Proverbs 1:1-33
September 1, 2024
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“But what a fool believes, he sees
No wise man has the power to reason away
What seems to be
Is always better than nothing
Than nothing at all.”

~ The Doobie Brothers, “What a Fool Believes”

“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!”

~ Polonius’ advice to his son Laertes, Hamlet (Act1, Scene 3)

“Power is as much God’s essence as wisdom is. Omniscience governing omnipotence, infinite power ruled by infinite wisdom, is a basic biblical description of the divine character.”

~ Knowing God by J.I. Packer (1929-2020), a British-born Canadian Christian theologian and professor

“Christians were never meant to be normal. We’ve always been holy troublemakers, we’ve always been creators of uncertainty, agents of dimension that’s incompatible with the status quo; we do not accept the world as it is, but we insist on the world becoming the way that God wants it to be. And the Kingdom of God is different from the patterns of this world.”

~ The Meaning of the City, Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), French philosopher, sociologist, lay theologian

Sermon Passage

Proverbs 1:1-33 (ESV)

¹ The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
² To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
³ to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
⁴ to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth—
⁵ Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
and the one who understands obtain guidance,
⁶ to understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
⁷ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
⁸ Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
⁹ for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.
¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
¹¹ If they say, “Come with us,
let us lie in wait for blood;
let us ambush the innocent without reason;
¹² like Sheol let us swallow them alive,
and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
¹³ we shall find all precious goods,
we shall fill our houses with plunder;
¹⁴ throw in your lot among us;
we will all have one purse”—
¹⁵ my son, do not walk in the way with them;
hold back your foot from their paths,
¹⁶ for their feet run to evil,
and they make haste to shed blood.
¹⁷ For in vain is a net spread
in the sight of any bird,
¹⁸ but these men lie in wait for their own blood;
They set an ambush for their own lives.
¹⁹ Such are the ways of everyone
who is greedy for unjust gain;
it takes away the life of its possessors.
²⁰ Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
²¹ at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
²² “How long, O simple ones,
will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
²³ If you turn at my reproof,
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
I will make my words known to you.
²⁴ Because I have called and you refused to listen,
have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
²⁵ because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,
²⁶ I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when terror strikes you,
²⁷ when terror strikes you like a storm
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
²⁸ Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
²⁹ Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
³⁰ would have none of my counsel
and despised all my reproof,
³¹ therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way,
and have their fill of their own devices.
³² For the simple are killed by their turning away,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
³³ but whoever listens to me will dwell secure
and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”