And hello, I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible and Business. I want to thank you for joining me today. It’s really a pleasure to have you along. This is the 10th episode of a 30 part series that I’m I’m doing to take everybody through my book biblical Wisdom for Business Leaders, 30 Sayings from Proverbs. Today’s lesson is about becoming a lifelong learner. But before we get started, I’d like to just suggest that if you want to purchase my book and read while you’re watching these videos that you head out to Amazon, you can get it in paperback, Hardback or Kindle edition, or if you prefer to have it in electronic format from one of the other online retailers. These are all the retailers through which you can find my book. So let’s go ahead and get started. Proverbs 20 312 reads like this apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge. Now, this saying is really a stark contrast to the previous saying that characterized those who despise Godly wisdom as fools. You’ll recall that fools despise wisdom. They don’t like to learn, they only like to listen to themselves kind of a thing.
And then the sage comes along and says, I want you as a follower of God, as a follower of Yahweh, to be very, very different. We are to intentionally bake Godly instruction into our inmost beings. Now, the Hebrew word, therefore apply is really in the imperative. The English equivalent. To apply your heart or to apply your ear is really pay attention. Listen, you got to pay attention here. And so when you apply this in Christian business, the outcome is that Christian business leaders must apply themselves to learning Godly wisdom. If we’re going to become the stewards that God intends us to be, we have to pursue it, to find it, and to pursue this, in other words, and to pursue Godly wisdom, to pursue instruction, to pursue knowledge, it’s going to require time, energy, and intentionality. We will not receive God’s wisdom if we are cavalier about pursuing his presence and studying His Word. Now, there’s a lot of excuses as to why we don’t do this. I think the most often one is that I’m busy. When the I’m busy excuse is offered, we should really take a step back and look at our priorities.
It is Lukewarm Christians, and I’m sorry to be kind of direct here, but.
In other ways, I’m not sorry to be direct.
Lukewarm Christians are the ones who are going to point to the fullness of their calendars and the demands of the deliverables that they have on them as sufficient explanations for why they don’t practice the basic Christian disciplines. Such as reading God’s word, studying his word, praying, spending time in prayer, spending time with others in deep friendships where people hold each other accountable. I’m too busy. I travel a lot. Whatever the excuse is, the reality is really very different. The I’m too busy excuse is likely a much more serious indication of a heart that has drifted from God or a heart that just isn’t sensitive or warm, I’ll put it that way. Towards God. We always have time for that which we think is important. You know what? Anybody, including myself, would fit this. If you show me your calendar and you show me where you spend your money, I can show you what’s important in your life. Tell me what you carve out time for, tell me where you spend your money and I’ll show you where your priorities are. So this excuse that I’m too busy doesn’t really wash when you actually look at it.
Second excuse of why we don’t pursue knowledge and why we don’t study the Scriptures. Second one is this I’m not a reader. A lot of Christians I have had in the last five or ten years, I’ve had say to me, you know what, I’m not really a reader. I just don’t enjoy reading all that much. They’d rather watch a movie, they’d rather listen to a podcast. So fine, pursue the various podcasts, watch the videos. That can help you grow. The larger point is that you’re going to have to be intentional about pursuing God’s wisdom and pursuing his knowledge. But I also just want to gently push you here a little bit. Reading the Bible is a spiritual activity. It’s not just an academic exercise. And even if you don’t read a lot of the Bible, reading some of it a little bit at a time is going to really help you. And reading, quite frankly, is visceral to learning. You’ve probably heard this phrase that leaders are readers, right? And there is some truth to that. If you’re not a big reader, you’re probably not going to be a leader. And reading is visceral to learning.
Learning is visceral, I think, to becoming a good business leader. So I’ll just ask that maybe you consider pushing yourself a little bit and learning to do that, which is either unpleasant for you or is difficult for you. But taking a look at how you can read more so that you can absorb more of God’s knowledge, his Word, and that you can apply your heart and your ear to his instruction. Yes, podcasts are fine. Yes, videos are fine, right? But reading needs to become a part of that at some point. Other excuses as to why people don’t pursue knowledge depth of insight is how Paul puts it in one book or really pursuing God’s instruction.
I’m not a school person, that’s just not me. I’m not academic.
Other people say it that way. Or maybe I’m too tired after getting home from work to read. I don’t feel like it. I’m just really tired. And when I get home, I got the kids and the family I got to deal with and I want to spend time with them. And so that starts to bleed back into this thing of I just don’t have time.
Some actually have been honest and just.
Said, I’m just not interested in learning that stuff. And I think at that point you have to ask an honest question that we’ll ask on the next slide. Some are also going to say, I just get too distracted when I sit down to read or I sit down to learn, I get too distracted. Those kind of people tend to gravitate towards audio and video anyways. You know what? If in your heart of hearts you’re.
Just not really interested, then I’m just.
Going to ask you to check yourself. Are you really a Christian or do you just have some Christian flavors in your life? Right? And the reason I ask the question is because real Christians, those who have been genuinely regenerated by the Holy Spirit and are part of the family of God, they want to learn about God. They want to learn about the Bible. They find that learning about God and learning about the Bible is exciting. And so if you look at that and you say, it’s just not that interesting to me, you’re okay with the concept of God and you feel like you got your own relationship with Him. But learning about the Bible, that’s just not your thing, then I would just check yourself and say, are you really a Christian? Have you really given your heart and your life to Jesus Christ? So here’s the conclusion for this particular episode. If the Holy Spirit lives inside of you and you keep pushing away his promptings to draw closer to God, to learn more about his knowledge, more about his wisdom, more about his instruction, then at some point you probably will come into danger of God turning away from you.
So let’s not be like the fool in the previous saying who despised wisdom, despised instruction, despised God coming in and saying, you need to think differently than how you’re thinking. Instead, let’s pursue God’s wisdom with intentionality and with passion. Now, in our next episode, we’re going to be in Proverbs chapter 23, verses 13 and 14, and we’re going to see how disciplining our children is not only an imperative in our home life, but it also carries over into our work as business leaders in the marketplace. So until we see each other again, I want to thank you for joining me. I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible and Business, and I hope you go out and make it a great day. Take care.