FBC Morning Light – May 30, 2022

Well, a good Monday morning to you and Memorial Day, so for most of us this is probably a holiday off from our normal routine. How are you spending the day today? Memorial Day means a lot of things to different people, right?

I mean, it's supposed to be a time when we stop and think about those who have given their lives to secure our freedoms and protect those freedoms and we really need to do that and to just appreciate what has been done and what has been given, the sacrifices that have been made so that you and I might enjoy the freedoms that we have.

Unfortunately for others, this day is just a day that's a holiday and they do something different. They may loaf, may have some kind of a party, a cookout or whatever, and not that there's anything wrong with having those cookouts and those celebrations and getting together and so forth, but to do so at the expense of and in place of really engaging in the memory and the thinking about the importance of the day, that's not such a good use of the day.

Others look at this day as being a kickoff to summer, as the first day of summer, although it's still a few weeks away. However you look at the day, I trust you'll at least take some time to ponder that there have been plenty of men and women in the course of our nation's history who have sacrificed their lives so that we might have this nation and so that we might have the freedoms that we so greatly enjoy and so easily take for granted.

So let's be sure to do that and when we pray in just a few minutes we will spend some time thinking about that in our prayer time. But I also wanted to point out one of the verses in our scripture reading today.

We read two different passages and one of the passages today is a simple verse in Proverbs 23, 12. So let me ask you this, how old are you? Obviously you're not going to give me any feedback to that question, but how old are you?

Some people read Proverbs 23, 12 and they think this is a great verse for kids, young people, students. It is. Listen to what it says. It says, apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.

This would be a great verse for a teacher to put up over the whiteboard or whatever they use these days. Of course they can't do that unless they're in a private school, but nevertheless it would still be a great verse because when the class is not paying attention the teacher can just turn around and look up at that verse.

Apply your heart to instruction. That part of the verse tells you that there's more involved in receiving instruction than just reading a book or listening to a lecture. Apply your heart to it, give your whole self to instruction, and then your ears to words of knowledge.

What are you listening to? How much of what you listen to, young people, students, is really going to increase or improve your knowledge skills? Some read this verse, that's a great verse for students, and indeed it is.

But it's also a great verse for those in their 20s, those who are in college, out of college, just graduated from college and think they've got all the answers to all of life's problems and all of the situations of life.

No, listen. Apply your heart to instruction and let your ears listen to words of knowledge in your 20s and in midlife. This is a verse that's so greatly needed, even in midlife, isn't it? When we get to midlife, we start to realize, there is a lot to know that I just don't know.

At least those of us who have been honest with ourselves will come to that conclusion, and we engage in lifelong learning exercises. A lot of people in their midlife years, they will enroll in a course, they'll take online stuff to improve their abilities and their mind and so forth, even in midlife.

Then there are those of us who have looked at age 60 in the rearview mirror, and we think we don't need anybody to tell us anything. We got it all figured out. We got life figured out. We got all the answers.

People would just listen to us, but they don't listen to us, old fogies, that kind of an attitude. Listen, even in our old age, we still need to apply our heart to instruction. We need to listen to words of knowledge.

Pay attention to those words of knowledge. How old are you? Let me ask a follow-up question. How teachable are you, no matter how old you are? How teachable are you? I've known too many people in my years of ministry that have pretty much let this verse go in one ear and out the other.

You can't teach them anything. They won't listen. They won't heed. They won't hear. They won't apply their heart to instruction. They will sit back and fold their arms and dare you to tell them something that they don't know.

Well, I hope that won't be your attitude, and it won't be my attitude. There are plenty of things that I need to learn, and so do you. So on this Memorial Day, let's be sure to remember what we already know, that there are thousands and thousands of people who have given their lives so that we might have freedom in this country.

But let's also apply our heart to keep on learning, to be lifelong learners, and really give our whole selves to being instructed. Be teachable. Be teachable. A mark of humility, teachability. Our Father and our God, we do indeed thank you on this Memorial Day for the thousands and thousands of men and women, young men, who have given their lives for our country, for our security, for our safety.

We thank you for that sacrifice. Father, we grieve when so much of that sacrifice has been of such great grief to families and loved ones. Heartache beyond heartache, and yet what a sacrifice. All of this, of course, reminds us of the sacrifice that Christ made for us, the just for the unjust, that we might live and that we might be free.

We thank you for the sacrifice of Christ. And now today, Father, I pray, remind us of how needful it is to maintain teachable hearts. And we pray these things all in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Have a good rest of your Monday.

I trust the Lord will bless you on this holiday. Good day.