Proverbs Part 3 - The Collection

Okay, today's sermon is called The Collection. The Collection. This is part 3 of the series I am doing on the book of Proverbs. And by this time, you should have covered from Proverbs 1 all the way in, reading one proverb a day for 31 days during the month of January. And that's why we're having this series, because of the amount of wealth that is in that book. But before I go into that, as I was reflecting on what we have covered so far, and hopefully you are reading along with me, and pulling those nuggets of gold out of the book of Proverbs that Solomon wrote, I'd like you to go with me to Proverbs 6. Proverbs 6 and verse 1. Proverbs 6 and verse 1. A real nugget here. It says, My child, as I will be reading from the New Living Translation today. Proverbs 6 verse 1. My child, as he's talking to his son. My child, if you have put up security for a friend's debt, or are agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger, if you have trapped yourself by your agreement and are caught by what you said, follow my advice and save yourself. Save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend's mercy. Now, swallow your pride. Go and beg to have your name erased. Don't put it off. Do it now. Don't rest until you do.

I flashed back this week to year 1990. I was superintendent at a construction company and had hired quite a few young guys just out of college or in their early 20s. I was about 30. And one of them I got to become very fond of. He'd come out of the military. Hard-working guy. He is married and had a young daughter. And his name is, I had to ask Mary, I couldn't remember his last name, but his first name was Kevin. And Kevin had been working for about a year with us. And he had trouble getting to work. His car was always tearing up. He didn't have much money because, as you know, the military didn't pay much. And I thought a lot of him because he was willing to go above and beyond. And so he came to me and asked me. He said, I hate to do this, but could you co-sign a car note for me so I can get a decent car and be at work on time and so forth? And I said, well, yeah, how much is it? And it was $2,500 back then for the car. So I said, well, let me go to my bank because he had started an account where I had my bank because when he came into town, he wanted where to go. I said, well, it's a great bank. And so I said, let me go to my banker, which he was a VP at the time, a very sharp woman named Betty Bradbury. Still think a lot of her. And Betty Bradbury was 25, 30 years older than I was. But she came in and I said, I'd really like to help this young man. Can I, can you write up a note for $2,500? And he doesn't have but $500 to his name and I will co-sign the note. And she said, well, yeah, I can do that. But she said, let me ask you this. You have $2,500 in the bank. Why don't you just give it to him?

And I said, well, I don't know. I want to do that. And she said, if you do this, you're doing that.

She said, I would advise you not to. She said, will I do it? Yes. But my advice to you is no. And I didn't. I talked to Kevin. And within seven, eight months, Kevin had taken another job and became an over-the-road truck driver, which was making more money than ours. So I said, fine. I can't match that pay. But he probably wouldn't have been able to pay. Betty Bradbury's wisdom and advice flashed in my head this week because we all like to help people. But the Bible says, you better. You better make sure you're willing to give that money away. And he says, do it and do it now. But today, as we wind this series down, I'd like you to turn to Proverbs 25, if you will. Proverbs 25. Go with me to verse 1. It says, These are more Proverbs of Solomon collected by the advisors to King Hezekiah.

Okay, so these were not with the original Proverbs when they were collected and compiled by Solomon. King Hezekiah came along 200 to 250 years later.

So he and his advisors put this collection together from chapters 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29. 200 to 250 years later. Now, from our previous study, we come to understand from the Scriptures that Solomon wrote 3,000 Proverbs, and 800 to 900 are in the book of Proverbs. So, here in these chapters 25, this collection, it's a collection of Proverbs put together by advisors of King Hezekiah. So they would have had over 2,000 of these Proverbs written down scattered on a table or over scrolls or wherever they had them. And they pulled out of those 2,000. We'll look at today 138. 138. Out of 2,000 or plus?

What if that was your job? What if that was your job to be a scribe, be an advisor, and to pull this out? Would you take the job seriously? You were given this job by the king, the righteous king who took over from his father who was so wicked.

And God made sure he didn't live long and put Hezekiah in his place. I have given sermons here on Hezekiah. He's one of the greatest kings of all of Israel. His stories, whether they're in the King's or whether they're in the Chronicles, they tell a story of a young man who becomes king and changes a whole nation. What I didn't understand, I've been doing the sermons of Hezekiah in this study for 20 years, it didn't dawn on me until I realized that his mother's name was mentioned. But his grandmother's name wasn't mentioned, his father's mother, because that didn't matter, but his grandmother was mentioned.

And she was the daughter of Zadok. And she would have been alive at a reasonable age when Hezekiah was born. Now, I bring this up because King Ahaz, His father, Hezekiah's father, was a king. And if you read the Scripture, he was so bad he burnt his sons as an offering to Molech. And obviously from the Scriptures, Hezekiah was a surviving son, one he did not have to pass through the fire.

And it makes me wonder, was he alive and saw this? What happened to his brothers? Don't know. But it is interesting because he changed the whole nation for a long time because of his righteousness. Can one man make a difference? Can you make a difference in your community, in your family, in your life? Scripture says you can. Are we up to it? Because he had to go against quite a few people to make these changes.

So with King Hezekiah, I would have just passed over this if it said, and these were the collections of Hezekiah because I would have known who this king is and so forth. I would have said, oh, I'm, yeah, okay. But it got me because it said, his advisors. Who were his advisors? Because now I wanted to understand who these men were that chose only 5% of the total Proverbs to put in these 4 or 5 chapters. And how amazing those Proverbs must be because they could read them all. And then they had to choose. And with God's guidance to not only Hezekiah but to them, you see the wealth that's probably in these Scriptures. And how amazing it is that we get to read them and we get to have that power, power on loan from God to help us have this wisdom, to give us this insight that we would not have as puny humans that we are. God says, I want to take dirt. I'm going to make it divine. And that's this process. And reading these words of wisdom help us in that process to go from dirt to divine. So these advisors, who were they? Well, I had to do some study. I had to do some study. But I realized they were different because Hezekiah did something. He had guts that no one else before him ever had. Hezekiah took, as I said, one of the things that he did, he took that rod, that snake rod, you remember, from the tale of Moses? Way back when Moses had it because they were sinning and they had to put it in the ground to stop the snakes from biting them.

Neheshton, that's what it's actually called. The Neheshton, which was the bronze serpent. Now, it says that he went and he destroyed it because people were worshipping it.

Now, you say, well, what's amazing about that? That serpent was created 1,700 years before he destroyed it. That bronze serpent and left over from Moses was 1,700 years old. That's around Christ's time. Can you imagine us saying today, well, wait a minute. We actually have this thing from Christ and then you say, no, we're going to destroy it because people are worshipping.

You say, well, that's almost 2,000 years ago. So was this.

All the kings before him didn't destroy it. David didn't destroy it. Solomon didn't destroy it. Hezekiah saw and God said it was right for him to do that. Hezekiah's high priest at the time was a man by the name of Azariah. Azariah, he was a high priest. You can find that in 2 Chronicles 31, 10 and 13. You don't have to turn there. I'll just give you that for reference. But he was the high priest and he was from the family of Zadok, where his great-grandmother was from. Zadok was one of the greatest priests ever lived. His descendants will actually be in the priest position in the coming kingdom of God. Sons of Zadok, as predicted for the future. So this was an interesting man, but he had three men called the three musketeers, as one might call them, or reference book called them, which was Elakim, Shebna, and Joah. They were the three men who had to ride out and meet the Rabshaka when King Sennacherib was going to destroy the city. These three men had to go out. They were his advisors. One was a scribe. One was the palace administrator. And Joah was the son of Asa. Who I gave a sermon on. He was a royal historian. These were three advisors. One, later, got actually kicked out of his job. And he said he was a disgrace, which was Shebna. Names him by name.

But those four men were interested. But I found two of the main advisors were two prophets who were alive at that time and working with King Hezekiah. And one of them was a major prophet, one of the greatest prophets ever. And his name was Isaiah. And the other minor prophet who served along with him, Isaiah at the time, was Micah. You'll know the scriptures from Micah are famous. These two prophets were part of the advisors.

You can read their writings. You can know those men or something special that God had called.

So now, after doing this study, I wanted to dig down. And really grab these verses, since this is an opportunity for me to understand. For me to understand just what God wants to lay out for us. So, brethren, we are going to go through four chapters with some verses. I'm not going to read them all. I just want to pull out some of those nuggets of gold and go through them. Perhaps you will have others as you look through those this week.

But I want you to understand that this is not just writings, but it says it is a collection. It is a collection that is very valuable. So let's go to chapter 25 of Proverbs 2. It says, It is God's privilege to conceal things and the king's privilege to discover them.

Wow! It's God's privilege to conceal things. But here he says, now God can conceal things, but now it's being revealed. And through these writings, God is revealing some of the things that were considered.

Secret things are things that he had not revealed yet come to you. So let's look at this. Proverbs 25. And let's go down to verse 7 from the New Living Translation. It's better to wait for an invitation to the head table than to be sent away in public disgrace. Anybody ever experienced that? I have. Took a seat that they shouldn't have taken. Had that on the plane the other night. We had a full plane. Somebody decided to sit in the front row. Then they acted like they didn't understand. They understood because their ticket said 36. Row, not first.

But Jesus Christ addresses this.

What? This was 700, 500 years later? Jesus Christ addresses this, I think he's Luke 14, verse 8. It says, if somebody invites you to the wedding, I'll invite you. Yeah, what do? Yeah, you don't go up and take the best seat. Because somebody of greater honor may come in and then you have to go sit in the back. But he said, go sit in the cheap seats. And then let the host give you the honor of moving you forward. 500 years before Christ brought this up to these people, it's right here. It's right here. Verse 11, timely advice is lovely. Like golden apples in a silver basket.

Timely advice is lovely. Untimely advice can be a disaster.

It's interesting, one of the commentators, Bible commentators, that was very much into the history. And as you know, at the time of Solomon, silver, they said, was so abundant, it was as if it were stones on the ground. And the gold, I mean, they were so much wealth coming in there.

The writer read from, the commentator read from some ancient scrolls. That this, someone from another country had come to visit Solomon, as they did. And one of the things they were amazed at was the table that was laid out for them to eat.

Because it had the best of everything.

The smorgasbord of smorgasbord. One of the things that this one talked about was that in every table, in the centerpiece of this table, of each table, was the centerpiece of a silver bowl and solid gold apples.

Can you imagine what that looked like? And did you pick one up? I mean, an apple's this big. Do you know how heavy gold is?

You know how much that would have been worth in today's? $1,200 an ounce? And every table?

Amazing, and he is relating this to timely advice.

Beautiful Scripture. Verse 16, do you like honey? I do. I like honey. I can't eat sugar anymore. But I like honey. And Mary bakes when she bakes, she bakes with honey. It says, do you like honey? Don't eat too much, you will get sick. You have diabetes? It's talking about desserts. Because they didn't have sugar then, but they have dessert. Oh, well they sweetened anything with honey. Yeah, do you like it? Yes! Most of us do. But wait a minute, are we going to fill our plates up with just sweet stuff? And you think you're not going to get sick? Eat it long enough? So he's saying, do you like honey? Don't eat too much of it. Alright, we'll make you sick. Go to verse 21. If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. And if they are thirsty, give them water to drink. You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads, and the Lord will reward you. Doesn't it sound like something Christ said too? Wasn't a sermon on the Mount? Matthew 5?

Where He said, it is said, or it is said, love your neighbors, hate your enemies. But I say, love your enemies. 500 years before Christ.

He's showing that love is important. Showing, showing agape. Very important to do this. And your enemies. And He said, do it, and they'll reward you? No. Doesn't say that, does it? Do that, don't look for reward. And the Lord will reward you.

You don't wait. You don't do it to them. Oh, wait a minute. They're going to treat me good afterwards. No. It doesn't have anything to do with it. It doesn't matter how they treat you. It is about us. It is about us having the mind of Christ. And He says to the Lord, who you want your... Wait a minute. God owns everything. Do you want Him to repay you, or do you want some guy that owns a 92 Nova to pay you back?

Go down to verse 24. Oh, it's better to live alone in the corner of an attic than with a quarrelsome wife in a lovely home. And yet I've had people go, oh, I just need a wife. I just need... Oh, I just need to get married. I'll be happy once. You know, God brings me this woman. This brings the man. And everything. And then later on, they do. And... wow.

They're walking into services like a beat dog.

Oh, look here. It says, it is better to live alone in the corner of an attic. Well, my attic's pretty small, and I wouldn't want to live up there.

But He said it's better than a quarrelsome wife.

I don't have a quarrelsome wife, thankfully. That's why I don't live up there. I live down in a regular room. My Cuban over there. We don't quarrel, do we? Not that you heard, anyway.

Why would He say this? The wisest man ever?

He had 700 wives!

Yeah, 300 going... You want to hear that? You're going to tell me you have 700 wives and you don't have a quarrel? Lost your minds! He knew what He was talking about. So He said, hey, this is what He's saying, if you just got one, get the right one!

Verse 25, good news from far away is like cold water to the thirsty. Good news from far away. Doesn't it feel good? I mean, those who have family far away, whether you live across the United States or if you have family in Jamaica. I mean, you'd like to hear good news because it kind of picks you up. Oh, they're doing fine!

It's like cold water when you're thirsty. And boy did I know what thirsty was this week. I could only carry so much of my water over there. I needed to carry three times what I carried because I sweated it all out in the first day. And I was so thirsty. My mouth was just so dry. It was heat and I was just, what am I going to do? And I knew you do not drink the water. In Haiti, it comes out of a tap or anything else. It's just, it's even Joseph Jean moved there and thought he'd be okay after a month or two. He took one little drink out of it and he got dysentery and had to go to the hospital.

And I'm sitting there, oh, what am I going to do? Well, thankfully there is a Culligan company that sells water. It's their water. I didn't want to drink it, but I had no choice. I drank it. I didn't get sick, but it wasn't. It wasn't Evian and it wasn't my regular water. I could tell my stomach was just kind of like, so good to get back home.

But thirsty, we've all been thirsty at one time. So we can all relate to that. But can't we all relate to how good it is that somebody's doing okay? That you find good news from family, so you don't have to do that. Verse 27, it's not good to eat too much honey. Wait, they're saying it again?

And, here's those and from last week, it is not good to eat too much honey. And it's not good to seek honors for yourself.

How do those two relate? Both of them are about what? Me! Self! I'm going to eat that dessert! I don't care! I've eaten four pieces. I want another. I'm going to get it! I remember when I got old enough, I said, I don't eat Brussels sprouts. I don't have to. Nobody can make me. And I still have not eaten a Brussels sprout in 40 years.

It's just because of you guys that she was able to bring them in the house. I wouldn't allow them in my house. But it says, it's not good to eat too much and it's not good to seek honors for yourself. You know, that's me. Oh, who did this job? I did it. It's about self. This is not what Christ was about. He esteemed others better than himself. Isn't light making you the center? Isn't that what we see on TV today? Isn't that what we see? Everybody gets their 15 minutes of fame? Oh, put me on the television. Whoa! Wait! Everywhere I go!

Selfie! Selfie! Selfie! Selfie! It should be called selfish, not selfies. Because it's all about you. I want to be seen. And people do it all the time. In fact, a guy fell off a cliff. Do you see that? Killed himself. Young guy. This 900-foot cliff, he was trying to get over there and couldn't, and then he was trying to ride on the edge and he slipped and killed himself. Was that worth it? No. Verse 28, a person without self-control. Ooh, Mike was talking about that.

Right? The fruits of God, Spirit, Galatians 5.22. Right? Wow, self-control. That's tough for all of us. It takes discipline. Discipline. A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls. He knew exactly what that was because if you wanted to breach a wall like Jerusalem, how did it fall? First you had to break down a wall. Just find a weakness in the wall. And once that is down, it will lead to destruction. So he's saying, don't let destruction be a part of your life. Learn self-control. Chapter 26, verse 4. Oh, and this is interesting.

Verse 4 and 5, when you read the religious debate, is one of the reasons they didn't want to because this verse 4 and 5, there was this great argument because they thought this was such a contradiction that they didn't want to even put the book of Proverbs in the Bible. There was a big argument over it. Mine says in verse 4, don't answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become foolish as they are. And then verse 5, be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools.

Wait a minute. Don't answer a fool. No, answer a fool. Can you see the contradiction? So what is that about? Are you wise enough not to answer or foolish enough to answer? I want to give you the example of the two.

So do you answer a foolish person or do you not answer a foolish person? I want to give you two questions. Two questions that were asked of me. One was about a year ago, a year and a half ago, in this very congregation, that I didn't answer the question to me, and I wrote it down. Did you know that Michelle Obama is really a man and that there are pictures on the Internet to prove it? I had to look and go. That doesn't even dignify an answer. So am I going to say anything about that foolishness? No. I'm not answering a fool. I'm that stupid. No, I'm not calling you stupid because he's no longer in this congregation.

He left. So that's one way. But just this past week, we had a baptism. I baptized a young man over there, and we had a couple of people that were sitting at the table. And this is a question they asked me. Did you know that President Trump has ordered all Americans to have a firearm? I'm looking, and I said, I live in America. No. That's not even true. Where did you get that? We heard it on the radio. Did they know? Was it just? No. But I wanted to inform them.

There are questions that are asked of you that you need to answer because you need to help a foolish person, a foolish question. But there are foolish people asked foolish stuff that just don't waste your time. This is what these scriptures are saying. It's not a contradiction that really defines how we need to live, how we need to take the Holy Spirit and answer these things.

Because some people aren't worth... they're not worth the answer. They're not worth doing anything. Chapter 6, verse 9, A propper in the mouth of a fool is like a thorny branch brandished by a drunk. A thorny branch in a drunk's hand. Do you want to be around him? Hey! Hey, buddy, come over here. Nobody wants that. And it says, a propper in the mouth of a fool. That means he's probably not even going to say it right. Verse 11, As a dog returns to its vomit... You got a visual? Everybody been around a dog and seen that happen?

If you've been around a dog, you've seen it happen. Right? It's not something pleasant. But a dog doesn't vomit and then walk away from him. No, he goes, You know? And he goes and wants to... He's up. It's disgusting, right? But it says, As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness. Do you know what they're saying? They're saying too many times, We can self-sabotage ourselves. We can be the reason something doesn't go right. Because we're going back and doing the same thing again, just like the dog returns to his vomit. Oh, man, why did I do that? I knew not to do that.

Oh, look! Ha! I just got a credit card. And there's a $5,000 limit. You know, it took me three years to pay off that last one, but now I'm free to go spend. Right? This is what it's talking about. We have to learn from those of us. Don't self-sabotage yourself.

Verse 13. The lazy person claims, There's a lion in the road. Yes, I'm sure there's a lion out there. Lazy person, Come up with any excuse not to work. I want as dumb as there's a lion in the yard. Take him out there, I'll be killed. What was that one story that guy told about that? And this guy, this kid, teenager was always lying to his parents, lying to his parents, lying to his parents. And he said, We're just tired of you.

We're not going to put up with you lying anymore. There was a neighbor that had a chow dog. And so, you've seen a chow. Well, the neighbor decided to shave the hair except for around the side and around the tail, so it kind of looked like a miniature little lion. And he was running around, and so the young boy comes in as his parents said, Get out there and finish that yard.

I can't! There's a lion in the yard! He said, There's no lion in the yard. Yeah, there's a lion in the yard! He'll eat me! Because we're tired of you lying. Now, I want you to go upstairs, and I want you to pray to God. Ask Him forgiveness for you lying. He said, That was a dog. And he said, He goes upstairs, comes back down after about 30 minutes. He said, You talked to God about it? He said, Yes, I did.

He said, Did you repent for your lying? He said, Yeah. He said, What'd God tell you? Well, God told me that when He first saw it, He thought it was a lion, too. But people will do whatever they can, because that's just lazy. And you've met them. You know them.

And there's a problem. Verse 17, Interfering in someone else's argument is as foolish as yanking a dog's ears. Walking down the strip by the ocean the other day, and there's not supposed to be any dogs, there's a guy walking this pit bull, and he's got his ears almost clipped off.

Are you going to yank that pit bull's ears? That's what he's saying. When you get involved in an argument that doesn't have anything to do with you, you might as well be yanking on the dogs ears. How about a Roddy? Rottwiler? It should be a good visual for us. Verse 20, Fire goes out without wood and quarrels disappear when gossip stops. Hmm, pretty good for us. Let's make sure we keep the gossip as low as we can.

Verse 27, He said, Don't brag about tomorrow, since you don't know what the day will bring. James says the same thing. Well, if God's willing, I'll be there, because God controls our life. If you just believe that it's the stars, that you want to go look at your horoscope, then don't bother coming to church. But if you believe, and you believe this Word, and you believe in God, then you believe that God is controlling your life. Otherwise, He's not God, because He's not sovereign.

He's not controlling everything. It's a beautiful thing. Verse 2, 27, Let someone else praise you, do not, not your own mouth, a stranger, not your own lips, back to I, I, I, let other people brag about you. How many people have seen people brag? Oh, tremendous! I'm this, I'm this. You have ministers bragging about, I'm this, or I've done this, or I've done... It's embarrassing to God. Let somebody else. I have people come up here and say, Oh, man, that was just a great sermon. Really great sermon. Oh, we really like that sermon.

Well, okay, that's so... I'm glad you did. Oh, you did such a great job. Well, no, it's God in me. If I did anything good, it's because of Him, not because of me. I'm still the dirtbag that He called. Okay? Just a bag of dirt that wants to be divine, eventually. So we have to make sure, let somebody else brag. 20, verse 5, An open rebuke is better than hidden love. It means somebody's going to be honest with you.

Isn't that nice? It kind of comes in handy. It comes automatically when you get married, though. Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy. Showing a good friend. That's what true friends actually do. Verse 10, Never abandon a friend, either yours or your father's.

When disaster strikes, you won't have to ask your brother for assistance. It's better to go to a neighbor more than to a brother who lives far away. Verse 15, A quarrelsome wife, He's back to that again, but you can't blame Him. A thousand women? That's what He gets. A quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping on a rainy day.

Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind. Verse 17, As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. This is what we need to do. That's why it's very good in church. But we also, I mean, when you sharpen iron, iron, there's some sparks that's going to fly.

Okay? That's why sometimes we may have to agree to disagree until God reveals things to us. We have some people standing out there, oh, Christ is coming back in, oh, I know the date, I'll give you the exact date in here. Stupid! It tells you you don't know, and you're not to know, but yet, people want to tell you they know. Aes verse 18, As workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eat the fruit, so workers who protect their employer's interest will be rewarded. Is it just a job?

Is it just a job? And some people, oh, it doesn't matter, it's a company. Didn't cost me anything. You have it at stores constantly, where people will give something to their friends that come in.

Oh, here, it's, you know, they'll never know it's missing. We cannot be that way. Fire, to verse 21, fire tests a purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised. The humility again. Hmm. Did we get the big head? You've seen it. We've got politicians that's got awfully big heads. Just watch, just watch a little TV, you'll find out. 28, chapter 28. The wicked run away when no one else is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions. We're emboldened because it's not just us doing this. It's just not us for protection.

Haiti's not a place you want to go for the vacation. And it's also somewhere you don't want to go if you don't have your back covered, or keep your head on a swivel. Because what I got right now is not that much. $100 in my wallet. Boy, do they want $100. But it's because I have no fear, because God is with me. I have the biggest bodyguard. You do too. Start thanking Him for the bodyguard. Better to be honest than to be dishonest and rich. Isn't that something? It's better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and rich.

What's worse is to be poor and dishonest. Right? Can't get any worse than that. Verse 9. God detests the prayers of a person who ignores the law. He detests them. He was all the law's done away with. One saved all He saved. His nailed to the cross. It's not. He said He detests those prayers.

Verse 13. People who conceal their sins will not prosper. But if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy. I'll take mercy over justice any day. This is God. He's the one that grants that.

Verse 24. Anyone who steals from his father and mother and says, What's wrong with that? Is no better than a murder. James 2 and verse 10 said what? If you've broken one, you've broken them all.

It ties right into there. And your parents? Shame on you. Verse 27. Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed. I mean, we have to give everything we got to these people everywhere you stop at a stoplight? No! But there should be some empathy. And I go to Haiti. I wish I could do something. Joseph Jean was driving, and we were talking, and he goes, Chuck, there's no way to help. Our nation's just lost. It's so corrupt, it's just lost. He said, What are we going to do?

I said, We just have to help who we can. Made a difference to that one, and that one, and that one. But we need to have empathy and sympathy. Verse 29, wrap this up, I have five minutes. Chapter 29, When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. And when the wicked are in power, they groan. Because anything goes. You're not going to get justice, and you definitely won't get mercy.

You need to pray. Pray for our leaders. Because they need it. Big time. Verse 12, If a ruler pays attention to liars, all his advisors will be wicked. Absolutely. Verse 13, The poor and the oppressor have this in common. The Lord gives sight to the eyes of both. He still made it. He made both. Verse 15, To discipline a child produces wisdom, But a mother is disgraced by an undisciplined child. She's disgraced. I've seen that, I don't know how many times, when I visited LeMae. See, look, down at the prison. Here you have all a bunch of mothers, because some of them have been given up, but the mothers are there.

Of the prisoners. The mothers are there to try to see them. Having to wait in line for hours. Having to have their bodies searched. Everything else. Sure didn't bring, sure didn't bring grace to their mother, but disgraced. Verse 18, When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful. We should think on that. Verse 20, There is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking. Get that one?

There is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking. There's no proverb that says, Be sure to taste the words before you spit them out. Do we do that? We remind ourselves to do that. Verse 26, Many seek the rulers' favor, but justice comes from the Lord. We may have to go to court. You may have these things, but you had better not count on them. You better count on the Lord. Spend time in prayer. He can deliver you like no one else. Finally, the last one. The righteous despise the unjust. Is that us?

The wicked despise the godly. Brethren, there are some beautiful words I just covered, some. Hopefully you will read these this week, from chapter 25, 26, 27, 28, 29. And enjoy these gold apples in a silver platter. Enjoy these words. Take them and make them a part of your life. They are not only God's words, they are a beautiful collection.