Wisdom For Everyday Life: Proverbs 20:1-30

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

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible guys.

Oh that was exciting. Yeah, A little tappy tap, a

little bit of percussion. Yeah.

You know what I realized. I realized that I am

impressed with tap dancing.

Really, that was not what I was expecting my day

to begin today with. You know something, Let's let's make

sure this is relevant for the youngsters today.

I really enjoyed tap dancing. I didn't say enjoy I

said I'm impressed. Impressed with impressing. I do enjoy it,

but not not doing it. I'm seeing it.

You watched too many old musicals.

I went to Broadway show on Sunday and there was

a there was a bit inside the show and uh.

And I went to see Mean Girls and Intown Detroit

and there was this guy and he was a bigger guy.

He was actually quite big, and he moved. Have you

ever seen a bigger guy who moves like an athlete?

This guy like move like football players.

You know what I mean, right, like like I don't

mean bigger as in life, so big football players.

No, they are not moving like athletes. Big dancers on stage,

they move like athletes. Is that the message you're sending.

I'm saying they used to be an athlete.

As opposed to big football players who are currently athletes.

Dude, if you're talking about linemen, linemen don't have like

a wide range.

All I'm saying is a guy singing and dancing on

stage who looks like an athlete is different from an

actual big app Okay, but go ahead. I'm sorry. I

feel like I derailed you.

I have met lineman who could barely walk, but they

do their job because they weighed three hundred and fifty pounds. Okay, anyway,

this guy, but this guy can dance very big. But

the big guy and couldn't dance, but he was a

light on his feet. Yes much so okay, anyway, So

you started tap dancing, and I was like, this is

amazing because you don't really see tap dancing in today's

day and age.

No.

No, And I was like, when I did this, you're impressed.

When I went like that, I thought of.

Tap dancing, You're impressed with tap dancing.

I actually am okay, very much.

The wonderful mind of Zar ba. There you have it.

Folks, Hey man, you've never had that.

Thought, I don't think so.

Have you ever seen tap dancing?

Absolutely?

And you never think, wow, that's impressive.

Always think who took the time to learn that skill?

You know how long it took to develop that skill?

And in what world did his parents?

Hey?

Son, you know, if you work real hard, you could

be a dentist, or a lawyer or a doctor. No, Mom, I.

Figured it out.

I want. I know what I want to spend my

life doing. I want to sing and dance. Not only

sing and dance, I want to tap dance.

Stop.

And they're like, chase your dream son.

Wow.

So when I watched tap dancing, always think who took

them to learn that?

Oh that's really funny. That's really funny. But anyways, anyway.

Okay, but when I watch Aligneman play football, I'm like.

Okay, this is art. I have a fear. I have

a feeling this conversation will never go my way.

Well, anyways, no matter what I do, it's not gonna

go big three hundred fifty pounds line. And I'm like,

what an artist? That's time well spent?

All right, here we go, all right?

Anyways, have dancing. It's one of your favorite things.

Relevant. Yes, I didn't say one of my favorite things.

I said, okay, so anyways, sorry this is.

Let me just read, but doesn't right, there's no transition.

We are officially less than two weeks away from Christmas.

So let's do a draft list to our favorite activities.

You walk, paper scissors to find out who gets the

first draft pick and go into you have five activities.

We're going to do this quick because we got to hustle.

We got a hustle. Ready, w what did you do? Shoot? Ready?

One?

Two?

Three? Shoots? Oh? I was scissors. He was Rocky West.

I was because I was on a roll there for

a while.

I do. All right, here's my first one. My first

one is there's there seems to never be a Christmas

that has passed in my family where we do not

either drive through a lighting show or walk through a

lighting show. Yeah.

That's one of my wife's favorite things. We do it

all the time.

Yeah, yeah, that's my.

First favorite thing. Okay, one of my favorite things. I

love helping pass out presents. I love it. Oh yeah, yeah,

it's fun. The delight of that running around, digging through

the pile trying to figure out who's for who and

shaking it going out and remember what's in here? Yeah,

you know that kind of stuff that's fun.

My number two is going to be I grew up

observing a lot of the Italian traditions because I'm fifty

percent Italian, but I didn't ever grow up. You know,

I'm also fifty percent German, and so the German piece

of me didn't. We didn't really do a lot of

German traditions, right. But the one German tradition that I

do and every year my kids absolutely love it, is

there's a pickle. It's called something. Oh, I can't believe

it's grishwins gershon.

I'm gonna have to look at it.

Anyway, The point is is that we thank you, you

do it, Okay, I got there, so anyway, The point

is is that we open all the presents and then

we have an extra present, and the person who gets

the extra present has to find the pickle on the ornament.

That's an ornament pickle. So the kids will leave and

then we'll literally it's green so it looks like the tree,

and I'll hide the pickle somewhere in the tree. Then

we say go, they all run back in and they

just race to find the pickle the gir and whoever

finds the gurk on first gets.

That's a good one. That's a fun little tradition. I

like to help do the cooking. Oh yeah, nice, So

whatever the big meal is, I like to help do

the cooking. I like the smells of Christmas Thanksgiving. Yeah.

Like the third.

One is we always order Christmas pajamas. We do it

on Christmas Eve and then we take pictures.

Yeah, my wife always does that for the kids too. Yeah,

there's always.

So that's that's my third.

Okay for me, I think I don't know, boy, I'm

out of things for Christmas Christmas music. I like, we

like the Christmas music, like Christmas Day Christmas music. Okay,

all right after Thanksgiving. I don't think you should be

listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

Yeah, well, I'd stop it. The only thing I allow,

okay before Thanksgiving is music because I think that music

sort of has taken over Thanksgivings listening.

He's listening to thanks Christmas music and tap dancing before Thanksgiving?

Yes, yes, well I mean in this Thanksgiving I did. Anyway,

here's my fourth one. My fourth one is when I

was little, my father, in order to help us clean up,

he would he would pretend that a trash bag was

I don't know why, but he would call it a monkey,

even though it looks like if you're going to use

it as a mouth, it's more like a hippopotamus or something, right,

I don't know why, but he would say, feed the monkey,

and and and we would. We would run around with

all the Christmas wrappers, right, because you know, everybody wraps

and pick it. So so in order to keep a

clean house. As we unwrapped, he would say, feed the monkey.

And he's a and that's what I do with my kids.

So if I don't do it, everybody's radically disappointed. So

I hold the trash bag and I say feed the monkey,

and then they throw it, throw it over. And when

I do.

That, that's that's fun. It is fun, all right. So

that was three? Was that four piece? That's four for me,

four for you? So I have to have one more.

No, no, we're supposed to five.

Oh it doesn't say five.

It does.

It's a draft list of your favorite Christmas activities. Oh

until you two, you have five activities? Okay, So my

fifth one would the leftovers. I love like the leftovers

going up making leftovers.

Well, it's not your fifth one's your fourth one, but.

That's my fourth one.

We ended it fourth. Okay, we'll do four.

Okay for four love leftovers Christmas leftover.

Because we talked half the time about that, Dan.

Well, I didn't bring it up. I did not bring

it up.

Yeah. And then honorable mention for me is reading Luke

chapter two, going to Ohio afterwards the next day.

Oh and then can you hold your breath that whole time? Yeah? Well, okay,

that's it. Honorable mentioned for me would be Christmas services.

So for thirty something years, just doing a good jillion

Christmas services.

Yeah, sure. Okay.

We are in Proverbs chapter twenty and Solomon is continuing

his one liners with regard to why's living. How to

live a wise life? So he says in verse one,

wine produces mockers, alcohol leads to brawls. Those led astray

by drink cannot be wise. The king's fury is like

a lion's roar. To rouse his anger is to risk

your life. Avoiding a fight is a mark of honor.

Only fools insist on coraling those too lazy to plow

in the right season will have no food at the harvest.

Though good advice lies deep within the heart, a person

with understanding will draw it out. Many will say they

are loyal friends, But who can find one who is

truly reliable? The godly walk with integrity. Blest are their

children who follow them. When a king sits in judgment,

he weighs all the evidence, distinguishing the bad from the good.

Who can say, I have cleansed my heart, and I

am peer and free from sin? False weights and unequal measures.

The Lord detests double standards of every kind. Even children

are known by the way they act, whether they conduct,

whether their conduct is pure, and whether it is right.

Ears to hear and eyes to see both are gifts

from the Lord. If you love sleep, you will end

in poverty. Keep your eyes open and there will be

plenty to eat. The buyer haggles over the price, saying

it's worthless, and then brags about getting a bargain. Wise

words are more valuable than much gold, and many rubies

get security from someone who guarantees the stranger's debt. Get

a deposit if he does it for foreigners, Stolen bread

tastes sweet, but it turns to gravel in the mouth.

Plans succeed through good counsel. Don't go to war without

wise advice. A gossip goes around telling secrets, so don't

hang around with chatterers. If you insult your father a mother,

your light will be snuffed out in total darkness. And

inheritance obtained too early in life is not a blessing

in the end. Don't say I will get even for

this wrong. Wait for the Lord and handle the matter.

Wait for the Lord to handle the matter right. Wait

for the Lord and handle the matter is very different

than wait for the Lord to handle the matter. The

Lord detests double standards, not pleased by dishonest scales. The

Lord directs our steps, So why try to understand everything

along the way. Don't trap yourself by making a rash

promise to God and only later counting the cost. A

wise king scatters the wicked like wheat, and then runs

his threshing wheel over them. The Lord's light penetrates the

human spirit, exposing every hidden motive. Unfailing love and faithfulness

protect the king. His throne is made secure through love.

The glory of the young is their strength. The gray

hair of experience is the splendor of the old. Physical

punishment cleanses away evil. Such discipline purifies the heart. Oh yeah, well,

there you go.

Physical punishment cleanses away evil, physical punishment. Wow, did you

know that there's actually a verse that says, you know,

you know, you remember the big debate as a young

parent to spank or not to spank.

It wasn't a debate for us, but I understand.

That the debate either for us. But what I'm saying

is there is a debate, right, Okay, yes there is

a debate in elsewhere. But did you know there's actually

a verse that says, spank your child, he won't die.

There's a verse that actually says that. Absolutely, it's hilarious.

But there's a difference between So there's a place where

God designed you're not going to die if you get

spanked there. But that's not beating the body, right right, right, right,

So there's a when you spank on the place that

has the most cushioning on the entire body, that's just

getting a kids attention, as opposed to you know, beating

their ribs, hitting them in the back, you know, all over.

Beating a child is different than yeah, you know, swats

on the rear, right, yeah, you know.

By the way, so I was, I was spanked as

a kid, and uh and then also we we did

we did spankings, not very often, but we did. But

do you know that one we did it for sport.

I'm joking somebody. One of the things that my this.

We were bored Fridays, we didn't have anything to do,

we were poor, so we just spanked our kids.

That's so funny. And of course you're joking once again.

But you know what my wife would always say. She'd say, hey,

you know, if we're going to discipline our children in

this way, she goes, what we're going to do is

we're going to hug them afterwards. You ever did that? Yeah,

so we did is we did spanking and then and

afterwards it was always an embrace with and I love

you and here's the reason why and everything else. So

it was always like, uh, it was always a discipline

that everybody you know that the kids hated obviously, but

at the same time, there's nothing they could have done

to misunderstand it.

Yeah. Yeah, my wife and I we we we worked

hard to never discipline in anger. Yeah, right, so go

to your room. It's coming kind of a thing while

we calm down or whatever. And then oftentimes I can

remember multiple times, you know, really having kind of a

broken heart about the situation and say, you know that,

and have to remind myself that this is I my

child enough to correct my child. And so especially when

they're very young, when they're younger, you know, not when

they're fifteen, that's a different thing at that point. But

when you have a young child one, it doesn't take

as much exertion and it doesn't take as much physical right,

a couple of swats because that child, what you want

to do is bend that child's will back to yours. Right,

so there will is bent away from you. And so

then this that's the phrase there that this fun is.

You know, physical punishment cleanses away evil. Such discipline piers

of purifies heart. It's about recapturing their heart. There are

consequences to bad behavior, but I love you, right, and

so I'm not going to let you go down that path.

And what I think we have in a society day

because of that debate about you know, disciplining our children

in years past, we have a society of people who

don't really believe that there's consequences to their bad behavior.

But if you are around a child who was biblically disciplined,

I'm not saying abused discipline. Most of those children and

most of those adults have a strong sense that there

are consequences to bad behavior, right, And and so what

you're trying to do is like that verse we read

the other day where Solomon said a couple of days

ago where sounds the discipline your children early because you

know you're going to run out of opportunities to correct them.

And that's that's what it's hope, Yeah, while there's still hope. Yeah,

And that's really the idea, is that you're not abusing them,

you're just moving their heart back to yours.

Yeah. Another thing that stands out for me is there's

a lot of verses in this chapter about honesty, right,

Oh yeah, yeah, there's there's there's a lot that talks

about you know, false weights and measures, dishonest scales, stolen

bread that tastes sweet but it turns to gravel in

the mouth. But what a heck of a what a

heck of a word picture that is, Yeah, that's true.

Stolen bread tastes sweet, but it turns to gravel in

the mouth, and and and that would be like the

instant gratification of obtaining something in a bad way, eventually

turning to what misery right, turning to you know, guilt right,

and then maybe even consequences right, but gravel in your mouth?

Holy cow? What a picture from sweet bread to grovel right?

Wow? So you know, the verse four always gets my attention.

With those too lazy to plow in the right season,

I'll have no food in the harvest. There's an order

to life. Yeah, you do things in the right way,

in the right order, and you can.

Expect a good harvest.

A lot of times people get things out of order

and then are surprised that either they're harvesting the wrong

thing or that there wasn't anything there for them when

it was time. Right. And so you have to have

the wherewithal, you have to have the energy, And a

lot of times I'll have young people looking for advice

on I just don't even know what I'm going to

do with my life. I don't even know where I'm

going to go in life. I don't know what I

want out of life. And I'm like, well, then you

need to learn a few things. You need to learn

a strong work ethic. You need to learn integrity, need

to learn to walk with God, how to pray, how

to study the Bible. And then always say you need

some basic business ideas and you need some good customer service.

So if you don't know anything else, do those five

things right. And what you're doing is you're plowing today, right, right,

So all you're doing is preparing the field today. That's

what plowing is. So plowing is not planting. Plowing is

not fertilizing. Plowing is not pulling the weeds and making

sure that the plants grow well or giving them good

sunshine and good rain. Plowing is not harvesting. Plowing is

just preparing the field, getting it ready to be able

to receive everything else that's going to be necessary. And

there is a natural time in your life when you're

young like that, you know, as you're coming into adulthood,

where there are just basic things that every field needs,

and so you need those things. Learn to walk with God,

Learn to have a we're good work ethic, Learn to

have integrity and do the right thing. Learn some basic

business concepts. You know how to balance your books, whatever,

how to manage money and then learn good.

Custom my service.

Those things will carry you through in any direction in

your life later. So plow the field today, you'll be

able to have a harvest later.

That's great. Hey, there's another verse here that says the

buyer haggles over the price, saying it's worthless. And I

love egs about getting a bargain. I got a funny story.

When I was in college, I bought you remember Chevy Barrettas. Yes, yeah,

I bought a Chevy Barretta and I let the oil

run out and ruined the engine, and my father in

law paid for and installed a brand new engine, went

to the junk yard, you know, had somebody to do

it for him obviously, and throw this engine in and

then he bought me this, you know. So I had

this car at nineteen eighty eight, Chevy Barretta in the

early nineties, but the engine was was newer, it had

less miles, so it turned out that it was pretty good.

So anyway, I took it to my first church, had

it for like six or seven years, this Chevy Barretta,

and it came time where my father in law, who

at the time doesn't anymore. But at the time, he

had a ton of money and he was, you know,

just being generous with us. Wanted to give us a car.

He said, hey, he goes, just go ahead and turn

around and sell that Baretta for whatever you can get

it for, and then give me the money and I'll

give you this. You know, this brand new Buick Electra

is what he gave us. And I was like, okay,

and it was new or whatever. So anyway, so I

go to the head deacon of my church and his

son was also like a student of mine who is

now in Bible College, and he goes, hey, I want

to buy this car for my son. And now knowing

that my in laws had a ton of money, I

decided on my own to do something that I shouldn't

have done. The car's worth like fifty five hundred. I said, oh,

you can have it for four grant. I should have

done that, right, I should have tried to get a

good deal, right, But I was, you know, I was thinking, hey,

my fun in law won't care, right, he's got a

ton of money. And then he comes back to me

and he goes, how about thirty five hundred, but he

knows what it's worth right, right, And I said, and

so here's what I say. That's fine, right, And so

I give it to him for thirty five hundred, thinking

I'm just really trying to be a blessing, right, And

my father in law was paying the expense. So my

father in law goes, you only got thirty five hundred,

and I said, well, you know, he's a good guy.

He's or head deacon, you know whatever. So anyway, so

that whole thing transacts. He goes around to this little

church of one hundred and eighty people that I was

a part of and brags to everybody how he got

a car for thirty eight hundred off the youth pastor

that was worth fifty five hundred people. And I was

so upset that all he was doing was bragging on

how good of a negotiator he was, and nothing to

do with his negotiating skills. And then a month later

the engine went bad. Oh no, the engine that my

father might put in, Oh it was good for seven years.

Oh no, the entire engine went bad. Secretly I was happy.

Yeah, oh, you're a bad person, I know, but I

was so upset. So you've been all over the world

in markets where you have to haggle, right, So it's

really a weird thing in the West to have to

argue about a price, unless you're like at a yard

sale or something like that. Yes, yes, but I love

going into the markets overseas somewhere, especially in the Middle East,

because you're.

Going to war.

Yes, they're planning on it, you're planning for most of it.

They sound angry, Like my wife. I took it to

Morocco with me one time, Mary Cash, and she just

was so intimidated in those markets, and I kept trying

to tell her. I so just understand, they're not mad

at you. They just sound mad at you. It's they're

doing it because it's fun for them. It's not fun

to you. It's fun to them, and they're trying to

get as much out of it as possible. But I said,

you never have to worry. They will never lose money.

They will let you walk out the door before they.

Lose a dime. Right, So if they're willing to finally

close the deal, they're going to tell you how horrible

you are that you're stealing money from their children. It

doesn't matter if they sell it to you. They're making a.

Product, which is good for a thinker, so you and I.

Love it, but for my wife, who's so emotional, it

was pretty brutal. So we go in and I go

into this one market one time, and this guy was

just going after me. And I knew what the general

prices were for things. I mean, I've done a lot

of these kinds of things, and I wanted to bring

home a couple of alabaster candle holders. They're beautiful. You

put a candle in there and they glow. This beautiful

alabaster car got a bunch of so and this store

that I like to go to, it's in conne Khally,

it's a in Cairo. It's a fifteen hundred year old

market and the family, the same family has owned that

shop for over three hundred years. He's he's the sixth

grandson or seventh grandson that's owned this company, and they

also owned the mine where they mine the alabaster, and

then he was the carving company good him.

So it's really fantastic.

So I know this guy, I've bought a lot of

things from him, and I come in and for a

second he forgot who I was, so he just jack's

the price way up and I was like, hey, I've

bought things here before, and you can kind of see this.

His eyes are starting to like maybe he recognized me, couldn't,

So he lowers a little bit. So then I just

start hammering him on price to get down to where

I want to go. And then you know you always

offer to buy two or three once you get the

price as low as you think you can get it there,

then you offered to buy two or three more. Because

I'd already planned buy him more anyways, So I start

stacking it on, I stick it, and finally he starts

pretending like he's mad, and he's like, you are stealing

you understand, If I sell it to you at that price,

you are stealing from me, and you're taking food off

my child's table. And I said, no, I'm trying to

offer to pay for your child's bread tomorrow. That's all

I'm trying to do. But hey, if you don't want

to sell it to me, then that's fine. I'll go

to your neighbor right next door. They sell the same thing.

So I start walking. I goes, no, no, no, I'll sell

it to you. And so I said okay, and I

felt like I'd got him. Basically, where I wanted to go.

So then I go to pay for it, and then

he goes, we hey, let me ask you. Would you

be interested in these things too? And I said, well,

we'd have to negotiate. He says, no, no, no, you're

a fair man. I said, what you said. You just

told me I was taking food off the table. He said,

I'm just playing with you, a right, So then we

wrap it all up. I buy this stuff, and then

after that, every time I walk into his story, I've

been in this store now probably six times. He recognizes me.

Now he says, here's a shrewd negotiator, right, but then

he always jacks the price way up, right because he's

going to come back down. But I've heard him multiple

times and he would talk about you know, I was

like this guy, I always make good money off of him,

is what he says to me. Now, whereas that day

he's like, you're stealing money from my tu So that's

what Solomon's talking about here. It's that kind of idea.

It feels good to haggle. It feels good when you're

on the winning side of a debate like that.

That's so great, Ye, that's great.

So really, I think The principle there for us in

the West, quite honestly, is when it comes working for

a fair price for you, learning that win win solution,

and then having a comfortability to walk away. Yeah.

Right, So I don't.

Want you to lose money, but I don't want to

lose money either. So if you're willing to let me

walk away and my price, I can't get the price

where I want it. That's okay. And there is some

danger for young people walking on the car lot or

buying a new home or something like that where we

overpay trying to be nice. And what we're trying to

do is find a win win solution where he makes

a profit and I'm able to walk away and well,

I got a great deal, that's what you want.

Well, there's so much more in here that again, just

if you want a homework assignment, go back through. Yeah,

I mean we didn't even touch you know, don't say

I'll get even for this wrong. Wait for the Lord

to handle the matter. It's about revenge and God getting

the vengeance right. There's again, there's just so much in

there about honesty. You know, Hey, don't trap yourself by

making a rash promise to God and only later counting

the cost. That's a sermon altogether, that is a whole sermon.

We didn't even touch the king's theory, which is this

the second time he talks about that, Yes, right in here,

or it's like a lion, or the danger of alcohol.

He just says, it's just everything about life.

Yeah, that's right, that's right. So hey, that is our time.

We're at twenty five minutes, so hopefully we will see

you tomorrow on the Bible. Guys,