(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Man, Proverbs chapter number 14, the Bible reads in verse number one, every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with their hands. Now, when we talk about building a house, we're not talking about literally building a house. You know, you see some burly woman out there, just kind of sleeves rolled up, building a house, doing construction work. That's not what we're talking about. And we're also not talking about a foolish woman just physically just ripping shingles off the roof and throwing them, breaking windows, tearing doors off their hinges. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about something that is metaphorical here. Okay. And throughout the Bible, this idea of building a house is used. Like you might remember that in Exodus chapter number one, the midwives are instructed by Pharaoh to throw the Hebrews' babies into the river. And if it's a female baby, let it live. And if it's a male baby, to kill it. And the Bible says that the midwives feared God. And so they refused to murder the babies and they ended up defying Pharaoh. And because they did that, God blessed them. And the Bible says that God built them houses. Obviously God didn't show up and build a physical house for them. And also David built the house of the Lord as in the temple and then God actually built David a house. And what that meant when the Bible said that God built him a house is that he built him a family. He built him a legacy, right? So when the Bible here talks about the wise woman building her house, it's really talking about her building what we would call her home, her family. The house of David is talking about the family of David. He built the midwives houses. That means that he established their families. They had children and children's children and a line and a lineage and a family was established in those cases. And so the Bible is saying that every wise woman builded their house, but the foolish pluck it down with their hands, the illustration here of physically building a house and physically ripping it apart is really referring to the fact that she has a lot of power over the legacy of her home and over what her children turn out to be like and so forth. The Bible says the child left to himself brings his mother to shame, right? And so women do have power to influence their children quite a bit, especially because they're actually the primary caregiver if you think about it, because dad is off at work all day and mom is actually spending more time with the children in most situations than dad is. And so they have a huge amount of influence. You think about all the different times that we read about in the books of the kings where you have a father who's wicked, but then his son ends up doing what's right in the sight of the Lord. Or you'll have a godly father and then the son is wicked in the sight of the Lord. And you'll have this situation sometimes and sometimes it'll give us the mother's name and sometimes it won't. And sometimes it makes me wonder when it says, this guy's wicked in the sight of the Lord, but then his son grows up and does what's right in the sight of the Lord and his mother's name was so-and-so was that mother a godly influence? Because we know that in other Bible stories, mothers certainly were a godly influence. Proverbs chapter 31 starts out by saying, the prophecy that his mother taught him, right? The words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. And so it's important that women realize that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world and that raising their children is so important and setting the right tone in the home is also important. Right? The Bible says that women guide the house. And so it's important that they guide it correctly. Yes, the husband is ultimately the head of the home, but in his absence, the wife is in charge. And so she ends up having a lot of power and she can either use that power to build her house, to edify the people of the family, right? To build her sons and daughters, to build their faith, to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord or to tear them down and to be destructive in the home, causing the family to be ripped apart or causing the family to be disgruntled, provoking the children unto wrath or creating a toxic atmosphere in the home, or she could create a blessed atmosphere in the home. And so every wise woman buildeth her house. The wise woman invests in her house, spends time building her house, realizes the importance of her job and takes that responsibility seriously to build that house, not just going about her business, leaving the children to themselves, because the Bible says the child left to himself will cause his mother shame. That mother needs to be building that house. And even worse, the foolish plucks it down with her hands. She actually is destructive toward the family ethos. And so this is an important verse about mothers, women in the home and their role and how important it is and how they can either push things one way or the other. Now down in verse four, the Bible says, where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox. Now let's tie that in with what we're talking about with the home, right? We've got this idea that the wise woman buildeth her house. Part of building the house is having children. I mean, that's just the most basic unit of building the house. When God says in Exodus chapter one that he built the midwives houses, right? I mean, obviously we automatically think like, okay, they had children because that's where it starts, right? And same thing with David's house being built. He's gonna have to have children that sit on that throne and then they're gonna have children and so on and so forth. And you say, what does that have to do with oxen? Well, just as where no oxen are, the crib is clean, where no children are, the house is clean, okay? I've been in some immaculate houses, but typically they're not houses that are inhabited by small children, okay? Usually when you have small children in the home, things aren't gonna necessarily be perfect. Obviously we should all strive for cleanliness and keeping our homes in order. And obviously there are women who have lots of children that keep their house nice and clean. And of course it's possible, but in general though, let's face it, having children increases the mess. And even if you do a really good job of cleaning, there are gonna be some messes to deal with and some issues. And we find ourselves often thinking, hey, this is why we can't have nice things. Because when you've got little kids, they tend to destroy things. I've been in some houses that were immaculate that look like a museum, but here's the thing, I'm not trying to live in a museum, I'm trying to live in a house. I wanna have a family, right? I wanna have children. And so yes, little children make messes, but it's worth it to have the mess. It's worth it when things break because of the fact that having those children is worth it. And so if something's broken, if something gets destroyed, don't sweat it too much, okay? You're building a house, not a physical building, not a showpiece, to show who, right? You're building a family and that's more important. And so there's much increase by the strength of the ox. What the Bible's saying is, yeah, you could have a really clean barn, you have a really clean pen or corral if you don't have any animals in it. Of course it's gonna be clean, but you're not gonna have the benefit that those animals provide. If you have those animals, guess what? There's gonna be excrement because those animals are gonna defecate on the ground in that corral or crib or pit. There's gonna be some stuff to shovel, but there's much strength by the increase of the ox and it's so worth it to have those oxen. Here's another verse in this chapter that kind of ties in with the same idea. Look at verse number 28. The Bible says, in the multitude of people is the king's honor, but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince. So the Bible here is saying that it's desirable for the king to have a lot of subjects. Now at this time, nations were not quite as big as they are right now in most cases, right? Most kingdoms in Bible times are what we would think of as city states. I mean, if you just study the Old Testament about that region of Palestine, you got a lot of kings in a pretty small area because it's not like Palestine's that huge, is it? If you look at it on a map, it's a pretty small piece of real estate compared to say Arizona, California, right? The United States in general. I mean, it's just this little sliver of land. From Dan even to Beersheba is a statement that you hear a lot in the Bible about sort of the extremes of that area that the Lord gave to the Israelites that they dwelt in. And that's about 144 miles from Dan to Beersheba. So that's the long way. It's even less wide than that. And yet in that Palestine region, Joshua and them show up and they're fighting this king, they're fighting that king, they're fighting this other. It's a lot of kings in a small region. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? So typically when the Bible talks about kings and kingdoms, we're talking about city states. That's a term that we're probably familiar with from studying ancient Greece. And these city states could sometimes build empires. Like for example, you've got the Babylonian empire, it's based on that city state of Babylon. And Nineveh of course had a great empire and different cities at different times had empires. But nations as we know them today are different than what they had back then in most cases. But what the Bible is saying here is that a king wants to have a lot of subjects. He wants to have a lot of people. If he has a small crew, then this is not for his honor. In fact, it could be for his destruction. He could easily get wiped out. He doesn't have enough warriors. He doesn't have enough manpower. Now, even though we're probably in most cases back then talking on a smaller scale, city states, et cetera, I still think that this principle holds true even in today's world as it is right now. I don't think that too many people is the problem in places in this world that are having problems, okay? Let's take for example, a place like China. They have a lot of people, don't they? Over a billion people in China. China's a pretty big place, but most of those people are concentrated in the Eastern part of the country. And so it gets pretty dense over there population-wise. And then you've got a place like India, right? Which has a huge population of over a billion people again, maybe 1.4 billion people, depending on who's counting. And you say, oh man, India has all kinds of problems because they just have too many people. That's the problem. No, the problem is Hinduism. Problem is they worship Satan. It doesn't matter how many people or how few people you have. When you're worshiping Satan, God's not gonna bless you. And the Chinese are worshiping Satan too. Now I realize there are millions of Christians in India, literally millions, because India just has so many people, even though it's a small percentage that are Christian, there are millions of Christians. And there are millions of Christians in China. But in general, those nations have forsaken the Lord, haven't they? And the Bible says the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. Right here in this chapter, verse 34 says, righteousness exalted a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Sin is a shame and embarrassment to a group of people. It ruins their country. And so we see today places in this world that are very densely populated, that have serious problems. And so it's easy to just say, well, that's because of overpopulation. That's why they're in poverty. That's why they're messed up. But that is not why. Because if those people were worshiping the Lord and serving God and living according to the Bible, even if there were a billion of them, they'd be fine and they'd figure it out. And by the way, there are countries in this world that are extremely densely populated as well, but yet they're prosperous. You know, if you were to chart the data and take the average density of each country, people per square mile or whatever, and take those stats and then compare it to say the per capita GDP of that country, what you're gonna, and I've done this by the way, what you're gonna find is that it's not just that high population density equals poverty, low population density equals prosperity. That, no, it's not that way. Because you could find lots of sparsely populated places that are totally messed up and poor and having a lot of the same issues. And you can find other densely populated places that are doing well, that are thriving, that are succeeding. And so what determines success in many ways is the culture, which obviously the number one most important thing is religion. Serving God is gonna bring the blessing of God. But also what about just does the culture have a good work ethic? Or is the culture teaching people not to work or discouraging them from working? Or maybe not really having the same philosophy toward work? You know, and I don't care if this offends people or not, I'm always gonna defend Christian civilization and talk about how it's better than pagan civilization or Eastern civilizations that are not Christian. Ooh, this idea that all cultures are equal, all civilizations are equal, it isn't true, okay? Christ is superior. The Bible is superior. The things that the Bible teaches is superior. Now, I will say this. It is possible for heathens to have success if they employ principles from the Bible. You know, heathens, the Gentiles, which have not the law, if they do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness in their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. You know, the Bible says that human beings have the law of God written in their hearts. And so, yeah, you say, what about these pagans over here that are successful? But we could probably look at their culture and compare it to Proverbs and say, okay, they're doing a bunch of stuff from Proverbs and it's working out for them because they did stuff in the Bible. Now, they don't necessarily have the blessing of God because of their pagan religion or satanic religion. But when you've got bad culture or problematic culture or culture that is going against what the word of God is teaching and the curse of God, well then, yeah, you're gonna be super messed up. So we should interpret the world through a biblical lens. Whether it's politically correct or not, we should use a biblical lens and say, okay, Christianity good, other religions bad. Okay, these people are failing over here. Well, are they Christian? Nope, well, that explains it. God's not blessing that. Oh, oh, these people aren't succeeding? Well, are they at least following the principles of the Bible, even if they're not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are they at least patterning their culture after some of God's principles, maybe either from their own hearts just by nature or through exposure to Christianity and through maybe historical Christian influence? No, well, that explains it. And so we shouldn't just discount the effect that religion has, the effect that biblical principles have on whether or not people succeed or fail. You get a hard working group of people and they figure out how to make things work with few resources, right? I mean, it's called some families in this church, right? We got some big families in this church and big families figure out a way to make it work. Other people, they can't figure out a way to make it work. And so don't buy into this wrong paradigm that says, well, lots of people are the problem, few people better. And I'm so sick and tired of hearing about how wonderful thinking Iceland is, or it's these stupid places. It's like, no, okay, I don't wanna be Iceland, okay? And Iceland is just, oh, they're so sparsely populated or something and they just have so much peace on earth and it's so wonderful there. And all these wonderful places that are being lifted up because they're basically socialist leaning places and they're getting away from God, they're getting away from Christ and look how great they are and America needs to be more like these other places or whatever, it's dumb, okay? Because here's the thing, first of all, these Scandinavian countries that live tards are always exalting as being just these heavens on earth. Number one, the reason that those countries are prosperous is because historically they were Christian influenced countries, they were Lutheran, Protestant, whatever, and so they had a lot of Christian values baked into their culture historically, okay? That's number one, okay? Number two, a lot of them are sitting on a lot of natural resources and just to have a lot of material wealth and prosperity for that reason, okay? It's not because, because we could point to a bazillion other examples around the world and throughout history where socialism has been a total disaster, okay? But it's like, oh, let's be Norway, let's be Sweden, let's be Iceland, let's be Europe. But here's the thing about that too is that a lot of people, they talk about this stuff, it's like they haven't even really traveled to some of these places to really know what things are really like on the ground. And also, by the way, this little happiness index that always puts like Denmark and Iceland at the top or whatever, you know, what about the fact that they also lead the world in antidepressant consumption? But yet they're at the top of the happiness index because whoever's making the happiness index can just put whoever they want at the top, okay? And so that's a little bit of a rabbit trail that doesn't really, I just wanted to get that off my chest about Scandinavian countries, how great they are. They also have more children out of wedlock than most places. They also have destruction of the family taking place. They also have irreligion taking over and atheism, you know, these are bad things, okay? So don't let the world tell you, oh, this country's happy over here and they're this democratic welfare socialist place or oh, this country's, you know, they're doing bad over here because they're overpopulated. And you know, this, no, no, what does the word of God say? You know, the word of God says, happy is the nation that is in such a case, you know, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. I'm butchering that verse, but it says something pretty close to what I just said. All right, you get the idea. Happy are the people, happy are the nation, blessed is the nation, I'm just saying it every possible way so that I get it right eventually, whose God is the Lord, okay? Here's the happiness index. Who's got the most Christians? Put them at the top. Who's doing the most soul winning, right? Who's got the word of God going free? Let's put that at the top of the happiness index. Now, are there places in this world that are overpopulated? You know, obviously you could have too many people just like concentrated on a certain island or something like Manhattan Island or something is just jammed with people or everybody jamming themselves into the tip of San Francisco or something. But you know, that's not the problem because according to the word of God, that it's actually, you know, when it comes to government or the king, because I do believe that this is kind of just a universal principle here, that in general, in the multitude of people, verse 28 is the king's honor. Having a lot of people is good, but in lots of people is the destruction of the prince. So I'm not worried about the United States population getting too high. You know, I'm worried about the culture of America going down the toilet and I'm worried about the government becoming socialist and those are the kind of things that I'm not really worried about it, but I'm saying, those are the kind of things that would actually bring destruction and misery and poverty. Not, oh, Pastor Anderson had too many kids and he's teaching other people to have too many kids and everything. No, man, let's just be fruitful and multiply and let's have a bunch of kids and let's fill the crib with oxen and let's, you know, have our quiver full of them and you know, also, I don't have an issue with people moving here. You know, for example, Arizona is one of the fastest growing places, especially, the city of Phoenix is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. I saw recently it was like the second fastest growing. I know that just in the last 17 years that I've lived here, when I moved here, I believe the county had like 3.9 million people in it or something, now it's like, I don't know, what is it now? 4.7 or so, I don't know, but it went up by close to a million people or something like that, just since I've lived here in the short time that I've lived here and the growth is not slowing down. I mean, Phoenix is booming and growing and I'm for it. You know, I'm happy if more people move here. I'm not like, oh man, these people, they're moving here, it's getting too crowded, there's too much traffic or whatever, hey, the more people come here, the more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned. It is the greatest state in the world and so come on in, all right? The thing is, because if more people move into the area, that's a boost to the economy, that's good. And it's just more people for us to reach with the gospel without having to go as far to get to them. And so it's just more doors for us to knock, more people for us to get saved. And so I'm for you having kids, I'm for people moving to Arizona, I'm not scared that there's gonna be too many people. And by the way, some people have this attitude about church where they're like, oh, that church is too big, you know? What are you talking about? You know, we should want our church to grow. There are some people who they'll go to a church when it's really small and they like it, but then as the church gets big, they'll leave because, oh, the church got too big for me. We had somebody leave our church when we were running like 40 because it was getting too big. It's like, wow, you ain't seen nothing yet. And our church is considered now a big church. On average, we're like, we're four times the size of the average church size in America because the average church size in America is like either 75 or 85 people, depending on which numbers you look at, as far as the median church size. And, you know, we, on Sunday morning, run over 300. And so, you know, is that a big church? But, you know, why not run 500, 600? I mean, I'd be happy to double that or quadruple that. You know, whatever God does, you know, God's gonna build the house here. But I would say in the multitude of people, that's also a blessing, that's also an honor for the church to have a lot of people. But in the want of people is the destruction not only of the prince, but it'd be the destruction of the church. You know, if the church is getting smaller and emptying out of people, that's not good. That's not helpful, right? Wanna be growing. So I want my family to grow. I want the church to grow. I want Phoenix to grow. I want Arizona to grow. You know, I'm for lots of people. And the world out there will tell us that it's too much of a carbon footprint and we're destroying the environment and we're, you know, it's too crowded and that's where poverty comes from. But I believe poverty comes from all the things that Proverbs said that brought poverty. Because we've been studying the book of Proverbs, what did Proverbs say is gonna bring poverty? What did the Bible say? Foolishness, laziness. Isn't that what the Bible taught? Over and over again, not listening to advice, not taking godly counsel, being stupid, being lazy, sleeping in the daytime. That's what's gonna bring, poverty. Not, where's the Bible verse? Let me ask it to you this way. Where's the Bible verse that says, having too many kids is gonna make you poor? Where is that Bible verse? It isn't there. The Bible just says, you know, that as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Children are inheritance of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is his reward. How happy is the man that had this quiver full of them? That's what the Bible, there's nothing about, hey, be careful, don't have too many kids now. You're not gonna be able to afford it. No, but the Bible does say, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. The Bible does say, I've been young and now I'm old, but I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed, his seed meaning his children, begging bread. And so therefore, we should not buy into this idea that poverty is caused by too many people. Just too many people. Necessity is the mother of invention. People who have wisdom, people who work hard, they figure out a way to deal with high population, right? They find out ways to stretch their resources or they find new pipelines for their resources and they don't just crash and burn as a society. There are some societies today that are crashing and burning, but it's not because they have too many people. So India's problems are not based on too many people. It's based on their Hindu religion, their Hindu culture. That's what I would point the blame at first and foremost. I mean, you have a religion, and here's the thing, I've studied Hinduism quite a bit. And I've studied Buddhism quite a bit. And here's the thing about Hinduism, is that for Hinduism, it's considered, and obviously Hinduism's a broad spectrum of beliefs, but there's a glorification in both Buddhism and Hinduism, there's a glorification of being like a beggar, being like idol. That's like this higher level spiritually to be like a homeless person who begs. Now this is not the way Christianity looks at the world, is it? I mean, I literally, I heard an expert explaining Buddhism this way. And this was a guy who's a PhD expert on Buddhism, and he was explaining, and he said that Christianity is about something from nothing. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and Christians believe in an ex nihilo, creation by God, creation from nothing. God's in the beginning and he creates the world. But he said that Buddhists believe, and this guy was also a devout Buddhist, in addition to being a scholar, he said that Buddhism is about getting nothing from something, turning something into nothing. In fact, I've heard some people explain that the goal, Buddhism this way, that the goal of existence is to cease from activity. Now I've known some people that that seemed like that was the goal of their existence, to cease from activity. I don't think they knew they were Buddhists. But I feel like we got a lot of Buddhists around here, not in our church, but in our area here. But what kind of garbage is that? Oh, the goal of our existence is to cease from activity. I mean, here's the thing. We as Christians, we labor, whether absent from the body or present in the body, we labor, the Bible says that we may be accepted of him, right? Wherefore we labor that whether being present or absent from the body is the context, we may be accepted of him. You know, God created this earth by doing work for six days, right? He worked and he rested the seventh day. And we work six days and rest the seventh day as humans. Okay, and so this is our ethic. The Bible says, man will not work, neither should he eat. It doesn't say, hey, you can reach a higher level of spirituality where you don't work and you beg for your food. That's totally different. Isn't that a cultural difference right there? I mean, Buddhist monks, they have a little beggar bowl and Buddhist monks, they go around with their bowl and they go to people's houses in the morning and they beg their food and this is considered a virtue. If they actually went out and worked and made money that's too carnal, that's too worldly. So they are at a higher level by begging and for Hindus, the ideal way to end your life is to just kind of renounce everything and just kind of go out into the wilderness and just kind of just live outside and become a homeless mendicant. Are you familiar with this as well? Yeah, I mean, it's a thing. Okay, it's like, that way you can just kind of straighten out your next reincarnation by becoming a homeless guy in the end. Now I gotta be careful tonight because we had a voicemail today that some guy was gonna come down here and kick my butt. He didn't use that word. He used a different word for donkey. But he said he was gonna come down here and kick my whatever if I say anything bad about homeless people ever again. So, but apparently I already violated his warnings. He was supposed to be here tonight and he said that he was bringing five guys with him. And I almost wanted to text the guy back like, you're gonna need to bring a lot more than five guys. But anyway, here's the thing. I don't care if some bozo from some homeless organization threatens to come down here and physically whatever. Does he think that's the only time I've ever been threatened? Cause I get threats all the time. I get threats constantly. People are constantly gonna kill me and beat me up and do all these things to me. But guess what? I'm not gonna stop preaching the truth, okay? God says that we must work for a living as men. It's not optional. It's not a choice. It's you work. If a man will not work, neither should he eat. That's what the Bible says. And so, no, it's not spiritual to just cease from activity and just become a mendicant and become a beggar and just sit around meditating and doing whatever. You know, God tells us to work by the sweat of our face all the days of our life. Now, do you think that a culture that glorifies hard work, creation and building something is gonna be different than a culture that glorifies inactivity, navel gazing and being a beggar? So what do you think is the problem? You think they just have too many people over there? Or do you think maybe Hinduism needs to go in the trash where it belongs and we need to get Christianity, we need to get the book of Proverbs, we need to change the way that we look at life, okay? Because I believe that if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and go to work every day, you're gonna be okay. God is gonna bless you. If you seek first the kingdom of God, all these things will be added unto you. If you forsake God, all bets are off. And these Scandinavian countries that are supposedly these paradises on earth or whatever, you know, as they forsake God and get away from their Christian roots that they've had for hundreds and hundreds of years of the Bible and Christian culture, whether or not they're saved, they had the, you know, Christian culture and they definitely named the name of Christ for centuries. If they get away from that, they're gonna turn into some of the most messed up places in the world, okay? I mean, I already wouldn't wanna live in that feminist hell because I'd rather have a dinner of herbs and love there. I'd rather live in a poor country where the family unit is still intact and where men still wear the pants in their family. I'd rather eat rice and beans every day with the men wearing pants in the family than to eat a bunch of Scandinavian food so bland anyway. But even if it were good, I wouldn't want it if it comes with a bunch of feminists and just bastard children everywhere and just total blasphemy against the Lord. Not interested. You know, America has been blessed by God because it's filled with saved Christians because we go out soul winning for an hour and we typically run into multiple people that are saved in that hour, typically run into somebody who's saved every hour out soul winning. There's so many saved Christians that you run into in your daily life. You know, talk to the people at your work. You know, talk to people at school, talk to the people, and you know what you'll find? You'll find there are a lot of saved Christians out there. And if they're not saved, get them saved. But you know, you'll find a lot of people that are saved out there. That's why God has blessed America. That's why this is such a great place to live. That's why this is such a great place to live. If we get away from that, then things are gonna get worse. But right now, we're living in a lot of prosperity because of all the Christianity and all of the biblical ethics that we have as a nation and the influence of the book of Proverbs and the rest of the word of God upon us. And so I'm not worried about the population of the United States doubling or something. Great, sounds great, let's do it. Let's double the thing. It's a huge country, we've got all kinds of resources, and we can make it work. So don't buy into this philosophy for the nation. That's verse 28, don't buy into it for the home. You know, that's verse one, that's verse four, okay? Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increases by the strength of the ox. Obviously, if our church is bigger, there are gonna be more problems. The bigger the church, the more difficult it is to run the church, the more potential problems there are. But I would still be happy if our church doubled in size, even though it would mean more problems, more work, more stress, more difficult logistics, we would still want that because you know what it would mean? More manpower out on the street winning souls. Now, I'm not interested in doubling the size of the church if we're just gonna bring in a bunch of people who are just bodies who just sit here and they don't even believe like us and we just try to just get everybody in here, whether they believe like us or not, whether they even care about serving God or not. You know, we're interested in quality in addition to quantity. But man, if we could double our church's size and keep it the way it is as far as the culture of our church, keep the soul winning the way it is, keep the culture the way it is, then let's double, triple, quadruple, whatever the Lord does is great by me. Not growth for the sake of growth, but the right kind of solid growth that leads to more manpower out there on the street. You see, filling the crib here with oxen means more strength out soul winning, okay? Having children is gonna make our house dirty, but it's also a blessing to have children according to the word of God. And the blessing outweighs the problems. So yeah, obviously if our nation grows, if our family grows, if our church grows, there are gonna be logistical issues to work through. But in the end, more people is better than fewer people. In general, that should be our philosophy. That should be how we look at the world. Lots of people is good. And if there's a bunch of crowd over here and they're doing bad, well, it's because they're doing it wrong. Either they're not worshiping Christ or they're not following the Bible or both. And so the Bible says in verse number one, every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with their hands. He that walketh in his uprightness fearth the Lord, but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him. Now here's what's interesting about this verse is that it's kind of counterintuitive because it says he that walketh in his uprightness fearth the Lord. Isn't that a little bit counterintuitive? Because wouldn't you think that, well, the guy who's walking in his uprightness, he has nothing to worry about. Why would he fear the Lord? The Lord's gonna bless him. But here's what's ironic. The people who have the most to fear from God don't fear God and the people who have the least to fear from God fear God. So the guy who's living right, he's worshiping the Lord, he's following Christ, you know, God's gonna bless him, amen? But yet he's fearing God. Even though God's blessing him, he's still like, man, I'm just, this is just too good to be true. I don't even know if I deserve this. You know, wow, God's so good to me and I'm such a wretched sinner. You know, I'm just wondering when the party's gonna be over because God's so good to me. And I, you know, it's like Peter telling Jesus, hey, depart from me, I'm a sinful man. But yet God's looking at Peter saying, I want you to serve me. You're gonna be one of my top apostles. But how did Peter look at himself? He's little in his own sight. And you know what you'll find is that the greatest people think the least of themselves. The greatest Christians fear God the most. And then the people who should be afraid of God because they're breaking God's laws all over the place and offending God all over the place, they don't even fear God. Isn't that a little bit ironic? It's kind of counterintuitive. But then the second part of the verse is kind of ironic as well, isn't it? Because it says in the second part, but he that is perverse in his ways despises him, the him there is the Lord, right? Because it says, he that walketh in his uprightness feareth the Lord, but he that is perverse in his ways despises him, okay? You could say he despises the guy who walks in his uprightness because he does that too. But the primary meaning here is that the guy who's perverse in his ways despises God. He despises the Lord. Here's what's ironic about that. Shouldn't it be the Lord who's despising the pervert? I mean, that's what you expect. This guy's a pervert, he's perverse in his ways. And the Lord should be angry with him for being such a perverse dude. But yet the perverse dude despises the Lord. How does that work? What's there to despise about the Lord? I mean, the Lord is good. The Lord is gracious. The Lord's mercy endures forever. The Lord is magnificent in every way. What's not to like? What's to despise? But yet the Bible tells us that he that is perverse in his ways despises him, despises the Lord. Isn't that ironic? Should be the other way around. Well, it is the other way around also because the Bible does say that people who hate the Lord are also hated by the Lord. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieve with them that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. The Bible says that the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hated. God hates all the workers of iniquity, the Bible says. So these, and we're not talking about just your average garden variety, unsaved person or sinner, but the Bible teaches that those who love violence, those who are haters of God, those who are mega perverse in their ways, that the Lord hates them. Well, guess what? The feeling's mutual because the Bible says that he that is perverse in his ways despises the Lord. So both parts of that verse are counterintuitive, aren't they? And so just as you might think to yourself that, oh, you know, having a lot of kids is going to make me poor. What you have to understand though, is that things in the Bible don't always work out the way that you and your human understanding would think they would work out, which is why we should trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not under our own understanding. Some things in life end up being counterintuitive to where we look at this and say, hey, the guy who's upright, he's the one who fears the Lord. The guy who's perverse doesn't fear the Lord. He doesn't fear the Lord at all. He hates the Lord, but he's not afraid. He rages and is confident in his wickedness. And so a lot of things about life, a lot of things about the world, a lot of things about the Bible are counterintuitive. The way up is down. You humble yourself, you'll be exalted. You exalt yourself, you'll be abased. And so we need to trust what the Word of God is saying here. In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise shall preserve them. Verse five, a faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness will utter lies. A scorner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not, but knowledge is easy unto him that understand it. Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly fools the deceit. Fools make amok at sin, but among the righteous there is favor. Now verse seven is such an important verse. Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Don't waste your time arguing with idiots, okay? I mean, I've had some people come at me with some of the stupidest things over the years and just say some of the stupidest things to me. And sometimes I just didn't even answer them because what they're saying is so absurd, I don't wanna answer the fool according to his folly. The foolish man, he doesn't wanna learn according to the Bible, he doesn't listen. So don't give that which is holy unto the dogs or cast your pearls before swine, trying to straighten out every foolish person in this world. Instead, just go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Because the Bible says in verse six, a scorner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not, but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth. People that wanna learn, people that are open to the truth, people that love the truth, and the truth is gonna come easily to them. If they seek, they'll find, when you explain some of them for the word of God, they're gonna understand it, they're gonna grasp it, they're gonna get it. And then there are other people, you could braid them among wheat in a mortar with a pestle and yet their foolishness will not depart from them. So don't waste your time arguing with bozos and trying to convince them that you're right because it's not worth it. And then it says in verse nine, fools make a mock at sin, but among the righteous there is favor. This also ties in with the fact that the upright man fears God, whereas wicked people, sinful people don't fear God. Their actions, according to the book of Psalms, tell us that there's no fear of God before their eyes. What does that mean, fools make a mock at sin? I think that this verse actually is saying primarily that they kind of make fun of the idea that sin even exists. Like, sin? Well, who says this is wrong? Oh God, what do you mean sin? What does that supposed to mean? Like I've heard a lot of atheists and agnostics just act like sin doesn't even exist. Like there's no such thing as sin. So they make fun of the idea that there's a rule, that God has a rule and that God will punish people who break that rule. That's funny to them, right? They'll make fun of that. They'll scorn that, they'll mock that, they'll laugh at that. And then we could also interpret this as fools make a mock at sin. Basically that specific sins, they'll think it's fine to joke about doing it because they don't have any fear of God. So they'll joke about committing adultery. They'll joke about being a homo. They'll joke about getting drunk and getting high and like, hey, look at me, I'm going to hell now. I mean, how many times have you heard people do that? They'll literally be like, oh, look at me, I'm drinking. God's mad at me right now. God's making a mock at sin right there. Oh man, I guess I'm in trouble now. I guess God's gonna punish me now. I guess I'm cursed by God. I guess we're all going to hell. It's like, yeah, you probably are if you're talking that way, because it sounds to me like you don't even believe that God even exists if you talk that way. You know, there was a young person in our church that said something along the lines of, you know, oh yeah, I'm going to hell and we're going to hell. And it was, but it was a joke. It's like, well, that's not funny. And it makes me doubt your salvation when you're going around joking that you're going to hell, because, you know, that's not funny at all to someone who actually believes in heaven and hell. I don't see how that would be funny. I'm not saying that the person wasn't saved, but I'm saying it makes me doubt somebody's salvation when they make a mockery of salvation and heaven and hell. And when somebody is making a mock at sin, it just shows that they're a complete idiot, because the Bible says fools make a mock at sin, right? And so we have this idea in verse six of the scorner. The scorner is the type of guy who makes a mock at sin, because what's a scorner? It's somebody who's always, you know, I guess joking or making fun of that which is right. And the Bible talks about in the last days, there'll be scorners and mockers that would say, you know, where is the promise of Christ coming, right? So the scorner is kind of the class clown idiot who everything's a joke unto him, and he's not taking learning seriously. He's not taking wisdom seriously. He doesn't take the Lord seriously. He doesn't take the consequences of his actions seriously. So he's the same kind of guy that makes a mock at sin. The scorner, he seeks wisdom and he doesn't find it. But knowledge is easy to him that understand it. Go from this idiot when you run into him, right? Verse seven, go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in the lips of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit. And so don't waste your time arguing with bozos. A man that is in heretic after the first and second admonition reject when it comes to spiritual doctrine and heresies, but also just people that are just stupid in other areas. There's no point in getting in arguments and trying to prove that you're right. And you know, back on the subject that we were on earlier about nations, because we talked about how you've got this idea out there that says population is driving poverty. Whereas God says, be fruitful and multiply. The king's honor is in more people and his destruction is in a want of people and more people is good and so forth. And we're talking about how like what makes a nation blessed is that their God is the Lord, or if they're at least following biblical principles and that, you know, that's what we would look to first about why certain nations are doing well and others are doing poorly is, are they following the book of Proverbs and are they following Christ, right? I kid you not, I had somebody tell, I made the point recently that I make all the time for the pulpit saying, hey, you know, we ought to be thankful that we live in the United States because it's one of the safest, most prosperous places around. Amen, who believes that? Who believes that we're super blessed as far as like 8 billion people in the world, like we're in the top whatever percent as far as just being safe and healthy and prosperous by living in the US and that even poor people in the US are doing way better than people living in a lot of other countries, like you'd rather be poor in the US than to be the average guy in a lot of countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, different places that are rough places, amen? Who agrees with me on that? I mean, I think it's pretty clear, I think it's pretty obvious. So I had somebody tell me, they said, well, that's not accurate. That's just factually inaccurate to say that America is one of the safest and most prosperous places. And you're kind of like, huh? Like, isn't that kind of obvious to everyone that it's one of the safest, most prosperous places? And they said, well, you know, there's this, here's the proof. The United States is 129th on the global peace index. So I was like, what's the global peace index, right? I was curious, like, what is that? So I Googled global peace index and a website pulled up and sure enough, the United States was 129th place on the global peace, and here I thought, you know, we were enjoying a pretty peaceful life over here, amen? It's kind of how it feels from where I'm standing. And even in some of the worst ghettos in America, and I've spent time in some bad neighbors. I used to go to South Chicago every weekend, Saturday and Sunday, soul winning and preaching for two years while I was in Bible college in South Chicago. And it was the murder capital of America at the time. And you know, but I'll tell you what, I felt a lot safer there than I would feel in a lot of other countries in this world where it's even worse, okay? I'd feel a lot safer in Chicago, in South Chicago than I would in say, Johannesburg, South Africa or Cape town or Honduras. But anyway, so I'm looking at this global peace index, right, 129th place, United States. So of course, number one is Iceland. Oh, Iceland, so wonderful. But anyway, I'm looking at this thing and I'm looking at countries that are higher than the US on the global peace index. And one of the countries that was higher up was Haiti. What do you think Vlad? Vlad's from Haiti. You think it's dangerous? But he is above the US on the global peace index. You know what? Oh, so you reject the science? Why don't you accept the science, Vlad? This is scientific data. Okay, here's another country that was higher than the US, Ghana. Republic of the, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Cuba. The Philippines. Honduras. Now look, I did a quick Google search on Honduras and there was a website, npr.org, that said that Honduras is the murder capital of the world and that their government is pretty much like a failed state and that it's like collapsing and that there's a lot of anarchy there. Look, I feel way safer anywhere in the US than to just be just taking my chances in Honduras and Haiti and South Africa. I mean, I'd rather be in, I'd rather walk through Detroit in the middle of the night than to walk through Cape Town, South Africa in the middle of the night. The rape capital of the world that, you know, they would be the murder capital if Honduras didn't give them a run for their money, where you can pay about $50 to have someone killed in South Africa. I mean, look, friend, what kind of a bizarre index is this? Global peace index that puts the United States below Haiti, Ghana, Congo, Philippines, Cuba, all these different places, Honduras, Nicaragua. All these places, and I'm just like, what? So I, you know, so I basically, I responded to this person. I said, well, hey, I looked at the global peace index and it says that Haiti and, you know, and I listed those countries that I just mentioned and maybe even a few more. And I said, so, you know, I'm just gonna reject this list out of hand. I'm just like, this list is, and did this person say, you're right. Thank you for pointing out the obvious. Yeah, I guess you're right. This index must have nothing to do with how safe and prosperous these places are because obviously Haiti's not more prosperous than the US. Obviously it's not safer than the US. They just said, well, you know, well, this is science. These are facts. Just go, oh, you just don't believe in it. So you just don't believe in it? So you're just gonna reject this list because you don't believe it? Where are your sources? This is what this person asked me. Give me a respected source to prove you're right. And I'm thinking to myself for a second, like, did you just ask me for proof that the US is more prosperous than Haiti? Like, you want me to find some kind of a well-respected source or some kind of scientific data? You know, where's the data? I don't need a scientist to tell me that the US is safer and more prosperous than Haiti. Right, like if you need science to tell you that, you need to reevaluate your view of science. Okay, but here's the thing. You wanna know what my answer to that was? You wanna know what my answer to that was? When I, you know, I gave one answer. I said, well, wait a minute. Haiti, Congo, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras? That was the answer. I said, ah, and then it's like, oh, no, you know, this list is accurate and whatever. You know what my answer was at that point? What do you think my answer was? My answer was nothing. My answer was silence. Because what, look, if someone can sit there and look at you and say, do you have a source for the US? Can we fact check this? Let's get a fact checker over here to figure out if the US is safer and more prosperous than Haiti. And I'm not trying to pick on Haiti, Vlad. It's just, you know, you're here and it just, it works. It's just, it's just a great example. And I would, look, I would love, let me just say this right now. Less people think I hate on Haiti. I would love to go to Haiti someday. And I would love to go soul winning in Haiti, but I'm gonna watch my back when I'm in Haiti. I'm gonna have Vlad with me looking around, making sure everything's cool. I'm gonna, I'm gonna wanna be with the locals, making sure everything's cool. And, and you know, hey, I would love to go to South Africa if I weren't banned from there for life. But like, man, if I went to South Africa, I would love to go to the US. Like, man, if I went to South Africa, man, I'd be watching my back and I'm not gonna be out after dark. I'm gonna be indoors before that sun goes down. I promise you that. I'm not just gonna be out there taking my chances in these super dangerous places. But here's the thing, if someone, if I sit there and just give someone the most obvious truth, hey, we should be thankful for living in the US. We should be thankful that it's safe here. We should be thankful for the prosperity here. No, no, it's 129th on this index. You know, if I then point out Haiti and Cuba on the index and this person just tells me no, what does that tell you about that person? That there's nothing I could say to change their mind because they don't care about the truth. They don't care about the facts. They don't care. They have their belief. And so why would I aggravate myself or them by getting in an argument? And so don't feel like you have to argue with everybody in life, amen? You know, it's like, go from the presence of the foolish man when thou perceive is not in him the lips of knowledge. You're wasting your time with people who are that foolish, who don't care about truth. They are just hateful toward our Christian culture. They're hateful toward conservatism. They're hateful toward our way of life. And so they just, they want to be a lip tard. Iceland is wonderful. And even Cuba is better than the US, according to these people. I've never been to Cuba. I'd love to go to Cuba, love to go soul winning there. But I'd probably be watching my back there. And I bet you I'd probably be more prosperous than the people there. And I bet you that there's gonna be a lot of poverty there and a lot of problems there that are worse than the US. Who thinks here that you'd rather live, that probably everyone would rather pretty much live in the US than Cuba? Like, I mean, yeah, I think that that's pretty clear, isn't it? But man, this is controversial stuff tonight. I tell you, you know, the point is though, that, you know, arguing with these kinds of people is a waste of your time. And it's just gonna frustrate you. That's why I just gave one fact. And when I saw that they don't get, you know, if I'm out of soul winning, I show somebody a Bible verse and they just completely blow it off. I show them another verse, they just completely blow it off. I don't even get mad. It's just like, all right, have a good day. Bye, see you later. Because there's no point in wasting time talking to people who don't wanna listen, who aren't interested. And so, you know, these basic truths are found in the word of God. We know that it's righteousness that exalts the nation in verse 34, but that sin is a reproach to any people. We know verse 33, that wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding, which is the godly Christian who has the fear of the Lord in his heart, because that's the beginning of understanding. But that which is in the midst of fools is made known. And that which is in the midst of the fools, the author of Proverbs is sparing us what that is. But let me just tell you what it is, okay? It's they're full of dung. They're full of excrement. They're full of beans, okay? So the Bible is saying like, wisdom rest in the heart of him that understanding, but fools are full of it, is what he's saying. Like he's not saying what that it is, but just kind of fill in the blank with they're full of beans, they're full of garbage, they're full of trash, fill in the blank with what you want them to be full of. They're full of it, right? And so seek wisdom, shun folly, and let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for this chapter. And Lord, I pray that you would allow all of us to not be brainwashed by these bizarre woke times that we're living in with all these strange, bizarre doctrines and political views. That are being espoused by people in our country, Lord, help us to always make your word the final authority in our lives and to not get sucked in by all of the false doctrine that's out there and sucked in by all these wrong philosophies about the world that reject what you've told us in the book of Proverbs, Lord, help us to not be fooled. And also not to waste our time arguing with people that are so off the deep end, Lord, and to just realize that they're just, they're only hurting themselves by being so foolish. Lord, bless us as we go our separate ways. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.