Proverbs 11 - The Real Deal

Well, welcome back to Strength of the Day.

And I am Bryon Self, filling in for Pastor Dennis for this morning, and going to be going over the first couple of verses of Proverbs 11. And great to see Terry on here and several others that will be joining us.

It is a kind of rainy day a little bit. I'm not sure how long the rain is going to stay around here in Moses Lake. Definitely a different look outside than it was yesterday.

Very, very sunny. But this morning, it is a little bit chilly, a little bit of sprinkling going on, on vehicles and stuff. And my lawn in the backyard looks very, very green this morning.

So thankful for the rain in that respect. Good to see Michael, Dolores, Molly, and Fountain Senior. Good to see all of you.

And Pastor this morning is doing some discipleship with one of the men of the church. And so he asked me to step in for this morning. So we'll start right off and we will see who else jumps on.

But we are in Proverbs 11 and love this passage. And titled Today's Live, The Real Deal.

Because really here in verses 1 through 11 of this chapter, it covers some different aspects of things, but with one kind of central thought of in every area of our life, we need to be real. We need to be genuine.

A word that we'll see a couple of times in here is the word upright. Maybe a word that you might hear a little bit more today would be the word upstanding.

And in these verses, we're gonna look at how God says we can be the real deal, that we can be genuine, that we can be upstanding with those that we interact with and some of the effects of that and how far those effects go.

So let's dive right into the passage. Verse number one says, a false balance is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. There you have a false balance.

Right off with the chapter, it kind of starts us off with talking about genuine, real, honest practices. A balance was normally how they determined the price of specific items, especially at market.

So you would have something and maybe you would say, okay, I'm buying a pound of flour. I'm buying this much corn. I'm buying this much meat.

And so they would then weigh those things and however much it weighed would tell you the cost of that item.

So what you would have is dishonest merchants would make it a little bit heavier so that then when people went and they were trying to purchase whatever item, they would be charged more than the item was actually worth.

So they would be paying for maybe a pound and a quarter of flour instead of just a pound of flour. And God is saying right here that a false balance, dishonest business practices are abominable to the Lord. This is something that makes God sick.

It's something that is wrong and he is against it. He says, but a just weight is his delight. A weight that's intentionally balanced, that's not trying to take advantage of people with your business.

But that's what he says here. It says, when pride cometh, then cometh shame, but with the lowliest wisdom. The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.

So the integrity of the upright is what we've been talking about that it's something that says, okay, I know what's right to do in this situation.

And so I'm going to continue in this direction, even if I might not make as much money, even though I might not get ahead as much in life as if I tried to cut some corners.

But he says, the opposite of this is that those that transgress, that are wicked, that are crossing the line, that their perversity will destroy them, that maybe in their business, maybe in their relationships, in many different areas, we could see

that cutting corners in life, being dishonest with people, not being genuine can have huge impact. He says here, continuing that thought in verse four, riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

So he says here, it doesn't matter how much money you accumulate, it's not going to save you when trouble comes. He says, but if you're righteous, if you're honest, it will deliver you from these kinds of punishments.

Verse five, the righteousness of the perfect or the just shall direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. The same exact thought as verse number three.

He says, the righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, but transgressors shall be taken in their naughtiness.

And there you have kind of that same thought again of the evil that people do when they are not honest, when they're not upright, when they're not genuine with people. It is a snare, it's a trap to those people.

It says, when a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of unjust men perisheth.

For these, it says, hey, what people want when they're doing all of these things, whether it's more money, whether they want more fame or a claim by presenting themselves to be someone that they're not, all of these things, their expectation is going

to perish. They're not going to have the life, the future, the acclaim, the money that they're hoping for. It's all going to come to nothing.

As opposed to this in verse number eight, the righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead. Verse number nine, a hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor, but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.

And obviously we would know a hypocrite is a person that would maybe say one thing or present one thing, but does or lives something exactly opposite to that. We get it from the Greek word that would be used of actors.

That a person that's just acting like they like a person, like they love a person, like they enjoy a person, a hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.

So in your interactions with other people, be genuine with them. Now, that's not to say if there's a person you dislike, that you just tell them to their face, I hate you, you're a terrible person, you're no good, you're this and that.

That's not what I'm advocating. What I am advocating is let us be genuine with people.

Let's keep in mind that we are supposed to have the fruit of the spirit, that we are supposed to be loving and patient and have temperance and self control with our interactions with other people.

But a hypocrite is one that would say, okay man, I'm going to present myself as something to this person, but I'm going to bad mouth him, I'm going to destroy him. Let's not do that to people in our lives.

It can be easy to put on maybe a good front in front of someone and then talk about them behind their back. But as Christians, we're called to something so much better, which is a genuine love for other people.

Verse number 10, it says, when it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth. And when the wicked perish, there is shouting. By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.

In verses 10 and 11, it kind of gives a big summary of this topic that it's been going through this whole time.

So in verses one through nine, it's talking about a lot of maybe specific things that people would do when they're being dishonest, when they're not being real. So they're not real in their business dealings.

They're not real in their interactions with other people, even their neighbors, their friends. They're not being genuine in any of that. And they're trying to get through and they're not looking at the consequences of the actions that they're doing.

And so when consequences do come, it says that they're destroyed. They are ruined. But the righteous, those that are honest in their dealings, they get through it just fine, that the Lord delivers them.

So then in verses 10 and 11, when it talks about when it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices when the wicked parish there is shouting, there is excitement.

It talks about the effect that our lives and that our genuineness have on the people around us. Obviously cities back then were a lot smaller than they are today.

So you could even say maybe a neighborhood, maybe a community is rejoicing when it goes well with the righteous, with those that are honest in their dealings.

And it says when the wicked parishes, that there is shouting, that people are happy when those that are dishonest are put to ruin, when they're seen for who they are and how they've taken advantage of other people.

There is rejoicing that, man, that's gone. So the application then comes to us, what kind of person are we going to be in our dealings with people today?

In our community, would people be excited that we got a new job and we're maybe moving out of the area? Is that the testimony that we have with people of, man, that person was dishonest in how much work they put in for the pay that they were getting.

That person always charged me extra that they really didn't earn. This person was always talking about everyone behind their backs. Is that the testimony that we're going to have?

Or is it going to be, hey, I know that Alvie, I know that Fountain Senior were always honest with me. They were loving with me. They weren't one thing in front of a certain group of people and another way in front of other people.

Instead, they were just genuine. They were the real deal. These verses from Proverbs encourage us that we should be just that, that we shouldn't be too faced.

We shouldn't be those that are just putting on an act. We aren't just putting on a play of what we want people to think is real. Instead, we're genuine and we are honest with people.

It's a great thing to be truthful. We know that God's word is truth. We know that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

And when we're honest with people, when we're truthful, when we're truthful in all of our dealings, in our relationships, in our business, we are like our Savior in that way, that we are being genuine in the real deal.

Hope that would be an encouragement for you. Look forward to having Pastor back tomorrow. I believe continuing in chapter 11 of Proverbs.

For tonight, we've got a great night planned at MOBC. If you're here in Moses Lake, definitely try and be here. We've got some different things planned with some missionary videos and being able to talk with and pray for missionaries.

And we do that because we want to obey the Lord's great commission, that we would go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And we can't do that on our own. I can't be in America and Africa and Asia and Europe.

I can't be in all of these places at once.

But through supporting missionaries that go to all these different areas of the world, we can do what we're supposed to here and witness to those that we know here and then send others to preach the gospel in other areas.

Thanks so much for tuning in and I look forward to seeing you tonight.