Thank you, everybody, for joining us today, and we'll be getting started in just a moment.
Thank you, everybody, for coming.
We'll begin the song service this evening.
Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
We'll begin singing in song number 54 in your hymnal.
Oh, that will be glory, song 54 in your hymnal.
Thank you, everyone, for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
Oh, that will be glory, song number 54.
On the first.
Oh, that will be glory, glory for me, glory for me.
Oh, that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me.
Oh, that will be glory, glory for me, glory for me, glory for me.
Oh, that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me.
When by this grace I shall look upon His face, that will be glory, be glory for me.
Amen.
We'll open with a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for our church, Lord.
Thank you for Pastor Shelley and his family.
I pray you would fill in with your spirit, Lord, allow him to preach an edifying message
and I pray you would help us to pay attention to be edified tonight that we may be a better
light in this world, Lord, and use it for your honor and glory, and in Jesus' name,
amen.
We'll continue the song service this evening with song number 65, Just Over in the Glory
Land, song number 65 in your hymnal.
Song number 65, Just Over in the Glory Land.
On the first.
I'm a holy thing where the saints abide, Just over in the glory land.
And I hope to be by my Savior's side, Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land.
I'll join a happy age of men, Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land.
And with a mighty host I'll stand, Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land.
I'll join a happy age of men, Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land.
And with a mighty host I'll stand, Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land.
I'll join a happy age of men, Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land.
And with a mighty host I'll stand, Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land.
I'll join a happy age of men, Just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land.
And with a mighty host I'll stand, Just over in the glory land.
Good singing. If you need a bulletin, you can lift up your hand nice and high.
One of our ushers can get you a bulletin.
We have our Bible memory passage, Jonah chapter 2 we were working through.
On the inside we have our service and soul winning times.
Also our church stats.
One update, so previously we've been just kind of communicating and messaging
all of the soul winning information to your tribe captain specifically.
But just to make things even easier, we've actually created another group chat
that you can actually submit all of that data to.
And we want to have just all of our soul winners and all of our members added to that.
And it's just specifically just the stats so you can just put you, your partner numbers
and then an email if you get an email from those who you're out soul winning with.
And that'll just make it even easier for tracking.
You don't have to tell anybody else. You can just put it in there and then it is done.
And so we're going to try and use that.
If you aren't at it or you need to get into that group, you can ask your tribe captain
or you can ask me and they can get you in there.
If you're not in the group or you don't want to even be in the group,
you can still just message your group captain and they can put it in there for you.
But for those that want to just put it in there themselves, it just makes it that much easier
and will just help us with tracking for soul winning and emails and everything like that.
On the right, we have our list of expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for them. Down below is our prayer list.
If you continue to pray for our church family, we'll go over that in a minute.
Upcoming events, we have the Texas chili cook-off.
This is next week's Thursday.
And so if you would like to join us and come out for a chili cook-off,
we would love for you to participate.
You don't have to bring anything, but of course if you'd like to,
we'd really appreciate you bringing a chili, especially for the competition.
It'll be necessary to bring it before 6 p.m.
That way we can make sure to get all the samples
and then we'll try our best to start eating as a church family right after that.
We'll have tables and chairs set up,
but also if you'd like to bring a game or cards or something like that,
it's just going to be a night of fellowship and fun.
And so people usually just sit around, talk, play games, and have some fun.
Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can have our back area open as well.
So if you'd like to come and join us for that evening, we'll be hanging out here.
November 16th is the Miami Soul Waning Marathon.
Please make sure you are putting on the calendar if you want to go.
Also, if you can't go but you'd just like to pray for us,
we'd really appreciate that, that everything would just go smoothly.
November 24th is the ordination of Brother Dylan Oz
for a new church, Anchor Baptist Church.
And so it's a really, really exciting time and this has been a very long time coming.
It's been a plan that we've had in place for about a year.
And so we're definitely very excited to get to this point.
And better is the end thereof than the beginning, right?
So looking forward to that.
Make sure you're praying for him.
I'm just kind of curious, is anybody planning to go up there for the Oklahoma City thing?
Okay. All right.
I'm just trying to get an idea.
I think that we might end up having some food and stuff,
so I just want to kind of have a rough idea.
It's really hard because you guys don't RSVP all the time,
and so I'm just trying to get some kind of idea.
I'll probably ask again on Sunday and even when we get a little bit closer,
but we're really looking forward to that.
And so please be praying for them.
On the back we have the congratulations to Matt and Sierra Illy on the birth of Lazarus Paul.
He was born on the 17th, 2.30 a.m.
Eight pounds, one ounce, 19 and a half inches long.
Congratulations to them.
And then our prayer list.
We've been praying for Naim's grandmother for her vision, health, and salvation.
We've been praying for Ms. Carlson's mother, Rebecca's, health as well.
Also Ms. Miller has a friend whose mom also is struggling with cancer.
We've been praying for her.
We've been praying for Brother Scott for his parents' health.
We've been praying for the Garcia's daughter, Krista, who's pregnant.
Also been praying for the Foley's for their visa.
We've been praying for the Caputo's.
Brother Caputo has a back issue.
I just pray that he would have a speedy recovery.
Praying for Brother Jimmy for his sister-in-law,
who also has cancer.
Also, Brother Foley has a co-worker who's infant.
Do you know what's going on with that exactly?
Just...
Okay, just very sick.
Okay, so just pray for...
Okay, she's pretty premature and she's just very sick.
So just pray for her.
Also, we've been praying for Brother Roger's mother,
who's having surgery on the first.
And then please pray for the first who, unfortunately,
their grandfather had just recently passed away.
And so we'll say a quick word of prayer for our church family now.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for this church.
Thank you so much for this evening.
I pray that you just please be with all these expecting ladies.
Please just help them with their children's development.
Please give them a timely birth.
I pray that you would also just bless our church family
that's struggling right now with sickness and illness.
I pray that you just help them.
If possible, just give them a full recovery.
Please give them patience during this time of tribulation.
I pray that you would just give favor
unto our church family that needs this in their job
or needs this for their travel.
I pray that you would also just be with those who've lost loved ones,
that you could comfort them,
that you would give them opportunity to minister to others.
And I pray that you would just continue to use our church
as a bright and shining light in such a dark world.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We're going to sing our next song, 146.
It's in your special handouts.
Psalm 146.
All right, everybody.
Psalm 146.
Pull it first.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord of my soul.
While I live, when I praise the Lord,
I will sing praises unto my God.
I have any need, but not your trust in princes,
nor in the Son of man.
In whom there is no hell, there is no hell.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord of my soul.
His strength, though with both, he returned to his earth,
in that every day is not finished.
Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob born his child,
whose hope is in the Lord, the Lord is come.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord of my soul,
which may heaven and earth thus seek,
and all that there is which keep in truth for ever,
which seeks to give judgment for the oppressed which liveth.
True to the hungry, the Lord who sends the prisoners.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord of my soul.
The Lord, O, beneath the eyes of the blind,
the Lord raises them that all mount out,
the Lord loveth the righteous, the Lord.
Reserving the strangers, he redeemeth the flawless in widows.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord of my soul.
On the way God the wicked, he turneth upside down,
the Lord shall reign forever, even thy God of Zion.
Unto all generations, praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord.
As the offering plates go around everyone,
we're going to turn in our Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 10.
Ecclesiastes chapter 10.
. . .
Ecclesiastes chapter 10, the Bible reads,
Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking saver.
So doth a little folly with him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor.
A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart is at his left.
Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him,
and he saith to everyone that he is a fool.
If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place,
for yielding pacifieth great offenses.
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun,
as an error which proceedeth from the ruler.
Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place.
I have seen servants upon horses and princes walking as servants upon the earth.
He that diggeth the pit shall fall into it, and whoso breaketh in hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
Whoso removeth stone shall be hurt therewith, and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.
If the iron be blunt, and he do not wet the edge, then must he put to more strength,
but wisdom is profitable to direct.
Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment, and a babbler is no better.
The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious,
but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness,
and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.
A fool also is full of words.
A man cannot tell what shall be, and what shall be after him who can tell him.
The labor of the foolish wearieth every one of them,
because he knoweth not how to go to the city.
Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning.
Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles,
and thy princes eat in due season, for strength and not for drunkenness.
By much slothfulness the building decayeth,
and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry, but money answereth all things.
Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber,
for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for Ecclesiastes 10.
I just pray you bless Pastor Shelley, fill him with your Holy Spirit,
to preach your word unto us.
Help us to have a soft heart, to hear your word, and apply it in our lives.
Pray us in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen.
Ecclesiastes chapter 10, verse 1, the Bible says,
Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to sin for the stinking savor.
So doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor.
And so God is constantly using carnal truths to expound spiritual truths,
and the idea that you could have a great ointment that has a great fragrance
that is ruined by just a tiny little fly,
and that tiny little fly can ruin and spoil a great storehouse of ointment or something very precious.
And it's kind of a similar scenario here that he's bringing up,
how a man who could be a very wise person, could have built a great reputation for themself,
could potentially have worked really hard to get to the place that he's in,
could screw it all up very easily,
and that just a little bit of foolishness could destroy him.
Now, the word folly is mentioned in the Bible several different places,
and it's all over the map as far as what kind of things we're talking about.
So in some cases, folly is in a very extreme foolishness.
In other cases, it can be kind of a more minor situation.
And I think in this particular passage, it's even just saying a little folly.
So it's just saying just a little bit of foolishness,
just a little bit of stupidity could cause someone to destroy their own reputation
and could destroy their ability to keep working or accomplishing things.
Now, I'm not going to have you turn to all these places.
Maybe if you want to, go to Proverbs 5, and I'll let you look at a couple of those with me.
But in Genesis 34, the first time that folly is mentioned is in the context of fornication,
and it's in the context of lying with Dinah, lying with his daughter.
And so the folly is committing fornication.
In Deuteronomy 22, folly is also mentioned as fornication.
In Joshua 7, the folly is akin, taking of the accursed thing.
In Judges 19, the folly is the Sodomites and what they did unto that woman in the book of Judges.
1 Samuel 25, folly is a name given unto Nabal, who is a son of Belial,
and it's like his name is literally folly, no one can speak to him.
When you look at 2 Samuel 13, Amnon forcing Tamar is described as folly.
And I just want to say, at this point, it's folly is really bad.
I mean, it's just like fornication, sodomites, forcing a woman, just like horrible things,
reprobate, sons of Belial.
Job 42, though, brings up that what the friends had said unto Job was folly.
And so you could say that speaking the wrong things about God is folly.
Fornication, taking the accursed thing, sodomites, forcing women,
speaking the wrong things about God, teaching false doctrine is folly.
Psalm 49, folly is rich people thinking that their money and fame will last.
Now, Proverbs 5, we can look at a couple passages here.
Look at Proverbs chapter 5, verse 21.
And again, I went through a lot of that quickly.
But in verse 21, the Bible says,
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.
His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holding with the cords of his sins.
He shall die without instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
So this is someone that's basically just destroying themselves with sin.
Chapter 14, look at verse number 8.
The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.
So now, it's just kind of a broad mention of deceit.
Look at verse 18 in the same chapter.
It says, The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
Look at verse 29.
He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.
Go to chapter 18 and look at verse 13.
The Bible says, He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.
So I don't want you to get the wrong idea that the word folly is always just this extreme sin or extreme negative thing,
because here, it's also bringing up the idea of just simply answering a matter before you even hear it.
That would be a foolish thing to do.
And really, when we look at the root word of folly, it's coming from just being foolish.
The word fool is mentioned in the Bible hundreds and hundreds of times in all manner of situation.
If you look at chapter 26, look at verse number 4.
It's going to bring up another example.
And we're just kind of looking at a lot of things that the Bible calls silly.
The Bible is saying committing fornication is dumb.
You shouldn't do it.
The Bible is saying, you know, obviously, these grievous sins are sin as well.
But hey, being deceitful, being simple, being hasty of spirit, answering a matter before you hear it, these are also folly.
Proverbs 26, verse 4, answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like on him.
Here's something, contending with trolls is folly.
And if you want to be perceived as a wise man, perhaps you shouldn't argue with trolls all the time.
Perhaps you shouldn't always give in to all of their requests.
You know, someone that didn't do this was Nehemiah, who's being constantly pestered by Sanbiah and Tobiah and Gisham and all these different people.
And he's just saying, like, I'm too busy for you guys.
Like, I don't need to talk to you guys.
I'm not interested in what you have to say.
And Jesus Christ didn't answer every single question that came to him.
In fact, he pretty much answered their questions with a question.
But many times they would ask him things and he didn't respond.
He was brought before Herod and accused of all kinds of different things and he didn't answer any of those things.
And so we have to be careful that we don't fall into this trap of feeling like we always have to defend ourselves,
that we always have to explain every single thing, that we always have to contend with every single foolish person.
There are many people that are professional time wasters and all they want to do is just irritate the fire out of you.
And what irritates the fire out of every normal person is giving a reasonable, factual answer and then them just still arguing with it.
And you're just like, what's wrong with you?
But you have to realize it's called a troll, okay?
And we just have to be careful not to feed the trolls.
You know, we've had protests in the past and we could always have them again in the future.
You know, just ignore those people because there's no point in answering a fool in his folly.
Then you're like him.
Then you're like that person.
So really, the best way to fight trolls, the best way to fight haters and false accusers is to ignore them.
It's always been my policy. It always will be my policy.
Now again, every once in a while, sometimes we need to defend ourselves.
Sometimes we put out an answer and it's frustrating.
But generally speaking, we should default to we're not going to answer foolish questions.
The Bible says to avoid foolish questions.
The Bible makes it clear a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition, reject.
The Bible's making it abundantly clear when you're in the presence of a foolish man
and they'll perceive us in him, not the lips of knowledge.
Go from the presence of a foolish man is what it's saying.
Maybe I kind of said it both ways there, but it's basically saying,
hey, when you realize this guy isn't saying things that are wise, isn't sincere, whatever,
you're just supposed to depart from that person.
There's a lot of Bible on that.
And a wise person realizes not everybody can be won over.
Not every person can be reasoned with.
Not every person's going to agree with you.
And sometimes we just have to be content just moving on with our lives
and not feeling like we have to answer every single thing.
Go to Jeremiah chapter 23.
Now obviously someone that wants to be saved,
we want to open our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
Someone that wants to ask some silly question of could God build a rock so big that he can't lift it,
it's like there's really not a lot of point in answering that type of a question.
And when you run into people out soul winning that don't even believe that God exists
and don't even believe the Bible and they just want to ask really weird, dumb, atheistic questions,
it's probably just a waste of time.
And then you probably just move on and not sit there.
And look, your soul winning partner is not going to perceive you to be really wise
when you're sitting here contending with a fool.
You're going to be like, this guy's got a little folly.
This guy is kind of annoying.
And look, I've heard stories, people going out soul winning
and one of the soul winners is arguing with the guy for 40 minutes about the Shroud of Turin.
And you're like, you know, you're kind of losing your reputation.
You know, you're kind of making yourself look like a foolish person
when you're doing something like this, okay.
And so we want to make sure that we're not acting like that.
Jeremiah 23, look what it says in verse 13.
So again, false prophets, false preaching.
We'll go to two more. Go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11.
I'm just kind of showing you some of the mentions of folly in the Bible
and how it's kind of a broad, broad application
because it's just really just saying doing something that's not smart, not wise,
it's foolish in general, it's considered folly.
The Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians chapter number 11,
it's kind of an interesting chapter in the Bible
because he kind of exercises himself in folly to help us understand what folly is.
But he says in verse 1, notice this,
Would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me.
So if you want to understand 2nd Corinthians chapter number 11,
you have to understand that verse
because that verse he's saying like everything I'm about to say is dumb.
Everything I'm about to say is foolish.
Everything I'm about to say, you're going to have to bear with me for a moment
because it's kind of uncomly.
It's not something that I should really normally be saying,
but I need to say it to just kind of make a certain point.
And what he's doing is he's defending himself.
If you understand 2nd Corinthians,
the Apostle Paul is being accused of being a reprobate.
I mean, you have to understand the context.
People are just falsely accusing the Apostle Paul of not being a real apostle,
not really being a minister, being a reprobate,
and he's like, you should know that I'm not a reprobate.
What about you guys?
And in an attempt to defend himself,
he basically just kind of points out every great thing that he's ever done.
But, you know, some people would take that wrong and say,
oh, Paul's being prideful.
But he said at the very beginning,
hey, caveat, this isn't something we should normally do.
I'm doing this just for a specific reason.
He's trying to defend himself.
And, you know, I'm sure this chapter is in the Bible for a reason.
I'm sure there's going to be other men occasionally
that have to every once in a while defend themselves.
And you know what?
It always looks bad when you're defending yourself.
And it's not something you should normally do.
You shouldn't normally toot your own horn or brag about yourself
or say these things.
But obviously there's a time and a place, though.
There could be a situation where someone's back to a corner,
has to defend themselves, and so they just explain very clearly,
hey, this is what's actually going on.
But generally speaking, bragging about yourself is a bad move.
It's false.
We shouldn't be going around singing our own praises.
Okay?
So according to the Bible, we shouldn't be going around
telling everybody how wonderful we are, how great we are,
looking down upon others.
That is folly, okay?
2 Timothy 3, one more, I'll show you here.
2 Timothy 3.
And look at verse number 9.
2 Timothy 3, look at verse number 9.
The Bible says,
Now, this is talking about Janus and Jambres.
It's talking about false prophets,
talking about false teachers.
And it's saying that those people that are bad and wicked,
they will eventually expose themselves through their folly.
Through their folly, we'll figure out,
oh, wow, this guy wasn't who he said he was.
There was something wrong with this particular individual.
Go to Proverbs 14.
Go back to Proverbs.
And here's an example of when someone just started
to expose their folly is when a pastor gets up
and says that he believes that the earth is flat.
Which, you know, that was Tyler Doka, okay?
And it was just like, it was like instantly
I knew this guy's a bad person.
And not only that, then he started teaching
that Christians are going to go to the lake of fire
for a thousand years.
Then he just started teaching, like,
all kinds of other weird stuff.
I think his church, like, failed, and then it came back.
And then the guy started saying that he's literally Jesus.
I mean, like, you can't get any more insane than that, okay?
And now his folly has made manifest.
The guy is such a psychopath,
he's literally tattooed alpha and omega on his face
because he said he was Jesus.
He was literally even measuring his head
as the temple of God.
Because he said, like, his body is some other temple.
He was trying to gaslight people so hard
to say that all of history is completely wrong
and that Jesus has never even come.
That he was, like, the first coming of Jesus.
And it was just, it was just like, wow,
this person is just a complete fool.
I mean, obviously an antichrist and a demonic false prophet
is going to split hell wide open, but just,
it was just, he was in the eyes of some people,
a pastor, he's serving God, and then all of a sudden
just totally just folly just pours out, ruins his reputation.
And you know what's incredible about that entire situation?
And this is something I think everybody needs
to pay attention to and think about.
Tyler Doka got up and preached a very clear gospel message.
Tyler Doka said unequivocally
that salvation was a free gift by faith,
once saved, always saved, King James only.
Every single one of our talking points.
And then the guy literally turned himself into Jesus.
Meaning what?
That reprobates can repeat the true gospel, okay?
And I know that some people just think
that that's not possible or something like that.
No, it's possible that some people
have feigned words making merchandise of you,
that some people can know the truth and not believe it
and just say it and they're really not even sincere at all.
I mean, even Judas Iscariot,
he never really preached heresy,
but he was a devil the entire time.
I mean, don't you think if he was walking around
teaching like work salvation,
the other disciples would have probably
figured that out pretty quickly?
But you know, there are certain people
that will creep into churches
that can literally say the right gospel verbally,
but they don't believe it, they're not very sincere,
they don't even get it,
they're not filled with the Holy Spirit.
And that one example should just confirm to you
that that's possible.
Let alone there's many other examples of this
that we could look to,
but I mean, who's gonna argue with me
and say that that guy's saved?
The guy who's a literal anti-Christ
who literally put alpha and omega on his face.
You're gonna tell me that that guy was saved
and still saved?
You just don't even believe the Bible at that point, okay?
But that was some folly.
And you know, here's other things people could do.
You know, you're a great guy,
you're serving God, you're loving the Lord,
but then you get drunk.
You could get drunk one time
and you get in a drunk driving accident
and you could totally just ruin your reputation.
You could just totally ruin your life.
You could commit adultery one time and ruin your life.
Or you could just be prideful
and that pride could just overwhelm
all the reputation and all the things
that people think positive about you.
The Bible says in Proverbs 14 verse 3,
in the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride,
but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.
So we need to make sure that we're not
just letting pride just come out of our mouth.
Go backwards to Psalm 38,
I wanna go to another verse here.
And I'm taking a little bit of time on this verse,
but honestly, Ecclesiastes chapter 10,
it's kind of a hard passage to go through
because there's a lot of really famous verses,
a lot of really powerful verses in this book.
But this book is really emphasizing
the importance of wisdom versus foolishness
and how we need to make it clear to ourselves
that we should strive very carefully to be wise
and to avoid all foolishness that we can
because it's so destructive.
Foolishness is destructive.
Pride is destructive.
Things are so much easier to be destroyed than built.
Building things takes a lot of time,
a lot of effort, a lot of energy.
You know, building a great marriage
takes a lot of time, effort, and energy.
Building a family and having children
and raising those children takes a lot of effort,
a lot of energy.
Building a church takes a lot of effort,
a lot of energy.
Building a business takes a lot of effort,
a lot of energy.
But you know what?
It's really easy to destroy any of those things
in just a moment.
You can destroy all of those things just quickly,
and so that's why it's something we have to be careful with
and making sure that we're not allowing pride
to destroy us in any of these areas.
You know, people that drink alcohol are very prideful,
and they also many times think that they can just drink.
I can drink and drive, and I'm not going to have a problem.
But man, it just takes one slip-up.
You know, I can handle it. I'm tough.
Hey, you know, I can flirt with people,
and I can go, you know, hang out with the opposite gender,
and I can go to the bar,
and nothing bad is going to happen.
You know, I can have a close relationship
with people that are not my spouse.
You know, don't do that.
Just, you know, just stay away from that.
And, of course, being prideful is also a big danger.
Psalm 38, look at verse 4.
The Bible says,
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head,
as in heavy burden that are too heavy for me.
My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
I wanted to go to this verse, because notice that parallel.
Because when we think about that verse 1,
again, it's talking about the dead flies
are causing the stinking savor,
and it's kind of ruining your reputation as the metaphor.
Notice my wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness.
The Bible is saying our sins stink.
Our sins cause us to corrupt or to rot
or to decompose or to destroy,
and that's why we have to be careful with sin.
It says in verse 6,
I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly,
I go mourning all the day long.
Now, here's the thing.
None of us are ever going to be perfect.
We all still have some foolishness inside of us.
And especially a child.
Children, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child,
is what the Bible says.
But the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
So if you don't use the rod,
well, you're just leaving a lot of foolishness in their heart
that you could potentially get out for them.
But even an adult is still going to probably have
some levels of foolishness.
We're still going to sin.
We're still going to make mistakes.
And that causes problems.
But you know what?
Praise God that he does not expect
his servants to be perfect.
But we have to understand there's always a consequence
when we make bad decisions, when we do foolish things,
and sometimes it can harm or hurt our reputation.
Verse 12, this is the psalmist saying,
They also that seek after my life lay snares for me,
and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things
and imagine deceits all the day long.
But I as a deaf man heard not,
and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
So this person has sinned,
they've made mistakes,
and then on top of that,
evil people are just constantly hoping
that they die and are destroyed
and speaking evil and hoping bad things happen to them.
But the psalmist is saying,
You know what I decided to do?
I just decided to ignore the haters.
Just ignore the haters.
Just say like, I don't care.
I'm a dumb man.
And what is dumb?
It's not like being foolish.
It's being silent, right?
Or a deaf man.
That's someone that can't hear.
Dumb is that you're not talking.
So you're not defending yourself,
like we saw earlier in the passages of answering not a fool.
And you're not listening to it either.
You know, listening to people just criticize you all the time
can just really destroy you mentally.
You know, you don't want to be around people
that are constantly talking negative
and talk especially about yourself
or your family or your spouse.
You know, don't allow your in-laws
to talk trash on your spouse to you.
Don't allow anybody to talk trash about your spouse
or you or your family.
You know, just say like, hey, I don't appreciate that.
I don't agree with that.
You know, you should always defend your spouse to everyone,
especially in-laws, especially family.
And you know what?
You should get away from people that are attacking you
and saying bad things about you.
Look, I'm not reading this.
This is a great psalm.
Just read it tonight or later.
But verse 21,
forsake me not, O Lord, O my God.
Be not far from me.
Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation.
So even if you sinned, even if you made mistakes,
and even if you have a bunch of haters
and people attacking you, you know what?
God can still deliver you out of that, right?
And of course, our wounds and our sins can stink
and they can cause problems,
but God can always cleanse them and fix them.
And you know, it's one thing to have the dead flies
stinking up the ointment.
It's another thing to just leave that as the situation.
It's like, okay, let's scoop out the flies
and start over, right?
A just man falls seven times and rises up again.
So it's like, okay, let's just get rid of the flies
and fix it, right?
Don't just continually allow this to stink up the joint
and cause more problems.
Just address the situation and ask God for deliverance.
Ask God to cleanse.
Ask God to help.
And many times, time heals all wounds.
Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 10.
So we've got a little bit of a sample here of some folly.
We want to make sure that we're avoiding flat earthers.
We're avoiding drunkenness.
We're avoiding adultery.
We're avoiding pride.
We're avoiding being hasty.
We're avoiding foolish questions.
We're avoiding haters.
We're avoiding false prophets.
We're avoiding fornication.
We're avoiding all these things because they can destroy us
and they can destroy our reputation.
They can destroy who we are.
They can destroy the work that we're doing.
Verse 2, a wise man's heart is at his right hand,
but a fool's heart at his left.
Now, this verse has been used to teach
that left-handed people are evil.
I can't say if that's true or not,
but that's not what it's really saying, okay?
That's not what the passage is saying.
I'm sure that there's, you know, Dylan's left-handed,
so that, you know, makes you a little nervous,
but no, I'm just kidding.
But here's the thing.
I don't think that being left-handed
makes you a bad person.
I think what you have to understand
is that, generally speaking, most people are right-handed,
okay, and being right-handed is just natural.
It's normal.
It's right, okay?
But in the Bible,
there's a difference between your right and left hand,
and that's just because most people are right-handed.
What's the difference?
Your right hand is typically the strongest of your hands.
It's the one that you're the best with.
It's the one you're most skilled with.
It's the one that you prefer.
It's the one that you do the most with.
It's the most significant.
So that's really what's being drawn out here,
in a sense, when we think about this verse,
that a wise man's heart is at his right hand.
What does that mean?
His heart is a primary thing to him.
It's important to him.
It's something that he's working on.
Where if it's in his left hand, it's not as important.
It's more carefree.
It's not something he's taking as seriously,
and so that's kind of what is being alluded to here
in this verse.
But I want to look at a lot of actual other verses.
Did I give you Psalm 16 already?
Go to Psalm 16.
I want to look at some verses on this, too,
because this is another important verse, I think,
to talk about for a moment.
But we have to be very careful with our own hearts.
With our hearts.
And the Bible talks a lot about this subject as well.
And if we don't want to be guilty of that foolishness,
we need to consider our heart,
and we need to have our heart in our right hand,
not in our left hand, okay?
Now, Psalm 16, look at verse 8.
The Bible says,
I have set the Lord always before me
because he is at my right hand.
I shall not be moved.
So talking about the significance of the right hand.
Look at verse 11.
Thou wilt show me the path of life,
and the presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
Look at Psalm 20, verse 6.
And I'm just doing a couple that are pretty close to each other.
Psalm 20, verse 6.
Now know I that the Lord savith his anointed.
He will hear him from his holy heaven
with the saving strength of his right hand.
So again, the right hand is a picture of salvation.
It's a picture of strength, okay?
Psalm 108, go to Psalm 108.
Think about passages that talk about the Lord Jesus Christ
sitting at the right hand of God the Father, okay?
So the right hand has the significance of strength,
importance, of value,
being something that's primary.
Psalm 108, I want to look at verse 6 again in this passage.
It says that thy beloved may be delivered,
save with thy right hand, and answer me.
So if someone were drowning and you could only reach out one hand,
you're reaching out that right hand
because you want to do the best that you can.
Whereas if you were kind of giving them the left hand,
it's like it's not as important, it's not as significant,
you're not giving it as much attention,
it's not as serious to you.
Now go over to Deuteronomy chapter 6.
So when we put this in context of our hearts,
we want to make sure that we are making it clear
that what we do with our heart, it should be important.
Our heart should be important, it should be primary.
We need to strengthen our hearts, okay?
That would be what we're talking about with the right hand.
The left hand is like not caring about our heart,
not thinking about it,
not making as significant of a deal with it, okay?
Deuteronomy chapter 6, look at verse 5.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart
and with all thy soul and with all thy might.
This is mentioned many times in the New Testament as well.
We're supposed to love God with all of our heart,
so that means we should actually take our hearts seriously.
Our heart shouldn't be in our left hand,
it should be in our right hand
because what we do with our heart is so important.
And you know, your heart is going to be affected
by the decisions that you make.
Go to Proverbs 23, the Bible says,
Trust the Lord with all thine heart
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
So the Bible's also telling us,
we need to put all of our heart into Jesus Christ.
We need to put all of our heart into the word of God.
We need to trust with all of our heart in the Lord
and put our confidence in Him.
And again, what you do is going to affect your heart.
Where you go, what relationships you have,
if you go to church, if you're reading your Bible,
if you pray, if you love people,
what kind of job you have, what kind of clothes you wear,
I don't care what you want to bring up,
your heart will be affected.
Your heart is affected by the decisions that you make.
And the Bible is saying that we're supposed to give
all of our heart unto God and unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this would be a wise man
putting his heart in his right hand,
making it a priority, making it important,
realizing there's something to this.
We need to just think that our heart doesn't matter
or our affections don't matter
because in many cases our affections are driven
by the decisions that we make
and where we go and what we look at
and how we interact and the thoughts that we have.
The Bible says in Proverbs 23 verse 17,
Let not thine heart envy sinners,
but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
What could you possibly do?
You could decide to just put your heart in your left hand,
meaning you're not really thinking about it,
you're not really caring,
and then what you do is you just daydream all day
envying sinners, envying famous people,
envying rich people, coveting thy neighbor's house,
coveting thy neighbor's wife,
coveting thy neighbor's goods, right?
Just all day.
Or you're daydreaming about things that you wish you had
or you could, man, I just wish I was more popular
or more famous
or I wish I could make this decision differently
or I wish I had all of these different things.
I mean, we could just do that all day long.
We could just be envious all day long.
But the Bible is saying don't let your heart do that.
Put your heart in your right hand
and say, no, you're going to love God today.
No, you're going to love the Lord Jesus Christ today.
No, you're going to bring these imaginations
and captivity to the things of Christ
and you're not going to allow your heart
to just dream all day envious thoughts.
The Bible is making it clear that the wise man
is actually taking control of his heart and his affections.
You know, many times
when people have inappropriate relationships,
it's because they weren't careful with their heart.
They allowed their heart
to get attached to someone they shouldn't.
They allowed their heart to get attached to some thing
or some possession or some hobby
or some whore or some disgusting thing
and that took away their heart.
Solomon gave his heart unto his wives.
We see many people giving their heart away to false gods,
giving their heart away to money.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
And the foolish person is putting his heart in his left hand
and he's putting in his right hand
money, riches, envy, whores, whatever,
and he's just destroying his heart.
He's destroying himself.
We need to be careful with our hearts.
Go, if you would, to 2 Peter 2.
I'll look at another one with you.
The Bible says in Psalm 131,
Lord, my heart is not haughty,
nor mine eyes lofty.
Neither do I exercise myself
in great matters
or in things too high for me.
We could sit here and try to figure out
the secrets of the universe,
but we're probably never going to figure them out,
so maybe we should just focus on the things
that we can deal with.
It's like, hey, Elon, instead of trying to figure out
how to go to Mars,
maybe you could just figure out how to make Twitter work.
Okay?
Maybe you could actually make Twitter a free speech platform.
Maybe that would actually help.
You know, maybe you should figure out
what the meaning of life is.
Maybe you should figure out what it means to be saved.
Maybe you should figure out why you even exist.
Yet there's so many people trying to exercise themselves
in high matters
and things that don't even pertain to them
that they'll never figure out,
that they could never understand
instead of focusing on the things that they do know.
You know, hey,
we can live pretty simple lives,
and we don't even have to be that wise
concerning evil.
The Bible even tells us not to be wise concerning evil.
We're supposed to be simple concerning evil.
But I just want to understand
every conspiracy theory.
I mean, there's people...
I mean, I'm not trying to pick on anybody in this room,
but there's probably some people in here
they want to just deep dive
into every conspiracy,
every evil thing,
know all the players,
and they're always doing dark secrets.
But it's like, aren't we supposed to be simple
concerning evil?
What are you exercising your heart in anyways?
It's like, I know every single ritual
of the Freemasons.
You know, there's this one guy
that would be every sermon, basically.
Every sermon's about Freemasonry.
And he talked in such a dogmatic way,
like, this is exactly what they do
on the 17th night of this,
and I'm thinking, how do you know that?
Were you there?
Were you going to the lodge meetings?
Like, why are you just so authoritative
about these secret clubs?
And you'll notice something about Freemasonry.
When you go past the building,
no windows.
And so it's like,
why am I going to exercise my heart
and all these things that are evil,
all these things that are dark,
all these conspiracies?
I mean, frankly speaking, the more you know about the Clintons,
the less likely you're going to live.
You know, I mean, like,
that's why it's, like, simple concerning evil.
Some things we just don't want to know.
We don't always want to know the depths of Satan.
We don't always want to know
everything that's out there.
And we need to keep our heart,
because sometimes when we learn about really evil, wicked things,
it, like, it kind of, like, ruins us.
It can make you just feel gross.
It can make you feel weird.
You, like, look at the world differently.
And, you know, I don't want to just think evil
of everybody all the time.
Like, I try a lot of times
to talk to people and to think on pure things.
And, yeah, that bites me sometimes.
But, you know, I'd rather have that
than just constantly thinking all these evil thoughts
and knowing all the dark things that are going on.
You know, we should be thinking on things
that are pure, according to the Bible.
Not, not allowing...
And, you know, certain movies, music, all kinds of stuff,
they're pretty... some of them are pretty dark.
You know?
And growing up, I didn't really guard my heart that much.
I probably saw a lot of things I wish I'd never seen.
And, you know, we should be careful.
Be careful, little eyes, what you see.
My wife, like, cries when she hears that little kid's song,
because it's just like, you know,
we should guard our children's hearts, too.
Sometimes our kids are too dumb to guard themselves,
and we as parents need to guard them for them
and to help protect them
from some of the evils that are out there.
The Bible says... I want to read one more,
but it says Ecclesiastes 1,
I gave my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom
concerning all things that are done in the sun.
So the book of Ecclesiastes, we're seeking wisdom.
What does the evil people do?
2 Peter 2, verse 14,
having eyes full of adultery
and that cannot cease from sin,
beguiling unstable souls.
Notice this.
And heart, they have exercised
with covetous practices.
So notice what wicked people do.
They're exercising their heart,
but with covetousness,
not with godliness,
not with wisdom.
And so this is the guy, excuse me,
with his heart in his left hand,
not in his right hand.
Not taking it seriously,
not making it a priority,
not strengthening it,
but actually weakening it
and making it worse
and destroying his own heart.
The Bible says in Ezekiel,
when it's talking about the two whorish daughters,
the two whorish sisters,
it's like, how weak is your heart?
And it's basically someone that just
says yes to every sin
and has a weak heart.
Someone that has a strong heart
is picturing someone that can say no
and has a lot of wisdom
and has a lot of restraint,
and we need to be exercising our heart
and strengthening our heart,
not constantly weakening it
by not taking diligence to it.
Okay, go back to Ecclesiastes, chapter 10.
Go back to Ecclesiastes, chapter 10.
I spent a while in those few verses,
but I think they're really cornerstone verses
for this chapter.
But these are some big concepts
that are going to be repeated throughout this chapter.
Look at verse 3.
So it's saying the foolish person
can't get away with his foolishness for long.
Everybody will figure it out pretty soon.
And honestly, this fool,
we know that he's a fool
because of what he says.
That's how you figure out who the foolish person is.
The Bible says, I'm just reading a couple verses for you.
In Proverbs 12, verse 16,
a fool's wrath is presently known,
but a prudent man covereth shame.
So a fool, it's obvious
that this guy's a fool.
It's obvious when he's mad. You can just tell.
Look at chapter 5, because you're right there
in verse 3.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 5, 3,
for a dream cometh through the multitude of business.
Notice this, and a fool's voice
is known by a multitude of words.
Here's the problem for a fool,
is if he talks enough,
we'll figure out that he's dumb.
We'll actually figure out that he's a fool.
And that's one of the things I always say
about preaching, is you cannot hide
behind preaching.
And again, I think that's why these false prophets
and preachers preach, like, 15-minute sermonettes
that are, like, they're reading,
because they're so afraid of what they're going to end up saying.
But if you get someone
just extemporaneously speaking,
just speaking from the heart for about an hour,
you're going to learn a lot about that person.
Like, out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh.
And here's the thing, if you listen to somebody
for a thousand hours,
you probably can't be surprised
by anything in their life,
because of the fact that,
what does it say?
A fool's voice is known by a multitude of words.
You can't hide.
People that believe weird things,
it's going to pour out.
People that are doing weird things,
it's going to come out.
You can almost always tell what a person's really like
if you get a big enough sample.
And that's what I'm saying.
If you get thousands of hours of someone
saying a bunch of stuff,
it doesn't matter what context,
you'll learn almost everything you could possibly need to know
about that person.
And that's good and bad, right?
You listen to someone for thousands of hours,
good, good, good.
That person's probably a good person.
If he gets bad, bad, bad, bad, bad,
they're just a bad person, okay?
And it really helps you to kind of identify
a tree, because the Bible says
a tree is known by its fruit.
And the Bible says, you know what that is?
It's the words that are coming out of your mouth.
How do I even know someone's saved?
By what they say, folks.
I can't look at the outward appearance
and identify if this person is a righteous person or not.
And in many cases,
they all look bad, okay?
But when they say they believe in Jesus Christ,
oh, okay, this person is saved.
This person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whereas a fool, you can tell,
hey, when this person's telling me that Jesus is black
and they're telling me that Jesus is Tyler Doka
and they're telling me that Jesus is
someone that's never existed,
I mean, there's some real fools out there.
Especially if you go on Twitter spaces, okay?
That's a nightmare place.
Go back to chapter 10.
We'll look at verse 4.
People say the weirdest stuff.
People say, oh, Jesus never existed.
And it's just like, sorry,
like, that's a denial of everything.
Like, literally everything.
It's literally 2024.
Who do you think that's from?
Like, I'm just thinking, like,
you realize, like, every construct
of our entire society is, like,
evolving around Jesus' existence,
and then you're gonna just be like,
I don't think he exists, man.
It's just like, no, you just hate him.
It's funny, because there was somebody saying this to me
and I said that, and then they just start cussing Jesus out.
And then another person was like,
I feel like he just proved his point.
Like, it doesn't seem like you deny his existence.
It seems like you just hate him, okay?
Verse 4, it says this.
If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee,
leave not thy place for yielding passivayeth
great offenses.
I think this is, you know, in this chapter
is gonna give us a lot of just tips and wisdom here.
This is just, I believe, an idea of
if your boss, if a ruler,
maybe the government,
if someone's upset at you
or they believe you've transgressed,
instead of running away
from the issue,
it's saying just stay where you're at
and just yield.
Just stay
and just yield.
Okay, so whatever authority,
if the authority is wanting you
to, is upset with you,
instead of fleeing,
yield.
You know, hey children,
don't run away from your parents,
just do whatever they say.
Wives, don't run away from your husbands,
just do whatever they say.
If your boss at work is mad at you,
just do whatever they say.
Why? Because yielding
passivayeth great offenses.
Don't run away from problems,
just yield to authority
is what the Bible is essentially saying.
And, you know, even church authority
could be this way, right?
If somehow a leader
in the church has got
an issue with you, just yield.
Don't run away,
just yield. That's what the Bible is saying.
Verse 5, there is an evil
which I have seen under the sun as an
heir which proceedeth from the ruler.
Folly is set in great dignity,
and the rich sit in low
place. I have seen servants upon horses
and princes walking as
servants upon the earth.
So he's kind of talking about a backwards world,
an upside down world, and boy
our culture is really kind of
emanating this thing that's happening.
Where we see
folly
being set up and praised
and glorified
where we have literal men
dressing like women that are in high positions
of our government. I mean, nothing could be
more folly than such a thing.
And then you have good men,
honest men, smart men
being taken low.
I mean, you know, obviously
I don't know that he's necessarily saved
but I really like Owen Troyer and he's pretty smart.
He was thrown in prison
and then we have trannies
being promoted in our government.
And it's just like, what's wrong? We have Ron Paul
who can't seem to get elected or
be put in a high position of office.
And then we have AOC
as a literal person
in our government.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Okay.
I mean, this chick is a literal bartender.
It says,
I've seen servants upon
horses. She's a bartender.
And then
she's in one of the most high ranking
positions of our government.
This is folly.
He's saying, no, no.
It's evil.
He said, this is an evil which
I have seen under the sun.
AOC being in our government
is evil.
She should be a servant.
She should be a bartender like she was.
It's
disgusting how our country
is literally lifting up
and putting in literal
whores and servants
in high ranking positions in our government.
And Kamala is no better folks.
Kamala
Harris, if she becomes
our president, is one of the greatest
evils that's ever happened to America.
And I don't know if it's going to happen.
I have no idea.
I have no prediction.
Anything's on the table.
And frankly speaking,
I'll just be honest with you.
I don't really even care what happens in the election.
It's honestly
meaningless to me.
And I know that probably scares some people.
But I'm just
you know, the Bible says all things work together
for good to them that love God. Number one.
Number two, our country is just
on a bobsled to hell.
It doesn't really matter to me which puppet we put up
there on the stage, okay.
And I can see pros and cons
to both. Like to me,
if Kamala becomes president,
maybe the pro is that people will finally
realize how wicked,
evil, and dumb our government is.
And that there's
no hope in it. And that maybe they should just get
into church.
Now, what's the con?
Everything else.
Like literally, like you have a woman
running our government, okay.
It's just a complete sham.
Our government, like there's no chance to even
say that it's not the biggest farce
sham the emperor has no clothes on
of a government that we have.
I mean they could probably literally
just start banning the constitution and bringing
communism. I don't want to
fear monger. I'm just saying like
I don't know what they would do. If they
put her as president, they're basically saying we're
going to do whatever we want. I mean
frankly speaking, if Trump becomes
elected, well you know obviously
that sounds better than the communist.
Okay.
And like to me, it's like when I look at
Kamala, it's all bad.
When I look at Trump, it's like bad with a little
bit of good mixed in. Okay.
And so you know I obviously
plus here's like the main
reason it would be nice for him to win is just to see all these
liberals crying about it.
Which has nothing like
it doesn't benefit me monetarily.
It's not a spiritual thing. I guess I just
would find it hilarious. Okay.
So there's my pro. Right.
We're probably going to go into World War
3 with Israel either
way. Alright.
We're probably going to still have all
of our banking institutions owned by Jews
and have tons of usury. We're probably still
going to have high levels of inflation. We're still
going to probably have economic issues.
We're still going to have a fake media.
We're still going to have a congress that
still fills a bunch of evil satanic
people that are going to pass bad laws in our government
and line their own pockets and
are filled with bribes. So
that's why I'm saying like it doesn't really
matter that much to me because
you know what I'm going to do after the election?
Go to church on the weekend
and go soul winning and
just keep reading my Bible and just keep doing
whatever I can. And people are going to get
mad at me thinking that I should do
something else. But hey, I'm a preacher of the
gospel. I'm not a politician.
I'm not going to get elected.
I don't want to get elected.
I'm sure that they would, I mean,
if they're trying to kill Trump,
I can't even imagine a fundamental
Baptist, okay? They would be
freaking out, okay?
They would be terrified.
There's no way I could make it, you know, physically.
So I didn't want to try.
But I, you know, I can make it right now in the house
of God. You know, God's still preserving me and giving
me life and giving me an opportunity. So
but our world
is psychopath.
I mean, it's just, it's an upside
down world. And that's what Solomon is
saying. There's an evil, which I've seen under
the sun, when you're setting
up fools in your kingdom.
And this
is what's sad, though,
is these people,
they think that they're winning
or like they're accomplishing something or
it's going to be beneficial to them, but they're
all going to be losers out of it, too.
You know who
wins in communism?
No one.
Everyone loses.
Okay, you know who wins when you put
fools in power in the government?
No one. Everyone loses.
And they just don't, they just don't
realize it. They don't realize that they're basically
cutting off their own legs
and that they're basically destroying themselves
and it's just a great evil and
it just destroys everything.
Destroys society, destroys
good works, and
man, one sinner can destroy much good
like Kamala Harris.
Look at verse 8.
The Bible's just saying, you know, we shouldn't be
plotting the destruction of others
and laying all these traps
and trying to destroy people.
You know, we should be careful that
we just avoid these things.
Removing stones, this is like a
picture of like you've got a
big tower, you've got a big building, and you're
taking the stones out, well that thing might fall down on you.
That Jenga might fall on you.
Or you're cleaving wood, you're chopping
that tree, well now you're in danger
because that tree could fall down
and it could fall down on you.
So that's why we shouldn't be a destructive
force. We should be a force
for good.
This is mentioned in Psalm, he made
a pit and digged it and it's fallen into the ditch
which he made. The Bible says,
Who so diggeth a pit shall fall there in, and he that roll
the stone will return upon him.
Look at verse 10.
If the iron be blunt, and he do not wet the edge,
then must he put to more strength,
but wisdom is profitable to direct.
This is a great verse,
you could probably preach a little sermon on it, but
the idea that I
constantly hear in the workforce
that embodies this proverb
or this ecclesiastical saying is
to work smarter,
not harder.
And that is a philosophy I live by, and I
try my hardest to always identify
is there a better way to do this?
Is there a more efficient way to do this?
Is there a quicker way to do this?
Because a lot of times we spend
just way too much time,
effort, and energy accomplishing something
that can be done much quicker,
much more efficiently. And you know,
if you want to be a great employee, you should be constantly
thinking about how you can improve
the processes
and the workforce and the workplace
by working
smarter and not always harder.
And
when you're doing any task,
we should always think
what is the quickest way
to solve this problem?
What is the order of operations?
And sometimes it takes planning
to do things efficiently and do things
effectively, instead of just trying to figure
them out. And so we need to
always make sure that we're getting
more skills, that we're thinking about
what we're doing. It's saying
take time, just stop what you're doing,
sharpen your blade,
and then you're going to actually cut the tree down faster.
So what would be
an example of this? Hey, stop working,
start planning for a moment.
Plan and get the right idea, and then just execute
that idea. Or hey,
you want to make more money in the workforce?
Instead of working 80 hours a week
at some low income job,
learn some skills
and work 40 hours and make
even more money, potentially.
Or in your workplace,
constantly be identifying like
hey, is there a position that I could
be moving up to? What does it take
to get there? What kind of skills
do I need? Maybe I need to put myself
on pause, figure that out.
We should be constantly thinking, how can
I make more money more effectively,
more efficiently for our employer
and our workplace?
As I was working
in software development, I always use this as an example
just because it's easy for me, but
I would always look at where I was,
you know, maybe I'm one year in, five
years in, whatever, ten years in.
I would look at like the next stage.
I would just say, okay,
I'm at three years,
what does a five year job look like?
Like someone that has five years experience,
what is it that they want? And I would
look, and I would look at all the skills that they were
wanting. I would say like, hey, here's a job that
wants five years experience and they want
this skill, this skill, this skill
that I don't have. So what I thought is like
the next two years,
I need to be getting those skills.
So then, whenever I get
to that five year mark, I can
then now apply for that type of
position. And I'm ready
and I'm prepared, and then I can
move up or I can find another job
or another position. And you know what, I think
that works in every industry.
That's not just limited in mine.
Think about jobs
that you would want in the future
in your industry, in your
field, and say, what
do I not have that they want
and then make a plan to get there and
then you can get there. And work
smarter, not harder. Don't always just think like
I guess I need to put more hours in. Sometimes you need
to put more mind in. And
let's just be honest, who makes more money, the
white collar or the blue collar? The white collar
because they're using their brain, not just
their brawn. Now again, you can
make a lot of money in blue collar.
But typically the people that make a lot of money
in blue collar, they wear a blue and
white collar. So they
basically, they're a plumber,
but they own their own plumbing business. Or they're
electrician, but they own their own electrician
thing. And you know, one of the secrets
that my management professor always taught me
is like, the quickest way to personal
wealth is owning your own business in
America. And that's just kind of the reality.
But it takes a lot of effort, a lot of
energy, a lot of focus, a lot of tireless
nights and stuff like that. But those
are the ways to
improve your situation. Look at verse 11.
Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment
and the babbler is no better.
The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious,
but the lips of a fool will swallow up
himself. The beginning of the words of
his mouth is foolishness and the end
of his talk is mischievous madness.
A fool also is a full
of words. A man cannot tell
what shall be and what
shall be after him. Who can tell
him? So it's kind of again
what we talked about in the first part of this
sermon. These fools
notice it said in verse 14, a fool also is
full of words. I mean these guys just love
to hear themselves talk and they love to
just say things that are so silly,
so foolish, and
they don't even know what they're saying.
It says the beginning of the words of his mouth
is foolishness. The end, it's mischievous.
It's just crazy what these people
are saying. But what is the
contrast? Verse 12, the words of a wise man's
mouth are gracious. So wise
people are gracious.
Fools are not gracious.
Fools have hatred,
pride, envy, and
destruction on their lips. Wise
people are very kind, gracious,
merciful type people.
The first part of this, surely the serpent
will buy you that enchantment?
You got to think like
about a snake charmer.
They're like playing a flute or whatever and the
snake's
whatever and the snake's kind of dancing or whatever.
He's basically saying like as soon as you stop
playing that flute, the snake
is probably going to bite you, probably just
attack you.
It's just basically like without a distraction,
without just like a TV or something, the fool
is just like, ugh. He's just going to
end up saying really dumb things.
And it's just saying that hey, if you don't keep
this person in the cage, if you don't keep this
person subdued, they're going to hurt you.
Not only will serpents hurt you,
babblers will hurt you. Foolish
people will hurt you. What does this look like?
A babbler is someone that will just say
everything that's on their mind.
Everything that's in their heart. Everything that they've heard.
A wise man has discretion.
A wise man does not repeat
every single thing that he hears.
Be careful who you make friends with.
Because some people are just
babblers. Some people will
literally repeat every single thing that you say.
And not only will they repeat it,
they'll change it
and it won't even be what you actually said.
It'll be something even completely different
from that and then it'll come back to
hurt you, harm you, and bite you.
So you know what? We need to be careful
that we're not hanging out with babblers.
They are dangerous. The Bible says
a prudent man concealeth knowledge
but the heart of fools
proclaimeth foolishness.
So a smart person, a wise person,
a prudent person, doesn't say everything.
Doesn't reveal everything.
Fools,
they love to just put everything out there.
And just say everything.
It's like a couple
years ago, some guy just records a phone call
of me and then just puts like this
two hour phone call out there
thinking that it's going to make him look good or something.
And everybody's just like, man, this guy just looks
like a fool.
Whereas a smart person would be like, you know what? Maybe
I shouldn't put everything out there.
Maybe everything I say isn't always smart.
But you know, that's the prudent man.
The prudent man realizes, you know, some things should not
be public. Some things shouldn't always
go out there. Fools, let's just
put it all out there. Let's just expose
everything. You know, that is a foolish
attitude. Verse 15,
the labor of the foolish wearieth every
one of them because
he knoweth not how to go to the city.
The Bible says
that this
foolish person basically doesn't
understand how to work. I thought of this other
verse in Proverbs, in all labor there's profit
but the talk of the lips tended only to penury.
It's like this, the
fool is just such an irritating person
to be around. And he doesn't work
hard and he doesn't even really
know how to go to the city,
which I think is a picture of like making money,
merchandise,
working. He doesn't even
know what he's doing. And that's why he's just
so irritating to be around.
And so we have to be careful that
we're just not surrounding ourselves around foolish
people. Look at verse 16.
Woe to thee, O land, when thy child is a king
and thy princes eat in the morning. Blessed
art thou, O land, when thy king is the son
of nobles and thy princes eat in due
season. For strength and not
for drunkenness. So again,
leaders,
a good leader is not
looking to be served,
but to serve.
So Jesus Christ himself came not to
be ministered to, but to minister
and to give his life a ransom.
That's what the Bible teaches. And so a good
leader is one that's trying
his best to serve those
who are under him. Now, a leader
serves differently
than the people under him.
Okay? So,
you know, if you're a boss at
work, how do you serve
your employees? Well, you don't do their job for
them. You don't go around
on the ride with them. You support
them. You teach them.
You train them. You help them.
You encourage them. Right?
You're still serving them. You're giving
them money, in fact, if you're a boss.
Right? But you're not going to do their job.
So it's like, as a husband,
I should be a servant unto
my wife. How?
Well, not by doing her job.
That is not how I serve my wife.
I serve my wife by bringing home the bacon.
I provide.
I bring the money. That's a
service unto my wife that she doesn't have
to do. Okay? Here's another thing I do.
I encourage her.
I love her. I
do things for her that she can't do for herself.
You know?
We all can't scratch her
own back very effectively.
You know, if you want to
love someone and serve someone else,
you do the things that they can't do for
themselves. Right? You love them.
You encourage them.
And look, occasionally, I do
of course help her with some of her tasks
and stuff like that. I'm not saying husbands
shouldn't help their wives cook or clean
or raise kids or that stuff.
We should be willing to sometimes, what I say,
cross the aisle. Right?
We should come across the aisle
and help them occasionally and help them
when need be and that'll
win you some brownie points. Okay?
But I'm not going to do my wife's job.
In fact, that makes me a bad
leader if I do my wife's job.
It actually makes me a bad boss
if I do my employee's job.
A good boss
can encourage and
strengthen and train those under them
to do their job effectively.
Okay? Bad bosses have to do everybody's
work for them. Okay? And that's kind of how
you can tell how good of a leader you are.
A good leader draws out the best out of the
people underneath him and they are happy
doing their job. Like Solomon's servants
were happy serving him. Whereas
a bad leader, people are not
doing their job, they're lazy,
they're uneducated, and they don't have
a desire to work hard.
That is typically
a result of bad leadership,
bad management. And they're
all vain. You know,
I've seen people
talk about a particular
podcast, Tim Pool's podcast
and he kind of talks about how he's like
can't have, he doesn't have good employees
and they struggle to like
work hard and do all this stuff. And I'm
just thinking like, well, but who are you
hiring? Are you hiring a bunch of
leftists and libertarians that want to
go skate all day and
drink? I mean, it's like you looked at Twitter
when Elon came in, he fired like
I don't know, a large
percentage. I don't know what the number is.
I've heard big numbers, like 90%.
I don't know if that's true, but I've heard that he's
fired just like gigantic numbers
of people from that organization. Because
some people literally just showed up,
went to the coffee bar,
went and checked their email,
went to a meeting, and
then went home. And it was like
what does this person even do?
Okay. And it's like
that's bad leadership, which of course
these corrupt organizations that are
designed to just attack
and destroy usually have bad
leadership at the helm. They probably
had good leadership to build up the company the way they were,
but then they have bad people come and buy them out
and destroy it all again.
But when we talk about good
leadership here, when we talk about a country,
we would want a king that's going to
serve us, not himself.
We wouldn't want a president that
wants to just sit around and eat
ice cream all day and
just go sleep all day
and just have people fan, you know,
leaves at his head and feed
him grapes or something like that. That's not
going to help our country. We'd want someone to be a public
servant. Someone that's making diplomatic
decisions. Visiting
cities when they have destructive
hurricanes. Going out and making
sure that the states that need
funds, that they get their funds, that our military
is strong. Visiting the military.
Encouraging the military.
Not putting the military in
unnecessary risk and harm.
Not putting them in wars that they don't need
to be in. Not leaving them behind
in Afghanistan. Not leaving
unlimited merchandise
for our enemies. Not
entangling ourselves into
conflicts that we shouldn't be in.
I mean, that's what kind of leader that we would want.
That's what kind of king we'd want. Not one that's just
waking up in the morning concerned with what he's
going to eat, but rather concerned
with what he's going to do.
And, you know, as a husband,
we shouldn't always look at our
wife as, how are you going to serve me today?
But sometimes
we need to look at them as, how am I going to
encourage her? How am I going to do
good under her? And, you know, a great
marriage is typically when both partners
are trying to serve each other.
Now, not in the same way,
in completely different ways.
But as a leader,
you have to figure out,
how am I serving
my subject?
With children, you've got to serve your children
some, too. Now, again,
my children take out the trash.
I don't have to take out the trash.
My kids do the dishes. My kids,
I just say, go do this. They do that.
Like, hey, I'm not their servant
in that sense, okay?
They are going to do the stuff for me.
But you know what? How I do serve them?
I'll go play soccer with them.
I'll sit down and teach them how to read a book.
I'll sit down and I'll teach them what the Bible says.
I'll, you know, teach them how to
tie their shoes. I'll teach them how to read.
I'll sit there and encourage
them and I'll support them.
I'll go to their soccer game and I'll cheer them on
and I'll give them tips and try to encourage them, right?
I'll teach them how to be a soul winner.
I'll teach them where things are in the Bible.
I'll teach them how to learn new songs.
I'll teach them how to play the piano.
So, you know, a way I'm serving them, but you know what?
They're going to take out my trash.
They're going to clean my plate.
They're going to do a lot of things for me
because they're my servant.
But you know what? They're happy to
because I serve them and I teach them
and I encourage them and you know what?
They serve me.
And there's a reciprocal nature here
and that's a wise king, a wise leader.
You know, as a pastor, I'm not going to do your job.
A good pastor, though, will serve his congregation.
What does the congregation get served from the pastor?
Good sermons.
You know, when you're discouraged,
calling you and talking to you.
When you want advice about something,
talking to you about that and trying to give you good counsel.
But you know what?
I don't do everything in this church.
There are plenty of people that clean this church.
There are plenty of people that organize things in this church.
There are people that mow our yard.
There are people that help us put stuff in this storage unit.
There are people that help lead us, lead soul winning times
and lead soul winning tribes and lead soul winning groups.
There's people that help us decorate.
There's people that help run baby showers.
There's people that help with the kid stuff.
There's people that clean up these mother baby rooms.
There's all kinds of stuff that people are doing that I'm not doing.
You know what, if I just get up here and just sing my own praises for 20 minutes and I'm
not ever serving you, I never take your call, I never help you, you know what, that would
make me a bad pastor, that would make me a bad leader.
You need to have a wise king, a wise pastor, a wise husband, a wise boss is one who's going
to make sure he's doing his job of serving those that are underneath him.
Not by saying, hey, whatever you want you get, that's not a good leader.
I'm not walking around asking my kids what we're going to eat for dinner.
They're going to get whatever we give them and they're going to eat it, okay?
But they don't tell me what to do, but you know what, in some ways I serve them.
In some ways there's a balance there and we have to understand what these words mean in
their context.
Yeah, I serve my wife, but you know what, my wife serves me.
And I serve my children, but you know what, they serve me.
But you know what, I'm 100% in control and 100% the dictator of my home.
And you know what, I'm the 100% dictator in this church.
I don't know if you like that or not, but that's just how it is.
And if you don't like it, you can go find a bunch of deacon wives to tell you what to
do, okay?
But I don't like that church.
The Bible says in verse 18, by much slothfulness the building decayeth and through idleness
of the hands the house droppeth through.
We got to work hard.
This is what's funny to me, it's not even saying being lazy things are destroyed, it's
like being really lazy.
Think about it, through much slothfulness.
I mean you have to be really, really, really lazy for your whole house to fall apart.
But some people do it.
It's the ghetto.
Verse 19, a feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry, but money answereth all
things.
Boy, that's a silly verse, but it's true, it's like money somehow can just buy you whatever
you want many times.
Verse 20, curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber,
for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.
There's another tip that we should be careful what we say.
Just a quick summary, this chapter's really emphasizing in wisdom, and not going down
a foolish path.
Why?
Because when you're foolish, it can destroy your reputation.
When you're foolish, it can essentially destroy your heart.
Whenever you're foolish, it can cause the ruler to rise up against you and destroy you.
When you're foolish, everybody's gonna find out that you're a fool, because you just keep
saying it and you keep talking about it.
When you're a fool, you might get set up really high in a high place, but you're gonna destroy
everything underneath you.
As a fool, you might end up digging a pit and falling into your own pit.
As a fool, you're gonna always work harder than you need to, rather than using some wisdom
to actually get the job done quicker.
When you're a fool, you might get bit by the serpent or the babbler, and it's going to
possibly hurt you very much.
And when you're a fool, you just weary everyone else around you.
No one likes you when you're a fool.
You just basically drive everybody away from you.
When you're a fool, you could end up being a bad leader.
When you're a fool, you could be so lazy that you destroy even your own house.
And you know, if you're a fool, you're not gonna have money, and you might say something
dumb about the king.
And boy, you don't want to say dumb things about the king.
You don't want to say things that you don't want to be said out public.
And you know, of course, we all need to be careful to hold our tongue sometimes.
We don't want to always say everything that we think, especially negative things, especially
about other people.
We want to be careful, because it affects other people, and it can sometimes leak out.
And it really hurts people's feelings, you know, the wounds of a tailbearer, or the words
of a tailbearer as wounds, they go down in the innermost parts of the belly.
And you know, a tailbearer is someone that just repeats a matter.
But you know, it just hurts.
If you don't like somebody in the church, don't tell someone else, because then they
may repeat it or say something, it's just gonna ruin things, make things worse.
And you know, again, don't get this weird idea that every single thing needs to be said.
Like some people are like, oh, I just love the truth, so I'm gonna say everything.
Okay, let's play this game.
Every single thought you have from now on, tell your spouse.
And then tell me if that's gonna be a good relationship.
Start with your boss first.
Every single thought that you have, because you just love the truth so much, and you just
love everything being out in the open.
Every single thought that you've ever had, every time, you know, if your boss says something,
you're thinking like, that's dumb, just say it.
That's dumb.
Right?
Isn't that the great way to live your life?
Wouldn't it be great if just every one of your thoughts was just like on a billboard
on your forehead or something like that, and we could all just read every single thing
that's going on in your forehead?
No.
Some things need to not be said.
Some thoughts need to just be cast down.
Don't have this weird idea that everything needs to be exposed and everything needs to
be said.
We need to keep ourselves, you know, with discretion and wisdom and recognizing that
not everything we say is great.
Just be careful.
In the multitude of words, there wants and nots sin, and so we should be careful and
be slow to speak and be a man of few words, and the things that we say should be coming
from a biblical precedent.
Let's close in prayer, all right?
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for the wisdom that you're giving us in these books
and these chapters.
I pray that you would just help us to keep our hearts in our right hand, that you would
help us to exercise our heart in wisdom and in knowledge and in truth and in righteousness
and in purity.
I pray that you would help us to keep cleaning up our hearts and strengthening our hearts
and giving our hearts more to you.
I pray that you would just help us to seek after more wisdom and that you would help
clean us up from whatever dead flies, clean us up from any evil or any transgression or
any sin that we have, and just help us to be a bright and shining light in such a dark
world.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
We'll sing one more song before we go.
Song 16.
Majestic sweetness sits enthroned on the first.
Majestic sweetness sits enthroned on the Savior's crown,
His head with rigid glorious good, His lips with grace of gold,
His lips with grace of gold.
No mortal can with Him compare Among the sons of man.
Favour is He than all the men Who fill the heavenly train,
Who fill the heavenly train.
He saw me plunged in His chest, And flew to my beneath,
For He bore the shameful cross, It carried all my grief,
It carried all my grief, To Him I owe my life and worth,
And all the joys I have.
He makes me triumph over death, And saves me from the grave.
And saves me from the grave.
Thank you everyone for coming.
We are dismissed.
Thank you.