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384 | Conversations - Proverbs 20 · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Music.
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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
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  where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
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  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
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  or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
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  to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  Living a life for Christ. She's a happy girl.
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  Music.
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  She's a happy girl.
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  In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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  join Kim Miller and Erica Close in a conversation as we walk with Jesus.
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  In today's conversation, we continue a series on the book of Proverbs.
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  And in today's podcast, we discuss the lessons learned in Proverbs chapter 20.
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  Well, hello, everyone. I am Erica, and I am here with Kimberly.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries
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  as we continue our journey through Proverbs, and we are in Proverbs 20 today.
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  We are, and so we will open it up by reading the whole thing,
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  and then we'll talk about three or four different topics that are found in this
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  proverb that really have just jumped out at us. So, Kim, would you like to begin reading?
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  Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
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  The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion, whoso provoketh him to anger
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  sinneth against his own soul.
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  It is an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling.
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  The sluggard will not plow by season or by reason of the cold.
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  Therefore shall he beg and harvest and have nothing.
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  Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
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  Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find.
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  The just man walketh in his integrity, his children are blessed after him.
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  A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes.
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  Who can say, I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin.
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  Divers' weights and divers' measures, both of them are like an abomination to the Lord.
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  Even a child is known by his doings. whether his work be pure and whether it be right.
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  The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.
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  Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty. Open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
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  It is nought, it is nought, saith the buyer, but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.
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  There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
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  Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.
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  Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.
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  Every purpose is established by counsel, and with good advice make war.
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  He that goeth about as a tailbearer reveal his secrets. Therefore meddle not
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  with him that flattereth with his lips.
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  Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
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  An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed.
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  Say not thou, I will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee.
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  Diverse weights are an abomination unto the Lord, and a false balance is not good.
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  Man's goings are of the lord how
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  can a man then understand his own way it is
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  a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy and after vows to make inquiry
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  a wise king scattereth the wicked and bringeth the wheel over them the spirit
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  of man is the candle of the lord searching all the inward parts of the belly.
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  Mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upholden by mercy.
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  The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is the gray head.
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  The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil, so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.
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  There's a lot of different things to sort of unpack in this proverb,
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  but I think that there are a few themes that we see running through the whole thing.
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  And one of the first themes that I think we see is that these verses about what
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  it means to be a sluggard.
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  And that's a word that we've seen throughout the book of Proverbs,
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  and we really haven't talked about it very much.
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  But the term is in there, and I think we often talk about a sluggard as one who is lazy.
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  And slothful. And slothful and not industrious, I think is another reference word that we see there.
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  But most often in the scriptures, when we see the word sluggard,
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  it's more than just a little bit lazy.
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  It's like lazy to the point that it's a detriment, like your actual being is lazy.
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  You don't care for yourself. You don't provide your own way.
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  You'd rather sleep than do even the necessities of maintaining your own body,
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  your own life, and your own way.
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  Yeah, I think I really notice in there when we talk about the word slugger that
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  a lot of those references are about not just what someone may do at home, but also on the job.
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  Right? Right. Or not even working at the job, having the job and not working
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  at it or not being willing to even have a job.
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  Right. Or not caring that they think they should. They somehow feel that somebody
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  else should be taking care of them. Right.
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  I recently got into, I guess, a lot of trouble with somebody.
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  I didn't really know until someone else told me what they had said.
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  But I truly believe that if you are paid to work, you have to do the work or
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  you're cheating that establishment, which means you're stealing.
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  Which means you're going against God's commandment that thou shall not steal.
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  And so I know a lot of us might be in a situation where we are paid to do a
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  specific job, and maybe when you get that job, you can stop.
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  But most people are paid to work X number of hours a day.
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  And if we're not doing work for that institution that is paying us or that organization,
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  then whatever time during that eight hours that they're paying us money for,
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  we are literally stealing.
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  And I believe that from the depths of my heart. And I believe that this concept
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  of being a sluggard, of being slothful, of being lazy, really comes to bear in that situation.
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  Because a lot of times you have opportunities that your organization doesn't
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  know from working from home or working.
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  Other things, or maybe you have X things to do, and it really only takes you
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  three hours to do it, but you claim it takes you eight.
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  These are all ways that Christians have got to be careful not to be found doing,
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  because we are to do everything as if we are doing it unto the Lord.
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  And I find it incredibly important, especially in this day and time where we
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  can work from home. I worked from home for over a decade, and we can do it.
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  And there are people who do it, and they do it with honesty and integrity.
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  And that's what we need to be doing with our work, whether we are at home,
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  we're away on travel, or whether we go into an office every day.
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  Everything we do must be in the light of the fact that we are an ambassador
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  of Jesus Christ, and we are reflecting who He is in us.
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  I really appreciate that. That's a really good discussion about that word and
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  about how that word, which seems like such an old-fashioned word,
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  really applies to today.
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  There's some good things about old-fashioned. Absolutely.
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  So verse 4 of Proverbs chapter 20 says, The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold.
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  Therefore shall he beg and harvest and have nothing.
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  And I think in this verse, the cold is that the sluggard is not going to plow
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  when it's cold, like in the early spring.
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  Like when it's time to plow the fields, it's often cold. And so if the sluggard,
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  you know, says, no, I'm not doing it.
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  You know, the consequence is that later on, there will be no harvest.
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  I believe it even goes beyond that.
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  I believe it's just telling us that the sluggard, whenever it's inconvenient
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  or they just don't want to do it or something more fun, they don't do the job they're supposed to do.
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  And I think that that's that's a problem in our society today is that we are not disciplined,
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  To do what doesn't feel good And I hate cold weather So I'd be the first that
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  would be trying to figure out how to have the inside job during the cold That's
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  for sure But there are consequences, right?
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  If we don't do it, it's not just that we haven't done it.
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  But there will be a consequence for us not doing it. And we may not see that
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  consequence right away or immediately.
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  Clearly, this talks about plowing versus harvest. That's six months later.
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  But the consequences will always occur.
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  And this works perfectly with a verse in Galatians that says,
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  Be not deceived, God is not mocked.
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  For whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap.
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  So if we sow bad things, we're going to reap bad things. If we sow good things,
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  we're going to reap good things.
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  If we sow nothing, you're going to reap nothing.
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  And that's what happens.
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  Absolutely. There's another verse in this proverb that is not necessarily exactly
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  about a sluggard, but it talks about how we're known by our doings.
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  And verse 11 says, even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be
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  pure and whether it be right.
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  And that goes back again to that. We are his ambassadors.
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  And people are watching. And they make not just assumptions and judgments and opinions about you.
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  If you're wearing the title Christian, everything you do reflects upon Christ.
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  And it may be wrong. I mean, you may not be living the scriptures,
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  but if they don't know the scriptures, all they know is that you say you're
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  a Christian and you're a Christian.
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  And this is how you're living. So they surmise that that's how Christ is.
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  And that's how you are when you have Jesus as your Savior.
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  And so we need to be very cognizant at all times that we truly are living out
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  what the world thinks Jesus is because we're claiming to be Christ-like.
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  Amen. Amen.
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  What about this one in verse 13? Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty.
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  Open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
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  Now, I love sleep, but I don't sleep all day.
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  And I think that that's what this verse is talking about. Sleep is important.
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  We know that rest is important. We know that we are supposed to sleep.
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  But when we are sleeping all day,
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  and we're not doing the work that we need to be doing,
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  then the consequences is that we will come to nothing right the work will not
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  be done and we will not receive the reward for the work and this is coming back again to say.
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  That when we substitute sleep for the time we're supposed to be working it's
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  not that sleep is bad as you said it's when there's a time for everything we're
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  told a season for everything a time for everything.
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  And if you're sleeping when you should be working, then you've got a problem.
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  But I will also submit to you that if you work all the time and are a workaholic
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  and you are working when you should be resting, you will also have a problem.
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  But this particular context of Proverbs chapter 20 is explaining the consequences
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  of doing a lazy action when we should be doing an action of work.
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  I think that's a really good point.
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  All right. So there's another sort of theme that kind of runs throughout this proverb that is about.
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  To me, I quoted, there's a line in the scripture about counsel in the heart
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  of man, but we need wise counsel as Christians, and we need to seek out wise counsel.
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  We need to give wise counsel. And I think we need to understand that wise counsel
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  comes from the Lord and the Lord only.
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  And if counsel that we receive is not in alignment with the Lord and with his
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  word, then it's not wise counsel.
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  Right, because God may use people to give you wise counsel, but their counsel
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  is going to be founded and predicated upon the word of God.
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  And it's never going to be contrary to what God says.
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  And it's why it's so important who you give your ear to and whose influence
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  you allow to have impact on your life.
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  Because the people you're around, the people you're listening to,
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  their thoughts and their actions, oftentimes we assimilate them.
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  Because we're just around them.
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  And so we need to be very conscious that we need to be getting our influence
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  from people who are influencing us towards the Lord, not away from Him.
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  Verse five of this proverb says, counsel in the heart of man is like deep water,
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  but a man of understanding will draw it out.
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  You know, we can have counsel in our lives and counsel that comes from the Lord that is like deep water.
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  Like it's got depth. It goes on and on forever, right?
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  It may be something that we really have to seek to understand.
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  And that's the key.
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  There are a lot of treasures hidden in deep water. I mean, come on.
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  You're huge on the Titanic. I love the deep water.
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  And the deep water and all of the different shipwrecks and treasures and things that are in there.
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  But I want you to see that correlation because those divers dug deep.
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  Those divers worked hard. Those divers put in the effort and the time.
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  And I think this verse is telling us that deep in our souls,
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  those of us who know the Lord are treasures unseen and deep in the word of God
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  from Genesis to Revelations are life changing gems of treasures.
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  But we have to study it and
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  that means taking time and effort and energy
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  and purposing in our heart to understand what
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  God is saying throughout scriptures and that
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  is like deep waters you got to go after it with the purpose of going after it
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  and then you reap this incredible treasure of peace and comfort and joy and
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  hope and motivation and inspiration that far outweighs the energy you put in it.
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  Absolutely. I've never seen any of those documentaries where somebody had gone
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  deep and worked hard, maybe even for months and years,
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  that did not have more joy and energy and passion in their life when they found
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  what they were looking for than they ever spent trying to get it.
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  That's so true. That's so true.
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  This idea of deep counsel, I think, also really makes clear that sometimes when we have really.
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  Big situations in our lives or have big decisions to make, good counsel can be very important.
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  If we look at verse 18, every purpose is established by counsel and with good advice make war.
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  Now, I'm not about we should all be going to war or anything like that,
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  but if you think about it, the decision to go to war is probably one of the
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  biggest decisions, say, a country might make or something like that.
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  And there is tremendous counsel and I would say introspection,
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  right, and advice that is required before a decision like that is made.
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  And I think that, you know, we need to understand that if we're making a big
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  decision in our life, you know,
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  we need to, you know, we need to ask the Lord to give us his counsel.
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  And if we do seek out wise counsel from others, we need to make sure they're godly people. Amen.
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  You know, there's another verse in here, verse 27. The spirit of man is the
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  candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.
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  And that verse doesn't necessarily talk about counsel, but I think it lets us
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  know that what really should be guiding us is the Lord himself, right?
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  And he's like a candle inside of us that lights our spirit, that lights our
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  path, and that lets us know where to go.
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  That's where we should be seeking counsel first. And I love it that you said
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  that we should be seeking the Lord for counsel because it goes over here to 12 where he says,
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  The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.
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  And so he has given us what we need to be able to live the abundant life he's
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  promised us in John 10, 10. And we can hear the word of the Lord.
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  We can see the word of the Lord. And when we are walking in our integrity and
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  we are walking with him, then he is forming all of that.
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  And we are living a life that is paying attention to what's coming in front
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  of our eyes and what's being put into our ears. And so we need to guard our hearts.
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  It's important because what goes in is what comes out. Absolutely.
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  The last theme that I think kind of permeates throughout this chapter is this
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  idea of our righteousness.
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  Like Christ makes us righteous. We're in right standing with God because of
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  the work that Christ has done.
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  He makes us righteous, but there's a human tendency to sort of proclaim our
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  own self-righteousness.
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  And this is covered a number of times in this proverb.
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  And I think what's important for us to remember is that it's Christ that makes us righteous.
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  Nothing that we can do on our own would make us righteous, would make us able
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  to stand in right standing before a holy God.
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  Only Jesus and his blood over our lives can make that okay. And he affirms that
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  in verse 24 of this chapter when he says, man's goings are of the Lord.
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  And how can a man then understand his own way?
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  God has a plan for us, and it's a good plan. We learned that in Jeremiah 29,
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  11, and he wants to prosper us and give us a hope.
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  And we cannot know what God knows. We live in the present moment.
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  We may plan for the future, and some of us may even regret the past,
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  but we live in the present moment.
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  And as a result of that, we only know the here and now, but he has given us
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  eyes and ears and a roadmap through Genesis to Revelations and a Holy Spirit
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  in us to guide us and to lead us.
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  And when we trust him, he does direct our paths. And he's the one that knows
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  the way because in John 14, verse 6, he says he is the way.
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  Absolutely. Let's just look at 6, 7, and 9. Most men will proclaim everyone
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  his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find.
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  The just man walketh in his integrity, and his children are blessed after him.
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  And then verse 9, who can say, I have made my heart clean. I am pure from sin.
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  Jesus is the one who makes our hearts clean. Because all of our works are filthy, right?
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  Right, right. We can't make ourselves pure.
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  We can try and try and try to be as good as we can be, but our righteousness
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  and holiness comes from God's work in us.
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  Because our righteousness are as filthy rags. Right.
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  And that's when you think about, we talked about it in Psalms,
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  when we were doing the Psalms 8, what is man that thou art mindful of him,
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  Psalms 8, 4, and the son of man that thou visitest him.
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  He has chosen to allow us to be part of his story, and we should embrace him
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  and invite him and fill our life with him so he's part of our story.
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  But he truly loves us, and he truly gives us all good things.
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  All good things come from him. And I think that we just,
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  I honestly think that the ordinary Christian is living an ordinary life because
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  they haven't really understood the extraordinary God that lives within them and loves them.
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  And he come that we might have life and have it more abundant. He didn't save us.
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  For an ordinary life. And he didn't save us for us to be run of the mill and like the Lord.
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  I mean, like the world, he saved us that we'd be peculiar people, zealous of good works.
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  We just have one more verse that we want to touch on because Proverbs 23 will
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  spend a bit of time on that.
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  But verse one says this, wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging,
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  and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
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  And we're going to just leave you with this thought.
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  Anything that draws you away from God cannot be of God.
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  Anything that dulls your senses to the point that you're more susceptible to
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  the roaring lying that walk us about trying to destroy us and kill us can't
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  be in the center of God's will.
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  And if you give the devil an inch, he will take a mile.
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  So until we get to 23, where we discuss this a little bit further,
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  I want you to mull those things over in your minds.
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  And I want you to know that he said, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
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  Well, we thank you so much for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well
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  Ministries. and we cannot wait until you join us again.
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  We'll be in Proverbs in the following Wednesday.
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  But we will be in the scriptures and having a message and a lesson that you
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  can plod today to your life when you come and listen to us on Fridays and Mondays.
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  So it is our prayer that you know Jesus as your Savior. It's our prayer that
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  you're walking in the integrity of the righteousness of God that's been imputed into you.
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  please do not hesitate to call us or contact us.
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