Jr. High Proverbs Study - Wisdom

11-5-08
Proverbs pt 1


What Are Proverbs?

- a short popular saying, usually of unknown and ancient origin, that expresses effectively some commonplace truth or useful thought
- Examples::
- Blood is thicker than water
- Curiosity killed the cat
- Chinese: It is easy to dodge a spear that comes in front of you but hard to keep harms away from an arrow shot from behind.
- Russian: After a storm (comes) fair weather, after sorrow (comes) joy

There are proverbs that come from all over the world, and they all say something about the lives we live as humans.

What good would a proverb be if it didn’t talk about things pertaining to us and our lives?

- IT WOULD NOT BE GOOD AT ALL!!


We are going to b focusing on the Proverbs of the Bible and what they really say to our lives

Background

- Solomon main author of the Proverbs
- Bible says he was the wisest man that ever lived
- And having so much wisdom, he used it to write down what he noticed about life


Why Study the Proverbs?

- Read 1:1-7

VS 2 – Wisdom and Discipline

Wisdom – What is it?
- Being smart
- Not just book smarts, but also understanding the world around you
- Understanding Who God is and what He want from your life

Discipline – What is the opposite?
- Training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mind
- VS 3 – A disciplined life

Vs 4 – Knowledge and Discretion to the Young

He is talking to you guys!!! Did you know that this book is talking right to you?
Discretion – What is it?
- Ability to make wise decisions


**This book is given to us to in order to make us wise for our life**

Let’s take a look at what this book says about Wisdom...........

1. Vs 7 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge

What is this saying?
- Understanding who God is the way to start being Wise
- We all want to be wise and smart so let’s keep on looking

Wisdom is constantly referred to as a woman, just how it is here. Kind of like people call their cars girls, kind of the same thing

Remember how I told you this book was for you guys? Listen to what Solomon says here:

2. Chapter 2:1-6

a. My Son
- He is giving this message to his son, me and you
- Gives us instruction as to what we are to do with Wisdom

b. Turn ear to wisdom and apply heart to understanding
- Literally tuning your ear into wisdom
- How Do We Do That?
- We will see later on

- Applying heart to understanding
- Really wanting to understand Wisdom
- You can’t learn something if you do not understand it

SHOW CLIP!!!!

- He continues to say what will happen if you really want understanding
- VS 3-5
- We should always want to have understanding
- **My class I am taking, sometimes I think I don’t really need this stuff, but I need to see what is true and what isn’t, I need understanding!!””
- Same is true for you guys!!

- He says that when we really want understanding, we are going to start fearing the Lord. Why would this be the case??

- Our understanding should be in things related to God and what He wants for us.

How do we get to be Wise?

- VS 6 – Understanding what the Lord Says
- Where? BIBLE!!!!

Challenge:
- Try to read the Bible for at least 5 mins a day this week. See what it does for you.
- Not just skimming but really reading it and wanting to Understand it!! Ask Questions