Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank God for the blessing of his Word and ask him to teach us to live by every word from his mouth.
Read
Scripture Passage
9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
For he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10 Do not remove the ancient landmark,
Nor enter the fields of the fatherless;
11 For their Redeemer is mighty;
He will plead their cause against you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction,
And your ears to words of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold correction from a child,
For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.
14 You shall beat him with a rod,
And deliver his soul from hell.
15 My son, if your heart is wise,
My heart will rejoice—indeed, I myself;
16 Yes, my inmost being will rejoice
When your lips speak right things.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Pr 23:9-16
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
The sayings warn against wasting wisdom on hardened fools and exploiting the fatherless, while urging wholehearted attention to instruction, faithful parental correction, and speech that rejoices a wise parent's heart.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Proverbs 23:12
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of wisdom
No explicit Best Verse selection is announced. Verse 12 is distilled because Bryan expands it into the central call to lean into God's Word, pay attention, and bury wisdom deeply in the heart.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do
Listen closely to God's Word, protect the vulnerable, receive wise correction, speak what is right, and carry the Word from heart into daily practice.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
welcome to god's word for you a ministry of sharon rp church in morningsun iowa check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org we pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the lord will use it to transform your faith and your life [Music] hey good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions that's where every day we get together we get into god's word and we grow in our love for the lord together do me a favor if this is something that you enjoy hit the like button send it to a friend just let other people know that this is helpful to you it'd be a big appreciation to me i know i don't ask you for that often but it just as a favor well let's go ahead and have some coffee we'll pray and we'll get into god's word let's pray father we thank you so much for this day what a rich blessing it is to get to read your word god we pray that you would let us not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from your mouth god we pray that you would bless us and teach us today in jesus name amen all right we're at proverbs chapter 23 verses 9 through 16. let's go ahead and turn over here to the computer together chapter 23 verses 9 through 16. do not speak in the hearing of a fool for he will despise the wisdom of your words don't speak in the hearing of fool what's the saying don't waste your breath you can talk and you can talk and you can talk to a fool but you're just wasting your words he's gonna despise the wisdom that you give him sometimes it's best with a foolish person be sharp and brief get to the point and get on with your day verses 10 and 11. do not remove the ancient landmark nor enter the fields of the fatherless for their redeemer is mighty he will plead their cause against you okay so what's going on here there's an orphan a boy and his dad has died agric uh agrarian society and he has a field his dad has given him maybe he's a teenage boy and he's working as hard as he can to scrape through he he works day and night he tries to go to to school and he tries to care for his family it's a hard life for this boy and he has a neighbor and his neighbor is tempted to just move the boundary line of the field a little bit over he's just a kid he doesn't know where the ancient boundary lines are he doesn't know where his dad's field ended he he was too busy playing with his friends but but now maybe i can just move it a few rows over just a few feet over and i can you know our family has been struggling don't do it don't do it stop right now hold on that fatherless boy his redeemer is god himself and as job said his redeemer is alive my redeemer lives god will judge what we do in secret god will judge and open this is one of those things and i'm going to speak here i don't know who's watching this and this is on the internet land everywhere everywhere i'm just going to say right now for those internet scammers who do phishing scams and ransomware scams and especially prey on the innocent the ignorant and the old god forbid what you are doing may you repent in sackcloth and ashes for what you do in secret to line your pockets god will judge in the open verse 12 apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of wisdom apply your heart to instruction your ears to words of wisdom pay attention lean in when you have god's words in front of you lean into them when you hear someone speaking and they're speaking truth pay attention bury it deep in your heart and get wisdom get understanding though it cost you everything verse 13 and 14. do not withhold correction from a child for if you beat him with a rod he will not die you shall beat him with a rod and deliver his soul from hell oh okay here we go it's all the backwardness of christianity and judaism see child abuse no no this is not what this is talking about what does ephesians chapter 6 tell us about fathers fathers do not provoke your children unto wrath this is not talking about corporal punishment that ends up hurting your child see the the commandment that children are to obey their parents is true right honor your mother and your father that your days may be long in the land which the lord your god is giving them and what's the other commandment that needs to be held intention it's not too far away do not murder so children need to respect the authority of their parents and parents need to preserve the life and well-being of their children these two are kept in tension and it's when they get out of tension when a father doesn't love his son anymore that his heart is is set for his destruction we looked at a proverb about that earlier but this is saying we have a nation full of spoiled brats who really could have used a spanking when they were when they were growing up i know i could have used some more loving discipleship on my rear end this is just the reality that if you spank a kid they're not going to die it doesn't give you a right to go and beat that child in all reality i'm telling you right now if you are a child and you hear this call the police if your parents are are beating you i'm not just talking about a spank every once in a while because you do something wrong but if they are laying blows on you if they're grabbing your hair if they are hitting you so hard that you have bruises on your body go tell your teacher go tell your pastor go get help if you are a parent doing this lord forbid that you provoke your children unto wrath i'm doing a lot of rebuking today i don't know why but this is what god's word says and it's pointed and it's hard but that's the reality children do need corporal punishment they need to learn in the greenhouse of life what the boundary lines of things are all right let's go ahead and keep on going verse 15. my son if your heart is wise my heart will rejoice indeed i myself yes in my in in my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak right things oh man i can't tell you how happy i am when nathan and deborah and daniel and ellie say things that are right it's like it's just like a well in my heart when i hear it just the other day or just the other hour i was getting some things ready to go on vacation by the way if you haven't noticed i'm not actually here this is a recording i'm on vacation i'm lord willing i'm safe but coming home from tennessee or something somewhere but as we were getting ready and deborah was on the bus i just heard her singing psalm 45 c about the bride being in her fine rainment and just my heart rejoices i just thought lord thank you thank you that the kids are listening thank you that they're hearing your word and that when we do family worship and they answer questions and or when we're doing coughing devotions and you've heard them and and they have words of wisdom my heart rejoices i'm so happy about it okay let's go ahead hold on is that where we're supposed to stop i think that is well i was just having so much fun in god's word with you today yeah so uh verses eight through or nine through 16. so that's where we'll stop for today i'm excited to see you tomorrow may the lord bless you may he watch over you may these words live in your heart but not just stop in your heart may you live them out in your life i'll see you tomorrow bye [Music] thanks for listening to this week's message from god's word for you a ministry of sharon rp church in rural southeast iowa we pray that the message would be used by god to transform your faith in your life this week if you'd like to get more information about us feel free to go to the website sharonrpc.org we'd love to invite you to worship with us our worship time is 10 a.m every sunday at 25 204 160th avenue morningsun iowa 526-40 may god richly bless you this week [Music]