Leaving an Inheritance

 

Read Proverbs 13

There is God’s way and there is everything else and Solomon continues along the path of dichotomous sayings intended to impart wisdom to us.  So, I could just say, “Here are some more golden nuggets.”

Occasionally, Solomon just makes a statement of the human condition.  Consider verse 7.

One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing;

    another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.

This doesn’t say be rich.  It doesn’t say be poor.  It says look at our human condition.  We wear masks.  We put on facades. The quality of honesty comes from God and is not necessarily natural to our human nature.

The quip doesn’t define all, but surely many.

I don’t have much but I want people to think I am rich.  That’s human nature.

I have considerable wealth but don’t want people to know it.  That’s human nature.

I want people to think I measure up to the world’s standards.

I don’t want people after me for money all the time.

It’s just human nature.  Solomon just throws one in that says here is the playing field, guys.

One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing;

    another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.

He follows this somewhat tangentially with the next coupling.

The ransom of a man’s life is his riches,

But the poor does not hear rebuke.

If you are rich and your kid is kidnapped, you can pay to get him back.  The more you have the more you can pay.

If you don’t have much, who is going to kidnap you anyway?

Not too long ago and not too far away, I had a publisher that went out of business.  It was Tate Publishing.  They advertised themselves as a Christian publisher.  Before I signed on and gave them my retainer, I had a bunch of questions.  I didn’t need a vanity publisher.

These guys seemed to be the real deal, so I published about a dozen books through them.  They were supposed to market these books.  Their marketing was terrible, so I marketed them myself.

They were supposed to have editors.  They had style manualists—I think I invented that term after a couple months with Tate.  They could follow a style manual but didn’t really have the wherewithal to be an editor. 

They were not quite the package they promised to be, but they did publish books.  They had that part down fairly well.

There were a few drawbacks, such as they didn’t pay royalties.  It was understandable at first.  Sometimes a company waits for you to hit a threshold of a hundred dollars or so, before they want to cut a check.  That’s understandable, but after a couple years, I wasn’t getting any checks and neither was anyone else.

Then they were unable to do the one thing they could actually do and that was publish books as the creditor that owned the printing press reclaimed his property for non-payment.  Tate Publishing was out of the publishing business.

Many people sued Tate.  I got all sorts of queries wanting me to join the fray and sue these bums.  I didn’t.

Why?

Because I would have probably won.  Even the attorney general was in on the action pursuing what Tate had done from the criminal side.  I think I would have won hands down if I had sued.  I don’t know how much, but I think it would have been a few thousand dollars, maybe more.  I think a court might have awarded punitive damages as well.  What they did was wrong and they should have to pay.

So why didn’t I go after them?

Even if I won, how do I collect from someone with no money?  They went out of business because they were broke.  How do I collect from someone who is broke? Sometimes it pays to be broke.

There was no ransom—no award—to be had.  Nobody goes after the guy with no money. Plus, I think in our tax-heavy world, if I had won I would still owe taxes on my award whether I received it or not.

It’s neither good nor bad, it’s just the way things are.  The rich are targets because they can pay.  The poor don’t have the same problem.

By way of a rabbit trail, I liked the President of Tate Publishing.  He had been a Marine door gunner in Vietnam.  I had come in contact with him a short time after I moved to Burns Flat and wanted to get the school zone signs moved.

If you didn’t notice or remember, the school zone signs used to be about 10 yards apart, at least as you were driving south on State Highway 44.  There was a sign that said BEGIN SCHOOL ZONE and 10 yards later there was another sign that said END SCHOOL ZONE.   Then you came to Webb Street and another 50 yards down the road you finally got to the school, but by then you were out of the school zone.

For the first time since I had returned to God’s country, I used the phrase, “That dog don’t hunt.”

I called the highway department.  It was after all a state highway, but only got an answering machine.  After I week, I went to the school superintendent’s office.  He said the school had no control over the sign and suggested the town board.  The town board said that I should call the highway department.  I had been down that road.

I thought that I should make my local representative aware of the issue.  I did and was told that he was too busy. Of all the tap dancing answers that politicians sometimes use, I had never come across one that said, “I’m too busy to look at issues in my district.”

You remember quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.  I was losing on the slow to anger front. Do you ever have those time where you think it’s time for a streak of profanity or you need to go kill something or someone with your bare hands?  OBTW—I didn’t think a run of bad words would be enough.

But, I decided to take one more stab at getting this done through official channels.  It came down to a coin toss—Keating or Fallin.  Fallin won the toss and I elected that she received.

I fired off an email, thinking that it would take a couple days to get through by phone.  In an hour, I received an answer to my email from the governor’s chief of staff.  That email said, “It will be fixed within 24 hours.”

My standard closing to correspondence is generally, Semper Fidelis.

The chief’s closing was Take the Hill. 

I knew there was a Marine on the other end of this dialogue.  His name was Richard Tate. After his government service, he started Tate Publishing as a Christian publishing company.  After a couple years, he turned the business over to his son, Ryan Tate. 

You might have seen Ryan on Fox News years ago as a business consultant.  You haven’t seen him there in recent years because his business—my publisher—went bust.

But the guy who started the business was a good guy.  Two hours after my email, I was driving south on Highway 44 and went by the school and the signs had been moved. The school was within the school zone.

I usually tell this story in conjunction with teaching Acceptance of Authority and ask the question, “Do you think I slow down in the school zone?”

Of course, I do.  It’s my school zone.

Enough for today’s rabbit trail.  Let’s move on to one of the most intriguing verses in the Proverbs.

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,

But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.

You should leave something for your children and their children.  I will be blessing my grandchildren with books by Tom Spence.  They will have increased in value by the time they get them because thanks to my publisher going out of business, they will all be out of print.

We should leave something of this world for our posterity who are still navigating this world.  It might not be much but it says that I had enough to provide for my family and bless others and still something to leave my children’s children.  It says that in this life I was master over my money and not the other way around.  We will get to that in chapter 22.

To be master over your money, you must set aside your tithe before anything else.  Then you budget for your needs, for the needs of others, and for the inheritance that you will leave.  To be master over your money and possessions, you have to use the “B” word—Budget.

You have to tell every dollar where to go, and that includes what you will leave as an inheritance.  It is good to leave an inheritance for your children’s children and not all of you can give copies of Tom Spence books.

Every one of you can leave the most valuable thing ever to your children and their children and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This should be delivered before you die.  Your kids and grandkids don’t need to wait for the reading of the will to receive this.

It’s good that you leave something of worldly value to your kids and their kids when you are gone, but it is essential that you share the gospel with them while you are still alive.

Let’s just call this Rabbit Trail Sunday, because here is your next one.

On occasion, while I was at OSU, I would drive down to Edmond and go out towards what is now Arcadia Lake and spend the day with my grandfather.  He drove a grader for the county and did truck farming for longer than I could imagine.  He had retired from moving dirt with a blade but never retired from growing watermelons.

Spending a day with him in his retirement—and he was getting up there in years—involved sitting in 2 old chairs in front of a black and white television and watching a baseball game or at least 4 or 5 innings of it depending on when the signal was good and when it wasn’t.

There was a wastebasket between our chairs with a paper bag in it.  That was not for trash but for spitting in.  My grandfather would take out is tobacco pouch, take a chew and then hand me the bag.

Just for the record, chewing tobacco was healthy back then.  Cigarettes were becoming toxic, but chewing tobacco built strong bodies 12 ways.

As the reception was terrible—some of you who get upset when your Netflix movie says buffering just can’t know the pain of straining to see if you still had any picture at all—we had time to talk.

One day it just hit me.  I needed to ask my grandfather if he knew Jesus Christ.  How do you bring up this question to a man who is decades older than you?  My question was answered in moments.

He started telling me that out of everything in life, knowing Jesus was the most important.  All I had to do was keep acknowledging and agreeing and he kept talking.

How would I broach the subject?  Never had to.  He needed to tell me. I think he was happy that I had already been given the good news by my parents and Sunday school teachers and actually knew some of the Bible.

End of rabbit trail.

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, and the best part of that inheritance is the gospel. OK, that actually ties in with the message so it doesn’t count against my rabbit trail quota.

Now, to the second part of this verse. But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous

Consider this verse in the context of one we covered just a couple weeks ago.

Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath,

    but righteousness delivers from death.

You can’t buy a stairway to heaven and you can take your wealth with you.  The righteous person knows that he can leave an inheritance to his kids and grandkids, but the sinner is so short-sighted that he does not receive the gift of life for his future or take care of his descendants when he is gone.

The wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.  Some of us would like to see some stimulus checks sent out when a sinner dies.  Let’s divide up those proceeds right now.  I don’t think that one is quite on the mark, but if it is I prefer my direct deposit.

Consider the Parable of the Talents.  Two servants are told well done good and faithful servant.  One is labeled wicked and lazy.  When all is said and done, the first servant who had five talents and made five more is given the talent of the third servant who buried his talent in the ground.

You had better believe that the disciples remembered Proverbs 13:22 (even though these quips of wisdom were not enumerated then).  The wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.

God will balance the scales as he sees fit in his time. If there is a redistribution of wealth it will be as God allocates it.

We have instructions as to what we are to do.  Be master over your money and possessions, so much so that you tell everything you have and own what to do.  This will bring glory to God and provision your family as well as having some sort of inheritance for your children’s children.

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,

But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.

There is God’s way and there is everything else and leaving an inheritance—especially the gospel of Jesus Christ—is God’s way.

Amen.

Money for Nothing and your Chicks for Free

 

Read Proverbs 13

Hey!  The Burger King in Elk City is getting close to being open.  Do you remember the 10-piece nuggets for $1.50? That was a deal right there.

Notice I didn’t say chicken nuggets.  I’m not sure what was in them, but that was a deal for sure.

I like to refer to much of Solomon’s wisdom as golden nuggets.  You don’t have to wonder what’s in them, but they do prompt your to think on how they affect your life.

Let’s try verse 10 on for size.

Where there is strife, there is pride,

    but wisdom is found in those who take advice.

 What do we remember from before?  The fool must always be right.  The fool takes neither advice nor seeks counsel. If we act like the fool and insist on our own way, we should also expect strife.

But sometimes our way is right, right?

Wise people may disagree but they seek counsel.  You need to think for yourself but you should buttress your thinking with the counsel of other wise people.

That brings us to the inverted pyramid.  You know what a pyramid looks like.  It is triangular in nature—at least each of its sides is essentially a triangle.  It is large at the bottom and comes to something of a point at the top.

Now turn the pyramid upside down in your mind.  It won’t balance.  It’s not stable.  That dog don’t hunt but that image is just the image I wanted to convey to Marines.  The small end is the amount of actual combat experience that most Marines have.  The wide end is the amount for which they must be prepared.

This unstable image must be buttressed with reading, training, and counsel.  I used this image mostly to convince Marines to read books and professional periodicals that you didn’t have to rotate 90 degrees.

Use that image for wisdom.  If we are honest, we see that our life experience only takes us so far.  Our understanding of scripture takes us farther, but only in the context of receiving godly advice do we buttress this inverted pyramid with the small end being our own experience and understanding and the broad end being the wisdom that we need to navigate this world.

It should not be surprising that three millennia later, Paul would use the imagery of the body of Christ and how important each part is to the other.  We are not only to love one another.  We are advisors to one another. We sharpen one another.

Let’s tackle the next verse so we get a couple nuggets in our morning’s diet.

Dishonest money dwindles away,

    but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.

That brings us to Dire Straits.  Get your money for nothing and your chicks for free.

There is something in our human nature that seeks the allure of something for nothing, especially money for nothing.

Why do we still see emails from the imprisoned Kenyan prince who will give you a fourth of his 28-million-dollar fortune if you will just send them $128 for his bail and how easy is that, just send your credit card number and security code.  Who could pass that up?

Everyone who knows it is a scam, that’s who, but those emails just keep on coming.  Someone is taking the bait.  Someone is biting that shiny lure. They change in format year to year, but it’s still the allure of money for nothing.

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.  If you have to steal a fortune to be rich, your wealth will soon be gone.  It will dwindle away.

But if your eyes are not memorized by a mountain of gold, you can save a little each month and have what you need to retire and give your children’s children something of an inheritance. 

What is the applicable word here?  Discipline.

Just a little bit that you set aside each week can be enough when you need it.  Whether you have a 401K at your work or not, you can still set aside money each pay period.  Have it taken out automatically so you never see it.  Don’t make it so much that it stresses you out, but enough to make it worthwhile.

Then forget about it.  Now, if you are investing in the market and manage your own investment, you can’t forget about it.  So we are talking about something low risk with low to moderate payout at some future point.

Interest rates today stink.  It’s sort of like putting your money under the mattress, but it still grows, even if there is no interest.

Problems come when we want to turn a quick and impossible profit.  Problems come when we are willing to venture outside what is sensible.  Problems come when we use deceit to try to get ahead.

But the slow and steady week-to-week or month-to-month savings grows. It doesn’t grow fast but grows surely.

You might be wondering, “Why is Tom giving investment advice?”

The answer is, “I’m not.  Solomon is and the word on the street is that he is the wisest man who ever lived.”

Two nuggets for this morning.

·       Seek and take godly advice.

·       Practice saving some small amount every week and then just forget about it.

It’s sound advice from a wise man.

Amen.

Don't be Stupid!

 

Read Proverbs 12

I could just take the week off and say there is God’s way and there is everything else.  I could do that for several chapters, but there are more nuggets than this simple but accurate dichotomy give us.

For instance, Stupid is as stupid does.

The person who hates correction is stupid.  Many grew up being told not to call anyone stupid, but Solomon tells us there is a clear exception.  It is the person who ignores the counsel of the Lord.  That’s different than being ignorant of what the Lord has to say.

It’s knowing what the Lord has to say and rejecting it outright. 

The fool declares in his heart that there is no God.

We began this journey with a simple declaration about knowledge, wisdom, instruction and discipline.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,

    but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

A person is a fool to despise wisdom and instruction or wisdom and discipline.  A person is stupid to hate correction.  The classifications seem harsh but realize in rejecting instruction and discipline and correction, the person that Solomon labels a fool is saying, I already know it all.  You—not even God—can teach me anything.

There is a saying going around that rings true.  A coach can help you with your mistakes but nobody can help you with your excuses.

We can only receive correction where we acknowledge a mistake or a miscue.  If we think we know it all, correction seems useless to us. 

 We have been down this road for a while and will continue on it to the end.

Listen to advice and accept discipline,

    and at the end you will be counted among the wise.

Here’s a coupling of verses that we have already studied.

Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still;

    teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

    and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Wisdom—which includes prudence, discretion, knowledge, acceptance of counsel and correction—was present at the foundation of the world.   How could we reject it?

Solomon makes yet another appeal.  This one is a bit more on the blunt side than others that are more poetic.  If you reject the wisdom and counsel of the Lord, you are just stupid. Stupid!

These are not words of evangelism.  They probably won’t bring anyone to God.  They are what we have seen from Solomon before.

Wake up.  Pay attention.  Get this and get it good.  He calls out to those who are about to step off a cliff and shouts: Stop!

If you saw a loved one about to step off a dangerous cliff, would you casually comment to the person next to you, Hope he doesn’t step off or would you shout Stop!

Not everyone is about to step off of a cliff.  Some just struggle day-to-day with seeking God and his wisdom.  This whole read a chapter a day may seem daunting to some.  Others can’t find the time.  You can binge-watch something on Netflix but can’t find the time for a chapter a day.

The counsel and correction that we need to navigate this life come in seeking God and his wisdom on a daily basis. 

What I am talking about is learning to ride a bicycle. Imagine learning to ride a bicycle like climbing a mountain.  You start out in the foothills.  It’s new but not too challenging.  You probably had training wheels.

Then the lateral fail-safes came off and you started riding and you made some progress and you fell over.  You got back up and went a little farther and fell over.  This happened again and again and there were some skinned knees and bruised elbows.

Then you reached the checkout point.  What’s the checkout point?  It’s that point where you lay down the bicycle and think, If I was walking, I would already be there by now.

But, if you will pick up the bicycle and try one more time, or two more times, or a dozen more times, you find that you have crested the mountain and are on the downhill.  It is from that point forward that you go everywhere on your bicycle, even if it’s just to the end of the block.

You pop wheelies, ride with no hands on the handlebars, and put playing cards in the spokes.  You go everywhere on your bicycle, at least until you get your driver’s permit. Then you can’t remember where you left your bicycle.

But you have to get past the checkout point.  At some point when you don’t feel like you are getting anywhere, you still have to press on.

Such is the case with reading your chapter each day.  At some point, it just doesn’t click.  It seems pointless and hardly fulfilling.  It’s like, I could have had another 15 minutes of sleep, but you press on anyway and read your chapter.

If you get past your checkout point, you find that it’s not too far to where you crest the peak and are on the downhill.  It won’t be, I have to read my chapter or as is the case here, Tom is making me read my Bible.  It will be, I can hardly wait to read my chapter today and tomorrow and the next day. 

The person who hates correction is stupid, thus the one who hungers for the Lord’s correction is wise. We long to be counseled by the Word of God on a daily basis.

We have a methodology that is effective.  We could change the method at some point, but for now it produces good fruit, at least for those who pressed on through the checkout point.

To not receive the counsel of the Lord is just plain stupid. 

Solomon pounds the pulpit one more time and says pay attention.  There is God’s way and there is everything else and it’s just stupid to live in the everything else.

Tom pounds the pulpit and says press on.  Read your chapter every day, even when you don’t feel like it.

Long ago and far away I went to a 2-year school in Quantico, Virginia that lasted 6 months.  It was the drinking from a fire hose metaphor extended for half a year.

I remember one day we had 3 exams and were headed out to the field for a weekend exercise after evening chow, but before we headed out to the field, we took the Air Force Officers Qualification Test.  It wasn’t part of our curriculum, but just something the services did to see how the services compared to each other, at least as far as entry criteria.

The captain administering the test said that traditionally, Marine officers didn’t do too well.  I thought, could it be because you don’t give us the test until we are already brain dead?

But the drinking from a firehose continued for six months.  It was hard to tell if you had learned anything because you were already learning the next thing, but for the next 20 years, I had an internal library to call upon.  It had registered and been cataloged and was available for retrieval.

In between the plethora of golden nuggets that compose the Proverbs are Solomon’s reminders to stay the course.  Pay attention.  Listen to my words. Don’t be stupid!

My counsel is to press on through the checkout point.  It gets easier and your desire to receive the counsel and correction of the Lord grows.

There is God’s way and there is everything else and you will grow hungry for God’s way, including his correction.

Let me put it this way.  Yes, it is stupid to live in the everything else, but seldom does negative motivation get you up the hill and past the checkout point.

So let’s put this in the positive reinforcement mode.  Desiring the correction of God’s way is wise.  Be numbered among the wise.

Amen.

The Prudent Overlook an Insult

 

Read Proverbs 12

I’m jumping ahead a few chapters to get to one of my favorite verses.

As iron sharpens iron,

    so one person sharpens another.

Why couldn’t I wait?  It is good company for a coupling of verses we find in this twelfth chapter. This chapter poses the dichotomy of the wise and the foolish once again.

The way of fools seems right to them,

    but the wise listen to advice.

Fools show their annoyance at once,

    but the prudent overlook an insult.

As we continue in the Proverbs, so too the counsel continues.

Do not answer a fool according to his folly,

    or you yourself will be just like him.

So the topic of this short message is…

FACEBOOK and other online traps.

There is value in discussion, even argument, between people who seek God and his kingdom and his righteousness and surely his wisdom.  Discourse between and among godly people, who are seeking not only the best solution for a problem but personal growth, is valuable.

We help each other grow in intelligent discourse.  Civil discourse is good discussion and a fertile ground for growth.  We who belong to Christ Jesus are blessed to grow in his grace.  That means that we can make mistakes and he will never kick us to the curb.

God already took into account our brilliance and our stupidity when he claimed us as his own. He did tell us through Solomon that some things just don’t help us grow.  Arguing with a fool is one of those things.

This seems harsh, to pass on a discussion because we consider someone to be a fool.  Are we not counseled to avoid calling someone a fool?

We are, but we are also counseled not to engage a fool.  How do we know if we have encountered a fool?  Here are two indicators that Solomon saw fit to share.

First, the fool always thinks that he is right.  His way always seems right to him.  That’s just human nature.  Our way seems right to us, but we who seek wisdom will listen to counsel—especially godly counsel—and are not married to our way.

Second, the fool is annoyed immediately when someone disagrees with him.  Do you remember quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger? The fool is upset as his first course of action.  He is primed to respond. He is quick to answer and with anger.  Listening gets in the way.

Our counsel is, scroll on—let it go. There is no profit to be had here.  Any fruit that comes from further engagement will be rotten.  Move on.

But, but, but…I can’t leave it alone.  You don’t know what he just said. 

The prudent overlook an insult.

Long ago and not too far away, I was a Leadership for Life instructor for The Oklahoman.  For all of the games they played with circulation numbers, they did try to do some positive things.  One of them was the Leadership for Life program.

One afternoon, the company had arranged for Sherri Coale to come and speak to the instructors.  I figured it was worth the drive to the Edmond office and I didn’t even wear my OSU tie.

Sherri talked about many things but her best anecdote was from when she was a new high school basketball coach.  There was one man who always gave her flak regardless of what she did.  He would argue anything, anytime, and anywhere.

Sherri said the thought of what he would confront her with next darkened every day whether she saw him or not.  She finally went to one of the more experienced coaches and shared what was happening.

The older coach told her concisely, Don’t wrestle with the pigs.  You will both get muddy, but the pigs love it.

The prudent overlook an insult.

This was solid counsel that I am sure Sherri kept with her all of her years.  We followed the OU girls for a while, went to see them in a regional tournament at whatever the basketball arena is called now, and enjoyed watching Sherri coach.

I thought she was a good coach but could only shake my head at the commentators when the Sooner girls didn’t get the win.  The talking heads started talking about what heels she wore for the game and maybe she should have paid more attention to coaching.

The prudent overlook an insult.

You have purposeful things to do with your life.  Wasting time arguing with someone—even someone who insults you or your position on something or which heels your decided to wear today—someone who will neither listen nor consider your thoughts is a waste of time.  Chances are that the other person gets entertainment value out of wasting your time.

You have purposeful things to do.

I don’t avoid going online.  Sometimes I am very provocative, but I pick my conversation partners carefully.

The careful use of provocation can lead to creativity but the foolish are only annoyed by thoughts that engage the mind.

You have purposeful things to do.  Your time is wasted, not invested, in arguing with a fool.  There is no, Well done good and faithful servant at the end of an argument with a fool.

I love a good discussion.  I enjoy civil discourse.  If you find a partner who is quick to listen then you are blessed, especially in this age of insults.  Those folks are one in a million. 

Most people don’t discuss.  They degrade.  Discussion takes work.  Put-downs come easy.

You have purposeful things to do.

The prudent overlook an insult.

You have purposeful things to do.

Amen.

Hope placed in mortals dies with them

 Read Proverbs 11

I am going to spend a little time on one verse this morning—verse 7 of chapter 11.

First in the New International Version.

Hopes placed in mortals die with them;

    all the promise of their power comes to nothing.

Now for the New King James version.

When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish,

And the hope of the unjust perishes.

And finally, from the New American Standard version.

When a wicked person dies, his expectation will perish,

And the hope of strong people perishes.

We can see connections to verse 4.

Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath,

    but righteousness delivers from death.

And of course, there’s this one.

I don’t care too much for money,

Cause money can’t buy me love.

Ok, that’s Paul McCartney not Solomon, but the point is while wealth is ok in this life, it cannot be transferred to the next.

The godly person knows this but the ungodly will have a day of reckoning like he never imagined.  Any hope placed in the things of this world dies when your life in this world ends.

It’s not just money.  It’s power, status, rank, privilege, fame, and also wealth and fortune.

We have already discussed that it is just fine to have money and nice things.  Neither money nor stuff are godly or ungodly.  It is our relationship with money, power, rank, and privilege that defines whether we seek God and his kingdom or want to build our own.

Are we known by our love or our service or our wisdom?  Are we known by our greed and self-centeredness?

The value of the things of this world in which we placed our hope expires when we do.  Our bank accounts, our season tickets, our weekly spa treatments—even my Sexiest Man Alive awards mean nothing to me in eternity.

The Christian knows this.  The ungodly have a big surprise in store for them, but not because they were not warned.  They simply chose not to believe.

The fool declares in his heart that there is no God.

The Christian—or in Solomon’s time—the one seeking God, knows to store up treasure in heaven.  It is the only truly insured investment.

The ungodly place false hopes in the things of this world, with money usually is near the top of their lists.  God through Solomon said, that dog don’t hunt.

Does this counsel mean that we should die penniless without any accolades?

I will discuss the latter first.  It is just fine to be noticed for our good deeds so long as they bring glory to God.  If our hearts desire to build our own kingdom instead of seeking God’s kingdom, accolades and recognition and everything else that tempts our ego work against us.

But if we can receive the approval of those around us and refocus the human tendency to idolize on the goodness and mercy and grace of God, then bring on the accolades.  They are just grist for the mill as we serve our Lord.

How do I know this?  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

What about dying penniless?  I will jump ahead a couple chapters in the Proverbs to 13:22.

A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children,

    but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.

You can be a godly person and leave an inheritance to your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  The first and most important part of that inheritance is the gospel.  It is delivered to them before we die.

But it’s also just fine to leave money and stuff and other treasures.  We can’t take them with us and as followers of Christ Jesus, we know that.

It is the fool, the sinner, the wicked who is in store for a big surprise.  They can’t take it with them and their wealth is stored up for the righteous.  If you are the sinner who loses everything because you resisted God to the end, you know the theological term for what lies ahead:  Bummer!

We are blessed to use our money, status, position, and other materially tangible things to promote the gospel and bring glory to God.  We are blessed to enjoy the things of this world without serving them.

We have one God whom we know best through Christ Jesus and we serve him by loving and serving others.  We have no other gods beside him or before him or even competing with him.

The only taste of heaven that the sinner will know without Christ’s redemption is what they placed their hopes in while living in this world, and all of their hope will end abruptly upon their death.

It’s good to live God’s way for the things of this world expire for us when we expire. We know that we are not forsaken.  We know God has an inheritance for us.  We know that we have treasure in heaven. 

There is God’s way and there is everything else.  Live God’s way.

God’s way—hallelujah and praise the Lord.

Everything else—bummer.

Amen.

Wealth is Worthless on the Day of Wrath

 Read Proverbs 11

Let’s take a macro view of chapter 11.  I will use groupings of words and pairings of actions and consequences.

God’s way:

Honest

Accurate

Humble

Integrity

Righteous

Knowledge

Understanding

Trustworthiness

Good counsel

Kindhearted

Blameless

Generous

Seeks good

Everything else:

Dishonest

Arrogance (Sinful Pride)

Duplicity

Wickedness

Evil desires

Gossip

Ruthless

Wickedness

Perverse hearts

Hoarding

Actions and Consequences

Pride                                       Disgrace

Righteousness                        Life

Unfaithfulness                       Trapped by evil

Death of the wicked             No hope

Prosperity of the Righteous Joy to many

Put up security                      Suffer

Kindheartedness                    Respect

Ruthlessness                          Life is all about money

Kindness                                 Benefits self as well as others

Cruelty                                    Trouble

 

Similar comparisons and consequences

Wicked                                   Deceptive wages

Sows righteousness               Reaps reward

Wicked                                   Punished

Righteous                                Set Free

Generous                                Prosper

Seek good                               Good Will

Trust in Riches                       Downfall

Righteousness                        Thrive

 

We should not be surprised with the simple dichotomy of many of the nuggets contained in this chapter.  Solomon uses men and women, individuals and governments, as well as immediate concerns and consequences in the day of wrath.

Let’s focus on just a few.  We begin with verse 4.

 Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath,

    but righteousness delivers from death.

 Hold your holy horses!  I thought wealth was ok.  I thought it was ok to have money and stuff.

It is.  God wants to bless you and he wants you to bless others, but material wealth has no exchange value on the Day of the Lord.  Whatever you have received in this life is to be put to work in this life. God has invested in you.  You are to invest in others, in good works, and in wisdom.

You can leave your children’s children an inheritance, but your money won’t buy you righteousness in the eyes of the Lord.

This should not come as a surprise to those who know the gospels well.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Solomon has been telling us that right living often leads to material blessings, but that wisdom is more valuable than gold, silver, or rubies. 

There is nothing wrong with material wealth.  In fact, it can be put to good use to bring glory to God, but at the end of the age or the end of your life, you can’t buy your right standing with God.

Your estate can buy you a fancy casket but you can’t buy right standing with God.

Several years ago, a family came to see me about doing a funeral service in the church.  They didn’t worship here and were not sure if they were even going to do a service.  They did have lots of questions.  One of them was, “Can we play Stairway to Heaven during the service.”

I said, “Of course.  I might even sing along.”  I couldn’t leave it at that.  I had to let them know that’s not how getting to heaven works.  Good song. Bad theology.

Let’s do another golden nugget.  Go to verse 22.

Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout

    is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.

Who would put a gold ring in a pig’s nose?  Really!  How ridiculous. What possible purpose could this absurd contrast serve?

Pay attention ladies, especially you young gals.  Why would you give yourself to just anyone? You must live and act and make decisions with discretion, with prudence, and with sound judgment.

The proverb is not about adorning swine.  It’s about giving up your chastity on just anyone.  It makes as much sense as putting a gold ring in a pig’s nose.

Let’s do one more, verse 31.

If the righteous receive their due on earth,

    how much more the ungodly and the sinner!

This is an affirmation for the righteous who struggle with the wicked getting away with wicked things.  The message comes from the movie Frozen and it’s Let it go!

If God will take care of you for seeking him and his kingdom and his righteousness, and for desiring his wisdom—and he will—then don’t you think he will give the wicked just what they deserve.

Stop worrying about what the wicked seem to get away with.  Remember that nothing is hidden from God.  God will take care of judgment and dispense wrath as he sees fit.

There are 10 million jobs available in this country and Advisor to God on how to deal with the wicked is not one of them.

Rejoice that God will take care of the righteous.  Celebrate that we are made right with God by the blood of Jesus.  When it comes to the wicked, let it go.  God will let you know if he needs any advice on the matter, but don’t hold your breath waiting on him to give you the call.

I think that some of you were wondering if aliens had abducted Tom and put this doppelganger in his place.  Let me assure you it’s me.  Here is how you should know it.

There is God’s way and there is everything else. 

Live God’s way.

Amen.