An Introduction to Proverbs
April 16, 2026
This week’s missionary letter is from the Walker family with Roundup Ministries. It says we have again been in a whirlwind with our meetings. We were in Arizona for four weeks and then New Mexico for four weeks. It was exciting to see the Lord move in so many wonderful ways. This is undoubtedly the best meetings we have had in the West since COVID. The crowds were tremendous. Six out of the eight churches had record-breaking attendance.
It was a joy to see this for these hardworking preachers. While we were with Pastor Mike Moffitt, we had a very unusual thing happen. Two visitors in attendance didn’t speak English. After the service, while talking to them, we realized that one spoke the language of a visiting missionary. We got them together and she was sweetly saved. Another saved visitor from another church spoke Spanish and was able to lead the other lady to the Lord.
Divine appointments are sweet. While with Pastor Joel Sloan, a member who is not able to often attend was available to come for the big day. One of her neighbors then contacted her to say she had seen the advertisement on social media and wanted to go. When the church member picked her and her children up, the lady said, “We need God in our lives,” of course.
You guessed it, the lady and her children were saved, and they stayed after for the meal, and we feel confident they will be attending that church. God uses big days to draw folks to himself, as well as to these local New Testament churches. We have been busy raising money for new inflatables. Our bull, mat, and bounce were bought 15 years ago. They are in rough shape. We also are getting rid of the bigger items that will enable us, at our age, to more easily set up and tear down the carnival.
We are excited about what God has brought in, and we’ll be picking up three of the items next week, which saved us so much on shipping. Praise the Lord for those who gave. The carnival is one of our greatest attractions to bring in the lost. We want to endeavor to continue it for as long as it is physically possible. We just finished our last meeting for March at New Heights Baptist Church in Albuquerque. They really worked hard with social media advertising and flyers.
Their largest day previously was 240, and they had 326 in attendance, not counting their normal church folk. The total saved was 68, which included 13 saved under the soul-winning tent. Wow, it was a fun carnival, so many visitors. They handed out packets about their upcoming Easter Sunday and explained to the folks about their many ministries.
We know they will see new members, and the preacher said that they have so much to follow up on that it will keep them busy until summer. Our total saved for the last two months is 251. Now we are heading to Louisiana for four weeks. Jeannie and her two girls went home. She finally felt like she could be home alone and wanted to try it. Thank you to all those who have helped pray for her through these difficult years.
It’s just Loretta and I for the next six meetings. Then a young couple will be joining us for the summer and fall. Pray for them to be able to raise some support to afford the travel. This might be a stepping stone for them to get into the ministry full time. Let’s go ahead and take the Walkers to the Lord in prayer.
Dear God, we thank you so much for this dear family that’s been doing this for so many years, going to churches around America, setting up and drawing crowds so that way they can show people about you. Lord, we thank you so much for the hundreds they’ve seen saved over the past just two months. God, you’re still in the saving business, and we thank you so much for it. Lord, they didn’t really mention many needs in this missionary letter outside of the couple that’s joining them to raise some funds. We pray that you’d help with that, and for the inflatables, and we pray that you’d help them with that. But God, I know that there are many more needs that they have that aren’t listed in this letter. I pray that you would just be with them through it all—through financial needs, through health needs, through spiritual needs. God, give them traveling mercy as they travel all over the country, spreading your gospel. Again, thank you so much for a wonderful family like the Walkers. Just be with them in everything that they do. We ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The Walker family is a great family. They’re always good about winning souls. That’s why we support them for years; they are always after winning souls. They use that cowboy carnival. I tell you what, we’ve seen—we’ve had them here a couple times, and we’ve had a couple people kiss the little horse they’ve had. Stephen Evans… I can’t remember who all did that, but they use all that to get people in here and get people saved. I have a neighbor down the street that came years ago and we got saved at that. Just God used them. Praise the Lord for the Walkers. And we get to have the privilege of just a part in their ministry of seeing people saved all over the place.
Get your card. If you need that, fill that out—prayer request. We’ll get those passed over to Bill Jr. He’ll lead us in prayer here in just a minute.
Good to see everybody on Wednesday night. Thrilled you are here. It was around—well, I didn’t get here too late, maybe 6:20 or so. I walked in, and there were about three people in here. And I thought, “All right, where two or three are gathered, amen, we’re all right.” But you kept coming in, amen. Praise the Lord for that. I like that. Good to see you out on Wednesday night. Thrilled to see you. Miss Reese, don’t start yawning already. Goodness gracious. We’re just starting out here, you know.
Saturday’s going to be a busy day. A lot going on. The ladies are going to the ladies meeting—Women of the… All right, all right. And soul winning: if you can go, just knock some doors, try to tell somebody about Jesus. We’ll meet at 9:30. Some of our men are going to the car show. They say they’re going to promote the radio station, but I think they’re going for the cars, you know. But good for them. They’ve got some things to pass out. That’s awesome. A great place to do it at. They’ve got advertisements for our radio station and for the church, and I think it’s a great idea. So we’ll be here, there, and yonder on Saturday. It’ll be a busy day, a good day. Pick a spot and get involved in it. That’d be great, and I think you’ll enjoy it. There really is joy when you get involved in the work of the Lord.
If you get your prayer request cards filled out, pass them down the aisle. Our ushers will walk by and collect those. We don’t have—we’ve got a couple, not too many tonight. But let’s pray. Now, 7 o’clock or somewhere on there, we’re going to… No, it won’t be 7 o’clock because we started at 6:30. I got that thing mixed up in my head, but we’ll pray tonight. We’ll pray tonight about the sale of the property and whatnot. And I’ve told you, told you Sunday night about that bill. Now, we’ve got a bill that is due for the steel building and whatnot. It is $675,000. And Brother Patterson said he had that extra in his savings. But no, we’re about a little over $100,000 short in the building program. This is what we’ve raised. I try to mention that from time to time. Part of that has been spent on what we’ve got to get us to this point now. So we’re about $105,000 short on that. Now, we can take it from our loan anytime. We’re good there. It’s not like we can’t—we don’t have access to it—but we don’t want to draw from that loan until we have to.
So May 3rd, May 3rd is our big day. We’re going to have the—I’m calling this the post-groundbreaking service. You know, we had the pre-groundbreaking service, Brother Frank. Then we had the groundbreaking ceremony. And now this is the post-groundbreaking ceremony, you know. After Sunday morning service, we’ll head over there. We’ll have heavy equipment over there. We’ll push some dirt, take a shovel or the backhoe or something. We’ll do something, but it’ll be a big day. Now, that’s Sunday. Everything that comes in the offering plate, unless it is designated, will go towards the building. We serve a mighty working God. Nothing is too hard for him. Jeremiah 32 said nothing is too hard for him. I want you to pray. I want you to pray. Now, by that time, we’ll have the $14,000s come in, and we’ll owe about 90—we’ll need about $90,000 towards this bill so we don’t have to take from the loans. So I want you to pray. I want us to pray. Look, you have not because you ask not. And when you pray, would you pray this: “God, would you enable me to do something special on that day?” And let’s pray for that offering on May 3rd. It’ll be a special day, and everything that comes in will go towards that. Do we have it? Yes, we can take from the loan and all that, but we don’t want to take from the loan then, because then we got to draw interest, and it’s going to take away from our monthly amount going to this and all that. We don’t want to go there until we have to.
And so I want you to pray, “Lord, would you enable us just to give $90,000?” You say, “Man, that’s a lot.” Yeah, but we’ve got a mighty God. And so let’s go in faith. It may be—it may be the Lord would have someone put a contract on this property, and they have cash. I’m on the Children’s Home Board down at Good Shepherd’s Children’s Home Board down there. And we—of course, they bought land a couple of years ago. I can’t remember all; I’ve slept since then, you know. And trying to build over there, they’ve sold their property contingent; they can stay until that’s done. Very similar to what we want to do. And they went to a foundation—a foundation that said, “Hey, we’ll give you some money when you start building.” About a month ago, they went to the foundation, got the report in, and that foundation is giving $1.2 million. Amen, amen, towards that build. And God can do it, and he can just work. And let’s just trust the Lord and ask the Lord. Lord, May 3rd… You know, it’s good for us to have to exercise our faith in prayer muscles. And so let’s do that. Let’s go to Him in faith about this thing here, and let’s just see what the Lord will do. And let’s be obedient. Whatever He tells me to do, I want to do it. But let’s just go in faith and obedience. And Lord, we’re just—we’re seeking you. Faithful is he who calleth you, who also will do it. He’s called us to this, and he’s led, and he’s made it very clear, just so many miracles that got us to this point. He didn’t—he didn’t bring us to this point just to stop. And so let’s go forward in faith. And, um…
You know, Moses there, and they’re running from Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and they come to the Red Sea. And they go, “What do we do?” And the Lord said, “Go forward. Go forward.” And the Lord can handle these problems. Let’s just keep going forward in faith, trusting and asking God, “Would you do that?”
Brother Bill, I apologize. I meant to write these out, and I did not. But Sandra Beard, Brother Alma Ramer’s daughter. She did such an excellent job taking care of her dad. He’s 101 now. And I don’t know if it was this morning or yesterday or something—I think it was maybe yesterday—she said it looks like he’s going downhill very quickly here at the end. She’s been saying that for a little bit, but she said it looked like it’s really starting to happen. So would you pray for Alma Ramer? At 101, he’s lived a long life, friend. And she sent me a picture a whole week ago. She had a picture of his T-shirt on. It said, “It’s taken me 101 years to look this good,” something like that. And I thought it was cute. But can you imagine she’s been taking care of her dad for years and years and years? And so it’s going to be hard on her, too. So pray for her, if you would, for both of them.
And one other one I meant to wrap up. Scott and Brother Josh, did you put Scott and Ashley on a prayer request in there? Okay, good deal. Scott and Ashley, they come sometimes. They’ve got some of these boys that sat down front here. They’ve come here and there. They’re on the north route. And Ashley’s dad passed, oh, about a week ago. So just pray for her and the family, if you would. Praise the Lord, little brother Josh got to witness to him just the day before he passed, was it? And praise the Lord, he settled his salvation, knows for sure where he’s at. That’s brought so much peace to that family. And praise the Lord for soul winners, amen. And being out and about, ready and willing to witness whenever you can—that’s just awesome. That’s the right way it should be. Would you remember those two, if you would? I didn’t write them down. Sorry about it. Brother Bill, would you come lead us in prayer for our prayer requests and then offering plates?
Okay, good evening. Brother Josh, it’s Jerry, right? Yes, okay. Jerry, yeah. Terry. Terry, okay. And he has a Terry Jr. Yes, pray for him too. Adam, the Millers. Pastor Dave Dunbar recovering from heart surgery—that’s a prayer request. And Donna Breyer, she had a bad car accident. She was in a deep coma. So pray for her recovery, and of course, wisdom for the family and grace for the family at this time. Dina and John Sharp: praises for beautiful weather. The weather’s been beautiful. Flowers. The Lord is good. Our niece—continued prayers for her surgery, prayers for her mental health as she goes forward with the recovery. Pray for your niece. What’s her name? Destiny. Mrs. Patterson, “God is faithful”—that’s a praise. Amen. I’m thankful for that. Prayer request: Jerry Matthews is having open heart surgery. We’ll pray for Jerry Matthews. One other thing, we passed an accident coming here, and they were cleaning up. My guess is it was either a construction worker or a tow truck driver, but he was laid out in the road. So maybe somebody had hit him while he was trying to clean up that accident. I don’t know the details, but somebody was laid out, so we need to pray for him too. Any unspoken requests? The Lord knows our needs and knows our hearts. Let’s take these to the Lord in prayer.
Lord, Heavenly Father, Lord God, how good you are, Lord God. How beautiful, Lord God, your creation is today. This beautiful weather, Lord, and just beautiful sunshine, Lord God. And, of course, your beautiful people here, Lord God, that have gathered on this Wednesday. Thank you for your faithfulness, Lord. Lord God, please bless these your folks for their faithfulness here to come on a Wednesday, Lord, to hear your word, to fellowship with one another, Lord. What a great plan, Lord God. How great you’ve established your church, Lord. Such an awesome, awesome thing that we get to fellowship with one another and hear your word preached. Lord, pray, Lord God, we don’t take it lightly.
Lord, we just lift these prayer requests up to you tonight, Lord Father. First and foremost, Lord, you know we are in need, Lord God, of a seller or of a buyer, Lord, because we are selling this property, Lord God. Lord, you are so faithful, Lord, and you’ve asked us to ask, Lord. And so tonight, Lord God, together we are asking, Lord, of course, in faith, Lord. You can do mighty works, Lord. Selling this property would be a small thing, Lord God. For you, it would be nothing, Lord. But for us, Lord God, we would see your marvelous hand at work. We would praise you, Lord, for eternity for that, Lord. Please, Lord God, we need to sell, Lord. On May 3rd, Lord, would you bring the offering in abundantly, Lord? $91,000 is the hope, Lord. We know that’s a light thing for you, and we just pray that you would work on each and every one of our hearts to give what you’d have us give out of faith. Please be with the construction of this new church, Lord. We know that you have everything planned already, and Lord God, just grow us, Lord, in faith. Lord, and be awesome, Lord God, and I’m excited about bragging on you, Lord, about what you’re going to do in the future, Lord. We pray, Lord God, for Terry, Lord God, and the family there. I know Bentley, Lord, and Caden and Jackson personally, Lord. We just pray for that family, Lord God, at this time of their loss. We pray, Lord God, for grace and mercy there, Lord Father, please. Pour your spirit upon them, Lord God, and then use this opportunity for saving somebody, Lord God, who is dying and going to hell, Lord. Pray for Terry, Lord, and Terry Jr., Lord. Pray, Lord God, that he would get into church, Lord, and that he would serve you, Lord God. Lord, thank you for that family. Thank you for the workers, Lord, and those that have reached out to them, Lord. Please bless them for that. Thank you for them. We pray for Brother Alma Ramer, Lord, at this time. Such a sweet man, Lord. It’s great that I had an opportunity to meet him, Lord, and some of us here. Lord God, would you give him grace, Lord? His daughter, Lord, give her strength, Lord, at this time. Such a wonderful lady, Lord. We thank you for them, Lord, each and for both of them, Lord God. Thank you for them, Lord. Pray for them, Lord, please. And Lord God, these prayer requests: for Pastor Dave, Lord, would you help him recover from surgery, Lord? Help Donna Breyer, Lord Father, and her family, Lord, after her car accident. We pray for grace for that family there and wisdom, Lord God, in making decisions there, Lord Father. Please, we pray for the niece, Lord God, from the Sharps—Lord, Destiny, Lord. Would you please help her recover, Lord, from surgery? Help with the mental health, Lord. I can think of nobody better than you, Lord, at healing hearts, Lord, and recovering spirits, Lord. Lord, I just pray that she would dedicate her life and serve you, Lord God, after this recovery, Lord. We pray for Jerry Matthews as he is having open heart surgery. Would you put your hand upon him, Lord? Just guide the doctors, Lord, and keep him safe, Lord. Just pray, Lord God, that he would serve you also, Lord Father, please. Lord, thank you for this offering, Lord. Would you please bless it, Lord? Use it, Lord, for your glory, for your will, Lord. Lord, bless the giver, Lord. I’ll be with the pastor tonight as he preaches your word. Lord, I look forward to listening to what you have to say, Lord God, through your word and in Proverbs. Bless this evening and bless everyone here, Lord Father, because we praise you. God, we could do nothing without you, Lord Father. Give these prayer requests all to you, Lord God, in faith, in Christ’s name. Amen.
All right, come here and see it for this one. We’ll go to page 75, “Rejoicing in the Lord.” Page 75.
Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Proverbs, the book of Proverbs. I am going to do something a little different on Wednesday night. I’m just going to bring this—I’m going to bring this podium down. I forgot to bring it out. Brother Josh was getting it for me, and I’ll just teach from down, teach, preach from down here on the bottom floor. Thank you, Bill Josh. I appreciate that very, very much. And a couple things are going to be different tonight. One thing is I just realized—just realized—I forgot my notes. I printed them out. I studied at the house on Wednesdays and Friday morning, and the printer’s in a different room. I sent it over to the printer and printed out, but I just realized I didn’t go to the other room and get them, you know. So we’ll see how this goes.
Greetings from the Kents. I got to visit the Kents—I’ve been meaning to do it forever. Brother Bill does a better job than I on this, but I got to visit the Kents a little bit. Just sweet people. And keep praying for Brother Kent, 93 years old, and just sweet, good man. Miss Kent said this is the most he’s talked in a while. He’s a little alert. He’s kind of, you know, got dementia and whatnot. So pray for the Kents, if you would. They’ve been doing good, doing good. We’re trying to encourage him to get in church, and she says, “Pastor, I try to be on him to come,” you know. And he—and I probably shouldn’t tell on him—but he gave me a tie, a little tie. And I, of course, they’ll get in the—I already put it in an offering plate. But when I left, I should have said, “No, you bring it Sunday with you.” You know, I’m trying to get on him. But she says he’ll say he’s coming all week, then Sunday morning, you know. So pray for the Kents. Yes, they serve God pretty much all their life. Awesome people. Awesome people. So pray for the Kents, if you would, please.
The book of Proverbs, the book of Proverbs. Tonight’s just an introduction to it, I think, and we’ll see here. We’ll see.
Now, I don’t know—and I heard someone Sunday morning was spoiling you by me being a little short. I don’t know if I can follow suit with that, you know. That’s pretty tough shoes to follow up on that there, you know. Now, Ms. Deena, the more you do that, the longer it gets, and everybody’s going to be mad at you because you make it longer now, so, you know, leave it on there, you know. Proverbs chapter number one, Proverbs chapter one. Let’s stand if you would, please. I have to read God’s word together. Proverbs one and verse number… Well, now you’ve heard this before, but I’ve had it in my notes, and I’ll probably forget if I don’t say it now. By the way, we’re honored to have a guest with us tonight, and good to have her with us. She brings one of our school students to school often, and we’re honored to have her tonight. She is limited in her English. I told her I’m limited in my Spanish, and she said, “I need to come here more English.” So if she’s working on her English, how about we can all work on our Spanish? How about that? Good, Ms. Angela, you got it going there. Amen. So we’ll work on that. Good to have you. Thank you for coming tonight. Here’s what I wanted to mention: I’m going to be random tonight because it was just coming from here, and that’s a scary thing right there, I’ll tell you for sure. Thirty-one chapters. Thirty-one chapters. And so it’s just perfect. You can read a chapter a day. And I want to challenge you in that. Everyone—and sometimes it’s just for young people, and I would love it if young people would do that. I was a young person, someone challenged me, and that was such a good thing for them to do to me. But, you know, we’ll learn if I don’t forget it tonight: it’s not just for young people; it’s for all of us. But a chapter a day has just so much wisdom packed full of it, and it’ll help you. So let me give you a little challenge in that: a proverb a day. That’s such a good, good thing. Proverbs 1 and verse number 1: the Bible there says, “The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.”
And would you pray with me that the Lord would bless tonight? Father, Lord, you know why I’ve already forgotten my notes. You knew all about it. And you didn’t remind me. So, Lord, you must have a reason. And, Lord, I pray that you’d use just a messed-up old preacher, Lord, to deliver your word. And, Father, I pray that you would speak to hearts and lives. Lord, I yield to you. Bring to my mind what you want me to say. And Lord, what you don’t want to say, let me forget it. And Lord, you meet with us tonight. And give us your wisdom tonight from your word. And Lord, we’ll thank you for what you do. It’s in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
The penning of Proverbs, it says right there in that verse number one, the Proverbs of whom? Of Solomon. Now, let me say this about that: it doesn’t necessarily mean that Solomon penned every one of these. The last two chapters, we know he did not, but he compiled. He put them together, all right? Solomon—God used Solomon to pen this thing. Look over, if you will. I think it’s in First Kings chapter four. We’re about to find out. First Kings chapter four. And let’s look right here a little bit. Let’s look down in verse number 29. First Kings 4 and verse number 29. First Kings 4 and verse number 29. You’re there, amen? Amen. Look at that. And God gave—this is very important, remember that—God gave Solomon wisdom. It wasn’t from Solomon. It was from God. “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore.” Now, you remember, God showed up there and said, “Hey, Solomon, what do you want?” Solomon said, “I need wisdom so I’ll know how to rule over and be the king, so I know how to go in and come out before them.” God gave him all this wisdom, verse number 30. “And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East Country and all the wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men—than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman and Chalcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all nations roundabout.” And he spake 3,000 proverbs. Wow. And his songs were a thousand and five. He was a wise man. He had all these proverbs. And he was a musician. He was talented in so many different ways. We’ll find out some of this. Verse number 33: “And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.” These are these plants, trees, and plants. “He spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.” “There came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom.”
So God had really just perfectly designed Solomon, the perfect man for God to use to pen the book of Proverbs. And they’ve been compiling these—some of them were for him and some of those—but he compiled these thousands of proverbs, and many of those are what we have right here in the Book of Proverbs. So that’s where we get the Book of Proverbs.
Now, let me just say a word though about that. Especially in our day and time, we sometimes will emphasize so much, “Well, Paul wrote that.” You notice I usually try to say “penned,” because Paul is not the author. Solomon is not the author. James is not the author. And sometimes it just seems like we can get so much about, “Who wrote that?” Well, ultimately, you know who wrote it. You know who the author of that book is. It’s right there. I mean, it says “Holy Bible” somewhere on there, you know. And I was looking—does it say “God’s Word”? Mine doesn’t say that anywhere on there, you know, but it is God’s Word. I just happen to believe every word from the beginning. I even believe where it says “genuine leather,” amen. It’s God’s words. Yes, yes, it is. Solomon writing to his son—the first chapters will talk about that—it is all that. But let me say this: it’s more than just that. If you’re a born-again Christian, it’s God your Father writing to His son, you, and His daughter. Is God writing to you?
And it seems sometimes, in our day and time, people just emphasize so much, “This is for so-and-so,” and it just takes the Word of God down a little bit. Yes, God spoke through those men, but “holy men of God moved,” see, as the Holy Ghost moved, and they spake. And it’s God’s words. I want to just emphasize that a little bit. So when you’re reading the book of Proverbs, don’t think, “Well, this was just Solomon to Rehoboam or his son and all that.” No, no, it’s from God to you. All right? And you see, if you realize these are God’s words, it adds a whole lot of value to it.
And so, “The Proverbs of Solomon”—God used Solomon to pen it, but ultimately it’s God’s words. All right. By the way, that’s the only way it could be. Over 40 different men that God used to pen it. And you’ll hear somebody different. You’ll hear from about 1,000—about 1,600 or 1,400 years. Many of them did not know each other, from all different parts. Some of them didn’t live when the other people lived. And all these 40 different authors, and it doesn’t contradict. I read a book, and in that one book the author will contradict himself. Someone said, “Well, you said so-and-so way back in there.” I probably did. I’ve contradicted myself a time or two, amen, for sure. But 40 different men, over 1,400 different years, and it compiled all of it together, and it doesn’t contradict—there’s only one explanation. It’s not those men’s words; it’s God’s words for you. But Proverbs is from God to you, and it’s good to view it that way.
Now, let’s go on. We’ll go back through these. We’re supposed to be on the introduction tonight. We’ll go back through these verses, I think, in the coming Wednesdays, but let’s just get a couple of these things here. Verse number two: He says, “To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; to give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.”
So the purpose of the book is for you to have God’s wisdom on how to live in this world. You know, this is a messed-up world. You haven’t figured that out yet? It’s a messed-up world. And God gives His children, His sons and His daughters, wisdom on how to live in this messed-up world. That’s the book of Proverbs. That’s what it’s all about.
A little outline: Chapters 1 through 7 are really to my son; it’s a dad talking to his son. Now, we’ve already talked about ultimates from God to you, but it’s really a dad to his son. That’s very interesting. It starts with that. It ends with a king, King Lemuel, who seems like a king that’s not a part of Israel, and he’s talking about what his mom taught him about a godly lady. Very interesting, the book of Proverbs.
But look at this a little bit here, this first one to seven. Look in chapter one, look at verse number eight. Back there, verse number eight. What are the first two words of verse number eight? Look down in verse number ten, if you would. What are the first two words of verse number ten? Look down in verse number 15, if you would. What is it? The first two words of chapter number two? Chapter 3, what are the first two words? Good. Now, chapter 4, a little different, but it says—it’s in there: “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know wisdom.” Chapter 5, what are the first two words? Chapter 6, what are the first two words? The first two words of chapter 7 are “My son.” You see these first seven chapters are a dad talking to his son: “My son, my son, my son, my son.”
Now, chapter number eight—that’s the first part. If you look at the outline, that’s the first part of the book of Proverbs: a dad talking to his son, his daughter. Chapter eight and chapter nine would be the praising of Lady Wisdom. Wisdom is personified as a lady, and it’s just praising—I think that’s how the wording is—the praising of Lady Wisdom. Then chapter 10 through chapter 29 is really just hundreds of proverbs. I mean, it covers everything in the world: it covers finances, it covers your neighborhood, it covers work, it covers intimacy, it covers finances, it covers children. It just covers everything. And I really believe the main part of the book of Proverbs is a little bit like a reference book.
How many of you men were going to do a project on your car and you went and got a Haynes manual? How many have ever gotten one of those? Oh, man, I have. Nowadays, YouTube, amen. The only problem is YouTube will make you think you can do anything. I’m like, “It’s easier on there than it is here.” It doesn’t work out for me like that, you know. But I think Proverbs is a little bit like that. It’s a manual. And you want a reference. All right, what does it have to say about health? It talks about your health. What does it say about debt? It talks about debt in Proverbs. Relationships—just pretty much every subject. By the way, if there’s a subject you would like for us to cover on Wednesday nights as we’re going through Proverbs, if you’d let me know, would you please write it down or text, because I’ll forget if you don’t? But I’ll do my best because Proverbs will probably cover that subject. And as we’re going through it, we’ll try to talk about it if you would like a subject covered. We’ll do our best on that. Just let me know about that as we’re studying through it. But it just covers so much.
And then there are the last two chapters. Chapter number 30 is Agur, A-G-U-R. Somebody say it for us. Agur. Agur, is it? I’ve heard people pronounce it different ways. He’s talking there, but he really—he starts off saying how much he lacks wisdom. And he just kind of starts off saying, “Man, I’m so dumb.” You ever say that, “Man, I’m so dumb”? You know, he starts off like that. And then he realizes, well, God gives me wisdom from Scripture. And so he’s just—he’s just after this wisdom. And really, I believe a little bit, it’s God’s example of how we ought to read Proverbs. We’re just—I don’t have it all together, and you’re trying to gain wisdom from Proverbs. And then we’ve already mentioned that the last, chapter 31, is King Lemuel, and his mom taught him a lot about wisdom—excuse me, a lot about a godly lady in that chapter. Proverbs 31 and the Proverbs 31 lady—you’ve heard all those sayings. So that’s a lot of really just the outline for the book of Proverbs.
I want you to see something here. Look in verse number five. We’re back over here in chapter one. Look in verse number five right there, chapter one, verse number five: “A wise man will hear and will increase in learning: and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel.” Here’s what we think sometimes: “I’m going to gather all this wisdom up, and I’m stocked up; I’m good.” That wisdom is not like that, for wisdom is not stagnant.
You ever go to the ocean and you put your feet in there, you know? And if you’re just standing, those waves come in and wash out, and that sand kind of erodes. If you stand there for a minute or two, five minutes, pretty soon you’re going to be buried a little bit, you know, down to your ankle, whatnot. And that’s wisdom. You ever see someone when they were younger, they were wise, and then they get older—not always, and I’m not pointing at anybody—but they get older, and you think, “How in the world can they make such a dumb decision?” By the way, we’re all susceptible. Come on. If I say, “Well, I’ve got all the wisdom, I’m good,” you’re losing, friend. Wisdom is one of those things. You’re not standing still. You don’t have it all together. None of us do. It’s something you’re always… A wise man is always increasing in his learning. You realize the relationships you have today are all different than they were yesterday. And you need wisdom tomorrow to be different, and you’ll need new wisdom for your relationships tomorrow. Life changes, circumstances change, people change, and you’re always needing to grow. We never “got it all.” Never. If you have that attitude, you’ve lost wisdom, I promise you, friend. And the book of Proverbs, it says, look, a wise man is always increasing in his learning.
Now, one last thing, and we’re done for tonight because I have no notes. Amen. Some of y’all are going to be grabbing my Bible, trying to steal the notes so I can get out early. I see that coming, you know. We’re going to have cameras, amen, watching everything. Look in verse number six, would you please? Verse number six. He says, “To understand a proverb and the interpretation; the words of the wise and their dark sayings.” Here it is, once you notice—it’s interesting. Verse number seven: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Look over in chapter number nine. Chapter nine. You say, “What verse?” I don’t know. I’m looking for it. Verse number 10. Look at chapter 9, verse number 10. He says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.” By the way, it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom in Psalms also.
Friend, you won’t get much out of the book of Proverbs if you’re going to get true wisdom. By the way, you realize you can have an educated, super-intelligent, successful fool? In the book of Luke, that guy over there—he was very successful, so successful he had to build bigger buildings to house all his possessions, remember that? And what did God say of it? It’s a proverb, a parable, but God is talking there. Jesus is talking. He said, “What are you saying?” He said, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” And you can have an educated, high-IQ, successful fool. That’s why I better be careful who you listen to on YouTube and Instagram and all the rest of that. There’s so much out there from so many different people, but they may be—as a person—that sounds really good, an educated fool. Psalm 1 says, “Hey, be careful who you listen to.”
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of true wisdom, true knowledge. And it’s where you say, “You know what? The fear of the Lord is not a—you know, just shaking, scared to death,” as they say, not that type of thing. It’s an—the best definition I ever heard for the fear of the Lord that stuck with you over these years is awareness of His presence at all times. It doesn’t matter where you are, what you’re doing, how successful it is. You are—cock—and just, boom, any second He wants to do it, it’s all over for him. Awareness of God’s presence at all times. And when you get that reverential respect for God, you’ve got all the wisdom. Remember Solomon? He didn’t get that wisdom from himself. God gave him that wisdom. And the beginning, and boy, this first night of diving into the book of Proverbs, the beginning of it: Lord, you’ve got all the wisdom of all the world. The Lord gave him wisdom out of His mouth, knowledge, and understanding about it.
And you say, “Lord, boy, this first night of the book of Proverbs, I love it if we all here in just a minute just bowed our hearts and our heads. Say, ‘Lord, you’ve got all the wisdom in the world, and I’m going to go to your word, your Scripture, and I want you to give me some wisdom. I don’t have it all together. I realize you’re in control.’” I remember visiting a fellow over here at Stonecrest Medical Center years ago, and we had the financial reversal in O.A., I believe it was, and he lost, I think it was about $100,000. I’m just saying, God’s in control, and if you think you’ve got it all together, man, hold on, friend. The fear of the Lord. If you go to a counselor and they think they’ve got it all together, I’d be a little worried. You go to a counselor and say, “Well, we need God’s wisdom,” and they’re saying, “That’s the guy you want, that’s the law you want.” Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It all starts there. That’s why we have some people in our government—well, they’ve got high IQs, they ain’t got no common sense—because it begins, the fear of the Lord begins. It’s the beginning of wisdom. It starts right there. That’s why a very familiar passage over there, chapter three, chapter three, verse number five: Trust in who? Trust in the Lord. How much of your heart? How much do you trust the Lord? Not yourself. By the way, in Proverbs, sometimes people put wisdom up on such a pedestal. Friend, God’s the one that gives wisdom. Don’t trust in your wisdom. You trust in the Lord that gives wisdom. That’s the principle of the thing. You seek it, but it all begins with the Lord: fear the Lord. Then that next verse, we know that, Proverbs 3:6: “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path.” Boy, you acknowledge Him. By the way, it was encouraging me, I don’t know, a year or so ago, maybe two years, I don’t know, but I started thinking about that verse: “In all thy ways acknowledge him,” and He shall direct thy path. And it just began to acknowledge, and I began to try to think, and I studied out of it, acknowledge Him. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it was. But I had to do it in all my ways: acknowledge you’re God. You know better than me. You’re the promotion doesn’t come from the south or the east or the west; it comes from above. And just in every—now here’s the thing: you’ve got to acknowledge Him in all your ways. Some people say, “Well, God, let’s give you it all of them—not my finances, that’s mine.” No, acknowledge Him in all your ways. Well, God’s given us medical doctors; He has. But to acknowledge Him in your about your health, too. Well, this is my marriage. No, no, I’m afraid. Acknowledge Him in all your ways. And He—it’s not as hard as you think. It’s to acknowledge Him, your God. You’ve got all the wisdom I need. And we’re going to study this book of Proverbs. Let’s just take a little time tonight. Have a little invitation here, whether you want to come to an altar or just stay where you are, as the Lord leads you. But let’s go before Him. Lord, I want to start at the starting point, fearing You, acknowledging You. You’ve got it all. Would You grow me in wisdom as we study this book of the Bible? Let’s all stand, if you would, please. We’re going to have a word of prayer. And we’ll spend some time. Let’s just acknowledge Him tonight. Lord, I want to start here, fearing You, Lord. Lord, thank You for the book of Proverbs. Lord, I pray that You would open our minds, our hearts, and Lord, just pour in Your wisdom. We know it’s from You. He did it for Solomon; would You do it for us? Would You work through Solomon and give it to us? And Lord, grow us. Father, help our relationships to be better, in our tongue, just everywhere. Give us wisdom on how to live in this world. When You start off, Lord, just acknowledging You and realizing just awareness of Your presence in every part of our lives. Bless us in this study, Father, in Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
We pray right now, You’re our awesome God, Father. You got plenty of money. You got plenty of good spirit, Father. We pray right now, Lord. Father, for our needs to be met, Father. We just pray, Father, that we will be committed, Father, unified, Father. Provide, Father. You’re an awesome God, Father. Where would we be, Father? Father, we just bring all these things in Your life. Amen.
Original File: 2026-04-16 - Pastor Paul Chisgar - ＂An Introduction to Proverbs＂ - Wednesday PM 04⧸15⧸2026