INTRO.- Quips and quotes.
Abraham Lincoln: 1809-1865, Sixteenth President of the USA
- Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
- How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?
Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.
- Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
Albert Einstein: 1879-1955, German-born American Physicist
- Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
- I want to know God’s thoughts,..... the rest are details.
- If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
- Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S relativity.
Benjamin Franklin: 1706-1790, American Scientist, Publisher, Diplomat
- Beware the hobby that eats.
- Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
- Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.
- God heals and the doctor takes the fee.
- Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.
- If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
- Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half-shut afterwards.
- Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
- Many people die at twenty-five and aren’t buried until they are seventy-five.
- She laughs at everything you say. Why? Because she has fine teeth.
- There are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.
- When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.
Charles Dickens: 1812-1870, British Novelist
- A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.
- I do not know the American gentleman, God forgive me for putting two such words together.
- Lizzie! I never thought before, that there was a woman in the world who could affect me so much by saying so little.
- There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.
G.K. Chesterton: 1874-1936, British Author
- A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
- I’ve searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees.
- People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.
George Bernard Shaw: 1856-1950, Irish Dramatis
- I often quote myself; it adds spice to my conversation.
- If all the economists in the world were laid end to end, they wouldn’t reach any conclusion.
- It is a woman’s business to get married as soon as possible, and a man’s to keep unmarried as long as he can.
- The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.
- We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing!
- Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.
Henry Ward Beecher: 1813-1887, American Clergyman
- A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs - jolted by every pebble in the road.
- Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.
- The Church is not a gallery for the better exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.
- The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.
Now, the book of Proverbs containing God’s wisdom.
I. ZEAL AND KNOWLEDGE
19:2 “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.”
ILL.- Wayne Smith preached at the Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY, for 40 years (1956 to 1996) and did a lot of good. Under his leadership the church grew to thousands and never experienced a split. He was known as the “Bob Hope of the Christian Church.” Why? Because Wayne was always telling jokes in his sermons and lessons. In fact, he got more out of his jokes than nearly everyone else. Most people enjoyed hearing him laugh more than his jokes. HE WAS/IS GREATLY LOVED BY ALL.
Wayne said one time; “I’d rather have zeal without knowledge than knowledge without zeal.” What did he mean? And is this the right way to think?
Our Proverbs reads, “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge…” Who is right? I think it may depend on what you’re talking about.
If we are talking about Christian zeal or zeal for Christ, then Wayne may well be correct. Zeal for that which is good is very good!
Rom. 12:11 “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”
Zeal for Christ, in serving Christ is a very good thing. Most of us have too little zeal for Christian service.
I am saying that more than in likely we do too little to serve Christ.
James 1:22 “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.”
We are better at hearing than doing. Most of us do far less than we know how to do or what to do.
ILL.- It’s like the old farmer who was encouraged to go to Agriculture school. He replied, “What for? Already I ain’t farmin as good as I know how.”
Most of us know how to do quite a lot when it comes to serving Christ, but we don’t do it and that’s because we lack zeal, fire, etc. We have no umption to our gumption! We have little get-up in our go! Our zeal has been zapped! No vim in our vigor! No emotion in our motion!
ILL.- Soren Kierkegard, the 19th century Danish Christian philosopher, told a story about a town where only ducks lived. Every Sunday the ducks would waddle out of their houses and waddle down Main Street to their church. They waddled into the sanctuary and squatted in their proper pews. The duck choir waddled in and took its place, then the duck minister came forward and opened the duck Bible. He read to them "Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fence can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings and you can fly like birds." All the ducks shouted "AMEN!"...and they all waddled home.
Does this sound too much like us? We could fly but we prefer to waddle.
I wonder how much we could do for Christ if we really put our minds, hearts and souls into it? For example, witnessing, phone calls, contacts, good deeds, prayers, etc.
We tend to do as little as possible or just enough to “get by” rather than overdo these things. We want to reserve ourselves for ourselves rather than give ourselves in service.
Wayne Smith was right when it comes to Christian service. “I’d rather have zeal without knowledge…” In other words, I’d rather do something for Christ even if it’s not perfect.
ILL.- Here’s an example of Christian zeal. I read about an 86 year-old man named Charlie Riggs who drives his tan Buick to a local prison twice a week. He leads a Bible study with some of the prisoners. He was asked, "Don’t you think you’re kind of old to be doing this? Don’t you ever feel afraid to walk into the prison by yourself?"
Riggs said, "I won’t lie. Sometimes I get scared right before I go into the prison. But I can’t remember a time after leaving the prison that the tears didn’t flow from my eyes. The presence of the Lord is so real whenever I step out on faith to do something for him. I retired from my job 10 years ago. But I have no intention of retiring from my service to the Lord Jesus
Christ."
That’s something of the zeal that we all need to have in serving Christ.
Now the other side of the coin is this: Some people have a lot of zeal in life for things that may not matter at all.
“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” Having a zeal for that which is not good causes a person to miss the way.
ILL.- For example, the gay agenda. The following comes from family.org, via Dr. James Dobson. They admit it privately, but they will not say that publicly. In their private publications, homosexual activists make it very clear that there is an agenda. The six-point agenda that they laid out in 1989 was explicit:
1. "Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and as often as possible." That was aimed at making people so tired of the issue they would want to give them anything they want to make them shut up.
2. "Portray gays as victims, not as aggressive challengers."
3. "Give homosexual protectors a just cause." That was designed to tap into and exploit the sense of fairness that Americans have; to the sympathy that we have — especially liberals have — for those who seem to be disenfranchised.
4. "Make gays look good." That’s what they’ve done through media campaigns, through television programs, like "Will and Grace" and others, where homosexuals are portrayed as the most normal, stable people in America.
5. "Make the victimizers look bad." They portray people of faith — people who have legitimate and biblical reasons to oppose homosexual behavior — as homophobes and bigots. They also try to "muddy the moral waters" by getting liberal churches, many of which have thrown out a great deal of the Bible, to say that homosexual behavior is just fine from a theological perspective.
6. "Get funds from corporate America." In fact, they have.
All I’m saying is this: Many people have a zeal for the gay agenda for one reason or another, but it’s a zeal that leads nowhere, it misses the way. We know it misses the way because we know what the Bible says about homosexuality.
There are many things that people have a zeal for, but it doesn’t mean they are right or worthwhile. Many are missing the way in their zeal. They have a zeal for things that lead nowhere, but to the grave.
II. WEALTH AND POVERTY
19:4 “Wealth brings many friends, but a poor man’s friend deserts him.”
ILL.- Do you remember Jack Benny? Of course, you do. He made his name known on radio, where he established himself as a comedian, portraying himself as a wisecracking, penny-pinching, tightwad.
He had an old comedy routine that went like this. Somebody was about to rob Benny, saying, “Your money or your life?” Benny would hesitate and say, “I’m thinking. I’m thinking.” Money was important to Jack Benny or at least, he gave that impression to people.
ILL.- Bob Hope said, “Everybody is afraid they won’t have any money after they die, but Jack Benny discovered a way to take it with him. He had his appendix taken out and a piggy bank put in.”
No one can dispute the importance of money or the necessity of money. It’s not wrong to make money as long as that’s not all a person makes in life. It’s not wrong to have money as long as money does not have the person!
Here are a few quotes about money.
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable. ~ Clare Boothe Luce
We do enjoy the comfort that money gives to us. Money enables us not only to have the necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter, but also many comforts. What are we talking about? Good, warm houses to live in. Refrigerators with ice and water dispensers. Warm queen and king size beds with either electric blankets or electric mattress covers. Garages with electric garage door openers. Televisions with remote control and cable TV. Comfortable chairs, couches, etc. Microwave ovens. Air conditioning. We have our share of “creature comforts,” as some call them.
If money could buy happiness then a lot of people in Hollywood wouldn’t be getting divorced and remarried and they wouldn’t be committing suicide.
ILL.- The new movie “THE AVIATOR” just hit the theaters. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the billionaire, Howard Hughes. The movie focuses on the early part of Hughes’ adult life and how he built his fortune, beginning as the proprietor of his late father’s tool company, then as a Hollywood producer and the owner of RKO studios, and later as an aviation mogul.
Hughes had it made, financially speaking, but he was not a happy man. At least, not later in life.
ILL.- Here’s what Bill Hybels of the Willow Creak Community Church, in South Barrington, IL, said about him. “All he ever really wanted in life was more. He wanted more money, so he parlayed inherited wealth into a billion-dollar pile of assets. He wanted more fame, so he broke into the Hollywood scene and soon became a filmmaker and star. He wanted more sensual pleasures, so he paid handsome sums to indulge his every sexual urge. He wanted more thrills, so he designed, built, and piloted the fastest aircraft in the world. He wanted more power, so he secretly dealt political favors so skillfully that two U.S. presidents became his pawns. All he ever wanted was more. He was absolutely convinced that more would bring him true satisfaction. Unfortunately, history shows otherwise. He concluded his life emaciated; colorless; sunken chest; fingernails in grotesque, inches-long corkscrews; rotting, black teeth; tumors; and innumerable needle marks from his drug addiction. Howard Hughes died believing the myth of more. He died a billionaire junkie, insane by all reasonable standards.”
“Wealth brings many friends, but a poor man’s friend deserts him.”
It’s true that wealth brings many friends, but even friends can’t produce happiness in a person. Ultimate happiness or joy must come from an abiding relationship with the Lord!
A few more quotes.
Money will say more in one moment than the most eloquent lover can in years. ~ Henry Fielding
If you’re given a choice between money and sex appeal, take the money. As you get older, the money will become your sex appeal. ~ Katharine Hepburn
His money is twice tainted: taint yours and taint mine. ~ Mark Twain
Money often costs too much. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Wealth brings many friends, but a poor man’s friend deserts him.”
What happens when a person’s money runs out? Will he or she still have friends? Maybe. Maybe not. According to this proverb, no.
ILL.- William "Bud" Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but now lives on his Social Security. "I wish it never happened. It was totally a nightmare," says Post.
A former girlfriend successfully sued him for a share of his winnings. It wasn’t his only lawsuit. A brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him, hoping to inherit a share of the winnings. Other siblings pestered him until he agreed to invest in a car business and a restaurant in Sarasota, Fla., -- two ventures that brought no money back and further strained his relationship with his siblings.
Post even spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector. Within a year, he was $1 million in debt.
Post admitted he was both careless and foolish, trying to please his family. He eventually declared bankruptcy. Now he lives quietly on $450 a month and food stamps.
Post said, "I’m tired, I’m over 65 years old, and I just had a serious operation for a heart aneurysm. Lotteries don’t mean (anything) to me.”
“Wealth brings many friends, but a poor man’s friend deserts him.”
What can we conclude about wealth? If we have our share of it then thank God for it and use it to His glory. Seek His wisdom in all things, including the use of His money.
What if, however, you are barely making ends meet? Again, thank God for His provision and ask for His wisdom and direction in life. Realize that this life is not the end. SOME DAY ALL OF US WHO ARE IN CHRIST WILL BE RICHER THAN WE EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE!
