Last Saturday Joe, Jennie, John and myself went to a conference in Millis Mass. Millis is southwest of Boston near Medway. The conference was on frontline ministry. Maybe you’re new to Cornerstone and our use of the word “frontline” is new to you. We define our frontline this way:

“Your Frontline is the place where you spend the majority of your time outside the church, where you are in contact with non-Christians.” – Life on the Frontline

So our frontlines are not a physical or religious battlefield, but a spiritual rescue. God calls each one of us to be out in our own contexts bringing the healing power of Christ to those around us. Our speaker, the author and pastor Neil Hudson, defined a disciple of Jesus this way.

A disciple: learning to live the way of Jesus in their context at this moment. – Neil Hudson

To be a disciple is to be learning how to live Christ’s way wherever you are and in whatever you’re doing. As I was listening it struck me that today’s sermon theme, wise influence, is frontline ministry.

The book of Proverbs encourages us to show wisdom and discernment with those we influence and those who influence us. I want to read our verse for today’s passage, but in the English Standard Version (ESV).

Proverbs 12:26 (ESV)

One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor,

     but the way of the wicked leads them astray.

If you know Christ, you are a guide to your neighbor, the people you are around everyday. Why do they need a guide? Because as the second half of the Proverb says—they’ve gone astray, they’re lost. So our encouragement from Proverbs today is for each one of us to become an influence, an ambassador, a field-medic for Christ, on our frontlines. 

In our conference we were reminded of six ways—six Ms—for how we can influence our frontlines. These six Ms, which come from the book Fruitfulness on the Frontline, all appear in Proverbs. The first three of the Six Ms of Frontline Influence demonstrate consistency:

…Modeling Godly character

…Making good work

…Ministering grace and love 

The second three demonstrate courage:

…Molding culture

…a Messenger of the gospel

…a Mouthpiece for truth and justice

Hopefully this is familiar. I’ve preached on these six Ms before. If you’ve heard this already I hope it will act as a good review of the material and a good encouragement to keep living it out. But if they’re new to you, great! This concept of frontline ministry is so important to us we are encoding it into our DNA. We want everyone to know the six Ms! The best part is it all comes from Scripture. Proverbs tells us the same thing about how to influence others.

Influence #1 – Modeling Godly character (Prov 8:12-13)

The first way we influence others is through who we are as people, our character, the way we live and talk. Just like we influence others we are also influenced. The metaphor of lady wisdom is one of those big recurring themes in Proverbs. Look at who she allows and doesn’t allow to influence her.

Proverbs 8:12-13 (NIV)

12 “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence;

         I possess knowledge and discretion.

13 To fear the Lord is to hate evil;

         I hate pride and arrogance,

         evil behavior and perverse speech.

In order to be able to influence others through our Godly character we need to have wisdom, prudence, knowledge and discretion while at the same time turning away from pride, arrogance, evil behavior, and perverse speech. What we allow into our hearts is what will come out of our hearts. 

Reading elsewhere in Proverbs might lead us to the conclusion that we should only form friendships and relationships with well mannered fellow Christians. After all, we don’t want to be negatively influenced.

Proverbs 13:20 (NIV)

Walk with the wise and become wise,

     for a companion of fools suffers harm.

This is why we have to read individual Proverbs in light of the whole Bible. For example, let’s look to Jesus and see what he did. I didn’t know it until I preached this series on

Prudence is married, she has three children, and lives in a suburb of Boston. Her oldest boy is a freshman in high school and is doing great. Her youngest is in elementary school and loves it; but her middle child is in middle school and isn’t doing well. She’s hasn’t made any friends, sometimes gets picked on, is bored and uninterested with her education, and she’s begun acting out more at home. Prudence is worried about her daughter’s education as well as her mental and emotional wellbeing. 

Prudence has talked with her husband about her concerns and he supports finding the best education possible where their daughter can flourish, so Prudence is prayerfully researching and thinking through all their options. Her name, “Prudence,” means thinking through all the options and their potential outcomes. She intends to live up to her name. She lists her possible choices.

Current School: She could keep her daughter in her current school but lobby for more attention from her teachers or pay a tutor. She’d also have to talk with the administration about bullying. 

Different Public School: She could try and transfer her daughter to another public middle school in town but there’s no guarantees that could happen or would be any better.

Charter School: Although she’s not as familiar with charter schools there is one nearby. She would have to do research to fully understand this option. 

Private School: The youth pastor gives chapel talks at a local Christian school. Several families from the church go there. There’s also a non-Christian private school nearby, but both are pricey. 

Homeschool: Several families in her church also homeschool and speak positively of it.  She likes the specialized focus it offers but isn’t sure she has the time or talent to make it happen. 

Online School: One teenage boy in the church is trying to become a professional golfer and is going to school online. She didn’t have that option when she was a kid. 

These are the options she lists but she knows there are others. Her head is spinning with all the possibilities and the potential pros and cons of each. Most of all she wants to make the right decision for her daughter, whatever that may be. Her pastor happens to be preaching a sermon series on Proverbs (what a coincidence!) and she wonders if she can apply some of what she is learning to this decision. Her pastor recently preached on the Proverbs 31 woman and this woman’s diligence really inspired her. 

Proverbs 31:27 (NIV)

She watches over the affairs of her household

     and does not eat the bread of idleness.

She’s going to be proactive and make the best choice possible for her daughter. She opens up to the book of Proverbs and begins to review the notes she scribbled down.

“Make a good decision within the boundaries of Scripture.”

She remembers the first thing her pastor taught while preaching on wise decision making in the book of Proverbs. The Bible often doesn’t tell us what exactly to do. Instead, the Bible gives us boundaries of what not to do and what types of good things to do. It lets us use our wisdom as we prayerfully follow any promptings of the Holy Spirit. One verse warns of staying away from evil and pursuing good. 

Proverbs 14:22 (NIV)

Do not those who plot evil go astray?

     But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness.

In other words, whatever we choose we shouldn’t disobey God or commit a sin. That’s not an option. Thankfully the Bible (God’s special revelation) helps her figure out right and wrong.

Proverbs 29:18 (NIV)

Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint;

     but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.

As far as she can tell there’s no scriptural mandate for how exactly to school your kids outside of discipling them to follow Christ (Deut 6:4-9). So none of these options are an immoral choice but neither is one option prescribed. This feels freeing, allowing her the space to investigate what’s best for her daughter. Now to figure out

On a Podcast I listened to recently one of the speakers talked about barnacles. Did you know that the U.S. Navy reports Barnacles can slow down nuclear-powered ships by as much as 40%? Barnacles diminish the arrow-dynamics of boats, get inside engines, add weight on the hull, and can even crack the hull with smaller vessels. Barnacles expand and breed constantly and the navy spends $500 million a year to scrape barnacles off ships. Are your words the nuclear energy that gives your family, friends, workplace, and church power? Or are they barnacles? Words can give us life or slow us down.

Proverbs 18:21

The tongue has the power of life and death,

     and those who love it will eat its fruit. (NIV)

Your tongue can help grow healthy life-giving fruit, or it can burn down the forest (James 3:5-6). In our series on Proverbs we’ve encountered lady wisdom who speaks what is good and true. Hear what she says.

Proverbs 8:6-8

6 Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say;

     I open my lips to speak what is right.

7 My mouth speaks what is true,

     for my lips detest wickedness.

8 All the words of my mouth are just;

     none of them is crooked or perverse. (NIV)

Lady wisdom is a metaphor for God himself one day fulfilled in Jesus (Matt 11:19). The words she speaks are the words God speaks, inviting us to speak words that mirror Christ’s goodness and character. This stands in stark contrast to lady folly. 

Proverbs 9:13

Folly is an unruly woman;

     she is simple and knows nothing. (NIV)

Lady folly represents Satan, sin, and his powers, which are completely different than God’s goodness. When we speak Godly words we pump Godly power and goodness into those around us. But when we use the words of his enemy, we become like barnacles, multiplying and spreading and causing destruction. So how can you know if your words are of God or in opposition to him? How can you know if your words are nuclear power or a barnacle slowing down the ship?

Foolish words cause harm.

When we say the wrong things it can destroy a relationship. 

Proverbs 25:23

Like a north wind that brings unexpected rain

     is a sly tongue—which provokes a horrified look. (NIV)

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will always crush my spirit.” Words can destroy relationships, but also institutions, like a business, government, or church.

Proverbs 11:11

Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted,

     but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed. (NIV)

When Director J.J. Abrams was filming Star Wars Episode VII he put up a poster at Pinewood Studios that said “Loose lips bring down starships” referencing posters from WWII. Darth Vader’s hand is muffling the mouth of the officer who shared the plans to the Death Star. Abrams had a lot of visitors while filming the first movie and he made them all sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). If they told people what they saw, it could spoil everything. What we do with our words can bring our starship down too. 

So what type of words am I talking about? What are foolish words? 

Lies

A lie is anytime we intentionally say something that isn’t true. I don’t feel comfortable calling something a lie if it was completely unintentional. I think a better word for that is “misspoken.” Even worse than a lie is deceit. Deceit is when we intentionally mislead someone, with or without a lie. But where do lies and deceit come from? Proverbs tell us they are symptoms of a sick heart.

Proverbs 26:24-26

24 Enemies disguise themselves with their lips,

       but in their hearts they harbor deceit.

25 Though their speech is charming, do not believe them,

       for seven abominations fill their hearts.

26 Their malice may be concealed by deception,

       but their wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. (NIV)

If you’re someone who lies or distorts the truth, it’s time to get your heart checked. I was reading Tremper Longman III’s commentary on Proverbs as I prepared again this week and he said that Proverbs warns us no

I want to kick of today’s sermon in Proverbs by reading you a verse from the gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (NIV)

These are Jesus’ words. They come from the Sermon on the Mount. He taught us to not store up treasurer on earth, where it can be destroyed, but to store it up in heaven, where it’s safe. And then he says, “For where your treasure is…. there your heart will be also.” 

Where is your heart? You ever heard the phrase “Follow the money?” Just follow your money. It’ll lead somewhere, probably to your family, church, hobbies and passions, maybe even your anxieties or health problems. If you were to walk backward from your purchases through your decisions, thoughts, and feelings you’d eventually get back to your heart, the very core of who you are. Our foundation verse says: 

Proverbs 4:23

Above all else, guard your heart,

     for everything you do flows from it. (NIV)

So today’s sermon on wealth isn’t just a sermon on money. It’s a sermon for your soul. What you do with your money and wealth (or lack thereof) displays your heart. Today I want to show where a love of wealth leads and compare it to where a love of God leads. So where do these two paths lead?

Love of wealth leads to:

1. Wealth

If you idolize wealth, you may actually acquire more wealth. You don’t have to love God to do well.

Psalm 73:3-4

3 For I envied the arrogant

       when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4 They have no struggles;

       their bodies are healthy and strong. (NIV)

That’s a cynical Psalm, where a man named Asaph complains about the wicked doing well. Proverbs shows positive outcomes for those who seek God but it also sometimes shows the other side (Prov 11:28).

Proverbs 15:16

Better a little with the fear of the Lord

     than great wealth with turmoil. (NIV)

To fear the Lord means to love and respect him. You can not care the least bit about God and still have “great wealth.” But will you be happy? Ecclesiastes also highlights the wicked getting ahead. 

Ecclesiastes 5:10

Whoever loves money never has enough;

     whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.

     This too is meaningless. (NIV)

If you’ve ever watched Shark Tank you know the millionaire and billionaire investors always want to make more money. One of the investors, Kevin O’Leary, says “Here’s how I think of my money, as soldiers, I send them out to war everyday. I want them to take prisoners and come home, so there’s more of them.” I kind of like the quote but when is enough enough? The American Dream is a pretty hollow dream.  Love of wealth may lead to wealth but also to…

2. Poverty

I already preached on laziness in Proverbs, which can lead to poverty (Prov 10:4; 21:17; 22:13) but the actual love of wealth can lead to poverty too (Prov 21:6).

Proverbs 20:21

An inheritance claimed too soon

      will not be blessed at the end. (NIV)

I wonder if Jesus was thinking of this Proverb when he told the story of the Prodigal Son. That story is about a young man who asks his father to give him his inheritance early so he can travel and party and live for himself. His father gives him his inheritance and his son goes off and spends it all on wild living in a foreign land. He wastes his wealth and becomes so poor he has to work feeding pigs in the mud. Thankfully that’s not how the story ends, but we’ll come back to that. 

Love of wealth can lead to wealth or to poverty, but if your heart is taken with an idol, if you love money more than God, then that will begin to reflect in your character and actions. Love of wealth leads to…

3. Greed

The love of wealth is greed. Greed leads nowhere good (Prov 11:24).

Proverbs 28:27

Those who give to the poor will lack nothing,

      but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses. (NIV)

Proverbs warns leaders to especially be mindful of greed. 

Proverbs 28:16

A tyrannical ruler practices extortion,

     but one who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long reig

Today I’m preaching on politics. I was just at my fourth Ockenga retreat at Gordon-Conwell and this was our topic. My goal today is not to convince you to vote for a candidate or issue or to review this week’s news but to help us all process how the Bible calls believers to think about politics. Today’s sermon is not comprehensive, but hopefully you’ll find it helpful, or at least thought-provoking. If you want to have a friendly conversation about my sermon, come with me to get lunch at Panera after the service. If you can’t make that, come next Sunday to our Christian Education hour to talk about it.

In preparation for the Ockenga retreat our 14 pastors and ministers read the book To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World by James Davidson Hunter. Many of the things I’ll be sharing come from his writing. Now I don’t want today’s sermon to be just a book review, so today we’ll also be looking at Jeremiah 29:4-14. Hunter unpacks this passage in To Change the World and I’m going to share many of the same points he makes. But before we dive in let me pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for politics. You give us rulers and leaders and systems of government to help us live ordered and prosperous lives. May today’s sermon not divide but provide a Godly and Biblical perspective on a difficult topic. Open our ears and guide my words. In Jesus name, amen. 

How should Christians live in exile? An exile is someone who isn’t living in their home country. Exiles live somewhere foreign. The Bible calls believers exiles. Hear what Peter says to the early believers: 

1 Peter 1:1

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, [and Westford MA…] (See also 1 Peter 1:17; 2:11)

The book of Hebrews calls the heroes of our faith “foreigners and strangers on earth.” (Heb 11:13b) If you belong to Jesus, you belong to his kingdom, which is not of this earth. We are citizens of Christ’s kingdom. 

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, (NIV)

We are spiritual exiles. In our passage the Israelite people were literal exiles. In 606, 597, and 586 BC the nation of Babylon deported the people of Jerusalem and Judah back to Babylon, about a thousand miles journey (2 Kings 24:15). A prophet named Jeremiah wrote them a letter around the second deportation telling the Jewish exiles in Babylon how to live in exile. This is my big idea and the big idea of the book.

God calls exiles to “faithful presence.” (Jer 29:4-7)

I’ve put “faithful presence” in quotes because this is Hunter’s name for the posture we find Jeremiah telling the Israelites to take. Lets read the first couple verses. 

Jeremiah 29:4-7

4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 

God doesn’t say Babylon carried Jerusalem into exile but that he did it. He carried his people into a foreign land. This implies that as exiles of God’s kingdom he puts us exactly where he wants us. Wherever you are, your political environment, workplace, family, community, gym, school, that’s where God has carried you. Where has God carried you? Do you see how he has carried you there?

5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 

God wants his people to be present where he puts them. He doesn’t want them to try and get back to Jerusalem. He doesn’t want them to try and take over Babylon. He simply wants his people to be faithful to him and live life where they are. They’re to hold onto their faith in him and live where he has them. Are you faithful to Christ where you are? Are you investing your life in the people

Introduction

A few weeks ago, Jonathan presented in his sermon the Dunning-Kruger Effect. I had never heard of this before, but it resonated with me. It felt true. Then he showed this graphic, and because of this typo, I knew I had to do more research on my own on this topic. I like this graphic is a little better. However, when it comes to the Dunning-Kruger effect, I have done just enough research to end up in the valley of despair. I feel like I understand it less well than I did after Jonathan’s sermon.

Since 2008, I think it is fair to say God has been teaching me a lot about my faith through missions, seminary, adoptions, church planting, etc. Over that same time, have been learning a lot about parenting too. It is definitely true for me that as I have learned, studied, researched, read, listened, and experienced things about Christianity and parenting, the less I feel like I actually know. Of course, there are some things that I am certain about, but there are a lot of things I used to be certain about I now have uncertainty about.

When it comes to faith and parenting, I think I am probably slowly climbing the slope of enlightenment having passed through the valley of despair. And, I don’t think these kinds of doubts and uncertainties are a bad thing for our faith. They help us ask questions and grow. The help us realize we don’t know everything, and we have a lot to learn. As Andy Mineo says in his song Clarity, “The opposite of faith ain’t doubt, it’s when I get it all figured out”.

So, suffice to say, I stand here before you this morning not an expert in parenting or godliness, but as someone climbing the slope of enlightenment and hoping that wherever you are on your journey, something I offer will encourage you forward in yours. Preaching on parenting with some of your kids in the room, is dangerous, and I assure you that they think I am firmly planted on the summit of mount stupid.

Now, when it comes to the sermon passage for today, there are a lot of opinions out there on what it means. Let’s read it again, but this time from the ESV. “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” You can see on my slide that there is very little difference between the ESV, NASB, KJV, and the old NIV. Any of us who grew up in the church were probably familiar with the verse in this format.

Ten plus years ago, I became a member of the pastoral search committee at Immanuel Church. We scoured through resumes and cover letters, narrowed the field, listened to sermons, and conducted interviews; it was a very thorough process. Inevitably, at least for me, but I know I was not alone, a candidate that had three kids all serving the Lord as missionaries and pastors was seen as better than one whose kids were just “regular” Christians, and both beat the pastor who told of us a child who left the faith. We even had one candidate with multiple kids living like the prodigal son before his return. Was that fair?

I was thinking of asking people to stand or raise hands about certain things, but realizing this may be too personal a topic, so I decided to present some recent research. David Kinnaman works for Barna and he wrote a new book with results of research from 2004 to present on young people and faith. He identified four groups of 18-29 year olds who were raised in Christian homes. The groups were:

Prodigals – Loss of faith – 22%

Nomads – Loss of connection to the church – 30%

Habitual church goers – Superficial connection to the church – 38%

Resilient disciples – Disciple – 10%

To summarize simply, the prodigals no longer identified as Christians, the nomads identified as Christians but no longer attended church, the habitual church goers went to church at least once a month but were not really involved, and resilient disciples are those who are deeply involved in church and have a personal relationship with Jesus. Of course, these numbers can be spun in different ways, and depending on your

Do you remember when the movie Wonder Woman came out in 2017? Wonder Woman featured a strong, noble, courageous, sometimes insecure, but ultimately heroic female super hero, the Amazon warrior Diana Prince. When this movie came out it inspired little girls everywhere. 

Right after this movie released in June 2017 this little girl was dressing up as Wonder Woman with a huge grin. She didn’t care it wasn’t Halloween or that it was summer. She was Wonder Woman! 

This little girl named Milah dressed up as Wonder Woman and her mom took pictures of her on “the streets of New York City like a true superhero.”

One dad actually recreated some of the Wonder Woman scenes with his “three-year-old daughter Nellee.” His daughter “was so obsessed [with the costume] she couldn’t take it off.” 

But my favorite picture is of last year’s Trunk or Treat when Elijah was so inspired he asked Monica if he could dress up like Superman and her Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman has had a powerful effect on women and girls in our culture. They’ve walked away from the film feeling inspired and empowered. I think that’s how we’re supposed to feel when we encounter the Wise Woman in Proverbs 31, the original Wonder Woman. 

At first she can make us feel like we’ll never measure up or be as perfect as her, but I don’t think that’s how we’re supposed to feel. We’re supposed to see her as an inspiration, as the best of us. The wise woman of Proverbs 31 is meant to move us to take everything we’ve learned in the book of Proverbs and live it out. The Wise Woman:

She is the woman we all should be.

The wise woman is the Wonder Woman (or wonder man) we should all emulate, try to be like. Proverbs is mostly written from the perspective of a father to his son. Remember how the book opened? 

Proverbs 1:8

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction

     and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. (NIV)

Then the father began to paint wisdom as a strong, attractive, intelligent, God-fearing woman (Prov 1:20-33). As we read the first nine chapters we discovered woman wisdom to be a metaphor for God, and ultimately for Christ Jesus himself (Prov 8:22-31; Col 1:15-17). So the call is for young men (and women) to pursue God and his wisdom. 

Now women and girls are usually the ones who go to Proverbs 31 and say, “Here’s the kind of woman I’m supposed to be.” But this text is first written to teenage boys about the kind of girl they should find and marry. It’s written from the perspective of a mother speaking to her son (King Lemuel’s mom speaking to Lemuel). How often do you hear about a boy’s youth retreat studying the Proverbs 31 woman? Never! But that’s who it’s primarily for. With that in mind I do think women are the secondary audience and it’s good for girls to aspire to be like this woman as the. So there’s two ways we should hear this passage:

Guys, this is the kind of girl you should look to find and marry. 

Girls, this is the kind of girl you should want to be like.

But I want to take a moment and reverse that because if we were to flip over to Psalm 112 we would find a matching Psalm very much like Proverbs 31 describing the ideal man and husband. I’m not going to read it but with that in mind I want to say:

Guys, this is the kind of girl you should want to be like. 

Girls, this is the kind of guy you should want to marry.

She is the woman we all should be. Now with all that in mind what kind of woman is she? She is:

1) Valorous (v10)

This Hebrew word for “noble” is often used in the Old Testament as a military term. It’s used to describe valiant warriors (Joshua 1:14). She is courageous and determined and doesn’t run away in fear. So she is like a female superhero or the Disney princess Mulan. If you’re not familiar with Mulan, it’s starts when the Huns invade China and a man from every family is conscripted into the army. But Mulan’s father is older and feeble and can’t fight so Mulan disguises herself as a man and joins the army in his place. She’s courageous, no

Alan can’t for the life of him see why God still has him in this organization. It’s a [cold] place — this big bank — and he’s been thinking about leaving for a while. He’s been brought in to a team that’s being led by a much younger man who right now needs an older [leader] to steady the ship. Alan is that older [leader]. There are 130 in the team, their profitability is plummeting, and their employee engagement numbers are plummeting faster than their profitability. And apart from that, their technology belongs in a museum.

This is a true story in Mark Green’s little book The one about… 8 stories about God in our everyday (www.licc.org.uk). I’m going to share this story with you as we look at our passage today because it is a beautiful example of wise leadership. Proverbs 31:1-9 is about a king named Lemuel. Some think Lemuel was an Arabian ruler from outside Israel. As leader of the nation he wants his son, the future king, to lead wisely. Most of us aren’t kings or queens but we do provide leadership in some part of our life, at home, at work, at school, at church, so there’s something we can learn and apply here. 

And if you’re not a leader that’s okay. Not everyone should be a leader. We need followers. But if you’re a follower, you still need to know what good leadership looks like, and if the Lord calls you into leadership, you need to be ready. Thankfully, we have Lemuel and the book of Proverbs to teach us how to lead well. 

After next week we’re looking more closely at Proverbs 10-29, which is much more topical and random than what we’ve been studying (Proverbs 1-9; 30-31). It’s here we’ll find what we normally think of as proverbs. which are short pithy statements meant to teach us wisdom. Today I want to give you a taste of that as we look at not only what Lemuel teaches about leadership but the book of Proverbs as a whole. 

As I looked at what Proverbs has to say about kings, authority figures, and leadership I distilled what I found into 7 Leadership Lessons. These aren’t just lessons on what it means to be a good leader but a Godly leader, someone who truly honors God in how they lead. Let’s begin with the first lesson.

1) Godly leaders seek Godly wisdom.

Look at the first two verses of chapter 31. In them we find an implied call to seek wisdom.

Proverbs 31:1-2

1 The sayings of King Lemuel—an inspired utterance his mother taught him.

Inspired here doesn’t mean Lemuel’s mom was in a really creative mood and taught him something great, but that God somehow empowered her words. What does she tell him to do? Listen.

2 Listen, my son! Listen, son of my womb!

       Listen, my son, the answer to my prayers! (NIV)

To be a wise leader Lemuel needs to listen to God’s wisdom, which his mother is teaching him. That’s what we need to do too. We need to seek and listen to Godly wisdom. Alan listens in his story…

When [Alan] arrives his boss tells him, “Your work space isn’t quite ready, so let me take you round to where you’ll be sitting for now and introduce you to your No. 2.” 

“Great. I’d like to meet the other people there too,” Alan replies. 

“Why? You’ll never need to talk to them” the young boss says.

“But they will be working for me.”

“But… well, okay then,” his boss responds with a hint of […] frustration in his voice, “I’ll introduce you to your No. 2 and he can introduce you to the others.” 

What kind of culture is this? What kind of man is this? Alan wonders. And quickly discovers. He is immediately asked to restructure the whole team and ensure that he “restructures” a particular person, Keith, out, for reasons unnamed. Alan wonders, “What am I doing in a place like this? Where’s God in this?”

“Where’s God in this?” We can only answer that question if we seek and listen to wisdom. Wisdom is more than making the right decision. Wisdom is becoming the kind of person who makes the right decision. There’s only one way we can become that kind of person, through a relationship with God. Remember this call back in chap

A man walked into a bank with no mask or hat or sunglasses and robbed the bank at gunpoint in broad daylight. Then he did it again that same day at another bank, still with no mask or hat or sunglasses or disguise of any kind. The year was 1995 and there were security cameras. When the police came they examined the footage and showed a nice picture of the robber on the nightly news. They got tips right away, which lead them to the door of a one MacArthur Wheeler. 

When the police arrived the robber was completely floored they had found him. He couldn’t believe it. Why? Because as he put it, “I wore the juice.” MacArthur had learned that you can use lemon juice as invisible ink. He figured that you could then rub lemon juice all over your face and you would appear invisible to security cameras. He’d even taken a picture of himself to test the idea, and apparently it worked, or at least he thought it had. Actually the juice stung his eyes so much it made it harder to rob the bank.

Now why share this story? Well MacArthur inspired two researchers named Dunning and Kruger to discover something now called the Dunning-Kruger effect. They found that those people who know little to nothing about a subject can be completely confident in their expertise of the subject. They also found that the more people knew about an actual subject the less confident they became, up to a certain point, and then they regain some of their confidence. This graph shows their theory. Less knowledge can lead to more confidence while more knowledge can lead to less confidence. 

I’m sure we’ve all met people who think they know it all but actually know very little. We’ve probably met people who know a great deal but are incredibly humble. Would you rather be a know it all (who knows nothing) or a humble learner? In the book of Proverbs we encounter several types of people we could become:

The wise – Loves and obeys God (Prov 9:10)

This is someone who is in relationship with God, who wants to know God and follow his laws and decrees. This person is wise because they are humble learners. Proverbs calls them other names like, the “righteous, upright, diligent, [those who show] understanding, prudent). They are the wise. How about?

The simple – They don’t care (Prov 14:15)

This is someone who you and I might call lukewarm. They’re apathetic. They’re not that bad but neither are they good. They don’t really care one way or the other. How about?

The fool – Actively oppose God (Prov 1:7)

This is someone who has received God’s message and rejects it. Not only do they decide not to live life God’s way, but they intentionally choose to live life for themselves. They’re fools. Proverbs calls them other names, like “wicked, lazy, [sluggard,] lacking sense.” But there are types even worse than a fool.

The scoffer – Arrogant and unteachable (Prov 15:12, 21:24)

This is someone who likes quarreling and is prideful. They like to argue and exert their dominance.

Wise in his own eyes – A know it all who knows nothing (Prov 26:12)

Proverbs 26:12

Do you see a person wise in their own eyes?

     There is more hope for a fool than for them. (NIV)

These are the people who Dunning and Kruger would say think they know a lot and yet know very little. They’re the people with the lemon juice in their eyes. They’re the opposite of humble learners. 

But here’s the Catch 22 (an impossible situation to get out of). The problem is that those people who think they know it all actually know very little and so don’t study to learn more, because if they did, they would become a humble learner and soon discover they know very little. 

So here’s my question. What kind of person are you? Wise or simple? A fool or scoffer or wise in your own eyes? Or maybe a better question is not what kind of person are you but what kind of person do you want to become? I want to become a humble learner. Let’s turn to Proverbs 30 where we find what it means to be a humble learner throug

Sometimes it all comes down to a single choice. You ever watch that old gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? It finally got cancelled this summer but the concept was pretty simple. The original gameshow host Regis Philbin would ask a contestant trivia questions. The questions were pretty easy at first but they got progressively harder and harder. But that also meant that each question was worth more and more, ranging from $100 to $1,000,000. If you answered all fifteen questions right you won a million dollars, but if you missed a single question you lost most of your money. 

Now I didn’t watch this show very often but I recently watched a clip of a contestant, a guy named John Carpenter, who made it all the way to the million dollar question. He still had all three of his lifelines. He could ask the audience, take a 50:50 (reduce the answers down from 4 to 2), and he could phone a friend. So he got all the way to the end and he got this question (and if you know the answer don’t shout it out): 

Which of these U.S. Presidents appeared on the television series “Laugh-In”?

A) Lyndon Johnson; B) Richard Nixon; C) Jimmy Carter; D) Gerald Ford.

By show of hands who here thinks it was Johnson? Nixon? Carter? or Ford? Or who is wondering “what’s Laugh-In?” This is a million dollar question. And the answer is… we’ll be right back! We’re going to come back to the answer because today I want to ask you a question that has even higher stakes than a million dollars. What’s at stake is heaven and hell. What’s at stake is your and my eternal destination.

Which path will you take?

A) The way of wisdom; B) The way of folly.

Today we’re coming to the end of the first nine-chapters of the book of Proverbs. It’s a natural close to the first part of the book. Next week we’re going to pick up in Proverbs 30 as we look the end of the book, and then after that we’ll jump into some of the center, more topical passages. Throughout the first nine chapters we’ve been given a choice again and again between two paths, the wise path and the foolish path. Today I want to expand on each of those choices a bit more. The first option is…

A) The way of wisdom (Proverbs 9:1-12)

By way or path I mean not one singular choice but a lifetime of decisions and choices. Are you heading down one path or the other? The way of wisdom…

It begins with a relationship with God.

Let’s look more closely at the first four verses. 

Proverbs 9:1-4a

1 Wisdom has built her house;

       she has set up its seven pillars.

2 She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine;

       she has also set her table.

3 She has sent out her servants, and she calls

       from the highest point of the city,

4 “Let all who are simple come to my house!” (NIV)

Here we find lady wisdom, a metaphor for God, calling out for anyone who is simple to come and eat with her. In this culture for a woman to invite a man to dinner was not like grabbing a bite to eat at Panera. No this is more like a candlelight dinner with steak. Meat was rare because meat was expensive and hard to store (no refrigeration). Wisdom is inviting him to enter into an intimate relationship with her. 

Her house may also be built on the high point of the city (v1,3). If you think back to the author Solomon you realize he was writing from Jerusalem and the high point in Jerusalem is the temple mount where God’s presence dwells. God is inviting simple people to come to his temple and enter into relationship with him and let him grow them and give them his wisdom. God invites us to seek him (Prov 8:17; Rom 3:11; James 1:5). Just like Proverbs 1:7 opened by calling us to “fear the Lord” chapter 9 closes the same way. 

Proverbs 9:10

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

      and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (NIV)

Remember last week how Christ Jesus embodies wisdom and actual identifies himself with lady wisdom (Prov 8:22-31; Mat 11:19; Col 1:15-17)? So often when we think about wisdom we think of it as a set of f