June 29, 2025 | Wise Enjoyment
Wise Enjoyment | Proverbs Part 18
Wise Enjoyment Begins with Wisdom and the Fear of the Lord
Proverbs 3:13–18 – Wisdom brings peace, pleasantness, and life.
Proverbs 3:23–26 – Wisdom brings security, fearlessness, sweet rest, and confidence.
Proverbs 15:15–16 – A cheerful heart has a continual feast; better a little with fear of the Lord than treasure with trouble.
Joy Killers (What Gets in the Way)
Foolishness:
Proverbs 10:23 – Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool; wisdom is pleasure to the understanding.
Greed:
Proverbs 27:19–20 – As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the person; the eyes of man are never satisfied.
Proverbs 1:17–19 – Greed leads to destruction.
Strife:
Proverbs 15:27 – Greed brings trouble to one's household.
Proverbs 17:1 – Better a dry morsel with peace than a feast with strife.
Proverbs 26:21 – A quarrelsome man kindles strife.
Laziness:
Proverbs 13:4 – The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing; the diligent are richly supplied.
Pride:
Proverbs 29:23 – Pride brings low; humility brings honor.
Gifts to Be Enjoyed
Proverbs 28:14 – Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always.
Proverbs 15:17 – Better a dinner of herbs with love than a fattened ox with hatred.
Proverbs 17:1 – Better a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.
Proverbs 27:9 – Sweetness of a friend comes from earnest counsel.
Proverbs 27:17 – Iron sharpens iron; so one man sharpens another.
Proverbs 10:28 – The hope of the righteous brings joy.
Proverbs 24:13–14 – Eat honey for it is good; wisdom is like that to the soul.
Proverbs 11:25 – Whoever brings blessing will be enriched; one who waters will be watered.
Proverbs 14:21 – Blessed is he who is generous to the poor.
Proverbs 15:23 – A word in season brings joy.
Proverbs 25:11 – A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
Proverbs 24:3–4 – By wisdom a house is built and filled with precious and pleasant riches.
Proverbs 14:1 – The wisest of women builds her house.
Proverbs 19:20 – The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.
Proverbs 15:33 – Fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
Proverbs 10:1 – A wise son makes a glad father.
Proverbs 23:24–25 – The father of the righteous will rejoice; let your father and mother be glad.
Proverbs 17:6 – Grandchildren are the crown of the aged.
In his sermon titled Wise Enjoyment, Pastor Isaias Viñales teaches from Proverbs on how godly wisdom forms the foundation for lasting joy. While the world offers constant entertainment, it often leaves people weary and unsatisfied. Proverbs offers something deeper: a vision of joy rooted in the fear of the Lord and the pursuit of wisdom. Wisdom brings peace, pleasantness, security, and rest (Proverbs 3), and teaches that true enjoyment is relational, not just circumstantial. Viñales outlines several joy-killers: foolishness, greed, strife, laziness, and pride. Each one distorts or destroys the heart’s ability to receive God’s gifts with gratitude.
In contrast, Proverbs encourages the enjoyment of specific blessings: the fear of the Lord, peace in the home, faithful friendships, hope, honest work, well-ordered households, fitting words, sweet food, generosity, humility, and family. These are not luxuries but sacred pleasures that reflect God's goodness. The sermon closes by grounding all joy in Christ, who endured the cross for the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2) and now invites his people to experience that joy in him. True enjoyment begins with God, receives his gifts with thanks, and points back to him in worship.
Transcript of Wise Enjoyment | Proverbs Part 18
And today we're going to look at wise enjoyment. Who desperately wants to be miserable? Do you know anyone who wakes up in the morning and says, today, my goal is to be as unhappy as I possibly can be. No one. Everyone wants to be happy. Everyone. But few, small few actually, know how.
In our day, enjoyment is marketed. It's monetized. It's mechanized. Wherever you look, thrills abound. Yet so many live weary, exhausted, tired, hollowed out.
They scroll. We scroll more than we have ever have, social media, Netflix, and yet we enjoy less perhaps than we have ever have. Hours of the day are spent on entertainment, yet many never enter into true joy and peace.
But the Bible, and especially the Book of Proverbs, it sings an entirely different tune. Folks, it doesn't scold us for desiring joy, but what it does is it directs us toward the better and lasting kind. Not shallow, inappropriate laughter, for example, but the better laughter of deep delight in good things. Not noisy escape. That's what people are doing when they're going to, uh, the, the, the social media and, and are binging Netflix, not noisy escape, but quiet fullness that enjoys the beautiful noise of fitting words, songs, and sounds not momentary pleasure, but enduring peace. It is able to enjoy the moments along the way.
As we'll see, Lord willing, the delight, the pleasure, the gladness, the joy that we are invited to, beloved is rich. Proverbs surprised me. It presents an earthy, wise corrective to our culture's confusion about enjoyment. So it welcomes our longing for joy and it redirects it, and that this has been my prayer for you all that through today's sermon and through the following weeks, we would be trained in the art of holy pleasure. There are indeed sinful pleasures, but there are holy pleasures.
Outline
So this is obviously, uh, the end of this series is a little different. We usually walk chapter by chapter, passage by passage. And so to help direct where we're going, I've, I've, we'll send around these five current points.
First, we'll ask where true enjoyment comes from.
Number two, we'll wrestle with what gets in the way of that.
Thirdly, we'll look at the actual gifts we're meant to enjoy.
F Fourthly, we'll clarify how joy is both relational and material.
And finally, we'll see as Christians how all of this finds its center in Christ.
Where Does True Enjoyment Come From?
Now look with me if you have your Bibles open to verses uh, 13 through 18 in Proverbs chapter three verses 13 through 18. And the word of the Lord reads. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding, for 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 and in her left hand are riches in honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness. And 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.
Notice with me, church wisdom is not presented as cold intellect, but as warm, as relational, and life-giving. She's personified. Her presence brings what? It brings, pleasantness and peace. The old KJV and many other translations begin verse 13 with the word happy. Happy is that man, that findeth wisdom, but the portrayal of wisdom as the path to enjoyment doesn't even stop there.
Notice with me, eating from her words and holding her fast is like eating fruits from the tree of life. Wow. Think of what a picture that is. Eating fruits from the tree of life. And then verse 18, we have that word happier. Blessed again are they who hold her fast.
Now we're gonna look more at the gifts that God grants for us to enjoy later. But let me point out that wisdom in this passage in verse 23 brings security and therefore fearlessness and sweet rest verses 24 and 25. And confidence in the Lord. Verse 26.
Proverbs teaches us what we intuitively know, but don't often actually say. Without a sense of security, okay, without a sense of fearlessness, sweetness, and rest, and ultimately confidence in God, you can't really enjoy life.
You're not truly blessed, not deeply, not deeply. The person who always feels like nothing's secure about their life. Maybe you've been there. I know I have. Who's always concerned that everything will crumble around them. The person who can't enjoy a good night's rest because of crushing anxieties, the person who's knows nothing of the warm smiles of our Heavenly Father, they cannot and will not experience this deep sense of joy.
These things are mutually exclusive. Proverbs 15 verses 15 through 16, state, the cheerful, literally the good heart has a continual feast. Better is a little with a fear of the Lord and great treasure and trouble with it. So outside of a relationship with God and wisdom, we lack according to Proverbs, that which is better, that which is better.
And I wonder. Have you ever met someone who's just seems like they have a continual feast, even when the cupboards are low? You know someone like that. Do you know anyone who seems to experience joy even before unfortunate circumstances change in their lives? Well, according to this text, it springs from a good, cheerful heart that fears the Lord.
So here's the secret. We don't necessarily need more to enjoy more. We need the fear of God and we need wisdom. Another way we can say it is that to walk with God is to walk in joy and peace and contentment. To walk in wisdom is to walk with joy, and this has to come first. We must place this first. Why?
Because without rooting joy and the fear of the Lord, our relationship with God, all the good gifts we'll name later become, uh, risk becoming idols. All the joys we chase risk becoming hollow and true enjoyment starts with God, and then sincerely enjoys his gifts.
What Gets in the Way of Joy?
So we see that joy is possible, but Proverbs is is very real. Okay. It's very real. It understands reality. It it, it presents it as it truly is. And so must we.
So if, if wisdom leads to joy, why is joy so often hard to find? Why does it seem elusive? Why does it seem fleeting? Okay. Well, there are obstacles as we know. Inner weeds. It's the picture that came to me, inner weeds that strangle joy at the root. And and parasites that sap vitality from the fruit of joy. And I'm talking about attitudes and habits that are joy thieves that will steal and kill your joy.
Let's see what Proverbs has to say about this.
Foolishness
First, there is wisdom's opposite foolishness. Now, hopefully, I don't need to remind you that Christians can engage in foolishness. We've been hearing that wisdom and a folly really has a spectrum. Proverbs 10 23, uh, contrasts the pleasures of fools with the pleasure of those who have understanding. The verse reads this way, doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding others. Uh, translations put it doing wickedness is like sport to a fool.
So the idea is, is that the fool finds his joy and his pleasures in one thing. And the wise in another so that, so that wickedness for, for the wicked man wickedness is like child's play it. It's like a joke.
And in the same way that Paul teaches that sin tends to more sin, sin typically leads to more sin and lawlessness. We know that rejoicing and evil shrinks our capacity to enjoy the good. In Romans, Paul teaches us Romans chapter one, that God gives people over to their lusts, who serve other things, who worship other things, who prefer other things, other joys before him. And over time, the lightening of evil. What it does is it deadens the affections towards the good, the truth, and the beautiful. It deadens the affections.
So in other words, in in our hearts, your joy and wickedness really can only grow and increase as you undervalue and underappreciate the good, the true and the beautiful. That's how that works. That's how that works.
And so we should humble ourselves in confession and look to God and beg of his mercy when we find ourselves enjoying things that we know we shouldn't be enjoying. Because what it does is it shrinks the soul. And as we give our attention to these other things, as we give our attention to these other delights, of necessity, you're taking your eyes of off of God and off of his good gifts that you are meant to enjoy.
Greed
Next comes greed. One of the paradoxes of joy.
Greed is often why we crave more, but enjoy less. Proverbs 27, 19 through 20 says, as in water, face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects man. Shol and Abaddon are never satisfied. And never satisfied are the eyes of man.
Verse 19 tells us, if you know a man's heart, you know the man. Verse 20 ties that heart to hungry, insatiable eyes, eyes that are never content, eyes that are never satisfied.
And what does this verse show us about greed? When greed consumes the heart, beloved, nothing you gain will ever be enough for you. You used to say, if only we had a house, and then it became, well, once we get the bigger one and then it becomes, well, we need new stuff to fill that bigger home, and so on and so forth, and so on and so forth, and on and on it goes.
When greed rules the heart, your eyes will always lie to you. They'll tell you that what you have is not enough. And the real danger of greed is not just an emptiness.
It leaves us feeling that way so often, but it's also destruction. Proverbs one 17 through 19 says, these men lie and wait for their own blood. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors. So, so greed, it's, it sets a trap. And those who fall in it are the greedy. It doesn't just rob others. It robs you, beloved.
And this isn't just an Old Testament thing. This isn't just a Proverbs thing. The New Testament echoes this in first Timothy six 10. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Now hear this. And those who crave it pierce themselves with many pangs.
In other words, greed doesn't just kill you later. It doesn't just kill you later. It is destroying you now. It is. It is piercing you today. And you know what's more? It often brings collateral damage with it too.
Strife
Proverbs 15 27 ties it directly to our next killjoy, whoever is greedy. This is Proverbs uh, 15 27. Whoever is greedy for unjust gain brings trouble to his household. So it, it not only poisons your joy, it poisons your home. And we often call this strife. Strife in the home. What is that? What is strife?
Well, dictionaries define it as quarreling, biting, fighting discord, heated. contention. one, put it this way, strife is a strong and ongoing conflict over an issue. It's deeper than an argument, so it's, it's more than just a one time argument, broader than disagreement. You and I can disagree about something and not technically have strife.
It usually involves, here's the B word, bitterness. Bitterness. It's not just a disagreement, it's bitter disagreement. It's often fueled by anger, driven by pride, sustained by a desire to win.
Man, this one convicted me. If I'm honest with you, this week, and let's be honest, strife isn't confined to the political wars of our day. It's in our homes. It's sad, but it's in Christian marriages, where spouses treat one another like enemies on a battlefield instead of allies in the fight.
Now hear me? Marriage is a battlefield. But your spouse should not be your enemy. They should be your fellow soldier.
And if you've ever been willing to emotionally wound someone just to stand your ground or get your way, then like me, you've tasted the bitter fruit of strife. You're not alone. I know what it's like to trouble the hearts of the very people I love and drain away the joy of my soul because I insisted on contending over something foolish.
And it's tempting, isn't it? You've been hurt. Now you wanna hurt back. You wanna make them feel what you felt you wanna get even. But Beloved, that path never leads to joy. It doesn't lead to peace. It doesn't lead to fulfillment. It leads to ashes.
Listen to what strife does. Proverbs 17 one better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. Proverbs 26 21, a charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
So fire, uh, strife is a fire and it doesn't just burn bridges. It scorches your soul. It robs you of your joy. It consumes relationships. It eats away at the quiet and the peace that is itself something to be enjoyed.
So where we see strife in our homes, let us confess it, let us crucify it, let us confront it. It is killing more than just our relationships. It is robbing us of the joy that God intends for us to enjoy.
Laziness
Now, there's laziness. How does laziness rob us of joy? What's the connection? You can turn to Proverbs 13 verse four for this one. Here it is. Laziness craves joy, but refuses to plant its seeds. It craves joy. It wants the fruit of a joyful life without the effort of cultivation.
The verse reads this way, the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing. While the soul of the diligent is richly surpr is richly supplied.
Now notice it's not actually wrong to to desire a well supplied soul. That's a good thing. That's a very good desire. But the difference lies in how you pursue it. The lazy person wants the reward without the work. They long for the peace, the satisfaction fruitfulness, but they don't want to break the soil. They won't sow the seed, they won't water the field, and so they end up empty.
A rich supplied soul belongs to the hard worker. And that's enjoyment language. That's enjoyment language. Yeah, that's the, so feasting because it was faithful to labor.
And there's just certain things in life that you can't enjoy if you are, if you're lazy. You know what, yeah. Like the, the joy of a job well done, the peace of provision, the delight of hard earned rest.
So we're gonna look at more in depth at, at the things that we were meant to enjoy later. But for now, let's confront that lazy voice in us that says, joy should come to me and I don't have to work for it. Let us heed the call of wisdom that says joy grows step by step as we walk the path of wisdom.
Pride
And here's, here's the one that that's underneath so, so much, so much of it. Pride. One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor. Proverbs 29 23. The proud think of themselves more highly than they ought. So much of their energy is, is spent on putting on airs, pretending, posturing, performing so that there's no space left for contentment at all. No rest, and knowing that you are fully known and yet fully loved by God.
And, and the, and even worse perhaps, is that pride doesn't just distort your self image, it distorts how you receive good things. Okay? The proud don't accept blessings as gifts. They treat them as entitlements. I deserve this. I've earned this. And, and here's the irony, pride, it tries to elevate itself. It puffs itself up, but that's the sure and fast way to come crashing down.
And one day, probably before life's over, certainly in the judgment, God's going to pop that inflated ego and it will come crashing to the ground and you know who will rise up? The humble. Those who have humbled themselves.
Removing The Anti-Joy Postures to Make Room for the Spirit
Now, Proverbs is like, this was a task. There's so much that Proverbs said that presents as obstacles to our joy, uh, and more that I can bring up about each, every and every one of these. But these are the, the anti joy postures in us and our lives. And they're too common, beloved. They're too common in me. They're too common in the church. And I, I wonder, have you been feeling dry? Have you been feeling weary? And simultaneously, can you detect a lot of these things in your life right now?
If you can, you don't have to wonder what's sapping your joy, what's getting in the way? And the, the New Testament talks about joy. Joy is the fruit of what I, I wanna hear from you. Joy is the fruit of the what of the spirit. But we hear that and we often think that it's just kind of, it's just an automatic thing.
But I want you to picture your heart as a house with many rooms, okay? And it has former tenants in it that live there. They're filthy, they're, they're nasty people. All right? Just imagine that. And they're these anti joy postures.
And joy is supposed to move in and you want joy to spread itself. You want joy to bring its furnishings. You want joy to take up it's home, it's residence in your heart. You know what has to happen first? It has to route out, it has to kick out these former tenets.
So we can commit ourselves to this. And you know what? God wants us to have joy and there's grace and power in the Holy Spirit to overcome these joy thieves, these wicked bandits that rob us of the kind of life that God wants us to enjoy.
What Are the Gifts We Are Meant to Enjoy?
Now, the moment you've all been waiting for the tone lifts, 'cause the proverb says, what? Come feast on better things, having rooted joy and wisdom and name what blocks that we're ready to ask. What does Proverbs actually invite us to enjoy the practical gifts here?
Okay, again, I, the picture that came into my mind was walking through a beautiful garden. Knoxville has some beautiful gardens, folks. Amen. And, and just picture these as different flowers or different sections in a garden along the way.
The first is the fear of the Lord itself. Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always. Proverbs 28 14.
There's, this is not a dry obligation. Should we fear God? Yes. But to walk humbly with a God who is good, who is wise, who is caring, who is holy? This is an anchor for the soul. This is, this is not a, uh, something that we should be afraid of, or, or, or think of as, as, uh, an enemy to our joy. The, the fear of the Lord leads to these other, uh, blessings to these other joys, but it itself, fearing God itself is an enjoyable thing.
Number two, love and peace in the home. Proverbs 15 17 better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fat and ox and hatred with it. And again, chapter 17 verse one better is a dry morsel. With quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. A quiet home filled with love is better than your banquet laced with bitterness and every other vile thing. It's not about the square footage of your home, it's not about the China. It's about peace around the table, affection in our hearts and in the air. This is the joy of shared meals. I want you to think about that. The kindness of God shared in shared meals, laughter in the kitchen instead of fighting. Or how about even reconciliation after there's been a fight? The peace, the contentment of that, these ordinary graces, God's gifts to us that makes our homes and our lives radiant.
But it doesn't stop there. There's wise and faithful friends. Praise God for them. Proverbs 27 9. Oil and perfume make the heart glad and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel. And perhaps even more famous: iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27 17. Friendship is one of God's most personal gifts, isn't it? There these are friends, a common companion. They, they weep with us when we weep. They rejoice with us when we rejoice, when we need hand, when we need a helping hand. They offer two. Think of it when, when you need to be warned. They're sounding the alarm. When you need comfort, they're there. You know, as I was studying this, especially here, I thought, God, how sweet would it be for the members of Berean Bible Church to be able to look out at one another and say, there's a friend like this there and there, and there and there and there. And I wanna challenge you. I wanna encourage you. You can be that kind of friend too. By the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can be that kind of friend.
Number four, the joy of hope and righteousness. Proverbs 10 28. The hope of the righteous brings joy, hope, and righteousness go together so often in the book of Proverbs, the joy of a clear conscience. Sure, yes. But also the confident expectation in God's faithfulness that God will do and act just as he said. There is such a joy in that in anticipating good from the hand of our Father, from the hand of the Lord. We should live like that. We can live like that because God is good. He's gracious and he's kind.
Number five, diligent, honest work. We've touched on this a little bit, but the soul, uh, whoever works his land will have plenty of bread. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing while the soul of the diligent is richly surprised. I dunno if you thought about this, but God is so good that he doesn't allow us to waste our lives. He allows us to partner with him in bringing good into the world and maintaining life and beautifying the world and bringing order to chaos and providing answers to problems by work. We yield bread from wheat, fruits from seeds, meat from animals. I wonder if you've thought of this clothing from cotton, fuel from gas, fire from wood, buildings like this from brick and so much more. I'm thankful. Praise God for good and honest work.
Number six, well ordered households. This is a little different than the one earlier, but it it's certainly similar. Proverbs 24, 3 through four. By wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established. By knowledge the rooms are filled with all, uh, uh, precious and pleasant riches. Chapter 14, verse one, and the wisest of women, uh, woman builds her house. A joyful home filled with precious and sweet things. That's not an accident that comes through hard work. Women especially listen to me. Thank you. Thank you. For feel making us feel warm and welcomed in your house. The truth of the matter is that doesn't happen by accident. There's a lot of hard work, there's a lot of labor behind the scenes. God sees it and I want to publicly say thank you. There's a beautiful thing and I, my wife didn't know this, but when I walked through the door after a hard day of work and her, not only her presence greets me. But a well ordered house, a beautiful place. You know what that feeling is like to be warmly greeted, not just by the people, but by the very place and atmosphere itself. It's a beautiful thing that we can delight and that we can rejoice, and that we can celebrate together.
There is then fitly spoken words. This is a big one. Proverbs 15 23 to make an apt answers a joy to a man and a word in season how good it is. And a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. It's 25, 11. Few things bring, uh, brings joy and can brighten up someone's day like the right word at the right time. And I was, I was meditating on this one. What came to me is the gospel. What is the gospel, but just the right word? Spoken to the right person at the right time. To the person who is dead in their trespasses and sins to the person that if they died, they, well, they're in trouble, aren't they? And here is a word of life that the eternal son of God became man. He became flesh. That he lived a holy, a perfect, the righteous life. The life that you and I have failed to live, quite tragically, failed to live. And then died on the cross and love for our sins and rose from the grave. Conquering sin, conquering death, conquering the devil, conquering, conquering the world and the flesh, and then saying, forgiveness is yours, a relationship with God? Yours. Peace? Yours. Life? Yours. Beloved, the meek shall inherit the earth. We have no idea how sweet it's going to be. Fellow heirs, co-heirs, think about that. The right word at the right time. Praise God. And it's more than just that. How many times have you been beaten down, discouraged, wounded, tired, and someone speaks the right word, at the right time, just what you needed to hear, and it lifts you up and it encourages you. Praise God for fitting words. Praise God for fitting words.
There's also gener, uh, there's also sweet food. One of my favorites on this list and instruction. Proverbs 24 13 through 14, my son, eat honey for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. Know that wisdom is such to your soul. And I had to jump outside of Proverbs for this one, just just to corroborate that message. Psalm 1 0 4, 14 through 15 says, you cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine to glad in the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man's heart. These things are meant to be enjoyed. Isn't that wonderful? And what I think is cool about Proverbs chapter 4 24, it takes the truth of the sweetness of honey. I had some just yesterday and it was really good and it was really sweet, and it teaches me that's what wisdom is like. That's what learning is like. That's what instruction is like. That's what growing and skill is like. Wow. Praise God. Praise God. Think about this. Something goes into your mouth, you savor it. You relish it, you taste it, you go, that's sweet. And God says it is. Eat it, enjoy it. And then he says, and that's what my wisdom is like, praise God.
There's generosity. We heard about this, uh, last week from Pastor Jed and mercy. Whoever brings blessing will be enrich and one who waters will himself be watered. Wow. The one who despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed, happy is he who is generous to the poor. You should strive to be the kind of person that someone goes, why do you do that with your riches? Why do you do that? Where you can confidently with a clear conscience, enjoy filling your heart, say, because it's a better, a greater blessing to give than to receive. That's true. That is true.
And then there's humility and teachability. The ear that listens to life giving reproof will dwell among the wise. Fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom and humility comes before honor. Look, teachability is not just a personality trait. I used to think that, you know, well, I'm just strong headed. I'm I, I'm self-taught, you know, a self-learner. You think that it's just a personality. Trait's actually comes from humility, comes from meekness and humility, and it's a, it's such a joyful posture to know. I think of some of the words my mom has spoken to me throughout the years. Words of correction, words of caution. Listen, because I know where they come from, because I know her heart, because I trust that God by his grace, it's made, she's more wise than me, lemme tell you. When I hear that word of correction and I hear that word of wisdom, at first it might sting, but I go, that's, that's actually really sweet, that's really good. And it has sweetened my relationship with my mother. So children, when your parents bring you a word of correction and you don't have to think about it as a something to, oh, I don't want to hear that, that that's gonna take away my joy. Oh no, it won't. Not if you, if you listen and apply the wisdom and the truth that they have to offer you.
Uh, there's joy in one's children. Joy. Joy in the family. Joy in the wife. A wise son makes a glad father. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice. He who fathers a wise son, will be glad in him. Grandchildren are the crown of the aged and the glory of the children is their fathers. Let your father and mother be glad. Let her who bore you rejoice. The progress. Says a lot about that, doesn't it? I love that multi, multi-generational joy as parents, as we labor, and you could do this even still among, uh, your, your kids that are my age, that are grown. As you labor to, to raise them well, to encourage them, to teach them, to point them to Christ, to point them to the truth of God's word. You're producing a legacy of joy, of delight, of, of, of the, the holy laughter, of heaven touching earth. I, I remember with one of my small children overhearing a song, a tune. Oh, she's singing to Jesus. That's sweet, that's precious. Or some of you parents, from what I, I've heard, your children are pastors. Your children have grown up and they're serving the Lord in a multitude of ways. What a blessing that is. And for us who still have young children in our homes? Let's enjoy them. Let's praise God for them. Let's seek to raise them in the fear of the Lord.
Joy is Both Relational and Material
Well, one of the, one of the things you'll hear people say, Christians say this too, is don't love the things of the earth. The proverb says something else, doesn't it? That says, love the God who gives the earth and rejoice in his gifts. It's not wise to despise honey. It's not wise to despise honey. Wisdom says, taste it. Remember who made it.
So eat the meal and praise the giver who spreads the feast. Enjoy the peace and think the prince of peace. Hug the child and worship the father of mercies. Enjoy intimacy with your wife and trouble and awe before the groom of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. Work hard as you create with your hand and your mind and say thank you to God who made your mind in your hands. Enjoy the ball game as UT crushes its enemies. Knowing, knowing that there is one who crushed the head of the serpent for you.
Younger people enjoy your youth. Older people enjoy your long life. Why? Because every moment, every day, every hour is given to us from the ancients of days. Do you feel strength in your bodies? Praise the Almighty who supplies that strength from his omnipotence. Do you enjoy the seasons? Praise the God who is Lord of summer. Praise the God who is Lord of all of it. Do you enjoy the cool breeze on a hot summer day? Praise the God who speaks to the North wind and it blows. And refreshes the south, the southern states, man, it gets hot in the south, man.
The most high is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love. The Lord is good to all and His mercy is over all that he has made, he opens his hand. He satisfies the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.
Beloved. Let us not despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience knowing that God's kindness all around us right here in this room today is meant to lead us to repentance.
Oh God, the eyes of all look to you and you give them their food and their due season.
All Joy Finds Its Center in Christ
To close, Jesus Christ said this in the context of teaching his disciples to abide in him to depend upon him. His truth, his power, his wisdom showing us our need. Why? Why did he do that?
It's from John chapter 15. Listen to these words. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
Wow. His joy in us? Our joy full? How often are we meant to abide in Christ? Only on Sundays? What's the answer to that? No. All times. All spheres, all places. And why? According to Jesus that our joy may be full, that our joy may be full.
We have a savior who went to the cross to die for our sins, but who did it for the joy that was set before him? Hebrews 12, two, and now he calls us to share in it. He sweetens and deepens our joy. I love it.
And listen, it's not always in luxury, is it? But it's in the spirit. It's not always in ease, but it's always in him and with him.
So the invitation this morning from the book of Proverbs is taste and see that the Lord is good, and that his goodness, at least in part, okay, at least in part, is experienced by enjoying his good gifts. The Lord who bore your sins and rose from the grave is the very one that offers them to you, and he says they're meant to point you to him. He says they show him off. His power, his goodness, his glory, his grace, his kindness, his love. That's the invitation. And all of this we can have because Christ is ours to have, because he is our life.
I know some of your testimonies, you said when you got saved, it's like you never seen the greenness of the grass. You know what that's like? So let us eat our bread with gladness. Work your fields with thanks. Hold your wife with hallelujahs, husbands. Embrace your children with Christ. Feast on wisdom with delight. Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Let me close, and the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.
Dear Heavenly Father, if we earthly fathers being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will you, our Heavenly Father, give good gifts and the Holy Spirit to them who asks, I pray for you to unleash the Holy Spirit in our lives, Father, to crucify and put to death these killjoys that ruin, that harm, that hurt, that rob us from living the the good life. The holy life. Oh, father, flow your sweet grace. Help us to into our hearts, help us to be a people thankful. Help us to be a people overwhelmed and astounded by all the gifts around us daily. We love you. And we thank you. And we thank you for Christ.
Oh, he became one of us. He knows what it was like to suffer and to hurt, but also to rejoice and be glad . And Lord, we're told that it's what sustained him. It's why he endured the cross, and I pray that the joy of the Lord will be our strength. Help us to walk in the wise enjoyment of your good and heavenly gifts.
In Jesus precious, sweet, and holy name, amen.