Sunday
Morning Bible Study
January
21, 2018
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved? Regular: 2900 words Communion:
2500 words Video=75wpm
Announcements
Searchlight Update
The land deal where Searchlight would sell the property and we would need
to move, is OFF. Searchlight’s board has decided they will not pursue any further
offers on the property until there is actually a need to move.
We will continue to pray, seek counsel, and save, save, save for the day
that we will be able to purchase our own property.
The Succession Plan
Since I’ve been announcing this the last two weeks, I’m not going to spend
a lot of time on this – you have a flyer in your bulletin that gives the
details. Please be sure to read the entire flyer.
I’m not getting any younger, and we have been planning the last four years towards
the future of our church.
We will be bringing Caleb Beller back from Hungary in June of this year. For
the first couple of years he will be one of my assistant pastors, and then
eventually he will become the new Sr. Pastor, and I will continue here as an
assistant to Caleb.
I’m not leaving or quitting, just passing the baton of leadership to the
next generation.
By the way – this is really, really good news for the future of our church
for the next thirty years.
I’ve also posted videos on Facebook and YouTube of last week’s announcement.
Introduction
The book of Proverbs is all about wisdom.
Wisdom is not about knowing facts.
Wisdom is about knowing what to do with what you know.
Wisdom is knowing when to do it.
Wisdom is knowing how to do it.
We are now in a new section of the
book of Proverbs.
We’ve finished the “mini-lectures”
that Solomon gave to his son in the first nine chapters.
The rest of the book are what we
typically call the “proverbs”.
Proverbs are sayings, typically short, that give wisdom and insight into
everyday things.
They are intended to help you lead a better life.
They are not absolute promises, as in “if you do x,y, then z will always
happen and your life will be perfect”.
They are general principles – that if you do them your life will be generally
better than if you didn’t do them.
I want to encourage you to have a
pencil or pen ready as we work through each chapter.
Though we will read the entire
chapter, I won’t be taking time to unpack every single proverb.
God may want to use one of the proverbs
that we simply pass over to speak to you, so be ready to mark up your Bible or
write down a verse.
It’s going to be a little like
drinking from a fire hydrant.
The Proverbs are Hebrew poetry…
Hebrew poetry is about ideas, not
sounds.
Most of these proverbs are in two
lines.
Sometimes the second line is a
parallel of the first. It expresses the same idea with different words.
Sometimes the second line is an
opposite idea, still clarifying the first, but by way of contrast.
Be careful that you don’t look at
one phrase without looking at the other.
Proverbs 19
:1 Better is the poor who walks in his integrity Than one who is
perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
:2 Also it is not good for a soul to be without knowledge,
And he sins who hastens with his feet.
(Proverbs 19:2 NLT)
Enthusiasm
without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes.
Lesson
Slow Down
I understand how important it is not to waste our time … but … sometimes we
make a big mistake by going too fast instead of slowing down.
This poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a New York
Hospital.
Slow Dance
Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.
Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.
Ever told your child,
We’ll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say, “Hi”
You’d better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.
A.W. Tozer (The Pursuit of God) wrote in 1948,
Slow down…
:3 The foolishness of a man twists his way, And his heart frets against the
Lord.
(Proverbs 19:3 NLT)
People
ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord.
It’s not uncommon for people to get themselves into trouble and then blame
God.
Don’t blame God for your own stupidity.
:4 Wealth makes many friends, But the poor is separated from his friend.
(Proverbs 19:4 NLT) Wealth
makes many “friends”; poverty drives them all away.
:5 A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who speaks lies
will not escape.
:6 Many entreat the favor of the nobility, And every man is a friend
to one who gives gifts.
(Proverbs 19:6 The
Message) Lots of people flock around a generous person; everyone’s a
friend to the philanthropist.
The real question is, what kind of friends will you have when things get
tough and you can’t give to them what they want?
We read last week:
(Proverbs 18:24
HCSB) A man with many friends may be harmed, but there is a friend who
stays closer than a brother.
The next verse continues that same thought…
:7 All the brothers of the poor hate him; How much more do his friends go
far from him! He may pursue them with words, yet they abandon him.
(Proverbs 19:7 NLT)
The
relatives of the poor despise them; how much more will their friends avoid
them! Though the poor plead with them, their friends are gone.
That’s why we need true friends.
:8 He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; He who keeps understanding will
find good.
Solomon isn’t talking about “loving your own soul” in a selfish way. He’s
saying that if you will work hard at wisdom, you’re the one that will benefit.
(Proverbs 19:8 The
Message) Grow a wise heart—you’ll do yourself a favor; keep a clear
head—you’ll find a good life.
Wisdom isn’t always an easy thing to acquire, nor does it come naturally.
There is an aspect of wisdom that requires hard work, and going against
your own selfish nature.
We skipped over verse one for a reason, because it falls into this category
of hard truths.
(Proverbs 19:1 The
Message) Better to be poor and honest than a rich
person no one can trust.
So you’re faced with the issue of cheating and gaining a big financial
payout, or being honest and missing the payout.
What do you do?
The selfish person will do whatever it takes to get the
money.
The wise person will realize that he’s better off in the
end to be honest, then cheating now to get ahead.
Be good to yourself and do these hard things of “wisdom”.
:9 A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who speaks lies
shall perish.
:10 Luxury is not fitting for a fool, Much less for a servant to rule over
princes.
(Proverbs 19:10 The Message) Blockheads
shouldn’t live on easy street any more
than workers should give orders to their boss.
Solomon is simply stating the facts
about what is “fitting”.
Fools can become wealthy and live
in luxury, and those who mindlessly do what they’re told can be your boss … but
it just isn’t right when it happens.
:11 The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, And his glory is
to overlook a transgression.
(Proverbs 19:11
NLT) Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by
overlooking wrongs.
Lesson
Anger and Forgiveness
Anger is not a simple subject. There can be many reasons why a person might
be characterized as an “angry” person.
I’m not going to give you the key to addressing every single angry person.
Yet one type of anger comes from a lack of forgiveness, or
a lack of grace.
Slow to anger
This is a character trait of God. When Moses caught a glimpse of God’s
glory, and God described Himself to Moses as…
(Exodus 34:6 ESV) …“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness
God wants us to be “slow to anger” because He is slow to
anger.
In the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the
Septuagint), the scholars used a form of the word makrothumeo (here, makrothumos)
to translate “slow to anger”.
The New Testament also describes God as being “slow to anger”, using the same
Greek word.
(2
Peter 3:9 NKJV) The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count
slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance.
Patience
Many of our modern translations will translate makrothumeo as “patience”.
When we learn to operate in agape
love towards one another, we will demonstrate this quality of being “slow to
anger”:
(1
Corinthians 13:4 NKJV) Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy;
love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
The patience that we’re talking about here is that same being
“slow to anger”.
That same Greek word figures prominently in a parable that Jesus taught
about forgiveness. This video is from
Matthew 18:21-35.
In the original text, both debtors plead with their
creditors for “patience” or to be “slow to anger”.
If you want to grow in being “slow to anger”, then work at forgiving
others.
If you’re having a hard time forgiving others, you should
be asking yourself, “Has God forgiven me?” God is that great King who is
willing to forgive us a jillion dollars of debt.
There might be some of you today who have never tasted the
forgiveness of God that comes when you turn your life over to Jesus Christ.
Jesus came into this world to die for our sins.
(Isaiah
53:5 NKJV) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for
our iniquities; The
chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
If you will come to Jesus today and ask for His mercy, for
His forgiveness, for His “patience”, He will indeed forgive you.
And once you’ve been forgiven your great big huge debt,
you find that you have no reason not to forgive others.
(Matthew 18:21–35 NKJV) —21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my
brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven
times, but up to seventy times seven. 23 Therefore
the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with
his servants. 24 And when he had begun
to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be
sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.
26 The servant therefore fell down before
him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ 27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion,
released him, and forgave him the debt. 28 “But that
servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred
denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying,
‘Pay me what you owe!’ 29 So his
fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience
with me, and I will pay you all.’ 30 And he
would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were
very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. 32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You
wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant,
just as I had pity on you?’ 34 And his
master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all
that was due to him. 35 “So My
heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not
forgive his brother his trespasses.”
:12 The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, But his favor is
like dew on the grass.
See what I did there??
(Show pictures of roaring lion, grass, and Mountain Dew)
Don’t get the king mad at you.
:13 A foolish son is the ruin of his father, And the contentions of
a wife are a continual dripping.
contentions – midyan
– strife, contention
(Proverbs 19:13
HCSB) A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a wife’s nagging is an
endless dripping.
So kids, learn wisdom.
Wives, watch out for that nagging. And for that matter, husbands could also
be careful about nagging.
Lesson
How to change your spouse
Hint: It’s not done by nagging.
(1 Peter 3:1–4
HCSB) —1 In the same way, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands so
that, even if some disobey the Christian message, they may be won over without
a message by the way their wives live 2 when they observe your pure, reverent lives. 3 Your beauty
should not consist of outward things like elaborate hairstyles and the wearing
of gold ornaments or fine clothes. 4 Instead, it should consist of what is inside the heart with the
imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very valuable in
God’s eyes.
A “disobedient” husband isn’t changed through a wife’s nagging (her words)
but by her behavior.
Changing your spouse starts with changing you.
It’s not wrong to pay attention to your physical appearance, but more
important than the outside, it’s changing what’s on the inside of you that
counts.
:14 Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers, But a prudent
wife is from the Lord.
prudent – sakal
– to be prudent, be circumspect, wisely understand, prosper
(Proverbs 19:14
NLT) Fathers can give their sons an inheritance of houses and wealth,
but only the Lord can give an
understanding wife.
:15 Laziness casts one into a deep sleep, And an idle person will
suffer hunger.
(Proverbs 19:15 HCSB) Laziness
induces deep sleep, and a lazy person will go hungry.
:16 He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul, But he who is
careless of his ways will die.
(Proverbs 19:16 The Message) Keep the
rules and keep your life; careless
living kills.
:17 He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, And He will pay back what he has given.
:17 He who has pity on the poor
Lesson
Generosity
God wants His people to be known for being generous to the poor.
(Deuteronomy 15:7–8 NKJV) —7 “If there
is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land
which the Lord your God is giving
you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother,
8 but you shall open your hand wide to him
and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.
One word of warning: Try to be sure that the person is truly poor or truly
needy.
Some of the people asking for money on street corners are just looking for
an easy way to make money, and giving them money is not helpful.
God promises a blessing on those who will help the poor.
(Psalm 41:1–2 NKJV)
—1 Blessed is he who considers the poor; The Lord will deliver him in time of
trouble. 2 The Lord will preserve him and keep him
alive, And he will be
blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
Solomon is telling us that when we give to a poor person, we have made a
loan to the Lord, and God always repays His debts.
That poor person may not be able to pay you back, but God will.
Jesus said,
(Luke
6:38 NKJV) 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.”
:18 Chasten your son while there is hope, And do not set your heart on his
destruction.
chasten – yacar
– to chasten, discipline, instruct, admonish
(Proverbs 19:18
NLT) Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will
ruin their lives.
Lesson
Future minded discipline
Parents get into trouble in raising their kids when they lose sight of the
future.
You’ve had a hard day, the kids have been especially wild, and you just don’t
have the energy to be the “bad guy”.
If you never discipline your kids, your kids will grow up without knowing
what their limits are. They will not know how to respect others, and how to
stay focused on the task before them.
Solomon pointed to the future – “while there is hope”.
Think about what kind of character traits you want to see in your children.
When you respond to a negative behavior, it’s not because it hurts your
feelings or offends you, but it’s because you don’t want your kids to grow up
doing … whatever the natural outcome of that behavior is (like biting your
brother…)
Disciplining your children when they are young is difficult and unpleasant,
but if you wait until they’re 12 years old before you start saying “no”, it
will be much, much harder.
:19 A man of great wrath will suffer punishment; For if you rescue him,
you will have to do it again.
:19 if you rescue him, you will have to do it again
Lesson
Be careful about saving people
I’m not going to give you a firm hard-fast rule here, but some people need
to experience the consequence of their actions.
When we step in to rescue them from those consequences, we can short
circuit what they might need in their lives.
Solomon’s example is with an angry man.
If you step in and keep that angry man from experiencing the consequence of
his anger, you are only going to have to do it over and over again.
We see the same thing with addiction
Those of us who have lived with addicts may sometimes contribute to the
problem because we keep doing our best to rescue them from facing the
consequences of their actions.
This is called “co-dependence”.
You may say to yourself, “But if I don’t call in to his work and cover for
him, he may lose his job!”
It might be the loss of his job that will finally jolt him
to the point of realizing he needs to change.
You might say, “If I don’t help her, she may go to jail.”
Did you know that sometimes that’s exactly what a person
needs?
:20 Listen to counsel and receive instruction, That you may be wise in your
latter days.
(Proverbs 19:20 NLT) Get all
the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life.
:21 There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.
(Proverbs 19:21 The Message) We humans
keep brainstorming options and plans, but God’s purpose prevails.
It’s not wrong to plan and
brainstorm. Just realize that ultimately it’s God’s plans that prevail.
:22 What is desired in a man is kindness, And a poor man is better than a
liar.
kindness – checed
– goodness, kindness, faithfulness
(Proverbs 19:22 HCSB) What is
desirable in a man is his fidelity; better to be a poor man than a liar.
:23 The fear of the Lord leads
to life, And he who has it will abide in satisfaction; He will not be
visited with evil.
(Proverbs 19:23
HCSB) The fear of the Lord
leads to life; one will sleep at night without danger.
:24 A lazy man buries his hand in the bowl, And will not so much as
bring it to his mouth again.
bowl – tsallachath
– dish, bowl
(Proverbs 19:24 NLT) Lazy
people take food in their hand but don’t even lift it to their mouth.
That might be cute when it’s a little one falling asleep at the table, but
it’s not so cute when an adult won’t do what they need to do in order to feed
themselves.
:25 Strike a scoffer, and the simple will become wary; Rebuke one who has
understanding, and he will discern knowledge.
A scoffer might need a smack to learn their lesson.
The wise person just needs a rebuke.
:26 He who mistreats his father and chases away his
mother Is a son who causes shame and brings reproach.
(Proverbs 19:26 NLT) Children
who mistreat their father or chase away their mother are an embarrassment and a
public disgrace.
Show respect to your parents.
:27 Cease listening to instruction, my son, And you will stray from the
words of knowledge.
:28 A disreputable witness scorns justice, And the mouth of the wicked
devours iniquity.
:29 Judgments are prepared for scoffers, And beatings for the backs of
fools.
(Proverbs 19:29
NLT) Punishment is made for mockers, and the backs of fools are made to
be beaten.
Go back for a minute to vs. 27…
:27 Cease listening to instruction, my son, And you will stray from the
words of knowledge.
:27 listening to instruction
The spirit of a boy, or the wisdom of a man. Which do you have?
Some people don’t want to hear they need to change or how to change.
That’s when you’re heading for trouble.
Have you been learning from these lessons in Proverbs?
Do you remember back in verse 8?
(Proverbs 19:8 The
Message) Grow a wise heart—you’ll do yourself a favor; keep a clear
head—you’ll find a good life.
You’re doing yourself a favor when you do the hard thing, the wise thing.
With so much riding on the choice at
hand…
The spirit of a boy, or the wisdom of
a man.
Which is is?