 Okay, here we are, Proverbs 22. Let's read verses one through three and we'll get into our study. Proverbs chapter 22, beginning at verse one, reading to verse three. A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold. The rich and the poor have this in common. The Lord is maker of them all. A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. So when we see the first proverb, a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. A good name speaks of a good reputation or a reputation that is without dishonor. So a good reputation is well respected. It's a person who is well respected amongst the wise and the good. And he's saying that a good reputation amongst the wise and the good is something of great value. And so a good reputation is to be pursued. It's to be chosen over the desire to obtain great wealth. And you might ask yourself, why would that be so? Well, the answer to that is simple. It's because wealth can be obtained by anyone who desires to pursue after it. You don't have to be good to be rich. All you need to do is look at the world today and ask yourself how many people of virtue are also rich and the answer is right before you. You don't have to be good to be rich. And sadly, many who are evil are also wealthy. It's been said that great riches bring great cares and great riches add no real value to anyone's life. So if being rich is a person's goal, it's easy to fall into the trap of dishonesty because you're gonna rip people off in order that you might become rich. So those kinds of riches that are gained in that way can provide enjoyment. Who's to say that they don't? I mean, if somebody ripped somebody else off in a bad deal of some sort, he's still gonna go out and spend that money and he's still gonna enjoy himself at a nice restaurant or buy a nice vehicle or whatever. But the bottom line is it doesn't have eternal value. The point is great riches don't add to our eternal state because great riches are temporary. Proverbs 1311 says wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished. So strive to keep your reputation clean. Your name is one of the most valuable things that you have. My father taught me that. My father was right. A good reputation is valued. My father taught me that. He didn't say it in so many words but he did say protect your name and protect your reputation. Your name is something that you ought to want others to hold in honor and it's also something that you pass on to your children. So strive to have a good reputation. Strive to be known as a person of integrity. And a good reputation is the fruit of walking worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So as we think of that, I want you to notice chapter 22 verse one. One of the richest men who ever lived said choose a good name. In Ecclesiastes chapter seven verse one, we read a good name is better than precious ointment. Psalm 25 verse 21 says let integrity and uprightness preserve me for I wait for you. Proverbs 20 verse seven, the righteous man walks in his integrity. His children are blessed after him. And Proverbs 28 verse six says, better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one perverse in his ways though he be rich. And so the first proverb, a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. Verse two, the rich and the poor have this in common. The Lord is maker of them all. Now, this is not a statement in which we can say that God intends people to be poor. It's more a comment on the fact that both rich and poor ultimately answer to God. The question is what did they do with what they had and how did they use it? When you look in the Bible, you see that there is a very poor woman that is pointed out as an example. And that's the widow and her mites. This is a poor woman whom Jesus commends because she trusted God. And then you see in the Bible, someone like Lazarus and the rich man. You see in the Gospel of Luke how Lazarus was poor, that he was filled with various sores. He was laid at the gate of a rich man every day and then you have him contrasted with that rich man who ate well every day at a banquet table that was filled with goods. And the scripture tells us that ultimately both of them died and the rich man went to a place of torment and Lazarus went to a place of comfort. And you see that Jesus Christ actually uses a poor man as an example of one who was physically poor but one who was rich in faith. You have the wealthy. And the wealthy sometimes can be extremely generous. I think of a man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, there's an old children's song. Zacchaeus was a wee little man. He was a small fella and all. But when Jesus was passing through Jericho and Zacchaeus being short of stature unable to see Jesus, climbs to the sick mortuary and looks down and the Lord Jesus as he's passing by stops and says, Zacchaeus, I'll be going to your house today. And he goes and he meets with Zacchaeus at the home causing a lot of people to be upset. But even as that takes place, remember how that in Luke 19, verse eight, Zacchaeus stood and said to Jesus, said to the Lord, look Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. And so the rich and the poor have this in common. The Lord is the maker of them all. It's not that being poor is better than being rich. It's simply saying that both are gonna give an account of themselves to God concerning how they lived their life and what they did with the resources that God granted to them. It's not that being poor is better than being rich because you have poor people in scripture that are spoken of highly and you have rich people in scripture who are spoken of highly. So riches in and of themselves isn't the evil. It's how you use them, what you do with them. And thus the Lord is gonna bring both into an account ultimately. Verse three, a prudent man foresees evil and hides himself but the simple pass on and are punished. Oh, how does that work? Wise people recognize sin and they stay away from it. No one knew that judgment was coming. What did he do? He went into an arc. He knew judgment was coming. Lot knew that judgment was coming. And what did he do? He fled the city. When the death angel, the angel of death passed over the homes in the book of Exodus during the plagues, they were told, you stay in your house, you put blood on door posts. You remain there and you'll be safe. And so a prudent man foresees evil and hides himself but the simple pass on and are punished. A simple person doesn't flee sin. We're supposed to avoid entering in even as we heard recently but has been said more than once in various ways. You know, I as a pastor, I've been around for a while. You know, I started ministering a long time ago. I started giving my first Bible studies in September of 1973. So I've been around for a while now teaching the word and I can tell you on many occasions, on many occasions I've had conversations with people who have said things to me about how they fell into sin. And very often we use the term, he fell into sin. What's the first thing that comes to your mind? Well, normally it's sexual sin. And so they'll say to me, well, you know, I fell and I've even gone to ask and you fell. What does that mean? Does that mean that you were kind of walking and you walked by a bed and tripping? Oh, how'd I get here? Come on, give me a break. Come on. You know, your body, your body, if you're male especially, gives to you signals that you know where you're going. And so when a guy begins to speak to me and tells me, oh, you know, it was innocent, I mean, she said do, please stop it. Stop it. Don't go where you're going to fail. Be careful not to. That's common sense. That you don't even need a Bible verse for that. It's common sense. Don't go somewhere you're going to end up paying the price. You're an alcoholic, you get saved. And what's the first thing you have a mission field? It's my bar. I'm going to go back and talk to my friends. It's where everybody knows my name. Come on. Don't go there. Don't go there. It's not worth it. It's not worth the penalty. It's not worth the pain. I remember the story of the man who picked a woman up and took her home, spent the night with her. Woke up the next morning. She was not there in his bed any longer. He went into the bathroom and with her lipstick, she had written on his mirror, welcome to the world of AIDS. Welcome to the world of AIDS. So what's the scripture say? Prudent man foresees evil, hides himself. The simple pass on and are punished. Absolute, obviously absolute truth. 1 Corinthians 618, flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality, sins against his own body. A simple person is naive, they're without discernment. They enter right into temptation. So don't go into places that are filled with sin and expect not to be tempted. Proverbs 14, 16 says a wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident. Oh, that won't happen to me. It happens to other people. No, it'll happen to you too. Verse four, by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches in honor and life. Humility and reverence leads to great reward, he's sane and an abundant life. The comforts of this life and rewards of eternity are connected here, notice to reverence. Verse five, thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse. He who guards his soul will be far from them. So the wicked by their evil lifestyles expose himself to danger. Being disciplined in God's wisdom will keep you safe from these kinds of dangers. Again, Proverbs 19, 16, he who keeps the commandment keeps his soul, but he who is careless of his ways will die. And here we go, train up a child verse six in the way he should go. When he's old, he will not depart from it. Let's look at that. We'll spend a few moments looking at that. There are some parents in this room and there are others who are fortunate. You're not parents, but let's look at that for a moment. Train up a child in the way he should go. When he is old, he will not depart from it. The word train is a Hebrew word that means to dedicate or to provoke to learn. It literally speaks of giving a child something to be tasted. It was used as a picture of the Hebrew midwives that would get date honey and they would put their fingertips in it and the newborn infant, they would place the date honey on the lips of the newborn infant provoking the child sucking reflex. And in doing so, the child would then be nursed. So training up a child is to provoke them to a hunger, to provoke them to something. When it speaks of training up a child, interestingly enough, one of the commentators said according to Jewish tradition, the word child in this particular context could speak of somebody, not just a little one, but it could speak of somebody 16 years old and even older than that. So the process of training in other words is something that's ongoing. Now train up a child in the way he should go. The term the way speaks of the manner of life. In other words, inculcate within the child the moral training that will inform all of his life's decisions. Parents who are saved and begin having children are commanded by God to train their children provoke their children to hunger for the things of God from the time that they're born. It is my responsibility to do that. It has never been anybody else's. It's always been mine. Israel to this day, when you go into Israel, you'll go, for example, in Jerusalem. We've seen this in synagogues in Jerusalem. To this day, the children are not necessarily entering into synagogue teachings. The men are there. The women will be outside with the children because the men are training their children at home in the ways of God. And that's how the Jews to this day in some of their, we'll call it denominations, that's how they do it. They're to be trained concerning God. They're to be trained about how great God is. They're to be trained about having a relationship with this great God from infancy. Remember, we were in 2 Timothy in chapter three and we saw in verse 15, how Paul was speaking of Timothy and he said, from childhood, you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. You from the time you were small have been inculcated. You have had the word of God poured into you. And as the word of God has been poured into you, Timothy, it created in your mind a certain foundation that included the reality of a great God and our responsibility to him. That came from the time that you were born through your grandmother and your mother. Remember, Timothy had a Greek father. His father did not bring him up in the ways of God. His mother and grandmother did. And so from infancy, he had been given Bible studies. He had been taught the creeds. He had been taught scriptures. He had been taught Jewish history. He had been taught these things so that when the apostle Paul came and began to speak the gospel message, Timothy had the ability to take the gospel and to combine what he knew in the Old Testament concerning Messiah. And he had the ability to connect those two things. And as a result of that, he responded to the gospel and came to faith in Christ because he saw how the Old Testament led to Messiah. Our children, those of us who are parents have a heart that is tender when they're small. They're so tender. They really are. Children, by and large, have that sweet tenderness. I'm not saying they're all, you know, super wonderful. I mean, there's some little brats, of course, in that the fact is a fact. We know that. Some of us raise them. I mean, that's a fact. I'm not pretending they're all saints, but they're so stinking cute. And I drive here. And during the week, when school is in session, on the corner, we have an elementary school and I drive by and I see these little tots. I mean, they're four years old or whatever they are. I happen to think that that age is so stinking cute. And I love those kids. I do, I have a love for these. And I just, those little girls, they're gossiping about that other little girl. It's so cute. And little boys sitting, other little boys with sticks, you know. And they're so cute, aren't they? They really are. What happens by the time they're 12? What happened? You ever think about that? I do. What happened? You were so stinking cute when you were little. And then all of a sudden, what? You're all that? How'd that happen? And how'd you get so angry? And how'd you get so resistant to the gospel? And how did you get to the place where you don't want to hear about God anymore? And how did you start when you were 17, telling your parents, I can hardly wait till I'm 18 because I don't have to go to church anymore if I don't want to? How did that happen? But it does, but it does. And a lot of parents do their best every day to raise their children up in the knowledge and nurturing of Jesus Christ. You give your devotions, you pray with them, you love them, you hold them, you share with them, you bring them to church. And then they make up their mind that they're going to do something on their own or do something different and they break your heart. But you want to know something I've discovered? Train up a child in the way he should go when he's old, he will not depart from it. I have seen my children who are not children, they have children of their own now. But I have seen my children go through phases and go through times that caused me to hurt Marie and me to cry and to wonder Lord. I mean, just because I'm a pastor doesn't mean that my children weren't born with a sin nature. They got it from their mother. I could do nothing to stop it. I tried, I tried. They got the edemic nature from me. It's the fact that's theological truth. They got my nature, but you hold on, don't you? You don't let go. There have been many a time, I've said this before, I say it again. There's been many a time when my children are going through some rough times in their life that I've been on my face in a literal way. And I don't say this melodramatically, it's just true. It's just true. On my face before God, weeping to God, saying, God do something for my children. Save my babies, save them all. There have been times when I have literally clenched my fist. It's as, there's no power in a clenched human fist. I know that, but the intensity, and I've said it out loud, Satan, you cannot have them. They belong to God. I have done that, and I've held fast. And my children, all four of my children are all serving the Lord today. Train up a child in the way they should go. And when they are old, they will not depart. They can take a path over here, but it's like what we did is we fastened on them a gospel chain, and they move out and they try to get away, but that chain of faith, that chain of the word, that chain of prayer, it has a way of stopping them, and then they come back, train up a child in the way you should go. And don't beat yourself to death because you're not a perfect parent. You know what, Adam and Eve had a perfect father, God himself, and they still rebelled against him. There's something wrapped up in the heart of a child, and we'll see that in a moment. And rebellion very often is there, but train them in that right way, train them in it. When he says train them in the way that they should go, that includes the idea of not only in the proper path of worship to God, but also is taken into consideration their personalities. You know, if your child is creative, and daddy, you wanted to have a baseball player, but your son likes to bring chalk out and draw on the driveway, and you're looking at it saying, oh man, you know, I have a baseball glove, I have baseball, I've got a bat. When you were born, I brought a hat and everything, you know, and you wanna draw, what's wrong with you? Hey, we need creative people in this world. We need poets, and we need artists, and we need musicians, and we need it all. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that. I have spoken to dads who are upset because their son is poetic or creative. There's that, I love poetry. I love people who could sing. I admire them. Don't quench that in them. Just steer them in a direction that honors God. As one day, you may see your little boy, your little girl leading worship in their church, your heart will burst with joy to see that they love Jesus Christ, or they may draw pictures or write books that will cause people to say there is a God, or look how beautiful creation is. Train up a child in the way they should go, in the way that God has created them. Know them well enough to see those personality bends, the directions that they're gonna go, and encourage them. And again, it's my responsibility to train my children up, to teach them and encourage them. In Psalm 78 verses two through four, the Psalmist said, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter hidden things, things from of old. What we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from their children. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power and the wonders He has done. So parents, pray with, pray for, read the Bible to give devotions to your children. Deuteronomy chapter four verse nine says, take heed to yourself, diligently keep yourself, lest you forget all, forget the things your eyes have seen, lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Teach them to your children, to your grandchildren, and to your grandchildren. My grandchildren, I don't have to give them Bible studies, that's their parents' responsibility. And it's interesting how, how they like to confide in me already, and how they will share with me, and even how they respect me in ways that they don't even respect their own parents. But they're confiding in me. I think I can say this. I have a four-year-old little granddaughter, my zoo, Zoe. And the other day she was seated next to me at my house. She is so stinking cute. And she is seated next to me on the couch. She has to get on me kind of like a stamp on a letter. She's just that. And then she looks at me, and she grabs, she likes to grab my face. She'll grab my face, and she turns my face, and she's two inches from my face, and she's really close. And she says, because she goes to preschool, she goes, I kissed Raymond. I love him. And I kissed him on the lips. So I killed Raymond. So she's already confiding. She's already telling me her heart. And I can be an influence to her, you know? It's cool. I love it. You know, to share with her, and to love her, and to let her talk to me, and don't tell my daddy. You know, because daddy will not like it, but neither does papa, but I'm more patient. But isn't that, that's part of the fun. That's part of the fun of having children and having grandchildren. Yeah, it's tough. And yes, it can hurt. And yes, it's disappointing. And there's a lot of pain, but there's an awful lot of joy too. And the joy always outweighs the pain, outweighs the pain. So my responsibility is to train up my children to this day. I still have that influence because my influence doesn't die. My influence continues. And so does yours. Verse six. The rich rules over the poor. The borrower is servant to the lender. Isn't that the truth? If you owe anybody anything, you know, use your credit card? You are definitely the servant to the lender. So he's just simply saying that. He's saying when you owe somebody, you're obligated to them. So be wise in your purchasing. Verse eight. He who sows iniquity, who will reap sorrow and the rod of his anger will fall, will fail. The evil that he has done will ultimately return to him in kind. God will destroy the power of the wicked is what he's saying because his power for doing evil will one day be taken from him. You know, I've lived long enough to see a number of world leaders who have terrorized the world and they're dead. They all die. Give them time. The ratio is one person's born and he dies. That's it, doesn't change. And so they may seem to be getting away with something but ultimately they fail. Ultimately it's over for them. Verse nine. You who has a generous eye will be blessed for he gives of his bread to the poor. So a believer is to have a generous spirit and of course a social conscience. Proverbs 11, 25 says the generous soul will be made rich and he who waters will also be watered himself. You know, in this fellowship we've seen great generosity and I say this as a rejoicing in the Lord kind of thing because you know, it's Christmas and many of the members of our fellowship perhaps you will give generously so that we can take boxes of gifts to children in Mexico that happens all the time in Thanksgiving. You know, we're able to provide meals for 200 people who will come and people don't realize, they don't realize that some don't realize how incredibly generous that really is because it's not simply that the people, and we have this happen, the people in our church will actually make turkeys at home and they bring them here. So they're cooking at home. They bring all of the things that the people eat, the rolls and salads, they make it at home and then they bring it here and then everybody distributes and you've got a couple hundred people, at least 200 who are in the banquet hall eating. Sometimes people don't realize the generosity that went into that but I do, I think of it. I think, isn't that great? Isn't that wonderful to see this generosity? And sometimes people don't realize that not only did they give of their food, they gave of their time because it's Thanksgiving and they could be with their own family in terms of their blood. But do you know where they're at? They're with their church family. They're given to people that they, many of them they've never even met. And so this scripture here, the one with the generous eye will be blessed is absolutely true. So these people will give and they do so generously and that's something we ought to rejoice in. Verse 10, cast out the scoffer and contention will leave. Yes, strife and reproach will cease. Now it's interesting when it speaks here of contention, contention will leave because the source of strife is identified, the source of contention and it's the cynical person who has set on disagreeing. So what's the practical application to this? Very basic, don't fellowship with somebody who's always looking to find something wrong with something else. Do you have any friends like that? Have you ever been around people? I mean, there's just nothing good enough. Everything's always bad, you know? No matter what it is, no matter how good things are. You say, well, yeah, it's great, but, but, you know, when you have somebody who's cynical, who's always looking for the bad, it's not a good person to hang around with because they infect. If you can encourage them, do so, but be careful that you don't allow them to influence you because I'm telling you, I have seen people who have been doing well and they hook up with somebody who's always, always upset or negative or mad about something and they learn his ways. Be careful about that. Verse 11, he who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend. So simply put, grace and purity get you invited into places of honor. Verse 12, the eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the faithless. The Lord watches over the one who has knowledge of God and the one who walks in the ways of the Lord. On the other hand, he will always overthrow or frustrate the liar. Verse 13, this is an interesting proverb. The lazy man said, there's a lion outside. I shall be slain in the streets. What are you saying? Lazy people find excuses to avoid work. And in this case, it's just too dangerous to go to work, there's a lion outside. Verse 14, the mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit. He who is abhorred by the Lord will fall there. That's interesting. Let's talk about the immoral woman, shall we? All right. What do you mean the mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit? That's a picture of seductive speech. Seductive speech can be used to trap a man, a man who has that wandering eye. If a man is faithful to his wife, we'll say, because it's the context of a woman and a man, and the man is the one who's being seduced and all. Listen, if a man's in love with his wife, you don't even notice when a woman's making herself available to you, you just don't. But if he's on the prowl, he'll hear it. And we're all adults here. There are times when someone is hinting and giving an invitation. Sometimes they're masking it. So if you respond, they may, oh, I didn't say that and try and make it seem as if you're the one pursuing. But even in fact, no, she was saying something, you did hear it. I had a woman when I, Marie and I had just been married for a few months and this woman says to me on the job, she says to me, my parents are gone. And you drive in my direction on the way to work. Why didn't you come over and pick me up? Take me to work. And I looked at her. I didn't say anything. And her friend, her co-worker says, did you hear what she said? Did you hear what she said? She wants you to come over. And I ran and I cried in my room. No, I, yeah, I heard. I heard, yeah, I heard the invitation. My parents are gone this weekend. It's just me, I heard it. Do you know what, man, when your heart is bent on serving the Lord and loving your wife, who needs that, man? Who needs that? And so be careful, be careful. Remember in Proverbs seven, how we spoke of the immoral woman who was seducing a young man. And it says in Proverbs seven 21, with persuasive words, she led him astray. She seduced him with her smooth talk. She gave him promises, says, you know, things, you know, I've, I've scented our bed. We'll make love until the early morning. And all of these things that his desire could be, could be provoked to know. You know, today, I see that seduction is big business. I thought, okay, here we go. I'm gonna teach you on this. I might as well see if I can find something that connects. And so I went to the almighty Google and I said, give me some names of perfumes that are seductive. So seduction is one of them. Obsession, you ladies know these, I'm sure you know of them. Passion, poison, eternity, romance, sexual, there's a perfume, sexual. I don't know, I don't know if this is right. I should ask Marie first because she'd know the perfumes, but lush, lust, pleasures, guilty. There's another one you find in scripture by the way it's found in Proverbs 7.22, immediately went after her and as an ox goes to the slaughter, that's one too. That's a perfume name, ox to the slaughter. What are you wearing, baby? Ox to the slaughter. And it says, Proverbs 7.22 immediately went after her as an ox to the slaughter, as a fool to the correction of the stocks. Be careful. I had a dream, I'll say this quickly, but I had a dream many, many years ago now. My children are all small, but it was a very real dream. It was as real a dream as I've ever had. As real a dream as I've ever had. And in my dream I had committed adultery. I had to speak to my wife and in my dream I told Marie, honey, I've been unfaithful and I saw the pain in her eyes. In my dream, I saw the pain in her eyes. Then I had to share with my small children, daddy has failed. And in my dream, I saw the pain in my children's eyes. And then I spoke to my friends and I said to them, I have failed and I saw the pain. And then I spoke to my pastor, Chuck, I have failed and I saw the pain. I am telling you, it was a long dream. Obviously I saw all those people in it, but it was so real, it was so real. And I knew that the Holy Spirit was saying, I'm gonna warn you and I'm gonna show you what would happen if you failed. Cause I also in my dream stood in front of you, the church. And I said, I, your pastor have failed. And the pain that I sensed in people and the pain that I caused for my wife and the pain my children experienced. I am telling you, it felt like I was actually doing that and I woke up and I said, it is never gonna be worth it. It would never be worth it to be with anybody else. It would never be worth it to hurt so many people. You know what? The Bible warns me and God has directly, I believe as Job speaks of how the Lord can sometimes speak in a dream. And in the last days, you will dream dreams. There will be times that the Lord can, I'm not saying always, but can make his word a solid thing through an illustration. And in my dream, no, it's never worth it. It's never worth it. And if you're being tempted right now, if you've got somebody flirting with you or you're flirting with somebody, it is not worth it. Flee fornication, flee from it. It is just never, never gonna be worth it. Verse 15, let's talk about beating up kids, shall we? Foolishness, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. The rod of correction will drive it far from him. Foolishness in the inner person speaks of their fallen human nature. It's referring really to the self-will or a waywardness, if you will. And it's bound up or it's rooted or it's firmly fixed within the child. And it must be dealt with and he's saying through discipline. So godly biblical discipline will encourage the shaping of someone's character. To ignore evil is to encourage its continuation. He's not saying, by the way, that you are to beat up your child. You know, there are some children that just a look is effective. Maybe you have a child like that. My son Joseph was a small kid. I would just simply, even to this day, he's 37. Even to this day, it's a fact. If I were to say to him, Joseph, that disappoints me. That's worse than any spanking he'd ever get. That's a fact. David, or I say, David, that disappoints me. When a kid over at Pops, he's different. So you discover the way to discipline. So the point he's making speaking of the rod of correction is simply make sure that you correct. Make sure that you deal with the particular sins of a child. Foolishness is bound up. Now, I just noticed something in my notes. I'm gonna go back for a second. No, okay, it's okay. No, wait a minute, let me see. No, it's okay, I wanted to make sure. Because I'm still getting used to my new gadget here. Okay, verse 16. He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches and he who gives to the rich will surely come to poverty. Oppressing the poor to increase riches. The punishment for extortion and bribery is poverty. When we take from the poor to enrich ourselves, we can ultimately be extorted by others. Verses 17 through 21, all is one thought. So incline your ear and hear the words of the wise. Apply your heart to my knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you. Let them all be fixed upon your lips so that your trust may be in the Lord. I have instructed you today, even you, have I not written to you excellent things of counsels and knowledge that I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth, that you may answer words of truth to those who send you. And so when he says incline your ear and hear, Godly counsel, the giving of knowledge is to encourage your trust in the Lord. The key is it requires a personal decision to incline your ears and apply your heart. How many Bible studies did I go to where I listened but didn't really listen? It's so possible, isn't it? To go to a study, even like tonight or on a Sunday or whatever. And I know what happened. See, I've been teaching for a while and there'll be times when I'm saying something and it's like some people, you can see their eyes, their eyes light up like, oh, that makes sense. And then you see the others are saying, when's this going to end? And you can see that in people. When our church first began, I was teaching on a Sunday morning. I'll never forget this, two rows or so from the front. It was a very small building. There were, it sat 120, but there were probably about 60 people there and two rows from the front which meant it was about 10 feet from me. That's how close they were. I was teaching and I looked down and a woman was kind of like moving back and forth slowly and her eyes were crossing and she was falling asleep and then all of a sudden she fell. She fell asleep and landed on the person next to her and the whole row, Dave, you were there, you remember that? The whole, it was you, Dave, as a matter of fact. And you know, I was really upset. I hurt my feelings. That happens, you know? So there's a certain inclination of the heart to if you want to grow, listen, if you don't, it's up to you, it's up to you. Because there's a number of people that I call them, well, I say that their spirituality comes from Siri and Google. Because if they have a question, they'll say, hey, Siri, and they go to Siri or they will go and Google whatever subject they want and they become experts. So I call them Siri experts or Google experts. They become experts on the subject. They've never prayed through, they've never sought the Lord through, they've never endured things as they learn these things, they are instant experts. And then what do they do? They go on Facebook and troll. So they look for things that they can disagree with somebody about and then provoke an argument and start a problem because that's what they do. And I just had, I just did a Facebook live on that last week and I had a troll who wanted to correct me. And I said, Raul, you shouldn't do that, man. I mean, it hurts my feelings. But that's what happens. That's just what happens, you know? It's this thing where, well, that's your opinion. That's something that I've been hearing since our church began. I've heard that attitude, it's not a new one, in this church for almost 37 years. Oh, that's your opinion. That's my opinion. At this point, I've probably taught 8,000 Bible studies. I've taught in conferences, churches. I've mentored pastors. I've taught in Bible college. I spent seven years in college. I've taught 45 years and that's my opinion. And maybe it is, maybe it is. I'm not infallible and certainly not perfect and I don't know everything, but I really find it interesting that somebody who doesn't even read the Bible as a hobby knows more than somebody who has spent a lifetime trying to discover the ways of God. So if you wanna learn, you listen. If you wanna learn, you listen with an ear to obey. And if it doesn't contradict what God's word says, you test it to see whether these things are so and you grow and you're benefited by as even if it convicts you as you obey because God will meet you at the point of obedience and reveal himself to you. Jesus said, if you obey my commands, my father and I will manifest ourselves to you. John 14, 15 and 15 through 21, read it. If you love me, keep my commandments. In verse 21 said, and my father and I will manifest ourselves to you. So the manifestation, you wanna know God comes through obedience. And so that's what Solomon is saying. He's saying, I've instructed you, I've written excellent things, counsel knowledge that you may know the certainty of the words of truth, that you may answer words of truth to those who send to you. Verse 22, do not rob the poor because he's poor, nor oppress the afflicted at the gate, for the Lord will plead their cause and plunder the soul of those who plunder them. Don't oppress those who are poor because the Lord cares for them and he avenges them. Verse 24, make no friendship with an angry man with a furious man, do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul. Hot tempered men can get you into trouble and can even end up getting you killed. If you hang around with someone who's always looking trouble, if you hang around with that person, you may end up paying a price that you didn't wanna pay. All of us probably grew, we're all old enough to have had this happen. You have at least one friend who's crazy. Who's the crazy friend? Well hang around with him. I was with a friend of mine many years ago now before I was saved, I was about 19. And, or 18, and he and I and another guy, two other guys, I was driving, my friend, I'll leave him unnamed. And a stranger, I didn't know this guy and another guy in the backseat, I don't remember him, but we drove, we were in Norwalk. I was not a believer. We were looking for a party, we found one. My friend who was seated in shotgun, rolls the window down, talks to these girls. We didn't know them and the girls were rude to him and so he said something rude to them. They went into the house. A few minutes later, here come some guys. They start to try to create a problem with us. I don't want any problem. I say, hey, you know, it's cool, but this guy wouldn't let it go. So this guy outside throws some beer in his face. My friend throws beer in my friend's face. My friend tries to jump out of the car. I grab them by the collar and I pull them back in and I take off. I'm not about to get in a beef with a whole house full of crazies. Ain't gonna do it. So we drive away. My friend's mad. We go to a apartment. There's a group you guys may have never heard of. Some of you are old enough. They were called the Majestics. My friend's brother was a big thing in this club called the Majestics. We went to a party. Seven carloads of men came back with me. We went back to that party. We pull up in front. We walk down the street. We had seven carloads and we go to the house. One of the guys who was causing the beef came out. He was standing in the front. My friend starts to get in a fight with them. This stranger I don't know has a switchblade. He pops the blade, slams it in his hand and my friend stabs this guy in the stomach. The guy starts to bleed out, not bleed out, but begins to bleed and he grabs hold of me and he says, help me. He bleeds on my shirt and I shove him and it was crazy. And I go home after this crazy, some guy comes out with a shotgun and says you guys need to leave. It was crazy. That's when I realized two things. One, I need God because I'm quite serious. That's what was one of the things the Lord used to bring me to faith in Christ. I started saying, what am I doing in this life? This is not my life. I don't wanna be part of this. I don't wanna be part of this. And two, my callousness towards this guy's pain scared me. I said, I don't wanna be this way. And that's one of the things that led me to faith in Christ where I said, I don't wanna go in the ways of a furious man. I don't wanna be that guy who ends up doing something stupid or having something happen to me. Because when this guy came out with a shotgun, I was only 20 feet from him, big old dude with a shotgun, one of my friends, I can name him, his name was Dennis, walks up to the guy to his face and he's saying, what are you gonna do, man? And I'm standing there going, this ain't my life. I'm a hippie. What am I doing here? Peace and love. Be careful who you hang around with. Be careful who you allow to influence you. Is our society violent? Yes. Is it getting more violent? Yes, yes it is. We ought not to take pleasure in those kinds of we ought not to take pleasure in the violence. Be careful and be careful who you hang around with. Some of you guys know exactly what I mean because you came from that life. You know exactly what I mean. You went places you didn't want to go and that's where God saved you and pulled you out of it and we're grateful for it. We're grateful for it. Don't make friends with a furious man unless you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul. And finally, verse 26, do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge, one of those who surety or like a co-signer for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you? Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set. And then finally, do you see a man who excels in his work? He'll stand before kings. He will not stand before unknown men. And so one, verses 26 and 27, do not foolishly co-sign, you can lose your shirt. Verse 28, do not remove the ancient landmark. That speaks of stealing land by removing boundary markers. He said that's forbidden to do that. Remember that land was given to Israel by God and to steal it from the rightful owner was to violate their blessings from the Lord. And to extend your own boundaries at the expense of someone else was to violate God's blessing in their lives and is forbidden. And then finally in verse 29, you see a man who excels in his work. You'll stand before kings, in other words, skill results in advancement and recognition. I was just talking to one of our staff members today and he was saying that his son, his daughter, they're both working. And simply because they've been taught to work an honest day and to do things in the right way, they accelerate in advancement. They do because the boss sees them, sees their work ethic, sees their honesty and wants to make them managers or those who are leaders because of the quality of life that they live. So that's a fact. Skill results in advancement and recognition. You don't do it only unto men. You always do your job as unto the Lord, but as you do your job as unto the Lord, very often somebody will notice and you can advance as they do. Let's stop there.