Proverbs 20:13-20

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions.
This is where every day we get together, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. In this year, 2021, we'll make it through all of the wisdom literature. Let's go ahead and have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word, and we thank you for the blessing it is to sit at your feet and to learn from you this morning. God, we pray that you would bless us and watch over us. In Jesus's name, amen. Well, good morning. It's so great to have you. Today we are at Proverbs chapter 20, beginning at verse 13, and we'll go through verse 20. Let's go ahead and turn over here to the screen now together. Do not love sleep lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes and you will be satisfied with bread. Hey, guess what? Wake up and get to work.
I know that that's hard to say, but I can't tell you how many times in college I would scratch my head and wonder, why in the world would people pay hundreds of dollars for every single class hour and they just wouldn't wake up and go to class? It didn't make sense to me and then they wondered why their GPAs were so low. Or I would have friends who were photographers and they had a business and I had a business and I was by no means the most successful businessman but I was amazed by people who would blame the economy and blame their clients and blah, blah, blah. But they wouldn't get out of bed until 11 o'clock in the morning.
Wake up. Get out of the bed, get working. All right, enough with that. Let's keep going. Verse 14. It is good for nothing, cries the fire, but when he goes his own way, then he boasts. I can't stand bartering. Honestly, I love the models of car buying online when people are able to just say, hey, here's the price, you pay the price, you walk out the door, you're done. No haggling, no ifs, no ands, no buts, it's the price and you go, this is what it's worth, this is what it's going to cost, this is how much it is, walk out the door and go. Why? Because in a negotiation type environment, Everybody seems to, well I shouldn't say everyone, but a lot of people try to get the best deal they possibly can.
Eh, it's not good. It's good for nothing. Eh, it's not that good. And then they go home and what do they steal? Oh man, I got this great steal. Yeah, but somebody put their time and energy and effort into making that thing or getting that thing and you just bought it at a rate because you didn't use your mouth honestly. It's better to just pay a fair price for something.
Verse 15, there is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel. Take the garment of one who is surety for a stranger and hold it as a pledge when it is for a seductress. Let's start on verse 15. I don't know why the New King James put those together, but that's okay. There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel. Gold, rubies, valuable, precious, redeemable, good for making you rich and getting things that you might enjoy.
But you know what's even better than that? Someone who has the words of life. I'd rather have someone around me who is able to speak the word of God into my life and have all the money all the gold, all the jewels in the world and be miserable in my soul and ignorant in my actions.
Take the garment of one who has surety for a stranger and hold it as a pledge when it is for a seductress. I think this is purposely meant to be a negative refrain. We've seen this time and time again, right? It is not wise to be in this types of agreements with people where we become a cosigner on their loon, nor is it good to pledge it for a seductress. Verse 17. Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth will be filled with gravel. Oh man, have you Can you catch the imagery of that verse? Let me say it again.
Bread gained by deceit is sweet to man. Getting profit and doing it by way that's slimy and used car salesman-like. Not all used car salesmen are slimy, but you know the guys who are trying to hide stuff over and it's like a sweet money. But when they go home, wears down their teeth and is bitter in their mouth and goes down and gives them problems all their lives. It's like gravel in their mouth. It's better to be honest than to gain by deceit.
Verse 20, or verse 18, sorry. Plans are established by counsel. By wise counsel wage war. Again, this is King Solomon talking to his boy here and he's telling him, plans are established by counsel, right? Don't make all these decisions by yourself. Get a multitude of counselors.
There's much wisdom there. Ask this guy, ask this guy, ask this guy, ask this lady, ask these people. How is this going to work out? How is it going to play and do it that way? By wise counsel wage war. Don't you dare go into battle. without having examined all of this.
I'm going to recommend a YouTube channel for you. I was watching the other day. The guy who produces it, his name is Destin, and the channel is Smarter Every Day. Smarter Every Day. And he's this really brilliant guy. I love him. He's really curious about things, and he has this way of thinking and explaining things that's really fun. It's a science channel. It's great for kids. He's a Christian man. And he was talking to this astrophysicist who's in charge of this amazing telescope.
And he said, I bet you're kind of anxious about it on the day that the launch is going to happen. I said, no. And Destin was like, whoa, what do you mean? No, you're not anxious about this. And the guy said, look, when you get to be my age, you don't be anxious. You plan, and you plan, and you plan, and you plan, and you plan. But when the day comes, you've done all the planning you can. It just has to happen. Plans are established by counsel, by wise counsel wage war.
Verse 19, he who goes about as a tailbearer reveals secrets, therefore do not associate with one who flatters with his lips. If you got somebody who's a sweet talker, a smooth talker, always makes people feel good, always is tailing tails. always is making you feel better because you're not as bad as that guy over there. Just stay away from that dude. Stay away from the one who goes about as a tail bearer, revealing secrets, always has that juicy tidbit of information to tell you that gossip about someone else. Just, hey dude. I'm gonna go join this conversation.
Verse 20, whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in deep darkness. Oh man, this is hard. Again, the fifth commandment is one that we don't like in our society, is we don't like authority. And you'll go watch television shows for kids, and it's the kids who are smart and the dad who's dumb. But what does it say here? He, whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in deep darkness.
Dishonoring our father and our mother is not a small thing. But we need to honor them, care for them, love them. Children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and your mother. Why don't we go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you that you are our father and you are able, and ready to help us. Father, we pray that you would watch over us this day. Care for us. Lord, we pray that you would let us be wise and walk in your paths. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ, and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
And thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.