[MUSIC PLAYING] The Bible from 30,000 feet,
soaring through the scripture from Genesis to Revelation. [MUSIC PLAYING] Father, as we begin, that
is the heart and mindset that we begin with. We are talking about and
examining and then applying eternal truth written down
to our contemporary lives, so that by doing so
we would be changed, we would live above reproach
as lights in a dark world, firmly tethered to you. Give us grace, give
us wisdom as this book is so famously known for. Help us not only to understand
things about this book, but may we understand and know
you through this book, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, we've made it to week 22
in the Bible from 30,000 feet. [CHEERING] When we began, I used
sort of a little proverb-- give me a year, and
I'll give you the Bible. The idea being
rather than teaching every verse of scripture
this time around, I want to give you
the principles that are found in every
single book of the Bible. I'm going to give you
a working knowledge of the great principles
that are found in the books of the Bible. Last week we passed our halfway
point in the scriptures. What I mean is this-- Psalm 118 marks the literary
middle of the Bible. There are 1,189
chapters in scripture, and the middle
chapter is Psalm 118. So now we're in Proverbs. We're well past that. So we begin looking at the book
of Proverbs on this journey through scripture. We live in what is called
the information age. It's been called
that for a long time. But information has gotten
to a place where knowledge is ubiquitous, and we're
cranking out prolific amounts of knowledge every single day. I read an article about this. I just wanted to share a
couple of sentences with you. The article said
prior to 2003 mankind had generated a sum total
of five exabytes of content historically. Now let me just explain that. An exabytes happens to
be a billion gigabytes. So five exabytes of content
from the beginning of humanity until 2003-- five. Today it is estimated that we
generate this amount of content measured in days. As Google CEO Eric Schmidt
said, "Between the birth of the world and 2003,
there were five exabytes of information created. We now create five
exabytes every two days." We are on information overload. You can get anything you want. Right now, IF you
are so distracted that you just have to
look at your Instagram, or your Twitter, or
you've got to get on Google and search
something, you can just find it
instantaneously. It's everywhere, it's anywhere. But information is not
the same as wisdom. You can have lots of
knowledge, but not necessarily an equivalent
amount of wisdom to know what to do with
all that knowledge. Learning is not
the same as living. You might have money, but
if you don't have wisdom to go along with that bank
account, you will lose it. You might have fame, but if you
don't have wisdom in your life, your fame will ruin you. You might even have a long life. A lot of people
want a long life. But if you don't
have wisdom in that, what good is that long life? In fact, when it comes
to knowledge and wisdom without God, you got nothing. The Bible talks about
those who are always learning and never coming to
the knowledge of the truth. So having knowledge is
important, but having wisdom is all important, as this
book has as the grand theme. Now by now hopefully
you've discovered something about your Bible. Your Bible is
intensely practical. Oh yes, it has depth. The depth of
doctrinal teaching is found throughout the
pages of scripture. It has the heights of prophecy
to titillate and exhilarate even the most bored individual. It has great depth,
it has great height. But more than that,
it is intensely practical for daily life. After Psalms in your
Bible comes Proverbs. If Psalms tells us how
to get along with God, Proverbs teaches us how to
get along with our fellow man. In the book of
Psalms it tells us how to get alone with
God on our knees. In the book of Proverbs it tells
us how to stand on our feet, how to walk through life through
the byways, and highways, and roadways, and
sidewalks of life. Psalms teaches us to
praise God in private, whereas Proverbs
teaches us how to take our relationship with God
into the public square. And to do that, you need wisdom. There are 31 chapters
in the book of Proverbs. Don't you find that interesting? Because our longest
month will have 31 days. I like its division. I like the fact that
there are 31 of them. And some people
make it a practice to read one proverb
every single day corresponding to the
day of the month. I'm one of those. I like to read Psalms. I like to read at
least one Psalm. Billy Graham liked to
read five Psalms a day. I like to read a
Psalm or two a day. I also like to add
a Proverb every day, and I like to add my
regular Bible reading on top of Psalms and Proverbs. But I like to read a Proverb
a day, and some of you also have made that practice. If you don't have
that as a practice, let me commend it to you. Start tomorrow in
Proverbs chapter 9. Add that to your Bible reading. If you want to, just
read a Proverb at night before you go to bed. And when I say a Proverb, I
mean a chapter of Proverbs. There are several
Proverbs per chapter. But when you read them, you're
going to be slowing down to understand them. Because it's
different literature, as I'm going to
explain in a moment. Now, we come in our Bibles
to the third of five of the books of
wisdom or poetry, the poetic books of the Bible. There are five poetic books-- Job, Psalms, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Job, Psalms, Proverbs-- we're
in the third poetic book. But we also come to
the very first book penned by Solomon, the
third King of Israel, of the united monarchy. Solomon is mostly,
if not solely, the author of this book. I'm going to explain
that in a moment. We know that Solomon
was prolific. According to 1
Kings chapter 4, he wrote lots of proverbs
and lots of songs. He was a songwriter,
as well as a poet. He wrote, according to that
chapter in the Old Testament, 3,000 proverbs. Not all of them are listed
here, just some of them, probably his most important. And he wrote 1,005 songs. Wouldn't you like to
hear Solomon sing a song? Proverb, our English
word, proverb, comes from a Latin term that
sounds very similar to it-- proverbum, or proverbium. Proverbium, proverb. That Latin word
is a telling word. It comes from two
words stuck together in the Latin language-- pro and verbum. Pro is a word that means
for, or instead of, or on behalf of, and the
second word, verba, or verbum, or verbium, which
means word or words. So instead of words. In other words, a
proverb is a few words instead of a lot of words. That's a proverb. We would call it an
adage, or an epigram, or an axiom, or a saying. That is a proverb. It is a short saying
based on long experience. I didn't make that up. Cervantes, the Spanish
author, said that. But it's a good definition. A short saying based
on long experience. They are concentrated
nuggets of truth that you have to mull over,
think about, turn over in your mind as you read them. Every culture has proverbs. Our own culture has such
adages, things like this-- nothing ventured,
nothing gained. Or, don't throw the
baby out with the-- Bathwater. --bathwater. Or, look before-- You leap. --you leap. Or, don't make a
mountain out of a-- Molehill. --molehill. We've learn them since
we were children. They are axiomatic truths,
or they're epigrams, they are adages, they are
proverbs in our language. What makes the book of
Proverbs different from all those little common adages of
our own language is simple. It's called inspiration. This isn't just good advice,
this is God's advice. This is inspired by God. And the book of Proverbs
is thus holy scripture. Now as you have gone
through Proverbs, there's people in it you
recognize, like the scoffer. I bet you know one, or
two, or three, or 20. [LAUGHING] A friend is mentioned and
described in this book. I hope you have a lot of those. The fool is described in the
book of Proverbs, a wise man, a wise woman, a sluggard. We looked at that
in the little skit, and we'll look at it
again in our study. Now, the book of Proverbs
does have an outline. I'm going to mention to you
sort of a consecutive outline, but that is not
the one I'm going to take you through tonight. Because I see this
book sort of defying, outlining, and I'll tell
you why also in a moment. But there is a
consecutive-- that is, from beginning to end--
way to divide the book. I would divide the book by
saying there are principles, there are proverbs, and there
are precepts in this book. Allow me to explain. Chapters 1 through 9 are
principles from Solomon chiefly to the young,
chiefly to his own son. The term "my son" appears
10 times in these chapters. My son, do this. My son, look at that. My son, my son. So these are
principles from Solomon to the young,
especially his son. That's Proverbs
chapters 1 through 9. Then there is another section. I would say these are
Proverbs of Solomon, Proverbs of Solomon,
chapters 10 through 24. Largely, he compares
the righteous person with the wicked person. These are the
Proverbs of Solomon. Then there are
precepts by Solomon, and that's chapters
25 through 29. They are by Solomon, but they
are not compiled by Solomon. Because chapter
25 will say these are Proverbs compiled
by King Hezekiah. So Hezekiah, the King of
Judah, and his royal court put together other
proverbs by Solomon, or precepts, and
gives them to us. So we have principles from
Solomon, proverbs of Solomon, and precepts by Solomon,
composed by Solomon, but compiled by Hezekiah. Then I would even
add a last section, and that is Proverbs
by Agur and Lemuel, which may be a couple
of different other guys, but maybe not. As again, I will explain
when we get there. That is chapters 30 and 31. But let's begin in Proverbs 1. Let's look at a few
of these Proverbs, just to get our
feet wet in them. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son
of David, the King of Israel. "To know wisdom
and instruction, to perceive the words
of understanding, to receive the instruction
of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity." Solomon begins by
giving to us his purpose statement, his goal, his aim
in writing these Proverbs. He continues, "To give
prudence to the simple." A term for simple
or another word is naive, those
who may be younger, and they don't have the
life experience of somebody who is older, who has
walked a few more miles, who is at that point not naive. So "To give prudence
to the simple, to the young man,
knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear
and increase learning, and a man of understanding
will attain wise counsel." Now, why is it that those of
us who have read the Bible keep reading it? Have you ever met a person who
said, oh, I've read the Bible, and as if to say, I'm done now. I read it once. I get it. Why is it that we
keep studying it? I mean, I've taught it over,
and over, and over again, and why do you keep coming back? I know why. It says again in verse 5, "A
wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man
of understanding will attain wise counsel." I've noticed something
about great people, wise people, smart people. They never feel like
they've arrived. They never feel
like, been there done that, I've heard it before. They want to hear it again. They want it reinforced. That is indeed a mark of wisdom. The Jewish Talmud even says,
he who adds not to his learning diminishes it. Anybody who says been there,
done that, have arrived, heard enough, simply
betrays the fact that they would wallow
in their ignorance rather than attain to wisdom. Verse 6, "To understand
a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise,
and their riddles." Now there's a word
that is used over, and over, and over, and over,
and over, and over, and over, and over again in this book. I had to do it that way,
because it's repeated 125 times. Aren't you glad I
stopped when I did? 125 times, the word wise or
wisdom shows up in this book. It's about getting
wisdom so that you can be a wise individual. 125 times the word is repeated. It is the aim of the book to
acquire and to apply wisdom. But I have to add
a word to that. To acquire and to
apply God's wisdom. God's wisdom. The word wise is the
Hebrew word chakam. Chakam. You might want to write
that down, you might not. The word wisdom in Hebrew
is the word chokmah. Chokmah. it actually,
literally, in its root form means to be
skilled at something. Like a trades person
would be skilled at laying brick, or mortar, or building
something, or designing something. A skill. Or the word chakam and
chokmah doesn't just mean to have a
skill, but it means to be an expert in something. So the meaning of wisdom in
the context of the Bible, it means this-- to have a skill to live well. The skill to live well, or to
be an expert in godly living. I keep putting God in that. I keep putting godly
in these descriptions. Because in the Bible,
wisdom and knowledge always begin with God. True knowledge begins
with the knowledge of God. True wisdom always
begins by having God in the middle of your thinking. It always begins with God. David said-- we didn't
read it, but in some 14-- last week we didn't read it. "The fool has said in his
heart, there is no God." Or literally, the fool has
said in his heart, no God. The fool says, I don't
want God in my life. I don't want to place him
at the center of my life. A wise person says, I want God. Doesn't say, no God. He goes, yes God. Yeah, God. More God. Always begins with God. That's a wise person. I've also made this discovery. Wisdom isn't always directly
proportional to age. Yes, there is the young,
naive, simple person who hasn't walked
long in life and needs to know certain things. However, I've found some very
young people who are very wise. And I've found some
very old, dumb people. [LAUGHING] And I don't mean intellectually. I mean unwise. So wisdom isn't always
proportional to age. We wish it were. But I know people who make bad
calculations and bad course corrections as they age. I love what Spurgeon said. Let me quote it to you. "In the Church of God, there are
children who are 70 years old. Yes, little children
displaying all the infirmities of declining years. One would not like
to say of a man of 80 that he has scarcely
cut his wisdom teeth, and yet there are such. On the other hand, there are
fathers in the Church of God, wise, stable, instructed,
who are comparatively young. The Lord can cause his people
to grow rapidly and far outstrip their years." And when you find that
person, young or old, that's a wise person. It's a wise man,
it's a wise woman. Now, what I'd like to
do is look at the Bible from 30,000 feet in
the book of Proverbs, not by looking at it
consecutively, consistently, from chapters 1 to 30
in the outline form, but I want to--
here we are flying over the landscape of
Proverbs, and as we look down we notice there are
four mountain peaks that get our attention. Four mountain peaks
that get our attention. We might call the
first one mind. It's what you think. It's the very foundational
core of who you are. It becomes sort of your world
view of life in your mind. The second mountain peak
we might call motivation. Some of you have it,
some of you don't. Some of you are motivated,
some not so much. After mind and
motivation come mouth. How you use what you say--
not just what you think, but now what you say. And then the fourth mountain
peak, we might call it mistake. I'll show you why. Let's begin with the first one. There are several things
the book of Proverbs addresses-- multiple things--
like the tongue, the treatment of the poor, common sense,
finances, taking a pledge, or not taking a pledge, moral
purity, and social protocol. All of those are mentioned and
more in the book of Proverbs. I just want you to
look at four, however. And the first one I
mentioned is mind, but now let me bring it
out and widen that for you. The fear of God versus
the fear of man. The fear of God versus
the fear of man. If you fear the
Lord, you don't have to be afraid of any person. When you don't really live
under the fear of God, you're living in fear of
everyone and everything. And so one of the great
secrets of the book of Proverbs is the fear of the Lord over
and against the fear of man. I brought that up first, because
it's the next verse, verse 7. "The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise
wisdom and instruction." If you remember
last week's study, you know this is an
antithetical parallelism. Right? "The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise
wisdom and instruction." Solomon begins where
you ought to begin, to give you a grid
for keeping your mind for the rest of your life. And the grid is the
fear of the Lord. Here he says it's the
beginning of knowledge. In Proverbs 9:10, he says,
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." What does that mean? The word beginning means
the most important part, the uppermost part,
the chief part. The most important aspect
of knowledge and wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Did you know there are
at least 18 references to the fear of God in the
book of Proverbs alone? 18. Fear of the Lord, fear of
the Lord, fear of the Lord. It is mentioned 50 times
in the Bible altogether. What is it? What does it mean
to fear the Lord? Let me tell you what
it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that
you tremble and shake like Toto, and the
Straw Man, and the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. It does not mean that you have
a superstitious dread of God, that you always
see God in heaven as wearing a frown
ready to pounce on you if you make one mistake
so you live in morbid fear. It does not mean that. It is a word the means
to revere, to respect. The Hebrew wording of fear
of the Lord are two words-- yirat Yahweh. Yirat Yahweh. Fear of the Lord, or
reverence of the Lord. Same word used for children
in the book of Leviticus, saying you ought to
revere your father and mother, your parents. You respect them. So the fear of the Lord,
my definition, my working definition is this. The fear of the Lord
is a reverential awe that produces humble
submission to a loving God. Reverential awe that
produces humble submission to a loving God. It is based on relationship. It is not based on repercussion. It's based on the
fact that you love him and you know he loves you,
not he's going to beat me up if I do something bad. It's based on relationship,
not repercussion. You are so in awe
of God, you don't want to displease the Lord. So that's the first mountain
peak, the fear of the Lord versus the fear of man. What will the fear of
the Lord do for you? It will do two things at least. It'll do more, but let me
give you two in Proverbs. It will keep you from evil. If you need some kind of
guardian in your life, some sort of governor-- that's
what they used to have on cars so they wouldn't go too
fast, certain engines. When you teach a kid to
ride a motorcycle they put a governor on it so
it can only go so far, so fast, rev up so much. If you need that in your
life, the fear of the Lord is that little governor. In Proverbs chapter
16 verse 6, we read by the fear of the
Lord one departs from evil. What keeps a person from
doing certain things? The fear of the Lord,
a reverential order that produces loving
submission or humble submission to a loving God. Also, Proverbs 8:13--
"the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride,
arrogance, and the evil way." Let me give an example of
how the fear of the Lord keeps somebody from evil. In the Old Testament,
the older part of the Old Testament,
in the book of Genesis there is this character
named Joseph, this young kid, favored young kid, kind
of a spoiled young kid, but a young man that we discover
has a depth of commitment to the Lord that really
only shows its strength when he is sold by his brothers
to the Midianites, brought down as a
slave into Egypt, finds himself as a servant
in Potiphar's house. And one day, Potiphar's
wife comes onto him. She sees this handsome, brawny,
Mr. America or Mr. Egypt standing before her. Potiphar is gone most
of the time, doesn't spend much attention. He is attending to her
and to the household. And so she not so subtly says
hey, Joe, hop into bed with me. And his response is telling. He says, "How then can I do
this great wickedness and sin against the Lord?" What does that tell you? It tells you that he is
conscious of the fact that God is watching him
more than his boss Potiphar. He cares more about what
God thinks, more than what Potiphar thinks,
or even what she thinks. It will cost him dearly,
the fear of the Lord. But the fear of the Lord
kept him from a moral evil. So it'll do that. It will keep you from evil. A second thing the fear
of the Lord will do, it will just increase
the quality of your life. You want a good life? You living sort of a flat,
insipid, kind of ho-hum, life is OK. How's life? OK. How you doing? Oh, all right. You want to amp that up? You want to go to
the next level? Didn't Jesus say, I
have come that they might have life and have it-- Fully. --more abundantly. Not I have come that they
might have bummer and have bummer more abundantly. [LAUGHING] I just want you to
live a real drag life. I want you to have
an abundant life. As The Message puts it,
"better than you dreamed of." How do you do that? The fear of the Lord. Proverbs 14:26, "In the fear of
the Lord is strong confidence. And his children will
have a place of refuge." It will bless your life,
and the next generation. Proverbs 14:27, the very next
verse, "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of
life to turn one away from the snares of death." The fear of the Lord brings
life up to a higher wattage. More excitement, more
joy, more peace-- everything gets
amped up, heightened, in the fear of the Lord. Think back in your
Old Testament again, this time to a guy by
the name of Abraham. God told him to do
something any parent would be horrified to hear. Take your son, your only
son Isaac, whom you love. Kill him. He goes through with getting
the wood, building the altar, taking out his knife after
his son is bound on the altar, lifting his arm to plunge
that knifed implement into the chest of his only
son, and the Angel of the Lord stops him and says, "Don't
lay a hand on the lad, for now I know
that you fear God." The fear of the Lord enabled
him to live such a life of faith and confidence, knowing
that if I kill him, God will raise him up. That's what the New
Testament tells us. That life at a whole new level. The fear of the Lord. So that's the first
mountain peak, and I call that mind,
or fear of the Lord versus the fear of men. The second mountain
peak, motivation. Now, this is the diligent
person versus the lazy person. I hope you don't squirm while
I teach some of these verses. [LAUGHING] But I like what one person said. He goes, I love work. It fascinates me. I can sit and
watch it for hours. [LAUGHING] Well, a lazy person
would say that, but not a diligent person. Not somebody who's motivated. So in Proverbs
chapter 6, turn there. Verse 6, and Proverbs
speaks a lot about this, but this is just
the seminal verse. "Go to the ant, you sluggard." You know, there's
certain words that are just-- you can't really
translate them better than that. Sluggard is such an
onomatopoetic word. Just hearing the term,
it just packs a punch. Another word for a sluggard
is lazy person or slothful. The New Living Translation uses
the translation lazy bones. I like that too. "Go to the ant, you lazy bones." "Consider her ways
and be wise, which having no captain,
overseer, or ruler, provides her supplies
in the summer and gathers her
food in the harvest. How long will you
slumber, oh sluggard? When will you rise
from your sleep? A little sleep,
a little slumber, a little folding of
the hands to sleep, so your poverty
will come upon you like a prowler and your
need like an armed man." Now, I'm going to flesh
this out a little bit and show you some other
Proverbs so you don't get the mistake that it's
bad to sleep in on Saturdays or whatever. It's not what it's
talking about. But let me put it this way. As believers, we should be
concerned not just about what kind of work we do,
but what kind of worker we are in the work we do. It's good to sort of dream about
what profession best suits us, what kind of work work
we're going to get into. But once we land on
that, the big question is what kind of worker will
we be at the work we do? Now, let me tell you
something about work, because I hear this all. Well, you know work
is part of the curse. You need to dig into that
Bible just a little more. You'll discover
that's not the case. Work was something that
began before the fall, not after the fall. And in fact, that the
first thing God did to Adam is give him a job, employed him. He sent him in
chapter 2 of Genesis to go into the garden to
till it and to tend it. I've given you this,
now go to work. Work is not a curse. What is a curse? The sweat of the brow that is
the result of God given work. It's not going to
come easy, it's going to come difficult to you. Part of the Ten
Commandments even says six days you shall do
all your labor and your work. It's interesting we have
a five day workweek. In Israel they have
a six day workweek. They sort of take
that literally. They work six days,
have one day off. And that's what I've followed. I have one day off,
I work six days. Not because I'm better
than anybody else, it's just the way my
schedule works out. And that happens to be
part of the commandments. But whatever you do,
whatever work you do, what kind of worker
you are at the work you do is all important. Let me tell you a little
story that's true. My father-in-law, Rod
Farley, is a foot surgeon, was a foot surgeon,
a podiatrist, a podiatric surgeon. And I first met him
in Southern California when I dated Lenya, who's
now my wife, as you know. But when I met him, we both
listened to this same radio station in Orange County
together, this Christian radio station. And I told him, I
said, yeah, I heard you advertise on
that radio station, but I don't hear you
advertise anymore. Why is that? He says, I won't advertise
on Christian radio anymore. Now, he was a believer. Because I won't advertise
on Christian radio. I said, why is that? He goes, well,
the kind of people that I would get
from those ads I wanted to hire because
they were Christians. But I discovered that hiring
Christians was bad for my work, because they're like
the worst workers ever. [LAUGHING] I go, Rod, you really
don't mean that. I mean, you're a believer. You're a brother in Christ. He goes, that's my point. They want to work for me and
go, oh, brother, why are you so hard on me? You know, give me
a break, brother. They would use the bro card
to do the no work thing. So he goes, I won't
hire them anymore. I'd just rather hire a pagan
who will have a high work ethic. [LAUGHING] And I thought, oh man, we've
got to do a lot to change that. So as we compare the
diligent to the lazy, let me tell you a
couple of things about a lazy bones, a sluggard. Two things. Number one, he
won't finish things. Proverbs 12:27, the
lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting. Now, just let that seep
into your head a little bit. This guy has enough
motivation to get up and go, I'm going hunting. Antonio, where are you? Yeah, you love that, right? So imagine Antonio
going out elk hunting. And you have enough
motivation, and then you bring the elk home,
you've done all that work, and then you go-- [YAWNS] OK, I'm done. You don't have
enough energy to eat and roast what you
took in the kill. Well, that's a sorry, sad state. That's a lazy bones. He's not, don't
worry about that. He's a hardworking pastor. It gets worse. In Proverbs 19:24, a lazy man
buries his hand in the bowl and will not so much as
bring it to his mouth again. Can you picture in there a
breakfast, he's got oatmeal, and he can't even get a spoon. He just kind of puts his
hand in the bowl, and-- it just sort of sits
there and gets cold. So the thing about a lazy
man that Proverbs paints this picture of is
he does something, but he won't finish it. He didn't finish the
projects he starts to do, doesn't bring it to completion. A second tell tale
mark of a lazy person is not only will he
not finish things, he won't face
things as they are. He always has an excuse. He won't really face it head on. It's too cold, it's too
hot, it's too dangerous, it's too risky, it's too hard. So listen to Proverbs 22:13. "A lazy man says, 'There
is a lion outside. I shall be slain in the
street.'" Who says that? Who says that? Somebody who didn't
want to go outside. Well, why don't you get
up and go down the street and go to the store? There's a lion outside and
I might get killed, like, paranoid to even move because
they're not facing reality. Here's another, Proverbs 20:4. "The lazy man will not
plow because of winter. He will beg during
harvest and have nothing." This is a person who not only
is lazy, but rationalizes why he should be lazy. He's always got an excuse. Now you've heard the
definition of an excuse before. I've said it many times. It's the skin of a reason
stuffed with a lie. The skin of a reason
stuffed with a lie. Listen to Proverbs 26:14. "A door turns on its hinges,
so does a lazy man on his bed." In other words, a lazy bones is
like a door, only in the fact that it swings back
and forth on its hinges and he turns back and
forth on his bed, period. Like the kid who said, I do
my exercises every morning. As soon as I wake up it's
up, down, up, down, up, down. I do that for three
minutes straight. And then I say, OK, now
for the other eyelid. Up, down, up, down, up, down. [LAUGHING] That's it. Compare the person always
looking for an excuse to do bad work, shoddy
work, play video games, get on Instagram
and social media and waste time away in
a number of exercise, like, compare that to somebody
like the great violin maker you've all heard
of Stradivarius, Antonius Stradivarius. Why do we love his
instruments so much? Why do violin players sometimes
pay over a million dollars for such an instrument? Because Antonio's Stradivarius
lived with the idea that music was a gift
from God, and if he didn't make the very best
instruments, people would be deprived
of God's music. So he put all the
energy and effort into learning about
wood, and resonance, and shaving it here and there
so that the instrument would play the very best of
God's music to the world. How's that for motivation? So after mind, and
after motivation, let's take another
M, and that is mouth. The mouth. Now this is the-- I heard an uh-oh over there. It's the difference
between a wholesome mouth and a polluted mouth. Words like tongue, lips,
mouth, words, all of those are found in the book of
Proverbs about 150 times. It's one of the mega
themes of the book, what you do with your mouth,
what you do with your mouth. So chapter 6:16, "Six
things the Lord hates." You know, just stop
right there for a minute. You know, if you ever
wonder, how could I ever find out God's will? This is a good place to start. Because, you know, it's
one thing when God says, I love this, I like that. But when God says,
I hate something, don't you want to sit up and
take notice of what he hates so that you never do that? Because if you
ever did that, you know that you're going
against God's will. Right? So here's something
God hates is this. "Six things the Lord hates. Seven are an
abomination to him." That's just a Hebraism of
adding one to another-- six, no really seven. Here they are. "A proud look." I'm not going to
drill deep down. But you know, when we're
young, looking cool is so important to us. I just don't want to
look a certain way, I want to look
cool a certain way. And so you'll see it in the
way we post on social media. It's not just a look. It's is it cool? Oh, good, congratulations. God hates that. You just succeeded
in doing something God absolutely
hates, a proud look. He hates "A proud
look, a lying tongue, hands that shed
innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked
plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a
false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord
among the brethren." There are seven
things in that list. Three things in that
list out of the seven are about misusing your words. And God says he hates it. Now, fortunately we
know the solution. If God hates the wrong use of
words, then God loves the-- Right. --right use of words. Like Proverbs 25:11, "A
word fittingly spoken is like apples of gold
and settings of silver." I'm going to encourage
you to do something. I'm going to encourage you
to increase your vocabulary. You don't have to
become a wordsmith. You don't have to
get all technical. But learn to add words
to your vocabulary. There's apps for
that, by the way, that can just give you a word a day. I get one sent to my phone
every morning, just a new word. And I think about how it's used. Because words fitly spoken
are like apples of gold and settings of silver. And you can learn to speak
into a person's lives certain words that elevate,
and educate, and encourage by the use of your mouth. A word fitly spoken
is like apples of gold and settings of silver. I often quote what
Mark Twain said. He said, "The difference between
the right word and the almost right word is the
difference between lightning and the lightning bug." [LAUGHING] Lightning bug and lightning are
very different in their display of dazzle and power. Almost right word
versus right word. Oh, you know what I mean. Well, just find out
what you really mean. And then say that. Say the right thing. When an ambassador wants to
represent our nation abroad, she uses words. When a teacher wants to
stretch the mind of students, he uses words. When a lawyer wants to defend
his client against things that have been accused of
that client, she uses words. The night I asked
my wife to marry me, I used very disjointed words. [LAUGHING] I fumbled over myself. The day I responded
to the gospel, I was responding to the words
spoken by an evangelist. Words. Proverbs chapter 18 verse
21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." You can lead a person
to Christ with words. You can send a person
away from ever wanting to go to church by words. Words fittingly spoken
or not fittingly spoken. Death and life are in
the power of the tongue. Well, what do words do? They do a couple of things. Words can affect emotions, and
words can affect relations. Words can affect emotions. Some children will tell
you of their parents using words over and over
again that demoralized them, took away confidence from them. You idiot. You're so worthless. You keep doing the
stupidest things. Those kind of words
affect emotion. And they can impact emotion
for an entire lifetime. Proverbs 12 verse
18, "There is one who speaks like the
piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the
wise promotes health." Sharp words wound. Proverbs 12 verse 25,
"Anxiety in the heart of a man causes depression, but a
good word makes you glad." Words can affect emotions. Words can also affect relations. How many relationships
are destroyed by, hey, have you heard about so-and-so? You know what? Oh, listen, and I'm only saying
this so you pray about it. [WHISPERING]
Proverbs 16 verse 28, "A perverse man sows
strife, and a whisper separates the best of friends." Have you ever experienced this,
somebody that's typically, hey, how you doing, very warm to
you, then suddenly you see them one day, and they're very cold. They act cold toward you. They don't want to
really talk to you, they don't want to engage. They sort of brush you off. What happened? Probably they heard something
about you-- maybe true, maybe not true. But they heard a report, and
they took that report to heart. Proverbs 16 verse
24, "Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness
to the soul and health to the bones." Encouragement is
the nectar of life. You can watch a
person's eyes light up as you speak words
of encouragement. Now, be careful. Genuine encouragement is
different than flattery, and you need to
learn the difference. Flattery is spoken
also about in Proverbs. We don't have enough
time to get into it. But genuine words
of encouragement, where you find some good trait
about that person, something you have noticed,
and you mention that, and you praise a
person for doing that, that kind of encouragement
is the nectar of life. There was once a preacher
who was preaching out of Proverbs 16, quoting that
very verse that I just quoted. And he summed it up
by saying, you know, folks, more flies are caught
with honey than vinegar. And so a man's wife
turned to her husband and whispered in his
ear, honey, I just love to watch your
muscles ripple when you take out the trash. [LAUGHING] She thought she'd try it. I'll sweeten it up instead of
nagging him, saying, how come you never take out the trash? Take out the trash. I just love your muscles ripple
when you take out the trash. You know he's going to go
home and take out the trash, put it back, and take it out
again with his shirt off. [LAUGHING] OK, fourth mountain peak. I termed this mistake. Mistake. That is isolation
versus fellowship, or isolation versus friendship. Proverbs chapter 18, if you
don't mind, just turn there. I want you to look at a verse. I know we're kind
of skipping around, but we're trying to keep
it at least consecutive. Proverbs 18:1, "A man
who isolates himself seeks his own desire. He rages against
all wise judgment." That's the New
King James version. Listen to it in the New Living. "A recluse is
self-indulgent, snarling at every sound
principle of conduct." There are people,
there are some of us who don't want to
get close to people, because we've been
hurt in the past. And it's too painful
to risk it again. So we just think, why bother? I've been hurt by people before. I'm not going to trust you. And you put on this
hard, harsh exterior. And yet, didn't God
say it is not good that a man should be alone. God hard wired us for
relationship, not isolation. You'll never grow
emotionally, you'll never grow spiritually alone. You need others to help you. Iron sharpens iron,
another Proverb. A man sharpens the
countenance of his friend. Now I'm going to give
you three versus that speak of the value of a friend. Proverbs 17:17, it's one
chapter before chapter 18, "A friend loves at all
times, and a brother is born for adversity." Back to chapter 18 verse
24, a man who has friends must himself be friendly. But there is a friend who
sticks closer than a brother." And Proverbs 27:17, here it is. "As iron sharpens iron, so a
man sharpens the countenance of a friend." One of the best titles you can
give another person is friend. A true friend is fortifying,
satisfying, a strengthening. A friend is safe. You feel safe with a friend. Now, go back to Proverbs 18:24. "A man who has friends
must himself be friendly." I know it's put differently
in different translations, but I do prefer this
one, and I happen to think this is
the most accurate. "A man who has friends
must himself be friendly." Friendship is like Rome. It isn't built in a day. It takes investment. It takes time. It takes motivation,
takes initiative. Ruth went back to Naomi when
Naomi said, I'm leaving, go back home to Moab. Ruth said, where
you go, I will go. Where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people,
your God will be my God. She became friendly. She took the initiative. Jonathan did the same thing
with his friend David when King Saul wanted to kill
David, swore allegiance to him as a friend. Now, some of you are thinking,
but I'm not the friendly type. I'm shy. So are 3/4 of the people
sitting next to you. But it works best when
somebody takes the risk to just be friendly. A man who has friends
must himself be friendly. There's an old Arab proverb
that goes like this. I saved it to share with you. "Oh, the beauty of being
at peace with each other, neither having to weigh
thoughts or measure words, but spilling them out as they
are, chaff and grain together, certain that a
faithful hand will keep what is worth keeping, and
with a breath of kindness blow the rest away." Don't you love a
person like that? You can just say anything to,
and they won't check you on it. How could you say that? You're a Christian. [LAUGHING] They just-- [BLOWS] let
it blow, let you vent, know who you really are. You feel safe with that person. And one of the greatest examples
of friendship is Proverbs 31. A godly marriage,
a husband and wife. I want you to look at
verse 1 really quick. I want to get to this,
and then we'll close. The words of King
Lemuel, the utterance which his mother taught him. A lot of people have tried
to guess who King Lemuel is. Let me just tell you
that the word Lemuel is a Hebrew construction
that means belonging to God, or beloved of God,
belonging to God, Lemuel. There is no King that
we know of named Lemuel. We don't find it
in secular history. We don't find it in the Bible. So many Bible
teachers, scholars, believe Lemuel is a
pseudonym for Solomon, another term for Solomon. Because the name God
gave to Solomon at birth, even though he
was called Shlomo, Solomon, the name God gave
him through the prophet, 2 Samuel chapter 12,
is the name Jedediah, which means beloved of the
Lord, beloved of the Lord. So, I'm just guessing
Bathsheba, his mother, gave him the pet name,
Lemuel, belonging to God. And I think it's just
another name for Solomon. My opinion, I don't know. Go down to verse 10. Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is
far above rubies. The heart of her husband
safely trusts her so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil
all the days of her life." Verse 28, "Her children rise
up and call her blessed. Her husband also,
and praises her. Many daughters have done
well, but you excel them all." You out do them,
you surpass them. He's saying, there's a
lot of women out there, but you're the best
one for me, and I would marry you all over again. That's my rough
rendition of that. Verse 30, "Charm is
deceitful, beauty is passing. But a woman who fears the
Lord, she shall be praised. Give her the fruit of her
hands, and let her own words praise her in the gates." As we close, a warning. Solomon was the
wisest man alive. God gave him wisdom more
than any other ruler. The sad thing about Solomon
is that he departed from it. He started well. He ended poorly. Like Saul, started
well, ended poorly. He didn't take the advice
he gave in this book. He ended up with multiple
wives, multiple concubines, over 1,000 different women. And his heart went astray. So the life of
Solomon is a warning not to just be hearers of
the word but doers only. Well, we're almost a
minute over, so let's pray. Father, thank you for
our time together. May we be wise
with our knowledge. May we be wise
with our finances. Help us to be wise
with our status. And with whatever days we
have, whether long or short, to use them wisely. As Paul said, to walk
circumspectly, or wisely, not as fools, but as
wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Lord, in this book,
Proverbs in chapter 8, wisdom cries out like a person
in the gates of the city, in the streets of the
city, saying to anyone who would listen, come
to me, and listen to me, and your life will be different. Lord, I pray that
you would make us wise in finances,
in relationship, in our relationship with you. May we live it in such a
way in the public arena that we attract people
rather than repel them, in Jesus' name, amen. We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip of Calvary Church. For more resources,
visit CalvaryNM.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from the Bible from 30,000 feet. [MUSIC PLAYING]
