Sunday, January 5, 2014

Why Bother?

You have noticed, I'm sure, that the theme of wisdom comes up every once in a while in my sermons. That's because gaining wisdom is important. Well, this morning I'd like to look at that topic again. I'm going to ask a question. And the question is not complicated. It's the question, 'Why?' Why is it important to do the hard work of gaining wisdom? And I hope that it's clear that pursuing wisdom does require hard work. But just to make sure you're persuaded I'm going to quote from Proverbs, a book of the Bible especially devoted to the topic of wisdom.

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.


Did you notice the verbs? Receive, treasure, making attentive, inclining, call out, raise, seek, search. Those words make it clear enough that pursuing wisdom requires effort. It requires work. So, why should you do that? Why should you do the hard work of gaining wisdom? That's what I'd like to look at this morning.

As I've told you before there are lots of ways to answer a 'why' question. Here's one answer to our question: We work at gaining wisdom because the Bible tells us to. That's true, but it can become a really lousy motivation. Someone motivated by that just might be like the kid who's cleaning up his room because his mother told him to. He's doing it, but he hates it. Not good. So, I'm going to offer different answer.

Before I do, though, I need to clarify something. My answer might sound selfish. To be selfish, to think only about yourself, is wrong. It is sin against God and against your neighbor. But there is a way to pursue self-interest that is fine, that's not being selfish. The Bible assumes that wanting good for yourself can be a proper motivation. Jesus told a group of people if they wanted their thirst for life satisfied, they should come to Him. The motivation there is self-interest. People are to come to Jesus so that their thirst is satisfied. My answer to our why question is going to be an appeal to self-interest.

You should do the hard work of gaining wisdom because you will benefit as a result. That, by itself, sounds obvious. And, on one level, it is. But it will lead to some things that are not obvious, though they once were. Let's continue with another question.

How will you benefit from doing the hard work of gaining wisdom? For one thing, you will distinguish yourself from so many other people. And, as a result, you will find favor with God. You'll remember that I talked to you about that during Advent. Mary found favor with God. That happened because she distinguished herself from those around her. And because Mary found favor with God she was rewarded. If you find favor with God you will, likewise, be rewarded. Gaining wisdom will be rewarded. Self-interest.

There is, however, the flip side to that coin. And this is something that isn't talked about much. It isn't obvious these days. What happens to those who do not distinguish themselves like Mary did? What happens to those who are not finding favor with God? Well, what's the opposite of favor? One word that fits is displeasure. That might sound a little familiar. It was in a verse that I used last week. God is speaking to Israel in the desert.

According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.

So, what happens to those who are not finding favor with God? They experience God's displeasure. Or to say all of that differently, God is either blessing you or He is cursing you. There is no third category.

When I thought about this week's sermon I wasn't quite planning on taking this direction. I have to say that I was a little surprised that when I started writing, this is what came out. But I thought about it, and I really think that it's accurate. God is either blessing you or cursing you. The choices that you make have consequences. By your choices you will make God smile at you or frown in your direction; encourage you or oppose you. This will make more sense if don't think about it in terms of things that make a big splash. Remember, it's all about lots of little steps. So, in little ways, God is either blessing you or cursing you. In little ways, He is either encouraging you and doing things that will help you along, or He is opposed to you and standing in your way.

So, we have an answer to our question, 'Why do the hard work of gaining wisdom?' We do it out of self-interest. We do it to gain God's smile and to avoid His frown. We do it to be blessed and not cursed. Every choice results in doing the hard work of gaining wisdom - or not. Your choices, the little choices, matter.

One response to what I just said might go like this. 'When you talk like that you make God seem so dark, so demanding. And that will make people fear. You don't want to motivate people by fear, do you? You want to motivate them by love. Life motivated by fear just won't work.' Well, I have a couple of thoughts about that. The first is this. I actually do want to motivate you by fear. The Bible does that. 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' The fear of God is a primary motivation for doing the hard work of gaining wisdom. Fearing God, something out of style these days, lies at the heart of following Jesus. It shows up throughout the Scriptures. And the reason is clear. Listen to Hebrews.

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

We are all accountable to God. All those choices we make are reviewed by God, and not just later but now. Being aware of that accountability - and that God will either bless or curse in response - leads to the fear of the Lord. So, I actually do want to motivate you by fear.

However, it needs to be the right kind of fear. And this is my second response to that comment. Once again, let me remind you that Satan hides his lies by mixing in a little truth. A life motivated only by fear will not work. That's true. Fear - the kind of fear that God is calling for - can be and needs to be the kind of fear that has been mixed with love. The God that we fear loves us, and He is the one whom we love. The fear remains. We are accountable to God. We are aware that there are consequences to our choices. He will bless or curse based on what we do. Those are facts of reality. But all of that is tempered by the fact of love. This fear is not the fear of a slave who is owned by a harsh master. It is the fear of a child who knows that his dad, who loves him deeply and whom he loves deeply, expects to be obeyed. He knows that there will be consequences if his dad isn't obeyed. So, with this fear/love mixture he obeys his dad. Love affects fear.

The same is true the other way around. Fear affects love. The love between God and us isn't this sentimental, syrupy thing. It is a love that understands reality. God loves us, but He will not deny His character. He blesses those who choose to work at wisdom, and He curses those who don't. And we know this about Him so our love for Him is a love that is aware of the kind of God that He is. Yes, He blesses and He curses, but we know that He'd rather bless than curse.

So, our love for Him is tempered by our fear and our fear of Him is tempered by our love. So, God is the great and mighty One, the One who judges us all. At the same time, He is the God who has bled for us. It isn't love or fear. It must be both. Or it will be neither. It will, instead, be one of Satan's counterfeits. It will be a counterfeit of a biblical fear or a counterfeit of a biblical love. There's a lot of this fraud going around. And you don't want to have anything to do with it.

Here is one result in the life of someone who gets this. The Gospel becomes very dear. It's in the Gospel that this fear and love come together. God is the God to whom we have to give an account of all of our choices. And yet, this holy judge promises forgiveness to all who repent of their foolishness, to all who turn away from it in order to do the hard work of gaining wisdom. This holy judge promises forgiveness to all who believe in Jesus and come to Him for change. And seeing that repentance and faith, this holy judge who should curse us, blesses instead. This is living in light of the Gospel. What word should we use to describe it? How about 'wisdom'?

I want to tell you why I preached this sermon. Our text is made up of two parts. There is the 'if' section of the text, 'if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments' and all the rest. The second part of the text is the 'then' part, the promise of the text.

… then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

One reason for this sermon is so that you might grow a bit in your knowledge of God. I want you to see Him more clearly because He is the most important factor in your life, in all the little choices that you will make tomorrow, and the next day and on and on. I want you to see more clearly that He is the God who really does bless. But to get that you need to see more clearly that He is the God who really does curse. Remember Israel in the desert. Or, maybe better, Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5). He is the God to whom we must give an account. I want you to see God more clearly as the strong God that He is. He isn't this weak deity who lets everyone get away with murder because He loves in some sickly way. Not even close. He is your judge. He is someone you need to fear. I want you to see that more clearly but from the perspective of the Gospel. It is this strong, principled judge who suffered on the Cross for us because of His love for us. Fear and love.

A verse that has been a favorite of mine fits here.

… the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.

The days are upon us when you need to know your God so that you can stand firm before and take action against the wicked forces confronting us. I want that for you. That's why I preached this sermon.

So, what do you do now? Well, you need to do the hard work of gaining wisdom so that you will know God. The 'if' part of the text tells you what to do. Again listen to the verbs.

          My son, if you
                   receive my words and
                   treasure up my commandments with you,
                   making your ear attentive to wisdom and
                   inclining your heart to understanding;
          yes, if you
                   call out for insight and
                   raise your voice for understanding,
          if you
                   seek it like silver and
                   search for it as for hidden treasures,
          then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Those verbs tell you what to do. But let me offer a little advice on how to proceed. Think small. Americans think too big and aim for the stars. As a result, we too often find ourselves frustrated because of our failure to hit the stars and make a big splash. Think small. Remember, lots of little steps. Regardless of what you do, you will not make a profound change in yourself by the end of the month. You might be able to notice something by the end of the year, but even then it probably won't be anything huge. But that doesn't mean that nothing is happening. You can accomplish a little thing and take a little step by the end of the week. Think small.

So, thinking small, what does doing one of those verbs look like? Just one. Maybe that's what you should spend some time considering. How do you do just one of them? Maybe that's how you will do the hard work of gaining wisdom.