Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

Apr 29, 2018

Community Wisdom

Passage: Proverbs 1:8-19

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Proverbs

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: community, hope, wisdom

We all are relationally marinating in the community in which we live (whether or not we realize it), progressively becoming like those that surrounded us. Boiled down to it’s basics, we all struggle with a self-centered pursuit of “your life for mine,” which ironically and ultimately leads to death, while the gospel implores and empowers us to live a “my life for yours,” which inversely leads to pure satisfaction because it has been perfectly materialized in the person of Jesus who physically, relationally, spiritually and eternally gave us his life as he paid our debt.

Order of Worship

Prelude: Vimeo - Kirsten Selfie

Call To Worship: Romans 12:1-2a NIV & Hebrews 12:28 ESV

Songs: King of Glory, Love That Will Not Let Me Go, Be Thou My Vision, How Deep the Father's Love For Us

Reading: Psalm 1:1-3a & 34:8 ESV

Prayer of Confession (adapted from The Service for the Lord’s Day)

ALL: Merciful God, We confess that we have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed.

We have not loved you with our whole heart, mind, and strength and have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

In your great mercy, forgive us, renew us, lead us, 

That we may delight in your will walk in your ways; find joy in your Word. Through Jesus Christ your Son. Amen

Central Text: Proverbs 1:8-19 ESV 

Sermon Title: Community Wisdom

4.29.18 Slides (see NOTES)

Illustration: BC Students - Wisdom

Response: 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, 21 NIV

Benediction: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 ESV

Media:

4.29.18 Album

Related Scriptures:

Ephesians 2:1-5a,8-10

John 14:6

1 Corinthians 15:33-34

Matthew 5:21-23

Romans 6:16

1 Peter 5:8-9

Proverbs 14:12

John 1:10-13

Isaiah 53:11

John 10:7-11

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. Sins are each one unique. But in what ways is every sin alike? Try to name several ways.
  2. If you had to imagine any sin you’ve committed as having a story-quality to it--a beginning, middle, and end--how did that story unfold?
  3. Why is the offer of community in the pursuit of “unjust gain” such a potent force? Can you remember a time when the company you kept presented you with a difficult moral choice?
  4. The proverbial parents in the passage mean to warn the budding child against the wiles of sin. What is Jesus’ primary means of warning us against the same? How is His means similar and different from these “parents”?
  5. List ways you pursue "unjust gain" by taking life from others rather than giving it away?
  6. Consider Jesus giving His life that we might receive the ultimate unjust gain (His righteousness) and a new impetus for living. How might this new way of thinking and living lead to new community?

Docs & Quotes:

  • Sirens of Greek Mythology
  • “When I was still just a kid, I remember my father telling me what he thought that it took for a man to be happy. Simple things, really. A wife he loves, a decent job, friends and neighbors who like and respect him. And for a while there, without hardly even realizing it, I had all that. I was a happy man.” - Hank Mitchell (A Simple Plan)
  • “There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life... you steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness... there is no act more wretched than stealing.” -  Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
  • a sense of the love of Christ in the cross; lie at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification. . .be killing sin or it will be killing you. - John Owen (The Mortification of Sin)

Sermons:

The Faces of Sin (series) by Timothy J. Keller

Various Passages

Wise Friendships by Sandy Wilson

Proverbs 1-31

Mother’s Wisdom a sermon by Dr. Derek Thomas

Proverbs 1:8