Proverbs 24:1-6

All right, had to reload the page, that's fine. Well, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day we get together. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. Let's have some coffee, pray, and we'll look at the six verses of Proverbs 24 to start with this morning. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to follow you. Be our teacher this morning. Enlighten our minds. In Jesus' name, amen. Proverbs chapter 24, the first six verses.
Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their heart devises violence and their lips talk of troublemaking. Don't go with people who want to cause trouble. Don't go with people who are desiring to cause violence. My mind immediately runs to those who were hell-bent, as I've been reading through the book of John, just in the original Greek, over and over, and just thinking and praying about the life and ministry of Jesus. how many people just wanted to kill him, how often they picked up stones to throw at him. They took counsel together what to do, even so much so that when Lazarus was raised from the dead and people started to believe in Jesus because they saw Lazarus, this guy who is dead, but now it's alive, what do they want to do? Well, we should take care of Lazarus as well. Don't take counsel with men who are given over to violence, who have their lips for troublemaking. Verses three and four. Through wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established. By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
So how are you building up your house? What's the house of your life look like? How are you building up your life as you look for a spouse and you're setting that stone and as you look at your retirement and you put that stone there and as you look at raising your children and you put that stone there and you think about where you're going to live and you put that stone there, as you look through your life, how are you making your decisions? Where are you going? to determine things.
Well, the Proverbs here is saying, through wisdom a house is built, through planning, through diligence, through experience, through listening to others and gaining knowledge and then starting that process of building. By understanding, it is established. By knowledge, the rooms are filled with all pleasant and precious riches. If you want to have a house filled, a life filled with pleasant riches, do it by wisdom. Fill the rooms by understanding. Don't lean on your own wisdom, don't lean on your own understanding, but go to the Lord. Follow his paths. Let's go ahead and keep going.
Verses five and six, a wise man is strong. Yes, a man of knowledge increases strength, for by wise counsel you will wage your own war, and in a multitude of counselors there is safety. This is the interesting thing. Many wise men, sorry, many strong men in our culture, many guys who you look to and you're like, man, they really know what they're doing and they just plow ahead.
They don't care about what anybody is saying. This is saying, no, no, that's not the strong guy you want to follow. The one who's strong isn't the one who is strong in his muscles or who is strong because of his willpower, but it's the one who has strength because they'll actually listen. Because they'll take the Word of God and they'll take the wisdom that they find and that he has given to others, this understanding, and he'll store it up in his heart. And then he'll humble himself and take counsel. the multitude of counselors there's much wisdom.
I love our church. I'm not going to hide it. I'm not ashamed of it. I love our church. One of the things I love most about our church is the elders and the deacons. I love having elders who are decades and decades older than me and are able to speak wisdom into my life. There have been many times in my short time here at Sharon that I had an idea or something that I thought we should go this way and then I go into the elder meeting or I go into the elder and deacon meeting and all of a sudden there's these other avenues. I didn't even realize those streets were paved and ended up that those were the wise ways to go. the multitude of counselors. There is much wisdom. Don't lean on your own understanding. You need to go out and find those wise counselors. This is where, again, Solomon's son. Solomon's son does this, but what is his failure? What does Jeroboam do? He doesn't listen to the old wise men, but he goes and listens to his young buddies. You need to be strong with them. You need to powerhouse them back in. Arm wrestle them down. I got more strength in my pinky than my dad did in his whole waist.
And the old guys are sitting there going, you're going to lose them. People are going to turn from you. They're going to hate you. We have a disdain in our society. People don't like to take counsel from other people. They want to follow their own heart. Even though people who have walked those hard roads will tell you time and time again, it leads to sorrow. It leads to destruction. This is the path you should go.
In our culture, we disdain the wisdom of the gray-headed people, old, outdated. We want the new and fresh. I'll tell you what, I'll stick with the word of the Lord. I'll stick to the old paths. Not the traditional paths, just because they're old and traditional. But where do we get wisdom?
In the fear of the Lord. That's the beginning of wisdom. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that in the multitude of counselors there is much wisdom. God, we pray that we would build our lives, our houses, our own hearts, our faith, Lord, in wisdom. We pray that we would not follow our own devices, but you would teach us understanding. that we might walk before you and have our houses filled with riches, not riches of this world, but the riches that come from joy in following your ways. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you build your house upon the rock of Jesus Christ. May you walk in wisdom and always be filled with the joy of the Lord. I'll see you tomorrow, bye.