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355 | Conversations - Proverbs 12 · 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
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well in John chapter four.
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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,
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we invite you to sit down with us as we look to the scriptures to learn more
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about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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Living her 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 12.
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Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to today's podcast.
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My name's Erica Close, and I am here with Kim Miller.
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Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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And it's amazing the amount of truth and wisdom that we find in the book of Proverbs.
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And I'm excited to spend the next few moments with you in Proverbs chapter 12.
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I'm excited about Proverbs chapter 12. I think we've said this for so many of
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them, but it's a really good one.
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There's some really wonderful verses in here, and there are some verses in here
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I bet many of our listeners actually know and have read before.
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So I'm excited to share on it. I'll go ahead and read the first half and then
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you can read the second half. Sounds like a plan.
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Proverbs chapter 12. Whoso loveth instruction, loveth knowledge,
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but he that hateth reproof is brutish.
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A good man obtaineth favor of the Lord, but a man of wicked devices will he condemn.
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A man shall not be established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
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A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband, but she that maketh ashamed is as
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rottenness in his bones.
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The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.
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The words of the wicked are to lie and wait for blood, but the mouth of the
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upright shall deliver them.
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The wicked are overthrown and are not, but the house of the righteous shall stand.
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A man shall be commended according to his wisdom, but he that is of a perverse
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heart shall be despised.
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He that is despised and hath a servant is better than he who honoreth himself and lacketh bread.
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A righteous man regardeth the life of the tender mercies of the wicked or cruel.
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He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread, but he that in persons
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is void of understanding.
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The wicked desireth the net of evil men, but they just yieldeth fruit.
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The wicked is snared by the transgression of
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his the just shall come out of trouble a good
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man satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth and
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the wreck shall be rendered unto him the way of a fool is right in his own eyes
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hearkeneth unto counsel is wise a fool's wrath is present but a prudent man
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covereth shame he that speaketh truth showeth but a false witness deceit is
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that speaketh like the piercings of the tongue of the wise is health.
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The truth shall be established for the lying tongue is but for a moment.
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Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine to the counselors of peace is joy.
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There shall no evil happen to the just, but the wicked shall be filled with mischief.
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Lying lips are an abomination that deal truly are his delight.
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A prudent man concealeth and claimeth foolishness. The hand of the diligent
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shall bear the slothful shall be under tribute.
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Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh, but a good word maketh it glad.
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The righteous is more excellent neighbor, but the way of the wicked seduceth them.
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The slothful man wrought that which he took in hunting, but the diligent man is precious.
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In the way of righteousness is life, and of there is no death.
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There's so much within Proverbs chapter 12.
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And I just love how Proverbs chapter 12 starts that talks about who so loveth
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and loveth knowledge, but reproof is brutish.
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And it just makes me realize, you know, nobody loves to be corrected or to show
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done is wrong, but we need that.
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We need to understand when something's wrong and there's power in reproof.
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There's power in correction and there's power Or when we reflect on our actions.
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When we look in the writings, we see that that can also be translated as that
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the hate correction, those who don't get knowledge, are also those that are
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stupid and indiscretion.
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They don't have the value of understanding the reality around them.
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And so they create these false truths for themselves.
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And it causes them in this path of just one thing or the other.
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And we've all seen the person who just has one bad decision following one bad
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decision following one bad.
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Because at no point did they stop having intervention in that process and reflect
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and determine, hey, to learn from this.
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Hey, what is the truth? Not what I want the truth to be or what I'm calling
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the truth, but what does thus say if the Lord say about this?
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And what is the reality and what is the lesson in this circumstance,
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event, time of my life? There's always a lesson for us.
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There's always something the Lord wants us to learn and to understand about
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him primarily, but also about ourselves, also the world as our situation.
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And that's the opportunity that we have for reflection, right?
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And we don't reflect ourselves. We reflect with him and in prayer.
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And the knowledge that he makes us a good man. We are good.
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And scripture says in verse two, the good man obtains favor from the Lord and man is condemned.
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And we know that because the scripture says a sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal.
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I really like 3, how it talks about how we are established and how things take root.
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You know, we talk about someone being established if, say, they have a good
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business or they have a good job, something like that.
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That's, I think, how we commonly use that word.
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But to be established is to be secure, right? It's to be rooted and grounded.
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And I want to be rooted and And grounded in Christ.
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And when we are, we are uncompromisingly righteous.
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Exactly. I love that. We do not err from the truth. So we can't be. Love that.
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Don't gain anything by evil.
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I think it's safe to say evil will get us nowhere, right?
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But we will certainly not gain any degree of being established through anything of evil.
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It's only going to backfire on us.
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I love how Proverbs spells out life.
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And in verse 4, it talks about the crowning glory of a husband is having a good, honest.
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Wife with strong carry and says that
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the opposite is if you have a wife that
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makes you ashamed then it's like into
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the bonus complete in trouble and i believe you know you and i have never been
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married and i believe this verse still has great meaning to us because what
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it's telling you is those that you're coming with those that you're yoking up
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with those that are important to you those that are in your inner circle,
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they need to be people who are pointing you to Jesus.
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They need to be people who, if it's the righteousness of God and are going to
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pull you out of the pit when you fall in or going to, you know,
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course correct you if you happen to step off.
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It's important who we confide in and have around us, who has our ear,
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the person who's actually speaking I appreciate, too, that it also says that
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there's a value in virtue.
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You know, virtue is not a word I think that we use as often,
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but you described all things that to be virtuous means.
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But to be virtuous is holy. It's to be like Jesus.
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True value in having virtue. And it's a value in this case, but as you said,
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it's of anyone that you're around. It is a value to God. You are more valuable to...
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When you're living a virtuous life. And it begins to hear about this concept
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of his imputed righteousness and being a virtuous person.
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And it says that the thoughts and purposes are consistently righteous and honest and reliable.
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The people who are living for the Lord, who are going close to him,
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who are walking in his commandments, be steady.
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But the contrast of that. You know, wicked people, seat and treachery.
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There's just this consistent comparison of light and dark.
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And in verse 6, it says the word get are to lie in, you know,
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evil in whatever form it is, is always going to, to draw you away from the Lord.
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It's always going to, to draw you away from the things of the Lord.
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Evil is subtle. You know, this description here of lying in wait for blood sounds
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like a vampire or a bear or a lion or something like that.
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But so often, the wiles of the devil, the way that Satan works,
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much more than a big angry bear.
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So often, they're just simple things that draw us away from what God wants us
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to be. What he says clearly, if you walk in wicked ways, you're going to perish,
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you're going to be overtaken.
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But the righteous, uncompromisingly holy, who stand on his word and stand in
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his foundation, they do just that, they stand.
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The devil can't take you down.
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In verse 8, we read that a man will be ended according to his wisdom.
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Just like there is tremendous value in living a virtuous and holy life,
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tremendous value in our lives to have wisdom.
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Wisdom is something we need to be seeking after. It's something that we need that should be into us.
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It's something that we should be praying for more of because wisdom allows us
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to make good decisions. It allows us to know right from wrong.
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It allows us to be able to have discernment in difficult situations.
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And we will be commended for our wisdom.
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But if our heart, in verse 8, is described as perverse, if our heart is perverse,
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no good thing comes from a heart that is perverse,
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that is not seeking after the Lord, that is turned against the Lord.
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We're talking about godly wisdom here.
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Complete seeking character and his age.
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A comprehensive understanding insight into the ways of God.
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Like what God is doing and being part of his plan and being on board with his
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requests and what he's asking us to do. means we do it God's way.
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And as we through this in verse 9 tells us is that.
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You do the right thing, in my mind, better who is just barely or lightly esteemed
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than meager affair, than try to fake riches and wealth and fame.
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That's just a devil that continually moves you down.
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Righteous person is one that is compassionate all the way around.
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And in verse 10, it's compassionate even to his beast, to his animals first, because.
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You know, a beast in this case would be, this is even, this is a working animal.
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These are clearly, this is probably not a reference to a pet,
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you know, or something like that. But it matters how we act.
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It matters how we act to people. It matters how we act to the things,
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towards the things that are possessions.
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You know, it matters how we act towards animals.
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When we are deceitful and don't have the love of God, we can't even treat that
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around us, which is helping us. is benefiting us.
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We just have no understanding of right when our heart is in the wrong place.
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People, they always want more and they seem to have this lack of standing and
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they just pursue one thing after the other and nothing ever really satisfies them.
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And it seems like the more evil it is, the better they like it or the lazier
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they are, the less they work,
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the more it seems so appealing to them, no matter what, even though it looks
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like the sinners are being rewarded,
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the truth of the matter is those who walk righteously, who don't compromise
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their standards and the ways of the Lord, they are going to yield the greater fruit.
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Not in each moment compared, but in the long haul, there is no comparison.
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I really appreciate that you said the long haul. I was thinking,
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I've thought a lot lately about the Christian life, about what it means to live
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a life with Jesus, to live a life for Jesus.
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And it's absolutely a long game.
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Jesus is with us moment by moment.
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It's the long walk with Him where we get to know Him better and better and better
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and have that own evidence for what He has done in our life over and over and
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over again, deepest relationship possible.
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We meet Jesus, know him.
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It takes time, but what a gift to know him and to grow in a deeper relationship
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over time that makes us able to live the life that is described here.
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Because he gives us all of himself, we don't take time to process or yield ourselves.
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We get all of him, but it takes a long time for him to get all of us.
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And we see what happens to those who don't give themselves.
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They compromise. They do the wrong thing.
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They're snared and have a problem. And they lose out on a big deal of hope.
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But those who live righteously, following after the commandments,
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have the presence of God with them.
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And they have a very present help in times 416 to be careful with how we speak the fruit of our work.
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Give us a peaceful, joyful life. And we know that. Words are powerful. Or they can calm down.
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And when we are speaking the way we're supposed to speak, and we are working
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the way we're supposed to work,
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and we are doing what God is asking us to do, that's when we are at fullest.
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And when we have our greatest rewards and our greatest harvest.
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I really appreciate that verse Verse 14 says, a man shall be satisfied with
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good by the fruit of his mouth.
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That harvest that you're talking about, that when you talk about power to cause
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people more distress or less distress, we can always, in any situation, we have the Holy Spirit.
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We have the power to speak calm into a situation, right? We have the power to diffuse any situation.
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We have the power to speak into a situation, but it's our choice.
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Choice flame a situation or we can bring calm to a situation. And it's our choice.
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And if we come into a situation and somebody is upset and we just kind of egg
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them on and say, yeah, I agree. Can you believe this happened?
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We're not using that situation, right?
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Inflaming it even more.
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And It always comes out of the conversations that we have. Where Jesus is, there is peace. Amen.
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And if you're inflaming something, be giving Jesus, because that's not putting sin to anything.
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And we have to learn to make our thoughts and our views line up.
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God would have them to be.
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And in verse 15, what we see is the way of a fool is right in his own.
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That hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. there is
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nothing as sad as watching someone
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just dig themselves deeper and deeper as you're reaching a
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hand out to help them and for what he will not accept help and they just make
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one bad decision after one bad decision after one bad decision trying to interject
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Jesus and love and peace and mercy and assistance in every way possible but
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they just get so on they know what is best.
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The truth of the matter is, is you can't see the whole picture.
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And that's why your circle matters.
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You've got to have people you trust, even when you don't understand exactly what they're saying.
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You've got to have people around you that when they speak words into life,
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you know that they are truth and this and right for you.
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And as a result, you know, if you can't get it, you need to spend time soaking
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and reflecting until you all can get on the same page, because they are the
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inner that keeps you from moving forward to this path of desolation.
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Put the brakes on until you can grasp and see Jesus again, because your eyes
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have been somewhere else.
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I so appreciate how this connects to verse 16.
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The fool's wrath is present man covereth shame. shame, in verse 15,
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you talked about the way of the fool, right?
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The folly, the things that happen that are not supposed to happen are often
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revealed, and they're often revealed pretty glow-up.
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A prudent man, right? Someone who comes in to help,
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covereth the shame, as opposed to in a situation that just shows off all of
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the fault and all of the error of the ability to come in and to support and
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to cover the faults of others.
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Just like Jesus covers all of our sins, the love that we have,
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the loving and the love that we bring to others, the wise counsel that we bring
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to others can cover some of that folly and some of that mess.
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And you know, part of that when we talk about in verse 17, he says that he that
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speaks is forthrighteousness.
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Truth Truth is speaking the words of this.
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And when you're speaking truth, and your life acts what you're saying,
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because you are living and writing with God, and you are following,
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and you speak, things happen, and things change.
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We all know that person who we just think is old stage, and they may even be
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a young person, but words are so weak, you stop.
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And that's a person who is in the presence of the Lord, who soaked in the scriptures
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and who, when they talk to you, they're answering you back the truth of God's
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word, not their opinion, not their thought, not their academic state, their.
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Deductions. They're just speaking truth. The difference is when that happens, things change.
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But those who don't know, you can't build anything on what they're saying.
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There are some people we know that if they told you it was right,
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you'd look out the window before you took an umbrella.
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There are a whole series of verses that follow verse 17 that talk about truth
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and talk specifically about speaking truth.
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So it talks about the tongue of the wise.
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The tongue of the wise is health, right? We talked earlier about how our words
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speak truth into situations and our words produce good fruit.
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The tongue of the wise brings health and truth. truth in verse 19.
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The lip of truth will be established. Lying tongue is but for a moment.
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Lying, it never gets us to where we should be.
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And small lies and white lies and embellishments add up, causing issues and causing problems.
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And verse 20 is all about deceit. Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine
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evil, but to the counters of their joy.
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Lying is deceit. Have We are only working to bring about results of deceit or
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peace and joy, but they're only going to bring the opposites.
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But truth always brings, because you don't have that anxiety of trying to remember
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what you just said and what you have to do or any of that. And there's joy and peace.
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I've never known anyone. Just the sheer definition is joy.
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Joy. Verse 21 to me goes along with the verse that we will reap what we sow.
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It says, there shall be evil happen to the just, but the wicked shall be filled with mischief.
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I think that verse is saying that when we act correctly, we are not going to
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be bringing evil upon ourselves.
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It's not saying that no bad thing is going to, and we know that the rain falls
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on the just and on the unjust, but it's saying that if we are acting appropriately,
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we're not going to necessarily bring it upon ourselves, but the wicked will
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be filled with mischief.
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They won't be able to keep from it.
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And it goes on to say in the next, those that deal in truth.
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They are his delight. I mean, his delight. I mean, his delight. Hallelujah.
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Verse 23 talks about how a prudent man can acknowledge but the heart foolishness.
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Words are precious. Time is precious.
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When we're given the opportunity to speak, we have peace about what we're talking about.
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We can talk and we can share knowledge, knowledge of who God is,
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knowledge of God's word, but it's just out there putting foolishness, right?
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If we're using time here on this dumb stuff, it's not going to benefit the world.
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It's not going to benefit us.
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It's not going to benefit the people.
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And I think what he's saying to us, people who are truly intelligent.
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They don't go around talking about how smart they are and things to make you
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think, ooh, that person's brilliant.
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But those people who don't know their head from a hole in the ground,
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they tend to just go around talking foolishness.
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What they're trying to do is with their words, and they're so self-confident,
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have the foundation to base it on.
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And I think we need to be very careful because when you try to speak,
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and especially people talking about the Bible, you can try to elevate it and
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speak in such a way that people look and say, oh, wow, that person, That's not the intent.
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The intent is to always speak of the Word of God so it puts a spotlight on God
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and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, so it lifts them up so that all men will be drawn unto them.
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And never forget that he said, suffer the little children to come unto me,
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for of such is the kingdom of God.
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He spoke plainly, clear, simply, unlike me could understand.
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So we're told in this verse, what I read it to say, don't be trying to impress
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people with your knowledge.
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And don't be talking about things and puffing yourself up that you really don't. Simply speak.
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Don't elevate yourself. Elevate Jesus.
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In verse 24, it talks about who will bear rule, who would be ruling over other people.
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And it's the hand of the diligent, right, that will bear rule.
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When we are diligent tasks the Lord has given us, it allows us to be able to
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have some control situation, right, to lead, to lead others.
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And it says, but the slothful shall be under tribute. And I don't think it's
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most important there who's the ruler and who's not the ruler.
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What's important is that diligence, diligence to the tasks that the Lord has
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given us is valued by God himself.
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He wants us to be diligent to whatever the task is.
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If it's our job to pick up trash after a football game, we need to be diligent
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to do that because it's a task that we have been assigned for whatever reason.
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And he says, do everything you do as unto the Lord. Exactly.
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Verses, but the sloth shall be under tribute.
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Slothful should never be a word used to describe the believer.
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Amen. Because everything we have to do said we do unto the Lord.
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There are times for recharge. Right.
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But there isn't time to be lazy in the work that the Lord has given you to do.
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Verse 25 is one of my favorite verses.
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And I was so excited. I haven't seen it in a long time. I've been reading.
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But verse 25, Having the heart of a man maketh it stoop, but a good word maketh it glad.
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I've had a conversation for months with a co-worker about so many things that
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are going on in our lives, the lives of the people that we know,
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the lives of our families, the lives of the people that are going around.
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And we have contused the word heavy to describe the things that are going on.
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They're just heavy things, heavy things to carry to the Lord in prayer,
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heavy things to sort of deal with and carry, you know, carry around in our lives.
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And it's in the heart of a man maketh it stoop.
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When we're carrying heavy things, and when heavy life things are in our hearts
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and they're things that we're concerned about, We can stew, but look at the
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in here, but a good word maketh it glad.
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That's kind words. That's encouraging words. That's also the word of God. Amen.
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Right. It's the word of God that makes us glad and takes away the heaviness.
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It may not take away the situation, the pain. It may not take away the,
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but it takes with the word of God.
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You know, those people who are righteous are really encouraging to other people,
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and they're always speaking. Truth is encouraging.
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It may be correcting, but it's also encouraging because we're able to forgive
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us if we ask, and it'll cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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And I love that because in this very next verse, what we see is that when you
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are a righteous person consistently following after the Lord,
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you are a light like we're to God to
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your neighbor but the PID are a
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snare and they seduce you in the
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wrong direction and so we don't want to be the person who is to the badness
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of the world so we need to be the person who is letting our light shine by consistently
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being righteous those are the people also that are going to be those wise counselors
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seeking God's purposes and consistently walking him.
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But as you said, there's no place for the slothful man.
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And there it is again in verse 27, slothful and diligent, right? It's the same two words.
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It says the slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting,
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because if he's slothful, he didn't get anything.
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That's right, he didn't catch any of it. He just wasted his time.
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But the slothful man is precious. Because he gets precious.
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There is something to be said for what? but walking in the ways of the Lord.
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There are material things, there are blessings, but you cannot articulate or put a value on the peace,
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The joy and the thrill that you feel are walking in his presence.
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That, my friend, is possession.
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The way of the righteous person. The one who is the commandments of God,
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who's supposed to be a place of no death. Then, hello, God.
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And we have with Jesus Christ. But the wages of sin is death.
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And those who do not walk upright suffer in that death. It amazes me that we
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could talk for what seems like such a long time about this proverb.
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But this one proverb is rich.
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And there are so many lessons in here, lessons about how we are supposed to speak,
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lessons about how we are going to approach wisdom and knowledge,
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lessons about how we are going to act, whether we're going to be slothful in
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the things that the Lord called us to.
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There are so many lessons in the book of Proverbs. We hope that you enjoyed
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this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries.
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We invite you to go back and look at Proverbs 12 on your own when you have availability,
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and we invite you to join us in our very next podcast.
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You are loved. Jesus loves you.
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Music.
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Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through our app, our website,
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or our Facebook page You can find our
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app by searching for Woman at the Well Ministries in your app store or through
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our website at watwm.org We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash watwm If you
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visit our website you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits a daily devotion
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written by Kim and delivered Monday through Friday by text message message.
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Woman at the Well Ministries is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving
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our Heavenly Father, and it is through your loving and generous support that
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our ministry continues to bless others.
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To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
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Thank you to the gospel group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
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We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
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Remember that God loves you. You are loved.
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Music.