Suz s Proverbs 24 Notes 10:03/6:33 Welcome 10:05/6:35 Opening Prayer 10:06/6:37 Brief Recap: Most proverbs present two clear paths: one that leads to a skillfullylived, blessed life of reward and integrity, the other to a life of strife, destruction, and consequences. 10:09/6:38 Wisdom Warm-Up (13 minutes + feedback time) 1. By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures (24:3,4). What are some rare and beautiful treasures in the house of your life that are not things? 2. Who are your advisors? See verses 5 and 6. 3. The author compares honey to wisdom. Honey is to sweet taste :: wisdom is to. See verses 13,14. 4. 24:30-34 paint a picture of the relationship between laziness, lack of planning and diligence, work, and the consequences of poverty and scarcity. To summarize, if you re lazy with your work, you ll be hungry in your belly. Our author noticed what was happening around him and created a wise saying to help impart wisdom for skillful living to those he was training. As you ve lived this past week, what have you observed? Create a proverb around that scene: **Sample home-made proverbs from Q3 and Q4 10:25/6:55 Our Own Wise Women: Alli & Elizabeth 10:30/7:00 Our Chapter: 24 Sayings of the Wise Section This section began at Proverbs 22:17. These sayings tout multiple verses working together on topics ranging from food and wine to hot tempers and helpful truth. How to Build a Life (use building blocks) 24:1,2 Choice of friends (not the wicked!) 3,4 Building a house through wisdom (combine with 13,14) 5,6 Brain trust: advisors 7-9 Warning: fools, schemers and mockers 10 If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! 11,12 Rescue! God knows what you know! [Refugees and immigrants] 13,14 Honey : sweet taste :: wisdom :: sweet life with a future 15,16 Get up! The righteous person rises! (combine with 17,18) 17,18 Don t gloat at the misfortune of your enemy
19,20 The evil man: don t envy him or fret about him. No future. 21,22 Fear the LORD and the king, for they can send calamity 23-26 No partiality! Convict the guilty. Live honestly. 27,28 Fields then house: priorities. What is first? Proper order. 28,29 Neighboring! Live honestly, no revenge. 30-34 Poverty and scarcity come to the lazy. Don t befriend, fret/envy the wicked 1,2,19,20 Brain trust of advisors 5,6 What to work on in the pillars Write 2-3 current strengths in the foundation WARNING: fools, schemers, mockers 7-9 Strength in times of trouble 10 Rescue! Show mercy! 11,12 Honeyed sweetness of wisdom 3,4,13,14 When fall, get up; don t gloat 15-18 Fear the LORD & king 21,22 No partiality; live honestly 23-26 Fields then house 27,28 Don t lie or seek revenge 28,29 10:55/7:25 -Workable Wisdom- Laziness breeds poverty 30-34 Matthew 5-7 Verses The Law (You have heard it said) Deeper Wisdom (But I say ) 5:21-24 Do not murder Angry, You fool! is in danger; be reconciled 5:27-30 Do not commit adultery Lustful look is adultery in heart 5:31,32 Give your wife a certificate of divorce Don t cause adultery; your hard heart; don t separate what God has joined, Mt 19:3-9 5:33-37 Do not break your oath Let your yes be yes and your no be no 5:38-42 An eye for an eye Do not resist an evil person; cheek, tunic, mile, lend 5:43-48 Love your neighbor, hate your enemy Love your enemy, pray for those who persecute
Verses What the hypocrites do What Jesus says to do 6:1-4 Announce their giving to the public Give in secret 6:5-15 Pray publicly to be seen Pray privately, don t babble, forgive; Lord s Prayer 6:16-18 Show that they are fasting Bright face, not obvious, in secret 6:19-21 Treasures on earth Treasures in heaven **v21** 7:1-5 Don t judge: see other s plank See own plank, then help other with their speck 7:13,14 Many: Wide gate, broad road, destruction Few: Small gate, narrow road, LIFE! 11:15/7:45 -Quiet- Read Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. Just enjoy it. The pressure is off just see how Jesus takes the recommendations of how to live life to a deeper level. 11:21/7:51 -Jesus- Jesus is the wisdom of God, everything we could ever ask for, more than we could ever fathom. Jesus and the Deeper Wisdom of the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:3-12 When I was given the privilege of going on sabbatical, I wanted a fresh way to interact with Scripture. I took the Holy Word and put it into my own vernacular, my common words. Here is an excerpt from the Beatitudes. Blessed gifted with joy and good things, with depth and gravitas, with a thankful heart and a lighter step, with a grateful mind and humble acknowledgment that God has seen fit to give something valuable in His eyes and this results in joy and awe and thanks, lifted hands and eyes and life. are the poor in spirit, those who see their need for God, those who are aware that apart from Him they can do nothing, have no hope, and will only get what they deserve. They are the empty cup waiting to be filled, the barren womb waiting for life, the nest waiting for eggs, the home waiting for laughter and feet and pillows, the Winter waiting for Spring. Theirs is the Kingdom of heaven, where their souls will be able to rest and every need will be met. Theirs will be the joy of grace and the hope of salvation.
Theirs will be the power for living, the inflowing and insight necessary for God to be present and real and tangible. are those who mourn, those who see their own hearts with its darkness and depravity and this world with its deficits and disordered loves, all the sin and sorrow, all the acts of the flesh sown and the reaping of strife and destruction. They have experienced the heaviness of loss and the damage of despair. They have known the tearing of separation and grief. They have experienced the particular pains of this world, and this has shaped their character. They look elsewhere for fulfillment; they look to Christ. They will be comforted by the Man of Sorrows, by the One acquainted with grief, by the One who also sees and chose to die in order to change the hard heart and the distortions of the world. The Holy Spirit will counsel and comfort them with the truth. Heaven will be their beacon. Intercession will be their relief. Their yearning will be their beauty, rewarded and lit in heaven with the light of shalom. The gospel will be their strength. are the meek, the gentle and humble souls, the ones who have eyes to see and ears to hear, the ones who are quick to forget themselves, the ones who are quick to pick up the towel and serve [Jesus washing feet], the ones who don t think they re special, the ones who know they don t have it all figured out, the ones who walk in grace and truth, the ones who are quick to bend the knee before the Lord, the ones who quietly, consistently have God as their first love, those who are quick to cry out to Him, those who are dependent. They will inherit this place, the earth, with all its beauty and need, because they understand our relationship to our Creator; because they are gentle shepherds; because they live submission and care and tenderness toward living things. are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness from the depths of their beings to the top of their instincts. They know there is more, there is better. They stake their lives on the pursuit of righteousness behavior and heart and relationship that pleases our Father. They know everything right, good, and beautiful comes from our Father. They no longer wear themselves out trying to be good enough or right enough in their own strength. They throw their hands toward the heavens and long for the righteous Kingdom of God! They will be sated fully in Christ, full of His righteousness, even to overflow. Through His righteousness they will offer the world a different way, a narrow path, a small gate.
They will be replete with the knowledge of God s salvation plan and wear the righteousness of the Holy One with honor and humility. They will shine like stars in the universe, like glimmering, glowing cities on a hill. They will be the fragrance of life to those who believe or death and decay to those who reject His righteousness. Christ will be their meal, their satisfaction, their dessert. They will linger at His table, full of His sweetness in the bread and the wine. are the merciful, the tender and kind, those who listen attentively and act, those who lift others off the ground, those who stop for the wounded, those who see the wick that is flickering, those who straighten what is crooked, those who heal and touch and kiss with love and grace and truth. The same graces will be shown to them. are the pure in heart, those who see clearly, those cleansed and focused on God, those with Him as their first love, those who have put aside the noise of the opinions of others and sit simply at Jesus feet, those who have lost their lives to find them, who forget the former things and reach for Jesus, those who get lost in prayer and adoration. They will see God, behold His face, grasp His feet, worship at His throne! The light of His countenance will reflect on their faces. He will be in heaven and on earth, and they will identify His movement, for they know Him. He is familiar with them, their petitions and sacrifices, their passions and pursuits. are the peacemakers, those who are fearless to confront strife and disunity and harm. These warriors have weapons of sacrificial diplomacy, humility, and forgiveness, and they draw them for the Kingdom. They are patient and firm visionaries of unity, able to let go of resentment and hurt, able to see reconciliation, hoping and helping the body of Christ to be one as the Trinity is one. They step in the messy, disordered places to bring a true peace, to bring shalom to the war zones of life and strife. They will be called sons and daughters of God, family of the Father, made in the image of God the Reconciler. They experience His peace and like Him, they will carry it to the places of hopelessness, strife,
and destruction, calling people to oneness with God and each other. are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, insulted and slandered because of Jesus. They are a sign that this is not our home, that Christians are counter-cultural, that our Kingdom is not of this world, that God has standards, that the Spirit and the flesh war against each other, that God and Satan oppose each other, that people can be incited to hate and turned toward the darkness and this is the truth of life here on earth. Rejoice! Be glad! Theirs is the Kingdom of heaven because they live out the truth that this place is not our home. We are citizens of heaven, and God is our King, Christ is our Lord, and the Spirit supplies our power. We are not afraid. We will stand. We will continue in righteousness regardless of falsehood or evil gossip. We will be called brothers and sisters of the prophets, for they were treated similarly as they stood for God in the midst of their cultures. We will dance and celebrate this theme of the ages and lay our crowns at Your feet when You reward us on The Day. Building Your Life on the Rock And now let s gather up all My words and put them into an image. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them to work practically and daily is like a wise man who, when he built his house, anchored it firmly and safely with footers on the rock. It was stationary, solid, deep. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not put them to work in his life is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, as it always will; the streams flooded up, as they always will; the winds blew hard, as they always will. All these forces beat the house, and it fell, and it was an astounding crash, a break-up that taught lessons. We want lives that have the fingerprints of Jesus all over them. Our deeds, our hearts, our thoughts, our passions and pursuits, all with the fingerprints of God plainly there. We can do that as we pay attention to Him, listen to Him, and accept His training not just at the surface level, but deep in our hearts. Then our lives will be built upon Him, our Rock. Glory!!!!