INTRO.- Quips and quotes.
- Sign in the window of a flower shop: We don’t mind if you stick your nose in our business.
- Most of us are like we were thirty years ago – only in slow motion.
- Where Eskimos rub noses, Americans rub fenders.
- Some people who try to look casual end up looking accidental.
- Some folks look ahead, some look back, but most look worried.
- It would be extremely nice if there were as many new ways of making money as there are of spending it.
- If you want to know what’s wrong with a candidate – elect him!
- Keep your chin up, but not to the point where your nose is in the air.
- Among the most popular remedies that won’t cure a cold is advice.
- A dentist in Little Rock claims the best collector of old bills is a new toothache.
- You’re not really successful until someone brags they sat beside you in grade school.
- Seat belts in automobiles are not as confining as wheel chairs.
- There are several things that money can’t buy – among them is the same stuff it bought last week.
- Many young men would like to become dentists, but they don’t seem to have enough pull.
- It’s easy to milk a cow. Any jerk can do it.
- A friend is one who joyfully sings with you when you are on the mountaintop and silently walks beside you through the valley.
- You never have to take a dose of your own medicine if you know how to keep your mouth shut.
- About the only thing you can get for a nickel nowadays is heads or tails.
- Too many folks want to build a better world while acting in a foreman’s capacity.
- No man becomes either very good or very bad suddenly.
- Some kids are like ketchup bottles – you have to slap their bottom a few times to keep them moving.
- If the knocking on the door is loud and long, it isn’t opportunity, it’s relatives.
- In June, road maps replace the May catalogues.
- The odds on a diet succeeding are three to one against you – knife, fork and spoon.
- Politicians are poor tippers. They’re not as careless with their money as they are with ours.
- You can’t expect a person to see eye-to-eye with you when you’re looking down on him.
- A fifth grade boy reported to his father that he was almost at the top of the list of those that flunked.
- The happiest people are those who are too busy to notice whether they are or not.
- The height of politeness is to listen with interest to things you know nothing about, from someone who doesn’t.
- A bore is one who keeps you from being lonely, but makes you wish you were.
- Members of congress meet more often than they get together.
- If you look back too much, you will soon be headed that way.
- A beautiful heart seems to transform a homely face.
- If you did today all that you had planned, maybe you didn’t plan enough.
- A gossip is one who puts two and two together and gets four more than anybody else.
- Fast transportation has made us all neighbors, but unfortunately, not brothers.
- If we could see ourselves as others do, we’d simply think there was something wrong with our eyes.
- The best time to put kids to bed is very late – when they’re too tired to fight back.
Now to the book of Proverbs.
I. THE EYES OF THE LORD
15:3 “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.”
ILL.- One Sunday morning, an instructor in a theological school was sharing a seat with a small boy on a shuttle train, says the Philadelphia Bulletin. The boy was holding a Sunday School lesson leaflet.
“Do you go to Sunday school, my boy?” asked the man in a friendly way. “Yes, sir.” “Tell me, my boy,” continued the man, thinking to have some fun with the lad, “tell me where God is, and I’ll give you an apple.” The boy looked up sharply at the man, and promptly replied, “I will give you a whole barrel of apples if you will tell me where He is not.”
Smart boy, wouldn’t you say? How is it that God could be everywhere at the same time? Have you figured it out yet? I think the answer is fairly simple. God is beyond our human imagination. There is no way we can imagine anyone being able to see everything on planet earth at one time!
Is. 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD . As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
God’s ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours. We’re not even close when it comes to His thinking and ways.
ILL.- I’ve only been using a computer and internet service for about four years. There are so many things I still don’t understand about computers. Sometimes they stop for no reason at all or crash right in the middle of whatever it is you are doing. It makes no sense.
Some years ago I would find a great article or story that I wanted to use in a sermon and I would print it out. Then I would retype it for my sermon. Finally, someone said to me, “Why are you doing that? All you have to do is ‘copy and paste’ it into you sermon?” Well, I didn’t know that. Now that I’ve learned that little trick it sure saves me a lot of time when sermonizing.
Brothers and sisters, do you think God understands computers? Goodness gracious, yes! There isn’t anything He doesn’t understand and there isn’t anything He doesn’t see!
You mean to tell me that He saw me smoke those grapevines when I was just a kid? And that time when I stole a watermelon from my neighbor’s garden? Sure He did. And He also saw those times when I ministered to someone or prayed for someone even though no other human being knew about it or saw it.
ILL.- Dr. John Baillie made it a practice to open his course on the doctrine of God at Edinburgh University with these words: “Gentlemen, we must remember that in discussing God we cannot talk about Him without His hearing every word we say. We may be able to talk to our fellows, as it were, behind their backs, but God is everywhere, yes, even in this classroom. Therefore, in all of our discussions we must be aware of His infinite presence and talk about Him, as it were, before His face.”
ILL.- One of the most infamous freethinkers of England was a man by the name of Anthony Collins, who died in 1729. He was author of the well-known “Discourse on Freethinking.” One day Collins met a poor working man on his way to church.
“Where are you going,” asked Collins.
“To church, sir,” answered the workingman.
“Is your God a great God or a little God,” asked Collins in an attempt to confuse the mind of the poor fellow. But the church-goer gave him the perfect answer: “He is so great, sir, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, and so little that He can dwell in my heart.”
Collins later admitted that this simple answer of an uneducated man had more effect upon his mind than all the volumes of argument he had read in favor of religion.
Brothers and sisters, our God is great! The word “great” doesn’t even begin to cover everything He is! He is all-powerful. He is all-wise. He is all-knowing. He is everywhere present. He does see both the good and the evil that takes place in this world. And He is not without sympathy or compassion toward those who hurt, nor is He is without justice toward those who do evil in this world.
ILL.- Recently, Christina Reeves lost a good friend in an accident. Angela Webb was her name. She was 29 years old. She was driving a brand new Pontiac Grand Prix and was returning from seeing her doctor who just told her she was pregnant. Angela had only been married two months. She was excited and happy. In fact, happier than she had ever been in her life. She suddenly hit a deep patch of water, her car went out of control, rolled several times and ended up in a drainage ditch in 12 feet of water. She drowned. DID GOD SEE THIS? Of course, He did. Was He not able to correct this? Of course, He could have corrected it. Why not? This is something we can’t answer.
We only know that this is an imperfect world where imperfect things happen all the time. In God’s wisdom and mercy, we can only trust that He does all things right and that He is taking care of Angela Webb and far better than she’d ever been in this life.
All that any of us can do is to continue to trust God our Father who sees all, loves all and does all things right.
II. THE HAPPINESS OF THE HEART
15:13 “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.”
ILL.- Attending a wedding for the first time, a little girl whispered to her mother, "Why is the bride dressed in white?" "Because white is the color of happiness, and today is the happiest day of her life."
The child thought about this for a moment, then said, "So why is the groom wearing black?"
Is marriage the secret of happiness? Is there anything on earth that brings happiness to our hearts?
ILL.- A man asked his wife what she’d like for her birthday. "I’d love to be six again," she replied.
On the morning of her birthday, he got her up bright and early and off they went to a local theme park. What a day! He put her on every ride in the park: the Death Slide, the Screaming Loop, the Wall of Fear--everything there was! Wow!
Five hours later she staggered out of the theme park, her head reeling and her stomach upside down. Right to McDonald’s they went, where her husband ordered her a Big Mac along with extra fries and a refreshing chocolate shake. Then it was off to a movie - the latest Star Wars epic, and hot dogs, popcorn, Pepsi Cola, and M & Ms. What a fabulous adventure! Finally she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed into bed.
He leaned over and lovingly asked, "Well, dear, what was it like being six again?"
One eye opened. The wife said, "You idiot, I meant my dress size!"
Several applications could be made to this story, but the one I want to make is this: physical changes don’t bring happiness. At least, not lasting happiness.
ILL.- I have watched several of those Extreme makeover shows on TV and I was happy to see many people with physical deformities corrected. And for the time being those people were very happy, but what happens 10 or 20 years down the road when everything starts to bag and sag again? I’m not against correcting something to make us feel better about ourselves, but we all need to realize it’s only temporary.
II Cor. 4:18 “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
ILL.-Nathaniel Hawthorne is quoted as saying, “Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us on a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it.”
Personally, I think happiness is an illusive thing. As Hawthorne said, if you seek after it, you may never find it. If indeed it comes, it will come in the process of living out our lives the way God intended.
“A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.”
Where does a happy heart come from? It comes from within. Happiness comes from within. It can only rightfully come from an intimate relationship with God. He is the creator of life and He alone can bring out happiness in us.
ILL.- There’s an old song, which you may have heard, that goes like this:
It’s bubbling, it’s bubbling,
It’s bubbling in my soul
There’s singing and laughing
Since Jesus made me whole
Folks down understand it
Nor can I keep it quiet
It’s bubbling, bubbling, bubbling, bubbling
Bubbling day and night
Acts 13:52 “The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”
Gal. 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy….”
Only as we grow in our faith will our joy grow. And if it’s on the inside it will make the face cheerful. It will brighten up the personality.
Heartaches hurt. They crush the human spirit, but the Lord fills us with His Spirit and lifts the human spirit. The more we get to know Him, love Him and serve Him, the greater will be our joy and it will make the face cheerful.
III. THE MEAL OF VEGETABLES
15:17 “Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred.”
Back in those days a meal of vegetables indicated poverty. A meal with meat indicated wealth. Could it be that we all would be better off with a meal of vegetables than a meal with meat?
ILL.- A British Embassy official in Washington, preparing to receive Winston Churchill for a visit, told the old story of an Embassy aide who was once asked about Mr. Churchill’s preferences in food and drink. “Mr. Churchhill’s tastes are very simple,” the aide replied quickly. “He is easily pleased with the best of everything.”
This is often the way we are. We don’t mind certain foods, but we’d prefer the best of everything. Of course, we all we have our likes and dislikes. And sometimes food is the only pleasure we get in life. This is particularly true as we age.
Sometimes less is more, however. How could this be? When?
ILL.- Less words in some sermons is actually more. Less said could be best said. Fewer words are often better than more. Especially if they are well-chosen words.
ILL.- The lesser car could be a better car. In the light of rising gas prices, this could really hold true. The lesser car, the smaller car with better gas mileage could be the better choice. It could mean more money in the pocket.
ILL.- The lesser population in a town could mean a more friendly town. In that way, less could be better. Smaller towns are generally more friendly, more neighborly.
ILL.- Less money could mean more. How so? Less money could well mean more dependence on the Lord and that’s always better. More of the Lord in our lives is more important than more money. Of course, most of us would like to have both, but it doesn’t always work that way.
Matt. 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
ILL.- Less outward beauty could well mean greater inner beauty and certainly more humility. I Pet. 5:5 “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
ILL.- Less food on the table could mean less fat on the body and more or better health. Most of us frankly don’t like the thought of less food. We like our food. We like it all!
Isn’t it a crying shame that fat is made out of food?
“Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred.”
What’s the meaning of this text? Vegetables with love are better than meat with hatred. This doesn’t mean that just because we eat meat that our household will have hatred in it. But it’s saying that a poor home with love where only vegetables is served is better than any house where there is hatred.
We can still eat meat in our homes and have an atmosphere of love! But given the choice, the home with love is always better than the home with hatred regardless of the food on the table.
We all need to do everything we can to make our homes a place of love. How do we do this? Be thoughtful of one another. Serve one another. Listen to one another. Live for one another.
Gal. 5:13 “Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather, serve one another in love.”
