Do You Want To Start Personal Life Change: Devotional
Lesson 1
I’m so glad that you’re joining us for this journey through the book of Proverbs.
These Lessons exploring the book of Proverbs is a thrilling study that I just had no
idea what a blessing it was going to be until I started preparing for it.
This is the most important part of the course, how to take what
we’re learning in the Bible and through adding to it your own personal studies that
you write down in a journal.
Now, either in a paper journal or notebook, which I use and which I have to say is the most powerful
deepening process for our minds by combining, actually the tactile work of writing, with
processing, and then putting it on paper, and then looking at it, adding to it little notes
here and there – that deepens it the most. Whether you use electronic or paper, you study
the word of God, the book of Proverbs and you mark it, as you’ll see all the way through
These Lessons. You do what Jeremiah said. Thy words were found, and I did eat them. This whole
intro to the Proverbs Lessons is how to eat, how to digest, how to know God personally. Deeply
getting to know God. In a sanctifying way.
Basically, Proverbs is all about life change and those devotionals we’re going to do are all
about sanctification. We’ll come back to those in just a few moments.
With your Bibles look with me, down at
Proverb 1:7.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
This section of the word of God, gives the essence of what the
book of Proverbs is about. Now think with me. The topic of Proverbs is wisdom,
godly wisdom, wisdom from God. Many think of that as a topic, it’s not a topic, it is the topic.
It’s what the entire Bible is about. There are only two types of people on the planet, there are
wise and fools.
Wise – know the Lord, have been born again. Have the wisdom that is from above.
Fools – we’re born that way. Everyone in the world in God’s sight is foolish. In the dark. Headed
toward destruction. Most of them are resisting God. They are hardening their hearts and living
in the darkness.
So, what does the Bible say? Look at verse 7, it says,
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Now back to thinking together. This whole Proverbs Lessons, which I want to introduce to
you today is looking at the difference between God’s way and man’s way. God’s way is all about
what the Bible teaches us. Man’s way is what I was born with. So, how do we learn God’s way?
That’s basically what we’re going to do as we learn how to do. This For all of you that wanted
to understanding and to deepen your Bible study. You want to get something every day that,
that transforms your life. Do you want to have the most powerful impact that God wants to make
on your life?
Then open your heart to Him through, number one, inviting Him to open your eyes.
Let’s get down to looking at the elements of our lessons of Proverbs is, what we’re studying.
It’s a project and those of you that are actually studying these lessons.
The whole book of Proverbs is contrasting God’s way with man’s way.
That’s really why this book is so fascinating.
If we were to summarize the book of Proverbs, we’d say that the fools, and this is a fool,
are on this side and the wise are on this side. Fools are everyone who doesn’t know God. The wise are
everyone that does know God. When you’re talking about wisdom, you’re not talking about a subject,
you’re talking about the subject of the Bible. You’re talking about the most defining reality that
can be declared about any of us who know God. We, God’s word says, are the wise.
The word fool, this word is used 42 times in the book of Proverbs. There’s a lot in the book of Proverbs
about it. God’s promise is in Proverbs chapter 1:23.
Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
This wonderful declaration, that all throughout human history wisdom is going to be crying in the streets.
What is wisdom crying?
Wisdom cries, God offers salvation. When He saves us, He gives us the mind of Christ. When we have the mind
of Christ, we’re spiritually alive. We become sensitive to God. We who are saved are those, who worship
God. See, salvation is equated with worshiping God. What begins to happen in our life is, more and more
and more we flee sin.
Now, Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 1:18.
“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”
You who are being saved. See, there’s an element of
future salvation where we’re in Heaven and perfected, but presently God is transforming us. We have
eternal life, but we’re being saved more and more and more from the power of sin. Then, I love what
Proverbs chapter 4 says so beautifully.
Proverbs 4, starting verse 18.
“But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
As I read these scriptures you should have your Bible open. You’ll notice that anything that’s really important
I’ve am putting a note on it or I’ve highlighted it. Just makes your Bible a little snapshot
of your whole spiritual pilgrimage. That’s why I’ve worn mine out. I have a stack of Bibles. It
takes me two to three years to wear one of these out.
Verse 19,” The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble..”
Why? They’re spiritually dead, empty minded, callous. They want their own way, which is another way
of worshiping self. They mock at sin. God says that there’s only two groups in the world, those who
are being saved and those who are perishing. That’s the lost, that’s the fools. For an unsaved person,
their path is getting darker every day. Every day, the pathway of the lost, of the fool gets harder,
more difficult, and they just can’t understand what’s going on, why it’s so hard, and what is happening.
You will get to know how to read actively, aggressively, actually marking things, looking as you read through, just
don’t just read to get it done. Read every time, like it’s the most precious meal. If you look at the
Bible as food or the most longed for communication from someone you love, like if you’re a young person
and you’re falling in love with someone, when they send you a text or a video snap or whatever, or they
message you, or you talk to them, you just can’t wait. That’s what the Bible is like.
Read the whole book of Proverbs looking actively, looking for topics to use in your Proverbs project.
Memorize two verses,
Proverbs 3:5 and 6.
5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
So, as you go through those elements, I want to show you now how to do the active reading, as we call it.
This is how it is, you prayerfully read Proverbs through with a highlighter. Mark the verses that strike
you as needed, powerful, helpful, fascinating but notice you either highlight or mark them in some way.
Now, I’ve read the book of Proverbs many times. So, I have a lot of marks in there, but
you go through and look at this you look as you’re reading for repeated themes. As you’ve highlighted
things, you’ll say I’ve already highlighted something about money. Proverbs has much to say about money
or about relationships. Proverbs has so much to say about God’s way of relationships. Or it could be
something about what a fool looks like or a wise person looks like. You start seeing repeated themes
and you start seeing key passages, chapters, or sections. They have much to say about one topic. All
the time you’re reading you note these in your notebook. I work on it every time
I open the Bible; I open the notebook I’m writing down, noting. See
right here as your notes say, noting in your journal, then you pick out 10 of the key verses. You might
think in verses, and you might just find the 10 best verses in Proverbs or topics on relationships, or
fools, or wise, or on money, or whatever, or a passage. Maybe you like a section that talks about wisdom
or whatever, and do a written out, three-part devotional. Now what exactly is that?
So, with this in front of you, each one of these needs to have a title.
So, you need to do 10 of these and you put a title. Here’s my title for
one? The danger of sluggards. A sluggard is a lazy person. That’s what I’ve decided to do. Then, I
go through all the passages I found, and I just write down what I find. It says that the sluggard turns
on his bed, like a door on its hinges. When you go by his field, the weeds are growing. He says, I can’t
go outside because a lion might be out there. He has all these unfounded fears. So, that’s what I mean by
noting these in your notebook. you write down looking at sluggards and you go through all the verses saying
that. You find them in the scriptures, and you write down your observations, which you see.
Now everything you do, doing these lessons, don’t try and think what does he want me to say? You are
inviting God to open your eyes to His word and you’re saying, I want to know how not to be lazy because
a godly person, a wise person, someone who’s going God’s way is not a sluggard. They don’t turn on their
bed like a door to its hinges. They don’t fear going out into life, they have all these unfounded fears.
That is God’s way. You and I were born foolish, that’s man’s way. God transforms our mind. In fact,
James chapter 3:17 and 18,
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
“the wisdom that is from above.” See, when we were born again,
God downloads to us His wisdom. It grows every day by reading His word.
We need to also, after we get these elements, the title and the
summary done. So, number one, a title. Number two, is a summary. Here’s the most important part. Number
three, an application. I wrote, Lord I want to live my life with wisdom. I want to live life your way.
I want to be hardworking, disciplined, and repenting of all the foolishness of how I’ve lived without you.
This is the book of Proverbs. I just started marking. We need wisdom because we are lacking discipline
and experience and we need maturity and then here’s Chapter 4 verse 7.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
Part of what we do in reading the Bible and understanding Proverbs is we see God. Then, I start looking
at this here’s repeated words. My son. My son, see I mark them. My son, this whole, my son over here
all the way through. You start seeing repeated words and I daisy link those. I mark them so I understand what’s going on.
“Only one life to live and soon is past
Only what’s done for Christ will last!”
Hoping to make the time I have left count for the glory of God.
Proverbs Lesson 1