And welcome. I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible and Business. Thank you for joining me again today. This episode is the 12th episode in a 30 part series taken from my book biblical Wisdom for Business Leaders. 30 sayings from the Book of Proverbs.
And today’s topic is about taking joy in succession, not succession of our business. I know that’s where a lot of people’s kind of minds are going to go when it comes to this video, because succession planning for family businesses and succession in general is a very important topic for business. But no, this lesson will focus on succession of our faith to the next generation. It comes from Proverbs 23, verses 15 and 16. But before we get started, I’d like to just ask you to head over to Bibleandbusiness.com and check out my website, listen to some of the other podcasts and read the articles, and especially pick up on my Friday Five.
Segments that I’ve restarted again, where every Friday I put out five things during the past week that I thought were interesting and noteworthy, and I just make a note of them and comment on them. You might be interested in reading about the Friday five at Bible and Business. So let’s go ahead and get started. Proverbs 23, verses 15 and 16 my son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad indeed my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right now, if saying nine instructed us to avoid a fool, in other words, a person who despises sound instruction and wisdom. And saying ten, we are taught to be the opposite of fool.
We pursue wisdom and knowledge and value and development through learning. Then in saying eleven, we learn that we discipline our children so that they don’t become fools. So what happens in this saying? Well, saying twelve here, this one takes a very different approach, and it appeals to the child from his parents perspective. So what’s really going on here is that if we discipline our children well and we model our faith well, then they will grow up to be teachers of wisdom themselves, completing our job of passing wisdom on to the next generation.
And that will also give us great joy in a job well done. This is not unlike Deuteronomy six, verses four through twelve. I’ll just read parts of it hero, Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one that’s the great Shama, right? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
These commands that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your house and on your gates. I’m going to stop there.
Look at all the ways that he’s trying to say the same thing. What Moses is really trying to say here is bake into every aspect of your life, the teaching of God’s Word and the living out of God’s wisdom in a healthy, daily way. Because if you do that, if you and I do that, our kids are going to see this. They’re going to see that it works, and they’re also going to see that it’s genuine. And they are much more apt to accept our faith when they are adults and follow it themselves.
So we pass on God’s wisdom by discussing his commands with our children and living them out in every facet of life. And if we do happen to find financial success, we’re even more diligent in remembering the Lord who rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. In other words, we do not let financial success change who we are. And that’s really what Moses is getting at here in this last part, when God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, large cities, and you build these fine houses filled with all kinds of good things, then what does he say? When you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt.
In other words, who rescued you, right? And he brought you out of the land of slavery. In other words, he took you from slavery and put you into freedom. And so even if we become financially successful, we need to be even more diligent in remembering the Lord and even more diligent in passing on God’s wisdom by discussing his commands and living them out in a healthy way in front of our children and in front of our grandchildren. So what the sage is telling us with this saying is that succession of our faith is a stewardship issue that should be finished well before we die.
So in business, right, as Christian business leader, our legacy is far greater than the wealth that we generate. The most significant legacy we’re going to have in life is not the wealth that we create, but who we are as people. So conduct ourselves well in business, bake into our lives Godly wisdom, and then we will leave a strong legacy behind us. And then we will have great joy because the next generation will have picked up the mantle of teaching and living out Godly wisdom, and we will see them do it, and we will be very, very full by the time God calls us home. Now, next week in our next episode, we’re going to be in the next two chapters in Proverbs 23, verses 17 and 18.
And the topic there, the sage is going to say, you know what? Don’t envy the wicked even though they look successful. Even though they appear successful, even though they seem to have power, don’t envy them, don’t desire what they have. So we’re going to talk about that in our next episode. So until we see each other again, I want to thank you for joining me today.
I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible of Business. And by the way, if you’d like to talk with me, just send me a quick email, bill@bibleandbusiness.com I’ll be sure to respond. Give me 24, 48 hours to respond, and I’ll be sure to respond. And perhaps we can hop on the phone and talk about whatever problems you have in business or maybe some ideas you have about starting a new business. I’ve been paying it forward now for a number of months with various folks, and I’m happy to do that with you as well.
So send me an email, Bill, at Bible and Business, and I look forward to hearing from you. So until we see each other again, thank you for joining me today. I hope you go out and make it a great day. Take care.