Financial Wisdom: Proverbs 13:1-25

You're listening to the Bible guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, good morning everybody. We're the Bible Guys. Yes, yes we are, Yes. That is who we are. And today we're going to start out with a segment. And oh, I thought I was going to be listening to an episode of This Old House. Right, but it actually says you're listening to the Bibble to the Bible guys. That's right, the. Podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible and fun and practical ways. So anyway, Desiree put together a segment called Stump. The Pastor and Dumped the Pastor. These are fun. These are fun? Man? You like st the Pastors? I do. I like it a lot. I think that people probably wish for more of them, depending on the question. So the day that we're shooting this episode, I'm with our Young Adults Ministry. Yeah yeah, and a big part of the event to night, we're cooking. Yeah, they're going to do questions, but. It's open form Q and a's you can ask any question, right, Yeah. Do you like that? Do you like the open forum? I think it's great. I think that there are times where somebody will ask you a question that requires a very long answer, and and it's usual. You don't like long answers. I like long answers. I just think that, like sometimes the questions, the multitude of questions is what's interesting to me, not necessarily, not necessarily a twenty minute answer to one question that ten percent of the room is interested, That's all I was trying to say. So when they ask questions that require a really long discussion, I'm like, oh, I would have preferred to have ten more other questions. Oh yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, I like the long ones because I think one of the arguments is a lot of times, you know, for people who struggle with the church or struggle with faith, they'll say, well, you know, I used to go to church, and then when I had questions, they were like, just believe it because it's in the Bible. Yeah. Right, Well that's not a bad answer. It's not a wrong answer, it's just a bad answer. Right. So I love it when when we can just go, okay, there's a reason less you're going to ask you a question to take a long time. You guys want to take a long time on this one. Yes, okay, And so what I do, what I've done, what I've done, I've only done it once actually, But what I've what I've done is I've been in those situations where I've said, hey, uh, I probably assume there's about ten people in this crowd that are interested in this answer. I was like, so, after we're done and we dismiss, I'm gonna be right over here in this corner. I'll give the long answer to the to anybody who wants to listen because they want to waste the crowds time. So it turns out there was like five people and they were riveted, you know, by the answer. But I just didn't feel like, you know. Not me. Everybody's getting it. Everybody's getting it's open for him. Yeah that's right. And by the way, that's how you manage and control open for him. Yes, that's right. That's wax aliqin on this stuff. That's not going to get you eaten alive. That's true. Okay. So anyways, here we go stump the pastor. Yep, this is this is from Tim R. Hi Tim R. Yes, and he wrote in a question you can Tim Nope, it's Tim R. Kim R. Timmy Tim Uh Hey, he actually wrote in uh something that anybody could write in and you you want to, you want to email us email us at info at the Bible guys dot com with any of your questions and we might use them in the future episode. Tim writes this, if big extravagant miracles were regular occurrents in the early Church, why don't we see them as frequently as today or frequently today? Well, God fell asleep. God is in the restroom. He's not paying attention. That's what That's what Elijah said. That's what I said. That when when it was haunting the the prophets of Ail. You got in the restroom. Uh. That's a great question, Tim, because we do see miracles today for sure. But the big extravagant miracles is what he said, right, which is take up your bed and walk kind of miracles. Right. You know your daughter's not dead, she's only sleeping, that's right, right. So, so so where are they today? So I got to tell you something. It's an interesting thing for me. You and I both just went to a conference by the Timothy Initiative in Florida, and it's interesting to me how you. Which is a church planting movement all around the world. Yes, in the least reached people groups around the world. Yes, and and and I have a tendency to be around some of those things. And you always hear of extravagant miracles around the world. So you always hear of like, for instance, when we were there, Uh, these people who I believe in and know personally and trust stand up there. And there was this one one Indian pastor who shared a story Reggie about a guy who became a Christian but he couldn't read and uh, and he and he prayed that God would uh, you know, give him the ability to read and uh and he prayed for a long time. And everybody knew in the village that he number one, grew up not being able to read. And number two, they also knew that he'd been praying this prayer and he was praying this audacious, radical prayer of he just wanted God to give him this ability to read. And they actually have it on video. They showed it on video where he actually picked up the Bible and one day just started reading. Yeah, but only the Bible, but only the Bible read anything else. Can't read a newspaper can't read anything else, and this and this Indian pastor, Reggie was just you know, shouting this thing. And then. All of a sudden he shows this video and this. You know, here's this guy sitting in this plastic chair in this dusty old room and he's reading this Bible. And then all of a sudden, ninety eight percent of the village became Christians because of the miracle, the extravagant miracle that God did. And so you and I hear of these miracles. And so as being a skeptic, and I don't think people truly understand the word skeptic because when I say I'm a skic, people think, oh, okay, yeah, I have my doubts too, And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what a skeptic is. A skeptic is I don't believe you. I flat out do not believe that sentence. That is what a skeptic is. Until you prove to me that that is true. I don't believe it. And so, because I'm a skeptic at heart, there's always something in me that goes come on right. It's not that I doubt God. In fact, ironically when I take my spiritual gift test, you know what, My number one spiritual gift is faith. Faith. So it's like it's like it's like I'm a skeptic. God made me a you know why am I a skeptic God? But at the same time, I have faith. So when it comes to me serving God, faith is just it comes to the surface immediately. But when it comes to you know, hearing other people around the world going I just started to read, I go, come on, And I don't know why I'm that way, but I sure am. Well you saw the video of that one. Well not only that, but here's the thing you have to to ask yourself, do I believe that this person is trying to lie? And what do they have to gain to lie? And and you know, and here are they creating a lie? Where here's this man who just becomes a Christian. He's known throughout the village of not being able to read, and then all of a sudden I see him reading. It's like he would have to have a lifetime, quite literally, a lifetime of pulling that prank, right, And so then you're just sort of forced to look at the evidence to go it is a miracle and it's an extravagant one, and it happens around the world. So I had a professor who was a missionary. He was in his eighties, in nineteen eighty nine, nineteen ninety, he was in his late eighties. So he was a missionary in those explorer missionary times, yes, in the twenties and thirties. Right, yeah, it's really really. A missionary gave up their lives and talk to cannibals. Well back when you got on a boat, right and went to where you were going, right, that's where. And he always was in places where there had never been the gospel. And so somebody, a student asked the same question in one of the classes. So the same question were the same same. Question, tim is asking here, right, And that is I read the Book of Acts. It's miracles all the time, which, by the way, there's about sixteen or seventeen miracles depending on how you count them, maybe twenty miracles in the twenty six chapters of the Book of Acts. So they're recorded because they're so out of the ordinary, just to point that out, by the way. But anyways, doctor Champlain said, so when the student said, you know, why don't we see miracles today, he said, oh, where the Gospel is moving for the first time, it's still always only miracles. That's what's happening all the time. He said, if you're living a life that needs miracles, God will give you miracles. Right. But what you think is you're asking for miracles to make your personal life better. But God, if you read the Bible, miracles are always happening on the front lines of where the Gospel is moving. So if you need miracles and want miracle in your life, you need to be on the front line of the move of the Gospel. So God's agenda for miracles is to further his word so that people would not go to hell and go to Heaven. That's right, Yeah, that's right. And so that that's the story Reggie told, or bekaylay Shenko told the same story. Right, he's the vice president of a similar story. He's vice president of the crew in charge of church planting around the world. And it's the story of his father who I mean, Bekayleay and his father served the witch doctor, most powerful witch doctor in Ethiopia and on top of the mountain's that's what they did. And then Bekaylay's father became a Christian, began to beg God to teach him how to read because he couldn't read. And then God miraculously gave an ability to read. And now in their tribe of over a million people, ninety eight percent of the people are Christians, over a million, over a million. That's yeah. Yeah, they're building the largest cross in Africa on the mountain where that witch doctor used to be. Wh used to be, you know, called down lightning from the sky. It was pretty pretty incredible, right, So it's neat stuff. Well, there's lots of those. I mean, I've heard of people, you know, being given their sight back. I've known of people that were completely unable to walk that God restored their strength in order to be able to get to the next village. And I've seen people that it just so many stories. I've heard so many stories, and I met so many people where it was the first move of the gospel in that village or the first move of the Gospel in that tribe. And God did miraculous things. So God does miracles for his purposes, and what we want is God to do miracles for our purposes. Well, when you align your purpose in God's purpose, you'll see miracles. But when it's your purpose apart from God's purpose, well you may or may not, because God's going to say, I gave you my word, and I gave you the wisdom of the word. You know, yeah, work it out well. When I traveled in Africa and I went to with Julius Morgre and we went up to the regions of the Pocot and he wanted me to preach under this tree this tree church, and the pastor Solomon I met. Sulomon said, hey, by the way, these men are going to heckle you, and remember this story, and anyway, I'm not going to retell the whole story. But the men came to Christ that day, which was amazing. But when he said they were going to heckle you, he had told me the backstory, and he told it as if it were just an average every day Tuesday. He said, yeah, he said, they came out tried to kill me. I was injured to where I couldn't even move to go to the hospital. And we were in the tent and these men who left me to die under this tree, thought I was dead. But the women rescued me, dragged me back to the tent, and they did so because he was bringing the gospel to that village, that's what he was doing. And so then all of a sudden, the men came into the tent where he was being protected by the women, and the men, the elders of that village laid down offerings of sugar bags of sugar, and said, we feel as if we have angered your God, because God miraculously caused all of our sheep to go blind. And so all of the sheep imagine you know me shot there are village right, and there's one hundreds. Especially among the po cuts, because that's what they are, is they're herders. Yes, yeah, yeah. So he said, all of our sheep went blind. They're all blind. Think about that. And he goes and so he goes, and this happened right after we, you know, tried to kill you. And they said, so we bring this offering of sugar to you, uh, and and that we want you to accept and forgive us. And he said, I'll forgive you on one condition that that I am able to uh plant a church here, and that I have a tree, I have church underneath the tree that you left me under that that that that you want to kill me, and and they said, we have to talk about this, and they left. They went back, had a meeting, came back and said, Okay, we'll let you have church under one condition, as long as the men attend and we're able to navigate and monitor everything that you're saying to our to our village, to our women. And he's like, uh so, the so the condition is you attend the church. He's like done, And he said then, and then here's the best part. And he says, and then right after that, all the sheep were going to regain their sight. Now come on, now, he told me this. I was there. I was literally spoken the church there. I spoke in the church. And then when I spoke, all I said was is that the Gospel is not proven with just words, It's proven with sacrifice. And I talked about how Julius Morgart sacrifice his life. I talked about how our team was there to figure out how to get them water, which means that love is proved not with action or not with words, but just action. And then I used Pastor Solomon as an example. Right, you know, he says he loves you, but guess what he does because of these actions and then I used the cross right, and then Jesus love does and then all of a sudden the men came up and they all turned their lives over. And here I am lucky enough to, you know, reap the harvest of all the watering that Solomon did, right, and then all of a sudden they all come to Christ underneath that tree. And I'm just like, this is miraculous. And I guess I ended up did telling the whole story, just not in great detail. But so the only part that I did left out was before every church service, they all had tea, and Solomon would walk around with that bag of sugar, sugar and spread and and he would put it in everybody's tea and he'd say, the sweet forgiveness of God, the sweet forgiveness of God. It's powerful. Makes me want to cry. So those kind of miracles happen all the time, every day at the cutting edge of where the gospel is spreading. So you want more miracles in the life, get a part of that, right, And we have the benefit of being a part of that. God does other miracles. I mean, I've prayed over people that the doctors said there's no hope. He's going to die this afternoon. That one of the guys, he's on our safety team, and this was ten years ago, right, and he's up and walking around, and I don't think this guy's ever going to die. It seems like it's like the Energizer Bunny. Now. So I've been around lots of really incredible miracles. We played prayed for a tornado one time, and God gave us a tornado seven days later tore down a building we needed torn down. Oh that's right, right, that's a whole other story. I've been around incredible miracles that God does. Those are are few and far between, but they're always in alignment with His purposes, not just with our appetites or what we want. Right, and so that would be it so great question, Tim. Let me encourage you to get involved with organizations and things and places that where miracles are happening. That's that's what you want to be a part of. Yep, yep, because that's where God's working. Instead of asking God to work in me, I want to work on what God's doing. Yeah, right, that's what I want. Well, we took extra time for that, but now we're going to launch End of Proverbs chapter thirteen. This is good. Yeah, so the reason why we took time on that one is because this is more of the same, and you're going to notice the same themes in these. Right that that was a fantastic stump of past. Your coredulous question. Here you go. A wise child accept us, accepts a parent's discipline. A mocker refuses to listen to correction. Wise words will win you a good meal, but treacherous people have an appetite for violence. Those who control their tongue will have a long life. Opening your mind can ruin everything. That's a good that's good marriage counseling, right there. Yeah, Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper. That verse three, those who control their tongue will have a long life. Opening your mouth can ruin everything. These genes make my yeah, make me look fat? Yeah right right, well actually, yes, right right, so funny. Anyways, I'm sorry, that's how my brain works. Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper. There's that hard work theme again. The godly hate lies man. There's his honesty theme again. The wicked cause shame and disgrace, Godliness guards the path of the blameless, but the evil are misled by sin. Some who are poor pretend to be rich, Others who are rich pretend to be poor. The rerisch can pay a ransom for their lives, but the poor won't even get threatened. The life of the godly is full of light, and but the light of the wicked will be snuffed out. Pride leads to conflict. Those who take advice are wise. Wealth from get rich quick schemes quickly disappears. Wealth from hard work grows over time. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. People who despise advice are asking for trouble. Those who respect the command will succeed. The instruction of the wise is like a life giving fountain, and those who accept it avoid the snares of death. A person with good sense is respected, a treacherous person is headed for destruction. Wise people think before they act. Fools don't even brag about their foolishness. An unreliable messenger stumbles into trouble, but a reliable messenger brings healing. If you ignore criticism, you'll end in poverty and disgrace. If you accept correction, you will be honored. It is pleasant to see dreams come true, but fools refuse to turn from evil to attain them. Walk with the wise and become wise. Associate with fools and get in trouble. Trouble chases sinners, while blessings reward the righteous. Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren, but the sinner's wealth passes to the godly. A poor person's farm may produce much food, but injustice sweeps it all away. Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children. Those who love their children care enough to discipline them. The godly eat to their hearts content, but the belly of the wicked goes hungry. There's a bunch of good ones in there, yeah for sure. Yeah. And I've heard you quote hope deferred makes the heart sick. I've heard you quote that one hundred times. Oh, people get angry and upset is because they were expecting something that didn't happen, right, And so you just kind of have to be patient in that moment and just understand, Hey, they were hoping for something that didn't happen, and they're blaming you. Right, right, And so there's wisdom and trying to not be the person that gives them false hope, right, right, So you shouldn't be the person to give somebody false hope because hope, for it makes the hard say that's right. Yeah, it's hard to lead long term if you're constantly making people sick instead helping fulfill the dreams. Right to the other side of that. Yeah, right, that's really cool. Have you noticed how often he talks about accepting criticism wise people accept criticism wise people? He said two weeks ago or last week, I think maybe you mentioned about Dave Harrington. Would you say he made a comment something is love was a criticism candor? Candor is love? Candor is love? Yeah, Candor is caring? Yeah, can is caring? That's what he said. Yeah, yeah, and uh and and by the way, that's assuming that the person who's being you know, giving you the candor is uh saying the right thing, and they're a godly person, right and they're wives. That's that's probably what you have to sort wisdom out. And the only way you can sort out wisdom is first of all, does it align with scripture? Does it go against scripture? And secondly, how often does he mentioned common sense, right, So does it? Does it make sense? Because we've all received criticism from a fool, and that's not what it's talking about out here, right, He's not talking about Hey, pay attention to the criticism from a fool, right, because that's not going to get you. You know, poverty versus prosperity. You have to sort out. Are they a wise person? That's right? That's right. So I was. Going to say, I saw verse twenty here walk with the wise and become wise, and I was thinking, you have just gotten wiser and wiser and wiser as I've known you. Chad, so much more time with Chad. You got me, you got me. Oh there you go. Hey, you finally you finally. Uh, you didn't play the higher road first. You got me? You got good Chad like that too, Chad. Absolutely take one. For the team. I want to I want to point out one. And this might be contrary from a pastors from what you would think of pastors say, but verse twenty two says good people leaving inheritance to their grandchildren. King says leaving inheritance to their children's children. Right, But the sentner's walk passes to the passes to godly. You know, we have this tension of Jesus, you know, tells us to be generous. All these things the Bible tells us to be generous. The Bible commands us to tithe. Ten percent of our resources should go to God's kingdom. Right, that's rent for living on the planet. God promises us to bless us when we'd get there. He doesn't promom us to bless us when we're not there. So tithe is the beginning. But then above our tithes and offerings, he tells us that we should be generous people. And so Christians have a hard time. Does that mean I should give everything away? I feel guilty? Right? I feel Oh, I got so much blessed it. Never feel guilty about God's blessing in your life. And as a matter of fact, it says a good person is going to build generational wealth, right right. So what I found is, as we've obeyed God with our tithes, God has blessed us beyond my comprehension to this point. As we've stepped out and been more generous the over and above our tithes, and we begin giving offerings, God continues, I can't outgive God, But He's also given us the opportunity to begin to build wealth that would go beyond us, right, And there is something about that that you should have a good plan. A lot of Christians have no financial plan. You don't have and there are so many mechanisms to be able to give God even more if you knew about how taxes work, and how inheritances work and all these things. There's so many things. But we need to be diligent in that area. And the huge majority of Americans have not been diligent in planning for what happens after them. And so I just want to encourage Christians that are listening today if you need help, we have a team at Heritage at our church. If you are here in southeast Michigan, we have a team that's moving into this area to help people make good plans for the future. Not to get money from you, but just we believe that this is a biblical idea. Right, It's a biblical concept to prepare to leave in inheritance to your children's children. Yeah, and there's something about that well, preparing for the future. Yeah. And I got to be honest when I when I went into ministry, it was a small bat this church, you know, and Liz, my wife, looked up to our lead pastor at the time and his wife. They were sort of, you know, who she wanted to be, and they were wonderful people. And I remember surrendering to ministry. I use that word surrender, right, you know, instead of volunteering administry or call to ministry. We back then we said surrendered the ministry, as if as if it was a struggle and as if like you're gonna have a life of difficulty, right. And I remember them sitting me down, and this is what they said. They said, if you go into ministry, you will be poor. They said, you will be prepared to cut coupons, be prepared to live on nothing and have hand me downs and make your own clothes. And I'm not even kidding, I'm not even saying things that aren't true. I'm legitimately telling you that they said you will be poor. And that's the way that ministry is, and so just expect it. So when I went to my first job and they said, you know, the church of one hundred and eighty people, and they said, okay, we're going to hire you at twenty eight thousand dollars with no insurance. We're not going to pay you any insurance. I said, okay. And then over the next seven years when I worked there, I put like twenty thousand dollars on my credit cards for every medical need that we had, just because I was always taught from the very beginning that you know. And yet you know, it took me a long time to figure out. It's like, oh, that's not the way that you know. There's not the biblical model, right, right Jesus It says that Jesus didn't have a place to lay his head, but it didn't mean that he was poor, right, right, right? So anyway, Well, one of the wisest Christian men I've ever met challenged me when I was younger, with the idea of building a life ten ten to eighty. Have you ever heard that? Yep? And so he said, give God the first ten percent, save the second ten percent, and then live on the eighty percent, right, And he said, that sets you up to be able to fulfill this verse. And he quote this verse specifically you if you don't begin planning today to put money aside, you will never have the ability to fulfill Proverbs, chapter chapter what thirteen, verse twenty two. Yeah, leave inheritance to your children's children. You have to make that plan, so prepare and I said, okay, that's what I want to do. And I haven't always been perfect at it, but we're getting there. That's awesome. So wey that is our time and so hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible gush