Proverbs 4:1-27
October 6, 2024
preached by Pastor Doug Cooper
Download

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Everybody’s got a hungry heart. Everybody’s got a hungry heart. Lay down your money and you play your part. Everybody’s got a hungry heart.”

~ Bruce Springsteen, singer, songwriter, and musician

“The soul’s deepest thirst is for God Himself, who has made us so that we can never be satisfied without Him.”

~ F.F. Bruce (1910-1990), English Biblical scholar, writer & professor

“You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.”

~ Augustine (354-430), North African bishop, theologian, philosopher and author

“You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and
prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.”

~ J.I. Packer (1926-present), British-born Canadian theologian and writer

“Love is the only fire that is hot enough to melt the iron obstinacy of a creature’s will.”

~ Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910), English minister

“Deep in our timid hearts is a desire to be loved mildly, nothing more. That way, we retain control, we set the terms, we avoid risk. Our loving God, in His ferocious intensity, will have none of it. He defines the meaning of our lives, and we are saved from our anemic loves and brought by degrees into intense loves, like His own.”

~ Ray Ortlund (1949-present), American minister and author

Sermon Passage

Proverbs 4:1-27 (ESV)

¹ Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain insight,
² for I give you good precepts;
do not forsake my teaching.
³ When I was a son with my father,
tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
⁴ he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live.
⁵ Get wisdom; get insight;
do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
⁶ Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
⁷ The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever you get, get insight.
⁸ Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
⁹ She will place on your head a graceful garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

¹⁰ Hear, my son, and accept my words,
that the years of your life may be many.
¹¹ I have taught you the way of wisdom;
I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
¹² When you walk, your step will not be hampered,
and if you run, you will not stumble.
¹³ Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.
¹⁴ Do not enter the path of the wicked,
and do not walk in the way of the evil.
¹⁵ Avoid it; do not go on it;
turn away from it and pass on.
¹⁶ For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
¹⁷ For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
¹⁸ But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
¹⁹ The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know over what they stumble.

²⁰ My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
²¹ Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
²² For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
²³ Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
²⁴ Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
²⁵ Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
²⁶ Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
²⁷ Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.