Good morning church. How are we doing? Well, my name is Colby Flowers. I’m the student pastor here at Valley view. Pastor John gave me the opportunity to teach this morning. He’s actually on a family trip. They went up to Phoenix, Arizona to see their son. So pray for blessings on them that they get to spend some time away. But we’re going to continue on in Proverbs, our series being chapter three this morning. But I have to ask a question as we open. Have you ever been so convinced that there’s no way you could possibly be wrong? Like you get so much in your head and you’re just so sure, so 100% believe that there’s no way you can be wrong. Well, I have to admit this morning, there are times when I get into this place. And so I was having trouble thinking of a time in which I thought I was right, but I was wrong. And so who do you call? You call your wife. I called her and I asked her, is there a time that you can think of that I thought I was right and I was actually wrong, and it didn’t take her but a couple seconds and she had a good one. And I actually heard some of the rustling of the papers over the phone, because I think she had her list in front of her. But she reminded me of a time when I did drop the ball. And so we recently went to Orlando and had a family trip. And so packing for that trip to get on the flight, I grabbed a bag down and I was starting to pack, and my wife saw it and she said, there’s no way that’s going to fit in as a carry on, but I’ve used this bag before, so I was 100% confident that it was going to work. So I said, Maggie, it’s okay. It’s going to fit. Okay, I promise. So I started to doubt myself when we get to the TSA checkpoint and the person who is working there with wide eyes and a shake of their head had to push the bag through the conveyor belt in through the scanner. Then I get to the checkpoint or get to the gate as we’re about to board. Now I’m a little nervous. I scanned my ticket and then they tell me this has to be checked. I didn’t tell my wife that she was right. I don’t know if I ever did tell you that you were right. But before we bring up more stories about how I’m wrong, I’m sure Maggie could bring up a couple more. Let’s get to the word of God. Okay, let’s just move on past that. But I’m sure you all have experienced this where you thought you were right, and you turned out to be wrong. But what we’re gonna see this morning is a simple truth that we’re going to unpack is that a wise person will humbly trust the instruction and discipline of the Lord. That’s what a wise person does, as we’re going to see in Proverbs chapter three. So the chapter we’re to look at today is very neatly organized. Who likes organization? I’m a big fan, I do like organization. I’m not good at organizing sometimes, but I like it. And so this chapter is neatly organized. We’re to look at the first section this morning, verses one through 12, as our main text, and it is basically a section addressed to my son. And so you’re going to see that in this section. It is a father giving instructions to his son. And then you see in verse 13 that goes all the way up to 20, we see a hymn or a song of wisdom. The writer kind of compares wisdom to being a woman. It personifies wisdom as a woman, and if you hold tightly to her, she will bless you. And in verses 21 through 35 is a section again on fatherly instructions to their child. And so we’re going to look at the first section. I want to sprinkle in some of the other verses just because it’s a long chapter. But what’s great about this section is that everything is divided into two verses. So verses one and two, they’re together. Three and four, they’re together; five and six. So it’s really neatly organized. So as we go through it, it’s going to be straight forward, black and white. And what we’re going to see is what a wise person should do. Entrusting the instruction and discipline of the Lord. So here it is, verse one, Proverbs chapter three. This is what it says, my son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. This is a father’s plea to his son. Keep my commandments. Listen to my instructions. Don’t let them get past you. Keep them and it will bless you for length of days and add years to your life and peace they will add to you. He says this elsewhere. Look at this in verse 17. This is also Proverbs three. This is describing wisdom as a she, as a her – her ways. Wisdom, are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called blessed. So we get the picture here that wisdom grants us a longer, pleasant, more peaceful life. That’s what wisdom does for us. And so the father saying, don’t miss it, grab on to wisdom. So simple point out this is wisdom provides a pathway to a peaceful, productive, healthy, fulfilling life. That’s what wisdom does for us. Now, this is a general principle because just because you live wisely doesn’t mean everything’s going to be okay in your life. Wisdom provides us with a pathway to it. So if you all are familiar with baseball at all, you would know that this makes sense, because in baseball, you can put on a perfect swing on a pitch and get out. You can have a perfect swing on a pitch and still get out. But the principles are true. The better swing you put on the ball, the more likely you are a better chance that you’re going to get on base or something positive is going to happen. And life’s the same way. Wisdom’s the same way. When we live wisely, it’s generally provided that we will have a good result that comes from it. So what this is saying here is we need to live wisely for a long, healthy, productive life. He goes on here in verses three and four, let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Were going to come back to these two words are really important, he says to bind them, these two things, bind them around your neck like a necklace. Write them on the tablet of your heart so you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Now why I say these two words are really important is steadfast love and faithfulness are two words that God uses to describe himself. That means they’re really important. And I want to bring these verses up to show you. You can see it in Exodus 34 six. It says, As Moses is speaking to Moses here and what he’s doing in front of him, it says, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord a God merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Do you see that? So the proverb sees that, pulls it into this. And so we have to ask, why is he doing this? The word for steadfast love in the Hebrews is hesed, meaning God’s kindness towards us and faithfulness. This word for us is really God’s faithfulness to keep his covenant. Do you kind of see a picture here of God’s covenant with his people? Which is why he says, right on the tablet of your heart. So what he did with Moses writing on the tablets with the finger of God, the Ten Commandments to give to Moses. And so we get this picture here. What the proverb is saying here is, is that wisdom is found in keeping the covenant of God. When we are faithful to God, we will be blessed. It will lead to a long life. But Colby, you may ask, Colby we’re not living in the Old Testament. We’re living in the New Testament. So why does it matter if we keep the Moses covenant of God? Why does that matter? But there’s a picture we get of something called a new covenant. Look here in Jeremiah 31:33, God’s promise to give us a new covenant. It says, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my law within them, and what? I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. God promises to put his wisdom, his knowledge, his love, into our hearts through the Holy Spirit and write it on there. So no longer it’s a physical thing you got to go to. It gets inside of you. So the proverb is simple. When we get the Word of God inside of us, and we’re faithful to the commitment we’ve made, then guess what? You will be blessed. So here’s the point. Wisdom is a firm, unwavering commitment to keeping covenant with God in love and faithfulness. You know, the perfect example of this is? Marriage. It’s why the Bible talks about marriage so much when it talks about the covenantal love of God. Because when you come to a wedding ceremony, you’re you’re committing to a covenant with the other person. You’re saying to them, listen, I commit to love you through all circumstances. I will not leave you or forsake you through sickness and in health. I have this covenant with you. Do you see that? And God made the similar covenant with us. I will be your people, or I will be your God, and you will be my people. And he sends Jesus to go to the cross to die for our sins. And so that out everyone who believes in Jesus and follows him will be saved. We are now in a new covenant relationship. So what does that mean for you and me? Wisdom is keeping our word. I God, I promise to follow you. I’m going to follow you faithfully. I love you, and now I’m going to submit to your word. I’m going to follow you. So wisdom says I’m going to keep going because just like in marriage, it’s easy to make the initial commitment. It’s hard to keep it going. That wedding day is easy. Yes, I love you. Let’s get married. But it’s the weeks and the years that come after that. Our commitment needs to remain firm and unwavering. So we, when we pursue God, wisdom says, I have to stay committed to him. So look here in verse five, Proverbs chapter three, if I can bring this to a a theme verse for the message or of the chapter, we kind of arrive to these two verses. This is very important. A verse you probably familiar with. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, acknowledge God, and he will make straight your paths. So we see this beautiful picture that we are called to trust in the Lord. Not with heart or half or some or almost all. But to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. Acknowledge God in all of our ways, with our money, with our relationships, with our marriage, with our job, with our careers, with our hopes, with our dreams. If we acknowledge God in all of our ways, what does it say? He’ll will make straight your paths. But I want to ask you a question this morning. What is the starting place of wisdom? Where do you go first when you need an answer? Because in a technological age, we got something called Google. And even today, increasingly more we have something called AI that will summarize, that will give you the answer. But we all know that AI and search engines, they can’t really produce and give us morality. They may give us an answer, but do they really give us wisdom? And so often we in a technological age, we go to other places than God for our wisdom. But not just that. Some of us go with the old colloquial phrase, we go with our gut. What does my gut tell me? What is… what’s my conscience, or what’s my inner person what’s that telling me to do that’s never led me astray? I’m sure it has. It’s led me astray. But if I go with my own gut, that’s the right way. But listen. The starting place of wisdom and understanding must begin with God. And the Proverbs says it. But look at this in verses 19 and 20, in this chapter. This is beautiful, look at this. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. By understanding he established the heavens. By his, God’s, knowledge. The deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew. You want to know where wisdom and understanding found, uh started? It started with the guy who invented it. God invented wisdom. God invented knowledge. He is the first one, the one and only who created this. And yet we go to other sources for our wisdom and understanding. We even go to ourself. We go inward to scheme and plan and think and get all the details sorted out. And then at the end of the day, we try to make the best decision on what we believe, what we think, what Google can tell us, what AI can tell us. Instead, we don’t go to the one who created wisdom. So my first point for us this morning to live wisely, you must trust God with all your heart and with all your ways. You need to trust God with all your heart and all your ways. All your heart means you trust God with everything. There’s not an area of your heart, your desires, your thoughts, your wants, your plans that God does not have a say so in. But it’s all your ways as well. That conversation you need to have at work. The conversation you need to have with your kids, the decision you need to make with your family. What if God was at the starting place, the center and the end for those things? Talk about having wisdom. Talk about having the right path, because sometimes we may lean on our own understanding, thinking. This makes sense, but what makes sense sometimes isn’t where God’s calling us. God calls us into the places that don’t make sense. My wife and I, we had a very zig zag crazy journey as we got here to Valley View. So when we first got married, God called us to leave family and friends and go to Memphis. And that took a lot. And we really had to trust God and we really didn’t know what we were getting into. And so going there, I was a student pastor there. And then shortly after that, I’ve seen God move and work. We felt led by God to plant a church in downtown Memphis. Financially risky kind of was nerve wracking. So we’re like, God, we’re going to trust you. We don’t understand why you’re calling us to do this. So we let the church go plant this church in downtown Memphis. And then, wouldn’t you know it, Covid hit. And then, wouldn’t you know it, Maggie gets pregnant. So now we’re like, amidst joy and excitement, we’re like, Lord, what are we doing? You called us to come to Memphis, and now we’re at risk of losing everything financially. We’re scared. We’re worried. We’re not sure what to do. But we prayed. We sought the Lord. He said, keep trusting us or keep trusting me. And so we kind of worked it out where we could stay there. But after seeing God move and bless our marriage, grow us, increase the amount of impact we had down there, he eventually had to call us back home and we had such a tight window to make it. We we financially were at the end of our rope, and so we were doing a yard sale just to get back home. And upon getting through the yard sale, a coworker and friend of Maggie’s came up to us with a check that we needed at the right time and in the right moment. And and we didn’t ask for it. It was unprovoked. We didn’t go and share with everyone like, listen, we’re struggling financially. We just went and we tried to do what what God was calling us to do. And then he got us back to Kentucky with our one year old and everything was intact. Everything was working. And then I was looking for a ministry position and I saw Valley View. I’ve never heard of this. I’ve never been I didn’t know Louisville had a South end. I applied, pastor John called me a day later and the rest is history. But it’s because we had to. God forced us to trust in him. But if we were to lean on our own understanding, you know where we’d be. We’d still be back home, never having left Memphis, never having left our original hometown. But God has a way of working out your life for better than what you could imagine. If you would just trust in him. So let’s go on here to verse seven, verse seven here in Proverbs. Be not wise in your own eyes. Yikes! Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. So last verse, trust the Lord. Verse five, verse seven. Fear the Lord, two sides to the same coin. If you trust the Lord, you likely fear the Lord. If you fear the Lord, you’ve got to trust the Lord. They’re kind of interconnected. But this proverb is telling us, don’t be wise in your own eyes. In other words, pride can get in the way because pride is very deceptive. Pride thinks, pride deceives us into thinking we know more than we actually do. Pride also creates blind spots in our life where it kind of disguises bad things. Is wisdom. It disguises bad habits with money, bad habits in our relationships, bad desires, evil ways, and disguises them as good. So what does it say here? Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Instead, turn away from evil. Fear the Lord and look what the result is. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Scripture talks about this elsewhere, how sin is sort of it can bring pain to your to your life. Sin can bring pain to your body. It can bring anxiety and stress to your mind. So when when you idolize money, it’s good when you got a lot of it. But it’s not so good when you don’t have any. It brings pain to your life, your body, addictions to to food, to drugs, to alcohol, to screens. It brings pain and malnourishment to our bodies. But what following God and turning away from those things brings refreshment. So I want us to see this morning that when you are wise in your own eyes, you possess this attitude that you’ve got everything figured out. This is dangerous. If we ever get to a point in our life when we think, God, I don’t need your help on this one, I’ve got it figured out. My plans, my understanding, my schemes. This seems like the best path. Don’t worry, Lord, I got it. Now, most of us likely don’t talk that way, but when we go and make plans and live our life without ever seeking the Lord’s counsel, without ever seeking the Lord’s wisdom. That’s what it’s saying. God, I don’t need you. I don’t want you. I want to do life my way, because I know if I come to you in prayer, you might tell me no, or you might tell me another direction. And I don’t want that. But to be wise in our own eyes it’s saying, listen, God, I’ve got everything figured out. Let’s listen this morning. You cannot fear the Lord if you’re full of yourself. If you are foolishly prideful, thinking you’ve got your life work down and figured out, listen, you’re not going to fear the Lord and you when you don’t fear the Lord and hit have a reverent awe of God, you’re just going to live how you want to live, and you’re going to justify and make excuses and say, I’m going to live this way because of this. I’m going to make this decision because of this. There’s always a reason, there’s always an excuse. But listen to me. We need to fear the Lord and turn away from that pride. So my second point for us this morning to live wisely, you must fear God by humbling yourself. The series was just we just got out of, out of in first Peter chapter five gives this beautiful verse that says, humble yourself under the what? Mighty hand of God. And then in due time, he will exalt you. That is God. I don’t have everything figured out, I think I do, but I really don’t. That’s what the fear of the Lord is. You’re God. I’m not. I’m trusting in you and I have to humble myself and admit I don’t have my life figured out. So think about your life right now. Think about that area of your life that you’ve been keeping from God. That decision, that relationship, that workplace issue, that family member. And you’ve kept it away from God because you think you know what’s best. But in reality, if you really pause and take away that pride, you’re scared. But here’s the thing if you humble yourself before God and say, God, I don’t know, just give me a way. Give me the answer. I guarantee you he will take you down the right path. Amen, Church? Amen. Verse nine. So he says, trust the Lord. Verse five, verse seven. Then he says, fear the Lord. Verse nine. What’s he saying? Honor the Lord. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce. Then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. Now some of us may be we might not have had our toes stepped on yet this morning from God’s Word, but maybe this one is. Wealth. Honor the Lord with what we’ve been given. A couple weeks ago, I shared in Deuteronomy eight how we need to acknowledge God has given us our wealth, given us all that we have, instead of saying, I’ve gotten it. It’s my gift, my ability, and I have my money because I… Instead, what a wise person does is, is they come to God and say, listen, you’ve given me this wealth, so what would it be to just give it right back to you and this idea of first fruits? I’m sure you’ve probably heard it or read about it, but this idea of first fruits is a principle that that comes up in the Old Testament that says whenever you grow your crops and grow your produce, the first thing that breaks the ground, you give it to the Lord because it’s trusting in God to provide for you. You acknowledge that God gave it to you, and you put God over your stuff because back then, produce equals wealth. So some of us may not be farmers in the room today, but we have accumulated a lot of great things in our life. Praise God. But maybe something that God is wanting to speak to you this morning is that maybe you need to honor God with what you have. That’s why we put a priority on giving. That’s why we put a priority on submitting to God with all that we have. So listen, a wise person expresses gratitude to God by living with open hands before him. God, you want to take something out? Take it. God, you need to put something in my life. Put it in there. You have it. And that is how we honor God. And the beautiful part about this proverb is when we honor God with our wealth, you know what he does? He returns the blessings right back on. Now, I don’t want you to take this. Remember, this is a general principle. What this doesn’t mean is, is that if you start giving a little bit more money to the church, that means he’s going to fill your house with gold. That that’s not what that means. What this means is a general principle. When you give in sacrifice and surrender to the Lord, he will bless you in return. Sometimes that will be financially, sometimes that will be a season of wealth and prosperity. Sometimes that will just be more time with your family. Amen. When I surrender and honor the Lord with everything that I have, he will bless you. So third point to live wisely, you must honor God by living open handed before him. God, here’s my schedule. Take out of it what needs to come out of my schedule. Put into it what needs to be in there. Whatever it is, we need to live open handed before God. Last two verses of our passage this morning. Verse 11. My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, a word that we don’t like sometimes, or be weary of his reproof or correction or redirecting of our lives. Don’t despise it. Why, verse 12, for the Lord reproves whom he loves, as a father, the son in whom he delights. This verse should bring a bittersweet taste to us, because obviously discipline is not easy and wanted sometimes, but it is the most life saving thing God can give us. I’ve got two kids, I got a three year old and I’m telling you, she can pop off with that mouth. She’s got a little attitude on her. I love her to death. She’s got a little bit too much Maggie. You know, I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. She actually probably gets that from me. But I’ve learned with my daughter that one thing when I’m disciplining my daughter because of her behavior, because of her words, I need to teach her to trust me when I discipline her. And it’s kind of counterintuitive. Discipline, we think, we just need to correct the behavior. When we correct the behavior everything’s good, but behavior is not what we’re trying to get to. We’re trying to get to their what? Their heart. I want their heart to love and obey me, not just their actions, because we can go a long way in just doing the part, but not actually believing and obeying. So I want to get to her heart. And here’s what I want my daughter to know. And I think most parents would say, I want my child to love and respect me and obey me and trust me. So I discipline them not to turn them down, but to turn them in the right direction. So listen, I think in a broader way to say this is that we personally we should receive God’s discipline, not as judgment, but as tough love and saving grace. See, God’s discipline is is the street sign that says there’s a cliff ahead. Stop. God’s judgment is you get to the cliff and you go down. God disciplines us so that we don’t keep going down the wrong path. That’s what’s correction. And as parents, we do the same with our kids. We want our kids to redirect or correct to not get to a place of harm. And so this morning, just practically speaking, I know I’ve got some parents in the room with some kids. And so I’m processing through this. I’ve got a couple three pieces of advice on what it means to discipline our kids, but we will have a fuller chapter. We have, a fuller message on discipline and parenting and child rearing and discipline. So that’ll be fun. But for today, I thought it’d be helpful just to give you a sneak peek on what I’m doing at home as unsuccessful as sometimes it is. It helps give me a framework. So listen, this three ways that I can help my child trust me and discipline them. So here’s the first one. First thing I need to teach them is disobedience is dangerous and has a cost. When you disobey, it takes you down a dangerous road. When I give instruction, when I give a rule, it is for your benefit. So don’t do it because the end of that path is danger. Don’t put your hand on the stove top. Don’t run out into traffic. Don’t talk back to your mom and dad. All of it is a picture. Because if you keep going down with that attitude in that way of life, it leads to danger and it’s costly. Disobedience cost us something. The Bible teaches Romans 6:23 for the wages, the payment, the earnings of sin is death. So not only am I helping my children understand this, obeying me, I’m helping them obey God. It’s all inclusive. So disobedience is dangerous and has a cost. Second thing, I love you. I am disciplining you because I love you. God disciplined us because he loves us. So when we discipline our kids, when you say, listen, I love you and that’s why I’m disciplining you. If I didn’t discipline you, I don’t love you. Now, obviously when you’re talking to a three year old, you got to use a different language, right? But that’s the principle. Last but not least, number three, obedience is right and it pleases God. Not just don’t do that, but also here’s what you should do. And it is right doing what is right, and it pleases God. So if we can remind our kids these three things, I believe we’re helping them see how to obey God. So here’s our point. Final point to make our this point. To live wisely, you must thank God for his loving discipline. Don’t despise it when God disciplines and disciplines you in your life. Our hope, our response is God, thank you. Thank you for not letting me get down that far. Instead of getting angry with God or mad with God, we need be reminded that God disciplines us because he loves us. So our challenge this morning we can walk away from this message with one challenge. One question that I hope he can be challenged by is this what is your starting place for wisdom and guidance? Where do you start? You got to make a decision. You got to deal with an issue. You got to make plans. You got to have discernment. Where do you go first? And what this proverb is teaching us is you have to go to God first in everything, in all your ways, in all your heart. Go to the Lord. Let’s pray. God, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for its guiding instruction. We know, father, that the Bible is our compass. It is our G.P.S.. It’s our roadmap for life. And I pray, father, that all those in this room who are believers and those who are not yet knowing Jesus, that they would see your word as good and as right, and as something that provides us with wisdom. I pray, father, for discernment across all of our people and parenting and friendships and marriage and work and planning that you would grant all of them discernment and wisdom with the things that they’re dealing with right now and that they would, as verse five says, trust in you with all their heart and not leaning on their own understanding, but acknowledge you in all their ways, and then you will set them on a good and right path. I pray, father, in the name of Jesus this morning. Amen.