Artisan shaping a heart model beside a sign reading Project: The Unbreakable Heart

The Worth of Doing Good and Godly Work

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“The Lord’s blessing enriches, and he adds no painful effort to it. As shameful conduct is pleasure for a fool, so wisdom is for a person of understanding. What the wicked dreads will come to him, but what the righteous desire will be given to them. When the whirlwind passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are secure forever. Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so the slacker is to the one who sends him on an errand. The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.” (Proverbs‬ ‭10‬:‭22‬-‭27‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

When the first man and his wife ate fruit from the tree God told them not to eat from, thus introducing sin into the world, God took some time after their disobedience was revealed to tell them about exactly what they had unleashed on themselves. One of the things He said specifically to the man was that sin was going to bring futility to his work. He would spend his life working the ground by painful effort. What was once a purely joyful activity was going to become hard for the sake of being hard. Now, anytime work is experienced as the joyful effort God created it to be is a blessing. Solomon reminds us of that here at the beginning of this next batch of proverbs. Let’s talk about that and some others today.

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People engaging with a mural reading “Our words make the world better.”

How to Have Words of Worth

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“The reward of the righteous is life; the wages of the wicked is punishment. The one who follows instruction is on the path to life, but the one who rejects correction goes astray. The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool. When there are many words, sin is unavoidable, but the one who controls his lips is prudent. The tongue of the righteous is pure silver; the heart of the wicked is of little value. The lips of the righteous feedmany, but fools die for lack of sense.” (Proverbs‬ ‭10‬:‭16‬-‭21‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Jesus’ half-brother, James, said that the tongue is the single most difficult thing in the world to control. We have managed to take all sorts of beasts and even to harden ourselves against various natural disasters to a certain extent. But full control of our tongues continues to elude us. This is not, however, for a lack of trying or a lack of counsel on the matter. The proverbs in particular continue numerous and sometimes repeated bits of wisdom for taming our tongues as well as warnings on the consequences of failing to do so. We see several of those in these next few proverbs. Let’s take a look.

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An open, ancient Bible resting on a weathered wooden surface, bathed in warm, directional light streaming through a window. The light illuminates the pages with a sense of truth and clarity. The mood is contemplative and honest — neither overly dramatic nor soft. Subtle dust particles float in the beam of light. The image conveys candor, trustworthiness, and the weight of timeless words. Photorealistic style.

Telling It Like It Is

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“The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. Hatred stirs up conflicts, but love covers all offenses. Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning, but a rod is for the back of the one who lacks sense. The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of the fool hastens destruction. The wealth of the rich is his fortified city; the poverty of the poor is their destruction.” (Proverbs‬ ‭10‬:‭11‬-‭15‬ ‭CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the things we expect from the Scriptures, is for them to tell us how the world should be. The world isn’t that, and they give us guidance on how to get from here to there. Of course, there are plenty of passages that tell us how and why we are wrong. We naturally expect to find those there as well. And, all of this, of course, falls under the heading of judgment. One of the things we don’t expect to find in the Scriptures, though, our verses that simply tell us without judgment how the world is. While there are many proverbs that point us toward bringing our lives more in line with God’s righteousness, there are a few that simply describe the world as it currently exists. We find one of those in this next group of proverbs. Let’s take a look together.

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The Gospel Is for Everybody

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This week we are kicking off a brand-new teaching series. God has been doing a pretty incredible work at my church. We are experiencing explosive growth thanks to the movement of His Spirit in our midst. We are also on the cusp of breaking ground on an expansion and renovation of our current facilities. It’s a pretty exciting time, and we are most definitely going somewhere. But in order to make sure we are truly heading in the right direction, we need to remember who God made us to be. For the next three weeks, we are going to be explore afresh the basic elements of our identity as a church. Thanks for coming along for this journey with us.

The Gospel Is for Everybody

Social media can be a great tool for the advancement of the Gospel. But social media can also be a place where people vent their spleen without really thinking through what the full consequences of their words might be. I won’t ask you to raise your hand if you’ve ever posted something you later wish you hadn’t and even perhaps had to take down because of the negative impact it was having. And the thing is, because none of us are particularly disciplined with our words on a good day—whether they are coming from our mouths or our fingers—all of us are susceptible to this kind of thing. Even pastors. 

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A person sits across a table from a wise, caring mentor figure who is speaking earnestly and gesturing gently. The seated person has their arms crossed, jaw set, eyes slightly averted — clearly hearing the words but internally resisting them. Warm, soft lighting. The mood is intimate and a little uncomfortable. The advice-giver's expression is kind, not harsh. Painterly, editorial illustration style with muted warm tones and a slight chiaroscuro quality. No text.

The Offense of Good Advice

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“Then Elisha sent him a messenger, who said, ‘Go wash seven times in the Jordan and your skin will be restored and you will be clean.’ But Naaman got angry and left, saying, ‘I was telling myself: He will surely come out, stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the skin disease. Aren’t Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be clean?’ So he turned and left in a rage.” (2 Kings‬ ‭5‬:‭10‬-‭12‬ ‭CSB – Read the chapter) ‬‬

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about good advice. When we set out accomplish we haven’t done before and aren’t totally sure how to do it, it’s always a good idea to seek out good and wise counsel from someone who has been there before. The trouble with good advice, though, is that just because a particular bit of advice is good, doesn’t mean we necessarily like it or want to hear it. Let’s reflect for a little while today about a story when someone got good advice they didn’t like, and what wisdom that might have to offer us.

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