- As we begin our series over the next couple of months, it's Proverbs, Wisdom for Life. And I want to ask right away that you please take a Bible out and I want you to go to the Book of Proverbs chapter one. Now you can do so with your electronic version, takes the Bible in front of you. Maybe it was a Bible you brought in here but I want everybody going to Proverbs chapter one this morning. We're gonna take a look at a few of the verses that are found there as we kind of lay the stage and look at the context of what this book brings to us. Now, I must say right off the bat, boy, do we need wisdom in today's world. When you look at the global events, when you look at the local events and national events, we need divine wisdom. We need wisdom for life. We need wisdom for the average everyday things of life which this book gives us. But while do we need life. Our leadership needs wisdom. Washington needs wisdom. Our state government needs wisdom and we certainly do as we seek to live out the kind of life that is portrayed here in this book. And so today, we're gonna begin to take a look at the first seven verses, which really lay out for us an understanding of what Proverbs does for us. Look down at verse one. "The Proverbs of Solomon son of David, King of Israel. "To know wisdom and instruction, "to understand words of insight. "To receive instruction in wise dealing, "in righteousness, justice, and equity. "To give prudence to the simple, "knowledge and discretion to the youth. "Let the wise hear and increase in learning, "and the one who understands obtain guidance "to understand a proverb and a saying, "the words of the wise and their riddles. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, "fools despise wisdom and instruction." As we jump into this book, a couple of questions go through my mind. Perhaps they've gone through your mind as we start to look at what it really offers us. And we're struck right away with this word proverb and we must understand what it actually means before we start looking at what these Proverbs provide for us. The word proverb actually comes from a Hebrew noun which means to resemble, to be like or to represent. And a proverb is a short saying, some people refer to it as a maxim. But it is a small model, a representation, an illustration, a collection of thoughts, but it is a small representation of the reality of life. The way life really should be lived or those things in life that should be avoided. So in just a couple of lines, you get a wonderful gold nugget of how life really should be lived and those things that need to be avoided. The world says to live and learn. How many of you have heard that phrase before? Live and learn. God's Word says, "Learn and live." That's the difference. So when we look at wisdom, God's Word tells us these are the things you need to learn and then you need to live accordingly. Now there's a number of Proverbs that are found in this book. And over the next several weeks, we're going to encounter many of them by way of topics in terms of parenting and money and laziness and work and all of the stuff that maybe perhaps you've already been familiar with. And if not, you'll begin to see it as a collection of wonderful things that have been provided for us through one primary author, Solomon, but there are other authors as well. That's why it's referred to as an anthology. This is a book that offers to us practical advice and wisdom for the average everyday stuff that we encounter in life. Dealing with money? There's wisdom here. Dealing with fools? There's wisdom here. Dealing with work? There's wisdom here. Dealing with all kinds of issues of life, this book provides it for us in the form of these short proverbs, the way life is to be lived. But there's another question that comes up, and that is, why should I study Proverbs? Obviously I've already mentioned, we live in a world whereby wisdom is definitely needed. But there's a bigger reason for it. I wonder if this is gonna catch you by surprise. It certainly did me as I kind of jumped into this book. Oftentimes I've looked at Proverbs throughout my years as, wow, this is wonderful pieces of information. It's gonna tell me how to handle money. I hate money by the way. And it's gonna tell me how to make wise investments. It's gonna tell me how to respond to someone in anger. It's gonna show me how to be a good parent. But it is much, much bigger than that. And this is gonna catch some of you by surprise. The Book of Proverbs actually unpacks for us the grand narrative, the grand story of God's redemption. And here's how. When you read through the Book of Proverbs, you are immediately struck with the way life was meant to be lived. You go through this book and it will describe this is what life was supposed to be like. What does that remind you of? It reminds you of creation. It reminds you of the fact that we, as people, were created in the image of God to live a certain way, and that way is portrayed for us in this book in terms of how to live. However, if you're like me, you read through these Proverbs and what ends up happening? You say, I'm not living that way. Because it also reminds you of the impact that sin has had on our world and our planet and in our own life. Because we read through this depiction, these Proverbs and it tells us how life was supposed to be lived but it also reveals for us sin and temptation and greed and power and anger. And you all of a sudden have this reaction when you read this book of, wow, this is the way life was supposed to be lived but I'm coming up short in a whole lot of areas. And man, do I need this book? And then the question comes up in your mind, how on earth can I get the help in order to live this kind of life that is given to us? And we are reminded of the person who enables us to live this way if you look down at verse one. "The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, King of Israel." Now, right away, I'm not suggesting that it is Solomon or David who teaches us how to do this. What I'm suggesting is that they pointed to one greater to come who would be able to teach us how to do this. By the time you turn to the New Testament, for those of us that are followers of Jesus Christ, you've probably been there. You've read Matthew chapter one. You've started with all of these names and you couldn't pronounce them. And what did you do? You skip to chapter two. You just kind of blow right by it. But in Matthew chapter one, we have an insight to why the Book of Proverbs is given to us because it is the lineage of Jesus Christ. And a couple of highlights really bring out the point. Because in Matthew chapter one, Matthew is describing Jesus Christ as the king who is worthy to be our Messiah, who sits on the Davidic throne to rule is actually the son of Solomon, who's the son of King David. And why is that the case? Because in the Old Testament, David was given a promise that he would have the Messiah come from his lineage. And then by the time you go to the last Gospel that is written for us in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and again, it's chapter one. Matthew chapter one gives us the lineage, John chapter one starts out house. Some of you know this, right? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, "and the word was God." And then later on in chapter one, it says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." The Word there is the divine Word, the divine Son of God. Now put those two pieces together. What we find packed into verse one, even though the name of Jesus is not mentioned, He is fully there. Because we understand that Jesus Christ is the greater David the greater Solomon to come who would be the Messiah, who was Word of God who actually gave and inspired the very words that are contained in this book, who wrapped Himself in flesh. And not only inspired these words but lived them out before us. Solomon in the Old Testament said, "I can't lead this nation. "God, I need your wisdom." And what happened? God gave him wisdom. Actually he said, "God, you gave me a wish. "I need this direction from you to lead this nation." And God said, "I will grant you wisdom." He didn't ask for riches, he didn't ask for power. He said, "I need insight. "I need understanding." And God gave it to him. Gave him truth and it was the divine Word of God that inspired it. 2nd Timothy chapter three verse 16 says, "All Scripture is inspired by God." So when you encounter the trues of this book, you need to understand you are actually reading wisdom and truth from God. And we know that all truth is based upon the divine character of God. You're reading the very heart of God when you go through this book. And then what is amazing to me is "The word became flesh." Not only did Jesus inspire it, Jesus wrapped himself in flesh, came to this planet and actually lived the kind of life before us to demonstrate how we are to live this life. And the reason why He did that is because, as I've already discussed, we've come face to face with the reality of the sinful effects and our own depravity in this life and we say, God, I need help to do this. And in verse one, we're reminded that the greater son of David, the greater son of Solomon who's actually Jesus on the earth actually said, "One who is greater than Solomon is in your midst." He's saying, I'm here to live out this truth. And he did it so perfectly as the divine Son of God. He went to a cross in order to be the perfect sacrifice for our sin so our sin would be paid for. He was raised again three days later so that now his new, as we're just saying, living hope His resurrected life is lived in and through us. And it is by surrendering to the Lord Jesus Christ, which is exactly what verse seven says. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." We'll come back to that in a minute. But it is surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is packed full in Proverbs demonstrating to us not only how to live, but doing what we could never do, going to a cross and paying the price for our sins so that by trusting in Him as Savior and Lord, He lives His resurrected life in and through us. So if you wanna live this way, it's turning to the Lord Jesus. Now, if you're like me, when I started this study, I didn't see all that coming. So this book is loaded with the person of Christ, even though he's not even mentioned by name. Paul put it this way in Colossians chapter two verse three because he understood it. As a matter of fact, Paul probably had most of the Old Testament memorized. He said," In whom Jesus are hidden," what? "All the treasures of," what? "Wisdom and knowledge." Because "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us "and lived out grace and truth." Corinthians, Paul wrote this. He said, "And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, "who became to us," notice that. "Who became to us wisdom from God," fleshed out conveying grace and truth. "Righteousness," it says, "and sanctification and redemption," because we needed it in order to live the kind of life, a redemptive life. And once again, we see that Proverbs is placed specifically here for us to understand the cross, the resurrected new life and this incredible wonderful plan of God's redemption, His story of redeeming you, saving you and enabling you to live the kind of life you never could apart from Him. Now, don't go to chapter eight, do that this next week. But it is fascinating when you get into this book and you get into Proverbs chapter eight. Let me give you the highlights because wisdom is actually personified. It is seen as perfection. It is seen as divine. It is the source of biological and spiritual life. It is defined as righteous and moral and it's available to anyone willing to receive it. Who does that sound like? It's Jesus. It's just right in the book. It's all laid out for us. And so we study it to understand God's divine plan for our life, reminding ourselves of the cross and the resurrection and what it means to trust in Him. Now, as we work our way through this book, there's a couple of goals that Solomon, at least he wrote the first parts of it here, tells us. And both of those goals are packed into verse two. If you'll look there. Proverbs chapter one verse two actually says the first goal is the first line, "To know wisdom and instruction." And he's really referring to deep character development in our life. It's unpacked with verses three, four, and five. You'll notice a similar word "To know wisdom and instruction." And then he picks up on that word instruction again in verse three to show it's a parallel thought, unpacking the idea "to receive instruction." We'll come back to that in just a second. And then the second line of verse two is really the second purpose or goal, I should say, "To understand words of insight." There's something there in these Proverbs that allows us to develop the kind of character God is after but also to think. To think differently, to have insight, to have straight thinking is the idea. And that idea is unpacked in verse six. You'll see a similar word. "To understand a proverb and a saying, "the words of the wise and their riddles." So it just comes together in this beautiful picture of what God is doing and saying. So look back up at verse two and let's go through the three words that are mentioned there. First off, he says "To know." That word is not intellectual knowledge. It's actually experiential knowledge. And it ties into the very next word, which is, wisdom. Now the word wisdom, now we have one word in English, wisdom but there's a couple of different Hebrew words they're found throughout the book. However, the primary word or Hebrew word that gives us our English word for wisdom is the word that's used here, and it's used 45 different times throughout the Book of Proverbs. And it actually means this. It has at its base meaning skill, skill, like a craftsman doing something. This Hebrew word was used in the Old Testament to describe how the craftsmen actually formed the priestly garments that the priest would use in the Old Testament. They had great skill in doing so. It describes how someone is able to navigate throughout the oceans back then. They had great skill to read the stars and know where they were going so that they could follow the path they needed to get to the next destination. And the idea is skill. So when you think of wisdom, wisdom or biblical wisdom is the application of knowledge lived out, not up here, but in life. It's the application of knowledge that develops the skill of Godly living. Let me say it, even in a shorter phrase. Wisdom is practical, skillful, Godly living. That's what he's after. Now, in order to do that, to have that kind of skill in life, it takes effort and work because nothing that is that rewarding just happens by accident. It takes something else and that's that third word in the first line of verse two. He actually says, "To know wisdom and instruction." The word instruction means discipline. Not just correction for things that you've done wrong, that's part of it, but it is the discipline, the fortitude of life. And it actually refers to moral training. The idea here is that we develop skill, the skill of Godly living. We experience it in life, but that happens through moral training and that moral training or instruction is provided to us with these proverbs that are given. Now, some of you are familiar with athletics. If you were to take the most talented individuals and put them on a baseball diamond or a football field, if they were just to go out and play the game however they wanted, they'd lose the game, okay. It doesn't matter how defeated they are. They won the genetic lottery but they're not going to win the game unless is a coach that does what? In wisdom, draws together the talent so that they can channel it in the right direction and even make adjustments along the way depending on what the opponent does so that he takes that collection of talent with wisdom, moves it in the right direction, designs the plays so that they can actually win the game. That's the idea of what he's saying here. To experience this in life, there's skill, and it happens with moral training, and Proverbs provides that. Now, who are to reflect when we do this? Well, we reflect to the Lord Jesus Christ 'cause as I've already told you, when we live out these principles, we're reflecting the very heart and the very character of God. That's the idea. One person define wisdom as exhibiting the very character of God in the many practical affairs of life. I love that. Exhibiting this life. Now, who best teaches this? Obviously it was Jesus. We've already connected that dot for you. One of the greatest passages to go through, and I'd encourage you to do it as we go through the Book of Proverbs, is go to Matthew five, six, and seven. It's called the Sermon on the Mount based on the location that Jesus was in. But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is telling us about how to live the kingdom life as we bow our lives to the king. And he starts out with saying, "Blessed are you." And these are my words but when you're totally spiritually bankrupt and you realize you need redemption and you need hope. And when you do, you encounter this relationship with God through Jesus who came as Messiah and King and then you begin to live the kind of kingdom life He calls us to. And it's interesting because just a few verses later, he says, "As you live this kind of wise kingdom life, "you are to be," what? Some of you know this to be true, "Salt and light in your world." You know what that is? That's redemptive value. When you live out this kind of kingdom life in this world that so desperately needs it, when you reflect the truth and the character of God, you have redemptive value in the lives of others who desperately need hope, and that hope can only be found through Christ. There's redemptive value in living that way. Now, it's not just redemptive value as we live these topics out throughout the rest of the summer as you learn how to do it, it's not just redemptive value for those who need Christ, it's redemptive value for you and me. And I want you to see how practical this is. That's why when we come to Proverbs 27:17, it says what? "Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." What's he talking about there? As we live in community, as we live out the character of Christ, we learn from one another. And as a result of that, we find the very redemptive value in the common average, everyday affairs of life. It's wisdom for life. That's his whole point here. We come to a parenting verse, which we'll encounter in a couple of weeks, Proverbs 22:6. Some of you have kids. Some of you have grandkids. Some of you might even have great grandkids. And what does he say? "Train up a child in the way he should go "and he will not depart from it." It's a wise saying, we'll unpack it in just a little bit but the word train has the idea. The way that that child is wired, we provide them as a parent, as a grandparent, as a great grandparent moral training so that they have the idea of understanding what it means to skillfully live out this life that God has given to us. Takes work, takes effort, but we train them to live out the character, the heart of God in a world that we will never see. So as we kinda summarize all of this, Proverbs helps us understand how much we really need the Lord Jesus in our lives. And then, how do we transfer that on to someone else? Now, let me ask you a question. For some of you, you're parents, right? Did you ever get to that point in your parenthood where you'd say, God, I need you to show up right now this middle school student just showed up and I have no idea who this person is? Anybody ever felt that before? Yeah. Those are when you get on your knees before God and say, God, I need you to form my character first and then give me the wisdom to pass that off to the next generation. And that's why I've summarized it this way that this first goal is to develop the very character of Christ in our life. That's the idea. To have deep character that changes us and transforms us. So what is the first step to develop this kind of character? Well, he unpacks it in verses three and then four. First is that keyword, receive. This is the idea of, "To receive instruction and wise dealing" means that we're willing to accept the truth, and it's this idea. Every time you read through this book and you read these Proverbs, here's your prayer. Lord, stir in my heart and make me hear what you want me to hear. Move in my heart and in my life so that I've got a heart that is willing to receive the instruction that you give me so that I can be wise and have righteousness, justice and equity which is passed or unpacked throughout the rest of the book. So it starts with this reception. That's the first step to developing this character. But then that's from the heres perspective. If you look at verse four, this is actually given from the teacher's perspective. And there are a couple of benefits to give what, prudence. That word actually means shrewdness. And to summarize that word in English, it actually refers to the tactics that will give you success in life in a good way. You will read the tactics or the skills that enable you to develop skillful, Godly living. Proverbs provides that for you. And then the benefit is knowledge, he says. Now this is knowledge where, again, it's not just intellectual, it's the ability to look at the facts and evaluate them so that you can begin to understand what real objective truth is and differentiate it between moral relativism. This is where Proverbs always gives us either a right path or a wrong path. I don't know whoever created this silly phrase that's popular today, but there is no such thing as your version of the truth. I'm tired. It's just a lie. It's not true. There is a truth. And that truth flows from God's wisdom, which is connected to His heart, which is connected to His character. The foundation of truth is objective. It is not subjective. It is not relative to time. And it is transcultural. It is beyond time because it's based on the infinite creator of the universe. And so the idea is knowledge helps us understand that right path to go it's objective truth. And then the next benefit is discretion. The idea here as we unpack these terms, it means the ability to devise plans. After you understand objective truth, after you understand with insight what it is, after you begin to understand what it looks like, then you can begin to develop the ability to make wise plans to live the Godly life. So it all unpacks this idea of wisdom as the skill of Godly living. You combine it all, it means to understand and become aware of how life really is based on God's truth and not our own. Again, it's learning and then living and helping us move from the simple, he says, from a youth, from a child to a more mature understanding of life and how to live with the character of God. And then verse five comes along. And actually this provides something for all of us because verse five really is a parenthesis here. It kind of adds an addendum to this whole idea. "Let the wise hear," okay, that's the word shama. The Hebrew word for shama actually means to listen, but also to obey. That's the idea. So he says, "Let the wise hear," to listen, but then move towards obedience. Again, it's practically applying it out so that there's an increase in learning. You know what he's saying here is nobody has arrived. We all have to have a teachable spirit. So as we encounter these Proverbs, we all have something to learn here. To remain teachable, to remain humble in our life as we develop the character of Christ. Well, there's a second goal that shows up and that is what I like to refer to as developing the very mind of Christ. If you look at the second part of verse two again, "To understand words of insight," and then go down to verse six, "To understand, same word, "a proverb and a saying, "the words of the wise and their riddles." The idea here is that a proverb is given for us to think about life, to ponder, to wonder about the truths that are contained. It stretches your thinking. It moves you into a realm so you can begin to understand. And he actually uses a couple of key words, which we'll get to in a minute, how to respond appropriately in a situation. Now for a follower of Jesus Christ, you got to remember, Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 2:16, that "We actually have the mind of Christ." As a follower of Christ, you now have the ability to see truth, but here's the catch. When it says that you have the mind of Christ, you're not only given the ability through the power of the Holy Spirit, the living Lord, Jesus Christ, who lives in you, the opportunity and ability to see truth, you're also given the resurrected power to obey that truth. Again, it fits so nicely into these Hebrew words like shama, to listen and obey, to walk in truth, to live out the character of Christ. It flows together. And the idea here is again picked up by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 12 verse two, where he says that you need to continue to experience life transformation but that life transformation happens by the renewal of your mind so that you begin to think as Jesus would think. And when you apply those truths to life, you're given a lens with colors to see the nuances of life so that you begin to understand things differently and have insight. Now, those two words are powerful because the word understand actually means to have proper evaluation and discernment. That's the idea. The proverb is given to you, the Holy Spirit empowers you to begin to think differently and have the ability to discern in different circumstances so that the non-obvious becomes obvious. And quite frankly, when you combine this idea of understanding and insight or discernment, the idea is to discern between the ambiguities of life. That's what Proverbs does. It teaches you principles but it gives you the ability to ponder, to think about, to wonder, to let them sift through your mind. And then as you look at the ambiguities of life, you're able to make some distinctions. Let me illustrate it this way. How many of you like good coffee? I do. I'm a snob, okay, when it comes to coffee. And I like really good coffee. And now let me ask another question and this is going, I'm gonna be in trouble here, but how many of you slurp? The word is slurp your coffee. Any slurpers? Okay, a couple. Thank you very much. I'm a slurper. My family doesn't like it, but I'm up earlier than they do so I slurp as much as I wanna slurp. All right. And why do I do that? It allows me to sense and taste the flavors of the coffee beans from all over the world. I love that. Now some of you are really into wine, okay? This is probably maybe even a better one for some of you. When you go through wine tasting, what happens? You begin to taste the different flavors and where the grapes were grown and all the nuances if you're really into wine, okay? I'm not. But if you are, then that's what happens, you gain those nuances. That's the idea of a proverb. You let it filter through your mind. You think about it. You wonder, you ponder. You think about how it applies to life so that you begin to have the ambiguities. Let's illustrate it from the person of Jesus Christ. When he was on the earth, he oftentimes ran into trouble with religious officials and they tried to trip him up. What happened? He would always have something whereby they were walking away with their tail between their legs. Now, he was the Son of God so he had a little bit of an advantage on us, okay. But he does convey to us His truth right here so that when we get into those ambiguous moments of life, we go back to the truth. It gives us the ability to respond in the ambiguities of life. Actually, Luke two tells us that Jesus, the divine son of God grew in wisdom. It doesn't mean that he became God, He was God. But He wrapped himself in flesh and he lived out his wisdom based on His character in the average affairs of life before us. That's kind of the idea. The best kind of parenting is not telling your kids what to do with life. The best kind of parenting is let them figure it out. You coach them, you guide them, you prepare them. There's a time for protecting, there's a time of preparing. But you allow them to enter into situations where you don't tell them what to do. You let them grapple with those principles to wrestle with life so that they begin to see how to apply these principles to life. We're going to encounter one of these next week when we come back to the issue of poor. There's a lot to say about poor and injustice and those kinds of things within the Book of Proverbs. But we're also gonna have to think about this from a New Testament perspective, where Paul comes along and he says, "If you don't work, you don't eat." Well, there's an ambiguity there in life. You come across a homeless person, how do you respond in a way that actually moves them in the right direction? How do you think through how to live with the love of Christ in the world in which we find ourselves? Well, Proverbs is going to give us the ability to navigate, to think differently, to have the mind of Christ to understand what He would do and how He would live and then have our brain stretched under the power of the Holy Spirit, and then begin to learn how to develop the character of Christ in our life. And it is Proverbs that helps us do all of this. Well, we have one final question that I think is really important. How do we begin? Well, that's verse seven. He says there, "The fear of the Lord "is the beginning of knowledge, "fools despise wisdom and instruction." This is the theme verse of the entire book. Proverbs tells us that this begins with a relationship with God. And Proverbs actually levels the playing field because this is given to all of us. We all need Jesus and then we all can choose this path of wisdom. The word fear is actually brought up or this concept of fear of the Lord 18 different times throughout the book. It's really unpacked. And it simply means this. The fear of the Lord, it's different than how we normally think of the word fear running in judgment for punishment. For a follower of Jesus Christ, the punishment for our sin was placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. So God's wrath was poured out on Jesus. So now I am called a child of God because my faith rest securely in the person in the work of Jesus Christ. As a result of that, fear now takes on a new dimension. Biblical fear actually means awe and worship and wonder of yes, the creator, God who's in charge of everything, who yes, could punish but poured his punishment upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And because of that, He changes my motives, He changes my motivations. So now I enter into this loving relationship with my Heavenly Father as a child who desires to please Him. That's core of what it means to fear the Lord. I desire, I acknowledge the fact. I don't wanna displease my Heavenly Father but my motivation is now not running from the fear of judgment, but running to Him out of love because I know that when I don't obey, I displease Him. And my core desire is awe and worship of this creator. I just wanna love him and I want to please Him in all I do. The word fear has been described as the affectionate reverence by which a child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father's commands and desires. It is a holy watchfulness. I love that phrase. It is a holy watchfulness through life of saying, how can I live this life out with redemptive value the way Jesus would live? Now, we have another part or dimension of fear found in the word despise. And this illustrates what Proverbs oftentimes does. It gives us a truth. The first line is oftentimes contrasted or compared with the second line. That's wisdom literature. And in this case, it's a contrast. The word despise means I'm not teachable. I'm arrogant, I'm prideful, I'm running from instruction. However, it is the fear of the Lord that says, wait a minute I'm gonna swallow my pride, I'm gonna have a teachable pliable heart. So when I have the fear of the Lord, I have reverence and awe and worship, yes. He's my creator, yes, but there is a desire to please Him from a teachable, humble heart, a pliable heart. That's what it means to fear the Lord. And really, quite frankly, it's a new beginning for all of us because regardless of how you've lived your life prior to embarking the Book of Proverbs, you can start afresh in a new and we can begin this journey together. That's what I love about this book. There's always a wonderful place to start. There's always more for us to learn. And it all fits into the redemptive grand story of God's plan. When we leave God out, we really make a mess of things. It's pretty obvious. And yet when we submit our life to Jesus Christ, we begin to experience the power of the resurrection. And then as we begin to live out His character, this is where the gospel gains traction in our life, begins to flush things out at the dinner table, in work relationships. How I respond to people in my neighborhood, the words that come out of my mouth are lived with redemptive value because I'm living out the very character of Christ as I respond to someone. As we deal with the issue of the poor next week, as we talk about injustices in life, it's the practical wisdom for life but I'm living my life with redemptive value. And that's where it takes root. Well, here's our desire as we wrap this up and as you look at Proverbs. We're gonna be covering a number of different topics but I wanted to lay the big grand with brush strokes idea of what Proverbs is so that you can understand these topics in context. Here they are. Our desire is that when we finish this and all the way through it that you would fall in love with Jesus more and live like him as salt and light. We want you to say, Jesus, thank you for living this way, but I wanna fall in love with you and follow you and learn from you. And as we read the very heart of God given to us, you're gonna have that reaction as we work through the Book of Proverbs. And then living it out as salt and light leads us to the next point, to see the redemptive value in all of your life. As a parent, as a coworker, as a neighbor, as a friend, how do we live out these principles so that I'm experiencing the very power of God's resurrection in the average everyday affairs of life. That's the redemptive value that life gives us now. And number three, to have discerning insight into life and ultimately live for the glory of Christ. That's what Jesus did. He lived the life before us. This life of wisdom is lived for the glory of God and not myself. And number four, to develop a community of relationships with those pursuing Christ. What you're gonna find is as we work our way through this, hey, would you please tell me why you're so good at handling money? I stink at handling money. That's why I don't handle money in my house. So if I talk with you, you're gonna be able to help me and I'm gonna be able to help you. So we live life in community as we understand God's truth. And you'll be able to have those kinds of conversations as we talk about discerning with the mind of Christ developing the character of Christ within community as we walk down this road together. And then finally, number five, to find satisfaction as you live a life worth living. There's great reward for living this way, Proverbs 19:23. And then we're back up here to number one. Because as you fall in love with Jesus more and more, as you live like Him, as you reflect His glory, what are you doing? You are finding the kind of satisfaction that God wants for you created in His image as his child living out this kind of skillful godly living as you reflect the very heart and the character of Christ in all you do. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the power of your Word and the truth that is oftentimes revealed to us in so many different facets of our lives. And Lord, as we take time over the next several weeks and we look at various topics of life and how to live in this life, I pray that you would show us how Jesus lived and then give us His character, give us His mind, and then give us that moral fortitude, that training, Lord, through the power of your Holy Spirit so that we might experience this new living hope, this resurrected life. You've called us to offer hope to our world to walk this journey together. And I thank you for the power of this book that will teach us how. And we do it all for your glory. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.