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Amen. Proverbs chapter number three, we're continuing here with the series. And before we get into chapter three, I want to just remind you something about the genre that we're reading here. Because remember, when you're studying the Bible, that the Bible is broken up into different sections based on the genre or the type of book. It's not just in a strict chronological order from Genesis to Revelation, because we have these different sections on different types of books. So you start out with the five books of Moses, then you get into what's called the historical books, right? That would go from Joshua and Judges, Ruth, 1st, 2nd Samuel, 1st, 2nd Kings, all the way up through Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, right? And then you're done with the historical books, and then you move into the poetic books. And the poetic books would be Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Then you have the major prophets, and then you have the minor prophets. So in each of these sections, where you have historical books, poetic books, major prophets, minor prophets, things are pretty much in chronological order within those sections, but the Bible is purposely broken into sections based on genre. And the reason this is important is because how we interpret these books should be based upon what type of genre we're looking at. So for example, if I'm reading a historical book, if I'm reading one of the historical books, that doesn't always mean that what I'm reading is what God is telling me to do or what God wants me to do. Sometimes he's just recording what people did, right? So in the historical books, you'll have people taking multiple wives, killing people, stealing, lying. It doesn't mean that God wants us to emulate those people or do those things, but he's just telling us what happened. He's giving us the story. Sometimes God will give us his thoughts on it and say things like, well, the thing that David did displeased the Lord. Other times there's no such commentary given. And when you're reading the historical books, you have to just kind of use the clear teachings of the prophets and the law of God to interpret what you're reading in the historical book and say, okay, well over here, it says thou shall not steal. I'm reading an historical book. This guy's stealing. Obviously he's wrong. And that's kind of a silly example because it's so obvious, but other things are less obvious. You know, there are people that'll look to a historical book and try to justify polygamy or something just because they don't understand the genre that they're reading is a historical book. And a lot of the things that even good people do in historical books are wrong. Okay, now when we're reading the book of Proverbs, we're dealing with one of the poetic books. Also, it could be called wisdom literature. And here's the main point that I wanna make about reading Proverbs especially is that Proverbs is speaking in generalities. So Proverbs is giving general principles. And so we don't wanna go overboard or go too far in taking these principles and saying, everything is always going to go exactly like it says it's gonna go in Proverbs every time. That's a wrong interpretation because it's a general principle. Let me show you what I mean by that. Look at verse number one. It says, my son, forget not my law, but let that heart keep my commandments for length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Now, what is this verse saying? It's saying that in general, if you don't forget God's law and if you let your heart keep God's commandments, in general, that is gonna give you length of days. In general, it's gonna give you long life and peace. We don't wanna make the mistake of thinking that 100% of people who keep God's law are gonna live a long life. Is that really true? Is that even in line with what we see in scripture? Because think about a guy like Stephen, or how about James, the brother of John? These guys did not live a long life. Should we just automatically assume that James, the brother of John, was disrespectful to Zebedee and that's why he gets killed so early in the book of Acts and that's why he gets killed by the sword? That would be crazy, wouldn't it? Obviously, James is a great man of God and yet he's killed by the sword in the book of Acts. Obviously, Stephen's a great man of God and yet his life is cut short. So when the Bible says that length of days are gonna be added to you if you keep God's commandments, this is a general principle, this is a general rule, but remember the exception proves the rule. And so don't go overboard into thinking that this happens every single time. Now, here's the thing. There are lots of other parts of the Bible where promises are given that do happen every single time or when the Bible explicitly states that they happen every single time. I mean, think about a verse like John 3.16, that whosoever believeth, that's everybody, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That's obviously a promise and we're in a different genre. We're not in wisdom literature, we're in the four gospels and so reading the four gospels is different than reading the book of Proverbs, okay? And we need to rightly divide the word of truth by understanding the difference between God's law, a historical book, poetic books, wisdom literature, major prophets, minor prophets. These books are interpreted differently because Proverbs is just speaking in generalities, okay? Now, sometimes even in poetic books and in wisdom literature, God will sometimes say this is something that always holds true. Like where he says in the book of Psalms, I've been young and now I'm old but I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. You know, that's the type of thing that you can take to the bank. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. But things like this in the book of Proverbs, what it's telling you is that the people who forsake God's law, the people who forget God's law, their lives are typically going to be cut short. That doesn't mean that there can't be some 90 year old reprobate who doesn't care anything about the laws of God. But in general, the wicked man should not live out half his days. And in general, those who honor their father and mother, those that keep God's commandments, those that don't forget God's law are going to live longer. They're gonna be blessed, they're gonna have peace. And so if you wanna have peace and blessings and a long life, remember God's commandments, keep God's commandments. Honor your father and mother and do these things. Now let's say you're the exception to that. Well, here's the thing about that. Let's say God looks down and he sees you honoring your parents and keeping God's laws. He's not just gonna just kill you young for no reason. I mean, think about the exceptions that we brought up earlier. We brought up James, we brought up Stephen. I don't think James or Stephen have any regrets. I don't think they're up in heaven saying, what's going on with this God? Because I honor Zebedee like nobody's business. What am I doing up here? Why didn't I get to finish down there? They understood, I'm sure, that their life was part of a greater plan. And they have a great honor of being martyrs that are recorded in scripture. So God's always gonna give you a fair shake. You're never gonna go wrong keeping God's commandments. You're never gonna go wrong obeying your parents, honoring your father and mother. In general, those things are gonna give you peace, long life, blessings from God. But if they don't, then that just means that God has something better for you, right? Maybe you're not gonna have peace, but maybe God's got a better plan for you. But in the end, you're always going to be better off. You're always gonna be blessed for following God's word. The only reason I'm bringing up the fact that there are exceptions to this is because I don't want you to get disillusioned in life when things don't always go exactly the way the book of Proverbs says they're gonna go, because you need to understand that the book of Proverbs is a book of Proverbs, right? This is not the same as reading the four gospels or the law of God. This is a book that is speaking about general principles that hold true, you know? Think about how many things I could say that would be a general principle that would hold true, but yet there could still be exceptions to it, you know? If I just said, you know, in general, you know, independent Baptist churches that have soul winning are usually right on the gospel, you know? And independent Baptist churches that don't have any soul winning are more likely to be in error on doctrines of salvation. You know, obviously there are gonna be exceptions to that, but it'd still be a general principle and wisdom that you could give someone. If they're looking for a church, I would say, hey, look for a soul winning church. They're probably gonna have better doctrine than the church that's not doing any soul winning. So the Bible says here that we should keep God's commandments in our heart. Don't forget them. Why? So we can have length of days, long life, and peace. And you know what? We all wanna have those things if we have any sense whatsoever. It says in verse three, let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart, so shall thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Now again, general principle here. If you keep God's commandments, write them on the table of your heart, meditate on them day and night, think about them, internalize them, make them a part of who you are. In general, you are gonna find favor and good understanding, not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of your fellow man. Now, is that always gonna be the case that every single person, you're gonna find favor in their sight because you keep God's law? No, because obviously we know that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. We obviously know that the righteous man is an abomination to the wicked, just like the wicked is an abomination to the righteous. But in general, if you follow God's word, not only will you find favor in the eyes of God, but you're gonna find favor in the eyes of man as well. I mean, when you go to your job and you're a good Christian, you're following the principles of the Bible, your boss is gonna love you. Why? Because good Christians are the best workers, okay? The worst workers are the most sinful, evil, wicked people, reprobates. Even from a non-religious perspective, those people are just gonna be problem people. The drunks, the drug addicts, the homos, they're just gonna cause more problems than the godly Christian who goes to church on Sunday and his pastor's preaching about working hard and not being lazy and obeying the boss at work. You know, he's gonna be a better worker on Monday morning, Tuesday morning. You are going to find favor even in the eyes of man as a Christian because your life is gonna be a godly, clean, righteous life. That's just gonna make people appreciate you at your job, at school, the teacher's gonna love it if you're being honest and working hard and treating her or him with respect. Do you see what I'm saying? In general, you will find favor both in the sight of God and man. But obviously, there are gonna be people that persecute you when you're a Christian. Think about a guy like Daniel. So in the book of Daniel, he is abducted from Israel in the captivity, right? When the children of Judah go captive, Daniel's one of them. Also his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And when they're there in Babylon, they find favor in the eyes of the prince of the eunuchs. They find favor in the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar. They are excelling and doing well and people like them. But does that mean everybody likes them? No, because of course, later in the book of Daniel, we're gonna get to chapter six. And when Daniel is excelling and doing well, and the next King Darius loves him as well and promotes Daniel, wants to put him in high position, of course, there's a group of people that are envious of him that plot against him, that get him thrown into the den of lions. But in general, in the life of Daniel, do we see that this principle holds true? That by following God's word, he finds favor in the eyes of man, just like Joseph. You know, Joseph finds favor in Potiphar's house. He finds favor in the prison. He finds favor with Pharaoh. That doesn't mean that his brethren necessarily liked him because they were wicked at that time in their lives. And not only that, but Potiphar's wife also persecuted and tormented him by getting him thrown in prison for a false accusation. So I hope you understand what I mean by things being general principles. In general, you are gonna go through life finding favor, even in the eyes of man, being a godly Christian, okay? As you light, as you let your light shine, men will see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven in general. And that's what the Bible's teaching in these first four verses here. Now in verse five, we have one of the most famous verses in the whole Bible. In fact, we used to have this verse actually written on the wall behind me while I was preaching. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. These are two of the most popular verses in the whole Bible. Probably the most popular portion of scripture in Proverbs. You know, if you wanted to take the most famous verses from Proverbs, this is probably it right here. Proverbs three, five, and six. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. This is the most important advice for your life right here is to just trust what God is saying. Now a lot of times what God is saying is not necessarily the same as your understanding of the situation or maybe what you think would be best. And we all have our own opinions and views and those opinions and views have come from our upbringing, media that we've consumed, books that we've read, videos that we've watched, things that we've listened to, people that we've been around, maybe cultural things about being an American or Indian or German or whatever our upbringing is. We cannot trust our intuition or our gut feeling all the time. We need to understand that God's word is always right about everything. And even if it seems like God isn't right about something, he's right about it anyway. And that's what you need to trust in the Lord and not lean onto your own understanding. Lean on what God has said in his word. And I often think about this verse, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. You know, when I'm thinking to myself, I don't know, you know, this is what God says, but I don't know. It's like, you know what? I will follow the word of God and trust the word of God and rely on the word of God all the way up until death. Just like Jesus was obedient unto death. You know, I am gonna lean on the word of God, even if he kills me, I will trust him. And then, you know, if there's an issue, we'll talk about it when I get there. But I'm sure I won't even have an issue when I get there. We've got to trust God because you know what? There are a lot of times in your life and those that are older understand this. There are a lot of times in life when you are so sure that you're right about something, except that it turns out you're not. And we've all been there in our lives where we were so confident and we were just so sure that we were right about something. And then lo and behold, turns out we were wrong. We've all probably been in situations like that, except for the teenagers. They're still right about everything. But eventually, live long enough, you will eventually be wrong about something. Give it some time, okay? You might have to get into your 30s before you start making mistakes. But I'm telling you, there are things where you are just so sure, like, I know it's that way. And then it's like, oh, I was wrong. Okay, now, that's why we need to trust in the Lord. Because I am not infallible, you're not infallible. God is infallible. The Bible is infallible. God's word is infallible. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not under your own understanding. God's way is the right way. Even if it doesn't always make perfect sense to you, it will later. You'll understand later. Just go with it. Just trust in the Lord. And then it says in verse six, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. You know, I want God to direct my paths. Because I'm going through life and I've got all these decisions and there's so many different routes to take. I want God to direct my path. I would hate to go through life just thinking that I'm just on my own. Because this is a jungle out there. I want God to direct my path. You know, if I were a young person thinking about who I were going to marry, I would want God to direct my paths. Because I wouldn't want to make a mistake and marry someone who's just gonna be a complete disaster for my life. So I would want the Lord to direct my path. You know, if I were thinking about making a big career change or a geographic move or something, you know, I would want God to direct my paths. God's not gonna speak to us in an audible voice and tell us, you know, this is the one, marry this one, take the job in Toledo, you know. You're not gonna get that kind of an audible voice. But what you want is God behind the scene just kind of directing your paths. Just kind of nudging you in the right direction, opening doors, closing other doors. You want God to direct your paths. How do you get ahold of that promise is that you acknowledge him in all your ways. In all thy ways acknowledge him. Now this seems so simple, doesn't it? I mean, the word acknowledge, I really like this verse. That's why it used to be on the wall. But I really like this verse about acknowledging God because it's so easy, it's so simple, but yet it's not necessarily something that everyone does. What does it mean to acknowledge the Lord, okay? Well, think about this. If I were in a room talking to three, four people and then another person walked in, what would it mean for me to acknowledge that person? It's the opposite of ignoring them, right? I could either ignore them and just keep on talking, keep on doing what I was doing, or I could acknowledge them by looking over at them, saying something to them, bringing them into the conversation, whatever. But in some way, not ignoring them would be acknowledging them. Now I used to for many years be a fire alarm technician. Whenever I say this, people think I said firearm, okay? I've never been any kind of a firearm dealer, okay? Fire alarm, okay? So I used to work with fire alarms, and every fire alarm panel has a button that says acknowledge on it. So you walk in and the panel's like, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, trying to get your attention. And it will do that for days or weeks or months or years. There are some panels where people just ignore it, it's in some back room somewhere, and it's just been beeping for months. You know, you show up and the manager's like, this thing, we've heard it beeping through the wall for months. It's been beeping ever since I've been here. I've been here for two years or so, you know. Thing just beeps at us. And then I walk up to the thing and I push the acknowledge button, and it just stops beeping. Because I'm no longer ignoring it. It's like, okay, now you know what the problem is, I'm gonna stop beeping at you. Hopefully we can get this fixed. That's what the panel says to me through telepathy. But anyway, the point is that when I acknowledge it, it's the opposite of ignoring it. And so what the Bible is saying is, in all thy ways acknowledge him. What it's saying is that in every area of life, we need to be giving God glory and giving him credit and giving him thanks and acknowledging the fact that in him, we live and move and have our being. So in all our ways, we should acknowledge him. We should not ignore God in any area of life. So any kind of a work thing that I succeed at, I shouldn't just be like, oh, I did this myself. I mean, this is just me. I should be like, you know what? And I'm not saying to go around saying this necessarily, publicly, like some kind of a hyper spiritual, like, oh, I'm so spiritual, I just can't stop giving God credit on social media or something. Because that is a little bit of just being a Pharisee. But I'm saying in your heart to always be thinking and realizing, hey, wait a minute, God gave me this job. God gave me the ability to get wealth. According to the book of Deuteronomy, God's the one, oh, you know, I have this educational or academic achievement. It's because God gave me the intelligence to be able to do that. God has blessed me with parents who raised me and taught me things. And he gave me the smarts to get through this. And God opened this door for me. God blessed me at work. God has blessed me with my wife. God has blessed me with my children. God has blessed me with good health. You know, people would give anything to be healthy when they're sick. People who are filled with disease and illness and no matter how much money they have, they'd spend it all to have perfect health, wouldn't they? And yet how many of us just take for granted great health? We ought to acknowledge the Lord and say, you know what? It's God that has blessed me with good health. Okay, and just constantly being thankful and thinking about God, having God in all of our thoughts and just acknowledging it. You know, wake up in the morning, the first thing I do before I read my Bible, before I praise, I just acknowledge God. Just acknowledge him. Just think and meditate on the fact that God exists, that God is there, that God loves us, that God has given us another day on this earth, that everything we have is from God. And just right away, just waking up in the morning, just thanking God for all of the blessings that we have and just acknowledging him. So what's the opposite of acknowledging him? Ignoring him. And a lot of people are just ignoring God. They go through Monday, they go through Tuesday, they go through Wednesday, and God's not really in the picture for them. They go through whatever the process of work, family, friends, activities, fun, whatever, and they don't stop and acknowledge God. We should constantly be acknowledging God. And obviously some of this is openly, but most of this is probably just in our hearts as well. But a lot of it does end up being even open when we actually would say things that would give God the glory, and we would actually talk about the Lord and bring up the things of God and bring up Bible verse, not in some kind of a showy kind of social media way, but just in a sincere, normal way. And so if we're constantly acknowledging God, what are we doing? We're recognizing. Another word for acknowledge would be recognize, right? So let's say I'm walking in public and I see someone that I know, and I recognize them, and I acknowledge them, those two things would kind of go hand in hand versus just kind of just walk by them and just not acknowledge them, not necessarily recognize them, okay? And so by recognizing God's work in our life and God's hand in our life and acknowledging Him, then God is going to participate in our life. But when He participates in our life and we ignore Him, we don't give Him the glory, we don't give Him the credit, we don't acknowledge Him, then He's not necessarily gonna be directing our paths because we're not giving Him credit when He does direct our paths. We're not acknowledging Him or glorifying Him and being thankful as we should. The guy who's constantly expressing gratitude to the Lord, acknowledging the Lord, recognizing what He's doing in their life is a lot more likely to have God intervening in his life than the guy who doesn't. And so we wanna make sure that we acknowledge Him in all of our ways so that He will direct our paths. Verse seven, be not wise in thine own eyes. And this goes hand in hand with what we just read. You know, leaning not on your own understanding but trusting in the Lord because you're not wise in your own eyes. You realize I don't know everything, I'm gonna just follow what the Bible says. Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Now the word honor in the Bible often has a financial component to it, okay? And it's easy to see where this comes from when you think about the etymology of the word honor. Because if you think about it, honor has to do with weight, right? So someone who has a lot of honor is a person who has a lot of gravitas, right? If an honorable man is someone that when they speak, there's some weight behind it. There's some weight behind who they are. What's the opposite of an honorable person? A vain and light person. The light person is the opposite of what? The person with some gravitas. The person with some weight. And I'm not talking about physical weight here, okay? You know, I'm not talking about some people that have some serious gravitas, okay? I'm talking about like honor, weight. Okay, well if you think about this, money historically has also been a weight thing because it was typically precious metals that were used for money. So for example, you'll hear about a talent being a unit of money, but a talent is also a unit of weight because it's a talent of silver. Or think about in England, what money do they use? They use pounds. Why? Because it's a pound of silver or whatever, right? So the whole idea of weight, I'm not saying that that's what it is, but I'm just saying weight measurements and money measurements go hand in hand, don't they? Because you're weighing out money in precious metals. And so honor can yes mean to give someone glory or recognition or giving them credit or treating them with respect, but can also have to do with actually honoring them with gifts or with money, okay? For example, the Bible says in Matthew chapter 15, when Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and he's saying, you know, you've made the word of God of none effect through your tradition. He said that the Bible said, you know, honor thy father and mother, and whoso cursed with father or mother, let him die the death. But you say, and let's just turn there so that I don't misquote it here. Matthew chapter 15. It says in Matthew chapter 15, verse four, for God commanded saying, honor thy father and mother, and he that cursed with father or mother, let him die the death. Look at Matthew chapter 15, verse five. But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. What is he saying there? He's saying that honoring your father and mother, according to scripture, also has to do with taking care of them financially when they're old. So when your parents are old and cannot financially care for themselves, part of honoring your father and mother is actually financially taking care of them because these people are rejecting the commandment to honor father and mother, and then they're basically using some loophole to go through something of saying it is a gift whereby whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, like whatever I would do for you, what is it talking about? It's talking about getting out of supporting your parents financially. That's what the Pharisees are doing. They're greedy or whatever, and they're trying to get out of honoring their parents, meaning caring for them, okay? That's why the Bible says also in First Timothy chapter number five, when it's talking about let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine, for the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his hire. Now, what would double honor have to do with the labor being worthy of his hire? Because again, when the Bible says honor, there's a financial aspect to it. Yes, it means showing respect, but it also means financially honoring, okay? Does everybody understand what I'm saying? So with that, we've seen a couple examples, right? We've seen, you know, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, and we've seen honor thy father and mother, both being connected with a financial obligation, both of those, okay? Also, if you ever read Old English, because I'm sure you're real interested in that, but in the very beginning of Beowulf, in the prologue to Beowulf, it used the word hronraude, right? It talks about kings offering tribute, right? Like paying tribute, like paying taxes, and the word is hronraude, which is obviously connected to our word honor, as you can see. So in Proverbs chapter three, with that in mind, when it says in verse nine, honor the Lord with thy substance. Now, does that make sense? Because substance is what you own, it's what you possess, it's your goods, it's your possessions. So when the Bible says, honor the Lord with thy substance, it's talking about giving financially unto the Lord. Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase, right? So the Bible talks about giving tithes, or the 10th of all your increase, okay? So if the Bible is talking about giving the tithe of your increase, the first fruits of your increase, meaning that when the trees would produce fruit in the Old Testament, they would take those first fruits and bring them down to the tabernacle and offer them there to the Lord, and that's how the Levites would get their produce. The Levites and the priests, they're not farmers, they're working full time in the house of God, and so the Israelites would bring them the first fruits, would bring them the firstlings of the flock, would bring them the tithes of their increase, or the 10th of their increase, down to the house of the Lord, so that there would be meat in God's house, so that they would have what they needed because they're full time servants of the Lord. They're not farming, they're not, you know, herding cattle necessarily. I mean, I'm sure they had a little garden and a little bit of flocks and things, but they don't have these possessions of land that the rest of the children of Israel have, so they're relying upon the tithes and offerings to support them. Well, in the New Testament, the Bible teaches that in First Corinthians chapter nine, that we have a similar type of system where those that preach the gospel should live of the gospel. And just as the Levites lived of the things of the altar, so those that preach the gospel should live of the gospel. And so when it says honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase, he's basically saying, you know, if you give of the first unto the Lord, if you give a tithe of your increase, if you bring to the Lord your first fruits, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your presses will burst out with new wine, okay? And that's the same thing that we see in Malachi chapter three, when it says that if we bring the tides and offerings into the storehouse, that God will pour us out a blessing that we will not be able to receive, it'll be so great, right? And so, you know, a lot of people would say like, well, I can't afford to tithe. Well, here's the thing about the tithe is 10%. So therefore, if you make very little money, then 10% is very little that you're giving. And if you make lots of money, then the tithe is a lot, but you make a lot. So it's a percent, but here's the thing about it though, is that if you trust in the Lord, you would believe that basically you could live better on 90% than on 100%. Because of the fact that if you honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your increase, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your presses will burst out with new wine. And so again, this is a generality, this is in general. If you will give to God your best, you give to God the first fruits, then he will bless you and pour out a blessing you're not gonna be lacking. You're gonna have what you need, God's gonna supply your need because you seek first the kingdom of God. And so when it comes to financially, we're to give God the first fruits. Also with our time, we give God the first fruits, which is why we have church on Sunday. I mean, this is not the main reason why, but this is a good reason to go to church on Sunday, because you're basically giving God the first of your week right there. You know, the first thing, it's like, okay, new week, first day, Sunday, before I even go to work, before I do anything else, the first thing I'm gonna do is acknowledge God and come to church on Sunday morning. First thing, right, just Sunday, I'm in church. Acknowledge God right out of the gate. Or how about waking up in the morning and just you're fresh, you just woke up, boom. Let's read the Bible, let's pray, let's honor the Lord. And so we wanna seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the context of that is that then the food and clothing that we need in life will be added unto us if we seek first the kingdom of God, according to Matthew six. And then here in the Old Testament, it says, honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Now, some people would look at this verse and say, well, that's Old Testament. But again, talking about the genre of the book of Proverbs, here's what we need to understand about the book of Proverbs is that for the most part, the book of Proverbs transcends Testament. So it's not really a book that is heavily situated in the Old Covenant or Old Testament. Does everybody understand what I mean by that? It's not a book where we're just constantly reading about animal sacrifices and Levites and rituals and meats, drinks and divers, washes and carnal ordinances. It isn't really a book about the Old Covenant or about the Old Testament. It is really just a book of universal truths and wisdom that transcends Old Testament or New Testament. It's just stuff that's just true. I mean, whether it's Old Testament, New Testament, or even before the Old Testament, no matter when you're living, even if you're living before the flood or in the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, if you honor the Lord with your substance with the first fruits of all your increase, then your barns are gonna be filled with plenty and your breasts are gonna burst forth with new wine, because that's just a universal principle that always applies. There's certain things that transcend Old Covenant, New Covenant, they're just always true. They're just generalized true principles about seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then God taking care of your needs, because you take care of him first. We could be reading about that in Malachi and Haggai and books like that, or we could be reading about that in Matthew chapter six or first Corinthians nine or Philippians four, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and going by Christ Jesus. Why? Because they administered under Paul's needs in Philippians four. So he's saying now God's gonna supply your need because you took care of me, you know, as I'm doing missions and preaching and all these things. So this is a general principle that holds true no matter when we're reading it. And because books like Psalms and Proverbs typically almost always transcend Testament, this is why you often get a New Testament that has what two books attached to the back of it. Psalms and Proverbs. Why, I mean, why Psalms and Proverbs? Of all books you could tag on, how come it's not the New Testament and Genesis, you know, or the New Testament plus first Samuel, you know, why Psalms and Proverbs? Well, obviously because they're extremely popular books that people wanna read and they probably get read more than a lot of the other Old Testament books. But a big reason why is that they don't really feel that out of place being attached to a New Testament because they sort of transcend Testament anyway. And so obviously some books in what we call the Old Testament are more Old Testament than others. Others are just sort of general like this. So let's move on quickly or I'm running out of time. But it says in verse number 11, my son despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth. And of course this is quoted in Hebrews chapter 12. And so we're very familiar with that concept that God chastens every son whom he receiveth according to Hebrews chapter 12. Every single saved Christian is gonna be chastened by the Lord. And by the way, this is one of the reasons why it's so absurd when people say, oh, well, I'm saved now I don't sin anymore. People who think that they've reached a state of sinless perfection. Then explain to me how God chastens every son. Is he just whipping them even though they did everything right? All right, well, I know you don't sin anymore, but here, let me just whip you again. Guess why God chastens every son whom he receiveth? Because every son whom he receiveth sins. Because there's not a just man upon the earth that do a good and sin is not. Because if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So of course, we are chasing to the Lord. And it's a sign that God loves us. So don't be weary of God's correction. Verse 13, happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getth understanding for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies. And all the things that thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. There's nothing in life that can give you more than wisdom. All the money, all of the wealth that you can imagine, it's nothing compared to wisdom. And what's wisdom? You know, it means having the knowledge and understanding that God gives and being smart about how you live your life. Knowing how to live is the most important thing. And here's the thing, if you know how to live, you'll always be able to make a living. You know, there are plenty of people who've learned how to make a living, but they don't know how to live. But if you learn how to live, you'll always know how to make a living, okay? Now, this is why when we educate our children, we don't just only teach our children how to do things as an adult in real life. You know, you always have these people come along and they say like, and I get what they're saying, I can see where they're coming from, but they're wrong. But you'll see these people that'll post things on Facebook, like, you know, why didn't school teach me how to do my taxes? Why didn't school teach me how to balance a checkbook? Why didn't school teach me, you know, how to work on my car? Or why didn't school teach me how to buy a house? Or why didn't school? You know, and it's like all these practical things. And then it'll be all these things that they wanna know about, about just like the nitty gritty of just getting through life. And then, you know, meanwhile, school's teaching me, you know, this is the core, this is the mantle, this is the crust. Meanwhile, school's having me read all this literature and poetry and learn all this grammar, you know, all this algebra that I'm never gonna use, you know, teach me how to do something that I'm gonna need in real life. But here's where they're wrong about that, okay, is that we don't want education to just be to teach the drones how to make honey for the hive and just teach them how to just go through life and just do the everyday things that they have to do to just get through life. No, the whole point of education is to try to provide a well-rounded view of the world and an understanding of deeper things and finer things. Now, obviously, if you go down to the public fool system, you know, you're not necessarily gonna get exposed to the right deep things. Sometimes you're gonna get the depths of Satan down there, okay, but that's what it's supposed to be. The idea is, though, that you actually learn more than just the nitty-gritty of just how to get through life. The point of real biblical education should be to teach you how to live, which includes, you know, learning about the world and philosophizing a little bit so that you understand how we're supposed to live our lives from God's perspective, because we're Christians, so we wanna do it from God's perspective. You know, the person who learns the timeless biblical truths about wisdom and understanding and actually gets a well-rounded view of the world and is brought up by their parents, being instructed in biblical things, true things about science, history, English, math, whatever, the person who's brought up with just a well-rounded education and they're brought up to be smart and to have knowledge and understanding and wisdom and to be godly, you know what? That person's not gonna have a hard time figuring out how to do their taxes or how to, you know, take care of their, what are other things people complain about that they didn't learn in school? You know, how to handle their money, what is it? Running a business, fixing cars. Here's the thing about that is that, you know, those kind of things are constantly changing. You know, if school taught you how to do your taxes, then you graduate and then they're gonna change the tax code, you know? But you know what, the Bible's never gonna change though. You know, truths about the world that we live in are typically gonna last a lot longer than this kind of nitty-gritty of, you know, I mean, teach me how to do this. Well, here's the thing about these everyday nitty-gritty things, they're constantly changing, especially in the age of technology where it's like, you know, oh man, you can learn all about computers in school. Okay, well, 10 years later, computers are gonna be totally different. But you know, math is still gonna be math. English is pretty much still gonna be English. The language changes very slowly. So in our lifetime, the language pretty much stays the same. I'm 41 years old, the English that I'm speaking right now is pretty much exactly the same as it was when I was five years old. But computers are not the same, cars are not the same. I mean, working on cars is not the same anymore because now the car has a computer in it and has all these electronic components. And so everything else changes, but you know, reading the wisdom of, you know, people who lived 100 years ago or something and learning the basics of math, science, English, you know, these things are just teaching you to be a smart person in general and just using different parts of your brain, not just only using one part of your brain, but you know, using the language part, the math part, the reasoning part. You know, learning these kind of timeless truths is supposed to be the point of your childhood education so that then when you become an adult, you can kind of go any direction you want. I mean, you can go into blue collar work, but you know what, hey, I'm glad that, you know, my oldest couple of sons are blue collar guys, amen. I think it's great, I think it's a great lifestyle, working in trades, working as a blue collar guy. You know, you're physically active, it's good honest work, there's good money in it. You don't have to, you know, go spend a bunch of money on schooling and things like that, you can just jump right in and succeed and do well. You know, I'm glad that they are blue collar guys, but you know what I would not wanna raise though? I wouldn't necessarily wanna raise a blue collar guy who's just kind of a big dumb animal. Because it's just all he knows is how to turn that screwdriver and all he knows is how to do, you know, I'm glad that my children, even the ones who go into something like blue collar though, they are still intellectual also. And they're not just a drone who knows how to do plumbing or electrical or carpenter, but they also can think and reason, and here's the thing, let's say that job ever goes away, which I don't think plumbing's ever going away, okay. Electrical, not going away. But guess what, other jobs might go away. But you know, the person who's truly been taught how to live and how to learn, they can always get into something new. They can always switch to a different trade. They can always do a different job because they're not just a drone who knows how to do one thing. They've learned how to live and they've learned how to learn. They will always be able to make a living. So the person who knows how to live will always be able to make a living, but the person who knows how to make a living may not know how to live. And that job may disappear and then they won't even be able to make a living anymore. You know, there are all kinds of jobs that just don't exist anymore, my friend, because there used to be a guy who made shoes and repaired shoes and he's called a cobbler. That guy doesn't really exist anymore. Maybe there's like one in a city of four million people just for some rare case that somebody wants to fix a pair of shoes. Or custom make shoes. I mean, that's just, we don't really need that anymore, do we? You know, there are certain jobs that are obsolete, okay? There are all kinds of workers right now that are being replaced by machines right now. Okay, and in the next five or 10 years, lots of other jobs, both thinking jobs and jobs that people do with their hands sometimes, many of those jobs are gonna be replaced by machines. But you know what, the person who has studied the word of God and knows how to live their life and has wisdom from God, knowledge from God, and understanding from God is going to be able to go into the future and whatever the future throws at them 10, 20, 30 years from now, they're gonna be ready for it. They're gonna be ready for it. You know, it's so much better to have wisdom than to just know how to do a certain thing. Hey, get wisdom. And if you get wisdom, if you learn how to learn, if you learn how to live your life, God's giving you all that information in the book of Proverbs and elsewhere in the Bible, right? He's giving you just this, it's sort of like these guys who, you know, they want you to call a 1-900 number or order their package deal, and they're just like, you know, everything that I learned about how to make millions of dollars from my one bedroom apartment. I'm working three hours a day. I'm making $10,000 a month, three hours a week. You know, it's all in this package. I'm sharing all this information with you. It's $200, and you're gonna be making so much money. You know, you're never gonna go to work again. I mean, we've all seen that. Who's seen something like that? Okay, well, here's the thing. Right here is literally that. Except it's not about working three hours a day and, you know, buying stocks or something, you know. But honestly, though, the Bible is just all the wisdom, all the understanding, all the information right here. And this book basically has riches in one hand and long life in the other hand. That's what the Bible just told us, right, in the book of Proverbs. Look at verse 16, three, you know, we all love John 3.16. How about Proverbs 3.16? There's so many great verses that are 3.16, I've noticed that. Genesis 3.16, Jeremiah 3.16. There are a lot of just cool verses. How about Proverbs 3.16? Length of days are in her right hand, and in her left hand, riches and honor. So instead of going and just seeking out riches and honor, seek wisdom. Because if you get wisdom, you'll get riches and honor and a long life by getting wisdom, right? Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom. All the precious things, rubies, gold, silver, nothing can even compare to wisdom. How much would you expect to pay for this package, for this information that I'm sharing with you today at three in the morning on this infomercial? How much would you expect to pay? You know, not $500, not $300, not $200, but just three easy payments of $49.99. And all of this is yours. But wait, there's more, yeah. I'll throw in, you know, not only will you get the entire Bible, I'm gonna throw in the Apocrypha so you can throw it in the trash. The Apocrypha belongs in the trash, my friend. Yes. So the point is that God's wisdom as found in the word of God and the wisdom that you pick up also from listening to preaching, right? So, you know, it's in the Bible, listening to preaching or listening to the wisdom of your parents who are teaching you the wisdom that they've learned throughout life and things that they've learned from the word of God and things that they've observed. You know, all of this wisdom that we get in our life is way more important than money, because if you have wisdom, you can always make money, right? If you learn how to learn, you'll always be able to learn. You know, you often hear about people who they're in their 50s and they're working at a factory and the factory shuts down and now they've just, it's like they put decades in at this factory, the factory shuts down and now they have no livelihood. And it's like, what do they do, right? Because that was like the one thing that they did, they've worked there for decades, what do I do? But you know, we wanna be the kind of person where no matter what life throws at us, we're ready to just do the next thing and just move on to something else, just do something else, because we have life wisdom that will just allow us to just get through life no matter what life throws at us. Whereas you're like, oh man, I got the dream job. Guess what? The dream job may not be here 10 years from now. Nothing's permanent, nothing's guaranteed. That guy thought he had their dream job at that factory until 15 years later, it moved to China. And now all of a sudden, he's got no livelihood and it was all about that dream job. It's all about this one skill, it's all about this money that I have, this investment that I have, this property that I have, you can lose all those things. Whereas if you have wisdom, you can always get a new one. I mean, if you have wisdom, you can always get a different job, different, you can always make money. I mean, because the Bible says wisdom holds the riches in one hand, the long life in the other. So instead of thinking about amassing wealth and seeking money, seek wisdom. And then you'll have the money that you need. And that's why when I'm raising my kids, I want to teach them wisdom, knowledge and understanding, and I want them to just be smart people in general. That's why I want them to learn the English, the math, the science, the history, and to learn all those things. But most importantly, to learn the word of God and to view all these other things through the lens of God's word and to look at these things through the eyes of a Christian and use the Bible as the guide through all these other subjects. You know why? Because then they're gonna be ready for whatever life throws at them. And honestly, figuring out what to do with the car or the taxes or the business, they're gonna be able to figure it out because they're smart enough to figure it out. But if I just taught them how to do those things, then those instructions are always gonna change anyway because cars aren't gonna be the same, businesses aren't gonna be the same. I mean, all that stuff is constantly changing. But wisdom is eternal. The Bible is eternal. Even certain other academic truths that our children are taught in school are eternal. Two plus two is always gonna be four. And other even algebraic truths are always gonna be the same as well. And people are always like, why do I need to learn all this stuff? Why do I need to use all this stuff? Well, you know what? Smart people are always gonna use the fact that they're smart. Even if they don't use the exact thing that they learned, it made them smarter. And so they're always gonna be able to use the fact that they're a smart person because they didn't fool around and not do the math and not do the English and not do the, you know, because they didn't neglect those things, now they're smart because they studied and now they're smart. And being smart, you're gonna use that in life. And being dumb, that's gonna hurt later in life. And you know, whenever people ask me, you know, how am I gonna use this? When am I ever gonna use this? I always just say, oh, okay, well, you know, I went to the gym and did a bunch of bench presses. When am I ever gonna use that? When was the last time I laid on my back and lifted something off my chest? Like, ah, when have I ever used that? Never. But yet I'm gonna keep going to the gym and keep doing bench presses. Why? You're like, I don't know, that's why I don't go. Because I want to get stronger. Because I want to be healthy. I want to be healthy. And mainly, mainly because I want to be healthy. Because in the modern world, you know, we don't usually end up necessarily using a lot of super strength very often. But you know what? It's healthy, it's good for us, it makes us stronger. You know, how many times do I find myself hanging from a bar and needing to pull myself up? But yet, I'm gonna keep doing pull ups. Why? Because it's healthy, because it makes me stronger. Well, think of all of the, you kids that are, you know, I know most of our kids here are homeschooled. Some of them go to school somewhere. But most are homeschooled. But in either case, okay, the next time you're thinking to yourself, well, I don't need to do this schoolwork. I'm never gonna use this. Yeah, but here's the thing. It's like a pull up for your brain. It's like push ups for your brain. That's why you're doing that math. Because people who do the math, they get smarter. People that are smarter are gonna do a lot better in life. Your parents want you to do well in life. Your parents aren't just like, well, I was tortured with this, and so I want to see you get tortured with it too. I wasted my time on it. You're gonna waste time on it too. Yeah, I love to watch my kids just go through pain, yeah! Obviously, that's not what your parents are thinking. Your parents want you to succeed in life, and they know that if you don't do that math, if you don't study, you're not gonna do well in life. And here's the thing. If you come to church and just zone out and don't get the wisdom that's being laid down three times a week, you're not gonna do well in life. And if you don't read your Bible on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, that's exercising a spiritual muscle, and you're gonna be spiritually weak, and you're not gonna do well in life. And so we want wisdom because it's going to teach us how to live our lives, and understanding how to live our lives is gonna help us make a living. Now, this is supposed to be the philosophy down at the public school system, why they're teaching you all these finer things and deeper things is because they're supposed to be just trying to give a well-rounded education and help people understand wisdom in life. But the problem is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And since our school system has become atheistic and infected with a lot of kind of left-wing garbage, obviously, the kind of higher learning and deeper things that they're teaching are kind of just sometimes a deep pile of dung of what they're teaching. And so, you know, warning, right, is caution. That's why I don't wanna drop off my little sweet child and just drop them off to be indoctrinated down there, okay? But that's the idea. That's why I don't agree with these memes, you know, saying, oh, just teach me practical things. No, no, no, we need to teach things that are also more ephemeral because of the fact that we just want to have wisdom. And obviously, the number one subject should always be the Bible, should always be the Word of God because that's the most important thing. And you say, well, you know, instead of the Bible, they could be learning a career, they could be learning a trade, you know. But hold on a second. The people who know the Bible, they're gonna be able to succeed in any career, any trade that you throw at them. You're always gonna be able to figure something out because they're gonna have God blessing them and because they, in general, know how to be a worker. If you know how to be a worker, you can work anywhere. If you know how to learn, you can always learn new things. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we're thankful for this chapter in your Word, Lord, and please help all of us to understand the importance of wisdom. Help us to seek after wisdom, Lord. And when our parents or pastor or other people are laying truths on us and giving us wisdom and teaching us things, Lord, help us not to despise instruction, but help us to eat those things up and listen to other people and glean their wisdom. And help us every day to read our Bibles and gain the wisdom of the ages from the Word of God so that we can go through life prospering and succeeding and serving you to the best of our ability. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.