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00:00What's up family? Pastor Darius here and super excited about this message you are
00:05about to listen to. Listen to me. You're watching a message that's in a series of
00:10messages that I did on the book of Proverbs which is intended to impart
00:14wisdom to the gali. I need to make wise moves in every season. So this message is
00:21called smart moves. It's a it's a sermon that will hopefully help reorient the
00:28way we make decisions and I'm excited about it and I believe it's going to
00:33impact your life in an incredible way. Here's what I'm asking you to do. If it
00:37helps you in any way, would you just send it to somebody else? That's my only
00:40request. Alright enjoy the message. Take care.
00:43Outro. Alright well we're in a series in the book of Proverbs which is in a
00:50section of the Bible called wisdom literature. It's called I'm too smart for
00:54this. I want to know do they 1145 feel like talking back to the to the preacher
01:00today. I want to read one verse found in Proverbs 12. Here's what Solomon says. He
01:07says this, the way of fools seems right to them but the wise listen to advice.
01:21Everybody come on say it. Say it to me. Don't say it to your neighbor. Say it. Say
01:26it. No say it. Say it for yourself. Say it for yourself. Say in this season of my
01:34life I will only make smart moves. Clap your hands if that's your confession.
01:45Smart moves. Well family you know I like to curate and create axioms because I
01:51believe axioms help us remember truths and so I want to leap into this lesson
01:57with an axiom today that can be captured in the following phrase. It's coming on
02:02the screen and it's on the Change Church app and our website. All of our notes are
02:06there from each lesson at the end of every Sunday. Some decisions have the
02:12potential to produce a season. I should have got an amen right there. And some
02:18seasons have the potential to produce a cycle. Good decisions have the potential
02:26to produce good seasons and good seasons have the potential to produce good
02:30cycles but bad decisions have the potential to produce bad seasons and bad
02:34seasons have the potential to produce bad cycle. Therefore although all seasons
02:40are important all seasons are not equally consequential. There are some
02:46seasons that matter more than others. I call these seasons pregnant seasons.
02:55Some of this some of you are like I'm in one of them right now. Yes a pregnant
03:00season is a season that has the potential to produce seasons. It is a
03:07time in life where decisions are like dominoes that become defining moments
03:16for us and determinants as it relates to our destiny and all throughout scripture
03:23we see examples of this family because when you find yourself listen to this in
03:30a pregnant season, pregnant seasons necessitate smart moves. I'm gonna say
03:38that one more time. Pregnant seasons necessitate smart moves and the
03:44scriptures are inundated with examples of people who make smart moves in
03:49pregnant seasons. There is a woman who has a book of the Bible dedicated to her
03:55story. She's a strong sister, a smart sister, a savvy sister. Her name is Esther.
04:02She grew up on the other side of the tracks. She was orphaned. She was
04:06impoverished. She had to grow up real fast and real soon. She was raised by her
04:12uncle named Mordecai and by God's grace she went from the pit to the palace and
04:19she ends up marrying a king of Persia and the Bible is very clear she is
04:26enjoying this space and season in her life. I mean she's in the palace now.
04:31She's got maids. She's got attendants. Come on. She's got servants. She's got
04:36chefs. I mean she's just living her life. Can you see her? She's very demure, very
04:44cutesy, mindful. Come on. I mean she's just she's she is there and then all of a
04:50sudden she gets word from the man who raised her. Watch this. Who is not greater
04:55in socioeconomic status but he's greater in spiritual stature. His name is Mordecai.
05:01He wasn't called to be in the palace but he had an anointing for those that were.
05:06He's what we call a king or a queen maker and Mordecai sends word to Esther. He
05:13says Esther we got a problem. There's somebody in the king's cabinet. He's a
05:17hater named Haman and what Haman is attempting to do is he's attempting to
05:21obliterate our people and the king is unaware and so here's what I need you to
05:28do. I know the king is temperamental. I know the king is narcissistic. I know the
05:33king is someone that is unbalanced and unstable but I need you to use your
05:39influence to go to the king and tell the king to put a stop to this. I know
05:43the king don't care about us but the king care about you so I need you to
05:48leverage your influence with the king and I need you to risk what God gave you
05:53in order to achieve why he gave it to you. So Esther has to make a smart move
05:59here because she has to love why God gave her a thing more than the thing
06:06that God gave her and we talk about it now thousands of years later there's a
06:11book of the Bible dedicated to her name because in a pregnant season she made a
06:16smart move because in pregnant seasons you got to make smart moves. There was a
06:26man named Noah who also made a smart move when the Bible is clear in
06:32communicating that God tells him to build an ark before it rains and Noah
06:42has to make a decision regarding whether or not he's going to engage in prophetic
06:47preparation and build an ark when there's no signs of rain. Not realizing
06:54and recognizing that your willingness to build the ark is an indication that you
06:58believe rain is coming. It doesn't take faith to build it when it's raining but
07:06it takes faith to build it before it rains. Can I give you two words before I
07:11go to my next example? Build it. If you believe God's getting ready to do
07:17exceedingly and abundantly, build it. What's the ark? The structure. Build it.
07:25Noah made a smart move. They called him silly when he was building it. They called
07:32him smart when it rained. There's a book of the Bible dedicated to a woman named
07:42Ruth who made a smart move. After the death of her husband she is faced with
07:52the choice, do I go back to my hometown and to my homeland or do I follow and
07:57stay and do life with my mother-in-law who has led me on a path that has
08:02actually improved every single area of my life? So she has to make a decision.
08:07She's got to make a smart move. Do I go back to the familiarity of a
08:12dysfunctional past or do I have the faith to step into an uncertain future?
08:17And she's able to break free from the shackles of familiarity and because she
08:23broke the fetter of familiarity and didn't go back to a dysfunctional past
08:27she stepped into a blessed future where this woman named Ruth meets a man named
08:32Boaz and Boaz changes her life and the generational trajectory of her blood
08:38line. She made a smart move in a pregnant season. But y'all know I grew up Baptist.
08:46So I can't give you all those examples and not give you this example. Jesus. Come
08:55on 1145. Jesus made a smart move in the garden of Gethsemane when he's faced
09:03with the agony of choosing between convenience and calling. Because I know
09:10we live in an age and an era where people are incorrectly assuming that
09:14everything about my calling is convenient. Yeah but there are aspects of
09:18my calling that are inconvenient. There are aspects of my calling that give me
09:22agitation I feel like I don't need in this season. There are aspects of my
09:26calling that make me a little bit temperamental. Watch this. And double
09:32tongued when it comes to what I say about my assignment. In one season I can
09:36be saying destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it back up again.
09:40But then on the night before that I gotta go to that cross I'll be like now
09:44that I think about it if it is possible remove this cup from me nevertheless. But
09:52he makes a smart move to choose calling over convenience. Because Jesus realizes
09:59that when you're in pregnant seasons your response in pregnant seasons tests
10:04your faithfulness to God. But it reveals God's faithfulness to you. So if your
10:09faithfulness to God leads you to the cross God's faithfulness to you will
10:13give you a resurrection. In pregnant seasons I need smart moves. However we
10:24don't know what season is a pregnant season so we need to make smart moves in
10:28every season. And the book of Proverbs offers us some insight on how to do that.
10:34This text right here in Proverbs 12 Solomon offers us some amazing insight
10:40for those of us who are serious about making smart moves. He contrasts the fool
10:46to the wise. And here's what he says he says the way of fools seems right to
10:55them. Now when he says fools what does he mean? He's not saying unintelligent. He's
11:05not even saying unwise. He's saying someone that's operating with earthly
11:10wisdom. Come on remember two weeks ago what we talked what what did James say
11:16there's two types of wisdom there's heavenly wisdom and there's earthly
11:20wisdom right? So heavenly wisdom which is godly wisdom isn't just right it's
11:24better. It's superior. It's more reliable. It is timely truths that work in all
11:32times. Isaiah says God's ways are higher than
11:36our ways. And so Solomon says a fool someone who operates with earthly
11:44wisdom their ways always seem right to them. So they are unwilling to reconsider
11:51the way they doing the thing. Even if the way they're doing it isn't getting them
11:56the results God promises. So they keep doing the thing the same way because in
12:03their mind it's right. They think time is their issue when their tactic is their
12:08issue. They think they're waiting on God to change some things and God's waiting
12:17on them to make a change. He says their way seems right to them. They won't
12:24reconsider their ways. So they're not getting what God promised relationally
12:33surrounded by liabilities no assets. Oh I got you next week come back I got you
12:41on that next week. We talk about smart what Proverbs says smart moves about
12:44relationships. Yeah everything that Solomon says about relationships is
12:51assuming you know the difference between an asset and liability. As iron sharpens
12:56iron he's assuming you know difference between iron and plastic. If not you're
13:03iron rubbing up against plastic and surprised when you're not sharpened.
13:14It's just like okay I keep doing this this way because somebody on earth told
13:23me this wise. Somebody wrote a book about it. Come on so I keep doing it this way
13:32and it's not giving me the results that I want and if I refuse to reconsider my
13:37ways I'm not calling your names God's not calling your names Solomon just says
13:42that person who is demonstrating that kind of behavior it's a fool. They are
13:54self-reliant so they don't realize they've been created for interdependence.
14:03You've been made I ear but what does that mean somebody I somebody ear
14:07somebody in those first Corinthians 12 13 14 so it means that somebody else
14:12got something you need. But they're self-reliant and self-deceived so they're
14:19wrong but they don't know they're wrong. So they will fight you to stay wrong.
14:28Well let me go to this side y'all okay. They're self-reliant self-deceived and
14:36stubborn. So their stubbornness won't allow them to reconsider where they need
14:44to make an adjustment. They are unaware of the principle of improvement which
14:49says you will not experience improvement if you won't make adjustments. You can't
14:54improve a relationship if you don't make adjustments. You can't improve mental
14:59health if you don't make adjustments. You can't improve spiritual health if you
15:03don't make adjustments. Watch this some elevation requires reconsideration of
15:09the way I'm doing a thing. Do you love the way or do you want the result?
15:17But the wise come on the way of the fool seemed right to them but verse 15 says
15:35the wise listen pause the wise pause the wise listen solemn as a summa here
15:59the wise know who to listen to. The wise listen to advice not just any advice
16:11godly advice. So it means you got to be willing to separate the advice from the
16:17person because sometimes it's a good person but they giving you bad advice.
16:24Can I take it a little further? Sometimes they are a godly person in terms of
16:30their moral compass but they can teach you to live right ethically but they
16:36can't teach you to live well practically. Y'all miss what I just said there? So the
16:41question isn't just are you godly is it do you have godly advice in that area
16:46because everybody is rich and poor in godly wisdom somewhere. The purpose of
16:52this series is to expose where am I poor in godly wisdom and to shift from
16:57earthly wisdom to godly wisdom in that area and some people are receiving
17:02receiving advice from godly people in an area they're poor in. It's like you can
17:10pray so you can talk to me about prayer.
17:16But I got to go somewhere else for my relationship because that doesn't seem
17:23to be working out for you. Let me go over here. I'm not judging you I'm just
17:28saying but teach me how to speak in tongues and I'm listening but when you
17:32start teaching me how to keep a man or keep a woman I got to go somewhere else
17:36because God's still working on you with that. You a godly person. You're not rich
17:46enough to help me there.
17:50So I need godly advice. The way of the fool seems right to them. But the wise
18:10listen to advice. So I need godly advice and here in Proverbs Solomon offers
18:16some godly advice that exposes us to some areas where we may need to
18:20reconsider if we're making smart moves. I got six points but because I sent you
18:25that video this week I'm not rushing. So I'm gonna give you three today and then
18:30I give you the other three next week. I might have nine. I might spend the
18:35next week. We'll be done with Proverbs whenever the Holy Ghost say we done.
18:40Okay that's it. All right. We free indeed. I'm free. All right. So here's an area
18:46here's one of the areas where where Solomon offers some godly advice and we
18:51may need to reconsider if I'm living with earthly wisdom or godly wisdom here.
18:55Number one am I making smart moves with my words? Now let me tell you what the
19:05Bible says about words. Because words are weighty. They carry weight. The Bible
19:16says the tongue. This is Solomon. The tongue has the power of life and death.
19:23Is that it? And those who love it will eat his fruit. Now what does Solomon say?
19:31The tongue has a power of life and death. One translation says the power of life and
19:34death is in the tongue and they that love it will eat the fruit thereof. What
19:37does fruit have to do with a tongue? Unless Solomon is using an agricultural
19:42analogy to show you how words work. The same way a seed in a garden produces
19:50fruit. My words produce fruit that I have to eat. So this is a different spin on
20:00eating your words. Come on. Come on. They that love it will eat the fruit of. Here's
20:07what Solomon is saying family. Here's what he's saying. He's not saying that
20:11our words create things in life. He's saying our words create things in us. It
20:19creates attitudes in us and it drives our actions. And so my attitude and my
20:25actions is what actually produces the fruit I'm living with. So the power of
20:31words is not just what it does out there. The power of words is what it does in
20:36here. It's giving me life or it's giving me death. It's giving my joy life or it's
20:44putting my joy to death. It's giving my peace life or it's putting my peace to
20:49death. It's giving my faith life or it's putting my faith to death. Now if you
20:55will indulge me and we can be Pentecostal for seven seconds then I'll
21:00go back to my little Sunday school lesson. I just want to say one word to
21:04you and that word is live. Live. My words are creating life or death. Now here it
21:18is. It's bringing life or putting to death. Something in me. Now no
21:25condemnation just a challenge. I'm going to ask you a question but it's a
21:29question for your reflection. Don't answer just think. If you honestly
21:34evaluate the way you talk to you, the way you talk about you and the way you talk
21:41about life, are you making smart moves with your words? Somebody said,
21:49ouch. No condemnation just a challenge. I struggle with this just like everybody
21:58else. Here it is. When you think about, what is it? Joy unspeakable full of glory
22:05which is what the scriptures promise to those who live life the king's way. Peace
22:08that passes all understanding. So a state of peace that is not logical
22:12considering my circumstances. Right? So joy unspeakable full of glory. Based on
22:18the way I talk to me, should I reasonably expect to have that? I need to consider
22:29my ways. Is it illogical for me to audit the way I talk to me and about me and
22:36expect me to be full of life, full of joy, full of peace? It's not a smart move.
22:43So the question is, okay, not just what we shouldn't do but what should we do?
22:48What is a smart move when it comes to reconsidering my ways with my words? And
22:55what the Bible puts and lays before us is what I am calling unashamedly a biblical
23:01spiritual discipline or spiritual exercise. Petey, where you get that from?
23:05Paul tells Timothy, exercise yourself into godliness. Gymnasio, exercise. So if
23:12you want to grow in godliness, Timothy, you have to do spiritually what people
23:16do in the gym. So nobody just walks in the gym and never picks up a weight and
23:23then go look in the mirror. So I can't just walk in the church.
23:31I can't just walk in the church, never pick up a weight, and expect to be strong
23:36spiritually. So what are the spiritual disciplines or spiritual exercises, right?
23:41So when I pray, I'm lifting. And sometimes it seems like lifting not working, but
23:49give it some time. Keep on lifting. When I read the Bible, I'm lifting. And
23:57sometimes it feels like I left the scriptures and I don't know what I just
24:01read. And sometimes I read the Bible and I say I didn't just read it, it read me.
24:06But give it some time. Keep on lifting. Praising God and worshiping God. And
24:12these are spiritual disciplines. But here's the issue. Have you ever seen
24:16somebody in the gym that's big up here?
24:20But them legs, though. They keep skipping leg day. Because they keep doing the
24:40common exercises. And so just like people can be that way naturally, we can also be
24:50that way spiritually when there are exercises in scripture that we ignore.
24:57And one of these exercises that's ignored is a biblical practice called confession.
25:09You can't even access salvation without this. I got to confess. I got to believe
25:16in my heart. Confess with my mouth. My heart and mouth have to be in agreement
25:24that Jesus is Lord. Is that what Paul says? Now, didn't I teach you last week,
25:30Yahweh, Jehovah, what that means? So this is what Alan Hirsch calls a
25:37Christocentric monotheism. What that mean? Don't even worry about it.
25:42This is what it means. It means Paul is saying, remember, the Lord's my shepherd.
25:48Remember? Capital L-O-R-D. That's Yahweh, Jehovah. Paul is saying your confession
25:53must be Jesus is that person. Not just Jesus is boss. That what Yahweh was in the
26:02Old Testament is personified in Jesus. And when I say Jesus, I no longer have to
26:07say Jireh, Shalom, Shammah, Rohi, Rapha. Because when I say Jesus, I just said
26:13healer. When I say Jesus, I just said sanctify. When I say Jesus, I just said
26:19deliverer. God has exalted him and given him a name that is above every other
26:25name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess
26:30that he is Yahweh. He Yahweh. Confession. He's not just some cool dude. He Yahweh.
26:51That's him. Confession. Now here's what it means. I like to give you all receipts
26:59because sometimes, here's how I know this. Spirituality should be the most
27:04important part of your life, but it's not your whole life. So you trust in people
27:07who stand from platforms to give you accurate information. Does that make sense?
27:12So I get that. And so sometimes it kind of hurt me because I always want to do my
27:16best. I know everybody else wants to do their best, but sometimes what you're
27:20getting is not the best. And so I won't give you receipts. Right? Acts 17 and 11,
27:27that when Paul spoke to the Bereans, they studied themselves to see if those
27:30things which he said were true. I got receipts. Okay? Because sometimes people,
27:34they like give these definitions that are not rooted in the etymology of a word.
27:37So they're giving you their interpretation instead of what the word actually means.
27:42Right? I've been listening sometimes and somebody's quoting something in the Old
27:45Testament and they say, the Greek word for this is, it's like, bro,
27:48that's the Old Testament. It wasn't written in Greek. Unless you're talking
27:52about the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Bible.
27:55Old Testament is written in Hebrew, except for about five chapters in Daniel,
27:59which are in Aramaic, but it's Hebrew. So you give me a Greek word for Old
28:02Testament scripture, but we don't know, like the body doesn't know.
28:06So we like, ooh, that's deep. I'm like, that's just wrong.
28:12Study to show yourself approved. A workman that needs not be ashamed,
28:17rightly divided, the word of truth. So New Testament is written in Greek.
28:22So here's what the word confession actually means in the Bible.
28:26Let's just look at the etymology of the word. Let's not come up with a definition.
28:30What the word mean? This is going to be, it's in my notes,
28:34on the Change app. Here it is. The word confession is a synthesis
28:37of two words. It's the word homo and the verb form,
28:42which means same, the verb form of the word logos,
28:45which means to speak. So it means to say the same thing.
28:51Say the same thing, what? That God says. It means that I am agreeing
28:57with what God says. So this applies even to the confession
29:00of sin. When somebody says, when he says,
29:01confess your sin, it mean to look at my behavior.
29:04And I might be like, I think this is all right.
29:06I think I should be able to do this. I think I should have been able to tell
29:09them exactly what I felt because they deserved it and they just need to be
29:12completely told all the way off. But I'm going to say the same thing
29:17about my behavior that God does. So I'm going to confess that what you
29:22said and what I did, God, are unaligned. I got to go.
29:31Y'all all right? I said, are y'all all right?
29:34Here it is. So confession in the biblical sense is the
29:37act of speaking or declaring what one believes in alignment with God's truth.
29:45It is different than cultural affirmations because affirmations are positive,
29:50but that doesn't mean they're true. I am strong.
29:56Not today. Paul, the apostle Paul said, when I'm weak,
30:06that's when I'm strong. Sometimes I'm weak and I need his strength.
30:11Come on. So here's the way Paul talks about this.
30:15He says, I believe, therefore, I have spoken.
30:18Since we have the same spirit of faith, we believe and therefore also we speak.
30:26So it's me speaking what I believe that is in agreement with the word.
30:32Can I go here? Because God doesn't back up my word.
30:39No, no, no, pastor, you are wrong because the book says I can call those things
30:44that be not as though they were. Now, is that what the Bible say or is that
30:49what somebody told you the Bible say? Well, let's look at what the Bible say.
30:56In Romans chapter 4, which is where this scripture comes from, 417,
31:02Paul is talking about justification by faith and he's using Abraham as an example.
31:08And he's quoting this. He says, I have made you a father.
31:11Listen to this, to many nations. He is our father, talking about Abraham,
31:16in the sight of God because he's the father of faith.
31:18There's justification by faith. He's our father in the sight of God in whom
31:21he believed. So Abraham believed in God.
31:24God who what? Gives life to the dead and calls things
31:28into being that were not. Let's read it again.
31:33God who gives life to the dead and calls things into being which were not.
31:39Read it in the King James. It read the same way.
31:41It's not, it is God who calls things into life and calls things that be not as though
31:49they were. God is the one that calls things that be
31:51not as though they were, not us. He doesn't back up my word.
31:55He backs up his word. Now, if I'll use his word and put his word
32:00in my mouth, then he'll respond not to my word but his
32:04word. For my word will not return to me void,
32:08but it will accomplish all I sent it out to do, and it will prosper the thing wherein
32:14I sent it. So it's not if I say it, it's did he say
32:20it? So I got to say what he said.
32:34Smart moves with my words, I'm done. Tess, I'm done.
32:40Number two, smart words with my reputation. A good name is more desirable than great riches.
32:50Now this lands different because the man who wrote this had riches.
32:55So if he didn't have riches, it would be one thing.
32:57You'd be like, ah, you just saying that because you don't have no riches.
32:59He's got riches and he says a good name is more desirable than that, to be esteemed better
33:03than silver or gold. Listen to this.
33:07No one can control what your reputation is like.
33:12You can't control that. A lie don't care who tell it.
33:17And people are more interested in lies than truth.
33:20We live in a culture where lies are more profitable than truth.
33:26You can't control that. So if you're trying to control the way you're
33:29perceived by everybody, you're engaging in an exercise in futility.
33:33That's not what this is speaking to. You can't control what they say.
33:38You can control whether or not it's true. And what this does is this is more desirable
33:46than resources. It opens doors that resources can't open.
33:51Solomon says this because he knows the only reason his father became king was because
33:54of his reputation. When Saul was being tormented by evil spirit
33:59back in those days, the way they dealt with moods was like, let's get some music to change
34:02the mood. And him and his cabinet are having a conversation
34:05and somebody in his cabinet says, Hey, let us find somebody that can play instruments
34:09for you because these you're being tormented by all of these different moods.
34:13And then there's one person in verse 18, first Samuel 16, verse 18, it says, and one of his
34:18servants says like the text doesn't even tell us the person's name.
34:22It just says one of his servants. So that says, Hey, I know a guy, he's Jesse's son.
34:28This man is, uh, he is, he is a cunning player on the heart.
34:32He is skillful. He is a man of God. He, he is a, he, he, he aesthetically, he takes
34:39care of himself. He's brave. He's a warrior. He's articulate.
34:45Because all of that was needed for that room. And that's how David got the opportunity to
34:56utilize a gift. The reputation, the gift was ready for the room.
35:03The reputation was the key to open the door. So you can't control this, but you, you and
35:14I, we can't control it. I can't control nothing. People can take some, I say, cut up. I can't
35:19control that. You can't control that. Does that make sense? So that's an exercise in
35:25futility that leads us to a spirit of anxiousness. That's not what our next series is going to be
35:31on arresting anxiousness. Listen to me, listen to me now. So I can't control that. Can I,
35:37you can't control that. I can't control that. Let me see how I can say this.
35:45And they're going to be seasons because all of us are imperfect.
35:51They're going to be seasons where we've done some damage to our reputation.
35:57The question is, do you believe your mistakes are sovereign?
36:03God will not only redeem your life. God will redeem your reputation because Moses had a
36:12reputation in Egypt as being a murderer, but God redeemed his reputation, sent him back to Egypt.
36:20And his reputation now is a deliverer. There's a woman named Rahab, who was a call girl
36:27in Jericho. Y'all aren't talking to me now. And she helped spare some Israelites lives and gave
36:34them victory in Jericho. And in one chapter of the Bible, she's known as a call girl.
36:40And, but when Matthew writes in the new Testament and he's writing to a Jewish audience, trying to
36:44convince them that Jesus comes from the lineage of David, he starts talking about genealogies.
36:50And he says this in verse number five, Salmon, the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Wait a
36:55minute. Salmon, the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Wait a minute. Salmon was the father
37:01of Boaz. Ruth Boaz. Yep. That one. Ruth Boaz had a father named Salmon and his mother was Rahab.
37:10If you're willing to keep living,
37:16they'll be calling you one thing in the book of Joshua,
37:19but calling you another thing in the book of Matthew. Live until Matthew. Survive until Matthew.
37:26But I got to make smart moves on my part. How am I handling people? How am I handling business?
37:45What am I posting? Do I have a, I don't care attitude about stuff I should care about?
37:51Cause I don't know what Saul and them are talking about.
37:57They can be talking about me and not talking to me, talking about an opportunity. They're
38:01getting ready to give me, I need to make smart. How am I presenting myself?
38:11Cause Saul got options.
38:13Smart moves, words, smart moves, reputation, smart moves, resources.
38:21Proverbs 11 25, a generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
38:29I need you not to be afraid of the word prosper. Cause this word has been captured by two schools
38:34of thought. One's called the prosperity theology. Most people don't know what prosperity theology
38:40One's called the prosperity theology movement, which disproportionately emphasizes health and
38:46wealth as signature signs of God's blessing. If that's the case, you got to say mother Teresa,
38:51not blessed. If that's the case, we got to say our grandmama, some of our great grandmothers
39:03weren't blessed. That's an extreme. And often wherever there's extremism, there's error.
39:08Then there's the other side, which is really something that is a theology infiltrated with
39:13something called Gnosticism, which is really more Greek than biblical. So it's this adverse
39:19agitation and irritation toward anything that's physical. So that leads to poverty theology,
39:26which inaccurately presents poverty like a virtue. When in the Bible is never rich, poor,
39:32rich, right, poor, wrong, poor, right, rich, wrong is good and evil period. And you can be
39:39a good rich man like Joseph of Arimathea, right, right. And you can be a bad poor person.
39:49So I need you not to be afraid of that word because it means to be abundantly supplied.
39:54Proverbs three, barns filled with plenty, vats overflowing with new wine. So when God says a
40:02generous person will prosper, that sound like magic, make it not be magic, PD. Well, in Proverbs
40:07three, we read it last week. It says your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will
40:11overflow with new wine. Do we think that that means that if we're generous, God, for them,
40:17he was going to blow crop into the barn. You just wake up one day and there's the crop.
40:22You just wake up one day and there's the crop. But what does it mean? It means he would rain
40:27on their work in the field. I don't have time to bother this. That no matter how hard you work,
40:34if he doesn't make it rain, you have no fruit. He says, but I'm a bless your work. I'm gonna
40:39make it rain on your work. When you start working, I start making it rain. When you start working,
40:45I start making it rain. And then the crop that come up from your work.
40:50Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of the
40:53sinner, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And
40:56in it does he meditate both day and night, and he will be like a tree planted by the river of the
40:59water. His leaf will not wither, and whatsoever he doeth will prosper. What you do, what you do,
41:10what you do will prosper. God's not a genie. What you do.
41:22But here's what's important. There are people who aren't generous, who have field barns,
41:29but their vats don't overflow with wine. And wine's a metaphor for joy.
41:34Externally blessed, internally empty.
41:43And if you pour in heart, if you pour emotionally, then all you got is some money.
41:52And if all you got is money, I feel sorry for you.
41:58God says, I can make it rain where you're dry. Wherever there's a drought,
42:02I can make it rain.
42:08Through generosity, because he says, this is the way you, God doesn't force his area into himself.
42:13But behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man open, I come in. He forces himself into no
42:18area. We don't want a man. You can be saved and say, I don't want you in my relational,
42:23in the relational area of my life. He said, okay, we'll go ahead on. Do you,
42:29you're going to be back to me though.
42:34You threw me away for them. You'll be back when it's not working. When that heart's broken,
42:39you'll be back. And this is why we teach and we believe in the principle of tithing here.
42:51And whenever I teach this to my pushback, say, no, that's the law. The law is Exodus,
42:55Leviticus numbers, Deuteronomy, a specific set of rules and circumstances, specific set of rules
42:59and regulations given to a specific people for a specific time period until it's fulfilled by Jesus
43:05in the law. You can have shrimp, bacon, ham. If you got on Polly and Esther, you out of order,
43:14no jewelry, no tattoos. And I make, if you steal, we cut your hand off.
43:21I four and I two, four, two. There were moral laws, civil laws, ritualistic ritualistic law,
43:27purity laws. That's what Jesus fulfilled. But a principle is a universal truth that
43:32God expects his people to perform because it's a best practice for all history.
43:37So when I teach generosity, I never use the law because it doesn't start in the law.
43:43I taught you last week, it started in Genesis. Abraham did it. You say that's an isolated
43:47incident where his grandson did it. Then the law mandated it. So it's a principle
43:54killing was wrong when Cain killed Abel, that's before the law.
43:58Then when the law was written, Moses said, thou shall not kill.
44:03So talking about murder there, he's not talking about self-defense or what Augustine calls just
44:08wars. The word there is murder. Got me. Okay. Here's the issue was killing wrong in the 10
44:18commandments. So would I be logically irrational to say, because it's seen in the law, it's okay
44:24for me to kill now because it was wrong before the law. It was wrong during the law, which means
44:31it's wrong after. So I see the principle of the time being worked before the law mandated in the
44:38law. Someone said, no, no, no, no. Well, it shouldn't be a person. It shouldn't be that.
44:47Okay. Fine. New Testament PD is grace. Give it fine. Why do we automatically assume that means
44:52less though? Let's show me our motives. Not right. Why doesn't that? If it's give us,
44:58I've been prospered. Why? I need God to make it rain. And I watched him do it
45:13from being an intern at Princeton seminary, getting $75 every single week and shaking
45:17right now to $7 and 50 cent check. I watched God make it rain from sitting with a financial
45:27advisor named George Thompson at 26 years old at the Hyatt Regency in Princeton, New Jersey at 26,
45:33a man who was an atheist, but got in an accident. He worked for Smith Barney and gave his life to
45:37God and started using the rest of his life to teach people biblical financial principles.
45:42And he says, if you'll do this for the next 20 years, you'll be able to take care of your family
45:48and shift generations. I'm 45. I started at 26 pay God, pay yourself, live on the rest. Since I was
45:5526, pay God, pay you live on the rest. Since I was 26, I've watched God make it rain.
46:10It's wisdom. So I'm remixing our wisdom challenge.
46:18For those of you that are part of wisdom challenge, the wise up challenge, I'm sending you
46:22every Sunday that we're in this series, I'm going to send you a week's worth of affirmations that I
46:27wrote that came from the Bible. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I'm sending you an affirmation
46:32for every week. If you're already in it, you don't have to re-sign up. This is nothing different.
46:36If you aren't in it, you can choose to sign. I'm going to send you that every week
46:39because I need us to start practicing getting smarter with our words. And I don't just give
46:45you a positive Q statement. I give you the scripture that back it up so you can research
46:50to see if the affirmation or the confession I gave you is based on scripture. I want you to
46:54have receipts. Trust the word. So keep studying Proverbs. If you get through a Proverbs before I
47:02end this series, read it again. Keep studying Proverbs, say those affirmations. And some of
47:09us need to test God. I need to so see. Here's the one place in the Bible where God say, test me.
47:16This is not on me. This is on God. He said, just try. I'm just saying, try it. And he says,
47:22see, if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out blessing,
47:28there's not room enough to receive. Father, I want to love nothing you gave me more than I love you.
47:37All that I have and all that I am is because you gave it to me.
47:41And whatever you have, you are one sickness and one lawsuit and one rumor away from
47:47you need him to rebuke the devour.
47:52I'm praying for this. Y'all know there's something called the spiritual gift of wisdom.
47:57Just look it up. First Corinthians 12, 13, 14. Look it up. Father, I pray that this is the
48:04wisest season of our entire life. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. I love you. We'll see you next
48:15week. Hey, well, listen, I hope you enjoyed that message and I hope you were challenged to make
48:25smart moves. And I'm, I'm asking, I'm believing by God's grace that's going to happen for me.
48:30And it's going to happen for you. May this be the wisest season of your life. And if your heart is
48:35stirred and you want to sow back into the field that you're harvesting from, you want to bless
48:39the ministry of this blessing you. Ways to give are on the screen. We love you. See you next time.
48:44Take care.