Man, all right, we are in Proverbs chapter 12,
which is continuing this section of Proverbs
where it's just very punchy, quick statements
that really are just standalone, great Proverbs
that you could preach a whole sermon on each one.
But we're gonna do our best to get through
chapter 12 this evening.
Verse one, the Bible says,
"Whoso loveth instruction, loveth knowledge.
"But he that hateth reproof is brutish."
So he that loveth instruction, loveth knowledge.
People who are intelligent, who have a lot of knowledge,
who have a lot of wisdom, it's not necessarily
that they've just been under a lot of instruction
or that they've just sat in a school
or sat in a college classroom or sat in church.
In order for that knowledge to really benefit you,
you have to do something.
It says whoso loveth instruction.
So you gotta make sure that you're not wasting
the opportunities in your life that you have
to get instructed, and really it does start
as a young child.
You know, kids need to be taught to take their schooling
very seriously, to take the house of God very seriously,
when their parents are telling them something,
to take those things seriously,
and to actually not just be under instruction,
but to love instruction.
Because those who love instruction, love knowledge.
And then of course, you take that mentality
with you your entire life.
And those who get the most out of church,
they're the people who are actually desiring to be here.
Right, sometimes in church,
you got maybe the wife that's being drug along,
or maybe you got the kids that are, you know,
in their teenage phase that are being drug along.
You know, I've seen this over the years in church,
the person who is just sitting there,
the whole sermon on their phone with an angry face.
And you know what,
that person's not gonna get a lot of knowledge.
And you know whose fault that is?
Their fault.
And oftentimes people will complain about how,
you know, they're not learning at church,
they're not getting fed at church.
But really, it's just that you don't love instruction.
Because what's funny is when I listen to preaching
from other preachers, I'm a pastor
and I'm just learning a ton
every time I listen to other preachers.
Why?
'Cause I actually want to be instructed.
I actually want to get more wisdom
and more knowledge than I have right now.
And you know, you should always be hungry for wisdom.
You should always be hungry for truth.
And never think you've gotten to this place as a Christian
where you've just arrived.
You will never arrive.
I don't care if you read this Bible
through cover to cover a hundred times,
you will never arrive.
You will never know it all.
But he that hateth reproof is brutish.
Brutish just means stupid.
You know, it's like animalistic, like a brute beast.
And one of the attributes of a fool, of a stupid person,
is that they hate reproof.
And today there's this disease in our culture
where people just hate being told that they're wrong.
They hate being corrected.
So much so that I even see this type of culture
in the workplace where it seems like managers and bosses
have kind of been stripped of their power
and of their authority and are just always walking
on eggshells when they talk to their subordinates.
And how has this happened?
Well, it's come from a whole generation
that just hates reproof, that hates being corrected.
But let me tell you something,
if you don't want to be corrected, you are an idiot.
You are a fool, according to the Bible.
And you know what?
We need as people to humble ourselves
and realize that you don't know it all right now,
and you will never know it all.
I love what Pastor Jack Hiles once said.
He said, "All men know something that I don't.
Therefore, all men are my teachers."
You know, that's a great attitude to have,
to realize that, hey, people in this world
have different strengths and skills and areas of expertise.
And hey, you might be really great at your job.
And you know, a pastor might be great at what he does,
but none of us know everything, right?
And we can learn from each other.
That's why it's important to be around other Christians
to get that instruction.
Bible says in verse two,
a good man obtaineth favor of the Lord,
but a man of wicked devices will he condemn.
So, you know, God is working actively
in our lives as Christians.
God is not some impersonal, distant God
that doesn't really have his hand in creation.
You know, this is kind of what some
of our founding fathers thought as deists.
Some of them believe that there is a God,
but his hand has kind of been removed actively
from creation.
But really, the Bible's saying here
that good men obtain favor of the Lord.
So, God's looking down.
He's looking at every decision we make.
He's looking at the thoughts and intents of our heart.
I mean, God is able to read our thoughts.
He's able to know who we are at our innermost core.
And you know what, there's no hiding from God.
And you know, it's important to realize that, hey,
it is not a vain thing to be righteous.
It's not a vain thing to follow the Lord
and keep His commandments
because a good man obtaineth favor of the Lord.
Kind of connecting this to verse one, think about it.
You know, God is testing you when He gives you instruction.
You know, if you get instruction, children,
through your parents,
or if we just get instruction from people in our lives,
God sees how you react to that.
God sees if someone reproves you,
if you just kind of cringe in your heart
and get all upset and mad and bitter,
God sees those things and He will reward you accordingly.
A good man obtaineth favor of the Lord,
but a man of wicked devices will he condemn.
So, you know, a lot of the outcomes that we achieve in life
are as a result of whether or not God's favor
is on us or not.
And rather than having a bunch of money,
rather than being the tallest or the strongest
or whatever, you know, this world thinks
that they want to achieve in life,
what's more important than all of that
is having God on your side.
And that's the most important thing as an individual,
as a church, as a nation.
The Bible says in verse three,
a man shall not be established by wickedness,
but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
So established here kind of implies
that you're gonna be secure in the long term.
Because sometimes I think Christians get frustrated
because we often see people who are wicked
appear like they're prospering
and appear like things are going really good
and appear like things are secure for them.
Yet the Bible says a man shall not be established
by wickedness.
But the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
And again, I think the key to this verse
is understanding that word established.
Meaning like, hey, it's not gonna be,
you're not gonna be set and secure in place
for a long time.
If you see the wicked prospering,
know that that is temporary.
And you know, that should inform our decisions in life
and make us realize, hey,
it's never a good idea to cut corners.
It's never a good idea to try to hide our sin
or to try to do things the way of this world.
Because if we do, even if we do have temporary success,
even if things seem like they're going okay for a while,
it says a man shall not be established by wickedness.
But the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
That implies a more permanent security.
You think about a large tree.
It's got those roots that go way, way, way down
deep into the earth.
And man, that tree can withstand a lot.
I mean, it's crazy the storms that we get in Oklahoma,
even just last night.
The winds at my house was just absolutely crazy
with that thunderstorm.
And yet the trees, though they're getting blown around
and there's all this noise and commotion,
those roots are just planting that sucker
right there in the ground and it's not going anywhere.
And you know, that's like the Christian
who actually goes through life fearing God,
doing that which is right.
Obviously we're never gonna be perfect.
Obviously we're always gonna have sin.
But those of us that are at least striving to do right
and striving to please God,
those are the people that are going to be rooted.
And it reminds me of Psalm chapter one.
Turn to Psalm chapter number one.
This verbiage about being rooted and thinking of trees.
Look at what Psalm one verse one says.
The Bible says, "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."
That's a dedicated Christian right there.
You know, they don't care what this world has to offer.
They're not walking in the councils of the wicked.
They're not living life according to the philosophies
and ideas of this world.
You know, but rather their delight,
their joy is in the Bible.
They actually like the Bible.
And you know, I don't know about you, I like the Bible.
And I wanna be around Christians
that actually like the Bible.
When I went to an old IFB church,
one of the most discouraging things for me was,
I was a teenager at that time and I was in the youth group.
I was around all the teens.
And what was so discouraging
is how few teenagers actually liked church
and actually cared about the Bible.
And I was like literally made fun of
for being the guy who cared about the Bible,
for like being the guy who actually was excited
about the word of God.
But I'm telling you, if you like the Bible
and if you meditate there in day and night,
that's the person who's going to be blessed.
Not these people that are just dragging their feet
through Christianity.
That's not how you get rooted.
That's not how you get grounded deep into the earth.
The Bible says, "And he shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water."
Notice, that tree is just planted.
It's just, it's stuck there and it's by the rivers of water,
so it's got a source of water to be able to give it life
and strength and nutrients and all the things that it needs.
It says that, "Bringeth forth his fruit in a season,
his leaf also shall not wither,
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
Hey, everyone would press that button, if they could,
of saying like, "Hey, I want the everything that I do
prospering button."
But you know what it comes from?
A sincere love of God in your heart.
And here's what I've learned is that you cannot
just like transfer this to people.
You can't just force people to love God.
You know, we could preach the word
and try to stir up your spirit.
But at the end of the day, loving God and loving the Bible,
it has to truly come from within.
And that is a place that if you get to, you will prosper.
You will be blessed by God.
Go back to Proverbs 12.
The Bible says in verse number four,
"A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband,
but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones."
Man, this is quite a comparison here,
where it's saying like, hey, if things are going well
in your marriage, a virtuous woman is a crown to her husband.
What is a crown?
It's like an adornment to make you look better, right?
Or to exude power or authority or some sort of status.
And the Bible's saying, hey, if you've got a virtuous woman,
that's like a crown to her husband.
And the Bible says, who can find a virtuous woman
for a price as far above rubies?
And you know, man, if you've got a virtuous wife,
you've got a very special thing.
And we ought not to take our wives for granted
and just not appreciate them or love them the way
that they deserve to be loved.
If you've got a virtuous wife,
that is a huge blessing from God.
But you know what I've seen over the years
is that marriage can often be
just the best relationship in your life.
It could be just the most wonderful experience.
Or I see people where it is the bane of their existence
and it's the hardest cross that they carry in life.
And in fact, you know what it's talked about here,
but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.
You know what it means
when your bones are rotting from the inside?
Bone cancer.
So notice the comparison here.
It's not like, hey, a virtuous woman is a crown.
And then, you know, she that maketh ashamed
is like a TV dinner.
No, it's not like that.
It's like this really wonderful thing, a crown,
or like one of the worst things you could possibly imagine.
Rottenness in your bones.
I mean, if you had bone cancer,
you would do anything to be cured of that.
I mean, people who go through that
are in such excruciating pain,
just their bones rotting from the inside.
Well, that's what it is like with a woman,
with a wife, that makes her husband ashamed.
It's like rottenness in his bones.
She's either the greatest thing,
and she's a crown, and she's just a wonderful treasure,
or women who are wicked, women who are ungodly,
have the ability to make their husband's life
absolutely miserable.
You say, "That's your opinion."
No, it's not.
I mean, this is what the Bible is saying here,
that it could be rottenness in your bones.
It says, "She that maketh ashamed."
You know, what are some ways
that women can make their husband ashamed?
Well, I think one way is that
she could just be like openly defiant to him.
Openly defiant, openly disrespectful.
You know, that's gonna make him ashamed,
and that's gonna be like rottenness in his bone.
You know, here's another thing that I think
men often are ashamed of
is when their wife is a big gossip.
And you know, that is something to be ashamed of.
But you know, ladies, you shouldn't be going around
house to house like 1 Timothy 5 says,
being a gossip, being a tattler, being a busybody,
because you know what you're gonna do?
You're gonna bring shame to your husband.
Or how about this?
Here's a shameful thing to do
that brings shame to your husband, dressing like a whore.
I mean, it's such a shame when a married woman
is dressing like a whore.
It's like, what are you showing off?
Like, who are you trying to attract?
You're already off the market, honey.
You're already married.
All it is, it's just like, well, this is just a shame.
This is just embarrassing, you know?
And of course, there's probably 1,000 different things
that people can do to make their spouse ashamed.
But the bottom line is this.
Ladies, don't be a shame to your husband.
Be a crown unto him.
You know, be a blessing unto him.
Let me remind you that the Bible says
that the woman was created for the man.
We live in this feminist world that thinks,
I literally saw a post on Facebook the other day
of this woman giving marital advice.
And she said, you know, men, when you come home,
don't sit down and relax.
Jump right into work and immediately pick up the kids
and start changing the diapers and start cleaning the bottles
and ask your wife what you can do to help her.
Let me tell you something, that is stupid advice.
You wanna know why?
'Cause the Bible says that the woman was created
as the help for the man, not vice versa.
My wife exists to serve me.
I do not exist to serve her.
Now, of course, I love her and I do things for her.
And sometimes I will help with things around the house.
But let me explain to you, any job I do around the house
is me going above and beyond.
It's not me meeting some expectation.
I don't have any expectations at home.
My expectation is to go make money and pay the bills
and to provide protection
and to be the spiritual leader at home.
My job is not to come home and change diapers.
If I do that, then I expect a thank you
'cause I'm going above and beyond.
But these women today are insane.
And like, we live in this feminist world where ladies,
and I'm not saying that the women in here are like this.
Thank God we're not like this.
But some ladies in this world wanna enter a marriage
where they provide nothing.
They're like, you know,
they're even withholding the physical relationship
and like, that's a treat.
That's a treat that's gotta be earned.
And then they want their husband to come home
and just be like, man,
what would you like me to do for you right now?
It's like, that's not how marriage works, folks, okay?
Men are in charge.
The woman was created as the help meat.
And you know what?
You ladies should be focusing.
Am I being a help to him, an asset to him, a crown to him?
Or am I as rottenness in his bones?
Am I being a pain in the neck?
And you know, just don't go down that road.
It's gonna make things terrible in your marriage.
Look what it says in verse five.
The thoughts of the righteous are right,
but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.
You know, I love the surety
that we could have as Christians.
And the attitude that we have towards the Bible,
it just pisses off people that are unsaved
and have a false religion
because of things like I just said,
that the man is in charge.
How do you know that?
'Cause the thoughts of the righteous are right.
And it's not my thoughts.
If I'm saying something
that is based on what the Bible says, I'm right.
And if you disagree with what the Bible says,
guess what?
You're wrong.
The thoughts of the righteous are right.
Well, that's just your opinion
on how a marriage should be run.
No, that's what the Bible says.
The Bible says wives obey your husbands and the Lord.
The Bible says children obey your parents, right?
The Bible says husbands love your wives.
You know, these are not optional things
that are for debate.
No, no, no.
I'm just right about these things.
The thoughts of the righteous are right.
Why?
'Cause we have the word of God.
But the counsels of the wicked are deceit.
You know, going to the unsaved,
going to just worldly people
for advice on things relating to how to live your life.
I'm not talking about going to a baseball coach
to learn how to play baseball.
I'm talking about people that will go
and get marriage counseling from unsaved people.
People that get marriage counseling
from, you know, Dr. Sheinberg or something like that.
You're an idiot, folks.
Because the Bible says
that the counsels of the wicked are deceit.
Not all counsel is good.
You know what, the thoughts of the righteous are right.
You want advice on how to live your life
when it pertains to marriage and child rearing
and all these things.
You know who you need to go to?
The saved.
Because what I've seen in counseling people
over the years with marriage issues
is I've seen people go to worldly marriage counseling
and their marriage get way worse, way worse.
Because you got this worldly person
that's pulling wife aside and saying like,
you go girl, this is a narcissist,
this is abuse, blah, blah, blah.
Because they don't have the mind of Christ.
They're not giving them advice like,
hey, husband, love your wife, do things for her,
sacrifice for her, show her that you love her.
And ladies, obey your husband, give him respect,
stop talking crap about him to your friends,
stop mouthing off to him.
They're not getting that good, righteous advice.
They're getting just the world's wisdom
and you know what it does?
It harms people, it deceives people.
That's why it says the counsels of the wicked are deceit.
You know, be careful about sending your kids to counseling.
That was a big thing when I was a kid.
When I was in public school,
we were forced at least once a year in public school
to go to the school counselor.
Be careful with that kind of stuff,
especially with your kids being young and impressionable.
You know, kids and all of us really,
we need to be filling our minds with this
and we need to renew our minds with the word of God
because you know what, our flesh,
we don't have wisdom of ourselves.
The only reason why we're right
is because of the righteousness of the Bible
and the righteousness of his precepts.
Notice what the Bible says in verse six,
"The words of the wicked are to lie and wait for blood,
but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them."
So wicked people, they're conniving, they're conspiring,
they're lying in wait to catch you with something.
And when I read this verse,
I immediately think of the Pharisees and the Sadducees
that were just following Christ around.
And it says that they were constantly trying
to catch him in his words.
And you know, that is the same tactic today
that the wicked of our world is using,
is that they wanna try to catch us with our words.
And there's people today that hate our preaching,
hate the message of the word of God,
wanna get us in trouble for these things.
But you know what?
Those that lie in wait for blood are wicked.
The Bible says, "But the mouth of the upright
"shall deliver them."
You know, those who are upright,
those of us who are Christians,
when we speak, we're speaking the words of life, right?
And when we go out soul winning, what are we doing?
We're literally delivering people.
We're saving people from hell
by them putting their faith in Christ.
And even just sermons that are preached
that causes people to make a change in their life.
Hey, when we're forsaking our own ways,
when we're forsaking our own ideas,
and we're gonna change to what the Bible says,
you know, that's delivering that person
from that evil road that they were going down.
The Bible says in verse seven,
the wicked are overthrown and are not,
but the house of the righteous shall stand.
When it says the wicked are overthrown and are not,
it's like saying they're dead, they're toast.
You know, they got smoked,
but the house of the righteous shall stand.
Makes me think of Matthew chapter seven.
Let's go there to Matthew chapter number seven,
really famous passage.
Thinking about the house of the righteous standing.
Look at verse number 24.
Jesus said this,
therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine
and doeth them,
I will liken him unto a wise man
which built his house upon a rock.
So the wise person hears the instruction of Jesus Christ,
but notice they didn't just hear it, they also do.
They hear the sayings of Jesus and do them.
Just like verse one is saying,
"Hey, he that loveth instruction."
Not just him that hears it,
but him that is actually doing it.
That's the wise person that builds his house on a rock
and the rains descended and the floods came
and the winds blew and beat upon that house.
And it fell not for it was founded upon a rock.
You know, we're all thankful
that our homes are built on a foundation
because man, in Oklahoma, you got that clay
that just seems to never dry.
And it doesn't matter if it hasn't rained for a week.
I'll go out in my yard and my foot will just sink.
And I'm just like, what is with Oklahoma?
With the ground here?
But man, imagine if we had no foundation on our homes.
That would be crazy.
We'd be sliding all over the place.
But it says in verse 26,
"And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine,
and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man
which built his house upon the sand.
And the rains descended and the floods came
and the winds blew and beat upon that house.
And it fell and great was the fall of it."
Hey, that jives exactly with what Proverbs 12 is saying.
The wicked are overthrown and are not,
but the house of the righteous shall stand.
You know, we wanna withstand the storms of life.
We don't know what is going to come to pass
in our lives tomorrow, you know,
even just when things go well.
If you were to tell me five years ago
that I'd be where I am now in life,
living here, doing what I'm doing,
you know, that would be kind of shocking to me.
And I would be maybe a little bit apprehensive
and anxious about it.
But hey, the storms of life are going to come.
But if you're founded on the rock,
God will get you through those times.
You got to put in the work now though.
You don't start building the foundation
when the tornado sirens go off.
Oh, the tornado sirens are going off.
You know, let's start, you know, constructing our house.
That's a bad idea.
You're going to fail.
Now is when you do the heavy labor
of making a sure foundation,
putting that anchor down.
Then when the storm comes, your house will stand.
Go to verse eight of Proverbs 12.
The Bible says, "A man shall be commended
"according to his wisdom,
"and he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised."
Right, so we're going to give praise and honor
to people who we esteem as wise.
That's normal for human nature.
You know what else is normal for human nature?
The Bible says, "He that is of a perverse heart
"shall be despised."
Man, there's some people out there today
that are just despicable, that are disgusting.
It's those who are of a perverse heart.
You know, the perverts of this world today,
like the sodomites, they are to be despised.
They're disgusting.
You know, it's funny, I saw some freak tranny
leave a comment on one of my videos recently,
and they're like, "Well, you know,
"if I don't deserve to live,
"you don't deserve to live either."
And I'm just like, that's the mentality
of every single tranny school shooter.
You are so disgusting, and you hate yourself so much,
and you realize you're despicable,
and you don't deserve to live, 'cause you don't,
'cause that's what the Bible says.
And so you're so sick and depraved that in your mind,
well, no one else deserves to live either.
Like thanks for proving my point
that your heart is just filled with murder,
that you're implacable, that you're unmerciful
to sit here and say, well, I'm a disgusting freak.
I'm someone who's not worthy of life,
therefore no one else is either.
Thanks for just proving our point.
You know what those people are?
They're perverts.
He that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.
There's something wrong with you if you like perverts.
There's something wrong with Christians today
that want to stick up and stand up for pedophiles.
There's something wrong with the church
when one of their staff members gets busted
for being a sodomite and they have a meeting
where they're like, let's all pray for this person.
Hey, any of us could fall into sin, right?
Not those type of sins, because to do those type of sins,
you have to be turned over to a reprobate mind.
You have to be despicable.
You have to be of a perverse heart.
So no, those people don't deserve any prayers
other than a quick death,
'cause the sooner they're out of this world,
the least amount of people they're gonna harm
and pervert and rape and kill.
That's how the Bible describes them anyways.
Verse nine, the Bible says this,
"He that is despised and hath a servant
is better than he that honoreth himself and lacketh bread."
So notice, the person of a perverse heart
is going to be despised.
And also it says, well, it's better,
let me read it again here.
It says, "He that is despised and hath a servant
is better than he that honoreth himself and lacketh bread."
Notice how both of these people are despised.
And this is kind of what I get out of this passage,
is that going through life,
you will never make everyone happy.
There's not gonna be a time where everyone likes you.
It's like, the pervert is gonna be despised
because they're a sick pervert.
And even someone who is wise and gets success in this world,
and obviously this person has some financial success
because he has a servant,
notice, he's despised by people too, right?
So whether you're making wise people angry
by being a pervert, that's gonna make wise people angry,
or even if you're upright and righteous and succeeding,
you know what?
Fools will despise you too.
That just tells me, hey,
just get used to people despising you.
Get comfortable with it.
Don't be one of these people pleasers
that thinks you're gonna go through life
making everyone happy.
You know, people that try to do that,
they're miserable because they can't be themselves.
They can't just stand on their beliefs.
They can't just be comfortable with who they are.
They're constantly having to be chameleons
to change around people.
Don't be a people pleaser.
Just realize, hey, people are gonna despise me.
Let it be the wicked that despise me.
You know, I'm just gonna be righteous.
I'm just gonna do what the Bible says.
I'm gonna stand on God's commandments.
And if people despise me,
hey, I'd rather be despised and it sucks for you.
You know, if you're one of these people where it says,
"He that honoreth himself and lacketh bread."
So notice, this person is a fool.
He can't even provide for himself, but he honors himself.
And you know, that is what fools love to do.
They love to honor themselves
and talk about how great they are
and think they're so great in their mind,
yet they're objectively failing in life.
And they'll despise people who are succeeding
just because they're a squirter.
They're just people that despise others.
Well, you know what?
It's better to be successful and be hated.
Verse 10 says this, a righteous man
regardeth the life of his beast,
but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
So righteous people are going to regard
the life of their beast.
You know, of course, animal cruelty
is just something that's weird.
And it's usually like a common pattern
with people who become like serial killers
is that they were really into like torturing animals.
And so obviously that kind of stuff is weird and not okay.
It says that a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast.
Now regard doesn't mean that animals are like
at the top of what we regard.
It means that we just give some thought to it.
We give some care to it.
You know, if we're going to slaughter an animal,
we're gonna do it humanely.
We're not gonna torture animals.
But it doesn't mean that we regard animals over people.
Right?
You know, I regard my own hunger more importantly
than animals because God said to Peter, rise, kill and eat.
He's like, hey, pray for your food, give thanks
and eat, right?
And so just this weekend, I slaughtered a bunch of chickens
and you know what, I don't care.
I'm gonna have some rooster latas and that's totally fine.
But at the same time, hey, did it real humanely.
We're not gonna torture the animals, that's weird.
But it says that the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
You know, wicked people, even when they're being merciful,
quote unquote, it's still cruel compared to a normal person.
Verse 11, he that tilleth his land
shall be satisfied with bread.
But he that followeth vain persons
is void of understanding.
So how are you gonna be satisfied
and have all the things that you need?
It's through tilling your land, the Bible says.
He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread.
Now, to me this implies that there's some level of patience
going into providing for yourself,
because you're not gonna go till your land
and put the seed in and water it,
and then just be like, oh, I give up on this field,
I'm just gonna go do it again.
And you buy another field and you till it,
you put seed in, oh, you just give up.
To me, this is kind of like people
that just career hop all the time.
You know, it's he that tilleth his land
shall be satisfied with bread, why?
'Cause you put in the time and the effort and the energy,
and then you've gotta water that,
you gotta fertilize that,
and then a whole season has to go by until harvest,
until you can actually reap anything from that.
And so, you know, what's a wise thing to do
is that whatever career you go into, just stick with it.
You know, you should be moderately successful
pretty much in any career you pick,
as long as you just stick with it.
I've seen people do this where they're like
in a great career, they're in a skilled trade,
and they're on the path to be able to make a lot of money,
a lot of, you know, be able to provide
for their family really well.
And then they'll just kinda like get tired of it,
and just restart in their late 30s,
and like restart in their 40s, and it's like,
that's like the guy that was tilling this field,
tilling the land, planted all this seed,
did all this watering, and is just like, ah, I give up.
It's like, man, the harvest was right there.
And you know, people that are really successful
in their careers, usually it takes them a long time
to get to that, you know, level.
But here's the thing, 10 years are gonna go by,
whether you're responsible or irresponsible.
You're gonna wake, it's just like 10 years is gonna go by,
and you'll be like, boom, here I am, I'm 30.
And so you might as well just put in that effort,
and stick with what you're doing,
that's gonna be the best way to provide.
The Bible says in verse 12,
"The wicked desireth the net of evil men,
"but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit."
So to me, this is talking about people that are covetous.
The wicked, they desire the net of evil men.
They see the success that men have maybe had,
and even evil men, 'cause sometimes people just dedicate
their lives to money and they're not even righteous.
The wicked desire that,
but notice the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit.
If you do things the right way,
if you follow God's commandments,
you will produce results in your life.
Verse 13, the wicked is snared
by the transgression of his lips,
but the just shall come out of trouble.
So the wicked, they're constantly getting themselves
in trouble by what they say.
Constantly just, they're not able to control their anger,
they're getting in fights out of pride
and contention and stuff like that,
and they get themselves into a lot of trouble doing that.
The Bible says, a man shall be satisfied with good
by the fruit of his mouth, and the recompense
of a man's hands shall be rendered unto him.
So again, this is kind of this idea that,
hey, God is actively judging and working in our lives,
and we are going to reap what we sow.
You know, the recompense of a man's hands
will be rendered unto him, so we will reap what we sow.
Then it says in verse 15, the way of a fool
is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkeneth unto counsel
is wise.
So think about this, when it comes to someone
who is a fool, someone who is stupid, foolish, an idiot,
they are convinced in their mind that everything
that they think is right, and that all of their ways
are right.
See, that's a big difference between how the Bible says
the thoughts of the righteous are right,
because when we read the Bible, what are we saying?
We're saying like, this is right.
When I read something in the Bible,
I'm not like wavering, is that true, is that not?
I'm just like, this is right.
And sometimes in life, as we grow in Christianity,
we come across something in the Bible
that contradicts with what we previously thought.
Now this is the crossroads between foolishness and wisdom.
This is the crossroads that people come to
where they actually grow and mature,
or they just remain an idiot, remain foolish,
is when the way that you thought was right,
it becomes a contradiction with what the Bible says,
you have to make a decision.
Hey, am I gonna go with what the Bible says,
or am I going to stay believing what I believe?
You know, this is like the Catholics.
Catholics are so foolish today that hear the truth
and just stick with the Roman Catholic Church
despite all the things we talked about on Sunday.
No, the wise person is going to let the Bible correct them.
And no one, no one goes through life reading this book
and is being like, oh, I already agreed with all this,
oh, all my thoughts were already this way.
No, no, no, the Bible is going to constantly correct us
till the day that we die.
And there's a difference between saying,
hey, I believe I'm right about all the things
that I'm basing the Bible on in my life
versus like all my personal opinions are right.
All my personal ways are right.
That is the sign of a fool.
Someone, and here's the thing, we just got to realize,
hey, right now, today, you are wrong about something
and I am wrong about something.
And you know what the wise person does?
I want to find out what that is as soon as possible.
And so one way to do that is read the Bible.
Also it says there, it says,
"But he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise."
Right, so we want to find out where we're wrong
rather than staying a fool.
And so what do we need sometimes?
We need that counsel.
We need that advice.
And you know, that's what the word of God is primarily.
It's giving us counsel, it's giving us advice.
That's the best counsel you could possibly get.
And then additionally, you know,
God's given us gifts in life.
God's given us friends and church members and pastors
and mom and dad and ladies, your husband,
all these people in your life that you can get counsel from
that can help you.
You know, a wise person takes advantage of those things.
A wise person actually utilizes those things
and doesn't just stay in their way of foolishness.
You know, I think about law.
You know, I'm thinking about this lately and attorneys.
And what are they often called?
They're often called counselors.
You get counsel.
You know, it's wise to do that
because you don't know what you don't know.
And have you noticed that when people
try to represent themselves in court,
it usually doesn't go well for them?
It's 'cause they're foolish.
They're just like, "Oh, I'm right in my own eyes.
"I know all there is to know.
"I'm gonna represent myself."
But he that hearkeneth to counsel is wise.
You know, it's good to get some advice,
some people that know more than you.
Bible says in verse 16,
"A fool's wrath is presently known,
"but a prudent man hovereth shame."
So another attribute of a foolish person
is that they really have no control over their spirit.
When they get angry, they just have to let that out.
They have to let everyone know when they're angry.
And here's the thing,
anger in itself is not necessarily sinful.
The Bible says, "Be angry and sin not."
So you can be angry and not be sinning.
You know, righteous indignation is totally fine.
But if we're just honest,
probably a lot of times that you and I get mad,
it's probably not a righteous anger.
And you know, it's a foolish thing
when people just, they blow off their top,
they get upset by something
and they immediately have to just let that out
and let everyone know that they're mad.
You know, this can harm your relationships
because sometimes, you know,
there's a time and place for everything.
Sometimes someone's making you mad
and the best thing to do is to go to them privately
and say, "Hey, you offended me.
You made me mad in this area."
Other times, the best thing to do is absolutely nothing
and just let it go.
And sometimes you just gotta realize like,
"Hey, I'm getting mad right now because of my own pride."
Or, "I'm getting mad right now just 'cause I didn't get
much sleep last night.
I didn't get enough coffee or whatever.
So I'm not gonna blow up on this person.
I'm not gonna lose my cool on this person
and maybe harm a relationship."
Why?
'Cause that's a foolish thing to do
to just always blow your top.
Even if you're in a position of authority,
you could use discretion of maybe displaying your anger
or displeasement at people who are under you.
It might not always be the most appropriate thing
in the world to just come down on your children
in every situation, right?
Sometimes you gotta use discretion and be like,
hey, let's go to the bathroom and spank you,
you know what I mean?
And not just like, hey, we're in the middle of a restaurant
and just start swinging right there.
It's like, that might not be a wise thing to do.
Sometimes you gotta control yourself
and hey, don't be soon angry, the Bible says.
You can be angry, there's times to get angry.
There's things that make me angry, rightly so.
But don't be soon angry.
Here we have in verse number 17, the Bible says,
"He that speaketh truth, showeth forth righteousness,
but a false witness deceit.
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword,
but the tongue of the wise is health."
So the tongue of the wise is health.
It's gonna be building people up.
You know, a wise person doesn't wanna just constantly
cut down and pierce like a sword
all the people that are around them,
you know, their colleagues, their teammates,
their church members, people that we're dealing with.
It's not a wise thing to do,
just always be cutting people down.
And you know, we wanna balance this like soft,
you know, snowflake generation that we live in
that can't take reproof, can't take correction.
We also wanna balance it with just not being a total jerk
for the sake of being a jerk.
You know, the Bible says the tongue of the wise is health.
And every time you correct someone,
you don't have to do it in the most piercing,
mean, angry way that you possibly can.
You know, that's not necessarily beneficial at all times.
You know, the tongue of the wise is health.
You could build people up.
And look, a rebuke can build people up.
Correction can build people up.
But I just think like our default in life
is that we should be kind and gentle,
especially with the people that we love,
especially with our friends and our family and our church.
You know, people in this room,
when we're dealing with each other,
especially on an individual basis,
our default shouldn't be like,
you're the dumbest idiot,
biggest retard I've ever seen in my life.
You know, that was the worst thing you've ever said.
Like, that's not really beneficial.
It's not really showing a lot of charity.
You know, we could speak to each other
in a way that's health
and not always like the piercings of a sword.
People that always have to speak just to everybody like that,
it's almost like there's some sort of insecurity going on.
Like, we just have to cut everyone else down
so that I could feel big and strong.
It's like, no, you know what a real secure person does
is they wanna build other people up.
Why? 'Cause you know, if I'm on a baseball team,
I want my teammates to be as good as possible
so we could win, right?
Hey, we're in a spiritual battle.
We're soldiers of the Lord.
I want my fellow soldiers here
to be the best soldiers they could be
so we can go out to war and win,
not just me be a big fish in a small pond.
That's what some people want.
That's what some leaders want.
They wanna just cut everyone down
so that they could feel special.
You know, this is what people do.
Leaders that are insecure,
they wanna cut down other leaders too
'cause they're insecure.
Don't listen to anyone else.
You can only listen to me.
You know, I have to be your favorite pastor.
I'm, you know, pastors going their own way, pig towels.
Right?
These guys are like insecure.
Whereas, you know what we should do?
Man, we should build up other churches.
Build up other pastors.
Build up other works for God.
Oh, you know, you listen to Pastor Shelley,
Pastor Anderson, Pastor Thompson.
Awesome, I do too.
They're great pastors.
You know, we should build each other up
and not be afraid of other Christians having success.
You know, if you're a boss,
don't be afraid of your employees having success.
If you're a pastor,
don't be afraid of, you know,
your preacher men in your church,
preaching a great sermon and having success.
Praise God for that, right?
Don't be afraid of, you know,
someone else getting ordained
and then succeeding in the ministry.
That's great.
We're all on the Lord's team
'cause it's all about Christ.
Jesus is who I care about succeeding,
really at the end of the day.
And all the people that are serving Him,
I'm on your side.
I wanna build you up.
The Bible says in verse number 19,
"The lip of truth shall be established forever,
"but a lying tongue is but for a moment."
You know, this verse is really important to me as a pastor
because when I think about the philosophy
of how to run a church,
there's a lot of people in the modern church movement
where they wanna be seeker sensitive, right?
We wanna have the nicest building possible
and we wanna bring out the dancers and the music
and the movies and the soft sermon
and the 15 minute sermon, right?
It's really seeker sensitive,
but is that really gonna be established
at the end of the day?
No, it's not.
You know it's gonna be established,
the lip of truth shall be established.
You know what is gonna make a church successful
and actually planted and have a strong foundation
and be able to weather storms
is when it's built on the truth.
That's why, you know what the most important thing
for Anchor Baptist Church is?
It's that we exalt, that we preach,
that we defend the truth.
It doesn't matter if it's popular,
doesn't matter if it gets the media angry at us
or get protesters mad, what matters is the truth.
That's what we have to defend.
That's what's gonna be established.
But it says in verse 20,
deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil.
But to the counselors of peace is joy.
So notice those who are imagining evil,
they're not built on the truth.
They're not caring about the truth.
It says that deceit is in their heart.
And you know, of course, for all of sin
and come short of the glory of God,
we've all lied in here before.
And when you lie, you know what you feel?
You feel uncomfortable.
When we lie, it's stressful, right?
We have to kind of keep track of the deceit
and making sure that we're being convincing, right?
This is what people do, this is what humans do.
But it says that deceit is in the heart of them
that imagine evil, but to the counselors of peace is joy.
See, if you're just focused on the truth and being upright
and just having the mentality of let the chips fall
where there may, you know the Bible says you have joy,
right?
And it says that we're the counselors of peace.
I love that description of Christians
is that we're the counselors of peace
because that's not what the world would describe us as.
The world would describe us as hateful and mean
and these fundamentalists are so backward
and they're living, you know, a thousand years ago.
No, no, no, we're the counselors of peace.
We're trying to bring peace to this world.
Hey, we go out and go soul winning.
And yeah, we might sting you.
We might hurt your feelings when we tell you,
hey, the Catholic church is a wicked church.
And if you believe their doctrine, you will go to hell.
That might sting you a little bit.
But really, if you believe the gospel,
if you believe the message,
you know what you're gonna have?
Peace.
We're bringing you peace by allowing you
to escape the fires of hell through faith in Jesus Christ.
You know, people think that we're so mean
when we preach against things like alcohol.
But let me tell you something,
if you stop drinking alcohol,
you know what's gonna happen
is you're gonna have peace in your life.
You're not gonna be falling all over,
injuring yourself when you're blacked out drunk.
You know, people waking up
from their party the night before,
realizing, hey, where did my front two teeth go?
Why do I have this cut?
Why am I in a hospital?
Why is my friend dead?
Hey, why is my girlfriend dead?
Why is my wife dead right here in this car?
'Cause you're drinking this poison,
this garbage that's gonna ruin your life,
and sometimes you just need the counselors of peace
to love you enough to tell you the truth,
and you know what that'll actually bring
in the long run?
Joy.
People think that fornication will bring them joy.
No, you know what'll bring you joy?
Getting married and staying faithful to your spouse.
You know what people think?
No, you know what'll bring you joy?
If I spice up my life a little bit and go have an affair.
No, that won't bring you any joy.
That'll destroy your life.
Getting divorced, it'll destroy your children.
It'll destroy your home.
You know what, when we bring you the word of God
and we stand on what Jesus says,
we are the counselors of peace.
The thoughts of the righteous are right.
We are the counselors of peace.
The Bible says in verse 21,
"There shall no evil happen to the just,
"but the wicked shall be filled with mischief."
Now, kind of on the surface, you read this,
it says that no evil will happen to the just,
and I'm just thinking like, man, you know,
we've had persecution, we've gone through this,
and you could probably say the same thing in your life.
You've gone through something hard, you know,
illness, relationship problems,
financial problems, persecution.
You're like, what do you mean no evil can happen
to the just?
You know, we're constantly getting persecuted.
We're constantly getting hated.
You know, my mom and dad think I'm in a cold
or something like that.
But here's what I think this is saying.
Think about the word evil.
Evil means harm.
And I think what this is saying is that in the long run
of things, hey, no weapon formed against us shall prosper.
There will no evil happen to the just.
There's not a person in your life that could cause you
to lose your relationship with God.
You know, if you just do what's right,
yeah, you could get persecuted.
Yeah, you could lose your job.
Yeah, you could lose your money.
Yeah, you could lose your reputation.
Yeah, you can go through all these things.
But you know what?
No one could ever take the love of God away from you.
No one can ever take your relationship
and you being right with the Lord away from you.
No one can do that.
Even if they kill you, they can't do that.
And so it's like, oh, you kill me?
Guess what?
No evil happens to the just
'cause there I am straight in heaven.
Oh, you persecute us?
Oh, you know, we're going through a hard time.
Still no evil could happen to the just
'cause the more they afflicted them, the more they grew.
And the Bible says it is good for me
that I have been afflicted,
that I might learn thy statutes.
You just can't beat us.
You know, if you're right with the Lord,
no one can beat you.
God is just a secret weapon that the world doesn't have.
And if you are just rooted and grounded in the Bible,
and you're actually serious about serving God,
nothing can defeat you.
People can come after us.
People can come after our money, our building, our jobs,
whatever, but at the end of the day,
there will be no evil that happens to the just.
We will always win in the long run,
and they will always lose.
That's why it says,
"But the wicked shall be filled with mischief."
No, the wicked,
they don't have a silver lining in their life.
They can look at us, and mock us, and persecute us,
and think, "Oh man, we got 'em.
Oh, we fired 'em.
Oh, we got 'em in the news.
Oh, we got this church protested.
Oh, we got this church in a lawsuit."
Yeah, but at the end of the day,
you're gonna be filled with mischief.
At the end of the day, your marriage sucks.
At the end of the day, you're not in a good church.
You don't get the blessing of reading the Bible,
and when you die, you'll go to hell.
And you know, I don't want that for you.
I'd like you to just be wise,
and take correction, and get some counsel,
and change your mind, and believe the Bible,
and then you can be on the same boat as us, undefeatable.
Unbeatable.
Look what it says in verse 23.
It says, "A prudent man concealeth knowledge,
"but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness."
Here's another attribute of fools,
and that's definitely something that's coming up a lot
in this chapter, is that fools,
they just love to hear themselves talk.
Fools are just known as being, you know, jabbermouths,
they're just always blabbing their mouth,
and their heart is just proclaiming foolishness,
but a prudent man concealeth knowledge.
You know, someone who's actually wise,
someone who actually has a lot of knowledge,
they don't feel like this compulsive urge
to just constantly hear themself talk.
Sometimes, if you find a really wise person in your life,
it's almost hard to get their wisdom out of them.
You kind of have to like coax them
and ask them good questions.
And you know, if you yourself are wise
and you know someone who is wise,
you would be smart to try to pick that person's brain
and ask them questions.
Kids, when you're in school, ask questions, you know?
'Cause sometimes that really good teacher
is concealing knowledge
'cause that's just kinda how wise people are,
is the Bible saying.
Ask good questions, draw it out of him.
The Bible says, verse number 22,
lying lips are abomination to the Lord,
but they that deal truly are his delight.
So we're seeing again, this really profound thought
that we talked about last week,
how though we are dust and though we are so small
and insignificant in the scheme of this universe,
that we could actually bring delight to God.
You know, that's a pretty amazing thought.
And one way we could do that,
it says lying lips are abomination to the Lord,
but they that deal truly are his delight.
You know, we actually bring pleasure and delight to God
when we are just upright, honest people
that speak the truth.
But lying lips are abomination to the Lord.
You know, God looks down from heaven and he sees you lying.
Hey, listen kids, don't lie to mom and dad.
When mom and dad ask you, hey, what happened here?
Did you do this?
Don't lie to your mom and dad
'cause the Bible says that lying lips
are abomination to the Lord.
You know what that means kids?
That God's looking down from heaven
and he knows the truth.
He knows if you're lying or not
and he gets angry at you if he sees you lie.
But if he sees you tell the truth,
the Bible says you're walking uprightly,
then you are his delight.
And you know it works the same thing with us as parents.
When I see my kids lie, I'm angry.
I'm like disgusted by this behavior.
But if they fess up, even if they did something wrong
and they're just honest, they just come to me in humility,
I am going to be way more lenient
when they have that attitude.
Why?
Because it's like, all right, you made a mistake.
I know you're just a child.
You're just a sinner, just like I am.
But hey, at least you're dealing uprightly now.
At least now you're telling the truth.
And so then I just want to show mercy
and I want to be more lenient.
And it's going to be the same way with God for us.
If God sees you trying to cover your sins,
the Bible says, "He that coverth his sins shall not prosper."
If God sees you, you know, not harkening to the law,
turning away your ear from the word of God,
the Bible says even your prayer
will be made abomination to him.
So kind of the relationship between parent and son,
parent and daughter can reflect that of us and God as well.
And you know, we need to be like the good kids
that come to the father and say, "Lord, I've messed up.
"I did this, it was wrong.
"I'm sorry, help me to get better."
You know, God's gonna come down way less severe on us
when we have that attitude than you just trying to think,
oh, God doesn't see, God doesn't care,
I'm gonna get away with it.
That's when the hammer really comes down.
And you know what?
You never wanna have that kind of spanking from God.
You never wanna have that kind of spanking from your parents
when you're hiding things.
We wanna be walking uprightly and being God's delight.
Verse 23, "A prudent man concealeth knowledge,
"but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness."
So repeating that same thought,
how fools they just like to hear themselves talk.
Verse 24, "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule,
"but the slothful shall be under tribute.
"Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop,
"but a good word maketh it glad."
And I kinda wanna revisit this thought I was talking about
of how we don't wanna just have our tongue be like a sword.
We kinda wanna have our default way of speaking with people,
of being encouraging and lifting people up
and blessing others.
You know, heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop.
What's that talking about?
Kinda like depression, heaviness, right?
Depression, that feeling of just sadness or depression.
It makes you stoop, it makes you low,
it makes you not feel good.
But a good word maketh it glad.
You know, it's pretty amazing just the power of words.
How you could feel a certain emotion.
You could feel a certain way.
And depression is something that's very heavy.
It's a very real feeling that people experience.
But a good word can make it glad.
I mean, that's pretty interesting, the power of words.
And like I said, us as Christians,
our default should be to build people up.
You know, it's kind of like in any type of sport.
You know, growing up, you had coaches that are like,
hey buddy, you know, you had a good at bat there,
but let me help you with your fielding.
You know, you kind of are drawn more
to those type of coaches than a coach that I had once,
who because one of our players, we had bases loaded.
Okay, I'm going old FB for a minute.
One story, all right?
We had bases loaded and a guy's at bat
and a ball came right at him and he got out of the way.
Now, if you know baseball,
if he would have just stayed there and gotten hit,
then the runner would have just automatically gotten home
and they would have gotten the point.
And the coach was super, super angry.
And I understand that anger a little bit,
but you know what he did?
The next practice is he lined us up against the wall.
It was like a 2022 pass or Oz sermon.
He's like, all right, you're all convicted,
line up against the wall.
And he just threw baseballs at us as hard as he could.
It was just like, oh, I just love this coach so much.
No, he was not my favorite coach.
I liked the other coach that was like, hey, buddy,
good at bad, but let's fix your technique at first base.
I was like, all right, I can work with this guy.
I can practice with this guy all day.
But who wants that other coach that lines you up
against the wall and throws baseballs at you?
It's like, we want to be people that-- the Bible says
a good word makeeth it glad.
Hey, when it comes to preaching behind the pulpit, man,
the Bible says reprove, rebuke, exhort.
The Bible says stamp with the hand, kick with the foot,
cry aloud, spare not.
Preaching is a certain style, but don't think like, hey,
how new IFB pastors preach is how
I should interact with people on a one-on-one basis.
No, folks.
You will never see me do that in interactions with people.
That's not how I am.
And if you've been around other pastors,
you know that when they're talking to you,
you know it's more like a good word makeeth it glad.
From behind the pulpit, I'm going to rip on sin,
and I'm going to make you feel uncomfortable,
and I'm going to step on your toes.
But realize that even though I'm doing that,
I'm still on your side, I'm still on your team.
I want you to do well.
It's kind of like when you see a car crash
that was someone's fault.
You got two types of people in this world,
people that are like, yeah, ha ha, serves you right,
moron, you crashed and got hurt,
or other people who are like, yeah, that was stupid,
but I still feel bad this person's hurt.
Like, can't we realize, like, hey,
that guy was driving like a moron,
but he still is injured and that's sad?
That's not cool?
Well, like, that's how I feel like as a passer sometimes,
where I'm just like screaming for people to change
and not do something, and they do it,
and I'm just like, that is 100% your fault,
but I still feel bad for you, and I still love you,
and I'm still on your team, and I'll still, you know,
go call 911 and give you first aid,
and I'm here for you, I'm your friend,
but you see the difference between those two things?
That's love as a Christian.
Hey, we're gonna preach the truth.
We're gonna preach hard.
We're gonna correct things.
We're gonna be sharp.
It's gonna be uncomfortable sometimes,
but still know that I'm on your side.
And you know what, when you preach,
you should have that same mentality.
If you get the opportunity to preach,
don't use your opportunity to preach
to get your personal vendettas that you have with people
and really you got acts to grind with someone.
No, no, no, love the people that you preach to.
Love the people that you preach to.
And hey, rebuke is loving,
but it better be coming from a place of love.
That's what I'm saying.
The Bible says in verse 26,
the righteous is more excellent than his neighbor,
but the way of the wicked seduceth them.
The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor,
but the way of the wicked seduceth them.
I think this is kind of like from the perspective
of someone who's not necessarily a Christian.
They're kind of one of these people
that's hanging in the balance.
It's not like they're super evil.
It's not like they're saved.
Well, it says the righteous
is more excellent than his neighbor.
So this person can kind of either go two ways,
it seems like.
They could go towards the righteous,
or they could go towards whoever this neighbor is.
Now, what's the right choice?
Going with the righteous, right?
The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor,
but the way of the wicked seduced them, right?
So even though going with Christianity
is always the right choice,
going to a fundamental Baptist church
over a liberal fund center is always the right choice.
You know, the righteous is better than this neighbor,
but the way of the wicked seduced them.
You know what 2 Peter chapter two says
is it talks about false prophets?
It says that they allure through the lusts of the flesh.
You see, the right choice
is the independent fundamental Baptist church
that has the right doctrine, the right preaching,
but often times people get deceived or seduced
into going the wrong way.
This is why it's so important
for us to warn against false prophets,
for us to warn against false religions
because it is deceiving people.
I mean, you guys do it all the time out soul winning.
What are you doing when they say, hey, I'm a Catholic?
You're gonna say, hey, the Bible says something different.
I know you're seduced.
I know you're deceived right now,
but let me tell you the truth.
The Bible says something different, can I show you?
And so people are in the balance.
We gotta make sure that we warn against the false prophets
because they do allure through the lust of the flesh.
Most people, they wanna go to church
when it's close to their house,
when it has a kids program.
Let me tell you, when it has a daycare.
People want a church that has a daycare.
Why?
'Cause people just hate their kids so much
'cause they don't spank them enough
and they're so fed up with their kids
that they don't even wanna go to church
'cause they care about the sermons or the word of God
or the soul winning.
They're just like, "Where can I drop off this demon?"
That's like the attitude that a lot of people have.
And some people will literally drop their kids off to church
and not even go to church.
They'll just like have a date outing,
just dropping their kids off.
Like a lot of times this is what's in people's mind.
And so these people are seducing,
these types of churches are seducing people all the time.
We got the big fancy buildings.
We've got the nice music program.
We've got the pastor that never yells,
never raises his voice, never says faggot,
never stoops over his word.
Never messes up in a sermon or something like that.
Yeah, but it's like, but you don't have any meat on the bone.
But where are your soul winning numbers?
Where's the mission strips?
Where's the fruit that's happening from this?
That's why we got to warn against it
'cause real people get enticed by this stuff all the time.
Verse 27, "The slothful man roasteth not that
which he took in hunting,
but the substance of a diligent man is precious."
So again, these chapters are kind of hard to preach
'cause it just seems like random stuff's
just popping out of the chapter.
But it's kind of a crazy thing to think of,
of someone who would go through all the trouble
of hunting an animal and killing an animal,
and then you don't even roast that which you took
in hunting.
I mean, that is crazy.
But that's what these lazy people are like.
They're bad stewards of the things that God gives them.
"But the substance of a diligent man is precious."
Hey, when you're faithful with that which is least,
then you'll be faithful in much.
If you can kill a deer and actually process it and eat it,
then maybe God will give you an elk next year
or something like that, all right?
Verse 28, last verse, the Bible says this,
and this is kind of a good way to sum up the chapters,
is this, "In the way of righteousness is life.
And in the pathway thereof, there is no death."
Really what I think this final thought comes down to,
and if you would turn to 1 John chapter number five,
1 John chapter number five,
it really comes down to faith.
You know, the way of the righteous,
hey, the way of God's commandments,
the way of what the Bible says is life.
And in the pathways thereof, there is no death.
That is actually gonna take real faith from you,
because let me just tell you the reality of what happens
when you do strive to serve God with all your heart.
When you do get on fire and get plugged in
and get to a good church,
all those who are godly will suffer persecution,
the Bible says.
And so what happens is people are going through life
and they start making good changes in their life.
They start cleaning up their life,
stop drinking, stop fornicating.
You know, they start doing the right things.
They go soul winning, they're free to thrive.
And then things won't just immediately
get better in their life.
Then they'll start getting persecution from their family.
And mom and dad aren't cool with them anymore.
And their siblings are strange from them.
And they start having, you know,
all these issues and trials and they think like,
this must be wrong because I'm going through things
that are hard.
But again, you have to realize that in Christianity,
our life is just a vapor.
And you often have to look at the long term.
What is the long term results of you being plugged in,
being faithful to the Lord?
The long term results of those are gonna be life.
I'll tell you that right now.
Hey, who's gonna have a better result in your child rearing?
The person who goes to church Sunday morning,
every once in a while, gets in church, out of church,
in church, out of church, or the person who's just steadfast,
the person who just parks it here and serves God
for 20 years as you're raising those kids,
who's more likely to have the better outcome?
Look at what 1 John 5 says in verse number two,
"By this we know that we love the children of God,
"when we love God and keep his commandments,
"for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments
"and his commandments are not grievous."
Realize that any time you are doing what's right
and you perceive that things are not going well,
that is not because God's word doesn't work anymore
or that you should doubt what you're doing.
It's like, hey,
all that live God in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,
but you know what?
If you stick with it in the long run,
it'll be life to you.
And I could think of several times in my life
where I was discouraged and I thought like,
man, maybe I should go do something else.
But you know what?
I stuck it out and I'm glad that I did.
And I'm just getting started.
You know, I've got a lot of life ahead of me
and I'm sure that ahead of me there's gonna be dark days
where I have those same feelings in my flesh,
but I gotta remind myself, no, the pathway of righteousness,
that's where life is.
What's getting off the trail gonna do, really?
Like, what is there out in this world
to look forward to?
Nothing, folks.
Our lives are just a vapor and you just think about
our fathers and grandfathers that have come before us,
that have been born, they've lived their life,
and they're dead, and there's nothing they could do
to change, and realize that pretty soon,
we're gonna be just like them, dead and in the ground.
And how we spend our life is all the works
that you could do on this earth.
And all just the vain things that people get obsessed
with today, their career, money, sports, gym obsessions,
gun collecting, whatever it is that's just vain
in this world, just realize that that's not gonna matter
in a hundred years.
And it's dead sure not gonna matter in a thousand years.
But you know what, God's commandments are not grievous.
If you're suffering, when you're doing right,
hey, praise God, suffering for righteousness sake.
But don't get off the trail.
Don't think like, oh, I'm suffering while I'm doing right,
therefore I should stop, no, no, no.
The ways of righteousness is life.
Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for your word.
We thank you for this chapter.
I pray that you'd help us to have faith in you
as we go through life and as we strive to do what's right
and keep your commandments.
That even when things are hard,
we would continue that we'd be steadfast.
And I pray that you would just help us to the best we can
to serve you and be pleasing in your sight.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.