Living in True Freedom (Proverbs 1-5)

Freedom is one of the most valued ideas in our culture, but Scripture teaches that true freedom is more than simply doing whatever we want. Pastor Chris Teien explores Proverbs 1 through 5 to show that God's wisdom leads to a life marked by stability, integrity, and lasting joy. Discover why following God's ways brings the freedom every person is searching for.

In This Message

 1. Freedom Begins with Reverence for God 

True freedom starts with a right view of God. Reverence for the Lord leads us to trust Him rather than our own understanding, shaping every area of life with wisdom instead of self-reliance. (Proverbs 3:5-8; Psalm 111:10)

 2. Freedom Walks the Path of Wisdom 

God's wisdom provides practical direction for everyday life. By listening to His instruction and remaining committed to His truth, believers find stability, avoid many unnecessary pitfalls, and learn to navigate life's challenges with discernment. (Proverbs 4:10-13; Psalm 119:105; John 8:31-32)

 3. Freedom Refuses the Chains of Sin 

Sin promises satisfaction but ultimately brings bondage. Proverbs warns against moral compromise and reminds us that God sees every path we take, calling His people to pursue purity, faithfulness, and wise choices. (Proverbs 5:3-23)

4. Freedom Lives with Integrity 

Living with integrity means consistently walking in God's wisdom and trusting His care. Those who pursue uprightness can live with confidence, knowing the Lord guards their path and calls them to use their freedom to serve Him faithfully. (Proverbs 2:7-9; Proverbs 3:21-26; Galatians 5:13)

True freedom is found not in independence from God but in joyful obedience to Him. Proverbs shows that a life of reverence, wisdom, purity, and integrity leads to the secure and God-honoring freedom He desires for His people.

Helping you apply God's Word and follow Jesus in everyday life. Learn more at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.church  Find episode transcripts at Well.faith 

Transcript

Chris T 0:00

So we're going through Proverbs. And it's a summer of Proverbs. Last year was the summer in the Psalms. And so we're going through the Proverbs now. And we have encouraged you to go through a Proverb a day. If you haven't started yet, there's still time. It doesn't take very long to read the Proverbs. So Proverbs are wise sayings. Proverbs aren't guarantees. Proverbs are helpful for you to know how to live life. Proverbs are things that you can read and be encouraged by. They can be strategies to help you to be a better worker, a better leader, a better Christ follower, a better parent, a better person when you apply certain things to your life that apply to you. And when you're going through a Proverb a Day, there's 31, when you go through a chapter of Proverbs a day, I guarantee you there's going to be things that jump out at you, that encourage you, that convict you, that change your thoughts on the things that you do. Proverbs makes it very clear that there's a path that leads to wisdom and success, and a path that leads to foolishness and destruction and bondage and disappointment. And so that's what we want to look at today. But repeatedly through the Proverbs, we see that when we follow, when we learn, when we follow this wisdom, that we will enjoy secure footing in life, that it will be kept from stumbling, that the Lord will help us to move forward. So just a thing about freedom, real quick, is that some people think that freedom means nobody's going to tell me anything to do, I'll do whatever I want. And it doesn't really work that way. So either you're free to live God's will or you're free to rebel against it. One leads to destruction, one leads to life. And obviously, if we had everybody doing what was right in their own eyes when it came to even simple things like traffic, then it would be utter chaos. So if somebody said, well, a red light might mean stop to you, but it means hurry up to me, that would be chaos, that would be trouble. And so think about that and what true freedom is. Freedom, true freedom, living in true freedom, is the freedom to live in Christ and to work out his will and his ways. And those are a good thing for you. So Trimper Longman has written a book. I've been reading many books on Proverbs and commentaries and things, but in the beginning of how to read Proverbs, he wrote, and I thought it was really helpful for me to share to you, share with you about life. He says, Life isn't easy. We may enjoy temporary rest from the battle, but no one is completely immune to the complexities of circumstances and relationships. These problems range from minor annoyances, such as getting called to jury duty at an inconvenient moment, to major disasters such as serious illness or significant rupture in an intimate relationship. Sometimes we wake up in the morning and see the day as a series of obstacles to be avoided. We would love to be able to navigate life in a way that minimized the problems. The Bible never suggests that the life of a follower of God will be devoid of problems. If anything, it says exactly the opposite. Life has its joys, but according to 2 Corinthians 1 5, you can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. Even the joys are in the context of suffering. Unalloyed joy will come only in heaven. On this earth we will have problems. So he writes, so how do we handle life's problems? How do we deal with difficult people or uncomfortable situations? What do we say and how do we act? How do we express our emotions? And the Bible has a word to describe the person who is to navigate life well. That word is wise. A wise person lives life with boldness in spite of the inevitable difficulties. But where do we find wisdom? And we begin to find that in the book of Proverbs. And I shared before that wisdom, the basic idea of wisdom, is the skill of living. It's practical knowledge that helps one to know how to act and how to speak in different situations. Wisdom entails the ability to avoid problems and skill to handle them when they present themselves. Wisdom includes the ability to interpret other people's speech and writing in order to react correctly. So I think wisdom is being able to have God's help to rightly apply knowledge. So those are good things about wisdom and just a realistic view of life. So we don't know when one of us will be struck down by financial hardship or sickness or even death. Life is unsure. But we can be sure that we have this current moment and we should use it for God's glory. That would be a good thing. All right, number one, freedom begins with reverence for God. And I mentioned this back in the beginning of June, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear, the honor, the respect, the approaching with knowing that He is holy and He is pure, He is wise, and we put God first, and we want to do His ways and we want to please Him and we want to do His will. We want to do that. It's a healthy fear, it's a good fear. There's many things in life that bring us a healthy fear that hopefully we've been taught over the years. Like electricity, high-powered electricity is something that we love, that we need, that helps us, especially if it was hot and you had your air conditioner on or whatever. But some handyman wisdom that I learned from an old guy long ago is that if you're working in the electrical box, you want to make sure that you don't use both hands. You only want to use one hand, so if you get shocked, the electricity will go down the side of your body over here, as opposed to holding it like this where it zips through your heart, is what they told me. That's pretty good. So lots of different wisdom things when it comes to things like fire and just things that could be shared that are helpful. And we would want to go out of our way to tell our kids that, to tell whatever we could think of that was wise and helpful about how life works, we'd want to teach to our children and to our grandchildren. And so Solomon is taking time to write all this stuff down, to teach, it's addressed to it's addressed to sons, so addressed to his sons. Actually, son, and it doesn't really say was it Rowoam, it doesn't say who the son was, and it doesn't also make it 100% clear that it was just his writing to a son. Being a king with wisdom, maybe it was all the young men in the kingdom that he was addressing as sons, like when the old people call you son, hey son, those types of things. So it is inspired, written, given by the Holy Spirit. So we know it's for us. And there's many times where it says sons, where it actually applies in context to boys and girls, men and women, so it'd be children or be sons and daughters, would be a more effective way, but in the context, it was written to sons. And so that's important to know. It's passing on this wisdom. Proverbs 3 5, one of my favorite verses, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, actually, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your path straight. Don't be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. So maybe on July 3rd, you read that and you're like, that's pretty awesome. So you took a pen or a Bible highlighter or whatever, and you underline that in your Bible, and you're like, I want to remember this. I want to skim through my Bible and find that again. And so to remember these things, to memorize this, that if I trust in the Lord with all my heart, even when it doesn't seem to make sense, if I trust in God's word and I live out his will in his way, and it doesn't even seem to be effective at the time, but I know I'm applying it right. I know it's the right thing to do. I've even checked in Bible commentaries and study Bibles, and I know this is the right way to handle this relationship, or I know this is the right way to live my life, and it doesn't seem to be working with the people in my family or the people in my house or the people at work, but it is the right thing to do that you just keep trusting the Lord. Sometimes when you are doing the right thing and nobody appreciates it and it doesn't even seem to be rewarded, God sees and God can reward you for doing the right thing, even sometimes when it doesn't make sense. Even when it doesn't make sense. For example, doing the right thing even if nobody sees would be if you're in the grocery store parking lot and you accidentally run into someone's car, you probably want to let them know, oops, I'm sorry, I ran into your car. What can we do to make this right? As opposed to running into someone's car and then running off or driving off, and it's like, oh, I hope the cameras didn't see me. And so, well, thank you, God, for getting me out of that mess. It's not really no integrity there, but to do what's right in God's eyes is a good thing. Again, to know that God sees, that God cares, to know that God disciplines us when we do things that are wrong, according to the book of Hebrews. Again, Psalm 111, 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. What a great way to live our lives. What a great way to do what is right by living in God's wisdom and following his decrees, what he's given us. And again, in Proverbs, it's not always a 100% guarantee. It's more the way life usually works. And sometimes you need to look at the proverb and figure out exactly what that means, as far as what does that mean in context? There's a proverb I'll talk about in the future, but it says something like, it's the merchant or the purchaser or whatever, says, it's no good, it's no good. Then he gets a really good deal, right? And then he goes off and brags about what a good deal he got. So is that descriptive as something that somebody does that you shouldn't do? Or is it prescriptive the way Christians should be good stewards and get a good deal on stuff? So I'm thinking it's probably descriptive and we should be honest in our dealings. But Jesus said, if you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. No, that our lives matter, that we are free to do certain things. So it's actually an interesting thing to think about how much freedom do you really have? Because I think that's what God truly rewards. So say you have 24 hours in a day, but God thinks you probably need to sleep for at least six or seven hours, so that's fair. But then you have to go to work or you have kids or you have all these things, there's maybe a sliver of the pie that's your free time. There's a section of time where you might be able to choose to do whatever you want to do, or a day of the week you can choose to do whatever you want to do. What do you do with it? How do you live your life? What do you do with your true freedom at that time? And I think that what you choose to do in that time can really glorify God and make a difference. Number two, freedom walks the path of wisdom. Freedom walks in the path of wisdom. So, isn't that what you want to do? Don't you want to walk in wisdom, to know wisdom, to keep getting wisdom? I like to watch YouTube videos of wise people and how they handle life and the godly parts of what they do. Those are principles that I want to learn. In Proverbs 4.10, again, listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many. I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hampered. When you run, you will not stumble. Hold on to instruction, do not let it go, guard it well, for it is your life. So the way of wisdom gets person personified and in the book of Proverbs as someone that you want to follow, you want to follow her. And so Solomon's like, pay attention, pay attention, listen. Listen, my my dad in Proverbs he shares, I was once a son, and my father shared with me. And so you learn from instruction, and hopefully it makes a difference. Now, can I just make a quick aside, real quick, when we talk about Solomon talking about wisdom? Just real quick, let me throw this out here. Okay. So Solomon's talking about wisdom, and pretty soon in especially chapter 5 and many other chapters, he's going to talk about avoiding the wayward woman and the immoral woman and all of these things. But there's a problem when you look at 1 Kings 11. Thought Solomon he had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord in Solomon's old age. They turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God, as his father David had been. And I throw that out there because you have to keep coming back to your commitment to wisdom. You have to keep coming back to having those standards and putting up those barriers and being aware that if you get too comfortable, you can be easily led astray and they can destroy your life. So Bible scholars assume that, well, one, again, is inspired by the Holy Spirit, so we can trust it. But two, that these were probably written in Solomon's younger years before he fell into that mess. We just read about Psalm 119, 105. Your word is a lamp from my feet and a light to my path. So, number three, freedom refuses the chains of sin. Freedom refuses the chains of sin. Isn't it interesting to think about the choices that we make in life? That it can totally affect the rest of our life. Who we choose to marry or not marry, what we choose to do with our lives when it comes to morality can make a difference in the health of our body and everything else. It's a big deal. And we should warn our children, we should teach our children, we should encourage our children to wait until they're married, to be intimate, to hold out for the right person, to trust God, to work on becoming the man or woman of God you need to be, so that God can bring that right person into your life. So Proverbs 5:3. Solomon writes, the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey, and her words are smoother than oil. In the end, she's as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, and her steps head straight for Sheol. So Proverbs has these instructions. So it's beware of these women or these girls or whatever. And then he continues on. In verse 15, drink water from your own well. Share your love only with your wife. Verse 18, let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. And he continues on and he ends chapter five with this. He says, For a man's ways are before the Lord's eyes, and he considers all his paths. A wicked man's iniquities will trap him, and he will become tangled in the ropes of his own sin. So that's the warning. That's the warning is if you make bad choices, you have freedom. If you make bad choices, you may become entangled in your own trap. And more than that, God sees everything. God analyzes, God evaluates, God knows. Now God can forgive, but He might not clean up your mess. There's a lot of messes. There's family messes, there's all sorts of stuff, but there's a lot of grace too. So if you've had a family mess and you're on the on the other side of it, and now you're walking in the Lord and walking in wisdom, we applaud you, encourage you, and want to help you to live a Christian life. So to put God first. Sometimes not morality, but sometimes when it comes to finances, it's easy to put God first for a while and then put him off to the side. Interestingly enough, Proverbs 11.24 says, one person gives freely yet gains even more. Another person withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. And it's interesting. Sometimes the more people gain, the more people get, the less people give, the less people use their finances to do things for the kingdom of God. But Proverbs 4.23, guard your heart above all else. It determines the course of your life. Number four, freedom lives with integrity. We're going to talk about this more next week, but the integrity to follow the Lord, to think about wisdom and what God has for us. Proverbs 2.7, he holds success in store for the upright. God is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair, every good path. And then up to Proverbs 3 21, my son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight. Preserve sound judgment and discretion. They will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Have no fear of sudden disaster or the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared. I think you could spend the afternoon just pondering that, thinking about what exactly that means and how when you're in Christ, you can have that confidence. Sometimes it's tough to have confidence and not feel anxious when you look at the economy or the news or doom scroll on social networking or all of those different things, or many of those fake videos on TikTok and on YouTube that can't be true, that make it seem like destruction is near. Why even go on anymore? But to trust Christ and to know Galatians 5 13, you've been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters, but don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. Because Jesus said, If the Son sets you free, you will be free in deed. Let me pray, Jesus. I thank you that you've given us your word. I thank you that it's easily available in print and online. I thank you that it is available in our language, actually in many different translations that make it easier for us to understand and easy to study word for word from the Greek and the Hebrew and the Aramaic. And we're just so blessed. Lord, help us to take the time to read it, to apply it, to even memorize it. Lord, help us to get into us and to transform us. Then help us to take what we've learned and share it with others so they can be transformed too. So, Jesus, we just thank you for this time. We thank you for these people. We thank you for your word. We commit it all to you in Jesus' name. Amen.