PROVERBS 10-14 KING SOLOMONS TWEETS2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Proverbs 10-14 King Solomons Tweets

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016.

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If you don't know, Tweet is a post on the Twitter service. And so on Twitter, you're limited to 140 characters. And so, you know, people come up with creative and clever ways to say all kinds of things about life and politics and lunch and all those things. And so I think if Solomon were alive today, he would be a real big fan of Twitter. And he would be posting his words of wisdom and coming up

with clever insights and ways to say it and fit it into that 140-character limit. And so I always think about that when I go through the book of Proverbs and how Solomon might have used it. And so we're looking at these little snippets of wisdom, these little kind of one-liners, one or two sentences of wisdom that Solomon brings. And we know that he had wisdom to bring, as we talked about last week, because he, at the beginning of his reign—

asked God for wisdom, and God gave him wisdom so that he was more wise than anyone who had lived before him and anyone who lived after him except for Jesus. And so he had great wisdom from God, and he expressed and passed on that wisdom in these little snippets, in these little sentences, in these Proverbs. Now,

Proverbs is pretty amazing because there's so much meat, there's so much depth, and yet the Proverbs themselves are usually very, very simple. They're not like this out-of-the-world thing. It's not like, you know, some great formula that you can't understand unless you have, you know, the certain education or schooling. Any of us,

Usually at even a very young age, we can read through Proverbs and glean from that and begin to understand some of the concepts and principles that God wants to convey. Okay.

The Proverbs are often very practical and I would encourage you to consider them in that regard, that as you read through the Proverbs, think about the practical implications of your own life and how those things apply. Because although they were written by King Solomon several thousand years ago, these truths are timeless and really effective at communicating the truths that are being presented. And that's because Solomon used some different kinds of

of presentation techniques. And so one of the things he would use is contrast. And you'll see contrast in the Proverbs a lot. It helps to paint the picture, to help the image and the lesson stick in our mind. You know, there's this versus that, this as opposed to that. And that contrast is very effective at helping us understand the truth.

Some of the concepts that he uses, though, are parallelisms, where it's things compared to one another, things built on top of one another. And again, it's another technique used to be able to help it stick in our mind and for us to be able to consider the truth that is being presented.

Many times you'll see humor throughout the book of Proverbs or irony or sarcasm even. You know, these different things that are being conveyed in these little snippets of truth to help us be able to hold on to them and evaluate them and that they would be able to make an impact on our life.

Now, as we talk about the Proverbs, and before we get into the actual, you know, different verses we'll be looking at today, I always like to give just a quick overview guideline on the book of Proverbs and just...

Give the caution that Proverbs are meant to be principles rather than promises. In the book of Proverbs, Solomon is largely making observations of life. He's looking out at scenarios and situations. He's looking out at how things play out. And he's making observations that are generally true. And so that's why I say principles rather than promises. Now, there are some things in here that are eternal truths.

But there's also many that are just general guidelines and not laws that are, you know, it always happens this way in every case without exception. For an example of that, would you consider Proverbs 10, verse 27? It says, the fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened.

So on the surface, it says, if you fear the Lord, that is, if you are righteous, if you walk with God, you'll live a long time. And if you don't walk with God, your life is going to be short. And as you look at that, you could see, okay, that's generally true. But you could also understand that is not always the case. There are people who are righteous, who walk with the Lord, who are, you know, living life for God, who die at an early age. That's an example.

That's something that happens. That's something, you know, that happens all the time. And so it's not a law that this always happens in every case without exception. But generally speaking, it's a truth that we can say, yeah, generally speaking, you're going to be, you know, happier. You're going to be healthier. You're going to live longer if you walk with God and according to his ways. And if you disregard God's word and just do whatever you want, generally speaking, your life is going to be shorter. And so they're principles more than promises, right?

Now, that being said, God can take any of these Proverbs and speak it to your heart in a way that it's a promise to you. And so that's important to understand that it's not necessarily a promise for everybody, but when God speaks to your heart about a Proverb and delivers it to you in such a way that he says, this is what I will do in your life, then you can hold on to that. It is a promise for you. It just might not be a promise universally to every, you know, person who ever will live. And so,

And so Proverbs in general, I could say they are good. They are recommended. They're God's recommendations and principles for godly living. But we just need to manage our expectations and not expect that that means, well, I follow Proverbs. I read it every day. So my life's always going to be good. I'm never going to have problems. That's not the reality. You know, instead, there is going to be challenges even as we seek to live out God's word and the wisdom that comes from him.

And so we're looking at King Solomon's tweets this morning, and there's five words of wisdom that we'll consider as we look through chapters 10 through 14. So the first one, and by the way, these aren't all connected together, so like Proverbs, they're just different thoughts that are pulled from the chapter, and so we'll be switching gears quite a bit, changing subjects as we work our way through this. And so the first subject, the first topic, the first point of wisdom in Proverbs chapter 10 is Proverbs chapter 10 verse 26, and that is,

laziness bugs. If you don't know this, here's a good word of wisdom for you. Verse 26 of Proverbs 10, as vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy man to those who send him.

Here Solomon talks about laziness, which is a very common topic throughout the Proverbs. Laziness as opposed to diligence or faithfulness. Those are strong topics and points that Solomon seeks to make all throughout the Proverbs. And so this particular proverb is good for helping you to understand how you make your boss feel. Solomon says this.

As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is a lazy man to those who send him.

Now, what does it mean to have vinegar to the teeth? Or what does that, you know, feel like? What does that expression mean? Well, the word vinegar is probably referring to a sour wine. You know, it's like a too sour to really enjoy. And so many times it's expressed as setting your teeth on edge. Have you ever had something so sour it kind of like makes your gums hurt? You know, makes your teeth hurt? That's kind of the general idea. Some people

Bible teachers even go on to say that that type of sour wine would do damage to the teeth if you continued to partake of it. And so, you know, that idea of that permanent damage, that aching, that sour feeling is what's being expressed here. But

As he goes on to say, smoke to the eyes, that's something I think we can all easily understand and relate to, right? I think we've probably all had the experience of being, let's say, at the beach and there's a bonfire and, you know, the wind's out at the beach, it's a little bit cold and so you want to be close to the fire, but, you know, everybody's crowded around the side where there is no smoke and so you get that last spot, right? So you're in the spot where all the smoke's going right in your face and

and your eyes are burning and watering and stinging and you're uncomfortable but you're cold and so you're trying to get near the fire but trying to get out of the smoke and there's this, you know, dance that you're playing there trying to like dodge the smoke and stay warm and we've all had those kinds of experiences, that pain and that stinging that we experience with the smoke in the eyes.

And what Solomon is saying is, okay, you know that feeling. You know how that makes you feel. It makes your eyes water. It burns. It's not a good feeling. That's what it's like for the person who sends someone who turns out to be lazy. And so if you are given a task, you're given a mission, you're given an assignment, you're

And then it turns out that you're lazy. And so you wander here, you wander there, you dilly-dally. You don't really get around to doing the work or the assignment that you've been given. Well, then the person who gave that assignment, let's say it's your boss, then they feel that stinging. They feel that causing the eyes to water, that uncomfortableness. And that's what they experience whenever they...

a lazy man to do a job. As I was thinking about this proverb this week, it reminded me of a comic that I used to read on Sunday mornings called The Family Circus. I don't know if it's still around, if you guys are familiar with it, but...

This was kind of a classic family circus where you had the little Billy, and he's given a task, and then it shows everything where he goes all over the place until he finally ends up at his final location. And this particular one is appropriate. Here the mom says, quick, Billy, run these out to the mailbox. They need to be sent today.

And so now you see the path that Billy goes. And so he goes through the laundry room, into the kitchen area, into the living room, jumps around on the couch, goes into the dining room, runs around, climbs under the chair, goes back in the living room, jumps on a couple of chairs, jumps in the crib, goes through the entryway, goes outside, runs around the trubs and the lampposts, and then gets to the mailbox. And what does he say?

Too late, mommy. We just missed him. Just barely missed the mailman. Now, you get the point, right? If he had gone straight to the mailbox, well, he would have been in time and the mail would have went out in the way that it was supposed to. But...

Well, it's like smoke in the eyes to send Billy to the mailbox because he goes around, he takes his time, he jumps around, entertains himself, and does everything he wants to do before he ends up getting around to doing what he was asked to do. And that's the idea here, that when we are entrusted with things, whether it be from our superiors or from our loved ones or whatever the context may be, we're

We can cause great pain. We can cause great irritation to those who entrusted us with those things if we are lazy in doing them. And so I want to encourage you to be a good employee and don't make your boss feel that way. Instead, be the best employee that you can be.

Last year, as we were doing the construction here around the church, I was an employee. I was working for my boss, Jeff. And he was a hard task master and made me work 14-hour days all the time. And yet, even though he was harsh and hard, and I'm just being silly, but I tried to not be smoke in his eyes. And yet, there was many times it's at the end of the day. Seriously, we've worked all day. We're tired. We're exhausted. And then we'd realize, oh, man, there's that one piece that

It's not really quite right. It's a little bit crooked or, you know, something's not quite right with it. And then we have the wrestling match in our minds and maybe even with our voices with each other. Like, okay, do we want to try to fix this? And usually my case would be, it's good enough. That's kind of my approach, generally speaking. I think it's good enough. It doesn't have to be exactly perfect. But then I'd see the expression on Jeff's face and I'd be like, okay, he wants it perfect. Okay. Okay.

I'm lazy. I'm like, I don't want to fix it. It's the end of the day. We're tired. And then I would see Jeff begin to say, OK, OK, I'll do it. I'll take care of it. You don't have to do it. And then I'd feel guilty and realize, oh, no, I'm being smoke in his eyes. And so, OK, never mind. No, no, I'll take care of it. OK, I'll stop being lazy. You talk me into it. OK. And there was that dance that we did many times. And if you ask Jeff, he wouldn't say that I was smoke in his eyes, but more like a nail in his foot. And so, no, I was kidding. Yeah.

But there are those times, you know, you're given opportunities, you're given tasks, and it's challenging, you're tired, and we need to be diligent and vigilant in those things and be faithful in the things that have been entrusted to us. The Apostle Paul expressed a similar concept in Colossians chapter 3.

In verse 22, he says, And so here Paul says, hey, you bond servants, you could also relate to that as employees. He says,

So not just if they're watching you that you make a straight path to the mailbox, but be diligent and do your best even when nobody's looking. He says,

He goes on to say in verse 23 and 24, he says,

Notice what Paul says there. Whatever you do, do it heartily. Do it well. Give it your all because ultimately you're actually serving Jesus. When you serve your boss, when you're entrusted with something and you do it well, you're actually serving Jesus and not just that person who entrusted that to you. So do it well and serve Jesus well.

As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy man to those who send him. If you're wondering why your boss is always irritated at you, consider your diligence. Serve your boss well at serving Jesus well. Don't be smoke in his eyes. Don't be smoke in the eyes of Jesus.

Well, jumping now to chapter 11 of Proverbs, we have the next one that we'll look at in verse 24. And here the point is, giving costs less than you think. Giving costs less than you think. Verse 24 says,

And let's look at verse 25 also. It says, the generous soul will be made rich and he who waters will also be watered himself. Here Solomon begins to talk about the subject of generosity and giving and considering others more than ourselves. And he points out a little bit of an irony, a little bit of a kind of a paradox. He says, there's one who scatters yet increases more.

Now, when you and I look at the ways of God and the way that God works in our lives, we understand, we've seen it many times, God's ways are often opposite of what we would think. If you try to do the math in this proverb, you'll end up a little bit confused. He says, there's one who scatters yet increases more. The idea here is there's a giving out, let's say, of money. You're giving out your money. And so you're scattering your money, you're giving it out to those who are in need, and that

at the end, you have more than when you started. Now, I don't know what kind of math you're familiar with, but if I subtract seven to my balance, that doesn't mean that I have eight more at the end, right? The math doesn't work, but that's the amazing thing about the way that God works.

The way that God works is when we are faithful to do what he's called us to do, there's blessings that are promised in it, and he's able to provide more to those who scatter, to those who are generous with the resources that he's given. Now, the contrast to that, he says there's one who withholds more than his rights, but it leads to poverty. Now, again, if we think about the math, we think, okay, if I hold on to that $7,000,

then, well, I get to keep that. But Solomon says, no, actually, that leads to poverty. You try to hold on to that seven, and then you realize you don't have anything. And that's a reality that is often seen in this world.

This is something that Jesus spoke about as well. You could consider Luke chapter 6 verse 38. Jesus says, Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.

Jesus here is talking about giving, generosity. Now, don't make the automatic connection in your head that I'm talking about tithing and we're not going to pass out the offering bags again and tell you to give and give more and then you'll be blessed more. That's

This is talking about giving in general. It includes giving to the Lord, but it's also giving to those around you who are in need. It's about having a generous heart. And Jesus says, if you give, it will be given to you. And so there's a promise of blessing as you have a generous heart. But he goes on to say, it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together.

He says, the measurement that you use to give, that's going to be the measurement used to give back to you. But when it's given back to you, it's going to be packed in there. I always think about the difference between regular sugar and brown sugar when I read this verse, right? If you're doing a recipe and you have regular sugar, you just scoop it out and it just fills the cup and you put it in.

But if you're doing brown sugar, you kind of pour it in. You pack it in. You kind of level it out. You're able to squish more in there. And that's always a fun part of putting the brown sugar. And then you get to lick your fingers and stuff. Don't eat my cookies, because I licked my fingers making them. But when you give, the measurement you use, Jesus says, it's going to be given back to you, but extra. Pushed in there, extra more in there, and overflowing. And that's going to be the way that it works as you are obedient to the Lord and being generous.

Now that's really amazing. It's really cool, but it requires faith. It requires faith. You're going to have to trust God at his word in order to live this out. Because again, it doesn't make sense in our minds. How do I give away and end up with more? That doesn't make sense. But God's able to do that. And he does it in a variety of ways. And so don't think, well, I gave away $20 and so I get a $25 check in the mail. Yeah, maybe God could do that. But he also does other things.

You might remember he told the children of Israel, remember all those years, 40 years in the wilderness you've been wandering? Did you ever notice that your sandals didn't wear out? God supernaturally preserved their sandals so they were 40 years out of date by the end of the time, but they lasted. And I don't know about you, but I've never owned a pair of shoes for 40 years. Well, I myself haven't lasted 40 years yet, but...

Every couple of years, I'm replacing shoes. They don't last very long, but God supernaturally preserved their sandals so that they would not wear out. And God is able to do those kinds of things in our lives. As we trust him and give in the way that he's called us to give and are generous in the way that he's called us to be generous, we're able to scatter and end up with more than if we tried to hold on to what we had to begin with.

Now, if you're trying to use that as a technique and a strategy, all right, so I have $100. I want $150. So let me give the $100 away so I can get the $150. God knows the strategy of your heart. He knows what you're trying to accomplish. And so if it's not real generosity, don't expect God to fulfill that. But when you give, when you're faithful to do what he puts upon your heart, then he has promised to reward that and to bless you for that.

Now we're not just talking about money as we talk about these things. Notice in verse 25, he says,

He's talking about not just your finances, not just your possessions, but your heart, your soul. And I like that expression, the picture there. If you water, you will be watered. That is, if you refresh others, you also will be refreshed.

It's a change of perspective for us. Here's the principle in giving financially as well as giving our time and other things. As we put the needs of others first, we are blessed for that. And so if you want to be blessed, be a blessing to others. And there's an element that God has designed, he has created so that, well, you reap what you sow. And as you bless others, you're going to reap blessing. Do you want to be encouraged?

encourage others. Now, this is often, you know, opposite of what we are thinking at the time. If I am discouraged, I'm not thinking about encouraging others. I'm thinking about why won't anybody encourage me? But the reality is if you want to be encouraged, then step out of your discouragement and encourage others. And in the process, God will be working on encouraging you and ministering to you and meeting your needs.

Do you want to be loved? Then love others. And you will experience love as you give out love to others. As you put the needs of others first, God has a way of meeting your needs. As you consider the needs of others and not just yourself, God's able to deal with you and work in you in a way that is miraculously providing for you what is needed. So giving costs less than you think. Because it costs what you're giving away less.

But you don't end up with that much less. You end up actually with more as you give according to what the Lord is directing you. Now, giving according to what the Lord is directing you is appropriate to consider. And we should kind of avoid the extremes. That doesn't mean that God wants you to take a vow of poverty and give all your money away, drain your bank accounts, give it all to Jerry. That's not what the Lord's saying.

it is appropriate for you to have your own resources, for you to save, for you to have things that you're maintaining on your own. And you can see that pointed out in verse 24. Again, it says, there is one who scatters yet increases more, and there is one who holds more than what is right, but it leads to poverty. So there's one who withholds more than is right. So there's an appropriate amount to withhold, right?

That is right. So we can't meet every need. There are lots of needs that we can't meet. No matter how generous we are, they're not our needs to meet. We need to be sensitive to the leading of the Lord in many ways. And so there is an appropriate amount for you to withhold, for you to use for the things and the purposes that God has set before you.

But to go beyond that and withhold more than his rights, well, then that leads to poverty because now you're disregarding God and saying, no, God, I don't want to use these resources the way that you've designed or decided. I want to do what I want to do. And that's detrimental to yourself as you lead yourself to poverty because you are stingy and not generous.

But if you're generous, if you'll be responsive to the Lord as he prompts your heart to give to people in need, to give to things that he's doing, to reach out, to look beyond yourself, understand that God will not be a debtor to you. There's never going to be a time where you say to God, well, God, I've given you more than you've ever given me. That's not the reality. Well, first of all, we can see that he gave more than we could ever give in giving his son to die upon the cross for us.

But it's also the principle that he established. If you give, you're going to be blessed. It's going to be measured back to you, pressed down, overflowing. You're going to be blessed if you give to the Lord and to others as he leads. Well, the next proverb we'll look at is in Proverbs chapter 12, verse 1. And here the point is, you can either love instruction or be stupid. Solomon was pretty direct many times, and I appreciate that about him. Here's what it says in verse 1.

Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid. Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but there are those who hate correction. Now, is there anyone who loves correction? Anybody who loves to be corrected? Probably not. It's really against our nature, isn't it? We get weird about people telling us what to do. You can see this many times in a group setting.

if you decide, let's play a game. You'll see this happen a lot of times, right? So you're in a group setting there. You guys start to play a game, and there's people who haven't played before, and there's the kind of person who says, don't tell me the rules. Don't tell me how to play. I'll just watch and figure it out. Don't tell me what to do. I don't want to, no, no, I don't want to receive the instruction from you. I want to figure it out myself. Now,

We can have that mentality and that attitude regarding lots of things in our lives. And it's a dangerous place to be where we are not able to receive instruction from others. He says, if you love instruction as opposed to hating correction. Do you love instruction?

Or do you just kind of put up with it? You know, there's that idea of loving it, like welcoming it, receiving it. Yes, please give some insight, share some insight, share some pointers, some tips, some things that I need to hear. How well do you receive from those that God has placed in authority in your life? Do you receive from them well? Are you really open to the things that they share, the things that they instruct, the things that they give to you?

How well do you let God's word tell you how to live? Do you take God's word and even though you might disagree or you might not understand, do you take it and let it direct you and instruct you and correct you and cause you to turn from things that you were doing or start doing things that you haven't been doing?

We need to come with a heart of loving instruction, longing for instruction, longing for that correction so that we would go forward in the way that God has appointed for us. Think about it this way. The most talented and gifted athletes still need coaches. Even if you are the really awesome person that you think you are, you still need coaches.

The best of the best, you know, the greatest of the great, they still have coaches who are looking from an outsider's perspective who are able to say, you know, hey, you're dropping your elbow there or your form's bad here, your hands are in the wrong position here. And there's that instruction, there's that correction that is able to be given to make that gifted, awesome, talented athlete even better.

And that's the kind of position that we need to put ourselves in, where we are receiving from those who are having that outside perspective and able to help us. Even though I'm awesome, yeah, I can be made better. And so I receive, I listen to what others would speak into my heart and in my life. I was listening to John Corson sharing about wisdom this week. I like what he said. He said, many people would be wise to

if they didn't assume they already were. Think about that. Many people would be wise if they didn't assume they already were. In other words, they had opportunity to receive, opportunity to hear, opportunity to be instructed, but they thought, I don't need that. And so they didn't take the time to hear or be instructed because I'm already wise. I already got it figured out. I already know what I'm doing. And that's the real challenge, isn't it? To be open to instruction, even when you're convinced that

You don't need it, but that needs to be the condition of our heart. Jump down to verse 15. There's another proverb there that goes along with this thought. It says, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. The fool is absolutely convinced, I'm right. I'm doing the right thing. I'm going the right way.

And because he's absolutely convinced, well, he doesn't heed counsel. He doesn't receive instruction. He doesn't receive anybody else's opinion because he's already convinced my way is right. That's foolish. But the one who heeds counsel is wise. Now, the one who heeds counsel still thinks he's right, but he heeds counsel anyways.

You see, that's the difference. We're always going to think we're right. I mean, if you think about it, if you don't think you're right, then you're going to change your mind, right? Because you know you're not right. Well, if I'm not right, okay, I need to change my mind and start thinking right. And so I'm always going to think I'm right. And so I need to learn to be in a place where I will receive instruction and correction, even when I am absolutely convinced that I'm right. That's loving knowledge, loving instruction, receiving correction.

Today, there's such a strong emphasis in our society for us to listen to our own feelings, what we think, our own selves. I think in many ways, we're reverting back to the time of the judges where everyone is doing what's right in their own eyes. And we're all convinced that we're right, but we need to be open to correction from the Lord, from those that God has placed an authority over our lives.

From those who love us and would speak truth into our lives, we need to allow for those things to be spoken into us. John Corson says this about correction. He says, Here's the truth to consider.

We love the scripture, right? Philippians 1, 6. He is faithful to finish the work that he began in us. We're like, yes, that's awesome. Praise the Lord. But if you stop and think about what that means, there's actually some challenges there. Because that means that even when I don't want to go into maturity, I'm

He's going to be working to bring me into maturity, even when I'm resisting. And that means going down a path I don't want to go down. He's going to be persistent in bringing me to maturity and taking me down the path that I need to go. And so, as it often is, you can learn things the easy way or the hard way. You can receive the instruction and receive the correction and let God direct you.

As he said in the Psalms, he says, don't be like the horse or the mule, which they won't come near to you unless you put a bit in their mouth and you have to like force them to go. God says, don't be like that. Just draw near to me. Respond as I speak to you. That's the kind of heart that we need to have, to be educated, to be instructed. Because either way, God's committed to the maturing process. He's committed to help us grow, to bring us to maturity. He's committed to that.

And so if we don't listen the easy way, then he'll start putting the bits in the mouth and start bringing about the change that is needed forcibly within us. Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid. Now, it's a little bit risky for me to teach this because now you might have more freedom to come tell me stuff after service. Don't tell me, just let me figure it out on my own, okay? I'm just kidding. Okay.

Proverbs chapter 13, now verse 3 is the verse we'll look at, and here we'll see that your words can destroy you. Now the subject of your words and the things that you speak is also a common topic in the Proverbs. We'll see this over and over again. Here in verse 3 it says, "'He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.'"

To guard your mouth, he says, it preserves your life. In other words, your words and the things that you say are actually very important. A lot of times we talk, we speak a lot of nonsense. There's a lot of words coming out of our mouth. We don't pay much attention. We don't care that much. Here Solomon is reminding us, actually, you know, those words, if you're careful with them, that can actually save your life.

You can actually save your life by watching your words, by being careful about what you speak. On the other hand, if you just open wide your lips, that is, you speak about whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want, he says that brings destruction. He who guards his mouth preserves his life. I like what Adam Clark, the commentator, says about this. He says, God has given us two eyes that we may see much, two ears that we may hear much,

but he has given us one tongue and that fenced in with teeth to indicate that though we hear and see much, we should speak but little. When I first read that, I thought, you know, oh, see much, you know, hear much and speak little. But then he said, fenced in with teeth. And I was like, whoa, that's a kind of dramatic picture. Like, you know, clamp down the chains, you know, don't let it speak. Don't, don't easily, you know, understand or just let things go. But, but

understand the importance of your words, the danger that they have or the power that they have to do good. And so, you know, put them behind bars. Put them behind the fenced-in teeth that you have and make sure that you're careful to guard your mouth and you can preserve your life in doing that. But if you open wide your lips...

You just speak whatever you want, whenever you want. And there's times where we kind of value that as a trait, right? It's like, wow, look at that person. They just say whatever they want. They don't care what anybody thinks. They say whatever they want. Speak their mind always. In some cases, perhaps that could be a good thing. But generally speaking, that's not a good thing. It brings destruction. We need to learn...

to guard our mouths and not just say whatever we think, whatever we want, anytime that we want. We need to be careful with our words. Now that doesn't just refer to the audible things that come out of our mouth. This also would apply to everything that you put on paper, that you put digitally, everything that you type. So, you know, specifically things like Facebook and Twitter and those kinds of things.

If you guard your mouth or your fingers, you preserve your life. And if you just open it wide and just say whatever you want, whenever you want, then there's a destruction that comes along with that. Solomon tells us in Proverbs 10, verse 19, in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. If there's a lot of words, if you're opening wide your mouth, he says, sin is not lacking.

There's going to be sin in the multitude of those words. It's just the reality. They go hand in hand. But if you restrain your lips, if you learn to think, if you learn to share, as Ephesians 4.29 says, to share only what's useful for edifying and building up, that's the way that we're supposed to be. And so we need to learn self-control.

Like the psalmist, we need to pray to ask God to set a guard over the door of our lips. You see, the real problem is not the tongue. It's not really the lips. The real problem is the heart. In Luke chapter 6, Jesus makes it clear that what comes out of our mouth is from the source of our heart. And so what Jesus is saying is those things that come out of our mouth, that's just a taste of what's actually within our heart.

And so when foul and filthy things come out of our mouth, it's a reflection of our foul and filthy heart. Now we like to, you know, say the source is something else. All that yelling and screaming and cursing and slander and gossip and all that, it comes from those other people, that situation, you know, that put those words in my mouth. But Jesus says, no, no, that came, that was from your heart. That's the overflow. It's just a taste of what's there.

It's not the foul situation that causes the foul language. It's the foul heart that causes the foul language. And so the real problem is the heart. And you need to be careful that you don't allow your heart to just have full reign and just let it pour out and spew out whatever it wants to out of your mouth. But you show some discipline, learn some self-control, catch those things and ask God to change your heart, recognizing that the source of those things.

He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction. Your words can destroy you. So take your words and your conversations seriously. It's not a minor issue. This reminds me of my favorite Spanish proverb. It's really the only Spanish proverb that I know, but it's my favorite one. In boca cerrada no entran moscas.

It means if your mouth is closed, you won't get any flies in it. If you keep your mouth closed, it'll preserve your life. But if you open your mouth, you run the risk. There might be some flies that come in. We pose great danger to ourselves every time we open our mouth. And so we need to be careful. Learn to guard our lips. That's wisdom. Well, the final point we'll see is in Proverbs chapter 14, now in verse 4. And here the point is life is filled with trade-offs.

Life is filled with trade-offs. Verse 4 says, where no oxen are, the trough is clean, but much increase comes by the strength of an ox. This is one you might need to chew on for a couple seconds here. Where no oxen are, the trough is clean, but much increase comes by the strength of an ox. Here, Solomon is talking about weighing out benefits and costs.

And life is filled with these kinds of decisions and choices that we need to make. There's a balance that we need to figure out in life in many different avenues, in many different aspects of our lives where we have to figure out our priorities. And you may not have to deal with, you know, oxen and troughs. I don't know, maybe you come from Norco and so you do. But the idea here is, look, if you want a clean trough, don't get an oxen.

Or don't get an ox, I guess that's the singular version. Don't get an ox if you want a clean trough. But if you don't have an ox, if you don't have oxen, then you're not going to get much work done. And so you get oxen to do the work, but then along with that comes the work of cleaning the trough because the oxen mess up the trough. Where no oxen are, the trough is clean. But much increase comes by the strength of an ox.

Maybe another way to say this is if you want increase, then you need to expect some messes to go along with it. And so really you have to examine your priorities. What's your goal? What are you aiming for? Are you aiming for productivity? Are you aiming for increase? Well, then you're going to need some oxen and you're going to need to go that way, but also recognize, count the cost. There's going to be some messes that go along with it. If your goal is to have a clean trough,

That's okay. You can have that goal. Go ahead. But don't expect to have increase because you don't have, for them, oxen were the best tools for farming. They were better than horses. They worked harder. They worked longer. They were more faithful. And so it was the best tool to do the work that needed to be done. And so if you didn't have the tools that you needed to do the work, well, don't expect there to be much fruit from that.

But in order to get those tools, well, there's also some costs that are associated with that. And so the point here is to think through your decisions.

And to count the cost of what you're going to do. And this is really valuable for us because a lot of times we don't stop to think about the decisions that we're making. Maybe we think about them a little, but we don't think about the costs that could be involved in the decisions that we make. And so I want to walk you through a couple examples for us to consider just to kind of get the wheels turning. And I'm sure there's many other things that you could evaluate in your own life.

But the first way that I began to think about this, being, you know, of a technical mindset, is I think about a contrast that is often presented in technology, and that is security versus convenience. These are trade-offs. In order to have great security, it's going to be very inconvenient. But if you want to have convenience, if that's the highest priority, well, that's going to cost you security, right?

So think about it like your phone. Now, there was just a case recently there in San Bernardino. They wanted access to the phone of the terrorists, right? And they were working with Apple and trying to force them to provide the code to be able to, or provide the, actually, resources to be able to hack the code. And there was that battle that went forth, right? Because there was this security that was in place, and there's a balance when it comes to that. Now, if you have no password on your phone, right?

That's incredibly convenient, right? Because you pick up your phone, you just hit the button, and you can immediately do what you're trying to do. That's very convenient. It's also not very secure because then Pastor Pule can steal my phone. He can get my information. He can steal my identity and do whatever he wants as Jerry Simmons. And so there's some security risk there, especially if Pastor Pule is around, right? No, I'm just kidding. It's convenient, but it's not very safe, right?

Now, on the other hand, if you have a 16-digit password on your phone, that's really secure. But man, is it inconvenient. I dare you to try it for a week. Every time you pick up your phone, you have to enter in this 16-digit random letters and numbers and characters and symbols. And oh, man, every time you open your phone, that's a pain. I don't want to do that. That's so inconvenient. But it's really secure. And so what people typically do is they try to find the balance in the middle. OK.

I want security, but I also want convenience. Now, what can I do, kind of fall in the spectrum here to the...

amount of security that I can handle with the amount of inconvenience that I'm willing to put up with. And so many people settle on the four-digit PIN code, right, or a six-digit code, depending on your maker and whoever, you know, provides the resources for your phone and such. But everybody kind of handles it differently because there's tension there. There's decisions you got to make. You have to decide what your priorities are. Are you going to emphasize security? Are you going to emphasize convenience? What's most important to

to you. And the point here, though, is you got to think about the cost. And so if you say security is the ultimate thing, well, great, but are you willing to pay the price for that? There's some mess that comes with that. And so you have to consider the whole picture and not just the one side of it.

And so looking at this through Proverbs' eyes, if you have oxen, you get much increase. That's a great benefit. And if that's your focus, then awesome. But understand, that's at the expense of a clean trough. And if clean trough is your priority, well, understand you're not going to have much increase because you don't have the oxen. And so you got to find the balance of, okay, well, I want some increase.

I don't want too much mess. And so how many oxen am I going to get? And how am I going to manage the mess that comes along with the increase that I want to get? Maybe you could think about it this way. You could have a living room that it's beautiful and pristine and that nobody can use. Or you can have a living room that is...

comfortable for the dirtiest of the dirty. And then you can find somewhere in between where people are comfortable and able to hang out. You know, there's the balance there. And you've got to decide what your priorities are. Now, if you want the pristine living room, that's your choice. You're welcome to have that. But understand the cost. Nobody's going to sit there and enjoy it and be comfortable. That's the balance. That's what you have to weigh out and decide what your priorities are. But understand there's costs to the decisions that we make.

There's things that are being taken away. That's why I called it a trade-off. You're trading something for something else. Let me give you another example. After church today, I might go get some lunch and I can go for what's tasty or I could go for what's healthy, right? And so if I go on the healthy side, I'm just going to have some kale and vinegar and set my teeth on edge and...

Be real healthy. Or if I really want something tasty, let's go double-double animal style and get to the other side. And so maybe there's a medium I should find in between. But understand, if I go the double-double route, there's a cost that's involved. There's a trade-off I'm making. If I choose McDonald's, I'm saying no to Jack in the Box.

Every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to a bunch of other things. That's a trade-off. We're making decisions, and there's costs involved, and we need to think about the costs. Now, maybe a little bit more practical is you want to get a new car, or you want to stick with your old car. Now, you think about a new car, well, that's going to come with car payments, or if I stick with my old car, that's going to

come with costs for repairs. And there's a balance that you got to find. You got to decide what your priorities are, but understand whatever decision you make, there's trade-offs that you're making when you make that decision. And so you need to think through these things. You need to think about and seek out counsel and allow God to give you direction because there are things that you are closing the door on when you open the door to something else. Now,

This could be applied to all kinds of variety of areas in your life and decisions that we make and choices and paths and things that we do. But here's something I would encourage you in. If you're looking at a situation, looking at a decision, and you can't figure out what the trade-off is, you can't figure out what the cost is, then I would suggest to you, you haven't thought it through all the way yet. If you think, well, it's a win-win. I mean, everybody wins. There's no downside to this decision.

You probably haven't thought it through all the way, and that's a good indication. You probably need to seek out some counsel and find out what are the trade-offs in this decision that I'm making, because there are going to be trade-offs. Life is filled with these kinds of decisions, and there's always this tension between one thing and other things. And it doesn't have to be, you know, polar opposites like new car versus old car, but it could be new car versus, you know,

Better apartment or new car versus, you know, other things. There's other factors to consider and different things in your life to figure out and understand what God's will for you is. Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 described this kind of tension with marriage versus singleness. He says, look, when you're married, you're focused on pleasing your spouse. And when you're single, you can be focused on pleasing the Lord. And neither one is bad or wrong, right?

Both are appropriate and right for the certain context, but you got to decide what your priorities are. You got to understand what the cost is. There's great benefits to marriage. There's also trade-offs you're making. Understand the full decisions that are going on. And don't just look at the one side that's your favorite part that you like the most, that you want the most, that you think is going to satisfy your life and make everything, you know, fine and perfect and happy and think, okay, well, now I've got it.

No, but take the time to understand. If you get some oxen, it's going to come with messes. If you get married, it's going to come with messes. If you stay single, it's going to come with messes. There's costs. There's trade-offs. There's things that we have to factor in and consider in everything that we do. Paul the Apostle described a contrast between the flesh and the spirit in Galatians chapter 5 and 6. And if you pursue the flesh, there's momentary pleasure. But it comes at a cost.

If you pursue the Spirit, there's eternal joy, but it comes at a cost. You're going to be sacrificing perhaps momentary things. You're going to be sacrificing things that you desire and want and crave.

but there's eternal joy. If you sow to the spirit, you reap everlasting life. But if you sow to the flesh, you reap destruction. And so you have to factor in your costs and understand what trade-offs you're making when you make decisions to follow Jesus, to walk with Jesus, to go certain directions, to buy certain things, to take your family in certain places. There's trade-offs that you're making as you make those decisions. You need to make sure you understand the costs. Think about and understand.

what you're saying no to when you say yes to something else. And again, if you don't know a downside to a decision, you haven't thought it through yet. Seek out some counsel. Find out, what am I trading when I go this way, when I choose that? There's important things to consider as you make decisions in life. And so here's five tweets from Solomon. Little snippets of wisdom for us to learn from, to evaluate our own hearts, to grow spiritually,

and become more like the men and women that God wants us to be. I would encourage you to meditate on these things. Allow God to speak to you more about them all week long so that you can be wise in the life that God's called you to live. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I pray for each of us. Lord, would you embed these things, these truths in our hearts, God, that we would hold fast to them, that we would meditate on them and chew on them. And I pray, God, that you would speak to us more and more about these things in the days ahead. God, that we would be open to this instruction, that we would be receptive to what you have to say today.

And God, I pray that you would teach us and train us and protect us, Lord, as we seek to follow you and live the life that you've called us to live. Lord, we thank you for your love for us in that you have given us the greatest gift. Lord, you've given us the greatest sacrifice. And Lord, you continue to give as you love us, as you instruct us, and as you lead us. Help us, Lord, to follow you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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