Proverbs 13:10 (KJV)
Only by pride cometh
contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.
Advice.
Benjamin Franklin said
of it, “Wise men don’t need advise. Fools won’t take it.”
· All of us need advice
· Some of us like to give advice and
· A bunch of us will not receive advice
I found all sorts of
quotes for you about giving and receiving advice:
· Advice is like snow – the softer it falls the longer it
dwells upon and the deeper it sinks into the mind.[1]
· Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.[2]
· I never take advice from someone more messed up than me.[3]
· Advice is like cooking, you should try it before you feed it
to others.[4]
· Unsolicited advice is like someone singing out of tune. No
one wants to hear it.[5]
Stubborn and proud
people seldom like to hear advice and almost always try to give advise.
But the Bible says there
is wisdom in being well advised.
I want to address the
subject of the wisdom of the well advised by considering first,
I. The
Principle of Being Well Advised
For this point I plan to
stay in the book of proverbs to give you a bit of what it teaches about
receiving advice.
In the,
Multitude of counselors there is safety
Proverbs 11:14 (KJV)
Where no counsel is, the
people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.
Proverbs 15:22 (KJV)
Without counsel purposes
are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.
In these two similar
verses we have
· Two consequences of having no counsel and
· Two benefits of receiving much counsel
A. Without counsel there is disappointment and failure.
It seems to me that
would be the order:
· First disappointment
· Then failure
No one ever advances in
life without being teachable.
· There are a ton of quotes about unsolicited and unwanted advice,
· There are plenty of quotes that are intended to give advice
But
· There are not many quotes on the importance of following advice.
A person who will not
receive advise is not teachable and will discover his efforts to improve
himself are disappointed.
· A disappointed person, will often become
· A discouraged person, which will in turn lead to
· A devastated person
Success always comes through instruction –
another name for advice.
B. In the multitude of counselors comes establishment and safety
And I think that is the
order:
· First established
· Then safety
Consider a military
position.
The more established it
is, the more secure it is.
I listened this week to a podcast on the Battle of Dunkirk.[6]
Both the French and the
British were caught off guard in the early days of WWII. Neither country really
wanted to be involved yet.
They had a fighting
force that was greater than Germany, but they were not as committed to fighting
as Germany was.
Because they were not as
committed, Germany
· pounced on them,
· pinched them in, and effectively
· beat the both of them
They had no choice but
to retreat and evacuate at the beaches of Dunkirk.
And they would not have
even been able to do that except, for whatever reason, the Germans halted their
offensive just one day.
One day
That was just enough time
to
· Fortify their position,
· Plan their evacuation
· Enlist hundreds of volunteer watercraft and
· Execute their plan
When you can establish a
thing:
· Take counsel,
· Build a base and
· Create a plan,
you are able to
accomplish anything more safely.
C. What a multitude of counselors is not
It is not asking a lot
of people the same question and different times, looking for one piece of
advice you like.
Neither is it asking
those same people individually looking to see if they have some sort continuity
between their counsels.
Whenever someone comes
to me for counsel and informs me that they have asked for the counsel of others
on the same subject I always feel like I need to know what the other counsel
was so that I can add to it rather than contradict it.
That leads me to what I
believe
D. A multitude of counselors should be
It should be a “personal
board meeting.”
A wise person has a
group of people:
· That they trust and respect
· That know them well and
· That are invested in their success
When counsel is needed,
the group gets together to give counsel as a whole.
Benjamin Franklin is
considered America’s foremost philosopher, scholar and politician.
Franklin was not
formally trained but he did want to improve in his station in life.
What he did is create
what he called a Junto.
It was a group of never
more than twelve persons who all wanted to grow in education and skill.
These twelve met
together several times a month to
· Counsel,
· Critique and
· Develop
one another.
· They listened to each other practice public speaking
· They read each other’s written papers and
· They brain stormed ways to become more productive
It was Benjamin
Franklin’s Junto that came up with:
· The public library system and
· The fire department
Every one of us ought to
be a part of a Junto.
Let me move on to
II. Patterns (or
examples) of Leaders Who Used counselors
We find several examples
of leaders in the Bible who used and misused counselors.
A. Gentile Leaders
Pharaoh
Exodus 7:10-12 (KJV)
And Moses and Aaron went
in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down
his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
Then Pharaoh also called
the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in
like manner with their enchantments.
For they cast down every
man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
Pharaoh was likely the
most powerful leader in the world at this time.
But when Moses came to
him, challenged him to let Israel go and his rod turned into a serpent,
Pharaoh immediately
called for his wise men.
He did not arbitrarily
make a decision.
He got counsel – s poor
as that counsel was.
Ahasuerus
Esther 1:13-15 (KJV)
Then the king said to
the wise men, which knew the times, (for so was the king's manner toward all
that knew law and judgment:
And the next unto him
was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the
seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face, and which sat the
first in the kingdom;)
What shall we do unto
the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the
commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains?
Nebuchadnezzar,
Belshazzar, Darius, Cyrus and Ahasuerus all had and used counselors.
My point at this moment
is not to prove whether it was good counsel or bad counsel but just to
demonstrate that they did accept counsel.
They were all very
powerful men.
Yet every one of them
accepted the counsel of a group of advisors.
Among the Jews we have
the example of
B. Immature Leaders
Absalom
2 Samuel 15:31 (KJV)
And one told David,
saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O
LORD, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.
Ahithophel had been one
of David’s most trusted counselors. When he defected and took sides with
Absalom, he expected Absalom to respect and follow his counsel too.
Ahithophel wisely
counseled Absalom to strike David before he had time to fortify himself.
But David had a mole in
Absalom’s camp. Hushai was able to convince Absalom not to follow Ahithophel’s
advice and the Bible says,
2 Samuel 17:23 (KJV)
And when Ahithophel saw
that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him
home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged
himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.
There are two principles
at play here:
First, we shouldn’t ask advise of a multitude of
counselors when they are not together.
Let the counselors
improve upon one another by hearing each other.
Two when we ask counsel, expect that we will
follow the counsel.
If you don’t trust a
person enough to follow the advice they give you don’t ask them.
If you ask them and
don’t follow the advice, they will not likely give you advice again.
Rehoboam
1 Kings 12:6-8 (KJV)
And king Rehoboam
consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet
lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people?
And they spake unto him,
saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve
them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy
servants for ever.
But he forsook the
counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young
men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him:
Rehoboam is another
example of asking two counselors and then choosing the counsel he liked the
best.
It’s a worthless way to
seek counsel. He might as well have just done what he wanted without asking
anyone.
C. Godly Leaders
Moses
Exodus 18:14-19 (KJV)
And when Moses' father
in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou
doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand
by thee from morning unto even?
And Moses said unto his
father in law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of God:
When they have a matter,
they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know
the statutes of God, and his laws.
And Moses' father in law
said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.
Thou wilt surely wear
away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy
for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.
Hearken now unto my
voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the
people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God:
I see all sorts of
lessons here.
Moses was the sole
leader of the whole people of Israel. They came to him alone for everything.
His father in law
offered unsolicited advice and Moses listened and followed it.
· He was not too proud to accept counsel
· He was not too stubborn to accept it even though it was not
asked for and
· He took it even though it was from his father in law
King David
2 Samuel 16:23 (KJV)
And the counsel of
Ahithophel, which he counselled in those days, was as if a man had enquired at
the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and
with Absalom.
David had more than one
counselor.
And his counselor’s
counsel was taken like it was from the mouth of God.
There is wisdom in
advice.
But Proverbs 13:10 says
that there is wisdom in being well advised.
The difference is in
having good or bad counsel and for that I want to take you finally to
III. The Perfect
Passage on Wise Counsel
Psalms 1:1-6 (KJV)
Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in
the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a
tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his
season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so:
but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly
shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the
righteous.
For the LORD knoweth the
way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
We are told exactly
where not to get counsel and where to get counsel
A. Bad counsel comes from
· The ungodly
· The sinners and
· The scornful
I don’t think I will
take the time tonight to expound on what those are.
Frankly, I think any of
us who want godly counsel “know” who these guys are.
B. Good counsel comes from the law of the Lord
Not only must we delight
in the law of the Lord and meditate in it day and night;
We ought to seek counsel
from those we know to do the same.
Conclusion
I want to conclude with
one of the quotes I began the message with; Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.[7]
Proverbs 13:10 (KJV)
Only by pride cometh
contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.
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