“Changing Through Learning”

Proverb 2:1-22; 4:1-13, 23; Duet. 5:1

 

SUBJECT: Learning

THEME: each person we meet has the potential to teach us something. To make and maintain budding relationships and to enrich existing ones, choose to be a lifelong learner. Refuse to be a know it all; learn from others and make positive changes.

RELEVANCE: Are we willing to focus on others? Naturally we all want to connect with others regardless of personality type or age. Sometimes we long to connect out of a desire for love, feelings of loneliness, the need for acceptance, the quest for fulfillment, the pursuit of winning someone to Christ, or the desire to achieve in some area of ministry or business.

How can we fulfill this desire for relationships? The answer is simple; stop thinking about our self and begin focusing on the people with whom we desire to build a relationship with. It’s when we stop worrying so much about ourselves and start looking at others and what they need or desire that enables us to build a bridge to them. As a result, we become the kind of person others appreciate and want to be around. This is a key to connecting.

INTRODUCTION:

1. Each person we meet has the potential to teach us something.

“Knowledge is the beginning of tolerance and tolerance the beginning of understanding.” —John Wesley Coulter

“There are some people that if they don’t know, you can’t tell them.” –Louis Armstrong

Do I approach people with a desire to learn from them?

“In a study of ninety top leaders from a variety of fields, leadership experts Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus made a discovery about the relationship between growth and leadership: “It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from their followers.” Successful leaders are learners. And the learning process is ongoing, a result of self-discipline and perseverance. The goal each day must be to get a little better, to build on the previous day’s progress.” --- Maxwell, J. C. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

2. The book of Proverbs explains to us that effort must be expended for us to become wiser (Prov. 2:1-10). Getting wisdom involves openness, retention, hearing (with the ear), applying (with the heart; v. 10), requesting, and diligent searching.

Seeking and valuing wisdom leads us to understanding (discerning) the fear of the Lord and knowing God (Prov.1:7). The Lord is the source of such wisdom (James 1:5). As we fear the Lord, we gain wisdom, knowledge (Prov. 1:4; 2:10), and understanding (Prov. 2:2-3, 11). Wisdom keeps us from evil and contributes to holiness; it is truly a matter of the heart, and of moral conduct, not just intellectual attainment.

When we strive for wisdom (Prov. 2:1-4) we’ll find that it will enter our heart (v. 10). But this requires diligence on our part in pursuing God’s will; yet we must always bear in mind that wisdom is a gift from God (v. 6). One of the benefits of having such knowledge from God is it gives inner joy and pleasure to us as active seekers.  

3. The book of Proverbs also tells us that wisdom is packed full of weighty advantages and benefits.  For instance, it gives life (Prov. 4:4), protection (v. 6), and honor (vv. 8-9) to name a few. We can see that godly wisdom is valid because of its enduring quality, and it is valuable because of the honor and blessings it brings to the diligent seeker (Prov. 4:1-9).

Therefore, wisdom is to be pursued (“get”; Prov. 4:5, 7) and valued (love her; Prov. 4:6; 8:17, 21) because she protects (Prov. 2:7-8, 11; 3:21-23) and guards the welfare of the saint.

As wisdom is valued and loved (Prov. 4:6), she gives honor (3:16), and an attractive life, pictured as a beautiful ornamental wreath of grace (1:9) and a crown of glory (4:8, 9; 16:31). The opposite is also true: a foolish, unwise life is dishonorable, unattractive, and shameful. Solomon experienced both wisdom and folly and therefore he could speak with conviction about both kinds of results.

Lesson:

I.               Why Is Learning Important to Our Relationship with God?

a.    Constant Learning Is One of The Keys to Spiritual Growth. 

1.     Deut. 5:1, And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.   

2.     The people had entered a covenant with God, and Moses commanded them to hear, learn, and follow his statutes.

a.      Christians also have entered a covenant with God (through Jesus Christ) and should be responsive to what God expects.

b.     Moses’ threefold command to the Israelites is excellent advice for all God’s followers.

                                                                                                                          i.     Listening is absorbing and accepting information about God.

                                                                                                                        ii.     Learning is understanding its meaning and implications.

                                                                                                                      iii.      Obeying is putting into action all we have learned and understood.

                                                                                                                      iv.     All three parts are essential to a growing relationship with God.

3.     Decide to Be a Continual Learner!

a.      The best way to keep from becoming satisfied with your current achievements is to make yourself a continual learner. That kind of commitment may be rarer than you realize. For example, a study performed by the University of Michigan several years ago found that one-third of all physicians in the United States are so busy working that they’re two years behind the breakthroughs in their own fields.²

b.     If you want to be a continual learner and keep growing throughout your life, you’ll have to carve out the time to do it. You’ll have to do what you can wherever you are. As Henry Ford said, “It’s been my observation that most successful people get ahead during the time other people waste.”

c.      That’s one reason I carry books and Christian publications with me all the time. During the downtimes, such as waiting for an appointment, I can go through a stack of material, reading and identifying articles. Or I can skim through a book, learning the major concepts and pulling out quotes I’ll be able to use later. And when I can, I maximize my learning time by continually listening to instructive videos, tapes in the car and at home.

d.     Frank A. Clark stated, “Most of us must learn a great deal every day in order to keep ahead of what we forget.” Learning something every day is the essence of being a continual learner. You must keep improving yourself, not only acquiring knowledge to replace what you forget or what’s out of date, but building on what you learned yesterday. 

4.     Focus on self-development, not self-fulfillment.

a.      There has been a change in focus over the last fifty years in personal growth. Beginning in the late sixties and early seventies, people began talking about “finding themselves,” meaning that they were searching for a way to become self-fulfilled. It’s like making happiness a goal because self-fulfillment is about feeling good.

b.     But self-development is different. Sure, much of the time it will make you feel good, but that’s a by-product, not the goal (Prov. 2:10).

                                                                                                                          i.     Self-development is a higher calling; it is the development of your potential so that you can attain the purpose for which you were created. There are times when that’s fulfilling, but other times it’s not. But no matter how it makes you feel, self-development always has one effect: It draws you toward your destiny.

                                                                                                                        ii.     Rabbi Samuel M. Silver taught that “the greatest of all miracles is that we need not be tomorrow what we are today, but we can improve if we make use of the potential implanted in us by God.”