S3E163 – Proverbs 4: It’s Worth It

Transcript

Podcast Introduction

Our reading today is Proverbs 4. I’m calling today’s episode “It’s Worth It.”

Comments on Proverbs 4

The father is now teaching not just his son, but his children. This lesson is intended for all of his offspring.

Would that every parent had this wisdom to impart these lessons to every one of their children. But sadly, it seems as if wisdom is in very short supply, and has been for at least the last three or four generations. And yes, I include mine.

The lessons in this chapter, if well taught and well learned, would go very far in preventing the kind of near insanity that we see around the world today. 

Want an example? How about this: Trading freedom for “safety” is anything but wise. I think Solomon would  even call it foolish.

Here in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, our forefathers knew that freedom was infinitely better than safety. But somewhere along the way, we forgot to pass that lesson on. 

In verse 5, Solomon wrote the words his father, David said to him, “Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!”

The Hebrew word Qana, that in our translation here is Acquire, means “to buy” or “purchase”. Not that you can actually exchange money for wisdom, but the idea is that gaining wisdom will come with a cost. And making that exchange is a good thing. 

Also, acquiring something in this sense does not usually happen by accident, but by a conscious decision. You *decide* to acquire it. You go after it. You work for it. 

Wisdom is not something that just happens. We like to think that wisdom comes with age, but if you look around you don’t have to look to far to see old fools, do you? 

Where is wisdom to be found? Before I answer that, let’s think about where it is not to be found.

It is not to be found “within” yourself. You’ll often hear people say, “What does your heart say?” Or “Follow your heart!” What does the Bible say about the heart? “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9.

This is one of the biggest blunders of modern times! Most of the problems we see today are a result of foolish people following their hearts. And by foolish, I mean it in the sense of the book of Proverbs. A fool is one who rejects wisdom. 

Of course you know that I’m going to say that the greatest source of wisdom available to us is the Bible. David said to Solomon in verse 5, “Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.”

Beloved, the Bible isn’t just the words of David and Solomon and Moses and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and all the other men who held a pen and wrote the words. The words came out of the mouth of God. When we decide to acquire wisdom, when we remember and hold fast to His words, we will be rewarded. 

Imagine if, instead of pooh-poohing the Bible, as has been done for the last several decades, if people clung to what is in the pages of the Bible…imagine how different the world would be. It boggles the imagination.

But listen, the world is changed one person at a time. One life at a time. And each of can, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, bring change to someone in *our* world. That’s what Jesus last commandment was before He ascended to Heaven. He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…”

David told Solomon, “Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.” Let us not forget or turn away from the words of Jesus’ mouth. 

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. NASB

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Transcript

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Steve Webb 0:00
Gaining wisdom will come with a cost.

Steve Webb 0:10
Hey there, how are you? This is the Lifespring family Audio Bible coming to you from Riverside, California, podcasting since 2004. I’m your OG God caster Steve Webb. This is the daily podcast where we are reading through the entire Bible in a year. Welcome. Today we’re going to read Proverbs four and I’m calling the episode. It’s worth it. The show notes page for today’s episode is Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 162. And you can post comments there. Let’s get started.

Steve Webb 0:41
Proverbs chapter four. Hear, oh sons the instruction of a father and give attention that you may gain understanding, for I give you sound teaching, do not abandon my instruction. When I was a son to my father, tender and the only son in the sight of my mother, then he taught me and said to me, let your heart hold fast my words, keep my commandments and live. Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding, do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth, do not forsake her and she will guide you love her and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is acquire wisdom and with all your acquiring, get understanding, prize her and she will exalt you, she will honor you if you embrace her, she will place on your head a garland of grace, she will present you with a crown of beauty. Hear my son and accept my sayings in the years of your life will be many. I have directed you in the way of wisdom, I have led you in upright paths. When you walk your steps will not be impeded. And if you run you will not stumble, take hold of instruction. Do not let go guard her for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not pass by it, turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they do evil. And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble, for they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like darkness, they do not know over what they stumble. My son, give attention to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight. Keep them in the midst of your heart for their life to those who find them unhealth to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left. Turn your foot from evil.

Steve Webb 3:12
Well, in Proverbs four, the father is now teaching not just his son, but his children, of course, the father being Solomon. The lesson here in chapter four is intended for all of his offspring. And of course, ultimately, for all of us. After reading this chapter, all I can think is would that every parent have the wisdom to impart these lessons to every one of their children? But sadly, it seems as if wisdom is in very short supply today, and has been for at least the last three or four generations. And yes, I include mine. I believe that the lessons in this chapter, if well taught and well learned, would go very far in preventing the kind of near insanity that we see in the world around us today. Wanted example, how about this, trading freedom for quote unquote, safety is anything but wise. Matter of fact, I think Solomon would even call it foolish. Trading freedom for safety is foolish. Here in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Our forefathers knew that freedom was infinitely better than safety. But somewhere along the way, we forgot to pass that lesson on. In verse five Solomon wrote the words his father David said to him, he said, acquire wisdom, acquire understanding. Something interesting about that the Hebrew word Connor, that in our translation here is acquire that word means to buy or to purchase. Not that you can actually exchange money for wisdom, but the idea is that gaining wisdom will come with a cost and making that exchange is a good thing. It’s worth it. Also, acquiring something in this sense does not Usually happened by accident. But by a conscious decision, you decide to acquire something, you go after it. You work for it. So David is telling Solomon and us to decide to acquire wisdom, go after it worked for it. Wisdom is not something that just happens. We like to think that wisdom comes with age. But he if you look around you don’t have to look too far to see old fools do you. So where is wisdom to be found? Well, before I answer that, let’s think about where it is not to be found. It is not to be found within yourself. I go back to the hippie days in gurus used to say look within search within. You’ll often hear people say, Well, what does your heart say or follow your heart? What does the Bible say about the heart? It says in Jeremiah 17 Nine, the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it? This is one of the biggest blunders of modern times. Most of the problems we see today are a result of foolish people following their hearts. And by foolish I mean it in the sense of the book of Proverbs, The Fool is one who rejects wisdom. Most of the problems we see today are a result of foolish people following their hearts. Of course, you know that I am going to say that the greatest source of wisdom available to us is the Bible. David said to Solomon in verse five, do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Beloved, the Bible isn’t just the words of David and Solomon and Moses and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and all the other men who held a pen and wrote the words, the words actually came out of the mouth of God. When we decide to acquire wisdom. When we remember and hold fast to his words, we will be rewarded. Imagine if instead of Pooh poohing the Bible, as has been done for the last several decades, if people clung to what is in the pages of the Bible, imagine how different the world would be. That boggles the imagination, but listen closely. The world is changed one person at a time, one life at a time. And each of us can with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, bring change to someone in our world. That’s what Jesus last commandment was before He ascended to heaven. He said, Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of a father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. David told Solomon, do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Jesus said, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. Let us not forget or turn away from the words of Jesus mouth. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Comment at Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 162. Tomorrow, we will begin the book of Ezekiel will read the first six chapters loose.

Steve Webb 8:21
Boostagram. I recently got a boostagram from Sean of San Pedro. He sent a 500 sat booster gram using the fountain app. And he said, personal listening comprehension check. We recently heard from Jeremiah of the ransacking of the temple for Moses of the construction of the portable tabernacle. And now Solomon constructing the temple. Pretty cool to cover all of these events in a short period. Yeah, thank you, Shawn. I agree. That’s one of the reasons I like the reading schedule that we’re on. And I don’t take credit for this schedule. By the way, I found this Bible reading schedule a couple of years ago at Bible dash reading.com. And the owner over there, Michael Kohli graciously gave his permission for us to use that schedule here on the show. So props and thanks to Michael Coley at Bible dash reading.com. Now if you’d like to be able to send booster grams send messages to me, along with some SATs, which are tiny little teeny, teeny, tiny little pieces of Bitcoin, all you have to do is download one of those shiny new modern podcast apps that all the cool kids are using, go to new podcast apps.com and find one that suits your fancy. And if you need help setting it up, drop me an email at Steve at Lifespring media.com. And if you’re not one of the geeky types, if you like other people to kind of be the pioneer, go on over to Lifespring media.com/support. You can find ways that you can donate there with your credit card with Pay Pal with Venmo with a Cash App and on and on and on. Now why would you want to support the show? Well, do you find value in what’s happening here? Do you find value in having the Bible read to you every day, does my commentary make you think? Does it help you to understand the word? Is there value there? If there is convert that value to a number, and I can’t tell you what that number is, but decide what’s it worth to you? What’s it worth in your life, and then send that to me at Lifespring media.com/support. It does cost actual real money to keep this thing coming to you. So any amount that you can give to help support it would be very much appreciated. I know I’ll thank you, and I think God will bless you.

Steve Webb 10:41
On this date in church history, February 10 1929. In London, the great Baptist clergyman and devotional author FB Meyer preached his last sermon, he died on March 28.

Steve Webb 11:04
Prayer requests. Kathi’s going to be having surgery for the bone cancer in her scapula or shoulder blade on February 23. So we need to pray for that surgery. And remember to pray for her up until that date. The plan is to burn out the tumor and then repair the area with a type of cement. And the young man who was in the terrible traffic accident the other day, his name is Lexton Edmonson. He’s been through several surgeries and is doing quite well. It’ll be some time before he’s able to walk again. But he will recover. He has no memory of the accident. But the first words he said when he woke up were my truck. And then lastly, for now, Adam Curry has come down with COVID, the coof. His wife, Tina, whom he calls the Keeper has not yet gotten it. And so we’ll pray for the both of them. Let’s pray.

Steve Webb 11:58
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for being the source of wisdom. Teach us Lord, give us a thirst to acquire wisdom, no matter our age, and give us understanding. And also help us to remember your words and to pass them on to others. I pray for the coming surgery for Kathy Lord, that it will be effective in ridding that area of cancer once and for all. And I asked God that you would help Kathy with a pain and with the other areas of cancer in her body, heal or Lord not just to the cancer but of the MS that she’s had for so long. We know you can do it. And I asked once more that you would hear our prayers. And I asked that you would bring a quick healing to Adam and that you would keep the keeper from getting sick. In Lord, I ask that you would make your presence known in their home and in their lives. I know that you love them and I pray that you would touch them in a way that they would see you. Lord, I ask that you bless the Lifespring family now. Thank you for bringing them here today. Then may we be encouraged and challenged to acquire your wisdom. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Beloved, send in your prayer requests in your praises and do that at prayer dot Lifespring media.com.

Steve Webb 13:21
I always welcome your comments on the show. You can do that at Lifespring media.com/s 12 v 162. You can email me at Steve at Lifespring media.com with any comments or questions or whatever you want to say. And please do support the show at Lifespring media.com/support. Until tomorrow may God bless you richly. Thank you for being here. I’m Steve Webb, go after it. Bye

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