20260118 Proverbs 3.1-12 Sunday Sermon Mike Dickmann

Let's pray together Father we thank you again

for this time now to open your word to Hear from

you. We pray that indeed you would speak through

your word this morning That your word and your

word alone would go forth Like the Holy Spirit

would empower your word to accomplish your purposes

in the hearts of people I pray you would give

us hearing ears and submitting hearts to submit

ourselves unto the work of the Holy Spirit this

morning, that indeed we would apply that which

we learn into our very lives. Again, we ask for

the loss that you might have mercy on some who

are yet in their sins here and elsewhere, that

you would grant repentance and faith to many

who are yet apart from Christ. And so we pray

in Christ's name. Amen. Is this right? Can you

hear? More? How's that? Better? Yeah. Well, we're

still in Proverbs, so I invite you to turn to

Proverbs. I'm going to share something with you

that not normally happens, but... I was somewhere

entirely different in Proverbs until about Friday.

Well, until Friday. Not even early Friday. But

in the middle of the morning Friday, I was given

this text for this morning. I never had any peace

about what I was preparing and where I was looking.

So I continued to pray and ask and beg, really,

for a text for this morning. And this is what

I was given. So I don't know if this is a special

word for somebody here this morning or it's just

for me. I don't know why it worked that way,

but I had an unusually difficult time determining

a text to preach on this morning. So keeping

that in mind, I guess I'd like to start with

a couple of faithful sayings that scripture says

some of the things that we've perhaps we've already

learned from Proverbs so and what we're going

to have reinforced this morning once again but

God's Word cannot fail is that is that one of

your bedrock beliefs, one of your bedrock positions.

God's word cannot fail us. All the promises of

God are yea and amen in Christ. Everything that

we need, everything that we desire, hopefully,

is ours in Christ. The spiritual reality of the

spiritual realities are far better than the material.

You believe that? You live like that. How much

time is given to each area? It's another way

of thinking about it. Are we really concentrating

our best efforts, our best times to advance in

the spiritual realm or in the material realm?

Well, you know, Proverbs obviously tells us that

the spiritual world is much better. Far to be

desired above the materialistic world. In fact,

if you don't understand the Proverbs spiritually,

they really don't make any sense. If you don't

get the spiritual reality, I mean, it's like

your head's spinning. How, what? We'll see some

of that today. So in Christ is wisdom. Christ

is wisdom. There's no separation there. You can't

be wise apart from Christ. You can have some

understanding. We know some lost men who've done

some wonderful things and blah, blah, blah, blah.

But true wisdom. Can only be had through Christ

and in Christ We serve God because we love God

That's our motive That's our motive for everything

that we do if it's not Then what we're doing

is no good It's worthless If you're not the best

employee you can be because you love God, you're

missing the whole point of the Christian life.

And we love because God first loved us. Our love

pours forth out of us because God's love has

been poured forth into us. We love because God

first loved us. We haven't heard much about this

last one that I'm gonna give you, but we will

today. We will reap proportionately what we sow.

Put another way, you reap exactly what you sow.

That's throughout the scriptures. So in this

third chapter then we have, Five couplets. The

first ten verses of the chapter are five couplets,

giving us some wisdom about life in Christ, about

life on this earth. So we're just going to read

these as couplets. We'll read the two verses

and then we'll think about it. And again, as

long as we're understanding this spiritually,

there's not a lot of difficulty here. God is

good to us. He knows how weak we are. He knows

our Inabilities and so he makes things plain

And so these are very plain Couplets So in verse

1 my son Forget not my law or my word But let

thine heart keep my commandments For length of

days and long life and peace shall they add to

thee." Now, does that mean, and I'm not going

to say this every time, so I'm saying it now,

does this mean that we're going to earn a long

life? Is that what he says? Is that how we're

understanding this? If we don't forget God's

law and we keep His commandments, we've earned

a long life. Or we will achieve a long life.

Obviously, if you're understanding it that way,

that's not it. What is our life? Is a long life

necessarily a blessing? How much of a long life

is a curse? The fact that we live a long time

doesn't necessarily mean we've had a great life.

It could mean just the opposite. Our life has

been nothing but pain and sorrow, abuse, whatever.

and we've just been miserable all of our lives.

That would be very unusual for a Christian, so

I'm not using that to describe the Christian

life, but that is possible and it does happen

countless times to unsaved people particularly.

Their long life has been no blessing. What does

it say? What did Christ mean when He said He's

going to give us life abundantly? Full life.

All manner of goodness. I want you to live life

to the fullest. My joy I'm leaving with you.

I'm giving it to you. What is all that talking

about? We have a life. When you wake up in the

morning, it's your physical body that got out

of bed. We all are alive here But are we all

living the life the life the life abundantly

The life that Jesus brought for us the life that

we celebrate Do you know it Do you know his word?

Do you strive after God? That's the kind of life

we're supposed to have and it's going to be a

full life. It's going to be a life of peace.

It's going to be a length of days, a long life

and peace. If we're living THE life. according

to God's commandments, according to His Word.

You don't separate these things. This is what

is ours in Christ. You're not earning it. This

is what He's given to us. Are you living it?

Are you loving it? Are you experiencing it? This

is what Jesus wants us to experience. He doesn't

want us to be overwhelmed in the world. He doesn't

want us to be worrying and fearful and miserable.

He's telling us how not to be in this life. Now

we all know that this is only the beginning of

our life. We never want to lose sight of that

long as no matter how many years we're alive

here. That's just a start The long life here

also includes the long life our long home heaven

with God If you lose sight of that It's far easier

to be discouraged. It's far easier to get entrapped

by the devil and the snares of this world and

even the weakness of our own flesh. This is not

our home. We're not staying here forever. We're

staying somewhere else forever. We're staying

with the God Almighty and His precious Son, Jesus

Christ. They love us. who loves us and has given

us all things. So going on we read, Let not mercy

and truth for safety bind them about thy neck,

write them upon the table of thine heart. So

shall thou find favor and good success in the

sight of God and man. reputation and success

that's you may have those words mercy and truth

you may have or you may have love and faithfulness

find them around our necks keep them right here

right with us don't let them depart from you

don't ever forget about This is how you find

favor with God and with man? No, this is how

you act if you are a Christian man or woman or

a boy or a girl. Anybody who is related to Christ,

love and faithfulness are evident upon us. Is

it important to have a good reputation? Is that

important to you guys? I spent years not worrying

about my reputation. But that was a wrong approach.

I should have cared more about what people thought

about. We all should. Why? Because we are Christ's

representatives. We are supposed to mirror Christ

to the world. If we're not full of love and faithfulness,

how are we showing Christ to the world? We're

not. Does this verse mean that the lost people

are all going to think that we're all just wonderful

folks? They're going to be patting us on the

back and telling us so? Of course not. Many people

in the world are going to be angry with us. How

about our brothers and sisters in Christ? Yes,

we should have favor with God and with man. That's

what we are to have. And that's when we have

love and faithfulness. That's what we do have.

They're inseparable. When you see somebody that

you, well somebody from the church and they're

just full of love and good works. They're faithfully

serving God. They're faithfully serving us. We've

got a lot of people like that here. I mean, we

should just overflow with joy just to know them,

just to be recipients of all the stuff that they

do for us. They've got a fine reputation with

God and with man. I'm going to read the Romans

chapter here. Romans 12, 17. Let's see it. Recompense

to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest

in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as

much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all

men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourself, but

rather give place unto wrath, for it is written,

Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. Therefore,

if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst,

give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap

coals of fire on his head be not overcome of

evil but overcome evil with good that's what

the proverbs talking about there and that's what

paul's talking about that's what jesus is talking

about as a christian nobody can rightly fault

you when you treat men and women boys and girls

of the world in that manner that doesn't mean

that they won't but there won't be any truth

to it And anybody that knows Christ is going

to know that those are false accusations because

they know who you are and what you do. There's

more, I'm not going to, but if you want to look

at it yourself, it begins at 1417. You can look

that up later. So we should be concerned because

we are, as I said, Christ's... representative.

And then we got this totally familiar couplet

here, verse five. Trust in the Lord with all

thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall

direct thy paths. So again, that's the easiest

one, isn't it? We all know what that means, right?

There's no problem understanding that. Have faith

in the Lord. Trust Him with all of your heart,

in all sincerity. There's no mixing there. It's

purity. It's all trust. Trust, trust, trust.

That's what He's telling us to do. Trust the

Lord. Don't lean on your own understanding. It's

so simple, but how many times do we get fouled

up? How many times do we trust our own understanding?

How many times do we act without praying? How

many times do we react the same way we always

react when such and such happens? Because we

think we know, we got it figured out. We don't

need any help or anything else. That's not the

way, that's not the Christian life. God doesn't

take you by the hand here and drag you in the

opposite direction that you're trying to go.

Do you understand that? You can go on down that

path if that's what you want. I mean it's not

going to be the right path and you're going to

have a long walk back perhaps. But if you're

God's you're gonna have that long walk back The

longer you go in the wrong direction obviously

the harder it is on you When you finally come

to your senses God finally grants you repentance

Lean not on your own understanding folks It's

paths of righteousness. It's telling us just

the same thing that Psalm 23 tells us. We make

the declaration that our shepherd leads us. He

leads us in paths of righteousness. And that's

where we should want to be. That's where we need

to be. That's the way that we honor and glorify

God in paths of righteousness. Not depending

on us putting us there, but trusting and having

faith in the Lord Jesus that the way that he's

leading us is the path of righteousness. It's

not sporadic. It's not compartmentalized. It's

all of life. trusting the Lord with all of your

life, with all of your heart, in full confidence

and assurance that He's going to do you good.

He's going to do right by you. He's not going

to send you down some foggy bottom road. He's

not going to send you on some fool's errand.

This is the Lord Jesus, the holy one, the high

and lofty one that dwells in the holy place.

and the one who dwells with those of a contrite

heart, those who trust in Him. That's who we're

dealing with here. He's totally trustworthy,

isn't He? God's Word doesn't fail. You can base

your life on it. You can live on it. Guidance

and blessing will be ours as we acknowledge Him

in all areas of our life, as we fully trust Him

with all of our hearts. Verse 7, Be not wise

in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from

evil. It shall be health to thy body and marrow

to thy bones. Be humble. Be not wise in thine

own eyes. Be humble. That's what it's telling

you. Be humble. It's like... I guess it was Jake

that said we have to remember. We have to be

reminded. Be humble. Be not wise in your own

eyes. Be humble. Fear the Lord. Have the utmost

respect for the Lord. How do you have fear of

the Lord? Well, you have it. We don't refer to

it as the fear of the Lord. One man said, know

the character of God. That's the first step in

fearing the Lord, having respect for the Lord.

Know his character. Know who God is. The women

are having a wonderful opportunity to find out

all about God. That's exactly what they're studying

in this latest book. So I encourage all the women

to get together for the study. Know God. Know

all you can know. That's how you fear the Lord.

That's how you show utmost respect for the Lord.

Know Him and know Him and know Him some more.

You can't know too much about God. You can only

know too little. Know the presence of God. You

see, that's... How wise this guy was. It's not

enough to have, you can have all the knowledge

that you want. But until he's there in your presence,

it's just head knowledge. That's all that it

is. You gotta experience this guy that you know.

You gotta live with him. You gotta know that

he's living with you. He's living in you. You

have a relationship. You don't want to do anything

that jeopardizes that relationship. You've got

to live in the presence of God. We should glory

in that. That should never cause us to fear.

That should never cause us to in any way draw

back. To live in the presence of God is to have

the... Just know that He's there with you. He

is guiding you. He is revealing Himself. He is

teaching you. He is blessing you. Do you experience?

Do you know it? When you come apart to pray,

do you know the presence of God in your life?

This is what God wants for His children. He's

up there waiting to welcome us with open arms.

Is he going to welcome a stranger when we get

there? No, he's going to welcome his child. He

already knows us. He already knows all about

us. Are we going to walk into a stranger's arms

when we get there that we don't even have any

real relationship with? Of course not. We're

going to have the ultimate relationship Heaven

is no heaven apart from God If you're going to

someplace where God isn't you're not in heaven

But if you're going to God you are in heaven

Now that's That's the spiritual reality. That's

the spiritual truth there. And that's true of

every Christian. But every Christian's not healthy

in his body, is he? No, of course not. Every

Christian doesn't even have a food to eat every

day. So how blessed and how thankful should we

be to be where we are? We are rich, folks. We're

rich in the blessings of God, both spiritually

and physically. Why were you born who you are?

Did you ever think about that? Did you ever contemplate

that? Why? Why didn't Mike Dickman turn out to

be Joe Blow from Barneo or something? You know?

Why? It's all the mercy of God. It's all in His

hand. It's all according to His plan and purposes

that you are who you are. I mean, what more do

we need to be pouring ourselves out in thankfulness

and love and adoration to God? That He spared

us so much hardship and rigors in this life.

Does it take hardships and rigors of life for

us to be thankful? Well, if it does you'll get

them Okay, then we got nine and nine and ten

Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the

first fruits of all vine increase So shall thy

barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses

shall burst out with new wine. So we're promised

here wealth and abundance. Wealth, we're going

to be wealthy. So here's where it comes in, you

reap exactly what you sow. That's what this...

That's a quote from the New Testament, and this

is saying the same thing. Honor the Lord with

thy substance and with the first fruits of all

thy increase. Is that a principle that we adhere

to? I don't know that it is, but I'm going to

put it in New Testament language here, and then

we'll consider it again. Now, we're not limiting

this to material things. We're not going to simply

gain material wealth. We're going to gain in

the spiritual realm as well. And that should

be our primary concern. But in the New Testament,

in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, you can read that

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

whole chapter there. You want the whole story.

But Paul is going to take up a gift. And in verse

7, well, let's read verse 6 just to keep it.

together here, verse 6, But this I say, he which

soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and

he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

Every man, according as he purposes in his heart,

so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity,

for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able

to make all grace abound toward you. that you,

always having all sufficiency in all things,

may abound to every good work. As it is written,

he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given it to

the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever.

Now, he that ministereth seed to the sower, both

minister bread for your food, and multiply your

seed sowing. and increase the fruits of your

righteousness. Does that sound exactly like Proverbs?

Is that what you got out of the verses in Proverbs

when I read it to you? Probably not, but that's

what it's talking about. It's talking about spiritually

and physically, both aspects. God's going to

take care of us. That's what He said. He's going

to make His grace abound towards us. But you're

having all sufficiency in all things that you

may abound in every good work What when you sow

abundantly you're gonna reap abundantly So it's

not just talking about our money in other words,

it's talking about all of our lives What are

you so into? It is talking about our money. It's

talking about our first fruits. God expects us

to be generous givers with everything that we

own. Why? Because we're simply stewards. It's

not ours. It's God's. He's given it to us. You

say, I earned every penny of that. Well, that's

the miser's approach. That's true. You did earn.

You had a job, which is what you were supposed

to do. And you did earn it. But who enabled you

to? Who gave you the health? Who gave you the

strength? Who gave you the knowledge? Who gave

you the opportunity to get the job? And he gave

it to you so that you could what? So that you

could be abundant in your giving and abundant

in your in your sowing and in your reaping, helping

the poor, giving the food. all of this read it

again as many times as you want to get absolute

clarity but there's no distinction between giving

of ourselves and receiving from the Lord you

will reap what you sow so that's what it says

you heard me read it John got a quote from John

Bunyan A man there was, some call him mad. The

more he gave away, the more he had. Sounds just

like John Bunyan, doesn't it? Yeah. You can't

out -give the giver, I know the words. You can't

do it. God's going to give you over abundantly.

of anything that you ever had or anything that

you ever give. That's what he says. He who lost

father and mother or sister, you'll have multitudes

of brothers and sisters. I'm going to give you

multitudes. You're not going to lose nothing.

Houses and land, nothing. But it's all it is.

What do you desire? What is our desire? I've

got to keep hold of this money for my retirement?

I've got to keep hold of this money until I get

this car paid off? Or I get my house paid down?

Or I've got people out there that I can help

with this money? I can honor God with this money.

I can be of service to God with this money. God

says He's going to take care of you. God says

He wants you to be abundant in the giving. He

wants you to be a happy, glad giver. Money, yes,

but everything. Time, talents, all of that. You

give from all of those areas of your life. And

you will have a full life. You will. I mean,

you won't believe how God takes care of you.

I can testify. I probably shouldn't do that.

I can testify. I raised up six kids. And I never

had... Two nickels to rub together. We lived

paycheck to paycheck for what? Yeah, I don't

even know how many years. One time we wound up

with eight people in a three room flat. And we

had the greatest time. It was fun. Just seeing

how it all works. How it all worked out. How

God's using this in everybody's life Well not

fun Rebecca So Yeah, I had a financial advisor

once He says what are you ever gonna do when

you retire? You don't have nothing you you do

all you got is this little piddly. I don't know

what it was Some amount, but didn't amount to

nothing you got to start investing that you got

to get going What's going to happen when you

retire? And I said it's going to happen is the

same thing that's happened all of my life. God's

going to take care of me. He gave me six kids.

That's my retirement fund. And it has. It's worked

out exactly as I thought God would work it out.

So you can't out give the giver, folks. Give

yourself away. Trust your ways to Him. Don't

lean on your own understanding. Don't be wise

in your own eyes. So we're going to close here

with this last saying here. And it's found in

verses 11 and 12, my son. Despise not the chastening

of the Lord, neither be weary of His correction.

For whom the Lord loves He corrected, even as

a father the Son in whom He delighteth." Okay,

so is living like this going to be easy? Is this

going to require some changes in us? Are we going

to have to take an honest look at our life and

say, I can't go on living. I've got to start

doing New York. Are we honestly going to assess

our lives in the light of God's Word and change?

Now, how are you going to know? Well, God's going

to bring discipline on you. That's how you're

going to know. That's what it says here. Despise

not the chastening of the Lord. neither be weary

of his correction." Isn't it odd that we would

find that after these five couplets? No, it's

not, because God knows us. And He wants you to

know that He's going to correct you. And He doesn't

want you to despise it or get mad. He wants you

to accept it, to embrace it, to love Him for

it. Why? Because He's showing His love and His

delight in you. when he brings chastening upon

us. That's what it says. If you've never been

chastened by the Lord, it's because the Lord

doesn't love you. So don't brag about not being

chastened because you might be bragging about

not knowing the Lord. We always want to be quick.

Sin doesn't cause sickness. Yes it does. Sin

does cause sickness. Not every time. Not all

the time. Who knows how many times. You don't

think God uses sickness in our lives to chase

us? Of course he does. But are we even conscious

of it? Do we know it? When we're in our sickbeds,

what are we thinking about? Does it ever occur

to us to assess ourselves then? to see if perhaps

we can be by the aid of the Holy Spirit able

to determine what God's trying to tell us. That's

not the only way, but it is one way. That was

always believed by Christians for centuries.

The Lord does chase in His people. So don't be

discouraged. Again, He's showing His love and

His... is delighting me. Apply yourself. Take

proper assessment. Be guided by the Lord. Is

there anything better than being guided by the

Lord? Think about it. Do you not want to be guided

by the Lord? Who would be nutty enough to say

that? Nobody. But sometimes we act like it, don't

we? we want to just have what we want to have

we want we think this has got to be the way this

has got to be right well no maybe it's not guided

by the lord directed by him serving him loving

him being loved by him well this is the end as

far as i know of this type of a sermon i'm going

to be moving on Whatever the Lord has, that's

what we're going to have to get, right? That's

what we want. So, amen.