Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hey. Happy Saturday and men, we hope that you're gonna be at Men's Bible study today. I also hope that Mark's gonna be at Men's Bible Study today. Yes, we do. Because Mark is the preacher for men's Bible study today. That's right. At least in theory, he is in theory, but he and Julie are also pregnant. And as far as I know, last time he and I talked, they're on the cusp of having that baby. And whether Mark delivers or she delivers, we're not sure yet. I don't think he, they're both pregnant. They're both pregnant. I don't think so. Fuck. People take issue with me whenever I do this and I think the two are one. I'm just saying what scripture says. They are pregnant together. It is as much Mark's baby as it is Julius baby. Yes. Even if she's carrying it. But Mark is incapable of being pregnant. No one who hears that. Thinks that, I intend to say that in our culture, that's not true in our, I'm saying in our Christian context, the people that I'm saying this to are not people that are saying, oh, is Mark identifying as something else? But we're posting this out on the Innerwebs When for a Christian audience, for believers who are listening to it. But AI is out there, man. And who knows what AI is gonna do with that? I'm I, just to be clear, I do not think that Mark can have a baby. Okay. Unless you qualify a sermon as a baby. And again, to bring this back around, I'm hoping he can deliver The baby called his sermon this Saturday morning. This got really weird. And if not, I'm gonna have to deliver a baby on the quick. This is, this got even weirder. Yeah, so men, you should be there. This was at minimum to see either Mark have a baby or me have a baby. Yikes. All I gotta say is this is really inconsiderate of Julia to go into labor right around him preaching in men's Bible study. She ought to be confronted is what I think. I think so too. I'm just gonna say let's be gracious. Let's confront her after she has the baby. Because we value our lives well on that. Yeah. Among many things. Yeah. If she's incapacitated, maybe at the hospital when she's holding Warren in her arms, we could say, Hey, it was really inconsiderate for you to do this. We really have appreciated. If you did this at a different time, especially if she has like IVs and then she can't come after us. Exactly. Yeah. She's bedridden for a few days. Yeah. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if Julie's I got this. Hold this baby for me. Mark gets up. Works you over. We'll send Louis. Oh, okay. Anyways, yeah, no, man. We want you there on Saturday for men's Bible study. Today for men's Bible study. Should be a great time as we continue our study of the qualifications of a godly man, which are yes, the qualifications of an elder. But again, as you've heard us say multiple times that we believe these are qualifications that. Every man of God should be striving after and to exemplify in their lives. Some character related ones, I think that Mark is gonna be covering or you're gonna be covering today. One of us will one of us will. And it should be a, a good time and good discussion afterwards oh, for sure. Yeah, I was just talking to Mark about these qualities. They're fun there, there are a lot of fun to think through, to apply. You'd be crazy not to go to this thing and we're gonna have some breakfast there for you, so please register if you haven't already. We're doing breakfast burritos again. Yes, but not from Valerie's oof chick. Sadly not. Yes. Okay. I don't know if we're doing breakfast burritos. I know it's Chick-fil-A though. Okay. And here's the reason why. 'cause I know some of you're caring about this. 'cause I care about, I want good food there too, right? There's, there are a few places that are willing to be open that early for us, right? And since we meet early, we need to have it early. It's just Chick-fil-A's the best deal in the game right now. Yep, that's true. Jordan Low though. He, for setup a few weeks ago, brought McDonald's breakfast burritos. Oh, they were good. They're good, man. They're okay. So McDonald's breakfast. Top notch. It's so good. I can't find a better breakfast sandwich. Especially the McGriddle. Ooh, no, that is so good. Sausage McMuffin with egg. It's great. No, I, yeah, a hundred percent. I love that too. Yeah, I could eat like 10 of each of those. Yes. So good. Yeah. And yeah, we shouldn't. Shouldn't do that. Yep. All right. Let's jump into our text today. We're still in the book of Proverbs, and we are in chapters 13, 14, and 15. And if you were with us yesterday, we're gonna embrace the same style here again, because we're not dealing with thematic chapters, and so we can't say chapter thirteen's about the theme and subject of finances and chapter. Fourteen's about the theme and subject of, how to treat your spouse, and so forth and so on. We're gonna highlight some nuggets here as we go through. One that, that stood out to me in chapter 13 verse four. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. This is not just referring to. The desires, the fleshly desires. This is referring to something spiritual, that there is a spiritual component to Slothfulness and there's a spiritual component to diligence that is is worthy of our being made aware of and paying attention to. We want to not only crave things physically, but spiritually, there's something about that, that we have to be careful against, spiritual sloth and and make sure that we are pursuing a spiritual diligence as well. Amen to that. Verse 11 says, wealth gain, hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. And I think this makes a really good case for slowly learning how to build financial discipline. And that would include us and of course include our kids. Some people suggest giving kids an allowance to help them learn how to utilize the money that God gives them, but whatever you. Whatever you think about this, getting rich quick is a bad move, not just because it's often accompanied by circumstances that are risky and inherently unwise, but on top of that, because if you get it. If you're one of those people that play the lottery and you strike it rich, you're gonna be potentially qualified for verse 11. Wealth gain, hastily will dwindle and that's true. Have you ever heard of the lottery winner's curse? Yep. Most of them die and lose it all, which is terrible. That's sad. We don't want that. Scripture's wisdom is, look, if you're gonna have wealth, you need to learn how to utilize it. Need to learn how to wield the tool. 'cause that's ultimately what it is. It's a tool to be wielded and therefore, learning how to wield it requires. His financial sense and financial muscles. So verse 11, such a good verse. Yeah. Yeah. Let me back up to verse six. Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but sin overthrows the wicked. Notice that sin is the actor here. Our sin is that which reveals and exposes us and brings destruction upon us. And so when we look at, and we talked about this a little bit last week, again, when you look at that sin, that at the outset looks so appealing, looks so tempting, we need to remember a verse like Proverbs 13, six. That sin is that which overthrows. It's victim is the wrong word. 'cause that makes us passive. It, it overthrows the wicket, the evil the sinner. And so we need to look at sin for its true nature, it is destructive and we need to avoid it. I'm gonna do what you did. I'm gonna do it even further. Chapter 13 verse. Three. You're like, let's go back to chapter 12 from yesterday. We're gonna jump back all let's jump's back even further. I'm just kidding. I don't wanna do that. We would be remiss not to include verse 20 here. Whoever walks at the wise becomes wise, but a companion or the companion of fools will suffer harm. Sounds like a good men's retriever. We should do this one. This would be good. Maybe a t-shirt. I would be fantastic. Okay. Proverbs 1320. Let's put it right on the front of it. Yeah. Green walking with the wise means we become like the people that we spend the most time with. And so this is one of those verses that remind us that who you give your life to. With your time, your energy and your resources is going to inevitably shape you into a kind of person. And if you're with wise people, and if you're with wise resources like your Bible or with Wise readings from people who wrote about the Bible, you're gonna become wise. But spending time around the. The Companion of Fools Becoming a Companion of Fools. And there's a lot of ways to do that in your music, your podcast, your movie, watching choices. Spending time with fools will result in harm to your own life. So again, Solomon talking to his son, be wise. Spend time around people who are wise and you'll be like them. Spend time around those who are foolish and suffer, and sadly, you will suffer for that consequence. Yeah. Verse 24 is one that is again, thematically. Gonna show up time and time again in the book of Proverbs, and that is the subject of disciplining our children. Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. And this is this is one of those things that's real hard for especially first time parents. Because that kid is so cute and, cuddly and they're the baby for the longest time. And then there's that. When do we get into the stage of disciplining them and what does that look like and how do we do this? Yep. Talking to new parents and others that have said, Hey, how do you keep your toddler or the one that's just learning how to do things from doing the same thing over and over again when you tell them, no, don't do that. You begin to afflict and inappropriate measure the rod. And that teaches, that corrects, that disciplines the child and that is gonna, graduate over time as that child gets older. And eventually you're going to even move beyond physical discipline when your son's a teenager and it's too hard to get him over your knee anymore, dude. But the point is that we need to afflict some sort of pain because pain teaches. And that is a biblical principle. That is not something for us to be embarrassed by, but it's a truth, it's an act of love to inflict harm, to inflict pain in appropriate measure. To teach our children. Don't do that because it's bad for you to do that. Yeah. You might have heard the phrase, spare the rod, spoil the child. That is not a biblical phrase in that's not the verse. This is the verse. Yeah. This is the one that you've heard of. At least people will truncate it and try to make it more pithy and more proverbial than it already is. But whoever spares the rod hates his son. This is a call, by the way. This is what God does for us. If you're his child he doesn't spare the rod for you. He disciplines you because he's a father who delights in his children, and every father and mother who cares about their kids will do this because this is what God the preeminent father does for us. So this is a loving thing to do. And that also will preclude then that you're doing this in anger or that you're doing this because you are frustrated or because you are embarrassed. This is an act of love for the child. Yeah. And not a, an act or a reaction in anger or hostility. Yeah. Chapter 14, verse two says, whoever walks in uprightness fears the Lord. We're gonna talk about the fear of the Lord this coming Sunday, tomorrow. But he who is devious in his ways, despises him. So two things on about that, especially the second part. Here he is devious. That word means to try to hide from someone's sight, to go off track something that is crooked or cunning. So when we conceal our sin or when we think that we are sinning in secret again, we have to remember that the eyes of the Lord roam to and fro the eyes of the Lord are always we're living corrum deo before the eyes of God at all times. And when we are devious in our ways, we despise. God. And I think none of us in our hearts as believers would say that we hate the Lord or we despise the Lord. And yet the way that we act, when we give quarter to sin in our life is to do just that. It's just to despise the Lord and thinking that we are concealing a wicked or evil way from him. It's almost a double layer there We're sinning against him by thinking that he doesn't know, and we're also sinning against him in the act itself. And so that's a, a sobering verse in verse two, for sure. Verse 12. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. This is why we do the Bible podcast. We want to know what God's word says. Oh, we don't wanna be entrusting our own senses or our own wisdom. We don't want to give ourselves only to either artificial or well human intelligence. We wanna trust divine intelligence and we need God's word to do that. And the reason I wanna highlight this well-known passage is because God says it twice, and if he says it twice, I had to listen. Pretty closely to it. So you're gonna see this one again in two chapters. There's a way that seems right to amen, but its end is the way to Death is also found in chapter 16, verse 25. Yeah, chapter 13 is an interest, or verse 13 is an interesting one we just talked about Chapter 13, verse 13. Even in laughter, the heart may ache. And the end of joy may be grief. Sorrow and joy can coexist in a person. And I think that just is a good reminder to go a little bit deeper. You may see somebody at Sunday that gives you the surface answer and looks like they've got a smile on their face. And I think it's wise of us to probe a little bit deeper, to ask good questions, diagnostic questions. And yeah we should let our yes. Be yes and our no, be no. As we talk with people at church and not try to put on a fake face 100, but say what you mean to say. But John Mayer. We also should be willing to dig a little bit deeper because sometimes the, what presents initially is not really what's going on in a person's life. There are a ton of things that I have in chapter 13, so I'm just gonna, or chapter 14 too. 14 is what I meant to say. Yeah. So I will I'll stop talking 'cause there's a lot here that I wanna talk about. There, there is a lot. I think it would be good for us to hit on verse 14. Let's do it. The Backslider. How about after that? We do verse 15, 16, 17. 18. 18 and 20. Yeah. Since we've just been going in order, basically just read the whole thing. Yeah. The backslider sometimes. Part of someone's testimony. We'll talk about, man I was backsliding, backslidden 25 years. Yeah. For such a long time. I think it, we need to be soberly attentive to the way that the Bible describes the backslider and there's other situations. But look, just at this verse right here, the backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways. A good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways. And so here, if we think about the book of Proverbs, the backslider is playing the fool. In verse 14, the backslider is contrasted with the good man. In, in, in other passages, the good man is contrasted with the fool. And so here the backslider is the fool. He is the. Evil person in this scenario. And his fruit is the fruit of wickedness, the fruit of his evil ways. And yet the good man is contrast. It will be filled with the fruit of his good ways. And so I think it's helpful for us to be. To just take an honest assessment of the backsliding period of time that we will often attach to our lives and be like, okay, were you backslidden or were you unregenerate? And because a lot of times there's that moment that's after the backsliding that somebody's and then I came back to the Lord at this moment, and that's when my life totally changed and I was of a devoted fellow of Christ. It's or. That's when you got saved. And this backsliding wasn't really that you were backsliding in the sense that you were still saved and drifting. It's, you were backsliding, you were drifting far away from the Lord because you weren't with the Lord to begin with. And I think in verse 14, he's contrasting the backslider with the good person, which would imply that the backslider is the evil person in this context, I think. Yeah, absolutely. I think you and I are on the same page about this. When we would take issue with the usage of the word backslider as it applies to a Christian today. Sure. And part of the reason why is because you don't see this in the New Testament. The word was distinct to Old Testament Israel. The backslider was the rebel, the one who was going the wrong direction. And as we believe in a disparate we believe in differences in the covenants, we would say that the backslider might have been a term that was utilized in Old Testament Israel, but you don't see it in the New Testament. What you have are disciples. You have goats, you have sheep, you have those who are on the right, who are righteous, those who are on the left, who are wicked. And so it's a little clearer for us. Even though you might have a period of rebellion that period of rebellion we, I would be hesitant to utilize a term backslider. I'd be much more comfortable saying You were rebelling against the Lord and whether that communicates you were right with him and rebelling, or whether you are wrong with him and just enjoying your rebellion. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. The Lord does, but I don't think backsliders a very helpful term. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. There's a lot more to your point in chapter 14, note in verse 21, whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is the one who is generous to the poor. We're gonna talk about that on Sunday as well. We're talking about justice in the book of Amos, and so we're gonna be diving into a little bit of our relationship to that. So there's a little bit of a teaser for you to show up tomorrow at church. In fact, we may even hit on Proverbs 1421. Certainly during your community groups, you probably will. But yeah, there's a lot of good rich truths here in Proverbs chapter 14. Any before we move on to 15 that you're like, Hey, we have to hit this one. I tried to get us back to 15 a few minutes ago. Okay, fine. Let's go on to 15. Pastor Rod's done with the Bible. He doesn't wanna talk about it anymore. There's so much to talk about. Why are you leaving already? Why are you getting up? Why are you so angry? Proverbs 15, one, a soft answer. Pastor Rod turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Was that a soft answer or was it a harsh word? I don't know. I don't know. I feel like it was an honest word. Yeah. That's harsh. Yeah. No, thi this one is this one. I, I. I think we all know this by experience, right? Oh yeah. Even I think about customer service. How often does it really help you to just go off on the customer service agent on the other end of the phone, who has nothing to do with the fact that your flight got canceled? Yeah. And yet you feel vindicated and at the end of it, they're super motivated to help you, and accommodate you. And yet, if you're soft with that person, then it can, that old the secular proverb, you win more flies with honey. Then vinegar. Something about vinegar. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, something like that. Anyway, similar concept here but this applies to relationships, right? Somebody comes at you angry. If you will be gentle in response, you will often diffuse that conflict. Dude, I was in customer service. I was on the receiving end of that, and so a few times I remember getting so mad with a customer because they were treating me like I was the guy who was. At the heart of their problems. Yeah. One guy yelled at me. Yeah. Like he just straight up, dude, I'm sorry. Tore me a new one. I didn't mean it was, I was so mad at faster PI mean, this guy that I don't wanna talk about 'cause he might be on the podcast anyway. Yeah. Treat your customer service agent nicely. It's part of our witness. Even if they don't know that you're a believer, it's still part of your witness. Oh man. Could you imagine if he was a Christian? If he was an elder at a church and he is oh, I just ripped this new guy to shreds because I was angry at whatever this thing was. Anyway, yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. That's a good, that's a good word. Hey, there is severe discipline for him who forsakes the way. Whoever hates reproof will die. I love the frankness and the strength of passages like this. They're so small, so subtle, so again, elementary, but so pithy and so helpful as I think about the kind of direction God the father gives to us as his children. Now, again, this is Solomon talking to one of his sons. Maybe r Boem. Certainly he needed to hear this, but he didn't. There's severe discipline for him over sakes of way. So it's not just wise to do good. It's also protective. Again, there's a godly sense of self-interest here that he appeals to, and I think that's really cool. Yeah. We've covered some of the ones dealing with anger, like verse 18, a hot tempered ministers of strife. We've talked about these before, but just to point out again, there's. Thematic things coming through here, verse 22. Without counsel, plans fail, but with many advisors, they succeeded. That just means we need other voices in our life. That's how God designed us. He designed us to live in community, to say, Hey, I'm thinking about making this change in this job, or I'm thinking about buying this house over here. I'm thinking about doing this over here with my family. What are your thoughts on this? And getting other people to weigh in and help you see some blind spots in your life. That's a good and biblical thing for us to do. Amen to that. If people are afraid to say things to you because of your response that's on you. Yeah. You're gonna suffer for that. Certainly we need lots more voices in our lives. Look at verse 15. Now, this one stood out to me. I memorized it 'cause I'm like, oh, I just gotta, I gotta squeeze this lemon for all the juice that it's in, that's in it. Here's what it says. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast. Something about the disposition of our internal person, where even if we're going through difficult times, we can still choose to possess a. Cheerful heart and therefore have a feast in the middle of the desert, as it were, Psalm 23. Even though I'm surrounded by my enemies, you prepare a table before me. You give me something to eat, you sustain me, you supply me even in difficult times, and I think that's what verse 15 is giving us the sense of God's providing, even when there's challenging circumstances that accost us, and that's always gonna be the case. We're always gonna be either exiting an affliction or preparing to go into some kind of affliction, but you don't have to respond in that way. Let's be done. There's a lot more there, but we're up on 20 minutes on this episode yeah. Okay. You kept on talking, so let's pray. God, thanks for your word, and I just pray for the people that are listening to this and for all of us that we would really dig into your word and mind it for what it's worth. And so we thank you for the opportunity that we have to read it, to understand it, to understand about who you are and some of your thoughts as we read the pages of your word in the Bible. And so what a privilege that is. And remind us of that every day we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Keep in your bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. 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