Proverbs 3 is the longest and most complex of the poetic discourses in Proverbs. At the heart of it is the appeal of a father to his son to place his trust in the Lord!
Blessings
Rebirth Church Sermons
Proverbs Series_ Part 3: Trust in the Lord_ Bevin Elliott
Can we stand this morning church for the reading of the world? Can have your Bible in your hand? Turn it me to Proverbs chapter 3. I'm reading from the English standard version. When you're there, give me an amen. My son, do not forget my teaching. I let your heart keep my commandments for the length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. They not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Find them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways and acknowledge him. And he will make stranger parts. Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord. Turn away from evil. You will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruit of all your produce. Then your bonds will be filled with plenty and your vets will be bursting with wine. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline. It will be weary of his reproof. For the Lord to be proves him whom he loves. As a father, the son in whom he delights. Amen. Father, we thank you that you are a loving father. We are your children. This morning we've come now to worship you around the fellowship of your world. We lay aside all full demons and all the overflow of wickedness and we receive the engrafted word of meekness, which is able to save our souls. We declare this morning that we are not here as of your word only. We are doers. We are doers. We are doers of your word. We are obedient children this morning. And Lord, this morning I give you my worship. I give you my heart. I give you my lips. I give you my mind. And I pray, Lord, that everyone who is in their seats this morning will give you their hearts, give you their ears. Let them not see this furry old young gray-haired man from Peter Marisper. Let him disappear. And all that matters this morning is what the spirit of the Lord is saying. So are us. Confront us, convict us, and challenge us. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Arrest every wandering mind yet this morning. We rebuke every foul of the air that will try and distract from the earring of the word of God. We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. Pulled up our faith. Help us to mix your world with faith this morning. Help us not to be like the Israelites in the wilderness. You do not mix your word with faith. And many of them fell there and died in the wilderness because they did not receive your word with meekness. So speak to us this morning. Your children are listening. Jesus' name, amen. And amen, you may be seated in the presence of the Lord this morning. God is good. And all the time, amen, amen. So good to be in the presence of the Lord. It's such a tangible presence of God here this morning. There is no revival without Mr. Weta's. Amen. So I hope you've been reading Proverbs this week. The reason why we go through and preach systematically through each book of the Bible is because growth is systematic. Growth happens by discipline and growth is methodical. And so we want to encourage you to read the Bible through with the plan. Read the Bible through with us. Win win Proverbs. Read the Bible. Read Proverbs with us so that you know what to read. Win to read it. How to read it. And if you still don't know how Proverbs is subdivided, you can go through to our first sermon on the subject where we gave you a brief outline of how the book of Proverbs is arranged. No order of Scripture just has hazardily put the Bible together. Just put together with the plan, with the purpose, is a structure to it. That's how God's word is packaged to us, packaged with bones and skeletons and sinews. And we don't even preach like we preach with a plan with a structure. I'm not out here shooting like a wild wild west cowboy from the hip. There's an introduction, there's a body, there's points, there's transition points, there's a conclusion. If all ends up well, the only spirit doesn't disturb us. And so I love the word of God. And I want you to know this morning that one thing that God has really pressed on my heart from the time He called me is a love for the personal, a personal study of Scripture. That whenever I'm preaching out part of my bio, you know, they give these fancy bios of the preacher when every comes up. Part of my bio is that my duty is to encourage God's children to fall in love with the Scriptures and the God of the Scriptures. And so I encourage you, read your Bible every day and pray and you'll grow, grow, grow, even on a Sunday morning when we share this word. This word is enough to keep you from the council rooms, the psychologists, even the paramedics. This word is held to your bones. God's word is held to your bones, food for your soul. Amen. I've got probably some exciting announcements next week. I'll share a couple of them with you next week. I like surprises. So I'll just keep you on the edge of your seats and it all goes well. We may have a third exciting announcement. Leadership will you guys hide? It all goes well if everything proves to be the wall of God. But God is good and His mercy isn't your forever. And so when we look at Proverbs chapter three, Reese's birthday. It was Reese's birthday in the week. So I just pray to you in the program. With Reese's morning. Reese, happy birthday. This morning, this morning. Guys, I'm going to now leave that response for you to the announcement. Guys, because when I get up, yeah, I forget every day outside. Announcement, ladies and gents. You guys saw our birthdays and anniversaries and friend diversaries, Facebook friend diversaries. Happy birthdays make up. Let's see you. I hope mom and daddy spoiled you. Rotten tea. Amen. When we approach Proverbs chapter three, we are dealing with the latest and most complex of all the poetical discourses. We mentioned in our first part of the message on Proverbs that Proverbs, for the first 10 chapters, does not deal exclusively with those short-concise maxims or Proverbs or nuggets of truth. They actually are poetical discourses and extended exhortations. And so when we approach Proverbs three, we are dealing with the latest and most complex of the more, perhaps of the entire book of Proverbs. Matthew Henry described this chapter as the most excellent in all the Proverbs, both for argument to persuade us towards God and to direct and enrich our faith. When we look at Proverbs chapter three from verses four but one to four, we see that we are introduced to this chapter by a fatherly appeal. The mere 10 fatherly appeals in Proverbs. So from verse one to four, we have a fatherly paternal appeal, a father to his son. My son do not forget my teachings. He's appealing to his son. From verses five to 12, we now have an exhortation towards godliness and growth and trust in the Lord. And then from verses 13 to 18, we see a hymn dedicated to wisdom, which begins with the attitude. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom. And in Proverbs 19 to 20 of the chapter, we have a didactic stanza on wisdom and creation. Wisdom is personified. And in Proverbs 21 to 26, we have an additional appeal from a father to a son. My son do not lose sight of these things, keep sound, wisdom and discretion. And then when we look from verses 27 to 35, we have five prohibitions against treating people and justice. Because if you say you love him, God whom you don't see and you hate your brethren, you are worst in an unbeliever. What good is it that you say you love God whom you don't see and you must treat the brother and sister that you do see. And so your faith towards God must be expressed in your compassion and love towards people. That's why Jesus said, men will know you are my disciples if you have loved one for another. And so we've got to express our faith in our love towards one another, not just in tongues and prophecy and good preaching and clapping and jumping and praise, high praise. Our faith is demonstrated when we show love one to another. So if you're in this family and I'm just going to take a shot like you and you're holding grudges towards one another, rather stay at home. Keep your gift. Keep your gift at home. Make right first worth your brother and sister. This must not be known as a church where we bigger and fight like our chickens, picking each other. Love one another. This is the gospel. Amen. Let me just put a disclaimer there. This is none of the back of any news that we see. It's felt led by the Holy Spirit to say that and I genuinely mean that. I like to choke a lot but you know, I really mean that. It must never be heard. It must never come to our ears as leadership. That is animosity and bitterness in this family. We are family. Some of you more easily forgive your boss, your colleagues at work. Heck you will forgive your husband and after tricks. Your wife gets stabbing you at night, punching me in the room with you. Forgive easily but when it comes to church, we have issues. Okay. I just want to let you know I prepared the shortest message today, 2,400 word cards. There's a shortage of some. I know where we're going. Five prohibitions from verses 27 to 35 and each of those prohibitions begins with the words do not. The first verse 27. Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do so. If someone raided your service, if someone is entitled to payment or entitled to what you promised, pray it. Second prohibition is found in verse 28. Do not say to your neighbor, go and come back tomorrow. Go and come again. Tomorrow I will give it to you when you have it with you now. You have it with you now but you want to power play and say no, no, come back. You want to show who's in charge. Who's got the influence? No, if it's in your power to do so, now do it. Don't say tomorrow. Tomorrow you may forget and in the innocence of your forgetfulness, somebody is being offended and deceiving a draw. The third prohibition is in verse 29. Do not plan evil against your neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you. The fourth prohibition is in verse 30. Do not contend with the man for no reason when he has done no harm to you. We were laughing about this in our church. What's that fruit? My wife had a dream that I took an off-ramp and found a lady besides her. For some reason, she always dreams about a lady with long black hair. And in this dream, I had twins with this lady because we got twins and she's afraid of me when I have twins or someone else. And then for half the day she was upset with me. Do not contend with the man for no reason. The fourth prohibition, when was it? Oh, god. And I also heard that by the grapevine that Aaron too and the rhona suffering was the same problem. The first prohibition was that he won. Do not envy a man of violence. Not choose any of his ways. Maybe some of you grew up in the castle. I know we have some urbanites here, a few more wispery, you know, the sun and ice. I feel like we're all from East to the old. You are greeted with the gangsters in the area, you know. And so when we were young, we kind of looked up to these guns. You know, they had the three to five ISBNs, BMWs, they had the ladies, they had the bling bling, they wore the jack-of-the-sails, the dickies pass, boss of the road, they had a swag in their walk, they had a way they spoke. Man, they just, they just exuded power and they were just pleasurable to look upon. And so we always, we developed this walk, you know, you can tell a governor from a mile away, this is a bounce they walk with, you know. You know, even some of our evangelists, you tell them when I say walk down the aisle to preach, they got this bounce, you know. And so we looked up to these guys and we meditated the assign language, the way of talking. And somehow we lost our identity as children, all of that. And we looked up to these murderers, drug dealers, killers. So in some sense, this proverb is saying, don't admire people that you know, achieve what they achieve by wrong means, by wrong means. Some of us are admitting billionaires, millionaires, you know, influential people. And we don't really know what it took for them to achieve all of them. You know how many shortcuts were taken? So don't envy and emulate these kind of people, obeying God on this point with these five prohibitions, God is communicating important through us. We've got to embrace what God encourages us to do. And we've also got to embrace what it encourages us not to do. Part of receiving the word of God, and that was so impressed about this morning, part of receiving the word of God for your life is that we receive both His injunctions and His prohibitions. These injunctions tell us what we should do and how we should think. They're encouraging. There are His commands to do. These prohibitions say, ah, don't do that. Don't do this. Don't think like it. We've got to learn to embrace God's yeses and noes. And if you trace through this, the storyline of Scripture, we see that men have always had an issue when God has said no. Adam and Eve, God said you can eat from every tree in this garden. All this fruit is yours. Just get one tree. And God placed that tree in the center of the garden, which means that Adam and Eve, to eat from that for burned tree, they had to pass by every tree that he said you can have. And so did the problem with God's no. Cain and Cain, the story of Cain and Abel. God approaches Cain. He says, the way you worshiping me is a big no-no approach me this way. And God warned him and said, Cain, sin, crouches at your door. And if you do well, I'll receive your worship. Cain could not receive God's no and God's correction. When God says yes, not even make songs about this, when Jesus says yes, nobody can. He said, what about when Jesus says no? When God says, you can't have that. It's not for now. Yes, you're praying and you're asking me for that. But not now. No. You cannot take that. It doesn't belong to you. Walking with God and walking in obedience to his world means that you must embrace all of his work, both his injunctions and his prohibitions. When God says no, he is as much blessing in that no when he says yes. You better get excited when he says no. Even in life, when doors open, we rejoice. We have got the job. But I learned over this, last few years, over last year in particular, that when the doors close, get excited. You have no idea what he's protecting you from. No idea. He's all seeing and all knowing and all wise. And I trust him. When we look at our particular pericope and passage from verses 1 to 12, theologian Adamoyo states that the teacher and the father in this passage, the wise age is presenting to us a world that is national with specific actions produced specific consequences. In the case of Proverbs chapter 3, we see that these are responses to God and his commandments and that result in specific consequences. So from verses 1 to 12 is an alternating pattern of six commands and six rewards. And what we learn from these rewards is that when you obey God, there's a blessing that is both eternal and temporal. In other words, the blessings God has for us are not only reserved for eternity, but the blessings you can experience here and now. Jesus told his disciples, he said, "No one who leaves mother and father in house for my sake." But we'll go without reward both in this life and in the life to come. So the blessings of God we experience in this life and the blessings of God also reserve in eternity for us. And so with these commands and rewards, we see that they carry both a temporal and eternal reward with it. Let's look at the first command and reward. That's verse 1 and 2. "My son do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace that will add to you." Now I want you to consider that in Proverbs chapter 3, the heart of this chapter is in verse 5 to 6. Scripture, we all know. What does it say? Trust in the Lord, all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your heart. Some of you can hold that in your sleep snoring. Trust in the Lord, with all your heart, lean on your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your heart as an encouragement towards childlike faith and trust. The childlike faith and trust that we read about in verses 5 to 6 is rooted in verses 1 and 2. It's rooted in sound, public or teaching. The teachings of Scripture do more than simply instruct us in wisdom and righteousness. They reflect the very nature and character of God. And if you trust in him, you must understand that God is too good to be unkind. And he is too wise to be mistaken. So when you place your trust in him, you must also understand that placing your trust and faith in Christ is not passive. It's an aggressive laying hold of the promises of God. It's an aggressive laying hold of the heart on the character and nature of God. So when you trust in him, it comes off the back of having received his word, not having forgotten his word. You've received his word and you keep his word treasured in your heart. You are acquainted with his promises. You are acquainted with his nature. You are acquainted with his faithfulness because you understand that the same God would deliver the children of Israel, our bondage can do it for you too. You know that according to the testimony and witness of Scripture, we have a God that can do anything. The God that can be deemed any situation. And my wife and I and family were going through the darkest time in our lives. We were preaching through Exodus. The Lord said to me, I did that for the children of Israel. I parted a Red Sea. Is anything too hard for me? That's why we study his word. That's why we come to church to be reminded about the character and nature of God that he is too good to be unkind. To his core and essence, his very substance is good. So you know that all things work together for your God is not up there. This capricious arbitrary incense of God waiting to test you and every turn know, loving, it's kind, it's unfailing and faithful. And everything you go through is working out for his glory at your good news. And if it's glorious for you good. So when we talk about trusting God, this is why I have an issue with us quoting isolated scriptures. It's a beautiful truth. Trust in the Lord or your heart. But when you bring in the preceding verses, the preceding verses tell us how to trust it. And what it really means to trust it. So now trusting God means that I receive his work. I treasure them inside them. And this child like trust, like a place in him, does not come from some vacuum or some song I was singing. No, it is rooted in the testimony of scripture. All of his promises are yea and amen in Christ. Notice what the loving wise father and teacher appeals to in his son. This is my son. Do not forget my teaching. We don't like to think of it this way, but when it comes to the issue of forgetfulness in scripture, I'm not talking about my keys at all kind of a thing. Doing it when we forget the word of God, when we forget scripture, when we forget how God called us to behave. This is no trivial issue according to God. It's no small matter when we forget truth in God's eyes. It is actually a reflection of a deep inherent problem we have that relates to our sinful condition. When Adam's son, we inherited his corrupted fallen nature. It did not only morally bankrupt us, but the fall impaired our minds. The fall impaired our minds so that now we are easily prone to forget who God is, what God come on, what God has done, and all the promises he's made concerning you. You out here panicking, your life is now falling apart, and you forgot all the hell he's previously brought you through. He brought some of you through worse, and now you have all fly sitting on you. You panicking. Did you forget when you were sitting in ICU, grappling for your life? How God risked you. They forget how you were bankrupt. Name good was your credit didn't get it. Your money was funny. You were so low you could set up and look at snake in the eyes. For God, how far God has brought you from. And now you are confronted and bothered with the next challenge. No, Lord, I can't do this no more. I'm throwing the towel off. I'll see you guys in church for weeks time. I'm going to start. Let me just throw this out chair. The church is a hospital. I get that. We nurse you, we pet you. Let me also remind you it's a war. This is a boot camp baby. Some of us are shooting out with wounds gushing out of every side. Just charge heaven. We're in a war. No one engaging the wolf in tangles himself with affairs of his life. Paul said to Timothy, "We are about serious business. I'm patching up as I'm going, family. I'm patching up as I'm going." Where was I? God, we have to kill them. Because of our sinful nature, we are not only morally corrupt, our minds are impinged. We're prone to forgive. That's why God has to constantly remind the children of Israel. Do not forget me now that you've increased in gold and sold by cattle. Don't forget the Lord your God who brought you our victims. I did that. Now when you face the fullest eyes and midnight. Remember who I am and what I did for you. John Calvin states that our forgetfulness is a sign of our most placed priorities and our desire to rely on ourselves instead of God. Our tendency to forget also shows us that we have a need to be disciplined. We have a need to be reminded. We have a need to keep on renewing our minds. As Paul writes to the church and he says, "For me to repeat these things on our tedious, but beneficial for your cycle." Peter writes in the easy person. He says, "Let me stir up your minds by way of reminder." Because we're prone to forget. The promise associated with not forgetting the world of God and keeping the world of God in your heart. Let's talk him a fly. There was a liar. The reward associated with keeping God's heart at work. God says, "Long life, peace and prosperity, I'll hold this out for you." It tells you my word. You will experience a whole sub-kind of life. It's an important message that Paul mentioned. One point in the principle of Proverbs, Paul mentioned in his message, a second series, where he says, "These laws and commandments and rewards are not rigid. They're not guarantees. They are an aspect of truth." So while the world of God in Proverbs does promise long life. Remember that we may not love long lives. Do you remember what he said? Do you remember? Thank you to you. Jesus didn't love a long life. 33 years old he died. We can look and say, "But where are you 14 years?" Jesus. Wisdom as many for truth is multifaceted. So in this respect, the word of God is promising, is you may experience long life, but a wholesome life. Some of you are thinking now, you'll see, but started serving the Lord at 14, 13 years old. I wouldn't have had his issues of all the drinking and the lubrication. The second command and reward is in verses three and four. Wise father tells his son, "Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Find him around your neck. Write him on the tablet of your heart so that you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Now what the teacher is doing is now equating the teaching and commandments of God with the ethics of love and faithfulness." Do you see that? Don't forget my teaching. Treasure my word. Let not love and faithfulness forsake you. These two in virtues, love and faithfulness are key Old Testament terms. They're always found together. You see that in Abosiah 4 verses 1 to 3, but I won't read that for the sake of time. These two characteristics, these two virtues sum up our response to the Lord and choose some about response to one another. The Harvard states that these virtues influence every choice and movement of our lives. Love and faithfulness are striking contrast to the culture of this world where everyone is selfish and faithless. We see the selfishness of the culture of this world and God calls us to be loving and faithful. Love and faithfulness will bring peace and stability to all your relationships. Let's first discuss what really means to be faithful. Wilson states that faithfulness has a core sense of truth to it. In other words, faithfulness is a constant commitment to the truth of the commands. Love, integrity and faithfulness will shape a meaningful life for us. And so to love someone, whether that's someone in your family or to love God or your spouse, without faithfulness and integrity and self-self. Self-true and it reflects more of a self-love. So if you say you love someone, it can be your kid or whatever the case is, if you say you love God, but you don't express a commitment to the truth, a commitment to integrity, then you are self-loving and not loving. Remove away all the sentimentality. You can say, "I love you husband, I love you wifey, I love you God." But wait as you pray for this. These are twin virtues. They are key otestment peers that will shape wisdom and character in us. And then the commandment goes on to state that we bind love and faithfulness around our neck and write them on our hearts. In other words, you've got to have enough bonus to wear your love and faithfulness. Only the world make you feel ashamed to say, "I love God. I'm faithful to." In fact, some of you at work, your colleagues are surprised that you attend church every time. You still do that? People are throw green after COVID. It is still a beautiful picture to see husband and wife committed to each other. The world is popularizing, having a side cheek set, you know. Key December. We popularize this kind of nature and we become desensitized to it. And so when we are presented with these temptations, we don't think much of it. But in the world that is talking, and great, we're going to stand out as the light and the salt of the earth. Amen. Amen. And so we have an exhortation to bind your love and faithfulness to God and man and your relationships around your neck that the world may see it. But not a public show because the scriptures is right on your tablets of your heart. So you've got to internalize this commitment and publicize this commitment. Amen. Third, come on. Verses 5 to 6. Yes, our favorite scripture. Just in love with all your hearts, lean on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your parts. This verse has become so platitudinous and cliche, doesn't seem to cut through the ice about thinking anymore. Why? Because when we become familiar with the scriptures, we often stop thinking about them deeply. Whenever you read the scriptures, you read it with a fresh pair of eyes. Have you ever seen productions like we went to this ice thing, not good one. What's not good? Coca-Cola dome. Disney on ice. Do you know how many times that team put on their performance all over the world? They're doing the same thing over and over again. Same spins, same songs. They on the repeats. We honestly don't know how many times they've performed it, even in practice. But they have a law in production that you do it as though you're doing it for the first time. You approach the word of God. Don't take action. Join me for 16 memory too quick. No. The scriptures have wells too deep for you to reach the bottom. The scriptures are so profound that a scripture can save a little kid plus Andrew Liu, four years old, one of God touched him. Born again from four years old. I can't fathom that even as a preacher. They don't reflect that John and Jesus in the womb were full with the Holy Spirit. The scriptures are deep enough to confound and hold the most sophisticated of theologians minds. When you read through the word of God, don't read through it. I know this, because it truth be told, we really don't. And so this seems cliche, but when we look at verse 5 and 6, verse 5 and 6 teachers, something very important about our faith. To trust the Lord with all your heart must be understood in the context of problems. It's the heart that has been treasuring God's commandments versus one to two. And it's the heart that has love and faithfulness bound up around its neck and transcribe on its heart that will find it easy to trust the Lord. You got them? A race with wandering minds. It's the heart that receives the word of God. It's the heart that binds love and faithfulness around its neck. It's the heart that has the word of God inscribed on the tablets of its heart. If it's dead, hot, and that soul and individual, that man, woman, boy or child, that finds it easy to trust him with all of the hearts. We struggle to trust God completely because we have not kept his word. We have no prioritized his word. And because we have no prioritized his word, and we are not acquainted with the God, there is the object of our faith. And then you come and you save a pastor, I trust the Lord. It didn't work out. I'm like, you're in real, you're in the preceding verses. It's more than that. It's a blind, optimistic kind of approach. I know, I won't get that breakthrough. Because dealings run deeper than that. You're getting your breakthrough. You're not getting that breakthrough. Maybe the breakthrough. Because ways and wisdom are too deep for us to comprehend. Notice verse six. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your parts. That's the reward. The reward is God will straighten out and clarify the part ahead of you, move away the obstacles. But this is a very profound fruit. So profound will alter your entire life. And so subtle. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct you. In other words, keep him in mind. In all your decisions and actions. And sometimes stuff goes wrong for us. And we say, God, God, why? Did you consult him? Did you acknowledge him? The only time we acknowledge him was when we've done what we needed to do. And now God must come like a paramedic. He was not good enough for us to consult him in the first place, but he's good enough to rescue us from our obvious. Consult him first. Take a moment. Pause. Think about what you are doing. Think about the decisions you need to make as a family. Pray about it first, meditate it, go in the water, go and say, is there anything in his word that can give us some light on the situation? Even message was the clue to a few words. I was the clue to say anything in the word that can help me. I don't want to be positive because I feel sleepy. I ask him, what's the clear thing again? Acknowledging first, if we will do this, we'll find that our path, our future will be clear ahead of us. Amen. On the go of it, it's multiple now. I'm going to speedboat with it. Fourth, come on and reward. About seven and eight. Be not wise in your own eyes. Sounds like a rap song from Tupac or something. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord. Turn away from evil as we'll be dealing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. But seven begins with a call to humility. Don't be wise in your own eyes. You know how many times I have to remind my kids when I tell them, "Baby, don't go there." No, Daddy, I'll be careful. I say, don't walk around there. No, Daddy, it's okay. I'll be careful. I don't want your carefulness. I want your obedience. Listen to me. And that's what we do. No, God, I've got this. We don't even acknowledge him or give thought to him. We think we've got it. I've got it once your obedience. Not your carefulness. Since you turn away from evil, you fear me that will bring health and healing and refreshment to your bones. You know how many well-meaning believers I know today who had a rough life coming up are literally dealing with consequences of the choices they made. You know, when I said last week, you have power of you to decisions and choices and not your consequences. I have some friends who are hard, poor, drug addicts and now they're dealing with concentration issues, starting to grow. Now, all the healing with health issues, live with issues. If you're young, young, young, and you're sitting here now, deceive the word of God. I'm dealing with some issues over the black label, over the divide. I'm just kidding. I'm dealing with, we all dealing with some issues, these are past decisions. You know, I say, while you're young, fear the Lord, remember the Lord, your God, in the days of your youth and you'll be able to run marathons like he is. You hear the word of God, the healing and refreshment to your bones. But even now, just receiving the word of God has the supernatural energizing effect. Not many times your creatures get up here exhausted and they feel every one of the spirit. It's the word of God energizes. Don't lean on your own understanding, lean on God's wisdom. There's a wisdom of this world that appears to be, to be Godly, but it's not sensual. It's not from above. God says, if you fear me, I'll even heal you of your sicknesses. First, come on. It was 9-10. Honor the Lord with your wealth, also. I need you praying under your breath in the spirit right now. We are about to enter into a theological mind field, dude. There was nothing talk this morning. I want to repeat the offering talk. It's such a good job today. Well, really. Grendel's offering talk really captures marath. Really captures marath. So verse 10, 9 and 10 says, honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruit of all your produce, then your bonds will be filled with plenty and your vests will be bursting with wine. Verse 5, you'll notice that we encourage to trust the Lord, all your heart. Verse 7, we exhort to fear the Lord. Turn away from evil. And now we urge to honor the Lord with our wealth. Trust the Lord, fear the Lord, honor the Lord. Notice that we are urged to honor the Lord with our wealth. Of the preceding context of trusting in the Lord and fear in the Lord. Money is a currency of human resource. And so the heart loves money. The heart has a way of putting its hopes on human resources. Because they offer some kind of dependency, self-dependency, and so wealth and resources can create the solution. That we are self-made, self-dependent, and have everything in control. And our hearts easily put into that. Very easily. We like to say, Lord, you can have everything. We say, Lord, you can have my time. I'll be there church. I'll be there a connect. I'll even be there at the children's office. And we like to say, Lord, you can have my talent, my skills. I can sing. I can preach. I can spiritual dance. A Lord. My treasure. That's the last thing we give to the Lord. It's easy for us to give time and talent. My treasure. Now I'm saying this because you know this house. You know this church. You know how when it comes to the topic of money, I take a quick gift. Because the world has done a good job at creating another narrative. But the Word of God is the Word of God. God does not receive any honor from us if we're not willing to show within our treasure. Lord, I'll give you everything but not my pockets. I'll go as far to saying this. Just tell us, edit this out. That is good. That is, it's easy to give to people in need, but not to church and not to the Lord. Because we're not confronted with the pressing visible. Takes a whole lot more trust to give into a local church and not know where the money is going. Somebody else has to control it and direct it. Takes a whole lot of trust and worship to trust the delegated leadership in a local church. Now I'm going to say what Rainbow said just to put some bomb on this here. Is that we really are not crying for money. For the first two years, I even say to the guys in the office, don't even mention money. You're still about giving your time and giving your talent. But we have to at some point look at our hearts and say, Lord, have you touched my pocket here? Am I willing to give the Lord of my resource? The very thing that all of us are holding side point to. Why is teachers encouraging us? Trust the Lord with all your heart, don't lean on your own understanding. Don't be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord. And now he strikes at our very heart. Our need for self-reliance. And he says, that which the Lord has given you, show your appreciation and give him a portion of their back. Now the good question to ask is, what is the first fruit offering? There is a difference between a first fruit offering entirely in the ultimate. Exodus 23 and Deuteronomy 26 outline for us what is the first fruit offering. First fruit offering comes in with the harvest whenever there is a big harvest. There is no stipulate percentage on that. No criteria. You just give first and give best. You give of your best that comes in and you give it first as a sign of honor. You don't wait until all the day but you don't wait until you do your shop on shelf store and superfluous and then you say, Lord is a little bit yellier. The first fruit thing is Lord, I'm thinking about you first. That's where the honor is. When you thought about me first, in your budget, when you think about him first, posthum, why did you stretch your throat like? There is no prescribed way to give us not a 10%. All the God says is, give of your best and comes in and give it first. If you give your best and you give it last, it's not your honor. If you give it first and it's not your best, it's not your honor. The tide was different than outline first in the Vatican 27 and numbers 18. The tidying was a fixed percentage that went to the Levites, the widows and the poor and the orphans. The first road went quickly to the priests and numbers and you surrounded me, create the contrast between the two offerings. But let me say this, as new covenant children of God, we are not governed by tidying and we're not governed by first-hood offerings. If nobody are forming in here, I know nobody is forming and hurting cattle unless you want to prove to it. But the spirit and the principle in that applies to everyone of us. We don't believe in the entire thing as a church, but we do believe that giving us part of proclaiming the gospel and our worship. So when we give, we don't tip God. We don't tip Him like He's a call, but we're looking for change. We sit down and we say, you sit down with your wife, you say, Lord, what can I afford? What can we afford? Let's do it carefully. It's pre-meditated. That's an offering of worship to you Lord. You do that. Sometimes God will call you to give sacrificially when you don't have it. Now, creatures will sometimes hop on that every Sunday. I'm saying this is a spiritual truth that we cannot ignore. I would have loved to ignore this morning, but it's here in the text, stare at the deer in the headlights. We honor God without giving as well. Imagine singing and worshiping snot and tears, preaching the gospel. You're on fire for the Messiah and God has not touched your pockets. Paul told the Church of Corinthians, you've excelled in all things. Gremel spoke about this morning, excelled in revelation, you excelled in knowledge, you excelled in your faith, but it's one thing you lack. I'm not shared with you in giving or experiencing that grace of giving. Amen. You so watch me. Okay, you just don't walk out. Now, when we read this verse, it's 9 to 10. It's easy to look at this verse and develop around motor for giving. It's on the load of wealth so that our bonds can be full and our vets be bursting with wine. But if you consider Deuteronomy 2, the entire chapter speaks about first root offering. The whole idea behind the first root offering and giving is this. Lord, we want Egypt. We want slaves. You delivered us. You did not just deliver us from a land of bond as you said, I'm going to give you a new land. I'm going to give you the land of Canaan. Now you've brought us into the land. You said be fruitful and and bronze and have your vineyards and grow and make this land flourish. Lord, you've given us this land and the Lord says, now give me a portion of it. So your giving is not out of the motive of gaining. That's a sign of appreciation. Lord, you've given us this land. So we give this portion back to you to say, thank you. Lord, we're giving you this portion to celebrate the deliverance we experience out of Egypt. And that's how we give to the Lord. I give because he saved me. I was in darkness. I was blind, wallowing in my son and iniquity and he could have left me there and be totally justified in doing so. But he chose in his grace and his mercy to save me. And so Lord, this money I earn every month, it doesn't belong to me. It belongs to you. It's the job you gave me with the hands and the feet and the mind you gave me. And I'm saying, thank you. That's our giving as a response. It's a reflex to his goodness. Amen. Six, come on. And then we're done. We're done. Six, come on and reward. Verse 11 and 12, my son do not despise another fatherly appear. My son do not despise the Lord's discipline or be wary of his reproof or the Lord be proves him whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights. Now these two verses in this section move us from love to discipline, from love and kindness and compassion to correction. These verses assume that regardless of how you trust the Lord, how much you fear the Lord, how much you walk in obedience, there may be a moment when you stumble. There may be a moment when you are of alignment. There may be a moment when you trip up and you do have a moment of vulnerability. So these two verses assume that we cannot perfectly walk uprightly before him all the time, every time. There will be moments where the father in his love and grace will step in now, not just to bless us in the waters, but now to discipline us and chastise us. And as lovingly and graciously you receive the blessings, you receive all the rewards. Now receive his discipline. Now receive his chastising. Hebrews chapter 12, I'm going to end on this note, verses 5 to 11. Biter says, "Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son do not regard likely the discipline of the Lord. No be wary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is their whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and love? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good and we may share in his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. It's not easy to sin as a Christian and it should never be. There is stuff you will do as a child of God that God won't allow you to get away with it. The son of a, the son is seemingly getting away with all his disobedience and wickedness seems to be getting away with it, but God is not concentrated on discipline because they are not his sons. That his judgment, his judicial stance against him, but you are sons. The day you try and throw your company as a chap, you'll get caught. Your colleagues will be doing it for years. They may never get caught, but you as a child of God are first days. First day I promise you that is how the discipline of the Lord works. Sometimes he disciplines us by allowing a person to learn why the whole thing was in the week. And this gentleman was struck with infirmity and he said the most absurd, striking thing to us. He said, "This is the discipline of the Lord." And I stood back there. I was afraid to say another word. He saw it. Sometimes God allowed certain moments in our lives to pause us and say, stop and acknowledge me. You, my son, you're ignoring me. You make like I'm not in the room. You make decisions without me. I know what's best for you. I want, I want only good for you, but you keep on going as a by yourself and complaining to me, when I'm here for you, I've always been here for you. That's the beauty about being a child of God. That we not only receive the pleasurable rewards from him, we receive his chastisements, his scorching that we may share his holiness. God is not interested in the provision of your comforts. He is interested in the production of your character. He calls you not to be happy to be holy. Be holy, but I am holy. You'll get joy in the whole way. I'm holding you to holiness. Can we stand this morning? I said to pastor Israel in the week, I said to him, I don't know what to do, you know. I prepared lengthy sermons, and I preached lengthy, and I preached, I prepared shorter, I come the sermon time in half. And I spoke with you. But this morning what matters most is that you hear the word of the Lord, and you receive it with me. Can we close eyes? Father?