Proverbs 15:16

0:00 One of the best ways to illustrate the difference between my generation and my kids' generation is our experience of staying home sick from school. When my kids stay home from school, they have endless streaming opportunities. They have video games. They have all sorts of things to occupy themselves. When I stayed home from school, the only thing that broke up the monotony, the boring day at home was 11 o'clock when, do you know what it is?

0:33 The Price is Right came on, right? It was the highlight of the day. Based on that, I assume most of you know. In case you don't know, The Price is Right is a game show based on accurately guessing the price of various kinds of consumer goods. And at the end of the game, there are two contestants in the showcase. And the first contestant is presented with this package of prizes like a set of living room furniture, a European vacation, and a hot tub. And you get to choose, is that the package of prizes I want, or do I want to go on to showcase two, which somehow almost always included a new car?

1:13 And the goal was to guess the value of the showcase without going over, and whoever was closest to the price won their showcase. Well, our text tonight presents us with two showcases. And unlike the Price is Right, we are instructed, we're guided by Proverbs and encouraged to pick the one that presents the best way to live and to follow it. So our text is on the front of your bulletin, Proverbs 15 verse 16. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. And what I hope that we'll see tonight is that the fear of the Lord is the most valuable thing in the universe, and so we should pursue it above everything else.

2:03 So we have these two showcases, if you will. On one hand, we have a showcase. Number one, it is great treasure, and you can just fill in the blank, think of whatever number you want, however many commas and zeros you want to put. That's one showcase, but also in that showcase is trouble. And then we have showcase two, which contains little treasure, not so many zeros, not so many commas, maybe not even any commas, but it has the fear of the Lord.

2:34 So we'll consider those two showcases in turn. The first one, treasure and trouble. Now it's important just to call out at the outset that wealth is not bad, it's not wrong, It's not sinful. God is not against wealth. There are many examples in the Bible and in church history and even people in this room who are wealthy to God's glory. Wealth provides opportunities. It provides flexibility. It provides innovation. It does all sorts of good things. So I don't think I have to convince you of that. If you get back from Thanksgiving break tomorrow and go into your office and your boss comes to you and says, look, I'd like to double your salary. We appreciate the work that you do. We're not asking you to do anything different. We're just going to double your salary. None of us are going to refuse that. That would be great. Wealth is not bad.

3:24 But what the author wants us to understand is that having wealth is at best complicated and at worst dangerous. And so just to put it simply in the terms of the modern philosopher, the notorious B.I.G., mo' money, mo' problems. Why is it? Why does trouble always accompany treasure? Well, let's just think of a few kind of dimensions here. In a lot of cases, treasure comes at the cost of great time and energy. So in order to be successful, you usually have to invest a lot of yourself into that endeavor. And that can mean less time in relationships with family, with friends, with your church, less time to serve other people.

4:10 In another way, wealth requires maintenance. So as you accumulate wealth, you have to secure it, you have to protect it, you have to invest it. But even then, it's still vulnerable. And you can think of, you know, even in the past couple of decades of various kinds of financial scandals and people whose entire livelihoods have been ruined by people mismanaging their money. Great wealth can be lost. Wealth loves to show itself. When you have wealth, there's this upward and outward pressure for wealth to demonstrate itself in various ways. Our appetites grow, our tastes grow. It needs to be fed like a blazing fire. And so all of a sudden, the house that you live in, the car that you drive, the vacations you take, the clothes that you wear, the school your kids go to, all of that needs to grow in proportion to your wealth. It urges you to keep up with the people around you, to change the standard of what's normal and reasonable. And then wealth also changes the way that people relate to us. If you have wealth, then you have to wonder, are people

5:16 relating to me really for who I am, or are they using me for what I can do for them, for some business opportunity, some connection I can make for them, or maybe I'm just the one who always pays the tab. I remember coming to terms with that as a very young child when my friend at school Tommy Jinks proudly announced that he had a Genesis. Now that was the brand new video game system at the time and something that I valued greatly. So I went over to his house that afternoon and I discovered that he did not in fact have a Sega Genesis but he had a Guinness Book of World records. Something that I did not value nearly as highly. Now, I'm still convinced that he mispronounced it on purpose so that I would come over to his house that day. But I was confronted with the fact that my feelings toward him were subject to what I perceived to be the benefit that he could give me. Wealth can change us. The desire for wealth can make people dishonest,

6:19 leading them to misrepresent a product or mislead investors. It can make us ruthless like a wolf that's tasted blood. We want to increase profit margins. We want to grab market share. We want to do whatever it takes regardless of the effect that it has on society and the people around us. We become concerned with only increasing our own bank accounts. In a spiritual sense, wealth is stewardship, right? It's things that are not ultimately ours, but it's something that God has given us and something that we're accountable to God for how we use it.

6:52 And Jesus makes that clear in Luke 12. The one to whom much is given, much is expected. And throughout the book of Proverbs, we see that the standard of righteousness doesn't just mean that you mind your own business, you keep your nose clean, and you don't cheat other people. It means to be generous to other people. It means to take responsibility for the poor and the needy people that God has placed in your sphere. To use what God has given you for their good. Now friends, we live in the most prosperous country in the history of the world.

7:28 And the allure of wealth is inescapable. We are bombarded with that siren call all the time. And so as we do that, as we face that, and as we face the temptation to dream about all the things that wealth could do for us, that if we just had a little more margin, if we just had a little more in our lives, that that would make things so much easier. We have to remember that wealth always has strings attached. Proverbs just shatters the idea that more money could fix the problem.

8:00 Money's security is an illusion. It is not ultimately reliable. it may be useful as a tool, but it is a terrible God. So with that, let's turn and look from showcase one to showcase two. Showcase one was great treasure with trouble, showcase two, the fear of the Lord with little. Now, based on everything that I've said, you may be tempted to think that what we're going to say is we're just better off to be poor. We're just better off to not have a lot. Treasure is somehow, little treasure is somehow better than great treasure, But that's not at all what the proverb is teaching us.

8:36 The author is comparing the fear of the Lord on one hand and worldly treasure on the other hand. And saying that no amount of worldly treasure is greater, is better than having the fear of the Lord. Well, why is that? In order to answer that, we have to understand what the fear of the Lord is. And a simple way to think of the fear of the Lord is a rightly ordered life. It's a life that's consistent with God's design and purpose for mankind. When we talk about fear, we're saying we fear something.

9:08 What we're talking about is what we most value, what we most want to protect. So if you're hiking in the woods and you come across a bear, you're afraid of the bear, you run away. Dwight Schrute is here. I'm not telling you what to do with a bear. I'm just saying, hypothetically, this is what happens. You run away from the bear because you're afraid for your life. you want to protect your life, and the bear threatens your life, and so you run away because of that. So when the Bible talks about the fear of the Lord, it's saying your relationship with God is the most important thing in your life. The thing you most protect, the most value, means God is at the center of your life. And this is the key to understanding Proverbs. It's the key to rightly living in the world. It's staying aligned with the intent of the designer. God created the world and he made people to live in it as his representatives with a life-giving relationship with him that would be the basis for how we manage the world around us, how we relate to each other, how we relate to the creation. And just like a train is made to run on a track,

10:10 doesn't work well if you set it in the ocean, that's what we do with our lives when we try to live without God at the center. And the reality is all of us have done that. We are born resisting God. We're born trying to go our own way. And that goes all the way back to the first humans who disobeyed God's command in the garden. They ate the forbidden fruit. Rather than fearing God and crushing the serpent who lied to them, they hid from God because he was a threat to their autonomy. And for that rebellion, we all deserve judgment and condemnation.

10:46 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. So friends, that's the good news of the gospel. That God sent his son to take on humanity, to live life in perfect fear of the Lord, to die death that sinners deserve for their sin, and to be raised again to give new life to everyone who repents and believes in Jesus. And when we do that, Jesus restores us to the fear of the Lord, to a right relationship with God.

11:19 And through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God rescues us from ourselves and he places himself back in the center of our hearts and our lives. And so when we talk about living in the fear of the Lord, it's coming to God on his terms, it's turning away from a life of sin and rebellion and self-sufficiency and turning to dependence on Jesus. And so the gospel helps us understand why the fear of the Lord is better than any amount of treasure you can imagine. In Matthew 6, Jesus says, Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves don't break in and steal.

12:03 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So, did you catch that? Living for treasure is foolish because it doesn't last. It gets destroyed or it gets stolen. Now, friends, providentially, we're thinking about this this weekend, right? Maybe more than any time of the year when the world is telling us that life is found in stuff. Having things and giving things. Giving things is fine.

12:34 It's good. We're never more like God than when we give. So, sure, if it fits your budget, buy gifts for people. Give them. Enjoy that season. But don't lose sight of the fact that every bit of it is fancy trash. I'm not talking about the cardboard and the packing material and the wrapping paper. I'm talking about all of it. The stuff in the box is trash. It will all ultimately go away. But the fear of the Lord, a right relationship with God, is eternal.

13:10 Earthly treasures can be good things, but they are never ultimate things. So don't let your heart be captivated and distracted by stuff that is destined for destruction. So what does a life of the fear of the Lord look like? Three things. The fear of the Lord fuels generosity. So Jesus tells this parable in Luke 12, verse 15, Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because one's life is not in the abundance of his possessions. And then he told them a parable.

13:41 A rich man's land was very productive. He thought to himself, what should I do since I don't have anywhere to store my crops? I will do this, he said. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there. Then I'll say to myself, you have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. But God said to him, you fool. This very night, your life is demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? That's how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

14:16 Those are harsh, severe words. And yet it challenges all of us to think, do I give? Am I rich toward God? So think about that. Do you give? If you don't give, do you spend? If you tease out the implications of Jesus' words, every dollar we spend is a dollar that could be used for something else, right? Now, I'm not going to argue for minimalism.

14:47 I'm not going to say you shouldn't ever spend your money on anything that's not giving to the church or giving to the poor or something like that. But I am saying that almost all of us could give something. And are you growing in giving? Relative to what you have, are you being more and more rich toward God? What would it look like in your life to think, over the next year, I'm going to try to be more rich toward God. So Thanksgiving comes around next year, I've grown in that area.

15:19 Second thing is that the fear of the Lord informs our identity. So you aren't your salary, your neighborhood, your car, your style, your hobbies, your diet, your kid's school, your retirement account, any of those things. Those are not who you are. James 1 verse 9, let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation, but let the rich boast in his humiliation, because he will pass away like the flower of the field. For the sun rises, and together with a scorching wind dries up the grass, its flower falls off, its beautiful appearance perishes in the same way the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities.

16:00 So he's telling us that the gospel changes everything. That poor Christians can boast because they're actually exalted in Christ. And that rich Christians are humbled by the gospel and the fact that they are nothing without Christ and that they know that their wealth is temporary. So friend, do your relationships reflect that? Does your social circle look exactly like someone's who fits your profile but is not a Christian? Third thing is that the fear of the Lord sets our priorities.

16:37 The fear of the Lord means that we will not prioritize material wealth over the kingdom of Christ. So practically, this means any number of things. It means you shouldn't take a job that would require you to regularly forsake the assembly of the saints. It means that when you move somewhere else, you won't do that without doing some research to make sure you'll be able to find a healthy church wherever you live. No matter how great the job is, it doesn't matter if you don't have a church. And just as an aside, when you move to a different city or a different state, the church you end up at may not be exactly what Third Avenue is to you, but a church that you can attend regularly, that you can join and be a part of regularly, weekly, is better than the ideal church that's in another state that you don't live in anymore.

17:21 It means that you'll consider the opportunity cost of promotions and jobs that you won't take on more than would limit your ability to invest in your relationships with your family, with your friends, with your church in evangelism and service. No job, no career opportunity is worth giving up all of those things if you're guided by the fear of the Lord. And the price is right, if you guessed the final showcase within a certain price, you actually get to keep both showcases.

17:59 And this is something that God offers to his people as well. And if we could just carry the theme of the proverb all the way through. And in one sense, there are people who have the fear of the Lord and who have great treasure. They may have some of the same trouble we talked about, but the fear of the Lord lets them handle that, navigate through that, doesn't compromise their faith, that's great. But in another sense, it's true for all Christians. We go back to Matthew 6. Jesus says, But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves don't break in and steal.

18:32 So it's not just a warning not to store up a certain kind of treasure. It's actually a command to store up another kind of treasure. Store up treasure in heaven. A lot of us have a 401k match. Alex mentioned this earlier. just means that if you save a dollar in retirement, your employer will also give you a dollar. You double your investment. It's a good deal. If your employer offers it, do it. But Jesus offers us something far greater. He offers that we can trade our temporary, rotting, vulnerable trash for eternal treasure. And that's like if you heard an offer that you could bring in your monopoly money at home and trade it for American dollars at a rate of one million American dollars for every one monopoly dollar you give. It's an incredible value, and that's what we do when we prioritize the fear of the Lord, when we prioritize the kingdom of Christ over and against the opportunities that the world presents us. And the author of Hebrews describes Moses in exactly this way. He

19:34 says, by faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin. For he considered the reproach for the sake of Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt since he was looking ahead to the reward. Did you hear that? Moses made a business decision. He said the reward of Christ, eternity with God, is more valuable than the treasures of Egypt. And friends, that's exactly what's available to us.

20:08 temporary sacrifice for eternal joy, life that is real. It's the most valuable thing in the universe, and it is the very heart of the gospel. We'll conclude with this, 2 Corinthians 8, 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you tonight to confess our spiritual poverty.

20:39 We have nothing. We deserve nothing other than your wrath. And yet you sent your son to empty himself to take on the form of a servant, to go all the way to the cross so that we could be exalted with him in eternal glory. We have gone from nothing to everything through Christ. We praise him. We pray that you would help us, Lord, to continue to see and value the blessings of eternity. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.