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435 | Conversations - Proverb 30 · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  God is in control.
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  She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman
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  at the Well Ministries, where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus
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  like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
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  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
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  or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
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  to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  Living 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 are discussing the lessons learned in Proverbs chapter 30.
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  We thank you all for joining us today. I am Erica Close, and I am here with Kim Miller.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us. We are excited to dive into Proverbs chapter 30.
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  And without further ado, let's have Erica start reading it. All right. Absolutely.
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  So Proverbs chapter 30, just a little bit of, you know, warning, it's different.
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  It is different than the many of the other Proverbs that we've read.
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  So as we read it, pay close attention because you can tell that there are things
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  that are different in this Proverb than in the previous Proverbs.
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  And there are many lessons in it for us. So Proverbs chapter 30.
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  The words of Agur, the son of Jacob, even the prophecy, the man spake unto Ithiel,
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  even unto Ithiel and Uchel.
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  Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.
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  I neither learned wisdom, nor have I the knowledge of the holy.
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  Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists?
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  Who hath bounded the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth?
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  What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?
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  Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
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  Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
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  Two things have I required of thee. Deny me them not before I die.
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  Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches.
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  Feed me with food convenient for me. Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord?
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  Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
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  Accused not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty.
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  There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.
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  There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
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  There is a generation of how lofty are their eyes, and their eyelids are lifted up.
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  There is a generation whose teeth are as swords and their jaw teeth as knives
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  to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men.
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  The horse-leech hath two daughters crying, Give, give!
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  There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, it is enough.
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  The grave and the barren woman, the earth that is not filled with water,
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  and the fire that saith not, it is enough.
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  The eye that mocketh it is father, and despiseth to obey his mother.
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  The ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.
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  There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not.
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  The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock,
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  the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid.
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  Such is the way of an adulterous woman. She eateth, and wipeth her mouth,
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  and sayeth, I have done no wickedness.
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  For three things the earth is disquieted, and for the four which it cannot bear.
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  For a servant when he reigneth and a
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  fool when he is filled with meat for an odious woman
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  when she is married and a handmaid that is heir to her mistress there be four
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  things which are little upon the earth but they are exceeding wise the ants
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  are a people not strong yet they prepare their meat in the summer the conies
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  are but a feeble folk yet they make their houses in the rocks.
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  The locusts have no king, yet go they forth, all of them by bands.
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  The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in king's palaces.
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  There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely and going.
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  A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any.
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  A greyhound, and he goat also, and a king against whom there is no rising up.
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  If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, where thou hast thought evil,
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  lay thine hand upon thy mouth.
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  Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood.
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  So the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.
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  So as we read this proverb, it does sound a little different than many of the
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  other proverbs that we've read, but I think we understand why.
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  In the very beginning, we read that this proverb wasn't written by Solomon,
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  and it was written by someone named Agur.
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  And in doing a little bit of study, Agur seems to be somebody who lived at the same time as Solomon.
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  So his words were probably familiar, maybe, to Solomon. but his words were absolutely
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  included in the book of Proverbs, which means there is wisdom here for us.
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  And so let's take a look at the wisdom that we find in Proverbs chapter 30.
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  It doesn't have as many different themes as some of the other Proverbs that we've read,
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  but what it does have is some wonderful verses on humility and on the importance
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  and the power and the completeness of the word of God.
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  And then it has what seems like agorist commentary on the generation that he's looking at.
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  And I think that's where we can find some real wisdom for ourselves.
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  So in verse 3, he does talk about humility.
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  And he says, I neither learned wisdom nor have I the knowledge of the holy.
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  So he's saying he doesn't have all the wisdom.
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  And then I think in verse 4, he talks about what the knowledge of the holy is.
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  So the knowledge of the holy is one who has ascended into heaven,
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  who has gathered the wind, who has bound the waters, who established the ends of the earth.
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  He definitely knows who the Lord is because he can define him.
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  And I think he makes a very strong case to say, you're not it. Absolutely.
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  Don't make yourself be king of your
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  life don't make yourself be lord of your life don't trust in your own business
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  and your own merit i didn't learn wisdom and i don't have the knowledge of the
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  holy i am not who god is and because he spends so much time explaining
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  the frailty and the futility of going our own way and who we are,
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  he's doing that to say, don't even go there.
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  Just trust in the Lord. And Proverbs, from the beginning to the end,
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  is explaining to us to trust in the Lord.
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  In Proverbs 3, 5, 6, and 7, which we talk about all the time,
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  he says to trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.
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  And I believe agar is is saying that look who do you think you are this is who
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  god is and you do not compare.
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  I love that. I think he also is saying, who do you think you are if you think his word needs more?
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  He says, every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
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  And in verse six, he said, add thou not unto his words.
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  God's words don't need any additions. And none of them can be omitted.
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  Yes. And I'm always confounded. That is a true word for me. I'm always confounded.
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  At those that pick and choose from the scripture what they think is real,
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  what they think isn't real, what they're going to believe, what they're not going to believe.
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  He says every word of God is pure. I also want to remind you that John,
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  in John 1.14, we are told that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
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  And the word is Jesus.
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  So you can't fix him. He doesn't need fixed. You can't change him.
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  He doesn't need changed.
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  And you don't get to pick and choose what part of Jesus you're going to accept.
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  You get all of Jesus. He doesn't get all of you.
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  It's a process. But I believe when you receive Jesus as Savior, you get all of him.
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  And he's the way, the truth, and the life. And this verse five is saying every word of God is pure.
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  Jesus is pure. Everything you read is pure, even the things you don't understand.
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  And those are the things that we need to go to the Lord and ask him,
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  tell me what I'm supposed to know from this.
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  This is why we pray before we read, before we get into the word,
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  because we need to know that God is revealing to us exactly what he wants us to know from his word.
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  Absolutely. So as we move on through Proverbs chapter 30, this is where we entered
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  this section where he's kind of making a commentary on this generation that he's looking at.
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  And I think what amazes me the most is that nothing ever changes.
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  And the Bible tells us that, right? That nothing's ever changed.
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  There's nothing new under the sun. Exactly.
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  And so when we look at this commentary, I think we can see that it's very similar
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  to a lot of what we see and we experience now, which just tells me that the
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  answer, which then was the Lord,
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  is the same now. The answer is still the Lord.
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  The answer is still Jesus for whatever it is. He will always be the Lord. Absolutely.
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  So in verses 11 through 14, he kind of makes a commentary on this generation.
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  Where he says, there's a generation that curseth their father and doesn't bless their mother.
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  They're pure in their own eyes, yet they're not washed from their filthiness.
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  They're lofty in their own eyes. They lift up their eyelids,
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  which to me kind of means they're like rolling their eyes.
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  And their teeth are like swords and they devour the poor and they don't take care of the needy.
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  I think that when we look at that, we can see things just haven't changed.
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  Correct. And I think what he's saying is what was good is still good.
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  And what was bad is still bad.
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  And so we can't say, oh, the Bible isn't for us anymore because that's what
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  happened in the old days. That's not how it is nowadays.
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  That's not true. What was good then is good now.
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  What was bad then was, but now sin is sin. It doesn't change over time or culture
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  or whatever you want it to be.
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  But that's some of the problem in our lives today is that we think what the
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  Bible says is old fashioned.
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  And so we modify it. It becomes acceptable to society.
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  And the next thing you know, it's bleeding in the church.
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  And it is a sin to have sex outside of marriage. It is a sin to cheat on your taxes.
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  It is a sin to harbor hate in your heart.
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  It is a sin to do anything against what God has said. And it doesn't matter if it's acceptable.
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  Or whether it isn't. And this scripture is very clear. The things of old are still the things of new.
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  And we have to realize that he said, be holy.
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  And that wasn't just for when Bible times or old age, it is for every day of
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  every generation of every person
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  who is on earth. We are to be holy for he is holy. And a sin is a sin.
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  And no matter what you think, or no matter how much you want to take care of
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  it or whoever says it's okay, if the scripture says it's not, it is sin and it is wrong.
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  Absolutely. It doesn't change. Just because you want it to or because society
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  says it doesn't. Right. Things don't change.
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  I think the other thing that this proverb talks about is that the earth hasn't changed, right?
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  There's things in this earth that just haven't changed, which
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  i think goes back to sin is sin but there
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  are things we read in 15 through 17 they're
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  just never satisfied right the grave is never satisfied people
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  are always born and they pass away the
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  flesh dies flesh sin causes the flesh to die and sin causes you never to be
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  satisfied and so things of the earth, things of this world, worldliness,
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  fleshliness, you're never going to have peace and true joy because it will not allow you.
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  Peace comes from reconciling your heart with God's will, and joy comes from
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  living in the center of His will. Amen. Amen.
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  I wanted to look at verses 7 through 9 a little bit.
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  And one of the things I wanted to talk about was in verse 8,
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  he says, Give me neither poverty nor riches.
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  You know, in other words, be content with what you need.
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  Because poverty would be you didn't have your needs met.
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  Riches would mean you had an abundance. And when we have an abundance,
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  we have a tendency to lean upon our own strength.
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  And if we have to depend upon the Lord for our sustenance and our existence,
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  then we are more likely to stay humble.
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  And he's saying, I don't even want the temptation of riches.
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  And I would submit to you, he didn't want the problems of riches.
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  The more you have, the more you have to take care of. The more you take care
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  of, the less time you have for yourself.
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  The less time you have for yourself, generally, the more tired you are and the less peace you have.
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  He says, don't let me be poor and don't let me be rich.
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  There is something to be said, being content with having your needs met. Absolutely.
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  In one of the Proverbs that we talked about recently, we had this conversation
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  about how the Lord provides enough.
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  Amen. He is enough. And what he provides is sufficient for our needs,
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  which to me says, if what I have doesn't seem sufficient for my needs,
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  that I must not have a full understanding of needs.
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  Or I'm not using them.
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  Right. What he's given me correctly. We are not good stewards.
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  Exactly. Exactly. If he gives you $50 to do the week and you spend it all on
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  Monday, it's not his fault he didn't do it.
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  Exactly. But it's, again, it's using the wisdom, right?
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  It's using wisdom. It's depending on him to distribute everything he gives you
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  in the way that he wants you to distribute it, whether it's your food,
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  whether it's your money, whether it's your love, whether it's your intelligence,
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  whether it's your wisdom.
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  Whatever it is you have is not yours. You are just a banker for it.
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  And he is going to tell you when to write that check out and when not to,
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  who to give it to, when to stop and when not to.
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  The Lord wants to be in control of all things because he has the complete data set.
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  And he understands all things. And he loves us.
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  And he wants what's best for us. And most of the time, what we think is best
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  for us is not. Absolutely.
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  Absolutely.
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  So Agar sort of ends this proverb with sort of two sets of little commentaries
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  that are just kind of interesting.
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  He talks about some things he just doesn't understand, which I think are interesting.
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  The way of an eagle in the air. I'm sure we've all watched an eagle soar,
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  and it's kind of amazing, right?
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  And I love that he says the way of a ship in the midst of a sea,
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  right? Those are things that just don't always make sense in our minds.
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  And yet we see eagles soar. We see ships sailing across the sea,
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  and they don't sink. And it's amazing.
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  And I love that the things that
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  he talked about being amazing are still things that are amazing today.
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  They're not just amazing, they're confounding. As you well know,
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  the whole ship thing is something that totally, it just amazes me.
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  I can sit and watch a ship on an ocean all day long because I just find that fascinating.
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  But it's the marvels of the world. I mean, the Lord holds the world in his hands
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  and lets a ship, and I understand the science behind it, but still yet.
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  Propel through water, and I'm just going to sink like a rock.
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  It's amazing. Absolutely. So the last thing I just want to have us touch on
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  is this section in this proverb where it talks about things that are little
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  on the earth, but are exceedingly wise.
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  And I think so often we think that we are just all that here in this world.
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  But the Lord's creation is amazing.
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  And the Lord has created many things that show significantly greater wisdom than us.
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  And i love that this proverb sort of
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  calls that out quite human humbling it
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  is it is so he talks about the ants
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  that are not strong yet they've
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  are they're always prepared and they always have what they need the conies which
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  are litter which is another word for rabbits right little rabbits that make
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  their homes in the rock and have all that they need the locusts that have no
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  king but they organize themselves as if they do.
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  And the spider, and I don't like spiders very much, we know this,
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  but the spider that uses her hands and resides in palaces with kings.
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  I've always looked at that one particular part of that verse,
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  and it's always reminded me that when we are following the role God has given
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  us, because the role that God gave us spider was to make a web.
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  We're going to find ourselves in amazing places. And those spiders that I kill
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  every chance I get are inhabiting beautiful, amazing places that we can't even get into.
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  So if we just use our hands in the way that God has asked us to use them,
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  we will live the abundant life that will totally amaze us in what we get done.
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  Amen. Amen.
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  Well, I think that we have covered a lot of what we needed to cover in Proverbs chapter 30.
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  We invite you to come back and to read through it.
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  And we hope that it's a blessing to you. And we look forward to our next Proverbs
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  conversation, which will be the end of the book.
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  And we hope that you join us for that one as well.
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  Most importantly, we hope that you remember that you are loved and that you
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  know that Jesus loves you.
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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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  Music.