For the Son of My Heart

Mark Dunagan
09/13/15 - Sunday Morning

The Son of My Heart

Deep conversations between fathers and sons are so priceless.  So when we pick of the book of Proverbs and find an entire book devoted to such conversations I am excited (Proverbs 1:8). I hope that all older men hunger to pass on God’s amazing wisdom to the next generation and that all younger men hunger to be given this gift.

Don’t Make Things Harder Than They Need to Be…

“The way of the lazy is as a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway” (Proverbs 15:19).  “The way of the treacherous is hard” (13:15).  What God intended to take only a couple of minutes and one step---don’t live in such a way that simple things turn into ten steps and consume all morning.

Avoid Deep Pit Relationships

“The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; He who is cursed of the Lord will fall into it” (Proverbs 22:14).  “For a harlot is a deep pit and an adulteress woman is a narrow well” (23:27).   The idea of a narrow well is that escape is impossible without help from those above.  As you try to ascend the sides of such a well you are taking one step forward and two steps backward.  You can’t find anything to grab on it and the sides of the well are slick with slime.  So what is a deep pit relationship?  May I suggest:

• A relationship that takes you away from God, the influence and advice of godly parents and the interaction with faithful brethren.
• A relationship in which the other person attempts to isolate you from spiritual things and spiritual growth.
• I relationship that is often purely physical.
• A relationship in which you lie to yourself.  “You will say to yourself, ‘I need to get out of this, I need to get back with the people who really love me”.  So you lie to yourself and say, “I will stay with them one more night, one more day, one more week….”

Avoid Procrastination

“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, then your poverty will come as a robber and your want like an armed man” (Proverbs 24:33-34).

• You can’t always catch up.  Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can always pay for something later, or get your life together tomorrow, or that you will always have the time to do something that needs to be done today.
• Wasted time---is lost forever. You cannot buy extra time.
• All your little choices today are creating your future.

Avoid People Who Want to Spend Your Money

“Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, or with gluttonous eaters of meat; for the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty” (Proverbs 23:20).  “He who keeps company with harlots wastes his wealth” (Proverbs 29:3).

So avoid trying to “keep up” with the irresponsible and the worldly.

Respect Authority

“My son, fear the Lord and king; do not associate with those who are given to change” (Proverbs 24:21).  “The eye that mocks a father and scorns a mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out, and the young eagles with eat it” (Proverbs 30:17).

The change in the verse is obviously those who seek to rebel against God or lawful political authority.  Do not associate with people who are trying to avoid their commitments to God or man.  They are not seeking freedom, rather they are trying to bring you into bondage.  I have observed that people who resent lawful authority are the same people who seek to dominate those around them.   

Exercise Self Control

“Have you found honey?  Eat only what you need, that you not have it in excess and vomit it” (Proverbs 25:16).  “Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit” (Proverbs 25:28).  “A sated man loathes honey, but to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet’ (Proverbs 27:7).

• Even in the realm of lawful things, like honey---do not ruin a good thing. 
• So don’t turn a hobby or job into a religion. Avoid the temptation to spend all your free time or retirement doing the one thing that you presently enjoy.
• “A parable of the fatal difference between healthy appetite and greed.  Since Eden, man has wanted the last ounce of life, as though beyond God’s “enough” lay ecstasy, not nausea” (Proverbs, Derek Kidner p. 159).   “Too much of anything, regardless of how good it is, can be revolting” (Alden p. 183).   Yet the devil tries to convince us that “more” is always better.  Sadly, how many people in the world can no longer enjoy the simple pleasures of life because they can’t be content with the wonderful blessings which God has already given them?  

Do Not Compromise

“Like a trampled spring and a polluted well is a righteous man who gives away before the wicked” (Proverbs 25:26).

“Once a spring or well is contaminated it may never be pure again, and disappoints those who come to it to drink” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 961).   “For a thirsty traveler expecting relief, the effect of coming upon a polluted well is disbelief and disappointment, and it serves as an apt metaphor for the profound disillusionment one feels when the righteous yield to evil” (Garrett p. 210).   In such a situation you will not be respected, rather, the opposite will be true. 

Learn the Lesson Quickly…The First Time

“Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him” (Proverbs 27:22).  “Like a dog returns that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly” (26:11). “Reprove a wise man and he will love you” (Proverbs 9:8).  “A rebuke goes deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred blows into a fool” (Proverbs 17:10).  “A scoffer does not love one who reproves him, he will not go to the wise” (Proverbs 15:12).  “A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy” (Proverbs 29:1).

• Learn the lesson once.  Don’t be 30 and still be making the type of foolish choices that you might have made at 18. 
• When you are 50 immaturity, unwillingness to listen to good advice and selfishness should not be part of your life.
• Having to learn the hard way---is admitting that you are playing the part of the fool.

Guard your Heart

“He who has a crooked mind finds no good and he who is perverted in his language falls into evil” (Proverbs 17:20).   “A joyful heart is a good medicine” (Proverbs 17:22).  “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).  “The mind of the intelligent seeks knowledge” (Proverbs 15:14). “A cheerful heart has a continual feast” (Proverbs 15:15).  “Evil plans are an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 15:26).

• Happiness is a choice.  I do bear responsibility when it comes to my perspective and my moods.
• I have a choice in choosing good or evil in my mind.
• My mind will naturally dwell on something.  I make the final choice concerning what I will dwell on.

Value the Drama Free

“Better a dry morsel and quietness with it than a house full of feasting and strife” (Proverbs 17:1).  “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and turmoil with it.  Better is a dish of vegetables where love is, than a fatted ox served with hatred” (Proverbs 15:16-17).  Sin always brings drama and conflict

Completely Trust God---Never Completey Trust Self

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 16:25).  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

• Never, never, never place any thought, viewpoint or opinion of yours over Scripture.
• When my gut feelings disagree with Scripture---they are wrong.
• Be humble—on our own we are often wrong about most things.

Understand The Real Nature of Evil

“This is the way of the adultress woman:  she eats and wipes her mouth, and says, ‘I have done no wrong’” (Proverbs 30:20). 

In other words, people, including her lovers mean nothing to her.  After her sinful encounters her conscience does not bother her at all.  She can tell one man she loves him---and the next day tell another man the same thing.  Our value among worldly minded people is next to nothing.  So stay with God and His people.  If you run into this woman---you are not lucky (Proverbs 22:14). 

Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.net
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net