Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Proclaimed: 05/19/19

Intro:

• Since today is graduate Sunday, I thought it would be interesting for us to take a few minutes to open our message by thinking a little of the world of connecting that these young people entered into when they were born in 2000-2001.
  • The first Apple stores opened selling Apple products, but also offering classes and personalized support.
  • Apple’s Mac OS X which is the basis for the Mac operating system even now is launched.
  • iTunes is released on Mac computers for use as the media player for the systems. iPods would be released by the end of the year to allow people to listen to their music on the go.
  • Microsoft officially launched their home gaming console that had originally been called the DirectX Box. Using all of the parts of a standard computer along with Direct X high quality graphics software, Xbox sold out in just a few days.
  • Windows XP was also launched in this year, eventually becoming the most widely adopted and persistent operating system on the planet. It was so popular that Microsoft supported until April 8, 2014.
  • Websites led the way into a Dot Com boom and bust as everyone wanted a website from businesses to hobbyists. By 2000 buisness ventures that launched online with unsound financial plans began to fail, eventually leading to a 60% loss of all technology stocks value.
• Do you notice anything missing from that list?
  • There is not one smartphone advance listed because there were none!
    • Phones in 2001 were either flip phones, bricks or land lines.
    • The most advanced devices were BlackBerry wireless handhelds that allowed people to access emails and other services, but no mobile phone capabilities. The first iPhone did not debut until 2007.
  • Similarly there are no social media advances listed because again, there were so few.
    • The first social media sites were already in existence in 2001, but did not last. The two early sites were Six Degrees and Friendster.
    •  It was not until LiknkedIn started in 2002, MySpace in 2003, Facebook in 2004, Twitter in 2006, and Instagram in 2010 that we had social media sites with staying power.

Hook:

• In just the lifetime of these graduates lives we have seen a world wind shift in the way we communicate and connect with others.
• When you graduates were born we could connect by
  • Meet people face to face,
  • Call each other probably on land-line telephones,
  • Writing letters or notes,
  • For the most savvy  we could email one another or post on websites from our computers.
• But now we have more social media websites that try to connect us with others than we had options in those days.
• Graduates and church family, at our fingertips we have technology that connects us to others and has the potential to greatly change us for good and bad.
  • Tony Reinke says in his book 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You that the idols of the OT “were more like our technologies, divine oracles of knowledge and prosperity, used by worshipers in an attempt to control and manipulate the events of life for personal benefit. The figurine and the iPhone appeal to the same fetish.”
  • Reinke also says that advances in technology also point us forward and feed our longing to being in “the presence of our triune God in a new creation, built not by human ingenuity and sinful hands, but by the very design and innovation of God -the sinless and deathless and tearless creation God has always intended. (38)
• So today as we consider perhaps the most important verse on the fear of man, my hope is that you will see the way connecting can become a snare, and the one solution to release us from the trap.

Message Points:

• As we turn our attention to Proverbs, remember friends that this is a collection Hebrew Poetry that deals with all sorts of topics.
  • So in one chapter as we read we may encounter a number of different topics seemingly jumbled together.
  • One major approach to the Proverbs is to organize all of the proverbs according to the topics they address, and then to study what God says about those topics.
  • That said, there is a structure and a context into which each of these Proverbs is given.
    • Today’s passage is in a section known as “More Proverbs of Solomon” that were compiled in the time of King Hezekiah.
    • Often times Proverbs are in couplets, with two verses sharing similar ideas and building upon one another.
• Today’s focus verse, 29:25 can be seen either as a companion to verse 24 or to verse 26.
  • If it is a companion to verse 24, then this section of proverbs ends with these final two couplets 24-25 and 26-27.
  • Thus we should be aware of verse 24 which says that a thief’s accomplice is their own enemy because they cannot tell the truth.
    • In other words it is the connection to the thief and his activities that has caused them to be ensnared so they cannot tell the truth.
      • Either they will incriminate themselves because of their connections to the crimes.
      • Or they will endanger themselves because of their knowledge of what the wicked person is doing.
    • Verse 25 then builds upon this situation to give us a principle with a promise.
  • But there also can be a case made for verse 25 to be in relationship to verse 26, and because this is the end of a section of the Proverbs, verse 27 stands alone as a capstone.
    • In this situation, verse 25 still offers the principle with a promise.
    • Verse 26 provides an example of that principle and promise in action.
  • My suggestion to you is that verse 29:25 in either case fitted into this context so tightly that we cannot easily take it out of the context without  doing damage to it.
• So let’s examine this verse. It begins with the phrase the Fear of Man.
  • Notice that here we are not taking directly about connecting, but the sort of dangers that happen when we connect – namely the fear of man.
    • We have identified three specific dangers of connecting related to the fear of man:
      • The first danger of not knowing who’s telling the truth.
        • Graduates and congregation, as we enter into the world, even as we leave this place today, we will have to decide what is really true.
        • For those of you graduates who are headed to college, there will be many who will say there is no such thing as truth. Beware because those who say that certainly want you to believe that axiom is true.
        • For all of us, we must judge whether what we see on the news or in someone’s newsfeed is really true.
      • The second danger of over exposing ourselves, putting on display insecurities and sins.
        • Don’t think that people are not watching you friends.
        • In our ever more connected world there are people who examine our every move.
        • And lest we become paranoid at that fact, recognize that this has always been the case.
        • The difference now is that we cannot so easily hide our true selves in an age where we are connected 24/7.
      • And the third danger of keeping up appearances.
        • Graduates and congregation, it is folly to try to craft our perfect image.
        • The more we try to craft an image that is what we want, the more we hide ourselves from others and from God.
        • Further, as we become more and more alone, we slide deeper and deeper into our own sinful pursuits.
  • Notice that this verse says that the fear of man will prove to be a snare!
    • The Hebrew word used here for a snare is utilized 40 times in the Old Testament. (See TWOT, reference 905)
      • Its basic meaning is of a trap used to catch prey, but frequently in these usages it is used as a metaphor for trapping people.
      • As such a snare “is something that allures one from his real purpose and then destroys him.”
        • The ultimate such snare is death in Psalm 18:5, which will eventually capture all of us.
        • But wickedness such as idolatry (Proverbs 29:6, Exodus 23:33), wicked people, rash vows (Proverbs 20:25), friendship with angry people (Proverbs 22:24), and the fear of man can also be a snare.
      • But snares are also discusses as being used by God.
        • He sets a trap for those who oppose him in Jeremiah 50:24.
        • He allows people to become so self-sufficient so that they ignore any guidance from Him (Isaiah 28:13) and do as they please.
        • Then as they pursue their own desires, Proverbs 29:6 tells us that such “evildoers are snared by their own sin” or as Psalm 9:16 says, they are “snared in the work of their own hands.”
        • God’s ultimate snare is Christ as He requires that one surrender their life to Him.
          • God predicts in Isaiah 8:14 that the Christ will be a sanctuary for those who receive Him.
          • At the same time He predicts that he would be a  “stone of offense”, a “rock of stumbling” and “a trap and a snare” to those who will not surrender to Him.
• Graduates and congregation, this the first point that we need to examine. It is the principle these verses teach: Fear of Man ensnares us.
  • Verse 24 offers one way the Fear of Man ensnares us.
    • It is the connection with the wicked person, the thief in this circumstance, that keeps us entrapped.
      • The closer our friendship and connection is with that toxic person, the more we will become warped by the connection.
      • But do not think of the thief merely as one who has come only to steal money or material possessions.
        • Obviously if we participate or know of such sinful pursuits we cannot speak about them without incriminating ourselves.
      • Think of the thief as well as someone who warps our mind by trying to steal our joy!
        • Graduates and congregation we will encounter many people who will dismiss, ridicule, question, or pessimistically comment upon our joy in Christ.
        • When we keep these people as our closest friends or the people we follow and connect to on social media, they will begin to change the way we think.
        • If we come to the place where we fear speaking the truth about what God has been doing in our lives, and His ultimate victory over the world, we have been entrapped by their pessimism.
  • Verse 26 similarly shows us that the Fear of Man can ensnare us by fooling us into thinking that a leader’s approval is what we need.
    • Anytime we allow our joy and peace to become dependent upon another person, we have become entrapped.
    • Once we do that, all it will take is for someone to ignore or to speak poorly of us for us to become dejected.
    • Notice if you will how verse 27 tells us that the wicked detest the upright.
    • If we hang our hopes, our joy, and our peace on others approval; then we have two options.
      • Either we can become people pleasers, doing everything they want and thus be entrapped by having to serve others.
        • By living to gain the approval of others, we cannot do what we might desire or prefer.
        • Not we are trapped and bound to do what others approve.
      • Or we can become depressed, as people enviers.
        • We envy the approval of others that we do not receive and it depresses us.
        • We may still holding onto our principles, but do so begrudgingly.
        • We feel trapped by sadness and hurt because others have rejected or detested us.
  • So again to our principle “Fear of Man ensnares us”.
• But we also need to examine the promise of our key verse.
  • Verse 25 continues assuring us that anyone can avoid the fear of man.
    • Look if you will at that word whoever.
      • This word in the NIV is one that is translated to stand for an implied relative pronoun in the text.
      • Thus it is telling us, that anyone who receives and keeps the terms of this promise will also receive its benefits.
    • So who are the ones who will receive the promise?
      • That is the one who trusts in the Lord.
      • The sort of trust that is being discussed is not one that is merely intellectual.
      • It is not merely a mental decision that affects no real change, it affects the way we live and the way we feel.
        • The Hebrew word is one that means trust in or feel safe.
          • It implies that that we have a new confidence about life and the future.
          • It also implies that we have a new care-free attitude about troubles.
        • In other words trusting Christ gives us the confidence and care-free attitude to not be ensnared and bound by the Fear of Man.
      • Why is that so? Trusting means that we have a new direction for our lives.
        • Rather than associating with those who steal from us our joy and hope, we associate with one who is the author and finisher of our hope.
        • Rather than seeking the approval of people who will always disappoint us, we seek the approval of God who will always be faithful to us.
    • Verse 26 tells us that the Lord is the one who gives us justice, not a ruler.
      • Thus we need to be made right with Him.
      • GIVE THE GOSPEL
    • Verse 27 tells us that those who have associated themselves with the Lord will no longer desire for the approval of the wicked, but rather detest their dishonesty.
  • The phrase is kept safe is also a single Hebrew word that means being inaccessibly high (TWOT ref 2239).
    • It was used of cities built on hills so that they would be safe places of refuge against enemy attacks.
    • We often hear this word translated as lofty. The essence is that height equaled safety.
    • Proverbs 18:10 tells us that the name of the Lord is a strong tower, using this same word. Thus we are safe when we are focused on the Lord.
    • In the world the way to avoid a snare is to look down, watching for trip wires. But spiritually the only way to avoid snares is to look up – to focus on the Lord himself who is able to keep us safe because he is so great.
    • Connecting to the thing down here, of this world is a negative inasmuch as it keeps us from connecting with the true one who can give us safety, Christ.

Conclusion:

• So graduates, congregation and friends, consider this before you leave here today.
• Connectedness is not our real problem.
• Face to Face, telephone assisted, emails or snail mail, and social media are not the real problem.
• The real problem is fearing others so much that we become entrapped by seeking their approval.
• The only solution is by trusting the Lord and seeking his approval alone.