Proverbs 21:1-9

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, good morning, good morning. 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. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. This morning, we are at Proverbs chapter 21. Let's have some coffee, pray, and get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Please be our teacher. Please instruct us. Please bury these words in our hearts. In Jesus' name. Amen. Here we go. We are at Proverbs chapter 21, verses 1 through 9.
The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord. Like the rivers of water, he turns it wherever he wishes. It's amazing how often rulers, governors, presidents, senators, prime ministers, chancellors, sultans, whatever, think that they're the ones in charge. And yet here, what does it say? The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord. See, God is sovereign over everything. in ways that we can never comprehend.
He turned King Nebuchadnezzar where he wanted. He turned the kings of Assyria where he wanted. He even turned Pontius Pilate's heart where he wanted so that he would accomplish his purposes. The heart of the king is in the hands of the Lord. Like rivers of water, he turns it wherever he wishes.
God's the one who's in charge. Verse two, every way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. People are really good at self-justifying. Just being able to placate themselves and make excuses and make everything seem right in their own eyes. But the problem is you can't hide your heart from the Lord. The Lord has perfect scales.
And the Lord knows where our heart is, knows our duplicity, knows the ways in which we think and do things which aren't right. The Lord weighs the heart. We can justify ourselves all we want but at the end of the day what do we do with our guilt? God knows our hearts.
We can't hide anything from him. Where will you go? I don't know about you, but the only place I can think about going is to Jesus Christ, who God weighed his heart and found nothing lacking. Verse three, to do righteousness and justice is far more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Now this is true. God wants us to do the right thing. God wants us to keep the moral law. God wants us to keep the law of works, as if we could.
It's better. It is better to do righteousness than to have sacrifice. It would have been better if Adam had never eaten of that silly fruit, and yet he did, and that's why there's sacrifices, but God would rather us do righteousness. And what a blessing it is to know that, yeah, we're not gonna do this perfectly, but you are no longer a slave to sin, but a slave to righteousness if you have faith in Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Christ lives in you, albeit imperfectly. What does Jesus say? If you love me, keep my commandments. Abide in Jesus Christ and do the righteous works that flow out of your heart of love for Christ.
Verse four, a haughty look, a proud heart, and the plowing of wicked are sin. A haughty look, a proud heart, and even the plowing of the wicked is sin. Now that's something that's worth unpacking here, right? So a haughty look, a prideful look, looking down your nose at other people, and a proud heart, you know, that exalts yourselves and everyone else should be underneath you. Those are wickedness. You want to know what else the Lord considers wicked? When a wicked person plows their field. Why? Because they do it for their own glory. They do it for their own pocketbooks. They do it for their own pride. They do it for their own prestige in the community. They do it because they want to have the bigger, better combine.
The bigger, better tractor. The bigger, better grain bin. and they will not give glory to God. The haughty, the proud heart, and even the plowing of the wicked are sin. Verse 5, the plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty surely to poverty. So when the diligent plan, they end up with plenty. But when The hasty person plans, it leads to poverty. Plan slowly, get counsel, don't rush into things, but think through the different aspects of things, and it will lead to better results.
Verse six, getting treasures by a lying tongue is the fleeting fancy of those who seek death. You want to die? Be a schemer and a liar. You want a quick way to end up having a horrible life? Scheme your way through it. Getting treasured by a lying tongue is the fleeting fancy of those who seek death. If you think you're going to gain the whole world because you're a smooth talker, you got something waiting for you. That's what the Lord is saying here. I know some of these things seem really harsh and pointed, but that's the point of the Proverbs. Proverbs are pointed sayings that will pierce us in the heart and try to direct us towards the path of life.
Verse seven, the violence of the wicked will destroy them because they refuse to do justice. They refuse to do justice and so what do they decide to do instead? The wicked decide to fight and fight and fight and fight and fight and fight and fight and fight and fight and they're consumed. Because justice doesn't look like that.
Verse eight, the way of a guilty man is perverse, but as for the pure, his work is right. So the way of the guilty man is perverse. The path that he walks leads to destruction. The way the guilty person goes is not the straight and narrow, not going after the ways of God, but instead is a crooked path that goes in the wrong direction.
But as for the pure, his work is right. As for the pure, they've listened to Psalm 119, where the psalmist asks, how can a young man cleanse his way by taking heed according to your word? With my whole heart I have sought after you. Let me not wander from your commandments. The pure person desires to follow after Christ. Verse nine.
Better to dwell in a corner of a housetop than a house shared with a contentious woman." For some guys, you know, the housetop is like the porch in the ancient Israel. You might say, if we were to put this proverb into our own day and age, we might say, it's better to just go keep working on the car in your garage and stay inside the house where your wife is just gonna nag at you all the time. Every time you do something wrong, it's just nitpicky, nitpicky, nitpicky, nitpicky, nitpicky. I will say that this is not just the wife though. This is a proverb and it can apply to both the wife and the husband.
I've known of husbands who are so particular in everything in their household that it drives their family to resentment. Do we show grace in our households? Are we willing to endure with one another's weaknesses? Are we constantly contentious? Will you live at peace with all men so long as it depends upon you? Will you follow us to the path of Christ, who should love and kindness to people who are always failing?
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. God, we pray that we would be those who would walk according to your paths. Give us wisdom. to go according to your ways in Jesus's name. Amen. Well may the Lord bless you. May you walk in the ways of Jesus Christ. May you look to him always for grace. And may the wisdom of God dwell richly in you. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
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.