NOV 29 2015 | Proverbs 8

Sea Change Church · "Proverbs 8" · Dr. James Smith III · November 29, 2015
Proverbs 8
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

It is Proverbs chapter 8 that the early Christians recognized as the passage from the book of Proverbs that foreshadowed the coming of Christ. Welcome to Advent Sunday. Welcome to Proverbs chapter 8. It is exactly the right passage in Proverbs for Jesus, the wisdom of God, the eternal son, to be revealed to us and among us today. Let's do what they did in the early church. Let's read aloud. Will you join me in Proverbs chapter 8 as we see this?

And the sermon notes are in your worship folder both for this morning and the days ahead. Read with me, if you will, out to the Lord, reading his word back to him and to each other. Join me. Does not wisdom call out. Does not understanding raise her voice. At the highest point along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand. Beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrance she cries aloud, To you, O people, I call out.

I raise my voice to all mankind. You who are simple, gain prudence. You who are foolish, set your hearts on it. Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say. I open my lips to speak what is right. My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness. All the words of my mouth are just. None of them is crooked or perverse. To the discerning, all of them are right.

They are upright to those who have found knowledge. Choose my instruction instead of silver. Knowledge rather than choice golds. For wisdom is more precious than rubies. And nothing you desire can compare with her. I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence. I possess knowledge and discretion. To fear the Lord is to hate evil. I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

Counsel and sound judgment are mine. I have insight. I have power. By me, kings reign and rulers issue decrees that are just. By me, princes govern and nobles and all who rule on earth. I love those who love me. And those who seek me, find me. With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. My fruit is better than fine gold. What I yield surpasses choice silver.

I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full. The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works before his deeds of old. I was formed long ages ago at the very beginning when the world came to be. When there was no watery depths, I was given birth.

When there were no springs overflowing with water, before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth. Before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth. I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep.

When he gave the sea its boundary, so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world, and delighting in mankind. Now then, my children, listen to me. Blessed are those who keep my ways.

Listen to my instruction, and be wise. Do not disregard it. Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For those who find me, find life, and receive favor from the Lord's. But those who fail to find me, harm themselves, and all who hate me, love death. This is the word of the Lord to us this morning. Thanks be to God.

This is a very simple message. In my sense is already, some of us who were looking at this passage, verses 1 through 21, were looking at the qualities of wisdom. And in that, the sense that there is significant sense of the wisdom, the wisdom of God calling out to us. Point number one this morning, we're going to make this simple. Point number one, will you please take the call?

Will you please pick up the phone of your life, and take the call, that the Lord is aiming in your direction? This is called an exhortation. What's an exhortation? An exhortation, exhortare, means to call forth the very best, from those that receive it. To call for the best. And I want to make a simple invitation this morning, which is rooted in the passage of Scripture.

And that is, in the busyness of this season, in the complexity of our lives, in the myriads of voices, and sounds, and summons that come our way, will we take the moment, and be still, and know that he is God. Pastor Adams invited us back to God's word. May I say something very simple? I've been in ministry, pastoral ministry, for 40 years, and I know congregations well enough to know, some of you just blew off his invitation.

Right? Some will leave this place, and have no plan, to look any further at the word, throughout this holy advent season. It'll be business, more or less, as usual. Dear friends in Christ, please, come back, and hear the call of God, through his word, in this season. Can we get an amen? Amen. Let's do that. Will you take the call? He wants to reach you today.

This is getting me. He wants to reach you today. He's calling out. He calls his own by name, John chapter 10, and he leads them in and out, so they find pasture. In the ins and outs of your life, Jesus knew what that was about, therefore that's why he said it, in and out, and find pasture. In the ins and outs of your life, my life, will we listen to his voice?

Will we hearken to his word? Will we take a personal quiet time, and say, Lord, speak your servant hears. Defend me from any strange spirits, and old self-deceptions. Cleanse me from those things, and position me, to hear your prompting. Today, if you hear his voice, what? Do not harden your hearts. Will you listen for the call? What a wonderful opportunity, that we have, in this moment.

You know, a couple of great classics, in the 20th century, of Christian literature. I'm teaching a course on that, over at Bethel Seminary right now, Christian, classics of Christian literature. And one of those, is a book that, at the beginnings of the Alcoholics Anonymous, the AA movement, back in the 1930s, this became one of the most, widely read books, outside the Bible, and the big book, by people who were with Bill W., and others who founded that movement.

It's called God Calling. The editor, A.J. Russell, records the devotionals, of a couple of strong Christian women. 1932, God Calling. Only a couple years ago, there was a book that came out, entitled, Jesus Calling. Some of you may, may know that particular book. And when Sarah wrote that book, it was a devotional, 365 days, Jesus Calling. Now, neither of these is the Bible.

Neither of these is infallible. And if you look up the website, like everything else on the website, some people will like these books, and some people will say they're from the pit, and all the rest of it. You know, discern for yourself, 1 Thessalonians 5, 21, examine all things, and hold on to what's good. Right? But in the midst of this, this sense of, the Lord calling out to us, whether it's an alcoholic, falling down, is his way of celebrating the holidays, I think I'll drink more.

Thanks so much. Right? It's Christmas. And that book, God Calling, Reaching Out to Them, or whether more recently, Jesus Calling, the Lord is speaking out to you. And these opening passages, verses 1 through 21, in Proverbs chapter 8, were taken by most early Christians, and if you want to look further, there's an early Christian commentary on the book of Proverbs, if you're interested, we can talk about that.

But this was taken as the Lord himself's calling out to us. He's speaking to us. Through the language of the word, the language of prayer, he is actively involved in this. Will you please take the call as he reaches out? That means that we need to be attentive in those ways. Will you pause and join me in prayer right now? And just ask that the Lord will help you to listen, to hear his voice, to heed his word, to be strengthened, blessed, guided.

Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that you love us so deeply that you gave. Thank you that you not only receive us into your family, but you keep calling out to us by name, through your word, through the language of prayer, through the mediation of your Holy Spirits. And so, Lord, please help us not to be captive to the worst or even some of the best of this season, to not be captive at all, but to be children of yours, living out our birthrights.

And Lord, guide it as you call out to us. We pray this in the first movement of our time here. in your word and pray it to your glory and for our good and the good of our neighbors and this world. Amen. Second movement. When caller ID means celebration. Caller ID. We need the gift of discernment to know the difference. And let's never hesitate to ask and to pray for that gift of discernment as to what's calling out to us or who is calling or in what way.

Let me give a very simple example. We have caller ID on our house phone. And periodically, the house phone, which rings less frequently than either of our cell phones, right, the house phone will ring and I'll look at caller ID and it'll say, Hakumba. Now, how many of you even know where Hakumba is? Well, blessings to all four of you. Right? Hakumba is a little town, old town, about 70 miles east of the city.

It's on old Highway 80, which was the former name of Interstate 8. They preserve the old highway there. It is about, it's about a mile from the border there. Interesting border activity in Hakumba. It's got a hot springs there which has been refurbished. We did a father-son retreat from one of our churches out there some years ago. Had a wonderful time in the hot spring and all.

I like it. My wife's allergic. She takes Dramamine when we drive through it. You know, it's just like, ugh. So anyway, you get the idea. But caller ID from Hakumba. And I say, I don't know anybody from Hakumba. Guess who it is? A telemarketer. Right? I got one from Guam once. Guam. Do I know any Guamites? No. Who was it? It was a telemarketer calling from Guam. Right?

You get the idea. There are all kinds of funny kinds of caller IDs that go on out there. So let's, as it says, test the spirits in this holy season. Let's be people who are attentive to the presence of the Lord in various and insightful ways. Can we scroll to verse 22 if we may? Okay. because it's Proverbs 8.22 that most in the early church felt was poetic in an expression of the presence of Jesus himself.

Before the world began, he was there with the Father in that relationship of harmony and love, the Holy Trinity. The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works before the deeds of old. And if we can continue through that passage if we may. I was formed ages ago at the beginning when the world came to be. When there was no watery depths, I was begotten, literally, from the Greek.

When there were no springs overflowing with water, before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth. Before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth, I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, and when he established the clouds above, fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundaries so the waters would not overstep his command and marked out the foundations of the earth.

And what was he doing when he was there? I was constantly at the side, the side of my heavenly father, filled with delights day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in the whole world, delighting in humankind. That's the way it was meant to be. That's the way it was meant to be. That the Lord was filled with delight, that the Jesus who came to be incarnate, born of the Virgin Mary, and who later would suffer under Pontius Pilate, as the Apostles Creed says.

This Lord there from the very beginning, we can locate Jesus in those days before creation. And there he is delighting in what's about to be and delighting in us. May I say very simply, that's caller ID. When we sense that our Lord Jesus is communicating to us, may that be a joy to our hearts because we are not beggars. We are children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is not primarily in sales. He is in service. Just like we are. Isn't that right? In other words, Jesus is not telemarketing us something. Now, our oldest son at one point worked as a telemarketer and I grew in grace toward telemarketers through that, right? That's a tough job. Maybe some of you have done that. I did it for about three hours once. That was before I knew what the product was.

I said, would you like to buy this? And they said, do you know what you're selling? I said, well, no, but I could sure use a few bucks. Not a good way to start. So, Jesus is not selling. He is serving. He is graciously there in reaching out. May that be a delight to us as we read the Gospels again. Did I hear that right, Pastor Adam? As we look back again. Now, maybe you'll say, I just want to stick with the infancy accounts in Matthew and Luke.

That's fine. Gospel of John, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. That's this. That parallels Proverbs chapter 8. You might love that. And then Mark who begins ever so briefly and crisply the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Shortest of the Gospels. But let's identify our Lord at the very center of all this.

You know, part of it is when we choose which voice we're going to listen to. A simple example. I love joy to the world. Okay? So, for example, let's just sing the first verse of joy to the world here. May we? First Sunday of Advent. Then we're going to do the other joy to the world by reference. All right? This one goes like this. Joy to the world the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king.

Let every heart prepare in room and heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature sing and heaven and heaven and nature sing I love that song. Don't you? It's wonderful and there's more of that to come in this holy season. It is the case, however, that other people choose to live by the other joy to the world. This was written by Credence Clearwater Revival. Let me quote the opening lines of this sacred verse.

Jeremiah was a bullfrog. He was a good friend of mine. I never understood a single word he said but I helped him drink his wine. Now, you've got a choice A or B. All right? Which joy to the world do we want as we do our caller ID in this holy season? How many of you are down for A? All right. How many of you are down for B? Amen. All right? If you were down for B, I would have found a local chapter or a meeting for you but, you know, I say that with some humility in our family on my dad's side.

Three of my uncles and aunts were alcoholics and it was not pretty at certain points in that story of family. So, caller ID. Let's hearken to the voice of Jesus. Let's enjoy that voice today and there is that wonderful opportunity we have backed by Proverbs chapter 8. In the third minute, there are the two most dreaded words of Christmastime in my life. Assembly required.

Right? One of my favorite actors, Jimmy Stewart, who was a strong Christian, by the way. Jimmy Stewart talked, and you see it here in your sermon notes, talked about the drama of life as being little tiny pieces of time. Isn't that interesting? Little tiny pieces of time. Events, thoughts, recollections, gifts, vignettes, work, play, fill in the blank. Little pieces of time.

And the challenge is, how do you manage those pieces? Because life gives us all this variety to work with and the two words are on the package of our life. Are they not? Assembly required. Isn't it wonderful then that our Lord says here in Proverbs chapter 8, as we're attentive to his word? Blessed are those who keep my ways. Listen to my instructions and be wise. Proverbs 8, 22, excuse me, 8, 32 to 33.

These instructions declare to us, as it says in Colossians, Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for by him were all things created in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by him, for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. very simply this morning, do you need God's gracious hand, his faithful word, his spirit power to hold together aspects of your life in this season?

Well, that's God's delights. That's God's delights. Read the instructions. Assembly required is the motto imprinted on the package of our lives. But fear not. That's what he had to say in that annunciation, was it not? Angels came and said, hey, unto you, good tidings of great joy to all people, unto you is born this day the city of David, the Savior Christ the Lord. The response, they were afraid.

Assembly required. What the heck do I do with this messianic information? Even good news is a challenge. What do I do with this? The instructions are there for us in this holy season. And the instructions call us then to be attentive, to take the call, create space in which we can read and pray and listen and sometimes listen to the voices of people that are friends of our soul who will give us good counsel.

That's fellowship. So that sense in this time, take the call. Secondly, let's look more deeply at the identification, the caller ID of this one who is the human face of God, who reaches out to us. And finally, there is assembly required. There are dear people that I know who have so much and have such struggles knowing what to do with it all. And in that, as we find moments of that in our own lives, let's look, as in Proverbs 8, to the instructions that God gives us.

They are the voice of wisdom and faithfulness in these days. Someone might say this morning, I'm not sure there's a lot there that I didn't know. Good. This is massaging in to our awareness things that many of us already know to be true. But how faithful it is in this church family if we simply give a reminder of the all-sufficiency of our gracious God, of our loving Savior, the power of the Spirit, and also the choices that we have to make to be attentive to His Word and to His way.

That last word that we say there in Hebrew, Shema, at the end of the third point, says, listen, taken from the opening word of the Shema, in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. You shall love the Lord your God, all your heart and soul and strength. In the New Testament, Jesus added mind to that as well. Let's love Him in that way with a simple resolve.

May we do that in this season. Let's pause and let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you this morning for this moment. We pray that in this season of Advent as we enter in, that you will help our preparations to ever include you, your instructions, your wisdom, your word and way, so that you might be honored in our lives and we might go forward. or your hope. Thank you. For our minutes, we will help you see as we miss on the news.