02.039 You need to be back here. 00:24:02.039 --> 00:24:03.607 You want it to work the other way around. 00:24:03.607 --> 00:24:06.310 And here's the beauty of that. 00:24:06.310 --> 00:24:11.583 Christians don't put their identity on where they are seated. 00:24:11.583 --> 00:24:15.787 I don't place my identity in am I seen as important by this group of people? 00:24:15.787 --> 00:24:17.521 Did they put me in the right seat or not? 00:24:17.521 --> 00:24:21.526 What does that communicate about my power or status in this world? 00:24:21.526 --> 00:24:23.295 We don't care. 00:24:23.295 --> 00:24:24.528 It doesn't matter. 00:24:24.528 --> 00:24:29.233 Put me wherever you want and I'm going to trust that God wanted me in that seat. 00:24:29.233 --> 00:24:31.435 He had somebody he wanted me to talk to. 00:24:31.435 --> 00:24:39.778 We're going to walk in humility and trust that he's the one in control, not the perception of others in this passing world. 00:24:41.046 --> 00:24:45.383 And a person who is open to reason walks in truth, the truth of God's Word. 00:24:45.383 --> 00:24:51.722 And then the humility of submitting themselves to the fear of the Lord. 00:24:51.722 --> 00:24:54.692 Next is mercy. 00:24:54.826 --> 00:24:57.828 I love this verse in chapter 25, verse 21 through 22. 00:24:57.828 --> 00:25:08.740 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. 00:25:09.007 --> 00:25:11.542 Now this might seem like a contradictory section. 00:25:11.542 --> 00:25:17.883 Okay, give my enemy something to eat and drink with the goal of frying his brain. 00:25:17.883 --> 00:25:25.289 Well, I think the wording here and we talked about this in first Peter really means something like to sear his conscience. 00:25:25.289 --> 00:25:32.297 You've had this happen where you wanted to hurt someone and they killed you with kindness and it deflated you. 00:25:32.297 --> 00:25:33.330 You've had that happen? 00:25:33.330 --> 00:25:35.767 I've had it happen. Man, I wanted to get them. 00:25:35.767 --> 00:25:41.071 They returned my evil with kindness, and it totally unnerved and unsettled me. 00:25:41.071 --> 00:25:42.307 And it seared my conscience. 00:25:42.307 --> 00:25:44.976 And it made me realize the path I was headed down was wrong. 00:25:44.976 --> 00:25:46.144 That was mercy. 00:25:46.144 --> 00:25:52.550 And that's what the Christian is called to do, is to show mercy, not just to react and retaliate. 00:25:52.651 --> 00:25:55.153 That's what we want to do by nature. 00:25:55.153 --> 00:26:00.392 In fact, my dog is a great example of this. 00:26:00.991 --> 00:26:04.695 Okay, my dog loves to capture a baby rabbit. 00:26:05.564 --> 00:26:09.968 Now you would think they would just go ahead and eat up the rabbit and be done with it. 00:26:09.968 --> 00:26:11.903 But no, no no, not my dog. 00:26:11.903 --> 00:26:22.279 She loves to then go out into the middle of the front yard, set the rabbit down and watch it run off and chase it back down again, over and over again. 00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:23.847 It's a great little chase toy. 00:26:23.847 --> 00:26:25.517 It's a great squeaky toy, by the way. 00:26:25.517 --> 00:26:27.885 It squeaks like crazy when she catches it again. 00:26:27.885 --> 00:26:30.721 She's having the best time in the world, even though we're all going. 00:26:30.721 --> 00:26:33.724 No, stop torturing the baby rabbit. 00:26:34.159 --> 00:26:40.298 And she's just had full of delight and joy because it's in her nature. 00:26:40.298 --> 00:26:44.402 And part of our animal nature says, I will get you back. 00:26:44.402 --> 00:26:46.136 You're going to wrong me. 00:26:46.136 --> 00:26:47.204 I'll get you back. 00:26:48.205 --> 00:26:50.642 But Proverbs says, don't do that. 00:26:50.642 --> 00:26:55.680 Verse chapter 24, verse 29, do not say, I will do to him as he has done to me. 00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:00.085 I will pay the man back for what he has done. 00:27:00.085 --> 00:27:02.086 That's not what the Christian is called to do. 00:27:02.086 --> 00:27:05.089 The Christian shows mercy. 00:27:07.692 --> 00:27:10.494 Lastly, we have sincerity. 00:27:10.494 --> 00:27:13.999 And I think when I think of sincerity, I think of love. 00:27:13.999 --> 00:27:18.569 The person who is sincere is not two faced. 00:27:18.569 --> 00:27:22.574 They show love both private and in public. Public. 00:27:22.574 --> 00:27:29.314 If you're sincere towards me, you have a sense of sincerity and love towards me. 00:27:29.314 --> 00:27:33.550 And what we see here in Proverbs is one of the tendencies. 00:27:33.550 --> 00:27:41.425 When you are sincere, a person is here in chapter ten, verse 12, hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. 00:27:42.626 --> 00:27:45.329 Love seeks to cover up offense. 00:27:45.329 --> 00:27:46.498 Chapter 19, verse 11. 00:27:46.498 --> 00:27:52.737 Good sense makes one slow to anger and it is his glory to overlook an offense. 00:27:53.371 --> 00:27:58.876 If I'm extending love towards someone, I'm not trying to highlight their flaws and imperfections. 00:27:58.876 --> 00:28:01.112 I'm not trying to highlight the way they messed up. 00:28:01.112 --> 00:28:05.316 And of course, I'm not talking about times where justice needs to be served to protect others. 00:28:05.316 --> 00:28:06.984 That's a whole nother conversation. 00:28:06.984 --> 00:28:08.219 But you know what I'm talking about. 00:28:08.219 --> 00:28:12.089 There are those who delight in pointing out the ways you are wrong or imperfect. 00:28:12.089 --> 00:28:13.023 It's called middle school. 00:28:13.023 --> 00:28:14.526 We've talked about that a lot. 00:28:14.526 --> 00:28:18.462 They love to point out where you messed up. 00:28:19.530 --> 00:28:26.070 If you've read about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and if you haven't, by the way, put it on your list this year to read a biography about him. 00:28:26.070 --> 00:28:27.806 Eric Metaxas has a great one. 00:28:27.806 --> 00:28:29.673 I think the audio is free at the library. 00:28:29.673 --> 00:28:30.842 You can listen to it. 00:28:30.842 --> 00:28:33.510 It is so profound. 00:28:33.510 --> 00:28:42.186 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor in World War Two, and he was one of the few that stood up and said, we cannot continue to go down this road of following Hitler. 00:28:42.186 --> 00:28:45.789 Many pastors just went along with whatever he was saying. 00:28:45.789 --> 00:28:48.492 He said, we can't keep down this road. 00:28:48.492 --> 00:28:50.161 We've got to stand up against this. 00:28:52.696 --> 00:29:01.673 And he eventually even joined the plot against Hitler, one of the plots with the attempt to take him out. 00:29:01.673 --> 00:29:08.011 He was so convicted that that was the path God was calling him down to stand for truth. His life is amazing. 00:29:08.011 --> 00:29:17.020 One of the things that's amazing about him, though, is he was also a very gifted piano player, and his family would often gather to play music. 00:29:17.020 --> 00:29:22.259 You know, this was back before TVs and the internet and all the entertainments we have at home. 00:29:22.259 --> 00:29:24.496 They would play music together. 00:29:24.496 --> 00:29:35.205 And his family knew that one of the things he was most skilled at was that when someone else was also playing their instruments and they messed up, he would match their imperfection. 00:29:35.205 --> 00:29:42.247 He was that skilled that as he played the piano, he wouldn't highlight their imperfection by continuing to play what's right. 00:29:42.247 --> 00:29:53.223 He would match right along with them to cover up their imperfections, to not highlight them, to not show them, to not make them stand out. 00:29:53.223 --> 00:30:02.700 Love covers a multitude of sins, and we want to be people in our character who are known for love and sincerity. 00:30:03.134 --> 00:30:05.369 How do we move that direction? 00:30:05.369 --> 00:30:06.304 Look at this last verse. 00:30:06.304 --> 00:30:12.911 Whoever brings blessing will be enriched and one who waters will himself be watered. 00:30:13.845 --> 00:30:18.415 We want to be known as people who are giving life to others. 00:30:19.017 --> 00:30:24.055 We're pouring out water on a thirsty ground. 00:30:24.055 --> 00:30:25.323 That's where we want to be. 00:30:25.323 --> 00:30:30.127 We want to be so rich in character that it's building up others around us. 00:30:31.762 --> 00:30:33.932 Now here's the hard part of all this how do we get there? 00:30:33.932 --> 00:30:35.500 How do you shape up character? 00:30:37.734 --> 00:30:39.737 There's no easy way. 00:30:39.737 --> 00:30:42.207 It's one small decision at a time. 00:30:42.207 --> 00:30:51.215 Every small decision is either moving you towards good character or moving you towards bad character, and every decision matters. It does. 00:30:51.215 --> 00:30:54.986 The enemy wants you to think that the little things in life don't matter. 00:30:54.986 --> 00:30:57.521 He want you to think that the little bad decisions don't matter. 00:30:57.521 --> 00:31:02.259 He wants you to think the little good decisions don't matter, but they do. 00:31:02.259 --> 00:31:06.330 If you're building a brick wall, every brick matters. 00:31:06.564 --> 00:31:08.932 Every brick you put in place matters. 00:31:08.932 --> 00:31:10.201 It's all building. 00:31:10.201 --> 00:31:17.642 And so when we're seeking to build character, it's one decision at a time. 00:31:17.674 --> 00:31:21.578 And the way you walk in godly decisions moment by moment, 00:31:21.578 --> 00:31:28.286 16, walk by the spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. 00:31:29.386 --> 00:31:31.588 This is the call of Scripture. 00:31:31.588 --> 00:31:37.528 If you want to know wisdom, walk by the spirit which requires that you know Christ. 00:31:37.528 --> 00:31:44.368 And as Isaac said today, if you don't know Christ, I'd love to talk with you about what it means to know him and follow him. 00:31:44.368 --> 00:31:58.282 Yeah, we can make good decisions in life, whether you're a Christian or not, but man, if you want to know abundant life, what real life is meant to be, the joy of walking through life even when hard times hit. 00:31:58.715 --> 00:32:03.621 If you want to know what it means to walk by the spirit, we'd love to talk with you about that. 00:32:03.621 --> 00:32:06.624 I'll be down front after. 00:32:08.159 --> 00:32:09.326 Let's pray. 00:32:09.326 --> 00:32:13.431 Thank you, God, for what we see in the book of Proverbs about character. 00:32:13.431 --> 00:32:20.637 And thank you that in the coming weeks, we get to look at many different topics you speak to all of life. 00:32:20.637 --> 00:32:23.473 How do we work in a way that honors you? 00:32:23.473 --> 00:32:27.278 How do we live in relationships whether it's marriage or parenting? 00:32:27.278 --> 00:32:31.415 How do we handle our finances in a way that honors you? 00:32:31.415 --> 00:32:34.085 How do we control our temper? 00:32:34.085 --> 00:32:36.820 What about caring for our heart? 00:32:36.820 --> 00:32:41.192 Thank you for so many ways that you speak to us through your word. 00:32:41.659 --> 00:32:43.594 Help us to see you in the book of Proverbs. 00:32:43.594 --> 00:32:46.396 In the coming days. 00:32:46.396 --> 00:32:48.231 We love you, Jesus. 00:32:48.231 --> 00:32:48.633 Amen.