Good evening, everybody, and welcome to Anchor Baptist Church.
It is time to get started.
At this time, we'll sing our first hymn.
If you'll grab a hymnal, turn to 159, "Blessed Be the Name."
Hymn number 159, 159, "Blessed Be the Name."
159, we'll sing there starting on the 1st.
Oh, praise to him, just he might be the name.
Heavenly Father, we just thank you for another opportunity to gather together in the great
privilege and honor we have to have a church preaching the whole counsel of God near to
us.
I pray that we would just not take that for granted.
Lord, I pray that you'd be with the seeds that were planted out soul-winning this evening,
that you would be with us for the service, that everything would be done decently and
in order, and that you would open our ears to the message this evening.
These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Select him, number 406, who is on the Lord's side?
Him, number 406, 406, who is on the Lord's side?
406, we'll sing there starting on the 1st.
Raise your hands if you will.
Genesis chapter number 1, isn't really something I had mentioned a lot before, but if you are
under 18 years old and you quote this to an adult, non-family member on the Wednesday
evening service, you can get an ice cream after church.
So we're going to have the freezer stocked for all you kiddos that do the verse, keep
working on that.
On the inside we have our service times listed, Sunday morning at 10.30, Sunday evening at
4.30, and our Wednesday evening study through Proverbs at 7 o'clock.
We also have all of our soul winning times listed below that, that meet here at the
church building.
Below you'll see our year to date soul winning statistics, 1188 for the year.
As for upcoming events, July 27th is our next men's preaching night.
Now that's probable, but I also did ask brother Eric that whenever his first Sunday is back
from the Philippines, I'd like him to preach an evening service for us about his missions
trip with Theodore, so we're also looking forward to that.
So tentatively July 27th is going to be our next men's preaching night, or perhaps Eric
could be preaching that evening.
So August 2nd, we are going to have a soul winning marathon in Anadarko, Oklahoma.
August 27th through the 31st, just next month, is the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship.
And then October 6th through the 11th is the Bahamas Mission Trip.
On the right you'll see information about giving online and visitor cards as well as
our prayer list.
And as always, make sure you're emailing us for updates or new requests for prayer.
But before we go to our third song, let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer as
a church family.
Lord, we thank you for this evening and for Anchor Baptist Church.
I pray that you just strengthen us, Lord.
I pray that you give us more laborers and just enable us to do mighty works for you
here in this city.
I also want to pray for those of our, those churches that are our friends, pastors that
are our friends.
I pray that you just bless their ministries, Lord, that a door be open for them to do great
works as well.
And we want to pray for our soul winners that are over in the Philippines, that you
please keep them safe while they're there and help them just to continue working hard
and doing a great job getting people saved.
I pray that they would have as many opportunities to preach to people as possible before they
return and just pray that you keep them doing great works, Lord.
We also want to pray for the Hall family, for their home buying process, that you just
help them and allow things to go in their favor during this time, Lord.
And we also want to pray for the Houseburg family that you would bless, Brother Myles
Health and just their whole family, God.
I also want to pray for Mrs. Reed, Brother Kauaja, who have loved ones that are unsaved.
I pray that those family members would just have soft hearts toward the Gospel, that they
would get to hear lots and lots of truth and Lord willing even come to our church, Lord.
And I pray that you'd help us not to forget the lost in our community and also just in
our families, God.
Help us to be good witnesses of you wherever we are.
We love you.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
All right, we'll go ahead and go to our third song.
In your white handouts, our third song is Psalm 149.
Psalm 149 in your white handouts.
I know it's a little lower or key if you will, but that's no excuse not to sing out as best
you can.
Psalm 149 in your white handouts.
Psalm 149, starting on that first and only verse.
Praise be to the Lord, sing unto the Lord.
And if you would to chapter number 15, Proverbs chapter number.
Good evening.
Proverbs 15, follow along silently in your Bible.
Proverbs 15, the Bible reads, "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir
up anger.
The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good.
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
A fool despiseth his father's instruction, but he that regardeth for proof is prudent.
In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble.
The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, but the heart of the fool doeth not so.
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright
is his delight.
The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord, but he loveth him that followeth
after righteousness.
Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way, and he that hateth reproof shall
die.
Hell and destruction are before the Lord, how much more than the hearts of the children
of men.
A scornor loveth not one that reproveth him, neither will he go unto the wise.
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge, but the mouth of fools feedeth
on foolishness.
All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual
feast.
Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
A wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.
The way of the slothful man is in hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made
plain.
A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish man despiseth his mother.
Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom, but a man of understanding walketh uprightly.
Without counsel, purposes are disappointed, but in the multitude of counselors they are
established.
A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good
is it?
The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.
The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, but he will establish the border of the widow.
The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, but the words of the pure are
pleasant words.
He that is greedy of gain, troubleth his own house, but he that hateth gifts shall live.
The heart of the righteous studyeth to answer, but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil
things.
The Lord is far from the wicked, but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.
The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart, and a good report maketh the bones fat.
The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.
He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul, but he that heareth reproof giddeth
understanding.
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father God in heaven, we thank you for this day in our church.
Amen.
Well, Proverbs 15, really the theme of this chapter focuses a lot on the tongue and the
things that we say, and a lot about the heart as well, and these things are really connected.
But it kind of starts off with this idea in verse 1.
The Bible says, "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger."
You know, a lot of times, foolish people, when they're in any sort of verbal altercation
or argument or heated discussion, if you will, with someone, when it starts to get heated
and someone says something that's, you know, emotionally charging, oftentimes people just
try to up the ante with each other, where the heat's rising and you say something offensive
and then they get even more mad and it kind of builds and builds until a blowup happens.
But there's a way to avoid that.
The Bible says, "A soft answer turneth away wrath."
And really, with most people in our lives, we should be striving for peace with people,
getting along with people as good as possible.
Obviously, we want to contend for the faith, and we're not going to compromise on the Bible,
on the things of God.
But just most of our everyday interactions with people at work, our family members, our
extended family members, neighbors, you want to try to keep peace with people as much as
possible.
And a good way to do this is a soft answer turneth away wrath.
You know, when someone starts getting mad or worked up, a good way to defuse that is
just to answer softly.
This will help a lot of people's marriage because sometimes in marriage when the biggest
fights happen is when one person's not doing this.
Oftentimes these big gigantic blow ups that happen in marriage, they could be defused
if at least just one person decides to chill things out and come with that soft answer.
But when both husband and wife are just ready to up the heat, you know, it's going to be
a big battle, a soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.
So the opposite is you could bring out the, you know, grievous words and can cause the
situation to be a lot worse.
Verse two, the Bible says the tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth
of fools pourth out foolishness.
Now recently, recently we learned that the Bible says depart from the presence of a foolish
man when thou perceive us not in him the lips of knowledge.
So what are we supposed to do when it comes to the fool is just depart.
You know when it comes to having an argument with a fool you're kind of being a fool as
well in that situation because that's the argument you shouldn't even have.
You should just depart from that person.
The tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright.
So notice the wise person they don't just have knowledge they use knowledge correctly.
And it's really annoying when someone has maybe a little bit of knowledge about a subject
or some head knowledge if you will about a subject but they don't truly understand it.
This is like all false prophets.
All false prophets you know they know some Bible verses they could you know quote some
stories for you.
They have some knowledge but they don't use knowledge a right.
They don't use the knowledge correctly.
But the mouth of fools pour without fool foolishness.
You know how is it that you could tell someone is a fool by the things that they say.
So we got to pay attention to people's words.
Verse three the Bible says the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil
and the good now when it's saying the eyes of the Lord are in every place.
It's not saying that of course he could only just see us.
We know that the Lord could hear us as well.
This is what this is saying.
Basically is that just God is omnipresent and God is also all knowing.
So if we stay on that theme of words yes God could see every action that we do but he could
also hear everything that we say as well and we know in Hebrews four the Bible says that
the word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
So God could see us at all times, hear us at all times, see our thoughts at all times.
You know this ought to make us fear the Lord realizing that God can always see us.
You know this is a good lesson for kids to realize that hey not just mom and dad can
catch you doing wrong because a lot of times kids are not going to be just so bold to do
you know steal something in front of their parents.
When do they wait to do it?
When mom and dad is asleep.
I don't know how I know this from experience or anything like that it's like when you're
asleep and you wake up and find oh something's been stolen.
But hey kids the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good.
And so God can see us at all times God is judging us at all times and really this verse
could be looked at as a two-edged sword because on one hand if you're wicked this should scare
you that God can see you at all times.
But notice how it said that the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil
and the good.
And so this could also be an encouraging verse to you because some people you know they're
thinking I'm putting all this work in I'm doing a lot of good works and I just wonder
if anyone even notices.
But the truth is that God always notices and no good work is going to be unrewarded from
the Lord.
He always sees the good that we're doing.
Notice 4 the Bible says a wholesome tongue is a tree of life but perverseness therein
is a breach in the spirit.
So notice when someone has a perverse tongue, for example if someone is getting up and just
preaching damnable heresy, it's a revelation of something that's inside of that person.
It's a breach in that person's spirit and you know we are taught in the Bible to judge
people by the things that they say.
If you look at Matthew chapter 7 and Matthew chapter 12 it talks about judging false prophets
by their fruits and there's really two ways you could look at that.
Of course their converts is one totally valid way to look at that, but another way to look
at that is the things that they say.
You know if someone gets up and is preaching for example that Jesus didn't die on the
cross, it's like okay it's pretty obvious that this person is unsaved.
You don't look at their lifestyle, you don't look at how nice they are to people, you don't
look at how good their family looks, it's like hey if someone is preaching false doctrine,
then they're a false prophet.
And a lot of people today who aren't in our types of churches, they get deceived by appearances.
And I can't tell you how many babes in Christ I know, people who I know are saved.
But yet they'll send me videos of these false prophets on YouTube, does anyone else have
people in their life that do this?
It's annoying, it drives me crazy.
But it's because like hey, it's a big church and the pastor is dressed real nice and everything
looks real smooth and he's a great speaker, but that's not really what you should be paying
attention to.
What you should be paying attention to is the doctrine, is what comes out of their mouth
because hey, if it's coming from a barnyard but it's a good sermon preaching the Bible,
then that's a good preacher.
But if you're in some beautiful Catholic church preaching that hey, here I am, I'm gonna give
you the literal blood of Christ, the literal body of Christ, it's like okay, there's perverseness
in this tongue.
And what is that?
It's a breach of the spirit, it's a revelation of who they are.
Verse 5 of the Bible says this, "A fool despiseth his father's instruction, but he that regardeth
reproof is prudent."
We'll get a little bit more into instruction and correction later in the chapter.
Verse 6 it says, "In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the
wicked is trouble."
So in the house of the righteous there's much treasure.
You know earlier in Proverbs we learned that there are those who don't really have much
yet are very rich.
And so you could look at this either from a carnal sense, how oftentimes God does bless
people with riches, with carnal things, and that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that.
But even if you don't have those things, if you're saved and righteous you have a lot
of treasure.
You have a lot of riches spiritually, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble.
The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, but the heart of the foolish doeth not so.
Look at verse 8, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer
of the upright is his delight."
Some people think that any and all religious acts are pleasing to God, and some people
just have this idea that if God looks down and he sees someone and they're just practicing
a religion or doing some sort of religious act that God's just going to be pleased that
they're doing something religious.
You notice, even if someone's making a sacrifice, you know, think about the Old Testament.
God did have the system of sacrifices where you'd sacrifice a lamb or an ox.
But if you're wicked, if you're not saved and someone is sacrificing to the Lord, it's
not like that's just neutral to God or even just kind of gives you like a pat on the head,
like, oh, you're trying, you know, here's some brownie points.
You know, when the wicked sacrifice to God, he says that is an abomination.
And what does that tell us?
You know, false religion is an abomination to God.
God is not this, you know, kumbaya, let's all hold hands and coexist kind of God.
No, God looks at every false religion and it is disgusting to him.
It's abominable to him.
You know, and of course, one of the biggest false religions in our country is Catholicism
and Catholics love to, you know, light the incense and bow before their idols and go
and confess to priests and they'll even what sacrifice in Lent.
They'll give up some meat on Fridays or they'll give up something and they call it fasting.
Even if they're not giving up food, they'll fast from video games.
You know, I remember being in high school and some Catholic, you know, baseball teammates
of mine, they'd be like, yeah, you know, it's Lent.
I'm fasting video games this week or I'm fasting ice cream this week.
And they're thinking like, oh, I'm sacrificing to God, you know, I just want to please God.
And God looks at that and he says, hey, that's an abomination to him.
The truth is you have to do religion right or God hates it.
And just having good intentions in your mind doesn't cut it.
You have to actually do things according to what the Bible says.
You know, it makes me think about Isaiah chapter one where these oblations and these new moons
and he sacrifices and all these things that they're doing.
God looks down.
He says, I hate all this stuff, right?
Because they're doing it with a wicked heart because they weren't right with the Lord.
And on the flip side, but he, I'm sorry, verse eight, but the prayer of the upright is his
delight.
So on one hand, you can be doing all this sacrifice, all this work, you could be giving
all this money, but if you're in a false religion, God hates it.
It's an abomination.
And on the other hand, us as just humble human beings that to me just seem like we're little,
we're dumb, right?
We're not really much in comparison of God, but yet our prayer is his delight.
You know, God looks down and actually cares about the individual.
You know, we don't believe in Calvinism that prayer is just some meaningless exercise that
we do.
No, God is actually inclining his ear to our prayers and it's delighting him.
It's making him happy when he hears the upright pray.
And I think sometimes people take prayer for granted, but you know, we got to remember
that this is a great privilege and blessing that we have, that we could just go before
the Almighty Creator and bring us and bring him our needs and our wants and our desires
and just ask for help in time of need and God is there to hear us and he's there cheerfully
to hear us.
Verse nine, the way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord, but he loveth him that followeth
after righteousness.
So again, kind of this contrast here, he hates the sacrifice of the wicked, he hates the
way of the wicked.
So not even just their religious exercises, he's just like everything about their life
just their way of life.
It's an abomination to him.
He hates it but he loves him that followeth after righteousness.
Now this implies that there's some sort of work that's going on on your end of things
because obviously we get the righteousness of Christ when we believe in him and that
righteousness is what takes us to heaven.
That's what seals us.
That's what makes us saved.
But following after righteousness is talking more about your sanctification.
You know, trying after you're saved to follow God's commandments and live a good life.
You know, the Bible says God loves the person that follows after righteousness, and you
have to think why.
Well, probably because so few people are doing it.
You know, God created us with free will, and a lot of people use that free will to just
serve themselves and just live a selfish life and just do everything that they want to do.
And so God looks down and says like, "Hey, it's kind of special.
I love the person who actually is following after righteousness."
Why?
Because it doesn't just come natural to our flesh.
You know, we're not just born naturally with this desire to go soul winning and to read
the Bible.
Like, this is something that is a desire of the Spirit.
When you're walking in the Spirit, when you're full of the Holy Ghost, then you start to
desire those righteous things.
But it's still a choice between walking in the flesh, walking in the Spirit.
When you're doing the things of God, you've made a choice of your own free will to serve
the Lord and that gives Him pleasure.
It's kind of like, you know, us as parents, we get pleasure from our kids doing that which
is right.
And it doesn't even matter if it's the smallest little thing.
We're just thrilled and we're excited for them.
Even just put aside spiritual things.
Even just like when they learn their first step, we're just like cheering them on.
We're so excited for them and they say their first word and it's just silly.
It sounds ridiculous, but we're just cheering, we're, you know, googling all over them.
We love it.
And that's how God feels when it's like, Oh look, someone got their first salvation.
And you know, it might be something small, but yet to God, he's cheering us on.
It brings him joy, brings him pleasure.
You know, just the silliest things that kids do brings you so much joy.
It's hilarious.
Heidi, she's a baby, obviously, and her favorite word for some reason, none of my other kids
had this as their favorite word.
You ready for what her favorite word is?
But, I don't know, because mama changes her butt and sings her a little song as she changes
her butt, and so Heidi is just like butt, butt, butt, and it's just silly, but yet me
and mom, we think it's so cute.
We think it's so adorable.
If someone else heard it, they'd just be like, "What is, you know, this is weird.
What's up with this kid?"
But yet, as dad, I just like, "Oh, Heidi, you're so cute.
You're so adorable."
Well, it's like, you know, God is our heavenly father.
He loves all of his children, and when he sees us following after righteousness, when
he sees us doing things for him, you know, he looks down with that fatherly love and
it pleases him.
You know, we have a personal God that we serve who actually, you know, has emotions
toward us that we can, in some ways, change by doing wickedly or by being righteous.
The Bible says in verse number 10, "Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way,
and he that hateth reproof shall die."
So notice, correction is something that is burdensome that someone doesn't like when
they have forsaken the way of God.
And let me tell you something.
Beware of the person that attacks discipline, that attacks parents for spanking their kids.
Beware of the person that attacks husbands for being an authority over their wives,
because it's coming from the same type of person that would be grieved with God's correction
against us.
You know, we just talked about how, hey, God is our father.
Well, doesn't the Bible say not to despise the chastening of the Lord, but to endure
chastening, right?
We're supposed to endure chastening, we're the sons of God.
And you know, if you actually love God, and you want to give God that pleasure we were
just talking about, you want your life to be pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, well,
you're going to welcome any correction from God that he gives you.
Because if I'm not right with the Lord, if I'm doing something that's wrong, and that's
causing my relationship with God to be hindered, I want to fix that as soon as possible.
And so if God's got to correct me for me to get in line, thank you, Lord, I want to get
back on track.
Well, this is just true of all righteous people, is that no matter the God-given authority,
the God-given authority in your life, if they correct you, you should welcome that.
You should love that.
For the same exact reason that we want that from God is, hey, we want that good relationship
with them.
Kids, if you want to have a good relationship with your parents, you better take their correction.
Better yet, just do that which is right to begin with.
But if you do wrong, take the correction, own it, apologize.
You know, your parents want to love you.
Your parents want to have a good relationship with you.
They don't enjoy spanking you.
And so the sooner you just take the correction and have a good attitude about it, the happier
your life will be, the happier your parents will be.
But the person who's wicked, correction is just grievous to them.
They get corrected even if it's in the slightest way, even if it's in the nicest manner, and
even if they just totally deserved it, and they take the correction and they're just
turning red, they're mad, they change their attitude, they get all rebellious, that's
a wicked person.
And like I said, beware of the person who attacks authority, being able to correct people
under them.
Because that's what this type of person is like.
He that hateth reproof shall die.
Hell and destruction are before the Lord, how much more than the hearts of the children
of men.
You know, you ought to just get to a place in your life where you truly love correction,
when you truly love God, you know, chasing you even, because hell and destruction are
before the Lord.
If God can look into hell and see everything that's going on in there, how much more can
he see into the hearts of men?
You know, you cannot fake who you are to God.
You cannot fake whether or not you truly love chastisement and love instruction and love
correction from the Word of God or not to God.
God can see right through that.
And you know, you might be able to fool some people, you might be able to put on a stoic
face as you're getting correction, but you know, God actually sees inside of your heart
and the attitude that you have.
And so we ought to remember that and ask God to help us have the right emotions.
Verse 12, the Bible says, "A scornor loveth not one that reprove with him, neither will
he go unto the wise."
So who is this type of person that attacks, you know, instruction and correction and reproof?
It's called the scornor, and what is the attitude that the scornor has?
He does not love one that reprove with him.
What does that tell us?
You should love someone that reproves you.
You should have positive feelings and positive emotions towards someone that would correct
you because honestly, the truth is, it's not easy to correct someone.
You know, maybe in the military, I've never been in the military, maybe when you just
have like rigid, extreme discipline and punishments and people just step out of line and they're
just like immediately punished for it.
Maybe it's easier to correct people in that environment.
But most of the time, most people, they kind of have a hard time correcting people.
It's kind of uncomfortable.
And so if someone is willing to do that for you, realize that it's probably harder for
them than you even think, and it probably took a little bit of time and thought and
prayer to get to that level.
So the way I look at it is even if someone in time past has corrected me and I felt like
that their correction wasn't even merited, that it was perhaps wrong, you know, the right
attitude you should have is first of all think I could still be wrong even though I have
this feeling and opinion right now, hey, I could be wrong, I could deserve this correction,
but hey, I love that this person cares about me enough to even give me that correction
whether or not everything was a hundred percent factual or I deserved every single bit of
it because, you know, that's actually loving person that would actually reprove you and
sometimes even rebuke you, you know, you should love that person.
And so, you know, kids love your parents when they correct you.
Wives love your husbands if they correct you.
Love your pastor if they correct you.
Love your authority if they correct you.
The Bible says in verse number 13, I love this verse here, it says, "A merry heart make
it the cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken."
Hey, you know, us as Christians, the Bible says that we should rejoice evermore.
You know, us as Christians, our default emotion in life, I believe, should be that of joy
and happiness.
And look, I'm not saying you have to walk around the street all the time with a Joker
smile on your face, or, you know, be like these fake preachers that they're just smiling
through their entire sermon and it kind of gets uncomfortable.
But, you know, every once in a while you could look like you're not on the verge of going
six feet under, if you will, you know.
And I've noticed this with, like, Russians.
I lived in Washington for a while and there's tons of Russians there and they just never
smile and I guess a hundred years of communism will do that to you.
You've got no joy.
But you know, us as Christians, I mean, we have so many reasons to be happy.
We've got so much good going on in our lives and look, it does not even matter your personal
circumstances necessarily because in general we have a lot of good in common here.
You know, we all live in a great place.
We live in a safe area.
We live in a place with a lot of freedom.
We have good clean water at our disposal.
We've all got running water at home.
You know, we're not in India.
Praise God we're not in India today.
There's just so many reasons, and that's just the Cardinal.
Then we have the King James Bible.
We've got Anchor Baptist Church.
We've got Soul Winning.
We've got YouTube to watch all these great sermons.
You know, hundreds of years ago, not even that long,
obviously, you wouldn't have been able to do that.
You wouldn't have been able to tune in
to Pastor Anderson in Phoenix, Arizona,
or Pastor Shelley, or Pastor Thompson.
You wouldn't be getting all that
extra spiritual nourishment, but we have that today.
There's just so much to be happy about.
We have good jobs in America.
We've got cars with air conditioning.
You know, we've got all this great stuff.
And so, hey, a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance.
It's all right to smile every once in a while.
But by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken.
So yeah, the Russian communists in bread lines
for a long time, that's why they don't smile.
They've got no joy there.
But in verse 14, the Bible says,
the heart of him that hath understanding
seeketh knowledge, but the mouth of fools
feedeth on foolishness.
One of the themes that just constantly comes up
in the book of Proverbs over and over
is that people who are smart, people who are wise,
they are always seeking more wisdom.
They're always wanting more knowledge,
and it's kind of paradoxical because you would think like,
oh, this person's arrived to really high intellect
and educational status, and so they kind of have it made.
But people who are smart, they never feel that way.
They just constantly want the next book.
They constantly want to read the next chapter.
They constantly want to get the next lecture,
the next sermon.
They're always seeking more wisdom, but it says this,
but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.
It's like the exact opposite for a fool.
What is the scorer and the fool do?
You know, they despise the correction.
They don't love one that reproves him.
They just want to feed on foolishness.
And man, this is just a lot of the younger generation today.
What do they just spend their time watching?
You know, it's called brain rot.
Who's heard of brain rot?
Okay, brain rot is just like these absolute mindless videos
that just suck your soul away from you
and your time away from you.
And it's just making you stupid, literally.
It's called skibbity toilet.
And I wish someone never showed me this.
There's literally a YouTube channel
with just like millions of views
and it's just like a dancing toilet.
And just, I'm not joking.
You think like, oh, I'm being sarcastic here.
No, no, no, there's like millions and millions of kids
watching just millions of hours collectively
videos of dancing toilets.
And Gen Z over here is laughing
'cause he knows what I'm talking about.
It's a real thing, you know what I mean?
And it's just, that is what fools do.
They literally just feed on foolishness.
They don't wanna read a book.
They don't wanna go to church.
They just wanna just sit there and feed on foolishness,
watching skivity toilet.
Or here's something foolish people do.
Maybe millennials are more into this one.
How about sports betting?
Talk about feeding on foolishness.
You got a bunch of grown men today that will go to a bar
and they'll sit there and bet
on every single play of a game.
It's like, are you 10 years old?
Are you a teenager?
You're a grown man?
You know, and people literally get in fights
over this stuff.
People, you know, there's been people arrested
'cause they've like gone after NFL football players
being like, "I had $10,000 on you, kick,
you moron, you idiot."
It's like, I think you're the idiot.
You're the one that's just feeding on foolishness,
spending your time in absolute vanity
and stupidity and doing nothing productive.
That's what the fool does.
And man, one of the negative effects of technology
in our world today is that it's just giving people
so much more free time than we've ever had.
I mean, throughout human history,
most people are not working eight hours a day.
They are working from sun up to sun down, men and women.
You know, we'll talk about that in Proverbs 31.
It describes a woman living that type of a lifestyle.
And you know, men are just up super early.
They're working super late.
And if they've got anything to do in the evening,
it's like, eat dinner, pray with the kids, read the Bible,
maybe work on a book or something like that.
But people weren't just laying in bed.
This is what people do, just laying in bed
and just scrolling brain rot.
This did not happen in previous generations.
And we need to be careful about it.
We need to make sure that we're guarding up the loins
of our minds and not allowing this stuff to control us
because, man, it is addictive.
I preach a sermon called Weapons of Mass Distraction.
These things can be used as weapons against us.
And if you just allow yourself to just feed on foolishness,
let me tell you what, you will become a fool.
You will become a vain and empty person.
And sometimes you just gotta put the stupid phone down.
If you struggle to read your Bible,
maybe you need to go put your phone
in the tornado shelter or something
and then sit down at the table
and read the Bible for a while.
Maybe you need to lock it up in the gun safe or something
for 10 minutes, 20 minutes and read the Bible.
Some people today, they spend their whole lives
just feeding on foolishness.
The Bible says in verse 15,
"All the days of the afflicted are evil,
"but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast."
You know, the awesome thing about being a Christian
is we have, like I said, so much to be happy about.
We have so much joy.
You know, we are saved.
We are children of God.
Jesus Christ is our savior.
We've got a great church.
We've got great families.
We've got the word of God.
We've got all this great stuff going for us.
And when you sit down and you actually appreciate
and count your blessings, name them one by one,
and just think about all the things
that God's done for you, here's the thing.
It doesn't cause you to focus on the negative
in your life as much.
When you sit down and you just think about the good,
which is what we should do,
we should think on those things that are good,
things that are pleasant, things that are pure,
things that are of a good report.
You know, we're supposed to think on these things.
And when you do that,
life is like one giant continual feast.
You know, think about great days of the year.
Thanksgiving, that's a great day of the year, right?
We feast, we eat a bunch of great food.
And man, when you eat a bunch of great food,
you're just happy.
You're around brothers and sisters in Christ,
you're around family members,
and it's usually a happy day, a joyous day.
Well, you know what?
All of life can be like that
when you actually put in perspective
how good we have it from the Lord.
But you know what I've noticed is like,
leftists are some of the most miserable people on earth.
Like, you ever notice how angry liberals always are?
They're always out protesting,
and especially like the young college-age girls,
they're just like foaming at the mouth.
They hate themselves, they hate their lives.
No man wants them.
They have a stupid college degree.
They've got all these, you know, mountains of debt,
and it's just like, oh, it's Christianity's fault.
It's the white man's fault.
It's Trump's fault.
They're just angry at everything.
Meanwhile, we're over here, we're just like,
hey, look, we got beautiful families, beautiful kids,
beautiful friends, we got a great church,
we got soul winning.
I'm reading my Bible this evening.
We're hanging out, eating good food.
We're trying to get healthy.
We're trying to do good things.
We're trying to memorize the Bible.
We're just honestly happy in life.
And let me tell you something,
the happiest life you could live is the Christian life.
That does not mean you won't go through times of sorrow.
That doesn't mean you can't experience extreme heaviness
and depression at times in life.
That doesn't mean you won't get persecuted,
but just the overall picture of life,
I promise you the Christian life is the best one
that there is.
The Bible says that the way of transgressors is hard.
No, no, no, people who are living a wicked life,
they're not happy.
No, all the days of the afflicted are evil,
but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.
That's what the Bible says.
Look at verse number 16, continuing on this thought,
it says, "Hey, better is little with the fear of the Lord
than great treasure and trouble therewith."
You know, you would rather have little resources,
a little house, a little bank account, a little job,
a little happy life with love and with the fear of the Lord
than this great treasure and all this trouble.
You know, money is important in our life.
We need it to function.
But money is not absolutely everything.
And some people today,
they'll trade like almost 100% of their time
and 100% of their mental health
and 100% of their family time
and 100% of their church time
to get some super, super high paying job.
And at the end of the day,
a lot of people realize, yeah, it wasn't worth it.
You know, I have all this great treasure
with a bunch of trouble there with,
and people, you know, oftentimes they'd say,
hey, I'd rather trade that for little
with happiness, with joy.
It continues there in verse number 17,
better as a dinner of herbs where love is
than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
You know, think about that Thanksgiving dinner,
that joyous picture I painted for you
of hanging out with brothers in Christ
or family that you like, hopefully.
And you're eating good food,
and you know, that in and of itself is good.
Now, just imagine you're eating the best food ever,
but everyone hates each other.
That wouldn't be fun, right?
Like I'm thinking about me,
like what if you just put the best steak in front of me
and the best food and sparkling cider
and just this wonderful meal in front of me,
but I had to eat it in the presence of the protesters
of Steadfast Baptist Church,
who was my enemy for like three years straight.
I wouldn't enjoy that meal.
They wouldn't enjoy that meal.
You know, that would be a terrible situation there.
And look, not even that extreme of an example.
A lot of people, you know,
they have really messed up marriages
where husband and wife hate each other's guts.
And I guarantee you those people would rather eat
a literal vegetarian meal where love is
than a stalled ox and hatred they're with.
And look, that's pretty extreme language
because I don't eat vegetarian meals.
Like I'm not saying I wouldn't do it if I had to.
It's just, I prefer to eat meat whenever I can.
And I have a rule for my wife.
She's not allowed to make dinners
that don't have meat in them.
It happened only one time our first year of marriage.
I was like, what is this?
This is missing something quite important.
But here, I'll say this though.
I would rather have a vegetarian meal
and peace with my wife, peace with my kids,
a loving home, people that are saved,
my kids being saved, my wife being saved,
us serving the Lord together.
I would take that every single day of the week
over just the best food and having a bunch of hatred
toward your family or vice versa or your friends.
The things in life that people in this world seek after
are usually not important whatsoever.
People today, they wanna seek after money,
seek after having the nicest things possible,
the biggest house, and then they get those things
and they realize, oh, I'm still not happy.
I'm still empty.
And so you need to prioritize the things of God.
The Bible says in verse 18,
"A wrathful man stirreth up strife,
"but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife."
So strife is not always bad.
We've talked about that.
Contending is not always bad.
You should always be in a battle for the Christian faith.
But the truth is, is that all of the battles that we fight,
even the righteous battles that we fight,
it's because someone else is stirring it up.
Whether that's the devil stirring it up,
or false prophets stirring it up,
or the sodomites stirring it up,
a wrathful man stirreth up strife.
You know, we don't wanna be the people
that stir needless strife.
You know, if strife comes to us,
we're never gonna shy away from it.
We're ready to fight.
You know, I wanna be a fighting church.
But we shouldn't be the type of people
where we're the ones constantly
going around stirring strife.
In our personal lives, as a church, as a nation,
man, wouldn't it be nice, as a nation,
if we didn't go around stirring up strife?
You know, here's an example of stirring up strife.
How about using the CIA to topple governments
and replace them with puppet leaders?
This is what America does.
This is like the MO,
what the CIA has done since its beginning.
And look, that's wicked.
Just us going around, just stirring up strife.
You know what it causes?
It causes fighting.
It causes problems.
It causes needless death.
And you know, just with all this stuff in the news recently
with Iran and Israel,
my perspective is that I could not care less
about who is in charge in Iran.
I really don't want,
I don't care about my tax dollars going
to topple the government of Iran.
I've got two brothers
that are active duty military right now.
I don't think that their lives
are worth toppling some Muslim in Iran
and just replacing it with someone probably worse.
You know, it's a bunch of wickedness
that our country does meddling in other people's affairs
and America needs to stay out of it.
And man, I can't wait for baby boomers
to lose their political power when they die,
when they get off the scene in America,
because you know,
none of us young people care about this stuff.
We wouldn't go and sign up or vote
to go bomb Iran in this kind of garbage.
Why? 'Cause we don't want to stir up strife.
We're trying to live peaceably.
But he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.
Verse 19, the way of the slothful man
is as an hedge of thorns,
but the way of the righteous is made plain.
What is this saying?
Someone who is lazy,
they will always have an excuse for failing.
They will always have an excuse
for not being able to get done what they need to.
Everything's just an hedge of thorns.
What is that?
It's like some obstacle stopping them.
But notice, it's like this is just a characteristic,
not of this person's environment, but of a lazy person.
A lazy person finds excuses, but it says,
but the way of the righteous is made plain.
A wise son maketh a glad father,
but a foolish man despiseth his mother.
You know, do not despise your parents.
Do not despise your mother.
And this is kind of a growing trend I've seen.
I've even read articles about this, that Gen Z
is pretty heavily separated from their parents,
a lot more than any previous generation.
And I know a lot of people that they're just ready
to cut off their parents at the drop of a hat.
They're ready to just sever relationships,
not even for biblical reasons.
I'm just talking about regular unsaved, you know,
Gen Z people.
This is kind of an epidemic right now in our country.
But you know, you're a foolish person
that despises your mother.
You should try to make peace
and have a good relationship with your parents
as much as possible.
Without compromising your beliefs, of course,
without compromising the Bible,
you know, we should honor our parents
and don't despise your mother.
You know, we saw this recently with all the new IFB drama
where there was kids literally just despising their mom,
saying all sorts of evil, wicked things about their mom,
and people were just sharing that and liking that
and defending that kind of crap.
But notice what the Bible's saying here.
Hey, it's the fool that despised his mother.
You know, as Christians, let's be wise,
let's not be foolish, and despise our mom and dad,
and not back people up
as they're literally despising their mom.
You know, yes, there's the 1% of people out there
whose mother is a reprobate,
but I don't think that's you in this room.
Most people, they are the rule, not the exception.
And so you're never gonna impress me,
or at least no one should be impressed
by you talking crap about your parents,
talking crap about your mom.
No, try to honor them as much as possible,
even if they're not saved,
even if they're not going to a great church.
Notice what verse 21 says,
"Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom."
And that's just a crazy thought, you know?
Joy should come from doing things that are righteous,
having a family, having children,
getting someone saved, going to church.
These are things that should bring joy to us.
But notice, to the person who is just destitute of wisdom,
destitute of understanding,
folly is actually joy for that person.
You know, the typical pothead that's just laughing
as he's smoking pot being an idiot.
It's just like folly is joy to someone who is an idiot,
a fool.
It says, "But a man of understanding walketh uprightly."
You know, people like to criticize Christians
and act like, you know,
Baptists are dumb, independent fundamental Baptists,
we're just a bunch of oaky smokies or whatever.
But the Bible actually says
that those who have understanding walk uprightly.
We'll see who's laughing at the end
versus someone who's lived an extremely worldly,
wicked life, drinking, doing drugs,
despising their parents, fornicating,
cheating on their spouse, getting divorces,
doing all this wicked stuff.
We'll see in the end who's lived the better life
versus, oh, the straight laced oaky smoky,
you know, person you like to make fun of
who reads their Bible, goes to work,
stays faithful to their wife, does that which is right.
No, the person who's actually wise
is going to walk uprightly.
Verse 22, without counsel, purposes are disappointed,
but in the multitude of counselors, they are established.
So, you know, God has given us the blessing
of living around other people.
You know, God has created us to be members of a body,
the church, to bounce ideas off of each other,
to have people in our lives that could give us counsel.
And it's always wise to get multitudes of counsel.
Verse number 23, it says this,
"A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth,
and a word spoken in due season, how good is it?"
So notice the fool, folly is joy to him,
but a wise person, this person's getting joy
just by the answer of his mouth,
and a word spoken in due season, how good is it?
You know, a wise person, they're gonna actually get joy
from reading a chapter of the Bible.
And people today who are out in the world,
that would sound hilarious to them,
but I feel bad for them, what they're missing out on,
because I don't know about you,
I open up the book of Psalms, and it's a joy.
It's a pleasure.
You know, it's fun to read the Bible and to get wisdom,
and a word spoken in due season, how good is it?
You know, how many times have you been down
or just had a need in your life,
and your Bible reading that day
just hit exactly where you needed it,
and you got exactly what you needed from God
to help you in a situation,
or you're going through a hard time
and you show up to church,
and the pastor just happened to prepare a sermon
on exactly what you needed,
and it's like, man, a word spoken in due season,
how good is it?
You know, that actually brings wise people joy,
but people who are fools today, idiots today,
what gives them joy?
Sports betting, skibbity toilet, drinking alcohol,
smoking marijuana,
watching stupid conspiracy videos on the internet,
just being an idiot, that brings them joy.
It's like, hey, why don't you read the Bible?
Then you could actually get joy from a wise source.
Verse 24, the way of life is above,
to the wise, right?
So seek those things which are above, Colossians 3 says,
that he may depart from hell beneath.
The Lord will destroy the house of the proud,
but he will establish the border of the widow.
This is a very striking example because, you know,
you think about the house of the proud.
Usually people are proud because they have a lot of power,
might, financial resources, and looking, you know,
from the outside in at the house of the proud,
you'd think like, man, they're indestructible,
they've got it going on, but the Bible says
that the Lord will destroy the house of the proud,
but he will establish the border of the widow.
See, the widow you look at as saying like, wow, she's weak,
she's on the verge of destruction, she's powerless,
but she's humble, and so the Bible says
that the Lord will establish her border.
And that just goes to show that we should never rely
on our own strength as Christians.
Wherever we're at in life,
regardless of your financial status,
we should always stay humble in our own minds.
We should always be little in our own sight.
We should always realize that at every single moment,
we are constantly needing and depending on the Lord.
You know, it's good to tell God that, by the way,
when things are going good,
if things are going good in your life,
you should just be praying and saying like,
Lord, thank you that things are going good.
Lord, I acknowledge that this is all coming from you.
Lord, I acknowledge that at any time
you wanted to take this away, it could be gone.
You're giving me power to get wealth.
You're giving me health in my life.
Like acknowledge that all that stuff is coming from God,
and then maybe God will allow you
to keep having those blessings.
But oftentimes, God has to humble people.
He has to destroy the house of the proud
because people think they've got it all figured out
on their own.
People think that, oh, I've got this settled.
And you know, I heard Pastor Anderson
say something recently that is just so true.
He said like, I live my life thinking
that it could all be crashing down at any moment.
And it's like, that's true.
We should think that way, because here's the truth.
It can.
You ever read the book of Job?
Man, it really seemed like he had all of it going on, right?
He had the 10 kids, he had the riches, he had the assets,
he had everything you could think of,
yet it all came crashing down fast.
So realize, man, we are weak.
We are just dust in this world.
God holds our fate in his hands.
We should constantly stay humble and realize that.
Verse 26, the thoughts of the wicked
are an abomination to the Lord,
but the words of the pure are pleasant words.
You know, this has to be one of the reasons
why God is not just a loving God,
but he's also a wrathful and angry God
and a vengeful God and a terrible God, the Bible says,
is because, you know, I don't even like
having to look at the wicked
or if I hear of something that the wicked did, it vexes me.
But God hears these people's thoughts all the time.
And you know, it kind of starts to make you realize
why hell is very just.
Because could you imagine, you know,
God just constantly having to hear all these wicked thoughts
for all of eternity, they're gonna be cast out into hell.
But the words of the purer are pleasant words.
Verse 27, "He that is greedy of gain
"troubleth his own house,
"but he that hateth gifts shall live."
So again, people who are greedy,
who just wanna seek money as their end all be all,
that's what they're living for.
You know, they're actually harming their own house.
They think like, man, if I just chase money at all costs,
you know, my wife will just love the mansion that I buy her
and all the cars and everything,
but a lot of times you end up just troubling your own house
if that's all you're seeking in life.
Says he that hateth gifts shall live.
So kids, there you go.
No more Christmas gifts or, no, I'm just kidding.
Obviously this is talking about kind of like being bribed
or bought off or extortion, stuff like that, gifts.
Verse 28, the heart of the righteous studyeth to answer,
but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.
You know, us as Christians, we should be slow to speak.
We should think about the things that we say.
Some people like to brag about how like,
oh man, I'm a guy, I've just got no filter.
I'll just say the first thing that comes out of my,
you know, comes into my heart, comes into my head.
And people kind of brag about that
and act like that's a virtue.
Let me tell you, that is foolish.
It is not a virtue.
Oh, I'm just so transparent.
I just say the first thing comes to my mind.
You don't want to do that.
I don't want to live in a world where people do that.
You know, we should have some discretion in our lives
and realize that not every single thought
that enters our brain should exit our lips.
I mean, the Bible says that the thought of foolishness is sin.
What does that tell us?
People are probably having foolish thoughts all the time.
You're probably having stupid thoughts all the time.
Same with me.
And we shouldn't just blab out whatever
comes into our heart or into our mind.
That is not a Christian virtue.
It says, the heart of the righteous studyeth to answer.
If you're going to speak on a topic,
if you're going to speak about something,
please know what you're talking about.
And think about soul winning.
We do this with soul winning.
You go out, you make a plan, you highlight in your Bible,
you memorize the verses, you know what you're talking about.
This should be how we treat every area of life.
Study to answer.
And if you don't know something about a subject,
that's OK to just say that.
To just say like, hey, I'm not an expert in this.
Maybe this will be a good person you can talk to.
You don't have this prideful attitude.
And we've probably all been around people like this,
that they just know everything about everything.
It's just amazing how they just know
everything about everything.
I mean, I remember this one guy telling me
that he has had like every job you could think of.
And it was just crazy.
Like every week at work, he was telling me
this other job he used to have.
And he was like, he was a soldier.
And then he worked as like a barnacle cleaner off of a ship.
And he was a cop, and a firefighter, and an EMT.
And it's just like every week, he's coming at me with a new
job, and I'm just like, man, this guy is a fool.
Just lying, and coming up with all these stories.
Man, those know-it-alls are just frustrating to deal with.
The mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things, right?
It says in verse 29, the Lord is far from the wicked,
but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.
The light of the eyes rejoice at the heart,
and a good report maketh the bones fat.
The ear that heareth the reproof of life
abideth among the wise.
So again, we're getting this idea of wise people.
What do they constantly do?
They want to hear reproof.
And you know, it'd be nice today
if Christians had just the smallest amount of wisdom
to at least just show up to church.
Because by showing up to church,
you're showing that you're willing to hear some reproof.
You want to be instructed out of the Bible.
You want to be corrected
if you have to be corrected on something.
And man, we need to get back to the idea in America
of exalting church.
And we need to teach our children by our word and deed
that church is important.
We need to emphasize to our converts out there
that church is important.
Because like I said on Sunday,
so many people today are just downplaying church,
acting like it's not important.
And it just goes to show that they're a foolish person,
that they don't want to abide among the wise
by hearing the reproof of life.
Notice verse 32, "he that refuseth instruction
despiseth his own soul."
And boy, isn't that the truth?
People today that want to just not go to church,
not read the Bible, no, I don't follow a man,
I'm not going to listen to anyone tell me what to do,
you just hate yourself then.
You just despise yourself because it's the world today
that's being destroyed by living according
to the councils of this world.
It's the world today and people not obeying the Bible
that are seeing their marriages destroyed by feminism.
You know, marriages today are not getting worse
because of Ephesians chapter five.
They're getting worse because of women like Taylor Swift
and her feminism.
They're getting worse because of people like Hillary Clinton.
They're getting worse because of ex new IFB pastors
despising the home.
That's why marriages are failing today.
Not because of the reproof of the wise.
It's not from Ephesians five folks.
It's not from the Bible.
You know, why are people's lives being destroyed today?
It's because they're out smoking pot.
And you know, if you were in the house of God,
if you come to Anchor Baptist Church,
we're gonna tell you not to smoke pot.
But it's kind of like a cultural thing in Oklahoma.
We're so proud that pot's legal in our state.
Isn't that so great?
No, let me tell you who smokes pot, idiots, fools.
You think people who actually read books
and are intelligent and have good jobs,
you think those people are the ones that are smoking pot?
Absolutely not.
It's a gateway drug to worse stuff.
And people, you know, people were kind of being down
on that statement about 10 years ago.
People say, "Oh, marijuana's not a gateway drug."
Let me tell you something, marijuana is a gateway drug.
I guarantee you, all the homeless derelicts
that are shooting needles into their arm this evening,
they were smoking pot as teenagers.
They were smoking pot in college.
And look, if you've done that in the past,
just ask for forgiveness and never do it again.
But don't sit here and start defending drugs.
Don't sit here and tell me,
"Oh, you know, here's what's popular now.
Psychedelic mushrooms are popular now."
And I know of Christians who defend psychedelic mushrooms.
Oh man, it'll just open your mind, bro.
You'll have a closer experience with Jesus, bro.
Just do it.
You're a fool.
You're an idiot.
And see, people's lives today are being destroyed,
not from the doctrine of the Bible that says be sober.
That's what the Bible says.
It's coming from the councils of this world
that tell you smoking pot's just fine.
Fornication's just fine.
Feminism is just fine.
Hey, here's a great idea that the world gave us.
Let's take our precious, innocent, defenseless daughters
at 18 years old and let's just ship them
to a den of iniquity called a college, excuse me,
with a bunch of young dudes pumped full of testosterone
without supervision.
Great idea.
What could possibly go wrong here?
Leaving them on their own like that,
without a husband, without a father to protect them.
See, this is the way of the world today.
This is why people's lives are getting destroyed.
Not from church, not from Baptist preaching,
not from the Bible.
He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul.
Let me tell you something.
If you go out and you start living a wicked life
contrary to the things that are preached at this church,
you go out and you start drinking alcohol,
it's like you hate yourself.
It's like you despise your own soul.
Because while we're here living clean lives,
having a blessed family, having a blessed church,
you know what drunks are doing right now?
Vomiting in the toilet.
You know what drunks are doing right now?
Committing adultery, committing fornication,
having bastard children,
or like a lot of young people are doing,
having bastard children
that they then go murder through abortion.
You're despising your own soul
when you walk in the councils of this world.
But he that heareth reproof, geteth understanding.
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom,
and before honor is humility.
You know, there's this phrase that I've heard oftentimes
from a really long time ago, and again recently,
where these like liberal weak preachers
that are really watered down on sin,
they won't preach really hard against anything,
they constantly say stuff like this.
Well, this isn't necessarily wrong,
or this isn't necessarily spelled out in the Bible,
but it's not really wise.
You know, or I heard a preacher say this recently like,
you know, cross dressing really isn't forbidden,
but is it really wise to wear the short daisy dukes?
Is it really wise to do this?
You know, I've heard preachers like this
in the new evangelical camp say stuff like this
for like decades, but notice what wisdom actually is.
This is what's so funny.
The same preachers that wanna tell you,
fearing the Lord isn't that big of a deal,
keeping God's commandments isn't that big of a deal.
Look at this verse.
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom.
You know what wisdom is teaching you?
To fear God.
Wisdom is constantly teaching you to fear the Lord.
What does fearing God mean?
We talked about this on Sunday.
It's an emotion of trembling
and having literal fear in your heart toward God,
and it's doing the things he says to do
and not doing the things that he says not to do.
This is what fearing God is.
And you know what wisdom is?
It's teaching you to fear God.
The wise person, you know what they're gonna do?
Obey God's commandments.
Not just come up with your own ideas of morality.
That's not wisdom, that's pride.
Coming up with your own ideas for things.
The wise person is going to fear God,
and before honor is humility.
You know, the person that actually fears the Lord,
that just exalts the word of God, that just says,
hey, everything this says about every area of life is correct.
That's actually the humble person.
That's actually the person that has humility.
And it's funny today because people will attack
Baptist preachers and call them prideful for preaching hard.
But let me tell you something, if you have an idea
that's contrary to God, who's the prideful one?
Is it the guy that's saying, hey, thus sayeth the Lord?
This is what God Almighty says.
Hey, let's listen to what God says.
Or is it you that says, I know better than the Bible?
You're the prideful one.
And today, the most prideful people
are ones who don't like hard preaching.
The most prideful people today are the ones
not reading their Bible, not going to church,
before honor is humility.
And you know, there's coming a day
where we're gonna stand before the Lord Jesus Christ
at his judgment seat, and we're gonna be judged
according to our works, and we're gonna spend
that thousand year reign with Jesus Christ,
ruling and reigning with him.
And hey, if you wanna have honor during that time,
you know what you need to have now?
Humility, to not think so highly of yourself,
to not put your desires and wants
before the things of God.
The humble person says, hey, this is always right.
What this says I should do with my life
is what I should do with my life.
The attitudes that this says I should have,
I'm gonna have, that's humility.
And that's true of the judgment seat of Christ.
It's true of your job.
It's true if you wanna be in the ministry someday.
Hey, the way up in the Christian life is down.
Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for this chapter,
for the book of Proverbs and all the wisdom therein.
I pray that we really continuously read these chapters
throughout our lives and just try to soak in
as much of the wisdom in it as possible.
And I pray that you bless us as we go home this evening
and go our separate ways, keep us safe,
and bring us to soul winning and church services
this weekend safely.
We love you in Jesus name we pray, amen.
- Ask him this evening, be number 161, our great savior.
161, 161, our great savior.
161 there on the 1st.