We find ourselves this evening in Proverbs chapter 3, verses 13 through 35. Follow along as I read, and we will go from there. Happy is the man who finds wisdom and who acquires understanding. For she is more profitable than silver and her revenue is better than gold. She is more precious than jewels. Nothing you desire compares with her. Long life is in her right hand and in her left riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant and all her paths peaceful. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her and those who hold on to her are happy. The Lord founded the earth by wisdom and established the heavens by understanding. By his knowledge the watery depths broke open and the clouds dripped with dew. Maintain your competence and discretion, my son. Don't lose sight of them. They will be life for you and adornment for your neck. Then you will go safely on your way. Your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid. You will lie down and your sleep will be pleasant. Don't fear sudden danger or the ruin of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from a snare." When it is in your power, don't withhold good from the one it belongs to. Don't say to your neighbor, go away, come back later. I will give it to you tomorrow when it is there with you. Don't plan any harm against your neighbor. for he trusts you and lives near you. Don't accuse anyone without cause when he has done you no harm. Don't envy a violent man or choose any of his ways, for the devious are detestable to the Lord, but he is a friend to the upright. The Lord's curse is on the household of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous. He mocks those who mock, but gives grace to the humble. The wise will inherit honor, but he holds up fools to dishonor. Let's pray. Father again, thank you for your word, and as we consider what Solomon was trying to teach his own son, we'd ask that you would open our hearts and minds to the things that you have for us as it applies to our daily living. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Okay, so we're still continuing the third lesson of the Father to the Son. First of all, the benefits of finding wisdom in verses 13 through 18. And you'll notice I have happiness emboldened. And one of the reasons why I have it emboldened is, as I have pointed out in the past, Christians have a tendency to talk about joy. And I'm sorry, but there are times when we have a tendency to talk about the Lord, about joy, as though life is so hard, but I have the joy, instead of, wow, this is great. And there are times when, Wow, this is great. It's probably not an appropriate response, I understand, but the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him. So he starts out with, you know, happiness is one of the benefits of finding wisdom. There's all kinds of reasons for that, but he says, happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. So there's going to be the two aspects there of what you're going to gain, but those two things are going to make you happy. I don't know anybody that doesn't want to be happy. I've been around Christians that happiness was a worldly thing, and I understand the difference between joy and happiness from our Christian definition perspective. What I'm trying to get through is stop. Be happy. Enjoy the Lord. Because that's a benefit of the relationship that you have with Him. It is part of what God wants you to have. And yes, it's about eternal things. It's not about temporary things. It's not that you can't enjoy the temporary, but it's temporary. Okay? And so happiness is one of the things that you gain. Notice it is used 42 times in the Old Testament. The word for happiness here. Let me read a couple for you. Proverbs 8.32. Where's happiness? Blessed. Blessed really means, oh how very happy. Chapter 8 verses 34 and 35. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors, for whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. Oh how very happy is the guy who finds me. Okay? So, used 42 times. Number two, the benefits are better than riches. So letter A, her proceeds are better than the profits of silver. Now, proceeds and profits, they're basically, they are the same word in Hebrew. They have the same meaning. It's the word kashar. It means to profit from trade or merchandise. You might remember in the New Testament, Jesus tells the parable of handing out talents. And then he says in the King James, occupy until I come. I don't know if that's where Wall Street got it or whatever, but occupy. The word there is do business. Do business until I come. And the idea is you've been given something from the master that you're supposed to invest and make a profit with until he returns. Well, it's a parable. Let's not get too hung up on it. No, no, no, no. It's a biblical truth. God has not only given you your life, the intelligence that you have, the physical attributes that you have, the family that you have, the job that you have, the finances that you have. He's wanting you to do business until He comes back. Invest. All that He's given you as a steward to bring forth an eternal prophet. When you think about a sermon of serving the Lord, this morning, how many times did I say we need people to work for Awana? How many times did I say we need Sunday school teachers, junior church workers? You wanna know something? We need all those people. But what we need to understand most of all is your whole life is your opportunity to do business, to make profit, to serve the Lord. And like I say, hopefully you will consider where you might be able to serve here. Lynn right now is teaching piano to several students, let's put it that way. There's not a day other than Sunday that she's not teaching a piano lesson. She comes here on Wednesdays and basically is here from nine o'clock in the morning until 4.30 in the afternoon. She has babysitting on Tuesday and Thursday and usually has some piano lessons in the afternoon. On Monday, she's over at the base at 9 o'clock and usually gets home 5.30, 6 o'clock from a discipleship lesson with a couple of ladies and some piano lessons. Friday, she's discipling another young woman. And Hannah was here this past weekend, saw some of the things that went on during some of the piano lessons, and said, Mom, do you really enjoy teaching piano? She goes, well, yeah, but there are some detracting factors. Like, hardly anybody makes their kids practice. So what are you doing when you come for the next lesson? You're not advancing. You're basically practicing. Yeah. But she's gotten into discipling women. And she's got two women on Monday and one on Friday. And she enjoys that time. She's teaching them a little bit of doctrine. She's working through some of the wrong thinking that's going on, helping them advance in their being the young woman on Friday as a wife and a mother. And who better to learn how to be a good wife and a mother from than someone that's had to put up with me and our five, three of them being boys, you know? So she enjoys that. And so Hannah encouraged her, well, maybe you ought to reconsider spending more of your time ministering to women. I've been telling Lynn that for years, you know, but like men listening to their wives, wives listening to their husbands, you know. Well, how would you disappoint all of those piano students? Charge more money. because then the parents will determine it'll be worth it or no, we're not gonna do that. And we've been telling her to raise her price for years, because I think she started out at $10 an hour, 2006, and she's at $15 an hour now. Most places are charging 24. So it's just one of those things where, You have to consider, okay, how can God best use me? And let's get some eternal profit out of this thing. It's not a matter of eternal profit for me, though I will be rewarded according to the things I've done, but how can I best glorify God? So this serving the Lord was all about all the areas that we can do business until He comes. Because her proceeds are better than riches. Her profits, they're better than silver. Her gain is better than fine gold. The word gain there, you can pronounce it. Income, produce, fruit, gain, increase. Again, you can see the concept of doing business, investing, and getting a profit. Fine gold, the word is kind of interesting because there's a couple of different words for gold in the Old Testament. This one means incised, which I had to look that one up. I know you have incisors. But it's kind of like, what on earth does that mean? When I think of gold, I think of this little metal that's found in the ore and all that kind of stuff. And usually we're considering what's actually been melted down and the impurities have been taken out of it. When you dig it in the rock, it doesn't look like that. So it means incised, which means decoratively cut, or active incisive, a trench as dug, gold as mined. And the real issue here is not the element as much as how you're getting it. It's the digging. It's the cutting. That's the idea there. Okay, so her gain is better than what you're digging out of the ground. Okay. Her value. Let me read a couple of verses for you. Job 28, 13. Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living. There's an idea that we pass around from time to time that we say is very, very rare. And yet the first word in this substance that seems to be very, very rare is the word common. Common Common sense. It's not very common. Okay? It's very rare. It's hard to find. And that's the idea of wisdom. Okay? Proverbs 8, 11, for wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her. My fruit, verse 19, is better than gold. Yes, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver. Proverbs 16, 16. How much better to get wisdom than gold, and to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. Matthew 13, 44, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field which a man found and hid and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. When we consider the concept of wisdom, seeing things from God's perspective, the practical use of knowledge in a way that is going to please Him. It is something that has a greater value than the temporary precious stones that we see here. I saw a video recently, I actually sent it over to Pastor, And I may have posted on Facebook, it's been several months back, but the gentleman was talking about refined light. We have learned to focus light in such a way that normally light is just all over the place. But the concept of a laser, he goes, when you shine this refined light on precious stones, they will either be black, or they'll be colorful like you just can't imagine. And he starts going through some of the ones that are black. Diamonds. What's diamond made of? Coal. And when you shine this refined light on it, it's black. It doesn't have the beauty that we look at diamonds, but gold and all of the stones that make the foundation of the New Jerusalem, brilliantly colorful because of the refined light. No one knew about this 100 years ago. And yet, John the Apostle in 90 to 95 AD writes a story that shows that these stones, because of the light, are gonna be, wow! Something to think about there. What does it have to do with anything we're talking about? Not much, but it's just one of those things where we count things as precious that God sits there and say, it's coal. You know, it's fried sugar. It doesn't really have value. But this, this has value. Oh, maybe this is what we need to be looking for. That's the idea here. Okay. Notice she is more precious than rubies. And rubies, I believe, is one of the, It's either rubies or emeralds that is part of the foundation stones. And I think it might be emeralds because rubies, I think, are black under this refined light where emeralds, the color shines. So, but she's more precious than rubies and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. All the things you may desire. Boy, if our hearts just aren't a manufacturing plant of desires. Isn't that not true? Psalm 19, 9 and 10. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than the honey of the honeycomb. So again, what God has to give us is so much better. So the stated benefits, well, he starts out with length of days is in her right hand, in her left hand, riches and honor. Proverbs 8, 18, riches and honor are with me, enduring riches and righteousness. Now again, for the Jewish mindset, when you did things the way God wanted you to do them, there was blessings in this life. And they usually revolved around prosperity, riches. And so for them, this is totally kosher. For us, what promises there of riches? Some people will find some in the Gospels normally. The Gospels are under the law. We don't have the Age of Grace as we call it until after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And very often Jesus is talking to a Jewish audience and he is referring to them just like the Old Testament would. He's dealing with that concept. But once you get out of the Gospels, For the most part, the prosperity that we're understanding for us, it may exist in this life, but it's not guaranteed, but we're actually investing for future riches. See what I'm saying? And so we may be blessed in this life, but who inherits the kingdom of God? The poor in spirit. Something to think about there. But riches are part of what Solomon would have been promising. Length of days and riches. 1 Timothy 4.8 says, Well, there it is. Bodily exercise profits a little. I go to the doctor, and the doctor says, I really wish you'd lose some weight. And I say, I do too. I go to the gym. I work out three, four times a week, and I gain 10 pounds. Well, that's muscle. Yeah, but then I don't lose any weight, even though I'm exercising. Well, stop eating. You need to understand, my diet is so much smaller than it used to be. And of course, this guy says, well, then eat more. Oh, yi, yi, yi, yi. The reality is bodily exercise, it does profit, but it profits a little. It's a temporary thing. When I'm working out, my knees do not bother me. When I'm not working out, oh, my knees are, they're a pain. They seem to twist easy. I have difficulties walking up the stairs. Why? Because I'm getting old. But bodily exercise does profit. That's the idea here. It profits. little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of a life that now is, and of that which is to come. Now, you might remember in Romans chapter one, verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who through their unrighteousness or by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth, the truth that there is a God. How do we define unrighteousness? Anything that's inconsistent with God's character and it's going to normally deal with behavior. How do we deal with ungodliness? Or how do we define it? For those of you that have been through the study Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges, how do we define ungodliness? Living life as though God isn't there, or if He is, He's kind of like me. So if I think it's okay, He thinks it's okay. Whoa! But the reality is, is when you consider this here, but godliness is profitable in all things. Trusting in the Lord with all your heart, not leaning on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledging Him, that is profitable for all things. Having promise of life that now is, and that which is to come. So I think that's a good emphasis there. Number two, stated benefits. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and her paths are peace. Matthew 11, 29 and 30. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. A few things there. When we take His yoke upon us and learn of Him, what are some of the things that we learn? Well, He says that I am gentle and lowly in heart. Our opinion of what God is like is so messed up when we first come to know Him. Maybe for years afterwards, depending on study habits, what you're able to believe and things like that. I don't know about you, but there was a lot of baggage that came into salvation with me. It's not that it wasn't freed from me, but I kind of brought it along. It's kind of like, I got to bring this with me, don't I? And you got all this baggage. And some people, they might come into salvation with a little bit of baggage and others a whole lot more. And it takes longer to get rid of some of it than others. And they may only come in with little, but it may still take a period of time. My whole point is, you know, as you learn about God, you come to a place where when you're messing up, you recognize the wrath of God has been taken care of. On the cross of Calvary, he poured out that wrath. And I've been crucified with Christ. I'm a new creature. Yeah, I blew it. The law of sin is still in my members and I can run to my Father because He loves me. And there's no condemnation against me. Now, if you're unrepentant about the things that the Spirit of God is putting His finger on, yeah, you might suffer some scourging. But even that is done in love, is it not? Okay? But my whole point in all of that is His ways are ways of pleasantness. You know, as you learn to walk with Him, yeah, you save yourself a whole lot of hassle just by, I know this is what God would have me to do. So you do it. You learn to listen a little bit more. Not that you're hearing an audible voice, but you're recognizing, hmm, The last time I ignored this little thing that's going on in my brain, the next day I had a problem. Maybe I need to consider what's passing through my head here. So it's the ways of Pleasant and all her paths are peace. You know, there's a time for just trusting that God is on the throne. There's a time to get up and turn some tables over. We haven't found too many of those times, have we? Though we have probably tried to turn some tables over at times. Something to think about. Number three, her ways are ways of pleasantness. The word there is noam, agreeableness, delight, suitableness, splendor or grace, beauty or pleasant. And the word for peace is a well-known word, shalom, safe, peace, quietness of soul. Most of us know the first part of Psalm 46.10, be still, and know that I am God. You know, if you are still knowing that He is God, can we say at that moment your heart is at peace? Yeah, because you're still. Now, if you're not still and you know that He's God, well, you're probably not really trusting at that moment. He goes on to say, I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth. Imagine when those times come and you can be still, knowing that He's God, He's going to get me through this thing, He's the one that is going to be glorified in all of this, and really, what do I got to do? I just need to trust Him. Letter D. Boy, I can't count. That's letter C actually. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her. John 10.10, the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. And the thing, I don't know about you, but the thing is, as you learn how to walk with Him, those times that you are walking with Him, you're experiencing life, eternal life, right here, right now. And it's really good stuff. We don't walk there all the time, you know, but when we are, that's what we're experiencing, the benefits of wisdom. Notice again, he ends this section, and happy are all who retain her. Now, it is interesting that we're in five verses, 13 through 18, and he's mentioned the concept of happiness twice. I wonder what happens if you get wisdom and understanding, and you walk according to wisdom and understanding. Yeah, you're going to be happy. That might be a good motive to be searching it out and getting it. Letter B, selling with celebrities. Huh? You know how when you're watching TV, a commercial comes on, and they got to have an actor there, or an actress, and they tell you how good this product is. Right? Selling with celebrities. Well, look at what God does here, okay? In verses 19 and 20, I believe it is. Let me find it. Hey, I want you to get wisdom. Why? Well, God has it. He used it. Look what he did. Selling with celebrities. Catch my meaning? Okay, so let's take a look at that. First of all, who's the celebrity? It's the Lord, okay? If that isn't like top-notch, I mean, if this guy says it's good, what is it? It's good. Okay. And look how he did it. Basically, he says, by wisdom, by understanding, and by his knowledge. Well, what did he do? Well, he did, in the next section here, he founded the earth, he established the heavens, the depths were broken up. This is going up to the flood, where in Genesis chapter 7, verse 11, the depths were broken up. The earth was broken up from underneath, where water comes up from the water that is below the earth, as well as the windows of heaven opening up and comes down. You have flooding, chaos, death, destruction, okay? By wisdom, God did that, okay? And the clouds dropped down the dew. I wake up in the morning, hopefully, between 5.30 and 6.30. I don't use an alarm. I don't need to, thank the Lord. But sometimes I'll put on the alarm if I know I have to get up, but I'm gonna wake up around that time. And as it starts to get light around six o'clock, and that's moving a little bit, but I will put on my Crocs and I'll walk out and open up the door for the chickens. They wanna come out and grab the worms. and whatever might be hanging on to the dew on the grass. And then I will walk back to the gate and I'll turn around. It's kind of like, what on earth is that? You can see my tracks as I walked. And it's not just step, step. It's one long line because I don't lift my feet up that high enough apparently. But it's kind of like, wow, look at that. I knocked all the dew off of those grass leaves as I went by. But that's all part of God's wisdom. This is without a rain giving water to the plants, to the animals that need it all the time. You'll notice up there, look how he did it. Jeremiah 31, 35 to 37. This is the passage right after the promise of the new covenant. And this is what he says. Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinance of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea and its waves roar. The Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordinances depart from before me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before me forever. Thus says the Lord, if the heavens can be measured and the foundation of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord. Now what's he saying here? He's saying, I set these things in motion, the waves of the sea, the sun for the day, the moon and the stars at night. I put all this stuff into motion. And the only way I'm gonna break this covenant with Israel, this new covenant that I'm promising them, is if that comes to a halt. Now he's not talking about darkness for a couple of days. He's not talking about, well, the sea is smooth today. He's talking about there's going to continue to be tides and waves, the moon out at night, the sun out during the day, and that's going to continue. That's not going to stop. Now, yes, I understand during the millennial kingdom, the sun and the moon, they're not going to be part of the whole thing. I'm just talking under normal circumstances. That's not going to stop. And then he goes one step further, because remember, what did he do? He founded the earth. He established the heavens. This is all part of what he did. He says, if you can measure the heavens, Now, scientists have been able to find stars that are millions of light years away. And I know that's not a distance of time, it's a distance of space. It's weird how they measure things. Just give me the miles, kilometers, I can transfer those, you know, but it's light years. It's kind of like, okay, fine. But they can measure all this stuff, but they cannot find the end. We think we're at the end, but oh, there's something else shining out there. Wow. It's amazing. They cannot number the stars of the heaven. They take an inch by inch section of the sky. It's really dark there. Let's see how many we can find. Well, then they use that magnifying telescope and all that kind of stuff, and they find hundreds of millions of galaxies. And each galaxy has a hundred million stars. We're beyond trillions. I mean, the national debt looks like nothing compared to what God did in setting up the heavens, okay? And then the foundation of the world. You know, when I think of foundation, I think of house, square, rectangular, maybe a jutting out spot here. The earth is round. Where's the foundation? It holds up the house. Yeah, but there's nothing down here. It's just a globe in the middle of space. Unless you're a flat earther, then it's a flat disk in the middle of space. It's amazing how many people are out there that are now flat earthers. And it's kind of like, really you guys? Yeah, we've never been to the moon either. That was Arizona at night. And it's kind of like, okay, moving right along. Look, by wisdom, by understanding, by his knowledge, he founded the earth, established the heavens, the depths were broken up, the clouds dropped down, the dew. You see Genesis, there's a lot of verses there. Let me just read a couple of the extra ones there for you. Psalm 104, 24. Oh Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions. Psalm 136, 5. To him who by wisdom made the heavens, for his mercy endures forever. Proverbs 8, 27. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he drew a circle on the face of the deep, Jeremiah 10-12, he has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at his discretion. He didn't ask anybody's permission. Think about that. Jeremiah 51-15, He has made the earth by His power. He has established the world by His wisdom. He stretched out the heavens by His understanding. And then Hebrews 1.3, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Now, the upholding all things by the word of his power. When we speak, you have sound waves. Okay? And what did God do? He spoke and it existed. But not only does it exist, it's created, but he upholds it through that same sound wave, if you will. However, by the word of his power. Okay. but he maintains its existence. It came into being through his word, and he maintains its existence through the word of his power. So, wow, isn't God something. So, selling with celebrities. He did all this through wisdom. Let her see the rewards of keeping your focus. In verses 21 and 22, notice it says, maintain your competence. How does it say it in the New King James or the King James? preserve, keep, okay? So keep your focus. Notice letter A, let them not depart from your eyes. The word here for depart is lose, to turn aside, to depart, to be perverse, froward, or perverseness. Matthew 6, 22, the lamp of the body is the eye, if therefore your eye is good, Your whole body will be full of light. And the idea of your eye being good is it's focused on the one thing. And of course, what's the one thing? It's on the Lord. Okay? When you are focused on the Lord, the eye is good, your whole body is full of light. So he says, keep sound wisdom and discretion. So what are the rewards of wisdom? We've talked about some of the benefits. What about the rewards? Well, in verses 22 through 26, we see in the personal life, verse 22, so they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck. You'll see Proverbs 1 9 where he repeats the idea that we see here. For they will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck. The idea is people are going to see when you are living in God's wisdom. It's going to be something they're going to see about you. It's going to be obvious because we're talking about on the head or the bling around the neck. That's the concept. So people are going to see it. Have you seen rappers? Or for those of us that are a little bit older, you might remember a guy named Mr. T. Okay? Yeah, Mr. T had the mohawk. I got the reverse mohawk. It's a different hairstyle. But he had all the bling around his neck, and usually had some rings. You know, that's the idea. When a child or a young person learns wisdom, gains understanding, it's going to be visible in their life. Okay? And that brings us to personal activities, verses 23 to 26. First, he talks about your walk. you're going to be safe or safely in your walk, your foot will not stumble. Now, I don't know about you, but have you ever tripped going upstairs? My mother told me that that meant I wasn't going to get married that year. Which is probably good because my wife wouldn't appreciate it if I did, you know. But, you know, even at my age, I still every now and again think you got that next one and you just didn't lift that foot quite far enough and trip going up the upstairs. The idea here is not so much tripping or anything like that, but it's in your personal walk, you're going to be walking the way you ought to be walking. This is kind of like what we see in Galatians 5. Walk in the Spirit. you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. Well, if you're walking in the Spirit, you're basically walking the way God wants you to walk because He's empowering you to do so. You're walking in wisdom. Okay? So a couple verses here for you. Psalm 37, 24, which says, Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. Proverbs 10.9, he who walks with integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his way will become known. Now I don't know about you, but when I was younger in the Lord, it was always the second half or the bad part of the verse that kind of scared me. And as I've learned to walk with the Lord, I'm catching the first half of the verse and I'm really enjoying those things. I hope that's the case for you also. He's not talking about you when He gets to the second half. That's a contrast. We have been taken out of that realm, put in this realm. This is who you are. Now walk according to who you are. That's basically what we see there. So how about, never mind walk, when you walk, sometimes you get tired. My daughter and grandson did a 20 mile walk today. Rachel is a personal trainer. She's got a little shed out back that she's got weight machines and all those kinds of things. And she calls it her shed shred. There we go. Whoa. Her shred shed. And she trains a couple of ladies in our church here, some other people that y'all know, and they all go up to Troy and sometimes they're outside, sometimes they're inside, depending on the weather. But a bunch of her trainees went for this 20 mile walk today. 20 miles? I have flat feet. I did a 20 mile walk once. I will never do that again. Okay, but after you've walked 20 miles, what do you need? Rest. Okay, so that brings us to the section on rest. When you lie down, You will not be afraid. Your sleep will be sweet. Think about the kids before they come to know the Lord. And of course, I remember when I was a young teenager, the fear of death became a real thing one night. And can I tell you, I was scared. Because how many of you know when you're gonna go? Now, you don't normally think about that stuff at teenage years. I don't know why I did but it was part of the preparation for when I would finally hear about the gospel. And it was necessary because since I've heard about the gospel, fear of death, I'm not really excited about the process but I'm not worried about it anymore where I used to be, you know, that kind of thing. So you will not be afraid when you lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Again, referring to younger years in Christ when some of that baggage was still hanging on. And I'm not saying it's all gone. I'm just saying that compared to the 12 suitcases I brought with me, we have a carry on, hopefully, is about all. nowadays. I'm sure the Lord will point out a few more things as we go along. But when a lot of that baggage was still trailing me, I would wake up in the middle of the night sometimes, and I would have to go out and read the Bible, because my concern for things that I wanted to do right, but I blew it. all too regularly. And I would go normally to the Psalms. The Psalms give an awful lot of comfort. And I'd be reminded that, you know, if God was going to be measuring, you know, put us up against a measuring stick, none of us would pass. Oh, yeah. Okay, Lord. I'm not measuring up. We're going to have to work on this a little bit more. And of course I included myself all too often. And that's of course why I ended up slipping in the same area again, not too much later. But the reality is, is when those issues aren't an issue anymore, you can go to bed at night. It's kind of like, Lord, thank you. Wow. You know, I really had a productive week, productive day. Thank you. And you don't have to continue to worry or think about because you've been walking with him and it's good stuff. A couple of verses for you. Psalm 3, 5, I lay down and slept. I awoke for the Lord sustained me. Psalm 4, 8, I will both lie down in peace and sleep for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. I have guns. I strongly recommend anybody to go out and get some. My guns will not keep me safe. They might help under certain circumstances, but ultimately, God's the only one that's going to keep me safe, right? Matthew 11, 29 and 30, take my yoke upon you. We've already read that one. Hebrews 4, 9, there remains therefore a rest. for the people of God. Now, in the concept of the passage, it's talking about a Sabbath rest. Okay? Within the New Testament, nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated. Keeping the Sabbath is an everlasting covenant between God and Israel. We're not Israel. We talk about the state changing the worship day to Sunday. Maybe somewhere in the rush that all happened. I'm not too concerned about it because I see that on the first day of the week they met. That's the book of Acts. Okay. Yes, the state may have come along later and done things. I'm kosher with that. It does not bother me. Why? Because there is yet a rest for the people of God. And when you look at the chapters, here's what the rest that God has for you looks like. You cease from your own labors. It's not you trying to live the way God wants you to live. It's you living the way God wants you to live because He's empowering you to do so. But you're still fighting the enemies of God because the contrast is the children of Israel going into the land of Israel and yet even they did not experience this rest. But what did they do when they came into the land of Israel? They fought against the enemies of God. Okay? So who are the enemies of God? The world, the flesh, and the devil. And what is the battle that we go through on a day-to-day basis? The world, the flesh, and the devil. We're fighting against him. How do we win? Not in my strength. Okay? We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Against principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness in high places. And the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual. Okay? So again, there is a rest for the people of God. Then number three, emotional well-being. Starts out with no fear. Notice, do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes. The idea of that latter portion is, it's gonna come. People are wicked. They're gonna do things that ultimately may cause difficulties for us. Don't be afraid. God says around 500 times, don't be afraid. That's one for every day of the year and some. Just something to think about there. Unfortunately, in the last few years, we saw an awful lot of fear. We are presently being prepared to be afraid again. There's a new variant. Did you know that when diseases have variants, they get weaker, not stronger? because the whole purpose of making a variant is so that the disease can survive. And if you killed it in this variant, it changes to a less deadly variant so that it can continue to live. That's why the flu bug comes around every year. There's like 3,000 rhinoviruses. Oh, because they wanna live. If they kill off the host, they die. And so, Be afraid or not. It's your choice. God says 500 times, don't be afraid. A couple of verses for you. Psalm 91 5, you shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day. Now the terror by night. When does CNN and the FBI like to show up at your house to take your guns or to arrest you? 530 to six o'clock in the morning. And remember, they do call CNN when they do that. But whole point is, when do kids experience fear when they're young very often? Middle of the night, all of a sudden they're screaming their head off, mom and dad run in there. We call them the night terrors. Yeah. It's a common time, if you will, to be attacked by the devil. I remember when I was reading through This Present Darkness, Peretti, Frank Peretti's book. I woke up in the middle of the night and it felt like something was pushing on my chest to the point where I was having a hard time breathing. And no, I did not have a heart issue. And it's kind of like, you know, I like this book, but I think I'm going to put it down for a little while. It seemed to open the door for the devil to come along. Well, not the devil, because I'm not worth his effort, but one of his little minions to come along and give me some problems. So, you won't be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble to the wicked when it comes. Psalm 112, 7. He will not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is steadfast, trusting the Lord." Once again, new variant. Should we be afraid? No, just like the first time, we should be wise. Some may think that a mask is wisdom. Okay. Some may think that not going out is wisdom. Okay. Whatever melts your butter. Okay. Because the reality is, God knows when you're coming home. You're not leaving a day before, and you're not staying a day later. Be wise. Enjoy life. Walk with God. Don't be afraid. Okay? Confidence in the Lord. For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. I don't know about you, but The longer I've walked with the Lord, the more I've seen His grace and His love and His forgiveness and His mercy, the more I'm confident that could I mess up tomorrow? Oh yeah. In fact, if I were to mess up, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be a small thing. And not just because of my position, I just like doing things big. But the reality is, Will God walk with me through that situation? Sure enough. How do I know that? Because He's walked with me through so many other situations. Believe me when I tell you, I don't know why God has me in the position that I'm in. I have not, quote unquote, felt worthy of being a pastor I don't know, ever. Being a missionary, you know, going out there and preaching the trees until you learn a language or something like that, that's kind of easy compared to being a pastor. But this is where God's got me. So, Lord, use me as I is and change me where I need to change. I'm confident that He will because He has been doing that over the years. Letter D, the practical outworking of wisdom, verses 27 to 32. The practical outward working of wisdom toward your neighbor, you should do good. Verses 27 and 28, Romans 13, 8, Galatians 6, 10, do not withhold good from those to whom it is due. This is the idea of you borrowed money or you have a bill. Okay? Do not withhold it from those who it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your neighbor, you know, I know I owe you rent. Go and come back tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll give it to you. When you have the money in hand. That's the idea here. Again, Leviticus 19.13, Deuteronomy 24.15. Not only should you do good, but you should not do evil. Do not devise evil against your neighbor, for he dwells by you for safety's sake. We saw our neighbor's garage door open, and our neighbor, he'll open the garage door to get his car out. He'll close it. He'll go someplace. He'll come home. He'll park outside. And then when it's time, he'll open the door, pull the car into the garage, close the door. And it was open one evening. Kind of like, that's just not like Dave to do that. And the next morning, it's still open. The car's in there. Wow, Dave is 78-ish. Average lifespan in America is around 78-ish. I don't want to do this. I go over and I knock on the door. Dave? Dave? Door's open. I walk in. I walked around his house. Dave, this is Al. Is everything okay? I went down to his basement, afraid that I might find Dave. Dave's not in the house. Where on earth is Dave? His car is here. And if he had gone with someone, his door wouldn't have been open and his garage door wouldn't have been open all night long. So I go out to the garage and I didn't see Dave when I walked past the garage because the light was real bright out here, dark in there. And there's his feet sticking outside of his car. Dave? Yeah. Thank you, Lord. He's alive. What are you doing? He's laying on the floor in the back seat. I don't know how he got there. So I pull him out and I walk him to his door and he goes, okay, I got it. He says he'd only been there for about 20 minutes. I'm struggling with the difficulty of that thought. I'm afraid he might've been there all night long, which means he's gonna be hurting tomorrow because some old guy is about this skinny. in a space about that big for overnight. I sure hope he was only there for 20 minutes. But, you know, we watch out for each other. Dave lets me know if someone hanging around outside my yard or something like that. That's the idea of you dwell with him, near him for safety's sake. So don't devise evil against him. Do not strive with a man without a cause if he has done you no harm. Look at that. If he's done you no harm, there is no cause. Don't strive with him. In today's day and age, we see an awful lot of that concept being lived out where people, they've not done anything to you and yet they're being attacked. You might remember not too long ago in the big cities, mostly Democrat, people were coming by and hitting other people upside the head with a brick. And they're totally unaware and they get in a concussion. One person actually died. And this is a gang initiation type thing. The guy didn't do anything to you. Why'd you do it? Well, I wanted to be one of the gang, you know. It's kind of, oh, how stupid, how wicked, how evil. Don't do evil. Number two, having mentors, verses 31 to 35. Envy corrupts. He says, do not envy the oppressor. Don't choose any of his ways, for the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord. How many young men think that LeBron James is just the greatest thing since peanut butter? LeBron James is a good basketball player. I don't think he's as good as Michael Jordan. We can argue about that later. But he's a good basketball player. Look what he's doing with his money. Uh-huh. It's his money. He can do with it as he wishes. He starts a school. Cool. He pays for tuition for a lot of those kids. Great. Now, one of those kids has passed the proficiency exams. What are they teaching them? Well, I imagine if LeBron's activities as far as his liberal outlook on life has anything to do with what's being taught, well, I can see why they might not be passing the proficiency exams. Because we don't want you to necessarily be proficient in history and math and English. We want you to understand how bad our country is because of something that happened that was dealt with 150 years ago. Oh. I don't know. I don't know. I just don't think that he's a good role model for kids, unless they want to play basketball. Learn how to play like he plays. Yeah, he's good. But don't, it's kind of like Jesus with the Pharisees. Don't get the leaven of the Pharisees. Did you guys bring the bread? You know, they're having this discussion. No, no, no. Do everything they tell you to do, but don't be like them. Don't do what they do. They actually prevent people from going to heaven, into the kingdom of heaven. So be careful who your mentors are. Letter B, God's attitude toward the variety of people here, two of them, the upright and the wicked. As far as His attitude towards the upright, His secret counsel is with the upright. Did you ever notice that as a believer, you hear what God says about a particular subject and you accept it? It's not really an issue. And then you're talking to someone that's outside of the family of God and they are off in left field about that subject. And it's kind of like, yeah, but the Bible says, and they go, Yeah, no, I don't get that. Yeah, because God has shared His secret with you. He didn't share it with Him. This guy can't receive it. Okay? It goes on, "...but He blesses the home of the just." What makes us just? Yeah, faith in Christ is the imputed righteousness. His account is put on our account, and we're considered by God just, and He blesses us. I don't know about you, but five kids. to the best of my knowledge, walking with the Lord and growing. And yeah, I'd like to see him grow a little bit faster, but I wanted to see me grow a little bit faster. I mean, I actually told God one day, you know, Lord, you have eternity. I get 70, 80 years, you know, if I'm strong. I don't have eternity. Let's get this thing going. But the reality is, is sure, I'd like to see him grow a little bit faster, but I wasn't too quick on the uptake myself. So how can I blame him? But I consider myself to be blessed because I deserve it? Absolutely not. Okay. But He blesses the house of the just. He gives grace to the humble. Ah, what grace is mine. The song we sang at the end of today's message. I like that song. Because it talks about what God's doing for me, and because of that, hey, I'll go where He wants me to go. Dying unto self and taking up my cross and following Him, just not really an issue when I understand how much He's done. That's the idea of giving grace to the humble, and the wise shall inherit glory. We're all going to, to some measure, be a part of that. But to the wicked, the curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked. Now that doesn't mean that their lights are going to fall from the ceiling, that their kids are all going to turn out rotten or anything like that, but There's no reason why God needs to bless them. In fact, remember God said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated? How did he demonstrate his hatred towards Esau? Now before we get there, some people like to say that God's love for Esau looked like hatred compared to his love for Jacob. I want you to understand something. God loved Jacob and he hated Esau. How do I know? Look at how he handled Esau. He gave him everything he wanted. Jacob, on the other hand, went through trials with Laban. You know, Laban cheated him out of the wife of choice and gave him actually the wife he probably needed, okay, Leah. And then he had to work for another seven years to get Rachel. Now, He married Leah, one week later he marries Rachel, and then he has to work for another seven years. That's how, he didn't have to wait another seven years to get her, he got her. And then when he starts working for a wage, Laban changes his wages 10 times over the next seven year period of time, thereabouts. Wow, what a pain. Yeah, I love you. I'm not going to let you continue to be the person that you were. I am going to conform you to the image of my son. To the point where he wrestles with an angel, the angel of the Lord, and he touches his hip, and Jacob is limping for the rest of his life. Why? Because I love you, and you're an arrogant, proud man, and you've got to understand, I'm going to do what's necessary to put you where you need to be, so that you'll lean on me instead of on yourself. Wow. You know, by the end of Jacob's life, Jacob got it. You know, my pilgrimage here has been this many years, which may be long, but it's shorter than my father's, my grandfather's. And God has blessed me. Uh-huh. Sure has. Okay. But how did he bless him? Trials, difficulties, that kind of thing. That's love. Esau, I mean, yeah, Esau gave him everything he wanted. And then we see the book of Obadiah brings complete destruction to Edom, to the descendants of Esau. Complete destruction. Why? Because he hated him. He didn't love him less. He hated him. Why? Look at the character of Dad. Not interested in spiritual things. He's interested in a bowl of soup. Double blessing? I don't care about that. Give me a bowl of soup. I want to live. So, the wicked, the curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked. Surely he scorns the scornful, but shame shall be the legacy of fools. You know, Solomon is talking to his son, wants him to get wisdom, wants him to get understanding. Why? Because there are benefits, there are rewards, there is life, there is peace. With that in mind, when we talk about wisdom, understanding things from God's perspective, we ought to be considering Don't be conformed to the image of this world. Don't believe what the world tells you to believe, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you might prove what is good, acceptable, and the perfect will of God in whatever situation you find yourself in. Now, if you're going to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, what does that mean you're going to be involved in when it comes to God's Word? memorizing it, meditating on it, spending time in it. Now, when we say memorize, very often we think of what kids do. They'll memorize a verse for Awana in about five minutes. They will come to you very excited that they can say that verse, but don't take too long, otherwise I'm gonna forget part of it. They will give you the verse, ask them five minutes from them what the verse is, And most of the time, if they've done it that way, they won't be able to tell you. Instead of worrying about how you're going to memorize it, spend time with it. Over and over and over and over again. Spend time thinking about, what is he actually saying here? How can I apply it to my life? God, open my eyes. Because the reality is, in Psalm 119 verses 9 to 11, Notice, who's keeping me from wandering from his commandments? He is, not me. Okay? Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. How did Jesus handle temptation? It is written. It is written. It is written. So we want to be wise. We need to have his word in us. And as we do, we will find peace, blessing. We'll bring forth profit, maybe not in this world, in the next. You might experience it in this world. Hallelujah. Okay. All right. Let's go ahead and close in prayer. We'll see you Wednesday night. Those of you that are working in Awana, we're sorry you won't be in here with us, but we're going to be enjoying chapters 31 and 32 of the Complete Green Letters. I'm not sure who's going to be speaking yet, but I'll be ready in case. All right. Let's pray. Father, thank you again. You have been so good to us in so many ways. We thank You for salvation. It is great to know that when the time comes, we get to go and be with You. But Lord, we thank You for the work of Your Spirit in our lives where we have gone from the fear of death to confidence in Your love, in Your mercy, in Your grace. And as we continue to learn to walk with You, we ask, Lord, that You would open our eyes, that we may gain understanding and wisdom so that we might glorify You in the way that we live here in this world. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. You are dismissed. Lord willing, see you Wednesday.