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1:13Then I moved here to the U.S. I bounced through a couple of states doing my bachelor's and then my master's in North Carolina, where I have my last semester. I'm in my last semester, so Lord willing, one more class. And uh we're done. Hopefully my professor uh is kind enough to pass me. So uh now. So before we jump into our text today, I just wanna thank uh the pastor and uh the elders for bringing my wife and I here. Uh she's over there. Her name is Amy uh from Virginia and we're awaiting our first son, uh baby boy in April. So we're pretty excited. We're looking forward to it. Yeah. We'll see how everything goes. But yeah, and we're happy to be here, like I said, and and get to know you better. But since I heard that you were going through uh 1 John and Romans, hopefully I'm correct.

2:14Those are two doctrinally complex New Testament epistles. I thought it would be good to have a change of uh pace and and go to a very different book. It's uh in the Old Testament, a very poetic book, and it's the book of Proverbs. It's not as logically complex, but still bottomlessly profound. So yeah, before I go there, I love Proverbs in general. Like I'm talking about those one-liners, those wise, pithy statements that you just say in the right moment, hopefully. And so they they have a way of expressing ideas in such a memorable way. They just speak to the moment. And let me see how many of these you know. I have actions speak louder than words. All good things come to an end.

3:12All that glitters is not gold. But this one is my personal favorite. And I don't know how many of you know this one. My dad used to quote this a lot. Among the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Or heard it? Then beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I say a lot of that to my friends when they first start dating. And then beggars can be choosers. Blood is thicker than water. Don't bite off more than you can chew.

3:46All true statements, and we can quote, I don't know how many of those you can quote, but we can quote the secular proverbs in the right moment. And I realized in my own life, at least, that I wasn't able to do the same thing with divine inspired Proverbs. And I thought, what a shame. It's actually God's wisdom that we could be applying in those moments just by quoting it and reminding ourselves of those profound truths. So what I would like to do today is to open our Bibles in Proverbs chapter 12.

4:23Yes, everything's working great. And learn four Proverbs. That relate to our words. Hopefully, you know, this will spark your interest and memorize it over the week. And from each of those proverbs, we will glean a lesson. So let's start by situating ourselves better in this book. I'm showing you an overview of Proverbs chapter 12. And this whole chapter speaks about living and speaking wisely. So I have two, it's divided in two equal parts, equal length. You have 14 verses in the beginning, 14 verses toward the end, and they both speak about wise words and deeds. As you may see there, you have an introduction, generally speaking about that the wise will listen to these proverbs and they will apply them, but the fool will just reject it and go on with his life, hard-headed and not wanting to apply this truth. And then you have a section about words, then a section about deeds or things that we do, and then a conclusion, and then the thing repeats itself at the end. So you have that parallel structure. We're going to be there, yes, verses in that section. We're not going to go through all the proverbs, but we're going to do the first three, 16, 17, 18, and then jump to the last one to have a nice conclusion of the section.

6:00Let's begin. First verse, Proverbs 12:16, you see that I chose the CSV just because I thought it was kind of memorable the way that they phrased it, and the words were pretty well translated. So it says, A fool's displeasure is known at once, but whoever ignores an insult is sensible. Let's say that all together. A fool's displeasure is known at once, but whoever ignores an insult is sensible. Let's go little by little. First of all, we need to know what the Bible means by the fool, right?

6:39Because when we think about a fool, sometimes we think about IQ, about how learned that person is or levels of intelligence. Well, the Bible has a very different definition of it. Because it's very possible to be highly educated, super smart, and still be a fool. Because the fool, according to the Bible, is the one who despises the Lord and his instruction. Which makes a lot of sense since Proverbs 9:10, you might have memorized this, says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And it makes sense in a lot of sense as well, because God has created the world in such a way that when we follow his manual, his instruction, when he says, do this, you know, we follow it, things change. Go right. And the one who trusts in his own heart, like other parts of the Bible says, you are being a fool because God knows better. I mean, who we cannot just say, no, I know better than God. So we're being foolish when we despise God's instruction and we despise him.

7:50Yeah, we've heard all those verses. So what does the fool do actually? We see there that the fool makes known his displeasure at once. That word means to reveal, to make public. So the fool actually lets everyone know when he is upset. He just doesn't hold it in. Everyone will hear about it. Everyone will hear about it. And notice that he does that at once. He makes known his displeasure. He's upset right there at once. He does not control his reactions. He has absolutely no tolerance for those kinds of things that upset him.

8:37He will just show with his words and with his actions that he is not pleased. We were coming here from Raleigh on the airport, and there was one guy in front of us, and there was a woman a little bit farther, and we saw this guy kind of trying to make his way in because that was actually his wife. So he was trying. To get to her, and he bumped into the guy who was in front of us.

9:06And that guy just lost it. Like, he was a little bump, and he just turned to him, and he told him a bunch of things that I cannot tell you right now. But I was like, you know, like, what do I do here? And the funny thing is that they were right in front of each other, and then the line goes like this, you know. So they had to cross each other and see each other from the front. And every time they saw each other, they just looked at each other and say a couple mean stuff. But yeah, it was nuts. That guy, as we see here in the Proverbs, was foolish. That was foolish. He felt annoyed, and he just reacted.

9:50He had to make his annoyance known to the other guy. He couldn't just say, I'll let this pass. He had to show. He had to show that he was not pleased. This is that reckless driver that is cutting everyone off, you know, is driving half an inch behind you, honking, cussing because things aren't going his way. That's the fool. Hopefully, we're not it. This is a guy at work that just will not stop complaining about little things, and he just sighs and just looks around. So people can see that he's not pleased. He'll mumble things, he'll grunt. And you know, people like that.

10:40And they need to change. They need a change of heart if they're not believers. Because, of course, you cannot be wise if you're not a Christian, if you reject the Lord and his instruction. But even Christians can be foolish and they need to grow in Christ. But instead of just pointing fingers, it's good to look in the mirror and see how we are doing in this aspect. So it's good for us to think and reflect on our own lives and think, what causes me to lose control?

11:17Because I have there the fool does not control his reaction, and that's the question. When am I tempted to lose control? Maybe there are circumstances at work, maybe that co-worker that is annoying, and that employee that doesn't do his job, and it's annoying to you in multiple levels because it creates more work for you. That boss that is very demeaning, the job itself can be pretty bad in that sense. It may make you upset. Hopefully, not here, but maybe brothers and sisters in the church. May rub you the wrong way and causes you to lose control and say things that you shouldn't.

12:08Maybe you're in class, college, or master's degree, or whatever, and you have that teacher, that classmate, the deadlines, those deadlines that stress you out, and you don't know if you want to pull your hair out and react and make everyone know that this is stressing you out, this is bad. Maybe the children that keep making a mess at home and they do it constantly, so it gets on your nerves. Maybe it's pain. Maybe it's physical pain or emotional pain. And in those moments, we are so tempted to just snap and react.

12:53Don't tell me this, but what do you do? What do you do? Just think to yourself: what are you tempted to do actually? Pull your hair out. I don't know if you've ever done this, but punch the wall, grunt, say things that you wouldn't say here in the church, throw a fit, throw something, a shoe, throw the plates at your husband. When I was a teenager, I mean 12, 13, 14, I don't remember exactly what, but And this is something that still bothers me. Every time I have a cold, I have this spiritual warfare in myself. I have to battle my flesh because I hate a stuffy nose.

13:41I can't have it. Especially at night when you're trying to sleep, and you can't because you can't breathe. And I remember getting very worked up about this, and I was blowing my nose, and things kept coming out. You love this. So things kept coming out, and horrible. And I was getting more and more annoyed until I just said it, forget it. And I blew with my whole strength, might, and power, and then it was all red. So I don't remember anything after that.

14:18But that's what happened. I was a fool. I was a big fool. But what does the wise person do? If we are not to just lose it and demonstrate our annoyance right away, what do we do? Well, the other part of the proverb tells us what's the positive thing. So whoever ignores an insult is sensible. That word translator, ignore, it means to cover, conceal. Maybe you have a version of the Bible that says he who covers shame. Maybe that's your translation. So cover, conceal. So it's a complete opposite of the revealing that the Does of making public. Everyone will hear about it. Well, the wise, the sensible person will just keep it to himself. He will hold it. He will cover it. He will conceal it, hide it.

15:15Well, that doesn't mean that the sensible person, the wise person, does not get annoyed. It's not like everything's going wrong. He's like, I'm doing great. No, I mean, he can actually get annoyed. He can feel upset. But the difference is in how he reacts to it. He will not just try to, well, not even try, but just let everyone know and let people know that he's annoyed. He will try to hide it as well as he can.

15:45So when he does that, what is he trying to hide then? This translation says insult. Ignores an insult. That word means, where do I have it? So shame, dishonor, like cover shame. You have some versions. So you can take this phrase one of two ways. One is the shame is against you, so that's the insult. Someone is dishonoring you, someone is shaming you, so that's the insulting. And you cover it by ignoring it. So that's very how they have translated it here in the CSV.

16:25You patiently just bear with it. The other side, the other way that You can take it. The proverb's not definite about it. It's not letting you know exactly which one of those means, probably on purpose, you know. So the other way is that you're covering your own shame. So that will mean that by holding yourself together, you're saving yourself much shame. Pointing fingers, people being like, hmm, that's the guy. So the sensible is the one who ignores an insult. I like this word. I think it represents very well the meaning. Because it's not just being wise, because when you are wise, you may get in trouble.

17:19If you're standing for the truth in the middle of difficulties and persecution, you're being wise. But that will bring your consequences. Well, the idea here is someone who's shrewd, someone who's cunning, someone who's clever, someone who's who's street smart, you know, someone who really is thinking and planning and crafting and is a smart one. So it's actually this smart move. It's not just wise. It's a smart move to just conceal and cover your own shame, to ignore the insult, not to just blur out whatever comes to your mind.

17:55This is clever and will save us many headaches. And that's what it's trying to say. This means that as hard as it might be, and I have it there on the screen, when someone insults you, when someone when situations get very frustrating, when you hit your pinky toe for the third time that day, when that fool in the biblical sense is behind you, tailing you, when you get a very unpleasant comment or message, we hold ourselves together. We take a breath, take a deep breath, whatever we need, and we don't make it public. We don't make our annoyance public to others. We hold ourselves together. And actually, we can do this. Praise the Lord. Because every Christian has the Holy Spirit indwelling. So when we're surrendered and controlled by the power of the Spirit, we can hold ourselves together, which we couldn't if we are not. Because a fool's displeasure is known at once, but whoever ignores an insult is sensible. Let's go to the next proverb.

19:13It says, Whoever speaks the truth, verse 17, declares what is right, but a false witness speaks deceit. Let's say it all together. Whoever speaks the truth declares what is right, but a false witness speaks deceit. So right away we see uh the two individuals that are being contrasted. That's that's the main point here. You have the one who uh speaks the truth and the one who's a false witness. This is a uh judicial setting, this is talking about a courtroom. Um of course we apply this to everyday life. You know, we say don't bail don't bear false witness, you know, but that uh this is actually talking and it has application to that, but the main drive here is to the court setting. Uh when you're in front of the judge and the stakes are high. Uh when the truth it always matters. The truth always matters. But when you're there, consequences are right in front of you. You speak something bending the truth a little bit, you color it, you misrepresent the facts, and the stakes are high. People's lives hang on the balance.

20:29It always does, but there is like the perfect illustration of how the truth can impact the life of people, the lives of people. So the one who speaks the truth is actually like literally the trustworthy witness, and then you have the false witness, false witness, which who is the complete opposite. And then you have two opposite actions the construct gun constructing Oh no, I cannot say that word. They're in contrast. One does what is right, so he says what he ought to say. He says the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. And the other one gives intentional lies or half-truth or misrepresent the truth.

21:23So this proverb teaches us the principle that actions stem from character. That's what's at stake here. Conduct comes from character. We see this all over the Bible. For example, in Luke 6, the Lord says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. You will know them by their fruits. So that's what is stake here. The conduct actually comes from character. It's not like things that we do. They're just things that we do. We do them for a reason, because of who we are.

22:02I don't know if you've ever seen a Great Comfort. This is an evangelist who always opens up saying, Have you ever lied? And people might say, Yeah, yeah, I lied. Well, what does that make you? Well, not a bad person. Like, but if someone else lies, how would you call them? A liar? So what are you? And people get very uncomfortable. And well, that's the point to show that we are. Sinners, you know. So that's the point here.

22:35What we do actually stems from who we are. And that's how we can know who you can trust. Because that person who is known for presenting poor evidence, lose accusations, exaggerated claims, well, the person is not reliable. Hopefully, that person is not us. You might be saying, well, aren't you generalizing? Well, that's the principle. That is all over the Bible. What we do comes from who we are, our hearts. We cannot separate the facts and say, no, this is, I may have done that, but that's not who I am. We see that a lot, especially if you watch series on CW or whatever, you know, those teenager more series. You know, sometimes I watch them just to see how, well, some are fun, but some are like a true revelation of where the world is at or where the world wants to get to. And that's the mantra. You know, you may have done this, but that's not who you truly are. You know, you just killed 300 people, but you're not bad. You know, you're not a killer. It's like, man, that's not biblical.

23:53Well, let's change it up and let's say, not just who can you trust, but Are we trustworthy? Let's flip it and think: are we prone to stretch the truth for our convenience? Remember when I was little, hopefully just when I was little, but my parents will have done something wrong, and my parents will say, Danny, do you do this? And well, that's a big question, because how are you going to respond? Are you going to respond with the truth? Yes, mom, I did this, or well, I was here, and you know, and you start coloring the truth or misrepresenting the facts for our own benefit. Because the truth may cost you something.

24:42I mean, we don't want to get negative, but the culture pressing upon Christianity, you know, it may cost something to stand up for the truth even more in future years. And we need to start now with the little things. This is something that I thought, especially in this digital age, what do you share in social media or talk about with your friends or colleagues? Are you sure that what you're saying or what you're sharing is right information? We live in this world and they tag everything misinformation, and we can go on about that, but are you sure that what you're sharing is truth? The truth.

25:32Especially in this politicized time that we live in. Because our words have the power to ruin. They have the power, I mean, they're very powerful for good and for bad. And they can ruin reputations. Lives can hang in the balance just for words that you can say. Whenever I talk about this issue, I remember a Christian artist, singer in Latin America who was very famous. And this was at the beginning of social media, so people were learning how to share things. And they took a quote here, they took a picture there, and the rumor started that this guy was not longer an evangelical, but now he was ecumenical. He was saying, no, whatever. If you're Mormon, if you're Jehovah of Witnesses, if you're Catholic, we all go to heaven, we're all happy, dandy. So the rumor started, and very Christians were concerned, right? You would be if you listened to this guy and you have songs sung in the church. So people started to spread this. Maybe out of good concern, maybe out of a bad heart. Well, the truth is, his reputation was ruined. He had to come out and say publicly, no, this is all false. But he never bounced back because people still have those doubts. Is it True, is it not?

27:03So we dare not be casual with our words or when we present facts or what we say they're facts. We got to make sure. We got to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help me God and be sure that what we're saying is the truth. Because whoever speaks the truth declares what is right, but a false witness speaks deceit. Let's go to the next one. Also, take away, tell the truth, if it wasn't clear enough.

27:35And there's the verse, whoever speaks the truth declares what is right, but a false witness speaks deceit. Let's go to the following verse, verse 18. This one is one of my favorites. So, favorite proverbs. It says, There is one who speaks rashly like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Let's say it all together. There is one who speaks rashly like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. So we have the one who speaks rashly, and that means without thought, impulsively, something happens and you react. It's pretty much the same dynamic in verse 16, but we go from intentional lies in. The verse seventeen, intentional ways that you harm others to unintentional ones. So there are connections between verse sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen. You talk about the the the impulsiveness, the the rashly, how people do that, and then the verse seventeen, how the the fool really harms with his words, and then we have like a combination of those thoughts, and you say, well, you can also by impulsive words that you haven't thought, because you know, you can just help but demonstrate what you feel, you end up hurting others. So that's the that's the idea here. It's like a piercing sword. Those words spoken rashly without thought, they're like a stabbing of a knife. They they're words that cause severe damage and pain. We all heard the saying, You're killing me with what you're saying. So the fool will carelessly speak his mind.

29:30We've heard the words, sorry, I didn't mean that. Hopefully it's not us who have said that often, but how often we we end up having to say those things? Well that's a telltale sign that we are not thinking too much before we say our words. What kind of words come out of our mouths? How much thought do we put into our words before we say them? Especially when the emotions rise. That's what is most difficult. We can be very, very good with our words when we have it all planned out and mapped out, but when something happens and the emotions rise, do we pause? Do we take a breather and think? It's so important. It's so important every time we need to pause before responding to an argument, right? That will be a takeaway. It's always important, and I think an area that we should never leave unattended is the relationship between husband and wife in terms of communication. That's something that, you know, if you had the premarital counseling, they will say communication, communication. Well, it's so true. And it's such a blessed time that you can, it's such a blessing that you can have someone close to you and you can speak your mind and that openness and that intimacy. But dare we not take that intimacy and openness in the wrong way and say, well, this is what I think. So just listen to me. Well, we need to think. We need to think because words can damage. Especially those that are said in those emotionally tense moments. And especially in that relationship where intimacy makes the word. Words even more harmful and more hard to recover. But this goes to every single relationship, but keep in mind, the closer the relationship, the harder it is to take those words and the harder it is to recover. So let's think about our words.

31:56I have another one there. Be careful about your humor. And I added that, especially, sadly, thinking about my own life. I remember when I was in high school, I loved to have that quick sarcasm. You know, something happened, one liner, you know. Couldn't leave anything happen, you know, without adding something, without saying something that the rest of the guys could laugh. But how many of those times that humor was harmful? Well, sadly, too many times. And I regret that. And sometimes it's too late to say sorry, you know, because people are impacted by those words negatively. So how often do you regret your words? The wise person will be marked by not having many, if any.

32:56There's a first-century writer that said, I often regret what I have spoken. Spoken, never that I have been silent. I loved it. And we should keep that in mind. And remember, this is the last one I thought, just kind of flipping the question. Remember not to take the fool's words to heart. Because words are painful sometimes. And when you know that this person is known by criticizing, or this person is very critical, of course, we gotta be open-minded and say, well, where's the criticism here? What can I take from it? Not be proud, but just be humble enough to say, well, where's the truth in that? Let me look at my own life and see where I can change. But let's think of it too. You know, if this person is known by their constant criticism and words that are painful and hurtful, you know that that person is a fool. He's acting out of their foolishness. So let's take that criticism with a grain of salt. Maybe it will hurt less.

34:06Because, oh, let me keep going then. This is the other side. Because we need to know what to do, actually. The tongue of the wise brings healing. And I love how this is phrased, because while the fool will open those wounds with their words, the wise person will walk with the wounds. Will bring healing. That word actually means medicine, so and in context it means healing. So those wounds opened up by the fool, the wise person will bring healing to those, will bring reconciliation, will uplift that person.

34:49We need to be like that. A wise person will not be known by tearing other people down. Instead of harming, the wise heals, he reconciles. So do people know us for our friendly and kind words? Or are we known as that guy who it's hard to speak to because he's always criticizing and he's not that helpful? Or do people really want to come to us and speak to us because they know we're going to be that kind of person that will bring healing and uplift them and even heal the wounds opened up by mean, hurtful words? Because there's one who speaks rashly like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Be kind.

35:43Last verse, but not least, I love this one. It says, A shrewd person conceals knowledge, but a foolish heart publicizes stupidity. Let's say it all together. A shrewd person conceals knowledge, but a foolish heart. Heart publicizes stupidity. What a verse for social media. But the shrewd person here is the same word as in verse 16, the one who ignores an insult is sensible. So we have that same idea that it's not just wise, but it is clever. It's the smart thing to do, the smart move. So same word there, and concealing, we have the same word over there in verse 16, the one who ignores the insult, the one who hides or conceals the shame. So we have the same dynamic. While the fool is known by their publicizing things and showing what's in their heart, the wise, the prudent, the clever one, will say, no, there are times and times. And this time, I gotta keep it to myself.

36:57So the clever one knows when and how to keep things to himself, whereas a fool has no filter. He cannot hide his emotions nor his foolishness, folly, or what we have. They're translated as stupidity. Fun word. He cannot but expose and proclaim his foolish ideas. This word stupidity comes from the same word as the foolish person. And as we saw before, you know, this is not talking about just silliness or lack of intelligence. This is talking about a rejection of God.

37:30the foolish person does not want to follow his instruction. So the one who publicizes his stupidity is, you know, he's publicizing that rejection toward God's instruction. So this is not telling you to stop posting memes, by all means. I love them. Of course there's such a thing as too much silliness, but you can recognize a fool because he cannot but help he cannot help himself, but he just posts, shares, talks, and demonstrates foolishness, stupidity. This could have to do with sharing inappropriate content, but mostly I think this has to do with bragging about sin. And you hear that. If you go to college, you hear your classmates boasting about sinful things. I'm not going to go into that, you know that. At work as well, you have unbelievers, they're going to boast about their great things that they do, but the sinful things they do.

38:38Publicizing foolishness. So no wonder that the sinful, the foolish groups in the biblical sense are the most vocal. Most protesting, most of the uprisings, you know, they come out of people that cannot just help but publicize their sinfulness. They want to share, they want to celebrate their sinful deeds, their sinful thoughts, their sinful beliefs. And so, yeah, no wonder. Some people might be, you know, a minority group, but you're gonna hear, you're not gonna hear the end of it. Because a fool cannot but publicize his sin.

39:23And we should be the other way around. We need to hide, conceal the knowledge. We need to know when and how to say things. Sense the crowd, right? Some things, even if they're true, they're better off not posting. Oftentimes, it's better not to reply in the comment section. Sometimes it's better to stay quiet at the table while you know two or more people just are arguing about something. So I think I have it there. Yeah, there are times that it's not only okay to refuse to express what we know, but it's also the clever thing to do.

40:12And yeah, I said that already. That most vocal groups, you know, generally they're proclaiming foolishness. So, therefore, we need to know when to be quiet. In conclusion, we're going to review a fool's displeasure is known at once. But whoever ignores an insult is sensible. Oh, I didn't repeat the verse. Anyways, so hold yourself together. Whoever speaks the truth declares what is right, but a false witness speaks deceit. So let's tell the truth. And there is one who speaks rashly like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Let's be kind. And finally, a shrewd person conceals knowledge, but a foolish heart publicizes stupidity. So let's know when to be quiet.

41:11Imagine, just imagine the difference that you can make, not only in your own life, but in the life of the people around you, when you and I use our words wisely. The shame that we could save ourselves from, apologizing, the testimony for Christ that we could have with other people, the better relationships that we could even experience by having words of healing and not words that stabbed like a sword. And imagine the glory that we will bring the Lord when we honor Him with our lips, one word at a time. Let's start today. Father, we love you, and we are so thankful for your instruction. Let us be.

42:00Wise because a wise person is the one that will listen to your instruction. Let us not just think, I'm okay, I can do whatever I want, but let us be changed. Let us be humble enough to receive your word and apply it even when it's most difficult, even when the emotions rise. Help us for thank you for the help of your spirit that actually allows us to accomplish all these things, to hold ourselves together and be quiet when it's so difficult to just keep things to ourselves. Help us to be wise with our words and honor you with our lips. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.