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Sacramento Central SDA Church

Proverbs

Chris Buttery

Proverbs: From Ears to Feet

We're into our second lesson on the book of Proverbs.

And so I hope you've got your lessons, hope you've got your Bibles.

We're going to be studying together the...

David DeRose, who launched the study in the book of Proverbs, launched this quarter, and we're gonna be doing lesson number 2.

And I should mention to our viewers, we're singing some Christmas songs here still, and I know you're viewing this in January, but we record this 3 weeks in advance, and so just consider it an extended holiday season.

So the lesson studied today is ears to feet.

Ears to feet, which automatically, and some of you are beginning to get to know me better, automatically made me think about the English language and how difficult it is to figure out at times.

You know, we have noses that run and we also have feet that smell, and so the English language can be challenging and tricky at times.

But we're going to talk about ears to feet and there's a reason it's titled this way and it's an excellent study.

I want to invite you to turn with me to the book of Proverbs and we're going to read our scripture reading here this morning in chapter 4 and we'll read verse 26 and 27.

Notice what it says here in the Word of God, Proverbs chapter 4, verse 26 and 27, and we use the New King James Version during these studies so you know.

All right, our memory text is Proverbs chapter 4, verses 26 and 27.

And that word ponder just simply means to weigh.

So put your actions into 1 scale and then put the Word of God on the other scale and see if they equate, see if they they match.

So ponder or weigh your the path of your feet and let all your ways be established, do not turn to the right or the left, remove your foot from evil." Now, according to reality, and we know this all too well, that balance and equilibrium help us stay upright when standing and also know where we are in relation to gravity.

Now, our balance system, as we again know, helps us to walk and to run without falling over.

Balance is controlled through signals to the brain, through the eyes, through the sensory system, the skin, the muscles, and the joints, and also, interestingly, the inner ear.

Balance is maintained through the inner ear.

The balance system consists of semi-circular canals that contain fluid and sensors that detect rotational movement of the head.

So if you move your head up and down, side to side, tilt it 1 way or another, that sends messages to the brain to tell you where you are in your space and or in your moving.

Now if anyone has anyone ever had vertigo before, I've had vertigo as well and it is no fun, you know, you're lying in bed, you get up and all of a sudden the whole room is moving and spinning, you can't, you really can't see anything, it's hard to gain your equilibrium, you can't gain balance and it's a challenge, there's no doubt about that.

And interestingly, vertigo is directly related to the inner ear.

Your balance is determined by what's happening inside.

And for Christians, keeping one's balance in this topsy-turvy world is absolutely critical.

And our balance is determined by how well we hear, how well we hear and how well we listen to and apply sound instruction.

And for the Christian, it's the Word of God, amen?

So, our balance as Christians, walking upright, not deterring to the left or to the right, walking that straight and narrow way is determined by how well we hear, listen, and apply the instruction that we receive.

Let's go to Sunday's lesson and talk about here to here, Proverbs chapter 4 and let's read verses 5 and 7 together, Proverbs chapter 4 verses 5 through 7.

And I understand someone, we're going to have someone read Proverbs chapter 4 verses 1, 4, 10, 13, and 21.

You've got a big 1 this morning, so okay, right down here, I'm hoping we can get you.

Let's read together Proverbs 4 verses 5 and 7.

Get wisdom, get understanding, do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

Verse 7, wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom and in all your getting, get understanding.

So, get wisdom, wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom.

And so, the question is, what is biblical wisdom?

We looked at this last week, so just by way of quick review, genuine wisdom, biblical wisdom, is simply biblical knowledge applied to the life.

Wisdom is not necessarily just having smarts, but knowing how to apply the right thing to your life.

Knowledge and understanding are the basis of biblical wisdom, yes, but knowing the right thing doesn't guarantee doing the right thing.

How many of you know that it's good to exercise on a daily basis?

All right, I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but how many of you exercise on a daily basis?

Knowing the right thing to do doesn't always equate in doing the right thing, you see.

But knowledge, wisdom, is dependent upon knowledge and understanding.

So you've heard me say this before, knowledge is knowing that a tomato, and you know what a tomato is, it's bigger, juicier, more tasty than a tomato, so you know that.

A tomato is, knowing a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom knows not to put the tomato in a fruit salad, right?

And so, that's the difference between knowledge and wisdom.

By the way, and this was pointed out last week too, in the Old Testament, the appeal is to gain wisdom, and it's the equivalent to the New Testament appeal to receive righteousness, to receive holiness, and to receive charity or love.

That's why the wise man said here, get wisdom, it's the principal thing, get wisdom is what He says.

It's the same thing as acquiring, it's got to do with character, righteousness, charity and holiness.

And the first step to acquiring wisdom according to the wise man is you have to hear, you have to put on your ears and listen.

So have everyone got their ears on this morning?

So, if you've got your ears, if you've got ears and we have ears, we can listen.

Some of us hear in different ways as well.

Some listen through sign language and yet they're still listening.

And so, we have our ears, we can listen, and that's the basis, the first step to acquiring wisdom.

Okay, Proverbs chapter 4, verses 1 and 2.

Here ye children the instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding.

He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain thy words, keep thy commandments, and live.

Hear O my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many.

Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go, keep her, for she is thy life.

My son, attend to my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings, let them not depart from thine eyes, keep them in the midst of thine heart." Thank you very much.

Do you notice what the constant encouragement is?

And there's also, and I don't know if you noticed it, but there's also a correlation between listening and the heart.

In 1 Kings chapter 3 and verse 9, you have there the prayer of King Solomon.

And he's been given the task of being the king ruling over Israel and he comes to God in prayer and he prays primarily for wisdom and in 1st Kings chapter 3 verse 9 he prayed for a hearing heart or in your translation it probably just says an understanding heart, but in the original it actually means a hearing heart, a heart that understands.

And this prayer reveals a couple of things.

First of all, it reveals the Hebrew thought that the seat of wisdom is not located in the head but is located in the heart, you see, or at least in the...

I should say, not in the head but in the heart and through the ears.

And then second of all, that our first and greatest need is a heart that understands.

First of all, a heart that understands its own problems, our own problems, a heart that understands our own needs, and also a heart that understands the will of God.

Divine Wisdom

♪♪ ♪♪ Welcome to Central Seventh-day Adventist Church and thank you for joining us for Central Study Hour.

Wherever you are and however you are joining us, we are very glad you're here.

Our first song this morning is titled, Let Every Lamp Be Burning.

And you might recall the scripture that says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

This song talks about how we have a responsibility to keep sharing the light that is the good news of Jesus.

Yes, we should keep our lamps burning, but we can only keep our lamps burning by what?

So let's sing hymn 595, let every lamp be burning.

The first and fourth verse, This comes as a request from Louis Latu in Auckland, New Zealand.

♪ ♪ Let every lamp be burning bright, the darkest hour is nearing.

The darkest hour of our strong night, before the Lord's appearing.

Then train your lambs, my brethren dear, then train your lambs with godly fear.

Then let good works with faith appear to help the world around us.

Obedience brings the blessings clear when faith is heard among us.

Our next song is hymn 327, I'd Rather Have Jesus.

And I believe when I received this request that it came from Madeline.

Madeline is a five-year-old from Hundfos, Norway.

Thank you, Madeline, for sending in your request.

I think this is the first time that I've received 1 from a five-year-old, so we're happy that you're up early and watching with us.

Let's sing the first and second verse of I'd rather have Jesus.

I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold.

If Jesus can save our world, I'd rather be his than average this untold.

I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands.

I'd rather be led by his hell-pierced hand by his hail pierced end.

Then to be the King of the blasts of pain, or be held in sin's grasp when ♪ I'd rather have Jesus than anything ♪ cause.

I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide fame.

I'd rather be true to his holy name than to be the King of a vast domain, or re-el these sins that strain.

I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today.

If you have a special request, please visit us at our website at saccentral.org.

Tell us if you're a five-year-old from Norway.

Choose any song from the hymnal and we'll be so excited to sing it with you.

Our next song this morning comes from our theme of the month, health and wholeness.

So this song this morning talks about how the Father showers on us health and wholeness, and how we thank him for it.

Daniela said this morning, it sounds just like a prayer.

So let's sing the first and second verse of hymn 643, Father, who on us to shower.

To all of us who shall be suffering from your dower, to your people give the power, all your gifts to use aright.

♪ Give your happiness in each contemporance, ♪ In every pleasure.

The temple rising, every pleasure, wholesome use of earthly treasure, bodies clean and spirits bright.

Wholesome use of earthly treasure, bodies clean and spirits bright.

Thank you Lord for showering those gifts on us.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for another wonderful Sabbath day.

We thank you, of course, for our health and for our wholeness.

We also thank you for bringing us, seeing us into a new year.

As we move throughout 2015, Lord, we ask that your spirit remain with us, that we be as close to you as when we first believed, and we just pray that your blessings will be on us, on our family members, on our friends, and of course on strangers that we might not know and who have yet to know you.

This morning we invite your Holy Spirit to study with us, guide us into all truth, and of course, guide Pastor Chris in our study.

We thank you for loving us, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Our lesson study this morning will be brought to us by Pastor Chris Buttery, our Senior Pastor at Sac Central Church.

Good morning, good to see you and happy Sabbath.

What a delight to be gathered together again to study God's Word, and I want to welcome all of those that are tuning in from wherever you are, and however you're doing that, whether it be 3ABM Proclaim, our website or our YouTube channel, just glad that you're tuning in.

And we want to let you know that we're still doing the free offers, so feel free to call in if you're in North American territories to 916-457-6511 or email us at csh at saccentral.org and ask for offer number 21504.

And it's a CD or a DVD and just let us know which 1 you want and you can get the presentation here today to share with a family member or friend.

We always enjoy also receiving comments and welcomes from those that are viewing us.

And I had to share this 1 this morning because it's all the way from my home country of Australia.

So, you know I'm gonna be sharing that 1.

This is from Jessica over there in Australia.

She says, I just wanted to say how much I enjoy Central Study Hour, and I'm happy to be back online watching again.

She said, when Amazing Facts changed their Sabbath School program, she said, I miss CSH.

We only have 3 ABN International and our satellite in Australia.

Australia's still catching up with a few things.

But she said, the internet in our location is quite poor, we have limited data, so on our phone, she's talking about.

So, watching online up until now wasn't an option, but now with my new phone I can actually use the data I pay for every month and I use it to watch Central Study Hour.

The phone has a very good aerial, has very good aerial so I can use the internet to watch videos.

I have enough data to watch 4 hours every month, just enough for Sabbath school every week.

God bless you and your ministry, Jessica.

So, Jessica, thank you for writing in and for doing what you can to tune into these programs.

We are humbled to realize you've gone to that much effort to enjoy and be benefited from these studies.

And thank you to our congregation, our church here for making it possible.

Got great volunteers, staff working behind the scenes, making all this happen, and it's just awesome.

So Thank you for emailing us your comments and your thoughts.

And if you've got anyone else has a comment or thought, send them in, we'd love to hear from you as well.

We're, of course, continuing our journey in the book of Proverbs and so we're going to get stuck into our lesson here, lesson number 4, divine wisdom, divine wisdom.

And boy, do we need that, I'm telling you, I need this to teach these lessons.

I'm more inclined to have Pastor Mike teach these lessons than myself teach them, he's got some experience under his belt more than I do and he's just a very wise man, is Pastor Mike, so he may be better suited to teach these lessons.

So you may see him more during this quarter, who knows?

But in any case, divine wisdom, we certainly need it.

Let's look at our memory text here, it's Proverbs Chapter 8 and verse 22, and if you've got your Bibles there, turn there with me, we're going to be in Proverbs 8 and 9, and several other places, of course.

Proverbs 8, and we're looking at verse 22, and this is what the Bible says, I'm reading from the New King James Version, it says, the Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way before His works of old.

And we'll talk a little bit about what that means here as we get into our lesson.

Now, fundamental to learning and practicing what is right and wrong, because certainly biblical wisdom teaches us the difference between right and wrong, and biblical wisdom applies what is right.

So fundamental to learning and practicing what's right and wrong is the acceptance of the fact that there is a right or wrong.

That's very foundational and very fundamental, I know.

The Blessings of the Righteous

♪♪ ♪♪ Hello and welcome to Central Study Hour at Sacramento Central Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Wherever you are and however you are joining us, we're so glad you're here.

This morning I thought, I always say wherever and however, but last week, when Madeline, a little five-year-old from Norway, sent in a request, I said, oh, we're so glad you wake up.

But people are also in different time zones, yes?

So someone in Norway or someone in France or in Europe might be watching this at 6 p.m.

So at whatever time you are joining us we welcome you and welcome to our congregation here.

Our first song this morning is hymn 197, The King of Love is My Shepherd.

This comes as a request from Stevon Morris in Kingston, Jamaica.

Let's sing the first and third verse of hymn 197.

♪ ♪ I nothing but give, I am this, and he is mine forever.

And on his shoulder gently lay, and all rejoicing, rose he.

The King of love, my shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never.

I nothing lack if I am his and he is mine forever and ever.

This comes as a request from Peter McGarrity in St.

Clair, Sydney, Australia, Stephanie Reedy in Sheridan, Illinois.

And Jonathan Smith right here in Fresno, California.

Let's sing the first and second verse of Crown Him with Many Crowns.

♪ Crown Him with many crowns ♪ The Lamb upon His throne ♪ Hark how the heavenly anthems drown, O music but its own.

Awake, my soul, and sing for him who died for thee, and hail him as thy majesty through all eternity.

Come, in a line of love, we hold his hands and sigh.

Those words yet visible above in beauty glorified.

No angel in the sky can fully bear the sight.

Then through the earth and skies, Our God, where is his wondry light, and mystery so great?

If you have a special request, crown him with many crowns.

Visit us at our website at saxcentral.org.

Tell us your name, where you're from, and the title of the hymnal, of course, of the hymn.

Our next song comes from our topical index of health and wholeness.

This will be our last song in this section and they were all new songs for us.

So you know 3 more songs in the hymnal, yes?

We'll sing hymn 644, Oh God Whose Will is Life and Good.

♪ For all of mortal breath, unite in bonds of self and deed.

Mayst thou bear ends and arts and wills to drive these years afar, to strive hearts and hills, to drive disease afar, to strive against the body's ills and wage your healing war.

Dear Heavenly Father, dear God whose will of life is good, we come to you this morning with open arms and open hearts thanking you for being everything.

Lord, you are the great physician, you are the king of love.

You're also the king of kings, which is why we crown you with many crowns.

We ask that your power, your great and awesome power, work in us, work on us, work through us to make man whole, to make ourselves whole with you, Jesus.

As we study this morning, please be with us, be with Pastor Chris, that we can grow in wisdom and stature, in your grace as well.

We ask all these things in your name, Lord.

Our lesson study will be brought to us this morning by Pastor Chris, our senior pastor at Sac Central Church.

You all sounded beautiful this morning as usual.

And trust those that are joining us were able to sing along with us as well and enjoy the music.

We're learning some new songs here, aren't we?

And also those that are tuning in, we're glad you're doing so.

And we want to remind you there is a free offer at the end of every program.

You can call in to 916-457-6511 if you're in North American territories or email us at csh at saxcentral.org.

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Proverbs: From Ears to Feet

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