Verse by verse teaching - Proverbs 13:23 "Much Food"

If you take your Bibles and turn to the book of Proverbs chapter 13, please. Proverbs chapter 13. God willing, we'll be expounding verse 23 tonight. The title of the message is Much Food. Much Food. Please. Proverbs 13:23, we should be up there. Good deal. So, food is essential to carrying out the functions of the kingdom of God, if you were to think about that. Thinking spiritually minded, we have to understand everything that's carnal on this earth to be something that God has given us to further His kingdom. And food is definitely essential to carrying out God's mission because people cannot function without food. God's people had to be fueled so they can obey the word of God, just as a vehicle has to be fueled by gasoline, so we're By God's design, fueled by food that God created. Without food, we cannot think, we cannot function. We cannot love, we cannot breathe, we cannot live without food. Most of us remember the fuel shortage back in the nineteen seventies, the glory days of the Carter Presidency. And we remember also when the speed limit was reduced to fifty five miles per hour to preserve fuel. When there is a shortage of fuel, there's a shortage of work, there's a shortage of productivity. And food is the provision of the Lord so we can be productive in the kingdom of God. And an abundance of food is his blessing upon our lives. I picked some figs this week. I love picking things at my house, and I wanted to make, in fact, I prayed, because this fig tree had been going for years without bearing any fruit. And that parable came to my mind, brother, about why cumbereth it the ground. I thought about it. I thought, no, I remember that scripture. I thought, no, I'm going to give it some time. I'm going to dung it. I'm going to, you know, all that. And I fertilized that tree and I prayed, Lord, if it be will, help me to make my wife some fig newtons, homemade fig Newtons. And this year, and so I picked enough figs last the first of this week. I think it was Sunday when I picked them. And I made her some, they weren't fig newton proppers, but they were fig fig bars, and they were good, weren't they, honey? They were good. I'm an incredible, credible cook. And I didn't once think when I entered the house with those figs, I didn't once think about, well, I wonder if I have enough grain or enough butter. Or enough oil to make this food for my wife, because God has blessed me with an abundance of food at my house, as He probably has yours. When I get hungry, I enjoy being able to go to the refrigerator and actually find something in there to eat. And when I want to take my wife out to eat, I enjoy hopping in the car. being able to go to a restaurant that has plenty of food there to serve us with. I thank God for his gracious provision of food. And tonight Solomon is talking about the blessing of having, if you'll look in your text now, Much food. That's how the text starts off. Much food. Having plenty to eat is a measure of having plenty to live. And Jesus said, With food and raiment, be content. And though not everyone has much food. And some, in fact, sadly, don't even have enough food in this world. The Bible does assure us, however, that much food is available to everyone. And much food is available, and here's where it lies. Look back in your text. Much food is in the tillage, in the tillage. And tillage is plowing. You till the soil, you plow the soil. And there's two principles that we're going to learn about in this verse tonight. And first is the principle of tilling. If you're taking notes, the second is the principle of judging. Tilling and judging. So, first, we'll look at the principle of tilling. When Tammy and I go to Indiana, I love seeing the acres and acres and acres of corn, soybeans, and sometimes cotton. Sometimes a little wheat. Usually it's corn and soybeans. And I tell you what, they've been growing food and the bread basket of the United States there for many generations, and they do it well. You go by there, and I'm telling you that everything is so symmetrical, so efficient to pack in the exact number of plants they can get in those they have it all down to a science. and they grow beautifully there. But after all these years of experience in growing food there in Indiana, they still haven't found a way to reap the corn Without first tilling the ground. Can't do it. That's because that's how God made it. You have to till before you can reap. And when they even get through harvesting their crops each year, you know what comes next? The tillage. They got to take those old dry plants and till them back into the soil so they can decompose and and uh make the ground uh friable. And uh and you can have the finest seed. And they do, they brag on their seeds. Have y'all ever gone through there, you'll see them bragging on what kind of seeds they're using. They got it posted out there. They can have the finest soil. And they had the best weather conditions that God could provide, but without tilling the ground. There cannot be, what we're looking at tonight, much food. Just can't have it. And it's fascinating to me because do you know why you have to till the ground? It's because God has designed it. So that he requires human effort to gain much food. Human effort. The animals can't do it for us. The angels can't do it for us. The machinery can't do it for us. There's got to be a man behind all of it. To make the decision to buy the seed, to work the machinery, or to till the ground by hand, like probably me and Brother Shepherd do. Do you still use it by hand, or do you have a tiller? I do too, brother. I do it by hand. And we've all seen what happens when a man quits tilling the soil, haven't we? And when he leaves the land to itself, it doesn't start growing more. Weeds. Trees, natural wild grasses begin to grow, and wild animals begin to inhabit the untilled ground. In fact, when God speaks about punishing a nation in the Bible, He talks about how it once was a thriving nation and now how it will become a habitation to wild animals. And that's what happens when man Takes the effort out of the land and just leaves the land to itself. It takes disciplined, human effort to raise many healthy plants. in tight, straight rows that bear much fruit for our consumption. And though we're not all farmers, And we don't all work the land. We do all work at something so we can pay those who do. Now, I couldn't preach like this in Indiana. Because almost everybody's got some kind of farmland somewhere. Even if they work doing something else, a lot of them have land because it's just what they do over there. Kind of like when I grew up, we'd take bottles back to the the grocery store to get you know your your five or ten cents back on your bottles Well, those were good times that kids miss out on today. But it was just what people did, or at least young people did. And there's Everybody, there's the opportunity to till the ground, whether you're tilling the ground literally or whether you're tilling the ground Economically in the job market, so you can pay someone who does, you can get food. There is opportunity anywhere you go. To work for food, whether you're working the land or working to buy from those who do. There's a man who has filed bankruptcy at my courthouse. And he wears the same clothes every time he comes in, and he comes in often. And he has made so many trips to my courthouse. Trying to make sure that all of his paperwork is in order so he can get relief from his debt through the bankruptcy that he has petitioned the court for. And I tell you, working there, because, you know, I work at the church and I work at the bankruptcy. And between the two, I get up at 5-something in the morning, and usually I'm working until it's time to go to bed, because when I get home, I start working on church work. and to hold down two jobs and then at one of my main jobs to watch someone come in and Trying to get out from under their debt by not working, because that's what he's doing. Not everyone's circumstances are the same, but that's what he's doing, is very frustrating. He comes in wearing shorts, flip-flops, and a white t-shirt every time. Shorts, flip-flops, and a white T-shirt. In the middle of the day, on a weekday, a young, healthy man. When he could be out working. And I kept thinking, this guy comes in in the middle of the day all the time, sometimes, you know. One day after the next day, or maybe twice in one day. And I'm thinking, this guy can't be working much at anything. And so I was always curious. If he actually puts forth any effort to pay his bills. And so one day I just came right out and asked him, and I said, What do you do for a living? I thought, well, best thing to say, worst thing to do is say none of your business. But I asked him, what do you do for a living? And no surprise to me, he did not have a job. Did not have a job. Didn't act like he was looking for a job, wanting a job. You know what he did say he did? He said, Sometimes he hauls scrap metal. Man, you can't make a living out of every now and then hauling something to the scrapyard. I've hauled some stuff to the scrapyard before. If I've got something heavy and That's metal or something, instead of throwing in the trash, I'll take it to the scrapyard and maybe get $10, $20 for it. But you can't make a living off that And he just piddles around. And again, not everybody has the same circumstances. Some people have other circumstances that c require them to file bankruptcy. Some people have terrible health situations that they run into or other circumstances. But I can tell you that this man doesn't have enough to live on for some one reason only. He doesn't have enough to live on because he doesn't till enough to live. It's that simple. He's not working. If that man were to work as hard at trying to pay what he owed, As he does coming to the courthouse working to try to get out from underpaying what he owed, he'd be able to pay what he owed. He works harder at trying to keep from paying his bills than he does trying to pay them. It's bizarre, but some people function that way. They work hard trying to keep from working hard. You may think, Brother Richard, we need to have compassion on this man. He's poor. The house he lives in, he inherited from his daddy when he died. But his daddy didn't own the house. He had a mortgage on it, and this man didn't have the money to pay his mortgage because he doesn't work. He doesn't want to work, so he files bankruptcy trying to protect his house. You think, Brother Richard, have compassion on him. The man is poor, but the Bible tonight is talking about the tillage, look back at your text, of what? Of the poor. The tillage of the poor. You know, poor people can till. I've seen people poor because they didn't till. But I've never seen anyone till and just tilling with no other circumstances be poor. And don't misunderstand, this is a different kind of poverty than what the Bible speaks about. When we're told to have compassion on the poor, this is a different type of poverty that Solomon is talking about tonight. There are some people who are poor because they can't till. There's a difference between being unable to till, being unable to work, and being unwilling to work. There's a difference. And we're obviously talking about those who can till because the scripture says the tillage of the poor. So it's talking about poor people who till. If a poor person is willing to work and live small, that's the key. I don't know if I told you, but we had a man in my courthouse one time who was trying to convince the judge That his wife could not shop at Walmart and needed to shop at Nordstrom's. She needs those things, he told the judge. And when the opposing attorney tried to explain that he was living beyond his means, And he lived in a house far bigger than mine, far more expensive than mine, and shopping and spending all this money. When he did that, he ended up threatening to commit suicide by cop next time he came in. Now that's a mindset that thinks the world owes you something. That's the kind of thinking people like that have. The world owes me something, and I need a judge to be able to tell people they can't collect from me. Because I need to be able to collect from the world and keep getting what I want and live beyond my means. And they're going to have to pay for it because I don't want to have to pay them. So if a poor person is willing to work to till the ground, And live small. Because really, when it comes down to it, we don't need much, do we? We really don't need much. Again, the Bible says, with food and raiment, be content. We get in trouble. When we live beyond our means, I told Tammy, I said, you know what? I thank God the Lord's provided well for us, but it wouldn't bother me. I guess it would, but it wouldn't. That if worse comes to worse, I can eat beans and cornbread. You can live cheap on beans, cornbread, and rice. And homegrown tomatoes and things like that. And you can eat well. It's cheap. Oatmeal is cheap. Rice is cheap. Then you can eat healthy, nutritious food without spending much at all. It's when we outspend our means. You don't work And spend according to what you make. Never spend according to what you earn. If you do, you're going to go broke eventually. If you spend according to what you earn, you may think, Brother Richard, that should be what we do. We spend according to what we earn. And people live that way. They spend according to what they earn, they live paycheck to paycheck to paycheck. But never spend according to what you earn. Because when you do that, you're doing it under the assumption that life will stay normal like it is today. But when you do that, next thing you know, you're going to end up having to have a very expensive prescription you have to take. You're going to end up losing a job, losing a limb, getting sick. Something's going to happen to cause your income to go down or your expenses to go up. And if you locked yourself in to spending each week or each month what you've been making, and you're locked into these monthly payments, then suddenly you're going to go into debt. And so don't do that. Till the soil and work hard and live small. And if a poor person will work hard and live small, he will not remain a poor person. He can at least have plenty to eat. And again, the Bible says with food and raiment, we should be content. When my dad was a boy, his dad, at one particular period in time when my dad lived in Houston, his dad was in poor health. And so my dad got a bicycle and he got two paper routes and he Got on his bicycle as a boy and rode those two paper routes delivering papers in Houston before he went to school each morning. Can you imagine kids doing that today? Well, they think it would be some kind of child abuse or something. I mean, they do well just to get their shoes tied and make it to the bus on time. And so, but if you do that, he was willing to till the soil for his family, and that helped put food on the table, and they didn't have a lot, but they had plenty to eat. Because he lived long enough, and there he is still here tonight. It didn't kill him. And so there's the principle of tilling. You have to be willing to work hard and live small, till that ground whereon you stand. Everybody can do something. And not only is there that first principle of tilling, but you have to have this along with your first principle of tilling, and that's the second principle, the principle of judging. Psalmist said, there is much food in the tilling of the poor. Look back in your text, but there is that I'm sorry, but there is that is destroyed. There is that is destroyed. The word destroyed here literally means to scrape. Now, if you've ever watched someone gamble before, and I've never been I've been to a casino, but that was only during a criminal investigation or an administrative investigation I was doing. And I got to go into a casino in Oklahoma and inspect that casino. But if you ever watched anyone gamble, and maybe you have in a movie if you haven't been there in person. And if you have, I hope you don't still go. But have y'all ever seen them where they'll have like the chips out on the table? And when the house wins, Those chips are going to the house. What do they do? Huh? They rake them. They scrape it. They take this stick and go and just rake it off. That's the concept. Behind this Hebrew word translated destroyed. It has the idea of scraping something clean. And so when you're thinking about There is that is destroyed here tonight. We're talking about there is much food in the tillage of the poor. You've got to till to get your food. You have to work to have your needs met. However, you can still work and have all the food that you can possibly grow, but there is the circumstance. Where the scraper comes out and takes all your chips off the table. So that's the idea behind this word destroyed, and it has the idea of God righteously scraping his hand, like taking that gambling stick out. Putting that gambling stick on your table or on a nation's table, on a family's table. And when all these chips are out there on the table, and you think, man, I'm doing well. Look at all these chips. And then suddenly God takes that righteous stick of judgment. He puts it out there on the table and he scrapes it all away from you, and you're just sitting there looking at it. Where did it all go? You know, a lot of people have been through that before. So, man, I've worked hard all my life. Where did it all go? What happened? Again, that's the principle of judgment. In here we're looking at, if you'll look here, the tilling that's working, that yields much food. But in the principle of judgment, we learn that the lack of judgment on our part, the Bible says, judge yourself and you won't be judged, you see. So the lack of judgment on our part Invokes the judgment on God's part where He scrapes our table clean and takes it all away. There is that is destroyed, Solomon says. Why? Look back at your text, for want of judgment. Meaning for lack of judgment. The word judgment here has the idea of passing a verdict. or a sentence upon someone or something, rendering a verdict for or against something. And I tell you, people love to tell Christians that they shouldn't judge. And people who say that are judging Christians who are judging. They're committing the same offense they're trying to get onto Christians about. But they let us say, oh, don't judge. But here, God is telling us that if we don't judge, then we could lose everything we've worked so hard for. Again, this is whether it's a family or a nation. And in time past, in recent time past, our nation risked losing everything due to a lack of our judgment. Our nation was going down, down, down so quickly. It was so alarming to me to watch it happen. It was alarming to you to watch it happen. And I thank God we've at least. At least tried to, we've at least been kind of making the corner back in the right direction. We still got a long way to go, though. But our nation risked and is still at risk of losing everything due to a lack of judgment on our part. And it's so refreshing hearing people start to wake up and call people out for being wrong again. To look and say, that is wrong, that is sin, or that is mental illness, or whatever they call it, to look and say, this is wrong. It's so refreshing to hear people do that again, and not be afraid. Of saying it. The scripture that people quote Often for making us ashamed to render judgment against sin. One of the scriptures is in Luke chapter 6, verse 37. Luke chapter 6, verse 37. We've all heard it. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. And if we just stop there. That would sound so sweet to the liberal ear. Oh, don't judge. Don't condemn. Let me live however I want to. And nobody say anything to me. Just forgive and forget. And never call me out on anything I do that's wrong in the land. That is not what Jesus is saying at all. God Told his people in the Old Testament that if he caught people doing certain things, stone them and put the evil out from among your country. Jesus is not telling us to not judge. That's not what he's telling us to do. You see, people who read and stop there, they don't care to know what the Scripture and what Jesus actually says about judgment. Jesus went on to say in this same chapter, just a few verses later, listen to what he went on to say in the same context. He says, And why, behold, this is in Luke. 641, Luke 6:41, and why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye? All right, so we have the idea And this has probably happened to everybody. You got something in your eye, and you go up and you say, Hey, can you see if you see anything in my eye? And someone goes over there and they take a flash out and they're looking, trying to see if something's in your eye. We've all done that before. Well, here is someone who didn't ask For someone to look in their eye. And so Jesus says, Why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye? Or you see something in somebody's eye? But perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye. In other words, somebody's got a splinter in their eye, and you've got a bigger piece of wood in your eye. And you're worried about that person's piece of splinter in their eye when you've got a bigger chunk in yours. He said, Why are you doing that? So here's what he says to do in verse 42. He says, This is what you do. He says, Either, how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the moat that is in thine eye. When thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye. So what is he telling them to do? He's saying, Look, Don't go to someone and try to judge them for what you see in their life while you're being unwilling to judge yourself and see the sin in your own life. That's what he means by judge not, and you won't be judged. All right? So if you set yourself up in a position of condemning people for every little flaw in their life, Then God's going to say, Oh, is that the measurement that you use to judge people? You look at everything in their life and you judge them. Okay, how about I judge you that way? Because if God judged us that way, we'd all be condemned. The only way, that's why Jesus said, forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you. What he's saying is, the only way That we can see somebody rightly is to see them through the cross of Christ. And by judging and forgiving and loving people on the basis of how God loved us in Jesus. God then judges us on the basis of Jesus as well. Otherwise, we're left up to judging each other based on the law, and if that's our standard of judgment, we're condemned. And so he says in verse 42, he goes on to say, Thou hypocrite. Now, see, when Jesus says, don't judge, he's talking to the hypocrites. He's not talking to righteous people who are trying to execute righteous judgment. He's talking to hypocrites who want to make out as though they have no sin in their life and then point everything out in the lives of others. He said, Thou hypocrite, Cast out first the beam out of thine own eye. So here's what you do, Jesus says. You first find the splinter in your eye. You get that splinter out of your eye. Take care of your own life first. And then he says, And then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the moat that is in thy brother's eye. So, you see what he's doing? He says, You get it out of your life first, then you can clearly see to help your brother get it out of his eye. So, he's not telling us. To not try to get splinters out of people's eyes. He's telling us before we attempt that, make sure we've taken care of our eye first, don't do it hypocritically. And so there's first self-judgment. After there is self-judgment of myself. Then, in the grace and mercy of Jesus' cross, in the love of God, I can then approach my brother and judge him. And I'm judging him in the grace of Jesus. And here's the difference: that's why Jesus says, don't judge, don't condemn, but forgive. The first verse that we read. He says, judge not, condemn not, and then he says, forgive. What does he mean? Because the judgment that Jesus prohibits. Is the judgment of condemnation. If I go to Brother Shepherd and I try to point out sin in his life for the purpose of condemning him, that is a hypocritical critical judgment. And God's going to judge me on that basis. But if I go to my brother Shepherd with a broken heart because I see something that's going to destroy his life, I'm not going to blow in his eye and irritate the splinter. I'm going to try to pull it out and help him. Try to remove the splinter and help him out. And so it's for the sake of helping my brother. And so Jesus wants us to judge. But he wants us to first judge ourselves so we can see clearly to judge the sins of our neighbor. Judgment is not for the sake of condemning our neighbor, it is for the sake of correcting our neighbor. If we don't correct our sinful ways, you know what God will do? He'll scrape our land. He'll take that little stick, take all of the chips we've worked hard for in our land, he'll scrape it all away. When God was speaking to Abraham about destroying Sodom, The Bible says in Genesis chapter 18, verse 23, it says, And Abraham drew near and said to God, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? That's the same Hebrew word. Do you know what God did with Sodom? He scraped him. He scraped them clean. And so God's showing us tonight that there is a real connection. Between the scraping of the land and the wickedness in the land. Between God scraping the land and the wickedness that is in the land. The Bible says Sodom had plenty of food when God scraped her. What does that mean? She was tilling. She was tilling. She had plenty of food. In Ezekiel 16:49, God said Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. And they list the first two things was pride and fullness of bread. They had plenty of food. She had much food. There's your tillage. But because she lacked judgment, Her land was scraped. So, if you would think of it this way, tilling Is producing the food. Judging is keeping the food that you produced. When you look in the scriptures, God tells Israel in one particular place, He said, You work so you can have. But yet you have not because you're working, but what you're earning, it's like you're putting it into a bag that has a hole at the bottom of it. So you're working, you're making, but because there's no judgment, you're putting into a purse that there's a hole in the bottom. Y'all ever felt that way about your own life? I'm working so hard, I've been making so much. But it just like it just goes away. And the first time that happens, the first time that happens in a person's life, if they come to me and they say, Man, I'm working hard, I'm making money, but But you know, I or I've got some money and I'm working hard, but it just seems to all go away. There's not enough. The first thing I'll ask is Are you tithing faithfully? Are you first honoring God with your money? And I cannot remember one single time. I'll ask Brother Chip if he can. I've been in the ministry for a long time now. And I cannot remember one single time when a person has said, Oh yes, I tithe faithfully every week. Where every month, however often I get paid, I'm just not enough money to go around. I can't remember that one time. Can you, Brother Shepherd? Not one time. Not one time. I've talked to other pastors, they're pastors' wives. Same experience with them. And so there's judgment. If you work hard and you make the money in order to keep the money in a righteous way, I know there's rich, wicked people, I'm not saying that. They'll get their judgment in time to come. But in order to maintain what you keep, there's the principle of tilling and judging. In other words, I till, I earn my money, and then I judge my lifestyle. How do I spend this money? Do I invest this in God's kingdom? How do I live my life? Do I live my life righteously? Biblically, living within your means is a biblical principle. And am I living an unrighteous life where I'm living unfaithful to God? So that God in turn does me like He does Israel. He let them wear themselves out working, but while they're working, they're trying to collect, but there's a hole in the bottom of their bag. I've seen people, when they've got their life right, they then honor God first with their money. They then turn their life over to God. They say, I'm going to look at the Bible. I'm going to see what the Bible says. I'm going to start living for God. I'm going to live with Him by means, as the scripture says. They start. Judging their life according to God's word, you know what starts happening? That hole gets sewn up in the bottom of the bag. Doesn't mean they get rich. I'm not preaching a prosperity gospel. The Bible says he that seeks to be rich is a fool. We're not trying to get rich. We're trying to get the hole sewed up. And we're trying to have food and raiment so we can be content. We're trying to have our needs met. But Sodom had much food, but because she lacked judgment, her land was destroyed. Tilling, once again, allows us to create the fullness of bread, and judging allows us to keep it. Israel always prospered when they tilled and judged their land. You will never find one instance in Scripture. Brother Shepherd's been teaching through the kings in the Sunday school hour. You'll never find one instance. In the scripture, when Israel is tilling the ground and they are judging the land, when they judge the land according to God's word and they start putting God's word first, God blesses them. God turns their captivity every single time, and has it worked with Israel, it will work with America, it will work with you and me. The time we get scraped is when we become idle and fail to judge ourselves with God's word. I hope that's a So, two good principles, tilling and judging, tonight, that we can apply in our own lives. And Lord willing, we'll come back next week. In the next verse, and we'll expound it. I thank God for these practical scriptures. I've taught on scriptures in the Bible like this that are financially oriented before. And you know what? I've had people come up to me and say, I sure wish I'd have known that years ago. Sure wish I'd have known that years ago. You know what? It's never too late to start. Father, we thank you so much for your precious word. Oh, Lord, your word is so true. Your word is so heavy sometimes on our hearts, Lord, because I think most of us in here at some time in our lives, dear Lord, have experienced, I know I have, putting money into a bag with a hole at the bottom of it. We've worked, we've tilled, we've earned, we've lost. And, Lord, though there are different circumstances in life that are beyond our control sometimes, Lord, as it was with Job. Sometimes, Lord, we don't lose what we have due to a lack of judgment or due to a lack of work, but due to a fiery trial that we go into. But Lord, for those Lord of us who are not in a fiery trial, but Lord, who at some times in our life, dear Lord, in the past, in the present, or in the future, Come to a place, Lord, where we find ourselves with a hole in the end of our bag. Let us remember those two principles to first tell. And secondly, to judge, so we may earn, so we may keep. And if by your providence, dear Lord God, you send a fiery trial. To take it all away, like you did with Job. Let us, Father, remember to say, The Lord giveth. The Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all things, let us continue to till and to judge. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.