The Power of the Proverbs

Good job Jennings and Macy and choir. It is now time for children's church. It's also

time for big church if any of y'all want to say yay. Alright. Alright. Good. Alright,

we're going to be in Proverbs again today. We were in Proverbs last week. The Proverbs

are excellent and in my opinion I think the book of Proverbs is probably the best just

good solid practical advice on how to live our lives. If you're looking for advice on

how to live, on how you should act, on things you should do, on things you shouldn't do,

then the book of Proverbs is a great place to start. There's a lot of good things in

there and I will share with you today a few different Proverbs so you kind of have to

jump around if you're going to try to keep up. They're written on the back of your bulletin.

If you miss one and you want to know what that is, you can ask me afterwards and I'll

be sure to write all these down for you. It's really hard though to make a list like this,

you know, to pick a few Proverbs because I mean you just about could write the whole

book down. But for time purposes we'll just look at a few good Proverbs. They don't necessarily

have anything in common but there's good things in here for us. There's things that may speak

to some of you today and I would encourage you, I always say this every time I ever preach

on Proverbs, I always say I would encourage you to read it because I think that they are

just that valuable to us. There is so much wisdom and instruction in there that it's

good. So if you're somebody that really doesn't read the Bible much or hadn't read the Bible

much or maybe don't understand some of the things in the Bible but you want to get into

God's Word more, then I would encourage you to look at the Proverbs. You will probably

find just some good, easy to understand, practical advice there. Some of it you'll like and some

of it you'll kind of cringe because it'll step on your toes a little bit but that's

one reason that it's so good for us. But let's pray and then we'll get started.

Father God we come to you and we thank you for your good word and I pray dear Lord that

we would see the wisdom in these Proverbs. God you give us so much wisdom and instruction.

I pray that we would listen to it God that maybe there's something in these verses today

that we're going to hear that kind of hits home to us dear Lord. That we hear what we

need to hear dear Lord that we would seek to be those who are wise. God that's what

we want or at least that should be what we want. If that's not our desire I pray that

you change our hearts God that we would be those that seek wisdom. That don't want to

live in foolishness and the things of the world but that we seek your wisdom and seek

to grow in you so that we can be a better witness for you dear Lord as we leave this

place. So I pray God that you would hide me behind the cross. That your Holy Spirit would

just take over today. That you'd free us from worries and distractions and let us dwell

on you and hear from you during this time. And I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

As I was reading through some of these Proverbs over the last couple of days I was reminded

of going to my grandparents house. Now most of you in here remember Lena Pearl and Richard

and for years and years they always had a candy bowl there. They always had the Hershey

assorted chocolates. Now you've had these. You've all bought a bag of these. It's got

a Hershey, regular Hershey. It's got Hershey special dark. It's got crackle. It's got Mr.

Goodbar. And she always had a bowl of those on the table and if that bowl ever got empty

my grandpa would say you need to get some more of that candy for Shan now. And every

Sunday after church we'd go there and we would eat lunch. But every Sunday before I'd eat

lunch I'd go to that candy bowl and I'd get me a couple of those Hershey special darks

and that would be my appetizer. And you may be saying well what you think about chocolate

while you were reading these passages. Well in a way I kind of thought that's what the

book of Proverbs is. It's an assortment of different flavors of different things and

some of them we may like more than others. Some of them we may gravitate toward. Some

of them may be the Mr. Goodbars. We don't really like them. We'll eat them because that's

all that's left in the bowl is the yellow Mr. Goodbars. But we don't go to that first.

We probably go to the... I go to the Hershey special dark first. That's me and my sister.

We always fall over those. And then I'll get the crackle and then I'll get the regular

Hershey and if I'm just about to die I'll eat a Mr. Goodbar. But that's the worst case

scenario. So when we look at the book of Proverbs it's kind of like an assortment of candy bars.

There are some in there that we read and we see and they are good to us. And we turn to

those and they're beautiful. And there's some that maybe we don't read as much as others.

But there are some that really connect to us. And these today that I'm going to cover

are some of my favorites or maybe I could even say they're some of my least favorites

and that they're convicting. They point out things that maybe we don't like to see but

the Proverbs are good because they point out things that we need to see. So let's look

at a couple of Proverbs today and just kind of see some of the things that the Proverbs

tell us about. Proverbs chapter 17 verse 1. Most of these will be pretty close together

Proverbs 17:1

within a couple of chapters of each other. If you want to flip your bulletin over to

see where we're going to get a head start you can. But Proverbs chapter 17 verse 1.

Proverbs 17:1

Better a dry crust with peace than a house full of feasting with strife. Now we live

in a culture and a society that says you need to get more. You need to have more to have

more money to have more nicer things to have all of this stuff to have is good and it's

the American dream and we deserve all of these things. But the problem with a lot of things

or having a lot of money is that oftentimes they come with a lot of stress. So having

a lot of stuff does come with a lot of stress and sometimes we may we may think that all

not having very much or having very little is is is not a good place to be or a sign

that we're a failure or whatever it may be. But the Proverbs tell us something different.

The Proverbs would say it's better to have a little bit and to be at peace than to have

a lot and to be at strife. We have a lot of worries and we have a lot of stresses and

we have a lot of pains in our life and I think it's fair to say that some of these things

we bring on ourselves sometimes we kind of overload our calendars. We begin to focus

our attention on our energies to obtain the things that we want that we think that are

going to bring us some kind of satisfaction. But really it probably only leads to strife

sometimes it just leads to pain and more stress when really what we desire is peace and the

Proverbs remind us of a simple truth. It's better to have a dry crust. It's better to

have a crumb and to be at peace than to have a table full of food and to be filled with

strife. When we got strife in our life man there's no enjoyment it just it just leads

to stress and so maybe sometimes we simply need to simplify our lives. We need to have

that little bit. Perhaps it's better just to have the most the most menial thing that

little bit of crust that that little bit of crumbs sometimes it's better just to have

a little and to be content with the little that we have and to be at peace with that.

Too often we're discontent in our life and our discontentment kind of drives us to to

get those things that we think are going to make us content but our discontentment oftentimes

drives us to be even more discontent and even even more stressed. So maybe there's a time

in our life and maybe for some of you it's the day where we simply need to say you know

what it's time to slow down. Maybe I need to learn how to be content with a little and

to find peace in Jesus Christ and not seek an abundance of things in this world that

oftentimes only bring us strife. Proverbs chapter 18 verse 17. The first to state his

Proverbs 18:17

case seems right until another comes and cross examines him. Boy I love this I love this

proverb I think this is so important for us to remember this particular teaching. Somebody

comes to you and they begin to tell you something and they begin to tell you something about

somebody else or they begin to tell you something about something and they make a pretty convincing

case and you may say boy I can't believe what they told me about so and so is true but man

it sounds sounds like it's true but oftentimes when we hear things from somebody it sounds

true but we need to remember that there's another side to the story and that's what

this proverb reminds us of is that there's two sides to every story or maybe three or

maybe four sides to every story and so we need to kind of pump the brake before we jump

to conclusions. So many times we hear things in our world maybe maybe we hear it from a

friend or a family member maybe we hear it on the news or or whatever it may be and so

many times the one presenting something to us makes a good case for it but every man's

case seems right until another comes and cross examines him and so it's important for us

in life when we hear everything is to make sure that we try to understand all aspects

of that that we try to understand every side of the story and that's not to say that we're

we think people that come to us are always lying but it's it's wisdom for us to try to

understand a matter and not jump to conclusions and not pass along information that may not

be correct. That'd be a horrible thing somebody comes to you and tells you something and and

you believe them and you pass it on and it turns out not to be true we probably are all

are guilty of that and so when someone comes to you and tells you something especially

something that's pretty rough or pretty gossipy that maybe we need to just take a step back

and realize well maybe there are more sides to the stories that we encounter in life and

maybe we need to take another another moment to think about those things and to process

those things and understand those things. Proverbs chapter 15 verse 1 Proverbs chapter

Proverbs 15:1 Proverbs 15:1

15 verse 1 a gentle answer turns away anger but a harsh word stirs up a wrath man this

is one that that in my mind I highlighted I underlined it is so important it's so important

for us to recognize this advice. When we answer people how do we answer people? Now it's inevitable

that in our lives we're going to encounter conflict we're gonna we're gonna come up against

somebody and it might even be somebody we love it might not be that it's our arch enemy

you know it might be that there's somebody we love and and a disagreement begins and

it might even be between a husband and a wife that your husband says something or the wife

says something and next thing you know you're having a bad day you're tired and they ask

you a question or they say something and then what are you gonna say? Well this is where

we need to take a second in our lives and pause when those times come and we need to

think about what we're going to say and how we're going to respond. Now we should respond

with a gentle answer and a gentle answer is gonna is gonna calm things down almost every

time and that's what this proverb tells us a gentle answer turns away anger but a harsh

word stirs up wrath. Now I suspect if we were all honest today that there have been times

that we have said that harsh word that conversations and arguments that were just beginning could

have just ended but instead somebody tells us something that we don't like or we don't

agree with and we give a harsh word we give a harsh response and what does that do? It

escalates the situation everything explodes and you give the harsh response and now they're

going to give a harsh response and before you know it a situation has blown up and there

are people in this world and you may know some of them you may be one of them that you

were in an argument or know somebody who was in an argument and it just blew up to this

point where there was a hatred that built that people won't even talk to each other

anymore that they'll spend a lifetime holding a grudge and hating each other and wishing

harm to each other and wanting to give that wrath to the other person in their hatred

because of those harsh words that were spread when so many times situations like that could

be avoided if we just give a gentle answer. Now it takes a lot of effort on our part it

takes a lot of prayer on our part probably for some of us more than others that we really

need to pray and say God help me to be one who can keep his mouth closed God help me

when when that person comes against me or that person attacks me or that person says

something I don't like God I pray that you give me the strength and the wisdom and that

you would seal these lips dear Lord that I won't say a word and God should I have to

say a word then let it be a word that brings about peace let it be something that's gentle

God help my words not to come across as harsh and hateful and demeaning and judgmental but

God help my words to come across in a gentle way and we may discover that our lives get

better when we begin to do that we may find that we can we can get ourselves out of a

lot of situations before they turn into situations simply by giving a gentle answer this is a

proverb and there are there are tons of proverbs along these lines but but this is one that's

it's beautiful because it tells us something that we need to hear and we need to strive

to live by Proverbs 19 Proverbs 19 verse 17 kind of shifting gears here that's one good

Proverbs 19:17

thing about the proverbs is is the kind of are all over they cover a variety of different

ideas Proverbs chapter 19 verse 17 kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord and he will

Proverbs 19:17

give a reward to the lender now this idea of helping the poor is all throughout scripture

we see it all throughout the Old Testament we see it all throughout the New Testament

and here this proverb reminds us of this truth that we see time and time again and that is

that we are supposed to be kind to those who are poor but it even goes one step further

what does it say it says that when we are kind to the poor it is a loan to the Lord

now that's a beautiful way to think about this we need to realize that there are lots

of lots of needs out there and God so many times blesses us with more than we could possibly

ever need but God also puts those needs of others in our past sometimes and so we need

to realize that that what is important to God needs to be important to us now maybe

for some of you in this room you you see poor people or you see homeless people you see

needy people and and maybe you don't think not too much about it but I think as Christians

we need to think something about it because it's pretty clear in scripture that to care

for the poor and the needy and the homeless and the widowed and the orphan all of these

things I know that's not what the passage says but all of these things are so important

to God and these things need to be important to us and so we need to make efforts to be

kind to those who are poor to have some compassion to be able to help them in whatever way that

God may have blessed us so that we can help those who are in need and there may even be

a day that we are those who need to be helped and so we need to remember that that when

we are helping those who are in need that this is what God calls us to do that this

is what God desires now as is the case with many things God could do what he wants to

do the way that he wants to do it he could he could make every poor and needy and homeless

person he could meet all of their needs today with the word if he chose to he could speak

it and it would be but the way that God has chosen to carry out this mission to carry

out this responsibility is through you and me he's chosen you and I to do this work he's

chosen you and I to spread the gospel message of Jesus Christ he's chosen you and I to be

those who are compassionate to those that we are encounter he's chosen you and I to

help the poor and the needy and the widows and the orphans we are the way in which God

chooses to work sometimes we may see a situation and we may say why doesn't God work in this

situation well it may be that God wants to work through you in some situations and so

we want to be prayerful and say God are there ways that you want to use me are there ways

that I can help the poor dear Lord God don't let me miss opportunities because God chooses

us he chooses us to do the work Jesus chose the twelve apostles and and so many disciples

that came after them and Jesus chose them to help do the work now Jesus came and he

established the kingdom of God through his death and through his resurrection for eternity

and Jesus came and he did the work and he and he preached to people and he taught to

people and he brought healing and he showed so many miracles and he and he left us with

so many beautiful teachings but Jesus has said now I send you to do the work so God

calls us brother and sister in Christ to be those who look after the poor and this proverb

is a good reminder of that Proverbs chapter twenty nine verse eleven Proverbs chapter

twenty nine verse eleven this is kind of in a similar vein to what we just saw in Proverbs

fifteen one Proverbs twenty nine eleven says a fool gives full vent to his anger but a

wise man holds it in check now this is a good verse for us to remember because it is easy

for us to become angry now again it might be easier for some of us than others some

of you may be in a spot of maturity and you're walking pretty good with the Lord and maybe

it takes a lot to anger you maybe others get angry at the drop of a hat but ever how long

it takes us to be angry we want to be those who don't fall into that trap we don't want

to be those who give full vent to our anger now it's easy for us to want to do that it's

easy for us to want to retaliate when somebody does something to us or we feel like that

we have been wrong and maybe we have or maybe we have but when we feel that way we want

to we want to to give full vent to that anger we become angry and so we want to lash out

if somebody does something to us we want to attack them an eye for an eye tooth for a

tooth at least that's what the Old Testament said but Jesus gives us a better command you

have heard it said an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth but what does Jesus tell us he

tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us now that's hard to

do it's pretty easy it's pretty easy when somebody comes against you or does something

to you it's pretty easy to be angry it does not take but a second for us to go from zero

to a hundred on the angry scale but it's not easy for us to keep our mouths shut it's not

easy for us to keep our calm and perhaps proverbs like these are proverbs that we need to remember

that we need to visit often that we need to pray over and say okay God I don't want to

be a fool I'll venture to say that probably a lot of times we don't we don't like to think

of ourselves as fools but we need to read the book of proverbs because sometimes and

this may not happen to you I might just be preaching to me but I wouldn't I don't like

to think of myself as a fool but sometimes I'll read through those proverbs and it'll

say a fool does this and a fool does that and a fool does the other and I'll say uh-oh

I'm a fool there's some of these things that I do and maybe for some of you you'd look

at those lists and maybe there's some things in there that you would say you know what

I'm foolish but that's why we come and read God's Word that's why we read it at home that's

why we gather to look at passages like these today why because we don't want to be fools

hopefully if you're in here today and you want to be a fool please call me this week

I'd love to sit and talk with you but I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt I

think that that we come to God's house because we want to grow in God we want to grow in

his love we want to grow in his wisdom we don't want to be foolish now sometimes we

stumble and fall and we give in to sin and we don't want to and we say God I don't want

to do this and then the temptation comes and we stumble and we fall that happens sometimes

even for Christians but our desire should never be to live in sin and to live in foolishness

and that's why the book of Proverbs is so good because it talks about the difference

between wisdom and foolishness if we look at the Proverbs and say man it says a foolish

person does this what do I do well we stop doing that how do we be wise we look at those

Proverbs that talk about wisdom and that call us to wisdom and that show us what wisdom

really is so maybe for some of us today this needs to be our prayer God help me to to not

be so quick to vent my anger a fool gets fool vent to his anger but a wise man holds it

in check well that's the kind of wisdom that we want to pray for God give me that kind

of wisdom because God I get angry and I don't like to get angry when I get angry guess what

we do we begin to open our mouth and we begin to not give gentle answers we begin to stir

up trouble and conflict and so when we learn wisdom we may find that there is a lot of

benefit to that in our life when we learn wisdom there's a certain peace that comes

with that when we learn wisdom we're no longer seeking to be wise in our own eyes as we talked

about last week there's a certain peace that comes with that when we learn wisdom we realize

we don't we're not living for anybody else we're not living to impress anybody else we're

simply living for God we're living for Jesus Christ we're living for the commands of Scripture

we're not living for the world there's peace in that wisdom we gain wisdom and we learn

that you know what it's better for me just to keep my mouth shut I could open my mouth

and everybody could know I'm a fool or I could keep quiet and who knows sometimes it's important

for us to just keep quiet even if we think we're wise sometimes it's important for us

to bite our tongue sometimes it's important for us to watch what we say and that's wisdom

and that's the kind of wisdom that we see in the book of Proverbs time and time again

it's a short book it's an easy read you could read it in a couple of sittings no problem

and I would encourage you to do it because there's good instruction and advice for us

today to see how God wants us to live one more passage this one's not in your in your

in your bulletin this is a bonus no extra charge Proverbs chapter 16 verse 6 wickedness

Proverbs 16:6

is atoned for by loyalty and faithfulness and one turns from evil by the fear of the

Lord what a beautiful passage what a beautiful reminder we see here in the Proverbs that

I think even in Proverbs like these they are pointing us forward to the truth and the reality

of who Jesus is wickedness is atoned for by loyalty and faithfulness or by mercy and truth

some of your translations will say now we don't like to think of ourselves as fools

and we don't like to think of ourselves as wicked but we are today we are wicked fools

we do things we shouldn't do we give full vent to our anger we open our mouth when we

should keep it closed we give in to sin that we shouldn't give in to we pursue things of

the world that we shouldn't pursue we become proud there's plenty of passages in Proverbs

that talk about pride we didn't even really touch on that today because we touched on

it a little bit last week but but there are so many areas in our life that are that are

just wicked that are things that are just nasty and gnarly and dirty that God doesn't

want to be there but praise the Lord that God atones for our wickedness through Jesus

Christ wickedness is atoned for by loyalty and faithfulness by mercy and truth and what

better example do we have of that than Jesus Christ one who is loyal to the Father one

who is loyal to carry out his mission one who was faithful to do what God called him

to do and that is what brings forth atonement for you and I today that's what brings forth

mercy for you and I today that we do not get what we deserve but that Jesus came and the

scripture says he is the way and the truth and wickedness is atoned for by mercy and

truth or by loyalty and faithfulness so we sit in this room today and we're a bunch of

sinners we do things we don't want to do we say things we don't want to say and on some

level we're wicked and we're wicked fools but I want to tell you today that there is

hope the scripture tells us in first Corinthians that Jesus is wisdom and it's that type of

wisdom that the Proverbs is calling us to that we want to find that type of wisdom today

and that the wisdom of putting faith in Jesus Christ it spills over into every aspect of

our life the Holy Spirit fills us and so we desire to seek what God desires we desire

to be those who live in wisdom and the book of Proverbs is the best book to show us what

wisdom is it's the best book to remind us that we are fools that we are wicked but praise

the Lord that the story doesn't stop there and even in this proverb we just looked at

we are reminded that there is atonement but that atonement only comes through Jesus Christ

wickedness is atoned for by loyalty and faithfulness and one turns from evil by the fear of the

Lord we talked about that last week about the fear of the Lord we want to be those today

that know that one day we will stand before God the creator of the heavens and the earth

we will stand before a God who sent his only begotten son and whosoever believeth in him

shall not perish but have everlasting life we will stand before God one day and that

should bring about fear we should fear God we should respect God we should praise God

when we recognize who God is a perfect and loving and compassionate God but a God of

wrath when we realize who that God is there should be fear in us and that fear should

drive us to seek him because when we realize how good God is when we compare ourselves

to God's standard and what God calls us to we realize just how evil we are but praise

the Lord there's atonement for our wickedness today there's atonement for our foolishness

and it's only found in Jesus Christ the Bible calls us to repent of our sin to put our

faith and trust in Jesus Christ to follow him to seek to live by him to seek to live

by the commands that we see in scripture in the New Testament in the Old Testament and

these very proverbs and so many more like them that we look at today I pray that we

would find the wisdom of God today that we need and it can only be found in Jesus Christ

let's pray Father God we come to you we thank you for these good words dear Lord I pray

that we would we would read these proverbs today dear Lord not just the ones that we

looked at but that we we'd turn to him from time to time that we would refresh ourselves

God that we would read your word with an open heart and an open mind so that your Holy Spirit

would speak to us God I pray that you'd help us to be ready dear Lord there may be some

things that we read in there that they were not quite ready for some of these proverbs

are are kind of tough they hit a little close to home but dear Lord we thank you for that

you give them give us these proverbs just for that that purpose dear Lord you want us

to be corrected you want us to know right from wrong you want us to know how to live

so God we thank you for giving us your word to correct us we thank you that you don't

just leave us here to to figure it out on our own dear Lord but you give us instruction

we thank you for Jesus Christ that is true wisdom today I pray dear Lord that each one

in this room would know the wisdom of who Jesus is that he gave his life on the cross

so that their sins could be forgiven God I pray that we recognize the truth of your

word it says we are all sinners dear Lord there may be some in this room today God that

are still walking in their wickedness and walking in their foolishness I pray today

that they would repent that they would come before you dear Lord that they would ask you

for forgiveness they would accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on their behalf dear Lord

so that their sins would be atoned for today God I pray that maybe there are some in this

room that are yours but God we got to always be on guard because we're always under temptation

dear Lord to open our mouth when we shouldn't say what we shouldn't say to do what we shouldn't

do to act foolishly I pray that you'd forgive us in those areas God were we sin and I pray

that you would help us to seek your word so that we can learn not to do those things dear

Lord strive not to do those things we need you today dear Lord and I ask these things

in Jesus name Amen.