Proverbs chapter 3 the Bible reads,
My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments.
For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thine neck,
write them upon the table of thine heart, so shalt thou find favor and good understanding
in the sight of God and man.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of thine increase,
so shalt thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall be burst out with new wine.
My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction.
For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as the Father, the Son, and whom he delighteth.
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver,
and the gain thereof of then fine gold.
She is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire
are not to be compared unto her.
Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor.
Her ways are the ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one that retaineth her.
The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth, by understanding hath he established the heavens.
By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
My son, let not them depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion.
So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck.
Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.
When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid. Yea, thou shalt lie down, and thou asleep shall be sweet.
Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.
For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.
Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again, and tomorrow I will give.
When thou hast it, by thee despise not evil against thy neighbor, seeing he dwells securely by thee.
Strive not with a man without cause, if he hath done thee no harm.
Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.
For the fraud is abomination to the Lord, but his secret is with the righteous.
The curse of the Lord is that in the house of the wicked, but he that blesseth the habitation of the just.
Surely he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
Brother John, would you pray for us?
Thank you, dear Lord, for your word. I thank you for all the truth in it.
I pray that you'd anoint Brother Shelley this evening with your spirit and teach him as he teaches us many great things from your word.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Proverbs 3 is such a good chapter. It has a lot of different instructions there.
And I kind of want to give a little bit of recap of how we got to Proverbs chapter 3 because I think the book of Proverbs has a continual theme through it.
It has continual themes. It's kind of building up.
We see in the chapter 1 that he's giving us the importance of wisdom, the importance of understanding that we need wisdom, that we need to fear the Lord at the beginning of knowledge.
But those that reject that, they're fools and they're going to be destroyed by their own wisdom.
We see that it's just so important to gain the wisdom of God.
And then it builds in chapter 2, it gives us the practical wisdom of how to get that wisdom, how to actually apply that to your life.
It says you have to receive his words, hide his commandments in your heart.
To ask him. If you want that wisdom, just ask him for it.
He's given us some practical steps of how to actually get that wisdom.
Now we see in chapter 3, it starts out by saying to not forget the law, right?
It says, my son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments.
So if you turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6, now we're going to kind of build on this theme of getting that wisdom, right?
But not only do you want to get that, not only isn't it so important, not only do we have the practical steps of how to get that by hiding it in your heart, by constantly reading it, by asking God for that wisdom.
But we see that it's important not to forget it.
You know, you don't want to gain all this wisdom and get it poured into you and then just let it go all the way out, right?
In one ear and out the other.
We see that it's so important to not forget the commandments of God, to not forget the wisdom that you've been given.
And we see in Deuteronomy chapter 6 in verse 5, we're going to get some insight here on how not to forget the commandments of God.
It says in verse 5, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thine gates.
We see that God's instructing us to write it everywhere.
I mean, we're supposed to write it on the walls of our house, we're supposed to write it on the doorposts, we're supposed to bind it on our, you know, they're supposed to bind it on your hand, bind it on your neck, I mean, have it as frontlets on your eyes.
I mean, we see, you know, you go into somebody's house these days, and what do they got on the wall?
I mean, they got like graven images, they got all kinds of crazy pictures, they got all kinds of inspirational quotes.
I mean, I love it when I walk into somebody's house, and they got the Bible right there on the wall.
You know, just giving them that reassurance to understand, hey, you know what's most important to me?
The word of God.
You know, I'm not gonna forget the word of God, because I got it right here, because I got it on my hand, I got the Bible with me everywhere I go.
I'm writing it on my heart.
We see that just by reading the Bible one time, you're not gonna keep all that.
Even if you have the ability to understand a great vast majority of the Bible by reading it one time, you're gonna forget a lot of that Bible.
We need to constantly be writing it everywhere.
We need to be writing it on posts of our house and on our gates.
If you flip over to Deuteronomy chapter 8, just a few chapters over, in verse 11, we have a warning of God.
He says, in verse 11,
Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, and not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day.
Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses and dwelt there him.
And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up.
And now forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
So we see another way that we can forget the Lord is by being prosperous.
Many times when things are going really great for us, maybe you get a promotion at your work.
Maybe you're making a little bit more money.
Maybe, you know, you can do more fun things. You can go out to eat more.
You can hang out with some people that were, you know, were your friends. You can do more fun things. You can go to games.
You start forgetting the Lord.
You start turning away from the Lord, and your heart gets lifted up in pride.
You say, hey look, everything's going good for me. I don't necessarily need to go back and read that book.
I don't need to get the wisdom of God. I don't need to be reminded of all the commandments.
And you start to get that prideful heart that turns away from the Lord because everything's going good for them.
We see so many times in the children of Israel that they would turn away from the Lord when they would be prosperous.
We'd see that there would be this great judge that would be risen up, right?
And he would give deliverance unto the children of Israel, and they'd have peace.
And then what would happen? They'd go whoring after Balaam, right?
Because of that peace, because of that comfort.
We see that a lot of times the zeal for God comes in affliction.
The zeal for God comes in persecution, not in prosperity.
So if you're in your life, you say, man, I got it pretty good. It's going really well.
You need to really dive in this book. You need to make it a priority so you won't forget the commandments of God.
Flip over to a couple more chapters, Deuteronomy chapter 11.
We're going to see the same message again because God often has to repeat things for us because we're really thick.
He says in Deuteronomy chapter 11 verse 18, it says,
Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul and bind them for a sign upon your hand.
They may be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall teach them your children.
Speaking of them, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up,
and thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house and upon thine gates, that your days may be multiplied,
and the days of your children, and the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, and the days of heaven upon the earth.
We see that God's saying basically the same thing He did again, right?
He's saying, whenever you're just walking by the way, talk about the Bible.
When you're sitting down with a meal for your children, talk about the Bible.
When you're doing anything, when you're lying down going to bed, talk about the Bible.
When you rise us up, talk about the Bible.
We see that you can't talk about the Bible enough.
The Bible says meditate on this word every day.
You know, as a kid, I would always wonder what that really meant.
It's just literal.
Just constantly having the word of God on your heart and on your mind.
That's why you're supposed to sing the songs.
Have you ever had a song that was just stuck in your head?
You don't even know why, but you're just constantly singing.
It's constantly coming up in your head.
That's why God wanted us to read the songs, because you'd constantly have God's word just coming up in your mind.
I really hate it when I go, you know, to like the shopping or something.
You hear some secular song that you like grew up with and you just can't get out of your head.
That's why I think it's so important to only listen to the hymns, because you can sing with any song.
It doesn't matter if it's spiritual or not.
You can get something stuck in your mind, and it just sits there and meditates over and over, whether you want it to or not.
You're going to meditate on something.
Why not meditate on the word of God?
Why not meditate on the hymns?
Why not meditate on the songs?
That's how you're going to not forget the Lord when you're meditating on His word.
We'll go to one other place. Go to James chapter one.
This is pretty familiar to a lot of people.
We're talking about ways that you could forget the law, the ways that you could forget the commandments.
And in James chapter one, we're given another way that we could forget His word.
It says there in verse twenty two,
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.
For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh in the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
So we see it's so important to be a doer of the word of God.
You could hear the word of God. You could memorize a lot of it.
But if you're not a doer, you're never going to get it really ingrained.
There's a difference between book smart and experience.
You know, there's a lot of jobs in this world.
I mean, I could explain to somebody how to do plumbing and they could understand it backwards and forward.
They could give you every question in the textbook.
And then you sit there in front of some plumbing and they'd be like, I have no idea what to do because you only learn by doing.
Now, I'm not a plumber, but you can apply this to anything. You can apply it to carpentry.
You can apply it. I'm a computer programmer. I could go through all the books and understand all the programming.
But unless I'm actually doing it, there's another part of your brain that gets activated when you're doing it.
It really solidifies it in your mind when you're actually living by God's commandments.
It's going to help you not forgive them when you're talking about them, when you're rising up.
So we see it's so important to what? Have it written, have it written on our hearts, have it written just written everywhere.
Have it carried with you. Have a book of the law with you so you can read it.
And then we're supposed to talk about it, right? Talk about it when you go out.
Talk about when you sit down. Talk about when you go to bed.
Constantly talking about the Bible. Singing to yourself spiritual songs.
And then most importantly, doing the work. That's the ways that you're not going to forget the laws of God.
So we go back to Proverbs chapter three. Kind of gives us a little bit more meaning to this first verse.
It says, My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments.
For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thine neck, write them upon the table of thine heart.
So shall I find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
So we see again, he's telling us to write it on our heart. We see this just fits so perfectly.
And at the end of Deuteronomy chapter 11, it said that your days will be multiplied and the days of your children.
God makes a promise over and over. If you're keeping his commandments, you're going to have the longest life possible in this life.
He's going to bless you. He's going to give you length of days, just like the Bible says, honor thy father and mother.
What's the promise with that? That you live long in the earth, right?
And it says that you'll find favor in the sight of God and man. A lot of people have this weird idea that if you're keeping God's laws
and if you're living a righteous life, that every man is just going to despise you.
That's not true, according to the Bible. There's going to be people that despise you for sure.
But a lot of people look at you and have a great respect for how righteous you are.
We see that Herod had a great respect for John the Baptist. He didn't agree with what he was saying. He hated what he was saying.
But he had a great respect for him. And you're going to have a great respect with men if you keep his commandments.
God didn't give you these commandments because they're foolishness. No, they're the wisdom of God.
And when you're keeping his commandments, you're going to be the ultimate respect of God and pretty much every man.
They're going to be the reprobates out there, but they're still going to have respect unto you.
They're going to have fear of you because they're going to know that's a man of God right there.
So we keep going. We see in verse five, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Pretty famous verse here.
And I think that this verse in chapter in verse five is probably the whole theme of chapter three.
It all goes back to trusting in the Lord. You have to trust in the Lord to get saved.
But you know, is your life over after you get saved? I mean, are we all just enoch, we just get translated to go to heaven?
No. God wants you to trust in the Lord in your whole life and not just for salvation.
In every single area of your life. And that's what it means to grow up in the Word.
He talks about babes in Christ, right? What would be a babe in Christ? He's just trusting in the Lord for salvation.
But when it comes to his money, he's not trusting in the Lord. When it comes to going to church, he's not trusting in the Lord.
When it's talking about his family, he's not trusting in the Lord.
If y'all would turn to Acts chapter nine, I have a few examples here. We should trust in the Lord and our family.
The Bible says in Psalms 127, low children are in heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
In today's culture, having a lot of children is not looked at as being wise.
I mean, I've had people in my family tell me that I shouldn't have a large family because I wouldn't be able to give every single child a whole bunch of attention.
They had their own reasoning, they had their own logic, and that sounds good.
You know, to the man that says, hey, you know, you can't pay for them to all go to Harvard, and you can't give them as much special attention as you would if you had one kid.
And, you know, man can come up with a lot of reasons why, but I'm going to trust in the Lord that children are in heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
I'm going to do what God said, even though, you know, you might come up with a bunch of reasons for man's wisdom, I'm going to trust in the Lord.
And, you know, this is one of those decisions that I can't see the outcome at the beginning, but you know what I know is true?
Every single person that I've ever talked to that's beyond the age of childbearing, every single one of them says I wish I had more kids.
I've never met someone that said, man, I wish I had less kids.
They all say, man, if I could do one thing, I would have more kids.
You know, and a lot of them say this, I wish I had started having kids sooner.
You know, there's a big, you know, movement in this country where young men want to live to be like 30, 35, live this bachelor life, not get married, you know, live it up.
You know what's really good? To get married and have a family.
That's what the Bible's saying here. Children are heir to the Lord. Why wouldn't you want to do that?
And God wants to bless you with the children. God's the one that opens the womb, right?
So if he's giving you children, he's giving you, hey, I want you to have children.
The best thing you can do is have children in this life if you get married.
You know, there is some exceptions. There's a Paul out there. He wasn't married.
But for the vast majority, we should get married and have children.
And we need to trust in the Lord and not in man's wisdom.
You know, if you look back in the history, pretty much everybody wanted a big family.
It's only in the last hundred years where there's really been this big push to kind of limit the size of the family.
And we shouldn't trust in man's wisdom. We should trust in God's wisdom.
What about just the family life? Like husbands going to work and women staying at home?
I mean, here's another thing. That's not the wisdom of man to make that decision, but it's the wisdom of God.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy 5 verse 8,
You say, what's wrong with, you know, the dad staying home with the kids?
Well, he's not providing for his own. He's worse than an infidel according to the Bible, right?
And you know, I'm not going to trust in my own wisdom.
There's been a time in my life where me and my wife were working and she made more money than me.
So, according to man, maybe it would have been smarter for me to stay home when we had kids
and for her to stay out of the workplace because we're going to get more money, right?
But I trusted in God's will and we decided that she was going to stay home.
And you know, it's been such a blessing unto us. It's been just the right decision.
You can just trust in the Lord and know this is going to be the best thing with the mom being home
and me going out and getting a job, me being the one to be the provider.
And it says, why is staying home, it says in Titus 2, 5,
to be discreet, talking about women, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own
husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Women being at home is really under attack in this
country. Feminism has taken its hold and many women do not think that it's honorable to be
a keeper at home. But that's really the best thing for you. In God's view, in man's view,
in everyone's view, I mean, my wife couldn't be happier that she gets to stay home and raise her
children. And there's no one in this world that I would rather leave my kids with than my wife.
When I think of the idea of leaving my kid with somebody else, it terrifies me,
to be honest. But leaving it with my wife, it's great. And the wisdom of God is so much better
than that of man. And I have to turn to Acts chapter 9 for a reason because I want to talk
about soul winning. What about soul winning? Isn't it man's wisdom, soul winning doesn't work?
I mean, soul winning is just this lame thing. We just go out and we just talk to people. We pray
with them. And even though we've explained the gospel fully, even though they believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, even though they're calling upon the name of the Lord and they have better
faith than most pastors in this world, just because they're not walking in the doors, we say,
oh, they didn't get saved. Oh, soul winning doesn't work. Oh, soul winning is just a waste of time.
Well, let's see what happens in Acts chapter 9 with a man named Ananias. And it says,
and there was a certain disciple, in verse 10, I'm sorry. And there was a certain disciple,
Damascus, named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, behold,
I am here, Lord. And the Lord said to him, arise and go into the street which is called straight
and acquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he prayed and has seen
in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive
his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath
done to thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from the chief priest to bind all that
call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me
to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him
how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias went his way and entered into
the house. And putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus that appeared
unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled
with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it hath been scales. And he
received sight forthwith and arose and was baptized. And he went and received meat and was
strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway
he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. So we see a great story here about
Ananias and Saul. And the thing that got me is Ananias was on this soul and mission of God.
But according to him, his wisdom, he would have said no. I mean, do you think Saul was going to
or do you think Ananias was wanting to look for the most persecuting, Christ hating,
Christian killing guy and say, I think I should go soul winning to him. I mean, can you imagine
if Barack Obama just assigned some deputy to basically go out and hunt Christians. And this
guy is going from town to town, pulling Christians out, stoning them, killing them, he's seeking them.
I mean, would you think, hey, I think I should go soul winning and start with him.
You know, I mean, you got to put this in perspective. I mean, can you think of the
thing that Ananias faced? But guess what he did? He trusted in the Lord. And what happened? He won
the greatest Christian to ever live. Wouldn't that be great as a soul winner for you to win
the greatest soul winner? Can you imagine that? If you won somebody to Christ and then they got
super on fire for God, they became so zealous that they did 10 times more soul winning than you.
They won 10 times more to Christ. They were a missionary and they went across this world
and they won all these people to Christ. And you say, I don't know if that happens.
What about Donny Romero? Donny Romero is a product of soul winning. Donny Romero got saved as a
result of soul winning. And you know, I think there's a lot of people, a lot of Christians in
this world that would have looked at that and said, hey, that guy, he's not going to do anything great
for the Lord. Why are you going to waste your time knocking on his door? Why are you going to waste
your time giving him the gospel? Look what Donny Romero is doing. I mean, he went out. He's won so
many people to Christ. He's starting a church. He's leading a flock. He's getting more people to win
Christ. Think about some of this. Somebody got Donny Romero saved. Wouldn't that be a great thing
to do? I mean, I think being a pastor is great, but being a soul winner is even better. And how
much better would it be to train somebody to be one of the greatest soul winners? Wouldn't that
give you great joy? When Paul was looking at the people that he converted, he was saying,
you're my joy. Why? Because we're supposed to invest in people. We're supposed to build them
up, but that's trusting in the Lord. You know, I can look at that guy and say, that guy's not
going to do anything great for God, but I'm not going to trust in myself. I'm not going to trust
my own wisdom. I could have probably looked at Donny Romero when he was unsaved and be like,
that guy's not going to do anything for God, but he did great things for God. You know,
Pastor Steven Anderson, in a way he's a subject, he's a product of soul. Because he was going to
a very liberal church and some solar came and gave him an invitation that got him into a good,
independent, fundamental Baptist church that then led him to start the church that he did. You're
going to tell me that Pastor Steven Anderson isn't one of the greatest men of God in this world. He
isn't leading thousands into Christ, that he isn't encouraging even more to be soul winners. Why?
Because of soul winning. And we need to not trust in man's wisdom, we need to trust in the Lord. He
said, go ye in the highways and preach the gospel, right? In daily in the house, daily in the temple
and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ, right? That's what we should
do. We should trust in God's word and not look at man's wisdom, not trust in our feelings, not
trust in our emotions, in all our ways acknowledge him. That's what this Bible is saying. And you
can trust in the Lord for your salvation, but why not trust him in every part of your life?
Trust him in your family life, trust him in your soul winning. That's why when I go out soul winning,
I try never to judge a person and say, I don't know about that person. I always try to give
every single person I see in the gospel. Why? Because you never know what God can do in the
heart of a man. And if I were to judge Saul in the Old Testament, I would say, that guy's obviously
going to never do anything for Christ. I mean, he's killing Christians, but what a transformation
that Saul made. And we see that man's wisdom is what altar calls, street preaching, you know,
making up their own little illustrations for the gospel. How does that work? How many people are
they winning to Christ? How many Donnie Romero's and Pastor Anderson's do they have from that?
Pretty few and far between. If we go to the chapter, go back to our main text in Proverbs
3 verse 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health
to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Have you ever gone to the convenience store when you're
a kid or something, you slip something in your pocket the first time? Like the first time you
ever stole something and it was just like inward, just your whole belly just felt rotten. I mean,
you just felt awful. Or maybe the first time you told a really bad lie to your parents and you just
felt that horrible cringe. Well, when you fear the Lord and depart from evil, it's going to be
health unto thy navel. It's going to be marrow to thy bones. You're not going to have those
feelings. And you know, unfortunately, the thing with sin is a lot of times the first time you
commit a grievous sin, you feel really bad. I mean, you feel like the cops are about to get you.
You feel like your parents are going to rain down, you know, on you. And then you get away with it.
And then you do it again and you get away with it. You start getting deadened.
But when you fear the Lord, you depart from evil, you're going to have that health unto
your navel. You're not going to need, you know, that conscience, as it were. Because everybody
has a conscience, right? But is that really keeping everybody from evil? No, we see that
the conscience really just kind of starts you in the beginning of your life. But you can really
get dead to that conscience. So what do you really need to depart from evil? You need the
fear of the Lord. You're not going to learn how to depart from evil by your own conscience,
by your own wisdom. It's only to come from this book by reading that God said, thou shalt not lie,
thou shalt not bear false witness. That's how you're going to learn how to depart from evil.
And it's going to be, you know, it's going to be sweet unto thy navel and moral to thy bones.
In verse nine it says, honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine
increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
We see that every area of our life is trusting the Lord. Now does it make any logical sense
to give money away and that you get more? I mean, does it make any logical sense to say, hey,
I'm going to take 10% of the money that I get and just give it to the church. That's obviously going
to be, you know, give me more money, right? Everybody that understands simple addition
realizes when you take money out, you have less. But if you trust in the Lord,
he's saying that he is going to have, you're going to be filled with plenty,
that thy presence shall burst out with new wine. And every time the Bible talks about new wine or
talking about wine, it's always associated with prosperity. It's always associated with great
success because there was a delicacy. Not everybody had wine back in those days. And so to
relate that to our day to day, it would just be having, you know, the delicacies that most people
don't have. You know, maybe having a nice house, maybe eating good food all the time.
Unfortunately, some people may just have to eat rice and beans. Maybe you get to have steak every
meal. You know, in America, we're spoiled a lot of times and we don't even get to understand
what this means exactly. But when you're trusting in the Lord, when you're honoring him with your
first, with their substance, he's going to give you the increase. If you turn to Malachi chapter
3, we're going to see that tithing is actually the whole Bible. It's from Genesis to Revelation.
And you know, the thing about tithing is all these prosperity teachers, all these false
apostates, they love to talk about tithing. You know, and they try to twist it and they try to
say, look, it's basically like a slot machine. You put in your tithe and you pull the trigger
and God's just going to pour riches onto you. That's not really what the Bible teaches, but it
does teach that if you honor God with your firstfruits, he's going to bless you. He's
going to take care of you. He's going to provide for you. You can be rest assured that he's going
to give you food and clothing so you can be content there with. But in Malachi chapter 3
in verse 8, the Bible says, well, man robbed God, yet ye have robbed me. But ye will say,
where in have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse,
for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes in the storehouse,
that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now there herewith, saith the Lord of hosts,
if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be
room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and ye shall not destroy
the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast your fruit before the time in the field,
saith the Lord of hosts. And this is a pretty popular verse that they'll go to,
and I believe every verse of this applies to us today. But I want to notice this last part,
because we're trusting the Lord, right? You'd say, well, if I give my tithe, that's less money.
But God says that he gives you the power to get wealth. And you don't know what could happen.
You could lose your job. God could cause, you know, you'd have a disability to where you
couldn't work and get that income. But God says if you give, if you give your tithe unto him,
that he will rebuke the devourer, and he won't destroy the fruits of your ground,
neither shall your vine cast your fruit before the time in the field. God's saying he's going
to make sure that you're going to keep getting that revenue. You're going to keep getting that
income. And you can trust in the Lord and not in yourself. Not saying, well, I'm so great, you know,
I could always get work. I could always make a good living. No, you got to trust in the Lord.
And it's trusting in the Lord to give him a tithe. Amen. And it's in the Hebrews chapter 7,
the Bible says, and here men that die receive tithes, but there he receiveth them, of whom it
is witnessed that he liveth. The Bible says, yeah, you give your tithe to the church, but Jesus
Christ is the one that receives them. And the whole point is that his house could have meat,
that his house could, you know, have, could provide. You know, putting the lights on,
you know, having a building that we can meet in, having Bibles that we can give out,
that's where the tithe comes into play. And we see with the Levitical priesthood,
it was for them to live the same way the pastors live today. It's helping them, you know, live of
the gospel so they don't have to go out and, you know, always have a secular job.
That's the point of tithing. But we're supposed to honor God with our first fruits and our substance,
and he will make sure that we're taken care of. But that's going to be trusting in the Lord. You
can't trust in yourself. In Matthew 23, Jesus said, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you pay tithe of men and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought to be undone and not to leave the other undone.
We see that tithing when Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees, good thing he did that.
But there's weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. You know,
the way you can tell a false teacher from the real teacher is a real teacher will teach you tithing,
but it'll be about, you know, one one hundredth of his teaching. It'll be about the how much it
is in the Bible. When you go to one of these false churches, they're going to talk about tithing
almost every sermon. I remember I was going to a church, really bad church, and the pastor got up
and he said, you know, we've been getting a lot of complaints, we talk about money a lot, so we're
going to reduce it down to only one sermon about tithing every month. I mean, what in the world,
25% of his preaching is just about tithing? That's what a Pharisee's like. And, you know,
they are going to twist the way about tithing. They're going to twist it and teach that,
you know, the reason why you have, you know, a drug problem is because you're not tithing.
The reason why you're lying is because you're not tithing. The reason why your wife's cheating
on you is because you're not tithing. That's not true. The reason why you're not getting
provided for is because you're not tithing. But we see that there's so many more commands of God,
and we have to have all the commandments of God and not forget all of them, forget any of those
also to be prosperous in every area of our life. We trust in the Lord for salvation. We trust in
the Lord in our family. We trust in the Lord for our tithe. We trust in the Lord that we can
depart from evil. We trust in the Lord that we can have length of days. But we see we have to
look at every area of our life. It's not just one fits all. You don't just get saved and have
blessing and everything. No, we have to look at every command of God and continue to trust Him in
every area of our life. Amen. Let's go back to our Proverbs chapter 3 verse 11. The Bible says,
My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the
Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as the father of the son whom he delighted. We see again another
area that we need to trust the Lord in chastening. You know, the wisdom of this world says that we're
not supposed to spank our kids. What does the Bible say? It says in Proverbs chapter 19,
and we'll get there later through our Bible study, it says, Chasing thy son while there is hope,
and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Proverbs 23 says, Withhold not correction from
the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the
rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. You know, the thing about children is you can't tell
how they're going to turn out until they've grown up. So I've got to put my trust in either man's
wisdom that says don't spank, or I've got to put him in the trust of the Lord, which says I should
beat him with the rod. That's right. So what am I going to trust? Am I going to trust God's Word,
or am I trusting man's wisdom? Well, if you have wisdom, if you have the fear of the Lord,
you're going to trust in God, and that's when you're going to have a great son. That's when
you're going to have your children not depart from the ways that you teach them, and you're
going to deliver his soul from hell. It's really hard for a child that was never punished to
understand that they would be punished for their sins in hell. There's a direct connection to being
shaken by your parents and understanding that chastisement of the Lord. That's why it's so
important. We go to verse 13, it says, Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that
getth understanding, for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver,
and the gain thereof of a fine gold. Now I want to read you a story, and we'll kind of finish the
rest of this chapter here, but I was thinking about the fact that wisdom is paralleled in
these next few verses with riches, and unfortunately even Christians get sucked into this mentality of
thinking, well, would you rather have more wisdom of God, or would you rather have riches? Would you
rather just strike it rich, or would you rather have the wisdom of God? Well, in this story,
we see a man named Alex Toth, and it says in May of 1990 that they went into a convenience store,
and it says that his wife, she told him that they shouldn't buy a lottery ticket since they didn't
have the money. Alex at the time, he was on disability, and Rhonda, his wife, was a nursing
assistant. They had no children together, but six from previous relationships. So do you think this
guy, you know, sounds like a guy who maybe needs more wisdom or more money? Well, let's keep going.
It says they lived on a diet of rice and beans and soup. A few days earlier, they struck,
they struggled to put down $200 on a 1979 car for Rhonda to use for work on that Saturday afternoon
in May at the Circle K gas station. Alex was determined to get a lottery ticket, and Rhonda
relented. They paid a mixture, or they played a mixture of their birthdays, and they left with
$24.76 in their pockets, all the money they had to live on for the next week. But they won. $13
million. It must have seemed like a gift from God, and it was hard to not be happy for them.
They represented the millions out there working and struggling to pay the next bill. Now this
article, in my opinion, just is completely blasphemous by saying that the gift of God is
$13 million. What a cheap gift, $13 million. No, the gift of God is eternal life. The Bible says,
for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Eternal life is not to be compared to $13 million. What a poor substitute. But the story goes on. It
says, even the omens of the payments, they chose to not get the lump sum but get the payments for
20 years. Their payments were $666,666. So their payments were $666,666 for 20 years.
Wow. Couldn't deflate their giddiness. When they talked with reporters the day after presenting
their watering ticket, both of them said they didn't want the money to change them.
Ron is still planning on working. Alex, who had not been able to work as a laborer since the 1977
car accident, mused about going back to school so that he could work in the medical field.
But Taz hoped to remain simple, private people. Says it took a while for the enormity of the
money to sink in. When they had went to look for new cars, Alex kept thinking to himself,
I can't afford this. And then he remembered, oh yes I can. He spoke of guarding against the
evils of money. It creates a lot of pressures on you, he said. We'll try to work it out.
But the pool after so many years of poverty, to live it up was too strong. The Taz took a three
month trip to Vegas. They stayed in a $1,000 a night, top room floor or room at the Miras.
And they gambled and took in shows and sucked up the fancy life. But they decided they were done
with it. They tried it on but their life didn't fit them. So you see, why do the casinos and why
do these lotteries love, you know, winners? Because they give it all back. They just go
straight back to gambling. You know, the thing about a lottery winner, even after winning $13
million, they got to go back and win more. It's never enough. You could never win enough,
is the gambler's mindset. So they came back to Hudson and bought a nice double wide on 10
acres and put up a white wrought iron fence. They moved in their parents were ready for a quiet life,
just family and Thursday night bowling. We're normal everyday people, Ronda told a reporter,
and that's the way we want to live. So it sounds good, right? I mean, they just went out,
they had a little fun, but now they're just going to go back to their normal life.
And that's what people think. Hey, if I won the lottery, you know, I just spent a little bit,
but then I'd store it up. I just go back to my normal life. Everything be great, right?
Well, they got in some TV shows. They got in some late night, you know, with Oprah and everything.
It says Ronda is, but then things change. It says, but the money was still there and the
nightmare would soon begin. Though the public did not know about it until 1996 when the toss
made news, lottery winner asked court for protection against relative. The Times headline read,
Ronda was trying to borrow any contact from her son, Stephen Moser, 19, and his girlfriend,
Jennifer Boatsis, 18. Ronda accused them of killing her dog and torching Alex 1986 Corvette.
After Alex, who's not speaking with any of their six children because of fights over money,
cut off Stephen's $500 weekly allowance. So we see that they're having a lot of family problems.
And you know what? I bet everybody in this room, if they won multi-million dollars,
you know some family members that would cause some problems. You know some family members that
would come and be like, hey, why don't you help a brother out? Why don't you start giving me some
money? And it's going to tear apart those relationships. We see they started losing
the relationships of their family. It says, it seemed that Ronda and Alex thought Stephen's
high school sweetheart only wanted his money. Shocker. After an argument, Stephen went to live
with her. Ronda accused her son of making harassing calls to her and other members of the family.
But in hindsight, maybe the biggest cue to what would unfold is that when filing the court
documents, Ronda falsely claimed she and her husband were indigent. The only source of income
she listed were their social security checks, $444 a month and $944 for Alex. The judge,
knowing this is not true, made the toss pay the court filing fee. That same year, a somewhat
famous and intoxicated singer, Birdie Higgins, slammed his car into one driving Ronda's daughter,
Tiffany Moser. Koss also made an appearance on Oprah, the Interview with the Times, 1997.
Ronda talked about the money changed everything. She said it was good as she didn't have to worry
about bills or where the next meal would come from. But on the other hand, it shredded
relationships with family and friends. Sometimes she said, I wish we could give it back. They
weren't in the news again for nearly a decade. So we see that she had the temptation of lying
on her tax. She said, you know, we only get social security checks. We're not getting these $600,000
payments every year. So she started lying on her taxes. So she started losing all of her
relationships. Then in 2006, a federal grand jury indicted Alex and Ronda on charges that they filed
fraudulent income tax returns. If convicted, they faced up to 24 years in prison. I mean,
does that sound good? And it turned out that they filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy on acres
that they'd owned and now down to a half acre. So their 10 acres went down to a half acre.
It says the IRS said that the TOS also falsely reported gambling losses to offset their winnings.
The IRS claimed Ronda owned $1.1 million in back taxes and Alex owned $1.4 million. The
$600,000 yearly lotto payments were slotted to return until 2010. So they won in 1990. It's
supposed to go all the way to 2010. But it says that they had cashed in in 1999, receiving about
$1.5 million each. So this is what happened. They were slotted to get about $7 million worth
of payments in the next 10 years. Well, they went to like J.G. Whitworth, get cash now,
and they gave him about $3 million. He gave him about half their money. Now, do you think that
they were wise enough to take that $3 million and invest it or use it wisely to make that other
three and a half in the next 10 years? I mean, what foolishness. They went ahead and just lost
all of their money. They got so, I mean, they made a good decision in taking the annulments,
the, you know, the annual payments, but then they just got too greedy at the end of the coverage
and just filled them up. They just wanted to get that last little bit. In addition to the federal
tax fraud charges, Alex was also arrested several times from 2002 to 2005. So see in 1999, the money
run out. Then what happens? He starts getting charges for writing worthless checks, growing
marijuana plants, then violating his four-year probation from drug charges by growing marijuana
plants again. So now he has a drug problem. Then the last year, Alex at 59 was declared unfit for
trial on the income tax charges because of chronic pain, heart disease, diabetes, anxiety, and panic
attacks. Last August, the talks both walking with canes and Alex clutching a large plastic bag of
prescription bottles arrived late to a federal court hearing because their car wouldn't start
and they had to wait for a neighbor to jumpstart. I mean, does this sound like a great way to go?
Now bankrupt in poor health, Rhonda and Alex moved in with their son Stephen and his wife Jennifer,
the same ones that they accused of killing their dog and wanting them dead several years later.
Says that they had reconciled. In November, Rhonda, now 50, pleaded guilty for filing false tax returns.
She faces three years in prison. She has not yet been sentenced. Alex was ordered to a federal
medical facility for treatment and was later found stable enough to stand trial, but was slated to
begin the summer. The couple had started divorce proceedings in 1992. Reconciled would have separated
again. Then in April 5th, Alex died at age 60. Senator, do you think this man, if he could go back
in time and decide, hey, do I want wisdom or do I want 13 million dollars? Well, what did he get
him? He lost all of his family. He lost his health. He had problems with the law. He got drug problems.
Says he had chronic pain, heart disease, diabetes, anxiety, panic attacks. Don't let the deceitfulness
of riches fool you into thinking that money is going to solve your problems. You know, and I've
been fond of this chat before. I thought, oh man, if I won the lottery, you know, I just pay off my debt
and everything would be great. No, I'd do the same thing to me. I'm not any better than him.
All my family members and all my friends would come. They'd start begging for money.
And if you wouldn't give them money, they'd say, oh, you hate me and you're so covetous and you're
so greedy. Why can't you give me money? And everybody's going to start fighting with you.
It's going to change everything and not for the better. That's why we shouldn't haste for riches.
That's why the Bible says in Proverbs 28, he that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye,
and consider it not that poverty shall come upon you. Now this man, when he won 13 millions
dollars, really think, hey, poverty's about to come on me. But what happened? God does not mock
what silver man soweth, that shall he reap. When we haste for riches, easy come, easy go. And we
shouldn't look for the, look for winning the lottery. I'm never going to win the lottery
because I never play. I've never played. I never will play. If I win the lottery, I mean, it's like
the odds are really stacked against my favor. I'm not even playing. Why? Because I don't even want
to win it. Why do I want all those riches? Because it's going to bring problems and destruction in my
life. It's going to make me forget the Lord. It's going to make me stop trusting in the Lord. When
you have riches, you decide, oh, I don't need to tithe. Oh, I don't need to go to church. Oh,
I don't need to trust in the Lord for my family. You start forgetting the law. You start trusting
in God. You start trusting in manna. You start trusting in the world. You start trusting in
riches. That's why God doesn't want us to be rich. That's why God doesn't want to have some quick
riches. Now all the people that were successful in the Bible that had wealth, they got it slowly
over time. They accumulated by working hard. And there's nothing wrong with working hard and
building up an inheritance for your children. But we shouldn't hasten for riches. We shouldn't be
desirous of gaining a whole bunch of money quickly. And we'll read through here in Proverbs
chapter 13. We're going to see what we should want. It says, Happy is the man that findeth wisdom
and the man that geteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise
of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies. And all the
things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand,
and her left hand riches in honor. Her ways are the ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are
peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one that retaineth
her. So you see, you're compared with what? Well, losing all your family relationships,
being filled with covetousness, having drug problems, having problems with the law,
or how about this, having peace, having length of days. That's the comparison that God's trying
to get you to understand wisdom is far better than riches. Seek after wisdom. It says in verse
18, she is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her. Happy is every one that retaineth her.
And we see God saying you want to take hold on her. And I don't have time to go through it,
but I was going to go through. In Genesis chapter 2, it talks about a man cleaving unto his wife.
The same thing as laying hold. And in Deuteronomy chapter 2, it talks about a man laying hold on a
woman. And you know that the NIV and all these false Bible versions will say rape there. But
there's a perversion of God's word. To lay hold just means you take it tight unto you.
Just like a man would take his wife and cleave unto her. The Bible has strong language here
when it's talking about wisdom. You need to lay hold onto it. You need to grip it tight.
You need to be jealous after wisdom like you'd be jealous after your wife.
And we see that true happiness comes from wisdom. In Genesis chapter 30, it's talking about Leah
is the first mention of happiness. Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed.
She calls his name Asher. We see when Leah was given a child, that gave her happiness.
And Psalms 127 is as happy as the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies in his gate. The Bible says that having children will
make you happy. And Psalms 128, it says blesses everyone that fearth the Lord and walketh in his
ways. But thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands. Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with
thee. We see that happiness comes by fearing the Lord, by following his commandments, by having
children. Psalms 144 is as happy as that people. That in such a case is as happy as that people,
whose God is the Lord. You know what comes to happiness? Having God as your Lord. You know,
I wouldn't be happy if Allah was my God. I wouldn't be happy if, you know, the Hindu gods are my God.
Some of those guys are pretty wicked. Some of those guys are pretty evil. They're pretty mean,
right? How great is it that the Lord is our God? That's when you're gonna have true happiness.
Happy is he that hath God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.
Happy is the man that feareth always, but he that harden his heart shall fall into mischief,
where there is no vision that people perish. But he that keepeth the law,
happy is he. Why does God want you to keep the law? To be happy. You want to have true happiness
in your life? Follow the word of God. That's why he said he's going to give health under your navel,
moral in your bones. Because when you keep God's law, when you're living righteously,
you're going to be happy. Jesus said, barely, barely, I say to you, the servant is not greater
than his Lord, neither he that has sinned greater than he that sinned him. If ye know these things,
happy are ye if ye do them. Jesus again re-entered the fact that if ye do the commandments,
you'll be happy. Let's keep going. He says in verse 19, the Lord by wisdom hath bounded the earth,
by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up,
and the clouds drop down the dew. We see that, how glorious is this earth? I mean the springs
of water in the ocean. We see that the rain, I mean only a wise God could create those things.
Says in verse 21, my son, let them not depart from thine eyes, keep sound wisdom and discretion.
So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace unto thy neck. Then shall they walk thy way safely,
and thy foot shall not stumble. You know, I was thinking about something that most people
memorize as a kid, and it's kind of a shame it's gone away, but Psalms 23. The Bible says,
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leadeth me in the paths
of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou
repaireth the table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
and my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. God gives us the promise of safety,
even in the midst of our enemies. And we need to be reminded of that. We need to have that written
on our heart. We need to be remembered of that. Reminded of that. You know, we hear about this
persecution and affliction, but we're not going to have any fear. It says in verse 23,
Then shalt thou walk in thy way safe, and thy foot shall not stumble. Verse 24,
When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid. Yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be
sweet. Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh.
For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.
We see that God will keep you safe, even in the midst of destruction of the wicked.
Even in the midst of the, you know, the presence of his enemies. David was like,
I will fear no evil, and your sleep will be sweet. Isn't that a great promise? I mean,
I love going to sleep sometimes. I mean, I just, I love getting into bed. And isn't it awful when
you're laying in bed, you just can't go to sleep? The Bible's saying when you're trusting in the
Lord, your sleep will be sweet. It says in verse 27, Withhold not good from them to whom it is due,
when it is thy power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again,
and tomorrow I will give, when thou hast it by thee. We see that when we see a man whom honor is
due, we should give it unto them. When we have the ability to bless somebody, we should give it
unto them. James talks about this. At first John talks about this. It says, when it's talking about
someone that was without, that you should, they should give unto them. That it be wicked to
withhold good from someone that's in need. And you know, I was thinking about this in marriage.
If your wife has honor due unto her, give it unto her. If your husband has honor due unto her,
give it unto him. And not withhold it. We're not going to live forever. And you know, you're going
to forget the good things that people do for you. When you have that moment to honor somebody,
when you have that moment to, you know, give respect to somebody, give it to them. When you
have, you know, money, you might not always have money. When you have an ability to bless somebody,
bless them now. The time is short, redeeming the days because the days are evil, right? Redeeming
the time because the days are evil. If you have the ability to bless somebody and honor is due,
give it to them. It's not saying give it to the derelict and the gutter, but to somebody who it's
due. It says in verse 29, to devise not evil against thy neighbor, seeing he dwells securely
by thee. Strive not with a man without cause, if you have done thee no harm. We shouldn't just,
you know, strive with men. We should live peaceable with all men. When you go out soul winning,
you should be giving them grace and mercy. I mean, the Bible says to reject a heretic,
but most of these people aren't just, you know, Jehovah's Witness and false prophets and these
big heretics. We should be loving and gracious under these people. We shouldn't be striving
with any man because we want to get these people saved. We shouldn't be striving with man because
it's a shame unto Christ. It's a reproach unto Christ. Amen. It says in verse 31, envy thou not
the oppressor and choose none of his ways. You know, who's the oppressor in today? I would think
one of the biggest oppressors in this world is the bank. You know, they lay so much heavy burdens of
interest. This whole world is just mortgaged up to its eyeballs. The bank is such an oppressor
and saying envy not thou the oppressor. Who is this? It's every business. Isn't the insurance
company starting to try and do interest? Isn't the car dealership trying to charge interest?
Isn't the furniture trying to charge interest? Everybody's trying to make themselves a bank
today. They're trying to get on the action. They're envying the oppressor. But we're not
supposed to envy the oppressor. We're supposed to pity the poor. We shouldn't be casting usury.
We shouldn't be casting out our money on usury. Why? Because it's wicked. Because it's evil.
You know, the thing about usury, it's so wicked because, and it's a whole sermon itself,
but the Federal Reserve, they gave out money on interest, right? So let's say they gave everybody
a hundred dollars, but then everybody owed them a hundred and five dollars. Well, if I gave you
a hundred bucks and you owed me a hundred and five, how would you ever pay that back? You can.
It's a flawed system on purpose. That's what interest is. It's a flawed system. So they have
to have inflation and they have to have all these devices to kind of tryst the numbers and make it
seem like, you know, that you could get ahead. But really it's just a way to oppress people.
That's why we shouldn't have usury. You know, when the Bible's talking about money in the
Old Testament, he gives specific amounts. Well, did he not factor in inflation? Well,
without usury, there wouldn't be inflation. He had the same amount over and over because if we
lived in a righteous society, our money would be the same yesterday, today, forever. Not,
hey, I had five bucks today and tomorrow it's only worth four dollars and the next day is worth
three. I mean, that's the oppression of this society. That's the oppression of the banks.
It says in verse thirty-two, for the fraud is an abomination to the Lord, but his secret is with
the righteous. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation
of the just. Surely he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly. The wise
shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools. And so we see in Proverbs
at the end of every single chapter, he basically gives us the same thing. We see in chapter two,
in verse thirty-two, he said, for the turning way of the simple shall slay them, and the
prospered fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall
be quiet from the fear of evil. I'm sorry, that was chapter one. We see in chapter two, it says,
that thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the path of the righteous. For the upright
shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off
from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of them. We see at the very end,
he's always making this one point, and that's that the righteous will dwell in safety and
in blessings of the Lord, and the wicked will have a great curse on their life. And they're
going to be destroyed out of the land. They're going to be cast into outer darkness where
there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. And we need to not be deceived. God is not mocked.
Every single evil deed will be repaid in this life. And we as God's people should put our
trust in the Lord. Not just salvation, but in every area of our life. In our finances,
in our family, with our tithe, with coming to church, with our soul winning. You know,
I think soul winning is one of the best ways that the church can trust in the Lord. When
the next time you're out soul winning, think of, hey, maybe this is the next Donny Romero.
Maybe this is the next Pastor Anderson. That's Anderson who was even saved. But what a great
testimony to be the person that brought him into church, right? Got him into a good Bible
believing church. Let's bow our heads and say a word of prayer. Thank you God for this
great chapter. Thank you that we can trust in you. That we don't have to rely on our
own wisdom. That we don't have to search for the wisdom of man, but that we can know that
all of your ways are right. And that we can have wisdom, we can have peace, we can dwell
in safety, that you will keep us upright. I pray that when we go out soul winning that
we trust in you, that we trust in your promises, and that we can see a great harvest in this
area. That we can not only win people to Christ, but we can bring them into church, change
their lives, train up soul winners, be reproducers, produce good fruit. In Jesus' name we pray,
Amen.