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And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his bowl upon the earth; and there fell foul and evil sores upon the men who had the mark of the beast, and upon them who worshiped his image. And the second angel poured out his bowl upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living thing died in the sea.
Well, the Bible tells us that God is slow to anger; it does not tell us he will never get angry, it would seem there are limits. This is the sixteenth chapter of Revelation. It comes after a long history of human abuse, of man’s cruelty to man, of man’s destruction of the earth, of his own environment, of the foulest evils of man, and finally, finally, at long last God moves.
What could justify God’s anger? What could be done that would warrant this terrible punishment? Isn’t God a kind God? Isn’t he patient? Isn’t he loving? How is this consistent with a merciful and loving God, that he would have his wrath and that he would pour out this wrath upon people, and upon mankind? People want to know. This is one of the most common questions I get asked. How could a kind and loving God allow this to take place?
Years ago, I used to enjoy going up on internet forums and discussing religion there. They had any number of them divided up by category. I tended to hang out on the Christian forums. What was fascinating to me, and something I did not really understand, was the degree of hostility expressed on Christian forums. It seemed a good thing that these people were separated by the anonymity of the forum. If they had been in the same room, they might have come to blows. And I wondered, What generates so much hostility in some people of faith? Why is it that, when faced with a different belief, people don’t adopt one of two rational responses: indifference, or curiosity.
Indifference—when I encounter someone with an off-the-wall religious idea, I can tell quickly enough whether there is likely to be any merit there or not. If the answer is not, I toss it in the wastebasket or click my mouse and go somewhere else. If I am face-to-face with an adverse person, I have a stock reply. You may be right. I’ll give that some thought.
And then I change the subject. Perhaps to the weather. Does that seem disingenuous? Not if you maintain an awareness that even you don’t have all the answers. And why get angry or hostile about it. That goes nowhere.
Curiosity—if I think there is merit, I want to know more, and so I pursue the matter. I may even pursue the matter when I disagree. If the person advancing the idea seems reasonable, well informed, intelligent, well then reason demands that I give him a hearing and try to understand him, even when I disagree with him. I discovered C.S. Lewis a little late in life, and I found that I sometimes disagreed with the man. This would not dismay Lewis in the least. But I never had any difficulty understanding why I disagreed because I tried to understand his point. When you think about it, what’s the point in only reading people you agree with?
Now, realizing that indifference and curiosity are reasonable responses, I wondered why some people found a third response—anger.
In this episode, we delve into practical financial advice rooted in biblical teachings. Ronald Dart unpacks Solomon's guidance on avoiding debt, embracing diligence, and the vital lesson of self-reliance. Learn how to navigate life's temptations and make prudent decisions that lead to long-term success and stability.
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The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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There are a lot of ways to mess up your life. It's frightening how easy it is, how one small mistake can carry consequences that last a lifetime. I used to know a fellow. He was about 30 at the time. Good-looking, drop-dead handsome. I mean, the girls really would have been chasing him. But for one thing, he was crippled. He dragged one leg behind him most of the time, and one of his arms didn't work right. I thought maybe he had had polio, but it turned out that what had happened is when he was a kid, one day he was showing off, and he dived into the pool in the shallow end and banged his head on the bottom of the pool. And the result was the crippling effect that I saw. He was lucky, I guess, that he didn't spend the remainder of his life in a wheelchair. You know, there's no way to avoid every mistake, and accidents will happen from time to time. But what happened in his case was a moment of reckless behavior. that wisdom would have kept him from, would have prevented, would have headed off some way along the line. Now, you know, kids don't have much wisdom. And so somebody else has got to have it for them. And some level of discipline has got to be applied to children so that they will learn not to run on the edges of pools, just to impress upon their minds that there are things they can do that can hurt them. because they can't see out there far enough like you and I can, and they don't know how much danger there really is. But if you can teach wisdom to a child early in life and begin to implant some of these lessons, it can make an enormous difference. But the problem is, most people assume that knowledge is wisdom, and it's not. Mere knowledge will not do the job. And the reason is very simple. Some things are so tempting that just knowing better won't keep you out of it. What you've got to have is wisdom. And wisdom is more than knowledge. Wisdom includes a sense of right and wrong, a set of values to go with knowledge that puts it together and helps you make the right kind of decisions in your life. King Solomon put it this way. In chapter 5, verse 1, he said, Pay attention. Bend your ear to my understanding, that you may regard discretion, and that your lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman drop like a honeycomb. Her mouth is smoother than oil, but her end is as bitter as wormwood. It's as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold on hell. Do you understand what he's saying? He's saying, you better pay attention to me. Gain wisdom. For here is something that's going to be sweet like a honeycomb and smoother than oil. And the end of it, it's going to kill you. Wisdom has the ability to see beyond the moment, to know that some things are right and some things are wrong intrinsically. You know, when we're little kids and Dad tells us to do something, our favorite question is, well, why, Daddy? And Dad's favorite response, well, because I said so. I heard that more times when I was a kid than I'd like to think about, because I said so. I guess I heard it so many times because I asked why so many times. And you know, because I said so has to be good enough for us at certain times in our lives, but it won't carry you all the way. At some time, you have to come to the realization that Dad said no for a reason other than his own convenience. It wasn't just because your dad didn't like to see you running on the edge of the pool that he told you to stop it. So when you ask him why, he just doesn't want to take the time to say, because I'm tired of watching you risk your neck, you little twerp. Stop it. Solomon emphasized the power of the temptation. To help us understand the importance of wisdom and discretion and foresight, we need to understand the end from the beginning. And the problem with kids is that you just can't see very far. And as kids, we depend on people who can. Solomon chooses the strange woman only because she serves as a good example of all the things out there waiting, lurking to destroy your life. And there are more of them than we like to think about. Not only is this woman powerful, and not only is the end of fooling around with her destructive, she's deceptive. Solomon said in verse 6, Lest you should ponder the path of life, her ways are movable so that you cannot know them. She's tricky. And life is tricky. Temptation of all kinds are tricky. And they're sweet. And they're smooth. And you just have a hard time really getting and understanding which of the paths that lay before you lead to life because some of them look so good. Hear me now, therefore, you children, said Solomon, and don't depart from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from this woman, the strange woman, and don't come near the door of her house. Don't even go down that street. lest you give your honor to others and your years to the cruel, lest strangers be filled with your wealth and your labors in the house of a stranger, and you mourn at the last when your flesh and your body are consumed and say, How have I hated instruction? How has my heart despised reproof? Why haven't I obeyed the voice of my teachers? Why didn't I listen to them that instructed me? Boy, this is a painful song, and it's one we have all sung at one time or another. How could I have been so stupid? It is all so easy to see after the fact. You know, when you're sitting in a doctor's waiting room and he calls you into the office and sits you down and says, Bob, I'm sorry, but your test came back, you're HIV positive. Oh, yeah, you slap your forehead then, and then at that time you're going to say to yourself, Bob, How was it I couldn't listen? How could I have imagined that I could get away with this? And you mourn at the last when your flesh and your body are consumed. Or when you're slapped with a lawsuit for sexual harassment and strangers are filled with your wealth and all your labors go into the house of a stranger. Oh, yeah. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have been so foolish? Where was the wisdom when I needed it? Why didn't I follow God's instructions? Why didn't I go in the right way? It is easy to see it then, isn't it? And don't we all know it? You know, there is always an alternative to evil. Solomon draws a really nice metaphor for faithfulness to your wife or faithfulness to your husband. In verse 15, he said, drink waters out of your own cistern and running waters out of your own well. Don't let your fountains be dispersed abroad in rivers of waters in the street. Don't take your resources and pour them out in the street. Let them be only your own and not a stranger's with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of your youth. Let her be as the loving hind in the pleasant row. Let her breast satisfy you at all times and be you always ravished with her love. You know, the love of one man for one woman and one woman for one man is really a beautiful thing. the closeness, the love, the warmth, the being able to depend upon each other in times that are good and times that are hard, of knowing that when you're in the hospital and lying up there racked with pain, that there will be somebody somewhere who cares enough to come in and wipe your brow and sit beside you and hold your hand. One of the most tragic results of following the strange woman, condom or no condom, is that it takes this away from you. You can't have that kind of relationship with one woman when you're sharing it with another. And the same thing goes for women with men. And why will you, Solomon asked my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his goings. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself. He'll be held with the cords of his sins. He shall die without instruction, and the greatness of his folly he will go astray. What Solomon is saying is it's so much better to learn this lesson beforehand and so much cheaper. Solomon will change the subject a little, and we'll talk about that right after these words.
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Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44.
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Wisdom is not that hard to come by. In fact, through experience, the kind of wisdom that comes from experience will catch up with you whether you like it or not. But sometimes that's a pretty expensive way to get wisdom. It's a whole lot better to learn from someone else's experience. Well, in the sixth chapter of Proverbs, Solomon gives us right off the bat two really important principles that could have an enormous amount to do with your net worth not that many years from now. In chapter 6, verse 1, he says, My son, if you be surety for your friend, if you have stricken your hand with a stranger. What's that? Well, to be surety for your friend would be something like to co-sign on a note with your friend. And to strike your hand is like, well, it's like signing, taking your hand and signing a loan document. And, of course, you're borrowing money from this bank. And you may think, well, he's your friendly banker and you know him. He's Bob or John or Phil. But you could go back there a month from now, and Phil has gone on to another job, and you're dealing with a whole different person in that job. If you go in and sign a note with a bank, you have stricken your hand with a stranger. You're snared, he says, with the words of your mouth. You're taken by the words. You've made a promise. You have to do it. Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself. When you are coming to the hand of your friend like this, you're actually in his power. in a way. You go and humble yourself and make sure that your friend makes that payment. Don't give sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Get yourself out of that like a deer gets away from the hand of a hunter, or a quail gets away from the guy with the double-barreled shotgun. Well, no, Solomon didn't use the expression double-barreled shotgun, but you know what I mean. Whatever you do, says Solomon, don't make yourself responsible for someone else's debt. If he can't afford it himself, let him do without. Now, a lot of people have gone contrary to that advice to their own sorrow and to their own hurt. You know, if I were giving advice to a group of young people today... I wouldn't tell them to never borrow money. That would be asking a little too much in our world. But I would tell them to only borrow for two things. Two things and two things only. They are basic housing and essential transportation. Now, the reason I think this is good advice is easy enough. You have to have a place to live, and you and your young bride, you're out there getting your life started together. If you rent a house, you're paying interest on the house, and you might just as well, if you can manage the down payment, be paying that interest against your own principal so that eventually you do own the house. That's easy to understand, isn't it? You are going to have to pay interest anyway, so you might as well pay it directly instead of through a middleman and let him make a profit on the whole deal. Second, you have to have a way to get to work. If you don't, if you have public transportation, don't even think about a car. But nowadays, most places in this country, you can forget about working if you don't have a car to get to work. But you don't need a new Firebird that goes 150 miles an hour to get to work. A jalopy will get you to work. My advice to kids is always go out and buy a cheap, ugly car with good tires and good brakes. And if that embarrasses you a little bit, get yourself a bumper sticker that says, don't laugh, it's paid for. And all your friends that are driving around their shiny new cars and making payments on them, you can laugh at them and say, ha, you're making those payments my car's paid for. The payments I'm making, I make to myself. There is a time, by the way, when you can buy a new car. That's when you can afford to pay cash for it. Now, I know that runs counter to what a lot of people think, but the truth is you'll come out way ahead of the game if you'll just follow that simple advice. Because when you have the cash, you've actually managed to save up, and you've put together $14,000, $15,000 in real hard cash in the bank. You're going to think a long time before you go down and you plunk that down all at once on a brand-new Belch Fire 8 special, right? Something about cash in the hand that conveys its own kind of wisdom. And another piece of advice, never finance consumer goods like clothes, CD players, and television sets. Save up and buy cash. Now, I'll give you a little exercise. I'm not going to do it for you. I'll let you do it for yourself. You know that you've got credit cards, and you know that those credit cards have spending limits, and you know that all you have to do every month is pay off a certain part of that debt that you have on the card, and if you pay off part of it, then you can spend that the next month and run your spending limit right back up. Right? Right. Now, let's suppose here you are. You're 18, 19, 20 years old, and you, the first month, you and your bride get a new place and You take your credit card down and charge it all up, and you get your maximum limit, say $2,000 that you can borrow on your credit card, and you buy some things you need to have for your little house. You get yourself a television set so you won't be bored in the evening. Think about that one for just a minute. You get yourself a CD player. You buy yourself some fancy expensive clothes and so forth. Wham, before you know it, $2,000 are gone. Next month, you drag out the checkbook when your bill comes in for the credit card, and you pay off the minimum that you have to pay. And that gives you that much money to charge against your credit card the next month, right? And so you go out and buy something else, keeping it up there. Now, just imagine that you kept your credit card right at the upper limit for the next 40 years, okay? Sit down with your pencil and piece of paper or your handy calculator, because I don't think very many of us remember the multiplication tables anymore, and sit down and work out for yourself, okay? on that original $2,000 loan that you made, how much interest do you pay at your credit card rate of interest over 40 years? And realize something. From that first year forward... Everything you have done has been done on a cash basis. For 39 years, you paid cash for everything. And you kept paying interest on that first $2,000 that you borrowed. Because effectively, that's what's happened here. And for the privilege of having all that stuff... A few months earlier than you could have if you just made the payments to yourself and then went out and bought them and paid cash for them. For the privilege of having that stuff a few months early, look at how much money you have paid out on $2,000 over a 40-year period of time. Can you think of anything that you could do with that much money? Solomon's not through giving advice in this area. In verse 6, he says this, Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, who having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provides her meat in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. Now, right here is one of the great rules of life, and it is not very well understood. What would you say is the lesson that Solomon is trying to teach us with the parable of the ant? Go to the ant, you lazy lout. Consider her ways and be wise. She doesn't have any guide, overseer, or ruler, and yet she does her work. What is it? Zeal? Diligence? Well, not exactly. The lesson of the parable is that the ant is able to work without a supervisor, to be a self-starter. Now, with the ant, this is not a matter of character. It's a matter of genes. It's written into the ant's very being. But now imagine the value of writing this idea into your children's character. Let's see if we can understand why this is so. Imagine for a moment that you've got a job working in a factory manufacturing. I'd like to come up with a better name for it, but let's call them widgets. That's what everybody who uses illustrations like this calls them. And you make these widgets, and the widgets sell for $10 apiece. You can make so many widgets in a day, and as a consequence, you can earn so much money. Now, if you were reliable enough to come to work, set up your machinery, do all this stuff yourself, and carry it out and put it all out and get it ready for mailing and everything, and didn't need a supervisor, Why, you could have, let's say, a dollar each out of all the widgets you could make in a day, and that would make you a very good living. A hundred bucks a day, shall we say. Really good. But on the other hand, supposing you can't work like that. Supposing you've got to have a supervisor. Somebody's got to organize the work schedule. Somebody's got to solve your problems for you. Somebody to see to it that you're at work on time. Somebody to get you back from breaks on time instead of letting you linger at the coffee pot and so forth. Well, you see, if you have to have a supervisor, the $100 a day that you might have been going to make, some of that money is going to have to be given to the supervisor because the output isn't any higher, right? We're only doing so many widgets a day, right? And so consequently, if you have to have help to do that, well, then you've got to give up some of what you make. One of the reasons why we don't have any more than we do is because we have to share so much of what we produce with the people who help us produce it. So if you can teach your children early in life to do the right thing without being told, To be diligent in their work without having to have somebody make them go do it. To get up in the morning without having to have somebody kick them out of bed. You have put them a long way down the road to being wealthy. Because in the long run, if you can work without a guide or an overseer or a ruler, you'd only be working in a factory. You need to be working for yourself.
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in your own business. For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only and request the program titled Making Life Work, number 16. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791 or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE44 and tell us the call letters of this radio station. How long will you sleep, you lazy lout?
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When will you get out of bed, asks Solomon. Well, let me sleep a little longer, you say, a little slumber. Let me fold my hands and snooze a bit longer. And Solomon says, so your poverty will come like a traveling man and your want like an armed man. Cause and effect, folks. Laziness, sleeping a little too long, loving slumber leads to poverty. Now, this isn't to say we don't need sleep. It's a follow-on to the parable of the ant that says we've got to be self-starters. We don't need to have somebody else wake us up and get us to work, not if we're going to be successful and fairly well-to-do. Well, I'm sorry, but that's the way of life. You've got to be able to get yourself moving. And unless you somehow teach your children that, well, you're neglecting your duty as a parent. A naughty person, Solomon continues, a wicked man. He walks with a twisted mouth. He doesn't just tell you the truth. He puts a spin on it. He's got to be clever in the way he puts things. He winks with his eye. He speaks with his feet. He teaches with his fingers. He's got all kinds of secret signs and symbols and movements. He's a fidgety kind of guy, these deceivers. Perverseness is in his heart. He devises mischief continually, sows discord. Therefore, his calamity will come suddenly. Suddenly, he will be broken without remedy. I think this is here to tell us to get away from people like that. Don't get sucked in by them, because they really are smooth oftentimes, and they can offer you this fine little dinner. You know, they say something about swindlers and con men. The saying is, you can't con an honest man. And the fact is that this type of man that's going out there looking for somebody to swindle is looking for someone who himself is trying to pull a fast one, trying to get away with something. And so he comes in and uses our own little criminal instincts against us, and we learn the hard way. Now, you may be under the impression that God loves everybody and everything. Well, it's not quite true. There are some things that God hates. In fact, there are some of them that he says are an absolute abomination to him. Now, I don't know about you, but it seems to me it would be a good idea that if there is something that God hates, that we knew what that was. Well, Solomon is kind to us. He gives us a list. These six things, he says, does the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination to him. Absolutely despicable. Number one, a proud look. Second, a lying tongue. Three, hands that shed innocent blood. Four, a heart that devises wicked imaginations. Five, feet that be swift in running to mischief. Six, a false witness that speaks lies. And seven, he that sows discord among brethren. Well, you've got some attitudes here and some things that people do. And what's disturbing? You know, you always hear these people say, well, you love the sinner, but you hate the sin. Well, unfortunately, we get down to the fact that God also hates some sinners, I guess, because that's the way it's listed. First of all, he talks about the things sinners do, proud look, lying tongue, and so forth. But then he says, first of all, he said he hates a lying tongue. Then he comes back around to it and says he also hates the false witness that speaks lies. That's disturbing. And finally, he hates the man that sows discord among brethren. Now, I know that we could defend ourselves by saying, well, I was just telling the truth. But, you know, there is a time when telling the truth to somebody is going to separate chief friends and will actually do no good. I don't think we can justify ourselves in splitting up people or causing discord between people with the excuse, well, what I was doing, it was just the truth, and I guess people need to know the truth. I think the lesson in these six things, the seven that God hates, is pretty important. It is possible to get on the wrong side of God, and you do it with having a proud and haughty look about you. You do it by having a lying tongue. You do it by giving testimony that might lead to the shedding of innocent blood. You do it by devising wicked imaginations in your heart, so you ought to really give attention to your fantasies. You do it with feet that are in a hurry to run into some kind of mischief. And then the speaking of lies and the sowing of discord among brethren. These things are really important to God, and we ought to regulate our lives taking them into account. Solomon continues, My son, keep your father's commandment, and don't forsake the law of your mother. Tie them upon your heart. Tie them around your neck. When you go, it shall lead you. When you sleep, it shall keep you. And when you wake up, it will talk with you. You got these things in your mind, and they're so deeply ingrained in you that when you wake up in the morning, they come to mind. Folks, that's a recipe for staying out of trouble. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is a light, and the reproof of instruction is the way of life. Only a loser looks at the commandments of God as shackles and the law as chains. The winners, well, the winners see them as a light in a dark place. Until next time, this is Ronald Dart.
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And you were born to win. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-877-7000.
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1-888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net Christian Educational Ministries is happy to announce a new full-color Born to Win monthly newsletter with articles and free offers from Ronald L. Dart. Call us today at 1-888-BIBLE44 to sign up or visit us at borntowin.net
This episode takes listeners on a journey through Solomon’s teachings on wisdom and financial prudence. The conversation begins with a gripping personal story that sets the stage to explore the distinctions between knowledge and wisdom. Listeners learn about the devastating consequences of lacking discretion and the vital need to navigate life with an understanding that goes beyond the superficial. Practical advice for financial stewardship, especially for the young, is discussed as Solomon offers timeless wisdom on borrowing and managing resources. With an engaging narrative on the parable of the ant, the discussion underscores the value of diligence and self-motivation. The episode also addresses the spiritual dimension of wisdom, cautioning against traits detested by God, such as a lying tongue and sowing discord. Through these lessons, the episode inspires listeners to seek a life governed by wisdom, illuminating their path with prudence and clarity.
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The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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There are a lot of ways to mess up your life. It's frightening how easy it is, how one small mistake can carry consequences that last a lifetime. I used to know a fellow. He was about 30 at the time. Good-looking, drop-dead handsome. I mean, the girls really would have been chasing him. But for one thing, he was crippled. He dragged one leg behind him most of the time, and one of his arms didn't work right. I thought maybe he had had polio, but it turned out that what had happened is when he was a kid, one day he was showing off, and he dived into the pool in the shallow end and banged his head on the bottom of the pool. And the result was the crippling effect that I saw. He was lucky, I guess, that he didn't spend the remainder of his life in a wheelchair. You know, there's no way to avoid every mistake, and accidents will happen from time to time. But what happened in his case was a moment of reckless behavior. that wisdom would have kept him from, would have prevented, would have headed off some way along the line. Now, you know, kids don't have much wisdom. And so somebody else has got to have it for them. And some level of discipline has got to be applied to children so that they will learn not to run on the edges of pools, just to impress upon their minds that there are things they can do that can hurt them. because they can't see out there far enough like you and I can, and they don't know how much danger there really is. But if you can teach wisdom to a child early in life and begin to implant some of these lessons, it can make an enormous difference. But the problem is, most people assume that knowledge is wisdom, and it's not. Mere knowledge will not do the job. And the reason is very simple. Some things are so tempting that just knowing better won't keep you out of it. What you've got to have is wisdom. And wisdom is more than knowledge. Wisdom includes a sense of right and wrong, a set of values to go with knowledge that puts it together and helps you make the right kind of decisions in your life. King Solomon put it this way. In chapter 5, verse 1, he said, Pay attention. Bend your ear to my understanding that you may regard discretion and that your lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman drop like a honeycomb. Her mouth is smoother than oil, but her end is as bitter as wormwood. It's as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold on hell. Do you understand what he's saying? He's saying, you better pay attention to me. Gain wisdom. For here is something that's going to be sweet like a honeycomb and smoother than oil. And the end of it, it's going to kill you. Wisdom has the ability to see beyond the moment, to know that some things are right and some things are wrong intrinsically. You know, when we're little kids and Dad tells us to do something, our favorite question is, well, why, Daddy? And Dad's favorite response, well, because I said so. I heard that more times when I was a kid than I'd like to think about, because I said so. I guess I heard it so many times because I asked why so many times. And you know, because I said so has to be good enough for us at certain times in our lives, but it won't carry you all the way. At some time, you have to come to the realization that Dad said no for a reason other than his own convenience. It wasn't just because your dad didn't like to see you running on the edge of the pool that he told you to stop it. So when you ask him why, he just doesn't want to take the time to say, because I'm tired of watching you risk your neck, you little twerp. Stop it. Solomon emphasized the power of the temptation. To help us understand the importance of wisdom and discretion and foresight, we need to understand the end from the beginning. And the problem with kids is that you just can't see very far. And as kids, we depend on people who can. Solomon chooses the strange woman only because she serves as a good example of all the things out there waiting, lurking to destroy your life. And there are more of them than we like to think about. Not only is this woman powerful, and not only is the end of fooling around with her destructive, she's deceptive. Solomon said in verse 6, "'Lest you should ponder the path of life. Her ways are movable, so that you cannot know them.'" She's tricky. And life is tricky. Temptation of all kinds are tricky. And they're sweet, and they're smooth. And you just have a hard time really getting and understanding which of the paths that lay before you lead to life because some of them look so good. Hear me now, therefore, you children, said Solomon, and don't depart from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from this woman, the strange woman, and don't come near the door of her house. Don't even go down that street. lest you give your honor to others and your years to the cruel, lest strangers be filled with your wealth and your labors in the house of a stranger, and you mourn at the last when your flesh and your body are consumed and say, How have I hated instruction? How has my heart despised reproof? Why haven't I obeyed the voice of my teachers? Why didn't I listen to them that instructed me? Boy, this is a painful song, and it's one we have all sung at one time or another. How could I have been so stupid? It is all so easy to see after the fact. You know, when you're sitting in a doctor's waiting room and he calls you into the office and sits you down and says, Bob, I'm sorry, but your test came back, you're HIV positive. Oh, yeah, you slap your forehead then, and then at that time you're going to say to yourself, Bob, How was it I couldn't listen? How could I have imagined that I could get away with this? And you mourn at the last when your flesh and your body are consumed. Or when you're slapped with a lawsuit for sexual harassment and strangers are filled with your wealth and all your labors go into the house of a stranger. Oh, yeah. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have been so foolish? Where was the wisdom when I needed it? Why didn't I follow God's instructions? Why didn't I go in the right way? It is easy to see it then, isn't it? And don't we all know it? You know, there is always an alternative to evil. Solomon draws a really nice metaphor for faithfulness to your wife or faithfulness to your husband. In verse 15, he said, drink waters out of your own cistern and running waters out of your own well. Don't let your fountains be dispersed abroad in rivers of waters in the street. Don't take your resources and pour them out in the street. Let them be only your own and not a stranger's with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of your youth. Let her be as the loving hind in the pleasant row. Let her breast satisfy you at all times and be you always ravished with her love. You know, the love of one man for one woman and one woman for one man is really a beautiful thing. the closeness, the love, the warmth, the being able to depend upon each other in times that are good and times that are hard, of knowing that when you're in the hospital and lying up there racked with pain, that there will be somebody somewhere who cares enough to come in and wipe your brow and sit beside you and hold your hand. One of the most tragic results of following the strange woman, condom or no condom, is that it takes this away from you. You can't have that kind of relationship with one woman when you're sharing it with another. And the same thing goes for women with men. And why will you, Solomon asked my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his goings. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself. He'll be held with the cords of his sins. He shall die without instruction, and the greatness of his folly, he will go astray. What Solomon is saying is it's so much better to learn this lesson beforehand, and so much cheaper. Solomon will change the subject a little, and we'll talk about that right after these words.
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Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44.
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Wisdom is not that hard to come by. In fact, through experience, the kind of wisdom that comes from experience will catch up with you whether you like it or not. But sometimes that's a pretty expensive way to get wisdom. It's a whole lot better to learn from someone else's experience. Well, in the sixth chapter of Proverbs, Solomon gives us right off the bat two really important principles that could have an enormous amount to do with your net worth not that many years from now. In chapter 6, verse 1, he says, My son, if you be surety for your friend, if you have stricken your hand with a stranger. What's that? Well, to be surety for your friend would be something like to co-sign on a note with your friend. And to strike your hand is like, well, it's like signing, taking your hand and signing a loan document. And, of course, you're borrowing money from this bank. And you may think, well, he's your friendly banker, and you know him. He's Bob or John or Phil. But you could go back there a month from now, and Phil has gone on to another job, and you're dealing with a whole different person in that job. If you go in and sign a note with a bank, you have stricken your hand with a stranger. You're snared, he says, with the words of your mouth. You're taken by the words. You've made a promise. You have to do it. Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself. When you are coming to the hand of your friend like this, you're actually in his power. in a way. You go and humble yourself and make sure that your friend makes that payment. Don't give sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Get yourself out of that like a deer gets away from the hand of a hunter, or a quail gets away from the guy with the double-barreled shotgun. Well, no, Solomon didn't use the expression double-barreled shotgun, but you know what I mean. Whatever you do, says Solomon, don't make yourself responsible for someone else's debt. If he can't afford it himself, let him do without. Now, a lot of people have gone contrary to that advice to their own sorrow and to their own hurt. You know, if I were giving advice to a group of young people today... I wouldn't tell them to never borrow money. That would be asking a little too much in our world. But I would tell them to only borrow for two things. Two things and two things only. They are basic housing and essential transportation. Now, the reason I think this is good advice is easy enough. You have to have a place to live, and you and your young bride, you're out there getting your life started together. If you rent a house, you're paying interest on the house, and you might just as well, if you can manage the down payment, be paying that interest against your own principal so that eventually you do own the house. That's easy to understand, isn't it? You are going to have to pay interest anyway, so you might as well pay it directly instead of through a middleman and let him make a profit on the whole deal. Second, you have to have a way to get to work. If you don't, if you have public transportation, don't even think about a car. But nowadays, most places in this country, you can forget about working if you don't have a car to get to work. But you don't need a new Firebird that goes 150 miles an hour to get to work. A jalopy will get you to work. My advice to kids is always go out and buy a cheap, ugly car with good tires and good brakes. And if that embarrasses you a little bit, get yourself a bumper sticker that says, don't laugh, it's paid for. And all your friends that are driving around their shiny new cars and making payments on them, you can laugh at them and say, ha, you're making those payments my car's paid for. The payments I'm making, I make to myself. There is a time, by the way, when you can buy a new car. That's when you can afford to pay cash for it. Now, I know that runs counter to what a lot of people think, but the truth is you'll come out way ahead of the game if you'll just follow that simple advice. Because when you have the cash, you've actually managed to save up, and you've put together $14,000, $15,000 in real hard cash in the bank. You're going to think a long time before you go down and you plunk that down all at once on a brand-new Belch Fire 8 special, right? Something about cash in the hand that conveys its own kind of wisdom. And another piece of advice, never finance consumer goods like clothes, CD players, and television sets. Save up and buy cash. Now, I'll give you a little exercise. I'm not going to do it for you. I'll let you do it for yourself. You know that you've got credit cards, and you know that those credit cards have spending limits, and you know that all you have to do every month is pay off a certain part of that debt that you have on the card, and if you pay off part of it, then you can spend that the next month and run your spending limit right back up. Right? Right. Now, let's suppose here you are. You're 18, 19, 20 years old, and you, the first month, you and your bride get a new place and You take your credit card down and charge it all up, and you get your maximum limit, say $2,000 that you can borrow on your credit card, and you buy some things you need to have for your little house. You get yourself a television set so you won't be bored in the evening. Think about that one for just a minute. You get yourself a CD player. You buy yourself some fancy expensive clothes and so forth. Wham, before you know it, $2,000 are gone. Next month, you drag out the checkbook when your bill comes in for the credit card, and you pay off the minimum that you have to pay. And that gives you that much money to charge against your credit card the next month, right? And so you go out and buy something else, keeping it up there. Now, just imagine that you kept your credit card right at the upper limit for the next 40 years, okay? Sit down with your pencil and piece of paper or your handy calculator, because I don't think very many of us remember the multiplication tables anymore, and sit down and work out for yourself, okay? on that original $2,000 loan that you made, how much interest do you pay at your credit card rate of interest over 40 years? And realize something. From that first year forward, Everything you have done has been done on a cash basis. For 39 years, you paid cash for everything. And you kept paying interest on that first $2,000 that you borrowed. Because effectively, that's what's happened here. And for the privilege of having all that stuff... A few months earlier than you could have if you just made the payments to yourself and then went out and bought them and paid cash for them. For the privilege of having that stuff a few months early, look at how much money you have paid out on $2,000 over a 40-year period of time. Can you think of anything that you could do with that much money? Solomon's not through giving advice in this area. In verse 6, he says this, Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, who having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provides her meat in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. Now, right here is one of the great rules of life, and it is not very well understood. What would you say is the lesson that Solomon is trying to teach us with the parable of the ant? Go to the ant, you lazy lout. Consider her ways and be wise. She doesn't have any guide, overseer, or ruler, and yet she does her work. What is it? Zeal? Diligence? Well, not exactly. The lesson of the parable is that the ant is able to work without a supervisor, to be a self-starter. Now, with the ant, this is not a matter of character. It's a matter of genes. It's written into the ant's very being. But now imagine the value of writing this idea into your children's character. Let's see if we can understand why this is so. Imagine for a moment that you've got a job working in a factory manufacturing. I'd like to come up with a better name for it, but let's call them widgets. That's what everybody who uses illustrations like this calls them. And you make these widgets, and the widgets sell for $10 apiece. You can make so many widgets in a day, and as a consequence, you can earn so much money. Now, if you were reliable enough to come to work, set up your machinery, do all this stuff yourself, and carry it out and put it all out and get it ready for mailing and everything, and didn't need a supervisor, Why, you could have, let's say, a dollar each out of all the widgets you could make in a day, and that would make you a very good living. A hundred bucks a day, shall we say. Really good. But on the other hand, supposing you can't work like that. Supposing you've got to have a supervisor. Somebody's got to organize the work schedule. Somebody's got to solve your problems for you. Somebody to see to it that you're at work on time. Somebody to get you back from breaks on time instead of letting you linger at the coffee pot and so forth. Well, you see, if you have to have a supervisor, the $100 a day that you might have been going to make, some of that money is going to have to be given to the supervisor because the output isn't any higher, right? We're only doing so many widgets a day, right? And so consequently, if you have to have help to do that, well, then you've got to give up some of what you make. One of the reasons why we don't have any more than we do is because we have to share so much of what we produce with the people who help us produce it. So if you can teach your children early in life to do the right thing without being told, To be diligent in their work without having to have somebody make them go do it. To get up in the morning without having to have somebody kick them out of bed. You have put them a long way down the road to being wealthy. Because in the long run, if you can work without a guide or an overseer or a ruler, you'd only be working in a factory. You need to be working for yourself.
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in your own business. And tell us the call letters of this radio station. How long will you sleep, you lazy lout?
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When will you get out of bed, asks Solomon. Well, let me sleep a little longer, you say, a little slumber. Let me fold my hands and snooze a bit longer. And Solomon says, so your poverty will come like a traveling man and your want like an armed man. Cause and effect, folks. Laziness, sleeping a little too long, loving slumber leads to poverty. Now, this isn't to say we don't need sleep. It's a follow-on to the parable of the ant that says we've got to be self-starters. We don't need to have somebody else wake us up and get us to work, not if we're going to be successful and fairly well-to-do. Well, I'm sorry, but that's the way of life. You've got to be able to get yourself moving. And unless you somehow teach your children that, well, you're neglecting your duty as a parent. A naughty person, Solomon continues, a wicked man. He walks with a twisted mouth. He doesn't just tell you the truth. He puts a spin on it. He's got to be clever in the way he puts things. He winks with his eye. He speaks with his feet. He teaches with his fingers. He's got all kinds of secret signs and symbols and movements. He's a fidgety kind of guy, these deceivers. Perverseness is in his heart. He devises mischief continually, sows discord. Therefore, his calamity will come suddenly. Suddenly, he will be broken without remedy. I think this is here to tell us to get away from people like that. Don't get sucked in by them because they really are smooth oftentimes, and they can offer you this fine little dinner. You know, they say something about swindlers and con men. The saying is you can't con an honest man. And the fact is that this type of man that's going out there looking for somebody to swindle is looking for someone who himself is trying to pull a fast one, trying to get away with something. And so he comes in and uses our own little criminal instincts against us, and we learn the hard way. Now, you may be under the impression that God loves everybody and everything. Well, it's not quite true. There are some things that God hates. In fact, there are some of them that he says are an absolute abomination to him. Now, I don't know about you, but it seems to me it would be a good idea that if there is something that God hates, that we knew what that was. Well, Solomon is kind to us. He gives us a list. These six things, he says, does the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination to him. Absolutely despicable. Number one, a proud look. Second, a lying tongue. Three, hands that shed innocent blood. Four, a heart that devises wicked imaginations. Five, feet that be swift in running to mischief. Six, a false witness that speaks lies. And seven, he that sows discord among brethren. Well, you've got some attitudes here and some things that people do. And what's disturbing? You know, you always hear these people say, well, you love the sinner, but you hate the sin. Well, unfortunately, we get down to the fact that God also hates some sinners, I guess, because that's the way it's listed. First of all, he talks about the things sinners do, proud look, lying tongue, and so forth. But then he says, first of all, he said he hates a lying tongue. Then he comes back around to it and says he also hates the false witness that speaks lies. That's disturbing. And finally, he hates the man that sows discord among brethren. Now, I know that we could defend ourselves by saying, well, I was just telling the truth. But, you know, there is a time when telling the truth to somebody is going to separate chief friends and will actually do no good. I don't think we can justify ourselves in splitting up people or causing discord between people with the excuse, well, what I was doing, it was just the truth, and I guess people need to know the truth. I think the lesson in these six things, the seven that God hates, is pretty important. It is possible to get on the wrong side of God, and you do it with having a proud and haughty look about you. You do it by having a lying tongue. You do it by giving testimony that might lead to the shedding of innocent blood. You do it by devising wicked imaginations in your heart, so you ought to really give attention to your fantasies. You do it with feet that are in a hurry to run into some kind of mischief. And then the speaking of lies and the sowing of discord among brethren. These things are really important to God, and we ought to regulate our lives taking them into account. Solomon continues, My son, keep your father's commandment, and don't forsake the law of your mother. Tie them upon your heart. Tie them around your neck. When you go, it shall lead you. When you sleep, it shall keep you. And when you wake up, it will talk with you. You got these things in your mind, and they're so deeply ingrained in you that when you wake up in the morning, they come to mind. Folks, that's a recipe for staying out of trouble. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is a light, and the reproof of instruction is the way of life. Only a loser looks at the commandments of God as shackles and the law as chains. The winners, well, the winners see them as a light in a dark place. Until next time, this is Ronald Dart.
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And you were born to win. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-877-7000.
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1-888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net Christian Educational Ministries is happy to announce a new full-color Born to Win monthly newsletter with articles and free offers from Ronald L. Dart. Call us today at 1-888-BIBLE44 to sign up or visit us at borntowin.net
Join us as we unravel the core principles of living a life favored by God and men, as taught by Solomon. From the traits of truth and mercy to the essence of forgiveness, learn how these virtues can bring about harmony and respect in your relationships. This episode also addresses the significance of tithing and generosity, urging us to honor God with our possessions. Embrace these age-old secrets and find out how they can still bring richness and meaning to your modern life.
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The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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How long would you like to live in the flesh? It depends, doesn't it? It depends on whether that long life is free of pain and hurt and confusion and all that, or whether there's some joy in it. How would you like to have a little more peace in your life? And what if I could tell you of a way you can have both of these, long life and peace? Well, there is a way. It's found in the Bible. But the problem is that the theologians and the doctrinal teachers have confused the issue for us to where a lot of people somehow either miss it or don't understand it or don't deal with it. Take the book of Proverbs, for example. Right here in the book of Proverbs, there is a collection of wisdom from the wisest man who ever lived. His name is King Solomon. His wisdom was a direct gift from God. Now, what Solomon did in his life was to systematically collect all the wisdom he had been able to gather, and he wrote it down in a book for generations to follow. He basically says that there is a basis for wisdom, and hence there is a basis for long life. It is a special revelation about the way life works, a special revelation of God to man about man's nature and God's nature and how these two natures interact on a day-to-day basis. The fact is, human beings work in a certain defined and rather predictable way, And, of course, God is quite predictable. He never changes. Now, out of these two things grow a number of life principles, and this special revelation tells man what these things are. Don't you think it's worth knowing what those things are and what that revelation might be? Well, as I said, it's in the Bible. It's called the Law. And somehow, that poses a big problem in people's minds. Because they look at the law and they see it as a set of handcuffs or shackles around their ankles, and they don't really understand that the law is that special revelation of the way things work. And that being the case, it's really a pretty good idea to inform yourself about what it says. But the problem is, a lot of theologians want to argue that the law has been summarily abolished. Somehow there's an assumption made by many that in the Old Testament, salvation was by the law. But in the New Testament, salvation is by grace. They have it all wrong. Salvation has always been by grace. And the law has always been the basis of true wisdom. The law has always been a guide to life, a definer of right and wrong, and an explanation of the way the relationship between man and man ought to work, and more important, a definition of the way man can relate to and understand God. Listen to King Solomon speaking on behalf of God in Proverbs 3, verse 1. My son, forget not my law, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to you. Oh, and what were we talking about? A long life and peace? How do you get them added to you? Well, you might get it added by not forgetting the law and by letting your heart keep, retain God's commandments. That's all. What is the law for? It's for long life and peace. It's to keep us out of trouble. It's to teach us about ourselves and about God, and to help us to have a better life. You know, the only sense in which the law has ever saved man is that it saves man a lot of trouble. That's why a Christian should study the law of Moses. Not because it will save you, but to learn about God's will for life, to learn wisdom, to learn the elements of love. What am I talking about? Well, look, all of us know that a Christian is to love his fellow man, right? That's our obligation. Jesus said of his disciples, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. But love is more than a feeling. It's not just that I feel good about you. Love actually is a behavior or a set of behaviors. It has to do with the way we live our life. The law contains the elements of those behaviors. Do not steal, says the law, for no man who loves his neighbor would ever covet his neighbor's property and would ever take something that doesn't belong to him, right? Don't commit adultery, says the law. Love your neighbor, not his wife. Do not have any other gods, for love is not divided. You can't love God while worshiping an idol. Remember the Sabbath day. Take a day off work to meet with God. These are laws that reveal things to man that work as opposed to things that don't work. I heard a fascinating story the other day about this question of the seventh day and the Sabbath day and a day of rest. Someone was saying, you know about those rides down the Grand Canyon on the back of those mules? Yeah, I said I'd heard of that. He said they learned recently that if they will give those mules a day of rest once a week, the mules live longer. What a surprise. Even jackasses live longer when they get a day of rest every week. So what's the law for? Well, the law is to tell you how to live longer. How would you like to have favor in the sight of God and man? How would you like to have other men and other women to like you and to trust you and to respect you? How would you like to have favor with God who hears your prayers and really wants to grant your requests and to walk alongside of you? How would you like to have good understanding of the issues you're going to face today and the decisions that you have to make? Well, there's a way to that as well. Here's Solomon again in verse 3 of Proverbs 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Tie them around your neck. Write them on the table of your heart. So shall you find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. There is a way to having favor in the sight of God and man. It's to not let mercy and truth forsake you. Now, they're not that hard to understand. They're not quite so easy to apply. The truth side of the equation is obvious. A commitment to truth and honesty is about as straightforward a commitment as anyone could ever make. The temptation to lie to gain favor is almost irresistible at times. The temptation to lie to protect your reputation is hard to resist. You know, you've gotten yourself in trouble. Things have gone wrong. And instead of standing up and saying, I did it. I'm sorry it won't happen again. You lie and say, I didn't do it. I don't know who did. But truth works better and is a great cleanser of the soul. It's a great antidote to fear and to shame. God's advice, tell the truth and get it over with. Get it off your chest. Tell the truth, say you're sorry, and get on with life. And there's one more thing. Having a reputation as a truth teller is worth its weight in gold. To have people say to you, look, I know you. Your word is good. It's not so hard to understand the value, then, of truth, is it? But the other side of the equation, mercy, is a little bit more difficult. Maybe an illustration from Jesus would help to clarify this thing. The illustration is found in the 18th chapter of Matthew, beginning in verse 21. Peter came to Jesus and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Seven times? Peter was, like a lot of us, gets a little bit concerned about people who just keep on making the same mistakes and saying, I'm sorry. I know that feeling very well from both sides, I might add. Jesus said to him, no, no, not seven times until 70 times seven. Now, that's mercy. 490 times, if necessary, you've got to forgive your brother. Mercy is the quality of withholding punishment from another person, even when the punishment is richly deserved. Now, he says, don't let truth and mercy forsake you. These are things that are going to help you. Now, Jesus went on to explain what he meant to Peter with a parable. He said, Folks, this is a parable, and so Jesus uses a huge exaggeration. That's a lot of money. But for as much as the man didn't have anything to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and his children and everything he had and payment to be made. So you think you have it tough because they repossessed your car. How would you like to have this kind of banking system where they sell you, your wife and your kids and pay the thing off? That doesn't sound too good. Well, the servant fell down and worshiped the man saying, Lord, have patience with me. I'll pay it all. Actually, the way this thing is worded, the debt appears to be an impossible debt. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, Jesus said, and loosed him and forgave the debt. Now notice what happens. It was not restructured debt. It was written off, and it was huge. So our man, having been released and having been let go and now going out debt-free, goes out and finds one of his fellow servants that owed him a hundred pence. Now, you've got a debt considerably less than one ten thousandth of the one he had just had written off. You'd have thought this guy said, oh, hey, hey, forget it. I just had my debt wiped out. I can sure let that one go. But no, he took him by the throat and said, you pay me what you owe. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet and said, Oh, please have patience with me, and I will pay you all. You would have fought. He would have remembered those his own words to the other man. But no, he went and cast him into prison until the debt was paid. The first man was merciful. The second man was not. What happened? Well, his fellow servants saw what he did and And they were very sorry, and they came and they told their Lord what was done. Now, there's a little dynamic at work here that's worth really thinking hard about. Because other people see what you do. They notice your mercy. They notice your lack of mercy. And these things register on them, and they have an effect on the way they deal with you and the way they talk about you behind your back. Well, they told the Lord what was done. His Lord, after he called him, said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt for no other reason than that you asked me to do it. Don't you think you should have had compassion on your fellow servant like I had compassion on you? And he was angry, and he delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due to him. Then Jesus concluded by saying, So likewise shall my heavenly Father do unto you, if you from your hearts don't forgive every one his brother their trespasses. Or as James put it, He shall have judgment without mercy, who has showed no mercy. You know, this is really spooky in a way, because it suggests that having been forgiven, If we refuse to forgive others, we can bring our own sin back on our own heads.
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Think about that. I'll be right back. You were not born to lose. God has no intention of spending eternity with a loser. You can know what God is doing and why. Drop us a letter or give us a call, and we will send you a free CD introducing the series called Making Life Work. Our address is borntowin.com. Post Office Box 560 White House, Texas 75791 Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44 So how do we find good favor and good understanding in the sight of both God and man?
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Solomon says, Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Tie them around your neck. Write them on the table of your heart. That means get them internalized to where it's a part of your life. Truth, we understand. And when it comes to mercy, make it a principle of your life to give every man a break when it is in your power to do it. Oh, yes, I know you'll be disappointed once in a while, but you will be on the right side of the ledger of mercy. I guess there is one. James said that he will have judgment without mercy who has showed no mercy. And, of course, apart from God's ledger, You won't make nearly so many enemies. You'll make a lot of friends. Okay, what else does Solomon have to tell us? Well, here's a dandy, beginning in verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord, and depart from evil. What's the result? It shall be health to your navel and marrow to your bones. I mean, we're talking about something to really help your health and to have God actually directing your paths. How do you do this? Well, the first way is don't be such a smart aleck. Take a little while and realize that you don't have all the answers and you're going to have to go somewhere for them. Trust God and he will direct your paths. Now, this is really a tough admonition to take to heart, especially when you're a born problem solver. You're one of these people that see a challenge. I've got to meet that challenge. I have to resolve it. I have to conquer it. But look, if you will just take a moment to consult God about it, it'll work a whole lot better. Now, do I mean in prayer? Well, yes, I do mean in prayer, but I don't mean only that. I mean, if you will just take a moment to consult the law, the teachings, the principles, and the character of God as they are displayed for you in the Bible, you will be much stronger in making your decision and solving your problem. You'll have tools to work with that you don't have right now. Don't lean to your own. Don't trust your own understanding. It can break on you. Trust God. Acknowledge Him. How do you do that? You flop open the Bible and say, how would God handle this? Does God have any instructions on this? Well, I can hear you saying right now, well, I don't know where to look. The reason you don't know where to look is because you haven't been looking. You can't just go to the Bible at some moment in time and you've got a problem, go thumbing through it and hope you fall on something. You've got to study the book as a part of your life. You've got to internalize it. You've got to write it on your heart, as the Bible says. That's how, when the tough problem comes along, you will know where to go in the Bible. Now, there is such a thing as supernatural direction from God. But as far as this proverb is concerned, it could be as natural as sunrise and sunset. There is a wealth of wisdom in print from God. Why in the world should you think you can come down here and whisper in your ear? when you haven't even dealt with what he's long since given you and put in print and have on paper right in front of you. Use that, and it will direct your paths. Read the Bible. Think about what you read. Try first to apply it to any problem you face. You do that, and you will always have a leg up on the competition. How would you like to ensure that you always have plenty of food and drink? That you always have enough of the things your family needs? I'm not talking about wealth. I'm just talking about security. Well, Solomon's got an answer for this one, too. Proverbs 3, verse 9. Honor the Lord with your substance, and with the firstfruits of all your increase. So shall your barns be filled with plenty, and your presses shall burst out with new wine." Oh, so I'll have plenty of food for my animals, my family, my wine, new wine being made from my wine presses. In other words, all my produce is going to be very effective if I honor the Lord with my substance. What does that mean? Well, it means giving something to God. You know, selfishness never works. The man who is trying to get and to keep everything he can for himself is going to end up spiritually impoverished and cramped little man. He will always be a loser, no matter how much money he's got. Whatever God gives to you as increase, honor him with the first of it. That's what Solomon is saying here. How much? Is there a standard somewhere? Yeah, there is. A tenth. A good old-fashioned tithe. Now, you say, well, that'd be hard to do. Give 10% of everything God gives me, I give it back to Him? I suppose it is. But did you ever hear of a thing called faith? You just have to sometimes do it because God says so and trust Him. That's what Solomon says here in Proverbs 3, 9, and 10. will come to pass. And Jesus said much the same thing. So don't just assume this is Old Testament. And Jesus, in Luke 12, verse 13, one of the company said to him, Master, would you speak to my brother that he and divide our inheritance with me? And he said, Man, who made me a judge or divider over you? And he went on to say, Take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses. Oh, you know, it's easy to forget nowadays when we have so much stuff. We have our houses and our cars and our stereos and furniture and everything around us is all, you know, accumulations of things. And it's easy to forget that those things are not your life. That life is something far more important than that. In fact, this may be the first lesson of tithing. Let go of something, would you? This stuff is not life. And he spoke a parable to them, saying, A certain rich man had ground, and it brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? I don't have any room to bestow all the stuff my ground has brought forth this year. My barns are full. What am I going to do with all this? Well, I know what I'll do. I'll pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and I'll put all my stuff in there. I'll say to my soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you. Then whose shall these things be which you have provided? And Jesus finished by saying, So is he that lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. The message? Look, friend, you can lie down and die tonight. Then where's all this stuff going to be? Who's going to get your stereo? Who's going to have your Pontiac Trans Am? Who's going to pick up all these things and maybe pick up the payments you've got on them? Where's all this stuff going when you die? It doesn't matter much, really. He that lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God... is a man who just doesn't understand that your life doesn't consist in the possessions that you own. I'll be back after these words.
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Now, you know as you walk with God that you are not going to get everything right. How would you like to have a little help with a course correction now and then? Maybe a little elbow in the ribs that says, don't do that. Perhaps an attitude adjustment. When you just can't find it in yourself to make the change that you absolutely know you must make, but you just haven't been able to do it. How would you like to have a little help? Well, Solomon suggests that you will get that help. But it's important, I think, for you to expect it and to be responsive to it when it comes. That's why Solomon in verse 11 says this, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loves, he corrects, even as a father the son in whom he delights. Ah, so there is some discipline in the walk with God. There is a little chastisement that comes our way from time to time. And I suspect that that chastisement is going to smart just a little bit. Now, here's the hard part. Of all the disasters that strike our lives, of all the pain, which of them are chastisement and which of them are just bad luck? You're in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's always been troubling to me. I've wondered when things weren't going right, is this my fault? Is this chance? Is it luck? Is it chastisement? What's going on here? And I've learned something. I'll share it with you. You can treat all these disasters that strike exactly the same. You take it. You pray about it. You think about it. You consider what you can learn from the experience. And you look at the changes you need to be making in your life, and you have a go at them. And you're in good shape if you do this. You will be in the shape of one who does not despise the chastening of God, and who isn't weary of God's correction. You're one who is really trying to get it right, and is willing to listen when God speaks, no matter how subtle He is when He talks. Now, all these examples I've given you are really good at helping you understand the importance of wisdom, of coming to realize that there is a way of life that works better than all other ways, that it really is good to gain wisdom. And Solomon goes on to say, happy is the man that finds wisdom and the man that gets understanding because the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold. There are a lot of reasons for this. One of the reasons for it is because you live better. You feel better. You feel better about yourself. You feel better about your neighbor. You're happier because your neighbors like you instead of being sullen towards you. You just get along better in the world. And the funny thing about it is you even tend to do better in the silver and gold department with wisdom. Wisdom, she is more precious than rubies. And all the things that you can desire are not to be compared to her. Really? Yeah. Length of days is in her right hand. You want to live a long time? In her left hand is riches and honor. You want to be respected and fairly well-to-do and to have enough money and food and so forth? It's wisdom. Her ways are ways of pleasantness. Oh, good aspects, beautiful views, instead of having to walk around in the sewers of life. And all her paths are peace. You don't have to fight with your neighbor. You don't have to be in bickering with people all the time. Wisdom, she is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her. And happy is everyone that holds on to her. You want to know how great wisdom is? The Lord by wisdom has founded the earth. By understanding, he has established the heavens. By his knowledge, the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew. What an example of wisdom this world is that we live on. What an incredible balance. What a beautiful design. This is a real classic of someone who knows how to make things work. So when you get a chance to learn from the one that knows how to make things work, Solomon says, my son, don't let these things depart from your eyes. Hang on to sound wisdom and discretion. They're life to your soul. They're grace to your neck. They make you look good. You're going to be safe and your foot won't stumble. When you lie down, you won't be afraid. You'll lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Yeah. The winners get a good night's sleep. The losers get to toss and turn. You may have thought that some people are just luckier than others, that all these good things are handed to those people on a silver platter, and that you're just an unlucky slob. You would be wrong. You have choices to make, and it is those choices that can turn a loser wrong.
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SPEAKER 01 :
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