What Makes a Life Truly Count? | Proverbs 27, 28 & 31

What makes a life meaningful beyond achievements, possessions, and recognition? Drawing from Proverbs 27, 28, and 31, Pastor Chris Teien explores three questions that help us examine our direction: What am I pursuing? Who am I becoming? Am I faithfully fulfilling the responsibilities God has given me?

Discover how lasting priorities, godly character, and faithful service shape a life that truly counts. Instead of expecting temporary things to provide lasting satisfaction, learn to find contentment in God and care faithfully for the people and responsibilities He has entrusted to you.

IN THIS MESSAGE

1. PURSUE LASTING PRIORITIES

The desire for more can keep us chasing possessions, experiences, or approval without ever feeling satisfied. Receive God’s gifts gratefully, resist living for applause, and give attention to what has lasting value. Faithfulness begins with how you care for the people and responsibilities already entrusted to you. (Proverbs 27:20–23; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Luke 16:10)

2. BUILD GODLY CHARACTER

Who you are becoming matters more than the image you present to others. Integrity grows as you obey God’s Word, choose wise influences, and confess sin rather than conceal it. Turn from what is wrong, receive God’s mercy, and keep a responsive heart toward Him. (Proverbs 28:1, 6–7, 13–14; 1 John 1:9)

3. PLAY YOUR PART FAITHFULLY

Proverbs 31 describes a woman whose trustworthiness, diligence, generosity, wisdom, and devotion to God offer lessons for every believer. Whatever your responsibilities, approach them with care and faithfulness. Appearance and recognition fade, but a life that honors God can bless your family, church, and community in lasting ways. (Proverbs 31:10–31; Colossians 3:23)

BE ENCOURAGED

A meaningful life is built through ordinary choices to trust God and serve faithfully. Ask yourself, “What am I pursuing? Who am I becoming? Am I playing my part faithfully?” Give attention to a neglected responsibility, bring a hidden struggle honestly before God, or make time for someone who needs your care. You do not need recognition to live a life that matters to Him.

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Helping you understand and apply God’s Word. Find sermon transcripts and more Bible teaching at Well.faith. Learn more at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.church. Questions or feedback? Email wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

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Chris T 0:16

A life that counts. I don't know if you went through Proverbs this month with us. And as you read through, if you did it, you'll know that some of the things in there jump off the page at you, and you're like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. And some of the other stuff on the page, you look at and you're like, hmm, I don't even know what that means. I wonder what that meant to the original hearer. I wonder how am I supposed to apply that. So reading Proverbs is more than opening a fortune cookie. You ever sit there, you got the fortune cookies, you crack one open, you're like, oh, that was dumb. Then you open another one, you're like, oh, that one's pretty good. I'll keep that saying for the day. Proverbs is more than just little sayings that are clever little sayings that are helpful. It is more than that. As I was reading through the book of Proverbs this month, I noticed a lot of the things, a lot of the concepts, a lot of the things that it said are the same kind of things that a life coach would tell you to do, a leadership coach. But as you're reading through Proverbs, it's more than just trying to find advice for success. I mean, there's a lot of things in there. We're going to continue in Proverbs in August. There's things in there it talks about finances, it talks about endurance, it talks about important things in life. And many times what you'll do is you'll go through Proverbs, or maybe you'll use the concordance in the back or some other study resources to come up with all of the different sayings, or many of the different sayings about what it says on finances. So as we do that, we have opportunity to ponder, opportunity to question, opportunity to learn and to grow and to see what it says. But what I want to focus on today is what really matters when your life comes to an end? What really matters when your life is spent? How should you spend your life? You know, there's many people that will spend their life trying to build their business or build their career, and then when their life is spent, be disappointed and say, wow, I think my life might have been better if I focused more on relationships and less on work. I mean, it's good to focus on work so that you have the resources and provision and stuff, but some people are so caught up in business and career and trying to acquire more things and trying to build up their reputation or to be seen by others, to be recognized, all these things. They spend their whole life doing that and they miss out. They miss out on close relationships, they miss out on a close relationship with God. Sometimes we just run and run and run. And then one day we wake up tired. And there wasn't an in-between, because I hear a bunch of people say, Oh, I'll get serious about coming to church, oh, I'll get serious about following Jesus. As soon as I get this career thing done, or as soon as the kids are done with sports, or as soon as, you know, there's always an as soon as. And then they're like, Well, when I'm retired, I'll have lots of time to do that. But sometimes when people actually reach retirement, I mean some people retire early, but some people, you know, just wear out and their work begs them to retire. They're like, dude, please retire. What can we do to help you retire? You just seem really tired. And so those people often are too tired to do all the things that they said they were going to do. So life that counts. So I wanted to look at some of the Proverbs that we might have read if you were going through this with us, the Proverbs that we might have read during the week. And so look at some of that. So the first one is in the first topic is to pursue lasting priorities. To pursue lasting priorities. So the Bible talks a lot about that, about the things that matter, the priorities that matter, the things that we should do, the things that we should get done. And really, if we have evaluated our lives, we're probably all pursuing something. I mean, it might be little, it might be big, you might be pursuing the perfect garden this year, or the perfect lawn, or maybe you're into fitness, or maybe you're trying to get your family budget in order, or maybe you're trying to restore something, a car or a piece of furniture or something like that. But people pursue financial security, comfort, success, relationships, approval, and experience that we hope make us happy. I mean, some people have what they have, they call a bucket list, and they try to get everything done on the bucket list. Travel here, do this, experience that, ride this, all these different things. And or yeah. As they go through that, sometimes they are just never able to accomplish, never able to find true satisfaction. It's interesting, Proverbs 27.20 says, just as death and destruction are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied. It's interesting the King James Version translates that just as hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied. And the idea is that Sheol refers to the grave or the realm of the dead, and Abadin means destruction. But here it's being used as a poetic name for the place of death. They continue to go on, they continue to fill up, and that is the same thing with our pursuits, with the things that we want, with the things that our eyes want. Human desire is never satisfied. So in a poetic way, it's saying, you know, just as life and death continue on, and just as death and the King James's hell fills up, human desire keeps going on. It's never fully satisfied. The realm of death is never full. Generation after generation enters the grave, but death never closes its doors and announces there's no more room, and it continues to receive more. So Proverbs uses that sobering picture to describe human desire. Just as the grave never says enough, our eyes and desires can keep asking for more. I'm sure maybe you've experienced that before. You're just going along, minding your own business, and then something, maybe an ad online or something catches your eye, and you went from I didn't know it existed to I must have it today. So sometimes when I go down to the Twin Cities, especially in the Adina or the western suburb areas, I see all sorts of cars I have never seen before. So cars they don't drive up here. And I'm like, well, that's pretty cool. Never seen one of those before. And so my budget does not allow me to purchase such a thing, so that's not really a big deal. But maybe you've seen clothes, or maybe you've seen shoes, or maybe you've seen tools, or things like that. But human desire and the things that you want and the things that you need and the things that you think you have to have just continue to go on and on. And if you pursue them, they can destroy you, they can destroy your finances, they can do all sorts of things that will just tear apart the satisfaction that you'll have because you won't have gotten the important things, you'll have only gotten the temporary things, and that will be difficult. So Proverbs 27, 20 says that. Ecclesiastes 3.11 chimes in, yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart. But even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. So God's gifts are meant to be received and enjoyed. But God doesn't provide every single thing that you've ever wanted, but he often provides what you need, enough. And when we take satisfaction in that, when we enjoy what we have, I mean, we can work towards better things, but when we enjoy what we have, when we take care of what we have, that can be good, and that can even be enough. Contentment begins when we stop expecting temporary things to do what only God can do. Human desire keeps saying more, but faith teaches us to say, God is enough, and what he has given me today is a gift. You know, so many times we wake up in the morning, especially now after all the smoke experience, wake up and you look. My wife and I, we look out and like, today looks like a good day, a good day to go outside, a good day to do things. Today, God has given us a good day. Let's go enjoy it. We don't know what tomorrow holds. It could be hot humidity, it could be smoky, it could be rainy, there could be tornadoes or hail, who knows? And we know, actually, that soon snow will come back. But, all right. The second thing that I saw in Proverbs that I thought was really good, there were so many things to pick through, but I was trying to keep on this theme of a life that really matters. So the next one I wanted to highlight is what does praise reveal? When people tell you you did a good job, when people tell you that you're really good at that or you sing so good, does that make you more humble? Does that make you closer to God or does that pull you away? Because according to Proverbs 27, 21, praise is a test. It says, by your test the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised. You'd think that we were being tested by hardship and difficulty, but sometimes praise is the thing. What happens when people notice us? What happens when we receive recognition? What happens when we succeed? Do we become proud? Do we begin to believe that we deserve the attention? Do we start living for people's approval? Do we start to think more about what people think of us than what God thinks of us? That's one of the problems by, you know, like lifestyle evangelism where you're trying to win your neighbor to Christ. It's like you got a new neighbor and you want to win him to Jesus, and you're really enjoying your new neighbor. He's a pretty good guy. He's got a nice boat and he's got some other stuff, and he takes you out with him, and you have a good time, and you catch a lot of fish, and it's all good. And you want to tell him about Jesus, but you know he's not interested, and you're like, man, if I tell him about Jesus, he's probably not gonna take me fishing anymore, and I really like going fishing. So and then, so it's like, okay, I love Jesus more, so I'm gonna, with tact, tell him about the thing that means the most to me while we're in the boat fishing, and that can be good. But sometimes praise, sometimes people's applause, sometimes people's applause will pull us away from the things of God. I mean, we all need, don't say, well, we don't want that pastor to become too prideful, so we'll never tell him that we appreciate them. Don't do that. So it's like, yeah. Keep them humble. Don't shh don't tell them. You like the sermon?

unknown 11:11

Don't tell them that.

Chris T 11:12

They get prideful. So don't do that. We need to encourage each other and build each other up. That's a really good thing to do. But don't be living for people's applause. Don't be thinking of what everybody else thinks of you. I know we all think of what people think of us, and this is why we dress a certain way. And this is why we try to have good hygiene, and this is why we try to keep our whatever we have for property, our lawns nice and our vehicles nice and stuff, and that's all good. Actually, that can help your Christian testimony. So those are things, those things are good. So you don't want people to reject you because you don't take care of things or because everything's a mess around you. But all right, so praise. Where does it leave you? Don't live for people's applause. I thought that one was really good. Don't be thinking, what will what can I do to get people to notice me? What will please and honor God is the thing that we want to think of most. Alright, and then in verse 22, I thought this is really interesting. I had to look it up and think about it for a bit because I didn't really, I didn't get it at first. But you cannot separate fools from their foolishness, even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle. So with their grain, back in these days long ago, they had like their clay or their concrete bowl. And then they had that big, I don't know what you'd call it, look like a post thing that you'd grind and pound, and so you'd pound it down and grind it around, and so that's mortar and pestle. So it's a graphic description, really, that's saying that outward pressure does not automatically produce inward wisdom. So wise people are gonna listen and learn, and fools, they might not listen and learn at all, they might just become bitter and angry. And so this proverb is saying that just because you try to push and try to instruct and try to teach and train and even make their life hard until they understand, not everybody's gonna get it. And so that's what that talks about. Consequences alone do not change the heart. You can correct a person, warn a person, or allow that person to experience the painful results of foolish choices, but if that person refuses God's wisdom, the foolishness remains. I thought that was pretty good. And then the next verse, verse 23, I thought that was pretty good. So it's good for a pastor, too, actually. But applying to all of us, it's good. So it says, know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds, for riches don't last forever, and the crown might not be passed to the next generation. And really, this is back to this whole idea of contentment again. So back when people heard this originally, they were dependent on livestock and herds for their food, clothing, income, and security. So if they neglected these things, they might miss out. And so riches aren't guaranteed. I mean, the riches that we have today aren't guaranteed. The income that we have coming in today isn't guaranteed, and possessions don't last forever. Income can change, possessions at work can be lost. Even your earthly influence and authority are temporary. But so what it's saying is to know what's going on with your possessions, with your finances, with the things that you have, and then take care of them. So take care of them. Know that God is the one who provides, and he expects you to do a good job of taking care of what he has blessed you with, whether it's a little or whether it's a lot, that you should do what you can to be a faithful servant. Actually, Jesus said in Luke 16, 10, if you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. So to be faithful with your finances. You know, beyond finances and possessions, too, think about your marriage, your children, your grandchildren, your health, your work, your finances, your friendship, your church, or opportunities that God gives you to help people in need. All of those things, to think about that, to know the state of them and put your heart into caring for them all. So God rewards that. That is a wise thing to do. So my question here is what occupies your thoughts most of the day, most of these days? What are you pursuing in your life? Are you pursuing lasting priorities or are you pursuing temporary things? So again, God often gives us things that we delight in, and we can enjoy God's creation through hobbies and collections and things like that. But really, long-term eternal value of the things that you're doing, the things that you're pursuing, how's it working out for you? Are there things that need to change? What has God placed in your care that maybe you're not doing a good job with? What is God placed in your care that you idolize so much that you're not willing to let God use you or it to make a difference, to build his kingdom? So the first question is, what am I pursuing? The second one is who am I becoming? So I see building godly character. In Proverbs 28, verse 1, it says, The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions. So when we think about walking in integrity, when we think about who we are becoming, if we are choosing to do the right things, if we are being honest in our dealings, if we are doing things that are correct and right and safe, then we're not gonna be fearing when the police come by or we get a letter from the IRS. But the wicked run away when no one is chasing them. Fearful people, people with guilt, people who have done wrong are always looking over their shoulder, wondering when they're gonna be caught, wondering when they're gonna be found out. A guilty conscience can make a person fearful. When we know we have done wrong, we may become afraid that someone will find out. We begin looking over our shoulder, covering our tracks, and wondering when our sin will catch up with us. But there is a quiet confidence that comes from walking in integrity before God. So that doesn't mean that godly people never experience fear. They just don't fear getting caught for the things that they're doing that are wrong. Integrity gives the courage to stand for what is right because we know where we stand before God. Another interest interesting verse here is Proverb 28, 6. It says, Better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and rich, which also ties into that. But we're gonna look at what the pro all the different Proverbs, not there's many. We're gonna look at many different Proverbs about what it says about finances and success and wealth on August 19th. So we'll come back to that then. But integrity matters. So integrity, even culture admires integrity. I mean, sure they'd like you to be prosperous and admire you for all these different things, but every employer, every everyone around you appreciates integrity. They don't appreciate you taking advantage of people to most people don't, to win, to make a profit, to trick somebody, those different things, but to walk in integrity. So Proverbs 28:7 says, young people who obey the law are wise. Those with wild friends bring shame to their parents. So these teenagers that are showing up in these destructive mobs in these cities and things like that, they're having a hard time controlling them. So now they're talking about charging parents for crimes for not controlling their children, which is interesting. So, but it says, young people who obey the law are wise, those with wild friends bring shame to their parents. Wisdom is not merely knowing what God has said, wisdom means living according to what God has said. So young people can be taught many Bible verses and know Scripture and then choose to do wrong things. Sometimes, more than that, sometimes godly young people are led astray by wild friends that lead them to do things that they wouldn't do otherwise, to lead them to drink or party or do criminal things or whatever, be destructive, all these different things, things that they wouldn't have done on their own if they weren't influenced by wild friends, even wicked friends. So we pray for our kids. We try to guide them and direct them. We do everything that we can to instruct them to do the right things and continually remind them of the consequences of doing the wrong things to follow after God's authority. Jesus even said in John 14, 15, if you love me, obey my commands. So obedience doesn't earn God's love, but when we're in God's love, we want to obey. And that leads up to Proverbs 28, 13. That says people who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess them and turn from them, they will receive mercy. So we're gonna have communion in a minute, and this is a passage that really should speak to us that communion is a time for us to think about where we are in our Christian walk and if we're walking closer to Jesus or if we're if we've strayed away. Is there sin in our life that we need to confess? We ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us any sin that's gotten in the way of our relationship with the Lord, and we confess that in prayer while you're sitting there, and then recommit our lives to Christ. But that is a good thing, a wonderful thing to confess our sin, to turn from them and to receive mercy. And that's the pattern is we confess it and then we turn from it. We don't just confess it and say, God, I know I'm doing that thing, and it's wrong. It's yeah, it's wrong. It sure is. Well, all right, thanks for forgiving me, and then we go back to doing it again. Actually, that can be a sign of addiction, is when you confess and repent and try to turn from something, and then you find yourself so drawn to it again, you just can't say no. And maybe you need to get some help from that. Other people confess it and they try to quit doing it, but they can't get over the fact that they did do it and they won't receive God's mercy. They won't accept God's mercy and forgiveness. Again, 1 John 1 9 says, if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. All right. Next, keep our keep a tender heart toward God. Blessed are those who fear to do wrong, but the stubborn are headed for serious trouble. So there's a blessing in your life when you know it's wrong and you fear doing it. You don't want to do it because you Don't want to get caught, you don't want to do it, because you don't want to feel guilty, you don't want to do it, because you don't want to displease God, you don't want to do it, because you don't want to disappoint the people around you. There is blessing in that to do the right thing, to do the godly thing. So think about that. What kind of person are you becoming? What kinds of things are you pursuing? And then the third question Am I faithfully fulfilling the part God has given me? Play your part faithfully. And for that one, I wanted to look at Proverbs chapter 31. And I know that many of you are familiar with Proverbs chapter 31 because King Lemuel, his mom, gave him a list of what to look for in the godly wife. And so it listed all sorts of things that women, Christian women, today see this and they're like, that is an impossible list to live. An impossible list to live. Here's some of the things that it says a wife of noble character. Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She's more precious than rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. She finds wool and flax and busily spends it. She's like a merchant ship, bringing her food from afar. She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plans the day's work for her servant girls. She goes to inspect a field and buys it with her earnings, and she plants a vineyard. She is energetic and strong. A hard worker. She makes sure her dealings are profitable. Her lamp burns late into the night. Her hands are busy spinning thread, and her fingers twisting fiber. She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy. She has no fear of winter for her household and everyone, for everyone has worn clothes. She makes her own bedspread. She dresses in fine linen and perfume purpose and purple gowns. Her husband is well known at the city gates where he sits with the other civic leaders. She makes belted linen garments and sashes to sell to the merchants. She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future. When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instruction with kindness. She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness. Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her. There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last, but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. Reward her for all she has done. Let her deeds publicly declare her praise. And some women are like, okay, I can do some of that. Food from afar. You know, they if I go to Walmart, I can get blueberries from Chile. That's pretty far away. That's far away. I could do that. I could maybe do some real estate dealings. I don't know how much money do we have. And so I guess I need to buy a sewing machine. I don't have any servant girls, but maybe we could hire some. But it applied to boys and girls and men and women in many different places. And so this one flips it around and said, Hey, this is written to someone that's a good wife or a king. But you can flip that around and apply it to everybody. Because there's guys that should be just like this too, as you think about these principles. A godly woman should be trustworthy, and so should a godly man. A godly woman should work diligently, and so should a godly man. A godly woman should care for people in need, and so should a godly man. A godly woman should speak with wisdom and kindness, and so should a godly man. A godly woman should fear the Lord, and so should a godly man. But she finds wool and flax and busily spins it. So she's industrious, she's not lazy. She's doing what she can to provide for her family. That applies to everybody. That's huge, that's wisdom. And again, in a relationship, in a family to provide and care and find the resources you need to be busy, not to be lazy, is good advice. She's energetic and strong, a hard worker. That's another thing. You see that repeatedly in Proverbs. If God gives us the breath of life, we should find good things to do with our time and our resources. That's very important. She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy. And we should do that too. Colossians 3 23 says, Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you are working for the Lord rather than people. And so as we're doing that, we will be rewarded. And when she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instruction and kindness. People like that bless so many people. When they speak words of wisdom into other people's lives, the instruction and kindness, it creates a friendship. It sometimes creates a mentorship that can make a difference in other people's lives, and that can be good. Some women, some people are able to do this through online blogging, so they don't have a bunch of people sitting around them, but they're able to speak into other people's lives by the things that they post online, or maybe they have a blog or a podcast. There's so many ways to do it, but there's certain godly women that in wisdom are sharing with others and kindly helping people become more like Jesus and is a good thing. And then it says, Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last. But a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. And so people change. Handsomeness and beauty changes. It doesn't last. But character lasts, godly character lasts, inner beauty lasts. So those people are praised, greatly praised, the ones who fear the Lord.