Let's pray together Father we thank you again
for this time now to open your word to Hear from
you. We pray that indeed you would speak through
your word this morning That your word and your
word alone would go forth Like the Holy Spirit
would empower your word to accomplish your purposes
in the hearts of people I pray you would give
us hearing ears and submitting hearts to submit
ourselves unto the work of the Holy Spirit this
morning, that indeed we would apply that which
we learn into our very lives. Again, we ask for
the loss that you might have mercy on some who
are yet in their sins here and elsewhere, that
you would grant repentance and faith to many
who are yet apart from Christ. And so we pray
in Christ's name. Amen. Is this right? Can you
hear? More? How's that? Better? Yeah. Well, we're
still in Proverbs, so I invite you to turn to
Proverbs. I'm going to share something with you
that not normally happens, but... I was somewhere
entirely different in Proverbs until about Friday.
Well, until Friday. Not even early Friday. But
in the middle of the morning Friday, I was given
this text for this morning. I never had any peace
about what I was preparing and where I was looking.
So I continued to pray and ask and beg, really,
for a text for this morning. And this is what
I was given. So I don't know if this is a special
word for somebody here this morning or it's just
for me. I don't know why it worked that way,
but I had an unusually difficult time determining
a text to preach on this morning. So keeping
that in mind, I guess I'd like to start with
a couple of faithful sayings that scripture says
some of the things that we've perhaps we've already
learned from Proverbs so and what we're going
to have reinforced this morning once again but
God's Word cannot fail is that is that one of
your bedrock beliefs, one of your bedrock positions.
God's word cannot fail us. All the promises of
God are yea and amen in Christ. Everything that
we need, everything that we desire, hopefully,
is ours in Christ. The spiritual reality of the
spiritual realities are far better than the material.
You believe that? You live like that. How much
time is given to each area? It's another way
of thinking about it. Are we really concentrating
our best efforts, our best times to advance in
the spiritual realm or in the material realm?
Well, you know, Proverbs obviously tells us that
the spiritual world is much better. Far to be
desired above the materialistic world. In fact,
if you don't understand the Proverbs spiritually,
they really don't make any sense. If you don't
get the spiritual reality, I mean, it's like
your head's spinning. How, what? We'll see some
of that today. So in Christ is wisdom. Christ
is wisdom. There's no separation there. You can't
be wise apart from Christ. You can have some
understanding. We know some lost men who've done
some wonderful things and blah, blah, blah, blah.
But true wisdom. Can only be had through Christ
and in Christ We serve God because we love God
That's our motive That's our motive for everything
that we do if it's not Then what we're doing
is no good It's worthless If you're not the best
employee you can be because you love God, you're
missing the whole point of the Christian life.
And we love because God first loved us. Our love
pours forth out of us because God's love has
been poured forth into us. We love because God
first loved us. We haven't heard much about this
last one that I'm gonna give you, but we will
today. We will reap proportionately what we sow.
Put another way, you reap exactly what you sow.
That's throughout the scriptures. So in this
third chapter then we have, Five couplets. The
first ten verses of the chapter are five couplets,
giving us some wisdom about life in Christ, about
life on this earth. So we're just going to read
these as couplets. We'll read the two verses
and then we'll think about it. And again, as
long as we're understanding this spiritually,
there's not a lot of difficulty here. God is
good to us. He knows how weak we are. He knows
our Inabilities and so he makes things plain
And so these are very plain Couplets So in verse
1 my son Forget not my law or my word But let
thine heart keep my commandments For length of
days and long life and peace shall they add to
thee." Now, does that mean, and I'm not going
to say this every time, so I'm saying it now,
does this mean that we're going to earn a long
life? Is that what he says? Is that how we're
understanding this? If we don't forget God's
law and we keep His commandments, we've earned
a long life. Or we will achieve a long life.
Obviously, if you're understanding it that way,
that's not it. What is our life? Is a long life
necessarily a blessing? How much of a long life
is a curse? The fact that we live a long time
doesn't necessarily mean we've had a great life.
It could mean just the opposite. Our life has
been nothing but pain and sorrow, abuse, whatever.
and we've just been miserable all of our lives.
That would be very unusual for a Christian, so
I'm not using that to describe the Christian
life, but that is possible and it does happen
countless times to unsaved people particularly.
Their long life has been no blessing. What does
it say? What did Christ mean when He said He's
going to give us life abundantly? Full life.
All manner of goodness. I want you to live life
to the fullest. My joy I'm leaving with you.
I'm giving it to you. What is all that talking
about? We have a life. When you wake up in the
morning, it's your physical body that got out
of bed. We all are alive here But are we all
living the life the life the life abundantly
The life that Jesus brought for us the life that
we celebrate Do you know it Do you know his word?
Do you strive after God? That's the kind of life
we're supposed to have and it's going to be a
full life. It's going to be a life of peace.
It's going to be a length of days, a long life
and peace. If we're living THE life. according
to God's commandments, according to His Word.
You don't separate these things. This is what
is ours in Christ. You're not earning it. This
is what He's given to us. Are you living it?
Are you loving it? Are you experiencing it? This
is what Jesus wants us to experience. He doesn't
want us to be overwhelmed in the world. He doesn't
want us to be worrying and fearful and miserable.
He's telling us how not to be in this life. Now
we all know that this is only the beginning of
our life. We never want to lose sight of that
long as no matter how many years we're alive
here. That's just a start The long life here
also includes the long life our long home heaven
with God If you lose sight of that It's far easier
to be discouraged. It's far easier to get entrapped
by the devil and the snares of this world and
even the weakness of our own flesh. This is not
our home. We're not staying here forever. We're
staying somewhere else forever. We're staying
with the God Almighty and His precious Son, Jesus
Christ. They love us. who loves us and has given
us all things. So going on we read, Let not mercy
and truth for safety bind them about thy neck,
write them upon the table of thine heart. So
shall thou find favor and good success in the
sight of God and man. reputation and success
that's you may have those words mercy and truth
you may have or you may have love and faithfulness
find them around our necks keep them right here
right with us don't let them depart from you
don't ever forget about This is how you find
favor with God and with man? No, this is how
you act if you are a Christian man or woman or
a boy or a girl. Anybody who is related to Christ,
love and faithfulness are evident upon us. Is
it important to have a good reputation? Is that
important to you guys? I spent years not worrying
about my reputation. But that was a wrong approach.
I should have cared more about what people thought
about. We all should. Why? Because we are Christ's
representatives. We are supposed to mirror Christ
to the world. If we're not full of love and faithfulness,
how are we showing Christ to the world? We're
not. Does this verse mean that the lost people
are all going to think that we're all just wonderful
folks? They're going to be patting us on the
back and telling us so? Of course not. Many people
in the world are going to be angry with us. How
about our brothers and sisters in Christ? Yes,
we should have favor with God and with man. That's
what we are to have. And that's when we have
love and faithfulness. That's what we do have.
They're inseparable. When you see somebody that
you, well somebody from the church and they're
just full of love and good works. They're faithfully
serving God. They're faithfully serving us. We've
got a lot of people like that here. I mean, we
should just overflow with joy just to know them,
just to be recipients of all the stuff that they
do for us. They've got a fine reputation with
God and with man. I'm going to read the Romans
chapter here. Romans 12, 17. Let's see it. Recompense
to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest
in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as
much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all
men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourself, but
rather give place unto wrath, for it is written,
Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. Therefore,
if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst,
give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head be not overcome of
evil but overcome evil with good that's what
the proverbs talking about there and that's what
paul's talking about that's what jesus is talking
about as a christian nobody can rightly fault
you when you treat men and women boys and girls
of the world in that manner that doesn't mean
that they won't but there won't be any truth
to it And anybody that knows Christ is going
to know that those are false accusations because
they know who you are and what you do. There's
more, I'm not going to, but if you want to look
at it yourself, it begins at 1417. You can look
that up later. So we should be concerned because
we are, as I said, Christ's... representative.
And then we got this totally familiar couplet
here, verse five. Trust in the Lord with all
thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall
direct thy paths. So again, that's the easiest
one, isn't it? We all know what that means, right?
There's no problem understanding that. Have faith
in the Lord. Trust Him with all of your heart,
in all sincerity. There's no mixing there. It's
purity. It's all trust. Trust, trust, trust.
That's what He's telling us to do. Trust the
Lord. Don't lean on your own understanding. It's
so simple, but how many times do we get fouled
up? How many times do we trust our own understanding?
How many times do we act without praying? How
many times do we react the same way we always
react when such and such happens? Because we
think we know, we got it figured out. We don't
need any help or anything else. That's not the
way, that's not the Christian life. God doesn't
take you by the hand here and drag you in the
opposite direction that you're trying to go.
Do you understand that? You can go on down that
path if that's what you want. I mean it's not
going to be the right path and you're going to
have a long walk back perhaps. But if you're
God's you're gonna have that long walk back The
longer you go in the wrong direction obviously
the harder it is on you When you finally come
to your senses God finally grants you repentance
Lean not on your own understanding folks It's
paths of righteousness. It's telling us just
the same thing that Psalm 23 tells us. We make
the declaration that our shepherd leads us. He
leads us in paths of righteousness. And that's
where we should want to be. That's where we need
to be. That's the way that we honor and glorify
God in paths of righteousness. Not depending
on us putting us there, but trusting and having
faith in the Lord Jesus that the way that he's
leading us is the path of righteousness. It's
not sporadic. It's not compartmentalized. It's
all of life. trusting the Lord with all of your
life, with all of your heart, in full confidence
and assurance that He's going to do you good.
He's going to do right by you. He's not going
to send you down some foggy bottom road. He's
not going to send you on some fool's errand.
This is the Lord Jesus, the holy one, the high
and lofty one that dwells in the holy place.
and the one who dwells with those of a contrite
heart, those who trust in Him. That's who we're
dealing with here. He's totally trustworthy,
isn't He? God's Word doesn't fail. You can base
your life on it. You can live on it. Guidance
and blessing will be ours as we acknowledge Him
in all areas of our life, as we fully trust Him
with all of our hearts. Verse 7, Be not wise
in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from
evil. It shall be health to thy body and marrow
to thy bones. Be humble. Be not wise in thine
own eyes. Be humble. That's what it's telling
you. Be humble. It's like... I guess it was Jake
that said we have to remember. We have to be
reminded. Be humble. Be not wise in your own
eyes. Be humble. Fear the Lord. Have the utmost
respect for the Lord. How do you have fear of
the Lord? Well, you have it. We don't refer to
it as the fear of the Lord. One man said, know
the character of God. That's the first step in
fearing the Lord, having respect for the Lord.
Know his character. Know who God is. The women
are having a wonderful opportunity to find out
all about God. That's exactly what they're studying
in this latest book. So I encourage all the women
to get together for the study. Know God. Know
all you can know. That's how you fear the Lord.
That's how you show utmost respect for the Lord.
Know Him and know Him and know Him some more.
You can't know too much about God. You can only
know too little. Know the presence of God. You
see, that's... How wise this guy was. It's not
enough to have, you can have all the knowledge
that you want. But until he's there in your presence,
it's just head knowledge. That's all that it
is. You gotta experience this guy that you know.
You gotta live with him. You gotta know that
he's living with you. He's living in you. You
have a relationship. You don't want to do anything
that jeopardizes that relationship. You've got
to live in the presence of God. We should glory
in that. That should never cause us to fear.
That should never cause us to in any way draw
back. To live in the presence of God is to have
the... Just know that He's there with you. He
is guiding you. He is revealing Himself. He is
teaching you. He is blessing you. Do you experience?
Do you know it? When you come apart to pray,
do you know the presence of God in your life?
This is what God wants for His children. He's
up there waiting to welcome us with open arms.
Is he going to welcome a stranger when we get
there? No, he's going to welcome his child. He
already knows us. He already knows all about
us. Are we going to walk into a stranger's arms
when we get there that we don't even have any
real relationship with? Of course not. We're
going to have the ultimate relationship Heaven
is no heaven apart from God If you're going to
someplace where God isn't you're not in heaven
But if you're going to God you are in heaven
Now that's That's the spiritual reality. That's
the spiritual truth there. And that's true of
every Christian. But every Christian's not healthy
in his body, is he? No, of course not. Every
Christian doesn't even have a food to eat every
day. So how blessed and how thankful should we
be to be where we are? We are rich, folks. We're
rich in the blessings of God, both spiritually
and physically. Why were you born who you are?
Did you ever think about that? Did you ever contemplate
that? Why? Why didn't Mike Dickman turn out to
be Joe Blow from Barneo or something? You know?
Why? It's all the mercy of God. It's all in His
hand. It's all according to His plan and purposes
that you are who you are. I mean, what more do
we need to be pouring ourselves out in thankfulness
and love and adoration to God? That He spared
us so much hardship and rigors in this life.
Does it take hardships and rigors of life for
us to be thankful? Well, if it does you'll get
them Okay, then we got nine and nine and ten
Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the
first fruits of all vine increase So shall thy
barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses
shall burst out with new wine. So we're promised
here wealth and abundance. Wealth, we're going
to be wealthy. So here's where it comes in, you
reap exactly what you sow. That's what this...
That's a quote from the New Testament, and this
is saying the same thing. Honor the Lord with
thy substance and with the first fruits of all
thy increase. Is that a principle that we adhere
to? I don't know that it is, but I'm going to
put it in New Testament language here, and then
we'll consider it again. Now, we're not limiting
this to material things. We're not going to simply
gain material wealth. We're going to gain in
the spiritual realm as well. And that should
be our primary concern. But in the New Testament,
in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, you can read that
whole chapter there. You want the whole story.
But Paul is going to take up a gift. And in verse
7, well, let's read verse 6 just to keep it.
together here, verse 6, But this I say, he which
soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and
he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
Every man, according as he purposes in his heart,
so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity,
for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able
to make all grace abound toward you. that you,
always having all sufficiency in all things,
may abound to every good work. As it is written,
he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given it to
the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever.
Now, he that ministereth seed to the sower, both
minister bread for your food, and multiply your
seed sowing. and increase the fruits of your
righteousness. Does that sound exactly like Proverbs?
Is that what you got out of the verses in Proverbs
when I read it to you? Probably not, but that's
what it's talking about. It's talking about spiritually
and physically, both aspects. God's going to
take care of us. That's what He said. He's going
to make His grace abound towards us. But you're
having all sufficiency in all things that you
may abound in every good work What when you sow
abundantly you're gonna reap abundantly So it's
not just talking about our money in other words,
it's talking about all of our lives What are
you so into? It is talking about our money. It's
talking about our first fruits. God expects us
to be generous givers with everything that we
own. Why? Because we're simply stewards. It's
not ours. It's God's. He's given it to us. You
say, I earned every penny of that. Well, that's
the miser's approach. That's true. You did earn.
You had a job, which is what you were supposed
to do. And you did earn it. But who enabled you
to? Who gave you the health? Who gave you the
strength? Who gave you the knowledge? Who gave
you the opportunity to get the job? And he gave
it to you so that you could what? So that you
could be abundant in your giving and abundant
in your in your sowing and in your reaping, helping
the poor, giving the food. all of this read it
again as many times as you want to get absolute
clarity but there's no distinction between giving
of ourselves and receiving from the Lord you
will reap what you sow so that's what it says
you heard me read it John got a quote from John
Bunyan A man there was, some call him mad. The
more he gave away, the more he had. Sounds just
like John Bunyan, doesn't it? Yeah. You can't
out -give the giver, I know the words. You can't
do it. God's going to give you over abundantly.
of anything that you ever had or anything that
you ever give. That's what he says. He who lost
father and mother or sister, you'll have multitudes
of brothers and sisters. I'm going to give you
multitudes. You're not going to lose nothing.
Houses and land, nothing. But it's all it is.
What do you desire? What is our desire? I've
got to keep hold of this money for my retirement?
I've got to keep hold of this money until I get
this car paid off? Or I get my house paid down?
Or I've got people out there that I can help
with this money? I can honor God with this money.
I can be of service to God with this money. God
says He's going to take care of you. God says
He wants you to be abundant in the giving. He
wants you to be a happy, glad giver. Money, yes,
but everything. Time, talents, all of that. You
give from all of those areas of your life. And
you will have a full life. You will. I mean,
you won't believe how God takes care of you.
I can testify. I probably shouldn't do that.
I can testify. I raised up six kids. And I never
had... Two nickels to rub together. We lived
paycheck to paycheck for what? Yeah, I don't
even know how many years. One time we wound up
with eight people in a three room flat. And we
had the greatest time. It was fun. Just seeing
how it all works. How it all worked out. How
God's using this in everybody's life Well not
fun Rebecca So Yeah, I had a financial advisor
once He says what are you ever gonna do when
you retire? You don't have nothing you you do
all you got is this little piddly. I don't know
what it was Some amount, but didn't amount to
nothing you got to start investing that you got
to get going What's going to happen when you
retire? And I said it's going to happen is the
same thing that's happened all of my life. God's
going to take care of me. He gave me six kids.
That's my retirement fund. And it has. It's worked
out exactly as I thought God would work it out.
So you can't out give the giver, folks. Give
yourself away. Trust your ways to Him. Don't
lean on your own understanding. Don't be wise
in your own eyes. So we're going to close here
with this last saying here. And it's found in
verses 11 and 12, my son. Despise not the chastening
of the Lord, neither be weary of His correction.
For whom the Lord loves He corrected, even as
a father the Son in whom He delighteth." Okay,
so is living like this going to be easy? Is this
going to require some changes in us? Are we going
to have to take an honest look at our life and
say, I can't go on living. I've got to start
doing New York. Are we honestly going to assess
our lives in the light of God's Word and change?
Now, how are you going to know? Well, God's going
to bring discipline on you. That's how you're
going to know. That's what it says here. Despise
not the chastening of the Lord. neither be weary
of his correction." Isn't it odd that we would
find that after these five couplets? No, it's
not, because God knows us. And He wants you to
know that He's going to correct you. And He doesn't
want you to despise it or get mad. He wants you
to accept it, to embrace it, to love Him for
it. Why? Because He's showing His love and His
delight in you. when he brings chastening upon
us. That's what it says. If you've never been
chastened by the Lord, it's because the Lord
doesn't love you. So don't brag about not being
chastened because you might be bragging about
not knowing the Lord. We always want to be quick.
Sin doesn't cause sickness. Yes it does. Sin
does cause sickness. Not every time. Not all
the time. Who knows how many times. You don't
think God uses sickness in our lives to chase
us? Of course he does. But are we even conscious
of it? Do we know it? When we're in our sickbeds,
what are we thinking about? Does it ever occur
to us to assess ourselves then? to see if perhaps
we can be by the aid of the Holy Spirit able
to determine what God's trying to tell us. That's
not the only way, but it is one way. That was
always believed by Christians for centuries.
The Lord does chase in His people. So don't be
discouraged. Again, He's showing His love and
His... is delighting me. Apply yourself. Take
proper assessment. Be guided by the Lord. Is
there anything better than being guided by the
Lord? Think about it. Do you not want to be guided
by the Lord? Who would be nutty enough to say
that? Nobody. But sometimes we act like it, don't
we? we want to just have what we want to have
we want we think this has got to be the way this
has got to be right well no maybe it's not guided
by the lord directed by him serving him loving
him being loved by him well this is the end as
far as i know of this type of a sermon i'm going
to be moving on Whatever the Lord has, that's
what we're going to have to get, right? That's
what we want. So, amen.