Let’s take our Bibles and turn together to Proverbs 3:1-12. Last week I told you a story about my dad driving from New Mexico to Colorado when he was in college. He would drive on these highways in northern New Mexico that barely had any cars on them. And whenever it would snow, the only way that you would know that you were still on the highway is you would stay on the car-tracks of the car in front of you. 

Well I had my own incident like that in Illinois once. I was driving home after church. We had about a twenty mile drive home. And it was white-out blizzard conditions. Sanja and Alastair were in the car with me. And the conditions were so bad, I couldn’t see the road. I couldn’t see the cars in front of me. I could barely see six feet in front of the car. It was pretty disconcerting for a kid from Texas. But what I could make out in front of my car were the car-tracks of the car in front of me. It was just enough to keep me going the right direction and to get home safely. 

Well God’s Word today is going to reveal for us six sets of tracks in the snow, six grooves in the dirt that will lead us to a desired destination. That desired destination is God’s shalom in our lives. That’s something that hopefully all of us in this room desire. 

Today’s message is less about averting disaster. We’ve dealt with that a lot already in Proverbs 1-2. Today’s message is more about putting yourself on a pathway to peace. If we heed God’s counsel in Proverbs 3 and set our course on the paths that he’s established, then we put ourselves in a position where God supplies goodness and blessing and wellbeing and peace. 

The Hebrew word that encapsulates all of that is this word shalom The ESV translates it “peace,” and I think that’s a good a translation as any. But the Hebrew concept of shalom is more multifaceted than that. It has to do with wholeness and wellbeing and welfare and contentment. 

The message today is entitled “Accessing the shalom of God.” And we are going to see in the text six pathways, six avenues that lead to God’s peace and wellbeing.

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And here’s the first. Write this down as #1 in your notes.

Six ways to access God’s “shalom” in this world: 

1. Obey his commandments (3:1-2)

Look at verse 1 with me. 

1 My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, 

2 for length of days and years of life and [shalom] they will add to you. 

Notice the “my son” statement in verse 1. Once again we have Solomon espousing wisdom to his son. And this is the cosmic equivalent to “If you clean your room then I will give you some allowance money.” This is cause and effect. The Father is saying to the son, “Do this, and this [good thing] will result.” 

I hope you can sense that chapter 3 is really a breath of fresh air after the content of chapters 1-2. Chapters 1-2 were all about “not doing stupid.” There was a lot of negative reinforcement in those two chapters—negative reinforcement from Lady Wisdom, from Solomon as a father, and from God himself. “You do this, son, you are going to suffer the consequences. If you mess around with dangerous women and dangerous men, it’ll cost you your reputation and it might even cost you your life!” 

But here the emphasis isn’t as much on “not doing stupid.” It’s about the benefits of applied wisdom. God gives us incentives for obedience. Keep God’s commands and there will be length of days and years of life and peace. 

And the father says to his son, “Do not forsake my teaching.” And he also says, “keep my commandments.” And we shouldn’t think of this as just some arbitrary command from father to son. “Son, go take out the trash, because if you obey my commandments, you’ll have length of days and years of life and peace.” No, the father in chapter 3 is espousing God’s wisdom and God’s commandments. Remember the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, not the fear of your earthly father. So Solomon is communicating God’s wisdom, God’s commandments, and if there is wholehearted obedience, then the child will experience shalom.  

Do children need to obey their fathers, even the arbitrary, mundane commands like “Take out the trash?” Yes. We see that commanded in other parts of Scripture. But also we see here that fathers need to communicate to their children “God’s commandments.” Bless your children, dads, by echoing God’s commands to your children. Because then if they obey, they will be blessed. The most discouraging thing in the world, for me as a father, is seeing fathers give instructions to their children that are contrary to God’s commands and therefore bring curse not blessing upon their children.

Now within this passage there are numerous counsels and incentives. The framework of this whole passage is counsel and incentive. For instance the counsel in verse 1 is “My son, do not forget my teaching.” You might respond, “Why dad? Why should I do that?” Because there’s an incentive for you in verse 2: “for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.” This is cause and effect. You do this, and this will result. You embrace this, and this is the blessing that awaits you. Remember we’re dealing with truisms not promises here. 

But that doesn’t lessen the impact of what the writer is saying. He is saying, “Kids, obey your parents, because more often than not, it will bring shalom into your life. To the extent that your parents are reiterating God’s commandments and God’s principles, you should heed them. Because it will serve you well and elongate your days.” 

Notice the incentive in verse 2 includes both length of days (i.e. long life) but also shalom. What good is long life if your life is peaceless and miserable? Do you remember what Jacob told Pharaoh in Genesis 47:9? He said, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.” Why did he say that? Well Jacob was a heal-grabber. He was a deceiver. He wrestled with the Lord. He was a fighter. He had to learn things the hard way. He eluded so many of God’s commands, and thereby he eluded peace. 

And obedience to God’s commands, mediated through your parents, leads, more often than not and all things being equal, to a longer life and a better life. And that’s because there are some ways that God has hardwired the world, which allows the blessing of long-life if you follow God’s commands. 

For example, if you obey and fear God, you’ll be less inclined to murder (the sixth commandment). That’s good! Because those who live by the sword, die by the sword (Matt 26:52). If you obey and fear God, you be less inclined to commit adultery (the seventh commandment) and suffer the wrath of a jealous husband. If you obey the eighth commandment, “thou shalt not steal,” you will be less likely to die or receive a jail sentence for burglarizing. 

From an NT perspective, long life and peace are bound up in the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the flesh leads to death both in this life and in the life to come. Obedience gives life. Obedience leads to peace. Obedience leads to shalom.   

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There’s a similar cause and effect dynamic at work in the next section in verses 3-4. There is counsel, and then there’s incentive. 

Here’s the counsel in verse 3: 

3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. 

Remember this is a father to his son. So you might envision the son saying after verse 3, “Why dad? Why should I do that?” Well, here is your incentive: 

4 So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. 

Write this down as #2 in your notes. Six ways to access God’s shalom in this world. First, we obey his commandments. Secondly we…

2. Embrace his love (3:3-4)

Solomon writes, 

3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you

This is an odd and indirect way of speaking. It’s a poetic way of saying, “Stay connected to God’s covenant. Stay emotionally connected to the Lord.” And then metaphorically Solomon says, 

bind them [steadfast love and faithfulness] around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

The neck in Hebrew thought housed the soul. The throat was linguistically equated to the soul. And also the heart was the seat of your emotions, as well as your mind and your will. So the Proverbs writer is saying here, keep God’s love and faithfulness so close to your being, so close to your soul, that it’s as if they were bound around it. And write God’s love for you on the tablet of your heart. Carve love and faithfulness on your heart. Tattoo them, so that they never come off and so that you never let go of them!

By the way, “steadfast love” in verse 3 is the Hebrew word חֶסֶד. It means covenant love or lovingkindness. It signifies God’s covenant relationship with his people. He loves us, and we love him. He has חֶסֶד for us and we have חֶסֶד for him.

 The word for “faithfulness” is the Hebrew word אֱמֶת. What the writer is telling us here is, “Cling to God and his love for you above all else. Don’t let them ‘abandon you’ or ‘escape you.’ Don’t forget about them! Let your love for God and that covenant relationship between you and him be the most important thing in your life.” Because if you do, verse 4…

4 … you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. 

Obviously “in the sight of God” is most important. Let God be true and every man a liar (Rom 3:4). If God is pleased… if God shows me favor than who cares what everyone else thinks? But verse 4 tells us that the steadfast love and faithfulness of God will somehow win us favor in the sight of man too. Will some people mock you for your faith? Yes. Will some think little of you for your integrity? Absolutely. But will your reputation grow in the eyes of men (believers and unbelievers both) if you are obedient to God’s principles? Yes, it will for some. 

It’s funny when I look back on my pre-pastor days. There was a time when I had more interaction with the world directly than I do now. And there were times in high school, college, and working in the business world that I was ridiculed for my faith. And that’s okay. I expected that. But to the extent that I honored God and obeyed his principles (which I didn’t always do perfectly), I earned the respect of others. Did some people continue to ridicule and disregard me? Sure. But those were people that I didn’t want to earn favor in their sight anyway. 

And maybe on a horizontal plane, if I cling to God, I will lose favor and good success in the sight of man. That happens in this fallen world. But on the vertical plane, that will never happen. And there will come a time when every knee will bow before the Lord and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord (Phil 2:9-11). And at that time, I will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man if I have embraced the חֶסֶד love that God has for us. 

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Write this down as #3. Here’s a third way to access God’s shalom.

3. Trust him wholeheartedly (3:5-6)

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

It’s not just wholehearted trust, it’s singlehearted trust. “Our trust must not only be complete—it must be exclusive.” The whole of my heart trusts in the Lord and only in the Lord. The whole of my heart (all of my emotions, mind, and will) are committed to the Lord and are surrendered to the Lord. 

 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, 

There is your counsel again. Trust in the Lord. Lean on the Lord. Acknowledge him in all your ways. And here’s your incentive. Here’s the cause and effect. Look at the end of verse 6. 

and he will make straight your paths. 

That might not seem like that big of an incentive, unless you realize just how twisted our paths actually are. That might not seem like the greatest incentive, that is, unless you’re driving through a blizzard in white-out conditions and your life depends on getting the right path, the straight path. 

I remember doing this men’s retreat once in Illinois. We did a campout with fathers and sons. It was fun, but it wasn’t your typical “outdoorsy, enjoy your time out in nature” experience. Because at this particular men’s retreat we allowed four-wheelers. I don’t know what we were thinking! 

And so instead of the quiet sounds of nature waking you up at 6am, it was the roar of four-wheeler engines and the smell of gas fumes. And instead of following one path and traveling in a similar direction, these four-wheelers just went anywhere and everywhere. In the dirt you could see the crisscross of four-wheeler tracks going in all kinds of directions. 

That’s what leaning on your own understanding looks like. That’s what trusting in anything other than the Lord looks like. That’s what trusting in your own heart looks like—going in multiple directions sideways, backwards, and forwards, but never straight. And that doesn’t lead to shalom. It leads to chaos.

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

The Hebrew word for “trust” is בָּטַח. It means to “rely on” or “put confidence in.” In the NT world, we trust… we believe… we put our faith in God for our salvation, for our sanctification, and for everything! We certainly don’t trust ourselves for that.  

And let me just tell you right now, if I hear another celebrity or professional athlete say, “You just need to believe in yourself,” I’m going to throw up! There is nothing more sickening than hearing silly people making silly statements about how we need to believe in ourselves. What does that even mean—you just need to believe in yourself? Don’t we have something better in this world to believe in? Don’t we have someone better in this world that is worthy of our trust?

There are some great stories that I could tell you right now about when I was leaning on my own understanding. Times when I tried to bargain with God. Times that I tried to convince God and tried to sway God to my particular point of view. Times before I was married that I tried to convince God that a certain woman was perfect for me… if God would just make her fall in love with me. But God in his mercy guided me elsewhere. 

There’s an old Garth Brooks’ song called “Unanswered Prayers.” “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers” because “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” That’s been true for me. God knows better than I do. And God knows me better than I know myself.

6 In all your ways acknowledge him, 

The Hebrew for acknowledge here is simply “know.” In all your ways, “know him.” In all your ways, be aware of him and search him out. If you don’t know God, then get to know him. If you know him already, then keep getting to know him. That’s the great thing about God. You will never exhaust your knowledge of him.  

6 In all your ways acknowledge him, 

and he will make straight your paths. 

I told you last week, there’s good דֶּרֶךְ and bad דֶּרֶךְ. There is a good path and a bad path. How do we stay on the right ways, the good ways, the ways full of life, the good דֶּרֶךְ? You acknowledge God. You trust God. You pray to God. You learn his ways. You walk in his ways. And you don’t deviate off of that path and chase the foolishness of the world.  

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Write this down as #4. Here’s a fourth way to access God’s shalom.

4. Fear him in humility (3:7-8)

By the way, you never get very far in Proverbs from the fear of the Lord. That concept and that theme comes up again and again and again in this book. It’s the central idea conveyed in this book. 

And here it is again in verse 7.

7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. 

The connection between humility and wisdom wasn’t something that only the Hebrews recognized. The Roman philosopher Seneca said, “I suppose that many might have attained to wisdom, had they not thought they had already attained it.”

By the way, the word for “wise” here isn’t the noun חָכְמָה, it’s the adjective חָכָם. And just like we see in the NT, there’s worldly wisdom and there’s godly wisdom. As the Apostle James says, there is wisdom that comes from above and there is earthly, unspiritual, demonic wisdom (Jas 3:13-18). People who are wise in their own eyes don’t have wisdom from above. They have the other kind of wisdom. 

The battle cry for “wise in your own eyes” thinking is Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” 

“Regrets I've had a few, But then again too few to mention

I did what I had to do, And saw it through without exemption

I planned each charted course, Each careful step along the byway

And more, much more than this, I did it my way”

That’s worldly wisdom. That’s a person who is “wise in his own eyes.”

By the way, there’s this character in the book Pilgrim’s Progress named “worldly wiseman.” And worldly wiseman tries to steer Christian off the path leading to the Celestial City and instead to the city called “morality.” That was not a good path for Christian. That would have led to his destruction.  

7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. 

Why Solomon? Why? Give us the cause and effect! Because…

8 It will be healing to your flesh [Literally “your navel”] and refreshment [Literally “lubrication”] to your bones. 

In his commentary on Proverbs, the Hebrew scholar Michael Fox says, “Moist, lubricated bones were thought to be a source of vitality and health… whereas hot and dry bones were deemed a severe systemic ailment.” That’s your incentive… healing for your navel and lubrication for your bones. Doesn’t that sound good? Who doesn’t want that? 

In the Hebrew world, having a healthy navel was a sign of blessing. Washboard abs meant poverty. A little spare tire in your midsection meant you had something to draw upon in a time of drought.  

And this symbolism of a healthy navel and lubricated bones was attractive to the Hebrews. It would be similar to the expressions “quenching your thirst” or “rest for your weary soul” in modern terms.  

Solomon says, “It will be healing to your flesh.” What will be “healing to your flesh?” What will be refreshment to your bones? Well the three things from verse 7: 1) Not being wise in your own eyes, 2) fearing the Lord, and 3) turning from evil. That’s healthy for us!

If you memorize 2 or 3 passages from Proverbs, this should be one of them. Proverbs 3:5-6 is great. I’m sure many of you have memorized that. But tag onto that 3:7-8 too. Because this is good. “Don’t be wise in your own eyes.” In other words, be teachable. Be a lifelong learner. The word for disciple that Jesus uses in the NT is μαθητής, and it basically means “learner.” And if you are going to be a learner, then you need to be humble and teachable enough to receive from the Lord. You need to not be wise in your own eyes. 

Have you ever noticed how some of the wisest people in the world are completely unaware of how wise they are? I’ve noticed that. It’s like they are devoid of any self-awareness of the wisdom they are espousing. They aren’t wise in their own eyes. It’s as if they are so tapped into God’s character and to the wisdom that God gives, they just funnel that from God to their audience. They don’t want credit for their wisdom. They don’t want acknowledgement. They are singleheartedly surrendered to the Lord, and they just want to showcase God and his glory. 

Yet some of the people who think they are wise, and portray themselves as wise, and carry themselves as wise, their “wisdom” falls flat. It doesn’t bring healing; it brings sorrow and eventually death. It’s Frank Sinatra singing “My Way.”

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Fifthly, write this down as a fifth way to access God’s shalom.

5. Honor him sacrificially (3:9-10)

Solomon says, 

9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; 

10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. 

The Hebrew word for “honor” here is כָּבֵד, and in its normal form it means “to be heavy” or “to weigh much.” The idea of God’s glory or his honor is linked to this idea of heaviness. And this verb here כָּבֵד is in what’s called the Piel form in Hebrew. And it doesn’t mean “be heavy,” but “make heavy” or “acknowledge as heavy” or “treat as heavy.” That’s what we do when we honor the Lord. We acknowledge his weightiness. And we honor him by generously giving our wealth to him. 

The image here is agricultural, which makes sense since Israel was an agrarian society. And to that you might say, “Well I don’t have a barn and I don’t have any vats.” That’s okay. You can still embrace the principle here. 

The firstfruits of the harvest was not only that which was harvested first, but that which was choicest. It was the best. And if we transfer that image into modern day terms, we simply exchange agricultural wealth for monetary wealth. Most of us don’t work directly for food or possessions; we use monetary means for the transference of goods. Cash is our medium. Money was used in the ancient world too, but not as exclusively as it is today in America. 

And what Solomon is saying here is that this is a way to access God’s shalom. Be generous towards God with your wealth. If you are generous, then God will reciprocate generosity. Remember not as a promise, but as a truism. God rewards the generosity of his people. 

So what does it mean to honor the Lord with the firstfruits of your money or your salary? Well I don’t think it means depositing a $1000 paycheck and setting aside a few bucks for the Lord. Firstfruits intimates that which is first and that which is choice. It means giving a meaningful, choice portion of your income. I think 10% is a good round figure, although I don’t think we should be legalistic with that. Some may be able to give more than 10%. Some maybe less. But it’s pretty easy to move the decimal point and give back to the Lord a meaningful portion of your income. 

 And let’s talk practically here. The ongoing work of our church is predicated upon the financial support of the people in this room. Without your giving, there would be no pastors and staff, there would be no building to meet in, there would be no office space, and there would be no infrastructure for small groups, children’s ministries, and all the rest. So this is important.  

And what this verse is saying is that giving to God shouldn’t just be to receive something in return. Giving allows you to tap into the blessings that God has in store for those who are generous to him. 

Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” 

Jesus said in Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” 

Raymond Ortlund said the following about that passage. He wrote, “[Jesus] does not mean by that, ‘Give money to God, and he’ll make you rich.’ If that were the message, the Lord would not be honored, he would be used. Jesus is not arousing our greed. What then does he mean? He means, as God’s people have experienced with great joy throughout history, if you invest for his sake, he will give you more to invest for his sake.” The old puritan commentator Matthew Henry says similarly, “Those who do good with what they have shall have more to do good with.” 

Luke 16:13 says, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.”  

Trust me when I say this you will never be able to out-give the Lord. And as the Bible reiterates in many places, generosity begets generosity. And God is generous to those who are generous towards him. 

God’s not interested in vesting his resources with people who hoard them. Do you remember the guy who buried his talent in Jesus’s parable? That servant got rebuked by his master (Matt 25:14-30). What pleases God is good stewardship combined with a generous spirit. 

One of the great mistakes that a lot of young evangelicals make today is combating the problem of materialism with poverty. Poverty is not the cure for materialism. Generosity is the cure for materialism. So we need to be generous with the resources God has given us.  

Now before we move on to our last point, I need to address something quickly here. I think this is really important, so hear me on this. A lot of people equate what Solomon says here with the modern day prosperity gospel. Is that what Solomon is teaching here? 

9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; 

10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

I think there may be some who read that and are tempted to freak out. You’re heresy alarm bells go off and you start to associate this with prosperity gospel! Well don’t freak out here, okay? This is God’s Word and there’s a reason he wrote this to us.

One of the ways that we can avoid the error of health and wealth prosperity teaching is through the promise/truism distinction. This is cause and effect. This is counsel and incentive not counsel and promise. 

Another thing that the health and wealth preachers struggle from is what theologians call an “over-realized eschatology.” In other words they like to link all of the blessings that God gives with the here and now, instead of waiting for the hereafter. They fixate on treasures where moth and rust destroy, and they ignore the treasures that are eternal. 

But Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that I could get rich, own a yacht, and experience the good life in the here and now. That would be a wasted death. Jesus Christ died a gruesome death upon the cross so that I might have life eternal and treasures that will never rust or blemish or fade. 

Does that mean we shouldn’t be generous with the resources God gives us in this world? No. Does that mean we should treat worldly wealth as intrinsically evil? No. There’s a lot in the Proverbs about stewardship and management and wise investments. By all means, please be responsible with your finances as you grow your wealth. Manage your finances well. Manage them in such a way that you can give generously and increasingly give generously. Give enough that it hurts, so that you can detach yourself from materialism. And then watch what God does. 

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Here’s a final way to access God’s shalom in this world:

6. Receive his discipline (3:11-12)

Look at verse 11 with me.

11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, 

12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

This last statement is not so much cause and effect, as it is counsel and assurance. The counsel is this: “Don’t despise the Lord’s discipline. Don’t be weary of his reproof. Don’t bemoan his correction of your behavior. Don’t grow discouraged when he punishes you.”

 Why? Not because there is a great reward for you if you obey that counsel. There is a reward, but that’s not the point here. The point is this. The Lord disciplines you, because the Lord loves you. When God says “Don’t” he means “Don’t hurt yourself.” When God punishes sin, it’s because he wants you to be free from the devastating consequences of sin. He wants you to live in the freedom that you have as a child of God. 

Hear me on this, church. Pain is gain in the Christian life. And God chastens those who he loves. And in order for us to grow as mature children of God, we need to grow in courage accepting God’s reproof in our lives. And we need to grow in teachability. The person that is wise in his own eyes is a fool. The person that is humble and teachable will put himself on the pathway to blessing. He or she accesses God’s shalom. 

So don’t despise his discipline. Receive it. Allow it to make you stronger. And allow it to be evidence of God’s love in your life.  

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Let me close with this. Turn with me in your Bibles to the Book of Hebrews. If I could, let me show you a parallel passage to Proverbs 3:11-12 in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 12:5-11 actually quotes Proverbs 3:11-12. And yet, the language of Hebrews 12 takes on a distinctive NT emphasis. Let me show you what I mean.

The author of Hebrews says in verse 5,  

5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? 

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 

6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

This passage reiterates and expounds upon what Proverbs 3 says. And yet the framework is “sons of God.” Not sons of Solomon. Or sons of Israel. When did we become sons of God? And how did we become sons? 

Well that’s not an OT concept. Not really. The truth of the matter is that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came to earth and died on a cross for our sins. And the book of Hebrews and the book of Romans and the book of Galatians and 1 John and elsewhere speak of our sonship (see John 1:12; Rom 8:14-16; Gal 3:26; Heb 2:10; 1 John 3:1). We are coheirs with Christ Jesus (Rom 8:17), because of our faith in him. And because of that status, God disciplines us. He disciplines his children. He disciplines those he loves. 

You might ask yourself sometimes, “Why is God putting me through this trial? Why is God punishing my sinful selfishness? The rest of the world gets away with it.” The reason is because you belong to him as a child, and he has a vested interest in your spiritual growth and how you represent him before the world. Let me say it this way. You are a recipient of God’s shalom. His peace resides inside of you. And because of that, because of his love for you, you will be disciplined. And you will grow. Isn’t that good? 

So as a child of the Living God, let me encourage you this morning to keep doing six things in your Christian life. 

Obey his commandments (3:1-2)

Embrace his love (3:3-4)

Trust him wholeheartedly (3:5-6)

Fear him in humility (3:7-8)

Honor him sacrificially (3:9-10)

Receive his discipline (3:11-12)