Proverbs chapter 18, verse number one, through desire, a man having separated himself,
seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. Now this is actually one of my favorite verses
in the book of Proverbs. There's so much great truth packed into this one verse,
but I love the fact it starts out with the desire because really this is where everything
in the Christian life starts is with the desire to love God, the desire to seek wisdom,
the desire to follow Christ. It's the one thing, as I was saying on Sunday,
it's the one thing that I can't give you, right? It's the one thing that you have to get on your
own. You know, the pastor can get up and preach to you and give you all kinds of information
and try to inspire you, but at the end of the day, you have to supply the desire, right?
You have to want to learn. You have to want to serve God. And so the Bible says,
through desire, a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
You know, the Bible talks a lot about us being separated unto the Lord, right? Paul said that
he was separated unto the gospel of Christ. Paul said that the Lord separated him from his
mother's womb. And so all throughout the Bible, we have these statements like come out from
among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing. See,
broad is the way that leads to destruction. And most people out there today are not on
a quest for wisdom. They're not out there seeking the truth, trying to get knowledge and
wisdom and understanding. They're just going through life, not caring, maybe even willingly
choosing lies. And so we have to be different, right? We have to separate ourselves. We have to
cut some things loose in our life, maybe cut some people loose and get on that path
where we seek an inner metal with all wisdom. So it starts with a desire to have wisdom,
to learn the Bible, to follow God. And then there's a separation that has to take place
where we basically cut loose some dead weight out of our life and obviously choose to be
different than the people around us and be different than the mainstream. And then we
seek an inner metal with all wisdom. Now, it's kind of funny to look this verse up in
other Bible versions. Okay. And it seems like some of the verses that I like the most are
some of my favorite verses seem to be the most butchered in modern versions. Sometimes,
in fact, when I'm just trying to look for discrepancies in modern versions, I just start
looking up my favorite verses. And they're typically the ones that have been tampered with.
This one is translated so differently in these other versions. You can't even believe it. Let
me just give you a little sampling here of some of these. Okay. Here's the ASV. He that
separated himself seeketh his own desire and rageth against all sound wisdom. We've got the
ESV. Whosoever or whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. He breaks out against all
sound judgment. Let's see here. The Holman Christian Standard Bible. One who isolates
himself pursues selfish desires. He rebels against all sound judgment.
Here's the message.
Loners who care only for themselves spit on the common good.
New American Standard. One who separates himself seeks his own desire.
He quarrels against all sound wisdom.
NCV. I don't know what that is, but unfriendly people are selfish and hate all good sense.
NIV. An unfriendly person pursues selfish ends and against all sound judgment starts quarrels.
The New Living Translation. Unfriendly people care only about themselves. They lash out at
common sense. The NRSVA. The one who lives alone is self-indulgent, showing contempt for
all who have sound judgment. Well, that's something to say about people who live alone.
Wow. Anybody live alone out there tonight?
Oh, here's the O.J.B. This is like the Judaizer Bible.
A man who separates himself seeks his own tawah. He defies all tushiyyah.
They just like throw in Hebrew words that they don't translate.
Oh, man. Yeah, these are just all over the place.
A man who isolates himself pursues selfishness and defies all sound judgment. So you can see
that basically most of them say the exact opposite of what the King James Bible says.
But, you know, who cares what version you use, right? It doesn't matter which one, okay?
One of them condemns you for living alone or not being friendly enough. But the Bible here,
the King James Version, the traditional text in English says that through desire,
a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
Now, it is true that sometimes in the Bible separating yourself can be negative.
But there are plenty of times when separating yourself is positive. A lot of the time,
you know, come out from among them and be separate, separated unto God, separating ourselves
under the gospel and so forth. And so, you know, obviously the King James is correct here.
These other versions are way off on this and totally changing the meaning. And I'm glad
I'm not preaching from one of those and having to get on people for being too isolated
or living by themselves or whatever. But through desire, a man having separated himself,
seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. The Bible says in verse two, a fool hath no delight
in understanding. See, he's the opposite of the guy in verse one. So he doesn't have the desire.
He doesn't delight in understanding. And this again goes to show how the King James Bible
is correct here because you get this contrast between verse one and verse two, where it's like
in the first verse, this guy has the desire. He goes after wisdom. Whereas the guy in the
second verse, he has no delight in understanding. He doesn't have that desire.
All that he cares about is that his heart may discover itself. And the word discover here
actually in our monomaniacular would mean uncover. Like his heart discovering itself means
that he wants to just basically let everybody know what's inside his heart. So he just likes
to hear himself talk and just wants to get his ideas out there, whether right or wrong. He's
not interested in just kind of being quiet and listening to what other people have to say,
people who actually know what they're talking about. He just kind of pipes up without knowing
what he's talking about and just wants his heart to discover itself, meaning to uncover itself.
It says in verse three, when the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt and with
ignominy reproach. And then we get into this long list of verses here that all have to
do with the tongue. Okay. And so one of the major themes in the book of Proverbs
is about the tongue. And when it comes to wisdom and foolishness, a lot of this can be
gauged by what comes out of people's mouths, right? And so the fool is known by the multitude
of his words and foolish people pour foolishness out of their mouth. And so the Bible is
constantly warning us to control our tongue. We should not be the kind of people who just
say whatever comes to our mind, but we need to be very careful that our tongue and the words that
we say are pleasing to God, meaning that we're not a slanderer, we're not a backbiter,
we're not a tail bearer, and that we don't have filthy communication or corrupt communication
coming out of our mouth. So that would be along the lines of telling dirty jokes
or talking graphically about sinful things, obviously lying, just talking about dirty,
filthy, smutty things. We need to keep our communication clean and pure and righteous.
And so there's a lot here about the tongue. Now I'm going to kind of tie this in,
all these verses about the tongue with verse three. Okay. Because verse three says,
when the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt and with ignominy reproach. Now,
what does that mean? It's easy to kind of read over a verse like that without stopping
to think about what it actually means. Okay. Well, what is contempt first of all?
Well, if I have contempt for something, it means that I'm disgusted by it, or it means
that I just hate it, or it just means that I don't have proper respect for it, right?
So if I am in court and I get hit with contempt of court, it basically means that
I don't have respect for that court. I'm disgusted by the court. I'm acting hatefully
toward the court so that that's why I'm not being respectful. I'm talking out of turn or
whatever. And so then they'll hit you with contempt of court, right? To have someone in
contempt means that you don't respect them, but that rather you maybe even hate them or
disgusted by them or whatever. And so the Bible says when the wicked cometh, then cometh
also contempt. And what that means is that wicked people are going to be held in contempt
by society, by other people. When a wicked person comes, the people around them will
have contempt for them. They're not going to be respected and loved and appreciated by
the people around them. Does that make sense? Wicked people are not going to be honored
and respected and loved by the people around them. They're going to be held in contempt.
And then the Bible says with ignominy, reproach. Now this is a word, again,
it's a difficult word that we don't really use very much today. Ignominy. What does that mean?
Well, you might've heard a similar word, ignoble, right? And it has that same I G N thing
going on at the beginning, that I G prefix before word that starts with an N. And it's basically
like a negating prefix, right? So you have noble and ignoble, right? That's basically
the etymology of that word. And so this is kind of functioning the same way, but the
nominee part is basically from a root word that means name. Okay. So you think of like
English words like nominative or something for those of you grammar geeks out there,
but ignominy is basically something that is, I guess you could say of ill repute or something,
right? It's like something that is looked down upon by society or something. Ignominy,
it's like something despicable or something that people would look at it and say like,
that's terrible. Okay. It's something that's of an ill name or ill repute, right? Ignominy.
And so the Bible says with ignominy comes reproach. And what is reproach?
You know, it's kind of a lot of difficult words packed into one verse here,
but reproach is when someone criticizes you or speaks evil of you, or just looks down upon
you or something, right? That's called reproach. Like when Jesus Christ is on the cross
and you've got people shooting out the lip at him and shaking their head at him and
saying all kinds of rude things. And Jesus said, you know, the reproaches of them
that reproach thee fell on me. Jesus Christ bore shame and reproach on the cross because
people are looking down on him. They're criticizing him. They're attacking him verbally.
That's what reproach is. And so what the Bible is saying is that wicked people
are going to be objects of contempt and people who engage in some kind of a ignominy,
you know, people who do something of ill repute, people who do something that's unseemly,
people who do something that other people would look down on because it's something bad.
They are going to become the objects of reproach. People are going to say bad things about them.
They did something wicked and now they're the object of scorn. They're the object of
derision and so forth. These are difficult words in the chapter. Most of the time the King
James Bible, you know, has a little bit of difficult vocabulary mixed in, but every once
in a while you get kind of a clump of several hard words in a row and this is one of those
verses like that. But what's the Bible saying? You know, the Bible is saying that
if you do wicked things, if you commit sinful acts, if you do shameful deeds, don't be surprised
when people talk bad about you, when people point that out, when people speak ill of you.
Now, it's not necessarily right, but it's still going to happen. You can say all day long,
well, I don't think people should be gossiping about me or I don't think people should be
saying this about me or whatever. And depending on the situation, you might be right.
Maybe it is wrong in that situation for people to be saying anything or talking about something.
But what we need to understand is that this is the reality of the world that we live in,
that when you commit sinful acts or do something shameful or ignominious or whatever,
then basically people are going to say stuff and you're going to kind of reap what you've
sown in that sense that if you do something wicked, then, you know, you're going to be
probably put to shame at some point. Unfortunately, sometimes it's right, sometimes it's not
right depending on the situation. So let's just keep that in mind as we read through these verses.
So the Bible says in verse five, it's not good to accept the person of the wicked to
overthrow the righteous in judgment. A fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth
calleth for strokes. Now, what does this mean in verse six? The fool basically gets involved
in stuff that doesn't regard him, that doesn't pertain to him, right? He enters into
contention. A fool's lips enter into contention. You know, the Bible talks about us passing by
and meddling with strife not belonging to us, right? And then that's like taking a dog by the
ears. We shouldn't get involved in conflicts and fights that are not our business. The fool
kind of just walks by and just jumps in and just gets involved with whatever strife or
conflict is going on. He just kind of gets into it even though it's none of his business.
The fool's lips enter into contention. So there's contention going on that doesn't pertain to him
and he just kind of jumps in and picks aside or just wants to stir the pot a little bit.
And his mouth calleth for strokes. Now, what are strokes? Well, stroke is the noun
for the verb strike, right? And what does it mean to strike someone? It means to hit someone.
So basically, two people are arguing, maybe verbally. The fool gets in there and tries to
escalate it into a physical fist fight, right? He calls for strokes. He says,
hey man, kick his whatever, you know, and he gets in there and calls for strokes.
He enters into contention and he calls for, we need to just not meddle with strife not
belonging to us. And the last thing we want to do is escalate people's arguments or their
disagreements into a physical fight, a physical altercation. We should be the exact opposite,
where we should be a peacemaker, where we are like Moses, where Moses, he sees two people
fighting and he tried to set them at one again, right? We should be one who tries to
make peace and resolve conflicts, not be calling for strokes, like, yeah, go ahead, hit him, you
know, and trying to escalate things into a fight. You know, I remember when I was a kid
in school, and you probably remember this too, if you grew up in public school or probably
Christian school, any school, where there'll be a couple of kids that are pretty mad at each
other and everybody just wants them to fight so bad. Who knows what I'm talking about? And so
everybody's doing what? They're calling for strokes. Yeah, they go fight, fight, fight, fight, everybody
gets in a circle, fight, fight, fight. And everybody tries to egg them on, and then sometimes what'll
happen is you'll have two guys and they're kind of squared off with one another, kind of talking
trash and maybe a little bit of shoving is going on, or maybe they're just kind of getting
in each other's face, and then someone will always come behind one of them and like push them
into the other one, just to try to kind of light the fuse on that thing and just try to get that
powder keg to blow up into a fight, because you're just so bored at school, you just want
something to happen. And so, you know, if it's a fight, it's at least something's happening.
Now, why are kids like that? I'll tell you why, because foolishness is bound in the heart of
a child. That's what the Bible says, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the
rod of correction will drive apart from him. So of course, when you put a bunch of kids together
in a building all day for seven, eight hours a day, that's the kind of stuff they're going to
get up to because children are foolish by nature. They have to be taught wisdom. They have to
mature and grow up and things. So here's the thing, those of us who are adults, we should be beyond
that, beyond just wanting to watch people fight for sheer entertainment value, right? We should be
grown up and desire peace and hate violence and want people to get along with one another and
be a peacemaker and be called the children of God, as peacemakers, as Jesus said in the
Sermon on the Mount. And so obviously children are children, but you need to grow up. And
those of you teenagers, if you want to be more mature, since teenagers love to think of
themselves as totally grown up and adult, well then, you know, one way that you can act like
an adult is being a peacemaker, not one who tries to escalate confrontations into maybe even
physical violence. And so the fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth called for strokes.
Verse seven, a fool's mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul. You know,
very many people have messed up their lives or gotten themselves into big trouble just from
blowing off their mouth and saying something stupid. So you've got to control your mouth
and think before you speak. The Bible says be slow to speak, right? Swift to hear,
slow to speak, slow to wrath. So don't just get angry at the moment's notice and don't just
say the first thing that comes to your mind. You've got to learn to control your tongue and
not just let everything come out that's in your heart. The fool utters all his mind,
but the wise man keeps it until afterward. Okay. And so a fool's mouth is his destruction.
You know, you could probably mouth off to a lot of people and nothing's going to happen,
but one day you young guys, you're going to mouth off to the wrong person and they're going
to beat the fire out of you or maybe even injure you or kill you. And so, you know,
you just go out, just blowing off your mouth, saying stuff. One day you're going to mess with
the wrong person. So just control your mouth, a soft answer, turn it the way wrath. Don't be
arrogant and haughty and don't be a loud mouth because one day you're going to mouth
off to the wrong person. A fool's mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his
soul. And then continuing on with the tongue, the words of a tale bearer are as wounds and
they go down into the innermost parts of the belly saying, look, you can do a lot of damage
as a tale bearer, as a gossip, as somebody who is backbiting and talking bad about people
behind their back. You can really hurt people. You can cause serious wounds that go down
into the innermost parts of the belly. So here's the thing, you know, if someone
commits a wicked sin, well, if that person is unrepentant and open about their sin,
well then, you know, if people call it out and talk about it, well then that's just par for the
course, right? But let's say someone commits some kind of a wicked sin and they repent.
They're sorry. They change their ways. You know, it's something that they've got behind them
now, right? Maybe they committed fornication, but you know what? They've repented of that.
They're not going to do it again. They're done with it. They're sorry. They move on.
Let's say someone stole something and they've stolen, but they made it right and they're
done stealing and they're living an honest life now. We could go down the list, you know,
even very serious sins like adultery or murder even, right? You know, if people have committed
serious sins, but if they're sorry and they've repented and they're going a different direction
now in their life, then we need to forgive that person and let them live it down and not
hang that sin over their head for the rest of their life. We need to forgive and forget
and move on and give people another chance and never should we bring up people's past sins
that they've repented of. Now, if someone's just still openly living in unrepentant sin,
well then obviously, yeah, you know, we have every right to call that out and say,
hey, wait a minute, you know, this person's living openly in fornication. You know, this person
is a heretic, an unrepentant heretic and false teacher or whatever. But when people,
let's say someone taught a false doctrine in the past, but then they said, hey, I'm sorry
I was wrong about that and now I'm teaching it right. Hey, remember that dumb thing you used
to teach? Why would you bring that up, right? If it was a mistake that's been acknowledged and
repented of, then drop it. Okay. And you know, if you stole something 10 years ago,
I don't care. You know, if you committed fornication or adultery in the past, you know,
those are wicked sins, but you know what? If that's not who you are now, if that's not what
you're engaging in now, then you know what? Let's let it go. Let's forget about it. Let's
not talk about it. There's no reason to bring it out and rehash it all the time.
But you know, some people, they just delight in that kind of scuttlebutt. And so they
repeat these kinds of things and they want to tell people, hey, do you know so-and-so's
background? Or hey, you know, did you hear about what happened several years ago or whatever?
Even though it's just totally over and it's water under the bridge. So here's the bottom line
kind of tying all this together is that, you know, if you commit major sin,
people are going to talk about it unfortunately. It doesn't make it right.
We as Christians should leave it alone, forgive and forget, not be a tailbearer,
not be a backbiter, not be one who's a whisperer saying all these things. But at the
same time, the reality of life is that some people are going to disobey the Bible and
they're going to not forgive and they're going to keep talking about it and they're going to
gossip and be a tailbearer. So I as the pastor, you know, I can get up here and say, hey,
forget about it. Let people live it down. Do the Christian thing and forgive as Christ has
forgiven us. We need to forgive other people. But let me ask you this. Do you think
everybody's going to obey that teaching? No. And so all I can do is get up and teach
and tell people, hey, drop it, forget it, quit talking about it.
But the truth of the matter is people sometimes do talk about it and it's because
they're sinning by, you know, failing to forgive and by being a tailbearer. But it
doesn't change the fact that it's life, you know. I mean, it's like if the police,
you know, do some search on your vehicle that's not constitutional, you can tell them,
hey, this isn't constitutional, but they're probably still going to do it anyway.
And then you go to court and it's like, yep, that was unconstitutional.
But at the time, the cop kind of just doesn't care. He's just going to do it anyway.
Right. You can say, hey, there's a Supreme Court case that says that we can be out
here soul winning. You know, the Jehovah's Witnesses already went to the Supreme Court
about this and we're allowed to go door to door. There's a landmark decision in the
early 20th century. You know, we can show them, we used to have a little printout
of the landmark Supreme Court decisions throughout the 20th century that protect our right to door
to door evangelize and that say we're not trespassing by going door to door evangelizing
because it's already been litigated all the way up to the Supreme Court and it was ruled in
favor of what we're doing, going door to door evangelizing. And yet you could show that to
a policeman. Does that mean he's just going to go like, well, oh,
well, excuse me, sir. You know, as you were. No, because, because here's the thing. People
don't always do what's right, do they? Cops don't always follow the law. They don't always
follow the constitution. They don't always uphold our individual civil liberties, do they?
No, they, they basically, uh, do what they want to do sometimes or what their
boss is telling them to do or what the department has as their little protocol,
whether it's legal or not, whether it's right or not. Well, guess what? That's just the way
human beings are. You know, God's got all these laws. The church has all these protocols
and way that we do things, but does that mean that everybody's going to follow it all the time?
No. So the reality is that if you go out and commit fornication, if you go out and
commit adultery, you go out and get drunk or get high or whatever, you're probably going to
end up being the object of gossip. It's not my fault. I'm not saying I'm not going to be
the one gossiping about you. I'm not going to go around telling people I'm not going to
participate in it. And I'm going to get up and preach that people shouldn't talk about it
and the people should drop it and the people should forgive and the people should let it go.
But is everything I preach across this pulpit just automatically carried out by the church
members? No more so than every cop is following the constitution. It's just life, my friend.
So you can say, people aren't supposed to be talking about me. Yeah, but they're going to.
So here's the moral. And I'm not saying they should. They shouldn't.
But here's the moral of the story. Don't do the ignominy. Here's the moral of the story.
Don't commit fornication. Don't get drunk. Don't get high. Don't commit adultery,
because if you do, people are going to talk crap about you for the rest of your life.
I'm not saying good people are going to talk crap about you. I'm not saying that,
you know, godly, forgiving Christians are going to talk crap about you, but somebody will,
because there's always that tail bearer. There's always that whisper, that gossip
who will never let you live it down. Even five years later,
10 years later, 15 years later, they're just going to keep talking about it.
And so the Bible is kind of giving us both sides here. He's saying, look,
you know, this is the way life works. When ignominy comes, reproach comes. Okay.
But obviously we shouldn't be that tail bearer, but the tail bearer exists.
So that's just life. So the Bible says in verse number nine, kind of changing gears here,
it says, he also that is slothful in his work, his brother, to him that is a great waster.
And man, truer words were never spoken. People that are lazy about work are wasteful people.
People who work hard are not wasteful. You know, I bet you that in a lot of homes today,
the person who's not wasting is dad, because he's got to go out and work hard and make the
money, right? Mom's working hard, taking care of the house, and she's probably not doing the
wasting. It's probably the children that are doing the wasting who are working the least.
And we all remember what it was like when our dad would constantly tell us,
turn that light off, turn that faucet off, shut that door, right? Why is the thermostat so
low? He didn't want to waste. You know, clean your plate. If you don't eat that, pack that
up for later. Why is dad worried about that? Because dad's a hard worker, so he's not into waste.
Okay? People who have everything handed to them are more wasteful. That's why children need to be
taught to work hard and not to waste. But you know who the biggest wasters are in the
city of Phoenix tonight are homeless people. Because here's what you'll find about homeless
people if you actually walk around the city on foot, as I often do, or ride around on a
bicycle, as I often do. Because when you just drive by in a car, sometimes you don't see
things because you're moving too fast. But if you slow down and actually walk around the city,
what you'll find is that where the bums are stationed is a lot of half-eaten food.
And it's the kind of waste that I would never want to see in my home.
And here's what's interesting. You know, in our home, we have plenty of food all the time.
We've never been like that woman in the Bible where she had that barrel of meal that
just had like one portion. I've never been like, okay, this is our last meal,
guys, and then we're going to have to figure out what to do next.
My entire life, both when I lived with my parents and when I lived on my own,
every day of my 41-year-long life, my cupboards and fridge have been full of food.
I don't know what it's like to open a fridge and not have it just packed with food.
I don't know what it's like to open a cupboard and not have it just packed with food.
Who would say, Pastor Anderson, I've pretty much had the same experience my entire life.
I really don't know what it is to have an empty fridge or an empty cupboard, okay?
Yeah, a lot of people are the same way. You know, you grow up in America,
there's just such abundance. Even when I was poor, even when I was just living paycheck to
paycheck, scraping by, and my wife and I had no money to go out to eat or to do anything
special or fancy. And the only time we ever went out to eat was when my parents took us out
to eat because they were buying. And we only just had barely enough to get by.
You know what? We always had cupboards full of food and a fridge full of food.
Even if it wasn't maybe our favorite food, there was always food.
So here we are with all this abundance, all this food in the fridge, in the cupboard.
I've never one time felt even close to being in danger of starving ever in my life.
And yet, why am I so worried about not wasting food? And I'm looking at my kids' plates,
I'm like, are you going to finish that? Hey, you better finish that. And you know,
people, even people who go out to eat with me know that sometimes I'm kind of like,
hey, you're going to finish that? You know, I don't like waste.
Isn't that interesting? That even though I've never, you'd expect me to have maybe
experienced some kind of famine or, oh, you know, grandma so-and-so, she lived through the
Great Depression and that's why she doesn't want you to waste any food, you know,
because she knows. No, I've never experienced anything like that. Why do I hate waste?
Why don't I want to waste things?
Because I'm not lazy, because I'm not slothful in my work, because the slothful in their work
is brother to him that is a great waster. Those two things go hand in hand.
Okay, so what about the homeless people out there? Let me ask you this.
Do they have a fridge full of food? Do they have a cupboard full of food? Do they just
wake up every morning to the cornucopia that I have in my kitchen? I mean, I wake up in the
morning. I walk downstairs. There are all kinds of baked goods and things in Ziploc baggies that
I could tap into. There are all kinds of boxes of cereal. There are all kinds of eggs and
oatmeal packets. There's all kinds of stuff that we could do. And I've got all of these
females just ready to cook for me. I got my wife. I got my three older daughters. And now even
the younger boys are starting to cook stuff. It's just like there's so much cooking going
on in my house. My head is spinning. But let me ask you this. Do those bums out there,
do they wake up to that kind of abundance? Do they wake up and just like, oh, so what are
we going to have today? Is it crepe suzettes or is it huevos rancheros? What are we going to do,
French toast perhaps? No. In fact, I'll bet you that there are times that they
skip meals because they don't have anything to eat. And I'll bet you that they go
for hours and hours without any food. When I'm just here, I am just, oh, time for breakfast,
time for lunch, time for dinner, like a clock. So then riddle me this. Why is it that they're
constantly wasting their food? You'd think that, oh, they would just have so much appreciation
for their food and it's so precious unto them that they're going to finish that burrito
or whatever. But they don't. You see them constantly, I mean, food that you think would
be easy to eat, like there'll just be like a pizza, a full pizza, and there's a few pizzas
missing and the rest is just laying there just rotting. Just half a sandwich rotting,
just all kinds of snacks, some stuff that's not even like really perishable, just like chips,
cookies, stuff that could be easily packaged up and saved for later or whatever. But it's gross.
It's disgusting. You go by where these people are standing on the corner asking for a free
handout and you go over there and you look behind them, behind the scenes, they usually
tuck it away a little bit so that it's not visible from the road because then people would
be so disgusted they wouldn't want to donate. But you look behind the little wall and there's
just piles of rotting food and rotting garbage and it's all just thrown there lazily, sloppily,
slovenly thrown down, just take a bite, throw it on like a toddler would do or something.
Why? Because he that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.
You say, well, I don't think that all of these homeless people out there are just lazy.
I think they're just down on their luck. I know every single company is hiring right now
and I know unemployment's at an all-time low and I know that if you have a pulse,
you're pretty much qualified for a lot of jobs now. But I just think that these people,
it's not that they don't want to work, they're just down on their luck.
Okay, well, let me tell you something though. When you see them wasting food though,
that tells you that they're bogus, that they're not legit because if they were legitimately
just down on their luck, you know what they'd be doing? They'd be squirreling away everything
that they can and they'd be conserving and rationing and taking care of what they have.
Because look, if I were homeless, I'd be squirreling everything away. I'd get the
sandwich. Because look, there have been times when I was hungry and I didn't have access to
a lot of food. I'm talking about like on a trip or something, never at home obviously.
But sometimes you'll be traveling, right? And there's not really a lot of food.
Maybe I didn't get a chance to eat and I had to hop on an airplane and I was in a
hurry and didn't get a chance to eat. And then they'll come by and bring you
a snack or maybe you can buy a meal on the plane or something. And I mean,
when I get food on the airplane, I eat everything. I just consume everything.
I'm even like figuring out how to make every condiment, jam, butter, just make sure it all gets
put on so that everything is consumed. I'm like the fire that comes down from Mount Carmel on
Elijah's sacrifice where it licks up the dust. That's how I am with that airplane food.
I'll eat the parsley. Everything's gone. Just everything's consumed. If I like it,
if I don't like it, it's just like I'm going to eat all those precious calories because I'm
starving and I didn't get a chance to eat and I'm stuck on this airplane and I'm eating
everything. I eat all of it. But that's not what you see them doing. Why? Because when you
don't work for things, you don't have any appreciation for things. That's why. When you
paid for it with your own money, you don't just eat half. I mean, look how much food
costs now. The food costs are through the roof. What's a chipotle burrito now? It's like 10,
12 bucks or something. If you get all the add-ons, all the accessories,
you got to get the guacamole. I mean, come on. But if I shell out 10, 12, 15 bucks for
a chipotle burrito, you think I'm just going to eat half of it and throw it in the trash?
No way. And if I knew that I could only eat half of it, if I knew I could only eat half of it and
I have no way to refrigerate it, I would sit there and figure out, okay, what can I order
that's not going to go bad? And I'd get some kind of a vegetarian burrito or something
that I know I can eat this in seven hours or whatever, and it's still going to be edible.
Because sometimes I'll do that at places where I know I'm going to be out for a long time. Hey,
I want to be able to eat the other half of this later or whatever. That's the way we think
in here. That's why we're not out there on the corner asking for free money, because we
don't think that way, because that's a lazy person. Not only are they too lazy to go get a
job and work like a normal person, but also they're too lazy to even eat their food.
The Bible says that the slothful man, it even grieves him to lift his hand up to his mouth
to put the food in his mouth. That's what the book of Proverbs says. It grieves him. He's
just like, oh, this is so tiring to just spoon this food in my mouth. It's too much work to eat.
So he just takes a few bites of a sandwich. It's not really tickling my taste bud right now
or whatever. I don't know. Maybe when you take that many drugs, maybe you lose your appetite
anyway. I don't know. I've never taken drugs, but I've heard that sometimes I think people
can go days without eating because they're just on drugs or something. So then a lot of
the food goes to waste. But the Bible says he that is slothful in his work is brother to him
that is a great waster. Now let me just give you one caveat here. The Bible says he also that
is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster. Everybody's going to waste
a little bit from time to time. It's always going to be a little bit of waste. That's just
the way life works. But what we don't want to be is a great waster. A great waster is eat
half the sandwich, throw the other half away. Eat half the burrito, throw that. That's a great
waste. But there's going to be a little waste here and there. I get it. But don't be a great
waster. So the Bible says in verse 10, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous
runneth into it and is safe. The rich man's wealth is his strong city and as an high wall.
And then there's these important words at the end in his own conceit. That's what he thinks
because obviously wealth isn't everything and God can take you down anytime he wants to,
no matter how much money you have. The Bible says in verse 12, before destruction,
the heart of man is haughty and before honor is humility. He that answereth a matter before
he heareth it is folly and shame unto him. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity,
but a wounded spirit who can bear. That's a verse that I think about a lot. Verse 14,
the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity. Meaning that you can go through all kinds of
physical hardships like hunger, thirst, hot, cold, tiredness, sleeplessness, whatever.
And it's your spirit keeps you going. You know, you can push through those things
through spiritual strength, right? But you know, a wounded spirit is a lot harder to
deal with, isn't it? You'd rather deal with hunger, cold, thirst, nakedness. You'd rather
deal with those things than to have to deal with, you know, real spiritual or emotional trauma,
right? A wounded spirit who can bear. And so the Bible says in verse number 15,
the heart of the prudent getteth knowledge and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.
A man's gift maketh room for him and bringeth him before great men.
He that is first in his own cause seemeth just, but his neighbor cometh and searcheth him.
The lot causeth contentions to cease and parteth between the mighty. A brother offended is harder
to be won than a strong city and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.
You know, this kind of goes back to the thing about the tongue.
Sometimes you can say something that could really offend someone to the point
where you can never fix that relationship, right? The Bible says a brother offended is harder
to be won than a strong city. So again, if you blow off your mouth, if you're being a
tailbearer, whisperer, backbiter, you say something stupid, you could burn somebody
to the point where the relationship is permanently ruined. So think about that before
you talk. Their contentions are like the bars of a castle. The Bible says a man's belly
shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth and with the increase of his lips shall he be
filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the
fruit thereof. Again, it's just so important what we say and we should not be a person whose
tongue just goes wherever and that we just say whatever comes to our mind. Stop and think
before you talk. Make sure that you're speaking kind words, edifying words, right words,
wise words, not foolish, stupid, or dirty things, or inappropriate things. Make sure you think
before you talk. So find it the wife, find it the good thing. By the way, also, you know,
getting your mouth under control may help you find a wife because if you say the wrong thing
to women, they get offended and their contentions are like the bars of a castle,
okay? Because women are not as good at forgetting as men are. One of the talents that we as men
possess is the gift of forgetfulness. It's true. Now we could word this another way. We could say
that women have a better memory than men, but I'm going to word it as, you know, men are just
better at forgetting. We are talented at being forgetful. We forget stuff all the time. We're
constantly forgetting things. Now you say, what in the world? Why is that a virtue?
Well, sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. It's not always a virtue. I'm joking, obviously,
but you know what? Our brains are designed by God to forget stuff.
It's true. I mean, we're supposed to forget stuff. You say, oh man, I wish I could have
the superpower where I just remember everything. I wish I could be one of those people that just
memorize the phone book and just, and I'm just photographic memory. Not me. Our brains
are designed to forget because here's the thing. If you have that superpower where you just
remember everything, think about how miserable you'd be. Cause think about all the bad stuff
that happens to you in your life and all the bad stuff that you've said or done or heard
or seen or experienced. How would you like that stuff to just always be with you all the time?
No, it's great to just be able to forget negative things, right? Something bad happens,
just block it out, forget about it. And you know, that's part of forgiveness is forgetting,
right? Forgive and forget. And so I'm glad that God said about our sins. You say,
well, God forgave our sins, right? Yeah, but it says their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. That's forgiveness. Okay. And so men though, tend to forget things
a little bit more easily than women do. Women tend to have a little harder time with this.
You know, men and women are different. It's not that men are better than women or that
women are better than men. We're just different. You know, there are certain sins that men
struggle with more than women. Let's face it, right? Lust of the eyes. Who do you think
struggles more with that? Men or women? Okay. What about this thing of forgetting
or failing to forget? Women tend to hold a grudge a little bit more than men do,
you know? So this is a sin where maybe women struggle a little more than men,
right? So we could, you know, we can bring up sins that men struggle with more.
Men probably struggle more with pride and ego, right? You know, and then women struggle more
with sometimes being a tale bearer, not forgetting things. And so, you know, we're just different.
It's not that one's better than the other. We, we all have our sins that we deal with and,
and we're, we're just different from one another.
But ladies, this is not an excuse for you to hold a grudge. You know, you need to
forget. Okay. You need to let things go and drop things and not be bitter about things that
happened in the past. You know, bring enough stuff that your husband did six months ago or
six years ago. You need to let that go. You know, God's mercies are new every morning.
And so, you know, men could be the same way. Men can be bitter and hold a grudge too,
of course. But I'm just saying women tend to not forget. And so therefore you better be
careful what you say to women, because if you offend them, you know, you may never live it
down. So if you want to find that good thing, who's so fine to the wife, find it the good
thing. You better figure out how to get your tongue under control so that you don't
say stupid things on the first date and screw up everything. So who's so fine to the
wife, find it the good thing and obtain a favor of the Lord. The poor use it than
treaties, but the rich answer with roughly a man has friends must show himself friendly.
And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Verse 24 is obviously a very famous
verse and it has a couple different meanings. The main meaning on the surface here is that
sometimes your friends can actually be closer to you than your flesh and blood family members.
Right? Sometimes your friends, people at your church, just brothers and sisters in Christ,
but they're not physical family. They can actually stick closer than a brother. Sometimes
they can be closer than family. And then also you could think of this as also, you know,
prophetic because everything in the Bible is ultimately pointing us to Jesus. And so we could
say Jesus is the friend that sticks to us closer than any brother ever would. Right?
And so Jesus Christ is the friend that sits closer than a brother. What a friend we have in Jesus.
But also I think that this verse is just a general statement as well,
that there is such thing as a friend, even in this life, that sticks closer than a brother.
So it says a man that has friends must show himself friendly. Okay. So what the Bible is
saying is that instead of thinking about having friends or thinking about what friends can do for
you, you need to think about what it means to be a friend. If you have friends, you have to show
yourself friendly, meaning that you are a friend unto others. People who have a lot of friends
are people who do things for other people and care about other people and think about it.
You say, Oh, I don't have any friends. You know, you're probably self-centered,
self-absorbed, and you're just looking inward. If you started worrying about other people,
helping other people, reaching out to other people, seeing what you can do for other people,
then you'll have friends. A man that had friends must show himself friendly. And there is a friend
that's sticking closer than a brother. And again, kind of tying this in with,
you know, finding a wife as well is that, you know, when it comes to finding a wife,
what kind of person are you young man? Are you one who basically just has a list of
attributes that you're looking for, of what she can do for you?
Are you approaching this thing from a selfish perspective of,
well, I want to find a wife that's going to check all these boxes to make me happy.
Or you should think about what you could do as a husband to love your wife and someone
that you want to share life with and someone that you want to be a blessing to, you know,
thinking about what kind of a good husband you could be to some young lady,
as opposed to just constantly thinking about what she is. How about what you are?
How about how you are? And so it's interesting when you talk to young people sometimes about
this subject and they just tell you like, well, here's what I'm looking for, you know,
and they just have all this list of this unicorn that they're looking for.
You know, well, you know, I'm not going to marry anybody unless they're this, this, this,
this, this, you know, and they better be this because I don't want to deal with that. I don't
want to deal with it, you know, here's what I want to deal with. I want, you know, I want,
I want it to be out of the box, you know, the way I want.
But that's not really what love is. That's not what marriage is.
That's not what it's about, right? Just that this now, now there is one box that needs
to be checked, obviously. Saved, right? Loves the Lord. Okay. So yeah, couple boxes,
but I'm talking about just all the selfish things that you want her or him to be able to
do for you. You know, that's not really the right way to approach this. And you know,
if you have that attitude, you may be perpetually single because people are going to get that
vibe from you and they're going to realize that you're not a very loving person and that
you're kind of in love with yourself and that you're a user and that you're not really
trying to put something into the relationship. You're just trying to see what you can get out
of it, right? When reality, you know, marriage is about giving, right? And being a friend is
about showing yourself friendly. And marriage is obviously a friendship in many ways. It's more
than a friendship, but it is also a friendship. And so a man that had friends must show himself
friendly. The man who finds a wife, you know, he must show himself husbandly, right? He's got to
be a guy who is husband material and that he's thinking about what he can bring to the table
and what he can do and not just selfishly trying to get someone to tick the boxes, you know.
You know, eventually, you know, you find someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with.
You find someone that you want to be your companion and they're not going to be perfect.
They're never going to be perfect. They're never going to check all the boxes. But yet you love
that person anyway in spite of their faults and you pour your life and effort and energy into
that relationship. And that's what actually works because you're never going to find that
perfect person. And newsflash, you're not a perfect person. And so if you did find the
perfect person, they're not going to give you the time of day because you're you, okay?
Let's pray. All right, dear Lord, thank you so much for this chapter. And Lord God,
I pray that we would just take the wise things that we've learned in this chapter,
Lord, and put them into practice. Help us to have the desire for wisdom and the desire to
learn, Lord, and to separate ourselves and seek an inner mettle with all the wisdom.
And Lord God, please just help us to control our mouths and control our tongues
so that we don't end up saying something stupid. Help us not to dishonor you with what
we say by talking about filthy things or spreading rumors or slandering or even just
being a tale bearer and talking about people who've already repented and should have been
forgiven, Lord. Help us to control our mouths and be godly spouses and friends
and brothers and sisters, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.