Proverbs 17 - God Allows It

Well, good morning, and welcome to Strength for the Day on this Wednesday, is today Wednesday?

I think it is.

It is Wednesday, isn't it? That's horrible. I should know what day it is, but it's been a busy week for me, and I know it's been busy for you.

It has.

No, Bryon, pray for Bryon.

He went home yesterday with a headache, and really super bad, almost a migraine yesterday. But you're feeling better today?

Much better.

Feeling better?

No headache.

Your wife didn't slap you in the head?

She stopped hitting me in the head, so that stopped a lot of the...

Sassy Sam, that's her nickname every now and then. We didn't give it to her. Her husband gave it to her.

Oh, by we, I mean everybody besides you.

That's fair.

Sorry, I'm going to take some drink of coffee. What are you drinking? Where's your...

I don't have anything.

You have...

All out.

You do like the Red Bull thing, right?

Yeah, just kind of whatever I have access to at the moment.

Not a lot of coffee, though.

Not as much.

It's not because I don't like it.

Just don't make it or what?

Yeah.

Really?

Yeah.

I'm sorry. Well, anyway, good morning to everybody getting on. Hello, Jim.

Hi, Andra. Hello, Michael. Let's see.

Hello, Vicki and others. If you're watching, jump in the comments. Let us know you're watching.

And we are going to be in Proverbs 17 today. And what a great chapter Proverbs 17 is. Actually, when I was a kid, I'm going to...

I'm kind of jumping ahead, but tomorrow we're going to look at a verse Proverbs 17, 17. We're not going to get to it today. I wanted to, but we're not going to.

Proverbs 17, 17, it says, a friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. When I was a kid, I would sign that in people's Bibles. Like, you know, your friends would be like, hey, send my Bible.

So I would always sign Dennis Fountain Proverbs 17, 17. Cause, you know, I'm a friend. I love it all times.

But I always thought that a brother loves it all times, but a brother is born for, or excuse me, a friend loves it all times. But a brother is born for adversity.

I always thought it was the fact like a friend is close, but a brother is always going to fight you. And you know, it's not quite the interpretation of it, but I was wrong.

Anyway, tomorrow to find out the real interpretation.

Yeah, if I know it, we'll see. Anyway, let's go to Proverbs 17 this morning and give you just a second to get there. Of course, beautiful day here in Moses Lake.

It'll be a warm day. It's supposed to be, actually today, I think we're supposed to hit the 90s, maybe upper 80s. But then I've read after today, we will have consistently 90s and 100s until probably September.

So I know Hannah is loving the warm weather. She is a person who loves the heat. And I don't get it, but that's all right.

So anyway, we have got a lot planned tomorrow night at church. Can have a good time. Of course, we'll have all of our kids groups and teen groups and adults together.

And I know there'll be a blessing. And then Sunday, continuing in First Corinthians. I've enjoyed the series.

I don't know if everyone's enjoyed listening to it as much as I've enjoyed preaching it. But it's been have you enjoyed it?

I have. Yeah, it's been good.

And everything's been been an encouragement with that. So well, God gave you a minute. So we're in Proverbs 17 this morning.

What we're going to do today is really we're going to just kind of go through some verses, probably about the first about maybe 10 or 15 verses. And I just try to bring out very simple little truths.

But I'm going to skip verse number three because we're actually going to come back to that and spend a few minutes there with something that I think will be an encouragement today.

All right.

So here's how it's going to work. I'm going to do verse one. Give you a quick thought.

Bryon will do verse two. Give you a quick thought. Then I'll do verse four and vice versa.

We're just going to go and kind of play off each other a little bit and talk with each other about these verses. So Proverbs 17, it says, better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of sacrifices with strife.

The idea, and really we won't dig into it because we're going to address it later on in another chapter. But the idea is it's better to not have a lot and to have peace than to be rich and have a lot of fighting.

It's better to, you know, the dry morsel is, you know, just like crumbs, like dry bread. It's better to have that and quietness or with or peace or rest. It's better to have that than a house full of sacrifices.

That would be a rich house that's filled with strife. What about verse two?

A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren.

And here you have Solomon kind of stating to his son, hey, just because you are the king's son, just because you have, you know, a lot of this position doesn't make you better than other people.

And he says, even the people that are just serving you in your house, even your employees, if you will, a wise servant is going to have rule over a son that causes shame. Kind of a thing of it doesn't matter.

Solomon's saying here, it doesn't matter where you come from necessarily, or what your caste or whatever in society is, what matters is what you do with what you've been given.

Are you going to be wise like the servant, or are you going to cause shame like the son?

Yeah, it's a great verse. Verse number four, a wicked doer giveth heed to false lips, and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. I'm gonna read that one again.

A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips, and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. Really, when you look at this verse, it's just, I think it kind of has this undertone of people who think alike are going to be together.

So if you have someone who's lying and someone who's mischievous and someone who's naughty, you know, the old adage, birds of a feather flock together, people who are alike, they're gonna find each other.

And so with the thought of wicked doer giveth heed to false lips, someone who has bad intentions, evil intentions, they're going to give heed to lying, and they too are going to have a tendency of lying.

And there's just gonna be that poor character there. And a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. It's just, again, it's just kind of the opposite of that, saying the liar is going to find the person who's up to no good.

And just kind of birds of a feather flock together is what comes to my mind with that. Verse number five.

Whoso mocketh the poor, reproacheth his maker, and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. Man, with this one, I think it can be easy sometimes to forget how so many of us have gotten where we are.

That it's only because of God's blessings and God's provisions of strength and work ethic and stuff that he's given that people amount to anything in the sense of getting financial wealth. And here, Proverbs talks a lot about this, about the poor.

But when we mock the poor or when we, you know, would slight others, I think of other places where people would even take advantage of the poor. Man, that goes against God. It says it reproaches our maker.

The word there is kind of pull off. It's exposing, defaming. That's what we do when we mock the poor.

And so it can be something that is relatively easy to do with our words. But man, we need to watch that because it's not good. And then the last part of it, he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.

Don't rejoice when other people are going through hard times. Don't rejoice when bad things happen to other people. I think of a later verse in Proverbs that says, lest the Lord turn from punishing them and turn towards you.

That God takes it very serious that he's the arbiter of justice and what's right and wrong and what people deserve and don't deserve. And so don't think that you are exempt from any of the things that happen to others.

Yeah, verse number six, it says this, Children's children are the crown of old men and the glory of children are their fathers. There's actually kind of a theme, if you were to go read all of Proverbs 17.

I think there, and when I say theme, really we've said this kind of Bryon and I as we've led the conversation through the book of Proverbs that really that once you hit Proverbs chapter number 11, all the way to Proverbs 19, 20, 21, there, it's hard

to find the theme in each chapter just because it seems like a sordid Proverbs, a sordid wisdom. But in verse 17, in chapter 17, I think there's, there could be a theme of foolishness and family. Those two things, foolishness and family.

And in this verse, children's children are the crown of old men, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren, your family.

Your family, they almost reveal your character because of how you've invested into them and they've invested into their children and the character traits that you've established, they continue to establish.

And in that second part, and the glory of children are their fathers. I think a lot of this has to do with character.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that, you know, if I have good character, my children's children, my grandchildren, they're going to be blessed by my character.

And if my dad has character, I as a child, I'm going to be blessed by my dad's character. And it kind of just follows that thought. So verse number seven, Bryon will take this one.

Excellent speech, listen to this. Excellent speech, becometh not a fool, much less do lion lips of prince. What's that verse?

Have you ever met those people that maybe their voice did not match what their body looked like at all?

Like maybe it was a big, tall guy, really big, looked like he should be like a Weinbacher or something, maybe an offensive lineman. And then all of a sudden, just this very high-pitched voice came out of the guy and you're go, what in the world?

Like this does not match up at all. Kind of in that same thought here, for a fool, excellent speech doesn't become them.

It's not natural for a person that is, as we've read all throughout Proverbs, someone that's anti-God, anti-God's ways and God's laws, to all of a sudden start speaking in a way that's very excellent.

And he says here kind of on the flip side of it to his son, John Ray Boehm, who would be, you know, by definition a prince, he says, hey, just as weird as it is when a person that makes a habit of mocking God's law, starts all of a sudden talking

well, that's how weird and out of place it is for you as a prince to have lying lips, that you wouldn't speak the truth with other people. So don't be weird. Have excellent speech. Don't let that be weird for you.

I love the illustration of the guy with the high voice.

I haven't thought about that. It's a really good illustration. Verse number 8 says, a gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it, whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.

A gift is as a precious stone, just what you have against stewardship. I think there's some good wisdom there. We got to speed things up real quick.

Let's get verse number 10. He that coverth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter separateeth very friends. This is Bryon's verse, but I'm going to take it.

Just the idea of not allowing strife to happen, not arguing over silly things, covering a transgression. Love says, I forgive and I move on. And I know I need to work on that.

I know in the home, sometimes with Hannah, or sometimes with the kids, I fail at that. And that's a convicting verse. He that coverth a transgression seeketh love.

Love says, I forgive, let's move past it. And then verse number 10, every proof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool. And man, what a verse, you know?

Basically, well, I'll throw that one to you. What do you think about verse number 10?

Many of us that grew up, I would think even with conservative parents, might know what is meant here by a hundred stripes. Of course, during this time, you would also have, if you did a bad job, your boss wouldn't write you up, you would get beat.

And so, I know you want to bring that practice back, but we can't.

We could.

You can, you shouldn't. But here you have this person that's like, okay, a person can get beat with a rod a hundred times, and that'll leave a mark.

You know, you think of a lot of the laws and stuff that they had back in these ancient times of, okay, 39 stripes, 39 hits, and then you're done, 40, you might kill a person.

He says, okay, you know, two and a half times you kill the guy, wisdom's not going to enter into me. He's not, it's not going to click of, oh man, I should be doing this thing.

But it says, hey, just to reprove, just words to a wise person, they will change their course of action. You can kill a guy, you can kill a stupid guy twice, and he's still not going to get it.

And I think there's a lot of challenge there with that verse then of which one am I? Do I receive wisdom through reprove or does it take time and time and time and time again before I learn the lesson? But I want to go back just for a few minutes.

And thanks for being good. You've been great in paying attention this morning, at least I think. But verse number three, and I think verse three will be a help to us today.

So Proverbs 17 and verse number three, it says, The finding pot is for silver and the furnace for gold. But the Lord trieth the hearts. The finding pot is for silver, the furnace for gold.

The finding pot, the refiner's pot is for silver and the furnace for gold. We know that the refiner's pot and the furnace, the heat from both, excuse me, the heat from both would be that which would purify the silver or the gold. It would purify.

And so, you know, you would take, I think of a refiner's pot or the furnace. What you do is you put it in, all of the dross would come to the top. That dross, that which is impure within the metal, my mind was going blank.

That which is impure within the metal, you would scrape off and you would do this and you would continue to heat that up until you have purified the metal that you had, the silver or the gold, it would be more valuable because of going through the

fire. And so the furnace, the fire, therefore silver and gold, but how the follower of God is purified is by the trials of the Lord, the trials of God. Nobody likes trials, do they? Yeah.

What's the trial you've had before that you did not like, that you look back on it and say, I did not like that challenge?

A bunch of times in college, I can think of needing enough money to get through college, relationship things. There's this one boss I've had for the past couple of years that's really just a trial from the Lord.

Sam, we're praying because we know that he's referring to you.

Yes. It's a hard thing.

It's a hard life. The fact of the matter, we're joking about it, but the fact of the matter is everyone has trials. And I'm thinking back to the book of James that we were in at the beginning of this year.

We have to understand that our trials and our testings, they're allowed by God. If we're not careful when we go through a trial, we begin to blame God as if God made a mistake, as if he doesn't know what he's allowing to happen.

But now, I want to refer to our James series for just a second. We'll be done. I won't keep you much longer.

But, you know, oftentimes when we go through a trial, we ask the question, I've been asked this, Pastor, why is God doing this to me? Why is God doing this to me? And maybe it's a deep trial.

And I don't want to negate or dumb down on maybe any trial that anyone's going through, because when we're in a trial, the finance, the relationship struggles, those are trials.

But really in the light, in the big scheme of things, I think of the trial of a death in the family. I think of the trial of a great financial loss that really hits the family completely hard or a great sickness.

When those things happen, we ask God, all right, God, why are you doing this to me? But the fact of the matter is that a lot of trials and things that come in life, it's just part of life. It's just part of the way things happen.

God knows it's going to happen. God has allowed it to get to happen, but God's not necessarily going, hey, I'm going to give you this disease because, you know, you need to learn.

I think that's a poor way of looking at trials that we face because we need to understand that what this verse is saying, that just as a furnace and a refining pot are for silver and gold, to refine them, to make them more usable and worth more

value, even so for us as followers of God, if you know Jesus Christ is your Savior, when you and I go through trials, we go through testings, God is using those to help us become more valuable to Him. God is wanting us to allow the trial to take

place in our life. If I think of 1 Peter 1,7, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold, that perish it, though it be tried with fire, might be found in appraise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

So the trials and the testing that I go through are just gonna help me become more valuable for the use of my King and for the use of our God. And so I wanna encourage you today. I don't know what trials you're going through.

I don't know what situations. It might be something of a financial issue or health issue or a relationship struggle or the loss of a loved one. I don't know what you're going through.

We all go through trials and we all are in trials. Just coming out of trials or about to go into a trial. But the fact of the matter is wherever you're at, don't look at your trials with disgust.

Look at your trials with God, what are you wanting to teach me to help me become more valuable for you and for your kingdom, even though I'm in the midst of this trial? It's kind of like a muscle. I know nobody enjoys working out.

I'm one of those people that I do really good for a while and then I do really bad for a while. I work out really well for a long time and then I don't work out as much as I should.

And right now I'm in that stage of not working out as much as I should. I've just been so tired lately. And even this morning I woke up and I was like, I'm gonna work out today.

I was like, man, I'm too tired to do that. You know what, when you work out, you're working out a muscle, you're stretching that muscle. And strength comes through the trial of testing that muscle.

It's the same thing with our faith. Strength comes to our faith as we test it and as we grow in.

And so I wanna encourage you today, whatever trial you're going through, whatever you're facing in life, ask the Lord, God, would you help me to see what you're doing, to understand that you're allowing this, and to know that the goal is to help me

become a more valuable follower of Jesus Christ. Any last thoughts to add to that?

Yeah, I think oftentimes we phrase the question, why is God doing this to me? But often we could more honestly say, why is God doing this for me?

Of what in my life do I need, maybe not in the sense of punishment, of what do I need to change so that God will stop doing this? But oftentimes the trials will bring up, okay, do I have some anger in my heart?

Do I have some bitterness and things that God's not punishing me for those things, but it's bringing those impurities to the surface that then we're able to be more conformed to the image of Christ.

Yeah, it's a good thought. So whatever trial you're facing, I want to encourage you to embrace it and ask God to give you wisdom, grace through it, but then ask him to help you to see how it's shaping you and making you more valuable for him.

Tell you that the Lord loves you, God is gracious, God wants to work in your life. And I hope today that each one of us would allow him to do that. Thanks for joining us today for Strength of the Day.

Look forward to seeing you tomorrow. We'll be in the second half of Proverbs chapter 17, and we'll look specifically at Proverbs 17, 17 for a little bit. And then I want to kind of conclude it by looking at the end of the chapter.

A couple great thoughts there that I think we'll be at tomorrow. So have a great day, and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow morning at 930.