“Wisdom of Receiving Correction (Part 2/2)” - Proverbs 15:32
Sermon series: Navigating Life with Proverbs
Sermon Title: Wisdom of Receiving Correction Pt. 2
Scripture: Proverbs 15:32
Introduction:
As we continue from last week’s sermon on receiving correction in areas of foolishness, we now look at the theological solution.
To some degree, we all resist correction because we believe it is a stab at our identity. Unless we are willing to discern and listen to the correction given to us, we are only sabotaging our own growth as sons and daughters of Christ.
Those who disregard discipline sabotage themselves, but those who are open to correction gain understanding.
The theological solution is that we need the Gospel. The Gospel says Jesus Christ is Lord and simultaneously has us surrender our pride to see we are not. With Jesus as Lord and the foundation to our identity, the truth of the gospel gives us the freedom to have room in our hearts to receive and accept correction without feeling personally offended.
Overview:
Giving correction with wisdom:
● Maybe you’re not comfortable giving corrections, but you’re going to have to.
● Churches aren’t the perfect model.
Christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behavior. They are, rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced, and dealt with. (Eugene Peterson)
● Correction can be good and even essential in a person’s growth, for the good of the other – let us be bold in giving correction when it is needed.
● Before we can speak wisdom and correction into the lives of others, we need self-awareness.
An examination of the self is useful:
● How am I doing in this area that I want to give advice to another?
● An honest self-examination is not to qualify yourself to the other person as being superior or having triumphed over the problem (a state of pride).
● But to share wisdom as someone humbled by how God’s grace has worked in this area (a state of humility).
When offering words of correction:
1. Give it prayerfully: there will be a good time where your words of correction are situated to be better received by the other. Pray over this timing.
2. Give it carefully: how you speak the words of correction influences how it may be heard by the other.
3. Give it lovingly: it comes from a place of compassionate love and concern for the other.
Receiving words of correction with wisdom:
1. Consider the advice regardless of the person:
● Though you may be disinclined to listen to certain people, God may be opening your capability to hear from a diversity of individuals in your life.
2. Recognize your blind spots:
● Oftentimes, our blind spots may be hidden behind our good traits and gifts.
● It may be hard to admit our blind spots as they may be found closely tied to our areas of strengths and where we draw our identity from.
● Until we root ourselves in the love of God, we will always find our identity attached when we receive correction.
● It is not only the awareness that will benefit us, but the strengthened rootedness of our identities will keep us anchored in the face of any storms that come our way.
3. Listening for God’s direction in our contemplation:
● Behind all the good and challenging words of correction, listen closely to what God may be saying.
● How does the correction speak more loudly into other troubling areas of your life that the Spirit wants to work in?
Sermon reflection questions:
When you give advice to another, do you give it with a humbled heart, or do you hold onto the pride of having triumphed over it in the past?
What is one of the areas where when you receive words of correction with wisdom, you fail to surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord?
In which area of your life has the Holy Spirit convicted you during today’s message? Is there an adjustment, or a decision, or a direction you have been wanting to go, but God is instead trying to reposition you away from?
