Lessons in Christian Character part 1

Well, it is good to be back in Proverbs. I have enjoyed being back in Proverbs this week. I was kind of eyeballing some of these verses a couple of weeks ago. We were not in Proverbs last week, but with the move and the transition, we were able to get back in the groove of being in Proverbs. So take your Bible and turn back to Proverbs chapter 17. Some of you might have noticed that we're back in the chapter that we were in a couple of weeks ago. It's really been a while since I've had more than one message out of a chapter. It just kind of happens that way.

I'm just studying through and whatever comes to the surface, I read through several times and several days and just see what comes to the surface. And probably three or four years from now, if we were to go back through it, there would be other verses that would come to the surface. And I do remind you of what we looked at a couple of weeks ago. We looked at the subject of strife out of three verses. That was a very, very good lesson for us all, I believe. It's very practical, it's very personal, it's much needed. And I'll be honest with you, I found myself noticing circumstances in my life that would produce strife.

And I started putting on the brakes. That's what it should be about. Wisdom for daily living, daily Christian living, and that's what I'm wanting us to see and to learn throughout the study. Now this is what I want you to do to kind of get us started. Some of you take notes, I trust that you do. We all learn differently. But I want you to write down two words and if you don't write them down, I want you to remember them. I want you to write down two words. And the first word is reputation. And the second word is character. Reputation and character. Now I've been using this saying for years, I picked it up through the years.

It really is attributed to a famous American named Thomas Paine. He was a famous revolutionary during the time of the American Revolution. And I've used this throughout the years and it's really an altered version of it. So I need to give credit where credit is due. But to me this is very useful for where we're going. Here's the saying, and I'm quoting or giving it to you. Reputation is what others say about you, but character is what God says about you. Let me say that again. Reputation is what others say about you, but character is what God says about you. Now this is a little more biblical than you may know.

You might think, "Oh, Brother Chris is teaching us from some American, from history." Now this is a lot more biblical than you know. Let me give you a few verses. Proverbs 17.3 says, "The crucible is for silver and the furnace is for gold and the Lord tests the hearts." Psalm 26 verse 2 says, "Prove me," this is a prayer, "Prove me, O Lord, and try me. Test my heart and my mind." Jeremiah 17.10 says, "I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds." Now what's the point of these verses? It is God.

It is God alone that knows the heart and the mind, and it is the heart that determines one's character. Let me say that again. It is God that knows the heart and the mind, and it is the heart that determines one's character. Again, my statement from earlier. Reputation is what others say about you, but character is what God says about you. Now how is this the case? See it's only God that knows the heart of a man. We're going to talk about that a little more. It's only God that knows the heart of the man. Now let me ask you a couple of rhetorical questions. If the children were in here, they would blurt out some kind of answer. We know that.

But I'm asking these to get our minds going in a particular direction. Here's the question, first question. If reputation is what others say about you, then can one's reputation be inaccurate? Yeah. You can have people fooled. If reputation is what others say about you, then can you have one's reputation inaccurate? Yeah, and the answer is yes. But if character comes from the heart and God knows the heart, can one's character, according to God, be inaccurate? No, because God knows the heart. God knows the mind. You see, our reputation is not the issue. That's not the issue. It is our character that's the issue.

And we must possess certain character traits that are Christian, that are biblical. We must possess godly character traits. But listen close. Because we are sinful, even though we are redeemed, we are sinful. We will never be perfect in our character. God may do a wonderful work in us in a particular area. He may do a wonderful work using his word and obviously a work of the Spirit, therefore producing a great character trait, a particular character trait, even maybe being very strong there. But because of our sinfulness and our sinful nature, we will still be flawed.

Well, tonight I want to share with you one proverb, only one out of chapter 17. Next week we're going to look at a couple of more and we're going to be in chapter 17 again. Now, I call these lessons on Christian character and we need to see these Christian traits, these character traits, if we're going to have wisdom for Christian living. Now I'll go ahead and tell you a frustration. Every time I get into these, there's more. This is an incomplete list. You can just add to it. So as you study, again, I've encouraged you to read ahead, read behind. You might just add all kinds to this list.

So what we're going to look at is what I'm calling lessons in Christian character. And you might say, "Well, brother Chris, you're going to give one tonight." Yeah, we're going to give one tonight and a couple more next week. So you see what we're going to look at. It all comes out of verse five and I'm calling this our love for the poor and the hurting, our love for the poor and the hurting. Let's look at the verse, verse five together. "Whoever mocks the poor insults his maker. He who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished." So one verse, let's get started. You see how we're going to divide that.

I put all of that information, a little more information than normally I normally give you on the screen. But we're going to look at what I call the first lesson, our love for the poor and the hurting, our love for the poor and the hurting. Now let me get us going in the right direction here. First of all, what needs to be seen here is God's sovereignty. This might surprise you. What needs to be seen here is God's sovereignty. God is sovereign and God in his sovereignty governs nations and people and circumstances. A couple of questions that will help us here and I really want you to listen.

Why in the world was I born here in this country and why wasn't I born in India, in the state of Bihar which is where I went in 2014. I'll never forget after I came out of the state of Bihar because you got to come out of that kind of poverty. My wife said, "Oh, I was doing some research in Bihar. It's the poorest state in the country." I said, "I know. Why was I born here and not there?" Another question, why were you born free in this day and time and not say in Romania during the time of Nikolai Chastasov? You ever heard of him? Why were you born here instead of there? Well, that's one answer from God. Yes, God. It wasn't chance.

You weren't lucky. It was God. And we must see that God is sovereign and he governs the affairs of people. And in that, there will always be poor people. There will always be the disenfranchised. There will always be hurting people in society. We do not live in the Garden of Eden. I don't think I have to tell you that. We live in a fallen world. It's a fallen world. Our world is affected by sin and sinful people. But we must understand, and I'm repeating myself, God governs the affairs of nations and peoples and yes, circumstances.

Now as God's people, we must see that we have an opportunity to be and do what we learn back in Matthew, chapter 5, verse 13 to 16. We have an opportunity wherever we go to be salt and light. Being salt, we add flavor, the flavor of Christ to the world. Being salt, we have the medicinal qualities that can only come from the gospel, which is the only cure for sin and lostness. Being light, we shine Christ in the gospel into a light world. Being light, we are a beacon of hope for lost people who are groping in sin and darkness and lostness.

And as we have the poor and the hurting that come into our lives, we have an opportunity to be Christ to them. Now there are two ways I want us to break down the verse. You see it before you. Now these are negative. These are negative. They're not couched in the positive at all. So first notice we must never scoff at the poor. Isn't that what the verse is? Whoever mocks, I use the word scoffs, the English standard, the new American uses this word mock. Whoever mocks the poor insults his maker. Now I would venture to say that none of us would dare scoff at the poor, not purposefully.

Maybe you have in the past, maybe all of us have in the past. I hope we do not now. I hope not. Now what I want you to see, and I got some help with this this week, we never start scoffing or mocking, really just overnight. One commentator pointed out that this usually starts off in a progression. I thought this was real practical. That's why I'm going to bring it out for you. And he says this, and I'm paraphrasing and putting it in my own words. He says we start off by maybe poking fun at the poor. Seems harmless. Seems like maybe a joke. But that's what it is. We poke fun. And it seems harmless. And then he says it's a digression.

Step two is we move to a more fixed attitude. We move to a more fixed attitude of contempt. And if we're not careful, we will hold a contemptuous attitude towards the poor. A habit develops. And then third, the third step goes even further. It's when we become oppressive or abusive. And this happens in our culture, does it not? See the progression? It can start off by making fun, then maybe having a contemptuous attitude. And then it can get to a horrific place of even being abusive or oppressive. Now I question, how does God feel about it? He takes it personal. And then what the verse says, "Whoever mocks the poor insults his maker.

To mock the poor is to mock God." That might shock some people. Remember it is God who ordains all things. I said that earlier. It's God who ordains all things. He governs the affairs of nations and peoples. Yes, sin can be involved in someone's personal circumstances. We know that. There is this tension between man's responsibility and God's sovereignty. We know that. I've taught you that faithfully. But to mock the poor is to mock God. Now let me go back to that progression that we had earlier. To laugh at the poor is to laugh at God.

To have some type of a contemptuous attitude to the poor is to have that same contemptuous attitude towards God. And to oppress the poor, that is to oppress God. And then what the verse says, "Whoever mocks the poor insults his maker." Now I want us to see the second observation, just the progression in the verse. I want us to see we must never laugh at the hurting. We must never laugh at the hurting. Look at the second part. He who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished. Now not only must we recognize man's place in life, but we must recognize events in life. Yes, events in life. For many reasons, man may suffer calamity.

One that might come to our mind is a natural disaster. Their own mistakes can bring about calamity. Bad decisions can bring about calamity. Sin can bring about calamity. You've heard this term, we don't believe in luck, but you know some people just seem to have bad luck. Usually it's of their own making. We've heard terms like that. And there are many reasons why a man may suffer calamity. But the why is not the issue. The why is it the issue? It's the how. How a Christian reacts to the calamity, the calamity of the hurting. But here we see that a Christian must never be glad when someone or some group of people suffer calamity. Never.

Again, the question, how does God feel about it? He takes it personal. Much like the circumstance with the poor, he takes this personal. But here we see that God will punish the one who laughs at the suffering and the hurting. There are several examples in scripture. I'll give you one example in scripture and then I'll give you one example in history. In the Old Testament, in the book of Obadiah verses 12 to 16, we have an example. God judged the Edomites when they rejoiced at the calamity of Israel. He literally judged them because they rejoiced at their calamity. God punished, God had punished Israel.

And when the Edomites rejoiced, God judged them. One commentator pointed one out in history, said that the Jews in turn were destroyed by Rome. Why? For rejoicing at the persecution of the Christians by Nero in the first century. Now I usually do this when I'm teaching. I like to step back and give us a summary. In summary, what are we seeing here? A sovereign God governs and he ordains nations and peoples in circumstances. Now I can't answer the why. That's a rabbit trail for another day. We can't answer the why, but the big issue is the how. How should we react?

And if we laugh at, if we scoff at or we abuse the poor and the hurting, then we will actually be laughing at God. And listen, if we scoff at God and if we're abusive towards the hurting, we're abusive towards God. And he didn't like it. I used the term earlier, he takes it personal. And that's what the verse says. But you know, this is where I decided I would only deal with one verse. I think we need to go a little further. Before we move on, I want to ask a question. I want to go a little bit further, all right? This will force us to go further down this road and it'll help us with the application. But here's the question.

What does the New Testament have to say with this subject? What does the New Testament say about the subject of poverty? And that's a good question. I'm glad you asked it. And that'll help me go a little further, okay? Now I want to give you a few passages. And this isn't an exhaustive list, all right? You can jot them down for your own study. In 1 John chapter 3 verse 16 to 18, and I'm quoting, "By this we know, by this we know love, that he thus Christ lay down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." See, the context is Christians.

Verse 17, "But if anyone has the world's goods and he sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?" And he goes on to say, "Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but indeed and in truth." What's the principle? You see a brother and sister in need, you've got plenty and they don't. What are you supposed to do? Meet that need. Galatians 6, 10, "So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who of the household of faith." So what is Paul saying to the Galatian Christians?

He's saying, "As you have opportunity, do good to all who are in need, but especially those brothers and sisters in the church." James 11, 27, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the orphans and the widows in their affliction." Why would they be afflicted? Oh, they were worse than second class citizens in that day. Citizens had no rights, there was no social security system. Widows were third class citizens or worse. And so they were the disenfranchised. And then Galatians 2, 10, "Only they ask us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." Now that's pretty loaded. Why?

That's the great Jerusalem council and see Paul and those that were going to the Gentiles, they were going back to the Jerusalem church to see if they were running the race in vain. They had some big theological questions, but one practical thing right there at the end, they said, "Oh, Paul, don't forget the poor." And he said, "Oh, I was willing to take care of the poor." Now at this point I want to show you why I wanted to go a little further. Proverbs 17, 5 really deals with the heart. Out of the heart comes the character, isn't that right? That's the character of a man, the heart of a man.

But these few New Testament verses deal with the heart, but they deal with the context. They give us some context and they put a little more action on all of this. Do they not? I kind of saw it like this. This is a little more flesh on the bone. Now in application, I want us to see two specific lessons here and there's quite a bit of application, so follow me. In application, two specific lessons. First, we must remember the poor and the hurting in the church. We must remember those who are within the church who may be poor, disenfranchised and hurting. Brothers and sisters, go back to 1 John chapter 3 verses 16 to 18.

By this we know love, that he lay down his life for us. Christ is the best example, the greatest. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Those are people in the church. Verse 17, "But if anyone has the world's goods," they've got plenty, they've got stuff. "And he sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against them." How does God's love abide in him? That's pretty stiff. How can you say you love God when you've got a brother or a sister right next to you and they have a need?

In Galatians 6, 10, "So then, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are the household of faith." That's the brothers and sisters. Again James 11, 27, "Religion that is pure and on the five before God is to do this, to visit the widows and the orphans." Well that might be outside of the, in the culture, but that might be inside the church. Now what am I trying to show you? We must first remember those within the church. We must prioritize the poor, the disenfranchised, the hurting.

And if we have plenty and the Lord leads us and God gives us an opportunity, we're going to talk about that a little bit more. We must remember those brothers and sisters within the church. In the second lesson in application, we must remember the poor and the hurting in the world. Again, James 11, 27, "Religion that is pure and on the five before God is this, to visit the orphans and the widows." There might be orphans and widows who are outside of the life of the church.

Galatians 6, 10, "Only they ask us to remember the poor, the very thing I was willing to do." Paul, he was an apostle going around the known lost world and he was ministering to the poor outside of the church. And so we must see the priority here. We must see that those within the church get first dibs. Now right here, I want to give you some guidelines. I want to give you some guidelines. This is very, very important. These guidelines will help some immensely. This comes right out of Galatians 6, verse 10. Look at Galatians chapter 6, verse 10 again. So then, as we have the opportunity.

The first lesson or the first guideline is, "As we can." That focuses on the word opportunity. This speaks of ability, opportunity. I can or I cannot. You might not have the opportunity. You might not have the spare money. You might not have the possession. You might not have the ability. See that word opportunity? As we can. If you can, you can. If you can't, you can't. And I've helped a lot of people there. I've had people who did not have the ability, and they had to stop. They couldn't meet a need because they couldn't meet the need. They didn't have the opportunity.

But I've known people who had the opportunity, and they met need after need. Hey, here's an opportunity. Here's an opportunity. Here's an opportunity. You see? So first, the first guideline is this. As we can, as God gives us the ability, as God gives us the opportunity. I can use him as an example because he's not here to defend himself. Our old friend, Bruce. You know, as we move in the church, I'll think about Bruce, and wished he was here. This was a positive thing.

So when I say he's not here to defend himself, I'll never forget years ago when I was in youth ministry, he just didn't have the money to send his students, to send one of his boys to youth camp. He didn't have it. I said, "It's okay, Bruce. "Somebody met the need." I'll never forget the next year. He had a little more money that year, and he came up, and he said, "Somebody helped me. "Now I wanna help somebody else." See, you had the opportunity. You see? So first, our first guideline as we can. But then second is our order of priority. You might say, "Brother Chris, you've said that." No, it needs to be repeated.

First to the church, then to the world. Because there are always these people that are susceptible to every need, every sad commercial, every neighbor that has a need, every vagrant that they run across at the service station. There are people, they just have a soft heart and a giving spirit, and they'll just give, and give, and give. And so we must see an order of priority. And look, when you look at opportunity and ability and order of priority, in many ways, it'll help you be sober. That's why I think these are extremely important. These are some guidelines here. Now before I continue, I wanna give you some words of explanation.

You might not be keeping your ear to the ground. I know some in this room do keep their ear to the ground. I am not advocating for this big social justice movement that's very popular today. I am not. Now if you don't know what I'm talking about, we'll engage with you a little bit later. There's a big social justice movement in my country, in our country, and I'm not from this victimhood mentality. I'm not for all of this socialism and redistribution of wealth. No, that's not what I'm talking about. But what I'm trying to show you is, we must remember the poor and hurting in the church.

We must, as we can, remember the poor and hurting in the world, and again, our guidelines, as we can, if we can, if we have the ability, and then keep the priority as it should be according to the scripture. Now a question, still dealing with application. How is your heart for the poor and the hurting? Remember now, heart produces character. Character is what produces action. Who you are determines what you do. And so what we must do is we must ask God to show us what our heart is like. We cannot look at our actions. Let me give you a verse, I'm not gonna read it. 1 Samuel 16, 7.

You read that verse and you tell me if we can look at our own actions and determine what our heart's like. We can't because we're sinful. It takes God to reveal to us what our heart is. I'll give you an example. This is one that I heard a preacher say years ago. I've always remembered this. And I'm sure I'll twist the story around, but I think you'll get the point. I heard the story of a lady who was involved in a church. She was a fine Christian lady, but she had plenty. She had plenty. And every year this lady who had plenty would go and she would buy herself a whole new wardrobe for the year.

And there was a lady in her church that was less fortunate and she would take all of her clothes from the previous year and give them to the lady who was less fortunate. Now the lady who was less fortunate loved the Lord and she was happy to get it. But you know the lady that had plenty began to puff up in pride. And see God did a work in her heart and God did a work and showed her, you know you really don't love her like you think you do. And the Lord did a work in her heart and said, I tell you what you do, the Lord speaking to her. Now I'm kind of adding some words to it.

The Lord did a work in her heart and basically said, if you really love her and you really wanna bless her, you buy her a whole new wardrobe and you keep your leftovers. You see, it takes God to show us what our heart really is. And we can be doing a good thing and we really might not know the condition of our heart and our motive and what we're thinking. You see? Now, as I begin to conclude, I wanna share with you two stories, okay? This is out of my youth ministry years and I'm not telling you this to pull on your heartstrings. No, that's not what I'm trying to do. I wanna illustrate how I feel we need to conclude this, okay?

And this is a good lesson. This is a lesson out of how we should love the poor and love the hurting that we come across. And I wanna conclude with two words, but I wanna tell two stories to get there. I'll never forget when I was at First Baptist Church, Ellisville, there was a young lady that came in the life of our church. I'll say young lady, young girl, her name was Sarah. Sarah. She came from the wrong side of the tracks, that kind. She just had a rough life. Her dad died in an accident and she wouldn't mind me telling this story. Her dad died in an accident. Her home life really wasn't very godly.

We ministered to all of their family and she just came from a difficult family life, poor and sinful. But you know, we reached out to her in our youth ministry and more we begin to pour into her like we would anybody. It didn't matter. We poured into Sarah and poured into Sarah and lo and behold, God worked in her life and God saved her and she married a young man in the life of the church. And listen, they both came from opposite ends of the spectrum socially. She came from the wrong side of the tracks and he came from a very prominent family. A lot of people were surprised and God put them together.

And right now today, she loves the Lord, has a wonderful family, active in the life of her church. Matter of fact, she goes to church in Jackson. You know, on Sunday morning, if you come break, wanna come break in my house, we set the burglar alarm. The burglar alarm's the television. My wife thinks if you turn the TV on and leave, that I will keep the burglar away. One Sunday morning, we turned the TV on and it was a broadcast of a church service. And there she is singing in the choir. I just cried like a baby. Now, what am I trying to show you? Success. It was a success story. But you know, here's what I want you to see.

The success is up to God. God is the one that does that. But you know, the other side of that is I remember two other little girls that came at the same time. And their situation's not the same. They're not living for the Lord. As adults now, they're just not. But what am I trying to show you? We are not responsible for the success. That's God's business. We are responsible for obedience. You see, we are responsible for obedience. And we must love the poor. We must love the hurting.

Listen, in the church first, in the church, and then in the world as we can, as we have opportunity, as God gives us the ability, and that could be so many different ways, you see? And look, I've been calling these lessons. You can call them a message. This is a lesson in Christian character. And yes, I've taken a lot of time just on that verse, verse five. And I've gone straight into a whole lot out of the New Testament, but I think it's all very, very applicable to where we are.

And look, as we go out into our world, as we wanna see God grow our church and God brings people in the life of the church and in our life, listen, this must be a part of our character. And it can only be a part of our character if God does a work in our heart. And when God develops that character trait in us, then it'll come out. It'll come out. It'll come out different for you than it does for me. You see? And I'm gonna tell you, if you allow God to do this work in you, you will be used in a way in which you never imagined and you will get some joy that others just don't get. There'll be somebody right over here. They just don't get it.

They're not in that game and they're missing out. Now, I think about this as I close, and I'm speaking spiritually. You really think about it. We were all the poorest of poor. Were we not? Before Christ, I was wretched. I'm so glad that Jesus loved a poor, wretched sinner. And listen, he never turned away the poor. He never turned away the disenfranchised. He touched the lepers, the dirty, the blind, and you name it, I could go on. So let's just pray that God will do this work in us. Let's pray, let's take this verse, let's take these scriptures, and let's pray that God will raise us up to be that kind of people, okay?

And it'll shock you what God will do. In you first, in you first, and in the life of the church with other people.