Living the Life Series: Proverbs For Living (PFL)
Scripture Reference: Proverbs 2:1 – 10
Introduction
We are a culture that is overwhelmed with acronyms, initials, abbreviations, and catchy phrases that paint the picture or tell the story of people, places, or things.
There is no shortage of creative ways conjured by marketing executives, entrepreneurs, and just plain ordinary who people who dazzle us or woo us with quirky quips, three/four letter abbreviations, or phrases that speak without really saying a word.
The idea is to capture the event, circumstance, product, or person and connect it with letters, words and pictures that by themselves would have not really say anything at all.
Let me see if I can paint the picture for you. I will toss out a serious letters or phrases and let me see if you can guess what it is associated with.
NBANHLNFLMLBWNBANCAA TBSWBCNNESPNAMCMTV/BET NAACPUPSFED EXAir Force OnesUSDAPETA
Even the youth and young adults in this generation have formed their own list of colloquiums, catchy phrases, and abbreviations to communicate with each other.
1. Banging v 1. to be very attractive. ("She’s banging!")
2. Bling-bling adj 1. fancy. Often suggests that a person is showing off. ("Oh, look at Mr. V, all bling-bling with the new cell phone!")
3. Busting v 1. to be very unattractive. ("She’s busting!")
4. Holler v to return a call, respond via e-mail, etc. Usually pronounced "holla" in this usage. Also holler back. (A message left on an answering machine: "Well, I guess you’re not home. Holla back!")
5. Rep n 1. reputation. ("I’m just trying to protect my rep.")
6. Benjamins – hip-hop term referring to money.
7. Slammin’ use to refer to something good
8. Wack used to refer to something or someone that is not fair
9. Digits used to refer to getting someone’s phone number
10. Bounce used to refer to leaving a particular place
11. Tight used to refer to something that is very nice
12. Playa or player used to refer to a guy who has one girlfriend, but sees other girls
or a girl who has one boyfriend, but sees other guys.
13. Drama is used to refer to a serious problem.
14. Ballin’ is used to refer to someone on the court.
15. Peeps is used to refer to someone close to you.
16. Jacked up is used to refers to someone or something that is messed up.
And there are other words like “da bomb”, “phat”, “chillin”, “bama”, “dirty”, “fresh”, and some too numerous to mention.
In order not to be considered outdated or not connected with times I decided to introduce to you my own contribution to the every increasing ever changing vocabulary table. I introduce PFL – Proverbs For Living.
Transition
This book of Proverbs is a fathers’ counsel to his son. Every young person and young at heart ought to read a verse from this book on a daily basis. This book speaks to life and how it can be lived. You can live it for the good and receive reward or you can live it for the bad and receive consequences.
In the book of Proverbs you can learn about
Adultery – Proverbs 5
Anger – Proverbs 27
Having confidence – Proverbs 3
Having courage – Proverbs 28
Cursing – Proverbs 20
What happens when you disrespect your parents – Proverbs 30
The value of education – Proverbs 2
Employment – Proverbs 27
Etiquette – Proverbs 25
Bad friends – Proverbs 1, 4, 13, 22, & 29
Good friends – Proverbs 13, 17, 27
Greed – Proverbs 1
Reputation – Proverbs 22
It also offers a word on laughter, laziness, and leadership; money giving, money saving, and money wasting. Did you know that Proverbs addresses the subject of peer pressure, scams, and sexual impropriety? Don’t forget that the subjects of wealth, violence, and women or covered in some details.
This book of wisdom reminds me of a cartoon that shows an automobile balancing precariously over the edge of a cliff, with an embarrassed husband at the wheel and his disgusted wife sitting next to him. Meekly, he says to his wife, “Honey, there’s got to be a lesson here somewhere.”
There’s a lesson there all right, and it’s this: The only way to end up at the right destination is to choose the right road. If you’ve ever made a wrong turn in a strange place and found yourself lost, then you know how important that lesson is.
The metaphor of life as a journey is a familiar one; it is found in the Bible as well as in classical literature. The Odyssey of Homer describes Ulysses’ ten-year journey from Troy to his home in Ithaca, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress is an account of Christian’s journey from the City of Destruction to the heavenly city.
The Bible frequently exhorts us to choose the right path, but the contemporary world thinks there are “many ways to God” and any path you sincerely follow will eventually take you there.
Jesus made it clear that in this life we can take only one of two ways, and each of them leads to a different destination. Everybody has to choose either the crowded road that leads to destruction or the narrow road that leads to life (Matt. 7:13–14). There’s no middle way.
In the Book of Proverbs, the words “path” and “way” (and their plurals) are found nearly 100 times (KJV). Wisdom is not only a person to love, but wisdom is also a path to walk, and the emphasis in 2, 3, and 4 is on the blessings God’s people enjoy when they walk on Wisdom’s path.
The path of Wisdom leads to life, but the way of Folly leads to death; when you walk on the path of Wisdom, you enjoy three wonderful assurances: Wisdom protects your path (chap. 2), directs your path (chap. 3), and perfects your path (chap. 4).
Read this book and you will live, ignore this book and according Proverbs 1:24 - 31
24 "I called you so often, but you didn’t come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention. 25 You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered. 26 So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster overtakes you – 27 when calamity overcomes you like a storm, when you are engulfed by trouble, and when anguish and distress overwhelm you.28 "I will not answer when they cry for help. Even though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me. 29 For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD. 30 They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them. 31 That is why they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way. They must experience the full terror of the path they have chosen.
Listen to how the translation called the Message records these verses:
As it is, I’ve called, but you’ve turned a deaf ear;
I’ve reached out to you, but you’ve ignored me.
25"Since you laugh at my counsel
and make a joke of my advice,
26How can I take you seriously?
I’ll turn the tables and joke about your troubles!
27What if the roof falls in,
and your whole life goes to pieces?
What if catastrophe strikes and there’s nothing
to show for your life but rubble and ashes?
28You’ll need me then. You’ll call for me, but don’t expect an answer.
No matter how hard you look, you won’t find me.
29"Because you hated Knowledge
and had nothing to do with the Fear-of-GOD,
30Because you wouldn’t take my advice
and brushed aside all my offers to train you,
31Well, you’ve made your bed--now lie in it;
you wanted your own way--now, how do you like it?
But on this your youth emphasis in the revival, every young person can make the decision to live. There is contained this book the advice you need to live. PFL – Proverbs for Living. I want to associate these three letters which identifies three words connected with life, living.
Whenever you leave here and one of you say PFL, you’ll know it means to live. It means to live right. It means to live the life the way God intended it to be lived.
Our text this evening lays out clearly a path for living. Choose life tonight and be all that God wants you to be.
WISDOM PROTECTS YOUR PATH (Prov. 2)
The key verse in chapter 2 is verse 8: “He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints” (NKJV). The repetition of the phrase “my son” (2:1; 3:1, 11, 21; 4:10, 20; and see 4:1, “my children”) reminds us that the Book of Proverbs records a loving father’s wise counsel to his family. Jewish fathers were commanded to teach their children wisdom (Deut. 6:1–9); if the children were smart, they paid attention and obeyed. Life is dangerous. It is wise to listen to the counsel of godly people who have walked the path before us.
Three different “walks” are described in this chapter. Walking with God, walking with the wicked, and walking with the righteous.
Walking with God (vv. 1–9).
Chapters 2–4 all begin with an admonition to listen to God’s words and take them to heart (3:1–12; 4:1–9), because that’s the only way we can walk with God and live skillfully.
Eight things in verse 1 – 9 reveal our responsibilities toward God’s truth: receive (accept) God’s words and hide them (store them up) in our minds and hearts; incline the ear and apply the heart; Cry after knowledge and lift up the voice for understanding; seek for wisdom and search after it.
If you want wisdom, you must listen to God attentively (Matt. 13:9), obey Him humbly (John 7:17), ask Him sincerely (James 1:5), and seek Him diligently (Isa. 55:6–7), the way a miner searches for silver and gold.
Obtaining spiritual wisdom isn’t a once-a-week hobby, it is the daily discipline of a lifetime. But in this age of microwave ovens, fast foods, digests, and numerous “made easy” books, many young people are out of the habit of daily investing time and energy in digging deep into Scripture and learning wisdom from the Lord.
Thanks to television, their attention span is brief; thanks to religious entertainment that passes for worship, their spiritual appetite is feeble and spiritual knowledge isn’t “pleasant to [their] soul” (Prov. 2:10).
It’s no wonder fewer and fewer young people “take time to be holy” and more and more young people fall prey to the enemies that lurk along the way.
Walking with the wicked (vv. 10–19).
Here we meet “the evil man” and “the strange woman,” two people who are dangerous because they want to lead God’s children away from the path of life.
The evil man is known for his perverse words. He walks on the dark path of disobedience and enjoys doing that which is evil. He belongs to the crowd Solomon warns us about in 1:10–19.
The person who walks in the way of wisdom would immediately detect his deceit and avoid him.
The “strange woman” is the adulteress that uses flattering words. Someone has said that flattery isn’t communication, it is manipulation; it’s people telling us things about ourselves that we enjoy hearing and wish were true.
The strange woman knows how to use flattery successfully. She has no respect for God, because she breaks His law (Ex. 20:14); she has no respect for her husband because she violates the promises she made to him when she married him.
She no longer has a guide or a friend in the Lord or in her husband, because she has taken the path of sin. Anyone who listens to her words and follows her path is heading for the cemetery.
Walking with the righteous (vv. 20–22).
Note the argument that Solomon gives in this chapter that begins with the “if” of verse 1 and continues with the “then” of verse 9 and the “thus” of verse 20.
If we receive God’s words and obey them, then we will have wisdom to make wise decisions, and thus God will keep His promise and protect us from the evil man and the strange woman.
When you obey God, you have the privilege to “walk in the ways of good men” (v. 20, NIV). If you follow the Word of God, you will never lack for the right kind of friends.
The wicked may appear to be succeeding, but their end is destruction (Ps. 37). The godly will be rooted in the place of God’s blessing (Ps. 1:3), but the ungodly will be uprooted from the land. The safest and most satisfying path is the path of wisdom, the path of life.
Children who have godly parents and grandparents ought to give thanks to the Lord for their rich heritage, instead of scoffing at that heritage and abandoning it for the way of the world.
Conclusion
Ecclesiastes 12 – New Living Translation
1 Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and no longer enjoy living. 2It will be too late then to remember him, when the light of the sun and moon and stars is dim to your old eyes, and there is no silver lining left among the clouds.
3Your limbs will tremble with age, and your strong legs will grow weak. Your teeth will be too few to do their work, and you will be blind, too. 4And when your teeth are gone, keep your lips tightly closed when you eat! Even the chirping of birds will wake you up. But you yourself will be deaf and tuneless, with a quavering voice.
5You will be afraid of heights and of falling, white-haired and withered, dragging along without any sexual desire. You will be standing at death’s door. And as you near your everlasting home, the mourners will walk along the streets.
6Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well. 7For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
My rhyme and free style…
I came to the church,
For those in the search;
For those young kids,
Who might be on the skids;
There is a mighty lesson,
No need to spend time guessin’;
If you really wanna live,
Here’s what you must give;
Give the Big G your heart, your mind, and your soul,
And you’ll be blessed; you’ll never be too old;
Your peers try to tell you that its in the pimpin’
But I’m here to tell ya’ they’re just really trippin’;
Your friends try to tell ya’ SeanJohn and FUBU,
You know you’ve been deceived, yeah, YOU DO!;
I’ve got three letters for you – P – F - L,
That will fit your lifestyle all too well;
It’s the Proverbs Yo, and don’t you forget it,
If you do, there will be some big time regret;
If you really want to live in the class and the style’
Turn to your Bibles and look into the file;
Chapter one, chapter two, it really doesn’t matter,
As long as you know what is really sadder;
Making all the wrong choices, believing all the hype,
You need to tell the devil – I’m really not your type;
Determine you’re going to live and don’t tell a lie;
For if you do you may surely die.
I’m now running over, this now is my time,
This is - the rapping pastor with the big phat rhyme;
Proverbs for Livin’, P – F – L,
Get it in your soul, and your spirit will truly swell.
