Understanding and Valuing Proverbs Part 2- Pastor Greg Addison - June 14, 2026

Sermon from Pastor Greg Addison on Sunday morning, June 14, 2026.

Ministering to the heart of the Western Arkansas River Valley for over 165 years. Welcome to Chapter and First- the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church, you'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg Addison, our ministry staff, and guest speakers. Thank you for listening!

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Transcript

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Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church. You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers. Thank you for listening.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Hey, it was beautiful to hear y'all sing that. It was really beautiful. Let's have our prayer time today. As you have heard and we've announced, and many of your classes are helping. We have a whole slew of teenagers here this week for World Changers, and it's a great deal. We did this last year. And they are going all over the River Valley, all over Fort Smith, impacting people, serving them, and sharing the love of Jesus in that process. And look, so let's pray for them that the Lord will keep them safe. And let's also pray that God will open doors for people to be saved, but also to come to First Baptist and be a part of what's happening. So if you'll join me in prayer, let's pray this morning. Lord, we uh thank you for the privilege that you have given us to share the gospel. We know that you don't need us to do this. Um, all the glory, as we've just sang, belongs to you. Salvation is your work, and we thank you for salvation and what that means. But we also thank you that a part of what that salvation does in our lives is it gives us the privilege to go out and tell others about what it means to know you as their Savior. I thank you for a chance to serve these teenagers as they are going out on mission and serving to learn more about walking with you and what it means in their lives. And so I pray, Father, you'll impact these students this week as they serve you. Use them, give them opportunities to see people saved and to and the influence and the impact of their ministry in a way that grows them closer to you and stirs their heart to be involved in spreading the gospel more often through their lives. Lord, we pray for open doors that every home they go to and every place that they go to to serve, it will be very clear that the reason somebody's doing this is because of the love of Jesus and that you love them. And we pray for open doors for the gospel. We pray that you'll keep these students safe. We pray that you'll give their leaders wisdom. I thank you for our church family and all that we do to serve this endeavor and to support this mission. And we pray that there will be opportunities for us to follow up with the evangelism and the ministry that these students do. And we pray that the impact from this week, Father, will be more people going to heaven and less people going to hell because they've met Jesus as their Savior. In His name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen. Thank you. And thank you, Sunday school classes, and everyone who's helping this week, and uh really be in prayer for these students. Uh many of us who grew up in church can tell you about mission trips uh that we went on as teenagers that was a watershed moment in our spiritual growth. And so please be praying for them as well that God will really impact their lives as they go out and share. Before we get started, uh as you know, we are moving towards uh the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, founding of our nation, and all of that. You've seen in our um uh uh events for the summer, we're having a big, wonderful, old-fashioned Fourth of July picnic on July the 1st on Wednesday night. So we pray you'll be here. Bring someone with you. These are great uh love list events, and then on the 5th, we're having a combined service with the Chaffee Campus and here uh where we're going to be celebrating what God has done in his thumbprint in the history of our nation. And as we're heading up to that, I thought it would be fun just to kind of give you a few teasers and some information that might help you. As you know, I'm a I'm an amateur World War historian in my in my free time. I'm also a historian of that colonial period. And so those are the two times I really focus on outside of Bible study. And so I've got a couple of recommendations for if you're looking at learning more about the history. There's also going to be a lot of conversation that goes on where people are trying to reshape history and say what it's not and write uh spiritual influences out of the history and all of that. So I just want to share with you a couple of books. We have in the reading room over there where we have our chronological Bible, we have those with a with a uh QR code to Amazon. You can get them in Books Million, you can get them to Amazon, wherever. But here's just a couple of my thoughts. There's a new book by Eric Mataxis. Uh, if you've heard of him, he's uh as a Christian, writes from a Christian perspective, did an incredible big uh uh biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He's got a new book called The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World. That's a great title, isn't it? And so uh brand new, hot off the presses. I've just started reading it. So far, I really like it. Here's another one that I would suggest to you. It's called Religion and the American Revolution. Really, you'll need to get this on Amazon. Uh, this is a series of articles by a think tank, a conservative think tank called the American Enterprise Institute. It's probably the or one of the highest level quality conservative think tanks in our country. My son used to work for them before he did some other things. Great deal. And they did a series of these booklets and essays heading into the 250th. And this one is specifically about religion and the American Revolution. You have to be careful about the histories that you pick up in a bookstore or somewhere that relate to this because they will try to diminish or write out the spiritual influences that were a part of the founding of our nation. For example, the Great Awakening and the role that it played. So you have to be careful about those. And so, but this one is written by people, there are believers in there, conservative historians. So it's really, I would recommend it to you. I'm about three-quarters of the way through it, and it's really it's really pretty interesting. And then one final book. This is just straight up history right here. But again, this is not a liberal historian that shapes things. This is pretty much straight down the middle on just history. Rick Atkinson is pretty well known. He does some very scholarly works. He had a big three uh book trilogy on the World War II and the European theater. He is now two books in on the American Revolution, and this first one is really, really good. The British are coming. He has a student version, that's the one with the men screaming uh on it. That's a middle schooler, uh, high school version, uh, fourth, fifth graders that they can read that helps them understand kind of the history of it. And it's really good. It goes from both what's happening in England and happening here and shaping the founding and the revolution. So I just for what it's worth, I thought that was you might like to look at some of that. Turn with me your Bibles to Proverbs chapter three. Last week we uh did uh understanding and valuing proverbs. And so this week we're gonna do part two. So I tried to set up for you an understanding of the book of Proverbs, how it is what it is, how it was written, and just how deeply impacting it is. And I got some great feedback from some folks about it really meant a lot, and they viewed Proverbs in a much deeper fashion than before. And so I want to do that. Last week we talked about a proverb and what it was, been a long time, and talked about how when you study these proverbs, what it's supposed to do is engage us with the Lord in a way that shapes our perspective and he downloads his mind and thought, or what we'd say biblical wisdom and understanding, and it changes how we view life. And then I used a very short illustration about AI, and I talked about how proverbs prepare us even for modern issues. And it's true, it does that for all kinds of things: marriage, family, emotions, work, governmental leadership, just leadership principles, how we talk to people, how we build or recognize friendships, marriage, parenting. It even refers to grandparents in Proverbs all the time. My dad used to tell me this. He'd say, Son, if I'd known how great grandkids are, I'd skip them and gone straight to the grandkids. And I would remind him that the book of Proverbs says that wealth is an inheritance from a father of fathers. And so, like, so you owe my kids a lot of money, dad. And so it's kind of fun, but it's just a rich book. And so this week I want to take one personal topic that we face, and I'm not gonna talk through that topic as much as I want to show you how using the Proverbs gives you wisdom to approach that topic. And so today what we're gonna talk about is personal finances. Now go ahead and get your uh out of the way, right? I'm not talking about finance, I'm not talking about tithing, this is not a tithing message. This is for you. This is how you manage your finances. It's a biblical perspective of how you handle personal finances. So I want to remind you now, kind of some of the principles before we go into this. What is a proverb? The purpose of Proverbs, it says in chapter one, but in a nutshell, it is skill, life skills, applied wisdom in everyday circumstances for everyday living. That's the purpose of Proverbs, as he explicitly says that in Proverbs chapter one. And then he gives us the foundation of the Proverbs. And it's restated, as I told you all throughout the book, not every proverb has this, but every proverb is built on this spiritual truth. In chapter three, he states it this way: trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. You think about him or acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will guide you on the straight paths. That's exactly how a proverb is supposed to work. I'm supposed to find that topic of life and what scripture says about it. I'm supposed to trust him, I'm supposed to learn from him, I'm supposed to set aside what I think, find out what God thinks, and then I am to begin to put that in practice in my life. And when that happens, he grows me, he helps me see things, I grow closer to him, he aligns my perspective with his, and he guides me on all the right paths. Right? That's how that works. Now, what's the definition of a proverb? Let me remind you again. These are not just pithy sayings or interesting kind of things, sort of generally whatever. Solomon is the editor, if you will, of Proverbs, the aggregator of Proverbs. Some of them he wrote, many of them he did not. And he says in chapter one, he has accumulated all of this wisdom from the people of Israel walking with God all this time, and he has compiled them into this beautiful set of proverbs to give us understanding. And so, what a proverb is, it reflects God's accumulated insight from generation after generation of his people that guide us in how to walk with him. So they have walked with him all these years, they've passed down and captured this knowledge, and now Solomon has put it together for us. So now let's talk about what that looks like in our personal financial life. Okay? Here you are in Proverbs chapter 3, and it's pretty fascinating in chapter 3. Um, so we're gonna talk about valuing these insights. The understanding part we just did, these are what they are. Now, how do we grab them and keep them in our lives? Proverbs chapter 3 is interesting. When he compiles all of these together, most of the book is written for wisdom in the context of personal finances and wealth and financial decisions and all of that. As we skim through these, you're going to see how often he is applying this wisdom, either illustrating it or in the context of our personal finances in life. Okay? Now, what I'm gonna do is read and skim through these verses, and I'm gonna point out character traits in them. I am not gonna spend time preaching through every topic, although most of them could be sermons, right? But what I'm trying to illustrate for you is in these proverbs, if you will put them in your mind, if you will read them and memorize them and work through them, you will see the incredible value in a topic like this, or marriage, or how we talk, or how we develop friendships, or whatever. And I want to show you how these insights can be a part of our perspective and change how we view things and allow God to work in any area of our lives that you study. Now I want you to read with me again. Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding, and all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight. Listen in verse 7. Don't be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones. What he's trying to tell us is, I want to bless you and grow you and help you in this journey. It is a blessing to study these things. I was laughing with the Chaffee folks after the service at our Chaffee campus this morning. Every time I come out and say I have I'm preaching on money or whatever, I can physically watch the whole room go like this. Or y'all go. I mean, it's funny to see that. But statistics tell us that this is one of the most stressful areas of life. People who studies things in every generation have told us it's the number one cause of divorce, it's the number one cause of strife in marriage. Now, there are other causes too, but this is the number one of all that. Read a stat this week. It really doesn't change much through the years. The average American in preparation for a crisis that might happen in their lives has an average of $400 in the bank. That won't even buy one tire on your vehicle. Maybe two. I mean, we're like not prepared for anything. The average person retiring has an average of like $8,000 in the bank. Like, how are you going to retire with that? It's devastating. And so we recoil at this because so many people struggle with it. And yet what God says is, I want this to be so good in your life, it's healing for your body and strengthens your bones. Don't you think we ought to pay attention to God's wisdom? Now look, and let me just kind of run through these traits and get you this idea of how this works. Let's look in verse 9. Here's the first one. Honor the Lord with your possessions. Another translation says wealth. Same thing. And with the first produce of your entire harvest, then your barns will be completely filled, and your vats will overflow with new wine. Clearly, these are farmers in an agrarian economy, and he's putting this teaching in the context of their work life. This is work. And so he's picturing this farmer, and he says, This is your produce from your harvest, and you have barns, which means you have a plan for what you're doing with your crops. And he says, your vats will overflow with new wine. In other words, you're processing wine and grapes and all that kind of stuff. And so this is the picture of work. And in today's world, everything you read in HR journals and everything else, Americans are losing or have lost the value of work. We don't know how to work hard. They're struggling keeping people working and employed. Companies are dragging people out of retirement because they can't get stuff done, because generations of people have not valued or been taught work. And so we've got to learn work. All throughout the book of Proverbs, it talks about work. It's amazing how many verses are about the value and the importance of working hard and working diligently. And so any wealth that we have here, he is put completely in the context of it is flowing out of your work. In the book of Ecclesiastes, which Solomon did write all of that, it says in there that the work of our hands is the gift of God. When Adam was put in the Garden of Eden, the Bible says in Genesis chapter 2 that God put him there and he said, Tend and keep the garden. The word tend is a farming word. Clearly, you think Garden of Eden's perfect. We're just going fishing all day. That's not what they were doing. He was working in the Garden of Eden. It was work. God told them to be fruitful and multiply. That's not just how many kids they have, but it's the work of their hands. It's making everything flourish and grow. In fact, in chapter 3, after Adam has sinned and God is delineating what's going to happen and what's broken because of sin, one of the things most significantly that was broken Adam's life was what? He said, Adam, because you've heeded the voice of your wife and because you've eaten the fruit, you will toil by the sweat of your brow in the dust all the days of your life, and it will produce nothing but thorns and thistles. Our perspective and value and understanding of work was broken and marred by sin. It's incredible the truth of that, and not a lot of time spent talking through that. And when you are struggling with work and all that sort of stuff, the book of Proverbs shapes that perspective of what work means in our lives. Next thing, our worship. Now, again, I'm not going to go into tithing, but I want you to see it is spiritual what we're talking about. And it is God building the life of a believer. So when I do preach about tithing, you can't get mad at me, right? Here's what he says: honor the Lord with your possessions, with the first produce of your harvest, that your barns may be filled and your vats will overflow with line. What he's putting in context there is that God is the Lord of the harvest, and what you have flows from the Lord of harvest blessing it. The skills that you have to work came from God. The context, the open doors, the places where you got, they come from the Lord. The fruit of your hands comes from the Lord. The harvest comes from the Lord. And when you are tithing, when you are worshiping him with the first fruits, with the first produce, he's saying, listen, when you harvest, you give off the top of that harvest to the Lord because you're thanking the Lord for what he's done for you. It is changing your perspective so that you view your finances from a spiritual perspective. It is literally the application of trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, and all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. That's how that happens. That's how it's built. Verse 3, the Father's love. Look what he says next. Do not despise the Lord's instruction, my son, and do not loathe his discipline. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, just as the father disciplines the son in whom he delights. Now we have some areas in our life, they're just sort of there, God disciplines, and we're kind of like, yeah, okay, I'm sorry. We'll keep working at it. But if he starts messing with our money, like we get uptight about that, right? Don't change my perspective. Don't tell me I have to do that. I want to do this. Don't do that, Greg. But I want that. Don't. And we get mad. We get frustrated in this area of our life. Why? Because it deals with every part of what we do. And the Bible says, listen, you listen to the Father, and when He changes your perspective, when He makes you do something else. You go, um, as Dave Ramsey would say, do something wrong. You pay stupid tax for a bad decision. And you ask the Lord to just wipe it out. And he doesn't wipe it out. What is he doing? He's taking you to school. He's going to make you pay off that financial mistake so that you don't do it again. And he's doing that because he loves us. We teach our children because we love them. We invest in our children. We want them to flourish. We want life to go. And he's giving us that perspective. When God disciplines you or changes some area in your life in this world, he's doing it because he wants you to walk with him. And what did he say? On that straight and narrow, he says, This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones. And so when he changes some area of our life, our perspective should be, Lord, here it is. What do you want me to do with that? I don't really want to do that. Okay, Jesus died for me. Loves me, you love me, okay. I'm gonna place my trust in you and let you fix that area of my life. We're supposed to love him. Look what he says next. Verse, the next one, four. Look what he says in verse 13. Happy is a man who finds wisdom and acquires understanding, for she, that's that word he's using, that picture of wisdom, for she is more profitable than silver, and her revenue is better than gold. Now I want you to look at two words there. Happy is a man who what? Say it with me, finds wisdom. And who what acquires understanding? You have to apply yourself to learn. You cannot live the Christian life by enjoying the fellowship of nice, sweet, happy people, jotting down a note, cool fact to take with you sometime on three Sunday mornings a month, and then go about your life. You're not gonna grow to be like Jesus that way. I'm sorry if that's how you want to do the Christian life, but that's not how it works, and that's not what you signed up for when you gave your life to Jesus. You gave your life to Jesus so that you could trust him and acknowledge him in all your ways, and that means there's new stuff that you don't know how it works, that you've got to learn from him how it works, and that means you have to go find and acquire knowledge. That is a search that is work. One of the reasons we're doing this chronological Bible study is we're collectively helping each other maintain that discipline of daily Bible study, and we're trying to learn more about God's word. Christians in modern Christian life in America, we've got to get serious about studying God's word and it changing how we view every aspect of our life. You don't have the freedom to play at this. I mean, he is commanding that blessing, happy or blessings, comes from the person who searches and finds it, who acquires it. And that's true in every area of life, but it's also true in finances. Now, listen, people go, yeah, man, I studied stock market all the time, Pastor Greg. I'm good at that. I learned this and I got this and draw the kind. That's not what he's talking about. Now you got to learn how that works. But there's a whole lot of lost people who are greedy as all get out, who are going making all kinds of money on the stock market. That's not biblical wisdom. There's also all kinds of Christians who were just bouncing around over here and we're all spiritual. My pastor, where I grew up, used to say, some people are so spiritually minded they're no earthly good. And they're just bumbling around and their money's a mess all the time, but they're happy because they're happy in Jesus. That is not what he says either. It is the combination of I'm going to learn how this works, because if the book of Proverbs addresses it in almost every single chapter, it must be important, and there must be a lot to learn. And so I'm going to go learn how this works, and I'm going to learn what a Roth IRA is, and I'm going to learn how to shape my taxes, and I'm going to learn how to invest in that. I'm going to learn how to save, but I'm going to take that knowledge and I'm going to apply it through godly wisdom and understanding that I have acquired. And you need to be doing both. You need to be doing both. I can preach there, but I'm not going to. Number five, a correct view of wants and desires. Verse 15. Look what he says. She, wisdom, is more precious than jewels. Nothing you desire can equal her. And so it is put in this choice, this comparison to each other, godly wisdom and what you desire. And he says, nothing that you desire, nothing that you want is as good as this godly wisdom. Now we all know we want stuff. Our capacity to want stuff is unlimited. We're all trying to buy stuff. Some of you are retail therapists, and that's how you get happy. Some of you are keeping up with the Joneses. Some of you don't care what the Joneses are, you just like stuff and you like having fun with it, and you just want it. Some of you are gadget people, and every new gadget that comes out, you just love that. Those of you who are golfers in the room can relate to this, okay? I like to play golf. Here's what golfers are famous for and are ridiculed for, but golf companies are making millions and millions and millions of dollars on. You go to the golf course and you're put in a foursome, and a guy stands up on the first T and he has a brand new $650 driver, and he only bought the $650 one because he's trying to tell his wife how frugal he is. And he slices it off and hits a tree and he gets mad at the new driver and he says, you know, this driver, like this is just, I gotta go get another one. And he sells his $650 driver to play it against Sam for $75, and then he goes and buys another one. And if you don't believe I'm telling you the truth, either go play golf or go to play it against Sam and look at the entire store covered in expensive golf clubs that don't even have grass stains on them. That's what happens. Why are we doing that? Number one, we're doing that because we can. And number two, we're doing that because our wants are temptations that we have not learned how to fight. And so what the Bible says here is that godly wisdom that shapes how we do things is better than the list of desires or wants that we could create in our lives. And when you have a biblical view of life and you're trying to apply these principles in your life and follow what God's doing, you are able to fight temptation and deal with that. You're able to learn things like, well, what I really like is this. And I'm wasting all this money on this other stuff. I'm wasting my money driving through getting $4 cups of coffee, $5 cups of coffee when I really want to do this. I got a coffee pot at home. I'm not not gonna coffee. I love to go with coffee, right? Not negative, but I'm saying we got to learn to apply where do we want it to go and where do we not. And we all have emotional temptations. We all have. Money, I tell people this all the time when we're counseling in this area, money's about emotions. All right, let me just do a test here. Two plus two is six minus four equals. Okay, now you are all qualified to balance your checkbook. It's just math. Why do we have so much trouble? Because of emotions. Emotions affect everything. I am driving over here on my way to church, and it is a 21-minute drive almost every single week. It's the same drive. And I go up Mazard from our campus, I turn left on zero, I go from zero to Old Greenwood because green because zero has like only one red light, and it's 50 miles an hour, 5-0. This morning I'm perfectly on time. If I time my 21 minutes, I'm not gonna be late. Everything's gonna be fine, and I pull on to zero and I get behind a person in the right lane, he's going 35. And some doofus goes and pulls past me in the left lane and stops at 37 miles an hour, and they're blocking the road on a 50 mile an hour street, then I gotta get to church. What's wrong with these people? And I'm not even worried about the time. Y'all don't ever have to worry about it. Matt and Jacob and I, we all got a plan. If I'm five minutes late, no big deal. We got a plan. So it's not the fact that I'm stressed about the time, it's just the fact that two people are blocking my way. We all have emotions, right? How do you shape those desires in a way they move in a godly fashion? God's wisdom. If I was going to preach, right here's the one I'd preach on, number six. Long-term thinking. Verses 16. Look at what it says. Long life is in her right hand. Right hand is in her hand of power, long life. In her left hand, riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant, all her paths are peaceful. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her and those who hold on to her. Not grab her once, but hold on to her. And we have all got to develop a long-term picture of life for our finances. Everybody lives on what they make, all this, and blow it out, and then we're not having any money, and the tires blow out, and I got to get that, and $400 is not enough, so I just get another credit card, and you do that for a few years, and you're deep in trouble. When you're 22, you look down the road, you know you're gonna buy 47 sets of tires by the time you retire. You're gonna buy 10 cars, you're gonna have kids, you're gonna have some financial deals, you know it's all coming, and so you've got to look down the road and realize there's a long life. And you have to plan for the future. How in the world do you get an American country that has $8,000 in the bank when it's time to retire? Didn't you know it was gonna come? Like, is retirement a surprise? No. We live on what we make and all that kind of stuff, and we don't think about any kind of long-term planning for anything. And it's wrong. The Bible says, in the hand of strength is a long life. Who holds on to that tree of life? Also, we've got to think even longer than retirement. We've got to think eternity. We should be investing as much as we possibly can, not just in retirement, but in eternity. Jesus said that we are to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Where moth, rust, decay can destroy them. And we should be thinking and planning our way that way. We should be investing in the future. And not enough people get that perspective of thinking longer than tomorrow. Testimony. This one is pretty incredible. I wish I had time for it, but I told you I'm not preaching all of them, although I'm getting bogged down in that. Number seven, testimony. Look what he says. Long life is in your right hand. In your left hand, it's the hand of receiving our riches and honor. I want to just think about that honor for a minute. If you're managing your finances, if you're doing these things, you're acquiring knowledge and you're living by knowledge and you're allowing God to discipline you and you're thinking about the future, what's going to happen is you're going to receive honor for that. Dave Ramsey talks about this. He talks about everyone should have a stewardship testimony. It is an incredibly powerful thing in life to be able to tell people how God has provided. There are new Christians that don't tithe or they raised the families that know how to do that. There are people who get themselves in financial trouble, and we have all these people that know how to do this. What happens is I preach a sermon like this, and the ones that get it, they all come up afterwards and they tell me about it. Well, I already know about it. Tell your Sunday school class about it. Stand up in your class and give a testimony of stewardship. Like, just go get with some of your buddies, and y'all all have this deal, and say, okay, over the next six weeks, we're going to tell the teacher to sit down for five minutes, and every one of us is going to give a testimony about the provision of God, about the wisdom of Proverbs applied in our lives. You have no idea how many people you teach or will train or grow in that. My father, that's why half of what we do, my father understood that before that was a phrase. He and mom were raised in South Mississippi, and my dad's family went bankrupt when he was in college. My father died, my grandfather died, he was a sole breadwinner. My dad was in college, they lost everything. My grandmother had to go back to college at 45 to figure out how to make a living to pay for teenagers at home. And my dad talks about that. He and mom got married, and her family didn't have a lot. They were just normal, good old South Mississippi blue-collar folks. I mean, they were fine, but they, you know, and so here they go, they start, and my dad just decided I'm gonna grip my teeth and I'm gonna read the Bible, I'm gonna do what the Bible says. And over the course of his life, because of work, became highly successful. And we had a good life. I mean, we weren't like super rich or anything. That's not what I'm trying to say. But what I'm trying to say is we went, he went from their family lost everything to our family did not have to worry about losing everything because all he did was say, without testimony, he was 19 when his dad died. He had nobody to teach him that. He grabbed the word of God, he acquired understanding, he searched for wisdom and got it from God's word, and because of that, life worked in our home. And my dad told us that over and over and over. And I want you to know I've told my kids that over and over and over. And my grandkids, when they get older, I'm gonna tell them over and over and over. Because God gives that honor to share with others that draw them back to Him. And you should have a testimony of God's provision in your life. Number eight. Number eight, peace and quality of life. Listen to this one, Roy. This changed your life. How many of us, don't raise your hand, because all of us have been there, how many of you all sleep over money issues, right? I mean, how the stress of that. Listen to what the Bible says. Her ways, that godly wisdom, are pleasant and all her paths, peaceful. How many marriages would be saved? If before they walked the aisle, they took a Dave Ramsey class and learned his teaching of Proverbs, and they committed to do this as a family, and they followed God's word and acquired wisdom. How many marriages would be saved? Because all of a sudden now the ways were peaceful instead of the world's cratering under financial pressures. Listen to this verse. When you lie down, you will not be afraid. You will lie down and your sleep will be pleasant. That's just power. And that is God's promise for us when we're acquiring that biblical wisdom. Number eight, budgeting and accountability. I say budgeting and everybody goes, Oh God. There he goes again. We hate that word. Why do we hate that word? Why do we hate that world? Because we feel like somebody went when they told me I had to live on a budget. When we don't understand what it does, it is just that applied knowledge and it keeps us on track. Look at what the Bible says in verse 21. Maintain sound wisdom. You can acquire it and then you can run off and do something stupid. Maintain sound wisdom and discretion. My son, do not lose sight of them. They will be life for you and a dormant for your neck. Then you will go safely on your way and your foot will not stumble. Is that not what a budget is? Is that not developing and applying the wisdom? Is that not the biblical wisdom is greater than what we might desire? And I'm walking through the mall or I'm driving past the car lot and I see that thing and it tugs at me. And it is my budget and structure that keeps me from making a decision to stumble. Does that make sense? It's incredible. How are you gonna maintain that wisdom? How are you gonna apply it in your life? How are you gonna stay on track with that? You have to have a financial accountability system. I use this illustration over there. I got a minute to do it here. How many of you heard of the envelope system? Okay, we gotta like I have a whole sermon on this right here. Thank y'all. I got several of you. That's good. We took Dave Ramsey, especially old school Dave Ramsey, he'd tell you, here's what he'd tell you about budget. Make every dollar behave. Or he'd say, name every dollar, right? And so you do all that, and then the envelope system is simply you take your budget, and then you get enough cash and enough envelopes that you put every category of your budget on the front of an envelope and you carry these envelopes around, you pay cash. Did you know that people still take cash? You know, this kind of grows like when we were charging stuff all the time and we were debiting all stuff, but now all of a sudden they're starting to pay you two and a half, three and a half percent. They're charging you that on top of the price to use your debit card. Well, foam your nose at them and make them take your cash. Did you know there's a study that McDonald's and there are other studies like this, when they instituted the card reader thing, they ate the two and a half percent when it started. And you know why? Because the average point of sale purchase grew three times because we're doing that. Why? Because we don't feel the expense of that. Like that, it doesn't cost me anything. Janet's been in my wallet again. Where'd my cash go? How many of you know what happens when you break a 20? It's gone, right? Cash works, right? And so when we were young, we were starting out in life, we did the envelope system. And so Janet had these plastic two of these plastic coupon things, and one was blue and one was red, and there were certain ones in one and certain the other, and we carried those around, and she didn't have a wallet. She had that, and we pulled out cash, we did all that. She had this three by five card that had all the denominations I need. This mean twenties, and this mean tens, this mean fives, this mean ones. And so we would do that. She'd have to go to the bank, she drive through the teller, hand them the three by five card the first time or two. Thought she's crazy. Like, what do you, you know? She'd get all her cash, count it, put it all in there, and we'd do that. When our kids got old enough, we'd have them get the 10 out and give it to somebody, start teaching them how to do that, right? All of a sudden, life starts working. God calls us to the ministry, and I take a 40% pay cut to go into the ministry for my secular career. And you know what? It worked just fine. You know why? Because God bless us with that wisdom. We're doing this thing, and she comes in when I come home from work one day and she tells me, hey, you're not gonna believe what happened. I drove through the teller deal, and the lady said, Ma'am, you've been doing that for weeks. Do you mind if I ask you why you're handing me this three by five car one lace things on it? She said, I'll be glad to tell you. And she teaches of the envelope system right there in the drive-thru of the bank. She drives through two weeks later, and the lady gets all excited and says, Oh, you're back, you're back, you got your card. Would you wait right here for just a second? And she goes and leaves the window, and the next thing you know, Janet, she's coming back and she's got another teller, and she said, Will you teach her what you taught me? You know why? Because maintaining sound, discipline, and discretion is a struggle for people. And when you teach them biblical wisdom how to do that, they get excited about it and they tell other people about it. And we got a chance to invite them to church. Why? Honoring your left hand, a testimony of what God's doing. Man, I'm telling you, we need to spend time in Proverbs number 10. Crisis preparation. Now, this is going to ministry, some of you, right here. So I just want you to pay attention right here. If we are living the way God says, we're just building this discipline or working through that, listen, stuff is gonna happen. Stuff is always gonna happen. Listen to what the Bible says. Verse 25. Don't fear sudden danger or the ruin of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from a snare. Listen, financial crises are going to happen in every life. The question is, what are we gonna do in the middle of it? And what the Bible says here is when we have this biblical wisdom and all of that, two things happen. First of all, we build a trust in the Lord and his provision. When I face this crisis, I realize because God has provided in these other ways and he's done this in my life, he is going to be here in the middle of this. When sudden terror strikes, the Lord will be your confidence. In fact, he even says, Don't fear when it happens. He doesn't say it's not going to happen, he says you don't have to fear it happening. Because it will, but you've already built this confidence in the Lord. And part of the confidence in the Lord is you don't freak out because you don't have to, because God has already taught you what to do with your money and given you a biblical perspective of that, and you have a long view and you have wisdom and you have an accountability process where your desires don't take over, and instead biblical wisdom does, and you're able to handle it when it happens because of what God has taught you. Janet and I now have a running thing in our life as it happens. Anytime we get a windfall, it can be $100, it can be a gift, you know, for doing a wedding or some kind of thing, whatever it is, doesn't matter. We get a refund we didn't expect from something, whatever it is, money shows up. We have learned, and we know that God provides. And so here's what we've learned: God loves us, He blesses us, He just sent us $200 in the bank. Something is about to break that's gonna cost $200. Don't spend it. God sent it to us to take care of us. And at this point, we know that because it happened so many times, and we have worshiped Him and been grateful for that. And so we're thank you, Lord, and it shows up. We're like, thank you, Lord, for preparing us ahead of time. And then we're not fearing it because we know God already took care of it. That incredible? It'll change your life if you don't have to walk in fear of these moments. And when you've trusted the Lord and He's given you wisdom, again He says in verse 24, when you lie down, you will not be afraid. And your sleep will be pleasant. God wants to take care of us and to guide us and to build our confidence and trust in Him. And it is a blessing, it says, over and over and over and over what God is trying to do in our lives. And then as He does this and we listen and we're transformed, number 11. Number 11, generosity. Bible says in verse 27, this. When it is in your power, do not withhold good from the one to whom it belongs. Don't say to your neighbor, go away, come back later, I'll give it tomorrow when it is already there with you to give. If we're being transformed in the image of Jesus, the Bible says Jesus went about doing good. When you give someone a cold water in my name, when you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me. Just being generous, gracious, is a reflection of the generous heart of Jesus. Nobody gives in the way that God gives. For God so loved the world he gave his only Son. That whosoever believes in him will never perish, but have everlasting life. 1 John chapter 2 says this, not that we loved him, but he first loved us. Don't withhold from your neighbor when you already have it and tell them to come back tomorrow. No. Not that we loved him, but he first loved us and gave his son to be the payment for our sin. You see, to be transformed in the image of Jesus is to be generous. It's to touch people's lives, it's to impact them. You know, it's incredible how many ways to do that. You know, you see a young family saying grace over their meal in a restaurant, and you surreptitiously buy their lunch and tell the waiter to tell them, or the whoever the server is, hey, just tell them they saw you praying. Thank you for doing that. Just being generous, helping people, taking care of folks. It's a Christian virtue that we do, but it is because we reflect the heart of God who gave his only begotten Son for us to pay the price for our sins. Don't you bow your heads and we close? Listen, I'm just trying to get you to get a hunger for Proverbs and a hunger for the word and see how it changes your life. But that change begins with the very first decision you make to trust in the Lord, and that happens when you give your life to Jesus to be your Savior. Bible says, how we give our lives to Jesus. If we will confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart God raised him from the dead, we'll be saved. Proverbs 3.5, trust in the Lord with all your heart. We trust that Jesus walked out of heaven, lived a sinless life. We believe and trust that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again. It says, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him. In all your ways, you follow Him. You confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. You come and trust that He stepped out of heaven, He died on the cross for you and rose again to offer you salvation. And you come and you take your life and you acknowledge that you are Lord. I confess with my mouth is Lord, and everything in my life I've turned over to you. And now I'm going to trust you and learn how to follow you and do it your way in my life. That's what it means to be saved. But if you'll do that, as Jesus said, blessing, adornment, honor, help you walk in the way, keep your foot from stumbling, peaceful paths. All that is the blessing of trusting in Jesus. And if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, hopefully what today did was give you a picture of what life is when you walk with Jesus. We'll have ministers at the head of our aisles in a moment. I'm going to pray. God's people are going to stand and sing a testimony that they believe God's word and what we've talked about. And if you need Jesus, I want to invite you to come. If you want to be baptized, listen, it's an act of obedience. Acknowledge the Lord and come forward for baptism. And let's do that act of obedience. If you need a church home, come and be a part. Come grow with us. We're all learning, we're all studying together. Come and learn. Come and grow. Lord, we thank you for today. And I thank you for your word. And I pray, Father, that whatever I messed up or whatever, that the Holy Spirit will putty those cracks and apply it to people's lives. Your word is living and powerful and will speak to hearts. If someone needs to be saved, they'll come. Brothers and sisters who are struggling with different things or have walked away from their quiet time or just gotten out of the habit, you'll stir in them a heart for the word. Someone looking for a church home, they'll come, grow with us, serve with us. Lord, do your work now and through us. In Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus. Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you. Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can. Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.