Episode Transcript
All right, if you take God's precious word, turn to the book of Proverbs.
The book of Proverbs.
God willing, we'll take up where we left off last week We'll be in the book of Proverbs, chapter 15.
God believe we'll be expounding verse 17 tonight.
Proverbs chapter 15 verse 17.
The title of the message tonight is steak and herbs.
Steak and herbs.
I bet most of y'all have heard of steak and shrimp.
And tonight we're going to learn about steak and herbs.
Last week we studied Proverbs 15, 16, and we're going back to that just for a moment because it coincides with our verse tonight.
So let's look at Proverbs 15, 16 first.
It says, better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.
And in that verse we learned, excuse me, that sometimes a little is better.
Better is a little, Solomon said.
Sometimes a little is better than a lot.
We learn that the word better in the Hebrew is uh Tob translated better in the English, and that means basically the good way that God designed from the beginning.
And in tonight's verse, we're going to get a double helping of better.
Because Solomon goes from a little being better with the fear of the Lord. to a dinner of herbs being better where love is.
All right?
Solomon says, look down your text.
Better is a dinner of herbs.
Boy, I tell you, this is worth memorizing tonight.
Better is a dinner of herbs.
A dinner of herbs is basically speaking about a vegetable plate.
You say, well, I wouldn't consider peas an herb, but peas grew from an herb, you see.
Beans grew from an herb.
Corn grows from herbs.
They all grow from that green leafy vegetation.
And so we're basically talking about a vegetable plate, but if it helps you a little bit, because this this word herbs, this Hebrew word translated herbs, it's literally translated green.
Green.
So if it helps, just think about a plate of greens or a salad.
A salad.
And so Solomon is saying that sometimes it's better to have a vegetable plate.
Sometimes it's better to have a salad.
And it all depends not on how good the salad tastes, not on how good some other dish may taste, not on what your health needs are.
But sometimes it's better, all depending on which of two atmospheres you're dining in.
I remember the first time I ever thought of eating in an atmosphere.
Uh and I was me and Jimmy Dunklin were out in the country.
And on patrol and we were on this little county road.
We passed by this, I mean, looked like a mansion sitting off the road.
And it was gated.
And it was a restaurant.
And it said, whatever the name of it was, it said, a private dining experience.
And I thought, an experience.
I mean, I never thought of food that way.
I just thought of getting hungry and eating.
But those people were making a whole experience out of it.
And here Solomon is talking somewhat about the dining experience.
He's talking about the particular atmosphere that we're in.
Specifically, he says it's better to have a dinner of herbs.
Look in your text where love is. where love is.
And the Hebrew word translated love here means affection.
Just having affection for somebody.
Not simply to say that you love them in the sense you say, well I don't like them.
Well, you know, you hate this the you you you hate the sin, you love the sinner.
You know we It doesn't mean that we're talking about actually lacking someone, actually having feelings for somebody, actually having affection for a particular person, and there's nothing like the feeling of knowing that somebody really knows you.
In knowing you, they love you.
It's a beautiful thing.
It's a beautiful thing.
I tell you what, I know my wife, and the better I know my wife, the more I love and respect her.
She does a wonderful job of making sure that I know how much she loves me.
It's a feeling of security.
It's a feeling of acceptance.
It's a feeling of value.
I mean, it makes you feel valuable. when someone loves you.
If you've ever heard the song I I wrote for um uh uh uh that uh sweetheart hang on don't you say a word The longer we're away.
It has in there, uh, the the in the lyrics about her writing notes on my sandwich bags If you were to watch me, I'd every morning when I go to work, I've got two sandwiches, one for breakfast and one for lunch I take the one for lunch, I stick it in the fridge, and there's a note on there.
And there's all kinds of sweet notes on there.
I mean all kinds of stuff.
And sometimes she'll write on there, she'll call me Mr.
Wonderful Or you're my gift from God, or you're my answered prayer, or your muscles are bigger than Brother Shepherd.
Stuff like that.
All kinds of embarrassing stuff.
She don't do that.
She don't.
I'm just I'm just kidding, Brother Shepherd.
But But she'll write all kinds of stuff like that.
And you know what that does?
It makes a fella feel secure.
You know?
And it does the same for a woman, guys.
If you go around bragging on your wife, it makes them feel secure.
It's a wonderful feeling to know that you dwell in an environment where love is.
So no matter where we are, when we sit down to eat together, by the grace of God, my wife and I are dwelling where love is.
And that sure makes for a wonderful meal no matter what we're having.
Have you ever sat down to eat?
Where there was tension at the table.
How many of y'all ever done that?
Well, we got a bunch of hands going up lots of times at Jeremiah House, isn't that right?
Lots of times I I would venture to say all of us have at some point in time in life.
People are arguing, picking at their food.
Kids are angry.
And Solomon is saying it's better to eat a dinner of herbs.
It's better to have just a salad where love is than to dine on a main course without that love.
Speaking of love, the Apostle Paul called love charity in the New Testament.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is the love chapter Just like Hebrews chapter 11 is the faith chapter in the New Testament.
1 Corinthians chapter 13 is the love chapter.
And in the first uh couple of uh verses there in verse 2 and 3 Paul said, and though I have the gift of prophecy, the gift of prophecy is a wonderful gift, and understand all mysteries, I wish I could. in all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains And yet he says, have not charity.
I am nothing Paul said, I could preach with the greatest gift of preaching.
I could understand every mystery.
Of the Word of God, every spiritual mystery there was.
He said, I could have so much faith, I could move mountains.
But if I don't have charity, he says I'm nothing.
What good is all of that if I don't love?
What good is it if you preach to people and you don't love them?
What good is it to have faith and you don't love?
It's no good at all.
He goes on to say, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned for somebody I'm adding the somebody in.
He says, and have not charity.
It profiteth me nothing.
It's worthless.
What good is it to sacrifice your life for somebody?
The Bible doesn't say God gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
It says he loved the world.
And that he gave out of love.
Not out of obligation.
Not out of just trying to get glory from people.
He did it out of love.
And if what we do is not done out of love, it's good for nothing.
So in other words, it doesn't matter what you have in life If you don't have love to go along with it, you don't have anything.
And it doesn't matter what you do in life.
Because if you'll notice in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 2 and 3 that we just we're still there.
The verse two is what you have in life.
Verse three is what you do in life.
You see?
Verse 3, though I bestow, though I do this and that and the other, and in verse 2, though I have.
So you can have everything in life, but if you don't have love, you don't have anything.
You can do Although anything in life, but no matter what you do, if you don't do it out of love, you haven't done anything worth doing at all.
And that means love is the greatest possession a person can have.
And love is the greatest thing a person can give.
Love is.
God created us because God loved us And he designed us to know his love for us and to share his love with others.
And then to return his love back to him by loving him as well.
Love is God's greatest gift to man.
Now, here's a kingdom truth for you.
Love is God's greatest gift.
Therefore, love is man's greatest need.
And I can hear Brother Rick back there.
He didn't give the kingdom truth to us.
I apologize, Brother Rick.
It just dawned on me that I did not share that with you in the notes.
But love is God's greatest gift.
Therefore, love is man's greatest need.
You see?
It would be better to have a dinner of herbs, Solomon said.
And again, basically, it's a salad or a vegetable plate.
Tuesday night My wife made a very good main course for us to eat.
And she had a very nice strawberry spinach salad.
Y'all like those?
I like them.
She had a very nice strawberry spinach salad to go along with it.
But when she finished the main course, she was full And she said, you know, I'm going to save the salad for later.
When I finished the main course, I was kind of full, but I like to eat And I went ahead and ate mine.
But you know what?
I could have had it or not had it.
I could have saved it for later and I would have been fine too.
It would have been better to to uh to eat the salad, but she didn't have to have it And that's very important to understand because a salad wasn't a necessary thing.
It was just a side dish, and it would be It would be better to have just the salad without the main course where love is, look back in your text, than a stalled ox.
It would be better to have that salad to eat than to have a stalled ox to eat.
And when you're thinking of a stalled ox, here's why it's worded that way.
If you have an ox behind a plow, it's going to be lean.
It's going to be tough You have an ox out walking in the field.
It's going to be walking, burning calories and all that.
But you know what you want to do before you butcher it?
You stall it, you set it, and you feed it, and you fatten it up.
And so when we're talking about a a stalled ox here, it has the idea of the ox sitting in the stall, fattening up, getting ready to slaughter. to eat.
So it's literally better to have a salad than a fattened ox, bringing it into now our East Texas lingo.
It's better to have a salad where love is than a big juicy steak, look back in your text in hatred therewith.
Be better to eat that strawberry spinach salad and have love in the home than to eat a big, fat, juicy steak at Longhorn Steakhouse or wherever you like to go, and to have hatred along with that steak.
You see, love, and this is the reason that it's God's greatest gift and man's greatest need, love builds a person up.
You know what hatred does?
That's right, it tears a person down.
It will tear you down to be hated, especially to be hated by your family members.
But it will tear a person down.
It's better to eat a salad and be built up by love than to eat a steak and be torn down by hate.
If you've ever had the privilege of eating in a home where love is, then you'd readily agree that what's on the menu is not near as important as what's in the heart, right?
It's what matters.
Remember our kingdom truth?
Love is God's greatest gift, therefore it's man's greatest need.
It's better to have a dinner of herbs.
Herbs fill the belly.
Listen to what he's saying.
It's better to have a dinner of herbs.
Herbs fill the belly.
What does love fill?
Love fills the heart.
You see why that's important?
Which is more important to have your belly full or your heart full?
Have your heart full.
I would rather go to bed hungry. with a full heart, then just be so thankful for everything I've got, to be so happy, to feel so satisfied in life. than to go to bed with a full stomach and an empty heart.
There was a a uh a book I read once It was it was uh letters from a soldier.
I it was some kind of title like that.
But it was a s it was a uh a young man who I think he went to Vietnam And while he was there, he wrote letters back to his high school teacher.
I guess he just didn't feel comfortable writing back to his parents.
And he just told his whole heart to his high school teacher.
And it was sad.
I remember I was a young man reading, and I remember reading through there and he was telling his teacher about how he had been um lonely over there and spending his money on prostitutes.
And he said after all of that He said, I I feel hollow inside.
And his words really struck me.
He said, I rattle when I'm shaken.
Just like I rattle hollow inside.
I'd rather go to bed with salad in my belly than go to bed and feel hollow inside.
It's good to have a belly full of food, but it's far better to have a heart filled with love.
It's better to die.
Knowing you are forever loved than to live knowing you are forever hated Herbs, therefore, may leave your belly unsatisfied, but love will satisfy the greater need of your heart.
It's a greater thing.
Better is comparative, right?
It's a greater thing.
Now, the lesson of steak and herbs tonight is true in a much wider sense.
When we're thinking of salad in the belly, we're thinking of love in the heart, we have to understand that that is not strictly related to what goes into our belly. in the form of food.
It's not strictly related to love going into our heart The principle that we learn here is then applied across the board to everything in life.
That's the way the Bible works What's true in the smallest, biblically, is always true in the greatest.
If it's not true in the smallest, it's not true in the greatest.
If you think it's true in the smallest and you extend it out to the greatest and it doesn't remain true, then it wasn't true in the smallest.
It's always whatever's true in the small will be true in the great.
And so that works that way here in this text.
You see, stake represents that which is less important but that which is greatly desired.
It's less important, but it's more desired.
That stake.
Can you think of anything like that in life?
Something that's less important, but it is more greatly desired.
There are things in life that your fallen nature and your fallen body Will naturally have a fierce craving for.
That's why that young man was with prostitutes.
Was that his greatest need?
His greatest needs were surviving in Vietnam, not being with prostitutes in Vietnam.
But there are things in life because of our fallen nature.
We will have a great fierce appetite for, hence the belly.
When you look in the Bible, I believe it's in the book of Colossians, it talks of in the spiritual Longing of the belly, and it says, talking about the people who don't believe in God and don't want to follow his word, it says their God is their belly And it's not talking about their food, their physical food, it's talking about their spiritual food.
It means whatever their appetite is, they try to satisfy.
And when you're hungry, And and I do this almost every day.
You can ask the guys I work with.
I will send my wife a text if she hadn't texted me already.
And what do I ask you around three o'clock?
Watch for supper.
Then I'll be thinking about it as I'll be hungry.
I'll start asking the guys, what y'all having for supper?
I get hungry.
And when you get your mind set on a big stake or going somewhere and having something real nice, that craving is really strong.
It's going to gnaw at you.
But it may not be the most important thing that you need.
So a stake here represents that which is less important, but is more desired in life, and there's a bunch of those things and love here represents that which is most important, but is often sacrificed.
Stake that which is less important but is greatly desired.
Love that which is most important but that is frequently sacrificed for that which is greatly desired.
This proverb teaches us that we should prioritize the things we need in life. rather than the things we crave.
I'm going to say that again.
This proverb is teaching us that we should prioritize the things we need in life rather than the things we crave.
You live in a fallen body.
And because of that, your cravings will not automatically default to what you need the most.
You can't go by your cravings of your body.
Sometimes you have to just suppress them because they're wrong.
It's no different than getting in your car.
This happens all the time at work.
I I work in a big skyrise building.
And a lot of times if I'm coming off the elevator in the main lobby, I'll see somebody else.
Either coming off another elevator or maybe they were on the elevator with me.
And they'll get out and they'll go.
And I know right then they don't have a clue where they're going.
But for that split moment, they're marching right where they think they need to be going.
And they're turned around.
And then I'll have to say, can it help you find someplace?
Well I I I parked.
So would you park in the garage?
Did you park out front?
I parked in the garage.
Well then come on, I'll show you where to go What we crave is the same way.
Your body will tell you you really need this.
I remember talking to a woman one time many years ago She left her husband.
Then, after leaving her husband and that relationship being dissolved, she decided, you know what, I don't like being single.
I need a husband.
I said, well, you need to go back to your husband and reconcile.
Or you need to stay single.
And I said, that's what the Bible says.
And uh she says, well God's gonna have to just take this this desire away from me if he didn't want me to do it.
And in her mind it seemed like, well, if I have this desire, it must be God putting this desire on my heart.
It didn't work that way.
Doesn't work that way.
Have y'all ever wanted something that you shouldn't have?
Sure you have.
Everybody has.
We crave things that We're not supposed to have.
So prioritize what the Bible says we need rather than the things we crave.
Do you remember the story of Esau and Jacob?
Esau traded his birthright for a bowl of soup.
Do you know why?
He was hungry.
And it's the same principles happening here.
Which was more important?
The birthright.
Obviously that birthright was more important.
That was a lifelong benefit.
The soup was a third of a day benefit.
Half a day at best.
But what was he craving the most?
What was the strongest craving he had?
Did he crave what he needed the most?
No.
He craved the soup.
And as soon as his belly was full, that craving went over, or was over.
And then that bowl went away.
He was hungry again, and the birthright was gone.
And this proverb applies to that. is a prime example of a man trading something more important in order to satisfy something less important.
It doesn't make sense.
It's not logical, but people do it all the time.
Never sacrifice something you need in order to satisfy something you crave.
I'm going to say that again.
Never sacrifice something you need in order to satisfy something you crave.
It's better to hunger a little than to hurt a lot.
Better to hunger for a little than to hurt for a long time.
With that, we'll go ahead and stop tonight.
And Lord willing, take back up in our next verse next Wednesday night.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Lord, how solid your scriptures are.
How personal They are to us.
How they touch us, Lord, and the experiences that we've lived.
Help us, Lord, to make love a priority.
Help us, Lord, to never satisfy something that we need in order to uh it's to never sacrifice something we need in order to satisfy something we crave.
Set our minds, Lord, according to your word And let us live thereby.
We ask it in Jesus' precious name.
Amen
