Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On Jun 23, 2019: Proverbs 27 Wisdom Is Good For You In The Long Run
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. Amen. Well, it's been a great journey through the book of Proverbs. As we've been reading through the Bible in three years, the Proverbs is always a great part of that journey and a good opportunity to be reminded of really timeless truths that Probably we know and we've learned and we've heard and we've been taught and we've discovered ourselves and yet at the same time, so easy to forget. And there's so many subjects in the book of Proverbs that it's always a great variety of things that the Lord is ministering to us about. And so this morning, there's a few different verses here in Proverbs 27 that I'd like to spend some time with you considering. And they're not necessarily interconnected thoughts, but they do have one kind of theme, I think, and it's true throughout the book of Proverbs. And so that's the title I gave the message this morning. Wisdom is good for you in the long run. Wisdom is good for you in the long run. And as we consider these truths and these, you know, little sayings of wisdom that are provided here in the book of Proverbs, it reminds me about being a kid and kind of growing up. And maybe you can think back to some of those perspectives that you had. You know, growing up, and maturing, kind of having a realistic expectation and perspective on life. It's not necessarily the most exciting thing in the world, but it's good for us, right? To kind of grow up and grow out of some of the childish perspectives and childish ways. You know, when you're a kid, you think about candy, right? And you think, man, I can't wait. Once mom and dad are out of the picture, I can eat all the candy I want, right? I can just go to town. I can have Abba Zabba every day if I want to, you know, like you have this perspective, right? But then you grow up and, you know, for the most part as adults, we don't eat candy all day, every day, right? We don't live out what we thought we would do when we were young, right? And I think I can remember too, being a kid and thinking like, oh man, I can't wait to be able to stay up all night. That just was like the dream, to be able to just not have a bedtime, not have that kind of restriction. And I can tell you pretty much every day in my life these days, I stay up as late as I want to every night. That's about 10 o'clock and then I go to bed. It's things have changed, right? Your perspective changes as you mature. But when you have the restriction and you can't see the perspective, you're looking at those things and thinking, wow, that's going to be great. But later on, you grow up and you realize, you know, that's not good for me. I could do that. I could stay up all night. I don't actually enjoy it as much as I thought I would. And ultimately, it's not good for me. I could eat all the candy that I want or all candy all day long, but it's not ultimately good for me. And we learn to restrict ourselves, to control ourselves, and based upon what is good for us as mature adults. And this is something to consider as we think about the subject of wisdom, because that's really what wisdom is. It's what is good for you in the long run. And whether you're talking about the amount of sugar that you consume or the amount of sleep that you get, this applies to a great variety of aspects in our lives that we need to for our own sake because we've learned with maturity what is good for us. apply some self-control and restrictions and be reminded of these so that we can do what is best for us in the long run. And so wisdom is good for you in the long run. And so we're going to look at a few of these Proverbs here in chapter 27 to be refreshed and reminded about that as we work our way through these together. So the first one that we'll look at is verse one here. Point number one is live out God's will for today. Verse 1 again says, Here the first proverb we'll consider is talking about tomorrow. Talking about the expectations, the confidence, and the boasting that we may have about tomorrow. As you think about tomorrow, you know, we can consider, we can recognize that we are incredibly blessed, right? We have comfortable lives. Now, we may kind of dispute that a little bit in our minds, but it doesn't, it's not very hard to just, you know, expand our scope a little bit and consider some of the other countries in this world that Christians experience, you know, great difficulties. People are surviving, you know, wars, lifelong wars and incredible persecution. You know, there's, it's easy to find as we look around just in our time today, people that are way, in way more difficult situations than we are in. And if you, you know, look around and you're not that inspired to be just reminded of how blessed we are, then you can also continue to look back in history and recognize that we have really comfortable lives and we are immensely blessed. And from that position, from that status, it is very easy to take tomorrow for granted. And it's very easy in that state, in that state, in that condition to, oops, I was getting an ant and I threw off my cough drops. We need to be reminded sometimes to make the most of our time because we get into our routines and we're so comfortable and we kind of just have this expectation tomorrow things are just going to continue on and maybe even things are going to get better and the interest that we're accruing is going to continue to be earned and we have these plans and just this... Not even necessarily a purposeful boast, but just a natural expectation that the things that we're working towards, the things that we're working on tomorrow, those things will progress. And here the proverb reminds us that tomorrow is not promised. He says, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. And it's not necessarily the most pleasant thing to consider, but again, wisdom isn't necessarily the most pleasant thing at the moment, but it's good for you in the long run. And so I would encourage you to just stop and consider for a moment that you do not know what a day may bring forth. You don't actually know that you have tomorrow. Tomorrow is not promised, is a saying we often quote, right? It's something that we need to be reminded of occasionally because, well, so often we have this expectation tomorrow is a for sure thing, but it's not necessarily. And so do not boast about tomorrow. Do not, well, another way to say this is perhaps the old saying, saying that goes along with this proverb, don't count your chickens before they hatch, right? So there you are, you have all the eggs, you're looking at them, and so you're starting to count like, oh man, tomorrow I'm going to have 10 chickens. But they haven't hatched yet, they're still in the egg, and that's not guaranteed. And maybe it's likely, maybe it's, you know, you look at history and yeah, probably the statistics are good, but At the same time, you cannot depend on, you cannot count as if it's already happened, these things to fall into place and these plans to work out. The Apostle James addresses this in the book of James, James chapter 4. And he says, He says it this way. I'm going to read a few verses here from James 4, verse 13. He says, And so James challenges people who are making plans. Now, the Bible is not against making plans, and we'll see that in another proverb in just a few moments, but they're making plans. We're going to go here to this city. We're going to buy up all this goods, and then we're going to, after spending a year there, we're going to go to this other city, and we're going to sell those goods because they're in greater demand here. And so there's this plan. Here's how we're going to make a profit. Here's how we're going to work things out. And in all of this making of plans, James says, the problem is you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Your life is a vapor. It can just vanish away. You're planning to spend a year here, then to go there. You're planning to, you know, do this. And we have those kinds of plans. We have those kinds of things on our mind and schedules on our hearts, right? And But it's not promised. And so he goes on to say in James chapter 4 verse 15 and 16, instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil. Having a boast or a confidence or an expectation can be evil. When we have a Such plans and purposes that we're expecting our plans to go the way that we think, the way that we want. And so he says, instead, you need to insert this thought, if the Lord wills. And it's not so much, you know, inserting those magic words and then it's okay, but it's really factoring in, Lord, is this your will? And so it's okay to have the plans, but Lord, is this your will? And I think it's important for us to consider this because, well, as I made the point, live out God's will for today, right now is what you have. It's the moments that are here right before you. And what we need to keep in focus is that I need to live out what God wants. I need to put God's will first right now. And I can't count on tomorrow for that. I can't wait until tomorrow because I don't even know that I have a tomorrow. What could change between today and tomorrow? Well, a lot could change. Your health could change from today to tomorrow. Like instantly overnight, you know, you could find yourself in a very difficult and desperate situation. It was last year that we went up, my wife and I went up to visit my grandfather and he went into the hospital on the day that we got there And he never left the hospital. It was just a few days later that he was in eternity, right? And that could happen to any of us. Like, that's a reality that we face. But it also could happen differently. You could come home from the hospital, but now your life is permanently changed because, well, there was this major procedure. There was this, you know, life-altering event that took place. And That could take place for any one of us at any time. It happens in people's lives every day. And so all of our plans that we had that expected us to have these, you know, healthy conditions or these specific things, well, they may not work out the way that we wanted them to work out or we thought they would work out. We can't depend on that and count on that. Instead, we need to live out God's will for today and be focused on doing what he desires for today. What could change between today and tomorrow? Our nations could go to war and war changes things. You know, we, again, we're blessed. We haven't lived through a world war for the most of us, right? We haven't gone through that, but you know, that could happen and it could happen quickly and it could happen overnight. There could be the physical battlefield that comes right to us. Or it could be not necessarily a physical battlefield, but it could be a cyber battlefield, right? I don't know if you follow that kind of stuff, but there is cyber attacks happening from us and to us. There's all of the... Negotiating isn't the right word, but testing our abilities and stuff. There's attempts to infiltrate our power grid, for example. And so what would you do without power for a few weeks? If Russia or somebody, one of our enemies, wanted to knock out power in the United States for a couple weeks, that's what they're trying to do. What would you do? That would change things, right? If tomorrow and for the next several weeks you don't have electricity, that would change between today and tomorrow. And it would be a drastic change to us in many different aspects of life. So tomorrow is not promised. Now you can think about that as life or death, right? But you could also think about health. You could think about economics. You could think about war. You could think about all kinds of things. And if you start thinking about it too much, then you might start to stress out because there's so much that could happen between today and tomorrow. But remember what Jesus said. He said in Matthew 6, to seek first the kingdom of God, his righteousness, all these other things, they'll be added to you. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow. And so we need to not worry about tomorrow, but also to recognize that tomorrow is not guaranteed. And so instead, place our focus where it needs to be, and that is living out God's will for today, seeking first the kingdom of God. And maybe there's a need for us to reexamine some priorities, some decisions, some ways that we're spending our time and attention and money, because, well, God's will, it's... It's needed for us to work on today and to live out today. And Lord willing, we'll have tomorrow to continue and to further that pursuit, but that's not guaranteed. And today is our opportunity to live out the will of God in our lives. So do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. Well, now I want to jump to verses five and six for point number two, and that is develop friendships that can handle correction. Developing friendships is something that we all need to be doing. Verse 5 says, Open rebuke is the idea of being corrected in front of people. Who wants that? Pastor George, I have some feedback for you about last week's message. I'm just going to tell you in front of everybody. Who wants that? Who wants open rebuke, you know, in front of everybody? It's embarrassing. It's humiliating. But here the proverb is saying it's better than no rebuke at all. None of us like to be corrected. It's not something that we, you know, strive for or endeavor to receive. It's not something that we get excited about. But again, wisdom is good for you in the long run. It's something that, well, we need to come to terms with, that I need correction. And I need people in my life who will correct me, even if it's open rebuke, because, well, that's better than no rebuke at all. Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. And the idea here of love being carefully concealed is that the rebuke is needed, and there is love, but, well, the rebuke is held back. instead of being given. But the need for rebuke, that's a given. That is there. That is for sure. And every one of us, we need rebuke. We need that kind of feedback in our lives. Now, of course, we know from other portions of scripture as well that, you know, hey, it's best when possible, rebuke in private. Like open rebuke isn't, you know, the first tool in the toolbox, right? But In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus kind of walks through how to deal with someone who's involved in sinning against you, right? And if it's possible, just go between you and your brother and tell him his fault, just between the two of you, right? And to keep it as private as possible. It's not the only way to rebuke, to open rebuke, right? But sometimes it is necessary. We have a good example of this in the book of Galatians with an exchange that happens between the apostle Paul and Peter, right? And Peter was leading people astray when the Jews came from Jerusalem to, well, the church there in Antioch where there were Gentiles. And Peter altered his behavior and began to only fellowship with the Jews at meals and not with the Gentiles. And he was leading people astray. And it became an issue, Paul said. In Galatians 2, verse 13, he says, the rest of the Jews played the hypocrite with him so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. And so this was an issue that led other people astray, that caused other people to behave incorrectly. And so Paul said, Says, you know what, this requires open rebuke. This isn't a let's pull Peter aside and just address it quietly kind of situation. Instead, in Galatians chapter 2 verse 14, he says, when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter, before them all, if you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as Jews? Why do you compel the Gentiles to live as Jews? And so Peter here challenged, I'm sorry, Paul challenged Peter before everybody. He issued an open rebuke because, well, the issue at hand was done in the open and influencing and causing people to go astray. And so it was necessary to bring this open rebuke. Now, there may be times that open rebuke is not necessary, but it's given, right? It could have been done privately, but it was done openly. It was done publicly. And again, that's not something we would be excited about or desire or want or ask for. But at the same time, open rebuke is better than no rebuke at all. And open rebuke is not something that we are able to receive from just anybody that we Well, that's why I made the point, develop friendships that can handle correction. Because going on into verse 6, it says, It's a friend who can wound you faithfully. It's a friend who can wound you with your best interests in mind. It's someone who loves you. The word friend literally means one who loves. The word enemy means Well, literally is one who hates. And there's some similar concepts here to other Proverbs that talk about disciplining your children, right? If you love your children, you discipline them. And if you hate your children, you don't discipline them, right? There's that correlation. In a similar way as friends, we don't have the discipline authority in each other's lives, but we do have the rebuke responsibility, the correction. And it's when we love one another that that, well, we're able to correct one another. And it's when we don't really care about the welfare of each other that we don't offer correction. We don't offer rebuke. William MacDonald, the commentator, says it this way, most people do not want to be honest with you about your faults. They are afraid that you will turn against them. It is a true friend who is willing to risk your goodwill in order to help you by constructive criticism. It's a true friend who will be willing to risk your friendship and say, you know, there is this issue that you may not see it, you may not be aware of it, but this is going on. This is, you know, what is happening and this is not good. It needs to change. We need to develop friendships that can handle that kind of interaction, that kind of correction. And it's on both sides, right? On the one hand, I need to be a friend who is able to offer correction. And on the other hand, I need to be a friend who is able to receive correction and maintain the friendship and recognize and appreciate, you know, hey, I may not like what you said. I may not like the way that you said it. I may not like that you did it openly instead of privately. You know, I may not like all kinds of things, but I'm not gonna terminate the friendship because I can appreciate that you cared enough about me to offer the correction, to offer to help, that I can have this perspective. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Now again, wisdom is good for you in the long run, right? This is not something, you know, we get excited about. This is like eating vegetables, right? It's like you do this because it's good for you. I do this. I force myself to have this perspective because I know it's what I need, not because it's necessarily what I want or my favorite thing, but If I just chase after my favorite thing, well, it's the kisses of an enemy. And those are deceitful. If I only maintain relationships with people who kiss me, who make me feel good, who never address issues in my life, well, it's deceitful. I'm setting myself up for failure, for worse conditions. What would you prefer? Wounds from a friend or kisses from an enemy? Sometimes our enemies may appear to be friends because... of the kisses. But we cannot just accept the surface for what it is. We need to come to the place, we need to mature enough where we would prefer for my friend to wound me than for my enemy to kiss me. Because I need to grow, I need to mature, I need to press on. And that doesn't just happen automatically, it takes some development. You have friends who can wound you, where you've given them permission, where you've developed the relationship to the point where you can have these kinds of conversations and say, you know, I know there's issues in my life and I want you to be able to come to me as you see these things, as you see, you know, me wandering from the path, as you see issues developing, as you see sin that needs to be corrected. I want you to be able to, I invite you to, to bring that rebuke, to bring that J. Vernon McGee said this about this. He says, He says, Sometimes nobody else will tell me the truth, right? But you can count on Kim. She'll tell me the truth and bring that correction when it's needed. Now, Into all this talk about friendship, I want to jump down to verse 9 for a second. Verse 9 says, ointment and perfume delight the heart, and the sweetness of a man's friend gives delight by hearty counsel. Here's another proverb about friendship, and I just share it to remind us that friendship is not only about rebuke. So, you know, our time together, spending time together, being friends doesn't mean we just spend the whole time correcting each other. but no, there's the sweet side of the friendship where there's this hearty counsel. It's like an ointment or a perfume that delights the heart. And so there's both sides of the friendship. Now, it's tempting to just want the ointment and perfume, right, without the correction, without the other side that needs to be addressing some of the difficulties and frailties and issues in our lives. But we need more than just the fluff. We need more than just the exciting, you know, sugary stuff. We need the fruits and vegetables. We need to have real relationships. And it takes some development. And I would encourage you to work on having those kinds of friendships. You can't have this kind of friendship with everybody, but you need a few people in your life. That you have a friendship with them, they have a friendship with you, it can handle correction. You can give it, you can receive it, and you're able to grow together. And it's not just the unpleasant parts of relationships, it's not just the pleasant parts of relationships, but both are together for your benefit on both sides. Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. We're going to jump now to verse 7 for point number 3, and that is, satisfy your soul with things of God. Verse 7 says, A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, but to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb. When I read this verse, it reminds me of, well, looking back to my childhood again. There was one time, it was an Easter at my grandmother's house, back in Norwalk. And I remember discovering a half-consumed bag of shredded coconut. And I think, you know, it had been used on a cake or something, right? So there was this cake, and they had dyed it green, and it was, you know, whatever. But the leftovers, there was this half bag of shredded coconut. And I love coconut. So I, as a kid, just kind of like, you know, and then went off into a little corner or outside the house. I forget exactly where, but I began to eat that shredded coconut and to eat and eat and eat and eat and eat that shredded coconut. And you know what? Today, I cannot eat shredded coconut. I ruined, you know, one of my favorite things because I ate it so much it made me sick. And if I have too much, I like coconut still, but if I have a little bit too much, it reminds me, I go back to that awe and I have that loathsome feeling, right? Honeycomb, it's the idea of something that's really sweet, something that's really good. But even that can be loathsome when the soul is satisfied. In contrast, he says to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. And so there's this idea here. There's sweet things that are really good that, well, are loathsome to you because you're already full. But to the person who's hungry, even the bitter things, those are sweet. And this reminds me about, well, what is it that I'm consuming? And to consider and evaluate. If I fill up on bitter things, well, I'm going to be perpetually unsatisfied. And there is this opportunity and temptation for all of us. Again, it's going back to this idea of wisdom. It's good for you in the long run. You might wish as a child you could grow up and, you know, eat candy all day every day. And you could fill yourself up on candy, but there's not going to be great nutrition there, right? It's not going to be valuable to you. It's going to be harmful to you in the long run. You'll continue to be hungry at the same time you're full. Maybe another way to think of it is like drinking salt water, right? In a survival situation, you're out on the open sea. It's very tempting to drink the salt water. You probably haven't experienced this. I haven't either, but this is what they tell us. If you're in that situation, don't drink the salt water because it will not satisfy your thirst. It looks like it will, but it won't. And it'll actually make you thirsty because of the salt content. It will dehydrate you more than So you're worse off for having had a drink of the salt water than you would have been if you had not had a drink of the salt water. It's hard for us to get that through our minds and to grasp that. But this is a reality of life as well. That we have the opportunity to fill up our soul, to satisfy our soul. And the way that we seek to satisfy our soul has an effect on how much we can consume of the good stuff. I think we're walking through a good example of this right now. As we continue our journey through the Bible in three years, we're in the book of Ecclesiastes. And here is Solomon on a journey. And you have to understand the book as a journey. He is trying to figure out meaning and purpose and find that sweet honeycomb of life without God in the picture. And so he fills his life with this and then that and then this other thing and this other thing. And in the pursuit of all these things, He's still unsatisfied. He's not able to find the fulfillment. And so he says, vanity of vanities, all is vanity, right? This is what happens when we try to fill up, we try to satisfy our soul with the things that do not satisfy. Maybe think about Jesus with the woman at the well in John chapter 4. As he addresses her, you know, you've gone from this man to this man to this man to this man. You're trying to satisfy yourself, but none of these things satisfy. If you were satisfied, in other words, you wouldn't be chasing after the honeycomb. A satisfied soul doesn't need to chase after the honeycomb, but instead you're unsatisfied and you're filling your life with these bitter things that do not satisfy. And so you're on this perpetual journey trying to satisfy yourself with things that can never satisfy. And Jesus told her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But if you drink the water that I give you, well, it will become in you a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. Satisfy your soul with things of God. There is a great amount of temptation for us to try to satisfy our soul with things that do not satisfy. We can fill ourselves up and just like, you know, in a practical physical sense, if I fill up on junk food, then I'm full and I don't have, you know, the desire or the room to actually have something of nutritional value, right? And so, In a similar way, we can fill ourselves up. We can fill up our time, our attention, our energy, our mind. We can fill up ourselves with things that don't satisfy our soul. And I think like never before, right? We have information in our pockets, you know, in our smartphones. We have 24-hour news that is just ongoing on a multitude of channels. We have games. Games that are engineered to be addicting, right? You think it's like, Just kind of a coincidence that every game has some time component. Like you can only do this so much and then you have to come back in an hour to, you know, make progress on this. And so every 20 minutes you got to check back in and all of these things are engineered to get us coming back, coming back, coming back, coming back, coming back, coming back. We have unlimited TV these days. Did you know that every minute of every day, 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. It's just like crazy. Try to fathom that for just a moment. Every moment, every, not every moment, every minute, 300 hours are uploaded to YouTube. How do you even like begin to catch up on all that? That's a lot of content you're missing out on because you can't even, every minute you fall 300 hours behind, right? Every minute that you watch, there's no way to keep up with it all. In 2018, Netflix launched 700 original TV shows and 100, 80 original movies. That's their own content, aside from all the other stuff that's on TV and, you know, the old library and stuff that they get to release. Like, there's this onslaught of all this new, and it puts us in a position where we have opportunity to fill up continually. But I would ask you to take a step back and reflect. How satisfied is your soul? How satisfied is your soul? Look, I can watch all the Star Wars I want to watch, right? I can fill up my life. I can fill up my day with that. I can play all the games that I want to play. I mean, there's just unlimited opportunity in that sense. But at the end of it, am I satisfied? Is my soul satisfied? We need to stop and evaluate whether the things that we're doing, the things that we're pursuing, the things that we're consuming... are things that are valuable and that really satisfy us. Peter says this in 1 Peter 2, When you've tasted the Lord is gracious and you're like, oh, that's sweet honeycomb. But if you're already full, A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb. Isn't it interesting, you know, if time is crunched, time with God is like the first thing out the window. It's easy, right? It just kind of falls to the side. It's easy. It just, you know, gets set aside. But Peter here is encouraging us, the proverb here reminds us, if I satisfy my soul, if I fill my soul with bitter things, I'm not going to be able to, I'm not going to be desiring to consume anything. the honeycomb, the good things. And Peter says, you need to keep yourself like a newborn babe. Keep yourself in this condition that you desire the pure milk of the word. And if the word of God isn't a desire for you, I would encourage you to consider what are you filling yourself with? What is it that you are consuming if you're not desiring the pure milk of the word? It might be because, well, you've tried to satisfy yourself with other things And if you, you know, pig out on junk food, you're still full and still lacking the nutrition, still lacking what you really need. Wisdom, it's good for you in the long run to learn and to recognize these patterns, these behaviors, and to change it because you know what is best for you. Well, moving on, we're going to jump down to verse 12. Here's point number four, prepare for likely difficulties. Verse 12 says, a prudent man foresees evil and hides himself. The simple pass on and are punished. A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself. Now this is not talking about someone who is psychic or right? Or who knows the future, someone who has, you know, some magical powers. This is talking about someone who can sit down and think through what are some likely evils to come down this path? What are some likely issues that we'll be facing? I learned a valuable lesson on our trip to Israel back in 2006. We arrived in Israel after some complicated difficulties getting to Israel, right? And when we arrived, we found the airlines had lost our luggage because, well, they went to our original destination and that changed, you know, on the in-between. And so it was going to take some time for our clothes and our luggage to catch up with us. And a thousand people told us after that, that's why you always pack a change of clothes in your carry-on. And I learned that lesson. And so usually in flights now, I pack a change of clothes in my carry-on because I know it's pretty likely that the airline is going to lose my luggage. Prepare for likely difficulties. It's not unheard of that an airline will lose your luggage. It's actually pretty common. It's pretty likely. So yeah, you might want to prepare for those kinds of situations. We need to have this kind of approach to sit down and consider our life. Hey, if I continue this behavior, if I continue this work-life balance, if I continue this pattern, What are some challenges that I'm going to face? What are some likely issues? To just stop and think ahead. Again, it's not asking you to have foresight that comes from supernatural. There is that, but God will give you that when you need it. Noah, he was a prudent man. He hid himself and his family in the ark. But he didn't generate that himself. The Lord gave him that instruction and those plans. And so the rest of the people, they just went on, even with the warning, they had the alert, they had the announcements, but they just carried on anyways, not listening to Noah, right? So we have the insight that comes from God, but also we have the opportunity to just use the wisdom that God has given to us and to stop and think what could go wrong and to consider the how we can prepare for those things. I remember Harvey telling me one time, listen, auto repair is not an unexpected expense. That's one of the things that we say, right? Oh yeah, well, we're going to do this, but you know, we had this, you know, unexpected expense. We had to fix the car. And at first I didn't understand it. It took me a while to kind of like absorb that thought, but then yeah, it kind of makes sense, right? Do you really not expect to have to repair your car? Like, I understand, you know, it's hard to budget for that. It's hard to, you know, keep money. I understand all that. Sure. Yeah. But do you really expect to not have to repair your car? Like you just expect it to always work well? No, no. I expect that later on I'll be able to save for those unexpected, you know, like, no, no, no. That's not unexpected. There's a lot of things in life that Are really likely. And you can prepare for. But it requires. And it means that. Well I have to prepare for them. And that means I don't. You know. Spend all the money. The way I want to spend it right now. Because. Well. I need to. To hide myself. From that evil. By preparing now. For it. We need to consider what can we afford? And that's not just the initial cost of something, but the maintenance and the requirements of keeping it up and repairing it and all of that. So prepare for likely difficulties. I've completely run out of time. So I think I'm just gonna wrap it up with this last one. Verse 14, point number five, learn to hear other perspectives. Verse 14 says, he who blesses his friend with a loud voice rising early in the morning, it will be counted a curse to him. This one is one that me and my wife like to quote to each other because I like to get up early and raise my voice and be loud. And she likes to get up late and be quiet. And then at nighttime, she likes to be loud and, you know, get stuff done. And I like to be quiet. And so we kind of have a little bit of opposite schedules in that. But it's interesting to consider. So I can bless you. And my desire, my endeavor, what I want to do is I want to bless you. But if I bring that blessing at the wrong time, in the wrong way, in an inconsiderate manner, even though blessing is what I want to give, it can be received not as a blessing, but as a curse. It can be received not as a good thing, but as a bad thing. In the Bible knowledge commentary, they say this, blessing a neighbor is commendable, but not early in the morning. Timing and sensitivity to others who are sleeping are important. The wrong time for the right action causes it to be received as a curse. And this verse, I included it this morning because I think it's important for us to consider. There are other perspectives that we may not be aware of and we may not be familiar with. And there are things that bless me that may not bless you. I want to bless you. So a lot of times I seek to bless you the way that I'm blessed. But the way that I'm blessed may not be a blessing to you. You can also think about this. It's true also of comfort, right? When someone is hurting, when I'm hurting, things that comfort me may not be the same things that comfort somebody else. And so as we consider this, this concept, this idea, again, the point is learn to hear other perspectives. It's important for us to, first of all, be aware. Be aware that, well, different people have different perspectives. That what is a blessing to you and I think, you know, as married couples, we know this, right? Because there's been plenty of times for us in desiring to love our spouse and to bless our spouse, and we do our best, and we do it to the best of our ability, and we pull it off. It's like, wow, look at this great thing. And then it's not received that way. And we're like, I just did this great thing out of love. I just, you know, I don't understand. How could that be received? as a negative thing, right? How could that be received as an insult or an injury? But that is part of the reality. We all have different perspectives and we come from different backgrounds. There's different personalities and different cultures and we need to learn to develop, first of all, the recognition that there are these other perspectives, that not everybody receives everything the same way, but then to seek out So if I want to bless you, I don't automatically just try to bless you the way that I like to be blessed, but that instead I seek out what would bless you. And then it can truly be a blessing. He who blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it will be counted a curse to him. Take into consideration what other people receive, the way that they receive, how it impacts them. Seek to bless them in that way. We need to learn to hear other perspectives. Now again, wisdom, it's good for us in the long run. It doesn't always feel pleasant at the moment. It's not always the most exciting or, you know, sugar-filled pursuit. But because we know it's good for us, we need to live out God's will for today. We need to develop friendships that can handle correction and rebuke. We need to make sure that we're satisfying our soul with the things of God and not just filling up on the junk and then we have no room and no desire for the things of God. We need to look ahead and prepare for those likely difficulties and learn in our relationships around us to hear perspectives that are different than ours, to accept and understand and to receive that what we may think is the best thing in the world may actually be offensive and insulting to others. So if we want to minister to them, if we want to share the gospel with them, if we want to love them, if we want to bless them, well, we need to learn to hear from their side, hear their perspective, hear what it means and what it says to them. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for each one of us as we consider these things. Lord, there's a lot of areas where we need to grow, we need to develop, and we need to mature. I pray for us, God, that you would help us to not be childish in our attitude and our perspective on life, but Lord, that we would grow Be willing to grow. Be willing to move forward in our relationship with you and Lord, in our development of your character and your nature in us. And so Lord, that means that we need to take on wisdom to shape our lives based not on how we feel or what we want or what's most exciting or most fun, but to shape our lives based on what's good for us, what you desire for us. Having that long-term perspective, having eternity in view. Lord, would you help us to have this fresh perspective on our lives that we'd be able to see those areas where we're just filling up on the junk, those areas where we're short-sighted and just focused on the pleasure of the moment, those areas where we're just consumed with ourselves and oblivious to the needs and the desires of others. Lord, I pray that you would impart to us wisdom, that we would have your perspective on our own life, on the people around us, on our plans and desires for the future. Lord, may we see and know your will to have the outlook that you have. Lord, it's for our good, but it's also for the great benefit of the people that are around us. Help us, Lord, to be a good representation of you to them. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.