Finishing Drivers Ed
April 24, 2007 2:11 pm
Saturday night, we’re going to finish up the Drivers Ed messages in Proverbs. I want us to briefly review where we’ve been in this series of messages, but I would like for you all to hear from your friends how God met you in the Drivers Ed series. God is faithful to speak to us, challenge us, and change us through his word, so I know that there are ways that God has met you.
To participate, just leave a comment answering the following question: How did God bring illumination, encouragement, or conviction to you through the Drivers Ed series? Help us see how it came from a specific verse if you can. (If I use your comments, there might be a Smoothie or a Cold Stone in it for you.) Thanks for your help! I look forward to reading some of these on Saturday night!
7 Responses to “Finishing Drivers Ed”
After the message on work, I was convicted of laziness in my life. Throughout my school years I have tried to finish my homework as quickly as possible so I could do something more enjoyable. This laziness didn’t show up in grades, fortunately, so I hadn’t recognized it as a problem, I mean, it’s just the number at the top of the test that matters, right? That night, God convicted me that what mattered was what I was learning and how I spent my free time. Because of my rushing, I retained little knowledge from my high school courses, particularly those I didn’t enjoy, and I had wasted my free time on pleasurable activities that didn’t draw me closer to God. Thanks to the conviction brought by this message, God has helped me to grow in being diligent in school work and using my free time wisely.
For me, the message on work (Proverbs 6:6-11) was the most convicting. After the meeting, I looked back at how I’d been doing things and realized I wasn’t being diligent in many areas. If I needed to clean something, I would do the job quickly (and not necessarily thoroughly). I could particularly relate to the story Steve told about how when he was a teen, his mom would pick things up for him and put it on the stairs, but he would walk right by them. That story in particular convicted me, because I had been doing the same thing. Thanks to this message, I’ve been more conscience about patterns of laziness, and through God’s help, have been trying to improve in this area.
First of all, thank you Steve for your commitment to preach the Word. The excellent teaching we receive at five15 is a result of your striving to rightly handle the word of truth day by day in the hours of study, prayer, and preparation that lead up to a message. God has used you to help me (and I’m sure many others) love the cross and grow in grace in innumerable ways.
Now one way God spoke to me through the series was to “Get wisdom; get insight.” (Proverbs 4:5) I think this primarily came out in the first message and the one on friends. One way God was leading me to change was to humbly seek his wisdom and knowledge through my parents and good friends. God convicted me that I was avoiding accountability, correction, wisdom, and even meaningful fellowship with my parents and other believers. It struck me how many times an extortion to fear the Lord and seek wisdom is followed immediately by a call to honor and follow your parents as in Proverbs 1:7-8 for example. I think especially as a teen the two are inseparable!
God has taught me wonderful things through this series.
I totally agree with Aaron. And also, thank you for making it so easy to apply everything that we learn. I have benefited so much from the way that you suit the messages just for our teen-age needs.
The thing that has really stuck with me since you preached it is your message on words. I like to talk, and most everyone can attest to that. Ever since your message on Proverbs 25:11-12, I have really tried to cut out all the innocuous and unnessecary speech from my life. My favorite part from that message was the question that you posed to us: “Do your words prove you’re a Christian?” That really struck a chord deep inside me, because much of the time my words prove that I am anything but a Christian. Just thinking back on the last week/day/hours, there are many times where I have not proven that I am a Christian by my words. Also, this message has helped me with the way I correct people: “Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.” If you took those words and thought up the exact opposites that is what my correction looked like. I still struggle with this, but by God’s grace I am changing, slowly but surely.
Thanks again.
-j
The message on wisdom and folly left me with some profound things to think on. In my day to day encounters with the world, it is so easy for me to follow the path of folly, especially in my thoughts. Hearing about the diference in living by wisdom and folly was very helpful in that it made me really think about how I was living and motivated me to want to live more for Christ. The truth that, by accepting wisdom’s invitation, I am, in fact, grasping more than common sense, but am grasping eternal life, is an amazing thing. Proverbs 9:10 says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. By rebuking my foolish emotions that would lead me from God and focusing my living on this astounding truth, I am able to grow as a child of God. That\’s cool.
Thank you so much for this Driver’s Ed series. It has really helped me become more aware of my sin, but also how I can change. Something that I seemed to get out of this series was that I was not being diligent and faithful in all my tasks- I was only faithfully doing the chores, devotions, and schoolwork that I enjoyed. Also, when Mr. Leach came to preach on Proverbs on Money, what really stuck out to me was the question, “How can I use my free time to please God and to serve others?” This question is one tht I have to continually ask myself, because I don’t spend my time wisely. I am still trying to work on my laziness and diligence in all I do, but these messages have really helped. Thank you!! Proverbs 4:20-27
I really benefitted from the teaching on words. I specifically remember one point you made–which is that the words I use should show that I’m a Christian. I was very convicted about how I’m not a patient listener, and often don’t care about what my parents or my brother has to say to me.
A few things have really stood out to me this whole year. One is that the bible has things to say about pretty much every subject. Before these messages, I would have said that the bible has nothing to say about words, money, or friends. But God kindly revealed to me that those thing do matter to him! I’ve also benefitted from the message about family. I have to continue to ask myself who I enjoy spending more time with–family, or friends? I’ve learned that although friends are great, that family is always there for me.
Thanks so much for serving all us teens this way! I’ve become so much closer to my parents and brother because of these messages!
Care to comment?