He's back. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. It's so good to be back with you all. Thank you for waiting. Thanks for holding it down. I heard good things. You heard things because I listened to it. Did you? I did, yeah. Awesome. Not all, not every day, but I did check in to see what's this guy doing? We were just talking about Song of Solomon, which was yesterday's episode. And or two days ago, anyways. How did how did you think about Song of Solomon? What do you like about Song of Solomon? I love that it celebrates the relationship between a man and a woman. Yes. That's a good thing, man. And if here's the thing, say what you will about Song of Solomon. It is zesty and spicy in all the right ways. And it's a good reminder that marriage is meant to be physical for sure. As long as you can tolerate that, and I guess tolerates the wrong word, as long as you can enjoy it. Yeah. Sometimes it's a toleration because you have to push yourself to, to do the things that you know you should do and the things that you really wanna do as long as you can do it. You should do it totally and you should engage in that kind of physical relationship. But my struggle of course is I think the Song of Solomon has to must to point to Christ. Yeah. I just dunno how that fits. I think the disciples on the road to Emmaus when Jesus says, Hey, remember everything you read in the Old Testament? That points to me. I think that includes Song of Solomon. I just dunno how I understand there's a spiritual component in our earthly relationships are ultimately realized in our heavenly relationship. But Christ, I just don't know how to put those pieces together. So here's my 2 cents on it. And from that episode I stressed, one of the reasons why I'm okay with this being about the physical act and it's in the Bible is because. This is the greatest physical act between two people that exist on earth that can be enjoyed. Yes, exactly. Absolutely. And it's the definition, or at least a huge part of the definition physically. It is the definition of what makes two, one flesh. Okay. So then that connection of that intimacy is in my mind. Where the spiritual connection takes place, that as close as you can possibly get to another human being on earth and have that physical connection with them and the physical act representing the oneness of the two, that is what foreshadows our oneness with Christ, that there is no closer relationship that we will en enjoy with Christ then. Then is what is represented by this in this act. And I would amen that all over. And I think generally speaking, I would be inclined to agree with that. Where I struggle is where the fondling takes place. Let's just put that out there, just called, I just think, okay, I understand the idea, but let's, those two pieces they seem not to quite work in my mind. And that's why I would say, I think there's room to, to, in, in my mind at least, I think the primary emphasis of the book is the physical. Yes. And again, I'm okay with that because God is celebrating the act, right? Yes. That he designed for relation. Yes. So I don't know that we need to press every detail to say, how does this point to Jesus? I think the category helps us to understand our relationship with Jesus. I think the subject of the union between husband and wife helps us to understand our relationship with Jesus. I think the acts that are being depicted and described in the book, I don't think we need to take those and all analogize those out specifically to, okay, so what does that look like for my relationship with Jesus? That's where I'm like, I think it's the bigger picture of just the intimacy. Yeah. And I guess that's probably the best take and the best place to land. 'cause it doesn't do a mind very good to start saying, how does this work? I just think okay if it does point to him, the realization, the ultimate experience of that in Christ. Yeah. My mind can't help but ask the question. But you're right. It's probably best to just, to stay right there and just let it lie until either A, you're wiser, you have a much greater understanding and matchy of scripture, or you're in heaven and you finally get it. Yeah. Yeah. You're back though. You took. Some time away to yeah, only a week. People thought I was leaving for like forever. I know. I told Were you back already? No. Yeah, it was just a week. I told him that. I was like, he's gonna be gone for ages. For ages and now he's not coming back. People are like, why are you back? No. It almost like they weren't wanting me back, dude. No, it's so good though. We, everybody needs that. Everybody needs time to, to step away for a minute and to come back. Recharge. Yeah. Take a refresher. Yeah. And it was a good vacation 'cause you were ready to come back to work. I was so ready to come back. I miss I love my job. I was talking to somebody the other day. I was saying, man, I. I, I love what I do, and it's not, I don't see it as a drudgery sometimes. There's hard parts. There's parts of every job that people are like, ah, that's not my favorite part of it. And there's certainly parts here that are similar. And by and large, I love what I do. Yeah. I love that. I'm called to it, and I love, it's a privilege. It's a joy. It's a, it's a. Man. Just such a unique blessing that I get to enjoy as a man. It's one of my favorites. Yeah. We missed you on Sunday, man, but it was an awesome time at our new facility. I was air in spirit. Yeah. It was great. This is actually our first episode that's airing since we were there. Wow. So it was great. It was the facility showed up and it was everything that we wanted it to be. And more, I would say the facility showed up it was it was great. It was great. That's great to hear. Can't wait. I can't wait to see it. Yep. I'm all in ready to do it. Can't wait to drive there. My, my challenge is that I think my mind's gonna go on autopilot. I'm gonna drive to fca. You're SCO Frisco, right? Yeah. I'm hoping I make it to prosper on time. The drive to Prosper is better. It's nicer. Yeah. Did you take Outer Loopt or did you go down? I did not. You went down Preston Road? I took Frontier down to T Oh, okay. Yeah. Or Custer. And then I took Custer straight down. All. Yeah. I think my Google Maps took me down outer loop. Or at least on the way back. Yeah. When we went the last time, it took me back home ver via our loop. Okay. Yeah. I'm, I wouldn't, I guess you're in a different place than I'm, that makes sense. Yeah. A little bit further south because we were Yeah, that's right. Yeah. But yeah, it was awesome and it rained and so we enjoyed the overhang that kept us dry. So nice. So nice. It was, yeah. Good times. And it was so quiet, man. The air conditioner's not was just, I didn't hear it anyway. At some point you just stopped hearing things. So I never heard the air conditioner. When I heard it most, it was during our pre-service prayer with the other guys. 'cause we've got some quiet prayers during the pre-service prayer. Oh yeah. Garrett, we're looking at you, man. And we could hear. It was great. We heard everybody's prayers. Yeah. So I never, I still never heard it. Yeah. I just realized that I couldn't hear that person. I never associated it with the air conditioner, which makes sense. Confident you will. When we get to this, the new place, you'll be like, I'll see. Oh man. It's so much nicer. We'll see. Alright, let's jump into our Bible reading for today, Proverbs four, five and six. Chapter four. If I could summarize chapter four for us, it'd be this, no, no one becomes wise by accident. I think there, there's so many things in chapter four that are so helpful as reminders for us that we have to work to be wise. That it doesn't just happen by osmosis. You can't just find somebody who's wise and become wise just by hanging out with them. Now there's something to that and that's there's other. Proverbs that we'll talk about the companion of the wise becomes wise, like a men's retreat verse that we had a couple years ago now. But what I'm, what we're talking about in chapter four is you have to work at pursuing the wisdom that God wants you to have. In fact, that's verse seven. He says, if the beginning of wisdom is this, get it. It, which implies that you have to pursue it, that you don't have it, that you have to obtain it. And the reason why verse eight, because you need to prize wisdom. You need to embrace wisdom. You've got to verse 13, keep hold of, don't let it go. Meaning what? Meaning it. It will be fleeting if you do release your hold on it. If you're not working to keep it. If you're not working to maintain it. Then you're gonna end up drifting towards your default, which is going to be the foolishness of the flesh or the wisdom of the world. And so if you want the wisdom of God, I think chapter four says, you've got to go after it. Amen. And I love the, in the end of chapter four, verse 26, he says, ponder the path of your feet. I love this because he's encouraging Christians, believers, not Christians at this time, to make their feet level. In fact, that's what it literally says there. Make the path of your feet level. Carefully consider where to put your foot. We are in Dallas and I was in some of the places that you walk and be a bit, there's debris in the road, there's construction happening, so you gotta carefully look at where you walk. Otherwise you might trip and fall and hurt yourself and all those things. And life is not too dissimilar. Our job is to be careful about where we place our feet, where we place the weight of our lives upon. And of course, the call for us is not to do that. According to our own wisdom and understanding. That's what we saw in chapter three. We do it according to the wisdom that God offers. And so ponder the path of your feet. Then all your ways will be, sure, this is how we, this is how we navigate life by building our lives upon the rock, putting our foot upon the trustworthy words of scripture. Yeah, and I. Another verse to make note of here because one of the more famous ones in Proverbs is verse 23. Keep your heart with all vigilance for flow from it. Flow the springs of life. And so that fits in with what you were just talking about there, that this is how we guard our hearts. That's it. Sounds good to say I want to guard my heart. How do you do that? You do that through pursuing the wisdom of God. Alright, chapter five. Chapter five. We it hits one of the topics that we talked about on our men's retreat. And that is, we talked about being men of purity, men of godliness when it comes to sexual sexual morality, not immorality. We don't wanna be immoral, we wanna be moral in this regards chapter five, warning against adultery. And in this chapter to sum this one up, it basically, it comes down to this sexual sin is devastating. Always no exceptions to that clause. It's always devastating. And the author, Solomon, writing to his son goes through and talks about a lot, including verses three through six, how temptation lies. I talked about this on Sunday, that one of the ways for us to avoid temptation at the outset of that mountain path is to go to the end of the path. Where does it lead? Where am I gonna end up? And if we can pull back the curtain on temptation, then that's gonna help us avoid it. And here he's saying her lips drip with honey initially, but they conceal poison and her door looks like it's inviting except the, you walk in through that door and you end up down in the grave. So sexual sin is devastating always. It can't be tolerated in. Any shape or form. And that's verse eight. Keep your way far from her. Flee from her. It yields overwhelming regret verses 11 and 12. And then his alternative is, be satisfied with the gift of sex and the confines of marriage. Ge be satisfied with the wife of your youth. In other words, and remember verse 21, God watches over all our ways. Why do you think pr he throws that in there? That, that, that seems like it's maybe even a non-sequitur because it's okay, we're talking about sexual immorality here in adultery, and then all of a sudden there's this line God watches all of our ways. Why would this sin, would that be a relevant insert here? Because God sees not only the actual physical acts, but the crevices of our heart, this ought to sober you. I think the idea here is to help us understand that God is the one we live coram de before the face of God, and in this particular realm. It's easy to think. Nobody knows. It's easy to think you can conceal your sin, especially today when you actually, in some ways can cover your tracks, at least in a technical sense. You might be able to make sure your B browser has certain settings so that you can cover your ways. But your job is to remember that God's the one who's watching this. God's the one who not only watches but he I don't know how to talk about this other than how Song Solomon talks about it. He enjoys when people do the right thing. He's, he invented it, right? He designed it for it. He designed for it to be something pleasurable and satisfying and fun, even verse 19, to be intoxicated with it. There's something really good about enjoying and savoring and delighting in things that God meant to be savored, enjoyed and delighted in. Yeah. And he wants to see you do the right thing, and he takes great joy when people do it the way that they're supposed to, because it reflects his righteousness, it reflects his love for his people. And so that would be my initial 2 cents on that. Would you add anything to that? I think you're dead on that and that's where I was gonna go with that too. And especially in today's culture in society, when so much of this sin is pursued in private. The adultery of this day was you went to the house of the prostitute. You didn't go online to the chat room. This is, I think you're dead on, i, I this reminder that, hey, God watches your ways. There is no secrecy and this is a particular sin that, that we have to be on guard against in our society and not just men. We grew up in the area of youth groups where you'd split 'em up and you'd have the modesty talk for the girls and you'd have the purity talk for the guys. Yep. And never the two should meet between, and yet this is a sin. Is prevalent, not just with men anymore, but increasingly so with girls and women and you've seen that in student ministry over the years, I'm sure. And it's one that in verse 22 is enslaving and it says there the iniquities of the wicked ensnare him and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. This is in particular a sin that is very difficult to break free from. And the writer of Proverbs wants us to know, don't go there. Don't even begin to drift there because its end is never gonna be good. Yeah, the only strategy for the Christian is not minimizing, but abstaining. You are called to abstain from every form of sexual morality because God knows once the dopamine system is hijacked by this pernicious sin, it's really hard to break it. So God was wise to say this in scripture long before we knew about the neurochemistry that's behind it. But even more than that I love the positive. The negative is important. I. Don't do this, but the positive is so good. God is saying, Hey, instead of trying to enjoy this illicit pleasure, how about taking delight in the thing that I made you for enjoying it within the marriage context. And so we're gonna reaffirm to you, and I guess, let me just say one more thing too. Ladies may not engage in the actual act that the men, the man does. He's more allured by things like that. Her thing might be in a book. She might be really interested in reading certain kinds of novels or certain kind of literature or even imagining certain kinds of things that are basically the same. Just different, a different, the same. Ladies, even though you might not find yourself in Proverbs chapter five, immediately be wary because your own heart might be pulled into something as pernicious, as evil, just in a different light. So just even though this is written to a young man, they have certain struggles that make this make sense. But so do you and it's wise to know your own self and if you're into some of those novels that draw your head and heart away I think that's the same category. Totally. I would call that the same thing. Yeah. And that's why Jesus goes after the heart with this issue. He says, you've heard it commanded, do not commit adultery. And all the Pharisees are sitting out there going, check. I haven't done that. Yeah. He's saying, but I tell you, anyone who looks with lust in their heart, so the issue is the lust of the heart. And you're right, whether it's something visual or something that we're reading if the lust of the heart is inflamed, then we're there. We're, we've transgressed where. We shouldn't transgress. Yeah. Or audio podcasts. Yeah. Books on online where again, we're just trying to make the point that any form and to go back to my major point abstinence is the call for the Christian. Yeah. First Thessalonians chapter four that you abstain from sexual morality. That's the goal. Yeah. Total denial because otherwise even just a little bit our sin nature loves to capitalize on that little bit. So don't even allow a foot in the door. Abstinence is the best practice. And maybe to tie this back in even more, one more ly deep with the Song of Solomon there I, I'm thinking about. Maybe you're out there and you're single and you've been single your whole life, or you're single now and you're going, okay, what about me? You're saying that the answer there, the positive side is to enjoy the wife or the spouse that, that God has given to you. What if I don't have a spouse? What do I do in this situation? And that's where I do think there's a category wherein God gives you the grace to find satisfaction in Christ that is better than satisfaction from. This earthly relationship even. And again, that's the connection back to Song of Solomon. I think it points to a greater relationship, a greater intimacy, a greater satisfaction that's ours in Christ. It doesn't remove the longing, it doesn't remove the desire. But I do think there's still hope for that person that this is not necessary for the Christian life. You don't have to have this to be a satisfied person and a satisfied follower of Jesus. And I say that fully understanding that you may be saying it's easy for you to say because you are married. Granted in, in, in point, seated. However, I think what the Bible teaches is that there is satisfaction to be found there. I think the Apostle Paul's a great example of that, being able to say, you know what? Rather than bemoaning my lack of companionship, I'm looking at my life going, look how much time God has given me to focus on serving him and given myself over to the pursuit of the Lord. Be encouraged if that's where you are right now, that your life is not missing something that you need in order to be fully satisfied or fully competent to be used by God. In fact, Paul would argue you've got more ground and more potential to be used by God because you are free to, to pursue that. So I know that doesn't. That, that's a lousy bandaid in some regards. But at the same time, we need to think right thoughts and true thoughts about about our status. Amen to that. Don't forget Jesus was single, contrary to some of the myths about Jesus having Mary as his wife. That's not true. No, there's nothing in scripture that would suggest even the remotest possibility of that. Instead, he was single and perfectly satisfied, perfectly happy to be. All that God wanted him to be and to do all that God wanted him to do. And if Jesus can do it and this is what God has called you to, then certainly you can do it as well. But that, that warning that is even more important for us. Scripture calls us to abstinence and. Even within the marriage context, abstinence from illicit sexual immorality is the call. And that's the necessity for all of us. Yeah. Alright, let's jump to chapter six then. Chapter six comes in, in, in two kind of distinct sections here. The first half, which is verses one through 20, contains more general proverbs, which is gonna be a lot of what we're gonna get to starting in chapter 10. Really. And just advice for life in general. And so he talks about things like avoiding foolish financial dealings in the first six verses there, working hard and avoiding sloth avoiding the deceitful liar. And then these seven abominations things that God hates. That's the first half. The second half then returns to this subject of sexual immorality, specifically adultery again. And here in, in this section he highlights in verses 23 through 25. And this is super helpful, that God's word is. Key to victory in this regard. The commandment is a lamp in the teaching, a light that reproves of discipline, the way of life to preserve you, to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth of the smooth tongue of the adulterers. Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes. And so if this is a particular battle for you, this is a great place to start is realizing, man, God's word is key for this. How can a young men keep his way pure by keeping it according to your word? Yeah. And then the chapter ends with the warning that adultery will be, find out, found out in the consequences will indeed be dire. I love the proverbs. So helpful. So pithy. My only complaint is that we go, so go so quickly through them. We do that. I just feel man I wanna soak this up a little more. Yeah. And that's why I issued the challenge a few days ago when we first started going through the proverbs to say, maybe you just wanna take one chapter a day, one chapter a day. I heard you say that. Yep. And and marinate in it, and that's a good thing to, to do. Yeah. When I was younger, my dad suggested to me that I read one chapter a day, every day for the rest of my life. And the chapter according to the day. So today's. June 3rd as we record he would say, read chapter three. Yep. That was one thing that my dad taught me that I never forgot. And I thought that was good. And I did that for a season and I really did enjoy it. Yeah, it was fantastic. It's so helpful. It's kinda like a meta approach to life where it's go get wisdom, get knowledge. How do I do that? I go through scripture. So it's an encouragement to read more of the Bible and to get more of God's word. Which is always a good posture to have. It is. It is. Let's pray. God, we we want that posture. We want to always be dependent upon your word and not the wisdom of men. And so we thank you that we have your word in written form that we can study, and I just pray that our time in the prove proverbs would be rich, that we would glean wisdom as we go through these chapters, albeit more quickly. God I pray that we would. Grab some and meditate on them throughout the day. In that if there's areas of our life that are particularly where we need to repent or we need to return to you, even as we talked about on Sunday, that you would use this book to highlight those areas and draw us back to you through your words. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Keep reading your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. We shall see you. Bye.

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. Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said