If You Receive My Words and Treasure My Commands Within You (Proverbs 2:1-10) – Acquiring Wisdom

The father in Proverbs said, "My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you...Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God" (Proverbs 2:1, 5). Wisdom’s availability has seemed a little mysterious up to this point. Our first sermon on Job 28 was titled, “Where Is Wisdom?” Job had grown weary of his friends’ counsel. He said: Job 28:12 “But where shall wisdom be found?Job 28:20 “From where, then, does wisdom come? Wisdom looked hard to find. Then, our next sermon on Proverbs 1:20-33 was titled, “Wisdom Calls Out.” Proverbs 1:20 says, “Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; 21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks.” Wisdom is in the most prominent places calling out to everyone passing by. This makes Wisdom look very available. So the question: “Is wisdom hard to find…or is it available?” Here’s the balance: Wisdom is near and available, but we must work to acquire it. Wisdom calls out to us, but at the same time we must put forth effort to obtain it. https://youtu.be/NxKPKaaxKiY The father in Proverbs said, "My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you...Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God" (Proverbs 2:1, 5). Table of ContentsSermon Lessons for If You Receive My Words and Treasure My Commands Within You Family Worship Guide for If You Receive My Words and Treasure My Commands Within You Sermon Notes for If You Receive My Words and Treasure My Commands Within YouAcquiring wisdom (lesson 1) involves effort on our part.Acquiring wisdom (lesson 2) must be our daily pursuit.Acquiring wisdom (lesson 3) has vertical benefits.Acquiring wisdom (lesson 4) has horizontal benefits. Sermon Lessons for If You Receive My Words and Treasure My Commands Within You Lesson 1: Acquiring wisdom involves __________ on our part (Pro 2:1-4; Matt 13:44).Lesson 2: Acquiring wisdom must be our __________ pursuit (Pro2:1-5, 9). Lesson 3: Acquiring wisdom has __________ benefits (Pro 2:5-6; Jam 1:5; Heb 1:1; 2 Pet 1:20-21; Pro 2:7-8; Matt 13:13-17). Lesson 4: Acquiring wisdom has __________ benefits (Pro 2:9-10; Pro 4:23; Eze 1:26-27; 1 Cor 1:18). Family Worship Guide for If You Receive My Words and Treasure My Commands Within You Day 1: Read Pro 2:1-5, Matt 13:44, and discuss: Is acquiring wisdom an active pursuit or a passive pursuit? Why do you think this is the case? Why is it important to be attentive when pursuing wisdom? How is pursuing wisdom like searching for hidden treasure? Why should the pursuit of wisdom be something we do daily? Day 2: Read Pro 2:5-6; Jam 1:5, Heb 1:1, 2 Pet 1:20-21, Pro 2:7-8, Matt 13:13-17, and discuss: How does wisdom and the fear of the LORD go hand in hand? How is wisdom something we put effort into getting and it still be a gift from God? What can we turn to that has the wisdom of God? What are some benefits of wisdom that you are needing in your life right now? Day 3: Read Pro 2:9-10; Pro 4:23; Eze 1:26-27; 1 Cor 1:18, and discuss: How does wisdom allow for us to identify good paths in life? Why is it important to have wisdom in our heart? How is having wisdom in the heart like having a heart change? Why is rejecting the Gospel ultimate foolishness? Sermon Notes for If You Receive My Words and Treasure My Commands Within You The title of this morning’s sermon is, “Acquiring Wisdom.” Go ahead and turn to Proverbs 1. We interrupted our series on wisdom for two weeks, so let me briefly review. Wisdom’s availability has seemed a little mysterious up to this point. Here’s what I mean… Our first sermon on Job 28 was titled, “Where Is Wisdom?” You might remember Job had grown weary of his friends’ counsel. He said: Job 28:12 “But where shall wisdom be found?Job 28:20 “From where, then, does wisdom come? Job was asking where to find wisdom, which made it seem like it’s hard to find. Then, our next sermon on Proverbs 1:20-33 was titled, “Wisdom Calls Out.” Briefly look at Proverbs 1:20… Proverbs 1:20 Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; 21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: Wisdom cries aloud…raises her voice. She’s in the street, the markets, the entrance of the city gates. She’s in the most prominent places calling out to everyone passing by. This makes Wisdom look very available. So the question: “Is wisdom hard to find…or is it available?” Here’s the balance… Wisdom is near and available, but we must work to acquire it.Wisdom calls out to us, but at the same time we must put forth effort to obtain it. This is what we’ll see in the following verses. They describe the pursuit of wisdom better than any place in Scripture. We’re picking up where we left off after our last sermon. We covered the end of Proverbs 1, verses 20-33. This morning we’ll look at Proverbs 2:1-10. We’ll go through the first four verses pretty quickly, and then talk about the application. Look at verse 1… Proverbs 2:1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, My words and my commandments are synonymous with wisdom, so the father tells his son to do two things w/ wisdom: receive it and treasure it. Let’s consider both… First, he tells him to receive it, which is receptiveness to wisdom. Wisdom is of no benefit to those who won’t receive it. You say, “Well, who won’t receive wisdom?” Lots of people! Maybe you’ve spoken to people, shared wisdom w/ them, but they wouldn’t receive it. You could tell they weren’t listening to what you said. This is one of the characteristics of fools… As we talked about in the previous sermon, the issue with fools isn’t that they haven’t heard. They aren’t ignorant. The issue is they’ve heard…but they won’t apply what they’ve heard. Second, he tells his son to treasure wisdom, which is sensitivity to it. Wisdom is of no benefit to those who don’t recognize its value. You might remember this from our previous sermon… Job 28:13 Man does not know [wisdom’s] worth. Gaining wisdom begins with recognizing how valuable it is. Look at verse 2… Proverbs 2:2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; The ear and heart should be captivated by wisdom: This is all about paying attention. Think about people during sermons: Some people make their ear attentive and incline their heart by listening intently. They love wisdom and they’re captivated by it.Other people check their watch, wish they could be anywhere else, doing anything else. They don’t love wisdom. I’m sure for the rest of the sermon we’re going to see some serious attentiveness ?. Look at verse 3… Proverbs 2:3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, This is all about diligently pursuing wisdom: calling out for it and lifting your voice to get it. Verse 4…                                                                                                               Proverbs 2:4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, These words reveal desire. There is a strong devotion to wisdom. The person doing these things really wants to be wise! And only these people who truly desire it find it… In our first sermon we saw man to go to great lengths to find earthly treasure. God expects us to go the same lengths - or greater - to find wisdom. If you write in your Bible, circle the words hidden treasures and write, Matt 13:44. Think of The Parable of the Hidden Treasure, and you’ll see what we should do w/ wisdom… Matthew 13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. We should desire wisdom the way this man desired the hidden treasure and pursue wisdom the way he pursued the treasure. The main point of these first four verses is acquiring wisdom involves effort on our part…and this brings us to lesson 1… Acquiring wisdom (lesson 1) involves effort on our part. Verbs are important words in the bible because they indicate action and tell us to do something. In these verses Solomon piles verb upon verb upon verb upon verb to communicate that acquiring wisdom requires action on our part. Notice all the commands in these few verses: Receive my wordsTreasure up my commandments[Make] your ear attentive[Incline] your heartCall outRaise your voiceSeekSearch He repeatedly tells us what to do to gain wisdom. If we thought we could receive wisdom easily, these verses would destroy that notion…gaining wisdom is hard work! Nobody becomes wise by accident.Nobody stumbles upon wisdom.Nobody is walking along, trips and falls, and finds wisdom. Picture people working 60 hour-work weeks, or laboring tirelessly for paychecks of promotions…but they won’t do the same for wisdom. It’s evidence they don’t appreciate its value. Most of us are willing to work diligently at our jobs because we know we’ll earn money, but what about applying ourselves diligently to God’s Word to gain wisdom and spiritual riches that are more valuable and that last forever? If we had spiritual sight to see wisdom’s value we’d pursue it more than anything else in our lives. Let me conclude this lesson by pointing out something else that these verses indirectly teach… If wisdom is obtained by those who diligently pursue it and work hard for it, then it’s not obtained by those who won’t put forth effort. Briefly look at… Proverbs 1:32 For the simple are killed by their turning away, and THE COMPLACENCY OF FOOLS destroys them; Indifferent and complacent people – or people who don’t care – won’t gain wisdom,...