[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Alright, take your Bibles and go with me to Proverbs chapter 13. Proverbs chapter 13.
[0:13] Last month's title was something like, Are You Just Too Stupid? This month we're going a little nicer. Your character determines how much you learn. Your character determines how much you learn.
[0:26] And so we're going to go through this chapter. And I'm going to get your participation, questions, comments, discussion. You just have to talk loud enough if everybody can hear you, if you can do that.
[0:38] We're going to read Proverbs chapter 13. I'm just going to read verse 1. And then we will work our way through the chapter and see what it is. Now, I remind you, Proverbs is a book of proverbs, not promises.
[0:51] Now, they are generally applicable. But when you read a proverb, Daddy sat down and said, Son, here's a proverb. Now, God put these proverbs in here.
[1:02] So a great deal of lessons you can learn. So if you're smart, you will listen and you will apply. You will listen and you will apply. So read with me if you would, Proverbs 13. A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scornor hears not rebuke.
[1:18] A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scornor does not hear rebuke. And so I want to go through the chapter and I've joined them together the best way I can.
[1:30] They don't always join together the way I want. This is not like preaching numbers where you get a passage and it's all about one subject. You stop.
[1:40] You find out where it starts. Find out where it stops. And you work it. Or the book of Matthew where you find where it starts and where it stops. Proverbs is like a string of pearls, you know. And each pearl is not connected to the next pearl.
[1:52] So you've got a whole bunch of pearls, but they don't necessarily run together. So I've got a job of stringing them together so we can get something out of it. If my wife don't help get them women quiet, we're going to have a fight tonight when we get home.
[2:04] Amen? Just teach. She's the preacher tonight. She preached me her message last night and I got under conviction. Proverbs 13. 1. First one. A wise son hears and a scornor, a fool, doesn't.
[2:16] Go with me if you would to verse 10. I've gone through and I've tried to pick out the ones that talk about do you listen. Listen. I've gone through and tried to pick out the ones that talk about do you listen.
[2:27] So read with me. Somebody read out loud verse 10. It's got a good, strong, manly voice. Since you're in a man's... Who can read verse 10? Okay, y'all just read.
[2:41] Don't wait on me. Just holler if one of you starts reading. All right, look at verse 10. Only by what? Pride. Pride. Now, we're talking about listening to your dad. Don't forget it starts off a wise son.
[2:52] Imagine. Picture in your mind Solomon, the wise king, sitting down with his son. And he said, now listen to me, buddy. We got a dad over here with his kid laying his head on his leg right now.
[3:03] We got Jeff in here with us. At least, he's surely got one or two. There's one. He's surely got one or two or three. I mean, he's got 15 kids, so he's probably got... There's one. That's all you got in here, brother Jeff.
[3:15] You ain't got but one here. What are you doing? They're spread all over the place. All right, now, so just picture Jeff sitting down with nine kids, and he sits them down, and he says, all right, I'm going to talk to you tonight.
[3:29] I'm going to give you a bunch of proverbs. Let's just get something straight before I start. If you're wise, you're going to listen to me. If you're stupid, you ain't going to listen. Just asking.
[3:40] Okay. Hey, what are you doing? Your daddy's here, too, Luke, so you ain't getting out of nothing. All right. So what stops us from listening? Only by pride comes contention.
[3:52] When does the kid get himself all upset and get aggravated and don't want to listen? What causes me not to listen? What causes us to want to have a fight? Pride. Pride causes us to want to fight.
[4:02] It keeps us from listening, and it keeps us from learning. But look what it says. But with the well-advised is wisdom. So what's it mean to be well-advised?
[4:13] Tell me out there, even biblically. Anybody got an idea? I got plenty of time. I'll preach to you all night, but I'm trying to do it a little bit different for you. Anybody else got an idea? Well-advised. Learned, been instructed.
[4:24] Learned, been instructed. Okay. Give me a Bible verse out of the proverbs that you can think of in your own words. You don't have to get it right. You don't have to look it up. You don't have to worry about being well-advised.
[4:37] Safety and a multitude of counselors. Ask a bunch of people. Don't ask just one guy. Ask more than one guy to find out what's going on. If you don't, you might make a mistake. The know-it-all causes problems.
[4:52] That's what that verse is about. Being the know-it-all that causes problems. My son, Chris, I was over at his house a few weeks ago. I took him to the hospital or to the doctor yesterday. I was over there, I don't know, a month or so ago.
[5:04] And Jacob came down and was talking to me. And Jacob was telling me stuff. And Chris said, hey, Google. That's enough. And I said, hey, Google.
[5:16] He said, the kid knows everything. I said, didn't fall far from the tree. Amen. But anyway, he might hear that. But anyway, Google, you know, it's because he knows. So don't be a know-it-all. The wise guy listens and considers what others are saying.
[5:30] So find and speak to as many wise people as you can. In a multitude of counsel, in a multitude of counsel, you find wisdom. Let me say this.
[5:41] You do know that when you're making a decision, who you talk to is going to affect a lot about what's going to happen. I don't really want you to come talk to me. This is not an advertisement for you to ask my opinion.
[5:52] Go ask the men in this church. Deacons are smart. Brother Frick is extremely smart. They need to go talk to him. Jeff, go talk to him. Steve, I'm not trying to get anybody to come talk to me. But if I were you, I'd ask more than one person.
[6:05] If I were you, I'd ask more than one person. When somebody asks me for my advice, I usually say this and a daughter might not even get you a cup of coffee. I'm not sure. That's because I don't consider my advice worth very much.
[6:17] But I would say to you, you ought to try to get advice from people to learn. All right, go with me to verse 13. Who would read verse 13, good, strong, and loud? Who so despises the word shall be destroyed, that he that hears the commandment shall be rewarded.
[6:32] I thought that kind of went with listening. I don't know if you see that. I just put it there. The word, if you listen to the word, if you despise the word, what's it mean to despise the word? Rebel.
[6:44] Who said that? Rebel. Yes, sir. I think that's exactly right. All right. Another word. Hate. Do what? Hate. Hate. Hate. Another word. You know, what?
[6:57] Forget. I think that, I can't hear you. Reject. I think reject's good. I think the, you know, it doesn't have to be so much a blatant, it doesn't have to be so blatant.
[7:09] It doesn't mean that you got to throw it down or stomp it or kick it. It just means you're like, all right, it's not that important. You'd be taking it lightly. The Bible's not that important. I don't really need to know what the Bible says.
[7:20] Don't bring me another one of them Bible verses. I don't need another Bible verse. That would be kind of despising the word of God. If you will not listen to it, you will be destroyed. Now, that's what the daddy said to the boy.
[7:32] The guy who despises won't listen, rejects, rebels. I can't remember what other words you said. He will be destroyed. Now, let's think about that a second. How is that possible?
[7:44] Is it true that if you don't listen to the Bible, you'll be destroyed? Is that a proverb or is there a real big truth in there that I need to know? What's the big truth? You're going to go to hell.
[7:56] You reject the Bible, you're going to reject Jesus. You reject Jesus, you're going to go to hell. You can say, well, that's your opinion. No, see, it's really not about what's my opinion. It's what does the word of God say.
[8:07] And that's why here we study the Bible. You've got it open in front of you. You can look at it. You can say, yeah, that's what the Bible says. Because I want to know what the Bible says. Too many churches are all about somebody's opinion.
[8:19] They're almost like Oprah or Dr. Phil. And you and I got to come in here and say, wait a minute, I need to know what the Bible says. I know what the Bible says. Don't try to show off how smart you are, Austin.
[8:31] Read the Bible to us and show us the Bible. If you despise the Bible, you'll be destroyed. Suppose we're talking about a Christian. Would that have any truth in it as a Christian? How would it have truth?
[8:41] Come on, help me. How would it have truth as a Christian? I'm talking to my son. Luke's getting a talking to from Chuck over here. And Luke's already made a profession of faith.
[8:52] Could his daddy say to him, son, if you don't listen to the Bible, if you despise the word of God, you're going to get destroyed. And he's not going to go to hell because he's saved. But could it apply? Oh, I definitely think it could.
[9:05] Hey, a divorce will about to destroy a guy. Financial heartaches will about to destroy a guy. Sexually transmitted diseases might destroy a guy.
[9:19] Drunkenness could destroy a guy. I mean, just so many things. So I need to listen to the Bible. I need to know what God says. I need to listen to the Bible. It has great insight on how to live now, by the way.
[9:32] I think sometimes we say, well, I ain't going to get destroyed because I'm saved and I'm going to go to heaven. But, hey, the book of Proverbs, in a lot of ways, was written to a guy who's saved.
[9:42] And he said, don't be an idiot. Don't be an idiot. Listen to these truths I'm giving you so you don't get destroyed. So the book of Proverbs and the Bible is going to tell me how to be a man.
[9:54] Tell me how to be a man. We live in a world. You know, when I was a kid and I lived on a farm, you pretty well knew when a guy turned into a man. Because, you know, like you didn't stay at the house anymore.
[10:07] You weren't behind Norma's aprons, strings. They sent you out there and made you slop the hogs. They made you hold down a bull until he got to be a steer. That was a nice, tender way of saying that.
[10:18] And they sent you out to do all this work. And you knew somehow, you know, hey, I'm no longer treated like a kid anymore. No longer. Now we all live inside.
[10:30] And my daddy would always, my daddy always made fun of men like me. By the way, most of y'all are like me. Because my daddy, his hands, I mean, he could grab something hot and hold it.
[10:43] It's all right. He had about two inches of callus on his hands. Like a camel's foot or something, you know. I mean, you could cut him and he didn't bleed. I mean, it's just too much callus there.
[10:54] Me, I got soft hands. I was in Cobb County the other day. And I had something on my hands. So I put some lotion on. I shook John Vorace's hand. He goes, oh, Pastor, you trying to tell me something? Why you got lotion on your hands?
[11:08] I'm an old man. I got dried up skin here. We got a problem. But anyway, how to be a man. How to pay your bills. How to pay your bills. How to work. I need to know those things.
[11:19] The Bible's full of it. The Bible's got the answer not to heaven. The Bible's got the answer to 2014. I really believe that. It determines where you spend eternity.
[11:29] By the way, as parents, if I could say something and really wake everybody up, it's so easy to share all your experience and share all your wisdom and share all your preparation and never be a Bible sharer at home.
[11:44] You could easily say, well, you know, I've lived long. And I once was young, but I am now old. I once was a kid, but now I'm a dad. Let me tell you a bunch of stuff I learned.
[11:55] And you turn into Dr. Phil. They don't need Dr. Phil. And the man of God ought to be, to your kids, the biggest man of God around, ought to be their daddy. He ought to be the man of God.
[12:07] You ought to teach him. I won't get this story right. If you tell it, right, I'll let you tell it, John, if you will. But if you don't want to tell it, I won't tell it. Would you tell them the story about how the kids got involved in the Bible study correspondence school?
[12:24] Okay, I'm going to tell it. If I get it wrong, I'll go to John. Something was going on, and John somehow got some information to his kids, and he told them. And Andrew's here.
[12:34] He can tell if it's true or not. He told them, or this letter came and offered them, what did they got, money for lessons? Yeah. Enrolled in the summertime Bible.
[12:44] They enrolled in the summertime Bible institute or something. They had no idea daddy was doing it. And he put together all this Bible study. In fact, as y'all were going on vacation, and they had graduated, and they thought they had graduated, and the mail hadn't run.
[12:59] And they were like, we can't leave, man. We passed this test. But all summer long, or whatever time, they took these classes that daddy prepared. And then they got their thing, and I don't know, did they find out right then, or was it later?
[13:13] They were going on vacation. They found out there, but they weren't the kids in the Bible. They're the only kids in the summertime Bible institute. That's great, though, isn't it? Isn't that great?
[13:24] Isn't that a way a daddy would say, hey, you sit down. I'm not teaching you philosophy. I'm not teaching you sociology or psychology. But I'm going to teach you the Word of God.
[13:36] That will make a person grow up, learn, and live for Jesus. Because it's always the Word of God that does it. It wasn't John Pearson. Let's just remember that. It's never Austin Gardner. It's never any other preacher.
[13:46] It is the Word of God. The Bible says about itself that it's quick, which means alive. It's alive, and it's powerful, and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. Teach it.
[13:57] Show it to your children. Go to verse 14. That's too much on that time-wise. Verse 14. We need to know where to get instruction. I'm talking about listening here. Look at verse 14.
[14:07] Who will read me verse 14? The law of the life and the fountain of life depart from the tears of death. Now, what in the world? What's going on in that verse? That's a proverb. What's going on in that verse?
[14:18] Somebody tell me. Actually, it's like there's... Anybody want to say something? There's a... He's using an illustration. If any of you ever drank out of a spring, you know, a spring, water comes out of ground, you know?
[14:34] So there's this fountain. There's this place that's producing water. And he says, hey, the law of the wise is like a fountain of life. You go to wise people.
[14:45] Now, what are wise people? Whenever you use the term in the book of Proverbs, wise. Go to the wise. Who are the wise? What is the beginning of wisdom? Fear of the Lord.
[14:56] They know God. And what's it mean to fear God here? It doesn't mean... Man, I love this part of the building. We need to move the pulpit over here. I feel that air conditioner. Just believe the Lord had me right here. This was like the best seat in the building, whoever sits here.
[15:08] Lord of God. But that was wisdom. The wise guy in the Bible is the guy who knows there's a God.
[15:21] The wise guy in the Bible is the guy who knows the Bible is true. The wise guy in the Bible is the guy who says, I can teach you what the Bible teaches. I've learned the Bible. And if you go to him, you will depart from the snares of death.
[15:34] What are snares of death? You know, Satan is laying traps all around us every day to destroy us. The first and biggest trap he's going to always lay will be to go to hell.
[15:46] He's going to do every kind... He's going to lay every kind of trap. That pride we talked about. He's going to lay a pride trap. He's going to do something... Hey, you're too good to know this. You're too smart to fall into that. You don't have to believe the Bible.
[15:58] The Bible's for dumb people that don't know what they're going to do like Ed told us a while ago. And he's going to play that game in your head. Don't ever fall for that. That's a snare. By the way, he uses money.
[16:10] He uses money as a snare. And money will draw you away from God and take you into a trap. That's in 1 Timothy chapter 6. He uses women. Proverbs is full of that. He uses women to destroy men's lives.
[16:23] How do I know where the traps are? How do I... Huh? Bible tells us. I don't know who heard me say this, so I'll repeat it. But last week, I was stayed in the home of a 69-year-old bow hunter.
[16:38] I mean, this guy is Daniel Boone. And he travels to Colorado every year. There are animals that we were in the garage. And he told me, he said, women have no authority in this room.
[16:51] It turned the garage into the man cave. There were deer heads and elk heads all around the room. And when his wife came out, she came walking out and stepped down the steps. And he said, she knows her authority ended right there at that door.
[17:03] This is my room. This is my room. And they were laughing and gutting up about it. And he is a supposedly quite well-known hunter amongst everybody in his neighborhood.
[17:15] Everybody knows. This guy knows. And when he was a young guy, he used to go around when he was in his teens, he'd walk around the community with his bow and arrow. And he would go try to hunt. He didn't know how to hunt. And this guy, who was an older guy in the community, this older guy in the community saw him and said, hey, come here.
[17:30] And he said, hey, man, my name is Soas. He said, I know who you are. He said, would you like to go hunting with me? He said, that old man never tried to teach me how to hunt. But he taught me how to hunt. He said, I know all about how to hunt.
[17:42] He said, he'd take me out there and he'd tell me, don't go here. Don't do this. I was with, I think, was it Joe? Where is Joe? I saw Joe a while ago. I believe it was Joe who told me, don't step right there or something.
[17:54] We were out looking on Bear Mountain. And Joe said, don't step right there. And I'm like, excuse me. Because you don't step right in that spot. So here's the deal. There's traps in life.
[18:06] Guess who's going to help you? Get to the wise guy. Get to the guy who knows what the book says. Get to the guy that walks with God. Get to the guy that fears God. Get to the guy that's got some experience.
[18:16] Go to the wise. Those that love God and respect him and know his word. That's where you get instruction. And that determines how your life goes. Get your children in church where they can hear and learn the word of God.
[18:27] Be careful to lead your family so they will know the word of God. Verse 15. Verse 15. Somebody want to read that real quick? If you learn and understand doors open for you.
[18:45] It says good understanding gives favor. That's open doors. That's people appreciating you. People believing you. So he said to his son, but if you'll learn what I'm about to teach you, it's going to open doors for you.
[18:58] If you'll learn what I'm going to teach you, it's going to give you favor with the right people at the right time. It'll open doors for work. It'll open doors for everything. It gives you favor. Going against the Lord's will only makes your way hard.
[19:11] The way of a transgressor. What's a transgressor? That's a big Bible word. What's transgressor mean? Sinner. It comes from the idea of transgress.
[19:22] Transgress is to break. It is to violate. It is to break the rules. You're a transgressor when you have a speed limit of 70 and you're running 90.
[19:34] You're definitely transgressing. 78, you're all right. I'm teasing. You're still transgressing. Just might not get caught. But anyway, you're transgressing. So transgression is I know what God wants.
[19:44] The law is clear. I'm just going to do what I want. That's transgression. Transgression. That's transgressing. So the fool. Excuse me. Where am I?
[19:55] So the wise man. Go to where you can get God's will. Because if you disobey God's will, it only makes your way hard. People will soon decide if you have good sense, by the way.
[20:07] Good understanding giveth favor. Good understanding. Did you know? I think what that verse is saying is if you listen to dad when you go out to work with the guys, when you go to the job, maybe your dad told you to keep your mouth shut.
[20:21] You're a kid. You're just learning. I don't know why. You're going to work. Keep your mouth shut. Let the men talk. And you go to work and everybody's like, that kid's pretty smart. He knows when to keep his mouth shut. Daddy told him. They're liking him now because he kept his mouth shut.
[20:33] They're liking him because he's learned and he's gained favor. Everybody finds out who we are. We get around them and real quick, they find out this guy does understand. This guy is smart or this guy isn't smart. This guy's an idiot and I can tell it.
[20:45] Good understanding opens doors. It gives you favor. Verse 16. Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge, but a fool lays open his folly. The wise man, the understanding man, the thoughtful man makes wise decisions.
[20:59] The fool soon shows who he is. It doesn't take long for this idiot to let everybody know he's an idiot. Whether or not you listen or learn will soon be obvious to all.
[21:10] And you know, this is so true. I've watched it. You know, I've had people in business come to me and they ask me a business question. And I say, I don't know much about that, but we've got some business people here that know something about business.
[21:23] They go talk to some of the business people and they come back and that guy don't know what he's talking about. And that guy don't know what he's talking about. And then he tells me, I don't know what I'm talking about. And it's not very long before I'm going, yeah, well, you know, nobody knows what you're talking about.
[21:34] You're the only one that does. And that's exactly what the verse is talking about. Look at verse 18. Your attitude towards instruction determines how much, determines much about your success or failure.
[21:46] Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuses instruction. But he that regardeth reproof shall be honored. You can lose it all if you will not be taught.
[21:57] Look at the verse. Poverty and shame. Poverty and shame. Shall be to him that refuses instruction. So he's telling his son.
[22:07] See, that's not really about. I mean, he's just telling his boy, buddy, you need to listen because I'm trying to help you be successful. By the way, just because you're the son of the king don't mean you get to be the next king.
[22:18] David had a lot of sons and a whole lot of wives. You don't know if you're going to get to be one. So listen up, son. Listen up. You can have success and honor if you simply get instruction.
[22:32] He that regardeth reproof shall be honored. And can I just mention, what's the word reproof mean? See, the verse said, he that regardeth reproof.
[22:43] Correction. Correction. And that's a hard word. We don't like that word. It kind of goes against us, doesn't it? And we live in a day and time.
[22:54] The younger you are especially, it's like y'all. I mean, all of you got to win when you play any sports when you was a kid. You know? You've been brought up on this. Nobody ever tells me I'm wrong stuff.
[23:04] That's going to get you in big trouble. The guy that honors reproof. Is that what it says? He that regardeth reproof shall be honored. What's regardeth? Pays attention to.
[23:17] I hold you in high regard. What's that mean? I said I hold you in high regard. When I say that, what? Exactly.
[23:29] So that word regard, it is. Pays attention. But it's also the idea, hey. That old guy told me something I ought not be doing. He's telling me something I ought to really pay attention.
[23:40] I ought to have a lot of respect for that. I ought to learn from that old. That guy that learned how to go hunting has kind of got his own fame now and all them animals and told me all kind of the wildest stories I ever heard.
[23:51] I told him, I said, man, you're Daniel Boone. And he told me, he said, I wouldn't even be at this missions conference if it wasn't at my shoulders. Messed up. I keep pulling my bow back. He said, believe me, I'd be in Colorado right now.
[24:02] Well, I praise God for your messed up shoulder, you backsliding heathen. But I didn't say that. I didn't say that. Okay. Number 20. Somebody read verse 20 out loud.
[24:14] Because this is a mean verse. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but at the change of the fool shall be assured. How about listening? That's why I put all these under listening.
[24:25] What's that verse about? Your opinion. What's that verse about? Woo! I got that written right here. You are who you hang with.
[24:37] We used to say water seeks its own level. Birds of a feather flock together. Who said something? Who was saying something? Go ahead. Okay.
[24:47] Anything else? You see what it says? If you are with those who refuse to listen, you'll probably get that same attitude. I taught school. I had a Christian school.
[25:01] I taught in a Christian school before I started the church. I pastored when I started the first one. Then we started a Christian school. Then I started a Christian school in Peru. And I was a math teacher in Peru because I couldn't find anybody.
[25:12] So every day I went and taught math, which I hated. But as soon as I could find somebody, I got out of there. But anyway. You know, you can always tell who's the smart kids. It takes you about a week to figure out who the dingbats are. They all sit together.
[25:24] I mean, all you got to do is say, that's the biggest dummy in the room right there. And look at all the guys around him. That's be his group. That's the smartest guy in the room. That's his group. I don't know where you guys go. That's about how it goes. So who you run around with says a whole lot about you.
[25:38] By the way, can I just. Here's your wild one. So that's just. Just to be mean. You know, I wouldn't hang around with guys that like to act like marriage wasn't important. If I was a married man and he was around somebody and said, well, you know, getting a divorce ain't that big a deal.
[25:52] I just wouldn't hang with him because I need to keep my marriage. In other words, I don't hang around people that don't say stuff that I need to hear. I don't need to be around a guy. I had some people that want to.
[26:03] And the second church I worked in and they ran around with some people that were just doing some God awful wicked stuff. And they told me we won't fall in it. But they did. I told him, I said, you get away from them.
[26:15] They didn't. And you wouldn't believe what they were doing. I don't even want to say you've got young kids in here. It's that bad. You become like those you associate with. I put this in here.
[26:26] This is just mine. Winers love and produce more winers. And winners love and produce more winners. Your chosen environment has more to do with who you are and what you become than you would ever want to believe.
[26:42] You know, whoever your parents were and wherever you came from and whatever happened to you before is not near as important as where you're staying right now.
[26:56] Like you say, well, I come from a really bad background. So what? A lot of people do. But you choose where you're going to be. You get around the right kind of people. Hang where you're supposed to hang.
[27:07] And that will help you. He that walks with wise men shall be wise. He that walks with wise men shall be wise. That's a Bible proverb. I said proverb.
[27:18] But it's so much truth there. You become like who you associate with. If you will learn. Get around the smartest people around. Get around the people who love God the most. You'll be shocked at how it helps you get closer to God.
[27:33] If I was you, I'd find out who the most godly people were in the church. I'd get around them. Verse 24. Somebody can read this one so I can really make you mad at me. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
[27:45] Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. When you do not discipline your child to listen to you, then you are doing him a disservice. I'm not going to talk to you about spankings or any of that, but can I just say something real quickly?
[28:00] In the society you live in, it's kind of like goo-goo-ga-ga. Everything's okay with you, little kid. and a kid needs structure and a kid needs to be told what's right and wrong and a kid needs to know there's consequences i had a kid that stayed with me his name was glenn and he lived with me for a while and glenn when uh glenn scheipel was his name i don't think it's you but glenn what happened was glenn was in our our christian school the one i was working for and and uh he was in trouble and uh the school was ready to kick him out because he was so stupid he couldn't get any good grades and so i was we're sitting in there and i told the lady in charge uh we had a lady principal i said this kid could do anything if he wanted to he just he doesn't have structure it's his mama's fault and she said oh so you think you can handle it i said you give him to me for two weeks that kid will make good grades and he said she said no way so the mother came in and she said he said if you leave him two weeks he'll make good grades two weeks later he was making good grades and she didn't want him back and so he lived with me for a long time so one day when i was uh when i took away a bunch of his privileges and wouldn't let him leave and he was only if he had his own car i took his keys away i said give me your keys you ain't going nowhere and i i said i know you don't like me he said look he said only reason i'm in your stupid school is because nobody's ever told me no till i met you and he said i've already been arrested by the cops he said this is one thing i've learned this is what a kid told me like 16 he said if your mama won't say no and your daddy won't say no and the school won't send it sooner or later the cops will so you either discipline your kids or somebody else will nobody just gets away with it not forever if you do not discipline them you're telling them you don't love them you can say what you want to say but the wise man under inspiration holy spirit wrote down a proverb and by the way kids figure it out discipline and guidelines show love by the way isn't it amazing they like the coach and the coach is a brute man you've ever been around these coaches he's like stand up sit down move and the mama's over my little boy and the kids love the coach the coach has got some rules you better get started while they're young if you care if you care then you do what is best for them not necessarily what makes them happy and don't listen to popular politically correct teaching read the bible read the bible and uh they will change what they say about all this again they never can make up their mind but the bible's still gonna be the bible just stick with a book you're a wise man you're a wise man and you respect the book that's all we need here number two so that was about listening that's ones i picked out about listening uh the importance of words and the way you speak the importance of words and the way you speak sorry i'm just gonna start yelling quickly i got eight minutes finish five pages we done five we got five more to go you ready sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me that's a lie use your words correctly they can give you good food to eat verse two a man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth but the soul of the transgressor shall eat violence you can desire helpful conversation and succeed what if you decide i'm going to get around people where we talk right talk about something makes sense that's going to help you succeed or you can fuss fight and complain all through life and you're going to eat violence um these bad attitudes spread get control of your mouth because how you use your mouth brings success or destruction that's what daddy told his boy verse three he that keeps his mouth keeps his life but he that opens wide his lips shall have destruction better learn when to keep your mouth shut when i was a boy they used to say if you got enough back in to back up what your mouth is saying right now boy except they use other words but you start talking somebody just look at you say i'm fixing to whip
[32:03] because your mouth is saying stuff you're about to overload your wheelbarrow that's what they used to say on the farm keep your mouth shut get control of your mouth if you are careful how you talk you'll get rewarded you can ruin things if you don't control your mouth verse five living out who you are will cause you to tell the truth a righteous man verse five hates lying but a wicked man is loathsome means hateful we don't like him we don't we don't like him and he comes to shame while god's people hate lies the wicked seem to love living in them the lies will embarrass him sooner or later you get caught they used to say back in the old day oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive and uh you they tell so many lies they can't get out of it number verse 17 how you talk determines much your success a wicked messenger falls into mischief but a faithful ambassador is health if you talk stupid you'll act stupid if you deal in truth and talk truth then you'll have success you can help others be a success if you learn truth and share it i would talk a whole lot more about that but i got uh six minutes so go with me if you would to verse four next point first point was listen second point is talking third point is working quit start working quit dreaming start working quit dreaming verse says in verse four the soul of the slugger desires and has nothing but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat doesn't matter how much you want but how much you work and that's what he was telling his boy because everybody wants big stuff don't we all want big stuff we want money we want stuff but but you can want all day long go to work get up go to work a friend that's over in in the church where chris is working right now they've got a guy in the church doesn't have a job and so this friend of mine i taught him in school actually he's one of those guys in that school very smart guy but he told this guy this guy came to the church and said i can't get a job and he said you're going to work 40 hours every week he said so if you don't have a job i want you to go out to pick up garbage on the street he said because people hire people that work but people don't hire people that won't work and that isn't won't like w-o-n-t it's like if you want to work they'll hire you but if you will not work they won't hire you and he told him so pick it so that this past week he was tired and he didn't feel like working and john and john my buddy john said that's why you're not getting a job you're too tired to make it two weeks of working that's what the verse is saying really the soul of the sluggard desires the lazy bum won't stuff but he don't get nothing but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat diligence energetic get at it you'll have something to show for your life but be careful about get rich quick schemes verse 11 sluggards and bums like get rich quick schemes by the way you know the lottery is a get rich quick scheme which is a get rich it's a get poor slow scheme they they only charge you a dollar or two but they know you're a blooming idiot this verse is about you give me three bucks you could probably win 10 billion and they three buck you to death and when you're starving they're going to say you're the idiot that's spending on the lottery ticket you're desiring but you don't have anything verse 11 says wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished but he that gathers by labor shall increase easy come easy go lottery wealth rarely makes wealth they can prove that on the internet you just go study it people that win the lottery usually end up broke people that win the lottery they get they live high real short time working hard and smart will cause you to increase in financial wealth that's what the verse said verse 12 hope deferred makes
[36:06] the heart sick but when the desire comes it's tree of life i'd like to if you if i if you were taking notes you'd write this down man be ready when the opportunity comes be ready when the opportunity comes disappointments can break your heart but if you keep dreaming and working the desire comes you'll be happy great joy to be success work at doing what you dream of and desire verse 19 the desire accomplishes sweet to the soul but it's an abomination to fools to depart from evil now on the one hand you're not supposed to dream and desire on the one hand you're not supposed to dream and desire but that's on the hand where you're like if if they would pay me a hundred dollars an hour i'd work i mean i'm dreaming about a job paid million dollars an hour well you're an idiot so just quit dreaming you're going to be hungry but there's nothing wrong with dreaming about doing something with your life and coming up with something hard that you're going to accomplish and so he says he says the desire accomplished so you dream about it but you work your rear off you ought to have a dream but it's not a pie-in-the-sky dream it's something realistic so it means you go to school if you have to you go to college if you have to you clean streets if you have to you work your way up the ladder if you have to uh a friend of mine in dalton steven knows extremely well delivered i was with wayne colfield when we visited him and he got started coming to whitfield baptist church and he delivered pizza to my house and i gave him extra good tips now he owns three four or five pizza stores he started at the bottom worked his way up and succeeded he had a desire he had a dream accomplished that sweet to the soul saw his picture today at the hoover dam i don't know what he's doing out there make sure you get the right desires the fool wants evil it will not turn from it it says the desire accomplished is sweet to the soul but the abomination to fools to depart evil skip it skip it skip it i'm gonna give you uh we'll just skip here and it's good stuff you gotta read chapter how about that let's go to verse seven last one given these are this is a verse about giving verse seven he's telling his boy how to work he's telling his boy how to be a success but it's never about being a success it's never about getting for me it's about getting so i can give read the verse seven there is that maketh himself rich yet has nothing there is that maketh himself poor yet hath great riches it's a good story good verse good proverb possibly you think that giving will cause you to lose money and get behind financially but that's not what this proverb says real riches are not having money but using money i don't know if you get that one but real riches is not having money it's using money money's a tool that's all it is all is a tool so it's not about having it's not about hoarding it it's about using it you can get money and the bank and you can get money and have it in the bank but still be very poor that's what it says here because some people got a whole lot of money and they're very poor some people got a whole lot of money and they're very poor verse eight's the verse that kind of goes along with that the ransom of a man's life or his riches see money causes you risk you got money somebody's gonna kidnap you so they get money off of you but the poor guy he don't even have to worry about it ain't nobody gonna say a word to him who wants to get who's gonna in peru in peru was always really funny in peru the more you got the scarier you got to live because they're coming they're coming to your house they're gonna steal your stuff and they better have man in the poor neighborhood they got a little chihuahua and and they keep her door locked in the rich neighborhood we got electric fence we got alarm system we got a dog and we got bars on the windows and i had a big chain that i could use to whoop them with a bad too more you got the more you got the more you're
[40:09] setting yourself to read these read these proverbs man there's so great stuff in there read the proverbs apply them to your life i believe they'll make a big difference in our lives father i love you i thank you for the chance to talk to your men thank you for this wonderful church and i just pray god that you would draw us closer to you and strengthen us and use us for your honor god help us to be men that lead our homes help us to be men that train our children help us to be men that help other younger men as they grow help us to share the wisdom the word of god that you've given us with others and i'll give you praise for all in jesus name amen thank you guys very much this message was recorded at vision baptist church in alfred georgia for more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times location contact information and more audio and video recordings thanks