Killing Complacency

I mean, that was legit. Let's talk to the Lord about it. Father, your ways really are so much better than ours. We fool ourselves a million different ways every single day that our way actually is better than yours. And it never works out. And we're just crazy like that, that we keep doing it over and over again. And so we pray that you would answer that simple prayer in that song. Show us again that your ways are better. Show us again that your thoughts really are higher. Show us that you know best and that you love us better than we love ourselves, and you know how to get us home safely. In these next few moments, God, would you help us just to get quiet before you, to be slow to speak, but quick to hear, and to receive with meekness the implanted word that's able to save our souls? That's our prayer in Jesus name. And God's people said, amen.

If you have a copy of God's word, you can turn to Proverbs 2. If not, it will be on the screens. Our series for this fall "Wisdom for the Road" comes to us from the book of Proverbs. And we get to hear together the voice of the wisdom of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to us about how we can navigate life in God's world with success, skill and wisdom. If you're able, let me invite you to stand with me as we honor the reading of God's word from Proverbs 2.

I can't tell you how many times I've been at this place before, but I'm standing in my yard usually after I've done a good bit of work, trimming limbs and gathering them up. Or maybe it's after I've been cleaning out the attic, bringing a bunch of heavy stuff out of the house and I've got it all on my trailer. I've got it all in the bed of my truck and I take a look at all that stuff just piled up right there. And I think about the distance I've got to travel to the convenience center or wherever I'm taking it. And I take a look at that and I think about the words that my friend Jeff Conaway said, "I wouldn't take a load five minutes down the road without tying it down." And then I look at that chaos of branches and, you know, all these different shaped items that I've put up there. And I think about all the trouble it would be to get out those straps and try to wrestle all that down. And I say these words, "it'll probably be fine."

Has anybody else ever been there before? Just about every time I begin an adventure with, "it'll probably be fine." In the next 20 minutes, you find me on the side of Clifton road, emergency flashers on, dodging traffic, picking up limbs, picking up whatever it is that I've lost that's gonna destroy somebody's vehicle and cause a wreck. It never ends.

Well, when I start off the adventure with, "it'll probably be fine," the Bible's word for that attitude is complacency. Complacency means you just really don't care enough to do anything about it. You may recognize that there's a problem. You may understand intellectually that it would be good to make some changes or adjustments, but you just really don't care enough to want to fool with it. It's like when your doctor tells you to start getting more exercise or to change the way that you're eating, and you leave and you think to yourself, "yeah, I should probably do that, but it'll probably be fine." Or you're in your house all comfortable watching TV and you hear the sound of running water under your home and you think, "you know, I could crawl under that crawl space in the dark and figure out what's going on, but it'll probably be fine." That's complacency. It never works out.

And in fact, Proverbs 1:32 says, complacency will kill you. "For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them." Y'all, one of the key insights of Proverbs that I'm trying to accept in my own life and that I hope you'll learn along with me is you don't have to plan to be evil to wreck your life. You don't have to deliberately choose and premeditate to live a life in rebellion against God to set your life on fire. You just have to be complacent. You just have to be ok with how you are right now. You just have to be too proud to be corrected or too lazy to make the kinds of adjustments that God is clearly telling you to make in your life, or just too busy to be bothered with really digging in to becoming the kind of man or woman who God has called you to be. You just have to be ok with who you are currently. You just have to be complacent. And the Bible says that is guaranteed to destroy your life because none of us are naturally wise. None of us by default are staying on the path of the righteous, the way of the good. We all need wisdom. We all need correction. And as long as we remain complacent with how we are right now, we are headed for destruction.

And Proverbs 2 is all about calling us away from an attitude of complacency and calling us instead to an attitude of urgency. There's an urgent tone throughout this passage as this father is speaking to his son. But whoever you may be, if you're a son or you're a daughter, if you're a teenager, or if you're 75 years old or whatever your life situation may be, God's word is speaking to us, calling us away from the foolishness of complacency to the wisdom of urgency. Let's talk about it.

The first thing we need to see is:

I want you to notice here in these first verses just how the opening of Proverbs 2 is structured. Look at 2:1, "My son, if you receive my word," verse 3, "Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding," verse 4, "If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures," verse 5, "then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." It's an if-then construction, it's setting up a cause and effect kind of a situation. It's letting us know that getting the wisdom of God in our lives is conditional. It's not automatic. If you were with us last week and heard the end of Proverbs 1, then you know that God's wisdom is calling aloud to us all the time chasing you down through the streets, hollering out your name, making wisdom freely available to all of us all the time. It's always happening. Wisdom is freely available, but it's not automatic. The condition is: you've got to want it.

And that's what this father is telling his son in Proverbs 2, "Listen, son, you are not going to get wise with the wisdom that God has for you just by being the child of wise Godly people. You're not going to get wisdom just because you go to a great church and hear lots of good stuff from the Bible. You are not going to become wise by drifting into wisdom. No! The only way anybody gets Godly wisdom in this life is by a personal choice. You've got to decide for yourself, "I need God's wisdom desperately. I want it more than anything else. I value it. I treasure it. And I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Those are the only people who get wisdom. Does that make sense?

Just look at the way he talks in verses 1-4, "My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments within you," it's not just rolling off his back. "If you make your ear attentive to wisdom," you're leaning in and listening closely because it's important. "If you incline your heart to understanding," nobody is having to force feed wisdom to him. He wants it. Verse 3, "If you call out for insight, raise your voice for understanding," you're hollering for it, you want it. Verse 4, "If you seek it like silver and search for it as for treasures," there's nothing half hearted about this attitude towards wisdom! And what Proverbs is trying to teach all of us is that God wants to change you. God wants to help you. God wants to lead you into an abundant life. But as long as you treat God like an option, he is not going to waste his wisdom on you. If you treat God as a matter of convenience, something you'll work in when there's nothing else pushing on you when there's nothing else that you'd rather be doing than reading your bible, listening to him, responding to Him, as long as you treat God like that, he will not waste his wisdom on you. You have got to want it for yourself.

We are talking about the creator of the universe and the one who made you offering you the inside track on how to be successful in his world, telling you how you can walk with him skillfully and successfully through every season of your life. That's what we're talking about. You don't treat that like cleaning out your gutters. "Oh, yeah, I'll do that one Saturday when all my other list is completed, when there's nothing else that I have to do, when there's no other opportunity." You don't treat God's wisdom like that or you will never get wisdom.

Instead, what the father is calling us to do in Proverbs 2 is just to admit, to get honest with ourselves. The reason we are not any wiser than we are right now is because we just haven't cared enough to fool with it. We've not cared enough to seek it. We've not humbled ourselves enough to listen to it and receive it and put it into practice. Instead, we have prioritized everything but growing in spiritual maturity and it shows.

But here's the good news, Jesus loves complacent, foolish people like me and like you. And he offers a fresh start to all of us today. We can start seeking first the kingdom of God today. We can start seeking the one thing needful, the words of Jesus Christ. Today, we can follow Paul in Philippians 3, forgetting what lies behind, pressing on to the mark, this one thing I do." We can start living like that today. We can get decisive today. You don't have to waste the rest of your life being complacent and mediocre. No, you can live all out for the glory of God starting at 10:57 a.m. on August 25th, 2024. How about that? We can start right now with the Lord. And that's what we're being called to do.

The father is saying to his son, "Look, I know you've got this passion. I want you to take this passion though that you want to pour into building your business, that you want to pour into your child's sports career, that you want to pour into your appearance., and your fitness, or decorating your house or whatever it is that you're passionate about, take that passion and that zeal and that willingness to sacrifice and all that you pour into that and pour it into seeking God, knowing the Lord, receiving his wisdom, walking in it. And if you have to make changes in order to seek the Lord like that, make them!

Eliminate worthless distractions. You don't have to have a Tik Tok account. If it's keeping you from reading the Bible, get rid of it. Eliminate worthless distractions. Ditch those ungodly influences from your life. Quit watching trashy junk that keeps your heart and mind away from the Lord. Quit hanging out with people who don't give a rip about God and his will. Get rid of those things so you can pursue the Lord and seek his wisdom like treasure. Say no to some good things so you can say yes to the one necessary thing, which is seeking the wisdom of God. Study your Bible with some urgency. Show up to church consistently and engage expecting to be corrected and called to change something. Surround yourself with mature Godly people who don't always tell you that you're exactly right and doing exactly what you you're supposed to be doing, people who will actually call you out on stuff. Ask God to make you humble and correctable and teachable. Those are the people who get wisdom. Those are the people who become wise in this life. If you will get serious with God like that, He promises he'll get serious with you.

Look at verses 5-6. If you adopt the attitude of verses 1-4, "then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord gives wisdom." He's more eager to give it than you are to ask for it. "From his mouth come knowledge and understanding." If you will make God your priority, he'll make you his priority. You draw near to the Lord. He will draw near to you, James 4:8. It's a promise from God. God says, "you will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart," Jeremiah 29:13. You gotta make him a priority.

I picture all those grain bins where the big dump truck pulls up underneath them and some guy pulls a lever and all this grain just comes tumbling down into the back of the truck. Or at the rock crusher where the dump truck pulls up under the big gravel thing and all the gravel comes pouring down into that truck. God just pulls a lever. Friends, what the picture of Proverbs 2 is God has got a storehouse of all of this specific wisdom and insight you need for your particular situations and circumstances in every season of your life. His hand is on the lever. He is ready to send it pouring into your life. He's got it stored up for you. He's just waiting for you to get serious with him and pull up underneath and say, "Lord, whatever I've got to do to get whatever you've got, I'm ready." It's the pursuit wisdom demands. But until we get there, we will never get wisdom.

Since I was a little kid, I've always been fascinated by those tubes at the bank. You know what I'm talking about. The pneumatic air system. We have a lot of tellers and banker type people out here today. It's great because you can just pull in with your vehicle off the street and that little tube is waiting on you. You pull it out. You punch in your little order, your deposit or your withdrawal or whatever it may be. You put it back in the tube. It makes this great sound. And then within minutes you've got what you need and you're back on the road, and you've got a Dum Dum. And so it's just a fantastic situation with this plastic tube. And I was thinking about that this week because I think that's the way a lot of us want God to give wisdom to us.

What we typically want to do as Christians is to spend 95% of our time neglecting God in his word, just kind of keeping him on the back burner driving around doing our thing until a crisis hits, until we run into a problem that we know we can't handle. There's some big decision and we don't know which way to go. There's an overwhelming situation that's got us up at night anxious and churned up. Then we want to whip into the drive thru and write out our little order, put it in the tube, and God zips us the wisdom we need, and gives us the answer. And we pull right back on the road doing our thing driving along until the next time that we need something.

And Proverbs wants us to understand today that it doesn't work like that! That is not how God gives wisdom to his people. No, verses 7-10 tell us God's not gonna give us wisdom on our terms. God's gonna give us wisdom on his terms. And verses 7-10 are God's terms for making us wise. "He stores up wisdom," for who? "The upright." "He is a shield to those who walk," in what? "Integrity." "He guards the paths of justice. He watches over the way of his saints." What God is telling us in these verses is that if you want his wisdom and direction and guidance in your life, you don't pull in when it suits you. No, you have to put your whole life under his management. Start reading your Bible that He gave you and do what it says. What God is telling us is, "I've revealed enough wisdom in my word already to cover just about all of the issues that you're going to run into."

We seek this new information, this new wisdom, when so many times, God has already given us all the wisdom that we need in his word, but we neglect it! And so the Bible teaches us to not worry so much about finding God's will in non-moral choices: "Do I accept this promotion or stick with the job that I'm in right now?" "Do I go to this school or to that school?" "Should I buy this house or should I wait the market out a little bit longer?" Those are the kinds of decisions that get us feverishly, furiously seeking the will of God. But the Bible's focus by far is on spending your effort and your energy knowing what the will of the Lord already is, what he's already told you! His will is in the word and that is living upright before him. "Staying on the path of justice," that just means obeying his commands.

God's will for you is that you get your anger under control. God's will is that you use your words to build up and not to tear down God's will is that you love and serve and sacrifice for your family. God's will is that you seek him first above everything else. Those are the paths that God has already revealed to us. Follow the way of His saints. That doesn't mean that you're perfect or spotless, it just means you simply are trying to walk with God through life as your companion, as your Lord. That's what you and I are to focus on. If we want his wisdom and guidance, then focus on living that kind of life and God will make sure that you have the wisdom you need on Tuesday afternoon when you need to make some choice!

Verses 9-10 describe how God gives you that wisdom that you need for specific situations. "Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity. Every good path for wisdom will come," where? "Into your heart! And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." So here's the deal. God is not interested in sending you occasional wise messages through a tube. "Go to this school." "Don't hang out with those people." "Go to that Bible study." That's not how God operates. That's not what he wants to do with you. He's got something so much better for you! He wants his wisdom to come into your heart. He wants his wisdom to take root inside of you in your soul. God wants to change you deep down. We want God to just give us little info when we ask for it and leave us unchanged. God loves you too much for that. He wants to change you. He wants to shape you into a person of maturity and character and steadfastness and discernment and understanding! That way, wherever you go, whatever situation you face, whoever you encounter, you've got the wisdom you need because it's in you, because God has planted it there, and cultivated it, and developed it there over time.

This is not the kind of thing that happens overnight. If you ever run into a really mature, Godly person, and I'm sure that you do, you might think, "Man, why are they so much wiser than I am? Why can't I be wise like that? How do I get like that?" They didn't get like that overnight. They didn't get like that in a week. They didn't get like that in a year. We run into trouble and we say, "Ok, I'm gonna seek God for about two weeks and see if that works." No, if you meet a really mature, wise, Godly person, they've spent the last 20 years pouring themselves into the Lord and the Lord has spent the last 20 years pouring himself into them. And God's word has shaped them and they came out on the other side listening to him, and obeying him, and trusting him, and being corrected by him. They came out on the other side wise people so that wherever they go, the wisdom of God is in their heart. I want that for myself. I hope you want that for yourself. That's what God wants for you!

It's the person wisdom forms. And here's some really good news: that could be you. You may be the most frivolous, superficial, unserious person in the room today. I mean, we're not going to take a poll or anything about who that might be. I'm sure we all have our opinions. You may be the person who has cared the least about what God thinks about your life up until this very moment. But there is nothing stopping you from this moment in becoming the wisest person that almighty God can make you. Isn't that good news that should fill you with hope? If you'll press into him, he'll press into you. It's the person that wisdom forms.

And finally we close with this: 

I don't know if you've ever heard the name of Dennis Rainey before. He's in charge of a ministry called Family Life. It has lots of really good resources for families and folks raising kids of all ages. I would recommend it to you. But I heard him tell a story one time about the sixth grade Bible class that he taught at his church for years and years. At the end of their time together, he would put on this big event for the sixth graders. And in the gym, a big open room, he would bring all of these traps, like bear traps, and rabbit snares, and all kinds of traps that you would use to catch different kinds of critters. And he would put them all out in the middle of the gym floor. And he would have the kids stand on this side of the gym. And he and the dads would stand on the other side of the gym. And he would blindfold, you know, little Eric over here, and have little Eric take off his socks and shoes. And he would go to the other side of the room and he would say, "Ok, Eric, cross over the room to me." Of course little Eric's gotta cross through these bear traps and all these things that would swing you up in the trees and stuff that could absolutely kill you. And as soon as the kid would start to take a step, he would have the dad say, "Stop! Don't take another step! Listen to me and I'm gonna guide you, because there are all kinds of traps in front of you. And he would wait for that dad to cross over the other side of the room and put the kid's hands on his shoulders and walk him safely through all those traps to the other side. It's an incredible picture of the protection that wisdom gives us, particularly the protection of listening to a Godly parent or a godly person who loves you and cares about you.

And that's what this final section of Proverbs 2 is all about. Verses 11-22. Pastor Brock, anytime you want to bring the bear traps to church, we're all for that. But the emphasis of these verses is all about the protection that wisdom brings into our lives. Y'all, life is full of traps. Are you aware of that? Some of the traps in life, if you get tangled up in them, they'll just kind of slow you down for a little while. They won't hurt you. Others you might step on and it'll sting for about a week or two. Others will take your leg off at the hip. And then some will just plumb kill you. There are some serious traps as we walk through this life. But when God's wisdom comes into you, because you've submitted to a life under his lordship listening to him and being corrected by his word. If you do that, your life won't be perfect. It won't be pain free, but you will be protected from a lot of the traps that the people around you are blundering into that you would blunder into also if you were left to yourself. And these verses point out a couple of specific traps.:

Now again, this is a dad talking to his son and so he refers to this group of men who are trying to get this guy to join them. But this could just as easily be a group of women trying to get a young lady to join them. The point is it's a circle of people that you would like to join. It's a group of people that you encounter in this life and you would like to join them. Maybe they seem cool or successful or popular or attractive or whatever. Y'all are aware that this is not just a strong pull for teenagers, for middle schoolers, and high schoolers to want to be accepted in a social group of people? It's actually a very strong pull for grown ups as well. And it's a major factor in adult discipleship as well, who our associates are, who's influencing us.

Well, the father is kind of laying out that sort of picture that these people seem like they've got it going on, except for one thing. When you listen to them talk, their speech is perverted. That doesn't mean they tell dirty jokes nonstop. It means that their words are twisted and crooked as it's held up next to God's word. Their words don't line up with what God has said in the scriptures and they're on a path of foolishness. So maybe they say cruel mean things about people because that makes them feel big and strong and in control. Or maybe they're obsessed with money and that's the God of their lives, and so they build their whole life around that. Maybe they have families but they neglect them so they can live like they're single people all the time and they can feel young and free and unencumbered. Maybe they can't relax unless they're drinking or eating pills like Skittles. Maybe these people say that they are Christians, but God's word has no bearing on their outlook, their values, their lifestyle, their behavior every single day.

And when you're with them, surprise, surprise, you seem to care a whole lot less about what God has to say too. It's the way that it works. The father's telling his son, "Left to yourself, you're gonna get swept along with them. You are going to yearn to be accepted in what CS Lewis called the inner ring." This group of people seem to know, they seem to be cool, they seem to be sophisticated. There's something about them. I wanna be accepted by them. And CS Lewis said the desire to be in the inner ring will make someone who's not yet a very bad person do some very evil things to be accepted. And what the father is saying to us, what the Bible is saying to us is if you don't have wisdom inside you, protecting you, guiding you, you will get sucked into every inner ring and it will lead you places you couldn't imagine that you would end up, but God's wisdom can protect you. So there's the trap of foolish associates.

There's also the trap of forbidden desire: 

He warns of a forbidden woman here again because he's talking to a young man. This could just as easily be a forbidden man. The point is that this is someone who you desire to be with, who God says is off limits. They're married to someone else. You're married to someone else. Maybe neither of you are married, but they are shaped by a completely different set of values than the word of God. And you're trying to walk with the Lord. Whatever God has said, this person is off limits. But here's the problem, this person, this forbidden man, this forbidden woman speaks smooth words. It sounds so good. You show up at the office. She looks clean, you look clean. She smells good, you smell good. You tell a joke. She laughs at it. She makes you feel funny and attractive. Y'all are both at the gym. You're pumping out all these reps. You look shredded, right? She's wearing spandex. Y'all all look great at the top of your game and she listens to you. She makes you feel noticed and attentive unlike that person at home who you're actually, you know, living life with: raising children, paying bills, keeping the house clean and put together, you know, that kind of thing. But through all these smooth words, all of a sudden you start getting these ideas in your head, "Man, we're gonna ride off into the sunset together and have this beautiful future together. We're gonna have this beautiful life together." But that's just a trap. Y'all wisdom teaches us that that is a trap.

If wisdom is inside of you, if it's taken root, then you step into that situation and you think to yourself, wait a second, she's telling me exactly the same things that she told the companion of her youth, and now she's hollering at me or he's telling me the same line that I know he's told six other girls in Savannah and yet I'm gonna be different. All of a sudden we're gonna get together and she's gonna be Donna Reed. You don't know that unless you were born in like 1940. She was kind of like this wholesome homemaker, perfect mom, perfect wife kind of thing. I'm gonna marry this guy who is an utter low life and everyone with a grain of sense knows it. But no, I'm gonna get together with him and all of a sudden he's gonna be the Mountie on When Calls the Heart on a Hallmark special. Yeah, he's gonna turn into that guy when we get together.

Hey, guys, it don't work like that! They're gonna be just what they were before and it's not going to end well. That's why the word says that house that looks so inviting sinks down to death. dudes who go there. Don't come back. Young ladies who get with those guys, they don't make it back because that house sinks down to death. If you've got wisdom inside you, you get in one of those situations and you do that Forest Gump gif. You know what I'm saying, where he's trucking out of that driveway in Greenbow, Alabama. You run like Joseph in Genesis 39. This is a trap. Don't listen to your hormones. Don't listen to your heart. Don't listen to Disney. No, listen to God's word and run away from there. Wisdom can protect you. And that's what verses 20-22 tell us.

In closing, if you will receive wisdom, if you will put your life under the mentorship of Jesus, wisdom will protect you just like that all through life in every situation because life is littered with all kinds of traps, different traps in different seasons that we've not covered today. But wisdom will keep you on the safe path with Christ all the way until you're home with him. Look, I don't know how much longer I'm going to live. I don't have a premonition that I'm going to die soon or anything, but my time is limited. Your time is limited. I don't want to spend whatever time I've got left stepping into one bear trap after another. I don't know about you. I want my life to be as peaceful and as pain-free as it can be in this fallen world. I want to walk with Jesus and I want him to keep me from doing the stupid stuff that I would do if he left me alone. Can I get a witness? That's how I want to live my life, not because I'm so good and holy, but just because I love me. My life will be better. It will be more abundant if Christ is at the center. And that's what wisdom is calling out to us to see.

Here's wonderful news as we come to the table. I can't come to the end of this message and to this table without thinking about all the ways I've disobeyed Proverbs and I've been complacent. I've been apathetic. I've been indifferent. I've been downright rebellious, but here's hope for people just like me: the wisdom of God left heaven to become a man for fools like us. And he went to the cross where he was crucified between two fools surrounded by a bunch of screaming fools deserted by other fools who said they were his friends. And he willingly laid down his life for our foolishness. And three days later, God raised him from the dead. And now the wisdom of God sits enthroned in heaven and he has a heart of compassion for foolish self-destructive people. And he invites you today to believe the gospel that if you will repent, that just means turn, it really is so simple, turn from going your way and start going his way, change your thoughts, change your attitude, change your mind, set your mind on him. You just repent and trust in him and he'll take care of the rest. It may get messy. It may get complicated. He can handle that too. You just worry about walking with him. He is a merciful savior. He offers himself to you today. He gives generously his wisdom to all without reproach. If you'll come to him, single-minded, wholehearted. Let's pray.

Sermon by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church