Chapter 13 John Verse 1 to verse 5 John is gonna come and read the scriptures for us this morning A wise son heareth his father's instruction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke. A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth, but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence. He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life, but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction. The soul of the slugger desireth and has nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. A righteous man hateth lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and cometheth to shame. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for the words of Proverbs, words of wisdom. May we apply it. May we take it serious, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for this church. Thank you, Lord, for what you have done here through the years. Continue to do it. And I pray, Father, if there's someone here that never received Jesus Christ as personal Savior, or even online watching us on YouTube, on Facebook, on Sermon Audio, Lord, may they will turn to you today and put their faith and trust in you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You may be seated. So back to basics, that's our theme for the year. Today I wanted to talk about words of wisdom. You know, if you look at the book of Proverbs, is a very practical book for all ages, for all years, and is a book of wisdom, practical wisdom for living. If you look at Proverbs, it's practical wisdom for living. It says, a wise son hear it. Many people, they listen, but they don't hear. They don't hear anything. So these last days on which we are living, we live in the last days, right? Things are getting worse and worse. Don't be surprised because that's the way our world is going. We can sit down and we talk about it and we see it's getting worse and worse. And according to the Bible, things are not going to get any better, but worse. As the coming of the Lord approaches us, it's going to get worse and worse and worse. The Bible speaks loud on this. Respect for people, especially for those of authority and respect for the ones of age is an all-time low. The shameless minds of society is just amazing to see with their unrighteous and ungodly living. The lack of care and zeal for God's house and His word is becoming a thing of the past. Churches are getting empty throughout our nation, not just in our nation, throughout the world. These are tremendous and sometimes terrifying days on which we live. But the signs of the time should not take us by surprise, especially if we know our Bible. Don't be fearful. Don't hide. Don't think, oh, what about me? What's going to happen to our world? Trust the Lord. God is in control regardless of what we think. OK. Nothing take God by surprise. He is still sitting on the throne. He's not panicking. And the signs of the time is that things are getting worse. And the Bible said that, that things were getting worse more and more towards the coming of the Lord. And we see that. Look about, if you look, if you go back in time and look about yourself 20 years, behind you or 20 years ago and look at right now. Look at the condition of our world. So it shouldn't be a surprise to us. So there's a tremendous things that go on. So look what it says in 2 Timothy 3.1. So as we read these verses, we can see our society in it. Can we see it? These are verses that describe the condition of our society. Maybe the whole entire world, without exaggeration, that's the way the world's going. The power of the Internet and what it's doing in the minds of people is everywhere. We are living in perilous times, folks. We are living in a time of ungodliness. But we cannot lean on the lorans of the past, neither on the unrighteousness of the present. Someone says these words, hats off to the past. coats off to the future. We are living in a weird age of contrasts and paradoxes. Paul Harvey said it this way, how come so many millions of Americans get a Sunday morning shower and don't come clean? There are more gadgets for peace and safety than ever before in our world, but more violence and slaughter, both in war, is all over our country and highways everywhere. We read in the news, we see it. Religion leaders who talk about running the church and national leaders who talk about running the nation cannot even control their own lives in many cases. And delinquency explodes among the upper classes. And you could have unraveled the tangled lines of our government affairs. Let me put it this way, Mr. Arvin Cobb, Cobb is his name, said that if he ever was fortunate enough to go insane, he hoped he would live in Washington where he would not be unnoticed. I'm sorry. Let me read you this thing. If he ever was unfortunate enough to go insane, he hoped that he would live in Washington where he would not be noticed. Now, we can't be responsible for the whole nation. We can't. Neither for the sins of others. But we can send missionaries to the whole world. We can control our own lives by the grace of God. By the way, that's a wonderful song this morning. If it was not for grace. We can't make the whole country repent. We can't. We can't make other people repent, but we can sure live by the Word of God. Never have churches or modern Christians have the opportunity that we have today. What advances we have over the early church that shook the Roman Empire. Today we have automobiles to ride. We have the printing press. We have tons of Christian literature. We have Bibles everywhere in almost every corner. We have television, radio, and internet to proclaim the gospel. We have our institution of higher learning, luxury buildings, famous music programs, and millions of lost people to reach for Christ. What a challenge, isn't it? The future is bright as the Lord promised. The harvest is plenty as the Bible says. You know what we need to do? Pray the Lord of the harvest that He sent forth labors into His harvest. Now, With all this going on in our world, how should we Christians live and go on with our lives in this present age? As all this mayhem and chaos goes around us and we can get overwhelmed with all this, How should we Christians, we individually Christians, should live in this present world? Look what Matthew chapter 10 verse 16 says. This is Jesus speaking. Let me give you seven words this morning of wisdom out of our text this morning that will help you and me individually live in this present age. You say, Pastor, this is a bad time to live. Yeah, a lot of wickedness going on. Why should we as individuals live in this age? All right, let me give you seven words this morning. Okay, number one, listening. listening of course as in our text a wise son hear it is father's instruction but a scorner hear it not rebuke those who are scorners do not listen to anything it don't matter what you try to tell them they don't listen to you they're all knowing they said i arrive i have arrived i don't need you to tell me anything I already know. Tell me something I don't know. That's what they say. You know, because there's corners. There's corners of every word of God. There's corners of every God that we believe in. So the Bible says that it is wise for each one of God's children to hear the Father's instructions because Father knows best. Now, the Bible is the word of God, but for the Christian is even more than the word of God. It is the word of our Heavenly Father. And the Bible says it is wise for you and me to hear what God has to say. This thing about going through the Bible and choose what we want to pick, that's not hearing the Word of God. It's doing what we want when it's convenient to us. Let me tell you something. The Word of God is out of style these days in our society because people don't want to hear the Word of Wisdom. But if something is going to transform and change our lives, it's the power of the Word of God. Let me tell you this way. If you look at me today, I was not the same person I was 25 years ago. I've been clear to you. I was not. Life was about me, myself and I. I didn't care about people again. I was very arrogant. Why? Because I don't care about anybody. That was the way I lived my life. What changed me? The Word of God. By spending time in the Word of God and reading and saying, oh my goodness, that's me. Oh Lord, that's me. I didn't think about anybody else in the church and say, oh so and so needs to hear that. It was me. And Lord, I'm a liar. Lord, I'm a thief. Lord, I'm a gossiper. It was all me. The power of God's Word. But only the power as a fact if we listen, if we hear, if we take it in. So the Bible for the Christian is more than a book. The Bible says a wise son heareth his father's instruction. Listen to the word, hear it. Matthew 7.24 says, therefore you shall ever heareth the sayings of mine. Matthew 13.23 says, but he that receiveth seed unto good ground is he that heareth the words. Matthew 5.24 says, verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my words. John 8 47 says he that is of is of God hear it God's words Matthew 39 says who has ears to hear let him hear you see the word Jesus. That's all the words of Jesus He keeps saying over and over again for us to up to hear the Word of God. That's a word of wisdom We need to hear in this world age that we live in one thing that we need as Christian people is to hear the Word of God It's to take into that the Word of God has value. I said that last week. Should have value to us that we take that as something that is like refined gold. We hear the voices of the world every day. You hear it through music. You hear it through politics. You hear it through people in the workplace. You hear words every day. Everybody has an opinion to give you. Everybody wants to be listened to. Everybody says, oh, please listen to me. And sometimes they even touch your body and say, hey, hey, hey, hear me. And God says, he that heareth, let him have ears to hear. So do you hear the word of God with delight, with joy and gratitude of heart, if it was not for grace? What a song, if it was not for grace. Proverbs 13 says, a wise son heareth his father's instruction. those who are wise here let me tell you there's many fathers that don't deserve to be called fathers but anyway it's another another thing for another time but anyway but a father i mean a wise son here with the instructions of what his father you are our father our heavenly father jehovah god So number one, that's a word of wisdom is hearing. Number two, is another word of wisdom comes out of practical wisdom, come out of Proverbs, it's called control. Look what it says in verse three. He that keepeth his mouth, keepeth his life. That means control. Some people don't have no control over their mouth. My brother-in-law says like this, I love my brother-in-law. We get along very well. He says, don't tell me any secret because my mouth is too big. This is what he says. I said, brother, I like, he goes, I'm telling you, if you have any secrets, don't tell me because my mouth's too big. At least he's honest. You know, he had no control over his mouth. He said, he says to me, it's like a burning thing. I can't contain it. So I have to tell him. And then sometimes, you know, yeah, they came to me and said something and I said to him, I said, my sister said something and I said to him, that she told you to keep that in secret. He goes, you know how I am, I can't keep secrets. So anyway, control. A wise person will save himself much grief by keeping on controlling his mouth. Verse 14, look what it says. The law of the wise is a fountain of life. Self-control is a wise thing to do because when we experience self-control, we avoid many headaches in our own personal lives. Self-control helps us to restrain the old man in us who loves to go wild. Self-control is the ability to exert and often referred to a willpower. It allows people to direct their attention despite the presence of competing or stimuli in their underlines or all kinds of achievements from school to the workplace. So self-control is the ability to manage one's impulse, emotions, and behavior to achieve long-term goals. We must have self-control or we must have control as to our companions and friends that hang with us because bad company corrupts our character. See Proverbs 13 20 says he that walketh with wise men shall be wise But the companion of fools shall be destroyed You know what when we walk with wise people when we walk with people that give you good counseling Guess what? It's a wise thing to do You know why because you go right with that, but when we walk with a bunch of fools Before we know it become one of them, too So we need to be careful with that. Be careful. As the Bible says, we have to control our mouth, what we speak, what we say, you know, because sometimes a word, one word, we can destroy a friendship. You can get yourself in trouble in the workplace for one word. We have to be wise by controlling. In this day and age, for example, I work in a place that is zero tolerance, zero. You know what that means? If you say something that offends some person in some way, you can lose your job in a spot. So you need to be careful how you speak and be wise what you say before you say it. It helps us to think about it and the thing is they're saying the work environment is a place that you come to work not to provoke people or not to offend people. They need to feel comfortable doing their job because ultimately that's what we're doing here. I can understand that from a point of view. So number one, control those leisure or leisure times, moments, what to do with off hours, TV, radio, the internet, and you, and you reading materials that can't all be snares to you. Don't you know, listen, is the internet good? Yes. Is social media good? Yes. Is books good? Yes. All this stuff is good, but there's also a lot of evil into it. So be careful. Self-control, control yourself. Hot tempers, for instance, are just explosions of old self-life which should be crucified with Christ. Christians ought to let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and glamour, and evil speaking be put away from us. We should be the most kind, loving people in the world. So control your leisure times. Number two, control your tongue. James said, even so the tongue is a little member and boasted great things. Behold, our great a matter of little fire kindred. And the tongue is a fire of word of a world of iniquity. So does the tongue among our members that it defiled the whole body and set it on fire, the course of nature. And it is set on fire of hell. James said we have to control our tongues. For an example, homes are destroyed, churches split apart, hearts are broken, friendships are broken because of the tongue. Words that hurt people deeply and cut wounds. May we use our tongue to speak gracious words and encouraging words to our children and friends, our family members and to one another in the local church. I'll tell you, I'm reading a book right now, a merry heart in a martyr's world. I tell you what, I was working in my yard yesterday putting some things there. I listened to that book for, that's a seven hour book somebody's reading to me. I tell you what, what convicted I became. about the power of words, about talking, the idlest things that we say. You know what? When Martha and Mary, we know the story, right? Mary came to the feet of Jesus. Martha was so busy doing all kinds of things. And the book is all about what we do when we get so distracted that we forget that we have a wonderful God who loves us. Very convicted. I can't take enough of the book. I mean, enjoying reading that book. May our tongues be tongues of gracious words and encouraging words towards our children, towards our friends, towards our co-workers, towards people around us, even in the local church. We need to learn to control our tongues and speak with wisdom. Number three, control your time. Every day God gave us 24 hours, every day to all of us. What do you do with the time God gives you is up to you. But what did you do? Is that constructive time? Do you give God at least one hour of your day to praise him? What are you doing with your time when you're not busy? You can say, oh, I remember it's my prerogative. I do what I want to do. But if my God gave me 24 hours, can I take one hour to praise him? Oh, I do that on Sunday. No, no, no. You might not make it the next Sunday. What about every day? What if I have a song in our hearts and sing to the Lord? What if I open the Bible? What if I listen to something? You say, well, I can't read my Bible. Well, you can listen to it. I'm just trying to encourage you this morning, okay? So time is precious and time moves on. You know, one of the greatest enemy that we have is time. Look at yourself in the mirror. It tells us that time is a great enemy. We are aging gracefully. Don't waste your time with evil and wickedness. Don't waste your time with gossip. Don't waste your time with drugs and alcohol. Don't waste your time worrying about things that you cannot control. Look what it says in Ephesians 5.15, see that he walks circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. The third word of wisdom, I give it to you, is laziness. In this world that we live in, in this crazy age that we live in, here's a word of wisdom. The Bible says, don't be lazy. Here's one thing I hate when people call me, I don't like the word hate, but I don't like people to call me lazy. My brother-in-law does that purposely to me. He goes to me, are you so lazy? Oh, that goes to my soul and I'm like, please don't say that because I'm not a lazy person. But laziness in this day that we live in. Remember those familiar words in Proverbs 6, chapter 6, verse 6 to 8, when the wise king pointed us to the little ant. Look what it says in Proverbs 6, 6. Go to the ant, you duff logger. Consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, nobody to tell her what to do, provided her meat in the summer and gathered her food in the harvest. How long, though, will thou sleep, O slugger, when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. Go to the preacher of the book of Ecclesiastes when he says, Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 10, whosoever thy hand findeth do. Do it with thy might, for there is no work, no device, no knowledge, no wisdom in the grave where thou goest." People say, why in the world am I going to do all this? I'm going to die anyway. Do it and enjoy it. Who enjoys work? I do. You say, Pastor, you really like to work? I do. I do. I mean, listen, it's sometimes good to sit around and do nothing and talk. But it's good to be constructive. Don't you look at something you build and say, I did it. By the grace of God, I did it. You know, yesterday I'm putting some cobblestones in my driveway all the way down. And thanks to Miguel, he gave me that fever last year. So I had to put all of it down there. But you know, hard work. I'm not kidding you, hard work. But when I'm done, I look at it and I'm like, You know, it does with hard work. If you don't do it, it always looks at you, you know, looks at you. But it's good to be productive. One of the tragedies in America today is that so many people want something for nothing without work. Unfortunately, many people of our day are allergic to work. I think they have to go to the doctor to get pills to be encouraged to go to work. They're allergic to work. It's like an allergy. It's like, I can't go to work. I'm allergic to work. So Newton's first law of motion states that an object in motion tends to remain in motion and an object at rest tends to remain at rest. Very practical. So this law applies to people. While some are naturally driven to complete projects, others are apathetic, requiring motivation to overcome laziness. Laziness is a lifestyle for some people and temptation for all. But the Bible is clear that because the Lord ordained to work for man, laziness is a sin. What did God told Adam and Eve in the garden to do? He gave them work. Oh, you know what? Somebody said to me, oh, if work does good to you, take the people in the hospital, let them go to work. That's a little sad thing to say. But let me put it this way. Work is good. Be productive is good. Don't you feel good when you do something? Lady, the lady cleans the house or washes the clothes, whatever they do, or go to work or do this or help somebody, don't you feel accomplished in the end of the day? Laziness, they go, oh, this day is so long. I'm so tired. The Bible has a great deal to say about laziness. Proverbs is especially filled with wisdom concerning laziness and warning to the lazy person. Proverbs tells us that lazy people hate work, Proverbs 21-25. A lazy person gives excuses not to work, Proverbs 26-13. A lazy person wastes time and energy. A lazy person is wise in his own eyes proverbs 26 16. So there's no room for laziness in the christian life Actually, it is sin and also a bad testimony of where we are as god's people We listen our father is not a lazy god You think he is He's a very busy He's a great God. He's not lazy. Actually, God goes a bit more serious with the subject of laziness in the New Testament. Look what it says in 2 Thessalonians 3 10. for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly working not at all but are busy bodies see what happened when we are lazy we don't work so we begin to get be gossipers now then there are such I'm sorry, then there are such we commend and exhort you by the Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness quietness They work and eat their own bread So the Bible encouraged us to be people proactive people who work not to be lazy That's a word of wisdom in our world in a world today on which many people want something for nothing and we Christians we can say you know what by the grace of God I work because I got two hands I got two feet I got a brain and God you know put me in this world I'm going to be productive and work what a great testimony of God of God's love you know I mean I don't try to boast here but in the workplace people say to me a lot of that because I'm believe me my job goes all day about helping others can you because I mean there's a lot of young people there that don't have the experience I have I understand that but you know what they're saying to me thank you for helping thank you for helping you know what I say praise the lord praise the lord because he's the one who gave me wisdom to do what I do so in this day and age that we live in is the fourth word of wisdom hate Proverbs 3.5 says, A righteous man heareth living. Proverbs 13.6 says, Righteous keepeth him that is upright in the way. So hate is a very strong word on which unfortunately is used many times by people. But as bad and strong as this word is, if we Christians should have hate for certain things. Okay? Lying is one of them. Listen, hate is a strong word. Let me explain myself. Hate is a strong word. We shouldn't have hate in our hearts towards anybody. We have to love people the way Jesus loves people. If people don't agree with us, people could care less about us, we have to love them and pray for them. So if we're going to do something, let's pray. Pray for your enemies as well. We shouldn't hate anybody. Hate should not be in our vocabulary as Christians. But if we're going to hate something, let's hate something that is productive. Number one is lying is one of them. Don't be a liar. We should be people of character and integrity. We stand up for what we say, and we stand up firmly, and we can say, I do not lie. If I lie, it's because I'm misinformed. I pass it out because somebody spread this to me. I thought I was telling the truth. And we can say, I'm sorry for misleading. But purposely lying should not be in the lips and the heart of a Christian. You know what? It's a bad testimony of God. It's a bad testimony of our Heavenly Father. It's a bad testimony of who we are as Christians. So we don't lie. Tell the truth. So if we're going to hate something, let's hate lying. That's one thing we should not do. We should never be liars. You know how degrading it is when somebody comes to you and says, such a liar. Isn't that degrading? I think it is. I don't like that somebody point that to me and say that you're a liar. Like, well, I'm sorry. Well, then I say the lie to you. Yeah, I get offended. I'm offended. It was like, I'm searching my heart. What did I say? How did I lie? And if we realize we misinformed a person, we have to say, I'm sorry, I misinformed you. But if it's something we're going to do, let's hate that. Another thing that we should hate is unrighteous living, ungodly and evil doers all around us. They're all around us. Shameless people commit open sin every day all around us. But such should not be said about us as God's children. Our Father has expectations on His children. And one of them is that we live honorable lives before Him, before the Lord. Listen, even if nobody sees what we do, God sees it. So we have integrity and character before our God and say I walk in integrity of heart Lord because I honor you because you my Heavenly Father. You follow that? We can deceive all multitudes of people because we can lie, we can scheme, we can hide it. But let me tell you what, God sees it. So we should hate unrighteous living. Look what it says in Titus 2.11, it says, And Proverbs 3.13.6 says, So the Christian is to avoid all wickedness. He is to be upright and conscious over the things that he does. Another thing we should hate is sin. Oh, pastor, how can I stop sinning? I understand we're all sinners. But one thing we can do is this. You ready? We can sin less. And when we fall, we ask God to forgive us. We ought to hate the devil. Because why? Because he is a vicious enemy, wants to destroy and kill everything about you. So we hate this enemy. If you're going to hate something, hate this dude. Because he's real. You see, we are to hate our sin. Isn't God angry at sin every day? Angry at the wicked every day? So that's a fifth word of wisdom. The fifth word of wisdom is this. You ready? Generosity. Look what it says in Proverbs 13, 7. There is he that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing. There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. You see, generosity is the quality of being kind, unselfish, especially as it pertains of sharing money or other values with others. The Bible has a lot to say about generosity as a desirable character trail. In Proverbs 22 9 says, God's generosity is evident all around us, isn't it? All right. When you see the ocean, When you see the whales and the dolphins and the birds and the seagulls, when you see the squirrels, when you see the animal life, when you see the deer, when you see... That's God's generosity. That's what it is. When you see the little plants growing out of dirt, how can you explain plants growing out of dirt? Spring comes up and these things begin to grow. Listen folks, it's dirt. That's God's generosity. God is a great giver. God's a great giver. He gives so much. He even gave his own son and a cross for us. God's generosity should travel to his kids. Don't we learn from father? Father knows best. We should have generosity come out of us. It's better to give than to receive. It's a hard commandment that we don't want to take it, you know, because we want to hold everything to ourselves. All right, you at work and somebody says to you, oh, nice lunch. Oh, that looks good. What would you do? Close that thing and leave my lunch alone. What would you say? Do you want some? You don't understand, Pastor. If I give my lunch, I'm going to go hungry. OK, you're not going to die. There's a cafeteria down the road, right? That happened to me. I have a visitor that likes to come and check my lunch. What would you have for lunch today? I said, look at it, you're already there. So generosity can be manifest in many ways. We can give our time, our material resources, our hospitality, our friendship. God challenges us to be generous because he wants us to receive the blessing that comes from it. We live in a day on which people are more interested on what they can get, not what they can give. Such attitude is not generosity, it's selfish and greed. We should show generosity to everyone as we have an opportunity. So in our generosity, we are not to expect something back to it. Oh, if I give this, you're going to give me this. That's not generosity. You know what generosity is? It's opening our doors. You know what generosity is? Is go out of your way and help somebody. You know what generosity is? Is to say, see somebody in need and just give. Generosity. Let me put it this way. What did Jesus do? Talking about grace giving. He went to the cross so he could give us salvation. Talking about generosity of God. We are to show generosity even to our enemies. Look what it says in Luke 634. See what God says? God says in his word that God is kind even to the wicked people of this world. They see the birds. They see the fish. They see the water. They see the clouds. They see the sun. They get all this. God is kind to them. And God says to you and me, be kind. Be generous to people. I was in a in the clinic, and this old lady, two old ladies came in, and I get up, I was taught that way, and offer my seat. There was an individual there sitting there, very young, very strong, and the other lady was the whole time there shaking. I look straight at him and say, what you gonna get up and give that lady a place to sit? Back in the phone. How sad. It's the world we live in, me. Me. What I deserve. My comfort. I could care about other people. That shouldn't be the Christian. So you give your lunch money, so what? So you give your lunch food, so what? Just give it in the name of Jesus. Number six, we're almost done. The sixth word of wisdom for this present age is hope. Luke 16 verse 12, hope deferred making the heart sick, but when the desire comet, it is a tree of life. We Christians living hope. Not any hope, but a living hope. A hope that comes from God. Actually, the Bible has much to say about living hope. We are told to rejoice in hope. Not that we hope so. Our salvation is based on hope, based on faith alone and God alone. But listen to me, folks. Our God is a living God and we live our lives in a living hope. May the people of this world see that you are an optimistic person, a person full of hope and gratitude in your heart. And they look at you and say, I want what you have. Well, if you come to my side of the wall, there's no hope here. That shouldn't be us as Christians. We don't know where you are. You don't know where you're walking with the Lord if you not have that living hope. But when we walk with the Lord, our hope is very optimistic hope, is a living hope, is a rejoicing hope, is a lively hope, is an anticipating hope. This will not be blind optimism, but Bible optimism. If your hope is in the Lord, let me put it this way, it's a living hope. When you talk about your Jesus, talk about with enthusiasm and gratitude. My Jesus, oh, he's a great one. So there's a guy that works next to me. He goes to a different church. But, you know, we play the songs of Zion every day. So we have a guy that came to our table and he goes, well, it's different here. I said, yeah, we don't have hateful music here. We have music that suits the soul and blesses your heart. Stick around. And he goes, well, I don't know. Stick around. Listen to the songs of Zion. Listen, folks, we don't do that to provoke people. We do that because we have a living hope. And the one that the people are singing about are the hope that we have, Jesus. Hope make it not a shame, the Bible says in Romans chapter 5 verse 5, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us. Let me go to the next word, the word of wisdom, and that's our last one, is faithfulness. Faith ambassadors is held. Faithful ambassador is held. Proverbs 13, 17. Scripture speaks often of faithfulness. Over and over we learn that when God says He will do something, He does it even when it seems impossible to us. When He says something, it will happen. It's going to happen. This is true from the past, the present, and the future. If this verse is not the case, if God, we are unfaithful, we have no hope in Him. we can't be we cannot be faithful to him but let me put it this way our god is reliable god is a steadfast unwavering god and we can trust in him we can be faithful to him because you know what he loves us when a person walks Consistently with God in humble service to him he or she can be filled with faithfulness God intends that we should be the messengers of faith. It is wise to think It's a wise thing to be faithful to the Lord. It is a wise thing to be to be wise to the Lord Let me put it this way. Our God is a good God. Why not be faithful to him? He expects nothing less than our faithfulness. I He expects nothing less than we be faithful to Him. He loves us unconditionally. Even with all the faults that we have, He loves us. Don't ever come to your life in a point to say, God doesn't love me. No, no, no, no, no. God loves us. He's a good God. He loves us unconditionally. Regardless of what you've been through, regardless of what you do, God loves us. But there's one thing He requires of us. That we be faithful in our belief towards Him. Faithful in our walk with Him. Listen, folks, is the world, is the voices of the world, is the chaotic world that we live in, it is God's way right here. You can take this GPS, program it to heaven, it takes you all the way there. That's God's GPS right here. You know, I have a GPS in my car, it's always on. He's always on. So, Pastor, which one do you use? I use Waze. I don't know if you use Waze. Waze tells you where the cameras on the red lights are when you drive through town. Be careful, there's a red light here. I mean, there's a camera on the light. It tells you. It's an interesting app. But let me tell you, this is our GPS. God says, I have it for you. Believe it. We give you an illustration and we're going to close. Years ago, an ocean liner was wrecked or wretched off the New England coast. An old coast guard captain called on his men to rescue the vessel, but saw that the wind was offshore and the tide was running out. Of course, people was there. Captain, they cried, we can't go out. but we'll never make it back. We can go up, but we'll never make it back. Launch the boat, the captain shouts. We have to go. We don't have to come back. We have souls to save. People at stake. I conclude with this. The Book of Proverbs is a practical book. It's a book that fits in the practical life that we live. Those words of wisdom that I just gave you this morning are practical words. They are words that each one of us understand very well. If we take heed to those words and put them into practice, we will receive blessings from God. If we take heed to those words, our relationship with God, our walk with God, and with the Lord will be a very close one. So this morning, let us take heed to the words of God, the words of Proverbs, and say, I can do this, because the words I give you, they're very practical. Very practical. In this crazy age that we live in, when people say, oh, I can't live the Christian life. Yes, you can. Words of wisdom. We can live it and make a difference in the world that we live in. Because ultimately, folks, our life is just poof. Let's make a difference in the world that we live. People need Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for proverbs, practical wisdom for today, practical wisdom for living. And I pray for every sister and every brother in Christ here this morning and online as well. that we would take your words to heart because it's following good, Lord. We just refuse to listen many times. Help us, Lord. We need you. You're such a good God to us, such a generous God. We have so many blessings that can fill pages and pages and pages of books if we write them down. Thank you, Lord, for your love. Thank you, Lord, for loving me. Thank you, Lord, for your salvation. In Jesus' name, amen. If you could stand, please. We have a song of invitation this morning. We have an altar here. You can come and do business with the Lord right here and say, Lord, I haven't been very wise in my life. I want to be wise. I need your word. We have his word. We have his GPS, the Bible. It's an encyclopedia of wisdom that we can apply to our lives and live a life that brings honor and glory to the Lord. I surrender all. May we surrender everything we have to the Lord this morning and say, Lord, not about me anymore. It's all about you from now on. Lord, I need you, but it's all about you. I give it all to you. I have no rights of my own. It's all for you, Lord. I surrender all to Jesus. Search our hearts this morning and say, Lord, none about me anymore. All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I surrender. And trust Him in His presence daily. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. The Lord wants us to be wise in our everyday living. How we go in, how we go out. To pray for those who don't like us. To pray for everything. The Lord wants us to be all that, but to reflect Him on planet earth. Proverbs if you never read the book of Proverbs read it words of wisdom practical wisdom for today for this age that we live in And we need God's wisdom don't we we need God's wisdom in our lives We make bad decisions where our mouth sometimes says things that shouldn't say things we react badly Sometimes we offend people I'll tell you why God says I have wisdom for you today Take it We need God's wisdom for this age. We need God's wisdom, but we need to surrender everything to him and say, Lord, not about me anymore. It's all about you from now on. I surrender all to you, my life, my mind, my heart, my feet, my hands. Lord, everything about you, everything about me, I surrender all to you. Just let me be a steward of what you've given me. But Lord, everything I surrender to you, my job, my place, the place I live, my bed, my pillow, my couch, everything Lord is yours. I surrender all to you. Verse number two. All to Jesus I surrender. Humbly at his feet I bow. Worldly pleasures all forsaken. Take me, Jesus, take me. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. What a blessing to be in the house of the Lord today. Thank you for allowing me to preach the word of God to you this morning. There are words of wisdom this morning. May we take it. I'll tell you what, I love the book of Proverbs. It's not my favorite book, but it's one of my favorite books. Practical wisdom for today. A lot of practical things for our everyday living. Sometimes we get stuck, go to Proverbs, it's right there. May we use this practicality of Christianity and live it out, make a difference in our world. Don't you know that your neighbor, your co-worker, your family member, your friend, Don't you know you can make a difference in their lives by living for Jesus? You can. Or they will never listen. Don't say that. That's Satan lying to you. You can make a difference in their lives because ultimately it goes like this, friends. Life is short. And if we love these people, we want them to go to where we're going, to God's house. There's an ocean of humanity around us who needs Jesus. Aren't you glad you know him? If not for grace. That song is going to stuck with me for days now. Thank you. It was a good song. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for grace. Thank you, Lord, for salvation. Thank you, Lord, for saving a wretch like me. Thank you, Lord. We are so grateful. Lord, our words cannot express the gratitude of our hearts. Thank you, Lord, for that. Go with us. Bless each person here in a very special way. Keep them safe. May there be a lighthouse of testimony of your love towards others. In Jesus' name, I pray.