Proverbs 3:1-4 Exodus 20:1-17 Audio file is at the end of text.
My experience has taught me that every person I meet wants to win. Maybe since I've been coaching sports for four decades and there is always a score that clearly tells everyone who just won and who just lost I think a lot about how to win. No athlete ever comes into my office and asks me, "What can I do to help us lose the game?" God is perfectly clear about how we can all win every single day of our lives.
He wrote the book on it and he gave us the book and he wants us to freely choose to follow the rules.Today let's look at Proverbs 3:1-4.
"Dear friends, do not forget my commands but keep my teachings in your heart for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man."
How does that sound? Does that sound like a good life? To me it does. What are the commands the writer is referring to here? Since we're in the Old Testament we know the reference is back to the Ten Commandments. Let's go Exodus 20:1-17 where we find, "the big ten."
The Ten Commandments
1And God spoke all these words:
4“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13“You shall not murder.
14“You shall not commit adultery.
15“You shall not steal.
16“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
If all we had to go on are these Proverbs and the Exodus passages, it is clear that God will bless our lives. So what do we do when a 51 year-old father of two children who needs him dies suddenly? This happened this week. One of our sixth grade students lost a father. I can tell you, it does not make sense to me. All we can do is trust the plan God has laid out for us. If we keep these commands, even in the death of a loved one, God is going to bless us. Life is hard, however, when you know that God made you and that God loves you and that he has told us the rules of the game, even in sadness, you can win.
