INTRO.- Quips and quotes.
- To have a stress-free day, take a night job.
- It’s better to have loved and lost than to do ten loads of laundry a week.
- The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time. Abe Lincoln
- Even God cannot change the past. (but I would add: He can forgive it)
- A child is a person who can’t understand why someone would give away a perfectly good kitten.
- A good thought is good — a good word is better — and a good deed is best of all.
- Boys have a thousand muscles to wiggle with and only one to sit with.
- Teamwork is essential — it allows you to blame someone else.
- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
- Speak when you’re angry — and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.
- The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.
- To kill time, a committee is the perfect weapon.
- Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves trying to get it.
- The most difficult thing to explain is something you had no business saying in the first place.
- The hardest train to keep on track is the train of thought (especially when listening to a sermon)
- A short cut is usually the quickest way to some place you weren’t going.
- It will be interesting to hear the teenagers of today tell their children what they had to do without when they were young.
- The voter has only one consolation – not every candidate running for office can be elected.
- You know you’ve put on too much weight when you try to loosen your belt and you can’t find it.
- At any banquet you’ll find more after- dinner speakers than after-dinner listeners.
- An apple a day keeps the doctor away. An onion, everybody!
I. PEACE AND QUIET
17:1 “Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.”
Or better a little with peace and quiet than a lot with strife.
ILL.- A husband and wife were having a heated discussion. The husband said, “Don’t you remember promising to love, honor and obey me?” His wife said, “Well, yes, what else could I do? I didn’t want make a scene in church!”
ILL.- Husband to wife: “We have been married five years and haven’t agreed on a thing.” Wife, “You’re wrong again…it’s been six years.”
ILL.- Someone said, “In our marriage we made a decision to never go to bed mad. We haven’t had any sleep for three weeks.”
ILL.- I like Alec Baldwin as an actor, but I don’t think I would like him as a person, not in close living quarters, that is. Listen to his separation and divorce story.
January 18, 2001 Baldwin temper caused Basinger split
Kim Basinger is splitting from husband Alec Baldwin because he can’t control his temper, according to reports.
New York’s Daily News says next week’s People Magazine includes an interview with Basinger’s father, who spills the beans on what caused the couple to file for divorce.
"Alec has this kind of anger where he reaches down for something that hurts, something that may have happened a year or two ago, and then abuses Kim with it," Don Basinger tells People.
"This has happened publicly. But it’s when it started happening in front of Ireland (the couple’s daughter) that Kim finally said, ’Well, I’m not going to put up with that.’"
The elder Basinger told People his daughter gave Baldwin an ultimatum: "You’ve got to overcome this anger, or I can’t live with you."
Neither Basinger nor Baldwin has been unfaithful and there’s no physical abuse, but Baldwin didn’t have the patience to work through his problems in counseling, The Daily News reports.
Brothers and sisters, there is a good possibility that having too much materially speaking can cause strife in people’s lives. Where there is much, there is often discontent and jealousy, etc.
ILL.- For example, there is a new TV show called GROWING UP GOTTI. John Gotti’s (the mobster) daughter, Victoria (ex-husband Carmine Agnello is in jail for racketeering and tax evasion) and her three teenage sons, Frank, Carmine and John, are on the show. And just from what I’ve seen in the previews they have everything, but they are constantly quarreling with one another. IT’S REAL LIFE, ALL RIGHT, but not the kind most of us want. We prefer to have less with more, that is, less material stuff but with more peace and quiet.
17:1 “Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.”
Strife and anger seem to be more prevalent in homes today. Why is this? Several reasons. Too many material things and too much emphasis on materialism rather than spiritual emphasis.
More people are interesting in chasing the almighty dollar instead of almighty God. Or else they would rather play than worship.
II Tim. 3:1-5 “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”
This description of mankind sounds bad and it is bad! Any time you have people loving themselves, loving money, and loving play and pleasure more than loving God then you are going to have all kinds of problems, and strife will be one of them!
Wouldn’t we all prefer a little more peace and quiet in our lives? How do we get it? Several ways.
I Thess. 4:11 “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you.”
One way to acquire more peace and quiet in our lives is to stay out of other people’s lives. But I thought we were supposed to “bear one another’s burdens”? We are, but not to the point of being nosey. We must never invade other people’s lives or their business unless the situation is extremely critical, that is, if they are a danger to themselves or to others.
Jude 22-23 “Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them…”
ILL.- One young man told me that when he was young and out drinking in a bar that his dad suddenly showed up and literally dragged him out of that bar. SO BE IT! Parents should invade the lives of their children in order to save them from certain dangers. They are our children, young or even older.
ILL.- I know of a preacher who had this elderly man in his church who was addicted to gambling. The man’s wife called the preacher one night and asked him if he would go get her husband out of a gambling joint. The preacher said he would. And he when he went to get the old gentleman and take him home they pulled a gun on him. Eventually the preacher talked his way out of that joint and took the old gentleman home to his wife.
All I know is this: If your mate is out gambling and you want someone to go get him or her, DON’T CALL ME!
The point is this: 99 percent of the time we need to mind our own business and not try to know or run other people’s business and then we will experience more peace and quiet in our own lives.
I have enough business of my own to take care of without invading the lives of others. (even though I am supposed to minister to others. I just think there are certain boundaries that no one should cross, unless invited.)
Another way to acquire more peace and quiet in our lives is to go to the author of peace and allow Him to fill us with His Spirit!
Rom. 1:7 “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Rom. 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
It should be obvious to us that the more we seek the Lord and allow Him to be in our lives, the more inner peace He will bring to our lives and in turn, will spill out into our every day lives.
When we have peace with God through Christ this peace will also affect our every day lives. We will strive to be at peace with all people. But people who are always stirring up trouble have a problem within. I figure where there is unrest on the outside there is also unrest on the inside. Troublemakers also have trouble with God. People who are not at peace with others may not be at peace with God.
ILL.- I have known some people to always be argumentative or always seem to be contentious or looking for trouble. And this always concerns me for their sake. I wonder about their relationship to God and I fear for them.
For example, I know of a young man on a church board who would never leave anything alone. If no one had any business to bring up, he would always bring up something and generally it was something that he wanted to argue about or find fault with. It was like he couldn’t stand any peace and quiet. HAVE YOU EVER KNOWN ANYONE LIKE THAT? Always prodding, always probing, always provoking, always poking, etc. (poking at someone) And I have always wondered about that young man’s relationship to God. I have thought, “He must not get along with God very well since he is so contentious with people.”
When the Holy Spirit invades your life He begins to make you a peaceable individual. And He works in you to become a peacemaker, not a troublemaker. Troublemakers lack the loveliness of God’s Spirit within! In some cases, it’s even questionable if that person has God’s Spirit.
Rom. 12:18 “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”
Rom. 14:19 “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”
Blessed are the peacemakers, because hey have been touched by the Spirit of God.
II. SILVER AND GOLD
17:3 “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart.”
A crucible is a vessel made of graphite or porcelain, used for heating materials at high temperatures in order to purify them. In the case of crude silver or gold, there is a certain amount of scum on these metals caused by oxidation. The crucible and the furnace are used to purify these metals. Likewise, God allows his people to go through the furnace of affliction to purify them.
I Pet. 1:6-7 “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Psalm 66:10 “For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver.”
Is. 48:10 “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”
Silver and gold are very important to people. They represent value, money, wealth, security, etc.
ILL.- Did you happen to see the movie THE ITALIAN JOB? The whole movie is about stealing gold bricks. The thieves steal from a bank in Venice and then one of thieves steal from the other thieves. Then the thieves steal back the gold from the thief. Doesn’t sound like much of a plot, but it is a good movie. A good plot, good action and good actors.
Most people of the world are interested in gold and silver, money and lots of it. Why? Because it means comfort, luxury, security. And to some, it means power and prestige.
But for most of us it’s just nice to know that you have some so you will be able to live comfortably.
Even though we humans are most interested in silver and gold (or money) God is interested in people. Of course, He doesn’t need money like we do in order to live. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Ps. 50:10) meaning His wealth is limitless. But He is also doesn’t need money or material things to sustain Him or make Him happy. GOD USES THINGS AND VALUES PEOPLE. We often value things and use people.
God is interested in people! He loves people, His highest and most precious creation. He also wants the best of us and the best for us and sometimes this can only happen through refinement or testing. God wants to purify us. He wants us to be as pure as possible so He can use us and bless us.
Now the tough part…the testing. God allows us to be tested in this life. For some people, they literally go through the furnace of affliction.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT? Or to whom I am referring? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3. Their faith was literally tested in that fiery furnace that was heated seven times hotter than usual.
Dan. 3:10-13 “You have issued a decree, O king, that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the image of gold, and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace. But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon-Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego-who pay no attention to you, O king. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up." Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king.
We know the rest of the story. These three men would not bow down and worship the image of gold so they were literally thrown into the furnace.
Anybody with common sense and one eye at that time knew that those men were not going to last but a few seconds in that fire, but since our God is the true and living God, and all-power, everyone standing there got a big shock.
Dan. 3:21-29 How powerful is our God and how powerful was this incident!
Even to this day, we still marvel at the power of God and well, we should. But if we had been in the shoes of those three Hebrew’s would we have been as faithful and as pure?
God sometimes allows His people to go through testing in order to see how faithful we will be and to make us even stronger.
For example and a big example is Job of old. What testing he went through! He lost his wealth, his health and all of us his children! Any seemingly normal person would want to die.
Job 1:20-22 “At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.”
The furnace of affliction was strong, but Job proved faithful. Job’s faith was both strong and pure. Again, few of us could have held up under his trial.
What about us today? What kinds of testing do we go through? We have to deal with the death of loved ones, some experience accidents in life which leave them maimed or worse, ill health, aging, aches and pains, financial losses, prodigal children, all kinds of things.
ILL.- Have you ever heard of J. Vernon McGee? McGee was once a radio preacher. He had a great voice to listen to and blessed millions with his “Thru the Bible” radio ministry. He lived to be 84 years of age and passed away in 1988, but his radio ministry continues.
J. Vernon McGee wrote and said in his radio ministry, “I know why God gave me cancer. One mean letter sent to my wife and me said that God gave us cancer because we won’t obey God and we’re ignorant, and because of the kind of folk we are. Well, some of that may be true, but He didn’t do it in a mean spirit, the way the letter was written. He (God) did not do it because He hates us or because He is mean. God did it in a loving way, and you don’t know how precious He has become to us because of it.”
McGee said that God gave him cancer. I am not sure I agree with this but I agree with the outcome in the sense that the disease made God more precious than ever to him.
I’m not convinced that God gives evil or bad things to His people. He didn’t literally cause the evil that Job experienced. Satan did that. But it is true that God allowed Satan to test Job. And God allows us to be tested by Satan and by the difficulties of living in an imperfect world. And the whole pointing of this testing is to see how faithful to God we will be. And in being faithful, He will bless us.
Jer. 17:10 “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”
Brothers and sisters, if you are blessed in any way, shape or form then thank God, because you must have proved faithful through some testing in your life!
BUT HANG ON! THE END IS NOT YET HERE!
II Cor. 12:9 But just as God said to the apostle Paul in regard to his thorn in the flesh, He is speaking to us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
And we say with Paul, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me….FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN I AM STRONG.”
