← ArchiveSunday, July 19, 2015DateJuly 19, 2015Speaker—TextProverbs 3Passages in this sermonProverbs 30:23Proverbs 3:50:52Ephesians 26:22TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00It about that, isn't she? Amen. Turn with me in your Bibles if you brought them with you. I hope you did. Proverbs chapter 3. Very familiar text today. Many of you have studied this passage. Many of you have read this passage.0:28You've committed most of it to memory. But Proverbs chapter 3 will be our text today. Proverbs chapter 3, beginning with the first verse. Now, 5 and 6 is that familiar text. That's the one that when we have testimonial services or in days gone by when we would have those type of things where, hey, somebody got a word, they'll stand up and quote their favorite verse of Scripture. And Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 and 6 will be at least one of them will be, someone will jump up and say that will be their favorite verse.0:58But I want us to look in context today, the entire first 12 verses of Proverbs chapter 3. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length and days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Do not let kindness or truth leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you'll find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man. Trust the Lord with all your heart.1:28Do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways. Acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. For it will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce. Now, the New English, the English Standard Version says it just a little bit differently. And I love the way it says that particular verse.1:56Honor the Lord with your wealth and from the first fruits. The first fruits. The first fruits of all your produce. Pick it up in verse 10. New American Standard goes on to say, So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats overflow with new wine. My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe its reproof. For whom the Lord loves, he reproves even as the Father, the Son, in whom he delights.2:23Let's pray. Father, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight today. Lord, we love you. We praise you. We thank you for what you're about to do in our midst today. God, do your work in this place. I pray, Father, as we unpack your word today that we'll walk away from this place completely different than when we came. God, I ask you that you will take our musical worship and be a blessing unto your heart today.2:50You are the audience of one today. And, God, we ask you right now that as we unpack your word that you speak precisely through the word today. And, Father, change our lives in this room today that we will get a greater understanding that trusting God begins with our faith in you first. Trusting you for every detail of our life begins with our faith in you and you alone.3:14We love you. We thank you for what you're about to do in our midst today. And we give you all the praise and all the glory and all the honor. In Jesus' name we pray. And the church said, amen. The book of Proverbs, one of the greatest books in all of the Old Testament, the book of Proverbs, is known as the book of wisdom by many. It's known by the book of wisdom from the very beginning. Most of the writing of the Proverbs has been credited to the pen of Solomon.3:42And God had given Solomon the wisdom to rule his people. Proverbs is an actual book of instructions on how to live, a life pleasing to God, and how to be more peaceful with all mankind. That's what the book of Proverbs is. It's an instructional manual of how to live. It's a wonderful book for all ages. I challenge you, there's 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs, and some of you are doing this already because you've told me you have.4:09Some of you are reading a proverb a day. You're reading a chapter a day. I challenge you to start with that. Start reading a chapter a day, along with a psalm each day, along with your other readings that you might have. It will challenge your life. The purpose of this book is for moral instruction on everyday living. The main topic of the book of Proverbs is fear of the Lord.4:38Not terrified of the Lord, but fear of the Lord. And it's mentioned 14 times throughout this book. Proverbs, Solomon's instructions were very good. He would have been better off to heed his own instructions, though, right? Because Solomon fell, he strayed from his own teachings. A proverb, actually, quote-unquote a proverb, is a wise saying. It's similar, kind of parallels with a parable.5:07In fact, it has a hidden message for us. So we have to dig through that proverb, reading through. That's why I challenge you not to just read one or two verses, but read an entire chapter a day. Because there's always a message in that. I don't want to preach the entire chapter of chapter 3. I want us to unpack the first 12 verses. In the lesson in chapter 3, the study of the book leads to wisdom.5:32It's commented all the way through the entire chapter. Solomon's instructions that wisdom is rooted in sound teaching, verses 1 through 4. In rest in trusting in God, verses 5 and 6, obviously. And the rewards for that action is found in verses 7 through 12. So with that kind of encapsule our lives, as a launch point, I want to give you the message true today.6:00To have faith that will not fail. Now, here's what happens with us. Many of us in this room, we've come to Christ by faith. We did that. We know that. I'm going to assume that most of us in this room are saved by His grace. And we did that by faith. Ephesians chapter 2. For by grace you've been saved through faith in Jesus Christ, right? So when we came to faith in Christ, we came to faith in Christ because the wooing of the Holy Spirit came into our lives.6:27But some of us, our faith begins to fail over time. To have a faith that will not fail, we must have a trusting faith. Meaning that God will take us through every scenario of life. Here's what happens. And it happens in youth ministry. It happens in children's ministry. And it happens with adults as well. What happens is we come to faith in Christ and then we go through a crisis.6:53And our faith begins to dwindle some. It diminishes some. Our faith in trusting Christ for salvation never, if we're truly saved by His grace, we never just say, well, I just lost my salvation. No, no, no, no. What happens is we go through a crisis of belief or we go through a crisis time in our life. And what happens is our faith begins to diminish a little bit. To have a true Christian type faith that never fails, we got to get off the Christian killer loot cycle of life.7:21Trusting faith for all the details of our life. Kind of puts it in this perspective. Several years ago when Seth was a little bit tight, I had an opportunity to speak at a First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale, a big church down in South Florida. They asked me to be their camp pastor for their week at camp. I said, sure, I'll be happy to do that. Where are you having camp?7:50And I thought, well, it'd be around there on the beach. They said, well, we're going to outside of Orlando. I said, wow, that sounds like a big lake there. So it's a big encampment ground. We'd like for you to be our camp pastor. I said, great. I said, I'll be happy to do that. Well, I started thinking about it. I had some weeks, had a few days prior to getting to the camp, and I had a few days at the end of the camp that I could spend some extra vacation time. So I decided to take our family, the entire family, on this particular time. And Seth was a little guy. I think he was in like elementary school or something of that nature.8:19And so we went down, and so we decided that we would do some time in Orlando because there's some fairly decent amusement parks down there. And so we decided we'd go to the Mouse House for a few days. Now, if you hadn't been to the Mouse House in July, you should try that because you will appreciate your salvation experience. You'll appreciate that you are not going to spend all of eternity in that type of heat. I'm telling you, we went to the Mouse House, and it was boiling hot.8:47And he was up early wanting to go to the amusement park, and we did. And so we went to this particular ride, and I don't know what happened. I don't know. Maybe Deb dropped Seth on his head or something when he was a child. But the kid loves high-intensity, high-motivating, high-intensity type rides. He loves them. I mean, he loves it. The scarier, the better. He wants to do the tower that drops.9:16He wanted to do it all. And I'm like going, really, you really, this is, you probably really don't want to do that. Oh, yeah, Dad, we're going to do it. So we're standing in line for everyone. And Deb's just going, y'all go ahead, have fun, you know. She doesn't ride nothing. She is boring. By the way, if I want her to know, I just called her bored, and I'll tell her myself. But she didn't want to do that, so we had to ride this. And so, Stuart, we're standing in line of this particular ride. It's called Space Mountain. Maybe you've ridden that one. I'm telling you, I don't know that I had enough insurance to be on this thing.9:45I'm just telling you right now, because it is intense. Not only is it a high-speed roller coaster, it's in pitch dark. I mean, it's freaky. I mean, we get into this thing, and they strap us in, and then this bar comes slamming down over, and I'm going like, oh, my goodness. And the little girl that's getting us all in there, you know, she's got a Ph.D. in this stuff or something. I don't know. She says, sir, you might want to take that camera that's hanging around your neck.10:12Yeah, I look like one of those Chinese guys with those big cameras, you know. She said, you might want to take that off and hold on to it, because this kind of moves around a little bit. I said, oh, okay, cool. She said, and oh, by the way, you might want to turn that ball cap around or take it off. I said, ah, yeah, what's she talking about? It's not going to be that fast. So I pulled my hat back down. I took the camera off. Actually, I didn't take it off right then, because we're sitting, and Seth is sitting in front of me.10:40He looks back. He said, Dad, this is going to be awesome. And I'm sitting there thinking, boy, I love you, but if I can get off this thing, I promise you we won't get back on it again, right? And so we go, and it's pretty cool. We're going around. Oh, this is no big deal. I'm thinking the next song I hear is Small World After All. You know what's going to start coming on board? Not on Space Mountain. And all of a sudden, we take a big, huge dive, and we start going around. And about five seconds later, that camera thing is around my neck.11:05My hat's gone, and I'm hanging on, and I'm calling, Jesus, I love you. Come get me, right? It's going all over the place. And I started thinking about that this morning. I'm never getting on Space Mountain ever again in my life. There's not enough money printed in this country for me to get on that. I started thinking about that as soon as we got off of it, Brad.11:31I was like, I was shaking all over, and Seth saying, let's do it again. Let's do it again. Let's do it again. I said, boy, you are insane. We're not doing this again. And I started thinking about why did he want to do it? Because he liked all the jerking and the up and down. You see, that's what happens. We get on this Christian killer loop cycle. It's fun while it's up here, but then it's no fun when it's down here. We get on this thing, and it's jerking us around.12:01We're having a big time. And then when we get, it's down here in the life. Well, folks, trusting God is when we've got to trust him when we're down here in the pits, when it's not as fun, when it's not the space mountains of the world. That's what he is giving us in these 12 verses here today. How do we have the faith that will not fail us? How do we have that trust and faith? We've got to get off the space mountain rides of life and get in on a steady, trusting faith with every minute detail of our lives.12:27We trust him for our salvation, but then we say, you know, Lord, we're not certain we're going to trust you with my kids. Lord, I'm not certain to trust you with my job. I'm not real certain I'm going to trust you with my finances. You can really tell a person how much they really trust God if we could look in your checkbook.12:52Most people trust God for just a little bit. They've got their fire insurance. They're saved by his grace, and they're thrilled to death about that. So why should I trust you with every aspect of my life? Folks, I'm going to tell you something. You'll never have total peace with God unless you begin to trust him with every aspect of your life. So I want to give you five principles quickly today to help you maybe unpack these verses that will help you get off that Christian killer loop cycle13:18and begin to trust God with every minute detail of your life. The first principle is this. It will establish total peace with God. When you're looking at these words, Solomon writes, My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. For lengthened days and years of life and peace they will add to you.13:46It will establish total peace with God. Not only will it establish total peace with God, but it will establish total peace with mankind. It will establish total peace with everybody that you encounter. And it will also establish total peace within your own personal life. You'll get off of that up and down, that up and down roller coaster type Ferris wheel. It will establish total peace with God's commandments. It will establish total peace with God's commandments. God's commandments are not his suggestions.14:15His commandments means he means what he says. So his commandments are not saying, oh, by the way, church, why don't you act this way? Why don't you live this way? It says, my son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandment. For lengthened days and years of life and peace they will add to you. So it will establish total peace with God. It will establish total peace with mankind.14:45It will establish total peace with your own personal life. Number two, it will establish you in building successful relationships. Now, some of you have got some really cool relationships. You've got some real good friends and you're thrilled to death about that. But some of us really need to work on our relationships. Some of us need to work on our relationships with our kids. Now I'm kind of getting in your business, right? Some of us need to work on our relationship with our spouses. Some of us need to work on our relationship with our fellow church brothers and sisters.15:16Amen? You see, the reason why I believe that the world does not want what we have is because they see what we have. They see what we're about. I love what Rick Warren says. The reason why most people won't come to Christianity is because they've never met a Christian. And the other reason that they won't come to Christianity is because they've met one. Some of us need to work on our relationships. We need to be more successful in building successful relationships.15:41Pick it up in verse 3. Do not let kindness or truth leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart so you'll find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man. You see, it establishes total peace with God. It establishes us in building successful relationship. Mercy shall obtain mercy. Truth cannot be underestimated.16:10It's beyond our comprehension. Folks, let me tell you something. It's beyond our compromise as well. The truth in God's word. It is the greatest of character in building our relationships. When we are honest with people and people are honest with us, we can build those successful relationships. George H. Bush, the former president, one of the great presidents in our lineage of presidents. He made this statement one time.16:38We need a more kinder and gentler nation. It riveted into my soul. Folks, we have some really needs of the gospel being presented in our nation today. Amen. We need to say we are Christ followers and we need to live like Christ followers so it builds successful relationships. It will establish us in building a total peace with God, mankind, and ourselves. The third principle, it will help us build within us intelligence for daily living.17:06Now, I just insulted some of you, didn't I? I didn't mean to because when I wrote that particular principle, it was to me as well, Now, students, I want to pick on you just for a second because I love you, but we need to realize that there are some prerequisites for dating. By the way, parents, you say, well, my kid's not going to date. Well, you probably dated. By the way, I've never done, Brad, have you ever done a wedding where they just absolutely17:35just showed up and let's get married? I mean, there was some kind of relationship, courtship, dating period right there. So, I honestly believe that dating is a prerequisite for marriage. Every dating partner, gathering here close, students, every dating partner is a potential marriage partner. I saw some of you got a little throw up right there in your throat right there.18:05I know. Some of you went, right? Every date, and I'm telling you, some of the wives are looking at their husbands right now. I said, I wish he'd have said this 30 years ago. Amen? Every dating partner is a potential marriage partner. So, we need to really understand that we need to get off of this idea that dating is just for fun. Let me tell you something. Now, I'm not against dating, but date with a purpose.18:32Amen? And all the parents should have said, hallelujah to that. Dating is okay, but we've got to use intelligence when we're dating. Three things. This is free. Only date Christians. That was weak. Only date Christians. If you think, well, I had this kid come up to youth camp one time, and he said, I'm dating19:01this guy. He's not a believer, but that's okay. I'm going to change him. I wanted to, I said, come here. I'm going to call your dad, because he'll want me to spank you right here. You're not going to change him. The Holy Spirit can change him. You can be a catalyst in that, but dating him to change him, that's not going to happen. Date only Christians. Here's another one. Date only the opposite sex.19:31Thank you. The hot button of the century right now, because the scripture is quite clear about that. Same-sex marriage and same-sex dating is not of God. It is an abomination to the word of God and to the New Testament church of God. My name is Dan Moran. You can receive, I can receive any emails you want to send me at dan at danmoran.org.20:01That is my position. I'm not necessarily certain, but I think it's the position of Bethel Baptist Church as well. But it is my position that the word of God is quite clear that we are to date and marry the same sex. Opposite sex. I wanted to see if you were listening. Can you cut that out of the tape up there?20:32He just went, it's gone. Did I say that? Let me say it more firmly. The Bible is quite clear. You are only to date those of the opposite sex. When we're trusting God for every aspect of our lives, look what the word of God says in verse 5.20:56Trust the Lord with a portion of your heart. It says, trust the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. We need to be smart enough, students, to realize we're not as smart as we think we are. We need to trust God for that.21:28Every aspect of our lives. I know some of you are going to walk away and say, well, I'm never going to date again. Boy, pastor's going to get all over me. No, I didn't say you couldn't date. But you need to date Christ followers. Not guys who say they are, or girls who say they are. But a clear evidence of that person who walks with God. Let me give you a nice little thing that I think you should do this. I don't know why, but I just think it would be cool. If you hit your head and you say yes to one of these knucklehead boys, girls.21:59I'm talking to the ladies right now. And they say, I'd like to take you out. We're going to Burger King, and we're going to have a great meal, and it's going to be awesome. And they're going to spend all this money on you. And they're going to go to the dollar movie, and it's going to be wonderful. I challenge you, take your Bible with you. Wow, that was weird. Y'all got weirded out on me over there, right?22:28And just kind of, don't even, you don't have to open it. You don't have to open it. Just take it and just lay it right between you and him. And say, if you want to mess with me, climb over Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to get to me. Right? And if he is stupid enough to do that, just take that thing and just right upside the head with it. Amen? Maybe he'll wake up.22:59You won't have to do that if you're dating Christ followers. Brad preaches this stuff to our kids all the time. And we need to constantly reiterate that and affirm and reaffirm that from the home level as well. God never chooses a man or a woman because based on their talents or their training, he chooses him because we rely on his incredible, undeniable power that is indwelled in our lives.23:23Trust the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. It builds you with intelligence for daily living. Number four, it will help you realize your full potential in life. Now, here's where my help happens and prosperity folks come into play.23:51They think, well, we just trust God. Now, everything's going to be hunky-dory. No, no, no, no. There's some work that we have to do as well. Pick it up in verse 6. In all your ways acknowledge him and he may make your path straight. Verse 7, do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce. So, your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats overflow with new wine.24:19A true Christ follower, we cannot rely on our own abilities to make this work. We got to trust the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. A true Christ follower has biblical view of his possessions and will use them to honor God in every aspect of their life. So, I want to circle in here and I want you to gather up close to me today because I want to ask you this question and I want you to answer it quietly in your heart.24:41I don't want you to raise your hand because I don't want to put you on the spot. But let me ask you this. How many of y'all want to be blessed off the gross amount of the income that you earn or the net amount? The Bible says, honor the Lord from your first fruits. That's the gross amount. You say, well, Dan, that's a theological belief I don't believe. Well, find it in Scripture where it's not.25:11Honor your Lord from the first fruits so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats overflow with new wine. Folks, when it says overflow, that means an abundance. When we say, Lord, I'm going to give you my first fruits, I'm going to tithe and give offering above and beyond the call of duty. I'm going to tithe of my first fruits. Why? Because your word says, though, because I also want to receive those blessings that you might bestow upon me.25:37Honor the Lord from your first of your problems. You know, I've been thinking about this for a while. We would never have budget needs. We would never have debt in buildings. We would never have any of that kind of stuff if everybody said, you know what? I'm going to honor the Lord from my first fruits. We would have a problem. Me, Ms. Sharon, and Eric, and Brad, and our staff, and Ms. Jessica, we'd have problems figuring out a way to spend it.26:05Because we'd have an abundance. But some of you have not realized that you are missing the amazing blessings by holding back. And you're being just disobedient. Let's just get real. Amen? You're just disobedient. And I don't know when you're going to get off the Christian killer. Here's what happens. You'll come out. Oh, I got under conviction. I'm going to throw some money in the tithing plate, and I'm going to walk away.26:34And everything, whew, I didn't see off my back for a while. And then you're wondering why things are not going, why things are not moving in the direction that you'd want them to go. Church, believe me, hear my heart. Honor the Lord from your first of all your produce so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats overflow with new wine. Realizing you to realize your full potential, number five, and I'm done. It will discipline you for your own good.27:03It will discipline you for your own good. Now, I could tell you, verse 11 and 12, he could have left this out. I would have been A-OK if he'd have just left 11 and 12 out. But he didn't, so we got to deal with it. It says, my son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe his reproof. That's OK. I get that. But then he goes on to verse 12. For whom the Lord loves, he reproves, even as the Father, the Son, in whom he delights.27:33Church, I want you to gather in here and listen to me closely. Every now and then, we all need a spanking. Every now and then, we need to be disciplined. It was not one of my favorite things to happen at my house. I wasn't fired up about it. I always thought my brother needed more spankings than I did. I know some of you are thinking the same way.28:02You're saying, well, I don't need, you know, it was not one of my favorite things. Now, we didn't beat Seth. We came close a couple of times, but we didn't beat him. But we did not hold back the discipline. We decided early on that Seth would not operate best in the time-out arena. That just didn't work at our house. It didn't get his attention. I mean, we had to—the Bible's quite clear.28:31It says, spare the rod, spoil the child. We were not going to have a spoiled kid. We decided not to have one of those. And so, we decided we were going to activate the discipline routine in his life. And sometimes, it was a little more stricter. Sometimes, it was a little more harsh. Sometimes, it was a spanking and a time-out. Sometimes, it was spanking, time-out, and things taken away. Sometimes, we locked him in the closet for two or three days. No, we did not. Please.29:01Please. We did not. But we got strong with the discipline because we needed to, right? And some of you are sitting here thinking, well, the sermon's been pretty good until now, Dan. We don't believe in discipline from our kids. We know that. We've been around them. Thank you very much. We wish you would take a little more initiative in that area. Amen? So, it says it will be disciplined for your own good. We need it.29:31Dumbest thing my dad ever said. He didn't say many dumb things, but I always thought this was the dumbest thing. And until he died, I told him this. I know this is going to shock y'all, but there was one time that I got in some bad trouble. I got in some trouble. I'm not going to tell you what kind because that's none of your business. But anyway, I was a child, and I just got in some trouble, did some things I wasn't supposed to do. And so, Dad says, you know what? This whole timeout thing had not come out during that time period, and there was no such thing as timeout at the Moran house.29:56It was a whacking and move on, right? And so, Dad says, okay, son, come on. Let's go. Went upstairs, and I heard him as we were walking up the stairs at our house on Lake Street in Trustville. He's taking that belt off. I went, oh, goodness. It's fixing to get real. He leans me over the bed. He said, son, this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you. That is the dumbest statement ever made.30:24So, I just leaned back to him. I said, Dad, how about let me try it out on you first? Here, give me that belt. It did hurt me more than it hurt him, but it did hurt him as well. Church, listen to me. We need a spanking occasionally. We need to be disciplined, and it's for our own good. When Solomon was writing these Proverbs, he was keeping in mind in the 21st century, a church called Bethel that needs some discipline.30:51He was writing it, keeping in mind there's a preacher that's standing in this pulpit that needs some discipline. You see, every one of us need that spanking occasionally to bring us back in line. Every time we spanked Seth, it wasn't long after that O Seth would crawl up in our lap.31:17Now, it's kind of hard when he's 24 crawling up in my lap, but he would always crawl up in our lap because he knew that he had made a wrong choice. He paid the price, but the grace of mom and dad bestowed upon him from that point forward. And you see, after the discipline, God always puts his love and his mercy and his grace in our lives.31:42So, when we trust God to get us off that Christian killer loop cycle, get us off the space mountain ride, he's going to have to do some things. Sometimes to get our attention, he's going to have to discipline some of us. It helps us realize that full potential, infuses the intelligence for daily living, continues to help us build those successful relationships, and we will then indeed have total peace with God, total peace with our fellow brothers and sisters, and total peace within our own life.32:08It begs the question today, what is God pointing at in your life? What is he reaching down from the halls of heaven and pointing at in your life?32:37The second question, are you willing to turn it over to him? Are you willing to get off that cycle and say, God, today I'm just going to trust you with every aspect of my life? Third question, are you willing to continue to let him have control of your life? That means not just portions of it, that means every aspect of your life. To have a faith that will not fail, we must have that trusting faith.33:05A trusting faith is releasing all the details to our heavenly father. Let's pray. For more information, visit www.fema.org.33:25For more information, visit www.fema.org.More sermons on Proverbs →
