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Wise, Simple or Foolish – Which One Are You? – Proverbs 1:1-6

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Proverbs 1:1–6

[audio unclear] one today. Proverbs chapter 1. Y’all there?

The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.

(Proverbs 1:1–6)

Opening Prayer

Let’s pray. Father, one, we do thank you for REACH and all the other pro-life organizations that have stood firm and fast for many, many, many years, decades even, God. Continue to bless them. Continue to give their leadership wisdom and knowledge beyond their years to know how to lead and guide their different organizations. We pray that those groups would have a united mind and spirit as they work to minister to women and work to get rid of abortion in this land. God, we thank you for the at least short reprieve that the Missouri Supreme Court gave to the babies in Missouri and put a pause on large sections of Amendment 3. We pray that that pause would stay in effect for years and years and years, God. We thank you, Lord, for the lives that are being saved. We pray, Father, that you would continue to use the churches to stand firm. We pray for the upcoming amendment coming up actually next year on the ballot. We get another opportunity, Lord, where some churches fell short and allowed abortion back into Missouri. God, we pray that as we get a second opportunity from you, that we would stand firm and the churches would be vocal and you would touch the hearts of the citizens of this state to once again outlaw abortion in this land. We pray that for the other states as well, Lord, and we want to be what Proverbs is talking about today, so to walk according to your truth that we see here. Help us to hear it, help us to receive it, help us to know it, help us to live it, and help us to do it, for your glory. Amen.

Three Categories: The Wise, the Fool, and the Simple

All right, how many of you have read the book of Proverbs? All right. There’s a lot of times people think there’s really only two categories of people when you get to the book of Proverbs, but there’s actually three. There’s actually three categories of people. There’s the wise, and who’s his negative counterpart? The fool, right? Okay, good. And there’s the righteous, who’s his negative counterpart? Yeah, the unrighteous or the wicked. And the wise and the righteous, I mean, they’re really of the same group. The fool and the wicked are really of the same group. But there’s actually one more category. It’s the simple. The simple. The NAS uses naive, but all the other versions use simple. And when it comes to what we want to accomplish here at Liberty, when it comes to what I want to do as a pastor, when it comes to being a shepherd and a teacher, what I want to do is I want to instruct the wise. I want to instruct the wise. I want to correct the simple and I want to drive out the evil. I said this actually when Levi, the president of REACH, spoke, goes back to January, but we don’t feed wolves. We don’t feed wolves. We don’t coddle wolves. Guess what happens if you feed wolves? You get more wolves, right? You ever put out a bird feeder? You get, yeah, you get, well, and that’s a good point. You do get birds, and you get more birds, and then you get other things that get attracted to it, squirrels, right? So more than just birds are attracted to bird food, more than just believers sometimes are attracted to God’s word, that’s actually a good thing, correct? Right? There’s a place for the unbeliever in the church, it’s for them to hear and repent. True? But there’s people, and some call themselves believers, and they’re actually wicked and they are divisive. And some of those people, if you let them stick around, they will bake themselves into the life of the church and sow discord and disunity and spread all sorts of falsehood. You don’t want those people in your church. You don’t. And so one of the reasons, what the pulpit is, I mean it’s kind of like a gateway or door, but when you speak about things, some topics will drive the wicked away. And that’s why you speak about those things. Now, there’s the call to repentance for all. All are called. Do all respond? No, not all respond. Not all respond in faith. But you have to speak about all sorts of issues, and some of those issues will drive out the wicked. Some of those issues will correct the simple. We’re going to look at quite a few verses in Proverbs regarding this. Look all the way back at the very first couple verses we read. Look what it says in verse 4. To give prudence to the simple. Prudence to the simple, right? You’re trying to give them instruction as well. A couple verses later in verse 22 of Proverbs, look there, look what it says:

How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.

(Proverbs 1:22–23)

There’s an appeal there, right? If you do this, then I’ll do this. But who is he appealing to? Well, in verse 22, “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?” There’s the appeal. How long will you keep walking in your naivety, in your foolishness? No, wake up. Look at Proverbs 8: “O simple ones,” verse 5, “O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn sense.” That’s a command, right? Right? I mean, so the simple, I mean, they can learn, they can grow. Their lot is not stuck in simpleness forever. So they’re exhorted, and the exhortations that we see and that we’re going to see right now, is they are appealed to. Hey, you have a choice to make. Choose rightly. One chapter later, Proverbs 9, verse 4: “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” Well, who’s that speaking? Well, look, verse 1: “Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.” So this is wisdom. Lady Wisdom is speaking and she’s appealing to the simple. Come to me. Come to wisdom.

Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly

Well, what happens? There’s Lady Wisdom, but there’s also Lady Folly. Look at verse 16, actually starting in verse 13:

The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”

(Proverbs 9:13–16)

So wisdom cries out to the simple, but also folly cries out to the simple, and the simple have to make a decision. They have to decide what they’re going to do. So listen, watch this, watch this. It’s okay to be simple. It’s not okay to stay simple. You’re like, oh, I’m probably one of those simple ones. Okay, well, that’s fine, but don’t stay simple. That means what? Well, one, you need to get direction. And you need to get a backbone and you need to get a spine and you need to get a moral compass. You need to be willing to make tough decisions. The wise, they’ve already made the tough decisions. That’s why they’re wise. The foolish, they’ve already made horrible decisions. That’s why they’re foolish. But the simple, they’re still trying to figure things out. And I was talking with someone, I forget who it was, but it was not too long ago, about, you know, listening to sermons, and you know some sermons are more challenging, not necessarily to hear, but to understand. And I was like, you know, I mean, I was the same way. Like when I first got saved, I was like, man, I think I’m getting like 15% of this sermon. That wasn’t a knock on the pastor. That was just where I was at. I was probably more in like that simple category. I’m still learning. You know, so I was like, okay, I’m going to make it my goal as I’m studying and learning and reading, and I’m going to try to get to 20% and then 25%, right? I didn’t want to be simple anymore. So simple, they have a choice to make. You have a choice to make. And part of that is, yeah, getting a moral compass, walking in truth, not being afraid to take the hard path. Guess what happens to the simple? [audio unclear] “The simple believes everything.” They’re easily fooled. They’re easily duped. They can be convinced of just about anything. Do you want that to be you? I don’t. I don’t want that for me and I don’t want that for you.

Leaving Simple Ways

So if you find yourself like, hey, maybe I am one of those simple ones, I mean there’s some easy solutions. One, the wise walk with who? The wise. Start walking with wise people. You learn from them from what they say, but you also learn from them. True? Yeah? Bad company does what? Corrupts good morals. So the wise walk with the wise. You don’t want to be simple. One, start hanging around with the wise. Two, challenge yourself a little bit. Acknowledge, hey, maybe I am simple. I don’t want to be simple. What are—[audio unclear] instruction manual. We’ve already looked at a few verses on not being simple. Start there. So strive to be wise. Forsake your simple ways. Look at Proverbs 19. Proverbs 19:25: “Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence.” I mean, that’s exactly what I’m just saying. Like the wise walk with the wise, the simple can learn from actions done with and for other people. You strike the scoffer, what ends up happening? The simple learns. He learns. He’s like, oh, yeah, that’s bad. I don’t want that. I don’t want to be struck. So he learns. So you have your eyes opened. You’re that simple one, like, I need to learn how God’s creation order works, and I need to learn what his word says about his creation order and how I’m supposed to live in it. And then you get examples daily on how to live with the people around you. You see it lived out. Yeah, so you see that a scoffer is struck, you’re like, maybe I don’t want that to happen to me. Well, what does that mean? Well, that means you’re not going to be the scoffer. Look at Proverbs 21, verse 11: “When a scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise.” Again, he is learning from what happens to others. I mean, and really this verse is, I mean, one of the reasons why the state does not bear the sword in vain, right? I mean, you see people getting punished, you’re like, I’m not sure I really want to spend the next 20 years of my life in prison. Right? You’re learning from other people’s bad example. Well, that’s what’s going on here. A scoffer is punished. The simple becomes wise. He’s like, yeah, I probably don’t want to do that thing. Look at Proverbs 27. Verse 12, Proverbs 27: “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” So the simple still has the choice to make. He can still make bad decisions. He can still be unwise with his decisions. He can still be foolish. So he can see those examples and not learn from them. He can see the prudent see the danger and hide themselves, and then he’s like, ah, no, I’m just going to go ahead. And part of this, if you’re younger, is gleaning from the wisdom of those that have gone before you. That’s maybe one of the toughest lessons in life, I would say, is to come to the place where you’re like, yeah, my parents actually do know something. They know a thing or two. You start out that way when you’re younger, right? And then it disappears. And then if you’re that simple one and you start making wise choices, it comes back. And you’re like, wow. And you realize you want a mark of wisdom. A mark of wisdom is knowing that the people older than you, a lot of them have wisdom. And you should go and get it from them. It takes a long time to learn that, doesn’t it? True? A lot of us were that simple one and we’re like, oh, those old people. Those old people. There’s much, much wisdom to be gleaned from the generations above you, including your parents. Glean from it. Learn from them. So the simple have a choice to make. Listen, one of the reasons you don’t want to be simple is that the simple don’t walk in wisdom. And this means they don’t stand firm on anything. Look at Proverbs 10, verse 9: “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.” So whoever walks in integrity walks securely. Listen, stand—I want to encourage, and this is, I mean, primarily for the men today, it’s Father’s Day, Happy Father’s Day. I want to encourage the men, you need to stand firm in your convictions.

Stand Firm in Your Convictions

A couple nights ago, the LA Dodgers had their pride night, and so they, you know, they have, you know, like LA on their logo, and so it was in rainbow colors. One of the pitchers, Clayton Kershaw, one of the greatest pitchers of this century, for sure, he writes on his hat Genesis 9:12 to 16. What’s that referencing? Anybody know? The Noahic covenant, the rainbow. Right, so he’s having to, you know, as his uniform, he’s having to wear that hat. So he writes Genesis, it’s pretty big. You can’t miss it. Genesis 9:12 to 16. Greatly criticized for it. People are like, he needs to keep his views to himself. He needs to keep his views to himself. I mean, think about it for a minute. Here’s what they’re saying. Clayton Kershaw should wear my beliefs on his hat, but wearing his beliefs on his hat is wrong. Right? So, I mean, Clayton should have said, You want me to wear your beliefs on my hat, but I can’t wear my beliefs on my hat. True? But you have to be willing to take stands. I mean, he took a lot of heat for that. Men are called to lead in the tough areas, the hard areas, the challenging areas. That’s what we’re called to do, to stand up. Listen, when one person stands up, it encourages other people to stand up. Just one person takes a stand. I mean, I read that, I was encouraged. I’m like, man, he’s got this public platform, he’s in LA. I mean, that really doesn’t get much more liberal than that. And he’s willing to stand for truth. So, you know, men, the point of being the head is to go forth in battle. It’s to go forth and take on the challenges of the day, not shrink back or shy away. Some of you younger men, I want to talk to everyone for a second, but some of you younger men, let me talk about your job for a second. If you’re not willing to lose your first job, you won’t be willing to lose any job after. If you’re not willing to lose your first job, you won’t be willing to lose any job after. Because you’ll always put it off, you’ll always have an excuse. All of us have a reason not to stand up and stand firm and speak truth. And I hope and believe that if a man here lost his job for standing up for truth, like we as the church would come and support him and his family, right? True? And we would stand with him, and we’d help out financially. And we wouldn’t be like, oh, good job, brother. Way to stand firm. Be warm and well-fed. Hope it works out for you. Right? We wouldn’t do that. No, we’d stand. We’d stand with him.

Mark Dever, we’ve used quite a few of his books with 9Marks here. He tells of this: on the first day of his, he was working on his dissertation for his doctorate. He goes to his dissertation advisor, and he goes and he sits down and he just lays out like what he believes with his dissertation. I mean, it was that, I forget if he was at like Cambridge or Oxford, one of those kind of big universities. But he lays out what he believes with his advisor so that he wouldn’t be tempted to try and win his favor or approval. And he wouldn’t be tempted going forward to try to hide it, right? Like, I guess if he finds I’m a believer and I really stand firm on the word of God, next thing, I’m just going to lay it out and then all walls are shattered, right? They’ve been broken down, everything’s, all the cards are on the table. The guy knows where I stand. He says it was very freeing, very freeing for him to do that. Counter that, and I know I’ve told this story before, but D. A. Carson, great theologian. He also was at a prestigious university over in England, Cambridge. And he was there with his best buddy, very smart, sharp theologian as well. And this other theologian kept telling him because Don was like, D. A. was like, man, we got to stand firm, we got to stand firm, I’ll let people know what we believe, and this and this, and this guy’s like, okay, well, once I get admitted to the school, you know, then I’ll be ready to take a stand, and then he got admitted. Okay. Well, once I, you know, get into my program and kind of have a little more footing there, and he got in and he wouldn’t take a stand. He’s like, once I get my doctorate, I’ll take a stand. The guy hasn’t taken a stand to this day because it’s always the next thing. Once I get my teaching job, once I get the tenure, no. You won’t. By the time you got the tenure, you’ve trained yourself so much, you’re not going to take the stand. You’ve trained yourself to wimp out, to be weak, to not speak truth. So that’s what you’ve trained yourself to do. You’re not just going to throw on the switch one day, day 25 years later, and start doing it. And he hasn’t. Listen, if you’re not willing to take a stand, that too is infectious and it’s going to affect you, it’s going to affect your family, it’s going to affect your church. And we have a problem in the church. The church prioritizes the feelings of the wicked over the needs of the righteous. Seriously. And we have stupid sayings in the church, and hopefully you’ve not heard any of these. You definitely haven’t heard them from me. But we have stupid sayings in the church to actually avoid standing firm and speaking truth and encouraging others to speak truth. If the pastor won’t speak truth, then why should you speak truth? If he won’t stand firm on an issue, then why should you stand firm on an issue? I mean, that, you know, the example’s not there. So where do you get it? Well, you hear these stupid sayings like, oh, we draw circles, not lines. There’s like a little, you can look at like a two-minute video of all these pastors like saying that literal same thing over and over again. We draw circles, not lines. We handle issues in groups, not from the stage. We don’t take positions, we have conversations. I mean, really that’s just like, that’s like third-way-ism. That doesn’t work. It means we’re not going to talk about anything tough up here. That doesn’t help the believers. This doesn’t compel anyone. Doesn’t actually compel the believer or the unbeliever. That’s not very compelling if you’re a lost person and you’re seeking out truth and you get up here and you just hear kind of, you know, flying around topics. That’s not going to benefit them. The sheep follow the one who speaks truth. [audio unclear] And what do Christians, I mean, you’re feeling the pressures of the world and you’re hearing the screaming harpies of this age and people are like, pastor, help me out. I mean, it’s not that these issues aren’t in your face daily already. You’re facing them in the workplace. You’re seeing it online. And so people are wanting, it’s interesting, people are wanting their pastors to address these things. What does a pastor do? Too many times, let’s just talk about that privately. Well listen, you can’t have enough meetings to talk about it privately with everybody. You just can’t. Now the righteous ones collectively need to hear certain truths heard directly from the pulpit. One pastor said he never preaches a series on marriage, the family, or money. But listen to this, because he wants every sermon to touch on one of those topics in some shape or form. You know, because he realizes those are such hot-button topics, some aspect, shape, form needs to be woven into each sermon. So what do we want to do? We want to instruct the wise. Instruct the wise. Correct the simple. Drive out the evil. You can’t, in other words, you can’t starve the sheep and feed the goats. There’s some church curricula going on right now, and it was really big right before the election, but they’ve already come out with another one, and it’s claiming to be conservative. And it’s about politics, but it’s like you do like a small group study. And it’s like, you know, basically pastor won’t handle the tough topics. Will handle the tough topics? The pastor’s job is to handle the tough situations, challenging situations up here, but also in the counseling room. But he’s going to handle those, but that’s what he’s called to do. And I understand, and some pastors, you know, sometimes they’ll have a guest speaker, and I appreciate it when we’re having like the Foundations Conference, you know, a lot of those pastors are like, is there anything in particular you want me to hit? Right? But, and that’s not uncommon, like, hey, there’s something you want me to say. And sometimes it’s good because the church needs to hear it, you know, as well. I was sharing with someone the other day. I hadn’t seen them in about a [audio unclear]

Family First

One, you know, Ethan is seeing that. That’s good. That’s good for him to see, isn’t it? He’s seeing that, he’s hearing that, and then it gives me an opportunity afterwards for me to talk with him about it. Hey, you know, what did you think? Why was I… And it kind of, pulling from my sermon last week, we need to learn to be bold. We need to learn to be bold. There’s only one way to learn to be bold. Start being bold. You want to be courageous? Yeah, I mean, the reason people are like, oh, he’s so courageous, there’s no fear. No, you know, courage is doing it in spite of the fear. It’s doing it in spite of the fear. That’s why it’s courageous. If there was no fear, it wouldn’t take courage to do it. Right? So yeah, you have that trepidation or that fear or whatever. Yeah, boldness. So yeah, take a small area. Take a little low-hanging piece of fruit and take that one little step towards being bold. You’re putting yourself on a path to be a little bit more bold, to be a little bit bolder. Listen, do you want your son to be a girl? You want your son to marry a man? You need to instruct him. You need to instruct him. And you need to see examples of how people are instructing him. And at some times you need to be bold with him. And you need to be blunt. And you need to warn him. And you need to be there for him. And you need to encourage him. And you need to spend time with him. Give him the best footing possible. Give him the best grounding possible, give him the best foundation possible. Listen, men, your family is so important, you should be ready to walk away from your job if that’s what it took to put your family first. They are the first priority. They’re the first priority. I was watching Star Trek last night. I’m working my way through that. Some of those series aren’t that good, but the one I’m watching, it’s good. Trust me. But the captain was talking about, oh, my dad thought it was so important to go explore distant lands. Then my mom would [audio unclear] the time to be with your family, to be with your kids, something needs to change. Come talk to me, we’ll figure something out. But your family has to come first. That doesn’t mean there’s not going to be long weeks. I’ve got a lot of long weeks. But it does mean you’re making sure that things are scheduled, that you can pour into your family, that you can spend time with your family. One of—when they’re nine months old and screaming their head off, that window seems like gigantic, and you wish you could shrink it. But it’s a very small window, I’m telling you, it’s a small window. And it’s not even, I wouldn’t even say it’s really 18 years in one sense. You get that small window, you know, they start to get into the teen years and older teen and then they’re making friends and they want to do stuff on Fridays and whatever, right? They’ve got other plans, other things. You get this small window to pour into them. The challenge is, it’s like the years go by quick, but the days are slow. So this day goes by, not a big deal. This day goes by, not a big deal, this day goes by, you didn’t do anything with them. This day goes by, there’s no family quiet time. This goes, and pretty soon, it’s been three, four, five years. The years go by quick. You always think, well, we got so many days, we got so many days. No. Plan it out, take the time, make sure the family’s first. They have to be the priority. It doesn’t matter if you could lead a thousand or ten thousand or a hundred thousand people to Christ. Your family is the first priority. You got to lead them to Christ. You know, you think about Noah. Think about Noah for a minute. Like, you know, he’s building that ark and he’s building that ark and I mean, what a horrible evangelist. Right? I mean, how many people besides his family were on the boat? But his family was on the boat, right, right? His family was on the boat. So, family comes first. Ground your family in the truth. Listen, don’t help your kid deconstruct. Point out evil. Call out bad doctrine. Call wolves wolves. I used to think that was mean. No, if he’s a wolf, it’s okay to say that. I mean, you don’t have to be rude about it. You don’t have to be mean. But it’s not unloving or unkind to speak the truth about falsehood. You got to call it out. So be careful like what you let your kids listen to and what you let them feast on. What you let them feast on, so to speak. Don’t try to pick out the little tiny grains of truth that might be in some compromised speaker. I mean, if you’re going to sit down and have your kids listen to something, let it be great and amazing. Not like, wow, this is about 50% good. There’s only so much time in the day, first of all, but one, your kids probably can’t necessarily pick out stuff like you can. Hopefully you are one of the wise. They’re probably one of the simple. So they’re kind of like, oh, which way do I go? You can do it as a wise person, but your kids, you know, when you’re setting things in front of them, what are you setting in front of them? You got to be careful when you see statements or memes. You got to be careful what you’re letting your kids, if you just give them the thing, well, all truth is God’s truth. I actually believe that. True. But if you start making it really hard for them to pick out God’s truth, you’re kind of—[audio unclear] There’s some foolish voices. There’s some simple voices. You got to teach your kids to reject those. I had a friend a couple years ago reading a book. Listen, don’t waste your time on books that don’t build up or strengthen you. Fiction can do that, by the way, but I mean most of you are probably not reading 40 or 50 books a year. That’s probably just the truth. So if you’re only going to read a handful of books a year, you ought to make those ones that knock it out of the park. Because there’s books out there that knock it out of the park. A lot of those on that back table do. So if you’re only going to read—[audio unclear] let me say something, brothers. Help your kids fight against sin. Help them fight against sin. Look at Romans chapter 2. I want you to see this in Romans 2:21. He says:

You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

(Romans 2:21–22)

[audio unclear] the sin of anger, the sin of lust, you can’t say don’t do it and then turn around and do it yourself. You can’t. The Lord will not bless or honor that. Dads who have an anger problem and tell their kids not to be angry, guess what? They raise kids who are angry. It’s just the truth. Dads who have a porn problem and tell their kids not to look at porn, guess what? They raise kids that have a porn problem. Why? Because we teach our kids in a thousand ways, and most of them aren’t verbal. You might think your little secret is hidden, but you can’t hide it. Even if they don’t know, you can’t hide it, and you are telling them in a thousand different ways, it is okay to be angry and have an anger problem. It’s okay to look at pornography. It’s okay to lust. It’s okay to let riches consume you. Your life reflects it. So the action has to back up the words. Otherwise, the message doesn’t land. Kids, I mean, they’re like the best. They see the hypocrisy. They spot it. And brothers, God has made you the head, so be the head. As one pastor said, you know, marriage needs a head. And it’s the man. A body without a head, it’s a corpse. A body with two heads, that’s a freak. Right? One head, the man is called to be that. You need to be gracious, loving, kind in your leading. And here’s one thing, if men have a temptation, if men, believing men, men walking in wisdom, men walking in righteousness, if they have one temptation, is to be passive. That’s their temptation. It’s the silence of Adam. Adam is there in the garden when that whole thing goes down with Eve and the serpent. And what does he say? Nothing. He’s passive. [audio unclear]

But you let your kids choose their education. You’re just like, hey, what do you want to do? What do you want to do? Like you’re crunchy about the food but not the education? I mean, seriously. Same with friends. Your kids have a friend that’s a bad influence. Make the tough choice. Seriously. Do you want them to live? [audio unclear] Guess what happens when someone’s given junk food all the time when they’re a kid. What do they do when they grow up? Eat all the time. What’s going to happen when they have a trash entertainment diet, day after day when they’re a kid? They’re going to grow up. They’re going to have the same entertainment diet. Look, [audio unclear] that we let our kids make, probably the third, I would say, the third most important decision. Maybe it’s not the third, but it’s probably way up there. The first most important decision, the second most, who you’re going to marry. The third most is like, how you’re going to educate your kids. Like you’re talking about, like, how are you going to account for your children? What are you going to be like, oh well, well Johnny actually wanted to go to that private school even though I knew it was total trash. No, you’re going to account for how you raise your kids. Their entertainment, their friends, how to educate, the list goes on and on, right? It’s a tall task, isn’t it? It’s a little bit sobering. You know, James says, not many of you should be teachers, right? Well, if you’re going to be a parent, you want to walk in righteousness. You want to be, you have to have wisdom. You’re going to be a parent, yeah, on some things at times, you might feel a little simple. Well, then work towards wisdom. Work towards wisdom. Don’t abdicate in the most important areas, brothers, don’t do it. Don’t be passive, that’s the tendency. That’s the tendency of fallen man. That’s the tendency of the flesh is to be passive. Very few men don’t struggle with that. So acknowledge your weakness and then work against that. God always commands to our weakness. Every, you know, anytime there’s household commands, he commands to the weakness. The men were commanded to lead, right? We’re commanded to love. He’s commanding to the weakness. We struggle there. That’s what he’s commanding to. So instead of being passive, be very active. I mean, I mean, you’re not running like a bull, you know, through the china shop, but you’re being, you’re being proactive. You’re being active. You’re being, working towards righteousness, you’re loving your family, you’re looking for ways to minister to them, right? And one kid needs ministry in a different way than the second kid and the third kid and the fourth kid. And same with your spouse, right? You’re growing in the nurture and wisdom of the Lord and loving your spouse. That takes a lifetime to do. But by God’s grace, you can do it. By God’s grace, you can stop being passive. By God’s grace, you can make challenging and tough decisions for your family. By God’s grace, you can. Amen. Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer

Father, we pray your blessing upon the men, upon the fathers today. Give them much grace, much mercy, much wisdom. Let them choose you and choose you and choose you over and over again. Let them put you first above all things. Give them wisdom beyond their years to shepherd their families, to love their wives, to care for their children. Be gracious to them where they’re slipping up. Let them be bold enough to admit it, to repent, to confess, and to turn. And Lord, I pray for all the fathers here. You keep doing a work in us. We thank you. By your Spirit, we can continue to grow more and more and be conformed to the image of your Son. By your Spirit, we can do the tasks you set before us. Yes, we will stumble and fall at times. You are merciful to pick us up, brush us off, and put us on the path of righteousness again. Do that for us, Lord, today and moving forward, for your glory. Amen.