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All right, let's jump right in here Proverbs 27 look at verse number one Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth now Of course, this verse is not talking about just planning for the future. It's it's wise to make plans It's wise to to make You know a plan for what you're gonna do in the future and in the things that you're you're building towards and planning for What is the saying is the post not thyself of tomorrow with boasting is bragging Right, you don't want to brag about the things that you're planning on doing tomorrow, right? You can't be bragging about things in the future things that you haven't even done yet If I was saying you don't know what a day may bring forth. There's uncertainty in the future. It's okay to make the plans It's good to have goals and the set forward and the go door to play of action But I mean the thing is with your goals You need to be able to alter and change those when necessary because things come up in our life You don't know what tomorrow is going to bring now turn if you would here keep your finger in Proverbs 27 turn You go to James chapter 4 James chapter 4 is basically teaches the same exact Proverb that were that we're learning here in verse number one We Shouldn't be puffed up about the things especially the things that we haven't done yet the things that we're planning on doing tomorrow and just Saying oh, I'm gonna do all this great work I'm gonna I'm gonna go do you know, whatever the case may be just I'm gonna do this tomorrow I'm gonna do this next week and you're bragging about it. Well Better watch it because you know, you don't know what tomorrow is gonna bring look at verse number 13 of James chapter 4 James 4 verse 13 if I were each go to now ye that say Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appearth for a little time and then banish it the way for that ye ought to say If the Lord will we shall live and do this or that look at this next verse verse 16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings All such rejoicing is evil Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth and not to him it is sin You can rejoice the things that you've done, but don't go rejoicing and bragging about the things you haven't done yet He's saying you know, the people who say and it's not even a serious. I'm spiritually saying, you know today or tomorrow We're gonna go into a city. We're gonna go over here. We're gonna You know continue there for a year. We're gonna buy and sell we're gonna make a lot of profit We're gonna you know, we're gonna build this great business and we're gonna make all this money We're gonna go over here and do all this stuff and you're kind of bragging about All the stuff that you're going to do that you haven't done yet The Bible saying you know what? You don't even know what tomorrow is gonna bring your life is like a vapor You could be dead tomorrow and all these great plans all these things that you're that you're bragging about now It's everybody else all your friends of saying saying how much money you're gonna make or whatever the case may be It doesn't have to be a worldly thing. It could be anything You know, I'm not even gonna boast myself of the the sorting that I'm gonna do and in a week from now or whatever I'm not gonna brag on the things that have not been done yet They haven't been accomplished because you don't know what a day is gonna bring You don't know what tomorrow's gonna be and the Bible says that you rejoice in your boastings You're basically feeling glad and in your in your in your bragging about the things are going to do and a Bible says that all Such rejoicing is evil So we need to keep ourselves in check and keep ourselves humble That's why he says, you know if the Lord will if God wants it to happen then we're gonna go and we're gonna do this or that and having that say that right type of an attitude at that right type Of a mindset of hey, this is what I'm planning to do it and Lord willing we're gonna do this, right? If it's God's will that we're gonna do this But I don't know what tomorrow is gonna bring. This is our plan. This is what we're working for And that keeps you humble and you're saying you know what if it's in God's will for me to do this stuff Then we're gonna do this But if not Then I'm gonna be doing something else and that will help prevent you from bragging about the things You haven't even done yet. You haven't accomplished yet. We need to not get so You know people have a tendency to get focused on these things that they haven't even done. Oh, man I'm gonna do all this just wait as soon as I get this out of the way soon Then I'm really gonna live for God then I'm really gonna you know, turn it on I'm gonna do all this great stuff And oftentimes more often than not when people kind of talk like that They get whatever done out of the way and then they're still not doing anything They say well, I just need to get this work done I need to get that done and then I'm then I'm gonna be I'm gonna follow three time I'll be going out so winning every day man's gonna be great And you boast about you're bragging about telling everyone how awesome it's gonna be and then you'll go do it And we need to make sure that we can keep ourselves in check and not and not just start boasting about those things again Have a plan but have us the right attitude of hey if God Lord willing This is what I'm going to be doing. This is what I'm planning on doing and Lord willing it'll happen and what's interesting is that last verse there in James 4 verse 17 says therefore to him that knoweth to do good and do if it not To him it is sin and this is a sin that's not often talked about very often typically when we think about since we think about the things that We that we do that. We're not supposed to do right I mean the the stealing the lying whatever, you know, all these various things that we're not supposed to do Oh, yeah I commit a sin the Bible saying when you know It's right to do something When you know You're supposed to be doing good when you know You're supposed to be loving your neighbors up when you know You're supposed to be preaching the gospel when you know You're supposed to be praying when you know, you're supposed to be reading about when you know You're supposed to be doing these things. Whatever the case may be and you don't do it. That's a sin and Like I mentioned, you know oftentimes people will say well I'm going to do this or that That's really good and they're kind of bragging about before they ever even do it You're saying you need to worry about what you're doing right now You just make sure that the things you're supposed to be doing today You're doing those today and not be so caught up in what's gonna happen tomorrow. You don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow Let's serve God today and rejoice in the things that we've done and continue to move forward Let's strive them to increase. Let's strive to do more. We're not gonna brag about it we're just gonna keep on doing what we're supposed to be doing today and When we know we're supposed to do good, we don't do it. You know, that's a sin Let's go back if we were to Proverbs 27, we got a lot more to cover here I just want to point out because James 4 really goes a little bit more in depth on this Concept of not knowing what tomorrow it's going to bring and not to not to boast ourselves of tomorrow But let's go back to Proverbs 27 verse number 2 The Bible says let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth a stranger and not thine own lips And I'm not gonna go into detail very much I brought this up last week this this goes to the point what I was made last week where Jesus talked about this You know, it's you receive praise from other people not from yourself You know, there's no honor in you telling everybody how great you are. There's no honor in that I mean no people are just gonna think that you're conceited People are gonna think that you're full of yourself when you just go around telling everyone how great you are Just like all the presidential elections in my lifetime has ever been you know, you got the candidate saying vote for me I'm so great. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do that and I'm awesome and I've got all this and you know I'm just just kind of boasting of themselves Instead of hey, let someone else praise you let someone else say this person's right this person does all this work This person is someone that we should have as a leader. This is someone you know, that's when you really get the honor That's when you really get the respect when you have other people saying This is a good person. This is a good man That's when you truly get the right praise You Jumped out real quick to verse number 21 It kind of goes and handle this as the finding pot for silver and the furnace for gold So is a man to his praise You need to be tried before you can be found worthy of receiving praise, you know, no one's gonna really know Your character no one's gonna know your integrity No one's gonna know who you are and why you should be worthy of praise at all until you go through Some of those more difficult times until you're tested and you come through like the gold like the silver you go through the refinement And you come out strong, right? Job was a great example this he went through the trials he went through losing everything and he remained faithful to the Lord and And when he was tried and tested and came through then he was really worthy of praise I'm not saying it wasn't worthy of praise before I'm sure he did a lot of great things about records He was a you know, the greatest man upon the earth But after being tried doesn't do that then everybody can attest. Yes. This is you know, this person's worthy of our praise They've been through a lot they stuck with it They have integrity and that's when you receive that praise and that's when you can expect to receive something like that But it's not something that you Bring upon yourself and tell everyone else how great you are. Let's keep going here verse number I covered that subject in depth on Sunday and on Wednesday verse number three a Stone is heavy in the sand weighty, but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous But who is able to stand before envy so we have a progression here It's like a you know, a stone is real heavy sand here. We're trying to lift sandbags and real heavy But a fool's wrath is heavier than them both and then it goes from the the wrath Says wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous Obviously you don't want to be on the end the receiving end of somebody's wrath or somebody's anger, right? It says but then it goes beyond that but who is able to stand before envy Envy is a sin envy is something that that is downplayed in our culture today in our society Envy what is envy is when you want something that doesn't belong to you when you when you're covetous That's it's another word for envy is when you really want something else something that belongs to someone else you want The Bible says that's even worse than the wrath and the anger Right. Most people would say I don't want to be on the receiving end of wrath and anger But you really don't want to be on the receiving end of someone's envy when someone envy something that you have because that goes there's more motivation to do evil than even just someone being angry or wrathful in a moment and Turn if you would real quick to Matthew 27, keep your finger in Proverbs 27 look at Matthew 27 Because this is exactly the position that Jesus found himself in Jesus was on the receiving end of people who envied him the Pharisees and the Sadducees of his time When Jesus started preaching the truth preaching the gospel and he starts getting this following He has these disciples and it's just a small group There's not much to be envious there But when he starts going in and drawing these great crowd and he's healing people and all of a sudden there's flocks of people That was probably never set in foot in a synagogue before that was never set in foot You know what to listen to the Pharisees teach Now Jesus is just I mean, he's got crowds of people He feeds the five thousand he feeds the four thousand and there's so many people sometimes Yes, and now you came and be in the city You know, he goes out onto the boat and he has to just push off in order to speak to everyone that's gathered together And when the Pharisees and the Sadducees see that they envied him and they envied him so much they put him to death They killed them and they would stop at nothing until they got it done That's where their envy led to in Matthew 27 look at verse 17 This is when Jesus was standing before Pilate says therefore when they were gathered together Pilate said unto them whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas or Jesus which is called Christ for he knew that for envy they had delivered him He knew he knew the reason why Jesus he knew that Jesus didn't do anything wrong And he kept on trying to get him off because he's saying this guy he's a just man He didn't do anything and he knew the real reason Regardless of whatever they're trying to accuse him of he's like I know it's for envy So he's giving him another opportunity to free him now, of course Pilate doesn't have integrity. He didn't do what's right He listened to the masses. He listened to the mob when they said crucify him crucify him Right, let him blood be upon us and upon our children Pilate did it and he tried to wash his hands of the matter Obviously, he's not guilt-free at all in condemning Jesus Christ But we see right here that he knew it was envy that That was the reason they delivered Jesus unto him and envy is really powerful and we need to make sure Especially in our own lives that we don't become envious Becoming envious is going to lead you Into all kinds of sins when you want things that you can't have that you don't you know that you don't have whether it be Whether it be expensive things you still have the money for and you're covering something that you think you want in that aspect or whether It be people or you know, like another a different husband or a different wife or something, you know Someone else's spouse whatever it whatever the reason is why you can't have something Watch out for the envy because it is dangerous. The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil The root the love of money. What's the love of money? It's greediness It's it's desiring to just have more and more and more and just being envious of money That is the root for the Bible Look, I believe the Bible is true 100% that is the root of all evil the source the source of all evil He was evil when people are doing harm to somebody else When you break it down and you go all the way back to the source it boils down to envy covetousness Greed it's that love of money and things that you don't want. That's what it boils down to you say I don't understand It doesn't make sense When people have that in their heart that love of money It will look at look at Proverbs 27. Look at verse number 20. This this will help explain a little bit Go Back to Proverbs 27. Look at verse number 20. The Bible reads hell and destruction are never full So the eyes of man are never satisfied when people become envious and have that love of money in their heart Their eyes are never satisfied. They always want more that or that void is never going to be filled They're going to be driven to do more and more and more and they'll do whatever it takes to get it It's like an addiction it's like an addict that gets addicted to drugs that just all they could focus on is the drug and whatever It takes to do they're gonna do it. They're gonna rob. They're gonna steal. They'll hurt other people to get what they want It's a real similar but the love of money and that envy does the same exact thing People get get wrapped up into that. I Mean Bible says you cannot serve God and mammon and mammon is money For either your love the one and hate the other or your despise the one and cleave to the other You can't do both We're not supposed to love money and loving money is that is the root of all you like I said and that's in 1st Timothy chapter 6 you read that whole chapter Watch out for the sin of envy Let's keep reading I'll just go back up to verse number 5 We're gonna see the importance of having good friends We ought to be careful who our friends are and make sure we're choosing out Right friends godly friends good friends to have around us look at verse number 5 the Bible reads open rebuke is better than secret Love faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful Thing about it would be pretty nice if you found out that someone someone in this church really cares about you Right, they love you. They care about you. But maybe you don't know it because they never say anything. They never really do anything It's a secret love right they but but they just earnestly they care about you. That would be nice But you know, it's even better than that a going the Bible open rebuke Open rebuke someone telling you that you're wrong just openly just confronting you and saying, you know what brother, you know, what sister? You I think you're wrong in this area. I think you need you know, you're in sin You know, whatever the reason is why there's a rebuke that that has become necessary to to let that person know That is way better than just someone who secretly Cares for you because honestly that that open rebuke is really open love And we need to understand that as such we need to understand if someone is is is has gotten to the point to feel like You need a correction It's tough to make that decision To decide that word. I'm gonna actually say something to this person Because you know, you're already thinking how are they going to respond? Is this going to damage our relationship? Is this going to damage our friendship? Well, what what's going to be the outcome of this? Should I say anything at all? But when someone makes a decision to say no this is important I Think they need to hear this rebuke It's because they care about you. It's not because they hate you. I mean 99 times out of 10. I don't know I mean There you may have some jerk that just full of themselves and think they just need to tell everybody why they're wrong That's not what we're talking about here We're talking about someone that cares about you Enough to tell you. Hey, you're you're having an you're an error and and and you're wrong about this And this is why and that's why you approach people humbly and meekly, you know, you're not just trying to come at them as if like, you know everything or whatever, but When you love someone and when someone loves you they'll rebuke you I mean when needed right when there's and when there's a reason they have a rebuke and we ought to appreciate that If you have wisdom, you'll appreciate that you'll be able to appreciate Being able to hear those things I'm not going to go into very much detail, but my wife experienced that she had a friend that was called her out on some things that that they thought that she was an error of and It stung and it hurts but Later, we could look you and she could look back on it and be appreciative that her friend was ain't willing to potentially ruin their friendship because of this area where she felt she needed a rebuke and We got even regardless of if what she was doing was wrong and needed a rebuke Knowing the heart and knowing that hey, this is someone who's willing to To lay it out there to help me that to help me correct my error That's a big deal. And that is that is it's great to have friends like that And if you have a friend like that, it's be all you made your first instinct might be to get mad And I understand because no one wants to be told that they're wrong but y'all to love that person Because they they honestly will care about you open for you gets better than secret love and that's why my will says in verse 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend Being wounded right it hurts though. It stings man. No one to be told the wrong get that review That's faithful. Your friend is being faithful and true to you, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful, right? You can have people telling you all the nice things all day long It doesn't mean that they care about you doesn't mean that your friend could just be putting on a front deal The enemy will do that. The enemy is going to make them selves look like they're just There you're there your buddy and everything's nice and roses That's why the you know The pastors that never preach on sin and never point out maybe that never give rebukes that never preached us that the Lord This is wrong. This is a sin. They don't really love Their congregation, I don't believe that they just want to make everybody feel good and feel comfortable and When rebukes necessary look, it's way better. I've opened rebuked than secret love and The kisses of an enemy are deceitful. I'd be watching out and making sure that that's not my head You know that they're not an enemy for not Not bringing up things that I that I would know I need to hear but let's keep going here That's that's you know, that's one aspect of having a good friend someone that's that's willing to give you a rebuke when it's necessary Verse number nine jump down to verse number nine ointment and perfume rejoice the heart so does the sweetness of a man's friend By hearty counsel a good friend's gonna be able to give you good advice Good counsel that we ought to be able to take to heart verse number ten Thine own friend and my father's friend forsake not Neither go into thy brother's house in the day of collect of thy calamity For better as a neighbor that is near than a brother far off and you know our family we ought to be close to our Family, I believe we ought to be close to our physical brothers and sisters and our parents and stuff But the Bible is teaching us here that you could have friends that are you know There is a friend that's taking closer than a brother and it's really good to have good friends It's great to have people that you can rely on That can edify you and you can edify them and build each other up You see the great friendship of David and Jonathan in the Bible. It says that their souls were like knit together They were they were they really cared about each other Like, you know, the Bible says that it's above the love of a woman that they had for each other they were great friends and And and would do just about anything for each other. They cared about each other They made oaths to each other and that's a great friendship to have Because then when one of them is getting in trouble the other ones there to help them out and we all need help from time to time and If I was saying don't forsake your friend don't just treat them like like you're using them like, you know They're there when you need them and just forsake them when you don't when you don't need them Because there is going to be a time it doesn't your calamity where it says, you know, don't go to your brother's house He's going to be much further away. Maybe you got to travel a lot farther to get to your physical brother's house When your neighbors right there your buddies right there real close You could just go and they'll help you out having a good friend is important. I'll jump down to verse number 17 Bowers iron sharpness iron so a man sharpness the countenance of his friend and You know good friends will be edifying for you finding someone who's who's who's got that same You know, you're both iron your boat. You're both Have this similar belief so, you know, you're both Christian for example That would be a great example of having iron you're both you both love God you want to serve them and that's how you're going to help each other to improve you're going to sharpen but it says here the sharpness account the countenance right there's your countenance is your face and And your friends gonna help you It's about you and your time to trouble your time to need lift up your spirits and to lift you up and build you up With whatever help that you need and that's what a good friend will do for you so you want to surround yourself with people one who love God that that Gain this wisdom from the Bible who know what it's like to be a good friend. You want to surround yourself by people who who? Have this understanding and will be a good friend to you But you also want to make sure that you are that good friend to them So whoever your friends are today You want to make sure that that you can be there for them and that you are willing to Help them out and and be able to lift them up and help them in their time of need It's important to be a good friend Especially if you want to have good friends, and I think everyone should that we should want to have good friends So we need to start off by by doing that for others and it's it's interesting how it plays off of each other to when you Go above and beyond kind of out of your way to do things for friends It means a lot to them and oftentimes people when you receive that love when you see that that extra effort You almost feel like wow For them in a while and you kind of reciprocate back and forth and it just helps to to build your friendship overall It's a good Good, you know good friends. I can't say enough about the Bible talks a lot about making sure you have good friends Let's keep going on here verse number seven. Let's go back up to verse number seven The Bible says the full soul loatheth and honeycomb loatheth means you hate it The full soul loatheth and honeycomb, but to the hungry so every bitter thing is sweet Now I know I've been there before we go out to eat you out to a nice restaurant You just you just have all this this huge meal right to serve you all this food you get an appetizer you got the main dish and By the time you're done eating you're like, oh man You're gonna have to roll me out of here because I've just I've just so say I'm full I cannot fit another thing. I mean and then they come and say hey, would you like to have dessert? You're like no Anything more in my body and that's what it's like, you know Normally if you if you didn't just have that whole meal and someone offered you this nice, you know sugary Chocolaty snack. Oh, man, that looks great. Yeah, I'd love to have that but when you're full when you're just completely stuffed You loathe you're like, I hate that. I don't want it get it away from me Don't even put it in front of my face because I'm just way too full This is what the Bible is describing here, but when you're hungry Hey, man, we are hungry You don't eat for a couple days or you don't need for a day or whatever you go a long time and your stomach's just you Growling and you you want some food? You get a cracker you get just a little bit something like man that is just take your taste buds that have heightened You know your senses are just you know It's the best food that you ever have is when you're really really really hungry and then you get something to satisfy the hunger It tastes sweet. It tastes great We're normally you might not even like it that much Right, but you get that food when you're really hungry and I think it's a very good thing To be hungry. I think it's good to keep ourselves Hungry, it's gonna keep us humble. I'm not just talking about physical food here I'm talking about being hungry in many areas of our life not feeling where we've just We've stuffed ourselves. I've gotten to the point to where You know, I everything is going well for me and I think it's important to or I think it's better. I don't see it important I think it's better That like for example in my family that we don't have like just tons of money We're not just completely financially sad and just everything is going great for us I think it's good to be a little bit hungry because I think it keeps us a little bit more Appreciative of the things that we actually have and I think that's another reason why it's important You know God says not to you know, seek after the riches of this world. Your Bible says seek ye not The riches of this world. It says seek ye first the kingdom of God his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you We need to be focused on what's important And if we struggle a little bit financially That's fine because it's just gonna make you appreciate all the blessings that God has given you in your life already So if you went to Matthew chapter 5 And we'll see a little bit more into this great truth of how blessed it truly is to be hungry When you're blessed every bitter thing is sweet when you don't have much you appreciate every little thing that comes your way And I don't know about you, but I want to be appreciative I want to thank God for all the good things that he's done in my life and not just Say who is the Lord not be so full just of everything in life and say well God hasn't done anything for me I did all this myself And started having a bad attitude and start thinking I don't need anything and start thinking I don't need to rely on God I don't need to have faith in God. I'm just gonna you know, I'm good Because that's what happens to the full soul You start hating even the good blessings that come your way look at verse number 3 Matthew chapter 5 blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are they that mourn? For they shall be comforted Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are they which do a hunger and thirst after righteousness For they shall be filled Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God blessed are the peacemakers for they should be called the children of God Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are ye when men shall Revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you Many of these things that are mentioned here being a blessing are very uncomfortable It's uncomfortable to be hungry. It's uncomfortable when people are Persecuting you and coming after you it's uncomfortable to be poor. It's uncomfortable to mourn These are not areas where you're feeling just like everything's going great. But God's saying hey, you're blessed this is actually a good position to be in because It's gonna get better for you you're gonna receive you're going to get to get better and you're going to Acknowledge everything that's been done for you We need to make sure we don't get so go back to go to Proverbs chapter 27 We don't want to get too focused on the things of this world our comforts here Because once you even if you achieve that you focus on that you achieve that You're not gonna have a very good attitude because you're just gonna loathe you're gonna loathe everything I mean who wants to hate everything, you know who wants to hate the honeycomb? I Think honeycombs great. I love eating honey. It's sweet It's you know, but when you just have it every day and use it's always available to you You don't appreciate it all and you start hating things And honestly a lot of people that have a lot of money and just kind of everything going for them end up being miserable people because they realize once you have everything like It's All kind of it's all vanity and it starts to come clear to you once you have everything that It's not all it's cracked up to be Having all the riches and all the wealth and everything else. It's Really not that fulfilling and you start hating it all It's better not to have something enjoy the little things that you get enjoy that that Whatever it is that you work for and that little piece that you can have here That that's going to bring you a look at some happiness and not get wrapped up in And just everything that this world has offered. Let's go back to Proverbs 27 here. We got a few more topics to cover Verse number eight as a bird that wandereth from her nest So as a man that wandereth from his place, let's jump on to verse number 11 my son be wise and make my heart glad That I may answer him that reproaches me. I Probably should have met, you know jumbled this in with the with the receiving praise But the way that we raise our children Should be able to speak about who we are And we want to make sure we invest a lot of time in how to raise our children and that we treat them Because they're very very important and on how they're raised and should be a reflection of who we are so when the Bible says My son be wise and make my heart glad The parent always wants their children to be wise and to do what's right and to have this knowledge that has wisdom to make the right Choices that you've done a good job of teaching and training them so that I can answer him that reproaches me So when someone wants to tell you why you're wrong for believing what you believe you could point to your child and say Well, this is the fruit of that belief. This is what comes up Believing this way or you know thinking this way Here's a living example you know, here's someone who does this so a Good example, I think is when And I laugh because it's kind of funny now that my son is screaming back there But he's one years old. Okay, and they do that But when you have people that want to criticize you And reproach you For say spanking your children, right giving them that discipline giving them that type of a of a correction They say I can't believe you do that. Well when your child is being wise and well-behaved when you're out in public You could point to them and say See I could answer them that reproach me with well look at how well-behaved my children are Look at what's going on as I laugh as my as my one girl screaming in church You're ruining my point Jonathan Just kidding but no and that's you know It is important though to invest the time and to invest the the teaching and training in the truth because the truth is Always, you know, God's Word is not going to return void and it will lead to the right decision-making When you're teaching and training and providing the truth It's A lot less likely for the kids and make many of the mistakes that obviously the people that don't have the same Knowledge will make because they'll understand the end of a matter Let's keep going verse number 12 a prudent man foresee it the evil and hide it himself with a simple pass on or punish I already covered that about a week or two ago verse number 13 take his garment that is surety for a stranger and Take a pledge of him for a strange woman and I covered this pretty early on in Proverbs about what a shit What surety is and it's basically taking collateral when when you give someone a loan when someone needs something and you're receiving Something that that's important to them You know right now if you want if you were to go and like Test drive a car or something usually have to leave a credit card or driver's license or something to where you're not just gonna take Off with it. You're gonna come back to get whatever it is that you left with them things like that And that's what taking a surety is and what the Bible teaches here is that you know with the poor people You know, you don't the oftentimes what they do is take a garment because clothes were really precious in those days It's not like today where you just have racks and racks of clothes and everything's made in China You got like, you know clothing is super cheap clothing back Then wasn't quite as cheap as hand stitch and there's a lot more work involved to it So it's more valuable and people didn't have all these, you know tons of garments many people often only had one So something that that mattered a lot to them if they needed something if they needed to borrow something need a loan They would give them a garment and then come back for it and the Bible teaches that you know with the poor don't Don't take their garment and keep it like overnight You know things that they really need when someone's poor you give that to them And there's a lot more leniency shown even just with your brother and stuff of not not even taking sureties necessarily But it says here to take his garment that is surety for a stranger. So a foreigner someone who's just you know Basically why we was talking about people who are not like like saved not children of God these foreigners these outsiders You don't know what they're gonna do. They're a lot more likely to be deceitful So make sure that you take something as a pledge or as surety for them Let's keep reading here verse number 14. He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice Rising early in the morning. It shall be counted a curse to him. You might be saying master person What is what in the world that talking about? Why would it be a curse to somebody to bless their friend or to bless their neighbor? Right. Well, it's not a curse to bless your friend But it says he that buzzes his friend with a loud voice rising early in the morning and she kind of occurs to him and What what I what I believe this verse is talking about is is You know The reason why you're even blessing with a loud voice in the first place is so that other people can hear you Right when you bless someone why does anyone else need to hear your blessing for that person? So what this is talking about is someone who is wants to make it known Hey everybody, I'm blessing this person so that they could think wow. What a great person you are What a great friend you are. Look at how great you go. Nice. Yes. He's blessing his friend I Was saying, you know when you do that that's gonna be counted a curse to you Because that's not the reason why you bless you You don't you don't do that so other people can hear how great you are And that's what the Pharisees and again you can read Matthew chapter 6 Jesus talks about them that that love to wear the long garments and they say the prayers and they love the praise of men And it's the same type of pharisaical attitude of someone who? Blesses his friend with a loud voice to make sure everybody hears Let's keep reading verse number 15 a continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike whosoever Hideeth her hide at the wind and the ointment of his right hand which berate itself and I've covered this topic as well a few weeks ago about the you know The contentious woman and a contentious woman is someone who likes to fight Someone who's wants to just argue with you and I've discussed this many times. I'll bring it up again You know the Bible teaches that the the husband is the head of the household that the husband is the one that has the authority Over the household and that he's the one that makes the decisions and when a husband makes a decision For a wife to be contentious and just fight and argue over what the husband says is not right It's not biblical. It's wicked. It's not something that you should supposed to be you're supposed to be humble and submissive unto your husband and What it gets to here It's like a continual dropping in a very rainy day and a continual dropping is not a good thing I think and in some places they use that for torture We're just like strap you down and just have like water just dripping on your head like over and over and over and over again now It's kind of funny. You know, I'll give you that But it's not and we need to keep this in our hearts and remember that Ladies, I mean look if you love your husband and if you love your wife You don't want them to leave you you don't want to leave them and and if we're righteous We're gonna hold to our vows and say I'm never gonna leave her for sake my husband or forsake my wife You know, I'm never it's never gonna happen It's never an option because I made a vow and I made about a god I made about her I love her, you know, I love him. I love her I'm gonna stay with them forever and I'm gonna keep that end of the bargain but People get divorced and things happen and And ladies, I would just say, you know, if you're contentious remember this like a continual dropping And I'm not saying it's right But sometimes people end up leaving When they have a continual dropping day after day after day after day It wears on people And again, it's this is wisdom, okay, we want to have wisdom I'm not there's no Justification for anybody severing or divorcing their spouse But this is reality. This is what happens and we need to remember that You know, you don't want to be that continual dropping. You don't want to just be contentious and fighting every step of the way Let's Keep going here verse number 18 5.27 18 who so keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof. So he that waiteth on his master Shall be honored. There is a blessing there is you will be recompensed for the work that you do Keep your finger here if you would to Colossians chapter number three So it says here if you keep the fig tree you're there you're watering it you're managing it you're helping cultivate it and you're getting it to grow You're gonna eat the fruit thereof and you ought to that's what that's what you deserve You're doing all the work for it. You deserve at least a partake in the fruits of your labor Just like the Bible says, you know not to muzzle the ox that tread at the corn, right? The ox is doing all this work and it's treading out the corn It ought to get a little bit of that corn I ought to be able to partake in what it's actually doing and receive Some of the benefit of the work that it's doing and by the way He that waiteth on his master shall be honored waiteth meaning like like serving him, right? You're like you like a server waits tables at a restaurant. You're waiting on you. They're serving you So when you wait on your master your boss You'll be honored and if they don't honor you if they don't recompense you if they're a wicked master or a wicked boss God will make sure it's that it's right. God will make sure that you get recompense In Colossians 3 verse 22 the Bible reads servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh Not with eye service as men pleasers but in singleness of heart fearing God and Whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve The Lord Christ the way that we work for our boss the way that we work for you our masters in the Bible use the word Master was our boss. You're a servant. You're an employee We ought to work for them as if we're working for God in our hearts. That's who we're really serving anyways So the work that we do ought to be top-notch it ought to be top quality regardless of who the master is again Ladies, your husband is your boss at home That's what the Bible says you could go a little bit earlier in Colossians 3 or turn to Ephesians chapter 5 You can read the same thing The husband's the boss and man you got work. You got a boss at work Hey, I Don't care what they act like I don't care how they treat you The Bible tells you You ought to just serve in singleness of heart as if you're spirit you're serving the Lord that's the way that we ought to be that's a test we want to have and and you know, we're supposed to be humble and And willing to take whatever comes our way Because ultimately at the end of the day God sees everything and you are being a very good example when you don't Just make that person your enemy and try to right every wrong then and take matters in your own hand Say well, I'm not gonna work for them because they're not treating me right and they're only paying me this much Not worth this much. So I'm only gonna give them this much of my time. I'm only gonna give them this much of my work That's wicked. That's a wicked arm That's a bad example And that's a bad testimony that you're given if you're gonna be a Christian or if you're be known as a Christian worker You ought to be working your tail off and doing what's right as if you're serving the Lord himself That's what the Bible teaches that the way that we ought to be that word that we do it heartily With our heart as to the Lord and not unto men And that's why it says in verse 24 knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance God will make it right for you and we have no doubt about that Go back if you were to proverbs 27 a Power of 27 verse 19 as in water face answer at the face It's not about your reflection when you look at the water you see reflection in the water So the heart of man to man you are a reflection of what's in your heart What what what you have inside of you comes out in your person and who you are and again This ties in perfectly with with what we just went over and in serving the Lord with your heart Will come through in your actions jump down to verse number 22 though Thou shouldest Bray a fool and a mortar among wheat with a pestle Yet will not his foolishness depart from him and we covered a lot of ground about the fool last week but it's kind of interesting it says even if you pray a Fool in mortar among we with a pestle you just grind them You know it's really just lay into them Bible says yet his foolishness won't depart from them fools very and that's why you know There's not a right answer with dealing with a fool because they just are stubborn and stiff neck and won't have Anything to do with being corrected. Let's keep reading verse number 23 beat out diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds for riches or not forever and That the crown endure to every generation in order to sustain your wealth or whatever it is that you've accumulated It's like you have to be diligent over your business the things that you have you ought to look well to You ought to take care of whatever it is that God was with whoever is that you have now. It's not our Primary focus and everything you know we're supposed to be serving the Lord first But there is I mean we do have to take care of ourselves. We do have to take care of our families we do have a need to take care of certain things and We ought to be diligent with what we do have and not just just let everything go to ruins now What I think is really interesting here. It says the crown does not automatically Endure to every generation and you see this as you read through the Bible also And I think Rehoboam is a perfect example of this Rehoboam had everything going for him He had a great lineage. He had a great inheritance He had you know David his grandfather the king great man of God Everybody loved King David everybody respected King David you know King David was loved by by by the whole nation and then his son Solomon and Solomon again Great prosperity in the years of Solomon great peace No war things were going you know the people loved Solomon also But Solomon built these great works that people kind of started to get a little weary of Doing all this work that that's almost grill building this great empire and all these these public works So they go to Rehoboam, and they're like hey, you know We've been working real hard under your father Can you cut us a little slack can you give us a little break right? Now Rehoboam is someone his whole life. He grew up with granddad David Dad Solomon He's an heir right. I mean he's he was the prince now He's the king and he you know he grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth I believe I think he grew up just having everything. I mean Solomon had all these great riches. He had everything he could want He didn't have a very good attitude He didn't have humility as Solomon his father as far as Solomon's father had humility When when God asked him what he wanted he entreats God to God This is what I want This is a great people. I don't know how to do this I don't know how to lead such a great people that you've given to me Lord Please just give me wisdom give me knowledge help me to do the right job that you would have me to do God He was humble He recognized he needed help He needed to rely on the Lord for help and God saw that and he loved that he says you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna grant your request. I'm also gonna give you the things you didn't ask for Which was the financial wealth and the and the life of his enemies you know and long life. He gave him these things because he had the right heart he had the right attitude and Unfortunately for Rehoboam he didn't even understand the Proverbs his own father wrote down Riches are not forever and that the crown endured every generation It's not just a given You need to work at it you need to to do what's right in order to sustain what's going on Turn to go to first Kings chapter 12. We'll read this story real briefly I know Hopefully everyone's familiar with it, but in case you're not first Kings chapter 12. We're almost done First Kings chapter 12 verse I'll read verse number three that they said and called him and Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and spake unto Rehoboam saying Thy father made our yoke grievous now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father and his heavy yoke Which he put upon us lighter, and we will serve thee. They're making a deal there look. We'll serve you We'll love you. You know you're the king. We'll do what you want, but please just take it a little bit easy on us You know we've been working and toiling really hard for your dad verse number five He said unto them depart yet for three days then come again to me and the people departed and King Rehoboam consulted with the old men That stood before Solomon and his father while he yet while he yet lived and said how do you advise that I may answer this People and they spake on him saying if thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day And we'll serve them and answer them and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants forever He said if you look well to what you're doing now if you can give them this Give them what they're asking for be humble be a servant and show them that you are serving them, and you're hearing them They'll be loyal to you They'll stick with you and these were the wise men that were learning under that under King Solomon who get you gain his wisdom This was the righteous advice But verse number eight says but he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him and consulted with the young Men that were grown up with him and which stood before him And he said unto them what counsel give ye that we may answer this people have spoken to me saying Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter and the young men that were grown up with him Spake on him saying thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee saying thy father made our yoke heavy But make thou it lighter for us Thus shall thou say unto them my little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins and now whereas my father did laid you with The heavy yoke I will add to your yoke my father of chastise you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions That's pretty rough And this is coming from the spoiled brats That had everything that was his young men that all grew up in the same over in the same group the same Rule you know the same wealthy people and his father's house They had everything handed to him to say oh, I could be you think my dad was tough. Well. I could be tough lacking wisdom lacking Understanding and just trying to talk and act real tough and not really looking to their own ways and just thinking well I'm the king so I'm just gonna you know being wise in his own conceits is what he's doing because I'm the king I'm just gonna tell you you thought you had it bad before, but you better watch out for me I'm gonna be a lot tougher than my dad was and you know what happens. He loses almost everything This one instance one thing happened. He lost almost everything the cost of not having wisdom Not taking good counsel not getting good at that not receiving the good advice that you've been given Take This to heart too and someone when when you you know someone that's able to give good advice That you could trust that you think you know that that you trust this has got a good lot of godly wisdom And they tell you something you decide this to it like I'm not saying you you just have to listen to everything everybody ever you know someone ever says to you, but but Forsaking good advice and good wisdom can come at a big cost and And really treat it properly so the king answers, I'm here, and and I'm just gonna skip ahead Because he answers them exactly the same way verse number 16 So when all Israel saw the king hearken not unto them the people answer the king saying what portion have we and David Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse to your tent so Israel now see thine own house David So Israel departed unto their tents, but as for the children of Israel which twelfth in the cities of Judah Rehoboam reigned over them Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was over the tribute so the tax guy He sends out and all Israel stoned him with stones that he died Therefore King Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot to flee to Jerusalem So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day All based on his foolish answer they rebelled against them they killed the tax guy Oh, you think you're gonna. You're gonna. You're gonna. Tax us now. Yeah, right You're not our leader He lost it. He lost his authority lost his power over them because what they didn't give it to him they refused to give him that authority and Let's go back to Proverbs 25 27 we'll read the last few verses and we'll close it up First Number 25 the hay appearance and the tender grass showeth itself and herbs of the mountains are gathered the lambs are for thy clothing and The goats are the price of the field and thou shalt have goats milk enough for thy food For the food of thy household and for the maintenance for thy maidens now You know obviously God has given us as humans as mankind the Dominion over the earth and over the animals And that's why I think You know these extreme Called leftist or whatever the people who are who are really into the environment and really into the animals and like The the the vegan type that just think it's it's horrible for you to eat eggs and to do you know? Let alone eat meat. I mean you know these people don't have their head screwed on straight the Bible tells us specifically I Mean God's given us the animals that deserve to eat And the vegetables and the tree you know and you know he's given all this we have Dominion over it We have right to do what we want basically with with with all these other beasts and and this you know the the trees And the agriculture everything that God has given unto us we have Dominion over it now obviously we should be wise with that We should be smart not and not just you know go around as slaughtering a bunch of animals for no reason or whatever but God's given us the stuff. He says the lambs are for that clothing Right we ought to shave them and get the wool and get the you know and be able to spin it and use every clothing They go into the price of that field and it says enough to have goats milk enough for thy food I've heard I've even heard Christians saying how weird it is that you drink milk from an animal and that's why you know It's understandable for for a baby to drink their mom's breast milk Because that's still a person, but when you're drinking an animal's milk, that's bizarre. That's weird. There's nothing weird about it The Bible says that that the goats milk is going to provide for you and for your household I mean, that's that's what it's there for we are to consume this stuff There's nothing wrong with consuming the milk of goats or cows or you know these animals to sustain us and get nutrition There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. It's good, and and it's given to us by God That's it for Proverbs 27 as far as I have a word of prayer your heavenly father Lord We thank you so much for the great wisdom that we've been learning Throughout through every week of going through the book of Proverbs God. I pray to you. Please help some of the things I know tonight. We touched on a lot of different topics dear Lord and But those things that are important to each individual dear Lord whatever whatever people needed to hear tonight dear God I pray to you Please help us all to walk away with some greater truth and understanding that will help us in our life dear Lord That'll help us in our understanding and in our doctrine that we can continue to grow closer to you in Jesus name. We pray amen