Proverbs 15 - God Knows What's Real

Hello and welcome back to Strength for the Day.

And looking forward to this morning, Pastor and Ms. Hannah are going to be back on tomorrow and going to be going over just the importance of our words, the importance of the tongue, and really looking forward to hearing from them.

Some of the rest of us on staff today are going to be doing some recording for VBS. And our Vacation Bible School that we have every year is coming up just right at the end of July. And so we've been working on that.

And it's going to be like a Knights and Kingdom theme this year. And so we are super excited for all of that. You should see some of the costumes and stuff that have been made.

And we've just had tons of help from our church family already this year. And so really, really excited and looking forward to VBS this year. And we're doing some recording for that today.

If you've been to one of our Vacation Bible Schools before, you know that we always have a ton of fun with it.

And that there's fun videos and Robert's really good at interlaying different movie scenes and stuff with what we do so that even for a moment, it might look like we're in a cooler situation than we actually are.

If you were with us last year when we had our Cowboys theme, you might remember there was a snake or a spider or something that was attacking me. And I would not actually film with a snake or a spider. I'd freak out.

But through the magic of Rob's videography skills, we were able to interplay some of that. So looking forward to this year. And so that's why we're starting just a little bit early today.

We're going to be going out filming. And so hope and pray that that would be an encouragement and just fun for the kids and that it would really show them really the lessons that we're trying to teach all that week of Vacation Bible School.

Today, we're going to be in Proverbs 15. And Pastor and Ms. Hannah will be there tomorrow.

And they'll be going over kind of some of the aspects of our tongue and our speech and how we interact with people in that way. But today, we're going to be going over what I've entitled, God Knows What's Real.

And these couple of verses from Proverbs 15 all kind of focus on this central fact that God isn't confused by the charades that we put on.

Jesus would call it in the New Testament being hypocrites, which nowadays kind of has an incredibly negative connotation in the sense of someone that's trying to deceive someone else into thinking that they're something that they're not.

But back in Bible times, a hypocrite was just an actor. And this was someone that they would play someone in a play. It wasn't so much a malicious term as it was, hey, you're not being real with who you are.

And so, I hope through some of these verses today, we would be encouraged, hey, we don't have to play a part with God. God knows exactly who we are, what we think, what we do, and so we can be real and honest before him.

It starts off in verse number three of Proverbs 15. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. This verse is so convicting, so challenging, but also encouraging.

God sees every evil thing that we do, and yet he's the one that has forgiven us of every sin. God sees every good action, every good thought that we ever have. And so there's no circumstance in which God will not reward you for doing good.

I think of the verse in Galatians 6, that in due season we will reap if we faint not. That we have that promise from God that, hey, maybe all of the blessings don't come all in one giant flood exactly when you do good.

But we know that God has promised that there is benefit, that there is a reward, that He sees it and He knows about it. You will never do good that God doesn't see.

On the challenging side is, hey, God knows every evil thing that we've done, everything we've thought, everything we've seen, everything we've said, but He still loves us.

And so because of that, we should have so much gratitude towards the Lord going, okay, God, you know who I really am when no one else is around. You know who I am with my family, with my spouse, and yet you still love me and you've forgiven me.

Help me to live for you, knowing that, hey, if you know me for who I am and you still love me and you've forgiven me, man, that motivates me that I can walk in your righteousness today.

Verses five and six, a fool despises his father's instruction, but he that regards her proof is prudent. In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble.

Here you kind of have some of the similar thought that's happening. It says a fool despises his father's instruction. But he that regardeth her proof is prudent.

That if you reject instruction, if you reject wisdom in your life, you're really being foolish. The maybe more common word we'd use today would be stupid.

We should be willing to, even though it hurts, receive instruction, receive reproof or rebuke from people. People don't reprove or rebuke us. They don't tell us where we've gone wrong in order to just tear us down.

Oftentimes, especially when it's a parent or a boss, they're telling us it's so that we can improve in areas.

And so when we have a heart that says, I'm just going to ignore what anyone tells me, everything I think, say and do, every aspect of my work ethic is correct and right, that's not going by reality.

And so this is one way in which we can reflect reality and go, okay, I know what's real. And what's real is I'm a human, I'm flawed, and I need to grow in some different areas. And so that's one way that we can do that.

In the House of the Righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble.

This is kind of talked about all throughout, all throughout the Book of Proverbs in particular, but the people that get riches dishonestly, they get it by stealing, they get it by shady business practices.

We looked at a couple of days ago false balances, or they kind of lean the scales in their own favor, make other people pay a little bit more than they should.

There's always this trouble, this fear of are people going to find out that I'm not real in the way I do business.

And so in the House of the Righteous, there's much treasure because they steward their money well, they have a hard work ethic, all of those things are working in their favor.

But if you get your wealth dishonestly, if you have what you have because you cheated other people, man, there is the knowledge that God sees, as we saw in verse number three, he sees everything, every evil deed.

And man, may we, like Zacchaeus, if we're ever in a situation where like, man, I didn't do honest work for this, or I got this kind of backhandedly, may we be like Zacchaeus and say, okay, I'm gonna repay, I'm going to make right the wrong that I've

done. In verse number eight, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination of the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.

Here you have kind of these two parallel thoughts, the one about the sacrifice of the wicked being in the abomination to the Lord, and then the second being the way of the wicked is an abomination.

So his sacrifice, and many of us would know from the Old Testament that sacrifices were something that people would come, they would bring things that were valuable to them, and they would sacrifice it to the Lord, saying, God, you are worthy of

this, that even though this item was mine, that even though it's precious and valuable to me, that I'm going to give it to you. But God sees this for what it really is. You see here, it says the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.

So this is a person that's not even simple in the sense of maybe they don't know everything about doing right or wrong yet. This isn't a righteous person who knows, okay, a righteous man falleth seven times and gets back up again.

This isn't that kind of a person. The Bible specifically says that he is wicked and that he's one that is not following after God. Instead, he's following his own way.

And so here, God sees through the charade of we can all be religious. And I'm sure all of us have been there at times where we're just going through the motions of, okay, I guess I'll go to church. I guess I'll give some money.

I guess I'll do this or that. But God knows what our heart is in it. And you don't get, you know, brownie points with God for faking devotion and love for Him.

Instead, be real. Be the person that would say, God, I know that I've messed up. I know that I haven't done right.

I know I didn't do this thing your way. And God, I need you to, like David, we could say, created me a clean heart. And when we genuinely come after God, and when we say, God, I want to genuinely follow you, man, that sacrifice is sweet to the Lord.

It's that obedience. It's that great thing to God.

But if we're just doing it to impress other people, if we're doing it in fully intending to not follow God, man, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, because it's not real, and God knows what's real.

Down here, just a couple of verses. Hell and destruction are before the Lord. How much more than the hearts of the children of men?

Man, it says here, God understands what's happening in the end, with hell and with destruction. He knows what's coming way off in the future.

And the admonition from Solomon here is, how much more does he know our hearts and our minds right here and now? If he knows what's way in the future, he knows what's happening right now.

And kind of parallel with verse 3, man, that should encourage us and challenge us. If we're doing right, if we're trying to live for the Lord, if we're following after him, God sees it and God knows it.

But if we're just kind of going our own way and not following the Lord, God knows that too. Here in this next verse, a merry heart make it the cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken.

A merry heart make it the cheerful countenance, that happiness on the inside is going to come out on the outside. And man, I understand there's many people that if they're not actively smiling, they can have just a very...

great, I can only remember from this one movie, Melancholy, a melancholy face of it's just angry and kind of sad. But if we have joy on the inside, it will come out on the outside.

And we should seek to do that, that it helps other people as well, and it can help encourage them. So intend to have joy in our own hearts that will come out on the outside.

Verse number 15, all the days of the afflicted are evil, but he that is of a merry heart have a continual feast. Kind of with the same thought of, there are people who think, man, everything is just poor me, everything is bad.

Here you have this verse, all the days of the afflicted are evil, that on their best day, all their days are evil. On their worst day, all their days are evil. But it says, he that is of a merry heart have a continual feast.

That, man, when you choose to have joy in your life, when you choose to say, I'm gonna focus on what's good, I'm gonna focus on what God's done for me, I'm gonna focus on the salvation that I have in Christ, man, that gives you such a joy.

And it says you have a continual feast. It's just like a giant party of joy that's going on in your heart and in your mind. And man, what a better outlook on life that would be for us.

How much more joy would that bring us than going, man, everything is terrible. Nothing's going the way I want. Instead, let's choose to have joy in our hearts and our minds.

This next verse, better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.

It is good to have, you know, maybe very little monetary possessions in our life, but serve, follow and obey God than to have all the riches in the world and to be troubled to know, okay, man, I didn't get this stuff, honestly.

And if you can choose between being poor and having integrity and being rich and not having integrity, man, how much better would it be to obey and to follow the Lord? Because as we saw just a couple of verses ago, man, there's security in that.

You don't have security when you've done stuff dishonestly or without integrity. Here in this next verse, better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

Meat, especially during this time, was incredibly valuable and really hard to get. People would not have, maybe here in the US, we have meat often. We might have it once, twice, depending on the person, maybe three times a day.

That just wasn't the case back here. And so it's as better as a dinner of herbs or we might say something like vegetables, fruits, produce. Better is a dinner of produce than where love is than a stalled ox and hatred they're with.

It doesn't matter how much money you have or how rich you are. If you have hatred in your house, follow, pursue love. I think we have that entire chapter of 1st Corinthians 13 devoted to love.

It says, love suffers long and is kind, is patient, all of these things that love has. And we should want and desire that as opposed to great riches. And what you spend time on is what you cultivate.

So are you spending more time devoted to thinking about investing in your job or devoted in loving thinking about your family? And I'm not saying that, okay, man, I should just quit my job and just focus on my family.

No, we ought to provide for our families, but it is incredibly important to pay attention to, to love and to devote time to our families and cultivate love instead of money. And that should really be our focus.

Here this last verse we're gonna go over, I believe verse 18, a wrathful man stirth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.

It can be so easy in our lives to be the one that kind of flies off the handle, that gets angry at the different things that take place in our life.

And that's kind of what this verse is talking about, that it is natural, it's normal for us to fly off the handle, to be angry at others and to want to stir up a fight, but man, how much better is it that we would be slow to anger, that we'd be some

of the fruit of the spirit, that we'd be long-suffering, that we'd be patient, that we wouldn't have a short fuse. And it says that that kind of a person appeases strife, that they try and get contentions to stop, they try to get fighting to cease.

And in your life, are you more likely that a person that's going to start a fight, or the person that's going to stop a fight? And man, we should all seek to be that person that's going to cause there to be peace.

Think of Matthew 5, blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

That we are much like our savior who appeased the righteous wrath of God through his own sacrifice, that he caused the fighting and the dissensions between the Jews and the Samaritans, and the Jews and the Gentiles to stop, and he made them one body

in Christ. And man, when we seek to bring peace to situations in our life, we are being like Christ. And man, what a good thing that would be. I hope that this morning would be an encouragement to you, just this thought of God knows what's real.

He knows when we're being fake. He knows when we're playing a part and when we're genuinely following him. And just the importance of that and realizing that if we're doing wrong, that we need to turn back to God because God sees it all.

And if we're doing right to continue, even if we don't necessarily see all the blessings that we thought we would right away, knowing that God is faithful and he will reward us. And he is not unjust and he will do what he promised.

I hope this would be an encouragement to you. Look forward to being with you tomorrow. Pastor and Ms.

Hannah are gonna go over some of the verses from chapter 15, specifically dealing with the tongue in our words. And I know that it will be a great encouragement to you. And so see you tomorrow on strength for the day.