The Beautiful Voice of Wisdom

take your Bible and turn back with me to Proverbs chapter 1. I think you know where we are, where we're going to be. And this is our our second lesson tonight, our second message in our Wednesday night series, "Wisdom for Christian Living." I'm excited about what we are looking at. We're gonna enjoy this journey together through the book of Proverbs, learning of Christian wisdom, Christian living wisdom for our Christian lives. Now I started off last week in our study with an introductory message. For me, when I was preparing for that first message, there were two goals that really came to my mind that I felt like were very important.

First, I did want to give some introductory information that's very important, but second, I wanted to get us started in the Proverbs. We only took seven verses, verses 1 to 7, and if you've not gotten that message, if you need that material, I urge you to get on board. We can all stay together. Some of us are going to miss sometimes, but we can be faithful to get the messages, to get the material, because I do want us to journey together and I want us to grow and I want us to mature together and I want us to help each other in this journey. Now I do want to revisit four disciplines that I gave us.

I gave us four disciplines and I do remember last week I said don't let that intimidate you. You know, four disciplines. Discipline is not one of those attractive words. We don't like discipline. Our flesh doesn't. And then when someone says I want to give you four disciplines, we could step back from that, but I want to encourage you to develop these disciplines. I think with a little bit of work, these will become natural for you.

They will become normal and you will do them really without even thinking about it, and we really need to develop these disciplines, these disciplines with every study or message that we're involved in here in our church. So in our sermon series with the Beatitudes that we're going to start, which is part of the Sermon on the Mount, let's develop these disciplines. With our Sunday night Bible study, let's develop these disciplines. And so let's just make this a habit in our personal life. Now let me let me revisit these real quickly. First, let's be good at reading and meditating through the book of Proverbs.

Make that a part of your personal time. I'm going to introduce you to several words. Read, then we've talked about meditating. Another word I will introduce to you and the word internalize. You know, we can read and meditate and then we can internalize and then we can memorize. Now those are not in any particular order. Obviously reading comes first. You're not going to memorize without reading first. I think meditating has to be a part of it if you're memorizing. Be on guard about memorizing without internalizing. What I mean is it can be in your head, not in your mind and your heart. Now that might sound contradictory.

I know people who can rattle off scripture but they've not internalized it into their heart. I guess what I'm saying is don't put it in their head without it being in our heart. I would like to rather you understand the meaning of the scripture and understand how to live it out if you can't quote it. So this first discipline, read and meditate and internalize and then memorize and just let it become a fabric of our being. And again with all those studies that we're in. Second, let's develop the habit of taking notes. Let's study our notes. Let's work to retain what we've learned. That's one thing that I really do try to do.

Internalize what we learn. Internalize it. See we internalize what the Lord is teaching us and what the Lord really impresses upon your heart might be different for you or someone else. It could be different from you and for me. Third, let's study the portions of scripture that we really don't divide in an in-depth manner. We're not going to go deep in every portion of scripture so maybe just get good at going back and you might find yourself in a place where the Lord really ministers to you in a portion of scripture that I do go through. And you know in my prayer time personally, my prayer time over this, I'm really praying.

Lord help me to emphasize that which we need. Today I spent a lot of time I'm praying. Lord help me to see that which I need to bring out for your people here in our church. So I'm not taking that lightly. And then fourth, mark passages, mark truths, things that impact you. Share them with your spouse. Share them with your family. Share them in your home. Do it with Proverbs. Do it with our Sermon on the Mount study, our Sunday night study. Make this a part of your family discipleship time.

And let me tell you, if you develop these disciplines and everything that we're studying together, you will not have enough time during the week to discuss it with your family. We're giving you plenty of material and we're helping you develop these disciplines to take them into your family discipleship time. And I said when we covered our wheel illustration that I was going to come back to family discipleship and this is part of it. Okay, tonight we're going to finish up chapter one. We're going to cover a big portion of scripture. Verse 18 to verse 33. Now for the sake of time, I'm really not going to read the verses now.

I want us to get through the message. I'm going to read as we go. But tonight we're going to look at three major truths within our outline. These are easy for you to write down. Some of these will have sub points. Some of them will not. So don't let that intimidate you when I say five major truths. And I put them before you. We're going to look at three R's out of verse 8 and 9. We're going to look at a big warning in verse 11, or excuse me, verse 10 to 19. Then we're going to look at a cry in the streets. Verse 20 to 21. And then three R's again. Now these are different R's.

And then we're going to look at a comparison out of verse 32 and 33. It's a lot of information. Big portion of scripture. But I think that we can get quite a bit here tonight together. And then especially as we go back on our own and study and be faithful. So let's just start off with this first major truth that I put out in front of us. We see what I'm calling three R's. And they're right out of these verses. I read them last week. Let's look at verse 89 again.

Solomon is saying, "Here, my son, your father's instruction and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck." Now for me, right away, I saw three R's. Let me give you the words. This is a reminder. This is a reward. And this is a responsibility. I see this right in these verses. I see a reminder here. I see a reward. And I see a responsibility. Now here in these two verses, not only do I see these three words, but I also see two different peoples within the verse. We see Solomon here. We know Solomon was the one that compiled the Proverbs. He didn't write them all.

As a matter of fact, the Scriptures say he wrote many Proverbs that are not recorded. Solomon compiled the Proverbs. So we know that this comes from Solomon. So we see him in the verses. We know that he was teaching young men, but he also taught his own son. So we see his own son here. What does he say? "Here, my son." So we have two individuals. So this tells us who the different peoples are in the verses. Now let's look at these three words. First, the reminder. We see this in verse 8.

"Hear my son your father's instructions and forsake not your mother's teaching." Of course, I think it's obvious we have both parents that are mentioned here, father and mother. Both parents are reminding their son not to forsake, not to forsake teaching. Remember that all throughout the Bible that the parent's authority is coupled with God's authority. That's something that some of our young people need to be reminded of. All throughout the Scriptures, parental authority is connected directly to God's authority. Children are to obey their mother and father.

Exodus 20 verse 12 and then in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1, it says that children are to obey their parents in the Lord. So disobedience to parents is strongly condemned. It's very much a sin. As a matter of fact, if you zoom over to 2 Timothy 3 verses 1 to 5, that kind of behavior marks wicked behavior in the last days. So there's a reminder here from Solomon. Listen, obey. Remember, hold fast to the instructions that you've gotten from me and your mother. Then second, notice the reward. Verse 9 can be confusing for some of us if we're not careful. What does it say?

"For they," the instructions, "they are a graceful garland to your head." That sounds very feminine I know. Verse 9, "the impendence for your neck." Now this can be confusing but this was a reference to jewelry and bodily decorations in their day. Now in that day, jewelry was a sign. It was a sign of health. It was a sign of honor. It was a sign of prosperity. So Solomon is saying that obedience to parental instruction will produce a healthy life, a spiritual healthy life. Now this is not a ticket to ease, no. But what he's saying is this, just as jewelry adorns your body, when we obey the instructions, what happens?

There is spiritual health and prosperity. And remember, this is for the young one. There is a reward. And then third, the responsibility. Now we do not see the direct command. The fathers and mothers here, the parents, but it's there. If you think about it, Solomon is taking his responsibility seriously. Both parents are seeing training and instructing the son. So to me, the weight of the responsibility to teach and to train the child is just right here in these verses. To me, it just kind of came out. Now notice what we've seen. I think it's fairly easy. There is a reminder to the son to heed the instruction from home.

Then there is a reward clearly laid out to the son to see. If you will obey my teaching, what does he say? Your life will be decorated with spiritual health and goodness, prosperity spiritually, no matter what your circumstances are. And then there's the responsibility of Solomon, of both parents in the lives of the young people. So this leads me to a question. Let's be honest with ourselves. This is a rhetorical question. I'm not asking for a response. But how are we doing here? How are we doing? We must evaluate how we're doing with our young ones. It doesn't matter how young they are or how old they are if they live in our home.

Now I know back a few Sundays I gave us three areas. Three areas of our lives where we must teach our young people. We must have those times when we sit down. Call it family devotion or family worship. It doesn't matter what you call it. But we must have those times where we sit down and instruct. It's different for everyone. We also must instruct as we're going. You know as we're going through life. We see that taught in Deuteronomy 6. As we're living, as we're rising in the morning and in the evening, as we're working and as we're in our hobbies, as we're living our life, we're using those times to instruct. And oh then we model.

See if we don't model it, we're hypocritical. Then when they get older they spot that hypocrisy and they discount everything that we say. Do they not? So we must ask ourselves how we're doing. Sitting down and instructing, instructing as we're living. And then we must be a model. We must be a model. And as they get older and then when we instruct, our young people should look at us from time to time and say I know that because you've lived it. So these are the three R's. And look this is personal. You know what I have learned? You can speak correction in the people's lives.

Sometimes it's received but when you get into the area of family life, that's when it can be dangerous. You mean to tell me you're gonna tell me how I relate to my wife? You mean you're gonna tell me how I deal with my children? You mean you're gonna tell me how I parent? You mean to tell me you're gonna... That's when it gets personal. See this reminds me I'll never forget years ago in my home church there was a young man, I mean on fire for the Lord, zealous for the Lord Jesus, had a lot of things going for himself in life, a leader, an up-and-coming leader in the life of the church, a wife and a family.

I mean he was the future of the church but all I'm telling you he had something going on in his life that was dangerous. He just wasn't treating his wife like he should and there was a man in his life had a lot of gray hair and just stepped close to him and said look I love you, you're not doing right by your wife. Now I know husbands and wives are not the issue here, it's a good illustration and he stepped in said you're not really doing right by your wife now how did that young man react? He rejected it and that behavior continued and it's really not a good situation even today.

So this gets personal but we must allow the scripture to get personal. We must ask ourselves how we are doing in this area. I think it's real practical. Let's move on. I want us to see number two. There is a big warning here and this is a lot of scripture that we're looking to cover here in this second major truth. I see a big warning in verse 10 to 19. Here we see the the father he transitioned transitions from an encouragement into two life lessons. To me I see two life lessons here. First lesson is about companions or the wrong group. One of the commentators I read called this a game. There's a lot of different ways you can describe it.

These are bad companions, the wrong people, the wrong peer group and then the second lesson is about covetousness, greed, ill-gotten gain or wrongful gain. Those are the two primary things here. Now remember that last week I said that the theme of Proverbs is wisdom, wise living. You're gonna hear that all the way through but many times wise living is contrasted by foolish living. Well that's what we have here taking place. There are two roads that are laid out. The road of the wise and the road of the foolish right here. Now quickly I'm gonna zoom through here and I want to zoom through this big warning. There's a lot here.

I'm not going to be exhaustive. This is where you might need to go back in your own and really take your time from verse 10 to verse 19. As a matter of fact I might not even read all of the verses. So the first thing I want us to see is the father he points out the temptation. Remember we're dealing with a game. We're dealing with a wrong peer group. Look at verse 10. "My son if sinners entice you do not consent." See this word "sinner" here it describes one who is an unbeliever and he is making sin a habit in life.

This word entice it means an open door and so the sinner opens the door and provides an opportunity and he's calling the son to engage in sin. So there's the temptation. Then second he describes their language and their attitudes. We see that in verse 10 all the way down to 12. It's their attitudes, their language, their language, their attitudes and look this is the call of peer pressure. It really fits. It really fits. There's the temptation. They open the door and then there's the language of peer pressure and we see it in what they say in their attitude. And then third he describes their goal. We see that in verse 13. What do we see?

These are the words of the sinner to the son. "We shall find all precious goods and we shall find our houses with plunder." They are calling this innocent son without telling him of their full intent. They are seeking to victimize one with outright robbery in deceit if we look through the verses. So he's describing the goal of the sinful, the peer group, the gang if we use that language. And then fourth he describes their calling in verse 13. They are saying throw in your lot with us. We will have, we will all have one purse. There's some enticement there. And so he is describing their calling. Again this is peer pressure.

This is the enticement for plunder in ill-got game. And then the father five he gives a warning in verse 15. "My son do not walk in the way with them. Hold back your foot from their path." This is a direct warning against that invitation of the sinner to the son. A direct warning. The father is calling his son to see the temptation and to reject that temptation. And then the sixth observation he describes their end. He describes the sinner's end. This is the father starting in verse 16 on down to verse 18. "For their feet run to evil. For in vain," verse 17, "is a net spread in the sight of any bird.

But these men lie and wait for their own blood and they set an ambush for their own lives." Simply Solomon describes what takes place in the end. He uses an illustration to explain what happens. Verse 17 and 18 it describes a trap that is set for a bird. He says that it is useless to set a trap for a bird in full view. He is saying that even a dumb bird won't fall for a trap that they can see. You know this reminded me of growing up with my grandfather. My grandfather had animals. He had chickens and guineas. He always had animals. And oh if a varmint he called it.

If a varmint caught one of his chickens he would go get his little group of steel traps he called. Leg traps. I've got them. And oh he would go wherever he found that. He would find the trail, you know the feathers and he'd follow that path. And a lot of times he'd find one or two of the dead chickens. And he knew just what to do and he would set those traps and he would camouflage those traps. Now sometimes he caught the neighbor's dogs. But he would camouflage those traps. Why? Because he knew that that bobcat or that raccoon or the possum or the neighbor's dog was smart. But what do we have here?

Solomon is saying that you don't set a trap for a dumb bird without camouflaging the trap. Now what do we see here? What's happening with these centers? He's saying they're gonna fall into their own trap. They're dumb blind centers. So he's describing their end. And then in verse 19, this is the Sabbath observation, he summarizes their demise. Simply Solomon is saying that greed and dishonest gain will ultimately destroy their lives. Verse 19, "Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain." It takes away the life of its possessors. So what do we see?

Starting in verse 10, notice he points out the temptation and goes all the way to the demise. Oh that sounds like a smart father, does it not? And notice how much you've seen here. There are many principles. There are many lessons within these verses. The temptations of the sinner that will lure away the son if he's not careful. The father, he must educate and warn the son and help him to be as prepared as he can be. Listen, we see using people, cheating people that will destroy an unbridled greed and covetousness for more money and more possessions will destroy. There's so much even more that I didn't list.

Now in application, I want us to give you some pastoral instruction here. Listen to your pastor. We must learn to study verses such as these. We must get in there and learn the lessons. Get in there and find those principles. Read, meditate, read, meditate, read again, write, write some more, read, meditate, and those principles and lessons will come to the surface. Read them in two or three translations. They're there. It's your responsibility. Study them till we find them. Get to the place where you feel like you've exhausted the verses. We must know them. We discover them for our own selves and then teach them to our children.

And we must understand this teaching by real-life examples. Take it and look around you in your family and in your workplace and in your neighborhood. Take notice and use those as illustrations. Use these real-life examples. I do that with my young people all the time. Sometimes it's someone in your own family. Sometimes they see it before you point it out. What do we do? We're finding these life principles. We're finding these lessons and then we teach them yes and we model against them yes, but then we also must be faithful as they get older and they can understand, yes, someone in your family is like this.

Listen, a young person your age has become like this. They're everywhere. Use them as teaching examples. I don't remember what resource I was reading but I got a good quote out of here and I'm adding to the quote. I'll tell you where I add because I don't want to rob someone of their information. But notice what this Bible commentator said. He said a good teacher doesn't just tell his students what to do. He tells them why they should do it. Now here I'm adding and then he illustrates that by real-life examples. If you're like me, give me an example. There's a big warning. I could probably change that too.

This is just a big load of warning and there's a lot here that we can discover. Oh let's move on. I want us to see our third major truth out of verse 20 and 21. We see here what I'm calling a cry in the streets. A cry in the streets. Now I want to read these two verses because to me this is the heart of the whole thing. Wisdom cries aloud in the street. In the markets she raises her voice. Notice it goes from a he to a she. At the head of the noisy street she cries out. At the entrance of the city gates she speaks. Now I want to introduce you to a word. Some of you know this word. Some of you know it and you don't realize it.

But there's this word personify. Personify or a personification. To personify something means to conceive or represent something as a person or to give human qualities or powers to that particular thing. I give you an example. I mentioned last week that that this past weekend my brother-in-law and I were going to take care of my grandfather's place and we were bush hogging and clearing out roads and things such as that. I have my dad's tractor that I've inherited. I'm thankful for that. I have a fairly new a fairly new Kubota tractor. It's fairly new compared to my brother-in-law's tractor. He inherited his grandmother's 1969 Massey Ferguson.

Yeah but I'm telling you that old tractor won't die. It just keeps going on and on and on. And you know that thing is stubborn and that thing is tough and that thing can be cantankerous. See I can use language that we can understand that can be attributed to human behavior and to describe the tractor. That's being that's personifying. Now here in the text wisdom is personified. It's given human qualities. We will see the personification of wisdom all throughout chapters 1 to 9. They're everywhere. These personifications. Now I will do my best to point them out as we continue through the chapters. Now a question. A question.

We need to ask a question like this. This helps us. What's going on here? What's going on with this personification? Solomon was a wise master teacher. There was no man as wise as Solomon. And this is poetic language if you understand the language. And it is meant to attract the hearer. Remember there's a son who is the hearer. He is using this teaching tool so as to draw the hearer. Some commentators say that Solomon purposefully used language of a woman so as to be attractive to the young man. Some commentators went on to say what young man isn't attracted to the voice of a woman. I don't have a problem believing that.

This personification is here for a reason. So here wisdom is personified. It's pictured as a woman as she is pictured and she is pictured as one crying in public places. She is crying out in noisy streets in markets and at the city gates. Now notice now notice we really need to notice what's happening here. Wisdom is pictured as a beautiful attractive voice of a woman. Wisdom is crying loudly in some very busy and loud places. Busy markets, busy streets, the city gates, very busy and loud places. Also this wisdom is crying loudly above the other voices.

The streets of the city and the marketplace were filled with many voices and many opinions. The city gates they were like the city hall in that day. Important people did business there at the city gates. Authorities and opinions were loud at the gates but we see that wisdom cries loudly in these busy loud places. Now an application this leads me to a question. How is the Sun going to hear that loud and beautiful cry of wisdom in those busy and loud places?

God's Word, God's ways and God's purposes must be planted so deep in the heart and the mind of the young Sun that when he is in the marketplace, in the busy streets, the wisdom of God's Word cries louder than the wisdom of the world. Personal question again. Are we so teaching our sons and our daughters that what we put in their minds and hearts rings louder than the voice of the world or does the voice of the world drown out what we've given them? Listen there is a two-fold work going on here. We do this in our family, we do this in our homes, we do this in our Dians, we do this in our lives.

Remember we sit down as we're going, we exemplify, we're doing in the life of our church, we do this together. The church doesn't take the place of the parent and the parent can't take the place of the church. Our young people are learning back there right now. They're here on Sunday morning learning of the Sermon on the Mount. They're being taught in vacation Bible school and listen we engage in this work and we roll up our sleeves and we want to give them all that we can give them and we want to pray and ask God to bless it. So what? So the voice of wisdom will be louder than the voice of the world as they get out into the world.

So we see wisdom crying in the streets and let's move on. I want us to see number four. I want us to see three R's. Now you might think I'm wearing that out. It just happened to be that way for me. We see this in verse 22 to verse 31. We see here three R's. Now these are different R words. This is to me revelation, rejection, and ramifications. We see or I see out of these verses revelation, rejection, and ramifications. There are three things going on here and the three words, the R words help us see that. Let's, I won't read the verses, I'll read them as I go. So the first thing I want us to see is this revelation. This revelation.

We see this in verse 22. How long, oh simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? Here Solomon reveals the three types of people who need wisdom. This is just power-packed. First, the simple one or the naive one. We see this in verse 22 and then the mocker or the scoffer, that's in verse 22. Then the fool or the foolish one, that's in verse 22. Let me go back and read it. How long, oh simple ones, will you love being simple? And how long will scoffers or mockers delight in their scoffing? And the fool hate knowledge. See those are the three different ones.

And if we pay attention throughout our study, we will see that the Proverbs are aimed primarily at the first of the three. That is the simple one or the naive. The purpose of the Proverbs is to make the simple one wise. Those of us who are wise in certain areas to make us more wise. So there's this revelation. Then there's a rejection. We see this starting in verse 24 and 25. Because I have called and you refused. I have stretched out your hand and no one has heeded. Because you have ignored all of my counsel. We see this rejection in several ways. They refused to listen when called in verse 24.

They refused when the hand of help was stretched out. They did not take the help. That was in verse 24. And then they ignored the counsel in verse 25. And they would not receive any correction. And that's at the end of verse 25. So there's this rejection. And then there are the ramifications. We see this starting in verse 26. There's a transition there. We see a long list of ramifications from verse 26 to 31. Here we have the principle of sowing and reaping right before us. One commentator said this is the Old Testament way right here of saying Galatians 6 verse 7 and 8. I like that. Galatians 6 verse 7 says do not be deceived.

God will not be mocked. He is not mocked for whoever whichever one sows that which he will also reap. Now notice the ramifications. I'm gonna read through the verses real quickly. And you will see the ramifications. Verse 26. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when terror strikes you. When terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind. When distress and anguish come upon you. See the ramifications of rejecting? Then they will call upon me but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently but will not find me. Why? Because they have rejected.

Because they have hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord would have none of my counsel and despised all of my reproof. Verse 31. Therefore they will eat the fruit of their way and have their feel of their own devices. Those are the ramifications. Now what have we seen here? Notice. Truthfully there's a lot. There's just tons here in these verses. There's a lot of rejection going on here. There's a lot of reaping. What has been sown here and there's a lot of reward. I said reward. Yes. This is reward. This isn't a participation trophy here. This is a reward for sinful behavior. This is a payment for foolish living.

And again this is attached to this cry of wisdom. This is a part of the cry because they're rejecting that cry. Now I learned this back when I was doing my hospice work. Many of you know that when I was by vocational I did hospice ministry work. And you know I learned a phrase years ago and I saw it come true, ring true so many times when I would be doing hospice work. And that is you die how you live. Listen you die. You always die how you live. Now someone can come to Christ on that death bed. I believe it. But most of the time people die how they live. And a lot of times they die in a very sad, sad manner. Now what am I trying to show you?

What do we see here? There's this revelation. There's this rejection. Wisdom has been given to the Sun. Then there's the rejection. And then there are the ramifications. They get to the end and what do they do? They have to take the ramifications of their own actions. And so what are we seeing here? The ramifications. And then number five, the last thing is we have a comparison. We have a comparison in verse 32 and 33. Let me read these two verses.

"For the simple are killed by their turning away and the complacency of fools destroys them but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and be at ease without dread of disaster." Now like I have said already, within the Proverbs we have comparisons. The wise, they are compared to the foolish. Wise living is compared and contrasted with foolish living. We've seen that. In the mean verse 32 and 33, they are a summation of what has been seen here. Kind of a summary to me of all that we've seen and that which we haven't seen. To me this is that summary. This is that wrap-up. And wrap-up helps us because this helps us grasp what we have seen.

Now there are two here in the verse versus this obvious, the simple and the wise. And there are two details that I want us to see about the two categories of people. First the simple. Verse 32, "For the simple are killed by their turning away and the complacency of fools destroys them." Notice that the simple or the foolish are killed. Ultimately they are destroyed by their own behavior. Remember the trap? We talked about that in verse 17 and 18. The dumb bird. The dumb bird won't even fall for a trap if it's not camouflaged. Very well. But what do we see here? We see the fool. He did. He's laid his own trap and he fell into his own trap.

But notice out of verse 2, two types of behavior which lead to the destruction. First some reject or turn away from the wisdom. Go back to the verse. "For the simple are killed by their turning away." And then second, some procrastinate. What do we see? "For the simple are killed by their turning away and the complacency of fools destroys them." That is procrastination. They are procrastinating from turning to wisdom which in turn turns into destruction. Both lead to destruction. The out-white rejection and the procrastination of heeding wisdom. So that's the simple.

And then "contrasted by the wise." Verse 33, "But whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster." It is clear in verse 33 that we have the one who listens to the instruction. They hear and they obey the cry of wisdom heard in the streets. Notice what takes place in their life. First they dwell in security or peace. And then second they have no fear of disaster because of their own choices. They know they have not set a trap that they will ultimately fall into. It's peace. It's security. So notice what we've seen here. Yes, a comparison between the fool and the wise, the simple and the smart.

But here we have the fuller picture of what takes place within the life and in the heart of the one who heeds the voice of the Father. The one who heeds the cry of the beautiful voice of wisdom. Now I want to challenge you to do something in application. Some of us have lived long enough where it's a little easier for us to do this exercise. I want us to look around in our lives and I want us to notice those who have lived their lives wisely and those who have lived their lives foolishly.

And I'm telling you when you look at those who have lived foolishly, when you see their decisions, you will see trap after trap after trap that they have set and fallen into. And then the wise, they haven't had a perfect life. No, they haven't had it easy. No, but what do they have? Security. Their life is adorned with peace and good choices. Their life is adorned with Scripture and God's Word. So look at the life of the wise and then look at the life of the fool and I'm telling you you'll see all of this illustrated in their life. Now I want to conclude in two ways.

The first way is with some practical yet profound instruction and the second is with the title. The title I think will drive things home. Now the first way I want to conclude is with one word, just one word in the word responsibility. That word's a little bit like discipline. Discipline we don't like, responsibility we might not like. The word responsibility to me, I see responsibility. I didn't get this from anything that anybody said, it just came to the surface from me. The longer that I looked at these verses and the longer I just let it sit there and cook and boil in my mind and heart, responsibility came to the surface.

Let me show you what I mean. We have a responsibility to acquire these lessons. We have a responsibility to dig and to understand the principles and see the lessons. We have a responsibility to dig them out and to apply them into our own lives. Do we not? It doesn't matter how old we are and then we have the responsibility after we've done that work for us, for ourselves to teach these lessons and these principles to our own children. Solomon's saying my son, my son, my son, listen to the voice of your father and your mother. So there's this responsibility.

I want to give you the title of the message and it might sound strange but I think it fits and I think it helps drive home the message. What do we see? A beautiful woman cries our name. A beautiful woman cries our name. Beautiful wisdom. God's wisdom. God's truth. Listen, each phrase, each word, each example. Listen, I haven't even begun to get to the bottom of this. I mean there's five, six, seven, eight, ten, twelve messages right here. I've just skimmed the surface but what do we have? A beautiful woman cries our name and if we get into these verses, listen, you'll hear the voice of the woman.

You'll hear beautiful wisdom being called calling you, calling you, calling you. That's why it's so important for us to be here. That's why it's so important for us to be Sunday morning, Sunday night with an open attitude. Listen, ready to discover and to be taught and sometimes when we least expect it, that's when we hear the voice of wisdom. Sometimes when we come in and we don't think we really need it, that's when we're there to hear what the beautiful voice of wisdom calling our name, calling our name and the beautiful thing here is this. The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as believers. It's different for you.

It's different for me. Sometimes it's similar. So for adults here, let's beautify our lives. Let's adorn ourselves. Let's just hang God's truth and God's instruction and God's wisdom and God's understanding. We can't get wisdom and understanding by knowledge. No, we take that knowledge and we pray and we let the Spirit of God work it out in our lives and let's adorn our lives with instruction and knowledge and understanding and wisdom. Let's beautify our families and our children and our homes with God's instruction and God's wisdom and God's understanding.

I think everybody here knows that my wife and I, a few years ago, bought one of those fixer-uppers, you know. Everybody's in the fixer-upper and all of these remodeling shows on TV. That really didn't take me by storm because I grew up with parents who were schoolteachers. So they didn't have the money to go pay for somebody to do it. They had to do it themselves. So my dad was a fixer-upper, you know. I just was around it. So it wasn't anything new to me. When we felt led to sell our home and then move and, you know, we bought a big fixer-upper. Now I had construction experience so I knew a whole lot of what I was getting into.

Now I love my wife but she didn't have a clue. I just had to educate her kindly along the way. But, you know, it was a major ordeal. Lots of termite damage and rot and just, my banker said, you know, Chris, most people wouldn't touch this. But we did it with joy. Rolled up our sleeves and that's why I've got a little more gray hair. But, you know, I'll never forget. I had it really torn down and it looked pretty bad and there was somebody in the Life by Church came and looked around just in fear and disgust, mostly fear, and said, can you ever live here? I said, yeah. Give me some time.

I heard a preacher say it like this and I echo what he said. I heard a preacher say, you know, I can't stand Joanna Gaines. You ladies know who Joanna Gaines is? I echo that because my wife wanted everything that that lady taught and demonstrated. She wanted it all. Well, I gave her what I could. She wanted brick pavers and I laid those brick pavers. I almost died for two weeks. I thought I was going to be in a convalescent home. I gave her the colors that she wanted. I could do it myself, you know, and I did tons of that myself. Brother Keith calls me a jerk of all trades. I could do a little bit of everything.

And then I was paid a big compliment and I could never have that if it wasn't for my abilities to do it and then also find the right people who owed me a little bit and help me do it. Then somebody came in our house one day and said, you know, we've been looking houses, house shopping, and your house is a show place. And I took it as a compliment. Again, I could never have that if it wasn't for my ability. And it went from someone saying, could you ever live here to your house is a show place. You might feel like your life is kind of like the former. You'll never be beautified.

You'll never have a life full of God's wisdom and instruction and understanding and discernment. You just might feel totally inadequate. But I'm telling you, if you'll get in God's Word and we'll journey together through Proverbs, the Sermon on the Mount on Sunday nights, let's just get into this journey. Let's study, stay up late, get up early. Let's discipline ourselves. I'll give you all the help that you need. And I'm telling you, you'll start seeing your life become more beautiful and more beautiful. And before long, people look at you and say your life is a show place of God's Word, God's truth, God's understanding. You'll be a model.

Me? Yes, you. Us. And God will do it. So what's the title? A Beautiful Woman Cries Our Name. Beautiful, voice of wisdom. Let's pray.