Okay, thank you for coming this morning. Glad to have you here at Hope Baptist Church. Those of you who have not been here before, you are welcome. And those of you that have been here before, you are also welcome. So everyone is welcome this morning. Let's take our Bibles and go to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1, and we are talking about proverbial people. Last week we talked about the wise, and this week, Lord willing, we'll talk about the simple. The simple. Robert chapter 1 and verse 22, how long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge. And the thing about the simple we see right off the bat is that they love simplicity. Now if we were to talk about the fool and the scorner, they have a lot in common. The scorner And the fool and the wise person all have something in common. They have their mind made up. They know what they want. And they're going to do whatever it takes to get what they want. With the wise man, he says, well, the principles of the Word of God say this. And so no matter what I feel, I'm going to follow the principles of the Bible. And that's what I want to do. Now, if you're waiting, by the way, to feel like serving the Lord, You'll probably have that most of the time you'll have that will be here in church After you get a good whipping from the Bible you'll feel like serving the Lord and then about 20 minutes after The service is over and you get in your car and go home. You will no longer feel like serving the Lord but it depends on how much you know emphasis and time you put in the Word of God and But you have to decide, this is what I want to do. And that's what the wise man does. He makes up his mind. The fool, he knows what he wants. What he wants is what he wants. Whatever it is, that's what he wants. We don't know. It could be something different for every person. But basically, with a fool, you're dealing with a selfish person. Someone that says, I don't care how I look. I don't care what people say about me. I want what I want, and I'll do whatever I have to do to get it. That's why sometimes you can be amazed at someone that would be willing to humble himself or herself and do something completely strange completely Crazy and you say why in the world would they want to do that? I'll tell you the reason is because they want whatever it is that they want and they don't care how they look to anyone that's what a fool will do a scorner will If you follow through the scripture, you'll find a scorner is not as concerned necessarily in the same way that the foolish one is. He's not as intent on getting that thing. What he wants more than anything in the world is to look good. He wants to be worshipped. He wants to be looked at as a wise person, as a smart person. And that's why you'll find a scorner many times will challenge the person in authority. Because they recognize the person in authority has some leadership, has people following him. And they say, well, I don't like the fact that everyone's following him. I want everyone to follow me. But most of the time, the scorner is not going to do things that we would look at and say, that's completely stupid. Because they care a great deal about what the crowd thinks of them. And so they're a little different. But the thing that pulls them all together is the scorner, the wise, and the fool, they have their minds made up. they know what they want to do, whether it's their own personal pride that they're concerned about keeping, whether it's buying this thing, put $5,000 on a credit card to get it, and it's a completely foolish thing to do, but I want it, and so I don't care what anybody says about it, or whether it's the wise man who says, you know, I am not smart enough to make it through this world, I want to serve God, and so I'm going to read my Bible, I'm going to come to church. And so they make that decision, and they do it. But a simple person, he's not like that at all. He has not made up his mind and he doesn't really care about making up his mind. His goal in life is not to be the person with the answers. His goal is just to float through life. Just to have a time. Just to enjoy whatever it might be at the moment. And it's easy to be this way sometimes. We like to come home and we like to sit down and just stay there until something requires us. Someone cuts their ear off or someone swallows poison or somebody drives into our house from the street. and then we might get up and we might go and actually do something about it. But, you know, other than that, I just want to float through life. I don't want to bother with things. I don't care. I don't want to read the fine print. I don't want to, you know, do any of that stuff. I just want to float through life. And somebody said they're kind of like tofu. They can go with whatever they happen to be with. They can just spit right in. And you can fry them up and enjoy it. It's great. Look at Acts chapter 19, and I want to show you a little portion of Scripture that gives a great example of a simple person. Acts 19, verse 27. And here's the town of Ephesus, very upset with Paul, and they said in verse 27, so that not only this our craft is in danger," let's see here, yes, this our craft is in danger to be said it not, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth. And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried out saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion. And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater. And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not. Now go down to verse number 34. But when they knew that he was a Jew, talking about Alexander, all with one voice, about the space of two hours, cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And when the, let me go get this there. And when the town clerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter? Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly. For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Now look back there, if you will, in verse number verse number 29. It says the whole city was filled with confusion. Now why were they filled with confusion? Because Paul shows up, he shows up in the synagogue and he simply is there because of the feast and everyone says well we know why they're here, they're here to turn everything over. They begin to scream and to yell and verse 32 it said some therefore cried one thing and some another For the assembly was confused, and the more part, that means the majority, knew not whereof, wherefore they were come together." They're screaming and yelling for two hours, and no one really understood why they were even screaming and yelling. That's a simple person right there. You'll know that you're a simple person when you say things about someone that you don't even know for sure is true, but you know that it'll get a reaction out of this person. And so you say it, and then you come to find out later it wasn't even true. There's a website. I hope that some of you might get a hold of this. There are some people that love to pass on chain letters and forward letters. uh... and the thing about forwards that's so wonderful is that they all are just extremely, extremely important. No one has ever heard this information before. No one has ever, I mean, everybody missed it. But this person got it and thank the Lord they did. They're going to pass it on to their address book and hopefully you'll do the same. And then the world will know that these things are true. There's a website that you need to get a hold of called snopes.com Now, somebody needs to write a website about Snopes.com, too, but we won't go there. But you need to go on there. At least put some thought into what you're sending on. I'll never forget finding out, to my delight, that Mr. Rogers, Mr. Rogers, as most of you know, you got this email, didn't you? I heard that Mr. Rogers, he was, in fact, a Navy SEAL. He was some kind of a sharpshooter for the Navy back in Vietnam, or Vietnam. And he was there. Amen and the reason why he always wore these long cardigans and sweaters because he had tattoos, you know and all kinds of stuff on his arms and You know he had these and that's why he loved to work with children because he had killed so many people He said I just need to go work with children. That's the hope of the future and it makes pretty good sense, right? But it's not true. So that's the only that's the only the only sad fact of that story is that I could find is just not true. So go to Snopes.com. And interesting stuff. Why is that? It's because you and I, we don't want to take the leadership. We're not the ones that are doing the research. We want someone else to do the research so we can cash in on what they've said and found out. And we can say, hey, did you hear this? And it makes us sound pretty smart. But if we're not careful, it makes us sound pretty stupid, too. When someone comes along and says, actually, no, that's not the case. And here, these people are shouting for two hours. And if you were to pull one of them aside and say, hey, why are you wearing yourself out here? I don't know, but I'm just saying, if it means something to them, it means something to me. Okay, you know you pull up 75% of the people over and say what now exactly what are we shouting about? I don't know, but it's got to be important or we wouldn't be shouting Well circular reasoning, I guess it works for some folks, right? Sometimes it can be like a business meeting at church, you know a simple Simple people. Well, I just don't understand why we have to do these things, you know, well, it doesn't make any sense to me. I You know, they end up with the more part, shouting for two hours, and no one really knows. There's not a whole lot of laughter going on. Let's keep going. That's going on. Some of you all have been to those meetings, I can tell. So if you look back at Proverbs chapter 1, that first time it's mentioned in the book of Proverbs, the only goal that a simple person has is to be dead and in heaven someday. That's the goal. That's why I think we have a lot of simple Christians. It's just easier if I can close my eyes and pretend it's all good. Everything's fine. It's all going to work out. You know, the fact is, that is true. That is true. But let me ask you this. If it's all going to work out, why are you on this earth? Why are you here? There's got to be a reason for it. If it's all going to get fixed in the end, and God's going to be glorified, and He's going to do everything He said, and we know that He is, then why are you here? Why am I here? Why does it even matter? You know, why don't I just go to the nursing home right now and check in and just wait? Right? Why does it matter? See, that's a simple person says, you know, as long as I can just, you know, take care of my stuff and my people. And, you know, the only reason why we take care of our people is because they're going to scream at us for two hours unless we take care of them. You know, just stay off my back. I just want to go through the... Look at Trapper Roberts 122. How long, ye simple ones? Will ye love simplicity? The reason is they like simplicity. That's why they're simple people. Now, when I say simple, you think of, you know, some kind of a guy with a hunchback, you know, just walking through life. He doesn't understand anything. No, we're not saying the person is incapable of learning, that they're not intellectually inferior. They are simple in that they choose not to take sides. They choose not to enter the fray. They choose not to do hard things. They choose the simplest, easiest way because they really don't have any goals. They don't have any plan. They don't have any direction. They don't have any purpose. And you know what the fact is? The only reason why you and I can sit and veg, this is kind of a crazy thought, but the reason why you and I can sit and veg in front of the television for hours and hours and hours and hours is because there are hundreds of thousands of people who do not sit in front of the television and veg for hundreds and hundreds of hours. They are actually in front of the camera and they're being videoed and they're working, working, working, working, working and selling their very souls so that you and I can sit around and watch them. Isn't that kind of weird? If we can take some of that work ethic and put it in our lives and let them go and watch TV, we might get a whole lot more done. I don't have to be in charge, the simple person says, so I don't have to take the blame. Amen. I heard a story about a preacher acquaintance of mine. He said he had a business meeting and they voted on some issue and they were 100% in favor of whatever the issue was. Everyone voted the same. But afterward, he opened it up for comments, and this lady stands up and she went on a tirade about, I can't believe that the whole church would vote this direction. I just can't believe that everyone has to say this. And she went on. So what happened? Well, then they opened it up. They said, well, we better, somebody raised their hand, we better re-vote again. We've got to re-vote. So people are putting seconds up all over the place. I second that. I second that. Hold on, people. You just voted 100% on this issue. What's the deal? The deal is people, they're simple. They go along. They don't want to make any waves. And then when something happens, they don't understand that. Oh, what's going on? I don't understand this. It doesn't make any sense. How do we get our president that we have today? I don't understand that. Well, I'll tell you, it's a secret. A lot of folks don't know this. Amen? People went into what's called a voting booth, and they voted for him, and that's how he got in. That's how it goes, right? So I'm telling you, this is something that we have to think about. Leadership means pressure. And the simple person does not want pressure. You say, well, I don't want to be a leader. I'm telling you, if someone asks you a question, that they are hoping you have an answer to, you are a leader. And a lot of folks say, well, I don't want to be a leader. Well, you could just look in the thesaurus and find out what they really mean is, I don't want to have any responsibility. I don't necessarily want to be the one. See, I want to be married. I want to be the man. I mean, I'm the man. I'm the man of my house. I'll tell you that right now. But I don't necessarily want to fix the stuff in the house. I don't. I mean, you know, the guy's got to have some time to relax. You know, he's got to he's got to be able to kick back a little bit here and there every day all day long. Amen. Amen. Ladies, that's your chance right there. We're not to Proverbs 31 yet, but we will be. Amen. We will be. So look now with me, if you would, at chapter 7. Let's keep going. Proverbs 7. Simple person. We don't want to be that, but if you are asked a question, if someone looks to you for direction, you are a leader. Now whether or not you give that direction, that's up to you. That kind of determines whether you're a simple person or a leader or a wise person, so to speak. Proverbs 7. Now look at this, it says, we know Proverbs 7 talking about the strange woman, the harlot. In verse 7 it says, look at verse 6, for at the window of my house I looked through my casement and beheld among the simple ones I discerned among the youth a young man void of understanding passing through the street near her corner and he went the way to her house in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night. Now we're going to read verse 6 and let's read down and watch The word a word or two that she continues to say and I'll emphasize it for you look at verse number 13 so she caught him and kissed him and with an impudent face said unto him I Have peace offerings with me this day have I paid my vows? Therefore came I forth to meet thee diligently to seek thy face and I have found thee a I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with card works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, and let us take our fill of love into the morning. Let us solace ourselves with love. For the good man is not at home. He has gone a long journey, and has taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. With her much fair speech, she caused him to yield. With the flattering of her lips, she forced him. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a foal to the correction of the stocks, till a dart strike through his liver. And as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life." See, what she is doing, she's talking to him. She said, Thee, Thee, You're the one I'm looking for. You're the one I care about. And see, that's all it took to put the simple guy over the top. Because, did she really care about him? No, she didn't care about him. She cared about making money. And he, what did he care about? He just cared about having fun, just going through life, floating through, didn't matter, whatever. You know, hey, if that's going to offer me the most, I'll go for it. And you realize people make hundreds of thousands of dollars marketing things to you specifically. I mean, you deserve a break today. You do. I mean, indulge. You work so hard, you owe it to yourself to buy whatever you want. Now, do they really care about you? I don't think they do. Something about it tells me they don't really care. I think, you know, and I'm offended by that. I thought they really cared. They acted like they did in that commercial, you know. You know, buy yourself, or they'll say buy her the very best. And I don't think they care about your wife either. What are they doing? They're emphasizing that this is for you. You can get this. And the simple person says, you are right. I deserve this. And look at this. The guy is not even at home. She's taking care of everything there. And she loves me. She cares about me. It's a wonderful thing. I'm just going to go do it. And what does it say? Look at verse number 22. He goeth after her straightway as an ox, goeth to the slaughter. Think about that. I remember reading a story about the slaughterhouse for cattle. They said they walk up and they have all these cattle coming through the chute. They just walk up there to this ramp of some kind. They all walk up, take some kind of a machine, and shoot a slug into their head. Boom, they're dead. They kick them over into this place over here, whatever it was, some kind of a holding tank. The cattle are just walking up. They don't know. They said they were playing highway to heaven for the cattle. And they said, they're playing it over the sound system, you know. And I don't know, I don't know if the cows really knew what that meant or not. Because they just kept walking by and they keep getting those slugs right in their head. Boom, boom, boom. The one that, you know, he's watching the guy in front of him. Boom. Oh, look, look, Larry fell down. I wonder why. Let's keep going. Boom. You know, they're not even thinking about it. You know, and you know what the sad thing about it is? You and I, we look around and we see people in our lives that are connected with us or our neighbors or others and we look at them, oh look, they just fell in the sin. Huh, interesting. Flip the channel. Oh, look at that. That person just got taken down. Their whole marriage fell apart. That's terrible. You never know. You never know. And we just keep going straight on. Walking up there. Alright, put a slug right here in my head. Yeah, that's good. Boom. Oh, I can't even think anymore. Down I fall. I wonder how that happened. You're a simple person. We have simple tendencies. Why? It's not because we're stupid. It's because we want to relax and kick back and not look at this world as a battlefield, which it is. A preacher said, some preacher somewhere, a wise man, he said that the Christian life can never be understood until it's understood in the context of warfare. Context of warfare. You know the only reason why you and I can be simple is because there are some wise people out there giving us liberty and security so that we can be simple. No, that's not why they're doing it. They're really doing it so that we can be wise. That's why we have a military, so we can enjoy freedom here in this country. That's why we have it. And they're out there, they are serious. They're serious. You ever see somebody when they come back from boot camp or whatever? I remember watching a friend of mine coming back from the Marine Corps, and he was just as serious as he could be. He used to be a jokester, and he's just like a rod the whole time. He'd sit down, stand up, and I said, come on, Matt, what's going on? He wouldn't say anything, he'd just stand there. And the reason, because that's a serious context that he was in, and killing people is a serious thing, and being shot at is a serious thing. But you and I don't see that as where we are in this Christian life. We look at it as, hey, we're just in a holding tank until we get to heaven. We're just sitting here, hanging out, and one of these days, God's going to open the door and say, you know, all right, everybody, come on in. Like, finally, now we can get in. That's not what it is. We're here doing battle. Now, the thing about it is, we understand we're not doing battle so that God will win. Thank God for that. Amen? It's not God versus the devil, I wonder who's gonna win. It's God's already won the victory 2,000 years ago, and the devil is just not wanting to admit it. Amen? It's like when you were a kid and your mom would say, uh, Harry can have the cookie. Alright, now the decision has been made. But Jerry over here is not happy with Harry. The decision gets made. Harry, it's your cookie. Jerry's gonna throw a fit for the next hour. That's kind of the way it is. God's already decided, this is what's happened. The decision has been made. I've purchased salvation. It's all going to work out exactly as I said. The devil's just throwing a fit. Can't handle it. Okay? Now the thing about it is, you and I know, amen, if you can remember back, just because the parent says, this is the way it's going to be, doesn't always mean that your sibling is going to go along with that decision. Amen? So just because God has said, this is the way things are going to be, doesn't mean the devil's just going to sit around and do nothing. And you and I have to deal with what the devil is going to do. In fact, if you can get this in your head, you're not fighting in order to win the victory for God. Oh yes, check one off for God. He might just pull this thing out in the end. He already won the whole thing. It's over with. But, you and I still have to deal with our other people around here. And the biggest one we have to deal with is ourselves. Amen? Why? Because we're not in glory yet. But we have to recognize that we can be simple people. Let's keep going here. Look at chapter 8. Chapter 8. The simple person needs to be reminded constantly of what the right thing to do would be. Okay. Look at chapter 8, verse number 5. It says, O ye simple, understand wisdom. Who's talking? Chapter 8, verse 1, doth not wisdom cry. Where does she cry? She standeth in the top of high places, by the way, in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in of the doors. She's all over town. And she's saying, O ye simple, understand wisdom. Listen, listen, listen. You ever feel like sometimes you want to go back to where people told you what to do all day long? And some of you are probably already still there, right? But when you're a kid, you get told this, this, this, this, this. Well, when you get out as an adult and you have your own liberty and freedom, what do you do? What kind of decisions do you make? You know, it would be a whole lot simpler if you had Pastor Sal around all day every day saying, no, no, you know better than that. Are you kidding me? Stop. Right? Someone around that you can respect, someone that you love, and it told you, no, no, no. Now we do have that. He's the Holy Spirit. He's inside of us. But He does not physically restrain us. He does not physically enforce those things. Right? And so it's more difficult. But as you grow older, you now have to take your own responsibility. You have to parent yourself. You have to say, hey stupid, you know you shouldn't do that. You know you should have been up 20 minutes ago. Stop hitting the snooze. And you have to make yourself do these things. A simple person has to constantly be reminded of what he ought to be doing. Look at chapter 9, verse number 4. In chapter 9 verse number 1, I'm sorry, I keep forgetting to give you the context here. Chapter 9 verse 1, Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars. So she has a temple, so to speak. And look at verse number 3, she hath sent forth her maidens. She has people that are connected with her. People that work with her. And what does it say? She crieth upon the highest places of the city. Whoso is simple, let him turn and hither. As for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. That sounds actually pretty similar to the Proverbs chapter 7, doesn't it? Because you have the harlot saying, come, come, we can eat secret bread. We can eat things that are stolen. No one's going to know about it. There's an excitement there. Which, by the way, is interesting. There's some excitement about living together. A man and a woman living together, unmarried, in fornication. That's what it's called, according to Scripture. It's not test-driving marriage. It's just called fornication. I mean, he called it that a long time ago. It's just still called that. It's hard for us to remember that because we've got people everywhere that just, you know, that is trying it out to see if it works. But it's interesting that she says bread eaten in secret is pleasant. And it is true. We're getting away with something here. So it makes the relationship exciting. See what I'm saying? But then when these, many times when people do actually get married, that have been living together for X amount of years, they can't handle it. They don't like it. It's not fun. It's not exciting. It's why? Because it's not against the law anymore. It's not against the Bible anymore. So now it's not fun. It's not enjoyable. I wonder how much of our lives we do things that we enjoy them because we know we shouldn't be doing them. I wonder if God said, OK, look, whatever you want to do, go for it. Just enjoy whatever. I wonder how much we would do. I don't know. I know this, that the woman here, wisdom says, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled, forsake the foolish. She offers him bread and wine and she says, she doesn't say anything about it being secret, but she says come do it. So we've got two different women, one the strange woman, one is wisdom calling this simple person and why does a simple person go with the harlot? Well he goes there because he wants to go there. He wants to go there. It's the same reason why people don't naturally go to a clean place. I mean, you go somewhere where, I don't want to get up and go somewhere where they're going to make me do things and change me. No one goes to Paris Island on vacation. They don't go there, they say, you know, I've always wanted to visit there. I just want to be around the place. I just want to maybe sit on some classes and get some of the flavor of the place. They're not really interested in doing that. Now, there's some people that probably are. You know, you come up to me afterwards, oh, I love it. I think it's great. Go for it. Go for it. But if I'm going to Parris Island, I'm going there because I'm going to become something different than what I am. I'm no longer going to just float along. I don't have that option. I'm going to be told everything that I have to do, right? Over here, I'm not told anything. Do they both have struggles? They do. But the simple person has a struggle. at the end. And it's one that completely changes everything and ends his life. This person over here, the wise person, is called by this lady, Wisdom. But as soon as he steps in the door, she's saying, hey, put your shoes over here if you would. Okay, we're going to sit up straight. We're going to use your, hey, use your fork. And she's telling the simple person what to do the whole time. Now what happens? Is there a struggle? Absolutely there's a struggle here. But the end result is what? It's one of blessing. It's one of discipline. It's one of a life that you always wanted to have, but you couldn't do it because you wouldn't submit yourself to wisdom. Does that make sense? I don't know about you. It's a whole lot easier for me. There's a whole lot of marketing going on over here on the simple side, on the evil woman, strange woman side. You know, a lot of marketing. They never market the end result. See what I'm saying? Never tell you about what actually is coming at the very end. Only in smoking. Smoking they do. That's the one thing they do. And I'm glad they do. It's great. You know, that's like the two sins of America are 1. Intolerance and 2. Smoking. Smoking is the worst thing ever. It's satanic. It's horrible. Terrible. You know, I grew up in... You know, it's funny. You read the book of you read through the whole Bible, you don't find smoking in there. But there is a verse that basically means don't smoke. And that's that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost. A proper thing, that's what it means. And I say that kind of tongue-in-cheek because I wish that the people that are so up in arms about smoking would get up in arms about drinking. That's the real problem. That's the real problem is drinking. And I'm not telling you to go out and smoke. But if you want to go out and smoke and kill your body, go for it. Enjoy. I don't know anyone that went out and smoked a pack and then got so mad that they started killing people or started punching people. You see what I'm saying? Isn't that kind of hypocritical of our country to get all upset about people smoking? I mean, you smoke away, outside, outside, like a dog. Get out there. Okay, now I don't want them inside smoking. I don't want them smoking around me. I don't want to that's bad for you. Hello, McFly. It's bad for your health. It does not do good things. Okay, and because it's bad for your health, you are defiling the temple. All right, but but there's a there's a vast gulf of difference between those two sins. Amen. Amen. That's not even a note here. But but it but it felt good. Good. Okay, so we have over here, the marketing is towards the immediate, towards the right now. Over here, the marketing is, would you ever buy a book saying, I want to learn this? I need to learn more about this subject. And you read the first chapter, you're like, oh, this is going to take a long time. What about what's on TV? And so you end up with stacks of books of things that I really want to learn. But the problem is you have to read through the entire book. They're asking you to read through the whole book nowadays in order to get things. Isn't that amazing? Why? Because what's marketed over here is the end result. The end result is what's marketed on the wisdom side. But they forget to tell you about all the hard things in between. Are you with me? You think, oh, that's what I want to be. I want to be a good Christian. Well, there's a couple things you've got to remember about that. There's a couple things you might have to start doing. It's going to take some time. It's going to take some effort. You can't just say, well, I want to come to church. I'm a good Christian. You know, you want to be a good parent. So, I know, I know, I know. I just won't do everything my parents did. I'll be great. Well, you find out that they knew actually quite a bit about raising kids. Amen? So what happens over here on this wise side is that it takes effort, it takes work, but the end result is just light years away from the end result of that. But it just, it takes work. I don't want to work. You want to know why people in the old days had better character? They're no different than you and I. They are no different than you and I. If we were to get on a time machine and go back, we're not going to find people that were more spiritual and godlier by nature. All flesh is grass. Mankind is born in trouble as the sparks fly upward. What is the difference? The difference is they had to be filled with character and discipline if they were going to eat. If they're going to live in a house that didn't have, you know, just water pouring into it from every rainstorm. If they're going to have anything, period, they had to work. Not so anymore. Right? Our character is not required. You can make it through life as an American without any character at all. Almost. Isn't it unbelievable? But maybe it would be a good thing for us. The Lord calls you to a mission field. Do you ever think about maybe God calls someone to a mission field to perfect that person? Because in this culture they're never going to make it. But in that culture they have a chance. Because they're going to have to work real hard and it's going to make them do the things that they don't want to do. If you and I could parent ourselves and make ourselves do what we know we want to do, even when we don't want to do it, then, you know, maybe we'd turn out for the Lord. Look at chapter 9, verse 13. A foolish woman is clamorous. She is simple and knoweth nothing. What is clamorous? She is a loud mouth. She's vigorous in her demands. She's vigorous in her complaints. She's simple. and they have to constantly be reminded of what they ought to be doing. Constantly reminded. Constantly reminded. Let's go over to chapter 14 now, verse 15. Chapter 14, verse 15. Here's another characteristic of the symbol, and I hope that you're doing your own studies You're finding tons of verses in here, but we'll just hit a few. Proverbs chapter 14, verse 15. The simple believeth every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going. What are the two different types of people in that verse? The simple and the prudent. Someone who has discernment is the one that is prudent. A prudent person has foresight. They look into the future. So in other words, when you tell me the story of Mr. Rogers, I'm a simple person, and I said, wow, that's interesting. That's unbelievable. Yeah, that makes sense. Maybe I don't want to be his neighbor. I don't know. But a prudent person hears that story, and a prudent person says, maybe, but I'm going to check it out. I'm going to look into it. And then they send out the email that says, Do not fall for Mr. Rogers. But the interesting thing about it is sometimes you can say, well, I don't want to be a cynic. I don't want to be sarcastic. Well, there is certainly a ditch to fall into in that area as well. But many times it's just we know what we want to believe. We know what we want to hear. And so anyone that leans that direction, we swallow it hook, line, and sinker. Take the whole thing down. Prudent person looketh well to his going look at chapter 14 verse number 18 The simple inherit folly But the prudent are crowned with knowledge Now where where do you think the simple inherit? folly from What kind of person do you think they get it from From a foolish person folly They get it from other people. Why? Because they're hanging out with foolish people. The fool hands down his foolishness to a simple person. The simple person may not even be a fool, but because he's hanging out with the fool, now he has folly. Now he gets to inherit this wonderful thing from someone else. You might inherit, you might get certain things from people. You can't help being around them. But you can help how that information influences you. You can help. Your boss might say something to you and you hear him say it or her say it and you think that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. That is not true. Now you don't say that to your boss. Amen. Unless you're trying to get fired. You don't say that to your boss, but you do say it in your mind. That is not true. A simple person is one that takes whatever he wants to be true and takes it and doesn't question it whatsoever. You know, you'll hear that sometimes in the ministry you hear, I heard, Pastor John, I heard that so-and-so, so-and-so, and because of that, this is what happened. Now, you don't realize that they're all upset, they're discouraged, they're worried, all that kind of stuff because of what they heard. Not because of what they saw, and most of the time it's not what they heard directly. It's what someone else said to someone else, and now they heard this, and this is what's really causing them. The problem is they're a simple person. I don't like, you know what, it's weird how that new information can come to you and you can be a simple person, hear new information, and now you think you're smart. You see what I'm saying? I think that's one reason why we like gossip so much. For one, life is pretty dull without it. Okay? Life is pretty dull without hearing some juicy tidbit of so-and-so did this and so-and-so did that. It just makes life more fun. All right? Honestly, I believe that some people enjoy drama. They just enjoy another problem coming up and, oh, did you hear? And, no, I didn't hear. But isn't it interesting how that a simple person can get new information that may or may not be true. But because it's new information to them, they now consider themselves a wise person. And now they feel that they need to pass this on to these different people and, so to speak, bestow wisdom on all these people. When in fact, they were a simple person, first of all, to even believe what that person said. And now they have this, they're completely misled, deceived, and now they're handing it off to everybody else. It behooves us, folks, it really does, to consider, when people tell us things, to take a step back. You ever find yourself, someone says something to you about someone else, and you want it to be true? Now, you would never say that I want it to be true. You say, oh, that's terrible. It's terrible. Inside, you're thinking, I knew it. I knew it. Thank you, Lord, for vindicating me. Right? What we ought to say is, you know what? That may or may not be true. I do not know for sure. Before, if it's something that, if it does not apply to me, if it doesn't matter one way or the other, if my opinion Being involved makes no difference. I'm not even gonna ask, what is it? I'm not even gonna, I'm gonna say, hold on, you know, you're probably right. I just, I got so much stuff in my head right now. I just, I can't, I'll pray for him. Before you go into the whole spiel, I'll pray for him. But you and I, it'd just be easier for us to just take it all in and I get to decide one way or the other. I may, in fact, be a simple person about that. Now go to Proverbs chapter 22, Proverbs 22. Somebody said, people would rather use your brain than theirs. 22 verse 3, a prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. They are punished. Look at chapter 27, verse number 12. Chapter 27, verse 12. A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished." Did you notice anything about those two verses there? Exactly the same. Why do you think they're exactly the same? Who do you think he's talking to? If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, put your shoes away. Clean up your room. Right? The simple person, that's who he's talking to. So he has to say the same thing over and over and over again. He's talking to me. That's why he has to say it over and over again. A prudent man sees into the distance and he sees what might happen and so therefore he makes decisions based on that. Now a hypochondriac makes decisions based on things that never could happen. But they're afraid of everything, including the future, especially the future. And so they make all kinds of decisions about it. Now where's the difference? I don't know where the line is, but I like to say that so I feel better about myself. Amen? But I'll tell you the truth, there is a line somewhere between prudent and fearful. But how do I know what it is? I know this, there is a difference between me sitting here saying God's gonna take care of it all and God's looking down saying, no I'm not. Do you realize that that's what God says to you when you think God's gonna take care of everything and you just let it go and let your grass grow in the yard, let your bills pile up in the mailbox, God's gonna take care of it all. God says, no I'm not, no I'm not. You're gonna take care of something, bub, amen? You're taking care of something. Not me. And where is that? Well, I don't know. Because then some people say, well, you know what? We can't rely on God for everything. We've got to take some things into our own hands. And we've got to take control. And we've got to get some savings accounts. And we've got to dig some holes in the ground. And we've got to get some silos somewhere that we can stockpile weapons and ammunition and food. I don't know where that is. I'm not saying if you do that that you're stupid or that you are not trusting in God. There is a line somewhere there that you need to ask the Holy Spirit to help you find it. Both of us, both sides, whatever side you might be on, you probably could stand to move a little bit more the other direction. Whatever side you're on. If you're the kind of person that's got everything prepared, you probably need to recognize that God's got things in control. You probably need to move this way. That He's in charge. If you're the kind of person that, I know God's in control, that's why I never do anything. You kind of need to move this direction a little bit more. Amen? You need to go over here. where you could actually use some prudence. Why? Because it is possible for you to hide yourself from evil if you are prepared. That's what these two verses tell us. It is possible. Do your children have to grow up and see every wicked thing that every other kid in America sees? I don't think they do. Why? Because a prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself. I'm not going to see that because I know it's bad. I'm not going to go through and give them the benefit of the doubt through the whole television program. And hopefully there's something I can, you know, gain from it at the end. Get a moral of the story. No, I know it's bad, so I'm going to hide myself from it. I know that coming up, I'm going to have to pay this bill, you know, it's like somebody said, amazingly enough, Christmas comes the same time every year. And so because I know that, I know that There's evil coming, amen, in December. It's called credit cards and everything else. And so I'm going to hide myself from something that I know is coming. I know that my kids are getting ready to go to college. And so therefore, I'm going to try to hide myself and hide them as much as I can from the evil. By how? By preparing them. By getting them ready. I know that my kids are going to go into the workforce. I'm going to try to prepare them for that. I know that I'm getting older. I need to take care of my affairs at my house. I need to make sure that I'm not just leaning on my children for financial support. When maybe God gave me some money so I could take care of myself, the Bible says that a wise man giveth an inheritance to his children's children. He doesn't receive an inheritance from his children's children. He gives that. How do you get an inheritance? Well, you have to earn that somehow. You have to get it from somewhere. If you got it from your parents, you're going to have to hang on to it. And you're going to have to hold on to these things. Why? Because you look in the future. You have to look in the future. Well, I don't want to look in the future. It's scary. Well, that's where you need to trust God. You can hide yourself in God's security and strength knowing that He is going to take care of you. And how is He going to take care of you? One of the ways He's going to take care of you is by using your brain to provide for your family. That's how He's going to do it. And when all is said and done, you don't pat yourself on the back and say, kids, I knew this was coming. I took care of you, didn't I? You look at them and you say, God has been good to us. God's been good to us. He brought us through these things. What a blessing it will be. Okay, let's look back at Proverbs chapter one. Proverbs chapter one, we'll close up here. Chapter one, look at verse number 31. We started there, we'll end there. What is it that throws the simple person off the track? Chapter one, verse 31. Therefore, shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices, For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil." What is it that destroys the simple? It is their turning away from wise counsel. Turning away from it. It's not that they're inferior. It's not that they're stupid. That they can't learn. It's that when wise counsel is given them, they hear wise counsel and they go their way. That's how you know it's a simple person. See, a fool will not care about the consequences as long as he can salvage what he wants. But a simple person, they don't even seem to understand the idea of consequences. That there will, if you do this, this will happen. It's like they can't Why? Because they just want to float. They don't want to think about the future. They don't want to think about any possible problems. They just want to exist. I'm happy now, and I want to stay happy. So when a wise person comes to them, a pastor stands up and says, this is what the Bible says, or your mother, or your daughter, or your sister-in-law, or, you know, someone comes along and says, you better be careful with this right here. Because if you go down this direction, this is a possible outcome right here. The simple person says, I don't want to think about it. And that's what kills them. That's what destroys their lives. Their own, and this is where we can say, their own stupidity. Because it truly is a stupid thing to hear what they, this is someone that's wiser than I am, telling me this is going to happen. I just don't care. I'm going to go do my own thing. That's what happens with the simple person. So the simple person. His tendency is to float, to just float through life in joy. And what do we do with a simple person? You should challenge them. Challenge them. Let's look at Psalms. Let's leave Proverbs for a moment. Look at Psalm 19. Psalm 19, verse number 7. Challenge the simple. Challenge them to be with the wise, to be like the wise. If you're a simple person, you need to avoid a fool. Avoid the scorner. You need to watch out with who you spend time. You need to consider what is influencing you. See, as adults, we like to think, I don't need anybody. You need human interaction, and you're going to get it somewhere. He said, I just go out in the woods, yeah, and listen to the radio all day. You need human interaction. Who are you going to interact with? You are going to interact with someone. Now, I say interact. If you're listening to the radio and watching TV, there's no interaction going on there. That's just a funnel pouring things into your head. And you've got to sort it out and decide what fits where and all that. You're not interacting with them. But a simple person, you need to spend time with wise people. Make that choice. I'll tell you another place that you can spend time. Psalm 19, verse number 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The Word of God can take a simple person and make him wise. So there's hope even for me. Amen? There's hope even for me. Why? Because I'm pretty simple about things. But when I go to the Word of God, the Word of God says, you don't have to stay simple. In fact, here's something that will help you to be wise. You know how you always wanted to be like so-and-so? You know how you always have idolized, so to speak, this person and thought they are just the tip of humanity? I mean, they are, what a leader, what a wonderful woman that was, what a great... Well, you know what? If you do this here, That's what they did. Oh, that's what they did? Yeah, that's what they did. So you mean I can't continue doing what I do? I have to start doing this if I want to be wise? Yes. Amen? Sometimes the Lord has to break it down to real small little chunks so we can get it and understand. Because what I found is that when you're young, there's simplicity. Everything is simple. Kids, you know, what do they want to eat? Macaroni and cheese. That's all they want to do. And as they get older, things start to get complex. You know, who am I? Am I really here? Are we here? Are you there? I don't know. What does life mean? What is it all about? Things get too complex. And then as you continue to go, things ought to start getting simpler. And I think the Lord says, you know what, this Bible that I wrote here, that's going to fit for any age. Because they might think they're really smart when they're about, you know, 18 somewhere in there and 25 and all that. But as they get past that, they start to realize that Yeah, it's all simple. I have to actually do what he said I was supposed to do. I have to actually get in the scripture and not just say, I read it, but actually read what he said, understand what he said, and then do what he said. You say, duh, that's what I say about my own life. Duh, you know better. You know better. Why don't you do better? Because you're simple. You're simple. It makes the inexperienced, it makes the young look like academic people. like scholars, the ancients. Psalm 119 says, O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. So if you're a simple person this morning, what are you supposed to do? You need to be careful with who you hang out, who you spend time with, Follow the instructions of the Word of God. Remember Lot. As long as Lot was with Abraham, he was doing fine. But when he got away from Abraham, he started having difficulties. He was still, the Bible says, just Lot. He was still a righteous man. But his entire family was completely destroyed. And what do you think of Lot now? You think backslider. Lot, complete failure. Why? He was called Righteous Lot in the New Testament. He's called just Lot. And yet he's a complete failure in our minds. Why? Because of where he spent his time. And who he allowed to influence his life. Lord, I want to spend time with you. I want to spend time with people who are smarter than me. Who are wiser than me. People who are more spiritual than me. It's going to be hard to find, Lord, I know. But people who are more spiritual than I am. Amen? People that have more character than I do, more discipline than I do. Someone that gets up in the morning and goes out to accomplish a task, and maybe they don't accomplish it that day, but by the end of the week they've spent time and they have stayed on that task until it's done. I want to do that, Lord. I want to go out and find somebody who has raised their family. Someone who are now raising their grandkids. Someone who has been wise with their money. Someone who has been smart in their relationships. And if they were to die today, this building could not hold all of their friends that would come to their funeral. That's the kind of person I want to be, Lord. Okay, well then you've got to stop hanging out with the evil woman, the evil man, the strange woman, and all the fools, and the scorners, and the simple people, and you've got to go over here and you've got to roll up your sleeves and put your work boots on. And it's going to be pretty hard going. And you're not going to have a lot of fun probably the first day or the second day. And you're probably not going to have fun for a while. Because you've been living in pleasure for so long that you don't know how to live without it. You're going to have to get away from that and go over here to really, really hard stuff. But if you'll do it, you know how when you used to dream about that you'd like to be like that person? You wish you had that kind of character in your heart? That's where I'm taking you. That's where you're headed. And when you get to the end of your life, People are going to be looking at you saying, man, I want to be with them. I'd like to be like that person someday. I hope that you're not a simple person this morning. And again, as I said last week, we all have these different characteristics in different parts of our lives. I don't know that we could say, characterize a person by just one of these elements here. We probably have some areas that we need to work on. You might be very wise in one, very simple in another. I challenge you this morning. To get into the Word of God, you know where you're simple, you know where you've been led astray. I challenge you to get into the Bible and to find out where that is, make the corrections necessary, and go towards the wise. I challenge you to hang out with people that are wise. Spend time with them. You say, I don't know anyone that's wise. That's why you're still simple. Amen? Find someone that's wise and spend some time with them. Ask them questions. Choose what you do with your time. Choose. And when you are corrected, when someone stands and says, thus saith the Lord, or they don't even say that, maybe it's your mother-in-law, that says something that's true, you know it's wise. Don't turn away from it. Don't turn away from it. If you turn away from correction that God gives you, you're gonna pay. you're going to pay. The Bible says, the turning of the way of the simple shall slay him. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us here this morning. I pray that you'd help some of these things to sink down into our ears, into our hearts, for the areas that we need help in most. Sometimes it seems like we're blindsided, but then when we're corrected, we say, oh, yes, I know. I know about that area. I know all about that. The Lord's been talking to me about that for years. I pray that this week we would begin to, one by one, sort out Our paths and our ways and I pray that you would reign supreme in each of them And that you would throw out the things that need to get thrown out Help us lord to spend time with the wise help us to spend time in the word of god and to humble ourselves And realize that it is the teacher not us I pray that you'd help us now as we get ready for the service Thank you for the opportunity to worship together with your saints. We pray in christ's name. Amen