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Good job Jennings and Macy and choir. It is now time for children's church. It's also

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time for big church if any of y'all want to say yay. Alright. Alright. Good. Alright,

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we're going to be in Proverbs again today. We were in Proverbs last week. The Proverbs

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are excellent and in my opinion I think the book of Proverbs is probably the best just

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good solid practical advice on how to live our lives. If you're looking for advice on

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how to live, on how you should act, on things you should do, on things you shouldn't do,

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then the book of Proverbs is a great place to start. There's a lot of good things in

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there and I will share with you today a few different Proverbs so you kind of have to

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jump around if you're going to try to keep up. They're written on the back of your bulletin.

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If you miss one and you want to know what that is, you can ask me afterwards and I'll

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be sure to write all these down for you. It's really hard though to make a list like this,

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you know, to pick a few Proverbs because I mean you just about could write the whole

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book down. But for time purposes we'll just look at a few good Proverbs. They don't necessarily

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have anything in common but there's good things in here for us. There's things that may speak

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to some of you today and I would encourage you, I always say this every time I ever preach

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on Proverbs, I always say I would encourage you to read it because I think that they are

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just that valuable to us. There is so much wisdom and instruction in there that it's

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good. So if you're somebody that really doesn't read the Bible much or hadn't read the Bible

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much or maybe don't understand some of the things in the Bible but you want to get into

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God's Word more, then I would encourage you to look at the Proverbs. You will probably

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find just some good, easy to understand, practical advice there. Some of it you'll like and some

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of it you'll kind of cringe because it'll step on your toes a little bit but that's

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one reason that it's so good for us. But let's pray and then we'll get started.

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Father God we come to you and we thank you for your good word and I pray dear Lord that

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we would see the wisdom in these Proverbs. God you give us so much wisdom and instruction.

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I pray that we would listen to it God that maybe there's something in these verses today

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that we're going to hear that kind of hits home to us dear Lord. That we hear what we

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need to hear dear Lord that we would seek to be those who are wise. God that's what

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we want or at least that should be what we want. If that's not our desire I pray that

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you change our hearts God that we would be those that seek wisdom. That don't want to

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live in foolishness and the things of the world but that we seek your wisdom and seek

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to grow in you so that we can be a better witness for you dear Lord as we leave this

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place. So I pray God that you would hide me behind the cross. That your Holy Spirit would

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just take over today. That you'd free us from worries and distractions and let us dwell

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on you and hear from you during this time. And I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

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As I was reading through some of these Proverbs over the last couple of days I was reminded

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of going to my grandparents house. Now most of you in here remember Lena Pearl and Richard

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and for years and years they always had a candy bowl there. They always had the Hershey

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assorted chocolates. Now you've had these. You've all bought a bag of these. It's got

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a Hershey, regular Hershey. It's got Hershey special dark. It's got crackle. It's got Mr.

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Goodbar. And she always had a bowl of those on the table and if that bowl ever got empty

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my grandpa would say you need to get some more of that candy for Shan now. And every

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Sunday after church we'd go there and we would eat lunch. But every Sunday before I'd eat

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lunch I'd go to that candy bowl and I'd get me a couple of those Hershey special darks

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and that would be my appetizer. And you may be saying well what you think about chocolate

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while you were reading these passages. Well in a way I kind of thought that's what the

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book of Proverbs is. It's an assortment of different flavors of different things and

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some of them we may like more than others. Some of them we may gravitate toward. Some

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of them may be the Mr. Goodbars. We don't really like them. We'll eat them because that's

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all that's left in the bowl is the yellow Mr. Goodbars. But we don't go to that first.

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We probably go to the... I go to the Hershey special dark first. That's me and my sister.

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We always fall over those. And then I'll get the crackle and then I'll get the regular

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Hershey and if I'm just about to die I'll eat a Mr. Goodbar. But that's the worst case

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scenario. So when we look at the book of Proverbs it's kind of like an assortment of candy bars.

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There are some in there that we read and we see and they are good to us. And we turn to

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those and they're beautiful. And there's some that maybe we don't read as much as others.

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But there are some that really connect to us. And these today that I'm going to cover

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are some of my favorites or maybe I could even say they're some of my least favorites

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and that they're convicting. They point out things that maybe we don't like to see but

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the Proverbs are good because they point out things that we need to see. So let's look

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at a couple of Proverbs today and just kind of see some of the things that the Proverbs

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tell us about. Proverbs chapter 17 verse 1. Most of these will be pretty close together

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within a couple of chapters of each other. If you want to flip your bulletin over to

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see where we're going to get a head start you can. But Proverbs chapter 17 verse 1.

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Better a dry crust with peace than a house full of feasting with strife. Now we live

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in a culture and a society that says you need to get more. You need to have more to have

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more money to have more nicer things to have all of this stuff to have is good and it's

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the American dream and we deserve all of these things. But the problem with a lot of things

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or having a lot of money is that oftentimes they come with a lot of stress. So having

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a lot of stuff does come with a lot of stress and sometimes we may we may think that all

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not having very much or having very little is is is not a good place to be or a sign

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that we're a failure or whatever it may be. But the Proverbs tell us something different.

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The Proverbs would say it's better to have a little bit and to be at peace than to have

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a lot and to be at strife. We have a lot of worries and we have a lot of stresses and

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we have a lot of pains in our life and I think it's fair to say that some of these things

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we bring on ourselves sometimes we kind of overload our calendars. We begin to focus

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our attention on our energies to obtain the things that we want that we think that are

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going to bring us some kind of satisfaction. But really it probably only leads to strife

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sometimes it just leads to pain and more stress when really what we desire is peace and the

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Proverbs remind us of a simple truth. It's better to have a dry crust. It's better to

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have a crumb and to be at peace than to have a table full of food and to be filled with

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strife. When we got strife in our life man there's no enjoyment it just it just leads

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to stress and so maybe sometimes we simply need to simplify our lives. We need to have

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that little bit. Perhaps it's better just to have the most the most menial thing that

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little bit of crust that that little bit of crumbs sometimes it's better just to have

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a little and to be content with the little that we have and to be at peace with that.

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Too often we're discontent in our life and our discontentment kind of drives us to to

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get those things that we think are going to make us content but our discontentment oftentimes

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drives us to be even more discontent and even even more stressed. So maybe there's a time

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in our life and maybe for some of you it's the day where we simply need to say you know

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what it's time to slow down. Maybe I need to learn how to be content with a little and

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to find peace in Jesus Christ and not seek an abundance of things in this world that

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oftentimes only bring us strife. Proverbs chapter 18 verse 17. The first to state his

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case seems right until another comes and cross examines him. Boy I love this I love this

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proverb I think this is so important for us to remember this particular teaching. Somebody

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comes to you and they begin to tell you something and they begin to tell you something about

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somebody else or they begin to tell you something about something and they make a pretty convincing

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case and you may say boy I can't believe what they told me about so and so is true but man

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it sounds sounds like it's true but oftentimes when we hear things from somebody it sounds

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true but we need to remember that there's another side to the story and that's what

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this proverb reminds us of is that there's two sides to every story or maybe three or

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maybe four sides to every story and so we need to kind of pump the brake before we jump

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to conclusions. So many times we hear things in our world maybe maybe we hear it from a

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friend or a family member maybe we hear it on the news or or whatever it may be and so

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many times the one presenting something to us makes a good case for it but every man's

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case seems right until another comes and cross examines him and so it's important for us

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in life when we hear everything is to make sure that we try to understand all aspects

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of that that we try to understand every side of the story and that's not to say that we're

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we think people that come to us are always lying but it's it's wisdom for us to try to

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understand a matter and not jump to conclusions and not pass along information that may not

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be correct. That'd be a horrible thing somebody comes to you and tells you something and and

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you believe them and you pass it on and it turns out not to be true we probably are all

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are guilty of that and so when someone comes to you and tells you something especially

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something that's pretty rough or pretty gossipy that maybe we need to just take a step back

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and realize well maybe there are more sides to the stories that we encounter in life and

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maybe we need to take another another moment to think about those things and to process

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those things and understand those things. Proverbs chapter 15 verse 1 Proverbs chapter

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15 verse 1 a gentle answer turns away anger but a harsh word stirs up a wrath man this

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is one that that in my mind I highlighted I underlined it is so important it's so important

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for us to recognize this advice. When we answer people how do we answer people? Now it's inevitable

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that in our lives we're going to encounter conflict we're gonna we're gonna come up against

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somebody and it might even be somebody we love it might not be that it's our arch enemy

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you know it might be that there's somebody we love and and a disagreement begins and

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it might even be between a husband and a wife that your husband says something or the wife

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says something and next thing you know you're having a bad day you're tired and they ask

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you a question or they say something and then what are you gonna say? Well this is where

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we need to take a second in our lives and pause when those times come and we need to

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think about what we're going to say and how we're going to respond. Now we should respond

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with a gentle answer and a gentle answer is gonna is gonna calm things down almost every

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time and that's what this proverb tells us a gentle answer turns away anger but a harsh

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word stirs up wrath. Now I suspect if we were all honest today that there have been times

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that we have said that harsh word that conversations and arguments that were just beginning could

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have just ended but instead somebody tells us something that we don't like or we don't

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agree with and we give a harsh word we give a harsh response and what does that do? It

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escalates the situation everything explodes and you give the harsh response and now they're

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going to give a harsh response and before you know it a situation has blown up and there

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are people in this world and you may know some of them you may be one of them that you

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were in an argument or know somebody who was in an argument and it just blew up to this

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point where there was a hatred that built that people won't even talk to each other

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anymore that they'll spend a lifetime holding a grudge and hating each other and wishing

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harm to each other and wanting to give that wrath to the other person in their hatred

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because of those harsh words that were spread when so many times situations like that could

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be avoided if we just give a gentle answer. Now it takes a lot of effort on our part it

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takes a lot of prayer on our part probably for some of us more than others that we really

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need to pray and say God help me to be one who can keep his mouth closed God help me

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when when that person comes against me or that person attacks me or that person says

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something I don't like God I pray that you give me the strength and the wisdom and that

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you would seal these lips dear Lord that I won't say a word and God should I have to

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say a word then let it be a word that brings about peace let it be something that's gentle

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God help my words not to come across as harsh and hateful and demeaning and judgmental but

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God help my words to come across in a gentle way and we may discover that our lives get

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better when we begin to do that we may find that we can we can get ourselves out of a

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lot of situations before they turn into situations simply by giving a gentle answer this is a

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proverb and there are there are tons of proverbs along these lines but but this is one that's

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it's beautiful because it tells us something that we need to hear and we need to strive

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to live by Proverbs 19 Proverbs 19 verse 17 kind of shifting gears here that's one good

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thing about the proverbs is is the kind of are all over they cover a variety of different

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ideas Proverbs chapter 19 verse 17 kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord and he will

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give a reward to the lender now this idea of helping the poor is all throughout scripture

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we see it all throughout the Old Testament we see it all throughout the New Testament

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and here this proverb reminds us of this truth that we see time and time again and that is

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that we are supposed to be kind to those who are poor but it even goes one step further

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what does it say it says that when we are kind to the poor it is a loan to the Lord

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now that's a beautiful way to think about this we need to realize that there are lots

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of lots of needs out there and God so many times blesses us with more than we could possibly

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ever need but God also puts those needs of others in our past sometimes and so we need

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to realize that that what is important to God needs to be important to us now maybe

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for some of you in this room you you see poor people or you see homeless people you see

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needy people and and maybe you don't think not too much about it but I think as Christians

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we need to think something about it because it's pretty clear in scripture that to care

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for the poor and the needy and the homeless and the widowed and the orphan all of these

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things I know that's not what the passage says but all of these things are so important

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to God and these things need to be important to us and so we need to make efforts to be

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kind to those who are poor to have some compassion to be able to help them in whatever way that

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God may have blessed us so that we can help those who are in need and there may even be

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a day that we are those who need to be helped and so we need to remember that that when

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we are helping those who are in need that this is what God calls us to do that this

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is what God desires now as is the case with many things God could do what he wants to

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do the way that he wants to do it he could he could make every poor and needy and homeless

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person he could meet all of their needs today with the word if he chose to he could speak

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it and it would be but the way that God has chosen to carry out this mission to carry

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out this responsibility is through you and me he's chosen you and I to do this work he's

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chosen you and I to spread the gospel message of Jesus Christ he's chosen you and I to be

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those who are compassionate to those that we are encounter he's chosen you and I to

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help the poor and the needy and the widows and the orphans we are the way in which God

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chooses to work sometimes we may see a situation and we may say why doesn't God work in this

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situation well it may be that God wants to work through you in some situations and so

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we want to be prayerful and say God are there ways that you want to use me are there ways

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that I can help the poor dear Lord God don't let me miss opportunities because God chooses

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us he chooses us to do the work Jesus chose the twelve apostles and and so many disciples

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that came after them and Jesus chose them to help do the work now Jesus came and he

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established the kingdom of God through his death and through his resurrection for eternity

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and Jesus came and he did the work and he and he preached to people and he taught to

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people and he brought healing and he showed so many miracles and he and he left us with

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so many beautiful teachings but Jesus has said now I send you to do the work so God

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calls us brother and sister in Christ to be those who look after the poor and this proverb

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is a good reminder of that Proverbs chapter twenty nine verse eleven Proverbs chapter

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twenty nine verse eleven this is kind of in a similar vein to what we just saw in Proverbs

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fifteen one Proverbs twenty nine eleven says a fool gives full vent to his anger but a

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wise man holds it in check now this is a good verse for us to remember because it is easy

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for us to become angry now again it might be easier for some of us than others some

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of you may be in a spot of maturity and you're walking pretty good with the Lord and maybe

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it takes a lot to anger you maybe others get angry at the drop of a hat but ever how long

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it takes us to be angry we want to be those who don't fall into that trap we don't want

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to be those who give full vent to our anger now it's easy for us to want to do that it's

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easy for us to want to retaliate when somebody does something to us or we feel like that

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we have been wrong and maybe we have or maybe we have but when we feel that way we want

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to we want to to give full vent to that anger we become angry and so we want to lash out

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if somebody does something to us we want to attack them an eye for an eye tooth for a

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tooth at least that's what the Old Testament said but Jesus gives us a better command you

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have heard it said an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth but what does Jesus tell us he

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tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us now that's hard to

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do it's pretty easy it's pretty easy when somebody comes against you or does something

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to you it's pretty easy to be angry it does not take but a second for us to go from zero

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to a hundred on the angry scale but it's not easy for us to keep our mouths shut it's not

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easy for us to keep our calm and perhaps proverbs like these are proverbs that we need to remember

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that we need to visit often that we need to pray over and say okay God I don't want to

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be a fool I'll venture to say that probably a lot of times we don't we don't like to think

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of ourselves as fools but we need to read the book of proverbs because sometimes and

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this may not happen to you I might just be preaching to me but I wouldn't I don't like

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to think of myself as a fool but sometimes I'll read through those proverbs and it'll

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say a fool does this and a fool does that and a fool does the other and I'll say uh-oh

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I'm a fool there's some of these things that I do and maybe for some of you you'd look

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at those lists and maybe there's some things in there that you would say you know what

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I'm foolish but that's why we come and read God's Word that's why we read it at home that's

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why we gather to look at passages like these today why because we don't want to be fools

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hopefully if you're in here today and you want to be a fool please call me this week

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I'd love to sit and talk with you but I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt I

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think that that we come to God's house because we want to grow in God we want to grow in

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his love we want to grow in his wisdom we don't want to be foolish now sometimes we

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stumble and fall and we give in to sin and we don't want to and we say God I don't want

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to do this and then the temptation comes and we stumble and we fall that happens sometimes

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even for Christians but our desire should never be to live in sin and to live in foolishness

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and that's why the book of Proverbs is so good because it talks about the difference

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between wisdom and foolishness if we look at the Proverbs and say man it says a foolish

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person does this what do I do well we stop doing that how do we be wise we look at those

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Proverbs that talk about wisdom and that call us to wisdom and that show us what wisdom

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really is so maybe for some of us today this needs to be our prayer God help me to to not

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be so quick to vent my anger a fool gets fool vent to his anger but a wise man holds it

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in check well that's the kind of wisdom that we want to pray for God give me that kind

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of wisdom because God I get angry and I don't like to get angry when I get angry guess what

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we do we begin to open our mouth and we begin to not give gentle answers we begin to stir

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up trouble and conflict and so when we learn wisdom we may find that there is a lot of

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benefit to that in our life when we learn wisdom there's a certain peace that comes

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with that when we learn wisdom we're no longer seeking to be wise in our own eyes as we talked

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about last week there's a certain peace that comes with that when we learn wisdom we realize

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we don't we're not living for anybody else we're not living to impress anybody else we're

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simply living for God we're living for Jesus Christ we're living for the commands of Scripture

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we're not living for the world there's peace in that wisdom we gain wisdom and we learn

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that you know what it's better for me just to keep my mouth shut I could open my mouth

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and everybody could know I'm a fool or I could keep quiet and who knows sometimes it's important

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for us to just keep quiet even if we think we're wise sometimes it's important for us

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to bite our tongue sometimes it's important for us to watch what we say and that's wisdom

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and that's the kind of wisdom that we see in the book of Proverbs time and time again

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it's a short book it's an easy read you could read it in a couple of sittings no problem

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and I would encourage you to do it because there's good instruction and advice for us

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today to see how God wants us to live one more passage this one's not in your in your

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in your bulletin this is a bonus no extra charge Proverbs chapter 16 verse 6 wickedness

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is atoned for by loyalty and faithfulness and one turns from evil by the fear of the

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Lord what a beautiful passage what a beautiful reminder we see here in the Proverbs that

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I think even in Proverbs like these they are pointing us forward to the truth and the reality

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of who Jesus is wickedness is atoned for by loyalty and faithfulness or by mercy and truth

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some of your translations will say now we don't like to think of ourselves as fools

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and we don't like to think of ourselves as wicked but we are today we are wicked fools

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we do things we shouldn't do we give full vent to our anger we open our mouth when we

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should keep it closed we give in to sin that we shouldn't give in to we pursue things of

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the world that we shouldn't pursue we become proud there's plenty of passages in Proverbs

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that talk about pride we didn't even really touch on that today because we touched on

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it a little bit last week but but there are so many areas in our life that are that are

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just wicked that are things that are just nasty and gnarly and dirty that God doesn't

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want to be there but praise the Lord that God atones for our wickedness through Jesus

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Christ wickedness is atoned for by loyalty and faithfulness by mercy and truth and what

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better example do we have of that than Jesus Christ one who is loyal to the Father one

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who is loyal to carry out his mission one who was faithful to do what God called him

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to do and that is what brings forth atonement for you and I today that's what brings forth

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mercy for you and I today that we do not get what we deserve but that Jesus came and the

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scripture says he is the way and the truth and wickedness is atoned for by mercy and

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truth or by loyalty and faithfulness so we sit in this room today and we're a bunch of

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sinners we do things we don't want to do we say things we don't want to say and on some

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level we're wicked and we're wicked fools but I want to tell you today that there is

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hope the scripture tells us in first Corinthians that Jesus is wisdom and it's that type of

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wisdom that the Proverbs is calling us to that we want to find that type of wisdom today

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and that the wisdom of putting faith in Jesus Christ it spills over into every aspect of

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our life the Holy Spirit fills us and so we desire to seek what God desires we desire

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to be those who live in wisdom and the book of Proverbs is the best book to show us what

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wisdom is it's the best book to remind us that we are fools that we are wicked but praise

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the Lord that the story doesn't stop there and even in this proverb we just looked at

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we are reminded that there is atonement but that atonement only comes through Jesus Christ

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wickedness is atoned for by loyalty and faithfulness and one turns from evil by the fear of the

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Lord we talked about that last week about the fear of the Lord we want to be those today

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that know that one day we will stand before God the creator of the heavens and the earth

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we will stand before a God who sent his only begotten son and whosoever believeth in him

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shall not perish but have everlasting life we will stand before God one day and that

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should bring about fear we should fear God we should respect God we should praise God

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when we recognize who God is a perfect and loving and compassionate God but a God of

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wrath when we realize who that God is there should be fear in us and that fear should

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drive us to seek him because when we realize how good God is when we compare ourselves

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to God's standard and what God calls us to we realize just how evil we are but praise

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the Lord there's atonement for our wickedness today there's atonement for our foolishness

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and it's only found in Jesus Christ the Bible calls us to repent of our sin to put our

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faith and trust in Jesus Christ to follow him to seek to live by him to seek to live

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by the commands that we see in scripture in the New Testament in the Old Testament and

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these very proverbs and so many more like them that we look at today I pray that we

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would find the wisdom of God today that we need and it can only be found in Jesus Christ

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let's pray Father God we come to you we thank you for these good words dear Lord I pray

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that we would we would read these proverbs today dear Lord not just the ones that we

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looked at but that we we'd turn to him from time to time that we would refresh ourselves

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God that we would read your word with an open heart and an open mind so that your Holy Spirit

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would speak to us God I pray that you'd help us to be ready dear Lord there may be some

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things that we read in there that they were not quite ready for some of these proverbs

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are are kind of tough they hit a little close to home but dear Lord we thank you for that

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you give them give us these proverbs just for that that purpose dear Lord you want us

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to be corrected you want us to know right from wrong you want us to know how to live

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so God we thank you for giving us your word to correct us we thank you that you don't

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just leave us here to to figure it out on our own dear Lord but you give us instruction

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we thank you for Jesus Christ that is true wisdom today I pray dear Lord that each one

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in this room would know the wisdom of who Jesus is that he gave his life on the cross

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so that their sins could be forgiven God I pray that we recognize the truth of your

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word it says we are all sinners dear Lord there may be some in this room today God that

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are still walking in their wickedness and walking in their foolishness I pray today

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that they would repent that they would come before you dear Lord that they would ask you

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for forgiveness they would accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on their behalf dear Lord

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so that their sins would be atoned for today God I pray that maybe there are some in this

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room that are yours but God we got to always be on guard because we're always under temptation

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dear Lord to open our mouth when we shouldn't say what we shouldn't say to do what we shouldn't

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do to act foolishly I pray that you'd forgive us in those areas God were we sin and I pray

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that you would help us to seek your word so that we can learn not to do those things dear

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Lord strive not to do those things we need you today dear Lord and I ask these things

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in Jesus name Amen.