Episode Transcript
Amen.
We'll be in Proverbs 14, verse 15.
Proverbs 14, verse 15.
Sure it's good to see everyone here and online tonight both.
You're an encouragement to me.
Title of the Message Tonight is The Simple Way.
The Simple Way.
Proverbs fourteen, verse fifteen It reads this, the simple believeth every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going.
This is a great practical verse.
I just love the Proverbs.
The simple life is an enjoyable life.
It's stress-free.
And uh our culture uh likes to brag about being simple people sometimes.
I'm just a simple man.
I enjoy simple things.
But that's not the kind of simple that Solomon is talking about tonight.
The simple person that Solomon is talking about is in the negative.
We might look at this and say the simple believe every word.
We think, Lord, make me simple.
That way I'll believe every word you say, but that's not what he's talking about.
The simple way of living in the book of Proverbs is actually a convoluted and stressful way of living. masquerading as enlightened and intelligent path for people to travel.
Our study of verse 15 tonight begins with its first two words, the simple.
And that Hebrew word translated simple here is taken from a Hebrew root word that means roomy or spacious.
And we're not talking about a roomy house.
We're talking about a roomy mind.
So the word simple here is literally describing a person that has plenty of empty space in the head.
To receive unvetted, unsubstantiated ideas When I was a young man, I was somewhat a simple person myself.
We are usually more simple-minded when we're younger.
And I remember I would hear things that people would say, and I would believe them.
Because when we're kids, we're used to hearing our parents say things and just believing whatever our parents say.
They're our source of information.
And I remember hearing people say things, not my parents, but uh but uh people say things that uh uh I would uh believe And then I would later go and repeat those things authoritatively.
And then I would find out when I was challenged, I would then want to argue.
And then later I would find out that I was wrong and that my source of information didn't know what they were talking about.
And thus I didn't know what I was talking about.
And after a while, and I remember the big shift change for me.
I made a claim one night and another man said, I don't think it's right.
I believe it's this right here, and he said something else And uh he said, but but you may be right though, Richard.
And I and I remember I said, No, I'm probably not, you're probably right.
Because I had been so used to getting corrected and finding out I was wrong on things.
And uh that was a good turning point in my life because instead of being bullheaded and proud and trying to argue with a fence post on things that I I really didn't know. uh what I was talking about, I decided back then that uh uh I was going to validate things and investigate things before I went off and repeated them.
That was a very good thing for me to do.
So I got to where I learned to research a matter before I repeated a matter and to make sure that what I was saying was true.
And not only with repeating things, but Acting on what we've been told.
That is a really big thing.
Acting on what we've been told.
Do you know what happens when uh You research a matter before you repeat a matter?
You know what happens?
This beautiful transformation in your life begins to happen.
When you start researching a matter, Before you repeat a matter, you will soon be taken seriously when you speak.
That's what'll happen.
When you don't research a matter, Before you repeat a matter.
You just believe it because you're simple-minded.
You got plenty of empty space in the head.
Someone tells you something, you go, oh, and you take it and you stick it there in the head.
And then when the opportunity comes, you repeat it as if it's fact.
And when you do that and people know better or they find out better, they're gonna log a little thing here in their mind.
They're gonna say, ah I know not to listen to Hannah, because when she told me something, she was wrong.
And usually she's wrong on things.
So they begin to take you with a grain of salt.
I don't want to be that kind of man.
I don't want to be the type of person that when someone says, well, Richard Fulton said, and then someone say, Well, consider the source.
I don't want to be that kind of man.
I ought to be the kind of man that if Richard Fulton says something, I want someone to say, well, now that's probably a very credible thing if Richard said it, or else he wouldn't have repeated it.
He usually doesn't go around saying something that he doesn't know what he's talking about.
But people who merely repeat a matter without researching it to make sure that it's true They'll soon not be taken seriously.
And we we as Christians, we can't afford that.
Christians don't need to be naive.
Boy, we've got some simple Christians though.
Man, I watch things on Facebook that Christians repeat.
They'll share.
And I look at them, I think, oh my goodness, there's no way that's true.
How could they believe that?
But the thing is, all they'd have to do is just check a little bit.
Or be a little a little uh what's the word I'm looking for?
Uh uh incredulous Let me make a little simpler word than that.
Be a little, brother what's a suspicious.
Skeptical There we go.
Anybody else got any?
But th those are good.
Be a little skeptical.
Do your do your research.
And uh I I don't like being wrong.
There are a lot of whole, a whole lot of uh, excuse me, false ideas out there though.
Yeah, that are always getting repeated to us.
They're being promoted by foolish people and by simple-minded people and the people who believe those ideas without without investigating those ideas to see if they're true.
They are the simple people that Solomon is talking about tonight.
They have a wide open mind with plenty of space for foolish people to dump their foolish ideas into their heads.
When you see these purple-haired liberals on television.
Spouting out their nonsense.
They are simple-minded people.
They're the people that Psalm is talking about.
You can listen to them, and they'll have life completely backwards of the way things really are.
They'll have reality upside down.
And what pretty much whatever they say, you can safely figure the opposite of that will be truth.
They're simple-minded people.
They speak authoritatively, they speak loudly on topics that they don't know anything about.
And because they repeat the nonsense they've been told, rather than seeking the truth that God has shown them They remain simple.
We currently have a Supreme Court justice in the United States named Katanji Brown Jackson.
Who says she doesn't know what a woman is because she's not a biologist.
And and I I just I still to this day marvel at how we could actually have arrived at this point as a nation.
And what's so amazing beyond that is she's praised for being the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
And maybe it's just me, maybe I'm far out there, but my question in my mind is, if she doesn't know what a woman is, how does she know she's the first black woman?
I mean it just it just astounds me.
And people who believe this kind of nonsense, again, they're the simple people.
Who have a mind so wide open to foolishness, the foolishness of this world, when they should have a very closed, a very restrictive mind.
Our minds should be like God's gate going into eternal life.
Our mind should be very, very narrow Narrow not in the sense that we don't consider things that we've never heard before, but narrow in the sense of the quality check of what we let lodge in our head.
Most things should have a very, very fine uh filter that they have to go through to get into our mind.
It should be very difficult to pass the bar of our judgment and our filters. before it actually lodges in our head and believe believe it to be true.
When I go to work each day, I have men and women greet me.
And they'll call me sir.
People I've never seen before.
They'll call me sir.
I have never in my life, Brother Shepherd, been misgendered, not one time.
And I'm sure you haven't either.
Not once.
Have you, sir?
Have you Abigail?
No, I've never had that problem before.
When I walk up to the door of my courthouse, if there's a woman nearby, I can watch because the doors are glass, and I love observing human nature.
And I've noticed this before.
We have a set of doors over here on the right and a set of doors over here on the left.
This actually happened this week.
I'm walking and I'm kind of in between both sets of doors.
In the glass, I see that a woman is coming up behind me.
I see her reflection.
She probably doesn't know whether I see her, but I see her.
And I see her going to the right hand set of doors.
I prefer using the left hand set of doors.
And so as I start making my way to the left-hand set of doors, do you know what I saw her do in the reflection?
She started going over to the left hand set of doors.
Do you know why?
Expected you to open the door.
She exactly what she expected me to open the doors for.
And you know what?
She's right.
I'm a gentleman.
I'm about to open the door for the lady.
But it I marveled at it.
This woman has never seen me in my life.
She's never asked me how I identify anything.
But she knew that she was a woman.
She knew that I was a man.
And I saw her go over here like this, and then gently pause while I grabbed the door, waiting for me to get the door for And sure enough, I grabbed the door.
I said, after you, ma'am.
And it was just a beautiful thing, you know, for that to happen.
And when I had my daughter Lauren, when she was born at home, the old-fashioned way, born at the house, uh, we didn't know what gender she was till she was born.
And when she was born, we had no trouble figuring it out.
Just absolutely none.
God made it very easy for us to know she was a little girl.
We didn't have to be biologists to figure it out and to figure out a name for her.
My mind won't let me believe the stupidity of this world any longer because the reality of God's design and God's word has placed a holy gate before my mind that justly prevents the big fat lies of the devil from getting through.
The simple, however, do not place a premium on truth.
Therefore, they do not investigate what they hear.
So instead of scrutinizing the world's lies, the simple look back in your text, what do they do?
Believeth every word.
They believe them.
When the devil lies, they believe it.
If it sounds good to them, they accept it.
If it sounds bad to them, they won't And because of that, because of our flesh, they end up believing the fleshly lies, the lies that the world tells and their flesh craves, rather than the truth that God tells and their spirit needs.
And the word believe here, it doesn't just mean to accept as truth.
It means to build up or to support So they put when you were thinking of building up and supporting, when you have a structure that's built up, that structure is meant to support weight.
Just like this platform has been built up.
Someone years ago did a great job and they they built the stairs here.
And there used to not be any carpet here, and they were all excited with their new sanctuary, and they built this platform up here, and they designed it. to support the people standing on it.
And they did a good job at still supporting me right now.
But That's what that word believe means.
It means that you're putting your weight on something and allowing that to support you.
In putting your weight on something is trust.
You've seen it described many times before, I'm sure, in church, where someone describes faith as sitting in a chair.
And that's a really good description of faith Because when you sit in a chair, you're depending on that chair to hold you up.
In the same way, when it comes to the gospel, I'm depending on what Jesus did for me.
I'm counting on that to metaphorically hold me up.
Charles Spurden said once, there won't be a single soul in hell.
That says, I cast my care and my hope upon the cross and those rotten timbers broke beneath my weight.
He understood what it meant to trust, to put your hope, your weight on the cross where Jesus died.
So the simple, they believe the lies.
They put their hope on the lies that they've been told, expecting those lies to support them without ever checking the structural integrity. of what they're leaning on.
And that's a very foolish thing to do.
When I was a kid, I built a fine treehouse out in the woods.
I mean it was it was nice.
Big old tree out in the woods.
You couldn't see it from the road really.
And uh big old vines all over it.
I mean it it fit perfect with the Tarzan show I used to watch I felt like Tarzan when I went out there.
I built a ladder to climb up the tree, and then when I when I got down the tree, I would swing on those vines and I would work my way down those big vines And I built a nice little room in that treehouse for me to stay in.
And then my my buddy, he had him a little room on the other side. of the treehouse.
And I could lay down in that little room and take me a nap if I wanted to, or just hang out.
And and I assure you, before I ever laid down In that little room, way up in that tree, I had fully tested the structure and the strength of what I built before I ever put my weight upon it.
When I climbed a tree, I never fell out of a tree.
And I think the reason is, is because I was real careful before I ever put weight on my foot.
I had to make sure that the the tree limb was gonna not break.
I had to make sure my foot was real steady, and then when I tested it out, then I would step up.
I didn't want to slip, I didn't want to fall, and it's no different spiritually.
I didn't want to believe just any religion because someone told me it was true.
I wanted to make sure that I put my spiritual weight on something that I knew could hold me up forever without fail.
Like my treehouse, I tested Christianity before I trusted Christianity.
False belief systems aren't based on reality, so if you put your foot on them, it's going to slip.
They're not real.
They have no means to hold you up, no means to support you.
I can't remember if I ever gave this illustration or not at church, so I'm going to go ahead and give it again.
I hesitated to do so just in case we were to ever do it, but I don't think we will.
Well, when I was a kid, we had a youth function at my home.
And I was not quite the youth age.
I was still a little boy, but boy did I have fun that night.
We had all these teenage boys and girls over there, and we played a game called the King and Queen of Hotsi Totsy.
Do you remember that, mama?
That was fun, wasn't it?
The king and queen.
I'd think daddy was probably working.
I don't know if dad was there to watch it, but the king and queen of Hotsy Tatsuy.
And uh basically it it was like this.
You had, and I'm I I my back's hurt, so I'm not gonna pull that out very far.
But if you could picture those two chairs spread out a little bit further with no arms on the chairs, just just the chairs with no arms to rest.
And then you take a nice uh like a quilt. and you cover it and then you spread it tight.
You spread it real tight and you have a a young woman sit there and a young man sit here.
And so it goes all the way across like this, and the the bed spread goes down here like this.
It looks like a couch.
And you with it tight, it looks like a complete couch, and you can't tell there's nothing under here.
And so the two people sitting here were the king and queen of Hotsi Tatsi.
The young people were off in a room somewhere, not knowing what we were about to do.
And they'd call the first young person in.
And the first young person would come in, they'd get introduced to the royal king and queen, and they would say, so good to have you in our court.
Would you please come sit down with us?
We'd like to talk to you.
And so they would come and sit down, and as soon as they sat down, the king and queen would stand up and they would fall right through the middle.
And man did we laugh.
I had the best time watching that.
I think we had a pillow underneath to kind of cushion the fall.
Then they'd spread it tight and sit back down.
Do you know what those people were that sat down on that couch?
Yeah, they were simple.
They were simple.
They should have been like, I don't know.
I just heard everybody laugh.
Because the next person would come in and that person wouldn't say a word.
And even though they heard everybody laugh, they would still sit down and still fall.
The simple.
The simple lay their heads on unsupported lies.
And they'll collapse.
And we giggle at that story.
But the sad thing is there's a there's a lot more at stake with some of the things that we believe.
And one day they're going to stand before God, having put their weight on some other way than the way God gave them.
The simple today they stand, they'll protest the truth to support the lies they believe in, but protesting the truth doesn't make it real.
The simple believe every word, look back in your text, but the prudent man The prudent man means the man who handles his business wisely, unlike a naive person, unlike a simple person.
A prudent man does what?
Looketh well to his going.
Looketh well to his going.
And that Hebrew word translated looketh well here.
Sometimes it's used with like the word understand.
And we we've seen this Hebrew word before, and I love it.
It has the idea of mentally separating and un unweaving things.
And so if uh if you were to have something and you were to dissect it.
Those of y'all who grew up in the era when we weren't afraid of blood and guts, in junior high we had to dissect frogs.
Because they want us to be able to pull little organs out and see how creatures were put together and what made them tick.
That is the idea behind this word, uh, looketh well.
It means to unravel something so that you can see how it's all put together and thus you understand it.
I was uh speaking to someone the other day about my understanding of a motor vehicle.
I grew up in a shop in a garage with my dad where he worked.
And then when I went to work for DPS, I ended up working at a salvage office. where we inspected uh rebuilt salvage after a car was crashed they would put the car back together then we had to inspect it before and then sign off on it before it could ever get retitled to get back out on the highway.
I looked at lots of rebuilt salvaged vehicles.
And because of that, we had to inspect every major component part on that vehicle.
Every one.
And because of that, when I think of a car, I don't just think of an automobile.
I see a frame or I see a subframe or a unibody.
And then I see all the components that are then attached to the unibody or to the frame.
I see the quarter panels, I see the fenders, I see the doors, I see the engine, I see the transmission, I see the cross member.
I see every piece of it just all assembled together.
And so I have an understanding of how that car works.
That is the Hebrew word here.
And so the prudent man looks well to his going.
So there's two ways of understanding this Hebrew word.
The first way is this.
I understand.
I can visualize and I understand how it's all put together.
The second way is to take the action so that you do understand.
Does that make sense?
In other words, the the prudent man looks well to his going.
The prudent man doesn't just uh hop in the vehicle, the prudent man checks every major component part out.
And he knows how the vehicle is put together.
And when you apply that to life, it means this.
I am almost 60 years old.
I'm getting close.
And so Facebook knows that I'm approaching retirement years.
And because of that, it is always sending me information on trying to get my money to invest somewhere.
I don't know if anyone else gets those advertisements.
I get them all the time.
And you have a $250,000 portfolio, then you would want to do this and we can Take the money and we can do and I see all kinds of advertisements.
Some of those advertisements are like 33% return.
And one of them that I really, really like this week said this.
The banks have always had a secret on how they make their money.
Secret you don't know, Sister Charlotte.
You and your husband don't know it.
Y'all don't know it.
All you little folks don't know it.
But we have unlocked the secret.
And if you'll give us your money, we can put this little-known strategy that the banks know, that you don't know, to work for you.
And now you can make all the big money that the banks make.
Isn't that great?
Do you know what the problem with that is?
If it was that simple, why would they be trying to make money charging me a fee?
and waste their time charging me a fee to make help me make a bunch of money when they could just keep investing more in all that money they're making from the bank.
And so, what needs to happen is this.
The simple, and so we're taking it from the spiritual.
We've already addressed the spiritual about the simple here, right?
Now we're going to take the practical, the earthly wisdom in this verse.
The simple person is going to look at that and say, wow.
Why would I want to invest in an annuity that's guaranteed on paper and you can actually Sue if you need to.
Why would I want to invest in an annuity that guarantees me a little over six percent uh annual return when I could use these people who have this secret?
This financial secret to success, and they can get me 33% return.
And so I'm going to take the money that I've saved up all of my life, and now I'm going to hand it to these people.
That's what the simple person would do.
A few years ago, there was some folks that came into my courthouse And uh I'm in the courtroom with them.
And they're there because they took their hard-earned money.
Oh, talk about simple.
And they didn't give their hard-earned money to an institution.
They gave it to an individual Lots of money they gave to an individual who claimed to be a successful day trader.
And that he could take their money and multiply it just like that.
You know where their money is?
It's gone.
It's gone.
Do you know what they were?
Simple.
They were the the simple believe every word.
They were just as gullible as they could be.
And so driven by that that urge, remember the simple will take what appeals to their flesh, driven by that lust, that worldly lust for for for gain.
And that lust for finances, they thought, hey, they sucked it right in, believed it, and just handed this man All of these thousands and thousands of dollars.
I believe it was like a quarter million that they gave this man, if I remember right, and it's gone.
And I doubt this man lost it in the stock market.
I would have figured he probably spent it But the prudent man won't do that.
The prudent man is going to dissect it.
He's going to take the situation, and he's going to know that situation inside and out, just as I know that car inside and out.
He's gonna know what's under the hood, not just what the paint that's on top of it.
Not just how shiny it is, but the engine inside and the transmission inside and how well it's put together and know this thing is put together, it's roadworthy.
Before he ever puts his money there.
The simple Is going to believe it, take the bait, the prudent man, before he ever takes a step, he looks well to his what?
His going.
That means before he ever takes a step, and you think of taking a step as making a decision, before he goes, before he puts his weight on that foot, He's going to test it first.
I've always understood my life's decisions like that ever since I was in my twenties.
I remember once when I was in my 20s, I was a young highway patrol trooper.
There were some people that we knew from church.
Um the lady we went to church with, her husband owned uh a plant farm in New Summerfield, Texas.
A big plant farm, some of the largest plant farms anywhere around.
So big, in fact They actually had, and I assume still do, like one of the very first um uh hellbusters.
When when they could detect hell up in the air, hell that would come down and damage their plants and their their their little uh domes and stuff, plastic domes, they could send signals up. and bust the hell up in the clouds before it ever came down.
That's a very big platform.
And I remember one of the pals, Powell Plant Farm, I remember one of the POWs, Randy Powell was his name.
And Randy came to me one day and he wanted me to quit being a highway patrol trooper and come to work for him.
He offered me a considerable amount more money. than what I was making as a trooper and handling their commercial vehicle fleet.
And uh he visited with me for a little bit and I visited with him.
And naturally the pay sounded great But you know what?
I had little kids I had to feed.
Had the wife I had to support.
I had a house payment I had to make.
Had a future that I had to consider.
And I worked real hard going to that highway patrol academy and getting to where I was and learning the trade that I made my living at.
And I said, Randy, I said, what kind of guarantees would I have about my future at your plant farm?
He said, Richard, there's no guarantees.
He said, sometimes you just got to take chances.
That was his advice to me And I prayed about it and I thought about it.
And this is the way I thought.
I thought, you know, I'm walking here, and if I'm going to step, and and I don't know if something's rotten or not.
I'm gonna push like this, make sure it's okay.
I tell you what, it's wintertime.
Have y'all ever walked on a lake that was frozen?
You never have?
And anybody?
You have Christian.
All right.
Grown-ups, y'all have done it before, haven't you?
Okay.
That's how come we tell the kids not to, because we have.
But I have too And and y'all probably do the same thing, unless it was really, really frozen hard.
But East Texas frozen lakes, you better do this.
You better do this and push.
If you see little bubbles underneath, don't you go any further.
You better push and make sure it has no give in it and then you can do this.
But you know what?
I've stepped out on those ponds before and I've pushed like that and I've heard it go crack.
Old Richard don't go any further because I heard the stories about people falling in those lakes and couldn't get out.
And that's what I did with that situation.
I put my foot out there, I pressed on it.
I thought, you know what?
I just don't feel the solid uh uh assurance I need when I've got these kids and this family I've got to take care of.
And I just stepped back.
I told them no.
And you know what?
Just a few years later, he got hooked on drugs.
He died, and all that plant farm was gone.
His wife got hooked on drugs too.
Lady I went to church with.
She went crazy.
She called me up.
At the the DPS office here in Athens one day from Rusk.
She said she could trust me.
She couldn't trust everybody else.
Do you know what she thought?
She had ran her Corvette off the road and hit a tree there in Jacksonville.
And she thought the police department had put a big magnet off the side of the road and sucked her car off and made her hit that tree.
Now had I not put my had I just looked at the money that they offered, and they had the money, they were wealthy people, had I just looked at that money and I just stepped Then I wouldn't have what I have today.
So the prudent man looks well to his going.
Never step presumptuously.
Always step confidently.
Don't just believe anything.
Scrutinize the business deals.
Scrutinize the offers that are made to you.
Scrutinize the claims that are made from religious institutions as well.
God's word invites the scrutiny.
Brother Richard, where in God's word does invite the scrutiny?
In the verse we're reading tonight.
The prudent man looks well to his going.
Now, going, the only way to go is to walk in a certain direction, to walk away. to walk a particular way or a particular road.
Jesus said, I am the way.
God's word is the path that He's given us to travel.
But God, even God wants you to look well to your going.
If you just accept Christianity because you were told to.
And you haven't really considered if it's true or not, that's not faith.
That's presumption.
That's religion My wife's son bought a Bible to come to church Sunday, professed atheist.
And uh he bought the Bible.
Tammy was proud of him.
I was proud of him.
Before he'd just come church and look on his phone, play on his phone.
But he actually bought a Bible and actually opened it up, actually turned and actually read where we read.
He's a little more open than he used to be.
But he told his mom, he said, I'm not going to get religious.
Tammy said, good, because there's a lot of religious people that warm the pews and go to hell.
We don't want you to be religious.
We don't want you to be religious.
Always look well to your going.
And God's word will stand the scrutiny every single time.
Every time I've had somebody attack the Bible, when I was a young Christian, I would hear people attack the Bible.
And they were supposed to be these great scientists or these great historians.
And when they would attack the Bible, I would feel a little uneasy.
And I'd pray that God, you know, help me to be able to dispute this claim that I'm hearing here.
And I'd I'd run and I'd start praying and start studying the Bible.
And you know what?
Every time, after a while, I got I got to where I didn't even pay attention to those people anymore.
Because I learned that every time when God's word was scrutinized and I'd go check it, it would come up true every time. both literally and experientially in my life.
That's our text for tonight, and Lord willing we'll close with that and take back up in the book of Daniel.
Sunday morning.
Father, thank you, Lord, for this wonderful word you've given us.
Thank you, Father, for the solid advice So that your people, Lord, you don't want your believers, Father, to walk around like a bunch of naive people, Lord.
We need to be the people the world follows.
Not gullible, but people with narrow minds and tight filters, Lord, before we ever believe anything.
And I thank you, Father, that your word has been highly scrutinized over the ages before it was ever handed down to us.
It went from generation to generation to generation to generation and finally down to us.
And then when we scrutinize it and we test it, Father God, we taste of the Lord and we see that He is good.
And we thank you, Father.
Help us to believe every word that you say.
Father, help us to test everything else in this world.
We pray in Jesus' wonderful name.
Amen.
