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Amen. Amen. Chapter 15, verse 1, the Bible reads, a soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. And if there's one theme that is really emphasized in this chapter, it has to do with the tongue. Even in the very next verse, says the tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. There's a lot of talk in this chapter not only about the tongue, but also about how wicked people, foolish people, they don't want to listen to wisdom. They don't want to be corrected. They don't want to be told the truth. They would rather just feed on foolishness. And so this is probably a good thought, in fact, going into the Thanksgiving holiday, because sometimes on Thanksgiving, you end up getting together with people that you don't see very often, maybe extended family or friends from far away. And a lot of times these people are not saved, or maybe they're saved and they're some kind of a liberal watered down Christian, so they don't really see things the way that you see them. And so it's important to realize that a soft answer turns away wrath. We want to make sure that we don't just get into fights with people for no reason or strive with people without a cause. You see, the wicked people, the foolish people, they don't want to receive instruction. They don't want to receive reproof. And so therefore, I don't want to give it to them, OK? And the Bible says, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you, right? Don't cast your pearls before swine, folks. If people aren't interested, if people don't want to hear the truth, then I don't want to speak the truth to them, because there are plenty of people in this world that do want to hear the truth, that do want to learn, that do want to be instructed. That's who I'm interested in talking to. And if someone doesn't want to learn, then I don't want to teach that person, because it's just me wasting my breath, getting frustrated, et cetera. You know, soul winning is the same way. When I go out soul winning, I want to talk to people who want to hear the gospel. And I remember when I first started soul winning, I didn't even ask people if they wanted to hear the gospel. I would knock on someone's door. I'd greet them friendly and talk to them. And I would pretty much just roll into the gospel without even asking them if they wanted to hear the gospel. I would just roll into it and just kind of make them stop me and send me away if they didn't want to hear it. But here's what I found. I found that I was wasting a lot of time at the doors of people who had no interest in what I was saying and would just sort of glaze over as I talked to them. And they were just kind of just a captive audience trying to figure out how to find a way to extricate themselves from this conversation. They weren't interested. They didn't want to hear it. And so that's why I don't do that anymore because I'm not really interested in just wasting my time and wasting my breath, giving the gospel to somebody who's looking around and not paying attention and has no interest in what I'm saying. When there's a guy down the street who is interested and I'm burning up a bunch of time with somebody who doesn't care, you know, I'd much rather ask people, hey, can I take five, 10 minutes and show you what the Bible says? And if they have no interest, I'll plant the seed, I'll leave them with a verse, but I'm not gonna force it upon anyone because there's no point because they're not open, they're not receptive. Today's not their day apparently. So I'd rather just plant the seed and move on because I'm looking, when I'm out someone, I'm looking for that person who wants to hear the gospel, whose heart God has prepared, that person who is ready to be saved. You know, that's who I would rather be talking to. And of course I'll, you know, plant the seed everywhere I can and talk to everybody I can. But especially when someone is some kind of a godless liberal or something, let's say at a family gathering and you know this person is hostile toward the things of God, hostile toward the truth, hostile toward righteousness, you know, that Marxist relative of yours that's over at the dinner, you know, you don't necessarily have the need to straighten that person out because they're not even worthy. You know, my views and my opinions are a gift that I give to people that are worthy of it. You know, I'm not just gonna sit there and just force my views down everyone's throat because frankly, they don't deserve to hear the truth if they're not open, if they're not receptive, if they're not teachable, then what's the point? I'm just wasting both of our time. So it's better to just use a soft answer to turn away wrath when maybe something flares up at the dinner table and some kind of a argument breaks out. I would rather just try to be diplomatic, diffuse that, make light of it and turn the conversation to something lighter because of the fact that it's not worth it fighting with people that are hostile to the gospel or hostile to the word of God or the truth or whatever. I'm not interested, frankly. You know, and look, I wanna preach the gospel to every creature. But at the same time, the Bible says, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. Some people have an ear to hear and some people don't. And Jesus constantly said, he that hath an ear, let him hear. Jesus was constantly going out into the wilderness and people were coming to him to hear. And he would go into the temple and he would preach to those who wanted to hear, but his voice was not heard in the streets. He didn't strive or cry, neither was his voice heard in the streets. He wasn't just going around, picking fights with people, striving, yelling, and just getting in people's faces and just preaching on the street to no one in particular. No, he was approaching and talking to people who had an interest in what he had to say. And he said, he that hath an ear, let him hear. If any man thirst, let him come and take the water of life freely. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is righteous, let him be righteous still. He that is holy, let him be holy still. That's a Bible verse. So it's not my job to straighten out every single person in this world, because guess what? That which is crooked cannot be made straight. That which is wanted cannot be numbered. Not everyone can be fixed. And so therefore you're gonna get really frustrated if you feel like you have to right every wrong in the world and straighten out every libtard in this world and just force everyone to be saved. You can't force anyone to be saved. All you can do is offer the truth, present the gospel. But here's the thing, a man that is a heretic after the first and second ammunition reject. Somebody is a heretic, somebody's already had a chance and they're not interested and they don't wanna hear it. And if I start giving somebody the gospel and they say, I don't wanna hear this. You know, I can think of so many times that I was just in a situation in my everyday life and I went to witness to somebody, not door-to-door soul winning, but just in everyday life, you're with somebody and you bring up the gospel. And there have been people where I brought up the subject of the gospel and they just shut me down. You know, I just said something about what it takes to be saved and they just shut me down and just, you know, I have no interest in that. I'm not religious at all. I don't wanna, you know, I don't wanna offend you, but I just, I'm not a Christian. I don't wanna hear about it. Well, guess what? You're gonna hear about it hanging around me, buddy. So buckle up, buttercup. No, I would just say like, okay, okay, no problem. Because you know what? It's your loss, right? It's not, it's no skin off my back. If he's hostile toward the word of God, then I'm not gonna force him to listen. You know, hopefully God can work in that person's life. Hopefully maybe my testimony can eventually have an impact or God can work in that person's life. And look, this is not an excuse to not give the gospel. I'm talking about when you've attempted to give the gospel or you've started to take the conversation in that direction and they're clearly telling you, I don't believe that, I don't wanna hear that, I'm not interested, then you're wasting everybody's time by forcing the issue and you're just ruining Thanksgiving for no reason at that point, okay? And so a soft answer turneth away wrath. Oftentimes when angers flare and maybe, and I'm talking about, you know, maybe unbelievers or people that don't believe the word of God would come to Thanksgiving and get an argument. But not only that, just even among saved brothers and sisters in Christ, arguments about just other mundane things or trivial things can break out. And always remember that a soft answer turneth away wrath. You don't have to die on every hill. You don't have to fight every battle. You don't have to argue every point. You know, your brother or your sister says something that isn't true, it must be corrected. No, it doesn't. Your brother or sister says something stupid, let it go. They say something that isn't accurate, let it go. You know, we need to turn the other cheek as Christ said and not fight every battle. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Somebody blows up at you, somebody's rude to you, somebody's angry at you. Usually you can just diffuse that by giving a soft answer. How about saying you're sorry, even if it wasn't your fault just to shut them up, just to end. And I don't mean doing it where it's obvious that you're doing it to shut them up. Okay, sorry, you know. But actually just saying, hey, you know what? I'm sorry. I'm sorry, my bad. You know, just let's just forget I said anything, right? Let's just move on. Sorry about that, my mistake. Who cares, right? You can just be a lot happier and not have this over sense of justice where you always have to have justice for yourself all the time because Jesus Christ, who is the king of righteousness, according to the word of God, that's what his title is called, right? King of righteousness. He said, turn the other cheek, resist not evil, right? Let it go, don't worry about it. And so we need to follow that advice that a soft answer turneth away wrath and grief is worth stirrup anger. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools pourth out foolishness. Look, foolish people, atheists, liberals, other weirdos, they're gonna say stupid things. Their mouths pour out foolishness because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, they're an idiot. They're gonna say stupid things. Realize it and don't worry about it, right? Let them pour out their foolishness as the wise useth knowledge aright. Verse three, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the good and evil. God sees everything that's going on and this is why we don't have to write every wrong in the world because God sees everything and God's gonna take care of everything in the long run. You know, there's a scoreboard in heaven and it always reads the right score and we don't have to settle every score on this earth, do we? Because God's got it under control. God sees everything, he'll take care of it. Verse four, a wholesome tongue is a tree of life but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit, right? Perverseness in the tongue is just a manifestation of a breach in the spirit. There's a problem spiritually. Something's broken inside, that's where the garbage is coming from because what people say is a reflection of what's in their heart. It says in verse six, in the house of the righteous much treasure than the revenues of the wicked is trouble. The lips of the wise disperse knowledge but the heart of the foolish doeth not so. So look again, I'm all for those who know the word of God dispersing knowledge, speaking the word of God but they should speak the word of God to those who have an ear to hear, right? I'm up here three times a week preaching the word of God, right? But the people that are here at church, they've come here because they're interested in the Bible. They wanna hear the word of God. They want to be taught scripture, okay? I'm not gonna go to someplace where people have no interest. I'm not just gonna go down to a bar and there are people who do this and just bust into a bar and say, all right, let me have everybody's attention. I'm here to preach the word of God to you. I mean, that's just an exercise in futility. It's a waste of my time. It's a waste of their time. It's obnoxious, it's counterproductive. If you really wanna reach the lost, you go door to door and you just talk to them one-on-one like a normal person. You kindly give them the gospel. Making a scene in a bar is more just something to pump up your own ego. Like, hey, look at what a bad dude I am. I bust into a bar and just take over the place and I take over at this bus stop or whatever and I'm just gonna rebuke everybody. It's more of an ego thing and there are channels like this on YouTube and people who do these kind of ego things of just showing how bold they are or whatever, but really it's not following scriptural principles. Yes, we wanna preach the gospel. Yes, we wanna disperse knowledge, but we're looking for people that are worthy of the knowledge that we're imparting unto them, the people that actually have an ear to hear. The Bible says in verse eight, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. Now, in this context, the sacrifice here, this is talking about worshiping the Lord in the Old Testament, bringing down some kind of a ram or a lamb or a goat or a calf or whatever the animal sacrifice unto the Lord. God's not impressed by people going through a religious ritual if they don't even believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. If they're not even actually trusting in the Lord, if they're not actually justified by faith in the sight of God, then even their prayer, the Bible says he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. And the Bible says here, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. Now, notice that it doesn't say the sacrifice of the wicked doesn't accomplish anything. Is that what it says? Sacrifice of the wicked is neutral with the Lord. He's not impressed. It scores you no points with God. No, it actually makes the Lord mad, actually makes him angry. This is why people should not be forced to be a Christian because of the fact that the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. The only sacrifice that God accepts is that which comes from a willing heart, right? God loves a cheerful giver. And the sacrifice of the wicked, people going through religious motions, religious rituals, claiming the name of Christ. I mean, think about, for example, the Mormon church and all their works that they do in the name of Jesus. It's an abomination. God hates all that. The Roman Catholic church has all kinds of rituals and things that they're doing in the name of Jesus. And it's an abomination unto God. And that's why one day when those people say, Lord, Lord, if we not prophesy in thy name and in thy name of cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works, then will I profess to them, I never knew you. Depart from me that work iniquity. Why? Because the unsaved people's wonderful works, God looks at those, those are works of iniquity. All the good deeds you did down at the United Methodist Church, down at the Roman Catholic Church, down at the Mormon Church, down at the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall, that stuff is an abomination unto the Lord. You know, they think they're serving God. They think they're doing in the name of Jesus, but actually they are just making God angry because their sacrifice is an abomination to the Lord. You know what I constantly see now in public places is the Jehovah's Witnesses, Brother Jake Thornton, I think he called it like the Tower of Doom or something. But they have like, they have this little Tower of Doom set up with their pamphlets and they just kind of stand there like. And they're not talking to anybody. Nobody's talking to them. They're just kind of like, and they'll be like these really crowded places and they're just like. Now here's the thing about that. I love it and here's why I love it because I don't want them going door to door. Why? Because if they go door to door, they're actually gonna talk to somebody and preach their garbage to somebody. But now they just go out there and just stand there smiling and talking to no one next to their Tower of Doom and nobody cares and nobody's ever talking to them. And so it's so ineffective. That's what I love about it is that it doesn't work. That's what's so great about it because let us be the ones that get the reputation for going door to door. Instead of going door to door and people say, oh no, is this the Mormons? Is this Jehovah's Witnesses? Hopefully they'll start saying, hey, it's the Baptists coming to our door because the Jehovah's Witnesses, they used to do that when I was a kid, but now they just stand and smile at people next to a bunch of pamphlets that nobody wants to read and nobody cares about. I wish the Mormons would discover this new ineffective, stupid, worthless method. But the sad thing is some independent fundamental Baptists, they wanna do the Tower of Doom. And basically they wanna do these kind of evangelism methods where they just kind of set up shop and wait for people to come to them. We need to go to people. And I'm not against setting up at like, like you were talking about setting up at a fairs or different places. I'm not against having a spot in a crowded area, at a park at a fairs. But you gotta approach people and talk to them. You gotta greet people and talk to them and open your mouth and go to preach the gospel to the people so that you can find that one that wants to hear the gospel. But the difference is that we actually have something to say that's true. When I see that Jehovah's Witness Tower of Doom, I'm angered by it. I wanna just walk over and just kick it over. But I don't kick it over because I like it, because it's keeping them off the streets, right? When I get the gang members off the streets, when I get the Jehovah's Witnesses off the streets, right? Get them in an afterschool program, standing next to a pamphlet smiling. I love it, keep them off the streets. But the thing that, you know, I kinda just wanna go off on the Jehovah's Witnesses, but I'm not going to because I need to stay on point here. But they are, their works that they're supposedly doing to spread the word of God, it's an abomination to God. Wicked people, I don't want wicked people claiming the name of Christ and speaking in the name of Christ and speaking in the name of God. That's why it was so stupid throughout history when governments have forced people to be Christian. Because you know what they're doing? They're just bringing a bunch of unsaved people into the house of God to corrupt it, to pervert it. That's what the Roman Catholic Church is. The Roman Catholic Church is, hey, let's make all these pagans be Christian. Well, here's the thing, when you make all the pagans be Christian, what you're doing is bringing a bunch of unsaved people into the church, and then the unsaved people are gonna influence the church, the church is gonna become catering toward them. And that's where you just get a church full of unsaved people. If I could make a law that said everybody had to be Baptist or everybody had to come to church, I would never make that law because it would be a disaster, right? The whole point of church is that it's actually people who are saved showing up of their own free will, of their own volition. Now, obviously, we bring our children to church because they're not old enough or smart enough to make those kinds of decisions. Just like we make them brush their teeth. We don't just say, hey, I don't wanna force dental hygiene on you. You know, you're three years old, and I don't wanna force anything on you. So just brush your teeth as you see fit. You don't have to eat any vegetables if you don't want to. Obviously, our children, we raise them, but at some point, our children are gonna grow up and become adults, and they're gonna have to make the decision for themselves to come to church and which church they're gonna go to. They're gonna make those kinds of decisions, and we need to teach them right and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and train up a child in the way he should go so that when they grow up, they will make that right decision, but they have to make that right decision on their own because once they're adults, they're gonna have that freedom as adults. I mean, obviously, anybody who lives in my house is going to church. If people even spend the night at my house, they have to go to church. No one's allowed to spend the night at my house if they're not going to church with me the next day, okay? So that's just the rule, you know? I mean, that just makes sense because it's my house. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. But you know, grown adults living out there on their own, you know, them that are without, God judgeth. And so people have that freedom, and they should have that freedom because we don't want the wrong people joining in with Christians in the house of God because the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. And it says, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. You know, when we pray to the Lord, he delights in that, which is kind of hard to imagine. It's kind of amazing because it's a humbling thought because we think of ourselves as just, you know, we're just like, David, what is man that thou art mindful of him? You know, we're kind of thinking like, who am I that God would delight in my prayer? God wants to hear from me, little old me. It's amazing that I even matter in God's plan. But we do thank God as children of God. And the way I think of this is that we as parents delight in our children. Even though obviously at age one, two, three, they're not super smart, they're not super powerful, they don't really necessarily have a lot of wisdom to offer, but don't we just delight in every little thing that they say? I mean, they say some silly, funny thing and we love it. And they say their first word, I mean, my wife was just all excited earlier about Oliver saying ba, you know? And he wasn't saying eight in Chinese, he was actually, you know, talking about like a bottle or something. But it's like, oh, look, he said ba, you know? Oh, wow, you know? And we get excited about that, right? As parents, we get excited about watching our little toddler take their first steps. And, you know, they're not running a marathon, they're just kind of stumbling forward and then collapsing. And we're like, wow, great, you know? So we're excited. But why are we excited? We're excited because we love them. We love them, we delight in them. And even as our kids get older, we delight in them when they're seven, eight, nine, 10 years old. Then they're teenagers, no, I'm just kidding. We still, we delight in our teenagers. And here's the, it's not because they act perfect. It's not because they're super good at something necessarily, although maybe they are. We delight in them because we love them because they're our kids. Well, God loves us. And so even though when we do something really cool from our human perspective, from God's perspective, we're kind of just like taking some baby step. You know, we go out soul winning and we win our first person of the Lord and it feels pretty awesome. Like, wow, you know, I'm like, I'm right there with the apostle Paul, man. I'm out there evangelizing, you know? And it's kind of a baby step, obviously, in God's point of view, but God loves it. And God's thrilled and God's impressed by it. He's delighted in it, not because it's so great, but because he loves us, because he delights in us. Just like we delight in our children and every little slobbering syllable that they say, we get excited about it. Same thing with God. You know, when we pray to God, even though we don't know how to pray as we ought, the Bible says, God still delights in our prayer. And that's a comforting thought to realize that God loves us and he cares about us. He delights in our prayer. So don't get this attitude that says like, well, I don't matter and I'm not important. And God's so great and God's so big and I'm such a sinner. Like Peter said, you know, depart from me, Jesus. I'm a sinful man. But did Jesus want him to depart? No, I mean, Jesus wanted Peter to follow him. And so don't get that attitude because God does love you. God does care about you. You do matter. And if you pray to the Lord, that makes God happy, right? Because the prayer of the upright is God's delight. Verse nine, the way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord. Again, what does abomination mean? It means it's something that God hates, okay? So God hates the way of the wicked, but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness, right? So if you're doing what you're supposed to do, God loves that. God delights in your prayer. He's happy that you're saved. He's happy that you're living for him. And he delights in that. The Bible says in verse 10, correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way. And he that hateth reproof shall die, right? If you don't like being corrected, you better fix that right away. And again, there are gonna be people out there that don't like being corrected and don't like hearing the truth. Don't even waste your time on those people because they're not worth it. After first and second admonition, just reject. Hell and destruction are before the Lord. How much more than the hearts of the children of men. Verse 12, a scorner loveth not one that reproveth him. Scorner doesn't love someone who corrects them, right? Neither will he go unto the wise. And the context there is he won't go to the wise for advice or to learn something or to get instruction. A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken. Now, what does that mean, a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance? It means that if you're happy on the inside, that will be reflected in your face. Your countenance is your look or your face. And so a merry heart makes a cheerful countenance. So you should look happy. If you have the joy of the Lord as your strength, don't go around just frowning and being stern all the time. Be a little bit merry sometimes and smile and look happy. If you have the joy of the Lord in your heart, the Bible says the joy of the Lord is your strength. The fruit of the spirit is joy. So have a big smile on your face tomorrow at Thanksgiving. If you're thankful for what God has given you, why not smile about it and have a countenance that shows the cheer in your heart. I'm talking to you teenagers now, all right? When you look at mom's dinner that she placed before you, big smile, all right? Because you ought to be cheerful and happy about the abundance and the plenty that we have in this country and as Christians in general, God has provided for us. And if not, then see Mrs. Forte after the service for that frozen turkey, right? You got it? Do you have the turkey? All right. So I announced it, but you weren't here, so all right. The turkey has arrived, my friends. So something to be thankful for right there. If you can get there in time, right? Before it's gone, because when this turkey's gone, it's gone, gone, gone. So the Bible says in verse 14, the heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge, but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness. You see, to the wise man, to the man that hath understanding, knowledge is like food unto him, right? Like every day he just like wants to eat more knowledge. The Bible says, give us this day our daily bread. And that daily bread is referring to, yes, our physical food, but also the word of God. Because the Bible talks about how he fed them with manna in the Old Testament, that they might know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceed out of the mouth of God. Getting up every morning and gathering the manna is a picture of getting in your Bible every morning and gathering the truths that are found therein. And so the Bible says here that the heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge. He gets up in the morning, goes out looking for the manna. He's always trying to learn something, always trying to gain more knowledge, wisdom, understanding. And this is, of course, the greatest source of knowledge that exists. But the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness, right? It's just, give me the dumbest podcast around, give me talk radio, give me TV, give me Hollywood, and just feeding on foolishness instead of listening to the wise and hearing what God says. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. So right there, that shows that your attitude often determines how well you think you have it. Going into Thanksgiving, if you are of a merry heart, no matter what food is on the table, you have a feast. Everything is a party to you. Everything is a feast. Everything is abundant to you because of your attitude. The apostle Paul said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. And so even if you have a meager meal tomorrow with the right attitude, it feels like great abundance to you. And then there are some other verses that kind of follow up on this. It says in the next verse, better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. Now, of course, on Thanksgiving, wanna eat turkey, right? Turkey is what we eat. That's the main deal. And you've got all the wonderful side dishes, but the turkey is the centerpiece. The turkey is that cornerstone of the whole meal, right? What if you showed up to Thanksgiving and your host said, oh, we're vegan now. And so we're having a vegan Thanksgiving. We've got a big lump of soy in the oven baking right now. And so we're gonna give you a big slab of soy. And we got a tofu, a Tofurky is what we've got. And we got corn, we've got stuffing, but there's no meat gravy. There's some other kind of vegetable gravy and you got vegetables and you're not coming over tomorrow. But the thing is, I'd rather have the turkey. I want the real stuff. I want the gravy, but you know what? I would rather show up and just eat vegetables and sides only with no turkey and have a loving family there than to show up at some bad attitude Thanksgiving where people are bitter and where teenagers are frowning and where people have a bad attitude and where mom's upset and dad's upset and everybody's all tense and everything's awkward. Even if it's the best food in the world, I'd rather just show up and just have nothing but just the mashed potatoes, the corn, the style, skip the tofu, cause I don't wanna get those estrogen mimickers. But I'll take the vegetables and I'll be happy if there's love there. If there's a cheer there, if the Holy Spirit is there, then we could have joy no matter what the food is, right? You know, you'd rather that your wife made you a meager vegetarian meal served with love and affection than a bitter contentious wife feeding you filet mignon. Am I right, men? That's what the Bible says and I agree. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord and great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, meaning a vegetarian meal, than a stalled ox, you know, than that beef, the roast beef and hatred therewith. Now, back to the thought from verse one. Verse one said, a soft answer turns away wrath. Here's what the Bible says in verse 18. A wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife. Again, the person who can control themselves, the person who's slow to anger and has their emotions under control, they can appease strife, meaning that they can diffuse the situation. They can be the diplomat at Thanksgiving that actually calms everything down and makes everybody happy so that they can sit down and eat the turkey in peace, okay? So you should seek to be that person because the Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers. And so we should try to be a peacemaker. When fights break out at the Thanksgiving dinner, we should try to appease strife because we are not wrathful men. You know, we're slow to anger. The way of the slothful man is a hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain. That's verse 19. Just lazy people, everything's impossible. Everything's hard. All they see are all the obstacles. Why it's not gonna work, why we can't get Thanksgiving dinner on the table, why we can't get along with Aunt So-and-so. You know, whereas the way of the righteous is made plain. You know, some people see solutions and lazy people just see problems and excuses why they can't succeed. People who are righteous actually just, it's clear what needs to be done. Let's get it done. The way is plain in front of us. But to the lazy man, it's like, oh, no, it's too hard. There are too many obstacles, too many problems. It's not gonna work. A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish man despiseth his mother. Basically, you look down on your mother, you're an idiot. That's what the Bible says there. Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom, but a man of understanding walketh uprightly. All right, so idiots just think it's so fun to say stupid things, to listen to stupid things, but the man of understanding is just like, no. Verse 22, without counsel purposes are disappointed, but in the multitude of counselors, they're established. Again, this goes back to the idea of listening to wisdom, going to the wise, taking correction, taking instruction. A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth and a word spoken in due season, how good is it? The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath. The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, but he will establish the border of the widow. The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, but the words of the pure are pleasant words. He that is greedy have gained trouble with his own house, but he that hateth gifts shall live. What does this mean to hate gifts? Obviously, this doesn't mean you hate when someone gives you a gift. Everybody likes to receive gifts. It's a blessing to receive a gift, and it's more blessed to give than to receive, the Bible says. But when the Bible talks about hating gifts, it's talking about bribery. It's talking about the gift in the bosom that perverts judgment. It's talking about the gift to a judge so that he'll rule in your favor, the gift to a politician so that he'll pass a law that benefits you and hurts the competition. That is what the Bible's talking about here, bribery when it says he that hath gifts shall live. The heart of the righteous studieth to answer, but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things. What does that mean, studieth to answer? You know, we need to basically think before we talk. We need to think before we talk. Before we talk about a certain subject, we should do research and study to make sure that we are accurate when we talk about things, but also just we need to study to answer in the sense that we put forth the effort to say what is appropriate and not just open our mouth and just let whatever fly out. You know, some people, they almost take pride in saying, well, I just have no filter. I just say whatever comes to my mind. And you say, well, Pastor Harrison, sometimes you kind of seem like you have no filter. This is like me with a serious filter. You should see what I really want to see. You should see what's going on in my head right now. This is like five COVID masks right now, filtering everything, you know? No, I'm just kidding. But honestly, but I'm kind of not kidding because I do filter what I say because I think hard about what I say. I think hard about what I'm going to preach. I don't just get up and just start just saying wild things behind the pulpit. You know, if I say something and it sounds wild to you, it might just be because our society is getting so wild and what I'm saying is actually normal and the world's getting crazy. Because I don't get up here and say crazy things. I just don't. The stuff that I say is not crazy. The stuff I say is not wild. The only reason it sounds extreme to you is because the world has moved the goalposts of what normal is. And I'm just getting up here saying normal things. I'm just preaching the Bible and it sounds all wild and crazy to this world. But I don't get up here and just say whatever pops into my head. Constantly things pop into my head and I'm like, nah, not going to say that. Shouldn't say that. Constantly controlling my mouth, okay? God wants us to control our mouth, to be slow to speak, to study, to be quiet, to study, to answer, to make sure that what we say is appropriate and that we don't just blow off our mouth. Because you know, there are some dumb things that are going to pop into your head probably tomorrow at the dinner table or at a gathering. You know, just think about what you say before you talk and don't just blurt out the first thing that comes to your mind. That is not a virtue. And maybe people today think that's a virtue in our modern society that, you know, oh man, that, you know, he just, he's not afraid to just say whatever. Well, you know what I am? I am afraid to just say whatever. Because I'm afraid to say something sinful. I'm afraid to have corrupt communication come out of my mouth. I'm afraid to say something that would offend God. So I want to study to answer. I want to make sure that I speak correctly and speak appropriately. And we should all as Christians care about that and not be a no filter kind of a guy, okay? We should all have a filter or three. So the Bible says the heart of the righteous, verse 28, study to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pourth out evil things, just like flow, evil things are just flowing out. The Lord is far from the wicked, but he here at the prayer of the righteous. Again, God loves and cares about us. He's near unto us. The light of the eyes rejoice at the heart and a good report maketh the bones fat. The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. He that refuseth instruction despises his own soul. So again, the person who doesn't want to hear the wisdom of your words, the person who rejects the gospel, the person who doesn't want to hear the truth about other subjects, and you're ready to disperse knowledge at the dinner table, you're ready to disperse knowledge in the living room, and the fool doesn't want to hear the wisdom of your words, if he doesn't want to hear instruction, if he refused instruction, you know who he really despises. You know who's really hurting the most? Himself, he's shooting himself in the foot. He despises me? Well, at the end of the day though, the Bible says he despises himself. Because he's burning himself. He's shortchanging himself. He's ripping himself off. He's defrauding himself of the knowledge that he could be getting. But he that heareth reproof gets understanding, and that's a blessing to get understanding. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. And before honor is humility, right? And it takes a humble person to listen to what other people have to say, to take instruction. Before honor is humility. If you ever want to be a respected person, first you have to humbly sit at the feet of other respected people and learn, right? I mean, long before anyone ever becomes a parent, they're a child first. And they have to listen to mom and dad. And then later they'll be a parent, and hopefully their kids will listen to them, because they listen to their mom and dad, right? Before the boss of the company, unless he's like the evil son-in-law or something, typically the boss of the company started out at the bottom and worked his way up, right? He owns the plumbing company because he started out doing plumbing, working for someone else, and he was humble. Now he has the honor of having his own company, right? Started out as a humble electrician. Now he's the supervisor. Now he's the foreman. Now he's the boss. Now he's the owner. Before honor comes humility, right? Before I ever pastored a church, I was a humble church member that sat down and shut up and learned and did what I was told. And I gained wisdom and knowledge from other pastors and preachers. And I was never a troublemaker as a church member. I was always a team player, okay? Why? Because pride would have led me to be a troublemaker and blowing off my mouth and causing problems. I didn't always agree with everything. I didn't agree when they preached on the pre-trib rapture or something, but I didn't freak out. I didn't refuse instruction and say, oh, well, this guy's wrong on end times, so I can't learn anything from him. Guess what? Even if a pastor's wrong on end times, even if a pastor's wrong on the Jews, he might be super smart in some other area. And so you should just be thankful for whatever pastor that you have. In case we have any visitors here tonight from other churches, just be thankful for what you can learn from that pastor. Because I guarantee you that if you go to an independent Baptist church, your pastor knows stuff that I don't know. And you say, well, you know more about X, Y, Z, and you know more about this and that. Okay, but I bet you that there's some things that he knows more about than I do, right? Because everybody has blind spots and everybody has their areas of expertise. In the words of Brother Hiles, everyone knows something that I don't know. Therefore, all men are my teachers. And so you should go to church with a humble attitude to learn from the preacher, even if it's not your favorite pastor, even if it's not your favorite preacher, be ready to hear, be ready to learn, gain some instruction from him in the areas that he can teach you, okay? Because I guarantee you that he's got some wisdom to impart if he's preaching the Bible. Now, if he's some false religion, if he's not saved, then yeah, get out of there. But I'm saying if he's saved, if he's got a King James Bible in his hand, if he's got the Holy Spirit in him, you're gonna learn something. You can gain some instruction and knowledge, but you're gonna have to be humble. And I've heard people say this, oh, I know so much more than the pastor knows. Please, that might even be true. But is that something that you should be going around saying? Because last time I checked, the Bible says, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, strangers not thine own lips. But not only that, I don't even think that's a good attitude to have. Because you know what? I remember when I was sitting in the pew as a church member, I guarantee you that there were things that I knew about that my pastor didn't know about, even when I was young. Because there were just certain areas that he wasn't interested in and just didn't know anything about. For example, he didn't speak any foreign languages. He didn't know any Spanish. He didn't know, I tried to talk to him about something, about Spanish one time, and he just kind of blew me off. Because basically we were supporting all these missionaries that were using a wrong Bible version that was not from the Textus Receptus, right? I mean, look, I'm not saying that every Bible and every language is gonna be exactly like the King James, but it better be from the traditional received text of scripture and not from this modern West Con and Hort-influenced garbage. It better be the traditional text, the received text, the text that for 400 and some years has been translated and printed and mass produced in all of the European languages for the last four to 500 years. I mean, that's the text that it has to be. I don't care if it's Chinese or Swahili or German or Spanish, it better be translated from the received text. And then we can talk about the quality of the translation. But if you're not from the received text, we're done. It's a deal breaker, okay? Because the critical text is a mutilation of God's word is what it is. It's been mutilated. There are little holes in it, chunks in it, it's missing things. Things are added. And so I tried to speak to my pastor about this and humbly bring this to his attention that we were supporting a bunch of missionaries that were not preaching from the received text. And he just totally blew me off and just said, well, I don't know anything about, I don't know any Spanish. I can't judge that at all because I don't know anything about it. And so I'm just gonna trust these well-respected independent fundamental Baptists like Bible colleges and pastors and people who have these big Spanish ministries. If they're using that version, then it must be okay. So it was pretty obvious to me, even as a young person, and it was obvious to Pastor Roger Jimenez too, who was also a teenager at the church at that time, that we knew more about this than him because we had read, I'd read the Spanish New Testament even at that time, cover to cover in both the wrong version and the right version. And so I knew the differences very well. But you know what, here's the thing. I basically just had to just walk away at that point and just say, okay, because what can I do? He rejected what I was telling him and he was wrong. I was right. But guess what, you know what I did though? I continued to love that man. I continued to learn from him. I continued to gain wisdom from his preaching. I continued to grow in faith and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For years at that church, I still respected him. I still loved him. I still loved his preaching. In fact, I can remember a time even after that conversation sitting down on a Sunday night service, I remember it like yesterday, sitting in the front row on a Sunday night thinking, man, pastor, I'm not gonna say his name, is such a great pastor. Like I will never preach as well as he preaches. I remember thinking that, man, this guy can preach. Cause he was just, it was a Sunday night and he was really bringing down the house. He was just letting it rip. And I remember just thinking, man, I will never be able to preach as well as him. But I just hope that someday God could use me to be a preacher, even though I'm never gonna be able to preach as well as him. You see how I didn't just let one thing, I didn't just let one error in this man, one blind spot, one missing piece of knowledge, one bad judgment call. I didn't let that just become this thing of just, well, now I just have no respect for him. I can't listen, I can't learn. But that's what I see people do constantly. They go to a Baptist church and their pastor is wrong on something. Let's say he's wrong on end times, or he's wrong about the Jews, or he's wrong about something else. Maybe even if it's something a little more serious that he's wrong about, you know? And they just, they basically just throw out the baby with the bathwater and just act like, oh, this guy's just, I can't listen, this guy's worthless, this church is trash. Folks, people can be wrong about something. People can make a mistake. People can be ignorant about something and still be great in other areas, you know? And he was a great pastor. And both Pastor Jimenez and myself, we gained a lot from going to that church. We profited from that ministry. He was a great blessing to us. We learned great things from him, you know? And we're gonna let something stupid like that just derail our walk with God. Because at the end of the day, you know who we would have been hurting? If we would have just freaked out and said, well, you know, he's wrong on this, and just freaked out and just left the church, or just started going to church with this weird attitude, I know more than you, I'm better than you. You know who we would have ultimately been despising is ourselves. Would have ultimately been ruining ourselves. Because here's the thing, you know, going to church is supposed to be benefiting you. Like when you come to church, you're supposed to be benefited. Like I hope that it's a blessing to you when you come to church. I hope that when you come to church, you walk away knowing a little more about the Bible, maybe having a new little nugget of wisdom, or learning, or instruction. I'm hoping that you get something good out of being here, and that it's a blessing to you. And here's the thing, if you start getting bitter, and if you start getting prideful, if you start refusing instruction, if you fail to be humble and learn, at the end of the day, you're kind of hurting yourself because you're the one who comes to church and gets nothing out of it. You know, when I visit churches abroad, and I listen to other preachers preach, I always get something out of it. And you know what, that's a blessing to me, is I get something out of it. So if you go and you're just like, man, I don't get anything out of it, that's your loss, that you didn't get anything out of it. And if it's your attitude that's causing you to not get anything out of it, then you're hurting yourself. And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, I love your preaching. But you know, I guarantee you that there are people who don't love my preaching, and they could listen to my preaching and get nothing out of it. You know, one person could listen to my preaching and love it and learn, and another person's just like, you know, I don't get anything out of that. It's their attitude. They're not open, they're not receptive. And so again, speaking the truth is great, but you have to have an ear to hear, right? So all that to say this, it's kind of an appropriate Thanksgiving message. Tomorrow's Thanksgiving, right? And we're gonna maybe be interact, now, I'm not because I already have a huge party, just my immediate family. Yeah, I mean, we're having 12 people at our house for Thanksgiving, you know. Actually, we're having 13 people, you know. I mean, wow, that's just our family is basically, you know, just the people that already live in our house, that's already a big party, right? But I know probably a lot of you are gonna be getting together with extended family. Put up your hand if you're gonna be together with people that are not in your immediate family, you're gonna have some extended family. All right, here's the thing about that, you know, you wanna be smart and wise, walk in wisdom toward them that are without. Now, maybe your family are saved, born-again Christians, and they love the Lord, they love the Bible, and you guys can just, you know, go crazy with wisdom, instruction, knowledge, understanding, and just all be on the same page. But you know, if you're dealing with people that are not saved, dealing with people that are part of a false religion, people that are politically just bankrupt in their ideologies, you know, just keep in mind that a soft answer turns away wrath, be kind, enjoy, and if you're able to lay some wisdom on them, so much the better. But if they deem themselves unworthy of the wisdom that you're gonna lay on them, then you know what? Just lay it on somebody else because they're not even worth it. And don't feel like you have to right every wrong. And you know what, we should all tomorrow, even if we're just with our own immediate family, we should all tomorrow strive to be a peacemaker tomorrow so we can all have a happy, joyous, cheerful day, and have a good attitude. And we're gonna have the best of both worlds, folks. We're gonna have the meat, and we're gonna have the attitude to go with it, amen? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and Lord, I pray that we would embrace the wisdom that is found in your word, and Lord God, I pray that you would just bless every single person who's here tonight, and Lord, just bless our gatherings tomorrow. And I know there's a lot of sickness going around, Lord. I pray that you would just restore health to those who are sick who couldn't be here because they were sick, and Lord, just to help us all to have a blessed holiday tomorrow and to take the time to pray to you and to thank you for all of the wonderful things you've given us, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.