you
to go ahead and start service this evening our first hymn in your hymnal
number 359 thy word have I hid in my heart hymn number 359 359 thy word have
I hid in my heart
359, they're starting on the first.
Our word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path away.
To guide and to save me from sin and show me.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day, for another opportunity to gather together freely, to learn from Your Word.
I just pray that You'd be with all of us this evening, that You would help us to just take in the preaching and apply it to our lives to make ready changes to serve You.
I also pray that You just have Your hand of protection on us and that You'd fill pastor with Your Spirit.
These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, for our next hymn this evening, 209, Sunshine in the Soul, hymn number 209,
209, Sunshine in the Soul.
Sing it out nice and loud as if there's sunshine in your soul this evening. They're on the first.
Handouts
We'll be singing holy, holy, holy in your white handouts, holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy there on the first
And at this time, as the offering plates are passed,
turn to Proverbs 17,
Proverbs chapter 17.
The Bible reads, A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall
have part of the inheritance among the brethren.
The finding pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord trieth the hearts.
and a lyre giveth ear to a naughty tongue.
Whoso maketh the poor reproacheth his maker,
and he that is glad at calamities
shall not be unpunished.
Children's children are the crown of old men,
and the glory of children are their fathers.
Excellent speech, be cometh not a fool,
much less do lying lips a prince.
A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him
whither so ever it turneth, it prospereth.
He that covereth a transgression seeketh love,
but he that repeateth a matter separateeth very friends.
A reproof entereth more into a wise man
than a hundred stripes into a full.
An evil man seeketh only rebellion,
therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.
Let a bear robbed of her welps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly
Whoso rewarded evil for good evil shall not depart from his house
The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water therefore leave off contention
before it be meddled with
He that justifies the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are
Abomination to the Lord
Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom seeing he hath no heart to it a
Friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity
A man void of understanding, strikeeth hands, and becomeeth surety, in the presence of his friend.
He loveth transgression that loveth strife, and he that exalteth his gate, seeketh destruction.
He that hath a throwward heart, findeth no good, and he that hath a perverse tongue, falleth into mischief.
He that begeteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow and the father of a fool hath no joy a
Mary heart doeth good like a medicine
But a broken spirit dryeth the bones a wicked man
Taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment
Wisdom is before him that hath understanding
But the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth
A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her that bear him.
Also to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity.
He that hath knowledge spareth words, spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of
an excellent spirit.
and he that shuddered his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
Let's bow our heads for the prayer. Father God, we thank you for this day in our church.
And Proverbs chapter 17 still in this portion of Proverbs that's given us just a lot of good
general wisdom for life and really just trying to get us to have the right mentality about
different areas of life as Christians. And we start off in verse number one, the Bible says,
better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith than in house full of sacrifices with strife.
So God uses this kind of striking example here saying like
You'd rather be inside of a house that has this really dry, not very, you know,
tasty, delicious food, but there's peace there, there's love there,
then a house full of sacrifices that's talking about like animal sacrifices,
all this different meat, and be filled with strife.
And when I read this verse, funny enough, I think of my great grandmother,
because you know she was born in 1927 and she grew up really really poor and for some reason
my blessed grandma just never learned to cook very well and usually you know it's like oh
grandma's cooking gotta get grandma's cooking not my grandma's cooking okay here's the thing you
go over to my grandma's house and she cooks you know chicken for you it is gonna be a dry
Like they know that ahead of time.
Hey, you know, it's not going to be the best food.
But here's the thing, everyone still
loved going over to grandma's house.
And you know, we would go to our house year after year
and have Thanksgiving celebrations with her.
And you know, why we liked it is because there
was love in the home.
There was peace.
There was quietness.
There wasn't like strife between us.
You know, we were just going for our fellowship
with sweet old grandma.
And so that goes to show, you know, the atmosphere of your home.
Having love being hospitable is so much more important than having great food than having nice decor
Than having it you know have all the different smells that ladies like to make their house smell like and look
I'm not down on those things
But what is the most important thing is that there's love there that there's peace and you know
We just did this for year after year and it finally got to the point where someone told grandma. Hey grandma
We need to order pizza on Thanksgiving
And so it kind of became a tradition where we would order
me and Ed's pizza in Fresno, California for Thanksgiving.
But you know, we had a great time even when it was a dry morsel.
And so that proverb is very true there.
Verse number two, the Bible says,
a wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame.
and she'll have part of the inheritance among the brethren.
So, you know, some people in this life
are definitely born with some advantages over other people.
There's no doubt about that.
You know, if you're born into a super rich man's home
and he's a business owner and you've got, you know,
just all this money, all these privileges,
hey, that's a blessing in a certain context,
in a certain way.
But the nice thing about
life in general and even the Christian life is that where you start out in life does not really
matter because you could be this son that causes shame.
and not really inherit as much.
You could be the son of some rich man,
but you're lazy.
You're born with a silver spoon in your mouth.
You don't have character.
You don't have work ethic.
And your inheritance actually ends up getting split someday
with a servant that works really, really hard.
And you know, this is kind of one of the drawbacks
of the fact that we live in such a prosperous nation
and we have life so good.
I think about for my kids all the time, like man,
I hope their life is a little bit hard.
I hope that they have some challenges
and some struggles in life because that builds character
and people just have who have everything handed to them
oftentimes turn in to brats.
They turn in to low quality people.
This is why the pastor and the pastor's son
are often very different.
This is why nepotism is a bad idea.
You know, just handing off the business to the son
cause he's the son, handing off the church to the son
because he's the sun, but wait a second.
There could be that wise servant out there.
that works way harder that's way more quality of a person and you know how it
should be is that that person should have rule over a son that causes shame
and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren. You know you got
situations like Joe Biden and Hunter Biden's son where Hunter Biden was just
handed all these like high positions in companies and he's making oil deals with
Ukraine and it's like why does he have that position? What credentials does he
Being with hookers filming it putting on his laptop all sorts of hellish activities that he's involved in. What's his credentials?
Oh, yeah being Joe Biden's son
And so, hey, nepotism is super wicked.
It's a bad idea.
I'm super against nepotism in all cases.
Man, especially in the house of God,
the church is too important to risk it like that
because here's just the fact of our life
that people don't wanna face sometimes
is that everyone is going to have
some favoritism towards their children.
and you may not be able to recognize that yourself,
but it's natural.
We all have natural affection towards our children.
So it's so important that, you know,
if you're in a position of authority
that someone else is training them and vetting them
and checking them,
and that you're not just rubber stamping that
because you could fall into that trap,
anyone could fall into that trap.
In verse number three, the Bible says,
the finding pot is for silver
and the furnace for gold,
but the Lord trieth.
the heart, the hearts. So you have this finding pot
to heat up the silver and separate the silver
from the dross, from the impurities, just to make that silver
more beautiful, more precious, more valuable
to the customer. Same thing with gold, put it in the furnace, purifies it,
makes it more valuable. You know it's the same thing with the Lord God
will try our hearts. And how God often does that is by putting us
by putting us through some trials,
by putting us through some fire, if you will.
And oftentimes God does that not to punish us,
but to try our hearts.
And so in life, if you especially,
especially if you've ever prayed these prayers to God,
God, please use me in a great way.
God, I pray that you just allow my life
to be a sacrifice to you,
that you would help me to do great works for God.
You better expect the finding pot.
You better expect the furnace.
And when that stuff comes to you,
Don't freak out saying like, oh man,
you know, what's this fiery trial that's to try me?
No, you should think it's strange,
rather if you don't go through hard stuff as a Christian.
And I'll tell you what, one thing that has really,
really encouraged me over the past year-ish of being here,
next month it'll be a year that my family has been here,
is just seeing that, hey, the devil has come after Anchor
Baptist Church a little bit.
And the devil seems to know who we are and the devil has come after me and the devil's come after you and seeing us go through some persecution being hated by the world, having some trials right off the bat.
It makes me think like, hey, God's preparing us for something great.
And so, man, I just am blown away by how sometimes people, as soon as the heat comes, they jump ship.
But it's like, man, we're about to experience something awesome.
We're about to, you know, have some great works done for the Lord and hey, the
finding pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord trieth the
hearts. You never get to come forth as that pure gold unless you abide in the
fire, unless you go through that fire, unless you remain steadfast, unless you
stay anchored. You know what I mean? You gotta stay anchored during those times of
hardship.
Verse number four, the Bible says a wicked doer,
giveth heed to false lips and a liar giveth ear
to a naughty tongue.
And it's kind of funny how this verse is just right after
this idea of being tried coming forth as gold
because what I've noticed, especially in the last year
is what has caused a lot of people
to stop serving God, to jump ship on their church
is by them giving heed to liars.
And here's the thing, when we talk about lying and when I teach my kids about lying, you know,
our go to is usually to talk about the person who's lying. And we should of course focus on that.
Hey, it is wicked for you to lie. It's wicked for us to bear false witness. And of course,
we need to teach that. But I think it's also very important and this idea may have been neglected
a little bit in our teaching is also how important it is to not receive lies.
to not hear lies and realize that when it comes to the sin of lying,
it is not just the liar who is involved in that sin,
it is all the people who enable that liar.
And, you know, you look at today bad churches.
You look at today false prophets like Kenneth Copeland,
who's like the richest pastor in America, I believe,
definitely one of the richest pastors.
He's got a whole fleet of private jets.
He's got his own private airport.
He's got his own mansion.
He's got his own lake.
He's got all these things, right?
And it's like, how did this guy get so popular?
How did he get so much money?
It's because of people that decided to harken to lies.
is because people decided that they were going to give ear to a lying tongue,
that they were going to listen to this naughty person, and that is enabling wickedness.
It's not just the liar who's at fault, it's those who listen to liars.
And when you identify that someone is a liar,
you need to cut that person off saying like,
hey, this is not a reliable source.
I'm not gonna consider what this person says.
I'm not gonna allow this person to allow me
to change my heart towards someone
or towards a church or something like that
because then you yourself are guilty.
And what I've noticed is that rotten people,
not only are they liars,
if they're not liars oftentimes they're people
that just eat up lies.
And this is why we have so many false prophets today.
This is why we have liberal Democrats ruling in government.
It's because some people just want to heap liars to themselves.
They just want to be wicked and listen to all these liars.
We ought to not lie, we ought not to listen to lies.
Verse number five, the Bible says,
Who so moketh the poor reproacheth his maker?
And you know, I want to just use this example again
because it's just such a perfect illustration
of what this verse is talking about.
The same people that hate God, that despise the Lord,
are the same people who mock at the poor.
And what's funny is it's usually like,
Christians and conservatives that are falsely accused of not caring about poor people,
which is funny because we spend every weekend of our lives going into the ghettos of Oklahoma City,
preaching people to gospel, loving people, inviting them to church, trying to help them and minister
to them. So I don't know how you could accuse us of despising the poor, but meanwhile the liberals
or the socialists, what do they want to do? They want to implement all these, you know,
that actually oppress the poor and that actually despise the poor or they just do wicked pranks like
what happened to us on sunday you know people calling up this poor door-dash lady who's making
very very little money and you think like oh she got paid for her delivery she probably got paid
like three dollars for her delivery and was expecting a tip but you know whoever this
wicked person was that you know did this prank call of pizza they did a cash only payment
And so it's really the people that despise the Lord
that are the ones who actually oppress and mock the poor.
So I don't buy into this idea that,
oh, it's Christians that are not loving towards the poor.
Christians are the most giving people financially
of all other religions and groups you could think of by far.
Christians are the most generous.
Every study shows that.
No, it's really like the God hating.
atheists, communists, Jews that oppress the poor.
You know what's a good example of a way
that the poor is being oppressed today?
It's this financial system of play now, pay later,
where you got all these different things online.
Have you noticed this?
You could buy anything on credit now.
I mean, you could order a pizza.
And there's like this web, there's like this software service called Affirm.
And it's like, split this up into four payments.
Split this up into 10 payments.
You can go online, you could order a stinkin' pizza,
or DoorDash or something,
and you could put that sucker on credit.
You know, that's not coming from biblical Christianity.
The Bible talks about how usury is wicked as hell.
The Bible says not to charge usury, okay?
Jusury, if you will.
And yet today, not only is it like, okay, you know,
you got to get a mortgage, I get that,
mortgage is interest, it sucks,
but at least it kind of makes sense a little bit
to get into that kind of debt.
But now they're just praying on poor people
and oftentimes simple people where it's like,
cool, man, I can just buy these concert tickets on credit
and buy the new Call of Duty on credit.
You know, that's wicked.
That's mocking the poor, really, is what it is.
Oh, let's help them, ha ha ha.
No, you're actually raking them over the coals.
You're actually harming them.
The Bible says in verse number six,
children's children are the crown of old men,
and the glory of children are their fathers.
You know, there's a lot of...
the elder generation today,
a lot of the baby boomers today,
that their life when they were young,
when they were in their childbearing years,
their goal was not really to raise a godly family
and invest into the next generation
and try to hand off a good country to us
and try to hand off good churches to us.
You know, that generation was just largely,
extremely selfish and they rode the economic boom
of the post-war era
and they're like puffed up with pride
and think they're so great.
And a lot of them are now in the nursing home
realizing that they messed up with their life.
And you know, because I preached in the nursing home
in Vancouver, Washington,
and so many of them were just so depressed
that they didn't have kids,
that they didn't start a family.
And it's not like, you know, they're struggling to have kids.
They were just deciding not to have kids
because they were just chasing money.
But what the Bible says is,
hey, children's children.
are the crown of old men.
Old men, they love their grandchildren.
Old women, they love their grandchildren.
You know, my father-in-law, Pastor Thompson,
he's, I think, 50 years old.
So he's not old by any means,
but I think he already has like 12 grandkids
or something like that.
You know, because me and Jasmine got married
and her siblings got married all around the right time.
And you know, the Bible says to be fruitful and multiply.
And so, you know,
Man, me and Jasmine really took that seriously
because she had six pregnancies and six years.
So it was just crazy.
But hey, he just went from like having just kids
to just few years, just like boom, 12 grandkids.
And you know what?
He's happy about that.
And grandma's happy about that.
And my parents are happy about that.
You know, it's a blessing to have children.
And again, it's kind of like this, you know,
play now, pay later mentality
that a lot of people have with money.
It's like, hey, pay now.
Have kids now, while you're young,
put in the hard work, endure the suffering,
if you will, at times, and then you're an old man
and you have that crown of joy.
And, you know, all the grandparents talk about
how it's just great and it's easy.
And, you know, when the kid is sick,
they just go right back to mom and dad.
And a lot of times, grandma and grandpa
just gets to enjoy all that.
And guess what?
They deserve that, because they already raised their kids.
They already put in the hard work.
And so that is a great blessing.
You know, she can encourage us to have children.
And the glory of children are their fathers.
You know, kids, they love their dad.
It's a really special relationship.
They love dad.
They love grandpa.
They love their parents.
And you know, we should use that
and cherish that relationship that we have with our kids
to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
You know, every single dad is every child's hero
up till a certain age.
And you know that age comes whenever that is and that's kind of sad for the parents.
But you know you're always that hero at first and thankfully I'm still the hero for all my girls.
My eldest is only you know six years old but hey I'm trying to use that to take my kids soul
winning and tell them how important serving the Lord is and memorizing scripture.
You know they're like oh you know dad does that and I think dad's cool so I'll do those things too.
And hopefully that'll stick with them when they get older.
The Bible says in verse 7 excellent speech become if not a fool.
Much less do lying lips a prince was just saying like excellent speech someone having wisdom and knowledge
It's just saying that it's not fitting for a fool
You're not going to really find these things together having a fool with excellent speech
if you know someone who's a fool and
You know they they're a flatterer third and they're all into all the stupidity and you see they have really excellent speech
Let me help you it's called AI
That's what they're doing because excellent speech become it's not a fool and you can always tell you got that double dash
Whatever that thing is called, it's like, ah, AI.
You know, excellent speech becomes not a fool.
And when I see a flat earther that could actually string two sentences together,
I'm like, oh, OK, they're using AI.
The Bible says there, much less do lying lips a prince.
So a prince is a ruler, someone that has authority.
The Bible is saying, hey, it's not fitting,
it's not becoming for a ruler to have lying lips.
Rulers should strive to have as much integrity and openness
as possible being honest, living an honest life.
Verse 8, a gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it, whether so ever
it turneth, it prosperous.
I had to think about this verse for a while because it's worded kind of strange that a
gift is
as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it with us.
Whoever turned it to prosperous.
So let's think about a precious stone for a moment.
If you have a diamond, you have some sort of precious stone
and you take it outside in the light,
kind of wherever you turn that thing,
no matter what angle you move that,
it's just going to look beautiful.
It's going to look great.
And so a person who receives a gift in the eyes of that person,
whatever that gift is to them, it's something beautiful,
something they enjoy.
And no matter really what it is, they're
precious. And so you know a lot of times the Bible speaks negatively of gifts when it's being talked
about like bribing someone, trying to flatter someone or something like that. But you know gifts
could also be a good tool to show love, to show appreciation, to even apologize.
You know, sometimes men, if you just buy your wife that coffee wherever she turns it,
it's just going to shine. It's going to look beautiful.
The beautiful sweat dripping down that plastic cup, you know,
it's just beautiful in her eyes. And you know, that could help her heart.
And so realize that, Hey, gifts,
they don't even have to be the most expensive thing. Now they could be,
they could be like a precious diamond. I'm sure she'll like that too.
But really it's the gesture that counts. It's the thought that counts.
And you know, especially around the holiday season, remember that.
You know, that it's the thought that counts and that people appreciate that.
Try to love people by giving them gifts.
That's a great Christian thing to do.
Verse number nine, here's another important attitude we need to have.
He that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter,
separateeth very friends.
You know, there is a time when it is appropriate to cover a transgression.
There's a time when it is not appropriate, right?
So rulers, leaders, pastors,
they need to be held to a higher standard.
And a pastor does something like commit adultery,
gets on all these drugs, does all these wicked stuff.
Yeah, that needs to be dealt with publicly.
That needs to be called out and exposed and dealt with
and not covered up, of course, right?
But here's the thing.
Amongst our brothers and sisters in Christ, most of the time when people sin, you should just
allow people to live that down, especially when they're sorry and contrite and repentant
and not try to blast that everywhere. And even, you know, all the churches that I've been involved
in that practice church discipline, you know, usually when that happens, if it's not something
that has to be blasted to the world, usually it's like the live streams off.
You know, this person's getting called out in the church,
but we're not trying to like embarrass them to the whole world.
You know, it's a loving thing to cover a transgression.
especially for someone that's like not a reprobate,
not some sort of super evil person,
because the hope is, is that they'll repent,
that they'll get right with God,
that they'll move on in their life.
But notice, but he that repeated a matter,
separated very friends.
So by repeating gossip or repeating negative things
about people, you're gonna cause division between people.
You're gonna separate good friends, very friends.
And notice how this is the opposite of love.
So the person that seeks love is trying to cover a transgression.
The opposite of love is the person that is repeating a matter.
And you know what, this is an attitude that all of us can fall prey to,
and that all of us have probably done at some point.
But man, we've got to be so careful and realize that it is wicked
to go around gossiping about other people.
It is wicked to go around and repeat business of other people that they're dealing with
that doesn't involve others repeating a matter.
It doesn't even say repeating a true matter versus a false matter.
It's just repeating anything.
like that. You know, you're going to separate friends. And you know, like myself as a pastor,
I have people call me. I have people, you know, call me from other churches, other places in
the country that listen, that are dealing with stuff that are going through really, really bad
stuff. And it's like, how would, how would this person like if I just like blabbed about it to
other people? You know, you would find that to be just abhorrent coming from a leader. But let me
tell you, it's also abhorrent from your girlfriends. It's also abhorrent, you know, from anyone.
This is just a wrong attitude
that some people fall into of becoming a gossip.
No, we ought not to do that, verse 10.
The Bible says a reproof,
enter it more into a wise man
than in hundred stripes into a fool.
You know, what's interesting about this verse
is that the Bible does teach corporal punishment.
You know, it teaches it for your children.
It even teaches it for criminals.
And the Bible teaches that it works
as a form of criminal, like, reformation.
to reform that person because it
talks about by the blueness of the wound.
You know, you're healed by those things.
You know, spankings, beatings that
could actually fix someone's problem,
but the fool is a different beast.
The fool, the person who is a fool,
they can't even be corrected by 100 stripes.
And you know, a wise person, you give them a reproof.
You just correct them.
You just show them a Bible verse.
You just preach them a sermon.
You just send them a sermon or something like that.
And they receive that correction because they're wise.
And all it takes is that reproof.
But the fool, it's like you could sit here
and beat this person 100 times
and it doesn't really fix them.
You know this is also why it just makes sense as soul winners to go to the receptive
Because look, if you can't beat someone a hundred times and get them to understand,
you just talking into the air about the Bible is probably not going to get them to understand either.
You know, you need to go to people that are receptive and even like at church.
I'm interested in pastoring receptive people and like preaching to people that want to hear the word of God.
I wouldn't want to feel like I'd have to metaphorically beat someone a hundred times to get them to take a reproof.
We ought to be wise and receive reproof in our lives.
The Bible says in verse number 11,
an evil man seeketh only rebellion,
therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.
You know, you reap what you sow.
And if you're just one of these people
that's always seeking rebellion, seeking wickedness,
you know, a cruel messenger might come unto you.
You know, that that DEA agent, that ICE agent might come after you makes me think of how one of these disgusting faggots, Lynette Sharp,
who's protesting steadfast for years and years and coming to my house for years and years and honking her horn and messing with my family and death-threading us and screaming at steadfast.
You guys are so hateful. You're so violent. You need to be arrested. You need to be thrown in jail. You need to be thrown in prison. Hate speech.
Oh, where is she now? In prison.
You want to know why because she was involved in helping someone plan to shoot a police officer who this police officer was shot in the neck?
and was and survived, but guess what?
She was involved in that conspiracy.
Not only was she involved in that conspiracy,
police are accusing her of them harboring this fugitive,
harboring the guy running from the police.
And it's like, hey, you know, you want to be rebellious.
You want to be wicked.
There might be that cruel messenger that's sent unto you.
You know, he might be dressed as an ice officer
or DEA or whatever, you know,
or you might get a worst cruel messenger
sent to you in prison.
You know, maybe Laquisha will come after you in prison.
Maybe that cruel messenger, you know?
And I don't give a rip what happens
to this disgusting dyke in prison because she hates God.
And she gets what she deserves.
That cruel messenger shall be sent against him.
You know, all of her friends that protested steadfast
and came to my house and were involved in every single thing
that she was involved in, you know,
they better be terrified because I know their names,
God knows their names, and the federal government
knows their names too because I reported them all.
So I hope you're terrified and I hope that cruel messenger comes after you.
Verse number 12, the Bible says,
let a bear robbed of her welps, like her children.
Meet a man rather than a fool in his folly.
You know, this made me think about this trend
where like girls will talk about like,
would you rather have the man or the bear?
And the girls are just like, oh, give me the bear.
I'll take the bear and the wilderness
then have to like be stuck with a man or something like that.
And they're talking about like a strange man,
not their husband or whatever.
Well, here's the thing.
You'd rather the bear than the fool
is what the Bible saying.
Like the Bible is literally saying let a bear rob of her welps, not just a bear, an angry bear,
a hungry bear, a bear that's pissed off, you know, you're messing with its kids,
you'd rather that bear robbed of her welps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly.
It just goes to show how frustrating, how annoying, and sometimes how dangerous it could be dealing
with a fool, which is why the Bible says, hey, when you perceive not the lips of learning in someone,
you depart.
You get away from fools. Don't be friends with foolish people, right?
A wise man is going to be around wise people, but man, the companion of fools shall be destroyed.
The Bible says, and you know, you'd rather be with that bear than with a fool.
And here's the thing.
You know, I've actually, believe it or not, been charged by a black bear when I was hunting one time in California.
And I have to think, like, would I rather get charged by a black bear again or listen to some stupid flat earther, like on a podcast for an hour,
or like one of these moon landing deniers, and I'm like, just give me the bear.
Just let it charge me, you know, I got bear mace, I'll deal with it, you know, I don't want to deal with the fools.
That's what the Bible's saying, rather the bear.
The Bible says in verse 13,
who so rewardeth evil for good,
evil shall not depart from his house.
So here's the thing,
God cares about how you treat other people
when they've done good unto you.
and so many people today are so selfish.
And they just, my name's Jimmy, I will take all you give me
and the moment that it's convenient for them
to betray you, to walk away, to forget about you,
they're just gone.
But you know what a wise person does?
Hey, if someone has done good unto you,
if someone has invested in you, if someone's helped you,
if someone's prayed for you, if someone's loved you,
you ought to love that person and do good unto them.
But do not forget the people in your life that have done good unto you.
There's so few people in this life that really love you, that really care about you.
This world is just a cold, dark world filled with strangers that don't care about you.
When people do good to you, you better do good to them.
You better love them back.
How about starting with your parents?
You know, your parents raised you and paid your bills and took care of you and cleaned
your diapers and fed you and went through all the problems that parents go through.
You ought to recompense good under your parents.
You ought to be respectful to them.
You ought to love them.
When you grow up, you ought to bless them.
You ought to thank them for all that they've done for you.
And so many people today are just turning on their parents, talking crap about their parents.
you know you got a bunch of these leftist commies that it's like their
college is paid for by their parents. Everything's paid for and then they just
hate mom and dad. Wicked as hell.
When you reward evil for good, evil shall not depart out of your house.
So God's watching you.
God is looking at your life and he's seeing all the good that people are investing in you.
And he's seeing how you respond to that.
And if you respond poorly to that, God will punish you.
And he will make sure that evil does not depart from your house.
That's a scary verse.
Notice verse 14.
The beginning of strife is as when one let it out water therefore leave off contention
Before it be meddled with so the beginning of strife issues problem
It's like when one starts to let out water think about how if you open that hose
Spicket all that water comes rushing out it falls on the ground and it's like good luck trying to scoop that back up again
the concrete's already absorbing it,
the ground's already absorbing it.
You know, once that starts to flow,
you can't really fix that.
And so that's what the beginning of strife is like.
And the wise person, as soon as this begins,
you wanna leave off contention.
And it's funny, because we get this reputation of being, you know,
you know, crass and fighting hard and being loud and wanting to fight.
And that's only about the things that God wants us to fight for.
Yeah, you better believe we are ready to fight.
We are ready to stand up for doctrine.
We're ready to fight against the wicked and false prophets
and people that want to attack the Bible and Jesus Christ.
But what's funny is like anyone who knows me and you guys in personal life,
like I'm just trying to live the most peaceful life possible.
I'm trying to have the least amount of contention and strife as possible, and you know what,
that should be what you strive for.
And so, you know, you see a stupid comment on Facebook, you don't have to engage in every
stupid comment.
You see your brother in Christ say something dumb, you don't have to engage in every single
one.
You know, two different churches are fighting somewhere,
something that doesn't involve us.
You don't have to go get involved with that, okay?
You don't have to go online and be a loud mouth
and a busy body because all you're doing
is you're just opening that hose
and just letting the water flow out more
and just creating more of a mess.
Be wise, leave off contention as soon as possible.
Verse 15.
He that justifyeth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.
So again, this is one of those areas where God is looking down, and he's trying you,
he's looking at your heart to see if you're right with him.
And the Bible teaches that if you justify the wicked, meaning, you know, you make excuses for,
or you kind of downplay the severity of the wicked, then God views you as an abomination.
Or, if you condemn the just, if you hate on people that are righteous, God views you as an abomination.
You know, I saw a video just right before church that really made me think about this,
and I think this interview was from a few years back.
But President Trump was being interviewed by some guy about Ghislaine Maxwell,
the, you know, partner in crime of Jeffrey Epstein that was involved in all those human trafficking, just horrific crimes.
And she's like in prison at the time and he's like, oh, yeah, I wish her well and even the secular worldly interviewer was like
What do you mean you wish her well you wish her well? She's a human trafficker. She's a child trafficker and Trump goes so what?
I wish her well. I wish a lot of people well. I wish every people everyone well
Guess what? God views that as an abomination and what's so funny is people would hear that what I just said
And we'd all be like, yeah, that's crazy, that's wicked.
But let me tell you, this is what a lot of Christians do all the time.
Because as soon as something's uncomfortable for them to judge,
it's like, yeah, we can judge Trump defending human traffickers.
OK, but what about how the Bible teaches that man who lies with man is an abomination?
Are you going to condemn that?
No, love them.
We should love everyone.
In fact, all of a sudden now we shouldn't judge anything.
Right? This is what a lot of churches teach today, that it's not our place to judge.
It's only God's place to judge. No, no, no, no. When you have the spirit of the Lord,
you know what you're going to be filled with? Judgment. You're going to be filled with righteous judgment.
And look, of course, there is a wrong type of judgment. There's judging hypocritically.
There's judging when it's not your authority or your place to do so.
But when God has made his opinion about something clear in his word, you can judge.
You know, when the Bible talks about how it's the foolish person that's among wine-bibbers,
the person who is deceived by alcohol, the Bible says, is not wise, you can judge and
say, hey, drunks are a bunch of stupid people.
You want to know how I say that?
By what authority I say that?
Under the authority of the Word of God.
Drunks are stupid people, not because I said so, but because God said so.
And look, is that really that controversial?
You're drinking poison.
You're putting poison into your body and trying to sell it as something that's fun. No, you're an idiot
Okay, hey he that commits adultery lack of understanding if you commit adultery, you're an idiot by what authority do you judge?
By God's authority by the word of God, you know what? I'm not gonna sit here and justify the wicked
I'm not gonna look at a man that commits adultery
and start making excuses for him saying no big deal we all need our fun everyone deserves love
everyone deserves happiness no no no you know what you deserve you deserve to keep God's commandments
is what you deserve and he teaches that adultery is wicked punishable by death
So we need some Christians today that are not going to justify the wicked that are going to condemn the wicked and guess what that actually brings God's favor on you.
God actually likes Christians that have some salt that have a brain in their head that could judge in this world, but he looks at Christians that justify the wicked.
Or that condemn the just, and he says they're an abomination to the Lord.
Here's the truth.
You know, if there's someone out there that hates me, anchor Baptist church, other fundamental Baptist,
good pastors, good preachers, someone just hates us, that person is an abomination to God.
God looks down from heaven and he's disgusted by people that would condemn the just.
And just, man, we need to change our mentality as Christians.
Verse 16, wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool
to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?
Kind of makes me think about
college or Bible college how you know you could have a price in your hand you
can go pay money to try to get wisdom but if your heart's not in it if you're
not really putting your the work in and putting your mind to learning and
wanting to receive instruction you can pay all the money you want but it's like
it's vain at that point you know why is there price in the hand of a fool to get
wisdom
Seeing, he hath no heart to it.
You know, if you want to learn something,
if you want to come to church
and get the most out of church,
you got to want it.
Your heart has to be in it.
And you can't just be forced here.
If you go to college, you know,
parents all the time will pay for their college
for their kids.
And look, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that.
But a lot of kids, they're there
and they don't even want to be there.
And hey, there's a price in their hand,
they're paying for it.
But if their heart's not in it,
you're not going to benefit.
So, anything you want to benefit from in life, you've actually got to have your heart in it all the way.
The Bible says in verse number 17...
A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Again, just such a great verse underscoring the importance of loyalty from a Christian.
That we as God's people should be loyal, loyal to a lot of things, to the Lord Jesus Christ,
to the local New Testament church, to His Word, but you know also just to each other personally.
to our friends. Why? Because the Bible says a friend
loveth at all times. And you know what?
Someone who is saved, someone who is a brother in Christ, someone who's here in
this room, that's your friend.
You know, you should always love that person. Now here's the thing. Love can
look differently sometimes
depending on the situation. The Bible talks about how
you're not supposed to hate your neighbor in your heart, but rather you're
supposed to rebuke him.
You're supposed to love your neighbor as yourself. Sometimes a stern rebuke
Can that can come from a place of love a lot of times. That's what it is. It's preaching the word of God
That's for sure what it is. So hey, sometimes you may need to correct your friends
Sometimes you may need to come down on hard on people you love
But here's the truth though. You should always love your friends
Love them at all times even when they mess up
Even when they sin even when they sin against you personally they mess, you know
Mess with you or say something mean to you, you know, let it go. Love that person people today are just way too quick
to give up on other people, other friends, their parents, all sorts of different relationships.
A friend loved it at all times and a brother is born for adversity. See, everyone wants to be
your friends when you're prosperous.
When you've got lots of money, when you've got fame, when things are going really well,
everyone wants to be your friend there.
But who's there for you during your adversity?
That is how you could actually tell who your real friends are.
Someone tells you they're your friend and while things are good, the relationship is
good, maybe they're even doing favors for you, how do you actually know whether or
not that's coming from a place of love or whether that's coming from a place of self-service?
Do they stick with you through the hard times through the thick and the thin then it's revealed. Hey, this is a true friend
I loved I loved going through the protests that said fast Baptist church
I loved going through all the persecution we went through. You know why man when we were done with that persecution
When we were done with that fire, there was a lot of really deep friendships there
Why because we were there during the adversity
we weren't there with a nice beautiful building with wonderful air conditioning and nice programs
and just tons of you know carnal blessings. We were there in the hotel church with with the
fold up black chairs that I shoved in the back of my forerunner. I fit 120 black fold-up chairs
in the back of my forerunner driving that all around one hotel after the next after the next
still soul winning during all that time. Hey, that was some adversity for a church.
Now, it's nothing like persecution we read about in the Bible, but compared to stuff we've been through, that was some adversity.
Us getting some death threats, that was some adversity.
Hey, faggots coming to my house and threatening to kill my family, that was a little bit of adversity.
But you know what built a really good friendship is when my friend Ben showed up that night and started literally chasing sodomites down the street.
I'm just like, man, this is a brother that was built for adversity right here.
This is a friend that loved it at all times.
It's like, I love Ben.
But how do you know if someone's really your friend?
Well, it's definitely the guy that shows up for you at that time.
It's definitely the brothers and sisters in Christ that stick with their pastor and their church during adversity.
Those are the real friends.
And so don't think that just like everyone who says your friend is your friend.
Don't get this naive mentality that everyone who's nice to you is your friend.
And girls, man, girls can be really brutal with each other.
You know, I hear stuff over the years that girls do and it's like, man, they could just
be so nice to you and they could give you a gift at church and then you leave and they're
just talking the most mad crap imaginable and it's like ladies, don't just think that
every woman who's nice to you is automatically your friend.
You know, if your friendship has gone through some hardship and you came out the other side,
that's a better indication of who your real friend is.
And look, I'm not saying if you've never been through hardship, you know, be standoffish
and not trust them.
You know, we ought to give people the benefit of the doubt.
I want to be everyone's friend.
That's like my default setting, but I'm just saying, how do you really know?
How you know is when adversity comes.
The Bible says in verse 18, a man void of understanding.
strike of hands, and become a surety in the presence of his friend.
He that loveth transgression, that loveth strife.
So any type of, you know, ungodly battle, or wicked strife,
people that just love that kind of stuff, that's an ungodly person.
That's a person that's void of understanding.
And he that exalted his gate, someone who's lifted up with pride, seeketh destruction.
Now, they don't know that they're seeking destruction.
People that exalt themselves, lift themselves up, boast of themselves.
They, of course, in their heart are just wanting more blessing and more exaltation and more pride.
But what you're really seeking in reality when you lift yourself up is destruction.
Because pride goeth before a fall.
Verse 20, he that hath a fro-ward heart, findeth no good, and he that hath a perverse tongue,
falleth into mischief.
In every area of life, this is just true that what you get out of life often times is just
your attitude and just your perspective and just having the right mentality about things
and you know a forward person, what's a forward person again?
It's someone who is contrarian, someone who's against everything, someone who's hard to
manage, difficult to deal with, that's what a forward person is.
Someone who's forward, notice, it says that he findeth no good.
So this person, they can never see the good in things.
They can never focus on the positive.
They just want to complain about everything.
And here's the thing, when you see no good, when you can never see the good in things,
here's the truth, you often get no good from it.
Notice he findeth no good.
And that church has some problems.
That pastor's preaching the Preachery Rapture.
That pastor is preaching that the Jews are God's chosen people.
But you know, there's some people today
that are in an old-ifey church right now
that though they disagree on those topics,
they love their church.
and they leave church refreshed and they get around God's people
and they're happy. They enjoy the fellowship and they contribute to the church
and on the parts they agree they say amen and they go out soul-winning
and they preach the gospel and the church has an event and they go
and they pray for their pastor and they're nice to the church members
and they're just getting all this good by just having a good attitude
by just finding the good in the situation that they're at. Then there's other
people who are an old IFB church
And they think that just because the pastor is wrong on the pre-trim and wrong on Zionism,
that they know more than the pastor.
It's so funny how it's like being a pastor is just one of those professions that's frustrating
because just everyone thinks that they know more than you.
And it's like, you know, some people have this attitude at the medical field
and there's definitely some problems with the medical field.
And I'm sure this happens, you know, in law too.
It's like people will go to an attorney and just tell you all the things that they know that more than you, right?
That's annoying.
You know, you don't want to be that type of person, you go to the mechanic who's been working on cars for 40 years and he's got the scars to show it and he's got the black hands and you want to tell him how to do his job.
It's like, this is how the prideful person is with a pastor too.
And you got people who maybe they even listen to some of our preaching, some of the new IFB preaching, but they haven't really spiritually matured yet and they're in that old IFB and they find no good.
And let me tell you something, there's something wrong with you if you're like that.
If you're in a saved church with a saved pastor, a child of God that's got the word of God being read
and you can find no good, you're the problem.
And it's like, you know, people do this with the old IFB,
and then there's people that do this even with the new IFB.
It's like, you're extra fro-word.
It's like, well, you know, you don't have 100%
of the exact same interpretations
on every single verse of the Bible as this other person,
and therefore you're a bad pastor and I'm leaving the church.
And it's like, there's people that have this insane mentality,
and you know what, that is so immature, it's not even funny.
But the wise person, man, they just find the good.
You know, there's people today that live in Oklahoma, that probably hate Oklahoma.
And it's funny, I see all these articles that's like, Oklahoma City is, you know, rated one
of the most boring cities in America, and I'm just like, I freaking love Oklahoma.
I love Oklahoma City, and then I saw another article today that said Oklahoma City is rated
the number one best big city in America, and what's the difference?
It's how people are viewing life.
It's like some people are viewing Oklahoma City and they're just like,
man, there's so much Christianity here and the cost of living is wonderful
and it's a pretty safe place and we just have a lot of good going for us here.
And then other people are just like, oh, Ryan Walters is in charge of the education department.
He goes to bring the Bible into Oklahoma. I hate Oklahoma.
You're a forward person and so you're miserable and you hate your life because you just can't find good.
and that's your fault.
And you're hurting yourself and you're missing out in life.
Man, there's some people that get bitter about their spouse
and they just can't find the good in their spouse anymore.
And they just wanna focus on the negative
and all the things that they don't like
and all of their problems.
And you know what, you can do that to your own destruction,
to your own marriage destruction.
But you know what you should do?
Hey, focus on the good.
Focus on the blessings that you have.
Some people, they just wanna focus on the things
that they don't have in life.
Instead of just focusing on the good man
You will be such a fulfilled person if you could figure this out to just see the good in things and to appreciate the good that you have
And it's like why is it that there's godly Christians in this world making sixty seventy thousand dollars a year or less
That are so happy then there's millionaires in this world that hate their life
There's billionaires in this world that hate their life.
I tell you where it comes from.
It comes from your attitude and your perspective.
You know, hey, what's verse 1 say?
Better is a dry morsel and quietness they're with
than in house full of sacrifices with strife.
There's people that are not eating great food.
They can't afford all the takeout, but man, they're happy.
because they've got the Lord, because they've got family and they're happy.
Then there's the spoiled rich kid and he's got all he could possibly want and
he's just miserable
and just hates his life and he's on drugs, he's drinking alcohol.
Life is so much about just what you make it and if you find yourself just
constantly depressed
and constantly discontented in your life
Look, we go through hardships.
There could be things that causes that.
You know, family members dying, financial hardships.
I get that those things happen.
But if you're a person where you're just default mode in life,
is this down, sad, angry mentality,
it's probably a heart issue with you.
And you know what?
Your psychiatrist isn't gonna tell you that.
Your psychiatrist is going to tell you all your ideas are right,
all your feelings are right, all your opinions are right,
all the things that you do are right.
Here's some Ritalin, here's some drugs.
You know, stay on my plan until you die.
That's what they want to tell you.
But a lot of people today are miserable because they choose to be miserable.
Not all, but a lot of people are.
The Bible says in verse 21,
he that begetteth a fool, do with it to his sorrow.
Hey, here's a legit reason to be sad.
If your son grows up to be a fool.
That's that is terrible because on one hand hey I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in truth
You know your kids grow up. They make the right decisions. They serve the Lord. Maybe men they grow up
They have a good career. They take care of their wife
They stay faithful to their wife and ladies grow up and are blessing to their home raise golly children
You know that's gonna make parents happy
But man does it grieve a father to see his son become a flat earther
man does it grieve his a father to see his son join the Methodist church and be
under a woman lesbian pastor. I mean wouldn't that bring grief to you? Wouldn't
that bring sorrow to you? There's a lot of parents that are struggling with that.
He that beget at the fool do with it to his sorrow and the father of a fool have
no joy.
I mean, it's just like it overshadows all the happiness at the moment, just dealing
with this foolish son.
And so, you know, those of us whose parents are still alive, one of the best services
you could do for your parents is by being a good person, by being a godly Christian,
by being a man that works hard.
That provides that doesn't do drugs that doesn't drink alcohol that provides for his wife and his faithful, you know and ladies growing up submitting to your husband being a good godly example of a Christian lady raising up children serving in the church going soul winning.
You know this is going to be joy to your parents.
The Bible says in verse number 22 speaking of happiness a merry heart do with good like a medicine.
but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
This is very, very true that sadness, depression,
and stress physically can harm you.
And you could literally have physical problems and illnesses and all sorts of different issues
in your life from your body, from that heavy spirit, from a broken spirit.
And so it is important to manage your emotional health, your emotional well-being.
But again, the question is, how do you do that?
Well, the world today is going to give you really, really bad advice.
The world is going to tell you, here's how you become emotionally happy, me time.
Do all the things that make you happy.
And then what does the world do?
They drink alcohol to escape the pain.
They smoke marijuana to get a high.
What's that high feeling?
Happiness.
People do all these drugs to get high,
or they go to the psychiatrist,
they're given some sort of serotonin,
selective retake inhibitor to change their brain function
so that they could be happy.
But you know, actually, the happy person
is the person that is serving others.
The happy person is the person whose life is not, you know, just obsessed with themselves,
but is actually serving other people.
The person who is a soul winner, the person who goes to church, the person who reads the Bible,
you know, I always say this, if you're struggling with mental health,
I would not recommend, and you do whatever you want.
I'm never gonna, you know, police people in this.
I wouldn't recommend that you go get, you know, some sort of doctor to look at you for your emotional problems
unless you are reading the Bible every day.
praying every day, going soul-winning every week,
being free to thrive every single week,
working out, eating healthy, and sleeping well.
Do all of those things and then tell me how sad you are.
But it's so funny. People, they won't do half of those things.
They won't do a quarter of those things.
But there's like, take me to the doctor. It's like, how are you Christian?
How do you have faith in God?
I mean, don't you believe that prayer works?
It just frustrates me so much
when Christians are going through a hard time
and their first resort is
I need to go to some Jew in a robe
to give me medicine.
To give me a mind-altering drug.
It's like, why is that your first thought?
And again, don't misconstrue what I'm saying.
I'm not saying there's never a time for mental health professionals and for medicine even
and stuff like that.
I'm not saying there's ever a time for that.
But what I am saying is why don't you do all of those things first and then tell me about
how you're so sad.
Because a lot of times we're sad because of those things.
But look, a merry heart do with good like a medicine.
Oh, I need medicine because I'm sad.
A merry heart do with good like a medicine, but you just don't seem to want to do the
Instead, you want to just be selfish and just wallow in your own self-pity and medicate
yourself instead of doing something that could actually help you.
Notice verse 23, a wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.
This verse, I think what this is talking about is not necessarily receiving a gift to be bribed.
I think it's more talking about giving a gift to bribe, because it says a wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom.
It kind of sounds like, you know, it's kind of like secret.
It's a little bit, you know, behind shady, something like that.
He's kind of pulling it out of the bosom.
A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom.
to pervert the ways of judgment.
So obviously, any person that tries to by favor
or give someone a gift to pervert the ways of judgment,
to flatter them, it's just a sure sign
that that's a wicked person.
And you ought to be careful about this, that especially if you are a person that maybe
is very successful in business or you're very high up in your company, you have some sort
of power or authority or riches or something that someone wants, not everyone who gives
you a gift is doing so from a pure heart.
Judges, come on.
Judges should be suspicious of people giving them gifts.
Police officers, you should be suspicious of those things.
And look, even pastors don't get this idea that like,
oh, I could give pastor Oz a gift
and then he'll never preach against my sins.
Or like, you know, if I did something wicked,
he wouldn't kick me out of the church, I would.
Don't think that like, oh, I'll give him a Christmas gift
and I'm good forever.
No, no, no, don't cross the line.
Don't think that buying a gift is gonna, you know,
pervert the ways of judgment.
It's not, I could do without it.
Verse 24, wisdom is before him that hath understanding,
but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.
So someone who has understanding,
What is before them?
What's the direction they're going?
What is it that they're paying attention to
and looking at wisdom, right?
So someone who has understanding,
they know where to go to get the answers.
They know where to find the right ideas and mentality.
And so the person with understanding
is the person that reads the Bible.
The person who actually goes to the Word of God,
you know, you're putting wisdom before you.
And that is a good indicator that someone has understanding when they know where to get the answers.
But notice the eyes of the fool are just in all the earth.
The eyes of the fool, he doesn't know where to go to get the right answers.
He's like, ah, you know, the Joe Rogan podcast, this Jewish psychiatrist, maybe it could help me with my problems.
You know, maybe I'll ask my college professor and they're just kind of all over the place of where to get their mentality,
where to learn things about life.
And look, a wise person.
realizes that the Word of God is the source of all truth and is the source of all wisdom.
And you know, you ought not to be this person that just has your eyes all over the world
looking for the answers when the answers are right here.
Read the Bible first and foremost. And then after that, of course,
read other things, study other things. You guys know them for that.
But man, we need to go to the Bible first.
The Bible says in verse 25,
a foolish son is a grief to his father
and bitterness to her that bear him.
Let's go ahead and read verse number two again.
This is a wise servant shall have rule over a son.
That notice, causeth shame.
and she'll have part of the inheritance among the brethren.
Verse 25, a foolish son is a grief to his father.
So again, we're getting this idea that man,
when a son grows up or when a son does wickedly,
it brings shame to his parents.
It brings grief to his parents.
And man, this is also why I think nepotism
is a really good idea to avoid,
is because you're kind of setting yourself up for grief
or failure or embarrassment.
If like you install your son as the CEO and he fails.
You know what I mean?
Like you're kind of setting yourself up for that.
Whereas like if he goes out and earns it somewhere else,
he's kind of doing his own thing, his own venture.
Hey, that's on him.
But it's like, if you built the company
and the company has your name on it
and you give it to your son and he's a fool, what does it do?
Brings shame to you, brings embarrassment to you.
So again, this is another reason,
one of the many reasons to avoid nepotism
is that it often can bring shame upon the person
who installed that son or familial person.
Verse number 26, also, to punish the just is not good,
nor to strike princes for equity.
Man, that's a pretty intense verse
because you know, you shouldn't be striking princes at all.
You shouldn't be, you know, attacking leaders
and being so rebellious like that,
but you know, especially,
you don't want to strike princes for equity.
You know, you ought to...
The leaders that are in your life, the authority figures that you have in your life, you ought
to give them some grace, and a lot of times people will condemn leaders, wives will condemn
their husbands, people will condemn their pastor, and oftentimes they're doing it from
a position of not having all the facts and not having all the details, and a lot of times
the leader just knows more about a situation than you do, and oftentimes people later down
He was right. You know, I was mad at him. I was angry at him, but I didn't know about that extra fact
And so you know you ought to give your leaders the benefit of the doubt and not strike princes for equity a lot of times
Princes rulers they're actually doing right. They're actually giving right judgment
But then people under them will get angry and you know metaphorically strike them if you will
But it wasn't just if this didn't happen. Why is this in the Bible that it's not good to strike princes for equity?
Verse number 27, he that hath knowledge spareth his words and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.
So again, one way you could just identify a wise person is that obviously what comes out of their mouth, you know, what you say reveals your heart.
And when you're just pouring out foolishness, as Proverbs talks about,
just goes to show that you're a fool, you know, a wise person.
He that actually has knowledge, spareth his words.
And it kind of doesn't, it's not very intuitive because you would think like,
oh man, the person who knows the most about a subject,
they're just going to really tell you everything about it.
But man, I've noticed over the years, like, for example, something I've done my whole life.
and I've done since I was a little little kid.
I've spent thousands of hours doing this.
I've done this with my families.
I've done a lot of shooting.
I really like shooting.
And I'm not saying I'm the best shooter in the world
or anything like that,
but I've been around people where they're just like,
oh yeah, I know everything there is to know about guns.
And they're just telling me what a great shot there is.
And we take them to the range and they're just like.
You know, the little teacup.
You ever seen guys do the teacup grip?
And you're just like, okay, yeah.
And one time I was shooting with a guy
who was one of these guys,
like man, he knows everything about guns
and he'll just talk to you all day about guns.
And you know, he was shooting a rifle
and he thought that he had expended his last round
and he kind of points it to the ground
and does a final click,
which sometimes people do while they're aiming down range.
He kind of does that final click
and he, with an AK-47, missed his foot by about this much.
fire the gun and I'm just like oh man this is you know the gun expert this is
the guy who knows everything but oftentimes it's he that's there with his
words right hey the quiet guy you got to watch out for the guy tells you I'm gonna
beat your butt why don't you get over here and get some huh yeah let's go let's
fight watch out for the dude who's in the midst of violence and chaos he's just
quiet that's the dude that's gonna wipe the floor with you and you know what it's
this way even with knowledge people are just telling you how smart they are
telling you how wonderful they are,
telling you what a great leader they are.
Oftentimes, it's nothing but air.
It's nothing but words.
Then it says, last verse here,
even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise.
And he that shuddereth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
So even if by just some chance you catch a fool when he's not talking,
Other people around him are going to assume the best about him, which is kind of funny.
So, you know, you're quiet, people are going to assume you're smart.
So, if you're not, you better just stay quiet.
you know, rather than speak and just remove all doubt,
and we're just like, oh, okay, yeah, you are a fool.
You know, what, the ESB, what are you talking about?
What do you, you know what I mean?
You know, people say all sorts of foolish things,
and then it'll just be shown that they are a fool.
What does a wise person do?
It says, hey, in he that shuddered his lips
is esteemed a man of understanding.
It's very important when you're learning something,
especially towards the beginning of your development
in a career, or hey, how about,
young kids, young teenage men.
You need to be humble and live part of your life
as one that, hey, I'm gonna be quiet,
I'm gonna be a guy that shuts his lips,
I'm not gonna be a guy that blows my mouth off.
When you get a new job and you're around your other employees,
hey, you need to be quiet, you need to be ready to learn.
Not one of these guys that they show up
and they already know everything.
You know, that is a terrible person to be around.
That's a person that's going to get fired
or that's just going to be a constant strife with other people.
You know what? If you're actually wise, people will know that.
If you're actually wise, people will go to you.
If you're actually wise, God will promote you.
But you know what? Don't promote yourself by being some loudmouth.
Know it all.
Thinking you're so smart. You know, before...
Go back real quick. We'll finish actually on this verse.
I don't want to misquote it.
verse number 33 of Proverbs 15. We'll go ahead and close it right here. Man, you
know what? That's not the right verse. This is what happens when I don't preach
with any notes. Let me let me look this up. Before pride or before destruction is
pride. Someone help me out. We'll finish here. No notes. This is what happens.
Anyone got it?
Proverbs 16 verse 18.
We'll go ahead and close it right here.
Here we go.
Pride goeth before destruction
and in haughty spirit before a fall.
So again, don't be one of these people
that's just blabbing your mouth off,
being so full of pride.
You want to have that humble spirit
and let God
exalt you. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for Proverbs 17 and just for
this great book, Lord, there's so much great wisdom in this book and different ways that we
could apply things to our lives. And honestly, Lord, we could study this book for years and years
and just get new applications from it. I just pray that you would just open up our hearts as we
continue to go through this book, help us to apply these things in our daily lives. We love you so
Our last hymn this evening will be number 118, hymn 118 near to the heart of God, 118, 118 near to the heart of God.
118 there right on the first