Humility and the Art of Timely Advice | Proverbs 25:1-28

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways.

It's already it's money, yes and good mon.

Everybody else likes it when you sing it chrit.

Hey, but I just decided to let's get our podcast

shut down. Oh I forgot about that.

That's right there.

Maybe musical rights okay. And by the way, it was

not a good idea apparently because I was. It was

ruined by it goes dingsically.

But you're an important guy, man.

Hey, I decided to let the people know where the

good Morning song comes from if they didn't know.

It comes Yes, it's a commercial, commercial commercial. You're you're

promoting the movie. I promote a lot of movies, I know,

but this one here, you let them know where it

came from in case they didn't know.

Yeah, singing in the ring, Yeah yeah, because you know,

Lord knows that movie needs more viewers. Yeah, from nineteen

what nineteen forty something? So that's funny. So hey, good morning.

Good morning, good morning.

And we are the Bobba guys, and we are jumping

into a segment called Who's Mostly This.

Is one of our favorite segments.

I like it, yes, because it's it's it's fun choices.

Okay, Chris, Okay, ready, me.

Or you, Jeff?

Who's most likely to be frightened by a clown?

I don't know. Are you scared of clowns?

I think I can be. Yeah, I'd say me probably.

I think the only clown I've ever been frightened by

is Pennywise.

Yeah.

Well, in the original original.

Did you as a kid? I already know the answer

to this. Did you watch horror movies?

No?

Okay, so I did. I saw all of them. I

saw all the movies, okay, okay, And why is this peeping?

When I have it on this airplane mode?

You have to have do not disturb mode airplane mode,

so hip focus.

Wait a minute.

If you have it on airplane mode still, then it

comes through.

No airplane mode means you have no The signal.

You're not connected to must be your on Wi Fi.

No, I'm not on Wi Fi. Look, no Wi Fi.

I don't know, Chris, it's enigma. It is it's magic.

So I saw all the movies, okay.

And there's in my mind that are pretty gruciome.

Okay, Well, that's not me. That must be you. Okay, okay,

see see when there's when you live right, Chris? Yeah,

you sleep well? But you no TV. I didn't. We

didn't go to movies.

I had a TV with no rules.

Yeah right. Who's most likely to land the role of

a comedian in a movie? Oh that's you too, you

think so, I think so.

Well. Yeah, just to be in a movie is a

good thing.

Yes, right. And then the comedian in a movie, yeah,

could be good. Yeah.

I think I might be able to pull that off. Yeah,

all right. Number three, who's most likely to miss a

flight because they were packing at the last minute.

I think I fly more, but I don't pack at

the last minute.

Yeah, I'm going to say. I'm going to say that

probably has to be me. Although I will say this,

I've never missed a flight because because I did not pack.

I've never even come close to that. However, I have

woken up on the morning of a flight. In fact,

my last flight, I woke up in the morning of

that flight and packed in the morning.

Oh yeah, I've done that before. Yeah, but I only

travel with one carry on bag in a personal bag. Yeah,

I haven't packed a bag I had to check in

years and years and years, and I'll go for two

weeks out of a carry on. So yeah, I've got

that down to a science now. So wow, so't I

don't check bags? My wife does and they lose their bags?

Like why do you keep? How many times you have

to have them lose your bag before you stop checking

a bag?

Right?

Anyways, who's most likely to have the most incredible comebacks?

That'd be you?

I think, like like comebacks like zingers.

Yeah, I think so okay, Yeah, that'd be you. And

only because I think you already have them. I think

I think you have them sort of like already in

your brain. You've got like thirty or forty comebacks that

you always bail to do.

Yeah, you know what I mean?

And and uh and and you'd be like, oh, I

can get you some crans if you want them, Yeah,

to me in the lobby.

Yeah. So yeah, that's funny, all right.

And then number five, who's most likely to be okay

with eating chicken nuggets for the rest of their life?

What that's probably gonna be me is that you. Yeah,

I like chicken nuggets.

Yeah, I like chicken nuggets too, not as much as

my family does, but yeah, I'd have to I'd have

to vote you too.

So so yeah, so I'm there.

Yeah, I'm the comedian in the movie.

I'm probably the guy for the last month. You're you're

the last two and the nugget kid.

There you go. That's good for me, that's good for me.

Yeah, that's funny.

So hey, uh, I think that the comeback thing is

I just I have like a sassy yeah thing in me. Yeah,

and I'm not most of the time, not even feeling grumpy.

I just feel sassy, right, right, so it just comes out.

Yeah, Well, you know what I think.

I think, Jeff, the way to have incredible comebacks you

have to have a really sharp brain with a lot

of wisdom and it sounds right, and a lot of

and a lot of just things ready, you know, to

give to people. And you know full you know, also

had a lot of wisdom, Chris and I had a

lot of things things ready to give the people. Is

the guy who wrote Proverbs? Oh yeah, yeah, it was Solomon?

Solomon, So so in this way we should read some Proverbs.

In this small way, you are sort of like.

Solomon, Yes, Solomon, and Jeff Solomon of old I wonder

if you like chicken nuggets.

I bet you he did. Do you think they had

chicken nuggets?

They had chicken, had chicken, you make nuggets out of chicken.

Yeah, but they didn't have to grind up chicken in

order to process it and deep fry it.

I don't think they deep fried back then.

You know fal awful?

Oh yeah, I think they had falafful back then.

Sure.

But do you think we just recently Colonel Sanders discovered

fried chicken?

Well, no, but fried chicken. I know when that was invented.

It was during slavery times.

Really, yeah, you don't think they were doing it beforehand?

Uh?

Well, I think they brought it with him.

I hate to say this, but I do know the

origin of this.

They were trying to figure out how to bring more

calories piece of chicken for people working in fields. Right,

So they discovered that fryant oil could triple the amount

of calories for people so that they could work along.

Oh wow, right, Okay, it's a horrible beginning. It is

a horrible origin story, but that is where fried chicken

came from.

Wow. Okay, well I'm going to trust you on that one.

Yeah, terrible.

So with Hezekiah, he's been digging through the temple yep.

They're cleaning stuff up, yep. And he's deciding to lean

into the word. He's going to find out. And then

you know what he did. But he found several of

the proverbs of Solomon that hadn't been published yet in

the temple. So it says this in Proverbs chapter twenty five.

And we haven't read this one yet, because there are more.

These are more proverbs of Solomon collected by the advisors

of King Hezekiah of Judah.

Oh cool, really well, I mean our goal is to

go in chronological or that's right.

So it's God's privilege, the Bible says to conceal things,

and the king's privilege to discover them. No one can

comprehend the height of heaven, the depth of the earth,

or all that goes on in the king's mind. Remove

the impurities from silver, and the sterling will be ready

for the silversmith. Remove the wicked from the king's court,

and his reign will be made secure by justice. Don't

demand an audience with the king or push for a

place among the great. It's better to wait for an

invitation to the head table than to be sent away

in public disgrace just because you've seen something. Don't be

in a hurry to go to court, for what will

you do in the end if your neighbor deals you

a shameful defeat When arguing with your neighbor, don't betray

another person's secret. Others may accuse you of gossip, and

you will never again regain your good reputation. Timely advice

is lovely like golden apples in a silver basket to

one who listens. Valid criticism is like a gold ear

ring or other gold jewelry. Trustworthy messengers refreshed like snow

in the summer, and they revive the spirit of their employer.

A person who promises a gift but doesn't give it

is like clouds and wind that bring no rain. Patients

can persuade a prince, and soft speech can break bones.

Do you like honey? Don't eat too much or it'll

make you sick. Don't visit your neighbors too often, or

you will wear out your welcome. Telling lies about others

is as harmful as hitting them with an axe, wounding

them with the sword, or shooting them with a sharp harrow.

Putting confidence in an unreliable person in times of trouble

is like chewing with a broken tooth or walking on

a lame foot. Singing cheerful songs to a person with

a heavy heart is like taking someone's coat in cold

weather or pouring vinegar in a wound. If your enemies

are hungry, give them food to eat. If they're thirsty,

give them water to drink. You will heap burning coals

of shame on their heads, and the Lord will reward

you as surely as a north wind brings rain. So

a gossiping tongue causes anger. It's better to live alone

in the corner of an addict than with a quarrelsome

wife and a lovely home. That's how you know we're

still reading Solomon's writing, Dude. He writes this about every

fifth chapter, doesn't it. In the Book of Proverbs, good

news from far away is like cold water to the thirsty.

If the godly give in to the wicked, it's like

polluting a fountain or muddying a spring. It's not good

to eat too much honey, and it's not good to

seek honors for yourself. A person without self control is

like a city with broken down walls. Well there you go.

Yeah, So the similes here or these these are similies right,

because there's the word like sure, the similies here are

just unbelievable. Think about all the word pictures that you

just covered. Yeah, it says this doing this is like this,

and what a great by the way, I love I

love those. I love those because he takes, you know,

a lot, in a lot of cases, a miserable experience,

and he says like, hey, did you ever Hey, have

you ever trusted somebody who is untrust worthy in a

time of trouble? Yeah? Do you ever chew on something

with a broken tooth? Did you walk with a lame foot?

You know?

The pain of every single step.

The pain of every bike stabbing.

Yeah, Yeah, that's what it's like to trust somebody who's

untrustworthy in times of trouble. Telling you telling lies about

each other is as harmful as hitting them with an axe.

That's a gruesome metaphor yeah, word picture right. Yeah, and

so yeah, it just goes on and on and on.

Person who promises a gift but doesn't give it. It's

like clouds and wind that bring no rain, singing.

The promise or rain with no rain, right, yeah, singing

cheerful songs to a person with a heavy heart. Yeah,

it's like pouring vinegar into something after you just cut yourself.

A person without self control is like a city with

broken down walls.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy.

Your self control, how you manage yourself, is what protects

you from ruining your life.

Yeah about so, so you almost don't even want you

almost want to avoid. Solomon's wife comments, Yeah. Right, it's

like it's like, who's going to touch that with a

ten foot poll?

Well, the guy who had a thousand wives, he can,

he can touch it with a ten foot poll. Right,

he can touch you with a tenant pole. He can

touch the ten milimeter pole.

He does, he does.

All he has to do is just look around.

That's all he has to do. Yeah, it's better to

live alone in the quarter of an attic than with

a quarrelsome wife.

In a lovely home. That is hilarious.

Right, So he's really just saying, it's what do.

You think about it? You should?

You should explain it a quarrelsome wife.

I'm joking.

Oh, I was going to say, what are you talking

about about?

To get in trouble. You know Liz is listening.

Yeah, of course he is.

Hey, we all just went to dinner last night, wives,

and Liz was talking about listening and talking back to it.

Yeah yeah, talking back to back, talks back to the podcast.

Podcast, Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. In fact, so I would say,

I would say ninety nine times out of one hundred.

Maybe perhaps she listens to the Bible guys getting ready,

because she works five days a week, right, Monday through Friday,

and we have this podcast Fridays a week, right, So

she will get up in the morning, put on her

makeup and listen and I could hear it from the

master bathroom. And a lot of times she'll get up

slightly before me, right, So she has to get a

little bit earlier for where she works. And so by

the time she's ready to walk out the door, that's

about the time that I crawl out of bed, right.

And it works out because she's in the bathroom.

By herself, right, And so anyway, she will instead of

yelling at me in bed, she'll yell at the phone. Right.

But every once in a while she'll like she'll come

in and she'll be like, you know, she'll come out

of the bathroom, she'll say, what were you thinking or

something like that.

Well, it's a good it's good news that you have

almost no concept of the meaning or the experience of that.

That's correct. It is so foreign to me. I'm like, Solomon,

what do you mean? Yeah, Solomon, I don't understand this

piece of wisdom. What does the Glacis say to the pure?

All things are pure? That's so funny? So so yeah,

but I do think it is funny though. But the

other day, didn't I get in trouble? I made like

a wife comment or a woman comment from the stage,

and it was there was somebody who wrote.

In, I can't believe Chris said that for the stage.

Some some kind of sexist statement or something. It was,

and you were just making.

I was poking fun at Adam and Eve, That's what

it was.

And I said something like, oh, come on, it was

something like, uh, it was it was.

It was something about.

Adam and Eve and how Eve was the one that

ate the apple and uh, and she blamed Adam or

something like this.

And and I just believe she blamed the snake, she.

Blamed the snake.

And yeah, so anyway, it was something about that and uh.

And somebody wrote in and said.

I can't believe that he would say, you know what,

I don't want to waste people's time.

But it's on the tip of my tongue what I

said exactly.

The thing about comedy is this, especially when it comes

to generalities. Yes, so generalities can be funny, yes, And

the reason is all of us kind of understand the generalities.

So where you might look at it and go, well,

not my wife, but you can look at it and

go his wife and his wife and his wife kind

of are that way, right or whatever, or you know,

not my opinions, but other people's opinions. They're not my behaviors,

but other people's. So it's not that every single person

in a group is exactly the same way. The groups

tend to have generalities and then they wind up being funny.

And so the idea behind comedy is sometimes the group

dynamic is a funny dynastic.

I know it was.

So when she was quoting back to the serpent in

her conversation, she said, God said you must not eat

it or even touch it, or yes, you die. And

by the way, that's what God did not say.

He didn't say that, so I didn't say anything about

don't touch it.

He said don't either Okay, So I made the joke

and I said, well, I said, she's being dramatic because

you know she's a woman. Oh yeah, and then and

then everybody laughed hard. And then I said, immediately, I'm

just kidding. I'm just kidding. And then and then somebody

wrote in, so.

You took a beating for that. Well, so then now

you just thought you go online and just tell.

You there's only there's only right, right, there's only like

one person that wrote in.

I told five thousand people this Sunday, and I had

some people, man, so I thought I'd tell ten thousand

more today, right.

And somebody wrote in, I think it was only one person.

We got to talk about that self disciplined thing again.

Remember self control. A person without self controls like a

city with broken down walls. You have any defenses.

I have no defenses. I'm like I'm like a city.

I'm like a city with no walls. Come at me

with your arrows.

Yeah, exactly, there coming in the angry mobs. Your walls

are down, and the angry mobs are coming.

This one woman said, women need to get out of

that stigma, so don't fuel it by your jokes.

That's what she.

Said, okay, yeah, well it's your jokes are single handedly oppressing.

Well, I mean she's not, you know, it's you know,

I mean, you know, I don't want to take away

your argument. It's not like she's wrong, it's just that,

you know, my theory is lightening up a little bit.

Yeah, we're is joking, just joking, just comedy is good

for the soul. Yes, so there is a thing here.

You know. One of the things I love about the

Bible is how the Bible gives evidence and weight and

confidence for a Christian to say this, the Bible is

trustworthy and true. And in one of these a lot

of times, it's when the Bible references itself, because remember

the Bible wasn't written all a one time. It is

written by forty something authors over fifteen hundred year period.

That's right.

And Jesus quotes this passage. So Jesus quotes verse six

and seven. What he does he adapts them into a

parable right. So verse six he said, don't demand an

audience with the king or push for a place among

the great It's better to wait for an invitation at

the head of the table, to the head of the

table than to be sent away in public disgrace. Remember

he tells the story and he says, man, when you

go to a party, don't go sit up at the front,

sit at the end, because it's better to be invited

up than it is if a important person comes and

they make you move down. And you know, so Jesus

believes in the value of Solomon's writings. And you know,

Jesus was unbelievably wise even as a young man. He's

sitting on the steps of the temple teaching at twelve

years old, and all these you know, leaders are just

amazed at his wisdom. Well, how do you get wisdom?

You get wisdom? The Bible says two different ways. In

the Book of James, it says, if anybody lacks wisom,

let them ask God, who gives generously to everybody. So

if you need wisdom, keep asking God for wisdom. The

other way that you're going to get wisdom, and the

way God's going to give you the wisdom is through

his works, right, and so spending time in the Word

will will increase your wisdom. And so Jesus now uses

the writings of Solomon that has aekayah digs out of

the temple. Yeah, and he uses and he makes this thing.

So it validates jesus opinion of the value of the

writing of yeah proverbs. So if thought it was important,

then then we should think it's important to know the

writings of Solomon. I think that's That's what I'm trying

to say.

Yeah, yeah, look, fourteen is where that is and uh

and it's always it's always uh seven eleven. Yeah, it's

always incredible when Jesus refers to the Old Testament or

Paul will quote the Old Testament because it.

Is a again.

It's you know, Jesus came to give us a new covenant, right,

it's a new covenant for salvation.

Uh.

Right. So Jesus says, I didn't come to abolish the law.

I came to fulfill the law, right, right, and so

and so to you know, and and again a lot

of the laws given by Moses were very you know,

direct for that group of people, for that group of time, right,

because you know how we distinguished that. We just talked

about this on a stuff the pastor so there's general

commandments from God for all people, and then there are

specific uh you know, assignments or rule followings or promises,

you know, for for just certain groups of people, but

for the most part, you know, all scripture is given

to point to Jesus. Didn't somebody say when we were kids,

who said it? You'll you'll remember who said. You can

take any verse of the Old Testament and if you

work hard enough, you can connect it to Jesus.

Oh yeah, a lot of them you can certainly take.

So I've heard pastors say you can take every book

of the Bible points to Jesus, right, and then just

about every passage points to Jesus. Or you can get

to Jesus from every passage. Yeah.

Yeah, all you do is work yourself out. You just

zoom out a little bit, right, you talk about that

verse and then you say, the verse is given in

this context and the and the passage surrounding it, and

it was during this time time frame, and and then boom,

then you're there.

Well, it's all about him and how to get to him,

right that that that's what it's about. And so that's

why John calls Jesus the Word. He's the Word of God. Right,

So we we find out about the Word of God

from the Word of God. That's it. So so that

that passage that Jesus uses there, it's it's better for

an invitation ahead of the table. There's something about that.

It's just a little bit of humility, right, that that's

what he's talking about, being a humble person. Yeah, there's

so many others though, you know, I love the other one.

Timely advice is lovely like golden apples and a silver basket.

And to one who listens, valid criticism is like a

gold ear ring or other gold jewelry. You and I,

we we have several different creative things that were a

part of and we have a high value on our

staff of make it better. But the only way you

can make it better is to allow valid criticism. So

for you and me, we have to make sure first

of all that the criticism is valid, right, right, and

that it's not just an opinion, but it's a valid thing.

But if we're humble enough and we can accept timely advice,

and if we are able to accept from people that

we love and that we trust, we can accept valid criticism,

then it's like golden apples in a silver basket. It's

like golden earrings and other gold jewelry. It makes everything better. Yeah,

if we can accept the timely advice. And if we

can accept valid criticism, it's going to make everything better,

you know, So we shouldn't be so sensitive, is what

I'm saying.

I want to take the last minute to give a

shout out, a personal shout out to anybody who knows

this guy personally, because you know, a lot of our

listeners don't know, right, our friends. Right, So we have

a good friend, Dave Wilson that we just hired, and

you've probably already noticed this, but I want to give

him a shout out. Have you noticed recently in meetings

he is voiced making sure that pastors don't have egos.

Oh, he's refer to that.

Yeah, talks about it a lot. And I got to

tell you for somebody who you know, he's got like

he's really connected to a lot of important people, and

he's got like a lot of things that could inflate

his ego.

Right, I'm very talented, highly skilled, yeah at regeously successful

guy in life in every area that he's tried to tackle.

Right Yeah, and who has NFL players you know with

you know who text back and forth and all these

kinds of things, right, Yeah, you can you can feel

important right.

But he always talks about.

Ego ego checks, and how we as pastors shouldn't have egos.

And I have to tell you that, because I've been

his friend for twenty years, I almost wonder how I

would be without him, Like, because there, I grew up

in an environment maybe maybe maybe, but I grew up

in an environment and in a culture where pastors, it

seems like, now looking back, that's all they have.

Where his ego where egos? Right, So many.

People who were big fishes in small ponds thought they

were way bigger than they should, you know, And it's

this idea of like thinking you're actually important and and uh,

but in the great scheme of things, a great reminder

is what Jesus quoted in Luke fourteen and what Solomon

writes here, right, which is like, hey, let's let's all

have the practice of you know, even if we think

we're higher than we are, let's sit lower than we are, right,

And let's let's let's let's the only reason that we

should move up in this world is not by ourselves

but by others. Right, let others move us up. Don't

don't don't move up yourself. And that's a great practice

for all of us. Think about that humility in every

single area which one of us have ever been under

a leader, Like you know, you've worked at a lot

of different places as a kid, Right, Aren't the best

bosses those who are humble, Yes, those who are servants,

those who are not afraid to have conversations and do

things that you know everybody else can do. The ones

who are self important and self inflated, those are the

worst kinds of bosses to work for, unless they're just

joking about it or something like that, right, But if

they truly believe that they're important, Oh, it's just the worst.

Well. I love the fact that you've got a king

here who finds some writings from another wise king, and

the first writings in his list are all about a king. Yeah,

we don't know that Solomon wrote them in this order.

We know that Hezekiah put them down in this order. Yeah, right,

And so it's very clear that you've got a humble

king trying to figure out how to be a better king.

That's what all these are.

That's great.

The first four verses are about the kings, and then

he goes on from there and talks about being able

to take advice and being humble and all those things.

Here's a guy who wants to be a godly man

and he's recognizing, first of all, I need to figure

out how to be a wise king and a good

godly king. So yeah, that's great humility.

Man, Hey, that is definitely our time. And so what

a great chapter. And we will continue on in Proverbs tomorrow.

On the Bible guys,