Proverbial Wisdom

INTRO.- More quips, quotes and notes.

- God created the energy. We created the crisis. (God creates good things and we make a mess of them. Do you remember what God said after each thing He created?)

- Men and money are much alike – the tighter they get, the louder they talk.

- Ignorance is not the problem. It is not knowing when we are ignorant that causes the difficulty.

- He who laughs last didn’t get the joke.

- The noisier a fellow gets, the less likely we are to listen to him. (How true! True for preachers and politicians.)

- Smart folks lose their temper permanently.

Eph. 4:26-27 “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”

James 1:19-20 “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

- Many people know how to make a living. Few know what to do with it when they have it made.

- The best way to keep teenagers at home is to make their surroundings pleasant and le the air out of their tires.

- In Hawaii, where the weather is the same the year round, we wonder how they start conversations!

- People will always take you at your own valuation – if you downgrade yourself.

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.”

- Some rights are worth dying for. The right-of-way is not one of them.

- Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all those who point a finger would hold out a friendly hand instead?

- With some men, financial security means getting lifetime jobs for their wives.

- Egotism is that certain something which enables a man who’s in a rut to think he’s in the groove.

- Nowadays, we’re divided into three groups: the haves, the have-nots, and the charge-its.

- Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and the other guy has an even better sob story.

- Everyone should have at least two friends – one to talk to and one to talk about.

More proverbial wisdom.

I. COVERING AND REPEATING

17:9 “He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.”

ILL.- A man who had been looking for a good church to attend happened into a small church in which the congregation was reading with the minister. They were saying: “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.”

The man dropped into a seat and sighed with relief as he said to himself: “thank goodness, I have found my crowd at last.”

We’re all in that same crowd. We all have failed when it comes to the sins of commission and sins of omission. We all commit sin and we all fail to do good, which is also sin.

ILL.- A man filling out a job application blank came to the question, “Have you ever been arrested?” His answer was “No.” The next question asked way, “Why? The applicant answered: “Never got caught.”

We’re all sinners. Some have just never been caught. We’ve all sinned and do sin. And we all need a covering for our sin.

How do we cover over an offense? Listen to this story.

Gen. 9:20-26 “Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem.”

Several thoughts from this story. Even though Noah had been saved from the flood because he was a righteous man, he was still a sinner. He got drunk. Good people still sin. Christians still sin. They may not want to sin, but they still sin because of the sin nature that is within us all. I am not trying to make an excuse for sin, just pointing out a truth that applies to us all.