Proverbs 4:7 (1/10/24)

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Proverbs 4:7 (1/10/24)

Getting Wisdom

January 10, 2024 • Benham Brothers • Proverbs 4:7

* Last week we talked about the beginning of wisdom - fearing God.

* Knowing that disobedience brings pain is the starting block.

* In this verse, we see another aspect of how to get wisdom:

* vs 7 - “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom…”

* You have to want it to get it!

* The process of acquiring wisdom starts with wanting to be wise.

* If you “really” want it, then you’ll GO GET IT!”

* You’ll go after it like you would a priceless treasure.

* You will have what you pursue.

* Getting wisdom is just like a husband getting a wife.

* He must desire her and earnestly pursue her.

* Practically, how do we get it?

* EX: Prize in cereal box - you have to eat your way through it to get it.

* Devour the Word, get the prize.

* EX: - For me, it looks like reading a Proverb every single day since I was 18.

* I’ve read Proverbs the book of wisdom, 360 times!

* Practically, it works like this - if you want anything in your life, you need three things:

* 1) Discipline - doing what you don’t want to accomplish what you do want.

* 2) Diligence - the consistent application of discipline even when you don’t see results.

* 3) Determination - a burning desire for the thing.

* Make the acquisition of wisdom your main goal and watch what happens.

Proverbs 1:7 (1/3/24)

January 3, 2024 • Benham Brothers • Proverbs 1:7–8

* Proverbs teaches us that fearing God is the BEGINNING of knowledge and wisdom. * vs 7 - “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…” * Fear is the starting block. * I’ve raised four kids, and one of the first things I taught them is what “not” to do. * You don’t put the fork in the electrical outlet. * You don’t put your face in the dog’s bowl when he’s trying to eat. * You don’t put your finger in the drain of a sink if you’re sitting on the counter. * Then I attached punishment if they did these things. * Why? Because they have to attach disobedience to pain. * This taps into the “pain / pleasure” aspect of their nature. * At our core, we move away from pain and toward pleasure. * To get the good you first have to know what’s bad. * Once you learn that disobedience brings pain, all knowledge is built on top of that. * This is where fearing God comes in. * Disobeying Him brings pain. * That’s why He created boundaries (like the garden). * In the Garden - “Don’t eat from that tree.” * God’s blessings are found inside God’s boundaries. * Remove the boundaries and blessings are replaced with burdens. * When we honor God thru obedience, He not only gives us His blessings but we also get His knowledge! * Proverbs 1:23 - “Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings.” * Tony Evans - “To have true knowledge is to perceive the right nature of a thing, and it is not possible to be truly wise without fearing the Lord. This doesn’t mean walking around feeling terrified of God. It means holding him in reverence, taking him seriously. Proverbs teaches that all true wisdom and knowledge is rooted in God and his Word, and it urges us to cultivate a fear of God through a relationship with him.” * Fearing God is being motivated to live a Holy lifestyle. * John Bevere says fearing God is all about a fear of doing life without Him. * NOTE - vs 7 is all about fearing God and the very next verse (vs 8) is about honoring your parents. * vs 8 - “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” * Fearing God and honoring parents go hand-in-hand. * In the 10 Commandments, the first four deal with fearing God, the 5th is about honoring parents, and the next five are about honoring others. * It goes in that order, which keeps you aligned with the property authority structure.

Proverbs 1:7 (8/9/17)

August 10, 2017 • Benham Brothers

* Wisdom is the marriage of knowledge (that which is true) with understanding. * The way the two hook up is through experience (your own or someone else’s). * It’s like a bow tie - experience is the knot that binds the two loops into one. * But for it to be true wisdom, it has to be exercised. * I knew how tall the Empire State building was, but I understood it when I visited there. * I now had wisdom, so long as I didn’t climb the fence to get to the other side! * KEY (vs 7) - To get wisdom, it begins with the fear of God. (Prov 9:10) * Why? * Because becoming wise always begins with a person. * When my kids were young they didn’t know why they shouldn’t do something - they just knew me and had to learn to trust me. * In time they are coming to realize the wisdom of my instruction. * But it began with a proper fear of me as dad. * Notice these two verses: vs 23 & 33 - the focus is on God - He will teach you wisdom. * the verses in between these two are all about a person who refuses to listen to God. * Proverbs 2:1-5 - it’s in the search that you understand the fear of the Lord. * When we fear God we grow in knowledge and understanding - this makes us wise! * Just like the men of Issachar who understood the times and knew what Israel should do. * True Wisdom - having the mind of Christ.

Proverbs 1:22 (8/9/18)

August 9, 2018 • Benham Brothers

* There are three classes of sinner: * 1) Simple - naive people who believe anything but examine nothing. They stare blankly at you when you present truth. * 2) Scorners - they think they know everything and laugh at things that are important. They sneer at you when you present truth. * 3) Fools - they have no spiritual desire and only care about themselves. They snarl at you when you present truth.