This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome. Today is
Thursday, March the 19th. If you are new here,
we want to invite you to subscribe, like, follow,
so that you don't miss an episode Monday through
Saturday, every single day. Mercies of God are
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those. built around God's Word. I want to share
a little bit about God's Word from our reading
plan as a church family. If you are interested
at all in helping support to continue this podcast
and keep it going, I encourage you, you can do
so at the link in the description below. Today,
let's get right to it. Proverbs chapter 17. That's
where we are in. Now, if you've been through
the process so far this week, we've read in the
book of Luke. We are headed toward the Easter
story. Then we looked yesterday into Romans chapter
3 and about the law and about how we are all
guilty. We're found guilty under the law. That's
who we are. And Jesus came to save us. Now we're
going to go back to the Old Testament and look
in a proverb. If you have not ever read the Proverbs,
I encourage you, you can find a lot of wisdom
in there. They are great reads. You can read
one every day. My dad used to read the Proverb
of the Day. So if the day was the 19th, he would
read Proverbs 19. If the day was the... He would
read Proverbs 22, right? That's what he would
do because there was 31 Proverbs. And so every
day of the month, he was reading a full proverb.
I tried to do that this week and I got my dates
wrong. So it's actually today we're going to
read Proverbs 17. We're going to look through
that text today, even though it is the 19th.
So I apologize if you do that. Typically, I threw
you off a little bit today. My bad. But I want
to share a little bit about Proverbs 17. I'm
going to read four verses out of this Proverbs.
I'm going to read the first. one, one down a
little ways, another one toward the end, and
one of the very last ones, just because they
stood out to me today. As I read it, as I was
looking, the Proverbs, in case you're new to
it, you can read one line, and it does fit in
a context of Proverbs, but ultimately one line
is a line of wisdom. So you can take that one
line and kind of... move it into any place in
Scripture and help overlay it and see this is
a wisdom writing. This writing is a good proverb
that I can take and put into my life today. My
dad used to be one of the wisest men I had ever
been around, and part of that was because he
read the Proverbs every day. He was wise because
he was reading the wisdom writings from Solomon
as God gave him the insight. So I want to share
just a few things out of Proverbs 17 today. Shouldn't
be a very long episode, but I've said that before
and realized that it was longer than I anticipated.
But here we go. Proverbs 17. I want to read verse
number one. Here we go. Better is a dry morsel
with quiet than a house full of feasting with
strife. As I read that text, here's what I have
heard and learned. This is a... Again, we can
break down a little bit of examples from Solomon's
life. Why would Solomon write this? Solomon had
a house full of some quarrelsome people. He had
a lot going on. He was one of the wealthiest
men ever and had a lot of material blessings.
This text, whenever I read it, he says, you may
have a feast in your home. You may have more
stuff than anybody else. But if you don't have
quiet and peace, it's not worth it. If your dinner
time is full of strife, you know it's stressful.
It's not worth it. It doesn't matter how nice
your home is. It doesn't matter how nice your
furniture is. It doesn't matter how nice your
meal is, how great the source of meat that you
have on the table. If you have strife, it's just
not worth it. One of the things I always say
whenever I perform wedding ceremonies is I encourage
and I challenge for a husband and a wife to have
peace in their home. Peace doesn't come easy.
Most of the time, strife comes easy, right? Because
we want something ourself and so we begin to
fight and battle for it. But Solomon teaches
us something very wise here. It is not about
what you have, what you've built together. It's
about how much peace you have in your home. And
here's what I've learned. The more peace you
have in your home, the more you can produce together,
right? Peace equals more production together.
Why? Because you want to be around each other.
And you want to do more with each other. And
you want to spend more time together, the more
peace that you have. One of the things I've been
so fortunate in my home is to have peace. Anytime
there's ever been any type of strife, we try
our best to stop it as soon as possible and bring
more peace in the house. Why? Because I don't
want to be stressed out. That's the honest truth.
And it's wise. It's wise. We may not have the
most stuff of anybody we know, but we have peace.
And that's worth a lot more than the stuff. I
want to read another verse to you down a few
verses later in Proverbs 17. Listen to this one.
I found in verse number six, it says, grandchildren
are the crown of the aged and the glory of children
is their fathers. This one is a very powerful
proverb to me. I have some grandparents that
I know are faithful listeners of the New Mercies
podcast, and I am very thankful for them. I'm
thankful for the grandparents that the Lord gave
me, and I try my best to be the crown of my grandparents.
I do. I want them to be proud. I want them to
know how much I love the Lord, how much I love
my family, how much I love them. I'm not a grandparent
yet, probably a few years from that being the
case, a few extra years away from that being
the case. But I know that there's something.
very valuable in even seeing my children and
how my children make me proud. And I've heard
that my dad used to tell me a lot that if he
knew grandchildren were as great as they are,
then he would have had grandchildren first, right?
He liked my kids better than he liked me sometimes.
But he was always talking about how proud they
made him. And, you know, I began to see this
verse really come alive in his life. And I have
been watching it ever since I watched it in him.
I watch it in my grandparents and seeing how
they just have this smile about them. They have
this new energy and life about them whenever
their grandkids are around. And now their great
grandkids are around. And my hope is that I'll
be a good crown for them. I'll be a good joy
bring for them. That's what I want to be. And
then I continue reading this verse. And I think
it's not just about. a grandparent and a grandchild,
because in the verse it says that the grandchildren
are the crown of the age and the glory of children
is their fathers. The glory of children is their
fathers. Okay, so I want my kid's glory to be...
And now that doesn't mean I replace the Lord.
It doesn't mean that I get more glory than God.
That's not what it means. It means that you see
this full family together, right? You see a grandparent
who sees their grandkid doing great things. And
then you see that kid who is loving their father
and finding this hope and peace in that father's
relationship. And so you begin to watch this
is a generational thing. I want that to be my
family legacy. I want that to continue in my
life. One of my storylines in my life that I
put a lot of energy and a lot of effort into
is what I call legacy espaciation, meaning I
want my legacy to continue on, not to stop with
me. I had a dad that loved me and did great things,
and it was awesome. I have grandparents that
have done great things and are awesome. I do
a podcast with my brother that is goofy and ridiculous.
We throw some scripture in there every now and
then. then, but we did a thing the other day,
not too long ago, about our grandfather's Bible.
And every time I go to my grandparents' house,
I see his Bible and it is worn out. And it makes
me proud and it makes me want to have that type
of legacy. I want to continue that on. This family
element means a lot to me. Maybe you say, well,
I don't have grandparents that are awesome. I
don't have a parent that's awesome. Then start.
Be the person. Be the one that breaks the generational
curses in your life. I read through the text
and I read through Scripture over and over again,
and I think, man, this is wisdom. This is wisdom.
I find more purpose. I find more energy. I find
more drive when I think about the legacy that
God is building in my family and in my life.
That's wisdom. That gives me more to go every
single day. I'm going to read another verse to
you. Found the next a couple verses down. Verse
22 says, A joyful heart is good medicine, but
a crushed spirit dries up the bones. This is
another great, wonderful verse of Scripture that
I have shared a lot. A joyful heart. I am so
happy almost all the time. almost too happy,
right? Now, I don't say happy because all my
circumstances are great. Sometimes my circumstances
can be not great, but I am not relying on my
circumstances to bring my joy. My joy comes from
within because I have this Jesus who, as we read
in Luke 21 and 22 and into 23, that took my place
and said, I will do what I need to do to get
you into my family. I've been loved by God so
much. I've been given a great family. I've been
given and great access to the Word of God and
to the revelation of who He is. And I get to
know Him every single day. There is a joy in
my heart that is unbelievable. It's a good medicine
for me. Whenever I feel down and out, what do
I do? I think about the joy of the Lord. It's
my strength. I don't get my strength from my
discipline. I get my strength from my joy. That's
where my strength comes from. And it says that
a crushed spirit dries up your bones. If I am
going through and getting depressed and I don't
let my joy overwhelm me, I begin to just... bow
out. I begin to be broken down. That's not what
I want. It's not what I want for you. It's not
what I want for our listeners and the people
in our church and the people, the church. I don't
want the church, the big C church, all of us
believers. We have a joy unspeakable. Let us
live that out. Let it be that medicine for us.
I got one more verse I want to read to you. In
the very end, it says this in verse number 27.
Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and
he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.
One of the things that when I read the Bible,
and especially these wisdom writings, I cannot
help but think, how can I apply this to my life
right now? The Proverbs are a really great place
to apply to your life today. Now you may say,
well, but it takes a long time to have grandkids.
Sure, but it doesn't take a long time to be the
man that has grandkids that will be awesome.
You say, well, what does that really mean? It
means be a man today. Be a woman of grace today.
Be the person today that dives into his word,
that one day will have a Bible that's worn out,
that one day that others will be able to look
up to you and say, that is the reason I am where
I am today. I've said before that my dad told
me just a few months before he had died that
he wanted his ceiling, to be my floor. That's
where I start. And I did not understand the raw
truth that a father that loves his son is one
who truly wants better for him. He wanted me
to be better than he was. And you know, there's
not a lot of people in the world that want you
to be better than them. There's not a lot. But
a loving father is, a loving grandfather is.
one that has seen you grown up and said, as far
as I can go in this life, I want you to start
there. My limits, I want to be where you begin.
There's something very powerful about that. When
I read the Proverbs, I will say, how can I apply
this to my life right now in this moment? I look
at even something as simple as this. Just whoever
restrains his words have knowledge. Can you restrain
your words? Can you hold your words back? Can
you do that? Try it today. Just try it and see
what happens. And he who has a cool spirit has
understanding. You know what that means? It means
you're not going to get frazzled. It's not going
to shake you up. You know who doesn't get shaken?
This is so good. Even the Proverbs, these words
of wisdom can connect to all of it. I hope you're
seeing it. You know who has a cool spirit? You
know who's not rattled? The one who finds their
joy in the Lord and their strength in the joy
of the Lord, the one who has this family legacy
that they're working on, they don't get rattled.
They don't. And how does all this begin? Well,
I think verse 1 started out by saying, when you
have peace in your home, You may be wondering,
how can I possibly have a calm spirit about me?
How can I possibly hold my words back? How can
I possibly have joy that's unspeakable? How can
I possibly have a legacy like you're talking
about in the Proverbs? Well, it starts in your
home with peace. That's how it starts. So I want
to encourage you today, find more peace in your
home. Listen, and peace does not come in material
blessings. It just doesn't. Now, I'm not saying
that material blessings are bad. I think you
can have material blessings and still have peace.
What Solomon is saying is people are running
and striving to get more stuff. And what you
need to be doing is deepening your walk so that
you have more peace. That's what you need today.
I love Proverbs. I hope and pray you read Proverbs
17 today and find ways to apply it to your life
in these moments.