Bible Guys Classics: Proverbs 10

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with Jeff and Chris.

It's right above me.

Oh that's Jeff and Chris. Yeah, why isn't it Chris

and Jeff Jeff.

Uh, well, I think we know why, our listeners. There's

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It's his companion. It's the Bible Guy's companion, Chris.

I think our listeners know. We should just ask them.

It's so funny.

All right, Well, now we have that out of the

way and everybody knows. Uh, We're gonna go ahead and

move right into a segment called you know. Desiree wrote

this called Thanksgiving story Time. She writes Happy Thanksgiving, which,

by the way, that means this is going to play

on Thanksgiving, right.

Yes, Happy Thanksgiving. Yeah, that's because this is a week

before for us, right right, right right right, Yeah, we're shooting.

The week before, which sometimes we should several weeks in advance.

Yes, so we've both been.

Out of the country and we've quite a been you

had to play catch up.

So happy thanks Thanksgiving.

Oh my goodness, I can't believe we both did that.

That is crazy.

That is some seriously crazy stuff.

There we go.

Let's share stories.

Of a funny, embarrassing, or memorable moment that happened on

a Thanksgiving over the years.

Okay, so you have a story.

So our Thanksgivings are rowdy? Aur yours do you? Guys have? Like?

No opposite is true when we gather around. You know,

my mom always likes to cook a lot, and lately

the last several years I've done like the turkey and

BONDI and I help out. And then hopefully my brother's

families come in and we all kind of gather on

my mom and dad's house, and then whatever brothers are there,

I'm the oldest of the four brothers. Whatever brothers are there,

it's just cutting up and laughing, and then he gets

louder and louder. So after dinner we watched football then

and then after that usually everybody's gathering around, they want

to play games of some kind. So I'm always bringing

new games to my mom, and I like like games

where like have you played Ultimate wear Well, you've played

Ultimate Wearwolf before, right, where everybody's trying to figure out

who the were wolves are versus the villagers and there's

a lot of accusing and yelling and that kind of thing.

So I have a game like that that I bought

from my mom called The Donner Dinner Party, and it's

it's essentially the same where you're trying to figure out

who the cannibals are and who the the regular pilgrims are,

not Pilgrims but pioneers are in the thing. And I

bought it just to find out which one of my

mom's kids would she eat first? And the thing. Yeah,

so on Thanksgiving dinner, we made my mom a cannibal.

So yeah, not for real right right? Yeah? Wow, and

yeah it was fun. Well that was that was It

wasn't me, it was Mark. That's the next one down

for me. Well, because she loves me.

Of your twenty seven brothers, yeah.

Yeah, I have four brothers.

Yes, all right, so here's my Thanksgiving story. Yeah, well

you have how many sisters? How many sisters?

Six?

Right?

Six older sisters.

Yeah, it's just a crazy amount of siblings. Yeah, So

here's my Thanksgiving story. When I was twelve years old,

I went over to my grandmother and grandmother grandmother and

grandfather's house. Actually they owned, no, they managed a U

haul storage facility, so there's like an apartment that was

like on site.

So that's where they lived.

So we would go over there and have Thanksgiving, and

it was you know, we shared holidays, right, so because

my mom and they were divorced, so this was sort

of my dad's holiday and he chose to spend it

with his father and mother. So my cousins were there

from my dad's side. Who were the cousins that we

spent the least amount of time with? Okay, Okay, So anyway,

my uncle, uh huh Okay, I'm trying to be Jenda.

So we sort of.

Don't understand his side a lot, Okay, don't We don't

mess it a lot.

Okay.

So anyway, what ends up happening is my uncle whatever

his name is, from Tennessee, Uncle John, Uncle John and

K come up from Tennessee and they have this big

sheep dog and I'm talking like the biggest thing you've

ever seen. When I was twelve, he looked like a

giant and and everybody was scared of him. And so

I'm like, I go over to pet him, and Uncle

John says, he's it's okay, like it's all right, and

he was he was bigger than me like at the time,

and so I got down on my hands and knees

and I leaned up right to his face and he

said it's okay.

And I reached out my hand and I went to

go pet him.

And as soon as I was right around to touch him,

my other cousin, Dustin, comes running around the corner and

decides to run and tackle the sheep dog like a horse.

And so the sheep dog freaks out and bites me,

and I currently have twelve stitches right here, so you

can see.

Yeah, a little bit, yeah, this a little bit of

a scar there. Yeah, yeah, so the scar it's hideous.

It is for our listeners. And I can't I can't

even make eye content.

And I'll never even I'll never forget how the dog

jumped at me and was like and just literally ate

my face and had twelve stitches across eighteen stitches across

my jawline.

And that was my Thanksgiving.

Wow, Well you can barely see it now.

And and it stained my my jacket, my red jacket.

I had to throw it away.

It was red blood, but you know it didn't quite match. Wow,

different shades of red.

So you got eaten by a dog, yes, and my

brother got eaten by my mom.

Oh oh hey, that was random.

Yeah.

And by the way, speaking of random, random, this chapter

is filled with random quote good job. Yeah, I mean

just access like just total one liners that are randomly

put into the same chapter.

From chapter ten to chapter twenty two. It's literally one

or two versus one liners. They're not even connected. A

lot of times. The idea is it's just ideas. It's

like he's right now, Oh, here's a good idea. Here's

a good idea. Here's a good idea. Here's a good idea. Right.

So that's what these are, and I love them. I

quote I think from these next to a dozen chapters.

I quote from these, probably more than with regard to

practical living than any other passages in the Bible. So

they're great. Here's what it says a wise child chapter ten.

Isn't that what we're reading?

Ye?

Chapter ten, the Proverbs of Solim A wise child brings

joy to a father. A foolish child brings grief to

a mother. Tainted wealth has no lasting value, but right

living can save your life. The Lord will not let

the godly go hungry, but he refuses to satisfy the

craving of the wicked. Lazy people are soon poor. Hard

workers get rich. Wise youth harvests, a wise youth harvests

in the summer, but one who sleeps during harvest is

a disgrace. The godly are showered with blessings. The words

of the wicked conceal violent intentions. We have happy memories

of the godly, but the name of a wicked person

rots away. The wise are glad to be instructed, but

babbling fools fall flat on their faces. People with integrity

walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will slip

and fall. People who wink it wrong cause trouble, but

a bold reproof promotes peace. The words of the godly

are a life giving fountain. The words of the wicked

conceal violent intentions. Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love makes

up for all offenses. Wise words come from the lips

of people with understanding, but those lacking sense will be

beaten with a rot. Wise people treasure knowledge, but the

babbling of a fool invites disaster. The wealth of the

rich is their fortress, the poverty of the poor is

their destruction. The earnings of the godly enhance their lives,

but evil people squander their money on sin. People who

accept discipline are on the pathway to life, but those

who ignore correction will go astray. Hiding hatred makes you

a liar. Slandering others makes you a fool. Too much

talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.

That's great, says the guys with a podcast, Right, right right.

The words of the godly are like sterling silver. The

heart of a fool is worthless. The words of the

godly encourage many, but fools are destroyed by their lack

of common sense. The blessing of the Lord makes a

person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. Doing

wrong is fun for a fool, but living wisely brings

pleasure to the sensible. The fears of the wicked will

be fulfilled. The hopes of the godly will be granted

when the storms of life come. The wicked are world away,

but the godly have a lasting foundation. Lazy people irritate

their employers like vinegar to the teeth or smoke in

the eyes. Fear of the Lord lengthens one's life, but

the years of the wicked are cut short. The hopes

of the godly result in happiness, but the expectations of

the wicked come to nothing. The way of the Lord

is a stronghold to those with integrity, but it destroys

the wicked. The godly will never be disturbed, but the

wicked will be removed from the land. The mouth of

the godly person gives wise advice, but the tongue that

deceives will be cut off. The lips of the godly

speak helpful words, but the mouth of the wicked speaks

perverse words. So it's just whise sayings yeah.

Yep, and really, I mean, goodness, gracious. It almost seems

to have a theme, which is how great the godly

are and how not great the ungodly are.

How great the life of the godly will be. Yes,

it's really it's not that they're good people. It's that

as they choose God's ways, life is going to be

pretty good for them. Life's going to be pretty bad

for the person who rejects God's ways.

Right, yeah, yeah, So, I mean it almost feels like

most of it has that theme going back and forth.

Yea, and yeah, you have words, right. So he talks

a lot about the kind of words that people say,

and he says, like, the words of the godly are

life giving, the words of wicked concealed violent intentions. Right,

how often do we hurt people even unintentionally? We hurt

people with our words versus giving life? Right? There's another

one over here, was it I'm looking for the mouth

of the godly person gives wise advice, but the tongue

that deceives will be cut off. The lips of the

godly speak helpful words, but the mouth of the wicked

speaks for verse words. There's a lot of phrases in

here about how important our words are. And he's always

talking about how the godly build up. Now the godly

also correct. He talks about that a few different times

in here. The godly will bring discipline. And was it

that Dave Harrington says, Dave is really one of the

wise men in my life. He's one of the key

leaders that Heridage church. And Dave said to our staff

yesterday candor is caring, right, So being clear and speaking

truth is evidence that you love somebody or care for somebody.

So that's in there. It's the idea that wise words

come from the lips of people with understanding, but those

lacking sense will be beaten with a rod. This whole chapter,

it's like every third verse has something to do with

wise words versus foolish words, and that wise words usually

build up or bring clarity. Foolish words tear down or

try to get people to do the wrong thing.

You know what these little sayings seem to do for me,

They seem to be a reminder of like a thirty

thousand foot perspective, because think about it, if you're in

the moment, sometimes you can get swept away with foolish

words or foolish moments, or you know, like heading a

foolish direction or making a foolish choice, and then you know,

and you know, maybe the wisdom is something you just

want to ignore because you just want to do what

you want to do, or you know, whatever it is.

But these are principles that sort of zoom you out

and it feels like you're flying thirty thousand feet.

And so what he's trying, at least for me.

Anyway, it feels like, hey, when you're in that moment

and you need to recognize the difference between what wisdom

is going to do for you to live your life

in this way versus foolishness, and it feels like these

are principles that help us to recognize that in the moment,

uh choose, choose, the choose the godly way as opposed

to the ungodly.

Way or the wicked way.

And I remember, goodness gracious, Back in September of two

thousand and seven, we actually did a series. It was

a four part series called Stop. And in fact, back then,

you know, we used to have keychains. Remember back then

in two thousand and seven, when everybody had keychains. Maybe

people still do, right, I don't have any keychain hardly

at all, but but anyway, we used to you know,

carry like the Kroger, you know, barcode where you boop,

you know, and you have all these things.

On your keychain.

Well, anyway, we had this thing for people to put

on their keychain called Stop and the tagline was stop

and then underneath it said because everyone is tempted. It

was a four week series on temptation. And in that series,

what we said was is that right in the moment,

when you're in the heat of the moment and you're

tempted to do something, you also maybe to think that

your action may not connect to anything else because you

think that that moment exists singularly in time.

But the reality.

Is is that that moment of weakness or bad choices

or consequence, all of it is attached to so much

more So, the encouragement of the entire series was this

is that before you make the bad choice, stop and

pause and recognize these things are true. And here's what

we said. We said, in that moment, your faith is

at stake, your family is at stake, and your friends,

your friends and family to some degree, and then your

future is at stake. So every time that you're tempted

to do the wrong thing, stop and recognize and say, okay,

you know, how is this going to affect my faith

with my heavenly Father, my friends and family around me

to some degree, and then my future and so and

so when we recognize that this one choice right, you know, hey,

it feels good in the moment I want to go

rob a bank. It's going to pay my bills, right,

and it's like, wait a minute, stop and realize this

is connected to so many other things. And that's what

this chapter feels like to me. It feels like, hey,

you have to recognize that in the moment, I'm going

to give you wisdom on recognizing the difference of these

two things. And these are principles. They're going to define

the rest of your life.

Yeah, that's really solid. There's a lot of other themes

in these proverbs, and especially as you read through from

ten to twenty one or twenty two, whatever it is

these chapters. Here. One of the other themes that comes up,

and we talked about this yesterday just briefly, is the

difference between lazy people and industrious people. Remember yesterday, he says, Hey,

look at the ants right right, and don't be a

lazy bones.

Lazy bones.

Yeah, So here in verse four and five, he says,

lazy people are soon poor. Hard workers get rich. A

wise youth harvests in the summer, but one who sleeps

during harvest is a disgrace. There's other passages where it's

going to talk about hard work versus was it verse sixteen,

the Earnings of the Godly enhance their lives, but evil

people squander their money right on sin. So there's a

lot in the Book of Proverbs about how to get ahead,

how to build wealth, that godly people just keep working

and work hard and over time that translates into success,

and that foolish people hold back, they don't do what

needs to be done when it needs to be done,

and they just keep hoping. There's other times when he

talks about how foolish people just keep hoping that things

will get better as opposed to start making things better.

And I've had, you know, people I've talked to before

that were just struggling financially, couldn't get ahead, didn't like

the job that they're in, frustrated with their life. And

my thing is, what are you doing to make it

life better? Oh? Life's too hard, already, work too many hours, already,

do too many things. And I'm like, if you keep

doing what you're doing, you're going to keep getting what

you get right. If you want your life to change,

you have to be that person, that person that literally

a wise youth harvest in the summer. My dad used

to say, you got to make hay while the sunshining

right because there's gonna be a day when you can't

make hay anymore right. You can't harvest if it's not

harvest season. So if you have the opportunity in front

of you, grab a hold of it. That might mean

a little less sleep for a year or two in

order to get go back to school and get that

degree you need in order to get into management instead

of always being on the poor side of the business right,

or to be able to go start a new career

or something. People wait around just hoping God will do

a miracle, and God's like, the miracle is you woke

up again today. The miracle is I've given you opportunities,

you're just not seizing them. God doesn't say it's going

to be easy. God says, if you're a godly person,

you're going to work hard, and hard workers get rich.

Wise people harvest when it's harvest time. Foolish people, lazy

people are soon poor. Foolish people sleep when there could

be an opportunity to make more right. And so I

just think that there's there's something to that the general

work ethic of a godly person should far exceed the

way the work ethic of of lazy, godless people.

Yeah, yeah, and I love how in verse Oh no,

I'm looking ahead dead gummet. I was looking down at

chapter eleven, verse number one. It says the Lord detests

the use of dishonest scales, but he delights in accurate weights.

Isn't that a great verse? Yeah?

So, you know, back then, they would they would do

trade in commerce with the scales of justice, and oftentimes

it was the literal weight of something, but more times

it was the it was the weight of of you know,

of the of their.

Currency, right, and so anyway.

So the just weights were always determined by the king.

Usually would have a determination is to this is the

exact weight of an ounce of gold, This is it,

And they would have these weights that would be approved

and stamped by the government. Well, then what crooks would

do is they would drill them out, lighten them, and

then what would happen is that they would they would

be able to get more money, right, but it would

appear on the scales to be the same.

Or maybe it's a scale that's all outside or right, right, yeah,

But dishonest scales, you know, it's it's really a thing

that just talks about honesty guides good people dishonesty destroys

treasures people.

Again, I've just skipped ahead to.

Chapter eleven, but I love those I love that concept,

just how God is talking about integrity, He's talking about honesty,

and it's just really great.

So you have this this hard work theme, you have

this the use of your words theme, and then you

have the long life theme throughout his writings. Right, You're

gonna have a long, satisfying life if you fear the Lord,

for instance, Right, and then hopes, your hopes will be

granted if you're a godly person and you're going God's way.

It's amazing how often life turns out the way you

hoped it would when you go God's way. And for

those that are godless, life tends to always be a

mystery and it's a struggle and it winds up. You know,

things come apart, and so you know he's talking. These

seem to be the three big themes. Your words, your

hard work, and a satisfying life. Hard work is going

to produce resources. God's going to bless you. You're going

to get richer your words if you use them wisely,

You're gonna build up other people. You're gonna have better relationships.

If you go God's way, you're going to have a long, healthy,

a satisfying life. If you reject God's way, you're going

to have a hard life. Those seem to be the

three major themes that you're talking here.

That's solid.

You know what stands out to me Verse number eighteen,

where he says hiding hatred makes.

You a liar, slanding up makes you a fool.

You noticed that he didn't say that, you know, having

hatred makes you a liar. He just says hiding it,

which means you can you can have anger towards someone,

You can have but but but only when you harbor anger,

you know, would it turn into hatred?

Right? And and so and so he but I.

Love how he says hiding it is what makes you

a liar. In other words, like, there's nothing wrong with

dealing with anger, there's nothing wrong with dealing with conflict.

That that's the implication that's.

Yes to be. He's not celebrating hatred. He's just saying,

don't be fake. Right right there, there is in our

culture this sense of fakeness all bless his heart. And

what you mean is he's such an idiot? Right, there's

there's a there's a sense in some of our circles

and some of our cultures that we we pretend this

passive aggressive pretending to like a person when we don't,

as opposed to just be honest about who you are

and what you're about, right, and don't be fake. Yeah,

that's a great one. I like that one. I'll tell

you the other one I like. I like lazy people

irritate their employers, like vinegar to the teeth and smoking

the eyes.

Wow, I love that one.

Wow.

Yeah. Hey, there are sometimes you just don't want you know,

you have somebody that you're employing. We don't have that currently,

do we not correct, But there are times where every

time you think of that person, you go yeah, right,

and we literally we we draw the air in through

our teeth and squint our eyes, like right.

And vinegar to the teeth sometimes is you'll pucker up

with sour taste.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah.

There have definitely been people I could think of, not

even a heritage I'm thinking of, like over the past

thirty years.

Yeah, we've been employers for a long time.

Yes, yes, I can think of people for sure.

Yeah, it's just a funny one to the eyes. It's

very clever. It's when you read it, it's very you

can feel it, you can feel ways, right, and it's

just very clever. How hell you right there?

It's so great. Well, hey, that's a good wrap up

for the chapter.

And happy Thanksgiving everybody, and hopefully we'll see you tomorrow

on the Bible guys,