Does Working Hard Matter?: Proverbs 12:1-28

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

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways.

Hey, good morning everybody. Oh talent, yes, wow? Did you

ever do that low ranger?

Yes? Yes, so glad to the Bible Guys.

I'm Chris. This is Jeff and we are here today.

And clearly he's the most talented of the two of

us are here, yes.

And uh and Seymour movies and the better looking and

what what else can draw better?

Come on?

Mand that doesn't feel good?

Stage? One time?

We're on stage one time when I first got hired,

and you know, he gives me a hard time, like

behind the scenes.

All the time the time, and I'm my love language.

We're on the stage or I said something like, oh

body want to marry you or something and he goes, oh,

that was hurtful, Chris.

So anyway, and I was like what I was like,

you're going to take the high road.

Sometimes it's fun because you know, I've developed that that

reputation that just dig and dig and dig everybody that

I love. I just kind of poked fun at and

you know, don't take myself too seriously and whatever.

So yeah, well you did it publicly.

But on that one, on that one, what what I

like to do on occasion is because that reputation is

dig dig dig dig dig. Then when I have a

sense that somebody's working hard to dig at me, sometimes

I'll just give it to you. And it's like pulling

the rug out from under me because you're expecting this

two way banter thing, and say you go oh, and

then everybody goes, oh, poor Chap Right, Chris, why is

he so mean?

He's let's take all these things.

He's better at Monday and he woke up all grumpy.

All right, Well, hey, there's a segment today that says

it's really good. I'm so good, I'm super good at move.

There's a segment that says winter stories. This is what

Desiree wrote. She said, now that Thanksgiving is behind us,

we've officially entered December, we can talk about Christmas.

Tell us a funny story.

About Christmas, or about a time when Christmas preparations went

horribly wrong.

Hey, do you allow Christmas music before Thanksgiving?

Yes?

I love Christmas music, but I don't allow Christmas decorations.

Don't allow it. Yes, it's forbidden. You're the lion tamer

in your cage. Well you forbid. Well, here's the thing

the women in your house to put up Christmas.

No Thanksgiving music. So I like to think that.

That Christmas kind of worship music. But yeah, oh jeez,

that's that's all that Christmas is that Christian music stuff

that's all the time. Whenever you get in Liz's car.

Yeah right, that's right, it is it is. Christmas music

sets the tone for Thanksgiving.

For Thanksgiving? Yes for me, oh okay.

Yeah, I think it's it. It feels holidays.

Yeah, we kind of have a family thing where we

really resist turning on Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving. Yeah.

I do that with my lights, with your lights, lights,

lights can't be turned on Christmas tree, you can't go

up before then.

Okay, so all right, so here you go. So we're

telling winter stories.

Yeah, so I got one real quick, Okay, go ahead.

My my mom made ravioli every Christmas or mannicotti or spaghetti.

I never knew, by the way that people didn't do

this because my whole, my whole town and Youngstown is

all Italian. I mean it's really like heavy Italian. You

can make Italian jokes from the from the stage and people,

the whole crowd is a lot.

Didn't you ever watch Christmas movies? You never noticed that.

It was always like roast ham and turkey. It wasn't

Manicotti and I as nice moves as you watch. Dude.

I guess I just because like movies are your north star.

It never paid attention. I never paid attention to those things. Okay,

so I guess I just never understood it's.

A wonderful life and they're all sitting there on there

eating their lasagna, is right.

Yeah, that's that's really it's a ridiculous thought. It is

a ridiculous thought.

But I was only eighteen.

I went to college and we were sharing like favorite meals,

and I was like, doesn't everybody have what are you

talking about?

And I said those are those?

Are? Those are Thanksgiving items? And they're like, yeah, they're both.

And I was like, oh, I had no idea. So anyway,

my mom made homemade ravioli and we're talking like with.

Flour and water.

It was like a one day, twenty four hour like

labor of love. And she made this three pound bowl

and you know, she put the ravioli in there, and

then a layer of sauce, another reveoli layer sauce, layer sauce.

Then she put cheese on it. This is massive bowl.

She sits in the middle of the table. She's let's

let's go downstairs and grab everybody. So we go downstairs

to the big family room area, gathering area.

Hey, everybody, dinner served.

We come back upstairs and my dog is standing on

the table with a snout and the raviolis and he's

been eating for like six seven minutes.

That's fantastic.

He is going to town like this. Literally, good guy.

And it must have been good.

Oh my gosh, he got through an entire layer. Of course,

my mom busted out crying. We all laughed, and then

we realized it wasn't funny. And then my mom had

no choice but to scrape off the first layer and

then to add more sauce than and we ate it.

Okay, we all ate it.

Yeah. Well you can't waste you know, three days worth

of work.

Yeah. So wow, there you go.

That's something.

That's my Christmas story.

That is really something. Yeah. So it seems to me

like if you're ever looking for a new Christmas theme

for you know, because you're part of the creative team

looking for it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you could do like

a very Mafia Christmas.

Oh yeah, Mafia Christmas. Sure, yeah you have. You know

I've had a Mafia Christmas story.

I bet you do tell us that one.

No, No, we're at a time, Okay, I'll do it

tomorrow maybe.

Yeah.

Uh.

My My worst Christmas story is and I've told this before.

I started have to tell it again, but we got

married over Christmas break and my junior year in college,

wife and I did and so we had to move

down to Indiana from Michigan, and we borrowed a really

terrible rental truck and it broke down on Christmas Day

driving home, that is, And so we our Christmas. Our

very first Christmas dinner together was speedway hot dogs, Doritos

and Mountain dew.

That is horribly sad.

Yeah yeah, yeah, that was our We sat in the speedway.

Wow.

And that's what we are waiting for. Somebody coming help us.

Now here's the question, and I'll tell you you haul's

not available on Christmas Day, right right now.

Here's the question.

Have you ever recreated this speedway event on Christmas?

No? It was It was horrific. Enough that you know,

the PTSD is just now calming down. But okay, so

we're gonna we're gonna try to avoid it if we can.

That's so funny.

Yeah, well, speaking of PTSD. Wow, okay, we are reliving

the repetitiveness of Solomon's wise teachings. Oh that was a

terrible transition.

That's actually pretty brilliant.

I didn't know where you were going with that, because

we're talking about wisdom again.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So this whole week we're just in.

What we're trying to do for our listeners is really

kind of download how incredibly practical the Bible is, particularly

in the Book of Proverbs with regard to everyday living.

So everything he talks about here, because sometimes preachers talk

and it's all this ethereal stuff, heaven and eternity and

Holy Spirit and angels and all these things, and it

feels like the whole faith idea is out there somewhere, right,

it's this mystical thing. And Solomon approaches faith as being

an everyday whether you're banking or building a house, or

parenting your children or dealing with a crazy neighbor or

that's how he approaches faith. It's just practical wisdom every day.

That's great, and so that's what it's all about. So

I don't know that that's PTSD, but reliving over and

over and over again.

Yes, here we are. So we are.

In Proverbs, chapter twelve and verse one says, to learn,

you must love discipline. It is stupid to hate correction. Wow.

The Lord approves of those who are good, but he

condemns those who plan wickedness. Wickedness never brings stability, but

the godly have deep roots. A worthy wife is a

crown for her husband, but a disgraceful woman is like

a cancer in his bones. The plans of the godly

are just. The advice of the wicked is treacherous. The

words of the wicked are like a murderous ambush. But

the words of the godly save lives. The wicked die

and disappear, but the family of the godly stands firm.

A sensible person wins admiration, but a warped mind is despised.

Better to be an ordinary person with a servant than

to be self important but have no food. The godly

care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel.

A hard worker has plenty of food, but a person

who chases fantasies has no sense. Thieves are jealous of

each other's loot, but the godly are well rooted and

bear their own fruit. The wicked are trapped by their

own words, but the godly escape such trouble. Wise words

bring many benefits, and hard work brings rewards. Fools think

their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.

A fool is quick tempered, but a wise man stays

calm when insulted. An honest witness tells the truth, a

false witness tells lies. Some people make cutting remarks, but

the words of the wise bring healing. Truthful words stand

the test of time, but lies are soon exposed. Deceit

fills hearts that are plotting evil, and joy fills hearts

that are planning peace. No harm comes to the godly,

but the wicked have their fill of trouble. The Lord

detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell

the truth. The wise don't make a show of their knowledge,

but fools broadcast their foolishness. Work hard and become a leader.

Be lazy, become a slave. Worry weighs a person down,

and encouraging word cheers a person up. The godly give

good advice to their friends that we could lead them astray.

Lazy people don't even cook the game they catch, but

the diligent make use of everything they find. The way

of the Godly leads to life. That path does not

lead to death. Were you go, Hey, every one of them,

just a little nugget.

You know, what stands out as one of the themes

here is that you're created to work hard.

Yeah, over and over and over again.

Yeah.

He refers to hard work.

Yes, yeah, and that is you know, it's interesting because

when God made Adam, you know, and then eventually Eve,

he gave Adam an assignment, and that is to tend

to the garden.

Right.

So Adam was obviously created with a purpose in mind.

And one of the purposes obviously, I mean, obviously the

ultimate purpose of relationship.

But the other one is, you know, it.

Brings meaning to his own life as much as it

does helping the garden. Right.

So I think I think it's interesting.

How it talks about hard work over and over because

some people view hard work as a curse, and they

would say, oh, hard work is a curse from the

fall it's a curse from sin, right, so is it?

So here's the question.

The question is, is now that Solomon is you know,

hundreds of years actually how many years since Adam? Probably

thousands of years, probably him lean years, so a couple

of thousand years removed from Adam?

Is God?

Is Solomon talking about hard work being a blessing because

they're under the curse or would it have been this

way always?

That's a good question.

Well, God blesses hard, God blesses work. That's why he

gave it to him. We view work as a bad thing,

but it was a gift to humanity, gave humanity purpose. Right,

But then under the curse work becomes a drudgery because

it's so difficult. But Solomon doesn't really refer to the

difficulty of work. Working hard and difficult work or two

different things. Right.

Oh yeah, working hard and difficult work er two different things. Right,

that's a good statement.

Right. So being diligent is what Solomon is talking about,

which is really extraordinary when you think of when we

think of a king. When you were growing up thinking man,

if I could ever be a king, what you thought

was it was going to be pleasure all the time,

super easy. Just sit on your throne, make cool decisions,

be super rich, have whatever you want, go on vacations.

And Solomon doesn't really approach being a king that way.

Solomon approaches being a king is I'm a servant of

the people, and I have to work hard. And by

the way, hard work pays off. If the king works hard,

everybody else would work hard. If you're working hard, you're

going to prosper. If you don't work hard, you're going

to struggle. And then of course in their day. You know,

a lot of our work in our society today, unless

you're like in construction or farming or being a mechanic

or something, most of the work that we do in

the US now is indoors office stuff and it's easy

to kind of go. I don't know if my work

really matters. But when you're a farmer, you have to

be diligent and plow your field at the right time.

You have to be diligent and get the rocks out

of the field so the plows can roll easy. You've

got to be diligent and dig your trenches so the

water drains well off of your field. You've got to

be diligent, plant the seeds at the right time, pull

the weeds at the right time, fertilize at the right time,

harvest at the right time. There's a diligence to farming,

and every little bit of work you do, you very

quickly see the results of it, whereas you know when

you're pushing paper in an office sometimes it might feel

like right. And so what he's saying is diligence. It's

not the physical work. It's the diligence of the work

that will always pay off. And if you're a diligent worker,

a conscientious worker, you put in the time, you do

the hard work. You're not just mailing it in. He says,

you're going to be successful. And so sometimes he's saying,

hard work is how you're going to be promoted. Right,

you're gonna be a slave. If you just mail it in.

Hard work, you're gonna be promoted. Those are all things

we tell our kids when they start getting jobs the

first time. Yes, hey, hey, you step up, you go

the extra mile, you do the extra thing, you think

of good solutions, you jump in and volunteer to do

the hard work nobody else wants to do. You're going

to get promoted. That's exactly what Salom is saying there.

Right, Yeah, So we were talking about this very briefly

in the parking lot when we were walking up here.

But so my son is in the trades, right, So

he's studying to be an electrician and he works hard,

so physically hard every day.

Right, it's physical and it's.

Hard in his body.

Well, I had bought this bed at Ikia like literally

fifteen years ago, and so this nasty old bed that

he's been sleeping and he comes home and he's like, Dad,

He's like, this bed is broken. He's like, I can't

sleep more than a couple hours a night. I'm twisting,

I'm turning, I'm sore. He's like this is awful and uh.

And so anyway, he wants to go out and buy

a bed because he's made a bunch of money.

And he's got some savings and so.

He wants to go out there, and you know, he's

working hard. So he says, I have to have a

good night's rest. So I said, son, Bed salesmen are

like car salesman, right, sometimes not always, but like.

This one, this one's gonna be even better.

Right right, right, right, I said, I said, they'll get

you man, they'll get you. And so my son's like okay.

And so I trained him, training to train him because

I got sales background, and so I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like, here's what they're going to say, here's what

they're gonna do. I was like, beware of this, don't

do this, commit to this, make up your mind about this.

So he goes, uh without me, because you know, he

had to go without me. I was going somewhere and

and he calls me and goes, Dad, don't be mad.

It wasn't the salesman fault, he goes, but it was me.

He goes, He goes. He tried to sell me. I'm

the other one. He goes, and he goes. I just

thought to myself, I want I want a good bed.

The bed he bought the most expensive thing that was

literally in the store.

I'm not even kidding. It was ridiculous.

Is he sleeping well?

He seeks like a king.

Yeah, okay, working hard, but so he loves his bed,

loves it, and so.

Good for him.

He's worked hard.

Yeah, hard work pays off.

That's right. So now he sleeps like a king.

If he wasn't working hard, he would never even sept So,

you know, my wife and I we were in Europe

this past summer. I had a whole bunch of delta

miles from traveling, you know, so we cash those in

and we went to so we spent an inordinate amount

of time in castles. That's what you do, right, You

go from castle, castle, palace to palace, cathedral to cathedral.

That's essentially your trip through Europe. And so we were

in Vienna, and you know, that's the the capital of

what was one of the largest empires in modern history,

was the habsburg uh Empire, and so Emperor Franz Joseph

was famous for his work ethic and so it was

really amazing because we're walking through this massive palace, the

Schomburune Palace in Habsburg, I mean in Vienna, and I

was struck by how many workspaces he had. He had

a work desk in his bedroom. His bedroom was very

very simple bedroom. You'd think an emperor would have this

crazy ornate thing. His wife Catherine, you know, she's pretty famous,

a bunch of others. They had some really magnificent stuff,

and the palace itself is magnificent, but his room was

relatively simply. Had a nice chair, he had a little wardrobe,

he had a wash basin, He had a bed, and

he had a desk and then an assistance desk next

to it, just in case. Right then the room next

to his bedroom was a little like dining room, and

then the room next to that was another significant office.

Then he also had another big like presentation office. When

all the people had come into generals or whatever, he

had these workrooms. So he had these three offices. And

they said that he would again his day every day

at four o'clock. He rarely finished his day before ten

o'clock as an emperor. And there were a lot of

quotes on this tour we were taking. They had all

these quotes of him saying that if God gives you

great opportunity, it also was a great responsibility. And so

I love my people.

Sounds like a spider man quo yah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

And he said, I love my people enough that I

should give my people. They've given me so much. I

should give my people everything I can. And so he did,

and they loved him. The people loved him because of it.

And so when I read this, I think of emperors

like that. Every once in a while, you got a

good one. You know, I'm not saying he was a

super moral person. I'm just saying in that he tried

to service people well. And that's kind of what I

feel like Solomon is saying through a lot of these things. Yeah, yeah,

it's really I love it. I love when he talks

about that being a hard worker. I like that verse nine.

Being an ordinary person, right, he kinda even though he

was a king, the most powerful person, one of the

most powerful people in the world, he's still very much

in his writings, tried to identify with the average guy, right,

trying to figure out how to help the average guy succeed.

It's like he's saying, these are the principles God gave

me this crazy wisdom. Let me download some of it

for you in a practical way where the ordinary guy

can benefit and his stuff is so well, what is

the one I mean, you read some of these, an

honest witness tells the truth, a false witness tells lies.

You think Solomon, right, But what he's trying to do

is he's just downloading simple principles and we can blow

through them because they're one sentence long. We read twenty

eight of them, and you can kind of blow through

them pretty quickly. But when you get back and dig

in and begin to realize how important just about every

phrase is, and if we would imply these in our life,

apply them, not just know them, I think we would

have the success that he talks about so often.

Yeah, for sure, that's awesome. And I seem to have

lost my place here because this I just realize everything's

lumped together from ten to twenty two.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I'm just like, I've just completely lost six

forty five.

Six page six forty five there.

So the other one I wanted to comment on while

you're digging around is verse fifteen. Fools think their own

way is right, but the wise listen to.

Others, which is great because you and I and we've

been this person ourselves, right that we just convinced.

Why is let people listening to others?

No, I'm saying, I've been the fool, oh okay, where

I've just convinced that.

My way is right.

And then and then have you ever done that where

you're just like, I'm convinced, and then everybody around you're

saying one thing and you're not listening to them.

And then finally, eventually you're.

Like, yeah, I probably should listen to people around me, right,

And then there was another one here that talked about

boasting up yourself. What was it when you were reading

it earlier. There's one that talks about oh, right here

where it says better to be an ordinary person with

a servant than to be self important but have no food.

You know.

It just talks about the nature of a person, an

ordinary person meaning somebody an ordinary ordinary means you don't

even know who that person is, right, they don't have

a reputation, but they're diligent, they're putting their they're putting

their head down, they're working. They have a servant, meaning

they have prosperity, right, right, But a self important person

somebody who inflates themselves. And I got to tell you,

people who talk about themselves me me ay ay, right,

it's just that person. Chances are are not going to

go anywhere in life.

It's true.

That is true, And we've and we've met those people.

Which is interesting because here this book is thousands of

years old, and yet it's completely relevant for today because

you read this and you're.

Like, that's true today. Yeah, absolutely, And as much as.

Culture has changed, what's not changed is human nature. And

so here's Solomon writing about human nature. He's writing about

principles of life, and it's like, wow, that's why I

love the Bible. The Bible is very practical, is it

is relevant for today, and a lot of the stories

may seem far fetched or you know, you know, non relatable. Right.

We don't live in a country where there's a you know, king,

But there are people who.

Read this or all around the world who do right.

They live in countries with kings. They understand this way

better than we do.

Another thing that you'll find and we'll pick this up

more over the next few days. I'm sure it'll keep

coming up. But we've already seen this a few times

in Solomon's writings. But how often he talks about wise

people don't get caught up in angry fights and stuff

like that. Verse sixteen says a fool is quick tempered,

but a wise person stays calm when insulted, which is great. Right.

Another way to translate that, you find it in the

King James to say that a prudent person covers shame. Right,

There's a little bit more than stays calm when insulted.

Is one thing, the deeper meaning in the Hebrew really

is willing to absorb it rather than jump into the

middle of the fight. And it's interesting because he doesn't

say that you always absorb it, but at the beginning

of these things, when somebody wants to fight, it's hard

to fight somebody who doesn't want to fight, right, right,

And so one of the there's another one the proverbs

where Solomon will say, a soft answer turns away wrath. Right.

It's interesting how he oftentimes when he's talking about fights

or arguments, he most of the time is giving advice

that a wise person finds a way to diffuse the fight.

You're not conceding the fight. You're going to you absorb

the blow, you give a soft answer and diffuse it,

and then wisdom can override the emotion. And that's what

he's always trying to do, is get you away from

the emotion and the heart of the fight and back

into the wise logical decisions. The only way you can

do that is by diffusing it. So you'll see that

being a theme as well. So it's interesting we're starting

to pick up on a lot of his themes.

A soft answer turns away wrath is Proverbs fifteen to one.

And yeah, the reason why I know that is because

that verse quite literally changed my entire demeanor of life.

There's a life altering moment for me when I discovered

that it actually worked.

Yeah, well, we're going to be reading fifteen in a

couple of days, so cool.

Yeah, well, it looks like that is our time.

So great chapter, and hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on

the Bible gush