Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. It is just I today and for the next two weeks. Pastor PJ is out on vacation, which means you and I will be able to spend a lot more time together and hopefully we can make it something good and helpful to you as you continue along in your daily Bible reading. In fact, here's something interesting. I know that while Pastor PJ is gone, he's still going through his daily Bible reading, which I would encourage you to do the same. Whether you're on vacation or if it's just a normal week, spending time in the word is O so important and O so worth the benefits. It calibrates, it clarifies, it helps create good things for the rest of your day. So I'm grateful that you're here with me and I would encourage you to spend time in your Bible every single day, regardless of what's happening in your life. Always gonna be worth it. Always gonna be valuable. In fact, one of the best things, perhaps one of the best things, although there's several, is that you get wisdom from the Bible and where better to get wisdom than from the Proverbs. And so we're gonna look at Proverbs 27, 28, and 29 today. So follow along with me. If you have your Bible, there's a couple I'd like to point out to your attention as you make your way through some of the final proverbs that we're gonna look at starting in chapter 27. Proverbs 27, 1 of the first things that you'll read here is it says, do not boast about tomorrow. For you. Do not know what a day may bring. And if you know your Bible, maybe this reminds you of something that James, the brother in in the flesh of Jesus also said about this. He said in James chapter four, verse 13, come now, you who say today or tomorrow will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and will trade and make a profit. In verse 14, James says, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. And so James makes a point here that Proverbs says, in fact, James is called the Proverbs of the New Testament because of how many parallels there are in the way that he writes, and in the Proverbs themselves. And the proverbs tell us not to boast about tomorrow, not to assume or presume upon the next day. And I think one of the challenges with living in a modern America with so many different technologies and advantages is we might accidentally do this. We're not intending to be boastful, but we end up looking at tomorrow and the next week and the next six months and the next year, and we make all these huge plans. It's not bad to plan. Fact. Scripture would call us to the prudence of planning, but there is a kind of planning that just takes no account of the Lord, takes no consideration about what God has on our agenda. In fact, a long time ago, I learned to pray a prayer that I would be open to God's secret agenda for my life. There's the agenda that I create. I book my calendar. I plan for certain people to come in at certain times, but God's the one who often will drop things into my calendar. Apart from my awareness or apart from my. Auth authority. He'll put things on my schedule that I never planned for, and we ought to be open to that. This is the kind of humility that you and I have to have when we're making plans. It's op. It's opening our hands to the Lord and saying, Lord, put in my hand what you want. Take it from my hand. Anything you want out of it. It's the ability to plan with an open hand and an open heart recognizing that God's the one who controls our steps. He's the one who ordains the end from the beginning. In fact, you might remember several chapters ago now, I think it was in chapter 16. That we realized that God's the one who plans our steps. In fact, he says this, the plans of a heart, rather, the plans of the heart belong to man. But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord, which is to say, we may plan what we're gonna say. We may decide what we're gonna do, but ultimately, God's the one who's controlling in ordaining our steps. And verse nine of chapter 16, it says this, the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. So Proverbs 27 verse one, encourages us to plan with an open hand. And to prayerfully commit our work to the Lord and to recognize that he's the one ultimately who decides what's going to happen. So I would encourage you as you're planning your day to day, to plan with humility, let the Lord lead you. Let the Lord put plans on your agenda that you didn't plan for, and let him take things away as he pleases. Speaking of the things on your agenda, maybe you are planning on having lunch with a friend or planning on texting somebody and following up and seeing how they're doing. Proverbs chapter 27, verses five and six, are one of my favorites because it reminds me of how valuable a really good and true friend is. Here's what it says, better is open rebuke than hidden Love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but profuse are the kisses of an enemy. This reminds us that there's a kind of friend who's willing to get into our kitchen, a friend who's willing to get into our grill, a friend who's willing to say the hard thing. I learned recently that there's a phrase that some people will utilize. To get the truth out of people, they'll say, what's the last 2%? In other words, 98% of the situation, the product launch, the meeting, the event. 98% of it can be dealt with honestly, and can be said truthfully. There's things that everybody notices, but there's always a last 2% and the 2% that maybe everybody sees, but nobody wants to say. Inviting a friend in your life to say, gimme the last 2% is so helpful. And it's so refreshing because that person is the one who truly loves you. The person who's willing to tell you the most truth is a friend who is truly a friend. Indeed, they're the one who are willing to have open rebuke. They're willing to call you out because they love you. They're willing to say, warning, you're in a bad place. Or Danger, what you just said was unhelpful, or whatever it is. Friends are willing to stab you in the front. An enemy, on the other hand, multiplies kisses, that'll tell you all the things that you want to hear. They'll flatter and they'll tell you what is nice, but they're not gonna tell you the thing that you really need to hear. You need a friend who's gonna give you the last 2%, find that friend and never let them go. There's lots of things in Chapter 27. I'm sure you're gonna find helpful and refreshing. Spend time with these things. They're so good. Proverbs chapter 28. Starting again at verse one, the wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. But what this tells us is that there's a kind of life where you don't have to wait for the other shoe to drop. There's a kind of life that where you live by integrity. You're never having to look over your shoulder to wonder when you're gonna be found out or when the issue's gonna come to the surface. And this is a good life. This is the kind of life that God blesses. While the wicked are always looking over their shoulder, they're always on edge, wondering when they're gonna be found out. The Christian is two things. Number one, living with authenticity. They're living with integrity, and therefore they're as bold as a lion. Who they are is who they are. You're not gonna find an ulterior personality behind closed doors. You're not gonna find someone who's acting one way at church and acting another way at home. You're finding someone that genuinely is who they are. In fact, I think this pairs really well with verse 13. It says this, whoever conceals his transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. This is the Old Testament version of one John one, nine. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and it cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so let Proverbs 28 encourage you to live a life of integrity and living a life of integrity is not living a life of perfection. None of us can do that. None of us have the ability to walk without a misstep. None of us have the ability to talk without stumbling over our words. In fact, all of us know what it is to stumble and fall. And to be embarrassed by that perhaps. But scripture calls us not to perfection, but to the direction of godliness, to the direction of holiness. And what that means is that we don't conceal our transgression. We don't hide the things that are true about us. And that includes even the ugly things, the dirty things, confessing our sins, forsaken them in honestly, authent, authe, authentically. Owning the things that are true about us, and that includes even the ugly parts. Here's something that stood out to me that I really want you to see. Look at verse 17, Proverbs 28, verse 17. And it says this, if one is burdened with the blood of another. He will be a fugitive until death. Here's something that's fascinating. It says this, let no one help him. Now, most Christians if we're honest with ourselves, we think God calls us to help everybody. And I guess in a way that's true. But notice here in verse 17, it says that no one should help this person who is burdened with the death of another. They've committed murder. And so their conscience is burdened by something, namely the death of this person. And scripture's calling us not to participate in alleviating that burden. It would be unjust of us. It would be wrong of us to help this person, even though they're burdened in their conscience for this. In fact, we would say the only way that a Christian could help is to call that person to repent and to submit themselves to the authorities. What this tells us is that there is a time and a place wherein we should not seek to comfort and console somebody. Just the fact that the category exists ought to help us think carefully about the way that we love others, that we don't. Carte blanche offer love and forgiveness in the way that most people define those terms. I. Our job is to think carefully about the way that love operates in all these various circumstances, and there are times and places when we ought not to be helpful in the ways that you normally are being helpful. In this particular case, again, would be saying, come to repentance. Repent of your sin. Turn yourself in, and let the law handle you as it should. Let there be justice. That's a helpful reminder for us. Love is a little more complicated than just saying be nice to people. A Christian understanding of the world and a Christian understanding of the Bible tells us that there's actually a lot more to it than just being kind to people. Verse 18, since we're here and we're talking about integrity, it says Whoever walks in integrity will be delivered, but he who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall. That is to say that if someone is living a life that is duplicitous where there's hypocrisy, they should expect that someday things will be revealed. One way or another, God will showcase who is honest and true and those who are not. That's a good reminder for us and a good warning on top of that. Proverbs chapter 29. We're still looking at the words that Hezeki has been compiled. I remember a couple chapters ago, you may remember this we started into a section of the proverbs that are not directly written by Solomon. We find that in chapter 25, these are the Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah copied. And so perhaps Solomon had a stash of these listed somewhere else. He wrote them down on some papyrus and shoved them under his bed. We don't know where they were, but Hezekiah's men found them, copied them in order to preserve them. And so we're continuing now at chapter 29. A couple passages here in chapter 29 that are good. Look at verse 15 with me. The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Now, sometimes you'll see this, the proverbs will talk about the mother or the father, and it seems to isolate one or the other. Is there a difference? Is there some kind of secret meaning behind the mother verse, the father? I think the short answer is no. The idea here is that it's a parent. It is the parents as a whole. It's one referencing both of them. You're referencing one, although you intend to include both. And so the idea in verse 15 is that the rod and reproof that is the stick the rod, and. Verbal correction, give wisdom, which is to say you need both. You can't have one or the other. You need both of them together. Scripture commends the use of corporal punishment, and it's the idea that you issue physical pain and verbal correction and teaching to help fill out the whole picture for them. So obviously there's ways to do this wrong. There are ways where it turns into something more than helpful, loving correction applied in a right way. And we're not talking about that. We're not saying that you should abuse anybody, but scripture does say that the rod inner proof, the stick and the verbal correction give wisdom. But a child left to himself brings shame, which is to say, this is what it looks like to not neglect your child. This is what it looks like to raise them in the fear and instruction of the Lord. Correction and direction verse 18. Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. This tells us that the word of God has to play a central role in the life of God's people. Or it's very possible that God's people cast off restraint. They go off and do what they wanna do. They unleash themselves to do all kinds of evil. God doesn't want us to do that, and therefore we need the prophetic vision. We need God's word to direct us and to guide us, and which is why it's so important that we're in it every day. This bears repeating over and over again. You're gonna hear it from me. You're gonna hear it from Pastor pj. We're never gonna stop telling you because it's just so helpful for you. That's Proverbs 29. There's a ton here that we could talk about, but I'll keep it there for you. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. We'd love to hear from you, and in fact, even though Pastor P's not here, you're still welcome to text him if you have his information or email him, let him know that you miss him and that you hope that he comes back refreshed and ready to engage. But until tomorrow, thank you for joining me. I hope you'll read your Bible continually and that you'll join me again tomorrow for another edition. I'll see you then.

Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said thanks for listening to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about ourChurch@compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review to rate to share this podcast on whatever platform you happen to be listening on, and we will catch you against tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.