Proverbs 21:10-19

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, hey, 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 will make it through all of the wisdom literature. Well, I'm so glad to have you here with us today. We're at Proverbs chapter 21. Why don't we 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. Sharp, powerful, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts. God, we pray that you would use it this day to teach us and conform us to your image. In Jesus's name, Amen. All right, here we go. Let's turn over in our Bibles. I'll put it up on the screen here. We're at Proverbs chapter 21. Verses 10 through 19.
The soul of the wicked desires evil. His neighbor finds no favor in his eyes. The soul of the wicked desires evil. Longs for evil. And what is evil? Hating God and hating our neighbor. Instead of loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourself, Evil looks like loving ourselves rather than our neighbor, loving our ways rather than God's ways.
And so here the soul of the wicked desires evil, his neighbor finds no favor in his eyes. Even though he lives near him, even though he interacts with him, there's not favor in his eyes. Why? Because his heart is desiring what he wants. Do you desire your neighbor's good or do you desire your own? It's hard. I'd invite you to ask yourself.
Verse 11, when the scoffer is punished, the simple is made wise, but when the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge. So the scoffer is punished, and the simple is made wise. That's what happens, a scoffer, someone who just, yeah, whatever, they're gonna be punished. The simple, they're made wise, but when the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.
When the wise person is shown their wrong ways, what do they do? They gain understanding. They gain knowledge. They know, okay, next time here's what I'm going to do. Next time I know this is how I'm to walk before the Lord. This is how I'm supposed to love my neighbor. This is how I'm supposed to please God.
Verse 12, the righteous God wisely considers, sorry, the righteous, God wisely considers the house of the wicked, overthrowing the wicked for their wickedness. God judges with a perfect judgment. God judges with a righteous judgment. God is omniscient and he judges with an all-knowing judgment. God is the one who is able to judge righteously the wicked. because he knows what is righteousness. Verse 13, whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard. If you see those who are poor and you shut your ears to them, what is the promise that this gives you?
This is scary. Will also cry himself and not be heard. We were in Atlanta, Olivia and I, not too long ago. And as we were there, man, we saw a lot of poor people. It's one of the things that honestly I enjoy about living in the country. I don't see a terrible amount of abject poverty. But when the poor cry out, We need to care for them.
And yet, when we were in Atlanta, see, Olivia and I have this policy. We lived in Pittsburgh before, and this is where I developed this policy. When we were poor, when we had almost nothing, I had no money to just stop at a gas station or something and grab some food.
All I had to eat was, I was leaving seminary, and all I had to eat was an orange I had just enough money to get me to the house, and all I had was my orange. And there was a homeless guy, and he said, hungry. and on his little signs I thought okay well I'll give him my orange. And the guy smiled and he said thank you and I drove a little bit more towards the stop light and I looked in my rear view mirror and I thought oh thank you Lord that at least he'll be filled. You want to know what he did with my orange?
He threw it in the bushes. It was that day that I realized I'm not going to give money to anyone. What he really wanted was money. But the reality is he lied and he said he was poor. And in that he, you know, he's told from me, we got a visitor. Oh, Elbel. Hi. I did go potty. You went potty and you came back up? Oh, good. Well, it's good.
We're talking about poor people and how we need to care for poor people. So what I'm trying to say is don't shut your heart off to the poor, but be wise with them as well. Verse 14, a gift and secret pacifies anger and a bribe behind the back, strong wrath. Again, this is just the writer of Proverbs, Solomon, just telling the truth. A lot of people get away with a lot of stuff by bribery and corruption. Verse 15, it is a joy for the just to do justice, but destruction will come to the workers of iniquity. Allie, do you think God likes when people do evil things? No, but people who love God, do you think they like doing good things? Mm-hmm, that's right. Verse 16, you ready?
A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead. Oh, oh, that's really, that's an ugly picture. You want to know what that picture means? Can I tell you what that picture means? That picture means that if you don't like listening to God, guess where, guess where all your friends are going to be? Dead people. Is that a pretty picture or kind of a scary picture? Yeah, it's a scary picture, that's right, yeah.
So it is a joy for the just to do justice, right? But destruction comes to the workers of iniquity. Well, verse 17, let's see what verse 17 says. He who loves pleasure, he who loves pleasure, guess what he'll be? A poor man. Yeah, he who loves pleasure will be a poor man and he who loves wine and oil will not be rich. Mm-hmm. If you eat candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, all day long, every day, do you think you're going to have a happy heart? No. No, you sure won't. That's right.
He who loves pleasure will be a poor man. It's one of those deceitful things in our society that we see on TV. People who really like money and fancy things and guess what they get at the end of it? Well on TV it looks all great but in reality you get poverty. My belly hurts. Your belly hurts? Are you going to be okay? Oh, and your coal. You want to just snuggle with me? Okay. Let's go ahead and read verse 18.
The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous and the unfaithful for the upright. The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous and the unfaithful for the upright. At the end of the day, the Lord's going to make everything right. At the end of the day. The righteous are going to be vindicated and the wicked are going to pay.
Verse 19, better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman. I'm so mad. I'm just going to fight more. I just want to cause fights. Anybody like living in a house with someone like that? No. No. Do we like living in houses with people who love us? Mm-hmm. But if somebody's always kind of being mean and harsh and stuff, do we like being in their house? Mm-mm. No way. No way. Hey, do you want to pray today? Would you like me to pray? Okay, let's pray.
God, we thank you so much for this day. And we thank you for your word. Lord, we pray that you would let us follow after you and walk in your ways. Please care for us and teach us all that you would have us to do. Give us your spirit that we might actually do it. In Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. May you always follow him. We'll see you tomorrow. Can you say 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.