Better is a Dry Morsel with Quiet

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Okay, if you will and if you have your Bibles, go to the 17th chapter of Proverbs.
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As Brother Mike announced on Sunday, we've kind of went backwards, forwards, backwards, forwards.
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And that's just because of the way things have been going.
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But tonight I want to ask us to look at something in Chapter 17 of Proverbs and just really want to consider the very first verse in the chapter.
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And again, as we've been saying, or as I have been saying, and Brother Keith has been also saying, it would be way too much to try to look at a whole chapter in every verse, and certainly, particularly in the Book of Proverbs, because there are so many different subjects that are covered in each of these chapters, even though the chapters are not inspired.
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But yet, I do think it's profitable for us to look at them and to choose, at times, certain ones to highlight.
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And then, at other times, to look at a portion or a theme or whatever.
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But anyway, tonight I want to look at the first verse and I want to address that verse.
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So let me read it to you.
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Proverbs 17, verse 1, Better is a dry morsel with quietness than a house full of feasting with strife.
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Better is a dry morsel with quietness than a house full of feasting with strife.
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Let me just, as we begin, say a few things of what I do not think this verse is seeking to teach us.
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I do not believe that these words are meant to try to teach us that, in and of itself, poverty is a virtue.
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In other words, if we have nothing or just a dry morsel, then that's great.
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I do not believe that.
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And I say this because there are some people that would lean that way, that it's not really teaching that poverty, in and of itself, is a virtue.
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And I would also say that I do not believe that quietness here is teaching, in any sense, the word isolationism.
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And I hope to show that to you as we go through this.
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Because I do think, if we're not careful in any subject, and in any time we look at the word of God, if we're not careful, we can certainly, as I always usually say, we could fall into a ditch on either side.
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And many times, that's where we go.
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We go to extremes.
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And that something along these lines could be taken in an extreme way, but that the idea is neither that we would just be so overwhelmed with a desire for poverty, nor that we would think that it's teaching us that we ought to be isolationists.
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I would also ask you to think about the subject for consideration tonight, in my mind, is neither the dry morsel nor the house full of feasting.
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The subject matter, and I believe we can consider that, is the quietness versus the strife.
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In other words, the dry morsel is given to us to help us to understand the subject, which I believe, at that point, is quietness, and that also the house full of feasting is given to us to help us to understand that the real contrast here, or the real teaching here, again, is that there is something of greater value in quietness than there is in strife, and so I think that is something for us to consider.
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And I do think it's relevant.
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I think it's relevant today because, again, as I say, we live in a day of extremes, and I think that is clearly seen.
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Some seek to rid themselves, still believing that the way to have quietness is to be a loner, or be alone, and so there are those that seek today to, if you will, disassociate themselves in society and kind of abandon any interaction, not wanting to get involved in any sort of strife, and so there's this movement, in a sense, of many, and there's a number of reasons, but I think part of the reason is why many people want to live off the grid and just kind of want to go into the world of their own, and that's because they want to disconnect from the strife and from the intermingling of society, and I believe even through church history, you could show that, as you consider some of what the Anabaptists desired to do, and even further on in our day, the Amish and some of the Mennonites and desiring to disassociate themselves from the general society and population, and therefore thought that they would live in quietness, and I've never found out, we used to travel through Pennsylvania with the kids, we'd go on vacation, and I always remember stopping through the Amish lands in Pennsylvania, and it just always made me laugh or smile when they had all those nice quilts that they would sell that they had done by hand, and they didn't have electricity and all, yet they took Master Carter Visa if you wanted to buy the quilt, so it just always, something wasn't right with that, but my point is that there are some people who will seek to disassociate themselves, and to me, and I'm not saying you shouldn't, but some people do it as an extreme to, again, seek this quietness, and then there are others, and we have so many examples of that in our day, who have such a desire for things, and feasting, and the things that go along with abundance that they seem to be absolutely consumed with nothing but a desire for more, and more, and more, and more, and as we work through this, I will hope to show you that many times, more, and more, and more, and more is nothing but more strife, and more strife, and more strife and that, and remember what the word of God says, that he who loves silver shall never be satisfied with silver, so something to think about as we go through this.
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The real issue to me in this verse is, what is better? What is of more value? What is more prosperous? What is more beneficial, quietness or strife? And so, what I thought of doing was, as we begin, is to look at a few scriptures to try to set that before us.
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In other words, that I do believe the real contrast of the dry muscle of quietness versus the house full of feasting with strife is that the quietness is better, and if that takes a dry muscle to accomplish it, so be it, but that the point is, one's of greater value and one, if you will, yields greater peace and ultimately prosperity, if nothing else, but spiritual prosperity.
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So let me ask you to consider a couple verses, and I try to stay in the book of Proverbs, and if you want to turn there, that's fine, they're close, but if not, just if you would listen, right back in chapter 15 of Proverbs, I wanna look at a verse, and again, I'm just gonna read through these because I do think it'll help support what I've said, that the real issue is of what's better means what's of greater value.
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Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 16, it says, better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with trouble.
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Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with trouble, and then verse 17, better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatted calf with hatred.
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So there again, you see how it is drawing the contrast of what is of more value, what should our desire be for in order to have quietness, as we will hopefully look more into the idea of quietness, but nevertheless, this is a recurring theme.
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In chapter 16 of Proverbs, and again, we didn't hit every verse in these chapters, so that's why I'm asking us to look at it.
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In Proverbs chapter 16, and actually the 16th verse, I mean, the eighth verse, I wanted to look at this.
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Look what it says.
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Proverbs 16, eight, better is a little with righteousness than vast revenues without justice.
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Better of more value, of more prosperity, of greater peace is a little with righteousness than vast revenues without justice.
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Now, I do not, again, believe that if you have abundance that you won't have peace, I'm not saying that.
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What I'm saying is the emphasis in these verses is if we had to desire one over the other being quietness or strife, then even if it took a morsel of bread, a dry morsel, versus a house full of feasting, that we would certainly choose the dry morsel.
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In Proverbs chapter 21, again, it's interesting that these themes come up and these subject matters come up over and over again to Solomon.
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In Proverbs chapter 21, verse 19, and again, I'm just trying to draw the contrast that better means of more value, but it is better, Proverbs 21, 19, it is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman.
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And so certainly there's other Proverbs that it's better for a man, basically, to be alone than to be in a house with an angry woman.
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But again, the thought is it is better, it's of more value, if need be, to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious woman.
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In Proverbs chapter 28, and again, I hope I'm showing my point to you clearly and not just something that I thought of.
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In Proverbs chapter 28, and I wanna look at verse six, look what it says there, Proverbs 28, six, it says, better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one perverse in his ways, though he be rich.
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Again, it's using this idea of having little versus having much, but the thought is, it's the quietness that might come from even having little versus the contention, strife, and problems that come to many who are rich.
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There's a verse in Psalm 37, you don't have to turn to it, Psalm 37, it says, a little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked.
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A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked.
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Solomon, who also wrote in chapter 17, he also penned Ecclesiastes, and in Ecclesiastes, there's a number of verses that address this very subject, and I will just remind you, in Ecclesiastes four, it says this, better a handful with quietness than both hands full together with toil and grasping for the wind.
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Better a handful with quietness than both hands full together with toil and grasping for the wind.
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Solomon also said this, he said, better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire.
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Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire.
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So again, I hope I have shown the meaning of better in both contrast and in worth.
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So, and we'll look at a New Testament scripture in a bit, but so let me try this, let me try to go back to Proverbs chapter 17, and I believe, and again, I'm no Hebrew scholar, but for me, I think I could say this verse based on what I've been trying to look at in the verse, say it this way, and it's not good grammar, but I think you could say this verse this way, it is gooder, again, not the best grammar, it is gooder or more value and worth to have a dry morsel with peace than abundance with adversity and contention.
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And so for you and for me, brothers and sisters, and it might be easier for those who have little to think, well, they're closer to getting to that point of quietness, and that's not necessarily true.
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You remember what David said? Remember what David said at one point, he said, Lord, don't give me too much because what? I'll forget you, and don't give me too little because I'll steal.
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He says, give me what's convenient for me.
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And in that sense, every one of us has a place where God puts us and God keeps his hand on us so that we don't fall into the ditch on either side, which again, I say many times, we're often busy trying to dig ourselves out of a hole that we dug rather than just looking at God's word and understanding it.
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So, and I was thinking about this, brothers and sisters, and again, it's just a number of thoughts for tonight.
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I was thinking of how so many that have so much have so much adversity in their lives.
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I think when you read the tabloids, and believe me, I don't read the tabloids, but you know, when you go through the grocery store and I don't know why they keep them behind the little piece of cardboard or whatever it is, is it, you know, it's some secret thing.
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I guess they just want you to buy their thing, but you read that and then you listen to the news and you just hear of people who have, even as the psalmist says, more than they need.
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And yet for all of that, they, so many of them have so many issues.
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I mean, so many of them go through so many marriages, they go through marriages like I change socks and I don't even wear socks.
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But so many of them, they're full of adversity.
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They just cannot, for all their abundance, they cannot escape contention and strife and trouble.
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You just think about it, think about the, especially when it comes to the Hollywood group and the elitist and those who think that they are a cut above.
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And it's a good lesson for us to think about that, that you cannot, you cannot violate God's word without a consequence, you just can't do it.
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And it might go for a while, but sooner or later, God's word takes hold of everyone.
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And so you see these people and it's most disturbing because there are many people who wanna be just like those people that all they have, for all they have, they have nothing but strife and yet there's so many people that wanna be like them.
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Don't make sense.
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And again, that's because of, in many ways, the lie and the evil one, that more and more and more means more and more and more for you and you'll have more peace and greater happiness and greater joy and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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I was thinking that at times it seems so hard, especially in our society, especially in our country.
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I mean, friends, the poorest of us in our country live like kings compared to most of the world.
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Most of us are not fighting over what we're going to eat tomorrow.
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What we wind up becoming involved with is what particular thing we're gonna eat.
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Am I gonna have steak or am I gonna have ribs tomorrow? And we live like fatted kings.
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And I was thinking about how, in many ways, one of the sources of contention and strife and adversity is the very fact of having so many choices to choose from.
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And I've seen people, and I'm sure you have, I've seen people shopping in a store and I don't care whether it's for soap detergent or cereal or shampoo, I've seen people walking up and down the aisle looking at 50 different kinds of shampoos and my goodness, they open every bottle and smell every bottle.
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And they almost seem perplexed and it almost seems like they're full of strife and adversity and contention because they have so much to choose from.
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I remember when I was growing up, and again, we didn't have much.
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And I can remember growing up and we didn't have the means to do what many other people did.
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And there was a sense of peace that came from that because I knew when we went to the store, it was cornflakes in the big box or cornflakes in the big box.
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I didn't have to worry about all the different cereals that fill an aisle in a grocery store because it really was only gonna be cornflakes or cornflakes and it was going to be the generic brand also.
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But I made that illustration to try to show what I believe in part this verse is seeking to present to us that it is better, it's of more value, if need be, to have nothing but a dry morsel with quietness than to have an abundance or feasting or more than heart could desire if it brings nothing but strife and adversity and contention in the issues that come.
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I would ask you to consider this.
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If we think about, let's just say 100 years ago, maybe a little bit more, but let's just go back a little bit in our minds in our own country.
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And I suppose we would say, you know what? Brother Matt had asked me how my son was doing and I told him it's like it never happened because he fell and broke his back.
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And it's amazing how God, 30 years ago, he would have sat in a wheelchair for the rest of his life or been disabled for the rest of his life.
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And I thought about in so many ways, if you go back not too long ago in our history, things were hard in many ways, especially in the area of technology and science and medicine and advancements and whatnot.
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But I do believe there was a sense in which, in some ways, it was much better.
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It was gooder, if you will, because there was a lot more quietness.
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There was a lot less strife.
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And certainly, again, in and of itself, not that having little is the only answer, but it's the quietness.
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But nevertheless, it seemed as if people were a little less agitated, a little less contentious, a little less filled with strife.
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Doesn't mean they didn't have problems.
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Didn't mean they don't have trials.
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But certainly, this whole idea of being so cluttered and so full of things, and even as Jesus said, right? A man's life consists not in the what? In the abundance of things he possesses.
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Now again, I don't think Jesus was saying that we should sell all that we have and go live in a monastery either.
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And if you want to do that, invite me to your house and I'll take some of your goods to my house before you go to your monastery life.
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Because I don't believe that that's what we're called to do.
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Point is, what I believe the emphasis is, is that you and I would consider that it is of greater value, if need be, to have very little and quietness.
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And quietness being not troubled, not full of contention, peaceful.
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And really, the way for true peace is where? Peace with God, right? That again, there are many who have an abundance and they still have quietness because they are quiet with God, before God, and to God.
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But the real answer is that the desire should be for the people of God, if need be.
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And that's where our lives, I believe that's the way we ought to pray.
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Lord, if I have so much that all I have is contention and strife, take it from me.
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I'm better off with quietness before you than having all the luxuries and all the possessions and all the entanglements of the world.
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Again, this message is not just solely for quietness versus strife.
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Just think about it.
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It's really the whole principle about two different worlds and two different worldviews and two different senses of peace and enjoyment.
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And where is it that we truly find our greatest peace? Is it in walking quietly before God? Or is it in having the latest, the newest, the greatest? And I have a really fleshly mind.
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And I remember one time, my grandson was over the house.
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Don't ask me why, he's 15 years old, he weighs 270 pounds.
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And he was watching, there's a show on wedding dresses.
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My wedding dress or something like that, where some of you are smiling, so I guess you know what I'm talking about.
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You think I'm crazy.
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But they go to the, they're getting married and the girl takes a group of women with her and they go to pick out a dress.
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And for some of them, it winds up being a fight.
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Some of them are shedding tears.
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Some of them go through 42 different dresses.
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Some of them hock their children or grandchildren to buy a dress for somebody else.
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And again, there's such a foolishness in that.
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Because really, many times, and I'm not saying that that in and of itself is wrong.
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Although a guy, he goes in, he rents a tuxedo, but we're done, I don't have to wear socks with a tuxedo, I'm cool.
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But it's the whole idea of the quietness, brothers and sisters, versus the strife, versus the aggravation, versus the adversity that comes with it.
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And that if nothing else, that should be our prayer.
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Lord, if it takes a dry muscle for me to be quiet before you, then give me a dry muscle.
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And Lord, if it's nothing but contention and strife and adversity for me to have so much, take from me until I get to that point where I have that quietness.
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I wanna look at a New Testament scripture.
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And we're moving along, so let me ask you to turn to 1 Timothy 2 for a minute.
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I wanna look at something and ask you to consider.
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1 Timothy chapter two.
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That is a very familiar portion of scripture.
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But again, even in this, I do think at times, it's misunderstood and mishandled.
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And so 1 Timothy 2, and let me just read a couple of verses and it'll come right back to you.
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Paul says this, therefore I exhort first of all that supplications and prayers and intercession and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all who are in authority.
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Now watch what he says, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.
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And we'll stop there.
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But for kings, for all that are in authority, why that we might lead a quiet and peaceable life before our God.
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And this is where I do think, and I might be off script a little bit.
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And let me quote to you, James Fawcett Brown, because he had a remark about this.
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And I thought it was real good.
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He said this, he said, the point is that we may lead, that we may be blessed with such good government as to lead or rather as Greek to pass or spend the prayers of Christians to the government, bring down from heaven, peace and order in a state quietness not troubled from without, peaceable, tranquil, not troubled from within.
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And let me ask us to think about this because here's where I do think sometimes we miss the mark in this.
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I will suggest that there are many and there are a number of those who even profess to be in a right relationship with God, profess to be Christians.
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That there are times when they vote not based upon truth, but they vote by their pocketbook.
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And again, you might disagree with me and that's certainly something we could discuss.
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But I wonder sometimes that the Christian block, the evangelical block of voters, which is coveted in our day, right? That they try to draw us in because they want our vote and that many in that group do not vote for those who will, by God's grace, allow us to lead a quieter, peaceful life, but rather by those who put more money in our pocket.
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And again, this has nothing to do with affiliation of Democrat or Republican or Libertarian.
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It has to do with, and again, do we pray for those who have rule over us that they might just do what we want them to do or that they might rule in a godly way so that we can live quiet and peaceable before our God? Or do we just want them to follow our agenda? And I could spend a lot of time and I know I'm off subject now, but just thinking about how it's somewhat dangerous to vote by agenda unless your agenda is to live a quiet and peaceable life.
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But that's a different thought for a different time.
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But our prayers, brothers and sisters, should be that those who have rule over us, that they would rule in such a way to restrain evil and to allow us to live a quiet and peaceable life, not necessarily just to legislate Christian principles.
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Because I will say this to you, brothers and sisters, we're never gonna live in a Christian country unless everyone is a child of God.
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And it wouldn't take many in government to ruin that if even a few were apart from them.
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So just something to think about.
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And so when he says that he desires that we would pray for all in authority, that we would lead a quiet and peaceable life, I liken it going back to this thought of what Solomon says in Proverbs chapter 17, that it would be better for us to have less if that means that we can walk quietly before our God.
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And that in many ways we seek, many, many people seek a government that will just give more and more and more and that could lead us down a whole other discussion that we ought not to go to right now.
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But you know what's interesting as we start to close this, if you think about who wrote this, this is Solomon.
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This is Solomon.
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This is the one who had more than any other king.
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To the point where they even silver and other precious metals will consider this nothing.
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They drank out of gold cups and everything was a gold and everything was every abundance that Solomon could have, he had.
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And if you read through Ecclesiastes, you will see that Solomon comes back to in many ways, all of that is grasping for the wind and there's nothing better for a man at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes when he said, nothing better than to what? Basically nothing better but to walk before God in quietness.
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He says, I tried this, I had that, I had this, I had that, I had manservants, maidservants, concubines, I had mirth, I had wisdom, I had every possible thing.
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Better is quietness and if need be a dry morsel than to have a house full of feasting wood strife.
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All right, I wanna close but I do wanna do something and I will ask you and if you want to, I wanna read Isaiah 32 and I will not ask us, I will not ask us to think about it, I just wanna read it because there's a verse or two in it that I believe kind of summarizes some of this and I'll just read it, Isaiah 32.
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It says this, behold, the king will reign in righteousness and princes will rule with justice and a man will be as a hiding place from the wind and a cover from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
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The eyes of those who see will not be dim.
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The ears of those who hear will listen.
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The heart of the rash will understand knowledge.
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The tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.
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The foolish person will no longer be called generous nor the wise, the miser said to be bountiful for the foolish person will speak foolishness and his heart will work iniquity to practice ungodliness to utter error against the Lord to keep the hungry unsatisfied and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
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And also the schemes of the schemer of evil are evil and he devises wicked plans to destroy the poor with lying words even when the needy speaks justice, excuse me.
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But a generous man devises generous things and by generosity he shall stand.
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Rise up you women who are at ease and hear my voice.
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You complacent daughters give ear to my speech.
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In a year and some days you will be troubled.
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You complacent women for the vintage will fall, will fail and the gathering will not come.
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Tremble you women who are at ease, be troubled you complacent ones.
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Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare and gird sackcloth on your waist and people shall mourn upon their breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
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On the land of my people will come up thorns and briars, yes on all the happy homes in the joyous city because the palaces will be forsaken.
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The bustling city will be deserted.
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The forts and the towers will become lairs forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks until the spirit of the Lord is poured out on us from on high and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field and the fruitful field is counted as a forest.
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Then justice will dwell in the wilderness.
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Righteousness remain in the fruitful field and the work of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
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And my people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places and they'll hail come down on the forest and the city is brought low in humiliation.
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Blessed are you who sow besides all waters, who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.
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And so you see my friends, it's not just something that Solomon said, this whole idea of having peace with God, living in quietness and if need be, whatever it takes to get us there is ultimately what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us.
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He has quieted the wrath of God and he has brought us near to him in peace.
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So may God bless us.
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All right, let us just close with a word of prayer.
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Our Father God, again, we thank you for your word.
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Lord, thank you that we can consider it.
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Thank you that we can desire of you to help us to understand it and not only understand it, to implement it in our lives, Lord.
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And may we be people who desire quietness with you, first, and then with all men.
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May we live peaceably with all men, but Lord, may we be those who see the value and the worth and the dignity and the privilege of living quiet before you, of having peace of heart and peace with one another.
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Bless us, oh Lord, and may we grow in the grace and in the knowledge of that one again who so loved us that he gave himself for us.
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Amen.