0049BS Proverbs 9 - Bible Study

We explore Proverbs 9 where wisdom and folly compete for our attention through contrasting invitations to their banquets.

• Wisdom has built a perfect house with seven pillars and prepared a feast
• She invites the simple to forsake foolishness and live
• Folly also calls out but offers "stolen water" and "secret bread" that leads to death
• Don't waste time trying to correct scoffers who have chosen evil
• Wise people welcome correction because it saves them from being wrong
• The fear of the Lord is the foundation of all wisdom
• When God is your priority, everything else falls into place
• We should focus our energy on those receptive to growth
• Recognize that both wisdom and folly are constantly calling to us

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CWM Intro with Drums

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CWM Outro with drums

Chapters

• 0:00 Morning Gratitude and Prayer
• 7:00 Introducing Proverbs 9: Wisdom's Call
• 11:33 Dealing With Scoffers vs. Wise People
• 18:55 The Call of Folly: Stolen Waters
• 23:51 Final Prayer and Call to Action
• 27:07 Fellowship and Armor of God

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

Good morning everyone, getting a sound check and we'll get started. All right, we're good to go. Welcome to your daily battle Bible study where we fight battles Monday through Friday. One we fight to get a humble and grateful heart aligned onto the Lord, checking our entitlements and our pity parties and all of our griping and groaning, and getting grateful for all the blessings that we have in our lives, known and unknown. Two we deliberately pursue a relationship from that humble mindset with our Lord and Savior, creator of the universe, our creator. And then three, we pray for each other, for peace, wisdom and discernment.

Speaker 1: 1:28

I hope you guys get to catch our debut show of or I guess our debut show of the War Council, our Wednesday night check-in fellowship group where you come on in, invest in one another, pray, unlike a lot of these. You know, of course I'll shout out and say hi here, but we'll be able to discuss topics of the week and questions and testimonies and all that there in the War Council. So we are in Proverbs 9 today, again, you're going to hear a common theme of wisdom, but let's go ahead and let's pray it in and let's get humble, grateful and then pursue God with all that. We are. Good morning, my Lord, and even good morning. Morning is my favorite time of day, and then thank you. I appreciate that. So let's go ahead and let's pray it in, dear Heavenly Father. Lord, we come to you now grateful for all of our blessings, known and unknown, thankful that you have protected us through the night, us and our loved ones, grateful for the fact that you gave us another day. We open our eyes this morning with another chance to get it right. Serve you, give our lives to you, die to self, become more like you. Thank you for the trillions of cells in our bodies that had to work perfect, just for us to wake up today. We thank you for your many protections that we don't even know about, our bodies that had to work perfect, just for us to wake up today. We thank you for your many protections that we don't even know about. We thank you for your common grace, your creation, the sun, the moon, the stars, this earth, everything from the tallest peak to the deepest ocean and everything in between, the animals, the flora. It's beautiful and amazing. Well, we thank you for sunrises and sunsets. Thank you for the smell of fresh morning, rain and food cooking. Thank you for the touch of a loved one, a warm fire on a cold day and and cool breeze on a hot day. Thank you for the sound of waves against the shore and children's laughter. Thank you for the taste of good food and drink.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Lord, we thank you for the people in our lives. Help us to always be present among them. Leave nothing unsaid. We treasure our time with one another because it's all too short here on earth. We treasure our time with one another because it's all too short here on earth. But we also thank you for your divine grace, choosing us before the foundations of the world and writing us into the book of life. You loved us while we were still your enemies. You led the way From the front by example. Lord, we pray that this time glorifies you and only you, serves you and only you, and that it would please you. Lord, we pray that you would give us discernment, all your intent and your meaning, from the Holy Word. Help us to apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name, I pray amen. So there we go. We got one battle down and now we'll deliberately that humble, grateful position we will now. We'll now pursue god, chapter 9, proverbs 9, right, and I'm reading out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

Speaker 1: 6:41

I want to tell you guys and some people may frown on me, I know my hardcore theologians might when I start reading a text and this is one of those texts and I read it, and if it's almost like a foreign language, meaning that whether it's in poetry, it's just not something that my brain is recognizing as easy-to-understand language, easy to understand language, I often will go to a different translation of the Bible that is simpler to understand, that is written in a way to do it. But we must be on guard. So I often go to the message. If I read my Legacy Standard Bible, I'm like I don't even know what I just read, Don't even know what I just read, like it was so foreign in its poetry or verbiage, or just my brain, my dyslexic beat up, is having a hard time making sense of it. I will sometimes go, or I will always go, to the message Bible translation to get in the right city. Okay, get in the right city. Then, after I'm in the right city, I contrast that with my legacy standard bible or my english standard version. Then I get on the right street. Okay, then I go to my study bibles and my commentaries to get at the right address. Right, that's the easiest way I can describe this. I'm trying to understand this morning. I had to do that because you're going to read as we read this and I read it. Sometimes I struggle to read these poetries because the cadence and structure is not how I talk or think. Let's get into it and I will do my best to get you at the right address, okay, so let's go ahead and take that.

Speaker 1: 9:07

So this is the Word of God. Wisdom and foolishness call out. What you're going to see here is you're going to see two versions of wisdom calling out and folly calling out, two competing things. You're going to see that wisdom does it the right way and leads to life, and then folly does it the wrong way and leads to life, and then folly the wrong way and leads to death. Okay, often are almost always going to see that contrast good, what to do versus what not to do.

Speaker 1: 9:45

Um, wisdom has built her house. She has honed out her seven pillars. So this is just saying that wisdom built a nice house. Seven pillars is a number of perfection. She's built a beautiful house. She has slaughtered her cattle, she has mixed her wine, so she's preparing a feast. She has the best, most expensive feast, mixing her wine. You know, make wine often. I never made wine myself, but what they're talking about here is wine isn't just, hey, you take a grape and put it in there, you add spices to it. She's also prepared her table, okay. So now there's this beautiful table, like five course meal, getting ready to be served, with, you know, a well set table. She sent out her maidens, a well-set table. She sent out her maidens, so she sent out all of her girlfriends to go out and invite people to the banquet. She calls from the tops of the heights of the city. That's how people can hear you. You get high and you yell out, and most people can hear you. You get high and you yell out, and most people can hear you.

Speaker 1: 11:18

Whoever is simple, let them turn in here. So let's say you're simple. Now there's a lot to be said by saying here, whoever doesn't know anything, whoever is simple, if you're willing to admit that you're humble, you recognize that you are not learned. So that's who they're inviting. To him who lacks a heart of wisdom, she says come, eat my bread and drink my wine. I drink the wine that I have mixed. Forsake your simplicity and live and step into the way of understanding again. Come be a part of my feast and eat my bread, drink my feast, drink my mixed wine and step into the ways of understanding.

Speaker 1: 12:21

Now we're going to talk about in verse 7, you're going to see who not to waste your time on. Okay, In verse 7, what you see here is he disciplines a scoffer who receives disgrace for himself. Now a scoffer Ah, where did he go? Now, a scoffer is someone who is hardened pessimist, has gone beyond a simple lack of judgment, has made a conscious decision for evil. Correcting, trying to correct such a person is often a waste of time. Do not approve a scoffer lest he hate you. And we see this on social media all the time.

Speaker 1: 13:16

We engage with our people that even if you show them the truth, they won't, they'll deny it. They have cognitive dissonance. They've been so programmed by the world and the evil machine of today that they can't even see truth anymore. We all have loved ones and family relatives that we see get sucked down this path. But the opposite of that is reprove or correct a wise man. He will love you, because wise people don't want to be ignorant. They don't want to be wrong.

Speaker 1: 14:03

People ask me about my positions and my opinions on the Bible. The thing that drives me insane is how everyone is sure they're right on some things that are pretty vague in the Bible the age of the earth and so many other things the way we should worship, et cetera, et cetera. And I am always willing and open to hear opposing points of view in the Bible, because I don't know everything I don't like. I'm willing to hear things out there because I don't want to be wrong. Am I a Calvinist? Yeah, I'm a Calvinist because I can't unsee what I've seen, but I'm willing to not be. I don't want to be wrong, so I'm willing to exchange ideas and I think particularly in Christianity that's very important.

Speaker 1: 16:29

There are things that are settled. Those are the salvation issues. There's so much more about our faith that is unsettled. There is freedom and liberty in it for us to have differing opinions. We're still going to be in heaven. If you believe the earth is three minutes old, 3,000 years old, 6,000 years old or 6 billion years old, you're going to be in heaven. That's not part of the salvation. That's just one fun topic to talk about. I'm always willing to hear out things. We should always be willing to test what we know, the iron sharpening iron. We're not wise here. What we're seeing here?

Speaker 1: 17:18

The wise, they love to be corrected because they save them from being wrong. They love to be corrected because they save them from being wrong. Give knowledge to a wise man and he will still be still wiser. Make a righteous man know it, he will increase his learning. And, grounded in everything right, right after those two powerful statements, the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Okay, that is the foundation of all wisdom. Once you are aligned onto God, he is your priority. He is the only one you fear. He is the one you respect the most. Everything else falls in line. It continues in verse 11 and 12. Here you get some tough love, for by me, your days will become many and the years of life will be added to you. That's part of 10. Then you go down to 12. If you are wise, you are wise. If you are self, if you scoff, you alone will bear it. No excuses, this is on you. God has given you everything you need.

Speaker 1: 18:43

I remember being an atheist. When I stopped becoming an atheist, I saw the case of creationism. I saw the evidence for specificity and how the world was designed and everything else. I could not believe. I believed in the stupidity of chaos and randomness doing this. I believed in the stupidity of chaos and randomness doing this. God testifies to his existence with his very creation, with your DNA, with you, with everything. You wouldn't stumble upon a giant skyscraper or a ship with all of its computer navigation, elevators and blah, blah and all this stuff and say, oh, that just randomly happened, that just randomly happened and no one created that. How much more so is the universe? It's complexity and specificity and it's intertwined interaction, ecosystems that all depend on one another.

Speaker 1: 20:00

Now we're gonna see a competing call out. Wisdom is calling out from the heights, from her beautiful house. She sent out her maids to invite people. She's done everything the right way. Now let's look at verse 13.

Speaker 1: 20:25

A woman of foolishness is boisterous. A woman of simplicity does not know anything. She sits at the doorway to her house on a seat At a high place in the city To call out those who pass by their way, who are making their path straight. They are doing the right thing. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. And to him who lacks a heart of wisdom. She says stolen water is sweet Bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Talking about forbidden things. Talking about forbidden things. Talking about forbidden things, stolen things, taste better than things earned. But he does not know that the dead are there, that those she called are in the depths of Sheol Again the Bible alluding to that folly. A lack of wisdom leads to death, whereas wisdom leads to life, a life of abundance.

Speaker 1: 21:59

How many of us waste so much time on the scoffers of our lives instead of planting in fertile soil? You know, I think of the parable of the sower in the New Testament. Some of the seeds went in the weeds, some went on the rocky ground where they couldn't take root, and then some went in the fertile soil. So you can try to work on everyone, but only give your heart and soul to those who are growing and bearing fruit and understand that you don't cast your pearls before swine. There are people out there that are going to exist to destroy you. Do not waste time on them. Waste time on that.

Speaker 1: 22:55

I hope that you found this edifying and that this made it clear when I first read this. This is not what I came up. I was running through this the first time I had to read it about six times in various translations and then go to notes and all that. So don't think that I'm like some really smart guy. I've relied on a lot of work of a lot of people before this to be able to unpack that in a way that I hope helped you. So now let's go ahead and pray it out and get on with our day.

Speaker 1: 23:38

Thank you for joining me this morning and sharing your first cup of coffee. It means a lot. If you think this is worth anything, please like, comment, subscribe, share it. Most people don't. A lot of people don't see what we do. The algorithm doesn't like me and, um, you know, I don't have a lot of bells and whistles. I'm a party of one and that is what it is. So the only hope we have of reaching anyone is god and you sharing it out. So please like, comment, comment, share, subscribe. And if you want to support this ministry, well, you can go to christianwarriormissioncom and make a donation there, or you can go to our Patreon channel and join there. All right, so let's pray it out.

Speaker 1: 24:29

Dear Heavenly Father and Lord, we thank you. Thank you for each and every man and woman who has chosen to lock shields with us and to deliberately stop their lives and dedicate this time to you. But first things first, you first in all things, and to pursue you, lord, help us understand and give us discernment in your text that we read today. Lord, help us understand and give us discernment in your text that we read today. Help us to listen to wisdom and dine with wisdom and to avoid falling, to avoid the temptations of falling. Lord, help us walk in your wise ways, putting fear of you above everything, respect for you above everything, love for you above everything. Again, I treasure everyone who has decided to join us and be a part of this. I pray that, if this pleases you, that you would add to it, more people would come and join us. Now we can learn from one another. Support one another. Walk yourself, arm in arm, locked against shield, take ground for your kingdom.

Speaker 1: 26:01

Now I pray a prayer of blessing, of protection, peace, wisdom and discernment on this congregation, on the persecuted church, our troops overseas, our first responders at home, veterans of yesteryear. I pray from my beloved America. I pray that she would turn from her sin, get on her knees and seek your face, that you would see her and heal her so that we could once again be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Lastly, I call this fellowship now to put on the full armor of God, to strap on the shield of faith, to pick up the sword of the Spirit and to boldly step forward, to join the shield wall, locking shields to the left and right, as we march forward to take ground and conquer for your kingdom for all time, for all time For you, king Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray Amen. All right, everyone. God bless you. I hope you have an amazing day. I hope that you pursue wisdom.