The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom | Proverbs 9:10

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Well, good morning, South For those of you that don’t know me, as Andrea said, my name is Nathan. I have the pleasure of working here with our students. We’re in a series going through the book of Proverbs. Now, we’re not gonna hit every single proverb because there’s 31 chapters, and each chapter has a whole bunch of proverbs.

So if we tried to hit all of them, we’d be in this for the next decade or two. But we’re going through some of the proverbs in the Book of Proverbs. Today, we are gonna be in Proverbs Chapter Nine. But before we get there, something that we have said throughout this series is that proverbs are short, pithy.

Now, pithy means memorable, so they’re these memorable sayings about how the world generally works. They are principles. They are not promises. So the proverbs don’t serve as a formula that if X then Y, that as we’re seeking wisdom, it’s not promising that, hey, if you do this, it’s a guarantee that you will get that outcome.

Instead, it is a principle that communicates something about how the world generally works. Now, before we jump into Proverbs Chapter Nine, I want you to imagine with me that you decide to treat yourself to a night out. Why do you decide to do this? Because I said so, so just deal with it. But let’s imagine that you decide, “Hey, I’m gonna go treat myself to a night out.

I’m gonna go downtown.” This is Larimer Square in downtown Denver. They put lights up throughout the year, and they’ve got different decor they do sometimes. It’s very fun. And you decide, “Hey, I’m gonna go out and treat myself to a nice dinner.” So you go out to dinner, you pick the fancy restaurant, and then afterwards you’re looking for something to do, and you’re standing here in Larimer Square, and you hear some commotion going on.

Sounds like maybe a party. Now, let’s imagine that would sound like fun, ’cause I know that for some of us, that sounds not like fun. I myself am more of an introvert, and so the idea of stepping into a party where I know nobody is very intimidating. But let’s imagine that sounds like fun, so you’re thinking, “Hey, I’m gonna go to this party.

That, that sounds like fun. Let’s do it.” And then you hear from the other side of the street and from another window, someone else call out, “Hey, I’m having a party. Come on in.” So you’ve got an invite over here, and then you hear the same invite from another party that you had heard in the first place, “Hey, I’m having a party.

Come on in.” So you’ve got two invites for two different parties in the same area. Which one do you go to? Now, you’re probably thinking, “Doesn’t matter. Two parties, same area, probably similar vibes. I could just go to either.” But what if I told you that the two parties could not be more different? What if one of the parties you would go to and you would have a really awesome night.

You would meet some people that would become your new best friends. You would learn new things about life from them. You would become a better person for going to that party, and you would look back and just be grateful for that time you had. And what if the other party would be full of people that would encourage you to make stupid decisions that would lead you to lose your job, lose some friends, maybe even some family, and lead you down a path that would threaten your life?

Now these two parties are not the same. So which party do you go to? Obviously the better party, but which one is that? How do you tell which party is which? Let’s pray as we jump into Proverbs 9. Jesus

Would you give us wisdom? Would you speak during this time? Would you guide our hearts, our minds, our lives? We’re in awe of you Remind us of your presence. Would you be here with us? In Jesus’ name, amen. So if you would open with me to Proverbs chapter 9. Typically, we’ve read one verse at a time, but this week we’re actually gonna read the majority of the chapter, because Proverbs chapter 9 has a little bit of a narrative going on.

So we’re gonna jump to a couple different spots. We’re gonna start in verse one. Would you stand with me for the reading of God’s Word? This is Proverbs 9, starting in verse one. “Wisdom has built her house. She has set up its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine. She has also set her table.

She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, ‘Let all who are simple come to my house.’ To those who have no sense, she says, ‘Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live. Walk in the way of insight.'” Jumping down to verse 13, “Folly is an unruly woman.

She is simple and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by who go straight on their way, ‘Let all who are simple come to my house.’ To those who have no sense she says, ‘Stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is delicious.’

But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.” This is the word of the Lord You may be seated. So we see these invitations from both wisdom and folly. Let all who are simple come to my house. They’re both throwing a party, and everyone is invited.

You’re standing in Larimer Square, and you see both groups are having a party. Which one do you go to? So let all who are simple come to my house. Now, this term simple, I read it, and I’m a bit uncomfortable with that term because I myself wouldn’t want to consider anyone simple. The Hebrew term here is pithy.

It means inexperienced, silly, or foolish. My friends, that’s us. We are the simple. Now, you might say, “Whoa, Nathan, don’t group me in with you. You might be the simple. I’m not the simple.” I’m not inexperienced, silly, or foolish. But we all have areas of life where we really thrive, and that’s an area where we know what’s going on, and then we have areas where we’re inexperienced, we’re silly, and we’re foolish.

Like I love student ministry. I thrive in that space. I could happily do pretty much anything with the students. But if Aaron asked me to come lead worship one Sunday, I would tell him, “Aaron, if you hand me an instrument that is in any way more complicated than a recorder, and you plan on having people attend church the week after, you should not put me on that stage ’cause I am the simple when it comes to worship.

I am not good with instruments. I’m inexperienced. I’m silly. I am foolish.” We all make foolish decisions in at least one part of our life. We all are the simple. We make inexperienced, silly, and foolish decisions. So wisdom and folly call out to us. Let all of us who are simple come to their respective houses.

But these two houses are not the same. These two parties are not even close to the same. Lady Wisdom quite literally built her house in preparation for this feast. Lady Wisdom, when thinking about how the house was going to be formed, was thinking about this party So this has been something that’s been really premeditated and thought on, that this party is going to be really well produced.

Lady Wisdom prepared the food, the drinks, and the table for this feast. You can see that this personification of wisdom knows what she’s doing. She is preparing well for this feast. She gives insight to all of us, to all of the simple who come to the feast. She’s sharing insight and wisdom and changing lives.

It’s a very positive atmosphere. Meanwhile, Lady Folly is unruly and knows nothing. Brutal description. She gives terrible advice. Verse 17 says, “Stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is delicious.” Now, I wouldn’t consider myself the wisest person I know But I think I can tell you pretty confidently that’s terrible advice.

And ultimately, Lady Folly leads guests to their death. So these two parties are very different. These two atmospheres are very different, these two feasts. You wanna go to Wisdom’s, and definitely not Folly’s. But how do you know which is which? How do you tell wisdom from folly? You’re just standing in Larimer Square and you see these two invitations from two different places, but you don’t know which one is wisdom, which one is folly.

How do we tell which is which? It’s this question that we’re sitting with, and it’s answered in our proverb today. Proverbs 9 verse 10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” So this fear of the Lord is what lets us tell Wisdom’s voice from Folly’s.

So we need to have this fear of the Lord. The Hebrew word here for fear is yare. It occurs throughout the Old Testament. Here are a few examples of where we see it. God tells Abram in Genesis, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” He tells him again later, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.”

In Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people, “Do not be afraid or terrified, for the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.” One of the psalmists writes, “The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” And it occurs throughout the prophets. A couple of the ones that I highlighted here are from Isaiah.

Isaiah says, “Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.” You might be noticing a little bit of a pattern. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. I will not be afraid. Do not fear. Do not fear. The Greek word that’s used here in the Septuagint is the Old Testament in Greek, in the Greek version of it, is phobos.

And that word phobos occurs throughout the New Testament, which was written in Greek and here are a few examples. Matthew 10, “Don’t be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.” This is Jesus speaking to the people. When the disciples see him walking on water and they’re terrified, he says, “Take courage, it is I.

Don’t be…” What? Afraid. In Mark, Jesus tells Jairus, “Don’t be afraid, just believe.” In Luke, he again tells the people, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” And John writes in 1 John, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.” Again, the same pattern.

Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. Do not be afraid, and that there is no fear in love. So we’re reading over and over, “Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid.” And our proverb today is, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Now hold up. Wait a minute.

Some may write, because we just read over and over, “Do not fear. Do not fear. Do not fear. Do not fear. Do not fear.” And now you’re telling me to fear. Which one is it? Do I be afraid, or do I not be afraid? You can’t just tell me one thing and then the other. You gotta pick one. The, these words, yare and phobos, they can be translated as fear and terror, but also reverence.

And there’s a big difference between the two. Fear and terror is a very negative emotion, but reverence is a positive one. If you were to go to the zoo and see a bear in its little zoo habitat, you might be in reverence, you might be in awe. Oh, look at that majestic creature living its life doing whatever bears do.

Just hanging out, your kids might be like Mom, look at the bear.” But if that same bear is outside your tent at 2:00 in the morning, you’re probably not feeling the same, “Oh, look at that bear.” You’re probably peeing yourself a little bit. Because that’s terrifying. So fear and terror is this very negative emotion, but reverence is a more positive one.

Whenever I think of fear or reverence, I think of Batman. Because when the bat signal goes up into the air, there are two very different reactions that people would have. The criminals are afraid, because Batman’s out to get ’em. If they’re out doing criminal stuff, and they’re in an, an alley and they see this dark figure come out of the shadows and go, “I’m Batman,” they’re naturally terrified, right?

Because he’s out to get ’em. Batman is out for justice and for vengeance. So they’re terrified. But if a kid sees Batman swooping through the streets with his gadgets, they’re not terrified, ’cause he’s not gonna hurt them. They’re seeing him and they go Mom, look. It’s Batman. Look at him. Look at what all the things he can do.”

They’re in awe. They’re in reverence of Batman, but criminals are not in awe of him. They’re terrified of him. So this proverb and what we’re reading before is not saying that we need to be afraid, because we don’t need to be afraid. They’re saying be in awe of God. Be in awe of Him And as we read over and over, “Do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid,” it’s easy to see God, to experience God and be afraid because He’s so big and He’s so holy and so majestic, but He’s so good. So we don’t need to be afraid of Him, we need to be in awe of Him. And that awe destroys all other fears that we may have. Because when you have God on your side, what else can harm you?

My favorite example of this awe of God destroying all other fears is the story that you’re likely familiar with of David and Goliath. In 1 Samuel, the Philistines and the Israelites are battling it out because they just always do that. These two countries hate each other and they’re fighting and they meet in this valley, and as they’re standing in this valley they decide, “You know what?

Instead of having both of our armies all attack and everybody dies, we’re gonna take one person from each side, put them in a ring WWE style, have them duke it out, see who wins, and whoever wins that one versus one wins the whole battle.” And so they have these two individuals, one from each side that they’re gonna pick, and the Philistines pick Goliath, this nine-foot giant, and he starts yelling out at the Israelites, “Who do you got?

Who are you gonna beat me with? ‘Cause you’re– let’s be real, you don’t got anyone, and I’m gonna win and you’re gonna lose and we’re gonna take you over and your God is nothing.” And he’s just clowning on them, just yelling out at them, and the Israelites are terrified, ’cause he’s nine feet tall. It’s kind of an understandable reaction.

And David shows up to bring food to his brothers and David goes, “Hey what’s all the hubbub about? What’s the big deal?” They go, “So if you use your eyes, you’ll see the nine-foot dude over there yelling at us. He’s threatening our lives, so maybe we should be terrified of that.” David goes, “And?

Big whoop, right? He’s just nine feet tall. You could take him.” And they go, “No, we cannot. Do you think you could take him?” He goes, “Sure. I don’t care.” And he goes and takes on Goliath, because Goliath might be nine feet tall, but you can’t measure how tall God is. So he’s not worried about losing this battle because he’s in awe of God.

He sees the bigness, the majesty, the goodness of God and he says, “God’s way bigger than Goliath.” As we read earlier in the Psalms, it says, “The Lord is with me. I will not be afraid.” What can mere mortals do to me? There are so many times in the Book of Psalms that we read David or another psalmist going through a really hard time, and yet over and over, we read statements like this, that David, even when he’s on the run from Saul or when he’s on the run from Absalom, when he’s fearing for his life, he goes, “Yeah, but I know that God’s got me, and God’s bigger than them And so this awe of God destroys any other fear that they may have had.

So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This awe of God is the beginning of wisdom. So awe of God is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Now, this actually brings us back to our first week in this series, where Aaron talked about Proverbs 3:5-6, where it says, “Trust in the Lord with…”

How much of your heart? All. All of your heart. “Lean not on your own understanding; in…” How many of your ways submit to him? All. All of your… Come on, guys. You gotta give me more than that. I’m so used to middle schoolers. They’d be screaming it out by now. Come on, guys, what are you doing? In how many of your ways submit to him?

All. There we go. Thank you. That was better. “In all your ways submit to him, and he will make straight your paths.” This invitation that Aaron gave to know God with how much of us? All. All of us. And so he encouraged us, he challenged us to get to know God in deeper and deeper ways, to experience him in new ways, to know him with all of us.

But I want you to notice in this proverb where the verbs are. It doesn’t say, “Fear God and know God.” It says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” This is a statement that this is just the way that it is. This is not a if you do X then Y, because fear of the Lord is not a command.

He’s not saying fear God. ‘Cause fear of the Lord is not a command, it’s a by-product. It’s something that just happens. As you experience God, as you encounter him, as you get to know him, as you see his holiness, you just can’t help it. You become in awe of him. You can’t force it. You can’t force yourself to just, “I’m gonna fear God more today.

I’m gonna have more awe for him.” That’s not how that works. It’s something that just happens. So the more we come to know God, we can’t help but be in awe of him. So to come back to our original question, how do we tell which party is which? How do we tell wisdom from folly? As we get to know God more and more, as we experience him in his goodness, in his majesty, in his holiness, as we grow in awe of wisdom, as we grow in awe of God- Folly becomes worthless to us.

Because when you’re standing in Larimer Square and you see those two parties, you’ll notice that one just has this glow, just has this goodness emanating from it. It has this draw, this appeal that you want that, and you don’t give a rip about that other party anymore. Who cares? Was there even another party?

You just wanna go to that one. Because the awe of God makes everything else worthless. So how do we grow in awe of God? How do we fear the Lord more? How do we grow in awe for Him? It’s not something that we can force ourselves to do, because we have to encounter Him. We have to encounter the Holy One.

We have to experience the presence of God, and as we experience Him, then naturally we’ll grow in awe for Him. So I’ve got a few tips, a few ways that we can seek out God, that we can try to experience Him. Take ’em as you would like ’em. You may have other ideas. That’s great. I love it. A few that I have experienced God in creation.

Now, those of you that know me well can say that I am not a nature person. I grew up in Colorado, so the mountains are how I figure out where west is. That’s about all they are to me. But that is God’s creation. That’s His majesty and His beauty right in front of me. This is a picture of the Grand Canyon.

I did not take this picture, because when it comes to photography, I am a simple. I am foolish, inexperienced, and know nothing. But someone much better with a camera than me took this picture. And I want you to look at it. Look at the trees coming out from the side, the bushes down below. Look at the river flowing through the canyon ever so quietly, but with lots of force at the same time.

Look at the beautiful rock formations throughout the whole canyon The bright blue sky overhead

That is the goodness of God. A little bit closer to us, this is Maroon Bells in Aspen. It’s about three hours away. I had the opportunity to go to Maroon Bells during a sunrise a few years ago, and at sunrise it gets this maroon-ish, pinkish glow over the area. And I saw it and I said, “That’s cool. Let’s do the rest of the hike now.”

Now, that is not how I should have reacted. And thankfully one of my friends was there, that he was in awe of God, seeing the beauty of His creation, the pinkish skies, the way the flowers are blooming, the mountain overhead. Experience God in creation. Secondly, go where you feel God’s presence most. Maybe this is a literal location.

Maybe you have a chair at home that you feel God’s presence most when you’re in that chair. Maybe there’s a park nearby, a, a bench that you go to and when you go there, you feel God’s presence most there. Maybe it’s an activity that you do that, that when you read through Scripture and you’re in a specific part of the Bible, you feel God’s presence most there.

Maybe you like to worship alone in the car and you feel God’s presence most there. You feel God’s presence most here, or wherever it is for you. This is a picture of high school winter camp from this past year. Every year we take our students up to Fraser, Colorado in the winter for winter camp alongside like 20 other churches.

And all these students are gathering and worshiping God together, and every year we have students share that they felt God’s presence most in that space. God’s presence is with them everywhere. They experience Him everywhere they go, but they don’t realize it until they pull away from life and go to winter camp, because they’re focusing on Him then.

So go where you feel His presence most and lean into that space, because you encounter God all the time. You just may not realize it. That’s my third point. Lean into transcendent experiences. We have transcendent experiences all the time in our lives. We encounter God on the daily, but we don’t realize it because we’re too busy thinking about whatever else is going on.

This is a picture of Passion 2024. It’s a conference that Passion City Church in Atlanta puts on every January, and this year they had it in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It’s a stadium that seats about 65,000 people, and they had it packed with people worshiping God. I was– I had the opportunity to attend this year’s Passion in twenty twenty-four, so I’m somewhere in the background there, but I don’t know where.

It’s a little bit foggy, hard to tell. But this moment in particular was a moment where the worship team on the final day of the conference stopped leading worship and just experienced it because something really beautiful was happening. They were singing a song called Agnes Dei, and Agnes Dei doesn’t have a lot of lyrics.

It goes like this. Would you actually sing this with me? ‘Cause if I do this alone, again, I’m not great at worship. It’s gonna be kinda awkward if it’s just me. Alleluia.

Alleluia. For the Lord God Almighty reigns. Alleluia.

Holy holy. Are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the lamb. Amen. It

was great listening to you all. I feel bad that you had to listen to me there but thank you for doing that with me. As you can see, there’s not a lot of lyrics, but when you get to worthy is the lamb, worthy is the lamb, if you want to, you can jump back up. For you are holy. Are you Lord God Almighty.

Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the lamb. For you are holy. So as we’re singing this song at Passion, on the final day of the conference we end up repeating this over and over for 18 minutes. That’s a long time. And as this is happening, the Spirit is here with us in this place. There are people weeping, people worshiping in new ways that they had never before.

There were people encountering God in new and beautiful ways. But I was thinking about the airport that we needed to get to for our flight later. And I was thinking, “We’re running a little bit late on time here. I’m kinda trying to go home, and I don’t wanna miss my flight. That cost a lot of money.” I’m thinking, “Hey, it’s been 18 minutes.

My knees kinda hurt.” “My legs kinda hurt. I kinda wanna sit down.” This is a transcendent experience that I’m having, but I’m not leaned into it. I’m leaned all the way out. God is in that space with me, but I’m not experiencing him like everyone else because I’m not leaning into it So I’m gonna invite the worship team up, and we’re gonna close our time today with a little bit longer of a worship session.

We’re still gonna get out at normal time, so if you have lunch plans, if you have afternoon plans, you’re not gonna be late to that. So you can put your mind at ease. But I encourage you during this time to lean into this transcendent experience because God is here with us in this place. He is meeting us right here, right now, and we can experience Him.

We can grow in awe for Him in this moment, right here, right now. So as we’re singing, I encourage you to lean into some worship in ways that maybe you haven’t previously. Maybe that means standing up, sitting down, kneeling, throwing your hands in the air, abandoning the chair and dancing around. Whatever it is, I encourage you to engage in this time of worship in new ways.

Experience God in new ways. We’ll have members of the prayer team darted throughout the room. If you are looking for prayer, they would love to pray for you. It’s an opportunity to experience God through prayer, through worship. So as we’re singing And the mind starts to wander, and you start to think, “Oh, I gotta pick up the kids soon.

We gotta go to lunch. We’ve got afternoon plans. I don’t wanna be late to those.” I invite you to come back in, to lean into this transcendent experience, to grow in awe of the God who loves you, the God who cherishes you, who created you, who knows everything about you, who cares so deeply for you, who’s shown you mercy and grace time and time again, the God who is so holy and yet so good.

Let’s worship Him together.