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417 | Conversations - Conversations - Proverbs 26 · 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, 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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  Music.
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  In He's a happy girl,
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  He's a happy girl 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 are talking about Proverbs 26.
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  It is so good to be here with you on this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  My name is Erica Close, and I am here with Kimberly Miller.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us on this podcast. We are so excited to walk
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  through the scriptures with you today. Yes, we are marching our way through
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  Proverbs, and today we are in Proverbs chapter 26.
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  There are a number of big themes in Proverbs chapter 26, and we will get to
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  those as soon as we read it.
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  So, Kim, would you like to read the first half of Proverbs chapter 26? Yes.
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  As snow in summer and as rain in harvest, so honor is not seemly for a fool.
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  As the bird by wondering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.
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  A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.
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  Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
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  Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
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  He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage.
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  The legs of the lame are not equal, so is a parable in the mouth of a fool.
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  As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honor to a fool.
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  As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.
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  The great God that formed all things both rewardeth a fool and rewardeth transgressors.
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  As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
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  Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit, there is more hope of a fool than of him.
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  The slothful man saith there is a lion in the way, a lion is in the streets.
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  As a door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.
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  The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom, it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth.
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  The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.
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  He that passeth by and meddleth with strife belonging not to him is like one
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  that taketh a dog by the ears.
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  As a madman who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth
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  his neighbor, and saith, Am not I in sport?
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  Where no wood is, the fire there
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  the fire goeth out. So where there is no tailbearer, the strife seetheth.
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  As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife.
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  The words of a tailbearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
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  Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross.
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  He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him.
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  When he speaketh fair, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart.
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  Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation.
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  Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein, and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.
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  A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it, and a flattery mouth worketh ruin.
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  A lot in this chapter. There is a lot in this chapter.
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  And the beginning really talks about just the futility of being foolish. Yeah.
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  Where he says snow and summer and rain and harvest. That's not seemingly.
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  It's not right. It's not what it should be. And then he said, and so is honor to a fool.
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  He also talks about not answering a fool the same way he's talking to you.
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  Because he says in doing so, you make him wise in his conceit.
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  You make him feel like what he's doing is okay. Not just okay, but great.
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  And he has also altered who you are. And one thing that I believe God is clear
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  on is that we can't betray our heart in our actions or in our words.
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  And we must remain true to who we are even in the midst of difficult circumstances.
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  I don't believe he's asking us to be a doormat. I don't think he's asking us
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  to allow people to push us down.
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  In fact, he says that Christians are to edify one another.
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  But what he is saying is don't stoop to the level of someone else. Be true to who you are.
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  Say what you must say or what he tells you you must say.
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  And leave it at that. A foolish man is not going to change his ways.
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  I think that, you know, if anything here sort of defines what a foolish man
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  is, it's someone who completely just disregards God's word, right?
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  He doesn't have any regard for God's word, and therefore what he really needs,
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  like, is correction. Like, he needs God's word.
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  God's word is the solution to the fool. Because you can't reason with an unreasonable
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  person, and a foolish person is unreasonable.
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  In verse 6, it talks about not sending a message.
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  In the hand of a fool. And what it's saying is don't trust in that person.
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  Don't, don't give them some major responsibility or have an expectation of something
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  different happening than who they are, because that's just like,
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  you know, cutting off the feet of the messenger so they can't take it where it needs to go.
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  Be wise in who you confide in, be wise in who you depend on,
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  be wise in how you conduct yourself.
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  And don't allow someone who is wrong to make you wrong.
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  You know the saying, two wrongs don't make a right?
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  My mother had another saying, it's better to do right than to be right.
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  You don't have to win the argument, But you do have to maintain your integrity,
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  your character, and your godly witness.
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  And he's saying, just don't engage with foolish people doing foolish things.
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  Before we move on to the other categories that are in chapter 26 of Proverbs,
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  Let's take a look and a pause in Proverbs 26, verse 10.
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  And he says, The great God that formed all things both reward us the fool and
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  reward us transgressors.
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  I want you to first understand that it rains on the just and the unjust.
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  I want you to also understand that there is pleasure in sin for a season,
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  but woe unto those who have to pay the penalty for their sins.
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  Because he says, Be not deceived, God is not mocked.
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  For whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap.
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  And when we look at these people who just seem like they're all wrong and it
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  looks like they're being really blessed, we need to realize that there's a payday coming someday.
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  And for those of us who keep the straight and narrow, those of us who keep showing
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  up, those of us who stay in alignment with God, we are being blessed and we
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  are being protected and we are being provided for.
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  It just sometimes doesn't look like
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  it's the same and it isn't because first
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  of all you're being rewarded because god
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  loves you and he loves those who are transgressing
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  as well but you have a closer relationship with
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  him and he's drawing closer to you as you draw closer
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  to him and he is protecting you and there
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  won't be a payday for you to have to pay for
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  your sins because your sins have been forgiven
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  you've been created a new creature and you
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  were walking differently and you're walking in the light and
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  there is joy unspeakable and full of glory
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  in that that these so-called foolish individuals
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  who seem to be having everything going their way there's a payday coming they're
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  going to pay for the riotous living for their disregard for god for all of those
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  things and we need to start looking up and not out,
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  because it's the trick of the devil to make you think that these foolish people
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  have a better life than you have when you are in Christ Jesus.
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  And that's a lie straight from the pits of hell. The devil will make things
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  look different than they really are.
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  But he says, you know, it rains on the just and it rains on the unjust.
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  And what he's trying to say is don't be looking at blessings and circumstances
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  in someone's life and try to measure how good God is to you.
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  You need to be looking up.
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  He needs to be our measuring stick, and our faith needs to know that all things
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  are working out to the good, to them that love the Lord, and to them that are
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  called according to his purpose. Absolutely.
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  And what happens is someone who disregards the word or God's word is simply a fool.
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  And the Bible tells us in Matthew we're not to call people fools,
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  but In Proverbs, he's saying foolish living is an absolute result of a disregard for who God is.
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  Godly people do not live foolish lives.
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  Now we move to the next part. So the next section, and this is a topic that
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  I never understood how much was in Proverbs until we started doing this series.
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  But I would also submit to you that godly people are not slothful. Amen.
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  And Proverbs tells that from one to the end.
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  I mean, we've talked about this slothful word is all the way through Proverbs.
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  And it's really clear that this is something that the Lord really has a problem with.
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  And clearly it's been a problem forever because we wrote about it in the Old
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  Testament and we know about it.
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  We see it today. But as children of God, we are clearly called to not be slothful. We're not to be lazy.
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  You know, this, I love that in Proverbs chapter 26, it says,
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  verse 13, the slothful man sayeth, there's a lion in the streets, a lion's in the streets.
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  Like anything to go out the door, right? To not go out the door to go to work.
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  Right? Just saying, oh no, I saw a lion.
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  I really wonder about lions, really, if there were a lot of lions in Israel
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  at the time, right? Right.
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  But it's just, you know, it's funny to just even think, you know,
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  anything to keep me from going to do.
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  Kind of reminds me of the kid that puts the thermometer on the light bulb. On the light bulb, yeah.
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  You know, and, you know, it talks about the slothful turning on his bed just
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  like the door turns on its hinges or, you know, hides his hand because it's
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  even too much work to bring it up to his mouth.
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  I mean, it's really, really clear that the Lord does not want us to be slothful.
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  His desire is that we would do the work that needs to get done,
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  right, to take care of our families, you know, to work that he might bless us,
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  you know, with a salary that he might provide for us through our work.
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  You know, if he calls us to do something, we need to get busy and go about doing his good work.
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  I mean, that's really, really clear throughout the entire book of Proverbs.
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  And it's repeated once again in 26. I love verse 16, though,
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  because it talks about that a slothful man, a sluggard, is wiser in his own
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  conceit than seven men that can render a reason.
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  It always reminds me the people that work so hard not to work.
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  They're working way harder trying to keep from working than they would if they
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  just went to work, and that's what he's talking about there.
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  Before we head to our last section on the tongue and speaking,
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  there was something that I wanted to say about the slothful,
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  and that was that seeing a man who's wise in his own conceit,
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  there's more hope of a fool than of him.
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  So we've talked all this time the scripture has about the horrible results of
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  being foolish, but even one who's arrogant in their own conceit,
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  in their own self-pride,
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  is worse than a foolish man.
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  That's really almost kind of scary because we've talked so much about being foolish.
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  We've talked about a lot of things as we've looked through the book of Proverbs,
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  but that is a really clear verse, right?
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  That when we are wise in our own eyes, right, and we are conceited and we think
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  that we have, you know, the most understanding and we are the ones.
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  When we're the standard we measure everything else right and we're the one that knows all things.
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  That's worse than all of
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  these things that we have that we've read about a fool and that means to me
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  that it's worse than someone who completely disregards god's word right because
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  that's what that's who a fool is a person who is so wise in their own conceit
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  is disregarding god's word but But they're also placing themselves above God's
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  word. Right, they're placing them above God's word.
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  They're not just, like, ignoring it. Right, they're not ignoring it.
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  They are just down-trodding it.
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  Placing themselves above it. They're stepping on it. And that's a slippery slope
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  and a very dangerous place to be.
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  Well, and the truth will find those people out, right?
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  I mean, it's clear that, you know, we will reap what we sow.
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  And, you know, the truth will come out about, you know, Things like that,
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  a light is somehow shined on them, and it's not ours to fight, right?
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  Those battles are not ours to fight, but I really think that we can trust that
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  the Lord sees and the Lord knows and the Lord is going to,
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  take care of those people and take care of those that are not.
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  Take care of those that are, you know, walking away from those that are wise
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  in their own conceit or those that are just living a foolish life.
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  So we've learned being a fool is horrible.
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  We've learned that it's even worse to be so conceited that you put yourself above God.
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  It's really not good to be slothful. We've learned that over and over again.
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  And now comes something that had to be near and dear to James.
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  It was controlling the tongue. Right.
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  And so we have several verses, basically verses 18 through 28 in Proverbs 26
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  is all about the tongue. It's about the tongue.
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  It's about tale bearers, right? Those who are telling tales or gossiping.
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  You know, the 18 and 19 are basically saying that, you know,
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  a man that deceives his neighbor is like a madman, right, that casts arrows and kills people.
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  Right, and says, you know, oh, I was just kidding, right, somebody who comes
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  and tells a tale about his neighbor and then acts like, oh, no, I didn't mean that.
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  Well, you know, it's very easy to understand why the scripture would say that,
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  because you're going to live with him for a long time, and now you've made an
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  enemy out of them for no reason at all.
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  I also love how, as you go further into that chapter, it speaks about,
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  like, if you don't put any more wood on a fire, the fire ceases, goes out.
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  And the scripture says it's like a tailbear.
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  If you stop the story, if you don't spread the rumor, if you don't say anything
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  about the gossip, then no matter how horrible it was, it stops. Right.
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  Because it can't move any further. And I think that we need to really realize
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  that sometimes instead of letting something die down by not saying anything, we stoke the fire.
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  I think we do. And I think that we probably need to make sure we even understand when we're doing it.
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  I think that many times we don't even understand that we are kindling a fire.
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  You know, we're not in everybody else's head, right?
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  We may not know the results of our words and what's happening in other people's
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  heads when we're talking about an event or something that's going on.
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  And I think, you know, we need to really be prayerful about the things that
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  we're talking about because I think it's very easy for us to kindle a flame.
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  And, you know, we're always...
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  We're always in places where people can listen. We're always in places where people can hear.
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  And I think we need to make sure that the words that we're saying,
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  you know, specifically when we're, you know, out and about, are words that are.
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  Honoring God and words that are not stoking someone else's fire.
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  Because that's not our job. We're not to provoke, we're to edify.
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  In verse 23, he says, burning lips
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  and a wicked heart are like a post shirt covered with
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  silver dross what he's saying is uttering
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  insincere words words that you don't mean
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  even insincere words of love where you are saying something that you're not
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  backing up because you have a wicked heart and you really don't feel what you're
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  saying this is i love this when he says that what he's talking about is that's
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  like having a vessel, like an earthen vessel,
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  covered with the scum you get from molten silver.
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  So it makes it appears like it's solid silver, but instead it's just an old
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  shabby pot that's been inlaid with the scum.
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  And so insincere words are not stable.
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  They're not comforting because you quickly can see through them.
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  They don't edify and encourage. They're a fake. They're a lie. They're deceit.
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  And they come from a wicked place. And so when your actions don't match up with
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  your words, then you have a problem.
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  There's going to be your actions that really reveal what your words truly are.
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  And in that case, they are lies. And they're deceitful.
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  And they're scum. you talked earlier about
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  how you know there is a payday right there there
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  will be consequences for those
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  that are telling tales and that are gossiping and and whose words they're you
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  are hurting others right it's the words of a tail bear bear are as wounds right
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  they go down to the innermost parts of a belly it says that you know whoever
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  diggeth a pit is going to fall into it, right?
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  When the wicked are digging a pit to snare somebody else, it's really likely
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  they're just going to fall in their own pit.
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  There will be a payday and there will be consequences.
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  And as children of God, we need to be really sure that what we are reaping is his goodness,
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  that what we are sowing right
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  is his glory and making sure that we're
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  not living in any way a life that could ever be called foolish that could be
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  called slothful because all we have to do is follow the truth because in john
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  14 60 says i am the way the truth and the life and no man cometh unto the father but by me it's not hard.
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  I mean, it's not beyond our understanding. It's not too complex.
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  But it does require that we submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God,
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  that he could exalt us in due time.
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  And I think it requires us to listen.
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  Which is the submission. Right. But we need to be asking, you know,
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  in each and every one of these situations.
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  We would know how to submit, that he would make it clear to us what it means
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  to submit, to submit our tongue, to submit our work and our energy,
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  to submit our decisions.
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  All those things are what we've been talking about in this chapter,
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  and all those things, when submitted to him, will have us to live the life he's called us to live.
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  And it's very difficult to set aside your fleshly desires and that human nature
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  to want to win and to be right to allow him to fight our battles,
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  that the victory he gives is better,
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  sweeter, and higher than anything we can even imagine.
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  So as we've gone through Proverbs chapter 26, it's our prayer that you take
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  a look at it on your own, and that you let the Lord speak to you,
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  that you can see what things in your life,
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  as we will when we stop this podcast,
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  looking at our lives and what are the foolish things we need to let God have
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  and remove from our lives?
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  Where can we shore up our lives so that we are productive and efficient and
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  effective in the way that God wants us to?
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  How can we use our tongue in ways to spread the gospel instead of being an obstacle?
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  Thank you so much for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  We love you, and we want you to remember you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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  Music.
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  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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  Music.