Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 11 verse 12.
Proverbs chapter 11 verse 12.
Title of the exposition tonight is "Have a Heart."
Have a heart.
We have a strong online presence tonight.
It's so good to see you all online tonight.
In verse 12 tonight, Solomon is speaking about, if you look now in verse 12, he that is void of wisdom.
He that is void of wisdom.
And the word void means lacking or without.
He that is lacking or without wisdom.
That's the kind of man we're talking about tonight.
A person that is lacking or without wisdom.
And the interesting thing is that the Hebrew word that's translated wisdom here is not the normal word that's translated wisdom.
It's pretty fascinating here.
It's not normally translated wisdom.
In fact, "Kochmah" is the Hebrew word that's usually translated as wisdom.
And it's translated as wisdom 145 times in the Old Testament.
But the word in our verse tonight is "labe."
And it's only translated six times as wisdom in the Bible.
Again, "Kochmah" is translated wisdom 145 times.
But this word tonight, "labe," it's translated heart almost every time. 485 times in the Bible, in fact.
It's translated as heart.
Over 500 is translated as something to do with the heart.
Because that's literally what it means.
It means that heart.
And so it's fascinating that this was used here instead of the normal word that's translated as wisdom.
And so using this word in its literal sense, Solomon is saying, "He that is without heart."
He that is without heart.
And the heart can be the literal organ, or as it is in English, it can also be the center of that inner man.
You know, "I did it with all my heart."
"I believe it with all my heart."
Or, "I mean it with all of my heart."
Or, however you want to put it, it means both of those, literally and metaphorically, in the Hebrew as well.
"He that is without heart."
So tonight, in this verse, he's not talking about the organ, of course.
He's not talking about the pump in our body.
He's talking about a person's inner man.
His thoughts.
His considerations.
His feelings.
He that is without thoughts.
He that is without consideration.
He that is without feelings, Solomon says.
What about that person, Solomon says, "He despiseth his neighbor."
You see that?
"He despiseth his neighbor."
Now, to despise your neighbor is to disrespect your neighbor.
In the Bible, a neighbor is not just someone who lives next door to you.
He's not someone whose mail accidentally gets in your mailbox.
Or, they play their music too loud.
The neighbor is an associate.
Whether a close associate or a distant associate, they all mean the neighbor.
It can be a very close friend.
It can be an acquaintance.
Or, it can just be someone that you happen to encounter one day.
In fact, if you'll remember, when the people were asking Jesus in the New Testament about, "Who is my neighbor?"
They said, "Who's my neighbor?
What does neighbor mean?"
Of course, they're referring to the Old Testament.
Well, Jesus defined neighbor in the most liberal sense by giving the parable of the Good Samaritan.
So, you've got someone happening along, comes across a complete stranger, but now they're acquainted.
They're acquainted through their happenstance in life.
And so, you have a choice now.
Am I going to respect this individual I just came across who's laying here and injured?
And, am I going to respect this person as a human being who is in need of help and whose life is valuable to God, therefore it should be valuable to me?
Or, am I going to disrespect this person and walk my way and think, "Not my problem.
I'm not hurting, so why should I care?
I'm okay.
Why should I care about him?
Why should I get involved?"
And so, it's someone you know.
A neighbor is someone you encounter.
A neighbor is someone who you live next to, perhaps.
And the person who lacks heart, who lacks the feelings, who lacks the consideration, who lacks the thought, that person disrespects the close friend, disrespects the acquaintance, disrespects the person he happens to encounter.
The Young's literal translation, words it this way, "Who so is despising his neighbor, lacketh heart?
Who so is despising his neighbor, lacketh heart?
Whoever shows disrespect to someone lacks thought.
They lack consideration.
They lack feeling for the person that they're being disrespectful to.
They despise their neighbor."
And do you know why they despise their neighbor?
Because they are not thinking.
Remember that heart, that innermost person?
The thoughts, the feelings, and the considerations, the ponderings.
The reason they're despising these people is because they're not thinking about anyone but themselves.
Why is this translated as wisdom in this passage?
Why isn't it just literally translated heart?
And it could be, and it would be correct.
But why is it translated wisdom here?
Because wisdom involves the heart, involves the consideration, involves the innermost person.
You see, a fool thinks the world revolves around them.
That's what a fool does.
A wise person, you know what wisdom is?
A wise person understands and believes the truth that God created man in his own image.
If I believe that God created man in his own image, then I believe that you are just as valuable to God as me.
You were created in God's image as I was created in God's image.
God loves you as much as he loves me.
We all came from the same man.
We were all created by the same God.
We all came up from the same dust of the earth.
I am no more valuable than you.
You are no more valuable than me.
But a fool thinks the world revolves around them.
A fool thinks that somehow they stand out among everybody else.
Why?
Why are they a fool?
He makes a person a fool.
The Bible says a fool.
It says in his heart there is no God.
The reason you're valuable and I'm valuable is because we're valuable to the God that made us.
Now you take God out of the equation.
Do you know what happens when you take God out of the equation?
Well, you have a bunch of fools.
Do you know what fools do when you take God out of the equation?
You take out the reason we should value everybody equally.
You take out the reason we should love our neighbor, not disrespect our neighbor, but love our neighbor as ourselves.
And that's why since the world has removed God from its teaching curriculum, it's removed God in the science labs and in the lectures now, they're pushing God out of the world's minds.
Since we have done that, we now have a nation of fools and now we have a nation of self-centered people.
So they disrespect others or if they show respect, oftentimes it's vain.
It's because deep down inside they're being kind to someone because they want something from them.
There's some motive behind it.
But a fool thinks the world revolves around them.
Fools think life is all about them.
When they say or do something, you know what they do?
If a fool says something, a fool does something, they're thinking about how does this affect me?
When I say this, how will this affect me?
When I do this, how will it affect me?
They should be thinking how will this affect others as well as me.
But with that foolish mindset, you set God out of the equation and now it's all about me.
Because if you take God out of the equation, then now I'm a God unto myself.
That's a fool.
Tammy and I were in a long line at the Soul Man's Barbecue.
I have to get that soul train out of my mind from back from the 70s.
But that Soul Man's Barbecue a couple of weeks ago in the line wrapped around, wrapped around.
We get in that line.
We're waiting there for a little bit.
Next thing you know, a couple of people walk in.
It's a small town, Miss Ann.
Almost everyone's related to everybody in Maybank.
So these folks walk in and they go, "Oh, how are you?
Oh, they hug each other and they say they're in.
They talk a little bit.
And as they talk, next thing you know, they just get a little bit closer with them.
And the next thing you know, they're facing the line right here and they cut in front of us."
You know, when they did that, they disrespected me and my wife and anyone behind us.
They didn't see us as someone equally as important to themselves.
It was the me factor, not the God factor.
They gave me and Tammy, they moved us two places back so they could advance themselves further ahead and not have to wait in line as long as we had, even though they had just come in.
They weren't thinking about how long we were waiting in line.
They were only thinking about themselves.
You see, the heart, the thinking, the thought process.
A person that lacks wisdom, that's void of wisdom, they don't think of anyone but themselves.
They don't think of others.
But before you do something, before you do something, think about how what you're about to do, how it's going to affect somebody else.
Always do that.
Think.
Think.
I tell you, aren't you glad that Jesus didn't just think of himself?
Jesus didn't despise his neighbor.
Jesus loved his neighbor as himself.
Jesus gave his life for his neighbor.
Jesus was the Good Samaritan, except he wasn't a Samaritan, but he loved that way.
He took someone else's problem and paid the cost.
That's what the Good Samaritan did.
When God ordained his son to be the savior of the world, he was thinking of someone other than himself.
He was thinking of us, and I'm so glad he did.
When Jesus prayed, "Father, not my will but yours be done," he was thinking of someone other than himself.
Jesus didn't lack heart.
Jesus loved us with all of his heart.
When we have a heart, we consider the well-being of other people.
Remember that heart means the thoughts, the considerations.
But we consider the well-being of other people.
People disrespect their neighbor because they don't consider the affliction that they're causing them.
I was driving down the road the other day, and I was going too slow for the person in front of me.
So that person whooped around me, pulled into this other lane, and no, I was not in the fast lane driving slow.
I was in the middle lane, driving the speed limit.
They whooped around me, and they came up beside me.
This man sticks his head out the window, slows down, and sticks his head out and looks at me like, "I want to kill you."
Then he gave me a dirty gesture with his hand.
The first thing that crossed my mind was, "I sure wish Brother Rick was driving right now instead of me."
No, I'm kidding.
I didn't think that.
Seriously, this man had no consideration for who I was as a person.
He didn't even know who was in that vehicle.
He didn't know.
He didn't know anything about me.
All he knew was, "I have to turn in this other lane so I can go over the speed limit and pass this man.
I hate him.
So I want to make him feel really, really bad.
I want to disrespect him and let him know just what I really think of him, even though I know nothing about him."
He didn't consider how his actions would make another person feel.
He didn't consider how his actions, had I been a bad person, could have led him to being shot or rammed by my vehicle.
He didn't consider that, "Maybe I just lost a loved one.
Maybe I was on my way to the hospital.
Maybe I was struggling with a personal issue and I was in deep despair."
You know what?
Maybe I've been committing suicide that morning.
A lot of people do.
They start their day that way.
They go to bed that way.
What if I was that person?
I've been committing suicide.
And now he looks at me like, "I want to kill you."
And I think, "You know what I do too.
And maybe I'm not worth living."
Someone like that, they don't consider.
Maybe I had a bad diagnosis that day.
He didn't consider my situation at all.
He lacked heart.
So he disrespected his neighbor.
Be considerate of your neighbor.
You don't want people disrespecting you, so don't disrespect them.
Consider their well-being.
Seek their good.
Even as God, for Christ's sake, sought your good.
People disrespect their neighbor.
Remember that word, "heart."
It also means feelings.
People disrespect their neighbor because they have no feelings for other people.
They have no feelings of sympathy, no feelings of empathy.
Their heart is cold.
We have a lot of cold-hearted people in the world today.
They lack heart.
They're unable to feel the pain that other people feel.
They just can't.
The only time they hurt is when they hurt.
They can't hurt with other people.
That's a miserable place to be.
That's a foolish place to be.
Because if I have wisdom, then the truth, the understanding that I have, is going to motivate my heart to have a feeling for somebody else.
You see a man lost his little daughter.
He's sad.
We should feel sad.
Someone gets promoted.
They're happy.
We should be happy.
We should learn to feel the pain of others.
Worse than that, there are some people who not only don't feel the pain of others, but they enjoy hurting other people.
Either way, they have no feeling in their heart.
Learn to hurt when others hurt.
Learn to rejoice when others rejoice.
Learn to sympathize with others.
Learn to celebrate with others.
Paul, as this is showing due regard to your neighbor, it shows them great respect.
I love how recently in the storms, some of our people in the church were checking on other church members.
What were they doing when they did that?
They put themselves in other people's places.
Well now, if that was me without electricity and I couldn't cook, would I be hungry?
If that was me without power, would I be hot?
Would I need electricity?
Would I need to take a shower?
Whatever it is that I need.
I absolutely loved how people were checking on each other.
It showed them great respect.
Maybe they needed a generator.
Maybe they needed to cool off.
Maybe they needed something to eat.
They have feeling toward other people.
If your neighbor is in trouble or afraid or your neighbor needs help, feel their distress with them.
Luke 6.
Luke 6.
Verse 31, Jesus said, "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."
That's respecting them like yourself.
Show them that respect.
A man without heart won't do that.
A man without heart shows disrespect to his neighbor.
Luke back in your text, but a man of understanding that is a man who has life figured out won't disrespect his neighbor because he understands that life isn't all about him.
I don't dig selfish people at all.
I have a hard time with it.
A man of understanding, they understand that other people are just as important as they are.
They understand that all people are made in God's image and are precious in his sight.
Instead of disrespecting his neighbor, he looked back in your text, "He holdeth his peace."
In the Hebrew, this word "holdeth his peace" here, it has the idea of scratching.
Where did this come from?
If you had a clay tablet, which a lot of things were written on clay tablets back then, or they were written in stone, well they scratched into that writing platform.
They scratched down what they were trying to write.
We still use that today.
If someone has bad handwriting, for example, we may say it looks like what?
Hint scratch.
It's still the same concept.
When it says, "He holds his peace," a man of understanding won't disrespect his neighbor.
He's not going to put the dirty gesture out the window.
He's not going to mouth off and hurt someone's feelings.
He's not going to cut in line in front of someone.
He's going to scratch.
The idea is he doesn't speak.
He doesn't do offensively.
He just silently makes a note in his heart.
If you don't have a heart, you don't want to put a note in there.
But he silently makes a note.
He ponders the matter in his heart.
Sometimes you'll see that in Scripture.
Someone will speak up, maybe like Joseph's brothers, when they objected to his dream.
I think it was his dad that pondered the matter in his heart.
He retained it in his heart.
That's what they're doing.
They're holding their peace.
They're thinking, "You know, rather than disrespecting my neighbor, I think I'm just going to think on this a bit and keep my thoughts to myself, keep my words to myself, keep my actions to myself."
If you have ill feelings toward someone, hold your peace.
Keep your mouth shut.
"Amen, Daddy, keep your mouth shut."
I heard my dad say that the other day.
Keep your head inside your window.
Keep your thoughts to yourself.
A lot of times after we show disrespect to someone, you know what happens?
We later learn after thinking about it, after we cool off a bit, we later learn, "Man, I was wrong."
We later think, "Okay, I understand why they did that now."
"Oh, I see."
You've been behind someone.
They're driving slow.
You're in a hurry going to work or going wherever you're going, and you start saying all kinds of bad things about those people.
They can't hear you.
You're thinking, "Get out of my way."
Next thing you know, you see their turn signal come on.
You go, "Oh, that's why they're driving slow."
Well, hold your peace.
It'll be okay.
It'll be okay.
But a lot of times we learn that we're wrong after we pop our mouths off, though the disrespect has already been shown that after we do what we do, the feelings have already been hurt.
But if there's ever any doubt, just hold your peace.
Scratch it down in your heart.
Give it to God in prayer.
Write your thoughts down in your heart where only you and God can see.
Have a heart and don't disrespect your neighbor, because that's what a fool does.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
We thank you for this simple message tonight, a message, Lord, that we all know, but a message, Lord, that in our flesh we also quickly forget.
So easily, Father, things become about us.
We look out for ourselves.
And, Father, in doing so, we take you out of the equation, and we take others out of the equation with us.
Help us, Lord, to be wise and to respect our neighbor as ourself, and to love them as you have loved us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
