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- In many ways church is a family. Bible calls it as a family .
- Jesus considered it more important than his own family.
- It is our spiritual family. This is the family we are going to live for ever and ever.
- Think about your relationship with your Physical family.You may recollect in every step from your young age you took advice from your parents or older siblings about your studies / job / marriage / business / buying things etc.,
Why did you do that?
- Older people are experienced
- Your decisions in life could affect your immediate family.
- We can trust our family because they have the best of interest for our future.
For example:
- Leaving a job when family is under a financial crisis. Sure you will take advice.
You will also remember your family members pulling you aside to correct you or help you when they saw something wrong in you. We even got punished and disciplined for our wrong behaviors. Why? In order to make us responsible they did that.
Today we are going to learn about taking advise and accepting corrections in the church.
I. TAKING ADVICE
Q1. Why we should take advice?
God's will
Proverbs 13:10
Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.
Q2. On which areas of our life we should take advice?
Proverbs 11:14
For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure.
Q3. To whom we should take advice?
Proverbs 12:5
The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.
Q4. When we should take advice?
Proverbs 20:18
Make plans by seeking advice; if you wage war, obtain guidance.
Q5. What should we do after talking advice?
Proverbs 19:20
Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.
Q6. Why we don't like to take advice?
Proverbs 12:15
The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.
The spirit of "i do it myself". Why it is celebrated in the world?
- it gives you identidity / it makes you feel and look cool/ you don't loose individuality
- it puts you on the pedestal of leader not a follower
Q7. What are the hindrances to take advice?
1. Pride
2. Not having the attitiude I need to enquire God
3. Fear of suppression by others
4. Itching ears because of our past
Q8. How to overcome that?
- Make a decision to be humble
- Understand that you are taking advice from God not from men
- And Godly adivice will always be right
Q9. What are the benefits of taking advice? What will happen if we reject Godly advice?
Proverbs 1:20-33
20 Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares;
21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:
22 "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?
23 If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.
24 But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand,
25 since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke,
26 I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you--
27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.
28 "Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me.
29 Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD,
30 since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke,
31 they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.
32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."
Q10. What should I do if I don't agree with the advice given?
Moses the Good example:
Exodus 18:19
Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him.
Moses accepting his father in laws adcivce
Rehoboam & Jeroboam the bad example:
1 Kings 12
1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king.
2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt.
3 So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him:
4 "Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you."
5 Rehoboam answered, "Go away for three days and then come back to me." So the people went away.
6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. "How would you advise me to answer these people?" he asked.
7 They replied, "If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants."
8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him.
9 He asked them, "What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us'?"
10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, "Tell these people who have said to you, 'Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter'--tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.
11 My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.'"
12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, "Come back to me in three days."
13 The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders,
14 he followed the advice of the young men and said, "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions."
15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.
16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: "What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!" So the Israelites went home.
17 But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.
18 King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.
19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
20 When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.
21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin--a hundred and eighty thousand fighting men--to make war against the house of Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22 But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:
23 "Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,
24 'This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.'" So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.
25 Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.
26 Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David.
27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam."
28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."
29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.
30 And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there.
31 Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites.
32 He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made.
33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.
1 Kings 13:1-4
1 By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering.
2 He cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD: "O altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: 'A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.'"
3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: "This is the sign the LORD has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out."
4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, "Seize him!" But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back.
Here you will see two kings / they both took advice! But not from the right people.
And when the right advice was given they didn't accept it. And they suffered for it.
II. ACCEPTING CORRECTIONS
Why we hate corrections? What is the right attitude towards corrections?
a. 2 Samuel 12
1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.
2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle,
3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 "Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him."
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!
6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity."
7 Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
8 I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.
9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'
11 "This is what the LORD says: 'Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight.
12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.'"
13 Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.
14 But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die."
15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill.
16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground.
17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.
18 On the seventh day the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, "While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate."
19 David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. "Is the child dead?" he asked. "Yes," they replied, "he is dead."
20 Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.
21 His servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!"
22 He answered, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, 'Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.'
23 But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me."
24 Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The LORD loved him;
25 and because the LORD loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.
26 Meanwhile Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal citadel.
27 Joab then sent messengers to David, saying, "I have fought against Rabbah and taken its water supply.
28 Now muster the rest of the troops and besiege the city and capture it. Otherwise I will take the city, and it will be named after me."
29 So David mustered the entire army and went to Rabbah, and attacked and captured it.
30 He took the crown from the head of their king --its weight was a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones--and it was placed on David's head. He took a great quantity of plunder from the city
31 and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes, and he made them work at brickmaking. He did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.
b. Job 5:17
Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
c. Job 36:10
He makes them listen to correction and commands them to repent of their evil.
d. Proverbs 5:12
You will say, "How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction!
e. Proverbs 10:17
He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.
f. Proverbs 12:1
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.
g. Proverbs 13:18
He who ignores discipline comes to poverty and shame, but whoever heeds correction is honored.
h. Proverbs 15:5
A fool spurns his father's discipline, but whoever heeds correction shows prudence.
i. Proverbs 15:10
Stern discipline awaits him who leaves the path; he who hates correction will die.
j. Proverbs 15:12
A mocker resents correction; he will not consult the wise.
k. Proverbs 15:32
He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.
l. Proverbs 29:15
The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.
m. Jeremiah 2:30
"In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.
n. Jeremiah 5:3
O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
o. Jeremiah 7:28
Therefore say to them, `This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.
p. Zephaniah 3:2
She obeys no one, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the LORD, she does not draw near to her God.
q. Zephaniah 3:7
I said to the city, `Surely you will fear me and accept correction!' Then her dwelling would not be cut off, nor all my punishments come upon her. But they were still eager to act corruptly in all they did.
Q1. Do we like corrections?
No way.
Q2. Why we don't like corrections?
- it makes you feel small
- it is discouraging to know that you did wrong
- it gives a kind of powerto others
- you feelput down/ let down especially in front of others
Q3. Who all tried to correct us in our life and how was our response to that?
- father mother - we hated it
- teacher - we hated it
- our friends - we stopped talking to them
- our boss - we left the job and got a new one
- our siblings - we refuted and told them what they need to change
Q4. Why is that?
Because by nature we are sinful and we don't like to see our faults
Q5. How to overcome it?
Purpose of correction - to become wise not tp put you down
From who / it is the Lord who corrects us we need to learn to see thro our discipler fasce the throne of god.
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
Result fo correction - to become perfect for eg. you will never get aperfect paint if the artist refused to cahnge the mistakes
- correction is important
- they always did it in your school
- your papers were evaluated to make you guilty? No to understand the right answers
Q6. What should be our attitude?
Psalm 141:5
Let a righteous man strike me-- it is a kindness; let him rebuke me-- it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it. Yet my prayer is ever against the deeds of evildoers;
We got to be grateful
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