Hey Fool!

If I was preaching in English, my title would be Hey Fool.

If I was preaching in Afrikaans, my title would be Yekhan

Yokhatsin. But I'm preaching in English, so

it's going to be Hey Fool. And it's nice to see you all.

I actually met the financial director of F Bob outside.

She's told me she's retiring. It's a bit worrying when you

retire from EV, Bob. You know what?

What does that mean? You know, I said, well, I mean,

is that long term? Is it short term?

How does it actually work? You know?

And her sister is the head of Credit and Standard Bank.

And she said, I said it was a man.

So the two sisters brought up by their dad who fulfilled two

major roles in South Africa. But we're talking about death

and we're talking about life, and we're talking about wisdom

and stupidity and all of those things.

And we're going to look at Ecclesiastes 10.

Stephen, you preached so well last week and we're going to

just take the next couple of weeks just to land.

We're going to go 10/11/12 finished.

Is that cool? Learn the lessons.

And today it's hateful. So it's a little bit like

boring. It's not like as exciting as the

last few weeks. It's a little bit line upon

line. A couple of wisdom things.

What's clever? What's not clever?

You know, a lot of life is good and evil.

We make decisions on good and evil, but the Bible also helps

us make decisions on wisdom and foolishness.

And so actually there's some things that are not evil, but

they're foolish. Like, is it evil to have a

bottle of wine with your friends at dinner?

Of course it's not. Is it wise or foolish to go and

drive with your family afterwards?

Well, it's foolish. Is it?

Is it good or evil to to have drinks with your colleagues

after work? Well, it's not evil.

Is it foolish to be staying late at night with women of the

opposite sex while you're married man?

Of course it is. It's very foolish.

Is it evil to answer your cell phone in the car?

I wouldn't say it's evil. Is it foolish?

Absolutely. And so, So Proverbs and the

books of Wisdom, Finding Sofia, that's what we're studying.

Finding Sofia is actually about not just living a good or evil

life. It's about living a wise or

foolish life. And the Bible says that the fear

of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Psalm 14 says that's the fool who says there is no God.

And so it's actually we all have knowledge, but wisdom is the

applied knowledge. It's when we actually take the

knowledge and we start working out in relationships.

And the Bible's full of that. How does a group this size

actually get on? We need some wisdom.

We need to act. Stop acting foolishly and not

good or evil, just wise, you know, just act wisely, you know?

So that's what we're going to look at today in in Ecclesiastes

10. And I'll read to you the

Afrikaans version as we get through some of it, because some

of you have already seen your cuts.

And if you think it's your bottom, it's not.

It's a pit. Yeah.

Don't. Don't send me letters.

I've got enough. I've been offending people on

purpose publicly to see if you can put for many years.

Thank you, thank you, Kathy, thank, thank, thank you, thank

you, thank you for many years because we preached on whether

you can absorb insult or not. And I've noticed you have a

very, very low absorption rate because it just comes back in

all sorts of means and forms. But I'm going to continue to do

it until we understand the ways of God.

I don't do it for my benefit. I do it for yours.

Of course, chapter 10 and verse one, as dead flies give perfume

a bad smell. So a little folly outweighs

wisdom and honor. Just a little folly.

Let let me let me give you a definition of foolishness.

Foolishness is characterized by impulsive disobedience.

Wickedness is planned disobedience.

Foolishness is impulsive disobedience, self-centered

arrogance, and a rash disregard for the holiness of God.

It's often guilty of hot anger directed at self or others, self

centeredness and the hatred of discipline, correction and

wisdom. Don't tell me what to do, I'm in

charge, the book of Ecclesiastes reminds us.

It doesn't all look pretty, but God is in charge and you're not

Amen. So what we've learned from F Bob

is that we are completely sure that we are going to die.

We are completely sure that we are going to die.

The Bible says even to you, good businessman, you can't go to

this town and that town and make money because you don't even

know what tomorrow holds. So we are living here today and

we are completely unsure of what is going to happen tomorrow, but

we live our lives from uncertainty to certainty.

What we should be doing is living our lives from certainty

to uncertainty because it'll change every decision that we

make about money, relationships, time and even the words that we

share. Does that make sense to you?

So I know I'm going to die. So I didn't have to know how I

actually want to live. I preached last week in Durban.

I was preaching. I had an amazing time.

One of my friends, one of our spiritual fathers, his son got

ordained. So Danny Sun and this beautiful

girl called Danny walked up to me.

She's stunning. She's 52 years old.

She looks like she's 25 years old.

And she was just full of God. She just walked up to me.

And I used to be a very radical preacher when I mean, you think

I'm radical, I'm, I was wild. I would literally just stop, not

talk for 10 minutes and try and hear God.

And she said 27 years ago, you were preaching in the church

and, and you just stopped and everybody got uncomfortable and

you just stopped. And you paced up and down like I

used to do before you guys intimidated me.

But I'm coming after you. You're not going to wear me

down. And she said you just walked up

and down, up and down. She was a Catholic.

She was there for the first time.

She said I was so uncomfortable. I didn't know what was

happening. I was out and you just stopped

and you and you pointed at me. You said your name is Danny.

I've only ever done that three or four times in my life.

I don't hear God like that. I said your name is Danny.

Stand up Danny. I said stop dancing before the

Princess of Men and start to dance before the King of Kings.

And God will keep you young your whole life so You Can Dance with

him forever. She said.

I just landed from the Seychelles with the Prince of

Saudi Arabia had invited me and my friends to go and dance

before him, She said. I spent my life dancing before

the Princess of Men. I said from that day I stopped

and now I just danced before the King of Kings.

She said. I felt my feet melt into the

floor and as she was talking, I felt the Spirit of God just come

upon me. As she was talking, she said,

Rory, God has somehow kicked me young so that I can keep

dancing. I said, what do you do now?

She said, I Just Dance. I teach dance.

I learned dance. I put dancing productions

together, but I danced before the King of Kings.

And then another man came to me. His name was Graham.

I said, how you Graham? He said, hey, Rory, you know, my

brother's in Pretoria and he's sick.

He's in Steve Beaker Hospital. I said, Graham, when last did

you see him? He said, I haven't seen him.

I didn't even know that he was in hospital and, and, and Clint

was there. I said, Clint, we've got to get

Graham. So Clint flew Graham up to

Pretoria, picked him up at the airport and for three days took

him to Steve Bika Hospital. And then Anthony disappeared

into the heavens. Friends, we were doing an

ordination. I just reminded I meant to

prophecy over people. And Anthony needs to be

reconciled with his brother who hasn't seen him for a couple of

months. And when that happens and

Anthony goes, Graham sent me this beautiful message to say

thank you for Clinton. Thank you for three CI for

looking after that which is certain, that which is certain

Anthony's death so that the last four days or five days of

Graham's life could be used aiming towards that which is

certain instead of living with the uncertainty of how is his

brother going to be. And I don't know if your name is

Danny or where you dancing, but I want to tell you today, God,

God has got a purpose for us that one day we're going to die.

But until we die, we spend every day that we've got dancing

before the King of Kings, not trying to impress the Princess

of man. The heart of the Let's stand if

you can. Some can't.

I know that. I understand that the heart of

the wise inclines to the right. But the heart of the fool to the

left? Stand on your right leg if

you're right legged. Not so easy, eh?

How you doing, Oscar? You're right.

Sorry, but I just saw your face on your left leg.

Which one's easier? Oh, both.

Oh praise Jesus, you've been saved.

Hallelujah. Oh praise God, both.

Of course one's easier than the other because we're right-handed

and we're left-handed, so every one of us has got a better

leaning. Every one of us got a better

leaning. It's easier on your natural

leaning. The Bible says the heart of the

wise leans towards the right, the heart of the foolish leans

towards the left. So the question we need to ask

is we need to orientate our hearts to lean properly.

Now if you take a left hand pin, if I'm right-handed, some of

your left, the other way around, if I take a left hand pin, it's

very hard to write with the left-handed because I'm

naturally right-handed, so it's natural.

So in order to learn how to write with the left hand, I need

lots of practice. I'm born a Sinner, I get saved

again, I'm immediately everything changes.

But then I've got to learn how to write according to my new

nature and speak according to my new nature.

But there's something inside of me that wants to lean the other

way. But I've got a new nature, and I

have to start working with that new nature, and I've got to

start speaking with that new nature.

And so when the Indian people and black people and I've grown

up in an Afrikaans home, I've got a new nature.

So your nature would be to lean this way, but we have to learn

how to lean this way. So you can't come to church and

lean one way on a Sunday, Hallelujah.

And on Monday you lean another way.

You with me. So it's not good or evil.

It's just wisdom or foolishness. Come stand with me, Christian.

I've, I've said with me, just look at this.

Just look at me. So, so you can't teach

brotherhood. You, you, it's I'm born again.

He's born again. He's from Congo.

I'm from South Africa. He never spoke English.

I only spoke English. And now God puts us somehow

through a whole manner of means, puts us in the same church.

And when a woman walks into the room, they sit down.

That's honor. When a woman walks into the

room, I stand up. That's honor, I think.

Oh heck, now we're going to have to.

Should we sit or should we stand?

Should we lean left? Us, we right?

Well, let's go on a journey. Let's eat together.

We have done this last few weeks 3 or 4 times.

We've met together because we're going through changes.

We're speaking about them, we've prayed together, we cry

together. Is that true?

To understand each other? We eat, we talk, we pray, we

laugh, we love, and then all of a sudden we realize we're

leaning in the same direction. Amen.

And it doesn't come, friends. It doesn't come with people that

you play paddle with because everybody plays.

Everyone who plays paddle plays paddle.

It's the guys who don't play paddle that you have to learn

how to lean with. It's easy to lean with people

that are the same as you. Afrikaners call it swertsuk

swert in English. It's like, like for like, but

actually the church, it's the island Swert.

That's, that's, that's what Proverb is teaching us.

And so there's no point in coming and having coffee with

the same group of friends. The, the, it's like, hey.

And then all of a sudden when, when we start getting this get

on to your left leg or your right leg, all of a sudden we

start to dance together. And then we start to yeah, yeah.

We've had a, we've had a few altercations.

We've had a few upset sets. We, we, we haven't spoken to

each other for some time. You know, we've been working

together for 25 years now. Christian and I, we've had to

learn some things, but but now actually we can live on one leg

each because I can stabilize them and balance them.

Is that right? And now God takes this thing and

he says, listen guys, not good or evil.

Why isn't foolish? I need you to actually balance

each other out. We're not getting very far, but

anyway. Even as he walks along the road,

the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how stupid he is.

If a ruler's anger rises against you, do not leave your post.

Calmness can lay great errors to rest.

You know when your boss gets cross, Stop talking about him at

tea time, we'll come back and bite you.

There's an evil I've seen under the sun, The sort of error that

arises from a ruler. Fools are put in many high

positions, while the rich occupy the low ones.

Mark Twain says this. Suppose you were an idiot, and

suppose you are a member of Congress.

But I repeat myself. What do you think of our

government of national? Fools are put in many high

places while the rich occupy the low ones.

I've seen slaves on horseback while Princess go out on foot

like slaves. Whoever digs a pit may fall into

it as yay a Hut krava saw yay yo hutsin.

That's where it comes from. In case you didn't know, comes

from Ecclesiastes. Whoever breaks through a wall

may be bitten by a snake. Whoever quarry stones may be

injured by them. Whoever splits logs may be

endangered by them. If the axe is dulled and its

edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring

success. If a snake bites you before this

charm, there is no profit for the charmer.

Words from a wise man's mouth are gracious.

The some Bible say win favor. Words from a wise man's mouth

are gracious. But a fool is consumed by his

own lips. At the beginning his words are

folly, at the end they are wicked madness and the full

multipliers words hectic. I recently stayed with one of my

friends, been a friend for many many years.

But about six months ago him and his wife decided to end every

relationship that they have where gossip, slander, criticism

was part of the language. They decided to end their

friendships. It's cost them about 75% of

their friendships, but when you go into their home, it feels

like their home is clean. Not vacuumed, not shampooed, not

serviced. Just clean.

Entertain, absolutely no criticism.

Entertain no gossip. Entertain.

No slander. And when you sit in that home,

it feels like peace has come there.

We're all guilty. No one knows what is coming.

Who can tell him what will happen after him?

A fool's work. Where is him?

He does not know the way to town.

Woe to your land whose king was a servant and whose Princess

feast in the morning. Blessed are you a land whose

king is of noble birth and whose Princess eat the proper time for

strength and not for drunkenness.

If a man is lazy, thereafter sag and his hands are idle, the

house leaks, a feast is made for laughter, the wine makes life

merry. But money is the answer for

everything. For all you rich guys breathe

the sigh of relief. You have worked hard, you've

built businesses, you've built up.

Your house is paid off. You can go on holiday.

Praise God, enjoy it. Church makes people feel guilty

because they're rich. Enjoy your money, it's easy.

Money is the answer for everything.

How should we go and hold that overseas money?

How should I bless my wife for her birthday money?

What should I do for my kids when they finish school?

Money. It's awesome, but be careful.

Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich

in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words

and a bird on the wing may report what you say.

Have you ever heard that saying? A little bird told me you heard

it. Don't complain against your boss

because a little bird will tell him five things.

And we finished. How are we doing now?

Scripture. Not easy to preach on.

Point number one. Small things have got huge

consequences. A dead flyer gives perfume a bad

smell. A little folly outweighs wisdom

and honor. A little decision can have

massive they used to make because they didn't have showers

in those days and they didn't have they used to make big balmy

perfume, like a like a waxy candy type of perfume.

They used to make it and they used to get flies that were

attracted to it and the flowers would come and if the fly came

in, that would spoil the whole perfume.

Only take one or two flies. You can go to a restaurant and

you can put your drink there and if a fly comes, just a small

little fly comes and lands in your drink.

What do you do? Take the fly out and keep

drinking the drink. No chance.

I've never seen anybody do that. I remember going to a meal with

a guy called Brad, somebody who was a AOG pastor, and he went to

this restaurant. He was sitting down.

He ordered this massive steak and spinach and butternut.

And inside the spinach was a was a curly hair.

Yes, one of those. He took it out.

How many hairs do you need to spoil the meal?

We both lost our appetite immediately.

It was like, I don't want any of that, he said.

But there's nothing wrong with the steak.

No, no, no, no, no. But the but the hair in the

spinach spoiled the steak and the butternut.

Go back. You see, it just takes a little

bit of madness to spoil a whole lifetime.

Friends, I'm watching it. I'm I'm watching it as a pastor.

I've seen men, you've seen them public men, men who have run

global ministries all over the world, spent 4050 years of

serving God, building up ministries.

Incredible. And one moment of madness. 5

minutes, one minute, 3 minutes, 1 little fly in the whole bomb

can ruin their whole reputation. And so friends I can't live

with, I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

So I'll just do whatever I like with my sexuality and my

finances and my words and all those things.

Though I've got to know this. One day my funeral will be held

here. I hope I get a special price on

EVOB. My funeral will be held here.

And if my funeral is going to be held here, then I have to make

sure that for 25 years or 30 years I've been in the ministry

and 32 years that I've been married to this woman.

I have to make sure that when my children stand up, they're going

to speak to me about a husbanding that has been

faithful. Not 5 minutes of madness which

can catch any of us anytime because we allow foolishness to

come instead of radically dealing with it.

Is it OK to meet with a woman of the opposite sex in an office?

Yes, it is. Is it evil?

No, it's not evil. Is it wise?

No, it's not wise. So the only time I meet a person

of the opposite sex, there's always a camera in the room.

That room is Cameron up or my doors open or there's another

person there. It just saves the day that my

children will speak about me as a husband and say, actually he

stood up on his wedding day and he said he would be faithful.

He has been faithful. Now friends, I can't say I will

be faithful because but I have to make sure that I'm leaning to

the right and not to the left. And the moment I start leaning

to the left, I've got to cry out for help and say to guys, you

know what guys, I'm about to do something in 5 minutes that's

going to ruin my life. And some of you are sitting here

by the grace of God and I'll speak to you at the end of it.

But some of you are sitting here who have ruined your lives by 5

minutes of madness. Just 5 minutes.

I, I, I had a, we had a black preacher friend, Elliot Sanjika.

He used to stand in the pulpit at Glen Ridge, beautiful man

with his black face and the tears you just streamed on his

face. And he'd say young people, young

people, young people, 5 minutes, 5 minutes can mess up your life.

Just takes one fly to mess up a whole drum.

It just takes one hair to mess up a beautiful meal.

You think, Rory, this is hardcore?

Yes, it is hardcore because we have to know, Does God forgive?

Yes, he does. But friends, it's better to lean

towards wisdom than to act like fools because foolishness causes

havoc. Let me talk about sexuality.

I have a friend of mine whose children just had an encounter.

Just an encounter. Young encounter.

Young children moved overseas. Not sex, just a little bit of

foreplay. That foreplay, no penetration,

ended up in a pregnancy. That pregnancy has changed. 20

years of that family's life. 15 minutes.

You've got to sit here someday and think, I'm going to die one

day. And so I'm going to have to live

my life in such a way it's only 80 years, that for eternity, for

eternity, my sexuality, my words, for eternity, I'm

building something that will last.

Amen. Now, if you've messed up, it's

good to hear the truth before you hear the grace.

Because it's grace and truth that set us free.

It's grace and truth. The second thing is how do we

treat other foolish people? It says when a man is angry,

when your boss is angry. Stay on your post and keep calm.

You know what's better than two angry people?

One angry person, one angry person.

There is not a single argument that my wife and I have had and

we haven't had many. Fortunate.

It's not a single argument because by God's grace she

stayed at her post. So sometimes I'm foolish,

sometimes I'm foolish and I blurt out and what I get is just

a dead response. So I've got 2 choices.

I can roll her or I can let her calmness change me.

You can look at every single road rage incident that you have

been a part of. I I spoke to a man this week.

I said if you ever pulled a gun out on someone, He said yes,

just once in a road rage incident.

I said, oh, really? He said, yeah, yeah, I was.

And I said who pulled the gun out first?

He said he pulled it out first. Of course.

Can you imagine friends, the next time the guy pulls the gun

with his with his hands or with his proper gun, imagine instead

of responding with anger, you keep your place, you stay at

your post like Jesus did as Kathy says, I've been irritating

you for 12 years. Can you imagine instead of being

angry and writing letters, you just kept your post and instead

of losing your peace, you just disordered and said God, will

you deal with him quietly? Just deal with him.

I'm I'm being serious. I'm being dead serious.

Stephen and I have a have an amazing relationship.

Amazing. We we had we had a difference of

opinion on Friday and we chatted it through and and before I even

got home, he sent me a message. He said, hey, raw, so great

chatting, so great to know we love each other.

I think wow. And he said he's my favorite and

I'm his so so you imagine friends.

Can you imagine how many times a response of anger, legitimate,

legitimate, 100% legitimate, has cost dear friendships and work

opportunities and work opportunities?

When your boss shouts at you unfairly and you absorb it, the

blessing of God will be there. It'll be called Wisdom.

And then we got covenantal relationships called marriage.

And marriage is hard when a linear person walks with a

cyclical person and one body is hot and 1 body is cold and one

likes the air con and one. But we're covenantal #3 Wisdom

protects us from everyday mistakes.

Wisdom protects us from everyday mistakes.

It says if you dig a hole you will fall into it.

If you cut wood you will get splinters.

If you hit a stone you will get a chip.

I was thinking as I was preparing of Mark Boucher.

Mark Boucher, if a if a fast bowler was bowling, Mark Boucher

would put a helmet on his head. That's just wise.

Is it evil or good to put a helmet on?

Well, not really. Just wise or foolish.

Put a helmet on his head, the guy would bowl.

If the ball came and hit him, there'd be no problem.

And then one day, after hundreds of Test matches, he took his

helmet off because there was a spin bowler bowling.

The spin bowler bowled, hit the Bale, the Bale hit his eye.

And I think he's had 16 hour operations.

Mistakes happen. Everyday life.

Mistakes happen. You go to work, mistakes happen.

I walked into the church just now.

There was a boy at Kids Ministry who's dislocated his finger.

And so it's his nephew and her dad's a doctor.

So they're busy having a talk in church about the nephew and the

doctor, and they can't get hold of the dad and they can't get

hold of the doctor. But all of a sudden the doctor

and the dad went down. Then that's life.

Life happens. But we can actually avoid some

of those things from happening. You can actually.

When a guy walks, have you ever seen it?

When the guy's walking? You say, hey, can't say, I can't

say, I can't say Hut scene. That's not being rude.

You just know that behaviour unchecked, you're going to see

your Hut. That means you're going to fall

into your own hole. You keep drinking like that,

Sir. You're going to see your own

Hut. Are you telling me no drink?

I'm just telling you too much drink on your Hut scene.

Amen. So it says there are two things

you must do. One of them, you mustn't just

keep smacking harder it harder it you must sharpen the blade.

You must actually get some skill so you can avoid mistakes.

My neighbors or some of my neighbors are woodworkers and I

hear that machine. I know so many people who've got

fingers missing. I hear those machines and I get

a funny feeling inside my stomach.

I mean, and I'm going to build this warehouse and I see those

Royby things and I was at my friend's house recently in

Durban and his son-in-law was just like really good work

woodwork and I was going on to cello to buy outside furnace

like 40,000 Rand for and his son built this amazing suite of

furniture for like 7 grand. It's absolutely magnificent.

But it's like, no, I think, well, I should just do that, but

my fingers are worth much more than that.

Yes, all your Hutsing. Yes, all your finger for lure.

Yes, all your thrower for lure. Yes, all your friend for lure.

Yes, all your job for lure. Because you're not working with

skill, you're working with dangerous things without the

necessary attachments. That's what he's saying.

Don't get into dangerous situations unless you're skilled

how to handle them. You just saw your hot scene,

friends. I don't have a pornography

problem. And in all my years of I think

every man struggles with this, but I haven't in all my years of

being on Internet, on the computer on this, I've never

seen a pornographic image in all my years.

Maybe because I haven't googled it, but I've never seen an

image. But I preach a morning on a

Sunday and I preach a evening on a Sunday.

When I get home at night, when I get home at night, on a Sunday

night when I'm tired, I cannot watch TV by myself because I

don't know what's inside me. And so it's not wise for me to

watch TV unless I watch it in my bedroom and it's golf and my

wife is next to me in the bed. It's not wise.

And so actually I need the skill to turn off the TV so that I can

actually live with wisdom. Instead of foolishness, the

second part of it, it says don't let the snake come out and bite

before the charmer plays his flute.

Sometimes we need to. When you're dealing with

dangerous things, we must hurry up.

Like Joseph hurried up when Potiphar's house because he

realized Potiphar's wife was in trouble, so he ran.

When the snake comes out, you must play your flute quickly so

that dangerous thing can start dancing and stop biting people.

So there's sometimes we take time because we need skill and

other times we take haste because that thing is dangerous.

You with me? How we doing overtime, Clint?

Oh, why overtime? Let's see how we go here.

OK, We'll do the rest next week. Wisdom prevents us from foolish

talk. Wisdom prevents us from foolish

talk. Wisdom prevents us from foolish

talk. Even everyone notes.

So let me read Paul Tripps where he says about words.

Remember FF David? What's that?

FF David? Fr David?

Words don't come easy to me. How can I?

You guys wouldn't. You weren't born Sunny say Sunny

sells Yeva sucker, so skips Yeva sucker, so skip again.

Omar, Angels, Afrikaans, Captain Vandy, sailor, Rhonda Vein,

Hetni Brika Mariamud brika Hoku van de Khan and your hatfall.

Words don't come easy to me. Words, friends, words.

Communities are fashioned by words.

Friendships are fashioned by words, and it says this.

The words of the wise man are gracious, but the words of the

fool, but the words of the fool consume destructive.

The Bible uses words like poison and fire and an open grave to

describe words. This is my friend Dion.

Can you imagine, Dion, if my words over your life?

We spent Easter together? When I came to Pretoria, the

first Easter I had, he invited me to his house for Easter.

This Easter, I invited him to my house.

We have had 12 years of sharing gracious words with each other.

Is that not true, Dion? We have built a friendship

around gracious words. It's how we've built it.

I've been through stuff, you've been through stuff, you had a

garage, I've got a garage. We've traveled to business

together and all we do is we speak gracious words to you and

our friendship exists. Afrikaans man and English man,

our friendship exists because of gracious words.

Can you imagine if a little bird just flew past?

Just a little bird flew past and came and landed next to Dion and

said, you know, Dion, I was at dinner the other day and this is

what Rory Dyer said about you. 12 years of friendship gone,

gone. 12 years gone says your words must be gracious.

I want to say to you, if you here, Sir today, if you've just

come from jail today or this week because you did something

in 5 minutes that has defined the last 20 years of your life.

And I want you to sit under my gracious words that tell you

that my God, however foolish you have been, that my God can

rescue you and heal you and redeem you.

Because in this house we speak about grace and we speak about

second chances, and we speak about third and 4th and 4th and

6th. Your actions will have

consequences, but grace will redeem them from the pit.

This is what Paul Tripp says. Listen to the talk that goes on

in your home. How much of it is impatient and

unkind? How often are words spoken out

of selfishness and personal desire?

How easily do outbursts of anger occur?

How often do we bring up past wrongs?

My wife is historical. You mean hysterical?

No, I mean historical. How do we fail to communicate

hope? How do we fail to protect?

How often do our words carry threats that we've had it and

are about to quit? Stop and listen and you'll see

how much we need to hold our talk to the standard of love,

and how often the truth we profess to speak has been

distorted by our own sins. I think everybody in this room

needs to repent about how they've spoken about their

bosses. It's foolish.

The birds will carry it and it'll come back and haunt you.

Husbands, I just want to say this to you as we close.

I've got a few more points when we're going to close.

The Bible says that you wash your wife with your words.

You wash your wife with your words.

It doesn't say you dirty here. It doesn't say you accuse her.

It says you wash her with your words.

Ephesians chapter 5. When people tell me my wife

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

looks beautiful, it is a compliment to me.

I've spent 32 years, the first nine years, critical,

judgmental, harsh. The last 25 or 26 years, Wash,

kind, gracious, peaceful, loving, gentle.

Because when all of this goes, I've just got her.

He's got 18 months and he leaves home and I've got to get this

going and then we've got to build a church that looks like

God. And so I've got to take an

Indian man who's so different to me, grew up as a Buddhist or a

Hindu, grew up in alcohol. I didn't have alcohol.

And now we've got to work hard to dance together.

Come, Dennis, come Christian. Come here, Hon.

Actually, Sue, why don't you come make a circle?

Make a circle. Make a circle.

It takes you into your circle. Stand on one leg.

Sure. Hey, guys, we're going to have

to walk for God. Yes, we're all going to die one

day. All of us, guys.

So all of us. Black, white, rich, poor, young,

old. We're all going to have to work

this thing out. We're going to have to learn how

to control our tempers when others are cross with us.

We're going to, we're going to have to.

We're going to have to use all our resources.

Hey, guys, I'm feeling like I'm leaning to the left.

Hey, don't worry, brother. Lean on me, lean on me, lean on

me, lean on me, lean on me. He he ain't heavy.

He ain't heavy. He's my brother.

He ain't heavy. He's my sister.

Let's change our legs and go the unnatural route and say you see,

we can still hold each other. Don't, don't, don't leave.

Just be careful with your words. Be gracious, be gracious.

Lots of people have hurt me. Lots of people have been

encountering me. Be gracious, be gracious.

Be can't be forgiving. Find grace.

We start to build a community. Yes, Amen, Amen.

Little bit by little bit, little bit by little bit, we start to

build the community. I close with One Corinthians

chapter 1, if you can put it up, please.

And we and we, close brother, think of what you were when you

were called. Not many of you were wise by

human standards. Not many were influential, not

many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things

of the world to say in the wise. God chose the weak things of the

world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of the

world and the despised things and the things that are not to

nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before

him. It is because of Him that you

are in Christ Jesus. Who has become for us wisdom

from God, that is our righteousness, holiness and

redemption. Have you done something stupid

in 5 minutes that affected your life?

Have you bad mouthed your boss and trust Jesus today and let

the righteousness, holiness and redemption of God come upon your

life. Therefore it is written with Him

who boasts boast in the Lord. God bless you.