Proverbs 15:16

Learning the fear of the Lord

Great time of prayer. Amen. Coming out of the bullpen tonight for this one. But it's good to be with you all. Let's pray real quickly. Father, we love you tonight. Bless this time as we commit it to you. Jesus name we pray. Amen. Turn to Proverbs 15, 16, please. I'll read it for us.

Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.

one of the almost 20 better than verses in Proverbs. There's a bit of a balance with the verse that precedes this as well as the verse that follows this. But I want us just to focus on this particular verse. Nothing else, you won't hear another verse different from this come out of my mouth. I'm imagining David Helm sitting in the back. Inside joke. Relative values are expressed here. But if a choice must be made, there's no question which is more valuable. And we're talking about making choices. And when we make those choices, What choices do we make and why do we make those? We're talking about setting priorities, spiritual and temporal. In a variation on the theme, this verse suggests that poverty with spiritual gain is better than spiritual poverty with economic gain. We're always, as you know, in a learning environment every time that we open his word. So we are learning lessons here as we open Proverbs to 15, 16. There are five markers. as we are learning tonight. Five markers. Number one is scripture. 15, 16 is counsel in motion. We read what is better than. How do we receive counsel from his word? When we read that, What happens? How do we take that? How do we interpret that? How do we apply that? Does scripture validate our experiences or do we personalize scripture with our experiences? How are we learning to analyze, to interpret, and to apply scripture to our lives. Number two, stewardship. Doesn't matter whether we have a little or a lot. How do we steward what we have? Do we steward it well? What is your attitude and approach? to the resources that we've been given, contentment or envious discontentment. Maybe we're bothered by what we have if it's a little, or we're fine, but we add that we want to give our kids everything. Maybe there are some of the soft prosperity folks who, when they're reading Proverbs 15, 16, they want to be blessed so they can be a blessing to others. There's certainly some truth here, but it's a real slippery slope. And ultimately, we know that the fear of the Lord brings its own riches. So how and what are we learning about biblical stewardship? Number three, suffering. What do we do with the trouble that we have, that it talks about in 1560? How do we handle it? Do we handle it ourselves? or do we share it with others? Are we good at giving help, but maybe not too good at receiving help? Does it humble us as we trust in his sovereignty or does it bother us because maybe we thought we had a deal with God? How are we learning and what are we learning about suffering. Number four, sanctification. It has been said that the fear of the Lord is the key to the book of Proverbs. And Matthew Henry said that holiness is the key to the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is associated on the one hand of this continuum, with his laws, statutes, command and ordinances. And on the other hand, the recognition that we have, that we learn of God's character. And so we respond with reverence and fear and trembling and trust and worship and love and obedience and service. We believe his promises So we love him and we believe his threats or his warnings to us. And so we fear him. What does it look like? What does fear of the Lord look like? Looks like the total reverential submission or surrender to the kindness and grace and mercy of a loving God and complete unconditional obedience to the power, righteousness, and justice of a holy God. It looks like the continual awareness that I, that we, individually and collectively, are in the presence of a holy, just, and almighty God, and that every thought, every word, every action, every deed is open before him, and being judged by him. In more than one place in the Old Testament, it talks to us about having to learn the fear of the Lord. We certainly grow in it, but we have to learn it. How are we learning the fear of the Lord? Number five, sharing. We began this devotion by reading and taking in active counsel to us from his word. Now, at the end of the devotion, it's our turn to share. We want, again, individually, And collectively, we want to counsel and disciple well. We want to do it biblically. How do we share our fear of the Lord? Not just sharing our faith, but fear of the Lord is the currency in this passage. So how do we share Our fear of the Lord. Three applications or groups that we might share this with. Those who are seeking God. Usually lovable. It's easy to work with the lovable. Those who are struggling. Maybe they're seeking it, maybe they're lost sinners. Some of these may be unlovable. And then the third group is us. How do we self-apply his word? Three caveats in these applications in the few minutes that we have. Number one, A, if you will. We listed the five numbers. We'll stay with alpha, A. Are we selective? We like working with those people who are lovable. Maybe we don't like the people that are unlovable. Are we selective in this group? And the big question that precedes this, brothers and sisters, do we even have the wherewithal to invest in sanctifying relationships, those kinds of relationships where we learn to love God more and see his glory in our lives. Those are messy, difficult. Can we even get involved or do we, would we rather stay at the surface rather than go deep? Do we pick and choose? We pick the ones that are easy and we avoid the ones that are difficult. Caveat B, as in Bravo, do we settle? On this journey, do we settle? Do we stop too soon? Whether we're counseling or discipling, We want to get past just head knowledge. But do we stop there? Do we settle for head knowledge rather than wait until it grows and translates into heart knowledge? Big difference between biblical knowledge and biblical wisdom. There's a big gap between confessional theology and functional theology. There's one thing to preach on the love of God. We all know that. But it's different altogether to actually love the people in the body. Do we settle? Do we stop too soon? C, Charlie, are we focused on the sufficiency of scripture? Is that the target? Is that the focus? Whether we're counseling or discipling, are we looking to the world with the fear of man? or are we resting and trusting in his word with the fear of the Lord as the motivation of the heart about what we say and what we do and what we believe and what we think and how we behave? Are we enamored with the word of God? Are we binded to the word of God? when we are counseling or discipling? Do we have both hands on scripture or do we have one hand on the Bible and the other on the DSM-5? For those of you who don't know Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, DSM-5, the best of both worlds for a lot of our secular as well as Christian counselors. Once again, praise God, we, you are all biblical counselors. You're all biblical counselors. You love the Lord, you love his word. as we close on Proverbs 15, 16, what are those choices that we just talked about? What choices do we make and why do we make those choices? Because it's convenient? Because it's easier? What are we called to do regardless? of where we fall, where we stand on Proverbs 15, 16, one verse. This is what Matthew Henry said about Proverbs 15, 16. Regardless of the dynamic of resources at our disposal, the application of all, again, individually and collectively, of our learning process, We should be invested, quote,

in managing and enjoying it in the fear of the Lord, keeping a good conscious, going in the way of duty, serving God faithfully, keeping up communion with God, and living by faith.

Pray with me, please. Father, we thank you for the sufficiency of scripture and celebrate the fact that his grace is sufficient. Amen.