Generosity in the Christian Life: Proverbs 11:1-31

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody happy Friday, the day after Thanksgiving? Yes, everybody is looking forward to leftovers turkey sandwiches, Yes, and heating up everything. And big screen TV's big screen TV. Sy. Oh Black Friday, that's what you meant spending money like crazy? Yeah, people do that, they do. Have you ever done, although although it's not what it used to be. No, right, back in the old days, we should tell all the young whippers that people used to go to the stores, that's right, and we would. We would camp out on the sidewalks like four in the morning. No, not we they yeah, yeah, oh you never did. No, Oh, we used to do it fun. It's fun. But like Bonnie and I miss it. We used to It was so much fun. Oh yeah, yeah, wow, plot your your spending because we would get most of our Christmas shopping done on Black Friday back then. I think I would. I think I did Black Friday one time just to experience it, and I was like I could do without this. Yeah yeah, wow, I. Think I saved it was it was a TV actually, yeah, but I think I saved something like sixty five dollars. Oh well, then you didn't do it right. Yeah, but it was. It was not a big TV but I actually thought to myself, I would pay sixty five dollars not to do that again. Wow, it was that bad. I just don't like it. I just didn't like it. We liked it. Yeah, okay, so but not anymore. Now you just sit on your phone all stuff, haven't. That's what it is. Yeah, way, today we're going to do a segment. What this is great? What made Chris happy this week? Happy this week? I know? So we we're forsaking everybody's favorite segment? What made Chris mad this week? Yeah? Instance it's Thanksgiving. We thought we'd give you one week, yes, one week this year to be happy. Yes, one week, just just just this one day. Can you muster it in your heart to find something to be happy and thankful for? Well? Thanksgiving weekend? Well, Jeff, I thought about this because I looked at it mere moments before we started recording, Yes, and I realized that I had to come up with something that may be happy this week. Realized he had to come up with something. Oh no, I got to think of something that made me happy. It's so foreign to your to you every day living. Now, wait a minute, that is not true. I had I had to think of something quick. No, I am often happy. Okay, you have been happy in the past, but at point there have been happy moments, Yes, there have been. So here's what made me. Here's what stood out in my mind is of course, what made me happy this week is the Lion's victory on Thanksgiving Day. Wow, how they destroyed the Bears. Wow? Right, that's impressive. Yes, considering they haven't played yet, that's a prediction. Yeah, that's a prediction. You're predicting. So listen, you realize how clever this is. So clever we are recording a week before Thanksgiving, that's right. And yet what I'm doing is I'm celebrating that when this airs, by the way, that the Lions have won with confidence, Jeff, that we won. Like you remember that we destroyed those stinking banks. You remember the hang on the two interceptions that our defense. Had that was incredible, really one of them by number zero? Wow? Really right? Yeah? The safety whatever is yeah? Yeah, wow that guy. And then you also remember that forty six yard run by Gibbs. Okay, hey, hey, somebody by a lottery day. Play so the game just for these you're listening, the game has not played yet. Yes, for us you're listening now it did. So yeah, yeah, you know whether or not Chris and the score is going to or no, it was go he's gonna call a score too. Du Bears scored ten points and the Lions scored thirty five. Oh to go three games of fifty three. I'm going to say, I'm going to split the difference. I'm going to say I'm going to say forty. Forty two. Oh okay, okay, okay, wow, all right, well there you go, two to ten. There you go. So you're kind of a prophet. Yeah, I am a prophet. Yeah wow. So do you know the Bible says that if a prophet lies, they're supposed to be put to death. Oh well, that does not apply in the New Testament because. Yeah, yeah, that's that's really bad if he prophesies false prophecies. Yeah, okay, all right, okay, well they have to claim it's from God. I'm not claiming this is just on the top of your head. This is yeah, this is me being clever, Okay, And by the way, that means if I were to literally say this, I have a friend, a good friend, in fact, she's listening right. Now, but my good friend. But but she she always would go like, if there's like some magical thing that happens, she'll go and play the lottery. Oh no, yeah, she does all the time. She's a good friend. So she's one of those people who just can't, you know, get away from that now. Granted not a lot of money, but she's like, oh, must best be lottery. It's a lucky day. Yeah. Yeah, Well Chris used up all the good luck just right here. Yeah, that's right, that's right. Okay, so don't don't don't use hipm as excuse to go blow all your money. That's correct, that's correct. Anyway, Hey, it's so funny. I'm thankful for the lions that hope. I hope your predictions are correct. Yes, we will find out. Well, Jeff, to be honest with you, I'm happy thinking about it right now. So so let me get this correct. So you're a prophet and your propheesying these things. And secondly, yes, in a segment that said what made Chris happen this week? Yes, you had to scramble to think of something, and you thought of something that has not yet happened. And it makes me happy. Nothing this week made you happy. You're guessing next week made you happy. How clever I am in this segment makes me Okay. Okay, there you go. Yeah, well, I'm proud of you too, Chris. Good job. I hope, I hope that you are correct on this prediction. I know I am. Okay. Yes, So speaking of uh, come on, I don't know. I'm looking for something. Speaking for speaking, we're trying to think of a terrible I don't have one here. Speaking of winning scores, winning scores, Solomon is about to give us the formula on how to win on life. I was thinking about dishonest measurements. But there's that. Oh, come on, keep it, keep it positive. Okay, I don't know. I already did it. You already found it. You already found it. No, thank you, it's it, Okay. I came up with the winning scores, winning scores. So we're going to be We're continuing with Proverbs and just downloading more wisdom for a little while. And Proverbs chapter eleven, verse one says the Lord detests the use of dishonest scales, but he delights and accurate weights. I feel like I've heard that verse before. Yeah, like yesterday. Yes, pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Honesty guides good people, Dishonesty destroys treacherous people. Riches won't help on the day of judgment, but right living can save you from death. The godly are directed by honesty. The wicked fall beneath their load of sin. The godliness of good people rescues them. The ambition of treacherous people traps them. When the wicked die, their hopes die with them, for they rely on their own feeble strength. The godly are rescued from trouble, and it falls in the wicked instead their words. The godless destroy their friends, but knowledge will rescue the righteous. The whole city celebrates when the godly succeed. They shout for joy when the wicked die. Upright citizens are good for a city and make it prosper, but the talk of the wicked tears it apart. It is foolish to belittle one's neighbor. A sensible person keeps quiet, a gossip goes around telling secrets, but those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence. Without wise leadership, a nation fails. There is safety in having many advisers. There's danger in putting up security for a stranger's debt. It's safer not to guarantee another person's debt. A gracious woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth. Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you. Evil people get rich for the moment, but the reward of the godly will last. Godly people find life, evil people find death. The Lord detests people with crooked hearts, but he delights in those with integrity. Evil people will surely be punished, but the children of the godly will go free. A beautiful woman who lacks discretion is like a gold ring and a pig snout. That's awesome. Away with words. Yes, Now, the godly can look forward to a reward, while the wicked can expect only judgment. Give freely, become more wealthy, be stingy, lose everything. The prosperous or the generous will prosper. Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. People curse those who hoard their grain, but they bless the one who sells in time of need. If you search for good, you'll find favor. But if you search for evil, it will find you. Trust in your money and down you go. But the godly flourish like leaves in spring. Those who bring trouble on their families inherit the wind. The fool will be a servant to the wise. The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life. A wise person wins friends. If the righteous are rewarded here on earth, what will happen to kid sinners? Well, there you go, there it is. Uh So a beautiful woman who lacks I know you're going to that one. First is a gold ring and a pig's snout. And what a visual. He's not speaking about women, he's just talking about beautiful people in general. Well, he's talking about how first of all, pigs are were an unclean Animal's correct to those who are Jewish, right and still are by the way, and uh and so a gold ring and a pig snout is probably one of the visual aids that he could muster up. That is like the thing that doesn't belong. Ye what in modern times we say it's like putting lipstick on a pig, right, right, same same idea. It's the same concept. You know, you know, an unclean animal in the mud having a gold ring in the snout. It's really you know, he's trying to. Come up with extremes there, right, A beautiful woman who lacks discretion, it's just the Yeah, it's it's like, it's like the uh the beauty is is made dirty and made unattractive by her lack of discretion, right, That's what it is. Right, So yeah, that's it's pretty pretty incredible. Hey, you know what, you know what verse I like, actually the one that stood out to. Me, which one? Uh verse No tell me Chris, Yes, I was about toad verse over twenty. The Lord detests people with crooked hearts, but he delights with those with integrity. So, uh, I did a message one time. I think I think I made it when I was a youth pastor in the nineties and I still remember it and and those who are in my youth group could probably still tell you about it because because I did a whole series on it and everything else. But anyway, it. Was called the Rise of Personal Integrity. And the idea is that when you lack something, let's just say, like you're having a moment of temptation in this area. Because everybody has different areas that they're weak at, right, So you know, let's just say you lack something and in this one scenario, well, if you have integrity, integrity will rise to the surface and it will fill in the gap in which you lack. So what I did was I did like this series in Daniel and so like re member in Daniel chapter one, where he lacks instructions from parents, right, and so he lacks it good advice. And so what ends up happening is is, you know, here he is, he's captured, he's taken the Babylon, he's put into a scenario where he's like, oh no, he doesn't have parents around to advise him. Then all of a sudden, what happens void of instruction, What happens is is I built the case that integrity rose to the surface, and it came out of him through the you know, through the lens of him saying I will not defile myself, right, and then and then and then I then I built another case where it says, you know, uh, he doesn't have any pastoral guidance from a pastor. He's gotting no spiritual advisor. Then all of a sudden, because he lacks that in his life. You know, it's the as of personal integrity. Uh. You know when when he. Lacks uh uh you know, discernment, you know, any praise or whatever he's going to do or no, no, it's it's the it's the entrapment of the king. And then all of a sudden, you know, his his integrity rises. Anyway, I built all these scenarios where he lacks something, something's missing, and then integrity rises, and and so what I did? I remember this, This is the illustration that sticks out in my mind. So do you know what blood type you are? No? You do not. You really need to find this out because I think I've mentioned this before. But uh, I have like red blood. Yeah yeah, yeah, I've seen it plenty of times. Yeah. Did you know that in the old in the olden times, they thought that blood was blue because your veins were blue, and then when it hit the air it was red. But that's not true. It's not true, no, not a long but anyway, and by the way, Mary Poppins even things that underneath your blood is blue and then thinke fandic goes common knowledge Anyway, The point is is that I have oh positive blood. And what's interesting is is let's just say you have like a negative, and if you give a blood transfusion to somebody else, you could only give it to people who are a negative. But because I'm O positive and oh negative is the is the best. Oh negative is universal, but positive, I can give it to like four different people. And because my blood contains more factors of what that person lacks. And so that's why I keep you wrong. That's right, just in case you're like a bag of blood everywhere. That's right. So so but but but but so so I contain more factors of what people lack. Right, And that's what integrity is. It's the universal donor. So no matter what it is that you lack in your life, you may be in a situation where you lack strength, or you lack wisdom, or you lack instruction, or you lack accountability. That's what it was accountability of friends, right, because because because Daniel no longer had his friend sick Meeksheck and Mendigo with the lion in chapter six, that's what it was. It was a you lacked accountability, right, And yet what happens uprises personal integrity. So all that to say, that's a big long explanation to say that he delights with those with integrity. Integrity is a word that when you have integrity, it really is almost everything right. It's like it's you know, you want wisdom, you want discipline, you want faithfulness, you want all of these things. Well, integrity is one of those words that if you have integrity, it's sort of like wisdom rights, it's the wisdom of character. Right, and you need God's integrity, yes, right, you need you need the way that God would do a thing the right way, integrity meaning doing the right thing the right way. Yeah, consistently. I've got another fun story. I remember my good friend Chris Driscoll. He since then passed away, but he was my volunteer in my youth group at the time, and we were racing to go to AMC to race to a movie. It was both he and I were in the car and we were late, and we walked over and we had these little ATM things where you can just go boop and you hit it, then you select the movie and you do everything else. Well, back when they had those kiosks, when they first came out you could literally hit student discount or senior says it's a discount and nobody checked you and you would get. Like a five dollars discount or whatever. It was, right, And I remember we had joked about it, and I said, hey, let's go to the chios. I said, you can hit that student discount. We both laughed, but I wasn't really serious. But we ran over and we were such a rush. He went to one ATM and I did the other one and we both hit boop and then we said movie time boop. Select in a movie boop. And then then it came up and we both look each other and I go student discount boop and I hit it and he looks at me and goes integrity boop thing, and I go pastor Chris, Pastor Chris, and I go and I go cancel boop. Card boot mooe time boop. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like Slythering in that humiliation. Because I'm joking, crooked. Hearts right, I'm joking, like thinking it's so funny, like, oh, I get a discount, and he's. Like integrity and he shouts it out and I'm like, I cannot have We're good for him? Well, dude, it's it's literally twenty eight years later and I still remember it. It's like a moment of complete and utter failure. Good for him, you know, the one that jumps off for me. And I may have told this story. I don't know if I've told this story on the podcast this podcast or not. But I grew up My whole life was with these proverbs that it's so weird for me. How often circumstances in my life come up and there's a proverb for it. Oh, sure, this God's wisdom thing. So we were serving at a church in Texas and we went out. I took my family out to Big Ben National Park, which is giant desert. It's stunningly beautiful. I love the desert anyways. But we were camping up at about six thousand feet in the Chizos Mountains, and then we go down in the valley during the daytime do all kinds of fun things along the Rio Grande River or whatever. And there's a canyon called Bokias Canyon and it's stunningly beautiful, and there's a little village called Bokias on the Mexican side of the river, and Bokias was at that time kind of isolated. There weren't any good roads that came in and out on the Mexican side. So the citizens of Bokias would come across the river. This is back in old days, before nine to eleven, before all those things. They come across the river, go down the road and then cut back into Mexico in Santa Elena, that village and then be able to go do their business. So because of that, there was a kind of the National Park rangers would kind of wink at the fact that Americans and Mexicans go back and forth in that little village, and so really the only economy there was farming and like tourism stuff. So I actually had a couple of park rangers go, have you guys gone across both kiss He said, there's a you go down and you know, my boys were like two years old, go down to the river. Pay like a dollar per person. They'll row you across the river. And then there's a guy Pedro. He has some donkeys. You can pay for real guy, I promise you, And he has some donkeys. You can ride the donkeys into the village and then there's an amazing restaurant sells these incredible tacos and burritos. Sitting on a hill. You can look right into the end of this I want to go there. It was magnificent. The music's playing, the guys are playing guitars. I promise you sombreros the whole nine yards. It was unbelievable experience. So that's what we do. We go down. Well, my boys were like three and four, and they had water bottles because we're out in the desert. It's one hundred and ten degrees during the daytime, so we're carrying water with us, and my boy said water and they keep squeezing their water bottles, spraying at each other. So finally I said, listen, if you square the water is life. If you waste water, we can be in a lot of trouble physically, and so you're gonna be in trouble if you waste any more water. You understand, Okay, yes, sir, you know. So we go in, we have our tacos, buy some little trinkets in town. We come back and they row us across the river and we're getting ready to hike into this valley and this Mexican man steps out of the bush with a like a soup can and he asks for agua, and Jonathan pulls this He was like four. He pulls his can back and he goes, no, we don't waste water, and I said, no, come here, and I filled his thing with water. He thanked me. We go on in this hike. Well, I only had like twenty four ounces of water off for each of us, and our water's mostly gone. We hike into this canyon and I didn't realize it's substantially hotter in the canyon than it is outside. We get to the end of our hike and there's nothing there. You're just trying to walk back out. We're two three miles into the canyon and we're out of water. And I looked at my wife and my sons. Their faces were red. They were You ever see somebody wilting, You think they're in trouble, And I realized they were in a lot of trouble. We'd only pass one tree in the canyon, so I get them back into that shade and then I said I'll walk out. We had some jugs of water in our in our car, so I walk out. It was a couple more miles and I come around the corner and these big, tall blonde men and this tall blonde woman come on the corner. And this guy has an igloo cooler, one of those big orange and yellow coolers on his shoulder with five gallons of ice water. I can hear the icewater clank, like he's three miles in and he's carried you know, five gallons is forty pounds of ice water on his shoulder. And they're just walking along like nothing. And they see me. I look like I'm all ready to die. They come running back with their water to my kids. They soak us, They fill our water bottles with ice water, They soak their hats. They give them bandanas to put around their necks, and they refresh them. And one who carries forty pounds of water, you know, eight gallons of ice water into this place. Well, people, maybe that was their mission for the day. Yeah, yeah, they let's let's let's carry some ice water into the canyon. Find some dummies. Yeah, ye, dummies. They were like angels. Right, So we're walking out of the thing. Well, when I had given the water to that Mexican man, Jonathan said, Daddy, why'd you waste that water, and I said, well, Jonathan, the Bible says if we refresh people, God will refresh us, so you never have to worry about being generous to other people. God will take care of us. Well, then we get in trouble in this canyon just an hour later, two hours later, and I thought my family was going to die. I thought, oh, I've crossed the line. Honestly, it's one of the it's the only time in my life that I felt like I killed my family. And so I'm barely making it out. And God has these people, angelic beings in my mind, carrying this ice water, and they totally refresh. So my son's four years old. We get to the car and Jonathan goes, huh, Daddy, God did refresh us, didn't He got in the car. I remember thinking, oh, my gosh, cause I hadn't put the two and two together. So I just quoted this verse because I'm a Christian dad that quotes Bible verses to his kids. But my son, at four years old, picked up. God took care of us in that moment, right, and he gave us water. So I don't believe these verses are only figurative I believe them to be literal. Yes, right, and you can't outgive God. So he says, the generous will prosper, and those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. The verse before, give freely and become more wealthy, be stingy, and lose everything that doesn't make sense the way that we know the world works. Alls I can tell you is the older I get when and I've been reading these verses since I was eight years old. They didn't make sense to me. How do you give freely and get more wealthy? And all I can say now at fifty three is it's absolutely true, absolutely true. And then he says, you know, you refresh others and you'll be refreshed. It's absolutely true. These aren't just nice ideas and cute concepts. I believe these things to be absolutely true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, giving freely it's it's I think I you know, this will air a week from now, but we're wrapping up a series that's talking about generosity. And one of the statements that I made last week, which had been two weeks ago now, was that we are designed to give our lives away. Right, So God, so God, you know he actually made us that way. Relationally, financially, we're supposed to give, and so so I built the case and said that that if you live your life for yourself and you're the main, you know, priority, and you look out for yourself more than others and you die, it is a wasted life. Yeah. Right, because in every single way, relationally, financially, and everything else, we are designed to give our lives away. And only when we do that we actually discover life. We discover life. And that's that's a financial principle, but it's also a relational principle absolutely, So it's awesome. And I think the principle is God is a generous god, and you can't outgive God, that's right. So when he sees you acting like him, you choosing to be generous, God goes, oh, I'm gonna be generous to that one. Because God's looking for conduits to pour his blessing into the world around us. And when we hang on and that can't flow through us, but when we let go, it flows through us. We'll always have enough even while we're supplying and providing for others. So that's awesome, incredible, awesome. Well, hey, that is our time, and so thanks for being here this week with us and hopefully we'll see you on Monday on the Baba Gosh