How to Walk in a Sound Mind Using the Wisdom Found in the Book of Proverbs

Welcome to episode 319. In this episode, I am going to conclude the teaching on what I would do if I was in charge of the modern church, the 3 things I would do. And I want to remind you, we're going to go to 2 Timothy 1:7. But before we get started, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if you remember 2 Timothy 1:7, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. And I've taken that scripture, that Bible verse, and I've taught on the 3 things that I think the church needs to do. We need to walk in more power, we need to walk in unity, and I think that is love and being in the word of God because God is love. In order to be around God and be like God, we need to be in his word. And that's kind of early for our soapbox moment, but we got to get that in. And the last thing is the sound mind, and I think that that is wisdom, that we need to walk in wisdom. And we're going to find out what sound mind is. We're going to look at a definition. You know, we don't do Greek here, we don't get into the Greek words and terminologies, but I think it's important that we understand what a sound mind is in order for us to aim at it and for us to get after it. And the definition I have for that: the word denotes good judgment, disciplined thought patterns, and the ability to understand and make right decisions. It includes the quality of self-control and self-discipline. And I want to stop there. I know that that's not scriptural, but we need to know words have power. And if we don't know what words mean, how are we going to walk in that power? So we need to understand that the words have meaning, each word, and we need to take back some of these things. The thing I really want us to concentrate on is the self-control, because we know that in the fruit of the Spirit Self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit that we are to grow. If we're to walk in grace and we're to walk in truth and we're to walk in God's Spirit and in faith— we're going to talk about faith in the next series— but we need to learn that self-control and a sound mind are real similar. And we need to slow down. I think we're in such a fast-paced world that we do not take time to meditate. We don't take time to think. And I want to encourage you, the best time I have every day is in the morning. I wake up early. I'm an advocate of getting up early and just taking it easy for the first few minutes. I tend to go 30 to 45 minutes, and I wake up early enough to where it doesn't hurt my day. And I just want to encourage you, if you don't take time to just spend with God and to spend in God's word and in prayer and in worship. I believe that is the key to how you can take control or have self-control in your life, because when you spend time with God, not only does it calm you down, but I believe you start thinking like God thinks. Because our thoughts are not his thoughts, and his ways are not our ways, because his ways are higher than ours and his thoughts are higher than ours. And I know I chopped that up we have the Word of God that we can look at, we can meditate on, we can just think about. And when I talk about meditation, I know that if you've been around this podcast that you know that meditation is just turning an idea over in your head. It is just thinking on that one thing or thinking on how do I apply that to my life. And we're going to get involved in that because the next thing I'm going to do— and I know I can't give homework, but I do it all the time— I want to encourage you to get into the book of Proverbs If you want to have a sound mind, if you want to learn wisdom, understanding, knowledge, all of those things, they're found in Proverbs. And you can get through Proverbs in a month. Every day you just pick up— if it's the first, read Proverbs 1. If it's the seventh, read Proverbs 7. You get the idea. And when you get to day 30, if there's only 30 days in a month, well, you get to read two Proverbs. You get to read 30 and 31. And I promise you it's not going to hurt you. But if you want to just change your life and be able to think better about the things of this world and what God— how God thinks and what God would do, Proverbs is a great place to live. Every day I pick up the Bible, and I don't every day read Proverbs, but I'm going to start again. I've done it multiple times. I've read through Proverbs probably hundreds of times. I think that Proverbs is such a great book to ground yourself in the truths of God's word and practical applications. If you are struggling in any area of your life, there's probably a proverb for you. This is going to be a quick episode. There's 3 levels of learning: there's knowledge, there's understanding, and there's wisdom. And each one has its place. When people hear the word knowledge, I think they're giving it too much credit because knowledge, in my definition, really only means data. You're just taking in data. If you're watching this video, if you're listening to this podcast, this is knowledge. You are getting knowledge. And we've talked about this before, but knowledge by itself really doesn't do anything. I think that's what a lot of us are doing. We're taking in all the social media, we're watching a lot of videos, we're watching YouTube, or we're watching Facebook, and we're doing things and we're taking in all this stuff but we're just taking it in. Understanding is when you take this knowledge in and then you take a little bit of time and you try to figure out what the actual meaning of this video, or what the actual meaning of those words. Understanding is when you take your knowledge and you go deeper, you take the next step, you start thinking about what does that mean, what exactly does these words mean, what is that actually does this video have to do with me. Wisdom is the final level, and I believe wisdom is when you take the knowledge, the understanding, and then the application, the practical application of that to your life. And that is where the Bible, I think, is key, is that we need to have all three. We need to understand that we have knowledge, we have understanding, and we have wisdom. I want to go to Proverbs because it's so cool. Proverbs 1:5, a wise man will hear and increase learning, and the man of understanding will attain wise counsel. 1:7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Then if you go to 1:20, wisdom calls aloud outside, she raises her voice in the open squares, she cries out in the chief concourses. At the openings of the gates in the city, she speaks her words. 23. Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. I want to encourage you to get into Proverbs and allow Proverbs to get into you. Let's go to 2:1. My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, Yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk uprightly. He guards the path of justice and preserves the way of his saints. Now I'm going to stop there. I could just go on, I could read you the whole book of Proverbs, but that's not going to do you any good on this podcast. I want to encourage you that we need to get into the word of God. We need to get a habit, a daily habit of getting into the word of God every day. And if I can encourage you, you know, I've talked to you about reading the Gospel of John. I think that's a great place if you haven't picked up the Bible in a long time The Gospel of John is a great place to ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, what do you want to tell me? What do you want to teach me? Go to John, the Gospel of John, and then go to Proverbs. Again, if it's the 22nd, go to Proverbs 22 and read the whole chapter. It is a great book. It is a great practical way to read the Word of God and get started. If you need a kickstart, if you need to get back into the Word of God, If you haven't been in there, if you haven't been in Proverbs lately, I want to encourage you. I kind of visit there every now and then, but I'm going to get involved. I'm going to get in Proverbs and I'm going to stay in Proverbs, and I'm just going to read it and reread it. This is a little confession sometimes that, you know, I've read it so many times that I think, I don't want to read that again. But every time I go to Proverbs and read it and get into it, God opens up something else that I haven't seen in a long time, or he brings back to my remembrance something that he has taught me before. I think that you probably get the idea that the sound mind is getting into the Bible. And in the next lessons, I'm going to do a deep dive into faith, what I believe faith is, how we walk in faith. I think that is so important, and I think it's so lacking in the world today, even in— mostly in the church, because the just shall live by faith. And I don't know that we're living, present company included, I don't know that we're living day to day in faith. So let's stop right there. I can feel myself going off on a tangent. God, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you for wisdom, for knowledge, for understanding. And Lord, I pray in Jesus' name that this listener, this watcher of this video, will just get into your word and allow the word to get into them And Holy Spirit, I pray in your mighty name, in Jesus' mighty name, that you would just lead them into all truth. You would comfort them and you would show them what the word means for them and in their life specifically. God, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com. WeBelieve.com.