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oh here we are once again book by book

and we're studying the book of Proverbs

in the Bible and we invite you to share

with us in this study that is myself

rich abuse poor blacken and our special

guest today

Jorge Vera the founder of Operation

mobilization we're at the Quinta

Christian Center here in Shropshire

England and we're looking forward not

very much to chapters 13 to 15 instead

of number five will start at chapter 13

and maybe verse 9 the light of the

righteous shines brightly and really in

his wise speech and fear of the Lord we

could say that Jesus is our example of a

bright shining fountain of life let's

read verse 9 them and of this and then I

gone to 12 to 14 the light of the

righteous shines brightly but the lamp

of the wicked is snuffed out first 12

Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a

longing fulfilled is a tree of life

verse 14 the teaching of the wise is a

function of life turning a man from the

snares of death and many more of course

we can look at to in just a moment or

two at least you first how the righteous

have nothing to do with what is false

let's note the constant sharp division

once again between the wise and the

foolish that's basic right the way

through Proverbs why are a love of

violence verse to George look at this

and verse for laziness the slug it comes

up again pride verse 10 dishonesty verse

them

they're very sharing something

absolutely it's playing havoc throughout

the world even as we sit here and it's

one of the most discouraging things as

we look at the behavior the valley

people willing to go and kill and behead

and things that we read in the paper now

every day it should stir God's people

into action to try to do something about

it and often we have to start one person

at a time and it's the love of violence

isn't it because as well even people who

like claiming to follow Jesus will

play games and watch films that are just

a celebration of violence and that

literally engage in violence for

entertainments sake and then size

doesn't matter it's only entertainment

no to love violence is evil and evil I'm

not going to actually go and do it yeah

but you love it that's evil no it's not

too much has changed from the point of

view of violence since the days of the

Roman Empire and they're persecuting of

Christians

well since Cain killed Abel I think it's

been pretty well yeah and any space

laziness violence pride to some see all

of them are linked together as all roots

of this foolishness well let's think

then of how that verse 9 that light and

verse 14 a fountain a light in the

fountain how they display the Lord and

supremely as Christians today we think

of the Lord Jesus Christ as the

perfectly wise and righteous one would

you not know it's right and when we're

reading these there's that sense in

which we're like that is how life should

be that is how life should be the

righteous money's like this the wise one

is like this and then but all too often

when I'm reading all these I'm thinking

no I'm not like that I'm not like that

I'm not like that but there is the the

point is when we read these we go but

Jesus is like that he is the wise man

filled with the spirit and he does have

integrity and he does have right justice

impurity in everything he does of course

it is important to remember as we were

thinking about he dies he's killed by

the wicked at a young age and he never

really had any money or prosperity or

everything so we again it reminds us to

think what is the prosperity and the

blessing and everything that is being

promised here so that's important but I

always like that verse 9 and verse 14

that the light of the right just shines

brightly and then verse 14 the teaching

the wise is a fountain of life turning a

man from the snares of death so I always

think about that with the Lord Jesus he

has that massive integrity and purity

and righteousness of affection but what

he doesn't do is go around to everybody

and goes so like I condemn you I condemn

you I condemn you he doesn't do that he

were already condemned he comes to bring

us life and forgiveness so he's a

fountain of life he shares his life and

he always says to us look I'll forgive

your sins I'll give you a new beginning

new mercies so that's what I love about

it both his perfection but also he's

absolute merci and grace it's terrific

in a series of contrasts we're getting

an actually I didn't like moving on so

fast but chapter 14 key verse I think 27

the fear of the Lord is a function of

life so a constant theme of the proverbs

is the generosity and kindness of the

righteous in a world where the wicked

put themselves first and ignore the poor

sir verse 21 the study yeah 21 and 31

show this contrast how do we respond Oh

George fella in a world with so much

need well when I think of this word

light it's one of my favorite words

before we ever had the name operation

mobilization the little organization I

started in Mexico we were call send the

light from that old hymn and I think

something that's just on my heart as I

read these verses as a lot of people

today are getting quite negative

especially people who live in Europe

where the church is seemingly weaker in

certain ways though there's a lot of

growth globally and we need that we need

to see this because we need

encouragement globally the light is

shining greater than ever in history

there is no comparison

I mean 70 to 80 million new believers in

China tens of millions of new believers

in Latin America tens of millions of new

believers you see it oh yeah and of

course the negative side is all also

there but people are getting discouraged

because their church is shrinking some

churches have even closed but in fact

though Europe is going through maybe

it's darker period globally which is

what we should be concerned about the

whole world of course we're burdened for

Europe and for me Europe is my number

one mission field but preached in almost

every single nation in Europe I just

come in from Barcelona and preach

Spanish but globally the light is

shining more than ever before and when

people say like in the newspaper

Christianity is now irrelevant we ought

to get on their case really quick and I

think Christians are too silent in

connection with the press get on the

phone talk to your

you know you remember of Parliament in

your own constituency and and make it

clear the light is shining big time it's

they were becoming irrelevant not the

Lord Jesus and his holy gospel good

indeed and when you think of every week

some 1600 new congregations come into

being around the world that weren't

there the week before that is hugely

encouraging of course they're bright

shining lights everywhere and that is

good news for the poor that's what I

like about this chapter 4 where it says

where he oppresses the poor shows

contempt for the maker that the church

all down through history cares for the

poor that's what we were first known for

caring for the poor nobody else's

society there wasn't a welfare state or

anything like that it was the church

that picked up the widows and the

orphans and the needy and everything

like that and all over the way where the

church comes really the real and living

church where we share things with one

another and share life and he'll picture

that is always good news for the poor

when the real church comes and is

probably 10 times greater today the

caring and concern for the poor if you

really study what's going on Christians

are in the forefront of the sex traffic

thing Christians in the forefront of the

battle for hiv/aids

I personally distributed over a hundred

thousand books just on those two

subjects many of them given away all

different languages and that

transformation only came in my life

about 10 years ago and it finally

realized that that Proclamation which is

my my first passion church-planting de

cycling it can come together with social

action and social concern that's what

they told us at the great Lausanne

Congress I was there and I somehow it

didn't register how're we gonna do that

you know em but we've seen that and

right across the world the church is

doing more for this poor and the

suffering and it's so sad people pick up

these little things about missionaries

there's this new musical going on in

London attacks missionaries even though

it's another group indirectly people

have these wrong ideas about

missionaries but missionaries aren't out

there just you know with the totem pole

gathering up how many souls this is a

misrepresentation of missionaries that

are out there in hospitals they're out

there serving the poor we're not talking

you know a few hundred thousand we're

talking millions of people are being

ministered

- by the church and brought out of

poverty and I just thank the Lord for it

yeah we're not disheartened but look

here's the other side of it verse 12

there is a way that seems right to a man

but in the end it leads to death

so self-improvement self-help is a sort

of natural religion of many people

actually many people would read even

read these proverbs as a sort of

etiquette for debutantes so there's a

book in the 1920 to the book of good

manners

now it's strong much stronger than that

now what do you think about that Capone

well it's that the verse 27 there in

chapter 14 the fear of the Lord is a

fountain of life terming a man from the

snares of death so if you read this book

you say oh yeah it's just self-help we

don't need all that God stuff you aren't

gonna go nowhere that's not that's not

going to give you the Fountain of Life

it's the fear of the Lord that that's

the Fountain of Life and the thing is

the way of the Lord doesn't always look

and feel right the way that feels right

to us and we might because we might say

what I think feels right is this

relationship or I want some more money

or I want more comfort and that looks

the right way but the way of the Lord

can seem to be the opposite of that and

even in the book of Proverbs we're told

that the righteous you know that says

better to be righteous but have nothing

than be rich and wicked so we're being

warned that being righteous isn't always

gonna lead to to having lots and comfort

and things like that in fact following

the way of the Lord can often be the

well it is the way of the cross isn't it

it's the way of self-denial so we can

feel we're like no no the way to life is

to indulge myself and to have a

comfortable life but no the way that can

seem right to us and that goes with our

instincts we're actually being warned it

literally leads to death in the end if

you put yourself first you're gonna die

jesus said if you try to cling on to

your life you will lose it but if you

let go of life for my sake you will find

life that is all the way here on to the

book of Proverbs we keep getting these

different things recurring again and

again through proverbs is not just let's

do it the fools

let's now deal with the ants let's not

deal with us like they keep coming up

again again as you would in a family

where you're talking about you know

not just saying today and now we're

going to do money no it's always coming

up here and there that's the style of

Proverbs of course back to words you see

I mean in our last study we were talking

about words now in chapter 15 verse 4

I'm looking at the tongue that brings

healing is a tree of life but a

deceitful tongue crushes the spirit so

that's brilliant

I mean verse after verse covers this

topic give us tips George mr. Hart oh ah

Howard to govern our mouths well I think

feasting on these verses memorizing them

repenting taking them seriously and all

my life I've wrestled with the sins of

the tongue and this verse 1 a gentle

answer that's not the natural thing from

my kind of background my kind of

temperament New York City a grandfather

was a Dutch atheist my other grandfather

was Scottish Irish and English blood

basically that's toxic he was in from

grandmother divorced him so you know I'm

sort of humanly speaking dead in the

water to start with without Jesus and

what he did that night I walked the

aisle in a Billy Graham meeting but he

used his word to break me and this verse

gentle answer turns away wrath but a

harsh word stirs up anger I can't tell

you how much it's helped me in my

leadership to get a handle on that not

perfection but growth and and reality

and it's tied together with what we read

so important in verse 8 but the prayer

of the upright pleases him it's not a

lot about prayer in the book of Proverbs

but it's there and there's a lot about

prayer in the whole book and I think in

these struggles with our failures and

our sins we've got to be men and women

of Prayer yeah you know Ephesians 6:10

through 20 everybody ought to memorize

it the weapons of our warfare including

prayer the shield of faith so another

thing that helps in this battle is to be

accountable this very brother I was with

last night Dale wrote on we've been

linked 58 years he wasn't afraid to

confront me when he saw that something I

said wasn't truthful or it was

exaggerated so sad that we as

evangelicals you know we have this

expression evangelical speaking we

should renounce all

saturation because it's a it's a subtle

form of lying and it's a deception and

God had to deal with me on that and I

found it really helpful to have a Nathan

in my life somebody and I've always had

a board that can ask me questions I meet

with them again next week then you know

how to ask the hard questions that has

been a huge help and I think we see

fallen leaders often have had very

little accountability of course there's

so much more we need to use to stand

strong in this area of temptation no

that's isn't Church that's what it is

when we're in church together

it's a family we hold each other

accountable at support each other but

also ask those hard questions of each

other of course and we have to well it's

amazing is you have problems exposes the

human heart I've been looking at verse

11 here in Chapter 15 however even the

deepest darkness is open to the Lord so

the human heart is easier for him to

read we might imagine the religious

observance or respectability might

impress him know the poor help us to see

how some of these verses like eight or

26 or even 29 shine the light that's all

that's it you just quoted from verse

eight George we but the prayer of the

upright please in but the Lord detests

the sacrifice of the wicked so the

wicked come guy it's okay I'll give the

Lord a sacrifice that will be all right

no you detests it you can see what's

going on you cannot deceive the Lord God

and that's the in verse 26 he detests

the thoughts of the wicked and then

verse 29 the Lord is far from the wicked

but he hears the prayer of the righteous

so the wicked won't pray but they know

unless they're prepared to really pray

and repent and turn to him properly

they aren't listening in listening and

that's so important to know you cannot

mock God be not deceived so the

scripture you cannot mock God what you

reap you so that if you even if you

pretend at religion you play at religion

he can see through that Jesus says the

author you're you say with your lips

that you're near to me but your hearts

are far from me we can't play with the

Living God he always knows what's going

on in our hearts and minds and I that we

serve

truthfully and honestly and purely or

else forget it he can't be deceived the

light of the righteous that's been our

theme and of course we see epitomized in

Jesus Christ our Lord and you know in

the West we believe in sort of birthday

cakes often where you have a birthday

have a cake and then you product like

several counters on it to share how many

years the bus has been and then the word

is put out see how many candles you can

light with just one match just one light

and you could ask yourself that how many

other lights could I light by my one

little light for Jesus Christ Oscars of

that pray about it and I want to do the

same one light lighting many others

please meet again with us next time

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