Proverbs 13:11-23 (KJV)
Wealth gotten by vanity
shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.
Hope deferred maketh the
heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
Whoso despiseth the word
shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.
The law of the wise is a
fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.
Good understanding
giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.
Every prudent man
dealeth with knowledge: but a fool layeth open his folly.
A wicked messenger
falleth into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health.
Poverty and shame shall
be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be
honoured.
The desire accomplished
is sweet to the soul: but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil.
He that walketh with
wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Evil pursueth sinners:
but to the righteous good shall be repayed.
A good man leaveth an
inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up
for the just.
Much food is in the
tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.
In most cases the
Proverbs can’t be viewed as cohesive.
They are a series of
“pithy statements of wisdom” collected together mostly by Solomon.
· I believe the wisdom of God led Solomon in his organization
of the Proverbs, so that a lesson may be obtained by viewing a block of them
together
· And certainly some of the Proverbs are more extended,
involving several verses or in some cases an entire chapter
It would be wrong for me
to imply that the passage we are working with this morning originally came together
as one unit.
But I do see an
overriding lesson that develops within them.
I am going to consider
vs 18 as the pivotal verse of this passage
Proverbs 13:18 (KJV)
Poverty and shame shall
be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be
honoured.
A case can be made, I am
sure that instruction is the pivotal theme of the entire book of Proverbs.
Let me see if I can give
you what I believe the Holy Spirit gave me in three principles.
Principle One
*I. DURABLE WEALTH COMES THROUGH LABOR
Proverbs 13:11 (KJV)
Wealth gotten by vanity
shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.
It does not come through
vanity.
It doesn’t happen by
accident, good fortune or fate.
Success is the result of
labor – good solid, consistent hard work.
A. Vanity
It means emptiness, or
nothingness.
I imagine this applies
to every sort of get rich quick scheme.
· Some of them are nothing more than scams meant to rob the
unsuspecting of their hard earned money.
· Some of them really could make money, if those who got
involved worked hard enough at it
Did you know that one of
the most lucrative lines of work in the world is sales?
If a person really
wanted to make lots of money they would not become:
· Doctors
· Lawyers
· Scientists
· Politicians or even
· Celebrities
The people who
consistently make the most money are not those invent great products but those
who sell those great products.
Here’s the thing
Did you know that one of
the most difficult jobs on all the world is sales?
Every one of the work at
home businesses is a sales job.
All of them have a handful
of people in those businesses who make a lot of money.
But they all have way
more people who make no money at all because most of the people who sign up for
them have no idea how hard it is to be a salesman.
You have to work.
B. Vanity
This is probably the
closest passage you will find to one teaching against gambling.
One of the rules the
Bible College I attended was that we could not play the lottery.
I guarantee that there
are plenty of Christians today that don’t think playing the lottery is wrong
and would have accused the College as being legalistic.
But there was a rule
against playing the lottery.
One time my grandparents
came to visit Anita and me while I was in college.
We were out touring the
sites of Denver when Grandpa stopped to get gas and Grandma bought lottery
tickets while paying the bill.
She came back out to the
car and announced, “I bought these for you Marvin. If you win you can split the
money with me.”
I didn’t buy them, and I
didn’t want to offend my Grandmother, so I scratched them open and – what do
you know? I had a $2 winner.
We went back into the
store and bought two more tickets with that $2 winner.
I got another $2 winner.
This goes on two or
three times and I was getting pretty well hooked when suddenly hit struck me,
if I won anything big, they would put my name, not my Grandmother’s. in the
newspaper and I would be kicked out of college!
Its just vanity – the
lure of getting wealthy without work.
The Bible says that sort
of wealth will be diminished.
· Very few people win money gambling and
· Those who do win are never successful in keeping the money.
Which leads me to,
Principle Two
*II. IT MATTERS LITTLE HOW MUCH YOU EARN IF YOU DO
NOT KNOW HOW TO USE IT
Proverbs 13:23 (KJV)
Much food is in the
tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.
Do you know what drove
the economy of the Antebellum south?
Slavery.
The poorest people
imaginable – they did not even possess themselves, yet they produced almost the
entire economy of the South prior to the Civil War.
A person’s poverty is
not always because they are unable to produce or even to earn, but because they
are not able to manage what they earn.
I listened to a program
this week by a guy[1] who now makes his living
working on a homestead and blogging about it.
Someone asked him how he
got debt free.
He said that, prior to
his homestead days, he and his wife both had high paying jobs in Portland.
· They liked their jobs and
· They liked their lifestyle
But one day he realized
that reason he was always stressed about money is because, though they should
have reasonably been able to live on ¼ of their income, they were deeply in
debt.
And they decided they
needed to learn to live debt free.[2]
His was a very simple
system.
He and his wife listed
all of their debts, from the smallest to the largest, smallest first, on a
large poster and placed it in their bedroom on the door so they could see it
and focus on it every night before they went to sleep.
They concentrated on
paying off those debts.
They stopped spending
money on unnecessary things and focused on paying off bills.
At the end of about one
year they had those bills paid off,
· They sold their house and the cars they were making payments
on
· They bought a vehicle they could pay cash for and
· They bought a small piece of property they could live off
of, without their high paying jobs
After a while they
started telling their story how they did it and now they get paid to tell their
story.
· It’s not how much you earn that make one wealthy
· It’s how you manage what you earn.
Principle Three
*III. THE BEST INHERITANCE IS SOUND INSTRUCTION
Proverbs 13:18 (KJV)
Poverty and shame shall
be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be
honoured.
Proverbs 13:22 (KJV)
A good man leaveth an
inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up
for the just.
Grandpa and Grandma
Baker
Trust – when they died
my Grandparents explained how their trust worked.
· Grandparents would be responsible for it,
· Then it would pass down to my dad and his sister.
· The trust would have to be legally dissolved when my dad and
his sister died and the trust divided among the great grandchildren: my
cousins, siblings and myself.
I was informed that, if
it were to be divided at that time, it would amount to about $100,000 each.
When Grandma died my dad
gave each of us $1000.
When dad died, there was
nothing left.
My dad, and his sister,
were never taught to be good stewards. Instead of prudently using the trust,
they carelessly squandered it away.
That leads me to say,
The best one to plan an
inheritance for is not your children but your children’s children.
In other words, teach
your children to be responsible enough to leave an inheritance for their
children[3]…
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