Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our services tonight here at Faithful Word Baptist Church.
It's good to see everyone here on this Sunday night. Let's all take our hymnals, please,
and turn them to hymn number 116. He leadeth me, hymn number 116. And your hymnals, you
should find one close by. Let's turn to hymn number 116. He leadeth me, O blessed thought,
hymn number 116. Let's sing it out on this first verse altogether, hymn number 116.
He leadeth me, O blessed thought, hymn number 116. And your hymn number 116. Let's sing it out on this first verse altogether, hymn number 116.
He leadeth me, O blessed thought, hymn number 116. And your hymn number 116. And your hymn number 116.
And your hymn number 116. And your hymn number 116. And your hymn number 116.
And your hymn number 116. And your hymn number 116.
Amen. Hymn number 47. Let the sun shine again in my heart, hymn number 47.
Hymn number 47. I remember the time when I first knew the Savior, hymn number 47. Sing it out on this first verse together.
I remember the time when I first knew the Savior, when the sunlight of blessing so flooded my heart.
Oh, the sweetness of first thought with Jesus so near me, when the possums we both shed would never be more.
Let the sunshine again, let the clouds bloom again, stir the embers of love in my heart.
Holy Spirit, every room, then embrace me again, let the sunshine again in my heart.
Then I'll see where the scriptures misspoke to me daily, how they guided my steps while my zeal did not last.
And the sweet place of where, where I met with my Savior, I neglected and so soon my joys were all past.
Let the sunshine again, let the clouds bloom again, stir the embers of love in my heart.
Holy Spirit, every room, then embrace me again, let the sunshine again in my heart.
Oh, I love well to walk in the way with God's children when we met with my heart.
The fellowship's sweet, but not full of the flesh and some worldly companions.
Let the clouds bloom again, stir the embers of love in my heart.
Holy Spirit, every room, then embrace me again, let the sunshine again in my heart.
Lord, I come now again for forgiveness and blessing as I can enjoy my empty peace.
For the blood came my dead and thy spirit within me gives me love to my Father.
My wandering two seas, let the sunshine again, let the clouds bloom again, stir the embers of love in my heart.
Holy Spirit, every room, then embrace me again, let the sunshine again in my heart.
Amen.
All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, put up your hand and we'll get to you with one.
On the inside, we have our service time, Sunday mornings at 1030.
Sunday nights at 6 o'clock is our preaching service.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week will be in Judges chapter 20.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms.
And then across the page is the note about the mother-daughter tea party.
Now we hold this on two different days because of the fact that the place isn't big enough to hold everybody in one day.
So you're going to sign up for either May 2nd or May 23rd.
Make sure you RSVP right away to get your spot reserved.
And take the RSVP seriously.
So if you sign up, show up.
And if you're not going to be able to make it, if your plans change, be sure to let us know so that we can accommodate someone else in your slot.
But anyway, those are coming up in the month of May.
And then the Bible memory passage.
And I don't think, neither of those are the actual Mother's Day itself.
So if you have other plans on Mother's Day, that works out great because this is on a separate day anyway.
Romans chapter 4 verses 1 through 8 is a powerful passage.
I hope you're memorizing that.
On the back, we've got the note about the children.
Please don't let them run around unsupervised before and after the service, terrorizing.
And just teach them to be respectful and mellow and not to tear the place apart.
And then below that is the note about the ladies retreat.
This is an exciting event that's coming up for the ladies down in Oracle just outside of Tucson.
It's for 13 and up plus ladies.
And they're going to be at this guest ranch down there.
And it's going to go from Wednesday morning to Saturday afternoon at the end of August.
The event's free, meaning, you know, the lodging's provided and everything about it.
As far as, I believe, meals are provided, right?
Yep. So meals, lodging, it's quite an event.
And the registration's going to open shortly.
And as I mentioned this morning, it's going to open up on a Wednesday night for the diehards, alright.
To get first dibs on this thing, to get signed up.
So be thinking about that because you want to decide on this because once the registration opens up,
it's going to fill up really fast.
So it's going to be like one of those things that sells out in like five minutes or something, you know.
Except it doesn't sell out because it's free.
But anyway, you're going to want to sign up immediately once you know you're going.
So right now is the time to think about it, talk to your husband, and check the schedule,
check the calendar and figure out whether you're going to be able to do this.
And then below that, other upcoming events are listed there.
A lot of small town soul winning trips, etc.
That's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days.
So going back to Thursday the 15th.
Anything from Thursday?
Anything to report from Thursday?
Alright, how about Friday? Anything from Friday?
How about Saturday?
Okay, got it.
For the Safford trip.
Alright, cool.
So that was over the course of Friday and Saturday?
Awesome.
Anything else from Saturday?
Another one over here.
Anything else from Saturday?
Okay, how about today, Sunday?
Scott, three for the main group.
Okay, any other teams?
Got one here.
Three.
Was that 17 for the west side group?
Okay.
Anything else from today?
Alright, very good.
Keep up the great work on soul winning.
And with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song.
Come lead us.
Alright, we're going to sing through tribulation.
You should find an instant on your hymnals.
If you don't have one, please raise your hand.
And we'll get to it with one.
Through tribulation.
Sing it on this verse first.
Though it is dark in this world of sin
Though evil crosspersons shall not win
First tribulation then with a shout
Will be brought away for his wrath tore down
The Lord will come with ten thousands of saints
He'll judge the earth for his righteous name's sake
Through tribulation though we must come
Heirs not can separate us from his love
When sorrows increase be not dismayed
All must be fulfilled before that day
The man of sin we will surely see
The Son and the Lord in him we shall be free
The Lord will come with ten thousands of saints
He'll judge the earth for his righteous name's sake
Through tribulation though we must come
There's not can separate us from his love
We must trust in him though times seem dire
He's strong purify us with refining fire
When he's come to pass redemption is nigh
He'll catch us away in the blink of an eye
The Lord will come with ten thousands of saints
He'll judge the earth for his righteous name's sake
Through tribulation though we must come
There's not can separate us from his love
Sing it on this first verse together, myth number 456
Is there a heart or bound by sorrow?
Is there a life weighed down by care?
Come to the cross, each burden bearing
All your anxiety, leave it there
All your anxiety, all your care
Bring to the mercy seat, leave it there
Never a burden he cannot bear
Never a friend like Jesus
No other friend so keen to help you
No other friend so quick to hear
No other place to live your burden
No other one to hear your prayer
All your anxiety, all your care
Bring to the mercy seat, leave it there
Never a burden he cannot bear
Never a friend like Jesus
Confident once, delayed no longer
Heed his entry, he'd come and see
You did not fear a disappointment
You shall find peace at the mercy seat
All your anxiety, all your care
Bring to the mercy seat, leave it there
Never a burden he cannot bear
Never a friend like Jesus
Amen. Good singing tonight.
Alright, this time we'll pass the offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Proverbs chapter 30.
Right in the middle of your Bible is Psalms.
Right after Psalms is Proverbs.
Proverbs chapter number 30, as we always do,
we'll read the whole chapter starting in verse number 1.
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads.
Proverbs 30, starting in verse number 1.
Proverbs chapter 30, while it reads.
The words of Agar, the son of Jacka, even the prophecy.
The man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucol.
Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.
I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy.
Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?
Who hath gathered the wind in his fist?
Who hath bound the waters in a garment?
Who hath established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?
Every word of God is pure.
He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
Two things have I required of thee.
Deny me them not before I die.
Remove far from me vanity and lies.
Give me neither poverty nor riches.
Feed me with food convenient for me.
Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord?
Or, lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty.
There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.
There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes, and their eyelids are lifted up.
There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw-teeth as knives,
to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.
The horse-leech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give.
There are three things that are never satisfied, yet four things say not, It is enough.
The grave, and the barren womb, the earth that is not filled with water, and the fire that saith not, It is enough.
The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother,
the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.
There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yet four which I know not.
The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock,
the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid.
Such is the way of an adulterous woman.
She eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.
For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which I cannot bear.
For a servant when he reigneth, and a fool when he is filled with meat.
For an odious woman when she is married, and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.
There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise.
The ants are a people, not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.
The conies are but a feeble folk, yet they make their houses in the rocks.
The locusts have no king, yet go they forth, all of them, by bands.
The spider taketh hold with their hands, and is in king's palaces.
There be three things which go well, yet four which are comely in going.
A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any.
A greyhound, and he goad also, and a king against whom there is no rising up.
If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself,
or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.
Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter,
and the ringing of the nose bringeth forth blood.
So the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.
Dear Lord, thank you for giving us the opportunity to come to church tonight.
I pray, Father, that you'd bless us for coming here to hear your word,
and that you'd open our ears, and that you'd fill us with wisdom from the word of God.
And I pray, Father, you fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit to teach us.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Proverbs chapter number 30 has always been one of my favorite chapters.
I remember back when I was a teenager and I just got started doing a lot of Bible memorization.
I think this was like the third chapter that I memorized in my teenage years as I was getting into that.
It's a great chapter, but what's interesting about it is the authorship.
You know, it starts out at the beginning saying the words of Agor, the son of Jacob, even the prophecy.
Who in the world is that? Who is this guy?
And if we think about the book of Proverbs, we would always think of it as being authored by Solomon.
But when we get to these last two chapters, chapters 30 and 31, they're authored by other people.
You have chapter 30 by Agor and then chapter 31 by Lemuel, which is probably why they're put at the end.
They're tagged on at the end because they're by someone else.
Who is this guy?
Well, the truth of the matter is we know absolutely nothing about who this guy is.
And if we think about in verse 1 of chapter 31 when it says the words of King Lemuel,
well, we know all of the kings of Israel and Judah and we know that none of them is named Lemuel.
Now, some people have theorized that these are just sort of code names for Solomon, you know,
which you can kind of see that with Lemuel just because the letters are kind of similar to the letters in Solomon.
But, you know, I don't think that's the case.
I think that these are just two different people because of the fact that this Agor in chapter 30 is clearly a different guy.
So it makes sense that the other guy in chapter 31 is a different guy.
So, you know, why is this in the Bible?
I mean, if it's written by this guy Agor, we don't even know who this is.
But what you have to understand about the Bible is that we don't know who wrote many books of the Bible
because the important thing about the Bible is not who the human author is.
The important thing about the Bible is the fact that it's inspired by God.
So this goes back to what I was saying back on Easter Sunday and I've preached about this recently,
the fact that the human authorship of the Bible is not the issue.
It's the fact that it's God's word, the fact that it's inspired by God.
And so it really isn't important who this guy is.
And I believe that God gives us a few just kind of random authors like this just to show us that it's not about,
oh, great Moses, or oh, David, you're so great, or oh, Solomon, oh, apostle Paul.
It's the fact that God's great and he's moving these holy men to write these things
and that he's the important author, not the human instrument that's used.
It's interesting, you don't have to turn there, but in 1 Kings 4, verse 29, the Bible says,
And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding, exceeding much in largeness of heart,
even as the sand that is on the seashore.
And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country and all the wisdom of Egypt.
For he was wiser than all men.
He was wiser than Ethan the Ezraite and He-Man and Calcol and Darda and the sons of Mahal.
And his fame was in all nations round about and he spoke three thousand proverbs and on and on.
So we see there that, you know, the Bible is recognizing the wisdom of some well-known wise men at that time,
even from foreign countries.
King Lemuel is obviously from a foreign country.
This guy, Agur, he might be from another country.
We don't know anything about him.
But again, that's not the point.
You know, God gives wisdom to various people and they don't have to be anyone important.
Now right away in Proverbs chapter 30, this guy's going to build our confidence in his resume right away.
You know, because we're a little worried like, whoa, who's this guy?
Agur? I mean, I know Solomon, but who's this guy?
Well, he's going to give us his credentials starting in verse number two.
Surely I am more brutish than any man.
Now brutish means foolish, stupid, simple.
You know, if you think of somebody as being a brute, you think of somebody who's kind of a big dumb animal.
You know what always comes into my mind when I think of the word brute?
I always think of Bluto, you know, just because it's kind of a similar word.
Who knows what I'm talking about? Bluto.
You know, those super old Popeye cartoons.
I just think of kind of a big dumb animal, kind of a big muscle head guy who doesn't really know much.
That's usually what you think of as a brute, somebody who is not learned or intellectual.
He says, surely I'm more brutish than any man and have not the understanding of a man.
I neither learned wisdom nor have knowledge of the holy.
Well, great. Tell us what you got to say here.
Why is this chapter in the Bible?
I'll tell you why this chapter is in the Bible.
The same reason every other chapter is in the Bible because God's word is so powerful.
It authenticates itself.
It speaks for itself.
We know God's word when we read it.
We know God's word when we hear it because it has wisdom and power that no human being can duplicate.
And if you want to talk about a book that's been copycatted and mimicked, it's the book of Proverbs.
Because if you go and look up the apocryphal books, you've got big, long, giant imitations.
You've got the wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach.
And you've got Ecclesiasticus.
And you're reading them and you're just like, huh?
It's a face palm reading through these things.
But yet Proverbs 30 is an excellent proverb because it's God's word.
So again, it's not about the human author.
It's not about his human understanding.
What is he saying here?
Why would he start out by saying that he's more brutish than any man and he has not the understanding of man?
What this is is just him being humble about his knowledge.
It really doesn't mean that he's actually the stupidest man on earth.
It doesn't mean that he actually doesn't have any knowledge of holy things.
It's that that's how he feels about himself because he's humble.
Keep your finger there in Proverbs 30 and go back to Job 42.
Now we know that Job was a man of excellent wisdom and understanding.
And in fact, right after Job says this, God says about Job,
he has spoken the thing that is right concerning me.
And think about all of the powerful chapters narrated by Job in the book of Job.
Clearly powerful, wise, prophetic.
It's God's word.
And yet what does Job say about himself?
Well, Job says in verse number three,
who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?
Therefore have I uttered that I understood not.
Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
He's like, man, I talked about stuff I didn't even understand.
I should have just kept my mouth shut.
Verse six, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.
Now look, that's totally unnecessary because what Job said,
if you go back to Proverbs 30, was actually great stuff.
It was actually right on.
It was actually God inspired, wise teachings from a man of God.
But yet he feels this way about himself because here's the thing about wise people.
Wise people realize how much they don't know.
The smarter I get, the more I realize that I don't know.
The more I learn the Bible, the more I realize, wow, there's a lot in the Bible I don't know.
There's a lot in the Bible I don't understand.
But fools, they think that they pretty much have got it figured out.
You know, they know pretty much everything if you ask them.
And they think that they're super smart.
When you have somebody going around telling you how super smart they are
and bragging about their knowledge, they probably don't have much.
You know, ironically, the guy who tells you, man, I am more brutish than any man.
I have not the understanding of a man.
I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledge of the holy.
Even though that doesn't really inspire confidence,
actually it tells us at least that he's a humble guy and his words speak for themselves
because he's about to give us a lot of very wise words.
And so we listen to what he has to say.
So the author, Agar.
The words of Agar, the son of Jachie, even the prophecy.
And then here's what's funny about the rest of verse one.
It says, the man spake unto Eithel, even unto Eithel and Yukal.
Not only do we not know who this guy Agar is,
not only is he giving us his resume and it's kind of a rough resume in verses two and three,
but number three, we're not even getting this first hand from Agar.
Eithel and Yukal are going to tell us this is what we heard from Agar.
So that's what it's saying.
You know, these are the words of Agar.
He spoke these to Eithel and Yukal and we're getting it from Eithel and Yukal.
Two other total randos that we have no idea who they are.
So again, if you're going to try to prove the Bible by, you know,
some kind of a historical, archaeological, scientific method,
good luck with that because you know what?
The only way to take the Bible is to take it on faith.
We have faith in the power of God's word and God wants our faith to stand not in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.
It's the power of the word itself that shows us that it's the word of God.
That's how we know this is the Bible.
And because it's been preserved and God has transmitted it to us today in 2021,
to where when we're handed a Bible, this is what we've been given and it's all there,
it's all complete, it all makes sense because God has providentially delivered us his book.
So what's next?
He talks about the fact that he, you know, hey, I'm not claiming to be an expert here.
It's basically what he's saying in verses two and three.
And then in verse four he says, you know, who has ascended up into heaven or descended?
Who hath gathered the wind in his fists?
Who hath bound the waters in a garment?
Who hath established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name and what is his son's name if thou canst tell?
Every word of God is pure.
He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar.
And so we see that the real authority, the real source of all wisdom is the word of God itself.
It's not agor that's the issue, it's the word of God that is exceeding pure
and that is the shield to everyone that puts their trust in him.
Not human beings, but rather God himself.
The word of God is the authority.
So he's going to get into his teachings.
After that preamble in verses one through six, he's going to get into these teachings.
He says in verse seven, two things have I required of thee.
This is his prayer to the Lord.
Two things have I required of thee.
Deny me them not before I die.
Remove far from me vanity and lies.
You know, the first thing that I want is to just not be surrounded by lies.
Remove far from me vanity and lies and vanity.
And you know what vanity means?
It means things that don't matter.
Things that are vain don't matter.
They have no importance.
They have no worth.
They have no value.
They're vain.
They're empty.
Remove far from me vanity and lies.
Give me neither poverty nor riches.
This is the second thing.
So he wants two things from God.
Remove far from me vanity and lies and give me neither poverty nor riches.
He wants to live a life that matters and he wants to just have what he needs in life.
He doesn't want to be rich.
He doesn't want to be poor.
He says, remove far from me vanity and lies.
Give me neither poverty nor riches.
Feed me with food convenient for me.
Now, he's not saying, you know, hey, I really like convenience foods.
You know, feed me with Hot Pockets and frozen pizzas and, you know, microwave TV dinners
and drive through Burger King for sandwiches and stuff like that.
What he's saying here, what he says, feed me with food convenient for me.
He's basically saying, you know, feed me with my daily bread.
I just want to have food when I need it.
You know, when the time comes to eat, I want food to be there.
I'm not trying to be super rich and have everything stockpiled and I don't want to get to mealtimes
and have nothing to eat.
So feed me with food convenient for me.
Lest I be full and deny thee and say, who's the Lord?
So the danger in getting too rich or too full is to start thinking, I don't need God.
I've got this all taken care of.
I've got it all figured out.
Everything's all set.
And then the danger of getting poor, it says, or lest I be poor and steal and take the name
of my God in vain.
Because when people get poor, they'll often be pushed to do something like stealing and
then they start getting bitter and blaming God for their situation, taking God's name
in vain, blaming the Lord, getting bitter against God because of their plight.
He's saying, look, I don't want to be miserable and bitter and I don't have any food and getting
upset at God because God promised to feed me.
At the same time, I don't want to be super rich and start thinking I don't need God.
You know, I want to rely on God every day to give me my daily bread and I want to be
thankful for that bread because it actually shows up, right?
Because we don't want to get super rich and then think, okay, well now I don't need God.
But then also we don't want God to renege on his promise to feed us and clothe us and
take care of us.
And of course we know God's not going to renege on that promise.
God has promised that he will feed and clothe us and take care of us and that he will supply
all our need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
As long as we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then those things will
be added unto us.
So yeah, as long as we serve God, we're guaranteed these things.
And part of serving God involves thanking God, acknowledging God, and praying for God
to give us the daily bread.
You know, what if you just never prayed to God and asked him to feed you and then you
could possibly starve.
If you go three days without any food and you haven't asked God to provide it, God,
you promised.
You said, I've never seen the righteous forsaken or deceived, but you know what?
You have to ask in order to receive.
You have not because you ask not.
And so everyone that asketh receiveth.
So this guy is clearly not the stupidest man on earth.
He's actually speaking great words of wisdom here about seeking a middle way financially,
not wanting to be rich, not wanting to be poor.
And I think about this all the time.
Like I said, this is one of my very favorite chapters that I have memorized the whole chapter.
I think about it all the time.
I'm constantly quoting these verses and dwelling on them because they're great.
And so it says here, feed me with food convenient for me.
It explains why.
And he says in verse 10, accuse not a servant unto his master lest he curse thee and thou
be found guilty.
Now what does that say?
You know, basically here's what he's saying.
Don't get involved in junk that doesn't concern you.
Don't get involved in somebody else's situation accusing a servant unto his master.
It's none of your business.
Stay out of it.
And he talks about that later in the chapter as well, that concept.
But he says in verse 11, there is a generation that curseth their father and doth not bless
their mother.
Now obviously, in the poetry of the Bible, you have this thing that's called parallelism,
right?
All throughout the poetry of the Bible, it doesn't matter whether you're reading Job
or Psalms or Proverbs or Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.
The most common feature of Hebrew poetry is this thing called parallelism.
You know, we think of our poetry, sometimes it rhymes, sometimes everything starts with
the same letter, and there are some poems like that in Hebrew.
And sometimes poems might have a certain rhythm.
You know, you think of Shakespeare or something where it's got that iambic pentameter rhythm.
But in Hebrew poetry, the big thing is parallelism, saying everything twice.
And so if you read the book of Proverbs or especially the book of Job, you'll see they
say everything twice.
They say it once, and then they say it again using different words, or they'll say it from
the opposite angle, like they curse their father and they don't bless their mother.
So it's like these little couplets of either things that are the same or things that are
opposite.
So this is a poetic book, and so we have that feature of the parallelism where it says there's
a generation that curses their father and does not bless their mother.
But the thing I want to point out here is that obviously it's wicked to curse your parents.
You know, the Bible says, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
It's the Old Testament.
No, that's Matthew chapter 15, and that's what Jesus said.
Jesus in Matthew 15 said, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
And he said that you've made the word of God of none effect by your tradition.
Here's what the Bible says.
And so that's a pretty strong statement to say, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him
die the death.
You know, you think about things that the Bible puts a death penalty on.
Murder only in the first degree, by the way.
Only first degree murder is punishable by death in the Bible.
Rapists are punished by death, adultery, sodomites, kidnapping.
And so, you know, smiting your parents is also death penalty or cursing your parents.
And so that's pretty serious.
And God makes a big deal in the Bible about honoring your father and mother.
And you know what?
It's not enough to just not curse them.
You need to also bless them.
Don't just be neutral either.
Well, at least I didn't curse my father or mother.
Yeah, but did you bless your mother?
Did you call her on Mother's Day?
Did you send her a card?
Did you thank her?
Have you praised her and said nice things about her?
We should love and honor our parents.
The Bible says, Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise,
that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth.
I want it to be well with me, and I want to live long on the earth.
Therefore, I must honor my father and mother.
And you'd be wise to do the same thing.
Because if you have this bad attitude toward your parents,
you're asking for a short life that's not blessed by God.
Okay?
Because this is serious.
But there's a generation out there, and he's going to talk more about this a little bit later in the chapter,
but he says there's a generation that cursed their father and does not bless their mother.
And the word generation can refer to either, you know, a time period,
like we think of generation X or generation Y or the millennials or generation Z
or the baby boomer generation or the greatest generation or all these different generations.
But it can also refer to a classification of people or a type of people.
There's a crowd out there or a type of people that don't bless their mother and they curse their father.
He says there's a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
There is a generation, oh how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up.
Right?
What does that mean?
They're prideful, they're arrogant, they're filthy, but yet they are pure in their own eyes.
And they don't have to bless their mother, curse their father, they have no respect for their elders,
they don't respect mom and dad and they think they're so cool and they're all high and mighty
and they think they're better than everybody else, they're lifted up in their own heart.
And the Bible says in verse 14 there's a generation whose teeth are as swords
and their jaw teeth as knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men.
They don't care about anybody else, they're greedy, they want to get everything for themselves
and they don't care who they hurt in the process and who they leave in poverty in the process.
The horse leech hath two daughters crying, give, give.
There are three things that are never satisfied, yea four things say not, it is enough.
Now the way that this chapter is structured is really interesting because it kind of flows from one thought into another
and it's kind of interesting the way that it flows because it doesn't really follow like a strict outline of topics
but it's almost like one thing jogs the mind of the next thing.
Because you know he started out by saying well I don't have the knowledge of the holy
and then he starts out talking about well who has ascended up into heaven, what's his name, what's his sons name, do you know?
Nobody knows these things, we got to rely on the word of God.
And then he says, you know, add that on to his words, lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar, two things am I required of thee.
He talks about the poverty and riches and then at the end of verse nine he talks about taking God's name in vain
and then he just boom rolls into curse, accuse not a servant unto his master lest he curse thee and thou be found guilty.
Oh and by the way there's a generation that curses their father and does not bless their mother.
So do you see how one thought kind of rolls into the next?
And then he lists off the four generations because this chapter, the big number in this chapter is four.
He gives all these groups of four things.
And then he says, you know, that there's a generation, verse 14, I'm explaining this for a reason.
I want you to understand the chapter.
There's a generation whose teeth are as swords and their john teeth as knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men.
And so when he thinks of these kind of blood sucking people with these sharp teeth that devour the poor,
it leads him to think of what animal at the beginning of verse 15, what animal?
The leech.
They're leeches, right?
The horse leech hath two daughters crying give, give.
And then he's thinking about leeches and he's thinking about these people that are leeches.
And then he says there are three things that are never satisfied.
You know, he's thinking about these rich people that are the parasites, that are the leeches, that devour the poor,
and the unscrupulous businessmen and bankers and these different people.
He's saying they're never satisfied.
And isn't that the truth?
You know, the Bible says he that love a silver should not be satisfied with silver.
People who live their life to get money are never going to have enough money to make them happy.
And by the way, whenever I feel bad about my sermons kind of going off on rabbit trails, I just think about this chapter.
Because this chapter is just like a series of rabbit trails that never ends.
It's such a great chapter though.
So that encourages me that my sermons might not be structured as badly as I thought.
So he says here there are four things, three things that are never satisfied.
Yea, four things say not.
It is enough.
The grave.
The grave has never had enough dead bodies.
You know, people just keep dying, don't they?
People continually die.
Everyone's going to die.
The barren womb.
You know, the barren womb is never satisfied.
You know, when a woman is not able to have children, this is very grievous under her.
It's very hard for her to deal with.
There's a void there.
There's something missing that never quite is filled.
The barren womb.
The earth that's not filled with water.
You know, water keeps falling out of the sky, but yet the earth is never filled with water because we have a thing called the water cycle.
You know, where the water is constantly being evaporated and then it rains and then it soaks down into the ground water and then it comes out of the ground water and springs and then you have rivers that feed the lakes that feed the oceans and then it all gets evaporated and on and on.
He says the earth that's not filled with water and the fire that sayeth not, it is enough.
You know, you'll never see a fire just stop consuming when there's fuel available.
It won't just kind of come to a certain point and just be run out of energy, run out of steam or something.
You know, I'm done.
As long as there's fuel, it's going to keep going, right?
It's just going to keep burning.
It's never satisfied.
It never stops.
It can't be reasoned with.
And so he lists these four things that are never satisfied.
The fire that sayeth not, it is enough.
Oh, you know, and back to those idiots that are not blessing their mother and that are cursing their father, by the way.
The eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young eagles shall eat it.
And look, this is just one of many, many curses on people who do not obey their parents, who mock their parents and don't obey them and despise them.
You know, if you honor them, you'll live long.
It'll be well with you.
And if you do the opposite of that, you're going to die in an open field and you won't even be buried.
You will be eaten by birds of prey.
And we have plenty of those in Arizona.
You just go hiking and if you start looking a little tired, you know, they'll start circling overhead.
And it's sort of like that meme where the guy in the yellow suit behind the tree is kind of like, you know, that's what they're doing up in the sky, in essence.
He says in verse number 18, there'll be three things which are two, and by the way, that's what they're doing when they see you mocking your parents.
Right?
You know, you just see the vultures flying overhead, circling over your head because you're making fun of your parents, you're despising your parents, you're not obeying your parents, you don't listen to your parents.
Hey, God commands you to obey your parents.
Well, my parents are wrong. Shut up and obey your parents.
Your parents are your God-ordained authority.
If you don't obey your parents, you're disobeying God.
Because God is the one who told you to obey your parents.
Well, what gives my parents authority?
Because God commanded you to obey your parents and if you don't obey them, you're disobeying the creator of the universe who can just snap his fingers and cause you to die and be left for dead in an open field.
You say, well, that's a scary sermon.
But this is what the Bible says in verse 17.
It's pretty graphic, right?
It says the ravens of the valley shall pick it out.
They'll pick out your eye that's lifted up.
Oh, how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up.
You know, I don't want to stab myself in the eye, but that's what's going to happen with a really sharp beak, stabbing your eye and eating it.
And maybe you're not even quite dead yet.
There, I said it.
All right, let's keep going.
All right, verse 18.
The Bible says, there'll be three things which are too wonderful for me.
Well, thank you for getting on something a little more positive.
There'll be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, for which I know not.
You know, this stuff's too wonderful for me.
The way of an eagle in the air.
The way of a serpent upon a rock.
What?
Now, why are these things so wonderful?
Well, it's a guy that appreciates nature.
You know, an eagle flying in the air is a pretty cool thing to look at, right?
You can be spellbound or mesmerized by that.
See, what about a serpent on a rock?
You know, the way serpents move is pretty mesmerizing, you know, with all that twisting and moving.
It's fascinating.
And, you know, these are beautiful things.
The natural world, looking at animals.
The way of an eagle in the air.
The way of a serpent upon a rock.
The way of a ship in the midst of the sea.
And the way of a man with a maid.
These are beautiful things that God has created.
Things that are in our natural world that we can admire.
But then in verse 20 it says, such is the way of an adulterous world.
But then in verse 20 it says, such is the way of an adulterous woman.
She eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith, I've done no wickedness.
So here we see that the way of a man with a maid is one of the most beautiful, wonderful things that there is.
But then the adulterous takes that which God has created to be something beautiful and turns it into something ugly.
You know, when you think of this image of she eateth and wipeth her mouth, you know, this is what you picture.
You picture this motion right here.
Right?
Have you ever seen people eat that way like a little kid or something?
Because typically, you know, those of us that are a little more civilized, you know, it might be something more like,
you know, or something like that, right?
But then, you know, basically there's this kind of,
you know, basically, you know, instead of,
instead of a godly meal, it's just this feast on wickedness and filth and sin.
You know, the Bible talks about the filthiness of fornication.
And then just basically wiping the junk off of her mouth and say, well, I haven't done anything wrong.
You know, only God can judge me, right?
I've done no wickedness.
She eats and she wipes her mouth and she says, I've done no wickedness.
For three things the earth is disquieted and for four which it cannot bear.
I mean, these are just things that basically go against the order of things.
And so the earth can't handle these things, right?
Now you say, well, does the earth really have an opinion about these things?
Well, the Bible will often, you know, personify the earth in that way.
Like, for example, it talks about all the sodomites and everything in the land of Canaan
and how it said the earth itself is vomiting up the inhabitants thereof.
Like, the earth is grossed out by these perverts and wants to puke, right?
So don't feel bad if you feel the same way as planet earth, right?
We've got to love the earth, man, right?
You know, it's like the bumper sticker that I've seen where it says love your mother,
but it's a picture of the earth.
I remember my pastor back in Sacramento, he said that he saw that bumper sticker and he thought,
oh, that's nice, you know, love your mother.
We all need to hear that sometimes.
And then he saw the picture of the earth and he's like, err, you know, kind of ruined it for him.
Because the earth's not our mother.
God is our father, right?
There's no mother earth.
There's just our father which is in heaven.
But, you know, hey, maybe that's just a little greenwashing of this anti-sodomite doctrine.
You know what I mean?
We could say, hey, if we love the earth, let's do it for the earth, amen?
Let's cleanse the earth of sodomites, right?
Mother earth is getting sick to her stomach.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, so, you know, it says the earth is disquieted for these things.
These things are so far from the right order, from the natural order that the earth itself is upset.
Obviously this poetic language.
For a servant when he reigneth and a fool when he's filled with meat.
For an odious woman when she's married and a handmaid that is heir to her mistress.
So it's just talking about things that are not right in the world.
You know, things that are backwards or they're not right.
And one of the things that isn't right is a servant when he reigneth.
You know, basically when the inmates are running the institution.
Instead of having a proper authority structure order, you know, you have the servant reigning.
It's out of order of how things should be.
And you say, well, who gets to be a servant and who gets to reign?
You know, well, you earn the right to be in charge.
You pay the cost to be the boss, all right?
You don't just, as a servant, reign.
You have to earn that position.
But you have people that get in positions of power that don't belong there.
A fool when he's filled with meat.
Because of the fact that obviously the fool is slothful, he's a sluggard.
And if he gets full of meat, he gets prideful and thinks that he can just continue being an idiot
because he's got everything he needs.
You know, when you think of the fool being filled with meat, think about just complete idiots
who refuse to learn anything, they refuse to get any skills, they refuse to learn how to work hard
or do any jobs, and then they just get free money from the government.
They're just kind of a slob, just buying a bunch of junk food.
You know, that's what I think of when I think of this verse, the fool that's filled with meat.
Because he swiped his little government card and he just didn't even go to work
and just has all this food to fill up his belly with.
An odious woman when she's married.
What is an odious woman?
Well, the word odious comes from hateful.
It comes from the same root as hating.
Like, think of in Spanish, isn't the word for hate in Spanish, I'm a little rusty on my Spanish,
odiar? Am I right?
Can I get a witness?
Odiar means to hate, so an odious woman is a hateful woman when she's married.
A hateful woman when she's married.
You know, the word hateful can either mean that you hate or that you're hated.
Well, obviously either of these are bad.
You know, whichever one this means, I'm not 100% sure which one this is here.
Is the odious woman when she's married the one who's hateful and hating of her husband
or hated by her husband, right?
Well, either one is obviously wrong.
It's probably the latter, hated by her husband.
And then it says, and a handmaid that is heir to her mistress.
Why would a handmaid be heir to her mistress?
Because she has no children.
So this is a throwback to the earlier thing about the barren womb not being satisfied.
It says in verse 24, there be four things which are little upon the earth, but they're exceeding wise.
The answer are people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.
The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks.
The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.
The spider taketh hold with their hands and is in king's palaces.
There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely and going.
So he lists these four things that are little upon earth, but they're exceeding wise.
Little things on earth that are exceeding wise talk about the ants, conies, locusts, spiders.
And basically there's something that we can learn from each of these, okay?
The answer are people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.
And this is sort of the idea that would later become the idea of the tortoise and the hare.
You know, that basically they're not strong, they're not necessarily very skillful,
but they think ahead, they plan ahead, they work ahead, they prepare their meat in the summer.
And obviously we would do well to do the same.
We need to work hard and not procrastinate, not to wait till the last minute to get things done.
We need to be hard workers, get things done in advance, be steady on our jobs and so forth.
You know the Bible is constantly contrasting the person who's hasty and the person who's diligent in the book of Proverbs, right?
The diligent man is the guy who's not lazy, he keeps showing up to work,
but it's not just that, it's that he's willing to take the time necessary to do a good job.
So not only is he working hard and patient, but he's also willing to just day in, day out, hour after hour after hour keep working.
The hasty man just kind of wants to rush and get his work done so he can go party, so he can go play.
And he doesn't take pride in the work itself and slowing down and doing a good job, doing well.
You know the ants are basically just consistently working and they're working ahead, they're working in advance.
They don't basically just work to have enough money just for today.
Friday comes, they get the paycheck, they go blow it, they call in sick a few days,
then they run out of money and it's like now I got to go to work again.
That'd be the opposite of this.
So the ants are consistent and not only that, they don't have to be told what to do
because they have no ruler or overseer.
They just do what they're supposed to do.
They don't need somebody breathing down their neck at their job all the time telling them what to do.
They just get it done.
They just show up and do what they need to do.
They don't have to be strong or talented or, you know, maybe they're not even the most skillful worker on the job,
but because they're so consistent and diligent, they end up prospering and being wise.
The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks.
You know, we, all of us, as Christians are weak.
The Apostle Paul said, I'm weak.
If the Apostle Paul's weak, you know we're weak.
But we make our houses in the rocks because we are housed by the rock.
Jesus, the word of God, the house of God is the rock, the word of God is the rock, Jesus is the rock.
So therefore, we make our houses in those rocks and even though we're weak, even though we're feeble,
we can actually survive because we built our houses in the rocks.
The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.
That's what I was saying about the ants from a different passage, that they don't need a boss or a ruler
or an overseer constantly breathing down their neck.
They just get it done and they don't need to constantly be told what to do.
And then the spider taketh hold with their hands, it is in king's palaces.
You know what I always think of when I think of this verse about the spider taketh hold with their hands,
it is in king's palaces.
I think about some of the cool places that I've gotten to go because of my job.
You know, sometimes your job will take you some really cool places.
So, you know, I've kind of been that spider before where, you know, because I took hold with my hands
and worked and built something, I got to go to cool places that I would have never normally got to go.
Now, you know, maybe this is just me but, you know, I always thought it was cool to go up on the top of roofs of buildings.
Like I always got to climb up ladders and go up on rooftops.
That was pretty cool.
Get to see everything.
And then I got to climb down into the bottom of elevator shafts and get down in the elevator pit.
I got to climb up into the top of the elevator shafts.
I got to ride on the elevator on top of the elevator.
On top of the elevator, making it go up and down.
That's pretty cool.
You know, and I don't know about you, it always just felt cool to me.
Just even when I would do fire alarms in a grocery store or something,
just being able to walk into those employee areas and just see what's going on back there.
And there's a whole world back there.
You know, at JCPenney, when you go through those doors, it's like a whole other world.
There's all these machines moving like racks of clothes, like clothes are moving on like this conveyor belt.
It's pretty cool stuff.
You know, but not only that, I've done fire alarms in art museums.
You know, I've done fire alarms in restaurants, church buildings.
I've gotten to go in department stores and sit in the loss prevention of Dillard's.
Dillard's.
And like sit there and just have like all these screens in front of me and all these cameras.
And I'm just like controlling cameras with a joystick.
Because I was working on the camera system because I was a low voltage electrical technician.
And that was pretty fun to fool around with that stuff and play with it.
Because they said fix it and then spend a few hours just making sure it works.
So I'm just like, you know, playing around with this stuff.
You know, you get to go to a lot of cool places.
Like I said, I mean, just museums and just different other cities, you know, traveling for work and everything.
You know, if you work hard, work takes you places.
And so you don't have to be rich to get to see some of these lavish dwellings because sometimes your job might take you there, you know.
And so, you know, I've gotten to ride in fancy cars that I didn't own.
Visit houses that I didn't own.
Go to fancy businesses and restaurants and department stores that I would have never set foot in, you know.
I would typically not shop.
Like, you know, I've done the fire alarm at like the Armani store.
You know, I don't shop at Armani.
But you already knew that, didn't you?
You know, but I've checked, you know, I've gotten to go to the Armani store and do their fire alarm.
So the spider takes hold with her hands and is in king's palaces.
So working hard takes you places.
You don't have to be rich.
You don't have to desire riches and, you know, own these things.
You know, you get to enjoy some of these things.
God will let you enjoy some cool stuff if you just work hard.
That's what I always think of when I think of that verse in 28.
And then verse 29, it says, there be three things which go well, yea, four are comely and going.
A lion which is strongest among beasts and turneth not away for any.
I mean, the lion is the king of the jungle.
And we've got God's word to prove it right there, all right?
So if there's any dispute about that.
A greyhound.
I mean, this guy thinks greyhounds are cool.
And I think they're pretty cool too.
Again, he's just admiring nature.
And the things that go well, the things that are comely and going.
A lion which is strongest among beasts and turneth not away for any.
A greyhound.
Hey, and he goad also.
And a king against whom there is no rising up.
You know, when there's a king and he's an authority and the people are glad to be ruled by him.
There's no uprising.
There's no rebellion.
That's a blessed thing.
Verse 32 says,
If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.
Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood.
So the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.
You know, if you just keep pushing people, you're going to make them mad.
You're going to create problems.
If you mess with the wrong person, eventually you're going to get a bloody nose and so forth.
So, you know, what is the meaning of this chapter?
Why do we have this chapter in the word of God?
Like I said, it's not a proverb of Solomon.
It's from a guy that we don't know anything about who spoke to some guys that we know nothing about who are giving us his word secondhand.
And this guy doesn't have a Bible college degree.
He doesn't have a seminary degree.
He doesn't have any formal training.
According to him, he's more brutish than any man and he didn't learn wisdom or have the knowledge of the holy.
But it's clearly God's word.
It's inspired by God.
We don't care who the human author is.
The important thing is the divine inspiration.
How do we know it's inspired by God?
Because it's perfect.
Because it is profound.
Because it is the diamond that stands out from the cheap imitation called Ecclesiasticus.
Called wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach.
The cheap imitation called the Apocrypha or whatever else.
You know, this is the real deal.
This is the genuine article.
And we would do well to take to heart the things that are taught in this chapter.
You know, this is one of the chapters that I've quoted a lot in my preaching just because it's something that I think about a lot.
But it's not just me.
You know, pastors all over America are quoting this chapter.
I mean, do you think verses 5 and 6 are pretty popular?
Every word of God is pure?
He's a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar?
Is there anybody who preaches a King James Bible on this planet who hasn't preached that verse?
Fifty times?
A hundred times?
Because of all the liars that are out there trying to add to God's word and twist God's word and change God's word?
You know, what about the admonitions to love our parents, honor our parents, bless our parents.
Don't mock your parents.
Don't despise your parents.
Don't despise to obey your parents.
Don't be like, oh man, obeying my parents is such a drag, such a weariness.
Well, you know what?
It's because of your stupid attitude that it's a drag to you.
Because what you should see it as, here's the biblical way to see obeying your parents.
You should see it as an opportunity to honor the Lord.
And in fact, the more unreasonable your parents are, the more points you get with God for obeying them.
You see, if you obey your parents and your parents are super nice and they're always reasonable
and everything that they do is right, you think you're going to get a reward for those times?
I mean, that's just your reasonable service.
Anybody would do that.
Anybody who has their parents bending over backwards for them and making all the right choices
and saying all the right things is going to be obedient in that situation.
You know, if you really want to be acceptable before God, according to 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 4,
you know, the Bible teaches that when we suffer wrongfully or when we're reproached when we didn't do anything wrong
and we take that and we endure that and when we suffer that, that's acceptable with God.
That's how you earn big rewards with God.
So, you know, the way that you should look at it, young people, is if your parents are unreasonable and treating you poorly
and if you, you know what, I would turn that into a prayer.
Let's say you get a spanking that you don't deserve, kids.
Turn that into an immediate prayer and say, okay, God, you saw what just happened, didn't you, God?
Did you see that?
And pray and say, you know what, but I'm going to honor my parents anyway.
Even though they done me wrong, I'm going to obey.
I'm going to honor them.
I'm going to submit to them because they're my parents and they represent you.
And because I love you, I'm going to honor them.
Now, imagine that instead of, which one do you think is going to get you more blessings in life?
And, you know, this kind of goes back to my sermon this morning.
Is it all just about being right?
Is it all about getting the last word?
Is it all about winning the argument?
Because for me, that's not what I care about.
You know, I don't know about you guys who go to work every day,
but when you go to work every day, isn't the big reason that you go to work because you get paid?
Or are you just kind of doing it as a charity?
I mean, why do you go to your electrical job every day?
Why do you go to your plumbing job every day?
If they stopped paying you, would you just keep doing it?
No, you wouldn't, would you?
Because the goal is to get paid.
You know what, the goal is not to be exalted and lifted up and told how great you are.
The goal is to get paid.
You know, man, I learned this lesson big time because I was in a situation where I was desperate for a job.
I moved out to Indiana to go to Bible college and it was supposed to be an evening program.
It was for married men where they had an evening Bible college where you show up and you, you know,
you can work your normal day job and then you take the classes in the evening.
Perfect, right?
Hiles Anderson College.
Big Bible college, Independent Fundamental Baptist, King James, the whole thing.
Soul winning.
And so I get there, I move out there or I think we were just about to move,
but I'd already put in my notice of my job.
We're already moving.
Everything's packed.
And then it's like, oh, by the way, evening college has been canceled.
There's no more evening college.
It's like, oh man, now I got to go to college in the daytime.
Right?
So that, but I'm just like, whatever.
I mean, I'm already committed, so I move out there.
Now I have to try to find a second shift job.
Well, here's the problem.
I was a fire alarm technician and guess what doesn't exist?
A fire alarm job that second shift.
It doesn't exist.
Whoever heard of such a thing?
It's a daytime thing.
You know what I mean?
And so I'm just like, what am I going to do?
So I'm out trying to find a job, looking for a job in these weird hours.
And you know, I can get minimum wage jobs and stuff working second shift,
but I was trying to find something that would actually pay the bills for me
and my wife and our couple of kids.
Because I already had two children at this time.
And so I'm looking for a job, looking for a job.
Finally, God just blessed me.
I was about ready to start donating blood.
And God blessed me.
That's not a joke, by the way.
And basically, God blessed me with this job that was like a unicorn job.
This guy's just like, you can work whatever hours you want,
second shift, third shift, just get it done.
And he just gave me all this incredible amount of work to do.
He's like, just get this stuff done.
I need somebody.
And he paid me more money than I'd ever,
he paid me more money than I was even making in California.
I was like, wow.
I'm making good money, second shift.
He's willing to work around my school schedule.
This is a dream come true.
This is a miracle.
This is a blessing from God.
You know, but here's the only problem was that, you know,
the guy cussed me out every single day.
The guy was totally unreasonable.
The guy was just prone to fits of rage.
He could not keep any employee.
I was literally the only employee that stayed with him,
and we cycled through, not exaggerating,
probably 25 to 30 other people while I worked for him.
It was just, we'd have like a, I'm training a different guy every week.
He got, this guy got in fistfights with customers,
and he was in his 60s.
He took on four young Arab men at the same time,
and he's in his 60s, and he's just like, he just started swinging.
I mean, this guy was eccentric.
This was the weirdest job you can imagine.
The boss, I mean, I could tell you stories all night,
you know, seeing you after the service,
but this guy was eccentric.
This guy was crazy.
This guy's cussing me out all the time.
This guy's enraged.
This, it was the most unorganized, crazy.
He just stacks me up with all these messed up jobs.
Everything's behind schedule.
Everything's overdue.
Everything's a mess.
These jobs have been like started by one guy who left,
and then another guy took over and then left,
and then another guy took over the job and then left,
and I have to come in and finish it all and figure it all out.
And I remember just every week thinking to myself,
this job can't last.
This cannot get me through school.
Like, is this job going to last another week?
This is all going to fall apart.
This guy's going to go out of business.
This guy's going to, you know, how can this last?
But I'm just like, Lord, give me my daily bread.
And you know what?
I ended up working for that guy for five years.
For five years I worked with that guy.
But you know what?
The money was green.
It was honest work, and the money was green.
I didn't care what that guy said to me.
I didn't care what unreasonable things he did or said or what,
because it's just like, hey, you know what?
He's the boss.
I'm just going to just, yes, sir.
And I mean, you want to talk about getting chewed out unreasonably.
I mean, I can't even count how many times.
I would do exactly what he told me to do.
Ah, yeah, you're crazy.
Blankety, blank, blank.
Or like, I'd get stuck in traffic.
It's like, it's Chicago.
And then it's my fault because I drove the wrong route or something, you know,
as if there's any route in Chicago that's not going to have traffic.
Chicago has like the worst traffic in America.
It's horrible.
Okay.
But you know what I did?
I just said, man, I'm sorry, Tim.
Oops, I said his name.
I was like, I said, Tim, I'm sorry.
Like, you know what I mean?
I got here as fast as I could, you know.
And I was just always apologizing for stuff I didn't do wrong
and always just like cleaning up his mess and fixing things.
And you know, it wasn't all bad.
I loved the guy.
God bless him.
Okay.
You know, he wasn't a bad person.
He just had, you know, some quirks.
He actually visited our church one time, by the way.
He visited our church all the way back in 2007 one time
and heard me preach and everything.
And he was very supportive of me pastoring and everything.
He was always trying to get me to work on Wednesday nights and stuff.
It was a continual fight the entire five years,
but I always won.
But where am I going with that?
What's the point of that?
You know, the point is that, you know,
when people are unreasonable and treat us poorly,
you know what, if we take it anyway,
God's going to bless us for that.
We don't always have to right every wrong.
Okay.
It's about getting paid when you go to your job.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Why didn't I stay with a job that had a toxic work environment, toxic boss?
I mean, nobody else would stay with it.
Everybody else was just revolving door.
Just, I would not work for this guy for any amount of money.
And I'm thinking, I would because I've got a wife and kids at home
and I want to pay the bills.
And I'm trying to put myself through school and deal with my family.
And so I don't care what he does or says.
Does everybody understand that concept?
Okay.
Now let's apply that.
It's about getting paid at work.
Okay, now let's get a spiritual illustration.
You know, what are you trying to get out of your relationship with your parents?
You know, oh, my parents are wrong.
But hold on a second.
What are you trying to get?
You know what you ought to be trying to get is the blessings of God.
What you ought to be trying to get is this.
Here's your paycheck from God because God's got a big payday for you.
It's called that your days may be long on the earth.
I mean, is that a payday or what?
I mean, hey, you can live to be 60 or you can live to be 100.
Which one you want?
Right?
I mean, you want your days to be long on the earth.
God will give you that.
You want it to go well with you?
You want to be blessed and for things to go well?
Or do you want everything in your life to just fall apart and go badly
and you keep failing at this and failing at that?
If you want it to be well with you and for your days to be long on the earth,
then shut up and obey your parents.
It's that simple.
Now, if you don't believe that, it's just because you lack faith in God
because God promised that in very clear terms over and over again.
And so instead of having this attitude of getting your feelings hurt all the time
at work and just, you know, constantly feeling like a victim
and it isn't fair and everybody's so mean to me
and then maybe teenager would have an attitude that says,
hey, my parents are always dumping on me.
My parents are always on my case.
You know, my parents just won't give me any freedom.
They're unreasonable.
Don't let those things go to waste.
Turn those into prayers and say, okay, God, you see what my boss is doing to me?
Bless me, Lord, because I'm going to keep honoring my boss.
I'm still going to work hard for him.
I'm still going to do a good job.
Or in the home, hey, I'm still going to obey my parents.
I'm still going to honor them.
I'm still going to bless my mother.
I'm still going to wish her a happy Mother's Day.
I'm still going to tell her I love her.
Hey, the more unreasonable she is, the more rewards you get.
The more unreasonable that is, the more blessings you get.
The more unreasonable your boss at work is, the more blessings you get, period.
That's what the Bible teaches.
You know, we don't have time to turn there, but go read 1 Peter chapter 2 on your own
and it'll explain that to you, okay?
And so, therefore, instead of having a bad attitude, oh, there my boss goes again.
Oh, there goes Mom and Dad again.
Instead say, bam, there goes more rewards.
There goes more rewards because I'm going to handle this right.
I'm going to show God how much I love him.
I'm going to show God that even when they're unreasonable, I'll obey them
because I know that God's never unreasonable and they represent God.
And if I do it unto them, I'm doing it unto the Lord because I obey my parents as unto the Lord.
I obey my boss as unto the Lord.
Or we could say wives obey your husbands.
The Bible says that wives should obey their husbands.
Do it as unto the Lord.
Well, my husband's unreasonable.
Well, you know what?
Then God's going to super bless you when you obey him because if God sees you obeying a reasonable husband,
that's not as many rewards as when he sees your husband being unreasonable, being a jerk,
and you're still loving, you're still kind.
You say, ah, you want me to be a doormat?
Yes!
You married him.
If you chose to marry a dude who uses you as a doormat, that was your mistake.
But now that you're there, you've sworn an oath to love, cherish, and obey.
You better just do it because God commands you to obey your husband.
Now, obviously, the vast majority of people that are here are not in that situation
because we're filled with a room of godly Christian men.
That's why they're at church on Sunday night at Faithful Word Baptist Church.
Okay, so the majority of men, I'm sure there's a few, you know, toxic individuals amongst us.
But in general, most of the dudes in this room are godly husbands.
And so it should be easy for you to submit to them and obey them.
But let's say you do happen to be married to some toxic dude.
Well, guess what?
You just get even more rewards for obeying him.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And I'm sure the world out there is going to tell you that you have every right to divorce him
and leave and disobey and be rude and give him a taste of his own medicine.
But it's a lie out of the pit of hell.
God has commanded children to obey their parents, for wives to obey their husbands, for workers to obey the boss at work.
If you can't obey your boss at work, then it's time to find a new job because God has commanded you to be obedient on the job.
Be obedient to your parents.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And so this is powerful stuff in Proverbs chapter 30.
Powerful stuff, powerful wisdom about living a long life, being blessed, obeying your parents,
having what you need.
You don't need to be rich.
You can go cool places, spider method, instead of actually owning that stuff.
Because, you know, you don't need to own it.
You just rent it, right?
You just borrow it.
You just show up and enjoy it.
You know, you can live a life that's blessed by God.
If you'll take the wisdom of Proverbs chapter 30 and the other Proverbs and apply this stuff to your life,
you are going to be blessed by the Lord.
Let's borrow this and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this powerful chapter, Lord.
It's so filled with wisdom.
I just pray that every single person here will be smart enough to take these words to heart,
especially the young people, Lord, especially teenagers and young adults.
I pray that they would be smart enough to realize that your promises are true
and that if they obey your word and claim your promises, they will not be ashamed.
And Lord, I just pray that we would have the faith to put these things into practice.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Take your hymnals and turn to hymn number 325.
Trust and obey hymn number 325.
Hymn number 325.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word.
Hymn number 325.
Sing it out all together on this first verse.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word,
what glory he sheds on our way.
While we do his good will, he abides with us still,
and with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus,
but to trust and obey.
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
but a smile when he drives it away.
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
but we trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus,
but to trust and obey.
Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
but our toiling at which we repay.
Not a greed for a loss, not a crown or a cross,
but a quest if we trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus,
but to trust and obey.
For we never can prove the good lives of his love
until all on the altar we lay.
For the favor he shows and the joy he bestows,
are for them who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus,
but to trust and obey.
Then fellowship sweet, we will stand at his feet,
or we'll walk by his side in the wind.
What he says we will do, where he sends we will go.
Never fear, only trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus,
but to trust and obey.
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