INTRO.- Quips and quotes.
- A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
- A bulldog can whip a skunk, but sometimes it’s not worth it.
- A clean house is a sign of a misspent life.
- A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
- A closed mouth gathers no feet.
- A diplomat is one who thinks twice before saying nothing.
- A friend in need is a pest.
- A husband is someone who takes out the trash and gives the impression he just cleaned the whole house.
- A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. A woman must do what he can’t.
- A teacher’s job is to take a room full of live wires and make sure they are well grounded.
- Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
- Being young is a fault that diminishes daily.
- Blessed is he that can laugh at himself, he will never cease to be amused.
- Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. - Ben Franklin
- Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker. - Ogden Nash
- Credit cards are like mosquitoes. You can keep them away for a while, but sooner or later they will be back to suck your blood.
- Dear God, I have a problem; it’s me.
- Do what you think is right in your heart. You’ll be criticized anyway. - Eleanor Roosevelt
- Eat a live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse can happen to you for the rest of the day.
- Everything is funny as long as it is happening to someone else. - Will Rogers
- Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
- Few things are harder to put up with than a good example. - Mark Twain
- Fish and visitors stink after three days. - - Ben Franklin
- God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.
- Golf: A good walk ruined. - Mark Twain
- Happiness is merely the remission of pain.
- He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals. - Ben Franklin
- He who dies with the most toys is still dead.
- Housework done properly can kill you.
- How many observe Christ’s birthday, how few his precepts. - Ben Franklin
- I believe the only time the world beats a path to my door is when I’m in the bathroom.
- I have a new philosophy, I’m only going to dread one day at a time. - Charles Schulz ("Peanuts")
- I have never killed a man but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure. - Clarence Darrow
- I never let my schooling interfere with my education. - Mark Twain
- I refuse to enter a battle of wits with an unarmed man.
- I saw few die of hunger; of eating -- 100,000.
- If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.
- If at first you don’t succeed, you’re about average.
- If the baby is happy, don’t try to make it happier.
- If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you’ve never tried before.
- If you’d lose a troublesome visitor, lend him money. - Ben Franklin
- In God we trust; all others pay cash.
- It is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. - Mark Twain
- It’s not easy being green. - Kermit the Frog
- I’ve suffered a great many catastrophes in my life. Most of them never happened. - Mark Twain
- Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards. - Ben Franklin
- Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself. - Eleanor Roosevelt
Now the book of Proverbs.
1- Plans (16:9)
2- Pride (16:18-19)
3- Prosperity (16:20)
I. PLANS
16:9 “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”
ILL.- The architect of the Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland made sixty plans, one after another, all of which were rejected. He was about to give up. “Make sixty-one, John, if necessary,” said his brave wife. The sixty-first plan was accepted.
The moral of this story is: KEEPING PLANNING. You never know when your plans will succeed.
Prov. 16:3 “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”
One important way to achieve success in our plans is to seek the Lord about these plans and to ask His blessing on them.
ILL.- When I ran and trained for marathons about ten years ago I told a Christian friend of mine, “I pray about my running.” At that time, he said, “The Lord doesn’t care about your running.” But I think he misunderstood me. I never prayed for success in my running. I only prayed that it might make me healthy and that I might be able to glorify the Lord in my running.
I admit, however, there a few marathons when I was having a hard run and I prayed, “Lord, get me through this thing!” A prayer of desperation, like, “Just let me live through this.”
According to I Cor. 10:31 God wants to be glorified in everything we do, whatever we do. Consequently, I think He was interested in my running. I think God our Father is interested in everything we do; therefore, we can involve Him by praying about it. Marriage, children, work, and even pleasure.
Some people leave the Lord at home when they go on vacation. How’s that? They don’t go to church and they forget their manners; their Christian manners, that is. But the Lord is truly interested in everything we do and wants to be glorified in everything we do.
ILL.-Warren Weirsbe said, “Hudson Taylor had definite convictions about how God’s work should be done. We can make our best plans and try to carry them out in our own strength. Or we can make careful plans and ask God to bless them. Yet another way of working is to begin with God; to ask His plans, and to offer ourselves to Him to carry out His purposes."
That’s the right idea. “Lord, what do you want me to do today?” not “Lord, I would like to get this accomplished today.” How much better just to seek His leading in the first place.
Jerem. 10:23 “I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.”
That was Jeremiah’s prayer. He was a smart man; a whole lot smart than most people today. Why? Because most people want to do their own thing, make their own plans, and they don’t want God involved in any way, shape or form. They probably think He’ll spoil some of their fun.
Actually, the Christian is a whole lot smarter than most people, because the Christian realizes exactly what Rick Warren said in his book THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE. We are here for God’s purpose, for His will to be accomplished, for His glory to be revealed and exalted!
For these things to be accomplished, we must ask Him to direct our steps, our lives.
ILL.- Some years ago a young man approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked for a job. "That depends," replied the foreman. "Let’s see you fell this tree." The young man stepped forward and skillfully felled a great tree. Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, "Start Monday!" Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolled by, and Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, "You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today."
Startled, he replied, "I thought you paid on Friday."
"Normally we do," answered the foreman, "but we’re letting you go today because you’ve fallen behind. Our daily felling charts show that you’ve dropped from first place on Monday to last on Wednesday."
"But I’m a hard worker," the young man objected. "I arrive first, leave last, and even have worked through my coffee breaks!"
The foreman, sensing the boy’s integrity, thought for a minute and then asked, "Have you been sharpening your ax?" The young man replied, "I’ve been working too hard to take the time."
Sometime we are so busy working that we forget to sharpen our ax, that is, we forget to seek the Lord’s will and direction for our lives. Running ahead of the Lord can be disastrous or at least, can cause some problems for us in life.
We need to pause daily to seek the Lord’s plans for our lives. We need to sharpen the ax daily.
Eph. 5:15-17 “Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
II. PRIDE
16:18-19 “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.”
ILL.- Muhammed Ali (Cassius Clay) said of himself before his 1971 fight with Joe Frazier: “There seems to be some confusion. We’re gonna clear this confusion up on March 8. We’re gonna decide once and for all who is king! There’s not a man alive who can whip me. I’m too smart, I’m too pretty, I am the greatest. I am the king! I should be a postage stamp, that’s the only way I could get licked!”
Pride goes before destruction. I wouldn’t exactly say that Ali was destroyed but he certainly got beat a time or two. And look at him now!
In 1979 Ali announced his retirement, at that point having lost only three decisions in 59 fights. He returned to fight World Boxing Council champion Larry Holmes in 1980 and Trevor Berbick of Canada in 1981 but lost both fights.
In 1984 it was confirmed that Ali was suffering from a series of symptoms variously known as "punch drunk" syndrome, or chronic encephalopathy of boxers; it is characterized by parkinson disease symptoms--slurred speech, facial immobility, poor balance, and difficulty in walking.
A certain amount of self-confidence is needed in life to accomplish anything, but too much pride can bring a person down every time.
Rom. 12:3 “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”
ILL.- George Gordon Liddy, Watergate conspirator after being released from prison: "I have found within myself all I need and all I ever shall need. I am a man of great faith, but my faith is in George Gordon Liddy. I have never failed me."
If G. Gordon Liddy has never failed himself, some day he will. Pride and haughtiness always bring a person down.
ILL.- In 1917 there were only 40,000 followers of Communism. But in 1925, their leaders met to formulate plans for the conquest of the world. In an address, Lenin said:
“First, we shall take Eastern Europe, then the masses of Asia. After that, we shall surround and undermine the United States which will fall into our hands without a struggle—like an overripe fruit!”
At various times, Khrushchev boasted: “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. WE WILL BURY YOU.” And on American television in 1957, he declared: “I can prophesy that your grandchildren in America will live under socialism.” And look who got buried, so to speak?
ILL.- One successful man said he owed his success to a close study he made of his Dominicker rooster. That rooster was a powerful fighter. He could fly higher and cut deeper than any other rooster in the neighborhood. But he often lost fights against weaker foes. His trouble was that right in the middle of a fight, he’d stop to crow.
ILL.- Andrew Carnegie, the wealthy steel magnate of a past generation, once remarked to a group of men that he did not feel the need of prayer. “What is the use of praying?” he asked. “I already have everything I want. What more could I ask for?” One of his hearers remarked: “Perhaps, sir, you might pray for humility.”
Yes, we all need a big dose of humility, humility before the Lord.
I Pet. 5:5 “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
III. PROSPERITY
16:20 “Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,
and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD .”
ILL.- James Reston was a syndicated columnist for the New York Times for more than thirty years. In his final column for the newspaper, he wrote: “In America, we have learned something about how to deal with adversity since the great Depression, but not much about how to deal with prosperity. We are very rich, but we are not having a very good time. We are producing so much food that we don’t know what to do with the garbage, while half of the human race goes to bed hungry every night.”
We have learned to deal with adversity but not prosperity. True. What happens when adversity hits us? We get down on our knees. If we are smart, we get down on our knees and go to church. BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PROSPERITY COMES OUR WAY? We stick the money in the bank and go our own way. We forget about God and others. We forget to praise God for His blessings and we often forget to share those blessings.
ILL.- A cartoon about Bill Gates (head of Microsoft and the richest man in the world): “That’s right, Ms. Bingman, He’s collecting royalty from everyone on earth, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
While Bill Gates is collecting some royalties from all over the world as a result of his Microsoft corporation we are collecting royalties from heaven above! Meaning what? Meaning that God is blessing us all in various ways. HAVE YOU COUNTED YOUR BLESSINGS LATELY? How about your material blessings and other blessings? We’re blessed, in case you haven’t noticed.
ILL.- Like many of you, I started out in life with no inside bathroom. But look at what we now have! Most of us have at least two nice bathrooms! WE’RE BLESSED!
ILL.- Many of you were raised on cornbread and beans or even less. Come to my house and I’ll show less! That’s a joke. I eat pretty good just like the rest of you even when I’m supposedly on a diet. And occasionally, Elaine and I will splurge and she’ll fix fried potatoes, eggs over easy, biscuits and gravy and link sausage. WE’RE BLESSED!
ILL.- My first car was a 1954 Chevy, 4-door, automatic trans., six-cylinder engine. It didn’t have much power, but it was a “right up town” car in 1962. But look at what I drive now: 2002 Ford Taurus, AC, auto with all the trimmings! It’s not Cadillac or a Lincoln, but it’s a dandy. WE’RE BLESSED!
Where do all these blessings come from? If we don’t know, something is dreadfully wrong with us.
James 1:16-17 “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers, every good and perfect gift is from above…”
Every material thing we have isn’t perfect, but most things are pretty good and THEY ARE FROM OUR GRACIOUS FATHER! We’re blessed! We need to praise Him and thank Him more and more often!
“Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD .”
We have heeded the Lord’s instruction to some extent. We have trusted the Lord and we have prospered as a result.
ILL.- One morning R.C. Chapman, a devout Christian, was asked how he was feeling. "I’m burdened this morning!" was his reply. But his happy face contradicted his words. So the man exclaimed in surprise, "Are you really burdened, Mr. Chapman?" "Yes, but it’s a wonderful burden--it’s an overabundance of blessings for which I cannot find enough time or words to express my gratitude!"
How rare that anyone would ever be burdened about the overabundance of God’s blessings, perhaps thinking he didn’t deserve those blessings. AND NONE OF US REALLY DO DESERVE ALL THE GOOD THINGS THAT GOD SHOWERS ON US! Praise Him. Praise Him daily. Praise Him forever.
