WWUTT 1334 Give to the Lord Your Wealth (Proverbs 3:9-20)

Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?

You want your answer to that question to be yes, right? Then honor the Lord with all that you have, and we'll consider that when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in the book of Proverbs chapter 3.

Picking up where we left off last week, we had to spend some time just meditating on those great verses 5 through 8, especially where we start off reading,

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Something you probably memorized a long time ago, or you've heard it enough times that you have it memorized.

Underline that one in your Bible. If you underline and you don't have that passage underlined, what are you doing with your life?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Let me pick up in verse 9, and we'll read through about verse 20 here.

Honor the Lord with your wealth, and with the firstfruits of all your produce.

Then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, or be weary of his reproof.

For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding. For the gain from her is better than gain from silver, and her profit better than gold.

She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her.

Long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called blessed.

The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. By understanding he established the heavens.

By his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds dropped down the dew.

My son, do not lose sight of these. Keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul, and adornment for your neck.

I went a little bit further, read verses 21 and 22 as well. But you see how we start this section in verse 9 with honor the

Lord with your wealth, and with the first fruits of all your produce, and then you have wisdom described as being even greater than the wealth we could accumulate on this earth anyway.

If you lay hold of wisdom and the knowledge that God gives, do not trade it for anything.

It is far more valuable than any of the precious metals that the earth holds dear, that the world would say are valuable.

Value what God says is valuable. Verse 9 again, honor the

Lord with your wealth, and with the first fruits of all your produce, and in so doing you demonstrate that God is more important to you than even your earnings.

When we read here, honor the Lord with your wealth, read that as honor the Lord with your earnings.

Don't think of that as, well, I'm not wealthy, so what do I have to honor the Lord with anyway?

Now, what paycheck do you receive for the work that you do? That's your wealth.

It's not wealthy by the society standards or something like that, but that is what you have earned for the work that you do, and you are to give honor to God for that which you have received, for it all belongs to the

Lord anyway. And as the Apostle Paul says in Colossians chapter 3, remember that you work first for God before you work for man.

It is by God's blessing that you've received a paycheck to be able to provide for yourself and maybe also for your family if you have a family.

So honor the Lord with that, by giving of the first fruits of all of your produce.

You may not be a farmer, so you're not giving first fruits of your produce. I don't even grow produce, but you're giving the first of what you have earned to God, because he is more important than anything else.

More important than the bills you have to pay, the taxes you have to pay, or the money you're going to spend on leisure things and stuff like that.

Give unto the Lord first. Now, some may argue, well, it's not even possible for me to give to God first because the government takes taxes out before I even get my paycheck.

So I can't give of my first fruits unto God. I used to argue that way too. And I say to you,

I just think that that's an excuse. Here's what you can do though. You can budget out before you get your paycheck.

This much is going to God. And that's giving your first fruits.

Even before the government is able to take taxes out from you, you know,

I'm giving this to God. You commit yourself in your mind, in your heart. This is what

I am going to give unto the Lord. Now, I'm not trying to impose anything legalistic on you.

You have to do this or you don't really love God. But if you're looking at this as wise instruction, and I'm going to do this because in my heart,

I want to with all that I have, material or spiritual, doesn't matter.

I want to give unto the Lord. How do you exercise this instruction that's being given?

I'm just giving you a way that you can do that. Don't let your giving unto the

Lord be haphazard, because then you are actually demonstrating in your own life, though you may not think that you're doing it this way.

You're demonstrating that God is not as important to you as these other things. When you are paying your bills and paying your taxes and spending money on the stuff that you want, and then whatever you have left, then

I'll give that to God. See, you're showing there that God is not as important to you as all of these other things.

If you know that the Lord is the Lord of your life, even over the money that you make, then give of the first that you receive back unto the

Lord. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all of your produce.

Now, you cannot follow the advice that I have just given, and it doesn't mean that you're not a

Christian. But what you run the risk of is that eventually those other things that you give more attention to will dominate your life.

You will languish in your spiritual growth, in your pursuit of holiness and godliness and Christlikeness.

You will not grow in those things. Rather, the cares of this world will more plague your heart.

Then feeling the freedom and the joy that you have by faith in Christ Jesus. Look at the next verse, verse 10.

Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine.

Oftentimes we see in scripture a reference to wine is a reference to abundance. So whenever we talk about like vats bursting with new wine, not only have you been given by God those things that you need, but he has given you abundantly more.

Remember what Jesus said in John 10, 10, the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. We're not talking about more stuff, living in a mansion, having a multi -car garage and cars in every one of those bays.

That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about in addition to the things that you need, read

Matthew chapter six, food, clothing, shelter, things like that. In addition to that,

God will provide you those things that you need and give you abundantly more. Are you not in Christ Jesus, a fellow heir of the kingdom of God?

Yes, you are. All that the father has given to the son, you receive also in Christ as a fellow heir of the kingdom of God with him.

In Christ, you receive abundantly more. Your vats are bursting with new wine.

So why cling to the stuff of this world, thinking that's your treasure and that's your reward when your treasure and reward are so much greater in heaven above in glory.

You show that you do not cling too tightly to the stuff of this world when you honor the

Lord with your wealth and the first fruits of all of your produce. And it's also a good spiritual discipline so that you will not in your mind or in your heart cling too much to the stuff of this world.

When you give of what you have unto the Lord first, then your barns are filled with plenty and your vats are bursting with new wine.

You receive abundantly more in Christ, not in earthly possessions, but in heavenly promises.

Verses 11 and 12, my son do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof for the

Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights.

Are you convicted over anything that I've said here? And I mean, has it caused in your mind you to try to rationalize?

Well, I don't have to do what Gabe is saying here because he even said it doesn't make me not a Christian if I don't do it.

So I'm going to continue to spend my money the way that I do or think of my money, how

I think about it. Don't despise the Lord's discipline. If you're feeling convicted over the way that you use your money, this is a good thing because the

Lord reproves him whom he loves and as a father, the son in whom he delights.

I'm convicted about something every day. Every single day, there's something that I'm looking at going,

I could just be doing this better. And I want to do it better because I want to honor

God. It's not something legalistic. It's not something I'm imposing on anyone else.

Not always. There are some things that I will feel a conviction of in my life and I will explore that.

I'll be disciplined in it and I will grow in it. And then I'll realize there are other people going through the same thing that I was going through.

And so now as a pastor and a teacher, I'm going to hand it to them. And here's where you need to grow.

Here's another spiritual discipline that you need to apply in your life. It might be something like that.

I've been through this. I've experienced this same conviction before. And if you are feeling convicted over what we've read here, don't despise the

Lord's discipline. Don't be weary of his reproof. Like, oh, when is this going to end? It is for your good.

The Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights.

The same passage we see come up in Hebrews chapter 12, where we are promised that God loves us and we can see that love demonstrated in our lives in the discipline that we receive.

If we were not being disciplined, then we would be illegitimate children. We would not be sons and daughters of God.

That's Hebrews 12, 8. It goes on in verse 9 to say, besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Do you want to grow in righteousness? That's why you need to listen to these things. And when convicted, make a change that you may grow in godliness and holiness before the

Lord. Verse 13. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding.

For the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold.

And once again, we see those feminine pronouns being used in reference to wisdom.

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom. For the gain from her is better than the gain from silver and the profit better than gold.

And remember that this doesn't mean the Holy Spirit is a woman. It doesn't mean that wisdom is even being depicted as a woman here.

Wisdom is rather being personified. And since the word wisdom in Hebrew is feminine, it just makes sense then to use feminine pronouns in reference to wisdom.

As one would go find a wife, one would go find a good friend, one finds a person who is able to help you, assist you, grow you, mature you.

You want that kind of friendship in your life, right? Well, wisdom is that person that you seek.

And the gain that you receive from her is better than gain from silver and better than profit from gold.

It's better than anything the world can give you because true wisdom and right understanding comes not from this world.

It comes from God. She, verse 15, referring to wisdom, is more precious than jewels and nothing you desire can compare with her.

Nothing that you look at with your eyes and you can want even compares with the wisdom that you can receive from God.

The knowledge that you get from his word and then the ability to know how to apply it.

That's wisdom. When you apply this word to your life, you have received wisdom from God.

And we're talking about something here that is leading unto glory. So there's simply nothing that compare.

Even the most precious metals on earth can't compare to the wisdom that we have from God.

When you talk about purifying those metals, how are those metals purified? They're purified in fire, right? You burn out all of the impurities and then you have pure metals.

And then even when a disaster would strike a land, it would be scorched with fire.

Enemies would come upon it and steal and destroy. What ends up lasting the precious metals, they'll even take them away with them.

The gold, the silver, the precious jewels, all of that. Well, that's what the enemy is going to come and rob and they're going to take away.

All the rest of the earth is laid waste, but the metals endure. And yet here we have it referenced that wisdom lasts even longer than that.

It's even more precious than those things that would endure a destruction of the land.

Wisdom is more precious than jewels and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand, most assuredly.

Because when you know the word of God and the message of salvation, that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

And you apply that to your life and you grow in it and you make it your life. Long life is the result of that.

Everlasting life in Jesus Christ, our Lord. In her left hand, our riches and honor.

Long life is in her right hand, in her left hand, our riches and honor.

Just think about the way heaven is described in the book of Revelation, streets of gold, pearly gates. By the way, the gates are described as being of pearl, not because I believe they're literally of pearl.

I don't think that's really the picture we're being given there. But when you walk into glory, you will walk right past pearly gates because the presence of God is better to you than these gates made of pearl.

You will walk on streets of gold because gold will be to you as pavement on the ground.

It is the glory of God that you are there for. So the riches that we receive when we have the wisdom of God lead to long life and eternal glory.

Verse 17, her ways, wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.

We have peace with God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Our sins are forgiven.

The hostility of God that was against us because of our rebellion against him, because of the sins we committed against God, that hostility has been satisfied in Christ.

We are reconciled to God and we are reconciled to the members of God's house, his church, his body.

So in the ways of wisdom are pleasantness and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her.

Those who hold her fast are called blessed. What is it that we receive when we enter that eternal kingdom of God?

Jesus said at the end of revelation to him, I will give the tree of life. By the wisdom of God applied to our lives, we have long life, we have eternal riches and reward, things that the earth simply cannot give.

Verses 19 and 20, and we'll close out. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens.

By his knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew.

It is by the wisdom of God that the earth even came into existence. So what can the world give you?

That's even greater than what God gives, nothing. God gives the greatest thing.

He gives his son Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God, which we will have with him forever.

Now, let me close with this. Let me go back over something here. I've shared the gospel. That's the greatest message that we can receive from the word.

Let me also add though, that where it talks about in wisdom, we receive long life in her ways, our pleasantness and all her paths are peace.

Of course, I've tied this into the eternal reward that we receive in Christ. But I do believe that there is an earthly application to this as well.

If you live in debauchery, if you live like a fool, if you give yourself over to sexual immorality and satisfying all the passions of your flesh, how long do you think your life is going to be?

Not very long. In fact, statistics show that a person who lives in such hedonism tends to die young.

So when you live in wisdom, when you live according to the instructions of God, long life is what you receive.

Now, that's generally true. It's not always true. There are people who live in godliness and they still die young.

They will die of diseases. They may die in accidents or something like that. Certainly that's going to happen because we live in a fallen world, a world that has been subjected to futility because of our sin.

But generally speaking, a person lives longer when they follow in the wisdom of God and a nation, a civilization will most definitely live longer.

America's days are very, very short right now because of the wickedness that America is steeped in and declining rapidly.

If this were a nation that were following just the Proverbs of God, how much longer would it survive?

But very few nations will last much longer because of the sins that they are choosing to elevate as good.

Even with their laws saying, this is good. Abortion is good. Same sex marriage is good.

That's what these nations are proclaiming, especially the United States of America. God's wrath will be poured out upon them.

Cling to Christ and you will live. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this good word.

Thank you for rebuking us, for admonishing us that we may be convicted over our sin and turn from sin and live in righteousness, the righteousness of Christ.

We may have long life on this earth, but most especially that we live long forever with God in glory, eternal life for all who believe.

Help us to apply these things practically to our lives that we demonstrate with our whole life.

You are the greatest thing and we give everything unto you. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt

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