Proverbial Wisdom

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.