Proverbs 18 - Safety In The Lord

Hello, good morning. Are you with us? Anyway, happy Friday to you.

And I am joined again by Bryon. Appreciate you filling in this week. I planned to do every day this week, but my plans don't always work out that way.

So I've asked Bryon to cover a little bit a few times this week. Appreciate the study we've been going through and then told him, why don't you jump in with me today? And so welcome to Strength for the Day.

Those of you that are joining us, Molly, welcome others. I see people jumping on right now. So say hello and let's see, how has your morning been?

My morning's been pretty good so far.

Yeah, what did you do this morning?

Woke up, got ready, hung out with baby B, hung out also with Samantha, hanging out with baby B is a little bit more intensive because he wants you to actually do stuff and play.

So yeah, it was a good morning.

Good morning. All right.

Cool.

I did discipleship this morning. I love discipleship. I love growing with new believers, man.

I grow so much when I work with people. And today and working with the guy, of course, you know him, I won't name him right now, but the guy got saved about nine months ago. And just been awesome to see him grow.

Today we talked about eternal security and man, it's just, we've talked about it before, but today like the light bulb kind of went on again, some things and on him and me, you know, like he's bringing out things.

I'm like, man, that's a great illustration. I'm going to write that down and use that to preach. So anyway, we did, let's see, last night had a good service church last night.

And man, we had a good group of people out. We did doing some topical studies right now on our Thursday nights. And last night, we looked at investing in people and that was a help to me.

And I hope it was a help to others as well. So well, this morning, let's just jump right into it. We're gonna be in Proverbs 18 today.

We're actually gonna kind of cover the whole chapter. And what we're gonna do is instead of reading through the entire thing or even going verse by verse, we're just gonna kind of pick out a few verses and talk about them.

And then we're gonna end in verse number 10. And I love verse number 10, and that's where we're gonna be, and I'll explain why I love it in a little bit. But Proverbs chapter 18, there's a lot of wisdom in this.

Really, I think Proverbs 18 is probably one of the most recognized Proverbs without being recognized. Because there's so many simple principles that people quote that don't know they come from Proverbs 18. I'll ask you, why don't you start first?

What's one of the Proverbs, one of the verses that kind of stands out to you?

You mentioned this one earlier. I'm gonna steal it. But verse number 22, who so findeth wife finds a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord.

And Samantha, you're great. No, I just think it's such an incredible thing. Even with Adam, the thing that God brought out at the creation of man is, hey, you're not meant to do this by yourself.

And just the encouragement that a spouse brings into your life, and it really is, it's that favor, it's that grace from God of, hey, here's something that will deeply enrich and better your life, and will help motivate you to become more like me.

Yeah, and I think verse 22 is a good, it's a good reminder for everyone that is married to look at marriage as a good thing. God sees it as a good thing, so we should as well. And then I also, I do think it's a good reminder for those who are single.

I know many very godly people that are single and still not married yet.

And what the encouragement is for you is to me, it would be just keep praying and keep seeking the Lord, keep the Lord first, and God will bring you that good thing in his time, if that's his plan. And there's definitely some good truth there.

I love verse 21, you talk about 22, verse 21, right before that, it says death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

We've talked about this, but our words have consequences, either positive or negative, and the fruit is going to be ours. We choose what fruit we're going to eat, positive or negative, through the words that we speak.

And death and life are in the power of the tongue, the power to heal and the power to destroy, and the power of the tongue. What's another one that stands out to you?

I think verse 17 is very apropos to the day. He that is first in his own cause seemeth just, but his neighbor cometh in search of him. A lot of times, someone can come along and have their own thing that they're trying to do.

There's a lot of different things that are taking place and activism today, but it says his neighbor cometh in search of him.

Just because something seems good on the outset doesn't mean we always have to follow every new thing, every person that's first in their own cause, but coming in and being discerning.

Yeah, that's a good one. I want to ask you about a verse. Verse number 14.

I want you to speak into this one because it's a good verse. The spirit of a man, all right, the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit, who can bear? I've got some thoughts, but I want to ask you about it first.

What do you think that verse means?

Yeah, just at a brief reading of it, it would look like a person's natural strength, a person's attitude, if you will, will sustain them through infirmities. I think of my dad tore two tendons, one in his arm and one in his leg a couple of years ago.

And just kind of his attitude, his spirit about the whole thing was able to keep him in pretty good spirits, health, as he was going through that. But it says a wounded spirit, who can bear?

When a person's spirit is broken, can you think of maybe a synonym to spirit? We wouldn't normally use that phrase today. What would be a word that we would use?

I would probably even use the word attitude, when you think about this.

You think about your dad, I think about my dad, which I've loved and dad, I know you're watching right now. My dad's been battling cancer and all these, I mean cancer five times in the last 10 years, and now the congestive heart failure things.

I watched my dad battling all the cancer, just have a great attitude and a great spirit. His heart through it all was, I might pass away from this, but I know that God's got it and I'm trusting him.

And that faith came back, and this is gonna tie into verse 10 in just a minute. That faith came back to just say, you know what, I'm just gonna have a right attitude about this no matter what comes my way. And that's, I think you're spot on.

We've heard the saying, attitude determines altitude. And the fact of the matter is that we can, my wife says it this way, talk about kids, right? My kids are so funny because they always, they always, I'm so bored.

You know, I'm so, and they throw out what their attitude is. And Hannah always says, boredom's a choice.

And the same is true with really any attitude we choose, that whatever comes our way, we can choose to have a right attitude and to trust God in it. And that is almost gonna be uplifting.

There's a verse in scripture, we know it, that talks about joy being like medicine to the spirit, and how true that is. And even some people who have been through some of the deepest, most heartbreaking trials are some of the most joyful people.

And they've just got a spirit that says, God, I trust you in this. But then what you're talking about, a wounded spirit who can bear a wounded attitude, a wounded heart, who can bear it?

Now, when you're discouraged, when you're depressed, when you're going through a situation and not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, even not even looking for light at the end of the tunnel, it's just kind of my mom would always say the, oh,

poor me attitude. We can all be that way. We can be that way in the smallest things. Isn't it funny?

You know, I know how old are you?

I don't know. 24.

24. Are you 24?

I think so.

All right. You know, we can be in our 20s, we can be in our 30s, you can be in your 80s and have a bad day. And it affects, it affects your attitude.

You have one thing go wrong, affects your attitude literally affects the entire day. And man, on those times, we get so discouraged, so down on ourselves. And sometimes we just need to lift up our eyes and look to the Lord.

And that's where we're going to go today is to verse number 10. All right, to verse number 10. And there's some other verses from chapter 18 I want to bring out.

I'll just do that on Tuesday. If you do it on Tuesday, I want you to talk about verse number 24. All right, and then we'll go in to chapter 19.

But if I do it, we'll do that as well. But I want to go to verse number 10. And here's why.

The verse number 10, I want you to look at it, Proverbs 18. It says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The name of the Lord is a strong tower.

The righteous runneth into it and is safe. Okay, super cool. So we went to Israel for the first time in 2018.

And I loved it. This is a plug for Israel. We are doing Israel this year, all right?

So if you want to go to Israel with us, that trip is the November 29th through December 9th. I think that's the dates. But anyway, we went to Israel for the very first time.

And one of the days we were in the area of Engedi. And Engedi, if you know Israel, that area is very mountainous. A lot of cliffs, a lot of just a lot of different things.

You know, I mean, there's some beautiful waterfalls. It's just, let's see, it would be just on the southwest side of the Dead Sea and I mean, just a beautiful area. And as we're there, I never knew this.

So when we read in verse number 10, a strong tower, when we read that, we think of like a castle tower. That's what we think of. I mean, that's what I think of.

I think of a castle and the tower. The Lord is a strong tower like that. But Solomon's writing this.

Yep. They didn't really have big gigantic medieval, medieval castles that we're thinking of.

Really, the wording, this strong tower right here, while it could be referring to a man-made thing, many scholars believe that it's actually referring to the incredible cliffs that are around in Getty.

And you think about a mountain, you think about a mountain, think about a giant cliff. If a storm's coming, and there's a cave in the side of a cliff, you're gonna find some safety there.

You're gonna find cover, you're gonna find protection from the storm, you're gonna run into that cliff, or that cave within that mountain, and you're gonna find complete safety from whatever's coming your way. And that's why David, right?

David's running from Saul. Where does he go? Into the caves.

You can go to so many places there in the Ngeti area. David wrote most of the Psalms there.

Solomon probably is referring to that when he's talking about the name of the Lord is a strong, it's like that cave in the side of the hill, in the side of a mountain. It's a strong place. And if you run to it, you find safety.

So knowing that, I mean, what would be the application for us? What do you think?

Well, I think on the most basic level, Romans 10, that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. That when it comes to salvation, when we call on God, that there's eternal safety and security in that.

I think of for the Christian, just in everyday life, that as we run to the Lord in His Word, in prayer, and we cry out to Him for direction, for Him to sustain us, man, it is, like you said, with a mountain, you're not getting rained on, you're no

lightning's hittin you, mudslides not gettin you, wild animals aren't getting you, you're just, you're safe and secure in that place. And man, that's just what it is for the child of God.

Yeah, and that's exactly what the, I believe what the meaning is, is there's so much safety in the presence of God. My wife posted something yesterday, and it's probably become one of our favorite passages, and that's John chapter six.

In John six, I referred to it often, so I probably referred to it here. I referred to it at church often. In John six, Jesus had just preached that he's the bread of life, and you've got to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood.

And the Pharisees and the people there, they were very confused by it. And of course, Jesus wasn't speaking, like literally come up here and take a bite out of my arm. He was saying like, you've got to be all in.

It's all about me. Believe in me and have eternal life. Don't believe in me and you're not going to have eternal life.

And in John 6, at the end of the passage, it says this. Our light just died, but we're okay. In John chapter 6, at the end of the passage, can you still see me?

Hopefully you can. It says that many of his disciples, they heard what was spoken, and then they walked away. They followed him no more.

And Jesus turns to his father, the disciples that were there, and he said, will you also go away? And they said to him, to whom shall we go? For thou hast the words of eternal life.

You know, the apostles, they understood, they understood that the Lord, he has everything we need for life.

And I think when Solomon wrote Proverbs 18, 18, 10, he's perhaps thinking that, that the Lord is a strong, the name of the Lord is a strong tower, and the righteous, they run into it, and they're safe.

The thought is that no matter what comes, no matter what comes in your life today, no matter what comes in my life this weekend, that I can know I have a God that I can trust in, I can know that I have a God who's going to provide me exactly what I

need for the situation and the circumstances that I face. If we're not careful, we've all been there. If we're not careful, we can think that what we're going through is isolated to us. I'm the only person who's ever faced this.

I'm the only person who's ever dealt with this. God doesn't know, and we begin to go through situations like that. I know I do, I know Bryon does.

We can go through situations like that. But the truth is that if I can find myself continually seeking God, continually coming back to say God, I don't get this, but I trust you.

Those are the times when we find that safety, and that word safe right there can even refer to just security, rest, peace. And so today I want to challenge you with this.

We talked about attitude, talked about finding a spouse and marriage being a good thing, talk about the spirit of a man that will sustain him. We go through all of these different things.

But I want to end today by just challenging you today, don't try to handle life on your own. Today, recognize that you can run to the Lord. Today, recognize that he is a strong tower.

He's that cave inside of the cliff. He is the cliff. And he simply says, rest in me.

And the storm won't get you all those things. Bryon mentioned them. I love the mudslide and animals, all that stuff.

And we are safe from it. And so whatever comes our way, I can trust that God knows, God sees, God is walking with me through it. And God's plan is to bring me out better on the other side of that trial.

So I want to encourage you, whatever you face today, whether it be small or great, just run to the Lord and find safety. Any thoughts that you would have?

Nope. Yeah, just run to the Lord. And he is always faithful.

He's always there.

Yeah, I love that verse. We looked at 1 Corinthians 1.9, God is faithful. Just says three words right in the beginning.

Boom, God is faithful. So run to him, he's faithful to us. And I hope you have a great weekend.

If you're in the Moses Lake area, we got Church Sunday at 1030. We'll be in 1 Corinthians chapter number two. Of course, it's Father's Day.

I'm looking right now at our one stop pop shop and got some great things for all of the dads. We'll be recognizing and then most of all, be thankful for our heavenly father that we have and that we can lean into each and every day.

So have a great weekend. We'll see you back Tuesday at 930.