Need Some Advice?: Proverbs 1:1-33

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. Uh, for some reason, I had this desire to do this. I don't know why. Well, thank you, but hey, welcome to the Bible guys. Hey. I was going to mention that roll in you're like half the man you used to be. And so are you watching that rollin? Yeah? Yeah we were, we were portly. Yeah, if really, if if you're watching, of course, a lot of people listen, more than more than half listen, yes, right, but if you're actually watching it on YouTube, then there's a video rollin that goes along with that audio rollin. And uh and yeah, but. Looking good, selt, so are you booking? Felt? Well? Actually, this sweatshirt that I have on today I just mentioned between the takes it's an extra large and I'm swimming swimming. Good for you, buddy, but. Are you well I'm not down to an extra large yet. Okay, but you know compared to the rolling. Well compare rolling, I'm out of the fours and out of the threes, right right. That's right. Yeah, So that's great. So hey, we're going to open up with a segment today and uh and by the way, that probably means we should do a different rolling sometime soon. Yeah yeah, yeah, well let's let's let's bottom out. Make sure we don't add it back, otherwise we just waste the time. Right, So here is this is a fun one. Yes, it is super excited about this segment. Holiday draft list with Thanksgiving being next week. As Ray says, let's do a holiday draft list. Go back and forth picking your favorite holidays. They can even be funny. Go into you each have four. It doesn't say so, but I think we should do rock paper scissors to see first. Rock paper scissors. Al right, free, shoot? Ready? One, two, three? Shoot? Oh I did rock he did scissors. Now, for those listeners that have been with us for a while, you know that zar Ball was on like a twenty rock paper scissors streak, Yeah, streak. But these last couple you've won, I know, yeah, you've won. Okay, so I think I started figuring out your pattern. I won twenty and you won like three three. I know, but I'm feeling good the last three, the most important three. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good about it. Okay, so I get to pick first, my first and hey, you remember remember National Chris Day? Yes, yeah, I was going to say that's my favorite, but it's not. Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day is a real day. Yeah? Is it really? It is? Yeah? Yeah, I just looked it up. It's the last day and Monday, the last I'm sorry, the last Monday in January there, and it's a day for anyone who loves the therapeutic act of popping bubble wrap bubbles. That's an actual day, I know. Do you love it? Yes? You love popping bubble wrap reubbles? Me too, man, it's the best part of Christmas. That's so funny. You get all those bubblep pop poppy. By the way, just in case the listeners are wondering, we decided to go funny with this segment instead of just drafting holidays, the actualavorite holiday, right right, we decided to I know, that. Might be my new favorite holiday to bounce with you. So we looked up in chat GPT. Yes some so I taped in the question give me a list of strangest national holidays. Okay, so here's the one I'm gonna pick for my first one World Naked Gardening Day. Oh, that's one of your favorite. Well, do you know why I chose it? Adam and Eve? Oh, I see right. Yes, so this is the first Saturday in May. It didn't turn out well for them. Just in case you were wondering, Well, this. Is people are encouraged to garden in the nude while respecting local laws. Apparently this is an actual thing. Okay, well be carefully, snippers. Good luck with that one. Let me just tell you good luck with that one. Here we go. So this is a real one. And and I've celebrated this one before. And in fact, we had a time in the office back when the office was smaller, we had fewer people in office. Yes, and we celebrated this day international talk like a pirate day. Have you ever celebrated a day I've never Yeah, September nineteenth every year. Wow is international talk like people around the world channel their innerpirate with ours and away eighties? Wow. Yeah, and Buried Treasurer and Jeremy Timmy Yes, absolutely wow. Okay. My second choice on my draft, Jeff is January sixteenth. This is a national holiday, and it is I think this actually is maybe my favorite holiday. Okay, ready, It's called National Nothing Day. Yeah, yeah, I have that on my list too. A day where no holidays, celebration or events are recognized, designed to be a day to do nothing, to do nothing, which is my absolutely favorite thing. To do nothing. Yes, nothing, it's collect I love I love doing nothing. So I don't know that you should say that to the person who had advocates for your paycheck. Advocates for your paycheck. I love you, I love doing I do nothing nothing. I lie doing nothing so much in the office. This is a great one. I didn't know this was a deal, but I think I'm going to take advantage of it. Yes, August eighth is National Sneak some Zucchini on your neighbor's porch Day. Are you kidding me? Yeah, it's a day for gardeners with an overabundance of zucchini to anonymously leave some for their neighbors. That can't be a day. I think it must be. I'm totally taking advantage of it. I'm going to do it. If that's an actual day, then we need more days, like we need more days to fill the ridiculous things that deserve. Okay, a day over that I have a better one next time. Okay, but that's a good one. Have you ever grown a garden with zucchini and it no, not with zucchini. If you grow zucchini, yes, you grew too many zucchinis. Is what happens. It just happens, and so you got to get rid of them somehow. It's great. Let's have a day and give them to people who don't have gardens. Okay, a good idea. I here's my third choice. Okay, is World UFO Day's second day to raise awareness of UFO sightings at extraterrestrial life. Wow. Do you remember a while back when the guys in the courtroom. When you got abducted, I thought, weren't talking about that anymore? Go ahead? It was it was it was Darren, you're going to make some jokes about the World Naked Gardening Day. I got aducted. Yeah, right, the UH Do you remember a while back when the guy, when one of the old UH government guys went on the what was it like six months ago? He went on the news and said that he, uh, the reports were real, that the sightings were right. There was no evidence, mind you. He just said made a declaration. He just made a declaration that they believed that UFOs were real, and remember, the world didn't care. Didn't even make the news hardly. Yeah. Yeah, And by the way, it's because number one, nobody believes media anymore. Nobody believes it. So it's like they weren't real just because those two guys said they were real. But if Jake Paul went out on TikTok and said I got abducted last night, half the world to believe it, right, right, that's what's ridiculous. That is ridiculous crazy. Okay, here we go this This may be my favorite one and I just found it on the list. The first Friday, the thirteenth of the year is blame someone Else's Day. Wow, it's a guilt free day to pass the blame mind to someone else. Is that amazing? I would love that? Yeah, the first So let's find out when it is. Walk around and just say your fault. Let's find out when the first Friday, the thirteenth of the year is next year. Ooh, I'll find it all right. Well, while you're looking that up, Jeff, let me go ahead and do the last one. It's June, June of twenty twenty five, the first Friday the thirteenth. Just so you know. It's the first Friday, the thirteenth in June. Blame someone else Day. By the way, if we forget to celebrate that, it's your fault. Okay, great, very good, Thank you. To tche Okay. My last pick is August eighth, apparently is International Cat Day, a day to celebrate our feline friends, including a variety of events dedicated to cats. Wow, I like it. Okay, you like that one. Well, you know I when I got married, I wanted dogs, my wife wanted cats. We compromised and get cats. But I like my cats. Yeah, I love them. Actually, I love my cats. Well that's nice. Yeah, it's super super sweet. So I do defend cats. Yes, yes, to those who don't like them. I actually prefer cats overdogs, even though we compromise and got dogs. So wow yeah, okay. April twenty fifth is National Hug a Plumber Day. Five It said four, did it? Well, here's the bonus bonus. It's the bonus material. It's an appreciation day for plumbers and all the work they do. But maybe skip the actual hug. Okay, well, the cheese that I'll choose. My last one. Cheese Lover's Day. January twentieth is a day dedicated entirely to appreciation of cheese. Well that's my day. Let me just tell you right now, Cheese Day. Okay, all right, thank you very much. We're at eight minutes, so we need to move on. So one of my favorite books in the Bible talking about a national day. We used to have holidays. Every day we would read the Book of Proverbs. So every day was a holiday of Proverbs reading. Wow? Wow? Was it was rough? Okay, so we're trying to find you know, silly segues into yes, the out of the game and into the thing the reading. So Solomon wrote most of the Book of Proverbs, as my fact that mentioned just a couple days ago. In reading that he wrote over three thousand proverbs. Many of them are included in the Book of Proverbs, and then you also picked them up in Ecclesiastes and in song. Soundon a little bit. But so Solomon or Solomon wrote Proverbs chapter one, and we're going to read are we reading the whole chapter? Some of them? Okay? Wow? Seven? Why man? The whole chapter is pretty great. Let's read the whole chapter. Let's do it. It's a long chapter. What Okay, These are the proverbs of Solomon, David's son, King of Israel. Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined in successful lives, to help them do what is right, just and fair. These proverbs will give insight to the simple knowledge and discernment to the young. Let the wise men listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and the riddles. Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and discipline. I'm really glad that we decided to read the rest. My child, listen, when your father corrects you, don't neglect your mother's instruction. What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honor around your neck. My child, if sinners entice you turn your back on them, they may say, come and join us. Let's hide and kill someone just for fun. Let's ambush the innocent. Let's swallow them alive like the grave. Let's swallow them whole, like those who go down into the pit of death. Think of the great things we'll get. We'll fill our houses with all the stuff we take, and we'll throw our lot in with us. Come throw your lot in with us, and we'll share all the loot. My child, don't go along with them. Stay far away from their paths. They rush to commit evil deeds. They hurry to commit murder. If a bird sees the trap being set, it knows to stay away. But these people set an ambush from them for themselves. They're trying to get themselves killed. Such as the fate of all who are greedy for money. It robs them of life. That's Solomon trying to talk his son into joining the gangs. Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square. She calls to the crowds along the main street, to those gathered in front of the city gate, how long you simpletons will you insist on being simple minded? How long will you, you mockers, relish your mocking? How long will you fools hate knowledge? Come and listen to my counsel. I'll share my heart with you and make you wise. I called you so often but you wouldn't come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention. You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered. So I'll laugh when you're in trouble. I will mock when you disaster overtakes you, when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster engulfs you like a cyclone, and anguish and distress overwhelm you. When they cry for help, I will not answer. Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me, for they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the Lord. They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them. Therefore they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes. For simpletons turn away from me to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency. But all who listen to me will live in peace, untrouble by fear of harm. Well that's a strong way of saying what you deserve, right, yeah, you it's coming to you. Well, it's a strong way of saying there's a point when there's no coming back. The fact that you've thrown off all the wise counsels. You've ever been given right. You're free to make your choices, just not free to choose the consequences, right, right, Because this isn't God saying these words, this is wisdom right. Verse twenty says wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square. Wisdom is available to all of us, but we don't all avail take avail of it. And so then there's times then when we reject wisdom, we do the foolish thing. Then when we're in the middle of the consequences the foolish thing we're doing, we start crying out, Oh, please help me, please help me. At that point, wisdoms is too late. Wisdm can't do anything. Wisdom is always usually preventative. It's before the decision, right, it's not after. But when you do the wrong thing and then go, oh, wish that turned out better. I should have done this. Yeah, yeah, you know what I should have done Monday morning quarterback and that kind of a thing. Yep, right. And I love how he refers wisdom to as a she yeh, she calls out into the streets. And Solomon does that, and I love it because he creates almost like a character of wisdom. Yes, right, and refers to wisdom as something to be obtained and something to be followed and listened to. He makes He makes wisdom to be a treasure, right, more more precious than rubies and gold, he says about wisdom. He makes wisdom to be a woman to be desired and listen to. And but I love it so much. And you know what. He starts off by saying, my child, listen to your when your father corrects you, don't neglect your mother's instruction. And when you when you learn from them, they will crown you with grace, be a chain of honor around your neck. I love how as a parent you're like, that's right, yeah, listen to me. But think about when you were a child too, all the wisdom that you just don't understand yet, right, isn't that cool? And And that's really Solomon's posture always because God has given him the gift to be the wisest person who has ever or will ever live, which means everybody he talks to or like children, compared to him. He understands his wisdom fully, right, But nobody understands the wisdom like he understands the wisdom. And that is so interesting, isn't it, Because as parents or those who have experience, right, those who I mean, listen, this whole chapter is about somebody who has given wisdom and uh and says, I'm telling you what it's going to happen, and then when it does happen to you, I'm going to tell you, I'm not gonna I'm not going to be there for you because I told you, because I know what's going to happen. I understand what's going to happen. And from the position of understanding, when you give wisdom to somebody who doesn't understand it is just like what he says here after the introduction of wisdom. He says, this is going to help you. This is going to help you. That's going to help you. He postures you like a child hearing wisdom from a father and mother. But honestly, that's everybody, no matter how old you are. If you don't fully understand the wisdom that's given to you, then we need to maybe pause and consider the fact that wisdom goes beyond our understanding or appreciation. Yeah, well almost always always, yeah, you know this is this The premise of this show is very much what I grew up on in the Book of Proverbs, where we read Book of Proverbs every night. Yep. So there's thirty one chapters in the Book of Proverbs. Holiday every day, Yeah, every day, every day. And so my mom and dad decided early on that they wanted us to spend time in the Word every day. In the Book of Proverbs, Saloma says, wisdom is the most important thing, So get it, get all that you can, you know, do whatever it takes. And so my dad thought, you know what, I want to pass on God's wisdom as much as possible. So in the morning, he would whatever his devotional was that day, whatever he read, he would write it down a piece of paper, leave a little note and ask us one or two questions that he left with from you know, having read in the Bible. So we'd read that at breakfast. But then in the evening before we go to bed, we would read whatever the date was, we'd read that proverb. And so then we would just go through in all of us. So me and my dad and my brother and my mom, sitting in a living room, we would read through and then each of us would pick something that jumps off the page. To us, which is essentially what you and I are doing now in every single episode where a five hundred and some odd episodes, what one is this? I don't know, five hundred and sixty nine of the Bible, guys, and then we had one hundred and seventy something of HD Daily, right, And that's all this is. It really is. We're taking that principle that I grew up on reading the Book of Proverbs looking for something and saying what on this page is speaking to me and what I think it means. And so when you have a good study Bible, that gives you more to dig into and maybe you get a different insight. But the thing on this page that jumps off to me is Solomon says, the purpose of these proverbs as he's writing to his son right, is to teach people to live dissipate and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just and fair. And these proverbs will give insight to the simple knowledge and discernment to the young, and so let the wise listen and become wiser. But then on the other end, he says, but fools despise wisdom and discipline, right, and so what you see is this contrast all through the Book of Proverbs of him saying, hey, if you're wise, pay attention to this. If you're fool, you're going to despise it. And he draws a contrast between wise people. He always refers to godly people as wise people and ungodly people choose to be fools. And it's because, and almost always it's connected to the fact that they've despised God's teaching. They despise the wisdom and the discipline that comes with knowing more. And so you know that's my desire, man, I want to be successful. There aren't very very many times in the Bible that God says, do this and you'll be successful. Right, He tells Joshua, if you keep walking in my ways and you pay attention to my laws and you honor me, then I'll make you successful. And then a couple of times with Solomon, Solomon says, the whole purpose behind my proverbs is to help you be successful. And the way that you're going to know that you're successful is that you're going to live a disciplined life. That discipline will lead to success, and the success is going to be measured by the fact that you do what is right? What is just? What is fair? Yeah? Right, that's honest. The kind of person I want to be right And so, hey, what better thing could you do but spend a little bit of time every day reading through, you know, some of the best thoughts of the wisest person that's ever lived. Yeah, And so, a couple of podcasts ago, it might have been the last podcast I mentioned that I had met with somebody at a restaurant and they were going through some hard times. And my first question for this person was, who are you surrounding yourself with? What kind of wisdom are you, you know, hearing from people around you. I even talked to you know, his wife on the phone as well, and uh sort of asked for the same thing. Who do you have in your life that's you know, giving you advice? And do you have Christian influences? You know, meaning you know, there's people who give advice that seems like a worldly advice, but it's very different if the advice is based and rooted in the Word of God. That's right, because because you know, you know, in this case, it's a marriage, right, so there's there's a marriage counseling I did, and uh, you know, some advice could be, well, you just want to make sure that you're happy, yeah, you know, and and by the way, that's that is advice, you know, I mean, that's you know, there's nothing wrong with wanting to be happy, right, but uh, you know, to decide your course of action based on that is not good advice. Well, God says that the only way to truly be happy is to go his way, right, right, right. But what they're saying is do it makes you feel good, don't. They don't mean really find real happiness. What they mean is do it feels good to you. What feels good to you, Often it's going to take you in the wrong path, right yeah, and so yeah, that's dangerous. Yeah and so yeah, and so my question for this person was, I said, do you have to the wife? I said, do you have godly wisdom? And and you know, she said, well, no, my counselor isn't a Christian counselor. You know that doesn't not a person of faith. But there are other people in my life who do speak into it, who are people of faith. I was like, well, lean into them. Yeah, you know, get your wisdom from godly people. Right. I had a guy here recently that I had an opportunity to talk with and he was asking me several questions, and just naturally, I would say, well, you know the Bible says this, or Jesus taught us this, or you know God told us this in the word. He goes, man, I'm asking for your opinion. What do you think? And I said, what do you mean? He said, what do you believe? I said what I've told you. I believe what God says. I believe what Jesus said. I believe that. And I said, I'm not saying that that I'm God. I'm not saying that or that I'm as good as God. I am saying that I'm absolutely convinced that God's ways are better than my ways. And so when you're asking me hard questions of what should I do, I don't know that I can give you a better answer than what God says. He'll bless right, So just do that. Just do that. And he looked at me like confused for a minute, and he goes, so, you like, you actually believe those words? I said. He goes why, I said, because they're true in my life, and he went okay, okay, I said, I've spent my life in this book, and I've lived my life as best I'm not a perfect person, but as best as I can. I try to live these words Solomon says, run away from these temptations, get away from these kinds of situations. So I've tried to not that I think every single thing is a sin, but I try to stay away from a lot of those things as much as possible, because I want to be as wise as I don't want to be a simpleton. When he talks about a simpleton here, he's not talking about somebody the mental efficiency. He's talking about people with character deficiencies. Always, whenever he talks about that, I don't want to be that person. I want to live my life that says God, I want to be as wise as possible. I don't always understand why you say those things, but I'm going to do it your way. And all I can tell you is my life has been blessed beyond my own comprehension. I can tell you this. You know my story well. I often when I drive home, my mom will make fun of me, saying, I don't know how you've gotten where you're at. You can't get there from here, right And it's true. What God has done. My life is beyond comprehension. Is because my parents poured wisdom into me and then I just became convinced of the importance of living God's words. And so it's not a perfect life, but I can't think of a better life. And so, man, when your friends are asking you questions, it's why you need to know God's word. Unless you are the wisest person in the world, maybe your opinions aren't as significant as I don't know the wisest guy whoever lived. Let's go and know what he says. I mean, God gave it to us. Why don't we know it. It's because we don't read it. And it's not hard, dude. We just read these past so it's not hard. It's not hard to understand. It's just our character sometimes is not at the level that we need in order to be able to lean into what God has to say. And so we're just going by the seat of our pants. And so much of your Facebook friend's opinions are just by the seat of their pants and all that kind of stuff. Man, I would rather go by the seat of Solomon's pants than my own. Right, he forgot more wise stuff than I've ever learned, and so let's let's learn it. Yeah, that's great. All right. Well, hey listen, that's about our time, so hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on the Bible, guys,