Pitfalls

Let's take our copy of God's Word and turn to Proverbs 6:1-19 this morning as we are receiving each week this wisdom for the Road of Life from the book of Proverbs. It doesn't get much more practical than Proverbs 6:1-19. As you're turning there, let me pause and offer a prayer.

Father, with that song still in our hearts and in our minds, we do want to come humbly before you and say, please speak. Oh Lord, even if you have spoken to us many times before and we have ignored it or treated it lightly, if we have stayed away from the speaking of your word because we knew we wouldn't like what you had to say. Lord, we don't deserve it, but we ask that you would speak again. And as you speak, we pray that you would give us hearts to receive, that your holy Spirit would enlighten our minds to show us how much we need your wisdom, but how good, and life giving, and pure your wisdom is, so freely available to us through Christ who died for us and rose again, that he might not only forgive us of our sins but become wisdom to us. So God, we need you, but you are so generous, so gracious, so rich in mercy and faithfulness and wisdom that with confidence we can ask for you to speak oh Lord once more, in Jesus' name, and God's people said, amen.

Some of y'all know that last September in 2023 my family got to take this big trip out west to see just a number of national parks that we'd wanted to see all of our lives: Rocky Mountain and Glacier and the Tetons and Yellowstone. It was just a wonderful, wonderful time away and we walked and hiked I don't know how many miles on that trip because that's what I was all about. And most of my family was all about that. Most of those days I wanted to walk and see as much as I could. I felt like I walked all over the rocky mountain region.

When we got back from that trip, days later after we left, I needed to go to my grandparents' house. They have a home in Pickwick. They're with the Lord now, but their house is still in our family. And there was something that I was needing to find for my mom. And so I walked under the deck. You know how it is in Pickwick. They're built on these hills. And so I walked under the deck looking for this thing, and I took a step, and I immediately screamed in pain and fell to the ground because I had stepped on a deck nail that was long and wide and it went straight through my tennis shoe right into my heel. And one of my kids was like "dad, what happened, what happened?" And I had to pull that nail out of my heel. I will never forget that moment.

After all of that walking and all of that hiking all month long, I had been being so careful, you know? We would go to those ledges and we'd look into these gorges and we were going up a mountain. I was thinking about my steps when we were on those big outdoor expeditions, but it was that nail that I wasn't looking for. I wasn't paying any attention to it. I never dreamed I would injure myself after all that strenuous stuff just looking for something under my grandparents deck. I had to get an emergency Tetanus shot on a Friday night at the pharmacist just so that I didn't, you know, start foaming at the mouth on Sunday morning. I mean, it was a bad deal, but it was the nail I wasn't looking for that ended up getting me.

And that's a lot what our text today is like. This dad is preparing his son or his daughter for life on the road, a life of independence and maturity. And he's been pointing out some of what we might call obvious pitfalls, traps he has spent a long time in Proverbs 5 talking about: the dangers of sexual immorality and temptation, the kinds of sins that the Bible puts out big flashing light signs that say, "don't go there." We sort of know about those things, but today the issues that he brings up are way more subtle, the kinds of things that you aren't necessarily looking for as dangers for your life.

What I think about when I come to these issues of loans and laziness and liars who are around you. I think about the fact that you can be someone who is not in open rebellion against God, who's not looking to get into evil, who's not looking to go your own way and forget about the Bible. You can be someone who is Godly. You can be someone who is sweet and precious. You can be someone who has all the best intentions of the world. But you can still stumble badly and hurt yourself with the pitfalls of financial commitments, and carelessness in your work, and toxic people. Amen?

You don't have to be looking for trouble for those issues to create big time trouble in your life simply because you haven't experienced it yet. And so this father is preparing his child just like the Bible is preparing us for the road that we've got left in our lives to avoid these pitfalls. It's because these are such subtle issues, the kinds of things you usually have to learn about the hard way. It's because they're so subtle that this wisdom from God is so precious to us. Jesus really wants us to have an abundant life living under his lordship. So let's listen to what he has to say.

First, there are some:

So this dad is sitting at the kitchen table with his son. And he says, "ok, let me paint a scenario for you. I want you to imagine that you're in your apartment and your friend knocks at the door and he asks you to cosign for him on a loan. He explains that he needs this money. Maybe he's building a house or he's buying a car or whatever. He just needs money for something. But the bank has got all this red tape. They won't do the deal unless you vouch for him. Now, what's your instinct son in that moment?" And the response is, "well, I mean, sure, I'll do it. You know? I mean, he's my friend. He's a nice guy, you know? We shoot pool together. We play in the basketball league together. And, I mean, you told me to be generous and all that. So, yeah, I'm glad to help him out. I'll cosign for him." And the dad says, "stop right there. That's where you're wrong. That's where you're stupid, because cosigning for somebody, putting up security for them, that's a much bigger deal and a much more serious commitment than just giving somebody 50 bucks or 100 bucks or even 500 bucks when they need some. This is a much bigger deal and I need you to understand it. So I want you to think about how this works son.

Banks are in business to loan people money, right? That's how they are in business. And yet they've decided they're not willing to loan this guy money. First red flag because the bank has determined that because this person has been irresponsible or untrustworthy or whatever in the past, they think that if they loan that person money, they'll never see it again, they'll never get it back. That person is too big of a risk for the bank to take. That's why there's this cosigning system so that if they can find someone else who's more trustworthy and more responsible, who does pay their bills, they can sign with the person for the loan. And now you take the risk. Now you become responsible for the repayment of the loan that the bank gives to your friends. So your friend's gonna walk out the door, whistling with a pocket full of money to do what he needs to do. You're gonna walk out with nothing but a whole lot of responsibility because a year from now, or five years, or whenever it's time for the loan to be paid back and your friend can't do it and won't do it can't be found, which is just what the bank expected to happen. Guess who they're coming for? They're coming after you and they can demand payment in full for that loan. They can demand payment for any late fees that are associated with the loan. They can even garnish your wages to get the money back. They can even sue you and take your assets so that you can pay the loan back. This is serious stuff.

And think about the whole time you have been trying to live a wise godly life, the whole time you've been getting up early in the morning and going to your job, and making money, and putting stuff back, and being careful with what you earn, trying to build a future for your family the way the Bible says. You've been trying to dot all your I's and cross all your T's, but because you have tethered yourself and yoked yourself to this irresponsible person, your future is ruined. You're gonna lose everything because of someone else's choices. That's why this putting up security is so serious. That's why cosigning is such a big deal. You are yoking your future to someone that the bank doesn't trust. And not only is it gonna cost you, but it's gonna cost the people who depend on you. He says it's like coming into the hand of your neighbor. It's like your life's not your own. You've lost control of your future.

Now, the Bible wants us to give generously. That's all over the scriptures. But God wants us to live with a posture of generosity when someone asks for something, just give it to them freely. The Bible is all about generosity and giving. We've talked about giving three or four different ways already this morning. That's just the Christian lifestyle, but that's not the same as entering into a binding financial contract with someone else, which is what Proverbs 6 is talking about.

Just think about what happens even in a best case scenario. If you cosign for a friend with a loan, in the best case scenario, they pay it back. But until they pay it back, you think that's gonna strain your relationship a little bit? If Jeremy cosigns for me, every time I eat an ice cream cone, he's like, "what's the deal? You can't afford that ice cream cone! You could have put that on your payment. What are you doing? Is that a new pair of pants? Give me a break." You know? I mean, that's gonna completely strain that relationship. It's gonna mess up that friendship even in the best case scenario. So do not do it. Feel the urgency of verses 3-5. The dad is saying, "listen, son, you're a sweet kid. You're a nice guy. You're gonna wanna help out all your friends, but don't help them out like this. Don't let them manipulate you:" "I thought you were a Christian. I thought you loved me. I thought we were buddies." "Don't let them pressure you into doing something that the Bible says is not wise.

And if you've already agreed to do it, don't go to sleep tonight until you've tried to get yourself out of it. I need you to go get down on your hands and knees and beg at the bank or beg before your friend to release you from this commitment. Would that be embarrassing? You bet. It's not more embarrassing than you and your wife and kids wearing barrels because the institution has taken everything that you own. That would be a lot more embarrassing. You need to think of yourself like a gazelle being chased by a lion on animal planet. Some of y'all know Dave Ramsey, the Christian financial planner. He talks about having "gazelle intensity." Any Dave Ramsey gurus out there? He talks about having gazelle intensity. That's how you need to think about this debt that's crushing you, these kinds of bad loans and so forth that end up controlling your life. You need to run from that stuff like a gazelle. Dave Ramsey lives in a castle in Franklin, Tennessee because he helps people like these Proverbs 6 people like you and me get out of situations like this.

So there are commitments that you need to avoid because here's the point: Godly people, church going people, people who love Jesus, people who want to live for God's glory, they can end up really hurting themselves by making unwise financial commitments. Is that true? It's absolutely true. Most of us have done it to one degree or another, and the Lord is trying to help us with some wisdom here.

So just watch out with financial commitments. Don't run up credit card bills each month that you can't pay off at the end of each month. That's not where you want to be. Don't take out loans that it would take a miracle for you to pull off to pay back. Don't spend beyond what you make so that you can keep up with the people around. You don't do that. That's no way to live your life. Financial stress will rob you of your peace. You will put an incredible strain on your marriage and your family relationships, and it will just hinder you from being everything that God's called you to be. You don't want to be in the hand of your neighbor. No, you wanna be free to live your life for God's glory just available to be obedient to him. There's certainly such a thing as wise and prudent loans and so forth. This is not an anti-banking message. I'd really be in trouble--there's a lot of bankers in the house. This is about the individual people of God taking responsibility for their commitments and for stewarding their finances like they need to steward everything else about their lives,

So the next person that he introduces us to is this person called the sluggard?What kind of animal does that sound like? A slug. Yeah, you've pretty much got it right. The name sort of says it all. The sluggard is a really nice guy. He's fun to be around if you just wanna watch a football game and eat some Doritos or whatever. But the sluggard is not someone you want to depend upon because the sluggard just kind of drags around through life just like a slug, putting out minimal effort, really not doing much good to anybody else. So Proverbs is gonna say a whole lot about the sluggard. The proverbs are gonna tell us the sluggard is lazy here in chapter 6. He's lying in the bed while opportunity is passing him by. Proverbs 26:14 says, "As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed." I mean, a door is only gonna turn one of two ways, right? The sluggard really only has two movements in his repertoire: on my stomach, on my back, on my stomach, on my back, in the bed.

The sluggard is careless, neglecting his responsibilities and then suffering for it later. So Proverbs 20:4 says, the sluggard does not plow in the autumn when he's supposed to. So he will seek at harvest and have nothing. He didn't work when he was supposed to work. So he doesn't have what he needs when the time comes. Now, a sluggard wants things. Sluggards want all kinds of things. A sluggard wants better opportunities. A sluggard wants a better job. A sluggard wants to be able to purchase the things that come with a higher income, but the sluggard is not willing to work for any of that stuff. So, Proverbs 21:25, "the desire of the sluggard kills him for his hand refuses to labor." So he spends all of his life wanting this and wanting that. He doesn't have stuff, but it just kills him. He never gets it because he doesn't put in the work that's necessary to obtain any of those goals.

A sluggard won't finish a task that he begins. Proverbs 12:27, "Whoever is slothful will not roast his own game." Do you get the picture? He's done every other step. He's gotten up early. He's gathered all of his supplies. He's got his hunting license. He goes out into the darkness. He waits on the prey. He bags it. He makes a great shot. He brings it back home. The only step he leaves out is actually cleaning it and cooking it. So the sluggard doesn't eat anything that day. There was one step left, man. You did everything else and this is amazing. Y'all know that I teach some classes for the seminary that I went to and I see this with students all the time. I mean, they will do a tremendous amount of work, but they will leave that last step out. You know, like turning it in! You were so close, you invested so much, and you're just gonna stop right there?! It's crazy. It's irrational. But the sluggard does this all the time.

The sluggard is always filled with excuses for why he or she hasn't completed the task. So Proverbs 22:13, the sluggard says, "There's a lion outside! I'll be killed in the streets!" "Hey, why don't you go to your job today?" "There was a lion out there--I could have been killed, man!" The subject has all these wild reasons for why he or she doesn't simply take care of business. So of course, the sluggard is going to frustrate anybody who's relying on them like an employer. Proverbs 10:26, "Like vinegar to the teeth or smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him." You wanna get frustrated? Depend on a sluggard for a really important job and it's gonna end up being like smoke in your eyes and drive you crazy.

Now, the proverbs also say that everyone around the sluggard can see the problem. It's obvious to everybody, but it's not obvious to the sluggard. So, Proverbs 24:30, that is talking to him. So he says, "Look, let me take you on a little field trip today. Let's walk by this one guy's field and it is a mess. It's overgrown with all these weeds and briars and all this kind of stuff. It's evident. This guy has just not put in the work. And yet, when it's time to collect the harvest, he's gonna wonder what happened. It's gonna be like this big mystery to him. It's not a mystery to anybody else in town. It's because this is what he does in the summertime and in the fall. So it's evident to everybody else but not to the sluggard.

Look, if you haven't gotten the picture by now, Proverbs absolutely roasts the sluggard from beginning to end. It's almost like the sluggard is like the favorite whipping boy of Proverbs. He's like the classic fool. Why? Because the sluggard just will not submit to the way God's designed his world to work. The sluggard really thinks that he cannot put out effort, he cannot work, he cannot do what he's supposed to do and it's just gonna work out. He believes he's entitled for it to work out.

And Proverbs never tires of telling us that that is a recipe for destroying your life and hurting all the people who are depending on you. So today in Proverbs 6, the dad says, "You know who has a better grasp on reality than a sluggard? An ant. Now, this should be embarrassing because in Genesis 1, human beings are created in the image of God. They're supposed to be ruling over the creeping things on the earth. But this guy needs to go enroll in a seminar taught by an ant to gain some wisdom about how to work and how to manage his life. So let's think about this together. According to Proverbs 6, an ant can teach you about work and laziness and initiative in several different ways:

It's summer right now" thinks the ant. "Yes, there's plenty of food around me, but winter is coming because it happens every year. It's on the calendar. This is not wild, unpredictable stuff. There's always a winter, and there's never any food when winter comes. So if I want to eat, then I probably need to work. Now, it's summertime. I don't feel like working. I got other stuff to do. It's hot outside. I've got other opportunities, but I've got to push that aside and do some planning because I know I'm gonna get hungry in the winter and I won't have what I need if I don't take care of business right now." Does that make sense? It's kind of like, "Look, I've got this test coming two Fridays from now. I'm not gonna be ready for that test if I wait until the Thursday night before the test to start preparing for it. So, do I wanna stay today? Absolutely not. Are my friends all inviting me to do other things? Yes, they are. But I know that everything rides on me performing well on that test. So I've got to work now so I'll be ready. 

You have never seen an ant with a supervisor holding a clipboard, standing over her barking out orders, shaming that ant to get the job done. You'll never see that. You'll never see an ant with its mama or daddy babying it, bribing it, checking back behind it to make sure that it closed all the loops and did what it was supposed to. You'll never see that. An ant is internally motivated. An ant knows "I have got to take care of this and no one else can do it for me. I've got to work if I want to eat."

Paul says this in 2 Thessalonians 3, "He who does not work, let him not eat." This ant says, "I must work if I want to eat. No one can do it for me. Also, God just made me to work." We'll talk about this a lot more on another Sunday, Lord willing, but God created us in his image. And God is a working God. He could have created this entire universe with a bang if he wanted to in a moment. But instead, God models for us a work week: working, shaping, creating, organizing over a six day period and then resting on the seventh day. And he made us to be like him, to be little mirrors of him. When we work, whether it's a job that you get a paycheck for or not, we are imaging God, and that is a good thing. It is a joyful thing. And when we embrace that personal responsibility to do our work, we image God and there is great joy in it. And the ant embraces that. He doesn't fight that. 

Day by day under the hot summer sun, the ant's working, the ants crawling, he's picking up stuff, he's carrying it off, he's storing it away. When is the ant gonna benefit from that work? The winter time. So this is delayed gratification. He's having to do work now for something that he won't even be able to enjoy the fruits of until much later. But he persists, he plods, he does the work that he needs to do right in front of him so he'll have what he needs later on, which leads to the last aspect of work.

So when winter hits, the ant is not in a panic. When the winter hits, the ant has plenty, when winter hits, the ant is able to enjoy the fruit of all that work. And y'all, there's nothing like that feeling. There is nothing like that feeling of accomplishment of satisfaction. Remember we're imaging God when we work. What did God do when he finished all of his work in Genesis 1? He stepped back, he looked at all that he had made, and he said, "this is very good." And we were made to be able to step back from the work that we've done again, whether it's getting your paycheck on Friday, or organizing your closet, or potty training the child, or whatever your work is right now that you're doing, we were meant to do that work, step back from it, and say "this is very good." "Thank you, God."

This light bulb did not come on for me until I think I was in the 10th grade. We had all these trees in my yard in Dyersburg growing up. They put out so many leaves. And we didn't have these big mulching lawn mowers and tractors. I just lived in a little neighborhood. And so this yard of ours had all of these leaves. And one of my jobs was to rake them up and I hated it. My soul abhorred raking leaves. I hated it with a perfect hatred all through my elementary school years and my middle school years. And then, I don't know what it was, but I was out there, I was by myself, and I was raking these leaves. And I stood up, I straightened up, and I looked, and I saw all this grass that was now cleared and clean. And I just saw these neat little piles. And I'm telling you it was like the origin story of Eric, the worker. I thought, "This is awesome. I did that. I wanna keep doing that." And that feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction was like a drug, and I don't think I've gotten over it yet now. Look, I can be lazy with the best of them. I can be a procrastinator with the best of them. But I know that there is great joy and satisfaction in completing a job, especially a long term job, stepping back and saying, "God, thank you that you let me do that." We were made for that, to find that kind of pleasure in our work. You could apply this in all sorts of ways in your own life.

So in light of that, in verses 9-10, the dad exhorts the sluggard, exhorts the son, not to be a sluggard. "Look, how long are you gonna lie there in your bed? God's only given you one life to live." Look, every day is so precious in this life and whatever God's put in me, I want him to get every drop of it. I want him to wring me out. I don't want to waste any of it just laying in my bed. So how long are you gonna wait? How long are you gonna lie there letting life pass you by? Go out there and get after it. That's what he made you for!

He goes on to say that life is made of incremental little choices. What does the sluggard say? "I just kinda wanna waste my life, just be a bum, not contribute to anything, and not help anybody else. And that's kind of how I want to fritter away this life." No one has ever said that in history! No, what the sluggard says is, "just a little sleep, just a little slumber, a little folding of the hands," just a little thing. Let me just take a little break. But life is made up of incremental moment by moment choices, aren't they? We're building our character every time we make a choice. We're setting the trajectory for our lives. It doesn't seem like a big deal in that moment, but it's setting a course. And so one day this dad says, "poverty and want and hardship are going to come upon you like an armed thug, like a robber with a gun. And your life is gonna get very difficult and very unpleasant. And it's gonna seem like your life just fell apart all in one day. But it didn't fall apart in one day. This is the end result of day after day making these choices to, as one author said, "do the soft thing instead of the hard thing that God assigned you to do."

So, here's the point: Godly people, sweet, precious, wonderful people can make their lives a lot harder than they have to be just by laziness. Is that true? It's true. I've experienced it in my own life. This is true for all of God's people. Instead, we want to embrace the wisdom of God. Lord, this is your world that you made. These are the terms and I wanna submit to them. I wanna fit in with your design. So I wanna work the work that you've given me to do while it is still day for your glory, bearing your image. And I'm gonna trust you with the results.

So I just wanna exhort the young men, especially, in here. Learn to love work. It is so good. It's what God made you to do. Ecclesiastes 9:10, "whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might." If you're playing on a basketball team or you're raking leaves or you're loading boxes or you're doing your school work or you've got a paying job, do it with your might. That's what God made you do. It brings pleasure and glory. It's also way more fun to live that way. You all know that you can do the same job and if you drag through it, you're gonna hate every second of it. But you can do the same job and just decide, "Look, it's gotta get done. And so I'm gonna get after it." And you can actually enjoy it. Would you all agree with that? Your attitude going into whatever job, it shapes everything. So just embrace it. God, you made me to work and I'm going to give you my work! I'm not gonna whine and I'm not gonna make excuses, and I'm just gonna give you all I've got in Jesus name. I really commend that to you.

And young ladies, all that's true for you too. I would just add, please don't marry a sluggard. Just hear me now, believe me later. He may be really good looking. He may be really charming. He may be really funny, but all that's gonna wear off really quick if he won't hit a lick at a snake and now you're having to haul him around through life like this big ball and chain. You don't want that. There are people who could testify. Please don't testify out loud this morning. This is not the time, but that is a true statement. You look for somebody with Godly character and part of that is they're willing to work hard for the glory of God.

We're gonna close with this:

Look, you're gonna meet lots of people on the road of life. The dad says they're gonna be people at your school and in your workplace and in your community and at your church. And if you're going to be wise, you've got to be able to assess and evaluate their character. You don't need to be taken in by people's appearances, either handsome or cute or beautiful. You can't let that just put a spell on you. You can't just be taken in by someone with a charismatic personality or their ability to speak smoothly and all of that. Don't be taken in by that. You've got to learn to discern people's character, who they are, what's coming out of their heart, what kind of person they are before the Lord.

And you're going to find that in this life, some people are just bad news. Can I get an amen? Some people are just bad news. They live to make trouble and they want to bring you into their trouble. They want you to come under their influence. And that's who the dad is describing here in verses 11-19. Y'all, he uses some of the strongest language that I know in the Bible to talk about somebody else. He says a "worthless person." I teach my kids not to call people worthless. I discipline myself not to call people worthless even when I want to call them worthless because everybody's made in the image of God. At this present time you are not adding value to any relationship or any situation. Instead, you're draining value from it. That term worthless is the word "Belial," which is applied to Satan later in the Bible, "sons of Belial." In other words, the influence that this person has is devilish. We would call them toxic people. That would be a more common term for us because their influence is poisonous.

I really like baseball. And through the years I've heard different baseball players called a "Clubhouse Cancer." Have you ever heard that term before? So they may be a really good athlete, but you can't afford to have them on your team because behind the scenes in their relationships in the clubhouse their attitude is so bad. They are so negative. They're always spreading strife and dissension. They will sink your team no matter what else they're bringing to the table.

And the dad says, "son, you've got to learn to identify these people. And I know that sounds kind of judgy to us. But Proverbs is gonna say it again and again. You cannot live a wise life for the glory of God if you can't evaluate people's character. You have got to make these kinds of character judgments. You can't be taken in by appearances just because someone is popular or attractive or funny or whatever. You have got to be able to identify people's character. Jesus says, "I'm sending you out my disciples. You need to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." You need to be wise as serpents about people.

Don't write someone off as beyond the redemption of Christ. That is true judgmentalism: You can't be saved. You have no future. You can never change. Don't do that, but also don't get close to toxic people and don't be a pawn in their game. Don't come under their influence. You need to watch their behavior, listen to their speech, and observe their relationships. Proverbs 20:11 says, even a child is known by his doings, whether he's good or evil. And we're supposed to be watching too and making these kinds of assessments.

What do these toxic people do?

They go about (v12). That's the first thing. They never just quietly go about their business. They're always restless, always stirring stuff up, always in drama, always turning. They use crooked speech. You can't accept what they say at face value because there's always some kind of self-serving agenda behind it. They say one thing but they signal something else. I don't know about all that signaling with your feet and pointing. That was an ancient Hebrew kind of a deal. But you get the point. They're saying one thing and meaning another. They're sneaky. They're manipulative. They're dishonest. Why?

Because their hearts are perverted (v14). That means crooked or twisted. Something's not working deep down at the heart level. They're bent. They promote self. They devise evil. They think about how they can hurt people and ruin reputations and pass on slander. And this is way before social media. Now these worthless people have the whole internet at their disposal. They can really wreak havoc all the time. They sow discord just like a sower, sowing seeds out in the field, just scattering it everywhere. That's how they use discord. They part friends with a little comment here, a little comment there. They undermine leadership. They split churches. I feel like I can talk freely about this right now because I'm not aware of this going on in our church. But this is super common in church life. Amen? Totally.

But here's the deal. This person will seem so skillful and powerful and in control when they're pulling all these strings and are at the top of their game. But it will never end well for this person. Never. "Calamity will come upon him suddenly and in a moment he will be broken beyond healing (v15)." This is from God's word. Toxic people always go down in the end. Always. Why? Because they live in God's world. And listen closely: God hates them. He hates what they're doing. If that sounds strong, have you read verses 16-19? "There are six things the Lord hates, yes, seven that are abhorrent to his soul." That's a list you never want to appear on. But that's exactly what the the father describes here in these verses: haughty eyes, pride looking down on people, a lying tongue (that's what the serpent does in Genesis 3), hands that shed innocent blood instead of serving and loving, a heart that devises wicked plans instead of a heart submitted to the glory of God, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among the brothers. Y'all, you don't want any part of that list. And if you see someone whose life mission seems to be to rack up as many of those in a day as they can, you need to run away from them and you need to think really hard about who your friends are right now.

And if the little people you eat lunch with every day in the cafeteria or your little office mates who love to chit chat around the water cooler, or people who love to text you and interact with you online, if they're proverbs 6 people like this, you need to get some new friends today. You need to put some major distance between yourself and them. That wouldn't mean you can't pray that God saves them because they sure need it, but you don't need to come under their influence. This is bad news.

And of course, if you are that person, man, I wouldn't swap places with you. So if you think that you can go through life kind of manipulating and maneuvering people for your own purposes, subverting Godly authority, dividing friends, being sneaky and being shady, maybe using social media to do it or whatever (I'm not thinking about anybody in particular but this is a widespread deal), and if that's how you're moving through life, whether it's your teenage years or your twenties or your thirties, and you sure should have learned it by now if you're in your forties and your fifties doing this mess, you need to understand God hates what you're doing.

And in a moment he will bring you down. It doesn't matter how popular you are at the moment. It doesn't matter how much it seems like you've got it going on, people are at your feet, and you can kinda get people to do your bidding. That will not last. And so if you want to hear the wisdom of Christ, you're gonna repent of that today. And you're gonna bring that to him and nail it to the cross and ask him to teach you how to live a life of integrity, and truth-speaking, and love, and humility, and service.

Here's the beautiful thing about the Gospel: when you believe in Jesus Christ and you come to him as savior and Lord, Jesus is not only able to forgive you of your foolishness and your sin. We've talked about some of the well-intentioned, foolish stuff that we can get into. But here at the end, we get into some real evil that we commit. But Jesus Christ, the son of God, became a man who lived a perfect. wise life in the flesh for you and for me. And then he willingly went to a cross and he said, "Heavenly Father, I want you to put all of the foolishness, and all of the sin, and all of the evil, and all of the slander, and all of the lies, and all of the meanness, and the ugliness that Eric ever committed on me. And I want you to take all the holy, righteous hate that burns against it and give it to me. And when Jesus died on Calvary that day, he took the wrath of God for my sin and my evil, and he did it for you too. And if you'll turn to him, and trust in him, and repent of your sin, he will take that away from you. He will take the holy hate of evil and he will replace it with the love of a father for you.

But Jesus will not only forgive your sins. 1 Corinthians 1:30, when you came to Christ, Paul says, "He became to you wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." He will teach you how to live a wise life. Your relationships don't have to look like that. And your work habits don't have to be like that. Your life doesn't have to be chaotic because of laziness. You don't have to keep stumbling into foolish commitments that end up plunging you into a pit. If you listen to Jesus Christ, get under his word, get under his authority, he will lead you into a life of wisdom and peace. That's what I want for me. Do you want that for yourself? Jesus Christ can take you there. Let's come to him now and talk to him about it.

Sermon by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church