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yes it's book by book here we are once

again at the Quinta Christian Centre in

Shropshire England amateur booze joint

here once again by poor black 'm and

also by georg Vova who's our special

guest today the founder of operation of

mobilisation so thank you thank you

George for joining us

it's a privilege let's go for it all

very good well we're now in study number

8 of the book of Proverbs chapters 22 to

24 where I think I could say that we

shall learn of the father is delighted

by the sons heart and voice and so we

can start by looking at chapter 22 and

why don't I begin with verse 6 train a

child in the way he should go and when

he is old he will not turn from it the

rich rule over the poor and the borrower

is servant to the lender and then

turning over the page to verse 11 he who

loves a pure heart and his speeches

gracious will have the king for his

friend the eyes of the Lord keep watch

over knowledge for he frustrates the

words of the unfaithful so we're

learning I'd say here but the rewards of

humility are riches and honor and life

and he ever six in all of many proverbs

actually the tears of the discipline and

the education of children actually

what's the wisdom would you say friends

of God in that area of life well I think

one of the important things about that

verse six is that it's it's not a

guarantee but a die training the church

praying the child in the way that he

should go in it and when he's only won't

turn from it because sometimes people

say well I trained my children the way

they should go and they they did depart

from it so the Bible's not true no no

all the way through all the book of

Proverbs it's saying listen if you

follow the path of wisdom it's this is

the way it's likely to turn out it's a

guide not an absolute guarantee so you

can't just take that check and waiver

your fist at God sort of thing it's not

like that and that's the what true for

the Proverbs as a whole but the key

thing here is that our children are

gonna be indoctrinated by the world that

put onto the TV

books everything so people are trying to

teach them and put doctrine into their

head all the time and the Lord God says

all the way through scripture you make

sure that you are putting my doctrine

into their heads as they grow up you

can't just abandon them say I will let

them decide whatever they want no you

you teach them and lead them with

patience and love not sort of legalism

and harsh treatment that's not gonna win

them to Christ and then when it talks

about the rods use the rod of discipline

so some people go oh that just means

like physical beatings and things

literally that can be how people just

say that the Bible commands physical

beings now the rod of discipline think

of how the Lord uses his rod of

discipline present it's a whole range of

things to teaches and plead with us and

winners by love and guide us the rod of

a shepherd it's to guide the sheep not

to hit the sheep so he's a guide the

Sheep and always remember Deuteronomy

6:4 to wait one of those you know hear o

Israel the Lord our God is one and

that's one of the most famous verses in

the Bible and straight after he says

talk about these things with your

children as you walking along the road

and sat at the table at home just let it

be part of your family life and then

they'll learn this and come and grow up

as fish you a new country the provost

this talk talk talk it's like family

talk you're running from one verse to

the next which is what you're doing

family life you're not dealing with big

subjects the rich one day money the next

day school the next didn't know it's all

running through the breakfast table and

everything that's why we get these busy

verses one after another next one's on

but the one about the rich for example

the rich have always ruled over the poor

over 7 so looking at that passage now I

mean how is the Christian supposed to

live well we would say in the light of

eternity well I think it's one of the

greatest challenges to find biblical

balance in the handling of our finance

I think of randy alcorn brilliant book

treasurer principle and now there's a

brand new book called patrons that shows

how in history often when there were

mighty movements or mighty men and women

of God Dodd raised

patron someone who knew how to make

finance or maybe I had even inherited

finance and they started giving

generously to that person so I think

when we read these different scriptures

about finance we need to have a lot of

wisdom because it's so important Jesus

spoke so much about about money I'm now

very involved in fundraising which some

people like to look down on even in my

early days I thought fundraising no we

just ask God and he supplies but the

Bible teaches clearly he supplies

through people and if they disobey if

they decide we don't like these

scriptures about generosity we're gonna

feel the impact of that and so to me

communication comes together with prayer

and I just feel when we're in the book

of Proverbs which I've been in almost

every day these 58 years there are

things that sometimes the way we think

they don't really make sense and what

are we going to say of some of the other

tough parts of the Old Testament and

this is where I think Christians have to

learn more to live a little more with

mystery things that we may not fully

understand even one verse that agnostics

and those attack in the Bible they take

certain verses and just write whole

pages sort of proving this is not true

and what you said is is just so and so

important these are these are guidelines

and there is a bit of a mystery how this

works out in my life you know this week

exactly actually when you talk about the

riches you will remember it's a John

Lang who was one of the great animals

and we I met him and he poured out money

he was he had a lot of money and his

trusts are still his trusted so giving

when and when he died his actual

personal estate was left at 178 pounds

he'd given so much away this is a

wonderful testament it sounds like John

Wesley yeah yeah favorite so he was the

same wasn't it

well we come now to actually whatever

chord the 30 saying

otherwise do you see that from verse 17

through to chapter 24 actually what do

these sayings amount to and how do they

teach us to trust in the Lord

well the the like a summary of the book

of Proverbs and they begin in verses 17

to 21 really with that sort of whoever

as he is to hear let him hear

so it's pay attention get this stuff

into your heart listen carefully and the

purpose of them verse 19 is so that your

trust may be in the Lord and that helps

us to understand all these proverbs then

not to be sort of like legalistic things

but they're all of the design to make us

trust in the Lord 30 profound truths

here I sort of marked them all out in my

Bible so I can see clearly that what the

30 are and then if you work that out

yourself you'll see there are 30 and

some of them are quite long you'll see

in chapter 23 the longest batch of all

is a warning against alcohol in 23

verses 29 to 35 but you'll see it so

it's a creates like bringing all the

wisdom and the book of proverbs down to

these 30 sayings that channel

they shine the light into our life and

reveal our sin and challengers and but

the point of all of them as it says at

the beginning is that we will trust in

the Lord and if I could just pick one

the 14th of the 30 sayings is in chapter

23 verses 17 to 18 do not let your heart

envy sinners but always be zealous for

the fear of the Lord I love that one

because almost the whole thing could be

caught up in that because we're four

envious of the sinners we want to do the

sinful things and say no now let your

heart be zealous for the fear of the

Lord and then you won't be interested in

those things and you mentioned alcohol

remember to go Mia's as we've seen

before some of these proverbs deal with

food alcohol money wealth actually there

we are in chapter 24 verses 3 to 4 with

this description of building a beautiful

house Jesus dealt with some of these

issues in the seven on the month

as well they're so important I mean

aren't quote spiritual things more than

eating and drinking and earning money

what do you think George well I think

God has to be involved in all of it and

I thank God for an emphasis that's come

from different people and I feel it

deeply we cannot continue to put the

secular and the sacred into separate

worlds it comes together and I think

proverbs helps us do that

proverbs has in the mid just so many

amazing nuggets and we must not miss in

this chapter 24 verse 17 do not glow

when your enemy Falls I mean that is

radical I mean the whole of society when

your enemy gets knocked out man this is

go down and have a beer and this is why

our biblical faith rather than just

religion is so radical love and grace

it's different to it I remember as a

young Christian love your enemies I

immediately repented of all my bad

thoughts toward the Russians if I know

you going to Russia and loving Russians

I've just been there again do not gloat

when your enemy Falls I think of that

word in Philippians as steaming others

better than yourself I mean we don't see

this practice so much even among the

Lord's people because it's so

revolutionary and proverbs I think is a

such a great foundation book for the

whole of the New Testament with you know

the revolution of love and first

Corinthians 13 and the fruit of the

Spirit you know Galatians just exciting

to me I keep reading in and keep

memorizing these verses it's very

practical you something it's just one of

the great things that defines a

Christian he or she loves their enemies

and that set us apart we get some more

wise sayings here in chapter 24 from

verse 23 onwards look at them look of us

29 see where in verse 29 there do not

say I'll do to him as he has done to me

I'll pay that man back

what he did well we could ask ourselves

why justice and honesty should matter so

much to followers of Jesus in a world

where injustice and deception actually

pretty common it's the normal way of

life

what makes us hold them so I well I love

this little collection that's headed

further sayings of the white Zia because

it's sort of saying we've laid out all

these behavior things and in a way in

this little section it's zooming in on

what's going on inside us so that it's

like when we say you know do we want

revenge

are we deceitful inside and it's not

always apparent on the surface what's

going on inside and that's so important

the integrity that's going on inside

that art the inner life is the the

fountain for our outer life and I love

Psalm 51 I was reading it this morning

when I first woke up Psalm 51 the famous

song by David and he's repenting of his

sin and he knows that verse 6

surely you desire truth in the inner

parts you teach me wisdom in the inmost

place of verse 10 creating me a pure

heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit

within me so it's that point of saying

okay so I'm not an alcoholic and I I'm

not greedy and things like that yeah but

what about your heart is your heart pure

and full of love and when your enemy

Falls do you love him or do you glow a

ring so I love that little collection

that zoom anything to integrity and

honesty and love in the inner man yes

and of course oh is this targeting of

the people against the poor which is

much of our society today really when

you think of that the the wagering

that's done over sport results you know

you could bet about that or bingo

parlors or casinos or and it's always

targeting the poor the poor if I

couldn't just win that I just put a bit

of money down the odds actually against

winning the Powerball to the jackpot in

the USA is 195 million to one and yet

the polls to put that money down

hoping hoping hoping that is unfair

treatment of the poor always here's a

sluggard again o converse 30 on words of

chapter 24 so he keeps popping up well

it's not that we're lazy because we're

tired

proverbs seems to teach us that usually

we're tired because we are lazy is that

how far is that something to repent of

how far is that a sin personally I've

found among the many young people and

about two hundred thousand have worked

with om that many Christian young people

in Christian homes they tend to put

themselves down they tend to be

judgmental against themselves and not

realizing we're all different we all

have different levels of energy and

often tiredness is not because a person

is lazy people get tired and it may also

be diet it may be some other health

factor I've always from the early days

encouraged people we have a great

medical system it's not perfect we

should go there once a year and find out

what's going on with with our bodies so

I'm just always going back to that

beautiful word balance that left one

scripture bring other scriptures into

balance or is that strong attack against

laziness we need to be careful of that

but we also need to have a right

attitude toward ourselves especially if

we have weaknesses I've had certain

weaknesses I've struggled with all my

life and my poor wife has put up with

you know 54 years I thought I'd be way

more spiritual by now so you can't get

really depressing so I think we gotta

take that whole message and put it

together rather than a verse here and a

verse there and then we walk out feeling

really bad of course when we feel bad we

should repent if it is specific sin but

not if it's Justine enemies he's the

accuser of the Brethren and especially

when young men young women as well have

failed in any area in the sexual area

that the accuser of the Brethren he

wants to really squelch them at that

point I once had a failure with a

pornographic magazine in a tree in the

woods I wish I could get my victorious

life testimony but it made a fool out of

me for a few minutes

and boy the enemy just tried to squelch

me how can you be a Christian leader how

can you ever preach again you know but I

just claimed you know John to chapter

one confess your sin he's faithful and

just to forgive you and sexual sin has

an extra dose of hyper guilt that is

destroying many young people today and

older ones because they don't understand

grace and forgiveness and the power of

the blood of Christ

and the balance of Scripture Oh George

the practical nature of this book of

Proverbs it speaks to us from page to

page from verse to verse as well and as

we wind up we can ask ourselves what is

the basic result of all of our reading

upon our own lifestyle but our own

service in this world one of our great

English writers of many years ago was

Charles Dickens everything done some

words that he once said he wrote some

very fine men and women might as well

have been born caterpillars for any good

they do or any impression they make on

the world we can ask ourselves what am I

in this world for what kind of impact

can I make upon people even down the

road but my workmates I'm here for the

Lord Jesus Christ as one of his

ambassadors I speak that our prayer for

today

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